Andrea's blog

Some moths ago I started to work on a project to create Railo support for ajax tags. The idea was to implement CfAjaxProxy using the new custom tag based on cfc format that Railo makes available.

We decided to use jQuery as library to work on. I have a good feeling with it and we kept the door opened also for UI tags implementation. Things went quite well and I am particulary happy of the Bind system that manage cfc/url and javascript bindings.

I have also added support for cfdiv and for testing purposes also of cfwindow and cfajaximport ( this is really more as internal use for now ). Installing the Railo Ajax Extension you will also have the option to install a demo page that I will make more explicative in the next days. New examples, comments and notes are on the way.

You can find install isntructions here while project is actually hosted here. Please use assembla site for tickects and any other support needs. You can also post on the railobeta Google Group.

A special thanks to the Gert that hepled me a lot in writing the Railo Extension ( a post/tutorial is on the way ).

As expected in the community Railo 3.1.1 has been released for cfunited.

At the moment there is no official post by the team but my Railo has updated to version 3.1.1 right now so I guess .... here we are.

Over the usual bug fixing ( Railo users are used to get bug fixing very fast ....... think about that.....)  this release is important cause is the first stable release after that Railo choosed the OS way. Since some month now I am using Railo as my only cfml engine and I take this occasion to say thanks to Gert, Micheal and all the team for the good work!

You can download Railo here.

As I blogged in the past I am a fusion debug user and I was waiting the new release that also cover Railo 3.1 as debuggable cfml engine. Here more informations about the new fusion debug release:

New features included in FusionDebug 3.0

Full support for Railo 3.1 Open Source / Enterprise
Conditional Breakpoints
Break on Runtime Exceptions
Run To Line
Custom Extensions

Detailed Feature Focus: http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fd/featurefocus/

Quick Links

Download: http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fd/downloads.cfm
Upgrade: http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fd/upgrade.cfm
Buy: http://www.fusion-reactor.com/fd/buy.cfm

Other Sources

Fusion Newsletter: http://www.fusion-reactor.com/newsletter/August2009.cfm
Press Release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/08/prweb2733124.htm

Again I was amazed of how easy is creating a plugin for Mango blog platform.

I needed to load swfobject library in any page and I made up a plugin to add this functionality to my mango installation.

Plugin is very easy and once activated just load swfobject 2.2 on any page for use of any other code or plugin. Here you can get it!

Last Version : 2.2
Require : Mango 1.3+
Auto Install Url : http://mangoswfobject.riaforge.org/index.cfm?event=action.download

I start today a series of post on the usage and documentation of my EventManager for coldfusion. You can find more docs and svn code here.

### Initialize The EventManager

EventManager is done to work standalone or to be easily integrated with Coldspring. Both examples will be provided.

### Standalone



<cfset application.em = craeteObject('component','EventManager.EventManager').init() />


Init( Events:Array , Listeners:Array , XmlPath:String , AutowireEvents:Boolean , Debug:Boolean , Scope:String )

The init method takes the following arguments.

• Events:Array - default arrayNew(1) - Array of structs representing the events to register.
• Listeners:Array - default arrayNew(1) - Array of structs representing the listeners to register.
• XmlPath:String - default "" - Relative Path to an xml file containing events and listeners to be registered.
• AutowireEvents:Boolean - default false - If true any event create for being dispatched is autowired using beanInjector.
• Debug:Boolean - default false - If true force Em to save a trace of any operation executed.
• Scope:String - default 'request' - Says to Em how to save the tracing info if debug mode is true. Request use the request scope and clean up the trace memory any time the request die. Instance persists the informations into the EventManager instance itself.


<cfset events = arrayNew(1) />

<cfset event = structNew() />


.....add more events....


<cfset listeners = arrayNew(1) />

<cfset listener = structNew() />



<cfset listener.priority = 10 />

<cfset listener.cache = true />
.....add more listeners....

<cfset eventManager = createObject('component','EventManager.EventManager')
.init(events,listeners) />

### Xml Syntax via xmlPath

You can setUp your events/listeners using xml notation. The xmlPath argument you can pass to init mode represent the relative path to the xml config file.

<cfset eventManager = createObject('component','EventManager.EventManager')
.init(xmlPath='/myapp/config/eventmanager.xml') />

In init method using the xmlPath attribute will not overwrite or stop the eventManager from loading arrays of events and listeners if provided.

<code class="coldfusion"><cfset eventManager = createObject('component','EventManager.EventManager')<br />.init(events,listeners,'/myapp/config/eventmanager.xml') />	<br /></code><br />

The previuos example will load all the events from array and xml and then will register listeners from array and from the xml too.

See xml for schema details. In teh resource folder are present both .dtd and .xsd to validate your xml.

### Coldspring Tip

If laoded via coldspring you can use the great syntax tool to create arrays and struct from xml that coldpring shipd for free




....... more events here ...







.................... more listeners











One of the lack in the Railo world was the availability of an inline debugger. I always use fusion debug or internal cf inline debugger when using abode cf and sometimes I felt the lack of that developing with Railo.

The good news is that a railo compliant version of Fusion Debug will be available very very soon ( the public beta programm has just finished some week ago ). I had the opportunity to test the beta product and was working just fine as I expected it.

The functionalities are great and basically the same of the Fusion Debug version for coldfusion. Installation gave me some trouble that I easily solved on the google groups that the guys of Integral setted up to support .  

As far as I know the enterprise Railo edition will include a license of both Reactor and Debug products. I am a Fusion Debug license owner but I am not sure if the Railo product will need a license update or not. I am waiting the product release in the next weeks to check it. 

In conclusion I think that having an inline debugger available make Railo even more a robust solution.

I have now released a first version of a tool that I am implementing and using since a while.

CfEventManager is exactly what the word say. An EventManager tool for cfml programming.
Some of the features:

• Very light with a simple API to use/implement.
• Flexible to allow registering of events / listeners from cfml syntax, xml file and programmatically on runtime.
• Ability to cache the listeners objects.
• Use the built in event object or create your own in few easy steps.
• Ability ti stop event propagation.
• Order the listeners with a customized priority order.
• Autowire events object via coldspring by using the Brian Koteks beanInjector class.

On next releases to 1.0:

• Dispatching of async events.
• addEventListener based on regex match.

Download and Svn

Docs ( not completed yet )

Project Page on this Blog

After deciding to move to Railo I get curious about OS systems and I am trying to set up a test environment using CentOs that looks like the best Enterprise linux distribution now available ( I am very new to linux world so I am possible completely wrong ).

I installed centos 5.3 on a virtual machine and now ?????

I will post my experience and newbie tips like:

STARTING APACHE ON CENTOS

<code class="coldfusion">
START APACHE
/sbin/service httpd start

RESTART APACHE
/sbin/service httpd restart

STOP APACHE
/sbin/service httpd stop

ALL THE OPTIONS
/sbin/service httpd
#will output all the possible methods you can call on httpd service. </code>

More newbie tips on CentOs, up to installing a development environment for railo, in the next future.

I have now released the very first version of TextAds , a Mango plugin that enable the management and display of text ads on your mango installation.
At this first stage plugin support just one provider planning to add more in the next future.
Let me have your feedback.

I am also interested in knowing which provider ( over adwords ) of text ads you are working with.

Last Version : 0.1
Last Update : 20 apr 2009
Require : Mango 1.3+
Auto Install Url : http://andreacfm.com/get/com.andreacfm.mango.textads.zip

I think that any eclipse users has experimented  the fact that  eclipse tends to slow down. In the past I had to reinstall the whole environment especially after loading new plugins that was probably breaking something down. Btw I always followed as best practice to clen up eclipse any 6 months and I learned fast how to export preferences to be able to push them into the new install. In this way to pass to a new and clean eclipse install is quite painless.

In the last period I tried to reduce the number of opened projects in my workspace to the really important ones, and I  also experimented the solution of mantaining many workspaces but I do not feel very compofortable with that.

I then got the idea to check what kind of settings eclipse was passing to the jvm and blogging around I found a great post of Mike Henke.

I added the following arguments to my eclipse.ini file:

<code class="coldfusion">
-vm
C:Program FilesJavajre1.6.0_12injavaw.exe
-vmargs
-Xms512m
-Xmx512m
-XX:PermSize=128m
-XX:MaxPermSize=128m
-Xverify:none</code>

The vm path depends on what do you have available in your machine, but I suggest you to update at least to version 1.6 update 12. Be carefull do not leave extra white spaces and .... look your turbo eclipse start to fly...