Zeus comes packed with a myriad of updates.

I immediately noticed Tomcat.  Maybe it is faster (I can’t really measure that too well over my local network on my development server which really has no measurable traffic), but everything just seems zippier and more responsive.  I don’t know whether that’s Tomcat or new, hot ColdFusion goodness, but I really appreciate that.

My favorite part by far is the exceptional detail and enhancements to security.  I rely on ColdFusion to be on top of its game with security so I don’t have to.  But because it is in fact security, I personally feel ALL of these security features should have been released in increments over the past two years with ColdFusion 9.  I’m a little irritated at Adobe with the decision to market security as a feature set instead of keeping all it’s products secure all the time (you know, like everyone else… norton, mcafee, php, java… just to name a few), but I’ll play along and say job well done because there’s great stuff here.

I think closures are cool, but I still can’t figure out where I’d use them… or rather, how frequently I’ll use when I find a use for them.  I imagine my favorite bloggers (Camden, Corfield, Nadel, Forta) will cover them more in depth and eventually get me hooked.

We’ve had Java integration for years now, along with .NET integration and PHP integration, which is awesome (used it extensively on a few government projects where we had to tie together several applications that were coded in different languages).  So Adobe made java integration better… cool!

RESTful web services… yep… needed badly as SOAP and WSDL are slowly getting pushed to the side.  Nifty, but also expected.

And I am watching coldfusionbloggers.org avidly to see all the the stuff I’ve overlooked and missed altogether… already hopped on Ray’s demo dump (awesome stuff) and getting lots of oohs and aahs out of me on the implicit CFC constructors.

I haven’t really gotten around to playing with all the language enhancements in the past 24 hours.  Really, most of what’s there is stuff that’s to be expected.

In the end, I find ColdFusion 10 is an evolutionary release and not a revolutionary one as I’ve found with previous releases (like Windows Vista was to Windows 7… or rather… Wrath of the Lich King was to Cataclysm).  Yes, under the hood there are a ton of updates, but none I feel are compelling enough for me to want to upgrade this very minute.  This isn’t to say that what’s there isn’t good, because that’s not the case; what’s there is excellent. There’s just not a single feature that will affect my current client base to persuade me (and in turn persuade them) to update.  And that’s exactly what makes CF10 kinda sad [so far]… there’s really nothing for me to go to my clients to sell… “CF10 just came out and has these cool new features… want em on your site?”  YES!  MORE MONEY!!  IF this is all CF10 has to offer over CF9 (I say if, because this is only the first beta… we could see more), I’ll upgrade eventually, but not upon release.  Maybe I’m bitter because I wasn’t invited into the alpha and private beta as the previous four releases, but CF10 seems to sell itself short across the board.  Then again, maybe my opinion will change as demos and more information trickles out.

In previous releases it was HUGE when AJAX was added… XML forms, Flash forms, cfimage and so on.  Yeah, some of that stuff has died out… but it was cutting edge.  Where’s the jquery stuff that we’d all rather use?  How about adding a qrcode option to cfimage?  We already have an easy way to get Google Maps into ColdFusion, how about Google Calendar, Facebook and Twitter too (in case you didn’t notice Adobe… social media kinda went viral)?  How about anything that makes ColdFusion cool and hip for my clients, instead of stale and boring like [insert other language here]? How about an easier way to send text messages from a website to a phone instead of going through the gateway process which is a royal pain in the butt?  ColdFusion has always been about taking what’s cutting edge and making it damn easy to implement (or did I miss the TPS report memo stating that is no longer the case… I’m getting the impression there was an unofficial meeting that concluded CF will remain archaic until further notice, and somewhere a decision was made to let 3rd party frameworks do all the cool stuff (because it’s cheaper (AND a helluvalot buggier!))).  It wasn’t long ago when CF switched to SOLR… it was a huge evolutionary step, but clients never really got to see it, however there were plenty of other HUGE features in that release for them to see.  Now I know there are plenty out there that will disagree and are going to post their ummm… disagreements… in my comments, but there’s just nothing HUGE in this release (alright, Tomcat’s huge… but reference my sentence on SOLR above).  I’m just left underwhelmed compared to what I’ve come to expect from a ColdFusion release and I know my clients will be too… to the point where they don’t care whether it’s the latest and greatest (and before you ask if they ever did care… the answer is a resounding yes for EVERY release… new features allow me to revisit with the clients who want to offer their clients the latest and greatest… my clients know, just as well as I do, how much ColdFusion rocks and why we chose it).

I hate to bring it up, but this type of lackluster update is exactly what Adobe was known for before the Macromedia merger and why there were a great many of us concerned when it happened.  I just feel there’s stuff missing in this update.  And this is ColdFusion TEN!  This is all we got in 20 months?  Where’s the bling?  Maybe this release should be CF9.5, but honestly, I’d wait another 20 months for bling… CF9 is doing just fine.

As for the Cf Builder update, I’ve been a naysayer of CF Builder from the beginning (I understand the product remains in its infancy with its sophomore release).  I’d like to change my position on CF Builder and point out a few things for anyone still holding back like I was:

1. If you’re having problems adding a server on your LOCAL network, make sure you use port 80 (not 8500) in the server settings.  If you’re still not connecting and you’re running a Windows server, make sure you check the firewall on your server.  You might need to add an Inbound Rule for port 80.  And once it’s created, change the protocol from TCP or UDP (whichever you selected) to “Any” in the rule’s properties.  You also only need the profile to be public, although having all three checked won’t hurt.
2. Because my development files are on the server and I share those files across multiple computers, my only gripe at this point is that I want the Eclipse .settings directory and the .project file moved out of the root of each one of my projects.  Inheriting nuisances from other programs is what happens when you build on top of someone else’s work (that’s not a derogatory statement also directed at frameworks at all – sarcasm of course).
3. No one could possibly dislike Eclipse as much as I do, but if you think you do, grit your teeth like I do and appreciate the fact that cfscripting and CFCs are awesome in CF Builder, although they could have been awesome in Dreamweaver too, they’re just not.

What is a QR Code?
Simply, it’s a barcode (like barcodes on food at the grocery store or other stuff you buy) that YOU can customize. This code can then be scanned by smart phones and other devices to quickly translate that information without having to manually type it in.  It’s my understanding QR codes are already being used everywhere outside of the States and the U.S. has been slow to adopt the technology.  Regardless, QR codes have become quite popular over the past couple years and will continue to grow in use… if you aren’t seeing them everywhere now, you soon will.

*A more in depth definition from Wikipedia

What are QR Codes used for?
To put typical use into in perspective, I was at Taco Bell yesterday and there’s a poster on the wall with a QR code, which I scanned with my phone, that linked me directly to a survey on the restaurant on the web.  I took the survey while I was standing and waiting for my delicious (and now VERY overpriced) chicken and nacho cheese chalupa meal with a soft taco.

Pretty awesome!

Typically, you’ll see QR codes in print.  I’ve been using QR Codes extensively on brochures, business cards, ads in program books and so on.

And typically within a QR code is a URL or link to a website.  But a QR code is a multipurpose container that can hold a wealth of information including text, phone numbers and text messages (typically not a combination of information though).

So is a QR code practical on a website?
Well kinda… it all depends on what’s in the QR code.  Yes, the codes will easily scan onto a phone from the screen, so that’s not a problem.  But any sort of link inside the QR Code would probably be counter-productive.

Practical uses on a website might include contact information that can be easily stored in your phone so you don’t have to type it all in, although as a designer I would add the code to my website as a convenience to my users, not replace my contact information altogether.

How can I make my own QR code?
My favorite tool is here, although there are plenty others out there.

So how do I scan these codes?
Android has a free app in the market called QR Droid which I use frequently and it works great!  I don’t know what’s out there for the iPhone, Blackberry and Windows phone users, but I’m quite confident there are QR code apps available for those smartphones as well.

Now if only I could get my fortunes to be a QR code on my napkin so I didn’t have to actually open and break the fortune cookie to get it….

Normally, I use Fireworks for all my web mockups… in fact I use it daily.

Then came along the day a few years ago when I wanted to learn how to create vector icons and I immediately turned to Illustrator. Meh… any vector icons I needed to create can just as easily be made in Fireworks… I just love the control and ease of use with my pen tool and those sprites.

This past year I designed a bunch of print material for various projects (several event flyers, event tickets and even a book of ads), so I turned to Photoshop (after strongly looking at Illustrator and InDesign). Nope… it’s Fireworks again to the rescue. I got the information I needed from the printer for DPI, size and bleed and I was easily able to export into the PDF format the printer needed.

I think it’s awesome I can do all this along with resizing and/or renaming images for my galleries with the batch tool, take screenshots of windows, use any Photoshop filter and even do skinning for Flex and Air.

I’m sure it has a lot to do with the comfort level I have with Fireworks, but it never ceases to amaze me the sheer versatility and flexibility the program has to offer. I personally don’t think Fireworks gets nearly enough praise for all it can do.

<cfset userAgent = trim(listGetAt(CGI.HTTP_USER_AGENT, 2, ';'))> <!--- This only works for IE --->
<cfset outtaDate = 'MSIE 8.0, MSIE 7.0b, MSIE 7.0, MSIE 6.1, MSIE 6.01, MSIE 6.0b, MSIE 6.0'> <!--- List all the versions of IE that are out of date --->
<cfif ListFindNoCase(outtaDate, userAgent, ',') NEQ 0> <!--- We're not gonna bump em from the site, but we will display a warning to those visitors using the older versions of IE --->
<div class="outtaDate">You are using an out of date version of Internet Explorer and this site <b>WILL NOT</b> display correctly. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, please use Windows Update and upgrade to Internet Explorer 9 or newer. If you are using Windows XP and earlier which cannot upgrade to Internet Explorer 9, please download the latest version of <a href="http://www.mozilla.org" target="_blank">Firefox</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome" target="_blank">Chrome</a>, <a href="http://www.opera.com" target="_blank">Opera</a> or <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/" target="_blank">Safari</a> to see this site correctly.</div>
</cfif>

I’m using this code to identify older versions of IE that don’t support CSS3 and/or HTML5. Maybe I should be identifying browsers a better way, but the problem here lies within the listGetAt on line 1.

This code will trip up the W3C Markup Validation Service marking your code invalid with one of ColdFusion’s styles from an error… ColdFusion’s pumping out an error to the service… even though the running site won’t pump out an error at all.

Here is ColdFusion’s exception error to the W3C service:

In function ListGetAt(list, index [, delimiters]), the value of index, 2, is not a valid as the first argument (this list has 1 elements). Valid indexes are in the range 1 through the number of elements in the list.

I’m sure this isn’t a big deal since most people aren’t identifying browsers with their code or even coding in HTML5 for that matter, let alone valid HTML5 to use the W3C service (hopefully it’s more than I think).

Either way, I don’t know why the validator service is getting that error, having tested the code on virtually every browser without any problems (old and current alike). And I can’t really tell whether the problem is with CF or the W3C’s tool, but it’s not having any sort of effect on the live code, which is always a good thing.

• Facebook integration (similar to Google Maps integration only your parameters include your appID and secret key) — For those who don’t know, the work by Affinitiz on a ColdFusion SDK for FaceBook, although only in beta at the moment, is top-notch stuff… I love it!
• Twitter integration
• Google Calendar integration

This certainly isn’t a major thing and not even really a problem. It may not be considered best practice, but I can pass form variables directly into a CFC as such:

<cfform method="post" action="my.cfc?method=formMethod">

Best practice would have you submit to another CF file which invokes the method. I’d love to eliminate that extra step of submitting to a CF file (no reason… this is my wishlist ) and have submitting the form data to the CFC be best practice:

<cfform method="post" component="#myCFC#" method="thisForm" optionalArgument="#formStructure.fieldName#">

When output to the browser, the form’s action would be masked with whatever the component file is, but without revealing the method (for security reasons). You could send the entire structure to the CFC’s argument or allow optional arguments from the structure as shown in the code above. Maybe it’s a tough sell, but I think it’s cool.

If nothing else in this series was unpopular enough, I know this certainly will take the cake [or pie].  We have a development version of ColdFusion, but I still think the Standard edition of CF should be made free with no support from Adobe while offering a “professional edition” that’s the same thing as the Standard edition which includes paid support from Adobe.  Although there are free alternatives to ColdFusion out there, none of them are true to ColdFusion imho, adding in and making their own tweaks and adjustments along the way.  I’ve been preaching free CF w/o support for years though.

Anyhow, despite Adobe’s lackluster image lately [with Flash], ColdFusion remains an exciting, quality product and I’m looking forward to the next chapter of ColdFusion development.

With that said, here are some new tags I’d like to see:

• CFTRAIL – This will leave a breadcrumb trail.  I initially thought this would be a feature that would require the use of SES URLs in the application scope, but thinking further, I think it could still be done with the developer providing parameters.
• CFBROWSER – Web browser detection baby!

And while we’re at it lets add some parameters to CFLOCATION to allow delayed cflocating:

<CFLOCATION from="now()" delay="dd:hh:mm:ss" />

Lets also add a parameter to CFDIV to allow that loading icon to be customized:

<CFDIV icon="/images/yourAnimatedIcon.gif" />

This being ideal for loading user custom-created pages from a database, I think one of the features I would use the most is the ability to loop over cfcase in a cfswitch:

<CFSWITCH expression="#whatever#">
<cfloop query="yourQuery">
<cfcase value="#query.Column#"></cfcase>
</cfloop>
<cfdefaultcase></cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>

And finally some new functions I’d also like to see:

• dollarformat() – oops!  Already exists.
• encryptStruct()
• encryptArray()
• queryToArray(my.query,[dimension])

Coming next week
CFX: Feature Requests Part 3 – Everything Else

• Lineage II
• Everquest 2
• City of Heroes/Villians/Champions (a whole saga of failure… epic!)
• Guild Wars
• Warhammer
• Lord of the Rings Online
• Age of Empires Online
• Rift
• Insert Latest WOW Killer Here Star Wars: The Old Republic

That’s right… every single one of the above (I’m sure I missed a few) have all been labelled as “wow killers” over the years and each and every one has suffered the exact same fate… 1-2 months of mass appeal and a near immediate drop-off of players to only accumulate a cult following at best.  Does that mean these games are all failures?  Absolutely not!  Many were very good, if not even [visually] better than WOW.  But it’s amazing to watch the scores of players crawl back to Warcraft boasting how loyal a Blizzard fan they are after the fact.  I find this unfortunate because I really wish they were “loyal Blizzard” fans, which I believe would make Warcraft even better; to have every player make up in their mind they’re playing and not ever leaving would eliminate many of the people blatantly being jerks because somewhere players made up their mind that it isn’t ok to be content with what’s sitting in front of you… and apparently because you’re a paying customer you’re somehow entitled to complain about what’s there instead of provide feedback or even take a break from the game altogether.

On the other hand, if this means I won’t see the multitudes of people complaining in trade chat for a few months, I’m all for it.

Having now played the SWOTR beta I’m just going to make this short and sweet… for everyone switching to SWTOR… see you in MOP.  Nothing different here from the above list.  Think you’re bored with wow or updates not coming fast enough for you?  SWOTR monotony makes wow monotony look like paradise!  Let the “I’m never coming back to wow” replies begin.

The one place I think SWTOR has learned from it’s predecessors is bugs.  the game is surprisingly stable and flows quite well.  The one relatively different aspect of SWTOR from other MMOGs is the strong focus on the storyline which has been touted by the developer all along.  This is really where SWOTR will lose everyone in my opinion… questing in WOW is wonderful the first time and then you can kinda go back to questing whenever you want, opting along the way for so many other things from PvP, to dungeons, raids, and even plants vs. zombies.  Most importantly you’re free to roam wherever you want from level one.  You do not have that freedom with SWTOR.  You’re kind of locked into this questing mode which actually instantly turned me off from the game.  I game to relax and constantly being told what I have to do over and over again isn’t fun for me.  Wheras in WOW, I wanna jump off a cliff I’ll do it.  Even better, I’ll mount up, fly as high as I can and get an awesome rush as I watch my body plummet to the ground.  That level of spontaneity and freedom offered in WOW simply isn’t there in SWTOR.  Is SWTOR an excellent game?  Oh absolutely.  Will it stand the test of time?  Sorry, but it’s just another icon on my constantly growing list in Windows Add/Remove programs… I’m sure I’ll forget to uninstall this one too.

On an a side note, the Diablo III beta is excellent and is truly a game to get excited about.

Seeing as I’m not part of the alpha/beta of Zeus, what I do want to cover are some things that I believe would make CFX the product that would make you get in line and a product you can’t live without.

Today’s software and programming world is plagued with modularization. It is no longer just the language that is chosen for a project, but also the framework on which it’s built.

I am an anti-framework guy.  I honestly don’t get the buzz or see the benefit.  Inheriting someone else’s mistakes and relying on them because I’m too lazy to code the features myself isn’t a blessing for me or any of my clients.  It may save time to slap together a site in a few minutes, but does it really save time in the long run (and then have to keep that framework up-to-date… no thanks)?  Having jumped from framework to framework I’ve become a naysayer.  However, for the world of framework-lovers and the fact that ColdFusion is for everyone, lets modularize:

In the ColdFusion admin panel menu, the new addons feature would be for allowing the user to control built in aspects of ColdFusion that benefit the language because they’re frequently updated themselves:

• Java (would obviously need to be the JDK and not the JRE)
• SOLR
• WebKit – because WebKit’s gonna replace ICEbrowser right Adobe?
• jQuery – because jQuery’s gonna replace Ext JS right Adobe?
• Tomcat(?) – yay… Adobe replaced jRun, but this probably can’t/won’t be updated in the addons.
• etc.

Updating these addons would be as simple as uploading the new file(s) and CF handles the rest (extraction, placement of files in the system, etc.).  I know CFX is planning a way to keep itself up-to-date, so it’d be even better if it displayed the installed version (I know it already does in the information link) AND the current version for these addons as well.  I’m not sure I’m fond of the idea of allowing other user-installed addons, but I don’t see why not either if a system is put into place that ensures CF’s integrity.

The other link there is for frameworks.  I loathe the idea of frameworks being bundled with the CFX primarily because they’ll be out-of-date immediately and what if the next great one comes along.  This feature would be user-controlled, but also boast an API/SDK for those frameworks to be built on (that’s right… rules to follow baby!).  Adding the framework would be as simple as clicking on a link provided by the framework creator to download or allowing the user to upload it in the admin panel.

Coming next week
CFX: Feature Requests Part 2 – New Tags & Functions

So I’m going to use Navicat’s way of doing things sorta of as a fill-in-the-blank reference.  When designing a table in Navicat, click the “Foreign Keys” tab and fill out the fields:

Name – This is primarily what confused the hell out of me because msSQL relationships don’t require this (or it creates it on its own).  Anyway, this is a unique name [to the database, not the server] you are going to give the foreign key.  I don’t know if there’s a proper method of going about this, but I prefix all of mine with “fk_” so it looks something like “fk_profileID”… I can immediately look at and identify it as a foreign key.
Fields – I’ve only ever used one per row in Navicat, although it seems you can have multiple fields here, but this is the field in this selected table that you want to relate/link to another field.  It doesn’t have to be a primary key like the other field, but it does have to be the same Type and Length.
Reference Database – The database you’re going to get the primary key column from.  Typically this is going to be the same database you’re using, but you can get fancy and perform actions across different databases.
Reference Table – Select the table in the database you’re going to get the primary key from.
Reference Fields – The matching/linked field to what you selected in the Fields column above.
On Delete/On Update – This is obviously tells the key what to do when either of these actions are performed, but here’s what each of them are:

• RESTRICT – Essentially ignores the action and does nothing.  This is the default if you leave the field(s) blank.
• NO ACTION – Will not change anything… leaving the field in tact.  Exactly the same thing as RESTRICT.
• CASCADE – Performs the action (deletes or updates the field respectively).
• SET NULL – Will set the field to NULL on action.  The better question is probably whether you allow NULL or not for the column.

If you want to test the foreign key to make sure everything went right, open up the table to edit the field and see if there’s a “…” button in the field when you click to edit it.  It’s verifying the linked table to ensure the key exists before it’s created!  Not exactly a trivial process, but a very handy bit of knowledge nonetheless.

My Current Setup

• We cut the cable years ago so we have no cable or satellite.  We will subscribe again if there’s ever an opportunity to pay per channel or pick the channels we subscribe to.  We don’t mind the commercials, it’s all the extra crap.
• We have a dedicated WHS with 4TB of space, most of which is used to host the videos we stream to the TVs
• We have two WDTVs which we use mainly to stream video from the server to the TVs, but also for streaming Netflix and TuneIn Internet Radio.
• Our big screen in the living room has the sole Blu-Ray player in the house, but all the other TVs have a DVD player.  We rarely use media because we’ve ripped all our DVDs with makeMKV onto the server thanks to my 3-year-old breaking half the discs… this includes the Blu-Ray media, although the larger Blu-Ray files do tend to skip over the wireless when streaming so on occasion we do toss in the disc.
• We have an antenna on the roof for reception of all the local HD channels.  This could improve… although we do get some, I’d like to get several others, but would need a different antenna for that.

What I want to do and/or improve and I’m following:

• Microsoft’s IPTV for he nextgen xbox is looking promising, but it’s clearly not available yet and if it’s setup that I have to pay for a Gold subscription to get service like I did to get Netflix, I’m out (which is why I sold the one I had).  And maybe I’m the minority, but I hate the new Metro UI that will plague the xbox, windows phones and Windows 8 alike.  Like I said, I’m eager to subscribe to the channels I want, preferrably streaming the live broadcast in HD.  I am completely stumped as to why each network hasn’t setup it’s own apps/partnerships to do exactly just that… there’s far more money in it than cable or satellite… with no shared fees… they’re getting ALL the money straight from the consumer.
• The Wii-U looks nice, but it’s not going to offer anything I don’t already have.  Unless there’s a Blu-Ray player so I can combine everything in my living room, I’m simply not interested.  I’m not interested in the PS3 either which has been plagued with more software problems than I care to deal with… ever… and it’s LOUD.
• The new WDTV really isn’t much of an upgrade from what I already have.  Same goes for the AppleTV, and I really don’t buy into the whole Apple culture thing (no iTunes, iPhone, etc.) so it wouldn’t benefit me all that well either.  I certainly don’t want built in storage on the device.
• The Popcorn Hour products look like what I want in regards to how I referenced the Wii-U, but I’ve heard nothing but problems with the boxes and it doesn’t look too “future promising” in terms of offering streaming TV channels or anything else for that matter.
• I like the WDTV much better than the Boxee Box so don’t even bring that one up.
• I have a Roku box, but it sits unused in my pile of old electronic junk.  Love it, but it just doesn’t offer enough without the Blu-Ray player and there’s just not enough community support behind it.  Cut some deals with HD live streaming broadcast channels and I’m back in.
• Now GoogleTV looks promising and pretty nice, but unless it can be a viable alternative to actual television, add a blu-ray player and offer streaming from my WHS, I’m not too interested.  I find “on-demand” videos a HUGE turn-off and I won’t watch them (I’m convinced no one else does either).  Stream the live broadcast or don’t even bother.  I do like the idea of using my Droid phone as a remote.

Oddly enough, if someone could actually manage all the features I wanted, the price is pretty irrelevant… I’ll take two!  And I know what I want seems pretty far fetched, but it kind-of irritates me that in this day and age it hasn’t been done, because I know it CAN be done.  I’ve waited over ten years to get where I am so I can certainly willing to wait a little longer.  So what am I getting this year for 2012?  I think the answer’s clear… more storage for the server.