Flying the not-so-friendly skies
I had a bit of a shock this morning. I went to go check in at American Airlines and discovered that I now have to pay to check luggage. Sure it was only 15 bucks, but it was certainly a surprise to me. The lady behind the counter said it was all over the news, but I guess I'm a bit behind.
Software Updates (before I go - go)
I'm about to head out of the office so before I do that, a few quick notices about some updates.
pdfUtils was updated to support writeXMP. This was added by Edward Griffiths who had previously added the readXMP support. For folks who don't know what XMP is - it's a pretty cool meta-tagging system for PDF files.
ColdFire had a minor update to support Firefox 3.0.1.
BlogCFC 5.9.1 is checked into SVN. This release isn't 100% ready for folks yet which is why it's in SVN and not published. I need to update the docs and the database scripts. But if you want to test, please grab it. This release includes bug fixes and new features like podcasting support (thanks Brian Meloche!), comment subscription (without having to write a comment), and the ability to kill comment spam directly from email.
And finally, I went ahead and published my Vimeo code to RIAForge: http://vimeocfc.riaforge.org
Update from the CFML Advisory Group
Just a quick note to let folks know that Sean has blogged an update on what the CFML Advisory Group has been up to:
CFML Advisory Committee Update
If you were curious as to what the status is, please check out his entry.
Vimeo ColdFusion wrapper
Last night at our local user group I was introduced to Vimeo. It looks to be a slicker looking clone of YouTube. The video controls are nicer and you can get a HD version of the video as well. (If the submitter provides one of course.) For a good example, ok, a crazy example, check out this video:
GORBACHOV: THE MUSIC VIDEO - BIGGER AND RUSSIANER
Warning - this video is PG13 and a bit on the edge of work safe. But it's funny as heck. Any video with zombies and a storm of blue jeans has to be cool.
Anyway - Vimeo has a few APIs you can use as a developer. Anything involving updating data requires you to send the user to their site, but for generic 'read' support, their API is rather simple. I've worked up a quick CFC that will let you get user and group information as well as generate embed code. It is attached to this blog entry. The API is so simple there really isn't anything cool in my code at all.
Quick Tip: What to do when your error handling isn't working?
Two quick things you should check when your error handling isn't working right.
1) Make sure your error handler doesn't have a bug itself. A good example of this is an error handler that sends a report to application.adminEmail. If your error occurs in application startup, before application.adminEmail is set, then it is no surprise that your error handler would fail as well. Suggestion: Make your error handler as simple as possible. Just a "Something is wrong" text message. If that helps, then the error is in your error handler.
2) ColdFusion's error handler won't handle syntax errors like so: <cfsearch collection="cfdocs" criteria="cfabort and name="res">. Notice that the criteria attribute doesn't properly end? Suggestion: Look at the error message. It may look something like this: Invalid token " found on line 2 at column 62. The invalid token is a hint. Also try just using your IDE. CFEclipse's synax checker isn't perfect, but many times it does flag a syntax error and I just don't notice it.
Follow ColdFusion Bloggers on Twitter
For those who like to twit (or who may be a twit), you can now follow CFBloggers via Twitter:
I'm using Twitter Client by Elliott Sprehn. If you view all the twits on the account you will see some older entries which come from my testing. Also - I'd love to change the picture if someone can suggest something (as opposed to another picture of me).
Lemonade Stand - The Results Are In
It's been a week since I announced the Lemonade Stand contest, and I hope folks weren't too disappointed when I delayed the results last Friday. Thankfully that whole mess is done with now. Last night I worked a bit more on my simulator, trying to clean up the results a bit, but the code itself is still a bit ugly. But who cares. What folks want to know is who won this little contest.
Non-Flash ColdFusion charts are still interactive
So this is news to me. In preparation for talking about the Lemonade Stand results tomorrow, I worked a bit more on the reporting for my simulator. Since I love charts, I plopped a chart down at the end that shows each stand and how it performs over all 50 days. I knew I was going to want to share the complete chart on the blog post, so I switched from the default Flash format to PNG. When I moused over the chart though I noticed the tool tips still worked! Here is an example:
Turns out that for both PNG and JPG formats, the charting engine will actually output an image map and support the same tool tips you get with the Flash version.
Nice to know. I mean, in my case my plan is to save the PNG/JPG, so it won't help, but if you can't use Flash for other reasons, you can still have an interactive chart. (Note - I just tested the URL property and it works fine as well for PNG/JPG.)
Ask a Jedi: Application.cfc, Application variables, and CFLOCK
I hope folks will forgive me for not talking about the iPhone again, but here is a good ColdFusion question from Mark:
I'm a little confused about using CFLOCK in the Application.cfc file. Is it needed when writing to Application variables and if so from which function (e.g. onRequestStart) Thanks.
iPhone 2.0 Apps - my thoughts so far
So after all the drama yesterday, I did get to play a bit the App Store. Here are my impressions, and a tip or two, so far.