We have a new topic and speaker for CFUnited. Doug Hughes is replacing Boyan Kostadinov and will be instead speaking on The "Hidden Secrets of Model-Glue" at 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM on Friday.

This class will take Model-Glue programmers deeper into the framework than, perhaps, they even knew was possible! In one short hour we'll cover a range of important and underutilized features. These include Action Packs, default events, ORM integration and scaffolding as well as ways to non-destructively extend and customize the Model-Glue framework.

Doug Hughes is a veteran programmer and the president of Alagad Inc (http://www.alagad.com), a successful small business specializing in web and application development, services and consulting. Doug also publishes a popular blog covering ColdFusion and other technical topics at http://www.doughughes.net.

This entry was posted on May 5, 2008 at 5:09 PM and has received 1599 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

HELLO Attendees! Getting excited? We are too! I've been meaning to blog lately, so I'm backed up with information.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION PLEASE READ

We are working really hard here at CFUnited headquarters. Coming up in the next couple weeks:

* Announcement of the ColdFusion celebration event is coming soon. Advisers agreed, now we are working with Adobe and Carasoft to iron out the details.

* We need everyone to fill out their SCHEDULER as soon as possible. We will make it mandatory if we don't get enough people to fill them in. This helps us determine what size room to put the sessions in. Please do this by May 10th for me.

* All TOPIC presentations that we currently have from speakers will be posted on the website beginning June 5th. Attendees can print the presentations and bring it with them to the conference. There will not be a show guide this year. All presentations will be viewable online during the conference as well. So while you are at the conference, you can download a presentation on your laptop and follow along.

* There will be wifi at the conference.

* We will not be sending snail-mail pre-conference packages this year. Instead everyone will get t-shirts, bags, and materials at the conference. You will need a photo ID if asked when you check-in to receive your name badge and goodies.

* We will send an email and post online a Registration Packet that you can print. Contains directions, maps, and information about the area and the conference.

* The conference will have to close at 1,000 attendees. We are not booked yet. I will keep people updated if we get within 100 registration spots available.

* We have new repeat topics, some new Adobe topics, and new sponsors. See details next week.

* Some cools things we will be adding to the site is a live webcam hooked into http://live.yahoo.com, possibly a mobile site for cfunited.com,

* Barnes & Nobles is running our bookstore in the expo.

* For those who are curious and familiar with the DC convention center: The Expo, General Session, and Cafeteria will be located in Hall B. The rooms we will hold the sessions are 152A/B, 140A/B, 158, 159. Registration will be on Concourse B.

* Still looking for sponsors! Only 5 silver booths left.

* We have so many places to eat downtown, list your dinner plans or favorites on the CFUnited Wiki!

* The CFUnited wiki will be updated with all the topics and you can add your notes about the session and share links.

* I have several things up my sleeve this year, so I hope everyone is ready for a crazy good time.

DON'T FORGET TO FILL OUR YOUR SCHEDULER http://scheduler.cfunited.com/

This entry was posted on May 1, 2008 at 5:54 PM and has received 2165 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

John Farrar talks about his CFUnited presentation on jQuery/CF Integration & CF Powered Traffic Optimization.

Is this your first time speaking at CFUnited?

John I have spoke at the Frameworks conference and CFU Chicago.

Why should people attend your session?

John jQ+CF: jQuery is slim and powerful. Integration with CF can make coding AJAX pages zesty when you use jQuery. During this session we will cover the benefits of jQuery, showing how to connect to both CFCs and REST based services, and showing how to wrap up jQuery features with ColdFusion for simpler and faster delivery and integration.

WSO: SEO is very important. That is how you get someone to your site. WSO is how you keep them there and get them to act on why you wanted them to come there. Tracking, testing and knowing what works will be the result of ColdFusion based web site optimization.

Will people see anything new at your session?

John jQ+CF: YES! We will show shhhh (we will be showing a NUMBER of special jQuery releases!... grid, plotting, and more... shhh, I didn't tell you. This is a secret.). WSO:

We will be releasing an Open Source library that should work with about any framework. This will be built on several other successful concepts and will make optimization just plain simple.

What is the highlight of your session?

JohnThis is like asking what the highlight of ColdFusion is! Smile emoticon

(Other points...) Can you tell us about your session?

jQ+CF: For those who missed Hal's class, this will give you an idea why you should have attended it. Prototype made JS AJAX a reality. jQuery was the first trim agile superstar. It continues to pave the way and beginners and experienced web developers will find this session inspiring. You will learn how to AJAX and interact with your pages in jaw dropping cool ways.

WSO: Learn how to be profitable or know how profitable you are rather than just being found. Web site optimization is about changing visitor bounces into visitor conversions. Reach your goals, know what will help you reach your goals, try out new ideas and rate the success. Try out several ideas at the same time and compare them.

This entry was posted on April 30, 2008 at 9:41 AM and has received 3549 views. There are currently 4 comments. Print this entry.

CF Meetup: CFInterface , with Robin Hilliard

Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 11:00 PM

Meeting URL: http://experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup/

Organized by Charlie Arehart

Description: With all the fantastic new features in ColdFusion 8 you could be forgiven for overlooking the CFInterface tag. But with the introduction of CFInterface Adobe has given us a fundamental concept of most object oriented programming languages that has been missing since the introduction of components in CFMX, a concept used to great effect in many key design patterns and extensible software frameworks like Eclipse.

In this presentation Robin explains what an interface is, how they're used in software design and how to use CFInterface to bring them to your ColdFusion applications. It's a lot simpler and cooler than you might think.

To learn more visit: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/7837529/

This entry was posted on April 29, 2008 at 8:09 PM and has received 3875 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

CF Meetup: Leveraging RDS in Eclipse, Dreamweaver, and HomeSite+/CF Studio, with Charlie Arehart

Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 12:00 PM

Meeting URL: http://experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup/

Organized by Charlie Arehart

Description: Are you using the RDS-enabled features in Eclipse, Dreamweaver, or HomeSite+? If not, you could be missing out on a lot of increased productivity, from the query building tools it enables, to the component browsing tools, to enabling file access across the web, and more.

Perhaps it's been disabled on your server, or people may argue that it's insecure. If you could be shown how it could be secured, might you (or your admin) reconsider it? I think it's a tragedy how many developers suffer without leveraging RDS, certainly on their own machines, and even on shared servers.

Whether you think RDS evil or a blessing, or are unaware of what it enables in your favorite CFML editor, and whether you use CF 8 or earlier, there may be more to RDS than you realize. And there are solutions to security concerns, especially in CF8 but even beforehand.

In this talk, frequent CFUG speaker Charlie Arehart will show you all the ways that RDS can be used to make you more productive in Eclipse, Dreamweaver, or HomeSite+. He'll also address (and in some cases resolve) common security concerns, especially the multi-user RDS security available in CF 8 (and CF 4 and 5), as well as how to enable it if it's been disabled (assuming you have the right to make configuration changes, of course).

To learn more visit: http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/calendar/7837371/

This entry was posted on April 29, 2008 at 8:01 PM and has received 3907 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Dan Wilson talks about his CFUnited presentation on Refactoring to Object Oriented Programming in ColdFusion

Why should people attend your session?

Dan: Making the transition from procedural programming to Object Oriented programming is hard! It requires a whole new shift in logical thinking. It is easy to get stuck in endlessly circular thought loops trying to understand Object Orientation by reading blog articles and books, I know because I've done it myself.

If you've been interested in Object Orientation and want information straight from the horses mouth, come to my Refactoring in ColdFusion session. We'll cover basic but important OO structures in ColdFusion. We'll examine some procedural ColdFusion code and compare it with the refactored OO version. Finally, we'll talk about some helpful tips designed to help you over the hump.

What is the highlight of your session?

Dan: Most material on Object Oriented programming is written with the Java language. In my session, all the examples are in ColdFusion! The highlight of my session is the abundant code samples. We have lots of code samples. Everyone likes code samples, right?

This entry was posted on April 23, 2008 at 6:46 PM and has received 2752 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

Adam Howitt talks about his CFUnited presentation on how to Build a scalable architecture with Amazon's EC2

Is this your first time speaking at CFUnited?

Adam: Yes it is! I've attended three times and thought it was time for a free ride :-)

Why should people attend your session?

Adam: To discover how easy it is to get started with Amazon's EC2 service and get some perspective on hosting your website on their servers.

Will people see anything new at your session?

Adam: I'll create a robust webserver running ColdFusion from scratch in about 10 minutes without having to worry about hardware.

What is the highlight of your session?

Adam:I think the hosting assessment slide offers an invaluable overview of where Amazon EC2 fits in the context of other hosting options.

This entry was posted on April 23, 2008 at 5:55 PM and has received 2231 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Happy Earth Day from all of us at CFUnited! We want to encourage everyone to take some time and appreciate the Earth. Think of ways you can start being more green.

As we announced a few weeks ago CFUnited is going green for this years conference. We will be doing everything we can to be environmentally friendly throughout the event.

Here are some of our plans:

1. CFUnited Show Guide - If you've been to CFUnited in the past few years, you'll remember the 350 page show guide that you carried around thought the conference. The show guide included details about the conference, sponsor ads, and most importantly the power point presentation slides of each session at the conference. This year to spare some trees we have decided to skip the show guide and provide the power point presentations on the CFUnited website. We will release the presentations online approximately two weeks prior to the event. This will allow attendees to print their own materials if they choose.

2. Our Printer - "We've always been green. And now we're FSC Certified. Proof that our papers originate from sustainable forests." (ToddAllan Printing)

3. CFUnited back pack - CFUnited is known for providing someone of the coolest backpacks out there. This years back pack will me made of recycled materials, without lacking the coolness.

4. Evening event - Instead of busing our attendees to an evening event we will arrange an event within walking distance from the DC convention center.

5. The Grand Hyatt - CFUniteds main hotel, the Grand Hyatt DC, has an endless list of the ways they contribute to going green. The entire hotel has high efficiency lighting systems and allow control to energy consumption. Light colored roofs and low - emissivity glass that reduces heat gain. Voluntary towel and sheet reuse programs that allow the guest to determine if towels and sheets are to be replaced during their stay. (These are just a few examples from the long list of Hyatts green features)

6. Organic T shirts - It's tradition that each year at CFUnited attendees receive a custom made conference T shirt. Some of the favorites being the Purple & Yellow from CFUN08, Lime green from CFUnited 06 & blue baseball tee from CFUnited 07. This years shirt will be made of 100% organically-grown cotton. What does this mean you ask? Organic agriculture uses crop rotation instead of agrochemicals and artificial fertilizers, and biological pest control (lady bugs) instead of pesticides. Besides being organic, its a really comfortable and lightweight.

More will be added soon. Let us know if you have any other ideas!

This entry was posted on April 22, 2008 at 3:06 PM and has received 1945 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Our new Track Chair for the Integrating Technology Track is Steve Nelson (Webapper Services, LLC)

Steve Nelson has been developing with ColdFusion for the past decade. Many ColdFusion enthusiasts will recognize him as the creator of Fusebox, a popular application framework utilized by thousands of ColdFusion developers. In addition to serving as a technical editor for numerous ColdFusion and Fusebox publications, Steve has also authored the book "Fusebox: Methodology and Techniques". Steve is no stranger to massive ColdFusion projects, sometimes managing and coordinating over 100 remote contractors simultaneously. Though he made and lost millions in the blink of an eye during the "dotcom era", Steve presently spends his days as a Senior Web Architect for WebApper, developers of the popular ColdFusion server monitoring tool SeeFusion.

The INT Track is made up of the following topics.

Steve Nelson Building Google Maps Applications with ColdFusion

Michael Dinowitz Google webmaster tools step by step

Peter Bell Practical Code Generation

Adam Howitt Build a scalable architecture with Amazon's EC2

Charlie Arehart Interactive Step Debugging with the CF8 Debugger

Mark Drew CFEclipse Reloaded

Steve Nelson Building offline applications with Google Gears

Phill Nacelli Integrated ColdFusion Development Environment

This entry was posted on April 22, 2008 at 12:57 PM and has received 1958 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Earlier this week I was in NYC and had a chance to attend the New York ColdFusion User Group meeting hosted by UG managers Ben Nadel and Clark Valberg. The NYCFUG seems to be a very active group with lots of members and have consistently had great speakers and topics.

This months speaker was Rob Gonda who spoke on how to "AJAXify Your ColdFusion Applications".

After Robs presentation there were lots of cool prizes given away, including a pass to CFUnited! It was definitely an enjoyable meeting, I got to see some familiar faces and lots of new ones. If your a CF'er from the NYC area and haven't been to one of the NYCFUG meetings I recommend you check it out!

For speakers theres a nice perk to presenting at the NYCFUG, Clark and Ben are known to take you out afterwards for a nice dinner :)

This entry was posted on April 18, 2008 at 2:12 PM and has received 3865 views. There are currently 5 comments. Print this entry.