Have you met our CFUnited Europe Sponsors? We'd like to take a moment and thank each of them for supporting us in London.

Adobe Systems Inc. - Gold Exhibitor

Objective Internet - Gold Exhibitor

TeraTech Inc. - Gold

Intergral - Gold Exhibitor

World Zhulu - Silver Exhibitor

PaperThin - Silver Exhibitor - Announced soon

HostMySite.com - Contributor

Actionscript.it - Media Sponsor

ThinkGeek - Prize Contributor

IEXP FusionDox - Contributor - Announced soon

Webapper - Contributor - Announced soon

UserMatter.com - Media Sponsor - Announced soon

CFTagStore.com - Contributor - Announced soon

Please take a moment to find out more about our sponsors: http://europe.cfunited.com/go/sponsors

For more information about our newest sponsors, please see our sponsor page again next week.

This entry was posted on February 19, 2008 at 1:33 PM and has received 2906 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Here are new topics for the Advanced CF Track. We have some new speakers in this list, so congrats to Dan Wilson, Jake Munson, and Qasim Rasheed.

All topics can be viewed at http://cfunited.com/go/topics


Refactoring to OO Programming in CF
Dan Wilson
"We will look at a well known procedural ColdFusion open source application and compare with an Object Oriented version.
Care will be taken to show the benefits of Object Oriented Design and how good software engineering principles reduce the overall cost of Application Design, Development and Maintenance. "

OO Best Practices
Hal Helms
"OO may be new to ColdFusion, but it's been around for 50 years. We've learned a lot during that time about what does -- and doesn't -- work.
In this session, we'll examine MBFYBPs: Most Bang For Your Buck Practices. Many CF developers have switched to using CFCs as an article of faith, but see very little evidence of increased productivity and managability of code. Let's change that.
An old saying has it like this: ""A smart man learns from his mistakes; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others."" Jump-start your application development IQ by learning best practices for object-oriented development."

Attack of the Spammers
Jake Munson
"Most web developers depend on Captcha to prevent spammers from attacking their web forms. However with recent high profile Captcha failures like the hackers that created massive amounts of Youtube accounts to send out a virus, more and more developers are looking beyond Captcha for better ways to stop web based spam. This session will discuss various techniques to stop form spam in a user friendly, accessible way. We can use software to find out if a form user is really a human, like checking for keyboard activity, mouse movement, and even simple content analysis. We should never just depend on ONE method to stop spam."

Continuous Integration with SVN, ANT, CFUnit and Selenium
Qasim Rasheed
"I will try to explain a setup where you can a have continuous build system using few free open source tools.
SVN - source code repository
ANT - build tool
CFUnit  used for unit testing of CFC and templates
Selenium  used an acceptance testing tool.
By using the above tools, presenter will pick an open source ColdFusion application and will guide the audience through the process of creating individual unit test to developing integration test with Selenium. By the end of a session we will have a final ANT build file that can be scheduled to run on regular basis."

*************************************************
In the Deployment/Databases Track:

Interactive Step Debugging with the CF8 Debugger
Charlie Arehart
"In this talk, veteran CFML developer Charlie Arehart will introduce and demonstrate the ability ColdFusion developers now have to step through their code interactively to debug it on ColdFusion 8. While it's a plug-in for Eclipse, don't worry if you don't use Eclipse. You can continue to use DWMX or CF Studio/HomeSite+ for editing: just use the Eclipse-based tools for debugging. Charlie will show you how easy it is and the problems step debugging can solve. And if you're thinking you don't need interactive debugging, he'll also explain over a dozen benefits this offers over traditional CFDUMP/CFOUTPUT debugging, as well as tips, tricks, and traps."

This entry was posted on February 18, 2008 at 5:05 PM and has received 1948 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Pre-Conference Classes are finally announced!
CFUnited's Advisory Board decided on 8 amazing full day classes for the CF community. 4 classes on Monday and 4 classes on Tuesday. You can only sign up for 1 class per day, got it?

*All classes are $449 each (this cost is not included in your conference registration for the main event, it is completely separate)

To register go to: http://cfunited.com/go/classes
All classes take place at the DC Convention Center in Downtown Washington http://cfunited.com/go/travel

Monday 6/16/2008 - 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
CU231
Doug Hughes
"Introduction to Model-Glue"
CFUnited Pre-Conference Class
This class would cover all of the general knowledge required to get started building Model-Glue applications. I would discuss the basic ideas of II and MVC on which the framework is based, how to install and configure the framework and how to get started working with it. This would be based on a subset of the same materials I used with Carfax. The main requirement would have to be a familiarity with CFCs.

**********************************************
Monday 6/16/2008 - 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
CU232
Joe Rinehart and Simon Horwith
CFUnited Pre-Conference Class
"Flex for Developers"

In this session, Joe Rinehart and Simon Horwith will tag team to offer a full day of materials packed with everything a CF developer needs to know to start using Flex immediately. Students will learn all of the fundamentals of Flex including how to create layouts, interactive interfaces, and navigation. Among other things, they will also learn how to use Object Oriented ActionScript, View States, and Data Bindings to create feature rich applications. Extra time will be taken to learn the various techniques that are available to allow Flex and ColdFusion applications to communicate. ColdFusion developers should leave this class armed with the knowledge they need to create Flex front-ends for existing CF applications as well as the tools necessary to be effective as a Flex developer.

***********************************************
Monday 6/16/2008 - 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
Matt Woodward
CU233
"Object-Oriented Programming With Mach-II"

In this one-day hands-on course you will learn the basics of object-oriented programming in ColdFusion starting from the ground up. We will discuss the fundamental concepts behind OOP, do basic domain modeling, and build powerful, flexible business objects that will serve as the backbone for a small but real-world sample application.

With the objects in place, we will then build the front-end of the application using the Mach-II framework. The major emphasis in this course will be on OOP in ColdFusion, but building a Mach-II front-end for the application will serve as a nice introduction to Mach-II.

**********************************************
Monday 6/16/2008 - 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
Chaz Chumley
CU234
"Fast Track to ColdFusion 8"

Course Covers: Beginner to Intermediate Development

Course Synopsis: This class is designed to teach experienced web developers the concepts and skills to use ColdFusion 8.

Course Summary: Fast Track to ColdFusion 8 provides experienced web developers the knowledge and hands-on practice they need to start building and maintaining dynamic and interactive Web applications focusing on best practices, design, usability, optimization and performance.

What You Will Learn:

Setting up ColdFusion development environment
Administration
Using Dreamweaver CS3 and CFEclipse
Publishing dynamic data using ColdFusion tags
Reusing common code with CFCs (ColdFusion Components)
Building forms with ColdFusion
Building search interfaces
Interacting with Databases
New features in ColdFusion 8 (AJAX UI Support)
Debugging your application
Securing your Website

**********************************************
Tuesday 6/17/2008- 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
Hal Helms
CU235
"Better User Interfaces with jQuery"

Many of us remember the "Language Wars" of just a few years ago -- a hotly contested battle of Java v. PHP v. ColdFusion v. .NET. Oddly, the winner was...JavaScript.

In the last few years, the language of choice for Web applications has become a little scripting language that everybody used but almost no one bothered to master. The hype behind "Web 2.0" has thankfully died down, but the reality is that, more and more, users expect Web applications that perform more like desktop ones. And for that, there's only one choice: JavaScript.

The problem is that the browsers can't quite seem to agree on which JavaScript features to support -- and how to support them. Enter JavaScript libraries such as Prototype, Scriptaculous, Dojo -- and jQuery.

jQuery is the work of John Resig and his vision was to create a cross-browser compatible library that would greatly simplify the use of JavaScript's sophisticated features. The library is a stunning success.

In this class, you'll learn how to use jQuery (and the many jQuery plugins) to create the kind of interfaces that users will love. If you want to learn how to make your interfaces sing, don't miss this class, taught by Hal Helms. Hal will share his love for jQuery and show you ridiculously easy ways to make your interfaces sing.

***********************************************
Tuesday 6/17/2008- 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
Nate Nelson
CU236
"SQL For Developers - "The Next Step"

There is a lot more to a database than data storage, databases can be very powerful in many ways. This class will focus on bringing a developer to that next level by introducing intermediate and advanced database concepts. Most of the class will be on SQL programming concepts such as procedures, triggers, functions, importing/exporting, cursors, complex queries, etc. Some other topics to be covered in this class will include indexing, optimization, and some database design coverage.

The goal for this class is to bring a developer to that next step in leveraging database systems like never before.

***********************************************
Tuesday 6/17/2008- 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
Charlie Arehart
CU237
"CF911: Solving CF Performance and Reliability Problems"

Got a dead, dying, or poorly performing server? If you're having problems and don't know where to turn, you're not alone. Many CF shops find themselves challenged to understand and resolve the problems that plague their site. The good news is that with knowledge comes understanding. The answers are often there: you just need to know where to look and how to interpret them.

In this day-long class, veteran ColdFusion troubleshooter Charlie Arehart will lead developers and administrators in an overview of the many resources available for solving problems, from information reported within CF logs, to available free and commercial monitoring tools. He'll also point out valuable informational resources available from Adobe and other CF experts. He'll outline several common problems that trouble CF sites, but more important he'll show you how to use the combination of logging information, monitoring tools, and informational resources to help you be able to find and resolve other problems on your own. Regardless of what version of CF you're using (from 4 through 8) or even other CFML engines, many of the resources and techniques offered will apply to all engines

**********************************************
Tuesday 6/17/2008- 9am - 5pm, check-in is from 8:00am-9:00am
Jared Rypka-Hauer
CU238
"ColdFusion's AJAX Advantage: How to make the most of ColdFusion 8's EXT2 integration"

ColdFusion 8 has some great AJAX widgets built in, but there's far more available than simply what's available via the ColdFusion API. Behind that API is a rich and very extensive set of tools from the EXT JavaScript AJAX library. Come to this class to get tools, tips and tricks for leveraging some of the power of EXT in your applications. We will go over various APIs for the EXT objects that ColdFusion exposes directly (like the grid object) as well as some of the supporting objects that make the EXT framework so powerful.

*Also, We do not have any discounts available for these classes.
*If you are interested in a customized class with one of our speakers for groups of 10 or more, please contact liz (at) cfunited.com

This entry was posted on February 14, 2008 at 11:05 AM and has received 3929 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

Sam Farmer, did an awesome review on his blog about CFUnited new venue. It talks about the DC Convention center and its surrounding restaurants, bars and other attractions.

This entry was posted on February 12, 2008 at 5:45 PM and has received 3371 views. There are currently 2 comments. Print this entry.

With CFUnited Europe conference only four weeks away, I wanted to remind all those who have yet to register to do so soon. There will be on site registration for walk-ins, but to avoid any delays we encourage you to register in advance.

We are very excited about bringing CFUnited to our European attendees! Looking forward to meeting everyone at the conference soon.

This entry was posted on February 12, 2008 at 2:37 PM and has received 4236 views. There are currently 3 comments. Print this entry.

We have moved the evening event to begin at 5:30pm and it will be at the Novotel London West with open bar and hors d'oeuvres. We will end the night at 7:30pm. Our sponsors are excited to mingle with you. Experience one-on-one time with several of our speakers and ColdFusion experts from Adobe!

We look forward to our London experience and having lots of ColdFusion fun!

This entry was posted on February 8, 2008 at 2:03 PM and has received 3952 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We are excited to reveal Josh Adams as a new member of Adobe Systems, Inc. Josh Adams will be speaking at CFUnited USA in 2008. Welcome back, again!

Here is the message from Josh's new blog:

I am pleased to announce that I have accepted a Systems Engineer position in the role of ColdFusion Specialist with Adobe Systems, Inc.

http://www.joshuaadams.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/2/6/And-the-new-Adobe-ColdFusion-Specialist-is-me

This entry was posted on February 6, 2008 at 6:31 PM and has received 3214 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

All the left over rooms for the night of March 11th and 12th that have not been picked up will be released Monday, February 11th.

If you would like to reserve rooms, please go to http://europe.cfunited.com for more information.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2008 at 4:06 PM and has received 2919 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

We are excited to announce that Charlie Arehart is speaking at CFUnited Europe in March. His topic is "Continuous Server Analysis: Keeping ColdFusion Servers Healthy!"

He will be replacing Russ Michaels, who is unable to attend.

To read more about this topic, go to: http://europe.cfunited.com/go/topics#topic-1718

This entry was posted on February 6, 2008 at 3:10 PM and has received 2025 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

We are sorry that Sandra Clark is unable to join us this year at CFUnited. In her place, Sean Corfield will cover her topic "Driving Fusebox 5.5"

For more information about this topic, go to: http://cfunited.com/go/topics/2008#topic-1528

This entry was posted on February 5, 2008 at 5:45 PM and has received 2548 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.