Jeff Peters

CFUnited Class: CU248 - jQuery and ColdFusion August 11, 2009 9:00am - 5:30pm

1. Why did you create this class?

Well, I started out teaching jQuery as a separate class about a year ago. It was a fun class, but I met an increasing number of CF developers who hadn't investigated jQuery because they felt that it just duplicates features that are available in ColdFusion, especially CF8. While it's true that many of the tasks that jQuery handles well are also addressed by features in CF, I find that it's very beneficial to be able to take advantage of both technologies.

2. Are you going to cover jQuery first, or ColdFusion?

The focus of the class is really on how jQuery and ColdFusion can work and play well together. We'll spend a bit of time discussing each side of the house, but most of the time will be spent on combining the two.

3. Aren't jQuery and ColdFusion mutually exclusive?

Not at all. As I already mentioned, this is the misconception that originally prompted me to design the class. It's important to understand that CF is a tool that generates code to run on the browser, and jQuery is code that runs on the browser as well. If we understand both technologies from the browser's context, we can make use of them together in very interesting and useful ways.

4. Do attendees need to know jQuery and ColdFusion in order to take the class?

I'm expecting students to know ColdFusion, but not necessarily jQuery. This seems to be the typical scenario, especially in the context of a conference like CFUnited, where attendees are typically familiar with CF. We'll be spending some time in the first part of the class talking about the fundamentals of jQuery, so if you don't know any jQuery, you'll be raring to go by the end of the day.

5. What will attendees know at the end of the day?

Beats me--I don't know if you'll pay attention. Seriously, though, the class is designed to open up a whole box of fun stuff for creating great user experiences with good ol' HTML.

6. How will this class benefit an attendees career?

If your career has anything to do with building front-ends for web applications (or HTML-based desktop applications), you'll find something useful in this class. My intent is to fuel students' imaginations so that they'll feel enabled to explore their own ideas.

7. What should attendees bring to the class?

The biggest thing that will help is your imagination, and perhaps some ideas for an application you're currently developing. You should bring your laptop, with CF installed. I'll provide jQuery and instructions on how to install it, use it, and extend it. Of course, if you're already tinkering with jQuery and have it, that's even better. I look forward to seeing you there!

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