Bob Silverberg - has been developing software for nearly twenty years, the past ten of which have been devoted to web application development with ColdFusion. He runs a small development company from his home in Toronto, where he divides his time between client work, open source development and taking care of his two young sons. He is an active participant on a number of ColdFusion mailing lists and blogs at www.silverwareconsulting.com.
CFUnited sessions: Automagic Validations for ColdFusion Objects
What Your Mother Never Told You About ColdFusion 9 ORM
1. Have you spoken at CFUnited in the past?
No, I have not.
2. Why should people attend your sessions?
In my "What Your Mother Never Told You About ColdFusion 9 ORM" session I'll be covering a number of topics that are important to understand when working with CF's new ORM features, but that are not covered in the Adobe documentation. These include some advanced techniques, but also a number of gotchas that you are likely to fall prey to if you don't take the time to learn a bit about what goes on "under the covers".
My "Automagic Validations for ColdFusion Objects" session covers the use of a tool which will address all of your application's validation needs. If you're tired of writing both client-side and server-side validation code or are wondering exactly where to place the validation logic in your object oriented application, this session will offer some useful solutions.
3. Do you have any projects in the works that you will be revealing at CFUnited?
My validation framework is continually evolving so no doubt I'll have some new things to show off at CFUnited.
4. Besides your topic, what other sessions are you looking forward to?
Well, there haven't been that many sessions announced yet, but of the ones that have been announced I'd say I'm looking forward to Dan Wilson's session on Making Bad Code Good, because any session by Dan Wilson is sure to be fun and enlightening, and also Jason Dean's session on Practical Ajax Security, because when it comes to security Jason is da man, and it's a topic that I really need to learn more about.
5. What are some of the hot topics you'd like to see at RoundTable discussions?
I'm always interested in hearing about how people apply object oriented principles to ColdFusion development. A roundtable on open source development in the ColdFusion community would be welcome as well. Of course I'm hoping that Marc Esher and a bunch of other fun folks will get a chance to host an end-to-end testing roundtable this year - that will be fantastic, and a topic that should be of interest to any web developer.
6. Where can people find you at CFUnited?
In sessions, of course, and in the common areas between sessions. Those "hallway chats" are often the most interesting and inspiring of all. At the end of the day I'll likely spend some time in the bar, catching up with old friends and making new ones. If you see me anywhere, please introduce yourself and say hello.
7. What's the latest news with you? Has anything changed since last CFUnited?
Things are pretty much the same for me as last year. My sons are now 3 and 5, so they keep me busy. I recently started playing tennis again, after a two-year hiatus. From a technical standpoint the new stuff I've been working with includes CF's new ORM features and Git (version control software). Oh, and I made the switch from a PC to a Mac around six months ago and have been very happy with the change.
8. What is unique about CFUnited?
I'm not in a very good position to answer that question having never attended a CFUnited. I did attend a couple of CFUN conferences many years ago and they were, as the name suggests, fun.
9. What do you like to do in your free time?
I enjoy tennis and skating (which I'm just now learning to do), cooking, spending time with my family, and I've been trying to learn to play the guitar for a few years now.
