Latest News from Steve Bryant

PhoneFormatter.cfc 1.0 in ColdFusion

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:30:00 EDT

I typically store phone numbers in one field (instead of using a separate field for each part of a phone number). While this usually works quite well, I have discovered that it can cause issues when I want a phone number to display in the same format regardless of how it was originally entered. This is relatively easy to do if you handle it as the data comes in, but if you don't (either as oversight or because the data comes from outside the system) then it is a more difficult task. I created PhoneFormatter to handle this task. Actually, it can handle formatting the data on an individual string or on a field across a whole table.

John Farrar on COOP

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:30:00 EDT

COOP seems to rely on a CFC in the same folder as the calling file and with the same name (except the .cfc) extension. John called this a 'coprocessor'. It looked a lot like a page controller to me. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I was unsure of how I felt about introducing a requirement for an external file for each page. On the other hand, I generally like the use of a page controller.

ColdFusion Blog - DataMgr 2.1 Beta

Tue, 29 May 2007 10:30:00 EDT

DataMgr 2.1 is now in beta. Aside from fixing one or two small bugs, nothing has changed from the Alpha release. Take this as a pretty good sign as I changed a fair bit of the inner workings of DataMgr in order to achieve the new features of 2.1. It has been running on several live sites for a few days now without any problems.

How To Create ColdFusion Tables

Sun, 13 May 2007 18:30:00 EDT

I've written in the past about using DataMgr to make sure that the tables and columns you need exist. I have been asked a few times this week about making sure that those newly created tables are automatically loaded with data. If you don't know how to have DataMgr create the tables and columns you need, you can watch the 'Synchronize Database Structure' presentation now.

DataMgr 2.1 Alpha

Sun, 13 May 2007 14:00:00 EDT

I realize that DataMgr 2.0 hasn't been out long, but I thought of a few features that I wanted near the end of the 2.0 development cycle. Since they required a fair bit of extra effort, I thought it best to hold them over for a '2.1' release. Although I have been given some good ideas for future versions of DataMgr, the 2.1 version will probably be the last major release for at least a few months - I have some other projects that I want to give some attention.

cf.Objective Highlights

Sun, 13 May 2007 13:45:00 EDT

I am back from cf.Objective and I finally have a second to write about it. I actually tried to write a review of my whole experience, but that ended up being pretty long, so I decided just to hit some of the highlights. First off, the presentations were all great and I learned a lot. It was also great to meet some of the people whose blogs I had seen.

tag.cfc 0.1: Write Your Own Code Generator

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:15:00 EST

Back when I had some free time, I started working on my own code generator, partly because other code generators create code slightly different from my preferences and partly for the challenge.

Steve Bryant's ColdFusion Blog: Using argumentCollection with Super

Mon, 09 Jan 2006 15:45:00 EST

I recently had the need to use argumentcollection with super. Unfortunately, super can't be used with argumentCollection or with named arguments (which would allow me to loop through a structure and set arguments with cfinvokeargument). Fortunately, I found a solution in the comments of the ColdFusion LiveDocs. As pointed out by 'eblackey' (on 'Using inheritance and the Super keyword'), if you copy super to this.super, you can then reference methods of this.super using argumentCollection or named arguments.

Steve Bryant's ColdFusion Blog: HTML in Application.cfm

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 14:30:00 EST

On the flip side, it is possible that a client might want part of the layout to change based on which page is being displayed. If you were including the layout code from the page, you could set a variable above the call to the layout to indicate this and perhaps to make some data available for that purpose. If you were including your layout from Application.cfm, that is one more file name check that you have to add to Application.cfm.

Handling Site Layouts in ColdFusion with Layout Components

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:45:00 EST

Most sites have similar issues related to the site layout. I have seen many solutions that solve some challenges related to layout, but fail to handle others elegantly. I have found that using layout components elegantly solves all of the layout problems I have faced.

Reusable (and Maintainable) Presentation Code

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST

Everyone knows that you should reuse your code so that you don't have to repeatedly write the same functionality. You put widgets in custom tags and encapsulate logic in CFCs. Even so, your application's user interface may frequently end up changing. Sometimes the changes are so substantial that it hardly seems worth the effort to try to reuse code at all.

Error Handling in JavaScript

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Have you ever been to a site and gotten a pop-up box telling you about a JavaScript error on the page? It can be really annoying. What's worse is that the person responsible for maintaining the site doesn't even know that the error occurred.