Orange County ColdFusion User Group Blog

Test with Contribute CS3

2007-11-18T01:11:56Z

Just checkin' this out from Adobe's Contribute CS3

Nov 15th Connect URL

2007-11-15T04:11:15Z

Connect URL http://connect.webassist.com/usergroup/.

Adobe LiveCycle Designer (Book Review)

2007-11-15T04:11:07Z

Adobe LiveCycle Designer by J.P. Terry

Creating Dynamic Forms with Designer

LiveCycle Designer is a Windows based program that provides all of the tools you need to create basic or sophisticated forms...

This book basically is the How-To Manual for creating interactive, dynamic and powerful PDF forms! It takes you from beginning to end in creating rich, robust forms for any given situation, with all the features of design and graphics that you could imagine.

I personally feel that this application is underrated due to the other stellar products from Adobe, however, most of its functionality is complimentary to other online venues, but it does command the respect for "B2C" regions.

An interesting note is that you can use "generic" .PDF forms in Designer, but you can't access "Adobe's XFA" (Adobe's XML Forms Architecture..) .PDF forms in other .PDF programs. So even though its native language is XML, its native communication is set apart only for those in the Adobe family!

There are a great number of samples and templates to choose from, so if you just want to take an existing script (they actually encourage you to...) or create one on your own, this is the program for you.

So if you have Adobe Acrobat 7 or 8, Designer comes with, but as stated earlier, this program has minimal exposure, but its capabilities are powerful and extremely user-friendly.

I recommend this book for all those who favor data more than content or design, and for those who want to create a more dynamic way to interact with your potential or existing clients, and display the information quickly and more effienciently.

Publisher: Adobe Press; 1 edition (August 27, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0321509870

Thank you,

Andre' Harden

Head First SQL (Book Review)

2007-11-15T04:11:51Z

Head First SQL

SQL is one of the basic tools that every web developer needs in his or her tool box. If you are a developer that learned HTML and picked up ColdFusion as the natural step into dynamic web development, SQL may have been new to you. So you learned how to grab sets of data with "select * from artists" and maybe fine tuned it with "where artist_id = 3". Soon you found that you could loop through the data set using CFOUTPUT or CFLOOP and conditionally displayed information or reformatted the data using CFIF or a number of ColdFusion functions. Continuing to explore ColdFusion's cool tags and functions you start creating arrays, structures, queries of queries and even dabble with CFSCRIPT, ColdFusion Components and user defined functions. This is all so cool....but your pages are dead slow and your code looks like all-you-can-eat night at Ye Olde Spaghetti Factory. At this point you remember hearing that you should let SQL do what it does best, manipulate data, and let ColdFusion do what it does best, present data.

That's Head First SQL comes in. It will take you from the basics of SQL that you learned from a ColdFusion developer's book to a point where you can separate out just about all of the data manipulation and let ColdFusion display that nicely crafted data set. Head First SQL assumes you have no SQL knowledge so you can rush through the first couple chapters being careful to catch a few tips and tidbits as flip through those pages. The first couple chapters will cover things to consider in table creations and how to get data into and out of the table. The book does a nice job of covering SELECT enhancements using the qualifiers like BETWEEN, LIKE, IN, IS NULL to help you bring back just the data you need.

One of the most important concepts in database design is normalization. Normalization is organizing your database so that you have a minimal amount of redundant data. A simple example is having a table of customer information with a unique ID assigned to each customer and only that ID is stored with each order from that customer. This reduces the amount of data stored and also improves accuracy and maintenance as a change of address would mean one customer record change rather than changing many order changes. Head First SQL covers this well and of course does it in a fun fashion, come on the chapter is titled "Why be normal?". Primary keys and foreign keys, the data that relates one tables data to another, are clearly explained and emphasized.

After expanding our minds into good database design with normalization, they need to do some mind expansion to help us get that data back out. Withmultiple related tables we need to do JOINS, INNER JOINS, and OUTER JOINS to pull it all back together. There is also a concept of sub queries which helps us get our minds around bringing back a data set by first bringing back a general data set and querying that again to get a presentable data set.

The book has a nice set of extras at the end and overall it presents a critical topic for web developers in a fun way. If SQL is something you may need to see some documentation or a few examples to get the concept or get through a step in a project, this book might not be the best reference manual for you. If SQL or other areas are hard for you to get your head around, the Head First Series is definitely worth your consideration. And hey, it's O'Reilly so you won't feel like A Complete Idiot or a For Dummies kind of person when you are having some fun learning. Once you get through this book you can look to O'Reilly for books to learn about SWITCH/CASE, triggers, stored procedures, and all the stuff you need to know to keep your DBA in line.

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. (September 1, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0596526849

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596526849/

Tom Barr

Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm (Book Review)

2007-11-15T04:11:26Z

Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm (Book Review)

This book took me back to school again! It basically instructs you how to "Bulletproof" your site designs with only CSS (cascading style sheets..). Mind you, its not a "CSS-for-beginners" read, but more-or-less how to accent or improve existing html with CSS.

Its basic structure is to take an existing "familiar" website from the World Wide Web and use it - at its example to show how/why its not bulletproof. The term "bulletproof" means being prepared for whatever is thrown at your design. (i.e. Different browsers/versions, resolution/sizing, download time/speed, etc.etc...). At this point I found the book to be a tad condescending as many of the sites fore-mentioned as examples - I've personally never had a problem with. But when put to the test, I could see how these sites in question could improve or overall better their chances to cover all bases to become bulletproof.

As a designer, I must admit, I had a hard time reverting to a "CSS" mode, as most of my projects are more Flash/Flex related, I hardly use CSS anymore, however, after reading chapter 1, I've acquired a new found respect for Cascading Style Sheets; I found myself rethinking makeovers and facelifts on existing and completed projects! There were quite a few tips and tricks using .CSS I didn't even know existed. So I'm now banging the drum in the .CSS parade!

The book contains only 9 chapters, and each chapter gives a "hands on" lesson/project that's easy to follow and complete. (see completed project!) Once again, its not a how-to create .CSS layouts, but more or less, how to improve or design sites that will work on any platform, speed, resolution or anything else the Internet will throw at it - and not break!

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to improve or accent new or existing sites, diversify or modify layout designs, or if you want to learn a few tips and tricks in CSS - this books' for you!

Thank you,

Andre' Harden

Publisher: New Riders Press; 1 edition (July 28, 2005)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0321346939

Adobe Soundbooth CS3 Classroom in a Book

2007-11-15T03:11:10Z

Get yourself up to speed quickly with Adobe Soundbooth CS3. The Classroom in a book series does what it intends to, give you enough info to hit the ground running and at least be able to communicate confidently on the subject after reading and doing the lesson.Each chapter gives you hands on projects that get you involved.If you need to create and publish sound for the web, Soundbooth makes it easy and The Classroom in a book series will get you going. Publisher: Adobe Press; Pap/Cdr edition (August 9, 2007) Language: English

ISBN-10: 0321499778

http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321499778

SQL Pocket Guide (Pocket References)

2007-11-10T03:11:07Z

This is a handy guide to have around when you’re not a DBA but find yourself dealing with Databases from the different vendors. Each vendor has there own little differences of SQL syntax that make them special. I don’t want to be a DBA I just want a little data and the guide will help you quickly deal with the quirks and special features of the major Databases.

This is not a how to book, if you want that get the Head First SQL book. If you need to know the difference on correct syntax for using Regular Expressions with MS SQL and mySQL, this guide is for you.

Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2 edition (April 17, 2006) Language: English ISBN-10: 0596526881

Flex Builder 2

2007-11-02T10:11:27Z

Flex Builder 2 is an awesome product!

I was skeptical at first, being new to the built on Eclipse IDE, though the interface proved to be very intuitive to the new user. If you're a Dreamweaver user, never fear, this IDE is a synch once you use it a bit.

There are two views, Source View and Design View:

Source View - If you're a coder, you'll feel right at home here. It has color coding, line numbering, line collapsing, tag hinting, easy tabbing features to separate your code and the list goes on. One of the features that amazes me is tag hinting for your custom classes. If you were to create a custom class (or component which would be a class) then by declaring it with a namespace or importing it, Flex Builder will automatically add it to the tag hinting along with all of the built-in classes, methods, properties and events.

Design View – Without a doubt, Design View simplifies building your interface. Being able to drag and drop built in components into your app, give you the ability to build your interface quickly while Flex Builder handles the code. Flex Builder manages layout nicely unlike the browser specific markup of the past. You can specify x and y coordinates, expand and contract using percentages and have components float based on constraints.

Debugging mode is an extremely powerful feature of Flex Builder. You can set breakpoints, see all variables and expressions. It also has the ability to step through the breakpoints.

There are many more features I am not going to mention in this review. I will say that if you plan on developing RIA’s, Flex is the way to go with increased productivity of Flex Builder 2.

Also, Flex Builder 2 is available FREE to educational institutions and students!

Andrew Maurer

Programming Flex 2 Book Review

2007-10-26T11:10:46Z

review by John E. Bowen

Authors Kazoun and Lott present a quite credible case for rich, solid Internet applications with sophisticated interfaces for the end user. They do so by introducing, explaining and giving many examples illustrating the Flex approach and making use of the various tools of the Flex framework. A reader coming to Flex (and Adobe) for the first time could be forgiven for thinking that this is a new programming language called Flex 2. There is no such language. Still, a slightly misleading title is a small thing, easily remedied in the first two chapters; paraphrasing, Flex uses ActionScript, so does Flash, but Flex is, or can be, a whole new way of thinking about application development.

This book is a coder's book. It assumes some familiarity with object oriented programming, hopefully via ActionScript from previous Flash experience. There is a chapter devoted to the MXML language and how Flex Builder can help generate interfaces through MXML; however, the authors are clear to point out that very few applications consist solely of MXML and no ActionScript.

There is a brief mention that Flex 2 requires Flash Player 9. Otherwise, one can't use Flex 2; obviously something of importance to teams deciding where and how to actually deploy their application once it's finished. Mostly, though, the book is forward-looking: if you build it with Flex 2, ActionScript 3 and Flash Player 9, they will come.

There is a chapter on ActionScript 3. It includes an honest assessment that if this is the reader's first encounter with ActionScript, an additional book would help. Kazoun and Lott are not shorting the importance of that programming language, but merely saying there are many more pieces involved in the whole process. In this sense, while fairly thorough for each piece, Programming Flex 2 can be considered an overview. A little attention to the concept of frameworks, user interface screen layout and UI components goes a long way toward helping the developer make sense of the whole alphabet soup of acronyms and buzzwords. Once that is addressed, the next roughly two thirds of the book deal with advanced topics.

What are advanced topics? A short answer would be the kinds of features one does not normally see in Web pages: easy access to audio, video, other media; effects such as gradients, fades, transitions; dynamic changes to CSS; live update of data; validation of client-side data, and more. Many of these are the kinds of things users have come to expect (demand?) from Flash-enabled sites; others help more with the back end, and with the stability and maintenance of the application.

All in all, this effort is informative introduction and guide to a quite possibly daunting set of technologies. Recommended.

Programming Flex 2: The comprehensive guide to creating rich media applications with Adobe Flex

(Programming) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Chafic Kazoun (Author), Joey Lott (Author)

Paperback: 502 pages
Publisher: Adobe Dev Library (April 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 059652689X

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596526894/index.html

Action Script 3.0 Cookbook Book Review

2007-10-26T11:10:16Z

The book "Action Script 3.0 Cookbook" is laid out in an easy to use, logical manner. The chapters are an outline of the large divisions of Action Script 3.0.

Not surprisingly this is similar to the divisions in earlier versions of Action script. The book chapters are laid out with the problem in a quick sentence and the solution immediately following. After the solution is a discussion of what variations of the solution can be used to solve different types of the same problem and problems that you may run into.

An example is working with an array. Look at Chapter 5 as it is the chapter about arrays. It starts with an introduction to arrays and then lists the problems you may encounter. The first is "Adding Elements To An Array." The solution follows the problem description and tells how to enter an element using the push and unshift methods to add elements to the beginning or end of the array. The discussion explains when to use the methods and why they should be used. It also talks about some of the unforeseen problems that happen when the code is not used properly.

All chapters are laid out in the same way. The book is easy to use when looking for information in one of those frustrating times you wrote a piece of code that did not do exactly what you wanted. This usually happens when a deadline is fast approaching and the solution just eludes you.

The index is also laid out like a cookbook, so when you need to mix in X and Y coordinates when placing an object, just look up X or Y coordinate. If you run into one of those problems mentioned above you can look up the problem in the index, it just might be listed there also.

Title: ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook
Subtitle: Solutions for Flash Platform and Flex Application Developers
First Edition: October 2006
Series: Adobe Developer Library
ISBN 10: 0-596-52695-4
ISBN 13: 9780596526955
Pages: 586

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/actscpt3ckbk/index.html

AS3 Design Patterns Review

2007-10-11T06:10:18Z

AS3 Design Patterns is a must read and keep for reference!

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns starts off going over the basics of OOP and comparing AS3 to AS2. The rest of the book is Design Patterns to use in various coding situations. Many books use conceptual ideas to teach and are filled with ambiguity therefore leaving much to be desired, but not this one!

ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns is a must have for the novice all the way to the advanced developer, although not designed for the beginning Actionscripter. To clarify, the book does require, at minimum, basic knowledge of OOP which includes, but is not limited to packages, variables, classes and inheritance. I purchased Essential ActionScript 3.0 by Colin Moock which is a great starting point to learn AS3 . I definitely recommend reading a beginners AS3 book before starting this one if completely new to OOP. Make sure to pickup ActionScript 3.0 Design Patterns as well.

Andrew Maurer

Paperback: 530 pages

Publisher: Adobe Dev Library (July 16, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0596528469

ISBN-13: 978-0596528461

Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596528461/

email stevef at occfug.org to get the discount code for the 35% off discount code

October 18th Meeting

2007-10-11T05:10:57Z

Ray Camden will be presenting via Adobe Connect on am intro to using SPRY with CF join us for all the fun.

This month we'll have plenty of surprises, and backhanded prizes. The lucky winner will have to write a review to recieve a "FREE" copy of Adobe's Flex Builder 2.0!

As a reminder, for the November 15th we're raffling an Adobe Software bundle, you must be present to win. Comming to the October meeting earns you raffle tickets.

See you next week

The connect meeting space will open about 6PM PST

Connect URL http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/r55725677/

Next meeting September 20th

2007-09-13T09:09:50Z

Ryan Favro of New Media Team has volunteered to do a Live Adobe Connect Presentaion for our group. Ryan is the lead systems architect and managing partner at New Media Team Inc. and has several articles in the ColdFusion Developers Center on Adobe.com

I'll post the link to the meeting room shortly.

The final details of the next meeting are being worked out now. Please check back soon.

All are welcome.

November 15th Meeting

2007-09-13T09:09:35Z

Webassit will be joining us via Adobe connect to demonstrate thier Dreamweaver Extentions, specificly "Eric Meyer's CSS Sculptor" One lucky member will walk away with this powerful tool. All the rest can take advantage of our user group discount of 20% off. by following the link on our sponsors page.

CF 8 is great

2007-09-13T08:09:49Z

CF 8 Is Great