Recent Web Log Entries By Ben Nadel
Using IIS URL Rewriting And CGI.PATH_INFO With IIS MOD-Rewrite
Posted: November 3, 2009 at 10:45 AM by Ben Nadel
Previously, I explored the concept of using URL rewriting with IIS and IIS MOD-Rewrite in order to make ColdFusion's OnMissingTemplate() event handler more effective . This worked fine with some fenagling, but Justice suggested that I take a look at using PATH_INFO. I've only briefly looked into PATH_INFO before, but one thing that I do like ab... read more »
Comments (2) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
A Moment That Touched Me - The Fountainhead
Posted: November 2, 2009 at 2:02 PM by Ben Nadel
I'm in between audio books right now, so I'm listening to bits and pieces of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. I can't quite articulate why I love the book so much, but I find it to be hugely moving and inspiring. This morning, on the way to work, I listening to a passage that almost moved me to tears. Out of context, it might not have much meaning; bu... read more »
Comments (16) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Using Regular Expressions In Javascript (A General Overview)
Posted: November 2, 2009 at 10:07 AM by Ben Nadel
I love regular expressions; they are the cat's pajamas. I find that hardly a day goes by where I don't use them in some way to solve a problem. But, as much as I love them, there has always been something about using them in Javascript that has felt a bit shaky. I think it's simply that I didn't have a fleshed out understanding of the full breadth... read more »
Comments (10) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Learning ColdFusion 9: Iterating Over Pseudo XML Node Wrappers With CFLoop
Posted: October 31, 2009 at 1:24 PM by Ben Nadel
For several versions of ColdFusion, we have been able to reference groups of XML nodes using pseudo node wrappers and struct and array notation. This has been a useful shorthand when extracting node data from an XML document; but, about two years ago, I found out that these pseudo node wrappers could not be used in conjunction with ColdFusion 8's... read more »
Comments (4) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Building A Fixed-Position Bottom Menu Bar (ala FaceBook)
Posted: October 30, 2009 at 9:10 AM by Ben Nadel
Now that I've explored two ways of creating fixed-position elements across browsers - using IE6 expressions and absolute layouts - I wanted to give a go at creating a fixed-position bottom menu bar, ala FaceBook. The menu bar isn't going to contain much of anything - just a single button and a pop-up menu; mostly, I wanted to see how easily I ... read more »
Comments (10) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Using PushStack() In jQuery Plugins To Create New Collections
Posted: October 29, 2009 at 9:58 AM by Ben Nadel
Most of the time, when creating a plugin in jQuery, I'll leverage built-in functions like filter() and each() to select from or alter the current collection. Plugins that are built in this fashion are auto-wired to have the appropriate stack connections; that is, since jQuery performs non-destructive collection augmentation, when you use a plugin ... read more »
Comments (2) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Caching ColdFusion Component Methods Has Negligible Performance Improvements
Posted: October 28, 2009 at 8:52 AM by Ben Nadel
One thing that I find intriguing about inheritance in Javascript is that it is object-based. Meaning, you inherent from an actual object instance, not from a class. This is known as Prototypal inheritance, sometimes referred as differential inheritance, in which your class contains only that which differs from your prototype object. In this form o... read more »
Comments (17) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
jQuery Powered Mine Sweeper Game
Posted: October 27, 2009 at 10:17 AM by Ben Nadel
While I was on the road going from CFinNC to BFusion / BFLEX, I tinkered around with some jQuery code. I wanted to try and make something fun but not something that would take too much time (since being on the road is exhausting). And so, I created this jQuery powered Mine Sweeper game. Much like the old computer game, you can select the number of... read more »
Comments (21) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
My BFusion / BFLEX Keynote Address
Posted: October 24, 2009 at 2:11 PM by Ben Nadel
I just finished my portion of the BFusion / BFLEX keynote address and got some really great feedback. A few people even asked for a copy of my speech. Here is what I wrote: . . . A few weeks ago, I attended a meeting hosted by the NYCUPA, which is the New York City chapter of the UPA - the Usability Professional's Association. This particular ... read more »
Comments (16) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Using CSS Fixed Position Elements Across Browsers Without Javascript
Posted: October 16, 2009 at 9:34 AM by Ben Nadel
Yesterday, I posted my first experimentation with CSS fixed-position elements and getting them to work across all browsers, including IE6. The solution I demonstrated yesterday involved using proprietary Javascript expressions in the CSS that would be used by IE6; this technique worked pretty well, but caused a jittery effect as the "fixed" posi... read more »
Comments (4) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Using CSS Fixed Position Elements Across Browsers
Posted: October 15, 2009 at 10:08 AM by Ben Nadel
Even after years of web development, one thing that I never really looked into was fixed-position elements. I've seen them used on websites, and I generally like what they do; but, I've simply never taken the time to look into it. So, I figured this morning would be just as good a time as any. If you are not familiar with what a fixed-position ele... read more »
Comments (24) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
jQuery In Action By Bear Bibeault And Yehuda Katz
Posted: October 14, 2009 at 2:42 PM by Ben Nadel
The other night, I finished jQuery In Action by Bear Bibeault and Yehuda Katz . It was a good book, but the distribution of it kind of confused me. I redeemed it electronically from Manning (as an attendee of the jQuery Conference 2009) and then a few days later Manning emails me and tells me that the Second Edition is now available for downl... read more »
Comments (15) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
THIS, Function Context, And Object Literals In Javascript
Posted: October 13, 2009 at 8:42 AM by Ben Nadel
In Javascript, the "this" keyword points to the context of the currently executing function. Previously, I had thought that "this" would only work at the object level (treat the object as the context) if the given object was created using the "new" operator. Last night, while finishing up jQuery In Action , I found out that this is not true. A fu... read more »
Comments (4) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
jQuery Plugin: From - Filtering A Collection Based On Ancestors
Posted: October 12, 2009 at 9:07 PM by Ben Nadel
I was playing around with a customized version of jQuery's live() method when it occurred to me that being able to filter a given jQuery collection based on a set of potential ancestors might make a useful plugin. And so, I came up with the from() plugin. From() takes a collection target ancestors and filters the existing stack down to only those ... read more »
Comments (6) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Building Single-Page Applications Using jQuery And ColdFusion With Ben Nadel (Video Presentation)
Posted: October 9, 2009 at 2:41 PM by Ben Nadel
The following video and slide show is my presentation: Building Single-Page Applications With jQuery and ColdFusion . Building a single-page application is a radical shift from the request-response lifecycle that many of us are used to. Not only does it require an excellent Javascript abstraction layer like jQuery, it necessitates a more co... read more »
Comments (23) | Post Comment | Ask Ben | Permalink
Previously Posted
Passing A Function To jQuery's Attr() Method For Implicit Iteration - Posted Oct 7, 2009
jQuery's Closest() Method Returns Only One Ancestor - Posted Oct 6, 2009
Viewing jQuery DOM Event Bindings With FireBug - Posted Oct 5, 2009
Adobe Officially Releases ColdFusion 9 - The Newest, Most Powerful ColdFusion Server (Saucy) - Posted Oct 5, 2009
jQuery's is() Method Checks For Any Matching Elements - Posted Oct 1, 2009
Using Javascript's IN Operator To Test For Object Property Existence - Posted Oct 1, 2009
Parsing Invalid HTML Into XML Using ColdFusion, Groovy, And TagSoup - Posted Sep 30, 2009
Thoroughly Document Your Use Of ColdFusion's CFHTMLHead Tag - Posted Sep 29, 2009
Default To The Numeric, Email, And URL Keyboards On The iPhone - Posted Sep 29, 2009
jQuery's Filter() Method Can Take A Callback Function For Advanced Filtering - Posted Sep 25, 2009
jQuery's Passes Itself As An Argument To The "Ready" Event Callback - Posted Sep 24, 2009
Ask Ben: Displaying A Blog Teaser (Showing The First N Words) - Posted Sep 23, 2009
Ask Ben: Parsing Nested Lists With A Single Delimiter In ColdFusion - Posted Sep 22, 2009
Ask Ben: Excluding Script Tag Content From The jQuery .text() Method - Posted Sep 22, 2009
Ask Ben: Creating ColdFusion Templates On The Fly - Posted Sep 21, 2009
Groovy Operator Overloading Does Not Work In The ColdFusion Context - Posted Sep 18, 2009
jQuery Enlightenment By Cody Lindley - Posted Sep 18, 2009
Instantiating Groovy Classes In The ColdFusion Context - Posted Sep 17, 2009
Returning An Array From jQuery's Map() Utility Function - Posted Sep 16, 2009
jQuery Plugin: Tracing Your Selector Paths - Posted Sep 15, 2009
String Data Type Gotcha When Using CFGroovy - Posted Sep 14, 2009
Ask Ben: Updating Columns In An Existing ColdFusion Query Object - Posted Sep 14, 2009
Running UPDATE And DELETE SQL Statements Using ColdFusion Query Of Queries - Posted Sep 12, 2009
Maintaining ColdFusion Sessions Across SMS Text Message Requests Without Cookies - Posted Sep 10, 2009
Using Contextual SMS Short Code Messages With TextMarks And ColdFusion - Posted Sep 10, 2009
Using SMS Short Codes And TextMarks To Send Text Messages With ColdFusion - Posted Sep 9, 2009
Simon Free Launches "Win A CF Dude" Contest - Watch The Video - Posted Sep 9, 2009
How Much Should Our ColdFusion Applications Actually Know About ORM? - Posted Sep 8, 2009
Using IIS URL Rewriting And Application.cfc's OnMissingTemplate() Event Handler - Posted Sep 8, 2009
Ask Ben: Creating A PDF And Attaching It To An Email Using ColdFusion - Posted Sep 4, 2009
RewriteCond Directives Evaluated After RewriteRule Directives In URL Rewriting - Posted Sep 4, 2009
Understanding The IIS Mod-Rewrite Server Variables - Posted Sep 3, 2009
Understanding The IIS Mod-Rewrite Log File And Work Flow - Posted Sep 3, 2009
Exploring IIS Mod-Rewrite For Rewriting URLs In A ColdFusion Application - Posted Sep 1, 2009
Ask Ben: Extracting And Resizing A ZIP Archive Full Of Images With Coldfusion - Posted Aug 31, 2009
ColdFusion's OnMissingTemplate() Event Handler Works With CFC Requests - Posted Aug 28, 2009
Ask Ben: Keeping Close Track Of Who Is Currently Online - Posted Aug 27, 2009
Ask Ben: Getting The Domain Name From The Referer URL - Posted Aug 26, 2009
Learning ColdFusion 9: Understand ORM Events (Thanks John Whish!) - Posted Aug 25, 2009
Learning ColdFusion 9: Trying To Understand ORM Event Handling - Posted Aug 24, 2009
