March 2007 Web Log Entries
Javascript Will Assign And Test A Variable In The Same Statement
Posted: March 31, 2007 at 6:51 PM by Ben Nadel
I just came across this really awesome Javascript "shorthand". It's always great to feel like you know a language very well and then come across something totally new. Usually, when I write Javascript, I am used to assigning variable values and then checking to see if they exists before I use them: // Get the page header. var objHeader = docum... read more »
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Should I Buy New CS3 Books? Or Used CS2 Books?
Posted: March 30, 2007 at 5:50 PM by Ben Nadel
Now that I am all pumped up to start learning the Adobe Creative Suite 3 products, the question becomes: Do I wait for CS3 books to come out and learn the new products from the new books? Or do I get cheap, roughed up, used CS2 books and start getting a primer for Creative Suite line in general. As I type that it makes even less sense :) I guess... read more »
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Using Session Timeout And CreateTimeSpan() - Subtle Caveat
Posted: March 30, 2007 at 2:18 PM by Ben Nadel
CreateTimeSpan() is a really easy way to create timeouts for both your Application and your user Sessions. It takes days, hours, minutes, and seconds and returns the numeric representation of that time span. I am sure most of you, if not all of you, are using this in your CFApplication tags or Application.cfc ColdFusion components. CreateTimeSpan... read more »
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Nylon Technology Presentation: ColdFusion Query Object Primer
Posted: March 30, 2007 at 8:52 AM by Ben Nadel
Here at Nylon Technology we have bi-weekly staff meetings where one of us gives a presentation on some sort of technology. I have gone a bunch of times and it is a lot of fun (although, with no projector or computer it's hard to come up with acceptable topics to talk about). This morning, I am going to give a primer on the ColdFusion query object.... read more »
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Passing A Variable Number Of "Nameless" Arguments Using CFInvoke And ArgumentCollection
Posted: March 30, 2007 at 8:39 AM by Ben Nadel
I have been trying to figure out how to send a variable, logic-based selection of arguments as unnamed values to a function. My original thought was to use ColdFusion's CFInvoke and CFInvokeArgument, but CFInvokeArgument requires a name attribute (which is what I was trying to avoid). I couldn't just call the function using function notation (ex. ... read more »
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Lenny And Bo, ColdFusion Programmers (Vol. 3)
Posted: March 30, 2007 at 7:38 AM by Ben Nadel
Hey Bo, if the future of all man-kind depended on it, who would you rather sleep with - Ben Forta or Ray Camden? I'd rather sleep with your wife. WHAT?!?!?!?! I didn't say anything. ... read more »
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Mastering Adobe Creative Suite 3 (How Do I Do That?)
Posted: March 30, 2007 at 7:37 AM by Ben Nadel
I was lucky enough to attend the Adobe Creative Suite 3 release in NYC this week. I have a review coming out soon, so I don't want to say too much here (don't want to step on toes). But, I can say CS3 looks pretty sweet-ass. So the question is, how can I go about mastering these 13 products? How do I have time for that? Ok, maybe not mastering, bu... read more »
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Strange Numericly Named CFInvokeArgument Behavior
Posted: March 29, 2007 at 2:33 PM by Ben Nadel
A while back, I was talking about Sean Corfield and closures and I had asked him how to send an unknown number of "nameless" arguments to a function. He had suggested just sending them over named, but using the argument index as their name. I thought this was a brilliant idea and tested. It works great, but in the middle of testing, I had a type... read more »
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Ask Ben: ColdFusion Variable Caching And How To Use It (Simple Demo)
Posted: March 28, 2007 at 6:58 PM by Ben Nadel
There is no particular question here. I have been asked about variable caching in ColdFusion and I felt a demo would explain what a back-and-forth email conversation could not. This is a demonstration of very simple variable caching in a small ColdFusion application. Here, we are caching a value (a Struct in this case) in the APPLICATION scope. We... read more »
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How My ColdFusion Code Snippet Color Coding Works
Posted: March 28, 2007 at 2:26 PM by Ben Nadel
I have been through about 5 iterations of trying to get my color coding to work. It has been complicated because I output my code using unordered lists (UL) which I just feel is the right way to do it. It gives you excellent control over line spacing, wrapping, and just formatting in general... formatting other than color coding of course. Color c... read more »
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Edit.com Partners With cPanel To Provide Web Maintenance Services
Posted: March 28, 2007 at 12:08 PM by Ben Nadel
My sister company Edit.com just partnered with cPanel to provide all cPanel customers with web site maintenance services. This is a HUGE step for them. Congratulations to Steve Grushcow, Dave Ries, and all the hard working people over at Edit.com! Press release from http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/3/emw514340.htm . White Haven, PA ... read more »
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WooHoo! My Code Coloring Finally Works!
Posted: March 28, 2007 at 9:40 AM by Ben Nadel
For months and months (on and off) I have been trying to color code my code snippets. It's been very hard for several reasons: I use UL to display my code (not PRE tags or TEXTAREA tags). This gives me superior control of indenting and code exportation. I CANNOT stand it when people use four spaces to "tab" in their code. (breathe, breathe, let ... read more »
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What If ColdFusion Looked Like jQuery
Posted: March 28, 2007 at 7:40 AM by Ben Nadel
I am a Huge fan of jQuery. I love the method chaining and the ability to apply methods to each element in a jQuery collection object. I was wondering if I would want ColdFusion to be able to do that. When I started to experiment, I realized that ColdFusion has two limitations that stop it from being like jQuery: The biggest limitation is simply ... read more »
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Lenny And Bo, ColdFusion Programmers (Vol. 2)
Posted: March 27, 2007 at 7:44 AM by Ben Nadel
Hey Lenny, how long has your wife been slutting it up? Over a year! Man, that's a long time! That's about how long it's take to build one mediocre PHP project. Year, or eight sweet-ass ColdFusion apps! Ok, they can't all be funny :) Still trying to find my groove. ... read more »
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My ColdFusion Weekly Podcast CFQuiz Answer
Posted: March 26, 2007 at 2:08 PM by Ben Nadel
Unfortunately, I did not win in the ColdFusion weekly podcast (congratulations Dan Vega), but I think I had a cool answer that ya'll might be interested in seeing. Here is their question (as taken from the ColdFusion weekly website): Programming exercise! In CF (obviously) write a script that loops from 1 to 100 and outputs the numbers. When a ... read more »
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