The Fresh Face Of The New York ColdFusion User Group (NYCFUG)
I love the NYCFUG. In the 3 or 4 years that I've been a member, I've had flawless attendance. I've never missed an opportunity to get together with my fellow ColdFusion enthusiasts, share ideas, solve problems, and have a CFExciting time! It's been great; but, as much as I love it, I dare to dream that it can be even better. I think 2008 holds a lot of potential for the group, and I don't just want to wait and see that happen, I want to make that happen.
In an attempt to push forward towards our full CFUG potential, Clark Valberg and I have asked to manage the group. Judith and Michael Dinowitz, who have founded and run the NYCFUG for over 10 years, have done a great job and they deserve a break. That is why, starting this January of the new year, 2008, myself and Clark will be the new manager and co-manager of the New York ColdFusion User Group. We've got a lot of great plans in place to revitalize the meetings and inject some real energy up in this place; and, to kick it all off, we've given the New York ColdFusion User Group web site a total body makeover.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, without anymore delay, I'd like to introduce you to the brand-spanking-new NYCFUG.com site (www.nycfug.com):
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[ wait for applause to subside ]
Located at the new url (www.nycfug.COM), we vow to make this site a true reflection of the New York ColdFusion experience complete with up-to-date presentation information, past meeting resources, speaker bios, local job opportunities, and as many member bios as we can get our hands on. We want the New York CColdFusionUser Group to be more than just a monthly technology meeting; we want the NYCFUG to be a huge part of the New York ColdFusion community.
Are you beginning to see the posibilities?
To help get this party started, Adam Lehman (Adobe Platform Evangelist for Adobe Systems Inc.) is going to come down on January 17th to speak about the future of ColdFusion. Pretty exciting; a new year, a new group outlook, the very future of ColdFusion (and our careers) being discussed - the little hairs on my neck stand up just thinking about it.
So please, take a quick look at www.nycfug.com and RSVP for the upcoming meeting. We'd love to get a great turnout for our first meeting of 2008. We'd also love to get your feedback. If you have a minute, contact us and let us know what kind of features or changes you'd like to see in the upcoming year. Your honest input is hugely appreciated.
See you there!
Note: While the next meeting is January 17th, our normal meeting time will still be the second Tuesday of every month.
Reader Comments
Looking good; I'll see you Thursday.
Dmitriy
Great job!!! Can't wait to start attending meetings when I'm back in town. So, you gonna have any kinky meetings?!
@Peter,
I like to bring a little kinky to everything I do :)
@Dmitriy,
Thanks man, see you there.
Great site!
As I had posted on Peter's blog Ben very well done! The design looks amazing! I will be in attendance on the 17th. See you there next Thursday!
@Javier,
Thanks dude. Looking forward to making your first NYCFUG experience a top quality one.
Awesome! Congrats and good luck!
Site looks really great Ben...who did the design?
@Andy,
Thanks a lot. I designed and build the site in collaboration with Clark Valberg, but got some "tab" inspiration from TemplateMonster.com screen shots.
The credit for the site is due 100% to Ben. He conceived and executed the slick design, coded the great XHTML/CSS, and developed some very nifty code to give us those clean search engine friendly URLs. A programmer with a great eye for design -- that Ben Nadel is truly a "triple threat".
Thank you, thank you.
It was actually a lot of fun to build. The SEO urls are built mostly on top of the OnMissingTemplate() handler in ColdFusion 8. I hope to parle this site build into a FAQu article, or to a sweet-ass blog post depending on if I get any takers for it.
Sweet looking site? Any plans to release code :)
I know there is a Mach-II user group app I need to look at. Is this based on any frameworks or is it all Kinky code? (I need to trademark that )
I'm a taker for the FAQu article or sweet-ass blog post...
Great Job Ben - best of luck with the group, and let me know if I can help in any way - I'm only a quick train ride north.
Cheers,
Davo
Awesome new version of the site, Ben! I have been working on the Cleveland CFUG site design off and on for a few months now (http://www.clevelandcfug.org - and what you see at that URL is not it!), and it looks way better than what we have there now, but I'll be hard pressed to beat what you have.
@Jim,
There is no real framework here. Mostly just a front controller with some divide and conquer techniques in place. To be honest, the first release of the site was done extremely fast. We have to go back and clean things up a bit. I am sure once ready, we will have no problem releasing it.... and it's all kinky ;)
@Brian,
I can't wait to see it!
I'd totally be down for an onMissingTemplate tutorial/article. Especially if it was focused on building SES URLs.
I'd also like to hear some discussion on the merits of using CF for SES URLs vs Apache or IIS. Would you say that it's more resource heavy to use CF for this task vs a web server?
Ben,
The MVC frameworks are pretty much front controllers at their basic level. So you could release yours as the KINKY FRAMEWORK! HA!
Tony...that would make MG, MII, FB, and the others very sad. I mean with a Kinky framework out there, no one would use anything else.
Ha ha ha ha :)
As far as what is more intensive to handle the SEO rewriting, I think the difference is minimal. From what I am told, the actual rewrite / regular expressions are going to be faster in IIS since it is using real "hardcore" compiled libraries. However, I don't know how true that is, or if it will ever be noticed.
The key to remember is that it's all ONE page request, no matter how you handle it, so the extra processing we're talking about can never really get out of hand.
I've been to some NYC Rails groups and they are so much more laid back and fun. The CFUGs I have been to are way to formal. Maybe it is the venue, or the format I'm not sure. Beer would be good.
Site looks freaking GREAT!
Ben, the site looks great! Congratulations, and good luck with the CFUG. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting next Thursday.
Andy, you asked for an article on OnMissingTemplate(). Michael covered this in a presentation at NYCFUG a few months ago, but the onMissingTemplate() article in the latest issue of Fusion Authority Quarterly Update is the default documentation you should be using.
Look at the quarterly page for information on the new issue, including a table of contents:
http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly/
Judith Dinowitz
Editor-in-Chief
Fusion Authority and the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update
http://www.fusionauthority.com/
http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly/
Judy,
That new FAQu issue looks downright juicy! When can I expect it in my mailbox??