Brian Swartzfager

Recent Blog Comments By Brian Swartzfager

• Using XSLT And ColdFusion's XMLTransform() To Keep Data And Formatting Separate

  Posted on Jan 12, 2009 at 4:36 PM

  Interesting idea, Ben. I can see how you could use this to make code alterations to multiple XHTML pages within a website in situations where changing site-wide stylesheets isn't sufficient. It's sort of like page templating after the fact. :)... read more »

• Project HUGE: Active Release Technique (ART) With Dr. Christopher Anselmi In NYC

  Posted on Dec 30, 2008 at 12:08 AM

  Sounds like that was a very successful doctor's visit. Hope the technique continues to prove effective.... read more »

• Hal Helms On Object Oriented Programming - Day Two

  Posted on Oct 22, 2008 at 8:20 AM

  Glad to see you're getting a lot out of this class, Ben. I would agree that the question ""Do I ever want to use this object in another application?" is an important one in determining how much thought and effort you need to put into an object: designing an object (or even a chunk of procedural co... read more »

• OOPhoto - Unique Coupling Of A Controller To A View

  Posted on Aug 25, 2008 at 1:18 PM

  @Ben: I see your point. What you described reminded me of a post on Peter Bell's blog where he was wrestling with a similar problem: how to handle metadata about an object that was more view-specific. You and I (more you) actually both commented on that one: http://www.pbell.com/index.cfm/2008/... read more »

• OOPhoto - Unique Coupling Of A Controller To A View

  Posted on Aug 22, 2008 at 3:00 PM

  @Ben: Your understanding of the use of exit fuseaction variables (xfa variables) in Fusebox is spot-on. It's another way of letting the Controller determine what goes where, since it controls where the hyperlinks and the form action(s) on a page point to. And yes, my hangup was about the Controll... read more »

• OOPhoto - Unique Coupling Of A Controller To A View

  Posted on Aug 22, 2008 at 2:03 PM

  @Andrew: Actually, in my most recent projects, I've been using a Feedback object in my apps. My Feedback object is essentially a bean stored in the session scope that I can populate with an array of error messages to display to the user (or simply a message denoting a successful transaction). O... read more »

• OOPhoto - Unique Coupling Of A Controller To A View

  Posted on Aug 22, 2008 at 11:40 AM

  Maybe I'm still woozy from banging my head against a wall all morning, but the idea of having the controller itself contain code to translate the error messages seems strange to me. Having the controller determine if there are any errors, and if so hand off the error data to another action/object f... read more »

• A New Wrist Pain

  Posted on Aug 18, 2008 at 2:57 PM

  @Jason: I don't think you're being a jerk either. I think the point I'm trying to make is that there is a difference between a technique that current medical technology cannot completely prove or disprove at this point (acupuncture), and a belief that ascribes power over people's lives to inanimate... read more »

• A New Wrist Pain

  Posted on Aug 18, 2008 at 2:30 PM

  @Ben: Yikes--two bum knees and one bum wrist don't leave you many options...except maybe one-armed push-ups. @Jason: The problem with ascribing any and all relief supposedly gained from acupuncture to a placebo effect is that acupuncture seems to provide relief to animals as well as humans: try co... read more »

• A New Wrist Pain

  Posted on Aug 18, 2008 at 11:04 AM

  Not being able to keep up your workout routine sucks. I would have thought that swimming was a safe option for someone with a wrist injury: guess not. I'm guessing you're not into running/jogging (which shouldn't require any wrist activity). Maybe cycling?... read more »

• Extending Encrypted ColdFusion Application.cfm Functionality

  Posted on Aug 15, 2008 at 2:55 PM

  I'm curious: if you're allowed to say, why do they want their eCommerce site shut down on certain days? Most online vendors tremble at the thought of their ordering system being down for even an hour or two, lest they miss a sale.... read more »

• OOPhoto - More Thoughts On Data Validation In Object Oriented ColdFusion Programming

  Posted on Aug 12, 2008 at 2:40 PM

  My validation singleton has about a dozen or so validation functions. Most just accept the data as the lone argument (isNotEmpty, isInteger, isNumeric, isPositive, isNegative, isDate, etc) while a few take additional parameters (hasRightLength, isInRange). All of them return either true or false: ... read more »

• OOPhoto - More Thoughts On Data Validation In Object Oriented ColdFusion Programming

  Posted on Aug 12, 2008 at 2:01 PM

  While I'm not doing OOP in my applications, the pages I use to process data from forms (akin to your "action" pages) call functions within a Validation singleton object for doing generic validations like the ones you mentioned at the top of the post (checking data type, checking length, etc.). Any ... read more »

• OOPhoto - Modeling The Domain In Steps (Round I)

  Posted on Jul 11, 2008 at 10:56 AM

  I just meant that I understood why you felt odd about the idea of passing a sort value along with the Photo object to your Service.commit() function (rather than having that sort value somewhere in the Photo object already). It certainly seems to me that that method would work and I can't think o... read more »

• OOPhoto - Modeling The Domain In Steps (Round I)

  Posted on Jul 11, 2008 at 10:05 AM

  I'm not an OO programmer either, so I'm just guessing as to the best approach. If the idea is to think of objects as "sets of behaviors" rather than "sets of data", then the Sort aspect wouldn't be part of the Photo object because the Photo can't sort itself: the Photo has no sorting behavior. So... read more »

• OOPhoto - Modeling The Domain In Steps (Round I)

  Posted on Jul 10, 2008 at 12:58 PM

  Regarding the question early in the post about leaving any kind of "sort column" out of the photo object model, it seems right to me that you should leave it out as you're currently planning. That piece of data would only come into play when dealing with multiple objects, whether you're just return... read more »

• OOPhoto Prototype - Understanding The Interface Before Defining The Domain Model

  Posted on Jul 7, 2008 at 10:53 AM

  Yep, that would have been the easiest way to do it. And by leaving it for the next version, you'll get to see how doing things in OO helps with refactoring.... read more »

• OOPhoto Prototype - Understanding The Interface Before Defining The Domain Model

  Posted on Jul 7, 2008 at 10:10 AM

  Looks good, Ben. I am sorry to hear that the drag-and-drop tool is no longer part of the first version (though I completely understand why). Having messed around with sorting/rearranging items in a number of different situations, I was curious to see how you'd approach it.... read more »

• Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Starring Harrison Ford

  Posted on Jun 10, 2008 at 10:06 AM

  @Jamie: I'd argue with you a bit on that one, as the post and the comments started off with spoiler-free/spoiler-light reviews of the movie. But it's all good. I'll just cover my virtual eyes and unsubscribe before I hear more.... read more »

• Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Starring Harrison Ford

  Posted on Jun 10, 2008 at 9:50 AM

  Hey, guys, how about a "spoiler alert" warning before you give away parts of the outcome. Sheesh! :)... read more »