Category Archives: ColdFusion

Nimer’s Out?!

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Wow, just caught this on “the wire” (I think I should refer to MXNA as the wire from now on. No? okay.) – Mike Nimer is leaving Adobe to join up with Jeff Tapper and form their own consulting company. Wow, what a coup for Jeff. I’ve always been a big Mike Nimer fan, though I never got a chance to talk to him at length. I always thought he brought a lot of energy and vision to the CF team. When it came to Flex/CF integration I thought of him as someone who could be an ambassador for what should end up being a great pair of technologies. I even picked him as the CF team member I would host at my house.

I realize he’ll still be able to do that through his consulting work, and I wish him the best of luck. However its a bummer to see him go, especially at such a crucial stage in the life of CF. I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of things you and Jeff cook up though Mike, so keep us all posted!

[tags]ColdFusion, Adobe, Mike Nimer, Flex[/tags]

The New York Times on Adobe and Tariq’s CF8 Survey Results

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Two things I wanted to highlight while you’re reading the news before going out for the night ;) . The first is a New York Times article on Adobe which I found via The FlashCanon. The big thing that jumped out of me was that Bruce avoided answering the question about how customers are taking to Flash content on Verizon phones. I know he has to do the CEO dance, but this was a warning flag to me. Another thing that I noticed was when asked: “What do you mean by “Adobe is everywhere you look?” his response is as follows:

The fonts in daily newspapers may have been created with Adobe Type. The layouts in magazines are likely to have been made with Adobe InDesign. The graphics on soda cans or water bottles are likely to have been made by Adobe Illustrator or Adobe FreeHand. Adobe software is used in everything from car navigation systems to electronic I.R.S. tax forms.

The only old Macromedia product to get a mention was FreeHand? Really? I thought that was odd.

The second is Tariq’s CF8 survey result post. Tariq ran a CF8 wish list survey and got 317 responses from the community. It seems that the clamoring of the loudest people in the community (the bloggers) doesn’t necessarily fit with what other people want to see. I think this shows everyone needs to step back and evaluate what features make CF8 best for EVERYONE, not just the people who want to see CF move in a more “Javerly” direction.

[tags]Adobe, Bruce Chizen, New York Times, ColdFusion[/tags]

ColdFusion and Microsoft Exchange – One Step Away from a Flex Outlook?

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Over the weekend Terry Ryan posted instructions and source code for integrating ColdFusion and Exchange. With the code you can create contacts and appointments directly from ColdFusion. There was talk about this being in the next version of ColdFusion, but Terry has the code right now. I’m really excied about what this might mean for Flex developers because now that we have a way to send data to Exchange, it would be relatively simple to create a Flex 2 replacement for the Outlook Web Access. Very cool stuff!

Joe’s Goals – Simple Ajax and ColdFusion

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There has been a lot of buzz around Joe’s Goals which is an elegant, clean, Ajax app written with ColdFusion. The idea is simple: you can track a series of positive or negative goals and then track how you’re doing. You can also share the goals with friends which goes a long way towards keeping on top of them. It’s a great example of ColdFusion and Ajax and I thought some of you might enjoy it.

Yahoo! Gets More Flash, CFPodcast Talks Flex and FlexPodcast.com?

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A couple things today. One, Justin Everett-Church posted that Yahoo! is hiring a slough of Flash Developers. If I understand the post correctly, I assume this may be part of a Flash section under the Yahoo! Developer Network. Their User Interface Library is awesome, and I think an equally high quality Flash library would be amazing.

Second, the ColdFusion podcast guys have a great episode up this week that talks about Flex. I think they’re getting better and better. This was a fun one to listen to because they tackle some important topics and hash out some nice conclusions. They also mentioned that someone they know has registered the domain name “flexpodcast.com”. Whom might that be? David Hassoun perhaps? Seems like the Rocky Mountains are poised to become Adobe podcast central.

Ryan at Adobe Mobile Day and CFUnited

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As you can probably tell from the lack of blogging things have been hectic around here, but hectic means everything is going well, so I can’t complain. There has been a ton of Flash news out there and you can just feel we’re getting closer and closer to a Flex 2 release.

I did want to mention a couple of things. One, I’m going to be at the Adobe Mobile day up here in Seattle on Thursday, so if you’re planning to attend (and if you’re not, you should be), ping me and hopefully we can get a chance to meet up. I’m really looking forward to hearing what the plans for FlashLite are and it looks like it will be an awesome event.

Two, I’m going to CFUnited at the end of June, which I’m pumped about. I need to schedule beers with Jeff but anyone who’s up for grabbing a beer drop me an email. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone I can.

Looking for a ColdFusion Developer – Seattle, WA

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WorldClass Strategy, the company I look for, is looking to fill positions for a ColdFusion developer. We’re looking for a full time developer as well as someone interested in doing some contract work. This is a really fun place to work with a lot of smart people. I’m always going out after work with my coworkers and we also play some pretty intense foosball matches here. We’ve got an awesome office next door to Pike Place Market and are working in a very young, cutting edge industry.

If you’re in the Seattle area or are looking to work in Seattle, send me your resume – ryan@ryanstewart.net. If you have any questions about the job or the company, feel free to ping me over email or IM.

FlexCF.com – ColdFusion and Flex Resource

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Simeon Bateman has put together a wiki for Flex/ColdFusion developers which you can find at FlexCF.com. I think I’ve said it a hundred times, but I really think that CF is going to be the best way to build Flex applications when they release both Mystic and Flex 2. The two technologies make for rapid application deployment and Mystic looks to be an awesome fit for Flex applications. I think FlexCF.com is going to be a major help.

I also noticed that Joe Rinehart hates Flex! And Joe, you’re absolutely right. You shouldn’t have to do that, welcome to the light side. Or should I say the “rich” side.

Learn Flex 2, Market ColdFusion

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The ColdFusion Podcast guys had an absolutely phenomenal episode this week in which they talked about ColdFusion and how it fits into the “new” technologies. I started my programming career on ColdFusion, so I have a soft spot for it, and in the past, I’ve had some of the same thoughts that they do about the marketing of ColdFusion. In fact, I think a lot of people were probably shaking their heads (in a yes motion) during the podcast.

First, I want to take Mike and Bryan to task because they haven’t used Flex 2. I say this to all ColdFusion developers – you absolutely need to try Flex 2. I know you’re busy, I know it’s hard to take personal time to code, but you must run through the Flex 2 tutorials if you are planning to use ColdFusion in the next couple of years. Smarter people than I am are saying this.

Macromedia did a horrible job of promoting ColdFusion, and as the podcast mentions, they should be offering a free version with some limited functionality. It’s easy for me to sit here and say that without looking at the numbers, but there is NO reason why ColdFusion couldn’t be used for some of the Web 2.0 applications coming out. Which brings me to the present – ColdFusion is uniquely positioned to be the best middle-tier solution for Flex 2.

As more and more people adopt Flex 2, if Adobe plays their cards right, those people could easily be turned on to ColdFusion. However it must be VERY affordable and they need to market it closley with Flex 2. And that’s part of the reason that ColdFusion developers need to learn Flex 2. As web applications become more prevelant, you’ll be asked to create them. If you can show them Flex 2, then show them how well ColdFusion works with it, you’ll both promote your skills as well as ColdFusion adoption.