In May of 2008, with very little hands-on Flex experience, the MediFit development team began to fill the business need of integrating Flex into our products. This session will detail the self-training process, the obstacles, pitfalls and success of integrating Flex into core products aimed at a corporate client market.

This session will look at three applications - Internal, extranet and Customer facing - and their movement from HTML rendered applications to Flash based.

This session is not a code review, but an examination of the business requirements and how the technology met the need. It will also examine the change in "mindset" of the developers, business Analysts, QA team and the end user themselves as we made the change to our products. That being said, the development team will be available for any technical questions that may arise.

As always, we will be serving dinner, so please RSVP.

   Thanks,

            David

• 2-3 times faster than ColdFusion (with debugging turned on!)
  
• Video conversions with the Tag CFVIDEO
• Using virtual file systems
• Open Source
• Amazon EC2 deployment

Jeff Tapper is a Senior Consultant at Digital Primates IT Consulting Group, which focuses on the development of RIAs and empowering clients through mentoring. Jeff has been developing internet-based applications since 1995, for a myriad of clients including Conde Nast, Harley Davidson, Toys R Us, IBM, Dow Jones, American Express and Morgan Stanley. As an Instructor, he is certified to teach all of Adobe's courses on Flex, ColdFusion and Flash development. He has been working with Flex since the earliest alphas of Flex 1, and started his ColdFusion development on CF 1.5. Jeff has written 10 books, among the more recent releases are including "Adobe Flex 3: Training from the Source," and "Breaking out of the Browser with Adobe AIR."

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6cTZnqRIkUynZtdwhkjo3g_3d_3d

Document-driven Applications with ColdFusion & PDF

Using Adobe ColdFusion 8 and PDF you can do much more than just create portable documents—you can manipulate PDFs in a wide variety of ways from extracting and merging to searching metadata and creating thumbnails.  By using with Adobe ColdFusion 8 and PDF forms, you can take application forms offline, plus pre-populate the forms with data and process the submission of those forms.  Using PDF and Adobe ColdFusion 8's ability to print from the server, you have access to a whole new world of opportunities:  automated printing of things like pick slips and reports and even server-side faxing.  Join us for this presentation as we investigate all of these capabilities and more.

• ColdFusion 8 upgrade - recently performed by the MediFit team.
• First CF supported iPhone web application

http://adobe.com/go/2008_developer_week

I hope you enjoy it – these promise to be some high quality presentations, so if you can’t make it to CFUnited or MAX, you should try catch some of these.

             Cheers,

                         David

First of all, thank you, all, for making this a very successful year for the group. We’ve increased membership, attracted some great speakers, and had a great turnout at the Scorpio event. Our November meeting was the last for 2007, so what lies ahead?

2008 is going to be a big year in our technology space. We’re expecting full releases of Flex 3 and AIR, and work has already begun on ColdFusion 9. 

How do we top 2008? Well, that begins with getting the right presenters, and the topics that you want to hear. I’m working on a survey that will get your opinions on this, and then I hope to reach out to potential speakers to fill the needs.

Some other goals and ideas I’d like to see us work into our 2008 agenda:

1)       A Codejam to aid a local charitable organization

a.       Lots to be worked out here

2)       Success stories / Show-and-tell

a.       Got something to show off? If it’s a pet project or something that made you the hero at work – show it off. Maybe you’ve hit a road block and need some ideas from the group?

3)       Spreading the software joy!

a.       I’ll be excluding ex-winners of the Adobe software from the big software raffle – sucks to be you, but we need to spread the love a little (hope you understand). You’ll be eligible to win any other software or goodies we have going.

b.      When I have the agenda set, I’ll be picking two months when the software will be raffled, but it’ll be a secret – so don’t miss your chance to win big!

c.       Merit system for the tickets – bonuses for regular attendance, presenting, bringing new members, etc.

 Some things that were brought up at the meeting:

1)       Flex Camp Boston:

a.       $10 for a full day of Flex presentations? Hard to beat that!

b.      http://www.flexcampboston.com/ to sign up – there will be lots of prizes given away. Details at the site.

c.       There are a few of us signed up already, and our own Jeff Houser will be on the experts’ panel.

d.      Possibly, we can car pool? Email me if you are going and we’ll try arrange something.

2)       A new ColdFusion Community in town

a.       www.ColdFusionCommunity.org

b.      I’ve created a group called cf_connecticut – we’re trying to get as many members from the Hartford group to join as well.

3)       Management update:

a.       I’ll still be the manager in 2008, but I’ll need help. Phil Hayes has generously volunteered (you did volunteer, didn’t you?) to be the co-manager, and help me out with the finer details. Still, if you want to help in any way, please let us know!

That’s it for now, looking forward to a successful 2008.

                        David

Securing ColdFusion servers involves more than just setting an administrator password. From OS and HTTP issues to SQL injection attacks to vulnerabilities in installed software and more, there's a lot to lock down and a lot to keep an eye on.  It's enough to keep you awake at night!

Thankfully, Shlomy Gantz, President of BlueBrick Inc, has been around the security block a few times and he does know security. He doesn't just talk about security risks, but actually demonstrates the risks and how they are exploited, and offers practical guidance on how to address the risks.

With security issues, and customer data becoming more front and center these days, we hope you'll join us for what will be a very informative presentation.

As usual,  dinner will be server, so please RSVP for a headcount.

Cheers,

David

July 24th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: ColdFusion all AIR-ed out.

The newest buzz in the technology world is Adobe's Apollo, now named AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), which allows you to take web based applications and deploy them on the Desktop.

Adobe will tell you it's as easy as a push of the button, that web based HTML, AJAX and Flex apps can be deployed to the desktop, and enhanced to access the computers I/O and hardware devices. But how true is that, and what about application languages like ColdFusion?

Boston based Pier, inc. is at the forefront of of this new cutting edge technology, and will be presenting, in-person, their work with AIR.

Also, Eugene Abitang was just at CFUnited, and returns with a bag full of goodies - we'll raffle everything off. Also, considering the high profile of our guests, we'll also be raffling off some very special Adobe swag. "Will there be Adobe Software for raffle David?" Hmmmm, that sounds like a good idea - we'll just have to see!

Please RSVP, as ever we'll need a head count for Pizza.

Presentation Description:

In this presentation we’ll dirty the marketing patina on Flex RIA development with real stories from the trenches. We’ll take a look at the true cost of UX and the many lessons learned in the process of designing, developing, and deploying applications with ColdFusion, Flex, and Adobe AIR.

 We’ll take a brisk walk through the process of converting a traditional HTML application built with ColdFusion into a Flex application that runs in AIR using the same CF backend. In this demonstration, we will discuss CF’s evolving role from that of generating the presentation layer of HTML applications to one more involved in providing data for rich front-ends. This discussion will bring us to some thinking around the further adaptation of CF in the emerging desktop-to-web RIA paradigm.

 Presenting will be Johnny Boursiquot, Lead Developer at PIER Inc. (http://www.pierinc.com). Johnny has 10 years of web development experience and has lead the development of many CF and Flex-based projects for companies as large as HP and Honeywell, to those as small as the Washington D.C.-based non-profit, American Council of Trustees and Alumni. His experience in all dimensions of the RIA process makes him an invaluable asset to the PIER team.

 Joining him for Q&A will be Todd Cullen, RIA Architect at PIER. Todd has been involved in the ColdFusion community for the better part of six years, working on enterprise CF solutions over the past two years utilizing both Flex and AJAX methodologies. He also enjoys long walks through the DOM and extremely bad jokes.

 PIER is a business strategy, interactive design, and technology development consultancy serving changing companies worldwide. Our process consists of distilling our client's most complex challenges into a singular vision, and executing that vision with pioneering design and development solutions. Pier architects complex web-based systems, while hiding that complexity behind intuitive, affecting user interfaces.

June 12th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Creating Flex Components

There's not doubt about it - there's a renaissance in Web Development these days, and much of the buzz owes to the advances in technology. Leading the charge in this department are AJAX and Adobe Flex.

Ben Forta introduces Scorpio: ColdFusion MX 8

What a great presentation! Over 2 hours of new ColdFusion goodies, and, apparantly, we didn't cover all the new features that will make it to the production version!

In summary (as if it is possible to do it justice!), Ben said CF 8 will concentrate on 3 major areas:

1. Developer Productivity
2. Technology Integration
3. Administration Enhancements

We all know one of CF's main selling points is the developer productivity, but Adobe found ways to make us more productive! How about these:

• Image manipulation - 50 functions, one tag
• AJAX Support:
      Floating windows, tab layouts, data grids, tree's, date pickers and (finally) a rich text editor - each in one line of code!
• Support for threads
• A debugger, using Eclipse
• Enhanced security features

There have been big gains on the technology integration front, including:

• .Net integration - calling .Net assemblies, using <cfobject>, this feature also converts .Net data types to native CF datatypes for handling in CF code (example: .Net DataTables -> ColdFusion Queries)
• PDF manipulation, using <cfpdf>
• On demand presentations - create Adobe Connect  presentations on the fly - output is a SWF.
• Microsoft Exchange Integration, supporting Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks. How hard is it to connect? Try one line of code!

Not to forget the Administration Enhancements, of course! Ever wondered where the bottlenecks were in your application? What queries are consistently slow? What's the size of a User Session, and just how many people are using your site at any one time? Well, wonder no more! Administrator tools are now available to help. Also, assign security "roles" for the administrator - you can control which login can use what parts of the administrator.

I'd like to thank, once again, Sacred Heart for being such wonderful hosts. The location was great, and the food was...plentyful

Thanks to Ben Forta for adding us to his travel plans - our group is a little out of the way, and it would have been easy to overlook us.

Finally, a great thank you to everyone that turned out to make this a very successful event. Getting such a great turnout will bolster our chances of getting a return visit from Ben for the CF 9 tour!

Cheers,

David

Ben Forta introduces Scorpio: ColdFusion MX 8

May 14, 2007 at
Sacred Heart University
Fairfield, CT

(click to register)

Sandwiches and refreshments will be served from 5:15pm, courtesy of our gracious hosts, the Computer Science department at Sacred Heart.

Any questions, please email me, domalley@medifit.com

The presentation will be located at the William H. Pitt Center (2nd floor). A Map of the Campus is below.

A Note regarding parking:

You have two options regarding parking
1) When you enter through the main entrance, you can make a left and park in the large lot on your left (parking lot "F", below). Continue up the main road past the apartments (Thomas Merton Hall) to the top of the hill. You cannot drive all the way up - there are barriers half way up this road.

2) When you enter through the main entrance, make a right, go through parking lot "B" (see map below), make a left, and a left at the end of the road. At the end of the road, make a right, and proceed to parking at the end of the road (see map below).

(scroll all the way down)

April 10th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Ajax the Microsoft way

Microsoft at an Adobe user group? Truth is, while Adobe and Microsoft compete in certain circles, there are many instances where their technologies overlap. AJAX is one of those.

At this meeting, Peter Laudati will present, in person, new tools from Microsoft to make AJAX development easier, and explain how they can be integrated with ColdFusion.

AJAX is still an emerging technology that has and will continue, to change the way the web works. One of the strengths of AJAX is that it is open, not proprietary. For some, that's also a weakness, as there is no central support for the language. There are many competing frameworks, and approaches to AJAX development, and the technology is still trying to find its feet. One of the major factors in deciding to implement an AJAX solution is deciding of a framework to use.

We're sure Microsoft has something to add to the conversation! We hope you'll join us for what promises to be a very interesting topic.

As always, pizza will be served - so please RSVP.

David

March 20th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Flex Charting

I will be giving a presentation on Flex Charting - it's something I have been working on lately, and I'd like to share my successes and failures!

We will discuss, amongst other things:

Either way, we will be giving away swag! We have apparel, software (the big one), and YES Adobe SIM card backup keyrings are back! I know you've been asking for them since the last giveaway.

As always, pizza will be served - so please RSVP.

I'll send out an email when I have the final topic nailed down.

David

February 20th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Blue Dragon 7.0 Roadshow

First of all, I'd like to thank all that attended the January meeting, and to Hal Helms for presenting via Breeze. Hal was quick to remind us of the difficulties associated with presenting in the balmy South Florida weather - we were not amused! Follow this link to see the presentation.

In May of last year, Josh Adams introduced us to New Atlanta's BlueDragon - a ColdFusion server alternative - that can support both CFML and ASP .NET, yes, side-by-side in the same file. For a brief recap on that presentation, follow this link.

I hear you say..."We already HAVE ColdFusion, why should we consider BlueDragon?". Besides allowing you to support CF and ASP in the same environment, New Atlanta competes with Adobe by offering developer features that are not in ColdFusion.

This month New Atlanta will be rolling out BlueDragon 7.0, and Josh Adams will be back to show us all of the new features in this release.

Last year it was a very successful meeting, and we hope to see you here again. There will be prize give away's, last year we had:

January 9th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Model-View-Controller in ColdFusion

We all know the power of ColdFusion is in its productivity - it handles the mess of backend functionality simply, whether that be database queries (and resulting datasets), XML, PDF's or WebServices. It is a language that is easy to get started with, but leaves plenty of growth to explore, and implement Object Oriented practices.

In this presentation, Hal Helms will talk about the Model-View-Controller software architecture as it’s used in both the Fusebox and Mach-II frameworks.

The question of whether or not to use frameworks is a contentious one. There are those - I must admit I am one of them - that think frameworks are for developers that don't know how to develop. Those that use them, hoewever, are religiously devoted! Why would you adopt a framework? Does it matter which one you choose?

In this meeting, Hal Helms will argue that we could all be more productive, by using established frameworks, such as Fusebox and Mach-II. For my part, I promised Hal that my mind is opened to being changed.

November 14th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: WebCharts3D in ColdFusion 7

When recently upgrading servers from version 6 to version 7 of ColdFusion, Steve Wood came across a little known tool called "WebCharts3D" - that ships with CF7. With some research, he saw that there was a great opportunity to improve the look and feel of the (lets be honest) boring <cfchart's>

Steve will explain what WebCharts3D is, how to install it and how to use it.

The feedback on the new charts has been immediately and overwhelmingly positive. Can it jazz up your site?

We'll have a few Adobe related updates also, so please join us.

Pizza, as usual, will be served - please RSVP.

A word of thanks to all the members - The October meeting marked our one-year anniversary. We're looking forward to many more. While I could use this moment to recap all of the great learning experiences we've all had at the meetings, I found myself thinking more about the goodies we've given out. A rough tally is as follows:

David

October 10th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: ColdFusion Powered AJAX

Our guest speaker this month is Ian Smith, and he will be joining us, via web cast, from sunny Seattle.  Ian is a designer, developer, and the all around nice guy behind the free online goal tracker know as Joe's Goals.

There are two things that you may find interesting about this site:

In attendance:
Jeffry Houser - DotComit
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Erik Cussimano - dataviz.net
Ron Hiner - Soft Stone Group
John Kruysman - Private Client Resources
Vishy Kasinadhuni - Interbev
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Peter DiSalvo - ewish.com
Ed Sullivan - Adobe
Eugene Abitang - MediFit Corporate Services

We'd like to thank Ed Sullivan for making the long trip from Boston - and more to the point, getting too close for comfort to the New Yory state line, for a Bosox fan. Truth be told, I had to tell him we were all Pat's fans, just to get him to come along (please, don't burst his bubble!).

But did he ever deliver the goods! T-shirt's, memento's, and a full copy of Flex Builder 2 were raffled off.

This was our first time doing a hands-on demo/presentation, and, I have to say, it went MUCH better than I thought it would (for the record, I predicted disaster). Hopefully it gave a quick, and practical, introduction to Flex development. The source code is included as attachments in the original meeting posting.

The meeting ended at about 7:15. Thanks to all who attended.

David

September 12th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Hands-on Flex

You want Flex? You got Flex! This session will be a hands-on Flex learning session, to get you started with your Flex development.

Also, direct from Beantown - Ed Sullivan will be joining us. Ed is the overlord demi-god* of all Adobe User Groups, worldwide, and we're delighted to have him attend.

*Please note: Ed was promoted from "overlord" to "demi-god" when he said he'd bring a copy of Flex Builder 2 (w/ charting) to raffle off at the meeting.

What this won't be:

• A glossy sales presentation.
• Something to look at, say "ooh" / "aah" and forget about as soon as you leave the room.
• Over-reaching. There are a lot of cool things you can do with Flex, we'll start with the bread and butter.

What this will be:

• Like we said, "bread and butter".  Reading from a datasource, display and update information.
• A good start. We'll let you unleash the full fury of Flex on your own time.
• Focused, and covering some best practices.

In particular, we'll aim to cover:

•  Basic layout
• Accessing and displaying backend data
• Creating components
• Data binding

What you'll need:

• A laptop, preferably with wireless access
• A demo version of Flex builder installed (http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flex)
• Preferably, a developer version of ColdFusion installed, in case we get time to get more advanced.
• If you don’t have a laptop, we’ll hand out code so you can try this out on your desktop at a later date.

   

No mistake, we don't know it all, and may not be able to answer all your questions, but we'll do what we can., and muddle through it together.

Pizza will be served - please RSVP.

David

Files for tonights presentation:

Demo PDF

MXML Files

In attendance:
Jeffry Houser - DotComit
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Erik Cussimano - dataviz.net
Ron Hiner - Soft Stone Group
John Kruysman - Private Client Resources
Vishy Kasinadhuni - Interbev
Aymii Couzelis - MediFit Corporate Services
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Peter DiSalvo - ewish.com

First of all, we'd like to welcome three new members to the group - Ron, Vishy and John.

Steve Wood, Jeff Houser and Aymii Couzelis attended the CFUnited conference and gave us an update on what they learned.

Steve concentrated on development tracks, and said that the big topics were Flex (and the newly released Flex 2.0) and AJAX integration with CF. Spry is Adobe's solution for CF and AJAX. There is a new quarterly publication - "Fusion Authority", which is an alternative to CFDJ. Click here for bullet points of what Steve learned at CFUnited.

Aymii talked about development methodologies and testing solutions she encountered at the conference. The Agile development methodology preaches shorter development cycles, and iterative, automated testing methods to increase a teams productivity. Many test tools were recommended to assist with this methodology, click here for bullet points of what Aymii learned at CFUnited.

• A desktop application that runs in the background.
• Allows you to take an on-line application off-line
• Allows for synchronization of data when you are back on-line

• Macromedia Central (anyone remember THAT debacle?)

Why would you use it? Primarily for applications such as contact management apps, that need to be available off-line, such as contact management systems. Apollo seems to be a pre-emptive strike on Microsofts WPF, due out with Vista.

The evening was wrapped up with a prize giveaway. T-shirts, caps, gadgets, and software. There was more than enough to go around, and Erik Cussimano  was the lucky winner this time around.

Per our original schedule, way back in the first meeting, we will not be having an August meeting, we will re-convene September 12th.

Thank you,

           David

July 25th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: CFUnited wrap-up

In case you haven't heard, since last months meeting, Flex Builder 2 has been released, along with Version 7.02 of ColdFusion. What are the implications for your business? 

In addition, we will have the following on the slate:

As usual, pizza and refreshments will be served - for obvious security reasons, we will need an RSVP.

Please note: This will be the last meeting of the summer.

David.

In (virtual) Attendance:
  CFugitives user group
  Hartford Adobe user group

Mike Nimer, of the Adobe ColdFusion team, promised to show you how to use free Flex builder plug-in's to make your Flex development experience, rapid Flex development. And did he ever deliver!

Starting from a new installation of Flex Builder (Beta 3), Mike downloaded and installed the plug-in's to do the following:

1) CFC / AS generator: allows creating Actionscript classes from CFC's, and vice versa.

2) The service browser, will allow you to browse the properties of Web Services, and CFC structures.

3) The RDS plug in, allows you to browse your database schema, and guides you through the process of making a complete database driven application, unsing ColdFusion as the server.

The great thing about the latter plug-in, as pointed out by Mike, is that the code that the wizard generates, conforms to the best practices for code design and re-use for ColdFusion and Flex. Simply put, it's a great way to learn Flex - see how the experts would create applications.

When finished with the above code generation wizard, it's available for you to modify as you see fit.

Now, while this Breeze meeting was not recorded, you can get an idea of what was presented at the following link:
http://www.dcooper.org/blog/client/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=362CB2F6-4E22-1671-58C2795D2752DF17 - it's not as "personalized" as Mike's presentation (he went through the entire setup process, and answered our questions).

I'd like to thank Mike for giving up the best part of his evening to give this presentation, and the Hartford folks for joining us. It really is great to see support like this being given to us by the ColdFusion team at Adobe, to help reduce the learning curve with Flex, I think they should be congratulated for taking the initiative in this manner.

June 12th, 6pm
On-line Breeze Presentation
Topic: ColdFusion/FlexBuilder 2 Application Generator Wizard
Meeting URL: http://adobe.breezecentral.com/nimer

So, you've seen the beta's of Flex builder (click here for an example of a Flex application) from Adobe and the things it can do. You see a business value in integrating this technology into your companies web properties. Now comes the hard part - the implementation.

How'd you like to be able to generate complete custom Flex 2 / ColdFusion DB-oriented apps (all code, all tiers) in less than 15 minutes? Now THAT would jump-start your Flex 2 /CF RIA app development, wouldn't it?

In this live Breeze presentation, Mike Nimer will overview the latest release from Adobe Labs - wizard that will allow just that.

About Mike Nimer:
Mike Nimer is a senior engineer on the ColdFusion engineering team, responsible for features such as the Rich Forms in ColdFusion 7 and the Administrator API. Before joining the engineering team, he spent three years working as a senior consultant with Allaire and then Macromedia consulting group, providing on-site assistance to customers with their architecture planning, code reviews, performance tuning, and general fire fighting.

In Attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Erik Cussimano - dataviz.com
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Phil Hayes - Sirius Innovation
Bob Naughton - Sirius Innovation
Aymii Couzelis - MediFit Corporate Services

The new CIO walks in takes a long hard look at the infrastructure and applications deployed in it. It's ColdFusion on J2EE. Mr/Ms CIO gives the usual "good job" speech, and proudly declares "We're moving to .Net" - your jaw hits the ground faster than you can say "re-write". Now what?

First of all, I'd like to say thanks to Josh Adams from "New Atlanta" for making the trip from Atlanta to give a magnificent presentation on the BlueDragon CFML server.

Early on in the presentation, Josh described what BlueDragon is (a CFML parser/server), and why you would want to use it. The distinctions between BlueDragon and Adobe ColdFusion are more than price - there are language enhancements, deployment options and many different product offerings from New Atlanta.  Click here to see the presentation.

Josh went on to describe, specifically, the BlueDragon .Net server. What is that? Essentially, it allows you to run CFML code next to .Net code (C#, ASP) and deploy on a .Net framework (as opposed to J2EE). Why would I want to do that? Well, remember the CIO from the frist paragraph? Without a product like BlueDragon .Net, you will spend as long as it took to create your companies applications, re-writing your companies applications.

Of course, you just might WANT to make the move to .Net, for infrastructure and server management reasons - either way, you have options. Here is the presentation specifically on the BlueDragon .Net product.

BlueDragon is free to download for non-commercial use, and Josh gave plenty of .Net example files, that can be downloaded here. For those of you interested in contacting Josh for more information, here is his v-card.

After the meeting there was a great raffle for New Atlanta shwag, including:

• A full copy of BlueDragon Server JX (won by Steven Wood)
• T-Shirts
• Coffee Travel Mugs
• Lots of miscellaneous stuff - pens, notebooks, etc, etc.

Josh even took us out for drinks afterwards (promoting him from "all round good guy" to "Hero" status). We miss him already!

The meeting ended at about 8pm. The next meeting will be June 13th.

Thank to all who attended.

David.

In Attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Peter DeSilva - eWish.com
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Erik Cussimano - dataviz.com
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services

Since there was no external speaker this month, we concentrated on code review of various applications we are working on in Flex and Ajax. Erik Cussimano gave an update on the group project. Details are as follows:

David O Malley - Demonstrated the use of custom components and data binding in a Flex application (albeit, a golf related Flex application - purely coincidence!).

Jeff Houser demonstrated the use of Flex states, Mystic (the ColdFusion connector) and servers sessions.

Steve Wood displayed an Ajax based (database powered) quick poll, which can be seen at his blog - http://www.ooine.com

Code samples are available upon request.

Erik Cussimano finished with an update on the group project. He is using CFOpen as a project management tool (http://cfopen.org/projects/cfphotoalbum/), and listed a number of areas that will need input:
 - Designing the db schema (Jeff Houser volunteered to take the lead on this)
 - Logins
 - CFCs that provide the data access/web services layer
 - The display interface
 - The admin interface

Erik made the decision that we should make the business logic available via web services, which will allow us all to create front end's in virtually any language (CF, AJAX, Flex, Etc.). Steve and Erik will work together to get hosting sorted out.

There is plenty to go around for all those who want to get involved. If there is a technical skill you want to learn, improve on, or take the lead on, then let Erik or I know about it - be that DB design, CFC's or just getting started in programming. This is a great opportunity to learn what you don't know! We'd like to thank Erik for the hard work he's put into getting this project started.

The meeting was adjorned at about 7:30. The next meeting will be May 9th, when the folks from New Atlanta will be visiting us, to present on Blue Dragon - an alternative CFML web server.

David.

In Attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Peter DeSilva - eWish.com
Vincent Descoust - Big Ideas Productions
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Erik Cussimano - dataviz.com
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Aymii Couzelis - MediFit Corporate Services
Robert Long - Gartner Group

If you were like me, you thought Cascading Style Sheets were simply about managing text on a web site - height, font, style, color. Page design was accomplished by placing large complicated tables all over your page, from top to bottom, to give structure to the page. The design, content and code were one in the same.

If you were like me, you came out of this meeting realizing that you've been doing it wrong all this time!

Steve Wood gave an excellent presentation on effective application of CSS that goes beyond simple text manipulation, and separate content and design from code. In short - no more nested tables to create page structure. 

Click here for a link to the presentation, including some great web sites to reference. I have also added those sites to the Technical Resources page.

Erik Cussimano gave an update on the AJAX conference he went to that week. It appears that many independent companies are taking the lead in providing application frameworks for AJAX, and Erik had some good examples (I will post a sampling to the Technical Resources page ASAP).

The meeting ended at approx 7:30 - the next meeting is scheduled for April 11th, and I'll send out an email to confirm.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

David

March 14th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Breaking Out of HTML Tables: The Intriguing World of CSS

Agenda:
Steven Wood will delve into the world of Cascading Style Sheets, and in particular show us how to remove HTML code and replace it with flexible and re-useable style sheets. 

Also, Erik Cussimano will be attending an AJAX conference in New York on Monday, and will report back what he learns.

Updates:
Recent updates at Adobe Labs will be discussed, including a new "Ajax Bridge" that was released at labs.adobe.com. I also updated the "Technical Resources" page with list of technical resources for Flex.

About Steven Wood:
Steve has been working with ColdFusion for the past 8 years, and very recently became an Advanced Certified ColdFusion Developer. He works full time for MediFit Corporate Services, and is also a Partner at StormCube Technology, an IT consulting company in Stamford, CT. He runs the incredibly popular bog Ooine.com, and manages Anonylog.com and WeddingReports.com.

Dinner will be served - please RSVP so we know who, and how many, to expect.

David O Malley, Group Manager.

In attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Doug Bernstein - Studio Blue Design
Phil Hayes - Sirius Innovation
Bob Naughton - Sirius Innovation
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Erik Cussimano - dataviz.com

By the time this meeting ended, it was plain to see, to all who attended, why Jeff Houser earns the big bucks! Jeff's presentation was very informative, and demonstrated the various ways that CFC's and User Defined Functions can be used in ColdFusion. Jeff will give me his presentation and code for posting ASAP - I'll update this entry when it's avilable.

Erik brought up the idea of getting group projects in various web technologies such as Flex and Ajax going, and Baryy offered data from his site for backend data. I'll be folllowing up with both, and get back to the group with more information about hosting, etc.

A signed copy (by author Ben Forta) of the CF MX7 Web Application Construction Kit was raffled off, and won by Doug. Congratulations, and may it serve you well!

The meeting was adjourned at about 7:30 - Many thanks to everyone who attended.

David

February 21st, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Creating Reusable Components in ColdFusion.

Agenda:
Our very own Jeff Houser will be presenting this month - this it the same presentation that Jeff gets paid millions of dollars to give at ColdFusion conferences all over the world (well, D.C. and Minnesota, and don't quote me on the "millions" part!).

This presentation will look at options in ColdFusion for creating reusable components.  It will talk about CFCs, includes, custom tags, UDFs, and CFCs, examining the benefits and drawbacks of each method.

We'll also talk about the recent survey, which had a great response, and our plans for the rest of the year - this is a chance to make your opinion known.

About Jeffry Houser:
Jeff Houser has been working with computers for over 20 years. He owns a DotComIt, a web consulting company, manages the Hartford Macromedia User Group, and routinely speaks and writes about development issues. You can find out what he's up to by checking his Blog at www.jeffryhouser.com.

More information about Jeff can be found here: http://www.jeffryhouser.com/about.cfm

Dinner will be served - please RSVP so we know who, and how many, to expect.

David O Malley, Group Manager.

In attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Peter DiSalvo - eWish.com
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Doug Bernstein - Studio Blue Design
Aymii Couzelis - MediFit Corporate Services
Diane Schmidt - MediFit Corporate Services
Jeff Vilenski - Gartner Group

 Dinner was served at 6pm and the meeting began shortly afterwards - unfortunately, flu season stopped the attendance of a few regulars - including one of our presenters, but we made do with what we had.  We would like to welcome first timers Doug Bernstein and Diane Schmidt.

To start a few notes:

1) We are now officially an Abode ColdFusion User Group - no news on any changes to the format or support of the user group. It appears that Adobe wants to foster a strong user community like MacroMedia. I'll share news as I get it.

2) for those of you that cannot attend MAX (due to either price or location), CFUnited will be taking place in Washington D.C. from 6/28 - 7/1. Aymii and Steve are attending, and if you register with them by 1/31, I believe everyone gets a 10% discount - Please email Steve Wood or Aymii Couzelis directly if interested. I'm sure some car pooling would even be possible!

3) There is a group survey on Survey Monkey (here is a link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=31711493229). This group will only be a success if it caters to interests of the members, and this survey is the best way to let us know what you are interested in. It's not long, please take a moment to fill it out.

On to the main event!

Jeff Vilenski gave a fabulous presentation (here is a link to his presentation materials) on his battles with implementing a successful content management system, and the impact it had on his development team. A highly informative, and very well presented topic, we would like to thank Jeff for sharing his knowledge and experiences with us.

Unfortunately, due to illness, Phil Hayes was unable to attend, but he did send his presentation (here is a link), and that was the catalyst for a roundtable after Jeff's presentation. Finding an online editor that is both functional and affordable is difficult these days, and Phil did a great job researching the best options out there. His presentation is complete with links to web sites for each editor, and pricing information, if applicable.

 The meeting was adjourned at about 7:30 - Many thanks to everyone who attended.

David

January 17th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT
Topic: Content Management techniques and tools.

In attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
Bob Naughton - Sirius Innovations
Phil Hayes - Sirius Innovations
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Peter D - eWish.com
Erik Cussinamo - dataviz.com
Vincent Descoust - Big Ideas Productions
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services

For the November meeting, I had the honor of presenting a summary of the MacroMedia MAX conference, which I attended in October and the meeting was called to order shortly after 6pm.

MAX is the flagship conference for MacroMedia, and is held annually in North America. Since the new product on show at MAX was the new Flex product line, the presentation followed that lead. Also presented were related technologies, such as Flash and Mobile technology.

The big news is the introduction of a Flex Product Line - No longer a "one product fits all" strategy from MM, Flex will become a developer tool, just like Dreamweaver, and will be available at a relatively affordable "under $1000" (according to the marketing messages).

The ensuing roundtable discussed the new products, currently in Alpha testing and due for release in April 06, and how they can be used in each of our current business models.

As promised, this is a link to the presentation.

After the presentation, was the great MM giveaway! Everything went, from t-shirts to travel optical-mice and Peter won the free version of ColdFusion.

The meeting was adjourned at about 7:15.

My thanks to everyone who attended - it was a full house at the MediFit conference room!

David

November 8th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT

Topic: Macromedia MAX 2005 wrapup.

Let's face it, we're a part of this group becuase MacroMedia products affect us in one way or another. For some of us, we make a living coding on their platform. Some are managers or business owners whose businesses rely on Macromedia products. It's important to keep on top of the latest innovations in the Internet world, and for this group, that starts with MacroMedia products.

MAX is the annual MacroMedia conference where new products are revealed and directions outlined. The conference was held in Anaheim, California from October 16th - 19th. These days, it's tough to get the time and money approved to get to such conferences, so the November meeting will bring the highlights of the MAX conference to you!

Among the topics to be discussed are:

• The Flex product line - when will we ever get to afford this? And what functionality will we have to give up?
• Advances in the Flash platform.
• MacroMedia Labs unveiled.
• Anything new with ColdFusion?
• Mobile devices are still in focus (and there's one big reason why!).

For obvious security and preparation purposes, we do need to have a rough idea of how many people are coming, so please RSVP. We won't hold you to anything if something comes up and you can't make it - likewise, if you come last minute, you won't be turned away.

We will not be having a December meeting, so this is it for the year. We will also discuss next years direction, and topics you want to touch on.

Year End Raffle!

Everyone who's attended so far has been given raffle tickets, and this is when to use them! A sample of the prizes to be raffled off are as follows:

• Macromedia ColdFusion MX (Standard version) - courtesy of MacroMedia.
• T-shirts
• Travel Optical Mouse (many)
• MacroMedia MAX backpack (it even fits a laptop)
• ColdFusion books.
• Mousepads

Bring your tickets from previous meetings - we'll be giving more at this meeting.

October 13th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT

Topic: The Business Implications of Rich Internet Applications.

Click! (Refresh), Click! (Refresh), (Back Button, Back Button) Click! (Refresh). Sound familiar? Ah yes, the trials and tribulations of an average user, making their way through a web site, to get the information they need. Some in the IT world don’t think this user experience is good enough, and they are determined to change it. Are they right?

Rich internet applications promise to merge the best traits of desktop applications with the benefits of the Web. Is this something that can benefit your business? Is it something your business will eventually have to compete with? What are the implementation options? Open source or enterprise? Flash based or Ajax ?

All this and much more will be discussed at the next meeting of the Connecticut ColdFusion User Group. Although ColdFusion is a development language, we welcome business owners and managers to attend.

Pizza and Soda will be severd at 5:45 - Please RSVP so we know how much to order. Contact information can be found on the web site (http://www.cfugitives.com)

Sincerely,

David O Malley, Group Manager.

In attendance:

Jeffry Houser - DotComIt
Steven Wood - MediFit Corporate Services
Bob Naughton - Sirius Innovations
Phil Hayes - Sirius Innovations
David O Malley - MediFit Corporate Services
Vincent Descoust - Big Ideas Productions
Aymii Couzelis - MediFit Corporate Services
Barry Hyman - RealtyView.net

To get things started, merciless attention was paid to the pizza, particularly by the MediFit folks, and the meeting was called to order shrtly after 6pm. We started with introductions, and moved into a presenation by David O Malley outlining the aim and focus of the group (click here for a link to the presentation).

Those in attendance had a wide range of involvement with ColdFusion, from full time developers, to business owners and managers that rely on MacroMedia products to run their business. The feeling is that this is a strength, and as much as possible, we'll try make this a solutions oriented group, that includes more than just tecchies.

A fairly informal discussion began between members, and focused mostly on ColdFusion, and the new integration with Flash, in the form of Flash Forms and Flex. Jeff Houser lent his expertize in this matter, explaining the very real impact of these new technologies (works cited included the Watergate Hotel).

Raffle tickets were handed out - various MacroMedia goodies (including a full copy of ColdFusion) will be raffled off before the end of the year (Click here for more details).

After some quick group photos, the meeting was adjourned at about 7:15. The next meeting will be on October the 11th at 6pm - a notice will be emailed.

Hi all,

Hidden in the welcome message below is a cypher.  The first person to email domalley@cfugitives.com with the correct solution to the cypher will win a most excellent prize (and of course bragging rights) to be awarded at our next meeting.

As the meeting (Oct. 11th) draws closer I will post additional clues here if no one has solved it.

Your Ringleader,

Aymii (acouzelis@cfugitives.com)

CYPHER CLUES:

1.) Check your punctuation!

2.) The first word is: You

******CYPHER BEGINS BELOW THIS LINE (this line is not part of it)******

Welcome to CFUGitives! You are one of our inaugural members.  Our sincerest, utmost thanks.  We are very excited to host this new group.  In order to start things off right here is a bit of information about us.  Norwalk is our home base.  The host team loves to eat pizza – help is always appreciated!  Everyone is encouraged to come with questions, fun facts, interesting problems or anything else you would like to discuss.

RSVPs are encouraged (so we know how much pizza to order) though not necessary.  Come join us.  You are welcome to bring friends, please do!

Here is a general idea of what to expect at our first meeting: Everyone spends a few minutes meeting each other.  Refreshments and pizza all around!  After we are sufficiently full, we will chat about what we all hope to get out of the group.  Anything from meeting times to speakers to products.

Really hope to see you there!
Dave the CFUGitives organizer

Welcome to the Connecticut Cold Fusion User Group.

Based in Norwalk, CT, and serving ColdFusion professionals from New Haven to Westchester and beyond, we are proud to bring you the Connecticut ColdFusion User Group.

Although the stated focus of this group is ColdFusion, we'd like to think of ourselves as "solutions" oriented. So, if that means Breeze, Flash, Flex or even non Macromedia technologies, then we welcome it at this group.

This site is still under some construction, we hope to have a members section up and running pretty soon. The site, like the group, will find its content from members - be it photos, technical resources or speakers at meetings.

The first meeting will be:
September 20th, 6pm
At the offices of MediFit Corporate Services
17 High St. - 3rd Floor, Norwalk, CT

Additional information is in the "Meetings" section of this site. Pizza and soda will be served, please RSVP to domalley@cfugitives.com so we can order accordingly.

p.s., what's with the "fugitive" theme? Well, obviously a play on words, but we plan on making this group as much fun as possible