I spent the weekend of July 28-29, 2001, learning ColdFusion with other programmers at the TeraTech CF2001 Conference. Why, you might ask? To learn some neat CF ideas, talk with my peers, and have fun! We began with a talk on disabled access called 'Cold-Fusion Accessibility and Section 508' by Michael Smith and Jon Brundage. Next up was 'Flash and ColdFusion' by Mike Chambers, using the Flash/SQL component kit .

An intrepid gaggle of geeks braved warm weather and sunny skies to attend the 2001 Macromedia DevCon at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida, October 21-24, 2001. The biggest buzz at this year's gathering was Neo, the code name for the next version of ColdFusion. Completely rewritten in Java and sitting atop JRun, the next version of ColdFusion offers numerous improvements over the current version, and it's even ready for Microsoft's .NET initiative.

Content management is fast becoming the latest buzzword for mid- to large-scale sites. If you've worked on such a site, you can understand why.Just as Web-wide search engines have evolved to match the needs of an ever-expanding user and content base, so have the tools used to create and manage the sites a user can access.

Check in every day for up-to-the-minute news, events, and developments in the ColdFusion industry. Visit www.sys-c on.com/coldfusion and be the first to know what's happening.

So Socrates says, but I think if we were to pick out one trait that novice developers share, it might well be the unwillingness to test code. Why is this? Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I remember when I first began developing applications; after struggling so long to master the obscure syntax and baffling concepts of programming, I managed to get my first application to run. What a heady feeling!

As a collector of all the Web application construction kit books (lovingly known as CFWACK), I figured The Macromedia ColdFusion 5 Web Application Construction Kit would just be a recycled version of previous books - with a dash of new features thrown in. I was wrong. Yes, there's some of the same material (still good information), but much better written, with all new examples. And it's bigger than the previous books - with 39 chapters plus appendixes.

Keeping a development project organized and on point is a common issue that Web designers and application developers alike often struggle with. Managing your development team, their tasks, and the multiple versions of files they're working with are problems that many of us find ourselves scratching our heads over.

Check in every day for up-to-the-minute news, events, and developments in the ColdFusion industry. Visit www.sys-c on.com/coldfusion and be the first to know what's happening.

The U.S. Army used to have a recruiting campaign featuring colorful posters of exotic locales (populated by welcoming people) with large, bold type that said, 'See the world. Join the Army.' I didn't exactly join the Army. Instead I received a personal invitation from Uncle Sam - a command performance of sorts. Back then it was called 'being drafted.'

Some time ago, when Homesite 1.0 was still my editor of choice (yes, that long ago), I had a problem with a client. A small-town newspaper editor wanted a wider audience - the Web.

The CF_Buster is a testing tool designed to help you pass the ColdFusion certification exam from Allaire. It provides simulated exams that are similar to the real computerized ones. You can use CF_Buster to evaluate your ColdFusion skills and identify any areas that you need to improve.

If you have used any content management systems or any of the popular Web-based e-mail portals, you've probably had an opportunity to use something like eWebEditPro. The idea behind this product is to make it easy for anyone to write HTML-enhanced content right on a Web site.

In this issue of CFDJ, the editors are looking at the subject of collaboration and ColdFusion.

Being thrifty, I like to do my own basic car repairs. However, on some of my shade-tree repair jobs, I've run into the problem of not having a specific, but necessary, tool.

This past March Macromedia merged with Allaire. I was very excited to attend the Macromedia User Conference, UCON 2001, to see what was new and exciting in the Web-based software world, particularly as it impacted ColdFusion and its developers.

SQL is the bread-and-butter language of relational databases. Although the language has been standardized (SQL-92 and SQL:99), virtually no vendor's implementation strictly conforms to the standards. Most database products use their own syntax (in joins, for example) and, more important, implement several language extensions.

Let's face it: stocks haven't exactly been the best place to invest this year. As I write this, the Dow has just suffered its worst-ever week, the once-mighty NASDAQ is humbled, and tech investors are running from the reach of the bear, surly and hungry after long years of confinement.

If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all. - Michelangelo

Recently I was asked by another developer to describe my development process. Since I enjoy hearing how other developers approach issues, I thought you might like to hear how one developer approaches the entire development process.

There's a new product on the market for Web system monitoring: Holistix Web Manager 2.0 by Holistix. It provides comprehensive monitoring and detailed reporting for those times when bad things happen to good systems.

Here's a marriage that might actually work out - Macromedia has integrated the data-driven Web site building and management capabilities of Dreamweaver UltraDev with the graphics and animation capabilities of Fireworks.

'If debugging is the art of taking bugs out of programs, programming must be the art of putting them in.' -Anonymous

Let me say it up front: I'm frustrated by the training offered to developers. I'll set a scene; tell me if it sounds familiar.…

It's a common affliction in the emerging Web economy. You need to build and launch your first commercial Web site. Or your current site no longer provides the power or bandwidth capacity needed to meet your e-business requirements.

In just a few years the Web has exploded and now consists of millions of sites. Accompanying this boom are thousands of companies that host these sites. But the technologies behind the sites are still immature and stories like that in Timeline 1 (see below) are not uncommon.

Companies often find themselves forced to look to others to provide professional Web hosting services because of the costs associated with maintaining an on-site Web server. These services are known as Internet presence providers or Web hosts.

So you need a ColdFusion Web host. Typically, your first question would be: 'Who do I choose?' More important, I believe, is the question: 'Why am I choosing?' This statement may not seem relevant until you look at the 'whys' of choosing a ColdFusion Web host.

Thanks to those of you who sent in questions recently. I hope the answers you received from me or other members of the Allaire training team were helpful. For our readers, here are a few of the questions that were submitted.

My troubles all began when my editor heard about the Fusebox FUN conference being held on September 16 in Charlottesville, Virginia. 'You're the perfect person to report on it,' she said convincingly. 'After all, you're already going to be there doing a presentation.'

Design, build, and test version 1 of any Web application in just five days! Wow! That's what coauthor Steve Nelson theorizes can be achieved. The case study that describes the project in which he did this, and the step-by-step instructions to achieve these results, are included in one of the final chapters of Nelson and Girards book, Fusebox: Methodology and Techniques, ColdFusion Edition. The rest of the book describes the Fusebox methodology and related techniques to help you reach this goal.

Sitting in the lounge at Detroit Metro, waiting to board my flight to DC, I began to wonder what to expect at the Allaire Developer Conference. Would I really learn anything? Meet anyone interesting? Actually enjoy myself? After all, this would be my first developer conference of any kind, and all I had to go on were a schedule of events and a few bits of information from Allaire.

From: screwtape@fourthcir cle.hell To: wormwood@e-hell.com April 4, 1997 My dearest W, let me join so many others in congratulating you on your promotion to our new Internet division. I don't pretend to understand such things - I leave such newfangled enterprises to you young devils. In fact, my belated congratulations owe to the fact that I simply could not figure out how to send this e-mail thing. My 'e-mail client' (as Stenchfoot calls it) has such a bewildering set of options (I have yet to understand acronyms such as BCC and SMTP) that I remained for the longest time perplexed by its dizzying choice of buttons and options. 'Who designed this infernal thing?' I asked one day - and was delighted to find that one of our own had provided inspiration for many of the user interfaces in programs today.

Drag-and-drop Web development - it's not a new concept, really. It dates back a few years to the first releases of NetObject's Fusion and Microsoft's FrontPage. It enables developers and designers (and administrative assistants, janitors, and just about anyone else) to drag and drop their way to Web page content quickly and easily - no real Web coding experience necessary.

It's always good when books can supplement or even replace application guides that come with a product. Ben Forta's latest book, Allaire Spectra E-Business Construction Kit, provides an in-depth view into Allaire's newest product, Spectra.

There Goes the E-Neighborhood Browse the Web, or nearly every business or financial publication, and you'll see that e-commerce is no longer just a great idea. It's everywhere. Sales over the Web are in the trillions of dollars. Books (amazon.com), cars (iMotors.com), groceries (HomeGrocer.com) - you name it. Almost anything that retails in a store is on sale now at somebody's Web site. And why not? Doing business over the Web solves many customer- and company-related problems associated with shopping at a store's physical location (inventory, product availability, hours of operation, to list a few). However, challenges remain.

I'm a great believer in modularity of code. Modularity - breaking code into distinct pieces with a well-defined responsibility - is crucial if large-scale development projects are to be on time, on budget, scalable, maintainable and robust.

Name your price seems to be the catch-phrase in e-commerce these days. The success of sites like eBay and Priceline testify to that.

In the beginning there was a Web site. Over time, the humble site matured into an e-commerce application. Hundreds of hits per day turned into thousands, then tens of thousands...until the server crashed and all the e-customers and all the e-money went elsewhere.

Late in July ColdFusion developers who simply couldn't wait for the November Allaire Developer conference had the opportunity to gather with compatriots and spend time learning CF tricks and techniques from some of the most popular CF speakers.

With personalization and customization becoming a mainstay of Web sites, the burden of adding and managing this functionality falls on Web developers. In addition, many organizations want to put the responsibility of content management and updates into the hands of nontechnical staff. Sounds great, until you need to provide code for this site, then the next and the next…