When an application is functioning exactly as expected, does that mean it's bug-free? Not necessarily. ColdFusion provides developers with many useful and powerful debugging techniques. If I find that part of an application isn't functioning the way I expect, I can usually use one or more of them to target the problem.

As an administrator, or a developer interested in how your server is run, are you getting the most out of your CF Server configuration, especially with regard to security-related settings in the Administrator? Are you fully aware of the opportunities and challenges presented by those settings?

Cutting ColdFusion code is fun, and therein lies ColdFusion's biggest problem. It's too easy to get carried away writing code to do things that should be happening in the database itself - or often shouldn't be happening at all. It's also just too easy to use. You can get up and running far too quickly, and get into trouble even quicker. Sometimes experienced developers get carried away trying to do too much; beginners often start to run before they can walk.

Welcome to the first installment of 'Tales from the List,' a monthly column devoted to the discussion threads (and their creators) on the ColdFusion Developer's Journal Mail List (CFDJList). Each installment will examine popular discussion thread(s) from the list from the previous month. On occasion we'll profile an active member of the list, view list statistics, and that sort of thing.

Several years ago I came across a statistic that I've since shared with many others and it never ceases to shock me: according to four separate studies, the failure rate for custom corporate software development hovers at 70%. In fact, some studies indicate the figure may be even higher.

Most ColdFusion developers who work with databases have a favorite, but it usually isn't Microsoft Access. This is not completely irrational and they can give you five reasons why it's unconstitutional to use Microsoft Access. This article attempts to explain when a developer should use Microsoft Access.

There's a new federal law, known as Section 508, that requires disabled accessibility to government Web sites. We'll explain what you have to do to comply, how ColdFusion can help (or hinder), and why 508 isn't a bad thing after all.

Once again ColdFusion Developer's Journal is delighted to announce its ColdFusion Readers' Choice Awards. For the second year in a row we're proud to be the only publication to present such awards. CF developers and their companies are finally being acknowledged for their product design and excellence. It's recognition that we at CFDJ feel is long overdue and well deserved.

User-defined functions, without a doubt, were one of the most asked-for and most appreciated features of ColdFusion 5. Before ColdFusion 5 was even released publicly, lucky developers who had access to the beta versions were playing with UDFs. Rob Brooks-Bilson and I released a site, the ColdFusion Library Project (www.cflib.org), dedicated to creating and sharing libraries of cool UDFs.

Many developers know that the CF administrator can restrict your ability to use several tags that not only provide very useful capabilities, but can also be used to provide unauthorized access to server resources. What many don't know is that they can arrange to use those restricted tags on a case-by-case basis with the administrator's permission.

Microsoft invented a technology called Smart Tags. Smart Tags allow text to be marked up with actions, such as hyperlinks, when the text is displayed. They planned to introduce the technology with Windows XP. However, since public opinion was strongly against it, Microsoft decided to de-emphasize it. You can still create and use Smart Tags, but they're not prominent in Windows XP.

Are you a CF Server administrator? Or a developer with an interest in knowing how your server is configured and managed? Are you aware of all that should be done to keep the server running well - or all that could be done to make the most of it? In this two-part article we'll look at some of the things CF administrators should be paying attention to, as well as some of the things they should take advantage of but may not have noticed.

Far too often we listen to the naysayers who tell us that something can't be done and give poorly founded reasons as to why our troubles persist. The ColdFusion Application Server is no exception to their folly. If you ask people for the drawbacks of ColdFusion, most will reply 'speed' or 'stability.' Let me be the first to tell you that it does not have to be that way.

Recently, I was heading a project that involved migrating our company Web site (www.bridgerfunding.com) from NT to Solaris and Linux. This article is based on the experience gathered from the project. If you're running a ColdFusion based Web site or application on the NT platform and would like to move to UNIX or Linux, reading this article may help make your project a success.

This article is the third in a series on customizing the CF Studio IDE. If you haven't read the first two about VTML, see 'VTML by Example, Parts 1 and 2' (CFDJ, Vol. 3, issues 6 and 7) for an introduction to the CF Studio extensions, and learn how to use the Visual Tools Markup Language (VTML) to develop the user interfaces for CF Studio extensions. This article demonstrates how to design CF Studio Wizards using the Wizard Markup Language (WIZML).

In today's world of e-commerce, simply viewing data in a Web browser is rarely enough. Clients constantly demand reporting, charting, graphing, and analysis of complex data. Although Macromedia has made great strides in this direction by incorporating graphing capabilities (the new CFGRAPH) and access to a reporting engine (CFREPORT), these are all server-side solutions. A simple request for a new chart can send developers scrambling. Wouldn't it be great if end users could manipulate and analyze data themselves, using a powerful suite of tools that they're already familiar with!

The assignment? Design a ColdFusion application to rotate the display of images for the top portion of the front page of the Vermont.com Web site. Vermont.com has an inventory of images. The inventory includes sets of images reflecting each season. Rafting and golfing for summer, mountain vistas of colorful trees for fall, and snow-covered bridges and houses for the winter. Changing images upon every visit gives the site a fresh, up-to-date quality, helping to retain visitors.

In the first installment of this article CFDJ (Vol. 3, issue 9), I established the benefits of secure communication between two applications.I discussed the need for standardized communication that allows two companies to share data that would in turn enhance the service offerings of their existing applications. Through the use of the cfservlet tag, I created the foundation for communication between the ColdFusion Application Server and the JRun Application Server.

It's finally here! For months, the lights have burned late and e-mails have flown furiously as work proceeded on the latest version of the Fusebox specification, version 3.0. It was released to rave reviews at the Fusebox 2001 conference held in Orlando on October 20, the Saturday prior to Macromedia's DevCon. Someone once said that people should never see how laws or sausages are made. I think I can safely add technical standards to that list. There have been passionate arguments and some painful missteps along the way, but that's all eclipsed as people begin discovering the new power and ease-of-use in Fusebox 3.0.

Even if you have only cursory knowledge of Macromedia Flash, learning how to integrate it with ColdFusion is surprisingly easy.While there are more advanced approaches, the techniques described in this article are extremely powerful - due in part to their simplicity - and lay the foundation for more advanced integration.

You're nearly finished with the code you've been slaving over for hours (or days or weeks, or maybe it was just a few seconds' effort). You're about to turn it loose for your customers to enjoy. The questions are: Is it ready? Do you know it will work? Have you tested it? If so, how? Indeed, should you be turning it over to the users as the next step?

To secure your Web-based application you must close all known holes in your hardware and software as well as those you inadvertently open in your application's code. This article addresses possible holes in your ColdFusion code that result from explicitly trusting the data your code accepts from URL parameters, form fields, cookies, browser variables, databases, or other external data sources. You must take measures to ensure that data from these sources won't cause your application to display improperly, crash, permit a security breach, or allow unintended server-side operations to be performed.

One of my philosophies when dealing with computers is that they're generally inexpensive in comparison to people. To have a warm body (and most developers fall into this category) making modifications to code can be expensive. I've always felt that making code easy to maintain, if not for myself at least for others, is an important part of any project. In most cases more time will be spent maintaining the code than in the initial development.

The overwhelming majority of ColdFusion applications on the Web and in our intranets are tightly integrated with a relational database management system of some sort. Because of its low cost, ease of installation and administration, and excellent performance, Microsoft SQL Server is one of the more widely used RDBMS platforms by ColdFusion developers. The recent release of SQL Server 2000 has added many new features to the SQL Server product line, most significantly a suite of features that leverage the power of XML.

It's almost impossible to pick up a trade magazine these days and not find a reference to XML. It's an important enabling technology for the sophisticated Web applications of the future.

You've used ColdFusion to build forms that send e-mail and build database-driven applications, and maybe even played with some WDDX. Now you're probably looking for a new and different way to use the skills you've gained. VoiceXML could be just the ticket.

Application development has changed dramatically in the past few years. Applications are now more robust, encompass many types of technologies, and integrate into frameworks that are not Web-enabled.

Application development has changed dramatically in the past few years. Applications are now more robust, encompass many types of technologies, and integrate into frameworks that are not Web-enabled.

While developing an application in Wireless Markup Language (WML) for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) devices, I realized just how many different types of wireless devices exist globally and how different the protocols and languages have to be from device to device. In a previous article, 'ColdFusion in the Palm of Your Hand' (CFDJ, Vol. 2, issue 4), I showed how ColdFusion applications can be written and deployed to a wireless Palm VII. In this article I compare and contrast writing that same application in WML for WAP devices.

The current state of interoperability between Macromedia's Flash 5.0 and ColdFusion 4.5 was covered in Part 1 of this article (CFDJ, Vol. 3, issue 8). We also discussed the basics of programming a simple Flash application that would display information from a text file or a dynamic ColdFusion file.

In the age of the Internet, even obscure acronyms and codes have become commonplace. Take '404', for example. Even Internet newbies associate the number '404' with that annoying error page that is displayed when searching for a reliable doggie dentist. In fact, there are even numerous Web sites dedicated to the 'art' of 404 pages (www.s endcoffee.com/minorsage/4 04error.html ).

Techno-evangelists have been proclaiming for years that the Internet will change the world, bring people closer, and provide the ultimate forum for sharing information and exchanging opinions. Yet something as simple as filling out a Web-based form remains, in large part, about as much fun as filling out your tax forms with a crayon.

Using ColdFusion to glue together Verity 97 and a popular offline browser results in a powerful but low-cost and easy-to-create searchable Web spider. Past issues of CFDJ have laid down a great foundation for creating and optimizing Verity collections.

I've been out of the hard-core development team dynamic for more than a year now, so I was a little hesitant when CFDJ approached me about writing this article. Nevertheless, I have traveled to various ColdFusion shops around the globe and worked with numerous development teams.

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

The task seemed monumental: 'Come up with a way to keep live Verity data indexed and accessible to multiple Web servers in a clustered environment.' The scope of the data was huge - hundreds of thousands of pieces of content - with new additions made 24 hours a day, every day of the year. All known methods to accomplish this task just did not seem to do the job adequately. It was time to get creative.

Building software systems is a lengthy and complicated process that may involve anywhere from a single developer to multiple teams of developers, who may all be working in different locations.'

Data-driven sites are a great way to manage and deliver content. But at a price. You may as well kiss deep linking and extensive search-engine indexing goodbye. Here's a solution to this problem, but it's not pretty.

In Part 1 of this series (CFDJ, Vol. 3, issue 6), I explained how to easily generate the necessary VTML code for providing Tag Inspector, Tag Help, and Tag Insight features inside CF Studio for your custom tags. (Part 1 is available online at www.s ys-con.com/coldfusion/arc hives/.)

E-commerce, for most people, means purchasing an item on the Web. This multistep process involves product selection, payment, and product delivery. This article focuses on the payment process.