One thing that constantly bugs me on projects is when I am asked to work on the user interface. I can do CSS, but it is, admittedly, not my strongest suit. I can do some graphics work, but not my strongest suit.

Enterprise Application aRchive (EAR) files are a standard and portable manner for packaging applications to be deployed on J2EE application servers, such as Adobe JRun, BEA WebLogic, and IBM WebSphere. An EAR file is, in essence, just a big ZIP file with a special layout of the directory tree inside that contains a full application, see the following code. EAR files have a well-defined format and make Java bytecode truly portable. The same EAR file that we compile and build on our i386 Windows laptop can also run on a 64-CPU mainframe running commercial Unix.

We're very excited about the upcoming release of Adobe Flex 2.0, an integrated set of tools and technology enabling developers to build and deploy scalable rich Internet applications, and hope that you as developers are too.

Simon says, 'Build the Pet Market app in Fusebox.' Simon says, 'Write an article about it.' So I'm sitting on a plane at 35,000 feet, somewhere over the heartlands, writing an article. Having been the driving force behind the creation of the Wegot Widgets reference application project for Fusebox, I think the idea of an 'All Pet Market' issue of CFDJ is a great idea.

The majority of ColdFusion applications live far away, hidden, in enterprise fortresses as applications that small-to-large organizations depend on. In these organizations, especially the medium-to-large ones, there are well-established network infrastructures to manage the users, workstations, servers, etc.

'Sorry about that Adam, we'll have to take a deeper look at it. Uh-huh. Yeah. No, I totally understand. Okay then, I'll give you a call if I still can't replicate the problem.'

In a book entitled Finite and Infinite Games in 1986, James P. Carse wrote 'Finite players play within the rules, infinite players play with the rules.' We play finite games every day, from checkers and chess to Yatzee and Monopoly. Finite games have a familiar pattern: a beginning, a middle, and an end; a winner and a loser.

This article is for you if you are a beginning coder. You know how to do marvelous things like query databases and output the results. You can take data submitted from a form, manipulate it, and perform calculations. After mastering these fundamentals, you are ready to expand your knowledge of ColdFusion. This article explains six ColdFusion tags that you can easily start using today.

For a long time I've been stuck in the mindset that creating a fabulous user interface requires a top-notch artist. I thought someone who is a master of colors and graphics is bound to make the ideal user interface. Trial and error has proved this incorrect.

Beginning with the release of ColdFusion MX, the ColdFusion Application Server now runs on top of an underlying Java engine. Java, as we all know, is an object-oriented language. However, the question of whether CFML is an object-oriented language has been under debate since the ColdFusion Component (CFC) Framework was introduced in ColdFusion MX.

CFUN is the national ColdFusion and Web programming conference that Rockville, Maryland-based IT firm TeraTech (www.teratech.com) hosts each June in the DC area. CFUN (www.cfconf.org/cfun-04/) stands for ColdFusion User Network, and based on my trip to CFUN-04 there were plenty of people learning, networking, and having fun doing it!

There are two basic Web server load balancing options: hardware-based and software-based. The latter have been slowly disappearing from the enterprise while the former have been gaining a larger presence.

Hopefully by now you've heard all about Flex, the most recent addition to the Macromedia server product family. Hot on the tail of its release, Macromedia Training has released 'Fast Track to Flex,' a new course that introduces developers to developing rich Internet applications (RIAs) using the Macromedia Flex server.

At the company I work for, we are in the process of looking for e-commerce solutions to offer our clients - solutions developed and/or implemented in technologies other than ColdFusion. We are looking for other platforms due to the need or drive to go to the next level of stability and scalability, and to add new customization features.