1. Putting it all together Steve Drucker CEO Fig Leaf Software

2. Session Overview Addressing the Problem ColdFusion’s Role in providing the solution “Common” Application Widgets

3. Addressing the Problem Complexity in Software & Team Coordination Software models business processes “Garbage in – Garbage out” Apply Occam’s Razor

4. The Role of ColdFusion ColdFusion is the “Glue” that binds together other technologies – RDBMS (Stored Procedures, other features) – Client-Side JavaScript – Dynamic HTML – XML – Macromedia Flash, Generator – Server-side Java, CORBA, COM, DCOM, Active Server (COM) – WAP – Other Websites (CFHTTP, CFWDDX)

5. Common Application Widgets Managing Client-Side Caching Code Builders (SQL SP’s, DatabaseBlocks) Importing “Legacy” Data Application “Pop-up” Help System Managing Server Timeout Spell Checking Graphing Cross-Tab Reporting, Export to MS Excel Scheduling Alerts using MS Outlook

6. Code Builders Fig Leaf’s “Single Template Wizard” Constructor – Available at http://www.figleaf.comhttp://www.figleaf.com – Creates Stored Procedures and data entry interfaces for managing “lookup tables” – Helps coding consistency across programming teams

7. Managing Client-Side Caching

8. Importing Legacy Information CF String functions are abysmally slow when dealing with large text strings (>32K) CF systems frequently need to link to other line-of-business applications, or may be retiring an older mainframe system How to import delimited information effectively?

9. Importing Legacy Info (Con’t) Step 1: File Upload a Delimited list (Tabs, preferably) Step 2: Add list qualifiers around the fields (“) and write the file out to disk Step 3: Use the tag to import the file into a session-based CFQUERY object Step 4: Process the query through a multi-page staged process Step 5: Pray to whatever god you believe in

10. Application “Pop-up” Help After usability testing, you may find that some users consider particular screens to not be intuitive. “Pop-up” Help is useful <CFMODULE template="#application.basehref#/customtags/cbt.cfm“ datasource="#application.datasource#" personid="#session.person.personid#" cbtmoduleid="1">

11. Managing Server Timeout Provide end-users with a warning about when their session may time-out due to inactivity Particularly important for systems that aggressively use client-side processing

12. Managing Server Timeout function checkTimeout() { cdate = new Date(); ctime = cdate.getTime(); myinterval = ctime - top.currenttime; if (top.appframe.location.href.indexOf("/login/index.cfm") == -1) { if (myinterval > defaultnotification && myinterval < defaulttimeout) { showModelessDialog(basehref + '/timeoutmessage.htm',window,"status:no;help:no;dialogWidth:350px;dialogHeight:200px"); } if (myinterval >= defaulttimeout) { top.appframe.location.href=basehref + '/login/logout.cfm'; } } else { mydate = new Date(); currenttime = mydate.getTime(); } window.setInterval("checkTimeout()", 180000);

13. Spell Checking Use the tag (beware – it’s not multithreaded) Put it in a JavaScript wrapper to achieve an interactive effect

14. Graphing/Charting Charting through DHTML – Lightweight Charting through COM (ChartFX) – Inexpensive, Robust Charting through Macromedia Generator – For enterprise charting

15. Code Walkthrough

16. Cross-Tab Reporting Complex Custom Tag using DHTML, Advanced Custom Tags, JavaScript, MIME

17. Scheduling Alerts in MS Outlook Using the tag and the ICAL specification

18. Questions? Steve Drucker (sdrucker@figleaf.com)sdrucker@figleaf.com Code available on the DC-CFUG website (http://www.figleaf.com) - click on CFUG- Meeting Noteshttp://www.figleaf.com Don’t forget about DC/Balto/Nova CFUG SPUG! (Thusday, Sept. 3 rd – DC)