Viewing by month: May 2006
New Open-Source RSS Component
Posted on May 16, 2006
So the other day I wrote about my experimenting with Mark Mandel's javaLoader.cfc and the mjxml java library. I have put this code into a set of components that you can easily use to read rss and output RSS feeds in ColdFusion. Basically, all you need to do is supply a URL when you initialize the component. Here is an example that reads the New York Times homepage RSS feed:
100 ColdFusion Open-Source Projects
Posted on May 15, 2006
So the ColdFusion Open-Source List hit a milestone of sorts the other day when I added the 100th project to the list. While the milestone is somewhat arbitrary since I don't list every project by excercising a very limited set of editorial control (and not all the projects are fully open-source), I do think it is reflective of a tangible sense of momentum in support of open-source within the ColdFusion community. So let me start by saying thanks to all the open-source contributors out there.
I also wanted to solicit opinions on how I can improve the list. Based on my statistics I can see that it gets steady traffic, but I also think it can be improved. For instance, as it grows I am getting the sense that it is becoming a bit unweildy and finding the specific link you are looking for can be slightly cumbersome. So, how could this be improved? Are there any features outside of just listing projects that you would like to see (for example, someone once mentioned a forum)? I would love to hear from regular users as well as open-source contributors...please share.
Government Spying on Confidential News Sources
Posted on May 15, 2006
This is a disturbing piece of news even at a time when we see enough disturbing news on a daily basis to make one numb. Brian Ross and Richard Esposito of ABC News are reporting that a confidential source in the government has warned them that their phone calls are being tracked as part of a program to root out confidential sources (under the guise of a leak investigation). According to the article, reporters from ABC News as well as the New York Times and the Washington Post have been targeted. While the source claims that the content of the phone calls is not being collected, they are apparently able to root out potential sources from tracking call patterns. At a time when Congress has relinquished all semblance of its oversight duties, this could have a potentially chilling effect on the whistleblowers we so desperately need.
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Handling Null Values Returned by Java
Posted on May 15, 2006
So in my recent exploits toying with javaLoader.cfc and a java library for parsing rss, I came upon some odd errors. Well, I am certainly a noob when it comes to Java, but it appears that when you call a method in java and that method returns a null, you can get some odd errors. For example, you may have code like this:
<cfset x = javaObj.getValue() /> <cfdump var="#x#">
This was returning an error that x was not defined on the cfdump. This was clearly confusing, but it appears that this was because getValue() was returning null. Well, you can wrap this in a try/catch block, or you could use a simple fix that works for methods that return simple values:
<cfset x = trim(javaObj.getValue()) /> <cfdump var="#x#">
This code will return [empty string] for null and obviously you won't get an error. Like I said, this won't work for methods that return complex objects, but it appears to be an easy fix for strings or numeric values.
ColdFusion Open-Source Update - May 15
Posted on May 15, 2006
The big news this week (as you probably already heard) is the new BlogCFC release. So, without further adieu...
Raymond Camden Releases BlogCFC v5
The new version of blogCFC includes a ton of new features like better CSS design, a new administrator, captcha support and more. Congrats to Ray and his contributors. I plan to upgrade soon, but unfortunately my design was always difficult to integrate. Hopefully the new layout will better accomodate my design changes.