ColdFusion Open-Source Update - November 10, 2008

Two new projects and three updates this week. The week may have been light on releases but was very heavy on tutorials and announcements. Much of the fuss surrounded Joe Rinehart's discussion on what is or isn't a real ORM (and his belief that ColdFusion doesn't have any real ORMs). It is a fascinating discussion in some respects, though sometimes I think we developers get caught up in semantics (myself included). It makes for fascinating discussions but few solutions (that isn't meant as a criticism, I enjoy a good debate).

Sometimes I wonder if the conversion to Java in ColdFusion MX didn't turn us into the bastard stepchild of Java in some corners. The thing is, solutions generally expand to fill the problems they are designed to solve (sometimes, like in ERP's, they expand to fit problems their solutions create). To make a bad analogy, my lawnmower engine is much smaller and simpler than my car engine but both are still engines and serve the specific needs of the machine they run. Java tends to be used to solve problems that are larger and more complex than ColdFusion, which would mean that solutions in Java are larger and more complex (and that isn't a dig at CF). Sometimes, I think the comparisons are often unwarranted.

Anyway, this turned into a longer intro than I intended. On to this week's posts...

New Releases and Updates

New Project: CFOrgChart
CFOrgChart : Download Available
Daniel Mackey releases his Ajax-enhanced organizational chart tag.

New Project: TypeCast
New RIAForge project: TypeCast
Jared Rypka-Hauer released his first open source project that allows you to browse all the jar files installed with ColdFusion.

Mach-II
Mach-II 1.6.0 RC1 Released
Peter Farrell posts about the first release candidate of version 1.6, along with links to documentation on the changes it includes.

Razuna
Razuna 1.1.2 available – Open Source Digital Asset Management
Six Signs has released a new version of Razuna that adds three significant new features including using Flash instead of Quicktime for videos and local caching system using Google Gears for commonly loaded files.

YouTubeCFC
YouTubeCFC and update to the CFHTTP Tag
Raymond Camden discovered a bug in CFHTTP related to his YouTube CFC which now requires a hotfix.

Announcements

CMaker5
Opensourcing CMaker5
Yves Custeau discusses possibly open sourcing portions of his "ERP framework."

Show of hands for CMaker5
Yves Custeau is looking for interest in his "ERP framework."

ColdBox
Next ColdBox Training Seminar Location and Date Survey
Luis Majano is conducting a survey to help determine the date and location of the next ColdBox training.

New ColdBox Course: CBOX 100 Intro to ColdBox
There is a new course being offered for on-site or by request training which is a one-day intensive training.

Razuna
Raise your voice and influence what will be in the next version of Razuna
Six Signs is taking votes on what should be the next feature in Razuna.

SquidHead
Working for the Obama Campaign
Terrence Ryan discusses hi use of Squidhead for some volunteer work on behalf of the Obama campaign.

Transfer
Transfer Survey, and the Results Are In!
Mark Mandel discusses the results of his survey which include that people want better performance and features like xml file generation (without Illudium...what's wrong with Illudium?).

ValidateThis!
The First Post to ValidateThis!
Bob Silverberg posts about the new ValidateThis mailing list.

ValidateThis Requires ColdFusion 8.0.1
Bob Silverberg points out that because of its use of onMissingMethod, his validation framework requires ColdFusion 8.0.1.

Tutorials, Presentations and Reviews

ColdBox
Basic Security in Coldbox using Transfer and Coldspring - Part I
Doug Boude show how to implement basic security in ColdBox with Transfer and ColdSpring in this two part series.

Adding Todo Lists (Integrating ColdSpring into our Application) - ColdBox Ser...
Jason Dean continues his ongoing tutorial series, this time focused on adding ColdSpring.

Basic Security in Coldbox using Transfer and Coldspring - Part II (of II)
Second part of Doug Boude's two part tutorial.

FarCry
CFConversations 22, Interview 15 - Geoff Bowers of Daemon and FarCry - 11/10/08
Jeff Coughlin interviews Geoff Bowers about the FarCry framework and CMS plugin.

General (Frameworks, ORM)
I Don't Care What An ORM Is!
Bob Silverberg wades into the ORM debate by saying he is more focused on results than on definitions.

Does ColdFusion have no real ORM frameworks?
Joe Rinehart causes quite a stir with his contention that nothing in ColdFusion is a true ORM, not even Transfer.

Are We Adopting OO For The Right Reasons? (A More General Take On The ORM Fra...
Brian Kotek expands on the ORM debate by examining whether we ColdFusion developers are building data-centric applications that have the complexity of OO without the benefits.

What makes a framework an ORM?
Joe Rinehart continues his discussion by giving a clearer definition of what an ORM is.

Joe on ORM
Barney Boisvert comments on Joe's ORM post and the benefits he sees in using Groovy.

Joe Rinehart Stirs the Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) Frameworks Pot
Brian Kotek joins the fray on ORM by agreeing with Joe.

LightWire
LightWire, Constructor Injection, And Inheritance
Brad Wood discusses configuring constructor injection with Lightwire and a significant shortcoming he says he encountered.

Model-Glue
Is it ColdFusion or Groovy?
Raymond Camden discusses a new feature in Model Glue 3.

MXUnit
Yeah, but does it run on [ENTER YOUR CF SERVER HERE] ?
Bill Shelton shows how to use MXUnit and Ant to test an application for multiple ColdFusion server engines.

OnTap/DataFaucet
CFConversations 21, Interview 14 - Isaac Dealey - 11/04/08
Adam Haskell and Brian Meloche interview Isaac Dealey about OnTap and DataFaucet.<

Sava CMS
Tip Of The Hat to Matt Levine and Sava CMS
Matt Quackenbush comments to Matt Levine's professional response to a rant about Sava CMS.

Transfer
Managing relationships with Transfer (or the ORM meets Dr. Phil)
Raymond Camden covers managing relationships with Transfer.

Code Reuse: Taking Advantage of Includes and Overwrites in Transfer
Matt Quackenbush covers some lesser known Transfer features that facilitate code reuse.

Setting up my Transfer Application
Raymond Camden covers how to install Transfer and configure the datasource xml.

ColdFusion and Transfer (And that 3 letter "O" word)
Raymond Camden starts his Transfer series somewhat in response to the raging ORM debate in the community.

Building CRUD with Transfer
Raymond Camden continues his Transfer series with a tutorial on how to build basic CRUD.

Building CRUD with Transfer (2)
Raymond Camden continues his tutorial covering methods of getting data from Transfer.