In the now there is a great deal of energy by the major browser makers to implement HTML5.  However, it really feels like only the fun stuff is here right now ( audio, video, canvas ).  Chrome and Opera have plenty more impressive features, but it’s going to be be a while until HTML5 is that magical ubiquitous platform.  With all the major browsers getting monthly ( and sometimes semi-monthly ) updates, HTML5 is more than just all the rage.  It’s actually getting built!

And here are some of the notes that didn’t make it into the presentation, and information on the demos that did.

TOOLING

• Dreamweaver HTML5 Pack. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/html5pack/
• TextMate.  There are HTML5 bundles available. http://macromates.com/
• WebStorm.  Web IDE = JavaScript / HTML Editor + JS Debugger + VCS Support.  http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/
• Aptana.  http://www.aptana.com/

MOBILE FRAMEWORKS

• JO ( mobile app fw, js html5 )  http://joapp.com/
  
• Sencha JS ( Javascript and HTML5 ) http://www.sencha.com/
• PhoneGap ( mobile and js, open source all 6 platforms ) http://www.phonegap.com/
• Wink ( Lightweight mobile javascript framework ) http://www.winktoolkit.org/
• NimbleKit ( native iOS using HTML and JS ) http://www.nimblekit.com/
• Appcelerator  > Titanium Platform ( html, css, js, ruby, python ) http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-cross-platform-application-development/
• Appcelerator  > Titanium Mobile ( html, css, js ) http://www.appcelerator.com/products/titanium-mobile-application-development/
• jQTouch ( jQuery for iPhone and iPod Touch ) http://jqtouch.com/
• jQueryMobile ( Touch-Optimized Web Framework for Smartphones & Tablets )  http://jquerymobile.com/
• The M-Project ( HTML5, JS for mobile ) http://the-m-project.net/
• Rhodes (Ruby framework to build native apps for iPhone, Windows Mobile, RIM, Symbian and Android).  http://rhomobile.com/products/rhodes/

There is no rhyme or reason here, just some things I felt need to be repeated.

1. PreserveSingleQuotes()

This one came in really handy on a project requiring large text files to be imported into a MySQL database.  I used Coldfusion to upload and read the files into large INSERT chunks using MySQL’s multi – row INSERT syntax. Code built the VALUES portion of the SQL, then I just fed the data into a function for insertion.

INSERT INTO tbl_name (a,b,c) VALUES(1,2,3),(4,5,6),(7,8,9);

	<cfquery name="insert_data" result="insert_result" DATASOURCE="#request.dsn#" USERNAME="#request.dbuser#" PASSWORD="#request.dbpswd#">
	INSERT INTO table
	( column1, column2, column3, column4, column5, column6, column7 )
	VALUES
	#PreserveSingleQuotes( insert_values )#
	</cfquery>

2. What if GENERATED_KEY doesn’t work?

If you’re using MySQL and the GENERATED_KEY property of your cfquery objects isn’t populating, you can use LAST_INSERT_ID instead.

SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID();

3. Use ArrayAppend when building strings

Classic performance tuning tip for just about any programming language.  Here I’ll give a Coldfusion example and keep it dead simple.  If you ever have to concatenate strings in code, user ArrayAppend instead.  Here are two loops that do the same thing.  If you run this code, you should notice loop1 takes forever, and loop2 is smoking fast.

slow…..

<cfscript>
xx				= 100000;
insertString	= "";

// do the loop
while( xx > 0 ) {
	insertString &= xx & " ";
	xx--;
}

WriteOutput( insertString);
</cfscript>

FAST!

<cfscript>
xx				= 1000000;
insertArray		= ArrayNew(1);
// do the loop
while( xx > 0 ) {
	ArrayAppend( insertArray, xx & " " );
	xx--;
}

WriteOutput( ArrayToList( insertArray, " " ) );
ArrayClear( insertArray );
</cfscript>

4. If CSV, then CHR

This one is simple, if you find yourself creating CSV or any other text file, use special characters when dealing with single and double quotes, etc.

• chr(9) = Tab
• chr(34) = ” double quote
• chr(39) = ‘ single quote

And if you’re not sure of the correct code for the character you’re looking to use, just wrap that character in ASC() and WriteOutput to the page.

5. Use CFMail with GMail

This is a no brainer, but with how difficult sending email can be with other languages, I’m mentioning it here.

Application.cfc

<cfscript>
	APPLICATION.mail.server		= "smtp.gmail.com";
	APPLICATION.mail.port		= "465";
	APPLICATION.mail.ssl		= true;
	APPLICATION.mail.user		= "gmailAccount";
	APPLICATION.mail.pswd		= "gmailPasssword";
</cfscript>

Emailer.cfm

<cfmail to="work@ericfickes.com"
		bcc=""
		from="web@master.com"
		subject="sending mail is easy with Coldfusion"
		server="#application.mail.server#"
		useSSL="#application.mail.ssl#"
		port="#application.mail.port#"
		username="#application.mail.user#"
		password="#application.mail.pswd#">
#emailBody#
</cfmail>

6. CFSCRIPT doesn’t know NULL?

Another tip from the land of importing and exporting data.  While working with query objects in CFScript, for some reason I could never accurately detect for NULL values.  I tried all sorts of detection schemes and ended up just writing a hacky fail safe.  Please, if you have a better suggestion for *easy* NULL detection in CFSCript, add it in the comments below.

utils.cfc

<!---  Simple value getter with try / catch to get around NULL values
This function originated in a script where we always needed a " " even if
the value from the database was null.
--->
<cffunction name="qryGetString" access="public" returntype="string">

<cfargument name="data" type="string">

<cftry>
	<cfscript>
	return #data# & " ";
	</cfscript>

	<cfcatch type="Any">
		<cfreturn " "/>
	</cfcatch>
</cftry>

</cffunction>

Exporter.cfm

// largeish loop
tab = chr(9);
for( xx = 1; xx <= queryObj.RecordCount; xx++ )
{
	// start the row
	this_row = 	utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.FirstName[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.MiddleName[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.LastName[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.Suffix[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.MedicalTitle[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.email[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_phone[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_fax[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_name[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_address1[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_address2[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_city[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_state[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.practice_zipcode[xx] ) & tab &
			utils_cfc.qryGetString( queryObj.hospital_affiliation[xx] ) & tab;

	// do stuff with the data
}

7. How I find list items

Ever notice the different behavior in the Coldfusion ListFind commands?  I ended up writing my own ListHasValue function in order to find exact pattern matching in a list.  I had a list of role ids in a list, and just couldn’t get the built in functions to tell me when my id was in the list without also matching on other ids.  This one makes sense when you run some code.

The top of this sample as my custom ListHasValue() command, and the lower half does three simple loops counting from 1 to 100, and using ListFind, ListContains, and ListHasValue for number checking against the same list.

<!---
	Use this to do an exact pattern check for a value in a list.
	This is useful inside of a loop checking numbers against a number list.

	EX :

	list = "91, 92"

	if you loop from 1 - 100, ListFind and related CF functions will match
	on 1, 2, and 9.  Not just 91 and 92

	Use this when you're looping and you ONLY want to match on 91, or 92

--->
<cffunction name="ListHasValue" access="public" returntype="boolean">

	<cfargument name="list" required="yes" type="string">
	<cfargument name="value" required="yes" type="any">

	<cfscript>
		// clean up to be safe
		list = trim( toString( list ) );

		// check to see if we have a *possible* match
		position = ListContains( list, value ) ;

		if( position > 0 )
		{
			// NOTE : KEEP THE TRIM AND TOSTRING
			found_value = trim( toString( ListGetAt( list, position ) ) );

			if( Compare( value, found_value ) == 0 )
			{
				return true;
			}
		}

		// no match for you!
		return false;
	</cfscript>

</cffunction>

<cfscript>
list	= "1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91, 99";
xx		= 1;

WriteOutput( "List = " & list & "<hr>");

while( xx < 100 ) {
	if( ListContains( list, xx ) > 0 )
	{
		WriteOutput( "ListContains found " & xx & "<br>" );
	}
    xx++;
}

WriteOutput("<hr />");

xx = 1;
while( xx < 100 ) {
	// ListFind
	if( ListFind( list, xx ) > 0 )
	{
		WriteOutput( "ListFind found " & xx & "<br>" );
	}
    xx++;
}

WriteOutput("<hr />");

xx = 1;
while( xx < 100 ) {
    // Eric's ListHasValue
	if( ListHasValue( list, xx ) )
	{
		WriteOutput( "ListHasValue found " & xx & "<br>" );
	}
	xx++;
}
</cfscript>

If you run this code on your Coldfusion server, you should notice the following results.  ListContains matches single digits from the loop that do not really exist in the list.  ListFind only finds the number 1?  And finally, my function does exactly what I needed it to do.  Tell me when a specific number exists in a list.

Coldfusion ListFind functions don't always behave how I want them to

8. Make PDFs faster

This could easily be it’s own topic, but I’ll say one thing about making PDFs faster with CFDocument.  Only put final content between <cfdocument> and </cfdocument>.  That is, if you have any processing code, cfqueries, cfloops, inside of your cfdocument tag, your cfml page is running slower than it needs to be.  Here’s a simple example of one of my cfml pages that has only final content in the cfdocument tags.

The key to this example is moving all of my content creation code into an external file, then including at the top of my page. I always do a check for my main PDF_BODY variable, and then spit out my PDF document.

<cfinclude template="code/export_pdf_codefile.cfm">

<cfif PDF_BODY NEQ "">

    <cfdocument	name="provider_profile"
                format="PDF"
                pagetype="A4"
                mimetype="application/pdf"
                orientation="portrait"
                margintop="0"
                marginbottom="0.2"
                marginleft="0.2"
                marginright="0.2"
                >
        <cfoutput>#PDF_BODY#</cfoutput>
    </cfdocument>

    <!--- send directly to client --->
    <cfheader name="Content-Disposition" value="attachment; filename=#filename#">
    <cfcontent type="application/pdf" variable="#provider_profile#">

<cfelse>
	No PDF content found
</cfif>

9. Use parameterized queries

This is a tip for all server side programmers whether you use Coldfusion, ASP, JSP, PBJ.  Use parameterized queries when doing any database interaction.  It’s too easy not to use, and you get protection from SQL Injection, as well as enforcing proper data types when speaking to your database.  This is something all server programmers should do regardless of your language, the sample below is for Coldfusion.

BAD

<cfquery name="tblInsert" datasource="myDb">
INSERT INTO	myTable
( col1, col2, col3, col4 )
VALUES
( '#Form.field1#', '#Form.field2#', '#Form.field3#' )
</cfquery>

GOOD

<cfset val1 = Form.field1>
<cfset val2 = Form.field1>
<cfset val3 = Form.field1>

<cfquery name="tblInsert" datasource="myDb">
INSERT INTO	myTable
( col1, col2, col3, col4 )
VALUES
(
    <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="#val1#" />,
    <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="#val2#" />,
    <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" value="#val3#" />
)
</cfquery>

10. Where’d the time go?

For the good programmers already using parameterized queries, ever insert a timestamp into your database and find out the date is correct, but the time is always 12:00:00?  Take a closer look at the cfsqltype in your cfqueryparam, I had this exact problem and here’s what happened.

Using cf_sql_date does not include the full date and timestamp, just the date.

<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_date" value="#paymentDate#" />

Using cf_sql_timestamp includes the full date and timestamp I was looking for.

<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_timestamp" value="#paymentDate#" />

11. Stored Procedures are a little different

This last one isn’t much of a tip, but more of a reminder to myself.  I do so much database work that stored procedures are just queries to me, but not so to Coldfusion and the CFQuery tag.  If you want to get data from a stored procedure, you need to use the CFStoredproc tag.  Here’s a sample of passing one argument into a stored procedure, and how to get the resulting data.

<cfstoredproc	datasource="myDb" procedure="GetDataFaster">

	<cfprocparam type="in" cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#inputVar#" />

	<!--- specify sproc result here, cfstoredproc res != returned recordset --->
	<cfprocresult name = sprocResult>

</cfstoredproc>

<cfreturn #sprocResult.ColumnFromQuery#>

I ran into this while building a PayPal payment processor, and wasted too much time thinking this was a username and password issue, or possibly a problem with the host name I was using, but it wasn’t.  It was extra frustrating because my test PayPal code worked just fine if I created an html form and posted directly to PayPal.  Also, the same code worked perfectly in production, just not on my development server.

After hours of googling and trial and error I found my solution thanks to Steve Erat.  Basically Coldfusion 7 isn’t able to handshake securely with PayPal ( Verisign ) because the server doesn’t have PayPal’s certificate in the key store.  You can read in depth about what’s happening on Steve’s blog post here.

So my solution ended up being this

1. Download the verisign.cer certificate from my production server
2. Import verisign.cer into the JDK that comes with Coldfusion
3. Restart Coldfusion and IIS

I tried all sorts of things from installing every windows certificate management features, upgrading my JDK and having Coldfusion use that, apply all the latest service packs and updates to my server, changing any paypal setting I can think of.  All I needed to do was this.

1. Drop to CMD prompt
2. Run the keytool that came installed with Coldfusion
   “C:\CFusionMX7\runtime\jre\bin\keytool -import -trustcacerts -keystore C:\CFusionMX7\runtime\jre\lib\security\cacerts -storepass changeit -noprompt -alias PayPal -file c:\verisign.cer”

I couldn’t find this solution anywhere else online besides Steve’s site, so this is a rebroadcast in case somebody else hits this issue.  Also, at the time of writing, the test payment hostname for PayPal is pilot-payflowpro.paypal.com.

This is great, but what happens when you have a mixed bag of clients that all need to upload to the same location?  Sometimes I work with completely ASP.NET or CF web apps, but more often than not I’m dealing with Flash clients as well as HTML clients.

Recently I ran into this upload scenario and built this simple ASP.NET uploader script.  This feels a bit old school since it uses .NET’s built in Request.Files collection, instead of a fancy new ‘all in one’ server control, but I actually prefer this method.

Here’s all you need :

// Check for posted files
for (int xx = 0; xx < Request.Files.Count; xx++)
{
    // UPLOAD FILE
    HttpPostedFile _file = Request.Files[xx];

    // make sure we're not finding empty filename
    if (_file.FileName.Trim() != string.Empty)
    {
        // NOTE : IE < 8 reports full path of file, not just filename
        // Parse out filename, then create full upload path
        var fileName = _file.FileName;
        if (fileName.Contains("\\"))
        {
            var aFile = fileName.Split('\\');
            fileName = aFile[ aFile.Length - 1 ].ToString();
        }

        // create full save path for uploaded file
        var full_file_path = Server.MapPath( UP_FOLDER ) + "\\" + fileName;

        try
        {
            // save file to server
            _file.SaveAs(full_file_path);
        }
        catch (Exception exc)
        {
            var emsg = "Unable to upload file : " + exc.Message;

            Response.Write( emsg );
            Response.Flush();
            Response.End();
        }

        // show result
        Response.Write( _file.FileName + " uploaded! <br>" );
    }
}

That’s all there is to it codewise. Before using this code you will need to give the NETWORK SERVICES user write permissions to your upload folder. Other than that, that’s all she wrote!

Here is a zip of all the code for you to download.

Inside this zip you will find :

• flashclient.fla – Flash upload client ( *be sure to update the upload path before building )
• flexclient.mxml – Flex upload client ( *also update upload path before building )
• uploader.aspx - ASP.NET file upload handler
• uploadform.html - sample HTML upload form ( again, update path )

Hope somebody finds this useful.

Download this free album now!

A huge thanks goes out to creator of this compilation Joseph Labrecque.  Thank you for making this compilation and thank you for letting The Compilers submit our song ‘Sleep Tick v2′.  Be sure to read Joseph’s comments about the compilation he so graciously put out for all to enjoy.

I spoke at the last 360|Flex in San Jose, but I’m already more excited for the DC conference, and here’s why.

1. I’m speaking about the most exciting part of the Flash Platform, AIR2
2. Jesse vs. Jesse ( Flash vs Flex throwdown )
3. It’s in Washington DC
4. My band The Compilers will be giving a lunch talk, as well as playing live at one of the parties
5. There is talk of Duanne Nickull’s band 22nd Century playing ( hopefully Sean ‘the flex guy’ too )
6. Doug McCune is giving the opening Keynote speech on Monday
7. I get to hang out with the Flex community

If you haven’t been to a 360 Flex conference yet I highly recommend it.  If you still need help deciding, here are a few conference questions for you.

1. Do you currently work with or have any interest in Adobe Flex?
2. Have you attended a 360 Flex conference yet?
3. Do you want to meet the community loudmouths you’re already following on Twitter?
4. Have you seen who is speaking at 360 Flex DC?
5. Have you ever heard The Compilers play live?
6. Are you still reading this blog post?

The last 360 Flex I spoke at was in San Jose and it rocked.  The city of San Jose bored me to tears, but I felt like I was living inside my twitter feed for three days.  My presentation was on the final day of 360 Flex, so I spent most of the conference preparing, and sitting in a few sessions here and there.  I spent almost half of my time in San Jose working and still met 10-15 of my twitter buddies, not to mention all the new contacts I met.  In a nutshell, if you attend a 360 Flex conference, you will meet the community.  In fact, you’d have to try pretty hard to not meet the Flex community.

If this sounds up your alley, go ahead and register to take advantage of the early adopter ticket price of $450.  I’m not sure when the ticket price will go up to $599, but I know it will so act fast.  If you make it to DC, be sure to find me and introduce yourself.  I promise it will be a good time.

Early adopter price $450	360|Flex Information ABOUT SCHEDULE SPEAKERS REGISTER

In case you missed the June RMAUG meeting, my band The Compilers played our first hybrid concert and presentation show. Who are The Compilers? As far as I know, we’re Denver CO’s only Tech Funk Fusion trio that use internet technology along with analog instruments. By day we’re internet programmers, and by night we’re rockers. Right now majority of our software revolves around the Flash Platform, so it was only natural that we play at RMAUG.

Below is a recap of our setlist, and notes about the technology we presented on. When you see mentions of a Flash movie, these are not run as standalone SWF files. They are actually played by our Flex based Compilers Live Player. This application runs on our guitarist Jun Heider’s laptop, and the entire app is controlled over MIDI, via a Behringer FCB1010 Foot Controller, MMJ, and MERAPI.

Intro Song

For the first song of our set we decided to use a funny and informative Flash movie to give the audience a hint at what they’re about to see. For the June RMAUG show, this movie was updated to include spoken thank you slides for the companies that make our technology, and special shout outs to all the people who help us put on a great show.

Watch Flash Intro Movie

I want an iPhone

Watch Flash iPhone Movie

Tweet Jam v2

James vs. Rick

The Flash Platform Rocks!

The Compilers Next Show

First here is a look at the sample MXML app I put together.

Same object bound two different ways

Click here to run this demo in a new window.

In the first grid the DataGrid gets a column per object property.

var dp_horizontal:Array = ArrayUtil.toArray( myCustomObj );
grid_1.dataProvider = dp_horizontal.valueOf();

In the second grid, I run my custom object through a helper function to create an ArrayCollection containing NAME, VALUE pairs for each object property.

/**
 * Convert a class object into an ArrayCollection to be used
 * as a DataProvider
 */
private function objectToDataProvider( obj:Object ):ArrayCollection
{
	// our DataProvider
	var dp:ArrayCollection = new ArrayCollection();
	// get object class info
	var info:Object = mx.utils.ObjectUtil.getClassInfo( obj );
	// split the class property list into Array
	var propsA:Array = String( info.properties ).split(',');
	// loop over class properties grabbing value and filling up dp
	for( var xx:int = 0; xx <= propsA.length-1; xx++)
	{
		dp.addItem( { name : propsA[ xx ], value : obj[ propsA[ xx ] ] } );
	}

	return dp;
}

I’m currently using this helper function to bind the result of WebORB.NET data calls to a DataGrid for testing.  This code could really be used by any type of object though.

Hope this helps somebody else.

Firing up my ASP.NET application gives me the error message :

The WebResource.axd handler must be registered in the configuration to process this request

WebResource.axd handler must be registered

Obviously all I could think is WTF?!?!? since this application worked on Friday and now it is broken.  The first thing I want to point out is that in my situation, the suggested solution of mapping WebResource.axd in the httpHandlers section of my web.config did not help this problem.  After some googling I cam across this post on the IIS.NET forums which put me on the right track.  You can read the details there if you want a good background on MS’ response and other users running CF and ASP.NET on the same box.

I’m happy to say I have three workarounds for this issue.  Hopefully these will help you as well.

1. Change your AppPool to run in Classic Mode

1. In inetmgr, put your web application into it’s own Application Pool ( unless it’s already in it’s own pool )
2. Change that AppPool’s Managed pipeline mode to “Classic”
3. You should be good to go

Classic mode is for compatibility ( think IIS6 )

2. Stop using ASP Validation controls

All ASP.NET Validation controls are hosted by WebResource.axd.  If you stop using ASP Validator controls, the server will stop asking for WebResource.axd.

Removing ASP Validator controls should remove this error

3. Remove Coldfusion handler mappings from your ASP.NET site

If your ASP.NET app isn’t using Coldfusion, I would suggest doing this as your solution.  Even if you do need Coldfusion in your ASP.NET app, you could still host your CF app in it’s own Virtual Directory and request if via ASP.NET.

1. Open inetmgr
2. Select your web app on the left ( under Default Web Site )
3. In Features View on the right, double click Handler Mappings
4. Sort your Handler Mappings by Name, and remove all entries titled “AboMapperCustom-*”
5. Now your ASP.NET should work like a champ.

IIS7 Handler Mappings

Coldfusion9 Handler Mappings

Monday WTF solved.  Now to get back to pushing buttons.