Rob Brooks-Bilson's Blog - Announcements

Announcement: Boosting Performance and Scale for ColdFusion Applications with Ehcache (Webinar)

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:14:00 -0400

If you've been following my series on caching in ColdFusion 9, you know that ColdFusion 9.0 includes the powerful caching platform Ehcache from Terracotta. What you may not know, though, is that in ColdFusion 9.0.1 Adobe upgraded the Ehcache engine from version 1.6 to 2.0. This brings several new caching capabilities to ColdFusion and makes them dead simple to implement. If you're interested in learning more, Mike Allen from Terracotta and I are presenting a webinar on August 12, 2010 at 11am Pacific time. Here's the official announcement: Join me and Mike Allen, the head of product management at Terracotta in a discussion about simple and effective ways to scale and boost the performance of ColdFusion applications using Ehcache. In this webcast, you'll learn:

Why caching is important
How ColdFusion leverages Ehcache to boost performance
Tips and tricks to leverage the newest features of Ehcache in ColdFusion
How to take advantage of the ability to snap in Enterprise Ehcache to scale out your applications

Please register for this webcast even if you are unable to attend and you will get an email with a link to the recording. Register for the webinar

Speaking at cf.Objective 2010

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:51:00 -0400

I just received word today that I'll be speaking at cf.Objective() 2010. This is the one ColdFusion conference I've wanted to attend for years now but have never been able to. If you've been following my blog lately, I've been working on a multi-part series on caching in ColdFusion 9. I also spoke about this topic at Adobe MAX 2009. Caching is something I've been very interested in for the past few years now. The presentation I'm planning for cf.Objective() is a little different than the one I gave at MAX. There will be some overlap, but the focus of the cf.Objective talk will be on caching for scalability as opposed to a general presentation on caching fundamentals. I hope to see you there!

Adobe ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder Hit Public Beta

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:28:00 -0400

Lots and lots of hard work by the ColdFusion Engineering Team has resulted in today's announcement that ColdFusion 9 (formerly code named Centaur) and the new ColdFusion Builder IDE have hit the public beta milestone and are now available on Adobe Labs:

Also tucked in with the release is the availability of the new ColdFusion Public Bugbase. If you haven't had a chance to download the public betas, you should really give them a try. ColdFusion 9 focuses heavily on developer productivity enhancements. I'm not going to list everything out here, but let me just say that lots and lots of things people have been clamoring for are included!

Adobe Releases Photoshop Lightroom 2.1

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:13:00 -0400

Looks like the Lightroom 2.1 update has officially been released. For those waiting for it, the 2.1 release includes Adobe Camera Raw 5.1 as well as a long list of bug fixes. For the full list, see the ReadMe (PDF). Windows Version Mac Version

Adobe ColdFusion 8 wins 2008 Jolt Award for Web Development

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:59:00 -0400

I realize that this is another "me too" post as the news has already been widely reported. However, it's good news, and it's too good to pass up. Just in case you haven't heard yet, Adobe ColdFusion 8 just won the 2008 Jolt Product Excellence Award for Web Development, presented by Dr. Dobb's Journal. What makes this particularly nice is that the winners are "selected by a panel of judges consisting of industry insiders, columnists, and technology leaders.", lending much more credibility to the award. Congratulations to the ColdFusion Engineering team and to Adobe!

CFSnippets Snip-a-Thon 2007: Get your Entries in Now

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:48:00 -0400

This one has been making the rounds around the ColdFusion blogosphere, so I thought I'd add to the mix and help get the word out. Todd Sharp is running a nice contest over at the new CFSnippets website designed to get developers working with the new Snipex features in CFEclipse. If you haven't been to CFSnippets, it's a public Snipex server with several libraries of open source snippets you can use within CFEclipse to speed up development of common tasks. The contest runs through November 30th and includes some pretty cool prizes. For more information, click the banner below.

Adobe MAX 2007 - Sneak Peeks Part 1

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 17:35:00 -0400

Live blogging from the Sneak Peeks session at Adobe MAX 2007. Sneak Peeks is one of my favorite sessions. It's always interesting to see what's on the minds of Adobe engineers, and what might be coming down the line in future releases. They're pulling a Blues Brothers skit with Mike Downey and Marc Eaman dressed up like Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. The standard disclaimer applies - the tech previews here may or may not ever make it into products... There's going to be a vote for best sneak at the end of the session (built with CF and Flex, of course). First up is Karl Miller and Karl Soule from the visual communicator (Vc) team. They're showing off a new tool (version 3) for doing video production that's supposed to be easy enough for a third grader to use. It has a teleprompter interface for script reading with the ability to place content at various places throughout the timeline. Pretty simple and powerful. It can also communicate with Flash Media Server for live streaming. It can control up to 3 cameras and has both blue and green screen built in. This tool looks like it makes it very simple to do tv quality production on a laptop. Up now is Danielle Diebler who is showing off VoIP in the Flash Player. She's also mention that P2P in the Flash Player as well as extended codecs are in the works. She's demoing an application now that built using the technology called CoCoNiki. It's an online diary that uses voice and presence awareness. The VoIP quality seems pretty good so far. She's moving on to an Air application now that also does VoIP (she's making a live call to a cell phone. Ken Sundermeyert is up from the Flash Home for Mobile group. He says Flash Home will let you replace the home screen on your phone (has to be a Flash enabled phone, of course) with a customized Flash based screen. The market for personalization is huge (2+ billion last year, excluding ringtones). Flash Home is capable of getting web data, including from Flash Cast. It is also integrated with the device. No sandbox, so it can access phone functionality natively (address book, sms, call logs, etc.). He's demoing a custom home screen that he built that pulls up a person's location when they call by getting their phone number from the call log, checking the area code, and displaying a graphic of the city. Live demo of someone in the audience calling his phone. The wallpaper on the phone switches from blue background to the Statue of Liberty. You'll also be able to get home screens from a catalog over the air. Geoff Baum is showing off Photoshop Express, a new online version of Photoshop built using Flex. It's not meant to replace the full Photoshop, but is supposed to provide a "consumer" alternative for performing common image editing tasks. The interface is pretty intuitive. Lots of impressive editing capabilities. It's got a timeline for edits, so you can move backward/forward in edit sequences. All of the editing is non-destructive. Very impressive stuff! They're setting up for part 2 now, so I'm going to cut this post of here, grab a beer, then come back for more. Stay tuned...

Next Version of ColdFusion Codename: Centaur

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:16:00 -0400

The title says it all. No ETA, but Adobe has given it a name and it's now on the future development roadmap.

Flickr Group for Adobe MAX 2007

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 17:53:00 -0400

I'm here in Chicago this week for the Adobe MAX 2007 conference. Following tradition (well, now that I've done it twice, it's a tradition), I've created a Flickr Group for posting pictures of the event. It's a public group, so feel free to post pics and share the group link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/adobemax2007/ You can see pics from last year's Flickr group by following the related link below.

CFCDev Mailing List Archive

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 17:11:00 -0400

With the move from a dedicated listserv to Google Groups, many people are wondering if there's an archive available of old CFCDev posts. There is, and you can find it here: http://www.mail-archive.com/cfcdev@cfczone.org/ Future archive posts will be handled by Google Groups.

CFCDev Mailing List Moving to Google Groups

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:57:00 -0400

For several years now, the CFCDev mailing list has provided a forum for the discussion of ColdFusion Components and other OO topics. During that time, Ray and I have had our ups and downs with various listserv packages, virus scanners, and spam filters. With the recent move of CFLib, CFCZone, and the ColdFusionCookbook to new servers, it's time for us to shut down the old box. Rather than go through the process of setting up an entire new listserv on the new machine, with all the associated issues, we've decided to migrate the CFCDev list over to Google Groups. Several other popular ColdFusion lists are currently hosted on Google Groups, and the reaction has generally been positive. Although there is an automatic way to migrate your current CFCDev subscription over to Google Groups, I don't want to start switching people without their consent. So, to make the migration as painless as possible, we will be sending invites to everyone currently subscribed to the CFCDev list, inviting them to make the switch. Although the CFCDev traffic has lightened over the past year, there's still a lot of valuable discussion that takes place on the list, and the signal to noise ratio can't be beat. To all of you whom have made the list a great meeting place over the years, we say "thanks", and hope that you'll continue to support the list at it's new home. The new list is already up and running - it's just waiting for subscribers and posts. I'll be putting together the invitation email shortly, but if you want to go ahead and sign-up on your own, the new list is located here: http://groups.google.com/group/cfcdev The email address for the group is: cfcdev@googlegroups.com (note you must be subscribed to post, but not to read) UPDATE: an archive of old postings pre-Google Groups can be found here: http://www.mail-archive.com/cfcdev@cfczone.org

ColdFusion 8 Video Posted - See My Mad Juggling Skilz

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 12:48:00 -0400

Coinciding with the launch of ColdFusion 8 today, Adobe posted a short video on their website highlighting customer reactions to the new release. When I was in San Jose a few months ago, Adobe asked me to participate in the video shoot. It was a lot of fun, and pretty lighthearted. Here's a link to the video where you can see me showing off my juggling skills (you'll see what it has to do with CF in a moment).

Adobe Releases ColdFusion 8!

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:25:00 -0400

Being on West coast time, I'm always a little late with these announcements these days. In case you haven't already heard, Adobe ColdFusion 8 launched today! As before, ColdFusion is available in three editions; Developer (free), Standard ($1299), and Enterprise ($7499). Upgrade pricing is also available. I'm not going to get into all of the new features as they have been getting a lot of coverage already among the various ColdFusion blogs. What I will say, though, is that ColdFusion 8 represents the culmination of an impressive engineering effort on Adobe's part, and is destined to be the best release of ColdFusion yet. One other thing to note is that some of the features previouslt only available in the Enterprise edition (such as Event Gateways) are now also available in the Standard version of the product, albeit with some performance limiters. To see a full comparison of what's available in each edition, see product editions page. So, now that ColdFusion 8 is out, how's it going to make your life easier?

Sr. Web Application Engineer (ColdFusion) Needed in Chandler, AZ

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:32:00 -0400

Update: This position has been filled. Thanks again to all those who applied Amkor Technology is currently looking for a Sr. Web Application Engineer to join the web services team at our Chandler, AZ location. As a member, this position will be responsible for designing, developing and supporting Enterprise class web applications for a Fortune 1000 global company using the latest web based tools and cutting-edge technology. Additionally, you'll get to work with some great people including Adam Crump and Jim Bambrough. Major responsibilities of this position include:

Requirements gathering and analysis
Application development and testing
Production support
New technology evaluation

This position requires a Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and at least 5 years of experience developing and maintaining web based applications in a corporate environment. Additionally, at least 3 years development experience using ColdFusion with an emphasis on CFC based development. The ideal candidate will have the ability to work under limited supervision within established departmental guidelines and the ability to gather and understand requirements from the end user community. Additionally, the following experience with the following technical tools are required: ColdFusion MX7.x; HTML; JavaScript; CSS; DHTML; SQL and XML. The following skills and attributes are desired for this position:

Experience with OO design and development, Mach-II, UML, Flash/Flex and the Eclipse IDE is preferred
Java skills are highly desirable
Ability to perform detailed analysis and prepare detailed programming specifications from customer requirements
Ability to code from specifications using ColdFusion and other web development languages
Ability to deliver solutions on time and within budget
Knowledge of troubleshooting and incident resolution practices
Ability to work with reporting tools and data extraction methods
Ability to prepare and conduct a comprehensive system test plan (unit, functional, integration, regression)
Ability to work in a team environment
Ability to adhere to technical and administrative standards
Ability to follow formal SDLC methodology and create supporting documentation
Knowledge and adherence to change management best practices
Strong oral and written communication skills

This position requires approximately 5% domestic travel. Sorry, no telecomuters and no recruiters/agencies. For more information, see our website. If you have specific questions about the position, please feel free to contact me via my contact form.

ColdFusion MX 7.0.2 Cumulative Hot Fix 2 has been Released

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:28:00 -0400

If you're running ColdFusion MX 7.0.2, you may be interested to know that the latest cumulative hot fix has been released. You can download the file from Adobe's website. The hot fix fixes a number of bugs including several with cfchart, cfreport, and sandbox security. As always, Adobe only recommends applying the hot fix if you are experiencing problems caused by any of the fixed issues.