February 12, 2002

COOL COLDFUSION RESOURCES

How can you get help with the development of you pages? What about new developments in design? What to do when you can't get your code to function? Fortunately, there are many sources of help.

The Usual Suspects- Web, forums and email groups

Publications

ColdFusion Studio

YOU!

Web, forums and email groups

TeraTech (www.teratech.com)
The best place to start is at the beginning...Dorothy. Our host offers training, consulting, downloads of presentations, and help to get you down the yellow brick road. Also, if you have not signed up for the mailing list, it is great.
Systemanage.com- Charlie Arehart's site (www.systemanage.com)
Almost enough resources by itself. One of the most useful areas is the link page to articles Charlie has written for CF Developer's Journal.
CF Advisor online (www.cfadvisor.com)
CF Advisor online. Latest home page has information on Wrox press CF 5 book and an article by Hal Helms. Just acquired by Sys-con media, publishers of ColdFusion Developers Journal.
Macromedia's Design and Developer (www.macromedia.com/desdev/)
Pages for general development and design using Macromedia's products.
ColdFusion 5 server (www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/)
Macromedia's ColdFusion 5 server page. Links to product info, support and training, downloads, and other stuff.
ColdFusion online forum (webforums.macromedia.com/coldfusion/)
Macromedia's discussion/forum for CF. Saved my bacon many times.
Developers Exchange (devex.macromedia.com/developer/gallery/)
Another area of Macromedia's pages. Tags and other goodies...sort of a year round Easter Egg hunt!
The Fusion Authority (www.fusionauthority.com)
A big grab bag of all thinks CF. Articles, CFUGS, tags, techniques, the whole nine yards. Includes an index all articles by category.
House of Fusion (www.houseoffusion.com)
Has an open source list.
CFXtras (www.cfxtras.com)
Component resource. I found BTMapBlaster on this site, and it was an inexpensive solution for location mapping on one of my templates.
Hal Helms site (www.halhelms.com)
Resourses for Fusebox.
SecretAgents.com (www.secretagents.com)
>From the Fusebox folks. They have a cool idea in the works to allow you to program from anywhere by becoming a "Seret Agent"
A few email list groups (but MDCFUG is the best!) -

Yahoo CF email list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coldfusion-howto/)
OpenITx (http://www.openitx.com/g/Allaire/COLDFUSION-L.asp) notice the problem with this URL?

Publications

MAGAZINES-

ColdFusion Developers Journal (www.sys-con.com/coldfusion/)
Billed as "The world's leading independent coldfusion magazine". Read articles by Michael Smith, Charlie Arehart and CF guru Ben Forta, among others.

DMOZ list of e-zines (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Internet/ColdFusion/E-zines/)
A list of various CF ezines.

BOOKS-

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes Ben Forta

ColdFusion 5 Web Application Construction Kit Ben Forta, Nate Weiss and others

Developer Study Guide Ben Forta

Instant ColdFusion 5 Jeffrey Houser

Sams Teach Yourself ColdFusion 5 in 21 days Charles Mohnike

Mastering ColdFusion 5 Arman Danesh, Kristen Aileen Motlagh and Raymond Camden

Fusebox: Methodology and Techniques Steve Nelson and Craig Girard

CF STUDIO

Did you know that a great deal of help is tucked right into studio?

The resource window help tab puts an entire book at your disposal. The help resource window has a search function (although I have found it to be a bit buggy). Also included is the Help reference tree and a bookmark option.
While editing in Studio, you can place the cursor inside a tag and hit the F1 key. Information about the tag will appear in the resource pane.
When you pull up a tag editor, there is a small help button on the lower right side.

Besides help files, there are some other resources in Studio-

SNIPPETS ! One of my favorite features. Save your code for re-use. Is there a piece of code you like to apply often such as a formatted date or time? Save it as a snippet and save yourself keystrokes. You can save a snippets to apply as a tag or as a block of code.
Style Editor. I have a blast with the CSS Style Editor, playing with different colors and fonts. The rollover effects on this page were created in the Style Editor (alas...not viewable in Netscape).
Search and replace. You can change text in one file or every file in a directory.
The Quick Bar (those tabs in the top right corner). In addition to the default tabs, you can add extra commands by right clicking on the bar...there's even one for ASP. Ouch!

YOU- the coolest resource of all!

Document as you work. Yes, it is a bit slower, but the payoff is immense! When you conquer that problem or bug, comment the code or make a note of what you did. I have a database of solutions and tips that is written in my own words. I keep it open as I work, and add to it. Slowly a body of knowledge is being built up that can be referenced later or shared with others. You may need that obscure syntax or weird solution months later. Keeping a record of your learning will save you time.
Create folders for storing code samples, downloaded presentations and areas of your interests. There is just so much you can get for free on the Internet. Take advantage of it and spend some time organizing the knowledge so you can make use of it.
As your schedule allows, attend free meetings such as the one here tonight. I have never failed to learn something at each presentation. Companies such as Microsoft, Macromedia and Empirix regularly invite the public to sessions. OK, many times it is usually a sales pitch, but there is free food and a chance to network with other members of the programming community.
Training classes are a great investment in yourself. You will probably recoup your money by learning time saving tips and proper techniques. Add the training course to you resume and show a potential employer your extra skills (for extra bucks!)

thanks for attending MDCFUG
Jon Brundage, independent consultant and contractor
jonwind@windcompany

The MDCFUG is sponsored by TeraTech. \| Please send comments/questions to michael@teratech.com
Copyright © 1997-2012, Maryland Cold Fusion User Group. All rights reserved.

COOL COLDFUSION RESOURCES

Copyright © 1997-2012, Maryland Cold Fusion User Group. All rights reserved.