Books and Coldfusion by Frank Tudor

Mobility addendum

2012-01-23T08:53:00.001-08:00

Outputting Coldfusion Parameters in cfstoredproc stored procedures

2012-01-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

Last week I was running into an issue with a stored procedure. Passing parameters to the procedure using cfstoredproc and cfprocparam.

Here is how I solved it to trap the problem which was a HY000 error returned by Oracle.

using a combination of cfoutput and pre and then clipping the < part of the container tags and then closing the cfoutput and pre tags I was able to determine a few things.

< cfoutput >
< pre >
CFstoredproc procedure="schema.package.procedure" datasource="dsn">cfprocparam type="inout" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_Number" dbvarname="mID" value="#trim(variables.mID)#" null="#evaluate("variables.mID is """"")#">cfprocparam type="in" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_Varchar" dbvarname="pName" value="#form.pname#">cfprocparam type="in" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_Number" dbvarname="pMedium" value="#trim(form.pMedium)#">CFStoredproc>
< /pre >
< /cfoutput >
< cfabort >

(where you see the actual container tags spaced out is because of blogger doing some clean-up...I forgot how frustrating this can be :) )

I re-saved the code snippet and visited the page in my browser. I was able to determine that I actually had more than one problem. I was passing part of a form tag to my procedure parameter which was a coding error on my part, and also one of my variable data types were mismatching. For example a string where a number was expected by the procedure. I got my data types fixed removed the pre tag and the cfoutput surrounding it and it worked like a charm. i hope this helps others who have got stuck on something like this.

Crafty website and eBook marketing tips on content and keywords

2012-01-22T07:40:00.000-08:00

This book is very meat and potatoes on content generation and keyword relevancy. It is not what you say it is how you say it and on websites and eBooks that goes double. There is more than meets the eye when it comes to search and we will get to the bottom of the problems developers and designers face in this installment.

Visit:

http://www.amazon.com/Content-Keywords-Crafty-Tips-ebook/dp/B0070GC12C/

You can locate my other blog about books I write and my author page here:

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Tudor/e/B005VR3DMY/

http://franktudor.wordpress.com/

Back link strategies for your website or eBook

2012-01-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Solving the problems of web is never easy, you have to think like the bots, spiders and crawlers. You have to at the same time maintain useful purposeful meaningful information. Each sentence you right is being scrutinized in the meat grinder of search engines and how you get to the top spot is the golden ring of web developers and designer teams throughout the world. They are better staffed then you, they have more experience creating compelling websites. So I have created this book to give your the step by step content requirements and where to find trusted technology and resources to get you the rest of the way.

http://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Website-eBook-Crafty-ebook/dp/B0070DA00U/

You can locate my other blog about books I write and my author page here:

http://www.amazon.com/Frank-Tudor/e/B005VR3DMY/

http://franktudor.wordpress.com/

Crafty eBook and Web Marketing Tips Series

2012-01-22T07:25:00.000-08:00

I have created a series of SEO related books for helping solve some problems in eBook and web marketing. The books are parsed into logical segments. The material will focus on numerous ways to improve your position in search results.

You can locate my two latest installments on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Content-Keywords-Crafty-Tips-ebook/dp/B0070GC12C/

http://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Website-eBook-Crafty-ebook/dp/B0070DA00U/

As a SEO grunt on the ground and helping companies in the game of inches against very creative competition, it never hurts to bolster your metal arsenal with tools and tricks to help you get the PR, relevancy and click through rate your deserve.

Coldfusion Powerball lottery pick tool

2008-03-25T06:40:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to pick lottery numbers with your own tool? This tool is setup for the powerball. and has set by step explanations.

</cfif>

</cfloop>

<cfset xArrayToList = ArrayToList(randArray)>

<cfset yListSort = listsort(xArrayToList, "numeric")>

#yListSort#

</cfoutput>

<cfoutput>

#arrRandRange2#

</cfoutput>

and abracadabra I have my lottery number picks...I hope they are winners.

Looping backwards over a list or array

2008-03-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Many months back I was on a job interview and someone asked me to loop backwards over a name, essentially spelling it backwards. What an odd request. I fumbled around and was totally stumped. I didn't get the job, but you can bet your ass I figured out how to loop backwards over a list/array or whatever. Below is the proof of concept example code.

Enjoy.

<br>

<cfoutput>

<cfloop from="#arrayLen(myArray)#" to="1" step="-1" index="i" >

#myArray[i]#<br>

</cfloop>

</cfoutput>

Coldfusion try/catch example.

2008-03-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Like other languages, Coldfusion has the ability to attempt code and then provide a custom error if it fails. This is good if you cannot test your code and example would be if you are waiting for other groups to get database development done, or server environment constraints.

So here is a simple example.

Say I have a query that adds favorites to my table first I am going to set some simple variables

Next, I am going to set up my try/catch code Note I have a primary key made up of fvrt_src, fvrt_sel, meaning I cannot add it twice and if I refresh the screen the error will be produced.

<cftry>

<cfquery

datasource="#request.dsn#"

name="addingToFav">

insert into favorites (fvrt_src, fvrt_sel)

values ('#me#', '#myfav#')

</cfquery>

If the error is produced the catch will sense the database error and produce a nice controlled session error instead of a screen with gibberish (client confusion screens).

<cfcatch type="database">

<cfset session.favAddError = "User has already been added to your favorties<br>

please check your favorites list above.">

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

Next if the session has been created I display the error message below.

<cfif isdefined(“session.favAddError”)>

<cfoutput>

#session.favAddError#

</cfoutput>

Easy CFC

2008-03-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

This is a simple coldfusion pages and the accompanying cfc.  
There are two functions that do different things.  It might be 
clear as mud so don't hesitate to drop me a line if you get lost, 
but here is the idea, I am craeting two functions and invoking
them in differnt ways one example is through createObject and 
the other is the cfinvoke tag.

(first our index.cfm page)

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>
Untitled Document
</title>
</head> 
<body>  

<!--- 
Using cfset to call an object and output a value
In a cfc I have a component that has a function called timer.
Below I an 'instanciating' the object and  
assigning it to a variable named 'time'   
instead of using cfinvoke I am using the function  
createObject.  createObject has several parameter settings. 
For a CFC and if that CFC is in the same directory as this file. 
Then I simply set the createObject to call a component named time. 
--->  

<cfset time = createObject('component', 'myCfc')> 

<!--- 
Below I am outputting the variable I set above.   
Notice I am using the dot notation.   
time.timer()   
Notice the paranthesis.  If my object 
took an argument I would place it there.   
Like this time.timer(today,tommorow,yesterday,etc)   
But I have nothing to pass since 
this is only a simple example. 
--->  

<cfoutput>
#time.x("This is a argument/parameter being passed to my object")#
</cfoutput> 
<br<br> 

<!---Here is a quick example of a cfc that does some arithmetic.--->   

<!---  We are using the invoke method (tag)  to pull this object into play  --->   

<cfinvoke component="myCfc" method="z" returnvariable="goober"> 

<cfoutput>
#goober#
</cfoutput>

</body>
</html>   

(my next file is called myCfc.cfc)

<cfcomponent hint="amigo formats the date...if argument gets passed then i append it to the amigo  string"> 
<cffunction
name="x"
description="the function name is x">
<cfargument
name="today"
type="string"
required="no">  

<cfset amigo = timeFormat(now(), "h:MM")>      

<cfif isdefined("arguments.today")>  
<cfset amigo = arguments.today & " " & amigo>  
</cfif>      
<cfreturn amigo> 
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="z">  
<cfset x = 100>  
<cfset y = 5>
<cfreturn x/y>  
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

CFC Simplicity

2008-03-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Ok so here is my quick and dirty primer on CFCs. CFCs are the defacto method for keeping your development nice and clean. For this example i am using a simple query and then invoking it in a web page. There are two files you need the CFC and the CFM calling the CFC.

So here are the files assuming you have a database registered in your Coldfusion administrator.

index.cfm
qryPerson.cfc

For the index page here are the contents with explanations and the cfc with explanations.



<cfinvoke component="qryPerson" method="qryPerson" returnvariable="qryPerson">



<cfinvokeargument name="first" value="Frank">



</cfinvoke>



<cfdump var="#qryPerson#">


<cfoutput query="qryPerson">

#first_name# #last_name# #userID#

</cfoutput>

Here is the qryPerson.cfc (component).





<cfcomponent>



<cffunction name="qryPerson" access="public" returntype="query">



<cfargument name="first" type="string" required="yno">



<cfquery datasource="emp" name="qryPerson">

Select * from emp

<cfif isdefined("arguments.first")>

where first_name = '#arguments.first#'

</cfif>

</cfquery>



<cfreturn qryPerson>

</cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Any questions? drop me a line at frank_tudor@yahoo.com

Variable Primer

2007-12-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

Vocab:

Variable: a container that holds something

Value: assigned to a variable

example = variable = value

In coldfusion the simple variable can be handled in a few ways.

For example say we have the word 'apple' and we want to take this word and pass it throughout our application.

In a form this is how you would do it:

and on the variable2.cfm page you would need code that looked like this to display it.

<cfoutput>
</cfoutput><p>passed variables</p>
<cfif>
#form.name#
</cfif>

This is a URL what we can a query string variable

<a href="http://www.blogger.com/variables2.cfm?name=frank">URL variable example</a>

For a session you would set your variable like this: Session are great for storing variables that are needed throughout your website. so instead of move hidden input fields through forms, or long crazy querystring you simple set the session.whatever and assign the value.

<cfset firstname=" 'Doug'">
<cfoutput>
#session.firstname#
</cfoutput>

Here is another type of variable called a 'request' variable. This type of variable only lasts for the life of the page...Move to another page and it is gone. request.variables are useful for database references where you would assigned the data source to something like request.dsn (datasource name).

<cfset frank=" 35">
request.frank is <cfoutput>#request.frank#</cfoutput>

The last variable is just the variable's variable where you would set your variable in somethign like this <cfset fruit = 'apple'> it only lasts for the duration of the page, move away from the page and it is gone.

Frank

Best and worst audiobooks

2007-12-19T10:31:00.001-08:00

I have been listening to many audiobooks lately and here is what i have to report from the limited files I have.

First, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy read by Stephen Fry. Is possibly one of the best available.

On the low end of the spectrum. Ivanhoe read by Flo Gibson. This audiobook book was horrid. And I don't think it is the material so much than the voice of this woman. Her voice is so difficult to stomach. Ivanhoe is not easy as it is. There is so much environment settings and character setting that it can get tedious, but Flo's voice is much more miserable.

All the harry Potter books are great including the first book and the last one (Deathly Hollows) are great.

The Terror is fairly good if you have never had exposure to harrowing artic tales before.

Frank

Simple session and setting sessions with cfset example

2007-12-19T07:18:00.000-08:00

As part of my effort for creating simple Coldfusion examples. I want to take about variables. As we know in a normal website we are taught to pass URL or FORM variable from page to page. This is great for a one or two things or for a form of variables/values. So there is another very useful way to pass variables and that is by sessions. I won’t explain what a session 'is' except that it works with cfset tag like normal variables.

Let me show you

URL variables look like this when you pass it from a URL query string.

http://www.sitename.com/index.cfm?binky=boink

then you pull it into the the target page like this:

<cfoutput>
#url.binky#
</cfoutput>

You don't need the value after the equal sign because when the page resolves it will show on the screen.

imagine a form on a page that has a textbox input area. The label of the this 'input' text field is called 'name'. Then you type in the word 'frank' and hit submit.

It passes the value to a page called formCatch.cfm

You would display it like this.

<cfoutput>
#form.name#
</cfoutput>

It would output the word frank.

And now lets look at a session:

<cfset session.name = 'frank'>

<cfoutput>
#session.name#
</cfoutput>

It would output the name Frank, but here is the good thing about sessions, you can go to any page after setting the session variable and call it.

So lets go back to the FORM and URL variables. those are great for one page justs, but after that they loose purpose.

sessions stay for the duration of your access to the website or until you explicitly tell it togo away.

Here is how you do that.

<cfset StructDelete(Session, "name")>

One other note. Before you can use sessions in your website you have to 'tell' it that it will use sessions.

Here is how that works.

In your web application directory you can create a blank .cfm file called 'Application.cfm'. Put this file on the directory where you will use sessions.

Then add this line of code:

<cfapplication sessionmanagement="yes">

So that is sesssions in a nutshell. This should get anyone by with sessions.

Frank

2007-12-13T08:39:00.000-08:00

On the subject of recursion or parent child relationships in data sources. It is a difficult concept if you are non-traditional programmer like myself. I think the hardest part is calling the function over and over and then move out of the loop and back up the tree. I did a lot of searching, especially for a Coldfusion based example. Here is what i found:

EasyCFM example

CuttersCrossing example

Doug Boude example

Kinky Solution : Ben Nadel example

I asked Ben to create a recursive solution for me because the other three were too difficult for me. The Doug Boude example shows a sudo-solution that I actually incorporated but then felt guilty about, but Ben really simplified the concepts and the example is extensible that you can actually use the code in your own solution.

2007-12-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Living in Omaha is a nice feeling. The people are friendly, families are big, and bad things rarely happen. So when Richard Hawkin's went on a shooting spree yesterday, it sent waves of pain through me. This never happens around here but you can't say never now. We are now part of a select group of victims that get to make sense out of the senseless. People were shopping, people returning from break back to there jobs (inthe mall), people were just being people...around Christmas...I am wondering about this guy's parents. I wonder when they will talk.

2007-12-05T13:12:00.001-08:00

Recently I had a table with no unique ID. I had to create a row then realized I already had 238 records. Instead of touching each and typing in the value (dumb). I came up with this snip of code. The table is in Oracle and the Coldfusion code uses the sudo field rowid to achieve this.

<cfquery datasource="#request.dsn#" name="tester">
select req_incr_id, rowid
from rem_apvl_dtl
</cfquery>

<cfloop query="tester">

<cfif tester.req_incr_id eq 1>
<cfset mark = 1>
<cfelse>
<cfset mark = mark +1>
</cfif>


<cfquery datasource="#request.dsn#" name="markit">
UPDATE rem_apvl_dtl
SET req_incr_id = '#mark#'
where rowid = '#rowid#'
</cfquery>

</cfloop>

You can see how easy this is. Now once all of your records have been updated you can go back and fix your queries or add a sequence to your table to increment the id from here on out.

If you inadvertently screw up on the data in the field you can always remove it and add it again.

2007-11-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

Today my wife had a hissy fit. She got mad because I thought we were getting separate gifts for our kids. So I wrote Santa an email:

----

Dear Santa,

My wife is yelling at me. She says the 'F' word a lot and she is frowns and pouts.

Can you put her on the Naughty list please?

Thanks,
Frank

2007-11-26T13:51:00.000-08:00

Well, my fusebox self-retraining is coming along nicely. But I need more. I have ordered a new book recommended by Sean Corfield. We'll see how much I can pull from it with out running out of steam. I am much better with smaller reads, however I did get through most of the WACK chapters (or those that were most important to me).

I will be living breathing FuseBox and jQuery for the next several months (possibly years).

Frank

2007-11-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

It is Thanksgiving today and I have a lot to be thankful for. I real very content in my life and I am 'now' generally happy. Working for Div-Sol and XIG really helps. I can't emphasize how nice it is to work in my specialized field.

Now my site has been neglected. I have decided to relearn Fusebox 4 and that kind of sucks but I think it is necessary. I started but fell short of completing my training because I am used to having page templates and the content changes based on query string variables. I could not figure out how to do this so I posted my question to the fusebox forum and the time it took to get a response put enough time between working with fusebox forcing me to move on to something else (i forgot how to work with fusebox (sort of)) and everything came to a stand still.

I will have to rework my fusebox site a little differently. I have a concept in mind, but I have to put myself into it.

Anyways, happy Thanksgiving to anyone who happens to pass by my blog.

Frank

2007-11-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Saul Williams NiggyTardust ready for download [label/DRM-free distribution]

Saul Williams' THE INEVITABLE RISE AND LIBERATION OF NIGGYTARDUST, produced by Trent Reznor, have been distributed. The album is available for free at 192kbps bitrate or 320kps/lossless if you put forward some cash. Please support this artist and label/DRM-free distribution!

This album is excellent! I paid the $5 you should too!

2007-10-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

On the subject of the Philosophy Bites Interviews co-produced by: David Edmunds and Nigel Walburton:

(available on iTunes)

Interview tones: Mr. Walburton opens almost all of his interviews up by thanking the interviewee for being a guest. Many of the earlier interviewees seemed bemused but interested in giving the interview however towards the middle of the first 25 interviews the structure and tone of the interviews are consistent and the interviewees approach their interview in a more professional way.

Questioning methods: Nigel understands his field and asks pointed questions in an expert way. With each interview, after introducing the topic or subject, he turns to the interviewee and in most interviews asks what the interviewee understands by the topic in question. The purpose for this is to define the interviewee’s interpretations since there may be several interpretations or angles to ideas, and from there the interviewee is left to explain those ideas set the pace of the interview. At the end of one interview with Quentin Skinner on Hobbes, Mr. Walburton thanks Mr. Skinner for the interview and Skinner replies, “well Nigel thank you very much…they’re such perceptive questions you’ve helped me to make it easier than it should be to answer them”. This clearly shows his expert knowledge on the subject of Philosophy. However there are in some Nigel’s interviews leading questions. This may be to keep an interviewee from derailing the interview. Also there is one interview where some friendly disagreement occurs such as the interview with Tim Crane on ‘Mind and Body’ where he ‘presses’ Mr. Crane in a particular part of the interview.

Most of the interviews are poignant and thought provoking. The interviews mostly for posterity seems to evoke what could be called a ‘revivalist Philosophy movement’ due to there modern interview structure and appeal to pop culture.

Frank

2007-10-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

Custody battles suck!

My son is 4.5 years old. and we have to go through hell on earth with my ex-wife. I have full custody of my son, (temporary orders), and now the ex wants to make those into final orders. She agreed to my custody arrangements. That was a $5000.00 effort. Plus taking time off work and traveling and all that other crap.

Now we have to drop another $5000.00 plus a home study which I will have to pay for. I have to drop $2000.00 on getting the lady to come up and comb through my life with a fine tooth comb. GAD!

So things are suck-tacular as one of my old co-workers used to say.

So as far as I know the one who wins the home study wins custody. (sigh).

I am ready for custody battles to be over.

Frank

2007-10-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hi,

So my blog has been neglected. My website has too. I think I am either to tired or coded out. So I am thinking about a few things. I am thinking about running for County Commissioner I think it would be part time and the pay would be around $500 a month plus pay for meetings $75 or so. I have to register and win first but I think it would be fun.

Anyways, I have been doing some Coldfusion work for a real nice company. Coldfusion is my forte so anytime I find a CF job I am super thankful. In any case life is pretty good and I am going to focus more on my site development. Or at least I will keep telling myself that I will.

Talk soon...

2006-07-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Using cfdirectory to list a files:

Recently I was asked to create an upload tool that takes radio shows from a particular station and uploads then for archival purposes.

The first thing i needed to do was to create a form that formatted the date and grabbed the file. I had to break this into two parts:

one part used the very hand cfform cffinput container called dateselect: here is the code:

In the code above notice the mask="yyyymmdd" that formats my date and the cfparam sets the date for today.

The code above is so sweet. It controls user input so there is no mistake on date entry, additionally the reduced amount of code is applaudable. (note: the code will only work with MX 7) I found out we were using Coldfusion 6.1 so I had to change it to something else.

Next, I used a cfinput type="file" to grab the file on my computer.

After that I had to check to see what files were already there incase of collisions...here is the code:

#dircheck.name#

Now notice the above code...let me point out two really useful elements when checking for files that ar incremented and in my case I am looking for the file name that was last modified, that file will also have the highest number with oday's date. The great thing that happens next is that if the file does exist we run a mid function on the incremented value. If that value doesn't exist it is set to 00 if it is anything else, it checks the number then increments the number...here is the code:

You have submitted an Mp3 today, so we are going to add this and increment it to #EE#.

The tough part was managing the files. The file had to be named a certain way. There is a prefix and a dash, there is a date, then a two digit unique file number that looks like 00 or 01 or 02...etc.

So here is the file name break down and each file needed to follow certain naming conventions:

(prefix)-(date)(increment).mp3

rs-2006072100.mp3

This was not to difficult. I managed this by doing this:

Well maybe it was a bit difficult.

Well I hopes this help someone else who has cffile and cfdirectory difficulties. This stuff is never easy when you are doing this by yourself.

Talk soon,
Frank Tudor
www.300site.com

2006-07-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Well I am starting to fine tune 300site some more updating the site and intigrating some additional technololgy. I have investigated a framework called fusebox. This technology will create a faster more useable website and product for the masses. As always if you are interested in 300site for your website solutions now is the time to get it we are still offering the site for $29.95 w/free banner.

But there are many things to add!

Here is a small to do list for 300site:

Recreate the site using Fusebox/FLiP!
Change our data source to MySQL from Access!
Implement some back end (and maybe front end) Flex elements!

Of course at some point, we will add a shop cart solution, which will create a new level of havoc for us ;)

Anyways on a personal note. Coldfusion, in which this and most of my other sites are created in, is one of the most excellent web development technologies out there. The ease of use and implementation is top-notch. People (of lower programming experience) can create the functionality they have always dreamed about. Of course, with guys like Ben Forta and Ray Camden on your side looking out for his development community you can go work. Coldfusion is not just a technology...it is a spiritual way of life!!!

2006-03-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

300site: a breakdown of our web technology.

You might be asking what is 300site.com? 300site is a template and framework for bulding search friendly webpages. I developed this technology over several years of building websites for various clients. I would take the parts I like and build them together to enhance presentation. So now instead of charging a client an hour rate, I give them roughly $1,000 of features and a clean design to start up a professional self-building website for under $300.

More than that we help people get there web presence established. We try to work with everyone on a close and personal level so they have somewhere to turn when they need help.

If you have any questions about 300site you can always email me at support@300site.com.

BTW, we also register domains and provide hosting solutions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Frank