Brian Meloche's Blog - Adobe

CF8 Cumulative Hotfix 4 is out... and LightFront continues...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:18:00 -0400

It's been a while since my last blog post, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, as this post has two subjects. I'm terrible about blogging! :) I figured I could get this one out quickly so here goes! Subject #1: LightFront development continues... My last posting was on LightFront back in October. Don't take that to mean nothing has been going on with LightFront... it just means I've been too busy these days to blog much! LightFront has received a lot of updates since that post, and I even did a presentation on it for the CFMeetup: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p15958860/. That was back around version 0.4.0. I now have 0.4.3 in a branch, which is fully functional and feature complete (for 0.4.3, not for everything that will go into 1.0.0), but example 2 hasn't been brought up to speed yet. I hope to get to that in the next couple of weeks after I complete a project that's taking all of my bandwidth these days. 0.4.3 brings in full support for the model with the new initService() and initComponent() functions, as well as the new callAction() that will replace callEvent() in the next release, and loadAction(), which allows you to load an action into the request scope instead of outputting it directly. It's a great leap in the framework, despite the version sounding like it's a point release. If you've been using LightFront, make sure to start using callAction() instead of callEvent(), as callEvent() will be deprecated in 0.4.4 and removed in 0.5. This is in reaction to Joe Reinhart's comment in the previous blog entry, and I do agree that "event" portrays LightFront as an event-driven framework, which implies implicit invocation. There's nothing implicit about LightFront, and that's because you call your actions directly (explicit invocation). If you're looking at LightFront for the first time, use 0.4.3, which you can get at RIAForge (see link above). Subject #2: A new CF 8 cumulative hotfix is out... A mystery still present in the Adobe CF space is how word gets out on hotfixes and security updates, which don't always get the publicity they need to get them out into the public. Though I'm a registered CF8 user, I never get any emails from Adobe on these, and I wish that would change. I got word of this one in, of all places, a Google alert. I thought I'd pass it on. Adobe has just released cumulative hotfix #4 for ColdFusion 8.0.1. You can find more information about it here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/529/cpsid_52915.html

The ColdFusion and Flex Tours come to Cleveland this Wednesday!

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:56:00 -0400

On Wednesday, June 17th, join us for what will be the biggest Adobe user group event in Cleveland history! All of the official Adobe groups: The Cleveland ColdFusion User Group, the Cleveland Flex User Group, the Cleveland Adobe User Group and the Cleveland InDesign User Group join forces for this big, big, BIG... SOOOOO BIGGG event that you'll want to be there! The ColdFusion 9 and Flex 4 tours are here! Adam Lehman of Adobe, who was featured on CFConversations this week, will be our speaker for this event. If you're in or near the Cleveland area, join us! It's at 6pm, and at the offices of: Dealer Tire, LLC 3711 Chester Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114 There will be food, beverages, and prizes, along with swag! If you are planning to attend, it's imperative that you RSVP on the Cleveland CFUG website. If you're not in the area, check out your user group website for more information about a tour date in your area.

Flex/AIR pre-release tour event in Cleveland Tuesday 1:00pm

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:17:00 -0400

We'll be having our big Flex/AIR user group meeting in Cleveland Tuesday, February 5th at 1pm. The location details can be found at http://www.clevelandcfug.org. Kevin Hoyt, Platform Evangelist with Adobe Systems, Inc., is tomorrow's speaker. This is part of the big Flex/AIR pre-release tour going on right now, and you can see us shown at http://flex.org/tour/. If you are planning to attend, PLEASE RSVP. Our RSVP count MUST BE ACCURATE. If you have RSVP'd and are still planning to attend... there's no need to do it again. But, if you have not RSVP'd, and ARE planning to attend, or have RSVP'd but are NOT planning to attend, please add/update your RSVP here: http://www.clevelandmmug.org/index.cfm?group=mmug&dsp=RSVPSpecial&date=2008-02-05%2013:00:00 As previously stated, this will be the biggest giveaway we've ever had for a single meeting. We have Flex Builder, CS3, books, magazines, shirts galore, and assorted schwag. Everyone who attends will get at LEAST one thing, perhaps more. Snacks will be provided at tomorrow's meeting: We'll have a Decorated Cheese Tray (includes imported cheeses, fresh fruits, vegetables, dips and crackers) with a cookie tray and an assortment of chips, pretzels, and of course an assortment of drinks.. There won't be any wraps this time around, as not very many people went for those for the Forta/Lehman meeting last month. Snacks are courtesy of Adobe and our host (details on the website). Also, there will be a second February user group meeting of our three groups. This will be a special RIA meeting event on Monday, Feb 25th back at Lodestone. If you are planning to attend that event, please RSVP here: http://www.clevelandmmug.org/index.cfm?group=mmug&dsp=RSVPSpecial&date=2008-02-25%2018:30:00 If you have any questions, please email me at brianmeloche (at) gmail (dot) com. See you tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks to Ben and Adam for coming to Cleveland...

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 08:18:00 -0400

If you didn't see it, Ben Forta and Adam Wayne Lehman presented "Lesser Known ColdFusion 8 Goodies" to a combined audience of the Cleveland CFUG, AUG and the new Flex User's Group last Thursday. It was a big success! We had good weather for the winter meeting, and had a good turnout for the afternoon meeting. And Ben and Adam did not disappoint. They talked about some new features that weren't talked about much in Ben's Scorpio tour, like CFTHREAD, attribute collections and results attributes, to name a few. They also asked us for feedback on what we'd like to see for the next version of ColdFusion. This brought a lively discussion on new features, what we'd want in an IDE (if they developed one) and things that would help increase the market, including education and training. My CFUG co-manager, Dan Vega, already blogged about winning a pass to CFUNITED, thanks to the nice gesture of fellow user group member Kelly Green. Thanks to Nafisa, Liz and Michael at Teratech for donating the pass for this meeting, as well as a lot of other swag! Matt Hintze of Universal Mind, who was visiting Cleveland on business last week and came out to the meeting, won the entire CF 8 WACK book collection. Thanks to Jackie at Peachpit for donating the books. Last but not least, Joe Winans won a copy of CF8, and I'd like to thank Ed Sullivan from Adobe for making that happen. Lastly, I'd like to thank Pam, Dave and Jessica for being such gracious hosts! They provided the venue, as well as food, drink and USB thumb drives for the event! We'll be doing it all over again on February 5th! Kevin Hoyt of Adobe will be presenting to us as part of the Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR Pre-Release Tour. If you are planning to attend, please RSVP here.

I am an Adobe Community Expert!

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:19:00 -0400

I found out earlier this week that I have been accepted into the Adobe Community Expert program! I will be an A.C.E. (don't say "ace") on ColdFusion, although I may be added to other programs as well. Watch for my bio on Adobe.com! My BOF at MAX Chicago discussed promoting ColdFusion outside the ColdFusion community. As an Adobe Community Expert, I plan to practice what I have started to preach, and help tell the ColdFusion story to those that have yet to hear it, or have heard the WRONG story. As a few have said in the blogosphere, we ColdFusion "missionaries" may have limited success in converting developers currently using other languages. And, you know what? I don't think that's as important as helping correct the misinformation and wrong perceptions of what ColdFusion is and what it can do, and to open a few eyes. We might not be able to convert everyone, but there is something to be said for trying. I would have blogged about this earlier this week, but I wanted to wait until I submitted my bio, which I have just done!

CFDJ - Sys-Con's Response to the ColdFusion community...

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:09:00 -0400

I found this in one of my Google News Alerts this morning: http://search.sys-con.com/read/427080.htm I can't believe these guys. Sys-Con, we think you've been running a terrible magazine. For me, I didn't have a problem with ads. It was content, or the lack thereof. To put it another way, YOU SUCK!!! It appears you'll continue to suck without ColdFusion developers telling you how much you suck.

Mixed Feelings on the End of CFDJ

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 15:24:00 -0400

Note: I have updated the article since posting... with the Software Developer link, and come cleanup... Sys-Con has announced that they are "relaunching" the ColdFusion Developer's Journal as the Silverlight Developer's Journal.

I first heard about this as a Google News Alert late last night. Before I could post about it, it had been covered elsewhere in the CF blogosphere (in the order that I read them)...

I wanted to chime in, as my opinions are a little different than the others expressed so far on the topic, although there is some common ground.

Since Silverlight has nothing to do with ColdFusion, Sys-Con seems to be taking a dig into the removed support from Adobe and stopping that magazine. I used to subscribe to CFDJ out of my own pocket, but got frustrated with my subscription because of issues that were part of my subscription that didn't come, declining quality, and the price, and I did not renew, back when my subscription ended in 2005. Since then, I continued to read the PDF version, and saw a quality increase when Simon Horwith initially took over as its editor. Over the last year or so, the quality went back down again, while I got too busy at work to read the mag as often as I had. While I was away from being an avid reader, it appeared that the magazine got behind in their publishing schedule, and even missed entire months. Recently, after requesting that my boss subscribe, she got a corporate subscription to CFDJ and a few other magazines, and I was not pleased to see that the quality and frequency of CFDJ had gotten even worse. I was planning to recommend that we end our subscription and instead subscribe to the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update (FAQU). I know Judith and Michael personally, but, even if I didn't, I can say without bias that their magazine is what CFDJ SHOULD HAVE BEEN. The FAQU is the best web related magazine I have EVER read. Every article I have read the first two issues (I've yet to read the third) has been of top quality, and ColdFusion developers as a community will not miss CFDJ.

I have mixed feelings about the end of CFDJ. The magazine itself became a travesty. The article quality was fair at best, poor at times. I read the latest issue (months behind) to find an article I thought I would find very informative and insightful about being a better CF developer, only to read it and find that it had almost nothing to do with CF at all. I am withholding the name of the article and its author to save face. It wasn't a bad article - it just had little to do with ColdFusion, and its title was grossly misleading. The website - well, others have already expressed it - it was one of the worst websites I have ever seen. Sys-con.com looks like it was developed by a crystal meth addict. The company itself, as previously expressed, managed the magazine poorly. So, I am NOT sad to see CFDJ the magazine go. I think it's probably accurate that Adobe removed its funding after seeing Sys-Con mismanage the mag than the magazine deteriorating because Adobe pulled funding.

I AM VERY disappointed with the way Sys-Con announced it. They are making it sound like Silverlight is replacing ColdFusion. They meet two different needs. What's probably more accurate is that Microsoft gave Sys-Con lots of funding to start the magazine, and this gave Sys-Con a chance to throw sand in Adobe's proverbial face for the removal of its funding of CFDJ. "Ha ha! Adobe stopped giving us money - we'll SHOW THEM!!! Now we have Microsoft for another mag, and they have much deeper pockets!" Sys-Con, what a classless act. You could have been more gracious, take the high road, and announce you were closing down CFDJ and announcing the SLDJ. Instead, you showed what a terrible company you truly are.

I am most disappointed that this is the third time this year that, despite the fact that 2007 marks the biggest ColdFusion release in years, that there's been a public dismissal of ColdFusion in the media. First, it was ComputerWorld's article from hell, then Software Developer's article, and now Sys-Con's announcement. I worry about IT management seeing this as yet another sign that ColdFusion is in decline. I worry that it will be another excuse for managers to move off of CF and go to .NET or what have you, or never use CF at all.

Clearly, there is a gap between the media and the CF development community, and between the general web development community and the CF community. Developers won't miss CFDJ, but it's another PR loss for the community, which makes our job harder when trying to advocate ColdFusion as the language of choice.

ColdFusion is the glue behind Adobe's other efforts - Flex, AIR, Acrobat Connect and Lifecycle. It's also still the best RAD web language around.

I see this as a time for Adobe to put their marketing engine in gear, rev it up for ColdFusion and give it all it's got. It's time to stop the ColdFusion disinformation campaign in the media. I am tired of ColdFusion being a punching bag.

Ben Forta Update...

Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:55:00 -0400

I built a little "yes, I'm interested in attending an appearance of Ben Forta" mini-app on the Cleveland AUG and CFUG websites. Just go to: http://www.clevelandmmug.org?group=cfug&dsp=RSVPSpecial
As of today, we've got 59 people who have responded! That's only 41 away from our magic number of 100! Respond NOW to get us closer to our 100 person goal!
IF we don't get Ben Forta, we'll get someone else from Adobe. I have a verbal commitment from another employee of Adobe. He'll come, but only if we can't get Ben for one reason or another

Help us bring Ben Forta to Cleveland...

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 15:52:00 -0400

For those of you within driving distance of Cleveland... Many of you know that I manage the Cleveland Adobe Users Group (AUG, formerly the Cleveland MMUG), and have recently taken over the Cleveland ColdFusion Users Group (CFUG), a group that I co-founded with the previous manager, Mick Keily. I heard from Adobe today that it MIGHT be possible to get Ben Forta to come to Cleveland to speak to the Cleveland area user groups. For the few of you that don't recognize the name, Ben is the Senior Product Evangelist at Adobe, and is probably the most well known speaker and author in the ColdFusion world. If we can secure him, he'd speak in Cleveland during his upcoming ColdFusion 8 (Scorpio) world tour. I've been working on having Ben speak here for nearly THREE years!!! It might finally be a possibility to have him come one night this spring. This is NOT a reality yet... it will take a BIG effort to secure him. To get him, we NEED to show we could have a big attendance mark... really BIG. We need help from anyone out there who lives close enough to Cleveland to come out. In order to have Adobe commit to bring Ben Forta here, we need to have 100 people say, "yes, I would like to attend". If there's NO WAY for you to attend a Cleveland meeting IN PERSON, please DO NOT respond. If you're in driving distance of Cleveland, and interested in attending, please email me at brianmeloche at gmail dot com, or leave a comment on this thread. Just by sending messages to the two user groups, I've already got 16 people after a few hours... only 84 more!!! I'm now expanding it to the blog... I will create a poll on the user group websites in the next day or two, but, until then, I want to gather numbers through old fashioned email and blog comments. Please pass this on to ANYONE who might be interested in attending this meeting. Friends, co-workers, students, family, colleagues... whatever... able to attend a Cleveland appearance by Ben Forta IN PERSON. We need 100 people. Contest: If we get Ben, the member of either the AUG or CFUG that either recruits the most new members and/or brings the most people to the meet will win a prize. I'll announce the prize at a later date, once he's been secured. If we get him, one attendee will win a copy of ColdFusion 8, once it has been released. To RSVP, please give me your name, and how many people you could bring. YOU MUST REPLY to RSVP. For every person to be counted, I must have it documented. I'll keep you up to date on the totals. Let's prove that we can draw big numbers for Ben!!!

Flex and Lifecycle Seminar coming up...

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 15:48:00 -0400

PRODUCT FOCUS: ADOBE FLEX 2 and ADOBE LIVECYCLE DATE: Wednesday, December 6 TIME: 8:30 to 12PM LOCATION: Marriott at RiverCenter, Covington, KY REGISTER BY FRIDAY AT: https://www.regonline.com/MarriottRiverCenter and receive a signed copy of Ben's book: ColdFusion MX 7 Web Application Construction Kit *************************************************************************

Learn the easiest and most effective methods to create award winning Rich Internet Applications
Leverage existing Java skills and integrate a Java web application with a Flex 2 user interface
Transform the way people interact with web applications
Uncover the responsiveness and richness of combining desktop software with the broad reach of FLASH!
Discover the LiveCycle Portal, a starting point for developers and decision makers who want to learn more about Adobe's LiveCycle suite of products

A FULL AGENDA IS AVAILABLE AT: http://www.adobe-reply.com/flex/flex_agenda.htm

JJ Allaire's company bought by Microsoft...

Wed, 08 Mar 2006 18:39:00 -0400

I haven't been able to blog much lately. Work and freelance work is keeping me insanely busy. We were supposed to have a CFUG meeting, but it was cancelled. Just as well for me, but we've only had the one meeting this year so far. Here's something that some of you will find interesting... Microsoft releases beta search Buys to consolidate presence Microsoft today announced the Windows Live Search beta, featuring updates to the existing Live.com and Windows Live Toolbar, intended to deliver unified, context-based search and results across different properties. The beta also provides the ability to search images and email (sounding familiar?), news, email, RSS feeds and Microsoft's own MSN Shopping and MSN Spaces. Search will also work across planned Windows Live services, such as Live Messenger and Live Mail. Driving the service will be technology from internet search specialist Onfolio, bought by Microsoft yesterday. Onfolio had provided an add-in to Windows Live that enables users to read RSS news feeds and share content in emails, blogs and documents. Onfolio was founded by JJ Allaire, architect of the popular ColdFusion application server and co-founder of Allaire Corp, which was sold to Macromedia in 2001. Microsoft has been typically bullish on the potential for Windows Live Search and its ability to come from behind and crush the current market leader, Google. Neil Holloway, president of Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) last week proclaimed that in six months' time, the company "will be more relevant in the US market place than Google. The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant."

The Macromedia User Group Program is gone...

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 21:58:00 -0400

...long live the Adobe User Group Program!!! The word came down from Adobe today. The hundreds of former Macromedia User Groups around the world got a new logo and a new name for the program... As a result, I/we have to find a new name for the Cleveland Macromedia Users Group, change the design and get a new domain name... all in a day's work!!!

Cathy Garrison, you will live on...

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:35:00 -0400

Last Wednesday, I found out that Cathy Garrison, Midwest Macromedia Studio Users Group manager, my partner on the user group manager portal, and my friend, had passed away. She died on November 23, 2005, from a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lung) after undergoing successful cancer surgery 10 days earlier. Everyone working on the portal knew Cathy was sick and needed to go in for surgery to remove her cancer. We wanted to give her time to recover. When we hadn't heard from her by the middle of December, we feared the worst. Last Wednesday, after trying to email her several times, and calling once, I was able to reach her husband, Bob, who told me the terrible news. The former Macromedia (now Adobe) developer community already miss her presence, and her passion. She was a dedicated volunteer, and worked very hard on her user group and the portal. She felt very strongly about the need for the portal, believed in my ability to (eventually) deliver it, and I know that she's looking down at me now, pushing me on to continue to get it done.

Word from Adobe (Macromedia) Developer Relations

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 13:25:00 -0400

Dear Macromedia Community Members: By now you most likely know that Adobe has finalized its acquisition of Macromedia, combining the leading-edge technologies of two pioneering software companies. We'd like to take this opportunity to let you know what the acquisition means to you as a valued member of our community and what you can expect from Adobe in the days ahead. With the acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe is dramatically advancing its ability to deliver a platform that provides you with powerful solutions for engaging people with digital information. We are now better positioned than ever to assist you in meeting and exceeding your business requirements and goals. Moving forward, we will bring together some of the industry's strongest brands and most ubiquitous technologies, including Acrobat, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, PDF, ColdFusion and Flash. Customers who have relied on Adobe and Macromedia solutions will benefit from a consistent platform and common user interface, as well as the outstanding care they've come to expect from both companies. At a high level, by bringing our technologies together, we will provide the community with the software solutions you need to meet the increasing demands of today's competitive environment. Now more than ever, we are positioned to help you securely extend the reach of your information, business processes and services to engage and interact with customers and constituents online, via mobile devices - by whatever medium you choose. As you may know many of Macromedia's leaders are now in leadership roles at Adobe. Kevin Lynch is now Adobe's Senior Vice President and Chief Software Architect, Platform Business Unit. Kevin's responsibilities include the Flash Player, Acrobat Reader, and Developer Relations. David Mendels is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of Enterprise and Developer Solutions, and is responsible for products like Flex, ColdFusion and LiveCycle. Tom Hale is now Adobe's Senior Vice President of the Knowledge Worker Solutions Business Unit, which includes Breeze and Acrobat. And lastly, Stephen Elop, Macromedia's former President and CEO, is the President of Adobe's worldwide field organization. Our efforts with user groups around the world, developer events and conferences, and throughout the community will continue as they always have, and we're excited about how we can enhance and expand our relationships with our development community. We look forward to sharing more information with the community in the coming weeks. For more information about the merger, please visit www.adobe.com. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly, or any of your contacts on the developerrelations team. On behalf of all of Adobe, and the Developer Relations team in particular, I want to thank you for your continued commitment to our community, and I look forward to new opportunities to work together. With best regards, Sara Spalding, Director, Developer Relations sspaldin at adobe dot com

Adobe (Macromedia) user group program...

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 08:23:00 -0400

I haven't had a chance to blog since the macromedia.com website changes... you will notice a more Adobe look if you check out the macromedia.com website. http://www.macromedia.com Last night, I had a chance to watch a recording of a Macromedia User Group Managers/Team Macromedia session (couldn't sit in on it because of work), and I thought I would share what I am able to... Don't expect to see any major changes in either the Macromedia User Group or the Team Macromedia programs for the short to medium term. Everything's as normal for now. There will probably be name changes coming, but they are telling us to sit tight and not act too hastily.