Tom Schreck

CfcPowerTools is a web GUI for generating Cold Fusion Components (CFCs). I started working with CFCs when ColdFusion MX 6 was released. Like many developers, I was intrigued as to what CFCs are and how I can use them to be a better, more productive developer. I played with CFCs following what documentation Google found for me and realized the potential CFCs offer. I found some "best practices" documentation that suggested instance data (data that's part of the CFC after it has been instantiated) should be protected from public access. The documentation recommended the use of getter and setter methods for presenting a controlled interface to instance data. Sounds like a great idea. Who doesn't want protected data? Anyways, after a couple months of finger boning getter and... (more)

An Introduction to AJAX and Taconite

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. The core of AJAX is the use of the XMLHttpRequest() object to communicate with server-side scripts. It can send and receive information in XML, HTML, and plain text. The "Asynchronous" part means the client can communicate with the server without page refreshes. This allows you to update portions of a page based upon user events and is what... (more)

Power Your Productivity

One of the biggest problems developers face everyday is moving a project along and producing solid code without cutting corners. This typically means a lot of copying, pasting, searching and replacing, and a whole lot of manual editing. At every point the potential for error increases. Confidence in your code diminishes and your day gets longer. Now, to add to the joy, consider this: chan... (more)