Flash vs. Silverlight Comparison

If you are looking for a Flash Silverlight comparision then you can find and excellent article on smashingmagazine.com. Here is the link : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/09/flash-vs-silverlight-what-suits-your-needs-best/

Reaction of a long time PHP, Java developer about ColdFusion / Railo

Last week I had a discussion with a European client regarding a Flex project with PHP as backend. After gone through the functional specification and finally discussing the project in detail I pointed him about Railo – idea of using Railo, instead of PHP. After my evangelism he still was not fully convinced with CF as he is a long time Java and PHP programmer himself. But he promised me that he will install Railo and try it on weekend.
Yesterday I received his email. It is pasted below.
“Hi Shimju,
may say that u open my eyes on a technology I ignored for too long.
I’m really happy with railo and coldfusion. CF programming paradigm is
fantastic and railo works like a charm – Everything it’s so easy and simple.
I was quite scared about the pdf write function (the one with charts
inside). I seemed to me too complex and now with CF (railo) in 3 minutes
I developed one myself, incredible.
Even the server environment it’s easy to setup with debian apache +
mod_jk + tomcat.
Good! Definitively! “

What this incident says that “THOSE WHO UNDER-ESTIMATED COLDFUSION HAVE NEVER TRIED IT THEMSELVES”

The most needed tutorial of Railo now is:

Now Railo started heating up again among ColdFusion Community and Iam sure it will become more hot once the production version of 3.1 launches with full BlazeDS Support (hoping soon:)

CF developers like us are very keen in trying out Railo and few of them already tried, but an issue here I felt is most of our folks are from Windows platform and few of them on Mac and I guess very few are on Linux . Though Railo supports all these platforms seamlessly, it will be really worth (specially in this tight economy condition ) if we deploy it on Linux OS- > Thereby we can say “Jai Ho” to Open source.

Now I will stop beating around the bush- Can anybody in our community help folks like us who are on Windows platform write a massive tutorial (should be written from a windows user perspective) about setting up a Railo powered VPS Server- such as connecting from Windows machine to Linux VPS using SSH, Installing web server (Apache), Java Application Server, Railo, MYSQL, FTP Server, Mail Server, Setting up websites etc This will be really really helpful. Railo Folks are you listening me

Adding a custom link to your ColdFusion Administrator in CF8

Today when I tried to add Raymond Camden’s SpoolMail ColdFusion Mail Reader on my development server whch is CF8, I noticed the change in adding a custom link to CF adminstrator. Prior to CF8 , it was like adding the link on extensionscustom.cfm wich can be found under /CFIDE/admistrator/ folder. But In CF 8 it is changed and now it is much more modular as it in an XML file named custommenu.xml under /CFIDE/admistrator/.

This is how we can add a link now :

<submenu label=”Spool Mail”>
<menuitem href=”spoolmail/index.cfm” target=”content”>SpoolMail</menuitem>
</submenu>

EmaxSoftware- Coldfusion Outsourcing Company based in India

If you have Coldfusion project to be developed and have limited budget and can’t compromise on quality, then  this is the best place to go for. Emax Software Provides best-in-class Off shore Web Development and Rich Internet Application(RIA) Development Services from their facility in India to software development companies and independent consultants abroad. It has a dedicated coldfusion and Flex team who have trained in object-oriented ColdFusion Development and expertised with MVC frameworks like Model-Glue, FuseBox and ColdBox. <br>

Emax Software :- Leaders in Outsourced ColdFusion Development and Flex RIA Development Services.

Coldfusion based paypal IPN Integration

Paypal IPN integration :-

Please follow the steps below

1. Get a Paypal business account after signing up with paypal
2. Login to your paypal account
3. click on profile tab
4. click on Instant Payment Notification Preferences under Selling Preferences
5. Enter the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) URL . ie, www.yourwebsitedomain.com/ipn.cfm. Dont worry about IPN.CFM now , we can work out that script later. So now you gave the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) URL and turn ON the Instant Payment Notification (IPN). Back to profile summary
6. Now click on Website Payment Preferences again under Selling Preferences

Turn on Auto Return

Give the same URL www.yourwebsitedomain.com/ipn.cfm for Return URL.

Turn on Payment Data Transfer -> On

Also turn on PayPal Account Optional:

Click Save and that’s it.

7. (optional step) this step is for people who are conscious about beauty.

Click on Custom Payment Pages under Selling Preferences and customize

your PayPal’s payment page by adding header URL, background color and border color of the header.

8. Lets move on to real code- CheckOut form

This will be the checkout form of your shopping cart.

Please replace with your information which are marked in bold

<cfoutput>

<form action=” https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr” method=”post”>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cmd” value=”_xclick”>

<!— put your paypal business account here—>

<input type=”hidden” name=”business” value=”shimjudavid@gmail.com“>

<!— put the list of products in the cart between value. You can dynamically populate your values here —>

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_name” value=”product1, product2, product3“>

<!— put the order_id here. You can dynamically populate your order id here —>

<input type=”hidden” name=”item_number” value=”1000“>

<!— put the currency code here —>

<input type=”hidden” name=”currency_code” value=”USD“>

<!— put the total amount of your cart which includes tax and shipping here —>

<input type=”hidden” name=”amount” value=”#DollarFormat(val(variables.total_cost))#“>

<!— this is the controller page which does the logic if payment is success or failure —>

<input type=”hidden” name=”return” value=”http://www.yourwebsite.com/checkout_controller.cfm“>

<input type=”hidden” name=”cancel_return”

value=”http:// www.yourwebsite.com /checkout_failure.cfm“>

<input type=”image” border=”0″ src=”paypal_logo.gif” name=”submit”

alt=”Make payments with PayPal – it’s fast, free and secure!”>

</form>

</cfoutput>

9) ipn.cfm

Copy paste this code and save it to directory which you mentioned on paypal IPN URL.

<cfif IsDefined(“FieldNames”)>

<!– read post from PayPal system and add ‘cmd’ –>

<cfset str = “cmd=_notify-validate” />

<cfloop index=”TheField” list=”#FORM.FieldNames#”>

<cfset str = str & “&#LCase(TheField)#=#URLEncodedFormat(Evaluate(TheField))#” />

</cfloop>

<cfif IsDefined(“FORM.payment_date”)>

<cfset str = str & “&payment_date=#URLEncodedFormat(FORM.payment_date)#” />

</cfif>

<cfif IsDefined(“FORM.subscr_date”)>

<cfset str = str & “&subscr_date=#URLEncodedFormat(FORM.subscr_date)#” />

</CFIF>

<!– post back to PayPal system to validate –>

<CFHTTP URL=”https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?#str#” METHOD=”GET” RESOLVEURL=”FALSE” />

<!– check notification validation –>

<cfif CFHTTP.FileContent IS “VERIFIED”>

<!– check that payment_status=Completed –>

<cfif FORM.payment_status IS “Completed”>

<!– check that receiver_email is your email address –>

<cfif FORM.receiver_email IS “<!—enter email —>”>

<cftry>

<cfcatch type=”any”><!— /home/fsb/logs/paypal_error.log —>

<cffile action=”append” file=”paypal_error.log” output=”Error #Now()#: #cfcatch.Detail#” /><!— ,#str# —>

</cfcatch>

</cftry>

</cfif>

</cfif>

</cfif>

<cfelse>

<cflocation url=”<!— Enter URL —>” addtoken=”no”/>

</cfif>

10)checkout_controller.cfm

<!— comes from paypal as success —>

Url scope : <cfdump var=”#url#”><br>

<cfif isdefined(“URL.ST”) AND URL.ST EQ “Completed” AND isdefined(“URL.item_number”) >

<cfquery name=”updateOrder” datasource=”#REQUEST.dsn#”>

UPDATE testorder

SET order_status = 1

WHERE orderNumber = ‘#URL.item_number#’

</cfquery>

<cflocation addtoken=”yes” url=”checkout_success.cfm?order_id=#URL.item_number#”>

<cfelse>

<cflocation addtoken=”no” url=”checkout_failure.cfm”>

</cfif>

11) checkout_failure.cfm

Display page, if payment is unsuccessful

<p align=”center” class=”error”>Your payment is not successfully processed.</p>

<p align=”center” class=”error”>We sincerely apologize for the inconveniences caused hereby.</p>

12)Checkout_success.cfm

Display page, if payment is successful

<cfoutput>

<p align=”center” class=”error”>Your payment is successfully processed.</p>

<p align=”center” class=”error”>Your Order Number is #url.order_id#</p>

</cfoutput>

 

Favorite coldfusion blogs

Blogs and its quality normally vary based on the number and quality of posts.

For example during 2005, I was a regular visitor of www.asfusion.com which had a lot of quality posts related to Coldfusion Flash forms and Flash remoting.. Everyday I used to comes to this site to check their new posts and comments to existing posts… I must say I was an addict to this bog… After the popularity of flash form diminished and due to less activity in asfusion.com, now I seldom visit here…

 

http://www.bennadel.com/blog/ (KinkySolutions.com) is a quality coldfusion blog.. I love it.

 

http://www.nodans.com/index.cfm/Model-Glue is a great place to learn Model-Glue, ColdSpring.

 

And Above all, I must say our Coldfusion Jedi Raymond Camden’s www.coldfusionjedi.com is the best blog ever happened to coldfusion community. It still stays like Mount Everest with rich coldfusion knowledgebase.. I suggest all coldfusion developers (beginner to Advanced) go through each post from 2004 till now and Iam sure at the end you will gain great coldfusion practical knowledge  from this blog.