Tag: Web Development

MAX 2006 – MAXUP First Impressions

I sat through two MAXUP sessions today, and I have two things to say:

  1. They are in fact as cool as advertised
  2. You don’t know what you’re missing

I saw:

  • Processing Dynamic Forms with ColdFusion – Erik Goodlad. It definitely showed a new way of thinking about large sets of forms. If you can find the presentation online, definitely do so.
  • Developing Rich Internet Applications with SAP and Flex – Matthias Zeller. It was awesome, what those guys have done with RIA, combining separate systems, and separate audiences is just fantastic. Seeing this should definitely give one some ideas about new interfaces.

I can’t say this enough. MAXUP is definitely worth attending. I make two recommendations to presenters:

  1. Be prepared to have people in and out of your session. Roll with it.
  2. Provide a url for the presentation often.
  3. Place the topic in the footer of your presentation so people can quickly figure out what you are talking about.

MAX 2006 – First Impressions

I had not 1 not 2 but 3 alarms set, and I still managed to wake up during the keynote. Each and every one of them went off at the wrong time. So I checked in with the other blogs and got the gist of what happened. I’m still pissed I missed it.

I’m now in my first session, “Getting Started with Apollo.” I know I’m really behind in my Apollo knowledge, so I was hoping to get caught up. Mike Chambers didn’t disappoint. Apollo looks awesome. If it really delivers what it promises then it will be incredible.

My one concern is that I’ve heard a lot of these claims before about Java which never really delivered.

MAX 2006 – Here and MAXUP Slot

So I arrived after one of the most uncomfortable flights I’ve ever had. I literally had the last choice of seat. There was only one option, last row middle. For a guy of my size, it was… uncomfortable. To have a smaller guy on the aisle complain of being cramped was just insult on top of injury.

I love this hotel. Despite it’s ginormous size, I think I have I finally understand the layout.

Also I got my MAXUP slot. It’s going to be Wednesday at 1pm.

MAXUP looks Good

Let me preference this by saying I’ve absolutely loved the previous MAX’s I’ve attended. But one problem I’ve had is that sometimes a MAX session just doesn’t cut it for me. Either, it wasn’t what I expected, or not in depth enough, or what not. In any case I find myself with a little time on my hands, and nothing to do. Usually, I check my email, or try and see if anyone is making a run to In-n-Out. (At least when they’ve been on the West Coast.)

MAXUP looks like it will give me an alternative to hunting the Double Double. Not just an alternative but MAXUP looks like it’s really going to spectacular. There are a tremendous number of really cool sounding presentations.

I definitely have to attend ColdFusion and Exchange by me. If you wondering more about that, I’m going to talk about creating Contacts and Appointments in Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes from ColdFusion.

I’m going to try very hard to catch:

I’m going to try to catch everything I can, but I’ll definitely skip MAX sessions for these.

Max Schedule

Just going over my Max schedule and figured I would share. I’m getting into town in the afternoon on Monday, and I’m staying through Sunday. At least one night that week I’m going to make sure that Ryan Stewart gets a proper cigar, as his taste can be questionable. Then there’s that whole conference thing:

Tuesday, Oct 24
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM General Session (GS100A-1)
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Getting Started with Apollo (RI101W-1)
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Developing Hybrid Applications with ColdFusion and Java (WD301W-1)
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM The Big Framework and Methodology Debate (WD301S-1)
Wednesday, Oct 25
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM General Session (GS100A-2)
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Leveraging HTML/JavaScript and AJAX in Apollo Applications (RI213W-1)
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Unlocking the ColdFusion Server Black Box (WD304W-2)
1:45 PM – 2:45 PM Delivering RIA Solutions with Cairngorm 2 (RI207W-2)
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Integrating Flex Apps with Browsers and Ajax (RI209W-2)
4:15 PM – 5:15 PM Image Manipulation in ColdFusion (WD003W-2)
Thursday, Oct 26
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM General Session (GS100A-3)
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Flex Best Practices: Applying Design Patterns and Architecture (RI304W-1)
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM End-to-End Debugging of Flex Applications (RI205W-2)
1:45 PM – 2:45 PM ColdFusion.NET Integration (WD305W-2)
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM AJAX/Spry Framework Overview (WD209W-2)
4:15 PM – 5:15 PM Designing More Usable Applications with Flex UI Capabilities (RI206W-2)

Some where in there, I’m going to be checking out MAXUP.

MAXUP Session – ColdFusion and Exchange

Last week in a moment of hubris I decided to volunteer to do a MAXUP session on what we at Wharton have been able to do with ColdFusion and Exchange. I must admit I’m feeling a little daunted now that I find out other participants include MySpace and EBay. But whatever, I’m going to stay optimistic that I’ll get scheduled and not take it personally if I’m not.

In case anyone is curious, the presentation will take you through three questions behind ColdFusion and Exchange Integration:

  • What things have we been able to do with Exchange?
  • How, technically, do we interact with Exchange?
  • Why would we want to, or better yet “What cool things can you do with it?”

If anyone is interested, and wants something else asked and answered, please let me know.

Styling CFDebug Output

Inspired by the fact that Sandra Clark is presenting to the PACFUG today on CSS, I figured this would be a good thing to share. But I’m just back from my honeymoon, so my value of what is worthy of sharing might be off..

I ran into this problem yesterday. Someone had styled their application with CSS using absolute positioning. This caused the application to overlap the cfdebug output rendering both unreadable.

There are a few ways around this:

  1. Use debugging in dockable mode.
  2. Add many <br>’s to the end of the page.
  3. Add a div with ID around the output in the classic debug template.
  4. Style the debugging output directly.

1 was out, because it’s a group development server, and the group hated the dockable version. 2 was out because it would have required altering every page of this particular application. 3 has the same issue as 1 for me… I don’t like to make changes to the server that might potentially effect everyone’s application. So I had to go with 4, and here’s how you do it: 


<style>
table.cfdebug {position: absolute;  top: 2000px;}
table.cfdebug * {position: relative; top: 0;}
</style>

The first style declaration pushes the top level table with a style of cfdebug down 2000 pixels. The next one ensures that any child of the first table with a class of cfdebug does not get pushed down.

This form lends itself to solutions for other problems. Sometimes floats can cause the debugging to appear in odd places. With this you could float the cfdebug output, or a number of other things I can’t think of at the moment. Just make sure what ever attributes you set in the first declaration are reversed in the second.

Any Cigar Smoking Developers Out There?

To distract myself from my impending marriage, I’m deciding to open up a little side project I’ve been working on. For that I need some testers. Since the web application is geared towards cigar smokers (anywhere from casual smokers to passionate smokers,) I was wondering if anyone out there would be interested in testing?

Any one? Just drop me a line in the comments, and I’ll send you the information.

Yes, Ryan, I know you’re up for it… Remember, you’re already testing it.

MAX Changes?

I received this email today…

Dear Adobe MAX Registrant,

We have made some carefully considered changes to one or more of the program sessions for which you are currently registered. We encourage you to login to your personal Program eSchedule to add or alter your enrollment in any specific sessions.

…

The Adobe MAX 2006 Team

Evidently I have to guess what they are. Logging in showed me nothing.

Flex versus Ajax Fight doesn’t exist

Ryan’s post, and the ensuing cry and hue made me finally put to pixels what I’ve been thinking for a while.

Ajax and Flex can both at a certain level be used to build web applications. Experts in each can probably get each to do most of what the other can accomplish. However, they work from different directions.

Ajax enhances a HTML website, and through enhancement after enhancement one can build a zippy web application that makes HTML do things it’s not really imagined to do, but it works and that’s actually a testament to the technology’s flexibility, so no fault there. Additionally Ajax can be added in very small doses to enhance a site one little section at a time. Further I would go on to say that when combined with Web Standards, Ajax can build some very cool applications that can degrade but still work in less capable browsers.

Flex replaces the HTML interface with Flash, and focuses on building new interfaces for the data it’s working with. It’s really good at pushing bite sized chunks of data at a user, perhaps giving it a cool view like a chart or a customized display widget, and allowing the user to interact with it intuitively. It’s also important to point out that Flex makes it really easy to do so. However, for maximum efficiency you need to write little self contained applications. You really shouldn’t use it to enhance one drop down box or text box. (I know you can, but it doesn’t mean that it is as easy as other things, or even the right way to do it.)

Sure you can make a complete web application in Ajax if you’re one of the geniuses that work 37Signals, but for the rest of us, it’s still a little daunting to do an entire application in Ajax. In my opinion, it’s a little harder to write a full web application in Ajax than in Flex.

Sure you could write a blog in Flex. But even when you do, you admit that it’s just proof of concept, and not really intended to be a real interface. In my opinion, it’s not good idea to deliver content that has a significant text component with Flex.

If you were to show a spectrum of web applications from “content with some interactivity” on the left to “applications with small chunks of data”, on the right… then as you traveled from left to right you would start using Ajax, and at some point switch over to use Flex. Where you make that decision really depends on your existing environment, and your comfort level with the technology. (Perhaps whether or not you are 37Signals has impact on it, as does whether or not you are philosophically opposed to spending any money on software.)

So use the right tool for the job. Use Flex for rapid development of full blown web applications. Use Ajax to enhance sites that contain a lot of text content or need to tolerate several levels of user interactivity. Both can exist without annihilating each other.

Anyway, that’s my, possibly inarticulate, opinion on it… Yours will probably vary.