Newman Zone - Weblog

Monday, June 30, 2003

Flash Remoting for PHP 6:09 AM
Robert M. Hall has written a terrific DevNet article about Connecting Macromedia Flash and PHP. Since Macromedia has no immediate plans to offer PHP support for Flash Remoting, the open-source AMFPHP project decided to implement it themselves (check out the pizza service demo on the home page).

Hall explains what you need to get the beta version of AMFPHP running on your system. You will also get to build a custom Flash panel that reports Apache, PHP and MySQL runtime information back to the Flash authoring environment. Not for the faint of heart, but pretty cool stuff if you're already using PHP.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2003

Firefly Components 12:52 PM
I noticed that Macromedia is really pushing its Firefly Components. There's a new article about them by Ben Forta, as well as a few On Demand seminars.

Is anybody using these things? Do they generate ActionScript? They strike me as server behaviors for Flash MX. My only concern is that the DeltaPackets appear to add another layer between Flash and the application server, and what effect, if any, this has on performance.

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Thursday, June 19, 2003

Sandbox Security 3:32 PM
If you're running your ColdFusion apps on a shared server, there are some security issues you might want to consider. For instance, by default all data sources defined in ColdFusion Administrator are available to every site on the server! This means that if another account on the shared server can guess your ColdFusion Data Source Name - it could happen - they'd have to ability to run INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements against your database. Pretty scary, huh?

Fortunately, Macromedia offers a solution: it's called Sandbox Security. If, like me, you have to pay your hosting provider $15 every time you want to add a ColdFusion Data Source, make them earn their fifteen bucks. Ask them to enable Sandbox Security. The response may surprise you. Because ColdFusion MX is relatively new - many ISPs are still running ColdFusion 5 - you can't depend on your hosting provider to know the best practices. Here are a few tutorials to get you (and them) started:

Setting up Sandbox/Resource Security

Authenticating and Authorizing Against NT Domains with ColdFusion MX

In essence, Sandbox Security enables you (or your hosting provider) to restrict access to files, folders, data sources, ColdFusion tags, etc., on a folder-by-folder basis. Depending on how many sites are on the server, it can be a little time-consuming to set up. But it's very straightforward and certainly simpler than implementing security in previous versions of ColdFusion Server.

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Friday, June 13, 2003

Flash Remoting Developer Editions 6:35 AM
Did a little hunting around and discovered that the trial versions of Flash Remoting for Java and .NET become developer editions after 30 days (see Macromedia Flash Remoting - Installation Overview). This tidbit appears at the bottom of the page:

At the end of the 30 days, you must enter a valid serial number or Flash Remoting reverts to Developer Edition, which allows localhost plus a single IP address or host name to connect.

Not really sure if Flash Remoting Updater Release 1 for Java and .NET will work on the developer editions.

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Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Flash Remoting for Java 12:55 PM
Interesting article on DevNet about the advantages of using Flash Remoting As an Alternative to JSP and Applets. Although I'm not proficient at JSP, I have been eager to test Flash Remoting for .NET. Currently, Macromedia only offers trial versions of Flash Remoting for Java and .NET. However, it looks like the Data Connection Kit ($299) includes Flash Remoting MX Developer Edition. For those of us who may not need Firefly, perhaps Macromedia will offer a standalone version of Flash Remoting Developer Edition in the future?

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Saturday, June 07, 2003

Go Down, Moses 8:41 AM
Apparently, John Ashcroft doesn't like gays, either.

Somebody needs to get this guy laid. Here's my proposal. We add a check box to our U.S. income tax forms:

checkbox

Would you like to contribute $2 to the Get John Ashcroft Laid Fund?

If everybody checks the box, maybe he'll stop covering statues, harassing gays, deporting immigrants, and generally sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. Who knows, maybe he'll even grow a bigger heart like the Grinch, and quit his job to start a hemp farm. I'd pay two bucks to see that.

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Thursday, June 05, 2003

Give her a hub 2:25 PM

The Bush Administration sure has a knack for spin-doctoring. How could anyone object to the "Healthy Forests Initiative"? Or the "USA Patriot Act"? To do so would be, well, unpatriotic. Like speaking out against Patriot missiles. Ironic, isn't it, that the same man who's too modest to view a statue's breasts would be seeking expanded surveillance powers. I think he took his decision to cover up the Spirit of Justice a little too literally.

In these increasingly McCarthyist times, it was a relief to receive a funny link in this week's DMXzone newsletter. This, in a nutshell, is why I'm a dog person. (Why do all these cats look so frightened?)

I love the way the Japanese transmogrify the English language. According to Pet Office, here are three ways to have fun with your cat:

1. Dress her up. Cheer or yell, do whatever you like to enjoy the moment with your family.

2. After you are enough with your joy, take a photo! Take some poses and leave her some cute photos!

3. Remove her clothes and give her a hub, say "Thank you!"

I'm not sure, but I think this is illegal in the United States. If not, at the rate things are going, it will be soon.

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Tuesday, June 03, 2003

ValueList Function 11:35 AM
Here's a neat ColdFusion trick I stumbled across the other day. When you need to create a query based on the results of another query, you can use the ValueList function. It makes more sense if I use an example:


<cfquery name="getProjectID" datasource="#application.dsn#">
SELECT Project.ProjectID FROM Project
WHERE Project.ClientID = #URL.ClientID#
</cfquery>

<cfquery name="rsMedia" datasource="#application.dsn#">
SELECT Media.MediaFilename FROM Media
WHERE Media.ProjectID IN (#ValueList(getProjectID.ProjectID)#)
</cfquery>

In this example, the first query returns a recordset consisting of, let's say, four primary keys. The second query filters the recordset based on the results of the first query. Ordinarily, you would loop through the first query and add each row to a ColdFusion list, then use that list to filter the second query:

SELECT Media.MediaFilename FROM Media
WHERE Media.ProjectID IN (#myList#)

A much simpler solution is to use the ValueList function, which converts the results of a query to a delimited list. (The default delimiter is a comma - exactly what's required by the IN operator in SQL statements.) In this respect, ValueList is similar to the ColdFusion ArrayToList function, which converts a one-dimensional array to a delimited list. If you're using a Text or VarChar field, you can use the QuotedValueList function to wrap each item in single quotes:

'John','Paul','George','Ringo'

For more information, search 'ValueList' in the ColdFusion MX Documentation.

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Monday, June 02, 2003

FoxServ Project 8:26 AM
If you've been thinking about developing PHP on Windows, but don't want to hassle with separate installers for Apache, MySQL, and PHP, you might want to check out FoxServ Project. The latest version is the official 3.0 gold release (34MB).

Be sure to read "Installing and Upgrading FoxServ 3.0" in the FoxServ 3.0 Documentation before you begin. For instance, during installation, you'll want to select a port that is not already in use. In my case, I've already got IIS on 80, CFMX on 8500, and Tomcat on 8080, so I would probably assign Apache to port 81.

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