Latest News from Bruce Van Horn

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Fri, 31 Jan 2003 00:00:00 EST

I don't know about you, but February is going to be a very busy month for me. Not only is there plenty of CF work to keep me busy, but my wife, my son, and I are eagerly awaiting the birth of baby boy number two! Nevertheless, I have questions to answer and one revision to make on a previous answer. I hope you find it all worthwhile.

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Tue, 19 Nov 2002 00:00:00 EST

Can you believe it's December already? 2002 was certainly a year of big changes for many CFers as Macromedia released the new MX products. Many of us scrambled to come up to speed on the new changes in CFMX. However, the fundamentals of CF programming didn't really change.

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Tue, 22 Oct 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Greetings. I hope all of you who attended the DevCon last month enjoyed it, and came away with some great tips and tricks. This month's column is short, but hopefully addresses some problems that you've encountered recently. Keep those questions coming!

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Fri, 23 Aug 2002 00:00:00 EDT

September means summer is over and we all get back to work or back to school. And for those of us who have been out of school for a very long time, I hope you always look for opportunities to learn something new. Send me your questions if you get stuck!

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Thu, 30 May 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Wow! Can you believe it's June already? The last few months have been blurred by the flurry of excitement around the new MX products announced and released by Macromedia. As you'll see from the first question, I'm very excited about the new CFMX product. I know you'll like it once you give it a spin. I'd like to hear your comments and questions about it.

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Thu, 02 May 2002 00:00:00 EDT

This month we have three questions to consider. I like them all because they're very practical and applicable to many kinds of applications. I particularly like the third question about encryption methods because it gives me an opportunity to cover two undocumented ColdFusion functions. I hope you find my answers helpful. Keep those questions coming!

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Mon, 08 Apr 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Two questions I received this month made me realize just how often we overlook the power of Lists and the many List functions in CF. Many times, we look at a string or other piece of data and don't even realize that what we're looking at is actually a list. Once we realize that something can be treated as a list, CF gives us many ways of using or manipulating that data.

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Mon, 11 Mar 2002 00:00:00 EST

Sometimes I take for granted just how cool ColdFusion really is! The other day one of my programmers asked me how to do what I thought was a fairly easy task. When I showed him the four lines of CF code he needed, he said, 'ColdFusion rocks! It would have taken me 50 lines in PHP to do the same thing!' What could I say, other than 'Yep'? Below are a few lines of code that I hope will make your life easier.

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Tue, 05 Feb 2002 00:00:00 EST

We're only two months into 2002 and it's already shaping up to be a very busy year for ColdFusion development. I hope you're experiencing the same thing. If so, don't forget we're here to help you with all your CF-related issues. This month I have two questions for you.

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Mon, 03 Dec 2001 00:00:00 EST

Before you read this article look at your calendar. That's right: it's December already! Where did 2001 go so fast? The first year of the new millennium was definitely not one of those 'ho-hum-nothing-much-happened' years. It was a busy, exciting, turbulent, and tragic year for most of us. Here's hoping that 2002 will be just as busy and exciting but without so much turbulence and tragedy. Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!

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Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 EST

Thanks to all of you for reading this column every month and for sending in questions. Whether or not they get printed, keep 'em coming! I enjoy the interaction and trying to help solve your CF problems.This month I have room to address only two questions. Both of them, I think, are important to every CF developer out there. So here we go!

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Thu, 04 Oct 2001 00:00:00 EDT

Q:What's OnRequestEnd.cfm? A:OnRequestEnd.cfm is the twin brother of Application. cfm. When the code inside a file named Application.cfm is automatically included at the beginning of every .cfm file in the same subdirectory (and any directory below, provided that there isn't another Applic-ation.cfm in those directories), any code placed in a file named On-RequestEnd.cfm is automatically in-cluded at the end of every .cfm page.

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Wed, 08 Aug 2001 00:00:00 EDT

I hope that all of you are enjoying your summer and getting in plenty of R&R. If you aren't, I hope you have at least upgraded to the new CF Server 5.0.

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Wed, 11 Jul 2001 00:00:00 EDT

We have some more good questions to tackle this month. We'll look at Client variables, a pesky CFMAIL problem, and ways to delete Session variables.

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Thu, 07 Jun 2001 00:00:00 EDT

Thanks again to those of you who have sent in questions or comments about this monthly column. If you'd like to see an archive of previous questions and answers, please visit www.NetsiteDynamics.com/AskCFDJ.

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Fri, 30 Mar 2001 00:00:00 EST

Well it's April already! Can you believe it? If you're like me, you've got a full-blown case of 'spring fever' and it's hard to concentrate on CF code. But spring is also a time for new projects and pressing deadlines.

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Thu, 22 Feb 2001 00:00:00 EST

It looks as if this month's column is all about functions. In the questions and answers below we'll look at RandRange(), ListLen(), ListAppend(), GetTickCount(), and the ever-elusive Soundex() functions.

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Sat, 27 Jan 2001 00:00:00 EST

My thanks to those of you who've read this column and let me know that it's actually helped. Even more thanks to those who've sent in questions - keep them coming! Here are some of the most recent ones.

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Tue, 26 Dec 2000 00:00:00 EST

Well, the new millennium is finally here (sorry for those of you who thought it started last year) and with it comes many unanswered and some unanswerable questions.

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Tue, 26 Dec 2000 00:00:00 EST

Well, the new millennium is finally here (sorry for those of you who thought it started last year) and with it comes many unanswered and some unanswerable questions.

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Mon, 27 Nov 2000 00:00:00 EST

Thanks to those of you who sent in questions recently. I hope the answers you received from me or other members of the Allaire training team were helpful. For our readers, here are a few of the questions that were submitted:

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Mon, 30 Oct 2000 00:00:00 EST

Welcome to the second installment of this column. If you're a new reader, the purpose of the column is to give you another source for your CF-related questions.

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Thu, 05 Oct 2000 00:00:00 EDT

It's been a long time since we announced this column back in May, but it's finally here! The purpose of the column is to expose you to some of the questions that Allaire's trainers are asked in the classroom and, hopefully, to give you the right answer.

In Defense of MS Access

Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 EDT

I often hear ColdFusion developers and some of my colleagues who do training for Allaire say things like, 'Don't just walk away from MS Access_run!' While I think I know much of the rationale for a statement like that, I still feel I have to come to its defense. The Bad News First!

Coldfusion 4.5- Should You Upgrade

Thu, 16 Mar 2000 00:00:00 EST

If you're questioning whether to upgrade to ColdFusion 4.5, let me put that issue to rest for you: Yes! Even though the change from 4.0 to 4.5 is considered only a mid-level upgrade, it's actually a significant improvement.