Andrew Powell

Andrew Powell's Blog As CFML developers start to learn Java and move into the realm of Spring and Hibernate, it is very important to stop and ask 'What Is ColdFusion?'. ColdFusion, since CFMX, has been a J2EE application running within a J2EE server (JRun, JBoss, Tomcat, Websphere, etc.). This is important because thinking of ColdFusion like this lets us expand our mind to what we can really do with ColdFusion. We (CFML developers) can start to leverage J2EE services and frameworks like JPA, JNDI, JTA, and others to make ColdFusion a real player in the J2EE stack. Java developers are quick to dismiss ColdFusion as simply a J2EE app and miss its real potential:  It is the fastest way to get data to the web.  It is the fastest way to get data to AJAX, Flex, Silverlight, and even JavaFX (the last two via XML or web service).  I think that going forward, ColdFusion will... (more)

So You Think You Know SQL?

Andy Powell's Blog I was reading an old post by a buddy of mine about bad SQL being the cause of a lot of application problems and decided to weigh in my two cents. A lot of developers get forced into writing SQL as part of their jobs. Should they be doing it? I don't think so. It's not necessarily the best of ideas, and in MOST cases should probably be avoided at all costs. Besides, developers cannot be experts in every language or technology right? Something has got to give somewhere. It's usually their SQL skills that suffer. Developers are, sometimes, forced into situations where... (more)

Viewpoint: Not Every ColdFusion Developer Should Be A Flex Developer

Andy Powell's Blog I am going to go ahead and contend that although a good number of ColdFusion developers can grasp and understand Flex very well, there are also a good number of ColdFusion developers who have no business going anywhere near Flex. Why do I say this? I am a big fan of Flex. I use it daily to create, what I think are, some kick-ass applications. It is a powerful tool that really changes the game on the web and the desktop. That being said, it is not a tool that every ColdFusion developer can grasp. Flex development is a completely different animal than ColdFusion, J... (more)

In Today's World of AJAX and Flex, Is XML Past Its Prime?

Is XML overrated? This is a question not asked lightly. It is a heavy and bloated question, much like XML itself. XML has been around since 1997. It is document based and it is extremely verbose.  It requires a higher payload across the network and cannot be natively used once it arrives. The XML payload must be consumed in some fashion.  None of these activities attribute to the speed of an application. In today's world of AJAX and Flex, is XML past its prime? Does XML need to be regarded as a good idea whose time has come and gone? There are plenty of capable replacements avail... (more)

Spry - AJAX Made Simple

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is nothing new. The technologies behind AJAX have been around for quite a while. Jesse James Garrett just gave the amalgamation of XML, DOM, and JavaScript a catchy new name. Many CF developers hear buzzwords like AJAX and Web 2.0 and simply tune out because they think it's too much to comprehend. If they'd simply stop and take a look at what AJAX can deliver, they'd see that it offers a unique opportunity to deliver a user experience that seemed beyond reach only a short time ago. With AJAX, a developer can deliver an application that requ... (more)