Adobe LiveCycle DataServices for ColdFusion at CFObjective

After a decade of working intensely with the ColdFusion server, I'm finally getting the courage to start presenting about it on the conference circuit. As a blogger, tweeter, and contributor to mailing lists I'm very confident helping others solve ColdFusion related problems because I can do that from the quiet comfort of my own desk. However, one of my greatest fears has always been public speaking. I'm the kind of person that feels like I need to know the subject matter cold, so that I can speak from the hip without relying on looking at the slides.

Over the years, I had some opportunities to present to small groups, and I recall each time feeling the adrenalin surge and my heart pounding. That started with presenting ColdFusion for Unix and Linux as an internal training class at Macromedia. Later, while taking classes at the Harvard Extension School, I was honored to be asked to present to CSCI-253 Developing Web-Based Database Applications. Even more so, I presented twice there in one year. The first time on Building ColdFusion Web Applications with CFEclipse and Dreamweaver, and later on ColdFusion Server Administration

I've been attending ColdFusion conferences since the days of Allaire DevCon, but had never presented at any of them including MAX. My long time friend in the local ColdFusion Community, Brian Rinaldi, continued to encourage me to present at the local Boston CFUG as a starting point, as well as the new conference that he was organizing, RIA Unleashed, held in Bentley College this past November. The members of the CFUG were kind enough to let me present a draft of a presentation that I was to later give at RIA Unleashed. My presentation topic was Adobe LiveCycle DataServices Data Management for Mere Mortals

Fortunately at RIA Unleashed I was among the very first sessions after the keynote, so there was no time to build up butterflies that morning. If beforehand you would have told me that among the audience front row would be Ben Nadel, Simon Free, and Ray Camden with Tom Jordahl tucked way in the back then I surely would have freaked out. But they were both kind enough to chat with me before hand and even lend some technical assistance getting setup with the A/V, so that really put me at ease. With a firm limit of 50 minutes, I pushed all the way through what should have been a 90 minute talk, all the while trying to remember to speak clearly and loudly. The talk went off pretty much without a hitch as I found myself completely focused on the technical content and not at all worrying about the large room filled with people in front of me. I was delighted at the end when Tom complemented me on talk, which to me was the ultimate satisfaction.

I chose LCDS for ColdFusion as a topic because while I was a QA Engineer on the ColdFusion team at Adobe, I was paired with Tom, a Computer Scientist at Adobe who architected the integration between the products. Heck, Tom architected much of ColdFusion itself, and was in fact the original engineer to have ported ColdFusion to run on Unix and Linux back in the day. Tom is a font of information, and I cut my teeth on the feature under his guidance, which was then known as Flex Data Services and later renamed under the LiveCycle brand. I spent many days last summer and fall revisiting all the LCDS documentation again to ensure the quality of my presentation and to mentally prepare me for the upcoming conference.

WIth my first conference under my belt, I decided to throw my hat into the ring for the ultimate ColdFusion experience, CFObjective, which is promoted as The Only Enterprise ColdFusion Conference. I'm excited to announce that I have been selected to be a speaker at the conference, which runs from April 22-24th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The conference is divided into three tracks for technologies related to ColdFusion. I'll be speaking the last day in the Flex track, once again on the topic of LiveCycle DataServices for ColdFusion Developers. Specifically I'll be talking about the prime feature of LCDS, the Data Management capabilities. With any luck I'll be updating my presentation to consider the benefits of working with the latest versions of Adobe software. Here's the brief description and the PDF:

Discussions of Adobe's LiveCycle Data Services are often entered with the same trepidation as those of Organic Chemistry or Quantum Mechanics, but with ColdFusion, building Web applications that manage complex data sets doesn't have to be that scary. Data Management is a pillar of LCDS that offers scalable, real-time data synchronization across very large numbers of connected clients with the benefits of conflict resolution and data pagination.  Come learn how to quickly get up to speed with Data Management by letting ColdFusion do the hard work for you.

If you're seriously interested in ColdFusion, then CFObjective is the conference for you. I hope to see you there.

  100th ColdFusion Meetup Today - SeeFusion Giveaway, Too

Today is the 100th episode of the Online ColdFusion Meetup Group, a.k.a. CFMeetup, with Adobe speaker Josh Adams on the topic of ColdFusion as the ideal server-side data provider for iPhone applications. The meeting starts online at 12p ET; find out more here.

This special anniversary of the CFMeetup is made possible by Charlie Arehart, a tireless champion of the ColdFusion Community, who has worked very hard for several years now to improve the organization and execution of meetings and has strived to provide a consistent speaker lineup that give contemporary, meaningful presentations on ColdFusion related topics.

As the founder of ColdFusion Meetup, I'm honored to attend today's anniversary event. In 2004, Macromedia provided employees with unlimited Breeze Meeting accounts (now Adobe Connect) after it acquired Presidia, the original makers of the Flash based meeting software. As Breeze became widely used in Macromedia for internal company meetings, it occurred to me that I could make good use of my unlimited account by starting an online presentation series for the ColdFusion community of developers, and so I formed the Online ColdFusion Meetup Group. The first meeting was February 2005 where I convinced several members of the ColdFusion engineering team to take questions about the release of ColdFusion MX 7 from online guests. Participation grew as I attracted speakers on a monthly basis, and it became a consistent series that ran throughout the year. Later, as I moved from ColdFusion Support to the ColdFusion Engineering team working on Scorpio (CF8), Charlie happily took over the reigns to keep the momentum going... and how has he!

Prizes
Now that I'm a software engineer at Webapper Services providing enterprise level ColdFusion consulting, among the special prize giveaways at today's CFMeetup, Webapper will be giving away a 2-server Enterprise license for SeeFusion - retail value of $600!

SeeFusion is a utility for monitoring and troubleshooting ColdFusion application servers. SeeFusion gives you the ability to "see" how your ColdFusion servers are processing requests in real time.

See you today at CFMeetup!

  Realtime ColdFusion Blog Notifications with Adobe Wave

Receive real time notifications for updates on the blog aggregator ColdFusionBloggers.org with Adobe Wave. Just navigate to the ColdFusionBloggers website and click the badge in the lower right for Get alerts with Adobe Wave. Built on Adobe AIR, you can now use Adobe Wave as a single application to receive all your notifications in one place. Adobe Wave runs as a desktop application that sits in a corner of your screen.

The ColdFusion Bloggers website is created and maintained by the ubiquitous, prolific, and super nice guy Ray Camden, ColdFusion Jedi Master. Ray was among the very first to utilize Adobe Wave for the benefit of the ColdFusion community of developers.

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  My Application to CDIABU in Retrospect

I was searching through my email for something today, and I came across my application to CDIA where I wrote this in the Personal Objective section almost two years ago.

Why have you chosen to pursue an education in the field of Digital Imaging Arts?

Through achievement, motivation, and serendipity I've been fortunate to have earned an esteemed position as software quality assurance engineer at Adobe Systems. Within this vibrant, professional atmosphere my personal growth as a serious amateur photographer has accelerated significantly.

At this nexus, I wish to seize the opportunity to expand my skills horizontally by bridging my experience in rich internet development with the digital imaging arts and professional photography.

What do you hope to achieve by enrolling in the program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts?

With the completion of a certificate in Professional Photography I will have formalized a long standing, deep, personal ambition which will allow me to thoroughly exercise my passion with technical excellence.

Further, I strive to achieve a role at Adobe where I can consult with, collaborate with, and guide Adobe customers towards their own creative endeavors and solutions. Knowledgeable in the diverse array of photography, digital imaging, and next generation web application development I will be able to translate my success into the success of my customers, my colleagues, and my company.

  To Flex Camp, and Beyond!

A week from today will be the 2nd annual Flex Camp Boston at Bentley University. At a very modest cost, this is a full day event packed with sessions at the intermediate to advanced level given by industry experts. Register for Flex Camp Boston.

For the last year I've been on the Flex SDK team as a Quality Assurance Engineer, and before that I had excellent run of more than 7 years testing and supporting ColdFusion. I know most of the speakers that will be presenting at Flex Camp and can attest to their passion for building the next wave of Rich Internet Applications, so I fully encourage you to attend if you haven't signed up yet to share in the excitement and mingle with your peers.

This will be an unexpected reunion of sorts for me as I suddenly find myself as a customer rather than employee. With the extra time as I seek new employment I'll immerse myself in training with Flex and AIR, and try to produce an application as an online reference to demonstrate as an example. The odd thing about QA'ing a software product is that you are exposed to narrow facets in which you dive very deeply, and don't often get the chance to practice the breadth of the product. My success in ColdFusion QA was largely dependent on the many preceding years where I provided "gold" level support for the product, something which required me to constantly explore and exercise every nook and cranny of the CF app server and language.

My first inclination for a Flex app is to build my own photography business website in Flex to avoid the cost of purchasing one of the reputable but expensive prebuilt websites from places like LiveBooks, BigFolio, or A Photo Folio.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone from coworkers to customers to local cfug friends for taking a moment to contact me and express their thoughts and show their concern. People have been writing and chatting intensely while offering job tips and advice. As I mentioned on Facebook, I've never before felt the online community to be as tangible and real as I do now. Thank you all, and I hope to see those of you in the area at Flex Camp!

  2008 Codie Awards: Adobe ColdFusion 8, Captivate, & Connect

Earlier this year the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced finalists in the 2008 Codie awards. The SIIA describes itself as "the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry."

Yesterday the winners were announced. As a contributing member of the Adobe ColdFusion 8 QA team, I'm especially proud that ColdFusion 8 won for Best Web Services Solution, a category described as:

Best Web Services Solution
Awards the solution that best connects disparate applications and data across an enterprise or between enterprises using web services standards such as SOAP, XML and WDSL. Includes Web services enabling technologies, infrastructure, middleware, system integration tools, etc.

In addition to comprehensive, across the board regression testing, the specific CF8 features I worked on include testing support for all new RDBMS versions, integrating new JDBC driver versions, LiveCycle Data Services Integration, and CFReport HTML support. I also performed installation testing across J2EE servers such as WebLogic, WebSphere, and JBoss while emphasizing the Linux OS. Currently I'm working on SOAP-based Web Service testing in Flex. Speaking of Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 won the Codie award for the Best Open Source Solution.

More information about the SIIA 2008 Codie Awards can be found at InfoWorld

  Adobe's Angela Drury, Photographer by Night, on Adobe TV

New on the Photography channel on Adobe TV, Angela Drury, Customer Support Manager at Adobe, share's her story behind her passion for photography, including her experience with the Lightroom team in the 2006 Lightroom Adventure in Iceland. You can follow along with Angela and the Team right now as they're in Tasmania on the latest Adobe Lightroom Adventure 2008.

After Hours at Adobe - Angela Drury
By day, Angela manages a team of product support engineers for Adobe Customer Care. After hours, she's an award winning photographer.

  Working with Models: A tough gig, but someone has to do it!

This month at Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts I'm learning to work with fashion models in studio photography. This course, DP206, teaches us the rhythm of working with models, how to direct them and engage them to turn the shots we visualize in our heads into beautiful prints in real life. It puts together everything we've learned so far about about camera operation, studio lighting, portraiture, concept, and posing. Additionally, as the program emphasizes the use of Lightroom for digital imaging workflow, and Photoshop for retouching and compositing, this course also puts our full range of beauty retouching skills to the test.

...not that we really need to, because they are -after all- models. ;-)

BOOM!, there it is in living color. I'm especially proud of this one, and I think its my best image to date. You can check it out on Adobe's new Photoshop Express Gallery.

The models are real, both male and female, and our best images will go into their portfolio as well. This means lots of exposure to the photographers because every ad agency they work with will see model's portfolio, and if we're lucky, they'll want to know more about the photographer behind that great model shot. From the CDIA website:

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  New Kinder, Friendlier Photoshop Express Terms of Service

Its already after working hours here on the East Coast, so many Photoshop Express users out there may not yet be aware that the Terms of Service (TOS) have been greatly revised based on user feedback. The TOS are no longer so all-encompassing as they were when Photoshop Express went live last week.

In fact, I think they are written to be much more readable since they now include (parenthetical) plain english explanations of the generally terse legalese, and I think users will find the new TOS to be respectful of your copyright on your intellectual and creative property.

The TOS now include a means of terminating Adobe's display of your images on the site if you so choose, which should provide a greater measure of comfort to using or considering using the online photo editing and sharing service.

You can read the kinder, friendlier Photoshop Express Terms of Service here (see Section 6: Use of Your Content)

  Adobe Lightroom Adventure 2008 in Tasmania

Wow, did I miss the boat on this one! (or the plane as the case may be)

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Team is happily clicking away as I type this in the luxurious landscape of Tasmania this week and next, corresponding with the release of Lightroom 2.0 Beta.

This is the sequel to the very successful Adobe Lightroom Adventure 2006 in Iceland which produced copious gigabytes of beautiful images to herald the launch of the first version of Lightroom.

You can follow their daily blogging from Tasmania on the O'Reilly website here. Among the crew is a friend and colleague Angela Drury, frequent contributor to Photoshop User magazine, award winning photographer, and manager of Dreamweaver Support at Adobe.

  Introducing Flash Mini - Squeezing Flash on the iPhone

Just when all the news of porting Flash to the iPhone has died down, I stumbled across what appears to be an internal document diagramming how Steve Jobs intends to do just that with a product code named Flash Mini. Who knew!?

Read the full story for more...

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  CDIA Web Development: A mix of LAMP and RIA that lacks focus

The B.U. Center for Digital Imaging Arts has just added another core curriculum to their stable of information technology certificates by introducing the Web Development Certificate. As you may know, they completely won me over with their Digital Photography program, and one of my coworkers at Adobe has been raving about their Audio Production curriculum as well. As such, I have high expectations that they will deliver great instructors for the chosen curriculum.

Their Web Development certificate program, founded on more than 20 courses, emphasizes the use of PHP and MySQL as core technologies, including a Rich Media Web Development subtopic focusing on the use of Flash and ActionScript. Along the way there's a sprinkling of Javascript, XML related technologies, and AJAX, and the course is capped off with some Content Management and Web 2.0 social network topics.

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