David Gassner

XML- it's here, and you have to deal with it. Whether you need to generate XML files to share data with your business partners, extract content from XML files, or transform XML into some other format... ...the ability to deal with XML has become a common requirement for ColdFusion developers in the past couple of years. Prior to the release of ColdFusion MX, the tag gave developers a way to integrate ColdFusion with existing XML parsers, including COM objects from Microsoft (also known as MSXML) and Java-based libraries from Apache and other vendors. These components have powerful APIs, but their complexity has discouraged some from joining the XML "revolution." And while third-party solutions have made the processing of XML easier, CFMX now includes XML parsing and creation tools that deliver the ease of use and simplicity we expect from ColdFusion devel... (more)

ColdFusion MX and XML: Creating XML Part 2

I'll plead guilty to having tortured more than my share of bytes into completely unnatural configurations. In the BX years (Before XML), if you had to share data with your business partners you might have represented the data in comma-delimited text files. If the data was too complex to fit one record to a line, you might have created a proprietary design to hold the information. Today you'd probably consider XML. Its consistency makes it possible to create and parse text-based data files with standardized programming tools. When deciding how to transfer your data to XML you'd ha... (more)

ColdFusion and Microsoft's XMLDOM Object

When working out data-sharing systems with an organization's business partners, you as a developer may be asked to send and receive data in a more conventional XML format. This may be because those partners prefer to speak more generic forms of the XML language. If so, there are a number of tools available to developers in this situation. If you're using ColdFusion 4.5, for example, you can create an XSL file (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) that describes to an XML Parser how to transform the XML file to a format of your choosing. The Allaire Corporation has published a Tech No... (more)

Transforming XML Part 3

There once was a mild-mannered XML packet with greater ambitions. One day I'll be presentable, it thought! I'll dress up as HTML - and as WML, and maybe, just maybe, I can turn into WDDX! Transformation looked scary, though, with lots of downloads, and installation, and really complicated syntax. But then along came ColdFusion MX, and the XML packet found that transformation wasn't such a big deal after all. This is the third and final article in a series about ColdFusion MX and its new XML development tools. In previous CFDJ articles I focused on parsing XML and creating XML f... (more)

Creating Maintainable Web Sites

"It doesn't matter to me that you use my methodology," said the Fusebox expert sitting across from me at lunch. "What matters is that you have a methodology." And I thought back to my early experiences with ColdFusion... I developed my first ColdFusion application by the seat of my pants. I opened the manual, looked through the sample applications, and got started. On looking back, I was surprised that the application performed relatively well and was somewhat maintainable. I got lucky. On my next ColdFusion application I was part of a team. We dove in and started programming. Th... (more)