While I’m familiar with the concepts of OO, I am by no means an expert. Coming from a procedural background with extensive use of CFC’s, picking up the concepts of OO have been fairly straightforward, but I’m still learning. I needed something to get me familiar with all areas of OO in ColdFusion.

I stumbled upon this site when doing a general search for Object Oriented ColdFusion.

Learn Object Oriented ColdFusion

This site has been an excellent resource for me. I’ve spent the good part of my weekend reading and executing code from the tutorials on this site. I would recommend it to anyone who has a need or an interest in learning OO in ColdFusion.

After over eight and a half years, it’s time for me to say goodbye to the Town of Manchester, CT. I’ve been with the Town’s Information Systems Department as a Web Developer since May 14, 2001. It was here in Manchester that I was first exposed to ColdFusion, a development language I love.

When I came to Manchester, the web environment was in ruins. My first day, a hacker decided to exploit our old Windows NT 4.0 server. Great way to start a new job. That first day experience gave me a preview of what the next couple of years in Manchester would be like. I looked forward to the challenge. Over the next couple of years, I worked to replace the aging servers in the web environment moving to Windows 2000 and eventually on to Windows 2003 Server. Databases were moved from MS Access 97 and 2000 to SQL Server 2000, 2005 and MySQL.

The code for the applications I was presented with was a mess. I took on the task of rewriting all existing applications, making the code more efficient. As ColdFusion evolved, so did the code in our applications. When Macromedia introduced ColdFusion components in ColdFusion 6, we moved our application back end code to this layout. When AJAX became more prevalent, we integrated that into our code. Flash Forms were used for a while. Application.cfm code became Application.cfc code. The list goes on and on with ColdFusion.

I created a new database environment. When I arrived, all database information was stored in MS Access 97 and 2000. Almost immediately I transitioned the town to SQL Server 2000, moving all Access databases into this separated environment. All SQL queries were placed into SQL Server stored procedures. I love stored procs, functions and views in SQL Server. In cases where I thought it was necessary, I moved Access databases to MySQL. I love that ColdFusion allows you to use so many different database platforms with ease.

In 2004 I was able to move beyond the code and create something that I will forever be grateful to have had the experience to do. I created Manchester’s Government and Education Television Network. What started as an old janitors closet turned into a full blown television station operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We started out small, recording our meeting videos to SVHS tapes. Very quickly we moved to DVD recordings and playback via a 400 disc Sony DVD Changer. All of this was initially controlled via a Knox Router and Leightronix TCD/IP.

As our station evolved, the need for a better video control system was required. I started researching solutions for our needs, automated video scheduling and a scroll screen announcement board seamlessly integrated into a software/hardware solution. Tightrope Media Systems answered the call with their excellent Cablecast/Carousel System. Their product integrated into our environment and worked with all of our existing hardware. Management of the station became much easier.

Over time our television needs evolved. We required digital file playback, onDemand and Podcast solutions. Tightrope Media Systems again answered the call with their Pro VOD system. Combined with their MPEG2 video server for television playback, we were able to create a full blown online television environment with live streaming we implemented separately. All of this can be seen here.

Silk City Television – http://www.channel16.org/

Live Stream – mms://live.channel16.org/16live

onDemand – http://cablecast.channel16.org/cablecast/public/Main.aspx?ChannelID=1

Manchester’s Information Systems Department allowed me the freedom to experiment and learn new technologies over the years. I became a ColdFusion Developer, SQL Server/MySQL DBA, Project Manager, Server Administrator, Linux Server Administrator, Television producer/General Manager and much more. I was able to travel to the Macromedia DevCon and Adobe MAX Conferences. Eight in all.

I will be forever grateful for the opportunities Manchester gave me. They allowed a 22 year old kid the freedom to try new things and be on the bleeding edge of technology. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the same opportunities and freedom that I had here. Only time will tell. For now, I’ll have the memories and experiences that will last a lifetime. I will miss this place, but it’s time to grow and move on.

Goodbye Manchester. Thank you for everything.

After waiting for the right time to launch a new site with Mura, I found a client who was dying to try something new. While most are saying that a CMS is nothing new. Going from Adobe Contribute and its somewhat limited editing environment, to a CMS such as Mura, can be a breath of fresh air for an editor. Also, with the editing environment in the browser and no need to install an application on the users machine, means deployment is a snap.

After meeting with my client on Thursday morning and explaining what we could offer him with Mura, he was sold. Implementation started on Monday and took a bit longer in our production environment than my local development environment due to a database permissions issue. For security reasons I won’t be getting into that.

I did run into another issue that stemmed from the way I setup the default environment. Turns out setting up Mura in a subdirectory with the intention of using multiple domain names with the software was not the best way to go. I created a forum post at Mura that helped out with this issue. You can read all about that here.

Multiple Domain Issue

Matt Levine with Blue River Interactive Group was able to help me out and point me in the right direction. By moving the Mura administration to a subdomain, I was able to resolve the multiple domain issue discussed in the above forum post.

With the above issues resolved I was able to launch our first Mura based site.

Neighborhoods and Families

While it’s nothing special right now and quite similar to the site I worked on in my series on setting up Mura, there are changes on the way. This site will be much more dynamic and interactive than other sites we’ve launched. Mainly because the sites we will be linking to are youth based. So while we are using the standard Town of Manchester template for launch, a new template and framework will be setup for this site. Twitter and Facebook integration will be done through Mura plugins, though I’m not sure if there is a Facebook plugin. I’ll need to look into that one.

I’m really excited about the possibilities moving to this CMS will bring to our organization. Certainly licensing costs for Contribute will be eliminated resulting in a huge savings overtime. The ability to edit one’s site from home or work is another benefit. The main item that excites me is when our site goes through another refresh, transitioning sites to the new look and feel will be a breeze.

I’m really excited for MAX this year. More than I have been in the past. Perhaps it’s CF9 or Bolt or Flash Builder? I’m not sure. I just feel like there is a bigger buzz for this years MAX event. Maybe since more people are on Twitter compared to last year, the buzz has been bigger. Regardless, I can’t wait for the event and will be leaving for it tomorrow.

This will be the 8th MAX event I’ve attended, going back to when it was called DevCon. Not since Flex was released, have I been looking as forward to this event. I have a feeling this will be a good one.

Based on the time frame I have and the fact that I’m quite happy with the product, I’ve decided to stay with Mura. I’ve been extremely happy with the product now that I have all of my template information set up. I also think my users will be extremely pleased with the product.

I was able to move one of my sites into the system today in approximately 5 minutes. I can’t wait to move the BlinkBase Technologies company site to this system.

I’ve completed my base level installation and analysis of the Mura CMS product. I really like what I’ve seen. To get a basis of comparison, I’ll be setting up and instance of the FarCry CMS. Both have come highly recommended and in order to determine the best solution for my organization and client base, an evaluation of both are needed.

I’ll be posting over the next week or so, my progress in getting FarCry setup in my local environment. I’m looking to walking through the setup and implementation of the current template I was working with using Mura.

Stay tuned for progress updates.

It’s been a couple of days since my last post. I’ve made a lot of progress. I’ve reached the point were my front-end work is complete. I’ve managed to tweak the CSS files to get the layout and design to the point where the Mura site looks and feels like our current production site.

The side nav is now using the correct font face and weight. The gradient is set for the side nav background. I’ve worked out most of the spacing issues with main global nav in the header. I could tweak a bit more, but I’m satisfied for now.

My focus now turns to the Admin area of Mura. Specifically I’m looking at the shared assets, access rights, and approval chains. I’m also going to be looking at the search engine friendly URLs. I want to make sure the transition to a CMS is as painless for the public as it is for the content editor.

Late last week, after tweaking some more CSS files I decided to import my menu structure for the side nav. This included a search box at the top of the left side nav and a CSS UL box for the individual site navigation. I was able to get the search box inserted and properly aligned. I still need to fix the font size for the text in the box. But that’s minor.

The main area I’ve been working on is with the box that surrounds the side nav. For the most part it works, but I have some funky issues with some CSS styles that are creating giant white boxes at the top and the bottom of the nav. I’ve experienced this issue on another site a couple of years ago, but for whatever reason cannot remember what I did to fix it. Also, when I activate the side nav, it forces a wrap of the content window. I think it may be time to build a knowledge base, but that’s another project on the back burner.

For now I’ll continue to work through this issue. Like all of the others, looking at it with a fresh mind will usually allow me to find my problem.

Without side nav:

With side nav: