Grant Szabo

I've been developing ColdFusion applications since the early days of version 1.5. While a lot has changed for the better with the product since then, not a lot has changed - unfortunately - in terms of the lousy quality of the CFML code that I'm often asked to review or fix. Most of the problems I see with CF apps have to do with poorly implemented Transact-SQL (T-SQL) and an overall failure to pull the T-SQL out of the middleware and push it down to the data tier where it really belongs. Whenever I have the opportunity to speak with developers who make this mistake, I often find out that they just plain don't know how to leverage the RDBMS effectively. Grant: "So Joe, how come you aren't using stored procedures in this code?" Joe Developer: "Well, I've never learned how to write stored procedures. I know it's the right way to do it but I'm just not sure how to get s... (more)

JavaScript Remote Scripting with ColdFusion MX

Have you ever wanted to write an HTML-based form that would behave more like a Win-32 "fat client" application than a Web page? Something like a combo box-like control where the user can type in a text field and have a list-box containing matching records auto-filter based on what was typed? Maybe you're not thinking of anything that fancy. What about simple drill-down selectors where a user chooses a manufacturer, and, based on that selection, a second drop-down list instantly populates, containing just the products offered by that chosen manufacturer? What's more, you want to ... (more)

Applied Advanced T-SQL with ColdFusion MX

The July 2004 (Volume 6, issue 7) edition of CFDJ featured an article I authored entitled "Harnessing the Power of SQL Server Using Stored Procedures." In that article I covered the basics of building stored procedures and using them in ColdFusionMX using ColdFusion Components. This article will expand further upon that topic, delving deeper into the advanced capabilities of T-SQL and SQL Server. In this article, I will demonstrate some techniques that I hope you can use in your own projects, and I will provide information and examples on the following topics: Using a cursor Nes... (more)