Category: ColdFusion
ColdFusion Scheduled Tasks
If you're running your own CF server, or are hosting with a host who's willing to do a little extra work for you, you're going to love ColdFusion scheduled tasks. It's basically a way to tell CF to run a particular file at a set interval. The called file can run a report, update a database, do an XML grab, anything you want. And then you can tell CF that you want it to save the results of the file somewhere else.
I used this to great effect today, hence my post :). MM.com changed their DesDev feed, so the XSL I slaved over in VBScript wasn't doing the trick for me, and I didn't feel like writing a new one :). So I built a CF page to consume the XML feed and do it's wonders. Well that's all fine and good, but DWfaq is built in asp, so I couldn't call the CF page from my ASP application files. Scheduled tasks to the rescue :D
I set up a scheduled task to run my des dev parser once every 4 hours. When the parser runs it saves the result as a plain old HTML file which I can then include into my .asp pages. This means I don't have to parse the XML feed everytime someone hits my site, and I don't even have to worry about the MM server not being responsive but once every 4 hours (a pretty decent gamble given that I'm error checking things anyway).
The moral of the story? Scheduled tasks can make it easy to stash pages that don't change very often as static HTML files which you can then use throughout your application without worrying about your page overhead. Definitely tasty...
Advanced Database Techniques
And then some...
Sitting in the class by Kenneth Fricklas, and learning a bunch of nifty SQL tricks (SELECT FOR UPDATE), record locking, "Dirty reads" (just fun to say) and how to better use Triggers (INSTEAD OF is hawt I tell you... hawt... [and yes, I spelled that right]). This is definitely worth the price of admission, and it looks like I'll be doing some revisions to the DWfaq database and the store to make my life a little easier :). Also learning some good stuff about how to improve performance and just generally make my apps faster and more efficient. Hopefully you're not all too jealous ;).
Cartweaver 2? Dan and CF?
You betcha...
I've spent the last few months neglecting my blog (you poor souls) working with Lawrence Cramer on Cartweaver 2 and Angela on the new and improved DWfaq Store. I'm finally getting to a point where I can breathe and finish off this damned blog application :). Only now I think I'll end up writing it in ASP and ColdFusion (go ahead and say it Massimo, but the ladies always did love me :).