So here I am at CFUNITED for Day 2. I began the day with the earliest presentation, which had a surprisingly good turnout (considering that the fact that the open bar event took place yesterday night). Unfortunately, I ran out of time before the last two slides could be presented, but I covered all the material I wanted to before the session ended. (If anybody is looking for the presentation, please post a comment and I'll drop it up here.)

I followed up my presentation by attending the discussion on "Using Event Gateways with CFMX 7", which was pretty cool. We were shown an example for using asynchronous messaging to change the songs available on an Internet radio station.

After that, I hooked up with Sutton Yamanashi and we worked together to build an example of using solid layered design patterns to build a CF application using a CFC model. I approached the problem from the same standpoint that I approach my Java Spring applications, and explained the code as we went. Funnily enough, I'd never actually built anything in CFCs using interface simulation, so I wasn't sure if it would work... but it did!

As luck would have it, Jared Rypka-Hauer was sitting immediately to my right throughout the exercise, and happened to be modifying the TeraTech web site as we were having our discussion. Jared was fixing a problem that involved him modifying a DAO (Data Access Object) CFC, so he was able to give us a live example right there. Talk about serendipity...

The other benefit of this exercise is that I came up with some code that I can use for my white paper on the same topic. In my white paper, I'm going to present the layered strategy along with code in CFCs and Java (both with and without the Spring framework), so that developers can appreciate the similarities and differences between the two implementations.

That's it for now. Corfield is getting up to do his presentation on "Enterprise Integration with ColdFusion", so I'm off to grab a seat.

UPDATE: My presentation and some associated resources can be found here. It was created in PowerPoint for Mac OS X, so may act a little funky in the Windows equivalent. Please post a comment if you have additional questions or comments. FYI, I left my presenter's notes intact for additional information.

What better occasion could there be to restart my blog?

I was thrilled to receive an invitation to present at the CFUNITED 2005 conference (many thanks to Michael Smith at TeraTech for the invitation). Michael was kind enough to bring me back to present once again on Strategies for Successful Development with the Fusebox Lifecycle Process (FLiP). I presented on the same topic at the 2004 Fusebox Conference last September.

Based upon the feedback I received last year, my repeat appearance at this event, and the conversations I had with folks today, I can clearly state that there continues to be a need in the development community for a solid SDLC that guides developers through the requirements gathering, architecture, and implementation process. FLiP is definitely the SDLC to fulfill that goal.

I've been on "blog hiatus" for well over a year - the result of time constraints from regular work, contract work, and life in general. But now, having spent the day meeting and greeting with a wide range of developers (from beginners to old hands), I've heard common threads among the conversations - difficult problems being expressed in the community. I'm eager to share my solutions and suggestions, using this blog as my forum.

Besides my ongoing commitment to assisting my peers with correctly and successfully implementing the Fusebox Lifecycle Process (FLiP), and my continuing role as User Community Advocate for Adalon Application Design Studio, there's a ton of experience I'm looking to share regarding my team's transition from CFCs to Java and J2EE (while still reaping the benefits of ColdFusion on the front end).

Other items I found myself repeatedly sharing with developers throughout the day were techniques to build a layered architecture using OO, regardless of the actual technology implementation. Most people have a hard time with OO, and it was thrilling to see my simple examples permeate years of OO confusion, and to witness previously procedural developers "get it" right in front of my eyes.

To that end, I'll be posting white papers on this blog in short order on a variety of topics. Each white paper will be part of a series of articles which, when read end-to-end, will provide a track that a developer can follow to successfully reach a desired goal - such as truly understanding layers, getting a grasp on OO for the first time, or whatever else is requested.

From my audience, I'll only ask one thing in return: post your questions and your requests. This may be my blog, but I want you as the reader to consider it your own personal Help Desk. If you've got a question, ask. If you've got a subject you want "white papered", request it. There will always be a feedback link on each of my blog posts, and it's there for you to click.

I'm here, I'm listening - and I'm ready to blog.