Articles

Getting Started with Wheels

In this article Mike Henke will discuss ColdFusion On Wheels (Wheels). Wheels is a ColdFusion framework inspired by Ruby On Rails. Wheels is simple to use with the convention over configuration aspect. Wheels doesn't turn using a ColdFusion framework into something different then how you originally learned to code CFML. It is the only framework with an integrated Object Relational Mapper to make interacting with your database even simpler.

This article will be divided into four sections. The first section, "What is Wheels?", is an introduction into Wheels philosophies like simplicity and convention over configuration. The second section, "Creating a Wheels application", will show how to get up and running with Wheels. We will also generate a simple application with a scaffolding plugin. The third section, "Reviewing Generated Code", will walk through the generated code. The fourth section, "Working with Wheels", will customizing our application and add some functionality.

Mylyn - A Task-Oriented Approach to ColdFusion

Most coding at its simplest is change a line here, add a file there, and move on to the next critical task. If you are like me, within a week I remember doing the task but not all the files details. If a similar task is given, I start over again. Mylyn, a task-focused interface plugin for Eclipse, fixes this memory loss by attaching resource context to tasks. Activate the task, and you are exactly where you left off, with the relevant resources appearing in your navigator view and editor panel.

Mylyn also uses task-oriented organization to minimize information overload. If you have a large or small project, Mylyn simplifies your IDE (Integrated Development Editor) to show only the relevant resources you are working on.

Turbo Charging Eclipse

You made the leap to the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE), and now you get the benefit of tight integration between the systems you use daily. You have CFEclipse for ColdFusion, Subclipse for source control, Mylyn as your ticket repository, SQL Explorer as a SQL editor, CSS, XML, and Aptana as a Javascript editor. Everything is easily accessible and you are more productive, except Eclipse seems slower and a bit unstable. You have learned to accept the quirkiness to get all the advantages of Eclipse, but Eclipse should not be slow or unstable, so this article will help you. This article will help you learn how to improve Eclipse startup time, stability, and performance. It will also point you toward choosing the correct package option, a pre-configured starting point for the editor, based on your proposed use for Eclipse. We'll also set some Eclipse preferences, identify any plug-in performance issues at startup, tune the eclipse.ini file for the Sun JVM, and finally show how to switch Eclipse to another JVM.