Adobe MAX 2007 - day 1

keynote session

coming soon... (it's on paper :( )


adobe coldfusion monitor

runs from CF admin

stats screen 1

• active requests
• active cf threads
• slow requests
• slow cf threads
• sessions
• cumulative server usage

stats screen 2

• memory usage
• run garbage collection (be weary of this)
• tuning queries is a better method to tune cf server
• monitoring and profiling are not process intensive, memory tracking is heavy
• application scope memory usage

stats screen 3

• server scope memory
• database queries (active, slow, cached, status, pool status, most frequent)

stats screen 4

• errors and timeouts

alerts

• set them up as server crash predictors

trigger snapshots

• displays a snapshot of the server

A Virtual Trading Floor: Bringing Wall Street to the (Biz) Classroom
Wharton Security Xchange (WSX)

• knew long-term goal was the web
• a good idea: all business logic done in database
• trade handler & FIFO order handling

WSX, v1

• The Good
• Immediate response times
• Rich and realistic UI
• Compelling competitive atmosphere
• Fine-grained centralized control

The Bad

• Visual Basic (team of web developers can't maintain, client-based install)
• Hindered external expansion
• Stanford case (shipped off exe, shipped off sql server db)

Flex 2.0 w/ LiveCycle Data Services 2.5

Traders' Incoming Orders ----> Order Execution <---> Order Book ---> Order History

Move to Flex & Dataservices

• Flex Builder 2.0 a powerful and familiar IDE
• Resulting SWF gave total UI control in browser
• Flex Data services

Communications - design choices

• Data Mgt
• Ideal for keeping clients sycnhed
• trickey when changes can come externally
• Data Msg'ng
• Provides a real-time consumer producer model
• Remote objects
• CFC's

Process

• Group development: challenging synchronization
• 1 week of rapid development w/ (in)experienced flex dev's
• new software dev paradigm for compiled code
• new challenge: server push

tech solution summary

• consumer/producer messaging
• coldfusion server push
• one-quarter second
• cf gateways
• cell renderers

• cf8/lcds 2.5
• flex builder 2.01
• sql server 2005

They keep 5 years of data

Conclusion

• Flex helped to achieve long-term goals - external adoption
• Flex LCDS is a viable tool fro real0time financial apps
• freedom from client
• keeping relevant tech in front of new gen of students

Leveraging ColdFusion Components

blessing and curse

• the problem with rapid development is that it's too easy to write spaghetti code
• resist the urge to File.. New,
• spaghetti code = bad
• cfinclude - good for reusing static html but that output can't be customized

cf_customtag

• for customized content

user defined functions

• can easily return values but
• code must be manually included
• udfs are just collections of methods, data is not encapsulated
• can't be used outside of a .cfm page

CFCs

• encourage better code org
• easier to call/invoke
• more functional than UDFs
• stores instance data as well as encapsulate functions
• reusable from any app that can use web services or flash remoting

basic rules

• start w/ a set of udf's in component tag
• use .cfc file extension
• store .cfc files in the web root (if cfc's will be called as web services)

anatomy of a cfc

• benefits
• the cfc file doesn't have to be included

Demo 1

• demo a simple CRUD app
• pick a page and move its brains (data access code) into CFC

Using CFC's

• building blocks for page based apps
• vs CreateObject