Brendan O'Hara

Last month I introduced design patterns, including the Template Method pattern and how it encourages polymorphism and helps remove the common switch-case constructs we normally utilize in custom tags for purposes of code reuse. This month our topic is the Iterator pattern, a simple yet powerful design pattern you can use to generically traverse through a custom collection CFC. You'll need to know what a collection is and exactly where the Iterator pattern comes into the picture. I'll go over Java Iterator syntax and demonstrate a ColdFusion implementation using CFCs. First, it's important to understand what a collection is and what it is useful for. CFCs as Custom Collections In most object-oriented languages a collection is simply an object that groups multiple other objects within a single container. In the Web world, collections are often useful for retrieving dat... (more)

Design Patterns in ColdFusion: Strategy Pattern - Part 3 of a Series

For the past couple of issues we have been getting to know how other languages use object-oriented design patterns and how those patterns can be implemented in ColdFusion MX. We jumped right into the Template Method and Iterator patterns and this month we will explore the Strategy pattern. This month's pattern has some things in common with the Template Method pattern we reviewed in March (CFDJ, Vol. 5, issue 3). The Strategy pattern helps us encapsulate a series of related algorithms, or strategies, and gives us a single interface, known as the context, with which to work with th... (more)

CFUG ChampionsA conversation with Steve Rittler, Manager of the Philadelphia area CFUG and Philadelphia area MMUG

Hello to everyone in the ColdFusion community. In this column, I’d like to spotlight User Group managers, Team Macromedia volunteers, community leaders, and other enthusiasts who champion ColdFusion and related technologies. These are people like many of you who spend hours – and even days – a week giving back to the ColdFusion and Macromedia communities. Today I’m speaking with Steve Rittler, manager of the Philadelphia area CFUG and founder of the new Philadelphia area MMUG. Brendan O’Hara: Steve tell us how you became involved with the Philadelphia Area CFUG, and eventually ... (more)

Design Patterns in ColdFusion: Composite Pattern

As ColdFusion developers, we tend to build applications based on pages that display information and queries to retrieve information and save information. We tend to think solely of how we are going to implement the code required to perform a certain function. Many times we are not able to consider the commonality of a certain problem and whether an already established design exists somewhere. Often we are not able to set aside time to do this research. Knowing and utilizing design patterns allows us to think in a common language, with an ever-expanding library of well thought ou... (more)

Design Patterns in ColdFusion: Template Method Pattern

ColdFusion has always been an interesting Rapid Application Development tool but never a language taken completely seriously by object-oriented programmers because of its purely structural nature. C++ and Java CFX tags, and the somewhat unreliable nature of , kept many advanced programming concepts unreachable by the average CF5 developer. With the release of ColdFusion MX, Macromedia simplified the use of Java from within ColdFusion. Additionally, the language itself has been extended to include a Java class-like construct known as ColdFusion Components (CFCs). With th... (more)