In the beginning there was a Web site. Over time, the humble site matured into an e-commerce application. Hundreds of hits per day turned into thousands, then tens of thousands...until the server crashed and all the e-customers and all the e-money went elsewhere.

The title of this article refers to an ancient Zen Buddhist saying, meant – like other non-sense proverbs in this tradition – to startle the student into a new way of looking at things.

eWebEditPro from Ektron is a browser-based WYSIWYG editor that lets your Web site users create HTML content even if they don't know HTML. In this review we discuss why you'd need eWebEditPro, and point out some of its features and limitations.

Ah yes, the almighty database. O highly exalted piece of technology, we worship you and the server rack upon which you are mounted.

This month I've taken the liberty of assembling a small collection of unrelated ideas that I think you might enjoy as ColdFusion appetizers.

Some questions seem to be so obvious that you wonder why they're even asked. Take this one, for example: 'Would you prefer to have a noncertified mechanic work on your car (one who supposedly does excellent work) or a certified mechanic perform the same task?'

First, a confession: I'm a Microsoft SQL Server plebe. Oh, sure, I've written plenty of SQL commands for Access, Foxpro and even an occasional Oracle database, but the needs of more than one client called out for me to tackle SQL Server.

It seems everyone I meet lately wants to set up an online store. 'It would be great if I could sell my handmade Barbie doll dresses or sell ties, direct, on the Web!' The e-store is hot and the fire is spreading.

In his new book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Little, Brown), Malcolm Gladwell makes the case for critical stages in the development of an endeavor.

For ColdFusion developers, this really is the best of times. Demand for developers is exploding, taking salaries and consulting rates along with it.

Building rich Web-based software is fun, exciting...and can take too much time. Most clients have the same core software needs: secure, browser-based infrastructure, integration with existing systems and scalability to meet future needs. A Web application platform capable of all this w...

Shortly after beginning to work with the Fusebox development methodology (see end of article for a brief list of Fusebox resources), I found that I wanted a standardized way of documenting code. What I needed was something easy to learn and adopt, something that could provide importan...

I had been working on the architecture of a large, complex e-commerce site when I ran into a situation. 'It's always a situation,' I muttered. What would I do when users requested a service offered on the site, but they needed to register for it first? I could just write code that st...

Session management is an essential tool for any Web application; however, one crazy coder on a shared server can kill the tool, your session variables - and maybe a sale to a customer. The problem isn't uncommon. Session, application and server-scope variables are stored in server RAM.

Extending ColdFusion to incorporate Microsoft's Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) is a powerful way to expand the capabilities of the application server on the Microsoft platform. We'll view DCOM through ColdFusion and cover some of the features and pitfalls of using these tec...

Who else is sick and tired of hearing Allaire's product evangelist, Ben Forta, touted as the CF god? Ben Forta this, Ben Forta that. All right already! So he and some other CF gurus wrote a couple books about CF and now we can't go anywhere in CF hyperspace without hearing about it.

I recently received an inquiry from a developer about my Guru-on-Call service (www.TeamAllaire.com/hal). He requested help in identifying the fuses he would need for his application.

I'm writing this prior to the turn of the new year, so I trust that somehow civilization bungled through and that you're not reading this by the light of your last candle, alert to the strange sounds outside your door that are growing ever nearer.

There's nothing more annoying (and scary) than putting your credit card information on a Web site and getting a server error...This happened to me when I tried to buy an airline ticket...I entered my information three times...and was charged for three tickets.

When I started using ColdFusion, one of the tags that piqued my curiosity most was . At the time, I had only a vague idea what LDAP was and when I started to write applications that extended beyond single pages, I realized I needed some kind of authentication. I tried the tag but wasn...

If you're as busy as I am, chances are you seldom have the time to sift through all the support documentation that accompanies your new authoring software - especially if that software is an upgrade to one of your familiar tools. I generally install it and run (we don't need no stinkin...

In the premier issue of CFDJ, Richard Schulze wrote a fine article on several new features of ColdFusion 4.0, part of Allaire's recent upgrade to their entire product line. In this article I'll highlight some additional features of the new release. I'll also expand on his coverage of l...

As I sat down with NetObjects Fusion 4.0 for the first time, I was curious to discover what it could offer a professional Web designer and host like myself. What I found was an impressive product for creating sophisticated business Web sites targeting electronic commerce.

Normal Web browsing is a stateless affair. This means that until you request something from the server, your browser sits idle, like a lump of clay. Ignoring Java-based apps or chat clients, most Internet browsing happens on a very simple basis. You (via your browser) ask the server fo...

Have you built a custom tag yet? If you haven't, you're missing one of the most exciting features of ColdFusion 3.0. Custom tags are the ability to extend ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) with custom tags. For the first time, developers could encapsulate functions, snippets of code an...

True, it's possible to do just about anything with ColdFusion. But if there's already a solution on the market that's well tested, why reinvent the wheel? Take AbleCommerce Developer 2.6. With AbleCommerce you don't have to spend thousands of hours of programming time to create a s...