Michael Smith

Many of us have used the CFCONTENT tag that comes with ColdFusion to serve up files to browsers, but very few ColdFusion developers are aware that the CFCONTENT tag can be used in conjunction with the HTML tag to serve up graphics, such as JPEGs and GIFs. In this case, the why of doing this is perhaps just as interesting as the how. It turns out that using this technique is perfect for use with creating an advertising banner server, controlling access to graphic files, or - on the more sinister side - creating "Web bugs." If you don't recall, a Web bug is a graphic (usually an invisible 1 pixel shim) that is embedded in an HTML e-mail message or Word document that tips off its creator when and who is reading without readers even knowing their access was logged. I... (more)

Upsize from MSAccess To SQL Server

If you're using ColdFusion with Access today, then it's likely you'll be using it with SQL Server tomorrow. Luckily, Microsoft has provided some tools that make upgrading to SQL Server a relatively easy process. You'll be surprised to learn how simple it is to upgrade and how easy it is to work with. This article covers the basics of using these tools and helps you plan an easy database... (more)

Top 10 Web Security Tips

All data-driven Web sites are potentially vulnerable to hackers, whether they are written in ColdFusion or another language. Fortunately, a few simple steps can make your site much more secure. 1. Have an Error Handler By default ColdFusion displays a detailed error message when there is a problem in your code. Yes, I know - your code has no bugs in it - but what if a hacker deliberately ... (more)

Upsize from MSAccess to SQL Server

In March (CFDJ, Vol.3, issue 5) we covered reasons to upsize your Access database to SQL Server and the tools you'll use to do it. Here we explain in detail how to copy data to SQL Server and troubleshoot your upsizing project. The IMPORT AND EXPORT data wizard (aka the DTS Wizard - Data Transformation Services) certainly helps get you going with building tables in SQL Server. It takes an... (more)

Creating Dynamic Websites With ColdFusion

In this article we continue to look at what ColdFusion is and how you can use it for dynamic website creation. We cover using SQL to dynamically retrieve and display data from any database along with testing and debugging techniques. What is ColdFusion? In case you missed the previous articles that introduced ColdFusion, let me explain what it is. ColdFusion, which was introduced by Allai... (more)