Dynamic Publishing with ColdFusion MX

Benjamin Elmore holds the position of Chief Technology Officer at RemoteSite Technologies, Inc. His expertise regarding web development technologies and the associated market was instrumental in defining the functionality of RemoteSite's flagship content management system, OASIS, which is currently in use within New York State government. In addition to his leadership role within RemoteSite, Benjamin has fulfilled technology roles with the Allaire Corporation, Macromedia, and Travelers Insurance Company that have had a significant impact on the web development community. The Allaire Corporation contracted Benjamin to be its worldwide Spectra Evangelist, the one person who is believed to be the most effective and proficient in the use of that major web development product. While maintaining his CTO role at RemoteSite, Ben educated the Allaire client and partner base regarding the appropriate implementation of the product. With his guidance, Allaire defined subsequent releases of the Spectra product in keeping with the needs of the worldwide development community. RemoteSite was engaged by Macromedia to provide guidance regarding the use of their MX technologies within the Dylan 65 Project, with Benjamin specified as the requisite lead within the associated contract document. This project is critical to Macromedia because it represents the next generation of Macromedia.com. Benjamin served as the lead engineer, responsible for architecting the project's workflow and publishing subsystems utilizing Macromedia's pre-release MX technology. In this role, he worked directly with the CTO of Macromedia, providing feedback regarding the need for enhanced features and functionality within emerging technology¿ultimately assisting Macromedia with the evolution of that technology in preparation for its pending market debut. Benjamin also was a key player in building the Bond Internet Application for Travelers Insurance Company. He provided leadership and mentoring for a group of Travelers' developers as they constructed their first major content management application. The success of this new application was pivotal in the decision to move forward with the overall construction of the Bond Intranet Application as well as an internal intranet. These activities were more than just technical implementations. During these engagements, Benjamin also assisted the Traveler's Property Causality Management team with its understanding of content management concepts, and its applicability to its specific business environment. A member of the board of advisors for the Albany ColdFusion User Group and a certified instructor, Benjamin is an active promoter of technological excellence. He has been a speaker at many user groups across the nation as well at various international vendor developer conferences, including Rational Software, Macromedia, and Sybase. Benjamin served as the primary mentor and Technological Director of the Allaire Spectra Ace Program during 2000. He was a key presenter at Macromedia's Worldwide Developers Conference for both 2000 and 2001. Ben co-authored the book Macromedia Advanced ColdFusion 5.0 with Macromedia ColdFusion Evangelist Ben Forta. He holds industry certifications as an advanced developer and senior instructor for Macromedia's ColdFusion technology, including the most advanced technologies. He was co-author of two articles on web development methodologies appearing within the ColdFusion Developers' Journal, the international periodical for emerging web technologies. The Allaire Spectra Methodology three-day training course, offered worldwide, is based in large part on those articles. Seth Hodgson is currently a web engineer working for Macromedia. He is a certified Macromedia ColdFusion and Macromedia Flash developer. Before heading to northern California, Seth did the impossible along with an amazing team at Impossible, Inc. in Santa Barbara, California building solutions for commerce, communications, intranets, and extranets for a wide variety of industries using the full range of Macromedia technologies. Michael Mazzorana currently manages Internet development and solution strategies for Travelers Life & Annuity, which is a member of Citigroup. From 1997 through 2001, he held a similar position with Travelers Property Casualty that included working with various internal business areas to create Internet solutions related to selling and servicing insurance products. Starting in 1997, Michael led an effort to hire a new team, chose new products, and started a development effort of the Travelers corporate intranet. Much of Michael's career has been focused on trying to understand the business and technical challenges around web site technology management and growth. His current projects are focused on e-business solutions with evaluation of various products and trends that meet business objectives. Jeff Tapper is a Certified Macromedia Instructor as well as a Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer. He has been developing web-based applications since 1994, and has used ColdFusion for many significant projects since 1995 (version 1.5). He was a speaker at the 2000 Allaire Developer Conference, as well as a regular speaker at several Macromedia user groups and events. Jeff co-authored two books for Macromedia Press, and is pleased to be included as a contributing author of this book. Allen Benson has been involved in object-oriented software development for more than 10 years as a developer, consultant, mentor, and instructor. He has written for publications including Java Report and VisualAge magazines. Allen has presented at the Allaire Developers Conference and SPG's Internet/Intranet Application Development Conference. He also was a member of the SIGS Java Seminar Series presentation team. Allen now does Java/J2EE consulting and training. Dan Blackman is a Senior Technologist for RemoteSite Technologies. He is experienced at developing and deploying complex web applications using technologies such as ColdFusion 5.0/MX, Flash MX, JavaScript, HTML, and DBMS (Oracle, SQL Server). He is a Certified Macromedia Professional holding certification in web site development, a ColdFusion developer, and is a Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer. He has worked with clients around the country, such as at the University of Buffalo, Macromedia, and NASA in web application development and business development roles. Jon Briccetti is a senior technologist at RemoteSite Technologies, with expertise in Macromedia ColdFusion, Dreamweaver MX, and Flash MX. He is a Certified Macromedia Instructor and Certified Macromedia Professional. Jon's IT experience began at age 12 with a TRS-80 and hasn't stopped since; he's developed software applications in various environments for many years. Jon has extensive analysis skills, polished from various career excursions in non-IT positions and business ownership. As the Founder and Co-President of the Albany NY Macromedia User Group, Jon is well known in the capital district as an expert in Macromedia technologies and has delivered presentations at user groups and at the ColdFusion seminars for Macromedia. Robin Hilliard is a senior technical sales engineer at Macromedia Australia/New Zealand, having originally joined Allaire as the technical support engineer for the Asia/Pacific region. After obtaining a BSc in computer science and pure mathematics at Sydney University, Robin worked for four years at Andersen Consulting in a variety of enterprise computing engagements before moving to Internet design firm Zivo, where he took a technical lead role on projects for Subaru and BHP Steel. Robin is an experienced ColdFusion and Spectra developer, and he is passionate about simplifying the processes used in software design. Robin is also a bass in the chamber choir Cantillation, and he enjoys flying, sailing, and tinkering with his content management tag library, Speck (http://www.speckcms.com). Robin can be reached at robin@zeta.org.au. Anthony McClure is a senior technologist with RemoteSite Technologies. He has more than seven years of experience in various information technologies, including architecting, developing, and maintaining Macromedia-, Microsoft-, and Java-based Internet applications in various aspects of e-business. Recent major projects have produced a specialty for Macromedia Spectra-based applications. Projects that Anthony has had a significant impact on in recent times include being a co-lead for the FAO Schwarz Spectra e-commerce application, a co-lead for the Screaming Media product integration for the Spectra 1.5 release, and offering implementation and architecture support for North Point Domain and its new product. Anthony is a Macromedia Certified Instructor for the ColdFusion technologies.

Introduction.
I. THE WHY.

1. Overview of Dynamic Publishing.


The Four Layers. The IT Challenges of Managing Internet Content Today. The Content Layer. The Management Layer. The Publishing Layer. The Client Layer. Conclusion.

2. Understanding the MX Platform.


Introduction. Defining Rich Internet Applications. Building Rich Internet Applications. Macromedia MX in the Enterprise.

3. Architecting a Dynamic Publishing Application.


Why Use Architecture in a Dynamic Publishing System? The Principles of Architecture. The Layered Dynamic Publishing Architecture. Performance in an Application. Conclusion.

II. THE CONTENT LAYER.

4. Basics of a Content Repository.


What Is a Centralized Content Repository? Content Management Versus Document Management. Internationalization and Localization. Versioning of Content. Categorization of Content. Conclusion.

5. ColdFusion Components.


What Are ColdFusion Components? Component Structure. Working with Components. Component Introspection and Metadata. Component Design. Conclusion.

6. Leveraging XML in ColdFusion MX.


Working with XML Documents. Parsing XML Documents. XML DOM Driven Through the New XML Object. Transforming XML Documents Using XSLT. Conclusion.

7. Java Interoperability with ColdFusion MX.


Common Java Components in Web Applications. Java Enterprise System Architecture. ColdFusion MX Java Interoperability Options. Conclusion.

8. ColdFusion Components with Persistence.


What Is Persistence? Tying Persistence to Components. Persistent Component Structure. Persistence Mechanisms. Component Design. Working with Components. Building Performance into Persistence. Conclusion.

9. Centralized Data Persistence.


Modeling the Persistence API. The Persistence API UML. Passing a CFC Instance as an Argument to Another CFC. Component Introspection Usage in Persistent Objects. Persistent Objects. Building Performance into Persistence. Using the Persistence Components. Conclusion.

10. Persistence with Localization.


What Is Localization? What Is Unicode? Choosing What to Localize. Approaches to Localization. Challenges for Localization. Conclusion.

11. Persistence with Versioning.


What Is Versioning? Challenges of Versioning Content. Self-Contained Versioning. Conclusion.

12. Categorization of Content.


Why Use Categorization? Usages of Categorization. Challenges in Implementing Categorization. Building Categories. Assigning Content to Categories. Retrieving Content with Categorization. Building Performance into Categorization. Conclusion.

III. THE REPOSITORY MANAGEMENT LAYER.

13. Basics of Managing Content.


Workflow Challenges. Translating the Business Flow into an Application. Conclusion.

14. Leveraging Security in ColdFusion MX.


The Security Playing Field. The Security Toolbox. Securing Resources. Centralize Your Security. Conclusion.

15. Leveraging Flash Remoting in ColdFusion MX.


How Does Flash Remoting Work? Web Services, Flash Remoting, and Server-Side ActionScript. Step-by-Step Flash Remoting. Using CFM Pages in Flash Remoting. Consuming Web Services Across the Web in Flash Remoting. Other Flash Remoting Features. Conclusion.

16. Securing the Application and User Management.


Security Concepts. User Management. Managing Users. Managing Security. Security Design Options. Understanding Performance in Application Security. Conclusion.

17. Designing a Workflow System.


Key Objectives of a Workflow System. Reporting. Designing a Workflow System. Integrate Workflow into Dynamic Publishing. Conclusion.

18. Enhanced Business Experience for Managing and Presenting Content.


Communication Models. Improving Efficiency. Communication Between Flash Player 6 and the Server. Supporting Business Users. Conclusion.

IV. THE PUBLISHING LAYER.

19. Basics of Publishing.


What Is Publishing? Challenges of Publishing. Conclusion.

20. Web Services.


Web Services Standards. Benefits of Component-Based Web Software. Web Services and ColdFusion MX. Conclusion.

21. Designing a Publishing Engine.


Publishing System Requirements. Building a Publishing Engine. Conclusion.

22. Assembling a Dynamic Application.


Interface Platforms. Field Tools. Building an Application. Conclusion.

V. THE AFTERMATH.

23. Deployment of a Dynamic Publishing Application.


Deployment Checklist. Redeployment. Conclusion.

Appendix A. Functional and Technical Documents.


Requirements. Process Model. Visual Model. Class Diagrams.

Index.