Fuzzy Orange Ltd

Adobe ColdFusion 10 available now

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:11:00 -0000

With the release of ColdFusion 10, Adobe's Enterprise application server for Rapid Application Development, there's a lot to get excited about. HTML5 features heavily in the new release, with support for dynamic and interactive charting, web sockets, and video. RESTful web services are delivered out of the box. Improved Java integration as well the the move from JRun to Tomcat as the underlying JEE servlet container are just some of the new features. You can find a full list of what's new, on the ColdFusion 10 Family section at http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/coldfusion-family.html ColdFusion 10 is available now, and as an authorised reseller, Fuzzy Orange can help you with all your licensing requirements. Contact us for a quote, or for more information on how we can help you get the best out of ColdFusion 10.

Matt Gifford shortlisted for Developer of the Year

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:01:00 -0000

As previously blogged, our very own Matt Gifford was nominated in this years .NET Awards for Developer of the Year. We're delighted to announce that Matt has been shortlisted for the award, along with Paul Irish and Lorna Mitchell. Congrats Matt and best of luck!

.net Awards - Developer of the Year

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:38:00 -0000

The annual .net Awards, organised by .net magazine, is one of the Web industry's leading ceremonies recognising some of the best talent the world of Web Design and Development has to offer. For 2011, our very own Matt Gifford has been nominated in the "Developer of the Year" category. Matt has worked like a demon, not just for us or our our clients, but also for the ColdFusion community as a whole, releasing a huge number of open source applications, including the much loved monkehTweets. His hugely popular "Object Oriented Programming in ColdFusion" book, released Autumn 2010, has been a massive success, and he's authored numerous magazine articles covering (to name but a few): Building Mobile Application with Adobe AIR, ColdFusion ORM, HTML5, Application Security, and speaking at Conferences. We know just how good Matt's work is, as do our clients, and it's great to see that work be recognised globally. You too can vote for Matt. Just head to the .net Awards website.

Adobe MAX 2011

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:13:00 -0000

Two months from now, approximately 5,000 designers, developers, managers, technologists and more will once again descend upon LA for the 2011 edition of Adobe MAX. This will be the fourth time Fuzzy Orange have been involved in a speaking capacity; 2007 in Barcelona and 2009, 2010 in LA. For this years conference, Matt Gifford and myself will both be jetting in to present on a number of topics.

Matt Gifford

OWASP Enterprise Security API and available methods to help lock down a ColdFusion Application (Unconference)

Monday, October 3rd, 2.00 p.m. - 2.50 p.m.

Mobile Apps from 0 to 90: Powered by ColdFusion (BYOD Lab)

Tuesday, October 4th, 8.00 a.m. - 9.30 a.m.
In this 90 minute lab, you'll use Adobe Flash Builder to develop a mobile application from the ground up, compiling it as an Adobe AIR app. Learn how to create and push views, add a tabbed menu interface, and call and manage remote data from a ColdFusion web server. You'll also debug and deploy the final application to your mobile Android device.

Darwin Development (Unconference)

TBC
Evolution. It's a wonderful thing, and something that needs to occur for natural progression and the continuing advancement of ideas. As we see the modern trends, development paradigms and design practices evolve into different areas utilising newer technologies, should we really be saying goodbye to our old ways in favour of the new approach? Join Matt Gifford as he invites you to partake in a presentation with an emphasis on attendee input (with rewards) in a discussion to help understand what makes the web great, how we communicate in the modern world, and as a result whether or not we should leave the big screen behind entirely in favour of new formats.

Andy Allan

Adobe ColdFusion and modern Web front ends (Preconference Lab)

Sunday, October 2nd, 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.
Adobe ColdFusion works very well with most javascript frameworks and especially well with jQuery. See how ColdFusion, jQuery, and mobile web standard development can catapult your ColdFusion development to the latest and greatest. In addition to presenting, we'll also be networking like crazy, catching up with old friends and new, and taking part in as much ColdFusion related fun as possible. See you in LA!!

Migrating your Rackspace US Cloud Server to the UK

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:09:00 -0000

Migrating your Linux server from the Rackspace US Cloud to the UK

We here at Fuzzy Orange love the Cloud. We make extensive use of cloud services, particularly at Rackspace. When we started running cloud servers at Rackspace they only offered this service in the US but now it's offered in the UK too and we're migrating our servers over.

Rackspace have provided a detailed set of instructions which do the job well, but are maybe not the best at explaining what's going on. There are also one or two little "gotchas" not mentioned there.

Now, the first thing that should be noted is that depending on the complexity of the setup on your US cloud server it may be easier to just move files by hand. For example, if you just have a little web server with static content, it would be quicker and easier just to create a new UK cloud server and copy your content across manually.

Important things you need to know

1. US and UK usernames and API keys

The Rackspace migration scripts use the Cloud Files API to copy things around, so you will need valid usernames and API keys for both the US and UK cloud.

2. US and UK servers will run simultaneously

You need to have both servers up and running for the whole procedure, so you will be charged for both until everything is complete.

3. Python 2.6 on your UK server

Older Linux distributions ship with Python 2.4, which isn't good enough to run the Rackspace migration scripts. If you're so inclined you can build Python 2.6 from scratch, but it's easier to grab the ActiveState Python 2.6 installer and use that.

4. Files can't be changed during the process

Well, they can, but you'll have to transfer any changed files manually after the process is complete. When taking the source snapshot of your US cloud server you have to make sure no files are open for writing - this means databases either shut down or open read-only.

5. It will take about a day for this to complete

After you've created your migration image and run the Rackspace migration scripts you need to create a support ticket wait for Rackspace to do some work behind the scenes to link your US image to your UK server. It will take about a day or so for this to happen.

Step by step

1. Create the destination server in the UK cloud

Create a new, blank server in the UK cloud. Make sure it matches exactly your US server for memory, disk size and OS version.

2. Create an on-demand backup on the UK server

This is where the US image is eventually copied across to. Call this something like "MigrationImage" so you'll know what it's for.

Once it's complete, go to Cloud Files and look inside the cloudservers folder. Take note of the .yml file for your image for later (e.g. MigrationImage_20110607_123456.yml)

3. Prepare the US server

You need to prepare the server for an on-demand backup image. This means making sure no files are opened for writing, which means any databases need to be shut down or set to read-only.

4. Create an on-demand backup on the US server

This becomes the source image for your UK server. Call this something like "MigrationImageSource" so you'll know what it's from

Once you have the on-demand backup of the US server you can optionally restart your databases or make them read-write again, but understand that changes from this point on won't be copied by the migration scripts so you will have to deal with them manually afterwards.

Just like the UK image, go to Cloud Files and take note of the name of the .yml file for use later.

5. InstallPython 2.6 on your UK server

Check the version of Python you have installed by just running "python --version". If don't have Python installed at all, try to install it using your system's package manager (e.g. "yum install python" or "apt-get install python")

If you don't have at least Python 2.6.0 then you'll need to install it by hand. You can download the source and compile from scratch, but as you're probably only going to be using it this once for the migration, you might find the ActivePython from ActiveState easier to install - just remember to add the ActivePython bin directory to the beginning of $PATH once you're done.

6. Install PyYAML on your UK server

PyYAML is a Python module the migration scripts need to run. Download it from http://pyyaml.org/download/pyyaml/PyYAML-3.09.tar.gz, untar it to a folder and run "python setup.py install" to install it.

7. Download the migration script on your UK server

Get the Rackspace migration script from http://c857.r57.cf3.rackcdn.com/migrationscript_v1.0.zip and, if you like (and I'd recommend that you do so), verify the checksum with that on the Rackspace FAQ page. Unzip the file into a folder.

8. Run the migration script on your UK server

Now you need to run the command on your UK server to copy the migration image over from the US to the UK. The format of the command is :

You need to replace US_username, US_apikey, source.yml, UK_username and UK_apikey with your details so the command ends up looking like :

This will take a while to run depending on the size of the image to be migrated. It will print progress as it goes. Don't worry about getting it wrong, it handles errors gracefully and you can run it again. If you have an exceptionally large server image it may be worth running this inside Screen or some other tool that allows you to disconnect from the session without terminating your login.

9. Raise a support ticket in the UK portal

Once the migration script has completed you have to raise a support ticket in the UK cloud portal. The Rackspace FAQ has the correct wording to use in the ticket details, but additionally I would suggest you add the name of the US and UK servers.

10. Restore the migrated image to the UK server

Once you have notification from Rackspace support that they have finished migrating your image you should be able to restore the image to your UK server. The migration overwrites the on-demand UK backup you took at the start of all this with the US on-demand image, so restore using that.

Once this is done the UK server is now an identical copy of the US server at the point the on-demand image was taken there.

11. Change network settings on the UK server

Sometimes this happens automatically, but sometimes it doesn't. If you can't immediately access your UK server on the new IP address it has been assigned, you'll need to use the Cloud console to connect to it directly to change the network settings.

The Cloud portal already gives you the primary IP of your cloud server. Rackspace support assure me that for all cloud servers the netmask is always 255.255.255.0 and the default gateway is the same as the IP, but with the last octet changed to 1 - so, if your primary IP is 33.44.55.66, your default gateway is 33.44.55.1. DNS servers should be 83.138.151.80 and 83.138.151.81.

12. Test your UK server

Now you need to test the new UK server to make sure it's all working. Start any databases you had previously stopped or bring them out of read-only mode.

13. Sync up any changed content

If any content has changed on the US server since you started this process then this is the time to copy it across to the new UK server.

14. Change DNS names to point at UK server

If you have any public DNS records that refer to the US server you probably want to change them now to point at the new UK server.

15. Delete the US server

Once you are totally, 100% sure that the UK server has migrated correctly, all content has been copied and any DNS entries have been re-pointed towards it, you can delete your US server.

Remember that you are still charged even if your US server is switched off, so you need to delete it entirely. If desired, create an on-demand backup to Cloud Files before doing so you can re-create it if necessary.

And there you go - your US cloud server is now running in the UK.

We're hiring: ColdFusion Developer Wanted!

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:15:00 -0000

ColdFusion Developer, £25 - £28k DOE

Due to our continuing success and growth, Fuzzy Orange are currently looking for a highly-motivated, experienced ColdFusion Developer to be based in Glasgow, Scotland. The position is a key role working primarily on the development of ColdFusion solutions for customers on site. Your responsibilities include, but are not limited to analysing customer and development requirements, preparing technical development documentation, undertaking development based on agreed technical designs, testing of modifications and ongoing development assistance.

About You

The ideal candidate will have a passion for great development, a desire to innovate and be brimming with creativity. An easygoing sense of humour and the ability to get along with a wide range of people are a must.

Technical Skills & Experience

You will have strong technical skills and a willingness to manage tasks through to delivery, ideally supplemented with skills in associated technologies:

2 years minimum ColdFusion experience
Enterprise-level SQL relational databases
ColdFusion components and Object-Oriented Programming
Knowledge of current framework methodologies are advantageous
Developing Flex and AIR-based applications
jQuery, CSS, XHTML and JavaScript
Version control and ticketing systems for project management

Personal Skills

You will possess the skills necessary to work in a team environment with other developers and project managers.

Excellent problem solving and communication skills
Great attention to detail
Self-motivated and driven to achieve professional success in a hybrid development/consulting environment
Ability to manage workload and time according to deadlines set
Good team player as well as have the ability to work on your own initiative without supervision
Resourceful, energetic and enthusiastic

About Fuzzy Orange

Fuzzy Orange Ltd is one of Europe's leading consultancies specialising in Adobe ColdFusion, Flex and AIR. Our client base comprises of local government, transport, new media, technology and entertainment giants as well as small businesses and up and coming dot coms. Fuzzy Orange is the organiser of Europe's leading ColdFusion conference, Scotch on the Rocks.

Fuzzy Orange Ltd is an equal opportunity employer.

Contact

Please email your resume, in PDF/TEXT/HTML format only to info@fuzzyorange.co.uk

No agencies please. No MS-WORD attachments.

Christmas Development Give Away

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:11:00 -0000

As it's the season of good will, plus the fact we love giving swag away, we thought we'd put together a little ColdFusion development Santa sack.

Included in the sack are:

1 copy of ColdFusion Builder + 1 year maintenance & support
1 copy of Object Orientated Programming in ColdFusion book by our very own Matt Gifford
1 full pass to Scotch on the Rocks 2011
1 full license of Tasktop Pro (http://www.tasktop.com)

So what do you have to do? Simply send us your best Christmas photo. It could be of your Christmas tree, or you dressed up as Santa ... you take the photo and we'll decide which is the best.

Send your photo to christmas@fuzzyorange.co.uk - Photos need to be with us by Friday 17th December.

New Book: Object Orientated Programming in ColdFusion

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:16:00 -0000

Our very own Matt Gifford recently saw all his hard work, long hours and caffeine addiction pay off with the release of his very first book, Object Orientated Programming in ColdFusion. Released by Packt Publishing, this 192 page book is a short but concise manual on how to design and build your ColdFusion Components (CFCs), use Inheritance, encapsulate your code, deal with portability, work with Service Layers and so on and so forth.

The book is a fantastic read for those CFML developers who need a little help in making the jump to working with CFCs, or implement Object Orientated principles. It's also a great refresher for those who have already made the jump.

Visit the publishers page for full details, including special offers.

https://www.packtpub.com/object-oriented-programming-in-coldfusion/book

Adobe MAX 2010

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:35:00 -0000

Matt (Gifford) and myself will be heading out to LA a week on Saturday for Adobe MAX 2010. We'll both be giving a hands on Lab entitled "Search Made Easy: Full Test Search with ColdFusion and Solr" at 8am on Tuesday 26th and again at 8.30am on Wednesday 27th. Additionally, we'll both be giving presentations at the ColdFusion Unconference. I'll be presenting on "Search and Destory: The Rock Star Approach to ColdFusion and Solr" at 3pm on Monday 25th. This session will dive into some of the unknowns such as configuration, security, monitoring, as well as some other rather nifty tricks. Matt will be presenting "ColdFusion as a Service: How to Extend 'The Awesome'". This will be an updated version of Matt's session from Scotch on the Road 2009. So come along, say hello, give us abuse (accompanied by donuts) and we'll maybe even buy you a beer.

Adobe ColdFusion 9 Enterprise & Adobe ColdFusion Builder 1 Bundle Promotion

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:00:00 -0000

Adobe are running a ColdFusion Enterprise promotion, whereby if you purchase a new ColdFusion 9 license, or upgrade to ColdFusion 9, you will receive 3 FREE ColdFusion Builder Licenses as well.

What is included in the ColdFusion 9 & ColdFusion Builder bundle promotion?

For the same cost as a single unit of ColdFusion 9 enterprise (full, upgrade or upsell), a customer will receive a single unit of ColdFusion 9 enterprise & 3 units of ColdFusion Builder 1, each of which includes a unit of Flash Builder 4 standard. CF ENT Unit type Bundle Price

How long will this promotion be available?

This promotion runs until January 1st, 2011.

Is platinum M&S available for this bundle?

It sure is. Just mention that you are looking for Platinum Support.

How do I buy?

Simply call Fuzzy Orange on +44 (0)131 200 6019 or email info@fuzzyorange.co.uk

Attend our MAX Lab and win a free ticket to SOTR2011 and 3 nights accommodation

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:25:00 -0000

It's seven weeks until Matt Gifford and myself give our Hands on Lab at this years Adobe MAX conference. We're delivering a 90 minute lab on Search Made Easy: Using ColdFusion and Solr. We're putting the final touches to the material and we're hoping to get a full house for our lab (it's at 62% capacity right now). For anyone who attended my ColdFusion and PDF session last year, you know it will be worth it. As an added incentive we're going to offer one lucky attendee a free ticket to Scotch on the Rocks 2011 and 3 nights accommodation at the conference venue, the Apex International Hotel. All you need to do is attend our lab and provide Matt and and myself with a bag of donuts. We'll then decide whose donuts were best. Simple. Best of luck.

Scotch on the Rocks 2011

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:45:00 -0000

"Painting the Forth Bridge". This phrase was used to identify the fact that painting one of Edinburgh's iconic structures was a never ending job. The current painting of the bridge however, is slightly different in that a new approach has been taken that will see the paint work have an expected life of anywhere between 25 and 40 years, thereby eliminating the need to repaint continuously. Organising Scotch on the Rocks (and I would imagine any conference) is somewhat similar to Painting the Forth Bridge. As soon as you're done, you start organising for the next year. Now, we wouldn't persist in running the conference every year if we didn't enjoy it, but with anything in life, we're looking to streamline our approach so that we can spend less time on ... well, the time consuming areas. This was made a tad more difficult the last two years due to the economy and the fact we had to adapt or die. I'm delighted to say that our 5 year plan, which was conceived in 2008 after things headed south, has proved to be fruitful. Scotch on the Rocks 2011: March 3-4, 2011 2011 will see the conference head home to Edinburgh after 2 years traveling. Taking place at the Apex International hotel, in the Edinburgh Grassmarket, underneath the skyline dominating Edinburgh Castle, Europe's longest running ColdFusion conference will bring the best of the best from the world of ColdFusion, Flex, AIR, HTML5 and more to Edinburgh on March 3rd and 4th. Tickets are already on sale, and in fact are already 50% sold out after just two weeks. For more information on the 2011 conference, and to purchase your ticket, head over to http://www.sotr.eu. Our 3 year paint Just like the painting of the bridge, we've managed to reduce some of the repetitiveness. One of the biggest tasks with organising a conference is finding a venue. For the next 3 years (2011-2013) we will be at the Apex International Hotel and this reduces our workload considerably. It also allows us to build up a good relationship with the hotel, and with that comes the opportunity to provide better deals with our delegates and sponsors. Here's to a long and illustrious life, for both the Bridge and Scotch on the Rocks.

Fuzzy Orange @ Adobe MAX 2010

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:59:00 -0000

Adobe MAX, the annual showcase conference for all things Adobe takes place October 23-23 in Los Angeles, California. Registration for the conference is already open, and this week the official Session Scheduler has been released. I'm delighted to announce that Matt Gifford and myself will not only be there, but we'll also be delivering a BYOL (Bring Your Own Laptop) lab on "Search made Easy: Full-Text Document Search with ColdFusion". In this lab, we'll be getting hands on and demonstrating ColdFusion and Solr; how to configure Solr, it's advantages over Verity, how to manage Collections, how to index files and query objects, and ultimate how to build a slick search interface. You're going to love Solr once we're finished. The Lab description says Windows, but we can guarantee it also works on the Mac as that's what we've built the code on. And there's no reason for it not to work on Linux as well, so not matter what operating system you're running, you'll be able to join in.

We <3 Scotch on the Rocks

Fri, 14 May 2010 08:31:00 -0000

Scotch on the Rocks is now less than 5 days away. If you haven't confirmed your place or purchased your ticket for the event yet, don't hesitate and secure one now from the official SOTR site: www.scotch-on-the-rocks.co.uk

We <3 our sessions

Covering two days, with two tracks per day, there are currently a total of 22 sessions, bringing to you a wide range of content and topics covering ColdFusion, frameworks, working methodologies, Flex, AIR and HTML5.

We <3 our speakers

No conference would be complete without the experts and 'purveyors of knowledge' standing up and providing the content for the sessions. This year is no exception, and we are really excited about the 19 speakers we have lined up.

We <3 our badgers

moving on..

We <3 our Reachies

For the first time in SOTR history, we are holding what we hope to be an annual awards ceremony, 'The Reachies'. The large number of EMEA developers work hard at what they do, and provide fantastic content, open source or not. The ColdFusion community across the globe is one of (if not) the best, open sharing communities, and we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight that fact and reward developers for their efforts. There are five categories in this year's awards, and if you haven't voted, or are still unaware the awards even exist ( shame on you ), head over to the nominations page on the SOTR website to view the categories and place your nominations. There ARE prizes for each category winner.

We <3 our sponsors

The Scotch on the Rocks events rely on the input and support from other companies and organisations in various formats. It is with this important support that the conference has been able to grow and progress year after year, and attendees have been able to enjoy the wealth of knowledge and fun of the event. A massive thank you to the sponsors of the 2010 event.

We <3 the attendees

Most importantly, a conference simply would not be a conference without people turning up, and we're very lucky to have a fantastic group of developers and attendees who join us for each event. Ultimately, SOTR has always been undertaken with the attendees in mind, and it will continue to cater for you/them at every turn, every year.

We <3 doing it again

I'm really excited about this years conference. A lot of work and planning has gone into the event this year ( whether the attendee's realise it or not :) ) and we've already started planning the event for SOTR2011. We must be mad, so why do it? Simple. We love it. Ever since SOTR was brought to life by Andy Allan and Fuzzy Orange in 2005, it's been a boost for the RIA and ColdFusion community in the UK and Europe. Bringing together like-minded individuals and developers is essentially what the conference is about. Whether you are there for business reasons, development ideas, educational purposes, networking, or purely as a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues and to enjoy a beer or five, Scotch on the Rocks has always been and will always be happy to have you.

We <3 choice

On a final note, yes, the bar at SOTR 2010 is open and drinks provided for you. There's nothing better than relaxing with a beer or two afterwards and networking, chatting, catching up with mates and having some fun. The only choice is what drink to order from the bar. :)

jQuery UI Tutorial in Web Designer

Tue, 04 May 2010 15:33:00 -0000

Fuzzy Orange are once again gracing the pages of Web Designer Magazine. Issue 170 (out now) features a four page tutorial on using the revised and improved version 1.8 of the jQuery UI in your development projects. Starting from a blank canvas, the tutorial guides the user through adding interactive elements such as the new autocomplete widget, as well as sortable lists, progress bars, colour pickers and a look into the widget factory to create and customise your own widgets. We love working with Web Designer and we love to write and create new projects to share with the rest of the world. Make sure you grab your copy now to explore all that jQuery UI 1.8 has to offer.