MAX 2007 - Using ColdFusion with LCDS session materials

For those of you who attended MAX 2007, a PDF version of my slides and (more importantly) a ZIP file with my demo files are now available on the Adobe MAX 2007 web site here: http://adobemax2007.com/na/sessions/library/ You may need to login to to the MAX web site get to this page.

To find this info without going to it directly, you log in to the MAX 2007 web site (http://adobemax2007.com/) and on the screen with your registration details click on the "Presentation Library" link on the left hand navigation panel.

If you unzip the demo files in to your ColdFusion web root, you will get two directories, 'messaging' and 'samples', each with a README.txt file that explains how to set up CF for each application (create gateways, data sources, etc).
Included are:

• A simple chat messaging application along with a CFML template that can publish a message through the Messaging event gateway.
  
• The classic "Contact" Data Management application - MXML and Assembler CFCs
  
• Some templates that demonstrate the new CF8 ability to notify LCDS through an event gateway when managed data has changed outside of the Flex/LCDS world.
• The more complex CRM Data Management application, include a better conflict resolution handler

Lots of good stuff here.

You will need to have ColdFusion 8 installed (Developer Edition is free!) with the integrated LCDS installation option. The database used for the Data Management applications is MS Access. Sorry to Mac and Unix users , but these are my Windows laptop demo files.

MAX 2007 is over

Well by now you have read everyone's blog postings about the largest MAX ever - over 4200 attendees. ColdFusion developers rocked the house as usual, but since ColdFusion 8 has been out since July, Flex and AIR (the Adobe Integrated Runtime) got a chance to really shine and I can say that many of the CF developers I talked to were ready to jump on to Flex 2 and the upcoming Flex 3, using ColdFusion as the back end.

My session on ColdFusion and Live Cycle Data Services integration went well, with a good crowd for both showings. As usual I had too much to talk about (40 slides!), but I managed to keep both times on track and finish in 60 minutes. I hope I inspired at least a few people to try the integrated installation and write a simple MXML file, drop it in their CF web root and see what happens. The trial edition of Flex Builder 2 (or the beta edition of FB 3 on labs) is a good place to start.

All-in-all I think this MAX was a success. The food was good (and plentiful - every time I turned around, there was some sugary snack or dessert starring me in the face) but the conference center was huge and I felt like I walked for miles to make up for all the food. I got to play some Halo 3 in the after hours lounge, even though the lounge in the conference center was kinda lame. And I got to talk to a whole bunch of customers about their problems and successes, which is really why we hold these events.

See you in SF next year!