2024-10-08 Weekly News — Episode 220

Watch the video version on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/YOxkhO6DPzg?feature=share
 
Hosts: 

Thanks to our Sponsor - Ortus Solutions
The makers of ColdBox, CommandBox, ForgeBox, TestBox and all your favorite box-es out there including BoxLang.
A few ways to say thanks back to Ortus Solutions:

Patreon Support (Supernatural)
We have 59 patreons:
https://www.patreon.com/ortussolutions.

News and Announcements

New Library - SocketBox - Bring 1st Class Socket Support to BoxLang, Lucee and Adobe ColdFusion
The WebSocket server in CommandBox and BoxLang MiniServer is not really a separate "server" per se, since it’s on the same port. It’s just an upgrade listener which will upgrade any WS requests.
This websocket integration will work for Lucee, Adobe, and BoxLang alike as it passes incoming messages to the app via an "internal" HTTP request to /WebSocket.cfc?method=onProcess where the CF/BL code can handle it. The incoming request will have all cookies, headers, hostname, etc that the original websocket connection was started with, so normal CGI variables and session scopes should work fine.
You need to create a custom /WebSocket.cfc class that should extend the modules.socketbox.models.WebSocketCore class in this library which provides the base functionality.
https://www.forgebox.io/view/socketbox
https://community.ortussolutions.com/t/introducing-socketbox-a-new-websocket-library/10381/1

New Releases and Updates

TestBox v6.0.0 Release
TestBox 6.x is a major update to the testing framework, introducing key improvements like full support for BoxLang. With this release, users can write tests, specs, and harnesses directly in BoxLang. A new BoxLang CLI runner simplifies running specs and bundles without needing a web server. Additionally, the CLI now detects BoxLang projects, adds headless web server testing with the bx-web-support module, and includes dynamic assertion methods for cleaner test writing. Significant new features include environment helpers, display name annotations, and improved debugging and matcher functions.
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/testbox-v600-release

qb v10 is BoxLang Certified

Hyper v7.5.3 is BoxLang Certified

Upgrade to FusionReactor 12.1.1 Now: Defect in FusionReactor 12.1.0 That Can Potentially Disable Metrics Shipper
On September 26th, 2024, we learned of a bug affecting some customers who upgraded to FusionReactor Agent version 12.1.0.
We want to provide a detailed account of the bug, its impact, and the steps we’ve taken to resolve it. Transparency and communication are central to our approach, and we want to ensure that all customers are informed and empowered to take the necessary action.
https://fusion-reactor.com/blog/upgrade-to-fusionreactor-12-1-1-now-defect-in-fusionreactor-12-1-0-that-can-potentially-disable-metrics-shipper/
 
BoxLang Betas — Beta 16-17

9/27/24 - BoxLang 1.0.0 Beta 16 Launched
2 New Features
9 Improvements
11 Bugs Fixed
https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/readme/release-history/1.0.0-beta16
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/boxlang-100-beta-16-launched

10/4/24 - BoxLang 1.0.0 Beta 17 Launched
1 New Features
3 Improvements
2 Bugs Fixed
https://boxlang.ortusbooks.com/readme/release-history/1.0.0-beta17
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/boxlang-100-beta-17-launched

Webinars, Meetups and Workshops

October 2024 Seattle ColdFusion User Group Meeting
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM PDT

Adobe ColdFusion Summit 2024 Recap
Will Frankhouser and Leon O'Daniel will share a complete recap of their experiences at Adobe ColdFusion Summit 2024, including what's coming soon with Adobe ColdFusion 2025, takeaways from the sessions, and more.

Establishing a Connection and Transferring Files to Netsuite Using Adobe ColdFusion's FTP Features
This session recaps an actual real-live case study where Leon O'Daniel assisted a large clothing manufacturer with how to quickly and easily establish a connection and transfer files to their Netsuite FTP account.

ColdFusion Tag/Function of the Month
Will Frankhouser will be sharing his ColdFusion Tag/Function of the month and how to use it in your next ColdFusion application project.

https://www.meetup.com/seattle-coldfusion-user-group/events/303894410/?eventOrigin=home_page_upcoming_events$all

Sacramento Interactive: Debugging With JavaScript with Kevin Goble
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM PDT
Workshop is open to new and curious programmers. We'll first go over some philosophy about dealing with code that does the unexpected. Then we'll follow up with some live practical examples utilizing debugging tools. If your only weapon against bugs right now is console logs, if debugging feels like playing Where's Waldo, this is a workshop for you!
https://www.meetup.com/sacinteractive/events/303708439/?eventOrigin=home_page_upcoming_events$all


CFCasts Content Updates
https://www.cfcasts.com

Recent Releases

Conferences and Training

ICYMI - CF Summit happened in Las Vegas last week
They will record and release sessions as online summit later in 2024 or early 2025
ITB 2025

CFCamp 2025
May 22, 23rd - 2025
Atomis Hotel Munich Airport
https://www.cfcamp.org/

More conferences

Need more conferences, this site has a huge list of conferences for almost any language/community.
https://confs.tech/


Blogs, Posts, and Videos of the Week

10/7/24 - Blog - James Moberg - Hack WKHTMLTOPDF PDF to enable Adobe Acrobat Field Editing
I recently integrated the auto-generation of survey results into a downloadable PDF using ColdFusion and WKHTMLTOPDF 0.12.6. Our client provided a pre-generated PDF cover page with some editable fields that we prepended to the PDF using PDFtk. Unfortunately, all auto-generated bookmarks became unusable after cover page is prepended.
https://dev.to/gamesover/hack-wkhtmltopdf-pdf-to-enable-adobe-acrobat-field-editing-2f6

10/7/24 - Blog - Fusion Reactor - Upgrade to FusionReactor 12.1.1 Now: Defect in FusionReactor 12.1.0 That Can Potentially Disable Metrics Shipper
On September 26th, 2024, we learned of a bug affecting some customers who upgraded to FusionReactor Agent version 12.1.0.
We want to provide a detailed account of the bug, its impact, and the steps we’ve taken to resolve it. Transparency and communication are central to our approach, and we want to ensure that all customers are informed and empowered to take the necessary action.

https://fusion-reactor.com/blog/upgrade-to-fusionreactor-12-1-1-now-defect-in-fusionreactor-12-1-0-that-can-potentially-disable-metrics-shipper/

10/4/24 - Blog - Pete Frietag - ColdFusion Summit 2024 Slides: 20 ways to secure CF
This year at the Adobe ColdFusion summit in Las Vegas I presented on 20 ways to secure ColdFusion. You can download my slides here.
When giving a presentation on security there are certain topics that I feel need to be covered like SQL Injection, but I also wanted to highlight a few other things that might be new to some people.
https://www.petefreitag.com/blog/coldfusion-summit-2024/

10/2/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - Adobe CFSummit 2024 Recap | Ortus Solutions
A huge thank you to everyone who visited our booth! We had the pleasure of engaging in meaningful conversations about Modern CFML and ColdFusion development, sharing insights, and exploring exciting new ideas. Visitors also got a chance to participate in some fun activities and win fabulous prizes, including our customized t-shirts, which were a huge hit!
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/adobe-cfsummit-2024-recap

10/1/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - Fall Savings: Unlock Exclusive Discounts Until October 31st!
Get ready for the Ortus October Fall Savings! This is your opportunity to elevate your development experience with fantastic offers designed for everyone—from seasoned developers to tech enthusiasts. Our special promotions are here to help you achieve your goals while saving money!
Don’t Miss Out on These Amazing Offers!
Use the code FALLSAVINGS24 at checkout to enjoy these incredible discounts before they expire on October 31st
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/fall-savings-unlock-exclusive-discounts-until-october-31st

10/1/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - Ortus September Newsletter
Welcome to the latest Ortus Newsletter! This month, we’ve got a lineup of exciting topics, tips, and resources for developers. Whether you're looking to improve your REST APIs, optimize your ColdFusion hosting, or learn more about ColdBox features, we’ve got you covered!
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/ortus-september-newsletter-2024

9/27/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - TestBox v6.0.0 Release
TestBox 6.x is a major update to the testing framework, introducing key improvements like full support for BoxLang. With this release, users can write tests, specs, and harnesses directly in BoxLang. A new BoxLang CLI runner simplifies running specs and bundles without needing a web server. Additionally, the CLI now detects BoxLang projects, adds headless web server testing with the bx-web-support module, and includes dynamic assertion methods for cleaner test writing. Significant new features include environment helpers, display name annotations, and improved debugging and matcher functions.
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/testbox-v600-release

9/25/24 - Blog - James Moberg - HeatColor UDF (based on jQuery library)
When displaying values in a table, I like to use color to visually indicate whether the number is high or low. When displaying data on a webpage, it was trivial for us to use the jquery-heatcolor library to dynamically add color on-the-fly. This is an older library and the project's webpage disappeared and only the JS scripts were migrated to Github. I reported the lack of demo/documentation back in 2020 and finally scraped it from Archive.org, cleaned it up and shared it as a GIST.
https://dev.to/gamesover/heatcolor-udf-based-on-jquery-library-d5c

BoxLang Corner

10/4/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - BoxLang 1.0.0 Beta 17 Launched
In this release, we've introduced the exciting addition of websockets support to BoxLang through the powerful SocketBox module. This enhancement is not limited to our CommandBox Runtime but also extends to our MiniServer runtime, creating a more dynamic and efficient framework for real-time communication. For an in-depth introduction to these features, please visit our community post here.
Additionally, we've implemented several new features and improvements. We've also improved the system startup process by adding version and build date information to the MiniServer startup output (BL-607).
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/boxlang-100-beta-17-launched


10/1/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - BoxLang September Newsletter
Welcome to the September edition of the BoxLang Newsletter! This month has been packed with exciting updates, new features, and enhancements that continue to shape BoxLang into a robust and versatile programming language. In this edition, we highlight the latest beta releases, new integrations, and key features that have been introduced. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting with BoxLang, these updates will elevate your experience and help you build high-quality projects.
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/boxlang-september-newsletter-2024

9/27/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - BoxLang 1.0.0 Beta 16 Launched
Welcome to Beta 16! This release focuses on web support functionality and contains a number of improvements and bug fixes for HTTP operations, including multi-part file uploads and error handling. It also provides enhancements to Java interoperability, dump template output, and metadata introspection.

Overall, this beta release brings further stability for CFML applications migrating to BoxLang!
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/boxlang-100-beta-16-launched

9/26/24 - Blog - Ortus Solutions - VS Code BoxLang Extension: Debugging BoxLang in CommandBox
So you’ve installed CommandBox and are running the latest BoxLang server like a boss. You open up your browser and are met with an error message. This looks like a job for, you guessed it, the BoxLang VS Code Debugger!
https://www.ortussolutions.com/blog/vs-code-boxlang-extension-debugging-boxlang-in-commandbox

 
CFML Jobs

Several positions available on https://www.getcfmljobs.com/

Listing over 17 ColdFusion positions from 17 companies across 12 locations in 5 Countries.

0 new jobs listed in the last two weeks

ForgeBox Module of the Week

SocketBox

The WebSocket server in CommandBox and BoxLang MiniServer is not really a separate "server" per se, since it’s on the same port. It’s just an upgraded listener which will upgrade any WS requests.

This websocket integration will work for Lucee, Adobe, and BoxLang alike as it passes incoming messages to the app via an "internal" HTTP request to /WebSocket.cfc?method=onProcess where the CF/BL code can handle it. The incoming request will have all cookies, headers, hostname, etc that the original websocket connection was started with, so normal CGI variables and session scopes should work fine.

You need to create a custom /WebSocket.cfc class that should extend the modules.socketbox.models.WebSocketCore class in this library which provides the base functionality.

https://community.ortussolutions.com/t/introducing-socketbox-a-new-websocket-library/10381/1

https://www.forgebox.io/view/socketbox


VS Code Hint, Tip, and Trick of the Week

Vscode-pets - Bring your code to life with VS Code Pets

By Anthony Shaw

The Creator Is the Python Advocacy Lead at Microsoft - Wrote a book on C-Python Internals but is best known for this extension with 1.3 million downloads and 5 stars

Puts a small, bored cat, an enthusiastic dog, a feisty snake, a rubber duck, or Clippy 📎 in your code editor to boost productivity.

Name them, play with them.
Pet Type: cat, chicken, crab, clippy, cockatiel, dog, horse, mod, rocky, rubber duck, snake, totoro, turtle, zappy
Pet Color: black, brown, green, yellow, gray, purple, red, white, orange
Pet Size: nano, small, medium, large

Demo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE6Ifj_KstI

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=tonybaloney.vscode-pets
 
Thank you to all of our Patreon Supporters

These individuals are personally supporting our open source initiatives to ensure the great toolings like CommandBox, ForgeBox, ColdBox, ContentBox, TestBox and all the other boxes keep getting the continuous development they need, 

Their Contributions fund the cloud infrastructure at our community relies on like 

You can support us on Patreon here https://www.patreon.com/ortussolutions


Don’t forget, we have Annual Memberships, pay for the year and save 10% - great for businesses everyone.

And many more Patreons - up to 59 now!!!!!

You can see an up to date list of all sponsors on Ortus Solutions' Website
https://ortussolutions.com/about-us/sponsors

Thanks everyone!!!