Lumenbrite Training

Ever had to import a CSV file into MySQL? I recently had to study how to import a huge list into a client's database, but commas wouldn't do. The text copy of the fields had commas and was being parsed into different fields in the table :(. Anyway, here is the solution for this issue. It works wonderfully!
Astrochimp » Export CSV with Any Delimiter

Be sure to tick the RDS option when you are setting up ColdFusion 8. I recently deselected this option for a basic ColdFusion class that I was teaching and things got ugly. First, the Java plug-in that runs in the CF administration won't work. You won't be able to path to a database file using the Java applet in the data source administrator! Dreamweaver also starts bugging out and won't setup properly. It will keep asking for an RDS password, even though RDS was not installed.

RDS is a good thing to have anyway. What is RDS? Remote Development Services, or RDS, enables applications such as Eclipse to browse available components and data structures of data sources on the ColdFusion server. You will be able to access your data sources to view your database tables and to build queries. Good stuff.

I have written an article(that should be up soon) for the Adobe Dev Connection site about CFEclipse and the CF8 Components for Eclipse.
My research into these programs has led me to one conclusion...CFEclipse is great stuff. By itself, you can build Coldfusion applications. Add the CF8 Components and you can use RDS tools that allow for query building and more. I was especially intrigued by the AJAX and FLEX wizards that are built off of Coldfusion. I know some folks don't like wizards, but the fact that you can get an open source application (Eclipse) and load it up with CFEclipse and the CF8 Components to build awesome turnkey Flex and AJAX applications with a few button clicks ...for free - is really impressive.

To get Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
To get CFEclipse: http://www.cfeclipse.org
To get CF8 Components for Eclipse: http://www.adobe.com/support/coldfusion/downloads.html

Yeah! I was selected as an Adobe Community Expert and have a BIO on Adobe.com.

If you haven't already subscribed to the Adobe Magazine, you should. It's a great resource for creative designers. As a regular Acrobat user was pleased with the interactive elements they included in this digital magazine PDF. Too often, these digital magazines are flat publications that could have included rollovers, videos and other dynamic elements. Be sure to check out the free goodies toward the end of the Adobe Magazine issue 3, pg 35. There is a new extension for Dreamweaver for Google tools and some new flash buttons as well as some other resources for other programs.

I was fortunate to have spent the week at the Adobe MAX User Conference this week. I learned about a ton of new apps that Adobe has created that are in early stages. Most of these new apps run off the the AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) application. Bringing web based applications to your desktop has never been easier. I will be featuring most of these new apps here in my blog in the next couple of days. For more information, check out the Adobe Labs website.

Microsoft has an answer to tap the RIA market. Microsoft Silverlight is a new app that runs in browser that displays vector graphics and motion and stuff - like Flash. A Flash killer?

Flash has come a long way. Plugin issues have always been a problem and Flash's biggest benefit over using other technologies is it's ubiquity. Not to mention its robust scripting language and video capabilities. Silverlight dethrone Flash? I think not!

Very cool logo, though.

It's convention season again. Try to attend the Adobe MAX, Photoshop World or Flash Forward this year if you can. These events are informative and very inspirational. A quick reference can be found here at our events section of lumenbrite: http://lumenbrite.com/events/ - Party Time!

What a better place to visit than Amazon.com for a side by side comparision of the CS3 creative suites. This is an exciting time once again in the world of Adobe stuffs.

I have really been slouching lately with this blog. Things have been so busy that it has been hard to keep up with the little details. We have been working with a Prerelease version of CS3 software and I have been lovin it. I teach many Dreamweaver classes at different levels and really like the new features. Spry, which essentially is AJAX integration for Dreamweaver, couldn't be easier - just drag, drop and style. In addition, the old school HTML table templates that came with Dreamweaver have been replaced with nice CSS templates. Some of the code is a bit overdone, but definitely a great resource for both beginner and expert. There are many other features that I will go over in the near future in this blog, but one that caught my eye was the Developer Toolbox for Dreamweaver - no doubt a product of the aquisition of InterAkt by Adobe/Macromedia. These Romanian guys do a great job coding cool extensions for Dreamweaver. Sure you could code by hand, but many both nubes and experts can benefit from these automation tools.

I am pleased to hear about all the great things that my students have to tell me about their post-training experiences with Dreamweaver 8 in our Cascading Style Sheet classes. Many have posted to me some sites that they have created so I wanted to offer kudos to them in this posting. If you have attended our Adobe Dreamweaver 8 CSS classes. Please post me a comment with your project web url. We'd love to see it!

I have been traveling all over the states lately training different flavors of Adobe programs and some custom CSS training. Much of our work consists of consultation or customized training. The only problem is that, for the most part, our El Paso training center has been somewhat quiet. Just recently I have had the opportunity to offer our El Paso center as a destination. It really is better than the rest if it's feasible to make it out here.
Besides having a really cool training center with a cafe and theatre attached, it's great to be able to take a break in our cafe to get an awesome Latte from Mundo or gourmet sandwich from Lupe. Our streets are a bit torn up right now, but this makes for an interesting view; watching a huge tank track backhoe plow the ground elegantly.

MTV - Music Videos, Shows, Celebrity News, Movies, Games, and Photos I really love this site. It incorporates the latest streaming media using Akamai Streaming with Flash Media Server 2 and a Flex application. Not only is the interface slick and fun to use, the site is PACKED with content from video to articles, etc. Good stuff...45 million page views after the VMAs and 13 million unique streams - Yikes!

8 FILMS TO DIE FOR - AFTER DARK HORRORFEST Coming to El Paso at the Carmike. I hope to attend this event in Phoenix. We'll see how scary these movies are. Halloween extended...joy. Thanksgiving is such a bore anyway.

Ok, Cannibal Ferox was a bit too much for the film fest...so was Bloodsucking Freaks. Both did their best at going over the top. The animal sacrifices in the Cannibal Ferox movie were a bummer - not scary. The Beyond, an old Fulci film was too hard to find(maybe for good reasons) As a result I have decided to not show these for the film fest. Instead the current line up is:

>Tromeo & Juliet
>I Drink Your Blood
>Basket Case (a favorite of mine, now uncut/unrated)
>>>The last movie is undecided - if you have a recommendation let me know!

I hope to have a great turnout this year. It's BYOB, 18 and up only!The movies will show every Friday at 7pm sharp all month of October.
Did I mention that it's a BYOB event? $5 cafe purchase gets you in - in other words, buy something in the cafe for $5 and it gets you a free ticket to the show.

See you there!