This is part 3 of my video presentation on FarCry 3.0 An Overview (based on a presentation I gave at the CF.Objective() 2006 conference).

I feel guilty that I've taken this long to complete these videos (since I recorded them back in March 2006) so I stayed up late Monday night (and part of Sunday) editing part 3. Now that I only have part 4 to finish editing I don't have much of an excuse for an further delays :). I will, however, be at CFUnited this week and then I'm away on a family trip most of next week. So all I can promise is that it will be sometime soon.

Part 3 covers more detailed content editing examples and introduces content relationship within the FarCry framework using features right out of the box. It's important to note that up to this point we have not had to touch any code.

Part 4 will bring everything together and show some of FarCry's stronger points of data relationship and dynamic data extraction. It touches a little bit on editing code, but only for a brief moment.

I have also provided the slides from my presentation (slightly updated). You can download them in either PowerPoint (PPT) or PDF format. You can find a copy of the presentation files in the downloads section of my website.

This year's CFUntied looks to be even better than the last. There is a lot to learn and I'm very ready to jump into Flex 2.0 head first.

So I'm packed and ready to go (I'm leaving Tuesday morning). After arriving at Reagan National Airport I'll be meeting Charlie Griefer and Ray Camden to catch a cab to the hotel. Andy Allen should arrive sometime later that evening (he and I are sharing a room). CJ is rooming with Scott Stroz (the man with the cooler) and we plan to have adjoining rooms (will we even get sleep... who knows). Scott's bringing the beer and Andy's bringing scotch direct from Scotland. So I guess that leaves CJ and me to stay sober ;).

I'll likely be unwinding in the evenings at the hotel's local pub, so if you see me be sure to say hi and grab a beer.

This is part 2 of my video presentation on FarCry 3.0 An Overview (based on a presentation I gave at the CF.Objective() 2006 conference).

I know I said I would get this out earlier and I only have myself to blame :). It's been three months since I recorded all 4 parts. However I'm very novice when it comes to video editing, thus it took me one full day (yesterday and part of this morning) to edit part 2 (I got the video down from 25 minutes to around 14 minutes).

I have yet to edit parts 3 and 4 (and I'm considering making a follow-up part 5), but for now please watch part 2 and feel free to send me comments.

Part 2 covers basic FarCry configuration and intro to content management within the FarCry administration system.

I have also provided the slides from my presentation. You can download them in either PowerPoint (PPT) or PDF format. You can find a copy of the presentation files in the downloads section of my website.

A week ago Daemon (pronounced "Dee-mon") converted their CVS repositories for the FarCry CMS applicaiton to Subversion (SVN). So for a full week my website was not grabbing the latest modifications from the version hosting server. Needless to say the download scripts on my backend server have been updated and you can safely resume your nightly build download "fix" ;).

A few changes were also made on the download page. The notes at the bottom were updated to hopefully better explain what files you're seeing in the downloadable list.

Also instead of having all the files bunched together, I've sorted them into three categories:

• Current Release: Current release builds and maintenance branches. This is what most people want
• Bleeding Edge: When you want to test new features in development (not suggested for production environments).
• Deprecated: No longer officially supported but still used by some users.

Go check them out.

The next version of FarCry CMS 3.0.1 has been released.

There are a few important things that Geoff Bowers points out (and one that I think is important) that you should be aware of:

• Oracle support for the FarCry 3.x framework has been pushed to version 3.0.2
• The installer from 3.0 to 3.0.1 has not been updated yet. So if you use the installer that comes with 3.0.1 make sure to run the updater for b300 and b301
• Some bug fixes didn't make it into this release (but many bug fixes since 3.0 are included in this release making it a "must have")
• Many of the localized translation files have have not been updated to FarCry 3.0. (note: I have submitted an updated version of the the en_US transaltion files for FarCry 3.0 a couple weeks ago that weren't able to make it into this release. You are welcome to download them now, however please keep in mind that they are likely still under review)
• Included in this download is a sneak-peek at the mollio webskin for FarCry (I will definitely be playing with this very soon)

Update: Well, within 10 minutes I was able to get the new mollio webskin up and running. The only steps I had to do was to edit the config file (config/_serverSpecificVars.cfm), application.cfm (application name) and copy over any files or images that FarCry was maintaining. Then I had to edit my pages in FarCry to use the new webskin names (you can edit the DB and/or do this with a script to make it faster).

My first impression was that it's much smoother than the pliant webskin (and less css bugs). I liked the fact that it takes advantage of reflections out of the box. The only downfall I saw so far was that I wasn't able to use a teaser in the rightbar (or leftbar) to show recent news items (granted, I only played with it for a few minutes, so there's a chance that its in there and I'm just not giving it a chance). The fact that I was able to implement it into an existing FarCry website in a matter of minutes just goes to prove some of the flexibility FarCry allows your site to have.

Since the end of the CF.Objective() 2006 conference I have been asked to give my presentation on FarCry 3.0 at a few different locations for different clients/events (one of which I volunteered for). Now that I've done the presentation several times I have decided to make a video representation of it.

Since the presentation on average is just short of an hour long I decided to break the video up into four parts for easier web distribution. This morning I completed editing the first part and you can get it from the tutorials section of the website.

Part 1 describes a little background on FarCry, topic headings that will be discussed in the presentation, FarCry's minimum requirements for installation, and a few other details. The presentation then goes into an installation demonstration using Apache on Windows (my development laptop).

Parts 2-4 will show examples of a general site configuration, a brief description of user security, and then will go into content examples (from static content like HTML pages, to dynamic content like News and Categories). I then show some examples of how to use containers, includes, custom types, verity search integration, RSS/XML content syndication, SES Friendly URLs, and more. So, keep an eye out in the next week or two for parts 2-4.

I have also provided the slides from my presentation (slightly updated). You can download them in either powerpoint (PPT) or PDF format. You can find a copy of the presentation files in the downloads section of my website.

The ColdFusion Weekly podcast aired for the first time last week and so far it has been a hit. This week in episode 2 (or version 1.1 as it's called on their site) has a lot of great topics and discussions as the podcast develops into a great listening experience for ColdFusion developers. My interview was conducted at the ColdFusion conference CF.Objective() (see photo to the right) and the topic of our discussion revolved around the presentation I was giving on FarCry 3.0.

Make sure to download the podcast and check it out. You can find more details are on their website as well as links to many feeds for different podcast players (such as iTunes).

Later this morning I will release my presentation slides from the conference as well as a video representation of the session called FarCry 3.0 - An Overview. It will be a Part 1 of a four-part series aimed at developers looking into FarCry as a possible soltion for content management. Keep an eye out for that soon.

Just a slight change in plans. Matt and Peter from CFWeekly were able to interview the conference coordinator of CF.Objective (Jared Rypka-Hauer) this week and thus will be airing that interview for episode one. They plan to then air the followup interviews (such as mine) relating to the conference thereafter.

So stay tuned (okay, bad joke :)).

If you'd like to have your voice heard on the first episode of the ColdFusion Weekly podcast here's your chance. Call in to ColdFusion Weekly to ask a question, make a comment, or just say hello (examples on their site).

Mention that you saw this post on my site (jeffcoughlin.com) and they'll get you in the first episode. They do have a deadline to get the audio uploaded to the streaming podcast servers, so if they don't get your recording up there in time rest assured that it will be in there by episode 2.

Calling in is easy an free. You can use Skype, you can pre-record an mp3/wav and email it to them, or you can call a voice mail system they have setup (may have toll charges from your location). If when calling-in you feel you have to start over during the call, go ahead, they know how to edit :). Go to ColdFusion Weekly to find out more!