We've launched a new FarCry plugin called FarCry Solr Pro. It's got a ton of features (too many to list here).

Go checkout the plugin's website for more info and download links: https://jeffcoughlin.github.io/farcrysolrpro/

Special thanks to the private beta testers over the past month.

Dev team includes:
Sean Coyne and Jeff Coughlin

Minimum requirements are:

• ColdFusion 9, Railo 3.3
• FarCry 6.2, 6.1.4, 6.0.19
• Solr 3.5 (optionally included)

Last week I finished writing a bulk image re-size script for a client of mine. It went through several revisions before finalizing on the version you can now download. Because I found it so useful I decided to release it to the public.

The script can be used for several reasons, but here are a few examples:

• You've added new image fields (and sizes) to an existing content type with existing images.
• You've decided to resize an existing image field.
• You want to use a new image compiler on all existing images.

Although I've only tested the script in FarCry 5.1+, it should work in FarCry 4.x (but no promises :) ).

To download the script, please use the download link associated with this blog post (for RSS readers, refer to the enclosure file) use the download links below.

Here is a quick video tutorial where I show a couple examples of the script in use.

Update: I updated the script to better support FarCry 6. See download links below.
Download v1.0.1 (for FarCry 6.x)
Download v1.0.0 (for FarCry 4.x and FarCry 5.x)

This news is actually a month old, but I haven't seen anyone else talk about it yet.

Daemon has once again outdone themselves with the release of FarCry Core 5.1. This new version comes with a very large assortment of new features and bug fixes when compared to the previous release of FarCry 5.0 from last June.

With over 200 documented bug fixes and new features, FarCry 5.1 is definitely an upgrade not to be missed. Below are a few I felt deserved mentioning:

• Faster Startup Time: FarCry starts up much faster now (as well as application scope updates) for people using JVM 1.5 or better (if you have CF8, you should be all set). Because CF's createUUID() method is so slow, Rob Rohan replaced it with a third-party java class that creates UUIDs in a fraction of the time.
• Friendly URL Engine Rebuilt: Friendly URLs no longer require a prefix of "/go/" and they are easier to manage. (see the docs for more details on the new Friendly URLs in FarCry 5.1).
• New Admin Toolbar: When logged in and browsing the site, the admin toolbar now sits out of the way at the bottom of the screen. It has better information regarding the primary content on the screen and it even lets you edit content in a modal window while never leaving the page (New!). Consuming very little space it sits in an iframe rather than using javascript to modify the contents of the page. This was important because the previous admin toolbar (which floated on the left of the screen) sometimes made working on a website difficult - not only could you not validate your (x)HTML, but if you had javascript errors on the page you sometimes didn't know if it was because of your code or possibly a conflict with the the admin menu (logging out of FarCry was the only way to get by this issue).
• New Developer API. A new developer API allows developers to access a single object with a library of common methods often used by developers. No longer does a developer have to dig around to find out how to do a custom getDescendants() method or find the default image path or file path. This is still a work in progress and is being updated with new methods, but is a great starting point for developers to look for common actions often needed.
• New Ajax Features in Formtools: When using formtools on the frontend of your website, you can now do things like ajax form submission. Personally I don't like using formtools on the frontend (I like to pick and choose which js libraries to use and customize my own code), but I think a lot of people will find these features useful - just write a couple lines of code and FarCry will build out all of your forms and ajax for you.
• New Pagination Functionality: Okay, this probably shouldn't really be on a list of big features. But I find myself using it more and more on projects because it allows me to conform easily to standards-compliant lists fairly easily with very little code.
• Better Railo and OpenBD Support: Although FarCry's primary concern is to make sure it works on Adobe ColdFusion, support for Railo and OpenBD is an ongoing process. Daemon works with both companies to help make sure that both third-party engines can run as smoothly as possible with new features of FarCry as they come out. Every now and then something will break with a new feature or bug fix, but luckily the community is there to assist in pointing out the error and helping to bug fix.
• New Blog Engine (Plugin): Although it hasn't been officially released as of yet, the current beta of the FarCry Blog plugin is pretty stable and currently is designed for FarCry 5.1+. It technically hasn't changed much since it's first beta release several months ago (with cool features like switching skins in a single click and easy content management), but it's something I strongly suggest checking out if you're in need for a blog engine. You can grab the version built for FarCry 5.1 on the FarCry builds download page (look for the file named nearcry-community-5-1-0.zip).

Daemon is already hard at work on the next release of FarCry Core 5.1.1 which promises to take care of a list of items that were pushed aside temporarily so that version 5.1 could get out the door. Already there have been many updates put into SVN and it looks like we may see a lot more jQuery functionality in the next release (I'm a huge fan of jQuery, so this only makes me happier). I can't wait to see what Daemon has in store for us next.

Daemon has announced the first public beta release of FarCry 5.1.  Along with a plethora of bug fixes, FarCry 5.1 introduces a new Friendly URL sub-system (no more need for /go/) as well as a faster engine under the hood. i18n has been brought back on the scene after a hiatus of a year or so and the new webskin caching system and list views things even easier than before.

One of the most notable features is better OpenBD and Railo support.  Although I don't personally use either (except for testing), I've been hearing great things about them.  Deamon is asking for more community testing with FarCry 5.1 beta on OpenBD and Railo.  So if you have a moment to give it a test run, let them know how it goes.

A new blog engine is planned to be released with FarCry 5.1 when it comes out (you can download the first release candidate of NearCry on Daemon's builds download page).

I am personally running the current beta of FarCry 5.1 in production on a few websites and intranets and it's running quite well. If you get a chance, download the latest bundle (currently titled "farcry-community-5-1-0-BetaB.zip") from the download builds page and let Daemon know what you think.

There has been a lot of buzz this week when Daemon announced they were thinking of changing their open source license model from Common Public License 1.0 (CPL) to a dual license with the GNU GPL License v3 (GPL).

I sat with Geoff Bowers, President and CEO of Daemon Internet Consultants, to ask him why they were thinking of changing to a dual license model.

Check out the article on Fusion Authority and see what all the buzz is about.

The jcFarcryFlvPlayer plugin for FarCry gives you a flash-based video player for your website.

The plugin takes advantage of the JW FLV Media Player (a flash-based audio/video player) to offer your website/web-application users playback of your video and audio content (FLV, MP3, H264, SWF, JPG, PNG and GIF).

Examples

Listing Page (teasers)

Example screenshot taken from: http://www.lowellgeneral.org/go/videos

Video Player/Details Page

Example screenshot taken from: http://www.lowellgeneral.org/go/videos/the-birthplace

I wrote the original version of this code about a year ago for another client. As more clients needed the feature (I'm now using it on 3 different FarCry websites) the need for converting it to a reusable plugin was evident. I finished the plugin for mass consumption by January, but never got around to releasing it (due to inadequate documentation :) ).

There are two version of the plugin (v1.0.x for FarCry 4, and v1.1.x for FarCry 5). Both currently have the same functionality (they are just designed for different versions of FarCry).

Find more information and detailed documentation on the docs/wiki page.

Early this morning Daemon released a packaged beta of FarCry 5.0 (code-named Fortress). This is an early beta and has known bugs, however I've been running it and so far it is pretty stable (IMO).

FarCry 5.0 has a very large feature set. The new installer is great (see image below) and the upgrader does an amazing job (currently only updates from FarCry 4.0).

New FarCry 5.0 Installer

Of the many new features in FarCry, the one I'm really digging is the new skeleton functionality. In essence when you create a skeleton you take a snapshot of your current project (configs, plugin connections,... even data) and you can redeploy it in other installations (this is all managed from an easy user interface).

Another feature that a lot of people will be excited about is that FarCry can now run from the webroot (allowing you to deploy it on a shared hosting environment).

You can find more about FarCry 5.0 in the online wiki.

Here is a list of some of the many of the features being released in FarCry 5.0:

• New Security Model (it's type-based now)
• New Workflow Engine
• New Formtool Enhancements
  • Ability to Create Formtools without a Persistent Object (providing a construct for using formtools without the need for a content type in the background)
• FarCry now Uses Application.cfc
• ExtJs 2.0 Integration (a new tag library that concentrates on panels and accordions)
• New Webskin Security Model
• New Skeleton Functionality (for solution distributions)
• New Skeleton Explorer (allowing you to export your existing project into a skeleton)
• New Webskin Security (example: You can secure any view)
• Type-Based Webskins (the ability to run a new webskin on a collection of objects of the same type)
• New Inline Documentation Functionality in the Webtop
• Categories are Now Content Types (No need to create custom category types anymore)
• The Config has been Normalized (allowing plugins to have their own config)
• New Installer
• And Much More!...

There are so many more features. Even small ones... like date fields for example (Thanks Mat). While editing in a form (in the webtop) and modifying a data field... sure you can use the date icon and click through the dates. But you can also just type into the date box in any format (and the date will automatically be converted to your locale). Example: You can type the string "+ 2 weeks" or "+2 months" and you will instantly see the resulting date.

Daemon has put a lot of work into this release and deserve all the credit we can throw at them :). They are asking for people to beta test and report bugs in the public Bug Tracker and/or in the FarCry-Beta Mailing Lists.

I'll be speaking at the Boston CFUG tonight about FarCry 4.0 (6:00pm ET). If interested and you're in the area stop by to see what's new in FarCry (Sorry, it will not be broadcast via Breeze/Connect).

I've just released 2 new plugins for FarCry 4 that take advantage of ColdFusion 8's new cfimage features.

• FarCry CFImage Plugin
• FarCry CFImage Effects Plugin

I tried to make this as extensible as possible so that you can easily add your own effects.

The second tag requires FarCry Core v4.0.7. If you can't wait for v4.0.7 to be released, then you are welcome to grab the latest core from SVN and get branch p400 (you'll need at least 1957 or greater). You can get a zipped copy of the core from my website at the nightly builds download page. Please be aware that it is not yet labeled as stable (although I use it in production).

The FarCry Image Effects plugin was inspired by Pete Freitag's Image-Effects Component and the base code to reflect() and gradientMask() are thanks to Jon Hartmann

Download and enjoy :)