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!

Next week ColdFusion Weekly will be airing the first episode of their ColdFusion podcast. They've been doing a lot of work behind the scenes and recording a lot of interviews to make sure that they have a lineup of regular episodes ready to air while they can prepare more material for future episodes.

Next week will be the first episode. I have been informed that their interview with me at the CF.Objective() conference last week will be in episode 1. The interview was based on the session I gave FarCry 3.0: CMS in the Real World.

They decided to interview me during a break at the event. Unfortunately we had to stop/start in the middle of the interview due to a few interruptions (it was kind of funny). I'm curious to see how they splice the interruptions together into a seamless interview :).

Update: My interview has been moved to a later date (don't worry, its for a good reason :) ).

I'm here at CF.Objective and have seen some great presentations so far today.

The keynote session was presented by Adobe's Tom Jordahl who demonstrated some really cool features and interaction that the new soon-to-be Eclipse plugin for RDS support will be offering. He also slipped in that a beta of the plugin will be available on Adobe Labs when the Flex 2.0 Beta 2 is released. When asked when the beta would be released to the public he of course avoided the question, but eventually hinted that Adobe is trying to get it out within the next 2 to 3 weeks.

So, this was my first look at the RDS plugin and I have to admit I was pretty impressed. Tom also gave us a quick sneak-peak at what looked like another Eclipse plugin (or it could have been part of the RDS plugin, I'm not sure) for ColdFusion code wizards (specifically a CFC creator).

Apparently Sean Corfield and Ray Camden have been harassing Mike Nimer for some specific features in this wizard tool (for our benefit).

From what I saw real quick, I was pretty impressed. Tom gave an example where he right-clicked on a table in a DB table and choose a CFC creator wizard. There were several really useful options in there. The one that caught my eye was an option for creating the CFC type. It had options to create an "Active Record CFC", a "Bean CFC, & DAO CFC", and "Flex Data Services Assembly CFS".

Well, I'm shutting down my system for the night and leaving for CF.Objective() early tomorrow morning.

If you're going to the conference and you see me there, make sure to say Hi. My plane arrives around 1:30pm, so I'll likely be at the hotel by 2:30pm. And make sure to check out my session (FarCry 3.0 - CMS in the Real World) at 2:30pm on Sunday.

Okay, so I'm not sure why this is happening, but a friend of mine was having trouble using Simon Horwith's "Simple SOAP Example".

The error he was getting was the following:

I tried the same example code and got the same error. The odd thing was that the error wouldn't happen when using ColdFusion 6.1 (we tested it on CF7.01 Standard running on both IIS and Apache).

After playing with it for a while, I found that if I renamed the CFC file to "anything" other than soapexample.cfc the code ran without fail.

If anyone has any further input on this I'd be happy to hear suggestions.

Note: When renaming the CFC file, you'll need to update a couple variable values at the top of the index.cfm file within the <cfscript/> block.

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Update 1: Jared Rypka-Hauer and I spent some time trying to figure this out. We tried updating the Apache AXIS to v1.3, we tried using the latest Cumulative Hotfit for ColdFusion 7, and several other ideas. So far, what we've discovered is that the problem has to do with the displayname attribute set in the <cfcomponent/> tag. For some reason if you leave it to the default setting of "SOAP Exmaple" (or delete the space) the error happens. If, you rename it to anything else it seems to work. Its late, and I'm tired. I'll tackle this another time when I can spare some of it (good luck with that :)).