I have been working on yet another code generator for ColdFusion for the last six months. I have learned a lot. When I am done.... it will read a databse and using the metadata and it will create a working app using the ENTIRE database. It is like a mini Ruby on Rails.

You point it to the data source and a destination dir, press enter, and you have a working app. You can go from zero to working admin for a 20 table database in about a minute.

It also:

• Generates client side validation based on the data type (string, numeric, float, date, etc.).
• Generates time and date pickers for date/time fields.
• Generates inline wussywig text editors for Text fields
• Automatically generates and populates drop down boxes using foreign keys .
• Has optional secondary validation using key words in the column name (like email, phone, fax, zip, etc.).
• It is almost entirely Object Oriented and uses a very simple MVC methodology.

I am pretty pumped and have been working on this every chance I get. When I get it done, (It really snow balled from what seemed to be a very simple idea), I will be able to crank out a working app, with a couple of clicks, in a matter of minutes.

And yes, I will be releasing it open source.

Since Adobe's pricing of ColdFusion 8 is effectively pushing out of the price range for most hosting companies and internet start ups, pretty much guaranteeing that it will never regain its popularity, I decided to learn Java. I might as well, I learned PHP, ASP and a bit of C#, so what is one more language?

I talked to by boss about it and he couldn't be happier about it. It turns out he has been wanting us to get into Java for quite some time.

So I went and looked around for a Java IDE for Eclipse and found EasyEclipse Server Java (pops). It has all kinds of goodies like Database tools, an html editor, tools for the working with Servlets, Java tags, the Spring Framework and support for Hibernate ORM. Basically all the stuff that the cool kids use. SWEET! God, I love open source.

I started looking around and found this tute on Spring. Developing a Spring Framework MVC application step-by-step. After skimming for 20 seconds I immediately recognized that all the stuff I learned on MVC, Mach-II and Model Glue, Cold Spring were applicable. Very nice.

Then I went a got the Tom Cat Plug-in for Xampp, ran the set up bat file and Waar-la, I am up and running, writing my first app.

One thing I noticed right off the bat with EasyEclipse Server Java was that I felt just like I did many years ago, when I I opened up CF Studio for the first time. "Wow, what is all this stuff do?" I started opening up files and clicking this and that pane and all these cool things were appearing that weren't there when I was editing CFM pages. It is a little daunting and a bit overwhelming, but I soon realized how quickly I had mastered CF studio and now know it like the back of my hand, and even hacked it to write ASP and PHP. Hell I even wrote hacks for CF Studio so I could use it to write PHP.

So yeah, this is going to be fun. I have a LOT to learn.

Thanx for pissing off the CF user base.