Until not too long ago, Google did not allow you to ping their blog search engine, but they finally added support for it. They support XMP-RPC and REST pings... for BlogCFC users, both are in theory rather easy. A couple years ago I wrote a generic XML-RPC client for blogCFC, which if you're using, you can easily ping Google using this method, however, if you're not, it's just as easy ... BlogCFC can ping urls using regular http gets / REST if you specify the URL in the config.ini.cfm file. Simple find the pings parameter and add the following line:

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?name=[yourBlogName]&url=[yourBlogURL]&changesURL=[yourBlogRSSURL]

Can't get any easier... if you need more info, you can check the ping API docs.

Cannes Lions is the largest advertising even in the planet, capturing 11,000 visitors from 75 countries and this year I get to go -- so excited! Is anyone from the community making it over there? Go figure, the official site is ColdFusion based :)
Then I'll be flying to CFUnited the very same day I come back, fun-times.

iChameleon Group offers an incredible career building full-time position working with notable National + International companies. Our fast growing company develops various exciting, innovative, and high profile applications fusing media, video, audio and Flash.  

We are a fun, eccentric, hardworking, creative group in a business casual environment.  We are looking for a dynamic, motivated team player who will enjoy working in a fast-paced, deadline driven, ever changing development and solution-based environment.  

The successful ColdFusion web developer candidate must posses:

    * The ability to support for the full application development life cycle activities of software products and development.
    * Demonstrated skills in documenting development.
    * Strong problem solving and debugging skills.


requirements, skills + abilities:

    * Team Player
    * Self Starter
    * Interactive site development experience
    * 2-5 years of experience                        
    * ColdFusion MX 7
    * Object Oriented Programming  
    * Experience with Flash Remoting
    * Database design and SQL
    * HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
    * PC fluent (Mac A Plus)
    * Solid communications skills (written and verbal)
    * Outgoing, Energetic Personality
    * Good Organizational Skills
    * Detail oriented, strong follow-up skills and ability to work on multiple projects


additional skills:

    * Macromedia Certified ColdFusion MX 7
    * Framework Knowledge (Fusebox, Mach II, Model-Glue,Tartan)
    * Design Patterns
    * UML
    * AJAX
    * ASP, PHP, PERL, or any other web language
    * CVS and/or subversion experience

Want to come join our team? Submit your resume and cover letter, including salary history, to hr@ichameleongroup.com

CFUnited posted a small video summary of some of last year's random interviews and I'm featured in the first slot :) ... so check me out at CFUnited and try to make it this year to say hi ... The conference has improved every year and promises to do so this year again.

BTW, if you have any interest in Flex, don't forget my pre-conference 8h intensive Flex class, for all levels.

Due to popular request, I added an example showing how to easily submit an entire form through Ajax with the fastSerialize jQuery plugin.

All you require to do is to include this plugin:

Jeff Borisch point out that the cfjson v1.6b that I was using for the jQuery AjaxCFC was buggy. I updated it to v1.7 in the SVN and the project download file... I strongly suggest you get this update.

Cheers.

This is actually really cool. CFUnited is promoting the open source movement for ColdFusion by giving away a Wii in exchange of hosting/writing a CF open source project. More info here.

Developer Circuit is growing and looking good. They provide a nice widget, in two different sizes, that are displayed in influential sites, such as top ColdFusion and Flex community blogs. It is currently syndicated by 52 sites and displayed over 8000 times today. The widgets were developed in Flex 2 (check them out in my jobs section). To post a job click here, and to find out more about the widgets, check out their widgets section.

Reminder: Adobe's Scorpio Spring Tour is coming to town today, so don't miss it! This is your one chance to catch the official pre-release demo of all the cool new features coming up with ColdFusion 8. Among the features to be presented tonight, you may expect to see: [source]

1. Built in AJAX widgets. Create AJAX windows, auto complete forms, calendar popups, grids, WYSIWYG editors, and much more. All using simple ColdFusion based tags and generating industry standard solutions such as Prototype and Yahoo User Interface Javascript.
   
2. Native JSON support. ColdFusion components now know if they are called by a web browser and will return JSON formated data automatically. You can also create JSON packets directly or consume them and turn them into native ColdFusion objects.
3. .NET (and Java!) integration. Pull in .NET objects and use them like native ColdFusion objects. Combine .NET and Java on the same page if you like. Easily the best web based middleware solution.
4. Microsoft Exchange integration. Love it or hate it, most organizations use Exchange religiously. Now you can read and update email, calendars, tasks and much more. No change to the Exchange server is required.
5. Flash based presentation builder. Combine HTML, Audio, Flash Movies, Images, and CFCharts to create spiffy flash based presentations on the fly. Just wrap your existing pages in CFPRESENTATION and you are on your way.
6. Full PDF integration. Create, combine, update, and interact with PDF files using CFPDF and CFPDFFORM tags.
7. Native image manipulation functions. Blur, sharpen, draw, rotate, stream to browser, and much much more. This finally brings ColdFusion's image support in line with PHP and other frameworks while keeping it so simple that even I could use it.
8. Across the board enhancements. Improvements in security, speed, Flash Forms, Report Builder, and more.
9. Administration API. Now you can access, audit, and snapshot all the information the server knows about itself. No longer is ColdFusion a black box. Audit long running processes, most frequently run queries, and bottle necks. SnapShot the server before making your change or doing a reset so that you can analyze potential problems later.

I am curious why no one has posted any articles on the IIS/Apache Flex Modules... Adobe made available on labs a plugin to compile Flex code server-side, just like Flex 1.5 did... with that said, it's probably simpler to write Flex than Flash Forms, and by far more powerful... so why haven't we seen any ColdFusion / Flex Module examples? Performance? I haven't tried it yet (guilty as charged), but I will put together a few examples to prove my theory... yes, they say it's not for production use, or at least they won't support it .. but if it works w/o a bug performance hit, can you imagine the possibilities? Maybe a cf-wrapper, a custom tag that already includes some of the higher level code allowing you to replace your old-slow-pain-in-you-cheeks flash forms? Who's with me?