I recently needed to create some ColdFusion code to call into Zillow so I thought it would be worth sharing.

The first thing you will need is an ID from Zillow to give you access to the http services. They use the term web services but they are really http services. You can find out everything you need to know about getting started and the Zillow APIs here: Getting Started with Zillow

Once you have your ID you can enter it into the below code and test it on your site.

I posted a demo here: DEMO

If you want your code to work across multiple domains when using Google Maps you will need to dynamically change your Google Maps key based on request. Google requires you have a unique key for each host that makes calls into Google.

I solved this by placing a few statements in my application.cfc onrequest function.

The code checks the cgi.http_host and then sets the correct key value.

I created the all the keys at http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html

If you just have one host you can alternatively set the key inside the administrator.

As MAX unfolded this year you could feel a major shift across all products to developing apps for all screen sizes. This was not the year of the big release but a year to recognize the shift that is occurring to have all new applications consider all devices from browsers, phones, tablets, and TV consoles. I don't think it was just a coincidence we received free devices, in fact it underlines the transition we are all going through as we write applications for all devices.

It kind of feels like 1997 when everyone became aware the internet was going to overtake the majority of application development. You get that same feeling when you look out over the next 2-3 years when you look at convergence of apps across devices and the move into the family room. (In a strange connection, it's hard to believe the same guy who hit the game winner in game 7 in 1997 is the same guy who hit it in 2010.)

To best capture this evolution all you need to do is watch the opening video of MAX as Kevin Lynch walks thru some timeline charts that demonstrate the changes upon us with bandwidth, browser vs devices, screen size changes ,digital publishing and the now the family room.

MAX Opens with Multi-Screen Revolution

Throughout the conference we witnesed how products are adding features to support managing screen sizes. ColdFusion did a sneak peek around supporting multi-screens with setting up a scope which will carry the clients device meta data using the CS5 Device Central database. Dreamweaver is adding more support around using CSS versions to support differing layouts based on device.

One big announcement was the Flash Builder 'Burrito' Labs release which is now available to everyone inside http://labs.adobe.com . I'd encourage you to download and check out how easy it is to start writing Mobile applications.

Here is a great alert to keep on all the time or when you are trying to capture long running requests. The snapshot will then capture the running thread and make it easy to identify where the thread is with processing the request. Usually you can find the exact line number within the ColdFusion tag.

The below code will turn on monitoring and then set UnresponsiveServerAlert to create a snapshot anytime 1 or more requests goes over 5 seconds.

You can change any these settings including seting up notifications. You can set this up via the ColdFusion Administrator, but you might find it easier to setup alerts via script if you have a number of servers.

A quick block of code to demonstrate how to generate a stack trace from within ColdFusion. Using the server monitor API it is a fairly simple process.

The code calls the login function passing in your ColdFusion Admin password in order to get access to the Admin API.

The dumpSnapShot function will create the stack trace and return the file path of the snapshot. The default location is usually ../web-inf/cfusion/logs/snapshots.

You might want to prompt for a password versus hardcoding in the tag as well.

Adobe has recently made available an awesome bundle promotion around ColdFusion 9 Enterprise.

If you plan on buying new or upgrade licenses it might be a good time, you get 3 Free licenses of ColdFusion Builder 1.0 for each ColdFusion 9 Enterprise.

Give us a call if we can help with your order.

I recently had to loop thru a query and break it out into separate sheets inside one spreadsheet. Here is a quick walkthrough on how you can code this with the new ColdFusion 9 spreadsheet functions.

1. You may need to adjust the requesttimeout if you are working with a large number of records.

2. Create your main spreadsheet and all the sheets you need, the below spreadsheet will have 3 sheets 'mainSS' represents the first sheet.

3. Create your query

4. Set Header Rows - you will need to decide how you want to use header rows by sheet, for this example I am setting one row to make note of it.

5. Loop thru query and decide what sheet will receive the data by using the SpreadSheetActiveSheet Function

6. Add data row to sheet that was made active

7. Your spreadsheet is now ready to be saved, the below will write the spreadsheet to a file, replacing any existing file

Note: I did need to pass in an empty string for the 3rd parameter, which is a spreadsheet password, otherwise I was getting a compiler error.

At this point you can open your spreadsheet and view your data as you organized it inside the sheets.