Entries for month: “March 2009”
Configuring CF8 to use Google Apps
The biggest issue I have with running my own server is dealing with spam blockers, email servers, DNS servers, etc. For some of you this is easy, and a no brainer. I personally run from it like a screaming banshee. I use google hosted services for all my email needs. They make it easy, rarely ever have downtime, and the spam filtering is second to none!
Google works fine for sending email from my desktop mail client or through the web, but sending mail via scripts programatically has always been a pain in the butt in my experience. That is until today.
I started getting a lot of undelivered emails and decided it was time to look for another option. After much research, I found an article on TACFUG: ColdFusion 8 likes Google Apps. The article is incomplete and only shows some code for step 2. Not very helpful. I assume it had photos but they may have been deleted at some point. It lead me to my own testing and discovery so I guess it did help in some way.
Here is what I found. Google can accept email from your CF server but it must support SSL and TSL Connections. Coldfusion Server versions previous to CF8 did not support this. So If your using an older version of CF there is a workaround using Doug Boude's sTunnel method. Since I discovered that CF8 supports SSL and TSL connections, I will talk about that here.
Configure ColdFusion Admin
This is actually super simple and I wish I had discovered it before. It would have saved me so much heartache and pain in the past. Here is a screen shoot for reference.
- Go to the Server Settings for "Mail" and set the Mail Server value to smtp.gmail.com
- Set the Username field to a valid username in your google account.
- Add the obvious password for this account
- Lastly check the two boxes to enable SSL and TSL connections and submit.
Thats really all there is to it. Now when your server sends an email it will pass it off to Google for delivery and you will see the email appear in your sent mail folder in google webmail. Easy as pie!
→ Respond NowTags: ColdFusion · Software
Apple's Obsession With Removing Buttons
It seams that as of late, Apple has been obsessed with removing buttons from their devices. They are acting like the crazy parents obsessed with removing all sharp corners from their house when they have a child. Was Steve Jobs attacked and injured as a child from a rogue button?
In the last two years Apple has been grooming consumers for a buttonless revolution. The iPhone, though having buttons itself focuses more or non tactile usability. Earlier this year we saw the laptops go buttonless. Now the iPod Shuffle.
I personally did not care much for the buttonless laptop. I felt the system did not work as good and needed more time being tested for usability. Apple has always been on the forefront of design and usability and being able to put them into the same package has always been a strong point for them. This time around I am not so sure. I know I would feel more comfortable recommending an last years model to someone purchasing a laptop for the first time.
The 3rd generation iPod announced today really makes me wonder if it's really necessary to reinvent the wheel? Unless of course your making a better wheel. Maybe I am being quick to conclusions as I have not actually seen the new iPod Shuffle but let me point out a few things that I noticed right away. A few things that have me concerned about this product.
Why on earth would you take the buttons off of the device and put them on to the headphone cord? I don't know about you, but I personally think the earbuds are mediocre at best. The first thing I did when I got my iPod was buy some real headphones. Putting the controls on the cord just means that if you buy a shuffle you have to stick to the earbuds supplied until third party manufactures catch up and ship an alternate product. No doubt you will have to pay a premium for them to boot. Do we really need another iPhone headphone debacle? Didn't we learn something from this or do we need to do it all over again.
→ Respond NowTags: Design · Software · usability
Twitter Plugin Updated for Mango 1.3 Compatibility
Now that Mango Blog 1.3 is out a few plugins may have to be updated to the new 1.3 version to include auto install. Thanks to the help of Seb Duggan the mango blog twitter plugin has been updated for compatibility with the new auto Install system. Get the twitter plugins below:
Mango Blog 1.3 Compatible Version
http://www.visual28.com/assets/content/mango/twitter-1.3.zip
Mango Blog 1.2 Compatible Version
http://www.visual28.com/articles/twitter-plugin
→ Respond NowTags: Code · Freebies · Mango Blog · Plugins
Auto Install Challenge
A few days ago we saw a release of version 1.3.1 for Mango Blog. What is particularly awesome about this release is that it takes it up a notch adding features not found in other major blogging software. In particular mango blog now has a new system for auto installing plugins. No longer will you need to FTP a plugin to your site. Simply copy and paste the url for the plugin into your admin and viola! The plugin is copied to your server, decompressed, installed, and activated all in one shot! That is slick!
Although I think this feature is totally slick, I think it can be made even easier yet. Here are my thoughts. I hope that one you fine developers see this as a challenge and decides to take it on. Or you can tell me that I am crazy and to take a long walk off a short pier. Either way I want action! Then I digress. Okay, so here are my thoughts. Since plugins are hosted by the individual developers and not by mangoblog.org there needs to be a way to simplify the auto install experience to another degree. One thought would be to develop something like a firefox extension that allows you to harness the power of the Mango Blog API to add the link directly to your admin area. The next idea would require the developer to use javascript in the linkage to the plugin archive to automatically send the plugin url your mango admin.
My last idea and probably the most feasible one, would involve setting up a system that would allow developers to ping the mangoblog.org site when a plugin is released or updated. This allows mango blog to act as a central location for all the plugins available for mango blog. This central repository then acts as a hub for all the mango plugins moving forward. Similar to the way the overview page displays a notice for a new version of mango blog. The system could then display a message for those plugins that have updates available and offer the option to auto install the new plugin. Taking this a step further, users could then be given an option in the plugins admin to view what plugins are available for mango blog and install those that they need.
Taking the whole idea one more step into the future, mango might offer the same functionality for other areas of the system for example themes that could be automatically installed from the admin area. After all the code has already been written to some degree for themes offered through the mango blog site.
Thoughts? Ideas? Public Flaming? What are your thoughts?
→ Respond NowTags: ColdFusion · Mango Blog
