Randy Johnson's Coldfusion Blog

Installing Railo on CentOS with Apache

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:10:00-0400

I will add more to this later but wanted to write down these core steps before I forgot them. Hopefully this will save you some, since the other documentation I have found is mainly for installing Railo on Ubuntu Server. Here are the steps on how I was able to generate the mod_caucho.so on CentOS for Apache. 1. I installed the package "httpd-devel" via Yum 2. In the Railo Directory I ran the following Commands:


./configure --with-apache=/usr/include/httpd

make

make install

3. That automatically put the mod_caucho.so into the /etc/httpd/modules directory 4. I then added this to the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file


LoadModule caucho_module modules/mod_caucho.so

I also added this right below the LoadModule


ResinConfigServer localhost 6800
CauchoConfigCacheDirectory /tmp
CauchoStatus yes

5. I then restarted apache. 6. In resin.conf I added this line:


 
       
       www.mydomain.com

7. When you save Railo will restart automatically. To get Railo to not restart automatically change this line:


2s

to
-1

You still have to follow the instructions to finish up the configuration. The PDF I am following is: Railo Apache Install Guide

P90X Day 2 - Plyometrics

Wed, 20 May 2009 23:27:00-0400

Day 2 was Plyometrics. They say that Plyometrics are the X in P90X and I believe them. This workout was a two day ordeal for me. The official second day I ate support and waited a couple hours to do the workout but it wasn't long enough so I had to stop the workout at the first water break to prevent myself from getting sick. It may have only been around 20 minutes but it felt like I had worked out for an hour straight. The next day my muscles ached when getting the dogs their breakfast. I was thinking to myself at that point how was I going to be able to even walk if my muscles already hurt after 20 minutes. I arrived home from work and after feeding the dogs and letting them out I turned on the DVD and started getting busy. I have to say that it was one of the longest hours of my life. The only hour that lasted longer I think was the last hour of the marathon I ran / walked a few months ago. I was able to keep pace with the folks in the video for awhile, then at the advice of Tommy Horton I started slowing down and even pausing it for longer breaks. Towards the end I felt like I was having trouble with my coordination because I was so tired. I did finish the workout. I am sore today after sitting for awhile but not as sore as I thought I was going to be. I'd like to think it is because I drank a glass of the recovery drink. Day 3 is Shoulders & Arms & Ab Ripper X. This time I will make sure that I do the Ab Ripper exercises. One thing that I keep telling myself is to stick with it. Even if I have to pause and do things slower at least I am doing it and it may take longer than 90 days to get to where I want to be, but I will get there. See you after day 3!

P90X Day 1 is over and I lived to tell about it

Sun, 17 May 2009 20:28:00-0400

P90X Day 1 Today was my first day doing the P90X program. It was pretty intense for me. I started out my workout today running around getting handles on the bands, switching handles because I needed tougher bands etc. It mentions on the DVD to take it easy the first time through because you have to do things twice. I knew I wasn't in shape so I set my goals low. I figured if I set them too low it would be easier for me to adjust the next time. I ended up not using the pull-up / chin-up bar because I am too out of shape, but it won't be long before I am using it again. I was able to do a few in college so I know it is possible. Update (The Day After): I realized today that I did not complete the second part of Day 1. I for some reason thought the Ab Ripper X was for day 2. Oh well I am still proud of myself. I will get it done the next time. If I look at my results on a per excersise basis it looks like my results weren't that great, but the amount of work I did over the course of the workout is pretty amazing and I am feeling it today. I will put in my results in the next few days. I wrote my results on a piece of paper and need to get them typed up. I ache a lot today, but I don't mind. In a few weeks I will look back on Day 1 and will be in disbelief about how out of shape I was :-) I will be starting Plyometrics shortly as my Day 2 workout.

Why Did I Wait So Long To Get Into Adobe AIR?

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:31:00-0400

I have only watched a couple hours worth of videos , and ran a few example applications, I am clearly hooked. I cannot wait to get deeper and deeper into this awesome technology. So far I have used Flex Builder and Extensions For Dreamweaver to do a few of the sample apps using Flex, HTML and Javascript to create applications. As I go along I will try and share what I learn here on my blog. My mind is already racing trying to figure what what my first real Adobe AIR app should be!

Having trouble using your Firefox addons with the latest version of Firefox?

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:18:13-0400

I needed to wipe my laptop and install the OS again. After getting everything up and running it was time for me to start installing my Firefox addons. I installed the latest beta version this time around, currently Firefox 3.1b2. A few of my addons didn't work. Because I created an addon a few years ago that saved my bookmarks to a local database I had a good idea of how I could update the addons to adhere to the version checking when Firefox goes to install the addon.

Here are the steps on how I was able to get several of my addons to work in the latest beta version of Firefox.

Disclaimer: The process I am about to explain will allow Firefox to install the addon. The addon might not work after you get it installed. I was lucky that all my addons worked in the latest beta version.

1. XPI files as I understand them are just Zip files with an xpi extension instead of a zip extension. Unzip the xpi file into a directory

2. Open up install.rdf in a text editor such as Editplus or notepad

3. Look for a line similiar to em:maxVersion="3.1b2pre"

4. Change the version to: em:maxVersion="3.1b2"

Note: I was able to get version 3.0 addons to work in 3.1b2. I don't image that any 2.x addons will work in version 3.1

5. Next save the file.

6. Now inside the directory select all the files and right click (Assuming you are using 7 Zip) and choose 7-zip -> add to directoryname.zip

7. Once it is all done saving rename the zipfile to addonname.xpi

8. In Firefox go to File -> Open File and your addon should install and hopefully work just fine.

That's all there is to it. Good Luck!

Check Out the Latest DNExpert Contest

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 20:09:00-0400

Hi Everyone, Check out the latest DNExpert Contest out here. I bought the e-book from their site a couple months ago, need to find it and finish reading it. I would say that the prize I wouldn't mind having is the $500.00 prize. The PSD2HTML Prize wouldn't be to shabby either. I love domaining but I cannot part with my domains after I buy them so I have a huge renewal bills each year :-)

Enabling Javascript Errors & Debugging

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 10:53:00-0400

Here are some brief notes on how to enable javascript debugging in IE7.

Part 1: Getting to the Settings Page

1. Start by going to the tools menu

2. Next go to internet options

3. Then go to the Advance tab

Part 2: The Settings

1. Uncheck Disable script debugging (Internet Explorer)

2. Uncheck Disable script debugging (Other)

3. Optional -> Display a Notification about every script error (This can be annoying on pages with lots of errors)

4. Uncheck Show Friendly http error messages (This isn't required for JS errors, but it will allow you see the Coldfusion error being shown on the page instead of the standard IE error page)

Doing the above will enable the script debugger which will take you to the line that is causing the JS error. I have never took the time to learn how to use the debugger, I just use it to see the exact line of the JS error.

Training for my First Marathon

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 18:09:50-0400

I have been training for my first Myrtle Beach Marathon now for almost a month. It hasn't been easy. When I started I was about 30 pounds overweight. In my first month I have lost 10 pounds. When I first start running I could not even run 1 mile. The few times I have been running I ran the first two miles, and took a couple minute fast walk break and ran the rest of the way to get to mile 3.

I bought a Pro Form 8.5 Personal Trainer treadmill to assist me with my training. It doesn't get any more convenient than that.

The treadmill came with an IFIT Weight Loss Treadmill Workout Card Level 1. I bought Level 2 and 3 off of Ebay. I wasn't paying attention and bought a performance level 3 card off of ebay too. I am not sure if I will continue to use them until after the marathon or not yet.

I started using the IFIT card every day before I started my run, but I found that the workout I was getting from the card was tiring my muscles out, and I wasn't able to do my full runs. So now I only use the workout card once per week unless I am not feeling up to doing a full run. I still need to lose some more weight so if I am feeling lazy I use the IFIT card to make sure I get a workout in. Usually after I do the workout I do some sprints because I am pumped up.

My goal for the rest of September is to keep running 3 miles alternating between 12 minute, and 10 minute miles, with a couple of the days doing sprints to get to the 3 miles. I find the hardest part about running is the breathing.

I have tried a couple different breathing techniques. The first one was breathing in the nose and out the mouth through a hole the size of a straw. I read or heard somewhere that if you learn to breath like that you can actually get more oxygen to the body. I found breathing that way leads to my upper body being more tense as I need more oxygen further into the workout.

The second method was breathing in and out of the mouth. That seems to be the best way to go. It doesn't lead to the tense upper body. Though it wasn't until I started breathing in and out the mouth that I started to get cramping on ocassion on the right side. Which reminds me I need to research cramping to find out what I can do to prevent that.

At first I thought one of the hardest parts of training for a marathon was going to be the diet. I knew I was overweight so at first I started eating a lot less and making sure I stayed away from all the bad stuff. Then I did some research and found out that I don't really need to diet, I just need to make sure that I eat a well balanced diet, and stay away from the really bad stuff because I will naturally be burning lots of calories especially when I really start increasing the distance.

I am hoping that I can lose another 10 pounds my second month of running as I increase the pace and the distance.

Do you have any advice for the first time marathon runner?

Railo 3 Available For Download

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:27:55-0400

Railo 3 is available for download Railo 3. It finally has cfthread. I am going to download it this weekend and see how my ebay product retriever threader performs.

RGB To Hex Converter

Sat, 24 May 2008 14:06:58-0400

I needed a quick way to convert RGB values to hexadecimal numbers for a page I am working on. A quick Google search revealed:

http://bumblemonkey.com/picker/picker.html

Very Slick. What do you use?

Quick Note: XmlAttributes

Mon, 12 May 2008 11:40:00-0400

I have to use xml fairly often. Mostly for connecting to different web services. I haven't dealt with to many web services that return attributes within the XML like this:



      73
      52
      6:17 AM
      8:08 PM
      
        30
        Partly Cloudy
        
          17
          N/A
          291
          WNW
        
        P Cloudy
        10
        39
      
      
        31
        Clear
        
          16
          N/A
          337
          NNW
        
        Clear
        10
        61

I seem to always forget how to access the attributes. The attributes in above example are d="0" t="Monday" dt = "May 12" as well as p="d" and p = "n". I have decided to blog about it so I remember next time. To access the above attributes use XmlAttributes. If the variable containing the above XML was called XMLVar then you would use the following code to access the attributes:


Day of Week: #XMLVar.day.XmlAttributes.t#
Date: #XMLVar.d.XmlAttributes.dt#

Nothing to it really.

Common Linux Commands List

Fri, 09 May 2008 08:48:57-0400

I don't work on Linux everyday so I often forget the commands that I use from time to time. I started keeping the most commonly used commands in my notes, but I often misplace those notes. I am going to keep updating this blog post with my commonly used Linux commands so I have them for easy reference in the future:

1. ps -A | grep mysql -- Find the process & id of MySQL.

2. find / -name "file" * -- This finds a file. There may be a quicker way to do this.

If you have any commands you use on a regular basic and think others would benefit send them on over and I will add them to the list.

Evernote.com Invites -- Does anyone have any available?

Wed, 07 May 2008 16:15:00-0400

I was able to get my hands on a tablet PC today. It only has 1GB of HDD space so I need a notes program that is relatively small that can handle handwriting via the touch screen and the pen. Evernote 3 seems to be the ticket. Does anyone happen to have an extra invite they do not mind sharing?

CFFEED: String index out of range: -1

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:21:00-0400

Today I decided it would be cool to give cffeed a try. I read over the documentation and created a script to pull a few different feeds based on a database table of feeds. My first two rss feeds ran without any problem. The last two feeds threw an error. Here is the error I am receiving: String index out of range: -1 Here is the code:

I updated my CF 8 installation to 8.01 because I thought maybe it was a bug but that didn't seem to help. Any ideas what could be causing this error?

Want to see Coldfusion Support for the Google App Engine?

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 23:24:00-0400

I think it would be great if the Google App Engine supported CFML. If you feel the same show your support by visiting the link below and give it a star and a comment. http://code.google.com/p/googleappengine/issues/detail?id=73