What if I don't care for Flex Builder?

"Everyone" point out how $299 for CFB is a good deal because you get Flex Builder bundled. But what if I don't care for Flex? Is it still a good deal?

Flex Builder Standard costs $249 and CFB+FB $299. What is a real idea behind this? To promote CFB among Flex developers? Honestly, I see this as a better deal for Flex developers, who really needs an IDE for rapid development, then it is for CF developers (only).

Me, as CF developer, don't see this as a good opportunity at all. Opposite. 83% of money I'll pay, actually goes to something I won't use.

On the other hand, by supporting this project, we keep doors open for version 2 one day. And when that day come, I hope that CFB will be sufficient argument for itself to have decent sale.

Update:

Simple math:
Flash Builder 4 Standard (stand alone) - $249
CF Builder 1.0 w/ Flash Builder 4 Standard included - $299
--------------------------------------------------------------
-> CF Builder 1.0 costs $50

Related content:

• Adobe plans for CF Builder for present and future.
  CFHour Interview Adam Lehman about ColdFusion Builder
• Flash Builder 4 prices
• ColdFusion Builder 1.0 price

BlazeDS: Creating endpoint at runtime

Why? Because I do not want to bother end users with xml configuration files. Simple as that.
Biggest enemy of your application is user itself. Therefore, reducing possibility to make a mistake is most important goal if you wish to left good impression with your app. This was one of steps that I take on the road to make Collyba installation procedure as easy as possible.
As I said in previous blog, while I was working on this, insight  to BlazeDS source files was of great help. Actually that is where I found a solution.

What are channels and endpoints?

Channels are client-side objects that encapsulate the connection behavior between Flex components and the BlazeDS server. Channels communicate with corresponding endpoints on the BlazeDS server. You configure the properties of a channel and its corresponding endpoint in the services-config.xml file.

But in our case, we won't configure it in XML file but programmatically.

BlazeDS: Creating destinations at runtime

Because it is already said a lot on this subject, I won't waste much words, but go straight to the point/code.

/**
* Create blazeds destination at runtime. Follow SVN link to java source files for more details.
* @name hint="Destination name" 
*/
function createDestination(destname,channelId){
 var local = structNew();
 
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/core/src/flex/messaging/MessageBroker.java
 local.brokerClass = createObject('java','flex.messaging.MessageBroker');
 local.broker = local.brokerClass.getMessageBroker( javacast('null','') );
 local.service = local.broker.getService('message-service');
 local.destinations = local.service.getDestinations();
 
 //check if destination already exists. If it does just return it
 if (structKeyExists(local.destinations,arguments.destname)){ //check if destination already exist
  return local.destinations[arguments.destname]; 
 }
 
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/core/src/flex/messaging/Destination.java
 local.destination = local.service.createDestination(arguments.destname);
 // Creates a ServiceAdapter instance and sets its id, sets if destination  is manageable
 local.destination.createAdapter('cfgateway');
 
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/common/src/flex/messaging/config/ConfigMap.java
 local.configMap = createObject('java','flex.messaging.config.ConfigMap').init();
 local.configMap.addProperty('gatewayid',application.CFEventGatewayId);
 
 //svn: http://opensource.adobe.com/svn/opensource/blazeds/trunk/modules/core/src/flex/messaging/config/ServerSettings.java
 local.ss = createObject("java","flex.messaging.config.ServerSettings");
 local.ss.setAllowSubtopics(true); 
 local.ss.setSubtopicSeparator('.');
 local.ss.setDurable(false);
 
 local.destination.setServerSettings(ss);
 
 local.adapter = local.destination.getAdapter();
 
 //Initializes the adapter with the properties.
 local.adapter.initialize('cfgateway',configMap);

 local.destination.addChannel(arguments.channelId);
 
 //Starts the destination if its associated Service is started and if the destination is not already running. 
 local.destination.start();
 
 return local.destination;
}

Deploy ColdFusion 8/9 on Glassfish v3

Deploying ColdFusion 8/9 on Sun Glassfish 3 is not much different than it is on IBM WebSphere 7 AS. Except, imho, it is far more optimal, because it takes much less resources (especially if it is setup for dev) and cost nothing. I did this on Win7 platform, but it looks completely the same on Linux platforms. So, let's move.

Proud to be second!

Not that I wouldn't like to be a first, but last 2 second places were awesome!
On 29th January I won second place on "Best Of CF9" contest. Contest was  organized by Ray and other Adobe Community Experts. Thank you for that. I won't talk about much about that here, just to emphize that I have "big" plans for Collyba. "Big" actually means that I'm really going to continue development on it, which is, for itself, enormous accomplishment:)