Using a table as a data source makes Spry easy

Wed, 02 May 2007 12:26:46 GMT

As you may know Spry is a JavaScript library developed by Adobe and provides functionality for some extremely cool JavaScript interfaces. For data sets it easily allows you to implement paganation, filtering and sorting, over at RIAForge the search page is powered by Spry and is one of the best examples I have seen.

Up until version 1.5 Spry needed data in XML format. 1.5, adds JSON and, more interestingly the ability to load a dataset from an HTML table. Read the technical details here. Now, I can output a query in XML format or JSON but the ratio of XML or JSON I've written to HTML tables is probably 1 to 1,000 or even 10,000. I know more shortcuts for writing a query in a table for instance, I'm more comfortable using cfoutput and the group attribute with a table. Now, there may be good reasons to use XML or JSON if the data is shared with a webservice, etc but overall I like the simplicity that comes with using a table for the data source.

Another advantage of using a HTML table is that Spry can start processing the data when the page loads. With XML and JSON Spry makes a new request via AJAX to the server to get the data which, depending on connection speeds, means the page can appear to pause.

The First Post

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:59:53 GMT

The first post. I've decided to start a blog primarily because I like writing. And having been a programmer for the last 10 years I haven't written much during that time. I also realize I like writing about technical issues and have a fair amount on my mind at the moment so it seems like a good time to start a blog. Note, I did not say I was a grammatically correct writer. So, expect the odd typo and grammatically incorrect sentence from time to time. This is a blog and I'm not going to use the grammar corrector in Word before posting.

I am also intrigued by social networking so InstantSpot seemed a good spot (pun intended) to start my blog.

I aim to cover a bunch of topics, some tutorials and explanations of basic ColdFusion functionality, thoughts on the future of the web and ColdFusion, conferences, and anything else that comes up. I will mostly be focusing on ColdFusion (and will probably start using cf as an abbreviation real soon) though I do hope to post on other non-cf topics like JavaScript, MySQL and databases in general and who knows what else in the future.

I am not going to aim to publish on a regular basis and have pledged to keep this blog a purely non-work time activity. I'm busy enough there anyway. Good busy. I also don't believe blogs die. So if I have nothing good or interesting to say I will say nothing. I also don't think this will turn into a news blog with short entries and links to the latest news. There are enough of those, and, I rely on them for my tech-news as much as anywhere else. In short, if you like what you are reading I suggest using the RSS feeds or subscribing over email.

More to come...

RSS feed for InstantSpot site Sam Farmer's ColdFusion Blog

Using a table as a data source makes Spry easy

The First Post