Tech Blog

Archive for September, 2007

Launchy - Keep your desktop clean!

by Rolando on Sep.19, 2007, under Misc

I know this program has been out there for sometime, but I just learned about it today and I’m in love!

Launchy is an open source application launcher for windows. If you are a Linux user it works similar to the “Run Application Dialogue” but on steroids.  It won’t only looks for programs but you can customize it so that it indexes any file type on any directories that you tell it to.  By default it only indexes .lnk (shortcut) files inside the “Start Menu”.  In my case I use eclipse to code and it sits on my “dev” folder, so I just added the extension “.exe” and the directory where “eclipse.exe” resides and voilà, eclipse was indexed instantaneously.

launchy-config

Launchy toolbar opening eclipse

To get to the directory options and other stuff you need to right click outside of the search box area.

Another neat feature of Launchy is that you can browse through your Drives, just type the drive letter (”c:\”) or something like “my documents” and you’ll start seeing your content and folders. On top of that, if you are in the need of some quick calculations, just type any numerical expression inside Launchy and see the results.  Now you know why I love this tool.

 

Below is a list of tips they list at their site and the download link:

  • Search Google
    • Type in google, then tab, then your search query and press enter
  • Check the Weather
    • Type in Weather, then tab, then your zip code or city,state and press enter
  • Search other sites
    • Other sites you can search include wikipedia, msn, yahoo, amazon, netflix, imdb, and more.
  • Browse your computer
    • Type in c:, then tab, then a folder or file, hit tab, and continue
  • The Launchy Calculator
    • Did you know that Launchy has a built in calculator? Type in some algebra and see what happens!
  • Index your Bookmarks & Folders
    • Directory: C:\Documents and Settings\user\Favorites
    • File Type: .url
  • Index your Music
    • Directory: My Documents
    • File Types: .mp3 .aac .ogg
  • Index your Pictures
    • Directory: My Documents
    • File Types: .jpg .gif .bmp
  • Index your Documents
    • Directory: My Documents
    • File Types: .doc .pdf .xls .ppt
  • Index custom Commands
    • Directory: Your Custom Folder
    • File Types: .exe .bat .lnk
  • And more..
    • Please see the readme file for more tips and tricks with Launchy!

 To download Launchy go here http://www.launchy.net/

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Transfer Config App - Auto Generate your Transfer Config File

by Rolando on Sep.13, 2007, under TransferConfig

I've been working on a simple application that introspect any ColdFusion 8 supported database using cfdbinfo and generates the Transfer ORM config file for you.  It also works with the new (unstable) version of transfer meaning it handles composite key tables.

I've added a very simple front-end that let's you see all the tables Meta-Data, preview the XML Config File before creating it and of course it lets you create the file itself.

You can set a few config settings depending on what best works for you:

  • UUID Convention - This is meant for SQL server that does not have  UUID data type but instead we use char(35),so if you have this turned on every time a Char(35) is found will be interpreted as a UUID data type.

  • Generate PK - ask transfer to generate the PK value for you.

  • Collection Type - <array|struct> lets you choose wich collection type you want to use for the OneToMany relationships.

  • Relationship type to use - In transfer you can pick whether to use the ManyToOne or OneToMany relationships and this will vary depending on your needs. As of now you can only select this as a general setting meaning whatever you pick it will be used on all the Objects created. However both relationships will always be created, it'll just comment out the other one. So if you want to change for one or the other after the file is created all you need to do is uncomment those lines.

  • File name - By default I have the file named transferX.xml.  The destination of the file you can change for each site in the environment.xml file mentioned below.


Integrated with the application is something I had done sometime ago with the help of Rob Gonda (which he showed at CFUnited this year) but we never blogged about it.  That is the Environment Configurator  which is nothing else than an XML file with a CFC that lets you setup different environments and variables (ie Dev, Staging, Production).  I know, that's useless for the transfer file which is the same along environments …well I'm using it a bit different here.  Instead of copying the Transfer Config App into each one of my projects, I have it in a single location and I add each new site to the environment xml file (ie roland-lopez.com, adobe.com). Then, I add a virtual directory to each site called /transferConfig pointing to Transfer Config, so when the App starts it will notice which domain I'm comming from and will load the specific DSN, among other settings.

For version 2 of Transfer Config I plan to allow for custom settings of each object. So that you can pick things like the relationship type, collection type, generate PK, etc for each table …and yes a better UI.

You can submit bugs and/or requests for the next version at roland [at] soft-itech [dot] com

You can download the App at RIAforge.org

—modified on: 9/17/2007

I just added version 1.0.1 of Transfer Config this includes the following fixes and enhancements:

  • Fixed: App would break if database in use contained a table with no primary key defined.
  • Enh: change App to be able to run in transferConfig subfolder (can be run directly under the root too)
  • Enh: added ability to pick DSN directly from the view/form. The way this will work depends on your settings:
    • If you have the Admin password for CF you can add it to the environment.xml.cfm file and the CF Admin API will be used to get a list of DSN's.
    • If don’t have Admin privileges on the server, it will try to use the CF serviceFactory to get a list of the DSN’s.
    • If none of the previous two are an option, a text field will be used filled out by default with the DSN value you specified in the environment xml file.
  • Enh: Prevent direct access to the environment XML file for (obvious) security reasons.
  • Other minor enhancements.

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