I am happy to announce that cf_googleMap has been released into beta 2. The latest version can be downloaded here. There are still a few bugs left before I can call this one a full release candidate.
Overall this has been a huge release and there are so many new features that I have to test the heck out of it.
Well after a couple of years of the old design I decided to take a few minutes and update the site with a new template that seemed to match more of the colors that we use in our home.
A few years ago I came up with a monster hack of automating the decryption of a PGP file with GnuPG. There are a bunch of limitations with CFEXECUTE so I turned to a VBS file and ADO to get the job done. The monster hack ran fine for a long time and just recently died when we upgraded to MSSQL 2005. After I was not able to fix the ADO connection properly I turned to some different solutions. What ended up working perfectly was using Java to execute a command line directly and just completely bypassing the CFEXECUTE. I stumbled upon System Command from Kevan Stannard and it worked perfectly. The same command line calls that I made to GnuPG now worked through CF using the System Command to do the execution. The trick to getting it to work is that GnuPG stores the PGP keys in relation to your user profile on the computer. So I ended up scripting out a batch file that added the keys into GnuPG, logging into the server as the same user that the ColdFusion service runs as and running the batch file to add the keys. After that the PGP decryption process has worked flawlessly.
In theory you could import the keys into the local system user but we already had a user for CF setup.
After a lot of work I think cf_googleMap 1.5 is finally in a good solid beta state. If you are interested in giving it a whirl you can download it here.
Well I have to say that I didn't get as much done in the 1.4 release that I would have liked to but I was able to make up enough progress yesterday that I wanted to go ahead and release it. Last minute yesterday I was asked to present the tag at the Denver ColdFusion users group and while I was waiting for my turn to present I was able to add in these features.
(1) Added the showTraffic attribute to the cf_googleMap tag.
(2) Added the showLocalSearch attribute to the cf_googleMap tag.
(3) Added a language attribute to the cf_googleMap tag.
(4) Added the enableZoomScroll to the cf_googleMap tag and defaulted it to true so a use can use their scroll wheel to zoom in and out
(5) Added the enableGE to the cf_googleMap tag and defaulted it to false to enable the Google Earth view of the map.
I also added some MSSQL User Defined Functions in the download as well that will help calculate distances in your data access layer.
The 1.5 version will be out shortly here. I figured out how I want to implement the point sets for various map levels and also figured out how to do the integrated driving directions without breaking the old way of doing driving directions.
This past weekend I was hanging Christmas lights for the first time at our house and when I climbed up to the roof I was blown away by the amazing view. I just sat up there for about 30 minutes to just soak it all in. While I was up there I pulled out my Blackjack and snapped a couple pictures to create this panoramic.
One of my main goals for 2007 was to "Release a product myself and not through my employer". I have been working nights and weekends for months to release GoTrip.mobi. While mobile based products are an emerging market in the hospitality industry this solution squashes the competition in features and usability. You can read the press release here
On a side note... me working on this product is the reason I have not updated the cf_googleMap tag. I will be getting back that now that the product has launched.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been concentrating getting a software product out the door and changing jobs as well. It is about time to start on the 1.4 version of the tag. Now is the time to voice your opinion on what you would like to see in the next version of the tag.
While be it late I wanted to share some of my goals for 2007.
#1. Have at least 3 open source projects.
Releasing cf_googleMap has take a lot of my time and it has been a learning experience to say the least. Dealing with other developers hacking away at your code, finding bugs and asking for feature requests is a bit scary. It really is the best form of peer review. I have some ideas on releasing some other projects around better error trapping and reporting, better debugger than the classic cfml debugging page. I am open to any other ideas as well.
#2. Release a product myself and not through my employer
I have been working on a product to release to the world for the past few months. I want to make money while I sleep! (More to come soon)
#3. Write an article and have it published
I have a decent start on some uses for the asynchronous event gateway. I just want to finish it up and submit it into the CFDJ.
#4. Enter a contest
I've seen many of the coding contests come and go and I never took any time to enter any of them. I doubt that I will win but I want to make an effort of going through the process. I've heard a lot of good things that you learn by going through some of these contests and I just want to put my hat into the ring.
This may be hard to believe for some but today I was able to do something that I have never done before. Build a snowman! Rusty helped me a lot and made sure to tell me how to build it. I am glad that I had the help of my 5 year old to guide me through the process.
