If you're running your own CF server, or are hosting with a host who's willing to do a little extra work for you, you're going to love ColdFusion scheduled tasks. It's basically a way to tell CF to run a particular file at a set interval. The called file can run a report, update a database, do an XML grab, anything you want. And then you can tell CF that you want it to save the results of the file somewhere else.

I used this to great effect today, hence my post :). MM.com changed their DesDev feed, so the XSL I slaved over in VBScript wasn't doing the trick for me, and I didn't feel like writing a new one :). So I built a CF page to consume the XML feed and do it's wonders. Well that's all fine and good, but DWfaq is built in asp, so I couldn't call the CF page from my ASP application files. Scheduled tasks to the rescue :D

I set up a scheduled task to run my des dev parser once every 4 hours. When the parser runs it saves the result as a plain old HTML file which I can then include into my .asp pages. This means I don't have to parse the XML feed everytime someone hits my site, and I don't even have to worry about the MM server not being responsive but once every 4 hours (a pretty decent gamble given that I'm error checking things anyway).

The moral of the story? Scheduled tasks can make it easy to stash pages that don't change very often as static HTML files which you can then use throughout your application without worrying about your page overhead. Definitely tasty...

I took the Dreamweaver MX 2004 certification this morning, and I'm now certified again. I only scored 88% this time, but then again I finished the 90 minute test in 20, had a client meeting I had to get to (I'm blaming poor scheduling on my part).

The mat previews at Lary McKee Studios are working, so check it out and buy something for cryin' out loud :).

Thanks to ~Angela for a hand with the javascript.

I've been in Amarillo since Wednesday visiting family for Thanksgiving, and all both of the Starbucks in Amarillo don't have T-Mobile wireless access. Can ya believe it? The noive of some Starbucks. I must say that I was lucky the golf pro shop next door didn't know how to properly secure their wireless router. At least I got to check my email :)

I'll be here until Sunday, and then it's back home to catch up on almost 2 weeks worth of work, what with MAX immediately followed by Thanksgiving with no high speed internet access :). Portland Amarillo most definitely is not :).

Just wanted to point a link to a good friend of mine who's site I just completed. Lary McKee Studios is run by (you guessed it) Lary McKee. He's a wonderful realist painter, and I just can't say enough how happy I am to have been able to provide him with a great new venue for his artwork. We actually have the original for Victorian Lady hanging in our living room. Check him out, and buy a print if the mood strikes you ;). They're all hand matted and framed by the artist himself.