Kelly Brown

Most commercial Web sites have secure areas that are accessible only to authorized users. Here's one schema for managing access control for a Web site. Many times you need to limit access to particular templates on your site, either for customers who must purchase enhanced capabilities or for administrative functions available to a select few. The framework described in this article gives you a flexible access control scheme that can easily be added to your Web site. Database Design Like all good dynamic systems, this one starts with the database design. It boils down to two simple concepts: users and permissions, where permissions regulate access to various features. We'll have two main tables in our schema: USERS and PERMISSIONS. The USERS table contains information about the users such as their login name and password. The PERMISSIONS table contains a list of pe... (more)

Introducing Spry

If you've been to Adobe Labs lately or keep up with the blogosphere you've probably heard the buzz about Spry. It's a new AJAX framework from Adobe. It lets designers build rich Internet applications with little or no programming. The Adobe-Macromedia combine has been pushing RIAs for years and its vision is just now moving into the mainstream. Adobe had three goals when creating Spry: open access, easy use, and enable innovation. Open Access Propriety tags or server-side code weren't used in the Spry framework, instead the capabilities of existing HTML tags were enhanced. Spry ha... (more)

CFUNITED is still Fun

The crowded auditorium was abuzz with anticipation. The snatches of conversation from around you were meaningless jargon to those not in the know. A hush fell over the crowd as the moment they were waiting for arrived - Ben Forta walking on stage. Okay, he's not rock star, but the closest thing to it in the ColdFusion community. If you didn't attend the CFUNITED (www.cfunited.com) conference this year (formerly known as CFUN), you should go ahead and put it on your schedule for next year now. CFUNITED has grown from a weekend event with 40 sessions to the premier ColdFusion conf... (more)

E-Commerce with Verisign's Payflow Link

E-commerce, for most people, means purchasing an item on the Web. This multistep process involves product selection, payment, and product delivery. This article focuses on the payment process. What Is Payflow Link? Payflow Link is a credit card processing system. It integrates with your Web site, allowing customers to make purchases using credit cards. As there are other systems available that do the same thing, why would you want to use Payflow Link? For starters Payflow Link is a low-end system. It's recommended for 1,000 transactions or fewer per month. That being said, it's al... (more)

Creating a Custom XML Editor in ColdFusion

It's almost impossible to pick up a trade magazine these days and not find a reference to XML. It's an important enabling technology for the sophisticated Web applications of the future. This article will cut through some of the hype to explain what XML can be used for and, equally important, how it can work effectively with ColdFusion. To illustrate how these two technologies can be used in conjunction, I'll create a simple ColdFusion application allowing a user to edit the content of an XML file. XML 101 For those of you not familiar with XML I'll introduce some of the basic ... (more)