Adobe Systems has now released a preview version of ColdFusion 8 to the Adobe Labs website. Here you can dowload the latest version of ColdFusion and there are some great online videos to get you into the new features fast. Some of the new features listed give you the power to easliy work with Flex to create personalized, multimedia-rich applications and Acrobat form integration. Sounds good to me ….
Flex is quite the addiction. I was hoping to slam dunk the Flex 2.0 TFS book in a matter of days and that is turning into a couple of weeks now. So far so good, the TFS book is very tight in presenting the basics of Flex, the code is perfect, and it is also a great starting point for those who may be new to MVC Model View Controller design patterns. It is also a great suppliment to the Adobe Authorized Flex Training. My only suggestion is that the FlexGrocer store could maybe use a little bit of a cosmetic design facelift. Enter Fireworks CS3!
I have always been a big Fireworks fan and I have a tendency to laugh out loud when people compare it to Photoshop. Oddly enough I learned Fireworks quite some time ago by accidentally booking myself into a hands-on training class thinking I was taking a Flash 2.0 beginner course. I purchased the Flash/Fireworks 2.0 web bundle and I was not even educated enough to know the difference in the two software products. As it turns out, that was a valuable mistake that empowered me with the knowledge of a great software tool that has not only survived the jump from Macromedia to Adobe, but has hit the new CS3 version scene with a vengeance.
So, what does that have to do with Flex 2.0? The latest CS3 release has some great new features for prototyping your Flex applications with the ability to export Flex components and images as MXML. At this point I could stay up all night writing a tutorial to show you how to do this, … but I would rather get some sleep, so I will point you right along to a great free tutorial by Trevor McCauley - a technical support engineer at Adobe Systems. Thanks Trevor …
With the arrival of a new version of ColdFusion, will no doubt come a new certification exam.Not everyoneagrees on the precise value of a vendor certification exam, but if you are an instructor in the Adobe Authorized Training world, … then certification exams are just part of the game. Also, wether or not vendor certification can be tracked to a specific level of value simply depends on how you leverage that certification to market your skills. - imho
As far as the ColdFusion exam goes, there are sparce resources out there for preparation, but the resources that you have are excelent. The baseline study guide is of course the Forta - ColdFusion MX7 Study Guide - which I am sure will be updated for version 8. Also, don’t forget to check out the Adobe Certification Examination Specification
If you want to prep further you might want to purchase the ColdFusion Exam Buster from CentraSoft. This study tool has 875 questions in 13 predefined tests designed to help you prepare for all aspects of the actual ColdFusion Certification exam. This tool will definitely be updated for version 8.
One last tool that I can recommend is a site that I found just a few days ago. The CF Questions Site is a repository of questions created by members of a ColdFusion certification study group. Anyone that would like to jion and contribute to this site can share information to assist in passing the ColdFusion exam. There is even a rating system for each question that corresponds with a chapter in the Forta Study Guide. What a great idea!
Over the past couple of MAX conferences I have noticed that they are not giving away as much “swag” as they did in the past. Is this my imagination or am I just greedy? Has anyone else noticed this trend?
Well, if you missed the MAX store in Vegas at the Venetian and you just gotta have that Adobe logo shirt on while teaching the cool stuff. I can totally relate. Good thing I ran across this site while surfing the blogshpere. All of the Adobe logo stuff you could ever imagine and more.
But, now that anyone can buy it …. my logo stuff just does not feel that special anymore. I am gonna iron up some of my old Macromedia t-shirts. Yeah, thats what I am gonna do!
