025 Why Programming in Node is so Powerful (how CFers can learn), with Ray Camden

Ray Camden talks about “Why Programming in Node is so Powerful (how CFers can learn)” in this episode of ColdFusion Alive Podcast with host Michaela Light. He is also one of the speakers at CFObjective Conference.

In this talk, Raymond will introduce ColdFusion developers to Node.js development. This will be a high-level talk more focused on the “mechanics” of working with Node versus a deep dive into the language. The focus will be on, “Given that I do so and so in ColdFusion, what is it like to do the same in a Node app?” I'll discuss how to get started, what it is like to deploy a Node application, how to test, where to learn more, as well as talk about the things that tripped me up on my way from CF to Node.

Episode highlights

• What is Node.js?
  • Server based JavaScript engine
• Why program in Node?
  • Same syntax as client based JavaScript
  • Very light weight
• What is the hardest thing for a CFer learning Node?
• Node Deployment tips
• How to test your Node app
• Why are you proud to use CF?
  • Practical
  • Get stuff down fast
  • Easy to learn
• WWIT for you to make CF more alive this year?
  • Medium articles
  • Other non-CF conferences
• What are you looking forward to at CFObjective?

Mentioned in this episode

• Node.js
• Wikipedia on Node.js 
• Twitter Node.js
• Digital Ocean droplet
• BlueMix by IBM
• Now by Zeit.co
• Docker
• AWS
• CommandBox
• CF Debugging talk by Gert Franz
• Charlie Arehart
• Lazy loading
• Micro-services
• Go language
• CF Alive Serverless podcast

And to continue learning how to make your ColdFusion apps more modern and alive, I encourage you to download our free ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist.

Because… perhaps you are responsible for a mission-critical or revenue-generating CF application that you don’t trust 100%, where implementing new features is a painful ad-hoc process with slow turnaround even for simple requests.

What if you have no contingency plan for a sudden developer departure or a server outage? Perhaps every time a new freelancer works on your site, something breaks. Or your application availability, security, and reliability are poor.

And if you are depending on ColdFusion for your job, then you can’t afford to let your CF development methods die on the vine.

You’re making a high-stakes bet that everything is going to be OK using the same old app creation ways in that one language — forever.

All it would take is for your fellow CF developer to quit or for your CIO to decide to leave the (falsely) perceived sinking ship of CFML and you could lose everything—your project, your hard-won CF skills, and possibly even your job.

Luckily, there are a number of simple, logical steps you can take now to protect yourself from these obvious risks.

No Brainer ColdFusion Best Practices to Ensure You Thrive No Matter What Happens Next

ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist

Modern ColdFusion development best practices that reduce stress, inefficiency, project lifecycle costs while simultaneously increasing project velocity and innovation.

√ Easily create a consistent server architecture across development, testing, and production

√ A modern test environment to prevent bugs from spreading

√ Automated continuous integration tools that work well with CF

√ A portable development environment baked into your codebase… for free!

 

Learn about these and many more strategies in our free ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist.

Bio

Raymond Camden is a developer advocate for IBM. His work focuses on LoopBack, API Connect, serverless, hybrid mobile development, Node.js, HTML5, and web standards in general. He's a published author and presents at conferences and user groups on a variety of topics. Raymond can be reached at his blog (www.raymondcamden.com), @raymondcamden on Twitter, or via email at raymondcamden@gmail.com.

Links

• Website
• Twitter
• Linked In
• Jedi Master

(* WWIT = What Would It Take)

Interview transcript

Michael:        Welcome back to the show. I'm here with Ray Camden and he is the developer advocate for IBM and he does an amazing amount of stuff. He works on Loopback, API Connect, Servilus, hybrid mobile development, HTML 5, web standards, and Node JS which is what we're hear to talk about today. Fortunately, Ray has his army of storm troopers with him in the room, just in case there are any difficult questions that have to be handled. I take it you're a great fan of Star Wars, I think I've known that for a long time.

Ray Camden: Just a little bit.

Michael:        Just a little. In today's episode, Node JS for Cfers, we're gonna look at what Node JS really is, why you should be programming in it, and what the hardest thing for a Cfer learning node is. We'll also look at deployment tips, how you can test your node applications, and also Ray is going to be talking on the subject of CF objectives, so we will be looking at that as well. Welcome, Ray.

Ray Camden: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Michael:        For those few people who've been isolated in the universe and don't know what Node JS is, what exactly is it?

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