Gavin Pickin talks about “All things ContentBox (new API, ContentStore, Themes and more)” in this episode of the ColdFusion Alive Podcast,with the host Michaela Light. Gavin is one of the speakers for the upcoming Into The Box ColdFusion Conference, where he will talk about Bringing Legacy Apps Back To Life with *Box Microservices, Ortus Keynote and Developing ContentBox Themes.
“ContentBox is Ortus's creation. It's basically a content management system for ColdFusion. So over the years we've obviously built plenty of website for ourselves at Ortus. But also for clients along the way as well. We were not really happy with the previous content management systems around and instead of building our little apps every time we- Luis Majano, of course, decided to build ContentBox. So it's been out in the market for several years now and we've made a lot of changes over the last couple of years.” – Gavin Pickin
Show notes
- What ContentBox is and why would you want to use it?
- What does it cost? (hint it is Open Source. One line install with CLI)
- Why an API?
- The ContentBox API Unleashed
- The hidden features of Mobile app front ends and built-in JSON packets
- Why using the ContentStore for custom settings is better than a database
- Contentbox 3.5 and 4.0 features
- native image support with auto thumbnails
- custom ContentStore fields
- easier overrides
– A story about CFML, which we think you will want to hear, and learn what Ortus and the community is doing for CFML and the future of CFML. - Why you want to use ContentBox Themes and what is new about them?
- Theme Modules and Widgets
- Expose custom theme settings
- Powerful Theme events
- Why are you proud to use CF?
- WWIT to make CF more alive this year?
- What are you looking forward to at Into The Box?
Mentioned in the episode
- ContentBox
- ColdBox
- ContentStore
- ContentBox Themes
- Ortus University
Listen to the Audio
Bio
Gavin Pickin
The ContentBox Evangelist, Gavin Pickin has been coding in ColdFusion for over 17 years.
Gavin started using ColdFusion in 1999 when working for the university of Auckland in New Zealand before moving to California. He has lead teams, trained new developers and worked the full stack from graphic design, HTML CSS JavaScript through to ColdFusion MySQL and server administration.
Gavin has a passion for learning and cannot understand why the 9-5ers aren't listening to podcasts while changing diapers, watching video tutorials while cleaning baby bottles and folding clothes, or putting the kids to sleep with soothing phone gap mobile application cookbook recipes.
You will find him blogging at gpickin.com and on twitter @gpickin and occasionally being mocked on cfhour's podcast.
Links
- Gavin Pickin Blog
- Twitter – @gpickin
(* WWIT = What Would It Take)
Interview transcript
Michaela Light: Hi, welcome back to the show. I'm here with Gavin Pickin, the ContentBox evangelist at Ortus Solutions. And we're gonna be talking about all things ContentBox today. So, we're gonna look at why you wanna use it and what you'd use it for. And we'll look at the new API that's coming out in it and all the cool things you can do with that.
And, there's some of the hidden features in there which let you have a mobile app be the front end or even output JSON packets with just a simple change. Also we'll look at the contents tool as a way of storing custom settings, which is better than using a database. Gavin will explain why that is.
We'll also be looking at themes. Which are out in ContentBox, and what you can do with them. Lots of cool stuff there. And then, Gavin will be revealing some of the new stuff in ContentBox 4.0 that is gonna be unleashed during the conference. So, welcome Gavin.
Gavin Pickin: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Michaela Light: So, let's come back to that. What exactly is ContentBox? ‘Cause not everyone uses it. And why would you wanna use it?
Gavin Pickin: ContentBox is Ortus's creation. It's basically a content management system for ColdFusion. So over the years we've obviously built plenty of website for ourselves at Ortus. But also for clients along the way as well. We were not really happy with the previous content management systems around and instead of building our little apps every time we- Luis Majano, of course, decided to build ContentBox. So it's been out in the market for several years now and we've made a lot of changes over the last couple years.
I came on as a content evangelist about two years ago now. So I'm in charge of getting the word out about it. But also one of the team members, I'm actually building it. So Luis and myself are working on ContentBox and, like you say, we use that for all of our order sites now, and a lot of the clients. It's a great content management system.
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.
Michaela Light is the host of the CF Alive Podcast and has interviewed more than 100 ColdFusion experts. In each interview, she asks "What Would It Take to make CF more alive this year?" The answers still inspire her to continue to write and interview new speakers.
Michaela has been programming in ColdFusion for more than 20 years. She founded TeraTech in 1989. The company specializes in ColdFusion application development, security and optimization. She has also founded the CFUnited Conference and runs the annual State of the CF Union Survey.
