Wednesday 21 November 2012

CFLib.org needs your UDFs

G'day:
 I assume you all now what CFlib.org is, but in case not, it summarises itself thus:
The purpose of the Common Function Library Project (CFLib.org) is to create a set of user-defined function (UDF) libraries for ColdFusion 5.0 and higher. These libraries are open source and may be used and modified to your liking. Functions range from email format checking to encryption routines. These UDFs can greatly speed up development time as well as add new and powerful features to your web site.

Anyone can add their code to the project by simply using our submission form. You must be running ColdFusion 5.0 (or higher) to run these libraries. For more information about ColdFusion, please visit Adobe's ColdFusion product page. If you have any suggestions or comments, please contact me. CFLib.org was created by Raymond Camden [...].


A few months back Ray asked if I would take over the reins of "approver", which I keenly agreed to. So it's my job to go over all the UDFs that people have submitted, check they work as described, think of any additional testing to put them through and occasionally tweak them slightly.  I also pick up email from people who point out bugs in UDFs, and fix them or feedback etc.  As Ray describes it: the grunt work.  All good: I enjoy it.

Anyway, the approval queue is getting pretty short at the moment. Half the ones in there are awaiting clarification I've asked of the authors, the other half are ones I definitely need to do something about. But if I put a concerted day's effort in, I'd clear the whole lot out.  Fortunately I seldom put that amount of effort in, instead approving one a week (or [cough] month) or when I get bored or such like.

The point remains: there's not much in the queue.

This is where you come in: send us your UDFs! If you have any UDFs you use on a regular basis, and are quite "general" (ie: other people will find them useful too, they're not just something specific to your situation), then please consider sending them through. Well: check that CFlib.org doesn't already have an equivalent first, and if not: send 'em through.  Also if you have used a UDF from CFlib.org and have improved it in some way, we also take updates to existing UDFs (ideally if they don't create "backwards compat" issues).

I linked to the submission form above, but here it is again: http://www.cflib.org/submit. The instructions on how/what to submit are also on that page.

Obviously the other advice is that if ever you find yourself thinking "I'll write a UDF for that", check CFlib.org first: someone else might have already done the work for you...


Cheers.

--
Adam