In a previous blog post, I mentioned that createObject() has a 3rd / 4th argument negates the need to use Javaloader. Some questions have come up on the Railo mailing list and I thought I'd attach 2 working examples (barcode_samples.zip). One is using the Barbeque library found on Sourceforge, the other is using Google's zxing library. Remember, with a little creativity and expanding these samples, this type of code can be baked into Railo natively (e.g.: <cfbarcode>) today by placing the code in special directories (Functions / Tags).

Special thanks to Leigh's (cfsearching) excellent blog for some example legwork in barcode generation.

So, this is probably confusing to some and I thought I'd try to clear this up. It's possible to setup Railo to run a task every x hour, minute and/or even seconds. You'll want to log into your machine and go to the Scheduled Task page ( e.g.: http://{your server}/railo-context/admin/web.cfm?action=services.schedule )

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It is long overdue, but a tutorial on how to create your own Railo extension provider is now available on the wiki. Why would you ever want to build your own extension provider? Perhaps you are a framework developer and you want to provide your users running Railo a 'one-click' installation / update. Perhaps you are managing several Railo servers and you want your internal servers to update to your the latest application / custom cfc / built-in-tags/functions, etc.

If you're unfamiliar with what Railo extensions are, they're essentially plug-ins that are available via the Railo team or with the help of the tutorial, you can create your own. If you want to see Railo extensions in action, you can log into your own web context ( http://{YOUR SERVER}/railo-context/admin/web.cfm?action=extension.applications ) and Railo will instantly download and install the many available frameworks (ColdBox, Fusebox, Model Glue, ColdSpring, Mach II, cfwheels, etc.) and applications ( Farcry, Mura, Galleon, Mangoblog, etc).

The Railo team also offers paid extensions (Amazon S3, cluster scope, admin sync, cfvideo and more) via the server context ( http://{YOUR SERVER}/railo-context/admin/server.cfm?action=extension.applications ).

Since version 3.1.2 Railo supports the possibility of using a cache. This blog entry will go into the details of this feature. The blog is divided into 3 parts, the first part will deal with the base functionality, the second part show how the cache is used in backend and the last part takes care of specialties when using the cache and shows a reference.

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A question came up on the mailing list about how to reset passwords if you've forgotten them. This entry will cover both the server context and the local web context.

Server Context (e.g. http://{hostname}/railo-context/admin/server.cfm )

1. You'll want to open up the railo-server.xml in your {railo installation}/railo-server/context/ directory.
2. Look for the line that has "<railo-configuration" and blank out the value of password="".
3. Restart the railo instance and when you reload, you'll be asked for a new password.

Local Web Context (e.g. http://{hostname}/railo-context/admin/web.cfm )

1. If you've forgotten the password for a local web context, you'll want to make sure you have a default password first.
   • Log into http://{hostname}/railo-context/admin/server.cfm?action=security.password - Look for "Set default password" and set it.
2. Open up {host root}/WEB-INF/railo/railo-web.xml.cfm
3. Look for the line that has "<railo-configuration" and blank out the value of password="".
4. Restart the railo instance and when you reload, you can type in the default password.
5. Once inside the local web admin, you can click on password on the sidebar and change that local web context password.

Update (Dec 8th, 2009)

Heh. Shortly after this post, Micha pinged me as to why I didn't just point people to the password reset option in the server context. Truth be told, I forgot about it. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of http://{hostname}/railo-context/admin/server.cfm?action=security.password and you'll see this:
- That will reset the password back to the default.

A Railo user just pointed out that we don't have links to my series of blog posts about installing Railo on Tomcat anywhere on the Railo site or blog so I figured I'd rectify that! I started the series in March (before I joined Railo) and continued through June, beginning with the simplest way to get Railo running (Railo Express) and working up through increasingly sophisticated configurations. Here are links to each of the posts:

• Part I - Railo Express (w/Jetty)
• Part II - Railo Express (w/Jetty) - Windows
• Part III - Railo on Tomcat - basic setup
• Part IV - Railo on Tomcat with Apache
• Part IV - Appendix - Adding mod_rewrite to the mix
• Tomcat Tips - Enabling directory listing
• Multi-Web Configuration - Railo on Tomcat with automatic deployment of Railo to new web roots
• Part V - Enabling SES URLs on Tomcat

Most of the posts are for Mac OS X but the Apache/Tomcat configuration applies on Windows just the same.

Probably one of my favorite features about Railo is the ability to update Railo immediately from the server context. Forget about applying patch after patch. Just update the server. Paul Kukiel recently tweeted a link that included a Jing Flash Video to demonstrate it. Thanks to Paul for letting me grab/host a copy here on the Railo blog.

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This post was inspired by Raymond Camden recent blog post about Yahoo Query Language (YQL). Back in June 2009, Michael Offner-Streit blogged about how to create CFC Custom Tags. So, I thought I'd do a little experimenting with this idea and convert Ray Camden's custom tag (cfm) over to a custom tag (cfc) that Railo enables you to use.

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If you're attempting to update your Railo server and you're behind a firewall / proxy with restricted outbound access, you can manually download the patch and install yourself.

The patches can always be found at:
http://www.getrailo.org/railo/remote/download/{full patch number}/{full patch number}.rc

So, for example, 3.1.1 is found at:
http://www.getrailo.org/railo/remote/download/3.1.1.000/3.1.1.000.rc

Now, once you have the .rc file downloaded, what do you do with it?

Depending on how your Railo is setup, you're looking the /railo-server/patches folder. In resin, it can be found {resin install}/lib/railo-server/patches -- So, if you're on a different JEE engine other than Resin, just look around for your /railo-server/patches folder and drop it in place. Once in place, restart the Railo instance in the server context ( http://{hostname}/railo-context/admin/server.cfm ). This will drop your current session and you'll have to re-log in. When you do, you should be patched!

Update: As Jamie Krug pointed out in a comment, I meant 9.04... See my response to him in the comments below!

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Today I was asked to try installing Railo on Tomcat 6 on Ubuntu because it doesn't work out of the box. I normally use CentOS for Linux testing so I went ahead and downloaded the Ubuntu 9.04 Server 64-bit ISO and fired up VMWare Fusion to install it on a new VM. It's a pretty slick (if DOS-like) installer and you can install LAMP and Tomcat 6 directly as part of the initial setup which I did. Soon I had a running Ubuntu server with MySQL, PHP and Tomcat 6 all ticking along.

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