Stephen (Steve) Withington - Presentations

Learn Flex, ColdFusion and Mura CMS at BFlex/BFusion 2010

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 12:09:00 -0700

It's official, I'll be presenting two (2) hands-on classes at BFlex/BFusion 2010 in September. If you're interested in picking up some Mura skills (or Flex and/or ColdFusion too!), be sure to at least book your hotel room today! Learn more about this awesome two-day, hands-on training event at http://bflex.info.

Listed below are class descriptions for the presentions I'll be instructing. Hope to see you there!

Mura CMS for the Front-End Developer

Mura is a comprehensive web-based content management system (CMS) that allows organizations to publish and control web content quickly and easily. As an open-source ColdFusion-powered CMS, Mura is a great choice for your next web project.

Overview:

In 90-minutes we'll attempt to convert an existing HTML/CSS design into a Mura CMS site theme. Hopefully, you'll get a basic understanding of how to create and modify Mura CMS templates and CSS to create your site's layouts and design.

Pre-Requisites:

A working installation of Mura CMS on your laptop (very important!)
Working knowledge of CFML, CSS and HTML
Firebug for Firefox (not necessary, but definitely handy)

Mura CMS for the Back-End Programmer

Overview:

In 90-minutes we'll attempt to learn some fundamental principles at work in Mura CMS and how to programmatically manipulate, extend and customize Mura CMS.

Pre-Requisites:

A working installation of Mura CMS on your laptop (very important!)
Understanding of CFML, and preferably some experience with object-oriented programming

BFusion/BFlex 2010: ColdFusion and Flex Training at Indiana University

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:22:00 -0700

Looking for some live, hands-on ColdFusion and/or Flex training and education? Then you'll want to attend BFusion/BFlex 2010. The event is hosted in Bloomington, Indiana at none other than the Indiana University campus! The event will be held Saturday, September 11, 2010 and Sunday, September 12, 2010. Mark your calendars now and be sure to visit their web site for additional details and registration information.

For those who might be curious, I've thrown my name in the hat to present (again) on Mura CMS. I'm not certain if I'll be speaking or not yet, but I plan on attending either way. So if you're interested in learning more about Mura CMS live, in-person and hands-on, be sure to check back here for details on that. If you have any suggestions on what you would like to know about Mura, feel free to leave your comments for me here too.

Hope to see you there! Peace.

My cf.Objective() 2010 Pecha Kucha Presentation Is Now Online

Mon, 03 May 2010 08:11:00 -0700

So, you couldn't make it to cf.Objective() 2010 ... or if you did make it, and for whatever reason, you weren't able to attend the Pecha Kucha BOF and you really wanted to see my presentation ... ok, not really want to see it, but kinda sorta wanted to see it ... then you're in luck! Thanks to Michael Canonigo, my presentation and most of the other ones, were recorded and preserved for future generations to see ... and laugh at.

You can find my presentation at http://www.youtube.com/stephenwithington#p/a/f/0/9OXeMqTULVg. Bob Silverberg has posted links to all of the other presentations on his blog too. Speaking of who, a huge thanks goes out to Bob Silverberg for putting this BOF together!

I ended up spending much more time on preparing and planning for this presentation than I initially thought I would ... primarily because of the strict timing requirements of a Pecha Kucha. That said, I would most definitely do it again! I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did ... I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of topics and thought that everyone who participated did a great job.

Thanks also to everyone who attended as well and and cheered us on! Hopefully, we can do this again next year.

Cheers!

Learn About Beer at cf.Objective() Pecha Kucha BOF

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:34:00 -0700

If you're attending cf.Objective() 2010, you might be interested in a Birds of a Feather (BOF) on Friday, April 23 at 8:00 P.M. Bob Silverberg will be hosting a Pecha Kucha Night which will consist of around nine or so presentations. Each presentation is limited to 6 minutes 40 seconds and will consist of 20 slides, with each slide shown for 20 seconds.

This should be a fun BOF and will definitely cover a varying degree of subject matter. To the best of my knowledge though, most of the presentations will be about ColdFusion and other 'techie' topics ... which is why I've chosen to break things up a bit and give a presentation on something else I enjoy: beer.

That's right, I said it (or typed it actually), I'll be giving a presentation on beer. I'm still putting it all together at the moment, but I'll be attempting to cover at least some of the major milestones in the wonderful history of beer as well as a few other bits of information. It's amazing how quickly 6 minutes and 40 seconds passes by, so this will definitely be a challenge for me.

So if you're able to, please stop by and enjoy the fun. After it's all over, maybe you'll consider joining me for a pint!

Mura CMS Full Day Training Course on April 21, 2010

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:29:00 -0700

How would you like to spend a full day with the folks who created Mura CMS from the ground up? Are you in or around the Minneapolis, Minnesota region ... and if not, can you get there by April 21, 2010?

Well, Team Mura recently announced they would be offering an in-depth, full-day "Programmers Guide to Mura CMS" on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010. This is technically a "cf.Objective() 2010 Pre-Conference" event, however, you don't have to attend the full conference to take advantage of this great opportunity.

Here are a few of the topics that will be covered:

Programmatically working with content in Mura CMS
Working with Mura CMS objects
Understanding the Mura CMS event model
Integrating Existing or 3rd Party Applications
Building Mura CMS Plugins
Extending and customizing Mura CMS while staying on the upgrade path

This full day course will be limited to the first 20 students and costs only $500. Considering the number of Team Mura developers that will be on hand, you probably won't be able to find a better student to instructor ratio. Oh, and for what it's worth, I'll be there too!

Before you say no to this awesome deal, I ask you to take something else into consideration. Have you ever attended a training event only to go back to your office, sit at your desk and not truly applied the newly learned knowledge? If you are a web site developer and have either looked at, used Mura CMS, or are even a seasoned Mura CMS developer and want to build sites more efficiently while allowing your clients the ability to manage their own content ... then you will most definitely be able to bring what you've learned back to your office and apply it to your job the very next day. Yes, I mean that if you attend on Wednesday, by Thursday you will be more productive, period.

Again, only the first 20 students will be accepted, so register now before it's too late!

Integrating Your Custom Web Site Design with Mura CMS

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:53:00 -0700

Are you tired of trying to shoe-horn your custom web site design into someone else's content management system? Drop in and learn how to fully integrate your custom CSS and HTML with Mura CMS, a comprehensive, ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system. In less than sixty minutes, I'll attempt to cover:

Exploring Mura templates & themes
Integrating your custom CSS & HTML
Creating Mura components
Creating Feeds/Indexes
Creating Custom Feeds/Indexes

If you haven't already done so, it might behoove you to catch part one, "Getting Started with Mura CMS", offered on the CFmeetup on Nov 12, with the recording here.

Where: The presentation will be online and free to anyone who's interested. The meeting will also be recorded for those who are unable to make it to the live presentation. Visit http://www.meetup.com/coldfusionmeetup/calendar/11981239/ for more information and to RSVP.

When: Thurs. Dec 3, 12:00pm US ET (UTC/GMT-5)

Feel free to stop by!

Getting Started with Mura CMS: a ColdFusion-Powered, Open Source Content Management System

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:48:00 -0700

Are you looking for a ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system? Drop in and learn how to have a site up and running in less than sixty minutes! Within one hour, I'll walk through each of these steps to help you get started using Mura CMS:

Installing Mura CMS
Creating your first site
Setting up navigation
Creating a custom 404 page
Exploring some built-in features and objects
Creating your first Mura component
Creating your first form

When: Thurs. Nov 12, 12:00 pm US ET (UTC/GMT-5)

Hope to see you there!

Catch My BFusion Presentations on CFMeetup!

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:06:00 -0700

I received confirmation from Charlie Arehart, the online ColdFusion Meetup organizer, that I'll be giving both of my BFusion presentations on CFMeetup. So the good news is if you won't be able to attend BFusion/BFlex this year, then at least you'll still be able to see my presentations. However, they won't be "hands-on," which will hopefully allow me to trim my 90-minute presentations down to the typical 60-minute mark we've grown accustomed to on CFMeetup.

So, if you're interested, please mark your calendars!

Getting Started with Mura CMS

November 12, 2009, 12:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern

Looking for a ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system? Drop in and learn how to have a site up and running in less than sixty minutes! Within one hour, I'll walk through each of these steps to help you get started using Mura CMS:

Installing Mura CMS
Creating your first site
Creating your first form
Creating your first Mura component
Setting up navigation
Creating a custom 404 page
Exploring built-in features & objects
Exploring Mura templates & themes

Integrating Your Custom Design with Mura CMS

December 3, 2009 12:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern

Tired of trying to shoe-horn your custom design into someone else's content management system? Drop in and learn how to fully integrate your custom CSS and HTML with Mura CMS, a comprehensive, ColdFusion-powered, open source content management system. In less than sixty minutes, I'll attempt to cover:

Exploring Mura templates & themes
Integrating your custom CSS & HTML
Creating Mura components
Creating Feeds/Indexes
Creating Custom Feeds/Indexes

*If you haven't already done so, it might behoove you to catch part one, "Getting Started with Mura CMS."

Outlines of My BFusion 2009 Presentations

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:44:00 -0700

Listed below are outlines of the sessions I'll be presenting at BFusion 2009:

1. Getting Started with Mura CMS

Intermediate Track, hands-on, 90-minutes

Installing Mura CMS
Creating your first site
Creating your first form
Creating your first Mura component
Setting up navigation
Creating a custom 404 page
Exploring built-in features & objects
Exploring Mura templates & themes

2. Integrating Your Custom Design with Mura CMS

Intermediate Track, hands-on, 90-minutes

Exploring Mura templates & themes
Integrating your custom CSS & HTML
Creating Mura components
Creating Feeds/Indexes
Creating Custom Feeds/Indexes

Software Requirements / Files

Attendees will be required to have the following installed on their computers:

Adobe® ColdFusion® (preferably 8.0.1+) or Railo (should also work with Open BlueDragon, but I haven't tested it.)
Local web server such as IIS or Apache
Database server such as Microsoft®SQL Server® (2000+), MySQL® (version 3.0+), Oracle (version 10G), or H2
Latest build of Mura CMS
- Session 1 attendees: Do not install Mura CMS. We will do this together during the session.
- Session 2 attendees: If you do not attend Session 1, you will need to install Mura CMS prior to the session and create a few pages.
If attending Session 2, please download the free FreshMedia 1.0 template from Styleshout.com. Preview the template »

I Will Be Presenting at BFusion 2009

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:42:00 -0700

I am very excited to announce I have just received confirmation that I will be speaking at BFusion 2009! I will be presenting two ninety-minute "hands-on" sessions at BFusion. This means bring your computer and your swimming suit, because we're diving in!

My first hands-on presentation will be "Getting Started with Mura CMS," and the other will be "Integrating Your Custom Design With Mura CMS." These will both be part of the "intermediate" track. The exact details of each session are being worked out at this time and I'll be sure to share them as they solidify.

I was fortunate enough to attend BFusion/BFlex 2008 and was absolutely blown away on so many levels. First, the facility is absolutely top-notch! It's actually held at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Unlike some of the other conferences I've attended in the past, each person is given internet access and also has easy access to outlets so they can plug in their laptop. Nice. But what do you expect? It is, after all, held in their "University Information Technology Services" building. Can you say sweet?

In addition, the volunteers, led by Bob Flynn, are plentiful, patient, knowledgeable, and willing to help wherever needed. Each class is allotted some "teacher's assistants" to aid in keeping students up to speed and the overall class on track.

Finally, there were a plethora of giveaways thanks to all of the ultra-awesome sponsors. I think it's fair to say that most everyone walks away with something.

Oh, and did I mention the speakers are top-notch too?

Hope to see you there!