The future of BlogCFC

Posted in ColdFusion | Posted on 12-29-2011 | 2,705 views

My recent interview with CFHOUR has just been posted. In this podcast I discuss Zeus (and let slip a few new things), but I also talked a bit about the future of BlogCFC.

BlogCFC is my oldest, and most widely used, open source product. While it has some questionable architecture (ok, it barely has architecture), I'm proud of what it has accomplished and how it's helped others.

The flip side to this pride is a growing guilt over the fact that I've been unable to release 6.0. I took some admirable stabs at it, but, it just never gelled.

A few weeks ago I came to realize that I was holding back BlogCFC as a product. I was a barrier to it growing. I thought about Joe Rinehart (a man I greatly admire) and his decision to hand over the reigns of Model-Glue to Dan Wilson, and it occurred to me that maybe it was time to do the same.

So with that being said, today I'm announcing that I'm stepping down as the project lead for BlogCFC. Scott Stroz will be taking over. He has already reached out to others and has some plans, and I plan on staying heavily involved. (It's funny - now that I'm not "responsible", I actually feel more motivated than before.)

I won't deny - I'm more than a bit sad about this. But I honestly feel like this is for the best. I've got faith in Scott (and the folks he has reached out too).

To everyone who has helped build BlogCFC (and quite a few folks have contributed), I thank you!

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Scott Pinkston said on 12-29-2011 at 12:26 PM #
	Thank you for all of your time and energy on blogCFC. I'm sure that was a tough decision but great to hear that you have left it in good hands.

Ben Forta said on 12-29-2011 at 12:28 PM #
	I know, you did it so I'd have to bug Scott instead of you, right? ;-) Seriously though, BlogCFC is undoubtedly one of the most important public CF apps out there, and your efforts all these yours are greatly appreciated.

Billy Cravens said on 12-29-2011 at 12:33 PM #
	Thanks for all the work you've put into it over the years. Open source software is what drives adoption. Scott has had plenty to say about its architecture on CF Hour, so I'm assuming no more "God object"? :-)

Steve W said on 12-29-2011 at 12:37 PM #
	Echo Ben's comments. Honestly, if it wasn't for BlogCFC, I probably would have never gotten into CF. Imagine if all the blogs out there teaching the community about CF had been done with WordPress?

Matthew Williams said on 12-29-2011 at 12:45 PM #
	I'm curious about what more people would want out of a blogging engine? I mean, beyond having a WYSIWYG editor already in place ;). At any rate, I look forward to what may develop.

Raymond Camden said on 12-29-2011 at 12:57 PM #
	@Matthew: What BlogCFC is missing now (ignoring the ugly architecture) is easier templating. That's the only real feature missing. Personally, I want to add in custom fields, an _incredibly_ simple WordPress feature that allows you to add custom key/value pairs to blog entries.

Billy Cravens said on 12-29-2011 at 1:22 PM #
	I'll echo Ray's comments: The reason my blog is Wordpress (currently I'm writing a new version in node.js as a learning exercise) is due to the rich marketplace for themes, and it's a 15 second upgrade to a new theme once you download the ZIP. Perfection would be a Wordpress-to-BlogCFC theme converter.

Raymond Camden said on 12-29-2011 at 1:30 PM #
	I looked into a WP->BlogCFC theme converter. Issue is - WP themes have PHP code in them. I had always imagined they were 'pure', but that isn't the case.

Mr Picky said on 12-29-2011 at 2:33 PM #
	"...the fact that I've been able to release 6.0 ..." - Should that read "...unable to release..."?

Joe Danziger said on 12-29-2011 at 3:25 PM #
	Ray - kudos for all of your great work on this project over the years and for the MANY who have benefited from it!!

Scott Stroz said on 12-29-2011 at 7:00 PM #
	Ben, "undoubtedly one of the most important public CF apps out there"? No pressure though, right? Ray - can I reconsider my decision? In all honesty, I am honored that you trust me to carry on the project. I hope I do you proud.

Dale Fraser said on 12-29-2011 at 9:02 PM #

I have to wonder if you are beginning to distance yourself from ColdFusion. Your blog name has changed and you blog more now on various other technologies.

While I appreciate people need to move in different directions and learn different technologies, you taking even a smaller step back from ColdFusion will have a big impact. You IMO are the most well known ColdFusion person out there ahead of Ben Forta & Ben Nadel.

Perhaps I'm being a selfish ColdFusion fanboy, but every hour you spend on phone gap etc is an hour less on ColdFusion.

I'm hoping the writing isn't on the wall.

Matthew Williams said on 12-29-2011 at 9:10 PM #
	To me, it's not stepping away from CFML, it's stepping into other areas that CFML can be the backend for. Mobile is the next brave frontier. The data that drives it needs to come from somewhere, and personally it'll be CFML driven for me ;). I for one love seeing mobile based posts, along with pure CFML posts.

Raymond Camden said on 12-29-2011 at 10:48 PM #
	@Dale: I think Matt answered well (thanks Matt). To me, many of my non-CF stuff ends up being CF stuff anyway. You will notice many of my jQuery posts come back to CF. Many of my mobile ones too involve CF. I love CF, but there's more out there and I think my readers want to learn about em. :)

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