ColdFusion Report Builder - Documentation?

I'e been using CF report builder since it was released. While it certainly is a great (and highly touted) feature of CFMX 7, it has quickly become apparent that work on the app was rushed to completion in order to be able to include it with the 7 release.

I won't go into the specific bugs I have experienced with CFRB, but suffice to say there have been many (only *some* of which have been addressed by hotfixes, etc.).

I'm not trying to bash Macromedia, either. I just think that more attention needs to be focused on this application.

It surprises me that the documentation is lacking to the degree that it is, and that there are no books specifically available on report builder. This would certainly help, since trial and error has really been the only available method of learning CFRB to date.

Any plans for a book on CFRB out there?

Day 10: Travel

Time to leave… Today, we woke up at 6:30, checked out of the Marriott Grosvenor Square, and walked to the Bond Street tube. We took the tube to Victoria, where we arrived just before 7:45 AM. There wasn’t enough time to catch the 7:45 AM Gatwick Express, so we took the next train that left at 8 AM. Once again, we grabbed croissants and coffee at the patisserie in station. We arrived at Gatwick around 8:30 and went to the check-in desk. Before obtaining a boarding pass, you need to first clear security (special for US-bound flights). If you have read my saga about the no-fly list, you know this is going to be fun…

The Gatwick police woman armed with PDA took our passports and then told me that I was on both the "selectee AND no-fly list". Unbelievable! She then asked me to please come with her. After looking at the info on her PDA further, she said it was her mistake and that I was actually cleared from both lists. She still made me explain myself to her supervisor, the manager of security at Gatwick. After finally clearing this hurdle, went through “traditional” screening and into the main shopping concourse. I picked up a couple of CD’s at the Virgin Megastore while we awaited our gate number to be posted. The inbound flight into Gatwick from Charlotte was delayed by about one hour, pushing back our departure by about the same.

We encountered secondary security at the gate, where we were then "locked in". This seemed a bit odd, but I think that security had been heightened due to it being close to September 11. Our total flight time back to Charlotte was about 9 hours. The food was better this time (baked chicken and ravioli-like pasta were the choices, served with good Italian cheese and crackers, Toblerone, lemon mousse, croissant with butter, and a pre-landing snack of turkey roll). Our flight path took us from Gatwick to Newfoundland, along New England coast to Hartford, then NYC, PHL, and DC, before landing in Charlotte. We cleared customs and immigration without issue (my Irish bog brick and all). We missed our original flight to RDU due to our late arrival, but took the next one. Our flight time to RDU was 25 minutes. We arrived at the terminal and claimed our baggage. We took a cab home, and greeted our kitties at door. After ordering a NY Pizza (pepperoni) we spent the rest of the night emptying suitcases. All in all, a great trip!

Day 9: Ireland/London

Today we woke up around 7:20 AM, showered, and had breakfast again at the Brigown B&B. This time, I had pancakes, and Stacey had toast with cheese. We packed our bags after breakfast, and went to the post office and shops in Ballina. I looked for smoked River Moy salmon to take back with us, but was worried about customs issues and freshness. After leaving Ballina, we drove to the Rogan family cottage on Killala Road, just outside of town. I was glad to be able to see it, even though it is in serious need of repairs. It is actually for sale for about 50K Euros, so maybe I will buy it! After leaving the cottage, we went to Belleek Castle, where we parked the car and walked through woods along the river bank across from the B&B. Upon returning to the car, we drove to the airport, where we returned the rental car (no damage charges!), checked in for our flight back to London, and shopped at the airport store for souvenirs. We flew back to Stansted and then caught the train back to Central London. The 45 minute journey ended up taking over an hour, due to major delays at the Liverpool Street station. As a result, we took another route back to hotel once we arrived. We checked in at the Marriott, retrieved our left luggage (which felt more like lost luggage), and went to dinner at Garfunkel’s. We then shopped for last-minute souvenirs on Oxford Street before returning to Garfunkel’s for dessert. We then went back to the hotel to pack (for the last time)!

Day 8: Ireland

Today we woke up just before 8 am and were served an amazing breakfast at the Brigown B&B in Ballina (salmon & eggs for Mike, French toast for Stacey). The B&B owner is known throughout Ireland for her cooking ability and even hosts a radio cooking show – this is why we picked this over others in the area. We showered after breakfast and left for Ceide Fields. Ceide Fields is a Neolithic archaeological site on the North Coast of County Mayo. We took a guided tour, and then explored the visitors center. It sure was a cool and windy day, but the rain held off. What didn’t hold off were the uninvited guests – crazy biting gnats that make you itch (aka biting midges)! They bit us like crazy while we were trying to take pictures outside (and the itch lasted for a while!) After leaving the visitors center, we headed to the North Mayo Irish Heritage Center in Crossmolina where I had the staff research my grandfather. For 30 Euros, they were able to provide me with a document that showed a record of his birth, just outside of Ballina. We left Crossmolina and stopped at a beach of the side of the road, where I managed to get the car stuck in the sand. I asked Stacey to get out and push, which enabled us to get out. We then went to Foxford Woollen Mills, took their tour, had lunch (egg & mayonnaise, soup), and visited their jewelry and souvenir shops. We drove from Foxford back to Ballina (10 minutes), and then continued up to Inishcrone to the beach on Killala Bay. We parked the car and walked along the beach. It was very foggy, so we traveled back to the B&B, parked the car, and walked to dinner at Crockett's On the Quay. We had salmon cakes as an appetizer. I had Guinness and the fresh catch, monk fish, while Stacey had Heineken and steak. For dessert, we shared iced Baileys with coffee flakes. We walked back to the B&B early for some shut-eye.

Day 7: Ireland

Today we woke up at 7:30 AM, checked out of our hotel, and took our bags to the Marriott hotel across Grosvenor Square. This is where we stayed our first night in London, and it is also where we would be returning following our short trip to Ireland. Just to be safe, I had checked with the concierge the night before to ensure we could check our bags for a couple of days while we were gone. He said that it would be no problem. Unfortunately, the morning concierge didn’t share the same view. He reluctantly agreed to let us leave our bags after I explained the earlier conversation.

Upon leaving the Marriott, we went to Starbucks for breakfast. This was the first time we had Starbucks in over a week…that’s what I call restraint! We then took the Tube from Bond Street to Liverpool Street, to transfer to the Stansted Express train. Stansted is a remote London airport, about 50 miles north of the city, which houses many of the discount carriers. The express train to Stansted took about 45 minutes. We checked in at the RyanAir (similar to Southwest) counter and waited at the gate for our flight to board. We were sure to get in line early, since we were in the last boarding group (based on our check-in time). The flight was about an hour into Knock and was very smooth. It was interesting to see snacks being sold on board (nothing provided free). I’m sure that this will be coming soon enough to the States with all the current airline financial problems!

Upon arriving in Knock (a very small airport), we picked up our rental car from Hertz. It was an Opel Astra, which is about the size of a VW Golf. I was a little scared to drive it, since I would need to not only drive on the passenger side but also on the left side of the road. Regardless, we took off for Ballinlough to meet my extended family (my dad’s cousins). Despite having some difficulty finding their house (we had the right one the first time, but there was no answer), we finally Met Eddie & Linda, their girls Eileen and Yvonne, and their granddaughter Evie. They are wonderful people and made us feel as though we couldn’t leave (we didn’t want to, either). They served us dinner, Guinness, and Irish coffee (with whiskey). We left about 8 PM for our bed & breakfast in Ballina (pronounced Baal-IN-A). Needless to say, the dark, narrow roads were very unforgiving and we probably should have left earlier. While traveling through one of the towns on the way to Ballina, I managed to get to close to the curb on the left side of the car and one of the protruding, already-replaced hub caps made contact. It got sliced up pretty bad, being cheap plastic and all – but that was the extent of it. We finally arrived in Ballina around 9:30 after what seemed like a very long hour-and-a-half drive in the darkness and rain. We called the B&B owner before leaving the Rogans’ to let her know we were on our way, but she didn’t get the message and was worried about us. After explaining our adventure, we settled in for some long-awaited sleep.

Day 6: English Countryside

Today we woke up at 7 AM to meet the Evan Evans tour bus at the Millennium Mayfair hotel. We met the “local” bus at 8:10 AM and took it to Victoria Station to transfer to our actual tour bus. Our destinations? Bath, Stonehenge, and Windsor Castle! Talk about an ambitious schedule for one day! We grabbed coffee and water from a cafe in Victoria station after eating our store-bought pan de chocolat in the hotel on the way to meet the first bus.

The first stop on our tour was Windsor Castle. It took about an hour to get there from Victoria (we left Victoria at 9 AM, and arrived at Windsor Castle around 10 AM). At Windsor Castle, we toured the State Apartments, Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, and the Chapel. We also saw the end of the changing of the guard. It was amazing to be reminded of how much restoration work was done following the horrible fire there in the ‘90’s. The interior of Windsor Castle is so elaborate that it is a “must see” for anyone that visits London. We left the castle at noon to head to Bath (a 2 hour bus ride). We were told to grab lunch on the way back to the bus and eat it on board. We ended up getting BLT's from a sandwich shop (Cinnamons?) at the Windsor Train/Coach station shopping area.

It seemed to take forever, but we finally arrived in Bath just after 2 PM, following a nap on the bus while sheep-watching on the surrounding hillsides and fields. We toured the Roman Baths and walked around the city. It is really cool to think about the history of the ancient baths. Of course, no visit would be complete without a tasting of the “bath water”. Stacey clearly wasn’t a fan, so I ended up finishing it for the sake of politeness. We left Bath for Stonehenge around 4 PM.

We arrived in Stonehenge around 5 PM and took an audioguide tour that highlighted key information until it was time to board the bus to head back to London at 5:55 PM. On the way back, we hit stopped traffic near Heathrow, but were finally dropped off near the Marble Arch Tube station about 8:15 PM. From there, it was a short walk down Oxford Street to Duke Street where we grabbed a quick meal at a nearby pub (the Barley Mow) before heading back to our hotel to get ready for Tuesday’s Ireland trip.

Day 5: London

Today we woke up around 8 and traveled to Victoria station to check on Leeds Castle departure times. We decided that the train times wouldn't allow us to spend enough time at the castle, so we picked up breakfast instead (hot cocoa/cappuccino, pain du chocolat/ham and cheese croissant from the French patisserie at Victoria). After eating breakfast in the station, we took the Tube to Tower Hill, bought tickets for Tower of London at the tube station (to save time), and walked across to the Tower entrance. Since it was still early, there were no crowds, and were able to wander in and go straight to the Crown Jewels. We watched historical videos on the way in, saw the jewels (sparkly!), and were able to make several passes due to no crowds. The last time I saw the jewels, I was lucky to see the jewels once and I felt rushed the entire time. We bought some souvenirs at the Jewel Shop before continuing our visit. We arrived back at the front gate for the noon "beefeaters" tour with "Phil". He was a riot (as we had hoped). He told us about Sir Walter Raleigh (who Raleigh is named after) and his imprisonment, among other stories more familiar to us. We heard about beheadings that took place both within and outside of the tower grounds, and then went to the chapel, where some of those beheaded are buried beneath the floor. After the tour, we went into the Bloody Tower and toured White Hall Castle (mostly an armory). Before leaving the tower, we stopped at the main gift shop and bought a couple more things. In total, we spent about 3.5 hrs at the tower.

We had lunch at Viti's Lounge, which was a short walk from the tower. We both had ham and cheese paninis. Stacey had a glass of wine and I had a beer (“super-chilled” Fosters). We then trekked back to the hotel. On the way, we stopped at an “Easy” Internet Café (which ended up being anything but easy), where we had trouble purchasing an access code (the machines were all broken) and then had trouble getting a working station (the hardware was in poor condition). Finally, we were able to get online and checked email, weather, and the tour information for Monday. Equally important, we checked Starbucks locations, and saw that Rehnquist had died. Stacey stopped on way back to the hotel and bought a cheap purse from a street vendor.

Back at the hotel, I called to book our tour for Monday. We then went to dinner at the Prince Edward Pub in Notting Hill. I had never been to this part of London before, so it was really cool. Notting Hill is an amazing, highly affluent neighborhood that has a cool character that’s hard to explain. You’ll just have to go yourself! At the Prince Edward, we had garlic bread, roast beef, “super-chillled” Fosters, and shared creme brulee for dessert. We got a little lost coming back, but ended up finding a grocery (Sainsbury’s) to get breakfast for the morning. We eventually found another tube station and came back to hotel.