Ian Rutherford

Stored procedures. Ah, yes. The dark side of database access. You've heard the rumors - faster processing, less network traffic - and have been tempted. But you've also heard those on the easy path whisper about how complex these procedures are... ...and how much of a pain it is to get them to work. So which is right? As with most day-to-day problems - both. However, I'll show you that stored procedures are worth the hassle, and in the end aren't difficult to write - if you're meticulous. Debug? That's a completely different matter. This article focuses on Microsoft SQL Server because Oracle is an even darker path that I dare not tread, and SQL Server has handy tools to help you in your efforts. (The principles, if not the exact code, will hold true no matter which dat... (more)

Using MS-SQL Stored Procedures with ColdFusion Part 3 of 3

Now that we've gone over stored-procedure integration with ColdFusion and looked at some programming basics in Parts 1 and 2 of this article (CFDJ, Vol. 3, issues 10 and 12), let's look at some other useful and more complicated functions using MS-SQL2000. First, however, I need to correct a statement I made in Part 1. I mentioned that stored procedures weren't good if you needed to cache ... (more)

Using MS-SQL Stored Procedures with ColdFusion

My three-part article on stored procedures (CFDJ, Vol. 3, issues 10, 12, Vol. 4, issue 2) has mushroomed into four, but since I'm sure most of you write perfect code the first time... ...this extra part will be of interest only to the small group of programmers who occasionally make mistakes when coding. Stored procedure programming with ColdFusion has many benefits including speed, feat... (more)

Using MS-SQL Stored Procedures with ColdFusion Part 2 of 3

Why should ColdFusion analyze the query results when the database could do it and you could save the bandwidth for something that really needs it? In Part 1 of this article (CFDJ, Vol. 3, issue 10) I introduced stored procedures and performed some basic tasks with them. In this article I show how to do more complex tasks that involve IF/ELSE statements, looping, and string manipulation. ... (more)