http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm I write about building rich, Accessible web applications using Coldfusion, JQuery, AJAX and many other technologies. I specialise on server side Coldfusion, and client side JQuery, adhering to strict Web Accessibilty standards en-gb Fri, 18 May 2012 04:01:19 -0700 Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:33:00 -0700 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss shaun@mccran.co.uk shaun@mccran.co.uk shaun@mccran.co.uk no http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/4/19/How-to-adjust-the-canvas-size-in-Visio Random Visio tip for today (As I'm spending a lot of time in Visio at the moment). If you want to resize the canvas area in Visio simply hold down the Ctrl button and move your mouse over the canvas edge. You'll see the Mouse pointer turn into a d... General Interest Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:33:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/4/19/How-to-adjust-the-canvas-size-in-Visio http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/4/17/Archimate-Architecting-and-Modelling-tools--Built-on-Eclipse If you've ever wanted to design the flow of an application before launching into the code base or front end CSS then Archimate is for you. It is an open source platform that allows you to use an "independent Enterprise Architecture modelling langu... [More] IT Architecture Recommended Apps Tue, 17 Apr 2012 07:14:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/4/17/Archimate-Architecting-and-Modelling-tools--Built-on-Eclipse http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/3/16/Vodafone-Sure-Signal-review A product I'd been vaguely aware of, but have since discovered a lot more about is the Vodafone Sure Signal box. This little white box uses your home broadband to create a 3G bubble in your own home. It is basically a mini, private 3G mast. [More] Mobile Gadgets Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:26:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/3/16/Vodafone-Sure-Signal-review http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/16/Dissecting-business-failures-Allowing-scope-creep-from-clients One of the most common forms of business failure that I have the misfortune to witness on a regular basis is the allowance of clients to instigate scope creep within projects. I have never understood how some industries accept scope creep as part ... [More] Best practices Project Management Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:50:19 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/16/Dissecting-business-failures-Allowing-scope-creep-from-clients http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/15/Moving-on In a similar vein to Matt Gifford's recent blog post on 'Moving on' (read more here: http://www.mattgifford.co.uk/moving-on) I have the pleasure of announcing that I'm off to pastures new. I'd like to thank my current employer TDA, a marketing age... General Interest Wed, 15 Feb 2012 08:57:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/15/Moving-on http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/13/Using-JQuery-to-check-Radio-button-selections Ever wanted to check if a user has checked at least one option from a series of radio fields? JQuery makes this super simple, here's how to do it: [More] JQuery Mon, 13 Feb 2012 03:03:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/13/Using-JQuery-to-check-Radio-button-selections http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/9/JQuery-Countdown-timer-Plugin-example I'd previously used a JavaScript script to count down from a now() to a given date to display real time count down information on screen. I was cleaning up the project it was used on and wondered how easy it would be to push all the 'normal' JavaScri... [More] Javascript JQuery Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:54:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/9/JQuery-Countdown-timer-Plugin-example http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/6/JQuery-auto-resize-input-field-Plugin-example I was looking for a simple way to make an existing Text Area form field expand as-and-when a user fills in enough information to reach to bottom edge of the form element. James Padolsey has written a great little Auto resize function, you can get ... RIA JQuery Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:13:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/6/JQuery-auto-resize-input-field-Plugin-example http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/6/Forcing-the-dollar--Namespace-within-your-JQuery-functions Whilst documenting some Open Source platforms for an upcoming project I found that several of the larger more prominent Open Source software solutions perform some subtle tweaks to included JavaScript libraries. In this case JQuery. This is a shor... [More] Javascript JQuery Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:57:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/6/Forcing-the-dollar--Namespace-within-your-JQuery-functions http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/1/Dynamically-tagging-content-with-Keywords-using-JQuery I've used a ticketing system called Lighthouse App for a while now, and one of the features I really like about it is its ability to tag content with keywords in a very easy and obvious fashion. If you have ever wanted to tag an article or some co... [More] RIA Javascript JQuery Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:22:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/2/1/Dynamically-tagging-content-with-Keywords-using-JQuery http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/31/Just-what-is-Best-Practice-exactly I've been an advocate of 'best practice' for a while now, in any random psychometric test I'll always come out rated as a perfectionist which may go some way as to explaining why I am constantly striving to make whatever process I am involved in eith... [More] Best practices Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:14:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/31/Just-what-is-Best-Practice-exactly http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/13/What-should-I-study-in-college-to-get-started-with-ColdFusion The other day I got a comment on a Blog article from a reader. The reader asked "What should I study in college to get started with ColdFusion?". On one hand this is a massively open question, on the other I'd quite like to expand it even further.... [More] Social media General Interest Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:16:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/13/What-should-I-study-in-college-to-get-started-with-ColdFusion http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/11/Simple-JQuery-Google-Analytics-tracking-object Each time I build a new project I find myself adding in several common objects from a variety of languages. One of those objects is a JavaScript based Google Analytics tracking object. [More] Google Javascript JQuery Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:07:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/11/Simple-JQuery-Google-Analytics-tracking-object http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/6/My-natural-development-pattern--software-layerification Whilst reflecting on some of the projects I'd been through in 2011 I noticed a pattern that became more and more prominent as the year wore on. All of my project functionality was naturally splitting itself into independent service layers. [More] Software Architecture Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:33:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/6/My-natural-development-pattern--software-layerification http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/5/Book-review-JQuery-Mobile--a-first-look I was recently sent a copy of JQuery Mobile by Packt publishing for review. I've dabbled in the JQuery Mobile development language a fair amount, so I was interested to see what this book could teach me that may be different from the information out ... [More] Internet Explorer Mobile Javascript JQuery Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:31:00 -0700 http://www.mccran.co.uk/index.cfm/2012/1/5/Book-review-JQuery-Mobile--a-first-look