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Past Events

June 09: Google Analytics – What's in it for me?

Date: Wednesday, June 17
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p10371348/

Webmasters, site owners and decision makers want to know if their work and their online investments are effective. Should your organization use Google Analytics (GA) or a commercial package to analyze web traffic? Every organization has different reasons for using one over the other or using one at all. In this discussion 39 Degree North co-founder Chris Walls will share with you some of the reasons why his company has chosen to use GA over other software. These range from price to ease of use to functionality. There are pros and cons to both sides and it is ultimately up to you. The ultimate goal of this presentation is to outline the highlights of GA and a competing 3rd-party application so you can make a better informed decision without doing a lot of homework.

Third-party Analytical tools like GA are very attractive to the university Web community because they are free and quite functional, but what strings are attached? A representative of the University Information Policy Office will be on hand to bring us up-to-speed on the privacy concerns posed by these products, the ways to deal with them and to talk about the university's draft policy on their use.

May 09: The Flex and ActionScript All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

Date: Thursday, May 21 [NOTE: The meeting is on Thursday this month]
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p97068131/

What is Adobe Flex, and how does it really work? How is it related to Flash, Flash Player, Adobe AIR, etc.? Is ActionScript part of Flex? Is Flex part of ActionScript? How do you actually use ActionScript in building a Flex application?

Whether you're a life-long ActionScript developer or you're just curious, if you're wondering what Flex is or if you've got the Flex logo tattooed on your arm, this "flex"-ible presentation will use diagrams made of colored boxes and arrows, as well as a bunch of real life code, to attempt to provide enough meat (or vegetable-based protein substance) to appease every appetite's hunger to know more about Flex-and-ActionScript. If nothing else, you can bring your sharpest questions to try to slice, dice, and skewer Paul Robertson, former IUMMUG and IUFUG presenter and current Adobe Flash Platform team member who's back in Bloomington for a visit. He'll bring his Kevlar apron just in case.

April 09: How to Create Accessible Web Sites...It Isn't Difficult

Date: Wednesday, April 22
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p28758633/

There are a variety of legal and practical reasons for site owners and developers to implement accessibility within their website. The bottom line is that it's just the right thing to do. We want to promote equal opportunities and access to information and the new technologies to every person.

OK, so maybe you have the will, now how about the way? Will it require a complete overhaul of your site? If you are already following Web Standards in your development you are half-way there. Let IUMMUG lend a helping hand with the next steps. Join us in welcoming Margaret Londergan and her team from the IU Adaptive Technologies Centers for a presentation that will provide concrete examples of remedies for an inaccessible web site and leave you with the knowledge and resources you need to take the next steps. The meeting will begin with a demonstration of the difficulty of accessing a typical site for a user with disabilities.

Resources for Indiana University's Proposed Guidelines

The proposed Indiana University guidelines were drawn from these resources as well as the best pratices of other post secondary institutions.

Tools for Web Accessibility Validation and Evaluation

  • Useful Accessibility Validation and Evaluation Tools http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eiuadapts/services/web-accessibility/validators.html – Indiana University's web accessibility committee reviewed hundreds of validation and evaluation tools. All the tools included in this page were found to be of great value. The web accessibility committee will continue to review and update this page.

Accessibility E-books

  • Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/ – An excellent introduction to the issues of web accessibility written by accessibility guru Joe Clark. This book was originally published in 2002, so some of the information is outdated.
  • Understanding Web Accessibility http://uiaccess.com/understanding.html – Shawn Lawton Henry's introduction to Web Accessibility issues and the different perspectives that the issues may be approached by.
  • Testing for Web Accessibility http://www.jimthatcher.com/testing.htm – Jim Thatcher's examination of different accessibility testing programs. This chapter also sheds light on when human testing is helpful and what accessibility tests CAN tell you about your website.
  • Creating Accessible Content http://www.friendsofed.com/samples/1590596382.pdf – This pdf provided by Friends of Ed publishing is a great place to start if you want to create accessible content on your site.

Accessibility Resources for Content developers

General Resources

  • Introducing Web Accessibility http://www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/ ᰫ The WAI's introduction to web accessibility and the issues related to creating an accessibile site.
  • WebAIM http://www.webaim.org/ – WebAIM is an organization dedicated to "expanding the web's potential for people with disabilities. This is a great site to for locating articleswritten by leaders in the field dealing with accessibility issues.
  • A list apart: accessibility http://alistapart.com/topics/userscience/accessibility/ – A list apart is an online magazine "for people who make websites." Not only can you view each issue seperately, but you can also browse topic areas, including accessibility.
  • Usability.gov http://www.usability.gov/ – A step by step usabilty guide provided by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
  • IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center http://www-03.ibm.com/able/index.html – "Accessibility at IBM means enabling IT hardware, software and Web application products so they can be used by more people, either directly, or in combination with assistive technology products."
  • Microsoft Enable http://www.microsoft.com/enable/ – Microsoft's guide to "Discover accessibility settings that are already on your PC, and make your computer more comfortable, and easier to see, hear, and use."

Application Specific Resources


March 09: Set Your Web Team on Fire with Adobe Flash Catalyst

Date: Wednesday, March 25
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: Due to sensitive information in the presentation we were unable to record

In late 2007 Adobe caused a big stir in the Web community when it first demonstrated a project called “Thermo”. Late last year Adobe released a preview build at its MAX conference and branded it “Flash Catalyst”. Catalyst is a new interactive design tool for Flash and Flex designed to bridge the gap between designers and developers. We'll discuss the features included in the MAX preview build and take a look at common production workflows and tasks that are made considerably easier with Flash Catalyst. This presentation delves into prototyping, design and development, so regardless of background, there's something for everyone.

Join IUMMUG in welcoming Zach Stepek of Crave Media. Zach is certified instructor of Rich Internet Application technologies such as Flex and AIR who has taught at IU’s annual BFlex conference. He is the author of books on Flex and AIR as well as a forthcoming book on Flash Catalyst with O’Reilly Media. He returns to Bloomington to show us some of the magic possible with Flash Catalyst.

February 09: Rebooting the City of Bloomington Website

Date: Wednesday, February 18
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1008 [NOTE: Room change]
Archived Connect Meeting: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p61735555/

The Bloomington City Government's website used to get very low marks for design and usability. Its information was designed to reflect the city's departmental structure, not to address the needs of the site's users. It was so difficult to find the information you needed that it was simply easier to use Google than the site's own search engine. (See archeived version from 12/2007.)

The city's Information and Technology Services Department recreated the site from the ground up using the best practices in web development. Featuring a content management system with flexible navigation and integrated technologies for calendar and geographic information system applications, the new site enhances the city's ability to serve the information needs of residents, visitors, and businesses alike.

They did not have many specific book resources, but below are some of their favorite and most useful Web resources.

Resources

January 09: Overview of Adobe Creative Suite 4 Production Premium

Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: To his great shame and sorry, Bob forgot the start the recording.

IU's landmark software agreement with Adobe has made some of the finest creative tools in the industry available to members of the IU community at no cost. This windfall includes many individual applications as well as suites of applications. In order to help us make sense of all that is available we will take a look at the Production Premium Suite with the assistance of Frank "Buddy" Morris, Software Development Consultant for Instructional Support Services at Bloomington Evaluation Services & Testing (BEST).

Production Premium software provides all the tools for working with video, audio and interactive media. If you have never worked with Adobe products, you will get an overview of what software tools are available in the suite. If you haven't worked with the latest versions, you will get an overview of the newest features. There will also be some discussion of Adobe’s enhanced integration throughout their software line.

Resources

December 08: Flash/After Effects integration for Motion Graphics (and Holiday Party!)

Date: Wednesday, December 3
Time: 1:00-3:00pm [Note early start time for party]
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p12808658/

The final IUMMUG meeting of 2008 will feature a great speaker, great prizes and, (this part depends on you) great food and socializing. Here are the details:

The Meeting Part

The topic is Flash/After Effects integration for Motion Graphics or, Flash and After Effects: The Dynamic Duo! Learn how Flash and After Effects can be used together to create in ways that would be complex with either tool alone.

We will be joined by the very talented Elaine Montoya of Zocoloco Studios, director of the New Mexico Adobe User Groups and director of the Motion Conference "focusing on the art of animation, broadcast design, title design, VFX and motion graphics." The meeting will be a joint venture of IUMMUG and the IU Flash User Group.

The Party Part

Before the presentation begins (at 1:30pm) we will kick things off with a holiday party. We are announcing early in hopes of getting on your busy holiday schedules. Beginning at 1:00pm we will have time to meet, greet and eat for a bit before we settle into Elaine's talk. Many of us attend the meetings regularly and learn lots of interesting things, but seldom do we take the time to talk with each other about work, play, etc. This is a chance for us to do that.

The Food Part

The is a pitch-in event. Please bring a little something to share with everyone. We want you to be creative, so we are going to give a prize for the most creative culinary creation that is brought to share. Perhaps an AIR cake or cookies decorated as the CS4 application logos. I'm not sure what design-challenged programmers like me can come up with, but I'll try. I might just cop out and make a cheesecake. I doubt I'd hear complaints.

The Prizes Part

Last but not least, remember that we will be raffling off a number of wonderful prizes, including up to $2,100 in Adobe software. Come and win a copy of one of the new CS4 Suites from Adobe. UPDATE: Congratulations to Michele Hicks who won the Adobe Software bundle!

Resources

October 08: Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional - This is NOT Your Grandfather's PDF

Date: Wednesday, October 22
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/p85328432/

There was a time when a PDF was a PDF. It was a snapshot of a document that was easy to pass along just the way you wanted it to look. You could review others' PDFs, write comments, edit, etc. Then along came Acrobat forms. You could make a PDF that could be filled out and printed and it would look just the way you wanted. Then Adobe went and acquired Macromedia and things started to get really interesting. Acrobat forms started talking to ColdFusion. Before you knew it not only could you generate PDFs on the fly in ColdFusion, but you could combine multiple PDFs into one at runtime. Users could submit those PDF forms and have the data collected remotely. Just when you thought it couldn't get any more interesting, they blew the lid off the whole thing.

Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional takes it to a whole new level. Now you can make a PDF portfolio - a single PDF containing multiple documents like spreadsheets, word processing documents, other PDFs, etc. You can track electronic document reviews. Acrobat 9 improves accessibility features. Get this, you can even insert video into a PDF! They've even put together an online service, Acrobat.com where you can not only create PDFs online, but store them and share them as well. These folks have been busy!

In order to help us make sense of all these new features and to explain the old one's we never got around to learning and using, we were joined by Steve Adler, Acrobat Field Specialist from Adobe Systems Incorporated. Steve fit a lot into the time he had available and everyone walked away with ideas for new Acrobat projects brewing in their heads.

Congratulations to Lisa Ensman who won a copy of Acrobat 9 Professional. Soon she'll be turning out some of those slick portfolios to wow her friends and collegues!

Recommended web-sites

September 08: It's Going to Be Brilliant

Date: Wednesday, September 24
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p80742744/

Be one of the first to see the next big thing from Adobe on Wednesday, September 24. Adobe has announced that Creative Suite 4 is on its way! Join in to see and hear first hand how something very special will help you get to brilliant faster. Save the date and get a good look at what's to come.

Resources

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but we thought we'd get you on your way.

What's New - Suites

What's New - Products

Video Resources

Other

July 08: Web Technology Q&A Session

Date: Wednesday, July 9
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting:http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p91875017/

XML, XHTML, AJAX, SOAP, MP3, MPEG-4, Java, JavaScript, PHP, ASP, JSP, ColdFuion, .NET, Progressive Downloading, Progressive Enhancement… What does it all mean? Where does it all fit in? Where can you turn for examples and assistance in the IU Websphere? Whether you are an experienced Web developer or designer, a hobbyist, the person in charge of your unit's marketing strategy or just someone who wants to makes sense of all of these terms, the July meeting of the Indiana University Multimedia User Group (IUMMUG) will provide answers to your questions.

At our July IUMMUG meeting as we brought together a panel of top Web professionals from around IU system. Our distinguished panel included experts from around Indiana University in Flash, Video, Web Standards, Podcasting, Rich Internet Applications, User Experience, Development in several languages, Design, Web Content Management Systems and more. Check out the meeting recording to hear a lively discussion of Web technology at IU and beyond!

Congratulations to Diana Dingman of the Kelley School of Business Center for Global Sales Leadership who won the software raffle and chose a copy of Adobe's Design Premium CS3.3. We hope to see her at more meetings in the future!

Speaker Resources

May 08: The Power of Social Networking - Solving Problems with Network Effects and Cognitive Surplus

Date: Wednesday, May 28
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p25804398/ (Kingsley begins about 15 min into recording)

What makes Web 2.0 companies different? It's all about the people. Web 2.0 companies and their technologies lower the barrier to membership, empower and engage community members, and develop a two-way communication channel between the community and the decision makers. Online communities can vary from personal interests and hobbies to businesses building closer relationships with their customers, and even doing good for individuals and communities in need. How can these tools be leveraged in the academic environment? Can you enhance your customer service and increase adoption of your services? Build your brand loyalty? Increase student involvement. Improve application yield?

Kingsley Jegan Joseph is a social web hacker/innovator at salesforce.com and creator of the IdeaExchange. The recent winner of Forrester's Groundswell Awards for excellence in business uses of social technologies, IdeaExchange has changed the face of product development by giving the salesforce.com community a voice in shaping future product releases through an ongoing, live public debate. With the goal of harnessing the power of community to drive business innovation, members of the salesforce.com community submit, vote, and comment on everything from new product features and branding to company strategy. Kingsley is also a graduate of IU's Kelley School of Business.

Files

Recommended books

Recommended web-sites

April 08: (The Little) Tour d'Usability

Date: Wednesday, April 23
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034
Archived Connect Meeting: The one time Bob remembered the recording got corrupted!!!

Companies that make some of our favorite products – Apple, Google, Yahoo, even Microsoft – put a lot of emphasis (and a lot of money) towards ensuring that those products are useful and usable by their customers. Andrea Spray will present why these companies do what they do, the difference user-centered design can make and how usability can be incorporated into the work that you do too. Through examples and live demonstrations you'll get an in-depth understanding of usability in general, the value it can bring to a project and several techniques of the trade.

One of the top requests in our fall meeting survey was Usability. IUMMUG is pleased to welcome Andrea L Spray, a Senior Usability Specialist at Monsanto, a multi-national agriculture company located in St Louis, Missouri. She is the President of St Louis GatewayCHI, the local division of the ACM SIG-CHI and the only organization for usability professionals in the St Louis area. Andrea spends her time conducting usability testing and collaborating with her teammates in the creation of user-centered design of applications and websites for a wide variety of users including farmers, researchers and everyone in between! She is a graduate from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and a Certified Usability Analyst.

Meeting Resources

Recommended books

Recommended web-sites

March 08: Adobe Photoshop - What's new?

Date: Wednesday, March 26
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1034 [NOTE: Room number change]
Archived Adobe Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p77199243/

To accompany our January focus on digital photography, specifically Adobe Lightroom, we have invited Adobe Photoshop engineer Geoff Scott to tell us what's new in Photoshop CS3.

Geoff Scott is a Senior Computer Scientist at Adobe Systems. Since 2001 he has worked in the Digital Imaging Group on Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. As an internal tester, he began using Lightroom nearly a year before the product was available to the public. An enthusiastic photographer, he has studied with Tony Corbell, Moose Peterson, Joe McNally, Vincent Versace, Rick Sammon, and Greg Gorman.

Geoff's presentation be driven by questions submitted by IUMMUG members. Join us to see what sorts of new features everyone is interested in.

Geoff has also shared some of his favorite Photoshop and digital photography resources. Check them out!

Recommended books

Recommended web-sites

February 08: Special Rich Internet Application Event!

Date: Monday, February 25
Time: 12:30-2:30pm
Location: CG 1014
Archived Connect Meeting: Sorry, Bob spaced and forgot to hit the record button again...

As you may have heard, Adobe has announced the release of Adobe Flex 3 and Adobe AIR 1.0. On Monday, February 25 held a special meeting, co-hosted by IUMMUG, the IU Flash Users Group and the Bloomington Flex Users Group. Adobe sponsored this meeting with food, giveaways and a raffle copy of Adobe Flex Professional and Adobe CS3.

Flex 3 is a feature-packed release, adding new UI components like the advanced datagrid and improved CSS capabilities; powerful tooling additions like refactoring; and extensive testing tools including memory and performance profiling, plus the addition of the automated testing framework to Flex Builder.

Adobe AIR is game-changing in so many ways, delivering rich applications on the desktop, enabling access to the local file system, system tray, notifications and much more. Now you can write RIAs on the desktop using the same skills that you''ve been already using to create great web apps including both Flex and AJAX.

If you didn't make the meeting but would still like to check out Flex, AIR and some cool applications built from them, see the resources listed below.

Meeting Resources

  • Slides from Ben Dalton's presentation

Flex

AIR

January 08: Software for the Digital Photographer - Adobe Lightroom vs. Adobe Photoshop

Date: Tuesday, January 22
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1008
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p74953467/

Digital cameras have become as common as celluar phones. Digital photography is an indispensible aspect of any website. Adobe Photoshop has long been the dominant application for digital image editing. So what does it mean when a sibling, not a rival, shows up on the scene?

Photoshop has become an incredibly powerful program, so much so that observers have become suspicious of digital photographs. Outdoor photography is especially vulnerable: was the sky really that red and was the moon really in that exact position? As the complexity increases, photographers have trouble deciding when they are done massaging a print, and overuse leaves the ubiquitous "Photoshop" look. Adobe Lightroom, a member of Adobe's Photoshop family, is an alternative processing environment that limits the pixel-specific operations, while streamlining the entire image processing flow. While abuse is still possible, keeping the file out of Photoshop ultimately may improve the respect the print gets from the observer.

IUMMUG welcomes IU Professor Thomas Busey, a member of the faculty of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. Perhaps not surprisingly, Professor Busey, the head of the Visual Perception and Electrophysiological Lab is an avid and accomplished digital photographer. He will share his considerable experience with Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, two powerful tools for manipulating digital images.

Resources

December 07: Unix for Web Developers

Date: Wednesday, December 5
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1014
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p55491700/

Are you a web developer who, like many, are bewildered by the Unix command line environment? Have you ever Googled a question and found a solution that involved a string of incomprehensible, overwhelming Unix commands? Well, obviously everything there is to know about Unix/Linux cannot be taught within the span of an hour, but you are invited to come learn some useful Unix command line tips and tricks that will make life as a web developer more productive and efficient, whether working independently or collaboratively, creating a new site, or modifying an existing site. We will take from the Unix/Linux environment things that web developers can put to use immediately.

The coming changes to IU's central web hosting infrastructure will open a wide range of new possibilities for those hosting there and this presentation will better equip you to take advantage of them. Join IUMMUG as we welcome Joe Auty, member of the UITS Unix Messaging Group and an independent web developer. His talk promises many useful tips and information for developers of all skill and experience levels.

NOTE: We will also get a brief update from the UITS Webmaster on the changes coming to central web hosting.

Congratulations to Mazias de Oliveira, our winner of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium.

Joe's Talking Points

  • setting up a test/development server and environment
  • using secure copy (scp) to transfer data between machines and/or local directories, and rsync to synchronize and/or backup data via a one or two way sync of data (very useful for merging website files and/or backing stuff up)
  • revision control of website files via Subversion, managing a project via Subversion
  • making patches in code, marking them, and using "diff" to compare files
  • using "grep" and "find" to search the contents of files and to search for files matching certain criteria, respectively
  • MySQL data replication, managing MySQL data and backups via mysqldump
  • tracing and debugging applications via syslog and/or email notifications
  • understanding Unix file permissions
  • configuring and tuning Apache

October 07: 2007 Conference Wrap-Up

Date: Wednesday, October 24
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1014
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p13317430/

Over the past several months your friends, colleagues and fellow IUMMUG members have attended web-related conferences and trainings, learning all sorts of new things we could all use in our work. As you know all too well, Web technology does not stand still. These events are great professional development opportunites for those that attend. Of course most of those who attend are more than willing to share what they've learned so we've roped several in for our October meeting. Join us for a series of brief reports about the news, skills and experiences picked up at these and other events.

Presenters

Presenter Event Description Resources
Ashley Callahan (Office of Creative Services) An Event Apart Why does form design matter? Forms enable online purchasing and e-commerce, participation (i.e.: social networking), and information entry and manipulation. This presentation – taken from "Best Practices For Form Design" by Luke Wroblewski, Senior Principal Designer at Yahoo! Inc. – will summarize best practices to enhance the usability and completion of your forms. Luke Wroblewski
Books by Luke Wroblewski
Web Form Creation Tools
Keith Danielson (UITS Digital Media Services) Adobe MAX Keith will share his impressions of the recently concluded Adobe MAX 2007 conference in Chicago, and will discuss some of the new Adobe products & features on the horizon, such as Thermo, Flash 10, and Adobe Media Player.
Bob Flynn (Kelley School of Business) FlexManiacs Providing XML to Controls with E4X: Using XML data with ActionScript 3 in Flex
Amy Neymeyr (UITS IT Training) BFlex Amy will show an .mp3 player the conference participants built in an hour using Flex and AIR. Will also discuss some other examples of how Flex/AIR is being used in the world - Kuler, SearchCoders, etc. N/A
Prem Radhakrishnan (Geological Survey) CFUnited Those who work with AJAX say it's pretty easy to do. There are great libraries. It doesn't take a lot of time and the surface code is pretty easy to understand. Well you haven't seen simple until you see how easy they've made it with ColdFusion 8. We'll take a look at Sean Corefield's presentation on AJAX in CF8. NOTE: Be sure to check out Sean Corfield's blog for more great resources.
Paul Walters (Kelley School of Business) Flashbelt Josh Davis at Flashbelt: dynamic abstraction; Eril Natzke at MAX: the art of playing; Flash video announcements and Adobe Media Player


September 07: Ajax Couldn't Be Cleaner: Adobe's Spry Framework

Date: Wednesday, September 26
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG 1014 [NOTE: New location, next door to the old room.]
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p20206505/ (NOTE: There were frequent interruptions to the audio during the meeting. Each time the speaker stopped until they could be fixed. He will attempt to re-record it in order to eleminate those.)

One of the hottest buzzwords in Web development is Ajax (shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). While it's been around for years, it has gained currency in the past couple of years. There are a number of libraries and toolsets to do some pretty whiz-bang stuff while keeping the complexity of the JavaScript under the covers, each targeted at a different audience and a different skill set. Adobe perceived a need for a simpler interface for the less technically-oriented. Spry started as Ajax for designers. Now is prerelease 1.5, Spry has turned into a powerful but elegantly simple implementation that exposes some nice visual effects. The real power of Ajax comes with its ability to interact live with a database without requiring a page refresh.

Although Spry is still in prerelease, Adobe felt strongly enough about its potential to include Spry functionality in Dreamweaver CS3. IUMMUG Manager Bob Flynn will demonstrate the Spry features in Dreamweaver CS3 by walking the group through building a Spry application. Bring your laptop if you want to work along.

The presentation will cover Lesson 09 of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 with ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP: Training from the Source from Adobe Press.

Files

Resources


Special Event: BFlex - FREE day-long Flex Coding Workshop

Date: Saturday, August 25
Time: 8:00am-6:30pm
Location: Kelley School of Business CG 0036
Live Connect Meeting: N/A

IUMMUG, in coordination with the IU Flash User Group and the Bloomington Flex User Group are pleased to announce BFlex! BFlex is a FREE, full-day, hands-on training event for Adobe Flex with an added introduction to Adobe AIR. These two technologies enable developers to create cross-platform rich internet applications for the web and the desktop. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors the full package of training, meals, materials and extra goodies is absolutely FREE.

This is a FULL day, but we think you will find it very much worth the investment of your time. It takes place at the Kelley School of Business Graduate and Executive Education Center on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. Full details, including requirements and registration are available at http://bflex.info.

NOTE: Registration is limited to 80 participants. Do not delay!

August 07: ColdFusion 8 Launch/Lunch Party

Date: Thursday, August 16
Time: 12:00-1:30 [NOTE: Earlier start time to accommodate lunch]
Location: CG 1008
Archived Connect Meeting: We were unable to share the presentation URL, but see below for one we can share!

We are throwing a little party to celebrate the launch of ColdFusion 8, the latest version of Adobe's powerful and easy-to-use programming language. Come join us for lunch and an in-depth look at the new functionality and the dramatic performance enhancements in ColdFusion 8. We will watch a special presentation by Ben Forta which he put together specifically for User Groups.

Postscript

Lunch was provided and everyone left with some special CF8 goodies. Patrick Flynn won a copy of CF8 Standard.

Recorded CF8 Presentation by Adam Lehman, Adobe ColdFusion Specialist (mixture of slides, code, demos and Q&A)

June 07: IU Web Best Practices and Standards Project

Date: Wednesday, June 20
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1034 [NOTE ROOM CHANGE]
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p25827166/

In October 2006, a small group of IU creative and technical Web professionals met to discuss how they might start working together to address issues both of concern and opportunity regarding IU’s Web environment. Central to their discussion was the expressed need for greater communication and a decision-making organization to break out of silos to get things done. Since that initial meeting in October, the Web Best Practices and Standards Committee has defined its mission and purpose and has formed 11 subcommittees to tackle the following issues: accessibility, creative commons licenses, IU web servers, IU search engine, visual identity, RSS feeds/multimedia, privacy/disability information, vision/outlook/Web 2.0, integrating institutional data, calendaring, and intranets. In the fall of 2007, the group plans to launch a Web site that other university professionals can access as a resource for creating public IU Web sites. We invite you to learn more about the work of this committee and to join the discussion.

Rebecca Salerno, Associate Director of the Indiana University Office of Creative Services and chair of the IU Web Standard Committee, spoke about the brief history of the committee, its current membership and subcommittees, and what it hopes to accomplish. She was followed by brief reports from each of the subcommittee chairs. The meeting then turned to a general discussion about the challenges and opportunities before the committee. Everyone in attendance was encouraged to take a feedback survey (below).

Everyone is encouraged to watch at least the first 15-20 minutes of the recording of the meeting to see Rebecca's presentation and then take the survey to give your feedback on the project and express the degree of interest you may have in participating.

Resources

This was our final meeting of the first half of 2007. IUMMUG member, presenter and active contributor Renee Le Beau won the Adobe software package for the first half of 2007. She chose the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium. Each meeting you attend gives you an extra chance to win. We'll be doing it again this fall, so come to the meetings and increase your chances of winning. Thanks to Adobe for their generous support.

May 07: BlueDragon 7.0: New Possibilities for CFML Applications

Date: Wednesday, May 16
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p33068043/

BlueDragon 7.0: New Possibilities for CFML Applications
New Atlanta Communication's BlueDragon 7.0 CFML application server contains many useful new language features that open new possibilities for CFML applications. In this presentation, Josh Adams will describe and demonstrate some of these features including:

  • CFTHREAD and its associated tags
  • CFC interfaces and abstract CFCs
  • NULL value and the IsNull() function
  • CACHEDUNTILCHANGE attribute of the CFQUERY tag

BlueDragon is the CFML application server platform from New Atlanta Communications. Available in a standalone version as well as a version for the Microsoft .NET framework and a version for J2EE application servers, BlueDragon lets you deploy your CFML applications almost anywhere! Please see http://www.newatlanta.com/bluedragon for more information and to download a copy of BlueDragon.

Josh Adams is the Developer Evangelist & Technical Sales Engineer for New Atlanta's BlueDragon family of CFML application server products. Josh's background is as a CFML developer and he continues to actively write CFML both in his role at New Atlanta and in other endeavors. Josh is a strong advocate of all CFML developer community endeavors and is particularly passionate about local ColdFusion User Groups. Josh speaks on a regular basis to CFUGs throughout North America and is the immediate past President of and a current Board Director of his local CFUG, Atlanta ColdFusion User Group, Inc.

April 07: Information Architecture

Date: Wednesday, April 25
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Connect Meeting: Bob messed up and forgot to record the meeting. We'll just have to have Jane back again.

User-centered design is based on users, not insiders. User testing and focus groups are invaluable in guiding the process of building a new structure (or information architecture) for a Web site. User needs are combined with the needs of the unit to convey specific information and a wireframe is born. After the wireframe is built, we conduct usability testing to ensure we are on the mark.

The Indiana University Multimedia User Group welcomes back Jane Below, Information Architect for the IU Office of Creative Services, for an exploration of this critical aspect of Web design. The presentation will include examples and information about how stakeholder interviews, focus group testing, usability testing, and online surveys help us to develop information architectures that work for the myriad of university audiences.

March 07: Adobe Creative Suite 3 Release

Date: Tuesday, March 27
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Meeting: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/launchevent/webcast/.

A new era in creative expression is about to unfold, freeing us to color outside the lines, to think in multiple dimensions, to engage audiences like never before. The Indiana University Flash User Group and the Indiana University Multimedia User Group co-hosted a live-broadcast event for the official launch of Adobe Creative Suite 3!!

This special meeting included presentations by Adobe executives, product demonstrations, and raffles of a lot of Adobe swag and two of the first copies of the new CS3 suite when it starts shipping! Our winners were Melissa Lorenzen, Web Applications Specialist for the MBA Program at the IU Kelley School of Business and Alyssa Wise, a graduate student in the School of Education in the Learning Sciences Program working in the area of Educational Technology. Both chose the Design Premium suite.

We had a lots of great food and the place was packed. The standing-room crowd was treated to a special shout-out from Johnny Loiacono, Adobe's SVP of the Creative Suite Business Unit, who recognized three user groups, including our very own IUMMUG! Check out the recording of the presentation and keep your ears open starting around the 14:00 mark of the broadcast.

Resources

Purchase and Upgrade information for IU Departments

Adobe announced CS3 on Tuesday, March 27, 2007, as well as updates to many other Adobe products. Any orders placed after this date for Creative Suite 2.3 will be eligible for a no-cost update to the new version once it begins shipping. Orders for the current version will be accepted until April 15th. Beginning April 16th – orders will only be accepted for the new versions.

Any users who currently are enrolled in Upgrade Plan should receive an email from Adobe beginning later in April containing a coupon code which may be claimed to obtain the new version of the software. If you have not received your notice by May 15th or have any problems in processing the upgrade claim – please contact your Bell Inside Sales Representative, Juana Younce at jyounce@bellind.com or (866) 287-3046 for assistance.

Other product releases announced today include Acrobat 3D, InCopy, After Effects (June release), Contribute, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Production Premium, Soundbooth, Visual Communicator, CS3 Web Standard and Premium (replacing Studio 8).

Current Upgrade Plan clients will migrate from Creative Suite 2.3 to Design Premium. Studio 8 will migrate to Web Standard. Full overview of CS3 bundles may be found at: http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/

February 07: The Essence of Object Orientation

Date: Thursday, February 22 [NOTE DATE CHANGE]
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Acrobat Connect Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p46042897/

How does one manage the inherent complexity of large software systems? Two tools designers use to tame the dragon of design complexity are abstraction (a shield) and decomposition (a sword). Different paradigms of programming and software development offer different perspectives on how to concretely use these analytical tools.

IUMMUG is pleased to welcome Professor Raja Sooriamurthi of the IU Kelley School of Business department of Operations and Decision Technologies. Professor Sooriamurthi is an engaging and energetic speaker who has a knack for bringing light to the darkest of topics. ;-)

This talk, aimed at a general IT audience, is about the object-oriented paradigm. No background in development or object orientation is assumed. Attendees can expect to learn the essence of object-orientation: its philosophical methodology, its anthropomorphic responsibility driven thought process, its essential components, and how it can help build better software systems. The talk will be conceptual with some ideas illustrated by how they are realized in Java and Ruby.

Files

January 07: Welcome to the Podcast, can I take your order?

Date: Wednesday, January 24
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p94725475/ (recording starts about 5 minutes into the meeting)

Okay, let's see, what do I want? There are so many things here, I don't know what half of this stuff is, Uhm I'll start with a Wall Street Journal This Morning, then I'll have a Moment of Science with a side of The Onion, and finish with This Week in Tech. I'd like that to go please.

Podcasting is the new delivery vehicle for multimedia content you can take with you. Just like ordering from a menu, podcasting lets you pick and choose what content you want and when you want it. Come join us on Wednesday, January 24 and find out more about podcasting, also find out what Indiana University is doing to deliver this technology.

Join our guest Martin J. Wagner, Project Manager for the podcast initiative from University Information Technology Services as he talks about podcasting at Indiana University.

Podcasting Resources


December 06: Rich Internet Applications – An Introduction to Flex and AJAX

Date: Wednesday, December 6
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p39471906/

You may have heard the terms "Rich Internet Applications (RIA)", "Web 2.0", "Flex" and "AJAX" What is all the hype about? What does it all really mean? Does it add value to your website users/visitors? Is it something that makes sense for my website? Is it something I can easily learn?

The final IUMMUG meeting of the year will attempt to answer some of these questions. The meeting will feature a showcase of work by our members employing various elements of "rich" functionality. You will see everything from code snippets learned while reviewing books on AJAX to production applications in Adobe Flex 2. Come see what with this growing area of web development is all about. You'll see just how easy it is to jump in and start using it yourself.

NOTE: Since this is our final meeting of the year we raffled off our grand prize of $2100 worth of Adobe software. Kathleen Chmelewski was the big winner. Congratulations Kathleen!

Files

RIA Resources – There really are so many that this is a very modest attempt to list a few


November 06: eCommerce @ IUB

Date: Wednesday, November 29
Time: 9:00-10:30am
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1034
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://breeze.iu.edu/p69383196/

IUMMUG hosted a special town hall meeting on eCommerce at IUB. Representatives of the IU Treasurer's office and the UITS eCommerce team explained existing options for creating applications to process credit card payments online. A great discussion ensued involving representatives of units around campus, large and small, about the utility and limiations of these systems and the need to find better systems for the future. It became clear that many sectors of the university are intersted in seeing progress in this area. A committment was made to set up a discussion list (see below), form a working group to asseess needs and possibly hold these meetings on a regular basis.

Meeting Follow-up

  • IU Treasurer MaryFrances McCourt presented for her office and Larry Butcher presented for the UITS eCommerce Team. Their slides are below.
  • An eCommerce discussion listserv has been established. To subscribe send an email to listserv@indiana.edu with "subscribe ecommerce-l" in the body of the message (NOT the subject).
  • Tell us more about your eCommerce needs (current or future). Please take the eCommerce Survey!

Files


October 06: A Web Design Recipe: How to Whip Up a Delicious Website

Date: Wednesday, October 18
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p89009881/

You've interviewed the stakeholders, you've identified the content, and now you are ready to get started. Find out how Kyle Haskins, Interactive Art Director of the IU Office of Creative Services, uses design planning to speed up the design process and ultimately produce a better site. Learn how all team members can participate in the process through brainstorming and prototyping. Kyle will also profile some recent projects and discuss the challenges and solutions before reaching a final design.

Files


September 06: Fighting the Good Fight: How to Build a Web Site Everyone Loves. Getting buy-in on website redesigns projects

Date: Wednesday, September 20
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://adobechats.adobe.acrobat.com/p20152078/ (starts a few minutes into the meeting)

Too many university Web sites are battlegrounds. This dissention among marketing, IT, and faculty makes it difficult to create effective Web sites. Ownership of university Web sites is up for grabs, with departments and faculty going toe-to-toe with each other to maintain or take control of various aspects of the Web site.

Join our guests Jane Below, Information Architect and Rebecca Salerno, Associate Director from the IU Office of Creative Services. The objective of their presentation is to identify what university marketers and Web developers need to do to build consensus before building a Web site.

A 2004 report from Jupiter Research in New York highlights the problem in the corporate world: "Often there is neither an incentive for units to work together to accommodate each other's objectives, nor a governance mechanism to maximize the overall value of the Web site as a corporate asset." In the world of higher education, the problem is complicated by the fact that university Web sites are larger (containing 250 times more pages than the average Web site) and have been around since the first days of the World Wide Web. And yet the value of the university Web site as an asset has never been higher. Teens, a primary audience, are using the Internet in record numbers while adult audiences (such as parents, alumni, and donors) are increasingly using the university Web sites to stay connected and get up-to-date news and information

Jane and Rebecca have identified seven ingredients for governing the Web development process for top-level university Web sites:

  1. A High-Level Purpose for the Web Site
  2. Market Research
  3. User-Centered Design
  4. An Integrated Working Team of Marketers and Web Developers
  5. Graphic Design that Captures the Brand Essence
  6. Killer Content
  7. Widespread Communication and Involvement

Come hear them break these points down and walk away armed for the good fight!

Files



August 06: Turn your desktop database into a web application - build your first database-driven application using ColdFusion, PHP or ASP.NET

Date: Wednesday, August 30
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: Due to technical difficulties we were unable to record this presentation.

A common data task turns into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet gets more and more complicated and you set up a database. Pretty soon everyone is asking for you to pull data from it. Wouldn’t it be nice if others could access this information themselves? Why not put the database on the web for others to search and for authorized users to manage?

The August IUMMUG meeting will take a basic desktop database and move it to the web using three common programming languages. Erick Carballo of the IU Teaching and Learning Technology Center will show the project using PHP and a MySQL database, Bob Flynn of the Kelley School of Business will use ColdFusion and MS SQL and H. Paul Robertson of the UITS IT Training Group will use ASP.NET and MS SQL. Come see how the process is done and compare the various languages and approaches.

Files


June/July 06: Application Frameworks

Date: Wednesday, July 12
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1014
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://adobechats.breezecentral.com/p90949360/ (enter as guest)

If you are a developer, how do you code your applications? Do you just start writing out the queries, logic and display all in the same file? Do you take a full object-oriented approach? Are you somewhere in between? Over time each programmer develops their own patterns and styles. They evolve over time with exposure, training and exposure to new ideas. Most of us are always looking for a better way to get things done.

For the past year or more there has been a great deal of buzz in the development community about "Web Application Frameworks". These are essentially tools or practices that help facilitate rapid development of Web applications. Some are methodologies for automating development and some for distributing development. They bear names like Fusebox, Mach-ii, Ruby on Rails, onTap, SAM, Model-Glue, and more. We will take a look at one basic application and show how it would be done in several frameworks. For the purposes of this demonstration we will use ColdFusion as our common language, but many can apply to other languages.

Join Bob Flynn of the Kelley School of Business, Erick Carballo of the Teaching and Learning Technologies Center and a special guest as they show several ways to build a pet store. We hope that this brief exposure to various frameworks will spark some curiosity and encourage you to explore them further in ColdFusion, PHP, ASP.NET or any other language!

Files



May 06: Flash Actionscript

Date: Wednesday, May 24
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://adobechats.breezecentral.com/p80275357/

Slides and Notes from "Flash to external data communication" presentation (on Paul's site)

One key element in moving beyond the "isolated individual" interactive experience is having a way to load information from an external source and save information to share with others. Even when building a purely standalone project, the ability to dynamically load information provides a low-maintenance solution for keeping content updated. This presentation will provide an overview and examples of the many ways to get data from an external source (e.g. a server, text file, XML, or database) and send data to a server using ActionScript.

IUMMUG welcomes H. Paul Robertson back to the podium for our May meeting. Paul is always engaging and regardless of the topic he always has plenty of value to share for beginners and experienced developers alike. Join us in person or on line for this informative and valuable presentation.

H. Paul Robertson:

  • is a Web applications developer and writes and teaches about Flash and Web development for UITS IT Training & Education
  • holds a Master's degree in Instructional Systems Technology
  • started working in Flash with version 3 (yikes!)
  • is a Certified Flash Developer
  • was the lead author of "Flash 8 Advanced: Visual QuickPro Guide" (Peachpit Press)
  • is working for Adobe on the team that's writing examples and documentation on ActionScript 3.0 for the upcoming Flex 2 release


April 06: Harmonious Web Design & the Millennial Generation

Date: Wednesday, April 26
Time: 1:15-3:15pm [NOTE TIME CHANGE]
Location: Kelley School of Business room CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: We had some bizarre network behavior that shut down the Breeze room multiple times. Consequently, we had to repeatedly restart the recording. Here is the meeting, as best as we could piece it back together:
Part one: http://adobechats.breezecentral.com/p55953161/
Part two: http://adobechats.breezecentral.com/p41741740/

(Re)designing your website has become so much more than putting together a nice layout and compelling content. You have to identify your audience, determine the emotion you want to elicit in them and understand how to craft your message to catch their attention. Next you must create a site that can capture your audience and convey your message with the emotion you intend. Color, fonts, images and layout all work in harmony to deliver your message.

In the first part of our meeting Laura Wisley, Web Services Coordinator for the IUB Registrar, will introduce us to our target audience for the day - the Millennial generation. The ongoing communications revolution combined with the coming of the Millennial generation and their love of technology will have a profound impact on college campuses. For the Millennial generation, the Internet is now the hub for all their activities which will increase the importance of university Web sites. Millennial students (and their parents) are behaving as customers who actively compare programs and services to make choices on their college education. Their expectation is a 24/7 service culture - always on, always connected - anytime, anywhere. How do you reach this new generation and what are the implications for Web developers. What role does your website play in your overall internet strategy.

Laura's presentation slides (8.3MB PPT)

MFA candidate and Instructor of typography, Jeff Hanson from the IU Graphic Design program picks up the process from here. With your target audience identified, how do you design something they not only notice, but pay attention to? With millions of colors, thousands of fonts, and an ever growing amounts of screen real-estate, how does one begin the process of web design? How can a balance of visual imagery, organization and good development practices give your websites the professional edge? Once the process of visual creation has started how does one adapt it for a life in the digital world? This workshop is about balance, harmony. It's about solving problems visually and functionally.

Jeff's slides coming (5/1/06)

Bring your questions, ideas, experiences and favorite website resources to this special extended meeting. Join in the fun as we learn about how to make design decisions that work in harmony with the best practices in website development. Join us in the hunt for the perfect internet mouse trap to catch the fast-moving Millennial generation.

March 06: Flash Basics with a Twist

Date: Wednesday, March 29
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p34987184/

Some see Flash as just about Web animation. It is capable of so much more. It gives you very powerful tools to create a rich user experience and turn their normal Web browsing into something pleasantly surprising. Join Buddy Morris, Instructional Consultant at the Teaching & Learning Technologies Centers and the Indiana University Multimedia User Group for a quick trip though the Flash Professional application to see all of the possibilities it gives developers and designers.

By user vote the title of the talk will be "How to make an interactive, animated, web site nav screen with very little Actionscript." Join us for this practical introduction to the world of Flash!

Presentation Files: (right-click "save link as…" in FireFox, "save target as…" in IE)

February 06: ColdFusion's CFFORM

Date: Wednesday, February 22
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: Not available. We just forgot to hit the record button! See below for the next best thing.

Just about any web developer is called upon to make a form at some point. HTML forms are not too difficult to make and with the help of tables can be made to look reasonably good. If you want them to do more than accept basic input and send it off when a user clicks submit though, the effort required increases significantly. Controlling user input or validating data require client-side scripting or server-side processing. These can either be unfriendly to or disabled by the user.

The release of ColdFusion MX7 brought design-challenged and code-weary developers some remarkably easy-to-use tools for creating useful and attractive forms. CFFORM's new Flash and XForms formats provide a quick way to make forms that carry a lot of power and look good as well.

IUMMUG Manager and Advanced Certified ColdFusion MX Developer Bob Flynn will give an introduction to this simple extension of the CFFORM tag that many now use and some have even turned into a fine art.

While we may have messed up on the recording, the presentation has been fully documented and you can get all of the relevant files, examples and resources here. Enjoy!


January 06: Dreamweaver Templates

Date: Wednesday, January 25
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p81006694/
(Log in as Guest but give your name when prompted)

A Dreamweaver template is essentially a shell of a web page that has areas that are "locked-down" or uneditable (typically main layout and navigation) and other areas that are fully editable by your content providers. Ideally you create your sites look, fell and navigation in a template, leaving the dynamic elements (title, banner, content) for the content provider to edit without bothering you or your design.

Indiana University School of Informatics Professor and Macromedia Press Author Jeffrey Bardzell will show the group how to throw together a Dreamweaver Template and how to use that template to create a site that is easy to manage whether your content is being manually edited in Dreamweaver, Contribute or Notepad as well as how to use those templates in database-driven sites.

Professor Bardzell is the author of Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 with ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP: Training from the Source co-author of Macromedia Studio 8: Training from the Source

November/December 05: Macromedia Studio 8

Date: Wednesday, December 7
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG1008
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p67325675/
(Log in as Guest but give your name when prompted)

Macromedia Studio 8Macromedia Senior Web & Learning Evangelist Tom Person will pay IUMMUG another visit for our year-end meeting. Tom will talk about the new release of Macromedia Studio - version 8. There is too much to cover in a 90 minute meeting so we've asked Tom to focus on the new CSS and XML features in Dreamweaver 8 and the new video features in Flash 8.

Macromedia ColdFusion 7If you caught the CSS bug after our September Web Standards meeting or want to start syndicating content after our October CMS meeting, this release of Dreamweaver will make things a lot easier for you. If you are already working with video, the new alpha channel features of Flash 8 will certainly excite you. If you are new to video and are thinking about putting some on your website, the ease with which you can accomplish that goal using Flash 8 will amaze you.

So come join Tom for 90 minutes of great demos. He is always good for a lot of nice give-aways. It is also a great time to get your questions answered concerning just about any product Macromedia produces. Who knows, he may even be playing with Adobe's tools by now…

In addition to the books that we will be giving away (details in upcoming LiveWire) we will give away a copy of Macromedia Studio 8 or Macromedia ColdFusion 7 Standard Edition (choice up to winner).

October 05: Content Management Systems

Date: Wednesday, October 26
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG1008 [note room change]
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p26288741/
Slide Presentation: Content Mangement Systems (5MB PowerPoint - What can I say? Lots of graphics.)

As organizations' websites are relied upon more and more as the primary conduit of information to the public, the need to have up-to-date content becomes ever greater. If an organization's workflow involves content owners sending updates to technical staff who then have to put it up on the site, it is not only inefficient but it introduces another point of failure in the process. Not knowing the content the webmaster may misunderstand where to put the content, fail to see inaccuracies before it is posted, or the request may simply get lost in their queue of other duties.

Ideally you want the people who own the content to put the content online themselves. They know what content and what images belong on what pages. We are past the day when webmasters do everything for the website. If they are a designer, they make it look good. If they are a developer, the make it work. In some places that is the same person, but outside of personal pages it is rarely the same person as the content provider.

Content management systems (CMS) are tools that allow individuals without technical knowledge to update or add content to a website. CMSs range from the simple to the highly sophisticated. They control update access to pages and in some cases to parts of individual pages. Most contain modules that you build your website around. Because of their dynamic functionality they are specific to certain platforms, web servers and languages. We will look at a range of CMSs from off-the-shelf to open-source to home-grown solutions.
Join Greg Polit of the IU Office of Creative Services, Douglas Ryner of the IU Libraries, Ryan Roland of Rec Sports, IUMMUG's Bob Flynn and others as they examine a broad, but by no means exhaustive, range of CMS options.

September 05: Web Standards Development

Date: Wednesday, September 28
Time: 1:30-3:00pm
Location: CG2069 [note change from norm]
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p62499948/
Slide Presentation: Web Standards Development (115KB PowerPoint)

This month we will talk about Web Standards development. We will address the standards themselves as set by the W3C as well as the Web Standards movement. Find out why developing with web standards makes your code lighter, faster, easier to maintain and easier to make section 508 (ADA) compliant. The presentation will include an example of how to convert an existing page from a table-based layout scheme to a standards-compliant page which separates content and structured mark-up from the presentation.

Is this all techno mumbo-jumbo to you? If so, come to the September meeting and find out what it's all about. We will explain it in plain language that beginners and advanced developers alike will understand and benefit from.

We have some great books to give away that will help you convert your own pages to Web Standards, so please plan on attending in person or online!

August 05: Web Developer Community Gathering

Date: Wednesday, August 17
Time: 10:30am-12:00pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p62279421/
(Log into meeting room as guest, but give your name when asked)

Most web developers and designers have the basic tools to do their job — a web host some software to make web pages and perhaps some graphics, maybe even a book or two. Does that make you a good developer/designer/webmaster? Do the books have all the answers? How about online resources? If you've found good resources, how did you come across them? At some point we've all benefitted from the knowledge of others, perhaps more experienced, perhaps less. The great thing is that we all have something to learn from each other. We've all been faced with similar, if not identical, problems and it would sure have been nice if there had been a person or group of people to ask for help or just to soundboard off of.

Most self-sufficient web developers have their favorite lists or groups. They are indispensible. Whether you are an active member or a list lurker you can't help but learn something from the conversation. What if we could bring that conversation closer to home? What if the people on the list were all local colleagues? What if they were familiar with the university situation or the business and cultural realities of Bloomington, IN? What if you could sit down with them and share ideas, pick their brains and collaborate on projects?

The August IUMMUG meeting will kick-off a year-long effort to get that sort of dialog, that sort of community going in south-central Indiana. We invite you, your colleagues and friends to come join us as we put an idea, long in discussion, into practice. Come shape this community with your ideas, wishes and curiosity. As always we have loads of great give-aways (t-shirts, books, etc.). Bring a friend! It is through our collective effort that we will all grow!

July 05: ColdFusion Birthday Party

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Time: 4:00pm-7:00pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Breeze Meeting: No presentation to archive

CF birthday cake from CFUNITED05ColdFusion — from Allaire to Macromedia (to Adobe?) — turns 10 years old this summer. Check out the cool CF timeline put together on the Macromedia Website! The Indiana University Macromedia User Group took part in the international anniversary party. The brothers Allaire will brought together many from their original development team for an online party to talk about the language that has quickly turned into the most versatile platform for rapid development of rich, compelling web applications.

IUMMUG CF Birthday CheesecakeOur July meeting in conjunction with the (inter)national celebration of the 10th anniversary of ColdFusion went very well. We had several first-time attendees at the meeting. There was plenty of food, prizes and great conversation. Great networking, sharing of news, tips and ideas and a commitment to finishing as much birthday cake as possible kept several members around long after the scheduled stop time. Unfortunately the audio feed from the party in Newton, MA was not that great. That turned out to be a boon for the local party though. Erick Carballo eeked out a slim victory in the CF Trivia challenge to take home first prize, but no one went away empty handed. How do you think you would have fared? Check out the ColdFusion Trivia Quiz. Below are just a few of the items given away:

  • CFMX7 tag poster signed by Ben Forta, author and Macromedia Senior CF Evangelist, and Tim Buntel, CF Product Manager
  • Limited Edition ColdFusion 10th Birthday T-shirts
  • ColdFusionMX 7 books
  • ColdFusion birthday key chains
  • Collapsible pocket flying discs from CFDynamics
  • ColdFusion birthday candies(!)

May 05: MX Kollection 3 Alchemy - from HTML designers to programmers

Date: Monday, May 30, 2005
Time: 7pm
Location: CG2000 (NOTE LOCATION CHANGE)
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p57611668/


InterAKT Online is the leading Dreamweaver extensions provider, empowering more than 5000 companies create better web sites. We help HTML designers build database sites visually using MX Kollection - a product that enhances Dreamweaver for Content Management Systems, Intranets or E-Commerce sites development. They are great supporters of user groups and we are proud to have them live from Romania to give a preview of the third generation of the MX Kollection suite.

MX Kollection 3 – Web development was never easier using Dreamweaver. See how InterAKT took Dreamweaver to a new level by adding features to allow you create web applications with user input validation, Access-like form controls, image upload, thumbnail creation and e-mail sending features. Learn how easy is to build content management systems, e-commerce sites and image galleries with our tools that generate professional ColdFusion/PHP/ASP code for you. Come and see why MX Kollection is the solution of choice of over 5000 HTML designers and programmers all over the world.

Special thanks to Greg Bugyis for a great presentation!

Every participant at the meeting in person or attending via Breeze Live received a copy of InterAKT Online's MX Widgets for Dreamweaver MX (value $60). Congratulations to Erick Carballo, winner of the entire MX Kollection (value $299).

April 05: Coldfusion Showcase

Date: Monday, April 25, 2005
Time: 7pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Breeze Meeting: http://mmusergroup.breezecentral.com/p61584283/

We have put together a showcase of ColdFusion projects that highlight various aspects of ColdFusion programming.

  • Take the Pain Out of Reading Text Files — Do you look back at your old code with pride? Most developers look at what they labored over just a few months back and slap their foreheads and say, "What was I thinking?" Here is one real example of just how easy one developer's life could have been if he'd just know the right tag. (Bob Flynn, Kelley School of Business)
  • Grouping Data with the CFOUTPUT Tag — Sometimes your query results have layers of complexity that need to be simplified in the output. This example will show how the group attribute of the CFOUTPUT tag is used to calculate a student's GPA for each of the semesters they have attended using their transcript data. (Renee Le Beau, Kelley School of Business)
  • CFQUERYPARAM: an Important Line of Defense for Your Data — What can happen if the proper precautions aren't taken to secure your database? Do you protect it from malicious "SQL Inserts"? What does a hacker need to know in order to compromise a reasonably secured database? How can basic error handling keep him from getting that information? Both server and client side precautions will be discussed. (Chad Martin, Kelley School of Business)
  • Site Wide Error and Missing Template Handling with ColdFusion — ColdFusion offers easy to use error handling features. You may handle errors in a ColdFusion script with the cftry/cftthrow/cfcatch tags. Plus, you may handle all uncaught errors on the server using Site Wide Error Handling and Missing Template Handling. This talk will show how to use the Site Wide Error and Missing Template Handling features of ColdFusion. (Craig Spanburg, UITS Data Management Support)
  • How can some CRUDdy Component Help My CF Applications? — ColdFusion Components (CFC) have become a vital part of ColdFusion development. This presentation will show how a simple Create, Read, Update, Delete CFC was created to manage a staff calendar. (Bob Flynn, Kelley School of Business)
Time permitting we will also discuss some of the lesser known features of CFMX 7, the latest version of the language, released last month.

March 05: What's new with Macromedia

Date: Monday, March 28, 2005
Time: 7pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: What's new with Macromedia

Watch, listen and learn about what is new within the Macromedia lineup from Tom Person, Senior Web and eLearning Evangelist. A senior web specialist at Macromedia Tom has traveled globally at Macromedia's behest to present, speak, teach and train across the Macromedia products; specializing in the eLearning aspect of Macromedia's tools and solutions.

This presentation will focus on some of the newest product releases from macromedia and a look into the future of where we see things going in the market place. Flash MX 2004 Pro, Captivate, Breeze and ColdFusion MX7.

November 04: Breeze Fundamentals: Presentation, Training, and Communication

Date: Monday, November 29, 2004
Time: 7pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: Breeze Fundamentals: Presentation, Training, and Communication

Collaborate, communicate and train online with ease. Quickly and easily share online meetings, presentations and training courses over the Internet—using the familiar PowerPoint application and the Macromedia Flash format.

Join the IU Macromedia Users Group (IUMMUG) for a presentation on Macromedia's Breeze. This presentation describes the main features of Breeze: instant online meetings, delivery of rich, narrated presentations, data sharing, course management and content evaluation.

October 04: JPEG or GIF? Optimizing Graphics in Fireworks

Date: Monday, October 25, 2004
Time: 7pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: JPEG or GIF? Optimizing Graphics in Fireworks

Digital photos, logos, flow diagrams, charts and other graphics enliven Web pages and take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of the Web. Unfortuntely, graphics are also file-size intensive, and they can dramatically add to the download times of your Web pages. The good news is that programs such as Macromedia Fireworks contain tools to enable us to dramatically lower file sizes. But to do so, one has to make decisions that presuppose and understanding of the strengths and limitations of graphics file types, compression algorithms, digital color, and more. In this presentation, Macromedia Press author Jeffrey Bardzell will provide a working introduction to these issues, by simultaneously explaining the theories and concepts behind image optimization while demonstrating with a variety of examples.

September 04: Dreamweaver, CSS, and Standards - A Little Knowledge Means Fewer Headaches

Date: Monday, September 27, 2004
Time: 7pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: Dreamweaver, CSS, and Standards - A Little Knowledge Means Fewer Headaches

In the second of our series of basic web development presentations using Macromedia tools, Paul Alford and Nur Fatma Koksal of the UITS IT Training division will talk about using Cascading Style Sheets for positioning and how Dreamweaver MX 2004 can make it easier for you.

Topics to be covered:

  • Dreamweaver (MX 2004) and Standards (XHTML, CSS)
  • Positioning with CSS using Dreamweaver (Layers)
  • Extensibility of the layering code
  • Fixes for the inflexible code (cut-n-paste, extension)
  • Advantages and flexibility of CSS positioning

August 04: Cascading Style Sheets Fundamentals using Dreamweaver MX 2004

Date: Monday, August 30, 2004
Time: 7pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: Cascading Style Sheets Fundamentals using Dreamweaver MX 2004

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a key part of the "Web Standards movement" which are considered the best-practices for forward-thinking web designers. In his presentation Paul will talk about CSS fundamentals including CSS's relationship with other web standards, how to apply CSS to web pages, and several of the most common and useful CSS style rules. He will also highlight the features (including many new enhancements) in Dreamweaver MX 2004 which make it a useful tool for designing web pages using CSS.

July 04: Blackstone (ColdFusion 7) Presentation With Ben Forta

Date: Thursday, July 8, 2004
Time: promptly at 7pm
Location: CG1034
Live Stream: No stream will be available for this meeting

At the Macromedia Conference in Salt Lake City in November developers got their first glimpse of Macromedia's future plans for ColdFusion. At the World Wide User Group Meeting during Community Week in May, ColdFusion Product Manager Tim Buntel let on a little more. Now it's time to get serious.

The hottest name in the ColdFusion universe, Ben Forta, is planning a user group tour this June. For those cities not on the tour, Ben will be e-delivering his presentation via Breeze Live on Thursday, July 8th at 7PM and our group is tuning in! Ben will discuss ColdFusion, Flash, Flex, and will also provide a sneak peek of "Blackstone", the much-anticipated next release of ColdFusion. This will be one of the first public user group presentations covering Blackstone, so please join us for Ben's presentation to find out what all the buzz and excitement are about!

Come see this MMUG exclusive. This presentation will not be streamed and not recorded for later review. If you are interested in ColdFusion development this is an event you will not want to miss! Come see for yourself and ask Ben all your burning Blackstone questions.

As usual we will have some nice give-aways for members who attend. Anyone, member or not, who brings someone new to the meeting will be entered into a give-away for a special prize, so pass this on and find a buddy to introduce to IUMMUG.

We will pass out surveys at the end of the presentation to give feedback to Ben and the ColdFusion team. Let them know if you like what you see and what else you'd like to see.

Please note the change from the previously announced date.

June 04: Cancelled

Date: N/A
Time: N/A
Location: N/A
Live Stream: N/A
The June meeting has been rolled into the July meeting so that we can take advantage of the Ben Forta Breeze Live presentation on Flash, Flex and "Blackstone", the upcoming release of ColdFusion. Join us July 8!

May 04: World Wide User Group Meeting

Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Time: 5:30-8:00pm (NOTE TIME CHANGE)
Location: CG1034
Live Stream: No stream will be available for this meeting

Macromedia is celebrating its customer community by hosting Community Week, May 17-21, an opportunity to learn, network and interact with Macromedia product managers and its customer community.

IUMMUG will take part in Community Week by joining in the World Wide User Group meeting! — Take advantage of this special opportunity to get a glimpse of the future technologies, features, and functions that Macromedia engineers have been working on in our development labs. Be among the first to see some of the goodies that may (or may not) make it into future Macromedia product releases.

We would love to tell you more but we have no CLUE!!! That's because this stuff is top secret. Members of Team Macromedia don't know. User Group Managers don't know. Only Macromedia knows what will be shown. And you can be among the first outside Macromedia to learn about the new stuff!

We want to make a party of this. Bring a snack or softdrinks to share if you can! Contact IUMMUG @ indiana.edu if you have any questions

Read more about Community Week.

April 04: Flash Developers Showcase

Date: Monday, April 26, 2004
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: Flash Developers Showcase

In April we focus on Flash. Local developers Troy Church, Thomas Harris and Paul Robertson will present their work with Flash MX 2004. From video integration to Flash Remoting, you're sure to see something new and take home something you can use.

Troy Church
This presentation will take a look at the potential of Flash as a video delivery platform. After a quick inventory of what it takes to use video with Flash, Troy will walk through a simple project that demonstrates some unique possibilities of combining video with Flash MX 2004. But wait…there's more… ask about getting a preview look at the "Floogle" project.

Thomas Harris
Flash Remoting and the TLTC Service Survey: Flash remoting was used to leverage Coldfusion for ADS authentication and data submission.

Paul Robertson
Historically, one of the biggest challenges in Flash development has been keeping track of ActionScript code which is spread over multiple timelines and symbol instances. In my presentation, I will demonstrate a simple application which shows how using an object-oriented Component based design, made much more intuitive by ActionScript 2.0's new object-oriented programming model, has helped simplify code management and reuse.

This month's member drawings feature some great Flash book titles as well as a paid registration to the CFUN conference in June.

March 04: Macromedia Studio MX 2004 — An Integrated Workflow

Date: Monday, March 29, 2004
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: Macromedia Studio MX 2004 — An Integrated Workflow

The Indiana University Macromedia Users Group's first meeting will include a talk by a Macromedia author, a survey of users interests and some wonderful giveaways*. Please come and help us kick off our new group in fine fashion.

The products that make up Macromedia Studio MX 2004—Dreamweaver, Flash, Freehand, Fireworks, and ColdFusion—are great in themselves, but they're even better together. In this presentation, Web developer and Macromedia Press author Jeffrey Bardzell shows how he integrates the Studio products to design and develop a site from the ground up. This presentation is for all users, basic to advanced.

*GIVEAWAY: At our first meeting, we will be giving away a copy of Studio MX 2004 with Flash Professional to one of the lucky attendees. Yes, you must be present to win. See you there!

Steve Nelson: The Prototype is Complete, What Now? — FLiP and The Web Application Development Process

Date: Monday, March 8, 2004
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: The Prototype is Complete, What Now?
NOTE: If you are on the IUPUI campus you can participate in the discussion via Video Teleconference in ES2132

Programmers love to write code. Over the years, writing code has continuously become easier. This presents an unfortunate side affect. Programmers begin writing code before the decisions are made. Once this occurs they are in a constant battle of fixing problems they created themselves. The Fusebox Prototype helps relieve web application developers from this degrading spiral and provides a process for discussing how the application should work without actually building it.

Creating Fusebox Prototypes have become wildly successful in allowing architects to discuss problems and decisions with their clients. After a prototype is complete, there is often confusion about the next step in the Fusebox Lifecycle. This presentation examines prototypes and what to do when they are complete.

Steve Nelson: Instant People, Just Add Water — The SecretAgents.com Business Model

Date: Monday, March 8, 2004
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Location: CG1034
Archived Stream: Instant People, Just Add Water

For almost 30 years the theories of Frederick Brooks' "Mythical Man Month" have held software projects hostage. The simple concept of the Mythical Man Month is that men and months are not interchangeable. Brooks' says that adding men to a software project does not shorten the time required to complete the software. Since 1975 when this idea was introduced, it has been a driving force for how the software industry has matured. The Mythical Man Month has been a benefit and a detriment to the software industry. Could there be a way around Brooks' law? What if it is possible to add men to a project and have it linearly shorten the completion time? Could software that is expected to take four months be completed in a week or a single day? SecretAgents, Inc. believes it is possible. This presentation examines the patent pending process and business model of SecretAgents, Inc., demonstrating how to bend Brooks' law without breaking it.

Resources:
SecretAgents.com
Fusebox
Academy of Business & Technology


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