I need help setting up CF Builder to remote server

[Sly-grr]

I have purchased CF Builder and now am trying to set it up to connect to a website that already has ColdFusion on it.

The company that set this up for me is no longer offering support so I am learning to program in ColdFusion as fast as I can.

I am running this on a Mac with plenty of speed and memory.

I have watched the video a number of times

http://screencast.com/t/csLxBCkvr

and I sent it off to my web engineer to get the right information to go in the corresponding blanks.

This is what he sent back

Server Name:  MyName not the server name
Description:  MyName
Application:  JRUN
Host Name:  localhost
Server Type:  LOCAL
Port Number:  8809 or 8843
Username:  xxxxxx
Password:  xxxxxx
SSL:   NO

Server Home:  (location on the server)
Document Root: (path to folder on the server several folders deep)
Version  U9

Obviously he didn't get it either and he has been programing in CF for years. According to the forum, we are not the only ones confused by the video. So rather than spending hours on the phone trying to get to the right department that can answer the question I am hoping you can help solve this faster.

1. Which blanks or fields pertain to the remote host and which pertain to the CF Builder? I can only guess that the RDS user name and password are for the new CF Builder program I purchased. (Right?)
2. The Server Name, I'm guessing is in this case NOT the "localSrv" shown in the video but actually the REMOTE server name. (Right?)
3. The Application Server has to do with how CF is set up on the Remote Host. (Right?)
4. Host Name. Again NOT Local like it shows in the video but this should be the IP address of the Remote Server so in my case it should be XX.XX.XXX.XXX right?  Not the URL (website.com) and no http:// or anything else.
5. When I entered the Host Name (the IP address of the remote server) the Auto Select did not change to "Is Remote" so does that mean I am not entering the right information or am I missing something?(I did change it manually)
6. Under "Local Server Settings" (which is confusing since I am trying to set up a Remote Server) What Is A "Server Home Path"?  does this refer to something on the remote server or is it supposed to be the file I want to use on my local computer (like I do for DreamWeaver)? From the video it sounds to me like you are talking about the remote server settings since you ask about "Stand Alone" or "MultiServer" instance but it would be very helpful if you gave a little more insight into what you want exactly.
7. Same goes for "Document Root", is that on my computer or are you talking about the location of where CF resides on the remote server? Again, it says "Local Server Settings" but it sounds like the video is referring to the "Remote Server".
8. I take it the "Version" is what is running on the remote server?

Am I correct in assuming that if I manage to get the right information/answers into the above fields that this is all it will take to hook up to the Remote Server? Or are there more blanks I will need to fill in beyond what I ask here?

[Sly-grr]

Just an update. To get this answered faster I decided to call Adobe at the 800-833-6687 to get some technical assistance. I have been on Hold now for 2 hours and fifteen minutes. This is BEYOND TERRIBLE SERVICE

[Charlie Arehart]

@Sly-grr, i can't help with (or defend) the challenge with getting support from Adobe, but setting that aside, I would point to VERY different resources to help with your challenge.

First, where did you even find that screencast? It seems like something computer generated (and computer-voiced).

Have you instead looked at the documentation for CFBuilder? That's not a snarky question. I find that many people don't even realize there IS documentation. It's linked to from within the help of CFBuilder, but even then many seem to never notice it. It can be view on the web at http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusionBuilder/2.0/Using/index.html.

See specifically the section on configuring servers:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusionBuilder/2.0/Using/WS0ef8c004658c1089-38317734121cdfd5fd3-8000....

There is also a blog entry from Adobe on this, specifically:

http://blogs.adobe.com/cfbuilder/2009/07/remote_server_setup_is_it_real.html

Let us know if this helps.

Let me also point out that, though it may dismay us, the fact is that there are a lot of moving parts that can make something not work well, from configuraiton of CF, to configuration of your web server, to configuration of your network, your firewall, and much more.  If you are still challenged to get things working after reading all the above, it simply may not be possible to solve things here in the forums.

I will point out that you can get support on CF problems from other than Adobe. I keep a list of CF troubleshooting consultants (including myself) in a section of a page I keep, at http://www.cf411.com/cfconsult. More to your challenge, I offer a specific form of support as a low fixed-fee resolution for a single CF Builder problem. More at http://www.carehart.org/consulting/#cfb.

But as in this note, I do often try to help as much as I can here in the forums (though I only closely follow the Server Administration forum). Stll, I will mark this message to notify my by email to try to get back to you if you respond. Hope the above is helpful.

[Sly-grr]

The video is just a segment of the one that comes with CF Builder. I shortened it to just the part that has to do with the setup of the remote server. I did this mainly to share with my web engineer to see if he could give me the right information to get the setup done correctly. He could not. I should mention that he has been programing in CF for several years.

I am relatively new at CF but I found the video and documentation for the setup extremely confusing. I was comforted to find other comments to the same effect from other programers that agian have been programing in CF for a number of years.

I will learn CF because I have to. The company I was working with no longer offers support and I have websites that I need to be able to troubleshoot.

After making a big enough stink (while waiting for nearly three hours on hold) I was contacted by Anit Kumar. Even with his undivided attention, and screen sharing as I went through the server setup, we were still not able to get the right settings. He promised to call me back after he made some further attempts on his end, and I trust he will.

I just find it hard to believe that a company like Adobe, that has made such incredible and intuitive products (I include CF Builder in that too even though I am having a challenge with it) can be so horrid when it comes to getting assistance with a product.

I have bookmarked your links, and I appreciate your taking time to at least respond even if it is to sell your service. At least you present an alternative. I'll wait to see what Anit comes back with. If nothing else, I feel it is important to bug Adobe with these challenges so they can improve both their videos, instructions, products and service.

Otherwise, they just become like Microsoft. "Here's the product. We know it's got issues, but you'll have to pay us to fix them."

[Charlie Arehart]

First, let me say I appreciate your dismay. It is of course annoying when something doesn’t work, and all the more when you can’t seem to get free help to solve it.

But I didn’t respond to “sell my service”. I responded to offer a solution. I also gave specific resources that could help before mentioning my service offering, as a last resort for you.

Of course, I don’t work for Adobe, so I can’t offer such remote, interactive, directed support for free. If you checked out that page, you will have seen that I do offer a very specific discount for helping with this sort of problem: a fixed rate of only $75 for up to 2 hours to help with any one CF Builder problem (and no charge if we don’t solve it). I think that’s pretty fair, and to tell you or others here about it is not a sales pitch but a possible solution.

Obviously, if everything about it was easy I wouldn’t even need to offer that service. And while the docs often do provide the answers people need, I understand that some people don’t care to spend time digging through the docs to find answers.

More than that, and as I said in the last note, there are simply a lot of moving parts in getting everything working in the communications between CFB and CF. It’s unlike any other editor, as things within CFB have to reach out over the network and into CF, to support certain features. If any one aspect of that communications is misconfigured, certain things just won’t work.

And I’m not surprised that even some Adobe engineers may not so readily solve such things, if they don’t work on such specific problems like I do. That’s not bragging. It’s just saying that some Adobe engineers may have responsibilities for many things, and may not so often work on this specific sort of challenge. It can take particular experience to connect the dots when even such “simple” things aren’t working. That’s what I do with folks every day, whether with CF server or CFB troubleshooting.

Happy to help if you may don’t resolve things otherwise, but it’s just not practical to go through all the steps in the forums or on email. There are just too many, with too many permutations.

/charlie