Version History

W H Y ?

All of this started simply because a hosting company I did work for used IIS and wanted to be able to add and delete NT users automatically. And lo, we did look, but no where could we find software written for Cold Fusion and for this stated purpose. (At least, software anyway which was not actually just a slightly hacked version of Allaire's free but buggy example tag CFX_NT_USERDB.)

Aside from the, well, limited functionality in this regard of the Enterprise version of Cold Fusion, there still doesn't seem to be much out there to handle NT users and groups in both relation to file permissions and the actual user security database (SAM). This is pretty much it folks. Oh, there are a few things other things out there, some free. Look for yourself.

The following is a complete list of known competitive products. If you know of any others (even if you make them yourself), send the link and it will be included.

• SA-Admin and SA-FileManager
• CFX_USER (or CFX_USER)
• CFX_ONCR_NTUSER
• CFX_NT_USERDB
• CACLS (Command-line. Comes with Windows NT and Windows 2000. Use CFEXECUTE or CFX_ConsoleCommand to call.)
• iAuth for IIS (CoolFusion.com)

V E R S I O N H I S T O R Y

Each tag has it's own specific detailed histories list at the bottom of it's documentation page (look to the right). You should read through it for a list of known or outstanding problems, and for the health and direction of the tag in general.

In brief however, this software bundle started out as the single CFX_UserManager tag. Along the way as it grew, it spawned the small tag CFX_GetUserGroups. When CFX_UserManager reached version 1.12 the thought of managing shares, network drives and file permissions became pleasing to it. This functionality was added to the tag through a series of beta versions. Finally, this new code was spawned off into the seperate CFX_NFS tag. At this point, version 2.0 was released.

• 1.x June 1999. See CFX_UserManager for 1.x histories and see above.
• 2.0beta June 15 2000
• 2.0 June 28 2000
• 2.1 July 4 2000
• 2.2 July 24 2000. (Select release)
• 2.3 July 26, August 1st & 5th 2000.

  Added CFX_Services. Finished first non-beta of CFX_IIS. Made CFX_GetUserGroups bundled freeware.

  Shadowy hints of CFX_ExchangeServer (for the mail server) and CFX_NetworkToplogy were added v2.3. These may or may not ever see the light of day.

  An independant tag from the start, CFX_IIS made it's first alpha appearance at 2.0beta and was finalized by 2.3. The CFX_Service tag was added to support CFX_IIS (circa ums2.3).

• 2.4 August 6th 2000. General debugging shakedown (mainly for CFX_IIS). No new tags to be added til 3.x. All further 2.x are refinements.
• 2.5 August 18th 2000.

  Introduction of CFX_NetworkTopology. Bug fixes for CFX_IIS. General doc work. CFX_NetworkTopology was released at v2.5 as a prelude to the major upgrade v3.x.

• 2.6 August 22nd 2000. CFX_NetworkTopology to 1.0 gamma. misc.
• 2.7 August 24th 2000. CFX_NetworkTopology to 1.1 and CFX_IIS to 1.4. misc.
• 2.8 August 25th 2000. CFX_IIS to 1.5.
• 2.9 August 28th 2000.

  CFX_NetworkTopology to 1.2.

  Found my little gray woods cat after 28 days. Skinny and happy to be home. To celebrate, the first person to tell me (via email) what her name is (either name) can knock a $100 off the cost of the suite. :)

  For accuracy and self-evident descriptioning I changed the name of the UserManager Suite to (Intrafoundation) Intranet/Hosting Toolkit, or the iht. There won't be very many updates for a while except perhaps some process control (ala task manager) I'm being bugged to do. The next tag on the to-do list now that CFX_NetworkTopology is settling is CFX_ExchangeServer.

  And finally, as of 2.9, the name changed for the 3rd (and probably final) time from UserManager Suite to Intrafoundation Intranet/Hosting Toolkit.

  The original tag CFX_UserManager was written in the age of NT4, starting around July 1999. Come UMS3.x it will be depricated (though remain part of the suite) and effectively be replaced by Windows 2000 native CFX_Users and CFX_Groups tags.

  CFX_NFS will give birth to two Windows 2000 sons called CFX_Shares and CFX_Permissions. Much of the logic for finding out the topology of the network will be moved over into the "readonly" tag called CFX_NetworkToplogy (The tag CFX_NetworkToplogy is the next on the to-do list, before all others).

  Additionally CFX_IIS may have basic NNTP and SMTP functionality added to them (they actually have since 2.3, but this is completely undocumented, and conditionallty compiled out of the release versions).

  Possibly additional tags added to the mix will be CFX_ODBC and CFX_ExchangeServer. And perhaps CFX_Cisco (as in the routers). This is all provisional to the demand being there. But this is where the road map currently lies.

  Then there will be silence....

• 2.10 August 31st 2000. Unreleased

  CFX_UserManager and CFX_NFS were becoming crusty under W2K, so... they were Deprecated. Added CFX_Users, CFX_Groups, CFX_Shares and CFX_Permissions. CFX_UserManager and CFX_NFS are now considered untouchable so as not to break them under the old NT version 4 for which they were created.

• 3.0 September 4th 2000 (Labour day).
  

  S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 0
  

  The end finally approaches. 3.x is here. From this point on there will be virtually no activity with these tags except for required bug fixes (must squash them all) and minor enhancements (adding additional fields, and parameters to CFX_IIS for example).

  From time to time the hedonistic urge to tighten the code so that it runs faster and cleaner, and smarter will overcome me. That part I really enjoy.

  But otherwise, this is it. Yes, CFX_NetworkTopology has a few experimental functions that might mature and become properly documented (or completely removed). And yes, there are three other tags I'm considering adding to the toolkit: CFX_Domains, CFX_ExchangeServer and CFX_Novell. CFX_Domains, among other things, automagically exports your IIS metabase bindings or WebSite Pro settings to your Domain Name Server or (Cisco, etc) router with a single command function. CFX_ExchangeServer manages Microsoft's ExchangeServer similiar to the way CFX_IIS operates. And then CFX_Novell. That of course provides specific enhancements and user management functions for Novell's Netware.

  But, as the mantra you've been hearing goes, otherwise that's it. There is silence....

  Went ahead broke apart the older NT4 tags into more logical components, made them W2K-aware and moved to 3.0 versioning. CFX_UserManager and CFX_NFS are deprecated, though retained in the toolkit for legacy and/or NT4 support.

  This has been coming for some time, and now it's done. There will be no more such "drastic" changes. The change is simply a reflection of the fact the these tools have grown beyond a simple little usermanager tag. It was time to compartmentalize before we ended up with a bloated 25,000 line program you'll have to reeval for a week everytime a new version came out.

  This also makes adding new tags (CFX_ExchangeServer, etc) easier down the road.

  Even if CF lasts several more years, there probably will never be a version 4 of this suite. There's no need. There might be a version 3 mark 777 one day though, but no other major upgrades.

• 3.1 September 17th 2000.

  Ok, perhaps one final little update. CFX_IIS and CFX_NetworkTopology updated.

• 3.2 September 19th 2000.
  • All tags were upgraded to v1.2 of error reporting functions.
  • Addressed an ongoing NT4/IIS4 issue with CFX_IIS (which was the reason for the cross-the-board v1.2 error reporting upgrade).
  • Fixed a few oversights regarding some css/images files.

• 3.3 September 21th, 29th 2000.

  Maint release. Cleaned up docs and performed tests with multiple computers in multiple configurations of W2K/NT4 and domain controller setups. Added to or refined documentation of most tags. Debugged CFX_NetworkToplogy, CFX_User and CFX_IIS.

  This is probably the last update for this software.

• 3.4 FINAL October 2nd 2000.

  Maint release. Minor CFX_NetworkTopology cross-domain issues quickly addressed.

  The economic goals set for this last eval cycle (ie, would further work on this software be enough to compensate for the time spent) were not quite met. Thus, this is the last release of this software package. There will be no further updates or additions.

• 3.4a FINAL October 2nd 2000.

  Bother. The packing script exluded the shares folder. And the GetUserGroups source. Fixed. And repackaged. We assume the FTPing script is working.

• 3.4b FINAL October 3rd 2000.

  A few final W2K related issues concerning CFX_Permissions were addressed.

• 3.5 October 29th 2000.

  Some documentation fixes. Debugged CFX_IIS and CFX_Permissions. There is some possibility that if work starts up on this project again that besides CFX_Domains and snmp for CFX_NetworkTopology that an ISAPI authenication filter will be added with control functions embedded in CFX_Users.

  NOTICE TO CITIZENS OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA and BRASIL:
  

  As of this release, and effective only until the next release, this software package is postcardware to citizens of The Ukraine, Russia (The Russian Federation) and Brasil, where the following conditions are met:

  • You must have a domain registered under your country code (ie, .ua for Ukraine, .ru for Russia and .br for Brasil). Please include a printed WHOIS as proof. Please list this as your URL on the order form.
  • You must provide your registration email on the order form as one of the contact email addresses from the WHOIS hardcopy.
  • You must include an interesting postcard (or an interesting local city or nature photograph).

  This offer expires IMMEDIATELY upon the release of version 3.6.

  This offer may be withdrawn at anytime, and without any warning.

  Peace.

• 3.6 November 6th 2000.

  Several tags were "cleaned up" so that the documentation could be captured for on-line reading.

  The offer to UKRAINE, RUSSIA and BRASIL is extended throughout version 3.6.

• 3.7 December 3rd 2000.

  Maint release. Mostly CFX_IIS and CFX_Users.

  To keep things straight, a dedicated email address has been set up for ihtk at: ihtk@intrafoundation.com. The project is still shelved though (aside from the occasional maint releases).

  There is some vauge interest in making a completely COM version of these tools that would also work with ASP, etc. If that happens then Domains, ExchangeServer and an ISAPI Authentication plugin might make their appearance.

  The offer to UKRAINE, RUSSIA and BRASIL ends December 31st 2000 Anno Dominus.

  CFX_NetworkTopology was released as FREEWARE. Full source was included.

  FYI: There have been a few reports of occasional tag failures under NT4. IHTK was originally developed under NT4 SP6a up until just after version 3.0. At that time, everything was, as far as I know, working fine. If now some things do not... well, NT4 is a rather old operating system. (I haven't used it since W2K SP1 was released half a year back.)

  I have no current plans to take a days to reinstall it on a multi-computer LAN setup just to debug for it.

• 3.8 January 3rd 2001.

  Added IHTKPASSWORD argument to support shared machine password protection.

• 3.9 January 7th 2001.

  Updated CFX_IIS logging properties.

  ATTENTION: IHTK hasn't been assimilated, but, in addition to a few additional enchancements, version 3.10 will have price increase. It wil soon be available for on-line credit card purchases at Coolfusion.com. The price increase comes about because it was ridicuously cheap compared to most any other low-volume niche software elsewhere on the market. Also, of course, between the government, the banks, etc it's almost not worth my time as is. So, if you're thinking about it, now would be a good time to buy.

  Also 3.10 or 3.11 mostly likely will start to enforce the one-copy-per-computer license through use of the serial number and an active LAN scan at startup. Duplicates will simply refuse to work. fyi.

• 3.10 January 10th 2001.
  • Fixed some document errors here and there.
  • About to change pricing to $400 USD and add on-line credit card docs.
  • Changed to Class C.
• 3.11 Feb 24th 2001.
  • Added CFX_secFile, CFX_secDirectory, CFX_Execute, CFX_secPOST and secPOSTService.
  • Added features to CFX_IIS.
  • misc.
  • There is a most likely a very major change coming in the next release.
• 3.12 OMEGA March 2nd 2001.

  This software is now FREEWARE. No further enhancements to it will be made. (I simply don't have the time anymore.)

  Future downloads of the "evaluation" version will be the full, unlimited versions. For those who have in the past already bought a copy, you will find your secure 3.12 download (the EDS) is almost double in size because I am releasing to you the full project archive including the complete c/c++ source code to all the software included in the IHTK. All of it (except the PKZIP25.EXE application used for packing.)

  Yes, you can now freely include the dll's in your own projects. Now stop bugging me about it. /-)

  PAX.

• 3.13 OMEGA September 6th/9th 2001.

  There have been no changes to the code-base and only some slight documentation changes were made because MSIE6 mucked up the css. The primary primary reason for version 3.13 was to add a proper copyright notice.

  Several developers have been pestering me about just what they can do with the code. See the copyright page for an exact explaination.

• 3.14 OMEGA November 29th 2001.
  • Removed all "expiration" and "evaluation" code from the tags.
  • Cleaned up some minor doc issues.
  • Changed all references to "commerical" in the code to "open" (that is, "open-ihtk").
  • Recompiled more optimized settings.

• 3.15 OMEGA December 2nd 2001.

  Despite the update, don't expect any more in the future.

  • Fixed "drives" bug in networktopology.
  • Recompiled all (vc++ 6 sp5, for "pentium" opcodes).
  • Cleaned up some minor doc issues.
  • Removed reference to the old ORDER FORM.
  • Added references to "open-ihtk".
  • Rewrote CFX_GetUserGroups, CFX_UserManager and CFX_NFS to (hopefully) be thread-safe for open-ihtk. Use for updating of all other tags. See the individual tag histories for details.

--min

Click.

*What does OMEGA mean?

There are four stages in software development: ALPHA, BETA, GAMMA and OMEGA.

Alpha is where programming for the software is still heavily ongoing. If you can start up the program without it rebooting the computer you're generally happy.

Beta is where you've gotten a great bulk of the program working (sort of) and you're letting other people try it out to test if they can use it or crash it.

Gamma is also sometimes called being "Gone Gold". It's publically (or commerically) released software. If it's in a box or shrink-wrap it's Gamma (you hope).

Omega is the absolute final release. Not all software publishers do this, but it is when they decide they're never going to work on the software again and generally release the entire thing for free, sometimes with the full source code.

+the secret garden+