I'm in need of a mid to senior level CF contractor to help with a project. You can do all the work from home, however you must live within 25 miles of Sacramento so we can meet face to face when needed. I can keep you busy 20 to 25 hours a week (minimum) from now until March or April (hopefully longer, but that depends on us meeting our milestones).

Ideally, I'd like someone with several years of experience building large scale web apps, someone that can "see the the big picture", and that can also help me in refactoring the application as we go.

The current codebase is a loosely based MVC in-house framework (or more accurately maybe just an MV at this point, with room for improvement). At the time we started, it didn't appear that Model Glue or Mach-ii would benefit us...but if you're a pro at one of these, maybe you can help us see the light and make some improvements.

General Requirements:

• Exceptional communication abilities. I need to know when you're stuck, if you're on schedule, when you need help, etc.
• Good note-taking abilities...trust me, the app design will not "click" at first. This business model/design is not like anything I've ever worked on before. You'll have lots of questions, and that's ok...but be able to take good notes that you can reference later.
• Exceptional organization. The app is big (really big), we have quickly moving deadlines, lots of work, and sometimes the priorities change without much warning. You'll need to be able to manage regular "todo" lists that I assign you, and be able to adapt when things change.
• Attention to detail.
• Ability to work independently -- you know how to check in when you need help, but you also know to check your notes, and Adobe.com for basic questions first.
• Be able to follow a "shop standard" for variable naming conventions, code formatting, etc. This project is HUGE -- 500 database tables and counting! There is no room for variables named "thequery2" or "q". We have naming conventions in place for a reason, and they need to be followed.
• The ability to "see the big picture". I'm 100% certain that this app has room for improvement in a variety of places. If you can help me discover those, and offer suggestions, that'd be a huge help.
• The ability to "know when to break the rules, but do so gracefully". Yes, recommended practices are important. However what's more important is meeting our deadlines. We'll have to cut corners at times, and that's ok...but we should document what was done, so we can refactor it later as time permits.

Technical Requirements:

• ColdFusion 8 on Windows -- we're not using many CF8 specific features yet, but they're coming so you'll need to be on version 8, and you'll need to be running CF on Windows (ideally with IIS or CF as the web server, but if you already have Apache or the like configured that's fine).
• Intermediate knowledge of writing your own SQL queries and best practices therein. Never used CFQueryParam before? Don't know why it's important? Then this project is not a good match.
• You'll need to be running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005 (or MS SQL Express 2005) with a JDBC datasource.
• Intermediate knowledge of CFCs. You don't need to be a ModelGlue or Mach-II wizard, but you will need to understand things like "composition", "inheritance", "the factory pattern", "DAOs, Gateways, and Entities". If these topics are at all new to you, then we are not a good match at this time.
• A strong understanding of current cross-browser JavaScript practices. You understand DOM scripting, and ideally you use FireBug on a regular basis.
• A basic or intermediate understanding of Ajax. There's not a lot of it in this app, but there is some (currently home-grown -- it was Spry, but that wasn't cutting it for our needs...got an idea for another JS framework? feel free to offer suggestions).
• Subversion source control -- we're running the Tortoise client for this project.

Things in the "nice to have but not required" category include:

• Experience with Flex 2 / ActionScript 3 (we might be redoing some of the UI in Flex at a later date).
• Experience with CF8's ability to auto-generate Flex code.
• Experience with some Flex/CF design patterns.
• Experience w/ any of the following: ModelGlue or Mach-ii, ColdSpring, Transfer, or Reactor.
• Working knowledge of any current Ajax framework (Spry, JQuery, YUI, etc).

If I haven't scared you off yet, then please contact me at "nolan DOT erck AT gmail DOT com". If you can provide samples of your work that'd be great.

Given that the holidays are here, it may take me a while to respond, but I promise to get back to everyone as soon as possible. I'm hoping to have someone on board by mid-January.

Thanks,

Nolan