Cold Fusion Sandra Cadena-Torres IS-373 Spring 2010

Cold. Fusion Sandra Cadena-Torres IS-373 ~ Spring 2010 1

What is Cold. Fusion? Application Development Platform (similar technologies: PHP, ASP, Ruby) n Cold. Fusion Markup Language n ¨ #variable# Cold. Fusion Builder (Eclipse-based IDE) n Produced and sold by Adobe Systems n Also produced as Open Source n ¨ Railo, Blue. Dragon 2

Popularity n“One of the most downplayed, best kept secrets in the development world when it comes to building applications. ” –rip 747 http: //stackoverflow. com/ > 21, 000 internet sites http: //trends. builtwith. com/ 3

Usage n Rapid development of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) ¨ n Intranet sites, custom modules ¨ ¨ n Standard……$1299 Enterprise…. . $7499 Web Services generation ¨ n E-commerce 2 Editions: ¨ ¨ n Training, Content Management > 75% Fortune 100 companies Data-rich sites ¨ n Flash SOAP, Flash remoting, SMS, IM Vast interoperability 4

Specs: Environment n Operating Systems ¨ Windows, n Web Servers ¨ Apache, n Solaris, Linux, Mac OS IIS, Sun Web Server Databases ¨ Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL, My. SQL, IBM Informix 5

Specs: Architecture Java-based, installation runs on a Java application server n J 2 EE Servers supported n ¨ JBoss, n Oracle Web. Logic, IBM Web. Sphere Not created as an OO language ¨ Does not support multiple inheritance 6

CFML n Core Libraries ¨ Tags > ¨ Built-in n Extensible: Custom tags ¨ File n 100, Functions > 200 interoperability: PDF, Office functionality manipulation: Extensions ¨ File: . cfm /. cfml ¨ Component: . cfc n Scripting languages ¨ Action. Script ¨ CFScript: similar to Javascript 7

CFML Snippets n Inserting data to a database: ¨ ¨ ¨ n INSERT INTO name_table (NAME, TELEPHONE) VALUES ('#Form. NAME#', '#Form. TELEPHONE#') Outputting data to a table: ¨ ¨ ¨ #NAME# #TELEPHONE# Source: http: //www. unt. edu/benchmarks/archives/2001/november 01/coldfusion 3. htm 8

CF History n n Created in 1995: Brothers J & J Allaire Original application web server ¨ Allow HTML connectivity with ¨ Initially DBML extensions n n n databases Both a language and an application server V. 2: Full platform IDE & scripting language < V. 6: built on Microsoft Visual C++ V. 6: Flash integration Macromedia owned in 2001 Adobe owned since 2005 9

Governing Standards Body n n Original proprietary (de facto) Becoming less closed ¨ Open Source CFML: Railo, Blue. Dragon ¨ Open DB integration, XML files & Java architecture n Licensing costs high ¨ No n costs for CF compatibility Main development run by Adobe 10

Advantages n Ease of use Easiest tool to learn after HTML ¨ Quick Web services (CFCs) & DB connectivity ¨ Versatility with multiple O/S support ¨ n Interoperability ¨ Adobe family n Competitor technologies: . NET ¨ Popular tools: MS & Open. Office ¨ n ¨ , , Code mixing with Java n Libraries & classes 11

Advantages n Robustness ¨ Built n upon J 2 EE Enhanced performance & resourceful functionality ¨ Scalability n n Server clustering Pervasiveness ¨ Adobe n family support Flash as Presentation component ¨ Backward n compatibility Supports Windows after Java switch 12

Drawbacks n Lesser Popularity ¨ Licensing n n Open Source options, lower licensing $ Site in ASP $15, 000 / CF $3, 000 ¨ Poorer n n n developer skills Not as many developers, lesser competition Poorer programming practices ¨ Poorer n costs community support Lesser communication than similar technologies Some support in forums, events, publications 13

Conclusion n Cold. Fusion has low popularity but strong pervasiveness ¨ Less time to code more robust applications ¨ Strong support by Adobe n “When I convince a client to take Cold. Fusion, I simply tell them that if they don’t see the savings in time and benefits in results, I will buy their license from them. I’ve never had to buy one. ” –Jas Panesar 14

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