Programming:ColdFusion

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ColdFusion is a tag-based programming language that was developed by the Jeremy Allaire in 1995 to make development of CGI scripts easier and faster, CFML pre-dates ASP and PHP. It has matured over the last 10 years to include many interfaces with other languages and environments.

Contents

[edit] ColdFusion History

Timeline:

  • July 1995 - Cold Fusion 1.0 released.
  • November 1996 - Cold Fusion 2.0 released. This release included 150+ additional functions.
  • July 1997 - Cold Fusion 3.0 released. This release included custom tags.
  • November 1997 - Cold Fusion 3.1 and ColdFusion Studio Released. ColdFusion Studio was the first editor specifically designed to work with ColdFusion.
  • November 1998 - ColdFusion 4.0 released. This is the first release where Cold and Fusion were combined without the space.
  • August 1999 - ColdFusion 4.5 released. This was the first time that a true debugger was included.
  • March 2001 - Macromedia bought Allaire including the ColdFusion language.
  • June 2001 - ColdFusion 5.0 released. This release included the cfgraph functions.
  • June 2002 - ColdFusion MX (6) released. This release was a complete rewrite to a Java Engine.
  • August 2003 - ColdFusion MX 6.1 released. This was bundled with JRUN.
  • February 2005 - ColdFusion MX 7 released. This included Rich Internet Application Support.
  • December 2005 - Adobe merged with Macromedia.
  • July 2007 - ColdFusion MX 8 released.


ColdFusion servers prior to version 6.0 were written in C++.

Since version 6.0, the ColdFusion application server is a Java application sitting on top of the Java Platform. When a page is first called, the ColdFusion code is converted into Java bytecode; this allows better integration with the Java platform and also allows JSP "Java server pages" to be called and run from within a ColdFusion application.

Beginning in version 7 there was a dramatic focus on RIA (Rich Internet Applications). The ability to include flash forms, xhtml forms, dynamically created pdfs and flashpaper were all included.

Version 8 is expected to be released mid 2007. It is rumored to have image processing capacities and PDF form fillin and information retrieval.

Today there are several ColdFusion Application servers (compilers), the most popular is the Macromedia ColdFusion server. In 2nd place is the Blue Dragon server made by New Atlanta.

ColdFusion web pages make up around 10% of the web; its success is due to its simplicity and small learning curve. The majority of ColdFusion Developers started off as HTML designers, Due to CFML "ColdFusion Mark up Language" being a Tag based language it looks very similar to HTML, which makes it very attractive to HTML coders with very little programming experience.

[edit] Coldfusion Advantages

Coldfusion today offers Java developers a faster and more effective way to develop web based applications, as an application written in the Coldfusion language will generally require a lot less code than a Java application. The advantage here is that a Java developer can still call all his pre-existing Java objects from within a Coldfusion application.

Less advanced developers who have no experience with Java can use Coldfusion without ever having to know any Java. Highly trained programmers can develop web programs, including internet and intranet programs, in a much shorter time.

[edit] Developer Community

ColdFusion has had a long history of developer support including Team Macromedia and Coldfusion/Macromedia/Adobe User Groups.

Timeline:

  • July 1996 - Washington DC Cold Fusion users group is formed.
  • October 1999 - DevCon is held in Boston, MA.
  • November 2000 - Devcon is held in Washington, DC. Election results were made available via big screen at the Social Events.
  • October 2001 - DevCon is held in Orlando, FL.
  • November 2002 - MAX conference is held in Orlando, FL.
  • November 2003 - MAX conference in Salt Lake City, UT.
  • June 2004 - Ben Forta, Coldfusion's Product Evangilist, demos Blackstone (version 7) to 20 user groups around the world.
  • November 2004 - MAX conference in New Orleans, LA.
  • October 2005 - MAX conference in Anaheim, CA.
  • October 2006 - MAX conference in Las Vegas, NV.
  • April, May 2007 - Coldfusion on tour, demoing Scorpio (version 8) to user groups.
  • September, October 2007 - MAX conference in Chicago, IL.

Additionally there have been numerous CFUN/CFUnited conferences held usually in Maryland around June of each year.

[edit] Table of Contents





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