Adobe ColdFusion
ColdFusion is a designed for Web-based scripting language and database applications middleware of the software manufacturer Adobe Systems, which basically consists of the following three parts:
- ColdFusion Application Server ( the first application server in the world)
- ( Programming CFML, a scripting language, which allows server-side applications) ColdFusion Markup Language
- Suitable development environments (such as Eclipse, Adobe ColdFusion Builder and Adobe Dreamweaver )
ColdFusion stands in direct competition with similar server-side systems such as ASP.NET, JSP / Servlet, Ruby on Rails ( RoR ), Zope (Python), Perl and PHP. In contrast to scripting languages such as Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby, which are open source, the original version of ColdFusion is not available in the source code. The ColdFusion server Railo is however published in the source code.
- 7.1 Open Source
General
Using ColdFusion can very quickly create web applications or Intranet-/Extranetanwendungen. The simple tag-based CFML development language provides an easy introduction to programming and offers experienced developers very powerful tools. Also contributes to the just -held installation and administration of the server. Originally purely procedural is version 6.0 (ColdFusion MX) and object- oriented programming in CFML possible.
A crucial difference to comparable systems is the server-side use of indexing an entire site by means of the implemented Verity engine (from ColdFusion 9 Solr is used ). Thus, the otherwise conventional indexing is invalid for the user: this can be controlled by so-called collections by the administrator for both text files as well as database contents.
Application Server
The ColdFusion Application Server has shaped the development of web technology in key areas.
Developed the program by Jeremy and JJ Allaire his brother. They founded 1994, Allaire Corp.. and marketed ColdFusion and other products, such as HomeSite or JRun. With WDDX a precursor to today's web services was developed by Allaire developed early, which was used for example for content syndication. ColdFusion was when it first appeared in 1995, the first application server at all and remains one of the most successful world - in his mother country, the United States, it is the market leader. Outside the U.S. it has ColdFusion always been a bit difficult, especially in Germany, with its traditionally strong PHP user group is not a breakthrough in sight. Even less than this is a proprietary (and paid ) software. However, ColdFusion has a very active user community how the various CFUGs ( ColdFusion User Groups) prove.
On 16 January 2001 Macromedia acquired Allaire Corp.. and integrated the products into their own product lines. With version Cold Fusion MX ( 6.0) has been completely written the program again and changed the underlying engine on J2EE. In 2002, Cold Fusion has been certified by Sun as a 100% Java compatible. MX Applications running under Bea Weblogic thus, as on IBM WebSphere, SunOne or Apache Tomcat. From the house JRun 4 is included as an application server.
Macromedia ColdFusion MX ( 6.1 and 7) is offered in three different versions. The free ColdFusion Developer Edition allows interested parties the localized introduction to the world of CF. The Standard and Enterprise editions, however, are commercial versions, which differ only in details such as the number of supported CPUs, operating systems, database interfaces and the cluster capacity.
The ColdFusion MX 7 version came to the previous functionalities particular options for the print edition (PDF and FlashPaper ), reporting including report generator, event gateways (SMS, instant messaging, etc.) and the ability to generate XForms and Flash Forms ( by the using Apache Flex) added. See also suitable development environments.
It continues still existed " free implementations " that allow to use ColdFusion to other web servers / operating systems. These are usually integrated as a module in the web server. Mentioned here are the solutions Railo, Blue Dragon, Smith, CORAL and IgniteFusion. This open source script engines mentioned solutions are all based on the ability to merge, Java classes and libraries with the CFML code. , Smith presented a fully written in Java ColdFusion cross-platform in June 2007. The currently most serious competition experienced by the original by the Swiss company Railo Technologies, which has been brought together with the developers of JBoss a free CFML application server.
Following the acquisition of Macromedia by Adobe all Macromedia products by Adobe now be developed and distributed. Since then, two additional versions are now published by ColdFusion. Since Adobe ColdFusion 8 is a greater integration into the Windows world with the introduction of new interfaces to Microsoft Exchange Server and ASP.NET clearly visible. In addition, 8 Ajax widgets were in the integrated version, support for JSON has been implemented as well as options for image and PDF editing. In addition, the performance has been increased compared to the predecessor.
Since October 2009 there is the latest version of Adobe ColdFusion 9 The biggest change here is the support of object -relational mapping (English: object - relational mapping in short: ORM) Represents the ORM ColdFusion 9 is based on the well known from the Java world Hibernate and simplified by the persistent data storage enormous. Other new features include tight integration with the Eclipse -based IDE, ColdFusion Builder, processing Microsoft Office files, a Microsoft SharePoint integration, advanced Flash interoperability and collaboration with Adobe AIR for data synchronization.
Markup Language
The ColdFusion Markup Language ( CFML short ) is a collection of tags and functions that greatly simplify the development of web applications. Nevertheless, CFML is a very powerful language that appeals to even the most complex technologies such as databases, including stored procedures, ORM, PDF generation, WSDL, LDAP, XML, XSLT, XForms, Verity and Solr etc. via simple HTML-like tags. As an alternative to tag syntax can also be a script syntax similar to the use of PHP, which could be processed faster in the past sometimes ColdFusion versions of the parser. With this set of tools is a Rapid Application Development is possible. 2008, the development of language in the CFML Advisory Committee was outsourced. Although this group was founded by Adobe, it also consists of employees of other CFML server developers as well as from community members and should thus ensure that the language standard is kept open and uniform.
The ColdFusion Markup Language served in part as a template for the development of JSP 2.0 and JSTL. The language scope of CFML has evolved constantly over the years. A serious Neuererung the merger Components ( CFC). CFCs allow the developer to choose a stronger OOP approach in the development of Web applications.
If a page with CF Code ( file extension. Cfm, more rarely. Cfml ) is called, then adds the web server according to the script statements HTML code in the page, and then sends them back to the Web browser of the visitor. The visitor thus shows only the HTML source code of the product, not the script itself latter remains the site visitors ( as well as other server-side scripts such as PHP) hidden.
Code Example
Simple CFML script ( returns " Hello world!" From ):