Development environment offers web services
boost
What is it?
Coldfusion is a development environment for building and
deploying web applications and web services. Now part of the
Adobe/Macromedia family, and integrated with products such as
Flash, Dreamweaver and Acrobat, Coldfusion has been criticised for
its high cost compared with Active Server Pages (ASP) and open
source systems. However, the boost it gives to productivity is said
to quickly recoup the cost.
Microsoft offers inducements to Coldfusion developers to switch
to ASP.net. Coldfusion’s champions recommend the reverse migration,
claiming that, architecturally, ASP.net and Coldfusion MX are not
that different.
Where did it originate?
First released by Allaire in 1995, Coldfusion is one of the best
established web application tools, pre-dating Java Server Pages
(JSP), Microsoft’s ASP and scripting languages such as PHP.
Macromedia’s Ben Forta said, “Before acquiring Aspect Software,
Microsoft approached Allaire about buying Coldfusion.”
The original company’s founder, Jeremy Allaire, joined
Macromedia after the takeover in 2001 and oversaw the
re-engineering of Coldfusion to a Java-based architecture.
Macromedia merged with Adobe in 2005.
What is it for?
Coldfusion has its own tag-based server-scripting language,
Coldfusion Markup Language (CFML), with a syntax that closely
resembles HTML and XML. Developers can use the Dreamweaver
integrated development environment, and the Macromedia Flex
presentation server.
Coldfusion applications can be integrated with .net and Java
applications, with support for JSP and Enterprise Java Beans.
Macromedia’s JRun J2EE server is included.
What makes it special?
Coldfusion includes its own structured business reporting. Web
content can be transformed into print-quality PDF or Flashpaper
format. Applications can interface with SMS-enabled phones using an
SMS gateway. It includes a version of Verity search technology.
How difficult is it to master?
Coldfusion uses a variety of visual tools to simplify
development. It enables developers to take advantage of Java
application servers without having to get to grips with
technologies such as JSP.
According to Ben Forta, it has “the shortest learning curve of
any language in this space”.
Rates of pay
Salaries range from £25,000 for juniors to £35,000-plus with two
years’ experience. Contractors complain that many firms are still
using the pre-Macromedia-MX version 5.
Training
For training materials, see the Adobe website, where you can
download a trial version of Coldfusion Enterprise Edition and
continue to use it as the Developer Edition. See also the
Coldfusion community sites and the Coldfusion Developers
Journal.
www.adobe.com
www.houseoffusion.com
www.coldfusionhub.com
www.coldfusion.sys-con.com