ColdFusion

ColdFusion is the name of a commercial rapid application development platform invented by Jeremy and JJ Allaire in 1995. (The programming language used with that platform is also commonly called ColdFusion, though is more accurately known as CFML.) ColdFusion was originally designed to make it easier to connect simple HTML pages to a database, by version 2 (1996) it had become a full platform that included an IDE in addition to a "full" scripting language. As of 2010, versions of ColdFusion (purchased by Adobe Systems in 2005) include advanced features for enterprise integration and development of rich Internet applications.

One of the distinguishing features of ColdFusion is its associated scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language. CFML compares to the scripting components of ASP, JSP, and PHP in purpose and features, but its tag syntax more closely resembles HTML, while its script syntax resembles JavaScript. "ColdFusion" is often used synonymously with "CFML" or "CFM", but there are additional CFML application servers besides ColdFusion, and ColdFusion supports programming languages other than CFML, such as server-side Actionscript and embedded scripts that can be written in a JavaScript-like language known as CFScript. Originally a product of Allaire and released in July 1995, ColdFusion was developed by brothers Joseph J. "JJ" and Jeremy Allaire. In 2001 Allaire was acquired by Macromedia, who in turn were acquired by Adobe Systems Inc in 2005. ColdFusion is most often used for data-driven websites or intranets, but can also be used to generate remote services such as SOAP web services or Flash remoting. It is especially well-suited as the server-side technology to the client-side Flex.[1] ColdFusion can also handle asynchronous events such as SMS and instant messaging via its gateway interface, available in ColdFusion MX 7 Enterprise Edition.

Main features ColdFusion provides a number of additional features out of the box. Among them:

• Simplified database access
• Client and server cache management
• Client-side code generation, especially for form widgets and validation
• Conversion from HTML to PDF and FlashPaper
• Data retrieval from common enterprise systems such as Active Directory, LDAP, SMTP, POP, HTTP, FTP, Microsoft Exchange Server and common data formats such as RSS and Atom
• File indexing and searching service based on Verity K2
• GUI administration
• Server, application, client, session, and request scopes
• XML parsing, querying (XPath), validation and transformation (XSLT)
• Server clustering
• Task scheduling
• Graphing and reporting
• Simplified file manipulation including raster graphics (and CAPTCHA) and zip archives (introduction of video manipulation is planned in a future release)
• Simplified web service implementation (with automated WSDL generation / transparent SOAP handling for both creating and consuming services

Adobe ColdFusion 8

On July 30, 2007, Adobe Systems released ColdFusion 8, dropping "MX" from its name. During beta testing the codename used was "Scorpio" (the eighth sign of the zodiac and the eighth iteration of ColdFusion as a commercial product). More than 14,000 developers worldwide were active in the beta process - many more testers than the 5,000 Adobe Systems originally expected. The ColdFusion development team consisted of developers based in Newton/Boston, Massachusetts and offshore in Bangalore, India. Some of the new features are the CFPDFFORM tag, which enables integration with Adobe Acrobat forms, some image manipulation functions, Microsoft .NET integration, and the CFPRESENTATION tag, which allows the creation of dynamic presentations using Adobe Acrobat Connect, the Web-based collaboration solution formerly known as Macromedia Breeze. In addition, the ColdFusion Administrator for the Enterprise version ships with built-in server monitoring. ColdFusion 8 is available on several operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows Server 2003.

Other additions to ColdFusion 8 are built-in Ajax widgets, file archive manipulation (CFZIP), Microsoft Exchange server integration (CFEXCHANGE), image manipulation including automatic captcha generation (CFIMAGE), multi-threading, per-application settings, Atom and RSS feeds, reporting enhancements, stronger encryption libraries, array and structure improvements, improved database interaction, extensive performance improvements, PDF manipulation and merging capabilities (CFPDF), interactive debugging, embedded database support with Apache Derby, and a more ECMAScript compliant CFSCRIPT. For development of ColdFusion applications, several tools are available: primarily Adobe Dreamweaver CS4, Macromedia HomeSite 5.x, CFEclipse, Eclipse and others. "Tag updaters" are available for these applications to update their support for the new ColdFusion 8 features.

Adobe ColdFusion 9

ColdFusion 9 (Codenamed: Centaur) was released on October 5, 2009. New features for CF9 include: Ability to code ColdFusion Components (CFCs) entirely in CFScript. An explicit "local" scope that does not require local variables to be declared at the top of the function. Implicit getters/setters for CFC. Implicit constructors via method called "init" or method with same name as CFC. New CFFinally tag for Exception handling syntax and CFContinue tag for Control flow. Object-relational mapping (ORM) Database integration through Hibernate (Java). Server.cfc file with onServerStart and onServerEnd methods. Tighter integration with Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR. Integration with key Microsoft products including Word, Excel, Sharepoint, Exchange and Powerpoint. In Memory Management - or Virtual File System - an ability to treat content in memory as opposed to using the HDD. Exposed as Services - an ability to access, securely, functions of the server externally.

Adobe ColdFusion 10

ColdFusion version 10 was confirmed to be in-work by Adobe at Adobe MAX 2010. The internal codename for the next release of ColdFusion is "Zeus", but it is commonly referred to as ColdFusion X in blogs, on Twitter, etc. For much of 2010, ColdFusion Product Manager Adam Lehman toured the US setting up countless meetings with customers, developers, and user groups to formulate a master blueprint for the next feature set. In September 2010, he presented the plans to Adobe where they were given full support and approval by upper management.(sources : http://en.wikipedia.org)

For more information on Adobe ColdFusion please visit the web site www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/customers/

ColdFusion is designed to be a high availability, rapid application development platform for web applications. It means that your web site is running on a commercial platform which can be easily scaled as your visitor numbers increase. As a Rapid Application Development language, development time is kept to a minimum, keeping your costs and timescales down

At SilentDrifter Inc, we believe in providing you the best ColdFusion service by understanding your business needs, the ones you have and the ones you may have in future and catering to them through our powerful applications and websites.