The WebDev Buzz

There are many technologies available to people involved in web development And one of the most powerful of these technologies is called the ColdFusion. In essence, this program offers speed and simplicity. The software is based on the CFMX programming language, which enables web developers to create and distribute web applications and services.

The power of ColdFusion is centered on the use of tags. These server scripting tags can specifically perform the following:

• Utilize virtually all the potential of the Java Platform in order to deploy Internet applications to billions of people all over the world
• Speeds up the development of applications for the web
• Converts the CFML templates (the modified HTML due to ColdFusion instructions) into the usual HTML documents for easy viewing of visitors to the website
• With the J2EE platform, ColdFusion can connect to many different databases and execute its own security.

The CFML has two major language elements. These are the tags and the functions. The tags allow the web developers to access databases, and other similar capabilities. The functions, on the other hand, enable web developers to return data, retrieve system date, and other related operations.

Although CFML has the ability to support and handle complicated and exacting Web applications, this software can be easily learned by beginners. In fact, some web development gurus believe that it is one of the easiest-to-learn programs. Macromedia provides a “Getting Started Experience” interface which provides tutorials and sample applications.

The ColdFusion MX can support most databases, such as Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Sybase, IBM DB2 and IBM Informix. This program can also run on most web servers, such as IIS, Sun One, and Apache. As for various operating systems, here are the requirements:

• For Windows OS – An Intel Pentium processor or higher, 256 MB RAM or higher, and 400 MB of hard disk space available. ColdFusion is compatible with Windows 98 / ME / NT 4 / SP6A / 2000 /SP3 / XP/ 2003
• For Linux OS – An Intel Pentium processor or higher, 256 MB RAM or higher, and 400 MB of hard disk space available. ColdFusion can be used with Red Hat Linux 7.2 / 7.3 / 8.0 / 9 / AS & S 2.1 / AS & ES 3.0, or with SuSE Linux 7.2 / 7.3, or with 8XTurbo Linux 8 Server ( Japanese Version Only)
• For Unix - The SPARC, PA-RISC 1.1 / 2.0 / Power 3 processor or Sun Solaris 7 / 8 / 9, 256 MB RAM or higher, and 400 MB of hard disk space available. ColdFusion works well with HP-UX 11i, IBM AIX 5L 4.3 / 3 / 5.1 / 5.2, and Apple Mac OS X

There are two ColdFusion 7.0 editions. These are the “Standard Edition” and the “Enterprise Edition”. The former is best for small workgroups and single web applications. It has the ability to transform HTML into PDF or FlashPaper 2 formats. It can also create structured business reports, charts, and graphs. The Enterprise edition, on the other hand, is ideal for businesses on the fast lane. It has all the features of the Standard edition, plus management capabilities for large scale business applications.

ColdFusion can be purchased from Macromedia or from any local computer software dealers.