ColdFusion 8
Originally released by Allaire back in 1995, ColdFusion is a computer software package and development framework that is mostly utilized to create dynamic Web sites. Since its debut, the software has steadily evolved in both usability and functionality. The latest version, ColdFusion 8, features a host of major improvements including easier document and image manipulation and integration into large-scale IT environments.
There is now a server monitor, available with select editions, which helps to identify potential workflow problems, thus increasing both performance and efficiency. A much more robust interaction with the widely-used Adobe Acrobat PDF document format has been enabled, with dynamic generation of both documents and forms now possible. This particular feature has the potential to make it much easier to share information via PDF, as ColdFusion 8 can create them using standard HTML, with no other coding needed.
Ajax is a relatively new, but increasingly popular Web technology seen on a number of cutting-edge sites, such as Google.com. It allows an online visitor to replace a significant amount of information on a given Web page without having to reload, making the desired data available faster and more efficiently. With ColdFusion 8, Ajax frameworks can be integrated into a constructed site with the use of basic tags that have access to pre-set Ajax user interfaces. In short, a very popular Web technology is now easier than ever to work with and implement.
Of course, it is difficult to discuss computer software without some mention of Microsoft. The company’s .NET platform is a major application environment. The new ColdFusion now functions seamlessly within this platform. Also, integration with Microsoft Exchange Server has been accomplished, facilitating server tasks such as managing calendar events, contact lists and e-mail.
As a software package, ColdFusion has gone through a number of releases since its introduction to the computing world. It was then known as Allaire Cold Fusion version 1.0, progressing to version 4.5 before the product line was merged with Macromedia, then the maker of Web-building software Dreamweaver and graphics package, Fireworks. Incidentally, it was in an earlier version, 4.0, that the “Cold” and “Fusion” were combined into the current “ColdFusion” product name.
In 2005, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe, known for its Photoshop and Acrobat product lines, among many others. The “MX” label, which had been placed on Macromedia versions 6.0, 6.1 and 7, was dropped with version 8.
Throughout its history, the ColdFusion brand has become more and more feature-packed. From its earlier days of being based on the Microsoft Visual C++ programming language, the software was rebuilt by Macromedia and based on a Java platform. This tremendously increased its “portability,” allowing it to be utilized in more programming environments. The current version is available to be run on such diverse operating systems as Linux, Mac OSX and Windows Vista.
In conclusion, ColdFusion 8 is now a much more complete, self-contained software package, which in addition to the features already mentioned can handle the Zip archive file format, sports an enhanced ability to deal with image manipulation, allows for Atom and RSS online feeds, supports improved database interaction and has an active debugging process.
According to Adobe.com, their flagship Web site is already being run on ColdFusion 8. The company also asserts that sites that upgrade to the new version will notice a significant improvement in performance even without changes to the underlying application code. To quantify this, Adobe indicates that simply upgrading from version MX 7 to 8 will potentially yield up to a four-fold Web site performance increase.