Allaire has moved into the big leagues with ColdFusion 4.0, the newest version of their enterprise level Web-application development suite. ColdFusion, for those of you who've never encountered it, is an alternative to the combination of Visual InterDev and Microsoft's Active Server Pages (or ASP) technology for creating high-level HTML for database connectivity and more dynamic Web sites.
We also have a negative review of ColdFusion.
May 3, 1999
ColdFusion, much like ASP, uses its own customized scripting tags, which when embedded in a Web page and consequently read by the Web server, produce on-the-fly dynamic output for the end user. The scripting elements are invisible to the client. To the browser, it appears as if they are normally surfing any Web site. With few exceptions, CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language) and ASP scripting are browser independent, although when combined with other technologies such as DHTML and XML, the end product will require a high-end, more modern browser.
ColdFusion 4.0 comes in two parts, the Studio and the Enterprise Server. The Studio is what most developers are concerned with, as it's the development IDE. With the Studio, developers design and build sites to deploy on the Enterprise Server.
The Studio interface uses the Allaire HomeSite editor. Within the editor, you may chose from three modes: edit, browse, and design. The edit mode is for generating raw HTML and inserting any CFML or XML markup. To view edited pages, you click into browse mode, which gives a pretty good idea of what the finished product will look like. For the WYSIWYG crowd, a quick switch to design mode allows for drag and drop visual editing. However, it doesn't allow for adding CFML or any other non-HTML tagging. The HomeSite editor has always been popular in site design circles, and makes working with ColdFusion a painless process.
ColdFusion Studio, like most other development environments on the market, comes with a well-stocked package of quick start wizards and sample sites. While the basic site wizards are limited, the true greatness shines through in the DHTML and CFML wizard building sites.
The Studio editor has dozens of other powerful features, most of which are found in the other high-end development kits on the market. Interactive debugging, visual SQL query generation, and markup validation are all provided.
Not one to ignore databases, ColdFusion provides connection capabilities for ODBC-compliant databases, along with native drivers for Sybase and Oracle (in the Enterprise edition). SQL queries can be quickly built through a drag-and-drop visual interface.
The ColdFusion Server, like the Studio, is a very solid product. The server is actually a service that hooks into your current Web server, extending its capabilities to allow it to "understand" CFML. The Enterprise Server supports server clustering and dynamic fail-over, which means if one of your Web servers goes down, the others will pick up where it left off, leaving your end users with uninterrupted service. Clustering and fail-over, it should be noted, require that your site be running Internet Information Server on Windows NT 4.0.
Other features of the ColdFusion Server include a very handy Web-based administration system, multiple developer support, and a host of high-performance server support features. The server works to create a faster, more stable Web application environment than most other servers could even attempt. Being multi-threaded, the ColdFusion Server can pool database connections/transactions, stop and restart out-of-control processes, and pool threads to speed connectivity.
ColdFusion may appear to many to be just another take on what's available in Microsoft's Visual InterDev. If you're an InterDev user, you probably won't see a need to move to ColdFusion. However for those just now looking for a Web application development tool, there are some important differences between it and InterDev.
First off, the wizards in Visual InterDev are far more complete than those available in ColdFusion 4.0 and the pages generated are of a slightly better quality. Where InterDev lacks in this area are DHTML development wizards, which are well covered in ColdFusion.
Visual InterDev relies upon Active Server Pages, which is great for those who already know a programming language such as Visual Basic Script, javascript, and many others. From what I've heard there are modules available for PERL and SmallTalk to interface with ASP. This is a great help for developers to recycle their programming knowledge when working with Web application design. The weakness of ColdFusion is that it relies mainly on CFML, thus forcing developers to learn a new language to work with ColdFusion.
As for Web server support, both environments rely heavily upon Microsoft's Internet Information Server. Recently, however, both ASP and CFML have had modules created to allow them to operate on the more popular Apache Web server. While I was unable to test these, from other users I have spoken with, the reports are generally good. ColdFusion also supports Sun's Solaris, which gives it a slight leg up on InterDev for cross-platform support.
If you're a Web application developer, or looking to become one, the choice comes down to languages. If you don't have your heart set on reusing what you already know, and you like a more HTML structured language, than ColdFusion 4.0 is for you. If you prefer to recycle your past VB knowledge, you may be better suited to Visual InterDev from Microsoft.
Ted Brockwood is the Information Services Manager for a real estate listing service in Oregon. His experience covers Java, Linux, UNIX, NT, Win95/98, Win3.x, and DOS.
