Cold Fusion Essay, Research Paper

Allaire’s ColdFusion studio and server package allows web developers to create database driven applications. ColdFusion is server side scripting that utilizes Microsoft ODBC drivers to access system databases. This allows ColdFusion to produce dynamic pages generated real time by the server. The language looks much like HTML at a first glance, but is much more like HTML with a programming language embedded.

Architecturally, ColdFusion works very much like Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP). You write HTML pages marked up with special tags and logic in ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), a proprietary language that’s like HTML on steroids. When a browser requests a ColdFusion page, which typically has a CFM extension, the ColdFusion server parses the page and turns CFML into HTML. This is all done through an IDE very similar to that of Microsoft’s Visual Studio. All of your tools and tags are on the toolbar for ease of use. ColdFusion also utilizes text completion to help you in remember the features of tags and functions.

The Main editing window can be used for a variety of tasks, from down and dirty code editing to a visual production screen which allows you to visually draw elements on the screen and have the code generated for you. The programmer can also create custom tags that can then be used by later programmers in their applications without extensive knowledge of how the tag was created or works. This produces code structures very similar to an object oriented programming language.

ColdFusion would be a great tool for producing dynamic HTML pages. I can foresee that its major application would be that of web based storefronts. The ODBC connectivity would allow for a full featured store without the cumbersome usage of Microsoft’s ASP. I believe this would be a great server side package.

Bibliography

Seltzer, Larry. “Allaire ColdFusion 4.0.” PC Magazine Online. May 10 2000. .