About Coldfusion Hosting
Originally a product of Allaire and released in July 1995, ColdFusion was developed by brothers Joseph 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 web sites 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.
ColdFusion can also handle asynchronous events such as SMS and instant messaging via its gateway interface, available in ColdFusion MX 7 Enterprise Edition.
The first version of ColdFusion (then called Cold Fusion) was released on July 10, 1995. This first version was written almost entirely by one person, Joseph JJ Allaire. Primitive by modern standards, early versions of ColdFusion did little more than database access.
All versions of ColdFusion prior to 6.0 were written using Microsoft Visual C++. This meant that ColdFusion was largely limited to running on Microsoft Windows, although Allaire did successfully port ColdFusion to Sun Solaris starting with version 3.1.
For reasons that may have been tied to lackluster sales the company was sold to Macromedia, then to Adobe. Earlier versions were not as robust as the versions available from version 4.0 forward.
With the release of ColdFusion MX 6.0, the engine had been re-written in Java and sported its own runtime environment, which was easily replaced through its configuration options with the runtime environment from Sun. Version 6.1 included the ability to code and debug Shockwave Flash.
ColdFusion MX 7
With the release of ColdFusion 7.0, the naming convention was amended, rendering the product name "Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7". CFMX 7 added Flash-based, and XForms-based, web forms and a report builder that output in Adobe PDF as well as FlashPaper, RTF and Excel. The Adobe PDF output is also available as a wrapper to any HTML page, converting that page to a quality printable document. The enterprise edition also added Gateways. These provide interaction with non-HTTP request services such as IM Services, SMS, Directory Watchers, and an asynchronous execution. XML support was boosted in this version to include native schema checking.
ColdFusion MX 7.0.2, codenamed "Mystic" includes advanced features for working with Adobe Flex 2.
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 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
Adobe is currently working on ColdFusion 9 (Codename: Centaur). There is no release date set, but the list of potential new features include [2]:
* Ability to code User Defined Functions (UDFs) and ColdFusion Components (CFC's) 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 AIR.
Tags Coldfusion Hosting
IIS, Microsoft Windows, Allaire, CFML, CFScript, Macromedia, Adobe, XSLT, XPath, CFStudio, Macromedia Flex, Railo, BlueDragon, IgniteFusion, SmithProject, Coral Web Builder, JRun, CFMX
References Coldfusion Hosting
Adobe ColdFusion
News or Articles mentioning Coldfusion
CrystalTech Releases ColdFusion 9 Hosting Plans - Company's release includes three shared hosting plans running ColdFusion 9, Enterprise Edition, on Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft IIS7 servers, starting at $16.95/month.CrystalTech Web Hosting, the web hosting division of Newtek Technology Services, a Newtek Business Services, Inc. company, today announced the release of Adobe ColdFusion 9 hosting plans. The company says that as one of the first Adobe sanctioned web hosts to offer ColdFusion 9 beta hosting last summer, it has been working closely with developers and reliably hosting live ColdFusion 9 sites for more than six months in preparation for today's launch.It explains that ColdFusion 9 enables developers to rapidly build web applications by condensing complex business logic into fewer lines of code. The software also features enhanced integration with the Adobe Flash Platform and tight integration with Adobe's first ever ColdFusion IDE, ColdFusion Builder. The company further states that its ...KickAssVPS.com Introduces ColdFusion 9 VPS - Provides access to the latest rapid application development platform from Adobe.KickAssVPS.com, a Linux and Microsoft Windows Virtual Private Server hosting provider, today introduced ColdFusion 9 Virtual Private Servers, providing access to the latest rapid application development platform from Adobe. The company articulates that released in October, ColdFusion 9 introduces a multitude of productivity enhancing features, deeper integration with the Adobe Flash Platform, and simplified integration with enterprise environments that enable developers to build enterprise-ready internet applications.It adds that ColdFusion 9 also offers Microsoft Office interoperability and object-relational mapping. The company states that it has been at the forefront of the ColdFusion development community by offering pre-configured Windows VPS hosting services with ColdFusion 7 and 8. It will now similarly offer ColdFusion 9 as an add-on to all Windows-based Virtual Private ...
Hosting.com Launches ColdFusion 9 in the Cloud - The company becomes first hosting provider to announce the general availability of ColdFusion 9 in a Cloud environment.Hosting.com, a provider of managed hosting, cloud hosting and colocation solutions and an Adobe Solution Partner, recently announced the general availability of ColdFusion 9 in its Cloud and Dedicated environments. The company states that it is the first provider to launch ColdFusion 9's availability in a cloud hosting environment.It explains that ColdFusion 9 Enterprise and Standard editions are available in its Cloud Enterprise, Cloud Dedicated and Dedicated Hosting platforms. Cloud Enterprise, starting as low as $125 per month, provides on-demand cloud hosting via a secure web portal so businesses can rapidly deploy virtual servers and modify resources as needed - and provides high availability and elasticity to each client. Cloud Enterprise requires no contracts and clients can purchase, provision and add CPU, RAM, and DISK online,