Inspiring

Question

Should I use Coldfusion?

Forum|Forum|18 years ago
June 10, 2007
66 replies
8796 views

Hi I am getting ready to create a large web site. I am still contemplating whether or not to use Coldfusion over another language.

Over the weekend, I've been reading the info on CF on the main web site and other article about Coldfusion's benefit over other languages as I have to make a decision soon.

I just am still unsure. I'm worried about finding the support I need if I get into trouble with coding or if I want to try implementing something interesting. With ASP I usually could ask around and I'll get a pretty quick response about what I need to do.

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N

Newsgroup_User

Inspiring

Coldfusion is not very popular and there are not as many resources as most
other languages. Plus its not very well supported with ISP's.

If you find you do lots of work for smaller customers, you'll find that they
either don't care about which technology you use or they'll specifically ask
you not to use coldfusion as they have heard it is expensive and fading out.

Use asp.net , php or ruby on rails as these are the way of the future.
People are not adopting cf as it offers very little for a a large cost (not
just talking money. Take a look in the bookstore or crusise around the web,
you;ll quickly see that cf is not well supported or widely used. This
doesn't mean its not a great technology, it is. But if these limiattions are
a probelm for you then I think you should know. You'll get all the wrong
answers in here as they are very cf biased (as they should be)

"lovewebdev" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:f4fq2t$pmh$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> Hi I am getting ready to create a large web site. I am still contemplating
> whether or not to use Coldfusion over another language.
>
> Over the weekend, I've been reading the info on CF on the main web site
> and
> other article about Coldfusion's benefit over other languages as I have to
> make
> a decision soon.
>
> I just am still unsure. I'm worried about finding the support I need if I
> get
> into trouble with coding or if I want to try implementing something
> interesting. With ASP I usually could ask around and I'll get a pretty
> quick
> response about what I need to do.
>

>

lovewebdevAuthor

Inspiring

quote:

Originally posted by: Newsgroup User
Coldfusion is not very popular and there are not as many resources as most
other languages. Plus its not very well supported with ISP's.

Wow. I'm back to square one, as those were my original concerns ...

D

Dan_Bracuk

Inspiring

I started with version 4.5 and now work on 7.whatever. The basic coding style has never changed. At least not that I noticed.

lovewebdevAuthor

Inspiring

What about "spaghetti" code. That is ASP.NEt's argument that there is no more of that.

Should I continue coding in that style or I heard something about CFC's....? What's the normal way coldfusion developers code web applications. I want to start the right way.

I just can't come to learn a whole new methodology going from ASP to ASP.NET, which is why I'm opting for a new language.

D

Dan_Bracuk

Inspiring

quote:

Originally posted by: lovewebdev
What about "spaghetti" code. That is ASP.NEt's argument that there is no more of that.

Should I continue coding in that style or I heard something about CFC's....? What's the normal way coldfusion developers code web applications. I want to start the right way.

I just can't come to learn a whole new methodology going from ASP to ASP.NET, which is why I'm opting for a new language.

CFC's are a way of re-using code. They are also a way of getting Cold Fusion to play with other technologies such as Flash.

There is no right way or wrong way. There are ways that work well and ways that don't. My personal philosophy is to re-use as much code as possible, and to keep things as simple as possible.

If you don't know data modelling, or how to design a nomalized database, learn it. It's more important than anything else.

J

j-mail

Known Participant

I am using ColdFusion over 1,5 of year and I am very happy that I have started. The great support for the charts, pdf's, flashpapers, forms and many many more.

I suggest to try it and check it if you like this technology.

lovewebdevAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks guys. I've downloaded CF server. I'm playing with CF now developing sample web applications I will need and I'm going to pick up a new book.

I have to say the few pages I've developed I've been pleasantly amazed at the difference in coding time! I just couldn't believe it was so easy to pull records from a database. I kept saying to myself that can't be it!

However, I have an older Mastering Coldfusion MX book I've had in storage. Are there significant changes between MX and MX 7. Did the coding style change significantly the way .NET changed ASP?

My main concern was starting a significant project in CF and finding out something I need to do costs a lot of money or that there will be no resources or help available.

Thanks!

J

josheby

Inspiring

quote:

Originally posted by: lovewebdev
However, I have an older Mastering Coldfusion MX book I've had in storage. Are there significant changes between MX and MX 7. Did the coding style change significantly the way .NET changed ASP?

There havent been any real changes to the code itself... just added functions, tags, and improved funtionality with new versions... I have been using it for over 5 years and even with the fact that PHP is free I still like to use ColdFusion. the support forums are great and if you cannot find it here there are a lot of good books by Ben Forta and Ray Camden... and if i cannot find it there i just search on google... there are lots of resources available...

N

Newsgroup_User

Inspiring

> I just am still unsure. I'm worried about finding the support I need if I
> get
> into trouble with coding or if I want to try implementing something
> interesting. With ASP I usually could ask around and I'll get a pretty
> quick
> response about what I need to do.
>

First, everyone using CF needs Ben Forta's Web Application
Construction Kit (referred to as WACK). Next there are several
Adobe CF forums, plus I list many CF resources at my site
http://www.katsueydesignworks.com/tutorials_cf.cfm
I'm sure you can find many more through Google.

N

Nick Way

Inspiring

personally i've found these forums to be very helpful whenever i've got stuck

D

Dan_Bracuk

Inspiring

If you already know ASP, why are you not prepared to use it?

lovewebdevAuthor

Inspiring

quote:

Originally posted by: Dan Bracuk
If you already know ASP, why are you not prepared to use it?

I misunderstood your post.

I don't want to continue using it as it's a dying technology so I want to discontinue creating my database driven sites with ASP. Do you mean ASP.NET? I'm not interested in the learning curve right now ....

A

Anonymous

I'll go ahead and put my $.02 in. As for CF not being widely used, I think that: Logitech, Casio, Sanyo, The PGA, Autobytel, ITT Tech, DelTaco, Footlocker & Frommers (just to name a limited few) would disagree (and you can find many many more at Bens site). Add to that on-the-fly pdf generation and the integrated flash remoting and believe you me, CF isn't going anywhere but up. I will be the first to admit that you will run into problems, but to say that won't happen in any other language is not even plausible. Most of the problems that I personally have had relate to consuming .NET webservices, but over time I was able to resolve them all with the support of this message board. If you are concerned about support, for someone to even suggest php makes me laugh. I've utilized Flash Remoting in both a CF environment and a PHP one. Lets just say I had the CF code connecting and displaying data in 1/10th the time it took me to do that in php. Hope this helps in your decission making...

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