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juliecalibari
Participant
May 18, 2009
Question

SHTML and ColdFusion

  • May 18, 2009
  • 3 replies
  • 712 views

HELP!

I work for a moderate sized company with a website that comprises ~2000 pages. We've been using ColdFusion for a number of years for the site, and have done quite an array of things with it. We've used databases, dynamic content, physical/logical pages, forms, etc.

My boss has informed me (and shut down discussion), that we will be switching to SHTML. I've been unable to start a dialogue with my boss. Somewhere, someplace, he was exposed to the 'wonders' of SHTML and thinks it will solve all of our problems (without identifying what those problems are). I've attempted to inform him that if we drop ColdFusion in favor of SHTML we will lose significant capabilities. He still shut down discussion, and is not concerned.

Ok, given that I'm going to be forced to use SHTML (my boss will freak if he sees a .cfml file extension), I know I have to drop ColdFusion. But, is there any other robust scripting language that is best recommended to work with SHTML statements? ASP? PHP?

Or, maybe I'm missing something and there's someway to make shtml work with ColdFusion?

Another question; is SHTML even used by anyone anymore? Isn't it basically dead technology? My boss is trying to tell me that ColdFusion is dead technology, and nobody is using it now.

-Julie

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    3 replies

    davidsimms
    davidsimms
    Inspiring
    May 19, 2009

    Julie,

    SSI (denoted by the SHTML file extension) and ColdFusion are not competing technologies. In other words, it isn't even possible to "switch" from ColdFusion to SHTML. You could switch from ColdFusion to PHP, .NET or any of the other server-side scripting languages out there (though I don't know why anyone would want to), but it's not possible to switch from ColdFusion to SHTML.

    That said, you could "trick" your server (as tclaremont suggested) into treating requests for shtml files the same as it does for cfml files so ColdFusion would still do all that it does and your clueless clown of a boss would be none the wiser. That should buy you enough time to search for a job elsewhere!

    A
    Anonymous
    May 19, 2009

    Your boss sounds like a right gimp. He does not know what he's talking about.

    SHTML as the wonderful Wikipedia states:


    SSI is most suitable for simple automation tasks; more complex server-side processing is often done with one of the more complex programming languages Perl, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, CFML, Python and Ruby.

    Enjoy telling your boss that CF must live on - otherwise you sacrifice an array of wonderful options. For example, can SHTML create and write ZIP folders, can it create RSS feeds, can it generate dyanmic PDF's, can it work with directories and files? Etc etc etc.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes

    Mikey.

    tclaremont
    tclaremont
    Inspiring
    May 18, 2009

    1) Change the association in IIS (or whatever web server you are running) to pass SHTML pages to the ColdFusion server (Not just CFML pages)

    2) Change your web page's CFML file extensions to SHTML file extensions.

    3) Tell your boss that you migrated the entire site over to SHTML over the weekend.

    Problem solved

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