Coldfusion database and iWeb 09

[Guest]

I currently have an old site that has a backend which contains a very complex Coldfusion database. I am redesigning the front end of the site on iWeb. Does anyone know if Coldfusion and IWeb work together? I am trying to figure out what the limitations are. Right now I have a link that opens to the backend and it works fine. However - the web designer for the back end says it's very difficult to change the design of the page to match my new design in iWeb. The changes involve, fonts & sizes, the navigation bar moving from the left to the top. These were described as HUGE, complicated and time consuming changes. I can't understand why that is the case. I don't know anything about Coldfusion. Does anyone know if this is indeed the case?

[CF_output]

Hi Amanda.  For starters, CF isnt a database - its a server/server side programming language.  So theroretically, yes it will work with iWeb assuming that you publish your site on a ColdFusion server.

When you mention that you have a link to the backend - do you mean a user interface that allows you to update your iWeb content?

That may be what your web designer is referring to as "HUGE, complicated and time consuming changes".  However, if they actually have some real development experience, simply changing some fonts and positioning shouldnt take more than a few minutes.  Typically, these can be handled within your style sheet, and you dont even have to touch any of the server side code.

[ilssac]

Yes ColdFusion is not the database.

But I will say if the site is old and|or poorly implimented it could be much harder to change font size or element position then it should be.

But that is neither the fault of ColdFusion nor a reason to not fix things.

ColdFusion is an application server that makes it simple to create dynamic content such as HTML, XML and many others.

[craigkaminsky]

As far as iWeb goes, I think this might be a bit of a challenge to use in this scenario. iWeb is really built for static sites (static HTML and associated content, like images, etc.) that is managed from the iWeb interface.

Because I'm lazy and already spend too many hours coding , I use iWeb 09 and my MobileMe account to manage and host a family website. It's a nice tool (if not a bit frustrating to use) for this kind of site. I type my new blog entries directly into iWeb, edit page content from within iWeb, etc. I then press the publish button to upload it all to my MobileMe account. Pretty easy all in all.

Because iWeb does not provide access to source code or the like, this might be a challenging combination (dynamic site + iWeb) with which to work. This would be the case with PHP, ColdFusion, etc. I fiddled with my iWeb this morning and don't see anything (other than being able to add an HTML snippet to a page) that would directly allow you to work with iWeb and CF.

However, you should be able to create a site's template in iWeb and then grab all the HTML from a web browser when viewing the page (view->source). From there, you could supply that, along with any other necessary files, such as CSS, images, and/or JavaScripts, to the developers. This approach would be kludgy at best but it would be a potential way to design in iWeb to create the front end. Oh, I did search the Apple site and found nothing on iWeb and dynamic server-side languages (just wanted to make sure!).