ColdFusion

Adobe ColdFusion 11 is a creative progression in Adobe's efforts to help web developers build robust Internet applications. Adobe ColdFusion delivers NTLM support for some tags, ability to store sessions in external storage, documents according to Swagger specifications, language, security and PDF enhancements and CLI integration.

Key Features:

• Language enhancements: For safe navigation, ?. operator has been introduced. Collections support for ordered has been introduced.
  
• Command Line Interface (CLI): In Adobe ColdFusion (2016 release), there is a Command Line Interface (CLI) for developers to run their cfm scripts without starting a ColdFusion server.
  
• PDF enhancements: Adobe ColdFusion (2016 release) provides new actions for tag, such as sanitisation, import and export of metadata, import and export of comments, attaching files, annotation (stamp) and enhancement to PDF archival.
  
• Security enhancements: Security code analyser is a new feature introduced in ColdFusion. It serves the purpose by integrating security analyser into ColdFusion Builder so that developers can now avoid common security pitfalls/vulnerabilities while writing ColdFusion code.
  
• External session storage: All ColdFusion sessions are stored in memory. But the sessions cannot be shared across ColdFusion nodes. You can replicate sessions, but as the number of nodes increase in a cluster, the configuration and management of sessions become increasingly difficult and resource-intensive. One way to solve this problem is to use an external session storage like Redis.
  
• Swagger document generation: Swagger is a project specification that is used to describe and document RESTful APIs. In ColdFusion (2016 release), you can create swagger doc automatically from REST CFC after it is implemented and registered in server. The Swagger version that is supported in ColdFusion is 1.2.
  
• NTLM support: There is support for NTLM (NT LAN Manager) for , and tags and CreateObject function. NTLM is a suite of Microsoft security protoco
  
• New and changed functions/tags in ColdFusion (2016 release): Adobe ColdFusion (2016 release) has gone through changes and enhancements in tags and functions.
  
• API Manager: API Manager is a new component introduced for the first time in Adobe ColdFusion (2016 release). It is a standalone server component that can run on its own, providing you all the capabilities of monitoring, measuring, securing and, monetising APIs.

ColdFusion - Features

Click to view edition and version feature comparison table

ColdFusion Features Include:

• Security Enhancements: Make your server more secure against cross-site scripting and cross-site request forgery using functions to sanitise user input. Strengthen the authentication of applications using the enhanced login mechanism. Choose the new secure profile to enable default secure settings across the server.
• Dynamic And Interactive HTML5 charting; Access a large repository of interactive, client-side HTML5 charts and easily implement them using the built-in CFCHART tag. Create an enriched user experience by customising charts, including charts based on Adobe Flash technology.
• Hotfix Installer And Notification: Get instant notifications of updates to ColdFusion in your ColdFusion Administrator and save time on installing updates using the one-click Hotfix installer.
• Improved And Revamped Scheduler: Achieve better scheduled task management using application-specific tasks, event handling, grouping, and chaining. Manage tasks in a more granular, scalable, and organised manner by running tasks in a cluster setup.
• Improved Web Services Support: Publish and access web services with less code using the revamped engine that supports the WSDL 2.0 specification, SOAP 1.2, and document literal wrapped style.
• Support For HTML5 Web Sockets: Publish data to multiple clients or execute a point-to-point data push with real-time server response. Leverage the support provided by the built-in functionality to instantly access HTML5 web sockets, even without prior knowledge of the protocol.
• Tomcat Integration: Experience enhanced performance from the built-in Tomcat application server that replaces Adobe JRun. With active and vast support from the developer community, Tomcat implements most of the latest web standards.
• Support For RESTful Web Services: Easily publish your ColdFusion component as a Representational State Transfer (REST) web service with built-in support for all HTTP methods, along with JSON and XML serialisation and de-serialisation.
• Object Relational Mapping Enhancements: Build and manage database-independent applications using object relational mapping (ORM) without writing any SQL. Index and perform a full-text search of ORM entities with the built-in Lucene search engine, and obtain improved debug information through SQL logging.
• Search Improvements With Apache Solr: Get enhanced flexibility to index and search based on dynamic custom fields, along with support for 17 additional languages. Use the data import handler for improved database indexing, and enjoy better control by reloading individual collections without restarting Solr.
• HTML5 Video Player And Flash Player: Leverage the rich experience provided by the built-in HTML5 video player, and benefit from interoperability with non-HTML5 browsers using the fallback to Adobe Flash player. The revamped Flash Player with well-defined APIs helps ensure a consistent user experience acrosbrowsers.
• Language Enhancements: Improve your code quality and readability with language enhancements, along with better control and flexibility using closures. Initialise CFC properties using Auto-constructor, increase coding efficiency with CFC Method Chaining, and ensure effective query management using For-in support.
• XPath Integration: Easily and quickly navigate XML documents using XPath integration. Leverage this built-in functionality to transform XML documents into XHTML, including XForms using XSLT integration.
• Flex And Adobe AIR Lazy Loading: Fetch relevant ORM entities from the server only when they are accessed by your Flex or AIR application. Make your applications run faster by reducing data transfer between Flex and AIR applications and the ColdFusion server.
• Server Manager: perform administrative tasks across multiple servers from one central console. Create data sources, schedule tasks, apply hot fixes, clear caches and compare settings across a cluster of ColdFusion servers
• Integration With ColdFusion Builder: an Eclipse-based IDE that enables developers to build ColdFusion applications
• Object-Relational Mapping: build database-independent applications using object-relational mapping (ORM) based on the open source Hibernate library. Manage database logic and connectivity without writing SQL code
• Enhanced Caching: cache portions of pages that contain infrequently updated data. Use the CFCACHE tag to cache objects or fragments of a page, specify a caching algorithm and select disk or memory-based caching
• CFC And CFML: improve performance and error handling
• CFSCRIPT Support: including full function, component and interface definition
• Virtual File System Support: build applications that require fewer I/O calls using the Virtual File System. Generate CFM files dynamically and execute them directly from memory
• PDF Functionality: add images to PDF files directly within the CFPDF tag. Brand and protect files by adding watermarks, headers and footers to PDF files
• Instance-based Licensing: install ColdFusion on up to ten virtual instances in a cloud environment
• Server Monitor: troubleshoot and fine-tune applications in development and production. Set alerts and other actions to help to prevent memory problems, slow pages or other performance difficulties
• Application-Specific Settings: separate application resources on the same ColdFusion server by setting ColdFusion mappings and custom tag paths on a per-application basis
• Multi-Threading: granular control of application threads via the CFTHREAD tag: create, end, join or suspend the processing of specific ColdFusion threads
• Image Manipulation: minimise I/O calls related to images using CFML tags and functions for creating and manipulating images. The CFIMAGE tag provides shortcuts to common image actions including reading, writing, re-sizing, rotating and converting images
• Presentations On Demand: populate online presentations dynamically using the latest data. Create high-quality, on-demand presentations and eLearning courses with animation, audio and video that are generated dynamically on the server with up-to-the-minute data and content from multiple external sources
• Atom And RSS Feeds: create and read Atom and RSS feedsusing the CFFEED tag to read and create RSS and Atom feeds in commonly used formats, enabling the creation of complex content syndication applications
• ZIP And JAR File Features: access and manipulate ZIP and JAR files using less code. Use the CFZIP and CFZIPPARAM tags to manipulate ZIP and JAR files for working with file archives
• User-Based Administrator And RDS Access: restrict access to the ColdFusion server. Create multiple ColdFusion Administrator and Remote Development Services (RDS) accounts with individual permissions. Permissions determine which pages and functions are accessible in the ColdFusion Administrator and the Administrator API
• File Manipulation Functions: break down intensive I/O tasks using the file manipulation functions in CFML. For example, read and write large files in defined segments rather than in a single operation
• Strong Encryption Libraries: the RSA BSAFE Crypto-J libraries in ColdFusion provide FIPS 140certified strong encryption
• Database Interaction: use stored procedures via the DBINFO tag. Access information programmatically about a data source and create stored procedures and queries using the CFQUERYPARAM to be cached
• Argument Collections: code tags with many attributes. Specify an argumentsCollection attribute in most tags to specify the tag attributes in a single structure
• Array And Structure Creation: create arrays and structures implicitly in assignment statements without using the ArrayNew or StructNew functions
• Adobe Flash Platform Integration: use ColdFusion as a service to speed development by accessing existing enterprise services via AMF without writing CFML code
• Adobe AIR Local And Remote Database Synchronisation: provide applications with online and offline capability featuring data management. Use SQLLite in the client and ORM on the server to manage conflict resolution and data synchronisation between the client and server when an application comes back online
• Embedded BlazeDS: fluid data interaction and real-time application feedback via the integration of open source BlazeDS. Manage back-end distributed data and push data in real time to Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR applications
• Ajax Controls: use the Ext JS 3.0 library via CFML tags and attributes including mapping, multi-media player, multi-file upload, accordion navigation, progress indicator, confirmations, alerts, buttons and slider controls
• ColdFusion As a Service: use ColdFusion enterprise services via AMF or SOAP without writing CFML code including CFCHART, CFDOCUMENT, CFIMAGE, CFMAIL, CFPDF and CFPOP. Sandbox services to prevent access by unknown applications
• Apache Solr Search Integration: document search capability with support in the CFCOLLECTION tag for the open source search server Apache Solr for indexing an unlimited number of documents for access via the CFSEARCH tag
• Microsoft Office SharePoint Integration: expose data from Microsoft Office SharePoint web services to a ColdFusion application using the CFSHAREPOINT tag. Use the single sign-on capability in SharePoint to display a ColdFusion application as a web part within a SharePoint site without requiring users to re-enter credentials
• Microsoft Office File Inter-operability: generate Microsoft Office documents for reporting, decision making and presentations. Read, create and update spreadsheets using the CFSPREADSHEET tag. Generate PDF files from Microsoft PowerPoint and Word files. Produce presentations dynamically in HTML or SWF from PowerPoint presentations directly on the server
• Built-in Support For Portlet Standards: expose all enterprise applications, including ColdFusion applications, in an integrated portal. Define a ColdFusion component as a portlet including support for Java Portlet Specifications JSR 168 and JSR 286
• IMAP Support: manage e-mail using the CFIMAP tag to connect to an IMAP server
• .NET Integration: build a hub application for enterprise resources using .NET objects from other applications. Specify a local or remote .NET object and use it in a ColdFusion application
• Microsoft Exchange Server Integration: build a hub application for enterprise personnel by including enterprise messaging, calendaring, a contact list and task management. Access Exchange Server functionality programmatically within a ColdFusion application via tags

ColdFusion Builder Features Include:

• Code Assist: introspect ColdFusion components (CFCs) and file systems (UDF) and built-in CFML tags, HTML, JavaScript and CSS
• Customisable Development Environment: including customisable syntax highlighting, keyboard shortcuts and re-usable code snippets
• ColdFusion Project Support: access all ColdFusion components and tags required for an application in one place. Use the ColdFusion project wizard to create new CFM and CFC files, debug and run applications and bind applications to development and production servers
• Views: access information about CFML applications and data in one place using views. Use the Problems view to identify errors, the Outline view to inspect the structure of application files and the RDS Dataview to explore data sources
• Integrated Debugger: launch and step through applications directly within the IDE
• CFML File Preview: preview CFML pages before deployment using the embedded Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox browsers
• ColdFusion 7 - 9 Version Support: migrate applications between ColdFusion versions by checking for code errors when changing the tag library to a different version. Use the development environment for old and new applications
• Application Deployment: deploy code directly from the IDE using built-in FTP support
• Remote Project Support: provides a single, shared codebase
• Object-Relational Mapping: manage database logic and connectivity without writing SQL code. Object-relational mapping (ORM) uses the open source Hibernate library to enable database-independent development. The ORM Application Wizard generates CFCs to provide logic without writing code
• Tag Editor: identify required tag attributes and assign values
• Custom Code Generators: extend the functionality of ColdFusion Builder using custom code generators written in CFML
• Integrated Server Management: start and stop ColdFusion servers automatically when opening or closing ColdFusion Builder or start and stop servers manually within ColdFusion Builder. Launch the ColdFusion administrator or server monitor in the embedded browsers.

ColdFusion - System Requirements

System requirements

Windows

• Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or 2 or Windows Server 2003 R2 (Web, Standard, or Enterprise Edition); Windows Server 2008 (Web, Standard, or Enterprise Edition) with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2008 R2 (Web, Standard, or Enterprise Edition); Windows XP Professional or Home Edition; Windows Vista (Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise) with Service Pack 2; or Windows 7 (Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise) with Service Pack 1
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 500MB of available hard-disk space
• DVD-ROM drive

• Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 or 6.1; SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.3 or 11; openSUSE 11.2, 11.3, or 11.4 ; Ubuntu 11.04, or 11.10; or Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.5
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 500MB of available hard-disk space
• DVD-ROM drive

• Intel Pentium 4 processor
• Mac OS X v10.6.x, or v10.7
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 500MB of available hard-disk space
• DVD-ROM drive

• POWER3 or POWER4 processor
• IBM AIX 6.1
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 500MB of available hard-disk space
• DVD-ROM drive

• SPARC processor
• Solaris 10
• 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
• 500MB of available hard-disk space
• DVD-ROM drive