ColdFusion 5.0 Released

Posted on May 29, 2001

in Software

by Raymond Camden (jedimaster)

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Raymond Camden

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User since: November 17, 2000

Last login: November 17, 2000

Articles written: 2

ColdFusion 5.0 has been released by Macromedia. Some of the new features include:

User defined functions
Charting (simple, but nice)
CFDUMP, the coder's best friend. This used to be in Spectra only, but now it's in the server proper. Not one day goes by where I don't use this tag.
Query of Queries
Flushed output
Server reporting enhancements
Server archiving. This is a really cool feature where you can backup both code and server settings into a simple file that can be deployed to new machines. This makes working in a cluster much easier.
Server probes. A cool way to check the health of your system and perform actions when things go to heck.

There is a lot more, so I suggest you check Allaire.com for more information. In general, this is a cool release both on the code side, as well as the management side. In fact, I think it's a much bigger release for how it aids and supports the management of web apps.

11 comments on this article. Log in to add your comment |

Some Cool Things

Submitted by andyed on May 30, 2001 - 22:06.

So, queries of queries is particularly cool. What MM has done is build a SQL interpeter into the app server. Lots of good opportunities. The flushed output capability is long overdue and has been available in ASP for a long time. This allows you to send partial products to the client, allowing partical rendering while long running processes finish. And of course user defined functions were a primary complaint of developers with CS backgrounds.

Re: Some Cool Things

Submitted by jedimaster on May 31, 2001 - 06:05.

If you are interested in some UDF samples, see http://www.cflib.org.

CF5 experiences during the Beta Test

Submitted by anj on May 31, 2001 - 11:47.

The query of queries is probably the feature most useful to my shop (we're pretty heavy into CF work)... we frequently have to pull and combine data from different datasources (which can't talk to each other)... right now, we end up manually performing the joins by looping through a query from datasource 1, creating a new query to datasource 2 in each iteration of the loop. With CF5 we'll be able to directly join the two queries. Granted, CF is going to do the same amount of work either way, but it'll make our code much more readable.

Allaire-media also claims very significant speedups in the CF5 engine. They're starting to move some features into Java (CF6 will be a pure Java server). Even in some little test cases I played with during the betatest, I saw a measurable performance increase.

They also include a version of Macromedia Generator that is used for the graphing functionality. Not sure if it's a full-blown Generator, or something hobbled to only handle this function. I have heard that CF6 will replace Generator, so perhaps it is a fully functional version.

On the down side, it looks like it ate roughly 50% more RAM than CF4... though it's hard to tell if this was the actual program usage, or cache space...

CFDump

Submitted by agraetz on June 8, 2001 - 12:41.

What is the scoop on CFDUMP? What does it do?

CFDUMP

Submitted by jedimaster on June 8, 2001 - 13:25.

CFDUMP will display ANY variable. This variable can be a structure, a query, an array, a structure with arrays, an array of structures, etc. This makes debugging much easier. For example, normally, if you wanted to display an array, you would have to write a CFLOOP. With CFDUMP, you don't worry, you just dump. I use this tag every single day. It is, without a doubt, the best tag ever written.

COAPI

Submitted by anj on June 8, 2001 - 15:30.

Raymond -- still plans to pull the Spectra COAPI into CF 6 as far as you know? It really disapointed me to hear Allaire terminate Spectra; we were just getting geared up to use to it as for some new work. Now, I'm having to look at writing the pieces of Spectra I really need (with some theft from the Spectra code)...

Thanks

Submitted by agraetz on June 9, 2001 - 07:11.

Thanks for the info on CFDUMP. I remember reading about it. I like it when CF does the dirty work for me. =)

A Direct Link

Submitted by mwarden on June 9, 2001 - 10:56.

Considering that the product info won't always be on the front page, here's a direct link to the frames-ridden site on Macromedia.com...

http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/.

More ColdFusion 5 Resources

Submitted by pfreitag on August 15, 2001 - 19:39.

There is a huge list of ColdFusion 5 resources at CFDEV.COM

http://www.cfdev.com/cf5/

Grid Problem

Submitted by hellonloose on August 15, 2001 - 23:33.

The CFgrid of CF5.0 takes too much time in loading and downloading compared to CF4.5. Is there any way we can go about it. or may be theres a way that we retain the previous grid (0f 4.5) with 5.0. Also we couldnt find a way to change the width of the columns.

article on webmonkey

Submitted by mwarden on December 31, 2001 - 14:06.

There's an article on webmonkey that reviews in detail some of this new functionality. May be worth a a gander.

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