 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsGeneralPHPASPPerlColdFusionFlashHTML, CSS, ScriptsBrowsers |
Webmaster Forum / ColdFusion / Getting Started / December 2005What tool to use?
I need help choosing a tool and I am trying to understand ColdFusion. We have an integrated land management application that is shared by our Planning and Building departments (it also ties into a GIS application). It is an older application that was written in CICS and DB2. The Building side of the application is extensively used and the department is very happy with it. I have written .ASP screens using Dreamweaver for public access and we receive good feedback. The Planning side of the application has never been accepted by the department and only small portions are used. The Planning department is asking that a web enabled frontend to be created to replace the "green screens" using GUI features with some of the screens being available to the public and some used only internally. For the most part, the current DB2 database ok and because of the intergration with the Building side, they want to continue to use it. So we are basically looking at changing the presentation. At this point we are looking at web based application design tools. I have many years of application design (using more tools than I can remember) and about 3 years of web design using Dreamweaver. I have never used ColdFusion. From what I can derive from the literature, ColdFusion is more of an application design tool than Dreamweaver is and we could use our DB2 database. But my supervisor keeps telling me ColdFusion is a database and not an application design tool. So which is it? Am I missing something here? We are also looking at Visual Studio and .Net. Thanks for any direction anybody can give me. I feel like I need to connect the dots. Cold Fusion is application server technology, like asp and .net. The programming language is called Cold Fusion Markup Language. Dreamweaver is client software that makes it easier to write html, asp, cold fusion, css. ColdFusion is a development language; not a tool. Dreamweaver is a development tool, or IDE. You can use Dreamweaver to write ColdFusion code just like you used it to do ASP code. You just need to learn ColdFusion. So the answer... You are both wrong. ColdFusion is NOT a database, and it is not an IDE. It is actually a development language. If you want to use it, then you will need to learn it. If you have Dreamweaver MX then it should have some tutorials to help you. This is from the ColdFusion product FAQ: http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/productinfo/faq/#item-1-1 What is Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7? ColdFusion MX 7 makes Internet application development and deployment faster and easier than any other solution available today. Easily extend or integrate with Java or .NET applications, connect to enterprise data and applications, create or consume web services, or interface with SMS on mobile devices or instant messaging clients. Add powerful application services for business reporting, rich-forms generation, printable document generation, full-text search, and graphing and charting. In short, ColdFusion is not a database. It is a powerful web application development environment.. It is used to develop web pages that interact with databases. I suggest you evaluate Dreamweaver 8 or Studio 8. Macromedia has made considerable enhancements to their tools, especially when it comes to developing in ColdFusion. See http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/ First I want to thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I know we are all busy and I appreciate your help. I'm beginning to understand this better but I am still fitting the pieces together. I think my problem when you look at the product description, it is described as "a powerful web application development environment. It is used to develop web pages that interact with databases". When I look at the demos, it appears the web pages are being developed with the ColdFusion software not Dreamweaver. So when would you use Dreamweaver? It's the difference between the two products that I am struggling with. You can create forms in both? And ColdFusion has a report feature? I upgraded to Studio 8 from MX (we skipped MX 2004) a couple of working days ago and am still learning the differences but I don't have ColdFusion. Thanks again for your input. Ok, lets see if I can clear it up for you. Coldfusion processes the pages that are created in DW on the backend. CF is installed downstairs on a server, and DW is installed upstairs on your computer at your desk. I guess in a rudimentary example you could say DW is to Frontpage(I know, terrible example, but trying to make it as basic as possible) as Coldfusion is to ASP. Basically you can create CF pages all day long in DW, but if you dont have a CF server they are useless. Just like you can create ASP pages in DW, and if you dont have an IIS server, they are useless. DWMX7 can create the forms, but if you want a more robust reporting feature, it CF ships with a second application solely for doing reporting, each of which uses the CF engine to process the code in the pages. HTH I do believe the light bulb is getting brighter! That was a good explanation. So the web pages for CF are design in Dreamweaver not ColdFusion? I think that is what is causing my main confusion. When I look at the examples & tutorials on the website, it looks like they are opening up ColdFusion and developing the webpages there. And what you are really saying is they are developing the pages with Dreamweaver with ColdFusion code - similiar to my adding asp code. I see now!!! The "dots" have just connected. Now, I would love to see some large web based application design examples. It seems most of the web applications I have used are rather simple and this application would be fairly complicated. I'm sure they are around, it's just that at home I don't have broadband (the drawback of living in a rural area) and I don't explore as much as I would like. Thanks so much for your help!!!! There is a saying that 90% (or some other high number) of Cold Fusion applications reside behind a corporate firewall. That would include all of mine. However, here is a cold fusion commercial site I happen to know about. http://www.melaleuca.com/wc/index.cfm If you browse the macromedia site, they have some "look at these wonderful websites" stuff. Thanks Dan. That is a good link. I've had been looking at the website referrals. Since this application is mostly boring text stuff (the thrill of working for the government) it's hard to relate to some of the great designs. The system will be tracking applications made to the Planning department and following the various steps it goes through. Dollars, status, important dates, etc. Eventually it will tie into the GIS side but that is waaaay down the road. But looking at the sites do give me some design ideas and I am beginning to see how it can be developed with Dreamweaver. I'm not sure if we will go with ColdFusion but I will include it as an option. Since we have already have IIS they will probably balk at getting ColdFusion but there is always hope. Plus we have the server guys from hell (the only word they know is NO) You all have been a great help to me today and I appreciate it. Have a great New Year everybody! > the department and only small portions are used. The Planning department is > asking that a web enabled frontend to be created to replace the "green screens" > using GUI features with some of the screens being available to the public and > some used only internally. For the most part, the current DB2 database ok and in that case, cf7 and it's flash forms might be something worth considering. and cf's a good fit for any web GIS apps as well. for instance, these examples were done w/cf, esri's arcWeb, flash forms & a wee bit of action script: http://www.sustainablegis.com/projects/geocode/flashforms/ http://www.sustainablegis.com/projects/routing/ your work sounds like a municipality. we've built quite a large set of municipal info systems using cf & arcGIS/arcIMS/mapserver here (tax collection being the main task, permitting, planning, etc. being secondary). we've found cf to be the right tool for this kind of work considering the scarcity of decent programmers within local governments (ie it's RAD is a force multiplier, one good programmer can do the work of many since most of the customizations, etc. revolve around reporting). |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.