Evolution Of Coldfusion - Adobe 38000827 - Macromedia ColdFusion MX Standard Edition Evaluator Manual

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator's Guide

EVOLUTION OF COLDFUSION

Since its first release in 1995, Macromedia ColdFusion has been a pioneer in rapid
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Internet application development. By combining an approachable and productive server
scripting environment with enterprise connectivity and built-in capabilities like search and
charting, ColdFusion helped bring web application development into the mainstream.
ColdFusion is one of the most popular web development technologies on the Internet – at
use in more than 75 of the Fortune 100 and providing the power behind over 18 million
pages on the public Internet. With the help of ColdFusion, companies like Allied Office
Products, Bank of America, Boeing, FAO Schwarz, Hertz, Jaguar, and Simon & Schuster
have built customer service applications, online publishing systems, e-learning solutions,
business reporting applications, business-to-business extranets, and much more.
With each new release, ColdFusion has evolved to meet the changing requirements of
developers and IT managers—supporting emerging standards and integrating with the
latest technologies, while maintaining a leadership position in ease of use and
productivity. The latest release of ColdFusion continues in this tradition, yet also marks a
major milestone in the evolution of the product.
New Standards Support
Web development has evolved dramatically in the past few years. Support for standards-
based architectures has become more important than ever. ColdFusion MX has
responded. ColdFusion MX has been completely re-architected to run on the Java
platform. ColdFusion MX includes an embedded J2EE™ 1.3 compliant Java application
server, can run on WebSphere and WebLogic, and has robust support for Microsoft .NET
products and technologies. With ColdFusion MX, users can benefit from the rapid
application development capabilities of ColdFusion while fully leveraging the power of the
Java and .NET platforms.
XML and Web Services
XML and web services are two of the most important Internet standards for application
development. By providing standard mechanisms for exchanging data and exposing
functionality, XML and web services are revolutionizing the way IT organizations build
applications. ColdFusion MX offers native support for handling XML data and for
publishing and consuming web services. As a result, developers now have an incredibly
easy way to take advantage of these powerful new technologies in their applications.
Rich Internet Applications
The way developers are delivering applications via the Internet is also changing. Users are
finding that web applications that rely on HTML are limited and often don't offer the best
customer experience. Rich Internet applications that use Macromedia Flash interfaces
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make it possible to deliver much more compelling customer experiences. With native
connectivity to the Flash Player and tight integration with the application development
capabilities in Macromedia Flash MX, ColdFusion MX will do for rich Internet applications
what it did for rapid web application development – bring it to the mainstream.
A Powerful Combination
Together with Macromedia's industry-leading development tools – Macromedia
Dreamweaver MX and Macromedia Flash MX – ColdFusion MX is ushering in the next
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generation of the Internet, enabling developers to deliver richer, more powerful
applications while maintaining a high level of productivity and efficiency.
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