What is it?

ColdFusion is an application server and software development framework used for the development of computer software in general, and dynamic Web sites in particular. It was developed by brothers J.J. and Jeremy Allaire as a product of Allaire and released in July 1995. In 2001 Allaire was acquired by Macromedia, which was in turn acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005.

Who is it for?

ColdFusion can be used for data-driven Web sites or intranets, or to generate remote services such as SOAP Web services or Flash remoting. It is functional for everything from small departmental applications to highly scalable implementations of important business applications. ColdFusion is used by more than 300,000 developers at over 10,000 companies to build and implement Internet applications.

Features

Out of the box, ColdFusion offers unique features to build Internet applications. The software allows use of PDF documents and forms, creation of Internet applications with Adobe Flex or Ajax, creation of structured reports for the Web or other office document formats, implementation of full text searching, and more. ColdFusion also provides a number of value-added services out of the box. Among them are conversion from HTML to PDF and FlashPaper client-side code generation, especially for form widgets and validation; platform-independent database querying via ODBC or JDBC; data retrieval from common enterprise systems such as Active Directory, LDAP, POP, HTTP, FTP, and Microsoft Exchange Server; client and server cache management; session, client, and application management; file indexing and searching service based on Verity K2; XML parsing, querying, and validation; server clustering; GUI administration; and task scheduling.

ColdFusion 8 is the newest available version from Adobe. New features include performance increases, a Server Monitor, additional PDF and Ajax features, .NET and Microsoft Exchange Server integration, an interactive debugger, Adobe Flex integration, Per-application settings, multi-threading, image manipulation, presentations on demand, Atom and RSS feeds, ZIP and JAR file features, User-based Administrator and RDS access, improved file manipulation functions, JavaScript operators in CFML, CFC improvements, strong encryption libraries, reporting enhancements, database interaction improvements, argument collections, array and structure creation improvements, and expanded platform, operating systems, and database support.

Compatibility

ColdFusion will run on Windows, Linux or Macintosh operating systems. For Windows, ColdFusion requires an Intel Pentium II or AMD Athlon processor with Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 3; Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, or Datacenter Server with Service Pack 3; Windows Server 2003 Web, Standard, or Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 and R2; Windows XP Professional or Home Edition; or Windows Vista. The Linux system has the same processor requirements, and the server should be RedHat Linux AS or ES version 3.0, 4.0, or 5.0, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 or 10. For installation on Macintosh, ColdFusion requires a PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel Pentium 4 processor with Mac OS X version 10.4.x. Also required for all systems is a minimum of 512 mb of RAM, 500 mb of available hard-disk space, and a DVD-ROM drive.

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