Icon ColdFusion Studio 4.5 Icon
Icon ColdFusion Server Enterprise 4.5 Icon

by Dale Farris, President, Golden Triangle PC Club
February 2001

ColdFusion 4.5 is a complete Web application product for developing and delivering scalable e-business applications. Whether you're revolutionizing your company's HR operations, building a new generation of your firm's global intranet, or launching the next killer dot com strategy, you will find what you need in ColdFusion.

NOTE: The Allaire Corporation also sells the well known program, 
HomeSite 4.5, that is not as complex as these higher end products. For many users however, HomeSite 4.5 may be just what they need to help them design and develop Web pages. The use of these ColdFusion products assumes a business environment, needing to deploy and support complex e-commerce activity.

ColdFusion gives you a fast way to develop and deliver scalable enterprise and e-commerce business systems. From online stores to content publishing to business automation, ColdFusion gives you the power to deliver your e-business faster and at a lower cost than you’d ever believe possible.

ColdFusion includes visual programming, database and debugging tools in ColdFusion Studio, and an integrated development environment for building your applications. Open integration with databases, email, directories, Java, XML, and enterprise systems means you can develop complex Web applications quickly and easily.

The proven technology in ColdFusion Server Enterprise Edition scales to deliver the reliability and performance that your most demanding Web applications require. ColdFusion also provides security on every level from development through deployment.

First released in 1995, ColdFusion is one of the most widely used Web application servers available. Thousands of major corporations have adopted ColdFusion to develop and deliver intranet, extranet, and Internet applications.

The components built into these programs include the ColdFusion Studio 4.5 and the ColdFusion Server Enterprise Edition 4.5. The upgrade to 4.5.2 is available via download at the Allaire ColdFusion web site.

Tightly integrated with ColdFusion Server Enterprise Edition, ColdFusion Studio provides visual programming, database, and debugging tools for building sophisticated Web applications. ColdFusion Server Enterprise Edition offers all the runtime services for delivering your e-business applications built on a highly scalable and open architecture.

ColdFusion uses a tag-based, server scripting language that is ideal for programming Web applications. Processed entirely on the server, the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) cleanly integrates with HTML for user interface and XML for data exchange. Both open and extendible, CFML supports more than 70 server-side tags, 200 functions, and 800 third-party components, making it a very productive language available for creating advanced Web applications. In addition, ColdFusion supports Java and C++, and fully integrates with object transaction middleware through COM, CORBA, or EJB.

ColdFusion Studio 4.5

ColdFusion Studio is a complete environment for rapid Web application development. Based on the award-winning technology in Allaire HomeSite, ColdFusion Studio gives you a powerful suite of integrated tools for quickly and easily developing applications. From e-commerce to business automation and more, ColdFusion Studio will get you there fast.

Visual programming and database tools, extensive wizards, and an intuitive editor work together to offer a highly productive integrated development environment (IDE). ColdFusion Studio features powerful interactive debugging technology that lets you step through the pages in an application to quickly find and fix bugs. And with easy extensibility, you'll never be constrained.

ColdFusion Studio is the visual tool component of the ColdFusion Web application server. It's designed to work with ColdFusion Server (licensed separately) for both remote development and application deployment. ColdFusion Studio comes with the single-user version of the server for testing and development at an individual workstation.

ColdFusion Studio 4.5 Benefits

Move Fast - using a wide array of visual programming, database, and debugging tools, you can quickly and easily build advanced applications

Maintain Quality - with syntax validation, browser awareness, and interactive debugging, you can build high-quality, complex systems

Keep Control - manage team development with source control integration, shared projects, and Web based remote file and database access

Stay Free - extend ColdFusion Studio to support ColdFusion Extensions, custom wizards, or any specialized functionality 

Features in ColdFusion Studio 4.5

Advanced HTML Editor
Visual Database Tools
Web Application Wizards
Universal File Browser
Collapsible Code
Function Insight
Image Map Editor
Code Reuse
TopStyle CSS Editor
WML Support
Tag Property Inspection
Interactive Debugging
Dynamic Page Quality Assurance
Point-and-click Expression Builder
Web Application Wizards
Code Sweeper
Tag Editing Tools
Custom Wizards
Visual Tool Object Model
Customizable Workspace
Advanced Project Management
Physical Folders
Auto-Inclusive Folders
Virtual Folders
Resource Browsing
Source Control Integration
Scriptable Deployment
Remote Team Development
Process Encapsulation
Extended Scripted
Structured Exception Handling
Variable Manipulation
Rich Function Library
Regular Expressions
Arrays and Structures
Dynamic Page Flow Control
Object Scripting
String Conversion Functions
Multithread Service
Web Server API Support
Database Connection Pooling
Page Compilation and Caching
Static Page Caching
Persistent Queries
Automatic Server Recovery
Advanced Thread Pooling
Static Page Publishing
Client-Side Page Caching
White Space Removal
Tightly Integrated with a Full Range of Internet Protocols and Technologies
Enterprise Extensibility
Secure Development
Secure Deployment

ColdFusion Server Enterprise Edition 4.5

ColdFusion Server, Enterprise Edition, is a high-performance, open Web application server for delivering large-scale e-business applications. By providing a runtime environment, connectivity to server technologies, state management, security, load balancing, failover, and an array of other services, ColdFusion Server makes developing and delivering scalable applications straightforward and fast.

ColdFusion uses a tag-based, server-scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), which is ideal for programming Web applications. Processed entirely on the server, CFML tags cleanly integrate with HTML for user interface and XML for data exchange. Both open and extendible, CFML supports more than 70 server-side tags, 200 functions, and 800 third-party components, making it a very productive environment available for creating advanced Web applications.

ColdFusion Server is the deployment foundation of the ColdFusion Web application server. The Enterprise Edition contains technology specifically suited to large-volume, transaction-intensive Web applications. It's designed to work with the visual tools in ColdFusion Studio 4.0 (licensed separately), as well as a wide range of other popular Web development tools, including Macromedia Dreamweaver and NetObjects Fusion.

Benefits of ColdFusion Server Enterprise 4.5

Rapid Deployment
Scalable Deployment
Open Integration
Complete Security
Advanced Project Management
Source Control Integration
Web based Remote Access
HTML and XML Integration
Tag based Syntax
Structured Exception Handling
200+ Native Functions
Regular Expressions
Arrays
Component Code Reuse
Multithreaded Service Architecture
Dynamic Load Balancing
Network and Service-Level Failover
Web Server API Support
Database Connection Pooling
JIT Compilation and Caching
Static Page Caching
Persistent Queries
Automatic Server Recovery
Advanced Thread Pooling
Open State Repository
Static Page Publishing
Web Based Administration
Administrative User Accounts
Visual Cluster Administration
Integration with NT Performance Monitor
Advanced Database Connectivity
Internet Technology Integration
Enterprise Extensibility
Complete Security
Secure Deployment

The main difference between Allaire's ColdFusion Server Enterprise, Professional, and Express editions, is the degree of complexity of the Web applications and the intensity of the e-business applications you wish to support. The Express Edition is for delivering simple, dynamic Web applications, the Professional Edition is for delivering advanced Web applications, and the Enterprise Edition is for delivering large scale, transaction intensive, e-commerce applications.

Recommendations For Use

If you've ever wondered how all those e-commerce sites handle the tremendous volume of online sales, the always changing nature of what you see in your browser when you check back to a site, or if you have asked what types of computer and software are being used to support this intense and quite dynamic state, then you have part of your answer with Allaire's very important ColdFusion applications.

While many people are content with developing very simple vanity pages for their family, in the world of e-business, the competition is fierce to find ways to stimulate viewers to return to their site, and to continue to transact sales. In these cases, the integration of the business in the online market demands higher level, extremely sophisticated software that can support these complex, behind-the-scenes business transactions that result in the viewer's perspective of being easy to use and more importantly, easy to do business.

These Allaire products are not designed for novice computer users nor those that may be brand new to designing Web pages. The use of these important software applications will require a high level of commitment, and in some cases, special training in learning how to maximize the many important features of these programs. In addition to a purchase of these programs, I think companies will likely also want to seriously consider the additional investment in the training their staff might need to implement these programs.

 Price
$  495 ColdFusion Studio 4.5
$2.225 ColdFusion Studio 4.5 -  5 user multipack
$4,195 ColdFusion Studio 4.5 - 10 user multipack

$4,995 ColdFusion Server Enterprise 4.5
$1,295 ColdFusion Server Professional 4.5

Allaire also sells these excellent products for Linux, Solaris, and HP/UX machines, as well as locale search packs and the printed documentation. In addition, Allaire also sells subscriptions to the programs.

Minimum System Configuration Requirements

ColdFusion Studio 4.5

Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000
Pentium compatible processor
64MB RAM (128MB RAM suggested))
35MB free hard disk space
CD ROM
800 x 600 screen resolution
ColdFusion Server (for debugging, database access, deployment)

ColdFusion Server Enterprise Edition 4.5

Windows 95, 98, NT 4 (NT 4 recommended)
Intel 486 or higher (Pentium recommended)
64MB RAM
50MB free hard disk space
Web server

Installation and Setup

With these premier business applications, users will need to be well versed in the concepts and techniques of Web server support and the development and deployment of these server based Web files. The installation and setup of these programs will more likely be based on computers designed as Web servers, connected to business networks, and supporting the anticipated heavy use by their outside customers. Therefore, customers are advised to be well acquainted with the included documentation, in order to learn the installation and setup procedures that will be quite different from usual, desktop client installations. I strongly suggest customers buy at least one of the accompanying set of program documentation material, especially if you wish to purchase these products online and download the requisite files.

Contact

 Allaire Corporation
275 Grove Street
Newton, Massachusetts 02466
617-219-2000
617-219-2098
FAX 617-219-2001
http://www.allaire.com
 info@allaire.com