Web Biz

    Today I was able to attend a sneak peak into ColdFusion 8, code-named ‘Scorpio’.  And, let me first say, this release is going to be a major improvement and make out lives as CF Programmers much easier.  As always, CF 8 sticks with the RAD mentality, allowing us to create web applications and RIA very easily and quickly with ease.  After watching the presentation, I am REALLY looking forward to the release of CF 8.

    Here is an overview of what I learned about the upcoming release of ColdFusion:

AJAX

• <CFAJAXPROXY> – like access=”remote”
• AJAX wizard – like Flex wizard
• <CFGRID>
  • YUI library
  • bind data to grid through query object
  • No push capability
• <CFTREE>
  • Loads in dynamically
• Bind form elements to each other (one select to another)
• Auto-suggest for <CFSELECT>
• Calendar and date pickers

FILES

• New function for i/o
• <CFLOOP> supports files (each line, each character, or character blocks)

CFDocument

• Support for bookmarks and TOC
• Support for sectional page count

Reporting

• Templates (design-time or at creation time)
• Use external stylesheets (via <CFREPORT> tag)
• Output to HTML

CFC Interfaces

• <CFINTERFACE>
• See if method exists in CFC
• Optional

Argument collections for tag attributes

• Pass in structure instead of each attribute for the tag
• Can override attribute by specifying inline

Implicitly create Arrays and structures

• Instead of having to ArrayNew(1) or StructNew() to create an array or structure object you can use [] for arrays and {} for structures
• I.E.:
  • newArray = ["firstelement","secondelement","thirdelement","fourthelement"]
  • newStruct = {mykey="my value", mynumber=8}

JS Operators (== instead of eq)

• ++
• –
• %
• +=
• *=
• /+
• %=
• &&
• ||
• !
• !=
• < and >
• <= and =>

Miscellaneous

• <CFSTOREDPROC> support cachedwithin and cachedafter
• Query caching working when using cfqueryparam
• <CFTP> support SFTP
• <CFENCRYT>
• CFCs can now serialize properly (for replicating)
• <CFOBJECT> and CreateObject() support invoking .NET assemblies within the CLR

Exchange integration

• Not windows specific
• Supports mail, calendar, contact, and task
• <CFEXCHANGECONNECTION>
  • <CFEXCHANGECALENDAR>
  • Filter programmatically
  • <CFEXCHANGEFILTER> (like a WHERE clause)
  • <CFEXCHANGEMAIL> (get and delete, not send)
  • <CFEXCHANGECONTACT> (query, new)
  • <CFEXCHANGETASKS> (crud)
• No planned support for SUN One Messaging

On-Demand Presentations

• <CFPRESENTATION> creates Acrobat Connect Presentation on the fly
• Output is SWF
• Pages within presentation can be HTML, SWF, or dynamic CFML (include <CFCHART>, <CFGRID>, etc)
• <CFPRESENTATIONSLIDE> defines slide
• <CFPRESENTER> defines presenters (can be associated with specific slides)
• Can overlay MP3 audio on top of slides
• Presentation is dynamically created, never gets stale
• Create a slide show by placing images within each slide of the presentation

Ships with Flex Data Services gateway

• CF can connect directly to Flash connected to the FMS (Flash Media Server)
• Bi-direction connection (push and pull data)
• CF is notified when other change the data

PDFs

• <CFPDF> and related tags
• Obtain PDF metadata
• Merge PDF files
• Extract pages from PDF Files (and then merge back together if you want)
• Encrypt PDF files
• Create page thumbnail (extending off of <CFIMAGE>)
• Flatten PDF files (makes text and images not editable) (smaller
• Protect PDF files
• Execute DDX instruction sets
• <CFPDFFORM> tag
  • Populate pdf forms (AcroForms and XML based forms) with CF data
  • Extract data from a form that is filled out
  • <CFPDFFORMPARAM> to pass values to the form
  • <CFPDFSUBFORM> to manipulate nested forms
  • If they save the PDF, the form data is stored in the file
  • Can submit form to CF
  • Use JS inline to perform form validation
  • Can scan form into Acrobat Pro – and place form elements in a layer on top

CF Administrator

• User based authentication for access to CF Administrator with individual roles
• User account can also be tied to RDS and user specific sandboxes
• User role is extended to the Admin API

Server Monitoring

• In-line monitoring into CF Server (similar to SeeFusion)
• See activity, running requests, usage details, memory and CPU loads
• Take server snapshots (save state for future reference)
• Built with Flex 2
  • Can kill long running request threads
• Can define alerts, threshold values for:
  • Unresponsive or slow server,
  • JVM memory usage, 
  • Average response time, 
  • Thread count, and more.
  • Can easily send email, kill threads programmatically, take snapshots, and refuse incoming requests
  • Specify a processing alert CFC (onAlertStart, and onAlertEnd) allows us to write our own code when an alert occurs.
  • Can interact with SNMP systems
• Server Monitoring API
  • Can even build your own interface
• Includes a multi-server monitoring (through IP and Port) even if it’s not clustered

Per Application Settings

• Custom tag paths, mappings, and more can be specified for each application via application.cfc
• For example:
  • this.customTagPaths = ‘comma-delimited list’
  • this.mappings = ‘comma-delimited list’

Platform Support

• Same as before
• Additionally:
  • Windows Vista
  • Apply Mac OS X on Intel
  • JVM 64-bit Support (only for Solaris)
  • JDK 1.5 and 1.6 (default is 1.6 when you install)
  • JDBOSS Application Server 5.x
  • VMWare and MS Virtual Server (not going to be certified)

FASTER

• 5-8x faster object creation
• Internal test show 10-20% increase in overall application performance
• File and Directory operations have been optimized

Nothing is being deprecated – seamless upgrade from MX 7 to 8

You can expect all your current CFML code to run faster and smoothly under CF 8