Computers
| By : Flynn Remedios | Previous | Next |
| Posted on : 24 Jun, 2007 | Total Views : 170 |
Not to be associated with nuclear physics, Cold Fusion is an application server that promises to greatly augment dynamic web page creation
Neither does it have anything to do with atomic energy. Instead, it is connected with web servers and web pages. And it is one of the hottest platforms around, offering various options to skilled programmers who seem to relish its versatility.
So what then is Cold Fusion? It is an application server platform — which can be used by a web server to access and create dynamic web pages. Apps on Tap — is the new buzzword on the internet. This means that users can access applications on the internet without having to purchase them outright.
An ASP or Application Service Provider rents or permits users to use his applications and only pay for the actual time used. This is where an application server like Cold Fusion comes in.
First, it would help to understand what an application server exactly is. An application server, is a server that lies behind the web server - not in the literal sense of course?
When you access a web page through your browser a request is sent to the web server. The web server is informed by the application server, in this case Cold Fusion, to let the Cold Fusion Application Server handle .cfm (Cold Fusion) pages.
The web server - which could be an Internet Information Server (IIS) or Netscape Enterprise - just passes on the request to the apps server, which then does the actual work. The application server on receiving the request starts processing the page.
The Cold Fusion code is executed and it dynamically creates the .cfm page with 100 per cent HTML code. It then sends this to the server, which quickly passes it on to the user - in this case you.
When the page is fully loaded in your browser, if you could take a look at the code, you’ll notice that it is normal HTML (If there is such a thing as normal HTML...).
The only thing different from normal HTML pages is that this Cold Fusion generated page has been dynamically created by the Cold Fusion App Server.
The advantage in this case is that if you updated a table in your database, the new .cfm would automatically be re-created at the next request and present the user with the new data - unlike static web pages which need to be individually altered each time.
This technology is very useful for websites that need to be up-dated dynamically in real time.
Cold Fusion, which is now more than 3 years old is comparatively more mature than many other application servers. It can be installed on Microsoft Windows NT or Sun Solaris, works with several web servers, and can access several different databases (including Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft SQL, Access).
While using Cold Fusion you are only limited by your imagination. Some of the interesting possibilities using CFML (Cold Fusion Markup Language) include editing and updating data, retrieving and sending emails, working with Light Weight Directory Services or LDAP, implementing search capabilities, working with cookies, creating personal CustomTags and maintaining a session/state with users.
On the job front too, Cold Fusion offers programmers a new platform to upgrade, given the fact that web designing by itself is becoming quite static.
(This article by the author was first published in the Economic Times)
Written By : Flynn Remedios
