One of the coolest things about any coding language is watching people take it from one area (the web) to another. For example php’ers have hooks into the GTK tool kit which gives them the ability to build GUI applications for the desktop etc.
Well recently two cool ColdFusion items have floated up from the net and onto my browser.
The first is a guy on the CF-TALK mailing list who’s made a CF app run from a CD using various software packages. You can see the initial thread here, and see his online documentation here. That second URL might not work all the time, as i think the developer is hosting it at home. Im sure you can see the marketing advantages this will have. Think mini-CD’s and promotions.
The second item is a software program which will allow you to create and run desktop ColdFusion applications. CORAL is a nice little application that frees you from the web. It allows you to develop and deploy your ColdFusion applications in a variety of ways including the desktop. This is nice because it free you from having to pay for a CF license every time you want to deploy your application on the desktop etc.
Hopefully you’ll find these bits of ingenuity interesting, and maybe it’ll spark your imagination a bit.
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So has anyone used CORAL yet? I wonder what the speed is like compared to CFMX.
May 30th, 2004 at 12:16 pm
Keep in mind that CORAL isn’t supposed to be an replacement for a CF Server. It’s just a way to run localized applications easily and cheaply :)…. I’m trying to get a review copy as we speak so i can run it through it’s paces and let everyone here know how it does.
May 30th, 2004 at 9:45 pm
Nice to see an article on this… noticed people talking about it on the BlueDragon mailing list. Very cool.
May 31st, 2004 at 4:42 pm
From what I understand, BlueDragon and CORAL are very different. BlueDragon is an actual application server, designed to sit on top of IIS and run a web application. The only real advantage of BlueDragon is that if you only need certain functionality, you can get a version of the application server for free. I don’t know what the performance metrics would indicate as to its speed.
CORAL is designed to run desktop applications with the functionality of web applications. Personally, if you’re going to build a desktop application, I’d eliminate the middle-man (CORAL) and use a language well suited for desktop apps (C#/VB.Net preferably…)
June 1st, 2004 at 10:15 am
Folks, as CTO of New Atlanta, makers of BlueDragon, I was of course tickled to see this blog entry. Thanks, Eric. Yes, BlueDragon is at the heart of the “various software packages” he referred to.
But as to the last comment, from David Medlock, I do want to offer clarification. BlueDragon is much more than just “an actual application server, designed to sit on top of IIS and run a web application”.
Indeed, that sounds like a confusion of a couple different things. We offer standalone versions (Server and Server JX, one of which is the free one), and those run on Windows, Linux, and OS X, with versions supporting IIS, Apache, iPlanet, and more. Then we also have the J2EE edition, which allows you to deploy CFML on top of a J2EE server. This is at the heart of what Dick Applebaum is doing with his “BD on a CD” project, which we certainly applaud and are supportting him in.
I don’t want to turn this comment thread into a sales pitch, but if I may I’d like to at least offer rebuttal to David’s assertion that “the only real advantage of BlueDragon is that if you only need certain functionality, you can get a version of the application server for free.”
We do indeed offer many advantages, or else people wouldn’t be buying our commercial versions. Please see http://bluedragon.blog-city.com/read/601768.htm for more info. I address his performance question there as well.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify these points.
June 1st, 2004 at 9:50 pm
Rebuttals are good and we welcome comments from all sides of the fence :) I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more about BD in upcoming articles I have planned.
June 2nd, 2004 at 12:50 pm
Wow, no comments since June of 2004? One advantage that is making me look into Coral is that I have a CF application (ok, not completely done yet…) that I also have a VB front-end for. Coral eliminates the need to have 2 codebases. I can only eliminate so much redundant code moving logic to the backend, this would give me the opportunity to have the same front-end, also! I’m still investigating, so don’t take this as an endorsement.
March 21st, 2005 at 6:54 pm
Take a look also to http://www.dwebpro.com/. It supports IgniteFusion engine and can run from CD/DVD. It’s prefect for creating demo version of CF web applications.
Sincerely,
Filippo Toso
June 2nd, 2006 at 9:10 pm
What they do not support are Flash forms, cfgrid, cftree, and a few other tags. In an e-mail from their Tech support, they don’t believe they will ever support Flash forms.
While I haven’t tested this, since they do support cfc files, it may be possible to run ColdFusion Flash Remoting for Flex, through Coral instead of buying a ColdFusion Enterprise license for Flex. I’d be curious if anyone has tried or knows.
September 9th, 2006 at 5:55 am