Deploying CFML on.NET: Opportunities & Challenges Charlie Arehart, CTO New Atlanta Communications...

Deploying CFML on .NET:

Opportunities & Challenges Charlie Arehart, CTO

New Atlanta Communications

[email protected]

April 21, 2023 New Atlanta Communications, LLC

Overview

Industry trend: the move to standard architectures

Protecting your CFML investment The only way to deploy CFML on .NET:

BlueDragon How easy it is The benefits of deploying CFML on .NET “Cost” of deploying CFML on .NET Resources for learning more


About Your Speaker

CTO of New Atlanta Communications since April ‘03 Company based in Alpharetta, GA (30 miles north of Atlanta)

7 yrs CF experience (21 yrs in Enterprise IT) Co-author, ColdFusion MX Bible (Wiley) Frequent contributor to ColdFusion Dev Journal Past accomplishments of note

Tech Editor, CFDJ Allaire/Macromedia Certified Adv CF Developer (4, 5, MX) Allaire/Macromedia Certified Instructor Team Macromedia Member & Customer Advisory Board Member Contributor to Macromedia Devnet, Dev Exchange

Frequent speaker to user groups, conferences worldwide

Also pursuing Masters at Dallas Theological Seminary part-time via Atlanta extension campus


Industry Trends

The technology platform “highway” has split, and most organizations today are faced with choosing directions between Sun's J2EE and Microsoft's .NET

What if you’re org is moving to .NET? Management being persuaded by “standard architectures” Architectural committees often prefer .NET, see CF as

proprietary Vendors focus on ASP.NET as the only tool for .NET web apps


ASP.NET Not the Only Answer

.NET folks think ASP.NET is the only way to go And that converting CFML apps to that is only alternative

Conversion to ASP.NET is no trivial undertaking For all but simplest applications, is not a simple matter Can be very expensive Retraining folks in ASP.NET, .NET framework, tools, design

patterns, etc is not trivial

And during that conversion, what about the existing apps?

Spending time rewriting when you could be enhancing


Protecting Your CFML Investment

What if you could move the CFML to .NET and keep it running?

Could just park it there, on new platform

No need for CF Server (nor BD server)

Can start integrating with .NET, if you’d like

Or start converting CFML to ASP.NET at your own pace

You can! BlueDragon offer the only means to

run CFML on .NET BlueDragon also can run CFML on

J2EE

Don’t throw away your CFML investment!


BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework

BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework runs CFML on .NET

Uses standard .NET features to enable this Runs as an “http handler” (in .NET parlance)

Does NOT rely on ColdFusion at all No ColdFusion Server Not even a BlueDragon Server

Your CFML becomes just a .NET web application IIS is configured to hand requests for .CFM files to .NET .NET looks for a file describing how to handle CFM files

We edit server-wide machine.config to describe this by default Optionally can configure on a virtual directory or site basis

Config file XML entry points to BlueDragon.dll This is the BlueDragon CFML engine Same engine as our BlueDragon Server and J2EE editions Deployed as a .NET managed assembly Stored in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) by default


Quick Overview: What is .NET?

Some argue that .NET is Microsoft’s answer to J2EE Enterprise-class web application development capabilities Integrated into the operating system

Can be added to Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and more

On one level, is tantamount to an alternative to Java Similar libraries providing similar functionality Sometimes improving on things Java left out or did differently

Can call upon .NET library APIs and components just as we can using CFOBJECT to call Java libraries and components

While ASP.NET is the de facto standard way to create web apps in .NET, it’s not the only way

.NET defines a specification to support other “http handlers” While Visual Studio is the de facto standard way to

edit ASP.NET web apps, CFML folks need not bother You can continue to edit your CFML with favorite editors


How Easy It Is

Let’s walk through deploying CFML as a .NET web app

Show CFML code running “normally” on CF Server Show steps of running installer to configure BlueDragon for

the Microsoft .NET Framework Show the CFML code running via BD/.NET Edit the CFML code, show that it detects changes like

normal

It’s still just CFML—deployed on .NET No CF server, no BlueDragon server required


CFML Processing Configuration

Now all CFM templates on on all web sites (or those selected) are processed by BlueDragon

Unless overridden at web site or directory level

Could have CF and even BlueDragon Server also installed at the same time

Use virtual directory or site to control handing CFM files to either

Just by changing extension mappings in IIS See my November 2003 CFDJ article, “Configuring Your

Development Server for CF5, CFMX, and BlueDragon” Available at NewAtlanta web site, under “editorials”


What Are the Benefits?

But why bother with deployment on .NET? Most significant motivation is if it’s your only alternative

because you must move to .NET At least still CFML

BlueDragon/.NET license also less than half the cost of CFMX Enterprise

Priced the same as our J2EE edition, another enterprise solution

Several other benefits to enhance your CFML, even if you’re not being forced to move to .NET

Have discussed similar benefits in April CFDJ article:

“Making the Case for CFML on J2EE” Provided on the New Atlanta web site

(newatlanta.com/bluedragon/) Most of the benefits described there apply to .NET as well

Let’s look at a few of these, in brief…


CFML: Super-charged!

Can integrate CFML and ASP.NET Share session, application, request scopes with ASP.NET

pages Call .NET objects/classes/libraries

CFML becomes a standard .NET component Can do with it anything that you’d do with an ASP.NET

template Can leverage .NET declarative security, session persistence

Examples of each of these is (or will be) offered in the document, “Deploying CFML on the Microsoft .NET Framework”

Available freely on our site or with download


Enterprise Solutions

Can also leverage enterprise benefits of IIS 6 on server editions of Windows

Past CFDJ, MM articles have described how CFML on J2EE can leverage multiple independent instances

Same goes for CFML on IIS on Server editions of Windows Can have multiple web sites on single server

CFML runs as a process on IIS (not a separate server) Can leverage features such as clustering, load balancing, fail-

over, session replication and persistence

Even without Server editions of Windows, BlueDragon/.NET offers unique solutions for managing multiple applications…


Multiple Web Apps/Admin Consoles

In IIS/.NET, each site/virtual directory is its own web application

Could have own web.config file to control configuration of that directory and below

One directory has security, session persistence, etc., others do not

Indeed, .NET has an inheritance model, where web apps at one level inherit settings from higher level

Again, CFML on .NET plays along, with unique benefits

Each web app (web site/virtual directory) has its own BlueDragon Admin console

Could configure debugging in one, not the other (or caching, datasources, etc.)

Each web app could even have different versions of BlueDragon engine


When Can I Get Started?

BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework is in “tech preview” mode

Freely available now on our web site Is based on our 6.1 release, just recently released to

production Will expire in a few weeks, by which time we’ll have a beta

Expecting final release in Q4, if not sooner Some are licensing it now to run production apps We welcome that and seek strategic testers to

identify/resolve any key issues Though again, anyone can now download and test


“Cost” of Deployment on .NET

Expected Cost BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework: $2499 per

CPU

Resource utilization cost BlueDragon engine is just 2MB in size!

Other dependent libraries total just 10MB in J2EE edition Reasonable to expect similar footprint on .NET


What About Mono?

One last topic that some may ask about…

Mono is an open-source implementation of the .NET framework (go-mono.org)

Primarily oriented toward .NET on Linux and OS X Backed by Novell and others

Does not implement all the features of .NET Has certain minimal goals in its current pre-release status

So BlueDragon does not currently run on MONO

We will be following its progress


Why BlueDragon?

Main reason so far is just that it runs CFML on .NET

Naturally, you’ll wonder what it supports

Substantially similar feature set to ColdFusion BlueDragon 6.1 supports CFMX 6.1 functionality

CFCs, XML, web services, and more And all the other things you’d expect in CFML

Including CFXs, CFOBJECT calls to Java, and lots more

Currently lacks only a handful of tags CF4/5: CFAPPLET, CFGRID, CFREPORT

And CFAUTHENTICATE, CFIMPERSONATE; obsoleted in CFMX CF/MX: CFCHART, CFLOGIN, CFTRACE (planning to add soon)

Does offer enterprise database drivers, web server integration Database integration is based on ADO.NET in .NET edition

What does it add? Besides the only way to run CFML on .NET?...


Why BlueDragon? (cont.)

Also several benefits over CFMX Available protection of CFML using precompiled or encrypted templates

Readable only by BlueDragon. Cannot be converted back to source code A few extra tags, including: CFASSERT, CFIMAGE, CFIMAP Web spidering via CFINDEX (as well as text file and query indexing) Extra runtime state information reported in BD Admin console Automatically populates datasources from existing ODBC ones

(Windows) BlueDragon has many other advantages to consider

See http://bluedragon.blog-city.com/read/601768.htm

And beyond .NET edition, again, have J2EE edition as well All same sort of benefits as .NET edition, but on J2EE server

Also available standalone Server and Server JX editions Server edition is free (free for production!)

Lacks only a few features

All available for download as free trial, dev editions


Who is New Atlanta

New Atlanta is an established business with 11,000 paying customers in over 70 countries

Been in the server-side Java business since 1997 ServletExec is still a highly regarded JSP/servlet engine

It underlies BlueDragon Server/Server JX just like JRun underlies CFMX

JTurbo is a highly regarded Type IV JDBC for SQL Server

New Atlanta is known for strong support, responsiveness

Got into BlueDragon to address critical needs of CFML developers not being served by CF

Even so, Macromedia has had many positive things to say about BlueDragon


What Does Macromedia Think?

Macromedia Directory of Technology Sean Corfield Has frequently blogged positive comments about BlueDragon in

his personal site, corfield.org, or on our mailing list “Overall, it looks pretty good” “They're nice shirts - I have one and wear it to work sometimes :)”

Ben Forta, senior CF Evangelist “I personally wish them all the best in their endeavors…I give

the NA folks credit for innovating where they have opted to do.” http://www.buntel.com/blog/addcomment.cfm?id=114333E9-4E22-

1671-5B4EA519BCDD4F4C

Tim Buntel, CF Product Manager “I'm sure that there's a way that we can not only serve the best

interests of both Macromedia and New Atlanta, but of the community as a whole.”

See buntel.com thread above


Who’s Using BlueDragon?

Hundreds of companies using the several versions Users of free Server edition don’t even need to tell us!

Some key accounts American Airlines – crew reporting application LinuxWorld.com – yes, is CFML (served via .htm) Credit Suisse First Boston – complex security application Digital Insight - sells software to very large banks Fitz and Floyd – Retail store for collectibles Open Rental Desk – implements rental desk s/w in h/w stores

Also, several hosting companies CF Dynamics Advanced Group.net Intent.net StreamingMedia Vivio Technologies

More listed on our partner site


Conclusion

Deploying CFML on .NET is easy BlueDragon alone runs CFML as a native .NET web

application

It can bring many benefits, solve many problems Management, developers, vendors all need to be

educated Understanding benefits of CFML deployed as a native .NET

component

Opens many doors for improvement of apps: Integration, performance, management, and more

Allows CFML to live on as a valuable component in enterprise web application development

CFML now the only language that runs on both J2EE and .NET


Contact Information

Charlie Arehart CTO, New Atlanta Communications [email protected] newatlanta.com/bluedragon/ (678) 256-5395

Deploying CFML on.NET: Opportunities & Challenges Charlie Arehart, CTO New Atlanta Communications...

Documents

Transcript of Deploying CFML on.NET: Opportunities & Challenges Charlie Arehart, CTO New Atlanta Communications...