Editing Adobe ColdFusion (section)

== Overview ==
One of the distinguishing features of ColdFusion is its associated scripting language, [[ColdFusion Markup Language]] (CFML). CFML compares to the scripting components of [[Active Server Pages|ASP]], [[JavaServer Pages|JSP]], and [[PHP]] in purpose and features, but its tag syntax more closely resembles [[HTML]], while its script syntax resembles [[JavaScript]]. ''ColdFusion'' is often used synonymously with ''[[ColdFusion Markup Language|CFML]]'', but there are [[#Alternative server environments|additional CFML application servers]] besides ColdFusion, and ColdFusion supports programming languages other than CFML, such as server-side [[Actionscript]] and embedded scripts that can be written in a [[JavaScript]]-like language known as [[CFScript]].

Originally a product of [[Allaire Corporation|Allaire]] and released on July 2, 1995, ColdFusion was developed by brothers [[Joseph J. Allaire]] and [[Jeremy Allaire]]. In 2001 [[Allaire Corporation|Allaire]] was acquired by [[Macromedia]], which in turn was acquired by [[Adobe Systems]] Inc in 2005.

ColdFusion is most often used for data-driven [[website]]s or [[intranet]]s, but can also be used to generate remote services such as [[REST]] services, [[WebSocket]]s, [[SOAP]] [[web service]]s or [[Adobe Flash|Flash]] remoting. It is especially well-suited as the server-side technology to the client-side [[ajax (programming)|ajax]].

ColdFusion can also handle asynchronous events such as [[Short message service|SMS]] and [[instant messaging]] via its gateway interface, available in ColdFusion MX 7 Enterprise Edition.

=== Main features ===
ColdFusion provides a number of additional features out of the box. Main features include:
* Simplified database access
* Client and server cache management
* Client-side code generation, especially for form [[Widget (computing)|widgets]] and validation
* Conversion from [[HyperText Markup Language|HTML]] to [[Portable Document Format|PDF]]
* Data retrieval from common enterprise systems such as [[Active Directory]], [[Lightweight Directory Access Protocol|LDAP]], [[Simple Mail Transfer Protocol|SMTP]], [[Post Office Protocol|POP]], [[HyperText Transfer Protocol|HTTP]], [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]], [[Microsoft Exchange Server]] and common data formats such as [[RSS]] and [[Atom (standard)|Atom]]
* File [[Index (database)|indexing]] and searching service based on [[Apache Solr]]
* [[Graphical user interface|GUI]] administration
* Server, application, client, session, and request [[Scope (programming)|scopes]]
* [[XML]] parsing, [[XPath|querying (XPath)]], validation and [[XSLT|transformation (XSLT)]]
* Server clustering
* Task scheduling
* [[Chart|Graphing]] and [[Financial reporting|reporting]]
* Simplified file manipulation including [[raster graphics]] (and [[CAPTCHA]]) and [[ZIP (file format)|zip archives]] (introduction of video manipulation is planned in a future release)
* Simplified [[web service]] implementation (with automated [[Web services description language|WSDL]] generation / transparent [[SOAP (protocol)|SOAP]] handling for both creating and consuming services - as an example, [[ASP.NET]]<ref>[http://digitalcolony.com/2007/08/consuming-web-service-in-aspnet.aspx Consuming a Web Service in ASP.NET Tutorial] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081223084910/http://digitalcolony.com/2007/08/consuming-web-service-in-aspnet.aspx |date=December 23, 2008 }}. Digital Colony (2007-08-23). Retrieved on 2013-07-21.</ref> has no native equivalent for <syntaxhighlight lang="cfm" inline><CFINVOKE WEBSERVICE="http://host/tempconf.cfc?wsdl" METHOD="Celsius2Fahrenheit" TEMP="#tempc#" RETURNVARIABLE="tempf"></syntaxhighlight><ref>[https://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/cf_aspnet08.html] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060720165335/https://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/cf_aspnet08.html|date=July 20, 2006}}</ref>)

Other implementations of CFML offer similar or enhanced functionality, such as running in a [[.NET Framework|.NET]] environment or image manipulation.

The engine was written in C and featured, among other things, a built-in scripting language (CFScript), plugin modules written in Java, and a syntax very similar to HTML. The equivalent to an HTML element, a ColdFusion tag begins with the letters "CF" followed by a name that is indicative of what the tag is interpreted to, in HTML. E.g. &lt;cfoutput&gt; to begin the output of variables or other content.

In addition to CFScript and plugins (as described), CFStudio provided a design platform with a [[WYSIWYG]] display. In addition to ColdFusion, CFStudio also supports syntax in other languages popular for backend programming, such as Perl. In addition to making backend functionality easily available to the non-programmer, (version 4.0 and forward in particular) integrated easily with the [[Apache HTTP Server|Apache Web Server]] and with [[Internet Information Services]].

=== Other features ===
All versions of ColdFusion prior to 6.0 were written using Microsoft [[Visual C++]]. This meant that ColdFusion was largely limited to running on [[Microsoft Windows]], although Allaire did successfully port ColdFusion to [[Sun Microsystems|Sun]] [[Solaris (operating system)|Solaris]] starting with version 3.1.

The [[Allaire Corporation|Allaire]] company was sold to [[Macromedia]], then Macromedia was sold to [[Adobe Systems|Adobe]]. Earlier versions were not as robust as the versions available from version 4.0 forward.{{Fact or opinion|date=June 2019}}

With the release of ColdFusion MX 6.0, the engine had been re-written in [[Java (programming language)|Java]] and supported its own runtime environment, which was easily replaced through its configuration options with the runtime environment from Sun. Version 6.1 included the ability to code and debug [[Adobe Flash|Macromedia Flash]].