This Is What Makes Adobe Coldfusion A Better Data Solution In 2023

What is ColdFusion?

Adobe ColdFusion is an all-in-one rapid web application development toolkit. It uses "ColdFusion Markup Language" (CFML), a server-side language that is syntactically similar to HTML. This defines the content to display on the page as well as dynamic actions through use of scripting, very similarly to how JavaScript is commonly used across the web.

Released in 1995, ColdFusion initially had a very minimal set of features. It was extended to support the usage of scripting languages within CFML, such as ActionScript. Over the years, and especially after being acquired by Adobe, ColdFusion has developed into a full suite of tools to create content-rich, data-driven websites. Its toolkit, which we will explain in greater detail later, serves as a complete machine learning solution and can handle very large data quantities!

ColdFusion has a good deal of extensions and versatility that the user may customize, but here are the core features you need to know:

• Cache management for both client and server

• Easy, GUI-based access to databases

• Ability to generate client-side code "on-the-fly"

• Ability to retrieve data from just about any storage solution, from Active Directory to Microsoft Exchange Server

• Integration with Apache Solr to allow for file searching and indexing

• Customized scope definitions for servers, clients, sessions, and requests

• Parsing and validation abilities

• Server clustering and task scheduling capability

• Fully customizable graphs and reports about server accesses, queries, and more

• The ability to manipulate most types of files

Finally, CFStudio was a major addition to the ColdFusion suite. This is a "WYSIWYG" ("what you see is what you get") editor that allows site authors to make changes from a GUI, rather than solely through code.

Now that you've had a brief introduction to the product, let's take a look at how ColdFusion can be utilized in data science applications.

How ColdFusion Provides Data Science Through Coding

In this section, we'll review how ColdFusion can access data and use it in a variety of ways. In order for ColdFusion to access your data, you have to have a database! The platform supports many database types, including standard SQL, MySQL, Oracle SQL, and DB2. If you're not familiar with the syntax of database calls you'll need to make, ColdFusion comes with a tool called "ColdFusion Builder" that can help you in doing so!

ColdFusion data types are identical to data types in your chosen Database Management System (DBMS). While we won't go into too much detail, we'll go over how we can perform basic operations in ColdFusion, assuming you have already created a data source.

You will first need to create a Query. Let's say we have a MySQL table called "chetu_stuff", and we just want to select everything from it. We'll need to use CFML to define our Query like this:

[left bracket]cfscript[right bracket]

query=QueryExecute('SELECT * FROM chetu_stuff', [], {datasource='sampleSource'});

[left bracket]/cfscript[right bracket]

So we now have the code block that will just grab everything from that table. We now have to make the "tags" for that Query. Here's an example of how to do that using ColdFusion:

[left bracket]cfquery name="query" dataSource="sampleSource"[right bracket]

SELECT * FROM chetu_stuff

[left bracket]/cfquery[right bracket]

And there you have it! We have both our "script" and our "tag". Note that your "datasource" and the name you give your Query must match in both. Remember, this is a very, very simple example. It could easily be built up and turned into a full solution to output and manipulate large data quantities!

The possibilities on manipulating ColdFusion data types are endless. For example, you can iterate through all the entries in a database table and display each one, using the "[left bracket]cfloop[right bracket]" tag. In as a little as a week, a developer could grasp the fundamentals of ColdFusion, likely even enough to create a complete machine learning solution!

Without further adieu, let's move on and take a look at how we can utilize ColdFusion's power to amp it up a notch!

ColdFusion Machine Learning Software Development

Data-driven applications power most commonly-used applications. For example, take an e-learning suite. This requires a huge database hierarchy, including courses, their contents, students and teachers, assignment grading and feedback, and more. This would be very daunting to attempt in more "traditional" methods, such as PHP and MySQL.

However, ColdFusion was made with feats like this in mind! Using Adobe's "Flex 3" makes this process a lot easier. Just make a new project and be sure to specify the Application Development Server type as "ColdFusion". Go through the ColdFusion wizard (you may need assistance with this if you aren't familiar with it).

LifeCycle Data Services ES is also required. When you combine Adobe Flex 3, ColdFusion, and this (and you have run through the ColdFusion Wizard), server-side code necessary to set up an actively editable DataGrid can be created for you! You'll need to edit the dataManagement-config.xml file with the proper parameters and ensure you've created a CFC to match.

However, very little coding is involved to just get a live DataGrid in motion with Flex 3, ColdFusion, and LifeCycle Data Services. In an e-learning system, this could function as an easy grade book for teachers to use! You'd also be able to easily make a data analysis system using ColdFusion in a similar manner.

In short, if you have a computational problem, there's likely a ColdFusion solution for it! Since the components of ColdFusion easily stack on top of one another, just like classes in object-oriented programming languages do, you won't have an issue linking everything together.

Conclusion

Even though "data science" is often used as a buzzword, we receive very little guidance on how we can practically create applications to analyze "big data". As you've seen in this article, Adobe ColdFusion is a natural answer to most problems involving the need to edit and maintain large stacks of data for web-based applications.

If, after reading this article, you're considering using ColdFusion to fuel your next data-driven project, look no further than Chetu! Say no to templates, and say yes to getting a completely customized experience. Chetu can perform custom front-end web development and design services that utilize Adobe ColdFusion and its various toolkits and frameworks. Whether you need a site to store soccer statistics, you're embarking on a new business venture that relies on "big data", you're making a new e-learning suite, or anything else, Chetu has you covered!