Opinions please: I'm involved on working out SmartObjects 2.0 (the bastard stepchild in Coldfusion methodologies) and I would like to hear from anyone using cfObjects, SmartObjects or even Fusebox 3 what you feel is missing from those methodologies that would make development easier. What do you like and dislike?
I think we are putting together a solid framework that will organize and ease development. Some of the core features we are working on are: 1. The ability to drop SmartObjects' object-oriented components into any existing application written in any methodology or just plain CFML. 2. An event system that allows for events like Form submissions, clicking links, etc. to be handled dynamically in a different manner from one part of an application to another. For example, you may have a signup form that you want to submit to a thank you page on the front end of your site, but use the same form in an admin tool to submit, update the database record, and then cflocation back to itself. 3. The ability to declare protected and private methods so small pieces of functionality do not intertwine from one part of an application to another in a tangled mess. In fusebox, I had the problem of having fuseactions with CFINDLUDES like this: <cfinclude template="../../../admin/candidate/qry_somethign.cfm"> Having Protected and Private methods lets you decide what you do and do not want to share ahead of time. 4. The ability to return a value (such as a string, query, structure) from a coldfusion page in a similar manner that UDF's do and put that value into the variable of your choice. This solves some problems that custom tags often have where they overwrite their caller's variable or set variables not wanted. I realize that a lot of people will say you should just use Java or ASP if you want OOP web development, but there are a lot of hardcore Coldfusion people out there that like having an organized, OO framework with the ease of CFML development. Even Fusebox has some OOP style features. I have also heard rumors that NEO will add some OOP features to CFML. I have been using an "alpha" version of SmartObjects 2.0 and it has produced some very clean and flexible code in my company's shopping cart, promotional tools and mainframe integration. My boss had never used SmartObjects before and was very impressed with the results (He is a Coldfusion/VB/COM developer.) SmartObjects 1.6 can be found at http://www.smart-objects.com/ Please contact me with your thoughts at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thanks Craig ______________________________________________________________________ Get Your Own Dedicated Windows 2000 Server PIII 800 / 256 MB RAM / 40 GB HD / 20 GB MO/XFER Instant Activation � $99/Month � Free Setup http://www.pennyhost.com/redirect.cfm?adcode=coldfusionb FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
