I'm about ankle deep in a project right now where the client wanted me to use Mach-ii. If you understand OO programming you'll find a lot of what's going on very natural and intuitive. If you haven't done much in the way of OO before you'll have a bit of fun wrapping your head around what's going on.
It is a true framework in that it provides pre-written code and modules. That pre-written code forms the controller part of an MVC methodology. You write the model and view yourself and, using the XML config file, tell the controller the sequence of actions you would like to take for any given request. The view is generally plain old cfm files that generate HTML, and the model tends to be CFCs. You might have a bit of fun trying to get started with it because there isn't really a 'hold my hand' guide. The sample apps are relatively simple, so you can be left scratching your head wondering how to go about implementing a more complex project. If that's the case you should probably go have a look at http://www.mach-ii.info. The source code for that site is available online for download and is a more solid example of how a real world mach-ii app might be written. One of mach-ii's strengths also happens to be a bit of a weakness for the beginner. There are just so many different ways you could approach any given problem that it's hard for anyone to give you an answer on the _right_ way to do what you want to do. Once you get over that it's a very solid system and I expect I'll be using more of it in future projects. Some things to be aware of though: Having debugging enabled in the ColdFusion Administrator will make your app _crawl_. I mean it will be slower by a factor of up to 10 times, so you probably want to have it turned off most of the time and turn it on only when you have a specific problem to track down. The core files are meant to be a black-box solution. i.e. You're not supposed to go poking around in there to see if there's a way to take advantage of some quirk of how they work in your apps. That makes sense because a new release could come out at any time and you don't want to have that break your existing apps. If you don't really know very much about OO and design patterns before you start, make sure you have a reference of some kind handy when you look through the code for the sample apps. Especially the source code for www.mach-ii.info. It has some good examples of several design patterns, but if you don't know that the patterns exist it might be a bit hard to figure out what exactly is going on, and more importantly why the code is written the way it is. HTH Spike >-----Original Message----- >From: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >o.uk] On Behalf Of Robertson-Ravo, Neil (RX) >Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 6:39 AM >To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' >Subject: [ cf-dev ] Mach II > >Whats everyones take on the Mach II Framework? > > > >This e-mail is from Reed Exhibitions (Oriel House, 26 The >Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1DL, United Kingdom), a >division of Reed Business, Registered in England, Number >678540. It contains information which is confidential and may >also be privileged. It is for the exclusive use of the >intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended >recipient(s) please note that any form of distribution, >copying or use of this communication or the information in it >is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have >received this communication in error please return it to the >sender or call our switchboard on +44 (0) 20 89107910. The >opinions expressed within this communication are not >necessarily those expressed by Reed Exhibitions. Visit our >website at http://www.reedexpo.com > > -- These lists are syncronised with the CFDeveloper forum at http://forum.cfdeveloper.co.uk/ Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev%40lists.cfdeveloper.co.uk/ CFDeveloper Sponsors and contributors:- *Hosting and support provided by CFMXhosting.co.uk* :: *ActivePDF provided by activepdf.com* *Forums provided by fusetalk.com* :: *ProWorkFlow provided by proworkflow.com* *Tutorials provided by helmguru.com* :: *Lists hosted by gradwell.com* To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
