Thanks, Jeff, for the reply regarding a web archive. Since I can't browse the archives, I guess I'll have to bother you all "live."
I'm trying to evaluate Plum versus other tools/frameworks out there, especially fusebox. I've been playing with Plum now for a week and have been working my way through the tutorials... I'm about 1/4 of the way through. I have also read everything I've been able to Google about Plum. While I like what I've experienced of Plum, I'm a bit concerned about it's "proprietary" nature and what appears to be the lack of a robust user community (except for this somewhat invisible list). I'm also concerned about using Plum on the job I'm attempting to do. I'd appreciate any advice anyone can offer about the wisdom of forging ahead with Plum. I created and continue to manage an old, clunky CF web (we started in 1994, probably with CF1.0) that has grown piecemeal over the past 10 years (http://www.globalschoolhouse.org). (Developing/managing this site is only one of the many things I do in this organization). Because of its evolution over such a long time, with no retrenchment along the way, we basically have several unique CF applications, each with its own unique user interfaces and data requirements and even navigation methods... Although we do have a homegrown sitewide user authentication scheme. Also, over the years, we've never systematically developed any framework or system of reusing our code, other than some sitewide includes and lots of cut/paste/adapt. As we proceed with the development of yet another unique application, I've finally decided it's time to impose some order on this system, and the question is, can I do it with Plum. I'm beginning I think that I could develop (or at least prototype) my yet-another-new application in Plum, and then go back and retrofit the existing applications into the Plum method. However we already have close to 100K users in my existing user table, with several related tables that are used by the various sub-applications. For instance, we use a STATE and COUNTRY lookup table to translate CA into California and US into United States, for example. Also, some of our applications demand more contact information than others (we work with teachers and students). Teachers who want to participate in any of our projects must include both school and home contact information before they can register for the project (otherwise, we require minimal information: school name, state, country and zip). Hence, we have separate tables for school addresses and home addresses. Furthermore, the email address of EVERY registrant must be validated via email delivery and their reply, after which their record must THEN be reviewed and approved by one of our moderators before they become eligible to participate in one of our projects. Thus, at the minimum, I believe I will have to modify the login/NewUserForm.cfm in order to retrofit the authentication to my existing data tables. The first question is, does this sound feasible in Plum? --------------------------------------------------------' Question 2: While PLUM will be useful for my administrative management of the web site, much of our data requirements for our applications that teachers and students interact with simply don't lend themselves to simple form tables. For instance, in some instances we need to do live-interactive drill-down queries that present form choices based on the previous input so as not to overwhelm the client with too many choices presented all at once. Thus, I'll want to include a sophisticated form and display generator within the Plum application framework for several of our client applications. Will Plum let me do this? --------------------------------------------------------- Question 3: We also want to include frame generators, DHTML dropdown navigation menus, and eventually integrate open source applications such as forums, blogs, etc. Will permit and/or support these kinds of additions? --------------------------------------------------------- Question 4 (final question): One of the things that lends credence to Fusebox is the vigorous user support that exists in an open source framework. Plum seems to have a fairly limited following at this time, and it's not clear to me at this point how much commitment the Churvis brothers have to the ongoing support and development. I know it's very reasonable, even to purchase for all that it does, but I'm not clear about ongoing support and development. The question is: What am I missing? -------------------------------- I'll appreciate any insights you can provide, and any additional third-party evaluations and reviews you can steer me to (As I said, I've already read everything I can reasonably google on this subject). Al -------------------------------- Al Rogers [EMAIL PROTECTED] Global SchoolNet Foundation http://www.globalschoolnet.org ********************************************************************** You can subscribe to and unsubscribe from lists, and you can change your subscriptions between normal and digest modes here: http://www.productivityenhancement.com/support/DiscussionListsForm.cfm **********************************************************************
