ColdFusion for Web development

ColdFusion was built for web development: To gain the advantage of this situation, many languages and frameworks get born in the industry to help the web developers in developing enterprise standard web applications. ColdFusion is one such piece which is dedicated for web development process. It is not a language rather a framework built in CFML language!! Anyway, it provides an amazing platform for all web developers to build industry standard web application with much ease. Since ColdFusion is highly inspired from PHP, hence we can expect a typical web framework features within ColdFusion. What makes ColdFusion unique: Well, ColdFusion is Open Source just like PHP and the ColdFusion developers can modify the source code of the framework as per their requirement. The best part is since it’s a language framework combo, so we can expect extreme cohesive nature between them. Moreover, due to its simplicity, one can easily learn ColdFusion in less time. Both experienced and fresher can learn it easily to enter into IT industry as a web developer. Experienced web developers can also learn it easily due to similar syntax with other languages like PHP, .Net etc. So, there is a tremendous demand for ColdFusion developers in the industry. The best part is the software farms can hire fresher as ColdFusion developer in less payout which definitely improves their profit. On the other hand, the ColdFusion developers find an easy gate to enter into the IT industry through ColdFusion. Should you choose ColdFusion for your future project: Yes, definitely!! Because it is not only easy to develop enterprise standard web applications but at the same time it is a future ready technology. It has all the features that are required to develop modern websites using HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery etc. Moreover, it also makes you to enable your application to integrate with Cloud technology. So, we can say your project is on the safe hands of ClodFusion. After all, you must care for Support: Well, there is a huge community of ColdFusion developers in the industry and we can expect a healthy response from them in our complex situations. We can get both online and offline support from ColdFusion community when we need them most. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion development, you may consider hiring services of a ColdFusion programming company. We provide ColdFusion web development services. If you would like to hire ColdFusion programmers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Naming convention is the primary: The first thing comes first. Naming convention is the most important and fundamental rule for any ColdFusion developer. ColdFusion supports letters, numbers and underscore for the naming of different variables and functions etc. But to make it more beautiful and uniform ColdFusion developer should use some specific type of formats to identify the difference between variable, functions, class name etc. Don’t forget to use a consistent pattern throughout codebase of the application. You must use session when required: While developing any web application, the web developer must implement session into the application. This ensures the rendering of relevant data to the specific user i.e., it avoids the unethical access of private data of any user of your application. Moreover through session a ColdFusion developer can give its user a privileged feeling through continuous support from the web service. Session is also important for keeping the user logged in for continuous web access with proper encryption technology. Your application should be reliable in different platforms and browsers: While developing in any ColdFusion application, as a developer you must implement cross platform compatibility in your application. For the same you have to create a logic or technique to identify the browser on which your application is being used and then you can use a technique to avoid any browser related issue for your application. Moreover this is also useful while you are dealing with different devices and operating systems. So it is the job of a ColdFusion developer to build his web application which can run in any platform and any situation without any issue. In other words we can say a good ColdFusion developer must learn how to develop stable and reliable web application which is platform independent. As a ColdFusion developer, you must aware of future and modern technologies: A web application should be developed with a strong vision in mind so that it can withstand the demand of future as when required. To achieve the same, a ColdFusion developer should learn modern technologies like HTML5, CSS3 and JQuery etc to develop enterprise standard web applications that are stable enough to meet the demand of the future. In web language we can say a good ColdFusion developer should always give maximum effort to develop a responsive web application which can give rich and same user experience in all platforms, devices to its end user. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion development, you may consider hiring services of a custom ColdFusion programming company. We provide ColdFusion web development services. To hire ColdFusion programmers from us, please reach out to us at Mindfire Solutions.

Furthermore, updating to newer versions will improve the platform’s overall performance speed, plug in all the potential security holes, and help in efficient coding. It will provide the customers and consumers the option of enjoying stable applications through a number of access points. Hence, it is wiser to migrate to the latest versions as soon as they are introduced. However, let us discuss the issue in further details. There is a wide range of web applications available. While on one hand that has helped the end users, on the other, it has increased security risk for everyone. Particularly with the instances of hacking on a steady rise, platforms with the older versions of CF are all exposed to the hackers. Hence, upgrading to the higher version will plug this loophole. For instance, CF version 10 comes up with a unique feature that has become its key coding element, and is excellent in ensuring security of the platform. The two most important changes that are noticeable in this higher CF version are Secure Profiles and the Hot Fix Notifications. Thus, when we talk about the higher versions of ColdFusion, security is the biggest determinant. Again, another significant benefit of upgrading is the availability of options like hot fix installer and notification. This option helps the users to provide notifications to the administrator whenever any hot fix is required to be incorporated. This can be done by enlisting all the regular updates that are readily available in Adobe. While in the earlier version, users could not be awarded hot fixes without pulling up the information; with the new version this can be done without searching the websites or determining the fixes that need to be installed. This can be a significant time saver, especially when the scans are run regularly. Following are some of the other benefits of migrating HTML5 WebSockets The higher versions of CF, namely version 10 provides supportWebSocket protocol on the server. Thus, when it comes to transferring data to the end clients from the server, the procedure becomes much simpler. Again, this feature can also be used for developing a wide spectrum of real time web based application, which gives end user experience a real shot in the arm, more so with the use of dynamic data. HTML5 Charting Furthermore, when it comes to searching a web application based platform with a support for interactive client-end charts, upgrading to the higher versions of CF is the best available option. The higher versions come up with support for charts that are based on Canvas, Further, Flash, SVG. This helps to improve the performance of the web application, mainly through the process of incorporation of interactive charts. Furthermore, the CFCHART tag can also be used with ease for creating and integrating all these interactive charts. Again, it also becomes possible to customize them, with the help of JSON objects. Migration to the higher version of ColdFusion also helps in enjoying revamped and improved web services. Most of the web applications use RESTful web-based services instead of relying on HTTP or HTTPS. With the migration to the latest CF version, it becomes easier to add attributes to the components. Migration also helps in enhanced settings of cache. The way a particular web application caches the user data, directly affects its performance. With the version of CF getting higher, the cache setting also makes specific data creation much easier. Migration to higher version of ColdFusion also allows the developers in indexing databases in more efficient as well as easier way. Also, the developers can take the advantage of Data Import Handler support that the higher version provides. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion development, you may consider hiring services of a custom ColdFusion development company. We provide ColdFusion web application development services. If you would like to discuss with a senior ColdFusion developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Naming conventions- While naming, care has to be taken. Naming of local variables, arguments, methods as well as components must be done with caution; use good names as choosing non qualified or random names may turn out to be disastrous. Say no to cryptic naming strategies or abbreviations. In fact, abbreviations should be avoided altogether. If acronyms cannot be avoided then they should be capitalized. In case of package names, they must be in lowercase letters and totally unique. For interface/class/component names, they should be nouns since most likely objects or things are being represented by them. The writing should be in camel case and each word’s first letter must be capitalized. If possible, the letter I should begin the interfaces. Compare two strings by using compareNoCase- True string comparison is denoted through the usage of compareNoCase. However, unless it is guaranteed that the data does not contain leading 0, it should not be used, when compared to IS NOT, using this feature is better as well as faster. Separating business from play- This might be a very important thing once you start working with designers. It must be remembered that your application has to be passed off to some other developer and a designer and it is important that while working they do not over write the codes of each other. If that is achieved then it is a job well done. Creation of functions on display pages or running of inline queries should be avoided. More and more comments- Under commented works may be not a very promising aspect. It is not that each line should be commented but including some comments make it very easy to read according to the functions and variable names. Frameworks- When we include frameworks, it essentially means that the code must be organized into methods which will make it easy for you as well your colleague to work on the project; it will help you find exactly what is being searched for. It is a good idea to at least learn a simple framework which has great documentation. Defaults should be set only once- This statement is almost like a rule for application.cfm. There are many developers who set variables throughout the application like datasources or titles in it. But often they commit a mistake of not checking whether the variables are defined or not. This results in the running of same code all over again every time. A check must be used in this respect to find out about the setting of the variables. If everything is good then they should not be bothered. This will result in slightly faster movement of the application. Compulsory use of OnRequestEnd.cfm and Application.cfm- This is a great practise even if the case does not demand the usage of these files. This is because during each request, they will be hunted for by ColdFusion. You will be speeding up the page-processing time if you include some empty files with those names in the site folder. Validating client data in server-side - Despite data validation with JavaScript, validation of data should also be done server-side. In fact, when possible, checking of variables must be done for type and this should again be verified. These are only some of the practices that must be followed for a better result in ColdFusion programming. But the main things to remember is that when programming, try to access up to date open source libraries as well as existing applications so that there is less need for developing each and everything from scratch. Also try to release your open source applications frequently so that you can benefit others like others have benefitted you. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion, you may consider hiring services of a ColdFusion web application development company. We provide ColdFusion development services. If you would like to talk to one of our expert ColdFusion developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Some of the Widely Used Code Coverage Tools Rancho for ColdFusion Applications: Rancho is designed as an experimental tool to check code coverage while testing any ColdFusion application. The testers have option to use Rancho either as an application or a ColdFusion Builder extension. As the tool is written in CFML, it provides only line coverage of CFML application. The testers need to use Rancho to instrument the CFML application before running the test suite. After running the test suite, they can use Rancho to generate a code coverage report. JetBrains dotCover: Along with being a code coverage tool, dotCover can also be used as a .NET unit test runner. The tool comes being integrated with Visual Studio. It highlights the covered and uncovered code in Visual Studio. The tool generates the code coverage report as HTML, XML or JSON. The testers can further use dotCover along with multiple unit testing frameworks including xUnit, NUnit, MSTest and Mspec. OpenCover: As an open source code coverage tool, OpenCover is designed for both .NET frameworks and Silverlight. OpenCover is also effective in handling both 32 and 64 bit processes without any hassle. The test professionals can install OpenCover in the Package Manager Console by running a simple command. However, they have to use ReportGenerator 1.9 to view the code coverage report in a more precise format. PHPCoverage: As an open source tool, PHPCoverage is used widely by PHP developers to measure and report the code coverage provided by the test suite. While running the code, PHPCoverage can effectively instrument and record the line coverage information for PHP scripts. It uses Xdebug Extension collect code coverage data. PHPCoverage is also designed with features to generate extensive reports through standard HTML report implementation. However, the tool is compatible with PHP 5.0 and newer versions. NoUnit: The open source code coverage tool enables testers to determine the quality of their JUnit tests. After the testing, it generates reports directly from the code, and presents the information graphically. Along with highlighting the number of project's methods tested by the test suite, the report also conveys the extent of code coverage. InsECT: Instrumentation Execution Coverage Tool (InsECT) is a tool written in Java to get code coverage information for Java programs. It aims to provide detailed code coverage information about Java programs. InsECT also fully considers the language features and object-oriented behavior of Java while testing the code coverage. Also, the open source test coverage tool for Java can be used in an extensible way to carry out a variety of dynamic analyses. GroboCodeCoverage: It is a code coverage tool that implements pure Java 100%. GroboCodeCoverage tracks the code coverage by using adding logging statements to Java classes after their compilation. However, it relies on Jakarta's BCEL platform to track code coverage by adding logging statements to Java classes after their compilation. Despite being effective in reflecting the code covered during testing, no code coverage tool can guarantee enhanced testing quality. Also, the testers need to understand the major differences between code coverage and white box testing. It is also important for testers to choose the code coverage tool based on the programming language and development framework. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion, you may consider hiring services of a custom ColdFusion development company. We provide ColdFusion application development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified ColdFusion programmers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Besides the above-mentioned aspects, there are other considerations as well that are needed to be taken into account. Let us discuss them one by one. Use of Class Libraries whenever if possible Taking into account .NET framework evolution through ages, it can well be said that the Class Libraries are the best option for the developers, when it comes to writing codes that are independent of type of User Interface. This is mainly because of the fact that they come up with POCOs or Plain Old CLR (Common Language Runtime) Objects. Refrain from using server control level User Interface Properties The varieties of ASP.NET make development of User Interface quite easier. All a user needs to do is to drag and drop various controls, set their respective properties in order to make the UI ready, up and running. However, one of the most common or frequent mistakes that developers end up doing, is setting the UI related properties like BackColor, Font-name, Fore-color, with respect to the respective server controls. All these properties are converted into the respective control tag style attributes. Thus, what is needed instead is a recommended approach for placing all these styling information in style sheets of CSS classes, and then use of the ClassName property of the server controls, with a view to attaching a particular CSS class. Use of jQuery instead of techniques that are specific to techniques specific to Web forms Various forms of net offer different AJAX Extensions. That helps in developing a wide variety of Ajax enabled applications. However, these controls strictly pertain to various forms of net. Hence, rather than putting too much emphasis on these controls, considering use of the standard techniques of Ajax like jQuery, ajax() or XMLHttpRequest object seems to be more feasible. Make use of the Web API Though MVC (Model Viewer Controller) and Web API was introduced simultaneously, the later has now very much become the part of ASP.NET framework, and Web API can very much be used for Web Form applications as well. Avoid the specific features of Web Forms Web Forms use various features that pertain to specific web forms, though none of these features are available in the Model Viewer Controller. All these features that include the likes of Themes and Web Parts fall under this category. Various forms are to be designed for avoiding ViewState One of the major reservations that people have against Web Form is ViewState. Developers design as well as develop data entry pages in such a specific way that they can carry out multi tasking like inserting, updating, deleting on one single page. For this to take place, what is needed is enabling the ViewState option that ultimately results in bulky forms. Hence it should be seen that the tasks are separated in their respective own pages with a view to absolutely avoiding the ViewState. Creating the reusable User Interface through the User Controls Developers of forms of sites have two options when it comes to creation of reusable inter interfaces. They are Web User Controls and the Custom Server Controls. If Custom Server Controls are created, it becomes possible to provide highly rich as well as effective design time interface, though this particular control will not be readily usable in the MVC. Hence, it is ideal to wrap the reusable User Interface as Web User Control, and that will really make life of the developers much easier. To get maximum benefits of .Net, you may consider hiring services of a asp.net development company. We provide .net application development services. If you would like to hire asp.net programmers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

ColdFusion or Rancho- ColdFusion is a name that most developers are familiar with. However, previously ColdFusion lacked in the department of code reporting tools. To make the framework even more formidable, an experimental tool known as Rancho was introduced. It is quite a great start. But there are certain limitations; it is expected that with time the tool will become a full-fledged one. JFeature- This open source tool helps you focus in the requirements during the development of the code through leveraging from normal development practices. This Eclipse IDE’s plug-in allows importing of requirements so that they can be matched to JUnit test cases. Quilt- A tool for Java software development, Quilt measures coverage as well. It is optimally used with the unit test package of JUnit, the toolkit of Maven project management as well as the build facility of Ant Java. InsECT- Short for Instrumentation execution Coverage Tool, InsECT is a Java developed system which allows obtaining of coverage information in case of Java programs. It accounts for the language features as well as object-oriented behaviour and tries to provide detailed information regarding coverage of Java programs. In fact, since it is open-source, the design is extensible to be used for various kinds of dynamic analysis. JCover- The code reporting analyzer is meant to be used for Java programs through provision of a mechanism that generates statistical coverage information when testing is being carried on an application. It helps in the calculation of the percentage of the executed as well as non-executed code, the unused sources, etc. Emma- This open-source tool helps in measurement as well as reporting of Java code coverage. Classes are often instrumented for coverage either on the fly or offline. It supports reporting types like basic, method, class and line block. Cobertura- This free Java tool helps in the calculation of the percentage of accessed codes. It also helps in identifying the parts of Java program which lack test reporting. It may be executed from command line or from ant. Java bytecode is also instrumented after its compilation. Reports can be generated in XML or HTML. CodeCover- This code reporting tool is open source as well as extensible and supports branch, statement, strict condition along with loop coverage. It gives a very accurate coverage measurement by performing source instrumentation. Its full integration with JUnit allows test cases to be recognized automatically. BullseyeCoverage- The C++ as well as C code reporting analyzer tool gives the amount of tested source code. Areas which cry for attention are pinpointed so that they can be reviewed. It supports coverage types such as condition or decision as well as function. It supports a huge assortment of platforms that includes Linux and Windows. The tools covered here just illustrate the tip of the iceberg; there are several more tools available to meet your needs. However while using these, one thing that you must remember is that these act as metric of the amount of testing done; it is in no way a good metric to tell you about the performance of your product testing. If you want to ensure that the quality of your project is maintained other metrics should be used together with it. To get maximum benefits of ColdFusion, you may consider hiring services of a ColdFusion application development company. We provide ColdFusion development services. If you would like to hire ColdFusion programmers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.