An Architect's View

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An Architect's View

ColdFusion Frameworks

August 29, 2003 · 12 Comments

With all the talk of Mach II, I figured it would be worthwhile blogging a list of some of the other frameworks (and methodologies) available for ColdFusion. This list is not meant to be exhaustive but it covers all of the ones that I have read at least something about:
  • OnTap by Isaac Dealey. A very interesting approach that covers documentation as well as code is based on a rich API (Tapestry API).
  • FarCry by Daemon. Technically this is a CMS - Content Management System - but you can build quite sophisticated applications quite quickly with it.
  • Fusebox Open Source aka Shared Open Source (SOS) by John Farrar. There's really not very much information available about this one yet but it's been under development for quite a while.
  • Fusebox 3 and Fusebox 4 by Hal Helms et al. Fusebox is the most widely used framework for ColdFusion and is - proportionately - as successful in the ColdFusion world as Struts has been in the Java world.
  • MVCF by Benoit Hedard. This is more of a methodology than a framework but it does provide a solid set of code idioms to work with.
  • MXF aka MX Framework by Murat Demirci. This has just entered beta testing so very little information exists about it yet.
View count: 283

Tags: architecture · coldfusion

12 responses so far ↓

  • 1 motobass // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    <a href="http://www.benorama.com">http://www.benorama.com</a>

  • 2 motobass // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    Sorry! I didn't realize that MVCF was his name for it!

  • 3 Jack London // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    Some of them forgotton?<br /><br />cfObjects<br /><a href="http://www.cfobjects.com">http://www.cfobjects.com</a><br /><br />Object Oriented ColdFusion <br /><a href="http://www.cfoop.com">http://www.cfoop.com</a><br /><br />iiFramework<br /><a href="http://www.infranet.com/iiFrameworkOverview.cfm">http://www.infranet.com/iiFrameworkOverview.cfm</a><br /><br />FusionScript<br /><a href="http://www.fusionscript.com">http://www.fusionscript.com</a><br /><br />- FarCry superior with i18n support.<br />- Fusebox & Mach-II rocks!<br />- MVCV is a good method. Clever ideas.<br />- MXF: What a stupid & stolen coding? You can delete from list.

  • 4 Jack London // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    ... and of course Strust is a must for this list.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/coldfusion/articles/struts.html">http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/coldfusion/articles/struts.html</a>

  • 5 seancorfield // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    Jack,<br /><br />Thanx for those links - they are not frameworks that I personally have read about. Some comments:<br />- cfoop: I couldn't find any mention of a framework on that website.<br />- fusionscript: that seems to be a (very complex) API rather than a framework and, from a brief glance, appears to be somewhat obsoleted by ColdFusion Components.<br />- mxf: yes, I downloaded it and it barely deserves to be called a framework but the author has been active on the Fusebox forums touting his framework over Fusebox so that always demands some more public exposure! :)

  • 6 Scott Keene // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    CFOOP is just a (my) resource site/blog dedicated to pursuing OOP in CF, basically. There is no framework there, so that one is incorrect!

  • 7 Jack London // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    Hi Sean,<br /><br />When you call MXF as a frameworks, my links must be god of frameworks. :)<br /><br />Anyway, sorry for "cfoop". I think I have sent this link just because of having some information about structural working methods.<br /><br />Just my two cent... :)

  • 8 Vinh Le // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    www.CFOO.org has some articles dealing with an OO-like application framework. Especially his latest article on CFDO (ColdFusion Data Objects), which seems to borrow a lot from Java.

  • 9 Alex Aguilar // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    Wow, FarCry seems very promising. Too bad my company never upgraded to CFMX (stayed on CF5).<br />I vouche for Fusebox4 however and managed to build some freelance sites under it.

  • 10 Murat Demirci // Sep 8, 2004 at 5:04 PM

    Good and popular frameworks. But the last one is more attractive.<br /><br />MXF will be remodelled soon. MXF is a different framework: it is native. And primary goal of it is simplicity. It does not include any code from other frameworks. <br /><br />It seems unbelievable for some developers, but that's true: MXF can be used like Mach-II, Fusebox, or other alternatives. It is flexible and funny! I'll publish some example applications at the temporary mxframework site.

  • 11 Shawn // Dec 7, 2004 at 12:02 PM

    Here is another framework you might want to look at. http://www.illumineti.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=BFE68371-C09F-25C5-8314FA076889810C
    It is based on many of Benoit Hediard's ideas, but is a reusable framework, not just code idioms.

  • 12 Murat Demirci // Dec 7, 2004 at 11:49 PM

    One year later, I can say that MX Framework (MXF) (the name may change) is ready! It is in our alpha test now. Actually I've completely remodeled MX Framework twice. We've used first version in our apps, we've loved it; I've remodeled MX Framework again to integrate with Blackstone, Studio MX 2004 (DWMX Templates, Contribute, Web Publishing Services) and Flash Remoting (so all Macromedia products). Now it is almost ready!

    It is still simple (a little learning curve is necessary), easy, fast, much more powerful and flexible (you'll see it). It is remodeled to increase productivity which is *not* primarily concerned by Fusebox and Mach-II. MX Framework will be released in the first quarter of year 2005.

    Note that: It will be free and open.

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