Scorpio (CF 8)

[ecobb]

Ben Forta is currently on a nationwide tour (US) talking about Scorpio and what's coming in the new release. He's actually going be close to me next week, I'm thinking about going to hear what he has to say. While surfing around, I came across a blog from a developer who caught the tour in Nashville, and he lists some of the features that may be available in the next release of ColdFusion.

http://blog.cutterscrossing.com/index.cfm/2007/5/10/Scorpio-Tour-Nashville-Final-Wrapup

It's a pretty extensive list, but here are few of the really cool ones that jumped out at me.
[ul]
[li]CFImage (50 + functions)- Write direct to the browser.[/li]
[li]AJAX - JSON (and serialization), Controls, and wizard.
[ul]
[li]built in richtexteditor - This uses FCKEditor.[/li]
[li]related selects - make selects related as many levels as you need[/li]
[/ul]
[/li]
[li]CFDocument Improvements
[ul]
[li]Bookmarks[/li]
[li]Bookmark Heirarchies[/li]
[li]Create custom report templates[/li]
[li]CSS styling[/li]
[li]Conditional formatting[/li]
[li]Now supports multiple queries in a single report[/li]
[li]Output to HTML and XML[/li]
[/ul]
[/li]
[li]Caching of stored procs, caching with cfqueryparam (Woo-Hoo!)[/li]
[li].NET integration[/li]
[li]CFExchange - MS Exchange integration[/li]
[li]CFPresentation - Adobe Connect style on-the-fly and up-to-date slide presentations (swf output)[/li]
[li]CFPDF[/li]
[li]CFPDFForm - Will populate PDF forms (AcroForms and XML based) with CF data, and extract data from a filled PDF form[/li]
[li]Server Monitor[/li]
[li]Special pricing options for hosting companies to make CF competitive in that space (host charging you more for CF over PHP or .NET is price gouging you)[/li]
[/ul]

Lots of stuff to get excited about, and more to come! As the blog poster put it, "It's a great time to be a ColdFusion programmer!" He also went on to say (in another blog), "ColdFusion is beginning to bypass any stigmas that may have been associated with it, not only as a true Rapid Application Development language but also as an enterprise level development platform. All of us have known it for years, and now corporate America is catching up fast (and when Scorpio is released they won't know what hit 'em.)"

I tend to agree with that last statement.


Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[ecobb]

I keep finding new goodies! You will be able to loop over an array, too!

http://ray.camdenfamily.com/index.cfm/2007/5/11/Looping-over-a-ColdFusion-Array-In-ColdFusion-8

So, instead of:

<cfloop index="x" from="1" to="#arrayLen(arr)#">
  <cfoutput>#arr[x]#<br /></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

You can do this:

<cfloop index="x" array="#arr#">
  <cfoutput>#x#<br /></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

I know, I know, it's still just 3 lines of code, but it's the concept that counts!


Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[GUJUm0deL]

I personally like the implementation of CFImage and built-in Rich-Text Editor feature.

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Actually, CFPDF and CFPDFForm are also great additions. I have a client now that can sure use the CFPDFForm feature now.

I would personally like to use cachedWithin with cfqueryparam. Instead of having to choose one over the other.

My only concern is that will CF8 be more reliant on java (as in use more resources)?

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[GUJUm0deL]

Wonder if CF 8 has a better way of doing form validations.

Currently I do form validations as:
<cfif isdefined("FORM.submitbutton") and Form.FName NEQ "" and FORM.LName NEQ "" and FORM.Email NEQ "" and FORM.Addr1 NEQ"">
....
....
<cfelse>
<cflocation>
</cfif>

As you can see, if you have multiple fields to validate this can be lengthy.

____________________________________
Just Imagine.

http://www.imajinarts.com

 

[ecobb]

I don't know about a CF 8 feature, but there are much easier ways to do that. Here's one off the top of my head (untested).

<cfset Message = "">

<!--- List of form fields you want to check --->
<cfset FormList = "FName,LName,Email">

<cfloop index="i" list="#FormList#">
	<cfif NOT IsDefined("Form.#i#") OR NOT Len(Trim(Form[i]))>
		<cfset Message = "Your form is incomplete!">
	</cfif>
</cfloop>

<cfif Len(Trim(Message))>
	<br><br>
	<table align="center">
		<tr>
			<td align="center">
				<br>
				<h3 style="color: Red;"><cfoutput>#Message#</cfoutput></h3>
				<a href="javascript:window.history.go(-1);">Click Here to return to the previous page.</a><br><br>	
			</td>
		</tr>
	</table>
<cfabort>
</cfif>

Hope This Helps!

ECAR
ECAR Technologies

http://www.ecartech.com

"My work is a game, a very serious game." - M.C. Escher

 

[TamedTech]

Aprantly they're looking at a massive performance hike too, upto 4-5 times faster than MX7, quite impressive.

I was about to point out Ray Camdens blog, looks like ECAR beat me too it :-D

Rob