BlueDragon
BlueDragon is an alternative ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) engine comparable to Adobe's ColdFusion. It is licensed and distributed by New Atlanta from TagServlet Ltd based out of Scotland. BlueDragon is also distributed and supported by BEA Systems on their WebLogic server platform.
New Atlanta's BlueDragon product, released in 2002, provides a ColdFusion MX 6.x-compatible platform to run CFML-based applications on a variety of platforms, including Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. While ColdFusion MX 7 offers new features not available in BlueDragon, some new features in CFMX 7 have long been in BlueDragon (such as sourceless deployment, server-based deployment on OS X, and more). Conversely, BlueDragon offers features not available through ColdFusion.
Editions
BlueDragon is available in five editions:
- BlueDragon Server
- BlueDragon Server JX (similar to ColdFusion standalone editions)
- BlueDragon for J2EE Application Servers (BD J2EE)
- BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework (BD .NET)
- BlueDragon, BEA WebLogic Edition (sold by BEA as a BEA product)
The first two editions are standalone servers which run on Windows, Linux, and OS X. With BD J2EE, CFML applications can be deployed on any J2EE server, enabling integration of CFML and J2EE as enabled in ColdFusion MX. BD, BEA WebLogic Edition, is a special edition based on BD J2EE for use with BEA's WebLogic Server. BD.NET uniquely extends the Microsoft .NET framework and IIS to permit deployment of CFML applications as native MS .NET web applications, offering integration between CFML and ASP.NET that's not possible with ColdFusion.
The Server JX, J2EE, MS .NET, and BEA WebLogic editions of BlueDragon are commercial products which are available as 30 day unlimited trials which convert to a single-IP developer edition with no expiration.
The Server edition, on the other hand, is free for deployment -- though not for hosting, redeployment, or (as of the 6.2 release) commercial use. Intended to gain favor with those comparing to other free web application platforms, there are no differences in CFML tags supported in the free Server edition, but it supports only ODBC drivers on MS Windows (and only MySQL or PostgreSQL on Linux and Mac OS X), it supports only IIS on MS Windows or Apache on Linux or Mac OS X, and does not support secured (SSL) connections.
None of the limitations of the free Server edition exist in the commercial Server JX, J2EE, .NET, or BEA WebLogic editions.
The .NET edition of BlueDragon may indeed be the most compelling edition for many, since it's something that ColdFusion MX does not support. Designed to run on Microsoft's .NET platform, BD.NET not only enables CFML applications to leverage the powerful benefits of the .NET platform, it also opens the door to integration between CFML and ASP.NET as well as .NET objects.
Corporate adoption
MySpace, one of the most heavily visited sites on the Internet, uses the .NET version of BlueDragon to power some of its online applications.
Compatibility
Though BlueDragon 7.0 was designed to be compatible with Adobe ColdFusion MX 7.0.2, there are differences in the two CFML implementations. BlueDragon offers several advantages (tags, functions, and other functionality) not found in ColdFusion. Similarly, there are a few tags and functions found in ColdFusion that are not supported currently in BlueDragon. New Atlanta maintains a complete list of incompatibilities with Adobe ColdFusion MX in the documentation.
Notable differences
- No support for on-demand presentations
- No built-in AJAX support
- No built-in support for exchange
- BlueDragon's .NET edition can create .NET objects
- No support for PDF Documents and Forms
- No built-in Server Monitoring and Alerts
- No support for AMF (Flash Remoting protocol)
- No support for event gateways
- No built-in stepthrough debugger
- No RDS Connectivity to server
- No Report builder or cfreport tag
- BlueDragon includes a tag for IMAP protocol
- BlueDragon cannot generate Flash movies, neither via CFDOCUMENT nor CFFORM. Version 7 will generate raster documents using CFDOCUMENT.
Framework compatibility
A number of popular ColdFusion frameworks are fully supported on BlueDragon:
- ColdSpring
- Fusebox
- Model-Glue
- Mach-II
See also
For a list of useful resources for developers, see the ColdFusion Development aids section.