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ColdFusion Article

Drew Falkman

Drew Falkman

www.drewfalkman.com

A Case Study: Building ColdFusion MX and J2EE Hybrid Applications

Note: With the release of ColdFusion MX 6.1, Macromedia has merged the ColdFusion MX for J2EE edition with ColdFusion MX Enterprise. As a result, the features specific to ColdFusion MX for J2EE are now available with ColdFusion MX Enterprise.

The release of ColdFusion MX—and specifically the release of ColdFusion MX for Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), a version that you can deploy directly to a number of J2EE application servers—exposes ColdFusion developers to the world of J2EE development and all of the powerful programming constructs that come with it. Conversely, J2EE developers can now consider a new possibility when they design the application architecture: CFML. In theory, this new breed of ColdFusion/J2EE hybrid applications capitalizes on the rapid and intuitive aspects of ColdFusion development, while benefiting from the low-level control and scalability provided by Java. This, I thought, was definitely something worth exploring.

To best explore this new architecture, I decided to take a basic J2EE application and create a CFMX/J2EE hybrid application, comparing the differences and similarities between the two. The starting point had to be a J2EE application that used J2EE elements such as JavaServer Pages (JSPs), servlets, and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) components. During this process, I asked myself of the following questions:

  • In planning, what elements work best as ColdFusion elements and what elements work best as J2EE elements?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of using hybrid applications—from a developer’s standpoint as well as an architectural standpoint?
  • What are the coding differences— in a line-by-line comparison—where do you use ColdFusion instead of the straight J2EE version of the application?
  • And of course the big question: Are hybrid applications a viable architecture for development and if so, why?

With these questions, I began my journey — and now I will share my discoveries with you.

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About the Author

Drew Falkman is the author of JRun Web Application Construction Kit and co-author (with Ben Forta) of Reality ColdFusion: J2EE Integration, both published by Macromedia Press. Currently Drew offers technology planning, project management, and development services through his consulting company Veraison, LLC. Drew also speaks at events, writes for numerous publications, and teaches web development courses at Portland State University. Over the past 7 years, Drew has developed over 150 web applications in all sizes primarily using ColdFusion and Java. Most recently, Drew guided Stampede Cattle Company's technical direction as "virtual CTO," including planning and managing the development of their real-time cattle auction (www.stampedecattle.com) using Macromedia Flash Remoting and Flash Communication Server. This site was featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" and other national press venues. In addition, Drew is a member of Team Macromedia, a certified ColdFusion Developer, and a certified Macromedia instructor. You can learn more about Drew at www.drewfalkman.com.

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