Following our recent series on the latest version of ColdFusion Enterprise 2021 (CF2021), which was released a week ago, this segment will highlight how to expedite the DevOps pipeline using the latest release. Among the nearly 60 updates added to ColdFusion Enterprise 2021, certain features such as the ability to accelerate the processes involved in the development, compilation, and deployment of software stand out the most. The newly added REST Playground functionality comes in handy while handling RESTful services from a single source.
With the ColdFusion Enterprise 2021 edition, you can now write codes once, integrate them faster and deploy them anywhere on the cloud – through the integration of features that allows for the transfer of services from one cloud service provider to another on the fly. The idea of not having to rewrite your code during the transitioning from one hosting platform to another increases scalability and expedites the DevOps Pipeline.
Features and Functionalities Of The ColdFusion 2021 Version
With the ColdFusion CF2021 Enterprise edition, developers can seamlessly integrate the existing continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline to add value to customers at a much faster pace.
1.CF Framework
Unlike previous versions of the ColdFusion development platform, CF2021 allows for server settings from one instance to another, the management of these settings from a single console, and the automation of administrative duties using the CF setup. As a result of this new feature, uniformity in all applications across all servers is guaranteed.
2.RESTful Playground
Developers can now utilize the RESTful playground to deliver complex applications to collect smaller and independent services. The RESTful playground publishes and grants access to all of your web services across multiple platforms, with fewer lines of code. Utilize the RESTful playground for the creation, management, and maintenance of all your REST services and docker images to full scale. As well as deploy your application in any environment.
3.Command Line Interface and Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL)
The CF2021 Command Line Interface – CLI and the Read-Eval-Print Loop – REPL support authorizes developers to work with files, databases, and emails or invoke web services through the CFM (ColdFusion Markup Language). Developers can also execute certain functions, for instance, the admin API to script a ColdFusion server setting. Additionally, you can test-drive or learn the CFML with the REPL support in the CLI.
Fig 1: Executing Admin APIs through CLI and in REPL mode
Enter cf.bat and the REPL mode displays.
4.Object Relational Mapper
Through the Object-relational Mapping support, developers can develop, scale, and maintain database-specific applications without scripting an SQL index or performing a full-text query of Object Relational Mapper – ORM entities. Using the integrated Lucene search engine and SQL logging, you can obtain on the spot debug information.
5.PDF Manipulation and Standardized PDF Metadata
Although ColdFusion does not provide a complete reference to the LiveCycle Assembler, it allows for document description XML – DDX. As an assertive markup language used to define PDF output files, the DDX functionality on the CF2021 version allow developers to fully leverage access to DDX, which as a result allows you to easily manipulate PDF documents and perform advanced tasks such as adding; bookmarks, comments, file attachments, headers, and footers – with automatic page numbers.
With CF2021, you can now modify your PDF documents’ look and feel by specifying such metadata as the page, size, margin, and rotation. You can effortlessly create, share, and apply metadata such as authorizing data, keywords, and copyright notice by forwarding metadata between PDF and XMP files and establish a standardized consistency of PDF metadata across your organization. The processddx action can also be used to process DDX instructions without the installation of the LiveCycle Assembler.
6.Email Management
Email management just got even more fun and easy with the novel version of ColdFusion. Developers can now efficiently manage Simple Mail Transfer Protocols – SMTP, with less code. The idea – do more, with less. Easily send email using SMTP servers embedded with ColdFusion Mail – CFMAIL tags. Using ColdFusion Post Office Protocol – CFPOP tags to enable the retrieval of messages by email applications just got easy. You can attach a callback function to the CFMAIL tag to unlock notifications on message delivery. Retrieve mail via a Post Office Protocol – POP mail server with the CFPOP tags by connecting the ColdFusion Internet Message Access Protocol – CFIMAP tag to the Internet Message Access Protocol – IMAP server.
7.HTML-to-PDF Converter
Leverage Adobe’s extensive suite of conversion engines to generate high-quality PDF files from HTML pages. The parsers in the conversion engine resolve the CSS and apply the necessary settings to ensure that the PDF’s content is displayed exactly as is on the web browser. The CF2021 HTML-to-PDF converter help maintains such metadata constraints as layout, formatting, and hyperlinks.
8.CFML-based Mobile Application Development
Just as mobile apps’ demand leans towards an upward trend, so does the mobile application development growth. With the latest version of the ColdFusion Enterprise edition, you can take advantage of your existing CFML knowledge-base to develop mobile applications and in-built leverage integration with the Adobe PhoneGap model to rapidly and easily deploy them to popular mobile applications stores, like iOS AppStore and Android PlayStore.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you have a dev team that values scalability and efficiency over everything else, then the ColdFusion DevOps model is your best bet. By accelerating your DevOps pipeline with ColdFusion CF2021, you can equip your dev team with the ability to speed up the app creation process, allow test apps and new code in a secure environment, increase productivity, and therefore in turn harmonizes your team into a single unit working together.
