• CFMX 7 New Features

ColdFusion Developer's Journal editor-in-chief Simon Horwith writes: It's finally here! ColdFusion MX 7 was released about an hour prior to this writing. This release is the most customer driven release of ColdFusion to date - new features for delivering printable content in the form of portable (FlashPaper or PDF) documents or reports, an event gateway that allows the server to communicate with any system or device via Java gateways (including the popular SMS gateway), an application event gateway, new enhancements to including X-Forms support, Flash Forms, and a ton of new validation support, enhancements to its XML support and Verity engine, much improved internationalisation support, and much, much more. You don't have to take my word for it - you can read all about these new features in this and upcoming issues of CFDJ.

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I've spent the past 2 months or so planning a deep-focus issue for the release of ColdFusion MX 7 (formerly known as Blackstone). In this issue we've got several articles introducing the new features to our readers. But that's not all! This issue is also introducing several new columns and changes to our format that will regularly appear in CFDJ each month. Most notable is the new "Macromedia Speaks Out" column. Each month, a Macromedia employee(s) will write an article for CFDJ. This month is the first installment - Tim Buntel, product manager for ColdFusion at Macromedia, has written an excellent article introducing the new version of the server. Over the next several months, members of the ColdFusion Development Team and Q/A Team are going to write articles about the features that they developed first hand. In addition to articles from developers and Q/A engineers, future instalments will include articles from Macromedia Support, Training, Press, User Groups, Team Macromedia, Macromedia Executives, and more!

This month's issue is also going to begin the regular focus on a different case study each month. Learning about how other developers and companies are using ColdFusion helps us all to learn, to develop new creative ideas, and also gives us ammunition to help show prospective clients and employers how other companies are using it and that they should as well.

Speaking of how other developers are using ColdFusion, I am extremely excited about seeing how developers put the new features in ColdFusion MX 7 to use. So, with this in mind I am introducing another new column, "Developer's Challenge." In this column, I will present a puzzle or a challenge with a set of requirements for the readers to code a solution to. I will judge the entries and each month the column will present the solution that "won" and pose the next challenge. Oh, did I mention that there would be prizes? Yes, there will be a prize to go with each challenge - and I'm not talking about lame T-shirts and Frisbees either. To find out more and to find out what this month's challenge and prize are, read the article.

Finally, in order to spend more time focussing on the new "Developer's Challenge" column and to spend more time focusing on my duties as editor-in-chief, Ray Camden has graciously agreed to take over the community focus column which I've been writing for nearly three years now. From time to time, I'm sure I'll still contribute articles about community activities, but I wish Ray luck!

So - if you haven't already downloaded ColdFusion MX 7, do so now! You're going to love the new features! As developers discover new uses and develop new techniques for the new features in ColdFusion MX 7, I expect plenty of new article submissions.