BlueDragon/.NET Intro: Part 1, Why BD/.NET Is Important

Perhaps you've heard that New Atlanta has released BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework (BD/.NET). It's easy to form preconceptions of what it is (and to form false ones of what it isn't). You may even wonder what it's all about. I'd like to offer explanations for those questions and in future blog entries, I'll discuss more about what it does for you and how to make the most of it.

This thread of discussion will address the following points:

• Why BD/.NET is Important
• Integration of CFML, ASP.NET, and .NET Objects
• Passing CFML Query Results to ASP.NET Data Controls
• Revitalizing Existing CFML Without Changing Code

Why BD/.NET is Important

The most important point to understand is that BD/.NET is the only way to run your CFML as a native component on the .NET framework. While both CFMX and BlueDragon's other editions allow you to run CFML as a native component on J2EE servers, many organizations (and developers) have faced a dilemma where their archectural standards (or preferences) were more inclined toward the .NET framework.

For such organizations, they've often been unable to upgrade their CF servers to CFMX. Many are still stuck at CF 5 or even 4.5 or earlier. Those folks have missed out on all the evolution of the CFML language since then, especially the move to component-oriented development.

Since BlueDragon 6.1 offers nearly all the CFMX 6.1 features developers would expect (and 6.2 adds a couple of the remaining ones, as mentioned in my last entry), moving to BlueDragon/.NET solves the architecture dilemma while also opening the door to modernizing CFML, where desired.

In the next few entries, I'll discuss at a high level what you can do with CFML on .NET.