Untitled
TheHUB - A ColdFusion Application Framework
- "TheHUB - A ColdFusion Application Framework" interview with Neil Ross
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- Michael Smith:This time we are talking with Neil Ross about his Fusebox And Frameworks-05 talk "TheHUB - A ColdFusion Application Framework". So why Should a developer come to your session Neil?
- Neil Ross: Nice to chat with you again Michael. TheHUB is probably the most straightforward, easy to use and maintain ColdFusion development framework out there. It is easy to learn and implement and above all... I believe it just makes sense.
- MS: What does a HUB application structure look like?
- NR: Well Michael, it looks like just about any other web site structure. TheHUB allows you to create directories and templates within them. You reference the directory and template as a key/value pair within the query string in the URL. A good example would be if you create a 'products' directory and have a template called "listAllProducts.cfm"; you request that template in TheHUB with a URL that includes this query string: ?products=listallproducts.
- So where is the application configuration stored - is there an XML file like Fusebox uses?
- NR: The beauty of TheHUB is its simplicity. There is no configuration file to maintain. As your application grows and extends, as you add directories and templates and add new functionality and process to the application, the framework just continues to look for that key/value pair that I mentioned by parsing the query string. If none exists, it simply loads the default template.
- MS: Sort of automated circuits and fuseactions, is that the idea?
- NR: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. I've written applications with other frameworks where on small applications, upkeep of a configuration file seems like overkill and on larger applications maintenance of those files gets to be more and more of a chore.
- MS: Does TheHUB add any other framework features such as layouts or security?
- NR: I've not put any additional overhead into the TheHUB. The core files include a sample layout which really is just a header-footer wrapper around the file included through the URL request. This would be the opposite of some framework with hundreds of core files that you will never use and don't know what they're for, but your application pays for the overhead of those files anyway.
- MS: Is TheHUB open source? And where can we download it from?
- NR: The source code for TheHUB is not encrypted and is available for download from my web site: www.codesweeper.com
- MS: Will you demo any Hub code in yor talk?
- NR: I'll show lots of code, application structures and variations of the main concepts that TheHUB is built on including a form-based navigation model rather than the URL-based model as well as a variation of TheHUB using the Application.cfc application framework for ColdFusion MX 7.
- MS: Great - I am looking forward to seeing you talk!
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