Ben Forta

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Planned Scorpio FDS Enhancements

At 360Flex this week I mentioned that we were planning enhancements to Flex Data Services integration in Scorpio. I showed a slide with some bullets, and several of you have written to ask what it is exactly that I said. So, with the obligatory disclaimer this this is a plan, not a public commitment:
ColdFusion Scorpio will dramatically improve ColdFusion FDS integration:

  • A new gateway that can be used to notify a Flex 2 destination of changes in the data being managed by the destination.
  • Assemblers can return queries directly from the fill function without having to convert each row in to a value object (CFC).
  • Assemblers can use Structs instead of CFC’s to represent data. The structure can contain type information which will be used as the ActionScript type when sent to the Flex application.
  • Flex Data Service can be integrated in to the ColdFusion installation. This way ColdFusion can call Flex API’s directly (rather than via the current RMI connection) providing a signification performance boost.

Now, just to be very clear, this is a plan, and plans can change! Also, while you are free to comment and ask questions, I am free not to answer them yet. 😉

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7 responses to “Planned Scorpio FDS Enhancements”

  1. Mark Cadle Avatar
    Mark Cadle

    Ben,
    First off, this is going to be awesome. I know a lot of people are not to keen on Flex and ColdFusion, but I love it and Mr. Horwith and I discuss it quite often. Basically, the reason I write is this, in Scorpio with all of the monitoring enhancements and flex integration, will I be able to control the Service Factories better? The problem has been this: How can I emulate the disable all client connections for a datasource programatically as can be found in the Datasource Administration page? Basically, I want to be able to check the checkbox when a certain condition exists, say every three hours, to free up a datasource.
    So having said all of this and being off topic, will I have more control of the server level processes in Scorpio than before? Either way, can you assist me in determing a way to do this in 7.02?
    Thanks Scorpio Man!!

    Reply
  2. Hans Avatar
    Hans

    >> Flex Data Service can be integrated in to the ColdFusion installation.
    Glad plans can change, because this bullet needs (IMHO) to be revised to read " Flex Data Service is integrated into the ColdFusion installation." Furthermore, the standard CF license needs to cover using the integrated FDS on more than one CPU (and with applications that span multiple CF servers/licenses). Until then, FDS integration is useless to me.

    Reply
  3. GarethE Avatar
    GarethE

    How will Structs be able to contain type information? Maybe you could do something with Array’s and Structures that can be transformed to a cfc type via the return type of the function? It would be great to do something where the return from the function is just an Array of structures that contain properties that match those of the return type?
    <cffunction name="test" returntype="com.test.users[]">
    Something like that? or maybe a way to type an Array or structure using some sort of casting to a cfc with the correct properties? what would happen if the structure in a typed array or structure doesn’t contain the correct properties?
    Cheers
    Gareth.

    Reply
  4. Rick Root Avatar
    Rick Root

    Ben, that sounds great!
    I’d been hearing from numerous sources that if you were going to do Flex Data Services and deal with large amounts of data, that coldfusion 7 performed absolutely miserably and many people had chosen to go to Java as the backend for FDS rather than Coldfusion for this reason.
    I don’t know enough about it, but do you think that the Scorpio enhancements might eliminate these types of concerns?

    Reply
  5. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    Rick, I think ‘miserably’ is a bit of an overstatement, but yes, performance is orders of magnitude better.
    — Ben

    Reply
  6. C Avatar
    C

    Ben, can you clarify something for me? Is FDS being included in Scorpio Enterprise? That is, if you don’t already have FDS, you will have it when you install CF8 Enterprise?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    Yes, data services can be installed along with CF. It is a express edition by default, unless a license number is inserted in which case it is fully licensed. Either way, it is tightly integrated.
    — Ben

    Reply

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