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PHP vs. CFML (...Cont)

Less code = less typing = more time for programming the meat of your program. Now you don't need to spend as much time on the mundane aspects like the object creation, keeping track of your loops, and the closing and releasing of objects. ColdFusion simplifies these tasks across the board.

Both ColdFusion and PHP have session management, but if you've ever had to build an application that utilized PHP's built-in session management, you know the limitations. PHP uses the file system to handle sessions, which is slow and lacks flexibility. Also, the PHP session files are left behind in the sessiondata directory. There are third-party libraries (like PHPLib) to manage database-based sessions, but PHP itself doesn't have a mechanism to handle sessions inside a cluster. More in general, PHP doesn't have any out of the box clustering capability. ColdFusion was built for scaling.

ColdFusion has a sophisticated session-handling mechanism that works even if the user has cookies turned off. Session state is maintained in server memory using a unique identifier, and this can be passed from page to page if you determine that the user has turned off cookies. This makes for a more user-friendly web experience, allowing information to be maintained easily across pages

Summary
PHP is certainly a viable technology to build Web applications, but for PHP programmers who wish to make the change to ColdFusion, the transition can be an easy one. You'll find that applications that once took days can be done in hours, and calls to third-party modules can be a thing of the past. CFML is a versatile language that is self-contained, easy-to-learn, and promotes rapid application development. Also, with the new additions of JSP tag libraries, ColdFusion Components, XML functionality, and web services in ColdFusion MX, ColdFusion is more versatile than ever before.

* Content Courtesy Macromedia
 
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