New Atlanta is pleased to announce the immediate availability of BlueDragon 7.1 for download and purchase. For details of new features in BlueDragon 7.1, see the What's New in BlueDragon 7.1 document.

BlueDragon 7.1 is a free upgrade for customers with BlueDragon 7.0 or 7.0.1 licenses; your existing 7.0 or 7.0.1 license key will work with BlueDragon 7.1 and you do not need a new license key.

The installers for BlueDragon Server JX 7.1 and BlueDragon.NET 7.1 can be used to upgrade existing 7.0 and 7.0.1 installations. See the appropriate installation guide for further details.

The following summarizes new features and licensing changes in BlueDragon 7.1.

NEW FEATURES

The following new features are included in all BlueDragon 7.1 editions (Java and .NET):

• ColdFusion 8 (CF8) compatibility enhancements
• CFTHREAD compatibility
• onMissingMethod event handler for CFCs
• CFQUERY added result variables to specify the ID of an inserted row
• MonthAsString() function added the "locale" parameter
• added "component" as a supported value for the CFARGUMENT TYPE and CFFUNCTION RETURNTYPE attributes
• CFIMAGE added the ability to crop, rotate, add border, adjust brightness and constrast, and apply gray scale filter
• added the "Generate UUID as CFTOKEN value" configuration option
• support for IIS 7.5 on Windows 7
• support for IIS 7.5 on Window Server 2008 R2
• performance enhancements
• bug fixes

• IIS 7.0 integrated request pipeline
• IIS 7.0 integrated configuration and administration
• Added the ability to create CFCs within ASP.NET pages without inheriting from the NewAtlanta.BlueDragon.CfmPage class
• Added the NewAtlanta.BlueDragon.CfmUserControl class
• Added support for ASP.NET connection strings
• Added support for the Oracle Data Provider for .NET (ODP.NET)
• Added support for the IBM DB2 provider for .NET

• Upgraded embedded servlet engine to ServletExec 6.0
• IIS 7.0 managed .NET module replaces native C/C++ web server adapter
• Added the CFCProxy class for invoking CFCs from Java/JSP

The following licensing changes are being made with the release of BlueDragon 7.1:

• BlueDragon.NET Standard edition is now supported on both x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) servers
• BlueDragon Server JX now comes in Standard and Enterprise editions
• BlueDragon .NET Standard edition and BlueDragon Server JX Standard edition are licensed for either a single physical server or a single Virtual Machine (VM) instance
• BlueDragon Server JX Enterprise edition is licensed per physical server for unlimited Virtual Machine (VM) instances
• BlueDragon .NET Enterprise edition and BlueDragon for Java EE Servers continue to be licensed on a per-CPU basis for unlimited Virtual Machine (VM) instances
• BlueDragon .NET Enterprise edition and BlueDragon for Java EE Servers are no longer licensed for 1-CPU servers (you must puchase a minimum 2-CPU license)
• Support for BlueDragon Server JX on Mac OS X has been discontinued (BlueDragon for Java EE Servers continues to be supported on Mac OS X)

After drafting the following blog entry, I realized it was quite lengthy and could benefit from an introductory paragraph. In summary, this blog entry is intended to answer the following questions that are regularly posed to us by BlueDragon customers and prospects:

• Why should we migrate to BlueDragon.NET?
• Why did New Atlanta create the Open BlueDragon project?
• What is the future of BlueDragon and New Atlanta?

[More]

The first public beta of BlueDragon 7.1 has been released! Enhancements in BlueDragon 7.1 are listed below; details can be found in the What's New in BlueDragon 7.1 document.

All BlueDragon 7.1 Editions

The following enhancments are available in all BlueDragon editions:

• CFIMAGE: added the ability to crop, rotate, add border, adjust brightness and contrast, and apply gray scale filter
• ColdFusion 8 (CF8) compatible enhancements
  • CFTHREAD compatibility
  • onMissingMethod event handler for CFCs
  • CFQUERY added result variables to specify the ID of an inserted row
  • MonthAsString() function added the "locale" parameter
• Added the "Generate UUID as CFTOKEN value" configuration option
• performance enhancements
• bug fixes

The following enhancements are available in BlueDragon.NET:

• IIS 7.0 integrated request pipeline
• IIS 7.0 integrated configuration
• IIS 7.0 integrated administration
• Added the ability to create CFCs from ASP.NET pages without inheriting from the NewAtlanta.BlueDragon.CfmPage class
• Added the NewAtlanta.BlueDragon.CfmUserControl class
• Added support for ASP.NET connection strings

The following enhancements are available in BlueDragon Server JX:

• Upgraded embedded servlet engine to ServletExec 6.0
• IIS 7.0 .NET module replaces C/C++ web server adapter
• Added the CFCProxy class for invoking CFCs from Java/JSP

I'll follow-up with separate blog entries on each of these enhancements. Download the BlueDragon 7.1 beta and let us know what you think.

The final release of BlueDragon 7.1 is planned for April 2009.

New Atlanta is sponsoring and exhibiting at Microsoft's TechEd conference in Orlando next week, where we will showcase the upcoming BlueDragon.NET 7.1 release. As I've discussed in previous blog entries, the key new features of BD.NET 7.1 include:

• IIS 7.0 Integrated Pipeline (onRequestStart and onRequestEnd for all content types)
• IIS 7.0 Integrated Configuration
• IIS 7.0 Integrated Administration

In addition to demonstrating BD.NET 7.1 at TechEd, we are also announcing our new ColdFusion-to-.NET and ColdFusion-to-Java migration services. As experts in ColdFusion, ASP.NET, and Java technologies, New Atlanta is uniquely positioned to assist organizations that want to migrate their ColdFusion applications to either the ASP.NET or Java EE web application platforms. Look for additional information on these new services to be posted on our web site before the start of TechEd next week.

Here's an interview I did with Fusion Authority at CFUNITED-Europe a few days after our announcement of open source BlueDragon. So this is actually the first interview I gave on this subject, even though the DZone.com and CF Weekly podcast interviews were published before it. Also--unlike the other interviews--this one was completely ad-libbed, without prepared questions ahead of time (which shows at the end).

ColdFusion 8.0.1 has been released with support for 64-bit operating systems (among other enhancements and bug fixes); BlueDragon 7.0.1 was released with 64-bit support earlier this year.

I noticed that 64-bit support is available only in the CF 8.0.1 Enterprise and Developer editions; CF 8.0.1 Standard is still 32-bit only. See the CF 8.0.1 Release Notes and CF 8.0.1 System Support Matrix. Since BlueDragon Server JX 7.0.1 is available with 64-bit support (BD Server JX is the edition closest to CF8 Standard), this creates quite a wide disparity in pricing for 64-bit Windows and Linux.

Support for 64-bit Windows and Linux is available in BD Server JX 7.0.1 for $899/server for any number of CPUs; to get support for 64-bit operating systems in CF 8.0.1 you must buy the Enterprise edition starting at $7499/2-CPU server, more than eight times more expensive than BD JX. (To get support for 64-bit Solaris and Mac OS X with BlueDragon you must buy the BD/J2EE edition starting at $5999/2-CPU server. And, yes, Open BlueDragon will run on all 64-bit operating systems).

BD.NET 7.0.1 pricing is closer to CF 8.0.1. To get 64-bit support in BD.NET 7.0.1 you must buy the Enterprise edition starting at $5999/2-CPU server. The BD.NET 7.0.1 Standard edition, which is only available for 32-bit Windows, starts at $1999/2-CPU server.

My CF Weekly podcast interview on open source BlueDragon has been posted. If you haven't already, I'd also recommend listening to the round-table discussion of open source BlueDragon that was posted two weeks ago.

Feel free to post any follow-up questions or comments here.

DZone.com has just published an interview with me on open source BlueDragon, entitled "Freeing the Dragon an Interview with Vince Bonfanti." The interview goes into more depth regarding our reasons for releasing a free open source edition of BlueDragon and what we hope to accomplish.

I think this is one of the key summary statements in the interview (you should read the entire interview to get the full context of this statement):

"Releasing a free open source edition is a direct continuation of the platform innovation, and responsiveness to our customers and the community that have been hallmarks of New Atlanta and the BlueDragon product line. Releasing a free open source BlueDragon edition will put the CFML scripting language on equal footing with existing free alternatives, and give CFML a new avenue to grow and prosper relative to those languages. We also believe that the free open source BlueDragon edition will provide a vehicle for the community to have more direct input into the future evolution of the CFML scripting language than has been provided by commercial vendors in the past."

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions or comments.

We now have a date and location for the public unveiling of the open source BlueDragon project. The organizers of cf.Objective() 2008 have generously allocated a two-hour timeslot for a Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) session on Saturday, May 3 starting at 7:30 pm where I'll publicly demonstrate and release the open source BlueDragon project for the first time. I plan to organize this session into three parts:

1. For those who aren't interested in the source code, but just want to get up and running as quickly as possible, I'll demonstrate how to download and install the BlueDragon binaries on Tomcat and JBoss. I'll give a quick overview of the J2EE webapp and WAR file structure, and show how to edit the bludragon.xml configuration file to perform common tasks such as adding datasources and mappings, and how to enable/disable debug output.

2. For those who are interested in the source code, I'll demonstrate how to download and install the BlueDragon open source project into Eclipse, how to configure debugging, and give an overview of the source code so you can find your way around. I'll also show how to create your own CFML tags and functions. Anyone interested in this portion should review Adam Haskell's tutorial on JBoss, Eclipse, and BlueDragon prior to the BOF.

3. We'll end with a Q&A session that could very easily end up at the bar with me buying the first round.

As is common with BOF sessions, the structure will be informal and fluid to accomodate the needs and desires of the attendees; there won't be any formal handouts, though I may create some brief notes (time permitting). All demonstrations will be done on both Linux and Windows.

I'd like to thank all of the cf.Objective() organizers, especially Sean Corfield, for graciously making their venue available and for giving their attendees the opportunity to be the very first to see and touch open source BlueDragon. I've heard cf.Objective() is a great conference and am looking forward to attending for the first time.

I'm going to be interviewed next week for the ColdFusion Weekly podcast; the topic will be open source BlueDragon. Leave questions for me via voice mail or email (the hosts will decide which questions to ask).

Also, there was a great round-table discussion of open source BlueDragon during last week's podcast--it's well worth listening to if you haven't already.