New Atlanta has released version 7.1.1 of BlueDragon for the Microsoft .NET Framework. This is primarily a bug-fix roll-up; release notes can be viewed here:

ftp://ftp.newatlanta.com/public/bluedragon/7_1_1/ReleaseNotes.txt

The BlueDragon 7.1.1 installers for all editions of BlueDragon--Java and .NET--are available for immediate download:

http://www.newatlanta.com/c/products/bluedragon/download/home

These installers cannot be used to upgrade an existing BlueDragon 7.0, 7.0.1, or 7.1 installation; instead, you must uninstall the existing version and then re-install BlueDragon 7.1.1. Or, you can use the January 2011 hotfix to upgrade an existing 7.1 installation to 7.1.1:

http://www.newatlanta.com/c/products/bluedragon/download/hotfix/showHotfixes

The January 2011 hotfix cannot be used to upgrade existing installations of BlueDragon 7.0 or 7.0.1.

New Atlanta has released version 7.1.1 of BlueDragon Server JX and BlueDragon for Java EE Application Servers. This is primarily a bug-fix release, but also includes replacing the bundled JTurbo JDBC driver with the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver. This switch of JDBC drivers allows BlueDragon to support additional features when connecting to Microsoft SQL Server:

• Windows Authentication
• Distributed Transactions (BlueDragon for Java EE Servers only)

The BlueDragon 7.1.1 installers are available for immediate download:

http://www.newatlanta.com/c/products/bluedragon/download/home

The installers cannot be used to upgrade an existing BlueDragon 7.0, 7.0.1, or 7.1 installation; instead, you must uninstall the existing version and then re-install BlueDragon 7.1.1. We're working on a patch that will allow you to upgrade from 7.1 to 7.1.1 without needing to uninstall; this patch will be available shortly.

BlueDragon.NET 7.1.1 is under development and will be released in the near future.

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

The following new features are available in BlueDragon.NET 7.1:

• 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

The following new features are available in BlueDragon Server JX 7.1:

• 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

LICENSING CHANGES

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?

The main message is that the dominant trends in the web application server market over the past several years present considerable challenges to ColdFusion/CFML developers, and that BlueDragon is uniquely positioned to help CFML developers respond to those challenges.

[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

BlueDragon 7.1 for the Microsoft .NET Framework

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

BlueDragon 7.1 Server JX

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.