To sound off here,
All of the points above are very valid. I've used Mach-II pretty heavily now for a while and MG:U to varying degrees and I really see where the frameworks add value. All three Front Controller frameworks ( Model Glue, MachII and Fusebox) are quite solid and are worth learning. I am decidedly framework agnostic. I choose to use a framework now even if I am the only developer on a small app. While frameworks sort of 'force' certain solutions to problems, this is actually a feature, not a bug and is quite nice when making enhancements or bug-fixes to your application later on. As mentioned above, some of the frameworks offer different features, but all of them will help organize your code in an easy to understand manner. To Peters point, some of the problems solved by the frameworks ( M2, MG, CS, Reactor, Transfer, Etc) are indeed not completely obvious before you have taken the plunge into OO ColdFusion. Dependency resolution ( by ColdSpring) doesn't seem to be a major pain until your app has some complexity around it. When you do run into dependency problems, ColdSpring is a godsend. Same with the ORMs ( a la Reactor / Transfer ) . Pulling and Persisting information in a database is a vital application task. It is a problem that has been solved in various degrees by the ORM tools and helps get on with the meat of the application, the rules and other important logic. Give Transfer and Reactor a shot. Each has a nice blog sample application to toy with. You can immediately see the benefits of using an ORM in your application. Being a coder who had your very same questions at one point, let me offer a few suggestions (gained from my blood sweat and tears ): 1) Get familiar with http://www.fullasagoog.com/index.cfm?blogcat=ColdFusionMX There is a wealth of very important information catalogued there. 2) Get familiar with www.google.com. If you run into a sticky problem whilst learning, you can be assured someone else ran into it also and there is probably a blog post or two about it somewhere. 3) Download sample apps and customize the mess out of them. You will break and fix plenty of things and this really accelerates the learning process. I definately learn more from looking at others' code than I do my own. 4) Yes, it does seem like you are writing a ton more code. This will prove its value soon enough. I've added and removed whole new features / functions to applications with a single line of XML. OO CF, especially with a framework, seems like an indirect solution to the problem at hand compared with straight-line .cfm page coding. 5) There is no *right* answer usually. There are, however, some guiding principles and a whole lot of tradeoffs. If you aren't sure which way to go, try it one way and then another. 6) All the major frameworks have very active mailing lists. There is a wealth of information in the archives and batallions of helpful coders out there ready to lend a hand. 7) Yes, you will want to bang your head at times. And Yes, it gets easier..... Dan Wilson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:253032 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4
