midst an escalating trend splitting Web development into .NET and Java factions, Macromedia has found a way to occupy a comfortable middle ground between the two platform giants. Today, Macromedia announced the availability of ColdFusion MX in June. ColdFusion MX integrates with both .NET and major J2EE application servers, including Macromedia's own JRun server, IBM's WebSphere, Sun's iPlanet, and BEA's WebLogic. In related news, IBM's Derek Bildfell, Program Director for WebSphere, announced that IBM will resell ColdFusion MX, and said that IBM is committed to tightening the integration between ColdFusion MX and WebSphere.

(On first publication of this story, we incorrectly reported that ColdFusion MX can run on .NET. The article was revised on April 30.—Ed)

A Major Shift for ColdFusion MX
The release marks a major shift for ColdFusion—from a standalone product to an ancillary server that integrates with and consumes services already bought and deployed by ColdFusion customers. It's a smart move for Macromedia for two reasons.

First, when giants battle, the smaller combatants had best either stay out of the way or learn to accommodate both sides. Macromedia has taken the latter approach. By shifting ColdFusion MX to a layer "above" both .NET and J2EE, the company has stopped competing directly with IIS and J2EE servers, positioning itself as a technology-agnostic alternative instead.

Second—and for DevX's savvy developers, much more important—placing ColdFusion MX in a separate layer gives developers the ability to write applications that can access code running on both platforms while using a single code base! That's important. In effect, Macromedia decided to treat its XML-like CF markup language and scripting environment as a level of indirection—a pointer to services already available. By allowing CF code to consume both .NET and J2EE components, Macromedia gives companies (and developers) that switch between systems and platforms a way to isolate code from the effect of such changes. That not only saves the customer money, but simultaneously increases the market value of CF development knowledge (hint to Web developers: go explore CF!).

Cross-Platform Capabilities
ColdFusion MX can use (but not create) existing .NET classes; either through Web services or exposed as COM objects. Similarly, running under a J2EE-compliant server, ColdFusion MX can use (but not create) existing JavaBeans. Those capabilities constitute a strong argument for companies to make ColdFusion MX their Web development environment.

Macromedia backs up today's ColdFusion MX release with two other product announcements: Dreamweaver MX and Fireworks MX. Dreamweaver MX, already one of the premier WYSIWYG Web site editors on the market, now also functions as a complete ColdFusion MX IDE—one that can create ASP, ASP.NET, JSP, and PHP pages with equal aplomb. Fireworks MX is a sophisticated Web image and effects editing package.

Despite ColdFusion MX's cross-platform capabilities, this announcement of yet-another-server-development strategy would be less exciting except for one thing—the client. In March, Macromedia announced the release of the Flash MX player, which has its own development IDE.

Flash, as you know, is ubiquitous. Although Flash has traditionally been considered a "movie" player, the Flash MX release is not—it's a complete client-side application development environment. The ColdFusion MX server includes a Flash Remoting component that lets Flash MX clients connect to and use server-side components directly. Although the Flash Remoting component is available only with ColdFusion at this time, Jeremy Allaire, Macromedia's Vice President of Technology Strategy, assured me that Macromedia plans to make the component available separately for use with .NET and Java components in the near future, although pricing has not been announced. Adding that component to your server gives you the ability to create Flash clients that use JavaBeans or .NET components even without moving your development efforts to ColdFusion MX. Allaire characterizes this move from browser-client to rich-client Web applications as a general shift in Web development "from browsing to doing." And that's important too.

With the Flash MX client, which supports multiple platforms, Macromedia provides a layer of indirection that lets developers concentrate on creating the application itself and forget about the many subtle problems involved in writing front-end code for disparate clients. And, thanks to Flash's massive install base, prospective customers needn't lose any sleep over the distribution of the client-side runtime.

However, for traditional VB/C++ and Java developers, Flash MX's development environment takes a little getting used to. The idea of timeline-based development is alien to many developers. To help get you started, Jeremy Allaire is writing an explanation of Macromedia's development model (a DevX exclusive). Look for it in the Web Development zone soon.

Macromedia bundles all these products together in Macromedia's new Studio MX product for $799. Studio MX includes:

• Dreamweaver MX
• Macromedia Flash MX
• Fireworks MX
• Freehand 10
• ColdFusion MX Developers Edition.