Lots of cool tools for CFers: a new (old) list
Note: This blog post is from 2007. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.How many times have you wondered about what options are available to you as a CF developer for things like WYSIWYG editors, CMSs, DBs, & tools for blogging, query building, load testing and much more? Or you've seen others ask, and have started digging around search engines or old mailing list threads to recall a list of them that you have in mind. Well, I've long kept such a meta-list for myself and am now sharing it with everyone at:
http://www.carehart.org/resourcelists/tools_to_consider/
Actually, it's a list I started back in 2002 and hosted until recently at my old systemanage.com site. While the info there ranges from a couple to several years old (though still nearly all useful), this list was one thing I continued to update.
I just decided this weekend to pull it out to my Carehart.org site. Bookmark it and point others to it when you need to find such tools.
Not competing with Brian Rinaldi's list
I know some will say, "don't you know about Brian Rinaldi's list?", and of course I do and I reference it there. The lists really are different, as I don't limit myself to only open-source tools. In fact, I don't limit it only to tools written in CF. Rather, I list them and tools (and services) written in other languages, but that may be useful to CFML developers. (And while there's some cross-over between my list and his, I'm not interested in just sucking out things he has that I don't. Instead, I point to his matching categories in each of mine, so you can check that out for still more alternatives.)
My categories
- Blog Aggregators
- Blogging Tools
- CFMAIL Replacement/Enhancement
- Code Generators
- CFML Engines
- Content Management Systems
- Database Engines
- Database Query Tools
- E-commerce Enabling Solutions
- Editors/IDEs
- File Upload tools
- Forums/Bulletin Boards
- HTTP Debugging Proxy
- Image Processing
- Load Testing Tools
- Regular Expression Generation/Testing Tools
- Graphing/Charting Tools
- Server-side Spell Checkers
- Source Code Control
- WYSIWYG/Rich Text Editors
Additions Welcomed
I don't claim that it's the ultimate list of all tools in each category. I may even have some glaring ommissions. I welcome additions there, as I repeat several times on the page. I will also be glad to add new categories if suitable.
One of many resource lists I've created
In moving it here, I've placed it in a new Resource Lists page, where I also now point to other such resource lists and compendium-style blog entries that I've long kept (and others still to come). More about them in another entry to come.
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That said, since I keep things in alphabetical order, I had to move it to the top, which I wish I didn't have to do, given my---um--history. :-) But hopefully people will realize that I'm just reporting the facts here, in all these categories. Not making any judgment calls or recommendations.
Competition is good for us customers, I think the people who give you flack for the listing will be few.
You could always change it to CFML Engine Alternatives if it was that much of a worry.
I did at first change it to "CFML Engine Alternatives", to avoid the problem, but then I thought I'd have to list CF because technically, it is "an alternative"'. But that to me conveyed too much that I simply considered it "on par" with the others. Again, I didn't want to convey that. So I had to choose between that and the other heading which forced me to move it to the top.
And it's that I then had to list it at the top (not that I listed it at all) which I was worried about.
Ok, this is already more than most care to know, and some may wonder why I would obsess over this stuff, but let's just say that even at this past Max I STILL had people (both in Adobe and out) who asked bemusedly, "what are you doing here?". Folks, it was now 20 months ago that I left New Atlanta. I've blogged about it in the past, and mention my independence in all my talks.
Ok, so it will just take time for some to "get the memo". Maybe this comment will help clarify for those who might not have seen other clarification. :-)
So yes, I do still walk on eggshells when it comes to this subject.
That said, I want to say too that as much as I'm a huge fan of CF8 and glad to be back in the good graces of (most of) the community, I don't mean by that comment to turn my back on BD, nor ignore Railo, Smith, etc. Just like I support use of both FusionReactor and SeeFusion as alternatives to the new CF8 monitor, this list itself reflects that we have choices and should make the best, informed choice for our situations. Even saying that will make some grumble, who still misunderstand me. Hey, what can I do? :-)