On Tuesday while listening to Ben Forta present the multiple virtues of the latest edition of CFMX, it was not the event gateways, server side implementation of the w3c xform standard, single tag required to convert a webpage to a pdf or even the slimmed down Flex engine which ships with CFMX 7 that intrigued me the most.

It was in fact the consultation process they went through in developing the product that struck a cord. For as long as I can remember Allaire and Macromedia have invested a considerable amount of effort in building developer communities around their products, continually promoting user groups, conferences and more recently blogging to promote features and create dialogue with the people you use their products.

So what was different this time ?

Well, Ben mentioned that during development they pulled in a range of developers to talk about what they have been doing with CFMX to date and what features might help in prove them, nothing new there. What was different though was that they pulled in the end users of those applications too, to see what their impressions where of the applications. As you would expect they didn't care how difficult it was to write the code or in fact whether the latest release would reduce load on the server, they where interested in usability, function and making them more effective as business people.

It seems to me that Macromedia have now discovered their true goal is not just the developer but the end user (the money) and as a result have released one of the most feature rich web based development products I am aware of to date.

• By simplifying the creation of pdfs from web content to one tag they have significantly enhanced the end user experience of creating printable content and freed developers from the hours spent developing cross browser printable versions of web content.


• By incorporating a proper report generation into the product they have removed the platform restrictions that have plagued CFreport since its conception. Removing the reliance on third party software and reducing the overall cost of a solution for end users and developers alike.


• By building a slimmed down flex engine into CFMX 7 they have brought simple flash development to the developer, enhancing user experience and facilitating the simplification of application workflows. Finally beginning to bring web-based applications in line with user expectations born out of using client based applications on a daily basis.

All in all I truly believe that they have got this one right, by simplify the mundane everyday tasks they free developers up to be more creative allowing them more time to add value and innovation the products they provide. Sure they will be problems with CFMX 7 and sure you can probably achieve all of the same functionality by using a range of other products but what it significant that CFMX 7 does all this in one product and truly does take one step beyond the competition.