News

Macromedia MX set to run on key J2EE servers

• By Jack Vaughan
• May 6, 2002

(May 6, 2002) Multimedia and Web design toolmaker Macromedia moved deeper into the enterprise application development business with the recent unveiling of the Macromedia MX family of client, tool and server technologies. Key in the product set is the new commercial version of "Neo," an advanced ColdFusion application server acquired by Macromedia as part of its purchase of Allaire Corp. in 2001.

The product, called ColdFusion MX, links ColdFusion's popular scripting language with the J2EE environment. Its release is concurrent with Dreamweaver MX, a toolset that supports Web development using a wide variety of design formats.

"ColdFusion MX will run on popular J2EE application servers, including our own [JRun]," said Jeremy Allaire, now CTO at Macromedia. He noted that ColdFusion continues to gain adherents as it allows "rapid server scripting with the benefits of deploying to any Java app server."
Application server competitor BEA Systems has also began to tout the benefits of scripting of late, as IT shops struggle to cost-effectively roll out increasingly complex J2EE apps.

The MX family announcement was accompanied by word that Sun and IBM would both support ColdFusion MX. For its part, Sun has agreed to work with Macromedia on the development of ColdFusion MX for the Sun ONE Application Server. The IBM deal is a strategic relationship in which IBM will resell ColdFusion MX for IBM WebSphere. Macromedia will also sell the product.

In addition, Macromedia plans to enable its Dreamweaver MX tool to integrate with IBM's WebSphere Studio development environment via the Eclipse open-source tools platform.

This will "make it possible for the Macromedia Web developer community to deploy applications on WebSphere," said John Swainson, general manager, IBM Application and Integration Software.