Two things come up when I talk about the upcoming ORM features in Centaur:

• DBAs are going to hate it
• It's going to put DBAs out of work, which will make them hate it.

Let me just say, 1 may be inevitable, but 2 is quite the opposite.

To start with, there are two ways of working with ColdFusion ORM, your application, and your database:

• Start with the database and build your objects from it.
• Start with the objects and have your database built based on them.

When you start from the database and go up, if you have a bad database, there is nothing Hibernate (the underlying ORM technology in Centaur) can do to make it any better. If it is poorly indexed, or improperly normalized, the resulting objects will perform poorly, or be unnecessarily complex.

On the other hand, if you have CF go ahead and create the tables for you, you will only get the basic indices and keys needed to generate relationships: primary keys and foreign keys. You can specify indices and unique constraints, but only if you know where to put them.

In both cases you will need the skills of a DBA (either your own, or a dedicated DBAs) to help you make decisions.

What's different then? Much like other uses of ColdFusion, it takes the knucklehead rote stuff and makes it easy.

• No building table creation scripts.
• No writing rote CRUD scripts
• DBA time can now be spent doing cool complex SQL and analysis where they really pack on the value.

How do you convince your DBAs of this? I have a few arguments:

• ColdFusion ORM uses parameterized and prepared SQL much like cfqueryparam.
• ColdFusion ORM can be configured to output generated SQL
• ColdFusion ORM is based on Hibernate, which was built keeping most database best practices in mind.

Is this going to convince every DBA? Probably not. But hopefully enough have an open mind to at least give it a shot.

Next week I hit the road for my first leg of the Adobe User Group Tour.

I'll be talking about Flex, Flash Builder, Flash Catalyst, and of course ColdFusion. My content varies depending on the mix of the particular user group, and I try to make each session different.

My schedule is:

• ColdFusion/Flex UG Tour - Albany, NY
  • June 16, 2009 6:00PM - 9:00PM at Albany, NY
• ColdFusion User Group Tour in Hartford CT
  • June 17, 2009 7:00PM - 9:00PM at Manchester, CT
• ColdFusion, Bolt, Flex and Flash Catalyst
  • June 18, 2009 7:00PM - 9:00PM at East Lansing, MI

I can't wait to get out there and meet everyone.

So if you haven't heard Adobe is having a tour of its ColdFusion User Groups to talk about the next versions of Flex and ColdFusion. In the past we've spread it out over something like six weeks. We're doing it in three weeks. In order to accomplish that we've had to expand the speaker list a bit beyond me, Adam and Ben. I thought it might be helpful if I give you all some background on all of them.

One thing I like about this list is that it includes some internal converts, people who didn't traditionally use ColdFusion, but who have started using ColdFusion over the past year or so and found that they liked it. I'm not going to single out the converts, but I figured that I would mention it, because even here at Adobe, we're still gaining users.

If you're an Adobe presenter and I didn't list you, it's because I didn't know you were presenting. Drop me a line and I'll add you. If I got something wrong in your blurb, let me know.

Josh Adams

As the ColdFusion Sales Engineer, you may have met Josh over the past two years or so. He's a great resource for deep technical issues with ColdFusion.

Mihai Corlan

Mihai is a fellow Platform Evangelist based out of Bucharest, Hungary. He's an old hand at ColdFusion, who was also part of the Flex Builder team at one point.

Claude Englebert

Claude, based in Belgium, is the ColdFusion Specialist for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Long time community member, he's been at Adobe for about a year, and wears many hats (many of them quite festive). If you're in EMEA, and need any help with ColdFusion, Claude's your go-to-guy.

Ben Forta

Who's Ben Forta - a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in mystery and topped off with a crazy, giant, beard. No one knows where he comes from but it's been said... c'mon, if you're reading this you know who Ben is.

Kevin Hoyt

Kevin is a member of the Platform Evangelism team, and my boss. (So say nice things about me if you can.) He's been around since the Allaire days. He's worked with ColdFusion from the earliest versions, and many of you have seen him at User group events in the past.

Serge Jespers

Serge is also a member of the Platform Evangelism team. He's based in Belgium, but insists that he and Claude have nothing in common. He comes to CF with tons of front end experience, and can show you some things about Catalyst that will knock your socks off.

Tomas Krcha

Tomas is surprisingly another member of the Platform Evangelism team. He's got a ton of experience with Flash, and has a really good designer's eye. (Check out his site.)

Adam Lehman

Adam's the former ColdFusion Evangelist, and current Product Manager for ColdFusion. He's a long member of the community. Like Zoolander he's plagued by his inability to turn (and look) left.

Andrew Spaulding

Andrew is a Systems Engineer down in Australia. I got a chance to meet him when I was down for webDU. He's a great ambassador for Adobe, and I think you'll be in good hands if you get him for a session.

Ryan Stewart

Ryan is yet another member of the Platform Evangelism group. He does a lot of Catalyst and Flex these days, but way back in the day he a was bright eyed and annoyingly enthusiastic ColdFusion developer with me at the Wharton School.

Mark Szulc

Mark is the Technical Director for Australia and New Zealand. I also got a chance to meet with during webDU, and was impressed by his take on CF in relation to other products at Adobe.

Piotr Walczyszyn

Another Platform Evangelist, Piotr is based in Warsaw. He's got a very strong background in Java, and should have a great take on CF from that perspective.

Greg Wilson

Greg Wilson is a Platform Evangelist. He's a LiveCycle guy who embraced the power of ColdFusion when he saw how easy it made to talk to Adobe's internal MS Exchange server.