I've been noodling here and there and have finally put the finishing touches on Squidhead 2.0.

Before I started rewriting, I spent some time developing more applications with Squidhead. I figured out a couple areas of inefficiency and tried to fix them when I could. Creating configuration files took longer than it should and was a bit confusing. I found myself writing Ant scripts for all of my applications. I kept forgetting to test my applications.

Further when I was maintaining the actual Squidhead codebase, some things were frustrating. Maintaining a separate code base for ColdFusion 8 and ColdFusion 7 was a pain in the ass. Maintaining a simple version and a business version was a pain. Adding new features required a series of cascading tweaks because it was poorly architected.

So here are the solutions to all of those issues and a few more for good measure.

New features:

• MySql 5.0 Support
• It creates Ant Build files for common tasks
• It can run CFUnit tests that it creates during its build
• It now will use CF8 rich elements it the generated crud *
• It now handles images *
• It's now a little easier to extend
  • It's easy to add steps.
  • It's possible to add application templates
• Modified XML configuration allows developer to override certain defaults like form field labels.
• New Configuration Builder
• New Shiny Web 2.0 looks (Okay, not a feature per see.)
• Cheesey Web 2.0 Logos created for every application.

* CF 8 features can be turned off if application will not be running on a CF8 server.

Deprecated Features:

• Simple Applications (They are still available, but they won't be updated)

Removed Features:

• Threading (Speed Enhancements weren't enough to justify added complexity)

Requirements:

• Squidhead: ColdFusion 8
• Database: Microsoft SQL 2000 or 2005; MySql 5.0
• Generated Application Using MSSQL: ColdFusion 7 or 8
• Generated Application Using MySql: ColdFusion 8

Notes:

• For the most part, your old config files will still work. However the more changes you made the more likely they are to have problems.

Old versions of Squidhead still available at http://www.numtopia.com/squidhead.

The new version is available at Riaforge.