Whether you are new to CFWebstore® or a previous user, you may wonder what is Fusebox and why it was used for this software. Basically, Fusebox is a framework that outlines a way to organize the code. It includes a core set of files, and best practices for how to break down the rest of the application. It allows for separation, for instance, of the page display elements and the coding logic. It is one of the most commonly used frameworks by ColdFusion developers at this time, and is used for other languages as well such as PHP.
What this means for CFWebstore® is that by coding in Fusebox, we are structuring the application in a way that anyone familiar with Fusebox can easily follow. Those new to Fusebox can easily find more information on it, and will be learning a methodology common to many ColdFusion projects, rather than trying to learn a methodology no one else uses.
The common follow-up question is why Fusebox 3? At the time this product was being recoded, Fusebox 4 was still being developed, and no version was available at the time for ColdFusion 5 servers, which we wanted to continue to support. Fusebox 3 is also considerably easier to learn for coders that are new to the methodology. Changing the underlying framework to a newer Fusebox version, or another framework will be a huge undertaking and will be done as part of a complete code re-work.
You don’t need to install anything on your server to use Fusebox. For more information on Fusebox, visit fusebox.org and halhelms.com. You can also find a bunch of good Fusebox 3 tutorials in your documentation directory.