ColdFusion Throwdown

Latest Throwdowns

What is ColdFusion Throwdown?

Competition breeds better products and innovation.  That's what ColdFusion Throwdown is all about, providing a platform that encourages and rewards competitive growth.

“Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.”
~Herbert Hoover

When we as the ColdFusion community provide software solutions that are superior products than our language competitors we greatly strengthen the adoption of CFML and we all win.  By providing a means to compete and innovate we can kick-start the creative juices and do just that.  Create better, innovative, highly usable and useful products.  These are also the criteria our judges look for in a throwdown submission.

Innovation

Innovation drives a language and a community.  Without it, products stagnate and growth plateaus and suffers.  While application servers like Adobe's ColdFusion, Railo and OpenBD continue to expand and enhance the server and language capabilities it's up to us, the ColdFusion community, to take these tools and push the boundries of programming.  While it's a great help that ColdFusion 9 introduced a tag that allows us to quickly add a google map to a page it's more exciting to see how developers can take that functionality and blow us away using it in ways we've never seen.

We feel that innovation is the heart and soul of developing software and our judges are encouraged to weigh it heavily when considering a throwdown submission.  Not to mention it makes up half of the total points available to award.

Usability

In a world of "Web 2.0" the interface and usability of an application can be the difference between a million plus uniques a month or an unused application.  It won't matter how innovative your application is if nobody can or wants to use it.  A clean, easy to use, interface doesn't always have to look and feel like every other "Web 2.0" application out there.  Though it can be a great start, it's not the only answer.

Putting usable and accessible interface components where your users expect them makes a world of difference.  Don't make your users guess how to navigate your application, it's a sure way to make them leave and use a competitor's product.  Usability accounts for up to a quarter of the points awarded to a throwdown submission.  Use them well!

Usefulness

Even with amazing innovation and a great interface your app has to be something that fills a legitimate need for users.  Your Klingon-to-Smell-o-Vision translator might seem like a great idea, but what if nobody uses it?  How valuable is your app?  I'm sure we've all heard the adage about the tree falling in a forest with nobody around.  Your app is no different.

Conversely, you might have an app that fills a legitimate need in a market that is saturated.  Though your app is useful, it will be hard to shine through all the other apps out there and you're back in the same spot, stuck with an app that nobody is using.

Often times the best apps are those that grow out of a developer's need for a solution that doesn't already exist.  Follow your instincts when developing your next app.  Usefulness counts towards the final quarter of total points a judge can award a submission.

So take a step in the right direction, create innovative, useful and usable applications.  Test your skills here in one of our Throwdowns and while you're at it, win some great prizes!