Graphs from data: PHP or ColdFusion?

[fernimac]

I am developing a site that basically collects data from what visitors look for in other websites (what they search for, which categories of products have the highest demand, which products are searched for that we don't have...) Then, I want to present all this data graphically, so that one could see trends, evolution in time and combine different criteria in order to predict future demand.

I have a lot of experience with ASP and I am starting to develop one site in PHP and another with ColdFusion. I have been checking and it seems easier to build such a site with ColdFusion (which is able to draw statistical graphs out of data in MySQL tables, for instance, with no external or additional components in the server side) or with PHP.

Any suggestions, experience, with these?
Which technology has a softer learning curve?
Which one is faster serving the information?
Thanks a lot.

Fernando
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[vivekar]

CF is a dying breed. (http://www.webfootcentral.com/forums/sutra333.html)

It is easier to learn PHP.
I too migrated from ASP. It was easier since I had some C/C++ knowledge. Now I am working on C# and ASP.NET.

PHP has some good resources.
.NET is emerging strong.

[Shift4SMS]

CF is a dying breed. (http://www.webfootcentral.com/forums/sutra333.html)

It is easier to learn PHP.
I too migrated from ASP. It was easier since I had some C/C++ knowledge. Now I am working on C# and ASP.NET.

PHP has some good resources.
.NET is emerging strong.
I agree with you that CF may be a dying breed, but it is not because of technology or capability. The link you referenced seems more pro-CF than the title appears.

To answer the original question, CF would be much easier to tackle a graphing project than ASP or PHP -- it has native graphing ability whereas ASP and PHP would depend on plug-in's of some sort. Now if your question is "Would my time be wasted in learning CF?", this I could not answer because I do believe that unless Macromedia works some miracles in the marketing and pricing arena, it is a dying breed.

It is hard to compete against PHP (which is free) and ASP (which is virtually free if you are a Windows house) on technology alone -- the price must come down.

[Rod Swift]

Hi,

I've produced several graphical statistics packages for use with several travel sites I have developed and manage using PHP and found it very straight forward.

For the bar graphs I used a 1 pixel high image and resized it with the % result calculation. For example, if 100% is a 200 pixel high image then the height is
$h = round (200 * $result);
The height $h is used to directly set the HTML image height.

When I have not been able to use an SQL string from the MySQL database to directly provide the data I have found the PHP array and sort functions have produced compact easy to program routines.

I don't know how this compares with Cold Fusion as I've never used it.

I hope this helps.

Best Regards

Rod Swift

[fernimac]

Thanks for all your answers. I think I am going to give ColdFusion a try. I managed to keep a page running and showing a very fine graphic in just an hour, so it seems that, after mastering ASP and just in my way to know PHP well, ColdFusion is going to be so much easier... Besides, I met a hosting company in Spain that offers ColdFusion hosting so I am going to try with that. I'll let you know when it takes off.

Thank you!

Fernando