BlackBox is the way that I choose to build pages in ColdFusion. I want to share it because it has offered me an abundance of power and flexibility and has saved me tons of development time.

BlackBox is built on the following ideals:

• Developers like to have control of their pages
• The brains of a module are important but the appearance must be customizable
• Developers may want to use the same functionality in other web sites, or multiple times in multiple ways within one web site.
• It creates the illusion of site-wide 'cf functions'
• The power of related site-wide custom tags without using the custom tag directory. Useful if you don't control your own server.
• It is easy to nest application functionality and create attractive urls
• Integration between multiple apps on the same site is possible and easy
• Lets developers write their modules in the style of their choice while letting developers easily share each other's modules.
• Simple to learn and employ.

Today I can offer two things, a white paper and the actual blackbox.cfm file that is core to this technique. Feel free to download these and learn about them. Feel free to send me feedback. Please understand that it might take some time for me to reply.

As of early July 2002 we have a yahoogroups email list going too. This is finally what it will take to get this solidified and going somewhere. Check it out.

I don't ask for any money for this code, but please give credit where credit is due.

Thanks for checking this out. I hope you find something here that saves you time! -- Dan Chick