As simple as this question is. Has it been done or should it be done?

We (2 of us) run an ecomm site using ASP and MSSQL 2K, and there's talk about purchasing a new mail order/shipping program that runs on ColdFusion.

I say convert the site to Coldfusion because this new program has so many things that the company needs and will tie together many things that need to be, but the ('the web master") says "it's no problem to keep the site on ASP."

Besides being a PAIN in the butt to code and maintain an ASP driven site and a shopping cart which is done in Coldfusion, can I have some opinons against this idea? We host our site and process all information.

We're already doing the "passing variables dance" with a FoxPro driven program and it's very inefficent and UNSAFE!

Opinions please!!!!

Well really coldfusion needs iis (or another web server) to run anyway - so that means that asp is automatic. I would really caution you to reconsider. We are in the process of having to redesign our web site due to scalability issues with coldfusion - primarily virtual memory issues. Have you thought about .Net ? If the decision has already been made to go with the coldfusion product, then I have to agree with you that for maintainability you are better off staying with coldfusion. However, I would also be concerned about the future of coldfusion. If you are looking at redesign - I would either go with .Net or Java. How many hits do you have in a month ? How big are your servers - do you have more than 1 web server ? Realize that any software that exists on top of the web server adds another layer which will affect performance, maintainability and scalability. I will say that for rapid development it is excellent - do you know about the "fusebox" design ? I know this sounds conflicting but coldfusion has its good points and its bad points.

Good luck.

"I would really caution you to reconsider. We are having to redesign our web site due to scalability issues with coldfusion."

Personally I really don't care either way. It's just the point that my boss thinks running a site in ASP and trying to make it talk to the Coldfusion is going to be easy and that he can just "whip something together"!!

"Have you thought about .Net ?"
I haven't read alot about it nor researched it much, but I may have to really look into it.

What are some of the pros/cons with going to .NET?

"If the decision has already been made to go with the coldfusion product, then I have to agree with you that for maintainability you are better off staying with coldfusion."

This decision will be based on which program we're buying. I don't carry much weight, but feel that I do know what I'm talking about most of the time, compared to my boss anyway

" How many hits do you have in a month ? How big...do you have more than 1 web server ?"

Hits? Stats? Huh, what? Don't ask me. These are not very important around here for some reason. And yes, we have just one server! Whoppppie!!

"Realize that any software that exists on top of the web server adds
another layer which will affect performance, maintainability and scalability."
My thoughts exactly, but I wanted some expert opinions before I started running my mouth and trying to act smart
I needed to have some facts to prove that this is not a good idea and and to help give me some credibility. I don't have alot of "real world" experience, but I've done my homework and do have some common sense. I think!

It's a battle of "increasing knowledge" against "increasing ego"!

On my previous project, we had combined Cold Fusion and ASP into different parts of the application. We had only one problem but I would recommend NOT doing it because of the large headache we had which dealt with the CF and the ASP consitently timing out, if it was not being utilized at the moment.

You'll need to consistently keep the CF and ASP open at the same, along with passing session information between the two. Or, you have to reset both your CF and ASP for significant long time out sessions, which can create security issues.