I've got a really long (as in 20 minute+) process running that keeps from doing much of anything but running notepad. I decided it'd be a good time to stop and reflect on why I've continued developing Model-Glue past the 1.x codebase.

So, without any further fluff, here's ten reasons why you should be interested in using Model-Glue:Unity (when it's released!):

1. Expression over depression.

Ever spent a day writing basic CRUD sql, list views, and edit forms? That's nowhere near as fun as writing a great UI along with powerful business logic. By letting you work expressively instead of repetitively, Model-Glue:Unity makes developing a more rewarding, productive, and fun experience.

2. Near-instant applications.

Create a new Model-Glue:Unity application. Create a database. Add a table with some columns. Add one tag to ModelGlue.xml, and you've now got UI to let you list, view, edit and delete records in the table. This even includes one-to-many and many-to-many relationships.

3. MVC without the guesswork.

Model-Glue:Unity applications have three directories with very specific names: /model, /controller, and /views. Its rules for "what goes where" are just as clear.

4. It does CRUD for you.

If you're up on using Beans, Gateways, DAOs, etc., you're probably also tired of writing Beans, Gateways, DAOs, etc. By transparently working with the Reactor framework, Model-Glue:Unity writes them all for you.

5. It makes OOP easier to learn.

If you're not already using Beans, Gateways, DAOs, etc., and you'd like to write more flexible and reusable applications, Unity greatly flattens the learning curve associated with writing database-driven ColdFusion applications in an Object-Oriented style.

6. Already got CFC code? Reuse it effortlessly.

By using ColdSpring (a ColdFusion port of the Java Spring framework), business logic you've already written inside of CFCs can instantly be made available to your application.

7. Don't like something? You can change it.

Model-Glue:Unity uses ColdSpring to organize itself. If you don't like something, like how it merges URL and FORM or how it handles SES URLs, you can write your own component and instruct the framework to use your version instead. This even applies to HTML scaffolds: you can instruct the framework to use custom .XSL files to generate scaffold code, or even add entirely new scaffold events!

8. It's fast.

Current benchmarks of private builds have Model-Glue:Unity outperforming all previous (including unreleased) versions.

9. It's free.

Model-Glue:Unity has never cost anything. It never will.

10. It's open source.

Released under the Lesser GPL, you're welcome to modify the source code to your heart's content, as well as use it in commercial, for-profit code. Because some of the best-known minds in the ColdFusion community use the framework for their own work, you can rest assured there's a good deal of quality code under the hood.