Introduction to ColdFusion Penn State Web 2001 Conference Brian Panulla Elmwood Media Group, LLC

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla What is ColdFusion?  Formerly produced by Allaire Corporation (now Macromedia), the ColdFusion Web Application Server is a multi-platform Internet programming engine.  So what does this mean?

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla CF as a Programming Platform  Program code, written in CFML (the ColdFusion Markup Language) is interpreted and executed on the Web server by the CF Server.  The result of CF code is generally a DHTML document. Internet User CF Server DHTML

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Coding in CFML  CFML code is organized into templates. A single template is generally analagous to a single static Web page.  When a CFML template is requested by a client through the Web server, the template is first processed by the ColdFusion Application Server

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Coding in CFML  Generally, the end result of a processed CFML template is a normal DHTML document. This document may contain:  HTML  JavaScript  VBScript  CSS  Embedded Java Applets  Or any other client-side technologies

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Coding in CFML  During the execution phase, the ColdFusion server replaces any CFML- specific code with the output of that code.  This allows you to completely generate a dynamic HTML document with CFML instructions.

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Tying In To Other Resources  In addition to being a full-featured programming language, the real power of CFML lies in the ability to access other network resources, including:  Databases!  Directory Servers (LDAP)  Mail Servers (using SMTP and POP)  Other Web or FTP servers  COM Objects

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Reading Data From A Database  Databases may be accessed through ODBC, OLE-DB, and native database connections. Some common database plaforms are:  MS Access  SQL Server  Oracle  DB2  MySQL  Interaction is generally accomplished with queries written in SQL, the standard relational database query language.

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Sample CFML Code SELECT * FROM Events #MyQuery.Event# #MyQuery.Date#

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Why use ColdFusion?  Upsides:  Excellent development tools  Runs on Windows (98/NT/2000), Solaris, Linux, HP/UX  Easy learning curve for non-programmers  Higher productivity for skilled developers  A terriffic local User Group!* *See

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla Why not to use ColdFusion  Downsides:  Somewhat expensive (though less so for educational institutions) for Professional and especially Enterprise editions  Language and software are proprietary  Building extremely scalable sites is difficult (though certainly possible! See AutoByTel.com and FAOSchwatz.com)

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla For small departments or organizations, CF is a winner!  With a lower cost of maintenance and easier learning curve than other languages, CFML can help with rampant IT turnover and retraining costs.  A skilled developer in another language (ASP, PHP) can apply most of their skills to developing with CFML (DHTML, SQL).

Content © 2001 Brian Panulla For Further Reading…  “Yes, YES, it can scale” by Ben Forta, ColdFusion Developers Journal, Vol 1 Issue 4 “Yes, YES, it can scale”  “When NOT to Use ColdFusion” by Ben Forta, ColdFusion Developers Journal, Vol 2 Issue 3 “When NOT to Use ColdFusion”