ColdFusion MX

Rob Filardo and Lindsay Matteo

A Brief History• ColdFusion 1.0 was created in 1995 by Adam Berrey in order to

help HTML programmers create database-oriented web applications

• Database connectivity established through a tag-based script called Database Markup Language (DBML)

• Version 1.5 was a dramatic improvement. Among other things, it included email integration and C++ compatibility to allow for coding extensions

• Early on, ColdFusion faced competition from Microsoft, which was developing the technology that would lead to ASP

• Version 2.0 included such advances as 150 new functions, looping, variables, typeless expression evaluation, and a number of other language enhancements.

• ColdFusion 3.1 offered greater support for Windows NT and Sun Solaris systems, and also featured automated page generation and tag completion. It also included enhanced security and a new multi-threading service.

• Now, ColdFusion applications can even be deployed on J2EE servers

About ColdFusion MX• ColdFusion MX is a rapid scripting environment server for

creating dynamic Internet Applications. It enables developers to easily build and deploy things such as dynamic websites, self-service applications, and commerce sites.

• ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based language, similar to HTML, that uses special tags and functions.

• CFML looks similar to HTML--it includes starting and, in most cases, ending tags, and each tag is enclosed in angle brackets. All ending tags are preceded with a forward slash (/) and all tag names are preceded with cf; for example:

<cftagname> tag body text and CFML</cftagname> • CFML provides a layer of abstraction that hides many low-level

details involved with Internet application programming. It lets you easily build applications that integrate files, databases, legacy systems, mail servers, FTP servers, objects, and components.

ColdFusion Components

• CFML also includes a built-in scripting language, CFScript, that lets you write code in a manner that is familiar to programmers and JavaScript writers.

• You can extend CFML further by creating custom tags or user-defined functions (UDFs), or by integrating COM, C++, and Java components (such as JSP tag libraries).

• You can also create ColdFusion components (CFCs), which encapsulate related functions and properties and provide a consistent interface for accessing them.

CFML Basics

• Functions - can use built in functions or define your own. Used to manipulate data and return a result.

• Expressions • Variables and constants • Flow-control constructs such as if-then and loops. CFML is an

imperative language.• CFML control tags are very similar to Java control words: cfif,

cfelse, cfelseif, cfswitch, cfbreak, cfcase, cfloop…recognize any of those?

• The cf loop tag provides five types of loops: index (kind of like a “for” loop), conditional, query (runs through loop once for each row in a query), list (runs through loop once for each entry in a list – perhaps like an iterator), and collection.

CFML Oddities

• CFML is case insensitive • CFML is typeless – you do not specify variable data types.

Although, CFML data falls into the following categories: simple (boolean values, numbers, strings, etc.), complex (arrays, structures, queries), binary (such as the contents of a .gif file), object (like Java, CORBA or ColdFusion component objects)

• CFML has a language within it! CFScript is a scripting language that is similar to JavaScript but is simpler to use. Also, unlike JavaScript, CFScript only runs on the ColdFusion server; it does not run on the client system.

• Java now has interfaces for building ColdFusion custom CFX’s in Java! Interfaces such as the Query interface allows the user to iterate through query rows and columns.

How ColdFusion Pages are Processed

Common CFML TagsSource: www.macromedia.com

Tag Purpose

cfquery Establishes a connection to a database (if one does not exist), executes a query, and returns results to the ColdFusion environment.

cfoutput Displays output that can contain the results of processing ColdFusion functions, variables, and expressions.

cfset Sets the value of a ColdFusion variable.

cfmail Lets an application send SMTP mail messages using application variables, query results, or server files. (Another tag, cfpop, gets mail.)

cfchart Converts application data or query results into graphs, such as bar charts or pie charts, in Flash, JPG, or PNG format

cfobject Invokes objects written in other programming languages, including Java objects such as Enterprise JavaBeans or Common CORBA objects

There are CFML tags built in for…

• Manipulating variables • Creating interactive forms • Accessing and manipulating databases • Displaying data • Controlling the flow of execution on the ColdFusion

page • Handling errors • Processing ColdFusion pages • Managing the CFML application framework • Manipulating files and directories • Using external tools and objects, including Verity

collections, COM, Java, and CORBA objects, and executable programs

Custom Tags• ColdFusion lets you create custom tags. You can create two

types of custom tags:1. CFML custom tags that are ColdFusion pages 2. CFX tags that you write in a programing language such as Java or C++

• Custom tags can encapsulate frequently used code. These tags enable you to place this code in one place and call it from many places.

• Custom tags also let you abstract complex logic into a single, simple interface.

CF Application Example – Top

• The top portion of the application has two text form fields. The “Name” field accepts a name up to 20 characters long, while the “Zip Code” field checks to see if integers are entered in a zip code pattern.

• Both of these forms are required, and a popup notification appears when information has not been entered.

CF Application Example – Middle

• The center portion of the application comes into view once the submit button has been pressed.

• The form variables that were entered in the text fields are printed, as shown in the upcoming code.

CF Application Example – Bottom

• The bottom of the application displays the contents of a database containing all of the previous entries of the form.

• The buttons remove and show the custom tag contents to the application.

• Above is what the custom tag template looks like on its own.

• On the right is what the application looks like without the code calling the Coldfusion custom tag.