ColdFusion: With ColdFusion, you can build and deploy powerful web applications and services with far less training time and fewer lines of code than ASP, PHP, and JSP. Version 7.0 introduces powerful new application services including rich Flash forms generation, structured reports, and dynamic generation of printable documents. Coupled with version 6.1’s simplified installation and migration, updated key features, and increased in runtime performance, these features open up a new world of applications beyond the browser.
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What is ColdFusion?
ColdFusion is a program based on the CFMX programming language that builds and deploys powerful web applications and services. With proven tag-based methodology, ColdFusion’s features allow web developers to easily harness the power of the Java Platform to deliver powerful Internet applications to millions of people worldwide. ColdFusion is a server side language, which is executed by a ColdFusion application server. It works by executing CFM templates (which is a mixture of HTML and ColdFusion instructions) to return normal HTML to the requesting browser. The ColdFusion MX Enterprise software suite provides all the necessary software to create large-scale websites, applications, and hosting environments, and is available for either a stand-alone installation for web developers or for industry-level deployment on J2EE application servers.
The true power of ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)
The core functionality of ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is centered on the use of tags. These server scripting tags give ColdFusion its speedy development applications for the web. CFML is quite simple to learn, but is powerful enough to handle even the most complex and demanding web applications. Processed entirely on the server, CFML uses syntax closely resembling that of HTML and XML. CFML consists of two primary language elements: tags and functions. Tags let you perform operations such as accessing a database. Functions can return data and do other operations like retrieving the system date. Tags, functions and operators make up expressions. Building expressions in ColdFusion is easy and can include simple as well as complex elements. The ways in which these expressions and elements are used determine how ColdFusion processes your program.
Is ColdFusion easy to learn?
Out of the many different methods used to develop and build web applications, pages, and services, ColdFusion is by far the easiest to learn and use. For ColdFusion 7.0, Macromedia has created a helpful ‘Getting Started Experience’ interface that gives the new user access to tutorials, whitepapers, topic index, and even two sample applications to play with.
There is no other language or product as well suited to web developers as ColdFusion. Easy-to-use visual tools and an intuitive server scripting environment allow new users to easily pick up the CFML language.
Windows, UNIX, or Linux…which Should I Use To Run My Website?
Macromedia ColdFusion MX supports most operating systems including Windows, Unix, Linux, IBM AIX and HP-UX. Below is a list of operating system versions and system requirements for the latest ColdFusion version:
Windows OS Intel Pentium processor or higher 256 MB RAM but 512 MB is highly recommended 400 MB of hard disk space available Works on MS Windows 98 / ME / NT 4 / SP6A / 2000 /SP3 / XP/ 2003
Linux OS Intel Pentium processor or higher 256 MB RAM but 512 MB is highly recommended 400 MB of hard disk space available Red Hat Linux 7.2 / 7.3 / 8.0 / 9 / AS & ES 2.1 / AS & ES 3.0 SuSE Linux 7.2 / 7.3 / or 8X Turbo Linux 8 Server ( Japanese Only)
Unix SPARC, PA-RISC 1.1 / 2.0 / Power 3 processor Sun Solaris 7 / 8 / 9 256 MB RAM but 512 MB is highly recommended 400 MB of hard disk space available HP-UX 11i IBM AIX 5L 4.3 / 3 / 5.1 / 5.2 Apple Mac OS X
What Databases and Web Servers are supported with ColdFusion?
ColdFusion MX supports most major databases including Microsoft SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, Sybase and IBM Informix. In addition, CFMX can run on most major web servers including IIS, Apache and Sun One.
What are the differences between the ColdFusion 7.0 editions?
Standard Edition: This edition is for single web application or small workgroup environments. It builds accessible, high-quality rich forms, transforms existing HTML content into PDF or FlashPaper 2 formats, creates structured business reports for workgroup applications, delivers charts and graphs, and increases text searching capabilities.
Enterprise Edition: This edition is ideal for the quickly growing business. It includes all the features of the Standard Edition as well as scalability, performance, and enterprise management capabilities for larger web and business applications. The Enterprise Edition has multi-instance deployment and management, clustering, high-speed enterprise database drivers, server security J2EE packaging and deployment, and high-performance e-mail delivery. Yet the most anticipated feature of this edition is the event gateway, which enables ColdFusion applications to connect to mobile phones and instant messaging.
How does ColdFusion run on application servers?
The ColdFusion MX runtime environment is actually a Java application that takes advantage of the many powerful services in the J2EE platform. What this J2EE platform does is connects the various databases, manages its own security, as well as processes the requests sent in by the application itself. When ColdFusion MX is installed in the J2EE configuration, the compiled infrastructure will be on top of the application server in order to execute the language’s applications. This configuration will allow developers to cultivate and set out pages, as well as manage the MX server settings using the ColdFusion Administrator.
What are the advantages & disadvantages of using custom tags in ColdFusion?
Using custom tags within ColdFusion has its advantages and disadvantages. Custom tags written in CFML primarily try to achieve a simple balance between three aspects; taking argument statements, having body tags begin and end with the appropriate tag, and ensuring proper processing when a beginning tag is encountered by the ColdFusion program. If designed properly, these custom tags will also be able to be called recursively (meaning that it will have the functionality to call itself within the body tag). Although a custom tag in ColdFusion will call a page included the CFinclude tag, the disadvantage is that the code must be recursive, have developed complex functionality, and must be convenient for others (although often times code is not convenient). If creating either a User Defined Function (UDF) or a custom CFML tag, weigh the options carefully, since invoking a UDF requires less system overhead than using a custom tag.
What are the new features for ColdFusion 7.0?
ColdFusion 7.0 brings a whole new level of features to developers. With better web application creation, new server management and deployment options, and a new class of applications, users are able to quickly create powerful Internet applications without spending a lot of time or money.
Macromedia developed the new features to help web developers be more efficient in performing routine tasks such as structured business reporting, Flash-rich forms, and PDF and FlashPaper 2 document generation. ColdFusion Report Builder, a tool that helps users develop detailed business reports, will create sub reports, charts and graphs, automatically generate subtotals, and much more. ColdFusion 7.0 simplifies the form building process with the new Rich Flash and XML Forms capabilities. The new CFDOCUMENT feature eliminates chopping page printing with a single tag that transforms web pages into PDF or FlashPaper 2 formats.
How do I purchase my own copy of ColdFusion?
The ColdFusion MX suite is available directly from Macromedia, local computer software resellers, licensing programs and some web hosts.
Is Your Website Ready For Prime Time?
So you think its ready to go live. After all of the hard work you’ve done registering your domain, making hosting arrangements, planning your site, and actually creating the pages. Who cares if there is a section or two of the site that aren’t finished yet? We can fill in the rest as we go. The important thing is people need to start seeing our website. Are you sure? Is your website really ready for prime time?
One of the biggest problems facing websites today is trying to attract recurring traffic. The key to most successful sites, is not only to attract people to your website, but to keep them coming back. Unfortunately, many websites are launched before they are complete.
Imagine this, if you will. A new show airs on TV, the previews sound ok, so you decide to tune in and check it out. When it starts, you find out that it really hasn’t been completed. The props are cheap, the effects are lacking, and a final cast hasn’t been decided on so for the first few episodes you will see different people playing the same role. Does this sound like a show you would watch again? Would a television network release a show before it was ready for release? A cute little barricade sign with a flashing light reading UNDER CONSTRUCTION in the bottom corner is not going to make up for the obvious lack of completeness to the television viewers watching the show.
This happens every day on the Internet. Individuals and companies alike are in such a rush to start getting traffic on their websites that they will put them out there before they are complete.
With the expansion of high-speed Internet access, web surfers have the luxury of being able to hit many sites in the time it used to take to download only one page. What does this mean to the website owner? If your site is not complete, a small “Under Construction” image will not make up for missing content. The surfers that hit your website in this time will probably never return, even after you have completed the missing areas.
The problem doesn’t only apply to websites that aren’t completed. The same problem exists for websites that have been finished. There are many areas that need to be taken into consideration and addressed before a site goes live. Here are some of the biggest examples:
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One of the most common mistakes on a website is spelling errors. Though they might be small, spelling errors are viewed as very unprofessional. With the wide availability of spell-checkers, there should be no excuse for misspellings on your website. Spell-check your content!
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Another common mistake is HTML errors. Although they may not be noticeable when you are testing your site, HTML errors can cause serious problems for your target audience. Not everyone uses the same web browser, and most of them have their own proprietary engines for rendering the HTML. Some of these web browsers may be very forgiving when it comes to incorrectly formatted HTML, but some are very strict. This means that something that your web browser allows might be a serious issue for another browser. So make sure that your HTML is properly written, and that it will work across all popular web browsers.
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Broken links present another huge problem. No, I am not talking about golf. Every spot on your website where you can click to go somewhere else is a link. And each of these spots is a potential problem. It is very easy to make mistakes with the links on web pages, especially when you are in the early stages of creating your website. But to a web surfer, who sees what looks like a cool link, clicking on it and getting a “Page Not Found” error is just unacceptable. Chances are, that surfer is going to catch a wave to the next website on the search engine to find what he is looking for. Check and re-check all links on every page.
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Are you planning on submitting your website to different search engines? If so, make sure it is ready for such right away. Make sure your pages have meaningful and descriptive titles, and that your META tags are properly formatted. This will greatly increase your chances of getting hits on search engine searches.
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Finally, you need to make sure that your web pages load quickly. I know that with the proliferation of high-speed Internet you may be tempted to load your pages with tons of content, but do so in moderation. It has been determined that the average web surfer will wait up to 8 seconds before going to another website. Keep in mind that less than half of the country has high-speed Internet access available to them. Less than five percent of those who it is available to, actually subscribe to it. Make sure your web pages load quickly, even for dial-up, and you will be able to retain visitors.
There are hundreds of websites available to help you build a successful website. Some offer articles and guides, others have tool and utilities, and others contain libraries of existing code that can be plugged in to your website to enhance it’s functionality. Depending on the site, and what features it has to offer, there may be a fee to access the services found within.
What is the bottom line? Make sure your website is ready for prime time before putting it on the air. Make your website complete and error free, and you have the winning cast to make your site a hit.
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