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.
The most feature packed ColdFusionR hosting on the Web from Uplinkearth! Includes Sandboxing, Flash Remoting and the ability to use tags like CFFILE! Sign up today and get a FREE domain name. CALL US Toll-Free at 800-745-3043 or Chat Live More info
Your source for web success. Broaden your reach and increase sales with Yahoo's comprehensive set of web-based solutions. More info
FREE Domain & Setup! Register today with Web.com! In 3 easy steps you can post your photos, your blog, and more. Be seen on the web tonight. Only $11.95/month. More info
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.
What is Database hosting? In most cases a database host is a specific kind of dedicated server, which is going to be used to run a database intensive application. The server can either be just for the database itself or it could also run the web site too, it really depends on how much system resources will be needed by the database. A system setup to run intense database applications will have a significant amount more RAM than a regular server. For example, if you are looking at a regular web-hosting server and you think 512 Megs will be enough then you would probably be looking at between 1 Gig to 2 Gigs for a database server.
Who needs a database host? Anyone who is using a database intensive program like a CRM, ERP, or a custom made application should look into a database host because they have more memory, which will increase the speed and reliability of the application.
Why use a database server? A database server is just a specific kind of dedicated server. So if a database server fits your needs it is something you should look into.
What are some applications that might run on a database server? Some examples of applications that are used on database servers are CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.
Can a database server only be used for a database? No a database server can be used for anything but it is a specific kind of dedicated server that is setup to get the maximum performance out of a database or applications that rely heavily on a database. To do this the server has a large amount of memory and a few other configurations are done so that the database is the priority over anything else running on the system.
Why do database servers contain more RAM? Database servers are interesting pieces of software in that they store megs and even gigs of information in tables, which are made up of columns and rows, and yet doing a simple command we can get a result set that match the information we want in a matter of tenths of a second. Just as an example, google.com strives to keep all its searches down below half a second and they have over 3 trillion web pages in their database.
Very quickly, without getting to in-depth on how database software works, I will cover why having more RAM usually speeds up the process of getting data from a database. It is about 10 times faster to get data out of RAM, as it is to get data off a hard drive. This means that if we were to store some of the database data in RAM then getting results from that data in ram would be at least 10 times faster than if we pulled it off of the hard drive. Due to this fact database software developers use special algorithms to figure out what data to store in RAM so that results from queries are faster. The more RAM the server has the more data from the database can be stored in it and that leads to faster results. When the database is the key part of the entire application faster is always better so this is why database servers have so much more ram than a regular web server.
Does my E-commerce site need a database host? Chances are you do not need a database host for your E-commerce site, you probably just need a web-hosting package/plan that gives you access to a database. The difference here between a database host and having access to a database is significant. When doing database hosting the database is the most important part of the entire application and is where all the processing is done.
What kind of administration is needed? Just like in a dedicated server there is a lot of work to be done. Unlike a regular dedicated server though there will be more time spent on doing database administration tasks: optimizing tables and other database specific tasks.
If you do not know exactly what needs to be done or don’t have someone to do it for you then you might be interested in a managed system. A managed system is where the hosting company does some or most of the system security patching for you. This also includes general maintenance in most cases but you should ask about specifics.
Other companies that don’t have “managed” database servers are usually able to sell you a service along with your hosting package for a monthly fee, which usually includes patching of the server and regular maintenance. Then beyond that they will do optimization of the tables and check to make sure the tables are setup in such a way that it does not take more resources than it should in terms of how long it takes for queries to finish running. If you needed a database server and do not have the time or desire to do all the maintenance on it then you might be interested in looking for a managed server or at least an add-on service package that will have the hosting company take care of the maintenance for you.
What about custom software on a database server? The developer of the software should give you guidelines as to how much disk space, memory, and processing power is needed just to run the software. They should also tell you what is required per user beyond just running the server. From this point you will have to figure out how many users will be connected at the same time. Once you know how many users will be connected at the same time and how much resources are needed per user just do the simple multiplication to figure out exactly what is going to be needed. A database server is great for applications that heavily use a database and require a lot of memory so if your results show you need a lot of memory then a database server is the best way to go.
Database A database is a collection of data in tables and rows arranged in such a way that searching and retrieving the data is quick.
MySQL “The world’s most popular open source database” as they say. MySQL does not have all the features the other database servers have but because it leaves out a few features it tends to be faster than some of the other database servers.
MS SQL “The enterprise relational database management and analysis system” as Microsoft calls it. Microsoft’s SQL server runs on the Windows operating system.
CRM Customer Resource Management systems usually run on database servers because they are database intensive applications. While there are some web based CRM systems most are not web based and therefore require a special client to connect to the system. CRM systems are used to manage issues with customers to make sure no one is left unhappy.
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning systems usually run on database servers much like CRM systems because they are database intensive applications. Much like CRM systems, ERP systems are not usually web based either and require a special client to connect to the application. ERP systems are used to help companies manage their resources from money to personnel to make the most of what they have.
Dedicated Server The Dedicated Hosting environment provides an exclusive server or servers devoted solely to your web site. You do not share a server with other customers, as with shared hosting.
Coldfusion 
