introduction to coldfusion yu fu 2003 mec candidate
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to ColdFusion
Yu Fu2003 MEC Candidate
2
Agenda What is ColdFusion Core Components & Features Some Statistics Limitations Latest Development Conclusion
3
What Is ColdFusion A commercial Web application development
environment Created by Allaire Corp., owned by
Macromedia Inc. since 2001 Available on Windows, Unix and Linux Three editions
Developer, Standard, Enterprise Not cheap
$1000 plus for standard edition $4000 plus for enterprise edition
4
Competitors CGI ASP PHP J2EE .NET
5
Core Components ColdFusion Application Server ColdFusion Administrator ColdFusion Studio ColdFusion Markup Language
(CFML)
6
ColdFusion Application Server A middleware between Web server
and other servers like database, email, LDAP, FTP, etc.
The engine/processor of CFML Parse ColdFusion application
pages, which contain CFML and HTML tags and saved with file extension .cfm, to generate dynamic HTML documents
7
How It Works
(Source: Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Development By Eric Ladd )
8
Features page cashing for short response
time Load balancing for scalable
performance and high throughput Automatic failover for reliability and
availability Full-text indexing and searching Extensive support for third-party
servers
9
ColdFusion Administrator It is a Web application written in CFML! A administration tool to configure and
maintain ColdFusion Application Server Set up database source (DSN) Schedule ColdFusion application page
execution Manage debug, session, security settings Checking server logs
10
11
ColdFusion Studio An IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) tool Make ColdFusion application
development much easier for developers The part I like best
Tons of CFML code examples Detailed documentation on CFML, HTML, CSS,
etc. Global search and change
12
13
CFML: ColdFusion Markup Language
A server-side scripting language to create ColdFusion application pages (.cfm)
It is a language created from XML Tag based
All tags start with CF Intuitive and easy to learn
if you know HTML
14
Some CFML tags
CFSET Defines a variable.
CFOUTPUT Displays a variable.
CFIF CFELSEIF CFELSE
Used to create IF-THEN-ELSE constructs.
CFLOOP Repeats a set of instructions based on a set of conditions.
CFMAIL Assembles and posts an email message.
CFQUERY Passes SQL to a database.
CFCOOKIE Defines and sets cookie variables.
(Source: ColdFusion Documentation)
15
A Basic CFML Example<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Hi</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><STRONG>Message</STRONG><!--- Set a variable ---> <CFSET Name=“Fu Yu"><!--- Display result ---> <CFOUTPUT>Hello, #Name#!</CFOUTPUT></BODY></HTML>
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Hi</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<STRONG>Message</STRONG>
Hello, Fu Yu!
</BODY>
</HTML>
Original CFML Script Result HTML document
16
CFML Cont’ Extensive features to build powerful
Web applications Email FTP HTTP LDAP Full-text indexing/searching Encryption etc.
17
An Email Example<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Sending a simple email</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><CFMAIL FROM="[email protected]" TO="#URL.email#" SUBJECT="Sample email">This is a sample email to show basic email capability.</CFMAIL>
<H1>Sample email</H1> The email was sent. </BODY></HTML>
(Source: ColdFusion Documentation)
18
CFML Cont’ Strongest point is database
integration The least code amongst peers Dirty works are handled by
ColdFusion Application Server
19
A Database Query Example<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Employee List</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><H1>Employee List</H1>
<CFQUERY NAME="EmpList" DATASOURCE="CompanyInfo"> SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract FROM Employees</CFQUERY>
<CFOUTPUT QUERY="EmpList">#FirstName#, #LastName#, #Salary#, #Contract#<BR></CFOUTPUT></BODY></HTML>
(Source: ColdFusion Documentation)
20
CFML Cont’ Extensible through custom tags
Java C++ Delphi CFML etc.
21
Some Statistics More than 125,000 ColdFusion servers
deployed An estimated base of over 300,000 developers Purchased by more than 10,000 organizations,
including 75 of the Fortune 100 companies Used to develop more than 19.7 million
ColdFusion pages (Google) Global network of more than 360 user groups
(Source: MacroMedia Inc.)
22
Limitations It is not free Business logic mixed with presentation
markup So do CGI, PHP, ASP Not a issue for small and medium sized Web
applications hard to maintain and enhance when logic
becomes too complex J2EE and .NET do a better job here
23
Latest Development ColdFusion Application Server For J2EE
A Java application which can be deployed on J2EE platform such as WebLogic, WebSpere, JRun, Sun ONE, JBoss, etc
Compile ColdFusion application pages into Java byte codes
Enhanced CFML to support JSP, Servlet and Web Services
Latest version: MX 6.1
24
Conclusion ColdFusion is a easy-to-use and
powerful platform to build small to medium sized Web applications with probably the shortest time to market
ColdFusion is still evolving, ColdFusion + J2EE maybe a good bet
25
References ColdFusion Documentation inside ColdFusion Studio Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Development by Eric
Ladd http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?ColdFusion http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/Cold_Fusion.html http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion ColdFusion MX and the J2EE Architecture White Paper.
http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/whitepapers/pdf/6_1/cfmx61_j2ee_arch_wp.pdf.
26
Q&A