TCU eBusiness Workshop: Macromedia ColdFusion MX Basics

1
TCU eBusiness WorkshopMacromedia ColdFusion MX
Basics

• DON SPEAKER
• Senior Web Designer
• Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company

2
Who Am I?

• NAME Don Speaker
• ORIGIN Tulsa, Oklahoma (forced)
• COLLEGE Arizona State University (Go SunDevils!)
• DEGREE BS, Computer Information Systems
• CAREER 6 Years of Web Development
• FOCUS ColdFusion, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML,
  CSS
• SITES All Intranet Development
• MOVIE Comedy

3
Who Are You?

• Origin?
• Why TCU?
• Major?
• Programming Knowledge?
• Any Paid Programming Experience?
• Favorite Movie Genre?

4
Workshop Agenda

• Overview ColdFusion MX
• What is CF?
• How does CF work?
• How does CF compare to other web development
  languages?
• Basic ColdFusion Code
• Lesson 1, Workshop Setup, then Hands-On Exercise
  1
• Lesson 2, then Hands-On Exercise 2
• Lesson 3, then Hands-On Exercise 3
• Wrap-Up
• Q A
• Handout Information Sheet

5
Overview ColdFusion MX

• What is ColdFusion?
• ColdFusion MX is a powerful web application
  server that lets you create robust sites and
  applications without a long learning curve.
• ColdFusion MX consists of the following core
  components
• ColdFusion server
• ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)
• ColdFusion Administrator

6
Overview ColdFusion MX (contd)

• How Does ColdFusion Work?
• The following steps explain how the ColdFusion
  server processes a ColdFusion page
• The ColdFusion server looks at the content of the
  page and searches for the following ColdFusion
  instructions
• Tags that begin with cf.
• Variables and functions that are always
  surrounded by pound signs ().
• If the ColdFusion server finds any HTML or plain
  text in the page, the ColdFusion server returns
  it to the web server untouched.
• The ColdFusion server processes all the
  ColdFusion instructions found, and returns any
  remaining results to the web server. The web
  server then sends the entire output to the
  browser.

7
Overview ColdFusion MX (contd)

• How does CF compare to other web development
  languages?
• JSP
• CFMX is Java, i.e. CFMX runs on a J2EE server
• Dozens of lines of Java can often be done with a
  single CFML tag
• ASP
• CFMX does all that ASP can, plus more the
  reverse is not true
• ASP has higher cost of ownership after add-ons
  and longer coding
• ASP.NET
• Requires a .NET versus J2EE discussion first and
  foremost
• J2EE wins when vendor independence, openness and
  portability are a priority.
• .NET wins when it comes to tools, a better client
  experience, or simply a commitment to the
  Microsoft way
• PHP
• PHP is more complete (out of the box) than ASP
• Still longer PHP coding cycles leads to higher
  cost in the long run

8
Basic ColdFusion Code

• Lesson 1 Assigning and Displaying Variables
• Using ltCFSETgt( show in Dreamweaver )
• Using ltCFOUTPUTgt( show in Dreamweaver )
• Workshop Folder Setup for Exercises
• Hands-On Exercise 1

9
Basic ColdFusion Code (contd)

• Lesson 2
• Hands-On Exercise 2

10
Basic ColdFusion Code (contd)

• Lesson 3
• Hands-On Exercise 3

11
Wrap-Up

• Q A
• Handout Information Sheet

12
Thank You!