Essential ColdFusion 4.5 for Web Professionals [Paperback]

Micah Brown (Author), Mike Fredrick (Author)

Book Description

Series: Essentials for Web Professionals | Publication Date: March 21, 2001

This concise, example-rich guide teaches Web designers and other graphics professionals exactly what they need to know to build top-quality Web applications with ColdFusion 4.5 -- fast. Endorsed by the World Organization of Webmasters, Essential ColdFusion 4.5 for Web Professionals offers no-nonsense, practical coverage designed around actual application examples. Working Web professionals learn ColdFusion by building real-world applications for a fictitious company -- and checking your work against finished applications deployed on a companion Web site. Along the way, you'll learn each component of a working ColdFusion solution, mastering the most widely used ColdFusion tags and functions as you create increasingly sophisticated applications. Coverage includes: database integration, online catalogs, sending email and interacting with users, providing site search features, and more. The book also includes a thorough introduction to developing e-commerce applications for WAP enabled cell phones and wireless PDAs.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Introduction

In the beginning, creating websites using static pages was enough until people started to realize that updating content on their sites was a tedious chore. People also realized they had huge amounts of information they wanted to list on their constantly-changing websites, as well as in their databases.

Also needed was the ability to add logic to the websites, allowing the users to search through their products, buy their products online, or perform a number of other functions, turning it into one giant web application or a series of small ones. If a user comes to the website and performs a search, or navigates a certain way through the site, it would be nice to have pages dynamically built for them to accommodate where they are in the site. Suddenly several languages popped up that allowed the web developer to do all of these things and more. Each language had strengths and weaknesses such as learning curves and cost, but for the most part, many of these languages allowed you to create the same types of applications.Languages Used for Web Application Development

There are several types of languages used for web development with new ones popping up all the time. Here are a few examples of some of the better-known ones being used today:

ColdFusion ASP—Active Server Pages

PHP C++

Drumbeat Lasso

JSP-Java Server Pages (Servlets) Perl

PHP Tango

Tcl

How Does ColdFusion Work?

ColdFusion doesn't require a high level of knowledge in programming or server-side scripting to get started in developing some pretty powerful applications. Written in a way that resembles HTML syntax, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) consists of tags and attributes that transform a static web page into a truly dynamic and customizable experience for each and every user. CFML consists of a series of tags and formatting options that perform different functions:Syntax:Today's date is: #DateFormat(Now(), "DDDD, MMMM DD, YYYY")#Output:Today's date is: Saturday, November 25, 2000

The ColdFusion application server runs behind your existing web server and parses the .cfm file (.cfm is the extension all ColdFusion pages are saved with) that was passed and converts it into plain HTML, which is then presented to the viewer. The user never sees the actual CFML coding which took place.About ColdFusionColdFusion Application ServerRequirements

With the introduction of ColdFusion 4.5, ColdFusion Application Server now runs on several operating systems including Windows 95/98/2000/NT, Solaris, and Linux. The recommended minimum requirements are:Enterprise Server

ColdFusion 4.5 for Windows

Windows NT, with service pack 4 or above

150-MB hard drive

128 MB of RAM

ColdFusion 4.5 for Linux

Red Hat Linux 6.0 or above

150-MB hard drive

128 MB of RAM

ColdFusion 4.5 for Solaris

SPARC Solaris 2.5, 2.6, or 7 with patch 103582-1B or above

200-MB hard drive

128 MB of RAMProfessional Server

ColdFusion 4.5 for Windows

Windows 95, 98, NT, or 2000

50-MB hard drive

32 MB of RAM

(Windows 2000 systems should have a minimum 96 MB of RAM)

ColdFusion 4.5 for Linux

Red Hat Linux 6.0 or above

100-MB hard drive

64 MB of RAMNOTEThere have been some problems using the tag (introduced in chapter 9) with service pack 6 for NT 4.0. If you are currently using this you should upgrade to service pack 6a to fix this problem.Download ColdFusion 4.5

You can download a full-featured 30-day trial version of ColdFusion from Allaire's website (allaire) to install on your machine. You can also grab a copy of another version of ColdFusion called ColdFusion Express, that you can run as long as you would like absolutely free. The catch, you ask? It doesn't have all the functionality, nor can it handle all the tags the full version offers.What's the Difference?

As mentioned before, ColdFusion comes in three versions. Express is considered the development platform for many newcomers to ColdFusion.

This leaves Professional and Enterprise editions to tangle with. For all intents and purposes these versions are identical. They will process your ColdFusion code exactly the same. The benefit to having ColdFusion Enterprise is its ability to use and administer a clustered ColdFusion server environment to deal with failover (one system receiving too many requests and a second system (or more) assisting in handling the traffic). It also has native support for more database solutions such as Oracle and Sybase.Differences Between Express and the Full Version

Yep, the other shoe has dropped. Express is a great product to get your feet wet with ColdFusion. Since its creation its intent was to feed you and allow you to learn ColdFusion for free and fall in love. Then once you're hooked, you'll have to pony up for the Enterprise or Professional versions of the product.

Rather than telling you what won't work, we'll list the tags that will work in ColdFusion Express. Most of these tags will be covered in this book along with some of the other full-version tags.Tags in this book that are supported by ColdFusion Express

Now if these aren't enough tags to work with, you have another option! Allaire provides free 30-day evaluations of most of their products, including ColdFusion. I would get very comfortable with the tags above while using Express and then give the evaluation full version a shot to do some test development. But make sure to do it quickly; 30 days really flies when you're having fun!ColdFusion Studio

Although ColdFusion Studio is not required to create ColdFusion pages, it will make your life a little easier with all the wizards and built-in tools it has to offer, which will aid you in creating your pages quicker than if you were to do this in a regular text editor.

Cold Fusion Studio 4.5 has the following minimum requirements:

Windows 95, 98, 2000, or NT

35 MB of disk space

32 MB of RAM

(Windows 2000 systems should have a minimum of 96 MB of RAM)Who This Book Is Written for and What Is Assumed

This book is written for anyone wanting to learn how to build dynamically driven database sites. You should already know how to use HTML and have an understanding of HTML forms. If you are unfamiliar with HTML forms or need a quick tutorial, check out Appendix A.

You should also have an understanding of Microsoft Access and the Structured Query Language (SQL). All of the Access databases we use in this book as well as the code and images will be on the companion website (phptr/essential/coldfusion/). In chapter 1 we will also go over creating the shelleyCatalog Access database, which you will use in a few of these chapters.Find Online Support and Documentation

There are several sites on the web that have communities of ColdFusion programmers who openly share their knowledge and expertise. One of the best places is the Allaire website itself where there is support for all of Allaire's products:allaire/developer

You will also want to check out the Allaire Knowledge Base from time to time to find answers to frequently asked questions:allaire/Support/KnowledgeBase/SearchForm.cfm

ColdFusion 4.5 server also comes with online documentation that was installed on your hard drive during the installation process.This is the loopback IP address used for your local machine. The name localhost will work as well, or if your machine has been assigned its own IP address you can use it.

During installation you can choose to install the example applications that come with ColdFusion server. This is good for poking around and learning some already functional applications. Additional references are listed in Appendix B.

As we build this site we will teach you the components that go into creating different types of applications with ColdFusion.

The projects in each chapter are designed to build on the new functionality you are learning and apply it toward an application you would use in a real-life situation. At the end of each chapter you will be asked to complete a more advanced project based on what you have just done. The answer or possible solution is on the companion website.

While we teach you how to use ColdFusion using some of the most widely used tags and functions in the language, there are still plenty of other tags and functions that this book does not cover. These can be found in the documentation that comes with ColdFusion.

From the Back Cover

With Allaire ColdFusion 4.5, you can build powerful, dynamic Web applications faster than you ever imagined! Learn ColdFusion 4.5 now, from professional Web developers, through real world projects with example code available from the companion Web site. Start with the basics, such as learning database fundamentals and setting up an Access database. Then master every element of a robust ColdFusion solution, from setting up your ColdFusion server through working with the most important ColdFusion tags and functions. Every project's code examples, database, and images are downloadable from the companion Web site. No other ColdFusion book gets you running this fast, or supports you this well!

You'll learn all this and much more-hands-on!

• Database access and integration
• Building online catalogs, step-by-step
• Automating email and user interaction
• Providing site search capabilities
• Integrating ColdFusion with WAP and web-clipping technologies to build applications for WAP-enabled phones as well as wireless Palm devices

Look to Essential Books for ALL the Web Skills You Need!

All these books share the same great format and the same dynamic Web site ... so once you've used one, learning from the others is a piece of cake!

• Essential Flash 5 for Web Professionals
• Essential PHP for Web Professionals
• Essential ASP for Web Professionals
• Essential Design for Web Professionals
• Essential CSS and DHTML for Web Professionals
• Essential Perl 5 for Web Professionals
• Essential JavaScript for Web Programmers
• with more to come!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1st edition (March 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130406465
• ISBN-13: 978-0130406460
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,731,692 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mission & result - oriented reference for ColdFusion, August 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Essential ColdFusion 4.5 for Web Professionals (Paperback)

This book is an excellent reference. The authors are very knowledgeable & professional. Basic HTML and Database experience would be helpful in understanding this book.

Although it is entitled ColdFusion 4.5, the foundation with CF Version 5 is still the same.

Highly recommended, if you are result-oriented without going through too much jargon & browsing very thick manuals.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best CF book on the market..., August 28, 2001

By 

Geoff Lilley "MS Office Junkie, Poetry Lover,... (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential ColdFusion 4.5 for Web Professionals (Paperback)

Overall, what I would say about this book is that it's a lot like the other "essential ____ for web professionals," in that it will give you a quick-and-dirty introduction to ColdFusion, but if you are in need of a serious piece of reference material, I'd stick with Forta's "Web Application Construction Kit," or Danesh & Motlagh's "Mastering ColdFusion 4.5." If you need to learn CF in a weekend, and you have a solid background in another web development language, like ASP or JSP, then this book will probably be ok. There are a couple of inaccuracies and misstatements in this book. For example, the authors tell you that if you have a search string in your SQL statement that contains the single quote character, you should use the PreserveSingleQuotes function. This function doesn't work; instead, you should use CFQUERYPARAM. The other complaint I have about this book is that it encourages the use of what I like to call the "bumper car" tags, like CFINSERT and CFTABLE. Encouraging the use of these tags helps perpetuate the belief in the web development community that ColdFusion is to web development what bumper cars are to the automobile. People should hand-code their tables and SQL statements. All that having been said, I would say the "web professionals" series has some fine offerings, including their books on Photoshop and DHTML - if you're like me and you need a quick, intro course without getting too much into the technical minutiae, this is a good series. But, in this case, you probably want to have a more comprehensive reference at your side to get the syntax right.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Know HTML, Get This Book, July 16, 2001

By 

The Dude "The Dude Abides" (Bridgeport, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential ColdFusion 4.5 for Web Professionals (Paperback)

I found this to be far superior to other entry-level ColdFusion books I've viewed to date.

You must have a knowledge of HTML basics first, in order to understand the examples. But what examples they are!

If you need to be on the fast track for CF, make this a part of your library.