Adobe Macromedia ColdFusion MX Evaluator Manual

Brand: Adobe

Model: Macromedia ColdFusion MX

Type: Evaluator Manual

This manual is also suitable for

38000827 - Macromedia ColdFusion MX Standard Edition

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

Evaluator’s Guide

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

The information contained in this document represents the current view of Macromedia on the

issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Macromedia must respond to changing

market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Macromedia, and

Macromedia cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of

publication.

This Guide is for informational purposes only. MACROMEDIA MAKES NO WARRANTIES,

EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT.

ColdFusion, the ColdFusion logo, Dreamweaver, UltraDev, Flash, JRun, HomeSite, Macromedia

Generator, and Macromedia Spectra are trademarks or registered trademarks of Macromedia, Inc.

Other brands may be trademarks or registered trademarks of others.

Macromedia, Inc • 275 Grove Street • Newton • MA • 02466

www.macromedia.com • info@macromedia.com • (617) 219-2000

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................4

Planning Your Evaluation ................................................................. 5

Evolution of ColdFusion.................................................................... 6

Introducing ColdFusion MX .............................................................. 7

ColdFusion MX Customer Profile ..................................................... 8

Macromedia ColdFusion MX Feature Overview ............................... 9

Top 10 Reasons to Buy ColdFusion MX.......................................... 10

Top 10 Reasons to Upgrade to ColdFusion MX ................................11

An Introduction to Building Applications with ColdFusion MX ....... 12

ColdFusion MX in Depth ................................................................. 14

New Features and Benefits Overview ............................................32

Product and Company Facts ..........................................................36

System Requirements ....................................................................38

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for evaluating Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX. Over the course of the last

seven years, ColdFusion has proven itself as a fast, scalable, open, and secure platform

for building and deploying tens of thousands of Internet applications.

The ColdFusion MX release offers a range of significant new features that increase

developer productivity, improve server manageability, and enhance performance.

Whether the solution is business automation, commerce or content publishing,

ColdFusion MX is ideally suited for the next generation of business applications.

This Evaluator’s Guide is designed to quickly introduce you to ColdFusion and highlight

the important changes and enhancements in this new release. For complete information

on using ColdFusion, we strongly recommend that you take advantage of the standard

product documentation and the numerous resources available on Macromedia.com.

Macromedia also provides a variety of classroom and online training offerings for

ColdFusion.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

PLANNING YOUR EVALUATION

The amount of time required to fully experience the power and ease of use of ColdFusion

MX varies depending on your background and skillset,

If you are new to ColdFusion, or dynamic application development, we suggest you read

the early sections of this guide in order to gain a basic understanding of ColdFusion .

Then, we recommend you take advantage of the online resources in the Getting Started

with ColdFusion MX Resource Center. These provide further information about the

technologies behind dynamic applications and step-by-step tutorials that demonstrate

how to build introductory dynamic applications with ColdFusion.

If you are familiar with ColdFusion, or other web programming languages like ASP, PHP,

JSP or Perl, the later chapters in this guide provide more in depth information about the

features in ColdFusion that make it the most powerful rapid application development

environment on the Internet. Once you’ve completed the guide, we suggest you download

the more advanced tutorials and experience first-hand the full capabilities of ColdFusion

MX.

Everything you need, including tutorials, downloads, support, and more is waiting for you

at our Getting Started with ColdFusion MX Resource Center. To visit the Resource

Center go to http://www.macromedia.com/software/coldfusion/resources/get_started/

We know you will enjoy working with ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX, and

Macromedia Flash MX. Have fun experiencing how easily you can develop the next

generation of Rich Internet Applications.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

EVOLUTION OF COLDFUSION

Since its first release in 1995, Macromedia



ColdFusion



has been a pioneer in rapid

Internet application development. By combining an approachable and productive server

scripting environment with enterprise connectivity and built-in capabilities like search and

charting, ColdFusion helped bring web application development into the mainstream.

ColdFusion is one of the most popular web development technologies on the Internet – at

use in more than 75 of the Fortune 100 and providing the power behind over 18 million

pages on the public Internet. With the help of ColdFusion, companies like Allied Office

Products, Bank of America, Boeing, FAO Schwarz, Hertz, Jaguar, and Simon & Schuster

have built customer service applications, online publishing systems, e-learning solutions,

business reporting applications, business-to-business extranets, and much more.

With each new release, ColdFusion has evolved to meet the changing requirements of

developers and IT managers—supporting emerging standards and integrating with the

latest technologies, while maintaining a leadership position in ease of use and

productivity. The latest release of ColdFusion continues in this tradition, yet also marks a

major milestone in the evolution of the product.

New Standards Support

Web development has evolved dramatically in the past few years. Support for standards-

based architectures has become more important than ever. ColdFusion MX has

responded. ColdFusion MX has been completely re-architected to run on the Java

platform. ColdFusion MX includes an embedded J2EE™ 1.3 compliant Java application

server, can run on WebSphere and WebLogic, and has robust support for Microsoft .NET

products and technologies. With ColdFusion MX, users can benefit from the rapid

application development capabilities of ColdFusion while fully leveraging the power of the

Java and .NET platforms.

XML and Web Services

XML and web services are two of the most important Internet standards for application

development. By providing standard mechanisms for exchanging data and exposing

functionality, XML and web services are revolutionizing the way IT organizations build

applications. ColdFusion MX offers native support for handling XML data and for

publishing and consuming web services. As a result, developers now have an incredibly

easy way to take advantage of these powerful new technologies in their applications.

Rich Internet Applications

The way developers are delivering applications via the Internet is also changing. Users are

finding that web applications that rely on HTML are limited and often don’t offer the best

customer experience. Rich Internet applications that use Macromedia Flash



interfaces

make it possible to deliver much more compelling customer experiences. With native

connectivity to the Flash Player and tight integration with the application development

capabilities in Macromedia Flash MX, ColdFusion MX will do for rich Internet applications

what it did for rapid web application development – bring it to the mainstream.

A Powerful Combination

Together with Macromedia’s industry-leading development tools – Macromedia

Dreamweaver



MX and Macromedia Flash MX – ColdFusion MX is ushering in the next

generation of the Internet, enabling developers to deliver richer, more powerful

applications while maintaining a high level of productivity and efficiency.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

INTRODUCING COLDFUSION MX

Macromedia is proud to announce ColdFusion MX, the rapid server scripting environment

for creating rich Internet applications.

Macromedia ColdFusion MX

ColdFusion MX is the rapid server scripting environment for creating rich Internet

applications. Combining highly approachable scripting, effortless connectivity to

enterprise data, and powerful built-in search and charting capabilities, ColdFusion MX

enables developers to easily build and deploy dynamic websites, content publishing

systems, self-service applications, commerce sites, and more.

The ColdFusion MX Product Family

Each member of the Macromedia ColdFusion MX product family presents developers

with a common set of development capabilities, while the different product lines enable

customers to select the edition that best meets their requirements for deployment,

performance, integration, and security.

ColdFusion MX Server product line:

The Macromedia ColdFusion MX Server product line is a group of standalone servers

that include the entire infrastructure necessary to run ColdFusion applications,

including an embedded Java™ server based on Macromedia JRun

® technology.

ColdFusion MX Server is available in two editions. ColdFusion MX Server

Professional Edition provides the ideal solution for advanced websites and

departmental applications. For large-scale websites, applications and hosting

environments, Macromedia offers ColdFusion MX Server Enterprise Edition, the

solution for maximum performance, management and security.

ColdFusion MX for J2EE™ Application Servers product line:

The Macromedia ColdFusion MX for J2EE™ Application Servers product line enables

the development and deployment of ColdFusion applications on supported J2EE™

application servers. By adding rapid server scripting capabilities to their existing

J2EE™ infrastructure, customers can optimize their development teams while

enjoying full access to the power of the J2EE™ platform. Editions of ColdFusion MX

for J2EE™ Application Servers will be available for Macromedia JRun, IBM

WebSphere, Sun ONE Application Server, and BEA WebLogic Server.

ColdFusion MX and Macromedia Development Tools

Macromedia’s industry-leading development tools play a vital role in the power and

productivity of ColdFusion MX. As the primary development environment for working with

ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX provides a high-productivity workspace for web

developers and designers alike. With complete support for the new features in

ColdFusion MX, Dreamweaver MX enables organizations to rapidly design, build, test,

and maintain applications that take full advantage of the ColdFusion MX environment.

ColdFusion MX is also integrated with the Macromedia Flash MX authoring environment

and the Flash Player. As a result, Flash users can easily develop and debug rich

applications built with Flash user interfaces from within their familiar work environment.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

COLDFUSION MX CUSTOMER PROFILE

Internet applications are now prevalent in virtually every modern organization. Fortune

500 companies, small and medium-size businesses, government agencies, universities

and non-governmental agencies alike have seized the opportunity to automate their

businesses, improve their communications, and explore new market opportunities with

the help of Internet applications. ColdFusion MX supports these organizations by

providing a highly productive environment and cost-effective solution for building and

managing Internet applications.

While the roles and backgrounds of ColdFusion users are as varied as the companies

they work for, they typically fall into one of three groups.

Web Application Developers

Web application developers are the individuals who build the back end to every

Internet application. Their primary emphasis is on developing the necessary business

logic and database interaction required to implement productive web applications. As

the importance of Internet applications to businesses has grown, these developers

find themselves under increasing pressure to deliver more complex applications that

are also intuitive to use and based on industry standards.

These individuals choose ColdFusion MX because it supports industry standards

while also enabling them to maintain a high level of development productivity. By

providing access to powerful technologies like XML, web services, Java, and .NET

through an intuitive server scripting environment, ColdFusion MX enables web

application developers to deliver better results with less effort.

Professional Web Developers

Professional web developers have traditionally focused on static (HTML only) website

development. Yet the volume of content they need to manage is rapidly outgrowing

their ability to maintain it. Moreover, their customers are increasingly demanding more

feature-rich sites than can be delivered with static web pages. They are looking for

interactivity, personalization, and a simplified way to manage website content.

ColdFusion MX addresses this need by providing an easy to learn and highly

productive server scripting environment for creating rich Internet applications. Fully

integrated with the industry-leading Dreamweaver MX development environment,

ColdFusion MX enables professional web developers to easily get started on the path

to Internet applications that are both richer in functionality and easier to maintain than

static websites.

Macromedia Flash Developers

Experienced users of Macromedia Flash are creating interactive websites and rich

client applications using the powerful design and programming tools in the

Macromedia Flash MX authoring environment. As the use of Macromedia Flash

expands, these developers are being asked to build data-driven websites using

Macromedia Flash and to create more usable application interfaces using the rich

client environment provided by the Macromedia Flash Player.

ColdFusion MX addresses the needs of this community through tight integration with

Macromedia Flash MX. With native connectivity to the Flash Player and support for

server-side ActionScript, ColdFusion MX provides the ideal environment for

integrating Macromedia Flash interfaces with back-end data and applications. This

enables Macromedia Flash developers to easily integrate their work with that of

application developers or to develop entire dynamic solutions on their own.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION MX FEATURE OVERVIEW

The rapid server scripting environment for creating rich Internet applications

EASY - Deliver applications in record time.

ColdFusion MX delivers powerful Internet capabilities within an easy-to-learn and highly

productive server scripting environment.

! Intuitive tag-based language that requires fewer lines of code by handling low-

level programming tasks automatically and simplifying code reuse.

! New server-side ActionScript that enables Macromedia Flash developers to use

the same scripting language for both client and server logic.

! Complete support for new ColdFusion MX features within the Dreamweaver MX

development environment, including powerful visual layout and prototyping,

enhanced code editing and development capabilities, and integrated debugging.

POWERFUL – Deliver a more compelling user experience.

ColdFusion MX provides a robust architecture and rich set of built-in capabilities that

deliver high performance and scalability and enhance your applications with advanced

functionality.

! Fully integrated application services for adding full-text search, dynamic charting,

and high-performance connectivity to Macromedia Flash clients to your

applications.

! Innovative architecture that delivers the scalability, reliability, and power of the

Java™ platform without the complexity.

! Complete extensibility via custom tag libraries, reusable components, Java/C++,

and thousands of available third-party add-ons.

OPEN – Leverage the latest industry standards and infrastructure.

ColdFusion MX supports open industry standards and easily integrates with your existing

technology infrastructure.

! Highly approachable integration with all of the major Internet standards and

component models, including XML, web services, Java, .NET/COM, and CORBA.

! Support for developing and deploying applications on a standalone ColdFusion

MX Server or on leading Java application servers such as IBM WebSphere.

! Support for the leading server operating systems, web server software, mail

servers, directory servers, file systems, and relational database management

systems.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

TOP 10 REASONS TO BUY COLDFUSION MX

1. Increase your productivity. Build dynamic websites and Internet applications quickly

with powerful and intuitive server scripting. ColdFusion MX lets you easily publish

dynamic data, manage session information, process HTML forms and handle XML

data  all with an easy-to-learn scripting environment. Plus, you can customize the

environment with your own reusable tag libraries, components, and functions.

2. Optimize your development with Dreamweaver MX. Combining powerful visual

design controls with a newly redesigned code editor, Dreamweaver MX provides

robust application development, rapid visual prototyping, integrated debugging

and complete support for new ColdFusion MX language elements and features.

3. Build rich Internet applications with an optimized connection to Macromedia Flash.

Easily create rich applications with support for server-side ActionScript, a fast,

secure protocol for passing data from ColdFusion MX to Macromedia Flash

clients, and integrated debugging in the Flash MX authoring environment.

4. Harness the power of XML and web services. Easily integrate XML data using built-

in XML document parsing, XSL transformations, and automated serialization of

data into XML. Work with SOAP-based web services or those created using the

Microsoft .NET Framework. Or publish your own using a standards-based web

services engine.

5. Flexibly deploy applications to leading operating systems and on industry-leading

application servers. Deploy ColdFusion MX Server on any of the leading server

operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and HP-UX. Or deploy

ColdFusion MX on leading Java application servers with the ColdFusion MX for

J2EE™ Application Servers product line.

6. Enhance your sites with a powerful suite of integrated application services. Simplify

searching with built-in Verity full-text search. Deliver professional business

graphics with the embedded charting and graphing engine. Secure sites by

integrating role-based security with your existing directory infrastructure.

7. Leverage the developer community. Increase productivity with reusable libraries of

ColdFusion and JSP tags. Create your own or download any of thousands

available on the Developers Exchange or from third-party sites.

8. Integrate with enterprise systems. Connect to virtually any database or directory

server with high-performance Type IV JDBC drivers and LDAP support. Integrate

with legacy systems through web services or industry-standard component

interfaces, including COM, CORBA, and JavaBeans/EJB.

9. Combine rapid ColdFusion development with the power of the J2EE™ platform.

Create applications that leverage the reliability and performance of the Java

platform while benefiting from the legendary productivity of ColdFusion.

Applications also benefit from dynamic load balancing, automatic failover, and

high-performance database connectivity.

10. Effortlessly manage your applications with advanced server administration. Utilize the

web-based ColdFusion MX administration console to quickly configure servers,

schedule tasks, monitor performance, and analyze server logs. Easily archive or

deploy entire applications with powerful Application Deployment Services.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

TOP 10 REASONS TO UPGRADE TO COLDFUSION MX

1. Integrate with .NET, XML, and web services. Easily integrate with XML data using

built-in XML document parsing, XSL transformations, and automated serialization

of data into XML. Incorporate web services into your applications or publish your

own using a standards-based web services engine.

2. Build advanced applications with ColdFusion Components. Create self-

documenting, reusable components using standard CFML. ColdFusion

Components take custom tags to the next level by letting you write a component

once and then access it from a ColdFusion page, a Macromedia Flash client, or as

a web service.

3. Experience the power of Java, without the learning curve. ColdFusion MX combines

the power of the Java platform with the ease of use of ColdFusion. Develop and

deploy ColdFusion applications with the standalone ColdFusion MX Server or

deploy on leading J2EE™ application servers with the ColdFusion MX for J2EE™

Application Servers product line.

4. Save development time with Dreamweaver MX. Combining powerful visual design

controls with a newly redesigned code editor, Dreamweaver MX provides robust

application development, rapid visual prototyping, integrated debugging and

complete support for new ColdFusion MX language elements and features.

5. Increased performance and reliability. Increase site responsiveness and availability

by leveraging the proven performance and reliability of the Java platform. Speed

up high-volume applications with shared variable locking and simplified locking

configuration with shared in-memory variables.

6. Make your sites more compelling with dynamic charting and native Macromedia Flash

connectivity. Easily create rich applications with a fast, secure protocol for passing

data from ColdFusion MX Server to Macromedia Flash clients and full support for

ColdFusion debugging in the Flash MX authoring environment. Utilize enhanced

charting capabilities, including support for multiple data series, fully customizable

output and report types, batch reporting, and drill-down functionality.

7. Develop faster with powerful new debugging capabilities. Find errors faster with

enhanced error messages, customizable tracing, and better output organization –

all accessible from inside the Macromedia Dreamweaver MX IDE.

8. Easily migrate existing applications to the ColdFusion MX foundation. Upgrade your

existing servers quickly by following the complete migration guide and by

identifying any potential issues up front with the Code Compatibility Analyzer.

9. Internationalize your applications. Build applications that support character-based

languages such as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean with built-in UNICODE support.

10. Reuse JSP tag libraries like ColdFusion custom tags. Increase productivity by

reusing Java components within ColdFusion. Import JSP tag libraries and use

them just like ColdFusion custom tags or integrate CFML pages with Java servlets.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

AN INTRODUCTION TO BUILDING APPLICATIONS WITH

COLDFUSION MX

Building data-driven websites and applications with ColdFusion MX is very intuitive for

developers familiar with web languages such as HTML and JavaScript. The ColdFusion

server scripting environment is easy to learn and provides a highly productive way to build

powerful Internet applications.

How ColdFusion MX Applications Work

To understand how ColdFusion MX works, it is necessary to understand how websites

function in general, A website is a collection of files that reside on a server. The web

server handles requests for those files. When a web browser requests a static web page

such as an HTML page, the web server locates the file in the file system and then sends it

back to the browser for display.

By contrast, when a browser requests a ColdFusion page (indicated by a .cfm extension),

the ColdFusion MX environment dynamically constructs the page before delivering it to

the web server. The diagram below shows how ColdFusion works when a web browser

invokes a ColdFusion page.

Web Browser

Internet or

Intranet

Web

page

ColdFusion

Web

Server

Client Network Server

HTTP

Request

Page

Web

page

Databases

Web Services

COM/EJB

File System

Directories

E-mail

When a user clicks hypertext link on a page, the web browser sends an HTTP request to

the web server. If the requested page is a ColdFusion page, the web server then passes

the request for processing to ColdFusion.

ColdFusion then processes the CFML in the page. Based on the CFML, the server may

interact with database servers, the file system, mail servers, and potentially other

applications and systems.

As it processes the CFML instructions, ColdFusion dynamically generates output that is

returned to the client via the web server. The output from ColdFusion can be HTML,

WML, XML, and even application-specific content, such as data for Flash or desktop

applications such as Microsoft Excel.

Building ColdFusion MX Applications

While developers can write the tags and scripts in a ColdFusion MX application using any

text editor, the integrated support in the Dreamweaver MX environment makes it the ideal

tool for working with ColdFusion, Using Dreamweaver MX, developers create

applications by building pages that combine ColdFusion server scripting with HTML and

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

other web technologies. Developers can then test the pages locally or deploy them on a

web server where the ColdFusion MX environment has been installed. The following is an

example of a simple dynamic web page written with CFML. The majority of the text is

standard HTML, while the highlighted lines are ColdFusion tags.

SELECT * FROM Products

</CFQUERY>

<HTML>

<HEAD>

<TITLE>Product List</TITLE>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<H1>Company X Products</H1>

#ProductName# $#Price# <BR>

</CFOUTPUT>

</BODY>

</HTML>

The first ColdFusion tag embedded in this page instructs the ColdFusion environment to

retrieve all of the entries from the Products table in the CompanyDB database. The

second tag instructs ColdFusion to place the results from the query on the page, with

each product name and its associated price on its own line. These instructions on the

ColdFusion page are processed entirely on the server. Only the results, in this case the list

of products and the associated HTML tags, are passed to the browser requesting the

page.

With its intuitive server scripting and integrated development tools, ColdFusion MX

enables developers to build advanced websites and applications – including database

reporting systems, content publishing solutions, portals, ecommerce sites and more – in

the most rapid and cost-effective manner available.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

COLDFUSION MX IN DEPTH

This section provides an in-depth look at a few of the most exciting new features in

ColdFusion MX, including its new standards-based architecture, ColdFusion

Components, native XML handling, web services, integration with the Java and .NET

platforms, and enhanced charting and graphing.

ColdFusion MX Architecture Overview

ColdFusion MX introduces an innovative new architecture to the ColdFusion environment

that merges the ease of use and productivity of ColdFusion with the power of the J2EE™

and .NET platforms. As a result, developers get the benefit of these emerging

infrastructure standards without the associated complexity.

Built on a completely standards-based infrastructure, ColdFusion MX Server (left)

includes an embedded Java™ server based on Macromedia JRun technology. This

proven infrastructure provides the runtime services for ColdFusion applications, including

high-performance connectivity to databases, Internet protocols, and components; a

standards-based web services engine; and resource management features like database

connection pooling, thread management, and security.

ColdFusion MX Architecture

ColdFusion MX Server ColdFusion MX for J2EE App Servers

JRun, WebSphere, iPlanet, WebLogic

J2EE Infrastructure Services

ColdFusion Scripting Environment

Charting &

Graphing

Full-Text

Flash

Remoting

Web

Services

ColdFusion Scripting Environment

Charting &

Graphing

Full-Text

Flash

Remoting

Web

Services

The innovative architecture of ColdFusion MX affords customers much greater flexibility

in deploying ColdFusion applications and integrating them with the rest of the enterprise

infrastructure. Taking advantage of the ColdFusion MX architecture, Macromedia is

making available a new line of ColdFusion MX products. The editions in the ColdFusion

MX for J2EE™ Application Server line can be deployed on leading Java application

servers, such as Macromedia JRun, IBM WebSphere, Sun ONE Application Server, and

BEA WebLogic Server.

In addition to providing tighter integration with Java technologies, ColdFusion MX also

offers support for the emerging Microsoft .NET architecture. ColdFusion MX includes

continued support for Windows and integration with the .NET Enterprise Servers,

including IIS, SQL Server, and Exchange. ColdFusion MX also makes it easy to integrate

with applications built using Microsoft technologies through native support for the COM

component model and integration with .NET web services.

On top of this powerful infrastructure, ColdFusion MX provides an enhanced version of

the rapid server scripting environment and built-in application services that have made

ColdFusion wildly popular.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

ColdFusion Scripting Environment

The rapid server scripting environment in ColdFusion provides a highly approachable and

efficient model for Internet application development. At the heart of ColdFusion scripting

is the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), a tag-based language that accelerates

development by encapsulating the low-level details of Internet programming. ColdFusion

MX introduces many powerful new capabilities to CFML, including native support for

XML and web services, connectivity to Macromedia Flash, and ColdFusion Components,

a powerful yet approachable way to create structured, reusable code in ColdFusion.

Also new to the ColdFusion scripting environment is support for server-side ActionScript.

ActionScript is the JavaScript-based language used to write application logic in

Macromedia Flash. By bringing this language to the server, ColdFusion MX enables Flash

developers to use their familiar scripting environment to connect to ColdFusion resources

and easily deliver the results to client-side applications using the integrated Macromedia

Flash Remoting service.

ColdFusion Application Services

Unlike other web application development technologies, ColdFusion includes a suite of

built-in application services that make it easy to add powerful capabilities to your Internet

applications. In ColdFusion MX, these include a new enhanced charting and graphing

engine, integrated Verity full-text search, and the ground-breaking Flash Remoting

service, which provides a high performance protocol for exchanging data with application

clients built with Macromedia Flash MX. Using the native access to these services in the

ColdFusion scripting environment, developers can easily build advanced functionality into

their applications, without having to purchase addition components or spend valuable

time trying to integrate them.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

ColdFusion Components

ColdFusion MX features a new technology that empowers developers to easily create

component-based applications that take advantage of rich clients and web services and

enable a more scalable development and deployment model. ColdFusion Components

(CFC) make it easy to create reusable object-based components without requiring

complex programming. Using a tag-based syntax to define and encapsulate a

component’s behavior, the model is immediately accessible to developers familiar with

scripting languages such as CFML, JavaScript, ActionScript, Perl, PHP, and others.

ColdFusion Components allow developers to encapsulate application functionality and

make it available to a variety of clients, including web browsers, other ColdFusion

developers, the Flash Player, and web services. CFCs also provide a simple, flexible

structure to ColdFusion developers or teams of developers that promotes code re-use,

application maintainability and scalability, resource security, and automatic application

documentation.

Creating a Component

Defining a component is extremely easy. Components are files containing CFML code

and stored in the web application directory using the new *.cfc file extension. The name of

the component is simply the name of the file, and the CFML within it defines the methods

it will expose. For example, the following code defines the sayHello method, or function,

which returns the text “Hellow World!” when it is invoked.

<cfoutput>Hello World!</cfoutput>

</cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Using Components

By encapsulating application functionality in reusable components, developers can build

more flexible applications as well as work more efficiently within teams. As illustrated in

the diagram below, a component’s methods can automatically be made accessible from a

variety of application client types. The ColdFusion environment automatically handles the

plumbing required to invoke components from web services or from Macromedia Flash

(e.g., data marshalling and web service proxy generation), enabling developers to focus

on building the business logic of their applications.

ColdFusion Component

Web

Service

Flash

Client

CFML

Component

Method

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

Self-Documenting Interfaces

Another major benefit of components is simplified team development and code reuse.

One of the largest impediments to effective team development is the difficulty in

understanding functionality written by another developer. Encapsulating functionality in

high-level methods makes sharing functionality between developers more

straightforward, since the developer need only understand the component’s methods and

not the underlying implementation.

ColdFusion components further simplify this process through their ability to automatically

display documentation about themselves. By simply calling a component via a URL, a

developer can see information about its methods, the parameters those methods require,

and the results each method will return. All of this information is generated automatically

by ColdFusion MX and displayed either as a web page or within the Dreamweaver MX

component explorer (pictured below).

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

Web Services

Web services are playing an increasingly important role in the world of web applications

because they help solve a difficult problem for IT organizations – integrating disparate

systems within their own environment or enabling those systems to be used by partners

and customers in a cost-effective and straightforward manner.

Web services are based on the simple object access protocol (SOAP), a platform-

independent, standards-based means for accessing methods or services on remote

applications. Web services enable various types of systems and applications to expose

their functionality as services that can be invoked across the Internet.

As with other Internet programming tasks, ColdFusion MX enables developers to access

the power of web services without being forced to deal with the many low-level details of

the technology. In ColdFusion MX, developers can create and consume web services

using CFML and ColdFusion components. As a result, ColdFusion developers can easily

create web services for reuse by other ColdFusion developers or by developers using

other technologies that support web services, such Microsoft ASP.NET and the

Java/J2EE platform. Conversely, ColdFusion applications can also consume web

services created using these other technologies.

Consuming Web Services in ColdFusion MX

Invoking, or consuming, a web service in ColdFusion MX is done with the same easy to

use syntax involved in invoking a ColdFusion component. The developer simply specifies

the location of the service and passes it the appropriate input parameters. ColdFusion MX

automatically handles interaction with the SOAP protocol – parsing the interface

description associated with the service, generating the necessary client proxies, and

marshalling the input and output parameters to and from the service. For example, the

following code invokes a currency exchange web service published at Xmethods.net.

<cfinvoke

webservice="http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/CurrencyExchangeService.wsdl"

method="getRate" returnVariable="convertPrice">

</cfinvoke>

Performing the equivalent task in other programming environments usually involves a

lengthier and more complex set of object calls and proxy creation. As a result, working

with web services is more time-consuming and the code is harder to maintain.

Integrated support for web services in the Dreamweaver MX development environment

makes working with web services even easier for the ColdFusion developer. As shown in

the figure below, developers can introspect web services and their methods from within

the Dreamweaver MX IDE. Once they have located the correct method, they can then

drag it into the editor and automatically generate the code for invoking it.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

Publishing Web Services in ColdFusion MX

ColdFusion MX also makes it easy to expose functionality built in ColdFusion as a web

service. Once a method is exposed as a web service, it can be invoked by another

ColdFusion application or by any other technology that supports the SOAP standard for

web services, such as ASP.NET, Java, or PHP. As a result, developers using other

technologies can take advantage of functionality built by ColdFusion developers without

having to know ColdFusion itself.

Creating or publishing web services in ColdFusion MX is done through ColdFusion

components. Making a ColdFusion component available as a web service takes only a

single step. In the example below, setting the access parameter to “remote” tells the

ColdFusion MX environment to make this function available as a web service.

When the ColdFusion MX environment encounters the “remote” keyword, it automatically

generates the web services description language (WSDL) files for the method. This XML-

based document is the interface specification that enables a remote client to understand

and invoke the service. Using this information, a developer could invoke the sayHello web

service from any technology that supports web services. In addition, a developer using

Dreamweaver MX could browse the web service and build an application that invokes it

by simply dragging the method into the code editor.

<cffunction name="sayHello"

access=”remote”

<cfoutput>Hello World!</cfoutput>

</cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

In addition to ease of use, the approach to web services offered in ColdFusion MX also

enables developers the flexibility to adopt web services gradually. Even if they are not

ready to start using web services today, by building applications using ColdFusion

components, they can easily add this capability later – without having to re-architect their

application or write additional code.

Macromedia® ColdFusion® MX Evaluator’s Guide

XML Handling

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is becoming a widely adopted technology for

sharing data between different operating platforms, applications, devices, and systems.

Traditional methods for transferring data between disparate machines such as the use of

comma-delimited files or other ad-hoc protocols are limited because of lack of standards

and the inability to represent complex data types and describe relationships. XML

addresses this problem by providing developers with a single text-based markup

language that can describe both documents and data as well as represent both simple

and complex data relationships.

Until now, using XML in most web development languages has been a tedious process,

requiring in-depth knowledge of XML parsers and how to interact with their complex

programming interfaces and object models. ColdFusion MX introduces a revolutionary

approach to XML by allowing developers to parse, create, and manipulate XML

documents using the same easy to use scripting syntax used in CFML. As a result,

developers can easily incorporate XML data into their applications without the overhead

of having to deal with complex, low-level programming constructs.

Parsing and Creating XML Data

The built-in XML parser that is now part of ColdFusion MX automatically processes XML

that is passed to ColdFusion and converts it into a native ColdFusion object, making it

easy for developers to manipulate incoming XML data in their applications. The XML

object is a structure of CFML structs and arrays, which means that developers navigate

XML the object using the same syntax ColdFusion provides for reading and writing other

complex data types.

ColdFusion MX also makes it easy for developers to generate XML as output in their

applications. The creation of XML documents usually requires an understanding of the

Document Object Model (DOM) and its associated API. Developers must execute

multiple function calls to create nodes, set their values, and then serialize the object to

generate an XML string. By contrast, ColdFusion MX provides a single tag that

automatically generates a valid XML document from text, application variables, and the

output of CFML code embedded within its body. As a result, developers can quickly and

easily exchange data with other applications using standards-based XML.

Manipulating XML Data

The XML specification also provides two powerful methods for manipulating data that is

stored in XML. These include XSLT style sheets and XPath searches. Style sheets enable

developers to convert XML data from one format to another. For example, if a developer

is merging employee data represented in two different XML schemas, he or she can use a

transformation to convert the two sets of data so that they share the same schema.

XPath provides a different way to navigate through XML data. XPath searches are similar

to SQL queries in that they enable an application to search for a specific set of data

contained in an XML document (as opposed to accessing a particular known location in

the XML document).

The ColdFusion MX scripting environment provides native support for both of these

powerful technologies, making it easy for developers to work with XML data. With the

new XMLTransform function, a developer simply needs to pass in an XML document and

the appropriate XSLT style sheet, and ColdFusion MX performs the transformation.

Similarly, XPath searches are enabled through the easy to use XMLSearch function.

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Model: Macromedia ColdFusion MX

Type: Evaluator Manual

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