Adobe 38043740 - ColdFusion Standard

Developing Applications

ADOBE

®

COLDFUSION

9

®

Last updated 1/20/2012

Copyright

Developing Adobe® ColdFusion® 9 Applications

This guide is licensed for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License. This License allows users to copy, distribute,

and transmit the guide for noncommercial purposes only so long as (1) proper attribution to Adobe is given as the owner of the guide; and (2) any reuse or

distribution of the guide contains a notice that use of the guide is governed by these terms. The best way to provide notice is to include the following link. To

view a copy of this license, visit

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Adobe, the Adobe logo, ColdFusion, and Flash are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other

countries. Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property

of their respective owners.

Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, USA.

iii

Last updated 1/20/2012

Contents

Chapter 1: What’s New

What’s new in ColdFusion 9.0 Update 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

What’s new in ColdFusion 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 2: Introduction

Using the Developing ColdFusion Applications guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

About Adobe ColdFusion 9 documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 3: Introducing ColdFusion

About Internet applications and web application servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

About ColdFusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

About J2EE and the ColdFusion architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Chapter 4: The CFML Programming Language

Elements of CFML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Using ColdFusion Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using Expressions and Number Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Using Arrays and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using Regular Expressions in Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Chapter 5: Building Blocks of ColdFusion Applications

Creating ColdFusion Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Building and Using ColdFusion Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Building Custom CFXAPI Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Chapter 6: Developing CFML Applications

Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Handling Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Using Persistent Data and Locking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Using ColdFusion Threads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Securing Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Developing Globalized Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Debugging and Troubleshooting Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Using the ColdFusion Debugger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Chapter 7: Accessing and Using Data

Introduction to Databases and SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Accessing and Retrieving Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Updating Your Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Using Query of Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Managing LDAP Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

iv

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Contents

Last updated 1/20/2012

Building a Search Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Using Verity Search Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Solr search support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Chapter 8: ColdFusion ORM

Introducing ColdFusion ORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Configure ORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Define ORM mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Working with objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

Using queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Transaction and concurrency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Performance optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

ORM session management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595

Event Handling in CFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

Autogenerating database schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

Support for multiple data sources for ORM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

Chapter 9: Flex and AIR Integration in ColdFusion

Using the Flash Remoting Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606

Using Flash Remoting Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 619

Offline AIR Application Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625

Proxy ActionScript Classes for ColdFusion Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653

Using the LiveCycle Data Services ES Assembler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Using Server-Side ActionScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Chapter 10: Requesting and Presenting Information

Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703

Building Dynamic Forms with cfform Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722

Validating Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

Creating Forms in Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Creating Skinnable XML Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 783

Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

Using Ajax Data and Development Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858

Chapter 11: Office file interoperability

Using cfdocument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

Using cfpresentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

Using cfspreadsheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892

Supported Office conversion formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893

SharePoint integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894

Chapter 12: ColdFusion Portlets

Run a ColdFusion portlet on JBoss Portal Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899

Common methods used in portlet.cfc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906

ColdFusion portlet components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906

JSR-286 Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 909

Run a ColdFusion portlet on WebSphere Portal Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912

v

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Contents

Last updated 1/20/2012

Chapter 13: Working with Documents, Charts, and Reports

Manipulating PDF Forms in ColdFusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914

Assembling PDF Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 930

Creating and Manipulating ColdFusion Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 959

Creating Charts and Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 982

Creating Reports and Documents for Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1007

Creating Reports with Report Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015

Creating Slide Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048

Chapter 14: Using Web Elements and External Objects

Using XML and WDDX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058

Using Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093

Using ColdFusion Web Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1122

Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1125

Using Microsoft .NET Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1149

Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1170

Chapter 15: Using External Resources

Sending and Receiving E-Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192

Interacting with Microsoft Exchange Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207

Interacting with Remote Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233

Managing Files on the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243

Using Event Gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1254

Using the Instant Messaging Event Gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1276

Using the SMS Event Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1292

Using the FMS event gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1308

Using the Data Services Messaging Event Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1311

Using the Data Management Event Gateway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1316

Creating Custom Event Gateways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320

Using the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1334

1

Last updated 1/20/2012

Chapter 1: What’s New

The following sections explain what is new and changed in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion 9 update.

What’s new in ColdFusion 9.0 Update 1

Area What’s new and changed

Language Support for the following:

• for-in construct (for arrays) in CFScript

• var declaration within for loop in CFScript

• Function argument metadata

• Function equivalents for cfile action="upload" (FileUpload) and cffile

action="uploadall" (FileUploadAll)

The following script functions have been implemented as CFCs:

• dbinfo

• imap

• pop

• ldap

• feed

Caching

• New function cacheGetSession

• New parameter template in the function cacheGetMetadata

• cacheGetProperties and cacheSetProperties support

diskSpoolBufferSizeMB, clearOnFlush, and

diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds

• Using user-defined caching regions in all cache functions except

cacheGetProperties and cacheSetProperties

IIS 7 IIS 7 configuration for ColdFusion has no dependency on IIS 6 Metabase compatibility.

2

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

ColdFusion Ajax

• Support for CFCs outside webroot

• ColdFusion.FileUpload.getselectedfiles returns the status of upload

operation

• While using cffileupload, the url attribute is now optional and it defaults to

cgi.script_name

• Support for selecting multiple rows in cfgrid

• Support for turning on/off grid column headers

• New attribute autoExpand in cfgridcolumn

• Supports mask attribute for HTML grids

• The fileupload control now passes session information implicitly to the target page if

session management is turned on either in Application.cfc or Application.cfm.

• Added the following JavaScript Functions:

• ColdFusion.Autosuggest.getAutosuggestObject

• ColdFusion.Layout.disableSourceBind

• ColdFusion.Layout.enableSourceBind

• Coldfusion.fileUpload.setUrl

• ColdFusion.grid.getSelectedRows

• ColdFusion.Map.show

• ColdFusion.Map.hide

• ColdFusion.Map.refresh

• ColdFusion.Grid.getTopToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.getBottomToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.showTopToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.hideTopToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.showBottomToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.hideBottomToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.refreshTopToolbar

• ColdFusion.Grid.refreshBottomToolbar

Area What’s new and changed

3

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

ORM

• Supports multiple data sources for ORM in ColdFusion applications

• The following enhancements:

• New attribute MappedSuperClass added to cfcomponent/component

• New attributes skipCFCWithError and automanagesession added to

the

ormsettings struct in the THIS scope of Application.cfc

• Attribute missingrowignored in cfproperty now supports one-to-

one relationship

• The function EntityNew takes the property values as struct in a

second argument

Amazon S3 Support ColdFusion customers can now store data in Amazon S3.

SpreadSheet Support for the following:

• New functions SpreadsheetRemoveSheet and SpreadsheetFormatCellRange

• New attribute excludeHeaderRow in cfspreadsheet

• Performance improvements for formatting huge number of rows and columns using the

SpreadSheet format functions

• Preformatting of a cell while you use SpreadSheetformatcell or

SpreadSheetformatcellrange

• Vertical alignment in format struct using the key verticalalignment

AIR integration The following enhancements:

• Support for auto-generating primary keys

• Support for encrypted database (introduced in AIR 1.5)

• Cache file used by ActionScript ORM to track the operations on SQLite database is now

in the applicationStoragedirectory instead of applicationDirectory. You can specify the

location of the cahceDirectory in openSession API on syncmanager

• Self Join relationships for one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many database

relationships

• Supports both Array and ArrayCollection for use in ActionScript Entity to represent a

collection in a database relationship

• ActionScript ORM logs all the SQL statements that ORM uses to persist entities into the

SQLite database

• New APIs keepClientObject and keepAllClientObjects to ensure that the server

updates are not retained when ColdFusion server raises conflict

• The class SessionToken is dynamic and therefore, data can be stored on the token

returned from the ORM APIs

• Supports autocommit mode

Flash Remoting A channel-definition construct has been introduced in services-config.xml

(CF_root/wwroot/WEB-INF/flex/) named serialize-array-to-arraycollection.

Area What’s new and changed

4

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

BlazeDS 4 and LCDS Support for the following:

• LCDS 3 and LCDS 3.1

• BlazeDS 4

• New methods allowSend and allowSubscribe in ColdFusion Messaging Gateway

CFCs

Solr Apart from overall improvement in the accuracy of indexing, the following enhancements:

• Displays correct MIME types for all documents

• Enhanced support for indexing of metadata for binary files

• Support for the attribute previousCriteria (in the tag cfsearch)

• Both the tags cfindex and cfsearch support the attribute categoryTree

• Option to enable/disable term highlighting for entire document

Logging The following enhancements

• ColdFusion generates log files for the following services: http, ftp, web service, Portlet,

Derby, and Feed

• Enable/Disable logging: A new icon has been added in the Actions column of the Log

Files page (ColdFusion Administrator > Debugging & Logging)

• Support for automatic logging of scheduled tasks

Server monitoring Enhancements in this release help you use Server Monitoring effectively in load conditions.

ColdFusion Administrator has the following monitoring options: Enable monitoring,

Enable profiling, and Enable memory tracking.

Configurable seed for password

encryption

Option to specify a new seed value to encrypt data source passwords

OEM upgrades The following versions are supported:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4

• Ehcache 2.0

• Hibernate 3.5.2

• ExtJS 3.1

• Solr 1.4

• DataDirect Connect for JDBC 4.1

• MySQL 5.1.11

Other enhancements

• Application.cfc lets you specify data source authentication details in the attribute

datasource

• Support for HQL in cfquery

• •New actions for cfpdf AIR Proxy

• The ActionScript proxy class for PDF service has the following new attributes:

extracttext and extractimage

• CFID, CFTOKEN, and jsessionid are marked httpOnly

Area What’s new and changed

5

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

What’s new in ColdFusion 9

ColdFusion 9 offers new and enhanced features that help you develop and manage applications effectively. This release

provides improved application performance with more granular control over code, templates, and applications.

The following is a list of top new features for ColdFusion 9.

ORM support

ColdFusion Object-relational mapping (ColdFusion ORM) is a powerful Rapid Application Development (RAD)

solution to build data-centric applications. It provides a bridge between relational databases and ColdFusion

components by allowing you to build applications using only objects, without writing any SQL code. It uses the open-

source Hibernate library as the underlying engine.

ColdFusion ORM provides:

• Enterprise infrastructure for Rapid Application Development

• In-built performance optimization that include caching and lazy loading

• Cleaner and more manageable application code

• Database vendor independence

For more information, see ColdFusion ORM.

Flex and AIR integration

Adobe AIR applications

Offline capabilities Offline application support for AIR applications includes data persistence and synchronization.

ColdFusion uses SQLite in the client and ORM on the server to automatically manage conflict resolution and data

synchronization when the application comes back online.

ActionScript proxies For AIR/Flex clients to access ColdFusion services. The MXML tags can map to ColdFusion tags

on the server.

For more information, see Offline AIR Application Support.

Enhanced Flash Remoting

Flash Remoting has been re-engineered in ColdFusion 9 to allow high performance and faster remoting. This release

supports circular reference.

For more information, see Using Flash Remoting Update.

Integration with BlazeDS

BlazeDS allows messaging support for ColdFusion. By default, ColdFusion installs BlazeDS.

Language enhancements

CFScript

Language constructs You can now use the following basic language constructs: throw, writedump, writelog,

location, and trace.

6

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

Script functions This release has introduced the following new functions implemented as CFCs: query, mail, http,

storedproc, pdf, and ftp.

Keywords This release has introduced keywords for abort, exit, include, param, property, rethrow, and throw.

Operations CFScript now supports import and new operations.

In addition, ColdFusion now supports the following:

• Writing component and interface entirely in CFScript

• Complete control over function declaration in CFScript

• Java Doc style comments

• Ternary operator

For more information, see Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting.

onServerStart

ColdFusion now supports a CFC with onServerStart method that runs only when the server starts. The function is

useful for application-independent tasks, such as instantiating the applications, configuring logging, or setting up the

scheduler.

For more details, see the section onServerStart in ColdFusion CFML Reference.

Other language enhancements

Apart from new cfsrcipt features and onServerStart, this release has the following language enhancements:

• Nested cftransaction

• UDF name conflict resolution for CFCs

• Local scope

• Var scope support anywhere in functions

• Implicit getters and setters for cfproperty in CFCs

Integration with other products and technologies

New Ajax controls

With ColdFusion 9, you now have access to a broader set of Ajax controls that leverage the new Ext JS 3.0 library using

CFML tags and attributes. You can utilize Ajax without knowing its inner workings and writing less code.

The new Ajax controls support:

• Geographical maps

• Media player

• Multi-file upload

• Enhanced data grid

• Improved Ajax plumbing

• Enhanced auto-suggest

• Accordion navigation

• Progress indicator

7

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

• Confirm, alert, and prompt dialog boxes

• Slider

For more information, see Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features.

Integration with SharePoint

The cfsharepoint tag lets you interact with Microsoft Office SharePoint Servers from a ColdFusion application. You

can now use ColdFusion with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 or 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint

Portal Server 2003 or 2007.

You can now:

• Load SharePoint actions from a ColdFusion application

• Access a ColdFusion application from SharePoint using custom Web Parts

• Use Single Sign-On to access and display ColdFusion applications using SharePoint

For more information, see SharePoint integration.

Office file interoperability

ColdFusion provides interfaces to work with PDF, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Connect. ColdFusion now extends the

integration support to Office applications such as Excel and PowerPoint.

Using this feature, you can:

• Create, read, and update MS Excel spreadsheets using the cfspreadsheet tag

• Generate PDFs from MS Word and MS PowerPoint automatically using the cfdocument tag

• Generate PowerPoint presentations dynamically from HTML using the cfpresentation tag

• Create Connect presentations from MS PowerPoint using the cfpresentation tag

For more information, see Office file interoperabilityOffice file interoperability.

Integration with Apache Solr server

Solr is an open-source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library. It is a powerful alternative to

Verity.

Solr provides better performance while indexing and searching. You can index unlimited number of documents and

access using the

cfsearch tag.

ColdFusion provides an easy migration path from Verity. Also, Solr supports Macintosh environments.

For more information, see Solr search support and the section Solr Server and Collections in Configuring and

Administering ColdFusion.

Performance enhancements

Granular control over caching

ColdFusion 9 provides better control over caching.

The following features help to improve the performance of your application:

• Caching page fragments

• Caching in memory. Memory is now the default cache location.

8

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

• Caching specific objects. Includes the ability to put, get, and flush cached objects.

• Setting cache dependencies

• Setting idle timeout

• Getting metadata about cached objects

For more information, see Optimizing ColdFusion applications.

In-memory files

In-memory files allow you to dynamically generate CFM files and execute them directly from memory. Memory-based

virtual file system speeds up the processing of transient data. In-memory files are not written to disk and are saved on RAM.

In ColdFusion, in-memory files help you simplify the execution of dynamic code. Though they function in the same

manner as disk files, they are faster. In-memory files are supported across all tags and functions that take file/directory

as input or output. They work in the same manner as files saved on the disk.

For more information, see Working with in-memory files.

Improved Clustering

This release supports serialization of query, array, and datetime types in CFC.

Other performance enhancements

• Improved CFC performance

• Faster Java method invocation

Database enhancements

DataDirect

This release supports DataDirect driver version 4.0 SP 1. The feature helps to enhance database operations by

providing the following features:

• Support for MySQL (Enterprise and Commercial editions), Oracle11g, DB2v9.5, Informix 11, and SQL Server 2008

• Support for IPv6

• Option to set a default query timeout value

For more information, see the DataDirect Connect JDBC Support in the Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Note: By default, the datasource property MaxPooledStatements is set to 100 (and not 1000 as in the previous releases)

for the drivers DB2, Informix, MSSQLServer, Oracle, Sybase, and MySQL(DataDirect). Adobe recommends that you

maintain the default number of max pooled statements to avoid memory-related issues.

datasource is optional attribute

The attribute datasource is an optional attribute for the tags cfquery, cfinsert, cfupdate, and cfdbinfo. You can

specify this in the Application.cfc.

Code Analyzer

You can migrate code from ColdFusion 7 or ColdFusion 8 to ColdFusion 9.

For more information, see Using the Code Analyzer.

9

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

Service features

ColdFusion as a service

ColdFusion exposes many existing enterprise services as web services. You can access these services using SOAP and

AMF/Flash remoting.

The following are the exposed services:

• cfpdf

• cfImage

• cfdocument

• cfmail

• cfpop

• cfchart

You can secure the exposed services to prevent access by unknown applications and users. You can do this by

configuring the client IP address range to which services are accessible. You can also set up user access control for the

services.

Other enhancements

Server Manager

Server Manager is an AIR-based desktop application that allows you to centrally manage multiple ColdFusion servers

from one location.

The application enables ColdFusion server administrators to monitor and manage multiple servers and apply the

settings from one ColdFusion server to other ColdFusion servers.

Server Manager provides improved system management and minimizes errors by ensuring a consistent configuration

across multiple servers or clusters.

You can use Server Manager to:

• Create data sources

• Schedule tasks and notify alerts

• Apply hot fixes

• Clear cache across a cluster of ColdFusion servers

• Compare settings across servers

• Monitor server health

For more information, see Working with Server Manager.

Built-in support for portlet standards

This release supports JSR-168, JSR-286, and WSRP specifications. Now you can easily build ColdFusion-powered

content for leading portal servers.

You can define a ColdFusion component as a portlet. Exposing of all enterprise applications, including ColdFusion

applications, in one integrated portal has improved application user experience.

For more information, see ColdFusion Portlets.

10

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

What’s New

Last updated 1/20/2012

PDF functionality

The following list includes new features and improved functionality:

• FDF support in PDF forms

• PDF package

• Size optimization

• Adding headers and footers to PDF documents using the cfpdf tag

• Support for RGB/ARGB, cfimage and accessible images in watermarking a pdf using the cfpdf tag

• Improved quality and performance of thumbnail generation

• Support for extracting image and text from PDF.

For more information, see Assembling PDF Documents.

IMAP support

You can query an IMAP server to retrieve and manage mails within multiple folders using the cfimap tag.

This feature lets you:

• Retrieve messages and store information in a query object. You can also download attachments in a temporary

ColdFusion folder or a new folder.

• Delete any unnecessary mail or user-created folders

• Mark multiple messages as read

• Manage mail folders by creating folders, renaming them, or moving messages across folders

For more information, see the section cfimap in ColdFusion CFML Reference.

JRE specifications

This release includes JRE version JRE 6 Update 14 for all platforms except Solaris which has the version JRE 6 Update 12.

11

Last updated 1/20/2012

Chapter 2: Introduction

The Developing Adobe® ColdFusion® 9 Applications guide provides tools for developing Internet applications using

Adobe ColdFusion. The guide is intended for web application programmers who are learning ColdFusion or want to

extend their ColdFusion programming knowledge. It provides a solid grounding in the tools that ColdFusion provides

to develop many different types of web applications of varying complexity.

Using the Developing ColdFusion Applications guide

The Developing ColdFusion Applications guide includes basic and advanced information on CFML. However, it is most

useful if you have basic ColdFusion experience or have viewed the Getting Started experience, which is available from

the Adobe ColdFusion Administrator. Use the guide in conjunction with the CFML Reference, which contains detailed

information on the CFML language elements.

About Adobe ColdFusion 9 documentation

The ColdFusion documentation is designed to provide support for the complete spectrum of participants.

Documentation set

The ColdFusion documentation set includes the following titles:

Viewing online documentation

All ColdFusion documentation is available online in HTML and Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF)

files. Go to the ColdFusion Help and Support page at

www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_support_en to view the online

documentation. In addition to viewing the online documentation, you can also add and view comments to the

documentation.

Book Description

Installing Adobe® ColdFusion® 9

Describes system installation and basic configuration for Windows, Macintosh, Solaris, Linux, and AIX.

Configuring and Administering

Adobe® ColdFusion® 9

Describes how to perform ColdFusion administration tasks such as managing server settings, configuring

datasources, managing security, deploying ColdFusion applications, caching, setting up CFX tags,

monitoring server activity using the ColdFusion Server Monitor, and configuring web servers.

Developing Adobe® ColdFusion® 9

Applications

Describes how to develop your dynamic web applications. This book provides detailed information about

using the CFML programming language and ColdFusion features, such as ColdFusion Web Services,

ColdFusion Portlets, ColdFusion ORM, AJAX support, Flex and AIR integration, and integration with other

products and technologies such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and SharePoint.

Adobe® ColdFusion® 9 CFML

Reference

Provides descriptions, syntax, usage, and code examples for all ColdFusion tags, functions, and variables.

12

Last updated 1/20/2012

Chapter 3: Introducing ColdFusion

You use Adobe ColdFusion to create dynamic Internet applications.

About Internet applications and web application

servers

With ColdFusion, you develop Internet applications that run on web application servers.

About web pages and Internet applications

The Internet has evolved from a collection of static HTML pages to an application deployment platform. First, the

Internet changed from consisting of static web pages to providing dynamic, interactive content. Rather than providing

unchanging content where organizations merely advertise goods and services, dynamic pages enable companies to

conduct business ranging from e-commerce to managing internal business processes. For example, a static HTML

page lets a bookstore publish its location, list services such as the ability to place special orders, and advertise upcoming

events like book signings. A dynamic website for the same bookstore lets customers order books online, write reviews

of books they read, and even get suggestions for purchasing books based on their reading preferences.

More recently, the Internet has become the underlying infrastructure for a wide variety of applications. With the

arrival of technologies such as XML, web services, J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition), and Microsoft .NET, the

Internet has become a multifaceted tool for integrating business activities. Now, enterprises can use the Internet to

integrate distributed activities, such as customer service, order entry, order fulfillment, and billing.

Adobe ColdFusion is a rapid application development environment that lets you build dynamic websites and Internet

applications quickly and easily. It lets you develop sophisticated websites and Internet applications without knowing

the details of many complex technologies, yet it lets advanced developers take advantage of the full capabilities of many

of the latest Internet technologies.

About web application servers

Typically, web browsers make requests, and web servers, such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and the

Apache web server, fulfill those requests by returning the requested information to the browser. This information

includes, but is not limited to, HTML and FLA files.

Web server capabilities are limited because all it does is wait for requests to arrive and attempt to fulfill those requests

as soon as possible. A web server does not let you do the following tasks:

• Interact with a database, other resource, or other application.

• Serve customized information based on user preferences or requests.

• Validate user input.

A web server, basically, locates information and returns it to a web browser.

To extend the capabilities of a web server, you use a web application server, a program that extends web server

capabilities to do tasks such as those in the preceding list.

13

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Introducing ColdFusion

Last updated 1/20/2012

How a web server and web application server work together

The following steps explain how a web server and web application server work together to process a page request:

1 The user requests a page by typing a URL in a browser, and the web server receives the request.

2 The web server looks at the filename extension to determine whether a web application server must process the

page. Then, one of the following actions occur:

• If the user requests a file that is a simple web page (often one with an HTM or HTML extension), the web server

fulfills the request and sends the file to the browser.

• If the user requests a file that is a page that a web application server must process (one with a CFM, CFML, or

CFC extension for ColdFusion requests), the web server passes the request to the web application server. The

web application server processes the page and sends the results to the web server, which returns those results to

the browser. The following image shows this process:

Because web application servers interpret programming instructions and generate output that a web browser can

interpret, they let web developers build highly interactive and data-rich websites, which can do tasks such as the

following:

• Query other database applications for data.

• Dynamically populate form elements.

• Dynamically generate Flash data.

• Provide application security.

• Integrate with other systems using standard protocols such as HTTP, FTP, LDAP, POP, and SMTP.

• Create shopping carts and e-commerce websites.

• Respond with an e-mail message immediately after a user submits a form.

• Return the results of keyword searches.

About ColdFusion

Adobe ColdFusion is a rapid scripting environment server for creating dynamic Internet Applications. ColdFusion

Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based scripting language that is easy to learn. CFML provides connectivity to

enterprise data and powerful built-in search and charting capabilities. ColdFusion enables developers to easily build

and deploy dynamic websites, content publishing systems, self-service applications, commerce sites, and more.

2. W eb server receives

the page reques t..

5. The web server

sends the output

to the browser.

3. W eb server instructs

application server to

process the page.

4. The application server

processes the page and

generates output.

Web Server

Application

Server

1. W eb browser

requests a web page..

Internet

14

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Introducing ColdFusion

Last updated 1/20/2012

ColdFusion pages are plain text files that you use to create web applications. You can create your ColdFusion

applications by writing all the code manually or by using wizards (provided with some editors) to generate the majority

of the code for you.

Saving ColdFusion pages

In order for the ColdFusion server to process a page, save the ColdFusion page on a computer where ColdFusion is

installed. If you are creating your pages on a local server (on which ColdFusion is running), you can save the pages

locally; if you are using a remote server, save your pages on that server.

If you are using the J2EE configuration, you typically save ColdFusion pages under the ColdFusion web application

root. For example, in the default directory structure when you use the J2EE configuration with JRun, you save pages

under jrun_root/servers/cfusion/cfusion-ear/cfusion-war.

Testing ColdFusion pages

To ensure that the code you wrote is working as expected, you view the ColdFusion page in a browser by going to the

appropriate URL, for example

http://localhost/test/mypage.cfm. If you are using the built-in web server,

specify the port to use in the URL, for example,

http://localhost:8500/test/cfpage.cfm. The address localhost

is only valid when you view pages locally.

Note: On Vista, the address ::1 is equivalent to localhost. You can use the ColdFusion GetLocalHostIP function to get

the IP address of localhost.

The URL for a remote site includes the server name or IP address of the server where ColdFusion is installed; for

example,

http://<serveripaddress>/test/mypage.cfm. Some ColdFusion J2EE configurations require a context

root in the URL; for example,

http://<server>/<context-root>/mypage.cfm. For example, if you deploy an EAR

file and use the default context root of cfconroot, you specify

http://localhost/cfconroot/test/mypage.cfm.

Elements of ColdFusion

ColdFusion consists of the following core elements:

• ColdFusion scripting environment

• CFML

• ColdFusion Administrator

• Verity Search Server

The ColdFusion scripting environment

The ColdFusion scripting environment provides an efficient development model for Internet applications. At the

heart of the ColdFusion scripting environment is the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), a tag-based

programming language that encapsulates many of the low-level details of web programming in high-level tags and

functions.

ColdFusion Markup Language

ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based language, like HTML, that uses special tags and functions. With

CFML, you can enhance standard HTML files with database commands, conditional operators, high-level formatting

functions, and other elements to rapidly produce web applications that are easy to maintain. However, CFML is not

limited to enhancing HTML. For example, you can create Flash output that consist entirely of Flash elements and

CFML. Similarly, you can use CFML to create web services for use by other applications.

15

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Introducing ColdFusion

Last updated 1/20/2012

For more information, see “Elements of CFML” on page 17.

CFML tags

CFML looks like HTML—it includes starting and, in most cases, ending tags, and each tag is enclosed in angle brackets.

All ending tags are preceded with a forward slash (/) and all tag names are preceded with

cf; for example:

tag body text and CFML

</cftagname>

CFML increases productivity by providing a layer of abstraction that hides many low-level details involved with

Internet application programming. At the same time, CFML is powerful and flexible. ColdFusion lets you easily build

applications that integrate files, databases, legacy systems, mail servers, FTP servers, objects, and components.

CFML tags serve many functions. They provide programming constructs, such as conditional processing and loop

structures. They also provide services, such as charting and graphing, full-text search, access to protocols such as FTP,

SMTP/POP, and HTTP, and much more. The following table lists a few examples of commonly used ColdFusion tags:

CFML Reference describes the CFML tags in detail.

CFML functions and CFScript

CFML includes built-in functions that perform a variety of roles, including string manipulation, data management,

and system functions. CFML also includes a built-in scripting language, CFScript, that lets you write code in a manner

that is familiar to programmers and JavaScript writers.

CFML extensions

You can extend CFML further by creating custom tags or user-defined functions (UDFs), or by integrating COM,

C++, and Java components (such as JSP tag libraries). You can also create ColdFusion components (CFCs), which

encapsulate related functions and properties and provide a consistent interface for accessing them.

All these features let you easily create reusable functionality that is customized to the types of applications or websites

that you are building.

Tag Purpose

cfquery Establishes a connection to a database (if one does not exist), executes a query, and returns results to the

ColdFusion environment.

cfoutput Displays output that can contain the results of processing ColdFusion functions, variables, and expressions.

cfset Sets the value of a ColdFusion variable.

cfmail Lets an application send SMTP mail messages using application variables, query results, or server files. (Another

tag,

cfpop, gets mail.)

cfchart Converts application data or query results into graphs, such as bar charts or pie charts, in Flash, JPG, or PNG

format.

cfobject Invokes objects written in other programming languages, including COM (Component Object Model)

components, Java objects such as Enterprise JavaBeans, or Common CORBA (Object Request Broker Architecture)

objects.

Page is loading ...

Adobe 38043740 - ColdFusion Standard - Mac, COLDFUSION 9 User manual

Related papers

Other documents