Essential Cold Fusion 4.5 for Web Professionals
Authors: Micah Brown, Michael Fredrick
Venue:  (2001)

From the Book:PREFACE: IntroductionIn the beginning, creating websites using static pages was enough until people started to realize that updating content on their sites was a tedious chore. People also realized they had huge amounts of information they wanted to list on their constantly-changing websites, as well as in their databases.Also needed was the ability to add logic to the websites, allowing the users to search through their products, buy their products online, or perform a number of other functions, turning it into one giant web application or a series of small ones. If a user comes to the website and performs a search, or navigates a certain way through the site, it would be nice to have pages dynamically built for them to accommodate where they are in the site. Suddenly several languages popped up that allowed the web developer to do all of these things and more. Each language had strengths and weaknesses such as learning curves and cost, but for the most part, many of these languages allowed you to create the same types of applications.Languages Used for Web Application DevelopmentThere are several types of languages used for web development with new ones popping up all the time. Here are a few examples of some of the better-known ones being used today: ColdFusion ASPActive Server Pages PHP C++ Drumbeat Lasso JSP-Java Server Pages (Servlets) Perl PHP Tango Tcl How Does ColdFusion Work?ColdFusion doesn't require a high levelofknowledge in programming or server-side scripting to get started in developing some pretty powerful applications. Written in a way that resembles HTML syntax, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) consists of tags and attributes that transform a static web page into a truly dynamic and customizable experience for each and every user. CFML consists of a series of tags and formatting options that perform different functions:Syntax:<CFOUTPUT>Today's date is: #DateFormat(Now(), "DDDD, MMMM DD, YYYY")#</CFOUTPUT>Output:Today's date is: Saturday, November 25, 2000The ColdFusion application server runs behind your existing web server and parses the .cfm file (.cfm is the extension all ColdFusion pages are saved with) that was passed and converts it into plain HTML, which is then presented to the viewer. The user never sees the actual CFML coding which took place.About ColdFusionColdFusion Application ServerRequirementsWith the introduction of ColdFusion 4.5, ColdFusion Application Server now runs on several operating systems including Windows 95/98/2000/NT, Solaris, and Linux. The recommended minimum requirements are:Enterprise ServerColdFusion 4.5 for Windows Windows NT, with service pack 4 or above 150-MB hard drive 128 MB of RAMColdFusion 4.5 for Linux Red Hat Linux 6.0 or above 150-MB hard drive 128 MB of RAMColdFusion 4.5 for Solaris SPARC Solaris 2.5, 2.6, or 7 with patch 103582-1B or above 200-MB hard drive 128 MB of RAMProfessional ServerColdFusion 4.5 for Windows Windows 95, 98, NT, or 2000 50-MB hard drive 32 MB of RAM(Windows 2000 systems should have a minimum 96 MB of RAM)ColdFusion 4.5 for Linux Red Hat Linux 6.0 or above 100-MB hard drive 64 MB of RAMNOTEThere have been some problems using the tag <CFCONTENT> (introduced in chapter 9) with service pack 6 for NT 4.0. If you are currently using this you should upgrade to service pack 6a to fix this problem.Download ColdFusion 4.5You can download a full-featured 30-day trial version of ColdFusion from Allaire's website (...