MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION MX 61-GETTING STARTED BUILDING COLDFUSION... User manual

Getting Started Building
ColdFusion MX Applications

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Acknowledgments
Project Management: Randy Nielsen
Writer: Randy Nielsen
Editor: Linda Adler, Noreen Maher
First Edition: May 2002
Second Edition: August 2003
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San Francisco, CA 94103

3
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
About Macromedia ColdFusion MX documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Documentation set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Viewing online documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
PART I: Welcome to ColdFusion
CHAPTER 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
What is ColdFusion MX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The ColdFusion application server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The ColdFusion Markup Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The ColdFusion MX Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Using ColdFusion MX with Macromedia Flash MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
CHAPTER 2: CFML Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Working with ColdFusion pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Creating a ColdFusion page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Understanding CFML elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Creating variables with the cfset tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Displaying variable output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Working with CFML expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Building expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Understanding conditional processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Processing form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Form processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Commenting your code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

4 Contents
CHAPTER 3: Database Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Understanding database basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
What is a relational database? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Understanding relational tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
About SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using SQL to interact with a database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using SQL with ColdFusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
About data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Writing SQL and CFML statements to interact with a data source. . . . . . . . . . 35
CFML tags that interact with a database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
CHAPTER 4: Configuring Your Development Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Verifying the tutorial file structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Configuring database connection and debugging options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Configuring the connection to the sample database file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Enabling debugging options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Macromedia development environment tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
The Dreamweaver MX environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Configuring Dreamweaver MX for ColdFusion development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Configuring HomeSite+ for ColdFusion development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
PART II: Building a ColdFusion Application
CHAPTER 5: Lesson 1: Preparing to Build the Sample Application . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Application development steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Determining the application functional requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Determining the data requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Designing the database for your application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Developing the sample application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
How to proceed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
CHAPTER 6: Lesson 2: Writing Your First ColdFusion Application . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Creating your first ColdFusion application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Application development steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Using a web page to list trips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Converting to a dynamic web page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Using SQL with cfquery to dynamically retrieve information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Creating a dynamic web page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Developing a search capability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Designing the search criteria page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Building the Search Results page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Completing the Trip Search Results page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
In the next lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Contents 5
CHAPTER 7: Lesson 3: Creating a Main Application Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Enhancing the Trip Maintenance application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Showing additional trip details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Avoiding the potential security risk when using dynamic SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Linking the Search Results page to the Trip Detail page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Enhancing the look of the search results and detail pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Creating the main application page from the Trip Detail page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Adding navigation buttons to browse database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Adding database maintenance buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
In the next lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
CHAPTER 8: Lesson 4: Validating Data to Enforce
Business Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Enhancing the Trip Maintenance application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Using an HTML form to collect data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Developing code to validate data and enforce business rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Validating data using a server-side action page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Validating data on the client using ColdFusion form tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Using cfselect tag to present valid event types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Using other client-side script to reduce edits on the server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Validating the existence of the trip photo file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
In the next lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
CHAPTER 9: Lesson 5: Implementing the Browsing and Maintenance Database
Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Enhancing the Trip Maintenance application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Application development steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Using dynamic SQL to browse (navigate) the Trips table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Building the maintenance action page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Linking the Trip Detail page to the Trip Search page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
In the next lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
CHAPTER 10: Lesson 6: Adding and Updating SQL Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Completing the Trip Maintenance application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Writing code to save new trips to the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Updating a SQL row using cfupdate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Linking the Trip Edit page to the main page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
SQL Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Updating multiple records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
INDEX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

6 Contents

7
INTRODUCTION
Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications is intended for anyone who needs to begin
programming in the ColdFusion MX development environment. This book includes a tutorial,
which uses supporting files that are installed if you chose to install example applications. If you
did not install the ColdFusion MX example applications, you can download the tutorial files
from the ColdFusion Support center on the Macromedia website.
About Macromedia ColdFusion MX documentation
The ColdFusion MX documentation is designed to provide support for the complete spectrum of
participants.
Documentation set
The ColdFusion documentation set includes the following titles:
Book Description
Installing and Using
ColdFusion MX
Describes system installation and basic configuration for Windows, Solaris,
Linux, and HP-UX.
Configuring and
Administering
ColdFusion MX
Part I describes how to manage the ColdFusion environment, including
connecting to your data sources and configuring security for your
applications. Part II describes Verity search tools and utilities that you can
use for configuring the Verity K2 Server search engine, as well as creating,
managing, and troubleshooting Verity collections.
Developing ColdFusion
MX Applications
Describes how to develop your dynamic web applications, including
retrieving and updating your data, using structures, and forms.
Getting Started
Building ColdFusion
MX Applications
Contains an overview of ColdFusion features and application development
procedures. Includes a tutorial that guides you through the process of
developing an example ColdFusion application.
CFML Reference Provides descriptions, syntax, usage, and code examples for all ColdFusion
tags, functions, and variables.
CFML Quick Reference A brief guide that shows the syntax of ColdFusion tags, functions, and
variables.

8 Introduction
Viewing online documentation
All ColdFusion MX documentation is available online in HTML and Adobe Acrobat Portable
Document Format (PDF) files. Go to the documentation home page for ColdFusion MX on the
Macromedia website: www.macromedia.com.

PART I
Welcome to ColdFusion
Part I provides an introduction to ColdFusion. It defines ColdFusion and
provides an overview of the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). It also
provides generic database concepts, and information about how to prepare your
development environment for using the tutorial in Part II of this book.
Introducing ColdFusion MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
CFML Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Database Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Configuring Your Development Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

11
CHAPTER 1
Introducing ColdFusion MX
This chapter introduces the core technologies that are the foundation for Macromedia
ColdFusion MX. In addition, it introduces the basic concepts about ColdFusion MX, how it
works, and the various components that comprise it.
Contents
What is ColdFusion MX? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Using ColdFusion MX with Macromedia Flash MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

12 Chapter 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX
What is ColdFusion MX?
ColdFusion MX is a powerful web application server that lets you create robust sites and
applications without a long learning curve. ColdFusion MX does not require coding in traditional
programming languages (for example, C/C++, Java, XML), although it supports these traditional
programming languages.
ColdFusion MX consists of the following core components:
•ColdFusion server
•ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)
•ColdFusion Administrator
The following sections describe these core components in more detail.
The ColdFusion application server
The ColdFusion application server is itself a web application that typically resides on the same
computer as your web server software. It is the program that parses (reads and interprets) and
processes supplied instructions. These instructions are passed to ColdFusion through ColdFusion
pages, which use a CFM or CFC file extension. A ColdFusion page looks like an HTML page but
contains special tags that instruct the ColdFusion server to perform specific operations.
How ColdFusion processes pages
The following steps explain how the ColdFusion server processes a ColdFusion page:
1The ColdFusion server looks at the content of the page and searches for the following
ColdFusion instructions:
■Tags that begin with cf.
■Variables and functions that are always surrounded by pound signs (#).
2If the ColdFusion server finds any HTML or plain text in the page, the ColdFusion server
returns it to the web server untouched.
3The ColdFusion server processes all the ColdFusion instructions found, and returns any
remaining results to the web server. The web server then sends the entire output to the browser.
The ColdFusion Markup Language
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a a tag-based language similar to HTML that uses
special tags and functions. With CFML you can enhance your standard HTML files with
database commands, conditional operators, and high-level formatting functions, and rapidly
produce easy-to-maintain web applications.
CFML looks similar to HTML: it includes start and end 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:
<cfstarttagname> </cfendtagname>
Building applications with CFML
You build ColdFusion applications as a series of pages that use CFML. Developers can extend
this language by creating their own custom tags or user-defined functions (UDF), or by
integrating COM, C++, and Java components (such as JSP tag libraries).

What is ColdFusion MX? 13
Interacting with data sources
ColdFusion applications can interact with any database that supports a JDBC technology-based
driver. A JDBC technology-based driver uses an Application Programming Language (API) to
execute SQL statements to databases on most platforms. However, ColdFusion is not limited to
JDBC data sources. You can also interact with existing Open Database connectivity (ODBC)
data sources by using ODBC Socket, a driver that interacts with an existing ODBC driver.
Development tools
While you can code your ColdFusion application with NotePad or any HTML editor,
Macromedia recommends that you build your applications using Macromedia Dreamweaver
MX. Dreamweaver MX offers features and wizards that enhance ColdFusion development. For
more information about Dreamweaver MX, see Chapter 4, “Configuring Your Development
Environment,” on page 37.
The ColdFusion MX Administrator
You use the ColdFusion MX Administrator to configure and maintain the ColdFusion
application server. It is a web-based application that you can access using any web browser, from
any computer with an Internet connection.
You can manage the following configuration options with the ColdFusion MX Administrator:
•ColdFusion data sources
•Debugging output
•Server settings
•Application security
For further details about the ColdFusion MX Administrator, see Installing and Using ColdFusion
MX or Configuring and Administering ColdFusion MX.

14 Chapter 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX
Using ColdFusion MX with Macromedia Flash MX
Macromedia Flash MX is designed to overcome the many limitations of HTML and solve the
problem of providing efficient, interactive, user interfaces for Internet applications. ColdFusion
MX is designed to provide a fast, efficient environment for developing and providing data-driven
Internet applications.
By using ColdFusion MX and Flash MX together, you can easily create complete visually
interactive applications for the Internet. ColdFusion MX provides a native Flash connectivity that
ensures visual applications created with Flash MX can easily and securely interact with
ColdFusion. Flash MX clients communicate efficiently with ColdFusion by using an Action
Message Format protocol over HTTP. This protocol provides fast, lightweight, binary transfer of
data between the Flash client and ColdFusion.
By using the following features of ColdFusion MX and Flash MX, you can create efficient data-
driven Internet applications with visually interactive user interfaces:
•Flash MX ActionScript commands Lets you connect to ColdFusion components (CFC)
and ColdFusion pages.
•Flash MX development application debugger Lets you trace your application logic as it
executes between Flash and ColdFusion.
•ColdFusion MX Server-Side ActionScript Lets Flash programmers familiar with
ActionScript create ColdFusion services, such as SQL queries, for use by Flash clients.
For more information about using Server-Side ActionScript and developing Flash applications in
ColdFusion, see Developing ColdFusion MX Applications. For more information about using Flash
MX, go to Macromedia on the web (www.macromedia.com).

15
CHAPTER 2
CFML Basics
This chapter introduces the basic elements of CFML, including how to create ColdFusion pages,
and use variables, functions, conditional processing, and form processing.
Contents
Working with ColdFusion pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Understanding CFML elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Working with CFML expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Understanding conditional processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Processing form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Commenting your code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

16 Chapter 2: CFML Basics
Working with ColdFusion pages
As discussed in Chapter 1, “Introducing ColdFusion MX,” on page 11, 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.
You can use the following editors to create your ColdFusion pages:
•Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
•Macromedia HomeSite+
•Macromedia ColdFusion Studio
•Any HTML editor
•Windows Notepad
•VI or EMACS (UNIX® systems)
The best choice for creating ColdFusion pages is Macromedia Dreamweaver MX. Dreamweaver
MX includes many CFML features for building applications, such as rapid visual development,
robust CFML editing, and integrated debugging. Dreamweaver MX also includes a copy of
HomeSite+ for users who are familiar with developing their application code using ColdFusion
Studio or HomeSite 5. HomeSite+ combines all the features of ColdFusion Studio and HomeSite
5, along with support for the latest ColdFusion MX tags. For more information, see Chapter 4,
“Configuring Your Development Environment,” on page 37.
Note: This book shows how to create ColdFusion applications by writing your code manually. It does
not address how to create ColdFusion pages by generating code with wizards. For information about
using wizards to generate CFML code, see the product documentation for Dreamweaver MX and
HomeSite+.
Creating a ColdFusion page
Creating a ColdFusion page involves using tags and functions. The best way to understand this
process is to create a ColdFusion page.
In the following procedure, you will create a simple ColdFusion page by using HTML tags, one
ColdFusion tag, and two ColdFusion functions. The following table briefly explains the
ColdFusion tags and functions:
Note: ColdFusion tags and functions are considered primary elements of CFML. You will learn more
about these elements and others later in this book.
Element Description
Now() A function supported in CFML that you can use to retrieve information from your
system.
You will use the Now() function in the following procedure to return the current date
that is retrieved from your system.
DateFormat() A function that instructs ColdFusion to format the date returned by the Now()
function.
cfoutput A ColdFusion tag that you use to return dynamic data (data retrieved from a
database) to a web page.
You will use the cfoutput tag in the following procedure to display the current date
retrieved from your system.

Working with ColdFusion pages 17
To create a ColdFusion page:
1Open your editor and create a blank file.
2Enter the following code on the page:
<html>
<head>
<title>A ColdFusion Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<strong>Hello world, this is a ColdFusion page.</strong>
<br>
<cfoutput> Today’s date is #DateFormat(Now())# </cfoutput>
</body>
</html>
Saving your ColdFusion page
In order for the ColdFusion server to process the page, you must save the ColdFusion page on a
computer where the ColdFusion MX is installed. If you are creating your pages on a local server
(on which ColdFusion is running), then you can save the pages locally; if you are using a remote
server, then you must save your pages on that server.
If you are using the ColdFusion MX J2EE configuration, you typically save ColdFusion pages
under the ColdFusion web application root. For example, in the default directory structure when
using the J2EE configuration with JRun, you save pages under jrun_root/servers/cfusion/cfusion-
ear/cfusion-war. When using JRun, you can also run the Web Server Configuration Tool and
save pages under your web root directory.
Tip: ColdFusion MX on Macintosh OS X uses the J2EE configuration.
To save the code you typed to create a ColdFusion page:
1Create a new directory called test under the web_root or web_application_root directory.
2In the test directory, save the file as cfpage.cfm.
Browsing your code
To ensure that the code you wrote is working as expected, you must view the ColdFusion page in
a browser. The following procedure describes how to view the ColdFusion page that you created
earlier.
To view the ColdFusion page:
1Open a web browser and go to the following URL:
http://127.0.0.1/test/cfpage.cfm
The address 127.0.0.1 refers to the localhost and is only valid when you view pages locally.
The URL for a remote site would include the server name or IP address of the server where
ColdFusion is installed; for example: http://<serveripaddress>/test/cfpage.cfm.
If you are using the ColdFusion MX J2EE configuration, you may also need to include a
context root in the URL, http://<server>/<context-root>/<page>.cfm. For example, if you
deploy an EAR file and use the default context root of cfmx, you specify
http://127.0.0.1/cfmx/test/cfpage.cfm.

18 Chapter 2: CFML Basics
The following figure shows the cfpage.cfm in the browser:
2Do the following tasks:
aView the source code that was returned to the browser. In most browsers, you can view the
source by right-clicking on page then selecting View Source.
bCompare the browser source code with the source code that appears in your editor. Notice
that the CFML tags were processed on the page but did not appear in the source that was
returned to your browser.
As described in Chapter 1, “Introducing ColdFusion MX,” on page 11, ColdFusion
processes all the instructions (CFML tags and functions) it receives on a page, and then
returns the results of the instructions that your browser can interpret and display.
Understanding CFML elements
CFML consists of two primary language elements: tags and functions. Ta g s let you perform
operations such as accessing a database. Functions can return data and do other operations like
retrieving the system date. Almost everything you want to accomplish with ColdFusion will
involve using tags and functions.
You will use another important element known as a variable. Variables are an important part of
most programming languages and are equally important with CFML. Variables let you store
information in memory and enable you to pass data.
The following sections describe how to use these three elements.
Tags
You can think of tags as commands that you use to instruct the ColdFusion server to perform
operations. These operations might include selecting data from a database, reading a file that
resides on the server, or showing the results of processing.
Tag syntax
As discussed in Chapter 1, “Introducing ColdFusion MX,” on page 11, ColdFusion tags are
similar to HTML tags. ColdFusion tags are enclosed in angle brackets and often have a start and
end tag. The start tag encloses the tag name in brackets, like this:
<tagname>

Understanding CFML elements 19
Most often the end tag encloses the tag name in brackets and includes a slash (/), like this:
</tagname>
The information processed by ColdFusion is placed between the start and end tag, like this:
<tagname>
info to be processed ...
</tagname>
ColdFusion tags, for the most part, share these common characteristics:
•All start with cf.
•A start and end tag.
•Use of attributes (like html tags), and most attributes have values.
Some ColdFusion tags, such as cfset, omit the closing tag. This type of tag uses one set of angle
brackets and places all the required information between the left (<) and right (>) angle brackets,
like this:
<cfset name="bob">
For a complete list of tags and their syntax, see CFML Reference.
Tag attributes
Tag attributes instruct the ColdFusion server about the details of an operation. For example, to
update a database table, the server needs to know specifics about the database, such as the
database name and the table name. The code required to write this type of statement might look
like this:
<cfupdate datasource="mydb" tablename="mytable">
where datasource and tablename are attributes of the cfupdate tag and "mydb" and
"mytable" are attribute values.
For a complete list of tags and their attributes, see CFML Reference.
Functions
Typically, a function acts on data. It can generate a value or a set of values, usually from some
input. You can perform the following operations (actions) with functions:
•Manipulate data and time values
•Examine a value or variable
•Display and format information
•Manipulate string data
•Retrieve system information and resources
•Perform mathematical operations
Using functions on values
Usually, a function performs an operation on a value, and the value can include the value of a
variable. For example: to format the value of a variable containing a value in dollars, the code to
write this statement might look like this:
#DollarFormat(price)#

20 Chapter 2: CFML Basics
The DollarFormat function returns a value as a string and formats that value with two decimal
places, thousand separator, and dollar sign. The pounds signs (#) around the function instruct
ColdFusion to evaluate the content between the pound signs and display the value.
Functions and parentheses
All functions have parentheses, regardless of whether the function acts on data. Consider the
following function:
#Now()#
If you put anything inside the parentheses of the Now() function, an error would occur. The
Now() function returns an unformatted date and time. However, you can format the results of
this function with other functions, such as the DateFormat() or TimeFormat() functions.
Nesting functions
Functions can generate data as well as act on data. Consider the following example:
#DateFormat(Now(), "mm/dd/yyyy")#
In this example, the Now() function generates the date, and then the DateFormat function
formats the date.
Functions and pound signs
You use pound signs (#) with functions to display the results of a function on the page. Pound
signs tell the ColdFusion server to evaluate the content between the pound signs and display the
value, for example:
<cfoutput>
Hello world, <br>
Today’s date is #DateFormat(Now(), "mm/dd/yyyy")#
</cfoutput>
The following figure shows the output of this example: