MACROMEDIA COLFUSION MX 7-GETTING STARTED BUILDING COLDFUSION... User manual

COLDFUSION®MX 7
Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications

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Acknowledgments
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Writer: Anne Sandstrom
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First Edition: January 2005
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3
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
PART I: Welcome to ColdFusion
CHAPTER 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
About ColdFusion MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How ColdFusion processes pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Building applications with CFML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
CHAPTER 2: CFML Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Working with ColdFusion pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
About CFML elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Working with CFML expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
About conditional processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Processing form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Commenting your code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
CHAPTER 3: Database Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
About database basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
About SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using SQL with ColdFusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
PART II: Building a ColdFusion Application
CHAPTER 4: Lesson 1: Preparing to Build the Sample Application . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Application development steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Exercise 1: Determining the application functional requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Exercise 2: Determining the data requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Exercise 3: Designing the database for your application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Exercise 4: Developing the sample application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4 Contents
CHAPTER 5: Lesson 2: Configuring Your Development Environment. . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 1: Verifying the tutorial file structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exercise 2: Setting up your development environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Exercise 3: Configuring a database connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Exercise 4: Configuring debugging options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
CHAPTER 6: Lesson 3: Retrieving Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Exercise 1: About the trip list. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Exercise 2: Retrieving the information for the trip list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Exercise 3: Displaying the query result using the cfoutput tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Exercise 4: Writing structured, reusable code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Exercise 5: Creating additional queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CHAPTER 7: Lesson 4: Building Dynamic Queries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Exercise 1: Creating the trip search form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Exercise 2: Building a query that uses dynamic SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Exercise 3: Constructing the initial Trip Search Results page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Exercise 4: Testing the Trip Search Results page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Exercise 5: Enabling the departure and price criteria on the Trip Search form . . . . 82
Exercise 6: Testing the revised Trip Search Results page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
CHAPTER 8: Lesson 5: Creating a Trip Detail Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Exercise 1: Creating a Trip Detail page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Exercise 2: Avoiding the potential security risk when using dynamic SQL. . . . . . . 91
Exercise 3: Linking the Trip Search Results page with the Trip Detail page . . . . . . 92
Exercise 4: Enhancing the look of the Trip Search Results and Trip Detail pages . . 93
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
CHAPTER 9: Lesson 6: Creating a Main Application Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Exercise 1: Creating the main application page from the Trip Detail page . . . . . . . 98
Exercise 2: Adding database maintenance buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
CHAPTER 10: Lesson 7: Validating Data to Enforce Business Rules. . . . . . . . . 103
Exercise 1: Using an HTML form to collect data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Exercise 2: Creating a simple action page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Exercise 3: About data validation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Exercise 4: Providing server-side validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Exercise 5: Validating data on the client using ColdFusion form tags. . . . . . . . . . 114
Exercise 6: Dynamically populating the list of event types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Exercise 7: Validating the existence of the trip photo file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Contents 5
CHAPTER 11: Lesson 8: Implementing Browsing and Searching. . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Exercise 1: Enabling users to browse trip details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Exercise 2: Determining actions based on which button a user clicks. . . . . . . . . . 127
Exercise 3: Enabling searching from the Trip Detail page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
CHAPTER 12: Lesson 9: Enabling Database Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Exercise 1: Deleting the current trip record shown on the Trip Detail page . . . . . 129
Exercise 2: Adding trips with SQL INSERT statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Exercise 3: Adding data using the cfinsert tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Exercise 4: Updating a SQL row using the cfupdate tag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Exercise 5: Linking the Trip Edit page to the main page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Exercise 6: Inserting values in the edit form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
CHAPTER 13: Lesson 10: Restricting Access to ColdFusion Applications . . . . 143
Exercise 1: About the Login Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Exercise 2: Requiring users to log in to the Compass Travel application. . . . . . . . 147
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

6 Contents

7
INTRODUCTION
Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications is intended for anyone who needs to begin
programming in the Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7 development environment. This manual
includes a tutorial, which uses supporting files that are installed if you chose to install sample
applications. If you did not install the ColdFusion MX sample applications, you can download
the tutorial files from the ColdFusion Support center on the Macromedia website.
About Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7 documentation
The ColdFusion MX 7 documentation is designed to provide support for the complete spectrum
of participants.
Documentation set
The ColdFusion MX 7 documentation set includes the following titles:
Book Description
Installing and Using
ColdFusion MX
Describes system installation and basic configuration for Microsoft
Windows, Solaris, and Linux. To see this manual, go to http://
www.macromedia.com/go/livedocs_cfmx7docs_installing.
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. To see this manual, go to
www.macromedia.com/go/livedocs_cfmx7docs_configadmin.
ColdFusion MX
Developer’s Guide
Describes how to develop your dynamic web applications, including
retrieving and updating your data, and using structures and forms. This
manual includes two volumes. To see this manual, go to
www.macromedia.com/go/livedocs_cfmx7docs_dev.
Getting Started
Building
ColdFusion MX
Applications
Contains an overview of ColdFusion features and application development
procedures. This manual includes a tutorial that guides you through the
process of developing a sample ColdFusion application. To see this manual
online, go to www.macromedia.com/go/livedocs_cfmx7docs_gs.

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. In addition, you can view the documentation in
LiveDocs, which lets you add comments to pages and view the latest comments added by
Macromedia, by going to www.macromedia.com/go/livedocs_cfmx7docs.
CFML Reference Provides descriptions, syntax, usage, and code examples for all ColdFusion
tags, functions, and variables. This manual includes two volumes. To see
this manual, go to www.macromedia.com/go/
livedocs_cfmx7docs__cfml_reference.
CFML Quick Reference Shows the syntax of ColdFusion tags, functions, and variables in a brief
guide.
Book Description

PART I
Welcome to ColdFusion
Part I provides an introduction to Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7. It defines ColdFusion MX 7
and provides an overview of the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). It also provides generic
database concepts.
The following chapters are included in Part I:
Chapter 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 2: CFML Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 3: Database Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
PART I

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
About ColdFusion MX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How ColdFusion processes pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Building applications with CFML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
About 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 application server
•ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML)
•ColdFusion MX Administrator
The following sections describe these core components in more detail. In addition, the Getting
Started Experience, which you can view by opening the Macromedia ColdFusion MX
Administrator and clicking Getting Started, provides introductory information about ColdFusion
and code snippets that highlight the new features of ColdFusion MX 7.
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 filename extension. A ColdFusion page looks like an HTML page,
but contains special tags that instruct the ColdFusion server to perform specific operations.

12 Chapter 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX
The ColdFusion Markup Language
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is 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.
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.
How ColdFusion processes pages
The following steps explain how the ColdFusion server processes a ColdFusion page:
1. The ColdFusion server looks at the content of the page and searches for the following
ColdFusion instructions:
■Tag names that begin with cf.
■Variables and functions that are always surrounded by number signs (#).
2. If the ColdFusion server finds any HTML or plain text in the page, the ColdFusion server
returns it to the web server unchanged.
3. The 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.

Building applications with CFML 13
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 Java Server Page (JSP) tag libraries.
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 Interface (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.
Interacting with mobile devices
ColdFusion MX 7 lets you create applications that can respond to events and messages from
diverse sources, including instant messaging, mobile phone Short Message Service (SMS) text
messages, Internet socket requests, and system events. For information, see Chapter 42, “Using
Event Gateways” in ColdFusion MX Developer’s Guide.
Development tools
You can code your ColdFusion application with NotePad or any HTML editor; however,
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 5, “Lesson 2: Configuring Your
Development Environment,” on page 49.

14 Chapter 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX

15
CHAPTER 2
CFML Basics
This chapter introduces the basic elements of CFML, including how to create Macromedia
ColdFusion pages, and use variables, functions, conditional processing, and form processing.
Contents
Working with ColdFusion pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
About CFML elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Working with CFML expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
About conditional processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Processing form data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Commenting your code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Working with ColdFusion pages
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)

16 Chapter 2: CFML Basics
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 5, “Lesson 2: Configuring Your Development Environment,” on page 49.
Note: This manual describes 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 manual.
To create a ColdFusion page:
1. Open your editor and create a blank file.
2. Enter 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>
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
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), you can save the pages locally; if you are using a remote server,
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
you use the J2EE configuration with JRun, you save pages under jrun_root/servers/cfusion/
cfusion-ear/cfusion-war. When you use 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 that you typed to create a ColdFusion page:
1. Create a directory called test under the web_root or web_application_root directory.
2. In 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:
1. Open a web browser and go to the following URL:
http://localhost/test/cfpage.cfm
Note: If you are using the built-in web server, specify the port to use in the URL as follows:
http://localhost:8500/test/cfpage.cfm.
The address localhost 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; for example, 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:/
/localhost/cfmx/test/cfpage.cfm.

18 Chapter 2: CFML Basics
The following figure shows the cfpage.cfm page in the browser:
2. Do the following tasks:
a View the source code that was returned to the browser. In most browsers, you can view the
source by right-clicking on the page, and then selecting View Source.
b Compare 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.
About 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 that you want to accomplish with ColdFusion
involves using tags and functions.
You 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>

About CFML elements 19
Most often the end tag encloses the tag name in brackets and includes a forward 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.
•Include a start and end tag.
•Use attributes (like HTML tags), and most attributes have values.
Some ColdFusion tags, such as cfset, omit the ending 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 ColdFusion about the details of an operation. For example, to update a
database table, ColdFusion requires specific information 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

20 Chapter 2: CFML Basics
Functions and number signs
You use number signs (#) with functions to display the results of a function on the page. Number
signs tell the ColdFusion server to evaluate the content between the number 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:
If you did not include the number signs around the DateFormat(Now(), "mm/dd/yyyy")
function, ColdFusion would not evaluate the function and the previous example would display
your source code, as follows:
For more information about how to use number signs with functions, see ColdFusion MX
Developer’s Guide.
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.