Programming ColdFusion

Getting Started with ColdFusion

Obviously, to use this book, you need access to a ColdFusion server. If your company is already developing web applications with ColdFusion, the server should already be available to you. Or, if you are developing for a remote server, you should be all set. In either case, you just need to know where to put your templates; check with your system administrator or webmaster.

If you don’t have access to a ColdFusion server, your first step is to pick an edition of ColdFusion. There are currently four editions of ColdFusion available to support the needs of various sized projects and organizations; all of them are available at Allaire’s web site, http://www.allaire.com (as of this writing, the latest release of ColdFusion is Version 5.0):

ColdFusion Express (Windows and Linux only)

A free, bare bones edition of ColdFusion designed to introduce you to the ColdFusion development environment. ColdFusion Express supports only a subset of the full CFML language and provides limited database support and limited server administration. ColdFusion Express can be downloaded for free from Allaire’s web site.

ColdFusion Professional (Windows and Linux only)

The professional edition gives full access to the CFML language as well as full ODBC database support, administration, and advanced security services.

ColdFusion Enterprise (Windows, Solaris, Linux, and HP-UX)

Contains all the functionality of ColdFusion Professional but adds server clustering, native database drivers for certain databases, upgraded Merant ODBC drivers, and complete sandbox security for securing ColdFusion in multisite hosted environments.

ColdFusion Single User (Windows only)

This is a single-user edition of ColdFusion Enterprise that comes bundled with ColdFusion Studio and limits access to one IP address per session. ColdFusion Single User allows you to build and test applications without having to purchase a full ColdFusion Enterprise license. As of ColdFusion 5.0, the trial version of ColdFusion Enterprise automatically becomes the single-user version once the 30-day trial period expires.

Hardware requirements for running ColdFusion vary depending on your platform and the edition of ColdFusion you want to run. You should make sure the machine on which you plan to run the ColdFusion Application Server can meet the demands you might place on it. ColdFusion generally requires a system with 100 to 400 MB of hard disk space and between 128 and 512 MB of RAM, depending on the platform. Memory requirements are only a guideline. In general, the more physical RAM available to ColdFusion, the better it will perform, because many tasks performed by web applications such as intensive database queries, Verity indexing/searching, and integration with other third-party resources are memory-intensive. For the most up-to-date system requirements, please refer to the documentation that came with your edition of ColdFusion or visit http://www.allaire.com/products/ColdFusion/generalInformation/SystemReqs/.

If you work in an organization with an IT department, you should be able to get them to install and configure ColdFusion. Otherwise, you’ll have to perform these tasks yourself. Because ColdFusion is available for multiple platforms, installation procedures vary. For specific instructions on installing and configuring the ColdFusion Application Server, see the documentation provided with your edition of ColdFusion or visit the Allaire Installation Support web site at http://www.allaire.com/support/installation/.

Once you have a working ColdFusion installation, you’re ready to start programming. In the next chapter, we’ll dive in and learn about ColdFusion basics. For this material to make sense, though, you need to have some basic experience with web page creation and, in particular, HTML. If you don’t have any experience with HTML, you should spend some time learning basic HTML before you try to learn ColdFusion. For this, I recommend HTML: The Definitive Guide, by Chuck Musciano and Bill Kennedy (O’Reilly & Associates). If you are planning to use ColdFusion to interact with a database, you may also find it helpful to have a general understanding of relational databases and SQL (Structured Query Language). For more information on SQL, see SQL in a Nutshell, by Kevin Kline with Daniel Kline, Ph.D (O’Reilly).