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ColdFusion

What is it?

  • It enables us to create powerful server-side web applications very quickly

  • It has much less code than other technologies such as ASP, PHP etc.

  • ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), is a scripting language for web development that runs on the JVM, the .NET framework, and Google App Engine.

  • CFML language composed of tags & functions.

  • ColdFusion was originally designed to make it easier to connect simple HTML pages to a database.

Features:

  • ColdFusion enables us to build a large, complex, and dynamic website.

  • We can build a website that does things such as:

  • Publish web services

  • Query a database

  • Allow users to upload files

  • Allow users to upload files​​

  • Publish web services

  • Allow users to upload files

  • FTP files to/from another server

  • and more

History

  • Developed by Adobe Systems.

  • Created by J. J. Allaire in 1995.

  • Implemented language: java

ColdFusion Installation

  • To build ColdFusion applications, you first need to install the ColdFusion server. 

  • Below are the steps for installation of ColdFusion.

Step 1

  • Download the ColdFusion application from the official website.

  • Fill out the official details to get logged in with an account to download.

  • 3 versions of  Coldfusion:

  • ColdFusion Enterprise

  • ColdFusion Production

  • ColdFusion Builder (IDE + Server)

Step 2

  • Open the installer.

  • Accept the agreement & conditions.

  • Select Developer Edition > Next.

  • Select Server Configuration > Next.

  • Browse a path for installing.

Step 3

  • Select IIS (Internet Information Service) as a web server for ColdFusion

ColdFusion​​

IIS

IIS Server

Manual Configure IIS or Apache

Apache Server

  • Set a listening port number for server. 

  • Here we set 8500 as listening port from the HTTP request.

  • Set username & password for Administrative control of the server.

Step 3

  • After installation setup completed, click ok to open the ColdFusion Administrator.

  • Log in with the password on the browser.

Setup ColdFusion with Sublime

  • There are different IDE available for ColdFusion,

  • It has inbuilt server, integrated build and more fuctionalities.

  • Eg.

  • ColdFusion Builder

  • Eclipse

  • etc

ColdFusion Builder​​

Eclipse

  • But for smooth function with lightweight, we work with the Sublime editor.

  • Sublime can not detects ColdFusion codes.

  • There are 2 ways of installation the ColdFusion package.

  • Manual (Download Coldfusion package + Install in Sublime)

  • Package Control in Sublime Text Editor.

Sublime Text Editor

ColdFusion

Step 1

  • For the Package Control of Sublime do as below:

  • Choose Tools > Install Package.

Step 2

  • To open Command Palette, choose Tools> Command Palette or press Ctrl + Shift + P.

  • Type & select Package Control: Install Package.

  • press Ctrl + Shift + P.

  • Type Install Package

  • Install the above

Step 3

  • Then type & choose "CFML".

  • This will install the excellent CFML package.

  • Restart the Sublime Text to get the complete things done.

The Hello World 

  • All the.cfml files should be kept in ColdFusion directory.

  • Here we have written two files;

  • form.cfm

  • action.cfm

Step 1

  • The CFML (ColdFusion markup language)   support all HTML tags.

  • Here are two pages are written on Sublime Text Editor.

  • form.cfm file:

form.cfm

  • Here is can read the data from the HTML form.

  • We used <cfoutput> ColdFusion tags, and #form.fname# for reading variable form requested form.

ColdFusion tag

ColdFusion Variable

form.cfm

  • We need to keep those files on the wwwroot folder of ColdFusion path.

  • Type the localhost:8500/helloworld/form.cfm on browser.

  • Here is the output on the Browser looks like.​

  • After clicking Submit, response page of action.cfm, got the #varName# from form.cfm

Syntax

  • CFML consists of a number of opening and closing tags, attributes & values like HTML.

  • Also has some symbols to execute the variables.

  • All these syntaxes is interpreted by the ColdFusion server.

CFML tags

Attribute

Value

HTML tags

CFML variable

Variable & Datatypes

Variables

  • Variables stores value.

  • For example, we could store user's name inside a variable and many more.

  • In CMFL, there are we can declare a variable.

  • Using <cfset> tag

  • Using <cfparam> tag

  • The <cfset> tag is used to declare a variable.

  • To output the variable, you need to surround the variable name with hash "#".

  • Here <cfset> tag to declare a variable called first name and the assigned value of Varun to it.

  • The <cfparam> tag creates a variable if it does not already exist.

  • We can assign default value using the default attribute.

  • The syntax of declaring variable using <cfparam> is as below.

Datatype

  • In ColdFusion, there are different types of data we can work with.

  • But we can not declare with a specific datatype i.e. typeless datatype.

  • All the variables can be either local or global.

Variable Scope

  • A scope determines where the data is saved and where it is available.

  • Each of the variables we created in out application belongs to one of these scopes.

  • Here are some scopes:

  • Here is an example of showing the detail of Server scope using the <cfdump> tag.

To display on browser

Scop Variable

Data Stucture

  • ColdFusion takes care of the connection to a database server.

  • No need to write the code for making a connection to DB.

  • The queries are being sent through a database-connector.​

  • These queries are written in SQL.

Structure

  • A structure is a complex data type.

  • Stores multiple values with multiple keys.

  • Two ways to create ColdFusion Structure.

  • The Explicit Notation: Uses multiple <sfset> statements to create Structure.

  • The Implicit Notation: Uses single <sfset> statement to create Structure.

  • Here we used, the <cfscript> tag, inside where we can write the code with like other programs.

Structure

  • Here are some structure manipulation functions.

Array

  • An array is simply an ordered stack of data items with the same data type.

  • Using an array, we can store multiple values under a single name.

Array

  • Here are some ColdFusion functions for array manipulation.

Conditional Execution

  • A conditional statement is a piece of code that does one thing on a condition.

  • In ColdFusion, there are different types of conditions as below.

If statement

  • In this case, the piece of code will execute with one condition.

  • there are <cfif> tag is used for if condition.

  • For elseif and else condition, we can use <cfelseif> and <cfelse> respectively.

Condition

  • <cfelse> tag is used to do something if the condition is not met.

  • <cfelseif> tag to perform another condition.

  • It works when if the condition did not meet.

Condition Operator

  • EQ: Equal To

  • NOT EQ: Not Equal To 

  • LT: Less Than

  • GT: Greater Than

  • GTE: Greater Than or Equal To

  • LTE: Less Than or Equal To

ColdFusion Loop

  • A ColdFusion loop is a block of code that executes for a specified number of times.

  • Or once for each element in an object, while a condition is true.

  • We use <cfloop> tag to perform a loop.

  • This tag has a different attribute for different performance.

  • ColdFusion has different types of loops. Here are some of them.

ColdFusion Loop

Index Loop

Conditional Loop

Query Loop

List Loop

File Loop

Index Loop

  • An index loop is a loop that continues for a specified number of times.

  • It iterates 'from' attribute to 'to' attribute.

  • Here we use 3 attributes:

  • from: starting index

  • to: ending index

  • index: holds the counter

Conditional Loop

  • A conditional loop executes while a condition is true.

  • We use 'condition' attribute to specify the condition.

  • In following the example, we used RandRange function to stop the iteration.

Query Loop

  • We can loop over the query result in ColdFusion.

  • <cfquery> tag is used for iterate for the number of rows it found

List Loop

  • It can loop over a list of variables.

  • It has 2 attributes.

  • list: Stores numbers of the variable.

  • delimiter: Used as a separator in the list.

File Loop

  • A ColdFusion loop is a block of code that executes for a specified number of times.

  • Or once for each element in an object, while a condition is true.

  • We use <cfloop> tag to perform a loop.

  • This tag has a different attribute for different performance.

Functions In ColdFusion

  • A function is a self-contained block of code.

  • After execution of a function, it returns a value.

  • It has over 250 built-in functions for string-manipulations, date functions, array functions, mathematical functions and many more.

  • Here are some ColdFusion build-in functions.

User-defined Function

  • ColdFusion also provides the ability for you to create your own functions. 

  • There are 2-ways of doing this:

  • Using CFScript

  • Using <cffunction> tag

  • He we are going to create a function using <cffunction> tag.

< function call >

home.cfm

< cffunction >

​

​

​

​

< /cffunction >

//code

userFunction.cfm

  • The following is the example of the making of a function using <cffunction> tag.

  • The function name must be unique.

home.cfm

userFunction.cfm

  • On home.cfm has a function; functionName() along with argument 555.

  • When we call the function, it will go to userFunction.cfm for execution.

  • We can keep any task to perform.

  • Here that function has a query to get a specific record.

Read/Write Files

  • In ColdFusion, we can upload a file to the server.

  • The read & write operation can be performed.

  • All the three operation can be done using <cffile> tag & some properties for read/write.

Read a File

  • In ColdFusion, we can upload a file to the server.

  • The read & write operation can be performed.

  • All the three operation can be done using <cffile> tag & some properties for read/write/append.

Write a File

  • Using <cffile> tag, we can create a file.

  • We can fill it with the simple string or content of the variable.

  • Action attribute can have a different value.

  • Write, for overriding the new value.

  • Read, for reading the file.

  • Append, for adding value with the old file.

Append/Write/Read

  • The output on the browser looks as below.

  • After submitting the form, it goes to another page & there it writes the data to a file.

Graphics Function

  • To manipulate image operation, we need to create ColdFusion image.

  • Here we will use the <cfimage> tag with some attributes and functions.

  • There are 5 steps for drawing/manipulating an image.

Step 1: Create a canvas image

  • Use the ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion image that is 700 pixels wide and 250 pixels high.

Step 2: Set the drawing color

  • Set the current drawing color for ColdFusion image.

  • All the graphics operations use the specified color.

Step 3: Turn on antialiasing (Optional)

  • Switches antialiasing on or off in rendered graphics.

  • We will use a function ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage, "on")

Set antialiasing,

Step 4: Draw a shape

  • Here we will draw any shape on the canvas image.

  • In that function, we can fill the shape with color.

  • There are different image drawing function to create different shapes.

To draw a line,

  • To draw an, the ImageDrawArc function has the been implemented.

To draw an Arc (eg. circle, eclipse),

  • To draw Rectangle or square, imageDrawRect is used.

To draw an Rectangle,

  • Set the values for the x and y coordinates for the connected line segments.

  • We need to create x & y array for the imageDrawLines function.

To draw Lines(eg. triangle, star etc),

Step 5: Display the image on browser

  • <cfimage> tag creates an image that can be manipulated by image functions.

  • Here we display the image on the browser.

Display the image on browser,

Exercise 6

  • Draw a Line, Circle, Rectangle & star.

1. Create a canvas image

2. Set a drawing color

3. Set antialiasing

4. Draw shapes on canvas

5. Display the canvas on the browser

ColdFusion & Database

  • ColdFusion takes care of the connection to a database server.

  • No need to write the code for making a connection to DB.

  • The queries are being sent through a database-connector.​

  • These queries are written in SQL.

Data Source Name

  • SQL statement

  • Address of database server

  • Database name

  • Username & password

BirenDB

User

SPS

Create a Connection to Database

  • In ColdFusion, we need to provide DSN (Data Source Name) details to ColdFusion Server.

  • ColdFusion has preinstalled database drivers.

  • In this case, we are using MySQL database.

  • Here ColdFusion does not have MySQL driver.

  • We downloaded the mySql-connector.jar file from the internet & put that in ColdFusion library; C:\ColdFusion2016\cfusion\lib

  • Download MySQL-connector.jar 

  • Put it in cfusion/lib folder.

  • Go to the ColdFusion administrator panel, localhost:8500/CFICE/administrator/index.cfm on browser.

  • Log in with the administrator password.

  • Click on DataSource under Data & Service menu on left.

  • Select the Data Source name & Select a database driver.

  • In this case, MySQL is the data source name & MySQL 5 is the driver.

  • Click on Add.

Give a name Datasource name

Select a Database Driver

  • Here provide the Database name, server, port number, username & password.

  • We entered the MySQL database details here & Submit.

Database name on the MySQL Server

localhost:3306

username & password of MySQL Server

Datasource name

  • Data source updated successfully message appeared on the screen.

  • Check the status of the Connected Data Sources for MySQL.

  • Log out from this page.

Status is ok

After the successful update of DB, click Logout

Retrieve Data from Database

  • In birnDB database on MySQL server, Employees table is located.

  • We will retrieve the data using CFML program.

  • Here is the CFML for retrieving the data from Employees table of MySQL database.

  • <cfquery>: For sending query to database.

  • datasource: Attribute for which database we want to send a query.

  • name: is an attribute for getting the query result.

  • resultset: is an attribute for getting more query result.

  • query: Attribute used for looping over multiple rows from a query result in <cfoutput> tag.

  • group: Attribute for grouping the query result.

Looping over query result

SQL query to the database

  • After putting the SelectFromDatabase.cfm file on the wwwroot/helloworld folder, we can access the page on the server.

  • The data from the database is in the below table.

  • We used the looping condition the on query property inside of the <cfoutput> tag. 

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