ColdFusion Workshop

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ColdFusion Workshop

• March 3, 2000
• John Milam, Ph.D.
• Curry School of Education

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"ColdFusion is the easiest, most affordable, and
most powerful technology for building complex
apps for higher education. There really isnt
anything you cant do with it. All it takes is
vision and you can create everything from a
full-fledged data warehouse to an online
bookstore.
http//allaire.com/edu/
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Workshop Schedule

• 3/3 Intro to web database applications and
  ColdFusion
• 3/10 Complex data queries three things you can
  do to a database (add/edit/delete records)
• 3/24 Dynamically populating form fields
  creating database-driven pages
• 4/7 Constructing drill-down queries
  summarizing data w/ multiple queries SQL
• 4/21 Using IF and CASE statements
• Open labs on 3/17?, 3/31, 4/14, 4/28 w/ Will Davis

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Topics for Today

• Intro to web database applications
• Issues and constraints in building applications
• ColdFusion basics, including requirements,
  installation, documentation
• Look at a sample applications
• Build a basic ColdFusion template for a query

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Intro to Web Database Applications

• HTML (forms and tables)
• ODBC/OLE/Native database drivers
• SQL
• Web servers
• Middleware products

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HTML

• Forms for getting and posting dataltformgt lt/formgt
• Tables w/ rows and columns to present results

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ODBC/OLE/native database drivers

• Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers make it
  possible to connect to and use a database without
  launching the database program itself
• Example using Access on the web without running
  Access or Windows
• ODBC is most commonand slowest
• Can go against any data,including AASCII text
• Drivers are just software you have to install

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SQL

• Structured Query Language (SQL) for sending
  queries (information requests) to a database
• Example Select hotel, hot tubs, city,
  priceFrom springbreakWhere hot tubs gt0 and city
  CONTAINS beachOrder by price

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Web servers

• Netscape Enterprise Server, Microsoft Internet
  Information Server, and Apache which serve
  documents and data on the Web
• Available in NT, Unix, Solaris, Mac OS

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Middleware for data streaming

• Software which works between the Web server and
  the client web browser to publish dynamic (as
  opposed to static) HTML pages

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Middleware Products

• ColdFusion
• Active Server Pages (ASP/ Visual InterDev)
• Internet Database Connectivity
• Perl
• Tango
• Drumbeat 2000 (ASP)
• NetObjects Fusion (ASP)
• Frontpage

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Middleware Products - continued

• WebObjects (Mac)
• mSQL
• Java
• IBM Web Connectors
• Informix Universal Web Connect
• WebFocus
• Sapphire Web
• Programming languages - C and Cobol

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Issues and Constraints

• Cost (no longer an issue)
• Platform
• Scalability
• Enterprise-wide solutions
• Throughput
• Staffing
• Training

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Issues and Constraints - continued

• Graphics browser support lowest common
  denominator.
• Javascript Database and ODBC drivers
• Graphics on the fly w/ Java, Chart FX, and Flash
  Generator2
• Political issues (access, who seeswhat data)

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Issues and Constraints - continued

• Security (NT, HP Unix, SSL, digital certificates,
  web server permissions, CF authentication, IP,
  cookies, tokens, and separating the web server
  from the LAN)
• Nature of data (ownership, data dictionary,
  clean-up, frequency, level of aggregation,
  historical, census vs. operational)

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The Official Description

• Page-based Applications
• JIT Compilation and Page Caching
• Web Server APIs
• Multithreaded Service Architecture
• Distributed Objects
• ColdFusion Studio
• Integrated with Dreamweaver, Homesite and
  NetObjects Fusion
• NT, Solaris, HP Unix, Windows 95/98/NT
• New, free version w/ ColdFusion Express

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Basics

• Totally free and easy to install
• Only have to know the concept of HTML tags such
  as ltquerygtlt/querygt
• Full-featured scripting language
• Lots of documentation, good user developer
  communities
• Beats out ASP, Perl, PHP for ease of use,
  learning curve, and what you can do w/o being a
  real programmer
• Rated best web database app w/enterprise wide
  capacity load balancing

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Requirements

• ColdFusion Express 4.0http//www.allaire.com/prod
  ucts/coldfusion/cfexpress/
• System Requirements
• Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0 (SP3 required)
• Intel 486 or higher (Pentium recommended)
• 50MB free hard disk space
• 32MB RAM (64MB Recommended)
• Web Server
• ColdFusion Express is designed to be compatible
  with a wide range of Web servers supporting the
  popular server APIs and CGI
• Netscape Server API (NSAPI)
• Internet Server API (ISAPI)
• WebSite Server API (WSAPI)
• Apache API 1.3.2 or higher
• Common Gateway Interface (CGI) (limited
  functionality)

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• Unsupported Tags
• CFAPPLET
• CFASSOCIATE
• CFAUTHENTICATE
• CFCOLLECTION
• CFCONTENT
• CFDIRECTORY
• CFERROR
• CFEXIT
• CFFILE
• CFFORM, CFGRID, CFGRIDCOLUMN, CFGRIDROW,
  CFGRIDUPDATE, CFSELECT, CFINPUT, CFSLIDER,
  CFTEXTINPUT
• CFFTP
• CFHEADER
• CFHTMLHEAD
• CFHTTP, CFHTTPPARAM

• CFINDEX, CFSEARCH
• CFLDAP
• CFLOCK
• CFMAIL
• CFMODULE
• CFOBJECT
• CFPOP
• CFREPORT
• CFREGISTRY
• CFSCHEDULE
• CFSCRIPT
• CFSETTING
• CFSTOREDPROC, CFPROCRESULT, CFPROCPARAM
• CFTABLE, CFCOL
• CFTRANSACTION
• CFTREE, CFTREEITEM
• CFTRY, CFTHROW, CFCATCH
• CFWDDX

• Supported Tags
• CFABORT
• CFAPPLICATION
• CFBREAK
• CFCOOKIE
• CFIF, CFELSE, CFELSEIF
• CFINSERT
• CFINCLUDE
• CFLOCATION
• CFLOOP
• CFOUTPUT
• CFPARAM
• CFQUERY
• CFSET
• CFSWITCH, CFCASE, CFDEFAULTCASE
• CFUPDATE

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Useful Links

• Linking Web Databases With Cold
  Fusionhttp//www.webtechniques.com/archives/1997/
  11/note/
• Allaire Developerhttp//www.allaire.com/developer
  /index.cfm
• Developing Applications with Cold Fusion(large
  doc)http//www2.allaire.com/documents/cf45docs/ac
  robatdocs/45dwa.pdf
• Ben Fortas Cold Fusion Pagehttp//milliways.ston
  eage.com/cf/
• Defusionhttp//defusion.com/

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Application Development

• Create data source, link ODBC
• Design application
• Pass query parameters with form
• Process queries via .cfm templates containing
  SQL, special CF tags, and output statements using
  ltcfoutputgt lt/cfoutputgt

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Sample application 1 w/ code

• Maintaining a web database
• of performance indicators
• about colleges and universities

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Data Source
(1) Create database tables (2) Link ODBC
drivers within ColdFusion Administrator
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Template 1
Selects distinct list of indicators to create
a dynamically populated form.
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Template 2
Creates homepage based on parameters based
from template 1
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Template 1 Results Template 2 Results
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Sample application 2
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Sample application 3
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Other examples of CF applications

• Structures of Data Project
• http//airweb2.org/structures
• Internet Resources for IR
• http//airweb2.org/links
• Southern Association for Institutional Research
• http//sair.org/membersh2.html
• Association for Institutional Research
  conference registration
• https//airweb2.org/secure/form0.cfm

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277A NT Lab Software

• Check for
• ColdFusion Express
• Personal Web Server
• Dreamweaver or other HTML editor
• Notepad
• Homesite?

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Build a basic query

• Create database table to work with
• Use CF Administrator to install ODBC drivers for
  the database
• Need to create query form in HTML using
  Dreamweaver, Homesite, or Notepad
• Need to create .cfm template file w/ HTML, CF
  Tags, SQL, and design for how you want to display
  the query results
• Check that the web server is running
• Load homepage and debug the results

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Go for it!
Molly Pickral Cadieux 924-4556
mpc3c_at_virginia.edu Charlotte Geary chick_at_virgini
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Contact info for CF help Will Cameron
Davis 244-3420 wcd4a_at_cms.mail.virginia.edu John
Milam 243-8746 jmilam_at_virginia.edu