ColdFusion 8 Developer Tutorial

John Farrar

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Overview

Table of Contents

The Author

Reviews

Downloads

Fast-paced guide to important ColdFusion development topics
Packed with example code and real-world knowledge
Coverage of using AJAX in ColdFusion
Also covers ColdFusion 8 Update 1

Book Details

Language : English
Paperback : 400 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ]
Release Date : July 2008
ISBN : 1847194125
ISBN 13 : 978-1-847194-12-1
Author(s) : John Farrar
Topics and Technologies : All Books, AJAX, Web Development

Preface
Chapter 1: Web Pages—Static to Dynamic
Chapter 2: Basic CFCs and Database Interaction
Chapter 3: Power CFCs and Web Forms
Chapter 4: Application, Session, and Request Scope
Chapter 5: Introduction to Custom Tags
Chapter 6: Better Interfaces for JavaScript Libraries
Chapter 7: Authentication and Permissions
Chapter 8: CF AJAX User Interface
Chapter 9: CF AJAX Forms
Chapter 10: CF AJAX Programming
Chapter 11: Working with PDF
Chapter 12: Building Search Abilities
Chapter 13: Working with Files, Email, and Images
Chapter 14: Feeds, REST Services, and Web Services
Chapter 15: Building Dynamic Reports
Chapter 16: Dynamically Generated Web Presentations
Appendix A: Getting Your System Ready for Development
Appendix B: Resources to Build Your Skills
Index

Preface

Chapter 1: Web Pages—Static to Dynamic
- Turning HTML into a Dynamic Web Page
- Understanding and Using Simple Variables
- Understanding Structures
- Let Us Get Interactive
- Setting Page Defaults
- Introduction to Lists and Loops
- Understanding Arrays
- Conditional Processing with If
- Conditional Processing with Switch
- Summary

Chapter 2: Basic CFCs and Database Interaction
- Our First CFC
- Our First Object
  - Product (object)
- Using an Object Constructor
- Connecting to a Database
- Returning Data from the CFC
- Making Our Data Query Flexible
- The Basic Data Object Concept
- Object Method Access Control
- Summary

Chapter 3: Power CFCs and Web Forms
- The Practice of Protecting Access
- Web Forms Introduction
- Managing Our Product Data
- Getting Data to Our Edit Page
- Saving Our Data
- Improving Page Flow
- Adding a New Record
- Let Us Look Under the Hood
- Summary

Chapter 4: Application, Session, and Request Scope
- Life Span
- Introducing the Application.cfc Object
- Application Variables
- The Start Methods
  - Application Start Method
  - Session Start Method
  - Request Start Method
- The End Methods
  - Request End Method
  - Session End Method
  - Application End Method
  - On Error Method
- Scope Visibility
- Practical Application
- Mappings per Application
- Custom Tag Paths per Application
- Summary

Chapter 5: Introduction to Custom Tags
- Different Forms of Code Reuse
  - CFCs
- Custom Tags
  - CFInclude
  - Our First Custom Tag
- Custom Header/Footer Tags
- Nested Tags
- CFInclude from Custom Tags
- Templates versus Skins
- Managing Custom Tags
- CFModule Approach
- Tag Library Approach
- Summary

Chapter 6: Better Interfaces for JavaScript Libraries
- Thickbox Library HTML Style
- ColdFusion-Powered Thickbox
- Where Am I? (via Google Maps)
- ColdFusion JavaScript
  - Multiple State Form Items
    - Inside the Fancy Form Tag
- Summary

Chapter 7: Authentication and Permissions
- How ColdFusion Recognizes Users
- Custom Authentication (Additional Power)
  - Authentication Data Model
  - How to Use Advanced Authentication
- Extra Notes
- Summary

Chapter 8: CF AJAX User Interface
- HTML-Based Websites
- Server-Side Languages
- Browser-Side Applications
  - Flash
  - JavaScript

ColdFusion AJAX
- Layout
  - <cfdiv />
  - <cflayout />
  - <cfpod />
  - <cfwindow />
- Menus and Tool Tips
  - <cfmenu />
  - <cftooltip />

Styling Notes
Tips
Summary

Chapter 9: CF AJAX Forms
- Forms
  - <cfgrid />
  - Grid Paging
- Grid Updates and Deletes
- Linked Grids
  - <cfinput />
- Binding Page Elements
  - Binding Immediately upon Load
- The Date Requestor
- The Autosuggest Box
  - <cfselect />
  - <cftextarea />
  - <cftree />
- The Directory Tree
- Summary

Chapter 10: CF AJAX Programming
- Binding
  - On Page Binding
  - CFC Binding
  - JavaScript Binding
  - URL Binding
- Bind with Event
- Extra Binding Notes
- Multiple Radio Buttons or Check Boxes and Multiple Select
  - Spry Binding
- CFAJAXProxy
- CFAJAX Proxy Binding
- CFC Proxy Class Objects
- Client Debugging
- Firebug
- Built-In Debugging
  - Logging Features
  - Customization
  - Automatically Wired AJAX Links
  - Execute JavaScript after Loading Content
  - Other Cool Commands
  - Post for CFAJAX Calls
- Summary

Chapter 11: Working with PDF
- Generating PDF Pages
  - Our First PDF Page Conversion
  - Splitting into Sections
  - Adding Headers and Footers and Variables
  - Adding Page Breaks and Variables
  - Adding Bookmarks
  - Saving PDF Documents
- Printing from the Server
- Working with PDF Forms
- Populating PDF Forms with Data
- Reading Data from PDF Forms
- Manipulating PDF Documents
  - Merging Documents
  - Deleting Pages
- Encrypting PDF Documents
- Generating Thumbnails
- Adding Watermarks
- Final Thoughts
- Summary

Chapter 12: Building Search Abilities
- Database Searching
- Verity Search Solutions
- Built-In Search Engine
  - Creating a Collection
  - Indexing a Collection
  - Searching a Collection
    - The Search Form
    - The Results Page
    - Search Techniques
    - PDF Linking to Searches
    - Suggestions
- Integrating Third-Party Searching
- Google Details
- Custom Search Engines (Google)
  - On-The-Fly Search Engine
  - Simple Search
    - Search Types
    - Site Restricted
    - Local Search
- Summary

Chapter 13: Working with Files, Email, and Images
- Working with Files
  - Uploading Files
  - Local File Control
    - Write File
    - Read File
    - Rename File
    - Append File
    - Read File via Loop
- Working with Email
- Working with Images
- Image Information
- Summary

Chapter 14: Feeds, REST Services, and Web Services
- Collaboration
  - Flickr
  - Feeds
  - RSS
    - CDF
    - JSON
    - SQL
  - Introduction to REST Services
- SOAP Web Services
- Summary

Chapter 15: Building Dynamic Reports
- Traditional Web Page Reporting
  - Simple Report
  - Grouped Data
  - Drill-Down Reporting
- Output Formats
  - PDF Output
  - Excel Output
  - CVS Output
  - XML Output
  - JSON Output
- Using CFReport and Report Builder
- Summary

Chapter 16: Dynamically Generated Web Presentations
- Introduction to CFPresentation
- Mixing in the Media
- Caching the Contents
- Dynamic Benefits
  - Scenario 1: Sales Force
  - Scenario 2: Client-Specific Presentations
  - Scenario 3: Live Audience Sensitive Content
- Summary

Appendix A: Getting Your System Ready for Development
- Tools
- AJAX
- Ant
- Database Engines
- Database Tools
- Media Tools
  - Audio Software
  - Image Software
  - Video Software
- Reporting
- SVN
- Unit Testing
- Conclusions

Appendix B: Resources to Build Your Skills
- Blogs
- ColdFusion Conferences
- Coding Frameworks
- General ColdFusion Sites
- Libraries and Tools
  - Aspect or IoC or DI
- Content Handling/Generation
- Database
- JavaScript
- Project Management
- Script
- Search
- Site Integration APIs
- Unit Testing or Debugging
- XML Tools and Products
- Other Notable Works

Index

John Farrar

John started working with computer programming around 1977. He has had the opportunity to work on projects used by Apple, Blue Cross, Brunswick Recreation, Casio, GVSU, Johnson Controls, Sprint, and many others. This history covers over 30 years of knowledge and experience in the industry.

He started doing web development over 10 years ago. In the early days of the Web ColdFusion stood out to him not just as a way to make web pages into web applications but as a maturing solid platform good for the developer, site owner, and end users. He started at version 4.5 and has been enjoying each version upgrade more and more.

John owns a company called SOSensible. His company does work for large companies but has a special focus on also making sure technology is approachable beyond the enterprise. They have developed a number of Open Source solutions including COOP. COOP is a mix of Custom Tags and CFCs that provides structure while keeping development simpler. It demonstrates his love for the things that make ColdFusion/CFML a delightful language to build websites.

He has spoken at national and regional conferences, online meetings, and area user group meetings. He is also an Adobe User Group manager. John knows that community is a viable and productive tool to build developers and the companies they serve. He has learned much from great resources in the community including bloggers, books, conferences, and resources to great in number to mention here. He blogs at sosensible.com for the community.

Contact John Farrar

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Sample chapters

You can view our sample chapters and prefaces of this title on PacktLib or download sample chapters in PDF format.

Find your book in our support section to find errata and to download code samples.

What you will learn from this book

The basics of ColdFusion
Basic debugging and exception handling techniques, and conditional processing
Making your ColdFusion Components (CFCs) come alive with methods, using object inheritance, connecting to a database through the internal methods of our object/CFCs
Keeping your object/CFCs thread safe when multiple users are running the same code segments
Managing multiple products through common forms for listing, editing, and adding data
Passing information into a custom tag, different methods of storing and accessing tags and tag libraries
Wrapping the ThickBox JavaScript gallery functions into a custom tag for simple functional reuse
Wrapping a Google map library into our code with a custom tag for simplified interactive maps, and creating a multi-state form list wrapped in a custom tag
Controlling site content based on current user permissions
ColdFusion AJAX Layout features and ColdFusion widgets
Enhancing the user interface with AJAX
Searching with a database, features of Verity search solution, how to integrate a third-party search solution
Managing files, emails, and images for a dynamic website
Integrating Feed, REST, and SOAP web services for interacting with other sites
Creating data-driven reports in ColdFusion with several styles and interactions
Presenting dynamic contents on your site using CFPresentation

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In Detail

Adobe ColdFusion is an application server, renowned for rapid development of dynamic websites, with a straightforward language (CFML), powerful methods for packaging and reusing your code, and AJAX support that will get developers deep into powerful web applications quickly.

This book is the most intense guide to creating professional ColdFusion applications available. Packed with example code, and written in a friendly, easy-to-read style, this book is just want you need if you are serious about ColdFusion.

This book will give you clear, concise and, of course, practical guidance to take you from the basics of ColdFusion 8 to the skills that will make you a ColdFusion developer to be reckoned with.

ColdFusion expert John Farrar will teach you how about the basics of ColdFusion programming, application architecture, and object reuse, before showing you a range of topics including AJAX library integration, RESTful Web Services, PDF creation and manipulation, and dynamically generated presentation files that will make you the toast of your ColdFusion developer town.

This book digs deep with the basics, with real-world examples of the how and whys, to get more done faster with ColdFusion 8.

This book also covers the new features of ColdFusion 8 Update 1.

The most intense guide to creating professional ColdFusion applications available

Approach

This book is a fast-paced tutorial to developing ColdFusion applications, with an emphasis on real-world skills. Packed with examples and careful explanations, the book leads you through all the topics relevant to today's ColdFusion developer.

Who this book is for

This book is for web developers working with ColdFusion 8.

If your goal is to get a good grounding in the basics of the language as quickly as possible and put a site together quickly, this book is ideal for you. If you want to learn more about professional programming of ColdFusion, this book is definitely for you.

No prior knowledge of ColdFusion is expected, but basic knowledge of general web and software development skills is assumed.