Learning More About CFCs

In Chapter 28, there is a CFC called ShoppingCart, which is another example of a component that is designed to be stored in the SESSION scope. Look at this example to see another way in which a helpful and independent CFC can be created that encapsulates a real-world concept or metaphorical object (in this case, a shopping cart).

In Chapter 26, you will learn how client-side applications created with Flash can easily connect to ColdFusion Components, call methods, and display or otherwise present the data or functionality that the CFCs expose. Looking at this chapter will get your brain thinking about how CFCs aren't necessarily for the use of your ColdFusion code alone. They can be thought of as universal suppliers of information or functionality that don't particularly care whether the user of the information is a Flash movie, a ColdFusion page, or a Web Service.

Learning About Advanced CFC Concepts

This chapter has introduced you to the most important concepts about the new ColdFusion Components functionality in ColdFusion. That said, there is more to the CFC framework than I have been able to present here.

In our companion book, Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7 Application Development, you will find chapters on advanced CFC concepts such as:

• Component inheritance and method overriding using the extends attribute of the <cfcomponent> tag.

• Securing access to individual CFC methods with the roles attribute of the <cffunction> tag.

• Use of the getMetaData() function to determine a CFC's characteristics programmatically at runtime.

• Accessing component methods with JSP tag library style syntax, using the <cfimport> tag.

• Exposure of CFC methods as Web Services so that other systems, including participants in Microsoft's .NET framework or systems that work under Sun's J2EE umbrella, can use the methods over the Internet.

The additional attributes and functions methods mentioned in this list are also explained briefly in Appendices B and C.