Introduction

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Macromedia ColdFusion 5.0 is a powerful yet easy to use Web application server. It allows you to create dynamic Web sites quickly and easily with little or no programming experience. ColdFusion provides a variety of tools that give you the ability to query a database, output the results, and work with other dynamic information. You can use it to transform your Web site from a bland , static site into a powerful, dynamic place on the Web.

This Macromedia Training from the Source course introduces you to ColdFusion and guides you step-by-step through some of the key features. Throughout the course of the book you will be working on projects with a single theme: creating and maintaining customer information for an online company. The 12- hour curriculum includes these lessons:

Lesson 1: Understanding ColdFusion

Lesson 2: Introducing ColdFusion Studio

Lesson 3: Variables and Functions

Lesson 4: Using Forms with ColdFusion

Lesson 5: Retrieving Database Information

Lesson 6: Changing Database Information

Lesson 7: Using Conditional Logic

Lesson 8: Working In Depth with Variables

Lesson 9: Other Functions

Each lesson begins with an overview of the lesson's content and learning objectives, and each is divided into short tasks that break the skills into bite- size units.

Each lesson also includes notes providing extra background, keyboard shortcuts, and related techniques for those who are ready to absorb additional information.

As you complete these lessons, you'll be learning how ColdFusion works, what it can do, and how you can use it to make your Web site better. When you are finished with these lessons, you should be able to create simple yet powerful ColdFusion applications.

All the files you need for the lessons are included in the Lessons folder on the enclosed CD. Files for each lesson appear in their own folders, titled with the lesson number.

Each lesson folder contains two subfolders : Start and Complete. The Start folder contains all the ColdFusion templates with which you will begin working. The Complete folder contains all the completed files, code intact. The files you will need for each lesson are identified at the beginning of that lesson. Not every lesson will require starting or complete files, so in these cases the folders will be empty.

You will be using Macromedia's ColdFusion Studio when working with ColdFusion templates. A free 30-day trial version is included on the CD.

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