How ColdFusion Works with Databases

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ColdFusion can connect to a variety of common database formats, including Microsoft Access and MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, and more. It does so via software called Java Database Connectivity and ODBC (Object Database Connectivity (JDBC), which provide a relatively common ground so that the program code you build to access the contents of one brand of database is portable to another database product with a minimum of modifications.

When you begin building templates in ColdFusion, you'll set up datasources (DSNs), which are essentially JDBC pipelines to your database files or server. Datasources enable you to bring information in and out of your databases using the Web as a gateway. For example, a Microsoft Access database of products and customers can be displayed as a Web page or series of Web pages with only a few minutes' work in a ColdFusion template. In addition, developers can quickly create simple Web forms allowing the same database to be used as a repository for user data.

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Understanding the ColdFusion Administrator

ColdFusion is unique among the Macromedia Studio tools in that it doesn't have a formal interface. Rather, it is administered from a special Web URL, and only through a Web browser. Macromedia recommends Microsoft's Internet Explorer, because some of the administrator's features may not be supported in other browsers.

If you installed the program in the default folder, point your browser to http://localhost/ cfide/administrator to access the ColdFusion Administrator.

If you're using the Web server that comes with ColdFusion rather than your own stand-alone server, you need to append port 8500 to the server name: http://localhost:8500/ cfide/administrator

You'll be asked to log in using the password you supplied when you installed ColdFusion. After you're in, you'll see settings allowing you to change the way ColdFusion runs, displays error messages, connects to databases, and much more. If it seems like unfamiliar territory, don't worry. The examples in this section introduce you to the administrator's features you need to know.

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Macromedia Studio MX Bible
Macromedia Studio MX Bible
ISBN: 0764525239
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 491

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