Table Of ContentCOLDFUSION® 9
ADOBE®
Getting Started
web application construction kit
volume 2
Ben Forta and Raymond Camden
with Charlie Arehart, John C. Bland II, Ken Fricklas,
Paul Hastings, Mike Nimer, Sarge Sargent, and Matt Tatam
Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 2: Application Development
Ben Forta and Raymond Camden
with Charlie Arehart, John C. Bland II, Ken Fricklas, Paul Hastings, Mike Nimer, Sarge Sargent, and
Matt Tatam
This Adobe Press book is published by Peachpit.
For information on Adobe Press books, contact:
Peachpit
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)
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To report errors, please send a note to [email protected]
Peachpit is a division of Pearson Education
Copyright ©2011 by Ben Forta
Series Editors: Rebecca Freed and Karen Reichstein
Editor: Judy Ziajka
Technical Reviewer: Brian Rinaldi
Production Editor: Tracey Croom
Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Typo-O-Rama
Proofreader: Liz Welch
Indexer: Ron Strauss
Cover design: Charlene Charles-Will
NOTICE OF RIgHTS
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For
information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact [email protected].
NOTICE OF LIABILITy
The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been
taken in the preparation of the book, neither the authors nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or
entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions
contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.
TRAdEMARKS
Adobe, ColdFusion, ColdFusion Builder, dreamweaver, Flash, Flash Builder, Flex, and LiveCycle are trademarks
or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks
are the property of their respective owners. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to
distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit
was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other
product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of
such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is
intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.
ISBN 13: 978-0-321-67919-2
ISBN 10: 0-321-67919-9
Biographies
Ben Forta
Ben Forta is director of platform evangelism for Adobe Systems Incorporated and has more than
two decades of experience in the computer software industry in product development, support,
training, and marketing. Ben is the author of the best-selling ColdFusion book of all time, Adobe
ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit, as well as books on SQL, JavaServer Pages, Windows
development, Regular Expressions, and more. More than half a million Ben Forta books have
been printed in more than a dozen languages worldwide. Ben helped create the official Adobe
ColdFusion training material, as well as the certification tests and study guides for those tests.
He writes regular columns on ColdFusion and Internet development and spends a considerable
amount of time lecturing and speaking on application development worldwide. Ben welcomes
your email at [email protected] and invites you to visit his Web site at http://forta.com/ and his blog
at http://forta.com/blog.
Ray Camden
Raymond Camden is a software consultant focusing on ColdFusion and RIA development. A
longtime ColdFusion user, Raymond has worked on numerous ColdFusion books, including
Adobe ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit, and has contributed to the Fusion Authority
Quarterly Update and the ColdFusion Developers Journal. He also presents at conferences and
contributes to online webzines. He founded many community Web sites, including CFLib.org,
ColdFusionPortal.org, and ColdFusionCookbook.org, and is the author of open source applica-
tions, including the popular BlogCFC (www.blogcfc.com) blogging application. Raymond is
an Adobe Community Professional. He is the happily married proud father of three kids and is
somewhat of a Star Wars nut. Raymond can be reached at his blog (www.coldfusionjedi.com) or
via email at [email protected].
Charlie Arehart
A veteran ColdFusion developer and troubleshooter since 1997 with more than 25 years in IT,
Charlie Arehart is a longtime contributor to the ColdFusion community and a recognized Adobe
Community Professional. As an independent consultant, he provides short-term troubleshooting
and tuning assistance and training and mentoring for organizations of all sizes and ColdFusion
experience levels (carehart.org/consulting). Besides running the 2000-member Online Cold-
Fusion Meetup (coldfusionmeetup.com, an online CF user group), he hosts the UgTV repository
of recorded presentations from hundreds of speakers (carehart.org/ugtv) and the CF411 site with
more than 1000 tools and resources for ColdFusion developers (cf411.com). A certified Advanced
ColdFusion developer and an instructor for each version since ColdFusion 4, Charlie has spoken
at each of the major ColdFusion conferences worldwide and is a contributor to all three volumes of
Adobe ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit.
John C. Bland II
John C. Bland II is founder of Katapult Media Inc. KM focuses on software and Web develop-
ment with ColdFusion, the Adobe Flash platform, PHP, Java, the .NET platform, and Objective-
C (iPhone and Mac OS X). At Katapult, John works diligently on FastKast, which continues to
power numerous high-profile media players. John is also the CTO of UFrag.tv, where gamers go
to broadcast. He is a contributor to the Adobe ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit for Cold-
Fusion 8 and 9 (Peachpit) as well as Flex 4 in Action (Manning). As an Adobe Community Profes-
sional, John continues give back to the community that helped mold him into the developer he is
today. John blogs regularly on his blog, at www.johncblandii.com.
Paul Hastings
Paul Hastings, who after more than 20 years of IT work is now a perfectly fossilized geologist,
is CTO at Sustainable gIS, a consulting firm specializing in geographic information systems
(gIS) technology, ColdFusion Internet and intranet applications for the environment and natural
resource markets, and of course, ColdFusion globalization. Paul is based in Bangkok, Thailand, but
says that it’s not nearly as exciting as it sounds. He can be reached at [email protected].
Mike Nimer
Mike Nimer is the director of engineering for nomee.com. Before joining nomee, Mike spent
more than a decade building Web applications and the servers that run Web applications, as well
as providing consulting and mentoring help for development teams around the world. Mike is a
founding partner of digital Primates IT Consulting group, providing mentoring and develop-
ment support on the Adobe RIA and ColdFusion platforms. Prior to founding digital Primates,
Mike was a member of the Adobe ColdFusion engineering team, where he was responsible for a
number of key features, including PdF generation and the integration of Flex 1 and 2 with Cold-
Fusion Server.
Matt Tatam
Matt Tatam has been developing and instructing in ColdFusion for more than 14 years. He has
published articles and books on a number of Adobe technologies.
Acknowledgments
Ben Forta
Thanks to my co-authors, Ray Camden and Charlie Arehart, for their outstanding contributions.
Although this book is affectionately known to thousands as “the Ben Forta book,” it is, in truth,
as much theirs as it is mine. An extra thank-you to Ray Camden for once again bravely accepting
the role of lead co-author. Thanks to Brian Rinaldi for his thorough technical review. Thanks
to Nancy Ruenzel and the crew at Peachpit for allowing me the creative freedom to build these
books as I see fit. Thanks to Karen Reichstein and Rebecca Freed for bravely stepping in as series
editors on this revision, and to Judy Ziajka for so ably shepherding this book through the publica-
tion process yet again. Thanks to the thousands of you who write to me with comments, sugges-
tions, and criticism (thankfully not too much of the latter)—I do read each and every message (and
even attempt to reply to them all, eventually), and all are appreciated. And last, but by no means
least, a loving thank-you to my wife, Marcy, and our children for putting up with (and allowing)
my often hectic work schedule. Their love and support make all that I do possible.
Raymond Camden
I’d like to thank Ben and Adobe Press for once again asking me to be a part of this incredible
series. It is both an honor and a privilege! I’d also like to thank Adobe, specifically Adam Lehman
and the engineers. Thanks for having me as part of the ColdFusion 9 beta process and allowing
me to help shape the product I love. I promise I’ll ask only half as many annoying questions for
ColdFusion 10.
Charlie Arehart
First, I want to thank Ben for having me as a contributor to this series. With so many excellent
authors among the current and past contributors, I really feel privileged. I also want to thank him
for all his contributions to the community. Again, as with my fellow authors, I follow in the foot-
steps of giants. In that regard, I want to acknowledge the awesome ColdFusion community. I’ve so
enjoyed being a part of it, as both beneficiary and contributor, since 1997. This book’s for you.
John C. Bland II
I would like to thank my gorgeous wife, Season, for her continued support and love. you have
been an amazing blessing in my life! Alex, you are the strongest eight-year-old I know. Through
adversity you have stayed strong. I love you for that and am blessed you are my daughter. I also
want to thank Ben, once again, for allowing me to be a part of a great book series. It humbles me
each time. Adobe, thanks for providing a great product worth writing about! Lastly, I want to
thank my family: Momma, Pac, Bubba, and Joe. you keep encouraging me in your own ways even
though I keep catching the biggest and most fish, go figure. you all are major blessings in my life.
To all of my nephews and nieces, aim higher than your mind can conceive, work extra hard, and
one day you’ll get there. I did.
Paul Hastings
I’d like to thank Ben Forta for the opportunity to once again work on this book as well to express
my thanks to everybody on the ColdFusion team for doing such a fine job of building an excellent
product.
Mike Nimer
I’d like to thank my wife, Angela, for being my own personal editor.
Dedications
Ben Forta
dedicated to the ColdFusion community, a loyal
and passionate group that I’ve been proud to call
my friends for a decade and a half.
Ray Camden
As always, for my wife. Thank you, Jeanne, for
your love and support.
Charlie Arehart
I’d like to dedicate this book to my wife of
10 years and the love of my life, Kim. I couldn’t
do all I do without your patience, support, and
encouragement. Thank you, my love. god truly
blessed me when He brought you into my life.
John C. Bland II
To my son, John III. you successfully stole my
heart five years ago and continue to light up my
life with laughter and love. Always be you and
keep god first!
Paul Hastings
I would like to dedicate this book to my family:
my wife, Mao, and our three children, Meow,
Ning, and Joe, as well as my in-laws, Edwin and
Pu, and their ever whirling-dervish daughter,
Nadia.
Mike Nimer
For my wife, Angela, and son, Kayden.
Matt Tatam
To my family, who remind me daily what really
matters in life.
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