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COLDFUSION® 9
ADOBE®
Getting Started
web application construction kit
volume 1
Ben Forta and Raymond Camden
with Charlie Arehart
Adobe ColdFusion 9 Web Application Construction Kit, Volume 1: Getting Started
Ben Forta and Raymond Camden with Charlie Arehart
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)
For the latest on Adobe Press books, go to www.adobepress.com
To report errors, please send a note to [email protected]
Peachpit is a division of Pearson Education
Copyright ©2010 by Ben Forta
Series Editor: Karen Reichstein
Editor: Judy Ziajka
Technical Reviewer: Terry Ryan
Production Editor: Tracey Croom
Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-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 author 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, dreamweaver, Flash, and Flex are 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: 978-0-321-66034-3
ISBN 10: 0-321-66034-X
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 series of all time,
ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit, as well as books on SQL, JavaServer Pages, Windows
development, regular expressions, and more. More than a half million Ben Forta books have been
printed in more than a dozen languages worldwide. Ben helped create the official Adobe ColdFu-
sion 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.
Raymond Camden
Raymond Camden is a software consultant focusing on ColdFusion and rich Internet application
development. A longtime ColdFusion user, Raymond has worked on numerous ColdFusion books,
including 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 con-
tributes to online Webzines. He founded many community Web sites, including CFLib.org, Cold-
FusionPortal.org, and Cold FusionCookbook.org, and is the author of open source applications,
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 something 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 9 Web Application Construction Kit.
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 fellow Adobe Platform Evangelist Terry Ryan 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 for bravely stepping in as
acquisitions editor on this revision, and to Judy Ziajka for so ably shepherding this book through
the publication process yet again. Thanks to the thousands of you who write to me with comments,
suggestions, and criticism (thankfully not too much of the latter)—I do read each and every mes-
sage (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 allow-
ing) 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.
Dedications
Ben Forta
To the ColdFusion community, a loyal and pas-
sionate group that I’ve been proud to call my
friends for a decade and a half.
Raymond 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.
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contents at a glance
pARt 1 Getting Started 1
ChApteR 1 Introducing ColdFusion 3
ChApteR 2 Accessing the ColdFusion Administrator 13
ChApteR 3 Introducing ColdFusion Builder 21
ChApteR 4 Previewing ColdFusion 29
ChApteR 5 Reviewing the Databases 35
ChApteR 6 Introducing SQL 59
ChApteR 7 SQL Data Manipulation 71
pARt 2 Using ColdFusion 77
ChApteR 8 The Basics of CFML 79
ChApteR 9 Programming with CFML 105
ChApteR 10 Creating Data‑Driven Pages 133
ChApteR 11 The Basics of Structured Development 175
ChApteR 12 ColdFusion Forms 201
ChApteR 13 Form Data Validation 235
ChApteR 14 Using Forms to Add or Change Data 261
ChApteR 15 Beyond HTML Forms: ColdFusion‑Powered Ajax 303
ChApteR 16 Graphing, Printing, and Reporting 325
ChApteR 17 Debugging and Troubleshooting 367
pARt 3 Building ColdFusion Applications 391
ChApteR 18 Introducing the Web Application Framework 393
ChApteR 19 Working with Sessions 435
ChApteR 20 Interacting with Email 475
ChApteR 21 Securing Your Applications 517
pARt 4 Appendices 555
Appendix A Installing ColdFusion and ColdFusion Builder 557
Appendix B Sample Application Data Files 563
Index 571
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