About Coldfusion Mx; The Coldfusion Scripting Environment; Coldfusion Markup Language - MACROMEDIA COLDFUSION MX 61-DEVELOPING COLDFUSION MX Develop Manual

About ColdFusion MX

ColdFusion MX is a rapid scripting environment server for creating Rich Internet Applications.
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is an easy-to-learn tag-based scripting language, with
connectivity to enterprise data and powerful built-in search and charting capabilities. ColdFusion
MX enables developers to easily build and deploy dynamic websites, content publishing systems,
self-service applications, commerce sites, and more.
ColdFusion MX consists of the following core components:
•
ColdFusion scripting environment
•
CFML
•
ColdFusion application services
•
ColdFusion MX Administrator
The following sections describe these core components in more detail.

The ColdFusion scripting environment

The ColdFusion scripting environment provides an efficient development model for Internet
applications. At the heart of the ColdFusion scripting environment is the ColdFusion Markup
Language (CFML), a tag-based programming language that encapsulates many of the low-level
details of web programming in high-level tags and functions.

ColdFusion Markup Language

ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based language, similar to HTML, that uses
special tags and functions. With CFML, you can enhance standard HTML files with database
commands, conditional operators, high-level formatting functions, and other elements to rapidly
produce easy-to-maintain web applications. However, CFML is not limited to enhancing
HTML. For example, you can create Macromedia Flash MX applications that consist entirely of
Flash elements and CFML. Similarly, you can use CFML to create web services for use by other
applications.
The following sections briefly describe basic CFML elements. For more information, see
2, "Elements of CFML," on page
CFML tags
CFML looks similar to HTML—it includes starting and, in most cases, ending tags, and each tag
is enclosed in angle brackets. All ending tags are preceded with a forward slash (/) and all tag
names are preceded with
<cftagname>
tag body text and CFML
</cftagname>
CFML increases productivity by providing a layer of abstraction that hides many low-level details
involved with Internet application programming. At the same time, CFML is extremely powerful
and flexible. ColdFusion lets you easily build applications that integrate files, databases, legacy
systems, mail servers, FTP servers, objects, and components.
30 Chapter 1: Introduction to ColdFusion MX
39.
; for example:
cf
Chapter