ColdFusion


ColdFusion

(World-Wide Web, database, tool)Allaire Corporation'scommercial database application development tool that allowsdatabases to have a World-Wide Web interface, so adatabase can be queried and updated using a web browser.

The ColdFusion Server application runs on the web server andhas access to a database. ColdFusion files on the webserver are HTML pages with additional ColdFusion commands toquery or update the database, written in CFML. When thepage is requested by the user, the web server passes thepage to the Cold Fusion application, which executes the CFMLcommands, places the results of the CFML commands in theHTML file, and returns the page to the web server. Thepage returned to the web server is now an ordinary HTMLfile, and it is sent to the user.

Examples of ColdFusion applications include order entry, eventregistration, catalogue search, directories, calendars, andinteractive training. ColdFusion applications are robustbecause all database interactions are encapsulated in a singleindustrial-strength CGI script. The formatting andpresentation can be modified and revised at any time (asopposed to having to edit and recompile source code).

ColdFusion Server can connect with any database that supportsODBC or OLE DB or one that has a native database driver.Native database drivers are available for Oracle andSybase databases.

ColdFusion is available for Windows, Solaris, and HP-UX.A development environment for creating ColdFusion files,called ColdFusion Studio, is also available for Windows.

Latest version: MX(6), as of 2003-07-11.

The filename extension for ColdFusion files is .cfm

http://coldfusion.com/.

ColdFusion

An application development tool from Adobe for writing Web pages that interact with databases. Instead of writing tedious CGI and Perl scripts, operations are coded in the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) which uses HTML-like tags embedded in the Web pages.

The ColdFusion engine, which interfaces with a Windows-based Web server, interprets the codes, accesses the database and delivers the results as HTML pages for the Web browser. ColdFusion was originally developed by Allaire Corporation, Cambridge, MA, which merged with Macromedia in 2001. In 2005, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe.