ColdFusion
<World-Wide Web, database, tool> Allaire Corporation's commercial
database application development tool that allows databases to have a
World-Wide Web interface, so a database can be queried and updated using a
web browser.
The ColdFusion Server application runs on the
web server and has access to a
database.
ColdFusion files on the web server are
HTML pages with additional ColdFusion commands to
query or update the database, written in
CFML.
When the page is requested by the user, the
web server passes the page to the Cold Fusion application, which executes the
CFML commands, places the results of the
CFML commands in the
HTML file, and returns the page to the
web server.
The page returned to the
web server is now an ordinary
HTML file, and it is sent to the user.
Examples of ColdFusion applications include order entry, event registration, catalogue search, directories, calendars, and interactive training.
ColdFusion applications are robust because all database interactions are encapsulated in a single industrial-strength
CGI script.
The formatting and presentation can be modified and revised at any time (as opposed to having to edit and recompile
source code).
ColdFusion Server can connect with any database that supports
ODBC or OLE DB or one that has a native database driver. Native database drivers are available for Oracle and Sybase 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.
Current version: MX(6), as of 2003-07-11.
The
filename extension for ColdFusion files is .cfm
Home (http://www.coldfusion.com/).
