MACROMEDIA COLFUSION MX 7-GETTING STARTED BUILDING COLDFUSION..., Getting Started

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Building applications with CFML 13
Building applications with CFML
You build ColdFusion applications as a series of pages that use CFML. Developers can extend this
language by creating their own custom tags or user-defined functions (UDF), or by integrating
COM, C++, and Java components, such as Java Server Page (JSP) tag libraries.
Interacting with data sources
ColdFusion applications can interact with any database that supports a JDBC technology-based
driver. A JDBC technology-based driver uses an Application Programming Interface (API) to
execute SQL statements to databases on most platforms. However, ColdFusion is not limited to
JDBC data sources. You can also interact with existing Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)
data sources by using ODBC Socket, a driver that interacts with an existing ODBC driver.
Interacting with mobile devices
ColdFusion MX 7 lets you create applications that can respond to events and messages from
diverse sources, including instant messaging, mobile phone Short Message Service (SMS) text
messages, Internet socket requests, and system events. For information, see
Chapter 42, “Using
Event Gateways” in ColdFusion MX Developer’s Guide .
Development tools
You can code your ColdFusion application with NotePad or any HTML editor; however,
Macromedia recommends that you build your applications using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX.
Dreamweaver MX offers features and wizards that enhance ColdFusion development. For more
information about Dreamweaver MX, see
Chapter 5, “Lesson 2: Configuring Your
Development Environment,” on page 49 .