Certified ColdFusion Developer Study Guide
Published on 3. May 2001
Book
Paperback/Softback
378 pages
978-0-7897-2565-3 (ISBN)
Description
The book will not teach ColdFusion, it will be a review guide and will provide helpful pointers for examinees. The book will look non-intimidating yet thorough, and will be highly readable in small bite-sized chunks.
Each subject will be presented in clear and direct language, with useful and well explained code examples. Sample questions will accompany each subject, as will references to recommended reading (Allaire documentation, Allaire course work, and existing MCP ColdFusion books).
Each subject will be presented in clear and direct language, with useful and well explained code examples. Sample questions will accompany each subject, as will references to recommended reading (Allaire documentation, Allaire course work, and existing MCP ColdFusion books).
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Publishing group
Pearson Education (US)
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
531 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7897-2565-3 (9780789725653)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Ben Forta is Allaire Corporation's Product Evangelist for the ColdFusion product line. He has more than 15 years of experience in the computer industry in product development, support, training, and product marketing. Ben is the author of the best-selling ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit (now in its third edition), and its sequel Advanced ColdFusion 4 Development (both published by Que), as well as titles on ColdFusion Express, Allaire Spectra, Allaire HomeSite, SQL, WAP, and JavaServer Pages (the complete list of his books can be found at http://www.forta.com/books/). Ben coauthored the official Allaire ColdFusion training courses, helped create the content for the Certified Developer exam, writes regular columns on ColdFusion and Internet development, and now spends a considerable amount of time lecturing and speaking on ColdFusion and Internet application development worldwide. Born in London, England, and educated in London, New York, and Los Angeles, Ben now lives in Oak Park, Michigan, with his wife, Marcy, and their six children. Ben welcomes your email at ben@forta.com, and invites you to visit his Web site at http://www.forta.com/.
Matthew Boles started training for Allaire in 1997, making him one of the first Allaire instructors. He is currently a Senior Instructor. In addition to training, Matthew also has some responsibility for curriculum development and instructor readiness. Matthew is also a certified Microsoft and Novell instructor.
Geoffrey Bowers was educated in Scotland and studied biochemistry at Oxford before returning home to Australia as an options derivatives dealer. Leaving the City, Geoff founded Daemon Internet Consultants in 1995 (http://www.daemon.com.au/) and has been building Web applications ever since. Based in Sydney, Geoff is the Allaire Master Instructor for Australasia and divides his time between teaching, consulting, and playing the ancient game of Real Tennis. He can be reached at modius@daemon.com.au.
Emily Kim is Director of Business Development and co-founder of Trilemetry, Inc., a Web design and programming company. She has coauthored a college-level workbook about the Internet and was contributing author to a popular ColdFusion book, and occasionally writes for ColdFusion magazines. She is also a Certified Allaire Instructor and teaches both ColdFusion and Spectra courses for Allaire. You can reach Emily at emily@trilemetry.com.
Matthew Reider has been working for commercial software vendors since 1992, beginning with the database driver team at Q+E in Raleigh, North Carolina. Initially, Allaire hired Matt to manage West Coast partner and customer relationships. After joining the education team as a Master Instructor in 1999, he coauthored the Advanced ColdFusion, Advanced Spectra Development, and Fast-track to JRun curriculum. Before joining Allaire, Matt enjoyed a position at Sybase as a product specialist for the Watcom SQL database family. Matt loves to backpack in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
Matthew Boles started training for Allaire in 1997, making him one of the first Allaire instructors. He is currently a Senior Instructor. In addition to training, Matthew also has some responsibility for curriculum development and instructor readiness. Matthew is also a certified Microsoft and Novell instructor.
Geoffrey Bowers was educated in Scotland and studied biochemistry at Oxford before returning home to Australia as an options derivatives dealer. Leaving the City, Geoff founded Daemon Internet Consultants in 1995 (http://www.daemon.com.au/) and has been building Web applications ever since. Based in Sydney, Geoff is the Allaire Master Instructor for Australasia and divides his time between teaching, consulting, and playing the ancient game of Real Tennis. He can be reached at modius@daemon.com.au.
Emily Kim is Director of Business Development and co-founder of Trilemetry, Inc., a Web design and programming company. She has coauthored a college-level workbook about the Internet and was contributing author to a popular ColdFusion book, and occasionally writes for ColdFusion magazines. She is also a Certified Allaire Instructor and teaches both ColdFusion and Spectra courses for Allaire. You can reach Emily at emily@trilemetry.com.
Matthew Reider has been working for commercial software vendors since 1992, beginning with the database driver team at Q+E in Raleigh, North Carolina. Initially, Allaire hired Matt to manage West Coast partner and customer relationships. After joining the education team as a Master Instructor in 1999, he coauthored the Advanced ColdFusion, Advanced Spectra Development, and Fast-track to JRun curriculum. Before joining Allaire, Matt enjoyed a position at Sybase as a product specialist for the Watcom SQL database family. Matt loves to backpack in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
Content
(NOTE: Each Chapter ends with Summary and Sample Questions.)I. THE BASICS.
1. Web Technology and Terminology.
The Basics. The Internet.
IP. DNS.
The World Wide Web.
Web Servers. Web Browsers.
Application Servers. ColdFusion Fundamentals.
How ColdFusion Works.
2. Working with Variables and Expressions.
What Are Variables and Expressions? Variables and Type. Variable Prefixes.
Reason One to Use Prefixes: Performance. Reason Two to Use Prefixes: Avoiding Ambiguity. A Reason Not to Use Prefixes: Flexibility.
Creating Local Variables. Using Local Variables. Variables and the Request Scope. Functions.
Nested Functions. Functions with Masks.
Strings.
Constant String Manipulation. Regular Expression String Manipulation.
3. Conditional Processing.
What Is Conditional Processing? Performing Conditional Processing.
. . Nested Statements. More Details of Boolean. Expressions.
Conditional Statements.
. IsDefined(). Hidden Form Controls.
4. Looping.
What Is Looping?
Index. Conditional. Query. List. Collection.
Using with .
Nested Loops.
5. Redirects and Reuse.
Redirects. Using Redirection.
HTTP Headers.
Using HTTP Headers. Reuse.
Reuse and Including Files. ColdFusion Mappings. Web Server Mappings. Variable Scoping and .
Generating Non-HTML Content.
6. The Application Framework.
What Is the Application Framework?
Application.cfm. OnRequestEnd.cfm. Multiple Application.cfm Files.
7. Using Databases.
How to Connect to Databases.
Adding a Datasource.
Connecting to the Database. Simplified Database Connectivity. Displaying Data.
Grouping Data with .
II. VARIABLES AND EXPRESSIONS.
8. URL Variables.
What Is a URL Variable? How Are URL Variables Created?
Passing Multiple Variables at Once. Passing Complicated Strings.
What Is the Scope of a URL Variable? Using URL Variables.
Dynamic.
9. FORM Variables.
What Is a FORM Variable? How Are FORM Variables Created? Building Database-Driven Form Elements. Server-Side Validation. Client-Side Validation. What Is the Scope of a FORM Variable? The Action Page.
10. APPLICATION and SERVER Variables.
Understanding APPLICATION and SERVER Variables. APPLICATION Variable Scope. Creating APPLICATION Variables. Creating SERVER Variables.
11. Session State Management.
What Is Session State Management? Cookies.
Making Cookies. Using Cookies. A Cookie's Scope.
SESSION Variables.
Preparing to Use SESSION Variables. Using SESSION Variables. Creating SESSION Variables.
CLIENT Variables.
Preparing CLIENT Variable Storage. Creating CLIENT Variables. Using CLIENT Variables.
Which Variables Should I Use?
12. Locking.
Understanding Locking. Locking Strategies. Attributes.
Using the NAME Attribute. Using the SCOPE Attribute. READONLY Locks.
Server-Based Settings.
Option 1 (No Checking Done by ColdFusion Server). Option 2 (Full Checking Done by ColdFusion Server). Option 3 (Automatic Read Locking).
Dealing with Deadlocks.
III. DATA TYPES.
13. Lists.
Understanding Lists. Working with Lists.
Creating Lists. Accessing List Elements. Modifying Lists. Specifying Delimiters.
Using Lists.
When to Use Lists (and When Not To). Sorting Lists. Looping Through Lists. Nested Lists. Special Lists.
14. Arrays.
Understanding Arrays.
When to Use Arrays. When Not to Use Arrays.
Using Arrays.
Creating Arrays. Populating Arrays. Converting Between Arrays and Lists. Printing Array Values. Empty Array Indexes. Arrays and Memory. Compressing Arrays.
Multidimensional Arrays.
Two-Dimensional Arrays. Three-Dimensional Arrays. Looping Over and Printing Multidimensional Arrays.
15. Structures.
Structures Defined.
When to Use Structures. Creating Structures.
Types of Structures. Looping Over Structures. Internal Structures. Combining Complex Data.
Arrays of Structures. Structures of Arrays. Structures of Structures.
Structures as Pointers. Referring to Queries Using Structure and Array Syntax.
IV. ADVANCED COLDFUSION.
16. Scripting.
.
Benefits of . Drawbacks of .
Variable Assignment. Conditional Processing.
IF Examples. SWITCH/CASE Examples.
Looping.
FOR Loop. WHILE Loop. DO-WHILE Loop. FOR-IN Statement.
Invoking Objects.
17. Dynamic Functions.
Using Dynamic Functions.
IIf(). DE(). Evaluate().
18. Stored Procedures.
Using Stored Procedures. Versus . Using .
. .
Multiple Recordsets.
19. Transactions.
Using Transactions.
Locking. Isolation.
. Controlling Commits.
COMMIT. ROLLBACK.
20. Debugging.
Debugging Overview. Exposed Information.
Performance Monitoring. Stack Trace. Show Variables. Show Processing Time. Detail View. Show SQL and Datasource Name. Show Query Information. Display Template Path.
Manual Debugging. ColdFusion Studio Debugger. Log Files.
21. Error Handling.
Understanding ColdFusion Error Handling.
. .
Exception Handling.
/. . .
and Exceptions.
. .
and Together. Sitewide Error Handler. Missing Template Handler.
V. EXTENDING COLDFUSION.
22. Custom Tags.
What Is a Custom Tag? Why Use Custom Tags? Simple Custom Tags. Calling Custom Tags.
Simple Syntax (CF_). .
Attributes. Caller Scope.
23. Advanced Custom Tags.
What Are Advanced Custom Tags? Tag Pairs. ThisTag Scope.
ThisTag.ExecutionMode. ThisTag.HasEndTag. ThisTag.GeneratedContent.
Child Tags. Custom Tag Functions.
GetBaseTagList(). GetBaseTagData().
.
24. COM, CORBA, CFX, and Java.
Extending CF with Other Technology. Working with Components and .
COM and DCOM. CORBA. Java Objects and EJB.
CFX.
Java. JSP. .
25. WDDX.
XML Overview. XML and WDDX. CFWDDX. Using WDDX with Other Technology.
VI. SERVICES AND PROTOCOLS.
26. Full Text Searching.
Understanding Full Text Searching. Verity Collections.
Creating and Indexing Collections. Maintaining Collections. Optimizing Collections.
Creating a Search Interface.
27. System Integration.
Server File Management.
Working with Files. Uploading Files to the Server. Delivering Files from the Server. Working with Directories.
Registry Integration. Executing from the Command Line.
28. Scheduling and Event Execution.
Scheduling Events in ColdFusion.
Scheduling a Task. Publishing to Static Pages. Logging Scheduled Events.
Alternative Scheduling Options.
29. Email Integration.
Sending Mail with ColdFusion.
Sending Simple Text Email. Sending HTML Email.
Query-Driven Email.
Sending File Attachments. Additional Mail Headers.
Retrieving POP Mail.
POP Dates. File Attachments. Deleting Mail.
Troubleshooting ColdFusion Mail.
30. LDAP.
Understanding LDAP. Connecting to LDAP.
31. Other Internet Protocols.
Using HTTP Agents.
Creating HTTP Agents. Remote Data File Queries. Troubleshooting HTTP Agents. Page Scraping. Back-End Pages and Robots.
FTP Agents.
VII. DATABASES.
32. Basic SQL.
Database Basics. The SELECT Statement.
Specifying the Data to Retrieve. Specifying the Table. Filtering. Sorting.
The INSERT Statement. The UPDATE Statement. The DELETE Statement.
33. Joins.
Understanding Relational Database Design. Understanding Joins.
Basic Join Syntax. Inner Joins. Outer Joins. Self-Joins.
Sample Questions.
34. Aggregates.
Understanding Aggregate Functions. Using Aggregate Functions.
Handling NULL Values. Processing Distinct Values.
Grouping Results. Filtering Results.
35. Advanced Database Features.
Constraints.
Unique Constraints. Check Constraints.
Understanding Indexes. Stored Procedures. Triggers. Bind Parameters.
36. Improving Performance.
Eliminating Unnecessary Database Access.
Variable-Based Query Caching. Query Result Caching.
Reducing Data Transfer Time.
VIII. TUNING AND OPTIMIZATION.
37. Application Performance Tuning and Optimization.
Employing Effective ColdFusion Coding.
Different Variable Scopes and Performance. Don't Nest , and Unless Absolutely Necessary. Versus Multiple Tags. Optimize Conditional. Expressions in . Unnecessary Dynamic Expression Evaluation. Code Reuse: Versus Custom Tags. Type Your Variables When Performance Counts. Use Variable Prefixes.
Don't Do the Database's Job with ColdFusion. Enforcing Strict Attribute Validation. Using . Measuring Performance.
Execution Time. Exploded Benchmarking. Using GetTickCount().
Finding Bottlenecks.
38. Server Performance Tuning.
OS. Web Server. Application Server. Separate Servers for Separate Tasks. Specific Tuning Techniques (CF Admin Settings).
Template Cache/P-Code Caching. Trusted Cache. Simultaneous Requests.
Monitoring Server Performance.
Performance Monitor. CFSTAT.
IX. APPENDIX.
Appendix A. Answers.
Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Chapter 9. Chapter 10. Chapter 11. Chapter 12. Chapter 13. Chapter 14. Chapter 15. Chapter 16. Chapter 17. Chapter 18. Chapter 19. Chapter 20. Chapter 21. Chapter 22. Chapter 23. Chapter 24. Chapter 25. Chapter 26. Chapter 27. Chapter 28. Chapter 29. Chapter 30. Chapter 31. Chapter 32. Chapter 33. Chapter 34. Chapter 35. Chapter 36. Chapter 37. Chapter 38.
Index.
1. Web Technology and Terminology.
The Basics. The Internet.
IP. DNS.
The World Wide Web.
Web Servers. Web Browsers.
Application Servers. ColdFusion Fundamentals.
How ColdFusion Works.
2. Working with Variables and Expressions.
What Are Variables and Expressions? Variables and Type. Variable Prefixes.
Reason One to Use Prefixes: Performance. Reason Two to Use Prefixes: Avoiding Ambiguity. A Reason Not to Use Prefixes: Flexibility.
Creating Local Variables. Using Local Variables. Variables and the Request Scope. Functions.
Nested Functions. Functions with Masks.
Strings.
Constant String Manipulation. Regular Expression String Manipulation.
3. Conditional Processing.
What Is Conditional Processing? Performing Conditional Processing.
. . Nested Statements. More Details of Boolean. Expressions.
Conditional Statements.
. IsDefined(). Hidden Form Controls.
4. Looping.
What Is Looping?
Index. Conditional. Query. List. Collection.
Using with .
Nested Loops.
5. Redirects and Reuse.
Redirects. Using Redirection.
HTTP Headers.
Using HTTP Headers. Reuse.
Reuse and Including Files. ColdFusion Mappings. Web Server Mappings. Variable Scoping and .
Generating Non-HTML Content.
6. The Application Framework.
What Is the Application Framework?
Application.cfm. OnRequestEnd.cfm. Multiple Application.cfm Files.
7. Using Databases.
How to Connect to Databases.
Adding a Datasource.
Connecting to the Database. Simplified Database Connectivity. Displaying Data.
Grouping Data with .
II. VARIABLES AND EXPRESSIONS.
8. URL Variables.
What Is a URL Variable? How Are URL Variables Created?
Passing Multiple Variables at Once. Passing Complicated Strings.
What Is the Scope of a URL Variable? Using URL Variables.
Dynamic.
9. FORM Variables.
What Is a FORM Variable? How Are FORM Variables Created? Building Database-Driven Form Elements. Server-Side Validation. Client-Side Validation. What Is the Scope of a FORM Variable? The Action Page.
10. APPLICATION and SERVER Variables.
Understanding APPLICATION and SERVER Variables. APPLICATION Variable Scope. Creating APPLICATION Variables. Creating SERVER Variables.
11. Session State Management.
What Is Session State Management? Cookies.
Making Cookies. Using Cookies. A Cookie's Scope.
SESSION Variables.
Preparing to Use SESSION Variables. Using SESSION Variables. Creating SESSION Variables.
CLIENT Variables.
Preparing CLIENT Variable Storage. Creating CLIENT Variables. Using CLIENT Variables.
Which Variables Should I Use?
12. Locking.
Understanding Locking. Locking Strategies. Attributes.
Using the NAME Attribute. Using the SCOPE Attribute. READONLY Locks.
Server-Based Settings.
Option 1 (No Checking Done by ColdFusion Server). Option 2 (Full Checking Done by ColdFusion Server). Option 3 (Automatic Read Locking).
Dealing with Deadlocks.
III. DATA TYPES.
13. Lists.
Understanding Lists. Working with Lists.
Creating Lists. Accessing List Elements. Modifying Lists. Specifying Delimiters.
Using Lists.
When to Use Lists (and When Not To). Sorting Lists. Looping Through Lists. Nested Lists. Special Lists.
14. Arrays.
Understanding Arrays.
When to Use Arrays. When Not to Use Arrays.
Using Arrays.
Creating Arrays. Populating Arrays. Converting Between Arrays and Lists. Printing Array Values. Empty Array Indexes. Arrays and Memory. Compressing Arrays.
Multidimensional Arrays.
Two-Dimensional Arrays. Three-Dimensional Arrays. Looping Over and Printing Multidimensional Arrays.
15. Structures.
Structures Defined.
When to Use Structures. Creating Structures.
Types of Structures. Looping Over Structures. Internal Structures. Combining Complex Data.
Arrays of Structures. Structures of Arrays. Structures of Structures.
Structures as Pointers. Referring to Queries Using Structure and Array Syntax.
IV. ADVANCED COLDFUSION.
16. Scripting.
.
Benefits of . Drawbacks of .
Variable Assignment. Conditional Processing.
IF Examples. SWITCH/CASE Examples.
Looping.
FOR Loop. WHILE Loop. DO-WHILE Loop. FOR-IN Statement.
Invoking Objects.
17. Dynamic Functions.
Using Dynamic Functions.
IIf(). DE(). Evaluate().
18. Stored Procedures.
Using Stored Procedures. Versus . Using .
. .
Multiple Recordsets.
19. Transactions.
Using Transactions.
Locking. Isolation.
. Controlling Commits.
COMMIT. ROLLBACK.
20. Debugging.
Debugging Overview. Exposed Information.
Performance Monitoring. Stack Trace. Show Variables. Show Processing Time. Detail View. Show SQL and Datasource Name. Show Query Information. Display Template Path.
Manual Debugging. ColdFusion Studio Debugger. Log Files.
21. Error Handling.
Understanding ColdFusion Error Handling.
. .
Exception Handling.
/. . .
and Exceptions.
. .
and Together. Sitewide Error Handler. Missing Template Handler.
V. EXTENDING COLDFUSION.
22. Custom Tags.
What Is a Custom Tag? Why Use Custom Tags? Simple Custom Tags. Calling Custom Tags.
Simple Syntax (CF_). .
Attributes. Caller Scope.
23. Advanced Custom Tags.
What Are Advanced Custom Tags? Tag Pairs. ThisTag Scope.
ThisTag.ExecutionMode. ThisTag.HasEndTag. ThisTag.GeneratedContent.
Child Tags. Custom Tag Functions.
GetBaseTagList(). GetBaseTagData().
.
24. COM, CORBA, CFX, and Java.
Extending CF with Other Technology. Working with Components and .
COM and DCOM. CORBA. Java Objects and EJB.
CFX.
Java. JSP. .
25. WDDX.
XML Overview. XML and WDDX. CFWDDX. Using WDDX with Other Technology.
VI. SERVICES AND PROTOCOLS.
26. Full Text Searching.
Understanding Full Text Searching. Verity Collections.
Creating and Indexing Collections. Maintaining Collections. Optimizing Collections.
Creating a Search Interface.
27. System Integration.
Server File Management.
Working with Files. Uploading Files to the Server. Delivering Files from the Server. Working with Directories.
Registry Integration. Executing from the Command Line.
28. Scheduling and Event Execution.
Scheduling Events in ColdFusion.
Scheduling a Task. Publishing to Static Pages. Logging Scheduled Events.
Alternative Scheduling Options.
29. Email Integration.
Sending Mail with ColdFusion.
Sending Simple Text Email. Sending HTML Email.
Query-Driven Email.
Sending File Attachments. Additional Mail Headers.
Retrieving POP Mail.
POP Dates. File Attachments. Deleting Mail.
Troubleshooting ColdFusion Mail.
30. LDAP.
Understanding LDAP. Connecting to LDAP.
31. Other Internet Protocols.
Using HTTP Agents.
Creating HTTP Agents. Remote Data File Queries. Troubleshooting HTTP Agents. Page Scraping. Back-End Pages and Robots.
FTP Agents.
VII. DATABASES.
32. Basic SQL.
Database Basics. The SELECT Statement.
Specifying the Data to Retrieve. Specifying the Table. Filtering. Sorting.
The INSERT Statement. The UPDATE Statement. The DELETE Statement.
33. Joins.
Understanding Relational Database Design. Understanding Joins.
Basic Join Syntax. Inner Joins. Outer Joins. Self-Joins.
Sample Questions.
34. Aggregates.
Understanding Aggregate Functions. Using Aggregate Functions.
Handling NULL Values. Processing Distinct Values.
Grouping Results. Filtering Results.
35. Advanced Database Features.
Constraints.
Unique Constraints. Check Constraints.
Understanding Indexes. Stored Procedures. Triggers. Bind Parameters.
36. Improving Performance.
Eliminating Unnecessary Database Access.
Variable-Based Query Caching. Query Result Caching.
Reducing Data Transfer Time.
VIII. TUNING AND OPTIMIZATION.
37. Application Performance Tuning and Optimization.
Employing Effective ColdFusion Coding.
Different Variable Scopes and Performance. Don't Nest , and Unless Absolutely Necessary. Versus Multiple Tags. Optimize Conditional. Expressions in . Unnecessary Dynamic Expression Evaluation. Code Reuse: Versus Custom Tags. Type Your Variables When Performance Counts. Use Variable Prefixes.
Don't Do the Database's Job with ColdFusion. Enforcing Strict Attribute Validation. Using . Measuring Performance.
Execution Time. Exploded Benchmarking. Using GetTickCount().
Finding Bottlenecks.
38. Server Performance Tuning.
OS. Web Server. Application Server. Separate Servers for Separate Tasks. Specific Tuning Techniques (CF Admin Settings).
Template Cache/P-Code Caching. Trusted Cache. Simultaneous Requests.
Monitoring Server Performance.
Performance Monitor. CFSTAT.
IX. APPENDIX.
Appendix A. Answers.
Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Chapter 9. Chapter 10. Chapter 11. Chapter 12. Chapter 13. Chapter 14. Chapter 15. Chapter 16. Chapter 17. Chapter 18. Chapter 19. Chapter 20. Chapter 21. Chapter 22. Chapter 23. Chapter 24. Chapter 25. Chapter 26. Chapter 27. Chapter 28. Chapter 29. Chapter 30. Chapter 31. Chapter 32. Chapter 33. Chapter 34. Chapter 35. Chapter 36. Chapter 37. Chapter 38.
Index.