- What You Will Learn
- Approximate Time
- Lesson Files
- Dynamic Web Site Basics
- Choosing a Server Model
- Redefining the Newland Tours Site for Dynamic Development
- Developing with a Local Server
- Setting Up a Local Environment for IIS/ASP
- Setting Up a Local Environment for ColdFusion
- Setting Up a Local Environment for Apache/PHP
- Developing with a Remote Server
- Defining a Dynamic Site in Dreamweaver (All Users)
- Building a Simple, Dynamic Application
- What You Have Learned
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Setting Up a Local Environment for ColdFusion
Setting up ColdFusion locally for development purposes is easy, thanks to its installer.
- Initiate the ColdFusion installer from the CD or download the free developer edition from http://www.macromedia.com/coldfusion.
After a few moments, the installation begins.
- Select your language, read through the information, and click Next twice to proceed through the Introduction and License agreement
sections.
These sections both contain important information, so don’t just skip them.
- In the Install Type screen, you are prompted to enter your serial number. If you do not have one, check the Developer Edition
check box and click Next.
You can use the Developer Edition indefinitely for free. The key limitation is that it can only be tested from the local machine. That is, if a different computer on your network attempts to access a ColdFusion Web page that is powered by the Developer Edition, the user will see an error indicating that the maximum number of IP addresses has been exceeded.
If you were installing the Enterprise edition of the ColdFusion server, you would have a serial number, and the limit of one machine would be lifted.
- In the Install Configuration screen, leave the default at Server configuration. Click Next.
The other two options are for configuring a ColdFusion server to run on top of a J2EE server.
- Click Next again in the Sub-component Installation screen, leaving the three boxes checked.
Here you are installing all the subcomponent services of ColdFusion, as well as some additional documentation. For a local install, unless you have a good reason otherwise, it is a good idea to do a complete install.
- Accept the default and click Next in the Choose Install Directory screen.
This screen enables you to specify where the ColdFusion application files are installed.
- In the Web Server Selection screen, choose Built-In Web Server (if you are not running a Web server, such as IIS), or (if you are running a Web server) choose Configure Web server connector for ColdFusion MX and verify that your server
is listed in the Web Servers/Sites box.
As an application server, ColdFusion is not intended to fulfill the role of a Web server. On a real production site, another server, such as IIS or Apache typically fulfills this role.
In the development environment, one may not have a bona fide Web server available. Macromedia enables you to let ColdFusion fulfill the role of Web server for development purposes if you need; to activate it, choose built-in Web server.
If you already have a Web server installed, such as IIS or Apache, you can enable ColdFusion to connect to it, so that when that Web server sees ColdFusion code it does not understand, it knows to send it to the ColdFusion application server for processing.
Your choice here ultimately affects the URL you use to view ColdFusion pages, which is important when configuring Dreamweaver later in the lesson.
- Continue to finish the wizard, which is self-explanatory from this point forward.
The installation process may take several minutes to run, as it installs the ColdFusion server and starts it up.
When you are finished, a browser opens, which lets you into the ColdFusion administrator application. This application is itself running in ColdFusion. After logging in, you’ll be prompted to enter a password for RDS log-in. You will need this password to use many application development features in Dreamweaver, so do not disable this feature, and enter a password that you can remember.
You’ll need to click Next a couple more times and wait a few more minutes as ColdFusion finalizes the setup process. When you are dumped into the ColdFusion administrator application, you have finished the setup and can begin developing.
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