Course Outline
Advanced ColdFusion MX Development
Delivery Method: Instructor-led Classroom Learning
Duration: 3 Days
Overview:
Advanced ColdFusion MX Development provides ColdFusion application developers with the knowledge and hands-on practice they need to build, maintain, and scale effective web applications.
This new curriculum is packed with information. The first seven units are considered the core units for the class and will be fully discussed. The instructor and participants will then choose two more units (from the remaining four) to discuss in class.
At Course Completion:
- Understand, create, and manipulate complex data in queries, arrays, and structures
- Persist data across pages in the application, session, and client scopes
- Create user-defined functions to encapsulate commonly used functionality
- Build an application with the business logic and database access encapsulated in reusable ColdFusion components
- Understand how to reuse code in custom tags
- Graph data with ColdFusion
- Build structured exception handling within an application
- Index and search both documents and record sets using the Verity search engine
- Exchange data across the Internet using WDDX, XML, and web services
Outline:
- Lesson 1: Introducing the Course
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About the Course
Course Objectives
Course Prerequisites
Course Format
Internet Applications: The Big Picture
Macromedia Training
- Lesson 2: Creating Advanced Queries
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The Query Object
Toolbox: ‹cfdump›
Summarizing and Grouping Data
Transaction Processing
Querying a Query
Query Caching
- Lesson 3: Manipulating Data With Structures
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Understanding Structures
Creating Structures
Manipulating Structures with Functions
Toolbox: Variable Naming Conventions
Looping Over Structures
Using Built-in ColdFusion Data Structures
Dynamically Evaluating Variables
- Lesson 4: Working With Lists and Arrays
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Understanding Lists
Understanding Arrays
Manipulating Arrays with Functions
Looping Over Arrays
Combining Data Structures
Accessing Data by Value or Reference
- Lesson 5: Persisting Data Across Pages
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Persistent Variables
Application Variables
Locking Shared-Scope Variables
HTTP Cookie Variables
Session Variables
Client Variables
Toolbox: WDDX
- Lesson 6: Building User-Defined Functions
-
Introducing User-Defined Functions
Creating User-Defined Functions
Using Variables in Functions
Passing Arguments to UDFs
Storing UDFs
- Lesson 7: Structuring Applications With ColdFusion Components
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Introducing ColdFusion Components
Creating a Static Component
Using CFC Self-Generating Documentation
Invoking CFC Methods
Instance-Based Components
Creating Instance-Based Components
Persisting CFC Instances
- Lesson 8: Reusing Code With Custom Tags
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Understanding Custom Tags
Custom Tag Attributes
Setting Results on the Calling Page
Calling Custom Tags
Toolbox: Graphing Data With ‹cfchart›
Using Custom Tags With End Tags (optional)
- Lesson 9: Handling Errors
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Introducing Error Handling
Customizing Application Error Messages
Understanding the Try/Catch Methodology
Error-Handling Strategies
- Lesson 10: Searching With Verity
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Searching Documents Using Verity
Toolbox: Self-Posting Forms
Searching Record Sets Using Verity
Comparing Document and Record-Set Searching
Beyond Verity Basics
- Lesson 11: Exchanging Data Across the Internet
-
Exchanging Data Over the Internet
Introducing ‹cfhttp›
Retrieving Text With ‹cfhttp›
Retrieving WDDX Packets With ‹cfhttp›
Introducing XML
Creating XML Documents
Retrieving XML Data From XML Documents
Using Web Services
Pre-requisite(s):
To gain the most from this class, you should already have:
- Completion of the Fast Track to ColdFusion MX course, or other equivalent experience building ColdFusion applications
- Experience developing web applications using ColdFusion for at least three months upon completion of the Fast Track to ColdFusion MX course
- Practical experience using CFML tags, functions, and variables
- Practical experience with the SQL command set, including Select, Insert, and Update