Advanced ColdFusion 8 Development provides ColdFusion application developers with the knowledge and hands-on practice that they need to build, maintain, and scale effective web applications. Topics include using the Application Framework, creating advanced queries, manipulating complex data in arrays and structures, structuring your code with ColdFusion Components, gracefully handling errors and exceptions, encapsulating your user-interface with custom tags, leveraging external Java code libraries, and creating highly interactive interfaces using Flash Forms. It includes optional content on exposing and reusing application functionality as web services and working with XML documents. This course focuses on creating and delivering scalable and well-performing applications.

Introducing the Course

• Getting familiar with the course methodology and format
• Understanding the course objectives
• Understanding the course prerequisites
• Configuring your Application
• Using the Application Framework
• Introducing CFC syntax
• Configuring application settings
• Handling application events
• Handling request events
• Locking shared scope variables
• Handling session events

Manipulating Lists and Queries

• Using lists
• Manipulating queries
• Summarizing and grouping data
• Transaction processing
• Querying a query

Manipulating Data with Arrays and Structures

• Using arrays
• Using structures
• Using built-in Adobe ColdFusion data structures
• Dynamically evaluating variables
• Combining data structures
• Accessing data by value or by reference

Building Adobe ColdFusion Components

• Reviewing Adobe ColdFusion Components
• Creating a static component
• Defining functions in components
• Invoking static CFC methods
• Using CFC self-generating documentation
• Creating instance based components
• Persisting CFC instances
• Using built-in components
• Inheriting methods, properties, and data between components
• Restricting access to component methods

Handling Errors and Exceptions

• Introducing error handling
• Customizing application error messages
• Understanding the try/catch methodology
• Learning about exception handling frameworks

Leveraging Code Reuse

• Writing code using <cfscript>
• Creating custom tags
• Nesting custom tags
• Using JSP tag libraries
• Calling a Java library

Creating Flash Forms

• Understanding Adobe Flash Forms
• Laying out Adobe Flash Forms
• Using data binding
• Working with a dynamic number of elements
• Setting default values for form fields
• Extending Adobe Flash Form interactivity with Adobe ActionScript
• Using <cfgrid>
• Controlling form appearance
• Extending Adobe Flash Forms with custom components

Scaling Applications

• Understanding performance, robustness, and scalability
• Effectively configuring the Adobe ColdFusion server
• Identifying scalability bottlenecks in your code
• Caching record sets
• Using <cf_Accelerate> to cache generated page contents
• Caching entire page results
• Using asynchronous processes to improve performance
• Supporting concurrency

Interfacing with External Systems (optional)

• Retrieving data from web pages
• Retrieving external text
• Importing text into a query object
• Creating web services
• Calling external web services

Using XML (optional)

• Introducing XML
• Creating XML documents
• Application of XML: Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
• Retrieving XML data from XML documents
• Validating an XML document
• Referencing data from an XML Document object
• Transforming XML to HTML

This course is for developers with prior Adobe ColdFusion experience. To take this course, you should have:

• Completed the Fast Track to Adobe ColdFusion 8 course or have equivalent experience from building Adobe ColdFusion applications.
• Experience developing web applications using Adobe ColdFusion for at least three months after taking the Fast Track to Adobe ColdFusion 8 course.
• Practical experience using CFML tags, functions, and variables.
• Practical experience with the SQL command set, including SELECT, INSERT, and UPDATE.

Web developers with Adobe ColdFusion experience will learn advanced techniques and develop the ability to create and manipulate complex data in queries, array and structures. Additionally, students will be able to build an application with the business logic and database access encapsulated in reusable Adobe ColdFusion components.

By the time students are finished with this course they will have knowledge of:

• Creating Complex Queries
• Persisting Data in the Application, Session and Client Scopes
• Reusing Code with Custom Tags
• Structuring Applications with Adobe ColdFusion Components
• Graphing Data
• Creating CFML Custom Tags for UI
• Handling Errors
• Reading XML using CFFILE and CFHTTP
• Exposing and Reusing Application Functionality as Web Services

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