Set up a ColdFusion application server

To set up a ColdFusion development environment, you must first set up or get access to a ColdFusion application server. An application server is software that helps a web server process web pages containing server-side scripts or tags. When such a page is requested by a browser, the web server hands the page off to the application server for processing before sending the page to the browser.

This section describes how to install ColdFusion 8 Developer Edition on your Windows or Macintosh computer.

The ColdFusion 8 Developer Edition is for non-commercial use for developing and testing web applications. It is not licensed for deployment. It supports requests from the local host and two remote IP addresses. You can use it to develop and test your web applications as long as you want; the software does not expire.

This section contains the following topics:

• Install ColdFusion on your Windows computer
• Install ColdFusion on your Macintosh
• Test the ColdFusion server
• Create a root folder for your application

Install ColdFusion on your Windows computer

To install ColdFusion on your Windows computer:

1. On the ColdFusion downloads page, select the Windows version of the ColdFusion 8 Developer Edition and then click Download.
2. If applicable, log in to your system using the Administrator user account.
3. Close all open applications.
4. Double-click the ColdFusion 8 installer file.
5. Follow the onscreen installation instructions.

Some screens in the Installation Wizard are self-explanatory. For the following screens, however, select the following options:

At the Installer Configuration screen (see Figure 1), select the Server Configuration option.

Figure 1. Selecting Server Configuration at the Installer Configuration screen (Windows).

At the Select Installation Directory screen (see Figure 2), accept the default C:\ColdFusion8 folder by clicking Next.

Figure 2. Selecting the installation directory at the Select Installation Directory screen (Windows).

At the Configure Web Server/Websites screen (see Figure 3), select the Built-in Web Server option at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 3. Selecting the Built-in Server option at the Configure Web Server screen (Windows).

At the Enable RDS screen (see Figure 4), make sure the Enable RDS option is selected, and then enter and confirm a password.

Figure 4. Enabling the RDS option before entering a password at the Enable RDS screen (Windows).

For more information, see Installing and Using ColdFusion on the Adobe website.

After installing and starting ColdFusion, test the server as described in "Test the ColdFusion server."

Install ColdFusion on your Macintosh

To install ColdFusion on your Macintosh:

1. On the ColdFusion downloads page, select the Mac OS X version of the ColdFusion 8 Developer Edition and then click Download.
2. If applicable, log in to your Macintosh using the Administrator user account.
3. Close all open applications.
4. Unzip the downloaded file and then double-click the ColdFusion 8 Installer file.
5. Follow the onscreen installation instructions.

Some screens in the Installation Wizard are self-explanatory. For the following screens, however, select the following options:

At the Install Type screen (see Figure 5), select the Developer Edition option. You don't need a serial number to install and run this edition indefinitely.

Figure 5. Selecting the Developer Edition at the Install Type screen (Macintosh).

At the Installer Configuration screen (see Figure 6), select the Server Configuration option.

Figure 6. Selecting the Server Configuration option at the Installer Configuration screen (Macintosh).

At the Select Installation Directory screen (see Figure 7), accept the default Applications/ColdFusion8 folder by clicking Next.

Figure 7. Selecting the installation directory at the Select Installation Directory screen (Macintosh).

At the Configure Web Server/Websites screen (see Figure 8), select the Built-in Web Server option at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 8. Selecting the Built-in Server option at the Configure Web Server screen (Macintosh).

At the Enable RDS screen (see Figure 9), make sure the Enable RDS option is selected, and then enter and confirm a password.

Figure 9. Enabling the RDS option before entering a password at the RDS Password screen (Macintosh).

After the ColdFusion has finished installing, log in to the Configuration Wizard. The wizard guides you through the remaining server configuration steps.

For more information on configuring the server, see Installing and Using ColdFusion on the Adobe website.

Test the ColdFusion server

To test the ColdFusion server:

1. Make sure the ColdFusion server is started.

   Depending on your decision during the installation, ColdFusion may start automatically when you start your computer or you may have to start it manually.

   To start ColdFusion manually in Windows, select Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools, then double-click Services. Right-click ColdFusion 8 Application Server and select Start. Right-click and start ColdFusion 8 ODBC Server and ColdFusion 8 ODBC Agent.

   To start ColdFusion manually on a Macintosh, open Finder, go to Applications/ColdFusion8, and double-click ColdFusionLauncher. In the ColdFusionLauncher dialog box, click Start ColdFusion 8.

2. In Dreamweaver, or any text editor, create a plain-text file, and call it timetest.cfm.

3. In the file, enter the following code:

   <p>This page was created at <b>
   <cfoutput>#TimeFormat(Now(), "HH:mm:ss")#</cfoutput>
   </b> on the computer running ColdFusion.</p> 

   This code displays the time when the page was processed on the server.

4. Copy the file to the web root folder of the computer running ColdFusion.

   If ColdFusion is running on your local computer, copy the file to the following folder:

   Windows: C:\ColdFusion8\wwwroot\

   Macintosh: Applications/ColdFusion8/wwwroot/

5. In your web browser, enter the URL of your test page, and then press Enter.

If ColdFusion is running on your local computer, enter the following URL:

http://localhost:8500/timetest.cfm

By default, the ColdFusion server uses port 8500.

If the test page opens and displays the current time, the application server is running normally. The specified time is known as dynamic content because it changes every time you request the page. Click your browser's Refresh button to generate a new page with a different time.

Note: Looking at the source code (View > Source In Internet Explorer) will confirm that the page does not use any client-side JavaScript to achieve this effect.

If the page doesn't work as expected, check for the following possible errors:

• The file does not have a .cfm extension.
• You typed the page's file path (for example, C:\ColdFusion8\wwwroot\timetest.cfm) instead of its URL (for example, http://localhost:8500/timetest.cfm) in the browser's address text box.

If you type a file path in the browser (as you might be used to doing with normal HTML pages), you bypass the web server and application server. As a result, your page never gets processed by the server.

• The URL contains a typing mistake. Check for errors and make sure the filename is not followed by a slash, such as http://localhost/timetest.cfm/.
• The page code contains a typing mistake.

After successfully installing and testing the server software, create a root folder for your web application.

Create a root folder for your application

You should create a root folder to store all the files of your web application. If ColdFusion is running on your computer, a good place to create the folder is in ColdFusion8/wwwroot/folder, as in the following examples:

Windows: \ColdFusion8\wwwroot\MyWebApp

Macintosh: Applications/ColdFusion8/wwwroot/MyWebApp

If you followed the installation instructions earlier in this article, then ColdFusion is set up to serve pages from its wwwroot folder. The web server will serve any page in this folder or in any of its subfolders in response to an HTTP request from a web browser.

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