Course Prerequisites

To gain the most from this class, you should already have:

• Completion of the Fast Track to ColdFusion 9 course or equivalent experience from building ColdFusion applications
• Experience developing web applications using ColdFusion for at least three months after taking the Fast Track to ColdFusion 9 course
• Practical experience using CFML tags, functions, and variables
• Practical experience with the SQL command set, including SELECT, INSERT, and UPDATE
• General familiarity with scripting syntax

Course Objectives

During this course you will build an advanced AJAX-based web portal (similar to iGoogle) that leverages a number of advanced ColdFusion 9 features:

Course Outline

UNIT 1: INTRODUCING THE COURSE AND PORTAL APPLICATION

UNIT 2: ADVANCED COLDFUSION COMPONENT CONCEPTS (3 HOURS)

• Creating instance based components
  • Associating data with components
  • Defining CFC Properties
  • Using Getters and Setters
  • Restricting Method Invocation by Role
• Walkthrough 1: Persisting Components in Memory
• Building Components with Inheritance
• Walkthrough 2: Using Inheritance
• Building Components with Scripting
• Walkthrough 3: Building Components with Scripting
• Using CF Administrator API Components
• Walkthrough 4: Using the Admin API and Java Components

UNIT 3: CODE AND CONTENT REUSE (2 HOURS)

• Creating CFML custom tags
• Walkthrough 1: Creating a Simple CFML Custom Tag
• Creating CFML Simple Nested Custom Tags
• Walkthrough 2: CFML Simple Nested Custom Tags to abstract your site's GUI
  
• .NET Integration with ColdFusion 9
• Walkthrough 3: Using a .NET Assembly to add spell checking to ColdFusion
  
• Creating Web Services
  • SOAP-based services
  • RESTful services
• Walkthrough 4: Creating a Web Service
• Calling Web Services
  • Accessing through Basic Authentication
  • Using WSSE Authentication
• Walkthrough 5: Calling a web service

UNIT 4: HANDLING ERRORS AND EXCEPTIONS (2 HOURS)

• Introducing error handling
• Customizing application error messages
• Walkthrough 1: Implementing a Global Error Handler
• Creating an Application-Wide Error Handler
  • Using onError()
  • Using onMissingTemplate()
• Walkthrough 2: Handling Page-Level Errors
• Handling Exceptions with Try/Catch
• Walkthrough 3: Capturing form information after an aborted save attempt and writing it to disk
• Creating an Exception-Handling Framework
  • Using <cfthrow>
  • Capturing thrown errors in onError()
• Walkthrough 4: Building an Exception Handling Framework

UNIT 5: ADVANCED USER INTERFACE DESIGN (4.5 HOURS)

• Introducing ColdFusion AJAX Functionality
• Debugging ColdFusion AJAX Applications
  • Using the ColdFusion AJAX Logger
  • Using Firebug
• Walkthrough 1: Debugging AJAX Applications
• Making Background Data Requests
  • Returning data from Remote CFC Methods
  • Securing your AJAX Requests
  • Using <cfajaxproxy>
• Walkthrough 2: Making Background Data Requests
• Developing the User Interface
  • Using Container Tags
  • Using <cfpod>
  • Using <cflayout>
  • Using <cfwindow>
• Walkthrough 3: Using Layout Controls to Create a Tabbed based GUI
• Working with Bind Expressions
  • Working with Bind Expression Syntax
  • Binding Text fields with the @modifier
  • Binding to <cfselect>
  • Using a Bind Expression with <cfajaxproxy>
• Walkthough 4: Using Bind Expressions with <cfajaxproxy>
• Submitting Form Data Asynchronously
  • Using ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm()
  • Explicitly invoking CFFORM Validation
  • Retrieving Object/Attribute Values
  • Building the Action Page
  • Deploying ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm()
• Walkthrough 5: Asynchonously Submitting Forms
• Using Special Text Input Fields
  • Using Autosuggest Text Fields
  • Working with the DateField selector
  • Using the WYSIWYG Editor
• Walkthrough 6: Implementing the Rich Text Controls
• Working with <cfgrid>
• Walkthrough 7: Using <cfgrid>
• Visualizing Data with Google Maps
• Walkthrough 8: Using <cfmap>
• Working with Video
• Walkthrough 9: Using <cfmediaplayer>

UNIT 6: WORKING WITH DOCUMENTS (3 HOURS)

• Generating PDF Files from ColdFusion
• Walkthrough 1: Generating a PDF
• Manipulating PDF Files with <cfpdf>
• Walkthrough 2: Adding Watermarks and Security to a PDF
• Pre-filling PDF Forms
• Walkthrough 3: Filling a form from a CF web service and <cfpdfform>
• Posting Data from a PDF Form to ColdFusion
• Walkthrough 4: Handling PDF Form Submissions
• Working with Spreadsheets
  • Reading Data from a Spreadsheet
  • Populating a Spreadsheet
  • Writing a Spreadsheet to Disk
• Walkthrough 5: Dynamically creating an Excel file with a Graph
• Creating Dynamic Presentations
• Walkthrough 6: Creating Dynamic Powerpoint and Flash Presentations

UNIT 7: Introducing Object-Relational Mapping

• Configuring your application to work with ColdFusion ORM
• Walkthrough 1: Enabling ColdFusion ORM
• Create, Edit, Update, and Delete data using ColdFusion ORM
• Walkthrough 2: Basic Data Management with ColdFusion ORM
• Working with multiple-table relationships in ColdFusion ORM
• Walkthrough 3: Advanced Data Management with ColdFusion ORM
• Understanding session management in ColdFusion ORM
• Walkthrough 4: Managing Sessions in ColdFusion ORM

UNIT 8: PERFORMANCE, SCALABILITY, AND ROBUSTNESS (OPTIONAL UNIT, if time allows)

• Configuring for Scalability
• Walkthrough 1: Adjusting JVM and CF Administrator Settings
• Understanding and Identifying Scalability Bottlenecks
• Walkthrough 2: Identifying Bottlenecks using the debug output and server monitor
• Using Asynchronous Processes to Improve Performance
• Walkthrough 3: Creating Asynchronous Processes with <cfthread>
• Caching Recordsets
• Walkthrough 4: Caching queries using cachedwithin and as properties of components
• Caching Content with <cfcache>
• Using <cfcache> to cache RSS Feeds and programatically exprire the cache