Macromedia development environment tools

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX is the preferred development environment for building ColdFusion MX applications. It combines the best code editing features of ColdFusion Studio with the visual design features of Dreamweaver.

This image shows a Macromedia Dreamweaver MX window.

Dreamweaver MX supports the latest ColdFusion MX features and tags. It also includes Macromedia HomeSite+, which combines all the features of ColdFusion Studio and HomeSite 5, along with support for the latest ColdFusion MX tags.

With Dreamweaver MX or HomeSite+, you can author and test your application code from a local or remote client. Both of these tools let you save your code directly to the server computer where ColdFusion is installed. The following sections provide an overview of Dreamweaver MX, and information on how to configure Dreamweaver MX and HomeSite+ for ColdFusion development.

The Dreamweaver MX environment

As a ColdFusion developer, you can build ColdFusion MX applications by writing the code manually or generating the code by using one of the code-generating tools provided with Dreamweaver MX.

This image shows Macromedia Dreamweaver MX code.

Features for ColdFusion developers

Dreamweaver MX provides a wide variety of code editing features for ColdFusion developers, including the following:

Rich tag editors for quickly setting attributes and values for every CFML tag.
Code hints for writing CFML tag attributes.
Code validator for validating code readiness against other ColdFusion versions.
Tag chooser with integrated reference material for inserting ColdFusion tags.
Snippets panel for reusing code.
Integrated debugging display for quickly pinpointing problem areas in the code.
Remote ColdFusion server connection for browsing remote data sources and files.

If you plan to use Dreamweaver MX or HomeSite+ to build the sample ColdFusion application in Part II of this book, see the following sections for information about configuring these tools for ColdFusion development.

Configuring Dreamweaver MX for ColdFusion development

Before you use Dreamweaver MX to create the sample application in Part II of this book, you must configure Dreamweaver to recognize the tutorial files and data sources.

To configure Dreamweaver MX to create the sample application:

Create a site that contains the tutorial files.
For information about how to create a site in Dreamweaver MX, see the Dreamweaver MX online Help or Using Dreamweaver MX.
Specify ColdFusion as the application server document type.
For information about how to specify ColdFusion as the server document type, see the Dreamweaver MX online Help or Using Dreamweaver MX.
Specify ColdFusion MX as the site application server.
For information about how to specify ColdFusion as your application server, see the Dreamweaver MX online Help or Using Dreamweaver MX.
Tip: If you are a new Dreamweaver MX user, you can perform the Dreamweaver MX tutorial before using Dreamweaver MX to build the sample application. The tutorial in this book does not describe how to use Dreamweaver. The purpose of this tutorial is to teach you how to build ColdFusion applications using ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML).

Configuring HomeSite+ for ColdFusion development

Before you use Macromedia HomeSite+ to create the sample application in Part II of this book, you must configure HomeSite+ to recognize the tutorial files and data sources.

To use HomeSite+ to create the sample application:

Establish a secure connection to the ColdFusion Server environment where the tutorial files are installed. Establishing a connection to the ColdFusion Server is a prerequisite for accessing the ColdFusion data sources.
For information, see the online Help or product documentation for HomeSite+.
Enable internal browsing to view and process the ColdFusion application files.
For information, see the online Help or product documentation for HomeSite+.
Determine how you want to work with the tutorial files. You can view and access the tutorial files using the Resource Area in the HomeSite + window. You can also set up a project to manage the files more efficiently.
For more information, see the online Help or the product documentation for HomeSite+.
Note: The tutorial provided in this book does not describe how to use HomeSite +. The purpose of this tutorial is to teach you how to build ColdFusion applications using ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). For more information about HomeSite +, see the product documentation or online Help.

Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications
Configuring Your Development Environment