QuickStart Languages - Learn to program step-by-step

QuickStart ColdFusion

by Robert Filardo and Lindsay Matteo

Step-by-step instructions for learning to program with ColdFusion

About the language

Step 1: Downloading and Installing Coldfusion

Click here to go to Macromedia's download site for a free version of ColdFusion for your local machine.
At the above site, choose the ColdFusion MX 7 Developer Edition, and select your operating system
from the dropdown menu, most likely the last selection (for Windows).
Click the "Download" button and follow the setup instructions after selecting the completed file.
Extensive setup instructions can be found here.

Step 2: Downloading and Installing Eclipse

The first important step to install Eclipse is to make sure that you have a Java Runtime Environment
already installed on your computer. You can get it here.
Click here to go to the downloads section of the Eclipse site.
Download the setup file and follow the installation instructions that it provides.

Step 3: Download and Install the CFEclipse Plugin

Click here to read about the plugin that will add a Coldfusion perspective to Eclipse.
Select the "Help->Software Updates->Find and install" menu option in Eclipse.
On the screen that is displayed, select 'Search for new features to install' and click the 'Next' button.
Now click the 'New Remote Site' button.
Enter a name for the update site, for example "CFEclipse". In the URL box, enter http://cfeclipse.tigris.org
and click the OK button
You should now have a 'CFEclipse' node in the 'Sites to include in search' box. Expand the CFEclipse node
and you will see two child nodes: 'com.rohanclan.cfml.release.stable' and
'com.rohanclan.cfml.release.bleedingedge'
Tick the 'com.rohanclan.cfml.release.stable' box and click 'Next'
Eclipse will contact the CFEclipse site and retrieve the list of available plugins. Tick the plugin with the
highest version number and click 'Next'
Once Eclipse has restarted CFEclipse should have been successfully installed.

Learning more

There is a vast amount of information available on the Internet. Some of the best sources are:

Click here to read through the extensive ColdFusion documentation.
Click here to watch helpful video tutorials illustrating basic Coldfusion programming concepts.
Here is an Example of Coldfusion (link may expire 12/31/05) which is explained in detail in the presentation.

QuickStart Presentation