ColdFusion Builder Server Management

• Server Name: The ColdFusion server name. (eg mattgifford)
• Description: Enter a description of the server. I typically write the server name, local or remote, and version of ColdFusion (eg mattgifford local CF9)

• Application Server:  If you are using a JRun installation, select JRun. If you are using the built-in development server or any other server, select 'Other' from the dropdown.  ColdFusion Builder allows you to start, stop or restart your server if it is a JRun instance (once the server has been added). This option will not be available if you do not use a JRun instance.

• Host Name: The name of the ColdFusion server host. For example, localhost, 127.0.0.1 or perhaps dev.mattgifford.co.uk (if using virtual hosts in an apache setup, for example).
• Ensure the 'Is Local' option is selected, as at this point we are only adding local servers.

• Webserver Port: Specify the port number of the ColdFusion server instance you are configuring. By default, the port number is 8500.
• Context root: (applicable only for JRun servers with J2EE configuration) Enter the context root. The J2EE environment supports multiple, isolated web applications running in a server instance. Hence, J2EE web applications running in a server are each rooted at a unique base URL, called a context root (or context path). For example, '/cfusion' or '/' if the context root was cleared during JRun installation.
• Application Server Name: (applicable only for JRun servers with J2EE configuration) Name of the JRun Server on which ColdFusion is deployed. This will relate the server name in the JRun Management Console.
• RDS User Name: If you are using RDS, specify the RDS user name.
• RDS Password: Specify the RDS password.
  Note: You set the RDS password in the ColdFusion Administrator. The RDS password is not the same as the ColdFusion aministrator password.
• Select the Enable SSL option to enable SSL support in ColdFusion Builder. Servers registered in the Server Manager can communicate using SSL.
• Select Auto Start and Auto Stop options to automatically start and stop the ColdFusion server every time you launch and exit ColdFusion Builder.

Click Next to proceed.

Select the Local Server Settings tab, and specify the following local server settings, as applicable.

• Server Home: (applicable only for JRun servers) Browse and select the ColdFusion Server home directory. For example, C:/ColdFusion9/ for a standalone ColdFusion server instance. For a multiserver instance, the server home is the Application Server Home directory, for example, C:\JRun4 for a JRun-J2EE or multiserver configuration.
• Document Root: Browse and select the webroot location. If ColdFusion is configured with a web server, say IIS, then select the document root of the web server; for example, c:\inetpub\wwwroot.This setting is required for previewing, debugging, and CFC name resolution in ColdFusion Builder.
• Version: (applicable only for JRun servers) Select the ColdFusion server version from the Version drop-down list.
• Windows Service: (applicable only for JRun servers) The Windows Service option is available only for standalone and multi-server configurations, and not J2EE configuration. If you want to start and stop the ColdFusion server using the Windows Service, select Use Windows Service To Start/Stop Server.

This task is optional. You don’t necessarily have to specify a URL when creating a server. You can specify a URL prefix even after creating the server by editing the server settings in the Servers view.

Select the URL Prefix tab and enter the following details:

1. Local Path: Browse to or enter the path to the local file system resource.
2. URL prefix: Enter the URL prefix.
3. Click Add.

This is an option. You do not need to specify any virtual host details in ColdFusion Builder when setting up your server.

If you do supply virtual host information, please be aware that ColdFusion Builder does not validate these settings. Therefore, if you enter details here that do not match those set up on your web server, ColdFusion Builder will not inform you of any errors.

To configure a virtual host, select the Virtual Host Settings tab, and do the following:

1. Click New and enter the following details in Virtual Host Settings section.

   1. Name: Specify a name for the virtual host. For example, vhost1. You can provide any name and not necessarily the name that you provide in the web server.

   2. Host Name: The virtual host name as specified in your IIS or Apache web server settings. For example, dev.mattgifford.co.uk. When you create a virtual host in ColdFusion Builder, the virtual host uses a naming convention server name-virtual host name. The Server drop-down list in Project properties displays the virtual host name using this naming convention. For example, if you created a virtual host named "vhost1" in your ColdFusion server (localhost), the naming convention that ColdFusion Builder uses to identify the virtual host is "localhost-vhost1".
   3. Port: The port assigned to the virtual host in the web server.
   4. Type: Select HTTP or HTTPS from the drop-down list.
   5. Document Root: Browse to or enter the home directory of the virtual host.For example, if my website dev.mattgifford.co.uk is mapped to the directory C:\websites\mattgifford on the Apache web server, enter C:\websites\mattgifford as the home directory.
   6. Click Add.
2. To create a virtual directory, click Virtual Directory and enter the following details.
   1. Alias: Specify an alias for the folder path.
   2. Location: Browse to or enter the folder path to which you want to specify an alias.For example, if the document root of your website (dev.mattgifford.co.uk) is C:\websites\mattgifford, and you want to include images from a folder available on d:\monkehImages\images. Then, you can define an alias called "images" for the folder path "d:\monkehImages\images".
   3. Click Add.
   4. Click OK to add the virtual directory to the Virtual Directory Settings table.
3. Click Apply. The virtual host is added to the List Virtual Hosts table.

To modify the virtual host settings, select the virtual host from the List Virtual Hosts table, modify the settings, and click Update.

Select the Install Extensions option to install the extensions that are packaged with ColdFusion Builder.

1. Select the ColdFusion server on which you want to install the extension.
2. Browse and select the ColdFusion webroot location.
3. Browser to a location within the webroot to install the extensions. The extensions are installed in the Extensions directory within the selected location.

Click Finish to create the ColdFusion local server instance.

All done!

1. Select the server from the Server pop-up menu. Here, we can see the CF 9 Local server that was added in the earlier steps.
   Note: If the project is in the server web root, then the Sample URL box is automatically populated with the server URL. For example, http://127.0.0.1:8500/eval, where 127.0.0.1 is the server host, 8500 is the port number, and eval is the project name.
2. Specify your preview settings to use an external web browser by browsing and selecting the select the web browser executable. The internal browsers are selected, by default.
3. Click Next.

1. In this step, you can:
   • Link existing resources folder to the project.
   • Select previously configured applications, such as Model Glue, with the current project.
2. Click Add to select the folder to link to the project.
3. Click Finish to build a new ColdFusion project.

You have now created a new project in ColdFusion Builder that is 'attached' to a server instance.

We can see it in action. Let's create a new file, 'index.cfm' in the root of the project we have just created, and add some CF code, for example '<cfdump var="#cgi#" />' and save the file.

At the bottom-left of the code screen, you can see two tabs. We are currently in the 'Source' view. Switching to select the default browser tab 'IE' will resolve the code we have just writtem using the ColdFusion server applied to the project, which will display the CF output directly within the workspace window.

For me personally, ColdFusion Builder has been an immensely pleasurable experience. It's part of my daily development routine, and something that I am very excited about. I look forward to the final release, and I'll be writing about some more of the features included in coming posts.