System information

12 Chapter 1: Introducing ColdFusion MX
The ColdFusion Markup Language
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based language similar to HTML that uses special
tags and functions. With CFML, you can enhance your standard HTML files with database
commands, conditional operators, and high-level formatting functions, and rapidly produce easy-
to-maintain web applications.
CFML looks similar to HTML: it includes start and end tags, and each tag is enclosed in angle
brackets. All ending tags are preceded with a forward slash (/) and all tag names are preceded
with cf.
The ColdFusion MX Administrator
You use the ColdFusion MX Administrator to configure and maintain the ColdFusion
application server. It is a web-based application that you can access using any web browser, from
any computer with an Internet connection.
You can manage the following configuration options with the ColdFusion MX Administrator:
• ColdFusion data sources
• Debugging output
• Server settings
• Application security
For further details about the ColdFusion MX Administrator, see Installing and Using
ColdFusion MX or Configuring and Administering ColdFusion MX.
How ColdFusion processes pages
The following steps explain how the ColdFusion server processes a ColdFusion page:
1. The ColdFusion server looks at the content of the page and searches for the following
ColdFusion instructions:
■ Tag names that begin with cf.
■ Variables and functions that are always surrounded by number signs (#).
2. If the ColdFusion server finds any HTML or plain text in the page, the ColdFusion server
returns it to the web server unchanged.
3. The ColdFusion server processes all the ColdFusion instructions found, and returns any
remaining results to the web server. The web server then sends the entire output to the browser.