ColdFusion

ColdFusion is a tool that was originally developed by Allaire that runs concurrently with most Windows and Solaris Web servers by making use of the database to Web gateway to provide an effective and simple way to make a dynamic Web.

It's primary feature is its associated scripting language, CFML that stands for Cold-Fusion Markup Language which is similer to HTML in syntax.

ColdFusion is usually used for data driven web sites that have a lot of files and data to be viewed on the web and would like to assemble a cohesive and dynamic Web site out of their many databases.

Will your Business Need it?

• Does your site maintain a wide range of databases that you'd like the
  rest of the world to see on the Web?

• Does your site require frequent updates like new products, What's New section, an events calendar and more?

• Does your site sell products and services on the Web?

• Does your site have lots of text based documents that you need to provide on the web?

• Does your site host a lot of banner ads?

• Does your site involve computation of product totals or inventory numbers?

Free Trial Download.

If you answered yes to several of this questions then probably you will need
to use cold-fusion. It can also handle events such as SMS and instant messaging by using its gateway interface, available in ColdFusion MX 7 Enterprise Edition that you can be able to download for a free trial here

Tutorial.

Once installed, you'll access your database with Cold-Fusion templates that look similar to standard HTML pages. What then is the advantage of using cold-fusion over standard HTML pages?

With cold-fusion you can be able to create a single template and serve up tons of information dynamically rather than having to create a separate page for every item. You can take a basic tutorial on how to use ColdFusion here.

Added Features.

If your existing databases are ColdFusion compatible, then here are some of value-added services that you can receive:

• Conversion from HTMLto PDFand FlashPaper.

• File indexing and searching service.

• Client side form validation including rich forms using Flash.

• Platform independent database querying via ODBC or JDBC.

• Data retrieval from common enterprise systems such as FTP.

• Client and server cache management.

• Session, client, and application management .