Tech Topics -- ColdFusion heats up

As Web technology evolves, so do the needs of ColdFusion students.



Speed is king in the fast-paced world of the Internet. Stand still too long and your competition will buzz right by you. Given that fact, it isn't surprising that ColdFusion, the cross-platform Web application server developed by Allaire Corp., is becoming more popular among companies racing to build ecommerce sites, collaborative databases and other Web applications. Combining visual programming techniques, database tools, tag-based server scripting and interactive debugging, ColdFusion lets users integrate browser, server and database techniques.



"It's one of those technologies that have what I call a high "oooh-ahhh? factor," explains Steve Heckler, president of Westlake Internet Training in Arlington, Va. "Folks who have done HTML really struggle if they try to use competing technologies like active server pages, CGI script or Java servlets. But because ColdFusion's tagging language stacks on top of what they already know , HTML , they find it feels pretty familiar right away." Heckler has seen demand for ColdFusion training at his company double over the past year.



Knowing students? backgrounds at the beginning of a course is a key issue in ColdFusion training. It's particularly important because many of the early users of the technology come from the Web development arena and bring little traditional programming experience.



"They often have grown up with the Web and understand it, but have difficulty with the programming piece: conditional processing, looping, use of complex data constructs and other concepts that you really need in order to get the most out of ColdFusion," says Carolyn Lightner, director of educational services at Allaire.



Accordingly, many vendors offer introductory classes that focus on the special needs of the non-programmer. Allaire offers a three-day class on fundamental programming and database management. "We're trying to get students to understand basic programming concepts, how to query databases and how to manage data through a Web interface," says Robert Crooks, Allaire's curriculum manager.



Learning how to deal with variables is another challenge for students coming from a non-programming background, he says. In ColdFusion, some variables are specific to particular Web pages, while others span multiple pages or are available to multiple applications on the same server. "Understanding how those work, where the information is stored, and how to access it is a major challenge," Crooks says.



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