ColdFusion 101: The Installation

By: Clint Tredway
Published: 15th Aug 2002

Introduction

Hello, my name is Clint Tredway. I am a web application developer from Dallas Texas. Today I'm going to share with you a basic tutorial on how to install Macromedia's ColdFusion MX Server on a Windows platform. In future articles I will also walk you through the ColdFusion language, starting with a simple "Hello World" script in my next article.

This article was designed to teach you how to install ColdFusion, assuming that you have no prior knowledge of the ColdFusion installation program or scripting language. It may help if you've dabbled with ASP or PHP, but it isn't necessary.

Installing ColdFusion MX

If you haven't already done so, head over to Macromedia's website and download the Windows version of ColdFusion MX. Once you have downloaded the install file, double click on it to start the installation. You should see a dialog box like this one:



Go ahead and click 'Next >' for the next step in the installation process. The next screen you will see is the License Agreement screen. You will have to accept the agreement to continue the installation process. Click 'I Accept the Agreement' and then click 'Next >'.

The next screen that you will see is the Customer Information screen:



This is where you enter your name, your companies name (if applicable), the serial number for the product and/or the upgrade serial number from a previous version. If you are just trying out ColdFusion, then leave the serial number blank. This will install as a 30-day trial version that is fully functional. At the end of thirty days, the product will become a Single IP Developer version.

After you enter your name (the company field is optional), click 'Next >'. You will now see the Web Server screen:



This is where you tell ColdFusion what web server you want it to use to serve its pages. If you have a previous version of ColdFusion on this machine, I recommend that you use the built in web server that comes with ColdFusion MX. This will allow you to test your current applications without breaking the working applications.

I'm going to setup my install of ColdFusion to use the built-in web server. This way I know that it will not interfere with my other applications written in ColdFusion 5 until I have tested them properly. If this was being installed on a production box or on a box that did not have ColdFusion on it already, then I would recommend that ColdFusion be installed with IIS or the main web server already running on the box.

Go ahead and choose the server that you wish to use and click 'Next >'.

The next screen is where you tell ColdFusion where you want your files to reside. Unless you use a different path for your web pages, I recommend using the default for testing purposes:



Go ahead and click 'Next >' to continue. This next screen is the Custom Setup portion of the install. This allows you to customize your installation of ColdFusion. If this is your first time using ColdFusion and your web server is behind a firewall, then I would install the sample apps and documentation -- this will definitely help you when you have questions or want to check out the sample applications. If ColdFusion is being installed on a web server that's not behind a firewall, then I would not install the documentation or the sample applications, as this is a security risk.


 

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