Now, I will be the first to admit, I’m not a major player in this industry. In fact, I am still learning the ropes. Every day I manage to learn something new when it comes to being an adult Webmaster.Now, I will be the first to admit, I’m not a major player in this industry. In fact, I am still learning the ropes. Every day I manage to learn something new when it comes to being an adult Webmaster. To be honest with everyone, I am a programmer. I build web-based applications by day and I’m trying to run Twata.com by night. Being a programmer, I build all sorts of interesting applications that do all sorts of things. Of all of the applications that I have built, content management tools are what I will be discussing in this article.
As a programmer, I have learned how to use a database to store content from usernames and passwords, for my collection of erotic stories, not to mention tons of other types of content on my site today. Best of all, because I am storing all of this data inside a database, I can get it when I need it, dynamically update it, and instantly change page layouts all with a few lines of code. From my experiences with other adult Webmasters, most of you guys aren’t programmers and many don’t have any interest in being one. That’s fine. This is why ColdFusion is exactly what you need.
ColdFusion is, as Macromedia puts it, “A rapid server scripting environment for creating rich Internet applications.” More importantly, ColdFusion will allow you to spend less time coding and more time building your site(s).
What Can ColdFusion Do For Me?
What can’t ColdFusion do for you is a better question! Imagine being able to instantly and dynamically add content to your website from anywhere at anytime. Imagine being able to replace all of your static gallery pages with one ColdFusion template, (and a little SQL) that dynamically displays all of your images without having to change your code. Imagine not having to create any more HMTL pages to display each new set of pictures or not having to add in by hand that new batch of erotic stories you bought. Imagine being able to upload your images to the server and have them instantly appear on your site without changing one line of code. “Imagine all the people…” Imagine!
Why ColdFusion?
ColdFusion is a tag-based language unlike ASP, PHP, JSP, or any other type of traditional programming language available today. ColdFusion looks just like HTML. From my experiences, if you know HTML and can hand code with it, you’ll be able to pick up ColdFusion pretty quickly. This is not a tutorial by any means, but here’s a small example of a query and a ColdFusion statement that displays a list of my video feeds with a thumbnail of the feed, description of the feed, and a link to view the feed all in a table.
Here is my Query:
<cfquery name=”videos” datasource=”twata”>
select *
from movies
</cfquery>
Here is how I display my Videos (Query Results) in a table:
<table cellspacing=”2″ cellpadding=”2″ border=”0″>
<cfoutput query=”videos”>
<tr>
<td><A href=”members.cfm?id=#id#”><img src=”#image#” border=”0″></A></td>
<td><a href=”members.cfm?id=#id#” class=”navlink”>#description#</a></td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
Now imagine only having to support this many lines of code and being able to add and remove any feed at anytime without changing one line of this code. Pretty cool, right? Now imagine all of the extra time you’ll have on your hands to write articles like this one…
Who Should Be Using It?
Everyone! Now, let me qualify my answer. I am not being paid to write this article by Macromedia owners of ColdFusion, Dreamweaver, and Flash. There’s no reason not to be using this product. It makes your life a lot easier, it makes good conversation, people will think you are some sort of alternative scientist trying to save the world, and most importantly it keeps people like me employed. Seriously though, if you own a paysite and you’re making some money, you can’t afford not to take a long look at what converting from a static to a dynamic site will offer you. From a time standpoint alone, you’ll earn more money.
Positive/Negative:
Okay… I know you are all thinking that ColdFusion is the greatest product in the world by now but let’s take a closer look at a few positives and negatives:
Positives:
1. You’re going to save time – lots of time!
2. Portability: You’ll be able to make a few changes and re-use your code on all of your sites.
3. If you know HTML, the learning curve will be much smaller then if you were to tackle any other Middleware product.
4. Administrative tools. I know, I know, first things first, go out and learn the basics, but the end result is being able to have a web-based administrative tool to manage your site, the content, and just about anything else you want to use it for.
5. The ColdFusion community. You’re going to have problems. I still have problems (not as many as I used to), but there are a plethora of references, tutorials, list servers, books, and people that will help you out along the way.
Negatives:
1. It’s not free. ColdFusion MX is available for Windows and Unix Servers, is affordable and hosting is readily available.
Where To Get Help:
The following is a list of all of the websites I visit when I need help:
ColdFusion.com – The ColdFusion developers exchange offers you the ability to view what other people have built with ColdFusion.
Houseoffusion.com – Join their list “CF-Talk.” You won’t regret it. If you ask a question, you’ll get an answer.
KPWebtech.com – If you don’t want to build your content management tool yourself, try these guys.
Forta.com – As you will all be soon finding out, Ben Forta is Macromedia’s Senior Product Evangelist for ColdFusion. He knows all and tells all.
Chris has been working with ColdFusion for well over two years and building websites for almost five. For the past year, he has been trying to make it as an adult Webmaster with his paysite Twata.com, along with his small collection of AVS and free sites he has built along the way. However, until Larry Flynt retires and names him the heir to the Throne of Smut, you can find him running his own consulting/application development firm where he helps businesses and people like you with their e-commerce and Web-based application initiative.
