Viewing CFM files in Dreamweaver

[Adam65]

Hi all....." have CF setup so I just run .. my CFM files from DW8 by hitting F12"

Saw that in another post and would really love to set my dreamweaver up so it can do this too. Can anyone advise?

Being new to the 'scene' I'm constantly learning. My software includes winxp, xampp (apache, php, mysql), coldfusion). I am at the stage now of

going through online tutorials to learn how to best use it all. After designing my four common pages with DW and PS the next task is to work out how to have the 1100 or so pages of products and content inserted as needed. I looked at DW templates at first but that got messy so I am hoping that CF will meet the challenge. I am a total novice. But I have installed everything I need and now I'm trying to get it all working smoothly together.

Someone kindly directed me to PHP as a solution, and I will learn PHP, but I think I need to get an understanding of CF first (seeing as I have gone to the trouble of setting it up on my machine.

So I figure one of my initial steps is to set up my environment to properly review my work as I progress.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thankyou

[Guest]

I'm using DW 8 but it may be similar. Under "File" in the menu you'll see "Preview in browser..", click on that and you can edit your browser list. Hitting F12 will open your browser with your current page in DW. You'll have to your local web server set up for it to work of course.

[Adam65]

Thanks for the info.

Just to be clear I have always been able to view htm and html files in the

browser by pressing f12 or selecting from the document toolbar. However

whenever I try to view a CFM file (Coldfusion file) by pressing f12 DW

doesn't go to a browser to display but brings up a download dialog box with

open or save options instead.

I do see the edit browser list - but how do you set DW up to view in a

testing server? Whenever I go through the options in the dialog box that

pops up asking if I want to set up a test server, nothing happens no browser

starts displaying the CFM file.

I was hoping someone would say "go to the edit browser option in file,

select 'site' in the list, if you have your own web server set up type the

URL, or Directory location as http://localhost/coldfusion... or

c:\wwwroot\... ... etc...etc..." but maybe this question is best suited for

the CF forum because I suspect my problem lies in the way I have set up CF

(ie: in-built server vs local web server).

Anyway thanks for your time.

[Guest]

I'll pass along what I have for my testing server, it may help you out.

Server Model: ColdFusion

Access: Local/Network

Testing server folder: C:\CFusionMX7\wwwroot\YourSiteNameHere

URL Prefix: http://127.0.0.1:8500/YourSiteNameHere/  (note that the  port is 8500 for CF if you're not using IIS)

[Guest]

being prompted to download a file by a browser [.cfm] is a classic symptom of the webserver [apache] not knowing how to handle the content type.

can you access the file directly? i.e. something like http://_my_host_/_my_file.cfm ? if you are prompted to download the file again, then the problem is not Dreamweiner, It will be Apache.

In that case, find the docs on CF + Apache for windows - as I beleive there is special setup to be done there. [sorry - I don't know offhand where they are]

-sean

[Adam65]

Hi Sean Thank you,

I see the CF administration log-in screen when I access from a browser:

http://localhost/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm

but when I try http://localhost/coldfusion8

tutorial/cfbgettingstarted/index.cfm

the browser jumps to http://localhost/coldfusion8

tutorial/cfbgettingstarted/experience/index_content.cfm. A page displays

entitled Coldfusion8 Getting Started.

Likewise when I type http://localhost/coldfusion8

tutorial/cfbgettingstarted/experience/index.cfm (which does exist in that

directory) the browser jumps to: http://localhost/coldfusion8

tutorial/cfbgettingstarted/experience/index_content.cfm

and displays the same page.

[Adam65]

Maybe this is unrelated but when trying to view php files in design view all I get is a bunch of php icons.

[Guest · Accepted solution]

if you place a php or html file in http://localhost/coldfusion8 tutorial/cfbgettingstarted/experience/  are you able to view it normally?

[Adam65]

Hi Steve,

Yes. I copied helloworld.html and phpinfo.php to that directory and can open

a browser, direct it to the files and they show in the browser... is that

what you meant by "view it normally"?

Just in case you meant preview it normally through DW I tried navigating to

that directory to open the php file and pressed f12 to see if it would

preview and I get the 'download' dialog box after the 'set up a test server'

dialog box then nothing happens.

The html file opens from that directory into DW and previews ok.

Thanks for your assistance.

[Adam65]

Also, I went into manage sites, coldfusion8 tutorial (the name of the site)

And in the site definitions box I have:

Local Root Folder: C:\xampp\htdocs\Coldfusion8

tutorial\cf8gettingstarted\tutorial\

Default image Folder: C:\xampp\htdocs\Coldfusion8

tutorial\cf8gettingstarted\tutorial\images\

HTTP address:

http://localhost/coldfusion8%20tutorial/cf8gettingstarted/tutorial/

OMG how stupid am I? (don’t answer that)...

I copied files to that directory and I can view them now by pressing f12 in

DW.

But can you explain why you think the browser jumps to index_content when I

call for index.cfm

Thanks for all of your help everyone. Sorry If I wasted anybody's time. I

thought I had tried that but, in the confusion, it looks like I didn’t, or

something.

Thanks again

Now I can start learning how CF handles databases.

If you know of any good tutorials for a total novice, if you could let me

know, that would be great!

Many Thanks!

[Guest]

>> But can you explain why you think the browser jumps to index_content when I

call for index.cfm <<

There may be a redirect that just sends you to that specific start page. No biggy.

>> Now I can start learning how CF handles databases. If you know of any good tutorials for a total novice, if you could let me

know, that would be great! <<

Go to Amazon or a book store and look for the CF Web Application Construction Kit by Ben Forta. For version 8 there are 3 books for each level, beginner, intermediate and advanced. I believe there's a decent section on database interaction kicking around in there.

[Adam65]

Thank you CFMXPrGrmR

I run my own apache server at c:\xampp\htdocs\ (I think this is the root)

When I installed coldfusion I ended up with 2 directories off xampp\htdocs;

They are c:\xampp\htdocs\Coldfusion8 tutorial\ and C:\xampp\htdocs\CFIDE

Also there is a directory off c: which is: C:\Coldfusion8\

So I figure from your info that my setup should be:

Server Model: ColdFusion

Access: Local/Network

Testing server folder: C:\xampp\htdocs\coldfusion8 tutorial\

URL Prefix: http://localhost/coldfusion8 tutorial/

("coldfusion8 tutorial" being the name of the site I created.)

What do you think?

I'll give it another go and let you know how that goes (I think I've tried

it but I'll go try again).

Thanks for the advice.

[Dan_Bracuk]

Regarding, "next task is to work out how to have the 1100 or so pages of products and content inserted as needed".

Whether you use cold fusion or php, you don't want 1100 product pages.  You want 1 product page that's able to display any of 1100 products.  The way you do it is to store your product info in a database, and write your web page to retrieve and display the data for the selected product.