| Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML |
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Using XML and WDDX |
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| Developing ColdFusion MX Applications with CFML |
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Using XML and WDDX |
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In the last few years, XML has rapidly become the universal language for representing documents and data on the web. These documents can extend beyond the traditional concept of a paper document or its equivalent. For example, XML is often used to represent database or directory information. XML is also commonly used to represent transaction information, such as product orders or receipts, and for information such as inventory records and employee data.
Because XML represents data in a tagged, textual format it is an excellent tool for representing information that must be shared between otherwise-independent applications such as order entry and inventory management. No application needs to know anything about the other. Each application only needs to be prepared to get data in a format that is structured according to the XML DTD or Schema. For example, in a distributed order processing application, the order placement component, order fulfilment component, inventory management component, and billing component can all share information with each other in XML format. They could use a common XML DTD, of different components could communicate with each other using different DTDs.
After an application parses the XML document, it can then manipulate the information in any way that is appropriate. For example, you can convert tabular XML data into a ColdFusion recordset, perform queries on the data and then export the data an XML document. For example, the code in "Example: using XML in a ColdFusion application" takes a customer order in XML, converts the data to a recordset, and uses a query to determine the order cost. It then prepares a receipt as an XML document.
ColdFusion provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use set of tools for creating and using XML documents. ColdFusion lets you do the following with XML documents: