| Getting Started Building ColdFusion MX Applications
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Preparing to Build the Sample Application
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Determining the application functional requirements
Before you can build the sample application, you must understand the functional requirements underpinning its design. The design of the sample application centers around the daily tasks performed by Compass Travel's trip coordinators. These tasks are listed in the following table:
| Trip coordinator task |
Description |
| Produce current trip listing |
To help Compass Travel agents take trip reservations over the phone and in person, the trip coordinator maintains a list of current trip offerings. |
| Provide trip information |
On an ad hoc basis, Compass Travel management asks the trip coordinator to develop lists of trips that meet specific criteria. |
| Maintain trip information |
The trip coordinator is responsible for keeping all trip information up to date. To do this, the coordinator needs to locate a trip to edit it or delete it. Additionally, the coordinator must be able to add a new trip. |
| Ensure the quality of trip information |
The trip coordinator is responsible for periodically browsing the current trip offerings to ensure that all the information is accurate. Additionally, when adding a new trip or editing an existing one, the trip coordinator must ensure that the data adheres to the Compass Travel business rules. |
You can derive several functional requirements for the new application from the preceding table. For example, the sample application must provide the following functions:
| Functional requirement |
| 1 |
The ability to generate trip listings |
| 2 |
A trip query facility based on user supplied criteria |
| 3 |
Trip browsing functionality |
| 4 |
The ability to add a new trip |
| 5 |
The ability to delete an existing trip |
| 6 |
The ability to edit an existing trip |
| 7 |
A mechanism to validate new or updated trips against Compass business rules |
In the lessons that follow, you will build ColdFusion pages to address each of these functional requirements. Central to every requirement is the notion of a trip. Before you can build code to address any of these requirements, you must understand which attributes of a trip are important to Compass Travel. For this you must determine the data requirements for the application. Understanding the data requirements is essential to building the proper database to hold the application data.
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