Welcome to part 3, setting up the ColdFusion Server and MySQL database on your Windows PC, also called setting up your development environment. I'm hesitant about including this in my series because it has been discussed and taught just about everywhere. But mostly where I see a tutorial, each time it's a little different. So I thought it would be best to tell and show you how I set my development server up just in case your following along and suddenly something doesn't work right, you come here and see if the problem might be server related, maybe some step in the set up you did different than me. Unfortunately however, not all PC's are the same and there is the off chance that someone will have problems beyond my ability to help. There's one part in particular with my set up that took me 3 days to troubleshoot to get it working, luckily I wrote about it in my blog some time back, so now it's just part of the process. Hey, no one said programming was easy, it takes patience and determination.

While we're on the subject of setting up the development environment let's discuss some other tools you'll need if you don't have them already. Pick these up after setting up your development environment. This includes an IDE (integrated development environment) such as Dreamweaver like I use or anything else you can write and save files with, even Notepad. If you can't get Dreamweaver I suggest Eclipse with the CFEclipse ColdFusion plugin, it's free and very powerful. There's even an Eclipse SQL Explorer plugin, which I haven't tried but you might need later also.

Speaking of an SQL explorer, you'll need an interface to your MySQL data server when it's set up so you can actually create and manage databases and tables. If you'd rather use MSSQL data server instead of MySQL, please do so, but I'm not telling about that here. I use MSSQL at work with the MSSQL Management Studio and love it. For MySQL however, I love using Premiumsoft's Navicat tool, which I paid about $100 for. But if you want something for free, use phpMyAdmin, which we will be installing anyways, so just hang on.

Ok, so lets get busy installing something. First lets get ColdFusion installed. ColdFusion comes free as a developer edition which is full featured. The only thing different from the $X,000 version is that the free version only allows about 10 or so connections per server. Download the free ColdFusion MX 7 developer edition from here. You'll need to sign up for a membership to get a username and password. The download is 281 MB, luckily I have an 8Mbps cable connection and it only take me about 45 seconds to download.

Now, double click the installer and follow the directions, this part will take about 10-15 minutes total. Use the defaults everywhere but choose the J2EE configuration (ColdFusion with JRUN 4) in step 4 and choose Built in web server in step 7. Here's a good place to see screenshots of the installation and the steps: http://www.quackit.com/coldfusion/tutorial/coldfusion_mx_installation_guide.cfm

At the end of the installation you'll have a new directory under your C drive named JRun4. Your web sites will go under the C:/JRun4/servers/ directory which we will create when we get to that point. You should also be able to browse to the default installed web site at http://localhost:8300/ in your browser. Which will show nothing except two folders to your docs and CFIDE, more on that later. For now, just check that these two things are true or else uninstall and start over till you get it right.

Now lets get your MySQL data server installed, which happens to be easier than ColdFusion installation. We will be using a 4 in 1 application installer that will also be installing an Apache web server, MySQL data server, and the PHP server parser. With this installation you be able to do two things, develop PHP web sites if you want, and use the phpMyAdmin to manage your data server if you need it. If however you don't want all that and will be using another SQL manager, you could just go to the MySQL web site to download and install their single free product. The 4 in 1 installer is also free, called a WAMP, the best one that I use is here, it's only about 17 MB. Download then double click to install. The installer is extremely easy and fast, even a 5 year old could do it, so I'll just leave this to you. Once complete you will be able to browse to http://localhost/ where you'll see the WAMP welcome page and some links. One of the links is to the phpMyAdmin tool. The phpMyAdmin may need some config work to get working, if so just ask and I'll comment back the help you need.

By the way, http://localhost/ and http://localhost:8300/ is completely different. With the Apache server install you basically have two separate servers now. One is an Apache PHP server and the other is a J2EE ColdFusion server. Notice we didn't use Windows IIS server at all, don't use it.

Now you have the ColdFusion developer server up and the MySQL server up and we'll be using these two together to create powerful apps. Just leave it at that for now and we'll configure the rest when we're ready to set up our web app. Then I'll tell you a little more about the ColdFusion server and Jrun and show you about creating instances and why.

Oh, almost forgot about another important tool. The image editor. I use Fireworks for layout and gif creations. Then I'll use Photoshop for complexed jpg photos and then I might use Illustrator for logos and some illustrations. It's controversial as to which is best for what purposes and why, but I always say that the tool is only as good as the person using it, so decide for yourself which you like and want to use for whatever purpose. If your good at one of them and feel good using it, then use it. As for free image editors, there aren't very many good ones if any at all. I've never used a free one before but I hear that Gimp is good, but I've never used it.

So go get some tools, play around with them and I'll see you in the next part of this series where we'll talk about gathering requirements for our application. This would be the part where you meet with the client or your boss and discuss the project in detail.