An application that runs on a web server that allows easy integration of databases and web pages. This allows web designers to leverage database technology in the creation of a web site.

advantage

ColdFusion is easier and quicker to develop with than something like PHP because it is a much higher level language than PHP. Basically, CF provides a large set of services for common tasks such as database queries, PDF generation, email processing, image manipulation, web service creation/consumption, and much more. Now obviously one can do these things in PHP of course. What makes CF different is that it is set up to let you do the most common kinds of work in these areas as simply as possible. You don't have to set up any libraries or write a bunch of boilerplate code to do these things. In many cases it is a single tag, and you can do most things with one line of code.

So the key factor is that CF takes probably 95% of the things most web developers do all the time over and over and makes them extremely easy and quick to do.

In this Macrochat, Macromedia Architect and Technical Lead for ColdFusion, Tom
Jordahl discusses ColdFusion event gateways.ColdFusion has long been the