Connecting to a database

Developers used to code the data and presentation into the same file. There was no "data layer" for developing software; it was all mixed on the same page. This made the pages longer and there was much more to work through to figure out bugs or page enhancements. It was pretty much what we call "information overload". CFCs change that by encapsulating the data as a separate layer. Then the interface serves as a simpler way to push and pull data to and from your database.

Note

If you haven't set up your database, then refer to Appendix A and set that part of your environment up for this section first. If you are not skilled with databases, then we have suggestions in Appendix B. You don't need that as we write the ones that you need in the code examples of this book.

Here we will create another version of our product.cfc object class. Let's name it product_2.cfc so we can keep things separate in case you want to go back and compare them later. Let's take a look at the...