cold fusion is macromedia's leading web-based application development platform that enables the creation of interactive, dynamic, and information-rich Web sites. cold fusion can communicate with databases or spreadsheets and extract information to dynamically create Web pages. Because this data already exists in other applications, there is no need to rewrite and reformat into HTML. Instead you can use cold fusion commands and functions to enable the incorporation and extraction of information from other applications.

cold fusion can also create web applications by extending your standard HTML files with high-level formatting functions, conditional operators, and database commands. These commands serve as instructions to the cold fusion processor and form the building blocks on which to build industrial-strength applications.

cold fusion's dynamic, data-driven, web pages include the following capabilities:

• Query existing database applications for data.
• Create dynamic queries facilitating more flexible data retrieval.
• Execute stored procedures in databases.
• Execute conditional code on-the-fly to customize responses for specific situations.
• Enhance the standard HTML form capabilities with data validation functions.
• Dynamically populate form elements through database retrieval.
• Customize the display of dates, times, and currency values with formatting functions
• Ease the creation of data entry and data drill-down applications with wizards. Drill-down is designed to break up data and

display only what is needed on a single page. Selecting an item in that page causes details about that item to be displayed. The process is called drilling down because you drill through the data layer by layer to find the information you need.