I am new to ColdFusion. I want to start by installating and setting up the environment. And test a dummy page on it.
I downloaded the express edition version 11 from the adobe website "ColdFusion_exp_11_WWEJ_win64". But I don't see a installer or something. It's just one big folder. Sorry for a noob question, but what do I do with it? I have a WAMP server on my computer. How does it run this?
How do I test a page to see if it is running?
(Too long for comments)
found the cfstart.bat and when I click it, it opens the console and then closes it
When you run cfstart.bat, the console should stay open, unless something is wrong. For example, if the default port 8500 is already in use. Run cfstart.bat file in cmd.exe so you can view the errors. If that is the issue, item #4a in the link Adam posted contains instructions on how to change the port number:
... if [the] default port (8500) for the built-in web server is already in use, the Express edition will not start. To change the port see the
<ARCHIVE_ROOT>\cfusion\runtime\conf\server.xmlfile and edit the port on the line starting with<Connector port="8500" .... Save the file and return to step 2.
The .bat file's job is just to start up the CF server. Once it is running (ie console stays open without error), you will work through the browser. See the instructions in the link for how to configure CF via the CF Admin. You can run CFML code by creating .cfm files within the wwwroot directory. Ultimately, you will want to use an IDE for writing CFML code, but for now you can use any text editor, like notepad. Just be sure to save the files with a .cfm extension, NOT .txt.
For example, enter the following code: <cfoutput>#now()#</cfoutput> and save it to a file named "test.cfm" beneath the wwwroot directory: {cf_root}\wwwroot\test.cfm. Then view it your browser by entering: http://127.0.0.1:8500/test.cfm (where 8500 whatever port number you end up using). If CF is running properly, it should display the current date and time:
{ts '2015-08-29 15:02:47'}