Understanding Data Sources

A database is a file or server that contains a collection of data. A data source is a pointer from ColdFusion to a specific database. You add data sources to your ColdFusion server so that you can point to the databases that you want to connect to from your ColdFusion applications.

ColdFusion Express data sources

ColdFusion Express ships with a variety of ODBC drivers and supports the following database connectivity:

Microsoft Access
Borland Paradox
Borland dBase
Microsoft FoxPro
Microsoft Excel files
Text files
Lotus Approach

ColdFusion Enterprise and Professional editions data sources

ColdFusion Enterprise and Professional editions offer additional ODBC and native driver support.

To learn about the full-featured ColdFusion development platform, refer to the ColdFusion product pages.