What is ColdFusion (CFML)

ColdFusion Markup Language <CFML> is a dynamic web programming language.

ColdFusion Markup Language <CFML> is a dynamic web programming language, which is especially suited for new developers as it was written to make a programmer's job easy and not care if the computer's job is hard. CFMLs primary goal is to be a rapid application development scripting language and middleware. It integrates with many technologies to provide an out-of-the-box language that makes things easy. This brief introduction will look at key language features you need to get started.

Going Deep

Lucee Server

ColdFusion (CFML) is an interpreted and dynamic ECMA Script like language that compiles to Java Bytecode directly, thus running in the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and in almost every operating system. Implementations of the language are mostly done by two parties: Adobe ColdFusion (Commercial) and Lucee Server (Free & Open Source), and they saw their beginnings in 1995. It is a mature and modern language and development platform. You can discover all the versions here: https://cfdocs.org/coldfusion-versions

Adobe ColdFusion

Developing with CFML

All examples in this book will leverage CommandBox as the de-facto standard for ColdFusion (CFML) development.

CommandBox is a standalone, native tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux that will provide you with a Command Line Interface (CLI) for developer productivity, tool interaction, package management, REPL, embedded ColdFusion/Java server, application scaffolding, and some sweet ASCII art.

Docs Reference

The best way to discover the CFML language's methods, tags, and functionality is to leverage cfdocs.org. Make sure you open it and bookmark it.

CFML DocumentationCF Docs

IDE - Editors

There are many flavors of IDE's but here are our recommendations, which all support CFML

• Visual Studio Code (Our Preference for both CFML and Java)

  • Open-source packages

  • Adobe Package

• Sublime

• Adobe ColdFusion Builder

  • Deprecated in favor of VSCode by Adobe

• IntelliJ

Sublime Packages

Use package control in sublime to install the following packages which we use in our developer setups:

• ColdBox Sublime

• CommandBox Sublime

• Alignment

• CFML

• CFMLDocPlugin

• ColdFusion Docs Launcher

• DockBlockr

• Emmet

• Enhanced HTML and CFML

• SideBarEnhancements

• Terminal

You can find the sublime package manager link here: https://packagecontrol.io/

VSCode Packages

• Kamasamk CFML - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=KamasamaK.vscode-cfml

• ColdBox Support - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ortus-solutions.vscode-coldbox

• CommandBox Support - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ortus-solutions.vscode-commandbox

• TestBox Support - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ortus-solutions.vscode-testbox

• Adobe ColdFusion Builder - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=com-adobe-coldfusion.adobe-cfml-lsp

• CFLSP - ColdFusion syntax error checker : https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DavidRogers.cflsp

• CFLint - Linting Support - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=KamasamaK.vscode-cflint

• LuceeDebug - A barebones debugger - https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=DavidRogers.luceedebug

• Align

• Auto Alignment

• Auto CLose Tag

• Auto Rename Tag

• AutoFileName

• Better Comments

• CFGoto

• Code Outline

• Document This

• DotENV

• EditorConfig

• ESLint

• File Utils

• Git Graph

• Hibernate Log Analyser

You can find the VSCode marketplace link here: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/VSCode