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
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
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.
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
Deprecated in favor of VSCode by Adobe
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
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
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