Modern CFML and Lucee

After finally trying old ColdFusion MX, I wanted to know what CFML looks like now.

This is the part I am currently exploring. I am still new to CFML, so these are notes from somebody learning the platform rather than instructions from somebody who has been running ColdFusion applications for years.

Lucee is where I started

Lucee is an open-source CFML engine. I installed it on AlmaLinux, connected it to a database, and started building a small test application so I could get beyond reading about the language and actually use it.

Adobe ColdFusion is still actively developed as well. I have not spent nearly as much hands-on time with it yet, but I am interested in understanding both sides of the current CFML ecosystem and where they differ.

It does not look like the old examples I started with

My first exposure to actual CFML code came from looking at older ColdFusion material, so I initially associated the language with lots of tags. Modern CFML can still use tags, but CFScript makes a lot of the code feel much more familiar to me coming from PHP and other scripting languages.

<cfscript>
name = "Travis";
things = ["Lucee", "CFML", "MySQL"];

for (thing in things) {
    writeOutput(encodeForHTML(name & " is learning " & thing) & "<br>");
}
</cfscript>

I am not presenting that as a model for how a production CFML application should be written. It is simply the kind of code that helped update my mental picture of what CFML can look like.

Things I am getting familiar with

.cfm pages and .cfc components
CFScript alongside the traditional tag syntax
Application.cfc and application-level configuration
datasources and database queries
JSON and HTTP/API work
running CFML on current Linux and Java
the differences between Lucee and Adobe ColdFusion

What I have actually done so far

So far, my experience is deliberately small: install Lucee, get the web server talking to it, configure a datasource, import some test data, and get a small CFML application reading from that database.

That is enough to give me real things to learn without pretending I am ready to design a large production ColdFusion application. Next I want to spend more time with CFCs, application structure, APIs, testing, and portability between engines.

References I am using

If you are curious why I started with the old version at all, see why I wanted to try ColdFusion MX.