CFML World
The CFML World is a large and varied one. This is a brief guide to some of the more significant parts of it.
What is CFML?
The acronym CFML stands for ColdFusion Markup Language, however this is a misnomer as CFML is far more than a markup language - it is a very powerful tag-based scripting language, capable of anything you can throw at it. Another way of looking at it, CFML is a productivity layer for Java, providing a simple interface to quickly and easily perform complex operations without needing to delve into the murky depths of Java code (unless you want to).
CFML is an Open Standard, controlled by the recently formed CFML Advisory Committee, which defines what is considered part of the Core language and what is an extension.
CFML Resources
These are a selection of resources in each category. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but is intended as a starting point for anyone wanting to find out more about CFML.
Engines:
- Adobe ColdFusion
- The official CFML engine, owned by Adobe.
- openBD
- BlueDragon is an Open-Source GPLv3 engine, controlled by the openBD Steering Committee.
- Railo
- Railo is an Open-Source LGPL engine, controlled by Railo Technologies GmbH and hosted at RedHat's JBoss.org
Resource Lists
- Charlie Arehart's Resource Lists
- A huge compendium of resources for CFML and related.
- ColdFusion Resource Portal
- A collection of links and feeds relevant to ColdFusion developers.
Forums & Mailing Lists
- Adobe Forums
- Adobe's ColdFusion forums.
- Sitepoint Forums
- Sitepoint's ColdFusion forums
- House of Fusion
- A collection of mailing lists for CF and related technologies.
Open Source CFML
- ColdFusion Open-Source List
- A list of Open-Source projects for ColdFusion.
- RIAForge
- A project hosting site for ColdFusion and other Adobe technologies.
Tutorials / Learning
- ColdFusion Cookbook
- A collection of quick snippets for solving common problems.
- easy cfm
- A large collection of tutorials for ColdFusion and associated technologies.
- SitePoint ColdFusion Tutorials
- A growing selection of ColdFusion tutorials and articles.
Conferences
- Adobe MAX
- Adobe technology conference.
- cf.objective()
- Enterprise ColdFusion conference.
- CFDevCon
- UK ColdFusion Developer conference.
- CFUnited
- Premier ColdFusion technical conference.
- Scotch on the Rocks
- European ColdFusion conference.
- Spring <br>
- Ohio-based web development conference.
- WebDU
- Australian web technology conference.
Documentation
- Adobe Livedocs
- Adobe's ColdFusion documentation.
- CF Docs on Air
- AIR-based CF documentation.
- CFML Docs for iPod
- iPod-based CF documentation.
- CFQuickDocs
- Ajax-based ColdFusion documentation.
- ColdfusionDocs
- Flex-based ColdFusion documentation.
- CFML Engine Wiki
- A comparison of the different CFML engines.
Weblog Aggregators
- Adobe Feeds (AXNA)
- Adobe Xml News Aggregator, with over two thousand blogs relating to Adobe technologies.
- Full As A Goog
- An RIA blog aggregator focused on Adobe products.
- Feed-Squirrel
- Another RIA aggregator, covering both Adobe and Microsoft technologies, by Neil Middleton.
- ColdfusionBloggers
- A CF-focused aggregator, controlled by Ray Camden.