How to learn ColdFusion?

Lately, I have been reading comments asking about CF training and certification. A lot of CF developers want to improve their skills.

Another question asked a lot is:

“I want to learn ColdFusion programming which websites or books can you recommend for me?”

Is there any good Adobe ColdFusion tutorial?

The ColdFusion community is one of the best I have seen. Honestly. From so many excellent conferences to some other helpful resources, like online training for example. You can meet a lot of people just being happy to share their knowledge, and talk to other developers and enthusiasts about CFML, Lucee, ColdBox, or any other topic.

CF is always on the spotlight about being outdated, expensive, or any other reason non -CF-ers might say CFML should go to history. The reasons why ColdFusion is not dead are explained in this excellent article by Bret Peters.

One excellent example is from Teddy Tapawan, and this is what he said about ColdFusion when I met him at IntoTheBox Conference 2017.

OK. Now is the time to start ColdFusion programming. Fast.

Comprehensive ColdFusion training list (20+ resources)- from ColdFusion basics to more advanced users

Learn CFML by Adobe ColdFusion 

Adobe ColdFusion Developer Center

Here you can learn the basics of ColdFusion programming and follow the latest updates from Adobe.

Who’s it for? Beginner CFers. Here you can learn the basics of ColdFusion programming and follow the latest updates from Adobe.

Pros: This is an official website and resource on ColdFusion. You are one step closer to the support and other useful info. Lots of ColdFusion Code examples. 

Cons: Since this is an official website, I would expect more detailed tutorials and info about ColdFusion.

Cost: Free.

Website: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion.html

Adobe ColdFusion Blog

Adobe’s ColdFusion blog offers a lot of useful material.

Who’s it for?  It is a handy CFML tutorial for CF developers.

Pros: It offers useful information about using ColdFusion, updates to it, and organizations using it.

Cons: It does present Adobe's perspective on things, and perhaps it could be updated more often.

Cost: Free.

Website:http://blogs.coldfusion.com

Free Adobe ColdFusion Training

This is a free online presentation of the 9-hour Adobe Fastrack to ColdFusion 2016 training.

Who’s it for?  It's oriented towards people that are new to ColdFusion and web development.

Pros: Very detailed, thoroughly explained tutorials.

Cons: Maybe slow-paced and not in-depth enough for some.

Cost: Free.

Website:http://blogs.coldfusion.com/new-coldfusion-training-videos-available/

Community- Driven Learn CFML Programs

Learn CF In A Week

“Learn CF in a Week is a community-driven training program that teaches all the basics you need to be a ColdFusion Developer in one week.” this one is for more experienced and advanced users and developers. You will also gain some basic skills even if you don’t want to be a CF developer, but want to have knowledge about ColdFusion.

Who’s it for?

More advanced developers that are training for certification and jobs. But, it also offers lots of useful info to all other CF enthusiasts and less proficient developers.

Pros: In their own words this course will help you get hired and work as a professional ColdFusion developer.

Cons: None worth mentioning.

Cost: Free.

Website: http://www.learncfinaweek.com/

Lynda

This is a great resource for CF developers  “from beginner basics to advanced techniques, with online video tutorials taught by industry experts.”

It is a very nicely done source for CF, even older versions.

Who’s it for? Beginners to advanced developers.

Pros: Besides basics, it offers some excellent materials about older versions of ColdFusion.

Cons: No training for ColdFusion 11 and 2016.

Cost: 30-Day Free Trial, Basic package is $19.99/month and Premium starts from $29.99/month

Website: https://www.lynda.com/ColdFusion-training-tutorials/174-0.html

Quackit

This is the ColdFusion tutorial for the beginners. If you already know the basics, it might come in handy to remind about some features every once in awhile, but no more than that. With 36 sections, it does provide good information about CFML.

Who’s it for? Beginners.

Pros: Nicely done interface, with well-explained sections.

Cons: You do need basic knowledge of HTML before you dive into this.

Cost: Free.

Website: https://www.quackit.com/coldfusion/tutorial/

Accelebrate

These guys have a very interesting course setup. They will come onsite or will have you at their offices, with you or/and with your team.

Who’s it for? Beginners to more advanced developers.

Pros: Very location friendly. If you’re running a business, and don’t have time to travel to conferences, school/s etc. then Accelebrate will be your cup of tea.

Cons: I couldn’t find any training material for ColdFusion 11. It’s time to have that one out guys.

Cost: Pricing upon request.

Website: https://www.accelebrate.com/coldfusion-training

FigLeaf Software

Fig Leaf is very well known and well established in the CF community having authored the first two CF books with Ben Forta and having trained more than 35,000 students. The training is very up-to-date, and offer very fast paced course.Fig Leaf has written many of the official CF training and certifications for Allaire, Macromedia, and Adobe and wrote the most recent Advanced ColdFusion courseware for Adobe.  Fig Leaf is also the author of the Administering ColdFusion class designed for CF Administrators.

Who’s it for? Beginner and Advanced ColdFusion developers and Admins. Fig Leaf’s classes are on GSA Schedule with discounted pricing for Government employees.

Pros: All classes are hands-on, instructor-led by a Certified Technical Trainer with 10+ years of CFML experience.  The 3 and 4-day courses offer a fast-paced rhythm to get you the experience  you “need to start building and maintaining dynamic and interactive Web applications using the ColdFusion application server.” Private training is very affordable for up to 12 students at $2,795/day plus T&E.

Cons: Cost – the classes are priced for professionals and are not priced to be paid for by individuals out of pocket.

Cost: Fast Track to ColdFusion $1,995/per person (4 days)

Administering ColdFusion $1,995/per person (3 days)

Website: http://training.figleaf.com/Courses/ColdFusion_Training.cfm

Ortus Solutions

These guys are awesome. Very inspiring and interesting to work with, and learn from. They have created multiple applications, like ColdBox, CommandBox, TestBox and ContentBox Modular CMS. You can catch Luis Majano and the guys at one of the CF Conferences throughout the year, and chat and learn about CFML, or have a detailed training from them.

Who’s it for: Even though beginners might find it useful, I suggest it to advanced CF developers.

Pros: On-site training, and benefits that come with that: save time, Focus on topics that matter to your company etc.

Cons: They're all very active in the community and at work, so you have to plan your trainings in advance if you want to have them train you and/or your team.

Cost: Prices upon request.

Website: https://www.ortussolutions.com/services/training

Roundpeg

Roundpeg offers online and onsite classes but is no longer available for public classes, only private ones. Besides CF they also offer other training which might be useful for future developers.

Who’s it for: Beginners to medium.

Pros: 

Cons: Slower on a feedback and longer response time.

Cost: Upon request.

Website: https://www.roundpeg.com/

Webucator

This one is not only for CF developers. It offers training for other Adobe products, but also for Java, mobile programming etc.

Who’s it for: Beginners to advanced

Pros: Very good outline, with lots of information. Developers say good things about their beginners' classes. Excellent online classes for those who don’t want to or don’t have time for onsite training.

Cons: I wasn’t able to find the names of the instructors and their backgrounds. It would be helpful to know who’s training you and your team. I suggest including this info.

Cost: $790 per online course and higher. Up to a couple of thousand $$ for live training sessions.

Website: https://www.webucator.com/adobe-training/coldfusion-training.cfm

CFDocs website

CFDocs is “UltraFast CFML Documentation Reference”. You can find good support here from the developers and longtime CFers that are very active in the community.

Who’s it for: Medium to advanced.

Pros: Very easy to find what you need. Easy urls like: cfdocs.org/hash just hit /tag-name or /function-name. Lots of contributors and resources.

Cons: While many tags and functions show examples many do not offer any (it is an open source project, so you can contribute examples).

Cost: Free

Website: https://cfdocs.org/

Coldfusion Tutorial for Beginners – After Hours Programming

After Hours Programming is an open-source learning website.

Who’s it for: Beginners

Pros: Well explained. Easy to understand and start your first CF line.

Cons: Limited learning resource and less contributors.

Cost: Free

Website https://www.afterhoursprogramming.com/tutorial/coldfusion/introduction-coldfusion/ 

Try ColdFusion

The primary goal of this site is to remove barriers. Make it as simple as possible to get a taste for CF. Sure Railo Express is easy to download and run, but not as easy as opening your browser and typing. Try before you buy (or download for free).

Who’s it for: Beginners

Pros: Easy to start learning CFML.

Cons: TBU

Cost: Free

Website: Try.CF

Ben Forta

Is Adobe‘s Senior Director of Education Initiatives.

Who’s it for: Beginners

Pros: Well explained and lots of different and useful topics around CFML.

Cons: TBU

Cost: Free

Website: Forta.com

Pluralsight

Introduction to ColdFusion by Pluralsight and Pinal Dave is another interesting ColdFusion Learning resource.

“In this course you will learn the basics of how to use ColdFusion platform and rapidly develop web sites. The course begins with learning basics of ColdFusion Markup Language and moves to common development language practices. From there we move to frequent database operations and advanced concepts of Forms, Sessions and Cookies. The last module sums up all the concepts covered in the course with sample application.”

Who’s it for:  Beginners and advanced level.

Pros: 10-day free trial

Cons/cost: Good to check 10-day trial period for free, so you can decide if the pace is too fast or good for you.

Website: https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/cold-fusion-introduction

CFML experts

Charlie Arehart

Charlie is a veteran of the CF community. He offers substantial free resources, such as his CF411.com (which itself has lists of free CF training resources and trainers), as well as his CF911.com and UGTV sites, and his blog. And while he offers paid CF troubleshooting, note that he also lists other CF troubleshooting consultants. And while he offers paid CF troubleshooting, note that he also lists other CF troubleshooting consultants (While Charlie can offer CF training, it’s no longer a primary focus).

Who’s it for:  Beginners and advanced level. I suggest using any of the many resources he offers for free and contact Charlie if you need more help once those have been consulted.

Pros: His many free resources offer a wealth of information to help folks at any level, and his troubleshooting consulting offers excellent custom tailored sessions for you and/ or the whole team.

Cons/cost: Charlie’s consulting is not inexpensive, but if you avail yourself of the many free resources first and still need help, he can generally solve problems very quickly (with satisfaction guaranteed).

Website: http://www.carehart.org/

Scot Antall

Scot is a very experienced technical trainer and educator. He’s been teaching for almost 20 years, and can transfer knowledge very good.

Who’s it for: Beginners to advanced.

Pros: Excellent resource for even older versions of ColdFusion.

Cons: Slow response time.

Cost: Starting from $25 for manuals and tutorials, but you need to contact him for the training.

Website: http://www.scottantall.com/courseware.html

Ledet Training

Good and fast 2-day to 5 day Adobe authorized classes, covering all important details and providing enough information to get new ColdFusion developers up to speed quickly or to help more experienced developers improve their skills.

Who’s it for: Beginning to advanced CF developers

Pros: Very efficient and fast-paced instructor-led hands-on Adobe authorized training course. Multiple cities and locations available including online and onsite at company locations.

Cons: If you’re not well familiarized with CFML this one is one is not for you.

Cost: From $1100 to $2500 for open enrollment, depending on course length and location. Onsite training quoted on request (starts at $7500 for a two day in most locations ranging up to about $25,000. Price depends on location and number of students.

Website:

https://catalog.ledet.com/preview_program.php?catoid=5&poid=538

https://www.ledet.com/courses/211-Adobe-ColdFusion-Fast-Track-to-ColdFusion-Training-Class

 

 

Learn CFML Podcast

CF Alive Podcast

ColdFusion Alive, the only podcast dedicated to helping CFers thrive in their jobs and growing the CF programmer community. Discover practices, tools, techniques, tips, trends and what is new in the world of ColdFusion today. Interviews with 60+ top CF experts such as Charlie Arehart, Nolan Erck, Luis Majano, Kishore Balakrishnan and other top Adobe and Lucee executives who are setting the future direction of CFML.

Cost: Free

Website: Podcast

Modernize or Die Podcast

Modernize or Die ® is a trademarked ideal that Ortus Solutions lives day to day. ColdFusion, often mistakenly thought as a dead language, is alive and well. ColdFusion is not the same as it was 20 years ago, yes it's more than 20 years old! It's dynamic, vibrant, modern, fluent, and functional! At Ortus Solutions we strive to create tools and a community ecosystem for all things ColdFusion (CFML); especially in our approach to helping companies get out of legacy hell and into a modern and vibrant approach to web development.

Cost: Free

Website: Podcast

Learn CFML – Webinars and Meetups

FusionReactor Webinar Series

Who’s it for: Advanced programmers

Pros: Charlie Arehart, the CF veteran has done a very good job on explaining all the details about the FusionReactor Troubleshooting:

1. What has just happened on my server?
2. When requests are slow for less obvious reasons
3. Post-crash troubleshooting

Cons: Still none.

Cost: Free, must register

Website: FusionReactor Webinars

ColdFusion User Groups

ColdFusion user groups are a great resource for this as well. You can join one of them, or all, and meet these people at the meetings, or simply follow up after the meetings, some of which offer discussion lists, blogs, and recordings.

There are ColdFusion user groups all over the world, but if there's none in your area note that there is the Online ColdFusion Meetup which meets several times a year and whose meetings are recorded.

Who’s it for: A wide range of CF users.

Pros: Great for networking, sharing and expanding your CF knowledge. Also good for topics that are not CFML, but have some connection to it.

Cons:  Maybe hard to follow along if you’re not proficient in CFML.

Cost: Usually meetings are free.

Website:

http://coldfusion.adobe.com/coldfusion/index.cfm/user-groups/

https://www.meetup.com/coldfusionmeetup/

ColdFusion Security Training

Writing Secure CFML

Developed by Pete Freitag, a master expert on Adobe ColdFusion Security, this is an excellent resource you should know about.

About: A hands-on CFML / ColdFusion Security Training class for developers. Learn how to identify and fix security vulnerabilities in your ColdFusion / CFML applications

Who’s it for: ColdFusion Developer

Pros: Learn first hand from ColdFusion security expert Pete Freitag

Cons: Still none.

Cost:Request a Quote

Website:Register here

 

 

 

 

Adobe ColdFusion Certificate Program

Who’s it for: Advanced programmers

Pros: Get endorsed as a ColdFusion Specialist by taking this course. It was held a day before CF Summit West 2019 at Las Vegas, NV. The next will be organized around CF Summit 2020 conference and we will keep you updated.

Cons: Still none.

Cost: TBA

Website: Register here

What are CFers learning in 2021?

I ran a poll on Facebook last week about this topic. It seems to me that the community (ColdFusion community) is interested in investing in learning even more now. Various topics have emerged, and interesting results have come about. Some results were expected, but some others have been surprising, and that’s what I like most about CFers. They/we can always surprise you!

What ColdFusion feature or tool are CFers excited to learn in 2021?

Read more here

 

Michaela Light is the host of the CF Alive Podcast and has interviewed more than 100 ColdFusion experts. In each interview, she asks "What Would It Take to make CF more alive this year?" The answers still inspire her to continue to write and interview new speakers. Michaela has been programming in ColdFusion for more than 20 years. She founded TeraTech in 1989. The company specializes in ColdFusion application development, security and optimization. She has also founded the CFUnited Conference and runs the annual State of the CF Union Survey.                  

 

 

 

 

 

The CF Alive Roadmap

Don’t listen to what some people say. I’m here to show you that ColdFusion is a vibrant and modern language for complex, data-driven enterprise apps. While some companies have abandoned ColdFusion as dying, more visionary dev teams have embraced CF. Learn how they are making it the most modern, secure and state-of-the-art web development ecosystem. Bar none.

Join in by:

• Reading the book: CF Alive: Making ColdFusion Modern, Vibrant and Secure
• Listening to the CF Alive podcast
• Joining the CF Alive Inner Circle FB group
• Taking action to make CF more alive and modern (using any of the myriad of ideas in the book, podcast and group)

And to continue learning how to make your ColdFusion apps more modern and alive, I encourage you to download our free ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist.

Because… perhaps you are responsible for a mission-critical or revenue-generating CF application that you don’t trust 100%, where implementing new features is a painful ad-hoc process with slow turnaround even for simple requests.

What if you have no contingency plan for a sudden developer departure or a server outage? Perhaps every time a new freelancer works on your site, something breaks. Or your application availability, security, and reliability are poor.

And if you are depending on ColdFusion for your job, then you can’t afford to let your CF development methods die on the vine.

You’re making a high-stakes bet that everything is going to be OK using the same old app creation ways in that one language — forever.

All it would take is for your fellow CF developer to quit or for your CIO to decide to leave the (falsely) perceived sinking ship of CFML and you could lose everything—your project, your hard-won CF skills, and possibly even your job.

Luckily, there are a number of simple, logical steps you can take now to protect yourself from these obvious risks.

No Brainer ColdFusion Best Practices to Ensure You Thrive No Matter What Happens Next

ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist

Modern ColdFusion development best practices that reduce stress, inefficiency, project lifecycle costs while simultaneously increasing project velocity and innovation.

√ Easily create a consistent server architecture across development, testing, and production

√ A modern test environment to prevent bugs from spreading

√ Automated continuous integration tools that work well with CF

√ A portable development environment baked into your codebase… for free!

 

Learn about these and many more strategies in our free ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist.