Adobe ColdFusion 2021

Adobe ColdFusion 2021 is the most modernized version in 25 years of ColdFusion. Adobe ColdFusion 2021 was released on 11th Nov, 2020.

Top Features for Adobe ColdFusion 2021

1) Cloud Support

Building cloud-native microservice applications without getting locked with a single cloud provider.

2) Containers

Configuration tool Command Line Interface for all the settings setup.

3) Serverless

Amazon Lambda and Azure Functions.

4) Extended Support

Adobe ColdFusion 2021 will have extended support beyond 2025. All other versions will support until 2025.

5) Other top Features for Adobe ColdFusion 2021

  • Installer size (massive reduction from 1GB to 100-200 MB)
  • Fully command-line installation. GUI based installation is there but only as of fall back.
  • CF is breaking down to modules with package manager feature, CFPM will come with a whole range of commands to install/uninstall all packages or particular packages and list all packages already installed.
  • GUI based installation also available for managing packages/modules.
  • The rollout is very easy with these great options
    1. Full-blown
    2. Code scan – This will check what are the needed packages to be installed to run the code
    3. Runtime check
  • Configuration tool
    1. Command Line Interface for all the settings setup.
    2. CFsetup – All the settings can be imported/export to a single JSON file to be done on other machines
  • Docker image is available as a tar file
    • Two environment variables
    1. ImportCFSettings – Pass the JSON file with all CF settings by using cfsetup utility.
    2. InstallModules – Comma separated list of modules to be installed.

Significant changes made on Adobe ColdFusion 2021 for Cloud

  • Across AWS and Azure, integrated all these services
  • Storage – Switching Cloud storage service will be easy with direct module access.Coding also will be super simple with cloud.
  • Database
  • NoSQL – MongoDB and DynamoDB support
  • Caching
  • Email
  • Messages/notifications – SQS, SNS and Azure Service Bus
  • Serverless – Tool to build lambda runtime using the CF Pacakged code

Modernization with below new options

  • Rest and spread operators
  • Parallelism on Array
  • Parallelism on Struct
  • IIFE (Immediately Invokable Function Expressions)
  • Struct destructuring
  • Iterator and static block support for CFC
  • Java integration

Productivity improved with these improvements

  • CFML’s inherent ability
  • Save setup time
  • Code scan to build runtime
  • Integration with DevOps pipeline

Performance

  • Drastic reduction in start uptime
  • Nimble runtime with less resources and scale better

Security

  • Single sign-on support: SAML integration

Version Support

Given that ColdFusion 2021 will be soon out, it is recommended that any application built on CF11 and below upgraded as there is no more core support available. Even CF 2016 and CF 2018 can be upgraded, not because of support, but because of the features that make the application highly efficient.

Product Name Version General Availability End of Core Support End of Extended Support
ColdFusion 2021 11 Nov 2020 Beyond 2025 Beyond 2025
ColdFusion 2018 7 Dec 2018 13 July 2023 13 July 2024
ColdFusion 2016 16 Feb 2016 17 Feb 2021 17 Feb 2022
ColdFusion 11.x 29 April 2014 30 April 2019 30 April 2021
ColdFusion 10.x 15 May 2012 16 May 2017 16 May 2019
ColdFusion 9.x 10 May 2009 31 Dec 2014 31 Dec 2016
ColdFusion 8.x.x 30 July 2007 31 July 2012 31 July 2014

With these game-changing features, Adobe aims to empower ColdFusion as the go-to programming language for web and app development that suits any business. The prospects of better licensing, configuration, and performance look promising, and only time will tell how much Adobe achieves over the year to make these changes live. For ColdFusion 2021 release details, please check this out.
https://www.itlandmark.com/blog/adobe-coldfusion-2021-release-details-features/