I received the following information from my friends at Intergral:

---- Intergral (makers of FusionReactor Server Monitor) are currently running a promotion together with Adobe. If you purchase either a new or upgrade license to ColdFusion 9 Enterprise, you will receive FusionReactor Enterprise Server Monitor 1 Year Subscription, absolutely free. If you purchase a new license of ColdFusion 9 Standard, we'll give you a copy of FusionReactor Standard 1 Year Subscription. Our prices for ColdFusion are also very competitive, so this is really a great deal. If you purchase Platinum Support with your new ColdFusion license, then you are entitled to receive all upgrades and updates to ColdFusion in the next 12 months following your purchase – this means that if Adobe releases the next release of ColdFusion [note from Josh: the next release of ColdFusion is currently known by the codename Zeus and you can find more information on it by Googling for "Coldfusion Zeus"] within the next 12 months [note from Josh: Adobe has stated that the next release of ColdFusion will be in 2012, so certainly within the next 12 months], you will receive it as part of your Platinum Support contract. As support only costs 20% of the license purchase price, this is a fantastic offer to ensure you stay on the latest version of ColdFusion. These offers are only available until Jan 31st 2012! See all our offers here: http://www.fusion-reactor.com/adobe ----

This is great stuff! Thanks for making this great offer available to ColdFusion customers, Intergral!

When I first got an iPhone in 2008, mobile websites weren't all that common--and this was perfectly fine because the browser on an iPhone is very capable of working with "regular" websites (save those using Flash, of course). But in the time since, mobile websites have become all the rage. This is a very good thing as mobile-optimized websites are certainly more convenient on mobile devices than are sites that are designed for desktop browsers. But the vast majority of mobile-optimized websites only present a fraction of the content of the full website. So what's a visitor to do if he/she wants to get content that's on the full website but isn't on the mobile-optimized site (or, due simply to personal preference, just wants to use the full website on his/her mobile device)? The obvious answer is "visit the full website" but that's where things get tricky: it has been my experience that more frequently than not, mobile-optimized sites "trap" you and disallow you from getting to the full site.

Trapped on a mobile site--how does this happen? Well, let's talk about how you get there in the first place: you don't go to something like mobile.mysite.com, do you? No, you just go to www.mysite.com just like you would on your computer; either that directly presents mobile content to you or it redirects you somewhere like mobile.mysite.com. How does the redirection happen? The site is developed such that the User-Agent value in the request header is inspected and when it is determined that the value provided corresponds to a mobile browser, the site serves up the mobile content or redirects you to the mobile site. You're probably then starting to see the "how" of getting trapped on a mobile site: because the site always does this header inspection, you always go the mobile site, no matter how hard you try to get to the full site.

Trapped on a mobile site--why does this happen? This is a bit more of a complex question. The simple answer is the "how" answer. But why are sites developed this way to begin with? The intent is good: referencing back to the first paragraph, mobile-optimized websites are certainly more convenient on mobile devices and so site developers and owners want to give you the most convenient content for your device. But what so many of these site developers and owners are missing is the other things I said in the first paragraph: there's (generally) content on their full site users might want to access plus some users might just simply prefer to use the full site, even on a mobile device. Look, it's your site and you can do what you want. But if what you want is to serve your site's visitors in the way they like best, don't trap them in your mobile site. It appears that many mobile-optimized sites don't even consider this: they don't give you a link to get to the full site and, due to the aforementioned User-Agent request header analysis, they trap you in the mobile site no matter how hard you try to get to the full site. But there's another class of mobile-optimized sites that trap you and these are in a sense far more discouraging: the sites that do give you a link to the full site--but don't bother to test that it actually works. This is discouraging because it starts with a greater understanding as compared to the other class of sites that trap you--specifically, the understanding that site visitors might want to get to content on the full site--it's just not followed through effectively and as a result, it's vastly more frustrating because they leave you hitting their "visit full site" button in futility, looking like a fool. And this is by no means rare--I see this all the time. Folks, you have to test this stuff! Some of you probably think you do: but using an emulator/simulator isn't sufficient (clearly!). I understand: it's hard to test mobile sites properly because you have to actually use a mobile device and that's a pain. But whipping out a mobile device and pressing the "visit full site" button on your site, isn't all that difficult, is it?

Testing is always mandatory, of course, but testing something broken is only going to prove to you it's broken--and if your site always inspects the User-Agent request header and serves the mobile content or redirects to the mobile site, your site is broken (in regards to allowing users to get to your full site). So if you're inspecting the User-Agent request header and serving the mobile content or redirecting to the mobile site in all circumstances, you don't need to test: first you need to make some code changes (and then you need to test those). If you don't have a "visit full site" link on your mobile site, this is complicated--how then do you know if the user wants to be on the mobile site or the full site? Serving the mobile site to mobile browsers by default and providing a "visit full site" link is the best approach. And if you're doing that then the code changes you need to make are to implement a system whereby if the user actually clicks that link, it supersedes the action taken to supply the mobile content based on the User-Agent request header. There are lots of approaches you can take for this but make sure whatever you do, it's permanent, at least for the duration of the user's session. That means you can't simply add something like a URL parameter of "fullsite=true" and expect that to be good enough because then when the user actually clicks on a link within the full site, he/she will be right back to mobile site. Using a URL parameter like "fullsite=true" is a good idea but you need to implement a system to allow the user to stay on the full site until he/she indicates he/she wants to get back to the mobile site (and, by the way, just as it is the best approach to give users a "visit full site" link on the mobile site, you need to give mobile users on the full site a "visit mobile site" link so they don't end up trapped in your full site). You can do this however you see fit--dynamically add something like "fullsite=true" to all the full site URLs, use a cookie variable that you inspect on every request, whatever you want--but be sure you do something or you're only going to create an even more frustrating experience than if you prevent the user from visiting the full site to begin with (and yes, I've seen this issue too).

Bear in mind that you're not in the clear here just because you're only providing the content to software that someone else developed: just today I was looking at a Wordpress site and while it provided a "visit full site" link, even when I clicked on it, I still ended up redirected back to the mobile site. In fact, experiencing this issue in such a widely used system as Wordpress was the catalyst for me to write this post. I guess if you've made these same mistakes as a developer you can console yourself with the fact that even such well-known software has this issue (or at least did as of whatever version it was that was used by the site I was on).

I know I sound crotchety here but a) I guess I am, sorry--I'm just truly flabbergasted as to how often this issue occurs b) seriously, I run into this issue all. the. time. c) did I mention that I see this frequently? and d) I really am trying to help (it took a long time to write this--I didn't do it complain, I did it to shed light on the issue so readers will get this right on their sites).

2012-01-23 UPDATE: I was hoping this post would generate more views, comments, and general traction that it apparently has. I guess it's that I don't have a good mechanism for socializing it properly. But please help me out: if you read this post and agree with it, send the URL to offending sites (via the Contact Us page or whatever)!

Following on the heels of the slew of Adobe announcements of last week, Adobe evangelist Terry Ryan released a blog post stating that ColdFusion Zeus is still under development and on schedule. We're still here--same leadership, engineers, and sales team as before last week--and we're still selling ColdFusion 9 and working hard on the next version of ColdFusion, codenamed ColdFusion Zeus. If you're interested in more on ColdFusion Zeus, your best bet at this point is to search "ColdFusion Zeus" but know that we'll be releasing more official information as the release draws closer (the official information we are able to disclose at this point is that we will be releasing Zeus sometime in 2012). If you have any questions or need licenses for ColdFusion 9, please feel free to post a comment here or to contact me directly.

One of the exciting new features in ColdFusion 9 is Apache Lucene Solr integration. Solr is an open source enterprise search server that you can use in place of Verity in ColdFusion 9 with few limitations? Want to learn more? I'm excited to announce that Adobe's own Ray Camden will be presenting an Adobe eSeminar on this top on Thursday, September 8, 2011 @ 10:00 AM PT (1700 GMT). For more details and to register, please visit http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=1864016.

If you'd like to read about ColdFusion 9's Solr integration, please visit http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Developing/WS2B335964-A0DA-4add-B9FE-4041464EC9E1.html.

The Adobe ColdFusion team has set up a 2-part eSeminar series that I will be presenting to help those new to ColdFusion get started. The first of these sessions is geared towards those who have never done any development but who are familiar with the basics of HTML. The second session builds on the first and is the perfect time for those who have done previous development but are new to ColdFusion to jump in. The sessions have been scheduled for a week apart so that attendees at the first session have a little time to practice their skills on their own after the first session in preparation for the second session. Join us!

Here is the information on these sessions:

• ColdFusion 9: Ridiculously Easy: The Basics - Tuesday, August 30, 2011 @ 10:00 AM PT (1700 GMT)
  • Full details and registration: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=1844274
• ColdFusion 9: Ridiculously Easy: Web Applications - Tuesday, September 6, 2011 @ 10:00 AM PT (1700 GMT)
  • Full details and registration: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/event/index.cfm?event=detail&id=1864012

If you purchase either ColdFusion Builder 2 or Flash Builder 4.5 Premium as a standalone product (that is, not part of a Creative Suite 5.5 product bundle), you will get a license for both ColdFusion Builder 2 and Flash Builder 4.5 as follows:

• ColdFusion Builder 2 includes a license for Flash Builder 4.5 Standard.
• Flash Builder 4.5 Premium includes a license for ColdFusion Builder 2.

So these products then are actually mini-bundles, hence the title of this post. :)

Two important notes:

• While Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium and Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection both include a license for Flash Builder 4.5 Premium, neither includes a license for ColdFusion Builder 2. However, if you purchase Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium or Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection, you can purchase an upgrade license for ColdFusion Builder 2 (that is, you're eligible for upgrade pricing for ColdFusion Builder 2; you don't have to buy the full version of ColdFusion Builder 2).
• Flash Builder 4.5 Standard does not include a license for ColdFusion Builder 2 and as well as I am aware upgrade pricing is not available for ColdFusion Builder 2 (that is, you are not eligible for upgrade pricing for ColdFusion Builder 2; you do have to buy the full version of ColdFusion Builder 2).

Speaking of upgrade pricing, there is (of course!) upgrade pricing available for those looking to move to ColdFusion Builder 2 from ColdFusion Builder 1 (at the time it was released, it wasn't called ColdFusion Builder 1, it was merely called ColdFusion Builder, but now that ColdFusion Builder 2 has been released, we often refer to the first release of ColdFusion Builder as ColdFusion Builder 1). And there is also upgrade pricing available for those looking to move to Flash Builder 4.5 or one of the Creative Suite 5.5 bundles from earlier versions of those products.

So let's see if I can create a helpful little chart here:

* Note that while you cannot purchase an upgrade license for ColdFusion Builder 2 from Flash Builder 4.5 Standard, you will get ColdFusion Builder 2 if you upgrade Flash Builder 4.5 Standard to Flash Builder 4.5 Premium.

2011-06-06 UPDATE: There is no mention made of the type of license (that is, full or upgrade) required when buying Flash Builder 4.5 Premium or ColdFusion Builder 2 in order to get the "mini-bundle" benefit because that benefit applies to both the full and upgrade versions of Flash Builder 4.5 and ColdFusion Builder 2. That is to say, if you're upgrading to Flash Builder 4.5 Premium, you do in that case get a license for ColdFusion Builder 2 just as you do if you buy the full version of Flash Builder 4.5 Premium; if you're upgrading to ColdFusion Builder 2, you do in that case get a license for Flash Builder 4.5 Standard (I suppose the one exception to this may be if you're upgrading from Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection or Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium, since these already include Flash Builder 4.5 Premium), just as you do if you buy the full version of ColdFusion Builder 2.

Although this post is written for ColdFusion 9, the majority of information in this post applies to most releases of ColdFusion.

When you install ColdFusion 9, you can (but are not required to) enter your serial number (sometimes also referred to as a license key) during the installation (there's one caveat to this: there's a known issue with the 64-bit Linux installers not accepting ColdFusion 9 Standard serial numbers; see the related post listed below for more information). I'm not going to cover that in this post because there's no need: you just put your serial number in when prompted. What I'm going to cover here is entering a serial number into the ColdFusion 9 Administrator; you might need to do this for reasons including, but not limited to, not entering it during installation of ColdFusion 9.

Okay, so here we go:

1. Log into the ColdFusion Administrator:
   
   
   
2. Once you're logged in, click the System Information icon in the upper right; in the screenshot below, I've circled it in red:
   
   
   
3. From there it's pretty easy; just put your serial number in the New License text box then press the Submit Changes button:
   
   
   
4. That's it! The page will refresh and you can scroll down and see the information on your Edition of ColdFusion and the serial number you just entered (I've redacted mine in the screenshot below for reasons I think are fairly obvious):
   
   
   

Two months after the beta hit Adobe Labs, ColdFusion Builder 2 is now available! You can find information and links to learn lots more about it, to try it, and to buy it at http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion-builder.html. And be sure to check out the ColdFusion Builder team's blog at http://blogs.adobe.com/cfbuilder.

ColdFusion Builder 2 now comes in a free edition called ColdFusion Builder 2 Express! I'm not seeing much in the way of details ColdFusion Builder 2 Express listed on the Adobe site but Ray Camden's blog post about it and Ben Forta's blog post about it are good places to get a bit of information.

2012-01-08: given the age and content of this post, it is difficult at this point to conceive of a legitimate comment that could be posted. Yet comments continue to be posted: spam. So it seems wise to me then to stop the insanity by closing comments to this post. Should you have a legitimate comment you wish to post here, please contact me via the contact form here on my blog. Thanks!

Kendall and I are married! And as such, I really, really need to update our blog at blog.kendallandjosh.com!

Oh--and I should also point out that since the end of November 2010, she too works for Adobe. She's an Account Manager for the Omniture Business Unit so we're a happy little Adobe family. :)

I have a bunch of rules set up for Exchange (they filter messages directly to certain folders and such). I like my rules: they do what I want them to do which fundamentally is keep out of my Inbox stuff that isn't addressed directly to me. The stuff in the Inbox is the stuff I really care about. Today I needed to set up an Out of Office message. Guess for what messages I wanted it to fire? Only those that actually make it to the Inbox of course! It turns out that this is FAR from a trivial matter. It apparently used to be that the Out of Office "rule" fired, it fired only AFTER all the other rules. This is exactly what I wanted but it seems that back in 2006, Microsoft deemed this a bug and "fixed" it. I can certainly understand that some would want their Out of Office rule to fire first and therefore be applicable to all incoming messages--but can't Microsoft understand that some of us wouldn't want that? Didn't they design the feature the initial way intentionally? Even if not, couldn't they find some users happy with it? What I'm driving at is this: it's not a bad idea to accommodate users who didn't like the initial behavior but it is, however, a terrible idea to stop accommodating users who do like the initial behavior! And it didn't have to be an either/or thing: if they would have just provided a simple flag (checkbox) in the Out of Office Assistant that allows us to choose to apply our regular rules prior to the Out of Office rule if that's how we want it or to apply our regular rules after the Out of Office rule, I'd be in fine shape right now. Come on, Microsoft!!!

But since I don't have such a flag, I had to come up with a system for beating Exchange at the Out of Office game. There are two main approaches you can take if you're in this situation (and neither is anywhere near perfect):

2011-04-21 UPDATE: you actually can't beat Exchange at the Out of Office game. You're stuck. You can read what I originally wrote below this paragraph but, for reasons I will give in a moment, I don't recommend following those approaches. The best thing to do is just set the external Out of Office message and hope it doesn't cause problems. Of course the actual best thing would be for Microsoft to make it such that your regular rules can be applied before your Out of Office rule. But until they do that, you need to set the external Out of Office message and live with the results--and if you can't live with the results then don't set an Out of Office message. But definitely do not use a regular rule that replies to every message you receive--if you do this, you run the risk of completely filling up your mailbox. The reason is that some irresponsible senders (I'm talking about you E*Trade!) will send you messages that, when replied to, generate another message to you (perhaps, as was the case with my E*Trade situation, it will tell you that the email box to which you sent your message is not monitored). If such a message were generated only once per incoming sender (which is the way that Out of Office messages work), this would not be irresponsible--it would in that case be informative and helpful. But when the message is sent out in response to every single message then it's irresponsible because what it creates is the possibility of filling up a recipient's email box because it creates an infinite loop of the recipient's rule sending a message and the irresponsible sender's server responding back with a message which causes the recipient's rule to send another message which causes the irresponsible sender's server to respond back with another message and so on and so forth. Fortunately, I happened to check my email and see this happening fairly soon after it started and then, by marking the offending E*Trade sender as a Junk Mail sender, I was able to terminate the loop after a "mere" 498 messages were sent to me. But it could have been a lot worse and if the point is to be able to not have to monitor your email box (as it was for me--I just got lucky in my timing) then it's not a risk to which you want to expose yourself. So anyway, all that said, read on if you want to but unfortunately, you won't find any info that's really practical to use as long as there are irresponsible senders in the world.

1. Do not use Out of Office at all; use a regular rule instead. Instead, add a regular rule after all your others that sends out a template that, while not an actual Out of Office message, at least conveys the same info. Out of Office is specifically designed to fire only 1 time for every sender (that too should be configurable) and this approach cannot emulate that: it sends the reply every time the rule's conditions are met and if that's a problem for you then this approach won't work.

2. Use Out of Office plus a regular rule. Remember, my ideal is that my Out of Office message fires only on those message that have already made it past my other rules. And this means that in my ideal approach, my Out of Office would never be sent to an internal distribution list or an external mailing list because my rules handle all mail sent to internal distribution lists and external mailing lists. But if I turn on Out of Office, it's going to fire off prior to my regular rules--and that means it's going to send Out of Office messages to internal distribution lists and external mailing lists, right? The answer to both parts is not necessarily. On the first part, internal distribution lists: when you turn on the Out of Office assistant, it will send Out of Office messages to senders from within your organization and so yes, messages could be sent to internal distribution lists. However, if your Exchange administrator sets the SuppressOOFsToDistributionLists flag on the Exchange Server, such messages won't be sent. In my case, I figured if the Exchange admins don't have that flag set, it must not be too big of a deal if my Out of Office messages go to internal distribution lists. If that is a big deal to you then you really have no choice but to use a regular rule as described in option 1 (you can use 2 rules, 1 for internal people and 1 for external people; keep reading to see how I set my rule to not fire for internal people; you could do that on the first rule with "stop processing more rules" then create basically the same rule again, but with different content for the internal people, and put it after the first rule). So what about external mailing lists? I don't believe setting that flag prevents the sending of Out of Office messages to external mailing lists so you have to take a different approach. It turns out that you can turn off/on the sending of Out of Office messages to senders outside your organization even when you've turned your Out of Office message on (so you can send to just those inside your organization or to both those inside and outside your organization; however, you can't send to just those outside your organization; this too makes utterly no sense to me) and if you do this then you have the opportunity to set up either a regular rule as in the manner described in approach 1 or you can set up a special Out of Office rule in the Out of Office Assistant: it turns out these rules fire AFTER your regular rules, the net of which is that they're like setting a regular rule at the bottom of your other rules, it's just that these rules are turned off/on with your Out of Office, which is nice. The problem with the special Out of Office rules, however, is that they aren't as sophisticated as regular rules. So what I had to do was set up a regular rule as described in option 1 plus I added one condition to the rule: it doesn't fire for any message with "adobe.com" in the sender's address. Thus, the result of all this is that internal people get the internal Out of Office message (and because it's a normal Out of Office message, they get it only 1 time, not every time they send me a message) and external people get a template that conveys the same info as an Out of Office message, but they get it every time they send me a message. I'm actually fine with external people getting the message every time they send me one as that will remind them I'm out in cases where there's a gap of time between their emails and they might have forgotten--and I'm okay with holding internal people to a higher standard of remembering that I'm out after being notified once! Note that in my case, I needed the internal people at the external people to receive different content anyway but of course the content of both messages could be the same if that's what you want in your situation.

The public beta for ColdFusion Builder 2 is now available on Adobe Labs! Check it out at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/coldfusionbuilder2!

ColdFusion 9 is the best release of ColdFusion ever--so of course you want to run your ColdFusion applications on it! :) But how do you get there from where you are now? It depends on what release of ColdFusion you're on currently; this blog post is for those on ColdFusion MX 7 (the releases variously known as ColdFusion MX 7, ColdFusion MX 7.0.1, ColdFusion MX 7.0.2, ColdFusion 7, ColdFusion 7.0.1, and ColdFusion 7.0.2) or ColdFusion 8 (the releases variously known as ColdFusion 8, ColdFusion 8.0, and ColdFusion 8.0.1). If you're on ColdFusion MX (the versions variously known as ColdFusion MX, ColdFusion MX 6, ColdFusion MX 6.1) or earlier (releases such as ColdFusion 5, ColdFusion 4.5, ColdFusion 4, etc.) you should check out the companion blog post to this one.

If you're on ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8, you are eligible to upgrade to ColdFusion 9 because, as noted in the following link, the valid upgrade paths to ColdFusion 9 are from ColdFusion MX 7 and ColdFusion 8:

• http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/upgrade

The ColdFusion team has worked very hard to maintain backward-compatibility in ColdFusion 9 for applications coded for previous versions of ColdFusion: in many cases, your code will simply run without any changes when you move it to ColdFusion 9. But of course you shouldn't just deploy your production applications to ColdFusion 9 and hope they work: you should test your applications fully before deploying them to production. And to get you started with the greatest chance of success, you should first use the ColdFusion Code Compatibility Analyzer to determine if your code is valid for ColdFusion 9:

• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Admin/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbf3638e6-7fe0.html#WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbf3638e6-7fd6
• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Developing/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec0d04c-7fee.html

I recommend reviewing the tag and function changes to ColdFusion. Be sure to note the addition of functions with names that collide with user-defined functions in your code (for instance, ColdFusion 9 introduced the SpreadsheetNew() function; if your code has a user-defined function called SpreadsheetNew() you will need to change the name of that user-defined function and all references to it in your code before upgrading to ColdFusion 9):

• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec17576-7fef.html
• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/CFMLRef/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbec1a60c-7ffa.html

It's very important to read the release notes for ColdFusion 9.0.1 and ColdFusion 9 in case some might apply to your environment:

• http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/coldfusion/releasenotes.html#9
• http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/coldfusion/releasenotes.html#901

There are a couple of blog posts that, while written for moving to previous releases of ColdFusion, are certainly worth perusing:

• http://www.sargeway.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=6DBD3FC6-C29F-05EC-8BC78715AD424685
• http://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2009/8/10/cf8_migration_resources

When you're ready to install ColdFusion 9, make sure your environment is in compliance with the ColdFusion 9 system requirements and systems support matrix, then review my blog post on the installers for ColdFusion 9, and then review the "Installing Adobe ColdFusion 9" documentation:

• http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/systemreqs
• http://blog.joshuaadams.com/index.cfm/2010/6/3/ColdFusion-8-and-9-ColdFusion-Builder-and-Flash-Builder-4-Installers
• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Installing/index.html (HTML version, containing comments from users and Adobe employees)
• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Installing/coldfusion_9_install.pdf (PDF version with no comments)

Once you have installed ColdFusion 9, you'll want to install ColdFusion 9 Update 1 to bring your install up to ColdFusion 9.0.1; for more information, including links to additional information and the installer, on this free update for ColdFusion 9, see the following FAQ:

• http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/849/cpsid_84973.html

Next you'll want to check out the Hot Fixes and Cumulative Hot Fixes available for ColdFusion 9.0.1:

• http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/529/cpsid_52967.html

And finally, it's extremely important that you check out the security bulletins and advisories for ColdFusion and apply any relevant security Hotfixes--and while you're at it, consider signing up to receive security notifications via the Security Notification Service so you don't miss any security bulletins or advisories for ColdFusion in the future:

• http://www.adobe.com/support/security/#coldfusion
• http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=szalert

Adobe has worked hard to make the upgrade process as smooth and easy as possible. The process involved varies depending on:

• Your current product version and edition as well as, in the case of ColdFusion Enterprise, your current deployment type.
• Your desired product version and edition as well as, in the case of ColdFusion Enterprise, your desired deployment type.

To upgrade to ColdFusion 9 Enterprise from ColdFusion 9 Standard while maintaining a Server (a.k.a. standalone) installation:

1. Enter your license key for ColdFusion 9 Enterprise (or your ColdFusion 9 Enterprise upgrade license key valid for upgrading from ColdFusion 9 Standard) in the ColdFusion Administrator in the System Information section accessible via the link marked with an "i" Information icon in the upper-right. No reinstall of ColdFusion 9 is required and, since you will be using the same installation of ColdFusion 9, you will not need to import any settings (they'll already be there). This works this way because there is a single runtime (per platform and language; the same is true for the installer) for ColdFusion 9 which acts as a particular edition based on what license key(s) are entered: if you enter a license key for ColdFusion 9 Enterprise (or a valid combination of ColdFusion 9 Enterprise upgrade license key and appropriate upgradeable ColdFusion license key), the runtime will act as ColdFusion 9 Enterprise; if you enter a license key for ColdFusion 9 Standard (or a valid combination of ColdFusion 9 Standard upgrade license key and appropriate upgradeable ColdFusion license key), the runtime will act as ColdFusion 9 Standard.

To upgrade to a Server (a.k.a. standalone) installation of ColdFusion 9 from a Server installation of any release of ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 (NOTE: the process is the same for Server installations of both ColdFusion Enterprise and ColdFusion Standard):

1. Run the ColdFusion 9 installer to install ColdFusion 9
2. Browse to the ColdFusion 9 Administrator to launch the Configuration Wizard and allow it to import the settings from ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8

To upgrade to ColdFusion 9 Enterprise from multi-server and J2EE installations of any release of ColdFusion MX, follow this documentation and TechNote (written for upgrading from ColdFusion MX 7 to ColdFusion 8 but the principles apply for upgrading from ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 to ColdFusion 9):

• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Installing/WSe9cbe5cf462523a0-b18e31f121c8f9f003-8000.html
• http://www.adobe.com/go/kb405205

If as a part of your upgrade to ColdFusion 9 you wish to switch to an installation type you are not currently using (for instance, if you wish to switch to a Multi-Server installation from a Server installation), you must perform a new installation of your chosen ColdFusion 9 installation type and then manually migrate your settings from your current ColdFusion installation.

As long as you choose to use the built-in web server during installation of ColdFusion 9, your installation of ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 will not be altered or removed by the installation of ColdFusion 9. You will therefore be able to continue running ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 while you test your new ColdFusion 9 installation.

If during installation of ColdFusion 9 you choose to use the same external web server as you are using for ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 9, note that the CFIDE and CFDOCS directories in the root of your external web server will be replaced by the CFIDE and CFDOCS directories for ColdFusion 9. If you wish to avoid this, you must instead choose to use the built-in web server during installation of ColdFusion 9. As Michael Collins explains in the following blog post, you can later use the Web Server Configuration Tool to configure your external web server for ColdFusion 9:

• http://blogs.adobe.com/mcollins/2007/11/test.html

If you wish to configure your external web server to work properly with both ColdFusion MX 7 and/or ColdFusion 8 and ColdFusion 9 on an ongoing basis (as opposed to working with only one release of ColdFusion), you can do so, but you will need to do some manual configuration of your web server; see the following blog post by Adobe Community Expert Charlie Arehart for more information (even if you're not using Microsoft IIS and Microsoft Windows XP, the principles described will apply):

• http://carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2007/8/21/multiple_cf_versions_on_IIS_XP

Installing ColdFusion 9 will not uninstall ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8; this is by design: it is possible, and desirable in some circumstances, to run multiple versions of ColdFusion at once. There is no need for you to uninstall ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 once you are no longer using it (note that if you simply stop it from running, the only resource it uses is some space on your hard drive). However, if you wish to uninstall ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 after installing ColdFusion 9, you should first make a backup copy of the CFIDE and cfdocs directories in your web root folder because the uninstallation of ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 can remove these directories. After you uninstall ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8, simply restore these directories from backup. The uninstallation of ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8 can also remove "index.cfm" from the list of default documents in your web server. Therefore, if having "index.cfm" listed in your web server as one of the default document is required for your ColdFusion application, you may have to add this listing to your web server after the uninstallation of ColdFusion MX 7 or ColdFusion 8. See your web server's documentation for information on adding default document listings. Alternatively, you may be able to use the ColdFusion 9 Web Server Configuration Tool to do it for you:

• http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ColdFusion/9.0/Admin/WSc3ff6d0ea77859461172e0811cbf364104-7fd6.html

Still have questions? First, visit the Installation section of the ColdFusion Support Center. If you can't find your answer there, feel free to contact me or, particularly if your question is one you believe would benefit other readers of this post, add a comment on this post.

One final note: Adobe offers implementation consulting for a fee and in addition, we have a number of partners who can help you with implementation and troubleshooting; if you would like more information on these offerings, please contact me.