Learning more about CFML (particularly CFMX additions), for BlueDragon users

Occasionally someone moving to BlueDragon may ask for documentation on how to use some aspect of CFML. Since we only document where we're different (either our many enhancements or our compatibility issues-far fewer by comparison), we instead point folks to the CFMX docs to learn more. In this entry, I share a little more detail to help in that regard.

We realize that many people coming to BlueDragon have skipped CFMX (or perhaps just never leveraged its features) and want to learn about such things as CFCs, web services, XML processing, and other things introduced in CFMX (and supported in BD). Heck, some never took advantage of CF5 features.

The best place to learn about the changes in these releases is at the Macromedia site. Even the CF5 docs (as well as CFMX 6, 6.1, and 7) are currently all available online at http://livedocs.macromedia.com (yes, even post-Adobe merger, for now at least).

Don't Miss the CFML "User Guide"

But one dilemma for someone not too familiar with those docs is if they just jump right into the CFML Reference manual. While clearly useful, it's not really a "how to" guide. A better resource to be aware of is the "Developing ColdFusion MX Applications" manual. That's its name as of CFMX 6.1, at least. In 7 it's now called "ColdFusion MX Developer's Guide". The 6.1 version (to which BD 6.2 is closest in functionality) is at:

http://livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/6.1/htmldocs/part_dev.htm
 
(If someone wants to ask or comment on BD support for CFMX 7 features, this isn't the place for that. Please check out our  FAQ)

For someone particularly interested in CFCs as web services, see this section of that manual:
 
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/6.1/htmldocs/webservi.htm#wp1141005
 
Note that this discusses both accessing web services (including other than CFML web services using CFINVOKE, CFOBJECT, and createObject) and creating them (using CFCs). In fact, for more on CFCs in general, you need to look elsewhere in the document. See: 
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/6.1/htmldocs/building.htm#wp1170255
 
Don't Miss the Deep Content

As you use the livedocs site, don't let a given section's table of contents page (like those two above) fool you. They may only show a few sections whose links may have very little info. The contents page is not showing all the many subsections. You need to use the right arrow in the top right to move to the next section. (The docs are also available in PDF form or downloadable HTML files, at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/coldfusion/documentation.html).
 
Additional references on building web services (including examples, that often also walk you through using Dreamweaver MX to help build the code), see the ColdFusion Developer Center area on web services:
 
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/coldfusion/webservices.html
 
Similarly, there is a section there on CFCs, also:
 
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/coldfusion/cfcs.html
 
Finally, I'll note that we've got a day-long training session (not publicly offered, but available and presented previously) which goes over the new features of CFMX that are in BD, introducing them to folks who may have missed them.