Migrating from ColdFusion 5 or older to ColdFusion 8

I am regularly asked about the process of moving applications from ColdFusion 5 or older to ColdFusion 8. Nowhere else is there good consolidated information on the subject so, with some help from the excellent Adobe ColdFusion Support Team, I have compiled this information:

First and foremost, to set things up: as noted in the following link, ColdFusion 5 to ColdFusion 8 is not a valid upgrade path:

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

However, you can still migrate your ColdFusion applications from ColdFusion 5 to ColdFusion 8. Below you will find a number of resources that will be helpful:

This is probably one of the most valuable links that will cover many aspects of migrating from a previous release of ColdFusion to ColdFusion MX. Although this article was written for migration to ColdFusion MX, which is 2 full releases earlier than ColdFusion 8, many of the topics covered will apply to ColdFusion 8 as well:

• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/articles/migration_overview.html

The previous link also mentions the Code Compatibility Analyzer. You can use the ColdFusion Code Compatibility Analyzer to determine if your code is valid for ColdFusion 8:

• http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/basiconfig_24.html
• http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/Debug_18.html

I recommend also this link for ensuring your migration from ColdFusion 5 will at least be compatible with ColdFusion MX:

• http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/6/Migrating_ColdFusion_5_Applications/cf_migration_guide.htm

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 8 introduced the isImage() function; if your code has a user-defined function called isImage() you will need to change the name of that user-defined function and all references to it in your code before upgrading to ColdFusion 8):

• http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/Tags-pt0_21.html
• http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/functions-pt0_22.html

You may also wish to check the CFML Language History:

• http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_18791

It's very important to read the release notes in case some might apply to your environment:

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

Many of these upgrading best practices will certainly apply:

• http://www.sargeway.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=49

And finally, when you're ready to install ColdFusion 8, you'll want to review the "Installing and Using ColdFusion" documentation:

• http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/Part_1_Installing_1.html