Exciting news: Adobe ColdFusion 10 was released earlier today (sorry for the delay in posting: busy day!). Check it out at http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion-family.html. ColdFusion 10 (previously known by its codename, Zeus) has various exciting features such as HTML5 websockets, HTML5 charting, security enhancements, Tomcat integration, improved Web Services support through Axis 2, and more. Thanks to the ColdFusion Engineering Team for building a great ColdFusion 10!

Also released today was ColdFusion Builder 2, Update 1 (brings ColdFusion Builder 2 up to ColdFusion Builder 2.0.1). This is a free update for ColdFusion Builder 2. Get it at http://www.adobe.com/support/coldfusion/downloads_updates.html#cfb2.

And check out the official ColdFusion Product Team blog at http://blogs.coldfusion.com for posts from the engineers who built the features of ColdFusion 10 as well as announcements about eSeminars and other events where you can learn more about ColdFusion 10.

The ColdFusion team is conducting a survey on ColdFusion IDEs. From the survey:

We are conducting a survey to understand the the IDE that you use to build your Adobe ColdFusion applications.

Your feedback is valuable for us. It will take less than a minute to answer this simple two question survey.

Would you be so kind as to provide your feedback? You can find the survey at http://svy.mk/yEvFtH.

The beta releases of Adobe ColdFusion 10 and Adobe ColdFusion Builder 2.0.1 are now available on Adobe Labs at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/coldfusion10. Check them out and give us your feedback!

ColdFusion 10 (previously known by its codename, Zeus) has various exciting features such as HTML5 websockets, HTML5 charting, security enhancements, Tomcat integration, improved Web Services support through Axis 2, and more.

Thanks to the ColdFusion Engineering Team for building a great ColdFusion 10.

And check out the official ColdFusion Product Team blog at http://blog.coldfusion.com for posts from the engineers who built the features of ColdFusion 10 as well as announcements about eSeminars and other events where you can learn more about ColdFusion 10.

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.

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:

Product	ColdFusion Builder 2 License	Flash Builder 4.5 License
ColdFusion Builder 2	Included	Standard Included Upgrade to Premium Available
Flash Builder 4.5 Standard	NOT Included No Upgrade Available*	Standard Included Upgrade to Premium Available
Flash Builder 4.5 Premium	Included	Premium Included
Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium	NOT Included Upgrade Available	Premium Included
Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection	NOT Included Upgrade Available	Premium Included

* 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.

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!

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

Well, okay, so I don't know that the title of this post is strictly true: you may be able to run the Adobe Updater even if you're not logged into Windows as a user with administrative rights--but I don't know how you launch Adobe Updater other than from the Help menu of an Adobe product and the point I'm really making in this post is that if you aren't logged into Windows with administrative rights, you either won't have the menu option "Check for Updates" (this was the behavior I observed in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader) or the menu option "Adobe [Product Name] Updates" will be "grayed out" and unavailable to be selected (this was the behavior I observed in Adobe ColdFusion Builder).

So the point is this: make sure you're logged into Windows with administrative rights if you want to update your Adobe products! If you find this same behavior on another operating system, please post a comment to let me know.

I'm posting this because when I searched to figure out what the problem was, I couldn't find anything; fortunately, it dawned on me what the issue was. But some keywords for search engine indexing are in order here: Adobe Check for Updates menu item not shown, Adobe Check for Updates menu item not available, Adobe Check for Updates menu item not there, Adobe Check for Updates menu item missing, cannot run Adobe Updater.

I am commonly asked questions about the installers for ColdFusion 8 and 9, ColdFusion Builder, and Flash Builder 4 so I thought I'd make my long-overdue return to the world of blogging by compiling here some details that are hard to ascertain elsewhere.

Before I get into the details: you can find the EULAs for all the Adobe products mentioned here at http://www.adobe.com/products/eulas. Regardless of what the technical limitations are or aren't with any of this software, you're bound to the terms of the EULA for whatever product you're using. Okay, now let's get on with it.

ColdFusion 8 and 9 Installers

For ColdFusion 8 and ColdFusion 9 (the following facts are actually true for certain earlier versions as well but as all earlier versions and their corresponding installers are no longer available from Adobe, I'm not going to concern myself with them here), there is for any given platform and language (e.g. Windows 32-bit English, Windows 64-bit Japanese, Solaris 64-bit English, etc.) only a single installer for ColdFusion. This means that no matter if you want Enterprise, Standard, Trial, or Developer, you use the same installer--the way the download links are labeled may seem to imply otherwise, but do not be mislead! Take Windows 64-bit for example: there is only 1 installer for Windows 64-bit English (and then another for Windows 64-bit Japanese), not separate installers for Enterprise, Standard, Trial, and Developer. It doesn't matter where or from whom you purchased ColdFusion nor does it matter via which sales program you purchased: you still use this same single installer for your platform.

How ColdFusion behaves (that is, which of Enterprise, Standard, Trial, or Developer it acts as) once installed is dependent on choices you make during installation. If you supply your Enterprise license key (a.k.a. serial number) during installation, you get the Enterprise edition and if you supply your Standard license key during installation, you get the Standard edition. If you do not supply your license key during installation, you can choose either to have ColdFusion install as the Trial edition or the Developer edition. If you've supplied an Enterprise license key or chosen either the Trial edition or the Developer edition, you'll then be given the choice to install ColdFusion in the Server (a.k.a. "standalone") configuration, the Multi-server configuration, or the J2EE configuration. If you have supplied your Standard license key, you will only be able to install in the Server configuration (Multi-server and J2EE configurations are only available for Enterprise, Trial, and Developer).

So this single installer for your platform then allows you to install any of the following:

• Enterprise in the Server configuration
• Enterprise in the Multi-server configuration
• Enterprise in the J2EE configuration
• Standard in the Server configuration (Standard does not allow the Muti-server or J2EE configurations)
• Trial in the Server configuration
• Trial in the Multi-server configuration
• Trial in the J2EE configuration
• Developer in the Server configuration
• Developer in the Multi-server configuration
• Developer in the J2EE configuration

The ColdFusion 9 installers can be accessed via http://www.adobe.com/go/trycoldfusion.

The ColdFusion 8 installers can be accessed via http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=coldfusion8.

Two important notes:

• ColdFusion 8 Standard is only available for the 32-bit platforms on which ColdFusion 8 is supported (even for the Server configuration). If you install a 64-bit version of ColdFusion 8, you must supply a ColdFusion 8 Enterprise license key. If you try to supply a Standard license key, the key will not be accepted.
• Though ColdFusion 9 Standard is available for 64-bit Linux, there is a known issue with ColdFusion 9 not accepting standard license keys during installation on 64-bit Linux. But this is only an issue during installation: you can apply the key after installation via the ColdFusion Administrator.

UPDATE: The story is much the same for the ColdFusion 9 Update 1 installers (these bring your ColdFusion installation up to ColdFusion 9.0.1): there is only a single installer per platform (this single installer is for all languages on the given platform); these installers can be found at http://www.adobe.com/support/coldfusion/downloads_updates.html#cf9. For more information on this free update for ColdFusion 9, see the FAQ available at http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/849/cpsid_84973.html.

ColdFusion Builder Installers

For ColdFusion Builder, the story is much the same: there is for any given platform and language (Windows English, Mac English, Windows Japanese, and Mac Japanese) only a single installer for ColdFusion Builder; how ColdFusion Builder behaves once installed is dependent on the license key (a.k.a. serial number) you apply. It doesn't matter if you want to do a Standalone installation or if you want to install ColdFusion Builder as a plug-in to Flash Builder or any other Eclipse installation--you use the same installer either way. When you fire up ColdFusion Builder, you'll be asked for a license key and if you don't supply one, you'll get the Trial edition, which is a fully functioning version of ColdFusion Builder that can be used for 60 days after installation. To keep rolling along beyond 60d ays, you'll just need to supply (after legally acquiring, of course) a valid license key when starting ColdFusion Builder. Here too it doesn't matter where or from whom you purchased ColdFusion Builder nor does it matter via which sales program you purchased: you still use the same installer; there really is only one installer for any given supported platform and language.

The ColdFusion Builder installers can be accessed via http://www.adobe.com/go/trycoldfusionbuilder.

Incidentally, if you're installing both ColdFusion Builder and Flash Builder 4 and/or any other Eclipse plug-ins in the same eclipse environment on Windows, my recommendation is that you install ColdFusion Builder in the Standalone configuration and then install Flash Builder 4 and/or the other Eclipse plug-ins as plug-ins to the ColdFusion Builder installation. The reason for this is that when it is the base install, you can have ColdFusion Builder associate ColdFusion files (.cfm, .cfc, and so on) in Windows so that when you open one of these files from Windows, it will open properly in ColdFusion Builder. This may not sound like much but trust me: this is actually a nifty little feature for an Eclipse-based IDE. Speaking of Flash Builder 4...

Flash Builder 4 Installers

For Flash Builder 4, the story is much the same but there is an important difference: for any given platform and language (and there are numerous languages available), there is one installer to use if you're doing a Standalone installation and another to use if you're doing an Eclipse Plug-in installation. So for any given platform and language, there are two installers and you need to choose the right one for the installation type you're going to perform. But note that there are not separate installers for Flash Builder 4 Standard and Flash Builder 4 Premium: just as ColdFusion 8 and 9 behave as Standard if you supply a Standard license key and Enterprise if you supply an Enterprise license key, so too does Flash Builder 4 behave as Standard if you supply a Standard license key and Premium if you supply a Premium license key. Like ColdFusion Builder, when you fire up Flash Builder, you'll be asked for a license key and if you don't supply one, you'll get the Trial edition, which is a fully functioning version of Flash Builder 4 Premium that can be used for 60 days after installation. To keep rolling along beyond 60 days, you'll just need to supply (again, after legally acquiring, of course) a valid license key when starting Flash Builder 4. Here too it doesn't matter where or from whom you purchased Flash Builder 4 nor does it matter via which sales program you purchased: you still use one of the same two installers (the Standalone installer if you want to do a Standalone installation or the Eclipse Plug-in installer if you want to install Flash Builder 4 as a plug-in to ColdFusion Builder or any other Eclipse installation) for your platform and language.

The Flash Builder 4 installers can be accessed via http://www.adobe.com/go/try_flashbuilder.

ColdFusion Builder Beta 3 is available on Adobe Labs:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/coldfusionbuilder

Download it, install it, rock it!

I just had an experience where every time I would launch ColdFusion Builder beta 2, it would consume as much RAM as it could get. ColdFusion Builder seemed to launch properly but I couldn't interact with it: it was unresponsive as it went about its rampant RAM consumption and I had no choice but to kill the process.

I have Flash Builder 4 beta 2 installed as a plug-in and I was running it in Trial mode and accordingly every time I launched ColdFusion Builder, Flash Builder presented me with a registration screen. Normally, I'd have to clear this screen before ColdFusion Builder would launch completely but during the time when ColdFusion Builder was getting all whacked out on RAM, it was launching completely even while presenting this screen.

But the good news is that I got ColdFusion Builder working again by removing my "Adobe ColdFusion Builder workspace" directory; ColdFusion Builder then created a new one on its next launch and all was well. This is a drastic step that effectively completely resets ColdFusion Builder--but of course, that's a lot better than what I was dealing with. But actually, I was able to bail myself out on that and perhaps this will work for you too: rather than completely deleting my "Adobe ColdFusion Builder workspace" directory, I just renamed it (you could of course also move it) and then when the new one was created upon my next restart, I did a folder comparison of the 2 and I copied over a number of directories and files. By and large, what I copied over were those directories and files that were missing from the new directory, not those that were simply changed. In the end, as well as I could tell, when I next launched ColdFusion Builder, it not only launched properly but it was back in the state I wanted it in.