ColdFusion4.5 to ColdFusion9.0

[Coldfusion8_0]

Hi,

Does someone has information on migrating ColdFusion4.5 to ColdFusion9.0.

If then please let me know is there any considerable issues while doing this migration.

Thanks,

Shekar

[Owainnorth]

Yes - install CF9 on a brand new install on a brand new server and don't try and upgrade whatever you do.

Spend about a week thrashing out the site and making any necessary changes.

Go live.

With versions that different firstly you'll preferably be needing a newer more powerful server, and I doubt very much ColdFusion would even upgrade.

O.

[-__cfSearching__-]

I doubt very much ColdFusion would even upgrade.

I would be flat out amazed if it did.

(Though I think I actually have a copy of 4.5 somewhere and am almost tempted to try it ...

[Dan_Bracuk]

Expect things to either stop working or to not work as well.  Earlier versions of CF were more forgiving of less than perfect code.

[Adam Cameron.]

I tried to reply to this via the web UI using Safari ony phone. The

"rich text" editor doesn't work because the browser doesn't see it as

a form control so I cannot click it and get a cursor. So that sux. I'm

just replying via email now, but I've had mixed results doing that

too, so goodness knows if this'll get through. Stupid, amateurish

forum software.

Things to look out for:

• DB drivers. CF9 uses JDBC rather than OLEDB or ODBC. People have

experienced some "unexpected" results with their queries.

• All scopes are now structs. If you've got variables with the same

name as a scope, you could experience weirdness there too.

• you're migrating up five CF versions. There will be lots of stuff

that works slightly differently.

• Do NOT try to do an online upgrade (even if poss). Install a new

instance of CF9 (on a new box), and set your site up again. Do this is

a lab. Test test test test.

--

Adam

[BKBK]

ColdFusion4.5 to ColdFusion9.0

Don't.

[Adam Cameron.]

ColdFusion4.5 to ColdFusion9.0

Don't.

Bold (and unhelpful) words...

--

Adam

[BKBK]

ColdFusion4.5 to ColdFusion9.0

@BKBK

Don't

@Adam

Bold (and unhelpful) words...

Got your attention, didn't it? Besides, it is for the person who posted the question to say, isn't it?

I remember you passing similar subjective judgement before. You should realize that the days of your preferred kind of communication -- the know-it-all preacher delivering dollops of his worldly wisdom from the pulpit down to the grateful congregation below -- are over.  Wake up to the realities of communication on the www.

Here, it's all about collaboration and the resulting collective intelligence. I contributing a word here, you contributing a snippet there and the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

I hope you will see how much we are like the blind men of Indostan. Each point of view counts. The sum total of our communication is closer to the real elephant than any one's individual view.

Ehmm... I have just been preaching there, haven't I?

[Adam Cameron.]

Yes, lovely.

But... you don't actually have anything useful to add, do you?  No.  So why did you bother?

--

Adam

[BKBK]

But... you don't actually have anything useful to add, do you?  No.

You ask a question, and answer it in the same breath. Where is the space for anyone to add anything?

[Owainnorth]

I have no idea what's going on here, but it's brilliantly entertaining.

[Adam Cameron.]

Owainnorth wrote:

I have no idea what's going on here, [...]

Owainnorth, lookout!  BKBK appears to have hijacked your account!

--

Adam

[BKBK]

Owainnorth, lookout!  BKBK appears to have hijacked your account!

Yeah, I did. And I asked the pilot to fly me to Owainsouth, or else.

Oh, Adam, you are so funny, you are. I bet everyone around you keeps telling you that. Even your mirrors crack up with laughter.

[Dinghus]

Now see what you did, Coldfusion80? Just come in here and start a war. Sheeeesh.

Seriously about the only thing you can really do is go through your code and update it to the latest and greatest which is pretty much building it from scratch but not quite. More like doing it from a recipe from the 1700s.

[BKBK]

@Dinghus
Seriously about the only thing you can really do is go through your
code and update it to the latest and greatest which is pretty much
building it from scratch but not quite. More like doing it from a
recipe from the 1700s.

I identify with this. But my comparison goes further back.

The recipe for bread hasn't changed much since the time of the ancient Egyptians three thousand years ago. The basic recipe remains flour, yeast, salt and water. However, the means of producing bread (flour mills, mixers, yeast breeds, sieves, ovens, production scale) have changed drastically.

You could think of the Coldfusion 4.5 engine as being to ancient Egypt what Coldfusion 9 is to present day baking. Then the recipe for bread corresponds to CFML code. Most of the basic CFML in Coldfusion 4.5 is still to be found in Coldfusion 9.

A lot of folk in ancient Egypt, right up to pharaohs like Ramses The Great, suffered from tooth ache. The sand in the staple bread diet wore their teeth down to the root.

You might still have good CFML code in Coldfusion 4.5. You have to look out for the sand when bringing it up to Coldfusion 9.

[Dinghus]

Ahhh. Close but no seeeegar.

Bread from then to now has changed a lot. The very basic ingredients are the same but that is about it. Unless you still cook bread near an open fire. They didn't have ovens or bread pans or so on. Their methods of getting wheat and other ingredients was different. Matter-of-fact most ingredients were different, tho the same in concept.

Which is why if you had one of their recipes from start to finish, you would have to modify much of it to meet today's methods and ingredients. The basic overall idea would be correct but that is about it.

Now much of CF has not changed. But some of the very core functionality has. In CF9 you can do many things you couldn't in CF4.5 and even some of the commands are outdated. So where you COULD follow a recipe from the Egyptian times, it would be very hard and would come out strange.

One thing he could do is try running the code on CF9 and see what happens. It may run just fine. It depends on how complex the coding was for back then.

[BKBK]

Close but no seeeegar.

Yet you confirm all the points I mentioned. But some of your own arguments were shaky. Take the following example:

They didn't have ovens or bread pans or so on.

They [ancient Egyptians] in fact did.

Their methods of getting wheat and other ingredients was different.
Matter-of-fact most ingredients were different, tho the same in
concept.

Doesn't say much. You could say the same thing today about the bread suppliers to any two supermarket chains. I said flour instead of wheat, not by accident.

Which is why if you had one of their recipes from start to finish,
you would have to modify much of it to meet today's methods and
ingredients. The basic overall idea would be correct but that is about
it.

Now
much of CF has not changed. But some of the very core functionality
has. In CF9 you can do many things you couldn't in CF4.5 and even some
of the commands are outdated. So where you COULD follow a recipe from
the Egyptian times, it would be very hard and would come out strange.

One thing he could do is try running the code on CF9 and see what
happens. It may run just fine. It depends on how complex the coding was
for back then.

Yep. Which is why I said to look out for the sand.

[Dinghus]

lol. None of my arguments were shaky. Just your desire to be right makes them seem so. My assertion that the application needs to be rewritten is totally correct for the reasons stated.

How about having a horse drawn carriage compared to a ferrari?  Same basics but different. Better to rebuild the carriage or buy a new vehicle.

[Adam Cameron.]

lol. None of my arguments were shaky. Just your desire to be right makes them seem so.

You've noticed that too, huh?

How about having a horse drawn carriage compared to a ferrari?  Same basics but different. Better to rebuild the carriage or buy a new vehicle.

Well in the perfect world, yes.  However if one only has the budget to continue using the same carriage, then so be it.  Equally, it's more like building a Ferrari than simply buying one.  Does one have the time to build a new car?

But moving away from the stupid analogies (and, Jesus, the analogies are getting a bit bloody torturous!), it's entirely reasonable that one might simply have the budget (money, time) to buy a new server, upgrade CF, and fix the few bugs that will crop up in the code base caused by CF4.5 & F9 incompatibilities.

It's an entirely different thing to rewrite the application.

One could also argue from that point that one might as well not replicate the existing site/appliaction with CF9-styled development, it might be time to revision the entire app/site.  But, again, that's a different project again, and involves a different set of people.

To blanketly say the best thing to do is to rebuild makes a few too many assumptions, I think.

However it should be something to consider.

--

Adam

[Dinghus]

Hey! The analogy war was just getting started. lol

And I do believe somewhere in this mess I DID say to just put it on a CF9 server and see what happens. It might work just fine.

It seems the consensus is that he should NOT just upgrade the production server and hope for the best. Matter-of-fact, I don't think it is even possible to go straight from 4.5 to 9 and thus to go to 5 and then 6 and then 7 and then 8 and finally 9 would not be the right way to go. If he could even get all the inbetweens.

Best bet is to get a clean install of 9 and put the application on there and see how it works.

[BKBK]

Best bet is to get a clean install of 9 and put the application on there and see how it works.

I agree.

[Dinghus]

Nah, the ancient Egyptians did NOT have ovens and bread pans. Learn history. They had contained fires and slabs. The bread would go on a piece of rock and be slid into a fire.or placed near the fire. That is why their loaves were small, so they could cook evenly.

[Adam Cameron.]

Why why why am I participating in this?

[...] the ancient Egyptians did NOT have ovens [...] They had contained fires and slabs.

What is an oven if not a "contained fire"?

Actually, no, don't answer that.  I don't care.  Or at least not on a forum that's supposed to be about CF.  😉

--

Adam

[Dinghus]

ROFLMAO

An oven keeps the heat source separated from the food. A fire, like a campfire, does not. But to have a fire inside a house to cook they had to contain it and make a way for the smoke to escape.

So since this is a ColdFusion forum.

The fire is a userdefined function which may be wrapped in an oven but not necessarily. It passes information such as heat to the dough object which converts such data to cooking and finally to bread.  Of course fire may also be a free running thread that was spontaneously called by a random event upon the server. In which case ... .RUN!

[Adam Cameron.]

An oven keeps the heat source separated from the food. A fire, like a campfire, does not.

You've not seen a gas oven then, I guess...

But, yeah, I see what you mean.  I ass-u-me'd part of the "containment" you mentioned included an intermediary "separation" layer like a grill or a hotplate.  I guess not.

--

Adam