It's not necessarily "very difficult", and maybe not at all difficult--or at least potentially no more difficult than a move from any one version of cf to another. Have you done that yet, ever? If not, then sure, this can seem daunting.
But for anyone who's done any cf migration before, I just mean that even a move from so far back is not NECESSARILY going to be MORE difficult. It just depends on the code base. Sure, there MAY be more compat issues in skipping 7 intervening versions, but for some code bases it may be no more challenging than moving from cf11 or something.
And I do speak from experience (since you seek that), as I help people migrate among all versions, even such old ones, and I do it a couple of times a month (so over 15 years that's a couple hundred migrations).
If you're looking for available online resources to help regarding assessing code compatibility, some will be more valuable than others...and you may be surprised by the relative lack. First, the available migration guide from Adobe is about migrating admin settings rather than code. That's important but not likely all that you seek.
As you may know, there is and long has been the code compatibility analyzer available in the cf admin. While it's ui option can only be told to consider versions up to a couple of rleases earlier than that Cf admin's version, you can choose the earliest value offered and the tool may be better than nothing. Still, some find the tool not that helpful vs just doing testing of your own code on the new version and attending to problems as they arise.
Really, that's what you need to anticipate and do most: the testing. And that's just a slog that no one can help with--the actual testing, I mean. But certainly you can raise here specific challenges you face, whose solutions can't be found via searching.
Finally I do have a talk in did recently on migrating to cf2021 from recent versions, back to about cf8. I'm pretty sure it's the only resource of this kind:
https://www.carehart.org/presentations/#cf2021_migration
So all those can help folks trying to work on their own. But you really don't have to go it alone.
First, I can certainly help on a one-to-one consulting basis, vis a remote screenshare in sessions as little as 15 mins (or email for quick things). For more, see https://carehart.org/consulting.
But I will also happily contribute to discussions here, as will others.
And beyond just here you can find help from a still wider audience via many other online cf help communities, from the cfml slack to the Facebook cf programmers group and more. I list these and others as a category in my cf411 list, specifically https://cf411.com/cfhelp.
Hope all that helps. The most valuable info may be my first points, if you felt defeated before even starting: it may not be that bad, really. 🙂 But as you proceed, you can find help here and elsewhere--or more direct assistance.
Bottom line: you could have your code running on cf2021 today. Yes, it really could be that easy. I see it far more often than not.
Sure, in some rare cases it may take days, but it should not be weeks or months--let alone prove "impossible". Indeed, the people I see who struggle mightily are ones who never reach out for help and let the process overwhelm them. And I've never had anyone I help be unable to migrate, even jumping over several versions, including recently cf8 to cf2021.
So yes, your goal is absolutely possible, Jose, and not at all necessarily "very difficult". 🙂 Hope mine's not seen as empty encouragement.
/Charlie (troubleshooter, carehart.org)
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