Migrate from CF V8 to CF 2018

[robertd44465262]

Hello,

Is it possible to migrate or import a CF site built in CF 8 directly into CF 2018. I have limited experience with CF and need some guidence. I have installed yeh trial version of CF 2018 and need to make sure I will have the same functionality with the site on the new platform. I have been attempting this but have not had sucess. My trial has 19 days left. Is there a possible extension for this trial so I can test further?

Thank you,

Robert

[WolfShade]

Upgrading from CF8 => CF2018 is a HUGE jump.  A lot has changed between the two versions.  Some tags have been deprecated; some attributes have been changed or deprecated.  A few new ways to do something have been added.

You will most likely have to make some changes, depending upon what tags you used.

As far as extending the trial goes:  did the installer offer a developer edition of CF2018?  The installer used to give you that option.  The only difference between the two (dev vs full) are small things like PDFs have a "Created in ColdFusion Developer" watermark on all the pages.  Otherwise, the DEV version is just as robust and powerful as the full version.

HTH,

^ _ ^

[robertd44465262]

Thank you the reply. I will install as developer. Is there a tutorial on how to move this over?

[Charlie Arehart]

Robert, STOP! You don't need to reinstall CF. 🙂

Adding to Wolf's helpful reply, first note that you do NOT need to choose to use the developer edition during the installation. You CAN, but if instead you choose the trial (as you did), then after the 30 days is up, it will simply REVERT to the developer edition. So just let that be. 🙂 And as he says, they both function essentially the same, as far as what you are testing.

(FWIW, they also function as the Enterprise edition, so if you will be buying a Standard license, just know that if you start taking advantage of some new features, some may work only on Standard. Do a google search for the coldfusion buying guide, to find out about those differences. But again, they will not matter for the migration/testing you are doing.)

Finally, as for that migration, as Wolf says, you are jumping by 5 editions. Can it be done? Yes, absolutely. I have helped people do it in recent months, and I mean 8 to 2018. And of course I have helped people migrate among all the versions in between. (And to be clear, I only do short-term troubleshooting, not development, and we were able to solve the problems they had quickly, so that they could proceed.)

Indeed, often you may experience some problem that stops the app in its tracks, on all pages, and you may want to give up--but it may be that it's something set or called from the application.cfm or cfc (or some file that calls), such that if you fix that one thing, suddenly all the pages work.

Or you may well find something failing which was allowed if done a certain way in those older versions but which no longer is allowed...and that may be scattered through your app, making many pages fail. In that case, you will need to consider using a global find/replace in your editor to correct things. Sometimes it will be easy, others not so easy. I do realize that's often a risky step, but you may have little choice. (Here's where keeping backups--or better, using version control--can be a big help.)

Finally, I see you have asked, but no: you will not find any good guide on doing THAT migration.  Adobe has covered it some in each version, as have others, in various resources, but you'd have to gather all those to assess them, to accomodate this big jump.

I don't think it's worth your time. Instead, don't worry about trying to "learn in advance" that way. Just eat the elephant one bite at a time. 

And you can ask here, or in a new thread, or you can call upon someone to guide you on a remote consulting basis. I can, as can others, who I list at cf411.com/cftrouble.

Hope it goes well. And really, it should. "You got this." 🙂

[WolfShade]

AFAIK, there are not any tutorials, nor any .exe that will do it, for you.  I recommend a fresh install as DEV version, then follow the lockdown guide.  If a lockdown guide doesn't exist for CF2018, I believe you can follow the CF2016 lockdown guide.

As per usual, any installation advice is best from Charlie Arehart.

V/r,

^ _ ^

[Charlie Arehart]

Wolf, thanks for the kind regards. I can't tell if you sent that perhaps just as I did, so that you may not have seen my note. Again, he does NOT need to do a reinstall. Just want to be clear, if you had read my note and missed that. See my previous explanation.

As for the lockdown guide, well, I know you're (rightly) concerned about security, but I would STRONGLY recommend that someone in Robert's situation NOT do that lockdown before getting the app migrated. Hell, someone with a perfectly WORKING app could find it breaks left and right once lockdown is applied. That makes CF more secure, sure, but it can break an existing app which is doing things tha the lockdown now precludes.

I do agree it's something people SHOULD do, but when doing a migration like this, I would STRONGLY argue that that's left for a last stage. Get through the migration hassles (which may be few, or may be many), and THEN once all is confirmed to be working, apply lockdown steps (the tool in 2018 or following the guide).

Of course, Robert, don't FORGET Wolf's advice. It's easy to do this migration, have it working, call it a day (or week or month), go to happy hour (or move on to other fish to fry), and then FORGET to bother with the lockdown process. This lockdown effort Wolf is referring to is not NEW in 2018 (the tool that offers to do it is, but I find I find the tool to be scary in its reach, and not always effective in being able to undo itself if things get badly messed up.)

My point is that there was a lockdown guide for 8, 9, 10, 11, 2016, and now 2018. Many ignored it, and that's why Adobe has themselves made CF more and more secure in each release (and that may contribute to SOME of the migration challenges, but not likely most of them). Anyway, they added the tool in 2018, to help still further. But one can follow the lockdown guide (especially the 2016 one, as the 2018 one is written presuming you ARE using the new 2018 lockdown tool), and one can judiciously/cautiously apply more and more securing of things in that guide, to make your CF more secure.

But really, just being on CF2018 (or 2016 or 11 or 10 or 9) will out of the box be more secure than your 8 was. So while lockdown is warranted and recommended, at least if people "forget", CF is far more secure than it used to be. That's not an excuse to ignore it, just a fact worth considering in this conversation.

Finally, it IS also important to keep whatever CF version you install updated. CF2018 has had 8 updates since it came out (the latest yesterday). CF2016 has had 14. 11 had 19, and 10 had 23. It's important that folks keep up with those updates, and CF10 and above make that easier with a built-in update feature in the CF Admin.

And then once you update CF you should update any web server connector you have (between IIS/Apache and CF), and for similar security reasons, you should keep updated the JVM that CF points to.

I know that's all a lot to take in. I have blog posts on each topic, at carehart.org and the Adobe CF portal (coldfusion.adobe.com), as do others. This again is where it can be helpful to lean on someone else to help. Heck, I don't even change my own oil anymore. And I certainly don't do deep-cleaning of my teeth on my own. And while I do my own taxes, some would rather outsource that. So getting quick, targeted, remote help with CF admin tasks is an option many are happy to get help with, and I share my experiences from that here and elsewhere.

[WolfShade]

Hi, Charlie,

I believe that what happened is that you started your reply before me, but mine was shorter.  When I hit the POST button, your reply wasn't appearing.  Then, since you started yours before mine, yours was "in line" to post, next, pushing mine down.  smh.. this platform.. makes me pine for the days of Jive.

But what you say about the "lockdown should be the last step" makes sense.  My pedant brain didn't consider that aspect.

V/r,

^ _ ^

[Charlie Arehart]

Understood. Thanks for the clarification, and sure, these things happen (responses passing each other "in the night"). 🙂

As for the lockdown stuff, no worries. I do spend my days dealing with all these issues, with a couple hundred clients a year (in addition to the community support), so I experience enough problems with folks to always be looking a step ahead. Granted, sometimes it makes my replies more verbose. 🙂 I just try to cover what I feel are reasonable angles.  It's always a balancing act.

Let's see if we caught Robert before he reinstalled, and if the rest may have helped.