CF411: 1,000+ Tools and Resources for CFers,
by Charlie Arehart (in over 130 categories)

Find what you're looking for by viewing the categories below or just use your browser's find feature to search this one long page for something in particular. Last Updated: Jan 20, 2010

Introduction

How often do you see a question asked on a list, "does anyone know where I can find CFML resources about xxx", or "what tools are available to do yyy?". Now you have one place you can point people to answer most such questions. See the bottom of this page for additional background information on this service.

I look to improve this interface over time, adding RSS feeds for when I add/change items, perhaps enabling comments per tool/resource, etc. We'll see. Until then, use your browser "find" feature (ctrl-f) to search for things, or the table of contents below, and enjoy.

The Categories

I don't here recommend any tools (since needs are so different between folks), and I can't offer an exhaustive list of all tools for all developers, but I do want to help list some of the alternatives available in a variety of categories that are either written for, or are useful by, CF developers. In some cases, I am able to offer below links to other sites that offer reviews of some of these tools.

Check out Brian Rinaldi's list, too!

Be sure to also check out Brian Rinaldi's excellent site listing open source CFML products and projects: http://www.remotesynthesis.com/cfopensourcelist/.

Lest anyone think I'm trying to compete with his list, I'm not at all. Besides the fact that I started mine in 2002, I also don't focus just on CF open source projects. Indeed, I've been pointing to Brian's list (on the old SysteManage page) since Aug 06 (which was 4 years after I started my list). If anyone's interested, you can see this by viewing pages from back then via the web archive site. I definitely have long been a supporter and fan of his list. These complement rather than compete with each other.

Of course, there's some cross-over (things on both lists), but I'm not going to just grab things from his list if they're not on mine. I just list here things I've heard of on my own. Indeed, where he has a corresponding category, I point to it (at the end of each of my lists) so people can check out his also, which may have updates I don't.

Additions/Corrections

This is a perpetual work in progress. I welcome additions or corrections to this list. If you have any to offer, please let me know. Be sure to clarify that you're providing additional items for "the 'CF411' list".

CFML-Oriented Resources

CFML Blog Aggregators (and bloggers) [link]

There are literally hundreds of CFML blogs. Some are popular and known by most, while some less popular ones may well offer some hidden gem. Rather than try to list them all here, and indeed rather than you having to read them all, the following aggregators focus on CF-oriented blogs.

Some blogs are in all the aggregators, but it's worth keeping an eye on more than one. I provide as well a link to the list of all CFML blogs that each aggregator follows. This way, you can find out all the folks who blog about CF.
CFML Blog Highlight Services [link]
I want to mention, separately from the aggregators above, that there are also some bloggers who have started organizing periodic highlights of what they deem to be "best of the blogs" in the CF blogosphere. It's a tough job, and it may be hard for them to keep it up, but let's enjoy (and thank) them while they do it.
Don't forget to consider using a Feed Reader or RSS to Email service to be kept informed of updates to these.

CFML Certification Preparation Resources [link]

The tools mentioned here are still only oriented toward CF 7, so if you're looking for CF8-specific information, the best bet is the CFML documentation.

CFML Conferences [link]

The following conferences have some, if not an entire, focus on ColdFusion and CFML. While I normally list other tools and resources in alphabetical order, in this case it seems useful to list them in order of their occurrence during the year. Where an event has not announced its dates for the new year (at the time of my editing things here), I leave it in the date order according to the month it was held the previous year, on the assumption that most tend to happen the same time each year.)
  • cf.Objective(), organized by Jared Rypka-Hauer, et al (Minneapolis, MN, USA; April 22-24 2010)
  • WebDU, organized by Geoff Bowers, et al (Sydney, Australia; May 21-22 2009)
  • Scotch on the Rocks, organized by Andy Allan, et al (June 1st, 3rd and 5th 2009, in London, Edinburgh and Dublin respectively: yes, three one-day conferences)
  • Spring <br>, organized by Dave Hannum, et al (Athens, OH, USA; Tues June 9 2009)
  • CFUnited, organized by Liz Fredericks, Michael Smith, et al (Washington, DC area, USA; Jul 28-31 2010)
  • Flashcamp Atlanta, organized by Universal Mind (Atlanta, GA; Aug 28 2009)
  • Adobe Max, organized by Adobe (Los Angeles, CA; Oct 4-7 2009)
  • ColdFusion Unconference at Max, (included in Max registration) organized by Ray Camden, et al (Los Angeles, CA; Oct 4-7 2009)
  • FlashPitt, organized by On the Fridge LLC (Pittsburgh PA; Oct 15-16 2009)
  • CF in NC, organized by Dan Wilson, et al (Raleigh NA; Oct 17-18 2009)
  • Scotch on the Road, organized by Andy Allan, et al (Europe; Oct 19-21, 2009)
  • BFlex and BFusion, organized by Bob Flynn, et al (Bloomington, IN; Oct 24, 25 2009)
  • CF Dev Camp, organized by Sidney Maestre, et al (San Francisco, CA; Nov 7 2009)
  • cf.Objective(ANZ), organized by Mark Mandel, et al (Melbourne, Australia; Nov 12-13 2009)
  • RIA Unleashed, organized by Brian Rinaldi, et al (Boston, MA; Nov 13 2009)
  • RIAAdventure Cruise, organized by Joshua Cyr, et al (Western Carribean; Dec 6-13 2009)
  • See also Teratech's list of Upcoming CFML conferences
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
  • There was also a CFDevCon, organized by Russ Michaels, et al, last held in London, England, though it did not happen in 2008, and as of this writing no plans for 2009 have been announced.
  • Webmaniacs, which was previously set for Apr 27-28 2009, has been replaced with CF & Flex Top Gun Training, organized by Fig Leaf Software, to be held June 8-10, 2009 (Washington, DC, USA)

CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources [link]

While the Adobe docs are the best source for CFML documentation, there are online versions of that both from Adobe and others, providing access to the docs in various ways. Please note, though, that while most of the other resources show only the CFML reference, the actual Adobe docs contain more than just the CFML Reference, including a Developer's Guide, Installation Guide, Administration Guide, and more. See the Livedocs for more on those.

ColdFusion Hosting Alternatives [link]

This is not an ultimate list of all CF hosts. Indeed, after this list I link to other places (Ben Forta's site, Adobe, and others) that have other lists of CF hosts. These are just some of the more widely used and named hosts that have specific CF support, some supporting CF 6, 7, and/or 8 specifically (some even offering BD), and most offer a choice of either shared, private, or virtual private servers (VPS).

CFML Job Resources (Hire/Be Hired) [link]

The following free resources can help someone either offering or looking for a CF job/contract. Some are mailing lists or forums which focus on them, others are resources where you can get your offer/availability listed for those watching for such.

CFML Lists and Forums (finding help and support) [link]

CFML Podcasts, Past and Present [link]

I've divided the list into those that are active and those that seem no longer to be.
Active CFML Podcasts [link] Seemingly (or Definitely) Inactive CFML Podcasts [link]

The following podcasts seem no longer to be updated, or have declared to be no longer active:
  • CF Docs, hosted by Mark Drew
  • CFUnited, playing recordings of conference presentations, hosted by Christian Ready
  • ColdFusion Weekly, with Matt Woodward and Peter Farrell, went off the air in early 2008 after a 2 year run
  • OutLoud, with Hal Helms and Jeff Peters, ran for 47 episodes from Oct 2005 through Sep 2007 (was at http://www.helmsandpeters.com/, which is not responding at the time of this check, Sep 09.)
  • The ColdFusion Podcast, with Bryan Kaiser and Michael Haynie, ran for 38 episodes from Oct 2005 through Jan 2007
  • ColdFusion Muse, with Mark Kruger, ran for 13 episodes from Nov 2005 through May 2006
  • cfframeworks.com offered 8 interview podcasts hosted by Nick Tong and Kola Oyedeji, from Jan-Mar 2007
  • Mark Drew offered a few CFEclipse Videos as a podcast in 2006 (note they videos were designed to be small enough to view in an iPod)
  • the WebDU conference organizers (Geoff Bowers and Daemon), presented a couple of recordings of previous WebDU conferences in 2005
  • the Scotch on the Rocks conference organizers (Stephen Moretti and Andy Allan) tried to do this also with one episode in 2007
  • the WebDU conference podcast
  • Aboutcast ran for a couple of episodes in 2006, hosted by Nic Tunney and AboutWeb
  • Steven Erat made two attempts at podcasts in 2005, first with the CFMX 7 podcast, where he read selected Macromedia Devnet articles about CF7, and then the even shorter-lived CF NewsRadio
  • I'm my own sql, hosted by C. Hatton Humphrey, ran out of HouseofFusion.com for just a couple of episodes in late 2006
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
Other Media Resources

See also other media resources which, while not podcasts, may appeal to those seeking audio/video presentations:

CFML-Powered Web Sites (who's using CFML?) [link]

There are several resources which try to track sites that use CF, some highlighting the more popular of such sites:

CFML Resource Sites [link]

This site has many different kinds of resources, but here are some other sites that try to aggregate other CFML resources. See the list after these for other sections of this site that offer resources.

CFML-specific Search Resources [link]

Google has a feature called "Custom Search Engines" (or CSEs), where one can create a search mechanism that limits searches to a given set of sites, with the intention that this could produce a better topic-specific search. When this feature first came out, several people stepped up to create them. The following seem to be those that are more active and udpated (providing the ability to search upwards of 1,000 CF-oriented sites or more).

CFML Tuning/Troubleshooting Resources [link]

Rather than list specific articles and blog entries (as there are so many), here are resources that are themselves lists of other CFML tuning/troubleshooting resources.

CFML Tutorial/Article Sites [link]

Professional CF-oriented Assistance [link]

While there are many resources listed above where you can obtain free support (from mailing lists, to blogs, to user groups, and more), sometimes you just may be more interested in paying someone who provides professional support, whether on-site or over-the-web. I've divided this category into the following groupings: Where possible, I've offered any direct link the company/person may have to their coverage of that specific sort of assistance. I've pre-populated the list with several folks but as always I definitely welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
CF-oriented Application Development [link]

If you're looking for assistance with CFML coding, here are some alternatives. I do not want to list here web site development shops, unless they specialize in CF and/or CFML. (See also the later list of CF-oriented Troubleshooting Consultants, who can help with issues other than application development.) CF-oriented Troubleshooting Consultants [link]

If you need help with CF-oriented consulting services, including troubleshooting, here are some alternatives. Note that some require a minimum commitment of days, while others (like myself, the Carehart.org listing) have no such minimum. (See also the previous list of folks who perform CF application development.) CF-oriented Mentors [link]

This list includes those who mention mentoring services on their sites. Note that their services may be very specific (mentoring in a given area or technique). CF-oriented Trainers [link]

This includes both those who do Adobe CF training and their CF-oriented own training, whether in their own locations, at contract training facilities, or over the web.

Tools (CFML and other)

Blogging Tools (written in CFML) [link]

The following are blogging tools (tools for creating a blog) that are written in CFML. Of course, you can find blogging tools written in many other languages that you may choose to use on your site (as well as hosted solutions, where the code platform doesn't matter to you). I don't want to try to keep here a list of all such CMSes, so this focuses on those that are written in CFML and that you can download. I list, after that, hosted solutions written in CFML.
  • 1ssBlog, open source, from Ed Tabara
  • AVBlog, open source, from Andrea Veggiani
  • BlogCFC, open source, from Ray Camden
  • BlogCFM, open source, from Rick Root
  • CFBloggy, open source, from John Ramon (see also his blog)
  • cfBlog, open source, from Francois Levesque
  • CFCPhotoBlog, open source "photo-blogging web application that uses the Model-Glue framework", from Seth Duffey
  • CFMoBlog, open source "mobile blog software", from John Ramon
  • Fuseblog, open source, from James Husum (not updated in some time)
  • KoldKast, free for download, and also available as a fee-based hosted solution, from Rick Smith
  • MachBlog, a blogging package from Matt Woodward and Peter Farrell, and based on Mach-ii
  • Mango, "a sweet ColdFusion blog engine" from Laura Arguello of asfusion
  • My Blog , "a small blog application", from Gurpreet Singh Randhawa
  • See also Brian Rinaldi's Open Source CF list of blog tools
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
There are also a few blogging solutions that, while written in CFML, are not available for download but instead are available as hosted solutions:
  • Blog-City, fee-based hosted solution
  • BlogFusion, free and fee-based hosted solutions, from Jake McKee
  • CFBlog, free hosted solution for the CF community, powered by BlogFusion
  • InstantSpot, free hosted solution, from Aaron Lynch and Dave Shuck
  • KoldKast, free for download, and also available as a fee-based hosted solution, from Rick Smith
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
Besides the tools above used to create blogs, here are some that can help with creating blog entries:
  • Amazoner, a tool to help a blogger easily recommend books that they like, using their Amazon associate ID
  • LiveWriter, a desktop application from Microsoft that makes it easy to publish rich content to your blog
  • Post2Blog, an alternative to LiveWriter
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

Browser Alternatives [link]

Since most CFML developers build browser-based web applications, it may be helpful to be aware of many of the different browsers out there, which your users may use. There's more than just Firefox and IE (and even Opera and Safari.) This is not an ultimate list. There are a few more I found which I've just never heard of. Can't be an ultimate compendium in every category.

Bug Tracking/Defect Tracking/Trouble Ticket/Help Desk Tools [link]

I've split this list of bug tracking/defect tracking/trouble ticket/help desk tools into those written in CFML, and the rest, both open source and commercial. You may also want to consider project management tools, which sometimes incorporate features like this.
Following are the subcategories offered:
Bug Tracking/Defect Tracking/Trouble Ticket/Help Desk Tools Written in CFML [link]
Bug Tracking/Defect Tracking/Trouble Ticket/Help Desk Tools Written in other languages [link]
(some downloadable, others as services; some open source, others commercial)

Caching Tools for CFML [link]

Captcha Tools/Alternatives for CFML [link]

CFMAIL Replacements/Enhancements [link]

These are tools that either can replace CF's built-in mechanism for generating and sending email, or that supplement and enhance it (such as tools to help manager undelivered email).
  • ActivMail, once commercial, now to be open source, from Zrinity (formerly from CFDev)
  • CFX_Imap4, commercial, from Paul Vernon (also available at CFTagStore)
  • InFusion Mail Server (IMS) and FusionMail, commercial (with free Developer edition), from CoolFusion
  • intelli Mailbot
  • Spoolmail, open source, from Ray Camden
  • Undelivrnator , open source, from Andy Matthews
  • See also the Adobe Developer's exchange on tags/functions/apps related to CFMAIL, though it may contain very old variants that no longer work or are supported
  • See also Brian Rinaldi's Open Source CF list of Email tools
  • Note, as well, that the CFMAIL tag itself has evolved significantly over the years, so some of the various alternatives may not always be needed. 6.1 added replyto/failto/username/password/wraptext attributes, support for multiple mail servers in the server attribute, and several configuration options to the ColdFusion Administrator Mail Settings page. 6.1 also added support for HTML email via CFMAILPARAM and multipart email with CFMAILPART. You can even optionally not use the spooling process via an optional SpoolEnable as of 6. Finally CF 8 added priority, useSSL, and useTLS attributes.
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

CFML Debugging Tools [link]

  • CF Debug Copy for Firefox and CF Debug Copy for IE, open source from Nathan Mische, allow you to easily copy and paste the SQL query output generated by the classic ColdFusion debug template, parsing the query parameters
  • CF No Debug, open source from Nathan Mische, Firefox Extension and Servlet Filter to Disable ColdFusion Debugging
  • CFWatcher, open source from Ed Tabara, a CF monitoring tool built on the CF debugger
  • ColdFire, open source from Ray Camden et al, a Firefox/Firebug extension to aid in viewing CFML debugging output
  • ColdFusion Debug Templates, "in case you want to try something different than the default template", from Josh Knutson
  • ColdFusion 8 interactive step debugger, free from Adobe (part of the ColdFusion 8 Extensions for Eclipse)
  • FusionDebug, commercial, an interactive step debugger for ColdFusion, from Intergral
  • IP Ranger, open source, "ColdFusion administrator extension to allow IP ranges to be added to the debugging IP addresses list", from Nathan Mische
  • StarFish, open source from Ray Camden, a profiling tool built on the CF debugger, from Ray Camden
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

CFML Documentation/Help Tools and Resources

See this section as listed above under CFML Resources.

CFML Engine Alternatives [link]

Code Formatting Tools [link]

CFML Frameworks/Methodologies [link]

There are far more CFML frameworks (or methodologies) than many may realize. I've tried to group these according to the sub-category most would regard a framework to be, but I could get it wrong. Just let me know.

I provide whatever brief description may be found on the respective web site (so if you don't like the description, talk to the site owner and let me know if it changes...and framework owners, you'd do well to have a nice succinct description to help visitors get a quick understanding of the frameworks purpose, goals, intended use, etc.)

Similarly, if there's a name associated with the project on the site, or if a name is commonly known as being responsible for the framework, I list that. As always, I'm open to updates.

Note as well that some of these may be defunct. As long as there was a working site (or some relatively recent site talking about it, even if a third party), I list it. At the end I list some frameworks whose sites seem defunct. Again, updates are welcomed.

Following are the subcategories offered:
CFML Application Frameworks/Methodologies [link]
  • Blackbox "ColdFusion Development Methodology", from Dan Chick
  • CFObjects, "object-oriented ColdFusion development framework", from Steve Brownlee and Orbwave
  • COOP, "a framework that separates mark-up from processing logic", from John Farrar, et al
  • cfrails, (couldn't find any brief description), from Sammy Larbil
  • CFWheels, "ColdFusion on Wheels provides fast application development, a great organization system for your code, and is just plain fun to use", from the CFWheels Team
  • COAL (Coldfusion Open Application Library), from Ryan Guill
  • ColdBox "event-driven CFC based ColdFusion Framework", from Luis Majano, et al
  • Edmund, "event-driven model framework and workflow components", from Sean Corfield
  • FarCry, "a cutting edge ColdFusion MX application framework for web based content management", from Geoff Bowers and Daemon Consulting
  • Framework One (FW/1), "A very lightweight, convention-over-configuration MVC framework", from Sean Corfield
  • Fusebox, "the most popular framework for building ColdFusion and PHP web applications", from Team Fusebox
  • FuseboxNG, "fork from Fusebox 5.5.1", from Adam Haskell
  • Gliint, "an implicit invocation MVC framework", from Mitch Rose
  • HomePortals, "especially tailored for building portals and other highly modular sites", from Oscar Arevalo
  • iiFramework, "manages many aspects of e-business development so that the programmer doesn't have to", from Infranet
  • LightFront, "short for Lightweight Front-controller...a basic MVC framework that will support both new development and legacy applications...conventions based...single 200-line CFC", from Brian Meloche (more here)
  • Mach-ii, "a powerful, object-oriented, open source MVC framework for ColdFusion that focuses on easing software development and maintenance", from Team Mach-II
  • Metro, a framework for working with Transfer and ColdSpring, from Paul Marcotte
  • Mockbox, a ColdFusion Mocking/Stubing Framework, from Luis Majano
  • Model-Glue, "a family of frameworks [that] support Web application developers by making the construction of Object-Oriented Web and Rich Internet Applications a straightforward process", from the Model-Glue Team
  • onAir, "a 'Smart Connection Framework': Connect backend business logic written in CFCs with different clients (e.g. AJAX, Laszlo) via XML, XML-RPC, JSON, etc.", from Jan Jannek
  • OnTap, "shares some similarities with Ruby on Rails", from Isaac Dealey
  • Plum, "stands for Practical Lightweight Universal Methodology, and it incorporates a rich code generator, a development methodology, a comprehensive application framework that does just about everything you'll ever need to do with a ColdFusion application, a unit test generator, and stored procedure generator, a component generator, and much more.", from Productivity Enhancement
  • PureMVC_CF, a CF port of PureMVC, "a lightweight framework for creating applications based upon the classic Model, View and Controller concept", from Cliff Hall (other ports include Flex [AS2, 3], PHP, Java, and .NET [c#])
  • Quicksilver, "allows developers to quickly and efficiently create powerful MVC web application", from Brian Carr and Micky Dionisio
  • SOS, "stands for Servant Oriented Software...uses the technology in a way that matches your developing style and needs", from John Farrar
  • Switchboard, "MVC framework with built in authentication, redirecting, and URL routing. It's non-OO approach makes it super fast during execution. No XML or Objects are ever used in the framework. No configuration is required to set which files are included, the framework discovers that for you. The URL routing is beneficial for search engine optimization (SEO). And all this can be yours in less than 250 lines of code", from Daniel Slaughter
  • Switchbox, "a programming technique and coding style used to develop flexible and scalable applications", from Joseph Flanigan
  • Tardis, "Model-View-Controller Framework for ColdFusion", from Shawn Gorrell
  • Tartan, "a command-driven service framework for ColdFusion", from Paul Kenney
  • TheHUB, "homegrown application development framework", from Neil Ross
  • Some that seem defunct include cfoo.org, cfoop.com, fusionscript.com, MXF, MVCF, objectbreeze.com, underscoreframework.com
  • Some folks also see CMSs as frameworks, so see my list of them.
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
CFML Injection Frameworks [link]
CFML ORM Frameworks [link]
  • ColdFusion 9 includes ORM, based on Hibernate
  • DataFaucet, "collection of CFCs used to create dynamic object relational modeling (ORM)", from Isaac Dealey
  • Reactor, "an Object-Relational Modeling tool which generates database abstractions on the fly, as needed. Reactor is sometimes called an "Inline Dynamic Database Abstraction" API", from Alagad
  • Transfer, "ColdFusion Object Relational Mapping Library...to automate the repetitive tasks of creating the SQL and custom CFCs that are often required when developing a ColdFusion application", from Mark Mandel
  • See also the ORM feature of CFWheels, as well as DataMgr, "Data Access Layer component set", from Steve Bryant (not technically an ORM tool, but closer to this than the other categories)
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
See also:

Code Generators [link]

There are multiple categories of code generators offered here.
Following are the subcategories offered:
CFML Code Generators [link]
Flex Code Generators [link]

Comparison Tools [link]

There are multiple categories of comparison tools offered here.
Following are the subcategories offered:
Text/File/Dir Comparison/Merge Tools [link]

Following are tools that can compare text, file, and directory comparisons and merging. Database Comparison Tools [link]

Following are tools that can compare database data and schema.

Content Management Systems (written in CFML) [link]

The following are CMSes written in CFML. I've mentioned also portal apps, as those seem close. Of course, you can find a CMS written in many other languages that you may choose to use on your site. I don't want to try to keep here a list of all such CMSes.

Database Engines [link]

I split the list into two categories: free/open source and commercial DBMSs. (I used to split it instead into "name brand" and "alternative", but I think free/commercial makes more sense.) As I note below, some commercial DBMSs do offer free editions.
Free/Open Source DBMSs [link]
Commercial DBMSs [link]

Database Tools [link]

There are multiple categories of database tools offered here.
Following are the subcategories offered:
Database Coding Tools [link] Database Comparison Tools Database Migration Tools [link]

The following tools assiset with database migration/conversion, change migration, synchronization, conversion of stored procedures, and more. Database/SQL Monitoring Tools Database Query/Explore Tools [link]

This category includes both tools to help you build SQL statements as well as to explore your databases and their tables, columns, indexes, data, etc. Some are CF-specific tools, some are generic. Database Testing Tools

E-commerce Enabling Solutions (written in CFML) [link]

There are certainly carts and other e-commerce enabling solutions written in other languages, and some could possibly even be called or leveraged from CFML, but for now, this list focuses only on those that are CFML-based.
  • Able Commerce, commercial, for CF and .NET
  • Broadchoice platform, commercial hosted service. As described by Sean Corfield, "You can build and manage a website on the Broadchoice platform that includes applications such as blogs and forums and integration with YouTube, SlideShare, SalesForce.com etc. Looking to the future, we'll be offering a developer SDK and the ability to integrate third-party external applications - such as CF developers might build and host on their own sites. We're looking to change the way organizations manage their digital marketing."
  • Cartweaver, commercial shopping cart
  • CF-ezCart, commercial shopping cart
  • cfCommerce , open source shopping cart, by Nick Tong
  • CF Shopkart, free, downloadable or hosted
  • CF WebStore, commercial e-commerce solution
  • QuickEStore, commercial downloadable shopping cart solution
  • SiteDirector, commercial shopping cart
  • See also Brian Rinaldi's Open Source CF list of e-commerce tools
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

Editors/IDEs [link]

This list offers both editors that focus on CFML and some others that don't but are popular among some CFers. For times when you just want to view files, rather than edit them, see the available file viewers listed under Generic File View/Log Analysis Tools.
Following are the subcategories offered: See also WYSIWYG/Rich Text Editors.
CFML Editors [link]
Following are editors which either specialize in CFML editing inherently (Dreamweaver, HomeSite, or the coming ColdFusion Builder) or that can be modified to support them (Eclipse, JEdit, and others). Other Editors [link]

Unlike those listed in the previous section, these don't list specific support for ColdFusion, but may still be useful for some.
  • AptEdit, for Windows, available in Lite (free), standard and pro (commercial) editions
  • Cream, free, multiplatform
  • Crimson
    They're kind enough to offer a link to other popular shareware editors.
  • E, "the power of TextMate on Windows", commercial, for Windows
  • EditPad, for Windows, available in Lite (free) and pro (commercial) editions
  • EditPlus, shareware and commercial, for Windows
  • Espresso, commercial, for OS X, with an available Sugar plug-in, free from Scott Mebberson, providing complete syntax highlighting and code hinting for ColdFusion.
  • GNU EMACS, free, multiplatform
  • GridinSoft Notepad , multiplatform, available in Lite (free) and commercial editions
  • JBuilder, from Borland
  • JDeveloper, from Oracle (free, useful for reverse engineering DBs to generate ERDs, DDL scripts, and more, with support for more than just Oracle BDs)
  • Jext (open source)
  • Multiedit, commercial, for Windows
  • Notepad ++
  • NotePad 2
  • NoteTab, free and commercial, for Windows
  • PSPad, free, for Windows
  • TextMate, for OS X
  • TextPad (shareware)
  • TextWrangler, free, for OS X
  • TSW WebCoder, commercial, for Windows, includes intellisense, a MySQL client, FTP support, and more (a more generic version of their PHPcoder tool)
  • UltraEdit, commercial, for Windows
  • Vim ("Vi Improved", free)
  • Visual Web Developer Express Edition, free, for Windows
  • XML Copy Editor, open source, for Windows and Linux
  • Be sure to see other text editors that are listed instead CFML Editors, including some not traditionally thought of as CFML editors. They're listed there if they DO support CFML.
Eclipse Plugins [link]
Eclipse Plug-ins for CF or with support for it [link]
  • CFEclipse
  • Adobe ColdFusion 8 Extensions for Eclipse, which add interactive step debugging, RDS Data and File Views, code generation wizards, log viewing, and more:
    The extensions were also available in a somewhat reduced feature set for 7.02, where they were known as the ColdFusion extensions for Flex Builder, and were provided in the trial or commercial edition of Flex Builder 2. Someone using CF 7 should still be able to use the CF8 extensions for all but the features that rely on CF8.
  • Adobe CF8 Help files for Eclipse
  • FusionDebug, a commercial plugin providing CFML step debugging for CF 6, 7, and 8
  • MXUnit eclipse plug in for the MXUnit unit testing framework for CF
Other Eclipse Plug-ins of interest to CFers [link]
  • Aptana, for its support of HTML, JavaScript, AIR, and more.
  • Eclipse SQL Explorer: query and browse any JDBC compliant database
  • JSEclipse, Javascript coding in Eclipse, from Adobe Labs (aquired from Interakt)
  • Mylyn, offers integration to popular defect tracking tools
  • MyEclipse, a commercial addon which adds Javascript editing and debugging, CSS editing, database explorer, ajax tools, image editing, and much more
  • QuantumDB, Eclipse plugin
  • Subclipse, offering support for Subversion
  • XMLBuddy, an XML editing plug-in, available in free and commercial editions

Distributed Caching Tools [link]

Excel File Processing Tools [link]

Following are approaches for reading or creating Excel files from CFML. Note that they're in alphabetical order (like the rest of the tools in this list), not in any preferred or recommended order of consideration. Some are much easier than others, while others offer greater power and capability. Some are for creating XLS files from CFML, some are for reading them into CFML, and others are for populating a spreadsheet with data from a CFML request. Consider them all to find the best to suit your needs.

BTW, one may argue that I could have a generic section on processing all sorts of file types (or even just all kinds of MS Office) file types, but there are so many requests for Excel file processing specifically, and so many approaches/tools to suit those needs, that I just figured I'd start out with this and consider other filetypes later (and may rename this section then). It's also certainly true that most of the techniques/tools shown here can be used with any spreadsheet tool that reads xls files or processes CSV/HTML table files in a similar way (like OpenOffice).
Following are the subcategories offered:
  • COM [link]- Since CF on Windows can integrate with COM, there are solutions available using that interface. There are a number of tools that uses the approach in the CFCOMET tools list, including CF_Excel2CSV, CF_ReadXLS, HTML2Excel, and SQL_export.cfm. (Note that you'll often find references to a site called CFCOMET, but sadly the CFCOMET site is no more. It was resurrected at http://www.cfregex.com/cfcomet/ back in 2002, though not completely .) As you contemplate working with COM, if performance is an issue, consider these Adobe technotes: 1, 2, and 3.
  • CSV [link]- You can both create Excel files using CSV, as well as read in CSV (or other delimited files) to create a query, such as from an Excel file. To create an Excel file, you can simply send to the browser a CSV (or other delimited) file. There are UDFs to ease converting a query to a CSV, such as QueryToCSV2, by Qasim Rasheed. See also a tweaked version of this by Aaron Longnion. There is also the Query to Excel Component from Jason Presley, as well as the UDFs GenerateExcel UDF from Topper, and CSVFormat and GetTabTextFeed from cflib.org. When you do this, you need to use CFCONTENT to set the mime type to "application/msexcel" (and may want to use CFHEADER to set a filename to be chosen for the user, and may need to use CFSETTING to turn off debugging.)

    To create a CF query result by reading a CSV (or other delimited) file, as might be exported from Excel, you can use CFHTTP. See the CF docs on CFHTTP, specifically the subsection "Building a query from a delimited text file", as well as blog entries such as those by Ben Nadel 1 2, and Alex Le. There's yet another approach of reading a CSV using a DSN as discussed by Mark Kruger.
  • HTML Table [link]- Another long-existent, simple way to create output to Excel from CFML is creating an HTML table, again prefaced by a CFCONTENT setting the mimetype for Excel and such. Many have written on this useful, simple approach, including Jeremy Petersen (in the ColdFusion Cookbook) and Jehiah Czebotar. It's also covered in the docs, such as these CF6 and CF8 pages on CFContent (and notice all the comments in the older CF6 one, for additional info). There are UDFs and custom tags to do it for you, too, such as Query2Excel in the cflib site. A still more elaborate approach is discussed in this blog entry by Ben Nadel.
  • Java (including JExcel, JXLS, and POI) [link]- There are many Java APIs for manipulating Excel files. Since CF6 and above are built atop Java, it's easy to leverage such Java libraries.
    • (Don't miss the relatively straight-forward JDBC-oriented options in the ODBC/JDBC section, below.)
    • JEXCEL- CF Product Manager Jason Delmore has released a JXLCFC that integrates with JExcel, and he blogged about it in Jan 08. Both Ben Nadel and "Denny" also blogged about JExcel/CF integration in 2006.
    • JXLS - Matt Williams has written on a couple of blog entries on this. I figure I'd just point you to his Excel category, which lists entries that discuss both jXMS and a beef he had with using POI (discussed next here). In case you miss his reference to a zip file in his "enclosures" link in one of the entries, here is the link directly. BTW, you may find references on the web to his stuff being at http://mattw.mxdj.com/, but that domain is no longer functioning. Fortunately, he moved his stuff to the new mattjanell.com domain.
    • POI - cfExcelProxy is an open source effort by Francois Levesque. Another is CFXL, by Jason Delmore. Also, many have written about POI/CF integration, including Dave Ross; Ben Nadel, who has written a POIUtility CFC wrapper that makes it easy to use POI (and here are a couple of other entries by him 1 and 2, 3, with more info on the approach.) Still more interesting for some will be this entry of his on Populating An Existing, Formatted Excel Document Using ColdFusion And POI. Ben Forta also discusses POI in Chap 27 of his CF7 Advanced book and has an example available in this zip file. There is yet another CFC that helps use POI in CFML, cfHSSF, as well as a few custom tags: the free CFX_ExcelQuery in the JavaCFX library at OpenXCF project, and the following commercial tags: CFX_Query2Excel and CFX_Excel in the Adobe Developer's Exchange and from the cftagstore; and CFX_Query2Excel and CFX_Excel2Query from Ryan Emerle.
  • .NET [link]- Now that CF8 can directly integrate with .NET, it should be possible to perform interaction with Excel files directly using .NET. I've not yet found any articles by anyone doing that. Both the CF docs and Ray Camden have hinted at the possibility.
  • Office Automation [link]- While you may read some articles talking about doing "Office automation", by trying to run MS Office apps on the server, this is something that even Microsoft cautions against, saying
    CAUTION: Automation of any Office application from an unattended, non-interactive user account is risky and unstable. A single error in code or configuration can result in a dialog box that can cause the client process to stop responding (hang), that can corrupt data, or that can even crash the calling process (which can bring down your Web server if the client is ASP).
    WARNING: Office was not designed, and is not safe, for unattended execution on a server. Developers who use Office in this manner do so at their own risk.
  • ODBC/JDBC [link]- it's long been possible to open more than just database files using ODBC (and the Jet Engine) as well as JDBC. It's been written about by many over the years, including the CF5 docs, a CFDJ article (whose title has a mistake and should be "ColdFusion Techniques: Text & Excel ODBC"), and a blog entry by Christopher Wigginton, to name a few. Just note that there have been changes in ODBC processing: before CF6, you could create such datasources directly in the CF Admin. In CF6 and above, you would create them in the Windows ODBC administrator and then point to them using the ODBC/JDBC bridge option when creating a DSN in the CF Admin. Ben Forta also has an example of using this approach in his ReadExcel.cfm, available in this zip file (as discussed in Chap 27 of his CF7 Advanced CF book).

    Still other solutions leverage Java calls to enable this capability via JDBC, such as Kyle Hayes who has written about it in both the ColdFusion Cookbook and on his own site.

    Another curious one is the jacoZoom driver, which uses a DSN-less connection to get to the file. Though those are technically not supported since CF5, Adobe has a technote on how to get around this limitation when reading an Excel file, using a "passthrough" DSN. Finally, see other Java-oriented options under the "Java" section, above.
  • Report Builder [link]- Don't forget that the ColdFusion Report Builder (in CF7 and 8) can export its results as Excel, and of course can generate its data from CFML. See more in the Adobe DevNet articles, Building Reports with ColdFusion MX 7 and Using the ColdFusion Report Builder. See more on reporting solutions under Reporting and Report Builder Tools
  • WebQueries [link]- a reverse approach is to obtain data from for an Excel spreadsheet from within Excel, and using the Excel Web Query feature to point back to the server to get data. A Dec 2001 CFDJ article discussed this.
  • XML [link]- The final approach is to use XML, which offers the simplicity of the HTML table approach above, but with greater control. A couple of blog entries on this approach are those by Ben Nadel and Todd Sharp. There's also a tutorial by Kris Brixon. There's at least one Riaforge project based on an XML approach: ObjectToExcel , by Lu Sancea, which can "consume a query or an array of queries and render an excel file".

    Finally, you can also use OOXML (Office Open XML) with CFML, which is discussed in considerable detail in Volume 3 of the CF8 Web App Construction Kit, Advanced Application Development, specifically Chapter 76 on integrating with Office. The source code for the book (and these examples) is available online via a link at Ben's site for the book.
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

File Find/Search Tools [link]

Most operating systems have built-in file find/search tools (such as Windows search feature and grep on Linux/Unix), but alternatives exist. In the case of Windows search feature, it may not look in all file types (depending on the version of Windows), and grep is a command-line tool. These alternatives (free and commercial) offer both enhanced user interfaces and speed (some also add regular expression support, and more).

File Sharing Tools/Services [link]

Form Creation/Validation Tools [link]

  • CFUniform, "library of custom tags for quick and easy form generation", open source, from Matt Quackenbush
  • cfExt Form additions, open source from Dan Vega
  • qForms, open source, from Dan Switzer
  • Thor, open source, from John Mason
  • Validat data validation engine, open source, from Alagad
  • Hyrule ColdFusion 9 validation using annotations, from Dan Vega
  • ValidateThis!, "an object oriented validation framework", open source, from Bob Silverberg
  • Validation.cfc, "server-side validation", open source, from Ryan Heldt
  • ValidatorCFC, "validates the data in an object according to custom rules you set up", open source, from Sean Coyne
  • See also other non-CF-based alternatives, like FormSpring and Wufoo
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

File Upload Tools [link]

The tools on this list range from those using Flash/Flex, Ajax, to Java. Some may permit tracking the status of an upload, allow multiple files to be uploaded at once, and/or other features. Some are written in/for CFML, others are generic.

Forums/Bulletin Board Tools (written in CFML) [link]

Graphing/Charting Tools [link]

HTTP Debugging Proxies/Web Client Test Tools [link]

HTTP debugging proxies allow you to watch (and sometimes even modify) the http-level communications between your browser (or other http client app on your workstation) and the web server. It helps you see the request/response stream, which can be very helpful in resolving some problems. There are a wide range of such tools offered here, in the following subcategories:
General-purpose HTTP Debugging Proxies/Web Client Test Tools [link]
First up are proxy tools that work on any web browser. (See also IE-only and Firefox-only proxies/web client test tools offered in the next sections.)
Firefox-only Proxies/Web Client Test Tools [link] IE-only Proxies/Web Client Test Tools [link] See also the category here, Page Testing Tools, for still other tools that perform related web page analysis.

Image Processing Tools (for CFML) [link]

Tools to manipulate images in CFML.

IP Address Reporting Tools [link]

Tools to help you identify your IP address (and some that allow you to get info on a given IP address, programmatically.)

Log Analysis Tools [link]

There are multiple categories of monitoring tools offered here, from generic log analysis tools (for any sort of log) to analysis of specific files (such as SQL Server logs) or for a specific purpose (intrusion detection or web site analytics). See also monitoring tools, which includes to monitor log files such as the Windows event log.

Following are the subcategories offered:
CF Log Analysis Tools [link]
  • flogr, open source, from Scott Stroz
  • Ray Camden has a tool to read the log files to identify templates listed by CF as being "slow pages". See his blog entries for CF8 and CF7. There is now a download link on the CF8 page to download the provided code as a CFML template, the link being at the bottom of the entry to the right of the link to display comments.
  • Don't miss the log viewer in the Adobe ColdFusion 8 Extensions for Eclipse
  • Consider also (for creating logs in CFML) Logbox, free from Luis Majano. An enterprise ColdFusion Logging Library.
Generic File View/Log Analysis Tools [link]
(This list is within the larger category of log analysis tools tools, but among the following are tools that could be useful for viewing any kind of text files.)
  • ASQL, free tool for Linux to query Apache log files via SQL (similar to, though not as powerful as, LogParser below)
  • BareTail, free and commercial, for Windows
  • CSVEasy, free, for Windows (log viewer for CSV files)
  • CSVed, free CSV file editor (supports other separators, too). See also uniCSVed, a unicode version at the same site.
  • CSView, free, for Windows (log viewer, though it reads only CSVs and not space- or tab-delimited TSV files) (Beware: virus scans identify this download as having a trojan, Trojan.Peed.Gen. Since it may be a temporary problem, I'll leave it here with that caution.)
  • CSV Table Viewer, free, for Windows (log viewer for CSV files)
  • ELM Log Manager, commercial tool for monitoring Windows Event Logs and much more
  • Geektool, an open source log analysis tool for Mac OS X
  • Generic Log Adapter, open source, from IBM
  • Killilink CSV, commercial, for Windows
  • Kiwi Log Viewer, freeware and commercial, multiplatform
  • Log Analysis, free for Windows
  • Log Analyzer, commercial or free with purchase of Advanced Host Monitor
  • LogMeister, commercial, for Windows
    • iuniversal
  • LogMX, free and commercial (low cost), multiplatform, focused on reading log4j files
  • Log Parser, free from Microsoft (I've written about it before.) See also Log Parser Lizard UI, as well as the related PAL tool that extends LogParser, for analyzing Windows Performance Monitor (PerfMon) logs.
  • LogSurfer, an open source tool (no binaries, C source code that must be compiled). Seemingly different from a Mac OS X log anlysis tool of the same name.
  • Logwatch, free, for Linux (if that domain fails, see this mirror)
  • ManyEyes, a free service from IBM Alphaworks (limited for now to only processing tab-separated files, and a column header line must be provided)
  • SawMill, commercial, multiplatform, log file analysis and reporting
  • TextConverter, commercial, for Windows, for extracting data from log files into databases
  • UniversalViewer free and commercial, large file loading tool
  • xlogmaster, open source, for Linux/Unix
  • XpoLog Center, commercial, multiplatform
  • Consider also Splunk, a free and commercial enterprise log solution (multiplatform) which seems to do a lot more than just log analysis. Couldn't really tell from its web site how well it would be suited to just the simpler tasks of log analysis.
  • See also other lists of log analysis tools, such as this.
  • See also information on log rotation tools.
  • See also Reporting and Report Builder Tools, including discussion of online reporting solutions that can import CSV and other files for analysis and reporting
  • And of course, if you're looking to analyze a particular kind of log, see the other Log Analysis Tool categories here.
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
Intrusion Detection Tools [link] SQL Server Log Analysis Tools [link] Web Server Log Analysis Tools [link]
(This list is within the larger category of log analysis tools. See also the separate list of Web Server Analytics Tools, which provide site tracking via a different approach.)

Monitoring Tools/Services [link]

There are multiple categories of monitoring tools offered here.

Following are the subcategories offered:
Application Monitoring Tools [link]
The following tools can be used to monitor Java applications, and can be used (some more easily than others) to monitor CF applications. ColdFusion Monitoring Tools [link] Database/SQL Monitoring Tools [link]

The following tools monitor databases. While some monitor the databases themselves, some instead monitor SQL going into the database via JDBC from application servers (like ColdFusion). Event Log Monitoring [link]

The following tools can monitor the Windows Event Log. Java Monitoring/Profiling Tools [link]

The following tools can analyze Java, and as such can often be used to analyze Java-specific aspects of Coldfusion 6 and above. Some allow you to watch what operations are happening in the underlying JVM, some focus on reporting statistics, some focus on garbage collection analysis, some could be used to monitor the underlying java classes that CF calls. Some will work only with Java 1.5 (and CF 7 and 6 run on Java 1.4.) Check out each to observe what it does, how it works, and whether it may be of value for your skill level. Some require no specific Java experience at all. System Monitoring Tools [link]

The following tools track the health of your server overall, ranging from small tools (such as task manager replacements) to full-scale enterprise monitoring. Web Server Analytics Tools [link]

It can be very useful to understand the traffic patterns and other visitor statistics for your web site. While Web Server Log Analysis Tools are one appprach, another is to use tools which instead track site visits via a remote service, where you drop code (often referred to as "tags") into your site which reports back to a hosted service. You then review the analysis on that remote site. Following are examples of that.

(For more on the debate between the two approaches, see this discussion, or this one.)

There are many such services. Here are just a few: Web Server Request Monitoring Tools [link]

Not to be confused with Web Site Uptime Monitoring Tools, the following tools track requests being made to your server and/or other information about the health of your web server. Web Site Uptime Monitoring Tools [link]

The following tools track, report, and alert on whether your server is up or down. Most are free hosted services, some are commercial.

Project Management Tools (written in CFML) [link]

Regular Expression Generation/Testing Tools [link]

As you contemplate these tools, be aware that different tools (editors), servers/languages (ColdFusion, Java, .NET, Javascript) use different regular expression engines, so most tools won't suit all needs. Some of the below are CF-specific, but most are not. Choose/use/test appropriately.

Remote Presentation/Assistance/Remote Desktop/Shared Desktop/Web Conferencing Tools [link]

If you need to give a presentation to remote attendees, or provide remote support (letting the remote person show you their screen, possibly with the option for them to let you take control of their screen), the following desktop sharing tools may help you. Some are free, some are commercial. Even the commercial ones now tend to have offers starting at about US$ 30-50 per month.

Most do not require the users to install anything but just use a browser (generally any modern browser will work) to let you connect to each other via some web site you both connect to. In some cases, the presenter must install something extra (some services use Flash, some Java, some ActiveX), and indeed in some services, the presenter can work only on a particular OS while participants can be on any OS.

While some of the services include VOIP or phone-based teleconferencing services, if you'd like alternative phone support for these web conferencing tools, there are many free and commercial teleconferencing services available to consider. Simply do a Google search for free conference call or teleconferencing.
  • Adobe Acrobat Connect, commercial hosted service from Adobe, (not to be confused with the more expensive, and featured, Connect Professional. For more on differences, see this page.
  • Adobe Acrobat ConnectNow, free hosted service from Adobe. Limited to 3 participants.
  • BeamYourScreen, commercial hosted service
  • CrossLoop, free hosted service focused on one-on-one remote shared desktop support (adds an interesting social networking aspect, to let others share their experience with you as a support person)
  • Copilot, commercial hosted service, from Joel Spolsky's company, Fog Creek
  • Dimdim, free and commercial, installable (open source, cross-platform) or hosted service, free for up to 20 participants
  • Genesys, commercial hosted service
  • Glance, commercial hosted service
  • GotoMeeting, commercial hosted service
  • Microsoft LiveMeeting, commercial hosted service
  • Mikogo, free hosted service for up to 10 participants
  • SharedView, free hosted service, from Microsoft
  • Spreed, commercial hosted service
  • TeamViewer, free and commercial hosted service, multiplatform client support
  • Unyte, free and commercial, hosted service, from IBM Lotus (aka Sametime Unyte). See also Webdialogs.
  • WebEx, commercial hosted service
  • WebTrain, free and commercial hosted service, free for 1 on 1
  • Yuuguu, free hosted service, for up to 30 participants
  • Yugma, free and commercial hosted service, free for up to 10 participants
  • Zoho Meeting, free and commercial hosted service, free for 1 on 1
  • Note that there are some interesting sites that track news and tips about using packages like the above, including ThinkOfIt Web Conferencing product reviews.
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

Reporting and Report Builder Tools [link]

ColdFusion has had a built-in report builder since CF 7, and embedded Crystal Reports support since CF 3 (at least), but what if you are on another version or CFML engine, or just care to consider alternatives? There are many, free and commercial.

RSS to Email Tools [link]

Are you someone who reads or publishes RSS feeds? Did you know there are tools to permit people to receive notifications without using RSS Readers? Some just prefer email. The following services offer tools both for readers (add a URL and you'll get an email when a site's RSS feed changes) and publishers (add a widget to your site to let others easily register to receive your feed via email). Note as well, after the list, some tools to monitor any page for content changes, not just RSS-fed ones. (Useful to watch this site, until I get an RSS Feed on it!)
  • Botablog, free (doesn't seem to be working for me, and they never respond to requests for help)
  • Feedblitz, free (but watch out: it will send one email a day, listing not only mutltiple entries from a blogger, but also multiple blogger's entries, in one email, albeit wel organized. I prefer one email per blog entry--and per blog.)
  • Feed Mailer, free
  • Feedwhip, free
  • QuickThreads, free and commercial
  • RSSForward, free (my current favorite. Unlike feedblitz and rddfwd, it sends a single email per blog entry, though sadly it does trunctate after a paragraph. Some may also prefer the aggregation that other services do.)
  • RSSFWD, free (said to be closing down soon)
  • SendMeRSS (http://www.sendmerss.com/) is no more
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
Something taking a slightly different approach are tools that can notify you of changes to pages on any site, not just RSS-fed ones, such as the following. Again, sure, some browsers include such a feature, but some want notification by email (Useful to watch this site, until I get an RSS Feed on it!)

Server-side Spell Checkers [link]

Source Code Control [link]

Following are the subcategories offered:
Source Code Control Tools [link]

It's worth noting that with regard to source control, there are both the client tools (accessing a repository, even if not your own) and server tools (creating your own repository). I discuss both here, but just know there is a difference. Many tools bundle both (client and repository) in one package.
  • CVS (Open Source)
    There are many client tools for working with that, such as TortoiseCVS.
    I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
    I also came across an article that discussed using some of these source management tools for web application development. It's a couple years old, but may still be useful to some readers.
  • Git, an open source alternative from Linus Torvalds, of Linux fame (though it runs on multiple OS's)
  • IonForge, a commercial source code control alternative, with an available free single user option
  • Perforce, a commercial tool with available discount/free licensing for education/open source developers, and such.
  • SourceForge Enterprise Edition, as downloadable VMWare Virtual Appliance, free for 15 users
  • Subversion
    Subversion really has become quite popular in the CFML community (as of mid 2006). Indeed, I just wrote a blog entry last night gathering up the most current resources (at this time) from CFML community members
    Again, there are many client tools for working with that, such as TortoiseSVN. Rather than list them all, I'd prefer to point to a page that lists them.
    I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
  • Source Integrity. They appear to have had a tool called Web Integrity, but I could only find reference to a user guide for it on their site.
  • StarTeam, from Borland (formerly from Starbase)
  • Visual SourceSafe, from Microsoft
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
Remote Source Code Repositories [link]

Note as well that there are various available remotely hosted repositories (Subversion and others), some free and some commercial: There are various reviews of these remote repository options, including here, here and here.

SQL Injection and CrossSite Scripting Detection/Prevention Tools [link]

SQL Injection and Cross Site Scripting (XSS) are really two sides of the same coin: attempts by hackers to get data into your application (whether to affect your database, or to have you store and present back to future viewers). There are several levels at which you can detect and prevent such attempts. The lowest level is your CFML code, then your CFML application, then the web server, then web application firewalls, etc.
Following are the subcategories offered:
CFML Query-level Injection Protection Tools [link]
  • CFQueryParam, a tag in CF 4.51 and above that helps detect unexpected datatypes used in variables passed to CFQUERY
  • CFArgument, a tag in CF6 and above that helps detect unexpected datatypes used in variables passed to CFC methods and user defined functions
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
CFML Application-level Injection Protection Tools [link]

These are solutions that you might implement in your application.cfm file, or the onrequeststart method of application.cfc.
Web Server-level Injection Protection Tools [link]
Web Application Firewall-level Injection Protection Tools [link]
Hardware Firewall-level Injection Protection Tools [link]

Testing Tools/Services [link]

There are multiple categories of testing tools offered here.
Following are the subcategories offered:
CFML Code Testing Tools [link]
  • ColdFish, open source, by Jason Delmore (a code highlighting tool, rather than a testing tool, but doesn't fit in any other category here and could help some while testing code)
  • CodeCop, by Steve Bryant
  • QueryParam Scanner, open source, by Peter Boughton (finds code where CFQUERYPARAM could be added for improved security, performance)
  • VarScoper, open source, by Mike Schierberl. A var scope checking tool to help identify where you're creating local variables in CFCs without var scoping them (see more at his own page.)
  • Note as well the CFML Syntax checker available in the ColdFusion Admin.
  • See also additional generic code testing tools.
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
CFML Unit Testing Tools [link] Database Testing Tools [link] Load, Stress, and Application Testing Tools [link]

There are many load testing and/or stress testing tools, free and commercial. Some of these can also be used for functional testing. Page Testing Tools [link]
The following tools can test web pages in a variety of ways, whether for how they appear on different browsers, how they perform functionally over regression testing, etc.
  • Adobe BrowserLab, free limited preview (as of June '09)
  • Browsercam, commercial service to test and view web page appearance/functionality in many different browsers
  • Browsrcamp, free and commercial tool to "test the compatibility of your design with Mac OS X browsers"
  • Browsershots, free service to test and view your web page appearance in many different browsers
  • Full Page Test, free service that tests page load times (considering all components of a given page)
  • Gomez Instant Site Test, "Test your website�s current performance from locations across the globe."
  • Hammerhead, free, for Firebug (by the author of YSlow). For more, see this discussion of it, by its author.
  • IBM Page Detailer, free, for Windows (IE, Firefox, and others). "A graphical tool that enables Web content providers to rapidly and accurately measure client side performance of Web pages." Learn more about it here. (See Yslow for a more modern rendition of the concepts, though it's worth noting that I learned of this Page Detailer tool in the O'Reilly book, "High Performance Web Sites", which is written by the author of YSlow, and he discusses using Page Detailer--and not Yslow--in the final chapter on his analysis of the performance of 10 top web sites.)
  • IE NetRenderer, free tool "allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer"
  • LitmusApp, free and commercial service that tests not just web pages against different browsers but also email newsletter, both for how they look in different clients, with different features enabled (like images on or not), and for spam filtering (both client- and server-side).
  • Google PageSpeed, free and built upon Firebug
  • RPO Optimization Calculator, free, web-based tool that estimates "current page load times from around the world, and an estimate of the improvements the RPO tool would provide."
  • Selenium, free "suite of tools to automate web app testing across many platforms"
  • WatchMouse, commercial hosted functional testing service
  • Web Developer free extension for Firefox, "adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools"
  • Web Page Analyzer, free "website performance tool and web page speed analysis"
  • Web Site Grader, free web-based tool, a simple grading of your site focused on search engine optimization analysis
  • WebWait, free tool. Loads your website several times and calculates the average load time.
  • Yslow add-in for Firebug (for Firefox), "analyzes web pages and tells you why they're slow".
  • See this list of other browser page render test services, and another list, and SoftwareQATest's list, as well as test everything, which collects several page testing tools into a single interface, and .
  • See also the category here, HTTP Debugging Proxies/Web Client Test Tools, for tools that can also be used for some forms of "page testing".
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.
Regex Testing Tools [link] Site Security Testing Tools [link]

This list offers a range of different tools for testing the security of your site. Most test for SQL injection vulnerabilities (from the outside), either to identify them (to help you) or to penetrate them (to help a hacker, or you, by learning what they can learn.)

Note especially the nifty (and CF-specific) HackMyCF free online service, from Pete Freitag and Foundeo. Site Testing Tools [link] Web Services Testing Tools [link]

Screen Capture tools [link]

I've divided the list here into still and a/v image capture tools. All of these can be great for creating tutorials, training, demos, etc.
Following are the subcategories offered:
Still Image Capture Tools [link] A/V Capture (screencast/screen share/screen record/demo) Tools [link]
The following tools can be used to capture any screen content and record it. Some produce AVI, some SWF, some FLV, and so on. Some can capture video on screen, while some cannot. There are free and commercial options, for multiple platforms.

Time Tracking/Invoicing/Billing Tools/Services [link]

Following are online or downloadable tools to provide time tracking, invoicing, and billing services.
  • fourteenDayz, commercial hosted service (free for 4 projects and 4 users)
  • 88 Miles, commercial hosted service (free for unlimited projects but no more than 40 hours a month)
  • Billings, commercial downloadable tool (for Mac)
  • Cashboard, commercial hosted service (free for 2 projects and 2 employee logins)
  • FreshBooks, commercial hosted service (free for 3 projects and 1 user)
  • Fanurio, commercial, cross-platform
  • Freckle, commercial hosted service (free for 1 project, 1 user)
  • Harvest, commercial hosted service (free for 2 projects and 1 user)
  • Invoice, commercial downloadable too (for Mac)l
  • Klok, free AIR app
  • ProWorkFlow, commercial hosted and downloadable service (happens to be written in CFML)
  • SideJobTrack, free hosted service (no longer taking new members currently)
  • SlimTimer, free hosted service
  • Tick, commercial hosted service (free for 1 project and unlimited users)
  • Tiktrac, commercial hosted service (free for 5 projects and 5 users)
  • TimeClock Online, commercial hosted service (with no free projects, but a free 10 day trial), which happens to be written in CFML
  • Timeless Time and Expense, commercial hosted service and downloadable program
  • Timeloc, free AIR app
  • TimeSnapper, commercial, for Windows
  • Timetracker, free AIR app, from Ray Camden
  • TimeXchange.net, free hosted service
  • Toggl, free hosted service
  • Web TimeSheet, commercial hosted service
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

URL Rewriting Tools [link]

These tools can help you mask the fact that your pages are dynamic, to make them look static, which can be helpful for search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine friendly URLs.

Web Services Browsing/Testing Tools [link]

(If you're looking at these tools when a web service you're calling is failing, here is a web service WSDL URL that you can test with the tools below, which has worked for a few years: http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl)
  • Dreamweaver - Don't miss the feature in the Application Panel, Components tab, to select "web services" from the drop down (if you have a CF page opened within a CF site), where you can provide a WSDL URL and DW will browse the web service, showing its available methods and their arguments, etc.
  • Eclipse - soapUI (see below) or Adobe Services Browser (in Adobe ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse). Use Window>Show View>Other>ColdFusion>Services Browser. Then click the icon just left of the minimize icon ("Show Web Services"), then click red + to add a new WSDL URL.
  • SoapClient (free, web-based)
  • soapUI (free, open source downloadable, both standalone and as Eclipse plug-in)
  • StrikeIron Web Services Analyzer for Windows (commercial, downloadable)
  • Web Service Call Composer (Web Service Tester) (downloadable, commercial), part of commercial Stylus Studio XML IDE
  • Web Service Proxy Generator (free, web-based (does not work with https urls)
  • Xmethods WSDL Analyzer (free, web-based)
  • XMLSPY IDE web service tester (commercial, downloadable)
  • I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

Web Site Design Repositories [link]

These sites offer web site designs, most free, some commercial. (Be careful if you're looking for a particular one, as the names are often quite similar, such as freecsstemplates.org and free-css-templates.com, or oswd.org and openwebdesign.org.)

Wiki Tools [link]

Wireframing/Prototyping/Mockup Tools [link]

WYSIWYG/Rich Text Editors [link]

When you want to make it easy for your users to enter text into a form, and permit them to mark it up (bold, italics) or add HTML (hyperlinks, images), that's where a WYWIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, or a Rich Text editor, comes in handy.

With respect to the editors below, note that the reference to platform may refer to either client or server requirements. Rather than detail them, I offer simply whatever platform information I could easily glean from the site. To confirm details for your needs, see the respective product site (such as system requirements pages) for more details.

Background

I started this list back in 2002, which I hosted on my older Systemanage site. I've updated it substantially since bringing it over to my carehart.org site in mid-2007 (and continue to do so: last updated on Jan 20, 2010.) It now has over links to over 1,000 tools/resources in over 125 categories. I welcome additions/corrections/feedback. I've gathered most of the first several hundred myself but I welcome community participation. Again, with regard to any of the above, I welcome additions/corrections/feedback.

If you're a keeper of lists yourself, I'd ask that you please do not just copy/paste this page and its categories to your own site. Of course, the information I link to is public info. I'm referring to the organization of it. I certainly welcome people pointing others to this list, including deep-linking to a specific category. I may ultimately also create an RSS feed to track new entries on the whole list or in certain categories.
cf.Objective() 2010: The Only Enterprise ColdFusion Conference
cf.Objective() 2010 Pre-Conference Sessions: Secure CFML, ColdBox, ORM, Flex, Mach-II, Model-Glue

Managed Hosting Services provided by
http://www.edgewebhosting.net/
Managed Dedicated Hosting