ColdBox 8 : The OCHO!

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:rocket: ColdBox 8.0.0 is Here: The Future of BoxLang and CFML Development

After months of development and years of experimentation, we’re thrilled to announce the most transformative ColdBox release ever.

:fire: What’s New:

Native BoxLang Support - First-class integration with bx-coldbox

Virtual Thread Executors - Modern async programming for high-performance apps

AI-Powered Development - Enhanced error handling with intelligent fix suggestions

New Application Templates - Production-ready architectures with security-first design

Desktop Applications - Build cross-platform desktop apps (coming soon!)

:zap: BoxLang PRIME marks a new era with native compilation across CacheBox, LogBox, and WireBox. Experience faster startups, enhanced security, and future-ready architecture.

:hammer_and_wrench: Completely Revamped CLI with Docker support, Vite integration, migration tools, and AI-assisted code generation.

:robot: AI-First Development with MCP server integration - connect Claude, GitHub Copilot, and other AI tools directly to our documentation.

Engine Support: BoxLang 1.0.0+, Adobe ColdFusion 2023+

Ready to experience the future?

:package: box install coldbox@8.0.0

:books: https://coldbox.ortusbooks.com

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Can I ask how many people use BoxLang, in comparison to Coldfusion?

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Most people use BL the same way they use CF, but BL supports many more runtimes, such as AWS Lambda and CLI. BoxLang has its own scripting and templating language syntax, but is also capable of running CFML code as well, which is why you can still use ColdBox (which is written in CFML) to build BoxLang apps, even if your actual app code is using the BoxLang syntax.

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Sorry, what I meant, is that are there more people worldwide that use Coldfusion CFML, or is BoxLang more popular?

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Everyone in the world now uses BoxLang. Even PHP, Java, and Node devs have abandoned their languages. We welcome you to the fold. You’re the only one left :wink:

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Wow. Thats amazing. Did Ortus create Box Lang? Yes. I am wondering whether to learn it?

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And will you ever stop supporting Coldfusion, in the future, for products like Coldbox.

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lol, BoxLang went stable in May at our Into The Box conference. It obviously does not have as many users as ColdFusion, which is 30 years old this year. Usage is on the rise though. It brings a lot of fresh ideas to the table, both architecturally, it’s speed, it’s size, it’s support, it’s runtimes, and the new things available in it’s BoxLang scripting syntax. I did an entire session at ITB about some of the new features in BL.
Yes, Ortus created it, over 2 years ago is when we started development. Look for a recording of one of our keynote sessions on BoxLang for more info. I do recommend you look into it, even if just to run your CFML apps.
For the foreseeable future, Ortus plans to support CFML while also pushing the envelope in Boxlang in ways we can’t do in CFML.

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This is interesting @bdw429s.

Am I able to transition from hosting on Lucee to BoxLang?

What’s the recommended upgrade plan to upgrade from Coldbox 7 to V8 and also transition from Lucee/CF to BoxLang?

Currently I have a crazy environment where our DEV server is Coldfusion 2023 because that’s where we started dev and due to not wanting to buy a CF license when we went live, our PROD env is Lucee (not the latest version, the previous stable version).

Every time I deploy I’ve got all fingers and toes crossed that this just works and it always does:

GitHub action:

  • name: Install Coldbox Dependencies
    uses: Ortus-Solutions/commandbox-action@v1.0.3
    with:
    cmd: install --production

Not that changing from Lucee to BL is going to solve our current DEV / PROD discrepancy but I could change our DEV and PROD to both use BL. Should have standardized a long time ago.

Do you recommend moving from CF and Lucee to BoxLang?

Will I see performance improvements if I move to BL?

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Sure if you want.

  • Step 1, convert your app to ColdBox 8 and test for compat
  • Step 2, convert your app to run on BoxLang and test for compat

Obviously, I’m joking a little, but that’s really not that far off. I mean, you just try it and see what works or what needs tweaking. Every major version of ColdBox has a compatibility/upgrade guide, so you obviously read through that first.

This is where your test suite comes in. Just running that should cover a lot of ground.

BoxLang is designed to be as much as a drop-in replacement for CF as possible. Of course, that’s a work in progress, but start by running our Feature Audit scanner CLI tool, which will parse your code and generate a report of what modules you need to install as well as any features you may be using which we don’t support yet.
These guides are still in progress, but will get you started:

Feature audit:

And if you’re already using COmmandBox to run your servers, then it gets even easier. All you need to do is

Yes, of course. But then again, I’m pretty biased as a lead developer of BoxLang :slight_smile: We’ve tried to approach BoxLang from a fresh place architecturally to achieve things CFML just isn’t capable of with our super-small runtimes like Lambda AWS, modular core, and new language features which can compete with other JVM languages. Not saying CFML can’t do some of those things-- we just wanted to try our hand at building a better moustrap.

Maybe. Depends on what you’re doing. I’ve already documented our Query of Query performance to be WAAAY faster than both Adobe CF and Lucee

Our parser/compiler I’d say is on par with Lucee, and WAAAAY faster than Adobe’s. I plan to run some numbers soon, but just starting up a ColdBox app for the first time with cfclasses cleared will show how slow ACF is there.
As far as runtime numbers, we’ve done a lot to reduce memory, minimize internal locking, parallelize operations to take advantage of threading, and streamline processing. I’m in the process of getting Boxlang added to the TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks alongside Lucee and ACF and we’ll post more when we have some official measurements.

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