Nolan Erck talks about “Migrating legacy CFML to MVC (Model View Controller)” in this episode of the CF Alive Podcast, with host Michaela Light.

Show notes

What exactly is legacy ColdFusion?

A broad term

Non-framework code

Might use CFIncludes or some CFCs to be modular

Even giant 10k lines of code

Self-posting forms

What the MVC design pattern is and what problems it solves

MVC = Model View Controller

Model = biz logic and SQL

View = front end UI - HTML, CSS, JS

Controller = the glue that holds the Model and View together and says which part calls which

Customer in a restaurant ordering from a Menu (View) from a Waiter (Controller) to make the food in the kitchen (Model)

Maintenance easier

Whack a mole bugs

Biz logic, HTML, JS and SQL all mixed up together

Bit rot/Technical debt

Hard for designers to edit the code as the HTML is mixed up

Merge conflicts

Hard to fully test

Manually testing

Duplicate code, unused code (deadwood)

Specialization of labor

UI experts

CF developer

SQL database engineer

How the FW/1 and ColdBox frameworks use a convention-based approach to bring consistent structure to an application

Both are modern MVC

Use folder to separate the three parts, file naming conventions

FW/1 is minimalist, one file, easy to get started

MuraCMS uses it

ColdBox is heavyweight with more features and add-on packs in the Box ecosphere

Testing

Caching

Etc

Ortus supports

Other MVC frameworks that are not as maintained

CFWheels - These are convention based frameworks

Fusebox - XML config file framework

Mode Glue - XML config file framework

Mach-ii - These are convention based frameworks

What Dependency Injection (DI) is, how it simplifies the “model” portion of applications, and how they are used in FW/1 and ColdBox

Keeps your objects organized

Tools

DI/1

Wirebox

We did a whole interview on this topic in another episode of CF Alive

DRY = Don’t Repeat Yourself

DI and MVC are independent

How to refactor real-world procedural code into MVC-style code

What code belongs in the model, the view, and how the controller ties the two together.

Cut parts out of giant file to include files

Move out the SQL and CF logic

Dedup similar code

Move out the front end code to View include files

Start running with the remaining code in the View

Strategies for migrating large applications in phases.

ColdBox legacy tool feature

Version code such as Git

2 branches

Legacy

MVC

Maintain both

AB test each branch

All URLs will change

Using CommandBox and Git to spin up on-demand instances of ColdFusion and manage our code.

CommandBox

command line CF

Instant server setup or config

Any version, Adobe ColdFusion, Railo, Lucee CFML

Tool costs

FW/1 free

ColdBox free, pay or training and support

CommandBox - free

Git free to paid

Source Tree - free

Sublime Text - free to shareware paid $35

CF Builder free 30-day trial, $300

Why are you proud to use CF?

WWIT for you to make CF more alive this year?

What did you enjoy at CF Summit?

Nolan’s CF Summit workshop description

Do you maintain legacy ColdFusion applications, perhaps written with old procedural-style code? Have you been told you should be using a Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework but don't really understand how that works? Does the idea of rewriting the entire application seem like an impossible task? What if you could instead revamp your code in phases, without having to do it all at once?

Come to this workshop and learn:

What the MVC design pattern is and what problems it solves

How the FW/1 and ColdBox frameworks use a convention-based approach to bring consistent structure to an application

What Dependency Injection (DI) is, how it simplifies the “model” portion of applications, and how they are used in FW/1 and ColdBox

How to refactor real-world procedural code into MVC-style code

Hands-on portion of the workshop will:

Analyze and deconstruct a simple procedural application to see what code belongs in the model, the view, and how the controller ties the two together.

Move the code into the appropriate MVC layers and test it.

Discuss strategies for migrating large applications in phases.

Use CommandBox and Git to spin up on-demand instances of ColdFusion and manage our code.

This workshop will help anyone with a moderate skill level in ColdFusion, and at least some familiarity with object-oriented programming concepts. It will be a Bring-Your-Own-Laptop session. Prior to the CF Summit we will provide links and instructions to download and install CommandBox and the sample application code.

Mentioned in this episode

MVC

FW/1

ColdBox

Dependency Injection, why is it awesome and why should I care? with Nolan Erck

Kishore CF Summit East episode

Adobe CF Summit (Las Vegas)

OrtusSolutions

BlueRiver

DI/1

Wirebox

CommandBox

Git episode

Sublime Text

CF Builder

Convective CF tuning guide 

Bring Order to the Chaos: Take the MVC Plunge

Listen to the Audio

Bio

Nolan Erck

Nolan Erck has been developing software for 19 years. Starting in the video game industry working on titles for Maxis and LucasArts, then advancing to web development in 1999, his list of credits includes Grim Fandango, StarWars Rogue Squadron, SimPark, SimSafari as well as high-traffic websites for clients. Nolan manages the SacInteractive User Group, teaches classes on aspects of software development, and regularly gives presentations at conferences and user groups across the country. He is also Chief consultant at South of Shasta.

Interview transcript

Michaela Light 0:01

Welcome back to the show. And today we're going to be looking at migrating legacy cold fusion code to MBC. That's model view controller for those of you haven't come across it yet have been around for quite a while. And we'll look in the episode with Nolan arc, who is the chief genius at south of Sastre

does a lot of ColdFusion. And he's been doing software development for like 19 or 20 years now.

And we'll look at what MBC is, and what problem it solves. And in particular, we'll dig down into framework one and code box, which are two frameworks which use MBC. And we'll also look at dependency injection and why you should be using that in your MBC apps, and how you can use it in framework one and code box and how you can refactor your real world procedural code. I think that procedural code maybe as a special way of saying it might be a little like spaghetti but maybe not. Maybe

Your code is better.

And we'll look at some strategies for migrating large apps

over to MPC in phases, so you don't have to freak out with this. And if we get time, we'll also mentioned CommandBox and get and how they could help you out do this faster. So welcome, Nolan.

Nolan Erck 1:18

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Michaela Light 1:19

Yeah. So I know you did a whole day workshop on this at CF Summit out in Las Vegas. And you had hordes of developers learning how to do it, or a horde is about 40 people, I think,

Nolan Erck 1:34

yeah, we had, I think there were about 40 students in the class.

Michaela Light 1:38

That's great. So what exactly is legacy ColdFusion because that term gets thrown around a lot.

Nolan Erck 1:47

It does. And that's a that's a pretty broad, maybe ambiguous term. My opinion is, it's 2018. Pretty much any ColdFusion code that is not really

In a proper framework ColdBox, framework one,

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Michaela Light is the host of the CF Alive Podcast and has interviewed more than 100 ColdFusion experts. In each interview, she asks "What Would It Take to make CF more alive this year?" The answers still inspire her to continue to write and interview new speakers.

Michaela has been programming in ColdFusion for more than 20 years. She founded TeraTech in 1989. The company specializes in ColdFusion application development, security and optimization. She has also founded the CFUnited Conference and runs the annual State of the CF Union Survey.

And to continue learning how to make your ColdFusion apps more modern and alive, I encourage you to download our free ColdFusion Alive Best Practices Checklist.Because… perhaps you are responsible for a mission-critical or revenue-generating CF application that you don’t trust 100%, where implementing new features is a painful ad-hoc process with slow turnaround even for simple requests.What if you have no contingency plan for a sudden developer departure or a server outage? Perhaps every time a new freelancer works on your site, something breaks. Or your application availability, security, and reliability are poor.And if you are depending on ColdFusion for your job, then you can’t afford to let your CF development methods die on the vine.You’re making a high-stakes bet that everything is going to be OK using the same old app creation ways in that one language — forever.All it would take is for your fellow CF developer to quit or for your CIO to decide to leave the (falsely) perceived sinking ship of CFML and you could lose everything—your project, your hard-won CF skills, and possibly even your job.Luckily, there are a number of simple, logical steps you can take now to protect yourself from these obvious risks.No Brainer ColdFusion Best Practices to Ensure You Thrive No Matter What Happens NextColdFusion Alive Best Practices ChecklistModern ColdFusion development best practices that reduce stress, inefficiency, project lifecycle costs while simultaneously increasing project velocity and innovation.