Upgrading to Coldfusion 8 from Coldfusion 7

How easy had it been for the living human beings in mending their behavior and improving upon actions had some dead man come back and narrated what all he had to go through after death!!! But it has so far been not possible because the dead ones have got nothing to do with the left ones. But with the advent of Internet, at least in this world you can learn from other mistakes!!! Yesterday I installed rather upgraded coldfusion 7 to coldfusion 8 and it was straight forward at least so far. Following are the steps to follow.

I did not uninstall MX 7 prior to installing 8 (this is the developer version since I did this first on my local machine before doing development and/or production to make sure that all of our websites work ok with version 8…I highly recommend you do the same.)

After downloading the developer version from Adobe.com, I went ahead and double clicked ColdFusion-8-win.exe.  I then followed the wizard.

1. Shut down all CFMX 7 services, especially Verify, if you have any collections that need to be transferred over to version 8.
2. Make sure you have installed JDK 1.6 or above.
3. Splash screen - Choose language and click OK.
4. Introduction - Click next.
5. License Agreement - Accept and click next.
6. Configure Installer - Enter Serial #, select trial, or select developer edition and click next.
7. Server Configuration - Select your server configuration and click next.
8. Sub-Components Selections - Select all the sub-components you want to install and click next.
9. ColdFusion 8 Location - Select the location of where you want to install ColdFusion 8.  By default, it install in c:\ColdFusion8.  Do not replace your CFMX 7 location with ColdFusion 8.  Install it separately.  Click next.
10. Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES Agreement - If you chose Adobe LiveCycle in #7 above, then you must agree to the License agreement.   Then click next.
11. Adobe LiveCycle Serial # - If you chose Adobe LiveCycle in #7 above, then enter the Serial # if you have one.  If you don’t, after 120 days it will become an express edition, which allows you full capabilities only on your local machine. Click next.
12. Web server configuration - At this point, the wizard will detect if you have CFMX 7 installed on your machine.  If you do, it will ask you to either configure your web server for CFMX 8 (replacing CFMX 7 web server installation) or if you want CFMX 8 to co-exists with CFMX 7, and it will install it with it’s own web server (usually installed on port 8500).   Choose which you prefer.  In my case, I told it to replace my IIS webserver/CFMX 7 configuration with CFMX 8 configuration. Click next.
13. Websites Configuration -Select specific websites, all websites in your web server or select the built-in web server only.  Use the built in web server ONLY IN DEVELOPMENT, NOT IN PRODUCTION.  Click next.
14. CFMX Admin Location - Choose the location of where the CFMX Administrator will be stored.   In my case, it will be under the WWWROOT directory (c:\INETPUB\WWWROOT)
15. Administrator Password - Enter any password you want for the administrator screen.  This can be changed later.
16. Remote Development Service (RDS) - If you plan on allowing people to connect to the ColdFusion Server via RDS (NOT RECOMMENDED IN PRODUCTION), then check the “Enable RDS” box and enter a password.  Click next.
17. Pre-Installation Summary - Review all your selections and click “Install”.

ColdFusion will then begin the install process.  It may take a while, so get up from your desk and go get a cup of Java (or is it ColdFusion???).  Once it’s done the install, the configuration process will beging.  The wizard will tell you to click “DONE” and the CFMX Administrator will open up.

The first thing you’ll notice immediately upon the login screen is the new look and feel of the administrator.

1. Enter you password you created in step #14.  Click Login.
2. The configuration screen will appear and tell you to wait a few minutes (most likely…it will be longer then a few minutes….oh oh…time for another cup of Java).
3. Let the screen run its course.   DO NOT click on the “If this screen doesn’t refresh in a few minutes, click on this link to Continue”.  It will continue by itself.  Just be patient.
4. After it’s done with the configuration screen, you will continue on with the Migration of the old (old…ha ha…CFMX 7 is now old) CFMX 7 settings into CFMX 8.  This process is critical if you want your applications to at least be configured properly with CFMX 8 (I didn’t say work properly…that’s a completely different process you have to go through….called…testing all your apps!)  Click “Next”.
5. Export Settings - The wizard will show you all the exported settings it has successfully exported from CFMX 7.  Click Next.
6. Import Settings - After you clicked next above, the import of settings into CFMX 8 will begin and will end shortly, displaying all the successful migration of the settings.  Click Next.
7. Finish - This is the last screen.  go ahead…do it…click Finish and start enjoying CFMX 8.  The ColdFusion MX 8 administrator screen will open up.

That’s it.  That’s all there is to upgrading ColdFusion MX 7 to ColdFusion 8.   However, that is just the upgrade only.  The next step is to verify all your administrator settings to make sure everything is as it should be, uninstall CFMX 7 (because the wizard will not uninstall it for you) and then the hard part…that is to test all your applications thoroughly in development before you install ColdFusion 8 in production.

Good luck on your installation of ColdFusion 8!   In the very near future, I will write a longer blog on the new features of ColdFusion 8.