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118

answers:

6

I have some new students starting soon and what I have always done in the past is just throw them in the deep end to learn ColdFusion. I usually give them a very small project that has most of the common ColdFusion "parts". Is there a better/faster way for them to get the basics? What would be great is an hour or two online tutorial they can go through. Does anyboyd know if this exists somewhere?

+3  A: 

I've found http://www.coldfusioncookbook.com to be helpful for showing examples of how to do common things. I use http://www.cfquickdocs.com a lot too. This isn't really a tutorial, but a nice wrapper for the Adobe CF documentation.

Kyle
BTW, cookbok being moved to the http://cookbooks.adobe.com/coldfusion Though I do not recommend this resource for learning because many of recipies written in bad-style (or simply outdated) code.
Sergii
+7  A: 

Adobe's "ColdFusion Developer's Guide" -- looks like it's for ColdFusion 8, and not the easiest read overall, but has good, broad coverage.

Update: looks like the CF9 "Developer's Guide" stuff is just formatted/organized slightly different (here) than above link. I think "The CFML Programming Language" and "Building Blocks of ColdFusion Applications" sections would be a great first-step for new developers.

You could couple that with "What's New In ColdFusion 9."

Also see Railo and Open BlueDragon sites for unique features of these free and open source alternative CFML engines.

Finally, you can spend all day wandering through Charlie Arehart's fine "CF411" resource guide.

Jamie Krug
Also, I'd be remiss to not mention the "WACK" books. If the resource needn't be online, they're fantastic: http://tinyurl.com/cf8wackbooks
Jamie Krug
In addition, one more Adobe's resource: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/
Sergii
"ColdFusion Developer's Guide" is all you need. :)
Henry
+2  A: 

I will throw in that the Adobe ColdFusion educational Curriculum is a fantastic resource with coursework for both beginning and advanced ColdFusion Development.

http://www.adobe.com/education/instruction/teach/cfcurriculum.html

It may be more than you are looking for, but it is worth looking at.

Jason Dean
+2  A: 

I've heard good things about EasyCFM as well.

Ben Doom
+1  A: 

It's very brief - but the DZone ColdFusion 9 RefCard is very nice and handy to have nearby (esp. when learning)

http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/getting-started-coldfusion-9

I'd also inquire to see if you have a local ColdFusion User Group nearby... someone there may be willing to donate some time to help introduce a new group to ColdFusion.

Jim Priest
A: 

I've been really impressed with Adobe TV. They have dozens of video tutorials in many things Adobe, including ColdFusion:

http://tv.adobe.com/product/coldfusion/

lelander