Where can I find a good beginner tutorial for ColdFusion? [closed]

Question

I'm an experienced programmer (PHP/mySQL, jQuery), but know nothing about ColdFusion. A precursory Google search didn't show much in the way of (free) beginner tutorials. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the overwhelming availability of tutorials for open-source products...

Answer 1

For offline learning, the WACK is your best bet - the ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit. It's the gold standard when it comes to learning CFML. It comes in 3 volumes, volume 1 starts gently, volumes 2 and 3 are increasingly advanced, but they are all very good, nice reading, and incredibly helpful for getting started.

Online, Adobe has a lot of content for ColdFusion. If you like video, try Adobe TV's ColdFusion page. For reading, get yourself to the ColdFusion Developer Center, this is the best resource for getting started, IMO.

Outside of Adobe are plenty of other resources. Ray Camden has a great site, ColdFusion Portal, and Charlie Arehart has a couple of great resources, CF411, a HUGE list of everything helpful in the ColdFusion world, and UGTV, a MONSTER list of ColdFusion related user group recordings (most via Adobe Connect, so screen sharing more than video). Possibly the best of all, is HouseOfFusion's CF-Talk email list - subscribe, get it in your inbox, start asking questions, you'll find the ColdFusion Community is VERY helpful on there!

Going further, get plugged into the ColdFusion community by reading the blogs. Try an aggregator like ColdFusion Bloggers, then try to find your local user group at Adobe Groups, where you can get connected to people nearby who can help you in all kinds of ways.

Also, don't rule out StackOverflow! We're on here, too, just ask and you'll get your answer!

Answer 2

Well the Adobe Developer site is a good starting point for the 'official stuff':

http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/coldfusion/

The CF developer guide is there as well as links to the CF dev centre: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion.html which has lots of tutorials.

Hope that helps!