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We've just released a minor release of CommandBox, our CLI, REPL, Package Manager, and Embedded server.  This version has a number of small fixes to CommandBox as well as the embedded libraries like Runwar.  We've polished up some things like piping content and new high-res icons. &nb...

We are excited to finally announce the availability of the ColdBox 4 printed and kindle book. Enjoy!

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Books, CacheBox, ColdBox MVC, CommandBox, ContentBox CMS, LogBox, TestBox, TestBox, WireBox

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We are so excited to announce the general availability of 5 new Ortus Books in print and kindle format about our products.  We have been hard at work to produce high quality documentation and transition all our documentation to book format.  We only have two more in the works right now with a target release of May (ColdBox + ContentBox).  So without further ado, here are the 5 new books f...

We've released a very small patch release (1.1.1) for CommandBox.  This is to address a small bug in the upgrade process from 1.0.0.  This update affects the underlying loader libraries so you will need to download the latest binary and replace the old binary on your file system.  The first time you run "box" the update will be applied.

The downloads ar...

We are very excited to announce the immediate release of CommandBox version 1.1.0.  This is a maintenance release that addresses much of the feedback and bug reports that we received from the community since our 1.0.0 release a few month ago.  The response to CommandBox 1.0 has been phenomenal and we are excited to see so many CFML developers finding a new level of productivity.  Thanks to everyone who has used CommandBox thus far and provided great feedback and ideas.

CommandBox is unique from other CLIs in a couple ways.  My favorite one is that everything is built around the concept of commands.  Not only does this organize how CFML scripts can be run from the command line, it also greatly simplifies writing custom commands since you have a platform to build upon.  Part of that platform is automatic parameter handling, which brings me to my second favorite thing about CommandBox.  Many CLIs only allow for positional parameters, while CommandBox also allows for the familiar syntax of named parameters plus the convenience of flags for quick boolean controls.

Dependencies are other packages that are required by another package for it to run. A simple package may have no dependencies, or it may have many. There are two types of dependencies: a regular dependency or a development dependency. Regular dependencies are ones required for operation of the main package. Development dependencies are optional and only necessary if you plan on making changes to the package you're installing. Dev dependencies would include testing frameworks or build tools.

When a package is installed, CommandBox will read its dependencies (from the box.json) and recursively install them as well. This encourages developers to write small, reusable libraries for everyone to use. When installing via a package manager, you don't have to worry about getting all the pieces installed.

Hopefully we have piqued your interesting into using CommandBox to help you with your day to day development, but maybe you haven't had much experience with a CLI.  I wanted to share a few tips and tricks to make your life easier.

CommandBox’s run command is not like a normal function you write. Each piece of the function is run line by line, to give you that interactivity needed for a true command prompt application. To test this side of things, I decided I had 2 choices, build a wizard, or enter the room to the left. Wait a minute, the room to the left, that sounds like one of those Choose your own Adventure stories, where the choices you make, affect the outcome of the story. That’s right… remembering how cool those books were, I decided that would be more fun, so lets see how you can build your own “Choose your own Adventure” command for CommandBox.
 

Once you start using the embedded server for your development projects, you may wish you enable URL rewriting. Rewrites are used by most popular frameworks to do things like add the index.cfm back into SES URLs.

You may be used to configuring URL rewrites in Apache or IIS, but rewrites are also possible in CommandBox's embedded server via a Tuckey servlet filter.