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Let's keep that around

One of the neat "under the hood" features of CommandBox is artifacts. Artifacts are a copy of each package that gets downloaded with CommandBox. This is good for you and for the internet because once you have a package in your artifacts, you don't need to download it again. Artifacts are key to CommandBox efficiency.

We might need that again

The next time you download a package from ForgeBox, CommandBox reads the box.json file for that package's dependencies. Then, it checks to see if we already have a copy of those dependencies in the artifacts. If the dependency is in the artifacts, CommandBox just uses it. If not, then CommandBox calls to ForgeBox to get that dependency. That's efficiency.

Ever want to try something quick in CFML? Show something off and get the feedback instantly? 

One of the things CommandBox can do for you is provide a REPL (Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop) console for immediate ColdFusion (CFML) interaction so you can do just that.

After CommandBox is installed, just run 

box repl

Using a command line tool, like CommandBox, you look for those feature comforts, that can make or break the UI. With CommandBox, one of the big wins, is HELP. Most command line tools allow you to type help and get some general help, but CommandBox goes a step further, you can get Help the Global Level, Namespace Help, and even help at the Command Level.

We have big plans for using CommandBox to install packages from all sorts of code endpoints-- local folders, Git/SVN URLs, private corporate repos, etc.  Version 1.0 of CommandBox focused on ForgeBox though, which is our CFML code depot.  It may have started out as a ColdBox/ContentBox-specific thing, but is now open to the entire community to put any project they want on.  I'm excited to already see entries like CFWheels, FW/1, MXUnit, and MonkehTweets on there.  The more packages installable from CommandBox via ForgeBox, the more we all win.

Soon ForgeBox will get even more life of its own enhancing it with more functionality such as having multiple versions of the same package. We've already set up forgebox.io as the new domain for ForgeBox's HTML interface where you can search, sort, and filter the entries in your web browser.  We've also built a "forgebox" namespace into CommandBox that uses the REST API to let you interact with ForgeBox from your console.

You may be wondering where all that amazing debugging information went in your ColdBox 4.0 application.  Have no fear.  You can still have your cake and eat it too.  We modularized it (sensing a theme in ColdBox 4.0 yet?) So, how do you get all that wonderful debugging info?

Easy! Using CommandBox, run the following command.

		
					
			
					
						

							
							
								

									
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After almost a year in development, we are so excited to finally announce the release of CommandBox 1.0.0 Final.  This has been definitely one of the most challenging and fun projects we have overtaken here at Ortus.  We had a vision of how we could accelerate not only development, tools and ultimately the ColdFusion (CFML) landscape by building a tool that could put us up to par with many other technologies.  I am glad to say we have now a great foundation to move forward.  CommandBox brings CFML to any Operating System and even embedded systems like the Raspberry and Banana Pi.  It also gives ColdFusion (CFML) developers a much better workflow to work with their projects and a sense of community we lovingly call ForgeBox.  

With anything we do here at Ortus, it is fully documented using our new book formats.  So head on over to commandbox.ortusbooks.com to download or read the entire CommandBox documentation.  In the next coming weeks we will begin our CommandBox 5 week roadshow that will include weekly blogging tutorials and video presentations, so stay tuned as each week progresses.  So without further ado, I present to you project Gideon: CommandBox CLI!

Ortus Solutions is proud to announce the general availability of ColdBox 4.0.0, WireBox 2.0.0, CacheBox 2.0.0 and LogBox 2.0.0.  This has been over 1 year of hard work from the engineering team to bring you some great upda...

We are so excited to bring you TestBox 2.1.0 and MockBox 3.1.0!  These releases are minor releases of our libraries and include not only great features but a slew of fixes.  You can read all about the exciting features in our What's New Guide!  They have also been integrated with

ColdBox 4.0 is now in Release Candidate and we're tightening down all the screws for the big release.  As 4.0 is a major release of the platform, we've taken the opportunity to really clean up the code, making changes and improvements where necessary.  This i...

Brad Wood will be giving a presentation on our newest Ortus project CommandBox this Thursday to Charlie Arehart's Online ColdFusion Meetup.  The session will be noon US Eastern and like all Online CF Meetups, will be recorded.

Topic Description:

CommandBox is a standalone, native tool for Windows, Mac, and Linux that will provide you with a Command Line I...