UPDATE: If you weren’t able to join the sessions you find the recordings here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/events.html

You know what? ColdFusion is actually pretty cool and I’ve been using it in various projects over the last couple of years… In fact… I’m using it today for a fun MAX project which you’ll hear more about soon. I’m also not just saying that because Ben “ColdFusion” Forta is my boss ;-) It really is cool but don’t take my word for it… Just join one or all of the ColdFusion Online Developer Week sessions this week and check it out yourself.

All times inUS/ Pacific time. Registration is free but required (the Connect meeting room URL will be emailed to you).

I’m pretty sure you will have heard that the Flex 4 SDK, Flash Builder 4 and ColdFusion Builder have been released today. If not, check out Andrew Shorten’s blog post on the Flex Team blog.

Andrew Shorten: In the Flex 4 SDK, we’ve implemented a completely new component and skinning architecture (Spark) that supports a level of expressiveness in RIAs not seen previously.

In Flash Builder 4, the team has made it easier than ever to connect to back-end services with a complete set of data centric development features, enabled new design and development workflows with Flash Catalyst and Flash Professional, as well as enhancing the core code development features that are essential to developer productivity.

We also released a completely new IDE for rapidly and efficiently building ColdFusion applications.

ColdFusion Builder is built on Eclipse and is integrated with Flash Builder 4 for fast, easy RIA development. ColdFusion Builder is packed with features and also allows you to easily build your own extensions. RIAForge already has a bunch of these that are ready to go.

When we first introduced ColdFusion Builder to the community, Ben Forta (Mister ColdFusion himself ;-)) wrote an article on how to get started with ColdFusion Builder.

Flex.org got a fresh new look and new/updated content including a new resources page to help you get started. We also launched a new Flex showcase. If you feel that your app belongs in the showcase, make sure you let us know! Tour de Flex has also been updated with new samples.

If you’re new to Flex or just want to update yourself on the new features in the Flex 4 framework and Flash Builder 4, you may want to take the Flex In A Week course. If you just want a quick taste of what Flex is, have a look at the Flex Testdrive.

Adobe’s Devnet and Adobe TV have a ton of new content on how to get started and use Flex 4, Flash Builder 4 and ColdFusion Builder. But before you get started, you may want to download the trial versions for Flash Builder 4 and ColdFusion Builder. Quick note: If you already played around with the beta versions, make sure you uninstall those first before installing the release versions!

There… That should keep you busy for a while. ;-) Flash on!

After a very successful and fun tour though the UK, SOTR is now going to mainland Europe. Most of you  know that my love for ColdFusion is growing with every project I do using it. I think you can really only appreciate ColdFusion after getting a taste of it and SOTR is the perfect place to get that taste. With SOTR Europe being a free event, there really is no excuse to not be there. ;-)

Hope to see you in Munich, Zurich, Milan, Amsterdam, Brussels or London!

More info and free registration on http://www.scotch-on-the-rocks.co.uk

In case you haven’t heard: ColdFusion 9 Beta and ColdFusion Builder Beta are now available on Adobe Labs. Some of you may find this surprising (;-)) but I’ve been playing with CF9 for a few months now and actually really love it!

To give you a bit of an idea on what I like about CF9, I’ve listed my 9 favorite features.

1) Adobe AIR database synchronization
By enabling this feature in your AIR application (both on the server and in the client app), the application syncs the data from a ColdFusion datasource to a local SQLite database. On the server side, it’s as simple as setting the persistent property to true on an ORM component. On the AIR side, it takes a little bit more depending on the features you need. In some cases you may need things like conflict management but even something as complicated as that can be done with just a few lines of code. Read more about this feature.

2) Object Relational Mapping (ORM)
This was a true eye-opener for me. ORM allows you to do complex database calls without writing a single SQL query thus making your code a lot cleaner and more manageable. This is a serious time saver and your apps will even run faster because of the built-in ORM optimizations. Read more about this feature.

3) Flex integration
I’m not just talking about the data centric development features in Flash Builder here. By using the ColdFusion proxy ActionScript classes, you get access to several ColdFusion services without actually writing any ColdFusion code. You just call the ColdFusion service straight from your Flex code. Read more about this feature.

4) ColdFusion Builder
Not really a ColdFusion 9 feature but ok… ColdFusion Builder is an Eclipse based IDE for CF development that is deeply integrated with CF9. So it’s ok to post it in this list ;-) I absolutely love how easy it is to create your ORM code. With just a few clicks, you can create all the necessary CRUD code to use in your CF application or your Flex application. I also really like that it’s extremely easy to extend ColdFusion Builder with your own extensions. You can easily write those extensions using CFML. Read more about ColdFusion Builder.

5) ColdFusion as a service
Ever tried calling an Exchange server from a PHP server (or any other server)? Or read a PPT, DOC or XLS file? Did you have fun? ;-) Next time, you should consider using CF9. ColdFusion 9 has an exposed service layer meaning you have direct access to a bunch of CF9 services from any server language you use. You can even call them using SOAP. Read more about this feature.

6) Server manager
If you work with multiple CF servers, this is surely going to make you very happy. Server Manager is an AIR-based desktop application that allows you to centrally manage multiple ColdFusion servers from one location. Apply hot fixes, change configs, create data sources, etc to all servers at once. Read more about this feature.

7) Office application integration
Ever wanted to create a presentation (PPT) from an bunch of images? Or from an HTML page? The <cfpresentation> tag allows you to do that and more! With just a few lines of code, you can create, convert and read presentation files. The same thing goes for documents and spreadsheets. Read more about this feature.

8) PDF integration
With the enhanced PDF support in CF9, you can extract all the content form a PDF file. You can also update PDFs and even optimize them on the server. Read more about this feature.

9) <cfscript>
The <cfscript> tag was really confusing to me when I first started playing with CF. Some CFML tags could also be scripted and others couldn’t. With CF9, everything you can do with CFML, you can also do with <cfscript>. Read more about <cfscript>.

Obviously there are a lot more new and cool features in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder but I thought 9 was an appropriate number ;-). Go ahead and download the public beta versions available on Labs and start playing with it yourself.

Ben “ColdFusion” Forta is coming to the UK and Belgium to give you a sneak peak at the future of ColdFusion.

This is your chance to find out more about Centaur and Bolt on April 21st in London and April 22nd in Brussels. Registration is free but required and seats are limited!