November 13, 2019
Preview builds of ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 6 and ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 13 released
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(14)
November 13, 2019
Preview builds of ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 6 and ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 13 released
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UPDATE: 11/20/2019: We’ve released update 4 of CF 2018 and update 13 of CF 2016. For more information, see Update blog.

IMPORTANT: These are preview builds and we DO NOT recommend applying them to your production environment.

We are pleased to announce that we have preview builds available for the following updates:

  • ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 6
  • ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 13

The preview updates contain fixes for bugs that were reported after the release of the previous updates.

We also recommend that you upgrade the connectors after applying these preview updates.

To report an issue with the update, file a bug using the public tracker https://tracker.adobe.com/ or send an email to cf.install@adobe.com

Important: The minimum update versions are Update 11 and later for ColdFusion (2016 release) and Update 4 or later for ColdFusion (2018 release) respectively, due to a recent change in code signing certificates.

Please test these preview updates for a week, after which we will launch the official updates.

For more information, see ColdFusion mandatory updates.

What’s new in the preview updates

We’ve fixed bugs related to core language, connectors, and other areas.

List of bugs fixed

ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 6

Bug ID Description Component
CF-4205241 In a stand-alone installation of ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 5 within the Administrator, you are unable to create a war file. Administrator: Archive
CF-4205250 A <cfoutput> tag outside of a function call causes a nested tag error if the function call contains a <cfoutput query=” “> Core Runtime
CF-4205435 You are unable to rename a column using the function setColumnNames, while executing a query. Database: CFQuery
CF-4205251 After the update, nested implicit structures in an argument in an IF statement throw an error. General Server
CF-4205252 After installing Update 5 and configuring the connector, there are intermittent issues when launching the ColdFusion Administrator page. Installation/Config: Connector
CF-4205268 When you return a function from a Lambda function, ColdFusion requires that you use a block body syntax. Language
CF-4205248 If you pass a Lambda function into a BIF with a default value in one of the parameters, a parsing error occurs. Language: Closures
CF-4205247 If you pass a Lambda UDF into a BIF with no curly brackets around the body, a parsing error occurs. Language: Closures
CF-4205246 Lambda UDFs do not always parse as expected. Language: Closures
CF-4205245 When a Lambda function has curly brackets around the body, only an explicit return statement must return a value. The implicit return behavior only applies to a function body with no curly brackets. Language: Closures
CF-4205512 Rename the member function Query.swap() to Query.rowSwap(). Language: Member Functions
CF-4205271 After installing Update 5 of the 2018 release of ColdFusion, the server becomes unresponsive after a while. Performance
CF-4205370 In ColdFusion Enterprise edition, you are unable to increase the maximum number of threads available for CFTHREAD more than 10. Tags: General

ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 13

Bug ID Description Component
CF-4205370 In ColdFusion Enterprise edition, you are unable to increase the maximum number of threads available for CFTHREAD more than 10. Tags: General
CF-4205251 After the update, nested implicit structures in an argument in an IF statement throw an error. General Server
CF-4205252 After installing Update 12 and configuring the connector, there are intermittent issues when launching the ColdFusion Administrator page. Installation/Config: Connector
CF-4205250 A <cfoutput> tag outside of a function call causes a nested tag error if the function call contains a <cfoutput query=” “> Core Runtime

Installing the preview updates

You can install the preview update manually, or via the Administrator.

Install manually

  1. Click ColdFusion 2018 Update 6 or ColdFusion 2016 Update 13 to download the preview update JAR files.
  2. Execute the command on the downloaded JAR.

ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 6: hotfix-pr-006-316292.jar

  • md5: dee6c328f6034e453a41914836962699

ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 13: hotfix-pr-013-316217.jar

  • md5: e017547d98e9d9eb03ee20caa01247fa
Windows Linux-based platforms
<cf_root>/jre/bin/java.exe -jar <jar-file-dir>/<hotfix>.jar <cf_root>/jre/bin/java -jar <jar-file-dir>/<hotfix>.jar

Note: Ensure that JRE bundled with ColdFusion is used for executing the downloaded JAR. For stand-alone ColdFusion, the JRE is in <cf_root>/jre/bin.

Install via Administrator

  1. Navigate to ColdFusion Administrator > Server Updates > Updates.
  2. In the Settings tab, enable the check-box Automatically Check for Updates.
  3. Change the site url to http://cfdownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/coldfusion/PPR/updates.xml. In case a local site is configured for receiving the update notifications, ensure that the local site url is properly backed-up before changing it to the url mentioned above.
  4. To save your changes, click Submit.
  5. In the Available Updates tab, click the button Check for Updates.

You’ll see the updates for ColdFusion 2016 or 2018 Update 13 or 6 respectively listed in the tab.

  1. To install the update, click Download and Install.

Please download the preview builds. Let us know if you face any issues while installing the preview updates. Your feedback is essential to further enhancing the product.

We thank you for your continuing support.

Note: After using the preview updates, revert the URL to the default one so that you do not miss the official updates.

14 Comments
2019-11-14 20:32:10
2019-11-14 20:32:10

About this preview process, a couple of things are unclear, since this has so rarely happened. And I see a related opportunity for improvement:

  • if one changes the url, and forgets to “change it back to the default”, they will never know that there are new updates.
  • It would be helpful if the CF Admin update UI would offer an indication/warning on the “available updates” tab, telling people that they have changed from the default update URL
  • And what will happen when update 13 comes out, even if people DO change the URL back to the default? Will they be told that 13 is available? and will it install over/replace the preview? Or would people need to REMOVE preview 13, to see that the new 13 was available? (And I assume if they don’t change the URL back to the default, they will not know of any new updates until some future preview comes out, right? That’s why the warning should be there.)
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2019-11-13 15:41:37
2019-11-13 15:41:37

QUESTION:  Am I being moderated or something?  I don’t see my responses immediately after I submit them.  It makes me think that something is either broken or I submitted something that requires special approval.

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James Moberg
's comment
2019-11-13 20:25:23
2019-11-13 20:25:23
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James Moberg
's comment

James, everyone’s comments are indeed moderated. It’s frustrating, as it can mean we don’t see them appear for hours, and by then there may be cross-chatter from folks where the context is lost by the time all comments appear. Or people post comments over and over thinking they made a mistake. Grr.

Adobe had said they were working on it, to resolve or improve things. Hasn’t happened yet.

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2019-11-13 14:48:19
2019-11-13 14:48:19

Attachment

Can we try this again?  What am I doing wrong?

When following the above instructions for upgrading 2016 using the Administrator, I receve a CFWindow with a pop-up with a broken image (“../images/error_icon 24×24.png”)  that states:

Error occurred while downloading the update:
For input string: “”

 

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(8)
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James Moberg
's comment
2019-11-13 15:19:06
2019-11-13 15:19:06
>
James Moberg
's comment

James, please confirm you put in the correct url offered above. You may want to visit it also in a browser on the cf server to be updated. It should return an xml feed, as it does for me. That’s what cf would then receive and process when you hit the “check for updates” button.

And was your error from when you clicked that check for updates, or the download, or the download/install button?

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Charlie Arehart
's comment
2019-11-13 15:38:53
2019-11-13 15:38:53
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Charlie Arehart
's comment

I entered the correct URL.  I copied & pasted it directly from this blog post.  The information is also displayed in the screen shot. If the URL was wrong, you’d think that the information displayed wouldn’t be correct.

This blog may have truncated my uploaded image. (When I click the image, I only see the thumbnail square.)  Here’s the same screenshot in a separate Twitter post:
https://twitter.com/gamesover/status/1194630667016867846

NOTE:  I always click “download” first and then click “install” after the download has successfully completed.

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James Moberg
's comment
2019-11-14 05:23:00
2019-11-14 05:23:00
>
James Moberg
's comment

James,

can you pls. share the errors reported in the browser debugger when you try the workflow. Also can you pls check the CF log for any errors corresponding to your wolrflow (exception.log and coldfusion-out.log if you are on a standalone installation of CF)

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James Moberg
's comment
2019-11-14 15:01:35
2019-11-14 15:01:35
>
James Moberg
's comment

Thanks for the clarifications, James. I’ll report that I can confirm getting and running the preview on CF2016(if you wondered if anyone had been able to).

And separate from what Piyush has helpfully offered, here’s something you may want to consider in the meantime: what’s the  MD5 checksum for the jar file you got (hotfix-pr-013-316217.jar, downloaded to CF’s cfusion hf-updates folder)? Mine was e017547d98e9d9eb03ee20caa01247fa.

And for any readers who may wonder how to easily get such an md5 checksum for a file on Windows, there’s a built-in utility that I show how to use here: https://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2018/9/20/how_to_get_checksum_on_windows

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PiyushN
's comment
2019-11-15 02:46:18
2019-11-15 02:46:18
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PiyushN
's comment

PiyushN,

I noticed some 404 errors in the developer console.  Something kept trying to be anmiated using a YUI library that appears to no longer exist.
/cf_scripts/scripts/ajax/yui/yahoo-dom-event/yahoo-dom-event.js
/cf_scripts/scripts/ajax/yui/animation/animation-min.js
While these errors appeared, the issue I was encountering wasn’t due to this.

NOTE:  You may want to use Chrome F12 Developer Tools to read the console errors that are thrown in the admin section. In addition, there’s a CSP error & “elements w/non-unique IDs” DOM error in the Flex integration section.

 

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Charlie Arehart
's comment
2019-11-15 02:55:31
2019-11-15 02:55:31
>
Charlie Arehart
's comment

I chose the “Install via Administrator” route to udpate to CF2016u13.

I finally logged in to the Windows server, noticed that it CF was running at 99% CPU and killed the process.  After auto-restarting, I attempted the update again and the install was successful on the first attempt.  (This is a dedicated “developer” edition server.  This has happened before and may be due to a memory leak or something. I haven’t seen this with any server that is licensed and in production.)

Here’s a video of the strange behavior I was encountering.
https://youtu.be/eM07Lpltyus

NOTE:  I’m now going to recommend restarting the CF Service prior to installing via the ColdFusion Administrator.

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Charlie Arehart
's comment
2019-11-15 05:36:24
2019-11-15 05:36:24
>
Charlie Arehart
's comment

James,

As Charlie and Piyush had suggested, are you still seeing the error? Could you also send the log files to saghosh@adobe.com, so that we can take a closer look?

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James Moberg
's comment
2019-11-15 06:37:28
2019-11-15 06:37:28
>
James Moberg
's comment

James,

good to know that the update installed. About CF hogging the CPU cycles, did you notice anything in the CF logs? If not, you can try capturing thread dumps of the CF process, the next time that happens.

About the 404s from the YUI lib., that should be harmless… and expected as we’ve deprecated the JS lib… it no longer is bundled with CF.

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2019-11-13 13:18:48
2019-11-13 13:18:48

Thanks as always, Saurav. But I’d add two points for the sake of readers:

  • I don’t see mention here that folks should upgrade their web connectors. Since the update includes a connector fix, isn’t it true that that fix won’t take effect without affected folks intentionally applying the connector upgrade, via the upgrade feature of the wsconfig tool? I have posted today a blog post about that wsconfig UI upgrade button, for those who may have missed it.
  • Second, I want to reiterate (and make sure folks using this preview build note) the critical importance of his final comment–that if you change the cf admin to point to this new url for the preview build, you must then change that url back to the original one (using the button offered in the admin), so that you’ll know about and can obtain future updates.

Here’s hoping this update does resolve all the problems introduced in the Sept updates.

Speaking of that, I’ll make one more plea for my proposal that Adobe offer an option for folks to get only security updates initially (if they want), via a 2-update approach, where one of the updates has only the latest security updates (and any bug fixes/new features from the previous update), thus allowing interested folks to defer anything but security updates to that next update. See my post for more, and the tracker feature request to add votes to:

https://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2019/9/26/proposal_for_new_cf_update_process

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Charlie Arehart
's comment
2019-11-13 14:13:40
2019-11-13 14:13:40
>
Charlie Arehart
's comment

Thank you, Charlie, as always. We’ll make the changes you’d suggested.

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