I have a client who currently has a Adobe ColdFusion 8 based web application. It is very modest and is only used by one or two people. It is primarily used for editing very basic data (e.g. a few text fields and text boxes for various entities). I have no experience with ColdFusion, but it seems like it would be better to go with some other technologies/stacks/etc. to do such a thing, especially given that there is a significant upfront cost to ColdFusion. It doesn't seem to be a very "popular" "framework" to use, and it would be harder to find support for it, down the road. Any recommendations about a good set of tech/framework to use for a simple CRUD application? I was thinking of perhaps looking into Flask with Python, or Django. Any thoughts?
As a former ColdFusion developer, and not a hater of that platform, but given what you’ve said - I would opt to rewrite the app in a language that is more widely supported and builds on your strengths. ColdFusion 8 is super old too; no reason to support that or pay for an upgrade. As you mentioned Python and Flask, that’s a fine choice because the framework is lightweight and your needs are simple. One other suggestion for a basic CRUD app is to go with Node and Express, if you’re proficient in JavaScript.
I've been working in Web development for around 6 years. From what i learned by this moment - if your main goal is to become more experienced professional that will be able to find job at any time - you need to get as common knowledge and experience as possible. Adobe ColdFusion is a proprietary thing, when you are learning it - you are learning ONLY ColdFusion might be a good instrument, but, when you are learning ColdFusion - you are learning a ColdFusion Also, as you highlighted, finding ColdFusion specialist could be a tricky job later on.
In our company our approach is to use tolls when advantages of using it are bigger than disadvantages. We also prefer using more common tools over hard-specific ones, as it will allow us to customize and extend any aspect of working application in future
Basically, if you want just to make application for basic CRUD operations, i don't see too much sense over using ColdFusion
As for preferred Language/framework, i will probably suggest Flask, as it is more lightweight (Django is a full-stack MVC framework, and you will probably get much more complexity and functionality than you need)