Still wiring up Webpack at 2am the night before launch?
There is a moment, somewhere between the third Redux refactor and the fourth "just one more npm install," where you ask yourself a question. Do I actually need a separate frontend codebase, a REST layer, a state management library, and a build pipeline... just to make a checkbox feel snappy?
If that question hit a nerve, this session is for you.
Join me at Into The Box 2026 for Under The Wire, a hands-on look at how CBWire lets ColdBox developers ship genuinely reactive, modern user interfaces without leaving CFML. No build step. No node_modules graveyard. No two-language tax. Just your ColdBox app, doing more.
What this session is about
CBWire brings the "HTML over the wire" model to the BoxLang and CFML world. The server renders HTML, the client updates the DOM, and you write components that look and feel like miniature MVC apps living right inside your views. Data, actions, and template, all in one file. Reactivity baked in. Zero JavaScript required.
In this session we will cover:
- A quick CBWire refresher for newcomers, so everyone starts on the same page
- What is new in CBWire 5, including full BoxLang support, dot notation data properties, the upgraded Livewire engine, event object access, and five new template directives
- Two live demos: building a reactive live search component from scratch in under five minutes, and rescuing a legacy form on stage
- Modernization patterns for incrementally upgrading existing ColdBox apps, one component at a time
- Lessons from the trenches, the hard-won kind, including which forms to tackle first and how CBWire fits alongside the handlers and views you already have
Who should come
- ColdBox and BoxLang developers tired of bolting React or Vue onto their stacks
- Teams maintaining legacy CFML applications that need a modernization path that does not require a full rewrite
- Anyone who has ever shipped a "simple" feature and watched it become a six month frontend project
- Developers curious about the "HTML over the wire" approach and how it compares to the SPA model
What you will walk away with
A practical toolkit for delivering reactive UIs in your existing ColdBox applications. You will see the patterns, the directives, and the real-world strategies for modernizing component by component, on a timeline measured in hours instead of sprints. You will leave with a roadmap you can apply Monday morning.
CBWire is the surgical tool, not the sledgehammer. Come find out where to point it.
See you at Into The Box 2026
The best modernization strategy is the one that actually ships. Come learn how to get yours over the line, Under The Wire.
