Lucee 7 new features

Lucee 7 - Single Mode & Jakarta Edition

Lucee 7 is a major release that fundamentally changes how Lucee works by moving to Single Mode only and migrating to Jakarta EE. It also drops Java 8 support, delivers significant performance improvements, and reduces the core distribution size.

What You Need to Know

  • Single Mode Only: Multi-mode is gone - this is THE biggest change for users Single Mode vs Multi Mode
  • New Features: AST parsing, Secret Provider, enhanced AI & Java support
  • Performance: Multiple optimizations - faster startup, lower memory usage
  • Jakarta EE: Full migration from javax to jakarta namespace (requires Tomcat 10.1+)
  • Fresh Install Required: Cannot upgrade via admin - requires Tomcat 10.1+ and new extensions
  • Smaller & Faster: 20MB smaller core distribution
  • Security First: Better defaults, removed insecure legacy features

New Features in Lucee 7

For a complete list of new and updated tags and functions, checkout our Lucee Changelog, new Tags & Functions, Arguments and Attributes.

AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) Support

Parse CFML code into an AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) for analysis, tooling, and transformation.

Secret Provider

Store and retrieve secrets securely using the new Secret Management functionality.

This allows integration with secret management systems for credentials, API keys, and sensitive configuration.

Dynamic Proxy Creation

Components implementing Java interfaces now automatically include all functions and properties in the dynamic proxy. Components can now call getClass() Method for Components directly to simplify proxy creation for Java interoperability.

See Dynamic Proxy Enhancements in Lucee 7 for details and examples.

Lucene 3 - Vector & Hybrid Search

Major upgrade to Search capabilities with modern semantic search features:

New search modes:

  • Vector search - Semantic search using document embeddings
  • Hybrid search - Combines keyword and vector search for best results
  • Enhanced chunking - Better passage extraction and relevance

Perfect for AI/RAG:

These features enable Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns, allowing AI models to reference your indexed content for more accurate and contextually relevant responses.

See the Lucene 3 Extension documentation for complete details.

Features Now Production Ready

These features were experimental in Lucee 6.2 and are now stable and production-ready in Lucee 7.

AI Support

AI integration functions are now production-ready:

This enables persistent AI conversations across requests and application restarts.

Enhanced Java Support

Improved Java interop and integration that was experimental in 6.2 is now stable.

Dark mode Admin

The Admin now supports dark mode, easier on your eyes!

Performance Improvements

Lucee 7 includes multiple performance optimizations:

Specific Optimizations:

  • queryExecute() - Optimized execution
  • StringBuffer → StringBuilder - Replaced throughout codebase
  • Lazy CGI Scope Loading - Only load when accessed
  • Parser Whitespace Handling - Optimized parsing
  • Application.cfc Single Execution - Reduced overhead (LDEV-4978)

Result: Faster startup, lower memory usage, better runtime performance.

Modern Java versions (Java 21+) further enhance performance with JVM improvements.

Single Mode Only

This is the core change in Lucee 7.

Multi-mode is gone. Lucee 7 only supports Single Mode (introduced in Lucee 6.0). This fundamentally changes how web contexts, configurations, and extensions work.

See Single Mode vs Multi Mode for complete details on what this means and how to migrate.

Why this matters more than Jakarta:

  • Affects how you deploy and configure Lucee
  • Changes how extensions are managed
  • Impacts configuration file locations
  • Requires understanding the new architecture

The Jakarta Switch

Lucee 7 is now based on Jakarta EE instead of Java EE.

What this means:

  • Tomcat 10.1 or higher required (Tomcat 9 and older no longer supported)
  • All javax.* imports become jakarta.*
  • All extensions must be Jakarta-compatible (cannot use old javax extensions)
  • Fresh install strongly recommended
// Old (Lucee 6.2 and earlier)
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

// New (Lucee 7)
import jakarta.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

Tomcat Version Requirements

  • Tomcat 10.1+: Minimum (Jakarta EE support)
  • Tomcat 11: Requires Java 17+ minimum

Java Version Requirements

Java 21: Recommended (Target version)

  • Official target for Lucee 7

Java 24/25: Better Performance (supported)

  • Released too late in dev cycle to be the official target, will be for 7.1
  • Offers better performance

Java 17-20: Not Recommended

  • Has Unicode/date handling quirks

Java 11: Minimum

  • Supported but slow
  • Will be dropped in future releases
  • Not recommended for production

Java 8: ❌ NO LONGER SUPPORTED

⚠️ Unicode Date Handling Warning

Java versions 17-20 have Unicode-related issues, particularly with date handling. These issues were resolved in Java 21. Avoid Java 17-20 in production.

If you're on Java 8, you must upgrade to at least Java 11, but Java 21 is strongly recommended.

Extensions & Dependencies

Extensions Require Jakarta Versions

Critical: You cannot use old Tomcat 9/javax-based extensions with Lucee 7. All extensions must be Jakarta-compatible.

When upgrading:

  1. Check each extension for Jakarta compatibility
  2. Install latest versions from the extension provider
  3. Test thoroughly before production deployment

No Longer Bundled

EHCache is no longer included by default (still available as an extension).

  • Old: 84 MB lucee.jar
  • New: 64 MB lucee.jar
  • Reduction: 20MB (24% smaller)

LDEV-5267

If you need EHCache, install it as an extension.

JDBC Driver Updates

  • MySQL: Updated to latest driver
  • PostgreSQL: Updated to latest driver

These updates bring bug fixes, security patches, and better performance.

Breaking Changes

For the complete list, see Breaking Changes Between Lucee 6.2 and 7.0.

High Impact Changes

1. Single Mode Only

  • Multi-mode removed, no more web contexts or Administrators
  • Different configuration architecture
  • See Single Mode vs Multi Mode for migration

2. Jakarta Namespace

  • javax.* → jakarta.*
  • Requires Tomcat 10.1+
  • All extensions must be Jakarta-compatible
  • LDEV-4910

3. Java 8 Dropped

  • Minimum: Java 11
  • Recommended: Java 21
  • Avoid: Java 17-20 (Unicode issues)

4. Implicit Tag Variables Now Scope to Local

When tags like <cfquery>, <cflock>, <cffile>, and <cfthread> create implicit result variables inside functions, they now default to local scope instead of variables scope.

This fixes potential race conditions where implicit variables leaked into the shared variables scope.

LDEV-5416

Before (Lucee 6.2):

function getUsers() {
	// No name attribute - creates implicit "result" variable in variables scope
	cfquery( datasource="myDB", sql="SELECT * FROM users" );
	return result; // result was in variables scope (thread safety issue!)
}

After (Lucee 7):

function getUsers() {
	// No name attribute - creates implicit "result" variable in local scope
	cfquery( datasource="myDB", sql="SELECT * FROM users" );
	return local.result; // properly scoped to local!
}

Restore old behavior (if needed):

Since: 7.0.1.13

If you need the pre-LDEV-5416 behavior where implicit tag variables are created in variables scope (unless a local variable already exists):

  • System Property: -Dlucee.tag.populate.localscope=false
  • Environment Variable: LUCEE_TAG_POPULATE_LOCALSCOPE=false

Default is true (variables go to local scope).

LDEV-5849

5. Loader API Changed

  • Cannot upgrade via admin from 6.2 to 7.0
  • Must manually replace loader JAR
  • See upgrade process below

Medium Impact Changes

<cfcache> Query String Behavior

  • Now ignores query strings by default (matches Adobe ColdFusion)
  • Use useQueryString=true for old behavior
  • LDEV-5722

Low Impact Changes

<cfhttp> URL Encoding

  • Spaces properly encoded (not double-encoded)
  • Remove workarounds for old bug
  • LDEV-3349

<cfmail> Encoding

  • Quoted-printable encoding (7-bit) now default
  • Better HTML email rendering
  • LDEV-4039

Cookie Storage Removed

  • loginStorage="cookie" - ❌ Removed
  • sessionStorage="cookie" - ❌ Removed
  • Insecure and rarely used
  • LDEV-5403

Security Improvements

Bytecode Execution Blocked by Default

LUCEE_COMPILER_BLOCK_BYTECODE is now enabled by default, preventing CFML files containing Java bytecode from being executed.

This protects against CVE-2024-55354.

LDEV-5485

Insecure Features Removed

Cookie-based session storage removed (see Breaking Changes above).

The Upgrade Process

Fresh Install Required

You cannot upgrade via the admin from 6.2 to 7.0.

Lucee 7 requires:

  • Tomcat 10.1+ (for Jakarta)
  • All Jakarta-compatible extensions
  • Single Mode architecture

Recommended Approach:

  1. Set up new Lucee 7 instance
  2. Install Tomcat 10.1+
  3. Install Lucee 7 from download.lucee.org
  4. Install Jakarta-compatible extensions
  5. Migrate configuration
  6. Test thoroughly
  7. Deploy

Manual Loader Replacement (Not Recommended)

If you must try to upgrade an existing installation:

  1. Stop Lucee
  2. Upgrade Tomcat to 10.1 or higher
  3. Replace the loader JAR:
  4. Restart Lucee

If you get a 500 error:

  • Stop Lucee
  • Delete .lco files from lucee/tomcat/lucee-server/patches
  • Replace the loader JAR properly
  • Restart

Note: Fresh install is strongly recommended over manual replacement.

Migration Checklist

  1. ✅ Upgrade Java to 21 (recommended) or 24/25 (best performance)
  2. ✅ Upgrade Tomcat to 10.1 or higher
  3. ✅ Review Single Mode architecture - understand the changes
  4. ✅ Check all extensions for Jakarta compatibility
  5. ✅ Update javax imports to jakarta (if you have Java code)
  6. ✅ Fix function-scoped queries (add local. prefix)
  7. ✅ Test cfcache if you rely on query string behavior
  8. ✅ Check cfhttp calls if you have URL encoding workarounds
  9. ✅ Review cookie-based session storage (if you were using it)
  10. ✅ Install EHCache extension if you need it
  11. ✅ Run your test suite extensively!

Resources

Community and Support

For questions, issues, or feature requests: