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If you have a page which displays a lot of information to the user (e.g. customer account details) and this information needs to be different depending on who is viewing the page (e.g. manager, salesperson), I am wondering the best/efficient way to write the conditional logic.
For example I have a div which lists all the customer's personal information:
<cfif #User.Type# EQ "Sales"> // sales guy view
<div id="peronsonalinfo">
<ul>
<li>Forename Surname</li>
<li>Address</li>
<li>Account Status</li>
<li>Account Manager</li>
..... etc etc
</ul>
</div>
(continues below)
The above is fine for a salesperson because he is not allowed to make changes to accounts. But a manager is given edit rights so he needs to get this.
<cfelseif #User.Type# EQ "Manager">
<div id="peronsonalinfo"> // manager view
<form action="accountedit.cfc">
<ul>
<li> <input type="text" value="Forename Surname" /> </li>
<li> <textarea value="Addres"></textarea> </li>
<li> <input type="text" value="Account status" /> </li>
<li> <input type="text" value="Account manager" /> </li>
..... etc etc
</ul>
</form>
</div>
</cfif>
Please forgive the cut down code. There would probably be drop-down select elements for the account status and account manager fields. The point I'm trying to make is that there are two HTML versions of the same information depending on who you are.
What is the best way to write this kind of logic. The way I have done it seems to be repeating code so the only other alternative I can think of is to have statements around every element, something like this?
<form>
<ul>
<li>
<cfif #User.Type# EQ "Sales">
Forename Surname
<cfelseif #User.Type# EQ "Manager">
<input type="text" value="Forename Surname" />
</cfif>
</li>
<li>
<cfif #User.Type# EQ "Sales">
Address
<cfelseif #User.Type# EQ "Manager">
<textarea value="Addres"></textarea>
</cfif>
</li>
<li>
<cfif #User.Type# EQ "Sales">
Account Status
<cfelseif #User.Type# EQ "Manager">
<input type="text" value="Account status" />
</cfif>
</li>
<li>
<cfif #User.Type# EQ "Sales">
Account Manager
<cfelseif #User.Type# EQ "Manager">
<input type="text" value="Account manager" />
</cfif>
</li>
</ul>
<cfif #User.Type# EQ "Manager">
<input type="submit" value="submitform">
</cfif>
</form>
Now I'm thinking whoaaa who is getting what in all that code? What's the best way to do this and have efficient code? I am using ColdFusion 10 for my web application server but I guess this question could apply to any language.
Have two views: one read-only, one editable. Decide which to use, based on security. Don't try to couple the security considerations within the view.
Again, as per your other thread: you are reinventing the wheel (and ending up with a hexagon) by not simply using an MVC framework to manage all this.
This article - "Unit Testing / TDD - why you shouldn't bother" - is not on-topic for your question here (although you are using TDD, right? Or at least unit testing all your work), but the "digression" box certainly is.
Related
First off, I'm not really sure how to title this question so I apologize if it's vague. I am trying to create a shopping list using ColdFusion and I've ran into a bit of a snag. I want a delete button to appear next to the item that's been created. I have almost everything working, but I don't understand structures enough in ColdFusion to understand what I am doing wrong. Is it similar to a component in React.js? I ran into an issue saying that the variable "button" is not defined. I'm assuming this is because structkeyExists can't identify a single button. Why would this work for form and not for a button?
Here is my code:
<cfif structKeyExists(form, "submitButt")>
<cfquery datasource="ESC-ADD-TECH">
INSERT INTO Main(itemDesc) VALUES('#itemDesc#')
</cfquery>
</cfif>
<cfif structKeyExists(button, "delete_butt")>
<cfquery datasource="ESC-ADD-TECH">
INSERT INTO Main(itemDesc) VALUES('#itemDesc#')
</cfquery>
</cfif>
<cfquery datasource="ESC-ADD-TECH" name="items">
DELETE FROM Main
WHERE itemDesc = '#itemDesc#'
</cfquery>
<body>
<div id="myDIV" class="header">
<h2>My Shopping List</h2>
<form method="POST">
<input type="text" name="itemDesc" placeholder="Title...">
<input name="submitButt" type="submit" class="addBtn">
</form>
</div>
<cfoutput query="items">
<li>#items.itemDesc# <button class="delete" name="delete_butt">x</button></li>
</cfoutput>
</body>
Is there a way to do what I am trying to do here using a structure? Am I better off creating the button in javascript and try to create a structure as a boolean statement and just have javascript rewrite that value? Kinda just shooting in the dark here, but I would appreciate any and all help.
Thank you everyone!
So there isn't going to be a "button" structure from your form being submitted.
The first thing to remember is that a ColdFusion structure is just a collection of key/value pairs (similar to a JavaScript object), and unless the value is set, will be undefined.
In your case, the "form" struct exists because you are submitting your page back to itself with your input[type="submit"]. Which for a ColdFusion page, will create a form struct with keys for each named input within the submitted form, the values of which are pulled from those elements' value attributes.
If you are trying to use the form struct to handle deleting items, you may be better served using radio buttons/checkboxes to select which item(s) to delete, and set the action to take using the value attribute of your submit buttons.
Using your code as an example:
<cfparam name="form.action" type="string" default="none">
<cfswitch expression="#form.action#">
<cfcase value="insert">
<!---Your insert query goes here--->
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="delete">
<!---Your delete query goes here--->
</cfcase>
<cfdefaultcase></cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
<!---Your select query--->
<body>
<form method="post" action="#">
<div id="myDIV" class="header">
<h2>My Shopping List</h2>
<input type="text" name="itemDesc" placeholder="Title...">
<button type="submit" name="action" value="insert">Submit</button>
</div>
<ul>
<cfoutput query="items">
<li>#items.itemDesc#
<input type="radio" name="delDesc" value="#items.itemDesc#"/>
</li>
</cfoutput>
</ul>
<button type="submit" name="action" value="delete">Delete</button>
</form>
</body>
In this case you will use form.itemDesc when inserting values, and form.delDesc when deleting items.
I have one form page with pagination. I want to keep the form values as the user goes to the previous or next page, using pagination. I know that it can be done using the session scope. However, here I don't want to use session scope. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this without using session? Please let me know.
Here is my form page:
<cfoutput>
<form action="#buildUrl(action='survey.save_surveyresults',querystring='surveyId=#rc.surveyid#')#" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="surveyid" value="#rc.surveyId#">
<div class="container-fluid">
<div class="row">
<div class="control-group">
<label class="label-control" for="name">Name</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" name="name" id="name" required="true" placeholder="enter your name" value="#rc.name#">
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="label-control" for="email">Email</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" name="email" id="email" required="true" placeholder="enter your Email" value="#rc.email#">
</div>
</div>
<cfloop query="rc.questions" startrow="#startrow#" maxrows="#perpage#">
<!--- because we have all questions and answers in query we can use switch instead calling template or view
for each question, so its simplify directory structures, questions directory is not necessary now --->
<h3>#CurrentRow#<cfif rc.questions.isrequired><strong>*</strong></cfif>. #rc.questions.question#<h3>
<cfswitch expression="#rc.questions.template#">
<fieldset>
<cfcase value="textbox">
<input type="text" class="input-xlarge" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#">
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="multiplechoice">
<cfloop list="#answer#" delimiters="," index="i">
<div class="controls">
<label>
<input type="radio" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#" value="#answerID#" >
<span class="lbl">#i#</span>
</label>
</div>
</cfloop>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="multiplechoiceother">
<cfloop list="#answer#" delimiters="," index="i">
<div class="controls">
<label>
<input type="radio" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#" value="#answerID#" >
<span class="lbl">#i#</span>
</label>
</div>
</cfloop>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="label-control" for="other">Other</label>
<div class="controls">
<input type="text" class="input-xlarge" name="#template#_#questionid#" id="question_#questionid#">
</div>
</div>
</cfcase>
</fieldset>
</cfswitch>
</cfloop>
<p></p><br />
<cfif startrow GT 1>
Previous
</cfif>
<cfif (startrow + perpage - 1) lt rc.questions.recordcount>
Next
<cfelse>
<button type="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-success">Finish</button>
</cfif>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</cfoutput>
You could break the form up into different sections and have it all in one page. You can hide/show parts of the form using JavaScript based on which 'page' of the form they are one.
This makes going forward or backward in the form a snap since it is not submitted until they are done with the whole form and the values they entered will still be there.. and is pretty easy to handle with jQuery or other JavaScript libraries.
As Dan said - save submitted values in hidden fields.
One issue I see with your HTML is that Previous/Next pages are just links - not submit buttons. So make sure that when clicking those links users are submitting the form - not just going to a different url.
Here's a simple snippet of code that will embed all your form variables into hidden fields. You would place this code inside the form handler on the page you are submitting to. Note Lucas' answer as well. Your form may not be submitting correctly for reasons of badly formed..er...form.
<Cfloop collection="#form#" item="fItem">
<cfoutput>
<input type="hidden" name="#fItem#" value="#form[fItem]#"/>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
Again .. this would go _inside" of the form on the subsequent page. This is fairly common in multipart forms (shopping carts with multiple steps, profile entries etc).
Bear in mind that with the approaches above, you need to re-validate your form values on the server side every time you submit them (or at the very least before your final processing).
What you make up for in server memory, you may lose in terms of traffic and load times, depending on scale so I would advise that you proceed with caution. Increasing production traffic unnecessarily can result in financial impacts, and often server memory can be cheaper than extended increased traffic outlay; it comes down to your requirements and scale at the end of the day.
Shipping form variables around also increases your attack surface for malicious injection of form data, so while you may be concerned with session variables being altered on you (curious to hear more on this), you are already opening yourself up by shipping this data around as plain text. Do not rely on client-side validation for this (or any) data.
I am unable to figure out how to loop over the questionTypes and get selected questionType value. Based on the selected questionType I have to add answers for multioption questions, like in choose the correct answers we provide four choices out of which one we have to select as correct answer.
I have tried to use cfswitch but it does not seem to work:
<html>
<head> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script></head>
<body>
<cfoutput>
<cfif not IsDefined('rc.questionType')>
<form class="form form-horizontal" action="#buildUrl('question.new')#" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="surveyId" value="#rc.surveyId#">
<fieldset>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="questiontype">Question type</label>
<div class="controls">
<select name="questionType" onchange="this.form.submit()">
<option value="0" >Select question type</option>
<cfloop query="rc.types">
<option value="#id#">#name#</option>
</cfloop>
</select>
</div>
</div>
</fieldset>
</form>
<!--- if question type is defined, display question form --->
<cfelse>
<form class="form form-horizontal" action="#buildUrl('question.save')#" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="surveyId" value="#rc.data.fksurveyId#">
<input type="hidden" name="questionTypeId" value="#rc.data.fkquestionTypeId#">
<input type="hidden" name="rank" value="#rc.data.rank#">
<fieldset>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="question">Question</label>
<div class="controls">
<input class="input-xxlarge" type="text" name="question" id="question" required="true" placeholder="write your question">
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="Required">Required</label>
<div class="controls">
<select name="Required">
<option value="1" selected>Yes</option>
<option value="0">No</option>
</select>
</div>
</div>
<!--- question arguments for selected type, this will be for multioption questions --->
<!--- <cfif rc.questiontype is "multiple choice (single selection),Multiple Choice (Multi Selection) with Other,Multiple Choice (Single Selection) with Other,Multiple Choice (Multi Selection)"> --->
<cfswitch expression="#rc.questiontypeid#">
<cfcase value="multiple choice (single selection),Multiple Choice (Multi Selection) with Other,Multiple Choice (Single Selection) with Other,Multiple Choice (Multi Selection)">
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="answer">Answer</label>
<div class="controls">
<input class="input-xxlarge" type="text" name="new_answer" id="new_answer">
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="rank">rank</label>
<div class="controls">
<input class="input-mini" type="text" name="rank" id="rank">
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="answer">Answer</label>
<div class="controls">
<input class="input-xxlarge" type="text" name="new_answer" id="new_answer">
</div>
</div>
<div class="control-group">
<label class="control-label" for="rank">rank</label>
<div class="controls">
<input class="input-mini" type="text" name="rank" id="rank">
</div>
</div>
</cfcase>
</cfswitch>
<!--- --->
<div class="form-actions">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Save</button>
Cancel
</div>
</fieldset>
</form>
</cfif>
<cfdump var="#rc#">
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>
This is my controller method to add a new question:
<cffunction name="new" returntype="void" access="public">
<cfargument name="rc" type="struct" required="true">
<!---call service to get the textfields, checkboxes etc,. based on questiontype selection --->
<!--- call service to get question types for select box --->
<cfset rc.types = getQuestionService().types()>
<cfset rc.action = 'New Question'>
<!--- if user select question type --->
<cfif isdefined('arguments.rc.questionType')>
<cfset rc.data = getQuestionService().new(arguments.rc.surveyId, arguments.rc.questionType)>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
I have two forms in single page. In the first form I am selecting questionType. Based on the selected questionType I have to display an add question form.
To make sure I'm reading how this code is supposed to work:
1. This is a form to create the question, not answer it.
2. rc is a struct with your basic question definition as the keys and you have other existing code that insures that the rc structure will exist on this page.
(Rather than isDefined("rc.questionType") I'd use structKeyExists(rc, "questionType"), but that's a whole different discussion.
3. When you change the value of the Question Type, that field is submitted back and other code creates and populates the questionType key of rc struct. So isDefined('rc.questionType') should now be TRUE (moving you to the cfelse block).
4. You are now brought back to the same page with a field to enter the question, whether it's required, and you're looking for the Answer entry boxes based on the questionType.
If all of those assumptions are correct, then this is the point that you would need to loop through your options for your answers. The cfswitch/cfcase is correct, but some of those multiple choice options will need to be handled slightly differently. The ones with "Other" options will need slightly more processing on this end and on the answer tracking end. You'll have to add a text box for that checked answer.
So you'll need a little more definition for the questions in the rc struct. You need to track which one is the correct answer (a simple checkbox). If you want to allow a dynamic number of multi-choice answers, you'll need to keep track of how many answers you'll need. And you could even keep these multi-choice answer options together if you tracked whether the answer was an "Other" or not. This would also allow you to have multiple "Other"-type selections in the multi-choice options. Granted, that would reduce your choices for whether this is a multi-choice question down to just one, simply "Multiple Choice". Let the answers determine whether it's single selection or "Other" selection. And if you wanted to use radio buttons instead of check boxes for the single selects, all you'd have to do is count the answers for the question. Then you can worry about each basic questionType seperately.
The code to better track the answers (correct and "Other" options) will also need to be pulled back up, likely in the getQuestionService() function, which is where I'm assuming you're pulling your question definition and populating the rc struct.
Do you plan on using this form as an UPSERT, or is this simply an INSERT and you'll UPDATE/EDIT the questions elsewhere?
Regardless, back to your original question. The first thing I'd recommend would be to also cfdump the rc struct at the top of the page. See what data you're initially working with.
Down where you need to add your Answers, the cfswitch is the correct method. You likely aren't matching any of your cases here. Output rc.questionTypeID here to see what your value is. And I'd use an integer ID for the question type rather than the name of the question type. It'll give faster, more precise processing. When you get the correct case, you'll need to cfloop your answers here.
To select which one is the correct one, simply add a selected="selected" or checked="checked" (depending on input type) inside of a cfif that checks if the current answer is the correct answer.
Since the switch expression is set to rc.questiontypeid, the case value should be the possible rc.questiontypeid, not the question type name.
can anyone review this code tell me what's wrong in it? I don't understand why it is displaying questions two times.
here is the code to display questions based on its questiontype, I mean it will look into question folder for matching questiontype template and then display it with question.
this is the code to show survey's questions.
<cfoutput>
<cfset step = 0 />
<form class="form form-horizontal" action="#buildUrl(action='survey.savesurveyresults',querystring='surveyId=#rc.surveyid#')#" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="0">
<input type="hidden" name="fksurveyid" value="#rc.surveyId#">
<input type="hidden" name="fkquestionid" value="#rc.questions.id#">
<fieldset>
<cfloop query="rc.questions">
<cfset step ++ />
<cfset answer = "" />
<cfmodule template="../question/#rc.questions.template#/display.cfm" step="#step#" question="#rc.questions.question#" template1="#rc.questions.template#" fkquestionid="#rc.questions.id#" answer="#answer#" required="#rc.questions.required#" result="result#step#"/>
</cfloop>
<div class="form-actions">
<button type="submit" name="submit" class="btn btn-success">Submit answers</button>
</div>
</fieldset>
</form>
</cfoutput>
this is my display.cfm to view question and its questiontype like truefalse or yes or no.
<cfparam name="attributes.yesno" default="false">
<cfoutput>
<p>#attributes.step#) #attributes.question# <cfif attributes.required EQ 1><strong>* </strong></cfif></p>
<div class="answers">
<cfif attributes.yesno>
<input type="radio" name="answer" id="answer" value="yes"<cfif attributes.answer is "yes">Checked</cfif>><label for="truefalse">Yes</label><br>
<input type="radio" name="answer" id="answer" value="no"<cfif attributes.answer is "No">Checked</cfif>><label for="truefalse">No</label>
<cfelse>
<input type="radio" name="answer" id="answer" value="true"<cfif attributes.answer is "true">Checked</cfif>><label for="truefalse">True</label><br>
<input type="radio" name="answer" id="answer" value="False"<cfif attributes.answer is "False">Checked</cfif>><label for="truefalse">False</label>
</cfif>
</div>
</cfoutput>
here is the query to list question's records.
<cfquery name="list">
SELECT
questions.id,
questions.question,
questions.rank,
questions.required,
questiontypes.name as questiontype,
questiontypes.template as template,
surveys.name as surveysname,
surveys.thankyoumsg as thankyoumsg
FROM questions
INNER JOIN questiontypes ON questions.fkquestiontypeid = questiontypes.id
INNER JOIN surveys ON questions.fksurveyid = surveys.id
WHERE questions.fksurveyid = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_bigint" value="#arguments.surveyid#">
</cfquery>
This is something that has bitten me a couple of times. I've always been pretty big on closing tags. But this is a situation where it will hurt. And be hard to debug if you don't understand the behavior of cfmodule. As the post above mine states, if you close the cfmodule tag, it will execute twice. This is because it's treated the same as a custom tag. There may be situations where you want to process part of the tag when it's first run and the rest after it's complete. You can access the ExecutionMode in the thisTag scope of the cfmodule page. With no closing tag, it's simply run in the thisTag.ExecutionMode = Start mode. If you close it, it runs the tag again in the End mode. If you aren't doing anything with the ExecutionMode inside the cfmodule's code, the whole thing will simply run again. This behavior is part of the reason that cfmodule can be so powerful.
When using the <cfmodule> tag you need to remember that ColdFusion will call that tag twice if you include an ending </cfmodule> tag OR if you close the opening tag like so <cfmodule ... />.
As stated on the cfmodule documentation page:
If you specify an end tag to cfmodule, ColdFusion calls your custom tag as if it had both a start and an end tag. For more information, see Handling end tags in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.
Handling end tags in the Developing ColdFusion Applications
In order to avoid this functionality do not close your <cfmodule> tag.
I got it, i must have not to close the cfmodule tag like <cfmodule />.
I have written this piece of CF code to get and display the data from database. (Actually to populate text fields.) The problem: I am not getting values from the query, but I am correctly getting the number of records.
How am I supposed to access the values returned by the query via a cfloop? Below is my work.
<cfquery name="data_query" datasource="#dsn#">
SELECT
id,
name
FROM learning
</cfquery>
<cfloop query=data_query">
<li>
<div class="list_div clearfix">
<input type="text" value="#URLDecode(name)#">
</div>
</li>
</cfloop>
</cfquery>
You have two options:
Wrap the vars output line with <cfoutput /> tags:
<cfoutput>#id#: <input type="text" value="#name#"></cfoutput>
Use <cfoutput query="data_query"> loop instead of <cfloop ...>
For the sake of cleaner code I would prefer the second option so your code would be:
<cfquery name="data_query" datasource="#dsn#">
SELECT
id,
name
FROM learning
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="data_query">
<li>
<div class="list_div clearfix">
#id#: <input type="text" value="#name#">
</div>
</li>
</cfoutput>
Also you should properly 'scope' your query columns when outputting. This will make your code easier to maintain in future, e.g. you'll always know that #data_query.name# belonged to the query and wasn't some string set by some other piece of code somewhere. And it'll speed up page performance - if you don't scope variables (this applies to all types of variables, not just queries), then CF will loop through the different scopes until it finds something with this value. So by scoping, you prevent CF having to loop.
<cfquery name="data_query" datasource="#variables.dsn#">
SELECT
id,
name
FROM learning
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="data_query">
<li>
<div class="list_div clearfix">
#data_query.id#: <input type="text" value="#data_query.name#">
</div>
</li>
</cfoutput>
On the whole your logic was fine.. just a few typos and minor changes needed..
Give this a try.
<cfquery name="data_query" datasource="#dsn#">
SELECT
id,
name
FROM learning
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="data_query">
<li>
<div class="list_div clearfix">
#id#: <input type="text" value="#name#">
</div>
</li>
</cfloop>
And if you didn't know about it:
<cfdump var="#data_query#">
OR
<cfdump var="#data_query#" abort>
Will give you a beautiful display of came back from your query, or in any variable or structure.