Global Variables in ColdFusion - coldfusion

2 Questions -
In CF8 in the application.cfm I cold set a global variable
like so
<cfset DSN = "dej6_42">
I am now trying to adjust to the Application.cfc in CF10/Lucee and can not figure out how to set this same variable.
Here is my current Application.cfc
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cfset This.name = "My Application">
<cfset This.clientmanagement="True">
<cfset This.loginstorage="Session">
<cfset This.sessionmanagement="True">
<cfset This.sessiontimeout="#createtimespan(0,0,10,0)#">
<cfset This.applicationtimeout="#createtimespan(5,0,0,0)#">
<cfset DSN = "dej6_42">
</cfcomponent>
I have tried
<cfset This.DSN = "dej6_42">
Then tried to call in a separate page
<cfoutput>#Applicaton.DSN#</cfoutput>
I think from my research I will need to use both application.cfc and application.cfm to accomplish the above. *edit - I tried to add an include at the end of the application.cfc file to applciation.cfm and it did not work.
2 Question.
When I place any of the standard functions in the Application.cfc my site turns to a blank page
Here is that Application.cfc - I if I remove everything below the DSN set then it will display the site.
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cfset This.name = "My Application">
<cfset This.clientmanagement="True">
<cfset This.loginstorage="Session">
<cfset This.sessionmanagement="True">
<cfset This.sessiontimeout="#createtimespan(0,0,10,0)#">
<cfset This.applicationtimeout="#createtimespan(5,0,0,0)#">
<cfset DSN = "dej6_42">
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onApplicationEnd">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequest">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestEnd">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionStart">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionEnd">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onError">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Your example doesn't set a global variable. It sets a variable in the variables scope: it will not be accessible to any CFC-based code nor any custom tags used within the request. It'll only be available in the Application.cfm, the file requested, files it includes, and OnRequestEnd.cfm
Application.cfc is a CFC (to state the obvious), so variables-scoped variables set within it are only available within it. If you want to set an application-wide variable, you need to put it in the application scope. Application scope variables should be set in the onApplicationStart) handler which is run once when the application starts, but not on every request. By way of comparison Application.cfm (which is misnamed) is run on every request. It should be called OnRequestStart.cfm.
So to be clear, setting an application-scoped variable in onApplicationStart would be as thus:
function onApplicationStart() {
application.DSN = "dej6_42";
}
If you use an onRequest() interceptor, and within that include the originally requested file, then the request will be run in the context of the Application.cfc instance, and variables set within onRequest will be available to the rest of the mainline request code, much like the way you set your variable in Application.cfm. Semantically though, if you mean a variable to exist for the life of the application (like a DSN), then putting it in the application scope is the best bet.
It sounds to me from the inferences one can make from your question that your app architecture might be languishing in the 1990s. I think you should read up on using a framework (eg: FW/1 or ColdBox) to better organise your code in a maintainable and scalable way.
Also you should read up on Application.cfc (and method reference). And probably CFCs in general: Using ColdFusion components-Developing guide.
You also might want to think about modernising your approach to writing CFML and spare the tags for view code, and otherwise using script. It makes the code easier to follow for both you and other developers who might end up needing to maintain it if the whole app isn't cluttered up with tags.

You need to set it into the application scope
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cfset This.name = "My Application">
<cfset This.clientmanagement="True">
<cfset This.loginstorage="Session">
<cfset This.sessionmanagement="True">
<cfset This.sessiontimeout="#createtimespan(0,0,10,0)#">
<cfset This.applicationtimeout="#createtimespan(5,0,0,0)#">
<cfset application.DSN = 'dej6_42'>
</cfcomponent>

Related

ColdFusion Application.cfm cfinclude not working

I have a function called "conv" which is needed in several programs within my application. So rather than include it in each program, I put it in the Application.cfm, which looked like this:
<cfapplication name = "Moxware" sessionmanagement = "Yes">
<cfset lang = "LU">
<cfset x127 = Chr(127)>
<cfset mmox = 'Moxware'>
<cfinclude template="conv.cfc">
When I ran one of the programs using the function "conv" (which is in conv.cfc) I got an error that the function conv could not be found.
After I hunted around the internet for ideas I tried this:
<cfapplication name = "Moxware" sessionmanagement = "Yes">
<cfset lang = "LU">
<cfset x127 = Chr(127)>
<cfset mmox = 'Moxware'>
<cffunction name="onRequestStart" output="true" returntype="void">
<cfinclude template="conv.cfc">
</cffunction>
That gave me the same error message as before.
Can someone explain to me how to do this?
Note that the function conv was tested and works just fine.
Instead of using an include, like this...
<cfinclude template="conv.cfc">
Try creating an object, like this...
<cfscript>
MyObject = createObject("component", "conv");
</cfscript>
When you want to access a function within that object, try this...
<cfscript>
SomeValue = MyObject.MyFunction();
</cfscript>
You can include CFM pages into the CFC, but I don't think you can include CFC code into a CFC.
So this is possible...
<cffunction name="OnRequest" access="public" returntype="void" output="true" hint="Fires after pre page processing is complete.">
<cfargument name="TargetPage" type="string" required="true" />
<cfinclude template = "/myMapping/onRequestStart_include.cfm" />
<cfinclude template = "/myMapping/onRequest_include.cfm" />
<cfinclude template = "/myMapping/onRequestEnd_include.cfm" />
</cffunction>
Note the use of a mapping (in our case /myMapping), which can help if your doing this in CFC's. If no mapping is needed, just drop that.
But probably the best option is to instantiate your CFC from within the Application.cfc and use it.
<cfset myConv = createObject("component", "myMapping.conv").init() />
Again using a mapping to get to the CFC. The .init() is not always needed, depends how your CFC is setup.
Then presumably conv has methods you want to use (You talk about it as a single function? A cfc is essentially an object, so you create it as an object first and then use it's methods), so then you'd invoke then by using...
myConv.functionName()
Put another way - Application.cfc is no different from anywhere else in your code. How ever it's invoked and used elsewhere is how you should do it here. The only trick might be pathing to that CFC, which you can do by creating a custom mapping.
Also consider going old school (if it is just a function), and using custom-tags.
Good luck.

Setting session variables with JavaScript in ColdFusion

I have a website with multiple tabs. Each tab runs a separate report based on a set of filters that take their values from session variables.
How things work now:
While the user is inside a report tab they can open a filter menu to select the options that they need to run their report (doctor names, locations, date, etc) and then they can hit the run button to get their report. When the user clicks "run" the form is saving the variables inside the session where they are available to run other reports without having to click "run" or define them again and again.
What I am trying to do:
Instead of having only a "run" button inside the form I need an "Apply" button that will set the session variables from the form without running the current report. This way the user can pre-define their variables without being forced to run a report they don't need.
I tried using ajax that calls a function outside my application which is setting up variables based on the user's selection.
My challenge is to get those variables back from the function in some format where I could use them in updating the current session variables.
This is a sample of my code:
The Apply button:
Apply
My Ajax Function:
function setSession(){
var formData = $('form').serialize();
$.ajax({
url:'/mod_example/components/exampleCFCs/xUtility.cfc?method=setSessionVariables',
data: formData
});
};
And part of my function:
<cfcomponent output="no">
<cffunction name="setSessionVariables" access="remote" returntype="any">
<cfargument name="docid" type="string" required="no">
<cfif isDefined('docid')>
<cfset session.doctorids = docid>
</cfif>
<cfif isDefined('docid')>
<cfreturn session.doctorids>
<cfelse>
<cfreturn 0>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
What I need is to get the value of session.doctorids to be able to update my session variables with the new value.
It sounds like you have this utility cfc in a shared directory and you are calling it directly. As you've noticed, the problem with that is that you end up with multiple sessions. You can get around this issue be setting up a Facade cfc within your application and make your ajax calls to that cfc.
If you only want to expose the setSessionVariables then you could use this cfc:
<cfcomponent output="no">
<cffunction name="setSessionVariables" access="remote" returntype="any">
<cfset var xUtility = createObject('component','mod_example.components.exampleCFCs.xUtility')>
<cfreturn xUtility.setSessionVariables(argumentCollection=ARGUMENTS)>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
If you want to expose all methods of the utility cfc, then you can extend it:
<cfcomponent output="no" extends="mod_example.components.exampleCFCs.xUtility">
</cfcomponent>
This would allow you to call methods on the utility cfc while maintaining a single session scope (per user of course).
EDIT:
Been a while since i've worked in wheels...but i remember not liking AJAX in the wheels framework. If you create a new subfolder and call it 'remoting' and put the facade in there, and drop an application.cfc in there that looks like this:
<cfcomponent >
<cfset this.name = 'whatever_your_wheels_app_name_is'>
<cfset this.SessionManagement=true>
</cfcomponent>
You should be able to use that facade and this application.cfc will piggyback on the existing application with the same name. The problem with this approach would be if the application times out, and a remote call is the first request to the application, then the wheels application scope might not get set up properly.
It would be best if you could extend the root application.cfc and just override the onRequestStart method so that the framework will ignore the request. To do that you would need to make a mapping in the cfadmin to the root of your project and use this for your remoting/application.cfc
<cfcomponent extends="mappingName.Application">
<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
<cfargument name="requestname" required="true" />
<cfset structDelete(this,'onRequest')>
<cfset structDelete(this,'onRequestEnd')>
<cfset structDelete(VARIABLES,'onRequest')>
<cfset structDelete(VARIABLES,'onRequestEnd')>
<cfreturn true>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
The way that wheels uses `cfinclude' all over the place, you may need to look at this post about extending the appliciation: http://techblog.troyweb.com/index.php/2011/09/cfwheels-workarounds-numero-uno-application-proxy/
There are some wheels plugins (http://cfwheels.org/docs/1-1/chapter/wheels-ajax-and-you) that allow you to use the controller actions / views / routes via ajax so you could look into those also.

Unable to access variables when converting from application.cfm to application.cfc

I am trying to convert an application I support from application.cfm to application.cfc. I followed Ben Nadel's ColdFusion Application.cfc Tutorial And Application.cfc Reference, but my pages cannot access any of the variables in the APPLICATION scope, without adding APPLICATION. to the variable. As a side note, this application uses 0 cfc's currently.
here is my application.cfc.
<cfcomponent displayname="Application" hint="Handle the application" output="true">
<cfset THIS.Name = "AAS" />
<cfset THIS.ApplicationTimeout = CreateTimeSpan( 0, 60, 0 , 0) />
<cfset THIS.SessionManagement = true />
<cfset THIS.setClientCookies = false />
<cfset THIS.versionNum = '1'>
<cfset THIS.genericUserID = 'o005265'>
<cfset THIS.genericPassword = 'zo005265'>
<cffunction
name="OnApplicationStart"
hint="Fires when the application is first created."
access="public"
output="false"
returntype="boolean">
<cfset APPLICATION.aasURL = 'http://127.0.0.1:8500/aaas'>
<cfset APPLICATION.dsn = 've0_aaas'>
<cfset APPLICATION.aas_system = 'development (studio)'>
<cfreturn true />
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
Basically I just copied what was in the application.cfm page, and figured it would work the same. I am guessing that I have to invoke this somewhere? That is the only thing that I can think of. Any help would be great.
--- EDIT ---
I have added the OnRequest and OnApplicationStart methods after #EvikJames answer
<cffunction name="OnApplicationStart" access="public" returntype="boolean" output="false" hint="Fires when the application is first created.">
<!--- Return out. --->
<cfset APPLICATION.aasURL = 'http://127.0.0.1:8500/aaas'>
<cfset APPLICATION.datasource = 've0_aaas'>
<cfset APPLICATION.aas_system = 'development (studio)'>
<cfreturn true />
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="OnRequest" access="public" returntype="void" output="true" hint="Fires after pre page processing is complete.">
<!--- Define arguments. --->
<cfargument name="TargetPage" type="string" required="true">
<!--- Include the requested page. --->
<cfinclude template="#ARGUMENTS.TargetPage#" />
<cfset VARIABLES.dsn = APPLICATION.dsn>
<cfset VARIABLES.aasURL = APPLICATION.aasURL>
<cfset VARIABLES.aas_system = APPLICATION.aas_system>
<!--- Return out. --->
<cfreturn />
</cffunction>
You aren't really trying to use "application" variables (which always need to be scoped). I suspect your old application.cfm page had something like.
<cfapplicatin name="blah"...>
<cfset dsn = 'mydsn'/>
And then you were able to do:
<cfquery datasource="#dsn#">
This approach does not utilze the application scope ... it is merely taking advantage of the fact that your application.cfm always runs no matter what. What it is actually doing is putting variables in the variables scope. Because CF always checks the "variables" scope first you soemthing like #dsn# works - but that is not the same as the application scope.
To mimic this behavior in Application.cfc (as has been suggested) you will need to put your variable in the "onRequest()" function instead of the "onApplicationstart()" function - like so:
<cffunction name="onRequest">
<cfset dsn = 'mydsn'/>
</cffunction>
That is expected. To reference application variables you need to prefix them with application.
In your onApplication start method, do this:
<cfset APPLICATION.datasource = 'MyDSN'>
In your onRequest method, do this:
<cfset VARIABLES.DSN = APPLICATION.datasource>
Then, this query will work:
<cfquery datasource="#dsn#">
// sql
</cfquery>
I should add that when you are fully upgraded, you can remove all of the code above just set the default datasource:
<cfset THIS.datasource = 'MyDSN'>
If the variable is in the application scope, you will always need to identify it that way in your .cfm pages. If you use a variable name without the scope prefix, the application scope is not looked at.
if you want to declare variables in the application.cfc that can be accessed without the application scope in your other pages, simply declare the variables outside of any functions.
<component>
<cfset this.name = "applicationName">
<cfset otherVar = 'something'>
<cfset otherVar2 = 'something else'>
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart>.....</cffunction>
</component>
otherVar and otherVar2 can be called without scope prefix on all .cfm pages.
It sounds like you were not originally using application scoped variables. If the variables were not originally scope with "application." then they were simply in "variables scope" (confusing wording I know) which is accessible by the cfm page hit and others included. That is one big change when moving between application.cfm and application.cfc. The general idea there follows the principle that included CFM files share variables scope and CFC files do not.
If the only change you have to make is changing #dsn# to #appplication.dsn# then just do it and get it over with. There are tools such as WinGrep or even Notepad++ which have find and replace across multiple files.

How can I avoid using SESSION variables in CFCs when these are used for DataSource and Database Schemas?

I'm trying to refactor all of my CFCs to avoid using SESSION and APPLICATION variables (not an easy task).
However, in this application, SESSION variables are used in every database call, since different logged in users may be accessing different databases and schemas:
<cfquery name="qEmployees" datasource="#SESSION.DataSourceName#">
SELECT *
FROM #SESSION.DatabaseSchema#.Employees
</cfquery>
I don't want to go through the trouble of passing these two SESSION variables to every method call that accesses the database. This is especially the case since I don't want to pass DSNs and Schema Names in remote AJAX calls.
What is best practice for doing this - for all Scopes that shouldn't be used in CFCs?
I think that since the datasource truly is variable I'd pass it into every function as an optional parameter and set the default value to a variables scoped dsn attribute. I'd set the variables scoped DSN in the CFC's constructor. That way you only have to pass in the DSN for the AJAX calls.
<cffunction name="doFoo" access="remote"...>
<cfargument name="dsn" type="String" required="false" default="#variables.datasource#" />
</cffunction>
I'd use the session scope of your app to store the users dsn name and use that var to pass to the AJAX call.
You should create an "init" method that will serve as a constructor for your CFC. You can then instantiate the CFCs and store them in a shared scope, most likely the application scope. From here, to use this CFC via AJAX, I typically will create a remote facade. Basically this is another CFC that will directly access the CFC instance in the application scope. It will implement the methods you need to access via Ajax, expose them using access="remote" giving your application access to the access="public" methods from the actual CFC. In this case it is generally accepted that the remote facade can access the application scope directly as part of the design pattern.
A simple example:
example.cfc:
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cffunction name="init" access="public" output="false" returntype="any">
<cfargument name="dsn" type="string" required="true" />
<cfset variables.dsn = arguments.dsn />
<cfreturn this />
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="doStuff" access="public" output="false" returntype="query">
<cfset var q = "" />
<cfquery name="q" datasource="#variables.dsn#">
select stuff from tblStuff
</cfquery>
<cfreturn q />
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
In your Application.cfc onApplicationStart() method:
<cfset application.example = createObject("component","example").init(dsn = "somedsn") />
remote.cfc:
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cffunction name="doStuff" access="remote" returntype="query">
<cfreturn application.example.doStuff() />
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
Can you set your datasource variables in the onRequest or onRequestStart functions in your Application.cfc
<cffunction name="onSessionStart">
<cfset session.dsn = _users_personal_dsn_ />
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestStart" >
<cfset dsn = "#session.dsn#" />
</cffunction>
<cfquery name="qEmployees" datasource="#dsn#">
SELECT *
FROM #SESSION.DatabaseSchema#.Employees
</cfquery>
etc.
not sure if that will work [not tested - actually feels a bit sloppy]
-sean
The scope you choose (for any variation of this question, not just for DSNs) should be based on whether the lifetime of the value is the same as the lifetime of the scope.
In our application, the DSN is just set once in the lifetime of the application, so we have an application.config struct that gets created (parsed from a file) in onApplicationStart, and within it is application.config.dsn
If your value really does change between sessions, but not over the life of a session, go ahead and use the session scope.
If your value could change for any given request, but not in the middle of a request, put it in the request scope.
That said, still heed ryan's advice and add optional arguments that only default to this value: being flexible is always the best.
My suggestion for this is to create a base class and then have your components that need database access extend that component. It doesn't have to be in the immediate parent hierarchy but somewhere down the line.
They goal is to do two things, keep the cfc abstracted from the main program and keep it easily configurable. This accomplishes both.
So your CFC that queries the database would look something like this :
<cfcomponent extends="DataAccessBase">
<cffunction name="myFunction" access="public" returntype="string">
<cfquery datasource="#getDSN()#" name="qStuff">select * from table</cfquery>
</cffunction>
The key above is the extends="DataAccessBase" portion. This adds the layer of abstraction where you can control the data access at one configurable point, but it's not tied to the application itself, leaving the component abstracted from where it's implemented.
Your DataAccessBase.cfc could look something like this:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="loadSettings">
<cfparam name="request.settings" default="#structNew()#">
<cfparam name="request.settigns.loaded" default="false">
<cfif request.settings.loaded eq false>
<!--- load settings from resource bundle etc --->
<cfset request.settings.dsn = 'myDSN'>
<cfset request.settings.loaded = true>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getDsn" access="public" returntype="string">
<cfset loadSettings()>
<cfreturn request.settings.dsn>
</cffunction>
You can of course get more intricate with how you configure and store the settings etc, but that's out of scope of the question I think. :)
I don't see any reason to pass the DSN with every method call. Yes, it works, but it's not necessary. The components are developed with a built-in assumption of the datastructure so you know that it is not going to change from a addItem() call to a updateItem() call, thus its duplication of work which means additional points of failure. :P
Make sense?

What is the proper way to assign a general udf to application.cfc?

I simply want to define a function in application.cfc and expose it application wide to all requests. Preferably the "assignment" would only happen on application startup.
Is the preferred method to do something along the lines of this:
<CFCOMPONENT OUTPUT="FALSE">
<CFSET this.name = "Website">
<CFSET this.clientManagement = true>
<CFSET this.SessionManagement = true>
<CFFUNCTION NAME="GetProperty" OUTPUT="False">
<CFARGUMENT NAME="Property">
<CFRETURN this.Props[Property]>
</CFFUNCTION>
<CFFUNCTION NAME="OnApplicationStart" OUTPUT="FALSE">
<CFSET Application.GetProperty = GetProperty>
.
.
.
or is there something better?
By default, GetProperty will be visible in Variables scope already, this can be sufficient for many usages (in .cfm templates).
If you want to use these methods directly in the components, referencing them in the Application scope is fine.
Though I do this with Request scope in the onRequestStart(), it's just my personal preference. Something like this:
request.udf = {};
request.udf.halt = halt;
Please note that best practice in general is incapsulating the objects and having them referenced in variables scope of the host object. I typically do this when initializing the object, simply pass previously created objects as init() arguments.
P.S. Nowadays it is recommended to use lower case for tags and their attributes. Kind of good coding practices.
The best way to store site specific config data is probably going to be to create a new component named something such as SiteConfig.cfc with methods such as getProperty(propertyName) and setProperty(propertyName, value). You would then store this CFC in the application scope by doing the following inside Application.cfc's onApplicationStart method like:
<cfset application.siteConfig = createObject("component", "SiteConfig").init() />
Back to your original question though about storing a UDF in the Application scope, below is a way to do that. The basis is that in onApplicationStart you will create a new application persisted struct with your site's config properties like siteName and whatever else. Then a function is stored in a CFM file which is cfincluded only in onApplicationStart, then copied into the application scope. This means that all your regular page CFM files can use application.getProperty(propertyName).
Since the function is only created once and stored in the application scope it satisfies your original question's requirements about "assignment would only happen on application startup".
Hope this helps a bit!
getProperty.function.cfm
<cffunction name="getProperty" output="false">
<cfargument name="propertyName" type="string" required="true" />
<cfreturn application.config[propertyName] />
</cffunction>
Application.cfc
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart" output="false">
<cfset application.config = structNew() />
<cfset application.config.siteName = "My App's Display Name" />
<cfinclude template="getProperty.function.cfm" />
<cfset application.getProperty = variables.getProperty />
</cffunction>
test.cfm
<cfset propertyValue = application.getProperty("siteName") />
<cfdump var="#propertyValue#" />
You might consider creating a seperate "properties" CFC and instanciating it as
a singleton in the SERVER scope then it will be available from any CFML page even
if it isn't part of an application. If you go this route then there is no "server
start" event to bind to. Instead you can put this in the contructor of application.cfc
or in the body of application.cfm
<cfif not structkeyexists(server,"properties")>
<cflock name ="loadProperties"
timeout ="10"
type ="exclusive"
>
<cfif not structkeyexists(server,"properties")>
<cfset server.properties =
createObject("component","path-to-props.cfc")
.init({..inital properties..})
>
</cfif>
</cflock>
</cfif>
The lock code is to prevent the overhead of creating and assigning the UDF on every
request. This also allows the properties instance to persist so that having a
properties.SetProperty() function will work
you might also want to use the technique discussed here