Adobe ColdFusion Anthology: Clear and Concise Concepts from the Fusion Authority

543 Pages·2010·31.007 MB·English

by  Michael Dinowitz, Judith Dinowitz

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PANTONE 123 C
BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS BY PROFESSIONALS® THE EXPERT’S VOICE® IN WEB DEVELOPMENT
Companion
eBook Available
Adobe ColdFusion Anthology
A
Dear Reader, d
This book is an anthology of the most current technical articles published in o
the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update, a collection of some of the most impor-
tant issues in the ColdFusion community in a single volume. Over the years it b Adobe
has been published, the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update has become known e
for one thing first and foremost: the quality of its articles. From that treasure

Michael Dinowitz trove of content, we have created this volume, which represents what we feel C
were the cream of the crop among those articles, including “The Shoemaker
and the Asynchronous Process Elves” and “You Might Have a Performance o
Bottleneck If...”
l ColdFusion
The topics, best practices, and development tools covered in this book are
d
essential to ColdFusion developers and include:
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• working with ColdFusion frameworks, such as Model-Glue,
u
Fusebox, Mach-II, and ColdSpring
• using Application.cfc s
• integrating with web services Anthology
i
• building object-oriented applications o

• implementing version control with Subversion
n
Judith Dinowitz
Each article is written by experts in the field with practical, hands-on-experi-
ence and covers its topic thoroughly. Every article in this anthology has been A
thoroughly updated to reflect all of the new features and functionality released
n
in ColdFusion 9.
Clear and Concise Concepts from
Whether you are new to the language or a CFML guru, we are certain you t
will find the articles in this book an invaluable resource and reference for your h
library. Even if you're new to the language, you will receive much from reading
o the Fusion Authority
this book.
l
Companion eBook Michael Dinowitz, Publisher o
Judith Dinowitz, Master Editor-in-Chief
g
The Fusion Authority Quarterly Update
y

See last page for details
on $10 eBook version
D Michael and Judith Dinowitz
SOURCE CODE ONLINE in
www.apress.com ISBN 978-1-4302-7215-1 o
53999 w
Foreword by Ben Forta,
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t
z
US $39.99 Director of Platform Evangelism,
Adobe Systems Inc.
Shelve in:
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this print for content only—size & color not accurate 7.5 x 9.25 spine = 1.03125" 544 page count

Adobe ColdFusion
Anthology
Clear and Concise Concepts from
the Fusion Authority
■ ■ ■
Michael and Judith Dinowitz
Adobe ColdFusion Anthology: Clear and Concise Concepts from the Fusion Authority
Copyright © 2010 by Michael and Judith Dinowitz
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Contents at a Glance
Foreword ................................................................................................................ xxv
About the Authors .................................................................................................x xvi
About the Technical Reviewers . ........................................................................ xxxvii
Acknowledgments . ........................................................................................... xxxviii
Introduction ......................................................................................................... xxxix
PART 1: COLDFUSION FUNDAMENTALS. ...................................................................... 1
■Chapter 1: Working with Application.cfc . ............................................................... 3
■Chapter 2: Application.cfc Reference . .................................................................. 15
■Ch apter 3: From User-Defined Functions to ColdFusion Components .................. 17
■Ch apter 4: onMissingTemplate()— Error Handler and So Much More ................ 47
■Chapte r 5: “Say What?” Handling Unknown Messages
■with onMissingMethod() . ...................................................................................... 61
PART 2: DOCUMENT CREATION IN COLDFUSION........................................................ 73
■Chapter 6: PDF Support in ColdFusion . ................................................................. 75
■Chapter 7: Image Processing in ColdFusion . ........................................................ 89
iii
■ CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
PART 3: ESSENTIALS TO SERVER PRODUCTIVITY .................................................... 101
■Chapte r 8: Tuning Your Java Virtual Machine:
■Finding Your Ideal JVM Settings Through Metrics Log Analysis . ....................... 103
■Chapter 9: The Shoemaker and the Asynchronous Process Elves. ..................... 111
■Chapter 10: Asynchronous Gateways Step-by-Step . ......................................... 117
■Chapter 11: You Might Have a Performance Bottleneck If…. ............................. 121
PART 4: COMMUNICATION AND INTEGRATING WITH OTHER TECHNOLOGIES ........... 143
■Chapter 12: An Introduction to Consuming
■and Deploying Web Services in ColdFusion . ...................................................... 145
■Chapter 13: Web Services and Complex Types . ................................................. 157
■Chapter 14: Type Validation When Returning an Array of Components . ............ 179
■Chapter 15: Sending E-mail the Right Way . ........................................................ 181
■Chapter 16: ColdFusion and Microsoft Exchange . ............................................. 189
■Chapter 17: BlazeDS . .......................................................................................... 199
PART 5: OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING (OOP) ................................................ 211
■Chapter 18: Object-Oriented Programming: Why Bother? . ................................. 213
■Chapter 19: The Object-Oriented Lexicon . .......................................................... 217
■Chapter 20: Design Patterns: Exposing the Service Layer. ................................. 225
■Chapter 21: Beans and DAOs and Gateways, Oh My! . ....................................... 231
■Chapter 22: SOA for the Rest of Us ..................................................................... 239
■Chapter 23: How Base Classes Can Help You Generate Your Applications . ........ 249
PART 6: COLDFUSION FRAMEWORKS ..................................................................... 257
■Chapter 24: An Introduction to Frameworks . ..................................................... 259
iv
■ CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
■Chapter 25: Fusebox 5 Fundamentals . ............................................................... 265
■Chapter 26: Mach-II Fundamentals . ................................................................... 281
■Chapter 27: Model-Glue Fundamentals . ............................................................. 299
■Chapter 28: ColdSpring Fundamentals . .............................................................. 315
■Chapter 29: Reactor Fundamentals .................................................................... 321
■Chapter 30: Developing Applications with Transfer . ......................................... 331
■Chapter 31: FW/1: The Invisible Framework . ..................................................... 347
PART 7: DESIGNING THE USER INTERFACE ............................................................. 359
■Chapter 32: Separating Layout from Logic . ........................................................ 361
■Chapter 33: Creating Dynamic Presentations in ColdFusion . ............................. 369
■Chapter 34: Working with JSON and cfajaxproxy . ............................................. 375
■Chapter 35: Prototyping for Interface Driven Architecture:
■Easing the Transition from Prototype to Application . ........................................ 385
PART 8: DEVELOPMENT TOOLS ............................................................................... 389
■Chapter 36: Turbo Charging Eclipse . .................................................................. 391
■Chapter 37: An Introduction to ColdFusion Builder . .......................................... 407
■Chapter 38: The ColdFusion Debugger Explained:
■Interactive Step Debugging for ColdFusion 8 and 9 . .......................................... 421
■Chapter 39: Getting Started with Subversion ..................................................... 433
■Chapter 40: Subversion in the Workflow . ........................................................... 445
■Chapter 41: Advanced Subversion . ..................................................................... 451
■Chapter 42: Automating Your Development with Ant . ....................................... 461
Index ....................................................................................................................... 477
v
Contents
Foreword ................................................................................................................ xxv
About the Authors .................................................................................................x xvi
About the Technical Reviewers . ........................................................................ xxxvii
Acknowledgments . ........................................................................................... xxxviii
Introduction ......................................................................................................... xxxix
PART 1: COLDFUSION FUNDAMENTALS. ..................................................................... 1
■Chapter 1: Working with Application.cfc . ............................................................... 3
What Is an Application? ..................................................................................................... 3
Adding Application Variables ............................................................................................ 5
The onApplicationStart Method ............................................................................................................... 5
The onSessionStart Method..................................................................................................................... 6
The onRequestStart Method .................................................................................................................... 7
The onError Method ................................................................................................................................ 8
The onApplicationEnd Method ............................................................................................................... 10
The onSessionEnd Method .................................................................................................................... 10
The onRequestEnd Method. ................................................................................................................... 11
The onRequest Method. ......................................................................................................................... 11
A New Application Structure ........................................................................................... 13
■Chapter 2: Application.cfc Reference . .................................................................. 15
vi
■ CONTENTS
■Ch apter 3: From User-Defined Functions to ColdFusion Components .................. 17
User-Defined Functions .................................................................................................. 17
Creating UDFs ....................................................................................................................................... 18
Executing UDFs and Passing Parameters .............................................................................................. 27
Error Handling....................................................................................................................................... 30
A Full UDF Example .............................................................................................................................. 31
ColdFusion Components ................................................................................................. 32
Creating CFCs ....................................................................................................................................... 33
The CFC Container: The cfcomponent Tag ............................................................................................ 39
Implementing Security .......................................................................................................................... 39
Defining Properties: Variables and This. ................................................................................................ 40
Understanding Encapsulation ................................................................................................................ 41
Caching Components. ........................................................................................................................... 41
Using Inheritance. ................................................................................................................................. 43
Parting Words .................................................................................................................. 45
■Ch apter 4: onMissingTemplate()— Error Handler and So Much More ................ 47
404 Missing Template Handling: Step-by-Step Basics ................................................... 47
Setting Global Handlers .................................................................................................. 48
What Is the onMissingTemplate() Method, and When Is It Called? ................................ 49
Method Invocation within onMissingTemplate() ............................................................. 51
When Errors Occur .......................................................................................................... 52
Reasons for Calling onMissingTemplate() ....................................................................... 53
Request Errors and Corrected Requests................................................................................................ 53
Content Redirects ................................................................................................................................. 54
Dynamic Page Generation ..................................................................................................................... 55
Fusebox URL ......................................................................................................................................... 58
Model-Glue URL .................................................................................................................................... 59
vii
■ CONTENTS
Mach-II URL .......................................................................................................................................... 59
We’re Not Done Yet, but .................................................................................................. 59
■Chapte r 5: “Say What?” Handling Unknown Messages
■with onMissingMethod() . ...................................................................................... 61
Get the Message? ........................................................................................................... 61
Message Received ........................................................................................................... 63
Defining onMissingMethod() ........................................................................................... 64
Using onMissingMethod() ............................................................................................... 65
Automatic get/set Methods ................................................................................................................... 66
Method Injection ................................................................................................................................... 68
Aspect-Oriented Programming .............................................................................................................. 70
Summary ........................................................................................................................ 72
Further Reading .............................................................................................................. 72
PART 2: DOCUMENT CREATION IN COLDFUSION........................................................ 73
■Chapter 6: PDF Support in ColdFusion . ................................................................. 75
PDF Support in ColdFusion MX 7 (and Earlier) ................................................................ 75
PDF Support in ColdFusion 8.0.1 and beyond ................................................................. 76
The isPDFFile and isPDFObject Functions ...................................................................... 77
What Exactly Can We Do with the cfpdf Tag? ................................................................. 79
Getting and Setting Information............................................................................................................. 80
Adding a Watermark ............................................................................................................................. 84
Using DDX ............................................................................................................................................. 86
Where to Go Next ............................................................................................................ 88
viii