If you missed the part 1 of this tutorial, you may get it here.
Now that we have set up the main Fusebox structure for our application, let’s continue to implement it.

Layouts

Figure 2.1

I want you to pay particular attention to the circuit “layout”. That circuit will not be called by any page, it is an internal circuit, basically a “view” circuit which will assemble all the contents of the page into the layout templates we choose.

Now that we have our “Hello World” page working, let’s play a little with layouts. Suppose you want to have a header, content and footer as your layout (Figure 2.1). First you will have to create the contents for the header, main content and footer blocks and then insert them into the layout template. Let’s see how it is done.
On the fusebox.xml.cfm template there is a tag <globalfuseactions>, followed by two tags <preprocess> and <postprocess>. Every action that you include between those tags will be processed either before or after Fusebox assembles the page.

We will set the header, footer and the layout actions into the <postprocess> tag, because they will be shown at the end of all Fusebox processing.
The code is:

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<globalfuseactions>
<preprocess>
</preprocess>
<postprocess>
<fuseaction action="vhome.header" contentvariable="content.header" />
<fuseaction action="vhome.footer" contentvariable="content.footer" />
<fuseaction action="layout.checkLayout" />
</postProcess>
</globalfuseaction>

Note, in the <postprocess> block, the attribute “contentvariable” in the fuseaction tag. That means Fusebox will process that action and will place the results into a variable instead of rendering it to the screen. Later on, we will use that variable in the layout context. We are calling actions from the “view” of the home circuit. That’s why we are calling the fuseactions vhome.header and vhome.footer before the layout.checklayout, because we want to load the header and footer into variables that will be used in the layout template.

So, let’s work now on the “layout” circuit and prepare the header, footer and default layout templates.

Create a ColdFusion template named dspHeader.cfm and another dspFooter.cfm inside the “home view” folder: \circuits\home\vhome. Add the following code to the templates:

dspHeader.cfm

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<cfoutput>
<h2>#request.pageTitle#</h2>
<hr/>
</cfoutput>

dspFooter.cfm

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<hr/>
<h4>©2009 Your Name</h4>

Now, let’s edit the circuit.xml.cfm template in the “vhome” circuit:

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<!DOCTYPE circuit>
<? xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- vhome -->
<circuit access="internal" xmlns:cf="cf/">
<fuseaction name="main">
<set name=”request.pageTitle” value=”Fusebox Tutorial” overwrite=”true” />
<include template="dspMain" required="true" />
</fuseaction>
<fuseaction name="header">
<include template="dspHeader" required="true" />
</fuseaction>
<fuseaction name="footer">
<include template="dspFooter" required="true" />
</fuseaction>
</circuit>

With that, we accomplished the Header and Footer to be included in our layout. Notice the setting of the variable request.pageTitle with an attribute of overwrite=’true’; that will be used in the header when included into the layout template. Now, let’s look at the layout itself.

You noticed the call to the layout fuseaction in the fusebox.xml.cfm under the tag <postprocess> in the global fuseactions section:

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<postprocess>
<fuseaction action="layout.checkLayout" />
</postProcess>

That fuseaction will call the “checkLayout” fuse in the circuit “layout”, and it will check if we want to use a layout or which layout template to load.
So, let’s write that “checkLayout” in \circuits\layout\circuit.xml.cfm:

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<? xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE circuit>
<!-- circuit: LAYOUT -->
<circuit access="internal" xmlns:cf="cf/">
<fuseaction name="checkLayout">
<set name="request.useLayout" value="default" overwrite="false" />
<if condition="request.useLayout is 'default'">
<true>
<include template="layDefault" required="true" />
</true>
</if>
<if condition="request.useLayout is 'brochure'">
<true>
<include template="layBrochure" required="true" />
</true>
</if>
</fuseaction>
</circuit>

First we set a default value for the variable “request.useLayout” with the attribute “overwrite” to “false” because we don’t want overwrite it in case it already exists.

Then we start checking for its value, if it is “default”, include the default template, if it is “brochure” then include the brochure layout template, and so on (you may have as many layouts you want).

Have you noticed that you do not need to write the file extension .cfm for the template names in the <include> tag? Fusebox will assume you are loading ColdFusion templates if you do not specify the file extension.

Now that we have the header, footer and layout calls, let’s work on the default layout template in \circuits\layout\layDefault.cfm:

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<cfparam name="content.header" default="This is the Header" />
<cfparam name="content.footer" default="This is the Footer" />
<cfparam name="content.mainContent" default="This is the main content" />
<cfparam name="request.pageTitle" default="FPTutorial" />
<html>
<head>
<cfoutput><title>#request.pageTitle#</title></cfoutput>
</head>
<body>
<cfoutput>
<p>#content.header#</p>
<p>#content.mainContent#</p>
<p>#content.footer#</p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

Run your application and you should receive a page like Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2

On the next part of this tutorial we will work with some content for the main page, to replace the “Hello World”.

The idea is to make you comfortable with the framework showing where to add fuses, variables, include templates, etc.

Just keep in mind that if you are using layouts, you must create all your content, save it to variables before Fusebox finishes processing and throwing the layout page.

Thank you for your interest and feel free to write any comment to this post.

Download here the zip file with the files for this tutorial. Please note that the fusebox.xml.cfm contain commented circuits for future development.

I work with Fusebox framework since its version 2. Now we are at version 5.51. I decided to write this tutorial to help some friends who haven’t got into Fusebox yet but are anxious to jump into the bandwagon, just don’t know how to start. I recommend Jeff Peter’s books on Fusebox for those who really want to take advantage of this framework:

• Fusebox 5 & Flip Master-Class ColdFusion Applications
• How to Drive Fusebox 5.5

MVC – Model View Controller

Before going into the framework, let’s talk a little about MVC (Model, View, Controller). For those who don’t know MVC, it is a method of separating the presentation, action and control layers of the application in order to achieve better and secure way of programming, and easier maintenance.

All external calls (from the web URL) are directed to the Control layer. Then the Control will decide which actions to take, like performing a query, a calculation, etc… That is done in the Model layer, which has no access from the outside world. Then the Control will submit the results to the View (presentation layer) which will assemble the contents to the public. Basically, all public link addresses to your website will be calling the Control layer. All your queries and action pages will be in the Model, and all your display pages will be in the View, easy to find and maintain.

Example: if you have to show a list of real estate properties, the Control will call a query in the Model to obtain the data and then call a display page in the View to show all the properties selected in the query.

Fusebox

Figure 1.1

Fusebox is a methodology for developing web applications. It protects your application by forcing all calls to be made to a single template: index.cfm, which acts as the hub where all connections are made. By passing the “fuseaction” attribute, you will tell the Fusebox framework what action you want to be executed.

So, with the analogy to the “electric fusebox”, the framework is divided into “circuits” and “fuses”. Your application folders are called “circuits” and the ColdFusion templates are the “fuses”.

In this tutorial we will be referencing the Fusebox 5.51 XML version, not the non-xml one (sort of OO). Let’s start by downloading the Fusebox 5.51 Core Files, select the first link: Official FB5.5.1/CFMX core files (v5.5.1).

Unzip the contents to a folder named “fusebox5″ inside your web application root if you DO NOT have access to the ColdFusion administration site. Otherwise, extract the contents to a folder outside your web root and then map it as “/fusebox5″. Doing that, you will be able to have multiple websites using the same Fusebox core installation.

Your Fusebox core structure should be like Figure 1.1 side.

Figure 1.2

We are going to create a web application for a store called FBTutorial. Here are the initial application requirements:

• Home Page with News Articles
• Contact Page – form
• Products page – catalog
• Shopping Cart

Figure 1.3

I know two ways of creating the MVC structure for a Fusebox application. One is most used by creating 3 folders: _model, _view and _controller (the underscores are for placing the folders on top of the other regular ones), and inside those folders we would put the Fusebox circuits.

I find that more complicated and less modular. Any maintenance you need to do, you will have to look at the subfolders inside other subfolders, etc… (figure 1.3)

If you want to turn a circuit into a module that could be copied to other application, the better approach should be creating the circuits first, and then inside each circuit you create the folders “model” and “view”, being the circuit root itself working as the “controller”.

So I chose the second structure by creating the circuit folders and

Figure 1.4

then their subfolders model and view (Figure 1.4). Here is how we will create the application structure:

• FBTutorial
  • circuits
    • forms
    • home
    • news
    • products
    • shopping
  • other folders…

Now, inside each circuit folder, we will create the folders “model” and “view“. You decide

Figure 1.5

if you want to prefix them with underscore “_”, since you will not have any other folder in the circuits.

After creating all the necessary folders, we need to create empty control files in each folder. Those files will be named “circuit.xml.cfm”, which are XML files but with the extention CFM so they cannot be read by the browser without being parsed by ColdFusion. Just create the empty files for now.

Figure 1.5 shows the new structure with the XML files.

Do not worry about the empty files, we will fill them in later.

Figure 1.6

I’m just preparing the application structure before starting coding.

Now, let’s create the Fusebox required and optional files on the application root. Starting with the Application.cfc (capital “A”), fusebox.appinit.cfm, fusebox.init.cfm, fusebox.xml.cfm and index.cfm (create those empty files and we’ll work on them next. Your structure now should be like Figure 1.6.

Application Root

Let’s start now working on the Fusebox files on the application root. First of all, the Application.cfc component which is always the first to run on each request.
The basic methods in the Application.cfc component are:

• onApplicationStart,
• onApplicationEnd,
• onSessionStart,
• onSessionEnd,
• onRequestStart

You may have additional methods like onRequestEnd, onError… but right now we are interested in the Fusebox method: onFuseboxApplicationStart. That method is called when the Fusebox application initiates. It replaces the template fusebox.appinit.cfm in the application root. So if you may decide to use this method instead of that template, then it’s one less file to maintain.

Here is our Application.cfc template:

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<cfcomponent extends="fusebox5.Application" output="false">
<cfscript>
this.name = right(REReplace(expandPath('.'),'[^A-Za-z]','','all'),64);
this.applicationTimeout = createTimeSpan(0,6,0,0);
this.sessionManagement = true;
this.sessionTimeout = createTimeSpan(0,0,30,0);
this.clientManagement = true;
this.mainDSN = "myDSN";
this.webmasterEmail = "myEmail@myDomain.com";
</cfscript>
<!--- trap non-index.cfm requests - must be outside onXxxYyy() handlers --->
<cfif right(cgi.script_name, len("index.cfm")) neq "index.cfm" and
right(cgi.script_name, 3) neq "cfc">
<cflocation url="index.cfm" addtoken="no" />
</cfif>
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart" returntype="boolean" output="false">
<cfreturn True>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onApplicationEnd" output="false">
<cfargument name="applicationScope" required="true" />
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionStart" output="false">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionEnd" output="false">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onFuseboxApplicationStart">
<cfset super.onFuseboxApplicationStart() />
<!--- code formerly in fusebox.appinit.cfm --->
<cfif not structKeyExists(application,"mainDSN")>
<cflock name="mainDSN" type="exclusive" timeout="10">
<cfset application.mainDSN = this.mainDSN />
</cflock>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
<cfargument name="targetPage" />
<cfscript>
super.onRequestStart(arguments.targetPage);
//code formerly in fusebox.init.cfm
self = myFusebox.getSelf();
myself = myFusebox.getMyself();
if (listFirst(CGI.SERVER_NAME, ".") == "www") {
FUSEBOX_PARAMETERS.mode = "production" ;
} else {
FUSEBOX_PARAMETERS.mode = "development-circuit-load" ;
}
// request scope
request.applicationName = this.name;
request.mainDSN = this.mainDSN;
request.webmasterEmail = this.webmasterEmail;
request.baseDir = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetBaseTemplatePath());
request.componentPath = "assets.components.";
request.imagePath = "assets/images/";
request.cssPath = "assets/css/";
request.jsPath = "assets/js/";
request.flashPath = "assets/multimedia/";
request.videoPath = "assets/multimedia/";
request.ppsPath = "assets/multimedia/";
</cfscript>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Now, here is the deal. Since the Fusebox core also has an Application.cfc with the same methods, we need to extend our Application.cfc to the Fusebox one and make use of the “call super” to invoke those methods first in order to use ours. On the first line, we extend the component. Remember to map /fusebox5 in your ColdFusion adminstration to the folder were you saved the core files.

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<cfcomponent extends="fusebox5.Application" output="false">

The method onFuseboxApplicationStart must have the call super:

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<cffunction name="onFuseboxApplicationStart">
<cfset super.onFuseboxApplicationStart() />
… … …

onRequestStart should have also the call super:

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<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
<cfargument name="targetPage" />
<cfscript>
super.onRequestStart(arguments.targetPage);
… … …

Some code that was formerly in fusebox.init.cfm:

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self = myFusebox.getSelf();
myself = myFusebox.getMyself();
if (listFirst(CGI.SERVER_NAME, ".") == "www") {
FUSEBOX_PARAMETERS.mode = "production" ;
} else {
FUSEBOX_PARAMETERS.mode = "development-circuit-load" ;
}

Fusebox.init.cfm

We basically wrote all the necessary code for starting with the Application.cfc, now let’s concentrate on the Fusebox template fusebox.init.cfm. It is included by the framework at the start of every request. It is included within a cfsilent tag so it cannot generate output. It is intended to be for per-request initialization and manipulation of the fuseaction variables.

You can set attributes.fuseaction, for example, to override the default fuseaction. Fusebox 5.1 and later – set variables implicitly from the Fusebox itself.

Could also modify the self location here:

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<cfset myFusebox.setSelf("/myapp/start.cfm") />

For now, just write the following code in your fusebox.init.cfm template:

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<cfprocessingdirective suppresswhitespace="true">
<!--- some future code here --->
</cfprocessingdirective>

Index.cfm

The index.cfm template will have only one statement:

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<cfinclude template="/fusebox5/fusebox5.cfm" />

In a Fusebox application the index.cfm template has no use other than to include the framework.

Fusebox.xml.cfm

The last file on the application root we have to work on is the fusebox.xml.cfm, which is the file that controls all the fusebox circuits, parameters, classes, plugins and global actions.
In the “circuits” block we define the paths and aliases for the circuits. You may chose any name as an alias to a circuit, does not have to be the same name of the folder, you will see below that we are calling “cart” the circuit in the folder “shopping”.
The “parameters” block contains Fusebox default settings, and it is customizable.
Here is our fusebox.xml.cfm file:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fusebox>
<!--Example fusebox.xml control file. Shows how to define circuits, classes, parameters and global fuseactions. This is just a test namespace for the plugin custom attribute example -->
<fusebox xmlns:test="test">
<circuits>
<!-- Home circuit -->
<circuit alias="home" path="circuits/home/" parent="" />
<circuit alias="mhome" path="circuits/home/model/" parent="home" />
<circuit alias="vhome" path="circuits/home/view/" parent="home" />
<!-- Forms circuit -->
<circuit alias="forms" path="circuits/forms/" parent="home" />
<circuit alias="mforms" path="circuits/forms/model/" parent="forms" />
<circuit alias="vforms" path="circuits/forms/view/" parent="forms" />
<!-- News circuit -->
<circuit alias="news" path="circuits/news/" parent="home" />
<circuit alias="mnews" path="circuits/news/model/" parent="news" />
<circuit alias="vnews" path="circuits/news/view/" parent="news" />
<!-- Products circuit -->
<circuit alias="products" path="circuits/products/" parent="home"/>
<circuit alias="mproducts" path="circuits/products/model/" parent="products" />
<circuit alias="vproducts" path="circuits/products/view/" parent="products" />
<!-- shopping circuit -->
<circuit alias="cart" path="circuits/shopping/" parent="home" />
<circuit alias="mcart" path="circuits/shopping/model/" parent="cart" />
<circuit alias="vcart" path="circuits/shopping/view/" parent="cart" />
<!-- Layout circuit -->
<circuit alias="layout" path="circuits/layout/" />
</circuits>
<classes>
</classes>
<parameters>
<parameter name="defaultFuseaction" value="home.main" />
<!-- you may want to change this to development-full-load mode: -->
<parameter name="mode" value="development-full-load" />
<!-- change this to something more secure: -->
<parameter name="password" value="" />
<parameter name="strictMode" value="true" />
<!-- These are all default values that can be overridden:
<parameter name="fuseactionVariable" value="fuseaction" />
<parameter name="precedenceFormOrUrl" value="form" />
<parameter name="scriptFileDelimiter" value="cfm" />
<parameter name="maskedFileDelimiters" value="htm,cfm,cfml,php,php4,asp,aspx" />
<parameter name="characterEncoding" value="utf-8" />
<paramater name="strictMode" value="false" />
<parameter name="allowImplicitCircuits" value="false" />
<parameter name="debug" value="false" /> -->
</parameters>
<globalfuseactions>
<preprocess>
</preprocess>
<postprocess>
</postprocess>
</globalfuseactions>
<plugins>
<phase name="preProcess">
</phase>
<phase name="preFuseaction">
</phase>
<phase name="postFuseaction">
</phase>
<phase name="fuseactionException">
</phase>
<phase name="postProcess">
</phase>
<phase name="processError">
</phase>
</plugins>
</fusebox>

We define the circuits in the “circuits” block by assigning an alias to the path. In the application we will call the index.cfm passing the circuit,fuse and fuseaction we want to execute. Example:

Figure 1.7

index.cfm?fuseaction=home.main
index.cfm?fuseaction=products.showProduct&productID=1234
index.cfm?fuseaction=cart.addToCart

With Fusebox, everything is assembled in the root. The index.cfm loads Fusebox and it prepares the request to be served without the customer seeing in which folders the templates are.
We added a circuit named “layout” which will handle all the layouts for our application. Since it is for the presentation layer, we do not have to create the “model” folder. Figure 1.7 shows an updated version of our structure.

Circuit.xml.cfm

Now we are going to look at the circuit.xml.cfm file placed in all circuits.
Let’s start with the “home” main circuit, the controller one” /circuits/home/circuit.xml.cfm:
For now we will not have any actions to call, just a display page to show the homepage, then our circuit.xml.cfm file will have the following code:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- home -->
<circuit access="public" xmlns:cf="cf/">
<fuseaction name="main">
<do action="vhome.main" />
</fuseaction>
</circuit>

You noticed that we here we are calling an action on another circuit, the “vhome”, in the “view” part of the MVC, to display the homepage. If we had to calculate anything or grab any information from a database in order to populate that homepage, then we would call the “model” layer before the “view”.

The call to “index.cfm?fuseaction=home.main” will get to this circuit which will call the “vhome.main” fuseaction in the “view” area. Subsequently that fuseaction, “vhome.main”, will include the template “dspMain.cfm” with the contents of the homepage, and then Fusebox will assemble the full page for ColdFusion to render to the browser. Note that the attribute “access” for this circuit is set to “public”. That means it can be accessed by the web browser, it is a public fuse.

Here is the circuit.xml.cfm file in the “view” area:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE circuit>
<!-- vhome -->
<circuit access="internal" xmlns:cf="cf/">
<fuseaction name="main">
<include template="dspMain.cfm" required="true" />
</fuseaction>
</circuit>

In this case, the “access” attribute is set to “internal” which means this circuit can be only called by another circuit, it will not respond to browser calls.

The fuseaction “main” will include the template dspMain.cfm.
Just for testing purpose, create the file dspMain.cfm with the following HTML code:

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<h1>Hello World</h1>

Now, let’s test the site. If you have ColdFusion Developer Edition installed in your machine, just browse to: “http://localhost/FBtutorial“. You do not have to specify any attributes, because the Fusebox configuration file (fusebox.xml.cfm) will take care of calling the default fuseaction “home.main”.
You should get the page “Hellow World”.

On the next part we will start handling layouts.

I hope you have liked this tutorial and please feel free to comment if you have questions.

Part 2

Ubuntu is now an officially support Operating system for ColdFusion 9. This is a guide on installing Apache and ColdFusion 9 on a clean install of Ubuntu 9.04. This starts with a clean install on Ubuntu 9.04 with no additional options selected during the install. If you are planning on running PHP side by side with ColdFusion my recommendation is to set up PHP first then ColdFusion.


Get the full article here, by Jamin Quimby.

.

As I was finishing this guide on installing ColdFusion 9 on Ubuntu Linux I tweeted how many words made up the text (over 6,000). Several people commented on Twitter and Facebook saying things like: “[the length] seems a bit excessive,” and “is it that complicated?” The thing is, I’m covering much more than simply installing ColdFusion. Overall, just installing ColdFusion isn’t that big of a deal. But I’ve yet to see a guide or blog post that outlines all the other topics related to getting a decent ColdFusion server on Ubuntu up and running. That’s why I wrote this super guide, to outline what I believe is important to know about installing ColdFusion. Of course, I’m not covering every single possible detail, but I believe I’ve hit on all the major topics. Along the way I sprinkle in my own ideas, thoughts, and what I believe are best practices. After you read this post and walk through all the instructions you should have a very solid ColdFusion / Apache set up on Ubuntu Linux.

Here is the full article by Aaron West.

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Come with questions, come with answers, but just make sure you show up.

The current line up:

Andy Allan
Adam Lehman
Andy Mathews
Ben Nadel
Brian Kotek
Charles Arehart
Dan Vega
Jason Dean
Marc Esher
Raymond Camden
Rob Brooks-Bilson
Scott Stroz
Todd Sharp

Be on look out for the Connect address that Ray Camden will publish on his blog

TOPIC DESCRIPTION: (provided by the speaker)

During this one hour walkthrough you will learn about Sencha Touch – the first mobile application framework built on web standards. Using simple JavaScript syntax you can quickly create and deploy rich, native-looking applications that are x-browser compatible with Android and iOS phones and tablets. Along the way, you’ll also learn a few really cool optimization tips for the desktop and mobile web as well as discuss important design considerations for these new form-factors. To view the sample apps prior to the lecture, access http://www.senchatouchtraining.com/ using Android, iOS, or desktop webkit browsers.

MEETING URL: http://experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup/
DURATION: Approx. 1 hour
Meeting will be recorded. URL will be posted after meeting at http://recordings.coldfusionmeetup.com

SPEAKER: (provided by the speaker)

Steve Drucker is the founder/president of Fig Leaf Software, an Adobe, Google, Paperthin, and JackBe premier-level consulting and training partner. Steve has been developing ColdFusion applications since 1995, founded the very first ColdFusion users group, was a contributing author to the very first book about ColdFusion, and has authored over a dozen hands-on, instructor-led training courses including Advanced ColdFusion 9, Administering ColdFusion, Fast Track to AJAX with ColdFusion, and Fast Track to Presto Enterprise Mashups. He is also an author of Adobe’s ColdFusion 9 certification exam. Steve has consulted on some of the largest ColdFusion sites ever deployed including Voice of America (www.voanews.com), National Park Service (www.nps.gov), Hasbro (www.hasbro.com), and Architect of the Capitol (www.aoc.gov). Fig Leaf Software is a veteran-owned small business (VSOB) on GSA schedule. Check us out at http://www.figleaf.com and http://training.figleaf.com.

WHEN: Thurs. Dec 2, 12:00pm US ET (UTC/GMT-5)

What time is that for you? The following link shows what the time would be for you. Here’s another option that shows the time as US ET, and lets you choose your city from the list offered to see what time that is in your own timezone.

RECORDING: As always, the meeting will be recorded, and the recording URL will be posted after the meeting at http://recordings.coldfusionmeetup.com.

PODCAST/DOWNLOADABLE RECORDINGS:
In addition to the streaming recording, we not also post downloadable recordings (FLV, MP3, and MP4) usually within a day after each meeting, also offered as a link from the recordings page.

LOGGING IN: When you login to the Connect room (the experts.acrobat.com/cfmeetup link above) to view the meeting, PLEASE USE THE “LOGIN AS GUEST” option, and USE YOUR NAME, but do NOT attempt to use your meetup.com username/password or any Connect account. Just sign in as a guest.

RSVP, but only if coming: We do appreciate folks RSVPing if they plan to come (using the link on this email or at the meetup site), though it’s not mandatory and it’s not a commitment. But there’s no need to RSVP if you can’t make it let alone explain why you can’t. With over 2,100 members, no worries.

FEEDBACK/MEETING DISCUSSION: Members will receive an email after the meeting or can click a link on the event page to offer. Note also the meeting-specific discussion area there at the bottom, in addition to the one-chance feedback feature on the right. Feel free to engage in discussions about the meeting topic.

ADD THIS TO YOUR CALENDAR: Want to add this event to your own personal calendar? Click the link on the top of the event page, below the event title, saying, “Export to a calendar”, which offers calendar downloads for Outlook, iCal, Google, and Yahoo calendars.

I am going to attempt to broadcast this User Group presentation via WEB-EX for any who need to be at home but would like to attend the meetin anyway.

by Tim Cunningham

Central Georgia ColdFusion User Group

Here is the link to login to the presentation: http://cgcfug.groups.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=post.display&postid=32145

There are several sites to use for URL shortening, like tinyUrl.com, is.gd, dwarfURL.com, bit.ly and others.
I got a call from a friend who has many articles distributed with short URL and he is afraid if someday those shortening sites go down and his articles will be lost.
Therefore, he asked me if I could write a system to do the same thing but hosted on his server.
I did it and it is working for him. I now decided to make it available for those who think the same way.

Our environment is Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL 2008 and ColdFusion 8.

Domain Name

First, you need to register a short domain name and create the website. You can try free domain hosting for that matter. Suppose you registered the domain xxx.com, and set up the DNS records.

• Create a folder for the site in your web root: ex: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\xxx\
  • Add it to IIS

ISAPI Rewrite

In order to redirect the short URL to the target one, you need to set up the ISAPI URL rewrite.

• If you have IIS 5/6:
  • You should download the DLL and the configuration file HERE.
  • Save the IsapiRewrite4.dll and the configuration file (.ini) to a folder outside your web root. I saved it into “c:\ISAPI\urlShortener\”.
    The configuration file is simple, and you will see the following rule:
    RewriteRule  ^/([^/.\?]+)$    /index.cfm?go=$1
• For IIS 7 (Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7):
  • You need to download the ISAPI rewrite tool (http://www.iis.net/download/URLRewrite)
    • Click on the link x86 or x64 (64-bit) on the box on the right, if you do not want to install the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.
  • Run the installation and your IIS will have the “Rewrite” tool for all of your sites.
  • Configure ISAPI:
    • Open the IIS Manager and select your website or virtual folder (Windows 7 localhost)
    • In the IIS group icons, click on “URL rewrite”
    • The URL Rewrite window will open, click on “Add Rule(s)” on the right box.
    • On the Rule Template, select “User-friendly URL” and click OK.
    • Enter the following URL in the input box: http://xxx.com/index.cfm?go=xyz123
      (replace xxx.com by your domain).
      • IIS will show the short URL and the pattern in the boxes below. Just click OK.
    • Now the URL Rewrite window will show the rule you just created.

Database

Next step: Setting up the database:

• Create a database and a table (I called the database “urlShortener” and the table “urls”).  (Scripts HERE). (codes SP1 and SP2)
• Create two stored procedures: dbo.setShortUrl and dbo.getShortUrl  (Scripts HERE).

o   The stored procedure setShortUrl checks if the target URL and code passed already Exist, and if not, it saves the new target and returns the new code. (code SP3)

o   The stored procedure getShortUrl retrieves the target URL of a given short code.(code SP4)

ColdFusion Data Source

Add data source to ColdFusion Administrator: I suppose you know how to do that!

CFML

Now let’s work on the project in CFEclipse or CFBuilder.

• Create the “Application.cfc” (Code CF1)
• Create the component “shortener.cfc” (code CF2)
• Create the “index.cfm” (code CF3)

You may download the complete code and database scripts HERE.

I hope this code is of good use for you. Please let me know if you find any error or if you have any ideas to make it work better.

Code S1: Create Database urlShortener

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USE [master]
GO
CREATE DATABASE [urlShortener] ON  PRIMARY
( NAME = N'urlShortener', FILENAME = N'C:\MSSQLDATA\urlShortener.mdf' , SIZE = 2048KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )

LOG ON
( NAME = N'urlShortener_log', FILENAME = N'C:\MSSQLDATA\urlShortener_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , MAXSIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 2048KB )
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 100
GO

IF (1 = FULLTEXTSERVICEPROPERTY('IsFullTextInstalled'))
begin
EXEC [urlShortener].[dbo].[sp_fulltext_database] @action = 'enable'
end
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET ANSI_NULL_DEFAULT OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET ANSI_NULLS OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET ANSI_WARNINGS OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET ARITHABORT OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET AUTO_CLOSE OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS ON
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET AUTO_SHRINK OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS ON
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET CURSOR_CLOSE_ON_COMMIT OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET CURSOR_DEFAULT  GLOBAL
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET  DISABLE_BROKER
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET DATE_CORRELATION_OPTIMIZATION OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET TRUSTWORTHY OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET PARAMETERIZATION SIMPLE
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET HONOR_BROKER_PRIORITY OFF
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET  READ_WRITE
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET  MULTI_USER
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET PAGE_VERIFY CHECKSUM
GO

ALTER DATABASE [urlShortener] SET DB_CHAINING OFF
GO

Code S2: Create Table urls

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USE [urlShortener]
GO

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[urls](
[ID] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL,
[shortURL] [varchar](25) NULL,
[targetURL] [varchar](255) NULL,
[hitCount] [int] NULL,
[dateCreated] [datetime] NULL,
[isActive] [bit] NULL,

CONSTRAINT [PK_urls] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
( [ID] ASC
) WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO

SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[urls] ADD  CONSTRAINT [DF_urls_ID]  DEFAULT (newid()) FOR [ID]
GO

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[urls] ADD  CONSTRAINT [DF_urls_hitCount]  DEFAULT ((0)) FOR [hitCount]
GO

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[urls] ADD  CONSTRAINT [DF_urls_dateCreated]  DEFAULT (getdate()) FOR [dateCreated]
GO

ALTER TABLE [dbo].[urls] ADD  CONSTRAINT [DF_urls_isActive]  DEFAULT ((1)) FOR [isActive]
GO

Code S3: Stored Procedure setShortURL

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USE [urlShortener]
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author:           Ricardo Parente
-- Create date: 2010-10-09
-- Description:      I try to add a new URL
-- =============================================
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[setShortUrl]
@arg_shortURL varchar(25)
,   @arg_targetURL varchar(255)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- check if targetURL already exists
IF (NOT EXISTS (
SELECT TOP 1 shortURL
FROM urls
WHERE targetURL = @arg_targetURL))
BEGIN
-- since targetURL does not exist, let's check if the
-- shortURL already exists
IF (NOT EXISTS (
SELECT TOP 1 shortURL
FROM urls
WHERE shortURL = @arg_shortURL))
BEGIN
-- since the shortURL and targetURL do not exist, let's add them
INSERT INTO urls (
shortURL
,   targetURL
) VALUES (
@arg_shortURL
,   @arg_targetURL
)
-- return the newly created shortURL
SELECT @arg_shortURL AS shortURL
END
ELSE
-- shortURL already exists and it is not for the given target URL, so return blank
SELECT NULL AS shortURL
END
ELSE
-- targetURL already exists, so return its shortURL
SELECT TOP 1 shortURL
FROM urls
WHERE targetURL = @arg_targetURL
END
GO

Code S4: Stored Procedure getShortURL

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USE [urlShortener]
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author:        Ricardo Parente
-- Create date: 2010-10-10
-- Description:   I retrieve one record
-- =============================================
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[getShortURL]
@arg_shortURL varchar(25)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
UPDATE urls SET
hitCount = hitCount + 1
WHERE shortURL = @arg_shortURL
SELECT TOP 1 targetURL
FROM urls
WHERE shortURL = @arg_shortURL
END

Code CF1: Aplication.cfc

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<cfcomponent output="false">
<cfscript>
this.name = "urlShortener";
this.applicationTimeout = createTimeSpan(0,6,0,0);
this.sessionManagement = false;
this.clientManagement = false;
</cfscript>
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart" returntype="boolean" output="false">
<cfscript>
application.mainDSN = "urlShortener";
application.emailFrom = "process@zzz.com";
application.emailAdmin = "webmaster@zzz.com";
application.totChars = 6;
</cfscript>
<cfreturn True/>
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="onApplicationEnd" output="false">
<cfargument name="applicationScope" required="true" />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
<cfargument type="String" name="targetPage" required="true" />
<cfparam name="url.appInit" type="string" default="false" />
<cfparam name="url.serverInit" type="string" default="false" />
<cfscript>
if (url.appInit eq true or url.serverInit eq true)
onApplicationStart();
</cfscript>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Code CF2: shortener.cfc

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<cfcomponent output="false">
<cfscript>
variables.aChars =
listToArray("a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9", " ");
</cfscript>

<cffunction name="setShort" access="remote" output="false"
returntype="Any">
<cfargument name="targetURL" type="string" required="true" />
<cfset var myShort = "" />
<cfset var totChars = application.totChars />
<cfset var shortURL = "" />
<!--- try up to 10 times to avoid duplicate shortURL --->
<cfloop from="1" to="10" index="x">
<cfset myShort = createShort() />
<cfset shortURL = saveShort(myShort,arguments.targetURL) />
<cfif len(trim(shortURL))>
<cfbreak />
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfif not len(trim(shortURL))>
<!--- try again with more characters --->
<cfset totChars = totChars + 1 />
<cfloop from="1" to="10" index="x">
<cfset myShort = createShort(totChars) />
<cfset shortURL = saveShort(myShort,arguments.targetURL) />
<cfif len(trim(shortURL))>
<cfbreak />
</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfif>
<cfreturn shortURL />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="saveShort" access="private" output="false"
returntype="Any">
<cfargument name="shortURL" type="string" required="true" />
<cfargument name="targetURL" type="string" required="true" />
<cfset var myShortURL = "" />
<cftry>
<!--- this procedure will save the url and return the shorURL generated --->
<cfstoredproc procedure="dbo.setShortURL" datasource="#application.mainDSN#">
<cfprocparam cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" value="#arguments.shortURL#" />
<cfprocparam cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" value="#arguments.targetURL#" />
<cfprocresult name="qShort" />
</cfstoredproc>
<cfset myShortURL = qShort.shortURL />
<cfcatch>
<cfmail from="#application.emailFrom#" To="#application.emailAdmin#" subject="Error on SetShort function" Type="html">
<h1>Error trying to set short URL</h1>
<cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
</cfmail>
<cfset myShortURL = "" />
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cfreturn myShortURL />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="createShort" access="private" output="false" returntype="Any">
<cfargument name="totChars" type="numeric" required="false" default="#application.totChars#" />
<cfscript>
var shortUrl = "";
for (i=1; i lte arguments.totChars; i=i+1) {
shortUrl = shortUrl & variables.aChars[randRange(1,arrayLen(variables.aChars))];
}
return shortUrl;
</cfscript>
</cffunction>

<!--- function set to remote to be called as webservice --->
<cffunction name="getShortURL" access="remote" output="false"
returntype="Any">
<cfargument name="targetURL" type="string" required="true" />
<cfreturn setShort(arguments.targetURL) />
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Code CF3: index.cfm

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<cfparam name="url.site" type="string" default="" />
<cfparam name="url.go" type="string" default="" />
<!--- let's check if we are in development server or localhost --->
<cfif listFindNoCase("localhost,127.0.0.1", cgi.host_name)>
<cfset baseHost = "http://localhost/" />
<cfelse>
<cfset baseHost = "http://lk3.us/" />
</cfif>

<!--- if a target URL was passed, we need to create the short URL --->
<cfif len(trim(url.site))>
<cfset short = createObject("component", "shorten") />
<cfif left(url.site, 7) neq 'http://'>
<cfset url.site = "http://" & url.site />
</cfif>
<cfset shortURL = short.setShort(url.site) />
<cfif len(trim(shortURL))>
<cfset shortURL = baseHost & shortURL />
<cfoutput>
The short URL for: #url.site# is: <br/>
<a href="#shortURL#">#shortURL#</a>
</cfoutput>
<!--- if any error occurred during the creation of the short URL --->
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
Sorry! We are experiencing problems now. Please try again later !
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<cfabort />

<!--- check if a short URL was passed, then get the target and jump to it --->
<cfelseif len(trim(url.go))>
<cftry>
<cfstoredproc procedure="dbo.getShortURL" datasource="#application.mainDSN#">
<cfprocparam cfsqltype="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" value="#url.go#" />
<cfprocresult name="get" />
</cfstoredproc>
<cfcatch>
<cfoutput>
Sorry ! Short URL unavailable !<br/>
#cfcatch.message#<br/>
#cfcatch.detail#
</cfoutput>
<cfabort />
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- jump to the target --->
<cfheader statuscode="301" statustext="Moved Permanently" />
<cfheader name="Location" value="#get.targetURL#" />
<cfelse>
Please verify the query string. It should have either "site" or "go" parameters.
</cfif>