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Ben Nadel at CFUNITED 2010 (Landsdown, VA) with: Brian Swartzfager
Ben Nadel at CFUNITED 2010 (Landsdown, VA) with: Brian Swartzfager

What Request Data Does ColdFusion Builder Post To Extension Handlers?

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Published in Comments (5)

Last night, I started playing around with ColdFusion Builder extensions, creating an extension that could encrypt and decrypt CFM and CFC files. The main reason ColdFusion Builder extensions are so attractive as a means to extend the Eclipse platform is that they are powered by actual ColdFusion files (our bread and butter). When you invoke a ColdFusion Builder extension, the IDE gathers data about your request and then posts it as an HTTP form post to your CFML-based handlers. Inside these handlers, you can then do whatever you want, ColdFusion-style, and return an XML result (back to the IDE).

As with any HTTP request, it is important to know what kind of data is available in order to get a handle on what functionality might be leveraged. To explore the ColdFusion Builder extension request context, I decided to CFDump out the CGI and HTTP Request objects to a log file:

CGI


 
 
 

 
ColdFusion Builder Posts CGI Information To Extension Handlers.  
 
 
 

GetHTTPRequestData()


 
 
 

 
ColdFusion Builder Posts HTTP Request Information To Extension Handlers.  
 
 
 

As you can see, not much of anything is posted to the action handlers; not even cookies.

Mostly, this post was just for my understanding and for my own future reference.

Reader Comments

15,880 Comments

@Raymond,

Ahh, good point! It's been so long since I've passed tokens via a URL, I forgot you could even do that. Awesome tip!

27 Comments

I _think_ each extension also has an application scope you can use to store persistent data as you navigate from step to step (I could be mistaken; it's been awhile since I've played with extensions and I don't have my notes with me).

361 Comments

It does. For solo dev it would be fine to use, but you would need to ensure that step 1 clears the previous data. Not sure I'd feel comfortable using it - but I reserve the right to change my mind later. ;)

15,880 Comments

@Brian,

I assume you right (and @Ray confirms). Really, these extensions are just running as ColdFusion applications, so they should have all of the amenities available.

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Ben Nadel