102 Tips & Tricks

102 ColdBox HMVC Tips and Tricks

by Luis F. Majano

ColdBox creator and lead developer, Luis Majano, shares with you his top 102 tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the ColdBox HMVC Framework. Why 102? The answer is simple: because it's 2 more than 100.

Available in E-Book, Hardcover, and Paperback format.

E-BOOK

PRINTED VERSION

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WHAT PEOPLE

SAY ABOUT

THIS BOOK!

"As always, Luis (BigBox) innovates and brings great news to Coldfusion developers. It was not enough all the content published about ColdBox, and he now brings us this great book giving us 102 tips and tricks of the incredible framework. This shows that the community remains alive and strong, and that the CF is robust, performance-oriented, efficient and safe. Thank you for your generosity in helping us build better and better applications."

PATRICK LEAL

Coldfusion developer at the Senac University in São Paulo, Brazil. Graduated in Systems Analyst and specialist in Software Engineering.

The Book

This book contains 102 tips and tricks to help you build sustainable ColdFusion (CFML) applications using the most widely used ColdFusion (CFML) framework in the world; ColdBox HMVC - www.coldbox.org. We also have included tons of tips and tricks for companion libraries like CommandBox, WireBox, LogBox, CacheBox and TestBox as well.

From simple tips to more advanced tips to even how to migrate legacy applications, we feel this book will enhance your knowledge with all the Box tools. Enjoy!

Included Tips

1 - Environment Variables In The Config.

2 - Fluent If Statements -> when().

3 - CommandBox ColdBox Commands.

4 - Using a Struct for Query Strings.

5 - Building Named Routes with a Struct.

6 - Using Routing with Wildcard Domains.

7 - ENVIRONMENT Environment Variable.

8 - Which ColdBox Version Am I Using.

9 - Sending Email to a Log File.

10 - Whoops! Better Exception Tracking Experience.

Tips 1-10

11 - Custom Reinit Key: reinitKey.

12 - route.toView() - Routing to Views with No Controller.

13 - Logging Extra Information.

14 - RESTFul Extension Detection.

15 - Routing To Immediate Responses.

16 - Streaming Files To Users.

17 - Rendering Nothing From Event Handlers.

18 - No Event Handler Executions From Interceptors.

19 - Test Mappings.

20 - Watching For File Changes and Executing Tests.

Tips 11-20

21 - Generate Quick Tables with Data.

22 - Populating Objects With Form/Url Data.

23 - Populating Objects From Any Type Of Data.

24 - Module Dependencies.

25 - Reusable and Encapsulated Views.

26 - Binding Object Values to HTML Elements.

27 - Adding Prefixed Attributes to HTML Controls.

28 - Reusing Layouts > Layout Inception.

29 - Registering Closures/Lambdas as Interceptors.

30 - Adding Metadata to Routes.

Tips 21-30

31 - Getting The Current Route Record.

32 - Route Redirects.

33 - Stopping Interceptor Chains.

34 - Focusing Specs/Suites For Execution.

35 - Skipping Suites/Specs For Execution.

36 - Testing API Endpoints Simulating HTTP Verbs.

37 - Checking For Newer Package Versions.

38 - Rendering Implicit Views.

39 - Disabling Implicit Views.

40 - Returning JSON From Event Handlers.

Tips 31-40

41 - Generating PDFs From Your Views.

42 - Generating Multiple Formats By Convention.

43 - Accelerating View Rendering: prePostExempt.

44 - Virtual Events.

45 - Elegant Importing Mixins to CFCs.

46 - Running Internal Named Routes.

47 - Running Internal Events.

48 - Persisting Variables During Relocations.

49 - Adding css/js assets with tracking.

50 - Rendering External Views.

Tips 41-50

51 - Injecting Named Loggers.

52 - Delaying Injection/Construction of Objects.

53 - Mapping Java Objects.

54 - Mapping Objects to Feeds.

55 - Persisting Components in a Request.

56 - Adding Pagination to API Responses.

57 - Setting Errors for API Response.

58 - Debugging API Responses.

59 - Determining If Your Event Will Be Cached.

60 - Getting the Incoming HTTP Method.

Tips 51-60

61 - Getting the Incoming HTTP Headers.

62 - Getting the Incoming HTTP Body.

63 - Automatic JSON Body to Request Context Variables.

64 - Creating Models with CommandBox.

65 - Creating Views/Layouts with CommandBox.

66 - Creating Handlers with CommandBox.

67 - Creating Resources with CommandBox.

68 - Executing CFML Functions in CommandBox.

69 - Executing OS Binaries in CommandBox.

70 - Setting the Native Shell in CommandBox.

Tips 61-70

71 - Setting CLI Environment Variables.

72 - forEach in CommandBox.

73 - GetOrSet objects in CacheBox.

74 - Using a Different Parameter Name for Resources.

75 - Long Running Jobs with CommandBox Tasks.

76 - WireBox onDIComplete() Life-Cycle Event.

77 - Reiniting a ColdBox Application From CommandBox.

78 - Package Modules With Module Bundles.

79 - Module Helpers.

80 - Module ColdFusion Mappings.

Tips 71-80

81 - Simulating Queries In Tests.

82 - Sending Test Data To The Console.

83 - Restricting Interceptor Executions.

84 - Putting a Struct of Values in Flash Storage.

85 - Debugging ColdBox Apps.

86 - Clearing the View Caches.

87 - Basic Auth With ColdBox.

88 - Global Missing Template Handler.

89 - Handling Missing Action Executions.

90 - Creating ColdBox Futures.

Tips 81-90

91 - Dealing with Exceptions on ColdBox Futures.

92 - Scheduling Async Tasks.

93 - Registering Global Task Executors.

94 - Creating Single Use Executors.

95 - Registering Module Task Executors.

96 - Racing with ColdBox Futures: anyOf().

97 - Parallel Computations: all().

98 - Parallel Transformations: allApply().

99 - Getting Futures Data NOW!!!.

100 - Getting Futures with Timeouts.

Tips 91-100

101 - Clearing all Singletons.

102 - Migrating Your Legacy Apps To ColdBox Using a SubDirectory.

103 - Available in e-book, hardcover, and paperback format.

Tips 101-103

The Author

Luis Majano (@lmajano) is a Computer Engineer that has been developing and designing software systems since the year 2000. He was born in San Salvador, El Salvador in the late 70's, during a period of economical instability and civil war. He lived in El Salvador until 1995 and then moved to Miami, Florida where he completed his Bachelors of Science in Computer Engineering at Florida International University. Luis resides in Houston, Texas with his beautiful wife Veronica, daughter Alexia and son Lucas!

He is the CEO of Ortus Solutions (@ortussolutions), a consulting firm specializing in web development, ColdFusion (CFML), Java development and all open source professional services under the *Box stack. He is the creator of ColdBox, ContentBox, WireBox, MockBox, LogBox and anything BOX, and contributes to many open source ColdFusion/Java projects. You can read his blog at www.luismajano.com.