October 9, 2009
I recently found myself in need of a way to convert a Binary data column into Base64 encoded data when returning a query. After a quick Google, I was directed to Ben Nadel’s post “Updating Columns In An Existing ColdFusion Query Object” which details how to use javaCast to update a ColdFusion query.
From there, I just needed to add the small extra step of Base64 encoding and my query was ready to go.
<cfloop query="q">
<cfset base64Data = toBase64(q.my_binary_data) />
<cfset q["my_binary_data"][q.currentRow] = javaCast("string",'#base64Data#') />
</cfloop>
This is not the first time I found a useful solution on Ben’s site. If you use ColdFusion, you should definitely check it out. He has some great, easy-to-understand, posts on many useful topics.
Posted in coldFusion 
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April 8, 2009
Once I had it working, I was astounded by the simplicity. The only pre-requisite is that your server is running ColdFusion 8 or above. Here are the steps:
Note that the following steps assume your site is already created
- Download ColdSpring.
- Unzip ColdSpring, rename the unzipped folder to “coldspring” and copy it into your site root.
- Download Model-Glue.
- Unzip the Model-Glue archive into a temp folder.
- Copy the Model-Glue folder into your site root.
- Copy the contents of the /modelglueapplicationtemplate directory to your site root. Do NOT copy the folder itself.
- From your site root, open /config/ColdSpring.xml and delete the two occurrences of “/modelglueapplicationtemplate” on lines 12 and 13. This should result in your viewMappings being “/views” and your generatedViewMapping being “/views/generated”
- From your site root, open /config/ModelGlue.xml and delete “modelglueapplicationtemplate.” from line 3 making it “controller.Controller” instead of “modelglueapplicationtemplate.controller.Controller”.
- Delete Application.cfm from your site root and replace it with the Application.cfc in this zip file.
- Open Application.cfc and change the application name from yourAppNameHere to your application name. If you don’t know what to use, use your domain minus the dot, i.e., “myDomainCOM”.
Providing your server is running ColdFusion 8 or above, you should now have a working Model-Glue site! To test it, open the site in your browser and you should see a message stating “Model-Glue is up and running!”
-rG
Posted in coldFusion, modelGlue No Comments »
March 10, 2009
Hopefully, if you’re using ColdFusion, you’re already using cfqueryparam in your queries for better performance and security against SQL Injection attacks. If you’re not, you should read this.
When using cfqueryparam you specify a value and an SQL type. Dates can be assigned two different types, cf_sql_date and cf_sql_timestamp. cf_sql_date is intended to be used for date types in DB2 and Informix. If you’re using MS SQL Server, you should use cf_sql_timestamp.
cf_sql_timestamp maps to the datetime and smalldatetime data types in MS SQL Server. Although cf_sql_date works in many instances, it does not work in all instances. I ran into this issue when evaluating whether a date equaled a certain date value. For example:
SELECT *
FROM myTable
WHERE create_dt = <cfqueryparam type="cf_sql_date" value="2099-12-31 23:59:59" />
When I ran the query in SQL Query Analyzer (minus the cfqueryparam of course), I received the expected results. When I ran it inside a ColdFusion page I received an empty result set. Once I changed to timestamp, I received my results.
SELECT *
FROM myTable
WHERE create_dt = <cfqueryparam type="cf_sql_timestamp" value="2099-12-31 23:59:59" />
I haven’t tested the code with mySQL, and mySQL isn’t listed in the livedocs cross-reference table so I don’t know what kind of effect can be seen there, though I’d be interested to find out.
UPDATE: I got two great tips from comments. According to sebastiaan cf_sql_timestamp should be used with MySQL as well as MS SQL Server. And Ben Nadel adds that cf_sql_longvarchar should be used for text fields. Great info. Thank you both!
Posted in coldFusion 4 Comments »
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