Care to write up a short article on that for cfAdvocacy.org? This is exactly the kind of thing that I'm looking for... (perhaps not SO angry, but the spirit is definitely there!)
Jim Davis > -----Original Message----- > From: Haggerty, Mike [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 4:49 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Coldfusion is King > > > Alright, I am letting off a little steam here. It has been a > long week, and Friday is still hours away. > > Coldfusion is king among dynamic Web technologies. Period. It > is easy to use and does not require you to build an API every > time you want to do something. I have known this for a long > time, but sometimes I am forced to prove this fact via a > practical demonstration (in much the same way as a gibbering > idiot sometimes proves he cannot pound railroad spikes into > concrete walls with his own forehead). > > I have a project where we need a low-cost data feed > technology to distribute to regional offices. What will > happen is the contents of a database will be thrown into a > WDDX packet, which will be downloaded via a Web server to the > central office. The data can be anything, but the transport > protocol must be http. And the technology must already be > installed or else freely available, meaning we can will use > PHP, Perl or ASP. > > So I get to learn how to automatically post variables to a > Web server in PHP and return the content. > > To do the following in CF: > > <cfset login = structNew()> > <cfset login.name = "someuser"> > <cfset login.pass = "somepass"> > <cfset login.call = "somecall"> > <cfwddx input="#login#" output="WXDDlogin" > action="CFML2WDDX"> <cfhttp > url="http://www.somewhere.org/wddx_output.cfm"; method="POST" > resolveurl="true" throwonerror="no"> > <cfhttpparam name="login" value="#WXDDlogin#" > type="FORMFIELD"> </cfhttp> <cfwddx > input="#cfhttp.fileContent#" output="data" action="WDDX2CFML"> > > ...is insanely difficult to do in PHP. > > First off, their file system functions are restricted to > local operations, meaning you have to connect to their server > via a socket connection. Once that connection is open, you > have to write the F***ING headers yourself to GET and POST > data, which is not easy considering you have to write one for > each and every piece of data you wish to post. The resulting > content is not a WDDX packet, it is a raw HTTP packet which > you then get to strip via regex functions. Then, if you are > lucky and everything worked the way it was supposed to, you > have a WDDX packet you can deserialize and start using. If > you are unlucky and something goes wrong, poor you because > the debug information is sparse at best. > > Now, this would not be such a big deal were it not for the > nearly complete lack of information on how to do this. In the > time it has taken me to figure out the steps in the code I > could have rewritten the Bible. I have endured millions of > pop-up ads going through 'tutorial' sites for info on how to > make this work. I have posted dozens of questions to PHP > lists and for each one received at least 10 responses from > people who either didn't understand the question or think > asking 'Why would you want to do that?' is an answer. > > I could go on, but the problem is now solved and the data > client is now in place. At least I won't have to learn how to > do this again. I built out all the functions into a class > library, and now have the equivalent of CFHTTP in PHP to use > on further development. > > It only took me about a week to complete a simple task that > would have taken 15 minutes to set up in CF. > > Praise the king. > > M > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
