Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7 Application Development
| The ColdFusion Compiler compiles ColdFusion templates (CFM, CFC, and CFR) into Java bytecode. Macromedia provides a command-line interface to the compiler (cfcompile.bat on Windows; cfcompile.sh on Unix). The script is located in the cf_root/bin (server configuration) or cf_webapp_root/WEB-INF/cfusion/bin (J2EE configurations) directory. You can use this utility for:
The basic syntax for calling the cfcompile script is as follows: cfcompile [-deploy] webroot [directory-to-compile] [output-directory]
It is preconfigured with the options necessary to compile source code into Java bytecode for sourceless deployment, and for compiling ColdFusion templates into Java class files. Compiling Sourceless Templates
The capability to deploy sourceless ColdFusion templates is one of the most anticipated Cold Fusion MX 7 features. Sourceless means you can deploy your ColdFusion templates (CFM, CFC, and CFR files) as Java bytecode and distribute them without changing the template names or paths. The templates will contain unreadable Java bytecode but will run as if they contained CFML. This makes source code distribution more secure and protects the intellectual property contained in the files. For more information on the security of sourceless deployment, see the "Encrypt ColdFusion Templates" section of Chapter 10. Use the cfcompile utility with the deploy option to convert the source code of your ColdFusion templates to Java bytecode. The utility will make a copy of your original template and compile the CFML to Java bytecode. The template containing the Java bytecode will be written to a specified destination directory, leaving unchanged your original templates containing CFML. The cfcompile executable is located in the cf_root\bin directory. Use the following command to compile your templates to Java bytecode: cfcompile -deploy webroot directory-to-compile output-directory Table 6.4 describes the cfcompile parameters for creating sourceless templates.
Precompiling ColdFusion Templates
As you may know, the ColdFusion server compiles each ColdFusion template into Java bytecode when the template is initially requestedthat is, the first time after a server restart. When the "Save class files" option in ColdFusion Administrator is enabled, the compiler writes the bytecode into Java .class files on the disk and then copies the bytecode into memory (the Template Cache); otherwise, the bytecode is written directly to the Template Cache. This compilation process increases the initial page request. ColdFusion will continue serving the template from the Template Cache, so that only the initial request takes the compilation hit. Combining this technique with the Trusted Cache option can dramatically improve site performance. Macromedia recommends saving the class files only for production servers. Use the following command to compile ColdFusion templates (CFM, CFC, and CFR files) into Java class files: cfcompile webroot directory-to-compile TIP Notice that the directory-to-compile must be within the specified webroot. If you want to compile templates outside of the actual webroot to class filessuch as templates in a Web server virtual directory called Testingthen specify that directory as the webroot and omit the srcdir parameter: cfcompile C:\Testing. The compiled class files are stored in the cf_root/wwroot/WEB-INF/cfclasses (server configuration) or cf_webapp_root/WEB-INF/cfclasses (J2EE configurations) directory. The files are renamed using a unique syntax: cf + filename + hash code + .class
ColdFusion uses the following to derive this filename:
TIP You will also see .class files with a dollar sign ($) in the name followed by a function name, as in cfApplication2ecfc639310892$funcONREQUESTSTART.class. The $ represents the compiled ColdFusion user-defined function (UDF) calls within the file. This is more common for ColdFusion Components (CFC) files, but they will occur for any ColdFusion template containing UDF calls.
ColdFusion Template Deployment Considerations
At first glance, the difference in the command syntax for compiling your ColdFusion templates to .class files as compared with compiling to sourceless code is the deploy option. However, the real difference is the process by which the code is compiled. When precompiling (or not using the deploy option), the compiler translates the CFML into Java bytecode and writes the bytecode to a .class file. When creating sourceless templates, the compiler implements the ColdFusion run-time service, translates the CFML into Java bytecode, and then creates a new template (with the same name as the original) and writes the bytecode into that template. Implementing the run-time service allows the compiler to check the code for syntax errorsas if the code were called from the browser. The compiler will fail and return if there are any errors in your code. The error and stack trace are recorded to the ColdFusion exception log (cfroot\logs\exception.log). TIP The deploy option will catch compilation errors, but some run-time errors will not occur until after deployment. For example, "Template not found" errors for cfinclude will not occur until the deployed file is run on the deployed system.
Macromedia provided the cfcompile script with ColdFusion for precompiling .class files. Some developers have tried deploying these files on other systems. Macromedia does not recommend deploying compiled .class files, however, because they are largely dependent on the underlying directory structure of the source server. Some of the class files might actually work on the deployment server. Macromedia created the deploy option to enable the secure deployment of ColdFusion templates. Customizing the cfcompile Script
You can customize the cfcompile script file that ships with ColdFusion MX 7, or build your own. Table 6.5 provides a complete list of ColdFusion Compiler options. The cfcompile script preconfigures some of these options for you. Examine the preconfigured values to ensure that the script will run on your system.
TIP You can compile individual files by specifying the fully qualified path to the file instead of just the directory path. For example: cfcompile C:\InetPub\wwwroot C:\InetPub\wwwroot\index.cfm.
With the options in Table 6.5, you can create your own compiler script using syntax similar to the following: [View full width] java -cp "c:\cfusionmx7\runtime\lib\jrun.jar;C:\CFusionMX7\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib
This command will compile all the ColdFusion templates (CFM, CFC, and CFR files) in the C:\Testing\deploy directory and save the Java bytecode versions in the C:\Testing\source directory. The original files in C:\Testing\deploy will retain the original CFML in a human-readable format. NOTE The ColdFusion Compiler is hard coded to accept only the default ColdFusion file extensions (.cfm, .cfc, and .cfr) for deployment. The capability to compile additional filename extensions is not fully exposed via the command-line interface. If you configure your ColdFusion server to process other extensions (such as *.cfx), you will have to specify the fully qualified path to the individual files instead of just the directory path. For example, to create a sourceless version of index.cfx, you will need to call cfcompile deploy C:\InetPub\wwwroot C:\InetPub\wwwroot\index.cfm C:\Testing\source If you try using a wildcard (as in C:\InetPub\wwwroot\*.cfx), only the first file is compiled. See the "Filename Extension" section in Chapter 10 for details on adding additional ColdFusion filename extensions.
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