My venture in ColdBox has been so far very enjoyable. It has really changed the way I plan my applications. My stumble in to using objects (correctly) has also brought with it some challenges and changed my approach to building maintainable and reusable applications.

So far my blog entries on ColdBox have mainly been on objects, validation and persistent, all straight forward when doing simple updating/creating/deleting actions.

Anyway, going back to challenges and objects, my first real stumbling block came a few weeks ago. How do I insert multiple records from data that comes from a form using a object?

I asked this question on both the ColdBox forums and CFTALK list. They all make it sound so simple, not sure they had this in mind.

My problem was as follows: when creating/updating a product I need to insert/update or delete multiple records for the product options based on what the user ticked or not ticked. So my first attempt worked that's a start right? here goes....

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I have never found a way to validate data I feel is 100% right for me, but I think I am getting close, let me explain.

I have a simple ColdBox 'view' containing my user form. This form is used to both create and update user's credentials.

I use one handler to create a new user and another to update, the only difference is the update handler pre populates the object from the database. So far simple stuff. Next I needed to validate my input. Again simple, I would submit to an intermediate handler that would validate my data against the object. However my dilemma is what to do if validation fails!

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Starting at the beginning I wanted push my knowledge a little more and continue with my venture into OO. Although I can recall most of the theory from my JAVA days at University, applying some of the concepts within ColdFusion does not seem to fit and in some instances proven difficult to get my head around.

I have come to the conclusion if I want to try and apply OO concepts to ColdFusion I must not think of OO and JAVA but an adaptation of the principles of OO reborn for ColdFusion (where did that come from? lol). Anyway with that said I had an eureka moment last night, ok, it came with help from the guys on the messages boards @ houseoffusion. I posted some code not fully understand the direction I needed to go in. Using ColdBox and ColdSpring I wanted to create a 'simple' example of a login which would help me better understand how to use objects containing 'getters' and 'setters'.

As it turns out its super easy in ColdBox, so easy infact I was looking for the hidden catch! Below is what I ended up with. It shows a function that is run in my handler to process a form post from a login page.

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It has been a few weeks now of me getting to grips with ColdBox and ColdSpring. My question has been mainly on why I would use ColdSpring at all. Some will be glad to hear I am starting to see how ColdSpring helps with managing CFC's. I also just wanted to recommend Jason Dean's Blog. He has provided a very insightful step by step guide to using ColdBox and ColdSpring which has really helped me. I got it late, I know but if for some strange reason you have not read his series, do it, do it now!

The Hard Lesson

When I was creating my object i.e "userservice().init()" CF was throwing an error. It seemed ColdSpring knew nothing about my injected properties to the CFC, can you spot why? Well either ColdSpring or ColdBox (not sure which) handles the .init() it calls the constructor and passes in the correct argument without my help. So because I was trying to call the init() myself it was not being managed by ColdSpring. Simple, but it held me up for a long time. Because I always try and follow the best practice it never occurred to me this could be the culprit. A quick post on the ColdSpring user group and Brian Kotek quickly put me on the right track, thanks again.

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The more I work in ColdBox the more I want to learn, so pardon my ramblings but yesterday ColdBox and ColdSpring took my fancy. I have never worked with ColdSpring nor any other AOP for CFC's.

So ColdSpring, what's all that about then? To be honest I am still not sure why I would use it. I started by playing around, I wanted to inject my ColdBox DNS setting into my common.cfc (database gateway).

I then created a UserService.cfc. The idea I think behind this is that I access the userService.cfc to get to common.cfc (gateway) and common.cfc gets the DNS setting injected.

Why is this any better? I could have achieved this all in the init() method without ColdSpring, or I could have extended my CFC, or I could have even created a config CFC and injected that into the common.cfc.

Sorry, If these questions are just ignorant.

Now I am getting more to grips with CB I have recreated an ecommerce site using the framework. I have also created a simple plugin for the Coldbox Framework that allows you to integrate SagePay VSP Direct payment system in your website. It seems to work very well the site I used it on has been running the new plugin for few days, taking transactions with no errors.

In case you don't know, SagePay VSP Direct is a method of processing a transaction through the Sage Pay gateway using server to server communication with the customer remaining on your website throughout the whole process.

This plugin will setup, send and handle the response from their gateway. You will need an understanding of Sagepay and a SSL cert to use this plugin. Sage Pay only support UK merchants at the moment!

I will be adding some example of the handler, checkout forms, and cart to a zip download soon at the moment all I have included the plugin CFC code below.

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So, my first attempt at a ColdBox Plugin works, however I cannot help but feel I could have done it better/right. You see, I know the theory of OOP it's in my nightmares as student, but applying it practically in CF is still a learning experience.

I have posted my code below. Encapsulation is the key I think, you see I am coming outside of the CFC to put back in 'SagePayURLStruct'

So my question is, how to I setup the 'setEnvironment' function in the CFC so it accessible inside the CFC, only the CFC and without going outside the CFC? For example could this be done using the init(). Could it be called on create component, so its accessible in the CFC itself after creation?

I would really welcome any feedback here, rip it to pieces it's the only way I learn! :)

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The ColdBox Framework is fast becoming enjoyable to work with, which came as a surprise for me. Having now completed 4 projects in CB I have decided to start writing up on some of my experiences so far.

The first write-up starts at the beginning! By that I mean things I found useful when first starting a CB project. Its not a deep read into CB just some random stuff that helped me out when first starting with the Framework.

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