{"id":11,"date":"2008-05-23T22:27:13","date_gmt":"2008-05-24T04:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.n8williams.com\/devblog\/?p=11"},"modified":"2008-06-09T22:39:02","modified_gmt":"2008-06-10T04:39:02","slug":"returning-an-xml-document-from-a-coldfusion-component-use-cfcontent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/n8williams.com\/devblog\/coldfusion\/returning-an-xml-document-from-a-coldfusion-component-use-cfcontent","title":{"rendered":"Returning an xml document from a coldfusion component – use cfcontent"},"content":{"rendered":"

So I was pretty annoyed how hard it was to find a description of how to return an xml document from a component back to an AJAX page that had sent a request to the component. I was making a simple form, and all I wanted was to make a simple call to a remoteService, and get a simple xml response. I didn’t really want an AJAX Framework\/object for this simple task.<\/p>\n

So after returning a simple string, the coldfusion service was adding the standard wddx xml tags around the string before it was received by the client page. So I learned you have to use a return type xml, instead of a return type string. But when I did that, even though the xml document looked well-formed, and how I had intended it to look with no wddx stuff, the receiving page was seeing null in the responseXML property of the XMLHttpRequest object.<\/p>\n

So on this AJAX page, my XMLHttpRequest variable is called xmlHttp. And all I was getting was the xml doc as text in the xmlHttp.responseText property of the xmlHttp object. I wanted the xml doc to be in xmlHttp.responseXML and not the xmlHttp.responseText.<\/p>\n

Using firebug <\/a>(great FF add-on) I examined the reponse I was getting. Turns out the header of the response showed a content type of text\/html and not an xml type. I finally figured out the key. In php yu could just add a header to set the content type to xml, using the header function. That is what I had been doing. Buth with coldfusion I had no idea how to add a content type header. THE KEY WAS IN THE CFCONTENT TAG. In my component being called, before I returned the xml object I had created, I learned you could just add a cfcontent tag to change the return type’s header.<\/p>\n

\n<cffunction name="getSomethingInfo" access="public" output="false" returntype="xml">
\n\t<cfargument name="somethingID" type="string" required="true" \/>
\n\t<cfset var xml = "">
\n\t<cfquery datasource="adatasource" name="qThingInfo">
\n\t\tSELECT s2.*, u.* FROM Something s
\n\t\tINNER JOIN Something2 s2 on s2.userID = s.consultantID
\n\t\tINNER JOIN [User] u ON u.id = s2.userID
\n\t\tWHERE s.id = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#somethingID#">
\n\t<\/cfquery>
\n\t<cfif qThingInfo.RecordCount EQ 0>
\n\t\t<cfxml variable="xml">
\n\t\t\t<noResults>
\n\t\t\t\t<requestSubject>SomethingInfo<\/requestSubject>
\n\t\t\t<\/noResults>
\n\t\t<\/cfxml>
\n\t<cfelse>
\n\t\t<cfoutput query="qThingInfo" maxRows="1">
\n\t\t\t<cfxml variable="xml">
\n\t\t\t\t<SomethingInfo>
\n\t\t\t\t\t<firstName>#UrlEncodedFormat(firstName)#<\/firstName>
\n\t\t\t\t\t<lastName>#UrlEncodedFormat(lastName)#<\/lastName>
\n\t\t\t\t<\/SomethingInfo>
\n\t\t\t<\/cfxml>
\n\t\t<\/cfoutput>
\n\t<\/cfif>
\n <!--- THIS IS KEY!!!--->
\n\t<cfcontent type="application\/xml; charset=UTF-8"><\/p>\n

\t<cfreturn xml \/>
\n<\/cffunction>
\n<\/code>\n<\/div>\n

My code to send the request using a coldfusion component:<\/p>\n

xmlHttp.open("GET", "RemoteServices\/ARemoteService.cfc?method=getSomethingInfo"
\n+ cacheEntry , true);
\n\/\/ define the method to handle server responses
\nxmlHttp.onreadystatechange = handleRequestStateChange;
\n\/\/ make the server request
\nxmlHttp.send(null);
\n<\/code>\n<\/div>\n

to call a coldfusion component and get a value from a method, the url for the request is:<\/p>\n

\nPathtoYourComponent\/YourComponent.cfc?method=yourMethodName&
\nparam1=param1value&param2=param2value
\n<\/code>\n<\/div>\n

Helpful Links:
\nhttp:\/\/www.coldfusionjedi.com\/index.cfm\/2007\/2\/8\/Returning-XML-in-ColdFusion-for-AJAX <\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.brucephillips.name\/blog\/index.cfm\/2006\/11\/11\/Use-ColdFusion-Function-Return-Type-of-XML-to-Provide-XML-to-Both-Spry-and-Flex <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I was pretty annoyed how hard it was to find a description of how to return an xml document from a component back to an AJAX page that had sent a request to the component. I was making a simple form, and all I wanted was to make a simple call to a remoteService, … Continue reading “Returning an xml document from a coldfusion component – use cfcontent”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nReturning an xml document from a coldfusion component - use cfcontent - The Dev Pages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/n8williams.com\/devblog\/coldfusion\/returning-an-xml-document-from-a-coldfusion-component-use-cfcontent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Returning an xml document from a coldfusion component - use cfcontent - The Dev Pages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So I was pretty annoyed how hard it was to find a description of how to return an xml document from a component back to an AJAX page that had sent a request to the component. 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