CFGrid Problem Solved!

In my previous post My Adventure with CFGrid, I wrote about troubles I was having meeting some minor last minute client requirements.  In short, they want a cool table with Ajax features like paging, but they also want links in the table in an Actions column that are not Ajax and take the user to a detail page.  Sounds like an odd request for Ajax functionality but what the client wants the client gets.

My initial problem was how to add the links to the Actions column.  This was solved with the help of Ray Camden who suggested using the querySetCell() method to add my link data to the query recordset after the query is executed.  This worked well enough and my manager was impressed.  Something I didn’t pay attention to initially was that the pagesize attribute of cfgrid is ignored when the query attribute is specified.  The client definitely wants paging for larger recordsets, so the solution turned out to be using the bind parameter rather than the query attribute.

Having never used databinding before, I jumped right in and quickly found all sorts of little things that normally work, suddenly didn’t.  None of my APPLICATION or SESSION variables seemed to be available.  Variable not defined was what the error read.  By the way, I highly recommend Firebug for debugging Ajax requests.  The solution was to either hardcode my variables or add hidden form elements and then pass them in my bind parameter to the CFC.  I ended up using both to finally get my awesome looking cfgrid that pages through 10 records at a time and has an Actions column which takes the user to a detail page.

While at CFUnited this I decided to ask around about why my SESSION and APPLICATION variables were coming up undefined when called via the bind parameter.  It was explained to me that bind is accessing the CFC directly rather than as a normal ColdFusion request and that is why they were not available.  This sounds reasonable to me, but I would like to get some confirmation.  So I pose the question to all my fellow CFers out there.  Is this really the case with databinding?

My Adventure With CFGrid

I’m using a cfgrid to display some data returned from a query. Not exactly rocket science, but I’ve managed to run into a bit of difficulty meeting a couple of final client requirements. Let me set up the scene here. First I have a form with several different search criteria, which are independent of each other. Depending on which search criterion is selected, a different grid will display. Each grid will has an Action column with links to another page.

Great day at CFUnited ‘08

Great information to be had today at CFUnited ‘08 Day #2. Two sessions that stood out for me were Peter Bell’s Practical Code Generation and Marc Esher’s Automating the Build/Deploy Process with ANT.

I’m taking the plunge into CFUnit

I have gotten to the point now where I’m fairly comfortable with Eclipse and CFEclipse, having used both for the past year. I don’t even have Dreamweaver installed on my new work laptop. Since I was in software QA before becoming a developer I am aware of the importance of unit testing, but have not really practiced it. After last year’s CFUnited, I was introduced to CFUnit, but never really got into it. So here I am ready to dive in to CFUnit. Over the next few days, weeks, etc., I will be documenting my experience with this seemingly useful tool. With the help of the most awesome ColdFusion user community, I have managed to locate a long list of references and tutorials. My adventure begins this evening as I try to set up unit tests for the latest application I’m working on in the office. The CFCs are already in place, so all I should need to do is set up my tests. Wish me luck.