Adobe ColdFusion 8

cfwddx

Description

Serializes and deserializes CFML data structures to the XML-based WDDX format. The WDDX is an XML vocabulary for describing complex data structures in a standard, generic way. Implementing it lets you use the HTTP protocol to such information among application server platforms, application servers, and browsers.

This tag generates JavaScript statements to instantiate JavaScript objects equivalent to the contents of a WDDX packet or CFML data structure. Interoperates with Unicode.

Category

Extensibility tags

Syntax

<cfwddx 
    action = "cfml2wddx|wddx2cfml|cfml2js|wddx2js" 
    input = "inputdata" 
    output = "result variable name" 
    topLevelVariable = "top-level variable name for JavaScript"
    useTimeZoneInfo = "yes|no"
    validate = "yes|no" >

Note: You can specify this tag's attributes in an attributeCollection attribute whose value is a structure. Specify the structure name in the attributeCollection attribute and use the tag's attribute names as structure keys.

See also

cfcollection, cfdump, cfexecute, cfindex, cfobject, cfreport, cfsearch, ToScript; "Using XML and WDDX" in the ColdFusion Developer's Guide

History

ColdFusion MX

  • Changed column name case behavior: ColdFusion preserves the case of column names in JavaScript. (Earlier releases converted query column names to lowercase.)
  • Changed encoding format support: this tag supports several encoding formats. The default encoding format is UTF-8. The tag interoperates with Unicode.

Attributes

Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

action

Required

 
  • cfml2wddx: serializes CFML to WDDX.
  • wddx2cfml: deserializes WDDX to CFML.
  • cfml2js: serializes CFML to JavaScript.
  • wddx2js: deserializes WDDX to JavaScript.

input

Required

 

A value to process.

output

Required if action = "wddx2cfml"

 

Name of variable for output. If action = "WDDX2JS" or "CFML2JS", and this attribute is omitted, result is output in HTML stream.

topLevelVariable

Required if action = "wddx2js" or "cfml2js"

 

Name of top-level JavaScript object created by deserialization. The object is an instance of the WddxRecordset object.

useTimeZoneInfo

Optional

yes

Whether to output time-zone information when serializing CFML to WDDX.

  • yes: the hour-minute offset, represented in ISO8601 format, is output.
  • No: the local time is output.

validate

Optional

no

Applies if action = "wddx2cfml" or "wddx2js".

  • yes: validates WDDX input with an XML parser using WDDX DTD. If parser processes input without error, packet is deserialized. Otherwise, an error is thrown.
  • no: does not perform input validation.

Usage

ColdFusion preserves the case of column names cases in JavaScript.

The wddx2js and cfml2js actions create a WddxRecordset javascript object when they encounter a RecordSet java object. The serialized JavaScript code requires a wddx.js file.

This tag performs the following conversions:

From

To

CFML

WDDX

CFML

JavaScript

WDDX

CFML

WDDX

JavaScript

For more information, and a list of the ColdFusion array and structure functions that you can use to manage XML document objects and functions, see "Using XML and WDDX" in the ColdFusion Developer's Guide.

Note: The cfwddx tag throws an exception if you attempt to serialize a CFC or user-defined function (UDF).

Example

<!--- This example shows basic use of the cfwddx tag. --->
<html>
<body>
<!--- Create a simple query. --->
<cfquery name = "q" dataSource = "cfdocexamples">
    SELECT Message_Id, Thread_id, Username FROM messages
</cfquery>

The recordset data is:...<p>
<cfoutput query = q>
    #Message_ID# #Thread_ID# #Username#<br>
</cfoutput><p>

<!--- Serialize data to WDDX format. --->
Serializing CFML data...<p>
<cfwddx action = "cfml2wddx" input = #q# output = "wddxText">

<!--- Display WDDX XML packet. --->
Resulting WDDX packet is:
<xmp><cfoutput>#wddxText#</cfoutput></xmp>

<!--- Deserialize to a variable named wddxResult. --->
Deserializing WDDX packet...<p>
<cfwddx action = "wddx2cfml" input = #wddxText# output = "qnew">

The recordset data is:...<p>
<cfoutput query = qnew>
    #Message_ID# #Thread_ID# #Username#<br>
</cfoutput><p>