How to declare dynamic form field defaults inside a Coldfusion CFC?

Question

I'm looking for a way to declare form default values dynamically in a CFC, I'm calling via AJAX. The current CFC sends orders, which I need to break down into sub-orders.

I had been using this:

 <!--- static defaults --->
 <cffunction name="Defaults" access="public" returntype="struct" output="false" 
    hint="Assign default values to instance">
    <cfscript>
        var formDefaults = {
              versenden=""
            , speichern="" 
            ...
        }
    </cfscript>
    <cfreturn formDefaults />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="Commit" access="public" returntype="struct" output="false" hint="database handler">

 <!--- add dynamic form fields --->
 <cfscript>             
    var LOCAL = {};
    variables.defs = THIS.Defaults();
 </cfscript>
 <cfloop collection="#VARIABLES.Instance.FormData#" item="formField">
    <cfscript>
        if (   LEFT(formField, 5) EQ "MENGE" 
            OR LEFT(formField, 3) EQ "EAN" 
            OR LEFT(formField, 12) EQ "BESTELL_TEXT" 
            OR LEFT(formField, 10) EQ "BESTELLTYP" 
            ...
          ) {
          variables.defs[formField]="";
        }
    </cfscript>
</cfloop>
<cfscript>
    structAppend(variables.defs, VARIABLES.Instance.FormData);                  
    LOCAL.Basket = variables.defs;  
</cfscript>

...

So I first declare static form fields (single instance only) and then try to dynamically append dynamic form fields to my array, which might be transferred multiple times (MENGE38, MENGE39, MENGE40 etc)

While this works ok, I need to add another counting element to my form-names, so I would have to change MENGE to something like counter.MENGE or MENGE.counter which will then send form values like this:

MENGE.1.38
MENGE.1.40
MENGE.1.41
MENGE.2.37

With the counter denoting the sub-order, this field is used for.

Problem is, this breaks my dynamic form field declaration and I don't understand why. I'm getting the following errors:

Diagnose: Element MENGE.1 is undefined in a CFML structure referenced as part of an expression.

Question:
Can anyone give me a hint on what the problem might be? Do I have to param the form fields on the HTML page as well (shouldn't have to)?

Thanks!

EDIT:
Problem was in my validate function, I also need to declare the modifications I did above. The new function looks like this:

<cffunction name="Validate" access="public" returntype="array" output="false" hint="validate form inputs and return an array of faulty field names.">
   <cfscript>
     var LOCAL = {};
     var double = structNew();
     double.form = VARIABLES.Instance.FormData;
     double.criteria = VARIABLES.Instance.Validation;
  </cfscript>

  <!--- add dynamic form fields for validation... I FORGOT TO UPDATE THIS--->
  <cfloop collection="#VARIABLES.Instance.FormData#" item="formField">
     <cfscript>
        if (   LEFT(formField, 5) EQ "MENGE" 
            OR LEFT(formField, 10) EQ 'BESTELLTYP'
            OR LEFT(formField, 3) EQ "EAN" 
            OR LEFT(formField, 12) EQ "BESTELL_TEXT" 
            ...
        ) {
           VARIABLES.Instance.Validation[formField]="pass";
        }
     </cfscript>
  </cfloop>
  <!--- Get error names and type --->
  <cfinvoke component="form_validate" method="validate_fields" double="#double#" returnvariable="validation_errors"></cfinvoke>
  <cfset LOCAL.ErrorMessages = validation_errors />
  <cfreturn LOCAL.ErrorMessages />

Because I did not add the new updated the if-clause in this function, I was getting the error.

I think the problem is being caused because you are using periods as part of the form field names. This stops each field from being a simple element. What happens if you use underscores instead? — Dan Bracuk

Billy Cravens Billy Cravens · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-24T15:16:25

To build on Dan Bracuk's answer, use underscores (though you'd need to change the name of "BESTELL_TEXT"). Use this with a combination of listFirst, listGetAt, and listLast to determine field name structure, using underscore as delimiter. Note how I cleaned up your big IF a bit using list function. This code as written probably doesn't do what you need, but wanted to illustrate the concepts without having to understand your business need.

<cfscript>
var orders=structNew();
item=listFirst(formField,'_');
orderNames = "MENGE,EAN,BESTELLTEXT,BESTELLTYPE";
if (listFindNoCase(orderNames,item,'_')){
    if (!structKeyExists(orders,item)){
        // initialize item
        orders[item]=structNew();
    }
    orderID="";
    subOrderId="";
    if (listLen(formField,'_') gt 1) {
        orderID=listGetAt(formField,2,'_');
    }
    if (listLen(formField,'_') eq 2) {
        orders[item][orderId]=formData[formField];
    }
    if (listLen(formField,'_') eq 3) {
        subOrderId=listLast(formField,'_');
        orders[item][orderId][subOrderId]=formData[formField];
    }

}
</cfscript>

How to declare dynamic form field defaults inside a Coldfusion CFC?

1 Answers