Coldfusion 11 Ajax CFC binding impossible

Question

I know a lot of people have had issues with Ajax and older versions of Coldfusion, but I'm using Coldfusion 11 Developer on my local machine and am finding it impossible to bind - under all circumstances - using Coldfusion functions, to a CFC, although it's not always the same error that gets returned.

I can't use autosuggest for a cfdiv when that binds to a CFC - but I can bind to autosuggest data on the same page, including from a database. When I bind to a CFC, invariably, the error message in CFDebug comes up as

"error:widget: Bind failed for autosuggest lastname, bind value is not a 1D array of strings. info:http: CFC invocation response: ["Barken","Barnes"] ...

... by which you can see, that the bind IS a 1D array of strings and the CFC produced them, but wouldn't return them to the calling page!

I've also tried making the CFC much simpler, removing the database element and manually creating a straightforward 1D array of strings, but the same error comes up as when fed from my database.

So I made a test even simpler, avoiding databases and arrays to test ordinary, simple binding, not involving autosuggest - just an ordinary bind to a CFC (I always can successfully bind to data on the same page, or a URL.)

Here's the simplest test code, which still doesn't work:

<body>
<cfform id="myForm" name="myForm">
Enter your name into the box:<br />
<cfinput type="text" name="myText">
</cfform>
<hr />
Below is a cfdiv container, with a bind to a CFC:<br />
<cfdiv bind="cfc:bindsource.getDivContent({myText})"></cfdiv>
</body>

This is the CFC, named bindsource.cfc, in the same folder as the form page:

<cfcomponent output="false">
<cffunction name="getDivContent" returntype="string" access="remote"  >
<cfargument name="edit">
<cfreturn "Your entered content was: #arguments.edit#">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

In this case, the error I get is: window:global: Uncaught exception: TypeError: Cannot convert '_289[i]' to object (http://localhost:8500/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/package/cfajax.js, line 872) info:http: CFC invocation response: "Your entered content was: William"

(William is the text I entered into the box on the main page. line 872 in the cfajax.js is "872 throw new SyntaxError("parseJSON")"

In this simple test, on my main page, both before and after I enter something into the text input, in the area of what would be the cfdiv, the word "undefined" appears.

Sometimes, if I don't get the 1D array of strings error on some of the test pages, I get this can't convert to object error.

All the examples I've tried - not just my own stuff but all the samples I can find - run, up to the point where the Ajax error kicks in, so there are no other syntax errors. In all cases, the form page loads and runs, the CFC seems to get called, processes as appropriate - CFDebug shows me correct output of the CFC in the debug window - but then nothing ever comes back to the calling page. If I use a url bind, or a same page bind, it does - with a CFC, it doesn't. Ever.

When I test the CFC independently in a direct URL with method and argument passed, it works - I get the same result as the CFC invocation response.

Has anybody EVER got a CFC bind to work in Coldfusion? What am I missing or is CF11 just flawed? The whole things seems a bit unstable. I also get "cannot find CFC" errors, but if I do nothing, switch off, start up again - that particular error doesn't happen again for the same files until sometime later in the session, after repeated attempts to get one of the tests to work.

I use it with version 9 on occasion and it works fine. The code I use is similar to yours. — Dan Bracuk
The problem is likely that you are using ColdFusion client side features, which are, to be blunt, poorly implemented, out of date and severely limited in function. You would be better served using a JS lib like jQuery. It will be easier to update and will save you a lot of headaches down the road. — Scott Stroz
In the past, when I've had problems like you describe, they were due to other javascript code being introduced at the application level.. When you test this sort of thing, make sure you are in a directory where the Applcation.cfc does not do anything that will interfere with your testing. — Dan Bracuk
Do you have the CFIDE and jakarta virtual directories defined for the site? — Scott Jibben

wjoyce wjoyce · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-02T20:14:44

Wow - that was an obscure one, but I now know what's causing it.

Thanks for the suggestions, especially the one from @Dan Bracuk mentioning conflicts with javascript in the Application.cfc file, which led me to it, but it also helped to know the basic code should and did actually work, as others suggested, so the issue obviously had to do with something else.

Firstly, I removed my Application.cfc file completely - and for the first time, I could bind to a cfc. So then it was a question of finding what, in the Application.cfc, might be doing it.

Well, as it's my development set up, I'm dumping some variables to the page in the onRequestEnd function of Application.cfc. By removing them - it works. Put any of them back (dumps of server, cgi, session, application variables etc.) and again the cfc bind will not work.

I'm not using onRequestEnd for anything other than the variable dumps, but I thought to test what might happen if I were, still while removing the variable dumps. So I just added a simple cfinclude in the onRequestEnd function (the included cfm file does nothing at all - it's an empty cfm framework page with doctype and empty head/body tags that do or output nothing) and again, the cfc bind does not work.

It seems like it (onRequestEnd) will accept basic operations like cfset a=2+1 directly in onRequestEnd (but not in an included file) and the cfc will bind, but that's all (obviously not done exhaustive testing on what you can still do - basically, onRequestEnd is pretty unusable if you want to bind to your CFC.)

So that's it, the onRequestEnd function basically can't be relied upon if the bind to a CFC is to work. If you want it just to perform maths or maybe other things - perhaps you can get away with using it.

Hope this helps somebody else. It's been driving me nuts for weeks.

For what it's worth, so people can compare to their own setup and in case it doesn't apply in every development circumstance, I've been using the CF11 Developer Edition and I'm using the built-in Tomcat server on port 8500.

Thanks again everyone.

Coldfusion 11 Ajax CFC binding impossible

1 Answers