It was quite a pain trying to find a decent template system to use in Coldfusion.  I finally landed on Freemarker, because I had used it’s syntax before.  I had to jump through some hurdles to finally figure out how to effectively use it, so here I will share how I did it.

Download JavaLoader:
http://javaloader.riaforge.org/

Download Freemarker:
http://freemarker.sourceforge.net/freemarkerdownload.html

I use JavaLoader because I do not always have control over the Coldfusion environment that my applications will run on.

Here is the cfc

<cfcomponent name="FreeMarker" output="no">

<cfscript>
instance=StructNew();
instance.ID=CreateUUID();
instance.Out=createObject("java", "java.io.StringWriter").init();
instance.Map=StructNew();
instance.JavaLoader="";
</cfscript>

<cffunction name="init" hint="Constructor" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="JavaLoader" type="any" required="yes">

 <cfscript>
 instance.JavaLoader=arguments.JavaLoader;
 </cfscript>

 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="setContent" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="Template" type="string" required="yes">
 <cfscript>
 instance.Content=createObject("java", "java.io.StringReader").init(arguments.Template);
 instance.Template=instance.JavaLoader.create("freemarker.template.Template").init("FMT_" & instance.ID, instance.Content);
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="process" access="public" returntype="string" output="false">
 <cfscript>
 instance.Template.process(instance.Map, instance.Out);
 instance.Out.flush();
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn instance.Out.toString() />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="putInt" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="name" type="string" required="true" />
 <cfargument name="in" type="numeric" required="true" />
 <cfscript>
 instance.Map[arguments.name]=JavaCast("int", arguments.in);
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="putString" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="name" type="string" required="true" />
 <cfargument name="in" type="string" required="true" />
 <cfscript>
 instance.Map[arguments.name]=JavaCast("string", arguments.in);
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="putArray" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="name" type="string" required="true" />
 <cfargument name="in" type="array" required="true" />
 <cfscript>
 instance.Map[arguments.name]=arguments.in;
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="putStruct" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="name" type="string" required="true" />
 <cfargument name="in" type="struct" required="true" />
 <cfscript>
 instance.Map[arguments.name]=arguments.in;
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="putQuery" access="public" returntype="FreeMarker" output="false">
 <cfargument name="name" type="string" required="true" />
 <cfargument name="in" type="query" required="true" />
 <cfscript>
 instance.Map[arguments.name]=QueryToArray(arguments.in);
 </cfscript>
 <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="getMap" access="public" returntype="struct" output="false">
 <cfreturn instance.Map />
</cffunction>

<!--- ===================================== --->

<!--- Got from Ben Nadel: http://www.bennadel.com/blog/124-Ask-Ben-Converting-a-Query-to-an-Array.htm --->
<cffunction name="QueryToArray" access="private" returntype="array" output="false"
 hint="This turns a query into an array of structures.">

 <!--- Define arguments. --->
 <cfargument name="Data" type="query" required="yes" />

 <cfscript>
 // Define the local scope.
 var LOCAL = StructNew();
 // Get the column names as an array.
 LOCAL.Columns = ListToArray( ARGUMENTS.Data.ColumnList );
 // Create an array that will hold the query equivalent.
 LOCAL.QueryArray = ArrayNew( 1 );
 // Loop over the query.
 for (LOCAL.RowIndex = 1 ; LOCAL.RowIndex LTE ARGUMENTS.Data.RecordCount ; LOCAL.RowIndex = (LOCAL.RowIndex + 1)){
 // Create a row structure.
 LOCAL.Row = StructNew();
 // Loop over the columns in this row.
 for (LOCAL.ColumnIndex = 1 ; LOCAL.ColumnIndex LTE ArrayLen( LOCAL.Columns ) ; LOCAL.ColumnIndex = (LOCAL.ColumnIndex + 1)){
 // Get a reference to the query column.
 LOCAL.ColumnName = LOCAL.Columns[ LOCAL.ColumnIndex ];
 // Store the query cell value into the struct by key.
 LOCAL.Row[ LOCAL.ColumnName ] = ARGUMENTS.Data[ LOCAL.ColumnName ][ LOCAL.RowIndex ];
 }
 // Add the structure to the query array.
 ArrayAppend( LOCAL.QueryArray, LOCAL.Row );
 }
 // Return the array equivalent.
 return( LOCAL.QueryArray );
 </cfscript>
</cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Download the full example here

Well, a much overdue update to my father’s website has been completed. AlanClendenin.com has been launched on GSL Solutions’ FrontRunner CMS.  Check it out, I’m rather proud of it.

It’s the perfect communication tool for my father, who is politically active and needed a website to publish not only blog posts, but also news items.

I’m pretty much using his website as my test bed for new features and ideas.  Plus who better to suggest features than a family member.

You know how family is with software.  They are always asking “Can I do …”, or “How do I …”.

I would like to thank Flip who designed the website.

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