cfinvoke

Description

Does either of the following:

  • Invokes a component method from within a ColdFusion page or component.

  • Invokes a web service.

This tag works as follows:

  • Transiently instantiates a component or web service and invokes a method on it.

  • Invokes a method on an instantiated component or web service.

This tag can pass parameters to a method in the following ways:

  • With the cfinvokeargument tag

  • As named attribute-value pairs, one attribute per parameter

  • As a structure, in the argumentCollection attribute

Syntax

<!--- Syntax 1: This syntax invokes a method of a component. ---> 
<cfinvoke 
    component = "component name or reference" 
    method = "method name" 
    returnVariable = "variable name" 
    argumentCollection = "argument collection" 
    ...> 
 
OR 
 
<!--- Syntax 2: This syntax can invoke a method of a component only from within the component. ---> 
<cfinvoke 
    method = "method name" 
    returnVariable = "variable name" 
    argumentCollection = "argument collection" 
    ...> 
 
OR 
 
<!--- Syntax 3: This syntax invokes a web service. ---> 
<cfinvoke  
    webservice = "Web service name or WSDL URL"  
    method = "operation name" 
    password = "password" 
    proxyPassword = "password for proxy server" 
    proxyPort = "port on proxy server" 
    proxyServer = "WSDL proxy server URL"    proxyUser = "user ID for proxy server" 
    returnVariable = "variable name" 
    refreshWSDL = "yes|no" 
    servicePort = "WSDL port name" 
    timeout = "request timeout in seconds" 
    username = "user name" 
    wsdl2javaArgs = "argument string"> 
 
OR 
 
<!--- Syntax 4A: This syntax invokes a component. 
    This syntax shows instantiation with the cfobject tag.  
    This cfinvoke syntax applies to instantiating a component  
    with the cfobject tag and to instantiating a component  
    with the CreateObject function. ---> 
<cfobject 
    component = "component name" 
    name = "name for instantiated component"> 
    <cfinvoke  
    <!--- Value is object name, within number signs. ---> 
    component = "#name of instantiated component#" 
    method = "method name" 
    returnVariable = "variable name" 
    argumentCollection = "argument collection" 
    ...> 
 
OR 
 
<!--- Syntax 4B: This syntax invokes a web service. 
    This syntax shows instantiation with the cfobject tag.  
    This cfinvoke syntax applies to instantiating a web service with the cfobject tag and to 
    instantiating a web service with the CreateObject function. ---> 
<cfobject 
    webservice = "web service name or WSDL URL" 
    name = "name for instantiated object" 
    (optional cfobject attibutes)> 
<cfinvoke  
    webservice = "#cfobject name attribute value#" 
    method = "method name" 
    password = "password" 
    proxyPassword = "password for proxy server" 
    proxyPort = "port on proxy server" 
    proxyServer = "name or IP address of WSDL proxy server" 
    proxyUser = "user ID for proxy server" 
    returnVariable = "variable name" 
    refreshWSDL = "yes|no" 
    servicePort = "WSDL port name" 
    timeout = "request time-out in seconds" 
    username = "user name" 
    wsdl2javaArgs = "argument string">
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.

History

ColdFusion 8: Added the following attributes: refreshWSDL, wsdl2javaArgs attributes.

ColdFusion MX 7: Added the servicePort attribute.

ColdFusion MX 6.1: Added the following attributes: timeout, proxyServer, proxyPort, proxyUser, and proxyPassword.

ColdFusion MX: Added this tag.

Attributes

Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

argumentCollection

Optional

Name of a structure; associative array of arguments to pass to the method.

component

See Usage.

String or component object; a reference to a component, or component to instantiate.

input_params ...

 

Input parameters. For each named input parameter specify paramName=paramValue.

method

See Usage.

Name of a method. For a web service, the name of an operation.

password

Optional

Password set in the Administrator, if any

The password to use to access the web service. If the webservice attribute specifies a web service name configured in the Administrator, overrides any user name specified in the Administrator entry.

proxyPassword

Optional

http.proxyPassword system property, if any

The user’s password on the proxy server.

proxyPort

Optional

http.proxyPort system property, if any.

The port to use on the proxy server.

proxyServer

Optional

http.proxyHost system property, if any.

The proxy server required to access the webservice URL.

proxyUser

Optional

http.proxyUser system property, if any

The user ID to send to the proxy server.

refreshWSDL

Optional

no

  • yes: reload the WSDL file and regenerate the artifacts used to consume the web service

  • no

returnVariable

Optional

Name of a variable for the invocation result.

servicePort

Optional

First port found in the WSDL

The port name for the web service. This value is case sensitive and corresponds to the port element’s name attribute under the service element.

Specify this attribute if the web service contains multiple ports.

timeout

Optional

0 (no timeout)

The time-out for the web service request, in seconds.

username

Optional

User name set in the Administrator, if any

The user name to use to access the web service. If the webservice attribute specifies a web service name configured in the Administrator, overrides any user name specified in the Administrator entry.

webservice

See Usage

One of the following:

  • The absolute URL of the web service WSDL.

  • The Name (string) assigned in the ColdFusion Administrator to the web service.

wsdl2javaArgs

See Usage

A string that contains a space-delimited list of arguments to pass to the WSDL2Java tool that generates Java stubs for the web services. Useful arguments include the following:

  • -W or --noWrapped: Turns off the special treatment of wrapped document/literal style operations.

  • -a or --all: Generates code for all elements in the WSDL, even unreferenced ones.

  • -w or --wrapArrays: Prefers building beans to straight arrays for wrapped XML array types. This switch is not in included in the Axis documentation.

For detailed information on valid arguments, see the Apache Axis WSDL2Java Reference.

Note: If you do not specify any attributes of the proxy server, and a corresponding system property is set (typically in the JVM startup arguments) ColdFusion uses the system property value.

Usage

The following table shows when you can use each attribute:

This attribute is required, optional, ignored, or invalid:

For this cfinvoke tag syntax:

Syntax 1

Syntax 2

Syntax 3

Syntax 4A

Syntax 4B

argumentCollection

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

component

Required

Optional

Invalid

Required

Invalid

input_params ...

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

method

Required

Required

Required

Required

Required

password

Ignored

Ignored

Optional

Ignored

Optional

proxyPassword

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

proxyPort

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

proxyServer

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

proxyUser

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

returnVariable

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

Optional

servicePort

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

timeout

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

username

Ignored

Ignored

Optional

Ignored

Optional

webservice

Invalid

Invalid

Required

Invalid

Required

wsdl2javaArgs

Invalid

Invalid

Optional

Invalid

Optional

If the component attribute specifies a component name, the component with the corresponding name is instantiated, the requested method is invoked, and then the component instance is immediately destroyed. If the attribute contains a reference to an instantiated component object, no instantiation or destruction of the component occurs.

On UNIX systems, ColdFusion searches first for a file with a name that matches the specified component name, but is all lower case. If it does not find the file, it looks for a file name that matches the component name exactly, with the identical character casing.

Method arguments can be passed in any of the following ways. If an argument is passed in more than one way with the same name, this order of precedence applies:

  1. Using the cfinvokeargument tag

  2. Passing directly as attributes of the cfinvoke tag (they cannot have the same name as a registered cfinvoke attribute: method, component, webservice, returnVariable)

  3. Passing as struct keys, using the argumentCollection attribute

For example, the params struct contains three keys: a=1, b=1, c=1. The following call is evaluated as if the arguments were passed to the method in the order a=3, b=2, c=1:

<cfinvoke ... a=2 b=2 argumentCollection=params> 
        <cfinvokeargument name="a" value="3"> 
    </cfinvoke>
Note: The following cfinvoke tag attribute names are reserved; they cannot be used for argument names: component, method, argumentCollection, and result.

Example1

This example uses Syntax 1.

<!--- Immediate instantiation and destruction. ---> 
<cfinvoke  
    component="nasdaq.quote"  
    method="getLastTradePrice"  
    returnVariable="res"> 
    <cfinvokeargument  
        name="symbol"  
        value="macr"> 
</cfinvoke> 
<cfoutput>#res#</cfoutput>

Example2

This example uses Syntax 1.

<!--- Passing the arguments using argumentCollection. ---> 
<cfset args = StructNew()> 
<cfset args.symbol = "macr"> 
<cfinvoke  
    component="nasdaq.quote"  
    method="getLastTradePrice"  
    argumentCollection="#args#"  
    returnVariable="res"> 
<cfoutput>#res#</cfoutput>

Example3

This example uses Syntax 2.

<!--- Called only from within a component, MyComponent. ---> 
<cfinvoke 
    method = "a method name of MyComponent" 
    returnVariable = "variable name">

Example4

This example uses Syntax 3.

<!--- Using cfinvoke to consume a web service using a ColdFusion component. ---> 
<cfinvoke  
    webservice="http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl" 
    method="getTemp" 
    returnvariable="aTemp"> 
<cfinvokeargument name="zipcode" value="55987"/> 
</cfinvoke> 
<cfoutput>The temperature at zip code 55987 is #aTemp#</cfoutput>

For more information on web services, see Using Web Services in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

Example5

This example uses Syntax 4A.

<!--- Separate instantiation and method invocation; useful for multiple invocations using 
    different methods or values. ---> 
<cfobject  
    name="quoteService"  
    component="nasdaq.quote"> 
<cfinvoke  
    component="#quoteService#"  
    method="getLastTradePrice"  
    symbol="macr"  
    returnVariable="res_macr"> 
<cfoutput>#res#</cfoutput> 
<cfinvoke  
    component="#quoteService#"  
    method="getLastTradePrice"  
    symbol="mot"  
    returnVariable="res_mot"> 
<cfoutput>#res#</cfoutput>