Javascript Date Time parsing rules

Though these rules vary from browser to browser but still I am trying to put basic rules which are implemented by majority of popular browsers. To be on safer side please try these in your browser first.

JavaScript by default uses a simplified version of the ISO 8601 extended format to convert strings to Date objects

You can specify strings to construct Date objects either with Date(dateStr) or with Date.parse(dateStr). JavaScript first attempts to parse a date string by using the ISO format. If the date string is not in that format, JavaScript attempts to parse the date by using other date parsing rules.

The ISO format is a simplification of the ISO 8601 extended format. The format is as follows:

Axis-2 and Axis-1 compatibility issues

 Axis-2 and Axis-1 compatibility issues

Problem:

With ColdFusion 10 you can leverage power of Axis-2 WebServices. But you might get into issues if you are mixing Axis-2 with Axis-1. Axis-2 services are incompatible with Axis-1 services in ColdFusion because of the way their WSDL's are formed. Though by design Axis-1 and Axis-2 are compatible but in ColdFusion you might run into issues if you are using ColdFusion complex data types.

Since Axis-1 and Axis-2 are incompatible in ColdFusion, this means that if you are publishing your WebServices using Axis-2, then they should be consumed using Axis-2 only. Similarly if you are publishing your WebServices using Axis-1 then they should be consumed using Axis-1 only.

ColdFusion 10 Solution:

ColdFusion has taken all the measures to support backward compatibility with it's earlier versions. ColdFusion allows you to specify the version of Axis in which WebServices should be published or consumed. ColdFusion has given a control at three levels:

ColdFusion 10 WebServices - Axis2 vs Axis1

I have seen many people getting confused between Axis-2 and Axis-1 WebServices in ColdFusion 10. ColdFusion 10 has added the support for Axis-2 WebService, earlier till ColdFusion 9 only Axis-1 WebServices were supported.

So to begin with what exactly is this Axis-2 and Axis-1.

Intro Axis:
Apache Axis (Axis-1) is an open source, XML based Web service framework. ColdFusion internally uses Axis to publish and consume WebServices.  Apache Axis-2 is a complete re-design and re-write of the widely used Apache Axis but achieves same purpose. Axis-2 supports many new and flexible features over Axis-1 which means ColdFusion has implemented it not only to provide you latest features like Soap1.2 but also to give you more flexibility and power in your hand. You can always search for 'Axis-1 vs Axis2' if you want to study the advantages of Axis-2.


New in ColdFusion 10
 
 So let's see what ColdFusion 10 is offering with Axis-2

Node.js to ColdFusion - REST api

In my earlier post I explained how to expose a pdf service using ColdFusion REST api here.
In that post we saw that from the client side if I will pass a html document to this service it will convert it into pdf document and will return it back to the client. Also in my earlier post I gave an example to consume it using CF client itself. But there are times when your client side may not be ColdFusion. For that purpose I am giving an example to consume it using Node.js

Node.js server will act as a client over here and will contact ColdFusion to convert a document into pdf document.

Let's take a look at the code.

ColdFusion html to pdf service - rest api

Convert a html document to PDF using ColdFusion <cfdocument> and REST power.

If you are not sure about how to start with REST, you can read my blogs here.

So let's write a CFC which will be exposed as pdf service using REST api.

Explanation:
Over here we have exposed a ColdFusion component as a REST resource - pdf, which will accept an html body and will return a pdf file in binary.

In the only function present, I am accepting POST request and will produce the content in "application/xml" format. POST request will be accepted because my httpmethod attribute in the function is POST and produces attribute is "application/xml" so it will produce xml content.

There is a point to note that even though I am producing xml content but still the produced string will not contain any xml tags. That is because ColdFusion only serializes the return variable in xml/json if it is complex variable like an Array, a Struct, a CFC etc.. As we are producing a binary which is a simple data type, so it will not be serialized rather will be returned as it is.

For consuming the data I am looking for argument in body of the request. Generally you will find the restargsource attribute present in <cfargument> tag to tell you where to look for the data. But if it's absent ColdFusion looks for the argument in the body of request.

Inside the function I am using <cfdocument> tag to convert the HTML body passed from client into PDF file. This PDF file will be saved in a variable name "pdffile" in binary format. And then returning this pdffile as it is in binary format back to the client.

Client side can be written in any language but here I will write an exmaple in ColdFusion itself.

All we need to do in client side is to call this service with POST http request and pass the HTML content in the body of the request.

..
In this example I am reading a html file from local directory and passing it's content to the service we just exposed.
And finally we are saving the result we have got back to sample.pdf

That's it. We are done.

ColdFusion 10 Chrome theme

After ColdFusion 9 Chrome theme, it's time to try ColdFusion 10 Chrome theme.

If you are using Chrome, try this ubercool dark theme and stay close to CF 10.

How to use:

1. Download ColdFusion theme from here.
2. Save this file somewhere in your filesystem.
3. Drag this file to your Chrome Browser.
4. It will ask you to continue(left-bottom).
5. Press continue and whola!!!
6. To check open a new tab.

And ofcourse spread it if you like it :)

my first REST resource

---

<- Previous

Contents

Next ->

---

PART-III
Tutorial on REST: First REST Resource(cfc)


In first part we saw a simple example on REST to start off the things. So moving forward I will give another very simple example and will explain it.



helloWorld.cfc

1. Every component and every function acts as a REST resource(if you are publishing them). 
2. A new attribute in cfcomponent 'restpath' OR 'rest' defines if a component can be published as a REST resource. Either of these should be present. 
3. Attribute 'httpmethod' should be there in cffunction tag or cfcomponent tag. 'httpmethod' in cffunction tag overrides the one in cffcomponent tag. To publish/expose a function as resource, this attribute is necessary. Valid values for this are 'GET', 'POST', 'PUT', 'DELETE', 'OPTION', 'HEAD'. 
4. Similar to 'httpmethod', 'restpath' can also be used in cffunction tag but it doesn't overrides the value of 'restpath' in cffcomponent tag , instead it appends to it. So if you want to call this function(resource), you need to give both the restpath's in URL. Check helloWorld.cfm's second http call for clearer picture
5. Keeping other things simple like 'access=remote'(required for REST/WEB services) and 'returntype=string', lets see how can we call this service. 

Note: After writing a cfc(at-least one) in webroot, you need to register the folder(in which that REST cfc is present) as REST application, otherwise you will not be able to call any resource. Please check previous chapter for that.

helloWorld.cfm

1. Considering that you registered this application with name 'IIT', the URL to access first resource(function HelloWorld) will be: http://127.0.0.1:8500/rest/IIT/HelloWorld
2. So to access that resource all you need to do is, use cfhttp tag and call this URL. Keep in mind that method in cfhttp tag will match to the httpmethod present in function.
3. Similarly to call the second Resource in cfc(function HiWorld), the URL will be: http://127.0.0.1:8500/rest/IIT/HelloWorld/HiWorld
4. To call this from a cfm you need to call this URL using cfhttp tag with httpmethod as get.

how the URL works:

Breaking the URL for better understading

1. http://127.0.0.1:8500/ - protocol//ip:port/
2. rest/ - Compulsary string to call a REST resource. You can change this 'rest' string in server.xml and restart the server for changes to take effect.
3. Examples/ - Mapping name you give to register an application using Administrator or restInitApplication method(Check next example for this) .
4. HelloWorld/ - RestPath to call a resource. This was given as 'restpath' attribute in cfcomponent level.
5. HiWorld/ - If your function also has a restpath then after giving a restpath for your component you need to give restpath for function also to call that function.

---

<- Previous

Contents

Next ->

---