Fusebox 5.5 no xml (almost!)

I just building an app using the noxml implementation of fusebox 5.5 to test it out in a real world situation. There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount out their about this at the moment so I thought I’d jot down my findings.

Because I use plugins quite a lot, I’ve decided to keep fusebox.xml.cfm but no longer define the circuits in it. To do this you need to add:

<parameter name="allowImplicitCircuits" value="true" />

I also prefer to keep the parsed, plugins & lexicons directory off the website root, hence:

<parameter name="parsePath" value="fb_extensions/parsed/" />
<parameter name="pluginsPath" value="fb_extensions/plugins/" />
<parameter name="lexiconPath" value="fb_extensions/lexicon/" />

If you’re new to fusebox I recommend setting the mode to “development-full-load” or “development-circuit-load” until you are more comfortable with how fusebox works. This means that the circuit files are read on each request so any changes you make will take effect.

<!-- possible values : development-full-load|development-circuit-load|production -->
<parameter name="mode" value="development-circuit-load" />

I’ve left the lexicons in for now in case I decide that I need to use them in a circuit.xml.cfm later, but it is not required.

Example fusebox.xml.cfm

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fusebox>
<fusebox>
    <circuits />

    <parameters>
        <parameter name="fuseactionVariable" value="fuseaction" />
        <parameter name="defaultFuseaction" value="App.Start" />
        <parameter name="password" value="skeleton" />
	<!-- possible values : development-full-load|development-circuit-load|production -->
	<parameter name="mode" value="production" />
        <!-- no need to declare circuits -->
        <parameter name="allowImplicitCircuits" value="true" />
        <parameter name="strictMode" value="true" />
        <parameter name="conditionalParse" value="true" />
        <parameter name="scriptFileDelimiter" value="cfm" />
        <parameter name="characterEncoding" value="utf-8" />
        <parameter name="precedenceFormOrUrl" value="form" />
        <parameter name="parsePath" value="fb_extensions/parsed/" />
        <parameter name="pluginsPath" value="fb_extensions/plugins/" />
        <parameter name="lexiconPath" value="fb_extensions/lexicon/" />
        <parameter name="errortemplatesPath" value="fusebox5/errortemplates/" />

        <!-- search engine safe parameters... -->
        <parameter name="self" value="index.cfm" /> <!-- default: index.cfm -->
        <parameter name="queryStringStart" value="?" /> <!-- default: ? -->
        <parameter name="queryStringSeparator" value="&" /> <!-- default: & -->
        <parameter name="queryStringEqual" value="=" /> <!-- default: = -->
    </parameters>

    <globalfuseactions>
        <preprocess>
        </preprocess>
        <postprocess>
        </postprocess>
    </globalfuseactions>

    <plugins>
        <phase name="preProcess">
            <plugin name="ErrorHandler" path="" template="errorHandler.cfm" />
            <plugin name="Functions" path="" template="functions.cfm" />
        </phase>
        <phase name="preFuseaction">
        </phase>
        <phase name="postFuseaction">
        </phase>
        <phase name="fuseactionException">
            <plugin name="ErrorFuseactionException" template="fuseactionException.cfm" path="" />
        </phase>
        <phase name="postProcess">
        </phase>
        <phase name="processError">
            <plugin name="ErrorProcessError" template="ProcessError.cfm" />
        </phase>
    </plugins>
</fusebox>

I’m using Application.cfm instead of Application.cfc. This is purely because when I develop sites I build them all on a local intranet server in sub directories of the web root (i.e. http://localserver/myfbapp/), this also applies to the client extranet preview version. As Application.cfc extends fusebox5.Application which would need to be myfbapp.fusebox5.Application, which then breaks when you upload it to it’s own domain. A shame as I like the power of Application.cfc but for ease of rollout I’m sticking with Application.cfm. I think ANT maybe a solution to this, but we use IIS and Dreamweaver in-house, one day I’ll get Subversion and ANT up and running and persuade everyone else to switch to it!

The next issue I had was that with the XML version of Fusebox, I used to use the <prefuseaction callsuper=”true”> in a circuit.xml.cfm file to allow me to set my global xfas in a parent circuit.xml.cfm and then inherit them, which works really well if you split your app up into say admin, member, public directories. Any xfas specific to that circuit could then be set in the actual <prefuseaction>.

Example:

in Admin/Users/circuit.xml.cfm

<prefuseaction callsuper="true">
	<!-- set circuit specific xfas -->
	<xfa name="UsersAdd" value="s_Users.Add" />
	<xfa name="UsersEdit" value="s_Users.Edit" />
</prefuseaction>

in Admin/circuit.xml.cfm

<prefuseaction>
	<!-- set global xfas (applies to all child circuits) -->
	<xfa name="UsersList" value="s_Users.List" />
	<xfa name="ClientsList" value="s_Clients.List" />
	<xfa name="SuppliersList" value="s_Suppliers.List" />
</prefuseaction>

As the noxml version of Fusebox doesn’t have parent circuits anymore (would have been defined in fusebox.cml.cfm) I decided to create a Global.cfc which each circuit cfc extend.

Example: Global.cfc

<cfcomponent>
	<cffunction name="setGlobalXfa" hint="I set up global xfa's used in the navigation">
		<cfargument name="myFusebox" />
		<cfargument name="event" />
		<cfset event.xfa("TypesList", "Types.List") />
		<cfset event.xfa("RoomsOverview", "Overview") />
	</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Example: Users.cfc (which extends Global.cfc)

<cfcomponent extends="Global">
	<cffunction name="prefuseaction" output="false">
		<cfargument name="myFusebox" />
		<cfargument name="event" />

		<cfset super.setGlobalXfa( myFusebox=myFusebox, event=event ) />
	</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

This works but I wasn’t sure it’s the best practice as it seemed a bit clunky, so I posted it to the Yahoo Fusebox 5 group (I always like to have a solution before asking a question to show that I have made some effort!)

I got this reply from Mr Guru himself, Sean Corfield:

Just add a method called prefuseaction() to your Global.cfc – then you only need the super call if a child circuit also adds prefuseaction():

Global.cfc:

function prefuseaction(myFusebox,event) {
	event.xfa("TypeList","Types.List");
	event.xfa("RoomsOverview","Overview");
}

Child1.cfc:

<cfcomponent extends="Global">
	<cfscript>
	// no prefuseaction here

	function myAction(myFusebox,event) {
		...
	}
	</cfscript>
</cfcomponent>

Child2.cfc:

<cfcomponent extends="Global">
	<cfscript>
	function prefuseaction(myFusebox,event) {
		super.prefuseaction(myFusebox,event);
		...
	}

	function myAction(myFusebox,event) {
		...
	}
	</cfscript>
</cfcomponent>

This does the same thing as my method, but in a much neater and more sensible way. Thanks Sean!

I’m not saying this is the way to use Fusebox without xml circuits, but my conclusions so far is that the noxml way of working looks very promising. The designers I work with always got confused by the xml and when to reload fusebox if anything changed. I’m sure they have done it when an image got cached in their browser, thinking that would help. No xml means that I have the power of cfcs, the cfcs and hence the app can self document to a large extent, and gets rid of the tedious task of defining each circuit in Fusebox.xml.cfm.

The things that I miss about the XML way is the permissions and access=”internal” attributes of circuit.xml.cfm.

Great work Fusebox team!