Transcript Presentation - CF Conf Central

Fusebox & CFCs
Barney Boisvert
2004 Fusebox Conference
Problems with FB
1. The “DO in XML” problem
2. Grammar is not full-featured
a) Need query/list/index loops
b) Need nested conditionals
c) Etc.
3. XML is cumbersome
4. No nested layouts?!?!
Two Key Concepts
• Encapsulation - being self contained
– FB doesn’t really do this
– CFCs provide help
• Abstraction - separate interface from implementation
– FuseDocs do this for fuses (mostly)
– CFCs excel at it
Both of these contribute greatly to the long-term
maintainability of code.
Parts of an App
Controller
View
Model
(UI logic)
(display)
(business logic)
FB
FB
FB or CFCs
Flash/CFCs
Flash
CFCs*
Web Services
N/A
N/A
CFCs†
HTML with existing
Java backend
FB
FB
N/A
HTML
Flash (inc. Flex)
Check out this column
* You can use CFM templates for this, but it’s messy
† You can use FB behind a CFC façade, but that’s even messier
So what is FB?
A framework, of course, but what kind?
– Application (typical use)
– UI (implied by application)
• HTTP/text-based (definitely)
• Flash (not a chance)
• Web Services (ugly, but possible, with CFC help)
What about Mach-II? Struts? Ben Hediard’s MVCF (www.benorama.com)?
FB Request Flow
Desired Request Flow
What’s different?
• Clear distinction between action and display
requests
• Clear distinction between UI logic and
business logic
• Ability to “scalp” the app at any layer, and
leave a functional remainder
Why is it different?
• FB controller circuit has ALL public
fuseactions, both action and display
• FB can potentially combine action and
display fuseactions
• FB’s business logic depends on the
controller and it’s framework
“Does this have anything to do with user interaction?”
The Layer Stack
Other benefits of CFCs
• Can be stateless or stateful
• Can easily integrate with Flash & web services
• Can be [nearly] transparently replaced with Java
or COM
• Can be fully encapsulated
– More effective testing
– No weird assemble-time interferences
• Objects can provide easier/better modeling
• Help remove that pesky ozone layer
Why Use FB At All?
• Procedural nature of HTML clients
• FB is awesome at managing text layouts
• FB’s already coded, tested and functional
Weighing Frameworks
Balancing current needs, anticipated needs, and overhead
• I still write pure FB apps (even single-circuit ones)
• I never do framework-less apps
Building CFC-based Models
• Objects (user, product, etc.)
• Processes (add user, check out, etc.)
• Collections (user list, cart contents, etc.)
• Business Objects & DTOs
• Services
• Gateways