REST Development made Easy with ColdFusion Aether

© 2017 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential.
REST Development made Easy with ColdFusion Aether
S V Pavan Kumar | sanniset@adobe.com

About Pavan
2
Adobe ColdFusion & API Manager Product
Team
Security Czar for ColdFusion Team
Experienced Java Developer
Former Developer at RSA Security
Stewie: What kind of feet can fit into these
shoes?! 
Brian: YOUR FEET!

© 2017 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. Adobe Confidential. 3
ColdFusion Aether

Agenda
 Writing a Simple Rest Service using CF
 Development Workflow Issues
 What’s new
 Demo
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Simple CFC
component output="false" {
public Book function deletebook(required numeric bookid) description="Deletes Specified Book"{
// Function Body
}
public any function getAllBooks() description="Gets list of all Books" {
// Function Body
}
public Book function getBook(required numeric bookid) description="Get Book by ID" {
// Function Body
}
public numeric function addBook(required struct newbook) description="Add a new book" {
// Function Body Err: why can’t I use Book CFC as input argument type instead of struct
}
}
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REST
 REST is about resources and how to represent them in different ways
 REST is about how to manipulate resources
 It’s a architectural style
 Representational state transfer
 It runs on existing standard Http protocol
Methods (GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH)
HTTP URI Syntax (PATHs, parameters etc.)
Media Types (xml, json, html. text etc.)
HTTP response codes
 ColdFusion offers simple and flexible way of writing REST Web services
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REST API
http://service.com/rest/dw/books
http://service.com/rest/dw/books/{id
}
GET http://service.com/rest/dw/books HTTP/1.
POST http://service.com/rest/dw/books/123
HTTP/1.1
DELETE http://service.com/rest/dw/books/123
HTTP/1.1
<books>
<book id="123",name="Harry Porter">
<author>JK Rowling</author>
</book>
</books>
{
"books":{[{"book":{
"author“ : "JK Rowling",
"id“ : 123
"name“ : "Harry Porter"
}
}]}
}
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CFC as Resource
component restpath="books"
rest="true" output="false" {
// Component Body
}
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Function -> REST
public any function getAllBooks() description="Gets all
Books“ httpmethod="GET"
produces= "application/json,application/xml"
{
// Function Body
}
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How the URL is Formed
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http(s)://<hostname>:[port]/servlet mapping/service mapping/[cfcrestpath]/[methodrestpath]

Function -> REST
public numeric function addBook(required struct newbook
restargsource="body") description="Add a new book“
consumes="application/json" produces="text/plain"
httpmethod="POST" {
}
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CFArgument
public Book function getBook(required numeric bookid
restargsource = "path" restargname="bookid")
description="Get Book by ID“ restpath="{bookid}"
produces="application/json" httpmethod="GET" {
// Function Body
}
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http://localhost:8500/rest/dw/books/20
Componentbookid

Registering REST application
 Register the directory containing the REST service in following ways:
 ColdFusion Administrative Console
 ColdFusion Admin API
 Using restInitApplication
13

Registering REST application
2.) Admin API : One requires Admin privilege to invoke below functions
 registerRESTService(rootPath, [service mapping])
 getRESTServices() : returns array of REST services registered with ColdFusion
 deleteRESTService(rootPath): Deletes REST service at the specified path
 refreshRESTService(rootPath): If you make any changes to the REST-enabled CF
component, you can refresh the registered application by calling this function.
3.) restInitApplication(rootPath,[serviceMapping])
4.)
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<cfset this.restsettings.autoregister="true"/>

Development Issues
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REST Developer Problems
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 Difficulty in exploring the REST URLs (Going through CFCs to derive them)
 http://localhost:8500/rest/servicemapping/shopping/itemcode
 URL has 4 parts – deriving it is a cumbersome work

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REST Developer Problems (Swagger)
23
Root Swagger:
http(s)://<hostname>:[port]/servlet mapping/service
mapping/api-docs
Resource Level Swagger:
http(s)://<hostname>:[port]/servlet mapping/service
mapping/api-docs/resource-name

 For every change in code developer is forced to login to the ColdFusion
Administrator and refresh the server to test them
 Debugging the Runtime errors used to be difficult
 Digging through the large log files and associating that to the current context used
to be difficult every time.
 Not showing the compilation errors in the admin UI
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 Difficulty in exploring the REST URLs (Going through CFCs to derive them)
 Manually interpreting the Swagger Docs
 No Quick Testing tools
 Gaps in REST Language
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Categories of Enhancements
 REST Development friendly Enhancements
 REST Language Enhancements
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Developer Profile
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REST Development (Developer Friendly)
 REST services made dynamic
Pros:
-No more refreshes to reflect the changed code
-The behaviour synonymous with normal ColdFusion development
Cons:
- Auto-refresh adds some time lag.
- For production environments user can turn-off this feature.
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Tools making REST development faster
 RESTPlay application.
 No login required - Just Enable Developer profile
 Auto listing of the applications and URLs in the app.
 Swagger docs are integrated
http://localhost:8500/restplay
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RESTPlay Application
 Showing the error stack trace now on-the-go
 Show the Compilation errors while registering the application.
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RESTPlay Application-How it eases
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RESTPlay
 From RESTPlay app even in production REST services can be
tested(Precondition-URL should be known)
Ex:- http://localhost:8500/rest/mapping/shopping/restplay
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REST Enhancements
 REST Language Enhancements
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REST Enhancements (Language)
 Support for REST Functions with Component(Bean) as arguments
remote any function setuserPost(student x) httpmethod="POST"
restpath="setuser"
description="Setuser using POST"
{
return x;
}
{
"name": "pavan kumar",
"company": "Adobe Systems"
}
36

REST Enhancements
 Support for JSON Patch (rfc6902)
User can submit only the fields that they want to update instead of submitting the whole
object. Request becomes thin.
https://sookocheff.com/post/api/understanding-json-patch/
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JSON Patch
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Original:
{
"baz": "qux",
"foo": "bar"
}
Patch:
[
{ "op": "replace", "path": "/baz", "value": "boo" },
{ "op": "add", "path": "/hello", "value": ["world"] },
{ "op": "remove", "path": "/foo"}
]
{
"baz": "boo",
"hello": ["world"]
}

REST Enhancements
39

REST Enhancements
40

REST Enhancements
41

REST Enhancements
 Entity Filtering support(JSON Field Projection)
User can opt to receive the fields that are of his interest in the response. Response
becomes thin
42

REST Enhancements
43

REST Enhancements
 Enhanced restSetResponse()
User can set the response even when the function's return type is non-void.
44

REST Enhancements
 Support for onRESTRequest life cycle function (Equivalent of onCFCRequest)
- Works as an interceptor to the REST Calls (User can use it for logging/adding security layer)
<cffunction name="onRESTRequest" returntype="any" output="true">
<cfargument type="string" name="cfcname" required=true>
<cfargument type="string" name="method" required=true>
<cfargument type="struct" name="args" required=true>
<cflog text="onRESTRequest() Before">
<cfinvoke component = "#cfcname#" method = "#method#" argumentCollection = "#args#"
returnVariable = "resultval">
<cflog text="onRESTRequest() After">
<cfreturn "#resultval#">
</cffunction>
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Remote not needed any more
component output="false" rest="true" restpath="/sample"
{
remote numeric function add(required numeric a restargsource="query", required numeric b
restargsource="query")
output="false" produces="application/json" httpmethod="get"
{
return a + b;
}
remote numeric function substract(required numeric a restargsource="query", required numeric b
restargsource="query")
output="false" produces="application/json" restpath="/sub" httpmethod="get" {
return a - b;
}
}
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REST Enhancements
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Configurable REST Servlet Path
from ColdFusion administrator

Language Enhancement
<cfscript>
a = structnew();
a["sample"] = true;
a["lastname"] = "no";
a["firstname"] = "firstname";
a["value"] = "10.256";
writeoutput(serializejson(a));
</cfscript>
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Expected Result:
{
"lastname": "no",
"sample": true,
"firstname": "firstname",
"value": "10.256"
}
Actual Result:
{
"lastname": false,
"sample": true,
"firstname": "firstname",
"value": 10.256
}

Language Enhancement (Literal Type Preservation)
 ColdFusion does not preserve the literal type.
 All the literals are stored as String By default
 Based on the context the string literal is converted to the desired type
How to change this ?
 JVM Flag coldfusion.literal.preservetype (by default false) set it to true
 Setting it true preserves the literals using respective data type.
 Requires recompilation of the templates (clear cache)
 Few backward compatibility issues exists.
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Conclusion
 Many hassles removed
 Smooth Development Workflow
 Easy Testing with Swagger and RESTPlay
 New REST Enhancements
https://github.com/sunnypav/cfsummit2017_rest
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REST Development made Easy with ColdFusion Aether

REST Development made Easy with ColdFusion Aether

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