Charlie Arehart, CTO charlienewatlanta'com

1
More Flexible Testing Against CF4/5 and
CFMX (And BlueDragon, as well)

• Charlie Arehart, CTOcharlie_at_newatlanta.com

2
Goals

• How to set up IIS to execute CFML pages against
  either CF4/5, MX, or BlueDragon
• Normally, each takes control of all CFML page
  processing
• Same concepts apply to Apache and other web
  servers
• How to configure a single code directory to be
  browsable by all three at once
• Switch among them simply by changing the URL path
• Using virtual directories
• Configuring each CFML server to work this way
• In case of CF, which version you do first will
  influence some steps

3
Resources

• Presentation based on my Sept 2003 article of
  same name in ColdFusion Developers Journal
• Available online at http//sys-con.com/coldfusion
  /article.cfm?id647
• Co-written with Jeffry Houser
• Also, more information on manually configuring
  web server integration for CF 5, CFMX, and
  BlueDragon is provided in their respective
  Installation/Configuration Manuals
• For instance, see CF5 docs for configuring on
  Windows
• http//livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/5.0/Inst
  alling_and_Configuring_ColdFusion_Server/wininstal
  l5.htm1098302

4
About Your Speaker

• CTO of New Atlanta Communications since April 03
• 7 yrs CF experience (21 yrs in Enterprise IT)
• Co-author, ColdFusion MX Bible (Wiley)
• Frequent contributor to ColdFusion Dev Journal
• Past accomplishments of note
• Tech Editor, CFDJ
• Allaire/Macromedia Certified Adv CF Developer (4,
  5, MX)
• Allaire/Macromedia Certified Instructor
• Team Macromedia Member Customer Advisory Board
  Member
• Contributor to Macromedia Devnet, Dev Exchange
• Frequent speaker to user groups, conferences
  worldwide

5
Testing CF5/CFMX At Once

• Any need to support multiple versions of
  ColdFusion?
• Consider especially not for production, but for
  testing
• To support multiple types of customers having
  different configurations
• To test code against different versions of
  ColdFusion on single machine
• And what if you wanted to try out BlueDragon?
• Its an alternative CFML runtime engine
• Can also install it alongside CF5 and/or CFMX
• While it also offers its own built-in web server
  (like CFMX), it can also integrate with external
  web servers
• What if you could run code in a single directory
  using a single web server against any or all
  three of these CFML servers?
• You can!

6
The Challenge

• You may know it is possible to run CF5 and CFMX
  at same time
• But by default cant have one web server serving
  .cfms via both
• For Windows users, heres a rather typical
  scenario for having CF5 (or earlier) and testing
  with CFMX
• CF5 already installed using IIS
• CF5 (and previous releases) offered no built-in
  web server
• Code in inetpub\wwwroot (or some other dir, using
  virtual dirs)
• CFMX installed on its own built-in web server
• Code in cfusionmx\wwwroot
• CFMX code requested by appending built-in web
  server port
• Default is 8500
• To test code against both, have to move code back
  and forth

7
Alternatives

• Could modify CFMX built-in web server properties
  to create virtual mappings
• Could point a new mapping there at
  inetpub\wwwroot
• At least could run code from one place
• using external web server (IIS) for running
  against CF5
• built-in web server to run against CFMX
• Could use multiple virtual hosts/sites
• Supports in Apache, iPlanet, IIS on Server
  edition of Windows 2000, XP
• Can define new web sites, point them at a single
  code directory
• Then manually configure these to pass CFML
  requests to either server
• Could use multiple virtual directories
• For IIS users on non-Server Windows, this may be
  best
• Need to understand master properties and
  extension mappings

8
IIS Application Mappings

• In IIS, extension mappings tell how .cfm pages
  are processed
• They indicate what DLL will process them
• Can also have mappings for .dbm, .cfc, .jsp, and
  more
• Settings for .cfm files (and some related ones)
  are implemented on installation/config of
  CF/BlueDragon
• Set in master properties, apply to all child
  applications/virtual directories
• Open Internet Services Manager
• In 2000/XP Start--gtSettings--gtControl
  Panel--gtAdministrative Tools
• Right-click web sites (or default web site)
  and choose properties
• Choose home directory tab, then configuration
  button
• Opens application mappings dialogue, where
  mappings are set
• Again, customers using multi-homing/virtual
  hosts can generally figure out how all this
  relates to that configuration
• Focus here is on simpler implementations of IIS
  for starters

9
Local IIS Application Mappings

• Can choose to set these mappings, instead, for a
  specific virtual directory
• Right-click it, choose properties, then
  configuration button
• Also opens application mappings dialogue, for
  that virtual dir
• This is where you can take control back,
• Set up different virtual directories to run CFML
  via different CFML servers
• Can have different Virtual Dirs point to
  different servers, such as /_CF5, /_CFMX, and
  /_BD
• The question is simply What DLL should be mapped
  to in order to process .cfm pages?
• Lets look at each of CF5, CFMX, and BlueDragon
• Am assuming youve installed all 3 they can be
  installed alongside one another
• Article offers more info on installing each of
  them

10
CF5 Integration with IIS

• When CF5 installs and you integrate with IIS, it
  sets the .cfm mapping to (generally)
• C\Cfusion\BIN\ISCF.DLL
• If you install CFMX alongside CF5 and tell it to
  use IIS, this value will be replaced in master
  properties
• Even so, could create a new virtual directory to
  process via IIS against CF5 again
• Virtual directory is like an alias you can use on
  the URL to force alternate processing of CFM
  files
• Can even point it at the webroot
  (inetpub\wwwroot) to cause all code there to be
  run alternatively against CF5, regardless of
  global setting
• Lets see how

11
Adding a Virtual Directory

• To add a virtual directory in IIS
• Right-click on default web site or web sites
• Choose new then virtual directory
• Name the new directory CF5 (in this example)
• On the directory screen, point it at the
  inetpub\wwwroot
• Virtual directory is created
• For now, is simply an alias for running all
  webroot code as \CF5
• Right-click on the virtual directory, choose
  properties
• Click on configuration button
• Can now change .cfm mappings by highlighting,
  click edit button
• Observe the current executable (should show
  whatever defaults that were set by last installed
  CFML server)
• Change it to the CF5 DLL path from previous page
  C\Cfusion\BIN\ISCF.DLL
• Now, pages requested starting with
  http//domain/_CF5/ will run against CF5

12
CFMX Integration with IIS

• IIS Integration in CFMX is a little more
  challenging
• Can choose to do it on installation
• Or can do it after the fact
• Web Server Configuration Tool (off Start menu)
• Or wsconfig.jar file in C\CfusionMX\runtime\lib
• See MM manuals for more details on available
  choices
• Once done, this both creates mappings in IIS (in
  Master Properties) and also (different from CF5)
  builds the needed DLL on the fly
• In other words, you must run this step to create
  the DLL needed to create mappings in IIS
• Cant just install CFMX and expect it to be there
• Can now view IIS mapping created in global
  settings
• Likely pointing to something like
  C\CFusionMX\runtime\lib\wsconfig\1\jrun.dll
• As in CF5, can create a /_CFMX mapping if you
  want to have a virtual dir for indicating your
  desire to run against CFMX
• Or could just leave it to run all code with / in
  URL with CFMX
• If you installed CFMX previously using built-in
  web server and then chose IIS integration, need
  to copy CFIDE and CFDOCS from cfusionmx/wwwroot

13
Configuring BlueDragon as Alternative

• BlueDragon is simply an alternative runtime
  engine for CFML
• Just another way to run CFML code
• Can install it as standalone service (Server and
  Server JX editions) or as a standard web
  application on J2EE or (coming soon) .NET
• Lets take just a minuteone slideto introduce it

14
What is BlueDragon?

• Latest 6.1 edition is substantially compatible
  with CFMX 6.1
• Supports CFCs (including super), XML, web
  services, and more
• Benefits cost, support, bundling options,
  deployment ease, pre-compiled and encrypted
  templates, and much more
• Hi performance, robust deployed in many large
  CFML shops
• Editions
• BlueDragon Server free, supports all but a few
  CFML tags
• BlueDragon Server JX (549 intro) adds features
  held back from free version
• BlueDragon/J2EE (2499/cpu) - deployment of CFML
  as J2EE web app/WAR/EAR (fewer steps, lower price
  than CFMX)
• BlueDragon/.NET (2499/cpu) coming soon, will
  offer only option for deployment of CFML as
  native .NET web app
• Info/docs/trials/support, see www.newatlanta.com/b
  luedragon/

15
BlueDragon Server Installation

• BlueDragon Server/Server JX installation is as
  simple as CF5, but as flexible as CFMX
• Can install it alongside CF5 and/or CFMX
• As with CF5 or MX, if you integrate it with IIS,
  it by default takes over all .cfm processing
  (sets Master Properties)
• We can change things as we just did with CF5 and
  CFMX
• Just run the installer (free download trial/dev
  edition at site) to create a new service to run
  BlueDragon
• Can choose use its own web server, or integrate
  with an external one (IIS, Apache, iPlanet, etc.)
• Like CFMX, can integrate web server either at
  install time, or by way of option in BlueDragon
  Admin
• Or, again, can create a virtual directory (_BD,
  for example)
• Point at the BlueDragon DLL (\bin\isapi\BlueDragon
  _Adapter.dll)
• Found in directory where BlueDragon is installed

16
Result

• Now can run CFML pages against either server
• /_CF5 run against CF5
• /_CFMX run against CFMX
• /_BD run against BlueDragon
• Great for integration testing, evaluation,
  supporting multiple servers or customer
  configurations, etc.
• Maybe you were feeling hassled testing CF5 and
  CFMX, moving code from inetpub\wwwroot to
  cfusionmx\wwwroot to test
• No need to move them to a new directory just run
  them in one place against multiple CFML servers
  using virtual dirs and app mappings
• Should help you feel more comfortable both about
  installing and trying out BlueDragon
• And performing comparisons to see how your CFML
  apps run
• Also great for doing performance testing
• Some load testing tools let you change the URL
  used for recorded scripts, varying either port or
  virtual directories

17
Hiding CFML Implementation

• Could also use this approach to hide underlying
  CFML implementation
• Using extension mappings, assign .htm (.or
  .jsp/.php/etc.) files to be processed by CF or
  BlueDragon
• Linuxworld.com does this, masking CFML pages
  (processed by BlueDragon) as .htm files
• Visitors dont know its CFML
• Can offer security benefits as well

18
Summary

• Configuration of IIS for multiple CFML servers
  isnt difficult
• But the defaults for all three is to take over
  all CFML processing
• Now you can regain control
• And facilitate better testing for integration and
  performance
• And perhaps consider BlueDragon more easily
• Also look into virtual hosts for other similar
  solutions in Apache, iPlanet, or (on Windows
  Server) IIS
• Hope these tips save you lots of time
• You can comment on the article at bottom of
  online sys-con article page
• Or drop me an email charlie_at_newatlanta.com