User Defined Functions were introduced in ColdFusion 5 and were written using . ColdFusion MX now provides a tag interface to creating UDF's making it possible to write UDF's that invoke tags and any other code (something not possible using ). (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)
ColdFusion Components can be made to persist by simply placing them in persistent scopes (like APPLICATION or SESSION). Use or CreateObject() to instantiate the component and assign it to a variable, and then refer to it as scope.object. Within the component any data saved in the THIS scope will be...
To provide greater detail in ColdFusion Components documentation, use the HINT attribute in component tags to provide details and explanations on methods and arguments. ColdFusion will use these hints when generating documentation. (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)
ColdFusion Components support inheritance, an object feature which facilitates code reuse. In CFC's this is known as "extending" a component, and the EXTENDS attribute is used to provide the name of the component that is being inherited. (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)
ColdFusion Components self document. Simply invoke the CFC without parameters (no query string) in your Web browser, and cleanly formatted detailed HTML documentation will be generated on the fly. (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)
Using ? You can still easily create XML content by using the XMLNew() function which creates an XML object just like the tag. (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)
Web Services are defined with WSDL, an XML format that clients need in order to introspect services (to learn about them). ColdFusion automatically generates WSDL for any component on demand. The URL for the WSDL is the URL to the CFC file with a query string of "wsdl" (so, the URL with ?wsdl...
ColdFusion makes creating Web Services incredibly easy. In fact, any ColdFusion Component method may be exposed as a Web Service by simply adding ACCESS="remote" to the definition. (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)
Specific methods (functions) within ColdFusion Components may be secured so that their access requires prior authentication. Each in a component takes an optional ROLES attribute which defines one or more roles (in a comma delimited list) that may access the function. If ROLES are defined than...
Within a ColdFusion component methods can call other methods. But there is no need to use to do this. Rather, just call the methods as if they were ColdFusion function (which they actually are). (Applies to: ColdFusion MX)