While working on a ColdFusion Builder extension (no, not that one) I ran into a bug that caused the response dialog to constantly return an 'invalid XML' error. An Adobe engineer discovered that the issue was with the cfdump tag I had in the extension code, but didn't explain why that was the cause. I did a quick test and saw what the problem was.

First, consider the following simple template:

-<cfdump var="#url#" output="/Users/ray/Desktop/dump.html" format="html">-

done

As you can see, I've got a cfdump that is directed to the file system. This is a handy trick when you are working with CFM files that are Ajax bound, or in the case of ColdFusion Builder, happen between the IDE and the server. When you view this in the browser, you should see -- and done, right? (With some whitespace of course.) However, this is what you get:

- <style>

table.cfdump_wddx, table.cfdump_xml, table.cfdump_struct, table.cfdump_varundefined, table.cfdump_array, table.cfdump_query, table.cfdump_cfc, table.cfdump_object, table.cfdump_binary, table.cfdump_udf, table.cfdump_udfbody, table.cfdump_udfarguments { font-size: xx-small; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; cell-spacing: 2px; }

table.cfdump_wddx th, table.cfdump_xml th, table.cfdump_struct th, table.cfdump_varundefined th, table.cfdump_array th, table.cfdump_query th, table.cfdump_cfc th, table.cfdump_object th, table.cfdump_binary th, table.cfdump_udf th, table.cfdump_udfbody th, table.cfdump_udfarguments th { text-align: left; color: white; padding: 5px; }

table.cfdump_wddx td, table.cfdump_xml td, table.cfdump_struct td, table.cfdump_varundefined td, table.cfdump_array td, table.cfdump_query td, table.cfdump_cfc td, table.cfdump_object td, table.cfdump_binary td, table.cfdump_udf td, table.cfdump_udfbody td, table.cfdump_udfarguments td { padding: 3px; background-color: #ffffff; vertical-align : top; }

table.cfdump_wddx { background-color: #000000; } table.cfdump_wddx th.wddx { background-color: #444444; }

table.cfdump_xml { background-color: #888888; } table.cfdump_xml th.xml { background-color: #aaaaaa; } table.cfdump_xml td.xml { background-color: #dddddd; }

table.cfdump_struct { background-color: #0000cc ; } table.cfdump_struct th.struct { background-color: #4444cc ; } table.cfdump_struct td.struct { background-color: #ccddff; }

table.cfdump_varundefined { background-color: #CC3300 ; } table.cfdump_varundefined th.varundefined { background-color: #CC3300 ; } table.cfdump_varundefined td.varundefined { background-color: #ccddff; }

table.cfdump_array { background-color: #006600 ; } table.cfdump_array th.array { background-color: #009900 ; } table.cfdump_array td.array { background-color: #ccffcc ; }

table.cfdump_query { background-color: #884488 ; } table.cfdump_query th.query { background-color: #aa66aa ; } table.cfdump_query td.query { background-color: #ffddff ; }

table.cfdump_cfc { background-color: #ff0000; } table.cfdump_cfc th.cfc{ background-color: #ff4444; } table.cfdump_cfc td.cfc { background-color: #ffcccc; }

table.cfdump_object { background-color : #ff0000; } table.cfdump_object th.object{ background-color: #ff4444; }

table.cfdump_binary { background-color : #eebb00; } table.cfdump_binary th.binary { background-color: #ffcc44; } table.cfdump_binary td { font-size: x-small; } table.cfdump_udf { background-color: #aa4400; } table.cfdump_udf th.udf { background-color: #cc6600; } table.cfdump_udfarguments { background-color: #dddddd; cell-spacing: 3; } table.cfdump_udfarguments th { background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000000; }

</style> <script language="javascript">

// for queries we have more than one td element to collapse/expand var expand = "open";

dump = function( obj ) { var out = "" ; if ( typeof obj == "object" ) { for ( key in obj ) { if ( typeof obj[key] != "function" ) out += key + ': ' + obj[key] + '<br>' ; } } }

cfdump_toggleRow = function(source) { //target is the right cell if(document.all) target = source.parentElement.cells[1]; else { var element = null; var vLen = source.parentNode.childNodes.length; for(var i=vLen-1;i>0;i--){ if(source.parentNode.childNodes[i].nodeType == 1){ element = source.parentNode.childNodes[i]; break; } } if(element == null) target = source.parentNode.lastChild; else target = element; } //target = source.parentNode.lastChild ; cfdump_toggleTarget( target, cfdump_toggleSource( source ) ) ; }

cfdump_toggleXmlDoc = function(source) {

var caption = source.innerHTML.split( ' [' ) ;

// toggle source (header) if ( source.style.fontStyle == 'italic' ) { // closed -> short source.style.fontStyle = 'normal' ; source.innerHTML = caption[0] + ' [short version]' ; source.title = 'click to maximize' ; switchLongToState = 'closed' ; switchShortToState = 'open' ; } else if ( source.innerHTML.indexOf('[short version]') != -1 ) { // short -> full source.innerHTML = caption[0] + ' [long version]' ; source.title = 'click to collapse' ; switchLongToState = 'open' ; switchShortToState = 'closed' ; } else { // full -> closed source.style.fontStyle = 'italic' ; source.title = 'click to expand' ; source.innerHTML = caption[0] ; switchLongToState = 'closed' ; switchShortToState = 'closed' ; }

// Toggle the target (everething below the header row). // First two rows are XMLComment and XMLRoot - they are part // of the long dump, the rest are direct children - part of the // short dump if(document.all) { var table = source.parentElement.parentElement ; for ( var i = 1; i < table.rows.length; i++ ) { target = table.rows[i] ; if ( i < 3 ) cfdump_toggleTarget( target, switchLongToState ) ; else cfdump_toggleTarget( target, switchShortToState ) ; } } else { var table = source.parentNode.parentNode ; var row = 1; for ( var i = 1; i < table.childNodes.length; i++ ) { target = table.childNodes[i] ; if( target.style ) { if ( row < 3 ) { cfdump_toggleTarget( target, switchLongToState ) ; } else { cfdump_toggleTarget( target, switchShortToState ) ; } row++; } } } }

cfdump_toggleTable = function(source) {

var switchToState = cfdump_toggleSource( source ) ; if(document.all) { var table = source.parentElement.parentElement ; for ( var i = 1; i < table.rows.length; i++ ) { target = table.rows[i] ; cfdump_toggleTarget( target, switchToState ) ; } } else { var table = source.parentNode.parentNode ; for ( var i = 1; i < table.childNodes.length; i++ ) { target = table.childNodes[i] ; if(target.style) { cfdump_toggleTarget( target, switchToState ) ; } } } }

cfdump_toggleSource = function( source ) { if ( source.style.fontStyle == 'italic' || source.style.fontStyle == null) { source.style.fontStyle = 'normal' ; source.title = 'click to collapse' ; return 'open' ; } else { source.style.fontStyle = 'italic' ; source.title = 'click to expand' ; return 'closed' ; } }

cfdump_toggleTarget = function( target, switchToState ) { if ( switchToState == 'open' ) target.style.display = '' ; else target.style.display = 'none' ; }

// collapse all td elements for queries cfdump_toggleRow_qry = function(source) { expand = (source.title == "click to collapse") ? "closed" : "open"; if(document.all) { var nbrChildren = source.parentElement.cells.length; if(nbrChildren > 1){ for(i=nbrChildren-1;i>0;i--){ target = source.parentElement.cells[i]; cfdump_toggleTarget( target,expand ) ; cfdump_toggleSource_qry(source); } } else { //target is the right cell target = source.parentElement.cells[1]; cfdump_toggleTarget( target, cfdump_toggleSource( source ) ) ; } } else{ var target = null; var vLen = source.parentNode.childNodes.length; for(var i=vLen-1;i>1;i--){ if(source.parentNode.childNodes[i].nodeType == 1){ target = source.parentNode.childNodes[i]; cfdump_toggleTarget( target,expand ); cfdump_toggleSource_qry(source); } } if(target == null){ //target is the last cell target = source.parentNode.lastChild; cfdump_toggleTarget( target, cfdump_toggleSource( source ) ) ; } } }

cfdump_toggleSource_qry = function(source) { if(expand == "closed"){ source.title = "click to expand"; source.style.fontStyle = "italic"; } else{ source.title = "click to collapse"; source.style.fontStyle = "normal"; } }

</script> -

done

As you can see, the CSS and JavaScript used by cfdump "leaked" out into the page result. It is also correctly stored in the HTML file so that part isn't broken. This only involves the HTML format of the dump. If you switch the format to text, then nothing is output (except one white space character).

If you want to make use of cfdump like this and are building anything that is supposed to return only XML or JSON, then you can wrap your dump in cfsilent tags. It doesn't impact the output to the file and it correctly hides the CSS/JavaScript.

I reported this as bug 81819. Please vote for it!