Skip to main content
P
pragati9126
Participating Frequently
January 31, 2019
Question

ColdFusion 2018 Developer Edition on Windows Case Sensitivity

  • January 31, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2828 views
0

I just installed ColdFusion 2018 Developer Edition on my Windows 10 laptop and configured it to use the built-in web server. Previously I was using ColdFusion 10.

Now I have a case-sensitivity problem. For example, all css and js references are now case-sensitive, whereas they weren't when I was using ColdFusion 10. The same is true for calls to images and plain html files.

I modified the context.xml file (in the /cfusion/runtime/conf folder) to include <Context AllowLinking="true" caseSensitive="true"> (and yes, I also tried caseSensitive="false") and have restarted several times, but no luck yet.

The 404 error messages specify Apache Tomcat.

Any ideas on how to restore case-insensitivity? Thanks in advance for any help.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

A
aliciam29605858
Inspiring
August 2, 2019

For those that tested, please note that the problem is reproducible with images (try using .JPG vs .jpg) as shown in the referenced post. We had the same problem, but ended up making sure the case matched exactly for all of our image references, due to security concerns.

From Coldfusion 10 Case Sensitive URLs?!? :

NOTE: This flag MUST NOT be set to true on the Windows platform (or any other OS which does not have a case sensitive filesystem), as it will disable case sensitivity checks, allowing JSP source code disclosure, among other security problems.

If you still want to set it, did you try the final suggestion as shown in the referenced post of not using caseSensitive at all?

<Context>

...

    <Resources allowLinking="true" />

...

And just FYI, caseSensitive="true" (as seen in the solution for older versions) is not missing/necessary, i.e., <Resources allowLinking="true" caseSensitive="true" /> does not appear to have any effect

J
Joe Simes
Participant
August 21, 2024

So did we ever finalize on a solution for case sensitivity using the built in web server for CF Develoepr install? Here I am in 2024 using CF2023 and I'm right back to where I was years ago with a whole bunch of broken images and style sheets. I'm woking on a client's web site that is hosted on a Windows server but I am on a Mac using the Apache Tomcat built in server.

 

I am not in a public space so I am not terrible worried about security issues with changing stuff in server.xml or context.xml if it will make the site not case sensitive. 

 

Will this do anything? <Context AllowLinking="true" or maybe <Resources allowLinking="true" /> Or are we just out of luck unless we want to use IIS which will be a huge PITA for me on a Mac! :^) 

Charlie Arehart
Community Expert
Charlie ArehartCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 21, 2024

No solution I'm aware of...but also not a cf bug. Cf is not case-sensitive. But the built-in tomcat web server is, which CF includes (for use primarily for the cf admin) and which you may be running against. 

 

And that windows server is probably using IIS--rather than the built-in cf/tomcat web server. Of course you can't use that on a Mac (except on parallels or another windows VM).

 

But you could run Apache on a Mac. You might even find it already installed. And you can connect it to cf using the CF web server configuration tool (documented by Adobe and discussed many places on the web. And you could also try using the apache proxypass directive to forward to that Cf/tomcat web server but you may still experience case issues.)

 

Using apache is for most folks barely more work to setup than using the Tomcat web server. It's just not always obvious whether it will help. 

 

Let us know if it does help here. 

/Charlie (troubleshooter, carehart. org)
    D
    Community Expert
    Dave WattsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 9, 2019

    The built-in web server uses Apache Tomcat. If you're trying to avoid case sensitivity, you can simply connect your CF server to IIS using the Web Server Configuration Tool. In the long term, I would recommend that you treat everything as case sensitive so that you can deploy it on any platform. It's also a good practice to follow in that most languages and platforms are case sensitive anyway.

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC

    Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC
    G
    Goliath Development
    Inspiring
    March 15, 2019

    Dave - the CF developers previously provided a solution for this.  Pragati - I have the same issue and the previous resolutions did not resolve it - in fact, changing the context tag completely disabled my localhost.  The thing is - so many objects and files are affected because production environment does not look at the case.  Can we please add a resolution for this.  I think a major percentage of people have development environments.  I actually can't believe this issue still exists now for a few versions.

    G
    Goliath Development
    Inspiring
    March 15, 2019

    forgot to mention - the image's relevance is that the directory is named BHHS_responsive

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices