Silly CFDUMP Question

Just to follow up on this - we also recently moved from 2016 to 2018 and are seeing this issue.

The weird thing is I see this on our development server (native install on Windows), but in my local dev environment (Commandbox Docker) I get the correct blue styled error screen.

And of course this worked fine on CF2016 in both environments.

And I am NOT calling the dump within a CFC. Its basically a FW/1 app, I have an error() method in my main which does some logging, and then in my error.cfm view - I call cfdump.

<cfdump var="#request.exception#" label="dump in main.error" abort="true" />

Setting aside for now the question of whether one should or should not DO a dump in a CFC--and how one can also use attributes of cfdump or writedump to send that output to a file, or that the cfdump to an email above could be done in the cfmail without need of a cfsavecontent :-), I will say that one absolutely SHOULD be able to do it (if they choose), and that in my testing it DOES indeed work as expected, in 2018.

To the OP, I have setup some code in cffiddle.org that you can run (if you login to it--as only logins allow creation or running or even viewing of multi-file demos in the site). It's at https://cffiddle.org/app/3d71bf0c-a596-4ed7-97e7-d198de1020a4 .

But even if you can't or won't run it, note that that site runs by default on CF2018 update 4 (or can be switched to run the same code in CF2016 update 11), and the code works as expected: a dump of a complex object in a CFC DOES produce the normal tabular output, whether run in a method of the CFC or in the pseudo-constructor (outside a method), and whether as cfdump or a writedump, all of which I demo there. (And the code is not "pretty, as it's meant so show the multiple ways the OP may well be doing things.)

So as for why it's "not working" for you, I would propose there must be another explanation. For instance, are you running the CFC (that you're testing) in exactly the same site and path as the cfm that "works"? If you are not, the problem may be that you have a configuration issue (such as in the web server) to explain the difference.

Indeed, I'd be willing to bet that if you view your browser dev tools feature, and its network tab (if you know how to get to those), you would find that one of the supporting files being pulled down for the page rendering is getting a 404 or some other code--and THAT is why you'd not be seeing the "nicely formatted" dump. Can you check?

And perhaps the reason you find it "works" from a CFM is that it's in another folder or site separate from the CFC--and something causes the failure to load the supporting files, for the request which ultimately calls the CFC, versus the request which calls the cfm.

If that's not it, let us know. And in that case, if (regardless of my demo) you may say you "can't test both files in the same site/folder" on your server because you have some reason to need to separate them, fair enough. Just create a test folder and do both there. You're asserting that it doesn't work in CF2018, because of CF2018. I have proven that it does.

One last thing: I'm assuming you are not calling the CFC directly via a URL (passing in a method and perhaps args), right? We can't test doing that at cffiddle.org, and I'm not able to quickly test that otherwise as I am writing this.

If the above doesn't help, please help us know more specifically how what you are doing is different, and we should be able to get to the bottom of this.

sdsinc_pmascari  wrote ... we use a CFDUMP inside a CFC ... Any ideas how to get CF to 'dump' out the CSS and JS when used in a CFC?

In any case, it is poor programming practice for a function to do that. It was bad design for ColdFusion to enable it in the first place.

A function should be defined to accept 0, 1 or more arguments, and to be void or return a value. It should not have the responsibility of revealing its inner contents. When a function outputs its own inner contents, it goes against the following best-practices:

Separation of concerns, for example, Presentation layer (CFM) / Business layer(CFC)

High Cohesion [GRASP (object-oriented design) - Wikipedia​ ]

Single Responsibility [SOLID - Wikipedia ]

In short, set the output attribute of the CFC and the function to false.

Hi, I am getting the same issue even on cfm files. I am trying to narrow this down. I've asked CFSupport as well and they weren't able to sort this out.

Are you running IIS or Apache ?

<cfcomponent>

  <cffunction name="dumpIt"  returntype="any" output="yes">

    <cfsavecontent variable="mydump" >

        <cfdump var="#server#">

    </cfsavecontent>

    <cfreturn mydump>

  </cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Also

<cfcomponent>

  <cffunction name="dumpIt"  returntype="any" output="yes">

    <cfsavecontent variable="mydump" >

        <cfdump var="#server#">

    </cfsavecontent>

    <cfoutput>#mydump#</cfoutput>

  </cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

Instead of outputting the CFDUMP to the screen, generate an email with CFMAIL set type="html" and send it to yourself.  If you have HTML viewing set in your email client, you will get the CFDUMP _and_ have a record of them.

V/r,

^ _ ^

UPDATE:  Okay, that was a bit simplistic.

<cfsavecontent variable="thisDump">
<cfdump var="#yourContent#">
</cfsavecontent>
<cfmail   blah blah blah type="html">
#thisDump#
</cfmail>