How to fix "getMetaData method was not found" error

Report · Feb 19, 2019

Hello,

I installed CF2018 on Win2016 server and moved my code into it from CF9. Now I am receiving errors that I did not receive in CF9.

09:15:16.016 - Object Exception - in D:/Application.cfc : line 249

The getMetaData method was not found.

09:15:16.016 - Application Exception - in D:/Application.cfc : line 249

An exception occurred while calling the function getMetaData.

The line 249 refers to the <cfdump> tag in the following function in Application.cfm

</cfif>

<cfmail

to="me@company.com"

from="cf_server@company.com"

subject="ColdFusion request failed for #UCase(listlast(SESSION.curr_user,"\"))#"

type="html">

Error: #arguments.exception.message#

Time: #dateFormat(now(), "short")# #timeFormat(now(), "short")#

Error on page: http://#cgi.server_name##cgi.script_name#?#cgi.query_string#

Referrer: #cgi.HTTP_REFERER#

<cfdump var="#arguments.exception#" label="Error">

</cfmail>

</cffunction>

Does anyone know how to fix it?

Thanks,

Eugene

Report · Feb 20, 2019

If you choose to investigate further, please share the contents of your Application.cfc. If it contains sensitive information, send it by private messaging.

Report · Feb 21, 2019

@BKBK,

Here is my Application.cfm It worked perfectly in CF9 for many year.

<cfcomponent>
<cfset THIS.name="PROD">
<cfset THIS.sessionManagement="true">
<cfset THIS.clientManagement="true">
<cfset THIS.setClientCookies="true">
<cfset THIS.applicationTimeout=CreateTimeSpan(1,0,0,0)>
<cfset THIS.sessionTimeout=CreateTimeSpan(0,0,20,0)>
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onApplicationEnd">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionStart">
<cftry>
  <cfif find("SPI\",#CGI.Auth_User#)>
<cfset curr_user = listlast(#CGI.Auth_User#,"SPI\")>
<cfset SESSION.curr_user = UCase(curr_user)>
<cfelse>
  user not found !!!
<cfabort>
</cfif>
<cfquery name="get_roles" datasource="#REQUEST.dsn#">
query goes here ...   
</cfquery>
<cfif get_roles.RecordCount GT 0>
<cfset rolesArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfloop query="get_roles">
<cfset rolesArray[CurrentRow] = "/" & link_home[CurrentRow] & "/">
</cfloop>
<cfset SESSION.userRoles = rolesArray>
</cfif>
<cfcatch>
onSessionStart Error
        <cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
<cfabort>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
<cfif not structKeyExists(session,"curr_user")>
<!--- The session has been lost, restart it... --->
<cfset onSessionStart() />
    </cfif>
<cfif NOT isDefined("URL.contentonly")>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="">
<tr align="center">
<td><img src="\prod\IMAGES\logo.jpg" width="886" height="87" border="0"></td>
<td class="TH">Welcome <cfoutput>#session.curr_user#</cfoutput><br></td>
</tr>
</table>
<hr size="3">
</cfif>
<cftry>  
<cfif not structKeyExists(session, "curr_user")>
You are not a valid user.
  <cfabort>
</cfif>
  <!--- Check if userRoles exist in SESSION --->   
<cfif not structKeyExists(session, "userRoles")>
You have no roles assigned.<br>
Please contact your web administrator.
<cfabort>
</cfif>
  <!--- Get the name of the current template (from where request is coming from) --->
<cfset currentPage = listLast(cgi.script_name,"/") />
<cfset SESSION.curr_page = currentPage>
    
<cfif not listfindNoCase("index.cfm,login.cfm,logout.cfm", currentPage)>
<cfset userRoles = SESSION.userRoles>
<cfset foundit = true>
<cfset i = 0>
  <cfloop condition = "(NOT foundit) AND (i LT ArrayLen(userRoles))">
    <cfset i = i + 1>
    
<cfif find(#userRoles#,#currentPage#)>
<cfset foundit = True>
    </cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfif not foundit>
            You do not have permission to view this page
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<cfcatch>
<cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
<cfabort>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestEnd">
<cfif NOT isDefined("URL.contentonly")>
<p align="right">
<cfoutput>
<font size="2" face="sans-serif" color="black">
<i>&copy;#Year(Now())#</i><BR>
</cfoutput>
</p>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionEnd">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onError" returnType="void" output="true">
     <cfargument name="exception" required="true">
     <cfargument name="eventname" type="string" required="true">
     <cfset var errortext = "">
    
<!--- Display error to user ---> 
<img src="../../IMAGES/SiteError.gif" width="750" height="150" alt="Site Error" border="0">
<p></p>
Error: <cfoutput><strong>#arguments.exception.message#</strong></cfoutput><br />
Error details were sent to the application administrator.<br />
<p></p>
<a href="<cfoutput>#CGI.http_referer#</cfoutput>">Go Back</a>  
   
<cfsavecontent variable="errortext">
<cfoutput>
Time: #dateFormat(now(), "short")# #timeFormat(now(), "short")#<br />
Error on page: http://#cgi.server_name##cgi.script_name#?#cgi.query_string#<br />
Referrer: #cgi.HTTP_REFERER#
</cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#arguments.exception#" label="Error">
</cfsavecontent>
<cfmail to="me@company.com" 
from="cf@company.com" 
subject="ColdFusion request failed for #UCase(listlast(SESSION.curr_user,"\"))#" 
type="html">
#errortext#
</cfmail>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Report · Feb 21, 2019

You should save this file as Application.cfc (in case you had mistakenly saved it as application.cfm).

Report · Feb 21, 2019

EugenePipko  wrote
 <cffunction name="onApplicationStart">
</cffunction>

Use this instead:

</cffunction>

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Now, I am a bit confused. You mention Application.cfm.

When I look back I see D:/Application.cfc and D:/UB_CF_APPS/PROD/Application.cfc.

Which one do you use? What is its path? What is the path of the folder containing the CFM files that you are testing?

Report · Feb 21, 2019

What happens if you just <cfdump var="#arguments#" label="arguments" />? Instead of targeting just arguments.exception, dump the whole arguments scope.

V/r,

^ _ ^

Report · Feb 21, 2019

<cfdump var="#arguments#" label="arguments" /> returns the following data, but I receive the same errors

I was thinking: it's definitely related to #arguments#, then how do I list all of possible once, as Charlie suggested and by process of elimination find the one that fails?

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Well, at least it's showing that the issue triggering the error is the CFPRINT (which you did mention.)

But the fact that getMetaData() isn't available when the error is triggered is concerning. Makes me think that it _is_ available up until the point where the error happens, then is suddenly not available. As if CFPRINT is removing or blocking it in that moment.

HTH,

^ _ ^

Report · Feb 21, 2019

I misspelled Application extension. It should of been .cfc

I installed second update and according to update log, it installed successfully.

I was hoping that there is something in it that could of help, but... no, I still have same issues.

Made a change to onApplicationStart as you suggested.

Question: how do I pull all keys in #arguments#? I still would like to go one-by-one see which one causes the issue.

Report · Feb 21, 2019

What is the path of the Application.cfc whose contents are as above? What is the path of the folder containing the CFM files that you are testing?

It might help to clear the caches. To do so, open the ColdFusion Administrator and press on the buttons to clear cached templates and cached components.

EugenePipko wrote
Question: how do I pull all keys in #arguments#? I still would like to go one-by-one see which one causes the issue.

Two answers:

1) A slight variation on WolfShade 's suggestion:

This will create an HTML file within the current directory.

2) Alternatively, the try-catch (within onError) that I suggested yesterday.

Report · Feb 20, 2019

Does the following workaround work?

Time: #dateFormat(now(), "short")# #timeFormat(now(), "short")#

Error on page: http://#cgi.server_name##cgi.script_name#?#cgi.query_string#

Referrer: #cgi.HTTP_REFERER#

</cfoutput>

writedump(var="#arguments.exception#", label="Error");

</cfscript>

</cfsavecontent>

Report · Feb 20, 2019

Do you know, what exception is thrown? Do you throw the exception yourself using cfthrow?

I very quickly tried your sample. I copied your onError method to an otherwise empty Application.cfc and filled the session variable with a constant 0 .

I created an exception using cfthrow and got the mail as expected.

I used ColdFusion 2018 in a CommandBox setup. I guess it's already been updated to the most recent version - Update 2.

I'm not sure if getMetaData exists for every datatype. Therefore I assume your exception contains some data that's usually not contained in an exception.

Report · Feb 20, 2019

I tried the same thing: copied onError method to an empty Application.cfm

Received the same error

Report · Feb 20, 2019

Back to basics. To get onError to run, an exception had to be triggered somewhere. So, in your tests, how did you get onError to run every time?

Report · Feb 20, 2019

You're right, I have another issue with <CFPRINT> not working, so I am using the page I have with that tag in it to trigger an error

Report · Feb 20, 2019

EugenePipko wrote
You're right, I have another issue with <CFPRINT> not working, so I am using the page I have with that tag in it to trigger an error

Ignore the cfprint page for a moment. What happens when you test the onError by running this page:

testpage.cfm

Report · Feb 20, 2019

Eugene, before digging any further than you guys have, note that your error (which is indeed unusual) could be because of an error during your having applied a CF update.

So can you confirm first simply if you applied any updates once you moved to CF2016? If so, can you confirm if the last update you did had any errors?

See the cfusion\hf-updates folder, for that last update. Then see the last install log in that folder. And near the top of that log will be a table counting successes and errors. Any errors?

If so, see a blog post I have about the many things that can go amiss during updates, and how to recover:

https://www.carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/2016/9/6/solve_common_problems_with_CF_updates_in_10_...

If that's not it, you would agree that if you remove the cfdump of the arguments.exception scope, the error goes away, right? And what if you do a structlist(arguments.exception)? Maybe what's in there is at issue. You could then dump the keys within that, one at a time (like arguments.exception.message, and so on), to see which it really fails on. That may help you to know WHERE specifically the failure of getmetadata is, then perhaps you can tackle the why and how.

/Charlie (troubleshooter, carehart.org)

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Charlie,

Update_1 was installed and I cannot find anything wrong (by looking into .log file). All entries show Status: SUCCESSFUL

I like what you proposed: list of the keys of argument.exception(), but I am not sure how to do so.

structlist(arguments.exception)

Report · Sep 23, 2020

Eugene, how did things turn out?

BTW, in case anyone else gets to this point and may have the same question (about checking if any recent CF update you applied had errors), where I asked to check the update log, it's not the phrase "sucessful" you should look for, but "successes". As I explain in my blog post (that I point to), there's a table near the top of the log, that tracks successes and errors. That's what you want to see 0 errors.

As for how to "list of the keys of argument.exception()", I see I had said structlist, but I meant structkeylist, as in structkeylist(arguments.exception). And when I said to loop over what's in that, you could do that (old-school) with something like this. It's not perfect (and you could wrap a try catch around it to catch when it may fail because of nested objects). The point is that you may find WHERE it fails, within the current dump you do of that exception struct:

<cfloop item="x" collection="#arguments.exception#">
	<cfoutput>
	<b>#x#</b> - 
	<cfif isobject(arguments.exception[x])>
		<cfdump var="#arguments.exception[x]#">
	<cfelse>
		#arguments.exception[x]#
	</cfif>
	<br>
	</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

/Charlie (troubleshooter, carehart.org)

Report · Sep 25, 2020

Hi EugenePipko,

You were indeed on to something. It was a ColdFusion bug.

I reported it in Tracker, and it has been fixed.

Report · Sep 25, 2020

BKBK, thanks for the news (and the effort). And you've confirmed the fix, it seems, right? (There's no indication in the bug report.) If so, great.

Can you confirm if it was update 10 of cf2018 that adds that fix, perhaps? Again that's not clear from the bug report, which indicates only that it's closed, with the "fixed in build" number. While that number is less than the build number of 10 and above that of 9, the tracker id itself is not listed in the "bugs fixed" for update 10, at

https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/kb/coldfusion-2018-update-10.html.

Not hassling you here. Just wanting to clarify for any wanting to see the benefit of this fix. Or must they request a special hot fix jar for now, do you know? Again, thx.

/Charlie (troubleshooter, carehart.org)

Report · Sep 25, 2020

Hi Charlie,

I don't know whether there is a JAR available for the fix. Like you, all I know is the information published on Tracker, namely:

Report · Apr 15, 2021

I'm upgrading a cf9 app to 2016, and cfdumping any exception gives the error "The getMetaData method was not found".

Other cfdumps are fine.

Do I understand that this wasn't fixed until 2018 cf10?

That's a really big gap, surprising and unfortunate.

In any case, I already had hf10 for 2018 installed, didn't fix the error.

The hf10 install log showed only successes.

I tried to install hf11, to see if that helped and to get current, but that failed.

I tried to uninstall hf10, since hf11 says it contains all previous hotfixes, but that failed too.

So:

- Does anyone else see this problem with 2018 hf10? Any resolution?

- Given the bent hotfix situation, any suggestions for a way forward? Delete the entire hf-updates directory?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

(Also this page thinks my post has errors and won't accept it, but doesn't say what they are. I tried again, and now it says "post flooding detected", and I have to wait an hour. Bleh.)

Report · Apr 15, 2021

You should be able to just delete the hotfix manually, per the uninstallation instructions:

"If you can't uninstall the update using the above-mentioned uninstall options, the uninstaller could be corrupted. However, you can manually uninstall the update by doing the following:

Delete the update jar from {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/lib/updates.
Copy all folders from {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/hf-updates/{hf-2018-00010-320417}/backup directory to {cf_install_home}/{instance_name}/"

After deleting it, I'd install hotfix 11 and see if that solves your problem.

Dave Watts, Eidolon LLC

Report · Apr 15, 2021

dmerril, I can confirm there is NOT a general issue of CF2018 update 10 being unable to dump exceptions. Same with update 11. See code below. Maybe you are doing something differing in "dumping an exception" than I show.

And while I get it that you're saying you feel there was no problem in your applying update 10 (so that's not the problem for you, and thanks), while it seems you ARE having problems applying update 11, again neither update has a general error at least running this code:

<cfscript>
	try {
		x=y;
	}
	catch (any excp) {
		writedump(excp);
	}	
</cfscript>

or for those who may prefer tags:

<cftry>
    <cfset x=y>
    <cfcatch>
        <cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
    </cfcatch>
</cftry>

Can you first confirm if those work for you, on your setup? And if so, then modify them until they create the problem you see, that leads to the getmetadata problem.

If somehow even this code DOES fail for you, then it would seem you have some environmental issue that makes it NOT work for you. We can cross that bridge if/when we get there.

Please let us know how it goes.

/Charlie (troubleshooter, carehart.org)