Using Server-Side ActionScript in ColdFusion MX
ColdFusion ActionScript Functions

CF.htttp

Description

Executes HTTP POST and GET operations on files. POST operations upload MIME file types to a server, or post cookie, formfield, URL, file, or CGI variables directly to a server.

Return value

Returns an object containing properties that you reference to access data. For available properties returned by the CF.http function, see "Properties available with the CF.http object".

Syntax

CF.http
  ({
    method:"get or post",
    url:"URL",
    username:"username",
    password:"password",
    resolveurl:"yes or no",
    params:arrayvar,
    path:"path",
    file:"filename"
  })

Arguments

Arguments	Req/Opt	Description
method	Required	Two arguments are supported: get: downloads a text or binary file or creates a query from the contents of a text file. post: sends information to the server page or CGI program for processing. Requires the params argument.
url	Required	The absolute URL of the host name or IP address of server on which the file resides. The URL must include the protocol (http or https) and host name.
username	Optional	When required by a server, a username.
password	Optional	When required by a server, a password.
resolveurl	Optional	For Get and Post methods. Yes or No. Default is No. For GET and POST operations, if Yes, page reference that is returned into the Filecontent property has its internal URLs fully resolved, including port number, so that links remain intact. The following HTML tags, which can contain links, are resolved: - img src - a href - form action - applet code - script src - embed src - embed pluginspace - body background - frame src - bgsound src - object data - object classid - object codebase - object usemap
params	Optional	HTTP parameters passed as an array of objects. Supports the following parameter types: name type value CF.http params are passed as an array of objects. The params argument is required for POST operations. For detailed information about each params argument, see "CF.http parameters" .
path	Optional	The path to the directory in which to store files. When using the path argument, the file argument is required.
file	Optional	Name of the file that is accessed. For GET operations, defaults to name specified in the url argument. Enter path information in the path attribute.

Usage

You can code the CF.http function using named arguments or positional arguments. You can invoke all supported arguments using the named argument style, as follows:

CF.http({method:"method", url:"URL", username:"username", password:"password",

  resolveurl:"yes or no", params:arrayvar, 
  path:"path", file:"filename"});

Note:   The named argument style uses curly braces {} to surround the function arguments.

Positional arguments let you use a shorthand coding style. However, not all arguments are supported for the positional argument style. Use the following schemas to code the CF.http function using positional arguments:

CF.http(url);

CF.http(method, url);
CF.http(method, url, username, password);
CF.http(method, url, params, username, password);

Note:   When using positional arguments, do not use curly braces {}.

CF.http parameters

The following parameters can only be passed as an array of objects in the params argument in the CF.http function:

Parameter	Description
name	The variable name for data that is passed
type	The transaction type: URL FormField Cookie CGI File
value	Value of URL, FormField, Cookie, File, or CGI variables that are passed

Properties available with the CF.http object

The CF.http function returns data as a set of object properties:

Property	Description
Text	A Boolean value that indicates whether the specfied URL location contains text data.
Charset	The charset used by the document specified in the URL. HTTP servers normally provide this information, or the charset is specified in the charset parameter of the Content-Type header field of the HTTP protocol. For example, the following HTTP header announces that the character encoding is EUC-JP: Content-Type: text/html; charset=EUC-JP
Header	Raw response header. For example, macromedia.com returns the following header: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 17:27:44 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.22 (Unix) mod_perl/1.26 Set-Cookie: MM_cookie=207.22.48.162.4731015262864476; path=/; expires=Wed, 03-Mar-04 17:27:44 GMT; domain=.macromedia.com Connection: close Content-Type: text/html
Filecontent	File contents, for text and MIME files.
Mimetype	MIME type. Examples of content types include text/html, image/png, image/gif,"video/mpeg, text/css, and audio/basic.
Responseheader	Response header. If there is one instance of a header key, value can be accessed as simple type. If there is more than one instance, values are put in an array in responseHeader structure.
Statuscode	HTTP error code and associated error string. Common HTTP status codes returned in the response header include: 400: Bad Request 401: Unauthorized 403: Forbidden 404: Not Found 405: Method Not Allowed

You access these attributes using the get function:

function basicGet()

{
    url = "http://localhost:8100/";
 
    // Invoke with just the url. This is an http get.
    result = CF.http(url);
    return result.get("Filecontent");
}

Example

The following examples show a number of the ways to use the CF.http function:

function postWithNamedArgs()

{
  // Set up the array of post parameters.
  params = new Array();
  params[1] = {name:"arg1", type:"FormField", value:"value1"};
  params[2] = {name:"arg2", type:"URL", value:"value2"};
  params[3] = {name:"arg3", type:"CGI", value:"value3"};

  url = "http://localhost:8100/";

  path = application.getContext("/").getRealPath("/");
  file = "foo.txt";

  result = CF.http({method:"post", url:url, username:"karl", password:"salsa",
resolveurl:true, params:params, path:path, file:file});

  if (result)
    return result.get("Statuscode");
  return null;
}

// Example of a basic HTTP get operation
// Shows that HTTP Get is the default
function basicGet()
{
  url = "http://localhost:8100/";

  // Invoke with just the URL. This is an HTTP Get.
  result = CF.http(url);
  return result.get("Filecontent");
}

// Example showing simple array created to pass params arguments
function postWithParams()
{
  // Set up the array of post parameters. These are just like cfhttpparam tags.
  params = new Array();
  params[1] = {name:"arg2", type:"URL", value:"value2"};

  url = "http://localhost:8100/";

  // Invoke with the method, url, and params
  result = CF.http("post", url, params);
  return result.get("Filecontent");
}

// Example with username and params arguments
function postWithParamsAndUser()
{
  // Set up the array of post parameters. These are just like cfhttpparam tags.
  params = new Array();
  params[1] = {name:"arg2", type:"URL", value:"value2"};

  url = "http://localhost:8100/";

  // Invoke with the method, url, params, username, and password
  result = CF.http("post", url, params, "karl", "salsa");
  return result.get("Filecontent");
}

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