CFUNITED – The premier ColdFusion conference Using Event Gateways with CFMX7 By Jeff Tapper Tapper.net Consulting

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Agenda  Introduction to Event Gateways  Working with Events  Configuring Gateways  Listener Applications  Broadcaster Applications  Summary  Questions

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Who Am I  Jeff Tapper  Chief Technologist Tapper.net Consulting  Working with CF since 1995 (v 1.5)  Authored 7 books about CF, Flex and/or Flash  Certified MM Instructor for all Flex Flash, and CF courses

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Event Gateways  Allow access to CF without HTTP  Call CF code from anything Java can react to  Such as: Instant Messages Text Messages from Phones Java Messaging Service RMI File System Changes Etc.

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 How it works  Message Generator  Event Gateway (Java)  Event Gateway Services (CF)  Listener CFC

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Understanding the Architecture Message Generator/Receiver SMSC Server IM Provider Etc. Event Gateway CF Event Gateway Services Listener CFC CFEvent Message Listener CFC or CFM Page

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Gateway Types  Event Listeners  Creates an event structure and queues it in the Gateway

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Gateway Types  Several gateway types are provided SMS XMPP CFML JMS Directory Watcher Etc.  Custom Gateway types can be built as needed

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Gateway Instance  Relates a gateway type to a Listener CFC  Each instance properties set with Configuration file

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Application Types  Listener Applications CFC reacts to outside events  Broadcaster Application CFML initiates a message to be sent

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Listener Applications  Listener CFC called by gateway instance  Method specified in Configuration is called  CFEvent Structure passed as argument

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Listener CFC  Contains methods for handling events  Optionally responds to sender with CFReturn  Method is passed CFEvent Struct RFAFileWatch.cfc

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 CFEvent Structure  Java Object provided by gateway gatewayId – reference to Instance data – struct of incoming message  customized for each Event Type originator – who sent message  SMS phone #  IM handle  Etc. gateway Type – reference to gateway which heard the event

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Configuring a Gateway  Create config file  Build CFC with appropriate methods  Add Gateway Instance to CFAdmin  Start the Gateway CFAdmin

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Setting Config file  DirectoryWatcherGateway settings are defined in a Config file --{cfroot}\gateway\config\directory- watcher.cfg  Specifies: directory recurse extensions Interval addFunction changeFunction deleteFunction RFAUploadDirectory-watcher.cfg

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Config File gateway/config/directory-watcher.cfg # The directory you want to watch. If you are entering a Windows path either use forward slashes (C:/mydir) or escape the back slashes (C:\\mydir). directory= # Should we watch the directory and all subdirectories too Default is no. Set to 'yes' to do the recursion. recurse=no # The interval between checks, in milliseconds Default is 60 seconds interval=60000 # The comma separated list of extensions to match. Default is * - all files extensions=* # CFC Function for file Change events Default is onChange, set to nothing if you don't want to see these events changeFunction=onChange # CFC Function for file Add events Default is onAdd, set to nothing if you don't want to see these events addFunction=onAdd # CFC Function for file Delete events Default is onDelete, set to nothing if you don't want to see these events deleteFunction=onDelete

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 DirWatch.cfc

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Customizing Directory Watcher  Problem: Needed easier way to remotely add songs to “Radio Free Astoria” play list  Solution: Using a modified Directory Watcher, I am now able to ftp songs to the server, have them moved to the appropriate directory and automatically added to play list

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 RFA Directory Watcher Flow New mp3 ftp’d to server Directory Watcher triggers CFC File moved Added to playlist Confirmation Sent

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Broadcaster Applications  CFML can be used to broadcast out custom events  Some examples Send CFML Event to start new thread SMS site admin about system errors Send new events to JMS messaging queue Send Instant Message about application

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Sending an Event  CFMX7 introduced new sendGatewayMessage() function  Takes two arguments gatewayID - gateway instance configured in CFAdmin Message – struct containg message data  Return type varies based on gateway. Often true or false indicating success

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 sendGatewayMessage <cflog file="rfafileupload" type="Information" text="#result#">

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 getGatewayHelper()  Returns an object containing details about the gateway  Instant Message Helper ships with CFMX7  Example: myHelper = getGatewayHelper("JBuddyTest"); status = myHelper.getSignonTimeStamp();

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Communicating with IM Gateway Instance XMPP Gateway Jabber Network AIM/MSN/ Yahoo Transport AIM/MSN or Yahoo Network Zion Software’s JBuddy Or..

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Sending messages to Flex  Flex Data Services (FDS) can listen to messages sent via CF Gateways  Create a “FlexMessaging” event gateway in the CFAdmin  Dispatch the Event from CF with sendGatewayMessage()  Configure FDS to listen for the event  Configure Flex app to handle the event

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Sending a message to Flex

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Configuring FDS server  Edit messaging-config.xml in FDS *

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Handling incoming messages In flex, you listen for messages… <mx:Consumer id="consumer" destination="TypeSalesUpdate" message="messageHandler(event)" fault="faultHandler(event)"/>

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Other cool uses for Event Gateways  Brian Szoszorek of New Era Caps article on Event Gateways and Trusted Cache Uses Directory Watcher to automatically update trusted cache when files are deleted or edited  Asynchronous Events great for spawning new threads for long running processes.

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Where to learn more?  CFUnited Several “Flex 2 and CF” topics Sarge Sargent’s “Asynchronous Gateways” (Sat. 8am)  Adobe Developer Center Upcoming article from Brian Szoszorek on Event Gateways and Trusted Cache  Lots of docs  JBuddyCF –  Blogs: jeff.mxdj.com weblogs.macromedia.com/mxna/

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Summary  Gateways allow for CFML to be triggered by things other than HTTP requests  Gateways react to certain events and calls methods in a CFC  Gateway settings are specified in a Config File  Gateways can be registered using the ColdFusion Administrator

June 28 th – July 1 st 2006 Questions ?