Passing Data between CF and Java pages

[Mike Paim]

I've got a ColdFusion page on one server and a Java page on another server. I
need to make a request from the CF page for data such as "Company Name" or
"Company Phone Number". The Java page (on a different server) will do some
processing and return the data to the ColdFusion page...

How does this communication take place on the CF side? I tried a ColdFusion
Component but that method seems to be for processing internally. I need to pass
the variables names of what I want and then receive back the variable name and
the value.

Any ideas or articles?

Thanks.

[mpwoodward *TMM*]

On 2005-05-03 07:28:58 -0500, "Mike Paim" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> said:

> I've got a ColdFusion page on one server and a Java page on another
> server. I need to make a request from the CF page for data such as
> "Company Name" or "Company Phone Number". The Java page (on a
> different server) will do some processing and return the data to the
> ColdFusion page...
>
> How does this communication take place on the CF side? I tried a
> ColdFusion Component but that method seems to be for processing
> internally. I need to pass the variables names of what I want and then
> receive back the variable name and the value.
>
> Any ideas or articles?
>
> Thanks.

If I understand what you're getting at, the simplest way to do this
would probably be to use HTTP POST or GET. Just have the form (I'm
assuming there's a form involved since you say "make a request for
data") submit from the CF server to the Java server. The Java server
won't care where the submission is coming from (dependent upon your
security settings on the Java server of course). Then the Java server
can do its thing and pass a response back to CF again via either POST
or GET, with GET probably being the simpler means since you could just
do a redirect on the Java server back to the CF server using a simple
URL.

You could also use web services of course, but based on what you're
saying the web service would be on the Java server.

Matt
--
Matt Woodward
[email]mpwoodward@gmail.com[/email]
Team Macromedia - ColdFusion

[Mike Paim]

Matt,

I guess I could make it into a form. However, I hadn't planned on it. There
isn't neccessarily going to be someone one the page clicking submit, although
it can autosubmit.

The idea is that I've got a website that has basic customer and product
information. However, to get detailed pricing information or detailed customer
information, I need to make a request from the Java server, managed by another
company. There would be sensitive information being passed back and forth.

If I wanted to use a web service, I understand that the database hit would be
on the Java server. However, what would I need to do on my side to send the
variables to them?

Example:
Send to URL
AcountNumber=8456123

Receive to My Site:
CompanyName="My Company"
CompanyPhone="888-555-6263"

?
Thanks,
Michael

[Kronin555]

Mike,

How to accomplish this all depends on how much control you have on the java
side. You said it's controlled by another company. Is there already an
interface? if so, what is it? is it form-based? is it a webservice? Do you have
to authenticate with the other server first? how is that handled?

If they already have a well-defined method for integration, then you just
follow that. If they don't have a well-defined method and you have some leeway
with how you take it, you need to take into account authentication if
necessary, the complexity of the data being returned, etc. and that will point
you to either using cfhttp calls to get the data, or trying to integrate with a
webservice.

[James168]

Hi,
I have problems that passing a JavaScript variable back to CF in a JavaScript
item change event. For example, a user selects a state in one dropdown list,
all the cities in the state should appear in another dropdown list.

Try One method:
<cfset STvar = ''CA'> -- Works if is set to constant value
<cfset STvar = ''{stselect.text}'> -- Not Work if try to read a field
<cfquery name="city" datasource="xxx".
SELECT REGION FROM WEB."CITY" WHERE (STCODE = '#STvar#' )
</cfquery>

Try method 2:
<cfset STsel = 'AL' > Works if is set to constant
<cfset STsel = "{stselect.selectedItem.data}" > No Work - - after the
<cfquery>, it returns me the correct SQL syntax, but not the result of the
query.
<cfset strSQL= "SELECT City FROM WEB.""STATE"" WHERE (STCODE = '" &
variables.STsel & "' )">
<cfquery name="city" datasource="xxx">
#Evaluate('strSQL')#
</cfquery>

In the last method, how can I get the query result of the #Evaluate('strSQL')#
if it returns the correct SQL statement. How can I read a selection text
field into a CfSet varialbe before I click the POST Submit button.

Thanks,
James

[Kronin555]

James, don't hijack this thread. Your question doesn't have anything to do with
the original question. What you're looking for is dependent select boxes, and
has been discussed at length before. There are CFX tags that already do exactly
what you're looking for. Here's one example I pulled off of google. I know
there's a much nicer one, but I can't find it right now:
[url]http://www.cfdeveloper.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=129&PN=1&get=last[/url]