The Accidental Developer

CFFTP Transfers a Zero-Byte File and Throws a Timeout Error

Although I’ve used ColdFusion for 7+ years now, I’ve never used the cfftp tag before. Yesterday, I found a reason to try it out. I figured it would be as simple as cfhttp–and it was, with one exception (no pun intended).

Here is my sample code:

<cfftp action="open"
    connection="test"
    server="ftp.osric.com"
    username="chris"
    password="********************"
    timeout="60"
    stoponerror="yes">
<cfftp
    connection = "test"
    action = "getFile"
    name = "downloadFile"
    transferMode = "binary"
    localFile = "S:\chris\handlebar-moustache.jpg"
    remoteFile = "handlebar-moustache.jpg"
    timeout="60">

Here’s the error message it produced:
An error occurred during the FTP getFile operation.
Error: getFile operation exceeded timeout.

However, the local file was still created (as a zero-byte file).

The solution, in my case, was to turn on passive mode (add attribute passive="yes" to the cfftp tag).

Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation has a brief explanation of the differences between active and passive FTP.

Tags: cfftp, ColdFusion, ftp

Checking for date-time conflicts

It seems like I’ve worked on a lot of applications lately that involve time slots: room reservation systems, appointment schedulers, and so on. One thing that tripped me (and some other developers) up at first was checking for conflicting time slots. It turns out, there are a variety of possible conflicts:

There are 5 unique conflicts possible, and it seems like I’m always forgetting one.

› Continue reading

Tags: ColdFusion, date, sql, timestamps

Object Overhead in ColdFusion

I have been trying to improve the speed of a ColdFusion application. It was written by a part-timer, a Java developer who was new to ColdFusion. He wrote the code almost entirely in cfscript, and he used CFC objects extensively. In fact, it seems that he overused CFC objects—to the point where the server slows to a crawl.

› Continue reading

Tags: ColdFusion, object-oriented programming