Data & Services section

The Data & Services section of the Administrator is the interface for ColdFusion, data sources, and search and indexing features. The following table describes some common tasks that you can perform in the Data & Services section of the Administrator:

Task

Description

Create and manage JDBC data sources

The Data Sources page lets you establish, edit, and delete JDBC data source connections for ColdFusion. For more information, see Data Source Management.

Create and maintain ColdFusion collections

The ColdFusion Collections page lets you create and delete Solr collections and perform maintenance operations on collections that you create. For more information, see ColdFusion Collections page.

Define mappings for web services

The Web Services page lets you produce and consume remote application functionality over the Internet. For more information, see Web Services page.

Specify settings to integrate with Adobe® Flex™ applications

The Flex Integration page lets you specify which Flex integration features to enable and which IP addresses can perform data service operations. For more information, see Flex Integration page.

    Data Sources page

    ColdFusion lets you quickly deliver dynamic database content to the web. A data source is the entry point for database operations.

    The Data Sources page lets you create, edit, and delete JDBC data sources. Before you can use a database in a ColdFusion application, you register the data source in the ColdFusion Administrator. For more information, see Data Source Management.

    Before you can access a database with a ColdFusion application, you must do the following:

    1. Understand and determine the database driver required to interact with the data source. ColdFusion uses JDBC database drivers to communicate with data sources.

    2. Configure the database as a ColdFusion data source by specifying a driver, adding data source information, and connecting to a database.

    3. Verify the data source.

    For more information on adding data sources, see Adding data sources.

    ColdFusion Collections page

    Use this page to create and manage your Solr collections.

    ColdFusion lets you manage your collections from the Administrator. You can index, optimize, purge, or delete Solr collections that are connected to ColdFusion. You use the icons in the Actions column to perform the following actions:

    Action

    Description

    Index

    Analyzes the files in a collection and assembles metadata and pointers to the files.

    Optimize

    Reclaims space left by deleted and changed files by consolidating collection indexes for faster searching. You should optimize collections regularly.

    Purge

    Deletes all documents in a collection, but not the collection itself. Leaves the collection directory structure intact.

    Delete

    Deletes a collection.

    ColdFusion includes Solr, which provides indexing and searching technology. This enables creating, populating, and managing collections of indexed data that are optimized for fast and efficient site searches.

    A collection is a logical group of documents and metadata about the documents. The metadata includes word indexes, an internal documents table of document field information, and logical pointers to the document files.

    For more information about building search interfaces, see Building a Search Interface and Solr search support in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

    If the ColdFusion Collections page is unable to retrieve collections, ensure that Solr Search Server is running.

    Populate a Solr collection

    After you create a collection, use the Solr Collections section to populate (or index) it, with data from text and binary files, in a directory that you specify. A collection comprises metadata that describes indexed documents. Data from a ColdFusion query can be indexed only by using the ColdFusion cfindex tag.To populate (index) a collection,

    1. In the list of Solr Collections, click the name of the collection or its Index Collection button. The Index Solr Collections page appears.

    2. Review the extensions in the File Extensions field. You can add, edit, or remove extensions for files in the collection.

    3. In the Directory Path field, enter the path to a directory to index. To locate and enter a path, click Browse Server.

    4. To include subdirectories of the specified directory, select the Recursively Index Sub Directories option.

    5. (Optional) In the Return URL field, enter the URL prefix used to display documents found in the search in a browser.

      For example, if you index the ColdFusion documentation directory, the directory you index could be C:\ColdFusion9\wwwroot\cfdocs.

      You would enter the return URL as http://localhost:8500/cfdocs/. This assumes that you are using the built-in web server on port 8500.

    6. Click Submit. ColdFusion populates the collection with data from the specified directory. Then the ColdFusion Collections page appears.

    To close the page without saving changes, click Cancel.

    Rename or create an alias for a Solr collection

    1. Click the ColdFusion collection that you need to rename from the ColdFusion Collections page. The Manage Collection page is displayed.

    2. In the Rename Collection section, enter a new name in the New Name for Collection field and click Submit.

    3. To specify an alias for the collection, enter the alias in the Collection Alias field and click Submit.

    Solr Server page

    The Solr server instance runs as a separate server, which you can start or stop as a service. You can configure your Solr collection for indexing and search capabilities using ColdFusion Administrator.

    Solr collections

    You can create Solr collections using ColdFusion Administrator or by using <cfcollection> tag.

    The ColdFusion Administrator implements Solr support using the following panels in the Data & Services area:

    ColdFusion Collections
    Select the Solr collection option when creating a collection. Once a Solr collection is created, use the Index, Optimize, Purge, or Delete Actions under the Solr Collection area at the bottom of the panel.

    You can also rename and alias a Solr collection in ColdFusion Administrator. To do this,

    1. Click the ColdFusion collection that you need to rename from the ColdFusion Collections page. The Manage Collection page is displayed.

    2. In the Rename Collection section, enter a new name in the New Name for Collection field and click Submit.

    3. To specify an alias for the collection, enter the alias in the Collection Alias field and click Submit.

    Solr Server
    Configure the Solr server host name, home directory, and other advance settings using the Solr Server page.

    Solr server

    You can install and configure the Solr search service on a local or remote host. For a remote server, you can configure the host that ColdFusion uses when performing search operations.

    Use the Solr Server page to specify the Solr server host name and home directory. You can also configure advance settings including the admin port, web application name, and buffer limit.

    Web Services

      Web Services overview

      Web services let you publish and consume remote application functionality over the Internet. With a web service, you can make a request to the remote application to perform an action. You can use the ColdFusion Administrator to register web services so that clients do not have to specify the entire WSDL URL when they reference the web service. For more information on publishing and consuming web services through ColdFusion, see ColdFusion Developer's Guide.

      Add a web service

      1. In the Web Service Name box, enter the name of the web service.

      2. In the WSDL URL box, enter the URL for the Web Services Description Language (WSDL).

      3. Enter a user name and password.

      4. (If applicable) Specify the proxy server details and credentials.

      5. (Optional) Specify the timeout value for the web-service request in seconds.

      6. Click Add Web Service. Your Web Service Name appears in the list of Active ColdFusion Web Services.

      Edit a web service

      1. In the Active ColdFusion Web Services area, click the web service name.

        The ColdFusion Administrator displays the web service in the top portion of the window.

      2. Modify settings.

      3. Click Update Web Service.

      View WSDL for a web service

       In the Active ColdFusion Web Services area, click the WSDL URL.

      The ColdFusion Administrator opens the WSDL in a new browser window.

      Web Services page

      You can use web services to produce and consume remote application functionality over the Internet. The ColdFusion Administrator lets you register web services so that you do not have to specify the entire Web Services Description Language (WSDL) URL when you reference the web service. The first time you reference a web service, ColdFusion automatically registers it in the Administrator.

      When you register a web service, you can shorten your code and change a web service URL without editing your code. For more information, see Using Web Services in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

      REST Services page

      After you create the CFC you want to REST-enable, specify the folder for registering as web service in the ColdFusion Administrator.

      Note: Nested REST applications cannot be registered.

      When you specify a folder, all CFCs in that folder or subfolders for which you have specified rest or restPath are registered.

      1. Browse and select the application path or root folder where ColdFusion would search for CFCs.

      2. (Optional) In the Service Mapping section, specify virtual mapping in place of application name.

        If the folder has an Application.cfc and an application name, then the service is identified with the application name. You can override this by specifying the service mapping. In this case, the service is identified with the service mapping that is provided. If there is no Applicaiton.cfc in the folder, then it is mandatory to specify the Service mapping.

      3. (Optional) Specify an application as default REST service. Only one application can be set as default for a server instance. You can change the default application at any time. Check Set the default application and then click Add Service. To remove the service as default, uncheck it.

      4. After you specify the details, click Add Service to register.

        The Active ColdFusion REST Services section specifies the details of all registered web services.

      After you register, all CFCs are published as RESTful services. On subsequent startups, the registered services automatically get published.

      Note: Refresh the application whenever there is a change in REST-related component in the application.

      Flex Integration page

      Use this page to specify which Flex integration features to enable and which IP addresses can perform data-service operations. If you enable Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES support, but do not specify any IP addresses, only processes on the local computer can connect to the LiveCycle Data Services ES server in ColdFusion.

      Option

      Description

      Enable Flash Remoting Support

      Specifies whether to enable Flash clients to connect to this ColdFusion server and invoke methods in ColdFusion components (CFCs).

      Enable Remote LiveCycle Data Management Access

      Specifies whether to enable a LiveCycle Data Services ES server to connect to this ColdFusion server and invoke methods in CFCs to fill, sync, get, or count records in a result set used in a Flex application. Enable this option only if you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely.

      Server Identity

      Specifies the ColdFusion server on which you want to enable Flex Data Management Support.

      Enable RMI Over SSL For Data Management

      To encrypt communication between ColdFusion and Flex, enable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

      Select IP Addresses Where LiveCycle Data Services Are Running

      Specifies which LiveCycle Data Services ES servers can connect to the LiveCycle Data Services ES support in ColdFusion. If you do not specify a list of allowed IP addresses, only processes on the local computer can connect to the LiveCycle Data Services ES support in ColdFusion

      To use SSL, create a keystore file. The keystore is a self-signed certificate. (You do not need a certificate signed by a Certificate Authority, although if you do use one, you do not need to configure Flex as indicated in the following steps.) The information in the keystore is encrypted and can be accessed only with the password that you specify. To create the keystore, use the Java keytool utility, which is included in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

      Enable SSL

      1. Create the keystore.

      2. Configure Flex.

      3. Enable SSL in the ColdFusion Administrator.

      Create the keystore

       To generate the SSL server (ColdFusion) keystore file, use the keytool utility, with a command similar to the following:
      keytool -genkey -v -alias FlexAssembler -dname "cn=FlexAssembler" -keystore cf.keystore -keypass mypassword -storepass mypassword

      The following table describes the parameters of the keytool utility:

      Parameter

      Description

      -alias

      The name of the keystore entry. You can use any name for this, as long as you are consistent when referring to it.

      -dname

      The Distinguished Name, which contains the Common Name (cn) of the server.

      -keystore

      The location of the keystore file.

      -keypass

      The password for your private key.

      -storepass

      The password for the keystore. The encrypted storepass is stored in ColdFusion configuration files.

      -rfc

      Generates the certificate in the printable encoding format.

      -file

      The name of the keystore file.

      -v

      Generates detailed certificate information

      Place the certificate you created in the file that the JVM uses to determine what certificates to trust. The file in which you place the certificate (usually named cacerts), is located in the JRE, in the lib/security folder.

      Configure Flex

      1. To export the keystore to a certificate, use the keytool utility, with a command similar to the following: 

        keytool -export -v -alias FlexAssembler -keystore cf.keystore -rfc -file cf.cer

      2. To import the certificate into the JRE cacerts file for your server, use the keytool utility, with a command similar to the following:

        keytool -import -v -alias FlexAssembler -file cf.cer -keystore C:\fds2\UninstallerData\jre\lib\security\cacerts

      Enable SSL in the ColdFusion Administrator

      1. Select Data & Services > Flex Integration, and specify the keystore file in the Full Path To Keystore box.

      2. Specify the keystore password in the Keystore Password box.

      3. Select Enable RMI Over SSL For Data Management, and then click Submit Changes.

      If you specify an invalid keystore file or password, ColdFusion does not enable SSL, and disables LiveCycle Data Management Support.