Can anybody see a problem with this?
Hey All - The marketing department of my company wanted to have a list of directories with names of marketing contacts. (http://www.mycompany.com/BillHenderson/, etc) I first set up a tool using cfdirectory and cffile to create the directories and put the files in them. I found that making changes to the files in the directories or adding new directories or deleting the directories caused quite a lot of problems, not to mention the clutter it caused in the root directory of the site, so I came up with this idea, that does not actually use any custom directories at all, and I want to know if anybody can see possible security problems, server resource issues, etc. 1. The user enters the URL in browser with custom directory at the end 2. IIS catches the 404 error and uses a custom cfm template 3. The cfm template pulls the directory out of the url and checks it against a list of names from a cached query 4. If it find a match, it cf_locations to a template with custom content for the marketing contact 5. If no match is found, it cf_locations to the standard 404b.htm from IIS. Any insight would be appreciated. Bill Henderson [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
Hi Bill Off the top of my head I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't work, but to my mind, relying on the server's error catching to perform designed functionality just feels wrong - it feels like bad design, and it's shifting some of your logic from the application itself to the server software that it's running under. Just my opinion, of course, but if it was me, I'd either - - make the default CFM template strip the name of the directory out of the url and check it against the query. - use a url such as http://www.mycompany.com/contacts/BillHenderson , and put an extension-less file called contacts in the root. Make IIS pass files with no extension through CF and put your logic to get the name, check the query and re-locate, into that contacts file. I've used this myself many times on many different webservers, with no problems. Hope that helps! Alistair Alistair Davidson Application Developer www.smartgroups.com Freeserve.com PLC -Original Message- From: Bill Henderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 01 August 2002 09:05 To: CF-Talk Subject: Can anybody see a problem with this? Hey All - The marketing department of my company wanted to have a list of directories with names of marketing contacts. (http://www.mycompany.com/BillHenderson/, etc) I first set up a tool using cfdirectory and cffile to create the directories and put the files in them. I found that making changes to the files in the directories or adding new directories or deleting the directories caused quite a lot of problems, not to mention the clutter it caused in the root directory of the site, so I came up with this idea, that does not actually use any custom directories at all, and I want to know if anybody can see possible security problems, server resource issues, etc. 1. The user enters the URL in browser with custom directory at the end 2. IIS catches the 404 error and uses a custom cfm template 3. The cfm template pulls the directory out of the url and checks it against a list of names from a cached query 4. If it find a match, it cf_locations to a template with custom content for the marketing contact 5. If no match is found, it cf_locations to the standard 404b.htm from IIS. Any insight would be appreciated. Bill Henderson [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
Re: Can anybody see a problem with this?
On Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 06:05 , Alistair Davidson wrote: Off the top of my head I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't work, but to my mind, relying on the server's error catching to perform designed functionality just feels wrong - it feels like bad design, and it's shifting some of your logic from the application itself to the server software that it's running under. Well, whichever way you slice this problem, it amounts to much the same thing: URL mapping. People who use Apache do this sort of stuff all the time via rewrite rules, redirects and proxies. If I was Bill, I'd dumped IIS and install Apache and have it rewrite the URLs from ^/[A-Za-z]*/?$ to /lookup.cfm?directory=$1 (which would also have to deal with any other valid top-level directories that had default index pages). Although with Apache, you could make the redirects and rewrites as smart as you wanted. Generally, people who run Apache feel that customizing Apache to achieve the desired result for the web site is perfectly reasonable - the config is all in text files that you can keep under version control. I can see why people who run IIS wouldn't want to do the same sort of thing... If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood __ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
And in those corporate environments where the system admins wear Microsoft socks and Bill Gates underwear? Throwing Apache onto the production web servers might not get you employee of the year. ;) While Apache may be able to do so much more so much easier (for some!), sometimes you have to figure out a way to work with the tools you have ... IIS will allow you to backup and restore your configuration. Right click on IIS in MMC and you should have the option to do that. As for handling the marketing folks' desires, there is a way to handle this in IIS without relying on the 404 message handler. 1) Create a sub-directory that you will use for all these requests, say maybe 'people', so the request would look like http://www.mydomain.com/people/billhenderson. Or, alternatively set up a subdomain: people.mydomain.com/billhenderson. 2) In IIS, for that directory or subdomain, go to properties and choose the directory tab. Change the 'When connecting to this resource, the content should come from:' option to 'A redirection to a URL', and enter in the redirect to box /people.cfm?person=$0. (use the help on that tab to see other options) 3) Now the URL http://www.mydomain.com/people/billhenderson will be redirected to http://www.mydomain.com/people.cfm?person=/billhenderson. Same basic effect as Apache, just a little more(?) work to set up and a little less flexibility. Dan -Original Message- From: Sean A Corfield [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 10:13 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Re: Can anybody see a problem with this? On Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 06:05 , Alistair Davidson wrote: Off the top of my head I can't think of a reason why that wouldn't work, but to my mind, relying on the server's error catching to perform designed functionality just feels wrong - it feels like bad design, and it's shifting some of your logic from the application itself to the server software that it's running under. Well, whichever way you slice this problem, it amounts to much the same thing: URL mapping. People who use Apache do this sort of stuff all the time via rewrite rules, redirects and proxies. If I was Bill, I'd dumped IIS and install Apache and have it rewrite the URLs from ^/[A-Za-z]*/?$ to /lookup.cfm?directory=$1 (which would also have to deal with any other valid top-level directories that had default index pages). Although with Apache, you could make the redirects and rewrites as smart as you wanted. Generally, people who run Apache feel that customizing Apache to achieve the desired result for the web site is perfectly reasonable - the config is all in text files that you can keep under version control. I can see why people who run IIS wouldn't want to do the same sort of thing... If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood __ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
Generally, people who run Apache feel that customizing Apache to achieve the desired result for the web site is perfectly reasonable - the config is all in text files that you can keep under version control. I can see why people who run IIS wouldn't want to do the same sort of thing... While the IIS metabase isn't a text file, you can certainly do the same sort of thing - you can backup and restore metabase files, or you can make the changes through scripts (and archive the scripts). In addition, there are plenty of ISAPI filters that do the same thing as mod_rewrite: http://www.google.com/search?hl=enie=UTF-8oe=UTF-8q=IIS+%2Bmod_rewrite Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 __ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
And in those corporate environments where the system admins wear Microsoft socks and Bill Gates underwear? Throwing Apache onto the production web servers might not get you employee of the year. ;) Yeah, Sean, while they're at it they might get rid of their OTHER proprietary software ... And, Dan, please, no more Bill Gates underwear references. Please. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 __ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
wear snip Bill Gates underwear shudder did you have to go there? :) Isaac Dealey Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer www.turnkey.to 954-776-0046 __ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
Dan - you wrote: 2) In IIS, for that directory or subdomain, go to properties and choose the directory tab. Change the 'When connecting to this resource, the content should come from:' option to 'A redirection to a URL', and enter in the redirect to box /people.cfm?person=$0. (use the help on that tab to see other options) I would love to do this, however, boss wants http://www.mydomain.com/BillHenderson format only. Is there any way I can do something close to what you suggested without straying from the boss man's idea? And as far as the URL rewrites, I found a IIS mod_rewrite and started playing around with it, it looks like I can do what I need, but I need to have that format showing in the browser's address bar. Any workarounds? Bill At least my nit-picky boss is a nice guy Henderson [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ This list and all House of Fusion resources hosted by CFHosting.com. The place for dependable ColdFusion Hosting. FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
RE: Can anybody see a problem with this?
That would mean making the root directory a redirect, which I don't think you want to do, unless none of your other URLs are at the root. Sure you can't convince him to use a subdomain? bossman.mydomain.com? Some kind of ego boost to get him to go for it? On the mod_rewrite, I'm not following the question. You want the /BillHenderson to stay in the address bar? I tried the very first one that came up on Dave's Google search and it leaves the original URL in the address bar. I'm on IE 6. Dan -Original Message- From: Bill Henderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 2:53 PM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Can anybody see a problem with this? Dan - you wrote: 2) In IIS, for that directory or subdomain, go to properties and choose the directory tab. Change the 'When connecting to this resource, the content should come from:' option to 'A redirection to a URL', and enter in the redirect to box /people.cfm?person=$0. (use the help on that tab to see other options) I would love to do this, however, boss wants http://www.mydomain.com/BillHenderson format only. Is there any way I can do something close to what you suggested without straying from the boss man's idea? And as far as the URL rewrites, I found a IIS mod_rewrite and started playing around with it, it looks like I can do what I need, but I need to have that format showing in the browser's address bar. Any workarounds? Bill At least my nit-picky boss is a nice guy Henderson [EMAIL PROTECTED] __ Get the mailserver that powers this list at http://www.coolfusion.com FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
Re: Can anybody see a problem with this?
On Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 03:31 , Dan Haley wrote: On the mod_rewrite, I'm not following the question. You want the /BillHenderson to stay in the address bar? I tried the very first one that came up on Dave's Google search and it leaves the original URL in the address bar. I'm on IE 6. Apache mod_rewrite has the option to do a server-side rewrite (in which case what you type in the URL is what you see in the address bar) or force a redirect (in which case what you see in the address bar is the target of the redirect). The latter is achieved by placing [R] at the end of the RewriteRule. If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive. -- Margaret Atwood __ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
