Re: [fusionreactor] FR 4.5 CF10 Form parameters not getting captured in "Header" tab

[David Stockton]

Hello Kevin,

Due to a limitation in the way the connector works, you can no longer see POST (FORM) parameters in the headers tab. The issue is that the logic in the Adobe CF connector can cause lots of data (file uploads etc) to be pulled down with all the other parameters which can lead to serious problems. We are continuing to investigate ways to successfully retrieve the POST data without causing stability issues. To clarify, this is not a limitation or "missing feature" of FusionReactor, it is a limitation of the connector environment which means we can't reliably provide the data.

Best regards,

David Stockton

Fusion Support Team

On 28 February 2013 13:38, Kevin <kevi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Consider the following form:

<form action="submitpage.cfm?Param1=test" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="Param2" value="test">
</form>

With my old setup (Coldfusion 8 with FR 3.5), when somebody submitted the above form, I could click on the Request Details button within FusionReactor, click the "Headers" tab, and see the value of Param1 and Param2.

Now, with Coldfusion 10 and FR 4.5, I get the Query_String values (Param1) but not the form elements (Param2).

Having those form elements are crucial for us to be able to recreate issues.

Does anybody have any idea why I'm no longer getting form variables within FusionReactor?

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[Kevin]

Thank you for your swift reply.

As this functionality is something that we depend on, we may consider downgrading one or both products in order to have that functionality restored.

Just so I'm clear, which product is directly responsible?  For example, it worked with FR3/CF8 but not with FR4/CF10.  Would it work with FR4/CF8?  Or FR3/CF10?  Is there any version of Coldfusion that allows that functionality with FR4.5?  Was it a change in the CF architecture that is responsible or a change in the FR architecture?

I'm trying to find the combination of the latest version of each program that would give me the functionality that we need.

Thanks!

[David Stockton]

Hello Kevin,

It's an issue in all the connectors (including CF8 & CF10). You may not be seeing it in your specific setup but FR3.5 could see the issue on either CF8 or CF10. Due to the potentially dangerous consequences, the feature is removed from FR4.5.

FR3.5 doesn't support CF10, so your latest combination would be FR3.5+CF9 if you need this functionality.

There are two possible work-arounds if you want to goto CF10 + FR4.5...

1 - Switch on request tracking in FR - this takes a lot of disk space up and puts the FORM variables (and any uploaded file data) into a file on the drive. There's no support for managing the data volume so you'd have to be very careful of this.

2 - Implement a small code change in your Application.cfm (or similar onRequestStart function)...

<!--- Note: Don't forget to local scope the variables if you put this inside a function --->

<cftry>

    <cfset frapiClass = createObject("java", "com.intergral.fusionreactor.api.FRAPI") />

    <cfset frapi = frapiClass.getInstance() />

    <cfloop collection="#form#" item="key">

        <cfif key neq "fieldnames">

            <cfset frapi.trace( "FORM.#key# = #form[key]#" ) />

        </cfif>

    </cfloop>

    <cfcatch>

      <!---

        FR is not installed on this instance of CF. Do nothing.

      --->

    </cfcatch>

</cftry>

If you implement the code above then in the "Markers" tab of a request in FusionReactor, you'll see all the FORM variable names and their contents. The only caveat with this method is to remember that any POST variables would be copied to FusionReactor's memory space (i.e. take up a little heap space memory). If you have 100's of MB of data in your FORM variables for a request then you'd see additional memory utilization. However, FusionReactor (by default) only stores the data for the last 100 requests in memory so in general for typical sites even with large text/HTML entry fields, you're not going to see any real impact. Currently, I'd recommend this is the best workaround (i.e. CF10+FR4.5+workaround code) if you need the FORM variables visible.

Best regards,

David Stockton

Fusion Team

[Kevin]

Perfect, David!  That was going to be my next question -- whether there were any workarounds or options for me to parse data myself -- so you saved me a post.  :)

We just upgraded our server (twice the RAM and 65% faster CPU cores) so I'm hoping that the overhead gain from the additional memory usage will be virtually transparent, especially when compared to the old server performance.

I'll give it a shot and see how it performs....

Thank you for your prompt assistance!