Invoke ColdFusion function using AJAX

Question

I need to invoke a ColdFusion function(present in a .cfm file) when the user clicks on a link. And I would like to do it using jQuery. I have a jQuery snippet which looks like-

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
       $("td.ViewLink a").click(function(event){
         event.preventDefault();

)}

I am new to both jQuery and AJAX, so I might sound naive here. Should I use AJAX to invoke the ColdFusion function? Something like requesting to execute a specific function on the server.

Any help in this regard is appreciated.

Cheers.

Answer 1

If you have multiple functions in your cfm(even if you don't), put them in a cfc. Then you can use the following url pattern to invoke a specific method.

cfc named myEntityWS.cfc

<cfcomponent>
  <cffunction name="updateDescription" access="remote" returntype="string">
    <cfargument name="value" type="string" required="yes">
    <cftry>
      your code here
    <cfcatch>
      <cfoutput>
        #cfcatch.Detail#<br />
        #cfcatch.Message#<br />
        #cfcatch.tagcontext[1].line#:#cfcatch.tagcontext[1].template#
      </cfoutput>
    </cfcatch>
    </cftry>
  </cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Javascript

$.get('myEntityWS.cfc?method=updateDescription&value=someValue');