How to configure CF8 to process all URL requests?

Question

Configuration: Apache frontend, ColdfusionMX 8 application
server
My Application.cfc defines a cffunction OnRequestStart to
check every URL (to ensure user is allowed access).
The function works fine for .cfm files (because the
jrun-handler specifies .cfm files).
However I need every URL sent to Apache that contains a
specific url-pattern (e.g. /secureMe/*) to be forwarded on to
Coldfusion so that the OnRequestStart function will check for user
access.
How do I configure Coldfusion (e.g. jrun-handler, web.xml,
jrun-web.xml)
to process every URL?
I've tried <servlet-mapping> and
<virtual-mapping> and even tried out CFFileServlet but I
cannot get Coldfusion to do anything with directories and non-cfm
files.
Any solutions and suggestions would be greatly
appreciated.

Answer 1

Originally posted by:
Newsgroup User
devodl wrote:
>> I had already tried to use the servlet mapping you
suggested:
>> <servlet-mapping>
>> <servlet-name>CfmServlet</servlet-name>
>> <url-pattern>/secureMe/*</url-pattern>
>> </servlet-mapping>
>> in the hopes that the OnRequestStart function would
process the URL. However
>> it seemed that Coldfusion would ignore the URL
because it did not contain the
>> *.cfm pattern.
> Correct, this only serves to get the request handed of
from the
> webserver to JRun, not to select the correct servlet in
JRun.
I had gotten that far but ran into the need for a servlet
which I may need to avoid (see below).
>> Did you mean rewrite the original URL from:
/secureMe/private/files/foo.pdf
>> (which is what I want to protect)
>> to something like: /secureMe/index.cfm
/private/files/foo.pdf ?
>> or did you mean rewrite it to:
>> /secureMe/index.cfm
?/private/files/foo.pdf
>> so that the original URL is passed to the index.cfm
as a QUERY_STRING argument?
>Whichever you want. Make sure that SES URLs are enabled
in web.xml if
>you choose the first option.
Since I have control over the form of the links to non-cfm
files I decided to pass the path of the non-cfm file as an argument
(QUERY_STRING) to a cfm template. /secureMe/checkAccess.cfm
?/private/files/foo.pdf
Then the checkAccess.cfm template can do the work necessary
to verify user access to non-cfm files.
>> I am concerned that my OnRequestStart function is
being bypassed when the URL
>> is for non-cfm files and that using a
UrlRewriteServlet to rewrite the URL and
>> pass it to the index.cfm will not address the
problem.
> It will, the UrlRewriteServlet is executed first.
Thanks again, this is good to know.
>> If I must use a servlet to catch the incoming URLs
for non-cfm files then I
>> might as well scrap use of my OnRequestStart
function (for cfm files) and
>> simply use my own servlet to check user access for
all incoming URLs.
> If you have the skills to write a servlet, that is
absolutely preferred
> above hacking this into a CF.
I have the skills and have written many servlets for Tomcat
using Struts, etc. but the Coldfusion admin group likes to use
everything OOTB (Out Of The Box). When I speak of servlets they get
a glazed look in their eyes...
While I am quite comfortable creating a WAR file and having
the J2EE container perform the deployment it seems to be a bit more
complicated with Coldfusion (i.e. include the runtime bits and
deploy to JRun). I am not sure if the admin group is ready to
tackle something that formidable. Development and deployment of my
web application to the Coldfusion servers is much easier if I
simply send the admin group a zip file of components, templates,
css, etc. and just have them unzip it onto the server.
>> I was hoping that the Apache mod_jrun connector
would be configurable to
>> handle more than just file extensions. Ideally I
would like to ability to
>> configure the mod_jrun20 connector in Apache to
handle the /secureMe/*
>> pattern since it would be a cleaner solution.
>It should be able to handle wildcards.
> Jochem
I tried and it seems that the AddHandler jrun-handler setting
only handles file extensions.
I read somewhere that the mod_jrun connector only does two
things:
1 - Pass the request to JRun to see if it should be picked
up by a servlet mapping
2 - Pass the specific filetypes (e.g. .cfm, .cfml, .cfswf)
to Coldfusion
Once again thank you for all your help and advice.
It is greatly appreciated.
Steve Deal