Work around for Application.cfc

Question

I have an Application.cfc file that outputs a header and footer page for every request.  That works wonderful but if I try to open a page that is doing a <cfgrid> using a CFC file than I get an error of "Error invoking CFC /GATS/CFC/purchaseOrder.cfc : Internal Server Error [Enable debugging by adding 'cfdebug' to your URL parameters to see more information]" when opening the page.
Commenting out the header/footer include in the Application.cfc file lets the <cfgrid> populate with the CFC file.  Is there a fix or work around for this?
Application.cfc file
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cffunction name="onRequestStart" returnType="boolean" output="true">
      <cfargument name="thePage" type="string" required="yes">
     <cfset PageName = GetFileFromPath(thePage)>
    <cfif not IsDefined("session.user.isAuthenticated") or
          session.user.isAuthenticated equal session.no>
      <cfif FindNoCase('index.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
        <cfelse>
          <cfset session.messages[1] = "Authentication required.">
          <cflocation url="#application.WebAddress#" addtoken="no">
      </cfif>
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('index.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfset request.PageNavigation = "">
      <cfset request.Screen = "Login">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('mainMenu.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfset request.PageNavigation = "Home">
      <cfset request.Screen = "">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('purchaseOrder.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfset request.PageNavigation = '<a href="mainMenu.cfm">Home</a> &##8226; New Purchase Order'>
      <cfset request.Screen = "">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('logout.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfelse>
        <cfinclude template="includes/header.cfm">
    </cfif>
    <cfreturn true>
  </cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequestEnd" returnType="void" output="true">
      <cfargument name="thePage" type="string" required="yes">
    <cfset PageName = GetFileFromPath(thePage)>
    <cfif FindNoCase('logout.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfelse>
        <cfinclude template="includes/footer.cfm">
    </cfif>
  </cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
purchaseOrder.cfm
<cfgrid name="AccountGrid" format="html" bind="cfc:GATS.CFC.purchaseOrder.GetQuantities({cfgridpage},{cfgridpagesize}, {cfgridsortcolumn}, {cfgridsortdirection})">
  <cfgridcolumn name="ID" header="ID" display="yes">
  <cfgridcolumn name="vendor_name" header="Name" display="yes">
</cfgrid>
I found this on the web:
That error is due to our application.cfm having a single HTML comment at the
start of the file. Apparently if your Application.cfm or Application.cfc file
outputs ANYTHING, binds to CFCs with AJAX (via HTML CFGRID or CFAJAXPROXY, for
example) do not work. The CFC will be called, but the data from it will never
"flow" into the CFGRID. Removing the comment from the Application.cfm file took
care of our CFGRID issue.
This there a way to have an Application.cfc file that displays a header and footer for every page and have and
have a page have a <cfgrid> in it?

Answer 1

BKBK,
I created the examples you posted and commenting out the header/footer lines in my Application.cfc displayed the cfgrid results (updating the query to a table I had).  Running the same example code with the header/footer included in the Application.cfc would not show the cfgrid results.
I attached the Application.cfc file for review.
Couldn't attach the file.
Application.cfc
<cfcomponent output="yes">
  <cfset this.name = "GATS">
  <cfset this.clientmanagement = "true">
  <cfset this.applicationtimeout = CreateTimeSpan("0","0","20","0")>
  <cfset this.sessionmanagement = "true">
  <cfset this.sessiontimeout = CreateTimeSpan("0","0","20","0")>
  <cfset this.scriptProtect = "true">
  <cfparam name="session.yes" default="Yes">
  <cfparam name="session.no" default="No">
  <cffunction name="onApplicationStart" returnType="boolean" output="no">
    <cfset application.Directory = "/GATS/">
    <cfset application.Datasource = "IA-webapplications">
    <cfset application.DatasourceGATS = "SBS-GATS">
    <cfreturn true>
  </cffunction>
  <cffunction name="onApplicationEnd" returntype="void" output="no">
    <cfargument name="ApplicationScope" required="yes" />
  </cffunction>
  <cffunction name="onSessionStart" returntype="void" output="no">
    <cflock scope="session" timeout="5" type="exclusive">
      <cfset session.no = "No">
      <cfset session.yes = "Yes">
      <cfset session.new = "New">
      <cfset session.user = StructNew()>
      <cfset session.user.isAuthenticated = session.no>
      <cfset session.user.emplid = ""> 
      <cfset session.user.userSSOId = "">
      <cfset session.user.firstName = "">
      <cfset session.user.lastName = "">
      <cfset session.user.name = "">
      <cfset session.messages = ArrayNew(1)>
      <cfset session.savedInputValues = ArrayNew(1)>
      <cfset session.filesTransferred = "">
    </cflock>
  </cffunction>
  <cffunction name="onSessionEnd" returntype="void" output="no">
    <cfargument name="SessionScope" required="yes">
    <cflock scope="session" timeout="5" type="exclusive">
      <cfset Arguments.SessionScope.user.isAuthenticated = session.no>
      <cfset Arguments.SessionScope.users.emplid = ""> 
      <cfset Arguments.SessionScope.user.userSSOId = "">
      <cfset Arguments.SessionScope.user.firstName = "">
      <cfset Arguments.SessionScope.user.lastName = "">
      <cfset Arguments.SessionScope.user.name = "">
    </cflock>
  </cffunction>
  <cffunction name="onRequestStart" returntype="void" output="yes">
    <cfargument type="String" name="TargetPage" required="yes">
    <cfset PageName = GetFileFromPath(TargetPage)>
    <cfif not IsDefined("session.user.isAuthenticated") or
          session.user.isAuthenticated equal session.no>
      <cfif FindNoCase('index.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
        <cfelse>
          <cfset session.messages[1] = "Authentication required.">
          <cflocation url="#application.WebAddress#" addtoken="no">
      </cfif>
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('index.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfset request.PageNavigation = "">
      <cfset request.Screen = "Login">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('mainMenu.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfset request.PageNavigation = "Home">
      <cfset request.Screen = "">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('purchaseOrder.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfset request.PageNavigation = '<a href="mainMenu.cfm">Home</a> &##8226; New Purchase Order'>
      <cfset request.Screen = "">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('logout.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfelse>
        <cfinclude template="includes/header.cfm">
    </cfif>
  </cffunction>
  <cffunction name="onRequestEnd" returntype="void" output="yes">
    <cfargument type="String" name="TargetPage" required="yes">
    <cfset PageName = GetFileFromPath(TargetPage)>
    <cfif FindNoCase('logout.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfelse>
        <cfinclude template="includes/footer.cfm">
    </cfif>
    <cfif FindNoCase('sessionTerminated.cfm', PageName) is not 0>
      <cfinvoke method="onSessionEnd">
        <cfinvokeargument name="SessionScope" value="#session#">
      </cfinvoke>
    </cfif>
  </cffunction>
  <cffunction name="onError" returnType="void" output="no">
    <cfargument name="exception" required="true">
    <cfargument name="eventName" type="string" required="true">
    <cfthrow object="#arguments.exception#">       
  </cffunction>
</cfcomponent>