Components

Sections or areas of your app that are reactive to user input.

Components are sections or areas of your site that you want to be reactive to user input. They can be as big or small as you like. For example, you may have a Signup form component that covers multiple steps or a button component that you reuse throughout your app.

Components are generally made up of Data Properties, Computed Properties, Actions, and an HTML template.

<cfscript>
    // Data properties
    data = {
        "property1": "defaultValue",
        "property2": "defaultValue"
    };
    
    // Computed properties
    computed = {
        "computedProperty" : function() {
            // return something
        }    
    };
    
    // Actions
    function action1() {
        data.property1 = "another value";
    }
</cfscript>

<!-- HTML Template -->
<cfoutput>
    <div>
        <h1>My Component</h1>
    </div>
</cfoutput>

Increase the performance of component rendering in your production environments with the 'cacheSingleFileComponents' configuration setting.

Your template must have a single outer element for CBWIRE to bind to. Our example above uses a <div> element but can use any outer element. Adding more than one outer element will lead to DOM diffing issues and unexpected behavior.

By default, components should be placed in a ./wires folder in the project root.

Within your templates, you can access your Data Properties, Computed Properties, and Actions, and utilize any of the powerful template features listed under Template Features in the left-hand menu. Details on how to use these

Separating Component Definition and Template

You can place the above code in separate files to separate your component and template definitions. CFC components must extend 'cbwire.models.Component'.

./wires/MyComponent.cfc

component extends="cbwire.models.Component" {
    // Data properties
    data = {
        "property1": "defaultValue",
        "property2": "defaultValue"
    };
    
    // Computed properties
    computed = {
        "computedProperty" : function() {
            // return something
        }    
    };
    
    // Actions
    function action1() {
        data.property1 = "another value";
    }
}

./wires/MyComponent.cfm

<!--- Template --->
<cfoutput>
    <div>
        <h1>My Component</h1>
    </div>
</cfoutput>

Separating your template and component is how previous versions of CBWIRE worked. We recommend using the less verbose option of including both definitions in a single .CFM file for smaller UI components, and creating separate files for more complex UI components.

Rendering Components

You can render a CBWIRE component using the wire() method.

<!--- ./layouts/Main.cfm --->
<body>
    <div>
        #wire( "ShowPosts" )#
    </div>
</body>

<!--- ./views/posts/index.cfm --->
<cfoutput>
    <h1>My Posts</h1>
    #wire( "ShowPosts" )#
</cfoutput>

You can call wire() from within your ColdBox layouts, ColdBox views, and also from your component templates ( nested components ).

External Components

You can render wires from folders and subfolders outside of the default ./wires folder.

<cfoutput>
    <div>
        #wire( "myFolder.MyComponent" )#
        #wire( "myFolder.subFolder.MyComponent" )#
    </div>
</cfoutput>

You can also reference components within another ColdBox module by using the @module syntax.

<cfoutput>
    <div>#wire( "MyComponent@myModule" )#</div>
</cfoutput>

Passing Parameters

You can pass data into a component as an additional argument using wire().

<body>
    <div>
        #wire( "ShowPost", { "post": post } )#
    </div>
</body>

By passing in parameters, you can create reusable UI components that are unique but similar in functionality. For example, you could create a Button component that you use throughout your app.

Using Parameters

Parameters are passed into your component's onMount() method. This is an optional method you can add.

<!--- ./views/posts/index.cfm --->
#wire( "ShowPost", { post: currentPost } )#

<!--- ./wires/ShowPost.cfm --->
<cfscript>
    data = {
        "title": ""
    };

    function onMount( params, event, rc, prc ) {
        data.title = params.post.getTitle();
    }
}
</cfscript>

<cfoutput>
    <div>Title: #title#</div>
</cfoutput>

CBWIRE only executes onMount() once when the component is initially rendered. It is not executed for subsequent XHR requests of the component.

Auto Population of Data Properties

As of CBWIRE 3.2, properties that you pass into your component will be automatically populated if onMount() IS NOT defined and a matching data property is found.

Passed-in properties must have a data type of string, boolean, numeric, date, array, or struct.

<!--- ./views/posts/index.cfm --->
#wire( "ShowPost", { title: "Some title" } )#

<!--- ./wires/ShowPost.cfm --->
<cfscript>
    data = {
        "title": ""
    };
}
</cfscript>

<cfoutput>
    <!--- outputs 'Title: Some title --->
    <div>Title: #title#</div>
</cfoutput>

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Last updated 1 year ago

hashtagSeparating Component Definition and Template

hashtagRendering Components

hashtagExternal Components

hashtagPassing Parameters

hashtagUsing Parameters

hashtagAuto Population of Data Properties

Separating Component Definition and Template

Rendering Components

External Components

Passing Parameters

Using Parameters

Auto Population of Data Properties