Changes in the ColdFusion.window.create Function Require a Modern Browser

I’m still working on upgrading some older CF8 applications to CF11. I came across an interesting problem, the exact cause of which I have not found, but I do have a solution of sorts.

When the particular application I’m working on now was written, the standard browser that would be accessing it was Internet Explorer 8. Over time, as we have upgraded our browsers, but not had time to make changes to the application to accommodate those new browsers, we had used the dreaded Compatibility View to keep the look and feel of the application unchanged.

Since we are now several versions out from CF8, it is understandable that some things intrinsic to ColdFusion have changed. Somehow, the way that the function ColdFusion.window.create renders JavaScript to create the pop-up window does not work with IE 8 or a newer browser emulating IE 8 (as we forced with the X-UA-Compatible HTTP header in IIS). After copying the website to the CF11 server, setting up everything in IIS, and navigating to the website, everything was great until I clicked on a link that executed a function (named “createCFWindow”, as in the dialog box below) that called the ColdFusion.window.create function.

This is the result:

error dialog box

After stepping through the code using Internet Explorer’s Developer Tools, I determined that the reason this “createCFWindow” function threw an exception was because the ColdFusion.window.create function was returning null rather than a new window.

When testing the website on Chrome – which this application was not designed to use – I discovered that the error did not occur, and decided to turn off Compatibility View. Sure enough, this error disappeared in IE 11 – though a host of other issues have now developed.

Now, I’m working to upgrade the application to be HTML5-compliant so it will work on IE 11 or Chrome.

Apparently, using CF UI tags became unfashionable quite some time ago, but that type of advice isn’t always heard or heeded until long after it’s announced.

Any future applications I build will use jQuery instead for this sort of thing.

Leave a Reply