Monitoring ColdFusion Thread Activity And Status After Redirect

code-1.cfm

<!--- Set the status code for the client. --->
<cfheader
	statuscode="302"
	statustext="Moved Temporarily"
	/>

<!--- Define the location to redirect to. --->
<cfheader
	name="location"
	value="./confirmation.cfm"
	/>

<!--- Flush the headers to the client. --->
<cfflush />

code-2.cfm

<!--- Param the URL variables. --->
<cfparam name="url.launch" type="boolean" default="false" />

<!--- Check to see if the page has been submitted. --->
<cfif url.launch>


	<!---
		We are about to launch some threads that we want to
		keep track of, as such, let's set a flag in the Application
		scope.

		NOTE: We sould not typically store user-specific information
		in the "Application" scope, but this is just for ease of
		demonstration purposes.
	--->
	<cfset application.isProcessing = true />

	<!---
		We're going to keep track of the number of threads we will
		be processing with this request.
	--->
	<cfset application.threadCount = 10 />

	<!---
		We're going to keep track of the number of threads are
		actively being processed. This will start at the "thread
		count" and decrement as each thread completes.
	--->
	<cfset application.activeThreads = application.threadCount />

	<!---
		We going to keep track of the outcome of each thread after
		it has finished executing.
	--->
	<cfset application.threads = [] />


	<!---
		Iterate up to the total thread acount and launch as many new
		threads as needed.
	--->
	<cfloop
		index="threadIndex"
		from="1"
		to="#application.threadCount#"
		step="1">

		<!---
			Launch an asynchronous thread. This will execute in
			parallel with the primary page and will take almost no
			time do define.
		--->
		<cfthread
			name="thread#threadIndex#"
			action="run"
			index="#threadIndex#">

			<!---
				Randomly sleep the thread for several seconds to
				demonstrate that some heavy processing might be
				taking place.
			--->
			<cfthread
				action="sleep"
				duration="#randRange( 2000, 3000 )#"
				/>

			<!---
				At this point, the thread has finished performing
				whatever heavy processing it was gonna be doing.
				For tracking sake, let's decrement the active thread
				acount. Because this will create potential race
				conditions, we'll lock this variable.
			--->
			<cflock
				name="decrementActiveThreads"
				type="exclusive"
				timeout="3">

				<!--- Decrement thread count. --->
				<cfset application.activeThreads-- />

			</cflock>

		</cfthread>

	</cfloop>


	<!--- ------------------------------------------------- --->
	<!--- ------------------------------------------------- --->


	<!---
		Now that we have defined our threads, we want to provide
		immediate feedback to the user. We are going to do this
		in the form of a re-location. However, we cannot use a
		traditional CFLocation as this will abort the page request.
		Rather, we'll use CFHeader to define the CFLocation action
		without implying the abort.
	--->
	<cfheader
		statuscode="302"
		statustext="Moved Temporarily"
		/>

	<!--- Define the location to redirect to. --->
	<cfheader
		name="location"
		value="./confirmation.cfm"
		/>

	<!---
		Tell the browser to reset the content and define the
		mime-type for the client.
	--->
	<cfcontent type="text/html" />

	<!---
		Ok, now here's the really funky-ass part. We need to
		"convince" the server to actually flush data to the screen.
		Even if we call CFFlush, the server won't push content to
		the client unless it sees that it has enough. As such, we
		have to create enough white-space to convice the browser that
		it is prudent to flush the headers.

		NOTE: This was not an issue with earlier versions of
		ColdFusion, but seems to be popping up in CF8.
	--->
	<cfoutput>#repeatString( " ", 73729 )#</cfoutput>

	<!---
		Now that have set the headers and provided enough "contente,"
		we have to comit the response to the client. This will cause
		the headers to be passed back.
	--->
	<cfflush />


	<!--- ------------------------------------------------- --->
	<!--- ------------------------------------------------- --->


	<!---
		At this point, the User should have been redirected to the
		confirmation page; as such, the rest of the processing will
		not affect the user's experience. Let's now join all of the
		outstanding threads back to the page so we can use them.

		NOTE: We could have used the Name attribute to join a single
		thread; but, without the name attribute, this will cause all
		threads defined on this page to be joined.
	--->
	<cfthread action="join" />

	<!---
		Now that the threads have been joined, loop over the threads
		and add them to the array of processed threads.
	--->
	<cfloop
		item="threadName"
		collection="#cfthread#">

		<!--- Add this thread to the array. --->
		<cfset arrayAppend(
			application.threads,
			cfthread[ threadName ]
			) />

	</cfloop>

	<!--- Flag that the threads are no longer being processed. --->
	<cfset application.isProcessing = false />

	<!---
		At this point, we need to abort the page. Because we did a
		"soft" relocation, that page did not abort as it normally
		would have with a CFLocation. Now that we are done with all
		of our thread logic, however, we must manually abort.
	--->
	<cfabort />

</cfif>


<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
	<title>ColdFusion CFThread Post-Redirect Monitoring</title>
</head>
<body>

	<h1>
		ColdFusion CFThread Post-Redirect Monitoring
	</h1>

	<p>
		<a href="./test.cfm?launch=1">Launch some threads</a>
		already!
	</p>

</body>
</html>

code-3.cfm

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
	<title>ColdFusion CFThread Post-Redirect Monitoring</title>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.4.2.min.js"></script>
	<script type="text/javascript">

		// When the DOM is ready, initialize.
		jQuery(function( $ ){

			// Get the updates element.
			var updates = $( "#updates" );

			// Define a function to get the updates.
			getUpdates = function(){

				// Get the thread-processing updates from the server.
				$.ajax({
					type: "get",
					url: "updates.cfm",
					dataType: "json",
					success: function( results ){
						// Output the updates.
						updates.html( results.HTML );

						// Check to see if the updates are still
						// processing.
						if (results.ISPROCESSING){

							// Make another request to get updates.
							// Give the server a tiny rest.
							setTimeout(
								getUpdates,
								500
							);

						}
					}
				});

			};

			// Get the updates.
			getUpdates();

		});

	</script>
</head>
<body>

	<h1>
		Your Threads Are Being Proccessed.
	</h1>

	<p id="updates">
		<!--- Processing updates will go here. --->
	</p>

</body>
</html>

code-4.cfm

<!--- Create the return struct. --->
<cfset response = {
	isProcessing = application.isProcessing,
	html = ""
	} />


<!---
	Check to see if the if the threads are still processing so we
	can see what kind of output to build.
--->
<cfif application.isProcessing>

	<!--- Save the processing output. --->
	<cfsavecontent variable="response.html">
		<cfoutput>

			#application.activeThreads# thread(s) still need to
			be processed.

		</cfoutput>
	</cfsavecontent>

<cfelse>

	<!--- Save the results output. --->
	<cfsavecontent variable="response.html">
		<cfoutput>

			<!--- Loop over the threads to output data. --->
			<cfloop
				index="thread"
				array="#application.threads#">

				#thread.name#:
				#thread.status#
				(#numberFormat( thread.elapsedTime )# milliseconds)<br />

			</cfloop>

		</cfoutput>
	</cfsavecontent>

</cfif>


<!--- Convert the response to a binary JSON response. --->
<cfset binaryResponse = toBinary(
	toBase64(
		serializeJSON( response )
		)
	) />

<!--- Stream the response back to the client. --->
<cfcontent
	type="text/json"
	variable="#binaryResponse#"
	/>