Loading site configuration from ini file

Question

I load in static setting via an ini file. Ini file have the benefits

• of NOT being server by most web servers by default.
• easier to edit than XML
• even simplier than JSON

Setting get loaded in Application.cfc

void function setupApplication() output="false" {
... 
application.stAdminSetting = application.loadini("admin\standard.ini");
...
}

Application.cfc has this as a function...

<cffunction name="loadini" output="false" returnType="struct">
<cfargument name="configfile" required="true" type="string" hint="reads from currentTemplate">
<cfscript>
var stResult = {};
var iniFilePath = "#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetBaseTemplatePath())##arguments.configfile#";
var stSection = getProfileSections(iniFilePath);
for(var section in stSection) {
 var CurrentSection = evaluate("stSection.#section#"); 
 var stData = {};
 for(var i = 1; i <= ListLen(CurrentSection); i++) {
 var key = ListGetAt(CurrentSection, i);
 stData[key] = getProfileString(iniFilePath, section, key);
 }
 setvariable("stResult.#section#", stData);
 }
return stResult; 
</cfscript>
</cffunction>

The ini file can have any number of setting. In particular my ini file has:

[ws]
comment=http://xxxxx.com/resource/comment.cfc?wsdl
ior=http://xxxxx.com/resource/ior.cfc?wsdl
node=http://xxxxx.com/resource/node.cfc?wsdl
pref=http://xxxxx.com/resource/pref.cfc?wsdl
traffic=http://xxxxx.com/resource/traffic.cfc?wsdl

What kinds of things can I do to improve this?

Answer 1

You don't need evaluate() here:

var CurrentSection = evaluate("stSection.#section#"); 

Simply do this:

var CurrentSection = stSection[section]); 

Similarly you don't need to use setVariable():

setvariable("stResult.#section#", stData);

Simply:

stResult[section] = stData;

Answer 2

What kind of things are you looking to improve? Your solution looks pretty straightforward. The only problem with an ini file is that ColdFusion can't instantly/natively parse it. Whereas XML/JSON can be parsed directly into a Coldfusion Struct.

<cfscript>
public struct function loadini( required string configFile) {
 var stResult = {};
 var iniFilePath = "#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetBaseTemplatePath())##arguments.configfile#";
 var stSection = getProfileSections(iniFilePath);
 // loop over the sections
 for (section in stSection) {
 // loop over the list of variables in the ini file
 for (var i=0;i<=listLen(stSection[section]);i++) {
 // result.section.variable = value 
 stResult[section][listGetAt(stSection[section],i)] = GetProfileString(iniFilePath, section, listGetAt(stSection[section],i) ) ;
 }
 }
 return stResult; 
}
</cfscript>
<cfdump var="#loadini('test.ini')#">