Automatic Documentation of ColdFusion code

Question

I have inherited over 600 files of ColdFusion source code running a internal web site for my company. One of my tasks is to "document" it. The code base represents about 5 years of development and there is no technical specification of what it does.

The developers have maintained a change log of each file and there is a consistent header.

My thought is that I can build a dependency map of the various modules and referenced stored procedures to facilitate this documentation by scanning the source files. I have used Doxygen in the past for c++ source code and am wondering if a tool like this exists for ColdFusion.

One output I am investigating is the ability to create a xmind file as means of visualizing the cross dependencies in module inter-relationships.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Answer 1

The ColdFusion server has built in introspection that outputs javadoc like documentation for any CFC class.

See: http://YourColdfusionServer/CFIDE/componentutils/componentdoc.cfm

However, it requires an RDS login/password for your server. For delivery to third parties, I set up a recursive script that does a cfhttp fetch against the docs for each cfc file, and then compiles the pages to PDF with cfdocument.

Answer 2

You could start with ColdDoc

Also, heres a UML 2 CFC generator.

I guess what you really need is something to reverse engineer the coldfusion code into uml class diagrams. I don't know of anything off the top of my head.

MagicDraw, Objecteering don't seem to do it yet.

Answer 3

Sounds to me like creating your own Xmind or XMI file is the way to go. The XMI file may be more portable between tools, but the last time I looked at doing that the XMI file formats were a bit daunting for the time I had available to work on the solution. If the formatting of the headers consistent is enough to read with ReFind or Find I'd build a script that uses cfdirectory and cffile to walk the code tree and output the file(s).

Answer 4

After trying to find an answer to this question myself I ended up writing this solution:

ColdDuck

Maybe it is too late for you now but I am just spreading the word.

Murray