invoke command in application.cfc fails in railo 4.1 (error: missing required argument [object])

Question

I am upgrading from Railo 3 to 4, and have run into a problem with the old Application.cfc. The Application.cfc fails on the following line in the OnRequest method:

content = invoke(controller = controllerPath, method = URL.action, arguments = {'data':FORM,'options':URL});

This is partial content of the error:

Railo 4.1.1.009 Error (template)

Message missing required argument [object] for function [invoke]

Pattern invoke(object:any, name:string [, arguments:any]):object

Documentation invokes a function/operation of the given object and if given object is a string, Railo tries to load as component.

Required:

• object (any): a component, struct or scope that holds a function, can also be the name of a component, in this case the component get loaded.
• name (string): name of the function/operation

Optional:

• arguments (any): arguments to pass to the function/operation

Stacktrace The Error Occurred in /home/admin/quicktrackweb/src/web/cf3/Application.cfc: line 215

213: dynFunc = view[URL.action];

214:

215: content = invoke(controller = controllerPath, method = URL.action, arguments = {'data':FORM,'options':URL});

216: //content = "test";

217: if (GetMetaData(dynFunc).access == 'remote') {

Java Stacktrace missing required argument [object] for function [invoke] at railo.transformer.bytecode.expression.var.Variable.getMatchingValueAndType(Variable.java:700):700 at railo.transformer.bytecode.expression.var.Variable._writeOutFirstBIF(Variable.java:458):458 at railo.transformer.bytecode.expression.var.Variable._writeOutFirst(Variable.java:419):419 at railo.transformer.bytecode.expression.var.Variable._writeOut(Variable.java:238):238 at railo.transformer.bytecode.expression.var.Variable._writeOut(Variable.java:219):219 at railo.transformer.bytecode.expression.ExpressionBase.writeOut(ExpressionBase.java:34):34 ...

Here is the OnRequest method:

    public void function OnRequest (required string TargetPage) {
            var content = '';
            var controllerPath = '';
            var dynFunc = '';
            var isDebug = false;
            var output = '';
            var response = '';
            var templatePath = 'views/login/login.cfm';
            var toolbar = CreateObject('component', 'controllers.toolbar');
            var view = '';
            import 'controllers.ajax';
                    //ssl implemtation
            if (!CGI.SERVER_PORT_SECURE) {
                    Location("http://#CGI.SERVER_NAME#/?#CGI.QUERY_STRING#", false);
            }


            param name='URL.view' type='string' default='home';
            param name='URL.action' type='string' default='';
            param name='URL.id' type='numeric' default=0;
            param name='URL.options' type='string' default='';

            URL.view = REReplace(URL.view, '\W', '', 'all');

            if (StructKeyExists(URL, 'faq')) {
                    templatePath = "views/home/faq.cfm";    
            } else if (SESSION.user.id || (URL.view == 'login' && URL.action == 'new')) {
                    if (StructKeyExists(GetHttpRequestData().headers, 'ajax')) {
                            var ajax = new ajax(request = GetHttpRequestData(), url = URL, form = FORM, cookie = COOKIE);

                            Header(name = 'Content-Type', value = 'application/json');
                            WriteOutput(ajax.getResponse());

                            return;
                    } else {
                            if (URL.action == '') {
                                    URL.action = ListGetAt(URL.view, ListLen(URL.view, '.'), '.');  
                            }

                            if (hasFunction('controllers.' & URL.view, URL.action) || hasFunction('controllers.#URL.view#.#URL.view#', URL.action)) {
                                    if (hasFunction('controllers.' & URL.view, URL.action)) {
                                            controllerPath = 'controllers.#URL.view#';
                                    } else {
                                            controllerPath = 'controllers.#URL.view#.#URL.view#';
                                    }

                                    view = CreateObject('component', controllerPath);
                                    dynFunc = view[URL.action];

========> Line where app fails:         content = invoke(controller = controllerPath, method = URL.action, arguments = {'data':FORM,'options':URL});

                                    if (GetMetaData(dynFunc).access == 'remote') {
                                            GetPageContext().getResponse().reset();
                                            Header(name = 'Content-Type', value = 'application/json');
                                            WriteOutput(content);
                                            return; 
                                    }

                                    templatePath = '';      
                            } else if (FileExists("views/#URL.view#/#URL.view#.cfm")){
                                    templatePath = "views/#URL.view#/#URL.view#.cfm";
                            } else{
                                    templatePath = "views/home/home.cfm";
                            }
                    }
            }

            if (content == '' && FileExists(templatePath)) {
                    savecontent variable = 'content' {include '#templatePath#';}    
            }

            if (CGI.SCRIPT_NAME == '/js/webapp.cfm') {
                    Header(name = 'Content-Type', value = 'application/javascript');
                    include '/js/webapp.cfm';
            } else if (CGI.SCRIPT_NAME == '/css/webapp.cfm') {
                    Header(name = 'Content-Type', value = 'text/css');
                    include '/css/webapp.cfm';
            } else {
                    include '/index.cfm';
            }

            //Return out.
            return;
    }

Sorry for blasting all this code, but since I am fairly new to Railo/CF, I am not sure where to start. Has invoke been deprecated, and what should I put in place of it?

It seems like the invoke is completely different from the previous version because it is expecting an argument "object", but I have arguments "controller", "method", and "arguments"

My version of Railo is 4.1.1.009 I am running on a Ubuntu server with Apache 2.2.22 and Tomcat 7.0.20

Answer 1

By going back to Railo 3.3.4.003 final, matching the production server, it works. 3.3.4.003 does have ColdFusion compatibility with 9.0.0.1. I think this is why it works now, and I did not have to make any changes to the code in Application.cfc, other than to remove the http redirect where it checks for !CGI.SERVER_PORT_SECURE (caused a redirect loop, which I commented out).

If my thinking is wrong here, please let me know.