Same application name on multiple IIS sites

Question

We're majorly redesigning our website, in terms of both aesthetics and architecture. In order to avoid locking up the application against updates during this redesign, we'd like to redesign one module at a time and just pass users between the old and new sites as needed. However, we have a variety of session information, including their logins, that we need to preserve throughout this shuttling.

If we setup two different webroot folders with ColdFusion files (one for the old and one for the new) each with its own IIS site, but setup the Application.cfc files in both to use the same application name, will the session and application scopes be preserved as users move back and forth between the two sites? Will this cause any unexpected issues?

We are using ColdFusion 9.

Answer 1

While this will work, as Dan has suggested, it's not a great idea. For one thing you will have no ability to change anything in the application scope on site A without affecting site B. This can introduce head-scratching bugs. Consider DSN names which are often in the application scope. Unless you are using the exact same DSN for both sites, whichever site is first initialized is going to dictate which DSN is used - so you basically have to live with the exact same application scopes.

Still, it can be done. See this post for a plain example that might be helpful.

Application Variables on ICE - ColdFusion Muse