Blog

Tip of the Week: ColdBox Routes

Brad Wood November 28, 2012

Spread the word

Brad Wood

November 28, 2012

Spread the word


Share your thoughts

 

Hopefully you are already familiar with the format of a default ColdBox URL when using the SES interceptor.  
 
mysite.com/index.cfm/myHandlerName/myActionName
 
Of course, a simple rewrite rule can simplify that even further to:
 
mysite.com/myHandlerName/myActionName
 
What you may not realize is that URL pattern is called a "route" and not only can be changed, but you can add as many customized routes as your application desires.  The magic happens in your /config/routes.cfm file where all the routes are declared in the order they should be processed.  You'll find the default route in that file:
 
addRoute(pattern=":handler/:action?");
 
The syntax for adding a new custom route looks like this:
 
addRoute(pattern="/URLStringToMatch", handler="handlerName", action="actionName");
 
That means, you could set up a route like so:
 
addRoute(pattern="/blog", handler="entryHandler", action="listEntries");
 
Now, the following two URLs would point to the exact same thing (with the second option being obviously preferable):
 
mysite.com/entryHandler/listEntries
mysite.com/blog
 
You can even clean up URLs that have variables.  Consider the following page on your site:
 
mysite.com/services/products/productDetail/productID/1234
 
Just add a new route that looks like this:
 
addRoute(pattern="/product/:productID", handler="services.products", action="productDetail");
 
And now the following URL will give you the same page:
 
mysite.com/product/1234
 
As you can see, routes are a very powerful way to keep those URLs looking sharp, but we're barely scratching the surface of what you can do.  Don't get intimidated though-- read through the docs dive in!
 
 

Add Your Comment

Recent Entries

TestBox 7 : Real-Time Streaming, a Browser IDE, and a Major Leap for BoxLang

TestBox 7 : Real-Time Streaming, a Browser IDE, and a Major Leap for BoxLang

TestBox 7.x series continues our mission to be the best testing framework for BoxLang and CFML. This release is focused heavily on BoxLang CLI runner enhancements, real-time streaming test execution via SSE, a powerful dry run capability, the brand-new TestBox RUN web IDE, and significant quality-of-life improvements for developers working in both BoxLang and CFML environments.

Luis Majano
Luis Majano
March 17, 2026
From Legacy Risk to Modern Agility: A Phased Modernization Roadmap for CFML Teams

From Legacy Risk to Modern Agility: A Phased Modernization Roadmap for CFML Teams

Many organizations running CFML applications today face the same challenge.

Their systems still work.

They support core business processes.

They generate revenue.

But at the same time, those platforms are increasingly exposed to risk.

Unsupported runtimes, operational fragility, security exposure, and difficulty integrating with modern systems are becoming more common in environments still running older versions of Adobe ColdFusion or Lucee.

The quest...

Cristobal Escobar
Cristobal Escobar
March 16, 2026
Introducing the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter: Dynamic JVM Templating for Spring

Introducing the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter: Dynamic JVM Templating for Spring

Spring Boot developers know the pain of evaluating view technologies. Thymeleaf is great — until you need more expressiveness. FreeMarker is powerful — until the syntax fights you. What if you could write templates in a dynamic JVM language that gives you the full power of the platform, feels natural, and requires zero setup to integrate?

Meet the BoxLang Spring Boot Starter.

Luis Majano
Luis Majano
March 13, 2026