Quickstart 2: Modeling our Application

The "Model" for our application will consist of a single CFC that translates a phrase into, well, something else. In this case, we'll start with pig latin. To create a CFC-based Model for our application, do the following:

1. Create a file in /translator/model called PigLatinTranslator.cfc

2. Open the file, and paste in the following code. You'll see that it's a simple CFC with a constructor function named "init" that receives what letters are considered vowels. It only has one other function, "translate," which changes a phrase into Pig Latin.

<cfcomponent name="PigLatinTranslator" output="false">

<cffunction name="init" returntype="any" access="public" output="false">
    <cfargument name="vowels" type="string" required="true" />

    <cfset variables.vowels = arguments.vowels />

    <cfreturn this />
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="translate" returntype="string" access="public" output="false">
    <cfargument name="phrase" />

    <cfset var firstVowel = reFindNoCase("[#variables.vowels#]", arguments.phrase) - 1 />
    <cfset var result = trim(arguments.phrase) />

    <!--- We started with a consonant --->
    <cfif len(result) and firstVowel gt 0>
        <cfset result = right(arguments.phrase, len(arguments.phrase) - firstVowel)
            & left(arguments.phrase, firstVowel) & "ay" />
    <!--- We started with a vowel --->
    <cfelseif len(result)>
        <cfset result = result & "ay" />
    </cfif>

    <cfreturn result />
</cffunction>

</cfcomponent>

And that's it. Our entire Model. It doesn't know anything about a user interface, or form variables, or session, or any of that stuff, so it's very, very reusable.

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