Developing With The Mura Platform

This is a general guide to the process of deploying websites with Mura CMS 7.1

CF Foundry uses the Mura CMS platform for deploying many websites and web applications. Mura provides a modular development framework that includes an integrated CMS that is user friendly and offers inline page editing for those clients that maintain their own websites and do not have HTML coding experience.

While BlueRiver (the creators and maintainers of the Mura open-source platform) provides documentation for web developers, content managers, and template creators, the documentation generally only provides a starting point for deploying an application and leaves a lot undocumented. This is particularly true with specific examples for high-level actions (such as adding a blog to a site) as well as lower-level examples, such as how to use iterators in various situation, best practices, etc.

Much of the additional information on how to develop with the Mura platform is distributed across various blog entries and BlueRiver's Google support channel. The documentation provided here is an aggregation of this available documentation and internally-generated information.

Content

Content for page on websites created with Mura is typically populated by combining user-entered data in the Mura CMS with templates created in CFML (.cfm files). For example, to add a page to a Mura-driven website, users would typically use the Mura CMS to add a page in the CMS, entering any text that they desired to be displayed on the page and associated a page template with the page. The template then fetches and displays the information using the Mura Content bean/subscope. This is a very overly simplistic view of what can be done to create content on a Mura website and ignores all of the advanced features of the CMS, plugins, dynamically generated pages & content, etc., but suffices for explaining how we access data from the Mura CMS and display it.

$.content('body') //Gets the body content for the page, folder, etc.
$.content('title') //Gets the title of the page, folder, etc.

In the above example, the "body" and "title" attributes are fed to the content bean to fetch the associated data. The content bean is a very robust component of the Mura CMS framework and can (as of version 7.1) provide all of the following data:

Attribute	Description
active	Whether the content item is active.
approvalchainoverride	Whether to ignore approval chain, if applied.
approvalgroupid	The current approval chain GroupID the content item is assigned to.
approvalstatus	The approval status of the content item.
approved	Whether the content item is approved.
assocfilename	The name of the file of the primary associated image/file.
body	The main content/body of the content item.
categoryid	A comma-delimited list of CategoryIDs associated with the content item.
changesetid	The ChangeSetID the specific content item version is associated with, if any.
childtemplate	Default template to be applied to children, if any.
contenthistid	A unique identifier for the specific version of the content item.
contentid	A unique identifier for the content item.
created	Date/time the content was originally created.
credits	The credits field of the content item. Similar to a byline.
depth	A numeric representation of number of levels deep the content item resides in relation to the "Home" page.
display	Whether to display the content item.
displayinterval	If "display" is set to "Per Schedule", a JSON-encoded string representing the scheduled display interval.
displaystart	If "display" is set to "Per Schedule", the date/time to begin displaying the content item.
displaystop	If "display" is set to "Per Schedule", the date/time to stop displaying the content item.
expires	The content expiration date field of the content item.
featurestart	If the content item is featured, the date/time to begin featuring it.
featurestop	If the content item is featured, the date/time to stop being featured.
fileext	The file extension of the primary associated image/file.
fileid	The FileID of the primary associated image/file.
filename	The URL to the content item, excluding the domain name.
filesize	The file size of the primary associated image/file.
htmltitle	The HTML Title field of the content item.
imageheight	If the content item is a Folder, and imagesize is "custom" the height in pixels to use for images.
imagesize	If the content item is a Folder, the pre-defined size to use for images (e.g., small, medium, large, custom, etc.)
imagewidth	If the content item is a Folder, and imagesize is "custom", the width in pixels to use for images.
inheritobjects	Whether the content item is inheriting display objects from an ancestor.
isfeature	Whether the content item is featured in the section.
ishome	Whether the content item is the "Home" page.
islocked	Whether the content item is locked, if type is a file.
isnav	Whether the content item should be shown in navigational objects generated by Mura.
isnew	Whether the content item is new.
lastupdate	The date/time the content item was last updated.
lastupdateby	The name of the user who last updated the content item.
lastupdatebyid	The UserID of the user who last updated the content item.
majorversion	The major version number of the content item, if type is a file.
menutitle	The Menu Title field of the content item.
metadesc	The Meta Description of the content item.
metakeywords	The Meta Keywords of the content item.
minorversion	The Minor Version of the content item, if the type is a file.
mobileexclude	Whether to exclude the content item from navigation objects on mobile devices.
moduleassign	If content type is a Form or Component, a comma-delimited list of ModuleIDs of modules to allow the Form/Component to be used in. Essentially, the answer to the "Where would you like to use this Component?" question.
moduleid	ModuleID of the content item.
newfile	This is the field you set new primary associated files, when creating new content programatically.
nextn	If content type is a Folder, the number of records to display on each page.
notes	The Notes field of the content item.
objectparams	The objectparams of the content item.
orderno	The Order Number of the content item, if the parent is using "Manual" sort.
parentid	The ContentID of the direct parent of the content item.
path	A comma-delimited list of ContentIDs representing the ancestry of the content item.
releasedate	The Official Release Date field of the content item.
remoteid	A special field for developer's to use. May load the content item by this field. It does not have to be unique. Typically, used to store a unique identifier to associate the content item to an external data store.
remotepubdate	A special field for developer's to use when importing or associating content to an external data store.
remotesource	A special field for developer's to use when importing or associating content to an external data store. Typically, the name of the external data.
remotesourceurl	A special field for developer's to use when importing or associating content to an external data store. Typically, the domain of the external data.
remoteurl	A special field for developer's to use when importing or associating content to an external data store. Typically, the full URL to the external content.
restricted	Whether the content item is restricted.
restrictgroups	A comma-delimited list of GroupIDs to restrict access to.
searchexclude	Whether to exclude the content item from Mura's search results.
siteid	The SiteID the content item is associated with.
sortby	If content type is Folder, which field to sort by.
sortdirection	If content type is Folder, which direction to sort by.
status	The Status of the content item (e.g., Published, Draft, etc.).
statusid	The StatusID of the content item.
subtype	Subtype of the content item.
summary	The Summary field of the content item.
tags	A comma-delimited list of default tags.
target	Whether to open in a new browser window.
template	The layout template applied directly to the content item. If empty, Mura will traverse up the tree until it locates an applied template, and if none are found or the applied template is not found, will use the default.cfm layout template.
title	The main Title field of the content item.
type	The type of the content item (e.g., Page, Folder, Calendar, Link, File, etc.)
urltitle	The URL Title field of the content item.

Images

As with many things, there are several different ways to get images/image content from Mura. Each of these are outlined below.

getImageURL()

The getImageURL() function is available in the content subscope for the current page, as well as the iterator object:

getImageURL() Example

<!--- Fetch image for current page with a size of "header" --->
<img src="$.content().getImageURL(size='header')#"/>

<!--- Fetch image associated with an interator object --->
<cfset feed=$.getBean('feed').loadBy(name="Home Page Slider")>
<cfset slides=feed.getIterator()>
<cfif iterator.hasNext()>
    <cfloop condition="slides.hasNext()">
	    <cfset slide = slides.next()/>
		<img src="#slide.getImageURL()#"/>
		...

createHREFForImage()

The createHREFForImage() function provides a great way to fetch an image that was added to a page, component, etc. as an extended class attribute.

createHREFForImage() Example

<!--- Page Template --->
$.createHREFForImage(fileid = $.content().getValue('extAttributeImage'))

<!--- Mura component extended attribute --->
#$.createHREFForImage(filename=$.component('extAttributeImage'),size='myCustomSize')#

<!--- In the context of an iterator --->
<cfset feed=$.getBean('feed').loadBy(name="Home Page Slider")>
<cfset slides=feed.getIterator()>
<cfif iterator.hasNext()>
    <cfloop condition="slides.hasNext()">
	    <cfset slide = slides.next()/>
		<img src="#$.createHREFForImage(filename=slide.getValue('extAttributeImage'),size='myCustomSize')#"/>
		...

getURLForImage()

This function is used exclusively to fetch an image based on its file ID. You must specify the file ID to use this function and it supports numerous other parameters as well (see current Mura documentation for other parameters).

getURLForImage() Example

<!--- Get image for current page if it exists --->
<cfif Len(m.getURLForImage(fileid=$.content('fileid')))>
    <img src="#m.getURLForImage(fileid=$.content('fileid'), size='medium')#">
</cfif>

Loading the Content Bean

NOTE: All Mura objects/beans are well documented in terms of their functions and parameters via Mura's live API documentation. For example, information about the content bean for Mura 7.1 is available at: https://www.getmura.com/component-api/7.1/mura/content/contentBean.html

Additionally, you can apply the .getAllValues() to the content subscope object (as with other beans like siteConfig, glocalConfig, currentUser, event, etc.) as follows: $.content().getAllValues().

When you use the content subscope, it will default to fetching data for the current page, folder, etc. However, you can override this behavior to get data for other items in the CMS, by specifying different attributes:

• contentid

• contenthistid

• filename

• remoteid

• title

• urltitle

For example, to fetch the page or folder body for a page with a title of "services":

$.content('title').loadBy(title='services')

NOTE: Using the "$.content()" syntax is shorthand for $.getBean('content') as "content" is a subscope/object wrapper of the Mura Scope "$". You could also use $.content().get('title') or $.content().getValue('title')

SiteConfig Content Subscope

The siteConfig() content subscope is home to site settings and is a wrapper to Mura's site bean object. As with other content subscopes, it supports getter and setter objects for retrieving and setting data.

We typically use the siteConfig() subscope to access site settings entered through the Mura admin, such as contact information (address, sity, state, phone, email address, etc.) associated with the website itself.

<!--- Getting site contact information --->
<li>
	<span class="pi-bullet-icon"><i class="icon-location"></i></span>
	<strong>Address:</strong> #$.siteConfig('contactAddress')#<br />
	#$.siteConfig('contactCity')#, #$.siteConfig('contactState')#, #$.siteConfig('contactZip')#
</li>
<li>
	<span class="pi-bullet-icon"><i class="icon-phone"></i></span>
	<strong>Phone:</strong> #$.siteConfig('contactPhone')#
</li>
<li>
	<span class="pi-bullet-icon"><i class="icon-mail"></i></span>
	<strong>Email:</strong> #$.siteConfig('contactEmail')#
</li>
<li>
	<span class="pi-bullet-icon"><i class="icon-clock"></i></span>
	<strong>Hours of Operation:</strong><br />#$.siteConfig('hoursOfOperation')#
</li>

The following table identifies the available attributes for the siteConfig and site bean object:

Attribute
accountactivationscript
addobjects
admanager
advertiseruserpoolid
baseid
cache
cachecapacity
cachefactories
cachefreememorythreshold
categorypoolid
columncount
columnnames
commentapprovaldefault
contact
contactaddress
contactcity
contactemail
contactname
contactphone
contactstate
contactzip
contentapprovalscript
contentcanceledscript
contentpendingscript
contentpoolid
contentrejectionscript
contentrenderer
contenttypefilepathlookup
contenttypeloopuparray
customtaggroups
datacollection
deploy
displayobjectfilepathlookup
displayobjectlookup
displayobjectloopuparray
displaypoolid
domain
domainalias
editprofileurl
emailbroadcaster
emailbroadcasterlimit
enablelockdown
enforcechangesets
enforceprimarydomain
errors
exportlocation
extendautocomplete
extenddata
extenddatatable
extendsetid
extranet
extranetpublicreg
extranetpublicregnotify
extranetssl
feedmanager
filepoolid
frommuracache
googleapikey
haschangesets
hascomments
haslockablenodes
hassharedfilepool
instanceid
isnew
isremote
javalocale
jsdatekey
jsdatekeyobjinc
jsonapi
largeimageheight
largeimagewidth
lastdeployment
locking
loginurl
mailinglistconfirmscript
mailserverip
mailserverpassword
mailserverpopport
mailserversmtpport
mailserverssl
mailservertls
mailserverusername
mailserverusernameemail
mediumimageheight
mediumimagewidth
nextn
orderno
pagelimit
placeholderimgext
placeholderimgid
primarycolumn
privateuserpoolid
publicsubmission
publicsubmissionapprovalscript
publicuserpoolid
rbfactory
recaptchalanguage
recaptchasecret
recaptchasitekey
reminderscript
remotecontext
remoteport
resourcedomain
resourcessl
sendauthcodescript
sendloginscript
showdashboard
site
siteid
sitelocale
smallimageheight
smallimagewidth
sourceiterator
subtype
tagline
theme
themelookup
themerenderer
type
usedefaultsmtpserver
usessl
viewdepth

Handling Custom Events

Steve Withington wrote a nifty little example of how to handle a custom even in Mura. In this case, it is an example of a form submission. In this example, a simple form with a unique hidden field is created and code is then added to the eventHandler.cfc to listen for and handle the form submission.

<!--- 1) Create a form with a hidden form field like shown below, and place it in a layout template, or in a display object, etc. --->
<form method="post">
	<input type="text" name="myField" value="Some Value">
	<input type="hidden" name="myFormIsSubmitted" value="true">
	<input type="submit">
</form>

<cfscript>
  // 2) In the eventHandler.cfc (Site, Theme, Plugin, or other custom handler) you could listen for the even in one of Mura's eventHandlers such as 'onRenderStart'
  public any function  onRenderStart(event, m){
    if ( arguments.event.get('myFormIsSubmitted') == 'true' ){ 
      arguments.m.announceEvent('CustomFormSubmitted');  
    }
  }

  // 3) In the eventHandler.cfc (Site, Theme, Plugin, or other custom handler) you could then have your custom event
  public any function onCustomFormSubmitted(event, m) {
    // do something here
    WriteDump(var=arguments.event.get('myField), abort=true);
    // OR, WriteDump(var=arguments.event.getAllValues(), abort=true);
  }
</cfscript>

Determining Available Information Fields

As well documented as Mura is, it still lacks a lot of practical documentation on how to specifically do certain tasks, access certain data, etc. For example, if you wanted to get a URL for a file that is uploaded as part of the Mura File content type (Mura has different content types like Page, Folder, File, Gallery, etc), how would you do that?

Navigating your way through the API documentation can sometimes yield the information that you need, but as mentioned in the "Loading the Content Bean" section above, using the getAllValues() function is also highly useful. Whenever accessing a Mura object, such as $.content().getAllValues() or an iterator object (e.g. #item.getAllValues()#). So, for our example of getting the file URL for the file associated with a File content type, we could do the following:

<!--- Where 'download' is an interator object Next() value: --->
<a href="#$.getURLForFile(fileID=download.getValue('fileID'))#" target="_blank">
    #download.getValue('title')#
</a>

NOTE: When using getAllValues(), it will output a complex object data type (structure), so you will need to use writeDump()/<cfdump> to output the content as follows:

<cfdump var="#$.content().getAllValues()#"/>
- or -
<cfscript>
    writeDump($.content().getAllValues());
</cfscript>