TechNote (Archived)

ColdFusion MX 6.1: IBM WebSphere 5.1 support

IBM WebSphere Application Server (WAS) 5.1 is generally supported with ColdFusion MX 6.1; however, there are certain configurations that are not. WAS 5.1 Base Edition is supported with ColdFusion MX 6.1. WAS 5.1 Network Deployment clusters are not supported with ColdFusion MX 6.1.

In order to have WAS 5.1 Base and 5.1 Network Deployment Single-Server function with ColdFusion MX 6.1, two JVM switches need to be added for all WebSphere Servers running ColdFusion MX 6.1 as an application. XML4J, IBM's version of the Xerces XML parser, is the default parser in WAS 5.1, so this change should have no effect on non-ColdFusion applications which use the default parser. Since it will cause all applications to use the default parser, other (non-IBM) applications which provide their own parser may be affected.

Use the steps below to add the two required JVM switches:

Open the WebSphere Admin Console.
Navigate to Servers > Application Servers > {server1}.
Under the Configuration tab, select Process Definition > Java Virtual Machine > Custom Properties.
Click New and add the information below:

NAME: javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory
VALUE: org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl
DESCRIPTION: use Xerces DOM parser
Click Apply, then OK.
Click Custom Properties again.
Click New and add the information below:

NAME: javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory
VALUE: org.apache.xerces.jaxp.SAXParserFactoryImpl
DESCRIPTION: use Xerces SAX parser
Click Apply, then OK.
Click Save to apply changes to the master configuration.

After adding the two switches, the screen should look similar to this:

As a result of the XML parser that is shipped with WebSphere 5.1, there are two differences in behavior that do not occur with the Sun JVM that is shipped with ColdFusion MX 6.1 Server Configuration:

An ambiguous date string passed using theLSParseDateTime function, such as 25-12-06 22:10:15, is interpreted as {ts '1925-12-06 22:10:15'} for the Korean Locale. However, using the Sun JVM shipped with the ColdFusion MX 6.1 Server Congifuration, it is interpreted as {ts '2025-12-06 22:10:15'} for the Korean Locale.
LsCurrencyFormat( 123.00,"local") for Euro member countries will format with a Euro currency sign, like 123,00 ‚.

Note: Because the WAS parser handles all XML parsing after this change, Security Bulletin MPSB03-07 should not be followed. ColdFusion MX 6.1 on WAS5.1 is not vulnerable when configured using the information provided in this TechNote.