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Handling complex data types
Last update:
May 18, 2026
Handling complex types in web services involves mapping WSDL data types to ColdFusion data types when consuming services, and understanding how clients reference ColdFusion data types when publishing services.
When dealing with web services, handling complex types falls into the following categories:
- Mapping the data types of a web service to consume to ColdFusion data types
- Understanding how clients reference your ColdFusion data types when you publish a web service
Consuming web services that use complex data types
The following table shows how WSDL data types are converted to ColdFusion data types:
| ColdFusion data type | WSDL data type |
|---|---|
| numeric | SOAP-ENC:double |
| Boolean | SOAP-ENC:boolean |
| string | SOAP-ENC:string |
| array | SOAP-ENC:Array |
| numeric | SOAP-ENC:float |
| binary | xsd:base64Binary |
| date | xsd:dateTime |
| void (operation returns nothing) | |
| structure | complex type |
This table shows that complex data types map to ColdFusion structures. ColdFusion structures offer a flexible way to represent data. You can create structures that contain single-dimension arrays, multi-dimensional arrays, and other structures.
The ColdFusion mapping of complex types to structures is not automatic. Accessing the data as a structure requires some processing of the data. The next sections describe how to pass complex types to web services, and how to handle complex types returned from web services.
Passing input parameters to web services as complex types
A web service can take a complex data type as input. In this situation, you can construct a ColdFusion structure that models the complex data type, then pass the structure to the web service.
For example, the following excerpt from a WSDL file shows the definition of a complex type named
Employee:<s:sequence>
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="fname" type="s:string" />
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="lname" type="s:string" />
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="active" type="s:boolean" />
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="age" type="s:int" />
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="hiredate" type="s:dateTime" />
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" name="number" type="s:double" />
</s:sequence>
</s:complexType>The
Employee data type definition includes six elements, the data type of each element, and the name of each element.Another excerpt from the WSDL file shows a message definition using the
Employee data type. This message defines an input parameter, as the following code shows:<part name="thestruct" type="s0:Employee" />
</message>A third excerpt from the WSDL file shows the definition of an operation, named
updateEmployeeInfo, possibly one that updates the employee database with the employee information. This operation takes as input a parameter of type Employee, as the following code shows:<input message="s0:updateEmployeeInfoSoapIn" />
</operation>To call the
updateEmployeeInfo operation, create a ColdFusion structure, initialize six fields of the structure that correspond to the six elements of Employee, and then call the operation, as the following code shows:<cfscript>
stUser = structNew();
stUser.active = TRUE;
stUser.fname = "John";
stUser.lname = "Smith";
stUser.age = 23;
stUser.hiredate = createDate(2002,02,22);
stUser.number = 123.321;
ws = createObject("webservice", "http://somehost/EmployeeInfo.asmx?wsdl");
ws.updateEmployeeInfo(stUser);
</cfscript>You can use structures for passing input parameters as complex types in many situations. However, to build a structure to model a complex type, inspect the WSDL file for the web service to determine the layout of the complex type. This process can take some practice.
Handling return values as complex types
When a web service returns a complex type, you can write that returned value directly to a ColdFusion variable.
The previous section used a complex data type named
Employee to define an input parameter to an operation. A WSDL file can also define a return value using the Employee type, as the following code shows:<part name="updateEmployeeInfoResult" type="s0:Employee" />
</message>
<operation name="updateEmployeeInfo">
<input message="s0:updateEmployeeInfoSoapIn" />
<output message="s0:updateEmployeeInfoSoapOut" />
</operation>In this example, the operation
updateEmployeeInfo takes a complex type as input and returns a complex type as output. To handle the input parameter, you create a structure. To handle the returned value, you write it to a ColdFusion variable, as the following example shows:<!--- Write the returned value to a ColdFusion variable. --->
<cfscript>
stUser = structNew();
stUser.active = TRUE;
stUser.fname = "John";
stUser.lname = "Smith";
stUser.age = 23;
stUser.hiredate = createDate(2002,02,22);
stUser.number = 123.321;
ws = createObject("webservice", "http://somehost/echosimple.asmx?wsdl");
myReturnVar = ws.echoStruct(stUser);
</cfscript>
<!--- Output the returned values. --->
<cfoutput>
<br>
<br>Name of employee is: #myReturnVar.fname##myReturnVar.lname#
<br>Active status: #myReturnVar.active#
<br>Age:#myReturnVar.age#
<br>Hire Date: #myReturnVar.hiredate#
<br>Favorite Number: #myReturnVar.number#
</cfoutput>You access elements of the variable
myReturnVar using dot notation in the same way that you access structure fields. If a complex type has nested elements, in the way a structure can have multiple levels of nested fields, you use dot notation to access the nested elements, as in a.b.c.d, to whatever nesting level is necessary.However, the variable
myReturnVar is not a ColdFusion structure. It is a container for the complex type, but has none of the attributes of a ColdFusion structure. Calling the ColdFusion function isStruct on the variable returns False.You can copy the contents of the variable to a ColdFusion structure, as the following example shows:
...
ws = createObject("webservice", "http://somehost/echosimple.asmx?wsdl");
myReturnVar = ws.echoStruct(stUser);
realStruct = structNew();
realStruct.active = #myReturnVar.active#;
realStruct.fname = "#myReturnVar.fname#";
realStruct.lname = "#myReturnVar.lname#";
realStruct.age = #myReturnVar.age#;
realStruct.hiredate = #myReturnVar.hiredate#;
realStruct.number = #myReturnVar.number#;
</cfscript>Calling
IsStruct on realStruct returns True and you can use all ColdFusion structure functions to process it.This example shows that ColdFusion variables and structures are useful for handling complex types returned from web services. To understand how to access the elements of a complex type written to a ColdFusion variable, inspect the WSDL file for the web service. The WSDL file defines the API to the web service and provides you with the information necessary to handle data returned from it.
Publishing web services that use complex data types
The two ColdFusion data types that do not map exactly to WSDL data types are
struct and query. When you publish a ColdFusion web service that uses parameters of type struct or query, the consuming application must be able to handle the data.Note: If the consumer of a ColdFusion web service is another ColdFusion application, you do not have to perform any special processing. ColdFusion correctly maps
struct and query data types in the web service publisher with the consumer. For more information, see Consuming ColdFusion web services in Consuming web services.Publishing structures
A ColdFusion structure can hold an unlimited number of key-value pairs where the values can be of any ColdFusion data type. While it is a useful and powerful way to represent data, it cannot be directly mapped to any XML data types defined in the SOAP 1.1 encoding and XML Schema specification. Therefore, ColdFusion structures are treated as a custom type and the complex type XML schema in WSDL looks like the following:
<sequence>
<element name="key" nillable="true" type="xsd:anyType"/>
<element name="value" nillable="true" type="xsd:anyType"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>
<complexType name="Map">
<sequence>
<element maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0" name="item" type="apachesoap:mapItem"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>This complex type defines a representation of a structure, where the structure keys and values can be any type.
In the WSDL mapping of a ColdFusion structure, each key-value pair in the structure points to the next element in the structure except for the final field, which contains a value. Use dot notation to access the key-value pairs.
Publishing queries
ColdFusion publishes query data types as the WSDL type
QueryBean. The QueryBean data type contains two elements, as the following excerpt from a WSDL file shows:<all>
<element name="data" nillable="true" type="intf:ArrayOf_SOAP-ENC_Array" />
<element name="ColumnList" nillable="true"
type="intf:ArrayOf_SOAP-ENC_string" />
</all>
</complexType>The following table describes the elements of
QueryBean:| Element name | Description |
|---|---|
ColumnList | String array that contains column names |
data | Two-dimensional array that contains query data |
The WSDL file for a
QueryBean defines these elements as follows:<complexContent>
<restriction base="SOAP-ENC:Array">
<attribute ref="SOAP-ENC:arrayType" wsdl:arrayType="SOAP-ENC:Array[]" />
</restriction>
</complexContent>
</complexType>
<complexType name="ArrayOf_SOAP-ENC_string">
<complexContent>
<restriction base="SOAP-ENC:Array">
<attribute ref="SOAP-ENC:arrayType" wsdl:arrayType="xsd:string[]" />
</restriction>
</complexContent>
</complexType>
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