I have been using plain forms and input fields in coldfusion for some time now but recently discovered that cfinput tags will automagically prevent some xss attacks for me. This has made me wonder, if there is any disadvantages to using cffrom and cfinput over normal form and input tags in coldfusion.
The only disadvantage I have found in the short time looking into it is that it adds 2 external style sheets and 1 script tag to the page.
so in short:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using CFFORM over FORM in coldfusion?
I prefer to write my own JS around my forms. I started out with cfform back in the day, but eventually wanted to do more robust things (validations, etc) than cfform was able to handle. That forced me to learn JS, and I’ve been very happy writing my own JS since.
So I guess I’d say one big drawback is that you’re restricted to what cfform can handle. Depending on your situation, that might be fine.
Another drawback that I ran into a long time ago (which to be fair, may have been addressed since), is that the JS generated by cfform would conflict or interfere with my hand-written JS.
It’ll certainly come down to preference. It’s neither “right” nor “wrong” to use cfform or regular forms. For me, I prefer to be able to do whatever manipulation I need to do manually, as there are no restrictions/limitations.