for ( key in this ) …

See my comments at:
[URL="http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1776-Creating-Globally-Accessible-User-Defined-Functions-In-ColdFusion-Safer-Version-.htm?&_=0.905060270905669#comments_24513"]Creating Globally Accessible User Defined Functions In ColdFusion (Safer Version)[/URL]

Here was the final solution:

[Put in application.cfc:]

[CODE]

<cffunction name="onApplicationStart">

. . . snip . . .

<cfscript>
application.globalmethods = structnew();
keys = structkeylist(this);
for (i=1; i LTE listlen(keys); i=i+1) {
key = listgetat(keys,i);
if (iscustomfunction(this[key]) and left(lcase(key),2) NEQ "on")
structinsert(application.globalmethods, key, this[key]);
}
application.registerglobalmethods = this.registerglobalmethods;
</cfscript>

. . . snip . . .

</cffunction>

<cfinclude template="GlobalFunctions.cfm">

<cffunction name="registerglobalmethods" output="no">
<cfset StructAppend(variables, application.globalmethods, true)>
</cffunction>

[/CODE]

Finally, in any cfc that uses a global function, call the register function, then you can use any global function (with no scope prefix):

[CODE]<cfset application.registerglobalmethods();>[/CODE]

Now, you could skip the register function and just use:

[CODE]<cfset StructAppend(variables, application.globalmethods, true)>[/CODE]

when ever a cfc needed to use global functions. But I think this is more readable.

Yes, certainly something like ColdSpring may not be for everybody.

However I now quite like the idea of storing constants in a single component that lives in the application scope. As it is only a single component created at application startup, it should have no practical impact on performance.

So in a non-framework or simplified application, you could have:

On application start, create some service that provides access to constants. When this object is created, the constants would be created at the same time.

<cfset application.appService = createObject("component","com.AppService").init()>

And within the application code, you would make a call such as:

<cfset constants = application.appService.getConstants()>

that would return a struct containing the application constants.

The frameworks often have the problem of performance; a small request will mostly take 500 – 700ms, which is caused by many, many cfc for framework-startup…

the glory way is not always the same… everyone has to check, which kind of app is used in which way…. a cms often has other requirements than a gui of a management interface, used inside a company…

<bean id="appConstants" class="coldspring.beans.factory.config.MapFactoryBean">
<property name="sourceMap">
<map>
<entry key="product">
<map>
<entry key="STATUS_ACTIVE"><value>1</value></entry>
<entry key="STATUS_INACTIVE"><value>2</value></entry>
<entry key="STATUS_ARCHIVED"><value>3</value></entry>
<entry key="user">
<map>
<entry key="STATUS_ARCHIVED"><value>1</value></entry>
<entry key="ADMIN_USER_ID"><value>1</value></entry>
</map>
</entry>
</map>
</entry>
<entry key="user">
<map>
<entry key="STATUS_ARCHIVED"><value>1</value></entry>
<entry key="ADMIN_USER_ID"><value>1</value></entry>
</map>
</entry>
</map>
</property>
</bean>

Then using code such as:

<cfset constants = factory.getBean("appConstants")>

You get a nested set of structures that may be used as constants.

I also noticed that you cannot use a bean with id="constants". This causes a bean creation exception.

I originally started off with a ColdSpring bean of constants, but when working on a ColdSpring / Transfer application I could not see a simple way to get my constants into Transfer Decorators, so I switched to cfm’s.

However, just now found Brian Kotek’s Transfer bean injector:
http://www.briankotek.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/1/14/My-Transfer-Decorator-Bean-Injector-Observer-Is-Now-Available

Thanks Brian!