A ColdFusion custom tag to conveniently measure the time it takes to execute code

Need to know how much time a function or code block takes? Tired of typing tick deltas over and over? Let me introduce <cf_performance> to you!

It's simple!

<cf_performance>

	<cfset doSomething()>
	<cfset doAnotherThing()>

</cf_performance>

Measures the total time it took to execute everything between the start end end tag.

How to make custom tags work

Whenever ColdFusion parses a tag that starts with <cf_, it will automatically check for a .cfm file with the tag's name in the directory of the template it appears in. Example: <cf_performance> will look for performance.cfm. To make custom tags available to the whole application, use Application.cfc and specify the directory with the custom tag file using this.customTagPaths (that's a list variable). You can also add a global entry in the ColdFusion admin to make it available on the whole server.

Example: How to unlock cf_performance in your Application

1. Store the performance.cfm in a folder called mytags in the root of your web app.

2. Open your Application.cfc:

<cfcomponent>

	<cfset THIS.customTagPaths = expandPath("/mytags/")>

</cfcomponent>

3. Done!

Optional Tag Attributes

variable

If you don't want to immediately dump the result, you can store it in a variable and print it later:

<cf_performance variable="x">
	<cfset doSomething()>
</cf_performance>
<cf_performance variable="y">
	<cfset doAnotherThing()>
</cf_performance>

<cfoutput>
	something took: #x#<br>
	anotherThing took: #y#<br>
</cfoutput>

type

• dump: dumps the result as struct
• inline: outputs the result as string
• outline: outputs the result within <fieldset>
• comment: outputs the result within <!-- HTML comment -->

Default type is dump.

label

Label multiple measurements to distinguish between them more easily:

<cf_performance label="something">
	<cfset doSomething()>
</cf_performance>
<cf_performance label="anotherThing">
	<cfset doAnotherThing()>
</cf_performance>

Default label is PERFORMANCE.

abort

Similar to cfdump's abort attribute, you can immediately abort the request after measuring performance:

<cf_performance abort>
	<cfset doSomething()>
</cf_performance>

returnType

Use different return types to read big numbers more easily:

<cf_performance returnType="s">
	<cfset thisTakesMultipleSeconds()>
</cf_performance>

By default, the return type will automatically choose between ms and s.
Supported return types are: ns, μs, ms, s

nano

By default, the performance is measured using Java's System.nanoTime().
If you don't need this much precision, you can also measure with ColdFusion's getTickCount().

<cf_performance nano="false">
	<cfset doSomething()>
</cf_performance>

I hate typing!

If <cf_performance> is too much to type, just rename the file to something shorter.

Renaming performance.cfm to perf.cfm:

<cf_perf>
	<cfset doSomething()>
</cf_perf>

A note about micro benchmarking

This custom tag is not suited to be used for micro benchmarking. You probably shouldn't micro-bench in ColdFusion anyway. Use cf_performance to get a rough idea of how much time the execution of your code takes, but use a proper profiler to identify the issue in detail.