Developing Applications

ADOBE COLDFUSION 9

 2009 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Copyright

Developing Adobe ColdFusion 9 Applications

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and transmit the guide for noncommercial purposes only so long as (1) proper attribution to Adobe is given as the owner of the guide; and (2) any reuse or
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of their respective owners.
Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, California 95110, USA.

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Contents
Chapter 1: Whats New
Whats new in ColdFusion 9.0 Update 1
Whats new in ColdFusion 9

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Chapter 2: Introduction
Using the Developing ColdFusion Applications guide
About Adobe ColdFusion 9 documentation

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Chapter 3: Introducing ColdFusion

About Internet applications and web application servers
About ColdFusion

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About J2EE and the ColdFusion architecture

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Chapter 4: The CFML Programming Language

Elements of CFML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Using ColdFusion Variables

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Using Expressions and Number Signs

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Using Arrays and Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting
Using Regular Expressions in Functions

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Chapter 5: Building Blocks of ColdFusion Applications

Creating ColdFusion Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions
Building and Using ColdFusion Components
Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags
Building Custom CFXAPI Tags

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Chapter 6: Developing CFML Applications

Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application
Handling Errors

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Using Persistent Data and Locking

Using ColdFusion Threads
Securing Applications

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Developing Globalized Applications

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Debugging and Troubleshooting Applications

Using the ColdFusion Debugger

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Chapter 7: Accessing and Using Data

Introduction to Databases and SQL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Accessing and Retrieving Data
Updating Your Database
Using Query of Queries

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Managing LDAP Directories

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Building a Search Interface

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Using Verity Search Expressions

Solr search support

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Chapter 8: ColdFusion ORM

Introducing ColdFusion ORM
Architecture

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Configure ORM

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Define ORM mapping

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Working with objects

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Using queries

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Transaction and concurrency

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Performance optimization

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ORM session management

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Event Handling in CFC

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Autogenerating database schema

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Support for multiple data sources for ORM

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Chapter 9: Flex and AIR Integration in ColdFusion

Using the Flash Remoting Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Using Flash Remoting Update
Offline AIR Application Support

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Proxy ActionScript Classes for ColdFusion Services

Using the LiveCycle Data Services ES Assembler
Using Server-Side ActionScript

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Chapter 10: Requesting and Presenting Information

Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
Building Dynamic Forms with cfform Tags
Validating Data

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Creating Forms in Flash

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Creating Skinnable XML Forms

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Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features

Using Ajax Data and Development Features

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Chapter 11: Office file interoperability

Using cfdocument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889
Using cfpresentation

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Using cfspreadsheet

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Supported Office conversion formats

SharePoint integration

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Chapter 12: ColdFusion Portlets

Run a ColdFusion portlet on JBoss Portal Server
Common methods used in portlet.cfc
ColdFusion portlet components
JSR-286 Support

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Run a ColdFusion portlet on WebSphere Portal Server

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Chapter 13: Working with Documents, Charts, and Reports

Manipulating PDF Forms in ColdFusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 914
Assembling PDF Documents

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Creating and Manipulating ColdFusion Images

Creating Charts and Graphs

Creating Reports and Documents for Printing

Creating Reports with Report Builder
Creating Slide Presentations

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Chapter 14: Using Web Elements and External Objects

Using XML and WDDX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1058
Using Web Services

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Using ColdFusion Web Services

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Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML Applications

Using Microsoft .NET Assemblies

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1149

Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170

Chapter 15: Using External Resources

Sending and Receiving E-Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1192
Interacting with Microsoft Exchange Servers
Interacting with Remote Servers
Managing Files on the Server
Using Event Gateways

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1207

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1243

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1254

Using the Instant Messaging Event Gateways

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1276

Using the SMS Event Gateway

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1292

Using the FMS event gateway

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1308

Using the Data Services Messaging Event Gateway

Using the Data Management Event Gateway
Creating Custom Event Gateways

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1311

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1316

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320

Using the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1334

Last updated 1/20/2012

Chapter 1: Whats New

The following sections explain what is new and changed in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion 9 update.

Whats new in ColdFusion 9.0 Update 1

Area

Whats new and changed

Language

Support for the following:

for-in construct (for arrays) in CFScript

var declaration within for loop in CFScript

Function argument metadata

Function equivalents for cfile action="upload" (FileUpload) and cffile

action="uploadall" (FileUploadAll)

The following script functions have been implemented as CFCs:

Caching

IIS 7

dbinfo

imap

pop

ldap

feed

New function cacheGetSession

New parameter template in the function cacheGetMetadata

cacheGetProperties and cacheSetProperties support

diskSpoolBufferSizeMB, clearOnFlush, and
diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds

Using user-defined caching regions in all cache functions except

cacheGetProperties and cacheSetProperties

IIS 7 configuration for ColdFusion has no dependency on IIS 6 Metabase compatibility.

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Area

Whats new and changed

ColdFusion Ajax

Support for CFCs outside webroot

ColdFusion.FileUpload.getselectedfiles returns the status of upload

operation

While using cffileupload, the url attribute is now optional and it defaults to
cgi.script_name

Support for selecting multiple rows in cfgrid

Support for turning on/off grid column headers

New attribute autoExpand in cfgridcolumn

Supports mask attribute for HTML grids

The fileupload control now passes session information implicitly to the target page if
session management is turned on either in Application.cfc or Application.cfm.

Added the following JavaScript Functions:

ColdFusion.Autosuggest.getAutosuggestObject

ColdFusion.Layout.disableSourceBind

ColdFusion.Layout.enableSourceBind

Coldfusion.fileUpload.setUrl

ColdFusion.grid.getSelectedRows

ColdFusion.Map.show

ColdFusion.Map.hide

ColdFusion.Map.refresh

ColdFusion.Grid.getTopToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.getBottomToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.showTopToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.hideTopToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.showBottomToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.hideBottomToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.refreshTopToolbar

ColdFusion.Grid.refreshBottomToolbar

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Area

Whats new and changed

ORM

Supports multiple data sources for ORM in ColdFusion applications

The following enhancements:

New attribute MappedSuperClass added to cfcomponent/component

New attributes skipCFCWithError and automanagesession added to
the ormsettings struct in the THIS scope of Application.cfc

Attribute missingrowignored in cfproperty now supports one-toone relationship

The function EntityNew takes the property values as struct in a

second argument
Amazon S3 Support

ColdFusion customers can now store data in Amazon S3.

SpreadSheet

Support for the following:

New functions SpreadsheetRemoveSheet and SpreadsheetFormatCellRange

New attribute excludeHeaderRow in cfspreadsheet

Performance improvements for formatting huge number of rows and columns using the
SpreadSheet format functions

Preformatting of a cell while you use SpreadSheetformatcell or

SpreadSheetformatcellrange

AIR integration

Flash Remoting

Vertical alignment in format struct using the key verticalalignment

The following enhancements:

Support for auto-generating primary keys

Support for encrypted database (introduced in AIR 1.5)

Cache file used by ActionScript ORM to track the operations on SQLite database is now
in the applicationStoragedirectory instead of applicationDirectory. You can specify the
location of the cahceDirectory in openSession API on syncmanager

Self Join relationships for one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many database

relationships

Supports both Array and ArrayCollection for use in ActionScript Entity to represent a
collection in a database relationship

ActionScript ORM logs all the SQL statements that ORM uses to persist entities into the
SQLite database

New APIs keepClientObject and keepAllClientObjects to ensure that the server

updates are not retained when ColdFusion server raises conflict

The class SessionToken is dynamic and therefore, data can be stored on the token
returned from the ORM APIs

Supports autocommit mode

A channel-definition construct has been introduced in services-config.xml

(CF_root/wwroot/WEB-INF/flex/) named serialize-array-to-arraycollection.

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Area

Whats new and changed

BlazeDS 4 and LCDS

Support for the following:

Solr

Logging

Server monitoring

LCDS 3 and LCDS 3.1

BlazeDS 4

New methods allowSend and allowSubscribe in ColdFusion Messaging Gateway

CFCs

Apart from overall improvement in the accuracy of indexing, the following enhancements:

Displays correct MIME types for all documents

Enhanced support for indexing of metadata for binary files

Support for the attribute previousCriteria (in the tag cfsearch)

Both the tags cfindex and cfsearch support the attribute categoryTree

Option to enable/disable term highlighting for entire document

The following enhancements

ColdFusion generates log files for the following services: http, ftp, web service, Portlet,
Derby, and Feed

Enable/Disable logging: A new icon has been added in the Actions column of the Log
Files page (ColdFusion Administrator > Debugging & Logging)

Support for automatic logging of scheduled tasks

Enhancements in this release help you use Server Monitoring effectively in load conditions.
ColdFusion Administrator has the following monitoring options: Enable monitoring,
Enable profiling, and Enable memory tracking.

Configurable seed for password

encryption

Option to specify a new seed value to encrypt data source passwords

OEM upgrades

The following versions are supported:

Other enhancements

Microsoft .NET Framework 4

Ehcache 2.0

Hibernate 3.5.2

ExtJS 3.1

Solr 1.4

DataDirect Connect for JDBC 4.1

MySQL 5.1.11

Application.cfc lets you specify data source authentication details in the attribute
datasource

Support for HQL in cfquery

New actions for cfpdf AIR Proxy

The ActionScript proxy class for PDF service has the following new attributes:
extracttext and extractimage

CFID, CFTOKEN, and jsessionid are marked httpOnly

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Whats new in ColdFusion 9

ColdFusion 9 offers new and enhanced features that help you develop and manage applications effectively. This release
provides improved application performance with more granular control over code, templates, and applications.
The following is a list of top new features for ColdFusion 9.

ORM support
ColdFusion Object-relational mapping (ColdFusion ORM) is a powerful Rapid Application Development (RAD)
solution to build data-centric applications. It provides a bridge between relational databases and ColdFusion
components by allowing you to build applications using only objects, without writing any SQL code. It uses the opensource Hibernate library as the underlying engine.
ColdFusion ORM provides:

Enterprise infrastructure for Rapid Application Development

In-built performance optimization that include caching and lazy loading
Cleaner and more manageable application code
Database vendor independence
For more information, see ColdFusion ORM.

Flex and AIR integration

Adobe AIR applications
Offline capabilities Offline application support for AIR applications includes data persistence and synchronization.
ColdFusion uses SQLite in the client and ORM on the server to automatically manage conflict resolution and data
synchronization when the application comes back online.
ActionScript proxies For AIR/Flex clients to access ColdFusion services. The MXML tags can map to ColdFusion tags

on the server.
For more information, see Offline AIR Application Support.

Enhanced Flash Remoting

Flash Remoting has been re-engineered in ColdFusion 9 to allow high performance and faster remoting. This release
supports circular reference.
For more information, see Using Flash Remoting Update.
Integration with BlazeDS
BlazeDS allows messaging support for ColdFusion. By default, ColdFusion installs BlazeDS.

Language enhancements
CFScript
Language constructs You can now use the following basic language constructs: throw, writedump, writelog,
location, and trace.

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Script functions This release has introduced the following new functions implemented as CFCs: query, mail, http,
storedproc, pdf, and ftp.

Keywords This release has introduced keywords for abort, exit, include, param, property, rethrow, and throw.
Operations CFScript now supports import and new operations.

In addition, ColdFusion now supports the following:

Writing component and interface entirely in CFScript

Complete control over function declaration in CFScript
Java Doc style comments
Ternary operator
For more information, see Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting.

onServerStart
ColdFusion now supports a CFC with onServerStart method that runs only when the server starts. The function is
useful for application-independent tasks, such as instantiating the applications, configuring logging, or setting up the
scheduler.
For more details, see the section onServerStart in ColdFusion CFML Reference.

Other language enhancements

Apart from new cfsrcipt features and onServerStart, this release has the following language enhancements:

Nested cftransaction
UDF name conflict resolution for CFCs
Local scope
Var scope support anywhere in functions
Implicit getters and setters for cfproperty in CFCs

Integration with other products and technologies

New Ajax controls
With ColdFusion 9, you now have access to a broader set of Ajax controls that leverage the new Ext JS 3.0 library using
CFML tags and attributes. You can utilize Ajax without knowing its inner workings and writing less code.
The new Ajax controls support:

Geographical maps
Media player
Multi-file upload
Enhanced data grid
Improved Ajax plumbing
Enhanced auto-suggest
Accordion navigation
Progress indicator

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Confirm, alert, and prompt dialog boxes

Slider
For more information, see Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features.

Integration with SharePoint

The cfsharepoint tag lets you interact with Microsoft Office SharePoint Servers from a ColdFusion application. You
can now use ColdFusion with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 or 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint
Portal Server 2003 or 2007.
You can now:

Load SharePoint actions from a ColdFusion application

Access a ColdFusion application from SharePoint using custom Web Parts
Use Single Sign-On to access and display ColdFusion applications using SharePoint
For more information, see SharePoint integration.

Office file interoperability

ColdFusion provides interfaces to work with PDF, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Connect. ColdFusion now extends the
integration support to Office applications such as Excel and PowerPoint.
Using this feature, you can:

Create, read, and update MS Excel spreadsheets using the

cfspreadsheet tag

Generate PDFs from MS Word and MS PowerPoint automatically using the cfdocument tag
Generate PowerPoint presentations dynamically from HTML using the cfpresentation tag
Create Connect presentations from MS PowerPoint using the cfpresentation tag
For more information, see Office file interoperabilityOffice file interoperability.

Integration with Apache Solr server

Solr is an open-source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library. It is a powerful alternative to
Verity.
Solr provides better performance while indexing and searching. You can index unlimited number of documents and
access using the cfsearch tag.
ColdFusion provides an easy migration path from Verity. Also, Solr supports Macintosh environments.
For more information, see Solr search support and the section Solr Server and Collections in Configuring and
Administering ColdFusion.

Performance enhancements
Granular control over caching
ColdFusion 9 provides better control over caching.
The following features help to improve the performance of your application:

Caching page fragments

Caching in memory. Memory is now the default cache location.

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Caching specific objects. Includes the ability to put, get, and flush cached objects.
Setting cache dependencies
Setting idle timeout
Getting metadata about cached objects
For more information, see Optimizing ColdFusion applications.

In-memory files
In-memory files allow you to dynamically generate CFM files and execute them directly from memory. Memory-based
virtual file system speeds up the processing of transient data. In-memory files are not written to disk and are saved on RAM.
In ColdFusion, in-memory files help you simplify the execution of dynamic code. Though they function in the same
manner as disk files, they are faster. In-memory files are supported across all tags and functions that take file/directory
as input or output. They work in the same manner as files saved on the disk.
For more information, see Working with in-memory files.

Improved Clustering
This release supports serialization of query, array, and datetime types in CFC.

Other performance enhancements

Improved CFC performance
Faster Java method invocation

Database enhancements
DataDirect
This release supports DataDirect driver version 4.0 SP 1. The feature helps to enhance database operations by
providing the following features:

Support for MySQL (Enterprise and Commercial editions), Oracle11g, DB2v9.5, Informix 11, and SQL Server 2008
Support for IPv6
Option to set a default query timeout value
For more information, see the DataDirect Connect JDBC Support in the Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.
Note: By default, the datasource property MaxPooledStatements is set to 100 (and not 1000 as in the previous releases)
for the drivers DB2, Informix, MSSQLServer, Oracle, Sybase, and MySQL(DataDirect). Adobe recommends that you
maintain the default number of max pooled statements to avoid memory-related issues.

datasource is optional attribute

The attribute datasource is an optional attribute for the tags cfquery, cfinsert, cfupdate, and cfdbinfo. You can
specify this in the Application.cfc.

Code Analyzer
You can migrate code from ColdFusion 7 or ColdFusion 8 to ColdFusion 9.
For more information, see Using the Code Analyzer.

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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

Service features
ColdFusion as a service
ColdFusion exposes many existing enterprise services as web services. You can access these services using SOAP and
AMF/Flash remoting.
The following are the exposed services:

cfpdf
cfImage
cfdocument
cfmail
cfpop
cfchart
You can secure the exposed services to prevent access by unknown applications and users. You can do this by
configuring the client IP address range to which services are accessible. You can also set up user access control for the
services.

Other enhancements
Server Manager
Server Manager is an AIR-based desktop application that allows you to centrally manage multiple ColdFusion servers
from one location.
The application enables ColdFusion server administrators to monitor and manage multiple servers and apply the
settings from one ColdFusion server to other ColdFusion servers.
Server Manager provides improved system management and minimizes errors by ensuring a consistent configuration
across multiple servers or clusters.
You can use Server Manager to:

Create data sources

Schedule tasks and notify alerts
Apply hot fixes
Clear cache across a cluster of ColdFusion servers
Compare settings across servers
Monitor server health
For more information, see Working with Server Manager.

Built-in support for portlet standards

This release supports JSR-168, JSR-286, and WSRP specifications. Now you can easily build ColdFusion-powered
content for leading portal servers.
You can define a ColdFusion component as a portlet. Exposing of all enterprise applications, including ColdFusion
applications, in one integrated portal has improved application user experience.
For more information, see ColdFusion Portlets.

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10

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Whats New

PDF functionality
The following list includes new features and improved functionality:

FDF support in PDF forms

PDF package
Size optimization
Adding headers and footers to PDF documents using the cfpdf tag
Support for RGB/ARGB, cfimage and accessible images in watermarking a pdf using the cfpdf tag
Improved quality and performance of thumbnail generation
Support for extracting image and text from PDF.
For more information, see Assembling PDF Documents.

IMAP support
You can query an IMAP server to retrieve and manage mails within multiple folders using the cfimap tag.
This feature lets you:

Retrieve messages and store information in a query object. You can also download attachments in a temporary
ColdFusion folder or a new folder.

Delete any unnecessary mail or user-created folders

Mark multiple messages as read
Manage mail folders by creating folders, renaming them, or moving messages across folders
For more information, see the section cfimap in ColdFusion CFML Reference.

JRE specifications
This release includes JRE version JRE 6 Update 14 for all platforms except Solaris which has the version JRE 6 Update 12.

Last updated 1/20/2012

11

Chapter 2: Introduction
The Developing Adobe ColdFusion 9 Applications guide provides tools for developing Internet applications using
Adobe ColdFusion. The guide is intended for web application programmers who are learning ColdFusion or want to
extend their ColdFusion programming knowledge. It provides a solid grounding in the tools that ColdFusion provides
to develop many different types of web applications of varying complexity.

Using the Developing ColdFusion Applications guide

The Developing ColdFusion Applications guide includes basic and advanced information on CFML. However, it is most
useful if you have basic ColdFusion experience or have viewed the Getting Started experience, which is available from
the Adobe ColdFusion Administrator. Use the guide in conjunction with the CFML Reference, which contains detailed
information on the CFML language elements.

About Adobe ColdFusion 9 documentation

The ColdFusion documentation is designed to provide support for the complete spectrum of participants.

Documentation set
The ColdFusion documentation set includes the following titles:
Book

Description

Installing Adobe ColdFusion 9

Describes system installation and basic configuration for Windows, Macintosh, Solaris, Linux, and AIX.

Configuring and Administering

Adobe ColdFusion 9

Describes how to perform ColdFusion administration tasks such as managing server settings, configuring
datasources, managing security, deploying ColdFusion applications, caching, setting up CFX tags,
monitoring server activity using the ColdFusion Server Monitor, and configuring web servers.

Developing Adobe ColdFusion 9

Applications

Describes how to develop your dynamic web applications. This book provides detailed information about
using the CFML programming language and ColdFusion features, such as ColdFusion Web Services,
ColdFusion Portlets, ColdFusion ORM, AJAX support, Flex and AIR integration, and integration with other
products and technologies such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and SharePoint.

Adobe ColdFusion 9 CFML

Reference

Provides descriptions, syntax, usage, and code examples for all ColdFusion tags, functions, and variables.

Viewing online documentation

All ColdFusion documentation is available online in HTML and Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF)
files. Go to the ColdFusion Help and Support page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_support_en to view the online
documentation. In addition to viewing the online documentation, you can also add and view comments to the
documentation.

Last updated 1/20/2012

12

Chapter 3: Introducing ColdFusion

You use Adobe ColdFusion to create dynamic Internet applications.

About Internet applications and web application

servers
With ColdFusion, you develop Internet applications that run on web application servers.

About web pages and Internet applications

The Internet has evolved from a collection of static HTML pages to an application deployment platform. First, the
Internet changed from consisting of static web pages to providing dynamic, interactive content. Rather than providing
unchanging content where organizations merely advertise goods and services, dynamic pages enable companies to
conduct business ranging from e-commerce to managing internal business processes. For example, a static HTML
page lets a bookstore publish its location, list services such as the ability to place special orders, and advertise upcoming
events like book signings. A dynamic website for the same bookstore lets customers order books online, write reviews
of books they read, and even get suggestions for purchasing books based on their reading preferences.
More recently, the Internet has become the underlying infrastructure for a wide variety of applications. With the
arrival of technologies such as XML, web services, J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition), and Microsoft .NET, the
Internet has become a multifaceted tool for integrating business activities. Now, enterprises can use the Internet to
integrate distributed activities, such as customer service, order entry, order fulfillment, and billing.
Adobe ColdFusion is a rapid application development environment that lets you build dynamic websites and Internet
applications quickly and easily. It lets you develop sophisticated websites and Internet applications without knowing
the details of many complex technologies, yet it lets advanced developers take advantage of the full capabilities of many
of the latest Internet technologies.

About web application servers

Typically, web browsers make requests, and web servers, such as Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) and the
Apache web server, fulfill those requests by returning the requested information to the browser. This information
includes, but is not limited to, HTML and FLA files.
Web server capabilities are limited because all it does is wait for requests to arrive and attempt to fulfill those requests
as soon as possible. A web server does not let you do the following tasks:

Interact with a database, other resource, or other application.

Serve customized information based on user preferences or requests.
Validate user input.
A web server, basically, locates information and returns it to a web browser.
To extend the capabilities of a web server, you use a web application server, a program that extends web server
capabilities to do tasks such as those in the preceding list.

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13

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Introducing ColdFusion

How a web server and web application server work together

The following steps explain how a web server and web application server work together to process a page request:
1 The user requests a page by typing a URL in a browser, and the web server receives the request.
2 The web server looks at the filename extension to determine whether a web application server must process the

page. Then, one of the following actions occur:

If the user requests a file that is a simple web page (often one with an HTM or HTML extension), the web server
fulfills the request and sends the file to the browser.

If the user requests a file that is a page that a web application server must process (one with a CFM, CFML, or
CFC extension for ColdFusion requests), the web server passes the request to the web application server. The
web application server processes the page and sends the results to the web server, which returns those results to
the browser. The following image shows this process:

1. W eb brow s er
reques ts a w eb page.
.

3. W eb s erv er ins truc ts

applic ation s erv er to
proc es s the page.

2. W eb s erv er rec eiv es

the page reques
. t.

In te rn e t

W eb Server

5. T he w eb s erv er
s ends the output
to the brow s er.

A p p licatio n
Server

4. T he applic ation s erv er

proc es s es the page and
generates output.

Because web application servers interpret programming instructions and generate output that a web browser can
interpret, they let web developers build highly interactive and data-rich websites, which can do tasks such as the
following:

Query other database applications for data.

Dynamically populate form elements.
Dynamically generate Flash data.
Provide application security.
Integrate with other systems using standard protocols such as HTTP, FTP, LDAP, POP, and SMTP.
Create shopping carts and e-commerce websites.
Respond with an e-mail message immediately after a user submits a form.
Return the results of keyword searches.

About ColdFusion
Adobe ColdFusion is a rapid scripting environment server for creating dynamic Internet Applications. ColdFusion
Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based scripting language that is easy to learn. CFML provides connectivity to
enterprise data and powerful built-in search and charting capabilities. ColdFusion enables developers to easily build
and deploy dynamic websites, content publishing systems, self-service applications, commerce sites, and more.

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14

DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS

Introducing ColdFusion

ColdFusion pages are plain text files that you use to create web applications. You can create your ColdFusion
applications by writing all the code manually or by using wizards (provided with some editors) to generate the majority
of the code for you.

Saving ColdFusion pages

In order for the ColdFusion server to process a page, save the ColdFusion page on a computer where ColdFusion is
installed. If you are creating your pages on a local server (on which ColdFusion is running), you can save the pages
locally; if you are using a remote server, save your pages on that server.
If you are using the J2EE configuration, you typically save ColdFusion pages under the ColdFusion web application
root. For example, in the default directory structure when you use the J2EE configuration with JRun, you save pages
under jrun_root/servers/cfusion/cfusion-ear/cfusion-war.

Testing ColdFusion pages

To ensure that the code you wrote is working as expected, you view the ColdFusion page in a browser by going to the
appropriate URL, for example http://localhost/test/mypage.cfm. If you are using the built-in web server,
specify the port to use in the URL, for example, http://localhost:8500/test/cfpage.cfm. The address localhost
is only valid when you view pages locally.
Note: On Vista, the address ::1 is equivalent to localhost. You can use the ColdFusion GetLocalHostIP function to get
the IP address of localhost.
The URL for a remote site includes the server name or IP address of the server where ColdFusion is installed; for
example, http://<serveripaddress>/test/mypage.cfm. Some ColdFusion J2EE configurations require a context
root in the URL; for example, http://<server>/<context-root>/mypage.cfm. For example, if you deploy an EAR
file and use the default context root of cfconroot, you specify http://localhost/cfconroot/test/mypage.cfm.

Elements of ColdFusion
ColdFusion consists of the following core elements:

ColdFusion scripting environment

CFML
ColdFusion Administrator
Verity Search Server
The ColdFusion scripting environment
The ColdFusion scripting environment provides an efficient development model for Internet applications. At the
heart of the ColdFusion scripting environment is the ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), a tag-based
programming language that encapsulates many of the low-level details of web programming in high-level tags and
functions.
ColdFusion Markup Language
ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) is a tag-based language, like HTML, that uses special tags and functions. With
CFML, you can enhance standard HTML files with database commands, conditional operators, high-level formatting
functions, and other elements to rapidly produce web applications that are easy to maintain. However, CFML is not
limited to enhancing HTML. For example, you can create Flash output that consist entirely of Flash elements and
CFML. Similarly, you can use CFML to create web services for use by other applications.

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For more information, see Elements of CFML on page 17.

CFML tags
CFML looks like HTMLit includes starting and, in most cases, ending tags, and each tag is enclosed in angle brackets.
All ending tags are preceded with a forward slash (/) and all tag names are preceded with cf; for example:
<cftagname>
tag body text and CFML
</cftagname>

CFML increases productivity by providing a layer of abstraction that hides many low-level details involved with
Internet application programming. At the same time, CFML is powerful and flexible. ColdFusion lets you easily build
applications that integrate files, databases, legacy systems, mail servers, FTP servers, objects, and components.
CFML tags serve many functions. They provide programming constructs, such as conditional processing and loop
structures. They also provide services, such as charting and graphing, full-text search, access to protocols such as FTP,
SMTP/POP, and HTTP, and much more. The following table lists a few examples of commonly used ColdFusion tags:
Tag

Purpose

cfquery

Establishes a connection to a database (if one does not exist), executes a query, and returns results to the
ColdFusion environment.

cfoutput

Displays output that can contain the results of processing ColdFusion functions, variables, and expressions.

cfset

Sets the value of a ColdFusion variable.

cfmail

Lets an application send SMTP mail messages using application variables, query results, or server files. (Another
tag, cfpop, gets mail.)

cfchart

Converts application data or query results into graphs, such as bar charts or pie charts, in Flash, JPG, or PNG
format.

cfobject

Invokes objects written in other programming languages, including COM (Component Object Model)
components, Java objects such as Enterprise JavaBeans, or Common CORBA (Object Request Broker Architecture)
objects.

CFML Reference describes the CFML tags in detail.

CFML functions and CFScript
CFML includes built-in functions that perform a variety of roles, including string manipulation, data management,
and system functions. CFML also includes a built-in scripting language, CFScript, that lets you write code in a manner
that is familiar to programmers and JavaScript writers.
CFML extensions
You can extend CFML further by creating custom tags or user-defined functions (UDFs), or by integrating COM,
C++, and Java components (such as JSP tag libraries). You can also create ColdFusion components (CFCs), which
encapsulate related functions and properties and provide a consistent interface for accessing them.
All these features let you easily create reusable functionality that is customized to the types of applications or websites
that you are building.

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CFML development tools

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 helps you develop ColdFusion applications efficiently. It includes many features that
simplify and enhance ColdFusion development, including tools for debugging CFML. Because CFML is written in an
HTML-like text format, and you often use HTML in ColdFusion pages, you can also use an HTML editor or a text
editor, such as Notepad, to write ColdFusion applications.
ColdFusion 9 includes a line debugger that you can use to debug your ColdFusion applications in Eclipse or Adobe
Flex Builder.

Verity Search Server

The Verity Search Server (also called the Verity search engine) provides full text search capability for documents and
data on a ColdFusion site.

ColdFusion Administrator
ColdFusion Administrator configures and manages the ColdFusion application server. It is a secure web-based
application that you can access using any web browser, from any computer with an Internet connection. It includes a
Server Monitor, which lets you see the status of your ColdFusion server.
For more information about ColdFusion Administrator, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

About J2EE and the ColdFusion architecture

As the Internet software market has matured, the infrastructure services required by distributed Internet applications,
including ColdFusion applications, have become increasingly standardized. The most widely adopted standard today
is the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification. J2EE provides a common set of infrastructure services
for accessing databases, protocols, and operating system functionality, across multiple operating systems.

About ColdFusion and the J2EE platform

ColdFusion is implemented on the Java technology platform and uses a J2EE application server for many of its base
services, including database connectivity, naming and directory services, and other runtime services. ColdFusion can
be configured to use an embedded J2EE server (in the server configuration) or it can be deployed as a J2EE application
on an independent J2EE application server (in the multiserver configuration or the J2EE configuration). ColdFusion
Enterprise includes a fully featured version of the JRun J2EE application server, or can be deployed on third-party J2EE
servers such as IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic.
For more information on ColdFusion configurations, see Installing ColdFusion.
By implementing the ColdFusion scripting environment on top of the J2EE platform, ColdFusion takes advantage of
the power of the J2EE platform while also providing an easy-to-use scripting environment and built-in services.
Moreover, because ColdFusion is built on a J2EE platform, you can easily integrate J2EE and Java functionality into
your ColdFusion application. As a result, ColdFusion pages can do any of the following:

Share session data with JSPs (Java Server Pages) and Java servlets.
Import custom JSP tag libraries and use them like ColdFusion custom tags.
Integrate with Java objects, including the J2EE Java API, JavaBeans, and Enterprise JavaBeans.
For more information on using J2EE features in ColdFusion, see Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML
Applications on page 1125.

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Chapter 4: The CFML Programming

Language
Elements of CFML
The basic elements of CFML, including tags, functions, constants, variables, expressions, and CFScript, make it a
powerful tool for developing interactive web applications.

CFML Basics
CFML is a dynamic application development tool with many of the features of a programming language. These
features include functions, expressions, variables and constants, and flow-control constructs, such as if-then and loops.
CFML also has a language within a language, CFScript, which enables you to use a syntax like JavaScript for many
operations.
These elements and other basic CFML entities such as comments, data types, escape characters, and reserved words,
let you create complex applications.

Comments
ColdFusion comments have a similar format to HTML comments. However, they use three dash characters instead of
two; for example:
<!--- This is a ColdFusion Comment. Browsers do not receive it. --->

The ColdFusion server removes all ColdFusion comments from the page before returning it to the web server. As a
result, the page that a browser receives does not include the comment. Users cannot see the comment even if they view
the page source.
You can embed CFML comments in begin tags (not just tag bodies), functions calls, and variable text in number signs.
ColdFusion ignores the text in comments such as the following:
<cfset MyVar = var1 <!--- & var2 --->>
<cfoutput>#Dateformat(now() <!---, "dddd, mmmm yyyy" --->)#</cfoutput>

This technique can be useful if you want to temporarily comment out parts of expressions or optional attributes or
arguments.
You can also nest comments, as the following example shows:
<!--- disable this code
<!--- display error message --->
<cfset errormessage1="Oops!">
<cfoutput>
#errormessage1#
</cfoutput>
--->

This nesting is useful if you want to temporarily disable a section of code while you test your application.
You can embed comments within comments, however, use this technique carefully.

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Note: You cannot embed comments inside a tag name or function name, such as <cf_My<!--- New --->CustomTag>.
You also cannot embed comments inside strings, as in the following example: IsDefined("My<!--- New -->Variable").

Tags
ColdFusion tags tell the ColdFusion server that it must process information. The ColdFusion server only processes tag
contents; it returns text outside ColdFusion to the web server unchanged. ColdFusion provides a wide variety of builtin tags and lets you create custom tags.

Tag syntax
ColdFusion tags have the same format as HTML tags. They are enclosed in angle brackets (< and >) and can have zero
or more named attributes. Many ColdFusion tags have bodies; that is, they have beginning and end tags with text for
processing between them. For example:
<cfoutput>
Hello #YourName#! <br>
</cfoutput>

Other tags, such as cfset and cfhttp, never have bodies. All the required information goes between the beginning
(<) character and the ending (>) character, as in the following example:
<cfset YourName="Bob">

Note: The cfset tag differs from other tags in that it does not have a body or arguments. Instead, the tag encloses an
assignment statement that assigns a value to a variable. The cfset tag can also call a function without assigning a value
to a result variable.
Sometimes, although the tag can have a body, it is unnecessary because the attributes specify all the required
information. You can omit the end tag and place a forward slash character before the closing (>) character, as in the
following example:
<cfprocessingdirective pageencoding="euc-jp" />

In most cases, you specify tag attributes directly in the tag using the format attributeName=" attributeValue" , as the
preceding example shows. However, as an alternative, you can place all the attributes in a structure and specify the
structure in a single attributeCollection attribute, using the following format:
<tagname attributeCollection="#structureName#">

When you use this format for all built-in ColdFusion tags except cfmodule, the tag must have only the
attributeCollection attribute. This format is useful when you use dynamic arguments, where the number and
values of the arguments to a tag can vary based on processing results. The following example shows this usage:

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<!--- Configure dynamic attribute variables. --->

<cfparam name="theURL" default="http://www.adobe.com">
<cfparam name="resolveURL" default="yes">
<!--- Code that dynamically changes values for attributes can go here. --->
<!--- Create an arguments structure using variables. --->
<cfset myArgs=StructNew()>
<cfset myArgs.url="#theURL#">
<!--- Include a user name and password only if they are available. --->
<cfif IsDefined("username")>
<cfset myArgs.username="#username#">
</cfif>
<cfif IsDefined("password")>
<cfset myArgs.password="#password#">
</cfif>
<cfset myArgs.resolveURL="#resolveURL#">
<cfset myArgs.timeout="2">
<!--- Use the myArgs structure to specify the cfhttp tag attributes. --->
<cfhttp attributeCollection="#myArgs#">
<cfoutput>
#cfhttp.fileContent#
</cfoutput>

Note: The attributeCollection attribute used in the cfmodule tag and when calling custom tags directly is different
from the attributeCollection attribute for all other tags. In the cfmodule tag and in custom tags, you can mix the
attributeCollection attribute and explicit custom tag attributes. Also, in the cfmodule tag, the
attributeCollection attribute cannot contain the name and template attributes. Specify these attributes directly in
the cfmodule tag.
You can use the attributeCollection attribute in all tags except the following:
cfargument

cfelseif

cflogout

cfset

cfbreak

cffunction

cfloop

cfsilent

cfcase

cfif

cfparam

cfswitch

cfcatch

cfimport

cfprocessingdirective

cftry

cfcomponent

cfinterface

cfproperty

cfdefaultcase

cflogin

cfrethrow

cfelse

cfloginuser

cfreturn

Built-in tags
Built-in tags make up the heart of ColdFusion. These tags have many uses, including the following:

Manipulating variables
Creating interactive forms
Accessing and manipulating databases
Displaying data
Controlling the flow of execution on the ColdFusion page
Handling errors
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Processing ColdFusion pages

Managing the CFML application framework
Manipulating files and directories
Using external tools and objects, including Verity collections, COM, Java, and CORBA objects, and executable
programs

Using protocols, such as mail, http, ftp, and pop

The CFML Reference documents each tag in detail.

Custom tags
ColdFusion lets you create custom tags. You can create two types of custom tags:

CFML custom tags that are ColdFusion pages

CFX tags that you write in a programing language such as Java or C++
Custom tags can encapsulate frequently used business logic or display code. These tags enable you to place frequently
used code in one place and call it from many places. Custom tags also let you abstract complex logic into a single,
simple interface. They provide an easy way to distribute your code to others. You can even distribute encrypted
versions of the tags to prevent access to the tag logic.
You can access a variety of free and commercial custom tags on the Adobe ColdFusion Exchange
(www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_cfdevcenter_en). They perform tasks ranging from checking if Cookies and JavaScript
are enabled on the client browser to moving items from one list box to another. Many of these tags are free and include
source code.
CFML custom tags
When you write a custom tag in CFML, you can take advantage of all the features of the ColdFusion language,
including all built-in tags and even other custom tags. CFML custom tags can include body sections and end tags.
Because they are written in CFML, you do not need to know a programming language such as Java. CFML custom tags
provide more capabilities than user-defined functions, but are less efficient.
For more information on CFML custom tags, see Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags on page 208. For
information about, and comparisons among, ways to reuse ColdFusion code, including CFML custom tags, userdefined functions, and CFX tags, see Creating ColdFusion Elements on page 146.
CFX Tags
CFX tags are ColdFusion custom tags that you write in a programming language such as Java or C++. These tags can take
full advantage of all the tools and resources provided by these languages, including their access to runtime environments.
CFX tags also generally execute faster than CFML custom tags because they are compiled. CFX tags can be crossplatform, but are often platform-specific, for example if they take advantage of COM objects or the Windows API.
For more information on CFX tags, see Building Custom CFXAPI Tags on page 224.

Tags as functions and operators

ColdFusion provides many functions or operator language elements that correspond to CFML tags. Together with the
existing CFScript language, these elements let you define many CFCs and functions entirely in CFScript.
The new functions and operators belong to the following tag categories:

Tags without bodies, such as cfexit and cfinclude

Language tags with bodies, such as cflock and cftransaction

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Service tags with bodies, such as cfmail and cfquery

Tags for defining and using components and functions: cfcomponent, cfinterface, cfimport, cffunction, cfproperty,
cfargument. For more information, see Defining components and functions in CFScript on page 121.
Tag without bodies
Several basic ColdFusion tags now have corresponding CFScript operators. These operators take a subset of standard
tag attributes, and do not allow custom attributes. They do not return values.
The following list specifies the CFML tags and their corresponding CFScript syntax:

cfabort: abort
cfexit: exit

["message"];

["methodName"];

cfinclude: include
cfparam: param

"template";

[type] name [=defaultValue];

The param attribute can now take any number of name=value pairs. Param can also take all the attributes of
<cfparam> as name-value pairs.
For example:
<cfscript>
param name="paramname" default="value" min="minvalue" max="maxvalue" pattern="pattern"
</cfscript>

cfrethrow: rethrow;
cfthrow: throw

"message";

For detailed information on the statement parameters, see the corresponding tag attribute description in the CFML
Reference.
Language-level tags with bodies
ColdFusion includes CFScript elements that provide the functions of the following language (compiler)-level tags,
which have bodies. These tags manage the execution of code within their bodies:

cflock: lock
cfthread: thread
cftransaction: transaction
Thread and transaction support also include functions, such as threadJoin and transactionCommit, that let you
manage any thread or transaction, whether you define it with a tag or a function.
The lock, thread, and transaction operations have the following syntax:
operationName attributeName1=value1 attributName2=value2...
{body contents }

cflock
The lock operation has no special characteristics or limitations. All cflock tag attributes are valid operation parameters.
The following code uses the lock operation:

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lock scope = "request" timeout = "30" type = "Exclusive" {

request.number = 1;
writeoutput("E-Turtleneck has now sold "& request.number &"
turtlenecks!");
}

cftransaction
To use the transaction operation you specify a begin action parameter. A transaction has the following general form:
TRANSACTION action="begin" [isolation="isolationValue"] {
transaction code
}

Within the transaction block you call the following methods to manage the transaction:

transactionCommit()

transactionRollback([savepoint])

transactionSetSavepoint([savepoint])

The savepoint parameter is a string identifier for the savepoint.

Note: You can also use theses methods in a cftransaction tag body.
You can nest transaction operations. For more information on nested transactions, see cftransaction in CFML
Reference.
The following example uses nested transaction operations:
<cfscript>
qry = new Query();
qry.setDatasource("test");
qry.setSQL("delete from art where artid=62");
qry.execute();
TRANSACTION action="begin"
{writeoutput("Transaction in cfscript test");
TRANSACTION action="begin" {
qry.setSQL("insert into art(artid, artistid, artname, description, issold, price)
values ( 62, 1, 'art12', 'something', 1, 100)");
qry.execute();}
transactionSetSavepoint("sp01");
qry.setSQL("update art set artname='art45' where artid=62");
qry.execute();
transactionSetSavepoint("sp02");
qry.setSQL("update art set artname='art56' where artid=62");
qry.execute();
transactionrollback("sp02");
transactioncommit();
}
</cfscript>

cfthread
To use the thread operation you specify a run action parameter. The thread runs the code in the operation body. A
thread block has the following general form:

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THREAD name="text" [action="run"] [priority="priorityValue"

application-specific attributes] {
thread code
}

The code in the thread operation body executes in a single ColdFusion thread. Code outside the body is not part of the
thread. You can use the following methods to manage the thread:

threadTerminate(threadName)

This function terminates the thread specified by the threadName parameter. It behaves in the same way as cfthread
action="terminate".

threadJoin([[threadName], timeout])

This function joins the current thread with the specified thread or threads. The current thread waits until either the
specified threads complete, or the timeout period passes, whichever happens first. The current thread inside a
thread function block belongs to that block thread and the current thread outside a thread function block is the page
thread.The threadName parameter is a comma-delimited list specifying one or more threads to join with the page
thread. If you omit this attribute, the current thread waits until all ColdFusion threads finish running.The timeout
parameter specifies the maximum time, in milliseconds, the calling thread waits for the other threads to complete
processing. If one or more threads do not complete before the time out period, the current thread processing begins
immediately. If you omit this attribute, the current thread waits until all specified threads finish running.
Note: You can also use these functions with transactions that you create by using cftransaction tags.
Service tags with bodies
ColdFusion provides objects, implemented as CFCs, that correspond to the following service tags:

cfftp

cfhttp

cfmail

cfpdf

cfquery

cfstoredproc

These tags have bodies and provide services such as executing queries or sending mail. Many of them have action
attributes, whereas others have an implicit action, such as execute. For each service tag, except for cfmail and cfpdf, a
component is returned with applicable properties set and you need to invoke getters on the properties to access the data.
Note: Previously, invoking getName() and getResult() methods returned data like query resultset, pdf object, or ftp prefix,
but now this has been changed and instead a component is returned with appropriate properties set.
The object names are the tag names without the cf prefix, for example, ftp. These objects also support child tag
functionality, such as cfmailpart and cfmailparam.
Note: There may be thread-safety issues if implicit setters are used and child tags such as cfmailpart or cfmailparam
are added because they get added into the CFC variable scope. It is therefore recommended that you create a new
component for each service. If you need to preserve the attribute state, use duplicate() on the component to retain any
initialized attribute values.
To use these tags in functions you:
1 Instantiate a service object.
2 Set object attributes and child tags

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3 Execute one or more actions on the object.

Note: Unlike the corresponding tags, you cannot use application-specific parameters in these functions. You can only use
the parameters that ColdFusion supports directly.
Step 1: Instantiate a service object
To create a function object, such as a mail object, use the new operator or createobject() function, as in the
following example:
myMail = new mail(server="sendmail.myCo.com");

Step 2a: Managing attributes

You can set attributes in several ways:

As name=value parameters to the object initializer when you instantiate the object, as in the following example.
myMail = new mail(server="sendmail.myCo.com");

As name=value parameters to an object action method, as in the following example:

Q = myQuery.execute(sql="select * from art");

By using attribute setters, as in the following example:

myMail.setSubject("Hi");

Note: You cannot use a getAttributeName function to get the value of the attribute specified by AttributeName.
Instead, use GetAttributes(AttributeName).

By using the following functions:

SetAttributes(attrib1=value,attrib2=value,...);
GetAttributes([attribName1[,attribName2]]....);
ClearAttributes([attribName1[,attribName2]]...);

Note: If you specify a result attribute for a stored procedure, then calling getPrefix() returns,
executionTime,statusCode,cached . If you do not specify a result attribute, getPrefix() returns only
executionTime and statusCode.
Step 2b: Managing child tag operations
All service objects correspond to tags that have child tags. For example, cfmail has cfmailpart and cfmailparam
child tags.
To specify the child tag functionality, use the following methods:

httpObj.addParam

mailObj.addParam

mailObj.addPart

pdfObj.addParam

queryObj.addParam

storedProcObj.addParam

storedProcObj.addProcResult

For example:

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mailObj.addparam(file="#ExpandPath('test.txt')#");
mailObj.addPart(name="foo",type="html",charset="utf-8",
body="This is a test message.");

You can also clear child tag settings by calling the following functions.

httpObj.clearParams

mailObj.clearParams

mailObj.clearParts

pdfObj.clearParams

queryObj.clearParams

storedProcObj.clearParams

storedProcObj.clearProcResults

If you used multiple add methods on an object, the clear method clears all values set in all the methods.
Step 3: Executing service actions
Service tags, excluding cfmail and cfpdf, have one or more actions that return results. Some, including the cfpdf and
cfftp tags have action attributes. For these tags, each action corresponds to a method on the service object. For example,
the ftp object action methods include open, close, listDir, getFile, rename, and many others. However, the way
service tags return data has changed. Now, a component is returned with applicable properties set and you need to
invoke getters on the properties to access the data.
Note: The PDF object has two action methods whose names differ from the corresponding cfftp action attribute values:
getPDFInfo and setPDFInfo instead of getInfo and setInfo. This difference is required to prevent name collisions
with the set and get methods for the PDF info attribute.
The cfhttp, cfmail, cfquery, and cfstoredproc tags do not have action attributes. Instead, the tags perform a
single action. To perform these actions in cfscript, call the following functions:

httpObj.send()

mailObj.send()

queryObj.execute()

storedProcObj.execute()

To get an action result, you typically assign the results of the action method to a variable, as in the following example:
Q = qry.execute(sql="select * from art");

Note: The attributes that specify you for an action are valid only for that action and are cleared once the action is
completed.
Service code example: mail, ftp, and http
The following example shows the use of the mail, http, and ftp services in cfscript.

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<!---mail and ftp service --->

<cfscript>
m = new mail();
<!---mail service --->
m.setTo("[email protected]");
<!---set attribute using implicit setter --->
m.setSubject("Hi");
m.setBody("test mail");
<!---users need to use 'body' to specify cfmail and cfmailpart content --->
m.addparam(file="#E xpandPath('test.txt')#");
<!---add cfmail param tags --->
m.addPart(type="html",charset="utf-8",body="some
mailpart content");
<!---add cfmailpart tags --->
m.send(to="[email protected]" ....);
<!---attributes can be overriden when sending mail --->
m.clear();
<!---clearAttributes(),clearParams() and clearParts() can also be used to clear --->
individual items, if needed
<!---ftp service --->
f = new ftp(server="s",username="u",password="p");
<!---check if a specified directory already exists (note the usage of getPrefix ())--->
f.existsDir(directory ="some_dir").getPrefix().returnValue ? WriteOutput("Directory
exists"):WriteOutput("Directory does not exist");
<!---list directory contents (note the usage of getResult() and getPrefix() --->
r = f.listDir(directory="some_dir",name="dirContents");
dirContents = r.getResult();
r.getPrefix().succeeded ? WriteOutput("List Directory operation successful") :
</cfscript>
<!---http service --->
<cfscript>
httpObj = new http();
<!---example 1 --->
<!---add params--->
httpObj.addParam(type="cgi", Name="Content-type", value =
"application/x-www-form-urlencoded",encoded="no");
httpObj.addParam(type="body",value="test1=value1&test2=
value2&arraytest=value1&arraytest=value2");
<!---assign the component returned to a variable--->
r = httpObj.send(url="http://localhost:8500/
project1/cfscript_test_files/threadsafe/http/_cfhttpparam_body.cfm",method="POST");
<!---use getPrefix() to dump the cfhttp prefix --->
writedump(r.getPrefix());
<!---example 2 --->
<!---using attributes that return a query --->
r = httpObj.send(url="
http://localhost:8500/language_enhancements_2/cfscript_test_files/threadsafe/http/vamsee.txt")",name="myqry", firstrowasheaders="no",method="GET");
<!---dump result and name attributes data --->
writedump(r.getPrefix());
writedump(r.getResult());
</cfscript>

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For cfftp, following are available getters on the returned component:

getPrefix()

Returns the tag prefix cfftp, which is a struct, available after any cfftp operation

getResult()

Applicable only to action="listDir

For cfhttp, following are the available getters on the returned component:

getPrefix()

Returns the cfhttp prefix (struct) available after the tag has executed

getResult()

Applicable only if attributes like columns, delimiter, firstrowasheaders, name, or textQualifier are
specified, which direct ColdFusion to return a query object.
Query service example
<cfscript>
qryObj = new createObject("component","com.adobe.coldfuison.query").init();
<!---r here is no longer the query recordset but a component --->
r = qryObj.execute(sql="select * from art",
datasource="cfdocexamples",result="myresult",name="myquery");
<!---new way to access the data --->
resultset =r.getResult();
prefixData = r.getPrefix();
writedump(resultset);
writedump(prefixData);
<!---Using QoQ--->
qryObj.setAttributes(myquery=resultset);
r = qryObj.execute(sql="select * from myquery", dbtype="query");
writedump(r.getResult());
writedump(r.getPrefix());
</cfscript>

The following are the available getters on the returned component:

getPrefix()

Returns the result struct available after the query has executed.

getResult()

Returns the resultset returned by query (SELECT query) and throws an error for other types of SQL statements or
queries (like INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE).
PDF example
Whenever any action is performed for which a name attribute is specified, the new pdf is returned back to the user.
The following code shows typical actions on a PDF.

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<cfscript>
pdfObj = new pdf();
x = pdfObj.read(source=#sourcefile#, name="PDFInfo");
x = pdfObj.processddx(ddxfile="#tocddx#",inputfiles="#inputStruct#",outputfiles=
"#outputStruct#",name="ddxVar");
x = pdfObj.addWatermark(source="#pdf1#",image="#image1#", pages="1",
overwrite="yes", name="test2");
x = pdfObj.removewatermark(source="#pdf1#", name="temp");
x = pdfObj.deletePages(source="#destfolder#dest.pdf",pages="2-4", name="deltest");
pdfObj.addparam(source="#pdf1#", pages="1-2,4");
pdfObj.merge(destination="#destfolder#merge-oneBigFile-5.pdf", overwrite="yes");
pdfObj.thumbnail(source="#pdf1#", overwrite="yes");
pdfObj.setInfo(source="#pdf1#", info="#{Author="Donald Duck"}#",
destination="#destfolder#pdfinfo.pdf", overwrite="yes");
pdfObj.write(source="myBook", destination="#destfolder#write1.pdf", version="1.4",
overwrite="yes");
pdfObj.protect(source="MyPdfVar", password="adobe", permissions="none",
newuserpassword="newuserpw", newownerpassword="newownerpw");
</cfscript>

Storedproc example
The following code shows sample usage of the storedproc service object.
<cfscript>
sp = new storedproc();
<!---add cfprocparam tags --->
sp.addParam(TYPE = "IN", CFSQLTYPE="CF_SQL_VARCHAR", VALUE="David",
DBVARNAME="@firstname");
sp.addParam(TYPE="IN", CFSQLTYPE="CF_SQL_VARCHAR", VALUE="Peterson",
DBVARNAME="@lastname", null ="yes");
sp.add Param(TYPE="OUT", CFSQLTYPE="CF_SQL_INTEGER", variable="MyCount",
DBVARN AME="@MyCount");
<!---add cfprocresult tags --->
sp.addProcResult(NAME = "home r", RESULTSET = 1);
sp.addProcResult( NAME = "home r2", RESULTSET = 2);
sp.addProcResult(NAME = "home r3", RESULTSET = 3) ;
<!---execute stored proc--->
r = sp.execute(procedure="sp_weird",datasource="some_dsn",result="r");
writedump(r.getProcResultSets());
<!---changed from sp.getProcResults()--->
writedump(r.getProcResultSets ("home r3"));
writedump(r.getPrefix());
<!---changed from sp.getResult()--->
writedump(r.getProcOutVariables());
<!---changed from sp.getProcVars()--->
</cfscript>

The following are the available getters on the returned component:

getPrefix()

Returns the cfstoredproc prefix (struct) available after the procedure has executed.

getProcResultsets()

Returns any resultsets returned by the strored procedure.

getProcOutVariables()

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Returns any OUT or INOUT variables set by the procedure.

Functions
Functions typically manipulate data and return a result. You can also create user-defined functions (UDFs), sometimes
referred to as custom functions.
Functions have the following general form:
functionName([argument1[, argument2]]...)

Some functions, such as the Now function take no arguments. Other functions require one or more comma-separated
arguments and can have additional optional arguments. All ColdFusion functions return a value. For example,
Round(3.14159) returns the value 3.

Built-in functions
ColdFusion built-in functions perform a variety of tasks, including, but not limited to, the following:

Creating and manipulating complex data variables, such as arrays, lists, and structures
Creating and manipulating queries
Creating, analyzing, manipulating, and formatting strings and date and time values
Evaluating the values of dynamic data
Determining the type of a variable value
Converting data between formats
Performing mathematical operations
Getting system information and resources
For alphabetical and categorized lists of ColdFusion functions, see ColdFusion Functions in the CFML Reference.
You use built-in functions throughout ColdFusion pages. Built-in functions are frequently used in a cfset or
cfoutput tag to prepare data for display or further use. For example, the following line displays todays date in the
format October 24, 2007:
<cfoutput>#DateFormat(Now(), "mmmm d, yyyy")#</cfoutput>

This code uses two nested functions. The Now function returns a ColdFusion date-time value representing the current
date and time. The DateFormat function takes the value returned by the Now function and converts it to the desired
string representation.
Functions are also valuable in CFScript scripts. ColdFusion does not support ColdFusion tags in CFScript, so you must
use functions to access ColdFusion functionality in scripts.

Implicit Get and Set Functions

ColdFusion components support private properties with public setter and getter methods. This behavior supports
object-oriented programming by letting you hide component properties from direct access.
Use the following code, for example, to set and get the MyProp property of myCFC component:
myCFC.setMyProp(27);
theProp = myCFC.getMyProp();

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Features of properties with setter and getter methods include the following:

Component properties you assign with the set method are in the Variables scope that is private to the CFC. You
can get or reset the properties only by calling get or set methods.

If a property has a type attribute value, ColdFusion validates the data you pass to the setter function. The default
attribute has no effect on the property and does not set an initial property value.

A direct assignment statement, such as myCFC.MyProp=27 creates a standard This scope variable in the CFC, even
if you specify the property in a cfproperty tag. The This scope variable is independent of the properties that you
access using the set and get methods. In fact, you can have a This scope variable with the same name as a property
that you access using the set and get methods.

Use the cfproperty tag getter and setter attributes to control access to a property from outside the CFC:
A setter attribute value of true allows application code to set the property (the default behavior).
A false value specifies that the property can only be set from within the CFC. The getter attribute works similarly.

Explicit set or get methods override the implicit set and get methods. Therefore, if a CFC has a MyProp property
with an explicit setMyProp method, and you call the setMyProp() function in your application code, ColdFusion
uses your function and not an implicit function.
Validate and validateparams attributes
The validate attribute available with <cfproperty> takes the validator to be used for validating data when implicit
setter for this property is called. It takes the following validators:

string
boolean
integer
numeric
date
time
creditcard: A 13-16 digit number conforming to the mod10 algorithm.
email: A valid e-mail address.
eurodate: A date-time value. Any date part must be in the format dd/mm/yy. The format can use /, -, or . characters
as delimiters.

regex: Matches input against pattern specified in validateparams.

ssn: A U.S. social security number.
telephone: A standard U.S. telephone number.
UUID: A Home Universally Unique Identifier, formatted 'XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
where 'X' is a hexadecimal number.

guid: A Universally Unique Identifier of the form "XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" where

'X' is a hexadecimal number

zipcode: U.S., 5- or 9-digit format ZIP codes

The validateparams attribute available with <cfproperty> takes the parameters required by the validator specified
in the validate attribute. This should be specified in the implicit struct notation.

min: Minimum value if validate is integer/numeric/

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max: Maximum value if the validate is integer/numeric/

minLength: Minimum length of the string if the validate is string
maxLength: Maximum length of the string if the validate is string
pattern: regex expression if the validator specified in validate attribute is regex
For example, the following code sets the validators for e-mail, zipcode, and age of an employee.
Note: For age, validate checks if the value is an integer and validateparams checks the range of the value supplied.
<!---Setting validators for an employee's e-mail, age, and zipcode--->
<cfcomponent>
<cfproperty name="mail" validate="email">
<cfproperty name="zip" validate="zipcode">
<cfproperty name="age" validate="integer" validateparams="{min=18,max=60}"> </cfcomponent>

User-defined functions
You can write your own functions, user-defined functions (UDFs). You can use these functions in ColdFusion
expressions or in CFScript. You can call a user-defined function anywhere you can use a built-in CFML function. You
create UDFs using the cffunction tag or the cfscriptfunction statement. UDFs that you create using the
cffunction tag can include ColdFusion tags and functions. UDFs that you create in CFScript can only include
functions. You can create stand-alone UDFs or encapsulate them in a ColdFusion component.
User-defined functions let you encapsulate logic and operations that you use frequently in a single unit. This way, you
can write the code once and use it multiple times. UDFs ensure consistency of coding and enable you to structure your
CFML more efficiently.
Typical user-defined functions include mathematical routines, such as a function to calculate the logarithm of a
number; string manipulation routines, such as a function to convert a numeric monetary value to a string such as two
dollars and three cents; and can even include encryption and decryption routines.
Note: The Common Function Library Project at www.cflib.org includes a number of free libraries of user-defined
functions.
For more information on user-defined functions, see Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions on page 153.

ColdFusion components
ColdFusion components encapsulate multiple, related, functions. A ColdFusion component is essentially a set of
related user-defined functions and variables, with additional functionality to provide and control access to the
component contents. ColdFusion components can make their data private, so that it is available to all functions (also
called methods) in the component, but not to any application that uses the component.
ColdFusion components have the following features:

They are designed to provide related services in a single unit.

They can provide web services and make them available over the Internet.
They can provide ColdFusion services that Flash clients can call directly.
They have several features that are familiar to object-oriented programmers, including data hiding, inheritance,
packages, and introspection.
For more information on ColdFusion components, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177.

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Constants
The value of a constant does not change during program execution. Constants are simple scalar values that you can use
within expressions and functions, such as Robert Trent Jones and 123.45. Constants can be integers, real numbers,
time and date values, Boolean values, or text strings. ColdFusion does not allow you to give names to constants.

Variables
Variables are the most frequently used operands in ColdFusion expressions. Variable values can be set and reset, and
can be passed as attributes to CFML tags. Variables can be passed as parameters to functions, and can replace most
constants.
ColdFusion has several built-in variables that provide information about the server and ColdFusion tags return. For a
list of the ColdFusion built-in variables, see Reserved Words and Variables in the CFML Reference.
The following two characteristics classify a variable:

The scope of the variable, which indicates where the information is available and how long the variable persists
The data type of the variable value, which indicates the type of information a variable represents, such as number,
string, or date
See Data types on page 32 for a list of data types (which also apply to constant values). For detailed information on
ColdFusion variables, including data types, scopes, and their use, see Using ColdFusion Variables on page 38.

Expressions
ColdFusion expressions consist of operands and operators. Operands are constants and variables, such as "Hello" or
MyVariable. Operators, such as the string concatenation operator (&) or the division operator (/) are the verbs that act
on the operands. ColdFusion functions also act as operators.
The simplest expression consists of a single operand with no operators. Complex expressions consist of multiple
operands and operators. For example, the following statements are all ColdFusion expressions:
12
MyVariable
(1 + 1)/2
"father" & "Mother"
Form.divisor/Form.dividend
Round(3.14159)

For detailed information on using variables, see Using ColdFusion Variables on page 38. For detailed information
on expressions and operators, see Using Expressions and Number Signs on page 64.

Data types
ColdFusion is considered typeless because you do not explicitly specify variable data types.
However, ColdFusion data, the constants and the data that variables represent, do have data types, which correspond
to the ways the data is stored on the computer.
ColdFusion data belongs to the following type categories:

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Category

Description and types

Simple

Represents one value. You can use simple data types directly in ColdFusion expressions. ColdFusion simple data
types are:

Complex

strings A sequence of alphanumeric characters enclosed in single or double quotation marks, such as This is
a test.

integers

real numbers, such as -3.14159

Boolean values

date-time values ColdFusion supports a variety of data formats. For more information, see Date and time
formats on page 44.

A sequence of numbers written without quotation marks, such as 356.

Use True, Yes, or 1 for true and False, No, or 0 for false. Boolean values are not case sensitive.

A container for data. Complex variables generally represent more than one value. ColdFusion built-in complex
data types are:

arrays

structures

queries

Binary

Raw data, such as the contents of a GIF file or an executable program file

Object

COM, CORBA, Java, web services, and ColdFusion Component objects: Complex objects that you create and
access using the cfobject tag and other specialized tags.

Note: ColdFusion does not have a data type for unlimited precision decimal numbers, but it can represent such numbers
as strings and provides a function that supports unlimited precision decimal arithmetic. For more information, see
PrecisionEvaluate in the CFML Reference.
For more information on ColdFusion data types, see Using ColdFusion Variables on page 38.

Flow control
ColdFusion provides several tags that let you control how a page gets executed. These tags generally correspond to
programming language flow control statements, such as if, then, and else. The following tags provide ColdFusion flow
control:
Tags

Purpose

cfif, cfelseif, cfelse

Select sections of code based on whether expressions are True or False.

cfswitch, cfcase, cfdefaultcase

Select among sections of code based on the value of an expression. Case processing is not limited
to True and False conditions.

cfloop, cfbreak

Loop through code based on any of the following values: entries in a list, keys in a structure or
external object, entries in a query column, an index, or the value of a conditional expression.

cfabort, cfexit

End processing of a ColdFusion page or custom tag.

CFScript also provides a set of flow-control statements. For information on using flow-control statements in CFScript,
see Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting on page 106. For more details on using flow-control tags, see
the reference pages for these tags in the CFML Reference.

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cfif, cfelseif, and cfelse

The cfif, cfelseif, and cfelse tags provide if-then-else conditional processing, as follows:
1 The cfif tag tests a condition and executes its body if the condition is True.
2 If the preceding cfif (or cfelseif) test condition is False, the cfelseif tag tests another condition and executes

its body if that condition is True.

3 The cfelse tag can optionally follow a cfif tag and zero or more cfelseif tags. Its body executes if all the

preceding tags test conditions are False.

The following example shows the use of the cfif, cfelseif, and cfelse tags. If the value of the type variable is
Date, the date displays; if the value is Time, the time displays; otherwise, both the time and date display.
<cfif type IS "Date">
<cfoutput>#DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput>
<cfelseif type IS "Time">
<cfoutput>#TimeFormat(Now())#</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>#TimeFormat(Now())#, #DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput>
</cfif>

cfswitch, cfcase, and cfdefaultcase

The cfswitch, cfcase, and cfdefaultcase tags let you select among different code blocks based on the value of an
expression. ColdFusion processes these tags as follows:
1 The cfswitch tag evaluates an expression. The cfswitch tag body contains one or more cfcase tags and

optionally includes cfdefaultcase tag.

2 Each cfcase tag in the cfswitch tag body specifies a value or set of values. If a value matches the value determined

by the expression in the cfswitch tag, ColdFusion runs the code in the body of the cfcase tag and then exits the
cfswitch tag. If two cfcase tags have the same condition, ColdFusion generates an error.

3 If none of the cfcase tags match the value determined by the cfswitch tag, and the cfswitch tag body includes

a cfdefaultcase tag, ColdFusion runs the code in the cfdefaultcase tag body.
Note: Although the cfdefaultcase tag does not have to follow all cfcase tags, it is good programming practice to place
it at the end of the cfswitch statement.
The cfswitch tag provides better performance than a cfif tag with multiple cfelseif tags, and is easier to read. Switch
processing is commonly used when different actions are required based on a string variable such as a month or request
identifier.
The following example shows switch processing:

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<cfoutput query = "GetEmployees">

<cfswitch expression = #Department#>
<cfcase value = "Sales">
#FirstName# #LastName# is in <b>Sales</b><br><br>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value = "Accounting">
#FirstName# #LastName# is in <b>Accounting</b><br><br>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value = "Administration">
#FirstName# #LastName# is in <b>Administration</b><br><br>
</cfcase>
<cfdefaultcase>#FirstName# #LastName# is not in Sales,
Accounting, or Administration.<br>
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
</cfoutput>

cfloop and cfbreak

The cfloop tag loops through the tag body zero or more times based on a condition specified by the tag attributes.
The cfbreak tag exits a cfloop tag.
cfloop
The cfloop tag provides the following types of loops:
Loop type

Description

Index

Loops through the body of the tag and increments a counter variable by a specified amount after each loop until
the counter reaches a specified value.

Conditional

Checks a condition and runs the body of the tag if the condition is True.

Query

Loops through the body of the tag once for each row in a query.

List, file, or array

Loops through the body of the tag once for each entry in a list, each line in a file, or each item in an array.

Collection

Loops through the body of the tag once for each key in a ColdFusion structure or item in a COM/DCOM object.

The following example shows a simple index loop:

<cfloop index = "LoopCount" from = 1 to = 5>
The loop index is <cfoutput>#LoopCount#</cfoutput>.<br>
</cfloop>

The following example shows a simple conditional loop. The code does the following:
1 Sets up a ten-element array with the word kumquats in the fourth entry.
2 Loops through the array until it encounters an array element containing kumquats or it reaches the end of the

array.
3 Prints the value of the Boolean variable that indicates whether it found the word kumquats and the array index at

which it exited the loop.

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<cfset myArray = ArrayNew(1)>

<!--- Use ArraySet to initialize the first ten elements to 123 --->
<cfset ArraySet(myArray, 1, 10, 123)>
<cfset myArray[4] = "kumquats">
<cfset foundit = False>
<cfset i = 0>
<cfloop condition = "(NOT foundit) AND (i LT ArrayLen(myArray))">
<cfset i = i + 1>
<cfif myArray[i] IS "kumquats">
<cfset foundit = True>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfoutput>
i is #i#<br>
foundit is #foundit#<br>
</cfoutput>

Note: You can get an infinite conditional loop if you do not force an end condition. In this example, the loop is infinite if
you omit the <cfset i = i + 1> statement. To end an infinite loop, stop the ColdFusion application server.
cfbreak
The cfbreak tag exits the cfloop tag. You typically use it in a cfif tag to exit the loop if a particular condition occurs.
The following example shows the use of a cfbreak tag in a query loop:
<cfloop query="fruitOrder">
<cfif fruit IS "kumquat">
<cfoutput>You cannot order kumquats!<br></cfoutput>
<cfbreak>
</cfif>
<cfoutput>You have ordered #quantity# #fruit#.<br></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

cfabort and cfexit

The cfabort tag stops processing of the current page at the location of the cfabort tag. ColdFusion returns to the
user or calling tag everything that was processed before the cfabort tag. You can optionally specify an error message
to display. You can use the cfabort tag as the body of a cfif tag to stop processing a page when a condition, typically
an error, occurs.
The cfexit tag controls the processing of a custom tag, and can only be used in ColdFusion custom tags. For more
information see, Terminating tag execution on page 219 and the CFML Reference.

Character case
ColdFusion is not case sensitive. For example, the following all represent the cfset tag: cfset, CFSET, CFSet, and even
cfsEt. However, get in the habit of consistently using the same case rules in your programs; for example:

Develop consistent rules for case use, and stick to them. If you use lowercase characters for some tag names, use
them for all tag names.

Always use the same case for a variable. For example, do not use both myvariable and MyVariable to represent the
same variable on a page.
Follow these rules to prevent errors on application pages where you use both CFML and case-sensitive languages,
such as JavaScript.

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Special characters
The double-quotation marks ("), single-quotation mark ('), and number sign (#) characters have special meaning to
ColdFusion. To include any of them in a string, double the character; for example, use ## to represent a single #
character.
The need to escape the single- and double-quotation marks is context sensitive. Inside a double-quoted string, you do
not need to escape single-quotation mark (apostrophe) characters. Inside a single-quoted string, you do not escape
double-quotation mark characters.
The following example illustrates escaping special characters, including the use of mixed single- and double-quotation
marks:
<cfset mystring = "We all said ""Happy birthday to you.""">
<cfset mystring2 = 'Then we said "How old are you now?"'>
<cfoutput>
#mystring#<br>
#mystring2#<br>
Here is a number sign: ##
</cfoutput>

The output looks as follows:

We all said "Happy birthday to you."
Then we said "How old are you now?"
Here is a number sign: #

Reserved words
As with any programming tool, you cannot use just any word or name for ColdFusion variables, UDFs and custom
tags. Avoid using any name that can be confused with a ColdFusion element. In some cases, if you use a word that
ColdFusion usesfor example, a built-in structure nameyou can overwrite the ColdFusion data.
The following list indicates words you must not use for ColdFusion variables, user-defined function names, or custom
tag names. While some of these words can be used safely in some situations, you can prevent errors by avoiding them
entirely. For a complete list of reserved words, see the CFML Reference.

Built-in function names, such as Now or Hash

Scope names, such as Form or Session
Any name starting with cf. However, when you call a CFML custom tag directly, you prefix the custom tag page
name with cf_.

Operators, such as NE or IS
The names of any built-in data structures, such as Error or File
The names of any built-in variables, such as RecordCount or CGI variable names
CFScript language element names such as for, default, or continue
Also, do not create form field names ending in any of the following, except to specify a form field validation rule using
a hidden form field name. (For more information on form field validation, see Introduction to Retrieving and
Formatting Data on page 703.)

_integer
_float
_range

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_date
_time
_eurodate
Because ColdFusion is not case-sensitive, all of the following are reserved words: IS, Is, iS, and is.

CFScript
CFScript is a language within a language. CFScript is a scripting language that is similar to JavaScript but is simpler to
use. Also, unlike JavaScript, CFScript only runs on the ColdFusion server; it does not run on the client system. A
CFScript script can use all ColdFusion functions and all ColdFusion variables that are available in the scripts scope.
CFScript provides a compact and efficient way to write ColdFusion logic. Typical uses of CFScript include:

Simplifying and speeding variable setting

Building compact flow control structures
Encapsulating business logic in user-defined functions
The following sample script populates an array and locates the first array entry that starts with the word key. It shows
several of the elements of CFScript, including setting variables, loop structures, script code blocks, and function calls.
Also, the code uses a cfoutput tag to display its results. Although you can use CFScript for output, the cfoutput tag
is often easier to use.
<cfscript>
strings = ArrayNew(1);
strings[1]="the";
strings[2]="key to our";
strings[4]="idea";
for( i=1 ; i LE 4 ; i = i+1 )
{
if(Find("key",strings[i],1))
break; }
</cfscript>
<cfoutput>Entry #i# starts with "key"</cfoutput><br>

You use CFScript to create user-defined functions.

For more information on CFScript, see Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting on page 106. For more
information on user-defined functions, see Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions on page 153.

Using ColdFusion Variables

Adobe ColdFusion variables are the most frequently used operands in ColdFusion expressions. Variable values can be
set and reset, and can be passed as attributes to CFML tags. Variables can be passed as parameters to functions, and
can replace most constants.
To create and use ColdFusion variables, you should know the following:

How variables can represent different types of data

How the data types get converted
How variables exist in different scopes
How scopes are used

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How to use variables correctly

Creating variables
You create most ColdFusion variables by assigning them values. (You must use the ArrayNew function to create
arrays.) Most commonly, you create variables by using the cfset tag. You can also use the cfparam tag, and
assignment statements in CFScript. Tags that create data objects also create variables. For example, the cfquery tag
creates a query object variable.
ColdFusion automatically creates some variables that provide information about the results of certain tags or
operations. ColdFusion also automatically generates variables in certain scopes, such as Client and Server. For
information on these special variables, see Reserved Words and Variables in the CFML Reference and the
documentation of the CFML tags that create these variables.
ColdFusion generates an error when it tries to use a variable before it is created. This can happen, for example, when
processing data from an incompletely filled form. To prevent such errors, test for the variables existence before you
use it. For more information on testing for variable existence, see Ensuring variable existence on page 61.
For more information on how to create variables, see Creating and using variables in scopes on page 58.

Variable naming rules

ColdFusion variable names, including form field names and custom function and ColdFusion component argument
names, must conform to Java naming rules and the following guidelines:

A variable name must begin with a letter, underscore, or Unicode currency symbol.
The initial character can by followed by any number of letters, numbers, underscore characters, and Unicode
currency symbols.

A variable name cannot contain spaces.

A query result is a type of variable, so it overwrites a local variable with the same name.
ColdFusion variables are not case sensitive. However, consistent capitalization makes the code easier to read.
When creating a form with fields that are used in a query, match form field names with the corresponding database
field names.

Periods separate the components of structure or object names. They also separate a variable scope from the variable
name. You cannot use periods in simple variable names, with the exception of variables in the Cookie and Client
scopes. For more information on using periods, see Using periods in variable references on page 49.
The following rule applies to variable names, but does not apply to form field and argument names:

Prefix each variables name with its scope. Although some ColdFusion programmers do not use the Variables prefix
for local variable names, use prefixes for all other scopes. Using scope prefixes makes variable names clearer and
increases code efficiency. In many cases, you must prefix the scope. For more information, see About scopes on
page 56.
Note: In some cases, when you use an existing variable name, you must enclose it with number signs (#) to allow
ColdFusion to distinguish it from string or HTML text, and to insert its value, as opposed to its name. For more
information, see Using number signs on page 70.

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Variable characteristics
You can classify a variable using the following characteristics:

The data type of the variable value, which indicates the kind of information a variable represents, such as number,
string, or date

The scope of the variable, which indicates where the information is available and how long the variable persists.

Data types
ColdFusion is often referred to as typeless because you do not assign types to variables and ColdFusion does not
associate a type with the variable name. However, the data that a variable represents does have a type, and the data type
affects how ColdFusion evaluates an expression or function argument. ColdFusion can automatically convert many
data types into others when it evaluates expressions. For simple data, such as numbers and strings, the data type is
unimportant until the variable is used in an expression or as a function argument.
ColdFusion variable data belongs to one of the following type categories:
Simple One value. Can use directly in ColdFusion expressions. Include numbers, strings, Boolean values, and date-

time values.
Binary Raw data, such as the contents of a GIF file or an executable program file.
Complex A container for data. Generally represent more than one value. ColdFusion built-in complex data types
include arrays, structures, queries, and XML document objects.

You cannot use a complex variable, such as an array, directly in a ColdFusion expression, but you can use simple data
type elements of a complex variable in an expression.
For example, with a one-dimensional array of numbers called myArray, you cannot use the expression myArray * 5.
However, you could use an expression myArray[3] * 5 to multiply the third element in the array by five.
Objects Complex constructs. Often encapsulate both data and functional operations. The following table lists the

types of objects that ColdFusion can use, and identifies the chapters that describe how to use them:
Object type

See

Component Object Model (COM)

Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications on page 1170

Common Object Request Broker Architecture

(CORBA)

Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications on page 1170

Java

Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML Applications on page 1125

ColdFusion component

Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177

Web service

Using Web Services on page 1093

Data type notes

Although ColdFusion variables do not have types, it is often convenient to use variable type as a shorthand for the
type of data that the variable represents.
ColdFusion can validate the type of data contained in form fields and query parameters. For more information, see
Testing for a variables existence on page 709 and Using cfqueryparam on page 416.
The cfdump tag displays the entire contents of a variable, including ColdFusion complex data structures. It is an
excellent tool for debugging complex data and the code that handles it.

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ColdFusion provides the following functions for identifying the data type of a variable:

IsArray
IsBinary
IsBoolean
IsImage
IsNumericDate
IsObject
IsPDFObject
IsQuery
IsSimpleValue
IsStruct
IsXmlDoc
ColdFusion also includes the following functions for determining whether a string can be represented as or converted
to another data type:

IsDate
IsNumeric
IsXML
ColdFusion does not use a null data type. However, if ColdFusion receives a null value from an external source such
as a database, a Java object, or some other mechanism, it maintains the null value until you use it as a simple value. At
that time, ColdFusion converts the null to an empty string (""). Also, you can use the JavaCast function in a call to a
Java object to convert a ColdFusion empty string to a Java null.

Numbers
ColdFusion supports integers and real numbers. You can intermix integers and real numbers in expressions; for
example, 1.2 + 3 evaluates to 4.2.
Integers
ColdFusion supports integers between -2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647 (32-bit signed integers). You can assign a
value outside this range to a variable, but ColdFusion initially stores the number as a string. If you use it in an
arithmetic expression, ColdFusion converts it into a floating-point value, preserving its value, but losing precision as
the following example shows:
<cfset mybignum=12345678901234567890>
<cfset mybignumtimes10=(mybignum * 10)>
<cfoutput>mybignum is: #mybignum#</cfoutput><br>
<cfoutput>mybignumtimes10 is: #mybignumtimes10# </cfoutput><br>

This example generates the following output:

mybignum is: 12345678901234567890
mybignumtimes10 is: 1.23456789012E+020

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Real numbers
Real numbers, numbers with a decimal part, are also known as floating point numbers. ColdFusion real numbers can
range from approximately -10300 to approximately 10300. A real number can have up to 12 significant digits. As with
integers, you can assign a variable a value with more digits, but the data is stored as a string. The string is converted to
a real number, and can lose precision, when you use it in an arithmetic expression.
You can represent real numbers in scientific notation. This format is xEy, where x is a positive or negative real number
in the range 1.0 (inclusive) to 10 (exclusive), and y is an integer. The value of a number in scientific notation is x times
10y. For example, 4.0E2 is 4.0 times 102, which equals 400. Similarly, 2.5E-2 is 2.5 times 10-2, which equals 0.025.
Scientific notation is useful for writing very large and very small numbers.
BigDecimal numbers
ColdFusion does not have a special BigDecimal data type for arbitrary length decimal numbers such as
1234567890987564.234678503059281. Instead, it represents such numbers as strings. ColdFusion does, however, have
a PrecisionEvaluate function that can take an arithmetic expression that uses BigDecimal values, calculate the
expression, and return a string with the resulting BigDecimal value. For more information, see PrecisionEvaluate in
the CFML Reference.

Strings
In ColdFusion, text values are stored in strings. You specify strings by enclosing them in either single- or doublequotation marks. For example, the following two strings are equivalent:
"This is a string"
'This is a string'
You can write an empty string in the following ways:

"" (a pair of double-quotation marks with nothing in between)

'' (a pair of single-quotation marks with nothing in between)
Strings can be any length, limited by the amount of available memory on the ColdFusion server. However, the default
size limit for long text retrieval (CLOB) is 64K. The ColdFusion Administrator lets you increase the limit for database
string transfers, but doing so can reduce server performance. To change the limit, select the Enable retrieval of long
text option on the Advanced Settings page for the data source.
Escaping quotation marks and number signs
To include a single-quotation character in a string that is single-quoted, use two single-quotation marks (known as
escaping the single-quotation mark). The following example uses escaped single-quotation marks:
<cfset myString='This is a single-quotation mark: '' This is a double-quotation mark: "'>
<cfoutput>#mystring#</cfoutput><br>

To include a double-quotation mark in a double-quoted string, use two double-quotation marks (known as escaping
the double-quotation mark). The following example uses escaped double-quotation marks:
<cfset myString="This is a single-quotation mark: ' This is a double-quotation mark: """>
<cfoutput>#mystring#</cfoutput><br>

Because strings can be in either double-quotation marks or single-quotation marks, both of the preceding examples
display the same text:
This is a single-quotation mark: ' This is a double-quotation mark: "
To insert a number sign (#) in a string, you must escape the number sign, as follows:

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"This is a number sign ##"

Lists
ColdFusion includes functions that operate on lists, but it does not have a list data type. In ColdFusion, a list is just a
string that consists of multiple entries separated by delimiter characters.
The default delimiter for lists is the comma. If you use any other character to separate list elements, you must specify
the delimiter in the list function. You can also specify multiple delimiter characters. For example, you can tell
ColdFusion to interpret a comma or a semicolon as a delimiter, as the following example shows:
<cfset MyList="1,2;3,4;5">
<cfoutput>
List length using ; and , as delimiters: #listlen(Mylist, ";,")#<br>
List length using only , as a delimiter: #listlen(Mylist)#<br>
</cfoutput>

This example displays the following output:

List length using ; and , as delimiters: 5
List length using only , as a delimiter: 3
Each delimiter must be a single character. For example, you cannot tell ColdFusion to require two hyphens in a row
as a delimiter.
If a list has two delimiters in a row, ColdFusion ignores the empty element. For example, if MyList is "1,2,,3,,4,,,5" and
the delimiter is the comma, the list has five elements, and list functions treat it the same as "1,2,3,4,5".

Boolean values
A Boolean value represents whether something is true or false. ColdFusion has two special constantsTrue and
Falseto represent these values. For example, the Boolean expression 1 IS 1 evaluates to True. The expression
"Monkey" CONTAINS "Money" evaluates to False.
You can use Boolean constants directly in expressions, as in the following example:
<cfset UserHasBeenHere = True>

In Boolean expressions, True, nonzero numbers, and the strings Yes, 1, True are equivalent; and False, 0, and the
strings No, 0, and False are equivalent.
Boolean evaluation is not case sensitive. For example, True, TRUE, and true are equivalent.

Date-Time values
ColdFusion can perform operations on date and time values. Date-time values identify a date and time in the range
100 AD to 9999 AD. Although you can specify just a date or a time, ColdFusion uses one data type representation,
called a date-time object, for date, time, and date and time values.
ColdFusion provides many functions to create and manipulate date-time values and to return all or part of the value
in several different formats.
You can enter date and time values directly in a cfset tag with a constant, as follows:
<cfset myDate = "October 30, 2001">

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When you do this, ColdFusion stores the information as a string. If you use a date-time function, ColdFusion stores
the value as a date-time object, which is a separate simple data type. When possible, use date-time functions such as
CreateDate and CreateTime to specify dates and times, because these functions can prevent you from specifying the
date or time in an invalid format and they create a date-time object immediately.
Date and time formats
You can directly enter a date, time, or date and time, using standard U.S. date formats. ColdFusion processes the twodigit-year values 0 to 29 as twenty-first century dates; it processes the two-digit-year values 30 to 99 as twentieth
century dates. Time values can include units down to seconds. The following table lists valid date and time formats:
To specify

Use these formats

Date

October 30, 2003

Oct 30, 2003
Oct. 30, 2003
10/30/03
2003-10-30
10-30-2003

Time

02:34:12
2:34a
2:34am
02:34am
2am

Date and Time

Any combination of valid date and time formats, such as these:

October 30, 2003 02:34:12
Oct 30, 2003 2:34a
Oct. 30, 2001 2:34am
10/30/03 02:34am
2003-10-30 2am
10-30-2003 2am

Locale-specific dates and times

ColdFusion provides several functions that let you input and output dates and times (and numbers and currency
values) in formats that are specific to the current locale. A locale identifies a language and locality, such as English (US)
or French (Swiss). Use these functions to input or output dates and times in formats other than the U.S. standard
formats. (Use the SetLocale function to specify the locale.) The following example shows how to do this:
<cfset oldlocale = SetLocale("French (Standard)")>
<cfoutput>#LSDateFormat(Now(), "ddd, dd mmmm, yyyy")#</cfoutput>

This example outputs a line like the following:

mar., 03 juin, 2003
For more information on international functions, see Developing Globalized Applications on page 364 and the
CFML Reference.

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How ColdFusion stores dates and times

ColdFusion stores and manipulates dates and times as date-time objects. Date-time objects store data on a timeline as
real numbers. This storage method increases processing efficiency and directly mimics the method used by many
database systems. In date-time objects, one day is equal to the difference between two successive integers. The time
portion of the date-and-time value is stored in the fractional part of the real number. The value 0 represents 12:00 AM
12/30/1899.
Although you can use arithmetic operations to manipulate date-and-time values directly, this method can result in
code that is difficult to understand and maintain. Use the ColdFusion date-time manipulation functions instead. For
information on these functions, see the CFML Reference.

Binary data type and binary encoding

Binary data (also referred to as a binary object) is raw data, such as the contents of a GIF file or an executable program
file. You do not normally use binary data directly, but you can use the cffile tag to read a binary file into a variable,
typically for conversion to a string binary encoding before transmitting the file using e-mail.
A string binary encoding represents a binary value in a string format that can be transmitted over the web. ColdFusion
supports three binary encoding formats:
Encoding

Format

Base64

Encodes the binary data in the lowest six bits of each byte. It ensures that binary data and non-ANSI character data
can be transmitted using e-mail without corruption. The Base64 algorithm is specified by IETF RFC 2045, at
www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2045.txt.

Hex

Uses two characters in the range 0-9 and A-F represent the hexadecimal value of each byte; for example, 3A.

UU

Uses the UNIX UUencode algorithm to convert the data.

ColdFusion provides the following functions that convert among string data, binary data, and string encoded binary
data:
Function

Description

BinaryDecode

Converts a string that contains encoded binary data to a binary object.

BinaryEncode

Converts binary data to an encoded string.

CharsetDecode

Converts a string to binary data in a specified character encoding.

CharsetEncode

Converts a binary object to a string in a specified character encoding.

ToBase64

Converts string and binary data to Base64 encoded data.

ToBinary

Converts Base64 encoded data to binary data. The BinaryDecode function provides a superset of the ToBase64
functionality.

ToString

Converts most simple data types to string data. It can convert numbers, date-time objects, and Boolean values. (It
converts date-time objects to ODBC timestamp strings.) Adobe recommends that you use the CharsetEncode
function to convert binary data to a string in new applications.

Complex data types

Arrays, structures, and queries are ColdFusion built-in complex data types. Structures and queries are sometimes
referred to as objects, because they are containers for data, not individual data values.
For details on using arrays and structures, see Using Arrays and Structures on page 82.

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Arrays
Arrays are a way of storing multiple values in a table-like format that can have one or more dimensions. You create
arrays using a function or an assignment statement:

The ColdFusion ArrayNew function creates an array and specifies its initial dimensions. For example, the following
line creates an empty two-dimensional array:
<cfset myarray=ArrayNew(2)>

A direct assignment creates an array and populates an array element. For example, the following line creates a twodimensional array and sets the value of row 1 column 2 to the current date.
<cfset myarray[1][2]=Now()>

You reference elements using numeric indexes, with one index for each dimension, as shown in the preceding
example.
You can create arrays with up to three dimensions directly. However, there is no limit on array size or maximum
dimension. To create arrays with more than three dimensions, create arrays of arrays.
After you create an array, you can use functions or direct references to manipulate its contents.
When you assign an existing array to a new variable, ColdFusion creates a new array and copies the old arrays contents
to the new array. The following example creates a copy of the original array:
<cfset newArray=myArray>

For more information on using arrays, see Using Arrays and Structures on page 82.
Structures
ColdFusion structures consist of key-value pairs, where the keys are text strings and the values can be any ColdFusion
data type, including other structures. Structures let you build a collection of related variables that are grouped under a
single name. To create a structure, use the ColdFusion StructNew function. For example, the following line creates a
new, empty, structure called depts:
<cfset depts=StructNew()>

You can also create a structure by assigning a value in the structure. For example, the following line creates a new
structure called MyStruct with a key named MyValue, equal to 2:
<cfset MyStruct.MyValue=2>

Note: In ColdFusion versions through ColdFusion 7, this line created a Variables scope variable named
"MyStruct.MyValue" with the value 2.
After you create a structure, you can use functions or direct references to manipulate its contents, including adding
key-value pairs.
You can use either of the following methods to reference elements stored in a structure:

StructureName.KeyName
StructureName["KeyName"]
The following examples show these methods:
depts.John="Sales"
depts["John"]="Sales"

When you assign an existing structure to a new variable, ColdFusion does not create a new structure. Instead, the new
variable accesses the same data (location) in memory as the original structure variable. In other words, both variables
are references to the same object.

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For example, the following line creates a new variable, myStructure2, that is a reference to the same structure as the
myStructure variable:
<cfset myStructure2=myStructure>

When you change the contents of myStructure2, you also change the contents of myStructure. To copy the contents
of a structure, use the ColdFusion Duplicate function, which copies the contents of structures and other complex
data types.
Structure key names can be the names of complex data objects, including structures or arrays. This lets you create
arbitrarily complex structures.
For more information on using structures, see Using Arrays and Structures on page 82.
Queries
A query object, sometimes referred to as a query, query result, or recordset, is a complex ColdFusion data type that
represents data in a set of named columns, like the columns of a database table. Many tags can return data as a query
object, including the following:

cfquery

cfdirectory

cfhttp

cfldap

cfpop

cfprocresult

In these tags, the name attribute specifies the query objects variable name. The QueryNew function also creates query
objects.
When you assign a query to a new variable, ColdFusion does not copy the query object. Instead, both names point to
the same recordset data. For example, the following line creates a new variable, myQuery2, that references the same
recordset as the myQuery variable:
<cfset myQuery2 = myQuery>

If you make changes to data in myQuery, myQuery2 also shows those changes.
You reference query columns by specifying the query name, a period, and the column name; for example:
myQuery.Dept_ID

When you reference query columns inside tags, such as cfoutput and cfloop, in which you specify the query name
in a tag attribute, you do not have to specify the query name.
You can access query columns as if they are one-dimensional arrays. For example, the following line assigns the
contents of the Employee column in the second row of the myQuery query to the variable myVar:
<cfset myVar = myQuery.Employee[2]>

Note: You cannot use array notation to reference a row (of all columns) of a query. For example, myQuery[2] does not
reference the second row of the myQuery query object.
Working with structures and queries
Because structure variables and query variables are references to objects, the rules in the following sections apply to
both types of data.

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Multiple references to an object

When multiple variables reference a structure or query object, the object continues to exist as long as at least one
reference to the object exists. The following example shows how this works:
<cfscript> depts = structnew();</cfscript>
<cfset newStructure=depts>
<cfset depts.John="Sales">
<cfset depts=0>
<cfoutput>
#newStructure.John#<br>
#depts#
</cfoutput>

This example displays the following output:

Sales
0
After the <cfset depts=0> tag executes, the depts variable does not reference a structure; it is a simple variable with
the value 0. However, the variable newStructure still refers to the original structure object.

Assigning objects to scopes

You can give a query or structure a different scope by assigning it to a new variable in the other scope. For example,
the following line creates a server variable, Server.SScopeQuery, using the local myquery variable:
<cfset Server.SScopeQuery = myquery>

To clear the server scope query variable, reassign the query object, as follows:
<cfset Server.SScopeQuery = 0>

This line deletes the reference to the object from the server scope, but does not remove any other references that can
exist.

Copying and duplicating objects

You can use the Duplicate function to make a true copy of a structure or query object. Changes to the copy do not
affect the original.

Using a query column

When you are not inside a tag such as cfloop, cfoutput, or cfmail that has a query attribute, you can treat a query
column as an array. However, query column references do not always behave as you might expect. This section
explains the behavior of references to query columns using the results of the following cfquery tag in its examples:
<cfquery dataSource="cfdocexamples" name="myQuery">
SELECT FirstName, LastName
FROM Employee
</cfquery>

To reference elements in a query column, use the row number as an array index. For example, both of the following
lines display the word "ben":
<cfoutput> #myQuery.Firstname[1]# </cfoutput><br>
<cfoutput> #myQuery["Firstname"][1]# </cfoutput><br>

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ColdFusion behavior is less straightforward, however, when you use the query column references myQuery.Firstname
and myQuery["Firstname"] without using an array index. The two reference formats produce different results.
If you reference myQuery.Firstname, ColdFusion automatically converts it to the first row in the column. For example,
the following lines print the word "ben":
<cfset myCol = myQuery.Firstname >
<cfoutput>#mycol#</cfoutput>

But the following lines display an error message:

<cfset myCol = myQuery.Firstname >
<cfoutput>#mycol[1]#</cfoutput><br>

If you reference Query["Firstname"], ColdFusion does not automatically convert it to the first row of the column.
For example, the following line results in an error message indicating that ColdFusion cannot convert a complex type
to a simple value:
<cfoutput> #myQuery['Firstname']# </cfoutput><br>

Similarly, the following lines print the name "marjorie", the value of the second row in the column:
<cfset myCol = myQuery["Firstname"]>
<cfoutput>#mycol[2]#</cfoutput><br>

However, when you make an assignment that requires a simple value, ColdFusion automatically converts the query
column to the value of the first row. For example, the following lines display the name "ben" twice:
<cfoutput> #myQuery.Firstname# </cfoutput><br>
<cfset myVar= myQuery['Firstname']>
<cfoutput> #myVar# </cfoutput><br>

Using periods in variable references

ColdFusion uses the period (.) to separate elements of a complex variable such as a structure, query, XML document
object, or external object, as in MyStruct.KeyName. A period also separates a variable scope identifier from the variable
name, as in Variables.myVariable or CGI.HTTP_COOKIE.
With the exception of Cookie and Client scope variables, which must always be simple variable types, you cannot
normally include periods in simple variable names. However, ColdFusion makes some exceptions that accommodate
legacy and third-party code that does not conform to this requirement.
For more information, see About scopes on page 56, Using Arrays and Structures on page 82, and Using XML
and WDDX on page 1058.

Understanding variables and periods

The following descriptions use a sample variable named MyVar.a.b to explain how ColdFusion uses periods when
getting and setting the variable value.
Getting a variable
ColdFusion can correctly get variable values even if the variable name includes a period. For example, the following
set of steps shows how ColdFusion gets MyVar.a.b, as in <cfset Var2 = myVar.a.b> or IsDefined(myVar.a.b):
1 Looks for myVar in an internal table of names (the symbol table).
2 If myVar is the name of a complex object, including a scope, looks for an element named a in the object.

If myVar is not the name of a complex object, checks whether myVar.a is the name of a complex object and skips
step 3.

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3 If myVar is the name of a complex object, checks whether a is a complex object.

4 If a or myVar.a is the name of a complex object, checks whether b is the name of a simple variable, and returns the

value of b.
If myVar is a complex object but a is not a complex object, checks whether a.b is the name of a simple variable and
returns its value.
If myVar.a is not a complex object, checks whether myVar.a.b is the name of a simple variable and returns its value.
This way, ColdFusion correctly resolves the variable name and can get its value.
You can also use array notation to get a simple variable with a name that includes periods. In this form of array
notation, you use the scope name (or the complex variable that contains the simple variable) as the array name. You
place the simple variable name, in single- or double-quotation marks, inside the brackets.
Using array notation is more efficient than using plain dot notation because ColdFusion does not have to analyze and
look up all the possible key combinations. For example, both of the following lines write the value of myVar.a.b, but
the second line is more efficient than the first:
<cfoutput>myVar.a.b is: #myVar.a.b#<br></cfoutput>
<cfoutput>myVar.a.b is: #Variables["myVar.a.b"]#<br></cfoutput>

Setting a variable
ColdFusion cannot be as flexible when it sets a variable value as when it gets a variable, because it must determine the
type of variable to create or set. Therefore, the rules for variable names that you set are stricter. Also, the rules vary
depending on whether the first part of the variable name is the Cookie or Client scope identifier.
For example, assume that you have the following code:
<cfset myVar.a.b = "This is a test">

If a variable myVar does not exist, it does the following:

1 Creates a structure named myVar.
2 Creates a structure named a in the structure myVar.
3 Creates a key named b in myVar.a.
4 Gives it the value "This is a test".

If either myVar or myVar.a exist and neither one is a structure, ColdFusion generates an error.
In other words, ColdFusion uses the same rules as for getting a variable to resolve the variable name until it finds a
name that does not exist yet. It then creates any structures that are needed to create a key named b inside a structure,
and assigns the value to the key.
However, if the name before the first period is either Cookie or Client, ColdFusion uses a different rule. It treats all the
text (including any periods) that follow the scope name as the name of a simple variable, because Cookie and Client
scope variables must be simple. If you have the following code, you see that ColdFusion creates a single, simple Client
scope variable named myVar.a.b:
<cfset Client.myVar.a.b = "This is a test">
<cfdump var=#Client.myVar.a.b#>

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Creating variables with periods

Avoid creating the names of variables (except for dot notation in structures) that include periods. However,
ColdFusion provides mechanisms for handling cases where you must do so, for example, to maintain compatibility
with names of variables in external data sources or to integrate your application with existing code that uses periods
in variable names. The following sections describe how to create simple variable names that include periods.
Using brackets to create variables with periods
You can create a variable name that includes periods by using associative array structure notation, as described in
Structure notation on page 93. To do so, you must do the following:

Reference the variable as part of a structure. You can always do this, because ColdFusion considers all scopes to be
structures. For more information on scopes, see About scopes on page 56.

Place the variable name that must include a period inside brackets and single- or double-quotation marks.
The following example shows this technique:
<cfset Variables['My.Variable.With.Periods'] = 12>
<cfset Request["Another.Variable.With.Periods"] = "Test variable">
<cfoutput>
My.Variable.With.Periods is: #My.Variable.With.Periods#<br>
Request.Another.Variable.With.Periods is:
#Request.Another.Variable.With.Periods#<br>
</cfoutput>

Creating Client and Cookie variables with periods

To create a Client or Cookie variable with a name that includes one or more periods, simply assign the variable a value.
For example, the following line creates a Cookie named User.Preferences.CreditCard:
<cfset Cookie.User.Preferences.CreditCard="Discover">

Data type conversion

ColdFusion automatically converts between data types to satisfy the requirements of an expressions operations,
including a functions argument requirements. As a result, you generally dont need to be concerned about
compatibility between data types and the conversions from one data type to another. However, understanding how
ColdFusion evaluates data values and converts data between types can help you prevent errors and create code more
effectively.

Operation-driven evaluation
Conventional programming languages enforce strict rules about mixing objects of different types in expressions. For
example, in a language such as C++ or Basic, the expression ("8" * 10) produces an error because the multiplication
operator requires two numeric operands and "8" is a string. When you program in such languages, you must convert
between data types to ensure error-free program execution. For example, the previous expression might have to be
written as (ToNumber("8") * 10).
In ColdFusion, however, the expression ("8" * 10) evaluates to the number 80 without generating an error. When
ColdFusion processes the multiplication operator, it automatically attempts to convert its operands to numbers. Since
"8" can be successfully converted to the number 8, the expression evaluates to 80.

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ColdFusion processes expressions and functions in the following sequence:

1 For each operator in an expression, it determines the required operands. (For example, the multiplication operator

requires numeric operands and the CONTAINS operator requires string operands.)
For functions, it determines the type required for each function argument. (For example, the Min function requires
two numbers as arguments and the Len function requires a string.)
2 It evaluates all operands or function arguments.
3 It converts all operands or arguments whose types differ from the required type. If a conversion fails, it reports an

error.

Conversion between types

Although the expression evaluation mechanism in ColdFusion is powerful, it cannot automatically convert all data.
For example, the expression "eight" * 10 produces an error because ColdFusion cannot convert the string "eight"
to the number 8. Therefore, you must understand the rules for conversion between data types.
The following table explains how conversions are performed. The first column shows values to convert. The remaining
columns show the result of conversion to the listed data type.
Value

As Boolean

As number

As date-time

As string

"Yes"

True

Error

"Yes"

"No"

False

Error

"No"

True

True

Error

"Yes"

False

False

Error

"No"

Number

True if Number is not 0;

False otherwise.

Number

See Date-time values earlier in String representation

this chapter.
of the number (for
example, 8).

String

If "Yes", True

If it represents a number (for

example, "1,000" or "12.36E-12"), it is
If "No", False
converted to the corresponding
number. If it represents a date-time
If it can be converted to 0,
(see next column), it is converted to
False
the numeric value of the
If it can be converted to any corresponding date-time object.
other number, True

If it is an ODBC date, time, or

String
timestamp (for example "{ts
'2001-06-14 11:30:13'}", or if it is
expressed in a standard U.S.
date or time format, including
the use of full or abbreviated
month names, it is converted to
the corresponding date-time
value.
Days of the week or unusual
punctuation result in an error.
Dashes, forward-slashes, and
spaces are generally allowed.

Date

Error

The numeric value of the date-time

object.

Date

An ODBC timestamp.

ColdFusion cannot convert complex types, such as arrays, queries, and COM objects, to other types. However, it can
convert simple data elements of complex types to other simple data types.
Type conversion considerations
The following sections detail specific rules and considerations for converting between types.

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The cfoutput tag

The cfoutput tag always displays data as a string. As a result, when you display a variable using the cfoutput tag,
ColdFusion applies the type conversion rules to any non-string data before displaying it. For example, the cfoutput
tag displays a date-time value as an ODBC timestamp.
Case-insensitivity and Boolean conversion
Because ColdFusion expression evaluation is not case sensitive, Yes, YES, and yes are equivalent; False, FALSE, and
false are equivalent; No, NO, and no are equivalent; and True, TRUE, and true are equivalent.
Converting binary data
ColdFusion cannot automatically convert binary data to other data types. To convert binary data, use the ToBase64
and ToString functions. For more information, see Binary data type and binary encoding on page 45.
Converting date and time data
To ensure that a date and time value is expressed as a real number, add zero to the variable. The following example
shows this:
<cfset mynow = now()>
Use cfoutput to display the result of the now function:<br>
<cfoutput>#mynow#</cfoutput><br>
Now add 0 to the result and display it again:<br>
<cfset mynow = mynow + 0>
<cfoutput>#mynow#</cfoutput>

At 1:06 PM on June 6, 2003, its output looked like this:

Use cfoutput to display the result of the now function:
{ts '2003-06-03 13:06:44'}
Now add 0 to the result and display it again:
37775.5463426

Converting numeric values

When ColdFusion evaluates an expression that includes both integers and real numbers, the result is a real number.
To convert a real number to an integer, use a ColdFusion function. The Int, Round, Fix, and Ceiling functions
convert real numbers to integers, and differ in their treatment of the fractional part of the number.
If you use a hidden form field with a name that has the suffix _integer or _range to validate a form input field,
ColdFusion truncates real numbers entered into the field and passes the resulting integer to the action page.
If you use a hidden form field with a name that has the suffix _integer, _float, or _range to validate a form input
field, and the entered data contains a dollar amount (including a dollar sign) or a numeric value with commas,
ColdFusion considers the input to be valid, removes the dollar sign or commas from the value, and passes the resulting
integer or real number to the action page.
ColdFusion does not have an inherent data type for arbitrary precision decimal numbers (BigDecimal numbers).
ColdFusion initially saves such numbers as strings, and if you use them in an expression, converts the value to a
numeric type, often losing precision. You can retain precision by using the PrecisionEvaluate method, which
evaluates string expressions using BigDecimal precision arithmetic and can return the result as a long string of
numbers. For more information, see PrecisionEvaluate in the CFML Reference.

Evaluation and type conversion issues

The following sections explain several issues that you can encounter with type evaluation and conversion.

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Comparing variables to True or False

You might expect the following two cfif tag examples to produce the same results:
<cfif myVariable>
<cfoutput>myVariable equals #myVariable# and is True
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<cfif myVariable IS True>
<cfoutput>myVariable equals #myVariable# and is True
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

However, if myVariable has a numeric value such as 12, only the first example produces a result. In the second case,
the value of myVariable is not converted to a Boolean data type, because the IS operator does not require a specific data
type and just tests the two values for identity. Therefore, ColdFusion compares the value 12 with the constant True.
The two are not equal, so nothing is printed. If myVariable is 1, "Yes", or True, however, both examples print the same
result, because ColdFusion considers these to be identical to Boolean True.
If you use the following code, the output statement does display, because the value of the variable, 12, is not equal to
the Boolean value False:
<cfif myVariable IS NOT False>
<cfoutput>myVariable equals #myVariable# and IS NOT False
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

As a result, use the test <cfif testvariable>, and not use the IS comparison operator when testing whether a variable
is True or False. This issue is a case of the more general problem of ambiguous type expression evaluation, described
in the following section.
Ambiguous type expressions and strings
When ColdFusion evaluates an expression that does not require strings, including all comparison operations, such as
IS or GT, it checks whether it can convert each string value to a number or date-time object. If so, ColdFusion converts
it to the corresponding number or date-time value (which is stored as a number). It then uses the number in the
expression.
Short strings, such as 1a and 2P, can produce unexpected results. ColdFusion can interpret a single "a" as AM and a
single "P" as PM. This can cause ColdFusion to interpret strings as date-time values in cases where this was not
intended.
Similarly, if the strings can be interpreted as numbers, you can get unexpected results.
For example, ColdFusion interprets the following expressions as shown:
Expression

Interpretation

<cfif "1a" EQ "01:00">

If 1:00am is 1:00am.

<cfif "1P" GT "2A">

If 1:00pm is later than 2:00am.

<cfset age="4a">

Treat the variable age as 4:00 am, convert it to the date-time value 0.16666666667, and add 7 to
make it 7.16666666667.

<cfset age=age + 7>

<cfif "0.0" is "0">

If 0 is 0.

To prevent such ambiguities when you compare strings, use the ColdFusion string comparison functions Compare and
CompareNoCase, instead of the comparison operators.

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You can also use the IsDate function to determine whether a string can be interpreted as a date-time value, or to add
characters to a string before comparison to avoid incorrect interpretation.
Date-time functions and queries when ODBC is not supported
Many CFML functions, including the Now, CreateDate, CreateTime, and CreateDateTime functions, return datetime objects. ColdFusion creates Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) timestamp values when it converts date-time
objects to strings. As a result, you can get unexpected results when using dates with a database driver that does not
support ODBC escape sequences, or when you use SQL in a query of queries.
If you use SQL to insert data into a database or in a WHERE clause to select data from a database, and the database
driver does not support ODBC-formatted dates, use the DateFormat function to convert the date-time value to a valid
format for the driver. This rule also applies to queries of queries.
For example, the following SQL statement uses the DateFormat function in a query of queries to select rows that have
MyDate values in the future:
<cfquery name="MyQofQQ" dbtype="query">
SELECT *
FROM DateQuery
WHERE MyDate >= '#DateFormat(Now())#'
</cfquery>

The following query of queries fails with the error message Error: {ts is not a valid date, because the ColdFusion Now
function returns an ODBC timestamp:
<cfquery name="MyQofQQ" dbtype="query">
SELECT *
FROM DateQuery
WHERE MyDate >= '#now()#'
</cfquery>

Using JavaCast with overloaded Java methods

You can overload Java methods so a class can have several identically named methods that differ only in parameter
data types. At run time, the Java virtual machine attempts to resolve the specific method to use, based on the types of
the parameters passed in the call. Because ColdFusion does not use explicit types, you cannot predict which version of
the method the virtual machine will use.
The ColdFusion JavaCast function helps you ensure that the right method executes by specifying the Java type of a
variable, as in the following example:
<cfset emp.SetJobGrade(JavaCast("int", JobGrade))>

The JavaCast function takes two parameters: a string representing the Java data type and the variable whose type you
are setting. You can specify the following Java data types: Boolean, int, long, float, double, and String.
For more information on the JavaCast function, see the CFML Reference.
Using quotation marks
To ensure that ColdFusion properly interprets string data, surround strings in single- or double-quotation marks. For
example, ColdFusion evaluates 10/2/2001 as a string that can be converted into a date-time object. However, it
evaluates 10/2/2001 as a mathematical expression, 5/2001, which evaluates to 0.00249875062469.

Examples of type conversion in expression evaluation

The following examples demonstrate ColdFusion expression evaluation.

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Example 1
2 * True + "YES" - ('y' & "es")

Result value as string: "2"

Explanation: (2*True) is equal to 2; ("YES"- "yes") is equal to 0; 2 + 0 equals 2.
Example 2
"Five is " & 5

Result value as string: "Five is 5"

Explanation: 5 is converted to the string "5".
Example 3
DateFormat("October 30, 2001" + 1)

Result value as string: "31-Oct-01"

Explanation: The addition operator forces the string "October 30, 2001" to be converted to a date-time object, and then
to a number. The number is incremented by one. The DateFormat function requires its argument to be a date-time
object; thus, the result of the addition is converted to a date-time object. One is added to the date-time object, moving
it ahead by one day to October 31, 2001.

About scopes
Variables differ in how they are set (by your code or by ColdFusion), the places in your code where they are
meaningful, and how long their values persist. These considerations are generally referred to as a variables scope.
Commonly used scopes include the Variables scope, the default scope for variables that you create, and the Request
scope, which is available for the duration of an HTTP request.
Note: User-defined functions also belong to scopes. For more information, see Specifying the scope of a function on
page 173.

Scope types
The following table describes ColdFusion scopes:
Scope

Description

Application

Contains variables that are associated with one, named application on a server. The cfapplication tag name
attribute or the Application.cfc This.name variable setting specifies the application name. For more information,
see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

Arguments

Variables passed in a call to a user-defined function or ColdFusion component method. For more information, see
About the Arguments scope on page 161.

Attributes

Used only in custom tag pages and threads. Contains the values passed by the calling page or cfthread tag in
the tags attributes. For more information, see Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags on page 208 and Using
ColdFusion Threads on page 328.

Caller

Used only in custom tag pages. The custom tags Caller scope is a reference to the calling pages Variables scope.
Any variables that you create or change in the custom tag page using the Caller scope are visible in the calling
pages Variables scope. For more information, see Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags on page 208.

CGI

Contains environment variables identifying the context in which a page was requested. The variables available
depend on the browser and server software. For a list of the commonly used CGI variables, see Reserved Words
and Variables in the CFML Reference.

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Scope

Description

Client

Contains variables that are associated with one client. Client variables let you maintain state as a user moves from
page to page in an application, and are available across browser sessions. By default, Client variables are stored in
the system registry, but you can store them in a cookie or a database. Client variables cannot be complex data
types and can include periods in their names. For more information, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on
page 301.

Cookie

Contains variables maintained in a users browser as cookies. Cookies are typically stored in a file on the browser,
so they are available across browser sessions and applications. You can create memory-only Cookie variables,
which are not available after the user closes the browser. Cookie scope variable names can include periods.

Flash

Variables sent by a SWF movie to ColdFusion and returned by ColdFusion to the movie. For more information, see
Using the Flash Remoting Service on page 606.

Form

Contains variables passed from a Form page to its action page as the result of submitting the form. (If you use the
HTML form tag, you must use method="post".) For more information, see Introduction to Retrieving and
Formatting Data on page 703.

Local (function local)

Contains variables that are declared inside a user-defined function or ColdFusion component method and exist
only while a function executes. For more information, see Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions on
page 153.

Request

Used to hold data that must be available for the duration of one HTTP request. The Request scope is available to
all pages, including custom tags and nested custom tags, that are processed in response to the request.
This scope is useful for nested (child/parent) tags. This scope can often be used in place of the Application scope,
to avoid the need for locking variables. Several chapters discuss using the Request scope.

Server

Contains variables that are associated with the current ColdFusion server. This scope lets you define variables that
are available to all your ColdFusion pages, across multiple applications. For more information, see Using
Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

Session

Contains variables that are associated with one client and persist only as long as the client maintains a session.
They are stored in the servers memory and can be set to time out after a period of inactivity. For more information,
see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

This

Exists only in ColdFusion components or cffunction tags that are part of a containing object such as a
ColdFusion Struct. Exists for the duration of the component instance or containing object. Data in the This scope
is accessible from outside the component or container by using the instance or object name as a prefix.

ThisTag

Used only in custom tag pages. The ThisTag scope is active for the current invocation of the tag. If a custom tag
contains a nested tag, any ThisTag scope values you set before calling the nested tag are preserved when the
nested tag returns to the calling tag.
The ThisTag scope includes three built-in variables that identify the tags execution mode, contain the tags
generated contents, and indicate whether the tag has an end tag.
A nested custom tag can use the cfassociate tag to return values to the calling tags ThisTag scope. For more
information, see Accessing tag instance data on page 216.

Thread

Variables that are created and changed inside a ColdFusion thread, but can be read by all code on the page that
creates the thread. Each thread has a Thread scope that is a subscope of a cfthread scope. For more information,
see Using ColdFusion Threads on page 328.

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Scope

Description

thread local

Variables that are available only within a ColdFusion thread. For more information, see Using ColdFusion
Threads on page 328.

URL

Contains parameters passed to the current page in the URL that is used to call it. The parameters are appended to
the URL in the format ?variablename = value[&variablename=value...]; for example
www.MyCompany.com/inputpage.cfm?productCode=A12CD1510&quantity=3.
If a URL includes multiple parameters with the same name, the resulting variable in the ColdFusion URL scope
consists of all parameter values separated by commas. For example, a URL of the form
http://localhost/urlparamtest.cfm? param=1&param=2&param=3 results in a URL.param variable value of 1,2,3
on the ColdFusion page.

Variables

The default scope for variables of any type that are created with the cfset and cfparam tags. A Variables scope
variable is available only on the page on which it is created and any included pages (see also the Caller scope).
Variables scope variables created in a CFC are available only to the component and its functions, and not to the
page that instantiates the component or calls its functions.

Important: To prevent data corruption, you lock code that uses Session, Application, or Server scope variables. For more
information, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

Creating and using variables in scopes

The following table shows how you create and reference variables in different scopes in your code. For more
information on the mechanisms for creating variables in most scopes, see Creating variables on page 39.
Scope prefix

Prefix required to
reference

Where available

Created by

Application

Yes

For multiple clients in one application over

multiple browser sessions. Surround code that
uses application variables in cflock blocks.

Specifying the prefix Application when you

create the variable.

Arguments

No

Within the body of a user-defined function or

ColdFusion component method.

The calling page passing an argument in the

function call.

Attributes

Yes

On a custom tag page, or inside a thread

For custom tags, the calling page passing the

values to a custom tag page in the custom tags
attributes.

(type)

For threads, the cfthread tag specifying

attribute values.
Caller

On the custom tag

page, Yes.

On the custom tag page, by using the Caller

scope prefix.

On the custom tag page, by specifying the prefix

Caller when you create the variable.

On the calling page, On the page that calls the custom tag, as local
No (Variables prefix variables (Variables scope).
is optional).

On the calling page, by specifying the prefix

Variables, or using no prefix, when you create
the variable.

Cffile

Yes

Following an invocation of cffile.

A cffile tag.

CGI

No

On any page. Values are specific to the latest

browser request.

The web server. Contains the server

environment variables that result from the
browser request.

Client

No

For one client in one application, over multiple

browser sessions.

Specifying the prefix Client when you create the

variable.

Cookie

No

For one client in one or more applications and

pages, over multiple browser sessions.

A cfcookie tag. You can also set memory-only

cookies by specifying the prefix Cookie when
you create the variable.

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Scope prefix

Prefix required to
reference

Where available

Created by

Flash

Yes

A ColdFusion page or ColdFusion component

called by a Flash client.

The ColdFusion Client access. You assign a value

to Flash.You can assign values to the Flash.result
and Flash.pagesize variables.

Form

No

On the action page of a form and in custom tags A form or cfform tag. Contains the values of
called by the action page; cannot be used on a
form field tags (such as input) in the form body
form page that is not also the action page.
when the form is submitted. The variable name
is the name of the form field.

Local

No

Within the body of a user-defined function or

ColdFusion component method, only while the
function executes.

(type)

Either of the following:

In the function or method definition, a var

keyword in a cfset tag or a CFScript var
statement.

Specifying the Local keyword when you

create a variable in the function or method.

Request

Yes

On the creating page and in any pages run

Specifying the prefix Request when you create
during the current HTTP request after the
the variable.
variable is created, including in custom tags and
nested custom tags.

Server

Yes

To any page on the ColdFusion server. Surround Specifying the prefix Server when you create the
all code that uses server variables in cflock
variable.
blocks.

Session

Yes

For one client in one application and one

browser session. Surround code that uses
Session scope variables in cflock blocks.

Specifying the prefix Session when you create

the variable.

This

Yes

Within a ColdFusion component or the body of a

user-defined function that was created using the
cffunction tag and place in an object, structure,
or scope. In the containing page, through the
component instance or containing object.

Within the component or function by specifying

the prefix This when you create the variable.
In the containing page, by specifying the
component instance or object that contains the
function as a prefix when you create the
variable.

ThisTag

Yes

On the custom tag page.

Specifying the prefix ThisTag when you create

the variable in the tag or using the cfassociate
tag in a nested custom tag.

Thread

The thread name.

Any code in the request.

Using the keyword thread or the thread name

as a prefix when you create the variable.

Inside the thread

that creates the
variable, you can
also use the
keyword thread.

You can create Thread variables only inside the

thread.

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Scope prefix

Prefix required to
reference

Where available

Created by

thread-local (no
prefix)

none

Within a thread created by the cfthread tag

Using no prefix when you create the variable.

You can also use the keyword var before the
variable name.

URL

No

On the target page of the URL.

The system. Contains the parameters passed in

the URL query string used to access the page.

Variables

No

On the current page. Cannot be accessed by a

forms action page (unless the form page is also
the action page). Variables in this scope used on
a page that calls a custom tag can be accessed in
the custom tag by using its Caller scope;
however, they are not available to any nested
custom tags.

Specifying the prefix Variables, or using no

prefix, when you create the variable. (To create a
Variables scope variable inside a ColdFusion
thread, you must use the Variables prefix.)

(type)

(Local)

Using scopes
The following sections provide details on how you can create and use variables in different scopes.
Evaluating unscoped variables
If you use a variable name without a scope prefix, ColdFusion checks the scopes in the following order to find the
variable:
1 Local (function-local, UDFs and CFCs only)
2 Arguments
3 Thread local (inside threads only)
4 Query (not a true scope; variables in query loops)
5 Thread
6 Variables
7 CGI
8 Cffile
9 URL
10 Form
11 Cookie
12 Client

Because ColdFusion must search for variables when you do not specify the scope, you can improve performance by
specifying the scope for all variables.
To access variables in all other scopes, you must prefix the variable name with the scope identifier.
Scopes and CFX tags
ColdFusion scopes do not apply to ColdFusion Extension (CFX) tags, custom tags that you write in a programming
language such as C++ or Java. The ColdFusion page that calls a CFX tag must use tag attributes to pass data to the CFX
tag. The CFX tag must use the Java Request and Response interfaces or the C++ Request class to get and return data.

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The Java setVariable Response interface method and C++ CCFX::SetVariable method return data to the
Variables scope of the calling page. Therefore, they are equivalent to setting a Caller scope variable in a custom
ColdFusion tag.
Using scopes as structures
ColdFusion makes all named scopes available as structures. You cannot access the function-local scope for userdefined functions (UDFs) that you define using CFScript as a structure.
You can reference the variables in named scopes as elements of a structure. To do so, specify the scope name as the
structure name and the variable name as the key. For example, if you have a MyVar variable in the Request scope, you
can reference it in either of the following ways:
Request.MyVar
Request["MyVar"]

Similarly, you can use CFML structure functions to manipulate the contents of the scope. For more information on
using structures, see Using Arrays and Structures on page 82.
Important: Do not call StructClear(Session) to clear session variables. This deletes the SessionID, CFID, and
CFtoken built-in variables, effectively ending the session. If you want to use StructClear to delete your application
variables, place those variables in a structure in the Session scope, and then clear that structure. For example, place all
your application variables in Session.MyVars and then call StructClear(Session.MyVars) to clear the variables.

Ensuring variable existence

ColdFusion generates an error if you try to use a variable value that does not exist. Therefore, before you use any
variable whose value is assigned dynamically, you must ensure that a variable value exists. For example, if your
application has a form, it must use some combination of requiring users to submit data in fields, providing default
values for fields, and checking for the existence of field variable values before they are used.
There are several ways to ensure that a variable exists before you use it, including the following:

You can use the IsDefined function to test for the variables existence.
You can use the cfparam tag to test for a variable and set it to a default value if it does not exist.
You can use a cfinput tag with a hidden attribute to tell ColdFusion to display a helpful message to any user who
does not enter data in a required field. For more information on this technique, see Requiring users to enter values
in form fields on page 709.

Testing for a variables existence

Before relying on a variables existence in an application page, you can test to see if it exists by using the IsDefined
function. To check whether a specific entry exists in an array, use the ArrayIsDefined function. To check whether a
specific key exists in a structure, use the StructKeyExists function.
For example, if you submit a form with an unsettled check box, the action page does not get a variable for the check
box. The following example from a form action page makes sure the Contractor check box Form variable exists before
using it:
<cfif IsDefined("Form.Contractor")>
<cfoutput>Contractor: #Form.Contractor#</cfoutput>
</cfif>

You must always enclose the argument passed to the IsDefined function in quotation marks. For more information
on the IsDefined function, see the CFML Reference.

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To test whether an element exists in an array before you display its value, use a format such as the following:
</cfoutput>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#Arraylen(myArray)#">
<cfif ArrayIsDefined(myArray, i)>
#i#: #myArray[i]#<br>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>

Notice that in the ArrayIsDefined function, unlike the IsDefined function, you do not surround the variable name
in quotation marks.
If you attempt to evaluate a variable that you did not define, ColdFusion cannot process the page and displays an error
message. To help diagnose such problems, turn on debugging in the ColdFusion Administrator or use the debugger
in your editor. The Administrator debugging information shows which variables are being passed to your application
pages.
Variable existence considerations
If a variable is part of a scope that is available as a structure, you might get a minor performance increase by testing the
variables existence using the StructKeyExists function instead of the IsDefined function.
You can also determine which Form variables exist by inspecting the contents of the Form.fieldnames built-in
variable. This variable contains a list of all the fields submitted by the form. Remember, however, that form text fields
are always submitted to the action page, and can contain an empty string if the user did not enter data.

Using the cfparam tag

You can ensure that a variable exists by using the cfparam tag, which tests for the variables existence and optionally
supplies a default value if the variable does not exist. The cfparam tag has the following syntax:
<cfparam name="VariableName"
type="data_type"
default="DefaultValue">

Note: For information on using the type attribute to validate the parameter data type, see the CFML Reference.
There are two ways to use the cfparam tag to test for variable existence, depending on how you want the validation
test to proceed:

With only the name attribute to test that a required variable exists. If it does not exist, the ColdFusion server stops
processing the page and displays an error message.

With the name and default attributes to test for the existence of an optional variable. If the variable exists,
processing continues and the value is not changed. If the variable does not exist, it is created and set to the value of
the default attribute, and processing continues.
The following example shows how to use the cfparam tag to check for the existence of an optional variable and to set
a default value if the variable does not already exist:
<cfparam name="Form.Contract" default="Yes">

Example: testing for variables

Using the cfparam tag with the name attribute is one way to clearly define the variables that a page or a custom tag
expects to receive before processing can proceed. This can make your code more readable, as well as easier to maintain
and debug.

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For example, the following cfparam tags indicate that this page expects two form variables named StartRow and
RowsToFetch:
<cfparam name="Form.StartRow">
<cfparam name="Form.RowsToFetch">

If the page with these tags is called without either one of the form variables, an error occurs and the page stops
processing. By default, ColdFusion displays an error message; you can also handle the error as described in Handling
Errors on page 275.
Example: setting default values
The following example uses the cfparam tag to see if optional variables exist. If they do exist, processing continues. If
they do not exist, the ColdFusion server creates them and sets them to the default values.
<cfparam name="Cookie.SearchString" default="temple">
<cfparam name="Client.Color" default="Gray">
<cfparam name="ShowExtraInfo" default="No">

You can use the cfparam tag to set default values for URL and Form variables, instead of using conditional logic. For
example, you could include the following code on the action page to ensure that a SelectedDepts variable exists:
<cfparam name="Form.SelectedDepts" default="Marketing,Sales">

Validating data
It is often not sufficient that input data merely exists; it must also have the right format. For example, a date field must
have data in a date format. A salary field must have data in a numeric or currency format. There are many ways to
ensure the validity of data, including the following methods:

Use the cfparam tag with the type attribute to validate a variable.
Use the IsValid function to validate a variable.
Use the cfqueryparam tag in a SQL WHERE clause to validate query parameters.
Use cfform controls that have validation attributes.
Use a form input tag with a hidden attribute to validate the contents of a form input field.
Note: Data validation using the cfparam,cfqueryparam, and form tags is done by the server. Validation using cfform
tags and hidden fields is done using JavaScript in the users browser, before any data is sent to the server.
For detailed information on validating data in forms and variables, see Validating Data on page 743 For detailed
information on validating query parameters, see Using cfqueryparam on page 416.

Passing variables to custom tags and UDFs

The following sections describe rules for how data gets passed to custom tags and user-defined functions that are
written in CFML, and to CFX custom tags that are written in Java or C++.

Passing variables to CFML tags and UDFs

When you pass a variable to a CFML custom tag as an attribute, or to a user-defined function as an argument, the
following rules determine whether the custom tag or function receives its own private copy of the variable or only gets
a reference to the calling pages variable:

Simple variables and arrays are passed as copies of the data. If your argument is an expression that contains multiple
simple variables, the result of the expression evaluation is copied to the function or tag.

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Structures, queries, and cfobject objects are passed as references to the object.
If the tag or function gets a copy of the calling pages data, changes to the variable in the custom tag or function do not
change the value of the variable on the calling page. If the variable is passed by reference, changes to the variable in the
custom tag or function also change the value of the variable in the calling page.
To pass a variable to a custom tag, you must enclose the variable name in number signs. To pass a variable to a function,
do not enclose the variable name in number signs. For example, the following code calls a user-defined function using
three Form variables:
<cfoutput>
TOTAL INTEREST: #TotalInterest(Form.Principal, Form.AnnualPercent,Form.Months)#<br>
</cfoutput>

The following example calls a custom tag using two variables, MyString and MyArray:
<cf_testTag stringval=#MyString# arrayval=#MyArray#>

Passing variables to CFX tags

You cannot pass arrays, structures, or cfobject objects to CFX tags. You can pass a query to a CFX tag by using the
query attribute when calling the tag. ColdFusion normally converts simple data types to strings when passing them to
CFX tags; however, the Java Request Interface getIntAttribute method lets you get a passed integer value.

Using Expressions and Number Signs

In CFML, you create expressions by using number signs to indicate expressions in Adobe ColdFusion tags such as
cfoutput, in strings, and in expressions. You also use variables in variable names and strings to create dynamic
expressions, and dynamic variables.

Expressions
ColdFusion expressions consist of operands and operators. Constants and variables are operands. Operators, such as
the multiplication sign, are the verbs that act on the operands; functions are a form of operator.
The simplest expression consists of a single operand with no operators. Complex expressions have multiple operators
and operands. The following are all ColdFusion expressions:
12
MyVariable
a++
(1 + 1)/2
"father" & "Mother"
Form.divisor/Form.dividend
Round(3.14159)

Operators act on the operands. Some operators, such as functions with a single argument, take a single operand. Many
operators, including most arithmetic and logical operators, take two operands. The following is the general form of a
two-operand expression:
Expression Operator Expression

Expressions surround the operator. Each expression can be a simple operand (variable or constant) or a subexpression
consisting of more operators and expressions. Complex expressions are built up using subexpressions. For example,
in the expression (1 + 1)/2, 1 + 1 is a subexpression consisting of an operator and two operands.

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Operator types
ColdFusion has Five types of operators:

Arithmetic
Boolean
Decision (or comparison)
String
Ternary
Functions also can be viewed as operators because they act on operands.
Arithmetic operators
The following table describes the arithmetic operators:
Operator

Description

+-*/

Basic arithmetic: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

In division, the right operand cannot be zero.

++ --

Increment and decrement. Increase or decrease the variable by one.

These operators can be used for pre-incrementing or decrementing (as in x = ++ i), where the variable is
changed before it is used in the expression. They can also be used for post-incrementing or decrementing (as in
x = i++), where the value is changed after it is used in the expression. If the value of the variable i is initially 7,
for example, the value of x in x = ++i is 8 after expression evaluation, but in x=i++, the value of x is 7. In both
cases, the value of i becomes 8.
These operators cannot be used with expressions that involve functions, as in f().a++. Also, you can use an
expression such as -++x, but ---x and +++x cause errors, because their meanings are ambiguous. You can use
parentheses to group the operators, as in -(--x) or +(++x), however.

+= -= *= /= %=

Compound assignment operators. The variable on the right is used as both an element in the expression and the
result variable. Thus, the expression a += b is equivalent to a = a +b.
An expression can have only one compound assignment operator.

+-

Unary arithmetic: Set the sign of a number.

MOD

Modulus: Return the remainder after a number is divided by a divisor. The result has the same sign as the divisor.
The value to the right of the operator should be an integer; using a non-numeric value causes an error, and if you
specify a real number, ColdFusion ignores the fractional part (for example, 11 MOD 4.7 is 3).

or %
\

Integer division: Divide an integer by another integer. The result is also an integer; for example, 9\4 is 2. The right
operand cannot be zero.

Exponentiation: Return the result of a number raised to a power (exponent). Use the caret character (^) to
separate the number from the power; for example, 2^3 is 8. Real and negative numbers are allowed for both the
base and the exponent. However, any expression that equates to an imaginary number, such -1^.5 results in the
string "-1.#IND. ColdFusion does not support imaginary or complex numbers.

Boolean operators
Boolean, or logical, operators perform logical connective and negation operations. The operands of Boolean operators
are Boolean (True/False) values. The following table describes the Boolean operators:

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Operator

Description

NOT

Reverse the value of an argument. For example, NOT True is False and the inverse.

or !
AND
or &&
OR
or ||

Return True if both arguments are True; return False otherwise. For example, True AND True is True, but True AND
False is False.
Return True if any of the arguments is True; return False otherwise. For example, True OR False is True, but False
OR False is False.

XOR

Exclusive or: Return True if one of the values is True and the other is False. Return False if both arguments are True
or both are False. For example, True XOR True is False, but True XOR False is True.

EQV

Equivalence: Return True if both operands are True or both are False. The EQV operator is the opposite of the XOR
operator. For example, True EQV True is True, but True EQV False is False.

IMP

Implication: The statement A IMP B is the equivalent of the logical statement If A Then B. A IMP B is False only if
A is True and B is False. It is True in all other cases.

Decision operators
The ColdFusion decision, or comparison, operators produce a Boolean True/False result. Many types of operation
have multiple equivalent operator forms. For example, IS and EQ perform the same operation. The following table
describes the decision operators:
Operator

Description

IS

Perform a case-insensitive comparison of two values. Return True if the values are identical.

EQUAL
EQ
IS NOT
NOT EQUAL

Opposite of IS. Perform a case-insensitive comparison of two values. Return True if the values
are not identical.

NEQ
CONTAINS

Return True if the value on the left contains the value on the right.

DOES NOT CONTAIN

Opposite of CONTAINS. Return True if the value on the left does not contain the value on the
right.

GREATER THAN

Return True if the value on the left is greater than the value on the right.

GT
LESS THAN
LT
GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO

Opposite of GREATER THAN. Return True if the value on the left is smaller than the value on the
right.
Return True if the value on the left is greater than or equal to the value on the right.

GTE
GE
LESS THAN OR EQUAL TO

Return True if the value on the left is less than or equal to the value on the right.

LTE
LE

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Note: In CFScript expressions only, you can also use the following decision operators. You cannot use them in expressions
in tags. == (EQ), != (NEQ), > (GT), < (LT), >= (GTE), and <= (LTE).
Decision operator rules
The following rules apply to decision operators:

When ColdFusion evaluates an expression that contains a decision operator other than CONTAINS or DOES NOT
CONTAIN, it first determines if the data can be converted to numeric values. If they can be converted, it performs
a numeric comparison on the data. If they cannot be converted, it performs a string comparison. This can
sometimes result in unexpected results. For more information on this behavior, see Evaluation and type
conversion issues on page 53.

When ColdFusion evaluates an expression with CONTAINS or DOES NOT CONTAIN it does a string
comparison. The expression A CONTAINS B evaluates to True if B is a substring of A. Therefore an expression
such as the following evaluates as True:
123.45 CONTAINS 3.4

When a ColdFusion decision operator compares strings, it ignores the case. As a result, the following expression is
True:
"a" IS "A"

When a ColdFusion decision operator compares strings, it evaluates the strings from left to right, comparing the
characters in each position according to their sorting order. The first position where the characters differ
determines the relative values of the strings. As a result, the following expressions are True:
"ab" LT "aba"
"abde" LT "ac"

String operators
String operators manipulate strings of characters. The following table describes the operators:
Operator

Description

&

Concatenates strings.

&=

Compound concatenation. The variable on the right is used as both an element in the concatenation operation and
the result variable. Thus, the expression a &= b is equivalent to a = a & b.
An expression can have only one compound assignment operator.

Note: In a Query of Queries, you use || as the concatenation operator.

Ternary Operator
The ternary operator is a decision operator with three operands. It assigns a variable a value based on a Boolean
expression. The operator has the form
(Boolean expression)? expression1 : expresson2

If the Boolean expression evaluates to true, the operator result is expression1; otherwise, it is expression2
For example
<cfset c = (a GT b)? a : b >

If a is greater than b, c is assigned the value of a; otherwise, c is assigned the value of b.

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The parentheses can contain any expression that evaluates to a Boolean value, and a and b can be any valid expression.
You can nest this operator inside other expressions.

Operator precedence and evaluation ordering

The order of precedence controls the order in which operators in an expression are evaluated. The order of precedence
is as follows. (Some alternative names for operators, such as EQUALS and GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO are
omitted for brevity.)
Unary +, Unary ^
*, /
\
MOD
+, &
EQ, NEQ, LT, LTE, GT, GTE, CONTAINS, DOES NOT CONTAIN, ==, !=, >, >=, <, <=
NOT, !
AND, &&
OR, ||
XOR
EQV
IMP

To enforce a nonstandard order of evaluation, parenthesize expressions. For example:

6 - 3 * 2 is equal to 0
(6 - 3) * 2 is equal to 6
You can nest parenthesized expressions. When in doubt about the order in which operators in an expression are
evaluated, use parentheses to force the order of evaluation.

Using functions as operators

Functions are a form of operator. Because ColdFusion functions return values, you can use function results as
operands. Function arguments are expressions. For example, the following are valid expressions:

Rand()

UCase("This is a text: ") & ToString(123 + 456)

Function syntax
The following table shows function syntax and usage guidelines:
Usage

Example

No arguments

Function()

Basic format

Function(Data)

Nested functions

Function1(Function2(Data))

Multiple arguments

Function(Data1, Data2, Data3)

String arguments

Function('This is a demo')
Function('This is a demo')

Arguments that are expressions

Function1(X*Y, Function2("Text"))

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All functions return values. In the following example, the cfset tag sets a variable to the value returned by the Now
function:
<cfset myDate = DateFormat(Now(), "mmmm d, yyyy")>

You can use the values returned by functions directly to create more complex expressions, as in the following example:
Abs(Myvar)/Round(3.14159)

For more information on how to insert functions in expressions, see Using number signs on page 70.
Optional function arguments
Some functions take optional arguments after their required arguments. If omitted, all optional arguments default to
a predefined value. For example:

Replace("Eat and Eat", "Eat", "Drink") returns "Drink and Eat"

Replace("Eat and Eat", "Eat", "Drink", "All") returns "Drink and Drink"

The difference in the results is because the Replace function takes an optional fourth argument that specifies the scope
of replacement. The default value is One, which explains why only the first occurrence of Eat was replaced with
Drink in the first example. In the second example, a fourth argument causes the function to replace all occurrences
of Eat with Drink.
Expression evaluation and functions
It is important to remember that ColdFusion evaluates function attributes as expressions before it executes the
function. As a result, you can use any ColdFusion expression as a function attribute. For example, consider the
following lines:
<cfset firstVariable = "we all need">
<cfset myStringVar = UCase(firstVariable & " more sleep!")>

When ColdFusion server executes the second line, it does the following:
1 Identifies an expression with a string concatenation.
2 Evaluates the firstVariable variable as the string "we all need".
3 Concatenates "we all need" with the string "more sleep!" to get "we all need more sleep!".
4 Passes the string "we all need more sleep!" to the UCase function.
5 Executes the UCase function on the string argument "we all need more sleep!" to get "WE ALL NEED MORE

SLEEP!".
6 Assigns the string value "WE ALL NEED MORE SLEEP!" to the variable myStringVar.

ColdFusion completes steps 1-3 before running the function.

Using multiple assignments in one expression

You can chain assignments to assign the same value to multiple variables in a single statement. This includes chain
assignments for the results of an expression. The following code displays a chain assignment:
a=b=c=d*5

You can use the var operator in multiple assignments, but the variables with this operator must precede all others. For
example:

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//The following line is valid.

var a = var b = c = d*5
//The following line is not valid.
// a = b = var c = d*5

Using number signs

Number signs (#) have a special meaning in CFML. When the ColdFusion server encounters number signs in CFML
text, such as the text in a cfoutput tag body, it checks to see if the text between the number signs is either a variable
or a function.
Number signs are also called pound signs.
Is so, it replaces the text and surrounding number signs with the variable value or the result of the function. Otherwise,
ColdFusion generates an error.
For example, to output the current value of a variable named Form.MyFormVariable, you delimit (surround) the
variable name with number signs:
<cfoutput>Value is #Form.MyFormVariable#</cfoutput>

In this example, the variable Form.MyFormVariable is replaced with the value assigned to it.
Follow these guidelines when using number signs:

Use number signs to distinguish variables or functions from plain text.

Surround only a single variable or function in number signs; for example, #Variables.myVar# or #Left(myString,
position)#. (However, a function in number signs can contain nested functions, such as #Left(trim(myString),
position)#.

Do not place complex expressions, such as

1 + 2 in number signs. Although this is allowed in a cfoutput block,

such as <cfoutput>One plus one is #1 + 1#</cfoutput>, doing so mixes logic and presentation.

Use number signs only where necessary, because unneeded number signs slow processing.
For a description of using number signs to create variable names, see Using number signs to construct a variable name
in assignments on page 74.

Using number signs in ColdFusion tag attribute values

You can place variables, functions, or expressions inside tag attributes by enclosing the variable or expression with
number signs. For example, if the variable CookieValue has the value "MyCookie", the following line sets the
cfcookievalue attribute to "The value is MyCookie":
<cfcookie name="TestCookie" value="The value is #CookieValue#">

You can optionally omit quotation marks around variables used as attribute values as shown in the following example:
<cfcookie name = TestCookie value = #CookieValue#>

However, surrounding all attribute values in quotation marks is more consistent with HTML coding style.
If you use string expressions to construct an attribute value, as shown in the following example, the strings inside the
expression use single quotation marks (') to differentiate the quotation marks from the quotation marks that surround
the attribute value.
<cfcookie name="TestCookie2" value="The #CookieValue & 'ate the cookie!'#">

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Note: You do not need to use number signs when you use the cfset tag to assign one variables value to another value. For
example, the following tag assigns the value of the oldVar variable to the new variable, newVar: <cfset newVar =
oldVar>.

Using number signs in tag bodies

You can place variables or functions freely inside the bodies of the following tags by enclosing each variable or
expression with number signs:

cfoutput

cfquery

cfmail

For example:
<cfoutput>
Value is #Form.MyTextField#
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput>
The name is #FirstName# #LastName#.
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput>
The value of Cos(0) is #Cos(0)#
</cfoutput>

If you omit the number signs, the text, rather than the value, appears in the output generated by the cfoutput
statement.
Two expressions inside number signs can be adjacent to one another, as in the following example:
<cfoutput>
"Mo" and "nk" is #Left("Moon", 2)##Mid("Monkey", 3, 2)#
</cfoutput>

This code displays the following text:

"Mo" and "nk" is Monk
ColdFusion does not interpret the double number sign as an escaped # character.

Using number signs in strings

You can place variables or functions freely inside strings by enclosing each variable or expression with number signs;
for example:
<cfset TheString = "Value is #Form.MyTextField#">
<cfset TheString = "The name is #FirstName# #LastName#.">
<cfset TheString = "Cos(0) is #Cos(0)#">

ColdFusion automatically replaces the text with the value of the variable or the value returned by the function. For
example, the following pairs of cfset statements produce the same result:
<cfset TheString = "Hello, #FirstName#!">
<cfset TheString = "Hello, " & FirstName & "!">

If number signs are omitted inside the string, the text, rather than the value, appears in the string. For example, the
following pairs of cfset statements produce the same result:

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<cfset TheString = "Hello, FirstName!">

<cfset TheString = "Hello, " & "First" & "Name!">

As with the cfoutput statement, two expressions can be adjacent to each other in strings, as in the following example:
<cfset TheString = "Monk is #Left("Moon", 2)##Mid("Monkey", 3, 2)#">

The double-quotation marks around "Moon" and "Monkey" do not need to be escaped (as in ""Moon"" and
""Monkey""). This is because the text between the number signs is treated as an expression; it is evaluated before its
value is inserted inside the string.

Nested number signs

In a few cases, you can nest number signs in an expression. The following example uses nested number signs:
<cfset Sentence = "The length of the full name is #Len("#FirstName# #LastName#")#">

In this example, number signs are nested so that the values of the variables FirstName and LastName are inserted in
the string whose length the Len function calculates.
Nested number signs imply a complex expression that can typically be written more clearly and efficiently without the
nesting. For example, you can rewrite the preceding code example without the nested number signs, as follows:
<cfset Sentence2 = "The length of the full name is #Len(FirstName & " " & LastName)#">

The following achieves the same results and can further improve readability:
<cfset FullName = "#FirstName# #LastName#">
<cfset Sentence = "The length of the full name is #Len(FullName)#">

A common mistake is to place number signs around the arguments of functions, as in:
<cfset ResultText = "#Len(#TheText#)#">
<cfset ResultText = "#Min(#ThisVariable#, 5 + #ThatVariable#)#">
<cfset ResultText = "#Len(#Left("Some text", 4)#)#">

These statements result in errors. As a general rule, never place number signs around function arguments.

Using number signs in expressions

Use number signs in expressions only when necessary, because unneeded number signs reduce clarity and can increase
processing time. The following example shows the preferred method for referencing variables:
<cfset SomeVar = Var1 + Max(Var2, 10 * Var3) + Var4>

In contrast, the following example uses number signs unnecessarily and is less efficient than the previous statement:
<cfset #SomeVar# = #Var1# + #Max(Var2, 10 * Var3)# + #Var4#>

Dynamic expressions and dynamic variables

Many ColdFusion programmers never encounter or require dynamic expressions. However, dynamic variable naming
is important in situations where the variable names are not known in advance, such as in shopping cart applications.
ColdFusion also includes an IIf function, which is most often used without dynamic expressions. This function
dynamically evaluates its arguments, and you often must use the DE function to prevent the evaluation. For more
information on using the IIF function, see Using the IIF function on page 78.

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About dynamic variables

Dynamic variables are variables that are named dynamically, typically by creating a variable name from a static part
and a variable part. For example, the following example dynamically constructs the variable name from a variable
prefix and a static suffix:
<cfset "#flavor#_availability" = "out of stock">

Using dynamic variables in this manner does not require dynamic evaluation.

About dynamic expressions and dynamic evaluation

In a dynamic expression, the actual expression, not just its variable values, is determined at execution time. In other
words, in a dynamic expression the structure of the expression, such as the names of the variables, not just the values
of the variables, gets built at runtime.
You create dynamic expressions using string expressions, which are expressions contained in strings, (that is,
surrounded with quotation marks). Dynamic evaluation is the process of evaluating a string expression. The Evaluate
and IIf functions, and only these functions, perform dynamic evaluation.
When ColdFusion performs dynamic evaluation it does the following:
1 Takes a string expression and treats it as a standard expression, as if the expression was not a string.
2 Parses the expression to determine the elements of the expression and validate the expression syntax.
3 Evaluates the expression, looking up any variables and replacing them with their values, calling any functions, and

performing any required operations.

This process enables ColdFusion to interpret dynamic expressions with variable parts. However, it incurs a substantial
processing overhead.
Dynamic expressions were important in early versions of ColdFusion, before it supported arrays and structures, and
they still can be useful in limited circumstances. However, the ability to use structures and the ability to use associative
array notation to access structure elements provide more efficient and easier methods for dynamically managing data.
For information on using arrays and structures, see Using Arrays and Structures on page 82.
Selecting how to create variable names
The following two examples describe cases when you need dynamic variable names:

Form applications where the number and names of fields on the form vary dynamically. In this case, the form posts
only the names and values of its fields to the action page. The action page does not know all the names of the fields,
although it does know how the field names (that is, the variable names) are constructed.

If the following are true:

ColdFusion calls a custom tag multiple times.
The custom tag result must be returned to different variables each time.
The calling code can specify the variable in which to return the custom tag result.
In this case, the custom tag does not know the return variable name in advance, and gets it as an attribute value.
In both cases, it might appear that dynamic expressions using the Evaluate function are needed to construct the
variable names. However, you can achieve the same ends more efficiently by using dynamic variable naming, as shown
in Example: a dynamic shopping cart on page 79.

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This does not mean that you must always avoid dynamic evaluation. However, given the substantial performance costs
of dynamic evaluation, first ensure that one of the following techniques cannot serve your purpose:

An array (using index variables)

Associative array references containing expressions to access structure elements
Dynamically generated variable names

Dynamic variable naming without dynamic evaluation

While ColdFusion does not always allow you to construct a variable name inline from variable pieces, but it does allow
the most common uses.
Using number signs to construct a variable name in assignments
You can combine text and variable names to construct a variable name on the left side of a cfset assignment. For
example, the following code sets the value of the variable Product12 to the string "Widget":
<cfset ProdNo = 12>
<cfset "Product#ProdNo#" = "Widget">

To construct a variable name this way, all the text on the left side of the equal sign must be in quotation marks.
This usage is less efficient than using arrays. The following example has the same purpose as the previous one, but
requires less processing:
<cfset MyArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset prodNo = 12>
<cfset myArray[prodNo] = "Widget">

Dynamic variable limitation

When you use a dynamic variable name in quotation marks on the left side of an assignment, the name must be either
a simple variable name or a complex name that uses object.property notation (such as MyStruct.#KeyName#). You
cannot use an array as part of a dynamic variable name. For example, the following code generates an error:
<cfset MyArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset productClassNo = 1>
<cfset productItemNo = 9>
<cfset "myArray[#productClassNo##productItemNo#]" = "Widget">

However, you can construct an array index value dynamically from variables without using quotation marks on the left
side of an assignment. For example, the preceding sample code works if you replace the final line with the following line:
<cfset myArray[#productClassNo# & #productItemNo#] = "Widget">

Dynamically constructing structure references

The ability to use associative array notation to reference structures provides a way for you to use variables to
dynamically create structure references. (For a description of associative array notation, see Structure notation on
page 93.) Associative array structure notation allows you to use a ColdFusion expression inside the index brackets. For
example, if you have a productName structure with keys of the form product_1, product_2 and so on, you can use the
following code to display the value of productName.product_3:
<cfset prodNo = 3>
<cfoutput>
Product_3 Name: #ProductName["product_" & prodNo]#
<cfoutput>

For an example of using this format to manage a shopping cart, see Example: a dynamic shopping cart on page 79.

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Using dynamic evaluation

Dynamic evaluation and dynamic expressions have several features and consideratons.
ColdFusion dynamic evaluation functions
The following table describes the functions that perform dynamic evaluation and are useful in evaluating dynamic
expressions:
Function

Purpose

DE

Escapes any double-quotation marks in the argument and wraps the result in double-quotation marks. The
DE function is particularly useful with the IIF function, to prevent the function from evaluating a string to
be output.
For an example of using the DE function with the IIF function, see Using the IIF function on page 78.

Evaluate

Takes one or more string expressions and dynamically evaluates their contents as expressions from left to
right. (The results of an evaluation to the left can have meaning in an expression to the right.) Returns the
result of evaluating the rightmost argument.
For more information on this function see About the Evaluate function on page 75.

IIf

Evaluates a Boolean condition expression. Depending on whether this expression is True or False,
dynamically evaluates one of two string expressions and returns the result of the evaluation. The IIF
function is convenient for incorporating a cfif tag in line in HTML.
For an example of using this function, see Using the IIF function on page 78.

PrecisionEvaluate

Operates identically to the Evaluate function, except that it can calculate arbitrary precision decimal
arithmetic. If one or more operands in an arithmetic expression are decimal numbers, such as
12947834.986532, and are too long to be represented exactly by a ColdFusion numeric data type, the
function uses arbitrary-precision arithmetic to calculate the result, and return the result as an arbitrarily
long string of numbers. For more information about this function, see PrecisionEvaluate in the CFML
Reference.

SetVariable

Sets a variable identified by the first argument to the value specified by the second argument. This function
is no longer required in well-formed ColdFusion pages; see SetVariable function considerations on
page 78.

Function argument evaluation considerations

It is important to remember that ColdFusion always evaluates function arguments before the argument values are
passed to a function:
For example, consider the following DE function:
<cfoutput>#DE("1" & "2")#</cfoutput>

You might expect this line to display """1"" & ""2""". Instead, it displays 12, because ColdFusion processes the line as
follows:
1 Evaluates the expression "1" & "2" as the string 12.
2 Passes the string "12" (without the quotation marks) to the DE function.
3 Calls the DE function, which adds literal quotation marks around the 12.

Similarly, if you use the expression DE(1 + 2), ColdFusion evaluates 1 + 2 as the integer 3 and passes it to the function.
The function converts it to a string and surrounds the string in literal quotation marks: 3.
About the Evaluate function
The Evaluate function takes one or more string expressions, dynamically evaluates their contents as expressions from
left to right, and returns the result of evaluating the rightmost argument.

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The following example shows the Evaluate function and how it works with ColdFusion variable processing:
<cfset myVar2="myVar">
<cfset myVar="27/9">
<cfoutput>
#myVar2#<br>
#myVar#<br>
#Evaluate("myVar2")#<br>
#Evaluate("myVar")#<br>
#Evaluate(myVar2)#<br>
#Evaluate(myVar)#<br>
</cfoutput>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes how ColdFusion processes this code:
Code

Description

<cfset myVar2="myVar">

Sets the two variables to the following strings:

<cfset myVar="27/9">

myVar
27/9

<cfoutput>

Displays the values assigned to the variables, myVar and 27/9, respectively.

#myVar2#<br/>
#myVar#<br/>
#Evaluate("myVar2")#<br>

Passes the string "myvar2" (without the quotation marks) to the Evaluate function, which
does the following:
1

Evaluates it as the variable myVar2.

2 Returns the value of the myVar2 variable, the string "myvar" (without the quotation
marks).
#Evaluate("myVar")#<br>

Passes the string "myvar" (without the quotation marks) to the Evaluate function, which
does the following:
1

Evaluates it as the variable myVar.

Returns the value of the myVar variable, the string "27/9" (without the quotation marks).

#Evaluate(myVar2)#<br>

Evaluates the variable myVar2 as the string "myVar" and passes the string (without the
quotation marks) to the Evaluate function. The rest of the processing is the same as in the
previous line.

#Evaluate(myVar)#<br/>

Evaluates the variable myVar as the string "27/9" (without the quotation marks), and passes
it to the Evaluate function, which does the following:

</cfoutput>

Evaluates the string as the expression 27/9

Performs the division.

Returns the resulting value, 3

As you can see, using dynamic expressions can result in substantial expression evaluation overhead, and the code can
be confusing. Therefore, you should avoid using dynamic expressions wherever a simpler technique, such as using
indexed arrays or structures can serve your purposes.
Avoiding the Evaluate function
Using the Evaluate function increases processing overhead, and in most cases it is not necessary. These examples
show some cases where you can consider using the Evaluate function:

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Example 1
You might be inclined to use the Evaluate function in code such as the following:
<cfoutput>1 + 1 is #Evaluate(1 + 1)#</cfoutput>

Although this code works, it is not as efficient as the following code:

<cfset Result = 1 + 1>
<cfoutput>1 + 1 is #Result#</cfoutput>

Example 2
This example shows how you can use an associative array reference in place of an Evaluate function. This technique
is powerful because:

Most ColdFusion scopes are accessible as structures.

You can use ColdFusion expressions in the indexes of associative array structure references. For more information
on using associative array references for structures, see Structure notation on page 93.
The following example uses the Evaluate function to construct a variable name:
<cfoutput>
Product Name: #Evaluate("Form.product_#i#")#
</cfoutput>

This code comes from an example where a form has entries for an indeterminate number of items in a shopping cart.
A product name field exists for each item in the shopping cart. The field name is of the form product_1, product_2,
and so on, where the number corresponds to the product entry in the shopping cart. In this example, ColdFusion does
the following:
1 Replaces the variable i with its value, for example 1.
2 concatenates the variable value with "Form.product_", and passes the result (for Form.product_1) to the Evaluate

function, which does the remaining steps.

3 Parses the variable product_1 and generates an executable representation of the variable. Because ColdFusion must

run its parser, this step requires substantial processing, even for a simple variable.
4 Evaluates the representation of the variable, for example as "Air popper".
5 Returns the value of the variable.

The following example has the same result as the preceding example and is more efficient:
<cfoutput>
ProductName: #Form["product_" & i]#
</cfoutput>

In this code, ColdFusion does the following:

1 Evaluates the expression in the associative array index brackets as the string "product_" concatenated with the value

of the variable i.
2 Determines the value of the variable i; 1.
3 Concatenates the string and the variable value to get product_1.
4 Uses the result as the key value in the Form structure to get Form[product_1]. This associative array reference

accesses the same value as the object.attribute format reference Form.product_1; in this case, Air popper.
This code format does not use any dynamic evaluation, but it achieves the same effect, of dynamically creating a
structure reference by using a string and a variable.

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SetVariable function considerations

You can avoid using the SetVariable function by using a format such as the following to set a dynamically named
variable. For example, the following lines are equivalent:
<cfset SetVariable("myVar" & i, myVal)>
<cfset "myVar#i#" = myVal>

In the second line, enclosing the myVar#i# variable name in quotation marks tells ColdFusion to evaluate the name
and process any text in number signs as a variable or function. ColdFusion replaces the #i# with the value of the
variable i, so that if the value of i is 12, this code is equivalent to the line
<cfset myVar12 = myVal>

For more information on this usage, see Using number signs to construct a variable name in assignments on page 74.

Using the IIF function

The IIf function is a shorthand for the following code:
<cfif argument1>
<cfset result = Evaluate(argument1)>
<cfelse>
<cfset result = Evaluate(argument2)>
</cfif>

The function returns the value of the result variable. It is comparable to the use of the JavaScript and Java ? : operator,
and can result in more compact code. As a result, the IIF function can be convenient even if you are not using dynamic
expressions.
The IIF function requires the DE function to prevent ColdFusion from evaluating literal strings, as the following
example shows:
<cfoutput>
#IIf(IsDefined("LocalVar"), "LocalVar", DE("The variable is not defined."))#
</cfoutput>

If you do not enclose the string "The variable is not defined." in a DE function, the IIF function tries to evaluate the
contents of the string as an expression and generates an error (in this case, an invalid parser construct error).
The IIF function is useful for incorporating ColdFusion logic in line in HTML code, but it entails a processing time
penalty in cases where you do not otherwise need dynamic expression evaluation.
The following example shows using IIF to alternate table row background color between white and gray. It also shows
the use of the DE function to prevent ColdFusion from evaluating the color strings.
<cfoutput>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3">
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="10">
<tr bgcolor="#IIF( i mod 2 eq 0, DE("white"), DE("gray") )#">
<td>
hello #i#
</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
</cfoutput>

This code is more compact than the following example, which does not use IIF or DE:

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<cfoutput>
<table border="1" cellpadding="3">
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="10">
<cfif i mod 2 EQ 0>
<cfset Color = "white">
<cfelse>
<cfset Color = "gray">
</cfif>
<tr bgcolor="#color#">
<td>
hello #i#
</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
</cfoutput>

Example: a dynamic shopping cart

The following example dynamically creates and manipulates variable names without using dynamic expression
evaluation by using associative array notation.
You need to dynamically generate variable names in applications such as shopping carts, where the required output is
dynamically generated and variable. In a shopping cart, you do not know in advance the number of cart entries or their
contents. Also, because you are using a form, the action page only receives Form variables with the names and values
of the form fields.
The following example shows the shopping cart contents and lets you edit your order and submit it. To simplify things,
the example automatically generates the shopping cart contents using CFScript instead of having the user fill the cart.
A more complete example would populate a shopping cart as the user selected items. Similarly, the example omits all
business logic for committing and making the order.
Create the form
1 Create a file in your editor.
<html>
<head>
<title>Shopping Cart</title>
</head>
<cfscript>
CartItems=4;
Cart = ArrayNew(1);
for ( i=1; i LE cartItems; i=i+1)
{
Cart[i]=StructNew();
Cart[i].ID=i;
Cart[i].Name="Product " & i;
Cart[i].SKU=i*100+(2*i*10)+(3*i);
Cart[i].Qty=3*i-2;
}
</cfscript>
<body>
Your shopping cart has the following items.<br>
You can change your order quantities.<br>
If you don't want any item, clear the item's check box.<br>

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When you are ready to order, click submit.<br>

<br>
<cfform name="ShoppingCart" action="ShoppingCartAction.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>Order?</td>
<td>Product</td>
<td>Code</td>
<td>Quantity</td>
</tr>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#cartItems#">
<tr>
<cfset productName= "product_" & Cart[i].ID>
<cfset skuName= "sku_" & Cart[i].ID>
<cfset qtyname= "qty_" & Cart[i].ID>
<td><cfinput type="checkbox" name="itemID" value="#Cart[i].ID#" checked>
</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="#productName#" value="#Cart[i].Name#"
passThrough = "readonly = 'True'"></td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="#skuName#" value="#Cart[i].SKU#"
passThrough = "readonly = 'True'"></td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="#qtyName#" value="#Cart[i].Qty#">
</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as ShoppingCartForm.cfm.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:

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Code

Description

<cfscript>
CartItems=4;
Cart = ArrayNew(1);
for ( i=1; i LE cartItems; i=i+1)
{
Cart[i]=StructNew();
Cart[i].ID=i;
Cart[i].Name="Product " & i;
Cart[i].SKU=i*100+(2*i*10)+(3*i);
Cart[i].Qty=3*i-2;
}
</cfscript>

Create a shopping cart as an array of structures, with each structure

containing the cart item ID, product name, SKU number, and quantity
ordered for one item in the cart. Populate the shopping cart by
looping CartItems times and setting the structure variables to
arbitrary values based on the loop counter. A real application would
set the Name, SKU, and Quantity values on other pages.

<cfform name="ShoppingCart"
action="ShoppingCartAction.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>Order?</td>
<td>Product</td>
<td>Code</td>
<td>Quantity</td>
</tr>

Start the form and its embedded table. When the user clicks the
submit button, post the form data to the ShoppingCartAction.cfm
page.

<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#cartItems#">

<tr>
<cfset productName= "product_" & Cart[i].ID>
<cfset skuName= "sku_" & Cart[i].ID>
<cfset qtyname= "qty_" & Cart[i].ID>
<td><cfinput type="checkbox" name="itemID"
value="#Cart[i].ID#" checked>
</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="#productName#"
value="#Cart[i].Name#"
passThrough = "readonly = 'True'"></td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="#skuName#"
value="#Cart[i].SKU#"
passThrough = "readonly = 'True'"></td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="#qtyName#"
value="#Cart[i].Qty#">
</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>

Loop through the shopping cart entries to generate the cart form
dynamically. For each loop, generate variables used for the form field
name attributes by appending the cart item ID (Cart[i].ID) to a field
type identifier, such as "sku_".

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">

</cfform>

The table formats the form neatly. The first table row contains the
column headers. Each following row has the data for one cart item.

Use a single name, "itemID", for all check boxes. This way, the itemID
value posted to the action page is a list of all the check box field
values. The check box field value for each item is the cart item ID.
Each column in a row contains a field for a cart item structure entry.
The passthrough attribute sets the product name and SKU fields to
read only; note the use of single-quotation marks. (For more
information on the cfinput tag passthrough attribute, see the CFML
Reference.) The check boxes are selected by default.

Create the Submit button and end the form.

Create the Action page

1 Create a file in your editor.
2 Enter the following text:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Your Order</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfif isDefined("Form.submit")>
<cfparam name="Form.itemID" default="">
<cfoutput>
You have ordered the following items:<br>
<br>
<cfloop index="i" list="#Form.itemID#">
ProductName: #Form["product_" & i]#<br>
Product Code: #Form["sku_" & i]#<br>
Quantity: #Form["qty_" & i]#<br>
<br>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</body>
</html>

3 Save the file as ShoppingCartAction.cfm

4 Open ShoppingCartform.cfm in your browser, change the check box and quantity values, and click Submit.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfif isDefined("Form.submit")>

Run the CFML on this page only if it is called by submitting a form. This is not needed
if the form and action pages are separate, but is required if the form and action page
were one ColdFusion page.

<cfparam name="Form.itemID" default="">

Set the default Form.itemID to the empty string. This prevents ColdFusion from
displaying an error if the user clears all check boxes before submitting the form (so
no product IDs are submitted).

<cfoutput>
You have ordered the following items:<br>
<br>
<cfloop index="i" list="#Form.itemID#">
ProductName: #Form["product_" & i]#<br>
Product Code: #Form["sku_" & i]#<br>
Quantity: #Form["qty_" & i]#<br>
<br>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Display the name, SKU number, and quantity for each ordered item.
The form page posts Form.itemID as a list containing the value attributes of all the
check boxes. These attributes contain the shopping cart item IDs for the selected cart
items. Use the list values to index a loop that outputs each ordered item.
Use associative array notation to access the Form scope as a structure and use
expressions in the array indexes to construct the form variable names. The
expressions consist of a string containing the field names field type prefix (for
example, "sku_"), concatenated with the variable i, which contains the shopping cart
ItemID number (which is also the loop index variable).

Using Arrays and Structures

Adobe ColdFusion supports dynamic multidimensional arrays. Using arrays can enhance your ColdFusion
application code.
Adobe ColdFusion also supports structures for managing lists of key-value pairs. Because structures can contain other
structures or complex data types as it values, they provide a flexible and powerful tool for managing complex data.

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About arrays
Traditionally, an array is a tabular structure used to hold data, much like a spreadsheet table with clearly defined limits
and dimensions.
In ColdFusion, you typically use arrays to temporarily store data. For example, if your site lets users order goods
online, you can store their shopping cart contents in an array. Using an array lets you make changes easily without
committing the information, which the user can change before completing the transaction, to a database.

Basic array concepts

Subsequent discussions of ColdFusion arrays are based on the following terms:
Array dimension The relative complexity of the array structure.
Index The position of an element in a dimension, ordinarily surrounded by brackets: my1Darray[1],

my2Darray[1][1], my3Darray[1][1][1].
Array element: Data stored at an array index.

The simplest array is a one-dimensional array, like a row in a table. A one-dimensional array has a name (the variable
name) and a numeric index. The index number references a single entry, or cell, in the array.
Thus, the following statement sets the value of the fifth entry in the one-dimensional array MyArray to Robert:
<cfset MyArray[5] = "Robert">

A basic two-dimensional (2D) array is like a simple table. A three-dimensional (3D) array is like a cube of data, and so
on. ColdFusion lets you directly create arrays with up to three dimensions. You can use multiple statements to create
arrays with more than three dimensions.
The syntax my2darray[1][3]="Paul" is the same as saying My2dArray is a two-dimensional array and the value of
the array element index [1][3] is Paul.

About ColdFusion arrays

ColdFusion arrays differ from traditional arrays, because they are dynamic. For example, in a conventional array, array
size is constant and symmetrical, whereas in a ColdFusion array, you can have rows of differing lengths based on the
data that is added or removed.
A conventional 2D array is like a fixed-size table made up of individual cells.
A ColdFusion 2D array is actually a one-dimensional array that contains a series of additional 1D arrays. Each of the
arrays that make up a row can expand and contract independently of any other column.

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The following figure represents a ColdFusion 2D array:

a[1]

a[1][1] a[1][2] a[1][3] a[1][4]

a[2]

a[2][1]

a[3]

a[3][1] a[3][2]

a[4]

a[4][1]

a[2][5]

a[4][3]

A ColdFusion 3D array is essentially three nested sets of 1D arrays. The differences between traditional and
ColdFusion 3D arrays are similar, but much harder to show on a page.
Dynamic arrays expand to accept data that you add to them and contract as you remove data from them.

Basic array techniques

Referencing array elements
You reference array elements by enclosing the index with brackets: arrayName[x] where x is the index that you want
to reference. In ColdFusion, array indexes are counted starting with position 1, which means that position 1 in the
firstname array is referenced as firstname[1]. For 2D arrays, you reference an index by specifying two coordinates:
myarray[1][1].
You can use ColdFusion variables and expressions inside the brackets to reference an index, as the following example
shows:
<cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myArray[1]="First Array Element">
<cfset myArray[1 + 1]="Second Array" & "Element">
<cfset arrayIndex=3>
<cfset arrayElement="Third Array Element">
<cfset myArray[arrayIndex]=arrayElement>
<cfset myArray[++arrayIndex]="Fourth Array Element">
<cfdump var=#myArray#>

Note: The IsDefined function does not test the existence of array elements. Instead, place any code that could try to
access an undefined array element in a try block and use a catch block to handle exceptions that arise if elements do not
exist.

Creating arrays
In ColdFusion, you can create arrays explicitly, by using a function to declare the array and then assigning it data, or
implicitly by using an assignment statement. You can create simple or complex, multidimensional arrays.

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Creating arrays using functions

To create an array explicitly, you use the arrayNew function and specify the array dimensions, as in the following
example:
<cfset myNewArray=ArrayNew(2)>

This line creates a two-dimensional array named myNewArray. You use this method to create an array with up to three
dimensions.
After you create an array, you add array elements, which you can then reference by using the element indexes.
For example, suppose you create a one-dimensional array called firstname:
<cfset firstname=ArrayNew(1)>

The array firstname holds no data and is of an unspecified length. Next you add data to the array:
<cfset firstname[1]="Coleman">
<cfset firstname[2]="Charlie">
<cfset firstname[3]="Dexter">

After you add these names to the array, it has a length of 3.

Creating and using arrays implicitly
To create an array implicitly, you do not use the ArrayNew function. Instead, you use a new variable name on the left
side of an assignment statement, and array notation on the right side of the statement, as in the following example:
<cfset firstnameImplicit=["Coleman","Charlie","Dexter"]>

This single statement is equivalent to the four statements used to create the firstname array in Creating arrays using
functions on page 85.
When you create an array implicitly, the right side of the assignment statement has brackets ([]) surrounding the array
contents and commas separating the individual array elements. The elements can be literal values, such as the strings
in the example, variables, or expressions. If you specify variables, do not place the variable names in quotation marks.
You can create an empty array implicitly, as in the following example:
<cfset myArray = []>

You can also create an array implicitly by assigning a single entry, as the following example shows:
<cfset chPar[1] = "Charlie">
<cfset chPar[2] = "Parker">

ColdFusion does not allow nested implicit creation of arrays, structures, or arrays and structures. Therefore, you
cannot create a multidimensional array in a single implicit statement. For example, neither of the following statements
is valid:
<cfset myArray = [[],[]]>
<cfset jazzmen = [["Coleman","Charlie"],["Hawkins", "Parker"]]

To create a two-dimensional array, for example, use a format such as the following:
<cfset ch = ["Coleman", "Hawkins"]>
<cfset cp = ["Charlie", "Parker"]>
<cfset dg = ["Dexter", "Gordon"]>
<cfset players = [ch, cp, dg]>

You cannot use a dynamic variable when you create an array implicitly. For example, the following expression
generates an error:

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<cfset i="CP">
<cfset "#i#"=["Charlie","Parker"]>

Creating complex multidimensional arrays

ColdFusion supports dynamic multidimensional arrays. When you declare an array with the ArrayNew function, you
specify the number of dimensions. You can create an asymmetrical array or increase the number of dimensions by
nesting arrays as array elements.
It is important to know that when you assign one array (array1) to an element of another array (array2), array1 is
copied into array2. The original copy of array1 still exists, independent of array2. You can then change the contents of
the two arrays independently.
The best way to understand an asymmetrical array is by looking at it. The following example creates an asymmetric,
multidimensional, array, and the cfdump tag displays the resulting array structure. Several array elements do not yet
contain data.
<cfset myarray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myotherarray=ArrayNew(2)>
<cfset biggerarray=ArrayNew(3)>
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

biggerarray[1][1][1]=myarray>
biggerarray[1][1][1][10]=3>
biggerarray[2][1][1]=myotherarray>
biggerarray[2][1][1][4][2]="five deep">

<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

biggestarray=ArrayNew(3)>
biggestarray[3][1][1]=biggerarray>
biggestarray[3][1][1][2][3][1]="This is complex">
myarray[3]="Can you see me">

<cfdump var=#biggestarray#><br>
<cfdump var=#myarray#>

Note: The cfdump tag displays the entire contents of an array. It is an excellent tool for debugging arrays and arrayhandling code.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfset myarray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myotherarray=ArrayNew(2)>
<cfset biggerarray=ArrayNew(3)>

Create three empty arrays, a 1D array, a 2D array, and a 3D array.

<cfset biggerarray[1][1][1]=myarray>
<cfset biggerarray[1][1][1][10]=3>

Make element [1][1][1] of the 3D biggerarray array be a copy

of the 1D array. Assign 3 to the [1][1][1][10] element of the
resulting array.
The biggerarray array is now asymmetric. For example, it does
not have a [1][1][2][1] element.

<cfset biggerarray[2][1][1]=myotherarray>
<cfset biggerarray[2][1][1][4][2]="five deep">

Make element [2][1][1] of the 3D array be the 2D array, and

assign the [2][1][1][4][2] element the value "five deep".
The biggerarray array is now even more asymmetric.

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Code

Description

<cfset biggestarray=ArrayNew(3)>
Create a second 3D array. Make the [3][1][1] element of this
<cfset biggestarray[3][1][1]=biggerarray>
array a copy of the biggerarray array, and assign element
<cfset biggestarray[3][1][1][2][3][1]="This is complex"> [3][1][1][2][3][1].

The resulting array is complex and asymmetric.

<cfset myarray[3]="Can you see me">

Assign a value to element [3] of myarray.

<cfdump var=#biggestarray#><br>
<cfdump var=#myarray#>

Use cfdump to view the structure of biggestarray and myarray.

Notice that the "Can you see me" entry appears in myarray, but
not in biggestarray, because biggestarray has a copy of the
original myarray values and the change to myarray does not
affect it.

Using implicitly created arrays

You can use implicitly created arrays directly in functions (including user-defined functions) and tags. For example,
the following code uses two implicit arrays, one in a ColdFusion function, the other in a user-defined function:
<cffunction name="sumarray">
<cfargument name="inarray" type="array">
<cfset result = 0>
<cfloop array="#inarray#" index="i" >
<cfset result += i>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn result>
</cffunction>
<cfoutput>
Summed Implicit array [#ArrayToList([1,2,3,4,5,6])#]: #sumarray([1,2,3,4,5,6])#<br />
</cfoutput>

Adding elements to an array

You can add an element to an array by assigning the element a value or by using a ColdFusion function.
Adding an array element by assignment
You can add elements to an array by defining the value of an array element, as shown in the following cfset tag:
<cfset myarray[5]="Test Message">

If an element does not exist at the specified index, ColdFusion creates it. If an element exists at the specified index,
ColdFusion replaces it with the new value. To prevent existing data from being overwritten, use the ArrayInsertAt
function, as described in the next section.
If elements with lower-number indexes do not exist, they remain undefined. Assign values to undefined array elements
before you can use them. For example, the following code creates an array and an element at index 4. It outputs the
contents of element 4, but generates an error when it tries to output the (nonexistent) element 3.
<cfset myarray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myarray[4]=4>
<cfoutput>
myarray4: #myarray[4]#<br>
myarray3: #myarray[3]#<br>
</cfoutput>

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Adding an array element with a function

You can use the following array functions to add data to an array:
Function

Description

ArrayAppend

Creates an array element at the end of the array.

ArrayPrepend

Creates an array element at the beginning of the array.

ArrayInsertAt

Inserts an array element at the specified index position.

Because ColdFusion arrays are dynamic, if you add or delete an element from the array, any higher-numbered index
values all change. For example, the following code creates a two element array and displays the array contents. It then
uses ArrayPrepend to insert a new element at the beginning of the array and displays the result. The data that was
originally in indexes 1 and 2 is now in indexes 2 and 3.
<!--- Create an array with three elements. --->
<cfset myarray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myarray[1]="Original First Element">
<cfset myarray[2]="Original Second Element">
<!--- Use cfdump to display the array structure --->
<cfdump var=#myarray#>
<br>
<!--- Add a new element at the beginning of the array. --->
<cfscript>
ArrayPrepend(myarray, "New First Element");
</cfscript>
<!--- Use cfdump to display the new array structure. --->
<cfdump var=#myarray#>

For more information about these array functions, see the CFML Reference.

Deleting elements from an array

Use the ArrayDeleteAt function to delete data from the array at a particular index, instead of setting the data value
to zero or an empty string. If you remove data from an array, the array resizes dynamically, as the following example
shows:
<!--- Create an array with three elements --->
<cfset firstname=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset firstname[1]="Robert">
<cfset firstname[2]="Wanda">
<cfset firstname[3]="Jane">
<!--- Delete the second element from the array --->
<cfset temp=ArrayDeleteAt(firstname, 2)>
<!--- Display the array length (2) and its two entries,
which are now "Robert" and "Jane" --->
<cfoutput>
The array now has #ArrayLen(firstname)# indexes<br>
The first entry is #firstname[1]#<br>
The second entry is #firstname[2]#<br>
</cfoutput>

The ArrayDeleteAt function removed the original second element and resized the array so that it has two entries,
with the second element now being the original third element.

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Copying arrays
You can copy arrays of simple variables (numbers, strings, Boolean values, and date-time values) by assigning the
original array to a new variable name. You do not have to use ArrayNew to create the array first. When you assign the
existing array to a new variable, ColdFusion creates an array and copies the contents of the old array to the new array.
The following example creates and populates a two-element array. It then copies the original array, changes one
element of the copied array and dumps both arrays. As you can see, the original array is unchanged and the copy has
a new second element.
<cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myArray[1]="First Array Element">
<cfset myArray[2]="Second Array Element">
<cfset newArray=myArray>
<cfset newArray[2]="New Array Element 2">
<cfdump var=#myArray#><br>
<cfdump var=#newArray#>

If your array contains complex variables (structures, query objects, or external objects such as COM objects) assigning
the original array to a new variable does not make a complete copy of the original array. The array structure is copied;
however, the new array does not get its own copy of the complex data, only references to it. To demonstrate this
behavior, run the following code:
Create an array that contains a structure.<br>
<cfset myStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset myStruct.key1="Structure key 1">
<cfset myStruct.key2="Structure key 2">
<cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myArray[1]=myStruct>
<cfset myArray[2]="Second array element">
<cfdump var=#myArray#><br>
<br>
Copy the array and dump it.<br>
<cfset myNewArray=myArray>
<cfdump var=#myNewArray#><br>
<br>
Change the values in the new array.<br>
<cfset myNewArray[1].key1="New first array element">
<cfset myNewArray[2]="New second array element">
<br>
Contents of the original array after the changes:<br>
<cfdump var=#myArray#><br>
Contents of the new array after the changes:<br>
<cfdump var=#myNewArray#>

The change to the new array also changes the contents of the structure in the original array.
To make a complete copy of an array that contains complex variables, use the Duplicate function.

Populating arrays with data

Array elements can store any values, including queries, structures, and other arrays. You can use assignment
statements to populate an array. You can also use several of functions to populate an array with data, including
ArraySet, ArrayAppend, ArrayInsertAt, and ArrayPrepend. These functions are useful for adding data to an
existing array.
In particular, consider using the following techniques:

Populating an array with the ArraySet function

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Populating an array with the cfloop tag

Populating an array from a query

Populating an array with the ArraySet function

You can use the ArraySet function to populate a 1D array, or one dimension of a multidimensional array, with some
initial value, such as an empty string or zero. This can be useful to create an array of a certain size, without adding data
to it right away. One reason to do this is so that you can reference all the array indexes. If you reference an array index
that does not contain some value, such as an empty string, you get an error.
The ArraySet function has the following form:
ArraySet (arrayname, startrow, endrow, value)

The following example initializes the array myarray, indexes 1 - 100, with an empty string:
ArraySet (myarray, 1, 100, "")

Populating an array with the cfloop tag

The cfloop tag provides a common and efficient method for populating an array. The following example uses a
cfloop tag and the MonthAsString function to populate a simple 1D array with the names of the months. A second
cfloop outputs data in the array to the browser.
<cfset months=arraynew(1)>
<cfloop index="loopcount" from=1 to=12>
<cfset months[loopcount]=MonthAsString(loopcount)>
</cfloop>
<cfloop index="loopcount" from=1 to=12>
<cfoutput>
#months[loopcount]#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

Using nested loops for 2D and 3D arrays

To output values from 2D and 3D arrays, employ nested loops to return array data. With a one-dimensional (1D)
array, a single cfloop is sufficient to output data, as in the previous example. With arrays of dimension greater than
one, you maintain separate loop counters for each array level.
Nesting cfloop tags for a 2D array
The following example shows how to handle nested cfloop tags to output data from a 2D array. It also uses nested
cfloop tags to populate the array:

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<cfset my2darray=arraynew(2)>
<cfloop index="loopcount" from=1 to=12>
<cfloop index="loopcount2" from=1 to=2>
<cfset my2darray[loopcount][loopcount2]=(loopcount * loopcount2)>
</cfloop>
</cfloop>
<p>The values in my2darray are currently:</p>
<cfloop index="OuterCounter" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(my2darray)#">
<cfloop index="InnerCounter" from="1"to="#ArrayLen(my2darray[OuterCounter])#">
<cfoutput>
<b>[#OuterCounter#][#InnerCounter#]</b>:
#my2darray[OuterCounter][InnerCounter]#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
</cfloop>

Nesting cfloop tags for a 3D array

For 3D arrays, you simply nest an additional cfloop tag. (This example does not set the array values first to keep the
code short.)
<cfloop index="Dim1" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(my3darray)#">
<cfloop index="Dim2" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(my3darray[Dim1])#">
<cfloop index="Dim3" from="1"to="#ArrayLen(my3darray[Dim1][Dim2])#">
<cfoutput>
<b>[#Dim1#][#Dim2#][#Dim3#]</b>:
#my3darray[Dim1][Dim2][Dim3]#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
</cfloop>
</cfloop>

Populating an array from a query

When populating an array from a query, remember the following:

You cannot add query data to an array all at once. A looping structure is often required to populate an array from
a query.

You can reference query column data using array-like syntax. For example, myquery.col_name[1] references data
in the first row in the col_name column of the myquery query.

Inside a cfloopquery= loop, you do not have to specify the query name to reference the query variables.
You can use a cfset tag with the following syntax to define values for array indexes:
<cfset arrayName[index]=queryColumn[row]>

In the following example, a cfloop tag places four columns of data from a sample data source into an array, myarray.

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<!--- Do the query --->

<cfquery name="test" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Emp_ID, LastName, FirstName, Email
FROM Employees
</cfquery>
<!--- Declare the array --->
<cfset myarray=arraynew(2)>
<!--- Populate the array row by row --->
<cfloop query="test">
<cfset myarray[CurrentRow][1]=Emp_ID>
<cfset myarray[CurrentRow][2]=LastName>
<cfset myarray[CurrentRow][3]=FirstName>
<cfset myarray[CurrentRow][4]=Email>
</cfloop>
<!--- Now, create a loop to output the array contents --->
<cfset total_records=test.recordcount>
<cfloop index="Counter" from=1 to="#Total_Records#">
<cfoutput>
ID: #MyArray[Counter][1]#,
LASTNAME: #MyArray[Counter][2]#,
FIRSTNAME: #MyArray[Counter][3]#,
EMAIL: #MyArray[Counter][4]# <br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

This example uses the query object built-in variable CurrentRow to index the first dimension of the array.

Array functions
The following functions are available for creating, editing, and handling arrays:
Function

Description

ArrayAppend

Appends an array element to the end of a specified array.

ArrayAvg

Returns the average of the values in the specified array.

ArrayClear

Deletes all data in a specified array.

ArrayDeleteAt

Deletes an element from a specified array at the specified index and resizes the array.

ArrayInsertAt

Inserts an element (with data) in a specified array at the specified index and resizes the array.

ArrayIsDefined

Returns True if the specified array is defined.

ArrayIsEmpty

Returns True if the specified array is empty of data.

ArrayLen

Returns the length of the specified array.

ArrayMax

Returns the largest numeric value in the specified array.

ArrayMin

Returns the smallest numeric value in the specified array.

ArrayNew

Creates an array of specified dimension.

ArrayPrepend

Adds an array element to the beginning of the specified array.

ArrayResize

Resets an array to a specified minimum number of elements.

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Function

Description

ArraySet

Sets the elements in a 1D array in a specified range to a specified value.

ArraySort

Returns the specified array with elements sorted numerically or alphanumerically.

ArraySum

Returns the sum of values in the specified array.

ArraySwap

Swaps array values in the specified indexes.

ArrayToList

Converts the specified 1D array to a list, delimited with the character you specify.

IsArray

Returns True if the value is an array.

ListToArray

Converts the specified list, delimited with the character you specify, to an array.

For more information about each of these functions, see the CFML Reference.
If a function returns an array, you can now reference a specific element array directly in the function call statement.
For example, the following line references the fifth element of the array returned by the myFunc() function:
myFunc()[5]

About structures
ColdFusion structures consist of key-value pairs. Structures let you build a collection of related variables that are
grouped under a single name. You can define ColdFusion structures dynamically.
You can use structures to reference related values as a unit, rather than individually. To maintain employee lists, for
example, you can create a structure that holds personnel information such as name, address, phone number, ID
numbers, and so on. Then you can reference this collection of information as a structure called employee rather than
as a collection of individual variables.
A structure key must be a string. The values associated with the key can be any valid ColdFusion value or object. It can
be a string or integer, or a complex object such as an array or another structure. Because structures can contain any
types of data, they provide a powerful and flexible mechanism for representing complex data.

Structure notation
ColdFusion supports three types of notation for referencing structure contents. The notation that you use depends on
your requirements.

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Notation

Description

Object.property

You can reference a property, prop, of an object, obj, as obj.prop. This notation, also called dot notation, is
useful for simple assignments, as in this example:
depts.John="Sales"

Use this notation only when you know the property names (keys) in advance and they are strings, with no
special characters, numbers, or spaces. You cannot use the dot notation when the property, or key, is
dynamic.
Associative arrays

If you do not know the key name in advance, or it contains spaces, numbers, or special characters, you can
use associative array notation. This notation uses structures as arrays with string indexes; for example:
depts["John"]="Sales"
depts[employeeName] = "Sales"

You can use a variable (such as employeeName) as an associative array index. Therefore, enclose any literal
key names in quotation marks.
For information on using associative array references containing variables, see Dynamically constructing
structure references on page 74.
Structure

Use structure notation only when you create structures and set their initial values, not when you are
accessing or updating structure data, and only on the right side of an assignment expression. This notation
has the following format:
{keyName=value[,keyName=value]...}

where the square braces ([]) and ellipses (...) indicate optional contents that can be repeated.
The following example creates a structure that uses structure notation:
<cfset name={firstName = "John", lastName = "Smythe"}>

Referencing complex structures

When a structure contains another structure, you reference the data in the nested structure by extending either
object.property or associative array notation. You can even use a mixture of both notations.
For example, if structure1 has a key key1 whose value is a structure that has keys struct2key1, struct2key2, and so on,
you can use any of the following references to access the data in the first key of the embedded structure:
Structure1.key1.Struct2key1
Structure1["key1"].Struct2key1
Structure1.key1["Struct2key1"]
Structure1["key1"]["Struct2key1"]

The following example shows various ways you can reference the contents of a complex structure:

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<cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myArray[1]="2">
<cfset myArray[2]="3">
<cfset myStruct2=StructNew()>
<cfset myStruct2.struct2key1="4">
<cfset myStruct2.struct2key2="5">
<cfset myStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset myStruct.key1="1">
<cfset myStruct.key2=myArray>
<cfset myStruct.key3=myStruct2>
<cfdump var=#myStruct#><br>
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

key1Var="key1">
key2Var="key2">
key3Var="key3">
var2="2">

<cfoutput>
Value of the first key<br>
#mystruct.key1#<br>
#mystruct["key1"]#<br>
#mystruct[key1Var]#<br>
<br>
Value of the second entry in the key2 array<br>
#myStruct.key2[2]#<br>
#myStruct["key2"][2]#<br>
#myStruct[key2Var][2]#<br>
#myStruct[key2Var][var2]#<br>
<br>
Value of the struct2key2 entry in the key3 structure<br>
#myStruct.key3.struct2key2#<br>
#myStruct["key3"]["struct2key2"]#<br>
#myStruct[key3Var]["struct2key2"]#<br>
#myStruct.key3["struct2key2"]#<br>
#myStruct["key3"].struct2key2#<br>
<br>
</cfoutput>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

Description
myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
myArray[1]="2">
myArray[2]="3">
myStruct2=StructNew()>
myStruct2.struct2key1="4">
myStruct2.struct2key2="5">
myStruct=StructNew()>
myStruct.key1="1">
myStruct.key2=myArray>
myStruct.key3=myStruct2>

Create a structure with three entries: a string, an array, and an

embedded structure.

<cfdump var=#myStruct#><br>

Display the complete structure.

<cfset key1Var="key1">
<cfset key2Var="key2">
<cfset key3Var="key3">

Create variables containing the names of the myStruct keys and the
number 2.

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Code

Description

<cfoutput>
Value of the first key<br>
#mystruct.key1#<br>
#mystruct["key1"]#<br>
#mystruct[key1Var]#<br>
<br>

Output the value of the key1 (string) entry using the following
notation:

<br>
Value of the second entry in the key2 array<br>
#myStruct.key2[2]#<br>
#myStruct["key2"][2]#<br>
#myStruct[key2Var][2]#<br>
#myStruct[key2Var][var2]#<br>
<br>

Value of the struct2key2 entry in the key3

structure<br>
#myStruct.key3.struct2key2#<br>
#myStruct["key3"]["struct2key2"]#<br>
#myStruct[key3Var]["struct2key2"]#<br>
#myStruct.key3["struct2key2"]#<br>
#myStruct["key3"].struct2key2#<br>
<br>

object.property notation

associative array notation with a constant

associative array notation with a variable

Output the value of the second entry in the key2 array using the
following notation:

object.property notation

associative array notation with a constant

associative array notation with a variable

associative array notation with variables for both the array and the
array index

Output the value of second entry in the key3 embedded structure

using the following notation:

object.property notation

associative array notation with two constants

associative array notation with a variable and a constant

object.property notation followed by associative array notation

associative array notation followed by object.property notation

Creating and using structures

The sample code in the following discussions uses a structure called employee, which is used to add new employees to
a corporate information system.

Creating structures
In ColdFusion, you can create structures explicitly by using a function, and then populate the structure using
assignment statements or functions, or you can create the structure implicitly by using an assignment statement.
Creating structures using functions
You can create structures by assigning a variable name to the structure with the StructNew function as follows:
<cfset structName = StructNew()>

For example, to create a structure named departments, use the following syntax:
<cfset departments = StructNew()>

This statement creates an empty structure to which you can add data.
Creating structures implicitly
You can create an empty structure implicitly, as in the following example:
<cfset myStruct = {}>

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You can also create a structure by assigning data to a variable. For example, each of the following lines creates a
structure named myStruct with one element, name, that has the value Adobe Systems Incorporated.
<cfset coInfo.name = "Adobe Systems Incorporated">
<cfset coInfo["name"] = "Adobe Systems Incorporated">
<cfset coInfo = {name = "Adobe Systems Incorporated"}>

When you use structure notation to create a structure, as shown in the third example, you can populate multiple
structure fields. The following example shows this use:
<cfset coInfo={name="Adobe Systems Incorporated", industry="software"}

ColdFusion does not allow nested implicit creation of structures, arrays, or structures and arrays. The following line,
for example, generates an error:
<cfset myStruct = {structKey1 = {innerStructKey1 = "innerStructValue1"}}>

Similarly, you cannot use object.property notation on the left side of assignments inside structure notation. The
following statement, for example, causes an error:
<cfset myStruct={structKey1.innerStructKey1 = "innerStructValue1"}>

Instead of using these formats, use multiple statements, such as the following:
<cfset innerStruct1 = {innerStructKey1 = "innerStructValue1"}
<cfset myStruct1={structKey1 = innerStruct1}>

You cannot use a dynamic variable when you create a structure implicitly. For example, the following expression
generates an error:
<cfset i="coInfo">
<cfset "#i#"={name = ""Adobe Systems Incorporated"}>

Using implicitly created structures in functions and tags

You can use implicitly created structures directly in functions (including user-defined functions) and tags. For
example, the following code dumps an implicitly created structure.
<cfdump var="#{Name ="28 Weeks Later", Time = "7:45 PM"}#">

You can use array notation inside the structure notation, as shown in the following example:
<cfset student = {firstName="Jane", lastName="Janes", grades=[91, 78, 87]}>

Adding and updating structure elements

You add or update a structure element to a structure by assigning the element a value or by using a ColdFusion
function. It is simpler and more efficient to use direct assignment.
You can add structure key-value pairs by defining the value of the structure key, as the following example shows:
<cfset myNewStructure.key1="A new structure with a new key">
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#>
<cfset myNewStructure.key2="Now I've added a second key">
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#>

The following code uses cfset and object.property notation to create a structure element called departments.John,
and changes Johns department from Sales to Marketing. It then uses associative array notation to change his
department to Facilities. Each time the department changes, it displays the results:

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<cfset departments=structnew()>
<cfset departments.John = "Sales">
<cfoutput>
Before the first change, John was in the #departments.John# Department<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfset Departments.John = "Marketing">
<cfoutput>
After the first change, John is in the #departments.John# Department<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfset Departments["John"] = "Facilities">
<cfoutput>
After the second change, John is in the #departments.John# Department<br>
</cfoutput>

Getting information about structures and keys

You use ColdFusion functions to find information about structures and their keys.
Getting information about structures
To find out if a given value represents a structure, use the IsStruct function, as follows:
IsStruct(variable)

This function returns True if variable is a ColdFusion structure. (It also returns True if variable is a Java object that
implements the java.util.Map interface.)
Structures are not indexed numerically, so to find out how many name-value pairs exist in a structure, use the
StructCount function, as in the following example:
StructCount(employee)

To discover whether a specific Structure contains data, use the StructIsEmpty function, as follows:
StructIsEmpty(structure_name)

This function returns True if the structure is empty, and False if it contains data.
Finding a specific key and its value
To determine whether a specific key exists in a structure, use the StructKeyExists function, as follows:
StructKeyExists(structure_name, "key_name")

Do not place the name of the structure in quotation marks, but you do place the key name in quotation marks. For
example, the following code displays the value of the MyStruct.MyKey only if it exists:
<cfif StructKeyExists(myStruct, "myKey")>
<cfoutput> #mystruct.myKey#</cfoutput><br>
</cfif>

You can use the StructKeyExists function to dynamically test for keys by using a variable to represent the key name.
In this case, you do not place the variable in quotation marks. For example, the following code loops through the
records of the GetEmployees query and tests the myStruct structure for a key that matches theLastName field of the
query. If ColdFusion finds a matching key, it displays the Last Name from the query and the corresponding entry in
the structure.

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<cfloop query="GetEmployees">
<cfif StructKeyExists(myStruct, LastName)>
<cfoutput>#LastName#: #mystruct[LastName]#</cfoutput><br>
</cfif>
</cfloop>

If the name of the key is known in advance, you can also use the ColdFusion IsDefined function, as follows:
IsDefined("structure_name.key")>

However, if the key is dynamic, or contains special characters, use the StructKeyExists function.
Note: Using StructKeyExists to test for the existence of a structure entry is more efficient than using IsDefined.
ColdFusion scopes are available as structures and you can improve efficiency by using StructKeyExists to test for the
existence of variables.
Getting a list of keys in a structure
To get a list of the keys in a CFML structure, you use the StructKeyList function, as follows:
<cfset temp=StructKeyList(structure_name, [delimiter])>

You can specify any character as the delimiter; the default is a comma.
Use the StructKeyArray function to returns an array of keys in a structure, as follows:
<cfset temp=StructKeyArray(structure_name)>

Note: The StructKeyList and StructKeyArray functions do not return keys in any particular order. Use the
ListSort or ArraySort functions to sort the results.

Copying structures
ColdFusion provides several ways to copy structures and create structure references. The following table lists these
methods and describes their uses:
Technique

Use

Duplicate function

Makes a complete copy of the structure. All data is copied from the original structure to the new structure,
including the contents of structures, queries, and other objects. As a result changes to one copy of the structure
have no effect on the other structure.
This function is useful when you want to move a structure completely into a new scope. In particular, if a structure
is created in a scope that requires locking (for example, Application), you can duplicate it into a scope that does
not require locking (for example, Request), and then delete it in the scope that requires locking.

StructCopy function

Makes a shallow copy of a structure. It creates a structure and copies all simple variable and array values at the top
level of the original structure to the new structure. However, it does not make copies of any structures, queries, or
other objects that the original structure contains, or of any data inside these objects. Instead, it creates a reference
in the new structure to the objects in the original structure. As a result, any change to these objects in one
structure also changes the corresponding objects in the copied structure.
The Duplicate function replaces this function for most, if not all, purposes.

Variable assignment

Creates an additional reference, or alias, to the structure. Any change to the data using one variable name changes
the structure that you access using the other variable name.
This technique is useful when you want to add a local variable to another scope or otherwise change the scope of
a variable without deleting the variable from the original scope.

The following example shows the different effects of copying, duplicating, and assigning structure variables:

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Create a structure<br>
<cfset myNewStructure=StructNew()>
<cfset myNewStructure.key1="1">
<cfset myNewStructure.key2="2">
<cfset myArray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myArray[1]="3">
<cfset myArray[2]="4">
<cfset myNewStructure.key3=myArray>
<cfset myNewStructure2=StructNew()>
<cfset myNewStructure2.Struct2key1="5">
<cfset myNewStructure2.Struct2key2="6">
<cfset myNewStructure.key4=myNewStructure2>
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#><br>
<br>
A StructCopy copied structure<br>
<cfset CopiedStruct=StructCopy(myNewStructure)>
<cfdump var=#CopiedStruct#><br>
<br>
A Duplicated structure<br>
<cfset dupStruct=Duplicate(myNewStructure)>
<cfdump var=#dupStruct#><br>
<br>
A new reference to a structure<br>
<cfset structRef=myNewStructure>
<cfdump var=#structRef#><br>
<br>
Change a string, array element, and structure value in the StructCopy copy.<br>
<br>
<cfset CopiedStruct.key1="1A">
<cfset CopiedStruct.key3[2]="4A">
<cfset CopiedStruct.key4.Struct2key2="6A">
Original structure<br>
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#><br>
Copied structure<br>
<cfdump var=#CopiedStruct#><br>
Duplicated structure<br>
<cfdump var=#DupStruct#><br>
Structure reference
<cfdump var=#structRef#><br>
<br>
Change a string, array element, and structure value in the Duplicate.<br>
<br>
<cfset DupStruct.key1="1B">
<cfset DupStruct.key3[2]="4B">
<cfset DupStruct.key4.Struct2key2="6B">
Original structure<br>
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#><br>
Copied structure<br>
<cfdump var=#CopiedStruct#><br>
Duplicated structure<br>
<cfdump var=#DupStruct#><br>
Structure reference
<cfdump var=#structRef#><br>
<br>
Change a string, array element, and structure value in the reference.<br>
<br>

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<cfset structRef.key1="1C">
<cfset structRef.key3[2]="4C">
<cfset structRef.key4.Struct2key2="6C">
Original structure<br>
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#><br>
Copied structure<br>
<cfdump var=#CopiedStruct#><br>
Duplicated structure<br>
<cfdump var=#DupStruct#><br>
Structure reference
<cfdump var=#structRef#><br>
<br>
Clear the original structure<br>
<cfset foo=structclear(myNewStructure)>
Original structure:<br>
<cfdump var=#myNewStructure#><br>
Copied structure<br>
<cfdump var=#CopiedStruct#><br>
Duplicated structure<br>
<cfdump var=#DupStruct#><br>
Structure reference:<br>
<cfdump var=#structRef#><br>

Deleting structure elements and structures

To delete a key and its value from a structure, use the StructDelete function, as follows:
StructDelete(structure_name, key [, indicateNotExisting ])

The indicateNotExisting argument tells the function what to do if the specified key does not exist. By default, the
function always returns True. However, if you specify True for the indicateNotExisting argument, the function returns
True if the key exists and False if it does not.
You can also use the StructClear function to delete all the data in a structure but keep the structure instance itself,
as follows:
StructClear(structure_name)

If you use StructClear to delete a structure that you have copied using the StructCopy function, the specified
structure is deleted, but the copy is unaffected.
If you use StructClear to delete a structure that has multiple references, the function deletes the contents of the
structure and all references point to the empty structure, as the following example shows:
<cfset myStruct.Key1="Adobe">
Structure before StructClear<br>
<cfdump var="#myStruct#">
<cfset myCopy=myStruct>
<cfset StructClear(myCopy)>
After Clear:<br>
myStruct: <cfdump var="#myStruct#"><br>
myCopy: <cfdump var="#myCopy#">

Looping through structures

You can loop through a structure to output its contents, as the following example shows:

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<!--- Create a structure and set its contents. --->

<cfset departments=structnew()>
<cfset val=StructInsert(departments, "John", "Sales")>
<cfset val=StructInsert(departments, "Tom", "Finance")>
<cfset val=StructInsert(departments, "Mike", "Education")>
<!--- Build a table to display the contents --->
<cfoutput>
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td><b>Employee</b></td>
<td><b>Department</b></td>
</tr>
<!--- Use cfloop to loop through the departments structure.
The item attribute specifies a name for the structure key. --->
<cfloop collection=#departments# item="person">
<tr>
<td>#person#</td>
<td>#Departments[person]#</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
</cfoutput>

Structure examples
Structures are useful for grouping a set of variables under a single name. The following example uses structures to
collect information from a form, and to submit that information to a custom tag, named cf_addemployee. For
information on creating and using custom tags, see Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags on page 208.

Example file newemployee.cfm

The following ColdFusion page shows how to create structures and use them to add data to a database. It calls the
cf_addemployee custom tag, which is defined in the addemployee.cfm file.
<html>
<head>
<title>Add New Employees</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Add New Employees</h1>
<!--- Action page code for the form at the bottom of this page. --->
<!--- Establish parameters for first time through --->
<cfparam name="Form.firstname" default="">
<cfparam name="Form.lastname" default="">
<cfparam name="Form.email" default="">
<cfparam name="Form.phone" default="">
<cfparam name="Form.department" default="">
<!--- If at least the firstname form field is passed, create
a structure named employee and add values. --->
<cfif #Form.firstname# eq "">
<p>Please fill out the form.</p>

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<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
<cfscript>
employee=StructNew();
employee.firstname = Form.firstname;
employee.lastname = Form.lastname;
employee.email = Form.email;
employee.phone = Form.phone;
employee.department = Form.department;
</cfscript>
<!--- Display results of creating the structure. --->
First name is #StructFind(employee, "firstname")#<br>
Last name is #StructFind(employee, "lastname")#<br>
EMail is #StructFind(employee, "email")#<br>
Phone is #StructFind(employee, "phone")#<br>
Department is #StructFind(employee, "department")#<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Call the custom tag that adds employees. --->
<cf_addemployee empinfo="#employee#">
</cfif>
<!--- The form for adding the new employee information --->
<hr>
<form action="newemployee.cfm" method="Post">
First Name:&nbsp;
<input name="firstname" type="text" hspace="30" maxlength="30"><br>
Last Name:&nbsp;
<input name="lastname" type="text" hspace="30" maxlength="30"><br>
EMail:&nbsp;
<input name="email" type="text" hspace="30" maxlength="30"><br>
Phone:&nbsp;
<input name="phone" type="text" hspace="20" maxlength="20"><br>
Department:&nbsp;
<input name="department" type="text" hspace="30" maxlength="30"><br>
<input type="Submit" value="OK">
</form>
<br>
</body>
</html>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:

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Code
<cfparam
<cfparam
<cfparam
<cfparam
<cfparam

Description
name="Form.firstname" default="">
name="Form.lastname" default="">
name="Form.email" default="">
name="Form.phone" default="">
name="Form.department" default="">

<cfif #Form.firstname# eq "">

<p>Please fill out the form.</p>

Set default values of all form fields so that they exist the first
time this page is displayed and can be tested.

Test the value of the firstname field. This field is required. The
test is False the first time the page displays.
If no data exists in the Form.firstname variable, display a
message requesting the user to fill the form.

<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
<cfscript>
employee=StructNew();
employee.firstname = Form.firstname;
employee.lastname = Form.lastname;
employee.email = Form.email;
employee.phone = Form.phone;
employee.department = Form.department;
</cfscript>

If Form.firstname contains text, the user submitted the form.

Use CFScript to create a structure named employee and fill it
with the form field data.
Then display the contents of the structure.

<!--- Display results of creating the structure. --->

First name is #StructFind(employee, "firstname")#<br>
Last name is #StructFind(employee, "lastname")#<br>
EMail is #StructFind(employee, "email")#<br>
Phone is #StructFind(employee, "phone")#<br>
Department is #StructFind(employee, "department")#<br>
</cfoutput>
<cf_addemployee empinfo="#employee#">
</cfif>

Call the cf_addemployee custom tag and pass it a copy of the

employee structure in the empinfo attribute.
The duplicate function ensures that the custom tag gets a
copy of the employee structure, not the original. Although this
is not necessary in this example, it is good practice because it
prevents the custom tag from modifying the calling contents of
the structure in the calling page.

<form action="newemployee.cfm" method="Post">

First Name:&nbsp;
<input name="firstname" type="text" hspace="30"
maxlength="30"><br>
Last Name:&nbsp;
<input name="lastname" type="text" hspace="30"
maxlength="30"><br>
EMail:&nbsp;
<input name="email" type="text" hspace="30"
maxlength="30"><br>
Phone:&nbsp;
<input name="phone" type="text" hspace="20"
maxlength="20"><br>
Department:&nbsp;
<input name="department" type="text" hspace="30"
maxlength="30"><br>

The data form. When the user clicks OK, the form posts the data
to this ColdFusion page.

<input type="Submit" value="OK">

</form>

Example file addemployee.cfm

The following file is an example of a custom tag used to add employees. Employee information is passed through the
employee structure (the empinfo attribute). For databases that do not support automatic key generation, also add the
Emp_ID.

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<cfif StructIsEmpty(attributes.empinfo)>
<cfoutput>
Error. No employee data was passed.<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfexit method="ExitTag">
<cfelse>
<!--- Add the employee --->
<cfquery name="AddEmployee" datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT INTO Employees
(FirstName, LastName, Email, Phone, Department)
VALUES (
'#attributes.empinfo.firstname#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.lastname#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.email#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.phone#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.department#' )
</cfquery>
</cfif>
<cfoutput>
<hr>Employee Add Complete
</cfoutput>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfif StructIsEmpty(attributes.empinfo)>
<cfoutput>
Error. No employee data was passed.<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfexit method="ExitTag">

If the custom tag was called without an empinfo attribute,

displays an error message and exit the tag.

<cfelse>
<!--- Add the employee --->
<cfquery name="AddEmployee" datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT INTO Employees
(FirstName, LastName, Email, Phone, Department)
VALUES (
'#attributes.empinfo.firstname#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.lastname#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.email#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.phone#' ,
'#attributes.empinfo.department#' )
</cfquery>
</cfif>

Add the employee data passed in the empinfo structure to the

Employees table of the cfdocexamples database.

<cfoutput>
<hr>Employee Add Complete
</cfoutput>

Display a completion message. This code does not have to be

inside the cfelse block because the cfexit tag prevents it from
being run if the empinfo structure is empty.

Use direct references to the structure entries, not StructFind

functions.
If the database does not support automatic generation of the
Emp_ID key, add an Emp_ID entry to the form and add it to the
query.

Structure functions
You can use the following functions to create and manage structures in ColdFusion applications. The table describes
the purpose of each function and provides specific, but limited, information that can assist you in determining whether
to use the function instead of other technique.
All functions except StructDelete throw an exception if a referenced key or structure does not exist.
For more information on these functions, see the CFML Reference.

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Function

Description

Duplicate

Returns a complete copy of the structure.

IsStruct

Returns True if the specified variable is a ColdFusion structure or a Java object that implements the
java.util.Map interface.

StructAppend

Appends one structure to another.

StructClear

Removes all data from the specified structure.

StructCopy

Returns a "shallow" copy of the structure. All embedded objects are references to the objects in the original
structure. The Duplicate function has replaced this function for most purposes.

StructCount

Returns the number of keys in the specified structure.

StructDelete

Removes the specified item from the specified structure.

StructFind

Returns the value associated with the specified key in the specified structure. This function is redundant
with accessing structure elements using associative array notation.

StructFindKey

Searches through a structure for the specified key name and returns an array containing data on the found
key or keys.

StructFindValue

Searches through a structure for the specified simple data value (for example, a string or number) and
returns an array containing information on the value location in the structure.

StructGet

Returns a reference to a substructure contained in a structure at the specified path. This function is
redundant with using direct reference to a structure. If you accidentally use this function on a variable that
is not a structure, it replaces the value with an empty structure.

StructInsert

Inserts the specified key-value pair into the specified structure. Unlike a direct assignment statement, this
function generates an error by default if the specified key exists in the structure.

StructIsEmpty

Indicates whether the specified structure contains data. Returns True if the structure contains no data, and
False if it does contain data.

StructKeyArray

Returns an array of keys in the specified structure.

StructKeyExists

Returns True if the specified key is in the specified structure. You can use this function in place of the
IsDefined function to check for the existence of variables in scopes that are available as structures.

StructKeyList

Returns a list of keys in the specified structure.

StructNew

Returns a new structure.

StructSort

Returns an array containing the key names of a structure in the order determined by the sort criteria.

StructUpdate

Updates the specified key with the specified value. Unlike a direct assignment statement, this function
generates an error if the structure or key does not exist.

Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting

Adobe ColdFusion offers a server-side scripting language, CFScript, that provides ColdFusion functionality in script
syntax. This JavaScript-like language gives developers the same control flow as ColdFusion, but without tags. You can
also use CFScript to write user-defined functions that you can use anywhere that a ColdFusion expression is allowed.

About CFScript
CFScript is a language within a language. It is a scripting language that is like JavaScript but is simpler to use. Also,
unlike JavaScript, CFScript only runs on the ColdFusion server; it does not run on the client system. CFScript code can
use all the ColdFusion functions and expressions, and has access to all ColdFusion variables that are available its scope.

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CFScript provides a compact and efficient way to write ColdFusion logic. Typical uses of CFScript include the
following:

Simplifying and speeding variable setting

Building compact JavaScript-like flow control structures
Creating user-defined functions
Because you use functions and expressions directly in CFScript, you do not have to surround each assignment or
function in a cfset tag. Also, CFScript assignments are often faster than cfset tags.
CFScript provides a set of decision and flow-control structures that are more familiar than ColdFusion tags to most
programmers.
In addition to variable setting, other operations tend to be slightly faster in CFScript than in tags.
You can use CFScript to create user-defined functions, or UDFs (also known as custom functions). You call UDFs in
the same manner that you call standard ColdFusion functions. UDFs are to ColdFusion built-in functions what
custom tags are to ColdFusion built-in tags. Typical uses of UDFs include data manipulation and mathematical
calculation routines.
You cannot include ColdFusion tags in CFScript. However, some functions and CFScript statements are equivalent to
commonly used tags. For more information, see Tag equivalents in CFScript on page 109.

Comparing tags and CFScript

The following examples show how you can use CFML tags and CFScript to do the same thing. Each example takes data
submitted from a form and places it in a structure; if the form does not have a last name and department field, it
displays a message.
Using CFML tags
<cfif IsDefined("Form.submit")>
<cfif (Form.lastname NEQ "") AND (Form.department NEQ "")>
<cfset employee=structnew()>
<cfset employee.firstname=Form.firstname>
<cfset employee.lastname=Form.lastname>
<cfset employee.email=Form.email>
<cfset employee.phone=Form.phone>
<cfset employee.department=Form.department>
<cfoutput>
Adding #Form.firstname# #Form.lastname#<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
You must enter a Last Name and Department.<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>

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Using CFScript
<cfscript>
if (IsDefined("Form.submit")) {
if ((Form.lastname NEQ "") AND (Form.department NEQ "")) {
employee=StructNew();
employee.firstname=Form.firstname;
employee.lastname=Form.lastname;
employee.email=Form.email;
employee.phone=Form.phone;
employee.department=Form.department;
WriteOutput("Adding #Form.firstname# #Form.lastname# <br>");
}
else
WriteOutput("You must enter a Last Name and Department.<br>");
}
</cfscript>

Language Enhancements in ColdFusion 9

The language enhancements in ColdFusion 9 include new language constructs, extended tag support, new keywords,
script functions implemented as CFCs, and support for new operations.

New tag equivalents in CFScript

The following table lists the tags that have equivalents in CFScript:
Tag

Equivalent in CFScript

cfabort

abort

cfcomponent

component

cfcontinue

continue

cfdirectory

The directory functions DirectoryCreate, DirectoryDelete,

DirectoryList, and DirectoryRename.

Only for <Cfdirectory action=list/>

cfdump

writedump

cfexit

exit

cffinally

finally

cfimport

import

cfinclude

include

cfinterface

interface

cflocation

location

cflog

writelog

cfparam

param

cfprocessingdirective

pageencoding

cfproperty

property

cfrethrow

rethrow

cfthread

thread

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Tag

Equivalent in CFScript

cfthrow

throw

cftrace

trace

cftransaction

transaction

Script Functions added in ColdFusion 9

The following table has the list of script functions introduced in ColdFusion 9.
Function

Equivalent ColdFusion Tag

ftp

cfftp

http

cfhttp

mail

cfmail

pdf

cfpdf

query

cfquery

storedproc

cfstoredproc

For details of the Script Functions, see the section Script Functions Implemented as CFCs in the CFML Reference.

Reserved words introduced in ColdFusion 9

import
finally
local (inside function declaration)
interface
pageencoding

What is supported in CFScript

Tag equivalents in CFScript
Tag

CFScript equivalent

cfabort

abort

cfbreak

break. CFScript also has a continue statement that has no equivalent CFML tag.

cfcase

case

cfcatch

catch

cfcomponent

component

cfcontinue

continue

cfcookie

Direct assignment of Cookie scope memory-only variables. You cannot use direct
assignment to set persistent cookies that are stored on the user system.

cfdefaultcase

default

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Tag

CFScript equivalent

cfdirectory

The directory functions DirectoryCreate, DirectoryDelete, DirectoryList, and

DirectoryRename.

Only for <Cfdirectory action=list/>

cfdump

writedump

cfelse

else

cfelseif

elseif

cfexit

exit

cffile

The file functions FileDelete, FileSeek, FileSkipBytes, and FileWriteLine.

cffinally

finally

cffunction

function

cfimage

The Image functions.

cfif

if

cfimport

import
Import in cfscript is only equivalent of <cfimport path="">. You cannot use
<cfimport taglib=""> in cfscript.

cfinclude

include

cfinterface

interface

cflocation

location

cflock

lock

cflog

writelog

cfloop

Indexed cfloop: for loops

Conditional cfloop: while loops and do while loops

Structure cfloop: for in loop. (There is no equivalent for queries, lists, or objects.)

cfobject

createobject, new

cfoutput

writeoutput

cfparam

param

cfprocessingdirective

pageencoding

cfproperty

property

cfrethrow

rethrow

cfreturn

return

cfsavecontent

savecontent

cfset

var
var x =1; is equivalent of <cfset var x =1>

Assignment statement x =1; is equivalent of <cfset x =1>

local.x=1; is equivalent of <cfset var x =1>
cfswitch

switch

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Tag

CFScript equivalent

cfthread

thread

cfthrow

throw

cftrace

trace

cftransaction

transaction

cftry

try

Example
The following example loops through a query in CFScript:
...
<cfscript>
// Loop through the qGetEmails RecordSet
for (x = 1; x <= qGetEmails.RecordCount; x=x+1) {
This_id = qGetEmails.Emails_id[x];
This_Subject = qGetEmails.Subject[x];
This_RecFrom = qGetEmails.RecFrom[x];
This_SentTo = qGetEmails.SentTo[x];
This_dReceived = qGetEmails.dReceived[x];
This_Body = qGetEmails.Body[x];
... // More code goes here.
}
</cfscript>

Reserved words
In addition to the names of ColdFusion functions and words reserved by ColdFusion expressions (such as NOT, AND,
IS, and so on), the following words are reserved in CFScript. Do not use these words as variables or identifiers in your
scripting code:
break

do

import

var

case

else

in

while

catch

finally

interface

try

for

pageencoding

continue

function

return

default

if

switch

Script functions
For a list of script functions, see Script Functions added in ColdFusion 9 on page 109.

The CFScript language

The CFScript language syntax is similar to other scripting languages, and has the same types of elements.

Identifying CFScript
You enclose CFScript regions inside <cfscript> and </cfscript> tags. No other CFML tags are allowed inside a
cfscript region. The following lines show a minimal script:

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<cfscript>
a = 2;
</cfscript>

Variables
CFScript variables can be of any ColdFusion type, such as numbers, strings, arrays, queries, and objects. The CFScript
code can read and write any variables that are available in the page that contains the script. These variables include all
shared scopes, such as session, application, and server variables.

Expressions and operators

CFScript supports all CFML expressions. CFML expressions include operators (such as +, -, EQ, and so on), as well as
all CFML functions.
You can use several comparison operators in CFScript only, not in CFML tags. (You can also use the corresponding
CFML operators in CFScript.) The following table lists the CFScript-only operators and the equivalent operator that
you can use in CFML tags or CFScript:
CFScript operator

CFML operator

CFScript operator

CFML operator

==

EQ

!=

NEQ

<

LT

<=

LTE

>

GT

>=

GTE

For information about CFML expressions, operators, and functions, see Using Expressions and Number Signs on
page 64.

Statements
CFScript supports the following statements:
assignment

for-in

try-catch

function call

while

function (function definition)

if-else

do-while

var (in custom functions only)

switch-case-default

break

return (in custom functions only)

for

continue

The following rules apply to statements:

You must put a semicolon at the end of a statement.

Line breaks are ignored. A single statement can cross multiple lines.
White space is ignored. For example, it does not matter whether you precede a semicolon with a space character.
Use curly brackets to group multiple statements into one logical statement unit.
Unless otherwise indicated, you can use any ColdFusion expression in the body of a statement.
Note: For information on the function, var, and return statements, see Defining functions in CFScript on page 154.

Statement blocks
Curly bracket characters ({ and }) group multiple CFScript statements so that they are treated as a single unit or
statement. This syntax enables you to create code blocks in conditional statements, such as the following:

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if(score GT 0)
{
result = "positive";
Positives = Positives + 1;
}

In this example, both assignment statements are executed if the score is greater than 0. If they were not in the code
block, only the first line would execute.
You do not have to place curly bracket characters on their own lines in the code. For example, you could place the open
curly bracket in the preceding example on the same line as the if statement, and some programmers use this style.
However, putting at least the ending brace on its own line makes it easier to read the code and separate code blocks.

Comments
CFScript has two forms of comments: single line and multiline.
A single-line comment begins with two forward slashes (//) and ends at the line end; for example:
//This is a single-line comment.
//This is a second single-line comment.

A multiline comment starts with a /* marker and continues until it reaches a */ marker; for example:
/*This is a multiline comment.
You do not need to start each line with a comment indicator.
This line is the last line in the comment. */

The following rules apply to comments:

Comments do not have to start at the beginning of a line. They can follow active code on a line. For example, the
following line is valid:
MyVariable = 12; // Set MyVariable to the default value.

The end of a multiline comment can be followed on the same line by active code. For example, the following line is
valid, although it is poor coding practice:
End of my long comment */ foo = "bar";

You can use multiline format for a comment on a single line, for example:
/*This is a single-line comment using multiline format. */

You cannot nest /* and */ markers inside other comment lines.

CFML comments (<!--- and --->) do not work in CFScript.

Differences from JavaScript

Although CFScript and JavaScript are similar, they have several key differences. The following list identifies CFScript
features that differ from JavaScript:

CFScript uses ColdFusion expressions, which are not a superset or a subset of JavaScript expressions. In particular,
ColdFusion expressions do not support bitwise operators, and the ColdFusion MOD or % operator operates
differently from the corresponding JavaScript % operator: In ColdFusion, the operator does integer arithmetic and
ignores fractional parts. ColdFusion expressions also support the EQV, IMP, CONTAINS, and DOES NOT
CONTAIN operators that are not supported in JavaScript.

Variable declarations (var keyword) are only used in user-defined functions and threads.
CFScript is not case sensitive.

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All statements end with a semicolon, and line breaks in the code are ignored.
Assignments are statements, not expressions, and therefore cannot be used in situations that require evaluating the
assignment operation.

JavaScript objects, such as Window and Document, are not available.

Only the ColdFusion server processes CFScript. There is no client-side CFScript.

CFScript limitation
You cannot include ColdFusion tags in CFScript. However, you can include cfscript blocks inside other ColdFusion
tags, such as cfoutput.

Using CFScript statements

CFScript includes the following types of statements:

Assignment statements and functions

Conditional processing statements
Looping statements

Using assignment statements and functions

CFScript assignment statements are the equivalent of the cfset tag. These statements have the following form:
lval = expression;

eval is any ColdFusion variable reference; for example:

x = "positive";
y = x;
a[3]=5;
structure.member=10;
ArrayCopy=myArray;

You can use ColdFusion function calls, including UDFs, directly in CFScript. For example, the following line is a valid
CFScript statement:
StructInsert(employee,"lastname",FORM.lastname);

Using conditional processing statements

CFScript includes the following conditional processing statements:

if and else statements, which serve the same purpose as the cfif, cfelseif, and cfelse tags

switch, case, and default statements, which are the equivalents of the cfswitch, cfcase, and cfdefaultcase tags

Using if and else statements

The if and else statements have the following syntax:
if(expr) statement [else statement]

In its simplest form, an if statement looks as follows:

if(value EQ 2700)
message = "You've reached the maximum";

A simple if-else statement looks like the following:

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if(score GT 1)
result = "positive";
else
result = "negative";

CFScript does not include an elseif statement. However, you can use an if statement immediately after an else
statement to create the equivalent of a cfelseif tag, as the following example shows:
if(score GT 1)
result = "positive";
else if(score EQ 0)
result = "zero";
else
result = "negative";

As with all conditional processing statements, you can use curly brackets to enclose multiple statements for each
condition, as follows:
if(score GT 1) {
result = "positive";
message = "The result was positive.";
}
else {
result = "negative";
message = "The result was negative.";
}

Note: Often, you can make your code clearer by using braces even where they are not required.
Using switch and case statements
The switch statement and its dependent case and default statements have the following syntax:
switch (expression) {
case constant: [case constant:]... statement(s) break;
[case constant: [case constant:]... statement(s) break;]...
[default: statement(s)] }

Use the following rules and recommendations for switch statements:

You cannot mix Boolean and numeric constant values in a switch statement.
Each constant value must be a constant (that is, not a variable, a function, or other expression).
Multiple caseconstant: statements can precede the statement or statements to execute if any of the cases are true.
This lets you specify several matches for one code block.

No two constant values can be the same.

The statements following the colon in a case statement block do not have to be in curly brackets. If a constant value
equals the switch expression, ColdFusion executes all statements through the break statement.

The break statement at the end of the case statement tells ColdFusion to exit the switch statement. ColdFusion
does not generate an error message if you omit a break statement. However, if you omit it, ColdFusion executes all
the statements in the following case statement, even if that case is false. In nearly all circumstances, this is not what
you want to do.

You can have only one default statement in a switch statement block. ColdFusion executes the statements in the
default block if none of the case statement constants equals the expression value.

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The default statement does not have to follow all case statements, but it is good programming practice to do so.
If any case statements follow the default statement, you must end the default block code with a break
statement.

The default statement is not required. However, use one if the case constants do not include all possible values
of the expression.
The following switch statement takes the value of a name variable:
1 If the name is John or Robert, it sets both the male variable and the found variable to True.
2 If the name is Mary, it sets the male variable to False and the found variable to True.
3 Otherwise, it sets the found variable to False.
switch(name) {
case "John": case "Robert":
male=True;
found=True;
break;
case "Mary":
male=False;
found=True;
break;
default:
found=False;
} //end switch

Using looping statements

CFScript provides a richer selection of looping constructs than those supplied by CFML tags. It enables you to create
efficient looping constructs like those in most programming and scripting languages. CFScript provides the following
looping constructs:

For
While
Do-while
For-in
CFScript also includes the continue and break statements that control loop processing.
Using for loops
The for loop has the following format:
for (initial-expression; test-expression; final-expression) statement

The initial-expression and final-expression can be one of the following:

A single assignment expression; for example, x=5 or loop=loop+1

Any ColdFusion expression; for example, SetVariable("a",a+1)
Empty
The test-expression can be one of the following:

Any ColdFusion expression; for example:

A LT 5
index LE x
status EQ "not found" AND index LT end

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Empty
Note: The test expression is re-evaluated before each repeat of the loop. If code inside the loop changes any part of the test
expression, it can affect the number of iterations in the loop.
The statement can be a single semicolon terminated statement or a statement block in curly brackets.
When ColdFusion executes a for loop, it does the following:
1 Evaluates the initial expression.
2 Evaluates the test-expression.
3 If the test-expression is False, exits the loop and processing continues following the statement.

If the test-expression is True:

a Executes the statement (or statement block).
b Evaluates the final-expression.
c Returns to Step 2.

For loops are most commonly used for processing in which an index variable is incremented each time through the
loop, but it is not limited to this use.
The following simple for loop sets each element in a 10-element array with its index number.
for(index=1;
index LTE 10;
index = index + 1)
a[index]=index;

The following, more complex, example demonstrates two features:

The use of curly brackets to group multiple statements into a single block.
An empty condition statement. All loop control logic is in the statement block.
<cfscript>
strings=ArrayNew(1);
ArraySet(strings, 1, 10, "lock");
strings[5]="key";
indx=0;
for( ; ; ) {
indx=indx+1;
if(Find("key",strings[indx],1)) {
WriteOutput("Found key at " & indx & ".<br>");
break;
}
else if (indx IS ArrayLen(strings)) {
WriteOutput("Exited at " & indx & ".<br>");
break;
}
}
</cfscript>

This example shows one important issue that you must remember when creating loops: always ensure that the loop
ends. If this example lacked the elseif statement, and there was no key in the array, ColdFusion would loop forever
or until a system error occurred; you would have to stop the server to end the loop.

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The example also shows two issues with index arithmetic: in this form of loop you must make sure to initialize the
index, and keep track of where the index is incremented. In this case, because the index is incremented at the top of
the loop, initialize it to 0 so it becomes 1 in the first loop.
Using while loops
The while loop has the following format:
while (expression) statement

The while statement does the following:

1 Evaluates the expression.
2 If the expression is True, it does the following:
a Executes the statement, which can be a single semicolon-terminated statement or a statement block in curly

brackets.
b Returns to step 1.

If the expression is False, processing continues with the next statement.

The following example uses a while loop to populate a 10-element array with multiples of five.
a = ArrayNew(1);
loop = 1;
while (loop LE 10) {
a[loop] = loop * 5;
loop = loop + 1;
}

As with other loops, make sure that at some point the whileexpression is False and be careful to check your index
arithmetic.
Using do-while loops
The do-while loop is like a while loop, except that it tests the loop condition after executing the loop statement block.
The do-while loop has the following format:
do statement while (expression);

The dowhile statement does the following:

1 Executes the statement, which can be a single semicolon-terminated statement or a statement block in curly

brackets.
2 Evaluates the expression.
3 If the expression is true, it returns to step 1.

If the expression is False, processing continues with the next statement.

The following example, like the while loop example, populates a 10-element array with multiples of 5:
a = ArrayNew(1);
loop = 1;
do {
a[loop] = loop * 5;
loop = loop + 1;
}
while (loop LE 10);

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Because the loop index increment follows the array value assignment, the example initializes the loop variable to 1 and
tests to make sure that it is less than or equal to 10.
The following example generates the same results as the previous two examples, but it increments the index before
assigning the array value. As a result, it initializes the index to 0, and the end condition tests that the index is less than 10.
a = ArrayNew(1);
loop = 0;
do {
loop = loop + 1;
a[loop] = loop * 5;
}
while (loop LT 10);

The following example loops through a query:

<cfquery ... name="myQuery">
... sql goes here...
</cfquery>
<cfscript>
if (myQuery.RecordCount gt 0) {
currRow=1;
do {
theValue=myQuery.myField[CurrRow];
currRow=currRow+1;
} while (currRow LTE myQuery.RecordCount);
}
</cfscript>

Using for-in loops

The for-in loop loops over the elements in a ColdFusion structure. It has the following format:
for (variable in structure) statement

The variable can be any ColdFusion identifier; it holds each structure key name as ColdFusion loops through the
structure. The structure must be the name of an existing ColdFusion structure. The statement can be a single semicolon
terminated statement or a statement block in reference.
The following example creates a structure with three elements. It then loops through the structure and displays the
name and value of each key. Although the curly brackets are not required here, they make it easier to determine the
contents of the relatively long WriteOutput function. In general, you can make structured control flow, especially
loops, clearer by using curly brackets.
myStruct=StructNew();
myStruct.productName="kumquat";
mystruct.quality="fine";
myStruct.quantity=25;
for (keyName in myStruct) {
WriteOutput("myStruct." & Keyname & " has the value: " &
myStruct[keyName] &"<br>");
}

Note: Unlike the cfloop tag, CFScript for-in loops do not provide built-in support for looping over queries and lists.
Using continue and break statements
The continue and break statements enable you to control the processing inside loops:

The continue statement tells ColdFusion to skip to the beginning of the next loop iteration.

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The break statement exits the current loop or case statement.

Using continue
The continue statement ends the current loop iteration, skips any code following it in the loop, and jumps to the
beginning of the next loop iteration. For example, the following code loops through an array and displays each value
that is not an empty string:
for ( loop=1; loop LE 10; loop = loop+1) {
if(a[loop] EQ "") continue;
WriteOutput(loop);
}

(To test this code snippet, you must first create an array, a, with 10 or more elements, some of which are not empty
strings.)
The continue statement is useful if you loop over arrays or structures and you want to skip processing for array
elements or structure members with specific values, such as the empty string.

Using break
The break statement exits the current loop or case statement. Processing continues at the next CFScript statement.
You end case statement processing blocks with a break statement. You can also use a test case with a break statement
to prevent infinite loops, as shown in the following example. This script loops through an array and prints the array
indexes that contain the value key. It uses a conditional test and a break statement to make sure that the loop ends
when at the end of the array.
strings=ArrayNew(1);
ArraySet(strings, 1, 10, "lock");
strings[5]="key";
strings[9]="key";
indx=0;
for( ; ; ) {
indx=indx+1;
if(Find("key",strings[indx],1)) {
WriteOutput("Found a key at " & indx & ".<br>");
}
else if (indx IS ArrayLen(strings)) {
WriteOutput("Array ends at index " & indx & ".<br>");
break;
}
}

for-in construct (for arrays)

Note: This feature applies only if you have installed ColdFusion 9 Update 1.
You can loop over arrays in CFScript using for-in construct.

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Example
public String foo(array a)
{
for(var item in a)
{
writedump(item);
}
}

var declaration within for loop

Note: This feature applies only if you have installed ColdFusion 9 Update 1.
You can use var inline with for-in construct to bind variable to the local scope for both structs and arrays.
Example
public String foo(struct s)
{
for(var item in s)
{
writedump(item & ": " & s[item]);
}
writedump(local);
}

For arrays example, see for-in construct (for arrays) on page 120.

Defining components and functions in CFScript

ColdFusion supports the syntax for defining CFCs, including interfaces, functions, properties, and parameters entirely
in CFScript. Currently, however, only certain ColdFusion tags are supported as CFScript functions. This section
describes the component definition syntax.
For information on tags as functions see Tag equivalents in CFScript on page 109.

Basic Syntax
Syntax for defining a component is as follows:
/**
* ColdFusion treats plain comment text as a hint.
* You can also use the @hint metadata name for hints.
* Set metadata, including, optionally, attributes, (including custom
* attributes) in the last entries in the comment block, as follows:
*@metadataName metadataValue
...
*/
component attributeName="attributeValue" ... {
body contents
}

The following example shows a simple component definition

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/**
* Simple Component.
*/
component {
/**
* Simple function.
*/
public void function foo() {
WriteOutput("Method foo() called<br>");
}
}

When you define a component entirely in CFScript, you do not have to use a cfscript tag on the page. In this case,
the component keyword can be preceded only by comments (including metadata assignments) and import operators.
Adobe recommends this format as a best practice. You specify component properties as follows:
/**
/*@default defaultValue
* @attrib1Name attrib1Value
* ...
*/
property [type]propName;

If the type precedes the property name, you do not need to use the "type" keyword, only the name of the specific type.
In either format, you must set the name attribute value. All other property attributes, such as type, are optional. As
with cfproperty tags, place the property operators at the top of the component definition, immediately following the
opening brace.
The syntax to define a function is similar to the component definition:
/**
*Comment text, treated as a hint.
*Set metadata, including, optionally, attributes, in the last entries
*in the comment block, as follows:
*@metadataName metadataValue
...
*/
access returnType function functionName(arg1Type arg1Name="defaultValue1"
arg1Attribute="attributeValue...,arg2Type
arg2Name="defaultValue2" arg2Attribute="attributeValue...,...)
functionAttributeName="attributeValue" ... {
body contents
}

You specify all function arguments, including the argument type, default value, and attributes in the function
definition.
The following example shows a function definition:
/**
* @hint "This function displays its name and parameter."
*/
public void function foo(String n1=10)
description="does nothing" hint="overrides hint" (
WriteOutput("Method foo() called<br> Parameter value is " & n1);
}

Specifying the required keyword makes the argument mandatory. If the required keyword is not present then the
argument becomes optional.

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For example:
public function funcname(required string argument1)

Interface definitions follow the same pattern as components, with the same general rules and limitations that apply to
the interfaces you define using cfinterface tags. The following simple code defines an interface with a single function
that takes one string argument, with a default argument value of "Hello World!":
interface {
function method1(string arg1="Hello World!");
function method2 (string arg1="Goodbye World!");
...
}

The following example shows the definition of a simple component with a single function:
/**
* Component defined in CFScript
* @output true
*/
component extends="component_01" {
/**
* Function that displays its arguments and returns a string.
* @returnType string
*/
public function method_03(argOne,argTwo) {
WriteOutput("#arguments.argOne# ");
WriteOutput("#arguments.argTwo# ");
return("Arguments written.");
}
}

Setting attributes
The definition syntax provides two ways to set attributes:

At the end of a comment that immediately precedes the element, in the following format
/**
*Comment
*@attributeName1 attributeValue
*@attributeName2 attributeValue
*...
*/

In the element declaration using standard attribute-value assignment notation, as in the following line:
component extends="component_01"

Attribute values set in the element declaration take precedence over the values set in the comment section. Therefore,
if you set an attribute, such as a hint in both locations, ColdFusion ignores the value in the comment section and uses
only the one in the element declaration.

Specifying page encoding

You can specify the character encoding of a component by specifying a pageencoding processing directive at the top
of the component body. You can specify the pageencoding directive only for components. The following code snippet
shows how to use the directive:

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// this is a component
/**
*@hint "this is a hint for component"
*/
component displayname="My Component" {
pageencoding "Cp1252" ;
//
// The rest of the component definition goes here.
//
}

Note: Currently, you cannot use CFScript to specify the suppresswhitespace processing directive.

Accessing component metadata

To access metadata of a component, function, parameter, or property, use the GetMetadata function. Component
metadata includes the metadata of its properties and functions, including attributes and function parameters.
For detailed information about the structure and contents of the metadata, see GetMetaData in the CFML Reference.
The following trivial code shows the use of component metadata:
//Create an instance of a component.
theComponent=createObject("Component" "myComponent");
// Get the component metadata.
theMetadata = getMetadata(theComponent);
// The component properties are in an array. Display the name
// of the first property in the array.
writeoutput("Property name: " & theMetadata.properties[1].name);

Support for creating custom metadata

Note: To use this feature, you must install ColdFusion 9 Update 1.
You can specify custom metadata for function arguments in script syntax in either of the following ways:

With arguments, as space-separated list of key-value pairs.

In annotations, using @arg1.custommetadata

"custom value".

Example
custom.cfm
cfscript>
writeoutput(new custom().foo(10));
</cfscript>

custom.cfc

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/**
* custom metadata for a cfc defined using annotation as well as key-value pairs
* @cfcMetadata1 "cfc metadata1"
*/
component cfcMetadata2 = "cfc metadata2"
{
/**
* custom metadata for a property defined using annotation as well as key-value
pairs
* @propMetadata1 "property metadata1"
*/
property type="numeric" name="age" default="10" propMetadata2="property
metadata2";
/**
* custom metadata for a function/argument using both annotation and key-value pairs
* @arg1.argmdata1 "arg metadata1"
* output true
* @fnMetadata1 "function metadata1"
*/
public string function foo(required numeric arg1=20 argmdata2="arg metadata2")
fnMetadata2="function metadata2"
{
writedump(getmetadata(this));
return arg1;
}
}

Explicit function-local scope

ColdFusion has an explicit function-local scope. Variables in this scope exist only during the execution of the function
and are available only to the function. To declare a function-local scope variable either specify the Local scope name
when assigning the variable, or use the var keyword. Also, you can now use the var keyword anywhere in a function
definition, not just at the top.
Note: Because it is now a scope name, do not use local as a variable or argument name. If you do so, ColdFusion ignores
the variable or argument.
The following code shows the use of the function local scope:
<cffunction name="foo" output="true">
<cfset var x = 5>
<cfset local.y=local.x*4>
<cfset var z=[local.x,local.y]>
<cfset local.u.v={z="2"}>
<cfset zz="in Variables Scope">
<cfdump var="#local#">
</cffunction>;

For more information about function local scope see Using ColdFusion Variables on page 38.

Using system level functions

In the <cfscript> mode, you can now use the following basic language constructs:

throw
writedump

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writelog
location
trace
You can call these functions by passing the argument as name=value pairs or positional notations. For positional
notations, the sequence of arguments must be followed. The sequence of arguments for each construct is mentioned
in the CFML Reference Guide.
Example of passing arguments as name=value pair:
<cfscript>
writedump(var=myquery, label="query", show="name", format = "text");
</cfscript>

Example of passing arguments as Positional arguments:

<cfscript>
writedump(myquery, false, html, name);
</cfscript>

You do not need to specify all the parameters while using positional arguments. For instance, if you want to specify
the first and third argument, you can add an empty value for the second argument. The exception to this usage is when
there is a boolean type for the second argument where you have to specify true or false.
Note: You cannot mix positional and named arguments while calling a function. For example, if you need to use only the
var and output attributes with the writedump construct, you can use writedump(myquery,html).

Import and new operations using cfimport

CFScript supports import and new operations. "New" is now a keyword. However, it is not a reserved word, so you can
use it as a variable name.
You can use the cfimport tag or import script operator to import a CFC. The import operation puts the contents of the
specified component in the current name space, and caches the resolved component path in memory. The import
action is effective on the current page only. If you import CFCs in Application.cfm, the CFC is not imported on other
pages of the application.
You refer to the imported component directly without using a dot-delimited pathname. Execution time for cached
components is faster than with CFCs that you do not import.
Note: The cfobject and cfobject tags and the CreateObject function also cache the resolved component path. They do not,
however, invoke an initializer function.
In script the import statement has the following syntax:
import "cfc_filepath"

Quotation marks are optional for most paths. Surround the path in quotation marks if any directory or the CFC name
has a hyphen.
The cfimport tag now supports importing CFCs and takes a path attribute to specify the path to the CF file to import.
Use the import function or cfimport tag with a path attribute on top of the page only. Using them elsewhere has the
same effect as putting them on top of the page. Therefore, standard coding practice places the import tags or operators
at the top of the file. The cfimport tag can precede a cfcomponent tag. The import CFScript statement must follow the
component statement.

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The ColdFusion Administrator Sever Settings > Caching page now has a Component Cache option, and a Clear
Component Cache button. To prevent ColdFusion from caching resolved component paths, clear the Component
Cache option. Click the Clear Component Cache button to remove any resolved component paths from the cache.
Note: In all cases, ColdFusion automatically imports the com.adobe.coldfusion.* name space for CFCs. You do not have
to import this path explicitly.
The new operator creates an instance of a CFC. It is equivalent to the cfobject tags and CreateObject function. You can
use new as a CFScript operator, or in assignment statements outside a CFScript block, such as in a cfset tag. ColdFusion
does not have a corresponding cfnew tag.
The new operation has the following syntax:
cfObject=new cfcPath(constructorParam1,...)

or
cfObject=new cfcPath(arg1=constructorParam1Value,...)

If the folder name or CFC name has hyphen, use the following syntax:
cfObject=new "cfc-path"(constructorParam1,...)

If you use the import operator to import the directory that contains the CFC, the cfcPath value is the CFC filename.
The constructor parameters can be positional or in name="value" format. When you use the new operator, ColdFusion
does the following:
1 Looks for an initmethod constructor method in the CFC. If found, ColdFusion instantiates the component and

runs initmethod.
2 If it does not find an initmethod constructor method, it looks for an init constructor method. If found, ColdFusion

instantiates the component and runs initmethod.

3 If neither method exists, the new operation instantiates the component but does not call a constructor.

Note: Only the new operator automatically invokes the initmethod or init function. The new operator returns the
value returned by init or initmethod and if the return is void it returns the instance of the CFC. The cfobject tags
and the CreateObject function do not invoke the function and you must explicitly call any custom initialization code.

Handling exceptions
ColdFusion provides two statements for exception handling in CFScript: try and catch. These statements are
equivalent to the CFML cftry and cfcatch tags.
Note: For a discussion of exception handling in ColdFusion, see Handling Errors on page 275.

Exception handling syntax and rules

Exception-handling code in CFScript has the following format:

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try {
Code where exceptions will be caught
}
catch(exceptionType exceptionVariable) {
Code to handle exceptions of type exceptionType
that occur in the try block
}
...
catch(exceptionTypeN exceptionVariableN) {
Code to handle exceptions of type
exceptionTypeN that occur in the try block
}
finally {
Code that will execute whether there is an exception or not.
}

Note: In CFScript, catch and finally statements follow the try block; you do not place them inside the try block. This
structure differs from that of the cftry tag, which must include the cfcatch and cffinally tags in its body.
When you have a try statement, you must have a catch statement. In the catch block, the exceptionVariable variable
contains the exception type. This variable is the equivalent of the cfcatch tag cfcatch.Type built-in variable.
The finally block is optional. Its code always runs, and runs after the code in the try block and any catch block.

Exception handling example

The following code shows exception handling in CFScript. It uses a CreateObject function to create a Java object.
The catch statement executes only if the CreateObject function generates an exception. The displayed information
includes the exception message; the except.Message variable is the equivalent of calling the Java getMessage method
on the returned Java exception object. The message in the finally block appears after the catch block message.
<cfscript>
try {
emp = CreateObject("Java", "Employees");
}
catch(any excpt) {
WriteOutput("The application was unable to perform a required operation.<br>
Please try again later.<br>If this problem persists, contact
Customer Service and include the following information:<br>
#excpt.Message#<br>");
}
finally {
writeoutput("<br>Thank you for visiting our web site.<br>come back soon!");
}
</cfscript>

CFScript example
The following example uses these CFScript features:

Variable assignment
Function calls
For loops
If-else statements

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WriteOutput functions

Switch statements
The example uses CFScript without any other ColdFusion tags. It creates a structure of course applicants. This
structure contains two arrays; the first has accepted students, the second has rejected students. The script also creates
a structure with rejection reasons for some (but not all) rejected students. It then displays the accepted applicants
followed by the rejected students and their rejection reasons.
<html>
<head>
<title>CFScript Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfscript>
//Set the variables
acceptedApplicants[1] = "Cora Cardozo";
acceptedApplicants[2] = "Betty Bethone";
acceptedApplicants[3] = "Albert Albertson";
rejectedApplicants[1] = "Erma Erp";
rejectedApplicants[2] = "David Dalhousie";
rejectedApplicants[3] = "Franny Farkle";
applicants.accepted=acceptedApplicants;
applicants.rejected=rejectedApplicants;
rejectCode=StructNew();
rejectCode["David Dalhousie"] = "score";
rejectCode["Franny Farkle"] = "too late";
//Sort and display accepted applicants
ArraySort(applicants.accepted,"text","asc");
WriteOutput("The following applicants were accepted:<hr>");
for (j=1;j lte ArrayLen(applicants.accepted);j=j+1) {
WriteOutput(applicants.accepted[j] & "<br>");
}
WriteOutput("<br>");
//sort and display rejected applicants with reasons information
ArraySort(applicants.rejected,"text","asc");
WriteOutput("The following applicants were rejected:<hr>");
for (j=1;j lte ArrayLen(applicants.rejected);j=j+1) {

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applicant=applicants.rejected[j];
WriteOutput(applicant & "<br>");
if (StructKeyExists(rejectCode,applicant)) {
switch(rejectCode[applicant]) {
case "score":
WriteOutput("Reject reason: Score was too low.<br>");
break;
case "late":
WriteOutput("Reject reason: Application was late.<br>");
break;
default:
WriteOutput("Rejected with invalid reason code.<br>");
} //end switch
} //end if
else {
WriteOutput("Reject reason was not defined.<br>");
} //end else
WriteOutput("<br>");
} //end for
</cfscript>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfscript>
//Set the variables
acceptedApplicants[1] = "Cora Cardozo";
acceptedApplicants[2] = "Betty Bethone";
acceptedApplicants[3] = "Albert Albertson";
rejectedApplicants[1] = "Erma Erp";
rejectedApplicants[2] = "David Dalhousie";
rejectedApplicants[3] = "Franny Farkle";
applicants.accepted=acceptedApplicants;
applicants.rejected=rejectedApplicants;

Creates two one-dimensional arrays, one with the

accepted applicants and another with the rejected
applicants. The entries in each array are in random order.

rejectCode=StructNew();
rejectCode["David Dalhousie"] = "score";
rejectCode["Franny Farkle"] = "too late";
ArraySort(applicants.accepted,"text","asc");
WriteOutput("The following applicants were accepted:<hr>");
for (j=1;j lte ArrayLen(applicants.accepted);j=j+1) {
WriteOutput(applicants.accepted[j] & "<br>");
}
WriteOutput("<br>");

Creates a structure and assign each array to an element

of the structure.
Creates a structure with rejection codes for rejected
applicants. The rejectedCode structure does not have
entries for all rejected applicants, and one of its values
does not match a valid code. The structure element
references use associative array notation in order to use
key names that contain spaces.
Sorts the accepted applicants alphabetically.
Displays a heading.
Loops through the accepted applicants and writes their
names. Curly brackets enhance clarity, although they are
not needed for a single statement loop.
Writes an additional line break at the end of the list of
accepted applicants.

ArraySort(applicants.rejected,"text","asc");
WriteOutput("The following applicants were rejected:<hr>");

Sorts rejectedApplicants array alphabetically and

writes a heading.

for (j=1;j lte ArrayLen(applicants.rejected);j=j+1) {

applicant=applicants.rejected[j];
WriteOutput(applicant & "<br>");

Loops through the rejected applicants.

Sets the applicant variable to the applicant name. This
makes the code clearer and enables you to easily
reference the rejectCode array later in the block.
Writes the applicant name.

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Code

Description

if (StructKeyExists(rejectCode,applicant)) {
switch(rejectCode[applicant]) {
case "score":
WriteOutput("Reject reason: Score was too low.<br>");
break;
case "late":
WriteOutput("Reject reason: Application was late.<br>");
break;
default:
WriteOutput("Rejected with invalid reason code.<br>");
} //end switch
} //end if

Checks the rejectCode structure for a rejection code

for the applicant.

else {
WriteOutput("Reject reason was not defined.<br>");
} //end else

If there is no entry for the applicant in the rejectCode

structure, displays a message indicating that the reason
was not defined.

WriteOutput("<br>");
} //end for
</cfscript>

Displays a blank line after each rejected applicant.

If a code exists, enters a switch statement that examines

the rejection code value.
If the rejection code value matches one of the known
codes, displays an expanded explanation of the
meaning. Otherwise (the default case), displays an
indication that the rejection code is not valid.
Comments at the end of blocks help clarify the control
flow.

Ends the for loop that handles each rejected applicant.

Ends the CFScript.

Using Regular Expressions in Functions

Regular expressions let you perform string matching operations using Adobe ColdFusion functions; in particular.
regular expressions work with the following functions:

REFind

REFindNoCase

REMatch

REMatchNoCase

REReplace

REReplaceNoCase

Regular expressions used in the cfinput and cftextinput tags are JavaScript regular expressions, which have a
slightly different syntax than ColdFusion regular expressions. For information on JavaScript regular expressions, see
Building Dynamic Forms with cfform Tags on page 722.

About regular expressions

In traditional string matching, as used by the ColdFusion Find and Replace functions, you provide the string pattern
to search for and the string to search. The following example searches a string for the pattern " BIG " and returns a
string index if found. The string index is the location in the search string where the string pattern begins.
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=Find(" BIG ", "Some BIG string")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

You must provide the exact string pattern to match. If the exact pattern is not found, Find returns an index of 0.
Because you must specify the exact string pattern to match, matches for dynamic data can be difficult, if not impossible,
to construct.

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The next example uses a regular expression to perform the same search. This example searches for the first occurrence
in the search string of any string pattern that consists entirely of uppercase letters enclosed by spaces:
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind(" [A-Z]+ ", "Some BIG string")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

The regular expression " [A-Z]+ " matches any string pattern consisting of a leading space, followed by any number of
uppercase letters, followed by a trailing space. Therefore, this regular expression matches the string " BIG " and any
string of uppercase letters enclosed in spaces.
By default, the matching of regular expressions is case-sensitive. You can use the REFindNoCase and
REReplaceNoCase functions for case-insensitive matching.
Because you often process large amounts of dynamic textual data, regular expressions are invaluable in writing
complex ColdFusion applications.

Using ColdFusion regular expression functions

ColdFusion supplies four functions that work with regular expressions:

REFind

REFindNoCase

REMatch

REMatchNoCase

REReplace

REReplaceNoCase

REFind and REFindNoCase use a regular expression to search a string for a pattern and return the string index where
it finds the pattern. For example, the following function returns the index of the first instance of the string " BIG ":
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind(" BIG ", "Some BIG BIG string")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

To find the next occurrence of the string " BIG ", you must call the REFind function a second time. For an example of
iterating over a search string to find all occurrences of the regular expression, see Returning matched subexpressions
on page 141.
REReplace and REReplaceNoCase use regular expressions to search through a string and replace the string pattern
that matches the regular expression with another string. You can use these functions to replace the first match, or to
replace all matches.

For detailed descriptions of the ColdFusion functions that use regular expressions, see the CFML Reference.

Basic regular expression syntax

The simplest regular expression contains only literal characters. The literal characters must match exactly the text
being searched. For example, you can use the regular expression function REFind to find the string pattern " BIG ", just
as you can with the Find function:
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind(" BIG ", "Some BIG string")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

In this example, REFind must match the exact string pattern " BIG ".
To use the full power of regular expressions, combine literal characters with character sets and special characters, as in
the following example:

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<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind(" [A-Z]+ ", "Some BIG string")>

<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

The literal characters of the regular expression consist of the space characters at the beginning and end of the regular
expression. The character set consists of that part of the regular expression in brackets. This character set specifies to
find a single uppercase letter from A to Z, inclusive. The plus sign (+) after the brackets is a special character specifying
to find one or more occurrences of the character set.
If you removed the + from the regular expression in the previous example, " [A-Z] " matches a literal space, followed
by any single uppercase letter, followed by a single space. This regular expression matches " B " but not " BIG ". The
REFind function returns 0 for the regular expression, meaning that it did not find a match.
You can construct complicated regular expressions containing literal characters, character sets, and special characters.
Like any programming language, the more you work with regular expressions, the more you can accomplish with
them. The examples here are fairly basic. For more examples, see Regular expression examples on page 143.

Regular expression syntax

Regular expression syntax has several basic rules and methods.

Using character sets

The pattern within the brackets of a regular expression defines a character set that is used to match a single character.
For example, the regular expression " [A-Za-z] " specifies to match any single uppercase or lowercase letter enclosed
by spaces. In the character set, a hyphen indicates a range of characters.
The regular expression " B[IAU]G " matches the strings BIG , BAG , and BUG , but does not match the string
" BOG ".
If you specified the regular expression as " B[IA][GN] ", the concatenation of character sets creates a regular expression
that matches the corresponding concatenation of characters in the search string. This regular expression matches a
space, followed by B, followed by an I or A, followed by a G or N, followed by a trailing space. The regular
expression matches BIG , BAG , BIN , and BAN .
The regular expression [A-Z][a-z]* matches any word that starts with an uppercase letter and is followed by zero or
more lowercase letters. The special character * after the closing square bracket specifies to match zero or more
occurrences of the character set.
Note: The * only applies to the character set that immediately precedes it, not to the entire regular expression.
A + after the closing square bracket specifies to find one or more occurrences of the character set. You interpret the
regular expression "[A-Z]+" as matching one or more uppercase letters enclosed by spaces. Therefore, this regular
expression matches " BIG " and also matches LARGE , HUGE , ENORMOUS , and any other string of
uppercase letters surrounded by spaces.
Considerations when using special characters
Since a regular expression followed by an * can match zero instances of the regular expression, it can also match the
empty string. For example,
<cfoutput>
REReplace("Hello","[T]*","7","ALL") - #REReplace("Hello","[T]*","7","ALL")#<BR>
</cfoutput>

results in the following output:

REReplace("Hello","[T]*","7","ALL") - 7H7e7l7l7o7

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The regular expression [T]* can match empty strings. It first matches the empty string before H in Hello. The
ALL argument tells REReplace to replace all instances of an expression. The empty string before e is matched, and
so on, until the empty string before o is matched.
This result might be unexpected. The workarounds for these types of problems are specific to each case. In some cases
you can use [T]+, which requires at least one T, instead of [T]*. Alternatively, you can specify an additional pattern
after [T]*.
In the following examples the regular expression has a W at the end:
<cfoutput>
REReplace("Hello World","[T]*W","7","ALL")
#REReplace("Hello World","[T]*W","7","ALL")#<BR>
</cfoutput>

This expression results in the following more predictable output:

REReplace("Hello World","[T]*W","7","ALL") - Hello 7orld

Finding repeating characters

In some cases, you might want to find a repeating pattern of characters in a search string. For example, the regular
expression "a{2,4}" specifies to match two to four occurrences of a. Therefore, it would match: "aa", "aaa", "aaaa", but
not "a" or "aaaaa". In the following example, the REFind function returns an index of 6:
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind("a{2,4}", "hahahaaahaaaahaaaaahhh")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 6--->

The regular expression "[0-9]{3,}" specifies to match any integer number containing three or more digits: 123,
45678, and so on. However, this regular expression does not match a one-digit or two-digit number.
You use the following syntax to find repeating characters:
1 {m,n}

Where m is 0 or greater and n is greater than or equal to m. Match m through n (inclusive) occurrences.
The expression {0,1} is equivalent to the special character ?.
2 {m,}

Where m is 0 or greater. Match at least m occurrences. The syntax {,n} is not allowed.
The expression {1,} is equivalent to the special character +, and {0,} is equivalent to *.
3 {m}

Where m is 0 or greater. Match exactly m occurrences.

Case sensitivity in regular expressions

ColdFusion supplies case-sensitive and case-insensitive functions for working with regular expressions. REFind and
REReplace perform case-sensitive matching and REFindNoCase and REReplaceNoCase perform case-insensitive
matching.
You can build a regular expression that models case-insensitive behavior, even when used with a case-sensitive
function. To make a regular expression case insensitive, substitute individual characters with character sets. For
example, the regular expression [Jj][Aa][Vv][Aa], when used with the case-sensitive functions REFind or REReplace,
matches all of the following string patterns:

JAVA

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java
Java
jAva
All other combinations of case

Using subexpressions
Parentheses group parts of regular expressions into subexpressions that you can treat as a single unit. For example, the
regular expression "ha" specifies to match a single occurrence of the string. The regular expression "(ha)+" matches one
or more instances of ha.
In the following example, you use the regular expression "B(ha)+" to match the letter "B" followed by one or more
occurrences of the string "ha":
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind("B(ha)+", "hahaBhahahaha")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

You can use the special character | in a subexpression to create a logical "OR". You can use the following regular
expression to search for the word "jelly" or "jellies":
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind("jell(y|ies)", "I like peanut butter and jelly">
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 26--->

Using special characters

Regular expressions define the following list of special characters:
+ * ? . [ ^ $ ( ) { | \

In some cases, you use a special character as a literal character. For example, if you want to search for the plus sign in
a string, you have to escape the plus sign by preceding it with a backslash:
"\+"

The following table describes the special characters for regular expressions:
Special Character

Description

A backslash followed by any special character matches the literal character itself, that is, the backslash escapes the
special character.
For example, "\+" matches the plus sign, and "\\" matches a backslash.

A period matches any character, including newline.

To match any character except a newline, use [^#chr(13)##chr(10)#], which excludes the ASCII carriage return and
line feed codes. The corresponding escape codes are \r and \n.

[]

A one-character character set that matches any of the characters in that set.
For example, "[akm]" matches an a, k, or m. A hyphen in a character set indicates a range of characters; for
example, [a-z] matches any single lowercase letter.
If the first character of a character set is the caret (^), the regular expression matches any character except those
in the set. It does not match the empty string.
For example, [^akm] matches any character except a, k, or m. The caret loses its special meaning if it is not
the first character of the set.

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Special Character

Description

If the caret is at the beginning of a regular expression, the matched string must be at the beginning of the string
being searched.
For example, the regular expression "^ColdFusion" matches the string "ColdFusion lets you use regular
expressions" but not the string "In ColdFusion, you can use regular expressions."

If the dollar sign is at the end of a regular expression, the matched string must be at the end of the string being
searched.
For example, the regular expression "ColdFusion$" matches the string "I like ColdFusion" but not the string
"ColdFusion is fun."

A character set or subexpression followed by a question mark matches zero or one occurrence of the character
set or subexpression.
For example, xy?z matches either xyz or xz.

The OR character allows a choice between two regular expressions.

For example, jell(y|ies) matches either jelly or jellies.

A character set or subexpression followed by a plus sign matches one or more occurrences of the character set or
subexpression.
For example, [a-z]+ matches one or more lowercase characters.

A character set or subexpression followed by an asterisk matches zero or more occurrences of the character set or
subexpression.
For example, [a-z]* matches zero or more lowercase characters.

()

Parentheses group parts of a regular expression into subexpressions that you can treat as a single unit.
For example, (ha)+ matches one or more instances of ha.

(?x)

If at the beginning of a regular expression, it specifies to ignore whitespace in the regular expression and lets you
use ## for end-of-line comments. You can match a space by escaping it with a backslash.
For example, the following regular expression includes comments, preceded by ##, that are ignored by
ColdFusion:
reFind("(?x)
one ##first option
|two ##second option
|three\ point\ five ## note escaped spaces
", "three point five")

(?m)

If at the beginning of a regular expression, it specifies the multiline mode for the special characters ^ and $.
When used with ^, the matched string can be at the start of the entire search string or at the start of new lines,
denoted by a linefeed character or chr(10), within the search string. For $, the matched string can be at the end
the search string or at the end of new lines.
Multiline mode does not recognize a carriage return, or chr(13), as a new line character.
The following example searches for the string two across multiple lines:
#reFind("(?m)^two", "one#chr(10)#two")#

This example returns 4 to indicate that it matched two after the chr(10) linefeed. Without (?m), the regular
expression would not match anything, because ^ only matches the start of the string.
The character (?m) does not affect \A or \Z, which always match the start or end of the string, respectively. For
information on \A and \Z, see Using escape sequences on page 137.

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Special Character

Description

(?i)

If at the beginning of a regular expression for REFind(), it specifies to perform a case-insensitive compare.
For example, the following line would return an index of 1:
#reFind("(?i)hi", "HI")#

If you omit the (?i), the line would return an index of zero to signify that it did not find the regular expression.
(?=...)

If at the beginning of a regular expression, it specifies to use positive lookahead when searching for the regular
expression.
If you prefix a subexpression with this, ColdFusion uses positive lookahead for that subexpression.
Positive lookahead tests for the parenthesized subexpression like regular parenthesis, but does not include the
contents in the match - it merely tests to see if it is there in proximity to the rest of the expression.
For example, consider the expression to extract the protocol from a URL:
<cfset regex = "http(?=://)">
<cfset string = "http://">
<cfset result = reFind(regex, string, 1, "yes")>
mid(string, result.pos[1], result.len[1])

This example results in the string "http". The lookahead parentheses ensure that the "://" is there, but does not
include it in the result. If you did not use lookahead, the result would include the extraneous "://".
Lookahead parentheses do not capture text, so backreference numbering will skip over these groups. For more
information on backreferencing, see Using backreferences on page 139.
(?!...)

If at the beginning of a regular expression, it specifies to use negative lookahead. Negative is just like positive
lookahead, as specified by (?=...), except that it tests for the absence of a match.
Lookahead parentheses do not capture text, so backreference numbering will skip over these groups. For more
information on backreferencing, see Using backreferences on page 139.

(?:...)

If you prefix a subexpression with "?:", ColdFusion performs all operations on the subexpression except that it will
not capture the corresponding text for use with a back reference.

You must be aware of the following considerations when using special characters in character sets, such as [a-z]:

To include a hyphen (-) in the brackets of a character set as a literal character, you cannot escape it as you can other
special characters because ColdFusion always interprets a hyphen as a range indicator. Therefore, if you use a literal
hyphen in a character set, make it the last character in the set.

To include a closing square bracket (]) in the character set, escape it with a backslash, as in [1-3\]A-z]. You do not
have to escape the ] character outside the character set designator.

Using escape sequences

Escape sequences are special characters in regular expressions preceded by a backslash (\). You typically use escape
sequences to represent special characters within a regular expression. For example, the escape sequence \t represents
a tab character within the regular expression, and the \d escape sequence specifies any digit, as [0-9] does. ColdFusion
escape sequences are case sensitive.
The following table lists the escape sequences that ColdFusion supports:

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Escape Sequence

Description

\b

Specifies a boundary defined by a transition from an alphanumeric character to a nonalphanumeric character, or

from a nonalphanumeric character to an alphanumeric character.
For example, the string " Big" contains boundary defined by the space (nonalphanumeric character) and the "B"
(alphanumeric character).
The following example uses the \b escape sequence in a regular expression to locate the string "Big" at the end of
the search string and not the fragment "big" inside the word "ambiguous".
reFindNoCase("\bBig\b", "Dont be ambiguous about Big.")
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 26 --->

When used inside a character set (for example [\b]), it specifies a backspace
\B

Specifies a boundary defined by no transition of character type. For example, two alphanumeric characters in a
row or two nonalphanumeric characters in a row; opposite of \b.

\A

Specifies a beginning of string anchor, much like the ^ special character.

However, unlike ^, you cannot combine \A with (?m) to specify the start of newlines in the search string.

\Z

Specifies an end of string anchor, much like the $ special character.

However, unlike $, you cannot combine \Z with (?m) to specify the end of newlines in the search string.

\n

Newline character

\r

Carriage return

\t

Tab

\f

Form feed

\d

Any digit, similar to [0-9]

\D

Any nondigit character, similar to [^0-9]

\w

Any alphanumeric character, or the underscore (_), similar to [[:word:]]

\W

Any nonalphanumeric character, except the underscore similar to [^[:word:]]

\s

Any whitespace character including tab, space, newline, carriage return, and form feed. Similar to [ \t\n\r\f].

\S

Any nonwhitespace character, similar to [^ \t\n\r\f]

\\x

A hexadecimal representation of character, where d is a hexadecimal digit

\ddd

An octal representation of a character, where d is an octal digit, in the form \000 to \377

Using character classes

In character sets within regular expressions, you can include a character class. You enclose the character class inside
brackets, as the following example shows:
REReplace ("Adobe Web Site","[[:space:]]","*","ALL")

This code replaces all the spaces with *, producing this string:
Adobe*Web*Site

You can combine character classes with other expressions within a character set. For example, the regular expression
[[:space:]123] searches for a space, 1, 2, or 3. The following example also uses a character class in a regular expression:
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind("[[:space:]][A-Z]+[[:space:]]",
"Some BIG string")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

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The following table shows the character classes that ColdFusion supports. Regular expressions using these classes
match any Unicode character in the class, not just ASCII or ISO-8859 characters.
Character class

Matches

:alpha:

Any alphabetic character.

:upper:

Any uppercase alphabetic character.

:lower:

Any lowercase alphabetic character

:digit:

Any digit. Same as \d.

:alnum:

Any alphabetic or numeric character.

:xdigit:

Any hexadecimal digit. Same as [0-9A-Fa-f].

:blank:

Space or a tab.

:space:

Any whitespace character. Same as \s.

:print:

Any alphanumeric, punctuation, or space character.

:punct:

Any punctuation character

:graph:

Any alphanumeric or punctuation character.

:cntrl:

Any character not part of the character classes [:upper:], [:lower:], [:alpha:], [:digit:], [:punct:], [:graph:], [:print:], or
[:xdigit:].

:word:

Any alphabetic or numeric character, plus the underscore (_). Same as \w

:ascii:

The ASCII characters, in the Hexadecimal range 0 - 7F

Using backreferences
You use parenthesis to group components of a regular expression into subexpressions. For example, the regular
expression (ha)+ matches one or more occurrences of the string ha.
ColdFusion performs an additional operation when using subexpressions; it automatically saves the characters in the
search string matched by a subexpression for later use within the regular expression. Referencing the saved
subexpression text is called backreferencing.
You can use backreferencing when searching for repeated words in a string, such as the the or is is. The following
example uses backreferencing to find all repeated words in the search string and replace them with an asterisk:
REReplace("There is is coffee in the the kitchen",
"[ ]+([A-Za-z]+)[ ]+\1"," * ","ALL")

Using this regular expression, ColdFusion detects the two occurrences of is as well as the two occurrences of the,
replaces them with an asterisk enclosed in spaces, and returns the following string:
There * coffee in * kitchen

You interpret the regular expression [ ]+([A-Za-z]+)[ ]+\1 as follows:

Use the subexpression ([A-Za-z]+) to search for character strings consisting of one or more letters, enclosed by one or
more spaces, [ ]+, followed by the same character string that matched the first subexpression, \1.
You reference the matched characters of a subexpression using a slash followed by a digit n (\n) where the first
subexpression in a regular expression is referenced as \1, the second as \2, and so on. The next section includes an
example using multiple backreferences.

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Using backreferences in replacement strings

You can use backreferences in the replacement string of both the REReplace and REReplaceNoCase functions. For
example, to replace the first repeated word in a text string with a single word, use the following syntax:
REReplace("There is is a cat in in the kitchen",
"([A-Za-z ]+)\1","\1")

This results in the sentence:

"There is a cat in in the kitchen"

You can use the optional fourth parameter to REReplace, scope, to replace all repeated words, as in the following code:
REReplace("There is is a cat in in the kitchen",
"([A-Za-z ]+)\1","\1","ALL")

This results in the following string:

"There is a cat in the kitchen"

The next example uses two backreferences to reverse the order of the words "apples" and "pears" in a sentence:
<cfset astring = "apples and pears, apples and pears, apples and pears">
<cfset newString = REReplace("#astring#", "(apples) and (pears)",
"\2 and \1","ALL")>

In this example, you reference the subexpression (apples) as \1 and the subexpression (pears) as \2. The REReplace
function returns the string:
"pears and apples, pears and apples, pears and apples"

Note: To use backreferences in either the search string or the replace string, you must use parentheses within the regular
expression to create the corresponding subexpression. Otherwise, ColdFusion throws an exception.
Using backreferences to perform case conversions in replacement strings
The REReplace and REReplaceNoCase functions support special characters in replacement strings to convert
replacement characters to uppercase or lowercase. The following table describes these special characters:
Special character

Description

\u

Converts the next character to uppercase.

\l

Converts the next character to lowercase.

\U

Converts all characters to uppercase until encountering \E.

\L

Converts all characters to lowercase until encountering \E.

\E

End \U or \L.

To include a literal \u, or other code, in a replacement string, escape it with another backslash; for example \\u.
For example, the following statement replaces the uppercase string "HELLO" with a lowercase "hello". This example
uses backreferences to perform the replacement.
REReplace("HELLO", "([[:upper:]]*)", "Don't shout\scream \L\1")

The result of this example is the string "Don't shout\scream hello".

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Escaping special characters in replacement strings

You use the backslash character, \, to escape backreference and case-conversion characters in replacement strings. For
example, to include a literal "\u" in a replacement string, escape it, as in "\\u".

Omitting subexpressions from backreferences

By default, a set of parentheses will both group the subexpression and capture its matched text for later referral by
backreferences. However, if you insert "?:" as the first characters of the subexpression, ColdFusion performs all
operations on the subexpression except that it will not capture the corresponding text for use with a back reference.
This is useful when alternating over subexpressions containing differing numbers of groups would complicate
backreference numbering. For example, consider an expression to insert a "Mr." in between Bonjour|Hi|Hello and
Bond, using a nested group for alternating between Hi & Hello:
<cfset regex = "(Bonjour|H(?:i|ello))( Bond)">
<cfset replaceString = "\1 Mr.\2">
<cfset string = "Hello Bond">
#REReplace(string, regex, replaceString)#

This example returns "Hello Mr. Bond". If you did not prohibit the capturing of the Hi/Hello group, the \2
backreference would end up referring to that group instead of " Bond", and the result would be "Hello Mr.ello".

Returning matched subexpressions

The REFind and REFindNoCase functions return the location in the search string of the first match of the regular
expression. Even though the search string in the next example contains two matches of the regular expression, the
function only returns the index of the first:
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind(" BIG ", "Some BIG BIG string")>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 5 --->

To find all instances of the regular expression, you must call the REFind and REFindNoCase functions multiple times.
Both the REFind and REFindNoCase functions take an optional third parameter that specifies the starting index in the
search string for the search. By default, the starting location is index 1, the beginning of the string.
To find the second instance of the regular expression in this example, you call REFind with a starting index of 8:
<cfset IndexOfOccurrence=REFind(" BIG ", "Some BIG BIG string", 8)>
<!--- The value of IndexOfOccurrence is 9 --->

In this case, the function returns an index of 9, the starting index of the second string " BIG ".
To find the second occurrence of the string, you must know that the first string occurred at index 5 and that the strings
length was 5. However, REFind only returns starting index of the string, not its length. So, you either must know the
length of the matched string to call REFind the second time, or you must use subexpressions in the regular expression.
The REFind and REFindNoCase functions let you get information about matched subexpressions. If you set these
functions fourth parameter, ReturnSubExpression, to True, the functions return a CFML structure with two arrays,
pos and len, containing the positions and lengths of text strings that match the subexpressions of a regular expression,
as the following example shows:
<cfset sLenPos=REFind(" BIG ", "Some BIG BIG string", 1, "True")>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sLenPos#">
</cfoutput><br>

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Element one of the pos array contains the starting index in the search string of the string that matched the regular
expression. Element one of the len array contains length of the matched string. For this example, the index of the first
" BIG " string is 5 and its length is also 5. If the regular expression does not occur, the pos and len arrays each contain
one element with a value of 0.
You can use the returned information with other string functions, such as mid. The following example returns that
part of the search string matching the regular expression:
<cfset myString="Some BIG BIG string">
<cfset sLenPos=REFind(" BIG ", myString, 1, "True")>
<cfoutput>
#mid(myString, sLenPos.pos[1], sLenPos.len[1])#
</cfoutput>

Each additional element in the pos array contains the position of the first match of each subexpression in the search
string. Each additional element in len contains the length of the subexpressions match.
In the previous example, the regular expression " BIG " contained no subexpressions. Therefore, each array in the
structure returned by REFind contains a single element.
After executing the previous example, you can call REFind a second time to find the second occurrence of the regular
expression. This time, you use the information returned by the first call to make the second:
<cfset newstart = sLenPos.pos[1] + sLenPos.len[1] - 1>
<!--- subtract 1 because you need to start at the first space --->
<cfset sLenPos2=REFind(" BIG ", "Some BIG BIG string", newstart, "True")>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sLenPos2#">
</cfoutput><br>

If you include subexpressions in your regular expression, each element of pos and len after element one contains the
position and length of the first occurrence of each subexpression in the search string.
In the following example, the expression [A-Za-z]+ is a subexpression of a regular expression. The first match for the
expression ([A-Za-z]+)[ ]+, is is is.
<cfset sLenPos=REFind("([A-Za-z]+)[ ]+\1",
"There is is a cat in in the kitchen", 1, "True")>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sLenPos#">
</cfoutput><br>

The entries sLenPos.pos[1] and sLenPos.len[1] contain information about the match of the entire regular expression.
The array elements sLenPos.pos[2] and sLenPos.len[2] contain information about the first subexpression (is).
Because REFind returns information on the first regular expression match only, the sLenPos structure does not
contain information about the second match to the regular expression, "in in".
The regular expression in the following example uses two subexpressions. Therefore, each array in the output structure
contains the position and length of the first match of the entire regular expression, the first match of the first
subexpression, and the first match of the second subexpression.
<cfset sString = "apples and pears, apples and pears, apples and pears">
<cfset regex = "(apples) and (pears)">
<cfset sLenPos = REFind(regex, sString, 1, "True")>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sLenPos#">
</cfoutput>

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For a full discussion of subexpression usage, see the sections on REFind and REFindNoCase in the ColdFusion
functions chapter in the CFML Reference.

Specifying minimal matching

The regular expression quantifiers ?, *, +, {min,} and {min,max} specify one or both of a minimum and maximum
number of instances of a given expression to match. By default, ColdFusion locates the greatest number characters in
the search string that match the regular expression. This behavior is called maximal matching.
For example, you use the regular expression "<b>(.*)</b>" to search the string "<b>one</b> <b>two</b>". The regular
expression "<b>(.*)</b>", matches both of the following:

<b>one</b>
<b>one</b> <b>two</b>
By default, ColdFusion always tries to match the regular expression to the largest string in the search string. The
following code shows the results of this example:
<cfset sLenPos=REFind("<b>(.*)</b>", "<b>one</b> <b>two</b>", 1, "True")>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sLenPos#">
</cfoutput><br>

Thus, the starting position of the string is 1 and its length is 21, which corresponds to the largest of the two possible
matches.
However, sometimes you might want to override this default behavior to find the shortest string that matches the
regular expression. ColdFusion includes minimal-matching quantifiers that let you specify to match on the smallest
string. The following table describes these expressions:
Expression

Description

*?

minimal-matching version of *

+?

minimal-matching version of +

??

minimal-matching version of ?

{min,}?

minimal-matching version of {min,}

{min,max}?

minimal-matching version of {min,max}

{n}?

(no different from {n}, supported for notational consistency)

If you modify the previous example to use the minimal-matching syntax, the code is as follows:
<cfset sLenPos=REFind("<b>(.*?)</b>", "<b>one</b> <b>two</b>", 1, "True")>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sLenPos#">
</cfoutput><br>

Thus, the length of the string found by the regular expression is 10, corresponding to the string "<b>one</b>".

Regular expression examples

The following examples show some regular expressions and describe what they match:

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Expression

Description

[\?&]value=

A URL parameter value in a URL.

[A-Z]:(\\[A-Z0-9_]+)+

An uppercase DOS/Windows path in which (a) is not the root of a

drive, and (b) has only letters, numbers, and underscores in its text.

^[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*

A ColdFusion variable with no qualifier.

([A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*)(\.[A-Za-z][A-Za-z0-9_]*)?

A ColdFusion variable with no more than one qualifier; for example,

Form.VarName, but not Form.Image.VarName.

(\+|-)?[1-9][0-9]*

An integer that does not begin with a zero and has an optional sign.

(\+|-)?[0-9]+(\.[0-9]*)?

A real number.

(\+|-)?[1-9]\.[0-9]*E(\+|-)?[0-9]+

A real number in engineering notation.

a{2,4}

Two to four occurrences of a: aa, aaa, aaaa.

(ba){3,}

At least three ba pairs: bababa, babababa, and so on.

Regular expressions in CFML

The following examples of CFML show some common uses of regular expression functions:
Expression

Returns

REReplace (CGI.Query_String, "CFID=[0-9]+[&]*", "")

The query string with parameter CFID

and its numeric value stripped out.

REReplace("I Love Jellies", "[[:lower:]]","x","ALL"

I Lxxx Jxxxxxx

REReplaceNoCase("cabaret","[A-Z]", "G","ALL")

GGGGGGG

REReplace (Report,"\$[0-9,]*\.[0-9]*","$***.**")", "")

The string value of the variable Report

with all positive numbers in the dollar
format changed to "$***.**".

REFind ("[Uu]\.?[Ss]\.?[Aa}\.?", Report )

The position in the variable Report of

the first occurrence of the abbreviation
USA. The letters can be in either case
and the abbreviation can have a period
after any letter.

REFindNoCase("a+c","ABCAACCDD")

REReplace("There is is coffee in the the kitchen","([A-Za-z]+)[

]+\1","*","ALL")

There * coffee in * kitchen

REReplace(report, "<[^>]*>", "", "All")

Removes all HTML tags from a string

value of the report variable.

Types of regular expression technologies

Many types of regular expression technologies are available to programmers. JavaScript, Perl, and POSIX are all
examples of different regular expression technologies. Each technology has its own syntax specifications and is not
necessarily compatible with other technologies.
ColdFusion supports regular expressions that are Perl compliant with a few exceptions:

A period, ., always matches newlines.

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In replacement strings, use \n instead of $n for backreference variables. ColdFusion escapes all $ in the replacement
string.

You do not have to escape backslashes in replacement strings. ColdFusion escapes them, except in case conversion
sequences or escaped versions (for example, \u or \\u).

Embedded modifiers such as (?i) always operate on the entire expression, even if they are inside a group.
\` and the combinations \u\L and \l\U are not supported in replacement strings.
The following Perl statements are not supported:

Lookbehind (?<=) (<?!)

\\x
\N
\p
\C
An excellent reference on regular expressions is Mastering Regular Expressions, by Jeffrey E. F. Friedl, O'Reilly &
Associates, Inc., 1997, ISBN: 1-56592-257-3, available at www.oreilly.com.

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Applications
Creating ColdFusion Elements
You can create ColdFusion elements to organize your code. When you create any of these elements, you write your
code once and use it, without copying it, in many places.

About CFML elements that you create

Adobe ColdFusion provides you with several techniques and elements to create sections of code that you can use
multiple times in an application. Many of the elements also let you extend the built-in capabilities of ColdFusion.
ColdFusion provides the following techniques and elements:

ColdFusion pages you include using the cfinclude tag

User-defined functions (UDFs)
ColdFusion components
Custom CFML tags
CFX (ColdFusion Extension) tags
ColdFusion can also use elements developed using other technologies, including the following:

JSP tags from JSP tag libraries. For information on using JSP tags, see Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML
Applications on page 1125.

Java objects, including objects in the Java run-time environment and JavaBeans. For information on using Java
objects, see Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML Applications on page 1125.

Microsoft COM (Component Object Model) objects. For information on using COM objects, see Integrating
COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications on page 1170.

CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) objects. For information on using CORBA objects, see
Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML Applications on page 1170.

Web services. For information on using web services, see Using Web Services on page 1093.

Including pages with the cfinclude tag

The cfinclude tag adds the contents of a ColdFusion page to another ColdFusion page, as if the code on the included
page was part of the page that uses the cfinclude tag. It lets you pursue a write once use multiple times strategy for
ColdFusion elements that you incorporate in multiple pages. Instead of copying and maintaining the same code on
multiple pages, you can store the code in one page and then reference it in many pages. For example, the cfinclude
tag is commonly used to place a header and footer on multiple pages. This way, if you change the header or footer
design, you only change the contents of a single file.

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The model of an included page is that it is part of your page; it just resides in a separate file. The cfinclude tag cannot
pass parameters to the included page, but the included page has access to all the variables on the page that includes it.
The following image shows this model:
<html>
...
<cfinclude template=
"Template.cfm">
...
</html>
MyPage.cfm

<table>
<tr><td>
Included Text here
</td></tr>
</table>
Template.cfm

MyPage.cfm

<html>
...
<table>
<tr><td>
Included Text here
</td></tr>
</table>
...
</html>

Using the cfinclude tag

When you use the cfinclude tag to include one ColdFusion page in another ColdFusion page, the page that includes
another page is referred to as the calling page. When ColdFusion encounters a cfinclude tag it replaces the tag on the
calling page with the output from processing the included page. The included page can also set variables in the calling page.
The following line shows a sample cfinclude tag:
<cfinclude template = "header.cfm">

Note: You cannot break CFML code blocks across pages. For example, if you open a cfoutput block in a ColdFusion
page, close the block on the same page; you cannot include the closing portion of the block in an included page.
ColdFusion searches for included files as follows:

The template attribute specifies a path relative to the directory of the calling page.
If the template value is prefixed with a forward slash (/), ColdFusion searches for the included file in directories that
you specify on the Mappings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
Important: A page must not include itself. Doing so causes an infinite processing loop. To resolve the problem, stop the
ColdFusion server.
Include code in a calling page
1 Create a ColdFusion page named header.cfm that displays your logo. Your page can consist of just the following
lines, or it can include many lines to define an entire header:
<img src="mylogo.gif">
<br>

(For this example to work, you must also place your logo as a GIF file in the same directory as the header.cfm file.)
2 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Test for Include</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfinclude template="header.cfm">
</body>
</html>

3 Save the file as includeheader.cfm and view it in a browser.

The header appears along with the logo.

Recommended uses
Consider using the cfinclude tag in the following cases:

For page headers and footers

To divide a large page into multiple logical chunks that are easier to understand and manage
For large snippets of code that are used in many places but do not require parameters or fit into the model of a
function or tag

About user-defined functions

User-defined functions (UDFs) let you create application elements in a format in which you pass in arguments and get
a return a value. You can define UDFs using CFScript or the cffunction tag. The two techniques have several
differences, of which the following are the most important:

If you use the cffunction tag, your function can include CFML tags.
If you write your function using CFScript, you cannot include CFML tags.
You can use UDFs in your application pages just as you use standard ColdFusion functions. When you create a
function for an algorithm or procedure that you use frequently, you can then use the function wherever you need the
procedure, just as you would use a ColdFusion built-in function. For example, the following line calls the function
MyFunct and passes it two arguments:
<cfset returnValue=MyFunct(Arg1, Arg2)>

You can group related functions in a ColdFusion component. For more information, see Using ColdFusion
components on page 149.
As with custom tags, you can easily distribute UDFs to others. For example, the Common Function Library Project at
www.cflib.org is an open-source collection of CFML user-defined functions.

Recommended uses
Typical uses of UDFs include, but are not limited to, the following:

Data manipulation routines, such as a function to reverse an array

String and date and time routines, such as a function to determine whether a string is a valid IP address
Mathematical calculation routines, including standard trigonometric and statistical operations or calculating loan
amortization

Routines that call functions externally, for example using COM or CORBA, such as routines to determine the space
available on a Windows file system drive

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Consider using UDFs in the following circumstances:

You want to pass in arguments, process the results, and return a value. UDFs can return complex values, including
structures that contain multiple simple values.

You want to provide logical units, such as data manipulation functions.

Your code must be recursive.
You distribute your code to others.
If you can create either a UDF or a custom CFML tag for a particular purpose, first consider creating a UDF because
running it requires less system overhead than using a custom tag.

For more information

For more information on user-defined functions, see Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions on page 153.

Using ColdFusion components

ColdFusion components (CFCs) are ColdFusion templates that contain related functions and arguments that each
function accepts. The CFC contains the CFML tags necessary to define its functions and arguments and return a value.
ColdFusion components are saved with a .cfc extension.
CFCs combine the power of objects with the simplicity of CFML. By combining related functions into a single unit,
they provide an object or class shell from which functions can be called.
ColdFusion components can make their data private, so that it is available to all functions (also called methods) in the
component, but not to any application that uses the component.
ColdFusion components have the following features:

They are designed to provide related services in a single unit.

They can provide web services and make them available over the Internet.
They can provide ColdFusion services that Flash clients can call directly.
They have several features that are familiar to object-oriented programmers, including data hiding, inheritance,
packages, and introspection.

Recommended uses
Consider using ColdFusion components when doing the following:

Creating web services. (To create web services in ColdFusion, you must use components.)
Creating services that are callable by Flash clients.
Creating libraries of related functions, particularly if they must share data.
Using integrated application security mechanisms based on roles and the requestor location.
Developing code in an object-oriented manner, in which you use methods on objects and can create objects that
extend the features of existing objects.

For more information

For more information on using ColdFusion components, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on
page 177

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Using custom CFML tags

Custom tags written in CFML behave like ColdFusion tags. They can do all of the following:

Take arguments.
Have tag bodies with beginning and ending tags.
Do specific processing when ColdFusion encounters the beginning tag.
Do processing that is different from the beginning tag processing when ColdFusion encounters the ending tag.
Have any valid ColdFusion page content in their bodies, including both ColdFusion built-in tags and custom tags
(referred to as nested tags), or even JSP tags or JavaScript.

Be called recursively; that is, a custom tag can, if designed properly, call itself in the tag body.
Return values to the calling page in a common scope or the Variables scope of the calling page, but custom tags do
not return values directly, the way functions do.
Although a custom tag and a ColdFusion page that you include using the cfinclude tag are both ColdFusion pages,
they differ in how they are processed. When a page calls a custom tag, it hands processing off to the custom tag page
and waits until the custom tag page completes. When the custom tag finishes, it returns processing (and possibly data)
to the calling page; the calling page can then complete its processing. The following image shows this process. The
arrows indicate the flow of ColdFusion processing the pages.
<html>
<head>
<title>Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>The date is:</h3>
<cf_now>
</body>
</html>

<cfif IsDefined("Attributes.Type")>
<cfif Attributes.Type IS "Date">
<cfoutput>#DateFormat(Now())#<cfoutput>
<cfelseif Attributes.Type IS "Time">
<cfoutput>#TimeFomat(Now())#<cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>#Now()#<cfoutput>
</cfif>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>#Now()#</cfoutput>
</cfif>

MyPage.cfm

Now.cfm

Calling custom CFML tags

Unlike built-in tags, you can run custom CFML tags in the following three ways:

Call a tag directly.

Call a tag using the cfmessagebox tag.
Use the cfimport tag to import a custom tag library directory.
To call a CFML custom tag directly, precede the filename with cf_, omit the .cfm extension, and place the name in
angle brackets (<>). For example, use the following line to call the custom tag defined by the file mytag.cfm:
<cf_myTag>

If your tag takes a body, end it with the same tag name preceded with a forward slash (/), as follows:

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</cf_myTag>

For information on using the cfmodule and cfimport tags to call custom CFML tags, see Creating and Using
Custom CFML Tags on page 208.

Recommended uses
ColdFusion custom tags let you abstract complex code and programming logic into simple units. These tags let you
maintain a CFML-like design scheme for your code. You can easily distribute your custom tags and share tags with
others. For example, the ColdFusion Developer Exchange includes a library of custom tags that perform a wide variety
of often-complex jobs; see www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_exchange_en.
Consider using CFML custom tags in the following circumstances:

You need a tag-like structure, which has a body and an end tag, with the body contents changing from invocation
to invocation.

You want to associate specific processing with the beginning tag, the ending tag, or both tags.
To use a logical structure in which the tag body uses child tags or subtags. This structure is like the cfform tag,
which uses subtags for the individual form fields.

You do not need a function format in which the calling code uses a direct return value.
Your code must be recursive.
Your functionality is complex.
To distribute your code in a convenient form to others.
If you can create either a UDF or a custom CFML tag for a purpose, first consider creating a UDF because running it
requires less system overhead than using a custom tag.

For more information

For more information on custom CFML tags, see Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags on page 208.

Using CFX tags

ColdFusion Extension (CFX) tags are custom tags that you write in Java or C++. Generally, you create a CFX tag to do
something that is not possible in CFML. CFX tags also let you use existing Java or C++ code in your ColdFusion
application. Unlike CFML custom tags, CFX tags cannot have bodies or ending tags.
CFX tags can return information to the calling page in a page variable or by writing text to the calling page.
CFX tags can do the following:

Have any number of custom attributes.

Create and manipulate ColdFusion queries.
Dynamically generate HTML that your page returns to the client.
Set variables within the ColdFusion page from which they are called.
Throw exceptions that result in standard ColdFusion error messages.

Calling CFX tags

To use a CFX tag, precede the class name with cfx_ and place the name in angle brackets. For example, use the
following line to call the CFX tag defined by the MyCFXClass class and pass it one attribute.
<cfx_MyCFXClass myArgument="arg1">

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Recommended uses
CFX tags provide one way of using C++ or Java code. However, you can also create Java classes and COM objects and access
them using the cfobject tag. CFX tags, however, provide some built-in features that the cfobject tag does not have:

CFX tags are easier to call in CFML code. You use CFX tags directly in CFML code as you would any other tag, and
you can pass arguments using a standard tag format.

ColdFusion provides predefined classes for use in your Java or C++ code that facilitate CFX tag development. These
classes include support for request handling, error reporting, and query management.
CFX tags are useful in the following circumstances:

You already have existing application functionality written in C++ or Java that you want to incorporate into your
ColdFusion application.

You cannot build the functionality you need using ColdFusion elements.
You want to provide the new functionality in a tag format, as opposed to using the cfobject tag to import native
Java or COM objects.

You want to use the Java and C++ classes provided by ColdFusion for developing your CFX code.

For more information

For more information on CFX tags, see Building Custom CFXAPI Tags on page 224.

Selecting among ColdFusion code reuse methods

The following table lists common reasons to employ code reuse methods and indicates the techniques to consider for
each purpose. The letter P indicates that the method is preferred. (There can be more than one preferred method.) The
letter A means that the method provides an alternative that is useful in some circumstances.
This table does not include CFX tags. You use CFX tags only when it is best to code your functionality in C++ or Java.
For more information about using CFX tags, see Using CFX tags on page 151.
Purpose

cfinclude tag

Custom tag

UDF

Provide code, including CFML, HTML, and static

text, that must be used in multiple pages.

Deploy headers and footers.

Include one page in another page.

Divide pages into smaller units.

Use variables from a calling page.

Implement code that uses recursion.

Distribute your code to others.

Operate on a body of HTML or CFML text.

Use subtags.

Provide a computation, data manipulation, or

other procedure.

Provide a single functional element that takes

any number of input values and returns a
(possibly complex) result.

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Purpose

cfinclude tag

Custom tag

UDF

Component

Use variables with names that change from use

to use.

Provide accessibility from Flash clients.

Use built-in user security features.

Encapsulate multiple related functions and
properties.

Create web services.

Implement object-oriented coding

methodologies.

Writing and Calling User-Defined Functions

Creating custom functions for algorithms or procedures that you call frequently lets you organize and reuse the
functions in your Adobe ColdFusion application pages.

About user-defined functions

You can create your own custom functions, known as user-defined functions, or UDFs. You then use them in your
application pages the same way you use standard ColdFusion functions. You can also organize functions you create by
grouping related functions into ColdFusion components. For more information, see Building and Using ColdFusion
Components on page 177.
When you create a function for an algorithm or procedure that you use frequently, you can then use the function
wherever you require the procedure. If you must change the procedure, you change only one piece of code. You can
use your function anywhere that you can use a ColdFusion expression: in tag attributes, between number (#) signs in
output, and in CFScript code. Typical uses of UDFs include, but are not limited to the following:

Data manipulation routines, such as a function to reverse an array

String and date/time routines, such as a function to determine whether a string is a valid IP address
Mathematical calculation routines, including standard trigonometric and statistical operations or calculating loan
amortization

Routines that call functions externally, for example using COM or CORBA, including routines to determine the
space available on a Windows file system drive
For information about selecting among user-defined functions, ColdFusion components, and custom tags, see
Creating ColdFusion Elements on page 146.
Note: The Common Function Library Project at www.cflib.org is an open source collection of CFML user-defined
functions.

Creating user-defined functions

Before you create a UDF, determine where you want to define it, and whether you want to use CFML or CFScript to
create it.

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Determining where to create a user-defined function

You can define a function in the following places:

In a ColdFusion component. If you organize your functions in ColdFusion components, you use the functions as
described in Using ColdFusion components on page 189.

On the page where it is called. You can even define it below the place on the page where it is called, but this poor
coding practice can result in confusing code.

On a page that you include using a cfinclude tag. The cfinclude tag must be executed before the function gets
called. For example, you can define all the functions for your applications on a single page and place a cfinclude
tag at the top of pages that use the functions.

On any page that places the function name in a scope common with the page on which you call the function. For
more information on UDF scoping, see Specifying the scope of a function on page 173.

On the Application.cfc or Application.cfm page. For more information, see Designing and Optimizing a
ColdFusion Application on page 235.
For recommendations on selecting where you define functions, see the sections Using Application.cfm and function
include files on page 173 and Specifying the scope of a function on page 173.

About creating functions using CFScript

You use the function statement to define the function in CFScript. CFScript function definitions have the following
features and limitations:

The function definition syntax is familiar to anyone who uses JavaScript or most programming languages.
CFScript is efficient for writing business logic, such as expressions and conditional operations.
CFScript function definitions cannot include CFML tags.
The following is a CFScript definition for a function that returns a power of 2:
<cfscript>
function twoPower(exponent) {
return 2^exponent;
}
</cfscript>

For more information on how to use CFScript to define a function, see Defining functions in CFScript on page 154.

Defining functions in CFScript

You define functions using CFScript in a similar manner defining JavaScript functions. You can define multiple
functions in a single CFScript block.
Note: For more information on using CFScript, see Extending ColdFusion Pages with CFML Scripting on page 106.
CFScript function definition syntax
A CFScript function definition has the following syntax:
function functionName( [argName1[, argName2...]] )
{
CFScript Statements
}

The following table describes the function variables:

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Function variable

Description

functionName

The name of the function. You cannot use the name of a standard ColdFusion function or any name that
starts with cf. You cannot use the same name for two different function definitions. Function names
cannot include periods.

argName1...

Names of the arguments required by the function. The number of arguments passed into the function
must equal or exceed the number of arguments in the parentheses at the start of the function definition.
If the calling page omits any of the required arguments, ColdFusion generates a mismatched argument
count error.

The body of the function definition must be in curly brackets, even if it is empty.
The following two statements are allowed only in function definitions:
Statement

Description

varvariableName = expression;

Creates and initializes a variable that is local to the function (function variable). This variable
has meaning only inside the function and is not saved between calls to the function. It has
precedence in the function body over any variables with the same name that exist in any
other scopes. You never prefix a function variable with a scope identifier, and the name
cannot include periods. The initial value of the variable is the result of evaluating the
expression. The expression can be any valid ColdFusion expression, including a constant or
even another UDF.
All var statements must be at the top of the function declaration, before any other
statements. Initialize all variables when you declare them. You cannot use the same name
for a function variable and an argument.
Each var statement can initialize only one variable.
Use the var statement to initialize all function-only variables, including loop counters and
temporary variables.

returnexpression;

Evaluates expression (which can be a variable), returns its value to the page that called the
function, and exits the function. You can return any ColdFusion variable type.

A simple CFScript example

The following example function adds the two arguments and returns the result:
<cfscript>
function Sum(a,b) {
var sum = a + b;
return sum;
}
</cfscript>

In this example, a single line declares the function variable and uses an expression to set it to the value that it returns.
This function can be simplified so that it does not use a function variable, as follows:
function MySum(a,b) {Return a + b;}

Always use curly brackets around the function definition body, even if it is a single statement.
Note: ColdFusion does not COPY any of the function arguments into the local scope of a function. However, if an
unscoped variable is called, it is searched first in argument scope and then local scope.

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About creating functions by using tags

You use the cffunction tag to define a UDF in CFML. The cffunction tag syntax has the following features and
limitations:

Developers who have a background in CFML or HTML, but no scripting or programming experience are more
familiar with the syntax.

You can include any ColdFusion tag in your function definition. Therefore, you can create a function, for example,
that accesses a database.

You can embed CFScript code inside the function definition.

The cffunction tag provides attributes that enable you to easily limit the execution of the tag to authorized users
or specify how the function can be accessed.
The following code uses the cffunction tag to define the exponentiation function:
<cffunction name="twoPower" output=True>
<cfargument name="exponent">
<cfreturn 2^exponent>
</cffunction>

For more information on how to use the cffunction tag to define a function, see Defining functions by using the
cffunction tag on page 156.

Defining functions by using the cffunction tag

The cffunction and cfargument tags let you define functions in CFML without using CFScript.
For information on ColdFusion components, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177. For
more information on the cffunction tag, see the CFML Reference.
The cffunction tag function definition format
A cffunction tag function definition has the following format:
<cffunction name="functionName" [returnType="type" roles="roleList"
access="accessType" output="Boolean"]>
<cfargument name="argumentName" [Type="type" required="Boolean"
default="defaultValue">]
<!--- Function body code goes here. --->
<cfreturn expression>
</cffunction>

where brackets ([]) indicate optional arguments. You can have any number of cfargument tags.
The cffunction tag specifies the name you use when you call the function. You can optionally specify other function
characteristics, as the following table describes:

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Attribute

Description

name

The function name.

returnType

(Optional) The type of data that the function returns. The valid standard type names are: any, array, binary,
Boolean, date, guid, numeric, query, string, struct, uuid, variableName, xml, and void. If you specify any other
name, ColdFusion requires the argument to be a ColdFusion component with that name.
ColdFusion throws an error if you specify this attribute and the function tries to return data with a type that
ColdFusion cannot automatically convert to the one you specified. For example, if the function returns the result
of a numeric calculation, a returnType attribute of string or numeric is valid, but array is not.

roles

(Optional) A comma-delimited list of security roles that can run this method. If you omit this attribute, ColdFusion
does not restrict user access to the function.
If you use this attribute, the function executes only if the current user is logged in using the cfloginuser tag
and is a member of one or more of the roles specified in the attribute. Otherwise, ColdFusion throws an
unauthorized access exception. For more information on user security, see Securing Applications on page 339.

output

(Optional) Determines how ColdFusion processes displayable output in the function body.
If you do not specify this option, ColdFusion treats the body of the function as normal CFML. As a result, text and
the result of any cfoutput tags in the function definition body are displayed each time the function executes.
If you specify true or yes, the body of the function is processed as if it is in a cfoutput tag. ColdFusion displays
variable values and expression results if you surround the variables and expressions with number signs (#).
If you specify false or no., the function is processed as if it is in a cfsilent tag. The function does not display
any output. The code that calls the function is responsible for displaying any function results.

Use cfargument tags for required function arguments. All cfargument tags must precede any other CFML code in a
cffunction tag body. Therefore, place the cfargument tags immediately following the cffunction opening tag. The
cfargument tag takes the following attributes:
Attribute

Description

name

The argument name.

type

(Optional) The data type of the argument. The type of data that is passed to the function. The valid standard type
names are any, array, binary, Boolean, date, guid, numeric, query, string, struct, uuid, and variableName. If you
specify any other name, ColdFusion requires the argument to be a ColdFusion component with that name.
ColdFusion throws an error if you specify this attribute and the function is called with data of a type that
ColdFusion cannot automatically convert to the one you specified. For example, if the argument type attribute
is numeric, you cannot call the function with an array.

required

(Optional) A Boolean value that specifies whether the argument is required. If set to true and the argument is
omitted from the function call, ColdFusion throws an error. The default value is false. The required attribute is
not required if you specify a default attribute.
Because you do not identify arguments when you call a function, all cfargument tags that specify required
arguments must precede any cfargument tags that specify optional arguments in the cffunction definition.

default

(Optional) The default value for an optional argument if no argument value is passed. If you specify this attribute,
ColdFusion ignores the required attribute.

Note: The cfargument tag is not required for optional arguments. This feature is useful if a function can take an
indeterminate number of arguments. If you do not use the cfargument tag for an optional argument, reference it by
using its position in the Arguments scope array. For more information see Using the Arguments scope as an array on
page 162.

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Using a CFML tag in a user-defined function

The most important advantage of using the cffunction tag over defining a function in CFScript is that you can
include CFML tags in the function. Thus, UDFs can encapsulate activities, such as database lookups, that require
ColdFusion tags. Also, you can use the cfoutput tag to display output on the calling page with minimal coding.
Note: To improve performance, avoid using the cfparam tag in ColdFusion functions. Instead, use the cfset tag.
The following example function looks up and returns an employee department ID. It takes one argument, the
employee ID, and looks up the corresponding department ID in the cfdocexamples Employee table:
<cffunction name="getDeptID" >
<cfargument name="empID" required="true" type="numeric">
<cfset var cfdocexamples="">
<cfquery dataSource="cfdocexamples" name="deptID">
SELECT Dept_ID
FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = #empID#
</cfquery>
<cfreturn deptID.Dept_ID>
</cffunction>

Rules for function definitions

The following rules apply to functions that you define using CFScript or the cffunction tag:

The function name must be unique. It must be different from any existing variable, or UDF, except that you can
use the ColdFusion advanced security function names.

You can have a user-defined function with the same name as a built-in function for a CFC but not for CFM.
You cannot use the following names to create user-defined functions:
writedump
writelog
location
throw
trace
The function name must not start with the letters cf in any form. (For example, CF_MyFunction, cfmyFunction,
and cfxMyFunction are not valid UDF names.)

You cannot redefine or overload a function. If a function definition is active, ColdFusion generates an error if you
define a second function with the same name.

You cannot nest function definitions; that is, you cannot define one function inside another function definition.
The function can be recursive, that is, the function definition body can call the function.
The function does not have to return a value.
You can use tags or CFScript to create a UDF. Each technique has advantages and disadvantages.

Calling user-defined functions

You can call a function anywhere that you can use an expression, including in number signs (#) in a cfoutput tag, in
a CFScript, or in a tag attribute value. One function can call another function, and you can use a function as an
argument to another function.

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You can call a UDF in two ways:

With unnamed, positional arguments, as you would call a built-in function

With named arguments, as you would use attributes in a tag
You can use either technique for any function. However, if you use named arguments, use the same argument names
to call the function as you use to define the function. You cannot call a function with a mixture of named and unnamed
arguments.
One example of a user-defined function is a TotalInterest function that calculates loan payments based on a principal
amount, annual percentage, and loan duration in months. (The definition of this function, see A user-defined
function example on page 171). You can call the function without argument names on a form action page, as follows:
<cfoutput>
Interest: #TotalInterest(Form.Principal, Form.Percent, Form.Months)#
</cfoutput>

You can call the function with argument names, as follows:

<cfoutput>
Interest: #TotalInterest(principal=Form.Principal, annualPercent=Form.Percent,
months=Form.Months)#
</cfoutput>

Working with arguments and variables in functions

Good argument naming practice
Use an argument name that represents its use. For example, the following code is unlikely to result in confusion:
<cfscript>
function SumN(Addend1,Addend2)
{ return Addend1 + Addend2; }
</cfscript>
<cfset x = 10>
<cfset y = 12>
<cfoutput>#SumN(x,y)#</cfoutput>

The following, similar code is more likely to result in programming errors:

<cfscript>
function SumN(x,y)
{ return x + y; }
</cfscript>
<cfset x = 10>
<cfset y = 12>
<cfoutput>#SumN(x,y)#<cfoutput>

Passing arguments
ColdFusion passes the following data types to the function by value:

Integers
Real numbers
Strings (including lists)
Date-time objects

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Arrays
As a result, any changes that you make in the function to these arguments do not affect the variable that was used to
call the function, even if the calling code is on the same ColdFusion page as the function definition.
ColdFusion passes queries, structures, and external objects such as COM objects into the function by reference. As a
result, any changes to these arguments in the function also change the value of the variable in the calling code.
For an example of the effects of passing arguments, see Passing complex data on page 160.

Passing complex data

Structures, queries, and complex objects such as COM objects are passed to UDFs by reference, so the function uses
the same copy of the data as the caller. Arrays are passed to user-defined functions by value, so the function gets a new
copy of the array data, and the array in the calling page is unchanged by the function. As a result, always handle arrays
differently from all other complex data types.
Passing structures, queries, and objects
For your function to modify the copy of a structure, query, or object, in the caller, pass the variable as an argument.
Because the function gets a reference to the structure in the caller, the caller variable reflects all changes in the function.
You do not have to return the structure to the caller. After the function returns, the calling page accesses the changed
data by using the structure variable that it passed to the function.
If you do not want a function to modify the copy of a structure, query, or object, in the caller, use the Duplicate
function to make a copy and pass the copy to the function.
Passing arrays
If you want your function to modify the callers copy of the array, the simplest solution is to pass the array to the
function and return the changed array to the caller in the function return statement. In the caller, use the same
variable name in the function argument and return variable.
The following example shows how to directly pass and return arrays. In this example, the doubleOneDArray function
doubles the value of each element in a one-dimensional array.
<cfscript>
//Initialize some variables
//This creates a simple array.
a=ArrayNew(1);
a[1]=2;
a[2]=22;
//Define the function.
function doubleOneDArray(OneDArray) {
var i = 0;
for ( i = 1; i LE arrayLen(OneDArray); i = i + 1)
{ OneDArray[i] = OneDArray[i] * 2; }
return OneDArray;
}
//Call the function.
a = doubleOneDArray(a);
</cfscript>
<cfdump var="#a#">

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This solution is simple, but it is not always optimal:

This technique requires ColdFusion to copy the entire array twice, once when you call the function and once when
the function returns. Doing so is inefficient for large arrays and can reduce performance, particularly if the function
is called frequently.

You can use the return value for other purposes, such as a status variable.
If you do not use the return statement to return the array to the caller, you can pass the array as an element in a
structure and change the array values inside the structure. Then the calling page can access the changed data by using
the structure variable it passed to the UDF.
The following code shows how to rewrite the previous example using an array in a structure. It returns True as a status
indicator to the calling page and uses the structure to pass the array data back to the calling page.
<cfscript>
//Initialize some variables.
//This creates a simple array as an element in a structure.
arrayStruct=StructNew();
arrayStruct.Array=ArrayNew(1);
arrayStruct.Array[1]=2;
arrayStruct.Array[2]=22;
//Define the function.
function doubleOneDArrayS(OneDArrayStruct) {
var i = 0;
for ( i = 1; i LE arrayLen(OneDArrayStruct.Array); i = i + 1)
{ OneDArrayStruct.Array[i] = OneDArrayStruct.Array[i] * 2; }
return True;
}
//Call the function.
Status = doubleOneDArrayS(arrayStruct);
WriteOutput("Status: " & Status);
</cfscript>
</br>
<cfdump var="#arrayStruct#">

Use the same structure element name for the array (in this case Array) in the calling page and the function.

About the Arguments scope

All function arguments exist in their own scope, the Arguments scope.
The Arguments scope exists for the life of a function call. When the function returns, the scope and its variables are
destroyed.
However, destroying the Argument scope does not destroy variables, such as structures or query objects, that
ColdFusion passes to the function by reference. The variables on the calling page that you use as function arguments
continue to exist; if the function changes the argument value, the variable in the calling page reflects the changed value.
The Arguments scope is special, in that you can treat the scope as either an array or a structure. This dual nature of the
Arguments scope is useful because it makes it easy to use arguments in any of the following circumstances:

You define the function using CFScript.

You define the function using the cffunction tag.
You pass arguments using argument name=value format.
You pass arguments as values only.
The function takes optional, undeclared arguments.

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The contents of the Arguments scope

The following rules apply to the Arguments scope and its contents:

The scope contains all the arguments passed into a function.

If you use cffunction to define the function, the scope always contains an entry slot for each declared argument,
even if you do not pass the argument to the function when you call it. If you do not pass a declared (optional)
argument, the scope entry for that argument is empty.
When you call a function that you defined using CFScript, Pass the function a value for each argument declared in
the function definition. Therefore, the Arguments scope for a CFScript call does not have empty slots.
The following example shows these rules. Assume that you have a function declared, as follows:
<cffunction name="TestFunction">
<cfargument name="Arg1">
<cfargument name="Arg2">
</cffunction>

You can call this function with a single argument, as in the following line:
<cfset TestFunction(1)>

The resulting Arguments scope looks like the following:

As an array

As a structure

Entry

Value

Entry

Value

Arg1

undefined

Arg2

undefined

In this example, the following functions return the value 2 because the scope contains two defined arguments:
ArrayLen(Arguments)
StructCount(Arguments)

However, the following tests return the value false, because the contents of the second element in the Arguments
scope is undefined.
Isdefined("Arguments.Arg2")
testArg2 = Arguments[2]>
Isdefined("testArg2")

Note: The IsDefined function does not test the existence of array elements. Use the function ArrayContains to search
the array elements.
Using the Arguments scope as an array
The following rules apply to referencing Arguments scope as an array:

If you call the function using unnamed arguments, the array index is the position of the argument in the function
call.

If you use names to pass the arguments, the array indexes correspond to the order in which the arguments are
declared in the function definition.

If you use names to pass arguments, and do not pass all the arguments defined in the function, the Arguments array
has an empty entry at the index corresponding to the argument that was not passed. This rule applies only to
functions created using the cffunction tag.

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If you use a name to pass an optional argument that is not declared in the function definition, the array index of the
argument is the sum of the following:

The number of arguments defined with names in the function.

The position of the optional argument among the arguments passed in that do not have names defined in the
function.
However, using argument names in this manner is not good programming practice because you cannot ensure that
you always use the same optional argument names when calling the function.
To demonstrate these rules, define a simple function that displays the contents of its Arguments array and call the
function with various argument combinations, as the following example shows:
<cffunction name="TestFunction" >
<cfargument name="Arg1">
<cfargument name="Arg2">
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(Arguments)#">
<cfoutput>Argument #i#: #Arguments[i]#<br></cfoutput>
</cfloop>
</cffunction>
<strong>One Unnamed argument</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(1)>
<strong>Two Unnamed arguments</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(1, 2)>
<strong>Three Unnamed arguments</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(1, 2, 3)>
<strong>Arg1:</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(Arg1=8)>
<strong>Arg2:</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(Arg2=9)>
<strong>Arg1=8, Arg2=9:</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(Arg1=8, Arg2=9)>
<strong>Arg2=6, Arg1=7</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(Arg2=6, Arg1=7)>
<strong>Arg1=8, Arg2=9, Arg3=10:</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(Arg1=8, Arg2=9, Arg3=10)>
<strong>Arg2=6, Arg3=99, Arg1=7</strong><br>
<cfset TestFunction(Arg2=6, Arg3=99, Arg1=7)>

Note: Although you can use the Arguments scope as an array, the IsArray(Arguments) function always returns false
and the cfdump tag displays the scope as a structure.
Using the Arguments scope as a structure
The following rule applies when referencing Arguments scope as a structure:

Use the argument names as structure keys. For example, if your function definition includes a Principal argument,
reference the argument as Arguments.Principal.
The following rules are also true, but avoid writing code that uses them. To ensure program clarity, only use the
Arguments structure for arguments that you name in the function definition. Use the Arguments scope as an array
for optional arguments that you do not declare in the function definition.

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If you do not name an optional argument in the function definition, but do use a name for it in the function call,
use the name specified in the function call For example, if you have an unnamed optional argument and call the
function using the name myOptArg for the argument, you can reference the argument as Arguments.myOptArg
in the function body. This usage, however, is poor programming practice, as it makes the function definition
contents depend on variable names in the code that calls the function.
Using the Arguments scope in CFScript
A function can have optional arguments that you do not have to specify when you call the function. To determine the
number of arguments passed to the function, use the following function:
ArrayLen(Arguments)

When you define a function using CFScript, the function must use the Arguments scope to retrieve the optional
arguments. For example, the following SumN function adds two or more numbers together. It requires two arguments
and supports any number of additional optional arguments. You can reference the first two, required, arguments as
Arg1 and Arg2 or as Arguments[1] and Arguments[2]. Access the third, fourth, and any additional optional
arguments as Arguments[3], Arguments[4], and so on
function SumN(Arg1,Arg2) {
var arg_count = ArrayLen(Arguments);
var sum = 0;
var i = 0;
for( i = 1 ; i LTE arg_count; i = i + 1 )
{
sum = sum + Arguments[i];
}
return sum;
}

With this function, any of the following function calls are valid:
SumN(Value1, Value2)
SumN(Value1, Value2, Value3)
SumN(Value1, Value2, Value3, Value4)

and so on.
The code never uses the Arg1 and Arg2 argument variables directly, because their values are always the first two
elements in the Arguments array and it is simpler to step through the array. Specifying Arg1 and Arg2 in the function
definition ensures that ColdFusion generates an error if you pass the function one or no arguments.
Note: Avoid referring to a required argument in the body of a function by both the argument name and its place in the
Arguments scope array or structure, as doing so can be confusing and makes it easier to introduce errors.
Using the Arguments scope in cffunction definitions
When you define a function using the cffunction tag, you generally reference the arguments directly by name if all
arguments are named in the cfargument tags. If you do use the Arguments scope identifier, follow the rules listed in
About the Arguments scope on page 161.
For more information on using the Arguments scope in functions defined using CFScript, see Using the Arguments
scope in CFScript on page 164.

Function-only variables
In addition to the Arguments scope, each function can have variables that exist only inside the function, and are not
saved between times the function gets called. As soon as the function exits, all the variables in this scope are removed.

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In CFScript, you create function-only variables with the var statement. Unlike other variables, you never prefix
function-only variables with a scope name.
Using function-only variables
Make sure to use the var statement in CFScript UDFs to declare all function-specific variables, such as loop indexes
and temporary variables that are required only for the duration of the function call. Doing so ensures that these
variables are available inside the function only, and makes sure that the variable names do not conflict with the names
of variables in other scopes. If the calling page has variables of the same name, the two variables are independent and
do not affect each other.
For example, if a ColdFusion page has a cfloop tag with an index variable i, and the tag body calls a CFScript UDF that
also has a loop with a function-only index variable i, the UDF does not change the value of the calling page loop index,
and the calling page does not change the UDF index. So you can safely call the function inside the cfloop tag body.
In general, use the var statement to declare all UDF variables, other than the function arguments or shared-scope
variables, that you use only inside CFScript functions. Use another scope, however, if the value of the variable must
persist between function calls; for example, for a counter that the function increments each time it is called.

Referencing caller variables

A function can use and change any variable that is available in the calling page, including variables in the callers
Variables (local) scope, as if the function was part of the calling page. For example, if you know that the calling page
has a local variable called Customer_name (and no function scope variable named Customer_name exists) the
function can read and change the variable by referring to it as Customer_name or (using better coding practice)
Variables.Customer_name. Similarly, you can create a local variable inside a function and then use it anywhere in the
calling page after the function call. You cannot use the variable before you call the function.
However, generally avoid using the callers variables directly inside a function. Using the callers variables creates a
dependency on the caller. Ensure that the code outside the function uses the same variable names as the function.
Doing so can become difficult if you call the function from many pages.
You can avoid these problems by using only the function arguments and the return value to pass data between the
caller and the function. Do not reference calling page variables directly in the function. As a result, you can use the
function anywhere in an application (or even in multiple applications), without concern for the calling code variables.
As with other programming practices, valid exceptions to this recommendation exist. For example, you can do any of
the following:

Use a shared scope variable, such as an Application or Session scope counter variable.
Use the Request scope to store variables used in the function. For more information, see Using the Request scope
for static variables and constants on page 174.

Create context-specific functions that work directly with caller data if you always synchronize variable names.
Note: If your function must directly change a simple variable in the caller (one that is not passed to the function by
reference), you can place the variable inside a structure argument.

Using arguments
Function arguments can have the same names, but different values, as variables in the caller. Avoid such uses for
clarity, however.
The following rules apply to argument persistence:

Because ColdFusion passes simple variable and array arguments by value, their names and values exist only while
the function executes.

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Because ColdFusion passes structures, queries, and objects such as COM objects by reference, the argument name
exists only while the function executes, but the underlying data persists after the function returns and can be
accessed by using the variable name of the caller. The variable name of the caller and the argument name can be
different.
Note: If a function must use a variable from another scope that has the same name as a function-only variable, prefix the
external variable with its scope identifier, such as Variables or Form. (However, remember that using variables from
other scopes directly in your code is often poor practice.)

Handling errors in UDFs

ColdFusion provides several techniques to handle errors in UDFs:

Display error messages directly in the function.

Return function status information to the calling page.
Use try/catch or cftry/cfcatch blocks and the cfthrow and cfrethrow tags to handle and generate exceptions.
The technique you use depends on the circumstances of your function and application and on your preferred
programming style. However, it is best for most functions to use the second or third technique, or a combination of
the two.

Displaying error messages

Your function can test for errors and use the WriteOutput function to display an error message directly to the user.
This method is useful for providing immediate feedback to users for simple input errors. You can use it independently
or in conjunction with either of the other two error-handling methods.
For example, the following variation on a Hello world function displays an error message if you do not enter a name
in the form:
<cfform method="POST" action="#CGI.script_name#">
<p>Enter your Name:&nbsp;
<input name="name" type="text" hspace="30" maxlength="30">
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="OK">
</cfform>
<cfscript>
function HelloFriend(Name) {
if (Name is "") WriteOutput("You forgot your name!");
else WriteOutput("Hello " & name &"!");
return "";
}
if (IsDefined("Form.submit")) HelloFriend(Form.name);
</cfscript>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:

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Code

Description

<cfform method="POST" action="#CGI.script_name#">

<p>Enter your Name:&nbsp;
<input name="name" type="text" hspace="30"
maxlength="30">
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="OK">
</cfform>

Creates a simple form requesting you to enter your name.

<cfscript>
function HelloFriend(Name) {
if (Name is "") WriteOutput("You forgot your name!");
else WriteOutput("Hello " & name &"!"); return "";
}
if (IsDefined("Form.submit"))
HelloFriend(Form.name);
</cfscript>

Defines a function to display "Hello name!" First, checks

whether the argument is an empty string. If so, displays an
error message.

Uses the script_name CGI variable to post to this page

without specifying a URL.
If you do not enter a name, the form posts an empty string as
the name field.

Otherwise displays the hello message.

Returns the empty string. (The caller does not use the return
value). It is not necessary to use curly brackets around the if
or else statement bodies because they are single statements.
If this page has been called by submitting the form, calls the
HelloFriend function. Otherwise, the page just displays the
form.

Providing status information

In some cases, such as those where the function cannot provide a corrective action, the function cannot, or should not,
handle the error directly. In these cases, your function can return information to the calling page. The calling page
must handle the error information and act appropriately.
Consider the following mechanisms for providing status information:

Use the return value to indicate the function status only. The return value can be a Boolean success/failure
indicator. The return value can also be a status code, for example where 1 indicates success, and various failure types
are assigned known numbers. With this method, the function must set a variable in the caller to the value of a
successful result.

Set a status variable that is available to the caller (not the return variable) to indicate success or failure and any
information about the failure. With this method, the function can return the result directly to the caller. In this
method, the function uses only the return value and structure arguments to pass the status back to the caller.
Each of these methods can have variants, and each has advantages and disadvantages. The technique that you use
depends on the type of function, the application in which you use it, and your coding style.
The following example, which modifies the function used in A user-defined function example on page 171, uses one
version of the status variable method. It provides two forms of error information:

It returns -1, instead of an interest value, if it encounters an error. This value can serve as an error indicator because
you never pay negative interest on a loan.

It also writes an error message to a structure that contains an error description variable. Because the message is in
a structure, it is available to both the calling page and the function.
The TotalInterest function
After changes to handle errors, the TotalInterest function looks like the following. Code that is changed from the
example in A user-defined function example on page 171 is in bold.

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<cfscript>
function TotalInterest(principal, annualPercent, months, status) {
Var years = 0;
Var interestRate = 0;
Var totalInterest = 0;
principal = trim(principal);
principal = REReplace(principal,"[\$,]","","ALL");
annualPercent = Replace(annualPercent,"%","","ALL");
if ((principal LE 0) OR (annualPercent LE 0) OR (months LE 0)) {
Status.errorMsg = "All values must be greater than 0";
Return -1;
}
interestRate = annualPercent / 100;
years = months / 12;
totalInterest = principal*(((1+ interestRate)^years)-1);
Return DollarFormat(totalInterest);
}
</cfscript>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code that has been changed or added to the previous version of this example. For a
description of the initial code, see A user-defined function example on page 171.
Code

Description

function TotalInterest(principal, annualPercent, months, status)

The function now takes an additional

argument, a status structure. Uses a
structure for the status variable so that
changes that the function makes affect the
status structure in the caller.

if ((principal LE 0) OR (annualPercent LE 0) OR (months LE 0)) {

Status.errorMsg = "All values must be greater than 0";
Return -1;
}

Checks to make sure the principal, percent

rate, and duration are all greater than zero.
If any is not, sets the errorMsg key (the only
key) in the Status structure to a descriptive
string. Also, returns -1 to the caller and
exits the function without processing
further.

Calling the function

The code that calls the function now looks like the following. Code that is changed from the example in A userdefined function example on page 171 is in bold.

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<cfset status = StructNew()>

<cfset myInterest = TotalInterest(Form.Principal,
Form.AnnualPercent,Form.Months, status)>
<cfif myInterest EQ -1>
<cfoutput>
ERROR: #status.errorMsg#<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
Loan amount: #Form.Principal#<br>
Annual percentage rate:
#Form.AnnualPercent#<br>
Loan duration: #Form.Months# months<br>
TOTAL INTEREST: #myInterest#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code that has been changed or added:
Code

Description

<cfset status = StructNew()>

Creates a structure to hold the function status.

<cfset myInterest = TotalInterest

(Form.Principal, Form.AnnualPercent,
Form.Months, status)>

Calls the function. This time, the function requires four arguments,
including the status variable.

<cfif myInterest EQ -1>

<cfoutput>
ERROR: #status.errorMsg#<br>
</cfoutput>

If the function returns -1, there must be an error. Displays the message
that the function placed in the status.errorMsg structure key.

<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
Loan amount: #Form.Principal#<br>
Annual percentage rate:
#Form.AnnualPercent#<br>
Loan duration: #Form.Months# months<br>
TOTAL INTEREST: #myInterst#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

If the function does not return -1, it returns an interest value. Displays
the input values and the function return value.

Using exceptions
UDFs written in CFScript can handle exceptions using the try and catch statements. UDFs written using the
cffunction tag can use the cftry, cfcatch, cfthrow, and cfrethrow tags. Using exceptions corresponds to the way
many functions in other programming languages handle errors, and can be an effective way to handle errors. In
particular, it separates the functional code from the error-handling code, and it can be more efficient than other
methods at runtime, because it does not require testing and branching.
Exceptions in UDFs have the following two dimensions:

Handling exceptions generated by running the UDF code

Generating exceptions when the UDF identifies invalid data or other conditions that would cause errors if
processing continued

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Handling exceptions in UDFs

Use try/catch blocks to handle exceptions in a UDF under the same conditions that any other ColdFusion application
uses try/catch blocks. These conditions are typically circumstances where the function uses an external resource, such
as a Java, COM, or CORBA object, a database, or a file. When possible, have your application prevent, rather than
catch, exceptions caused by invalid application data. For example, the application can prevent users from entering a
zero value for a form field that is used to divide another number, rather than handling exceptions generated by dividing
by zero.
When ColdFusion catches an exception, the function can use any of the following methods to handle the exception:

If the error is recoverable (for example, if the problem is a database time-out where in some cases retrying resolves
the issue), try to recover from the problem.

Display a message, as described in Displaying error messages on page 166.

Return an error status, as described in Providing status information on page 167.
If the UDF is defined using the cffunction tag, throw a custom exception, or rethrow the exception so that it the
calling ColdFusion page catches it. For more information on throwing and rethrowing exceptions, see Handling
runtime exceptions with ColdFusion tags on page 287.
Generating exceptions in UDFs
If you define your function using the cffunction tag, you can use the cfthrow and cfrethrow tags to throw errors
to the page that called the function. You can use this technique whenever your UDF identifies an error, instead of
displaying a message or returning an error status. For example, the following code rewrites the example from
Providing status information on page 167 to use the cffunction tag and CFML, and to throw and handle an
exception if any of the form values are not positive numbers.
The lines that identify invalid data and throw the exception are in bold. The remaining lines are equivalent to the
CFScript code in the previous example. However, the code that removes unwanted characters must precede the error
checking code.
<cffunction name="TotalInterest">
<cfargument name="principal" required="Yes">
<cfargument name="annualPercent" required="Yes">
<cfargument name="months" required="Yes">
<cfset var years = 0>
<cfset var interestRate = 0>
<cfset var totalInterest = 0>
<cfset principal = trim(principal)>
<cfset principal = REReplace(principal,"[\$,]","","ALL")>
<cfset annualPercent = Replace(annualPercent,"%","","ALL")>
<cfif ((principal LE 0) OR (annualPercent LE 0) OR (months LE 0))>
<cfthrow type="InvalidData" message="All values must be greater than 0.">
</cfif>
<cfset interestRate = annualPercent / 100>
<cfset years = months / 12>
<cfset totalInterest = principal*
(((1+ interestRate)^years)-1)>
<cfreturn DollarFormat(totalInterest)>
</cffunction>

The code that calls the function and handles the exception looks like the following. The changed lines are in bold.

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<cftry>
<cfset status = StructNew()>
<cfset myInterest = TotalInterest(Form.Principal, Form.AnnualPercent,
Form.Months, status)>
<cfoutput>
Loan amount: #Form.Principal#<br>
Annual percentage rate: #Form.AnnualPercent#<br>
Loan duration: #Form.Months# months<br>
TOTAL INTEREST: #myInterest#<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfcatch type="InvalidData">
<cfoutput>
#cfcatch.message#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfcatch>

</cftry>

A user-defined function example

The following simple function takes a principal amount, an annual percentage rate, and a loan duration in months and
returns the total amount of interest paid over the period. You can optionally use the percent sign for the percentage
rate, and include the dollar sign and comma separators for the principal amount.
You could use the TotalInterest function in a cfoutput tag of a forms action page, as follows:
<cfoutput>
Loan amount: #Form.Principal#<br>
Annual percentage rate: #Form.AnnualPercent#<br>
Loan duration: #Form.Months# months<br>
TOTAL INTEREST: #TotalInterest(Form.Principal, Form.AnnualPercent, Form.Months)#<br>
</cfoutput>

Defining the function using CFScript

<cfscript>
function TotalInterest(principal, annualPercent, months) {
Var years = 0;
Var interestRate = 0;
Var totalInterest = 0;
principal = trim(principal);
principal = REReplace(principal,"[\$,]","","ALL");
annualPercent = Replace(annualPercent,"%","","ALL");
interestRate = annualPercent / 100;
years = months / 12;
totalInterest = principal*(((1+ interestRate)^years)-1);
Return DollarFormat(totalInterest);
}
</cfscript>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:

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Code

Description

function TotalInterest(principal, annualPercent, months) {

Starts the TotalInterest function definition.

Requires three variables: the principal amount, the
annual percentage rate, and the loan duration in
months.

Var years = 0;
Var interestRate = 0;
Var totalInterest = 0;

Declares intermediate variables used in the function

and initializes them to 0. All var statements must
precede the rest of the function code.

principal = trim(principal);
principal = REReplace(principal,"[\$,]","","ALL");
annualPercent = Replace(annualPercent,"%","","ALL");
interestRate = annualPercent / 100;
years = months / 12;

Removes any leading or trailing spaces from the

principal argument. Removes any dollar sign ($) and
comma (,) characters from the principal argument to
get a numeric value.
Removes any percent (%) character from the
annualPercent argument to get a numeric value,
then divides the percentage value by 100 to get the
interest rate.
Converts the loan from months to years.

totalInterest = principal*
(((1+ interestRate)^years)-1);
Return DollarFormat(totalInterest);
}

Calculates the total amount of interest due. It is possible

to calculate the value in the Return statement, but this
example uses an intermediate totalInterest variable to
make the code easier to read. Returns the result
formatted as a US currency string.
Ends the function definition.

Defining the function using the cffunction tag

The following code replaces CFScript statements with their equivalent CFML tags.
<cffunction name="TotalInterest">
<cfargument name="principal" required="Yes">
<cfargument name="annualPercent" required="Yes">
<cfargument name="months" required="Yes">
<cfset var years = 0>
<cfset var interestRate = 0>
<cfset var totalInterest = 0>
<cfset principal = trim(principal)>
<cfset principal = REReplace(principal,"[\$,]","","ALL")>
<cfset annualPercent = Replace(annualPercent,"%","","ALL")>
<cfset interestRate = annualPercent / 100>
<cfset years = months / 12>
<cfset totalInterest = principal*
(((1+ interestRate)^years)-1)>
<cfreturn DollarFormat(totalInterest)>
</cffunction>

Using UDFs effectively

Many techniques help you use user-defined functions more effectively.

Using functions in ColdFusion component

In many cases, the most effective use of UDFs is within a CFC. For more information on CFCs, see Building and Using
ColdFusion Components on page 177.

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Using Application.cfm and function include files

Consider the following techniques for making your functions available to your ColdFusion pages:

If you consistently call a small number of UDFs, consider putting their definitions on the Application.cfm page.
If you call UDFs in only a few of your application pages, do not include their definitions in Application.cfm.
If you use many UDFs, place their definitions on one or more ColdFusion pages that contain only UDFs. You can
include the UDF definition page in any page that calls the UDFs.
The next section describes other techniques for making UDFs available to your ColdFusion pages.

Specifying the scope of a function

User-defined function names are essentially ColdFusion variables. ColdFusion variables are names for data. Function
names are names (references) for segments of CFML code. Therefore, like variables, functions belong to scopes.
About functions and scopes
Like ColdFusion variables, UDFs exist in a scope:

When you define a UDF, ColdFusion puts it in the Variables scope.

You can assign a UDF to a scope the same way you assign a variable to a scope, by assigning the function to a name
in the new scope. For example, the following line assigns the MyFunc UDF to the Request scope:
<cfset Request.MyFunc = Variables.MyFunc>

You can now use the function from any page in the Request scope by calling Request.MyFunc.
Selecting a function scope
The following table describes the advantages and disadvantages of each function scope:
Scope

Considerations

Application

Makes the function available across all invocations of the application. Access to UDFs in Application scope is
multithreaded and you can execute multiple copies of the UDF at one time.

Request

Makes the function available for the life of the current HTTP request, including in all custom tags and nested
custom tags. This scope is useful if a function is used in a page and in the custom tags it calls, or in nested custom
tags.

Server

Makes the function available to all pages on a single server. In most cases, this scope is not a good choice because
in clustered systems, it only makes the function available on a single server, and all code that uses the function
must be inside a cflock block.

Session

Makes the function available to all pages during the current user session. This scope has no significant advantages
over the Application scope.

Using the Request scope

You can effectively manage functions that are used in application pages and custom tags by doing the following:
1 Define the functions on a function definitions page.
2 On the functions page, assign the functions to the request scope.
3 Use a cfinclude tag to include the function definition page on the application page, but do not include it on any

custom tag pages.

4 Always call the functions using the request scope.

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This way you only include the functions once per request and they are available throughout the life of the request. For
example, create a myFuncs.cfm page that defines your functions and assigns them to the Request scope using syntax
such as the following:
function MyFunc1(Argument1, Argument2)
{ Function definition goes here }
Request.MyFunc1 = MyFunc1

The application page includes the myFuncs.cfm page:

<cfinclude template="myfuncs.cfm">

The application page and all custom tags (and nested custom tags) call the functions as follows:
Request.MyFunc1(Value1, Value2)

Using the Request scope for static variables and constants

You can partially break the rule described in the section Referencing caller variables on page 165. Here, the function
defines variables in the Request scope. However, it is a specific solution to a specific issue, where the following
circumstances exist:

Your function initializes a large number of variables.

The variables have either of the following characteristics:
They must be static: only the function uses them, the function can change their values, and their values must
persist from one invocation of the function to the next.

They are named constants; that is the variable value never changes.
Your application page (and any custom tags) calls the function multiple times.
You can assure that only the function uses the variable names.
In these circumstances, you can improve efficiency and save processing time by defining your functions variables in
the Request scope, rather than the Function scope. The function tests for the Request scope variables and initializes
them if they do not exist. In subsequent calls, the variables exist and the function does not reset them.
The NumberAsString function, written by Ben Forta and available from www.cflib.org, takes advantage of this
technique.

Using function names as function arguments

Because function names are ColdFusion variables, you can pass a functions name as an argument to another function.
This technique allows a function to use another function as a component. For example, a calling page can call a
calculation function, and pass it the name of a function that does some subroutine of the overall function.
This way, the calling page could use a single function for different specific calculations, such as calculating different
forms of interest. The initial function provides the framework, while the function whose name is passed to it can
implement a specific algorithm that the calling page requires.
The following simple example shows this use. The binop function is a generalized function that takes the name of a
function that performs a specific binary operation and two operands. The binop function simply calls the specified
function and passes it the operands. This code defines a single operation function, the sum function. A more complete
implementation would define multiple binary operations.

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<cfscript>
function binop(operation, operand1, operand2)
{ return (operation(operand1, operand2)); }
function sum(addend1, addend2)
{ return addend1 + addend2;}
x = binop(sum, 3, 5);
writeoutput(x);
</cfscript>

Handling query results using UDFs

When you call a UDF in the body of a tag that has a query attribute, such as a cfloop tag, any function argument that
is a query column name passes a single element of the column, not the entire column. Therefore, the function must
manipulate a single query element.
For example, the following code defines a function to combine a single first name and last name to make a full name.
It queries the cfdocexamples database to get the first and last names of all employees, and then it uses a cfoutput tag
to loop through the query and call the function on each row in the query.
<cfscript>
function FullName(aFirstName, aLastName)
{ return aFirstName & " " & aLastName; }
</cfscript>
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">
#FullName(FirstName, LastName)#<br>
</cfoutput>

You generally use functions that manipulate many rows of a query outside tags that loop over queries. Pass the query
to the function and loop over it inside the function. For example, the following function changes text in a query column
to uppercase. It takes a query name as an argument.
function UCaseColumn(myquery, colName) {
var currentRow = 1;
for (; currentRow lte myquery.RecordCount; currentRow = currentRow + 1)
{
myquery[colName][currentRow] = UCase(myquery[colName][currentRow]);
}
Return "";
}

The following code uses a script that calls the UCaseColumn function to convert all the last names in the GetEmployees
query to uppercase. It then uses cfoutput to loop over the query and display the contents of the column.
<cfscript>
UCaseColumn(GetEmployees, "LastName");
</cfscript>
<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">
#LastName#<br>
</cfoutput>

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Identifying and checking for UDFs

You can use the IsCustomFunction function to determine whether a name represents a UDF. The
IsCustomFunction function generates an error if its argument does not exist. As a result, ensure that the name exists
before calling the function, for example, by calling the IsDefined function. The following code shows this use:
<cfscript>
if(IsDefined("MyFunc"))
if(IsCustomFunction(MyFunc))
WriteOutput("MyFunc is a user-defined function");
else
WriteOutput("Myfunc is defined but is NOT a user-defined function");
else
WriteOutput("MyFunc is not defined");
</cfscript>

You do not surround the argument to IsCustomFunction in quotation marks, so you can use this function to
determine if function arguments are themselves functions.

Using the Evaluate function

If your user-defined function uses the Evaluate function on arguments that contain strings, Make sure that all
variable names you use as arguments include the scope identifier. Doing so avoids conflicts with function-only
variables.
The following example returns the result of evaluating its argument. It produces the expected results, the value of the
argument, if you pass the argument using its fully scoped name, Variables.myname. However, the function returns the
value of the function local variable if you pass the argument as myname, without the Variables scope identifier.
<cfscript>
myname = "globalName";
function readname(name) {
var myname = "localName";
return (Evaluate(name));
}
</cfscript>
<cfoutput>
<!--- This one collides with local variable name. --->
The result of calling readname with myname is:
#readname("myname")# <br>
<!--- This one finds the name passed in. --->
The result of calling readname with Variables.myname is:
#readname("Variables.myname")#
</cfoutput>

Using recursion
A recursive function is a function that calls itself. Recursive functions are useful when an algorithm that repeats the
same operation multiple times using the results of the preceding repetition can solve the problem. Factorial
calculation, used in the following example, is one case where recursion is useful. The Towers of Hanoi game is also
solved using a recursive algorithm.
A recursive function, like looping code, must have an end condition that always stops the function. Otherwise, the
function continues until a system error occurs or you stop the ColdFusion server.
The following example calculates the factorial of a number, that is, the product of all the integers from 1 through the
number; for example, 4 factorial is 4 X 3 X 2 X 1 = 24.

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function Factorial(factor) {
If (factor LTE 1)
return 1;
else
return factor * Factorial(factor -1);
}

If the function is called with a number greater than 1, it calls itself using an argument one less than it received. It
multiplies that result by the original argument, and returns the result. Therefore, the function keeps calling itself until
the factor is reduced to 1. The final recursive call returns 1, and the preceding call returns 2 * 1, and so on, until all the
initial call returns the end result.
Important: If a recursive function calls itself too many times, it causes a stack overflow. Always test any recursive
functions under conditions that are likely to cause the maximum number of recursions to ensure that they do not cause
a stack overflow.

Building and Using ColdFusion Components

A ColdFusion component (CFC) file contains data and functions that you define in related, multiple methods. You
use CFC pages to organize related actions in one file, which provide can simplify your programming. For more
information on creating applications that use CFCs, see the Adobe website: www.adobe.com.

About ColdFusion components

A ColdFusion component (CFC) is a file saved with the extension .cfc. A CFC can contain data and functions. Within
a CFC, data is referred to as properties. Although you use the cffunction tag to define functions within a CFC, they are
typically referred to as methods instead of functions.
The page on which you define a CFC is also known as a component page. Component pages use the same tags and
functions that regular CFML pages do, plus a small number of special tags (in particular, the cfcomponent tag) and tag
attributes.
You define related methods in a CFC. Unlike ColdFusion custom tags, a single CFC can perform many related actions,
defined in multiple methods. The methods can share a data context, such as metadata and scoping, or manage a
particular database or set of tables. For example, you can define the methods to insert, update, delete, and retrieve
records from a particular database or table in one CFC.

CFCs and object-oriented programming

CFCs are building blocks that let you develop ColdFusion code in an object-oriented manner, although CFCs do not
require you to do object-oriented programming. Some of the object-oriented features of CFCs include encapsulation,
inheritance, and introspection. CFC object-oriented features are like the object-oriented elements in other languages,
like JavaScript.
The technique of incorporating both code and data into one object such as a CFC is known as encapsulation.
Encapsulation lets users pass data to and get a result from your CFC without having to understand the underlying
code. When you use encapsulation, you can validate data that is passed to the CFC. CFCs can also enforce data types,
check for required parameters, and optionally assign default values.
One CFC can inherit the methods and properties of another CFC. Inheritance lets you build multiple specific
components without rewriting the code for the basic building blocks of the components. For more information, see
Using the Super keyword on page 202.

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CFCs support introspection; that is, they can provide information about themselves. If you display a component page
directly in an HTML browser, inspect it in the ColdFusion and Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 component browsers, or use
the CFML GetMetadata function, you see information about the component. This information includes its path,
property, methods, and additional information that you can specify using special documentation attributes and tags.
For more information, see Using introspection to get information about components on page 205.
When you use a ColdFusion component, you can invoke a method in the CFC. However, typically, you create an
instance of the CFC, and then invoke methods and refer to properties of the CFC.

When to use CFCs

You can use CFCs in the following ways:

Developing structured, reusable code

Creating web services
Creating Flash Remoting elements
Using asynchronous CFCs
Developing structured, reusable code
CFCs provide an excellent method for developing structured applications that separate display elements from logical
elements and encapsulate database queries. You can use CFCs to create application functionality that you (and others)
can reuse wherever needed, like user-defined functions (UDFs) and custom tags. If you want to modify, add, or remove
component functionality, you make changes in only one component file.
CFCs have several advantages over UDFs and custom tags. These advantages, which CFCs automatically provide,
include all of the following:

The ability to group related methods into a single component, and to group related components into a package
Properties that multiple methods can share
The This scope, a component-specific scope
Inheritance of component methods and properties from a base component, including the use of the Super keyword
Access control
Introspection for CFC methods, properties, and metadata
CFCs have one characteristic that prevents them from being the automatic choice for all code reuse. It takes relatively
more processing time to instantiate a CFC than to process a custom tag. In turn, it takes substantially more time to
process a custom tag than to execute a user-defined function (UDF). However, after a CFC is instantiated, calling a
CFC method has about the same processing overhead as an equivalent UDF. As a result, do not use CFCs in place of
independent, single-purpose custom tags or UDFs. Instead, use CFCs to create bodies of related methods, particularly
methods that share properties.
For more information about UDFs, custom tags, and other ColdFusion code reuse techniques, see Creating
ColdFusion Elements on page 146.
Creating web services
ColdFusion can automatically publish CFC methods as web services. To publish a CFC method as a web service, you
specify the access="remote" attribute in the methods cffunction tag. ColdFusion generates all the required Web
Services Description Language (WSDL) code and exports the CFC methods. For more information on creating web
services in ColdFusion, see Using Web Services on page 1093.

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Creating Flash Remoting elements

Adobe Flash applications that use Flash Remoting can easily take advantage of ColdFusion components for business
logic. In a CFC, the cffunction tag names the function and contains the application logic, and the cfreturn tag returns
the result to Flash.
Note: For ColdFusion component methods to communicate with Flash applications, set the access attribute of the
cffunction tag to remote.
For more information on creating CFCs for Flash Remoting, see Using Flash with CFCs on page 616.
Using asynchronous CFCs
ColdFusion provides an event gateway that lets you send a message to a CFC asynchronously. This gateway lets you
initialize processing by a CFC without waiting for the CFC to complete or return a value. You can use asynchronous
CFCs that use this gateway for the following:

Reindexing a Verity collection

Logging information
Running batch processes
For more information on using asynchronous CFCs, see About event gateways on page 1254.

Creating ColdFusion components

When you create CFCs, you create methods, which are ColdFusion user-defined functions, in the component page.
You pass data to a method by using parameters. The method then performs the function and, if specified in the
cfreturn tag, returns data.
You can also define variables in a CFC. Within a CFC, these variables are known as properties.

Tags for creating CFCs

You use the following tags to create a CFC. You include these tags on the CFML page that defines the CFC.
Tag

Description

cfcomponent

Contains a component definition; includes attributes for introspection. For more information, see Building
ColdFusion components on page 180.

cffunction

Defines a component method (function); includes attributes for introspection. For more information, see
Defining component methods on page 180.

cfargument

Defines a parameter (argument) to a method; includes attributes for introspection. For more information, see
Defining and using method parameters on page 183.

cfproperty

Defines variables for CFCs that provide web services; also use to document component properties. For more
information, see The cfproperty tag on page 188.

Elements of a CFC
A CFC has the following characteristics:

It is a single CFML page with a .cfc filename extension. The component name is the same as the filename. For
example, if the file is myComponent.cfc, the component name is myComponent.

The page is surrounded by a cfcomponent tag. No code can be outside this tag.
The component page defines methods (functions), properties (data), or both. Most CFCs have methods, or
methods and properties, but you can also have a CFC that contains only properties.

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You use the cffunction tag to define CFC methods. The CFScript function statement can create simple methods,
but it does not provide options to control access to the method, provide metadata, specify a return type, or control
generated output.

You can write code on the component page that is outside cffunction definitions. This code executes when the
CFC is instantiated or whenever you invoke a method of the CFC.

Building ColdFusion components

You use the cfcomponent and cffunction tags to create ColdFusion components. By itself, the cffunction tag does
not provide functionality. The cfcomponent tag provides an envelope that describes the functionality that you build
in CFML and enclose in cffunction tags. The following example shows the skeleton of a component with two
methods:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="firstMethod">
<!--- CFML code for this method goes here. --->
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="secondMethod">
<!--- CFML code for this method goes here. --->
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Defining component methods

You define component methods using cffunction tags. The following example defines a CFC that contains two
methods, getall and getsalary:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getall" output="false" returntype="query">
<cfset var queryall="">
<cfquery name="queryall" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE
</cfquery>
<cfreturn queryall>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getsalary" output="false">
<cfset var getNamesandSalary="">
<cfquery name="getNamesandSalary" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary FROM EMPLOYEE
</cfquery>
<cfreturn getNamesandSalary>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Because component methods are ColdFusion functions, most of their features and coding techniques are identical to
those of user-defined functions. For more information on using the cffunction tag to create functions, see Writing
and Calling User-Defined Functions on page 153. Like other ColdFusion functions, CFC methods can display
information directly by generating output, or can return a value to the code or client that invoked the method.
You use the following cffunction tag attributes only for CFCs:

The displayname and hint attributes, which document the CFC; for more information, see Documenting CFCs
on page 187.

The access attribute, which controls access to the CFC; for more information, see Using access security on
page 204.

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For detailed reference information on the cffunction tag, see the CFML Reference.

Defining CFCs with related methods

When defining CFCs, it is good programming practice to organize related methods in one CFC. For example, you
could place all methods that perform operations related to a user, such as addUser, editUser, and
storeUserPreferences, in one CFC. You can group related mathematical functions into one CFC. A CFC can also
contain all the methods and properties necessary for a shopping cart. The following CFC contains two cffunction tags
that define two component methods, getEmp and getDept. When invoked, the component methods query the
ExampleApps database. The cfreturn tag returns the query results to the client, or page, where the method was
invoked.
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getEmp">
<cfset var empQuery="">
<cfquery name="empQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples" dbtype="ODBC">
SELECT FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, EMAIL
FROM tblEmployees
</cfquery>
<cfreturn empQuery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getDept">
<cfset var deptQuery="">
<cfquery name="deptQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples" dbtype="ODBC">
SELECT *
FROM tblDepartments
</cfquery>
<cfreturn deptQuery>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Placing executable code in a separate file

You can place executable code in a separate file from the main component definition page. By placing the method
execution code in a separate file, you can separate property initialization code, meta information, and the method
definition shell from the executable method definition code. This technique lets you modularize your code and helps
prevent CFML pages from getting too long and complex.
To separate the component method code, use a cfinclude tag on the component definition page to call the page that
contains the component method code.
Note: If your method takes arguments or returns data to the page that invokes it, the cfargument tag and the cfreturn tag
must be on the component definition page, not on the included page.
Create a component method by using the cfinclude tag
1 Create a tellTime.cfc file with the following code:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getUTCTime">
<cfinclude template="getUTCTime.cfm">
<cfreturn utcStruct.Hour & ":" & utcStruct.Minute>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

2 Create a ColdFusion page with the following code, and save it as getUTCTime.cfm in the same directory as

tellTime.cfc:

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<cfscript>
serverTime=now();
utcTime=GetTimeZoneInfo();
utcStruct=structNew();
utcStruct.Hour=DatePart("h", serverTime);
utcStruct.Minute=DatePart("n", serverTime);
utcStruct.Hour=utcStruct.Hour + utcTime.utcHourOffSet;
utcStruct.Minute=utcStruct.Minute + utcTime.utcMinuteOffSet;
if (utcStruct.Minute LT 10) utcStruct.Minute = "0" & utcStruct.Minute;
</cfscript>

In the example, the getUTCTime method definition calls the getUTCTime.cfm file with the cfinclude tag. The
getUTCTime.cfm code calculates the UTC time representation of the current time and populates a structure with
hour and minute values. The method in tellTime.cfc then uses the information in the structure to return the current
UTC time as a string to the calling page. The included page must not include a cfreturn statement.

Initializing instance data

Some components have instance data, which is data that persists as long as the component instance exists. For
example, a shopping cart component can have instance data that includes the IDs and quantities of items that the user
places in the shopping cart. Instance data is often shared by several methods that can create, delete, or modify the data.
You can refer to instance data of a CFC only if you create an instance of the CFC. From inside the CFC, you refer to
instance data of the CFC using the this prefix, for example this.firstvariable. From the calling page, you refer
to instance data using dot notation, including the name of the instance of the component and the name of the instance
data, as in objectname.ivarname. Components whose methods you invoke without first instantiating the component
do not typically have instance data.
You initialize instance data at the top of the component definition, before the method definitions. ColdFusion executes
this code when it instantiates the component; for example, when a cfobject tag creates the component instance.
Because this code executes only when the instance is created and it typically constructs properties of the component,
instance data initialization code is sometimes called constructor code.
You can use any CFML tag or function in constructor code, and the code can perform any ColdFusion processing, such
as querying a database or data validation and manipulation. If one component extends another, the parent
components constructor code executes before the child components constructor code.
Note: ColdFusion does not require you to place the initialization code at the top of the component definition; however, it
is good programming practice to do so.
The following example shows constructor code for a shopping cart CFC:
<cfcomponent>
<!--- Initialize the array for the cart item IDs and quantities. --->
<cfset This.CartData = ArrayNew(2)>
<!--- The following variable has the ID of the "Special Deal" product for
this session. --->
<cfset This.Special_ID = RandRange(1, 999)>

For information on scopes, see The This scope on page 198 and The Variables scope on page 198.
A useful technique is to define a method named init(), which initializes an instance of a CFC, acting as a constructor.
The init() method can initialize constants and return an instance of the component to the calling page. The following
code illustrates an example of an init() method:

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<cfcomponent displayname="shoppingCart">
<cffunction name="init" access="public" output="no" returntype="shoppingCart">
<cfargument name="shoppingCartID" type="UUID" required="yes">
<cfset variables.shoppingCartID = arguments.shoppingCartID>
<cfreturn this>
</cffunction>
<!--- Additional methods go here. --->
</cfcomponent>

In this example, the init() method uses the variables scope to make the shopping cart ID available anywhere in the
CFC. For more information about scope, see CFC variables and scope on page 198.

Defining and using method parameters

You pass data to a method by using parameters. To define a component method parameter, use the cfargument tag in
the cffunction tag body. To define multiple parameters, use multiple cfargument tags. The tag names a parameter and
lets you specify the following:

Whether the parameter is required

The type of data that is required
A default argument value
Display name and hint metadata for CFC introspection
Note: You can create CFC methods that do not use cfargument tags, for example, if you use positional parameters in
your methods. However, most CFC methods use the cfargument tag.
Example: convertTemp.cfc
The convertTemp.cfc file consists of the following:
<cfcomponent>
<!--- Celsius to Fahrenheit conversion method. --->
<cffunction name="ctof" output="false">
<cfargument name="temp" required="yes" type="numeric">
<cfreturn ((temp*9)/5)+32>
</cffunction>
<!--- Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion method. --->
<cffunction name="ftoc" output="false">
<cfargument name="temp" required="yes" type="numeric">
<cfreturn ((temp-32)*5/9)>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Reviewing the code

The convertTemp CFC contains two methods that convert temperature. The following table describes the code and its
function:

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Code

Description

<cfcomponent>

Defines the component.

<cffunction name="ctof" output="false">

Defines the ctof method.

Indicates that this method does not display output.

<cfargument name="temp" required="yes"

type="numeric">

Creates the temp parameter of the ctof method. Indicates that it is required and
that the expected value is numeric.

<cfreturn ((temp*9)/5)+32>

Defines the value that the method returns.

</cffunction>

Ends the method definition.

<cffunction name="ftoc" output="false">

Defines the ftoc method.

Indicates that this method does not display output.

<cfargument name="temp" required="yes"

type="numeric">

Creates the temp parameter of the ftoc method. Indicates that it is required and
that the expected value is numeric.

<cfreturn ((temp-32)*5/9)>

Defines the value that the method returns.

</cffunction>

Ends the method definition.

</cfcomponent>

Ends the component definition.

Example: tempConversion.cfm
The ColdFusion page tempConversion.cfm is an HTML form in which the user enters the temperature to convert, and
selects the type of conversion to perform. When the user clicks the Submit button, ColdFusion performs the actions
on the processForm.cfm page. The file tempConversion.cfm, which is in the same directory as convertTemp.cfc,
consists of the following:
<cfform action="processForm.cfm" method="POST">
Enter the temperature:
<input name="temperature" type="text"><br>
<br>
Select the type of conversion:<br>
<select name="conversionType">
<option value="CtoF">Celsius to Farenheit</option>
<option value="FtoC">Farenheit to Celsius</option>
</select><br><br>
<input name="submitform" type="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

Example: processForm.cfm
The ColdFusion page processForm.cfm calls the appropriate component method, based on what the user entered in
the form on the tempConversion.cfm page. Place it in the same directory as convertTemp.cfc.

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<cfif #form.conversionType# is "CtoF">

<cfinvoke component="convertTemp" method="ctof" returnvariable="newtemp"
temp=#form.temperature#>
<cfoutput>#form.temperature# degrees Celsius is #newtemp# degrees
Farenheit.</cfoutput>
<cfelseif #form.conversionType# is "FtoC">
<cfinvoke component="convertTemp" method="ftoc"
returnvariable="newtemp" temp=#form.temperature#>
<cfoutput>#form.temperature# degrees Fahrenheit is #newtemp# degrees
Celsius.</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Reviewing the code

The file processForm.cfm invokes the appropriate component method. The following table describes the code and its
function:
Code

Description

<cfif form.conversionType is "CtoF">

Executes the code in the cfif block if the user selected Celsius to Fahrenheit
as the conversion type in the form on the tempConversion.cfm page.

<cfinvoke component="convertTemp"
method="ctof"returnvariable="newtemp"arguments
.temp="#form.temperature#">

Invokes the ctof method of the convertTemp component, without

creating an instance of the convertTemp component. Specifies newtemp
as the result variable for the method. Assigns the temperature value that the
user entered in the form to the variable temp, which is specified in the
cfargument tag of the ctof method. When invoking the ctof method,
the temp variable is assigned to the Arguments scope. For more information
about variables and scope, see CFC variables and scope on page 198.

<cfoutput>#form.temperature# degrees Celsius is

#newtemp#bdegrees Fahrenheit.</cfoutput>

Displays the temperature that the user entered in the form, the text
"degrees Celsius is," the new temperature value that results from the ctof
method, and the text "degrees Fahrenheit."

<cfelseif #form.conversionType# is "FtoC">

Executes the code in the cfelseif block if the user selected Fahrenheit to
Celsius as the conversion type in the form on the tempConversion.cfm page.

<cfinvoke component="converttemp"
method="ftoc"returnvariable="newtemp"
temp=#form.temperature#>

Invokes the ftoc method of the convertTemp component, without

creating an instance of the convertTemp component. Specifies newtemp
as the result variable for the method. Assigns the temperature value that the
user entered in the form to the variable temp, which is specified in the
cfargument tag of the ftoc method. When invoking the ftoc method,
the temp variable is assigned to the Arguments scope. For more information
about variables and scope, see CFC variables and scope on page 198.

<cfoutput>#form.temperature# degrees Fahrenheit

is #newtemp#degrees Celsius.</cfoutput>

Displays the temperature that the user entered in the form, the text
"degrees Fahrenheit is," the new temperature value that results from the
ftoc method, and the text "degrees Celsius."

</cfif>

Closes the cfif block.

To run the example, display the tempConversion.cfm page in your browser. When you enter a value in the text box of
the form, the value is stored in the form.temperature variable. Processing is then performed on the processForm.cfm
page, which refers to the value as form.temperature. When you invoke either method, the cfinvoke tag assigns the
value form.temperature to temp; temp is the argument specified in the cfargument tag of the appropriate method.
The appropriate method in the convertTemp component performs the necessary calculations and returns the new
value as newtemp.
For detailed reference information on the cfargument tag, see the CFML Reference.

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To access the parameter values in the component method definition, use structure- or array-like notation with the
Arguments scope. The following example refers to the lastName argument as Arguments.lastname; it could also
refer to it as Arguments[1]. In addition, you can access arguments directly using number (#) signs, such as
#lastname#; however, it is better programming practice to identify the scope (for example,
#Arguments.lastname#). Also, you can use Array- or structure-like notation, which lets you loop over multiple
parameters.
For more information on the Arguments scope, see The Arguments scope on page 200.
Define parameters in the component method definition
Create a component with the following contents, and save it as corpQuery.cfc in a directory under your web root
directory:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getEmp">
<cfargument name="lastName" type="string" required="true"
hint="Employee last name">
<cfset var empQuery="">
<cfquery name="empQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, EMAIL
FROM tblEmployees
WHERE LASTNAME LIKE '#Arguments.lastName#'
</cfquery>
<!--- Use cfdump for debugging purposes. --->
<cfdump var=#empQuery#>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getCat" hint="Get items below specified cost">
<cfargument name="cost" type="numeric" required="true">
<cfset var catQuery="">
<cfquery name="catQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT ItemName, ItemDescription, ItemCost
FROM tblItems
WHERE ItemCost <= #Arguments.cost#
</cfquery>
<!--- Use cfdump for debugging purposes. --->
<cfdump var=#catQuery#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

In the example, the cfargument attributes specify the following:

The name attributes define the parameter names.

The type attribute for the lastName argument specifies that the parameter must be a text string. The type attribute
for the cost argument specifies that the parameter must be a numeric value. These attributes validate the data
before it is submitted to the database.

The required attributes indicate that the parameters are required, if not, ColdFusion throws an exception.
The Arguments scope provides access to the parameter values.

Providing results
ColdFusion components can provide information in the following ways:

They can generate output that is displayed on the calling page.

They can return a variable.

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You can use either technique, or a combination of both, in your applications. The best technique to use depends on
your applications needs and your coding methodologies. For example, many CFC methods that perform business
logic return the results as a variable, and many CFC methods that display output directly are designed as modular units
for generating output, and do not do business logic.
Displaying output
If you do not specifically suppress output, any text, HTML code, or output that CFML tags generate inside your
method gets returned as generated output to the client that calls the component method. If the client is a web browser,
it displays these results. For example, the following getLocalTime1 component method shows the local time directly
on the page that invokes the method:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getLocalTime1">
<cfoutput>#TimeFormat(now())#</cfoutput>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Component methods that are called by using Flash Remoting or as web services cannot use this method to provide
results.
Returning a results variable
In the component method definition, you use the cfreturn tag to return the results to the client as variable data. For
example, the following getLocalTime2 component method returns the local time as a variable to the ColdFusion page
or other client that invokes the method:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getLocalTime">
<cfreturn TimeFormat(now())>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The ColdFusion page or other client, such as a Flash application, that receives the result then uses the variable data as
appropriate.
Note: If a CFC is invoked using a URL or by submitting a form, ColdFusion returns the variable as a WDDX packet. A
CFC that is invoked by Flash Remoting, or any other instance of a CFC, must not return the This scope.
You can return values of all data types, including strings, integers, arrays, structures, and instances of CFCs. The
cfreturn tag returns a single variable, as does the return CFScript statement. Therefore, if you want to return more
than one result value at a time, use a structure. If you do not want to display output in a method, use output="false"
in the cffunction tag.
For more information on using the cfreturn tag, see the CFML Reference.
Documenting CFCs
ColdFusion provides several ways to include documentation about your CFCs in your component definitions. The
documentation is available when you use introspection to display information about the CFC or call the GetMetadata
or GetComponentMetaData function to get the components metadata. You can use the following tools for
documenting CFCs:

The displayname and hint attributes

User-defined metadata attributes
The cfproperty tag

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For information on displaying the information, see Using introspection to get information about components on
page 205.
The displayname and hint attributes
The cfcomponent, cffunction, cfargument, and cfproperty tags have displayname and hint attributes.
The displayname attribute lets you provide a more descriptive name for a component, attribute, method, or property.
When you use introspection, this attribute appears in parentheses next to the component or method name, or on the
parameter information line.
You use the hint attribute for longer descriptions of the component, method, or argument. In the introspection
display, this attribute appears on a separate line or on several lines of the component or method description, and at the
end of the argument description.
Metadata attributes
You can include arbitrary metadata information as attributes of the cfcomponent, cffunction, cfargument, and
cfproperty tags. To create a metadata attribute, specify the metadata attribute name and its value. For example, in
the following cfcomponent tag, the Author attribute is a metadata attribute. This attribute is not used as a function
parameter; instead, it indicates who wrote this CFC.
<cfcomponent name="makeForm" Author="Bean Lapin">

Metadata attributes are not used by ColdFusion for processing; they also do not appear in standard ColdFusion
introspection displays; however, you can access and display them by using the GetMetaData or
GetComponentMetaData function to get the metadata. Each attribute name is a key in the metadata structure of the
CFC element.
Metadata attributes are used for more than documentation. Your application can use the GetMetadata function to get
the metadata attributes for a component instance, or the GetComponentMetaData function to get the metadata for an
interface or component that you have not yet instantiated. You can then act based on the values. For example, a
mathCFC component could have the following cfcomponent tag:
<cfcomponent displayname="Math Functions" MetaType="Float">

In this case, a ColdFusion page with the following code sets the MetaTypeInfo variable to Float:
<cfobject component="mathCFC" name="MathFuncs">
<cfset MetaTypeInfo=GetMetadata(MathFuncs).MetaType>

Note: All metadata values are replaced by strings in the metadata structure returned from the GetMetadata function.
Because of this, do not use expressions in custom metadata attributes.
The cfproperty tag
The cfproperty tag is used to create complex data types with WSDL descriptors and for component property
documentation, as follows:

It can create complex data types with WSDL descriptions for ColdFusion web services. For more information, see
Using ColdFusion components to define data types for web services on page 1109.

It can provide documentation of component properties in the ColdFusion introspection output. The introspection
information includes the values of the standard cfproperty tag attributes.
Note: The cfproperty tag does not create a variable or assign it a value. It is used for information purposes only. You
use a cfset tag, or CFScript assignment statement, to create the property and set its value.

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Saving and naming ColdFusion components

The following table lists the locations in which you can save component files and how they can be accessed from each
location:
URL

Form

Flash Remoting

Web services

ColdFusion page

Current directory

N/A

Yes

N/A

N/A

Yes

Web root

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

ColdFusion mappings

No

No

No

No

Yes

Custom tag roots

No

No

No

No

Yes

Note: ColdFusion mappings and custom tag roots can exist within the web root. If so, they are accessible to remote
requests, including URL, form, Flash Remoting, and web services invocation.
When you store components in the same directory, they are members of a component package. You can group related
CFCs into packages. Your application can refer to any component in a directory specifically by using a qualified
component name that starts with a subdirectory of one of the accessible directories and uses a period to delimit each
directory in the path to the directory that contains the component. For example, the following example is a qualified
name of a component named price:
catalog.product.price

In this example, the price.cfc file must be in the catalog\product subdirectory of a directory that ColdFusion searches
for components, as listed in the preceding table. When you refer to a component using the qualified name, ColdFusion
looks for the component in the order described in Specifying the CFC location on page 196.
Establishing a descriptive naming convention is a good practice, especially if you plan to install the components as part
of a packaged application.

Using ColdFusion components

You can use a CFC in two ways:
1 You can instantiate a CFC object, which creates a CFC instance. You then invoke the methods of the instance. You

can access the CFC methods and data as instance elements. You can also use the instance in the cfinvoke tag to
invoke the CFC methods. When you instantiate a CFC, data in the CFC is preserved as long as the CFC instance
exists, and ColdFusion does not incur the overhead of creating the instance each time you call a method.
Instantiate CFCs to preserve data in the CFC. To ensure processing efficiency if you use the CFC more than once
on a page, instantiate the CFC before you invoke its methods.
Methods that are executed remotely through Flash Remoting and web services always create an instance of the CFC
before executing the method.
2 You can invoke (call) a method of the CFC without creating an instance of the CFC, which is referred to as

transiently invoking a method. In this case, ColdFusion creates an instance of the CFC that exists only from the time
you invoke the method until the method returns a result. No data is preserved between invocations and ColdFusion
does not keep an instance of the CFC that you can reuse elsewhere in your CFML. It is considered a best practice
to create an instance of a CFC before invoking any of its methods, unless your CFML request uses the CFC only
once. If you transiently invoke a method frequently, consider creating a user-defined function to replace the CFC
method.

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You can create persistent CFCs by assigning the CFC instance to a persistent scope, such as the Session or Application
scope. This way, you can create CFCs for objects, such as shopping carts or logged-in users, that must persist for
sessions. You can also create CFCs that provide application-specific data and methods.

Tags for using CFCs

The following table lists the tags that you use to instantiate or invoke a CFC. You use these tags on the CFML page on
which you instantiate or invoke the CFC.
Tag

Description

cfinvoke

Invokes a method of a CFC.

cfinvokeargument

Passes the name and value of a parameter to a component method.

cfobject

Creates a CFC instance.

CreateObject

Creates a CFC instance.

CFC invocation techniques

ColdFusion provides many ways to instantiate CFCs and invoke CFC methods. The following table lists the
techniques, including the ColdFusion tags and functions that you use:
Invocation

Description

For more information

cfinvoke tag

Invokes a component method. Can invoke

methods of a CFC instance or invoke the
methods transiently.

See Invoking CFC methods with the cfinvoke tag on

page 191.

cfset tag and assignment

statements

Invoke methods and access properties of a

component instance.

See Using components directly in CFScript and CFML

on page 193.

URL (HTTP GET)

Transiently invokes a component method by

specifying the component and method names
in the URL string.

See Invoking component methods by using a URL on

page 194.

Form control(HTTP POST)

Transiently invokes a component method using See Invoking component methods by using a form on
page 194.
the HTML form and input tags and their
attributes.

Flash Remoting

ActionScript can transiently invoke component

methods.

Web services

The cfinvoke tag and CFScript consume web See Using Web Services on page 1093.
services in ColdFusion. External applications can
also consume CFC methods as web services.

See Using the Flash Remoting Service on page 606.

Instantiating CFCs
If you use a CFC multiple times in a ColdFusion request, or if you use a CFC with persistent properties, use the cfobject
tag or CreateObject function to instantiate the CFC before you call its methods.
The following example uses the cfobject tag to create an instance of the tellTime CFC.
<cfobject component="tellTime" name="tellTimeObj">

The following example uses the CreateObject function to instantiate the same component in CFScript:
tellTimeObj = CreateObject("component", "tellTime");

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Invoking CFC methods with the cfinvoke tag

The cfinvoke tag can invoke methods on a CFC instance or invoke CFC methods transiently. You can also use the
cfinvoke tag to invoke CFC methods from within a CFC.
Invoking methods of a CFC instance
To invoke a component method of a CFC instance, use the cfinvoke tag and specify the following:

The CFC instance name, enclosed in number signs (#), in the component attribute.
The method name, in the method attribute.
Any parameters. For information on passing parameters, see Passing parameters to methods by using the cfinvoke
tag on page 196.

If the component method returns a result, the name of the variable for the result in the returnVariable attribute.
The following procedure creates an application that displays the current UTC and local time.
1 Create a file named tellTime2.cfc with the following code:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getLocalTime" access="remote">
<cfreturn TimeFormat(now())>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getUTCTime" access="remote">
<cfscript>
serverTime=now();
utcTime=GetTimeZoneInfo();
utcStruct=structNew();
utcStruct.Hour=DatePart("h", serverTime);
utcStruct.Minute=DatePart("n", serverTime);
utcStruct.Hour=utcStruct.Hour + utcTime.utcHourOffSet;
utcStruct.Minute=utcStruct.Minute + utcTime.utcMinuteOffSet;
if (utcStruct.Minute LT 10) utcStruct.Minute = "0" & utcStruct.Minute;
</cfscript>
<cfreturn utcStruct.Hour & ":" & utcStruct.Minute>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The example defines two component methods: getLocalTime and getUTCTime.

2 Create a ColdFusion page, with the following code and save it in the same directory as the tellTime component:
<!--- Create the component instance. --->
<cfobject component="tellTime2" name="tellTimeObj">
<!--- Invoke the methods. --->
<cfinvoke component="#tellTimeObj#" method="getLocalTime" returnvariable="localTime">
<cfinvoke component="#tellTimeObj#" method="getUTCTime" returnvariable="UTCTime">
<!--- Display the results. --->
<h3>Time Display Page</h3>
<cfoutput>
Server's Local Time: #localTime#<br>
Calculated UTC Time: #UTCTime#
</cfoutput>

This example uses the cfobject tag to create an instance of the tellTime component and the cfinvoke tag to invoke the
instances getLocalTime and getUTCTime methods. In this example, the CFC contains the functional logic in the
methods, which return a result to the calling page, and the calling page displays the results. This structure separates the
logic from the display functions, which usually results in more reusable code.

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Invoking component methods transiently

In ColdFusion pages or components, the cfinvoke tag can invoke component methods without creating a persistent
CFC instance.
To invoke a component method transiently, use the cfinvoke tag and specify the following:

The name or path of the component, in the component attribute.

The method name, in the method attribute.
Any parameters. For information on passing parameters, see Passing parameters to methods by using the cfinvoke
tag on page 196.

If the component method returns a result, the name of the variable that contains the result, in the returnVariable
attribute.
The following procedure creates an application that displays the local time.
1 Create the following component and save it as tellTime.cfc:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getLocalTime">
<cfoutput>#TimeFormat(now())#</cfoutput>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The example defines a component with one method, getLocalTime, that displays the current time.
2 Create a ColdFusion page, with the following code, and save it in the same directory as the tellTime component:
<h3>Time Display Page</h3>
<b>Server's Local Time:</b>
<cfinvoke component="tellTime" method="getLocalTime">

Using the cfinvoke tag, the example invokes the getLocalTime component method without creating a persistent
CFC instance.
Using the cfinvoke tag within the CFC definition
You can use the cfinvoke tag to invoke a component method within the component definition; for example, to call a
utility method that provides a service to other methods in the component. To use the cfinvoke tag in this instance,
do not create an instance or specify the component name in the cfinvoke tag, as the following example shows:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="servicemethod" access="public">
<cfoutput>At your service...<br></cfoutput>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="mymethod" access="public">
<cfoutput>We're in mymethod.<br></cfoutput>
<!--- Invoke a method in this CFC. --->
<cfinvoke method="servicemethod">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Note: When you invoke a method from within the component definition in which you define the method, do not use the
This scope, because this resets the access privileges.

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Invoking methods by using dynamic method names

The cfinvoke tag is the only way to efficiently invoke different component methods based on variable data (for
example, form input). In this case, you use a variable name, such as Form.method, as the value of the method attribute.
In the following example, the user selects a report from a form:
<select name="whichreport">
<option value="all">Complete Report</option>
<option value="salary">Salary Information</option>
</select>

The cfinvoke tag then invokes the appropriate method, based on what the user selected:
<cfinvoke component="getdata" method="#form.whichreport#" returnvariable="queryall">

Using components directly in CFScript and CFML

You can invoke methods of a component instance directly using CFScript or in CFML tags. To invoke component
methods directly, use the CreateObject function or cfobject tag to instantiate the component. Thereafter, use the
instance name followed by a period and the method that you are calling to invoke an instance of the method. Always
use parentheses after the method name, even if the method does not take any parameters.
You can use this syntax anywhere that you can use a ColdFusion function, such as in cfset tags or surrounded by
number signs in the body of a cfoutput tag.
Invoking component methods in CFScript
The following example shows how to invoke component methods in CFScript:
<!--- Instantiate once and reuse the instance.--->
<cfscript>
tellTimeObj=CreateObject("component","tellTime");
WriteOutput("Server's Local Time: " & tellTimeObj.getLocalTime());
WriteOutput("<br> Calculated UTC Time: " & tellTimeObj.getUTCTime());
</cfscript>

In the example, the three CFScript statements do the following:

1 The CreateObject function instantiates the tellTime CFC as tellTimeObj.
2 The first WriteOutput function displays text followed by the results returned by the getLocalTime method of the

tellTimeObj instance.
3 The second WriteOutput function displays text followed by the results returned by the getUTCTime method of the

tellTimeObj instance.
In CFScript, you use the method name in standard function syntax, such as methodName().
Invoking component methods in CFML
The following example uses CFML tags to produce the same results as the CFScript example:
<cfobject name="tellTimeObj" component="tellTime">
<cfoutput>
Server's Local Time: #tellTimeObj.getLocalTime()#<br>
Calculated UTC Time: #tellTimeObj.getUTCTime()#
</cfoutput>

Accessing component data directly

You can access data in the components This scope directly in CFScript and cfset assignment statements. For example,
if a user data CFC has a This.lastUpdated property, you could have code such as the following:

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<cfobject name="userDataCFC" component="userData">

<cfif DateDiff("d", userDataCFC.lastUpdated, Now()) GT 30>
<!--- Code to deal with older data goes here. --->
</cfif>

For more information, see The This scope on page 198.

Invoking CFC methods with forms and URLs

You can invoke CFC methods directly by specifying the CFC in a URL, or by using HTML and CFML form tags.
Because all HTTP requests are transient, these methods only let you transiently invoke methods. They do not let you
create persistent CFC instances.
Invoking component methods by using a URL
To invoke a component method by using a URL, append the method name to the URL in standard URL query-string,
name-value syntax. You can invoke only one component method per URL request, for example:
http://localhost:8500/tellTime.cfc?method=getLocalTime

Note: To use URL invocation, set the access attribute of the cffunction tag to remote.
To pass parameters to component methods using a URL, append the parameters to the URL in standard URL querystring, name-value pair syntax; for example:
http://localhost:8500/corpQuery.cfc?method=getEmp&lastName=camden

To pass multiple parameters within a URL, use the ampersand character (&) to delimit the name-value pairs; for
example:
http://localhost:8500/corpQuerySecure.cfc?method=getAuth&store=women&dept=shoes

Note: To ensure data security, Adobe strongly recommends that you not pass sensitive information over the web using
URL strings. Potentially sensitive information includes all personal user information, including passwords, addresses,
telephone numbers, and so on.
If a CFC method that you access using the URL displays output directly, the users browser shows the output. You can
suppress output by specifying output="No" in the cffunction tag. If the CFC returns a result using the cfreturn tag,
ColdFusion converts the text to HTML edit format (with special characters replaced by their HTML escape sequences),
places the result in a WDDX packet, and includes the packet in the HTML that it returns to the client.
Invoking component methods by using a form
To invoke a method by using a ColdFusion or HTML form, do the following:

Specify the CFC filename or path in the form or cfform tag action attribute.
Specify the CFC method in a hidden form field, as follows:
<form action="myComponent.cfc" method="POST">.
<input type="Hidden" name="method" value="myMethod">

Alternatively, if you use the POST method to submit the form, you can follow the filename with
?method=methodname, where methodname is the name of the CFC method, as shown in the following line. You

cannot use this technique with the GET method.

<form action="myComponent.cfc?method=myMethod" method="POST">.

Create an input tag for each component method parameter. The name attribute of the tag must be the method
parameter name and the field value is the parameter value.

Specify the access="remote" attribute in the cffunction tag that defines the CFC method being invoked

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If the CFC method that you invoke from the form displays output directly, the users browser shows the output. (You
can use the cffunction tag output attribute to disable displaying output.) If the CFC returns a result using the cfreturn
tag, ColdFusion converts the text to HTML edit format, places it in a WDDX packet, and includes the packet in the
HTML that it returns to the client.
1 Create a corpFind.cfm file with the following contents:
<h2>Find People</h2>
<form action="components/corpQuery.cfc?method=getEmp" method="post">
<p>Enter employee's last Name:</p>
<input type="Text" name="lastName">
<input type="Hidden" name="method" value="getEmp">
<input type="Submit" title="Submit Query"><br>
</form>

In the example, the form tags action attribute points to the corpQuery component and invokes the getEmp
method.
2 Create a corpQuery.cfc file, specifying access="remote" for each cffunction tag, as the following example

shows:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getEmp" access="remote">
<cfargument name="lastName" required="true">
<cfset var empQuery="">
<cfquery name="empQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, EMAIL
FROM tblEmployees
WHERE LASTNAME LIKE '#arguments.lastName#'
</cfquery>
<cfoutput>Results filtered by #arguments.lastName#:</cfoutput><br>
<cfdump var=#empQuery#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

3 Open a web browser and enter the following URL:

http://localhost/corpFind.cfm

ColdFusion displays the search form. After you enter values and click the Submit Query button, the browser
displays the results.

Accessing CFCs from outside ColdFusion and basic HTML

Flash applications that use Flash Remoting can easily take advantage of ColdFusion components for business logic.
Similarly, you can export CFCs so that any application can access CFC methods as web services.
For ColdFusion component methods to communicate with Flash Remoting applications, set the access attribute of
the cffunction tag to remote.
For more information on creating CFCs for Flash Remoting, see Using the Flash Remoting Service on page 606
Any application, whether it is a ColdFusion application, a Java application, JSP page, or a .Net application, can access
well-formed ColdFusion components as web services by referencing the WSDL file that ColdFusion automatically
generates.
To see a components WSDL definition, specify the component web address in a URL, followed by ?wsdl; for example:
http://localhost:8500/MyComponents/arithCFC.cfc?wsdl

For more information on using CFCs as web services, see Using Web Services on page 1093

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Specifying the CFC location

When you instantiate or invoke a component, you can specify the component name only, or you can specify a qualified
path. To specify a qualified path, separate the directory names with periods, not backslashes. For example,
myApp.cfcs.myComponent specifies the component defined in myApp\cfcs\myComponent.cfc. For additional
information, see Saving and naming ColdFusion components on page 189.
ColdFusion uses the following rules to find the specified CFC:

If you use a cfinvoke or cfobject tag, or the CreateObject function, to access the CFC from a CFML page,
ColdFusion searches directories in the following order:
1 Local directory of the calling CFML page
2 Web root
3 Directories specified on the Custom Tag Paths page of ColdFusion Administrator

If you specify only a component name, ColdFusion searches each of these directories, in turn, for the component.
If you specify a qualified path, such as myApp.cfcs.myComponent, ColdFusion looks for a directory matching the
first element of the path in each of these directories (in this example, myApp). If ColdFusion finds a matching
directory, it looks for a file in the specified path beneath that directory, such as myApp\cfcs\myComponent.cfc,
relative to each of these directories.
Note: If ColdFusion finds a directory that matches the first path element, but does not find a CFC under that directory,
ColdFusion returns a not found error and does not search for another directory.

If you invoke a CFC method remotely, using a specific URL, a form field, Flash Remoting, or a web service
invocation, ColdFusion looks in the specified path relative to the web root. For form fields and URLs that are
specified directly on local web pages, ColdFusion also searches relative to the page directory.
Note: On UNIX and Linux systems, ColdFusion attempts to match a CFC name or custom tag name with a filename,
as follows: First, it attempts to find a file with the name that is all lowercase. If it fails, it tries to find a file whose case
matches the CFML case. For example, if you specify <cfobject name="myObject" Component="myComponent">,
ColdFusion first looks for mycomponent.cfc and, if it doesn't find it, ColdFusion looks for myComponent.cfc.

Passing parameters to methods

You pass parameters to a method in a CFC by using the cfinvoke tag, direct method invocations, or by passing
parameters in a URL.

Passing parameters to methods by using the cfinvoke tag

When you use the cfinvoke tag, ColdFusion provides several methods for passing parameters to CFC methods:

As cfinvoke tag attributes, in name="value" format

In the cfinvoke tag argumentcollection attribute
In the cfinvoke tag body, using the cfinvokeargument tag
You can use any combination of these methods in a single invocation. If you use the same name in two or three of these
methods, ColdFusion uses the value based on the following order of precedence:
1 cfinvokeargument tags
2 cfinvoke attribute name-value pairs
3 argumentcollection arguments

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Passing parameters by using attribute format

You can pass parameters in the cfinvoke tag as tag attribute name-value pairs, as the following example shows:
<cfinvoke component="authQuery" method="getAuthSecure"
lastName="#session.username#" pwd="#url.password#">

In the example, the parameters are passed as the lastName and pwd attributes.
Note: The cfinvoke tag attribute names are reserved and cannot be used for parameter names. The reserved attribute
names are: component, method, argumentCollection, and returnVariable. For more information, see the CFML
Reference.
Passing parameters in the argumentCollection attribute
If you save attributes to a structure, you can pass the structure directly using the cfinvoke tags argumentCollection
attribute. This technique is useful if an existing structure or scope (such as the Forms scope) contains values that you
want to pass to a CFC as parameters, and for using conditional or looping code to create parameters.
When you pass an argumentCollection structure, each structure key is the name of a parameter inside the structure.
The following example passes the Form scope to the addUser method of the UserDataCFC component. In the method,
each form field name is a parameter name; the method can use the contents of the form fields to add a user to a
database.
<cfinvoke component="UserDataCFC" method="addUser" argumentCollection="#Form#">

Passing parameters by using the cfinvokeargument tag

To pass parameters in the cfinvoke tag body, use the cfinvokeargument tag. Using the cfinvokeargument tag, for
example, you can build conditional processing that passes a different parameter based on user input.
The following example invokes the corpQuery component:
<cfinvoke component="corpQuery" method="getEmp">
<cfinvokeargument name="lastName" value="Wilder">
</cfinvoke>

The cfinvokeargument tag passes the lastName parameter to the component method.
In the following example, a form already let the user select the report to generate. After instantiating the getdata and
reports components, the action page invokes the doquery component instance, which returns the query results in
queryall. The action page then invokes the doreport component instance and uses the cfinvokeargument tag to
pass the query results to the doreport instance, where the output is generated.
<cfobject component="getdata" name="doquery">
<cfobject component="reports" name="doreport">
<cfinvoke component="#doquery#" method="#form.whichreport#" returnvariable="queryall">
<cfinvoke component="#doreport#"method="#form.whichreport#">
<cfinvokeargument name="queryall" value="#queryall#">
</cfinvoke>

Passing parameters in direct method invocations

ColdFusion provides three methods for passing parameters to CFC methods in direct method invocations:
1 You can pass the parameters the form of comma-separated name="value" entries, as in the following CFScript

example:
authorized = securityCFC.getAuth(name="Almonzo", Password="LauRa123");

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2 You can pass the parameters in an argumentCollection structure. The following code is equivalent to the

previous example:
argsColl = structNew();
argsColl.username = "Almonzo";
argsColl.password = "LauRa123";
authorized = securityCFC.getAuth(argumentCollection = argsColl);

3 You can pass positional parameters to a method by separating them with commas. The following example calls the
getAuth method, and passes the name and password as positional parameters:
authorized = securityCFC.getAuth("Almonzo", "LauRa123");

Note: For more information on using positional parameters and component methods in ColdFusion functions, see
Creating user-defined functions on page 153.

Passing parameters in a URL

ColdFusion lets you pass parameters to CFC methods in a URL. To do so, you append the URL in standard URL querystring, name-value pair syntax; for example:
http://localhost:8500/CompanyQuery.cfc?method=getEmp&lastName=Adams

CFC variables and scope

CFCs interact with ColdFusion scopes and use local variables.
Note: Components also have a Super keyword that is sometimes called a scope. For information on the Super keyword,
see Using the Super keyword on page 202.

The This scope

The This scope is available within the CFC and is shared by all CFC methods. It is also available in the base component
(if the CFC is a child component), on the page that instantiates the CFC, and all CFML pages included by the CFC.
Inside the CFC, you define and access This scope variables by using the prefix This, as in the following line:
<cfset This.color="green">

In the calling page, you can define and access CFC This scope variables by using the CFC instance name as the prefix.
For example, if you create a CFC instance named car and, within the car CFC specify <cfset
This.color="green">, a ColdFusion page that instantiates the CFC could refer to the components color property as
#car.color#.
Variable values in the This scope last as long as the CFC instance exists and, therefore, can persist between calls to
methods of a CFC instance.
Note: The This scope identifier works like the This keyword in JavaScript and ActionScript. CFCs do not follow the Java
class model, and the This keyword behaves differently in ColdFusion than in Java. In Java, This is a private scope, whereas
in ColdFusion, it is a public scope.

The Variables scope

The Variables scope in a CFC is private to the CFC. It includes variables defined in the CFC body (initialization or
constructor code) and in the CFC methods. When you set Variables scope variables in the CFC, they cannot be seen
by pages that invoke the CFC.

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The CFC Variables scope does not include any of the Variables scope variables that are declared or available in the page
that instantiates or invokes the CFC. However, you can make the Variables scope of the page that invokes a CFC
accessible to the CFC by passing Variables as an argument to the CFC method.
You set a Variables scope variable by assigning a value to a name that has the Variables prefix or no prefix.
Values in the Variables scope last as long as the CFC instance exists, and therefore can last between calls to CFC
instance methods.
The Variables scope is available to included pages, and Variables scope variables that are declared in the included page
are available in the component page.
Note: The Variables scope is not the same as the function local scope, which makes variables private within a function.
Always define function-local variables using the var keyword of the Local scope name.
Example: sharing the Variables scope
The following example shows how to make the Variables scope of the page that invokes a CFC accessible to the CFC by
passing Variables as an argument to the CFC method. It also illustrates that the Variables scope is private to the CFC.
The following code is for the callGreetMe.cfm page:
<cfset Variables.MyName="Wilson">
<cfobject component="greetMe" name="myGreetings">
<cfoutput>
Before invoking the CFC, Variables.Myname is: #Variables.MyName#.<br>
Passing Variables scope to hello method. It returns:
#myGreetings.hello(Variables.MyName)#.<br>
After invoking the CFC, Variables.Myname is: #Variables.MyName#.<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfinvoke component="greetMe" method="VarScopeInCfc">

The following code is for the greetMe CFC:

<cfcomponent>
<cfset Variables.MyName="Tuckerman">
<cffunction name="hello">
<cfargument name="Name" Required=true>
<cfset Variables.MyName="Hello " & Arguments.Name>
<cfreturn Variables.MyName>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="VarScopeInCfc">
<cfoutput>Within the VarScopeInCfc method, Variables.MyName is:
#variables.MyName#<br></cfoutput>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

In this example, the callGreetMe.cfm page does the following:

1 Sets the MyName variable in its Variables scope to Wilson.
2 Displays the Variables.MyName value.
3 Calls the greetMe CFC and passes its Variables scope as a parameter.
4 Displays the value returned by the greetMe CFC.
5 Displays the Variables.MyName value.
6 Invokes the VarScopeInCfc method, which displays the value of Variables.MyName within the CFC.

When you browse the callGreetMe.cfm page, the following appears:

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Before invoking the CFC, Variables.Myname is: Wilson.

Passing Variables scope to hello method. It returns: Hello Wilson.
After invoking the CFC, Variables.Myname is: Wilson.
Within the VarScopeInCfc method, Variables.MyName is: Tuckerman

The Arguments scope

The Arguments scope exists only in a method, and is not available outside the method. The scope contains the variables
that you passed into the method, including variables that you passed in the following ways:

As named attributes to the cfinvoke tag

In the cfargumentcollection attribute of the cfinvoke tag
In cfinvokeargument tags
As attributes or parameters passed into the method when the method is invoked as a web service, by Flash
Remoting, as a direct URL, or by submitting a form
You can access variables in the Arguments scope using structure notation (Arguments.variablename), or array
notation (Arguments[1] or Arguments["variablename"]).
The Arguments scope does not persist between calls to CFC methods.
Variables in the Arguments scope are available to pages included by the method.

Other variable scopes

A CFC shares the Form, URL, Request, CGI, Cookie, Client, Session, Application, Server, and Flash scopes with the
calling page. Variables in these scopes are also available to all pages that are included by a CFC. These variables do not
have any behavior that is specific to CFCs.

Function local variables

Variables that you declare with the Var keyword inside a cffunction tag or CFScript function definition are available
only in the method in which they are defined, and only last from the time the method is invoked until it returns the
result. You cannot use the Var keyword outside function definitions.
Note: Always use the Var keyword or Local scope name on variables that are only used inside the function in which they
are declared.
Define all function local variables at the top of the function definition, before any other CFML code; for example:
<cffunction ...>
<cfset Var testVariable = "this is a local variable">
<!--- Function code goes here. --->
<cfreturn myresult>
</cffunction>

Any arguments declared with the cfargument tag must appear before any variables defined with the cfset tag. You
can also place any cfscript tag first and define variables that you declare with the Var keyword in the script.
Use function local variables if you place the CFC in a persistent scope such as the Session scope, and the function has
data that must be freed when the function exits.
Local variables do not persist between calls to CFC methods.
Local variables are available to pages included by the method.

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Using CFCs effectively

Several techniques let you effectively use CFCs in your applications:

Structure and reuse code

Build secure CFCs
Use introspection to get information about components

Structuring and reusing code

Component inheritance and the Super keyword are two important tools for creating structured, object-oriented
ColdFusion components.
Component inheritance Lets you create a single base component and reuse this code in multiple subclasses that are

derived from the base component. Typically a base component is more general, and subcomponents are typically more
specific. Each subclass does not have to redefine the code in the base component, but can override it if necessary.
The Super keyword Lets a component that overrides a base component method execute the original base component

method. This technique lets your subclassed component override a method without losing the ability to call the
original version of the method.
Using component inheritance
Component inheritance lets you import component methods and properties from one component to another
component. Inherited components share any component methods or properties that they inherit from other
components, and ColdFusion initializes instance data in the parent CFC when you instantiate the CFC that extends it.
Component inheritance defines an is a relationship between components. For example, a component named
president.cfc inherits its methods and properties from manager.cfc, which inherits its methods and properties from
employee.cfc. In other words, president.cfc is a manager.cfc; manager.cfc is an employee.cfc; and president.cfc is an
employee.cfc.
In this example, employee.cfc is the base component; its the component upon which the others are based. The
manager component extends the employee component; it has all the methods and properties of the employee
component, and some additional ones. The president component extends the manager component. The president
component is called a subcomponent or child component of the manager component, which, in turn, is a child
component of the employee component.
1 Create the employee.cfc file with the following content:
<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.basesalary=40*20>
</cfcomponent>

2 Create the manager.cfc file with the following content:

<cfcomponent extends="employee">
<cfset This.mgrBonus=40*10>
</cfcomponent>

In the example, the cfcomponent tags extends attribute points to the employee component.
3 Create the president.cfc file with the following content:
<cfcomponent extends="manager">
<cfset This.prezBonus=40*20>
</cfcomponent>

In the example, the cfcomponent tags extends attribute points to the manager component.

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4 Create the inherit.cfm file with the following content, and save it in the same directory as the components you

created in the previous steps:

<cfobject name="empObj" component="employee">
<cfobject name="mgrObj" component="manager">
<cfobject name="prezObj" component="president">
<cfoutput>
An employee's salary is #empObj.basesalary# per week.<br>
A manager's salary is #mgrObj.basesalary + mgrObj.mgrBonus# per week.<br>
A president's salary is #prezObj.basesalary + prezObj.mgrBonus +
prezObj.PrezBonus# per week.
</cfoutput>

When you browse the inherit.cfm file, the manager component refers to the basesalary defined in employee.cfc,
which is the base component; the president component refers to both the basesalary defined in the employee
component, and the mgrBonus defined in the manager component. The manager component is the parent class of the
president component.
Using the component.cfc file
All CFCs automatically extend the ColdFusion WEB-INF/cftags/component.cfc component. (The WEB-INF
directory is in the cf_root/wwwroot directory on ColdFusion configured with an embedded J2EE server. It is in the
cf_root directory when you deploy ColdFusion on a J2EE server.) This CFC is distributed as a zero-length file. You can
use it for any core methods or properties that you want all CFCs in your ColdFusion application server instance to
inherit.
Note: When you install a newer version of ColdFusion, the installation procedure replaces the existing component.cfc file
with a new version. Therefore, before upgrading, save any code that you have added to the component.cfc file, and then
copy the code into the new component.cfc file.
Using the Super keyword
You use the Super keyword only on CFCs that use the Extends attribute to extend another CFC. Unlike ColdFusion
scopes, the Super keyword is not used for variables; it is only used for CFC methods, and it is not available on
ColdFusion pages that invoke CFCs.
The Super keyword lets you refer to versions of methods that are defined in the CFC that the current component
extends. For example, the employee, manager, and president CFCs each contain a getPaid method. The manager CFC
extends the employee CFC. Therefore, the manager CFC can use the original versions of the overridden getPaid
method, as defined in the employee CFC, by prefixing the method name with Super.
1 Create the employee.cfc file with the following content:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getPaid" returntype="numeric">
<cfset var salary=40*20>
<cfreturn salary>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

2 Create the manager.cfc file with the following content:

<cfcomponent extends="employee">
<cffunction name="getPaid" returntype="numeric">
<cfset var salary=1.5 * Super.getPaid()>
<cfreturn salary>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

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3 Create the president.cfc file with the following content:

<cfcomponent extends="manager">
<cffunction name="getPaid" returntype="numeric">
<cfset var salary=1.5 * Super.getPaid()>
<cfreturn salary>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

4 Create the payday.cfm file with the following content, and save it in the same directory as the components that you

created in the previous steps:

<cfobject name="empObj" component="employee">
<cfobject name="mgrObj" component="manager">
<cfobject name="prezObj" component="president">
<cfoutput>
<cfoutput>
An employee earns #empObj.getPaid()#.<br>
A manager earns #mgrObj.getPaid()#.<br>
The president earns #prezObj.getPaid()#.
</cfoutput>
</cfoutput>

In this example, each getPaid method in a child component invoked the getPaid method of its parent component.
The childs getPaid method then used the salary returned by the parents getPaid method to calculate the
appropriate amount.
Included pages can use the Super keyword.
Note: The Super keyword supports only one level of inheritance. If you use multiple levels of inheritance, you can only use
the Super keyword to access the current components immediate parent. The example in this section illustrates handling
this limitation by invoking methods in a chain.
Using component packages
Components stored in the same directory are members of a component package. Component packages help prevent
naming conflicts, and facilitate easy component deployment; for example:

ColdFusion searches the current directory first for a CFC. If you place two components in a single directory as a package,
and one component refers to the other with only the component name, not a qualified path, ColdFusion always searches
the package directory first for the component. As a result, if you structure each applications components into a package,
your applications can use the same component names without sharing the component code.

If you use the access="package" attribute in a methods cffunction tag, access to the method is limited to
components in the same package. Components in other packages cannot use this method, even if they specify it
with a fully qualified component name. For more information on access security, see Using access security on
page 204.

Invoke a packaged component method with the cfinvoke tag

1 In your web root directory, create a directory named appResources.
2 In the appResources directory, create a directory named components.
3 Copy the tellTime2.cfc file you created in Invoking methods of a CFC instance on page 191 and the

getUTCTime.cfm file that you created in Placing executable code in a separate file on page 181 to the components
directory.
4 Create the timeDisplay.cfm file with the following content and save it in your web root directory:

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<!--- Create the component instance. --->

<cfobject component="appResources.components.tellTime2" name="tellTimeObj">
<!--- Invoke the methods. --->
<cfinvoke component="#tellTimeObj#" method="getLocalTime"
returnvariable="localTime" >
<cfinvoke component="#tellTimeObj#" method="getUTCTime"
returnvariable="UTCTime" >
<!--- Display the results. --->
<h3>Time Display Page</h3>
<cfoutput>
Server's Local Time: #localTime#<br>
Calculated UTC Time: #UTCTime#
</cfoutput>

You use dot syntax to navigate directory structures. Place the directory name before the component name.
5 Browse the timeDisplay.cfm file in your browser.

The following example shows a CFScript invocation:

<cfscript>
helloCFC = createObject("component", "appResources.components.catQuery");
helloCFC.getSaleItems();
</cfscript>

The following example shows a URL invocation:

http://localhost/appResources/components/catQuery.cfc?method=getSalesItems

Using CFCs in persistent scopes

You can place a CFC instance in the Session or Application scope. This way, the component properties continue to
exist while the scope persists. For example, if you use a CFC for a shopping cart application, where the shopping cart
contents must persist for the length of the users session. If you place the shopping cart CFC in the Session scope, you
can use component properties to store the cart contents. For example, the following line creates an instance of the
shoppingCart component in the Session scope:
<cfobject name="Session.myShoppingCart" component="shoppingCart">

Code that manipulates persistent scope CFC properties must be locked, just as all other code that manipulates
persistent scope properties must be locked. Therefore, lock both of the following types of application code:

Code that directly manipulates properties of a persistent scope CFC instance

Code that calls methods of a persistent scope CFC instance that manipulate properties of the instance
If you place multiple CFC instances in a single persistent scope, you can create a named lock for each CFC instance.
For more information on locking, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.
Note: Session scope CFCs cannot be serialized, so you cannot use them with clustered sessions; for example, if you want
to support session failover among servers.

Building secure ColdFusion components

To restrict access to component methods, ColdFusion components use access, role-based, or programmatic security.
Using access security
CFC access security lets you limit the code that can access the components. You specify the access to a CFC method
by specifying the cffunctionaccess attribute, as follows:

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Type

Description

private

Available only to the component that declares the method and any components that extend the component in
which it is defined. This usage is like the Java protected keyword, not the Java private keyword.

package

Available only to the component that declares the method, components that extend the component, or any other
components in the package. A package consists of all components defined in a single directory. For more
information on packages, see Using component packages on page 203.

public

Available to any locally executing ColdFusion page or component method.

remote

Available to a locally or remotely executing ColdFusion page or component method, or to a local or remote client
through a URL, form submission, Flash Remoting, or as a web service.

Using role-based security

If you specify a roles attribute in a cffunction tag, only users who are logged in with one of the specified roles can
execute the method. When a user tries to invoke a method without authorization, an exception is returned.
The following example creates a component method that deletes files:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction
name="deleteFile" access="remote" roles="admin,manager" output="no">
<cfargument name="filepath" required="yes">
<cffile action="DELETE" file=#arguments.filepath#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

In the example, the cffunction tag includes the roles attribute to specify the user roles allowed to access it. In this
example, only users in the role admin and manager can access the function. Notice that multiple roles are delimited by
a comma.
For information on ColdFusion security, including the cflogin tag and role-based security in ColdFusion, see
Securing Applications on page 339.
Using programmatic security
You can implement your own security within a method to protect resources. For example you can use the ColdFusion
function IsUserInAnyRole to determine if a user is in particular role, as the following example shows:
<cffunction name="foo">
<cfif IsUserInRole("admin")>
do stuff allowed for admin
<cfelseif IsUserInRole("user")>
do stuff allowed for user
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>unauthorized access</cfoutput>
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cffunction>

Using introspection to get information about components

ColdFusion provides several ways for you to get information about components:

Request a component page from the browser

Use the ColdFusion component browser
Use the Adobe Dreamweaver Components panel

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Use the GetMetaData function

Development teams can use the information about components as up-to-date API reference information.
Note: For information about how to include documentation in CFCs for display by using introspection, see Documenting
CFCs on page 187.
Requesting a component page from the browser
When you access a CFC directly with a web browser without specifying a component method, the following chain of
events occurs:
1 The request is redirected to the cfcexplorer.cfc file, which is located in the

cf_root/wwwroot/CFIDE/componentutils directory.
2 The cfcexplorer component prompts users for the ColdFusion RDS or Administrator password, if necessary.
3 The cfcexplorer component renders an HTML description and returns it to the browser.

Using the ColdFusion component browser

You can also browse the components available in ColdFusion using the component browser, which is located at
cf_root/wwwroot/CFIDE/componentutils/componentdoc.cfm.
The browser has three panes:

The upper-left pane lists all CFC packages that ColdFusion can access, and has all components and refresh links.
The lower-left pane lists CFC component names. When the browser first appears, or when you click the all
components link in the upper pane, the lower pane lists all available components. If you click a package name in
the upper left pane, the lower pane lists only the components in the package.

The right pane initially lists the paths of all components. When you click a component name in the lower-left pane,
the right pane shows the ColdFusion introspection page, as described in Requesting a component page from the
browser on page 206.
Note: When RDS user names are enabled, the component browser accepts the root administrator user (admin) with either
the administrator or RDS single password.
Using the Dreamweaver Components panel
The Dreamweaver Components panel lists all available components, including their methods, method parameters,
and properties. The panels context menu includes options to create a component, edit the selected component, insert
code to invoke the component, or show detailed information on the component or component element. The Get
description option shows the ColdFusion introspection page, as described in Requesting a component page from the
browser on page 206. For more information on viewing and editing CFCs in Dreamweaver, see the Dreamweaver
online Help.
Using the GetMetaData function
The CFML GetMetaData function returns a structure that contains all the metadata of a CFC instance. This structure
contains substantially more data about the CFC than the cfdump tag shows, and includes the following information:

All attributes to the component tag, including any metadata-only attributes, plus the component path.
An array of structures that contains complete information on each method (function) in the component. This
information describes all attributes, including metadata-only function and parameter attributes.

Within each function structure, a Parameters element that contains an array of parameters specified by cfargument
tags. Information on each parameter includes any metadata-only attributes.

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Information about any properties that are specified using the cfproperty tag.

Display metadata for a CFC

1 Create the tellAboutCfcs.cfm file in the same directory as the telltime.cfc file, with the following code:
<!--- Create an instance of the component. --->
<cfobject component="tellTime" name="tellTimeObj">
<!--- Create a structure. --->
<cfset aboutcfc=structNew()>
<!--- Populate the structure with the metadata for the
tellTimeObj instance of the tellTime CFC. --->
<cfset aboutcfc=GetMetaData(tellTimeObj)>
<cfdump var="aboutcfc">

2 View the tellAboutCfcs.cfm file in a browser.

For information on how to specify CFC metadata, including how to use component tags and how to specify metadataonly attributes, see Documenting CFCs on page 187.

ColdFusion component example

Several code examples in the Developing ColdFusion Applications reuse code, particularly queries. To illustrate the
advantages of CFCs, these examples invoke the appropriate method in the CFC that appears in the following example.
Although Adobe recommends using CFCs to create structured, reusable code, some code examples in this manual
contain queries within a CFML page, rather than invoking a CFC, in order to clearly illustrate a particular element of
ColdFusion.
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="allemployees" access="public" output="false"
returntype="query">
<cfset var getNames="">
<cfquery name="getNames" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="namesalarycontract" access="public" output="false"
returntype="query">
<cfset var EmpList="">
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Firstname, Lastname, Salary, Contract
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="fullname" access="public" output="false"
returntype="query">
<cfset var engquery="">
<cfquery name="engquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName || ' ' || LastName AS FullName
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="bydept" access="public" output="false" returntype="query">
<cfset var deptquery="">

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<cfquery name="deptquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">

SELECT Dept_ID, FirstName || ' ' || LastName
AS FullName
FROM Employee
ORDER BY Dept_ID
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="employeebyURLID" access="public" output="false"
returntype="query">
<cfset var GetRecordtoUpdate="">
<cfquery name="GetRecordtoUpdate" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = #URL.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="deleteemployee" access="public" output="false"
returntype="void">
<cfset var DeleteEmployee="">
<cfquery name="DeleteEmployee" datasource="cfdocexamples">
DELETE FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = #Form.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="distinctlocs"access="public" output="false"
returntype="query">
<cfset var GetDepartments="">
<cfquery name="GetDepartments" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT DISTINCT Location
FROM Departmt
</cfquery>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Creating and Using Custom CFML Tags

You can extend CFML by creating and using custom CFML tags that encapsulate common code.

Creating custom tags

Custom tags let you extend CFML by adding your own tags to the ones supplied with ColdFusion. After you define a
custom tag, you can use it on a ColdFusion page just as you would any of the standard CFML tags, such as cfquery
and cfoutput.
You use custom tags to encapsulate your application logic so that it can be referenced from any ColdFusion page.
Custom tags allow for rapid application development and code reuse while offering off-the-shelf solutions for many
programming chores.
For example, you can create a custom tag, named cf_happybirthday, to generate a birthday message. You could then
use that tag in a ColdFusion page, as follows:
<cf_happybirthday name="Ted Cantor" birthDate="December 5, 1987">

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When ColdFusion processes the page containing this tag, it could output the message:
December 5, 1987 is Ted Cantor's Birthday.
Please wish him well.

A custom tag can also have a body and end tag, for example:
<cf_happybirthdayMessge name="Ellen Smith" birthDate="June 8, 1993">
<p> Happy Birthday Ellen!</p>
<p> May you have many more!</p>
</cf_happybirthdayMessge>

This tag could output the message:

June 8, 1993 is Ellen Smith's Birthday.
Happy Birthday Ellen!
May you have many more!

For more information about using end tags, see Handling end tags on page 217.

Creating and calling custom tags

You implement a custom tag with a single ColdFusion page. You then call the custom tag from a ColdFusion page by
inserting the prefix cf_ before the pages filename. The page that references the custom tag is referred to as the calling
page.
1 Create a ColdFusion page, the custom tag page, that shows the current date:
<cfoutput>#DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput>

2 Save the file as date.cfm.

3 Create a ColdFusion page, the calling page, with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Date Custom Tag</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Call the custom tag defined in date.cfm --->
<cf_date>
</body>
</html>

4 Save the file as callingdate.cfm.

5 View callingdate.cfm in your browser.

This custom tag returns the current date in the format DD-MMM-YY.
As you can see from this example, creating a custom tag in CFML is no different from writing any ColdFusion page.
You can use all CFML constructs, as well as HTML. You are free to use any naming convention that fits your
development practice. Unique descriptive names make it easy for you and others to find the right tag.
Note: Although tag names in ColdFusion pages are not case sensitive, custom tag filenames must be lowercase on UNIX.
Storing custom tag pages
You must store custom tag pages in any one of the following:

The same directory as the calling page

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The cfusion\CustomTags directory

A subdirectory of the cfusion\CustomTags directory
A directory that you specify in the ColdFusion Administrator
To share a custom tag among applications in multiple directories, place it in the cfusion\CustomTags directory. You
can create subdirectories to organize custom tags. ColdFusion searches recursively for the Custom Tags directory,
stepping down through any existing subdirectories until the custom tag is found.
You can have a situation where you have multiple custom tags with the same name. To guarantee which tag
ColdFusion calls, copy it to the same directory as the calling page. Or, use the cfmodule tag with the template
attribute to specify the absolute path to the custom tag. For more information on cfmodule, see the next section.
Calling custom tags with the cfmodule tag
You can also use the cfmessagebox tag to call custom tags if you want to specify the location of the custom tag page.
The cfmodule tag is useful if you are concerned about possible name conflicts when using a custom tag, or if the
application must use a variable to dynamically call a custom tag at runtime.
Use either a template or name attribute in the tag, but you cannot use both. The following table describes the basic
cfmodule attributes:
Attribute

Description

template

Required if the name attribute is not used. Same as the template attribute in cfinclude. This attribute:

Specifies a path relative to the directory of the calling page.

If the path value is prefixed with "/", ColdFusion searches directories explicitly mapped in the ColdFusion
Administrator for the included file.

Example: <cfmodule template="../MyTag.cfm"> identifies a custom tag file in the parent directory.
name

Required if the template attribute is not used. Use period-separated names to uniquely identify a subdirectory
under the CustomTags root directory.
Example: <cfmodule name="MyApp.GetUserOptions"> identifies the file GetUserOptions.cfm in the
CustomTags\MyApp directory under the ColdFusion root directory.

attributes

The custom tags attributes.

For example, the following code specifies to execute the custom tag defined by the mytag.cfm page in the parent
directory of the calling page:
<cfmodule template="../mytag.cfm">

For more information on using the cfmessagebox tag, see the CFML Reference.
Calling custom tags with the cfimport tag
You can use the cfimport tag to import custom tags from a directory as a tag library. The following example imports
the tags from the directory myCustomTags:
<cfimport prefix="mytags" taglib="myCustomTags">

Once imported, you call the custom tags using the prefix that you set when importing, as the following example shows:
<mytags:customTagName>

where customTagName corresponds to a ColdFusion application page named customTagName.cfm. If the tag takes
attributes, you include them in the call:
<mytags:custom_tag_name attribute1=val_1 attribute2=val_2>

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You can also include end tags when calling your custom tags, as the following example shows:
<mytags:custom_tag_name attribute1=val_1 attribute2=val_2>
...
</mytags:custom_tag_name>

ColdFusion calls the custom tag page twice for a tag that includes an end tag: once for the start tag and once for the
end tag. For more information on how ColdFusion handles end tags, and how to write your custom tags to handle
them, see Handling end tags on page 217.
One of the advantages to using the cfimport tag is that you can define a directory structure for your custom tags to
organize them by category. For example, you can place all security tags in one directory, and all interface tags in
another. You then import the tags from each directory and give them a different prefix:
<cfimport prefix="security" taglib="securityTags">
<cfimport prefix="ui" taglib="uiTags">
...
<security:validateUser name="Bob">
...
<ui:greeting name="Bob">
...

Reading your code becomes easier because you can identify the location of your custom tags from the prefix.

Securing custom tags

The ColdFusion security framework enables you to selectively restrict access to individual tag files and tag directories.
This feature can be an important safeguard in team development. For details, see Configuring and Administering
ColdFusion.

Accessing existing custom tags

Before creating a custom tag in CFML, review the free and commercial custom tags available on the Adobe developers
exchange (www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_cfdevcenter_en).You might find a tag that does what you want.
Tags are grouped in several broad categories and are downloadable as freeware, shareware, or commercial software.
You can view each tags syntax and usage information. The gallery contains a wealth of background information on
custom tags and an online discussion forum for tag topics.
Tag names with the cf_ preface are CFML custom tags; those tags with the cfx_ preface are ColdFusion extensions
written in Java or C++. For more information about the CFX tags, see Building Custom CFXAPI Tags on page 224.
If you do not find a tag that meets your specific needs, you can create your own custom tags in CFML.

Passing data to custom tags

To make your custom tags flexible, you often pass data to them for processing. To do so, you write custom tags that
take tag attributes and other data as input from a calling page.

Passing values to and from custom tags

Because custom tags are individual ColdFusion pages, variables and other data are not automatically shared between
a custom tag and the calling page. To pass data from the calling page to the custom tag, you can specify attribute namevalue pairs in the custom tag, just as you do for normal HTML and CFML tags.
For example, to pass the value of the NameYouEntered variable to the cf_getmd tag, you can call the custom tag as
follows:

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<cf_getmd Name=#NameYouEntered#>

To pass multiple attributes to a custom tag, separate them with a space in the tag as follows:
<cf_mytag Firstname="Thadeus" Lastname="Jones">

In the custom tag, you use the Attributes scope to access attributes passed to the tag. Therefore, in the getmd.cfm page,
you access the passed attribute as Attributes.Name. The mytag.cfm custom tag page refers to the passed attributes as
Attributes.Firstname and Attributes.Lastname.
The custom tag page can also access variables set in the calling page by prefixing the calling pages local variable with
Caller. However, this technique is not the best way to pass information to a custom tag, because each calling page
would be required to create variables with the names required by the custom tag. You can create more flexible custom
tags by passing parameters using attributes.
Variables created within a custom tag are deleted when the processing of the tag terminates. Therefore, if you want to
pass information back to the calling page, write that information back to the Caller scope of the calling page. You
cannot access the custom tags variables outside the custom tag itself.
For example, use the following code in the getmd.cfm page to set the variable Doctor on the calling page:
<cfset Caller.Doctor="Doctor " & Attributes.Name>

If the variable Doctor does not exist in the calling page, this statement creates it. If the variable exists, the custom tag
overwrites it.
The following image shows the relationship between the variables on the calling page and the custom tag:
<cfset NameYouEntered="Smith">
<cf_getmd Name=#NameYouEntered#>

<cfset Caller.Doctor="Doctor " & Attributes.Name>

<cfoutput>
You are now #Variables.Doctor#.<br>
</cfoutput>
A. calling page B. getmd.cfm

One common technique used by custom tags is for the custom tag to take as input an attribute that contains the name
of the variable to use to pass back results. For example, the calling page passes returnHere as the name of the variable
to use to pass back results:
<cf_mytag resultName="returnHere">

In mytag.cfm, the custom tag passes back its results using the following code:
<cfset "Caller.#Attributes.resultName#" = result>

Be careful not to overwrite variables in the calling page from the custom tag. Adopt a naming convention to minimize
the chance of overwriting variables. For example, prefix the returned variable with customtagname_, where
customtagname is the name of the custom tag.
Note: Data that pertains to the HTTP request or to the current application is visible in the custom tag page. This data
includes the variables in the Form, URL, Cgi, Request, Cookies, Server, Application, Session, and Client scopes.

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Using tag attributes summary

Custom tag attribute values are passed from the calling page to the custom tag page as name-value pairs. CFML custom
tags support required and optional attributes. Custom tag attributes conform to the following CFML coding standards:

ColdFusion passes any attributes in the Attributes scope.

Use the Attributes.attribute_namesyntax when referring to passed attributes to distinguish them from custom
tag page local variables.

Attributes are not case sensitive.

Attributes can be listed in any order within a tag.
in the tag invocation, a space must separate attribute name-value pairs.
Passed values that contain spaces must be enclosed in double-quotation marks.
Use the cfparam tag with a default attribute at the top of a custom tag to test for and assign defaults for optional
attributes that are passed from a calling page. For example:
<!--- The value of the variable Attributes.Name comes from the calling page. If
the calling page does not set it, make it "Who". --->
<cfparam name="Attributes.Name" default="Who">

Use the cfparam tag or a cfif tag with an IsDefined function at the top of a custom tag to test for required
attributes that must be passed from a calling page; for example, the following code issues an abort if the user does
not specify the Name attribute to the custom tag:
<cfif not IsDefined("Attributes.Name")>
<cfabort showError="The Name attribute is required.">
</cfif>

Custom tag example with attributes

The following example creates a custom tag that uses an attribute that is passed to it to set the value of a variable called
Doctor on the calling page.
1 Create a ColdFusion page (the calling page) with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Enter Name</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Enter a name, which could also be done in a form. --->
<!--- This example simply uses a cfset. --->
<cfset NameYouEntered="Smith">
<!--- Display the current name. --->
<cfoutput>
Before you leave this page, you're #Variables.NameYouEntered#.<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Go to the custom tag. --->
<cf_getmd Name="#NameYouEntered#">
<!--- Come back from the Custom tag --->
<!--- Display the results of the custom tag. --->
<cfoutput>
You are now #Variables.Doctor#.<br>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as callingpage.cfm.

3 Create another page (the custom tag) with the following content:
<!--- The value of the variable Attributes.Name comes from the calling page.
If the calling page does not set it, make it "Who". --->
<cfparam name="Attributes.Name" default="Who">
<!--- Create a variable called Doctor, make its value "Doctor "
followed by the value of the variable Attributes.Name.
Make its scope Caller so it is passed back to the calling page.
--->
<cfset Caller.Doctor="Doctor " & Attributes.Name>

4 Save the page as getmd.cfm.

5 Open the file callingpage.cfm in your browser.

The calling page uses the getmd custom tag and displays the results.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:

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Code

Description

<cfset NameYouEntered="Smith">

In the calling page, create a variable NameYouEntered and assign

it the value Smith.

<cfoutput>
Before you leave this page, you're
#Variables.NameYouEntered#.<br>
</cfoutput>

In the calling page, display the value of the NameYouEntered

variable before calling the custom tag.

<cf_getmd Name="#NameYouEntered#">

In the calling page, call the getmd custom tag and pass it the Name
attribute whose value is the value of the local variable
NameYouEntered.

<cfparam name="Attributes.Name" default="Who">

The custom tag page normally gets the Name variable in the
Attributes scope from the calling page. Assign it the value Who if
the calling page did not pass an attribute.

<cfset Caller.Doctor="Doctor " & Attributes.Name>

In the custom tag page, create a variable called Doctor in the

Caller scope so it exists in the calling page as a local variable.
Set its value to the concatenation of the string "Doctor" and the
value of the Attributes.Name variable.

<cfoutput>
You are now #Variables.Doctor#.<br>
</cfoutput>

In the calling page, display the value of the Doctor variable

returned by the custom tag page. (This example uses the Variables
scope prefix to emphasize the fact that the variable is returned as a
local variable.)

Passing custom tag attributes by using CFML structures

You can use the reserved attribute attributeCollection to pass attributes to custom tags using a structure. The
attributeCollection attribute must reference a structure containing the attribute names as the keys and the
attribute values as the values. You can freely mix attributeCollection with other attributes when you call a custom
tag.
The key-value pairs in the structure specified by the attributeCollection attribute get copied into the Attributes
scope of the custom tag pages. This action has the same effect as specifying the attributeCollection entries as
individual attributes when you call the custom tag. The custom tag page refers to the attributes passed using
attributeCollection the same way as it does other attributes; for example, as Attributes.CustomerName or
Attributes.Department_number.
Note: You can combine tag attributes and the attributeCollection attribute when you use a custom tag directly or
when you use the cfmodule tag to invoke a custom tag. If you pass an attribute with the same name both explicitly and
in the attributeCollection structure, ColdFusion passes only the tag attribute to the custom tag and ignores the
corresponding attribute from the attribute collection. You cannot combine tag attributes and the
attributeCollection attribute when you use standard (built in) ColdFusion tags.
Custom tag processing reserves the attributeCollection attribute for the structure holding a collection of custom
tag attributes. If attributeCollection does not reference such a collection, ColdFusion generates a template
exception.
The following example uses an attributeCollection attribute to pass two of four attributes:
<cfset zort=StructNew()>
<cfset zort.x = "-X-">
<cfset zort.y = "-Y-">
<cf_testtwo a="blab" attributeCollection=#zort# foo="16">

If testtwo.cfm contains the following code:

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---custom tag ---<br>

<cfoutput>#attributes.a# #attributes.x# #attributes.y#
#attributes.foo#</cfoutput><br>
--- end custom tag ---

its output is the following statement:

---custom tag --blab -X- -Y- 16
--- end custom tag ---

One use for attributeCollection is to pass the entire Attributes scope of one custom tag to another. This technique
is useful when you have one custom tag that calls a second custom tag and you want to pass all attributes from the first
tag to the second.
For example, you call a custom tag with the following code:
<cf_first attr1="foo" attr2="bar">

To pass all the attributes of the first custom tag to the second, you include the following statement in first.cfm:
<cf_second attributeCollection="#attributes#">

Within the body of second.cfm, you reference the parameters passed to it as follows:
<cfoutput>#attributes.attr1#</cfoutput>
<cfoutput>#attributes.attr2#</cfoutput>

Managing custom tags

If you deploy custom tags in a multideveloper environment or distribute your tags publicly, you can use the advanced
security and template encoding capabilities of ColdFusion.
The ColdFusion security framework enables you to selectively restrict access to individual tags or to tag directories.
This restriction can be an important safeguard in team development. For more information, see Securing
Applications on page 339.
You can use the command line utility cfcompile to precompile your custom tag files into Java class files or byte code.
For more information, see Using the cfcompile utility in Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Executing custom tags

ColdFusion provides techniques for executing custom tags, including handling end tags and processing body text.

Accessing tag instance data

When a custom tag page executes, ColdFusion keeps data related to the tag instance in the thisTag structure. You can
access the thisTag structure from within your custom tag to control processing of the tag. The behavior is like that of
the File tag-specific variable (sometimes called the File scope).
ColdFusion generates the variables in the following table and writes them to the thisTag structure:

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Variable

Description

ExecutionMode

Contains the execution mode of the custom tag. Valid values are "start", "end", and "inactive".

HasEndTag

Distinguishes between custom tags that are called with and without end tags. Used for code validation. If the
user specifies an end tag, HasEndTag is set to true; otherwise, it is set to false.

GeneratedContent

Specifies the content that the tag generates. This content includes anything in the body of the tag, including
the results of any active content, such as ColdFusion variables and functions. You can process this content as
a variable.

AssocAttribs

Contains the attributes of all nested tags if you use cfassociate to make them available to the parent tags.
For more information, see High-level data exchange on page 221.

The following example accesses the ExecutionMode variable of the thisTag structure from within a custom tag:
<cfif thisTag.ExecutionMode is 'start'>

Handling end tags

The preceding examples of custom tags reference a custom tag by using just a start tag:
<cf_date>

In this case, ColdFusion calls the custom tag page date.cfm to process the tag.
However, you can create custom tags that have both a start and an end tag. For example, the following tag has both a
start and an end tag:
<cf_date>
...
</cf_date>

ColdFusion calls the custom tag page date.cfm twice for a tag that includes an end tag: once for the start tag and once
for the end tag. As part of the date.cfm page, you can determine if the call is for the start or end tag, and perform the
appropriate processing.
ColdFusion also calls the custom tag page twice if you use the shorthand form of an end tag:
<cf_date/>

You can also call a custom tag using the cfmodule tag, as shown in the following example:
<cfmodule ...>
...
</cfmodule>

If you specify an end tag to cfmessagebox, then ColdFusion calls your custom tag as if it had both a start and an end tag.
Determining if an end tag is specified
You can write a custom tag that requires users to include an end tag. If a tag must have an end tag provided, you can
use thisTag.HasEndTag in the custom tag page to verify that the user included the end tag.
For example, in date.cfm, you could include the following code to determine whether the end tag is specified:
<cfif thisTag.HasEndTag is 'False'>
<!--- Abort the tag--->
<cfabort showError="An end tag is required.">
</cfif>

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Determining the tag execution mode

The variable thisTag.ExecutionMode contains the mode of invocation of a custom tag page. The variable has one of
the following values:
Start Mode for processing the end tag.
End Mode for processing the end tag.
Inactive Mode when the custom tag uses nested tags. For more information, see Nesting custom tags on page 219.

If an end tag is not explicitly provided, ColdFusion invokes the custom tag page only once, in Start mode.
A custom tag page named bold.cfm that makes text bold could be written as follows:
<cfif thisTag.ExecutionMode is 'start'>
<!--- Start tag processing --->
<B>
<cfelse>
<!--- End tag processing --->
</B>
</cfif>

You then use this tag to convert the text to bold:

<cf_bold>This is bold text</cf_bold>

You can also use cfswitch to determine the execution mode of a custom tag:
<cfswitch expression=#thisTag.ExecutionMode#>
<cfcase value= 'start'>
<!--- Start tag processing --->
</cfcase>
<cfcase value='end'>
<!--- End tag processing --->
</cfcase>
</cfswitch>

Considerations when using end tags

How you code your custom tag to divide processing between the start tag and end tag depends greatly on the function
of the tag. However, use the following rules to help you make your decisions:

Use the start tag to validate input attributes, set default values, and validate the presence of the end tag if the custom
tag requires it.

Use the end tag to perform the actual processing of the tag, including any body text passed to the tag between the
start and end tags. For more information on body text, see Processing body text on page 218.

Perform output in either the start or end tag; do not divide it between the two tags.

Processing body text

Body text is any text that you include between the start and end tags when you call a custom tag, for example:
<cf_happybirthdayMessge name="Ellen Smith" birthDate="June, 8, 1993">
<p> Happy Birthday Ellen!</p>
<p> May you have many more!</p>
</cf_happybirthdayMessge>

In this example, the two lines of code after the start tag are the body text.

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You can access the body text within the custom tag using the thisTag.GeneratedContent variable. The variable
contains all body text passed to the tag. You can modify this text during processing of the tag. The contents of the
thisTag.GeneratedContent variables are returned to the browser as part of the tags output.
The thisTag.GeneratedContent variable is always empty during the processing of a start tag. Any output generated
during start tag processing is not considered part of the tags generated content.
A custom tag can access and modify the generated content of any of its instances using the
thisTag.GeneratedContent variable. In this context, the term generated content means the results of processing the
body of a custom tag. The content includes all text and HTML code in the body, the results of evaluating ColdFusion
variables, expressions, and functions, and the results generated by descendant tags. Any changes to the value of this
variable result in changes to the generated content.
As an example, consider a tag that comments out the HTML generated by its descendants. Its implementation could
look as follows:
<cfif thisTag.ExecutionMode is 'end'>
<cfset thisTag.GeneratedContent ='<!--#thisTag.GeneratedContent#-->'>
</cfif>

Terminating tag execution

Within a custom tag, you typically perform error checking and parameter validation. As part of those checks, you can
choose to abort the tag, using cfabort, if a required attribute is not specified or other severe error is detected.
The cfexit tag also terminates execution of a custom tag. However, the cfexit tag is designed to give you more
flexibility when coding custom tags than cfabort. The cfexit tags method attribute specifies where execution
continues. The cfexit tag can specify that processing continues from the first child of the tag or continues
immediately after the end tag marker.
You can also use the method attribute to specify that the tag body executes again. This capability enables custom tags
to act as high-level iterators, emulating cfloop behavior.
The following table summarizes cfexit behavior:
Method attribute value

Location of cfexit call

Behavior

ExitTag (default)

Base page

Acts like cfabort

ExecutionMode=start

Continue after end tag

ExecutionMode=end

Continue after end tag

Base page

Acts like cfabort

ExecutionMode=start

Continue from first child in body

ExecutionMode=end

Continue after end tag

Base page

Error

ExecutionMode=start

Error

ExecutionMode=end

Continue from first child in body

ExitTemplate

Loop

Nesting custom tags

A custom tag can call other custom tags from within its body text, thereby nesting tags. ColdFusion uses nested tags
such as cfgraph and cfgraphdata, cfhttp and cfhttpparam, and cftree and cftreeitem. The ability to nest tags
allows you to provide similar functionality.

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The following example shows a cftreeitem tag nested within a cftree tag:
<cftree name="tree1"
required="Yes"
hscroll="No">
<cftreeitem value=fullname
query="engquery"
queryasroot="Yes"
img="folder,document">
</cftree>

The calling tag is known as an ancestor, parent, or base tag; the tags that ancestor tags call are known as descendant,
child, or sub tags. Together, the ancestor and all descendant tags are called collaborating tags.
In order to nest tags, the parent tag must have a closing tag.
The following table lists the terms that describe the relationships between nested tags:
Calling tag

Tag nested within the calling tag

Description

Ancestor

Descendant

An ancestor is any tag that contains other tags between its start and end tags.
A descendant is any tag called by a tag.

Parent

Child

Parent and child are synonyms for ancestor and descendant.

Base tag

Sub tag

A base tag is an ancestor that you explicitly associate with a descendant,

called a sub tag, with cfassociate.

You can create multiple levels of nested tags. In this case, the sub tag becomes the base tag for its own sub tags. Any
tag with an end tag present can be an ancestor to another tag.
Nested custom tags operate through three modes of processing, which are exposed to the base tags through the variable
thisTag.ExecutionMode.

Passing data between nested custom tags

A key custom tag feature is for collaborating custom tags to exchange complex data without user intervention, while
encapsulating each tags implementation so that others cannot see it.
When you use nested tags, address the following issues:

What data must be accessible?

Which tags can communicate to which tags?
How are the source and targets of the data exchange identified?
What CFML mechanism is used for the data exchange?
What data is accessible?
To enable developers to obtain maximum productivity in an environment with few restrictions, CFML custom tags
can expose all their data to collaborating tags.
When you develop custom tags, document all variables that collaborating tags can access and/or modify. When your
custom tags collaborate with other custom tags,
make sure that they do not modify any undocumented data.

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To preserve encapsulation, place all tag data access and modification operations in custom tags. For example, rather
than documenting that the variable MyQueryResults in a tag's implementation holds a query result and expecting
users to manipulate MyQueryResults directly, create a nested custom tag that manipulates MyQueryResult. This
technique protects the users of the custom tag from changes in the tag's implementation.

Variable scopes and special variables

Use the Request scope for variables in nested tags. The Request scope is available to the base page, all pages it includes,
all custom tag pages it calls, and all custom tag pages called by the included pages and custom tag pages. Collaborating
custom tags that are not nested in a single tag can exchange data using the request structure. The Request scope is
represented as a structure named Request.
Where is data accessible?
Two custom tags can be related in a variety of ways in a page. Ancestor and descendant relationships are important
because they relate to the order of tag nesting.
A tags descendants are inactive while the page is executed; that is, the descendent tags have no instance data. A tag,
therefore, can only access data from its ancestors, not its descendants. Ancestor data is available from the current page
and from the whole runtime tag context stack. The tag context stack is the path from the current tag element up the
hierarchy of nested tags, including those tags in included pages and custom tag references, to the start of the base page
for the request. Both cfinclude tags and custom tags appear on the tag context stack.

High-level data exchange

Although the ability to create nested custom tags is a tremendous productivity gain, keeping track of complex nested
tag hierarchies can become a chore. The cfassociate tag lets the parent know what the children are up to. By adding
this tag to a sub tag, you enable communication of its attributes to the base tag.
In addition, there are many cases in which descendant tags are used only as a means for data validation and exchange
with an ancestor tag, such as cfhttp/cfhttpparam and cftreecftreeitem. You can use the cfassociate tag to
encapsulate this processing.
The cfassociate tag has the following format:
<cfassociate baseTag="tagName" dataCollection="collectionName">

The baseTag attribute specifies the name of the base tag that gets access to this tags attributes. The dataCollection
attribute specifies the name of the structure in which the base tag stores the subtag data. Its default value is
AssocAttribs. ColdFusion requires a dataCollection attribute only if the base tag can have more than one type of
subtag. It is convenient for keeping separate collections of attributes, one per tag type.
Note: If the custom tag requires an end tag, the code processing the structure referenced by the dataCollection attribute
must be part of end-tag code.
When cfassociate is encountered in a sub tag, the sub tags attributes are automatically saved in the base tag. The
attributes are in a structure appended to the end of an array whose name is thisTag.collectionName.
The cfassociate tag performs the following operations:

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<!--- Get base tag instance data --->

<cfset data = getBaseTagData(baseTag)>
<!--- Create a string with the attribute collection name --->
<cfset collection_Name = "data.#dataCollection#">
<!--- Create the attribute collection, if necessary --->
<cfif not isDefined(collectionName)>
<cfset #collection_Name# = arrayNew(1)>
</cfif>
<!--- Append the current attributes to the array --->
<cfset temp=arrayAppend(evaluate(collectionName), attributes)>

The code accessing subtag attributes in the base tag could look like the following:
<!--- Protect against no subtags --->
<cfparam Name='thisTag.assocAttribs' default=#arrayNew(1)#>
<!--- Loop over the attribute sets of all sub tags --->
<cfloop index=i from=1 to=#arrayLen(thisTag.assocAttribs)#>
<!--- Get the attributes structure --->
<cfset subAttribs = thisTag.assocAttribs[i]>
<!--- Perform other operations --->
</cfloop>

Ancestor data access

A structure object contains all the ancestors data.
The following functions provide access to ancestral data:

GetBaseTagList: Returns a comma-delimited list of uppercase ancestor tag names, as a string. The first list
element is the current tag, the next element is the parent tag name if the current tag is a nested tag. If the function
is called for a top-level tag, it returns an empty string.

GetBaseTagData, InstanceNumber=1): Returns an object that contains all the variables (not just the local
variables) of the nth ancestor with a given name. By default, the closest ancestor is returned. If there is no ancestor
by the given name, or if the ancestor does not expose any data (such as cfif), an exception is thrown.

Example: ancestor data access

This example creates two custom tags and a simple page that calls each of the custom tags. The first custom tag calls
the second. The second tag reports on its status and provides information about its ancestors.
Create the calling page
1 Create a ColdFusion page (the calling page) with the following content:
Call cf_nesttag1 which calls cf_nesttag2<br>
<cf_nesttag1>
<hr>
Call cf_nesttag2 directly<br>
<cf_nesttag2>
<hr>

2 Save the page as nesttest.cfm.

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Create the first custom tag page

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cf_nesttag2>

2 Save the page as nesttag1.cfm.

Create the second custom tag page

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfif thisTag.executionmode is 'start'>
<!--- Get the tag context stack. The list looks something like
"MYTAGNAME, CALLINGTAGNAME, ..." --->
<cfset ancestorlist = getbasetaglist()>
<!--- Output your own name. You are the first entry in the context stack. --->
<cfoutput>
<p>I'm custom tag #ListGetAt(ancestorlist,1)#</p>
<!--- Output all the contents of the stack a line at a time. --->
<cfloop index="loopcount" from="1" to="#listlen(ancestorlist)#">
Ancestorlist entry #loopcount# n is #ListGetAt(ancestorlist,loopcount)#<br>
</cfloop><br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Determine whether you are nested inside a custom tag. Skip the first
element of the ancestor list, i.e., the name of the custom tag I'm in. --->
<cfset incustomtag = ''>
<cfloop index="elem"
list="#listrest(ancestorlist)#">
<cfif (left(elem, 3) eq 'cf_')>
<cfset incustomtag = elem>
<cfbreak>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfif incustomtag neq ''>
<!--- Say that you are there. --->

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<cfoutput>
I'm running in the context of a custom tag named #inCustomTag#.<p>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Get the tag instance data. --->
<cfset tagdata = getbasetagdata(incustomtag)>
<!--- Find out the tag's execution mode. --->
I'm located inside the
<cfif tagdata.thisTag.executionmode neq 'inactive'>
custom tag code either because it is in its start or end execution mode.
<cfelse>
body of the tag
</cfif>
<p>
<cfelse>
<!--- Say that you are lonely. --->
I'm not nested inside any custom tags. :^( <p>
</cfif>
</cfif>

2 Save the page as nesttag2.cfm.

3 Open the file nesttest.cfm in your browser.

Building Custom CFXAPI Tags

Sometimes, the best approach to application development is to develop elements of your application by building
executable to run with ColdFusion. Perhaps the application requirements go beyond what is currently feasible in
CFML. Perhaps you can improve application performance for certain types of processing. Or, you have existing code
that already solves an application problem and you want to incorporate it into your ColdFusion application.
To meet these types of requirements, you can use the ColdFusion Extension Application Programming Interface (CFX
API) to develop custom ColdFusion tags based on Java or C++.

What are CFX tags?

ColdFusion Extension (CFX) tags are custom tags written against the ColdFusion Extension Application
Programming Interface. Generally, you create a CFX tag if you want to do something that is not possible in CFML, or
if you want to improve the performance of a repetitive task.
One common use of CFX tags is to incorporate existing application functionality into a ColdFusion application. That
means if you already have the code available, CFX tags make it easy to use it in your application.
CFX tags can do the following:

Handle any number of custom attributes.

Use and manipulate ColdFusion queries for custom formatting.
Generate ColdFusion queries for interfacing with non-ODBC based information sources.
Dynamically generate HTML to return to the client.
Set variables within the ColdFusion application page from which they are called.
Throw exceptions that result in standard ColdFusion error messages.

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You can build CFX tags using C++ or Java.

Note: ColdFusion provides several different techniques to create reusable code, including custom tags. For information
on all of these techniques, see Creating ColdFusion Elements on page 146.

Before you begin developing CFX tags in Java

Before you begin developing CFX tags in Java, configure your Java development environment. Also, it can be helpful
to review the examples here before you create CFX tags.

Sample Java CFX tags

Before you begin developing a CFX tag in Java, it can be useful to study sample CFX tags. You can find the Java source
files for the examples for Windows in the cfx\java\distrib\examples subdirectory of the main installation directory. In
UNIX systems, the files are located in the cfx/java/examples directory. The following table describes the example tags:
Example

Action

Demonstrates

HelloColdFusion

Prints a personalized greeting.

The minimal implementation required to create a CFX

tag.

ZipBrowser

Retrieves the contents of a ZIP archive.

How to generate a ColdFusion query and return it to

the calling page.

ServerDateTime

Retrieves the date and time from a network

server.

Attribute validation, using numeric attributes, and

setting variables within the calling page.

OutputQuery

Returns a ColdFusion query in an HTML table.

How to handle a ColdFusion query as input, throw

exceptions, and generate dynamic output.

HelloWorldGraphic

Generates a Hello World! graphic in JPEG

format.

How to dynamically create and return graphics from a

Java CFX tag.

Setting up your development environment to develop CFX tags in Java

You can use a wide range of Java development environments, including the Java Development Kit (JDK) from Sun, to
build Java CFX tags. You can download the JDK from Sun http://java.sun.com/j2se.
Adobe recommends that you use one of the commercial Java IDEs, so you have an integrated environment for
development, debugging, and project management.
Configuring the classpath
To configure your development environment to build Java CFX tags, ensure that the supporting classes are visible to
your Java compiler. These classes are located in the cfx.jar archive, located in one of the following directories:
Server configuration cf_root/wwwroot/WEB-INF/lib
J2EE configuration cf_webapp_root/WEB-INF/lib

Consult your Java development tool documentation to determine how to configure the compiler classpath for your
particular environment.
The cfx.jar archive contains the classes in the com.allaire.cfx package, which are required for developing and
deploying Java CFX tags.
When you create new Java CFX tags, compile them into the WEB-INF/classes directory. Doing so simplifies your
development, debugging, and testing processes.

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After you finish with development and testing, you can deploy your Java CFX tag anywhere on the classpath visible to
ColdFusion.

Customizing and configuring Java

Use the ColdFusion Administrator > Server Settings > JVM and Java Settings page to customize your Java
development environment by customizing the classpath and Java system properties, or by specifying an alternate JVM.
For more information, see the ColdFusion Administrator online Help.

Writing a Java CFX tag

To create a Java CFX tag, create a class that implements the Custom tag interface. This interface contains one method,
processRequest, which is passed Request and Response objects that are then used to do the work of the tag.
The example in the following procedure creates a simple Java CFX tag named cfx_MyHelloColdFusion that writes a
text string back to the calling page.
1 Create a source file in your editor with the following code:
import com.allaire.cfx.* ;
public class MyHelloColdFusion implements CustomTag {
public void processRequest( Request request, Response response )
throws Exception {
String strName = request.getAttribute( "NAME" ) ;
response.write( "Hello, " + strName ) ;
}
}

2 Save the file as MyHelloColdFusion.java in the WEB_INF/classes directory.

3 Compile the java source file into a class file using the Java compiler. If you are using the command line tools

bundled with the JDK, use the following command line, which you execute from within the classes directory:
javac -classpath cf_root\WEB-INF\lib\cfx.jar MyHelloColdFusion.java

Note: The previous command works only if the Java compiler (javac.exe) is in your path. If it is not in your path, specify
the fully qualified path; for example, c:\jdk1.3.1_01\bin\javac in Windows or /usr/java/bin/javac in UNIX.
If you receive errors during compilation, check the source code to make sure that you entered it correctly. If no errors
occur, you successfully wrote your first Java CFX tag.

Calling the CFX tag from a ColdFusion page

You call Java CFX tags from within ColdFusion pages by using the name of the CFX tag that is registered on the
ColdFusion Administrator CFX Tags page. This name should be the prefix cfx_ followed by the class name (without
the .class extension).
Register a Java CFX tag in the ColdFusion Administrator
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Extensions > CFX Tags.
2 Click Register Java CFX.
3 Enter the tag name (for example, cfx_MyHelloColdFusion).
4 Enter the class name without the .class extension (for example, MyHelloColdFusion).
5 (Optional) Enter a description.
6 Click Submit.

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You can now call the tag from a ColdFusion page.

Call a CFX tag from a ColdFusion page
1 Create a ColdFusion page (.cfm) in your editor with the following content to call the HelloColdFusion custom tag:
<html>
<body>
<cfx_MyHelloColdFusion NAME="Les">
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file in a directory configured to serve ColdFusion pages. For example, you can save the file as

C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cfdocs\testjavacfx.cfm in Windows or /home/docroot/cfdocs/testjavacfx.cfm in UNIX.

3 If you have not already done so, register the CFX tag in the ColdFusion Administrator (see Registering CFX tags

on page 234).
4 Request the page from your browser using the appropriate URL; for example:

http://localhost/cfdocs/testjavacfx.cfm
ColdFusion processes the page and returns a page that displays the text Hello, Les. If an error is returned instead,
check the source code to make sure that you entered it correctly.
Delete a CFX tag in the ColdFusion Administrator
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Extensions > CFX Tags.
2 For the tag to delete, click the Delete icon in the Controls column of the Registered CFX Tags list.

Processing requests
Implementing a Java CFX tag requires interaction with the Request and Response objects passed to the
processRequest method. In addition, CFX tags that must work with ColdFusion queries also interface with the
Query object. The com.allaire.cfx package, located in the WEB-INF/lib/cfx.jar archive, contains the Request,
Response, and Query objects.
For a complete description of these object types, see ColdFusion Java CFX Reference in the CFML Reference. For a
complete example Java CFX tag that uses Request, Response, and Query objects, see ZipBrowser example on
page 228.
Request object
The Request object is passed to the processRequest method of the CustomTag interface. The following table lists the
methods of the Request object for retrieving attributes, including queries, passed to the tag and for reading global tag
settings:
Method

Description

attributeExists

Checks whether the attribute was passed to this tag.

debug

Checks whether the tag contains the debug attribute.

getAttribute

Retrieves the value of the passed attribute.

getAttributeList

Retrieves a list of all attributes passed to the tag.

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Method

Description

getIntAttribute

Retrieves the value of the passed attribute as an integer.

getQuery

Retrieves the query that was passed to this tag, if any.

getSetting

Retrieves the value of a global custom tag setting.

For detailed reference information on each of these interfaces, see the CFML Reference.
Response object
The Response object is passed to the processRequest method of the CustomTag interface. The following table lists the
methods of the Response object for writing output, generating queries, and setting variables within the calling page:
Method

Description

write

Outputs text to the calling page.

setVariable

Sets a variable in the calling page.

addQuery

Adds a query to the calling page.

writeDebug

Outputs text to the debug stream.

For detailed reference information on each of these interfaces, see the CFML Reference.
Query object
The Query object provides an interface for working with ColdFusion queries. The following table lists the methods of
the Query object for retrieving name, row count, and column names and methods for getting and setting data
elements:
Method

Description

getName

Retrieves the name of the query.

getRowCount

Retrieves the number of rows in the query.

getColumnIndex

Retrieves the index of a query column.

getColumns

Retrieves the names of the query columns.

getData

Retrieves a data element from the query.

addRow

Adds a new row to the query.

setData

Sets a data element within the query.

For detailed reference information on each of these interfaces, see CFML Reference.

Life cycle of Java CFX tags

A new instance of the Java CFX object is created for each invocation of the Java CFX tag. As a result, it is safe to store
per-request instance data within the members of your CustomTag object. To store data and objects that are accessible
to all instances of your CustomTag, use static data members. If you do so, ensure that all accesses to the data are threadsafe.

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ZipBrowser example
The following example shows the use of the Request, Response, and Query objects. The example uses the java.util.zip
package to implement a Java CFX tag called cfx_ZipBrowser, which is a ZIP file browsing tag.
Note: The Java source file that implements cfx_ZipBrowser, ZipBrowser.java, is included in the
cf_root/cfx/java/distrib/examples (server configuration) or cf_webapp_root/WEBINF/cfusion/cfx/java/distrib/examples (J2EE configuration) directory. Compile ZipBrowser.java to implement the tag.
The tag archive attribute specifies the fully qualified path of the ZIP archive to browse. The tag name attribute must
specify the query to return to the calling page. The returned query contains three columns: Name, Size, and
Compressed.
For example, to query an archive at the path C:\logfiles.zip for its contents and output the results, you use the following
CFML code:
<cfx_ZipBrowser
archive="C:\logfiles.zip"
name="LogFiles">
<cfoutput query="LogFiles">
#Name#,#Size#, #Compressed# <BR>
</cfoutput>

The Java implementation of ZipBrowser is as follows:

import
import
import
import

com.allaire.cfx.* ;
java.util.Hashtable ;
java.io.FileInputStream ;
java.util.zip.* ;

public class ZipBrowser implements CustomTag {

public void processRequest( Request request, Response response )
throws Exception {
// Validate that required attributes were passed.
if (!request.attributeExists( "ARCHIVE" ) || !request.attributeExists( "NAME" ) ) {
throw new Exception(
"Missing attribute (ARCHIVE and NAME are both " +
"required attributes for this tag)" ) ;
}
// get attribute values
String strArchive = request.getAttribute( "ARCHIVE" ) ;
String strName = request.getAttribute( "NAME" ) ;
// create a query to use for returning the list of files
String[] columns = { "Name", "Size", "Compressed" } ;
int iName = 1, iSize = 2, iCompressed = 3 ;
Query files = response.addQuery( strName, columns ) ;
// read the ZIP file and build a query from its contents

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ZipInputStream zin = new ZipInputStream( new FileInputStream(strArchive) ) ;

ZipEntry entry ;
while ( ( entry = zin.getNextEntry()) != null ) {
// Add a row to the results.
int iRow = files.addRow() ;
// populate the row with data
files.setData( iRow, iName, entry.getName() ) ;
files.setData( iRow, iSize, String.valueOf(entry.getSize()) ) ;
files.setData( iRow, iCompressed,
String.valueOf(entry.getCompressedSize())) ;
// Finish up with entry.
zin.closeEntry() ;
}
// Close the archive.
zin.close() ;
}
}

Approaches to debugging Java CFX tags

Java CFX tags are not stand-alone applications that run in their own process, like typical Java applications. Rather, they
are created and run from an existing process. As a result, debugging Java CFX tags is more difficult, because you cannot
use an interactive debugger to debug Java classes that another process has loaded.
To overcome this limitation, you can use one of the following techniques:

Debug the CFX tag while it is running within ColdFusion by outputting the debug information as needed.
Debug the CFX tag using a Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that supports debugging features,
such as setting breakpoints, stepping through your code, and displaying variable values.

Debug the request in an interactive debugger offline from ColdFusion using the special com.allaire.cfx debugging
classes.

Outputting debugging information

Before using interactive debuggers became the norm, programmers typically debugged their programs by inserting
output statements in their programs to indicate information such as variable values and control paths taken. Often,
when a new platform emerges, this technique comes back into vogue while programmers wait for more sophisticated
debugging technology to develop for the platform.
If you must debug a Java CFX tag while running against a live production server, reset this technique. In addition to
outputting debugging text using the Response.write method, you can also call your Java CFX tag with the
debug="On" attribute. This attribute flags the CFX tag that the request is running in debug mode and therefore can
generate additional extended debugging information. For example, to call the HelloColdFusion CFX tag in
debugging mode, use the following CFML code:
<cfx_HelloColdFusion name="Robert" debug="On">

To determine whether a CFX tag is run with the debug attribute, use the Request.debug method. To write debugging
output in a special debugging block after the tag finishes executing, use the Response.writeDebug method. For
information on using these methods, see ColdFusion Java CFX Reference in CFML Reference.

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Debugging in a Java IDE

You can use a Java IDE to debug your Java CFX tags. As a result, you can develop your Java CFX tag and debug it in a
single environment.
1 Start your IDE.
2 In the project properties (or the project setting of your IDE), make sure your CFX class is in the web_root\WEB-

INF\classes directory or in the system classpath.

3 Make sure the libraries cf_root/wwwroot/WEB-INF/lib/cfx.jar (cf_webapp_root/WEB-INF/lib/cfx.jar in the J2EE

configuration) and cf_root/runtime/lib/jrun.jar (server configuration only) are included in your classpath.
4 In your project settings, set your main class to jrunx.kernel.JRun and application parameters to -startdefault.
5 Debug your application by setting breakpoints, single stepping, displaying variables, or by performing other

debugging actions.

Using the debugging classes

To develop and debug Java CFX tags in isolation from the ColdFusion, you use three special debugging classes that are
included in the com.allaire.cfx package. These classes lets you simulate a call to the processRequest method of
your CFX tag within the context of the interactive debugger of a Java development environment. The three debugging
classes are the following:

DebugRequest: An implementation of the Request interface that lets you initialize the request with custom

attributes, settings, and a query.

DebugResponse: An implementation of the Response interface that lets you print the results of a request once it

has completed.

DebugQuery: An implementation of the Query interface that lets you initialize a query with a name, columns, and

a data set.
Implement a main method
1 Create a main method for your Java CFX class.
2 Within the main method, initialize a DebugRequest and DebugResponse, and a DebugQuery. Use the appropriate

attributes and data for your test.

3 Create an instance of your Java CFX tag and call its processRequest method, passing in the DebugRequest and
DebugResponse objects.

4 Call the DebugResponse.printResults method to output the results of the request, including content generated,

variables set, queries created, and so on.

After you implement a main method as described previously, you can debug your Java CFX tag using an interactive,
single-step debugger. Specify your Java CFX class as the main class, set breakpoints as appropriate, and begin
debugging.
Example:debugging classes
The following example demonstrates how to use the debugging classes:

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import java.util.Hashtable ;
import com.allaire.cfx.* ;
public class OutputQuery implements CustomTag {
// debugger testbed for OutputQuery
public static void main(String[] argv) {
try {
// initialize attributes
Hashtable attributes = new Hashtable() ;
attributes.put( "HEADER", "Yes" ) ;
attributes.put( "BORDER", "3" ) ;
// initialize query
String[] columns = { "FIRSTNAME", "LASTNAME", "TITLE" } ;
String[][] data = {
{ "Stephen", "Cheng", "Vice President" },
{ "Joe", "Berrey", "Intern" },
{ "Adam", "Lipinski", "Director" },
{ "Lynne", "Teague", "Developer" } };
DebugQuery query = new DebugQuery( "Employees", columns, data ) ;
// create tag, process debugging request, and print results
OutputQuery tag = new OutputQuery() ;
DebugRequest request = new DebugRequest( attributes, query ) ;
DebugResponse response = new DebugResponse() ;
tag.processRequest( request, response ) ;
response.printResults() ;
}
catch( Throwable e ) {
e.printStackTrace() ;
}
}
public void processRequest(Request request, Response response) throws Exception {
// ...code for processing the request...
}
}

Developing CFX tags in C++

You can develop CFX tags in C++.

Sample C++ CFX tags

Before you begin development of a CFX tag in C++, you can study the two CFX tags included with ColdFusion. These
examples can help you get started working with the CFXAPI. The two example tags are as follows:

CFX_DIRECTORYLIST: Queries a directory for the list of files it contains.

CFX_NTUSERDB (Windows only): Lets you add and delete Windows NT users.

In Windows, these tags are located in the cf_root\cfx\examples directory. In UNIX, these tags are in the
cf_root/coldfusion/cfx/examples directory.

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Setting up your C++ development environment

The following compliers generate valid CFX code for UNIX platforms:
Platform

Compiler

Solaris

Sun Workshop C++ compiler, version 5.0 or higher (gcc cannot be used to compile CFX code on Solaris)

Linux

Gnu C++ compiler - gcc

Before you can use your C++ compiler to build custom tags, enable the compiler to locate the CFX API header file,
cfx.h. In Windows, add the CFX API include directory to your list of global include paths. In Windows, this directory
is cf_root\cfx\include. In UNIX, this directory is cf_root/cfx/include. in UNIX, you need -I <includepath> on your
compile line (see the Makefile for the directory list example in the cfx/examples directory).

Compiling C++ CFX tags

CFX tags built in Windows and in UNIX must be thread-safe. Compile CFX tags for Solaris with the -mt switch on the
Sun compiler.

Locating your C++ library files in UNIX

In UNIX systems, your C++ library files can be in any directory as long as the directory is included in
LD_LIBRARY_PATH or SHLIB_PATH (HP-UX only).

Implementing C++ CFX tags

CFX tags built in C++ use the tag request object, represented by the C++ CCFXRequest class. This object represents a
request made from an application page to a custom tag. A pointer to an instance of a request object is passed to the
main procedure of a custom tag. The methods available from the request object let the custom tag accomplish its work.
For information about the CFX API classes and members, see ColdFusion C++ CFX Reference in the CFML Reference.
Note: Calling a nonexistent C++ CFX procedure or entry point causes a JVM crash in UNIX.

Debugging C++ CFX tags

After you configure a debugging session, you run your custom tag from within the debugger, set breakpoints, singlestep, and so on.
Debugging in Windows
You can debug custom tags within the Visual C++ environment.
1 Build your C++ CFX tag using the debug option.
2 Restart ColdFusion.
3 Start Visual C++.
4 Select Build > Start Debug > AttachProcess.
5 Select jrunsvc.exe.

Adobe recommends that you shut down all other Java programs.
6 Execute any ColdFusion page that calls the CFX tag.
7 Select File > Open to open a file in VisualDev in which to set a breakpoint.
8 Set a breakpoint in the CFX project.

The best place is to place it in ProcessRequest(). Next time you execute the page you will reach the breakpoint.

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Registering CFX tags

To use a CFX tag in your ColdFusion applications, first register it in the Extensions, CFX Tags page in the ColdFusion
Administrator.
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Extensions > CFX Tags.
2 Click Register C++ CFX.
3 Enter the Tag name (for example, cfx_MyNewTag).
4 If the Server Library .dll field is empty, enter the filepath.
5 Accept the default Procedure entry.
6 Clear the Keep library loaded box while developing the tag.

For improved performance, when the tag is ready for production use, you can select this option to keep the DLL in
memory.
7 (Optional) Enter a description.
8 Click Submit.

You can now call the tag from a ColdFusion page.

Delete a CFX tag
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Extensions > CFX Tags.
2 For the tag to delete, click the Delete icon in the Controls column of the Registered CFX Tags list.

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Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application
Application elements and how you structure an application on your server make your Adobe ColdFusion pages an
effective Internet application. You use the Application.cfc and Application.cfm files and various coding methods to
optimize the efficiency of your application.

About applications
The term application can mean many things. An application can be as simple as a guest book or as sophisticated as a
full Internet commerce system with catalog pages, shopping carts, and reporting.
An application, however, has a specific meaning in ColdFusion. A ColdFusion application has the following
characteristics:

It consists of one or more ColdFusion pages that work together and share a common set of resources.
All pages in the application share an application name and configuration settings as specified in an Application.cfc
file or a cfapplication tag.

All pages in the application share variables in the Application scope.

You can write application-wide event handlers for specific events, such as request start or session end.
What appears to a user to be a single application (for example, a companys website), can consist of multiple
ColdFusion applications.
ColdFusion applications are not J2EE applications. However, if you do not specify an application name in your
Application.cfc file or cfapplication tag, the Application scope corresponds to the J2EE application servlet context.
ColdFusion applications end when the application has been inactive for the application time-out period or the server
stops. When the application times out, ColdFusion releases all Application scope variables. You must, therefore, select
a time-out period that balances the need for clearing Application scope memory and the overhead of re-creating the
scope. A typical application time-out is two days.
ColdFusion applications and sessions are independent of each other. For example, if an application times out while a
users session is active, the session continues and the session context, including the users Session scope variables, is
unaffected by the application ending and restarting.
Although, there are no definite rules about how you represent your web application as a ColdFusion application or
applications, the following guidelines are useful:

Application pages share a common general purpose. For example, a web storefront is typically a single ColdFusion
application.

Many, but not necessarily all, pages in a ColdFusion application share data or common code elements, such as a
single login mechanism.

Application pages share a common look-and-feel, often enforced by using common code elements, such as the
same header and footer pages, and a common error message template.

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Elements of a ColdFusion application

Before you develop a ColdFusion application, determine how to structure the application and how to handle
application-wide needs and issues. In particular, consider all of the following:

The overall application framework

Reusable application elements
Shared variables
Application events and the Application.cfc file
Application-level settings and functions
Application security and user identification

The application framework

The application framework is the overall structure of the application and how your directory structure and application
pages reflect that structure. Use a single application framework to structure multiple ColdFusion applications into a
single website or Internet application. You can structure a ColdFusion application by using many methodologies. For
example, the Fusebox application development methodology is one popular framework for developing ColdFusion
web applications. (For more information on Fusebox, see www.fusebox.org.)
Information on how to use or develop a specific application framework is not provided. However, there is information
about the tools that ColdFusion provides for building your framework, including the Application.cfc file, how an
applications directory structure affects the application, and how you map the directory structure. For more
information on mapping the application framework, see Structuring an application on page 239.
Note: For one example of an application framework, see ColdFusion Methodologies for Content Management,
available at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_content_mgmt_en.

Reusable application elements

ColdFusion provides a variety of reusable elements that you use to provide commonly used functionality and extend
CFML. These elements include the following:

User-defined functions (UDFs)

CFML custom tags
ColdFusion components (CFCs)
CFX (ColdFusion Extension) tags
Pages that you include using the cfinclude tag
For an overview of these elements, and information about how to choose among them, see Creating ColdFusion
Elements on page 146.

Shared variables
The following ColdFusion variable scopes maintain data that lasts beyond the scope of the current HTTP request:
Variable scope

Variables available

Server

To all applications on a server and all clients

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Variable scope

Variables available

Application

To all pages in an application for all clients

Client

For a single client browser over multiple browser sessions in one application

Session

For a single client browser for a single browser session in one application

For more information on using these variables, including how to use locks to ensure that the data they contain remains
accurate, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

Application events and the Application.cfc file

Application events are specific occurrences during the life cycle of an application. Each time one of these events occurs,
ColdFusion runs the corresponding method in your Application.cfc file (also referred to as the application CFC). The
Application.cfc file defines application settings and implements methods to handle the application events.
Implement application CFC methods to handle the following events:
Event

Trigger

Application start

ColdFusion starts processing the first request for a page in an application that is not running.

Application end

An application time-out setting is reached or the server shuts down.

Session start

A new session is created as a result of a request that is not in an existing session.

Session end

A session time-out setting is reached.

Request start

ColdFusion receives a request, including HTTP requests, messages to the event gateway, SOAP requests, or Flash
Remoting requests.

Request

Immediately after ColdFusion finishes processing the request start event. The handler for this event is intended
for use as a filter for the request contents. For more information on the differences between request start and
request events, see Managing requests in Application.cfc on page 246.

Request end

ColdFusion finishes processing all pages and CFCs for the request.

Exceptions

An exception occurs that is not handled in a try/catch block.

The Application.cfc file also defines application-wide settings, including the application name and whether the
application supports Session variables.
For more information on using application events and the Application.cfc file, see Defining the application and its
event handlers in Application.cfc on page 241.

Other application-level settings and functions

Adobe recommends that when defining application-level settings, variables, and functions in new code, you do not
use the techniques used previous to ColdFusion MX 7. Instead, use the Application.cfc file and its variables and
methods, which provide more features and include logical, hierarchical structure.
If you do not have an Application.cfc file, ColdFusion processes the following two pages, if they are available, every
time it processes any page in the application:

The Application.cfm page is processed before each page in the application.

The OnRequestEnd.cfm page is processed after each page in the application.
Note: UNIX systems are case-sensitive. To ensure that your pages work on UNIX, always capitalize the A in
Application.cfm and the O, R, and E in OnRequestEnd.cfm.

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The Application.cfm page can define the application. It can contain the cfapplication tag that specifies the
application name, and code on this page is processed for all pages in the application. This page can define applicationlevel settings, functions, and features.
The OnRequestEnd.cfm page is used in fewer applications than the Application.cfm page. It lets you provide common
clean-up code that gets processed after all application pages, or specify dynamic footer pages.
The OnRequestEnd.cfm page does not execute if the page runs a cflocation tag.
For more information on the Application.cfm and OnRequestEnd.cfm pages, see Using an Application.cfm page on
page 252. For information on placing these pages in the application directory structure, see Structuring an
application on page 239.
Note: You can create a ColdFusion application without using an Application.cfc, Application.cfm, or OnRequestEnd.cfm
page. However, it is much easier to use the Application.cfm page than to have each page in the application use a
cfapplication tag and define common application elements.

Specifying settings per application

Set the following on a per-application basis:

Mappings
Custom tag paths
These settings override the server-side settings in the ColdFusion Administrator for the specified application only.
Specifying per application settings does not change the server-wide settings. To set per-application settings, first enable
per-application settings on the Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator. You then set the mappings or custom
tag paths in the Application.cfc file.
Custom Tags in per-application settings override those defined in the ColdFusion Administrator. For example, if you
have two custom tags of the same name and they are in different locations in the Administrator and per-application
settings, the one in the per-application settings is taken first.
Note: Per-application settings are supported in applications that use an Application.cfc file only, not in applications that
use an Application.cfm file. The per-application settings do not work if you have disabled application variables in the
Memory Variables page of the Administrator.
Set the mappings per application
1 Check the Enable Per App Settings option on the Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
2 Include code like the following in your Application.cfc file:
<cfset THIS.mappings["/MyMap"]="c:\inetpub\myStuff">

or
<cfset StructInsert(THIS.mappings, "/MyMap", "c:\inetpub\myStuff")>

(To use the second format, you must first create a THIS.mappings structure.)
Set the custom tag paths per application
1 Check the Enable Per App Settings option on the Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
2 Include code like the following in your Application.cfc file:
<cfset customtagpaths = "c:\mapped1,c:\mapped2">
<cfset customtagpaths = ListAppend(customtagpaths,"c:\mapped3")>
<cfset This.customtagpaths = customtagpaths>

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Application security and user identification

All applications must ensure that malicious users cannot make improper use of their resources. Additionally, many
applications require user identification, typically to control the portions of a site that the user accesses, to control the
operations that the user performs, or to provide user-specific content. ColdFusion provides the following forms of
application security to address these issues:
Resource (file and directory-based) security Limits the ColdFusion resources, such as tags, functions, and data sources
that application pages, in particular directories, access. Consider the resource security needs of your application when
you design the application directory structure.
User (programmatic) security Provides an authentication (login) mechanism and a role-based authorization

mechanism to ensure that users only access and use selected features of the application. User security also incorporates
a user ID, which you use to customize page content. To implement user security, you include security code, such as
the cflogin and cfloginuser tags, in your application.
For more on implementing security, see Securing Applications on page 339.

Structuring an application
When you design a ColdFusion application, structure its contents into directories and files, also known as mapping
the directory structure. This activity is an important step in designing a ColdFusion application. Before you start
building the application, establish a root directory for the application. You store application pages in subdirectories of
the root directory.

How ColdFusion finds and process application definition pages

ColdFusion uses the following rules to locate and process the Application.cfc, Application.cfm, and
OnRequestEnd.cfm pages that define application-specific elements. The way ColdFusion locates these files helps
determine how you structure an application.
Each time ColdFusion processes a page request it does the following:
1 When ColdFusion starts processing the request, it does the following:

It searches the pages directory for a file named Application.cfc. If one exists, it creates a new instance of the CFC,
processes the initial events, and stops searching. (ColdFusion creates a new instance of the CFC and processes
its initialization code for each request.)

If the requested pages directory does not have an Application.cfc file, it checks the directory for an
Application.cfm file. If one exists, ColdFusion logically includes the Application.cfm page at the beginning of
the requested page and stops searching further.

If the requested pages directory does not have an Application.cfc or Application.cfm file, ColdFusion searches
up the directory tree and checks each directory first for an Application.cfc file and then, if one is not found, for
an Application.cfm page, until it reaches the root directory (such as C:\). When it finds an Application.cfc or
Application.cfm file, it processes the page and stops searching.
2 ColdFusion processes the requested pages contents.
3 When the request ends, ColdFusion does the following:

If you have an Application.cfc, ColdFusion processes the CFCs onRequestEnd method and releases the CFC
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If you do not have an Application.cfc, but do have an Application.cfm page, ColdFusion looks for an
OnRequestEnd.cfm in the same directory as the Application.cfm page ColdFusion uses for the current page.
ColdFusion does not search beyond that directory, so it does not run an OnRequestEnd.cfm page that resides
in another directory. Also, the OnRequestEnd.cfm page does not run if there is an error or an exception on the
application page, or if the application page executes the cfabort or cfexit tag.
The following rules determine how ColdFusion processes application pages and settings:

ColdFusion processes only one Application.cfc or Application.cfm page for each request. If a ColdFusion page has
a cfinclude tag pointing to an additional ColdFusion page, ColdFusion does not search for an Application.cfc or
Application.cfm page when it includes the additional page.

If a ColdFusion page has a cfapplication tag, it first processes any Application.cfc or Application.cfm, and then
processes the cfapplication tag. The tag overrides the settings from the application files, including the
application name and the behaviors set by the cfapplication tag attributes.

You can have multiple Application.cfc files, Application.cfm files, and cfapplication tags that use the same
application name. In this case, all pages that have the same name share the same application settings and
Application scope and set and get all the variables in this scope. ColdFusion uses the parameter settings of the
cfapplication tag or the most recently processed file, if the settings, such as the session time-out, differ among
the files.
Note: If your application runs on a UNIX platform, which is case-sensitive, spell Application.cfc, Application.cfm, and
OnRequestEnd.cfm with capital letters.

Defining the directory structure

Defining an application directory structure with an application-specific root directory has the following advantages:
Development The application is easier to develop and maintain, because the application page files are well-organized.
Portability You can easily move the application to another server or another part of a server without changing any
code in the application page files.
Application-level settings Application pages that are under the same directory can share application-level settings and

functions.
Security Application pages that are under the same directory can share web server security settings.

When you place your application in an application-specific directory hierarchy, you can use a single application
definition (Application.cfc or Application.cfm) page in the application root directory, or place different application
definition pages that govern individual sections of the application in different directories.
You divide your logical web application into multiple ColdFusion applications by using multiple application definition
pages with different application names. Alternatively, use multiple application definition pages that specify the same
application name, but have different code, for different subsections of your application.
The directory trees in the following image show two approaches to implementing an application framework:

In the example on the left, a company named Web Wonders, Inc. uses a single Application.cfc file installed in the
application root directory to process all application page requests.

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In the example on the right, Bandwidth Associates uses the settings in individual Application.cfc files to create
individual ColdFusion applications at the departmental level. Only the Products application pages are processed
using the settings in the root Application.cfc file. The Consulting, Marketing, and Sales directories each have their
own Application.cfc file.
Bandwidth Associates

Web Wonders, Inc.

Application.cfc

Application.cfc

Products

Products
Orders

Consulting
Application.cfc

Support
Services

Marketing
Application.cfc

Sales
Application.cfc

Defining the application and its event handlers in Application.cfc

The Application.cfc file defines application-wide settings and variables, and application event handlers:

Application-wide settings and variables include page processing settings, default variables, data sources, style
settings, and other application-level constants.

Application event handlers are CFC methods that ColdFusion automatically executes when specific events occur
during the lifetime of an application: application start and end, session start and end, request start, execution, and
end, and exceptions.

Defining application-level settings and variables

When you create an application, you can set many application-wide properties and characteristics, including the
following items:

Application name
Application properties, including Client-, Application-, and Session-variable management options
Page processing options
Default variables, data sources, style settings, and other application-level constants
For information on setting default variables, see Setting application default variables and constants in
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Naming the application

Define the application and give it a name by setting the This.name variable in the Application.cfc initialization section,
before the method definitions. By using a specific application name, you define a set of pages as part of the same logical
application.
ColdFusion supports unnamed applications, which are useful for ColdFusion applications that must interoperate with
JSP tags and servlets. Consider creating an unnamed application only if your ColdFusion pages must share Application
or Session scope data with existing JSP pages and servlets. You cannot have more than one unnamed application on a
server instance. For more information on using unnamed applications, see Sharing data between ColdFusion pages
and JSP pages or servlets on page 1130.
Setting application properties
Specify application properties by setting This scope variables in the Application.cfc initialization code. (These are the
same properties that you set in the cfapplication tag.) The following table lists the This scope variable that
ColdFusion uses to set application properties and describes their uses.
Variable

Default

Description

applicationTimeout

Administrator value

Life span, as a real number of days, of the application, including all Application
scope variables. Use the createTimeSpan function to generate this variable.

clientManagement

False

Whether the application supports Client scope variables.

clientStorage

Administrator value

Where Client variables are stored; can be cookie, registry, or the name of a
data source.

loginStorage

Cookie

Whether to store login information in the Cookie scope or the Session scope.

scriptProtect

Administrator Value

Whether to protect variables from cross-site scripting attacks.

sessionManagement

False

Whether the application supports Session scope variables.

sessionTimeout

Administrator Value

Life span, as a real number of days, of the user session, including all Session
variables. Use the createTimeSpan function to generate this variable.

setClientCookies

True

Whether to send CFID and CFTOKEN cookies to the client browser.

setDomainCookies

False

Whether to use domain cookies for the CFID and CFTOKEN values used for
client identification, and for Client scope variables stored using cookies. If
False, ColdFusion uses host-specific cookies. Set to True for applications
running on clusters.

The following example code from the top of an Application.cfc sets the application name and properties:
<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "TestApplication">
<cfset This.clientmanagement="True">
<cfset This.loginstorage="Session">
<cfset This.sessionmanagement="True">
<cfset This.sessiontimeout="#createtimespan(0,0,10,0)#">
<cfset This.applicationtimeout="#createtimespan(5,0,0,0)#">

For more information on these settings, see cfapplication in the CFML Reference.
Setting page processing options
The cfsetting tag lets you specify the following page processing attributes to apply to all pages in your application:

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Attribute

Use

showDebugOutput

Specifies whether to show debugging output. This setting cannot enable debugging if it is disabled
in the ColdFusion Administrator. However, this option ensures that debugging output is not
displayed, even if the Administrator enables it.

requestTimeout

Specifies the page request time-out. If ColdFusion cannot complete processing a page within the
time-out period, it generates an error. This setting overrides the setting in the ColdFusion
Administrator. Use this setting to increase the page time-out if your application or page frequently
accesses external resources that are slow, such as external LDAP servers or web services providers.

enableCFOutputOnly

Disables output of text that is not included inside cfoutput tags. This setting helps ensure that
extraneous text in your ColdFusion pages does not get displayed.

Often, you use the cfsetting tag on individual pages, but you can also use it in your Application.cfc file. For example,
using it in multi-application environment to override the ColdFusion Administrator settings in one application.
You can place an application-wide cfsetting tag in the component initialization code, normally following the This
scope application property settings, as the following example shows:
<cfcomponent>
<cfscript>
This.name="MyAppl";
This.clientmanagement="True";
This.loginstorage="Session" ;
This.sessionmanagement="True" ;
This.sessiontimeout=CreateTimeSpan(0,0,1,0);
</cfscript>
<cfsetting showdebugoutput="No" enablecfoutputonly="No">

The cfsetting tag in this example affects all pages in an application. You can override the application-wide settings
in the event methods, such as onRequestStart, or on individual ColdFusion pages.

Using application event handlers

The following table describes the application event CFC methods that you can implement, including when they are
triggered.
Method

When run

onApplicationStart

The application first starts: when the first request for a page is processed or the first CFC method is
invoked by an event gateway instance, Flash Remoting request, or a web service invocation.
This method is useful for setting application-wide (Application scope) variables, such as the names
of data sources.

onApplicationEnd

The application ends: when the application times out or the server shuts down.

onSessionStart

A new session is created as a result of a request that is not in an existing session, including
ColdFusion event gateway sessions. The application must enable sessions for this event to happen.

onSessionEnd

A session time-out setting is reached. This event is not triggered when the application ends or the
server shuts down.

onRequestStart

ColdFusion receives any of the following: a request, an HTTP request (for example, from a browser),
a message to an event gateway, a SOAP request, or a Flash Remoting request.

onRequest

The onRequestStart event has completed. This method acts as a filter for the requested page
content.

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Method

When run

onRequestEnd

All pages and CFCs in the request have been processed: equivalent to the OnRequestEnd.cfm page.

onMissingTemplate

When ColdFusion receives a request for a nonexistent page.

onError

When an exception occurs that is not caught by a try/catch block.

When ColdFusion receives a request, it instantiates the Application CFC and runs the Application.cfc code in the
following order:

CFC initialization code at the top of the file

onApplicationStart, if not run before for this application

onSessionStart, if not run before for this session

onRequestStart

onRequest, or the requested page if there is no onRequest method

onRequestEnd

The following methods are triggered by specific events:

onApplicationEnd

onSessionEnd

onMissingTemplate

onError

The onApplicationEnd and onSessionEnd methods do not execute in the context of a page request, so they cannot
access request variables or display information to the user. The onMissingTemplate method is triggered when a URL
specifies a CFML page that does not exist. The OnError method does not always execute in the context of a request;
use its Event argument to determine the context.

Managing the application with Application.cfc

Use the onApplicationStart and onApplicationEnd methods to configure and manage the application; that is, to
control resources that are used by multiple pages and requests and must be consistently available to all code in your
application. Such resources include data sources, application counters such as page hit variables, or style information
for all pages.
The onApplicationStart method executes when ColdFusion gets the first request for a page in the application after
the server starts. The onApplicationEnd method executes when the application server shuts down or if the
application is inactive for the application time-out period.
The following are some of the ways you use these methods. For more information, see entries for onApplicationStart
and onApplicationEnd in the CFML Reference.
Defining application utility functions
Functions that you define in Application.cfc and do not place in a shared scope are, by default, available only to other
methods in the CFC.
If your Application.cfc implements the onRequest method, any utility functions that you define in Application.cfc are
also directly available in to the target page, because Application.cfc and the target page share the Variables scope.

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If your application requires utility functions that are used by multiple pages, not just by the methods in Application.cfc,
and you do not use an onRequest method, Adobe recommends that you place them in a separate CFC and access them
by running that CFC. As with other ColdFusion pages, Application.cfc can access any CFC in a directory path that is
configured on the ColdFusion Administrator Mappings page. Therefore, use this technique to share utility functions
across applications.
If your Application.cfc defines utility functions that you want available on request pages and does not use an
onRequest method, explicitly place the functions in a ColdFusion scope, such as the Request scope, as the following
code shows:
<cffunction name="theFunctionName" returntype="theReturnType">
<!--- Function definition goes here. --->
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="OnRequestStart">
<!--- OnRequestStart body goes here --->
<cfset Request.theFunctionName=This.theFunctionName>
</cffunction>

On the request page, you would include the following code:

<cfset myVar=Request.theFunctionName(Argument1...)>

Functions that you define in this manner share the This scope and Variables scope with the Application.cfc file for the
request.
Setting application default variables and constants in onApplicationStart
You can set default variables and application-level constants in Application.cfc. For example, you can do the following:

Specify a data source and ensure that it is available

Specify domain name
Set styles, such as fonts or colors
Set other application-level variables
You do not have to lock Application scope variables when you set them in the Application.cfc onApplicationStart
method.
For details on implementing the onApplicationStart method, see onApplicationStart in the CFML Reference.
Using the onApplicationEnd method
Use the onApplicationEnd method for any clean-up activities that your application requires when it shuts down,
such as saving data in memory to a database, or to log the application end. You cannot use this method to display data
on a user page, because it is not associated with any request. The application ends, even if this method throws an
exception. An application that is used often is unlikely to execute this method, except when the server is shut down.
For details on implementing the onApplicationEnd method, see onApplicationEnd in the CFML Reference.

Managing sessions in Application.cfc

Use the onSessionStart and onSessionEnd methods to configure and manage user sessions; that is, to control
resources that are used by multiple pages while a user is accessing your site from during a single browser session. The
session begins when a user first requests a page in your application, and ends when the session times out. For more
information on Session scope and Session variables, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

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Session resources include variables that store data that is needed throughout the session, such as account numbers,
shopping cart contents, or CFCs that contain methods and data that are used by multiple pages in a session.
Note: Do not include the cflogin tag or basic login processing in the onSessionStart method, as the code executes only
at the start of the session; it cannot handle user logout, and cannot fully ensure security.
Using the onSessionStart method
This method is useful for initializing session data, such as user settings or shopping cart contents, or for tracking the
number of active sessions. You do not need to lock the Session scope when you set session variables in this method.
For more information, see the onSessionStart entry in the CFML Reference.
Using the onSessionEnd method
Use this method for any clean-up activities when the session ends. (For information on ending sessions, see Ending
a session on page 315.) For example, you can save session-related data, such as shopping cart contents or information
about whether the user has not completed an order, in a database, or you can log the end of the session to a file. You
cannot use this method to display data on a user page, because it is not associated with a request.
Note: Sessions do not end, and the onSessionEnd method is not called when an application ends. For more information,
see the onSessionEnd entry in the CFML Reference.

Managing requests in Application.cfc

ColdFusion provides three methods for managing requests: onRequestStart, onRequest, and onRequestEnd.
ColdFusion processes requests, including these methods, as follows:
1 ColdFusion always processes onRequestStart at the start of the request.
2 If you implement an onRequest method, ColdFusion processes it; otherwise, it processes the requested page. If you

implement an onRequest method, explicitly call the requested page in your onRequest method.
3 ColdFusion always processes onRequestEnd at the end of the request.

You can use each of the Application.cfc request methods to manage requests as follows:
Using the onRequestStart method
This method runs at the beginning of the request. It is useful for user authorization (login handling), and for requestspecific variable initialization, such as gathering performance statistics.
If you use the onRequestStart method and do not use the onRequest method, ColdFusion automatically processes
the request when it finishes processing the onRequestStart code.
Note: If you do not include an onRequest method in Application.cfm file, the onRequestStart method does not share
a Variables scope with the requested page, but it does share Request scope variables.
For more information, see the entry for onRequestStart in the CFML Reference
User authentication
When an application requires a user to log in, include the authentication code, including the cflogin tag or code that
calls this tag, in the onRequestStart method. Doing so ensures that the user is authenticated at the start of each
request. For detailed information on security and creating logins, see Securing Applications on page 339 For an
example that uses authentication code generated by the Adobe Dreamweaver CF Login Wizard, see onRequestStart in
the CFML Reference.

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Using the onRequest method

The onRequest method differs from the onRequestStart method in one major way: the onRequest method
intercepts the users request. This difference has two implications:

ColdFusion does not process the request unless you explicitly call it, for example, by using a cfinclude tag. This
behavior lets you use the onRequest method to filter requested page content or to implement a switch that
determines the pages or page contents to be displayed.

When you use cfinclude to process request, the CFC instance shares the Variables scope with the requested page.
As a result, any method in the CFC that executes can set the pages Variables scope variables, and the
onRequestEnd method can access any Variable scope values that the included page has set or changed. Therefore,

for example, the onRequestStart or onRequest method set variables that are used on the page.
To use this method as a filter, place the cfinclude tag inside a cfsavecontent tag, as the following example shows:
<cffunction name="onRequest">
<cfargument name = "targetPage" type="String" required=true/>
<cfsavecontent variable="content">
<cfinclude template=#Arguments.targetPage#>
</cfsavecontent>
<cfoutput>
#replace(content, "report", "MyCompany Quarterly Report", "all")#
</cfoutput>
</cffunction>

For more information, see the entry for onRequest in the CFML Reference
Using the onRequestEnd method
You use the onRequestEnd method for code that should run at the end of each request. (In ColdFusion versions
through ColdFusion MX 6.1, you would use the OnRequestEnd.cfm page for such code). Typical uses include
displaying dynamic footer pages. For an example, see onSessionEnd in the CFML Reference.
Note: If you do not include an onRequest method in Application.cfm file, the onRequestEnd method does not share a
Variables scope with the requested page, but it does share Request scope variables.
For more information, see the entry for onRequestEnd in the CFML Reference.

Handling errors in Application.cfc

The following sections briefly describe how you to handle errors in Application.cfc. For more information on error
pages and error handling, see Handling Errors on page 275 For details on implementing the onError method, see
onError in the CFML Reference.
Application.cfc error handling techniques
Application.cfc handles errors in any combination of the following ways:

Use try/catch error handling in the event methods, such as onApplicationStart or onRequestStart, to handle
exceptions that happen in the event methods.

Implement the onError method. This method receives all exceptions that are not directly handled by try/catch
handlers in CFML code. The method can use the cfthrow tag to pass any errors it does not handle to ColdFusion
for handling.

Use cferror tags in the application initialization code following the cfcomponent tag, typically following the code
that sets the applications This scope variables. These tags specify error processing if you do not implement an
onError method, or if the onError method throws an error. You could implement an application-specific

validation error handler, for example, by placing the following tag in the CFC initialization code:

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<cferror type="VALIDATION" template="validationerrorhandler.cfm">

The ColdFusion default error mechanisms handle any errors that are not handled by the preceding techniques.
These mechanisms include the site-wide error handler that you specify in the ColdFusion Administrator and the
built-in default error pages.
These techniques let you include application-specific information, such as contact information or application or
version identifiers, in the error message, and let you display all error messages in the application in a consistent
manner. You use Application.cfc to develop sophisticated application-wide error-handling techniques, including
error-handling methods that provide specific messages, or use structured error-handling techniques.
Note: The onError method catches errors that occur in the onSessionEnd and onApplicationEnd application event
methods. It does not display messages to the user, however, because there is no request context. The onError function
logs errors that occur when the session or application ends.
Handling server-side validation errors in the onError method
Server-side validation errors are actually ColdFusion exceptions; as a result, if your application uses an onError
method, this method gets the error and must handle it or pass it on to ColdFusion for handling.
To identify a server-side validation error, search the Arguments.Exception.StackTrace field for
coldfusion.filter.FormValidationException. You can then handle the error directly in your onError routine, or throw
the error so that either the ColdFusion default validation error page or a page specified by an cferror tag in your
Application.cfc initialization code handles it.
Example: error Handling with the onError method
The following Application.cfc file has an onError method that handles errors as follows:

If the error is a server-side validation error, the onError method throws the error for handling by ColdFusion,
which displays its standard validation error message.

For any other type of exception, the onError method displays the name of the event method in which the error
occurred and dumps the exception information. In this example, because you generate errors on the CFM page
only, and not in a Application.cfc method, the event name is always the empty string.

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<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "BugTestApplication">
<cffunction name="onError">
<!--- The onError method gets two arguments:
An exception structure, which is identical to a cfcatch variable.
The name of the Application.cfc method, if any, in which the error
happened.
<cfargument name="Except" required=true/>
<cfargument type="String" name = "EventName" required=true/>
<!--- Log all errors in an application-specific log file. --->
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="error" text="Event Name: #Eventname#" >
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="error" text="Message: #except.message#">
<!--- Throw validation errors to ColdFusion for handling. --->
<cfif Find("coldfusion.filter.FormValidationException",
Arguments.Except.StackTrace)>
<cfthrow object="#except#">
<cfelse>
<!--- You can replace this cfoutput tag with application-specific
error-handling code. --->
<cfoutput>
<p>Error Event: #EventName#</p>
<p>Error details:<br>
<cfdump var=#except#></p>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

To test this example, place a CFML page with the following code in the same page as the Application.cfc file, and enter
valid and invalid text in the text input field.
<cfform>
This box does Integer validation:
<cfinput name="intinput" type="Text" validate="integer" validateat="onServer"><br>
Check this box to throw an error on the action page:
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="throwerror"><br>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submitit">
</cfform>
<cfif IsDefined("form.fieldnames")>
<cfif IsDefined("form.throwerror")>
<cfthrow type="ThrownError" message="This error was thrown from the bugTest action
page.">
<cfelseif form.intinput NEQ "">
<h3>You entered the following valid data in the field</h3>
<cfoutput>#form.intinput#</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>

Note: For more information on server-side validation errors, see Validating Data on page 743.

Example: a complete Application.cfc

The following example is a simplified Application.cfc file that illustrates the basic use of all application event handlers:

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<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "TestApplication">
<cfset This.Sessionmanagement=true>
<cfset This.Sessiontimeout="#createtimespan(0,0,10,0)#">
<cfset This.applicationtimeout="#createtimespan(5,0,0,0)#">
<cffunction name="onApplicationStart">
<cftry>
<!--- Test whether the DB that this application uses is accessible
by selecting some data. --->
<cfquery name="testDB" dataSource="cfdocexamples" maxrows="2">
SELECT Emp_ID FROM employee
</cfquery>
<!--- If we get database error, report it to the user, log the error
information, and do not start the application. --->
<cfcatch type="database">
<cfoutput>
This application encountered an error.<br>
Please contact support.
</cfoutput>
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="error"
text="cfdocexamples DB not available. message: #cfcatch.message#
Detail: #cfcatch.detail# Native Error: #cfcatch.NativeErrorCode#">
<cfreturn False>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="Information" text="Application Started">
<!--- You do not have to lock code in the onApplicationStart method that sets Application
scope variables. --->
<cfscript>
Application.availableResources=0;
Application.counter1=1;
Application.sessions=0;
</cfscript>
<!--- You do not need to return True if you don't set the cffunction returntype attribute.
--->
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onApplicationEnd">
<cfargument name="ApplicationScope" required=true/>
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="Information"
text="Application #ApplicationScope.applicationname# Ended">
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="onRequestStart">
<!--- Authentication code, generated by the Dreamweaver Login Wizard,
makes sure that a user is logged in, and if not displays a login page. --->
<cfinclude template="mm_wizard_application_include.cfm">
<!--- If it's time for maintenance, tell users to come back later. --->
<cfscript>
if ((Hour(now()) gt 1) and (Hour(now()) lt 3)) {
WriteOutput("The system is undergoing periodic maintenance.
Please return after 3:00 AM Eastern time.");
return false;
} else {
this.start=now();

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}
</cfscript>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onRequest">
<cfargument name = "targetPage" type="String" required=true/>
<cfsavecontent variable="content">
<cfinclude template=#Arguments.targetPage#>
</cfsavecontent>
<!--- This is a minimal example of an onRequest filter. --->
<cfoutput>
#replace(content, "report", "MyCompany Quarterly Report", "all")#
</cfoutput>
</cffunction>
<!--- Display a different footer for logged in users than for guest users or
users who have not logged in. --->
<cffunction name="onRequestEnd">
<cfargument type="String" name = "targetTemplate" required=true/>
<cfset theAuthuser=getauthuser()>
<cfif ((theAuthUser EQ "guest") OR (theAuthUser EQ ""))>
<cfinclude template="noauthuserfooter.cfm">
<cfelse>
<cfinclude template="authuserfooter.cfm">
</cfif>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionStart">
<cfscript>
Session.started = now();
Session.shoppingCart = StructNew();
Session.shoppingCart.items =0;
</cfscript>
<cflock timeout="5" throwontimeout="No" type="EXCLUSIVE" scope="SESSION">
<cfset Application.sessions = Application.sessions + 1>
</cflock>
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="Information" text="Session:
#Session.sessionid# started">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onSessionEnd">
<cfargument name = "SessionScope" required=true/>
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="Information" text="Session:
#arguments.SessionScope.sessionid# ended">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onError">
<cfargument name="Exception" required=true/>
<cfargument type="String" name = "EventName" required=true/>
<!--- Log all errors. --->
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="error" text="Event Name: #Eventname#">
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="error" text="Message: #exception.message#">

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<!--- Some exceptions, including server-side validation errors, do not

generate a rootcause structure. --->
<cfif isdefined("exception.rootcause")>
<cflog file="#This.Name#" type="error"
text="Root Cause Message: #exception.rootcause.message#">
</cfif>
<!--- Display an error message if there is a page context. --->
<cfif NOT (Arguments.EventName IS onSessionEnd) OR
(Arguments.EventName IS onApplicationEnd)>
<cfoutput>
<h2>An unexpected error occurred.</h2>
<p>Please provide the following information to technical support:</p>
<p>Error Event: #EventName#</p>
<p>Error details:<br>
<cfdump var=#exception#></p>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Migrating from Application.cfm to Application.cfc

To migrate an existing application that uses Application.cfm to one that uses Application.cfc, do the following:

Replace the cfapplication tag with CFC initialization code that sets the Application.cfc This scope variables that
correspond to the tag attributes.

Place in the onApplicationStart method, any code that initializes Application scope variables, and any other
application-specific code that executes only when the application starts. Often, such code in Application.cfm is
inside a block that tests for the existence of an Application scope switch variable. Remove the variable test and the
Application scope lock that surrounds the code that sets the Application scope variables.

Place in the onSessionStart method, any code that initializes Session scope variables, and any other applicationspecific code that executes only when the session starts. Remove any code that tests for the existence of Session
scope variables to be for initialized and the Session scope lock that surrounds the code that sets the Session scope
variables.

Place in the onRequestStart method, any cflogin tag and related authentication code.
Place in the onRequest method, any code that sets Variables scope variables and add a cfinclude tag that includes
the page specified by the Arguments of the method.Targetpage variable.

Place in the onRequestEnd method, any code you have in an OnRequestEnd.cfm page.
Consider replacing cferror tags with an onError event method. If you do not do so, place the cferror tags in the
CFC initialization code.

Using an Application.cfm page

If you do not use an Application.cfc file, use the Application.cfm page to define application-level settings and
functions.

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Naming the application

Use the cfapplication tag to specify the application name and define a set of pages as part of the same logical
application. Although you can create an application by placing a cfapplication tag with the application name on
each page, you normally place the tag in the Application.cfm file; for example:
<cfapplication name="SearchApp">

Note: The value that you set for the name attribute in the cfapplication tag is limited to 64 characters.

Setting the client, application, and session variables options

Use the cfapplication tag to specify client state and persistent variable use, as follows:

To use Client scope variables, specify clientManagement=True.

To use Session scope variables, specify sessionManagment=True.
You can also optionally do the following:

Set application-specific time-outs for Application and Session scope variables. These settings override the default
values set in the ColdFusion Administrator.

Specify a storage method for Client scope variables. This setting overrides the method set in the ColdFusion
Administrator.

Specify not to use cookies on the client browser.

For more information on configuring these options, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301 and the
CFML Reference.

Defining page processing settings

The cfsetting tag lets you specify page processing attributes that you want to apply to all pages in your application.
For more information, see Setting page processing options on page 242.

Setting application default variables and constants

Set default variables and application-level constants on the Application.cfm page. For example, specify the following
values:

A data source
A domain name
Style settings, such as fonts or colors
Other important application-level variables
Often, an Application.cfm page uses one or more cfinclude tags to include libraries of commonly used code, such as
user-defined functions, that are required on many of the applications pages.

Processing logins
When an application requires a user to log in, you typically place the cflogin tag on the Application.cfm page. For
detailed information on security and creating logins, including an Application.cfm page that manages user logins, see
Securing Applications on page 339

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Handling errors
Use the cferror tag on your Application.cfm page to specify application-specific error-handling pages for request,
validation, or exception errors, as shown in the following example. This way you include application-specific
information, such as contact information or application or version identifiers, in the error message, and you display
all error messages in the application in a consistent manner.
For more information on error pages and error handling, see Handling Errors on page 275.

Example: an Application.cfm page

The following example shows a sample Application.cfm file that uses several of the techniques typically used in
Application.cfm pages. For the sake of simplicity, it does not show login processing; for a login example, see Securing
Applications on page 339.
<!--- Set application name and enable Client and Session variables. --->
<cfapplication name="Products"
clientmanagement="Yes"
clientstorage="myCompany"
sessionmanagement="Yes">
<!--- Set page processing attributes. --->
<cfsetting showDebugOutput="No">
<!--- Set custom global error handling pages for this application.--->
<cferror type="request"
template="requesterr.cfm"
mailto="[email protected]">
<cferror type="validation"
template="validationerr.cfm">
<!--- Set the Application variables if they aren't defined. --->
<!--- Initialize local app_is_initialized flag to false. --->
<cfset app_is_initialized = False>
<!--- Get a read-only lock. --->
<cflock scope="application" type="readonly" timeout=10>
<!--- Read init flag and store it in local variable. --->
<cfset app_is_initialized = IsDefined("Application.initialized")>
</cflock>
<!--- Check the local flag. --->
<cfif not app_is_initialized>
<!--- Application variables are not initialized yet.
Get an exclusive lock to write scope. --->
<cflock scope="application" type="exclusive" timeout=10>
<!--- Check the Application scope initialized flag since another request
could have set the variables after this page released the read-only
lock. --->
<cfif not IsDefined("Application.initialized")>
<!--- Do initializations --->
<cfset Application.ReadOnlyData.Company = "MyCompany">
<!--- and so on --->
<!--- Set the Application scope initialization flag. --->
<cfset Application.initialized = "yes">

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</cfif>
</cflock>
</cfif>
<!--- Set a Session variable.--->
<cflock timeout="20" scope="Session" type="exclusive">
<cfif not IsDefined("session.pagesHit")>
<cfset session.pagesHit=1>
<cfelse>
<cfset session.pagesHit=session.pagesHit+1>
</cfif>
</cflock>
<!--- Set Application-specific Variables scope variables. --->
<cfset mainpage = "default.cfm">
<cfset current_page = "#cgi.path_info#?#cgi.query_string#">
<!--- Include a file containing user-defined functions called throughout
the application. --->
<cfinclude template="commonfiles/productudfs.cfm">

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfapplication name="Products"
clientmanagement="Yes"
clientstorage="myCompany"
sessionmanagement="Yes">

Names the application, enables Client and Session scope variables,

and sets the client variable store to the myCompany data source.

<cfsetting showDebugOutput="No">

Ensures that debugging output is not displayed, if the ColdFusion

Administrator enables it.

<cferror type="request"
template="requesterr.cfm"
mailto="[email protected]">
<cferror type="validation"
template="validationerr.cfm">

Specifies custom error handlers for request and validation errors

encountered in the application. Specifies the mailing address for use in
the request error handler.

<cfset app_is_initialized = False>

Sets the Application scope variables, if they are not already set. For a
detailed description of the technique used to set the Application
scope variables, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.

<cflock timeout="20" scope="Session"

type="exclusive">
<cfif not IsDefined("session.pagesHit")>
<cfset session.pagesHit=1>
<cfelse>
<cfset session.pagesHit=session.pagesHit+1>
</cfif>
</cflock>

Sets the Session scope pagesHit variable, which counts the number
of pages touched in this session. If the variable does not exist, creates
it; otherwise, increments it.

<cfset mainpage = "default.cfm">

<cfset current_page =
"#cgi.path_info#?#cgi.query_string#">

Sets two Variables scope variables that are used throughout the
application. Creates the current_page variable dynamically; its value
varies from request to request.

<cfinclude template="commonfiles/productudfs.cfm">

Includes a library of user-defined functions that are used in most pages

in the application.

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Optimizing ColdFusion applications

You can optimize your ColdFusion application in many ways. Optimizing ColdFusion mostly involves good
development and coding practices. For example, good database design and usage is a prime contributor to efficient
ColdFusion applications.
In many other topics, the optimization techniques provided are pertinent to the related ColdFusion topic. The
following information is about general ColdFusion optimization tools and strategies, and particularly about using
CFML caching tags for optimization. There is also information on optimizing database use, an important area for
application optimization.
The ColdFusion Administrator provides caching options for ColdFusion pages and SQL queries. For information on
these options, see the ColdFusion Administrator online Help and Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.
For information on debugging techniques that help you identify slow pages, see Debugging and Troubleshooting
Applications on page 378.
For additional information on optimizing ColdFusion, see the Adobe ColdFusion support center at
www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_support_en.

Caching ColdFusion pages that change infrequently

Some ColdFusion pages produce output that changes infrequently. For example, if you have an application that
extracts a vendor list from a database or produces a quarterly results summary. Normally, when ColdFusion gets a
request for a page in the application, it does all the business logic and display processing that are required to produce
the report or generate and display the list. If the results change infrequently, it is an inefficient use of processor
resources and bandwidth.
The cfcache tag tells ColdFusion to cache the HTML that results from processing a page request in a temporary file
on the server. This HTML need not be generated each time the page is requested. When ColdFusion gets a request for
a cached ColdFusion page, it retrieves the pregenerated HTML page without having to process the ColdFusion page.
ColdFusion can also cache the page on the client. If the client browser has its own cached copy of the page from a
previous viewing, ColdFusion instructs the browser to use the clients page rather than resending the page.
Note: The cfcache tag caching mechanism considers that each URL is a separate page. Therefore,
http://www.mySite.com/view.cfm?id=1 and http://www.mySite.com/view.cfm?id=2 result in two separate cached pages.
Because ColdFusion caches a separate page for each unique set of URL parameters, the caching mechanism
accommodates pages for which different parameters result in different output.
Using the cfcache tag
You tell ColdFusion to cache the page results by placing a cfcache tag on your ColdFusion page before code that
outputs text. The tag lets you specify the following information:

Whether to cache the page results on the server, the client system, or both. The default is both. The default is
optimal for pages that are identical for all users. If the pages contain client-specific information, or are secured with
ColdFusion user security, set the action attribute in the cfcache tag to ClientCache.

The directory on the server in which to store the cached pages. The default directory is cf_root/cache. It is a good
practice to create a separate cache directory for each application. Doing so prevents the cfcache tag flush action
from inappropriately flushing more than one applications caches at a time.

The time span that indicates how long the page lasts in the cache from when it is stored until it is automatically
flushed.
You can also specify several attributes for accessing a cached page on the web server, including a user name and
password (if required by the web server), the port, and the protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) to use to access the page.

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Place the cfcache tag before any code on your page that generates output, typically at the top of the page body. For
example, the following tag tells ColdFusion to cache the page on both the client and the server. On the server, the page
is cached in the e:/temp/page_cache directory. ColdFusion retains the cached page for one day.
<cfcache timespan="#CreateTimespan(1, 0, 0, 0)#" directory="e:/temp/page_cache">

Important: If an Application.cfm or Application.cfc page displays text (for example, if it includes a header page), use the
cfcachetag on the Application.cfm page, in addition to the pages that you cache. Otherwise, ColdFusion displays the
Application.cfm page output twice on each cached page.
Flushing cached pages
ColdFusion automatically flushes any cached page if you change the code on the page. It also automatically flushes
pages after the expiration time span passes.
Use the cfcache tag with the action="flush" attribute to immediately flush one or more cached pages. You can
optionally specify the directory that contains the cached pages to be flushed and a URL pattern that identifies the pages
to flush. If you do not specify a URL pattern, all pages in the directory are flushed. The URL pattern can include asterisk
(*) wildcards to specify parts of the URL that can vary.
When you use the cfcache tag to flush cached pages, ColdFusion deletes the pages cached on the server. If a flushed
page is cached on the client system, it is deleted, and a new copy gets cached the next time the client tries to access the
ColdFusion page.
The following example flushes all the pages in the e:/temp/page_cache/monthly directory that start with HR:
<cfcache action="flush" directory="e:/temp/page_cache/monthly" expirURL="HR*">

If you have a ColdFusion page that updates data that you use in cached pages, the page that does the updating includes
a cfcache tag that flushes all pages that use the data.
For more information on the cfcache tag, see the CFML Reference.

Caching parts of ColdFusion pages

In some cases, your ColdFusion page contains a combination of dynamic information that ColdFusion must generate
each time it displays the page, and information that it generates dynamically, but that changes less frequently.
ColdFusion 9 provides granular control over caching. You can cache fragments of page that lets you cache the
infrequently changed content.The following example illustrates fragment caching:

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<!--- Greet the us er. --->

<cf output>
W elcome to our home page.<br>
The time is #TimeFormat(Now())#.<br>
Your lucky number is: #RandRa nge(1,1000)#<br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>
<!--- If the flag is false, query the DB, and save an image of
the results output to a variable. ---> <cfcache action="optimal"
timespan="#createtimespan(0,1,0,0)#" idletime="#createtimespan(0,0,30,0)#"><!--- Perform
database query. ---><cfquery dataSource="cfartgallery" name="specialQuery">
SELECT * from
art
</cfquery>
<!--- Calculate sale price and display the results. --->
<h2>Check out the following specials</h2>
<table>
<cfoutput query="specialQuery">
<tr>
<td>#artid#</td>
<td>#Description#</td>
<td>#price#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table></cfcache><hr><p>Thank you for visiting us!</p>

In this example, the highlighted code creates a page fragment that displays all art records from the table art. The cache
is set to expire either after one hour or after an idle time of 30 minutes. After the cache is invalidated, cache is recreated
the next time the page is accessed thereby displaying updated information (if any).

Using Amazon S3 storage

Note: To use this feature, you must install ColdFusion 9 Update 1
.ColdFusion customers can now store data in Amazon S3. The support is extended across almost all tags and functions
that take file or directory as input or output.
Storing files in Amazon S3 can be performed in the same manner as storing files on disk. Use a prefix s3:// to indicate
that the files reside on Amazon S3. For example, s3://testbucket/sample.txt.
Amazon S3
For using Amazon S3, ColdFusion user must have an S3 account with Amazon.
For concepts and details related to Amazon S3, see the AmazonS3 Documentation.

Accessing Amazon S3
Use either of the following URL formats to access Amazon S3 from ColdFusion:

s3://bucket/x/y/sample.txt

Here, bucket is the name of the bucket and the remaining portion of the URL is the key name of the Amazon S3
object.
In this case, specify the following authentication information in the Application.cfc:

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<cfscript>
this.name ="Object Operations";
this.s3.accessKeyId = "key_ID";
this.s3.awsSecretKey = "secret_key";
this.s3.defaultLocation="location";
</cfscript>

For example,
<cffile action="write" output="S3 Specification" file="s3://testbucket/sample.txt"/>

s3://accessKeyId:awsSecretKey@bucket/x/y/sample.txt

This format has the accessKeyID and awsSecretKey specified in it.

@ acts as the token to indicate the end of authentication information.

Note: If you have specified the accessKeyID and awsSecretKey in both the URL and Application.cfc, then value
specified in the URL takes precedence.
Example
<cffile action="write" output="S3 Specifications"
file="s3://accessKeyID:awsSecretKey@bucket/x/y/sample.txt"/>

Supported operations
The following are the supported operations on Amazon S3:

Create and delete bucket

Get bucket location
Read, write, copy, and delete object
List keys in bucket
Get and set metadata for object or bucket
Get and set ACL for object or bucket

Bucket operations
Use the cfdirectory tag or the directory functions to perform the bucket operation (create, delete, or list).

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Operation

Tag used

Function

Example

Create

cfdirectory
action="create"

DirectoryC
reate

<cfdirectory action="create" directory="s3://bucket1"/>

DirectoryL
ist

<cfdirectory action="list" directory="s3://bucket1/X/y"

/>

The directory attribute can

only take the path of the
bucket. Any additional path
results in an error.
All other attributes are
ignored. While creating S3
bucket, the default bucket
location is US. You can
change the location using the
attribute storeLocation.
storeLocation is a new

attribute added to the

cfdirectory tag.

You can specify ACL for the

bucket while creating it using
the storeACL attribute
which takes a struct value. For
details, see Setting up access
control on page 261.
List keys

cfdirectory
action="list"

Since Amazon S3 does not have the concept of directory, it returns the key
name (that is, the full path) of objects contained in the bucket.
Directory attribute in this case takes the path, for example, s3://bucket1

in which objects have to be searched. The path that follows the bucket name
is used as a prefix to perform the list operation and all the objects that match
the prefix are returned.
In this case, the following attributes are ignored: recurse, type, and sort.
Delete

cfdirectory
action="delete"

DirectoryD
elete

<cfdirectory action="delete" directory="s3://bucket1"/>

Note: To verify if the bucket exists and is accessible, use the function directoryExists.

Object operations
All object operations are similar to file operations (read, write, copy, and delete). Therefore, the tag cffile and the
file functions can be used to perform the operations. The following table describes the common scenarios:
Operation

Tag used

Function

Example

Read

cffile
action="read"

FileRead

<cffile action="read" file="s3://testbucket/test.txt"

variable="data"/>

Write

cffile
action="write"

FileWrite

<cffile action="write" output="#data#"

file="s3://testbucket/test.txt"/>

Delete

cffile
action="delete"

FileDelete

<cffile action="delete" file="s3://testbucket/test.txt"/>

Copy

cffile
action="copy"

FileCopy

<cffile action="copy" source="s3://testbucket/test.txt"

destination="s3://bucket2/a/b.txt"/>

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The following are the supported functions:

FileIsEOF

FileReadBinary

Filecopy

FileReadLine

FileExists

FileWriteln

FileOpen

FileClose

FileRead

FileDelete

New attributes in cfdirectory action="create" tag

Attribute Added Description

Example

storeLocation Used to change the location of the created bucket. The

location can either be EU or US. The default location is US.

<cfdirectory action="create"
directory="s3://<bucketname>"
storelocation="US">
<cfdirectory action="create"
directory="s3://<bucketname>"
storelocation="EU">

storeACL

An array of struct where each struct represents a permission or <cfdirectory action="create"

directory="s3://<bucketname>"
grant as discussed in ACLObject on page 262.
storeACL="ACLObject">

Setting up access control

Amazon S3 lets you set access control list (ACL) for buckets and objects. The ACLs for buckets and objects are
independent. You have to manage them separately. Also, object ACLs do not inherit from the bucket ACLs.
ACL consists of multiple Grants where each grant has a grantee and a permission. S3 allows three types of grantees:

group
email
canonical (ID)
The following are the possible permissions:

read
write
read_acp
write_acp
full_control
See Amazon S3 ACL Documentation for more details.

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ACLObject
ACLObject is an array of struct where each struct represents an ACL grant. The grantee details are as follows:

group Must have the keys Group (with value all, authenticated, or log_delivery) and permission.
email Must have the keys email and permission.
canonical Must have the keys Id and permission. displayName is optional.

Sample ACLObject
all_read = {group="all", permission="read"};
owner_full = {email="[email protected]", permission="full_control"};
aclObj = [owner_full, all_read];

Access control functions

storeSetACL
Description
Sets the ACL for object or bucket.
Returns
Nothing
Syntax
StoreSetACL(url, ACLObject)

Parameters
Parameter

Description

url

Amazon S3 URLs (content or object)

ACLObject

An array of struct where each struct represents a permission or grant as discussed in ACLObject on page 262.

History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function
Usage
Use this function to set full permission. The function overwrites all existing permissions. Only the ones you set in the
current context exist.

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Example
<cftry>
<cfset dir = "s3://bucket_name">
<cfif !directoryExists(dir)>
<cfset directorycreate(dir)>
</cfif>
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

perm = structnew()>
perm.group = "all">
perm.permission = "read">
perm1 = structnew()>
perm1.email = "email ID">
perm1.permission = "FULL_CONTROL">
myarrray = arrayNew(1)>
myarrray = [perm,perm1]>
fileWrite("#dir#/test.txt","This is to test all users permission")>

<cfset StoreSetACL("#dir#/textl.txt","#myarrray#")>
<cfset test = StoreGetACL ("#dirkey#/test.txt") >
<cfdump var= "test">
<cfcatch>
<cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

storeAddACL
Description
Adds ACL to existing ACL for object or bucket.
Returns
Nothing
Syntax
StoreAddACL(url, ACLObject)

Parameters
Parameter

Description

url

Amazon S3 URLs (content or object).

ACLObject

An array of struct where each struct represents a permission or grant as discussed in ACLObject on page 262.

History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function
Usage
Use this function to add permissions to the existing ones.

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Example
<cftry>
<cfset dir = "s3://bucket_name/">
<cfset perm = structnew()>
<cfset perm.group = "authenticated">
<cfset perm.permission = "READ">
<cfset perm1 = structnew()>
<cfset perm1.email = "email_ID">
<cfset perm1.permission = "READ_ACP">
<cfset myarrray = [perm,perm1]>
<cfif NOT DirectoryExists(dir)>
<cfset directoryCreate(dir)>
</cfif>
<cfset fileWrite("#dir#/Sample.txt","This is to test StoreAddACL")>
<cfset StoreAddACL("#dir#","#myarrray#")>
<cfset test = StoreGetACL(dirkey)>
<cfdump var="#test#">
<cfcatch>
<cfdump var="#cfcatch#">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

storeGetACL
Description
Gets the ACL object or bucket.
Returns
Returns an ACLObject
Syntax
StoreGetACL(url, ACLObject)

Parameters
Parameter

Description

url

Amazon S3 URLs (content or object)

ACLObject

An array of struct where each struct represents a permission or grant as discussed in ACLObject on page 262.

History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function
Example
<cfset dir = "s3://bucket_Name">
<cfif NOT DirectoryExists(dir)>
<cfset directoryCreate(dir)>
</cfif>
<cfset test = StoreGetACL("#dir#")>
<cfdump var="#test#">

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Using metadata
Amazon S3 allows you to specify metadata for both objects and buckets.
The following two functions let you get and set the metadata on objects or buckets.

StoreGetMetadata
Description
Returns the metadata related to the object or bucket.
Returns
Object metadata or bucket metadata
Syntax
StoreGetMetadata(url)

Parameters
Parameter

Description

url

Amazon S3 URLs (bucket or object).

History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function
Example
<cfdump var = #StoreGetMetadata("bucket_Name")#>

StoreSetMetadata
Description
Sets the metadata on bucket or object.
Returns
Nothing
Syntax
StoreSetMetadata(url,Struct)

Parameters
Parameter

Description

url

Amazon S3 URLs (bucket or object).

struct

Represents the metadata. See Standard keys on page 266 for a list of standard keys in metadata.
You can also have custom metadata apart from the standard ones.

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History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function
Example
<cfscript>
mydate = #Now()#;
hello = structNew();
hello.color = "grey";
/cfscript>
<cfset dir = "s3://mycfbucket">
<cffile action="write" file="#dir#/hello5.txt" output="Sample s3 text">
<cfset StoreSetMetadata("#dir#/hello5.txt","#hello#")>
<cfset test = StoreGetMetadata("#dir#/hello5.txt")>
<cfdump var="#test#">

Standard keys
The following are the standard keys in the metadata:
For objects
last_modified

date
owner
etag
content_length
content_type
content_encoding
content_disposition
content_language
content_md5
md5_hash
For buckets
date

owner
Security considerations
Sandboxing is not applicable to S3 buckets or objects as Amazon S3 has its own security features that take care of it.
Supported functions
fileOpen
fileExists
fileRead
getFileInfo

fileClose
fileisEOF
fileReadBinary
getDirectoryFromPath

fileCopy
fileMove
fileReadLine
directoryCreate

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fileWrite
fileSetLastModified
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directoryExists
imageWrite

directoryList
imageWriteBase64

imageNew
isImageFile

imageRead
isPDFFile

All cffile actions

All cfdirectory actions

(except rename)

cfdocument

cffeed

cfftp

cfimage

cfloop

All cfimage actions

Supported tags

Limitations
The following tags are not supported:

cfpdf

cfpdfform

The following functions are not supported:

FileSetAccessMode that sets attributes of a file in Linux/UNIX

FilesSetAttribute that sets the attributes of a file in Windows

cfzip does not accept Amazon S3 object as source.

When S3 object is used as output for outputfile attribute of cfexecute tag, it results in an error Timeout
period expired without completion of <exe>. It also results in a NullPointerException at server console.

To use the function fileMove, the source and destination objects must have the same bucket name. That is,
you cannot move Amazon S3 objects across buckets or to other file systems.

Working with in-memory files

Memory-based virtual file system speeds up the processing of transient data. In-memory files are not written to disk
and are saved on RAM. They function similar to disk files but perform faster.
In ColdFusion, in-memory files help you to simplify the execution of dynamic code. In-memory files are supported
across almost all tags and functions that take file or directory as input or output.
You use in-memory files in the same manner as files on disk, but with a prefix ram:/// to indicate that they reside on
RAM. For example, ram:///a/b/dynamic.cfm.
Writing and executing dynamic CFM files
The following syntax explains how to write CFM data in to an in-memory file:
<cffile action="write" output="#cfml#"
file="ram:///filename.cfm"/>

The following sample syntax explains how to use the in-memory CFM file:

For tags that take logical path, define mapping in Administrator. Execute in-memory CFM pages using the
cfinclude tag:
<cfinclude template="/inmemory/filename.cfm">

Create a mapping for ram:/// so that it can be used in the tags. In this example, /inmemory is the mapping that
points to ram:///.

For tags that take absolute path, specify the syntax as provided in the following example:
<cffile action="append" file="ram:///a/b/dynamic.cfm" output="I'm appending">

Note: You cannot have Application.cfm as an in-memory file. If you have one, it is ignored.

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Example
The following code describes how to write an image as an in-memory file:
<cffile action="readBinary" variable="myImage" file="#ExpandPath('./')#/blue.jpg">
<cffile action="write" output="#myImage#" file="ram:///a.jpg">
<cfif FileExists("ram:///a.jpg")>
<cfoutput>a.jpg exists</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>a.jpg Doesn't exists</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Writing and instantiating dynamic CFC files

The following syntax explains how you can write CFC code in to an in-memory file:
<cffile action="write" output="#cfcData#"
file="ram:///filename.cfc"/>

The following sample syntax explains how you can instantiate the in-memory CFC file:
<cfset cfc=CreateObject("component","inmemory.filename")/>

Here, inmemory is the ColdFusion mapping that points to ram:///.

Note: You cannot have Application.cfc as an in-memory file. If you have one, it is ignored.

Example
The following code writes a CFC as in-memory file:
<cffile action="read" file="#ExpandPath('./')#/dynamic.cfc" variable="Message">
<cffile action="write" file="ram:///cfc/dynamic.cfc" output="#Message#">

To invoke a component method:

<cfinvoke component="inmemory.cfc.dynamic" method ="method1" returnVariable="returnVariable">
<cfinvokeargument name="paramOne" value="hello">
</cfinvoke>
<cfoutput>#returnVariable#</cfoutput>

Working with in-memory file system

The following sections provide information that can help you to access and use in-memory files.

Using in-memory files

You can call a CFC saved on RAM from a CFM file on disk. Similarly, an in-memory CFM file can call a CFC saved
on disk.

If a CFC extends another CFC in the same directory in RAM, you can use relative path. For instance, if a.cfc and
b.cfc belong to the same directory in RAM, a.cfc can extend b.cfc using relative path as shown in the following code:
<cfcomponent name="a" extends"b">

</cfcomponent>

You can use in-memory ColdFusion interfaces in the same way as you use in-memory CFCs.

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Supported functions
The following file functions are supported for in-memory files:

FileIsEOF
FileReadBinary
Filemove
Filecopy
FileReadLine
FileExists
FileOpen
FileWriteln
FileClose
FileRead
FileDelete
DirectoryExists
FileSetLastModified
GetFileInfo
GetDirectoryFromPath
GetFileFromPath
ImageNew
ImageRead
ImageWrite
ImageWriteBase64
IsImageFile
IsPDFFile
FileSetLastModified
Example
The following syntax explains the function FileSetLastModified()
<cftry>
<cffile action="write" file="ram:///a.txt" output="Testing the function FileSetLastModified">
<cfset date="12/12/2007">
<cfscript>
FileSetLastModified("ram:///a.txt", "#date#");
sleep(1000);
WriteOutput(#GetFileInfo("ram:///a.txt").lastmodified#);
</cfscript>
<cfcatch>
<cfset PrintException(cfcatch)>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cf_expectedresults>{ts '2007-12-12 00:00:00'}
</cf_expectedresults>

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File operations
The following file operations are supported for in-memory files:

Directory-specific operations: create, delete, list, and rename.

File-specific operations: copy, create, write, append, delete, rename, create attributes, modes move, and read.
Example
The following code illustrates the file and directory operations:
<cfdirectory action = "create" directory = "ram://src" >
<cfdirectory action = "create" directory = "ram://des" >
<cfdirectory action = "rename" directory = "ram:///CurrentDir" newDirectory = "NewDir">
<cfdirectory action="list" directory="ram://" name="listDir" recurse="yes" >
<cfdump var="#listDir#">
<cffile action="write" file = "ram://src/test.txt" output = "Release Description">
<cffile action="copy" source="ram://src/test.txt" destination="ram://des/final.txt" >
<cffile action="rename" source = "ram:///src/message.txt" destination = "ram:///des/test.txt">
<cffile action ="move" source = "ram:///des/test.txt" destination = "c:\des\move.txt">

Document and image actions

All image and document actions can use in-memory image files as shown in the following examples:
<cfimage action="captcha" fontSize="15" width="180" height="50" text="readMe"
destination="ram:///readMe.jpg"
difficulty="medium">
<cfimage source="ram://aiden02.png" action="convert"
destination="#ExpandPath("./")#/blue1.JPG" overwrite="yes">
<cfdocument format="pdf" filename="ram://Sample.pdf" overwrite="yes">Sample Text</cfdocument>

Custom tags
In-memory CFM pages and CFCs can call custom tags but the custom tags must be present in disk. In-memory custom
tags are not supported.

Using in-memory files in tags

The following tags are supported for in-memory files:

cfcontent
cfdocument
cfdump
cfexchange
cfexecute
cffeed
cfhttp
cfftp
cfimage
cfloop

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cfpresentation
cfprint
cfreport
cfzip
Example using the tag cfcontent
<cfcontent file="ram:///a.jpg" type="image/jpeg" deletefile="yes">

Adding permissions
ColdFusion lets you add permissions for directories/files on RAM using an existing sandbox security setup. You can
only set up sandbox security for disk directories and not for RAM directories. Access to an in-memory directory/file
can be restricted only through an existing local file system sandbox.
Therefore, to set up sandbox security for in-memory files, select a sandbox that you have already configured for a disk
directory.
By default the ram:/// directories are included in the list of secured folders and have read, write, execute, and delete
permissions set. Therefore, all RAM files have permissions by default in a sandbox. All the security restrictions that
apply to disk files apply to in-memory files.
To set up Sandbox security for in-memory files,
1 Open the Security > Sandbox Security page in the ColdFusion Administrator.

The Sandbox Security Permissions page appears.

2 In the Add Security Sandbox box, specify a disk directory and then click Add.
3 In Files/Directories, specify the in-memory file path. For example, ram:///a/b (for directory) or
ram:///a/b/dynamic.cfm (for file).

4 Select the required permissions, click Add Files/Paths, and then click Finish.

For further details on sandbox security, refer to the ColdFusion Administration Guide.

Accessing VFS information

The GetVFSMetaData function lets you access VFS information. This function takes the parameter RAM as input.
This function returns a structure that contains the following information:

If support for in-memory virtual file system is enabled

Memory limit in bytes for in-memory virtual file system
The used and free memory
For example, <cfdump var="#getVFSMetaData("ram")#">
Note: The Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator has the options to enable/disable the in-memory virtual file
system support. You can also specify the memory limit in Megabytes (MB) for in-memory virtual file system.

Deleteing in-memory files

The in-memory files remain in RAM as long as the server is up. When required, clean up the files using
cffile/cfdirectory with the action=delete. For example, delete all the contents in RAM directory "ram://a/b" using
the following code: <cfdirectory action="delete" directory="ram:///a/b" recurse="yes">

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Limitations
File names/Directory names on RAM are case sensitive.
In-memory files must be accessed using mapping or absolute path. Relative paths to files/directories are not
supported.

Correct: ram:///a/b/
Incorrect: ram:///a/b/../..
You cannot access in-memory files using HTTP/HTTPS protocols. Instead, use ram:///<file>. For example,
ram:///a/b/test.cfm.

DDX files and font files cannot be accessed as in-memory files.

The following functions are not supported for in-memory files.

FileSetAccessMode that sets attributes of a file in Linux/Unix

FilesSetAttribute that sets the attributes of a file in Windows

The following tags are not supported:

cfpdf
cfpdfform
The following scenarios are not supported:
The cfreport tag does not accept a template report on RAM. Therefore, the following does not work:
<cfreport format="PDF" template="ram:///myReport1.cfr" filename="ram:///test.pdf"
overwrite="yes">

In this case, the myReport1.cfr must reside on your disk.

The cfimport tag does not accept tag libraries on RAM. For instance, the following does not work:
<cfimport prefix="custom" taglib="ram:///a/b/mytags.jar">

Renaming across file systems (as shown in the following syntax) is not supported.
<cffile action="rename" source="ram:///src1/message2.txt"
destination="#ExpandPath('./')#/123.txt">.

Instead, you can move the files.

For the cfexecute tag, the executable cannot be on RAM and must be on your local file system. But the output
can be an in-memory file as illustrated in the following code:
<cfexecute name="C:\WINDOWS\System32\netstat.exe" arguments="-e"
outputFile="ram:///output.txt" timeout="1">
</cfexecute>
<cfset thisPath=ExpandPath("*.*")>

Optimizing database use

Poor database design and incorrect or inefficient use of the database are among the most common causes of inefficient
applications. Consider the different methods that are available for using databases and information from databases
when you design your application. For example, to average the price of many products from a SQL query, it is more
efficient to use SQL to get the average than to use a loop in ColdFusion.
Two important ColdFusion tools for optimizing your use of databases are the cfstoredproc tag and the cfquery tag
cachedWithin attribute.

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Using stored procedures

The cfstoredproc tag lets ColdFusion use stored procedures in your database management system. A stored
procedure is a sequence of SQL statements that is assigned a name, compiled, and stored in the database system. Stored
procedures encapsulate programming logic in SQL statements, and database systems are optimized to execute stored
procedures efficiently. As a result, stored procedures are faster than cfquery tags.
You use the cfprocparam tag to send parameters to the stored procedure, and the cfprocresult tag to get the record
sets that the stored procedure returns.
The following example executes a Sybase stored procedure that returns three result sets, two of which the example uses.
The stored procedure returns the status code and one output parameter, which the example displays.
<!--- cfstoredproc tag --->
<cfstoredproc procedure = "foo_proc" dataSource = "MY_SYBASE_TEST"
username = "sa" password = "" returnCode = "Yes">
<!--- cfprocresult tags --->
<cfprocresult name = RS1>
<cfprocresult name = RS3 resultSet = 3>
<!--- cfprocparam tags --->
<cfprocparam type = "IN"
CFSQLType = CF_SQL_INTEGER
value = "1">
<cfprocparam type = "OUT"CFSQLType = CF_SQL_DATE
variable = FOO>
<!--- Close the cfstoredproc tag. --->
</cfstoredproc>
<cfoutput>
The output param value: '#foo#'<br>
</cfoutput>
<h3>The Results Information</h3>
<cfoutput query = RS1>
#name#,#DATE_COL#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
<cfoutput>
<hr>
Record Count: #RS1.recordCount#<br>
Columns: #RS1.columnList#<br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query = RS3>
#col1#,#col2#,#col3#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
<cfoutput>
<hr><br>
Record Count: #RS3.recordCount#<br>
Columns: #RS3.columnList#<br>
<hr>
The return code for the stored procedure is: '#cfstoredproc.statusCode#'<br>
</cfoutput>

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Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfstoredproc procedure = "foo_proc" dataSource =

"MY_SYBASE_TEST" username = "sa" password = "" returnCode =
"Yes">

Runs the stored procedure foo_proc on the

MY_SYBASE_TEST data source. Populates the
cfstoredprocstatusCode variable with the status
code returned by stored procedure.

<cfprocresult name = RS1>

<cfprocresult name = RS3 resultSet = 3>

Gets two record sets from the stored procedure: the first
and third result sets it returns.

<cfprocparam type = "IN" CFSQLType = CF_SQL_INTEGER value =

"1">
<cfprocparam type = "OUT" CFSQLType = CF_SQL_DATE variable =
FOO>
<!--- Close the cfstoredproc tag. --->
</cfstoredproc>

Specifies two parameters for the stored procedure, an

input parameter and an output parameter. Sets the
input parameter to 1 and the ColdFusion variable that
gets the output to FOO.

<cfoutput>
The output param value: '#foo#'<br>
</cfoutput>

Displays the results of running the stored procedure:

The output parameter value,

<h3>The Results Information</h3>

<cfoutput query = RS1>
#name#,#DATE_COL#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
<cfoutput>
<hr>
Record Count: #RS1.recordCount#<br>
Columns: #RS1.columnList#<br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>

The contents of the two columns in the first record set

identified by the name and DATE_COL variables. You
set the values of these variables elsewhere on the
page.

The number of rows and the names of the columns in

the first record set

The contents of the columns in the other record set

identified by the col1, col2, and col3 variables.

The number of rows and the names of the columns in

the record set.

The status value returned by the stored procedure.

<cfoutput query = RS3>

#col1#,#col2#,#col3#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
<cfoutput>
<hr><br>
Record Count: #RS3.recordCount#<br>
Columns: #RS3.columnList#<br>
<hr>

Ends the cfstoredproc tag body.

The return code for the stored procedure is:

'#cfstoredproc.statusCode#'<br>
</cfoutput>

For more information on creating stored procedures, see your database management software documentation. For
more information on using the cfstoredproc tag, see the CFML Reference.
Using the cfquery tag cachedWithin attribute
The cfquery tag cachedWithin attribute tells ColdFusion to save the results of a database query for a specific period
of time. This way, ColdFusion accesses the database on the first page request, and does not query the database on
further requests until the specified time expires. Using the cachedWithin attribute significantly limits the overhead of
accessing databases that do not change rapidly.
This technique is useful if the database contents only change at specific, known times, or if the database does not
change frequently and the purpose of the query does not require up- to-date results.
Use the CreateTimeSpan function to specify the cachedWithin attribute value (in days, hours, minutes, seconds
format). For example, the following code caches the results of getting the contents of the Employees table of the
cfdocexamples data source for one hour.

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<cfquery datasource="cfdocexamples" name="master"

cachedWithin="#CreateTimeSpan(0,1,0,0)#">
SELECT * FROM Employees
</cfquery>

Providing visual feedback to the user

If an application takes a while to process data, it is useful to provide visual feedback to indicate that something is
happening, so the user does not assume that there is a problem and requests the page again. Although doing this does
not optimize your applications processing efficiency, it does make the application appear more responsive.
Use the cfflush tag to return partial data to a user, as shown in Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data on
page 703.
You can also use the cfflush tag to create a progress bar. For information on this technique, see the technical article
Understanding Progress Meters in ColdFusion 5 at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_progress_meters_en. (Although
this article was written for ColdFusion 5, it also applies to later versions of ColdFusion.)

Handling Errors
Adobe ColdFusion includes many tools and techniques for responding to errors that your application encounters.
These tools include error handling mechanisms and error logging tools.
For information on user input validation, see Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data on page 703 and
Building Dynamic Forms with cfform Tags on page 722 For information on debugging, see Debugging and
Troubleshooting Applications on page 378.

About error handling in ColdFusion

By default, ColdFusion generates its own error messages when it encounters errors. In addition, it provides a variety
of tools and techniques for you to customize error information and handle errors when they occur. You can use any
of the following error-management techniques.

Specify custom pages for ColdFusion to display in each of the following cases:
When a ColdFusion page is missing (the Missing Template Handler page)
When an otherwise-unhandled exception error occurs during the processing of a page (the Site-wide Error
Handler page)
You specify these pages on the Settings page in the Server Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator; for more
information, see the ColdFusion Administrator Help.

Use the cferror tag to specify ColdFusion pages to handle specific types of errors.
Use the cftry, cfcatch, cfthrow, and cfrethrow tags to catch and handle exception errors directly on the page
where they occur.

In CFScript, use the try and catch statements to handle exceptions.

Use the onError event in Application.cfc to handle exception errors that are not handled by try/catch code on the
application pages.

Log errors. ColdFusion logs certain errors by default. You can use the cflog tag to log other errors.
The following information is detailed in the next few topics:

The basic building blocks for understating types of ColdFusion errors and how ColdFusion handles them
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How to use the cferror tag to specify error-handling pages

How to log errors
How to handle ColdFusion exceptions
Note: Information about using the cftry and cfcatch tags is provided, but not the equivalent CFScript try and
catch statements. The general discussion of exception handling applies to tags and CFScript statements. However, the
code that you use and the information available in CFScript differs from the information in the tags. For more
information on handling exceptions in CFScript, see Handling errors in UDFs on page 166.

Understanding errors
You can look at errors in many ways; for example, you can look at errors by their causes. You can also look at them by
their effects, particularly by whether your application can recover from them. You can also look at them the way
ColdFusion does, as follows:

About error causes and recovery

Errors can have many causes. Depending on the cause, the error can be recoverable. A recoverable error is one for
which your application can identify the error cause and take action on the problem. Some errors, such as time-out
errors, are recoverable without indicating to the user that an error was encountered. An error for which a requested
application page does not exist is not recoverable, and the application can only display an error message.
Errors such as validation errors, for which the application cannot continue processing the request, but can provide an
error-specific response, can also be considered recoverable. For example, an error that occurs when a user enters text
where a number is required can be considered recoverable, because the application can recognize the error and
redisplay the data field with a message providing information about the cause of the error and telling the user to reenter
the data.
Some types of errors are recoverable in some, but not all circumstances. For example, your application can retry a
request following a time-out error, but it must also be prepared for the case where the request always times out.
Error causes fall in the broad categories listed in the following table:
Category

Description

Program errors

Can be in the code syntax or the program logic. The ColdFusion compiler identifies and reports program syntax
errors when it compiles CFML into Java classes. Errors in your application logic are harder to locate. For
information on debugging tools and techniques, see Debugging and Troubleshooting Applications on
page 378.
Unlike ColdFusion syntax errors, SQL syntax errors are only caught at runtime.

Data errors

Are typically user data input errors. You use validation techniques to identify errors in user input data and enable
the user to correct the errors.

System errors

Can come from a variety of causes, including database system problems, time-outs due to excessive demands on
your server, out-of-memory errors in the system, file errors, and disk errors.

Although these categories do not map completely to the way ColdFusion categorizes errors they provide a useful way
of thinking about errors and can help you in preventing and handling errors in your code.

ColdFusion error types

Before you can effectively manage ColdFusion errors, you must understand how ColdFusion classifies and handles
them. ColdFusion categorizes errors as detailed in the following table:

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Type

Description

Exception

An error that prevents normal processing from continuing. All ColdFusion exceptions are, at their
root, Java exceptions.

Missing template

An HTTP request for a ColdFusion page that cannot be found. Generated if a browser requests a
ColdFusion page that does not exist.
Missing template errors are different from missing include exceptions, which result from
cfinclude tags or custom tag calls that cannot find their targets.

Form field data validation

Server-side form field validation errors are a special kind of ColdFusion exception. You specify serverside form validation by using cfform attributes or hidden HTML form fields. All other types of serverside validation, such as the cfparam tag generate runtime exceptions. For more information on
validating form fields see Validating Data on page 743.
ColdFusion includes a built-in error page for server-side form field validation errors, and the cferror
tag includes a type attribute that lets you handle these errors in a custom error page, but if you use
onError processing in Application.cfc, or try/catch error handling, the error appears as an Application
exception. For more information on handling Form field validation in Application.cfc see Handling
server-side validation errors in the onError method on page 248.

Note: The onSubmit and onBlur form field validation techniques use JavaScript or Flash validation on the client browser.

About ColdFusion exceptions

Most ColdFusion errors are exceptions. You can categorize ColdFusion exceptions in two ways:

When they occur

Their type
When exceptions occur
ColdFusion errors can occur at two times, when the CFML is compiled into Java and when the resulting Java executes,
called runtime exceptions.
Compiler exceptions
Compiler exceptions are programming errors that ColdFusion identifies when it compiles CFML into Java. Because
compiler exceptions occur before the ColdFusion page is converted to executable code, you cannot handle them on
the page that causes them. However, other pages can handle these errors. For more information, see Handling
compiler exceptions on page 282.
Runtime exception
A runtime exception occurs when the compiled ColdFusion Java code runs. It is an event that disrupts the normal flow
of instructions in the application. Exceptions can result from system errors or program logic errors. Runtime
exceptions include:

Error responses from external services, such as an ODBC driver or CORBA server
CFML errors or the results of cfthrow or cfabort tags
Internal errors in ColdFusion

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ColdFusion exception types

ColdFusion exceptions have types that you specify in the cferror, cfcatch, and cfthrow error-handling tags. A
cferror or cfcatch tag handles only exceptions of the specified type. You identify an exception type by using an
identifier from one (or more) of the following type categories:

Basic
Custom
Advanced
Java class
Note: Use only custom error type names and the Application basic type name in cfthrow tags. All other built-in
exception type names identify specific types of system-identified errors, so do not use them for errors that you identify
yourself.
Basic exception types
All ColdFusion exceptions except for custom exceptions belong to a basic type category. These types consist of a
broadly defined categorization of ColdFusion exceptions. The following table describes the basic exception types:
Type

Type name

Description

Database failures

Database

Failed database operations, such as failed SQL statements, ODBC

problems, and so on.

Missing include file errors

MissingInclude

Errors where files specified by the cfinclude, cfmessagebox, and cferror

tags are missing. (A cferror tag generates a missingInclude error
only when an error of the type specified in the tag occurs.)
The MissingInclude error type is a subcategory of Template error. If
you do not specifically handle the MissingInclude error type, but do
handle the Template error type, the Template error handler catches
these errors. MissingInclude errors are caught at runtime.

Template errors

Template

General application page errors, including invalid tag and attribute

names. Most Template errors are caught at compile time, not
runtime.

Object exceptions

Object

Exceptions in ColdFusion code that works with objects.

Security exceptions

Security

Catchable exceptions in ColdFusion code that works with security.

Expression exceptions

Expression

Failed expression evaluations; for example, if you try to add 1 and "a".

Locking exceptions

Lock

Failed locking operations, such as when a cflock critical section times

out or fails at runtime.

Verity Search engine exception

SearchEngine

Exceptions generated by the Verity search engine when processing

cfindex, cfcollection, or cfsearch tags.

Application-defined exception
events raised by cfthrow

Application

Custom exceptions generated by a cfthrow tag that do not specify a

type, or specify the type as Application.

All exceptions

Any

Any exceptions. Includes all types in this table and any exceptions that
are not handled in another error handler, including unexpected
internal and external errors.

Note: The Any type includes all error with the Java object type of java.lang.Exception. It does not include
java.lang.Throwable errors. To catch Throwable errors, specify java.lang.Throwable in the cfcatch tag type attribute.

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Custom exceptions
You can generate an exception with your own type by specifying a custom exception type name, for example
MyCustomErrorType, in a cfthrow tag. You then specify the custom type name in a cfcatch or cferror tag to
handle the exception. Custom type names must be different from any built-in type names, including basic types and
Java exception classes.
Advanced exception types
The Advanced exceptions consist of a set of specific, narrow exception types. These types are supported in ColdFusion
for backward-compatibility.
Java exception classes
Every ColdFusion exception belongs to, and is identified by, a specific Java exception class in addition to its basic,
custom, or advanced type. The first line of the stack trace in the standard error output for an exception identifies the
Java class of the exception.
For example, if you attempt to use an array function such as ArrayIsEmpty on an integer variable, ColdFusion
generates an exception that belongs to the Expression exception basic type and the
coldfusion.runtime.NonArrayException Java class.
In general, most applications do not use Java exception classes to identify exceptions. However, you can use Java class
names to catch exceptions in non-CFML Java objects; for example, the following line catches all Java input/output
exceptions:
<cfcatch type="java.io.IOException">

How ColdFusion handles errors

The following information describes briefly how ColdFusion handles errors. Detailed information is provided in the
remaining topics.
Missing template errors
If a user requests a page that ColdFusion cannot find, and the Administrator Server Settings Missing Template
Handler field specifies a Missing Template Handler page, ColdFusion uses that page to display error information.
Otherwise, it displays a standard error message.
Form field validation errors
When a user enters invalid data in an HTML tag that uses onServer or hidden form field server-side data validation
ColdFusion does the following:
1 If the Application CFC (Application.cfc) has an onError event handler method, ColdFusion calls the method.
2 If the Application.cfc initialization code or the Application.cfm page has a cferror that specifies a Validation error

handler, ColdFusion displays the specified error page.

3 Otherwise, it displays the error information in a standard format that consists of a default header, a bulleted list

describing the errors, and a default footer.

For more information on using hidden form field validation, see Validating Data on page 743. For more information
on Application.cfc, see Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application on page 235.

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Compiler exception errors

If ColdFusion encounters a compiler exception, how it handles the exception depends on whether the error occurs on
a requested page or on an included page:

If the error occurs on a page that is accessed by a cfinclude or cfmessagebox tag, or on a custom tag page that
you access using the cf_ notation, ColdFusion handles it as a runtime exception in the page that accesses the tag.
For a description of how these errors are handled, see the next section, Runtime exception errors.

If the error occurs directly on the requested page, and the Administrator Settings Site-wide Error Handler field
specifies an error handler page, ColdFusion displays the specified error page. Otherwise, ColdFusion reports the
error using the standard error message format described in Error messages and the standard error format on
page 280.
Runtime exception errors
If ColdFusion encounters a runtime exception, it does the action for the first matching condition in the following table:
Condition

Action

The code with the error is inside a cftry tag and the exception type is Executes the code in the cfcatch tag.
specified in a cfcatch tag.
If the cftry block does not have a cfcatch tag for this error, tests for
an appropriate cferror handler or site-wide error handler.
The ColdFusion application has an Application.cfc with an onError
method

Executes the code in the onError method. For more information on

using the onError method, see Handling errors in Application.cfc on
page 247.

A cferror tag specifies an exception error handler for the exception Uses the error page specified by the cferror tag.
type.
The Administrator Settings Site-wide Error Handler field specifies an
error handler page.

Uses the custom error page specified by the Administrator setting.

A cferror tag specifies a Request error handler.

Uses the error page specified by the cferror tag.

The default case.

Uses the standard error message format

For example, if an exception occurs in CFML code that is not in a cftry block, and Application.cfc does not have an
onError method, but a cferror tag specifies a page to handle this error type, ColdFusion uses the specified error page.

Error messages and the standard error format

If your application does not handle an error, ColdFusion displays a diagnostic message in the users browser.
Error information is also written to a log file for later review. (For information on error logging, see Logging errors
with the cflog tag on page 285.)
The standard error format consists of the information listed in the following table. ColdFusion does not always display
all sections.

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Section

Description

Error description

A brief, typically online, description of the error.

Error message

A detailed description of the error. The error message diagnostic information displayed depends on the type of
error. For example, if you specify an invalid attribute for a tag, this section includes a list of all valid tag attributes.

Error location

The page and line number where ColdFusion encountered the error, followed by a short section of your CFML that
includes the line. This section does not display for all errors.
In some cases, the cause of an error can be several lines above the place where ColdFusion determines that there
is a problem, so the line that initially causes the error might not be in the display.

Resources

Links to documentation, the Knowledge Base, and other resources that can help you resolve the problem.

Error environment
information

Information about the request that caused the error. All error messages include the following:

Stack trace

User browser

User IP address

Date and time of error

The Java stack at the time of the exception, including the specific Java class of the exception. This is helpful if you
must contact Adobe Technical Support.
The stack trace is collapsed by default. Click the heading to display the trace.

If you get a message that does not explicitly identify the cause of the error, check the key system parameters, such as
available memory and disk space.

Determining error-handling strategies

ColdFusion provides you with many options for handling errors, particularly exceptions, as described in How
ColdFusion handles errors on page 279. The considerations for determining which forms of error handling to use are
as follows:

Handling missing template errors

Missing template errors occur when ColdFusion receives an HTTP request for a page ending in .cfm that it cannot
find. You can create your own missing template error page to present application-specific information or provide an
application-specific appearance. You specify the missing template error page on the Administrator Settings page.
The missing error page can use CFML tags and variables. In particular, you can use the CGI.script_name variable in
text such as the following to identify the requested page:
<cfoutput>The page #Replace(CGI.script_name, "/", "")# is not available.<br>
Make sure that you entered the page correctly.<br>
</cfoutput>

(In this code, the Replace function removes the leading slash sign from the script name to make the display more
friendly.)

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Handling form field validation errors

When you use server-side form field validation, the default validation error message describes the error cause plainly
and clearly. However, to give the error message a custom look or provide additional information such as service
contact phone numbers and addresses, use the cferror tag with the Validation attribute in the Application.cfc
initialization code. Or, specify your own validation on the Application.cfm page. An example of such a page is
provided at Example of a validation error page section. You can also place form field validation error handling code in
the Application.cfc onError method.

Handling compiler exceptions

You cannot handle compiler exceptions directly on the page where they occur, because the exception is caught before
ColdFusion starts running the page code. Fix all compiler exceptions as part of the development process. Use the
reported error message and the code debugging techniques discussed in Debugging and Troubleshooting
Applications on page 378 to identify and correct the cause of the error.
Compiler exceptions that occur on pages you access by using the cfinclude or cfmessagebox tags can be handled as
runtime errors by surrounding the cfinclude or cfmodule tag in a cftry block. The compiler exception on the
accessed page gets caught as a runtime error on the base page. However, avoid this "solution" to the problem, as the
correct method for handling compiler errors is to remove them before you deploy the application.

Handling runtime exceptions

You have many choices for handling exceptions, and the exact path you take depends on your application and its
needs. The following table provides a guide to selecting an appropriate technique:
Technique

Use

cftry

Place cftry blocks around specific code sections where exceptions can be expected and you want to handle
those exceptions in a context-specific manner; for example, if you want to display an error message that is specific
to that code.
Use cftry blocks where you can recover from an exception. For example, you can retry an operation that times
out, or access an alternate resource. You can also use the cftry tag to continue processing where a specific
exception does not harm your application; for example, if a missing resource is not required.
For more information, see Handling runtime exceptions with ColdFusion tags on page 287.

Application.cfc onError
method

Implement the onError method in your Application.cfc to consistently handle application-specific exceptions
that are generated by multiple code sections in the application. For more information on error handling using
Application.cfc, see Handling errors in Application.cfc on page 247.

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Technique

Use

cferrorwith exceptionspecific error handler

pages

Use the cferror tag to specify error pages for specific exception types. These pages cannot recover from errors,
but they can provide the user with information about the cause of the error and the steps to take to prevent the
problem.
For more information, see Specifying custom error messages with the cferror tag on page 283.

cferror with a Request

error page

Use the cferror tag to specify a Request error handler that provides a customized, application-specific message
for unrecoverable exceptions. Place the tag in the Application.cfc initialization code or on the Application.cfm
page to make it apply to all pages in an application.
A Request error page cannot use CFML tags, but it can display error variables. As a result, you can use it to display
common error information, but you cannot provide error-specific instructions. Typically, Request pages display
error variable values and application-specific information, including support contact information.
For example code, see Example of a request error page section.

Site-wide error handler

page

Specify a site-wide error handler in the Administrator to provide consistent appearance and contents for all
otherwise-unhandled exceptions in all applications on your server.
Like the Request page, the site-wide error handler cannot perform error recovery. However, it can include CFML
tags in addition to the error variables.
Because a site-wide error handler prevents ColdFusion from displaying the default error message, it allows you to
limit the information reported to users. It also lets you provide all users with default contact information or other
instructions.

Specifying custom error messages with the cferror tag

Custom error pages let you control the error information that users see. You can specify custom error pages for
different types of errors and handle different types of errors in different ways. For example, you can create specific
pages to handle errors that could be recoverable, such as request time-outs. You can also make your error messages
consistent with the look and feel of your application.
You can specify the following types of custom error message pages:
Type

Description

Validation

Handles server-side form field data validation errors. The validation error page cannot include CFML tags, but it
can display error page variables.
You can use this attribute only in the Application.cfc initialization code or on the Application.cfm page. It has no
effect when used on any other page. Therefore, you can specify only one validation error page per application,
and that page applies to all server-side validation errors.

Exception

Handles specific exception errors. You can specify individual error pages for different types of exceptions.

Request

Handles any exception that is not otherwise-handled. The request error page runs after the CFML language
processor finishes. As a result, the request error page cannot include CFML tags, but can display error page
variables. A request error page is useful as a backup if errors occur in other error handlers.

Specifying a custom error page

You specify the custom error pages with the cferror tag. For Validation errors, the tag must be in the Application.cfc
initialization code or on the Application.cfm page. For Exception and Request errors, you can set the custom error
pages on each application page. However, because custom error pages generally apply to an entire application, it is
more efficient to place these cferror tags in the Application.cfc or Application.cfm file also. For more information
on using these pages, see Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application on page 235
The cferror tag has the attributes listed in the following table:

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Attribute

Description

Type

The type of error that causes ColdFusion to display this page: Exception, Request, or Validation.

Exception

Use only for the Exception type. The specific exception or exception category that causes the page to display. This
attribute can specify any of the types described in About ColdFusion exceptions on page 277.

Template

The ColdFusion page to display.

MailTo

(Optional) An e-mail address. The cferror tag sets the error page error.mailTo variable to this value. The error
page can use the error.mailTo value in a message that tells the user to send an error notification. ColdFusion
does not send any message itself.

The following cferror tag specifies a custom error page for exceptions that occur in locking code and informs the
error page of the e-mail address to use to send a notification each time this type of error occurs:
<cferror type = "exception"
exception = "lock"
template = "../common/lockexcept.cfm"
mailto = "[email protected]">

For detailed information on the cferror tag, see the CFML Reference.

Creating an error application page

The following table lists the rules and considerations that apply to error application pages:
Type

Considerations

Validation

Cannot use CFML tags.

Can use HTML tags.

Can use the Error.InvalidFields, Error.validationHeader, and Error.validationFooter

variables by enclosing them with number signs (#).

Cannot use any other CFML variables.

Cannot use CFML tags.

Can use HTML tags.

Can use nine CFML error variables, such as Error.Diagnostics, by enclosing them with number signs.

Cannot use other CFML variables.

Can use full CFML syntax, including tags, functions, and variables.

Can use nine standard CFML Error variables and cfcatch variables. Use either Error or cferror as the prefix
for both types of variables.

Can use other application-defined CFML variables.

To display any CFML variable, use the cfoutput tag.

Request

Exception

The following table describes the variables available on error pages: Exception error pages can also use all of the
exception variables listed in the section Exception information in cfcatch blocks on page 289. To use these variables,
replace the cfcatch prefix with cferror or error. For example, to use the exception message in an error page, refer
to it as error.message.

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In general, production Exception and Request pages should not display detailed error information, such as that
supplied by the error.diagnostics variable. Typically, Exception pages e-mail detailed error information to an
administrative address or log the information using the cflog tag instead of displaying it to the user. For more
information on using the cflog tag, see Logging errors with the cflog tag on page 285.
Example of a request error page
The following example shows a custom error page for a request error:
<html>
<head>
<title>Products - Error</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Sorry</h2>
<p>An error occurred when you requested this page.</p>
<p>Please send e-mail with the following information to #error.mailTo# to report
this error.</p>
<table border=1>
<tr><td><b>Error Information</b> <br>
Date and time: #error.DateTime# <br>
Page: #error.template# <br>
Remote Address: #error.remoteAddress# <br>
HTTP Referer: #error.HTTPReferer#<br>
</td></tr></table>
<p>We apologize for the inconvenience and will work to correct the problem.</p>
</body>
</html>

Example of a validation error page

The following example shows a simple custom error page for a validation error:
<html>
<head>
<title>Products - Error</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Data Entry Error</h2>
<p>You failed to correctly complete all the fields
in the form. The following problems occurred:</p>
#error.invalidFields#
</body>
</html>

Logging errors with the cflog tag

ColdFusion provides extensive capabilities for generating, managing, and viewing log files, as described in Configuring
and Administering ColdFusion. It also provides the cflog tag which adds entries to ColdFusion logs.

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ColdFusion automatically logs errors to the default logs if you use the default error handlers. In all other cases, use the
cflog tag in your error handling code to generate log entries.
The cflog tag lets you specify the following information:

A custom file or standard ColdFusion log file in which to write the message.
Text to write to the log file. This can include the values of all available error and cfcatch variables.
Message severity (type): Information Warning, Fatal, or Error.
Whether to log any of the following: application name, thread ID, system date, or system time. By default, all get
logged.
For example, you could use a cflog tag in an exception error-handling page to log the error information to an
application-specific log file, as in the following page:
<html>
<head>
<title>Products - Error</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Sorry</h2>
<p>An error occurred when you requested this page.
The error has been logged and we will work to correct the problem.
We apologize for the inconvenience. </p>
<cflog type="Error"
file="myapp_errors"
text="Exception error -Exception type: #error.type#
Template: #error.template#,
Remote Address: #error.remoteAddress#,
HTTP Reference: #error.HTTPReferer#
Diagnostics: #error.diagnostics#">
</body>
</html>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cflog type="Error"
file="myapp_errors"
text="Exception error -Exception type: #error.type#
Template: #error.template#,
Remote Address: #error.remoteAddress#,
HTTP Reference: #error.HTTPReferer#
Diagnostics: #error.diagnostics#">

When this page is processed, log an entry in the file myapp_errors.log

file in the ColdFusion log directory. Identify the entry as an error
message and include an error message that includes the exception
type, the path of the page that caused the error, the remote address
that called the page, and the errors diagnostic message.

A log file entry like the following is generated if you try to call a nonexistent custom tag and this page catches the error
(line breaks added for clarity):

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"Error","web-13","12/19/01","11:29:07",MYAPP,"Exception error -Exception type: coldfusion.runtime.CfErrorWrapper

Template: /MYStuff/MyDocs/exceptiontest.cfm,
Remote Address: 127.0.0.1,
HTTP Reference:
Diagnostics: Cannot find CFML template for custom tag testCase. Cannot
find CFML template for custom tag testCase. ColdFusion attempted looking
in the tree of installed custom tags but did not find a custom tag with
this name."

The text consists of a comma-delimited list of the following entries:

Log entry type, specified by the cflogtype attribute

ID of the thread that was executing
Date the entry was written to the log
Time the entry was written to the log
Application name, as specified in the Application.cfc initialization code (by setting the This.application variable)
or by a cfapplication tag (for example, in an Application.cfm file).

The message specified by the cflogtext attribute.

Handling runtime exceptions with ColdFusion tags

Exceptions include any event that disrupts the normal flow of instructions in a ColdFusion page, such as failed
database operations, missing include files, or developer-specified events. Ordinarily, when ColdFusion encounters an
exception, it stops processing and displays an error message, or an error page specified by a cferror tag or the Sitewide Error Handler option on the Settings page in the Administrator. However, you can use the ColdFusion exception
handling tags to catch and process runtime exceptions directly in ColdFusion pages.
This ability to handle exceptions directly in your application pages enables your application to do the following:

Respond appropriately to specific errors within the context of the current application page
Recover from errors whenever possible.

Exception-handling tags
ColdFusion provides the exception-handling tags listed in the following table:
Tag

Description

cftry

If any exceptions occur while processing the tag body, look for a cfcatch tag that handles the exception, and
execute the code in the cfcatch tag body.

cfcatch

Execute code in the body of this tag if the exception caused by the code in the cftry tag body matches the
exception type specified in this tags attributes.
Used in cftry tag bodies only.

cfthrow

Generate a user-specified exception.

cfrethrow

Exit the current cfcatch block and generates a new exception of the same type.
Used only in cfcatch tag bodies.

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Using cftry and cfcatch tags

The cftry tag lets you go beyond reporting error data to the user:

You can include code that recovers from errors so your application can continue processing without alerting the
user.

You can create customized error messages that apply to the specific code that causes the error.
For example, you can use cftry to catch errors in code that enters data from a user registration form to a database.
The cfcatch code could do the following:
1 Retry the query, so the operation succeeds if the resource was only temporarily unavailable.
2 If the retries fail:

Display a custom message to the user

Post the data to an e-mail address so the company staff can enter the data after the problem has been solved.
Code that accesses external resources such as databases, files, or LDAP servers where resource availability is not
guaranteed is a good candidate for using try/catch blocks.
Try/catch code structure
In order for your code to directly handle an exception, the tags in question must appear within a cftry block. It is a
good idea to enclose an entire application page in a cftry block. You then follow the cftry block with cfcatch
blocks, which respond to potential errors. When an exception occurs within the cftry block, processing is thrown to
the cfcatch block for that type of exception.
Here is an outline for using cftry and cfcatch to handle errors:
<cftry>
Put your application code here ...
<cfcatch type="exception type1">
Add exception processing code here ...
</cfcatch>
<cfcatch type="exception type2">
Add exception processing code here ...
</cfcatch>
...
<cfcatch type="Any">
Add exception processing code appropriate for all other exceptions here ...
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

Try/catch code rules and recommendations

Follow these rules and recommendations when you use cftry and cfcatch tags:

The cfcatch tags must follow all other code in a cftry tag body.
You can nest cftry blocks. For example, the following structure is valid:

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<cftry>
code that may cause an exception
<cfcatch ...>
<cftry>
First level of exception handling code
<cfcatch ...>
Second level of exception handling code
</cfcatch
</cftry>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

If an exception occurs in the first level of exception-handling code, the inner cfcatch block can catch and handle
it. (An exception in a cfcatch block cannot be handled by cfcatch blocks at the same level as that block.)

ColdFusion always responds to the latest exception that gets raised. For example, if code in a cftry block causes
an exception that gets handled by a cfcatch block, and the cfcatch block causes an exception that has no handler,
ColdFusion displays the default error message for the exception in the cfcatch block, and you are not notified of
the original exception.

If an exception occurs when the current tag is nested inside other tags, the CFML processor checks the entire stack
of open tags until it finds a suitable cftry/cfcatch combination or reaches the end of the stack.

Use cftry with cfcatch to handle exceptions based on their point of origin within an application page, or based
on diagnostic information.

The entire cftry tag, including all its cfcatch tags, must be on a single ColdFusion page. You cannot place the
<cftry> start tag on one page and have the </cftry> end tag on another page.

For cases when a cfcatch block is not able to successfully handle an error, consider using the cfrethrow tag, as
described in Using the cfrethrow tag on page 296.

If an exception can be safely ignored, use a cfcatch tag with no body; for example:
<cfcatch Type = Database />

In problematic cases, enclose an exception-prone tag in a specialized combination of cftry and cfcatch tags to
immediately isolate the tag's exceptions.
Exception information in cfcatch blocks
Within the body of a cfcatch tag, the active exceptions properties are available in a cfcatch object. The object
contents are described as follows:
Standard cfcatch variables
The following table describes the variables that are available in most cfcatch blocks:

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Property variable

Description

cfcatch.Detail

A detailed message from the CFML compiler. This message, which can contain HTML formatting, can help
to determine which tag threw the exception.
The cfcatch.Detail value is available in the CFScript catch statement as the exceptionVariable
parameter.

cfcatch.ErrorCode

The cfthrow tag can supply a value for this code through the errorCode attribute. For
Type="Database", cfcatch.ErrorCode has the same value as cfcatch.SQLState.
Otherwise, the value of cfcatch.ErrorCode is the empty string.

cfcatch.ExtendedInfo

Custom error message information. This is returned only to cfcatch tags for which the type attribute is
Application or a custom type.
Otherwise, the value of cfcatch.ExtendedInfo is the empty string.

cfcatch.Message

The exceptions default diagnostic message, if one was provided. If no diagnostic message is available, this
is an empty string.
The cfcatch.Message value is included in the value of the CFScript catch statement
exceptionVariable parameter.

cfcatch.RootCause

The Java servlet exception reported by the JVM as the cause of the root cause of the exception.

cfcatch.TagContext

An array of structures structure containing information for each tag in the tag stack The tag stack consists
of each tag that is currently open.

cfcatch.Type

The exceptions type, returned as a string.

Note: If you use the cfdump tag to display the cfcatch variable, the display does not include variables that do not have
values.
The cfcatch.TagContext variable contains an array of tag information structures. Each structure represents one
level of the active tag context at the time when ColdFusion detected the exception. That is, there is one structure for
each tag that is open at the time of the exception. For example, if the exception occurs in a tag on a custom tag page,
the tag context displays information about the called custom tag and the tag in which the error occurs.
The structure at position 1 in the array represents the currently executing tag at the time the exception was detected.
The structure at position ArrayLen represents the initial tag in the stack of tags that were executing when the compiler
detected the exception.
The following table lists the tagContext structure attributes:
Entry

Description

Column

Obsolete (retained for backwards compatibility). Always 0.

ID

The tag in which the exception occurred. Exceptions in CFScript are indicated by two
question marks (??). All custom tags, including those called directly, are identified as
cfmodule.

Line

The line on the page in which the tag is located.

Raw_Trace

The raw Java stack trace for the error.

Template

The pathname of the application page that contains the tag.

Type

The type of page; it is always a ColdFusion page.

Database exceptions
The following additional variables are available whenever the exception type is database:

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Property variable

Description

cfcatch.NativeErrorCode

The native error code associated with this exception. Database drivers typically provide
error codes to assist in the diagnosis of failing database operations. The values assumed by
cfcatch.NativeErrorCode are driver-dependent.
If no error code is provided, the value of cfcatch.nativeErrorCode is -1. The value is 0
for queries of queries.

cfcatch.SQLState

The SQLState code associated with this exception. Database drivers typically provide error
codes to assist in the diagnosis of failing database operations. SQLState codes are more
consistent across database systems than native error codes.
If the driver does not provide an SQLState value, the value of cfcatch.SQLState is -1.

cfcatch.Sql

The SQL statement sent to the data source.

cfcatch.queryError

The error message as reported by the database driver.

cfcatch.where

If the query uses the cfqueryparam tag, query parameter name-value pairs.

Expression exceptions
The following variable is only available for Expression exceptions:
Property variable

Description

cfcatch.ErrNumber

An internal expression error number, valid only when type="Expression".

Locking exceptions
The following additional information is available for exceptions related to errors that occur in cflock tags:
Property variable

Description

cfcatch.lockName

The name of the affected lock. This is set to "anonymous" if the lock name is unknown.

cfcatch.lockOperation

The operation that failed. This is set to "unknown" if the failed operation is unknown.

Missing include exceptions

The following additional variable is available if a missing file specified by a cfinclude tag causes the error.
Property variable

Description

cfcatch.missingFileName

The name of the missing file.

Using the cftry tag: an example

The following example shows the cftry and cfcatch tags. It uses the cfdocexamples data source, which many of the
examples listed here use, and a sample included file, includeme.cfm.
If an exception occurs when you run the cfquery statement, the application page flow switches to the
cfcatchtype="Database" exception handler. It then resumes with the next statement after the cftry block, once
the cfcatchtype="Database" handler completes. Similarly, the cfcatchtype="MissingInclude" block handles
exceptions raised by the cfinclude tag.

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<!--- Wrap code you want to check in a cftry block --->

<cfset EmpID=3>
<cfparam name="errorCaught" default="">
<cftry>
<cfquery name="test" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Dept_ID, FirstName, LastName
FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID=#EmpID#
</cfquery>
<html>
<head>
<title>Test cftry/cfcatch</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfinclude template="includeme.cfm">
<cfoutput query="test">
<p>Department: #Dept_ID#<br>
Last Name: #LastName#<br>
First Name: #FirstName#</p>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Use cfcatch to test for missing included files. --->
<!--- Print Message and Detail error messages. --->
<!--- Block executes only if a MissingInclude exception is thrown. --->
<cfcatch type="MissingInclude">
<h1>Missing Include File</h1>
<cfoutput>
<ul>
<li><b>Message:</b> #cfcatch.Message#
<li><b>Detail:</b> #cfcatch.Detail#
<li><b>Filename:</b> #cfcatch.MissingFileName#
</ul>
</cfoutput>
<cfset errorCaught = "MissingInclude">
</cfcatch>
<!--- Use cfcatch to test for database errors.--->
<!--- Print error messages. --->
<!--- Block executes only if a Database exception is thrown. --->
<cfcatch type="Database">
<h1>Database Error</h1>
<cfoutput>
<ul>
<li><b>Message:</b> #cfcatch.Message#
<li><b>Native error code:</b> #cfcatch.NativeErrorCode#
<li><b>SQLState:</b> #cfcatch.SQLState#
<li><b>Detail:</b> #cfcatch.Detail#
</ul>

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</cfoutput>
<cfset errorCaught = "Database">
</cfcatch>
<!--- Use cfcatch with type="Any" --->
<!--- to find unexpected exceptions. --->
<cfcatch type="Any">
<cfoutput>
<hr>
<h1>Other Error: #cfcatch.Type#</h1>
<ul>
<li><b>Message:</b> #cfcatch.Message#
<li><b>Detail:</b> #cfcatch.Detail#
</ul>
</cfoutput>
<cfset errorCaught = "General Exception">
</cfcatch>
</body>
</html>
</cftry>

Use the following procedure to test the code.

Test the code
1 Make sure that there is no includeme.cfm file and display the page. The cfcatch type="MissingInclude" block
displays the error.
2 Create a nonempty includeme.cfm file and display the page. If your database is configured properly, you see an

employee entry and do not get any error.

3 In the cfquery tag, change the line:
FROM Employee

to:
FROM Employer

Display the page. This time the cfcatch type="Database" block displays an error message.
4 Change Employer to Employee.

Change the cfoutput line:

<p>Department: #Dept_ID#<br>

to:
<p>Department: #DepartmentID#<br>

Display the page. This time the cfcatch type="Any" block displays an error message indicating an expression
error.
5 Change DepartmentID back to Dept_ID and redisplay the page. The page displays properly.

Open \CFusion\Log\MyAppPage.log in your text editor. You should see a header line, an initialization line, and
four detail lines, like the following:

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"Severity","ThreadID","Date","Time","Application","Message"
"Information","web-0","11/20/01", "16:27:08",, "cf_root\runtime\servers\default\logs\
MyAppPage.log initialized"
"Information","web-0","11/20/01","16:27:08",,
"Page: web_root/MYStuff/MyDocs/ cftryexample.cfm Error: MissingInclude"
"Information","web-1","11/20/01","16:27:32",,"
Page: web_root/MYStuff/MyDocs/ cftryexample.cfm Error: "
"Information","web-0","11/20/01","16:27:49",,
"Page: web_root/MYStuff/MyDocs/ cftryexample.cfm Error: Database"
"Information","web-1","11/20/01","16:28:21",,
"Page: web_root/MYStuff/MyDocs/ cftryexample.cfm Error: General Exception"
"Information","web-0","11/20/01","16:28:49",,
"Page: web_root/MYStuff/MyDocs/ cftryexample.cfm Error: "

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfset EmpID=3>
<cfparam name="errorCaught" default="">

Initializes the employee ID to a valid value. An application would get the

value from a form or other source.
Sets the default errorCaught variable value to the empty string (to
indicate no error was caught).
There is no need to put these lines in a cftry block.

<cftry>
<cfquery name="test"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Dept_ID, FirstName, LastName
FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID=#EmpID#
</cfquery>

Starts the cftry block. Exceptions from here to the end of the block can be
caught by cfcatch tags.

<html>
<head>
<title>Test cftry/cfcatch</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfinclude template="includeme.cfm">
<cfoutput query="test">
<p>Department: #Dept_ID#<br>
Last Name: #LastName#<br>
First Name: #FirstName#</p>
</cfoutput>

Begins the HTML page. This section contains all the code that displays
information if no errors occur.

<cfcatch type="MissingInclude">
<h1>Missing Include File</h1>
<cfoutput>
<ul>
<li><b>Message:</b> #cfcatch.Message#
<li><b>Detail:</b> #cfcatch.Detail#
<li><b>Filename:</b> #cfcatch.MissingFileName#
</ul>
</cfoutput>
<cfset errorCaught = "MissingInclude">
</cfcatch>

Handles exceptions thrown when a page specified by the cfinclude tag

cannot be found.

Queries the cfdocexamples database to get the data for the employee
identified by the EmpID variable.

Includes the includeme.cfm page.

Displays the user information record from the test query.

Displays cfcatch variables, including the ColdFusion basic error message,

detail message, and the name of the file that could not be found.
Sets the errorCaught variable to indicate the error type.

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Code

Description

<cfcatch type="Database">
<h1>Database Error</h1>
<cfoutput>
<ul>
<li><b>Message:</b> #cfcatch.Message#
<li><b>Native error code:</b>
#cfcatch.NativeErrorCode#
<li><b>SQLState:</b> #cfcatch.SQLState#
<li><b>Detail:</b> #cfcatch.Detail#
</ul>
</cfoutput>
<cfset errorCaught = "Database">
</cfcatch>

Handles exceptions thrown when accessing a database.

<cfcatch type="Any">
<cfoutput>
<hr>
<h1>Other Error: #cfcatch.Type#</h1>
<ul>
<li><b>Message:</b> #cfcatch.Message#
<li><b>Detail:</b> #cfcatch.Detail#
</ul>
</cfoutput>
<cfset errorCaught = "General Exception">
</cfcatch>

Handles any other exceptions generated in the cftry block.

</body>
</html>
</cftry>

Ends the HTML page, then the cftry block.

Displays cfcatch variables, including the ColdFusion basic error message,

the error code and SQL state reported by the databases system, and the
detailed error message.
Sets the errorCaught variable to indicate the error type.

Since the error can occur after information has displayed (in this case, the
contents of the include file), draws a line before writing the message text.
Displays the ColdFusion basic and detailed error message.
Sets the errorCaught variable to indicate the error type.

Using the cfthrow tag

You can use the cfthrow tag to raise your own, custom exceptions. When you use the cfthrow tag, you specify any or
all of the following information:
Attribute

Meaning

type

The type of error. It can be a custom type that has meaning only to your application, such as InvalidProductCode.
You can also specify Application, the default type. You cannot use any of the predefined ColdFusion error types,
such as Database or MissingTemplate.

message

A brief text message indicating the error.

detail

A more detailed text message describing the error.

errorCode

An error code that is meaningful to the application. This field is useful if the application uses numeric error codes.

extendedInfo

Any additional information of use to the application.

All of these values are optional. You access the attribute values in cfcatch blocks and Exception type error pages by
prefixing the attribute with either cfcatch or error, as in cfcatch.extendedInfo. The default ColdFusion error
handler displays the message and detail values in the Message pane and the remaining values in the Error Diagnostic
Information pane.
Catching and displaying thrown errors
The cfcatch tag catches a custom exception when you use any of the following values for the cfcatchtype attribute:

The custom exception type specified in the cfthrow tag.

A custom exception type that hierarchically matches the initial portion of the type specified in the cfthrow tag. For
more information, see the next section, Custom error type name hierarchy.

Application, which matches an exception that is thrown with the Applicationtype attribute or with no type

attribute.

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Any, which matches any exception that is not caught by a more specific cfcatch tag.

Similarly, if you specify any of these types in a cferror tag, the specified error page displays information about the
thrown error.
Because the cfthrow tag generates an exception, a Request error handler or the Site-wide error handler can also
display these errors.
Custom error type name hierarchy
You can name custom exception types using a method that is similar to Java class naming conventions: domain name
in reverse order, followed by project identifiers, as in the following example:
<cfthrow
type="com.myCompany.myApp.Invalid_field.codeValue"
errorcode="Dodge14B">

This fully qualified naming method is not required; you can use shorter naming rules, for example,
myApp.Invalid_field.codeValue, or even codeValue.
This naming method is not just a convention; ColdFusion uses the naming hierarchy to select from a possible
hierarchy of error handlers. For example, assume that you use the following cfthrow statement:
<cfthrow type="MyApp.BusinessRuleException.InvalidAccount">

Any of the following cfcatch error handlers would handle this error:
<cfcatch type="MyApp.BusinessRuleException.InvalidAccount">
<cfcatch type="MyApp.BusinessRuleException">
<cfcatch type="MyApp">

The handler that most exactly matches handles the error. In this case, the
MyApp.BusinessRuleException.InvalidAccount handler runs. However, if you used the following cfthrow tag:
<cfthrow type="MyApp.BusinessRuleException.InvalidVendorCode

the MyApp.BusinessRuleException handler receives the error.

The type comparison is not case sensitive.
When to use the cfthrow tag
Use the cfthrow tag when your application can identify and handle application-specific errors. One typical use for the
cfthrow tag is in implementing custom data validation. The cfthrow tag is also useful for throwing errors from a
custom tag page to the calling page.
For example, on a form action page or custom tag used to set a password, the application can determine whether the
password entered is a minimum length, or contains both letters and number, and throw an error with a message that
indicates the password rule that was broken. The cfcatch block handles the error and tells the user how to correct the
problem.

Using the cfrethrow tag

The cfrethrow tag lets you create a hierarchy of error handlers. It tells ColdFusion to exit the current cfcatch block
and rethrow the exception to the next level of error handler. Thus, if an error handler designed for a specific type of
error cannot handle the error, it can rethrow the error to a more general-purpose error handler. The cfrethrow tag
can only be used in a cfcatch tag body.
The cfrethrow tag syntax
The following pseudocode shows how you can use the cfrethrow tag to create an error-handling hierarchy:

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<cftry>
<cftry>
Code that might throw a database error
<cfcatch Type="Database">
<cfif Error is of type I can Handle>
Handle it
<cfelse>
<cfrethrow>
</cfif
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cfcatch Type="Any">
General Error Handling code
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

Although this example uses a Database error as an example, you can use any cfcatch type attribute in the innermost
error type.
Follow these rules when you use the cfrethrow tag:

Nest cftry tags, with one tag for each level of error handling hierarchy. Each level contains the cfcatch tags for
that level of error granularity.

Place the most general error catching code in the outermost cftry block.
Place the most specific error catching code in the innermost cftry block.
Place the code that can cause an exception error at the top of the innermost cftry block.
End each cfcatch block except those in the outermost cftry block with a cfrethrow tag.

Example: using nested tags, cfthrow, and cfrethrow

The following example shows many of the discussed techniques including nested cftry blocks and the cfthrow and
cfrethrow tags. The example includes a simple calling page and a custom tag page:

The calling page does little more than call the custom tag with a single attribute, a name to be looked up in a
database. It does show, however, how a calling page can handle an exception thrown by the custom tag.

The custom tag finds all records in the cfdocexamples database with a matching last name, and returns the results
in a Caller variable. If it fails to connect with the main database, it tries a backup database.
The calling page
The calling page represents a section from a larger application page. To keep things simple, the example hard-codes
the name to be looked up.
<cftry>
<cf_getEmps EmpName="Jones">
<cfcatch type="myApp.getUser.noEmpName">
<h2>Oops</h2>
<cfoutput>#cfcatch.Message#</cfoutput><br>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cfif isdefined("getEmpsResult")>
<cfdump var="#getEmpsResult#">
</cfif>

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Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cftry>
<cf_getEmps EmpName="Jones">

In a cftry block, calls the cf_getEmps custom tag

(getEmps.cfm).

<cfcatch type="myApp.getUser.noEmpName">
<h2>Oops</h2>
<cfoutput>#cfcatch.Message#</cfoutput><br>
</cfcatch>

If the tag throws an exception indicating that it did not receive

a valid attribute, catches the exception and displays a message,
including the message variable set by the cfthrow tag in the
custom tag.

<cfif isdefined("getEmpsResult")>
<cfdump var="#getEmpsResult#">
</cfif>

If the tag returns a result, uses the cfdump tag to display it. (A
production application would not use the cfdump tag.)

The custom tag page

The custom tag page searches for the name in the database and returns any matching records in a getEmpsResult
variable in the calling page. It includes several nested cftry blocks to handle error conditions. For a full description,
see Reviewing the code section, following the example:
Save the following code as getEmps.cfm in the same directory as the calling page.
<!--- If the tag didn't pass an attribute, throw an error to be handled by
the calling page --->
<cfif NOT IsDefined("attributes.EmpName")>
<cfthrow Type="myApp.getUser.noEmpName"
message = "Last Name was not supplied to the cf_getEmps tag.">
<cfexit method = "exittag">
<!--- Have a name to look up --->
<cfelse>
<!--- Outermost Try Block --->
<cftry>
<!--- Inner Try Block --->
<cftry>
<!--- Try to query the main database and set a caller variable to the result --->
<cfquery Name = "getUser" DataSource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName = '#attributes.EmpName#'
</cfquery>
<cfset caller.getEmpsResult = getuser>
<!--- If the query failed with a database error, check the error type
to see if the database was found --->
<cfcatch type= "Database">
<cfif (cfcatch.SQLState IS "S100") OR (cfcatch.SQLState IS
"IM002")>
<!--- If the database wasn't found, try the backup database --->
<!--- Use a third-level Try block --->
<cftry>
<cfquery Name = "getUser" DataSource="cfdocexamplesBackup">
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName = '#attributes.EmpName#'
</cfquery>

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<cfset caller.getEmpsResult = getuser>

<!--- If still get a database error, just return to the calling page
without setting the caller variable. There is no cfcatch body.
This might not be appropriate in some cases.
The Calling page ends up handling this case as if a match was not
found --->
<cfcatch type = "Database" />
<!--- Still in innermost try block. Rethrow any other errors to the next
try block level --->
<cfcatch type = "Any">
<cfrethrow>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- Now in second level try block.
Throw all other types of Database exceptions to the next try
block level --->
<cfelse>
<cfrethrow>
</cfif>
</cfcatch>
<!--- Throw all other exceptions to the next try block level --->
<cfcatch type = "Any">
<cfrethrow>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- Now in Outermost try block.
Handle all unhandled exceptions, including rethrown exceptions, by
displaying a message and exiting to the calling page.--->
<cfcatch Type = "Any">
<h2>Sorry</h2>
<p>An unexpected error happened in processing your user inquiry.
Please report the following to technical support:</p>
<cfoutput>
Type: #cfcatch.Type#
Message: #cfcatch.Message#
</cfoutput>
<cfexit method = "exittag">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
</cfif>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:

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Code

Description

<cfif NOT IsDefined("attributes.EmpName")>

<cfthrow Type="myApp.getUser.noEmpName"
message = "Last Name was not supplied to the cf_getEmps
tag.">
<cfexit method = "exittag">

Makes sure the calling page specified an EmpName attribute. If

not, throws a custom error that indicates the problem and exits
the tag. The calling page handles the thrown error.

<cfelse>
<cftry>

If the tag has an EmpName attribute, does the remaining work

inside an outermost try block. The cfcatch block at its end
handles any otherwise-uncaught exceptions.

<cftry>
<!--- Try to query the main database and set a caller
variable to the result --->
<cfquery Name = "getUser" DataSource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName = '#attributes.EmpName#'
</cfquery>
<cfset caller.getEmpsResult = getuser>

Starts a second nested try block. This block catches exceptions

in the database query.

<cfcatch type= "Database">

<cfif (cfcatch.SQLState IS "S100") OR (cfcatch.SQLState
IS "IM002")>
<cftry>
<cfquery Name = "getUser"
DataSource="cfdocexamplesBackup">
SELECT *
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName = '#attributes.EmpName#'
</cfquery>
<cfset caller.getEmpsResult = getuser>

If the query threw a Database error, checks to see if the error was
caused by an inability to access the database (indicated by an
SQLState variable value of S100 or IM002).

<cfcatch type = "Database" />

If the second database query failed with a database error, gives

up silently. Because the Database type cfcatch tag does not
have a body, the tag exits. The calling page does not get a
getEmpsResult variable. It cannot tell whether the database
had no match or an unrecoverable database error occurred, but
it does know that no match was found.

<cfcatch type = "Any">

<cfrethrow>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

If the second database query failed for any other reason, throws
the error up to the next try block.

<cfelse>
<cfrethrow>
</cfif>
</cfcatch>

In the second try block, handles the case in which the first
database query failed for a reason other than a failure to find the
database.

If there are no exceptions, sets the calling pages

getEmpsResult variable with the query results.

If the database was not found, starts a third nested try block and
tries accessing the backup database. This try block catches
exceptions in this second database access.
If the database inquiry succeeds, sets the calling pages
getEmpsResult variable with the query results.

Ends the innermost try block

Rethrows the error up to the next level, the outermost try block.
<cfcatch type = "Any">
<cfrethrow>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

In the second try block, catches any errors other exceptions and
rethrows them up to the outermost try block.

<cfcatch Type = "Any">

<h2>Sorry</h2>
<p>An unexpected error happened in processing your user
inquiry. Please report the following to technical
support:</p>
<cfoutput>
Type: #cfcatch.Type#
Message: #cfcatch.Message#
</cfoutput>
<cfexit method = "exittag">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
</cfif>

In the outermost try block, handles any exceptions by

displaying an error message that includes the exception type
and the exceptions error message. Because there was no code
to try that is not also in a nested try block, this cfcatch tag
handles only errors that are rethrown from the nested blocks.

Ends the second try block.

Exits the custom tag and returns to the calling page.

Ends the catch block, try block, and initial cfif block.

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Testing the code

To test the various ways errors can occur and be handled in this example, try the following:

In the calling page, change the attribute name to any other value; for example, My Attrib. Then change it back.
In the first cfquery tag, change the data source name to an invalid data source; for example, NoDatabase.
With an invalid first data source name, change the data source in the second cfquery tag to cfdocexamples.
Insert cfthrow tags throwing custom exculpations in various places in the code and observe the effects.

Using Persistent Data and Locking

Adobe ColdFusion provides several variable scopes in which data persists past the life of a single request. These are the
Client, Application, Session, and Server scopes. These scopes let you save data over time and share data between pages
and even applications. Use these scopes as persistent scopes. In particular, use the Client and Session scopes to
maintain information about a user across multiple requests.
ColdFusion lets you lock access to sections of code to ensure that ColdFusion does not attempt to run the code, or
access the data that it uses, simultaneously or in an unpredictable order. This locking feature is important for ensuring
the consistency of all shared data, including data in external sources in addition to data in persistent scopes.
You can use persistent scopes to develop an application and use locking to ensure data consistency.

About persistent scope variables

ColdFusion provides four variable scopes, described in the following table, that let you maintain data that must be
available to multiple applications or users or must last beyond the scope of the current request.

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Variable scope

Description

Client

Contains variables that are available for a single client browser over multiple browser sessions in an application.
For information about browser sessions, see, What is a session? on page 311.
Useful for client-specific information, such as client preferences, that you want to store for a significant period of
time.
Data is stored as cookies, database entries, or Registry values. Client variables can time out after an extended
period.
Although do not have to use the Client scope prefix in the variable name, code that uses the prefix is more
efficient and easier to maintain.

Session

Contains variables that are available for a single client browser for a single browser session in an application.
Useful for client-specific information, such as shopping cart contents, that you want to persist while the client is
visiting your application.
Data is stored in memory and times out after a period of inactivity or when the server shuts down.
ColdFusion Administrator lets you select between two kinds of session management, Standard ColdFusion
Session management and J2EE session management. For information about types of session management, see
ColdFusion and J2EE session management on page 312.
Use the Session scope prefix in the variable name.

Application

Contains variables that are available to all pages in an application for all clients.
Useful for application-specific information, such as contact information, that can vary over time and should be
stored in a variable.
Data is stored in memory and times out after a period of inactivity or when the server shuts down.
Use the Application scope prefix in the variable name.

Server

Contains variables that are available to all applications in a server and all clients.
Useful for information that applies to all pages on the server, such as an aggregate page-hit counter.
Data is stored in memory. The variables do not time out, but you can delete variables you create, and all server
variables are automatically deleted when the server stops running.
Use the Server scope prefix in the variable name.

The following sections provide information that is common to all or several of these variables. Later sections describe
how to use the Client, Session, Application, and Server scopes in your applications, and provide detailed information
about locking code.

ColdFusion persistent variables and ColdFusion structures

All persistent scopes are available as ColdFusion structures. As a result, you can use ColdFusion structure functions to
access and manipulate Client, Session, Application, and Server scope contents. Information about using these
functions in detail is not covered, but information about features or limitations that apply to specific scopes is
provided.
Note: Although you can use the StructClear function to clear your data from the Server scope, the function does not
delete the names of the variables, only their values, and it does not delete the contents of the Server.os and
Server.ColdFusion structures. Using the StructClear function to clear the Session, or Application scope clears the entire
scope, including the built-in variables. Using the StructClear function to clear the Client scope clears the variables from
the server memory, but does not delete the stored copies of the variables.

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ColdFusion persistent variable issues

Variables in the Session, Application, and Server scopes are kept in ColdFusion server memory. This storage method
has several implications:

All variables in these scopes are lost if the server stops running.
Variables in these scopes are not shared by servers in a cluster.
To prevent race conditions and ensure data consistency, lock access to all code that changes variables in these
scopes or reads variables in these scopes with values that can change.
Note: If you use J2EE session management and configure the J2EE server to retain session data between server restarts,
ColdFusion retains session variables between server restarts.
Additionally, be careful when using client variables in a server cluster, where an application can run on multiple
servers.
Locking memory variables
Because ColdFusion is a multi-threaded system in which multiple requests can share Session, Application, and Server
scope variables, it is possible for two or more requests to try to access and modify data at the same time. ColdFusion
runs in a J2EE environment, which prevents simultaneous data access, so multiple requests do not cause severe system
errors. However, such requests can result in inconsistent data values, particularly when a page changes more than one
variable.
To prevent data errors with session, application, and server variables, lock code that writes and reads data in these
scopes. For more information, see Locking code with cflock on page 318.
Using variables in clustered systems
Because memory variables are stored in memory, they are not available to all servers in a cluster. As a result, you
generally do not use Session, Application, or Server scope variables in clustered environment. However, use these
scope variables in a clustered system in the following circumstances:

If the clustering system supports sticky sessions, in which the clustering system ensures that each user session
remains on a single server. In this case, you can use session variables as you would on a single server.

You can use Application and Server scope variables in a cluster for write-once variables that are consistently set, for
example, from a database.
To use client variables on a clustered system, store the variables as cookies or in a database that is available to all servers.
If you use database storage, on one server only, select the Purge Data for Clients that Remain Unvisited option on the
Client Variables, Add/Edit Client Store page in the Server Settings area in the ColdFusion Administrator.

Managing the client state

Because the web is a stateless system, each connection that a browser makes to a web server is unique to the web server.
However, many applications must keep track of users as they move through the pages within the application. This is
the definition of client state management.
ColdFusion provides tools to maintain the client state by seamlessly tracking variables associated with a browser as the
user moves from page to page within the application. You can use these variables in place of other methods for tracking
client state, such as URL parameters, hidden form fields, and HTTP cookies.

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About client and session variables

ColdFusion provides two tools for managing the client state: client variables and session variables. Both types of
variables are associated with a specific client, but you manage and use them differently, as described in the following
table:
Variable type

Description

Client

Data is saved as cookies, database entries, or Registry entries. Data is saved between server restarts, but is initially
accessed and saved more slowly than data stored in memory.
Each type of data storage has its own time-out period. You can specify the database and Registry data time-outs
in the ColdFusion Administrator. ColdFusion sets Cookie client variables to expire after approximately ten years.
Data is stored on a per-user and per-application basis. For example, if you store client variables as cookies, the user
has a separate cookie for each ColdFusion application provided by a server.
Client variables must be simple variables, such as numbers, dates, or strings. They cannot be arrays, structures,
query objects, or other objects.
Client variable names can include periods. For example, My.ClientVar is a valid name for a simple client variable.
Avoid such names, however, to ensure code clarity.
You do not have to prefix client variables with the scope name when you reference them, However, if you do not
use the Client prefix, you might unintentionally refer to a variable with the same name in another scope. Using
the prefix also optimizes performance and increases program clarity.
You do not lock code that uses client variables.
You can use client variables that are stored in cookies or a common database in clustered systems.

Session

Data is stored in memory so it is accessed quickly.

Data is lost when the client browser is inactive for a time-out period. You specify the time-out in the ColdFusion
Administrator, the Application.cfc initialization code, or Application.cfm.
As with client variables, data is available to a single client and application only.
Variables can store any ColdFusion data type.
You must prefix all variable names with the Session scope name.
Lock code that uses session variables to prevent race conditions.
You can use session variables in clustered systems only if the systems support sticky sessions, where a session is
limited to a single server.

Session variables are normally better than client variables for values that need to exist for only a single browser session.
Reserve client variables for client-specific data, such as client preferences that you want available for multiple browser
sessions.

Maintaining client identity

Because the web is a stateless system, client management requires some method for maintaining knowledge of the
client between requests. Normally you do this using cookies, but you can also do it by passing information between
application pages. Information about how ColdFusion maintains client identity in a variety of configurations and
environments, and the issues that can arise with client state management are described as follows:
About client identifiers
To use client and session variables, ColdFusion must be able to identify the client. It normally does so by setting the
following two cookie values on the clients system:

CFID: A sequential client identifier

CFToken: A random-number client security token

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These cookies uniquely identify the client to ColdFusion, which also maintains copies of the variables as part of the
Session and Client scopes. You can configure your application so that it does not use client cookies, but in this case,
pass these variables to all the pages that your application calls. For more information about maintaining client and
session information without using cookies, see Using client and session variables without cookies on page 305.
You can configure ColdFusion to use J2EE servlet session management instead of ColdFusion session management
for session variables. This method of session management does not use CFID and CFToken values, but does use a clientside jsessionid session management cookie. For more information on using J2EE session management, see
ColdFusion and J2EE session management on page 312.
Using client and session variables without cookies
Often, users disable cookies in their browsers. In this case, ColdFusion cannot maintain the client state automatically.
You can use client or session variables without using cookies, by passing the client identification information between
application pages. However, this technique has significant limitations, as follows:
1 Client variables are effectively the same as session variables, except that they leave unusable data in the client data

store.
Because the clients system does not retain any identification information, the next time the user logs on,
ColdFusion cannot identify the user with the previous client and must create a new client ID for the user. Any
information about the user from a previous session is not available, but remains in client data storage until
ColdFusion deletes it. If you clear the Purge Data for Clients that Remain Unvisited option in the ColdFusion
Administrator, ColdFusion never deletes this data.
Therefore, do not use client variables, if you allow users to disable cookies. To retain client information without
cookies, require users to login with a unique ID. You can then save user-specific information in a database with the
users ID as a key.
2 ColdFusion creates a new session each time the user requests a page directly in the browser, because the new request

contains no state information to indicate the session or client.

Note: You can prevent ColdFusion from sending client information to the browser as cookies by setting
This.setClientCookies variable in Application.cfc or the setClientCookies attribute of the cfapplication tag to No.
To use ColdFusion session variables without using cookies, each page must pass the CFID and CFToken values to any
page that it calls as part of the request URL. If a page contains any HTML hrefa= links, cflocation tags, form tags,
or cfform tags the tags must pass the CFID and CFToken values in the tag URL. To use J2EE session management, pass
the jsessionid value in page requests. To use ColdFusion client variables and J2EE session variables, pass the CFID,
CFToken, and jsessionid values in URLs.
Note: The behavior is as follows when CFID and CFTOKEN are provided in the URL: If session exists, the CFID and
CFTOKEN from the URL are ignored. If the session does not exist, CFID and CFTOKEN from the URL are used to
validate the session and the session is used if it is valid. If the session is not valid, a new session is created. CFID and
CFTOKEN are regenerated.
ColdFusion provides the URLSessionFormat function, which does the following:

If the client does not accept cookies, automatically appends all required client identification information to a URL.
If the client accepts cookies, does not append the information.
The URLSessionFormat function automatically determines which identifiers are required, and sends only the
required information. It also provides a more secure and robust method for supporting client identification than
manually encoding the information in each URL, because it only sends the information that is required, when it is
required, and it is easier to code.

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To use the URLSessionFormat function, enclose the request URL in the function. For example, the following cfform
tag posts a request to another page and sends the client identification, if necessary:
<cfform method="Post" action="#URLSessionFormat("MyActionPage.cfm")#>

If you use the same page URL in multiple URLSessionFormat functions, you can gain a small performance
improvement and simplify your code if you assign the formatted page URL to a variable, for example:
<cfset myEncodedURL=URLSessionFormat(MyActionPage.cfm)>
<cfform method="Post" action="#myEncodedURL#">

Client identifiers and security

The following client identifier issues can have security implications:

Ensuring the uniqueness and complexity of the CFToken identifier

Limiting the availability of Session identifiers
The next sections discuss these issues.

Ensuring CFToken uniqueness and security

By default, ColdFusion uses an eight-digit random number in the CFToken identifier. This CFToken format provides
a unique, secure identifier for users under most circumstances. (In ColdFusion, the method for generating this number
uses a cryptographic-strength random number generator that is seeded only when the server starts.)
However, in the ColdFusion Administrator, you can enable the Settings page to produce a more complex CFToken
identifier. If you enable the Use UUID for cftoken option, ColdFusion creates the CFToken value by prepending a 16digit random hexadecimal number to a ColdFusion UUID. The resulting CFToken identifier looks similar to the
following:
3ee6c307a7278c7b-5278BEA6-1030-C351-3E33390F2EAD02B9

Providing Session security

ColdFusion uses the same client identifiers for the Client scope and the standard Session scope. Because the CFToken
and CFID values are used to identify a client over a period of time, they are normally saved as cookies on the users
browser. These cookies persist until the clients browser deletes them, which can be a considerable length of time. As
a result, hackers could have more access to these variables than if ColdFusion used different user identifiers for each
session.
A hacker who has the users CFToken and CFID cookies could gain access to user data by accessing a web page during
the users session using the stolen CFToken and CFID cookies. While this scenario is unlikely, it is theoretically possible.
You can remove this vulnerability by selecting the Use J2EE Session Variables option on the ColdFusion
Administrator Memory Variables page. The J2EE session management mechanism creates a new session identifier for
each session, and does not use either the CFToken or the CFID cookie value.
Security-related changes
The following security-related specifications apply when you upgrade to ColdFusion 9 Upgrade 1:

CFID, CFTOKEN, and jsessionid are marked httpOnly. This reduces the chance of session information being
compromised on Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attack.

Set the following system property for the session cookies to be httpOnly:
Dcoldfusion.sessioncookie.httponly=true

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The support for session cookies to be httpOnly depends on the application server you use:
For Tomcat/JBoss, httpOnly is not supported for JSESSIONID
On JRun, add the system property, Dcoldfusion.sessioncookie.httponly=true , in the jvm.config file
For other application servers, see the relevant documentation for details on httpOnly support for session
cookies.

Configuring and using client variables

Use client variables for data that is associated with a particular client and application and that must be saved between
user sessions. Use client variables for long-term information such as user display or content preferences.

Enabling client variables

To enable client variables, you specify This.clientmanagement="True" in the Application.cfc initialization code, or set
the cfapplication tag clientmanagement attribute to Yes in the Application.cfm file. For example, to enable client
variables in an application named SearchApp, you can use the following line in the applications Application.cfm page:
<cfapplication NAME="SearchApp" clientmanagement="Yes">

Choosing a client variable storage method

By default, ColdFusion stores client variables in the Registry. In most cases, however, it is more appropriate to store
the information as client cookies or in a SQL database.
The ColdFusion Administrator Client Variables page controls the default client variable location. You can override the
default location by specifying a This.clientStorage value in Application.cfc or by setting the clientStorage attribute
in the cfapplication tag.
You can specify the following values for the client storage method:

Registry (default). Client variables are stored under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\

SOFTWARE\Macromedia\ColdFusion\CurrentVersion\Clients.

Name of a data source configured in ColdFusion Administrator

Cookie

Generally, it is most efficient to store client variables in a database. Although the Registry option is the default, the
Registry has significant limitations for client data storage. The Registry cannot be used in clustered systems and its use
for client variables on UNIX is not supported in ColdFusion.
Using cookie storage
When you set the client storage method to Cookie, the cookie that ColdFusion creates has the applications name.
Storing client data in a cookie is scalable to large numbers of clients, but this storage mechanism has some limitations.
In particular, if the client turns off cookies in the browser, client variables do not work.
Consider the following additional limitations before implementing cookie storage for client variables:

Any Client variable that you set after a cfflush tag is not sent to the browser, so the variable value does not get
saved.

Some browsers allow only 20 cookies to be set from a particular host. ColdFusion uses two of these cookies for the
CFID and CFToken identifiers, and also creates a cookie named cfglobals to hold global data about the client, such
as HitCount, TimeCreated, and LastVisit. This limits you to 17 unique applications per client-host pair.

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Some browsers set a size limit of 4K bytes per cookie. ColdFusion encodes nonalphanumeric data in cookies with
a URL encoding scheme that expands at a 3-1 ratio, which means you should not store large amounts of data per
client. ColdFusion throws an error if you try to store more than 4,000 encoded bytes of data for a client.
Configuring database storage
When you specify a database for client variable storage, do not always have to manually create the data tables that store
the client variables.
If ColdFusion can identify that the database you are using supports SQL creation of database tables, create the database
in advance. When you click the Add button on the Select Data Source to Add as Client Store box on the Memory
Variables page, the Administrator displays a Add/Edit Client Store page which contains a Create Client Database
Tables selection box. Select this option to have ColdFusion create the necessary tables in your database. (The option
does not appear if the database already has the required tables.)
If your database does not support SQL creation of tables, or if you are using the ODBC socket [Macromedia] driver to
access your database, use your database tool to create the client variable tables. Create the CDATA and CGLOBAL
tables.
The CDATA table must have the following columns:
Column

Data type

cfid

CHAR(64), TEXT, VARCHAR, or any data type capable of taking variable length strings up to 64 characters

app

CHAR(64), TEXT, VARCHAR, or any data type capable of taking variable length strings up to 64 characters

data

MEMO, LONGTEXT, LONG VARCHAR, CLOB, or any data type capable of taking long, indeterminate-length strings

The CGLOBAL table must have the following columns:

Column

Data type

cfid

CHAR(64), TEXT, VARCHAR, or any data type capable of taking variable length strings up to 64 characters

data

MEMO, LONGTEXT, LONG VARCHAR, CLOB, or any data type capable of taking long, indeterminate-length strings

lvisit

TIMESTAMP, DATETIME, DATE, or any data type that stores date and time values

Note: Different databases use different names for their data types. The names in the preceding tables are common, but
your database might use other names.
To improve performance, create indexes when you create these tables. For the CDATA table, index these cfid and app
columns. For the CGLOBAL table, index the cfid column.
Specifying client variable storage in your application
The override the default client variable storage location, set the This.clientstorage variable in the Application.cfc
initialization code, or use the cfapplication tag clientStorage attribute.
The following lines from an Application.cfc file tell ColdFusion to store the client variables in the mydatasource data
source:
<cfscript>
This.name"SearchApp";
This.clientManagement="Yes";
This.clientStorage="mydatasource";
</cfscript>

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The following code from an Application.cfm file does the same thing as the previous example:
<cfapplication name"SearchApp"
clientmanagement="Yes"
clientstorage="mydatasource">

Using client variables

When you enable client variables for an application, you can use them to keep track of long-term information that is
associated with a particular client.
Client variables must be simple data types: strings, numbers, lists, Booleans, or date and time values. They cannot be
arrays, recordsets, XML objects, query objects, or other objects. If you must store a complex data type as a client
variable, you can use the cfwddx tag to convert the data to WDDX format (which is represented as a string), store the
WDDX data, and use the cfwddx tag to convert the data back when you read it. For more information on using
WDDX, see Using WDDX on page 1088.
Note: When saving client variable data in WDDX format, in the case of the registry and SQL Server, the limit is about
4K; with ORACLE, the limit is about 2K.
Creating a client variable
To create a client variable and set its value, use the cfset or cfparam tag and use the Client scope identifier as a
variable prefix; for example:
<cfset Client.FavoriteColor="Red">

After you set a client variable this way, it is available for use within any page in your application that is accessed by the
client for whom the variable is set.
The following example shows how to use the cfparam tag to check for the existence of a client parameter and set a
default value if the parameter does not exist:
<cfparam name="Client.FavoriteColor" default="Red">

Accessing and changing client variables

You use the same syntax to access a client variable as for other types of variables. You can use client variables anywhere
you use other ColdFusion variables.
To display the favorite color that has been set for a specific user, for example, use the following code:
<cfoutput>
Your favorite color is #Client.FavoriteColor#.
</cfoutput>

To change the clients favorite color, for example, use code such as the following:
<cfset Client.FavoriteColor = Form.FavoriteColor>

Standard client variables

The Client scope has the following built-in, read-only variables that your application can use:

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Variable

Description

Client.CFID

The client ID, normally stored on the client system as a cookie.

Client.CFToken

The client security token, normally stored on the client system as a cookie.

Client.URLToken

Value depends on whether J2EE session management is enabled.

No session management or ColdFusion session management: A combination of the CFID and CFToken
values, in the form CFID=IDNum&CFTOKEN=tokenNum. This variable is useful if the client does not
support cookies and you pass the CFID and CFToken variables from page to page.
J2EE session management: A combination of CFID,CFToken, and session ID values in the form
CFID=IDNum&CFTOKEN=tokenNum&jsessionid=SessionID.

Client.HitCount

The number of page requests made by the client.

Client.LastVisit

The last time the client visited the application.

Client.TimeCreated

The time the CFID and CFToken variables that identify the client to ColdFusion were first created.

Note: ColdFusion lets you delete or change the values of the built-in client variables. As a general rule, avoid doing so.
You use the Client.CFID, Client.CFToken, and Client.URLToken variables if your application supports browsers
that do not allow cookies. For more information on supporting browsers that do not allow cookies, see Using client
and session variables without cookies on page 305.
You can use the Client.HitCount and time information variables to customize behavior that depends on how often
users visit your site and when they last visited. For example, the following code shows the date of a user's last visit to
your site:
<cfoutput>
Welcome back to the Web SuperShop. Your last
visit was on #DateFormat(Client.LastVisit)#.
</cfoutput>

Getting a list of client variables

To obtain a list of the custom client parameters associated with a particular client, use the GetClientVariablesList
function, as follows:
<cfoutput>#GetClientVariablesList()#</cfoutput>

The GetClientVariablesList function returns a comma-separated list of the names of the client variables for the
current application. The standard system-provided client variables (CFID, CFToken, URLToken, HitCount,
TimeCreated, and LastVisit) are not returned in the list.
Deleting client variables
To delete a client variable, use the StructDelete function or the DeleteClientVariable function. For example, the
following lines are equivalent:
<cfset IsDeleteSuccessful=DeleteClientVariable("MyClientVariable")>
<cfset IsDeleteSuccessful=StructDelete(Client, "MyClientVariable")>

The Client Variables page in the ColdFusion Administrator lets you set a time-out period of inactivity after which
ColdFusion removes client variables stored in either the Registry or a data source. (The default value is 10 days for
client variables stored in the Registry, and 90 days for client variables stored in a data source.)
Note: You cannot delete the system-provided client variables (CFID, CFToken, URLToken, HitCount, TimeCreated, and
LastVisit).

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Using client variables with cflocation

If you use the cflocation tag to redirect ColdFusion to a path that ends with .dbm or .cfm, the Client.URLToken
variable is automatically appended to the URL. You can prevent this behavior by adding the attribute addtoken="No"
to the cflocation tag.
Caching client variable
When ColdFusion reads or writes client variables, it caches the variables in memory to help decrease the overhead of
accessing the client data. As a result, ColdFusion only accesses the client data store when you read its value for the first
time or, for values you set, when the request ends. Additional references to the client variable use the cached value in
ColdFusion memory, thereby processing the page more quickly.
Exporting the client variable database
If your client variable database is stored in the Windows system Registry and you need to move it to another machine,
you can export the Registry key that stores your client variables and take it to your new server. The system Registry lets
you export and import Registry entries.
To export your client variable database from the Registry in Windows:
1 Open the Registry editor.
2 Find and select the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Macromedia\ColdFusion\CurrentVersion\Clients

3 On the Registry menu, click Export Registry File.

4 Enter a name for the Registry file.

After you create a Registry file, you can copy it to a new machine and import it by clicking Import Registry File on the
Registry editor Registry menu.
Note: On UNIX systems, the registry entries are kept in /opt/coldfusion/registry/cf.registry, a text file that you can copy
and edit directly.

Configuring and using session variables

Use session variables when you need the variables for a single site visit or set of requests. For example, use session
variables to store a users selections in a shopping cart application. (Use client variables if you need a variable in
multiple visits.)
Important: Place code that uses session variables inside cflock tags in circumstances that could result in race conditions
from multiple accesses to the same variable. For information on using cflock tags see Locking code with cflock on
page 318.

What is a session?
A session refers to all the connections that a single client makes to a server in the course of viewing any pages associated
with a given application. Sessions are specific to both the individual user and the application. As a result, every user of
an application has a separate session and has access to a separate set of session variables.
This logical view of a session begins with the first connection to an application by a client and ends after that client's
last connection. However, because of the stateless nature of the web, it is not always possible to define a precise point
at which a session ends. A session should end when the user finishes using an application. In most cases, however, a
web application has no way of knowing if a user has finished or is just lingering over a page.

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Therefore, sessions always terminate after a time-out period of inactivity. If the user does not access a page of the
application within this time-out period, ColdFusion interprets this as the end of the session and clears any variables
associated with that session.
The default time-out for session variables is 20 mins. You can change the default time-out on the Memory Variables
page in the Server Settings area in the ColdFusion Administrator.
You can also set the time-out period for session variables inside a specific application (thereby overruling the
Administrator default setting) by setting the Application.cfc This.sessionTimeout variable or by using the
cfapplication tag sessionTimeout attribute. However, you cannot set a time-out value for that is greater than the
maximum session time-out value set on the Administrator Memory Variables page.
For detailed information on ending sessions and deleting session variables, see Ending a session on page 315.
ColdFusion and J2EE session management
The ColdFusion server can use either of the following types of session management:

ColdFusion session management

J2EE servlet session management
ColdFusion session management uses the same client identification method as ColdFusion client management.
J2EE session management provides the following advantages over ColdFusion session management:

J2EE session management uses a session-specific session identifier, jsessionid, which is created afresh at the start
of each session.

You can share session variables between ColdFusion pages and JSP pages or Java servlets that you call from the
ColdFusion pages.

The Session scope is serializable (convertible into a sequence of bytes that can later be fully restored into the original
object). With ColdFusion session management, the Session scope is not serializable. Only serializable scopes can be
shared across servers.
Therefore, consider using J2EE session management in any of the following cases:

You want to maximize session security, particularly if you also use client variables
You want to share session variables between ColdFusion pages and JSP pages or servlets in a single application.
You want to be able to manually terminate a session while maintaining the client identification cookie for use by
the Client scope.

You want to support clustered sessions; for example, to support session failover among servers.

Configuring and enabling session variables

To use session variables, enable them in two places:

ColdFusion Administrator
The Application.cfc initialization code This.sessionManagement variable or the active cfapplication tag.
ColdFusion Administrator, Application.cfc, and the cfapplication tag also provide facilities for configuring session
variable behavior, including the variable time-out.

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Selecting and enabling session variables in ColdFusion Administrator

To use session variables, they must be enabled on the ColdFusion Administrator Memory Variables page. (They are
enabled by default.) You can also use the Administrator Memory Variables page to do the following:

Select to use ColdFusion session management (the default) or J2EE session management.
Change the default session time-out. Application code can override this value. The default value for this time-out
is 20 mins.

Specify a maximum session time-out. Application code cannot set a time-out greater than this value. The default
value for this time-out is two days.
Enabling session variables in your application
Enable session variables in the initialization code of your Application.cfc file or in the cfapplication tag in your
Application.cfm file.
Do the following in the Application.cfc initialization code, below the cfcomponent tag, to enable session variables:

Set This.sessionManagement="Yes".
Set This.name to specify the name of the application.
Optionally, set This.sessionTimeout to set an application-specific session time-out value. Use the CreateTimeSpan
function to specify the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds for the time-out.
Do the following in the Application.cfm file to enable session variables:

Set sessionManagement="Yes"
Use the name attribute to specify the name of the application.
Optionally, use the sessionTimeout attribute to set an application-specific session time-out value. Use the
CreateTimeSpan function to specify the number of days, hours, minutes, and seconds for the time-out.

The following sample code enables session management for the GetLeadApp application and sets the session variables
to time out after a 45-minute period of inactivity:
<cfapplication name="GetLeadApp"
sessionmanagement="Yes"
sessiontimeout=#CreateTimeSpan(0,0,45,0)#>

Storing session data in session variables

Session variables are designed to store session-level data. They are a convenient place to store information that all
pages of your application might need during a user session, such as shopping cart contents or score counters.
Using session variables, an application can initialize itself with user-specific data the first time a user accesses one of
the pages of the application. This information can remain available while that user continues to use that application.
For example, you can retrieve information about a specific users preferences from a database once, the first time a user
accesses any page of an application. This information remains available throughout that users session, thereby
avoiding the overhead of retrieving the preferences repeatedly.

Standard session variables

If you use ColdFusion session variables, the Session scope has four built-in, read-only variables that your application
can use. If you use J2EE session management, the Session scope has two built-in variables. Generally, you use these
variables in your ColdFusion pages only if your application supports browsers that do not allow cookies. For more
information on supporting browsers that do not allow cookies, see Using client and session variables without cookies
on page 305. The following table describes the built-in session variables.

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Variable

Description

Session.CFID

ColdFusion session management only: the client ID, normally stored on the client system as a cookie.

Session.CFToken

ColdFusion session management only: the client security token, normally stored on the client system as a
cookie.

Session.URLToken

ColdFusion session management: A combination of the CFID and CFToken values in the form
CFID=IDNum&CFTOKEN=tokenNum. Use this variable if the client does not support cookies and you must
pass the CFID and CFToken variables from page to page.
J2EE session management: A combination of the CFID and CFToken cookies and the J2EE session ID, in
the form CFID=IDNum&CFTOKEN=tokenNum&jsessionid=SessionID.

Session.SessionID

A unique identifier for the session.

ColdFusion session management: a combination of the application name and CFID and CFToken values.
J2EE session management: the jsessionid value.

Note: ColdFusion lets you delete or change the values of the built-in session variables. As a general rule, avoid doing so.
If you enable client variables and ColdFusion session management, ColdFusion uses the same values for the Client and
Session scope CFID, CFToken, and URLtoken variables. ColdFusion gets the values for these variables from the same
source, the clients CFID and CFTOKEN cookies.
If you use J2EE session management, the Session scope does not include the Session.CFID or Session.CFToken
variables, but does include the Session.URLToken and Session.SessionID variables. In this case, the
Session.SessionID is the J2EE session ID and Session.URLToken consists of the string jsessionid= followed by
the J2EE session ID.

Getting a list of session variables

Use the StructKeyList function to get a list of session variables, as follows:
<cflock timeout=20 scope="Session" type="Readonly">
<cfoutput> #StructKeyList(Session)# </cfoutput>
</cflock>

Important: Always put code that accesses session variables inside cflock tags.

Creating and deleting session variables

Use a standard assignment statement to create a new session variable, as follows:
<cflock timeout=20 scope="Session" type="Exclusive">
<cfset Session.ShoppingCartItems = 0>
</cflock>

Use the structdelete tag to delete a session variable; for example:

<cflock timeout=20 scope="Session" type="Exclusive">
<cfset StructDelete(Session, "ShoppingCartItems")>
</cflock>

Note: If you set session variables on a CFML template that uses the cflocation tag, ColdFusion might not set the
variables. For more information, see TechNote at www.adobe.com/go/tn_18171.

Accessing and changing session variables

You use the same syntax to access a session variable as for other types of variables. However, lock any code that accesses
or changes session variables.

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For example, to display the number of items in a users shopping cart, use the following code:
<cflock timeout=20 scope="Session" type="Exclusive">
<cfoutput>
Your shopping cart has #Session.ShoppingCartItems# items.
</cfoutput>
</cflock>

To increase the number of items in the shopping cart, use the following code:
<cflock timeout=20 scope="Session" type="Exclusive">
<cfset Session.ShoppingCartItems = Session.ShoppingCartItems + 1>
</cflock>

Ending a session
The following rules apply to ending a session and deleting Session scope variables:

If you use ColdFusion session management, ColdFusion automatically ends sessions and deletes all Session scope
variables if the client is inactive for the session time-out period. The session does not end when the user closes the
browser.

If you use J2EE session management, ColdFusion ends the session and deletes all Session scope variables if the client
is inactive for the session time-out period. However, the browser continues to send the same session ID, and
ColdFusion reuses this ID for sessions with this browser instance, as long as the browser remains active.

Logging a user out does not end the session or delete Session scope variables.
In many cases, you can effectively end a session by clearing the Session scope, as shown in the following line. The
following list, however, includes important limitations and alternatives:
<cfset StructClear(Session)>

Clearing the Session scope does not clear the session ID, and future requests from the browser continue to use the
same session ID until the browser exits. It also does not log out the user, even if you use Session scope storage for
login information. Always use the cflogout tag to log out users.

If you use J2EE session management, you can invalidate the session, as follows:
<cfset getPageContext().getSession().invalidate()>

This line creates a pointer to the servlet page context and calls an internal method to reset the session. This clears
all session information, including the session ID Session scope variables, and if you are using session login storage,
the login information, for future request. However, the session information does remain available until the end of
the current request. After you invalidate a session, attempts by the browser to access the application will generate
an invalid session exception until the session times out.
Note: You cannot destroy the session and create a session on the same request, as creating a new session involves
sending session cookies back.

If you do not use client cookies, the Session scope and login state is available to your application only as long as you
pass the sessions CFID, CFTOKEN, and, for J2EE sessions, jsessionid values in the URL query string. After you
stop using these values, however, the session data remains in memory until the session time-out period elapses.

Configuring and using application variables

Application variables are available to all pages within an application, that is, pages that have the same application
name. Because application variables are persistent, you easily can pass values between pages. You can use application
variables for information including the application name, background color, data source names, or contact
information.

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You set the application name in the cfapplication tag, normally on your applications Application.cfm page. The
application name is stored in the Application.applicationName variable.
Unlike client and session variables, application variables do not require that a client name (client ID) be associated with
them. They are available to any clients that use pages in the application.
Important: Place code that uses application variables inside cflock tags in circumstances that could result in race
conditions from multiple accesses to the same variable. For information on using cflock tags, see Locking code with
cflock on page 318.

Configuring and enabling application variables

To use application variables, do the following:

Ensure that they are enabled in the ColdFusion Administrator. (They are enabled by default.)
Specify the application name by setting the This.name variable in the initialization code of the Application.cfc or
by setting the name attribute of the cfapplication tag for the current page.
Note: ColdFusion supports unnamed applications for compatibility with J2EE applications. For more information, see
Unnamed ColdFusion Application and Session scopes on page 1131
The ColdFusion Administrator also lets you specify the following information:

A default variable time-out. If all pages in an application are inactive for the time-out period, ColdFusion deletes
all the application variables. The Application.cfc file or cfapplication tag can override this value for a specific
application. The default value for this time-out is two days.

A maximum time-out. The application code cannot set a time-out greater than this value. The default value for this
time-out is two days.
You can set the time-out period for application variables within a specific application by using the
This.applicationTimeout variable of Application.cfc or the applicationTimeout attribute of the cfapplication tag.

Storing application data in application variables

Application variables are a convenient place to store information that all pages of your application might need, no
matter which client is running that application. Using application variables, an application could, for example,
initialize itself when the first user accesses any page of that application. This information can then remain available
indefinitely, thereby avoiding the overhead of repeated initialization.
Because the data stored in application variables is available to all pages of an application, and remains available until a
specific period of inactivity passes or the ColdFusion server shuts down, application variables are convenient for
application-global, persistent data.
However, because all clients running an application see the same set of application variables, these variables are not
appropriate for client-specific or session-specific information. To target variables for specific clients, use client or
session variables.

Using application variables

Generally, application variables hold information that you write infrequently. In most cases, the values of these
variables are set once, most often when an application first starts. Then the values of these variables are referenced
many times throughout the life of the application or the course of a session.
In circumstances that could result in race conditions from multiple accesses to the same variable, place code that writes
to Application scope variables or reads Application scope variables with data that can change inside cflock tags.

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Because each Application scope variable is shared in memory by all requests in the application, these variables can
become bottlenecks if used inappropriately. Whenever a request is reading or writing an Application scope variable,
any other requests that use the variable must wait until the code accessing the variable completes. This problem is
increased by the processing time required for locking. If many users access the application simultaneously and you use
Application scope variables extensively, your application performance might degrade. If your application uses many
application variables, consider whether the variables must be in the Application scope or whether they can be Session
or Request scope variables.
The application scope has one built-in variable, Application.applicationName, which contains the application
name you specify in the cfapplication tag.
Access and manipulate application variables the same way you use session variables, except that you use the variable
prefix Application, not Session, and specify Session as the lock scope. For examples of using session variables see
Creating and deleting session variables on page 314 and Accessing and changing session variables on page 314.
For information on locking write-once read-many application variables efficiently, see Locking application variables
efficiently on page 323

Using server variables

Server variables are associated with a single ColdFusion server. They are available to all applications that run on the
server. Use server variables for data that must be accessed across clients and applications, such as global server hit
counts.
Server variables do not time out, but they are lost when the server shuts down. You can delete server variables.
Server variables are stored on a single server. As a result, do not use server variables if you use ColdFusion on a server
cluster.
You access and manipulate server variables the same way use Session and application variables, except you use the
variable prefix Server.
Important: Place code that uses server variables inside cflock tags in circumstances that could result in race conditions
from multiple accesses to the same variable. You do not have to lock access to built-in server variables.
ColdFusion provides the following standard built-in read-only server variables:
Variable

Description

Server.ColdFusion.AppServer

The name of the J2EE application server ColdFusion is using. For ColdFusion server
editions, which have an integrated application server, the name is JRun4.

Server.ColdFusion.Expiration

The date on which the ColdFusion license expires if it is the trial version.

Server.ColdFusion.ProductLevel

The server product level, such as Enterprise.

Server.ColdFusion.ProductName

The name of the product (ColdFusion).

Server.ColdFusion.ProductVersion

The version number for the server that is running, such as 6,0,0.

Server.ColdFusion.Rootdir

Directory under which ColdFusion is installed, such as C:\cfusion.

Server.ColdFusion.SerialNumber

The serial number assigned to this server installation.

Server.ColdFusion.SupportedLocales

The locales, such as English (US) and Spanish (Standard), supported by the server.

Server.OS.AdditionalInformation

Additional information provided by the operating system, such as the Service Pack
number.

Server.OS.arch

The processor architecture, such as x86 for Intel Pentium processors.

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Variable

Description

Server.OS.BuildNumber

The specific operating system build, such as 1381

Server.OS.Name

The name of the operating system, such as Windows NT.

Server.OS.Version

The version number of the operating system, such as 4.0.

Locking code with cflock

The cflock tag controls simultaneous access to ColdFusion code. The cflock tag lets you do the following:

Protect sections of code that access and manipulate shared data in the Session, Application, and Server scopes, and
in the Request and Variables scopes for applications that use ColdFusion threads.

Ensure that file updates do not fail because files are open for writing by other applications or ColdFusion tags.
Ensure that applications do not try to simultaneously access ColdFusion extension tags written using the CFX API
that are not thread-safe. This is important for CFX tags that use shared (global) data structures without protecting
them from simultaneous access (not thread-safe). However, Java CFX tags can also access shared resources that
could become inconsistent if the CFX tag access is not locked.

Ensure that applications do not try to simultaneously access databases that are not thread-safe. (This is not
necessary for most database systems.)
ColdFusion is a multi-threaded web application server that can process multiple page requests at a time. As a result,
the server can attempt to access the same information or resources simultaneously, as the result of two or more
requests.
Although ColdFusion is thread-safe and does not try to modify a variable simultaneously, it does not ensure the correct
order of access to information. If multiple pages, or multiple invocations of a page, attempt to write data
simultaneously, or read and write it at the same time, the resulting data can be inconsistent, as shown in the following
Sample locking scenarios section.
Similarly, ColdFusion cannot automatically ensure that two sections of code do not attempt to access external
resources such as files, databases, or CFX tags that cannot properly handle simultaneous requests. Nor can ColdFusion
ensure that the order of access to these shared resources is consistent and results in valid data.
By locking code that accesses such resources so that only one thread can access the resource at a time, you can prevent
race conditions.

Sample locking scenarios

The following examples present scenarios in which you need to lock ColdFusion code. These scenarios show only two
of the circumstances where locking is vital.
Reading and writing a shared variable
If you have an application-wide value, such as a counter of the total number of tickets sold, you could have code such
as the following on a login page:
<cfset Application.totalTicketsSold = Application.totalTicketsSold + ticketOrder>

When ColdFusion executes this code, it performs the following operations:

1 Retrieves the current value of Application.totalTicketsSold from temporary storage.
2 Increments this value.
3 Stores the result back in the Application scope.

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Suppose that ColdFusion processes two ticket orders at approximately the same time, and that the value of
Application.totalTicketsSold is initially 160. The following sequence might happen:
1 Order 1 reads the total tickets sold as 160.
2 Order 2 reads the total tickets sold as 160.
3 Order 1 adds an order of 5 tickets to 160 to get 165.
4 Order 2 adds an order of 3 tickets to 160 to get 163.
5 Order 1 saves the value 165 to Application.totalTicketsSold
6 Order 2 saves the value 163 to Application.totalTicketsSold

The application now has an inaccurate count of the tickets sold, and is in danger of selling more tickets than the
auditorium can hold.
To prevent this from happening, lock the code that increments the counter, as follows:
<cflock scope="Application" timeout="10" type="Exclusive">
<cfset Application.totalTicketsSold = Application.totalTicketsSold + ticketOrder>
</cflock>

The cflock tag ensures that while ColdFusion performs the processing in the tag body, no other threads can access
the Application scope. As a result, the second transaction is not processed until the first one completes. The processing
sequence looks something like the following:
1 Order 1 reaches the lock tag, which gets an Application scope lock.
2 Order 1 reads the total tickets sold as 160.
3 Order 2 reaches the lock tag. Because there is an active Application scope lock, ColdFusion waits for the lock to free.
4 Order 1 adds an order of 5 tickets to 160 to get 165.
5 Order 1 saves the value 165 to Application.totalTicketsSold.
6 Order 1 exits the lock tag. The Application scope lock is now free.
7 Order 2 gets the Application scope lock and can begin processing.
8 Order 2 reads the total tickets sold as 165.
9 Order 2 adds an order of 3 tickets to 165 to get 168.
10 Order 2 saves the value 168 to Application.totalTicketsSold.
11 Order 2 exits the lock tag, which frees the Application scope lock. ColdFusion can process another order.

The resulting Application.totalTickesSold value is now correct.

Ensuring consistency of multiple variables
Often an application sets multiple shared scope variables at one time, such as many values submitted by a user on a
form. If the user submits the form, clicks the back button, and then resubmits the form with different data, the
application can end up with a mixture of data from the two submissions, in much the same manner as shown in the
previous section.
For example, an application stores information about order items in a Session scope shopping cart. If the user submits
an item selection page with data specifying sage green size 36 shorts, and then resubmits the item specifying sea blue
size 34 shorts, the application can end up with a mixture of information from the two orders, such as sage green size
34 shorts.

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By placing the code that sets all of the related session variables in a single cflock tag, you ensure that all the variables
get set together. In other words, setting all of the variables becomes an atomic, or single, operation. It is like a database
transaction, where everything in the transaction happens, or nothing happens. In this example, the order details for
the first order all get set, and then they are replaced with the details from the second order.
For more examples of using locking in applications, see Examples of cflock on page 324.

Using the cflock tag with write-once variables

You need not use cflock when you read a variable or call a user-defined function name in the Session, Application,
or Server scope if it is set in only one place in the application, and is only read (or called, for a UDF) everywhere else.
Such data is called write-once. If you set an Application or Session scope variable in Application.cfm and never set it
on any other pages, lock the code that sets the variable, but do not have to lock code on other pages that reads the
variables value. If you set the variable in the corresponding start method in Application.cfc (for example,
onApplicationStart for Application scope variables), you do not have to lock the code that sets the variable.
However, although leaving code that uses write-once data unlocked can improve application performance, it also has
risks. Ensure that the variables are written only once. For example, ensure that the variable is not rewritten if the user
refreshes the browser or clicks a back button. Also, it can be difficult to ensure that you, or future developers, do not
later set the variable in more than one place in the application.

Using the cflock tag

The cflock tag ensures that concurrently executing requests do not run the same section of code simultaneously and
thus manipulate shared data structures, files, or CFX tags inconsistently. It is important to remember that cflock
protects code sections that access or set data, not the variables themselves.
You protect access to code by surrounding it in a cflock tag; for example:
<cflock scope="Application" timeout="10" type="Exclusive">
<cfif not IsDefined("Application.number")>
<cfset Application.number = 1>
</cfif>
</cflock>

Lock types
The cflock tag offers two modes of locking, specified by the type attribute:
Exclusive locks (the default lock type) Allow only one request to process the locked code. No other requests can run

code inside the tag while a request has an exclusive lock.

Enclose all code that creates or modifies session, application, or server variables in exclusive cflock tags.
Read-only locks Allow multiple requests to execute concurrently if no exclusive locks with the same scope or name are

executing. No requests can run code inside the tag while a request has an exclusive lock.
Enclose code that only reads or tests session, application, or server variables in read-only cflock tags. You specify a
read-only lock by setting the type="readOnly" attribute in the cflock tag, for example:
<cflock scope="Application" timeout="10" type="readOnly">
<cfif IsDefined("Application.dailyMessage")>
<cfoutput>#Application.dailyMessage#<br></cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cflock>

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Although ColdFusion does not prevent you from setting shared variables inside read-only lock tag, doing so loses the
advantages of locking. As a result, be careful not to set any session, application, or server variables inside a read-only
cflock tag body.
Note: You cannot upgrade or downgrade a lock from one type to another. In other words, do not nest an exclusive lock
in a read-only lock of the same name or scope; the exclusive lock will always time out. Also, do not nest a read-only lock
inside an exclusive lock with the same name or scope; doing so has no effect.
Lock scopes and names
The cflock tag prevents simultaneous access to sections of code, not to variables. If you have two sections of code that
access the same variable, they must be synchronized to prevent them from running simultaneously. You do this by
identifying the locks with the same scope or name attributes.
Note: ColdFusion does not require you to identify exclusive locks. If you omit the identifier, the lock is anonymous and
you cannot synchronize the code in the cflock tag block with any other code. Anonymous locks do not cause errors when
they protect a resource that is used in a single code block, but they are bad programming practice. You must always
identify read-only locks.
Controlling access to data with the scope attribute
When the code that you are locking accesses session, application, or server variables, synchronize access by using the
cflockscope attribute.
You can set the attribute to any of the following values:
Scope

Meaning

Server

All code sections with this attribute on the server share a single lock.

Application

All code sections with this attribute in the same application share a single lock.

Session

All code sections with this attribute that run in the same session of an application share a single lock.

Request

All code sections with this attribute that run in the same request share a single lock. You use this scope only if your
application uses the cfthread tag to create multiple threads in a single request. Locking the Request scope also
locks access to Variables scope data. For more information on locking the Request scope, see Locking thread data
and resource access on page 334.

If multiple code sections share a lock, the following rules apply:

When code is running in a cflock tag block with the type attribute set to Exclusive, code in cflock tag blocks
with the same scope attribute is not allowed to run. They wait until the code with the exclusive lock completes.

When code in a cflock tag block with the type readOnly is running, code in other cflock tag blocks with the same
scope attribute and the readOnlytype attribute can run, but any blocks with the same scope attribute and an
Exclusive type cannot run and must wait until all code with the read-only lock completes. However, if a read-only
lock is active and code with an exclusive lock with the same scope or name is waiting to execute, read-only requests
using the same scope or name that are made after the exclusive request is queued must wait until code with the
exclusive lock executes and completes.

Controlling locking access to files and CFX tags with the name attribute
The cflockname attribute provides a second way to identify locks. Use this attribute when you use locks to protect
code that manges file access or calls non-thread-safe CFX code.
When you use the name attribute, specify the same name for each section of code that accesses a specific file or a specific
CFX tag.

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Controlling and minimizing lock time-outs

Include a timeout attribute in your cflock tag. The timeout attribute specifies the maximum time, in seconds, to
wait to obtain the lock if it is not available. By default, if the lock does not become available within the time-out period,
ColdFusion generates a Lock type exception error, which you can handle using cftry and cfcatch tags.
If you set the cflockthrowOnTimeout attribute to No, processing continues after the time-out at the line after the
</cflock> end tag. Code in the cflock tag body does not run if the time-out occurs before ColdFusion can acquire
the lock. Therefore, never use the throwOnTimeout attribute for CFML that must run.
Normally, it does not take more than a few seconds to obtain a lock. Very large time-outs can block request threads
for long periods of time and radically decrease throughput. Always use the smallest time-out value that does not result
in a significant number of time-outs.
To prevent unnecessary time-outs, lock the minimum amount of code possible. Whenever possible, lock only code
that sets or reads variables, not business logic or database queries. One useful technique is to do the following:
1 Perform a time-consuming activity outside a cflock tag
2 Assign the result to a Variables scope variable
3 Assign the Variables scope variables value to a shared scope variable inside a cflock block.

For example, if you want to assign the results of a query to a session variable, first get the query results using a Variables
scope variable in unlocked code. Then, assign the query results to a session variable inside a locked code section. The
following code shows this technique:
<cfquery name="Variables.qUser" datasource="#request.dsn#">
SELECT FirstName, LastName
FROM Users
WHERE UserID = #request.UserID#
</cfquery>
<cflock scope="Session" timeout="5" type="exclusive">
<cfset Session.qUser = Variables.qUser>
</cflock>

Considering lock granularity

When you design your locking strategy, consider whether you should have multiple locks containing small amounts
of code or few locks with larger blocks of code. There is no simple rule for making such a decision, and you might do
performance testing with different options to help make your decision. However, consider the following issues:

If the code block is larger, ColdFusion spends more time inside the block, which can increase the number of times
an application waits for the lock to released.

Each lock requires processor time. The more locks you have, the more processor time is spent on locking code.

Nesting locks and avoiding deadlocks

Inconsistent nesting of cflock tags and inconsistent naming of locks can cause deadlocks (blocked code). If you are
nesting locks, you must consistently nest cflock tags in the same order and use consistent lock scopes (or names).
A deadlock is a state in which no request can execute the locked section of the page. All requests to the protected section
of the page are blocked until there is a time-out. The following table shows one scenario that would cause a deadlock:

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User 1

User 2

Locks the Session scope.

Locks the Application scope.

Tries to lock the Application scope, but the Application scope is

already locked by User 2.

Tries to lock the Session scope, but the Session scope is already locked
by User 1.

Neither users request can proceed, because it is waiting for the other to complete. The two are deadlocked.
Once a deadlock occurs, neither of the users can do anything to break the deadlock, because the execution of their
requests is blocked until the deadlock is resolved by a lock time-out.
You can also cause deadlocks if you nest locks of different types. An example of this is nesting an exclusive lock inside
a read-only lock of the same scope or same name.
To avoid a deadlock, lock code sections in a well-specified order, and name the locks consistently. In particular, to lock
access to the Server, Application, and Session scopes, do so in the following order:
1 Lock the Session scope. In the cflock tag, specify scope="Session".
2 Lock the Application scope. In the cflock tag, specify scope="Application".
3 Lock the Server scope. In the cflock tag, specify scope="Server".
4 Unlock the Server scope.
5 Unlock the Application scope.
6 Unlock the Session scope.

Note: You can skip any pair of lock and unlock steps in the preceding list if you do not need to lock a particular scope. For
example, you can omit steps 3 and 4 if you do not need to lock the Server scope.
Copying shared variables into the Request scope
You can avoid locking some shared-scope variables multiple times during a request by doing the following:
1 Copy the shared-scope variables into the Request scope in code with an exclusive lock in the Application.cfc
onRequestStart method or the Application.cfm page.

2 Use the Request scope variables on your ColdFusion pages for the duration of the request.
3 Copy the variables back to the shared scope in code with an exclusive lock in the Application.cfc onRequestEnd

method on the OnRequestEnd.cfm page.

With this technique the last request wins. For example, if two requests run simultaneously, and both requests change
the values of data that was copied from the shared scope, the data from the last request to finish is saved in the shared
scope, and the data from the previous request is not saved.
Locking application variables efficiently
The need to lock application variables can reduce server performance, because all requests that use Application scope
variables must wait on a single lock. This issue is a problem even for write-once read-many variables, because you still
must ensure that the variable exists, and possibly set the value before you can read it.
You can minimize this problem by using a technique such as the following to test for the existence of application
variables and set them if they do not exist:
1 Use an Application scope flag variable to indicate if the variable or variables are initialized. In a read-only lock,

check for the existence of the flag, and assign the result to a local variable.
2 Outside the cflock bock, test the value of the local variable

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3 If it the local variable indicates that the application variables are not initialized, get an exclusive Application scope lock.
4 Inside the lock, again test the Application scope flag, to make sure that another page has not set the variables

between step one and step four.

5 If the variables are still not set, set them and set the Application scope flag to true.
6 Release the exclusive lock.

The following code shows this technique:

<!--- Initialize local flag to false. --->
<cfset app_is_initialized = False>
<!--- Get a readonly lock --->
<cflock scope="application" type="readonly">
<!--- read init flag and store it in local variable --->
<cfset app_is_initialized = IsDefined("APPLICATION.initialized")>
</cflock>
<!--- Check the local flag --->
<cfif not app_is_initialized >
<!--- Not initialized yet, get exclusive lock to write scope --->
<cflock scope="application" type="exclusive">
<!--- Check nonlocal flag since multiple requests could get to the
exclusive lock --->
<cfif not IsDefined("APPLICATION.initialized") >
<!--- Do initializations --->
<cfset APPLICATION.varible1 = someValue >
...
<!--- Set the Application scope initialization flag --->
<cfset APPLICATION.initialized = "yes">
</cfif>
</cflock>
</cfif>

Examples of cflock
The following examples show how to use cflock blocks in a variety of situations.

Example with application, server, and session variables

This example shows how you can use cflock to guarantee the consistency of data updates to variables in the
Application, Server, and Session scopes.
This example does not handle exceptions that arise if a lock times out. As a result, users see the default exception error
page on lock time-outs.
The following sample code might be part of the Application.cfm file:

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<cfapplication name="ETurtle"
sessiontimeout=#createtimespan(0,1,30,0)#
sessionmanagement="yes">
<!--- Initialize the Session and Application
variables that will be used by E-Turtleneck. Use
the Session lock scope for the session variables. --->
<cflock scope="Session"
timeout="10" type ="Exclusive">
<cfif not IsDefined("session.size")>
<cfset session.size = "">
</cfif>
<cfif not IsDefined("session.color")>
<cfset session.color = "">
</cfif>
</cflock>
<!--- Use the Application scope lock for the Application.number variable.
This variable keeps track of the total number of turtlenecks sold.
The following code implements the scheme shown in the Locking Application
variables effectively section --->
<cfset app_is_initialized = "no">
<cflock scope="Application" type="readonly">
<cfset app_is_initialized = IsDefined("Application.initialized")>
</cflock>
<cfif not app_is_initialized >
<cflock scope="application" timeout="10" type="exclusive">
<cfif not IsDefined("Application.initialized") >
<cfset Application.number = 1>
<cfset Application.initialized = "yes">
</cfif>
</cflock>
</cfif>
<!--- Always display the number of turtlenecks sold --->
<cflock scope="Application"
timeout="10"
type ="ReadOnly">
<cfoutput>
E-Turtleneck is proud to say that we have sold
#Application.number# turtlenecks to date.
</cfoutput>
</cflock>

The remaining sample code could appear inside the application page where customers place orders:

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<html>
<head>
<title>cflock Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>cflock Example</h3>
<cfif IsDefined("Form.submit")>
<!--- Lock session variables --->
<!--- Note that we use the automatically generated Session
ID as the order ID --->
<cflock scope="Session"
timeout="10" type="ReadOnly">
<cfoutput>Thank you for shopping E-Turtleneck.
Today you have chosen a turtleneck in size
<b>#form.size#</b> and in the color <b>#form.color#</b>.
Your order ID is #Session.sessionID#.
</cfoutput>
</cflock>
<!--- Lock session variables to assign form values to them. --->
<cflock scope="Session"
timeout="10"
type="Exclusive">
<cfparam name=Session.size default=#form.size#>
<cfparam name=Session.color default=#form.color#>
</cflock>
<
!--- Lock the Application scope variable application.number to
update the total number of turtlenecks sold. --->
<cflock scope="Application"
timeout="30" type="Exclusive">
<cfset application.number=application.number + 1>
</cflock>
<!--- Show the form only if it has not been submitted. --->
<cfelse>
<form action="cflock.cfm" method="Post">
<p> Congratulations! You have just selected
the longest-wearing, most comfortable turtleneck
in the world. Please indicate the color and size
you want to buy.</p>
<table cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0">
<tr>
<td>Select a color.</td>
<td><select type="Text" name="color">
<option>red
<option>white
<option>blue
<option>turquoise
<option>black

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<option>forest green
</select>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Select a size.</td>
<td><select type="Text" name="size">
<option>small
<option>medium
<option>large
<option>xlarge
</select>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
</cfif>
</body>
</html>

Note: In this simple example, the Application.cfm page displays the Application.number variable value. Because the
Application.cfm file is processed before any code on each ColdFusion page, the number that displays after you click the
submit button does not include the new order. One way you can resolve this problem is by using the OnRequestEnd.cfm
page to display the value at the bottom of each page in the application.

Example of synchronizing access to a file system

The following example shows how to use a cflock block to synchronize access to a file system. The cflock tag
protects a cffile tag from attempting to append data to a file already open for writing by the same tag executing on
another request.
If an append operation takes more than 30 seconds, a request waiting to obtain an exclusive lock to this code might
time out. Also, this example uses a dynamic value for the name attribute so that a different lock controls access to each
file. As a result, locking access to one file does not delay access to any other file.
<cflock name=#filename# timeout=30 type="Exclusive">
<cffile action="Append"
file=#fileName#
output=#textToAppend#>
</cflock>

Example of protecting ColdFusion extensions

The following example shows how you can build a custom tag wrapper around a CFX tag that is not thread-safe. The
wrapper forwards attributes to the non-thread-safe CFX tag that is used inside a cflock tag.

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<cfparam name="Attributes.AttributeOne" default="">

<cfparam name="Attributes.AttributeTwo" default="">
<cfparam name="Attributes.AttributeThree" default="">
<cflock timeout=5
type="Exclusive"
name="cfx_not_thread_safe">
<cfx_not_thread_safe attributeone=#attributes.attributeone#
attributetwo=#attributes.attributetwo#
attributethree=#attributes.attributethree#>
</cflock>

Using ColdFusion Threads

You can use threads in Adobe ColdFusion to simultaneously run multiple streams of execution in a ColdFusion page
or CFC.

About ColdFusion threads

Threads are independent streams of execution. Multiple threads on a page or CFC can execute simultaneously and
asynchronously, letting you perform asynchronous processing in CFML.
Threads are useful for two broad types of activities:

When multiple actions can occur simultaneously

When you do not have to wait for one action to complete before starting the next action
Some typical uses for threads include the following examples:

An application that aggregates information from multiple external sources, that takes significant time to respond,
has the code that gets information from each source in a separate thread. This way, the application starts all requests
quickly and has to wait only until the last response is received, instead of having to wait for a response to each
request before the next request can start. One example of such usage is an RSS or Atom feed aggregator.

A page that sends many mail messages runs the code that sends the mail messages in a separate thread and doesnt
wait for it to complete to continue processing. The thread that sends the mail messages continues processing after
the page-level processing is completed and the application starts processing another page.

An application does maintenance of user data, such as using update queries, deleting records, and so on, whenever
a user logs into the site. If the application does the maintenance in a separate thread, the user gets an immediate
response after logging in, without having to wait for the updates to complete.
When ColdFusion processes a page, the page executes in a single thread, called the page thread. The cfthread tag lets
you create additional threads that can process independently of the page thread, and lets you synchronize thread
processing, for example, by having the page thread wait until threads that you create complete their processing.

Creating and managing ColdFusion threads

You use the cfthread tag and the Sleep function to create and manage ColdFusion threads. You manage a thread by
doing the following actions:

Start the thread running.

Temporarily suspend the processing of the thread. This action is useful if one thread must wait for another thread
to do processing, but both threads must continue processing without joining.

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End a thread. You typically end a running thread if there is an error, or if it is still processing after a long time.
Have the page or a thread wait until one or more other threads have completed processing before proceeding with
its processing, called joining the threads. You typically join threads when one thread requires the results from
another thread. For example, if a page uses multiple threads to get several news feeds for display, it joins all the feed
threads before it displays the results.
Each thread runs the code inside a cfthread tag body and normally exits when the tag body code completes
processing.

Starting a thread
You start a thread by using a cfthread tag with an action attribute value of run. CFML code within the cfthread
tag body executes on a separate thread while the page request thread continues processing. Only the page thread can
create other threads. A thread that you create with a cfthread tag cannot create a child thread, so you cannot have
multiple nested threads.
Optionally, when you start the thread, you can specify a priority level of high, normal (the default), or low to specify
the relative amount of time that the processor should devote to the thread. Page-level code always runs at normal
priority, so you can give your threads more or less processing time than the page.
For more information on using thread attributes, see The Attributes scope and thread attributes on page 333.

Suspending a thread
In some cases, one thread must wait until a second thread completes some operations, but should not wait until the
second thread completes all processing, so you cannot just join the threads. For example, one thread might do
initialization that multiple threads require, and then it might continue with additional processing. The other threads
could suspend themselves until initialization is complete.
The Sleep function and cfthread tag with a sleepaction attribute provide two equivalent mechanisms for doing
such synchronization. They suspend the thread processing for a specified period of time. A code loop could test a
condition variable and sleep for a period before retesting the condition. When the condition is true (or a value is
reached, or some other test is valid), the program exits the loop and the thread continues processing.
The following example shows how one thread could use a sleep function to wait for a second thread to perform some
actions.

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<!--- ThreadA loops to simulate an activity that might take time. --->
<cfthread name="threadA" action="run">
<cfset thread.j=1>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="1000000">
<cfset thread.j=thread.j+1>
</cfloop>
</cfthread>
<!--- ThreadB loops, waiting until threadA finishes looping 40000 times.
the loop code sleeps 1/2 second each time. --->
<cfthread name="threadB" action="run">
<cfscript>
thread.sleepTimes=0;
thread.initialized=false;
while ((threadA.Status != "TERMINATED") && (threadA.j < 400000)) {
sleep(500);
thread.sleeptimes++;
}
// Don't continue processing if threadA terminated abnormally.
If (threadA.Status != "TERMINATED") {
thread.initialized=true;
// Do additional processing here.
}
</cfscript>
</cfthread>
<!Join the page thread to thread B. Don't join to thread A.--->
<cfthread action="join" name="threadB" timeout="10000" />
<!--- Display the thread information. --->
<cfoutput>
current threadA index value: #threadA.j#<br />
threadA status: #threadA.Status#<br>
threadB status: #threadB.Status#<br>
threadB sleepTimes: #threadB.sleepTimes#<br>
Is threadB initialized: #threadB.initialized#<br>
</cfoutput>

Ending a thread
If a thread never completes processing (is hung), it continues to occupy system resources, so it is good practice to have
your application check for hung threads and end them. Also consider ending threads that take excessive time to
process and might significantly reduce the responsiveness of your application or server.
To end a thread, use the cfthread tag with an action attribute value of terminate, as the following code snippet
shows.

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<!--- Thread1 sleeps to simulate an activity that might hang. --->

<cfthread name="thread1" action="run">
<cfset thread.j=1>
<cfset sleep(50000) >
</cfthread>
<!--- Thread2 loops to simulate an activity that takes less time. --->
<cfthread name="thread2" action="run">
<cfset thread.j=1>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="10">
<cfset thread.j=thread.j+1>
</cfloop>
</cfthread>
<!--- The page thread sleeps for 1/2 second to let thread
processing complete. --->
<cfset sleep(500) >
<!--- The page thread loops through the threads and terminates
any that are still running or never started.
Note the use of the cfthread scope and associative array
notation to reference the dynamically named threads without
using the Evaluate function. --->
<cfloop index="k" from="1" to="2">
<cfset theThread=cfthread["thread#k#"]>
<cfif ((theThread.Status IS "RUNNING") || (theThread.Status IS "NOT_STARTED"))>
<cfthread action="terminate" name="thread#k#" />
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<!--- Wait 1/2 second to make ensure the termination completes --->
<cfset sleep(500) >
<!--- Display the thread information. --->
<cfoutput>
thread1 index value: #thread1.j#<br />
thread1 status: #thread1.Status#<br>
thread2 index value: #thread2.j#<br />
thread2 status: #thread2.Status#<br>
</cfoutput>

Note: You can also have the ColdFusion Sever Monitor automatically check for and terminate hung threads.

Joining threads
You use the cfthreadtag with an action attribute value of join to join two or more threads. You join threads when
one thread depends on one or more other threads completing before it can do some processing. For example, a page
can start multiple threads to do processing and join them before it processes the thread results. By default, the join
action stops the current thread from doing further processing until all the specified threads complete processing.
You can use a timeout attribute to specify the number of milliseconds that the current thread waits for the thread or
threads being joined to finish. If any thread does not finish by the specified time, the current thread proceeds without
waiting for the remaining thread or threads to complete.
The following code, for example, joins three threads to the current thread (often, the main page thread). The current
thread waits up to six seconds for the other threads to complete, and continues processing if one or more threads do
not complete by then.

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<cfthread action="join" name="t1,t2,t3" timeout="6000"/>

If the timeout attribute value is 0, the default value, the current thread continues waiting until all joining threads
finish. In this case, if the current thread is the page thread, the page continues waiting until the threads are joined, even
if you specify a page time-out. As a general rule, specify a timeout value to limit hung threads.

Using thread data

Because multiple threads can process simultaneously within a single request, applications must ensure that data from
one thread does not improperly affect data in another thread. ColdFusion provides several scopes that you can use to
manage thread data, and a request-level lock mechanism that you use to prevent problems caused by threads that
access page-level data. ColdFusion also provides metadata variables that contain any thread-specific output and
information about the thread, such as its status and processing time.

Thread scopes
Each thread has three special scopes:

The thread-local scope

The Thread scope
The Attributes scope
The thread-local scope
The thread-local scope is an implicit scope that contains variables that are available only to the thread, and exist only
for the life of the thread. Any variable that you define inside the cfthread tag body without specifying a scope name
prefix is in the thread local scope and cannot be accessed or modified by other threads.
To create a thread-local variable, assign the variable in the cfthread tag body without specifying a scope prefix, as in
the following lines:
<cfset var index=1>
<cfset index=1>

These two lines are equivalent, with one exception: If you use the var keyword, the assignment code must immediately
follow the cfthread tag, before any other CFML tags.
The Thread scope
The Thread scope contains thread-specific variables and metadata about the thread. Only the owning thread can write
data to this scope, but the page thread and all other threads in a request can read the variable values in this scope.
Thread scope data remains available until the page and all threads that started from the page finish, even if the page
finishes before the threads complete processing.
To create a Thread scope variable, in the cfthread tag body, use the keyword Thread or the name of the thread (for
example, myThread) as a prefix. the following examples of creating a Thread scope variable are equivalent:
<cfset Thread.myValue = 27>
<cfset myThread.myValue = 27>

To access a threads Thread scope variables outside the thread, prefix the variable with the threads name, as in the
following example:
<cfset nextValue=myThread.myValue + 1>

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Thread scope variables are only available to the page that created the thread or to other threads created by that page.
No other page can access the data. If one page must access another pages Thread scope data, you must place the data
in a database or file and access it from there.
The Thread scope of each thread is a subscope of a special scope, cfthread, that lasts as long as the request, or until the
last thread that it starts completes, whichever is longer. Thus, if you have two threads, myThread1 and myThread2,
you can access their Thread scopes as cfthread.myThread1 and cfthread.myThread2 until all threads and the request
complete. In most cases, there is no need to use the cfthread scope directly. However, you can use the cfthread scope
name in either of the following situations:
1 If you generate the thread name dynamically, you can avoid using the Evaluate function by using the cfthread

scope with associative array notation, as the following code snippet shows:
<cfset threadname="thread_#N#">
...
<!--- The following two lines are equivalent --->
<cfset threadscopeForNthThread = cfthread[threadname] >
<cfset threadscopeForNthThread = Evaluate(threadname) >

2 If you have a thread with the same name as a Variables scope variable, you can access that threads Thread scope

only by prefacing the Thread name with cfthread. Otherwise, you access the Variables scope variable, or get an
error.
The Attributes scope and thread attributes
The Attributes scope contains attributes that are passed to the thread, either individually or in the
attributeCollection attribute. The Attributes scope is available only within the thread and only for the life of the
thread.
ColdFusion makes a complete (deep) copy of all the attribute variables before passing them to the thread; therefore,
the values of the variables inside the thread are independent of the values of any corresponding variables in other
threads, including the page thread. For example, if you pass a CFC instance as an attribute to a thread, the thread gets
a complete new copy of the CFC, including the contents of its This scope at the time that you create the thread. Any
changes made to the original CFC outside the thread, for example, by calling a CFC function, have no effect on the
copy that is in the thread. Similarly, any changes to the CFC instance in the thread have no effect on the original CFC
instance.
Copying the data ensures that the values passed to threads are thread-safe, because the attribute values cannot be
changed by any other thread. If you do not want duplicate data, do not pass it to the thread as an attribute or in the
attributeCollection attribute. Instead, keep the data in a scope that the thread can access. An example of an object
that should not be passed to the thread as an attribute is a singleton CFC that should never be duplicated. The singleton
CFC must be kept in some shared scope and accessed by threads. For more information, see the Using other scopes
on page 334.
Because ColdFusion copies all attributes by value, you can have multiple threads, for example, threads created
dynamically in a loop, that use the same attribute names, but where each thread gets a different value, as shown in the
following code excerpt, which creates separate threads to copy each of several files in a directory:
<cfloop query="dir">
<cfset threadname = "thread_" & #i#>
<cfset i=i+1>
<cfthread name="#threadname#" filename="#dir.name#">
<cffile action="COPY" source="#src#\#filename#"
destination="#dest#\#filename#\">
</cfthread>
</cfloop>

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Using other scopes

Threads have access to all the ColdFusion scopes. All the threads run by a page share the same Variables and This
scope. All the threads run in a request share the same Form, URL, Request, CGI, Cookie, Session, Application, Server
and Client scopes. Be careful to lock access to these scopes if more than one thread could try to modify the data in the
scopes; otherwise you can get deadlocks between threads. For more information, see Locking thread data and
resource access on page 334.
Although a thread can access all the scopes, it might not be able to write to scopes like Session, Cookie, or Request after
the request page processing completes.
Scope precedence
If you do not specify a scope prefix on a variable inside a cfthread tag body, ColdFusion checks scopes in the
following order to find the variable:
1 Function-local, in function definitions in the thread only
2 Thread-local
3 Attributes
4 Variables
5 Thread/cfthread

Other scopes are checked in the standard scope checking order.

Locking thread data and resource access

When an application uses multiple threads, be careful to ensure that the threads do not simultaneously attempt to use
or modify shared resources that are not themselves thread-safe, including the following items:

If multiple threads modify a Variables or Request scope variable, use a Request scope lock to control access to the
code that uses the variable to prevent deadlocks and race conditions. Similarly, use a Request scope lock around
code that accesses built-in data structures or subscopes of the Variables scope, such as the Forms variable, that you
change in multiple threads.

Multiple threads should not try to access any other shared resource simultaneously. For example, do not use the
same FTP connection from multiple threads. To prevent this behavior, place the code that uses the resource in
named cflock tags. Use the same name attribute for all cflock tags around code that uses a specific resource.
For more information on locking code, see cflock and Locking code with cflock on page 318.

Metadata variables
The Thread scope contains the following variables that provide information about the thread, called metadata.
Variable

Description

Elapsedtime

The amount of processor time that has been spent handling the thread.

Error

A ColdFusion error structure that contains the keys that you can access in a cfcatch tag. This variable has a value
only if an unhandled error occurred during thread processing. For information on handling thread errors, see
Handling ColdFusion thread errors on page 336.

Name

The thread name.

Output

Output text that the thread generates. Threads cannot display output directly. For more information see Handling
thread output on page 336.

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Variable

Description

Priority

The thread processing priority, as specified when you created the thread.

Starttime

The time at which the thread began processing.

Status

The current status of the thread. For information on using the Status in an application, see Using the thread status
on page 336.

As with other variables in the Thread scope, thread metadata is available to all of a pages threads by specifying the
thread name as a variable prefix. For example, the page thread can get the current elapsed time of the myThread1
thread from the myThread1.ElapsedTime variable.
The metadata is available from the time that you create the thread until the time when the page and all threads started
on the page complete processing, even if the page finishes before the threads finish. This way, you can get thread
output, error information, and processing information during and after the time when the thread is processing.

Working with threads

Multi-threaded applications use several building blocks, including the following:

Starting threads in loops

Getting information about the thread processing status
Displaying thread results
Handling thread errors
Using database transactions with threads

Starting threads inside loops

Because threads run asynchronously, page level variables can change during thread execution. As a result of this
behavior, if you start threads inside a cfloop, and code inside the threads uses the value of the loop iterator (like the
index variable, query name, list item), pass the loop iterator to the thread as an attribute.
The following example shows the use of threads inside a loop. It uses an indexed cfloop tag to start five threads. Each
thread gets the current loop index value in a threadIndex attribute. The thread adds an array entry with the
threadIndex attribute value of the thread and the current value of the page cfloop index, pageIndex. After joining
the threads, the page displays the array contents. When you run the example, particularly if you run it multiple times,
you see that at the time the thread saves data to the array, the value of pageIndex has incremented past the
threadIndex value, and multiple threads often have the same pageIndex value; but the multiple threads always have
the correct threadIndex value.
<cfloop index="pageIndex" from="1" to="5">
<cfthread name="thr#pageIndex#" threadIndex="#pageIndex#" action="run">
<cfset Variables.theOutput[threadIndex]="Thread index attribute:" &
threadIndex & "&nbsp;&nbsp; Page index value: " & pageIndex>
</cfthread>
</cfloop>
<cfthread action="join" name="thr1,thr2,thr3,thr4,thr5" timeout=2000/>
<cfloop index="j" from="1" to="5">
<cfoutput>#theOutput[j]# <br /></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

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Using the thread status

The Thread scope status metadata variable lets the page, or any other thread started by the page, determine the status
of any thread. The page processing code can then take a necessary action, for example, if the thread has terminated
abnormally or has hung. The status variable can have the following values:
Value

Meaning

NOT_STARTED

The thread has been queued but is not processing yet.

RUNNNG

The thread is running normally.

TERMINATED

The thread stopped running as a result of one of the following actions:

A cfthread tag with a terminate action stopped the thread.

An error occurred in the thread that caused it to terminate.

A ColdFusion administrator stopped the thread from the Server Monitor.

COMPLETED

The thread ended normally.

WAITING

The thread has run a cfthread tag with action="join", and one or more of the threads being joined have
not yet completed.

Applications can check the thread status to manage processing. For example, an application that requires results from
a thread specifies a time-out when it joins the thread; in this case, it can check for the COMPLETED status to ensure
that the thread has completed processing and the join did not just result from a time-out. Similarly, an application can
check the status value of threads that might not start or might not complete normally, and terminate it if necessary.
The example in Ending a thread on page 330 checks thread status and terminates any threads with RUNNING or
NOT_STARTED status.

Handling thread output

To prevent conflicts, only the page thread displays output. Therefore, named threads have the following limitations:

ColdFusion places all output that you generate inside a thread, such as HTML and plain text, or the generated
output of a cfoutput tag, in the Thread scope output metadata variable. The page-level code can display the
contents of this variable by accessing the threadName.output variable.

All tags and tag actions that directly send output to the client (instead of generating page text such as HTML
output), do not work inside the thread. For example, to use the cfdocument or cfreport tags in a thread, specify
a filename attribute; to use a cfpresentation tag, use a directory attribute.

Handling ColdFusion thread errors

If an error occurs in a thread, page-level processing is not affected, and ColdFusion does not generate an error message.
If you do not handle the error by using a try/catch block in the thread code, the thread with the error terminates and
the page-level code or other threads can get the error information from the thread metadata Error variable and handle
the error appropriately.
You cannot use page- or application-based error handling techniques to manage errors that occur during thread
execution. For that reason, you cannot use the cferror tag or the onError application event handler for thread errors.
Instead, use either of the following techniques:
1 Use cftry/cfcatch tags or try/catch CFScript statements in the cfthread body to handle the errors inside the

thread.

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2 Handle the error outside the thread by using the thread error information that is available to the page and other

threads in the Thread scope threadName.Error variable. Application code can check this variable for error
information. For example, after you join to a thread that had an error, you could check the threadname.status
variable for a value of terminated, which indicates that the thread terminated abnormally. You could then check
the threadName.Error variable for information on the termination cause.

Handling database transactions

Database transactions cannot span threads. For example, consider a page with the following structure:
<cftransaction>
<cfthread name ="t1" ...>
<cfquery name="q1" ...>
...
</cfquery>
</cfthread>
<cfquery name="q2" ...>
...
</cfquery>
<cfthread action="join" name="t1" ... />
</cftransaction>

In this case, query q1 is not included in the transaction that contains query q2. To include both queries in the
transaction, you must place the complete transaction in a single thread, using a structure such as the following:
<cfthread name ="t1" ...>
<cftransaction>
<cfquery name="q1" ...>
...
</cfquery>
<cfquery name="q2" ...>
...
</cfquery>
</cftransaction>
</cfthread>
<cfthread action="join" name="t1" ... />

Using ColdFusion tools to control thread use

The Tag Limit Settings section of the ColdFusion Administrator Server Settings > Request Tuning page lets you specify
a maximum number of cfthread-started threads that can run at one time. When ColdFusion reaches this maximum,
it queues additional cfthread requests and starts the queued threads when running threads end.

Example: getting multiple RSS feeds

The following example uses three threads to get the results of three RSS feeds. The user must submit the form with all
three feeds specified. The application joins the threads with a time-out of 6 seconds, and displays the feed titles and the
individual item titles as links.

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<!--- Run this code if the feed URL form has been submitted. --->
<cfif isDefined("Form.submit")>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="3">
<!--- Use array notation and string concatenation to create a variable
for this feed. --->
<cfset theFeed = Form["Feed"&i]>
<cfif theFeed NEQ "">
<!--- Use a separate thread to get each of the feeds. --->
<cfthread action="run" name="t#i#" feed="#theFeed#">
<cffeed source="#feed#"
properties="thread.myProps"
query="thread.myQuery">
</cfthread>
<cfelse>
<!--- If the user didn't fill all fields, show an error message. --->
<h3>This example requires three feeds.<br />
Click the Back button and try again.</h3>
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<!--- Join the three threads. Use a 6 second timeout. --->
<cfthread action="join" name="t1,t2,t3" timeout="6000" />
<!--- Use a loop to display the results from the feeds. --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="3">
<!--- Use the cfthread scope and associative array notation to get the
Thread scope. --->
<cfset feedResult=cfthread["t#i#"]>
<!--- Display feed information only if you got items,
for example, the feed must complete before the join. --->
<cfif isDefined("feedResult.myQuery")>
<cfoutput><h2>#feedResult.myProps.title#</h2></cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="feedResult.myQuery">
<p><a href="#RSSLINK#">#TITLE#</a></p>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfif>
<!--- The form for entering the feeds to aggregate. --->
<cfform>
<h3>Enter three RSS Feeds</h3>
<cfinput type="text" size="100" name="Feed1" validate="url"
value="http://rss.adobe.com/events.rss?locale=en"><br />
<cfinput type="text" size="100" name="Feed2" validate="url"
value="http://weblogs.macromedia.com/dev_center/index.rdf"><br />
<cfinput type="text" size="100" name="Feed3" validate="url"
value="http://rss.adobe.com/studio.rss?locale=en"><br />
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit">
</cfform>

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Securing Applications
Resource security (Adobe ColdFusion Standard) or sandbox security (Adobe ColdFusion Enterprise) restricts access to
specific resources, such as tags and files. You use the ColdFusion Administrator to configure sandbox or resource
security, and structure an application to take advantage of this security.
User security depends on a user identity. You can implement user security in Adobe ColdFusion applications.
For detailed information on using Administrator-controlled security features, see Configuring and Administering
ColdFusion.

ColdFusion security features

ColdFusion provides scalable, granular security for building and deploying your ColdFusion applications.
ColdFusion provides the following types of security resources:
Development ColdFusion Administrator is password-protected. Additionally, you can specify a password for access
to data sources from Dreamweaver. For more information on configuring Administrator security passwords, see the
ColdFusion Administrator online Help.
CFML features The CFML language includes the following features that you can use to enhance application security.

The cfqueryparam tag: This tag helps prevent users from injecting malicious SQL expressions. For more

information on using this tag for database security, see Enhancing security with cfqueryparam on page 416,

Scriptprotect setting: This setting helps protect against cross-site scripting attacks. You set this value with the
ColdFusion Administrator Enable Global Script Protection setting, in the Application.cfc This.scriptprotect
variable, or in the corresponding cfapplication tag scriptprotect attribute. For more information on this
feature, see cfapplication in the CFML Reference. For information on Application.cfc see Defining the application
and its event handlers in Application.cfc on page 241.

Encryption and hashing functions: The Encrypt, Decrypt, and Hash functions let you select a secure algorithm
for encrypting and decrypting data or generating a hash fingerprint. You can select from among several secure
algorithms that underlying Java security mechanisms support. For encryption, these include, AES, Blowfish, DES
and Triple DES. For more information, see the Encrypt, Decrypt, and Hash, functions in the CFML Reference.

Data validation tools ColdFusion includes a variety of tools for validating form input and other data values,
including ways to ensure that users do not submit malicious form data. For information on data validation see
Validating Data on page 743; for specific information on security and validation, see Security considerations
on page 747.
Resource/Sandbox The ColdFusion Administrator can limit access to ColdFusion resources, including selected tags

and functions, data sources, files, and host addresses. In the Standard Edition, you configure a single set of resource
limitations that apply to all your ColdFusion applications.
In the Enterprise Edition, you can have multiple sandboxes, based on the location of your ColdFusion pages, each with
its own set of resource limitations. You can confine applications to secure areas, thereby flexibly restricting the access
that the application has to resources.
User ColdFusion applications can require users to log in to use application pages. You can assign users to roles
(sometimes called groups); ColdFusion pages can determine the logged-in users roles or ID and selectively determine
what to do based on this information. User security is also called authentication and authorization security.

Note: You can also use the cfencode utility, located in the cf_root/bin directory, to obscure ColdFusion pages that you
distribute. Although this technique cannot prevent persistent hackers from determining the contents of your pages, it does
prevent inspection of the pages. The cfencode utility is not available on OS X.

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About resource and sandbox security

ColdFusion provides two levels of resource-based security:

ColdFusion Standard refers to its resource-based security as resource security. It lets you specify a single set of
limitations on access to ColdFusion resources that apply to all ColdFusion applications.

ColdFusion Enterprise refers to its resource-based security as sandbox security. Sandbox security is a superset of
resource security. Sandbox security lets you create multiple sandboxes, each corresponding to a different directory.
For each sandbox, you specify a set of resource limitations that apply to all ColdFusion pages in the sandbox
directory and its subdirectories. If you create a sandbox that is a subdirectory of a sandbox, the subdirectorys rules
override the parent directorys rules.
The ColdFusion Administrator Resource Security page (in Standard) and Sandbox Security page (in Enterprise) let
you enable resource-based security. In ColdFusion Standard, the page lets you configure the resource settings that
apply to all your ColdFusion applications. In ColdFusion Enterprise, the page lets you create sandboxes and configure
the resource limitations for each sandbox individually.

Resource control
ColdFusion lets you control access to the following resources:
Resource

Description

Data sources

Enables access to specified data sources.

CF tags

Prevents pages from using CFML tags that access external resources. You can prevent pages in the directory from
using any or all of the following tags:
cfcollection, cfcontent, cfcookie, cfdirectory, cfdocument, cfexecute, cffile, cfftp, cfgridupdate, cfhttp,
cfhttpparam, cfindex, cfinsert, cfinvoke, cfldap, cflog, cfmail, cfobject, cfobjectcache, cfpop, cfquery, cfregistry,
cfreport, cfschedule, cfsearch, cfstoredproc, cftransaction, cfupdate

CF functions

Prevents pages from using CFML functions that access external resources. You can prevent pages from using any
or all of the following functions:
CreateObject (COM, Java, Web Service),DirectoryExists. ExpandPath, FileExists, GetBaseTemplatePath,
GetDirectoryFromPath, GetFileFromPath, GetGatewayHelper, GetProfileString, GetTempDirectory, GetTempFile,
GetTemplatePath, SendGatewayMessage, SetProfileString

Files/directories

Sets read, write, execute, and delete access to specified directories, directory trees, or files.

Server/ports

Controls access from ColdFusion to IP addresses and port numbers. You can specify host names or numeric
addresses, and you can specify individual ports and port ranges.

Note: For more information on configuring resource and sandbox security, see Configuring and Administering
ColdFusion and the ColdFusion Administrator online Help.

Sandbox security
In ColdFusion Enterprise, sandbox security lets you apply different sets of rules to different directory structures. Use
it to partition a shared hosting environment so that a number of applications with different purposes, and possibly
different owners, run securely on a single server. When multiple applications share a host, you set up a separate
directory structure for each application, and apply rules that let each application access only its own data sources and
files.
Sandbox security also lets you structure and partition an application to reflect the access rights that are appropriate to
different functional components. For example, if your application has both employee inquiry functions and HR
functions that include creating, accessing, and modifying sensitive data, you could structure the application as follows:

HR pages go in one directory with access rules that enable most activities.

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Employee pages go in another directory whose rules limit the files they modify and the tags they use.
Pages required for both HR and employee functions go in a third directory with appropriate access rules.

About user security

User security lets your application use security rules to determine what it shows. It has two elements:
Authentication Ensures that a valid user is logged-in, based on an ID and password provided by the user. ColdFusion

(or, in some cases if you use web server authentication, the web server) maintains the user ID information while the
user is logged-in.
Authorization Ensures that the logged-in user is allowed to use a page or perform an operation. Authorization is
typically based on one or more roles (sometimes called groups) to which the user belongs. For example, in an employee
database, all users could be members of either the employee role or the contractor role. They could also be members
of roles that identify their department, position in the corporate hierarchy, or job description. For example, someone
could be a member of some or all of the following roles:

Employees
Human Resources
Benefits
Managers
Roles enable you to control access in your application resources without requiring the application to maintain
knowledge about individual users. For example, suppose you use ColdFusion for your companys intranet. The
Human Resources department maintains a page on the intranet on which all employees can access timely information
about the company, such as the latest company policies, upcoming events, and job postings. You want everyone to be
able to read the information, but you want only certain authorized Human Resources employees to be able to add,
update, or delete information.
Your application gets the users roles from the user information data store when the user logs in, and then enables
access to specific pages or features based on the roles. Typically, you store user information in a database, LDAP
directory, or other secure information store.
You also use the user ID for authorization. For example, to let employees view customized information about their
salaries, job levels, and performance reviews. You certainly would not want one employee to view sensitive
information about another employee, but you would want managers to be able to see, and possibly update, information
about their direct reports. By employing both user IDs and roles, you ensure that only the appropriate people access
or work with sensitive data.

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The following image shows a typical flow of control for user authentication and authorization. Following sections
expand on this diagram to describe how you implement user security in ColdFusion.
User requests a
page.

Is a user
logged in

Yes

No

Display login form.

No
Use ID and password to
authenticate user and get
user's authorization roles.

Is the user
authenticated?

Yes

Log user in.

Process requested page.

User is authenticated but

not authorized.
Do not do secured
operations.

No

Is user in role
needed for activity?

Yes
User is authenticated and
authorized.
Do secured operations.

Authenticating users
Use either, or both, of the following forms of authentication to secure your ColdFusion application:

Web server authentication, where the web server authenticates the user and does not allow access to the website by
users without valid login IDs

Application authentication, where the ColdFusion application authenticates the user and does not allow access to
the application by users without valid login IDs
Web server authentication
All major web servers support basic HTTP authentication. Some web servers also support other authentication
methods, including Digest HTTP authentication and Microsoft NTLM authentication.

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Note: Dreamweaver and Studio MX do not support NTLM security with RDS. Therefore, you cannot use RDS with these
applications if the ColdFusion RDS servlet (cf_root/CFIDE/main/ide.cfm) is in a directory that is protected using NTLM
security.
In web server authentication, the web server requires the user to log in to access pages in a particular directory, as
follows:
1 When the user first requests a page in the secured directory, the web server notifies the browser that the requested

page requires credentials (a user ID and password).

Basic HTTP authentication sends the user ID and password in a base64-encoded string with each request. Use SSL
(Secure Sockets Layer) for all page transactions, to protect the user ID and password from unauthorized access. For
more information on SSL and the keytool utility, see About LDAP Server Security on page 475.
2 The browser prompts the user for the credentials.
3 The user supplies the credentials and the browser send the information back to the web server along with the

original request.
4 The web server checks the user ID and password, using its own user authentication mechanism.
5 If the user logs in successfully, the browser caches the authentication information and sends it in an HTTP

Authorization header with every subsequent page request from the user.
6 The web server processes the requested page and all future page requests from the browser that contain the HTTP

Authorization header, if it is valid for the requested page.

You can use web server authentication without using any ColdFusion security features. In this case, you configure and
manage all user security through the web servers interfaces.
You can also use web server authentication with ColdFusion application authentication, and thus use ColdFusion
security for authorization. If the web server uses basic HTML authentication, the ColdFusion cflogin tag provides
access to the user ID and password that the user entered to log in to the web server. If the web server uses Digest or
NTLM authentication, the cflogin tag normally gets the user ID, but not the password.
As a result, your application rely on the web server to authenticate the user against its user and password information,
and does not have to display a login page. You use the cflogin and cfloginuser tags to log the user into the
ColdFusion user security system, and use the IsUserInAnyRole and GetAuthUser functions to ensure user
authorization. For more information on this form of security, see A web server authentication security scenario on
page 349.
Note: If a user has logged in using web server authentication and has not logged in using ColdFusion application
authentication, the GetAuthUser tag returns the web server user ID. You could use this feature to combine web server
authentication with application authorization based on the users ID.
Application authentication
With application authentication, you do not rely on the web server to enforce application security. The application
performs all user authentication and authorization. The application displays a login page, checks the users identity
and login against its own authorization store, such as an LDAP directory or database, and logs the user into
ColdFusion using the cfloginuser tag. The application then uses the IsUserInAnyRole and GetAuthUser functions
to check the users roles or identity for authorization before running a ColdFusion page or specific code on a page. For
an example of application authentication use, see An application authentication security scenario on page 350.

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ColdFusion authentication storage and persistence

How ColdFusion application authentication information is maintained by the browser and ColdFusion, and therefore
how long it is available, depends on the following:

Whether the users browser enables cookies

Whether the application supports the Session scope for login storage
Note: For detailed information on Session scope, see Configuring and using session variables on page 311. Cookie scope
contains the cookies that arthe browser sends; for more information on using cookies, see cfcookie in the CFML Reference.
Authentication and cookies
Because HTTP is connectionless, a login can last beyond a single web page viewing only if the browser provides a
unique identifier that software on the server uses to confirm that the current user is authenticated. Normally, this is
done by using memory-only cookies that are automatically destroyed when the user closes all open browser windows.
The specific cookies and how they are used depend on whether the application supports the Session scope for login
storage.
Note: For information on user logins without cookies, see Using ColdFusion security without cookies on page 344.
Using the Session scope
If you do the following, ColdFusion maintains login information in the Session scope instead of the Cookie scope:

Enable the Session scope in the ColdFusion Administrator and the Application.cfc initialization code or
cfapplication tag.

Specify loginStorage="Session" in the Application.cfc initialization code or cfapplication tag.

When ColdFusion maintains login information in the Session scope, it stores the authentication details in a
Session.cfauthorization variable, and ColdFusion uses the session cookie information to identify the user. Sessionbased authentication has the following advantages over less persistent login storage:

After the user logs in, the user ID and password are not passed between the server and the browser.
The login information and the session share a single time-out. You do not have to manually synchronize sessions
and logins.

If you use server clusters, the Session scope login ID is available across the cluster. For more information on server
clustering, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.
If you do not enable the Session scope, the authentication information is not kept in a persistent scope. Instead, the
detailed login information is placed in a memory-only cookie (CFAUTHORIZATION_applicationName) with a
base64-encoded string that contains the user name, password, and application name. The client sends this cookie to
the web server each time it makes a page request while the user is logged-in. Use SSL for all page transactions to protect
the user ID and password from unauthorized access.
Using ColdFusion security without cookies
Implement a limited-lifetime form of ColdFusion security if the users browser does not support cookies. In this case
you do not use the cflogin tag, only the cfloginuser tag. It is the only time you should use the cfloginuser tag
outside a cflogin tag.
Without browser cookies, the effect of the cfloginuser tag is limited to a single HTTP request. Provide your own
authentication mechanism and call cfloginuser on each page on which you use ColdFusion login identification.

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Using ColdFusion security tags and functions

ColdFusion provides the following tags and functions for user security:
Tag or function

Purpose

cflogin

A container for user authentication and login code. The body of the tag runs only if the user is not logged
in. When using application-based security, you place code in the body of the cflogin tag to check the
user-provided ID and password against a data source, LDAP directory, or other repository of login
identification. The body of the tag includes a cfloginuser tag (or a ColdFusion page that contains a
cfloginuser tag) to establish the authenticated users identity in ColdFusion.

cfloginuser

Identifies (logs in) a user to ColdFusion. Specifies the users ID, password, and roles. This tag is typically used
inside a cflogin tag.
The cfloginuser tag requires three attributes, name, password, and roles, and does not have a body.
The roles attribute is a comma-delimited list of role identifiers to which the logged-in user belongs. All
spaces in the list are treated as part of the role names, so you should not follow commas with spaces.
While the user is logged-in to ColdFusion, security functions access the user ID and role information.

cflogout

Logs out the current user. Removes knowledge of the user ID and roles from the server. If you do not use
this tag, the user is automatically logged out as described in Logging out users on page 348.
The cflogout tag does not take any attributes, and does not have a body.

cfNTauthenticate

Authenticates a user name and password against the NT domain on which ColdFusion server is running,
and optionally retrieves the users groups.

cffunction

If you include a roles attribute, the function executes only when there is a logged-in user who belongs to
one of the specified roles.

IsUserInAnyRole

Returns True if the current user is a member of the specified role.

GetAuthUser

Returns the ID of the currently logged-in user.

This tag first checks for a login made with cfloginuser tag. If none exists, it checks for a web server login
(cgi.remote_user.

Using the cflogin tag

The cflogin tag executes only if there is no currently logged-in user. It has the following three optional arguments
that control the characteristics of a ColdFusion login:
Attribute

Use

idleTimeout

If no page requests occur during the idleTimeout period, ColdFusion logs out the user. The default is 1800
seconds (30 mins). This is ignored if login information is stored in the Session scope.

applicationToken

Limits the login validity to a specific application as specified by a ColdFusion pages cfapplication tag. The
default value is the current application name.

cookieDomain

Specifies the domain of the cookie used to mark a user as logged-in. You use cookieDomain if you have a
clustered environment (for example, x.acme.com, x2.acme.com, and so on). This lets the cookie work for
all the computers in the cluster.

Login identification scope and the applicationToken attribute

The login identification created by the cflogin tag is valid only for pages within the directory that contains the page
that uses the cflogin tag and any of its subdirectories. Therefore, if a user requests a page in another directory tree,
the current login credentials are not valid for accessing those pages. This security limitation lets you use the same user
names and passwords for different sections of your application (for example, a UserFunctions tree and a
SecurityFunctions tree) and enforce different roles to the users depending on the section.

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ColdFusion uses the applicationToken value to generate a unique identifier that enforces this rule. The default
applicationToken value is the current application name, as specified by a cfapplication tag or Application.cfc
unitization code. In normal use, you need not specify an applicationToken value in the cflogin tag.
Specifying the Internet domain
Use the cookieDomain attribute to specify the domain of the cookie used to mark a user as logged-in. You use
cookieDomain if you have a clustered environment (for example, www.acme.com, www2.acme.com, and so on). This
lets the cookie work for all computers in the cluster. For example, to ensure that the cookie works for all servers in the
acme.com domain, specify cookieDomain=".acme.com". To specify a domain name, start the name with a period.
Important: Before setting the cookie domain, consider the other applications or servers in the broader domain might have
access to the cookie. For example, a clustered payroll application at payroll1.acme.com, payroll2.acme.com, and so on,
might reveal sensitive information to the test computer at test.acme.com, if the cookie domain is broadly set to
.acme.com.

Getting the user ID and password

The cflogin tag has a built-in cflogin structure that contains two variables, cflogin.username and cflogin.password,
if the page is executing in response to any of the following:

Submission of a login form that contains input fields with the names j_username and j_password.
A request that uses HTTP Basic authentication and, therefore, includes an Authorization header with the user name
and password.

A message from the Flash Remoting gatewayConnection object that has the setCredentials method set.
A request that uses NTLM or Digest authentication. In this case, the user name and password are hashed using a
one-way algorithm before they are placed in the Authorization header; ColdFusion gets the user name from the web
server and sets the cflogin.password value to the empty string.
You use the first three techniques with application authentication, and the last technique with web server
authentication. The cflogin structure provides a consistent interface for determining the users login ID and password,
independent of the technique that you use for displaying the login form.
Important: Login forms send the user name and password without encryption. Basic HTTP authentication sends the user
name and password in a base64-encoded string with each request; this format can easily be converted back to plain text.
Use these techniques only with https requests, or when you are not concerned about password security.
Provide login information to your application for authentication as follows:
Use a login form to get user information
When you build an application that gets the User ID and password using a login form, the cflogin tag checks for the
existence of a cflogin structure containing the users login information. If the structure does not exist, it displays a login
form, typically using a cfinclude tag on a login page; the following code shows this use.
In the Application.cfc onRequestStart method, or a ColdFusion page or CFC method called by the method, you have
the following:

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<cflogin>
<cfif NOT IsDefined("cflogin")>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>
<cfelse>
<!--- Code to authenticate the user based on the cflogin.user and
cflogin.password values goes here. --->
<!--- If User is authenticated, determine any roles and use a line like the
following to log in the user. --->
<cfloginuser name="#cflogin.name#" Password = "#cflogin.password#"
roles="#loginQuery.Roles#">
</cfif>
</cflogin>

A simple login form looks like the following:

<cfform name="loginform" action="#CGI.script_name#?#CGI.query_string#"
method="Post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>user name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="j_username" required="yes"
message="A user name is required"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>password:</td>
<td><cfinput type="password" name="j_password" required="yes"
message="A password is required"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<input type="submit" value="Log In">
</cfform>

Use a browser dialog box to get user information

Application authentication does not require you to use a login form; you can rely on the browser to display its standard
login dialog box, instead. To do so, your cflogin tag body returns an HTTP status 401 to the browser if the user is not
logged in or if the login fails; that is, if it does not have a valid cflogin structure. The browser displays its login dialog
box. When the user clicks the login button on the dialog box, the browser returns the login information as an HTTP
Authorization header to ColdFusion, which places the information in the cflogin tags cflogin structure.
This technique has the advantage of simplicity; you do not need a login form and the user gets a familiar-looking login
page. Be careful of security issues, however. The browser sends the user name and password in a base64-encoded
string, not just when the user logs in, but with each request. Use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for all page transactions
to protect the user ID and password from unauthorized access.
Note: Ensure that your web server is configured correctly to support browser-based login forms for this use. For example,
in IIS 5, enable anonymous access and disable Basic authentication and Integrated Windows authentication.
The following cflogin tag tells the browser to display a login form if the user has not logged in:

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<cflogin>
<cfif NOT IsDefined("cflogin")>
<cfheader statuscode="401">
<cfheader name="www-Authenticate" value="Basic
realm=""MM Wizard #args.authtype# Authentication""">
</cfif>
<cfabort>
<cfelse>
<!--- code to authenticate the user based on the cflogin.user and
cflogin.password values goes here. --->
</cflogin>

Log in a user using Flash Remoting

If you are developing a Rich Internet Application with Flash and Flash Remoting, your ColdFusion application does
not need to be coded specially for a Flash login. The Flash Remoting gateway makes the user ID and password available
to the cflogin tag in the cflogin structure.
In your Flash code, you use the ActionScript SetCredentials method to send login information to ColdFusion. Your
Flash SWF file displays the user ID and password fields, and uses their contents in the setCredentials method, as
follows:
if (inited == null)
{
inited = true;
NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl("http://localhost/flashservices/gateway");
gatewayConnection = NetServices.createGatewayConnection();
gatewayConnection.setCredentials(userID, password);
myService = gatewayConnection.getService("securityTest.thecfc", this);
}

For more information on using Flash Remoting, see Using the Flash Remoting Service on page 606 and Using Flash
Remoting Update on page 619.

Logging out users

After a user logs in, the ColdFusion user authorization and authentication information remains valid until any of the
following happens:

The application uses a cflogout tag to log out the user, usually in response to the user clicking a log-out link or
button.

If your application uses the Session scope for login information, the session ends.
If your application does not use the Session scope for login information, the user does not request a new page for
the cflogin tag idleTimeout period.

If your application does not use Session scope for login information, or if you use J2EE-based session identification,
the user closes all browser windows.
Logging out a user by using the cflogout tag does not close the users session, but if you use session login storage, it
does remove the login information (the Session.cfauthorization variable) from the Session scope. For more
information on ending sessions, see Ending a session on page 315.

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Important: If you use web serverbased authentication or any form authentication that uses a Basic HTTP
Authorization header, the browser continues to send the authentication information to your application until the user
closes the browser, or in some cases, all open browser windows. As a result, after the user logs out and your application
uses the cflogout tag, until the browser closes, the cflogin structure in the cflogin tag will contain the logged-out users
UserID and password. If a user logs out and does not close the browser, another user can access pages with the first users
login.

Security scenarios
There are two detailed security scenarios. The first scenario uses the web server to perform the authentication against
its user and password database. The second scenario uses ColdFusion for all authentication and authorization.

A web server authentication security scenario

An application that uses web server authentication could work as follows. The example in Web serverbased
authentication user security example on page 354 implements this scenario.
1 When the user requests a page from a particular directory on the server for the first time after starting the browser,

the web server displays a login page and logs in the user. The web server handles all user authentication.
2 Because the user requested a ColdFusion page, the web server hands the request to ColdFusion.
3 When ColdFusion receives a request for a ColdFusion page, it instantiates the Application.cfc and runs
onRequestStart method. If you use an Application.cfm page in place of the Application.cfc, it runs the contents
of the Application.cfm page before it runs the requested page. The onRequestStart method or Application.cfm
page contains a cflogin tag. ColdFusion executes the cflogin tag body if the user is not logged into ColdFusion.
The user is logged in if the cfloginuser tag has run successfully for this application and the user has not been
logged out.

4 Code in the cflogin tag body uses the user ID and password from the browser login, contained in the cflogin.name

and cflogin.password variables, as follows. (With Digest or NTLM web server authentication, the cflogin.password
variable is the empty string.)
a It checks the users name against information it maintains about users and roles. In a simple case, the application

has two roles, one for users and one for administrators. The CFML assigns the Admin role to any user logged
on with the user ID Admin and assigns the User role to all other users.
b It calls the cfloginuser tag with the users ID, password, and roles, to identify the user to ColdFusion.
5 Application.cfc or the Application.cfm page completes processing, and ColdFusion processes the requested

application page.
6 The application uses the IsUserInAnyRole function to check whether the user belongs to a role before it runs

protected code that must be available only to users in that role.

7 The application uses the GetAuthUser function to determine the user ID; for example, to display the ID for

personalization. It can also use the ID as a database key to get user-specific data.
Important: If you use web serverbased authentication or any form authentication that uses a Basic HTTP
Authorization header, the browser continues to send the authentication information to your application until the user
closes the browser, or in some cases, all open browser windows. As a result, after the user logs out and your application
uses the cflogout tag, until the browser closes, the cflogin structure in the cflogin tag will contain the logged-out users
UserID and password. If a user logs out and does not close the browser, another user can access pages with the first users
login.

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An application authentication security scenario

An application that does its own authentication works as follows. The example in Application-based user security
example on page 356 implements this scenario.
1 Whenever ColdFusion receives a request for a ColdFusion page, it instantiates the Application.cfc and runs the
onRequestStart method. If you use an Application.cfm page in place of Application.cfc, ColdFusion runs the
contents of the Application.cfm page before it runs the requested page. The onRequestStart method or
Application.cfm page contains the cflogin tag. ColdFusion executes the cflogin tag body if the user is not logged
in. A user is logged in if the cfloginuser tag has run during the current session and the user had not been logged
out by a cflogout tag.

2 Code in the cflogin tag body checks to see if it has received a user ID and password, normally from a login form.
3 If there is no user ID or password, the code in the cflogin tag body displays a login form that asks for the users

ID and password.
The form posts the login information back to the originally requested page, and the cflogin tag in the
onRequestStart method or the Application.cfm page runs again. This time, the cflogin tag body code checks the
user name and password against a database, LDAP directory, or other policy store, to ensure that the user is valid
and get the users roles.
4 If the user name and password are valid, the cflogin tag body code calls the cfloginuser tag with the users ID,

password, and roles, to identify the user to ColdFusion.

5 When the user is logged in, application pages use the IsUserInAnyRole function to check whether the user belongs

to a role before they run protected code that must be available only to users in that role.
The application can use the GetAuthUser function to determine the user ID; for example, to display the ID for
personalization. It can also use the ID as a database key to get user-specific data.
6 Each application page displays a link to a logout form that uses the cflogout tag to log out the user. Typically, the

logout link is in a page header that appears in all pages. The logout form can also be in the Application.cfc (for
example, in the onRequestStart or onRequestEnd method) or on the Application.cfm page.
Although this scenario shows one method for implementing user security, it is only an example. For example, your
application could require users to log in for only some pages, such as pages in a folder that contains administrative
functions. When you design your user security implementation, remember the following:

Code in the cflogin tag body executes only if there is no user logged in.
With application authentication, you write the code that gets the identification from the user and tests this
information against a secure credential store.

After you have authenticated the user, you use the cfloginuser tag to log the user into ColdFusion.

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The following image shows this flow of control. For simplicity, it omits the log-out option.
Step 1

User requests a
page.

Applicaton.cfc or
Application .cfm runs
first.
In Application.cfc
(or Application.cfm)
and related files

Form posts to
originally
requested
page.

Is a user
logged in?

Yes

Step 3
No
In cflogin tag
Step 2

User submits
form.

Display
login
form.

No

Has the user

submitted a login ID
and password?

Yes
Step 4
Use ID and password to
request user's roles from
login database.

Is the user
valid?

No

Yes

Use cfloginuser to log in the

user and identify roles.

In requested page
IsUserInRole
function
User is valid but
not authorized; do
not do secured
operations.

Step 5

Is user in role
needed for activity?

User is valid and

authorized ; do
secured
operations .

Implementing user security

You can implement security in the following ways.

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Using the Dreamweaver Login Wizard

ColdFusion installs a Login Wizard command in the Dreamweaver Commands menu that generates a skeleton set of
pages for managing user authentication and authorization.
The wizard asks you to select how to authenticate the login information. Select one of the following options:

Simple Specify a single user ID and password in the wizard. All users must enter this information to log in. Use
this option for testing, or use the generated files as a template where you can replace the authentication code with
more complex code. For example, to verify the ID and password against a database.

NT domain Specify an NT domain in the wizard, and the wizard generates code that queries the domain.
LDAP Specify the LDAP server and port, the user name and password required to access the login data, and the
distinguished name to use to start the search for the user name. The wizard generates the code to query the LDAP
server with the user ID and password.
The wizard asks you to select one of the following options for displaying the request for login information:

Browser Dialog Box

ColdFusion Login Form
Structure code generated by the Login Wizard
The wizard generates or modifies the following files in the directory or site that you specify:
Application.cfc If this file does not exist, the wizard creates it with a single onRequestStart method; it does not
specify an application name or any other methods. If the file exists, but does not have an onRequestStart method, it
adds the method. If Application.cfc and the onRequestStart method exist, the wizard inserts the required code at the
beginning of the method. The resulting onRequestStart method has a cfinclude tag that specifies
mm_wizard_application_include.cfm; it also has a simple form with a logout button, which appears at the top of each
page in the application.

Note: If the wizard creates the Application.cfc file, change the file to specify the application name. For more information
on Application.cfc, see Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application on page 235.
mm_wizard_application_include.cfm The Login Wizard uses the information specified in the wizard fields to set

several CFC method arguments. It then uses them to invoke the performlogin method of the master login CFC,
mm_wizard.authenticate.
mm_wizard_authenticate.cfc This CFC contains all of the user authentication and login logic. The CFC consists of the

following methods:

The ntauth, ldapauth, and simpleauth authentication methods check the users name and ID against the valid login
information, and return information about whether the user is authenticated. For the details of how they
authenticate the user and the specific return values, see the methods.

The performLogin method is the master login method. It contains the cflogin tag, which displays the login form
and calls the required authentication method. If the authentication methods return argument indicates a valid
user, the method logs the user in.

The logout method logs out a user. If you specified Browser Dialog Box as the login page type, it also calls the
closeBrowser method to close the browser window. This behavior is necessary because the browser continues to
send the old login credentials after the user logs out, and the cflogin tag will automatically use them and log the
user in again.

The closeBrowser method closes the browser window or tells the user to close the browser window to complete the
logout, depending on the browser type.

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mm_wizard_login.cfm This file contains a ColdFusion login form. The wizard generates this file for all options, but

does not use it if you specify Browser Dialog login.

index.cfm or mm_wizard_index.cfm The wizard generates an index.cfm page if the directory does not have one;

otherwise, creates an mm_wizard_index.cfm page. These pages let you test the generated login code before you
implement your application, or without using any of your standard application pages. To test your login, open the
index.cfm page in your browser.
Modifying the login code for your application
The Login Wizard creates a basic framework for authenticating a user. Customize this framework to meet the needs
of your application. Typical security-related changes include the following:

Providing user-specific role information in the cflogin tag

Authenticating users against a database

Providing user-specific role information

The Login Wizard sets all users in a single role. In mm_wizard_authenticate.cfc, the performlogin method is hardcoded to set the role to user. The authentication routines handle roles differently. (For the details, see the
mm_wizard_authenticate.cfc code.) If your application uses roles for authorization, change the authentication method
to get and return valid role information, and change the performlogin method to use the information in the roles
attribute of its cfloginuser tag.

Authenticating users against a database

If you use a database to maintain user IDs and passwords, create your login framework by specifying simple
authentication, and modify the code to use the database. The following instructions describe a simple way to change
the code to use a database. They do not include all the cleanup work (particularly, removing the hard-coded user name
and password) needed for a well-formatted application.
Replace the following code:
<cfif sUserName eq uUserName AND sPassword eq uPassword>
<cfset retargs.authenticated="YES">
<cfelse>
<cfset retargs.authenticated="NO">
</cfif>
<cfreturn retargs>

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With code like the following:

<cfquery name="loginQuery" dataSource="#Application.DB#" >
SELECT *
FROM Users
WHERE UserName = <cfqueryparam value="#uUserName#" CFSEQLType=
'CF_SQL_VARCHAR'AND password = <cfqueryparam value="#uPassword#"
CFSEQLType='CF_SQL_VARCHAR'>
</cfquery>
<cfif loginQuery.recordcount gt 0>
<cfset retargs.authenticated="YES">
<cfset retargs.roles=loginQuery.roles>
<cfelse>
<cfset retargs.authenticated="NO">
</cfif>
<cfreturn retargs>

Note: For greater security, consider using a hashed password. Do not store the password directly in the database; instead,
use the hash function to create a secure password fingerprint, and store it in the database. When the user provides a
password, use the Hash function on the submitted string and compare it with the value in the database.

Web serverbased authentication user security example

The following example shows how to implement user security using web-serverbased basic authentication and two
roles, user and administrator.
This example has two ColdFusion pages:
1 The Application.cfc page logs the user into the ColdFusion security system and assigns the user to specific roles

based on the users ID.

This page also includes the one-button form and logic for logging out a user, which appears at the top of each page.
2 The securitytest.cfm page is a sample application page. It displays the logged-in users roles.

This simple example does not provide a user log-out interface. Test the security behavior by adding your own pages to
the same directory as the Application.cfc page.
Example: Application.cfc
The Application.cfc page consists of the following:

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<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "Orders">
<cffunction name="OnRequestStart">
<cfargument name = "request" required="true"/>
<cflogin>
<cfif IsDefined("cflogin")>
<cfif cflogin.name eq "admin">
<cfset roles = "user,admin">
<cfelse>
<cfset roles = "user">
</cfif>
<cfloginuser name = "#cflogin.name#" password = "#cflogin.password#"
roles = "#roles#" />
<cfelse>
<!--- This should never happen. --->
<h4>Authentication data is missing.</h4>
Try to reload the page or contact the site administrator.
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cflogin>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Reviewing the code

The Application.cfc onRequestStart method executes before the code in each ColdFusion page in an application. For
more information on the Application.cfc page and when it is executed, see Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion
Application on page 235.
The following table describes the CFML code in Application.cfc and its function:
Code

Description

<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "Orders">
<cffunction name="OnRequestStart">
<cfargument name = "request" required="true"/>

Identifies the application and starts the onRequestStart method that

runs at the starts of each request. The login information on this page only
applies to this application.

<cflogin>
<cfif IsDefined("cflogin")>
<cfif cflogin.name eq "admin">
<cfset roles = "user,admin">
<cfelse>
<cfset roles = "user">
</cfif>

Executes if there is no logged-in user.

<cfloginuser name = "#cflogin.name#" password =

"#cflogin.password#" roles = "#roles#" />

Logs the user into the ColdFusion security system and specifies the users
password, name, and roles. Gets the password and name directly from the
cflogin structure.

<cfelse>
<!--- This should never happen. --->
<h4>Authentication data is missing.</h4>
Try to reload the page or contact the site
administrator.
<cfabort>

This code should never run, but if the user somehow got to this page
without logging in to the web server, this message would display and
ColdFusion would stop processing the request.

</cfif>
</cflogin>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Ends the if/else block.

Makes sure that the user is correctly logged in by the web server.
(Otherwise, there would be no cflogin variable.)
Sets a roles variable based on the users ID. Assigns users named "admin"
to the admin role. Assigns all other users to the users role.

Ends the cflogin tag body.

Ends the onRequestStart method.
Ends the Application component.

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Example: securitytest.cfm
The securitytest.cfm page shows how any application page uses ColdFusion user authorization features. The web
server ensures the existence of an authenticated user, and the Application.cfc page ensures that the user is assigned to
roles the page content appears. The securitytest.cfm page uses the IsUserInAnyRole and GetAuthUser functions to
control the information that is displayed.
The securitytest.cfm page consists of the following:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Basic authentication security test page</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfoutput>
<h2>Welcome #GetAuthUser()#!</h2>
</cfoutput>
ALL Logged-in Users see this message.<br>
<br>
<cfscript>
if (IsUserInRole("admin"))
WriteOutput("Users in the admin role see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("user"))
WriteOutput("Everyone in the user role sees this message.<br><br>");
</cfscript>
</body>
</html>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the securitytest.cfm page CFML code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfoutput>
<h2>Welcome #GetAuthUser()#!</h2>
</cfoutput>

User is already logged in by Application.cfc. Displays a welcome

message that includes the users login ID.

ALL Logged-in Users see this message.<br>

<br>

Displays this message in all cases. The page does not display until a
user is logged in.

<cfscript>
if (IsUserInRole("admin"))
WriteOutput("Users in the admin role see this
message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("user"))
WriteOutput("Everyone in the user role sees this
message.<br><br>");
</cfscript>

Tests whether the user belongs to each of the valid roles. If the user is
in a role, displays a message with the role name.
The user sees one message per role to which the user belongs.

Application-based user security example

The following example shows how to implement user security by authenticating users and then allowing users to see
or use only the resources that they are authorized to access.

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This example has three ColdFusion pages:

The Application.cfc page contains the authentication logic that checks whether a user is logged in, requests the
login page if the user is not logged in, and authenticates the data from the login page. If the user is authenticated, it
logs the user in.
This page also includes the one-button form and logic for logging out a user, which appears at the top of each page.

The loginform.cfm page displays the login form. The code on this page could also be included in Application.cfc.
The securitytest.cfm page is a sample application page. It displays the logged-in users roles.
Test the security behavior by adding your own pages to the same directory as the Application.cfc page.
The example gets user information from the LoginInfo table of the cfdocexamples database that is installed with
ColdFusion. You can replace this database with any database containing UserID, Password, and Roles fields. The
sample database contains the following data:
UserID

Password

Roles

BobZ

Ads10

Employee,Sales

JaniceF

Qwer12

Contractor,Documentation

RandalQ

ImMe

Employee,Human Resources,Manager

Because spaces are meaningful in roles strings, do not follow the comma separators in the Roles fields with spaces.
Example: Application.cfc
The Application.cfc page consists of the following:
<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "Orders">
<cfset This.Sessionmanagement="True">
<cfset This.loginstorage="session">
<cffunction name="OnRequestStart">
<cfargument name = "request" required="true"/>
<cfif IsDefined("Form.logout")>
<cflogout>
</cfif>
<cflogin>
<cfif NOT IsDefined("cflogin")>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>
<cfelse>
<cfif cflogin.name IS "" OR cflogin.password IS "">
<cfoutput>
<h2>You must enter text in both the User Name and Password fields.
</h2>
</cfoutput>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>
<cfelse>
<cfquery name="loginQuery" dataSource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT UserID, Roles
FROM LoginInfo
WHERE

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UserID = '#cflogin.name#'
AND Password = '#cflogin.password#'
</cfquery>
<cfif loginQuery.Roles NEQ "">
<cfloginuser name="#cflogin.name#" Password = "#cflogin.password#"
roles="#loginQuery.Roles#">
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
<H2>Your login information is not valid.<br>
Please Try again</H2>
</cfoutput>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cflogin>
<cfif GetAuthUser() NEQ "">
<cfoutput>
<form action="securitytest.cfm" method="Post">
<input type="submit" Name="Logout" value="Logout">
</form>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Reviewing the code

The Application.cfc page executes before the code in each ColdFusion page in an application. For more information
on the Application.cfc page and when it is executed, see Designing and Optimizing a ColdFusion Application on
page 235.
The following table describes the CFML code in Application.cfc and its function:
Code

Description

<cfcomponent>
<cfset This.name = "Orders">
<cfset This.Sessionmanagement="True">
<cfset This.loginstorage="session">

Identifies the application, enables session management, and enables

storing login information in the Session scope.

<cffunction name="OnRequestStart">
<cfargument name = "request" required="true"/>

Begins the definition of the onRequestStart method that runs at

the starts of each request.

<cfif IsDefined("Form.logout")>
<cflogout>
</cfif>

If the user just submitted the logout form, logs out the user. The
following cflogin tag runs as a result.

<cflogin>
<cfif NOT IsDefined("cflogin")>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>

Runs if there is no logged-in user.

Tests to see if the user has submitted a login form. If not, uses
cfinclude to display the form. The built-in cflogin variable exists
and contains the user name and password only if the login form used
j_username and j_password for the input fields.
The cfabort tag prevents processing of any code that follows on this
page.

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Code

Description

<cfelse>
<cfif cflogin.name IS "" OR cflogin.password IS "">
<cfoutput>
<h2>You must enter text in both the User Name and
Password fields. </h2>
</cfoutput>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>

Runs if the user submitted a login form.

<cfelse>
<cfquery name="loginQuery"
dataSource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT UserID, Roles
FROM LoginInfo
WHERE
UserID = '#cflogin.name#'
AND Password = '#cflogin.password#'
</cfquery>

Runs if the user submitted a login form and both fields contain data.

<cfif loginQuery.Roles NEQ "">

<cfloginuser name="#cflogin.name#" Password =
"#cflogin.password#" roles="#loginQuery.Roles#">

If the query returns data in the Roles field, logs in the user using the
users name and password and the Roles field from the database. In
this application, every user must be in some role.

<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
<H2>Your login information is not valid.<br>
Please Try again</H2>
</cfoutput>
<cfinclude template="loginform.cfm">
<cfabort>

Runs if the query did not return a role. If the database is valid, this
means there was no entry matching the user ID and password.
Displays a message, followed by the login form.

</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cflogin>

Ends the loginquery.Roles test code.

Tests to make sure that both name and password have data. If either
variable is empty, displays a message, followed by the login form.
The cfabort tag prevents processing of any code that follows on this
page.

Uses the cflogin structures name and password entries to find the
user record in the database and get the users roles.

The cfabort tag prevents processing of any code that follows on this
page.

Ends the form entry empty value test.

Ends the form entry existence test.
Ends the cflogin tag body.

<cfif GetAuthUser() NEQ "">

<cfoutput>
<form action="securitytest.cfm" method="Post">
<input type="submit" Name="Logout" value="Logout">
</form>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

If a user is logged-in, displays the Logout button.

</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Ends the onRequestStart method

If the user clicks the button, posts the form to the applications
(theoretical) entry page, index.cfm.
Application.cfc then logs out the user and displays the login form. If
the user logs in again, ColdFusion displays index.cfm.

Ends the Application component.

Example: loginform.cfm
The loginform.cfm page consists of the following:

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<H2>Please Log In</H2>

<cfoutput>
<form action="#CGI.script_name#?#CGI.query_string#" method="Post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>user name:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="j_username"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>password:</td>
<td><input type="password" name="j_password"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<input type="submit" value="Log In">
</form>
</cfoutput>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the loginform.cfm page CFML code and its function:
Code

Description

<H2>Please Log In</H2>

<cfoutput>
<form
action="#CGI.script_name#?#CGI.query_string#"
method="Post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>user name:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="j_username"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>password:</td>
<td><input type="password" name="j_password"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
<input type="submit" value="Log In">
</form>
</cfoutput>

Displays the login form.

Constructs the form action attribute from CGI variables, with a ?

character preceding the query string variable. This technique works
because loginform.cfm is accessed by a cfinclude tag on
Application.cfc, so the CGI variables are those for the originally
requested page.

The form requests a user ID and password and posts the users input to
the page specified by the newurl variable.
Uses the field names j_username and j_password. ColdFusion
automatically puts form fields with these values in the cflogin.name
and cflogin.password variables inside the cflogin tag.

Example: securitytest.cfm
The securitytest.cfm page shows how any application page can use ColdFusion user authorization features.
Application.cfc ensures the existence of an authenticated user before the page content appears. The securitytest.cfm
page uses the IsUserInAnyRole and GetAuthUser functions to control the information that is displayed.
The securitytest.cfm page consists of the following:

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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>
<head>
<title>Security test page</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfoutput>
<h2>Welcome #GetAuthUser()#!</h2>
</cfoutput>
ALL Logged-in Users see this message.<br>
<br>
<cfscript>
if (IsUserInRole("Human Resources"))
WriteOutput("Human Resources members see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Documentation"))
WriteOutput("Documentation members see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Sales"))
WriteOutput("Sales members see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Manager"))
WriteOutput("Managers see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Employee"))
WriteOutput("Employees see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Contractor"))
WriteOutput("Contractors see this message.<br><br>");
</cfscript>
</body>
</html>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the securitytest.cfm page CFML code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfoutput>
<h2>Welcome #GetAuthUser()#!</h2>
</cfoutput>

Displays a welcome message that includes the users login ID.

ALL Logged-in Users see this message.<br>

<br>

Displays this message in all cases. The page does not display until a
user is logged in.

<cfscript>
if (IsUserInRole("Human Resources"))
WriteOutput("Human Resources members see this
message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Documentation"))
WriteOutput("Documentation members see this
message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Sales"))
WriteOutput("Sales members see this
message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Manager"))
WriteOutput("Managers see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Employee"))
WriteOutput("Employees see this message.<br><br>");
if (IsUserInRole("Contractor"))
WriteOutput("Contractors see this
message.<br><br>");
</cfscript>

Tests whether the user belongs to each of the valid roles. If the user is
in a role, displays a message with the role name.
Users see one message per role that they belong.

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Using an LDAP directory for security information

LDAP directories are often used to store security information. The following example of a cflogin tag checks an
LDAP directory to authenticate the user and retrieve the users roles.
For more information on using LDAP directories with ColdFusion, see Managing LDAP Directories on page 449.
<cfapplication name="Orders" sessionmanagement="Yes" loginstorage="Session">
<cflogin>
<cfif isDefined("cflogin")>
<!--- setting basic attributes --->
<cfset LDAP_root = "o=mycompany.com">
<cfset LDAP_server = "ldap.mycompany.com">
<cfset LDAP_port = "389">
<!--- Create the prefix and suffix parts of the user's DN. --->
<cfset userPrefix = "cn=">
<cfset userSuffix = ",ou=Users,o=mycompany.com">
<!--- Concatenate the user's DN and use it to authenticate. --->
<cfset LDAP_username = userPrefix&cflogin.name&userSuffix>
<!--- This filter will look for groups for containing the user's ID. --->
<cfset userfilter =
"(&(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)(uniqueMember=#LDAP_username#))">
<!--- Search for groups containing the user's dn.
The groups represent the user's roles.
NOTE: Your LDAP permissions must allow authenticated users to search.
groups. --->
<cftry>
<cfldap action="QUERY"
name="auth"
attributes="cn"
referral="yes"
start="#LDAP_root#"
scope="SUBTREE"
server="#LDAP_server#"
port="#LDAP_port#"
filter="#userfilter#"
username="#LDAP_username#"
password="#cflogin.password#"
>
<cfcatch type="any">
<cfif FindNoCase("Invalid credentials", cfcatch.detail)>
<cfoutput>
<script>alert("User ID or Password invalid for user:

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#cflogin.name#")</script>
</cfoutput>
<cfabort>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
<script>alert("Unknown error for user: #cflogin.name#
#cfcatch.detail#")</script>
</cfoutput>
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- If the LDAP query returned a record, the user is valid. --->
<cfif auth.recordcount>
<cfloginuser name="#cflogin.name#" password="#cflogin.password#"
roles="#valueList(auth.cn)#">
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cflogin>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function. Comments and some tab characters have been removed for
brevity.

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Code

Description

<cflogin>
<cfif isDefined("cflogin")>
<!--- setting basic attributes --->
<cfset LDAP_root = "o=mycompany.com">
<cfset LDAP_server = "ldap.mycompany.com">
<cfset LDAP_port = "389">

Starts the cflogin tag body. Sets several variables to the values used as
attributes in the cfldap tag.

<!--- Create the prefix and suffix parts of the

user's DN. --->
<cfset userPrefix = "cn=">
<cfset userSuffix =
",ou=Users,o=mycompany.com">
<!--- Concatenate the user's DN and use it to
authenticate. --->
<cfset LDAP_username =
userPrefix&cflogin.name&userSuffix>
<!--- This filter will look for groups for
containing the user's ID. --->
<cfset userfilter =
"(&(objectClass=groupOfUniqueNames)(uniqueMemb
er=#LDAP_username#))">

Sets prefix and suffix values used to create a distinquished name (dn) for
binding to the LDAP server.

Creates the users bind dn by concatenating the prefix and suffix with
cflogin.name. This variable is used for authenticating the user to the LDAP
server.
Sets the filter used to search the directory and retrieve the users group
memberships. The group membership represents the users roles within the
organization.

<cftry>
<cfldap action="QUERY"
name="auth"
attributes="cn"
referral="yes"
start="#LDAP_root#"
scope="SUBTREE"
server="#LDAP_server#"
port="#LDAP_port#"
filter="#userfilter#"
username="#LDAP_username#"
password="#cflogin.password#"
>

In a cftry block, uses the users concatenated dn to authenticate to the

LDAP server and retrieve the common name (cn) attribute for groups to
which the user is a member. If the authentication fails the LDAP server
returns an error.

<cfcatch type="any">
<cfif FindNoCase("Invalid credentials",
cfcatch.detail)>
<cfoutput>
<script>alert("User ID or Password invalid for
user: #cflogin.name#")</script>
</cfoutput>
<cfabort>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>
<script>alert("Unknown error for user:
#cflogin.name# #cfcatch.detail#")</script>
</cfoutput>
<cfabort>
</cfif>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

Catches any exceptions.

<cfif auth.recordcount>
<cfloginuser name="#cflogin.name#"
password="#cflogin.password#"
roles="#valueList(auth.cn)#">
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cflogin>

If the authorization query returns a valid record, logs in the user. Uses the
valueList function to create a comma-separated list of the users retrieved
group memberships, and passes them in the cfloginuserroles attribute.

Note: The LDAP permissions must allow an authenticated user to read and
search groups in order for the query to return results.

Tests to see if the error information includes the string "invalid credentials",
which indicates that either the dn or password is invalid. If so, displays a
dialog box with an error message indicating the problem.
Otherwise, displays a general error message.
If an error is caught, the cfabort tag ends processing of the request after
displaying the error description.
End of cfcatch and cftry blocks.

Ends the initial isDefined("cflogin")cfif block .

Ends the cflogin tag body

Developing Globalized Applications

Adobe ColdFusion lets you develop dynamic applications for the Internet. Users from different countries and
geographical areas access many ColdFusion applications. One design detail that you must consider is the globalization
of your application so that you can best serve customers in different areas.

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Introduction to globalization
Globalization lets you create applications for all of your customers in all the languages that you support. In some cases,
globalization can let you accept data input using a different character set than the one you used to implement your
application. For example, you can create a website in English that lets customers submit form data in Japanese. Or, you
can allow a request URL to contain parameter values entered in Korean.
Your application also can process data containing numeric values, dates, currencies, and times. Each of these types of
data can be formatted differently for different countries and regions.
You can also develop applications in languages other than English. For example, you can develop your application in
Japanese so that the default character encoding is Shift-JIS, your ColdFusion pages contain Japanese characters, and
your interface displays in Japanese.
Globalizing your application requires that you perform one or more of the following actions:

Accept input in more than one language.

Process dates, times, currencies, and numbers formatted for multiple locales.
Process data from a form, database, HTTP connection, e-mail message, or other input formatted in multiple
character sets.

Create ColdFusion pages containing text in languages other than English.

Defining globalization
You might probably find several different definitions for globalization. Here, globalization is defined as an
architectural process where you place as much application functionality as possible into a foundation that can be
shared among multiple languages.
Globalization is composed of the following two parts:
Internationalization Developing language-neutral application functionality that can recognize, process, and respond
to data regardless of its representation. That is, whatever the application can do in one language, it can also do in
another. For example, think of copying and pasting text. A copy and paste operation should not be concerned with the
language of the text it operates on. For a ColdFusion application, you might have processing logic that performs
numeric calculations, queries a database, or performs other operations, independent of language.
Localization Taking shared, language-neutral functionality, and applying a locale-specific interface to it. Sometimes
this interface is referred to as a skin. For example, you can develop a set of menus, buttons, and dialog boxes for a
specific language, such as Japanese, that represents the language-specific interface. You then combine this interface
with the language-neutral functionality of the underlying application. As part of localization, you create the
functionality to handle input from customers in a language-specific manner and respond with appropriate responses
for that language.

Importance of globalization in ColdFusion applications

The Internet has no country boundaries. Customers can access websites from anywhere in the world, at any time, or
on any date. Unless you want to lock your customers into using a single language, such as English, to access your site,
consider globalization issues.
One reason to globalize your applications is to avoid errors and confusion for your customers. For example, a date in
the form 1/2/2003 is interpreted as January 2, 2003 in the United States, but as February 1, 2003 in European countries.
Another reason to globalize your applications is to display currencies in the correct format. Think of how your
customers would feel when they find out the correct price for an item is 15,000 American dollars, not 15,000 Mexican
pesos (about 1600 American dollars).

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Your website can also accept customer feedback or some other form of text input. You might want to support that
feedback in multiple languages using a variety of character sets.

How ColdFusion supports globalization

ColdFusion is implemented in Java. As a Java application, ColdFusion uses Java globalization features. For example,
ColdFusion stores all strings internally using the Unicode character set. Because it uses Unicode, ColdFusion can
represent any text data from any language.
In addition, ColdFusion includes many tags and functions designed to support globalizing your applications. You can
use these tags and functions to set locales, convert date and currency formats, control the output encoding of
ColdFusion pages, and perform other actions.

Character sets, character encodings, and locales

When you discuss globalization issues, two topics that you must consider are the character sets or character encodings
recognized by the application and the locales for which the application must format data.
A character set is a collection of characters. For example, the Latin alphabet is the character set that you use to write
English, and it includes all of the lower- and uppercase letters from A to Z. A character set for French includes the
character set used by English, plus special characters such as , , and .
The Japanese language uses three alphabets: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic
alphabets that each contain 46 characters plus two accents. Kanji contains Chinese ideographs adapted to the Japanese
language. The Japanese language uses a much larger character set than English because Japanese supports more than
10,000 different characters.
In order for a ColdFusion application to process text, the application must recognize the character set used by the text.
The character encoding maps between a character set definition and the digital codes used to represent the data.
In general use, the terms character set (or charset) and character encoding are often used interchangeably, and most
often a specific character encoding encodes one character set. However, this is not always true; for example, there are
multiple encodings of the Unicode character set. For more information on character encodings, see About character
encodings on page 366.
Note: ColdFusion uses the term charset to indicate character encoding in some attribute names, structure field keys, and
function parameter names.
A locale identifies the exact language and cultural settings for a user. The locale controls how dates and currencies are
formatted, how to display time, and how to display numeric data. For example, the locale English (US) determines that
a currency value displays as:
$100,000.00
while a locale of Portuguese (Portugese) displays the currency as:
R$ 100.000
To correctly display date, time, currency, and numeric data to your customers, you must know the customers locale.
For more information on locales, see Locales on page 368.

About character encodings

A character encodingmaps each character in a character set to a numeric value that a computer can represent. These
numbers can be represented by a single byte or multiple bytes. For example, the ASCII encoding uses 7 bits to represent
the Latin alphabet, punctuation, and control characters.

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You use Japanese encodings, such as Shift-JIS, EUC-JP, and ISO-2022-JP, to represent Japanese text. These encodings
can vary slightly, but they include a common set of approximately 10,000 characters used in Japanese.
The following terms apply to character encodings:
SBCS Single-byte character set; a character set encoded in one byte per character, such as ASCII or ISO 8859-1.
DBCS Double-byte character set; a method of encoding a character set in no more than 2 bytes, such as Shift-JIS. Many

character encoding schemes that are referred to as double-byte, including Shift-JIS, allow mixing of single-byte and
double-byte encoded characters. Others, such as UCS-2, use 2 bytes for all characters.
MBCS Multiple-byte character set; a character set encoded with a variable number of bytes per character, such as UTF-8.

The following table lists some common character encodings; however, there are many additional character encodings
that browsers and web servers support:
Encoding

Type

Description

ASCII

SBCS

7-bit encoding used by English and Indonesian Bahasa languages

Latin-1

SBCS

8-bit encoding used for many Western European languages

DBCS

16-bit Japanese encoding

(ISO 8859-1)
Shift_JIS

Note: Use an underscore character (_), not a hyphen (-) in the name in CFML attributes.
EUC-KR

DBCS

16-bit Korean encoding

UCS-2

DBCS

Two-byte Unicode encoding

UTF-8

MBCS

Multibyte Unicode encoding. ASCII is 7-bit; non-ASCII characters used in European and many
Middle Eastern languages are two-byte; and most Asian characters are three-byte

The World Wide Web Consortium maintains a list of all character encodings supported by the Internet. You can find
this information at www.w3.org/International/O-charset.html.
Computers must often convert between character encodings. In particular, the character encodings most commonly
used on the Internet are not used by Java or Windows. Character sets used on the Internet are typically single-byte or
multiple-byte (including DBCS character sets that allow single-byte characters). These character sets are most efficient
for transmitting data, because each character takes up the minimum necessary number of bytes. Currently, Latin
characters are most frequently used on the web, and most character encodings used on the web represent those
characters in a single byte.
Computers, however, process data most efficiently if each character occupies the same number of bytes. Therefore,
Windows and Java both use double-byte encoding for internal processing.

The Java Unicode character encoding

ColdFusion uses the Java Unicode Standard for representing character data internally. This standard corresponds to
UCS-2 encoding of the Unicode character set. The Unicode character set can represent many languages, including all
major European and Asian character sets. Therefore, ColdFusion can receive, store, process, and present text from all
languages supported by Unicode.
The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that is used to processes ColdFusion pages converts between the character encoding
used on a ColdFusion page or other source of information to UCS-2. The page or data encodings that ColdFusion
supports depend on the specific JVM, but include most encodings used on the web. Similarly, the JVM converts
between its internal UCS-2 representation and the character encoding used to send the response to the client.

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By default, ColdFusion uses UTF-8 to represent text data sent to a browser. UTF-8 represents the Unicode character
set using a variable-length encoding. ASCII characters are sent using a single byte. Most European and Middle Eastern
characters are sent as 2 bytes, and Japanese, Korean, and Chinese characters are sent as 3 bytes. One advantage of UTF8 is that it sends ASCII character set data in a form that is recognized by systems designed to process only single-byte
ASCII characters, while it is flexible enough to handle multiple-byte character representations.
While the default format of text data returned by ColdFusion is UTF-8, you can have ColdFusion return a page to any
character set supported by Java. For example, you can return text using the Japanese language Shift-JIS character set.
Similarly, ColdFusion can handle data that is in many different character sets. For more information, see Determining
the page encoding of server output on page 371.

Character encoding conversion issues

Because different character encodings support different character sets, you can encounter errors if your application
gets text in one encoding and presents it in another encoding. For example, the Windows Latin-1 character encoding,
Windows-1252, includes characters with hexadecimal representations in the range 80-9F, while ISO 8859-1 does not
include characters in that range. As a result, under the following circumstances, characters in the range 80-9F, such as
the euro symbol (), are not displayed properly:

A file encoded in Windows-1252 includes characters in the range 80-9F.

ColdFusion reads the file, specifying the Windows-1252 encoding in the cffile tag.
ColdFusion displays the file contents, specifying ISO-8859 in the cfcontent tag.
Similar issues can arise if you convert between other character encodings; for example, if you read files encoded in the
Japanese Windows default encoding and display them using Shift-JIS. To prevent these problems, ensure that the
display encoding is the same as the input encoding.

Locales
A locale identifies the exact language and cultural settings to use for a user. The locale controls how to format the
following:

Dates
Times
Numbers
Currency amounts
ColdFusion supports all locales supported by the JVM that it uses.
Note: Current JVM versions (through 1.4.2) do not support localized numbers such as Arabic-hindic numbers used in
Arabic locales or hindic digits used in Hindi locales. ColdFusion uses Arabic numbers in all locales.

Locale names
ColdFusion supports two formats for specifying locale names: the standard Java locale names and the ColdFusion
naming convention that was required through ColdFusion 6.1.

You can specify all locales using a name consisting of the following:
Two lowercase letters to identify the language; for example, en for English, or zh for Chinese.
Optionally, an underscore and two uppercase letters to identify the regional variant of the language; for example,
US for the United States, or HK for Hong Kong.

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For example, en_US represents United States English and es_MX represents Mexican Spanish. For a list of the
Java locale identifiers supported in the Sun 1.4.2 JVM and their meanings, see
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/intl/locale.doc.html.
Previous to ColdFusion MX 7, ColdFusion supported a limited set of locales, and used identifiers that consisted of the
name of the language, followed, for most languages, by a regional identifier in parentheses, such as English (US) or
German (Standard). ColdFusion continues to support these names; for a list, see SetLocale in the CFML Reference.
The Server.coldfusion.supportedlocales variable is a comma-delimited list of the locale names that you can
specify.
ColdFusion also includes a GetLocaleDisplayName function that returns a locale name in a format that is meaningful
to users. It lets you display the locale using words in the users language; for example, franais (France).

Determining the locale

ColdFusion determines the locale value as follows:

By default, ColdFusion uses the JVM locale, and the default JVM locale is the operating system locale. You can set
the JVM locale value explicitly in ColdFusion in the JVM Arguments field on the Java and JVM Settings page in the
ColdFusion Administrator; for example:
-Duser.language=de -Duser.country=DE.

A locale set using the SetLocale function persists for the current request or until it is reset by another SetLocale
function in the request.

If a request has multiple SetLocale functions, the current locale setting affects how locale-sensitive ColdFusion
tags and functions (such as the functions that start with LS) format data. The last SetLocale function that
ColdFusion processes before sending a response to the requestor (typically the client browser) determines the value
of the response Content-Language HTTP header. The browser that requested the page displays the response
according to the rules for the language specified by the Content-Language header.

ColdFusion ignores any SetLocale functions that follow a cfflush tag.

Using the locale

The SetLocale function determines the default formats that ColdFusion uses to output date, time, number, and
currency values. You use the GetLocale function to determine the current locale setting of ColdFusion, or you can
use the GetLocaleDisplayName function to get the locale name in a format that is meaningful to users. If you have
not made a call to SetLocale, GetLocale returns the locale of the JVM.
The current locale has two effects:

When ColdFusion formats date, time, currency, or numeric output, it determines how to format the output. You
can change the locale multiple times on a ColdFusion page to format information according to different locale
conventions. This enables you to output a page that properly formats different currency values, for example.

When ColdFusion returns a page to the client, it includes the HTTP Content-Language header. ColdFusion uses
the last locale setting on the page for this information.
Note: In earlier versions of ColdFusion, the default locale was always English, not the operating systems locale. For the
Japanese version of ColdFusion, the default was Japanese.
The following example uses the LSCurrencyFormat function to output the value 100,000 in monetary units for all the
ColdFusion-supported locales. You can run this code to see how the locale affects the data returned to a browser.

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<p>LSCurrencyFormat returns a currency value using the locale convention.

<!--- loop through list of locales; show currency values for 100,000 units --->
<cfloop LIST = "#Server.Coldfusion.SupportedLocales#"
index = "locale" delimiters = ",">
<cfset oldlocale = SetLocale(locale)>
<cfoutput><p><b><I>#locale#</I></b><br>
Local: #LSCurrencyFormat(100000, "local")#<br>
International: #LSCurrencyFormat(100000, "international")#<br>
None: #LSCurrencyFormat(100000, "none")#<br>
<hr noshade>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

This example uses the ColdFusion variable Server.Coldfusion.SupportedLocales, which contains a list of all
supported ColdFusion locales.

Processing a request in ColdFusion

When ColdFusion receives an HTTP request for a ColdFusion page, ColdFusion resolves the request URL to a physical
file path and reads the file contents to parse it. A ColdFusion page can be encoded in any character encoding supported
by the JVM used by ColdFusion, but need to be specified so that ColdFusion can identify it.
The content of the ColdFusion page on the server can be static data (typically HTML and plain text not processed by
ColdFusion), and dynamic content written in CFML. Static content is written directly to the response to the browser,
and dynamic content is processed by ColdFusion.
The default language of a website might be different from that of the person connecting to it. For example, you could
connect to an English website from a French computer. When ColdFusion generates a response, the response must be
formatted in the way expected by the customer. This includes both the character set of the response and the locale.
How ColdFusion determines the character set of the files that it processes, and how it determines the character set and
locale of its response to the client are described as follows:

Determining the character encoding of a ColdFusion page

When a request for a ColdFusion page occurs, ColdFusion opens the page, processes the content, and returns the
results back to the browser of the requestor. To process the ColdFusion page, though, ColdFusion has to interpret the
page content.
One piece of information used by ColdFusion is the Byte Order Mark (BOM) in a ColdFusion page. The BOM is a
special character at the beginning of a text stream that specifies the order of bytes in multibyte characters used by the
page. The following table lists the common BOM values:
Encoding

BOM signature

UTF-8

EF BB BF

UTF-16 Big Endian

FE FF

UTF-16 Little Endian

FF FE

To insert a BOM character in a CFML page easily, your editor must support BOM characters. Many web page
development tools support insertion of these characters, including Dreamweaver, which automatically sets the BOM
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If your page does not contain a BOM, you can use the cfprocessingdirective tag to set the character encoding of
the page. If you insert the cfprocessingdirective tag on a page that has a BOM, the information specified by the
cfprocessingdirective tag must be the same as for the BOM; otherwise, ColdFusion issues an error.
The following procedure describes how ColdFusion recognizes the encoding format of a ColdFusion page.
Determine the page encoding (performed by ColdFusion)
1 Use the BOM, if specified on the page.
Adobe recommends that you use BOM characters in your files.
2 Use the pageEncoding attribute of the cfprocessingdirective tag, if specified. For detailed information on how

to use this attribute, see the cfprocessingdirective tag in the CFML Reference.
3 Default to the JVM default file character encoding. By default, this is the operating system default character

encoding.

Determining the page encoding of server output

Before ColdFusion can return a response to the client, it must determine the encoding to use for the data in the
response. By default, ColdFusion returns character data using the Unicode UTF-8 format.
ColdFusion pages (.cfm pages) default to using the Unicode UTF-8 format for the response, even if you include the
HTML meta tag in the page. Therefore, the following example doesnot modify the character set of the response:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html;
charset="Shift_JIS">
</head>
...

In this example, the response still uses the UTF-8 character set. Use the cfcontent tag to set the output character set.
However, within a ColdFusion page you can use the cfcontent tag to override the default character encoding of the
response. Use the type attribute of the cfcontent tag to specify the MIME type of the page output, including the
character set, as follows:
<cfcontent type="text/html charset=EUC-JP">

Note: ColdFusion also provides attributes that let you specify the encoding of specific elements, such as HTTP requests,
request headers, files, and mail messages. For more information, see Tags and functions for controlling character
encoding on page 372 and Handling data in ColdFusion on page 374.
The rest of this chapter describes ColdFusion tags and functions that you use for globalization, and discusses specific
globalization issues.

Tags and functions for globalizing applications

ColdFusion supplies many tags and functions that you can use to develop globalized applications.

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Tags and functions for controlling character encoding

The following tags and functions let you specify the character encoding of text that ColdFusion generates and
interprets:
Tag or function

Attribute or parameter

Use

cfcontent

type

Specifies the encoding in which to return the results to the client browser.
For more information, see Determining the page encoding of server
output on page 371.

cffile

charset

Specifies how to encode data written to a file, or the encoding of a file

being read. For more information, see File data on page 377.

cfheader

charset

Specifies the character encoding in which to encode the HTTP header

value.

cfhttp

charset

Specifies the character encoding of the HTTP request.

cfhttpparam

mimeType

Specifies the MIME media type of a file; can positionally include the files
character encoding.

cfmail

charset

Specifies the character encoding of the mail message, including the

headers.

cfmailpart

charset

Specifies the character encoding of one part of a multipart mail message.

cfprocessingdirective

pageEncoding

Identifies the character encoding of the contents of a page to be

processed by ColdFusion. For more information, seeDetermining the
character encoding of a ColdFusion page on page 370.

CharsetDecode

encoding

Converts a string in the specified encoding to a binary object.

CharsetEncode

encoding

Converts a binary object to a string in the specified encoding.

Returns the character encoding of text in the Form or URL scope.

GetEncoding
SetEncoding

charset

Specifies the character encoding of text in the Form or URL scope. Used
when the character set of the input to a form, or the character set of a URL,
is not in UTF-8 encoding.

ToBase64

encoding

Specifies the character encoding of the string being converted to Base 64.

ToString

encoding

Returns a string encoded in the specified character encoding.

URLDecode

charset

Specifies the character encoding of the URL being decoded.

URLEncodedFormat

charset

Specifies the character encoding to use for the URL.

Functions for controlling and using locales

ColdFusion provides the following functions that let you specify and identify the locale and format text based on the
locale:
Tag or function

Use

GetLocale

Returns the current locale setting.

GetLocaleDisplayName

Returns the name of a locale in the language of a specific locale. The default value is the current
locale in the locales language.

LSCurrencyFormat

Converts numbers into a string in a locale-specific currency format. For countries that use the euro,
the result depends on the JVM version.

LSDateFormat

Converts the date part of a date/time value into a string in a locale-specific date format.

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Tag or function

Use

LSEuroCurrencyFormat

Converts a number into a string in a locale-specific currency format. Formats using the euro for all
countries that use euro as the currency.

LSIsCurrency

Determines whether a string is a valid representation of a currency amount in the current locale.

LSIsDate

Determines whether a string is a valid representation of a date/time value in the current locale.

LSIsNumeric

Determines whether a string is a valid representation of a number in the current locale.

LSNumberFormat

Converts a number into a string in a locale-specific numeric format.

LSParseCurrency

Converts a string that is a currency amount in the current locale into a formatted number. For
countries that use the euro, the result depends on the JVM version.

LSParseDateTime

Converts a string that is a valid date/time representation in the current locale into a date-time
object.

LSParseEuroCurrency

Converts a string that is a currency amount in the current locale into a formatted number. Requires
euro as the currency for all countries that use the euro.

LSParseNumber

Converts a string that is a valid numeric representation in the current locale into a formatted
number.

LSTimeFormat

Converts the time part of a date/time value into a string in a locale-specific date format.

SetLocale

Specifies the locale setting.

Note: Many functions that have names starting with LS have corresponding functions that do not have this prefix:
DateFormat, IsDate, IsNumeric, NumberFormat, ParseDateTime, and TimeFormat. These function use English (US)
locale rules.
If you do not precede calls to the LS functions with a call to the SetLocale function, they use the locale defined by the
JVM, which typically is the locale of the operating system.
The following example uses the LSDateFormat function to display the current date in the format for each locale
supported by ColdFusion:

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<!--- This example shows LSDateFormat --->

<html>
<head>
<title>LSDateFormat Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>LSDateFormat Example</h3>
<p>Format the date part of a date/time value using the locale convention.
<!--- loop through a list of locales; show date values for Now()--->
<cfloop list = "#Server.Coldfusion.SupportedLocales#"
index = "locale" delimiters = ",">
<cfset oldlocale = SetLocale(locale)>
<cfoutput><p><B><I>#locale#</I></B><br>
#LSDateFormat(Now(), "mmm-dd-yyyy")#<br>
#LSDateFormat(Now(), "mmmm d, yyyy")#<br>
#LSDateFormat(Now(), "mm/dd/yyyy")#<br>
#LSDateFormat(Now(), "d-mmm-yyyy")#<br>
#LSDateFormat(Now(), "ddd, mmmm dd, yyyy")#<br>
#LSDateFormat(Now(), "d/m/yy")#<br>
#LSDateFormat(Now())#<br>
<hr noshade>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
</body>
</html>

Additional globalization tags and functions

In addition to the tags and functions that are specifically for globalized applications, you might find the following
useful when writing a globalized application:

All string manipulation functions. For more information, see the String functions list in ColdFusion Functions in
the CFML Reference.

The GetTimeZoneInfo function, which returns the time zone of the operating system.

Handling data in ColdFusion

Many of the issues involved with globalizing applications deal with processing data from the various sources supported
by ColdFusion, including the following:

General character encoding issues

Locale-specific content
Input data from URLs and HTML forms
File data
Databases
E-mail
HTTP
LDAP
WDDX
COM

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CORBA
Searching and indexing

General character encoding issues

Applications developed for earlier versions of ColdFusion that assumed that the character length of a string was the
same as the byte length might produce errors in ColdFusion. The byte length of a string depends on the character
encoding.

Locale-specific content
Generating multilocale content
In an application that supports users in multiple locales and produces output that is specific to multiple locales, you
call the SetLocale function in every request to set the locale for that specific request. When processing has completed,
the locale should be set back to its previous value. One useful technique is to save the users desired locale in a Session
variable once the user has selected it, and use the Session variable value to set the locale for each user request during
the session.
Supporting the euro
The euro is the currency of many European countries, and ColdFusion supports the reading and writing of correctly
formatted euro values. Unlike other supported currencies, the euro is not tied to any single country (or locale). The
LSCurrencyFormat and LSParseCurrency functions rely on the underlying JVM for their operations, and the rules
used for currencies depend on the JVM. For Sun JVMs, the 1.3 releases did not support euros and used the older
country-specific currencies. The 1.4 releases use euros for all currencies that are in the euro zone as of 2002. If you are
using a JVM that does not support the euro, use the LSEuroCurrencyFormat and LSParseEuroCurrency functions
to format and parse euro values in locales that use euros as their currency.

Input data from URLs and HTML forms

A web application server receives character data from request URL parameters or as form data.
The HTTP 1.1 standard only allows US-ASCII characters (0-127) for the URL specification and for message headers.
This requires a browser to encode the non-ASCII characters in the URL, both address and parameters, by escaping
(URL encoding) the characters using the %xx hexadecimal format. URL encoding, however, does not determine how
the URL is used in a web document. It only specifies how to encode the URL.
Form data uses the message headers to specify the encoding used by the request (Content headers) and the encoding
used in the response (Accept headers). Content negotiation between the client and server uses this information.
There are several techniques for handling both URL and form data entered in different character encodings.
Handling URL strings
URL requests to a server often contain name-value pairs as part of the request. For example, the following URL
contains name-value pairs as part of the URL:
http://company.com/prod_page.cfm?name=Stephen;ID=7645
As discussed previously, URL characters entered using any character encoding other than US-ASCII are URL-encoded
in a hexadecimal format. However, by default, a web server assumes that the characters of a URL string are single-byte
characters.

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One common method used to support non-ASCII characters within a URL is to include a name-value pair within the
URL that defines the character encoding of the URL. For example, the following URL uses a parameter called encoding
to define the character encoding of the URL parameters:
http://company.com/prod_page.cfm?name=Stephen;ID=7645;encoding=Latin-1
Within the prod_page.cfm page, you can check the value of the encoding parameter before processing any of the other
name-value pairs. This guarantees that you handle the parameters correctly.
You can also use the SetEncoding function to specify the character encoding of URL parameters. The SetEncoding
function takes two parameters: the first specifies a variable scope and the second specifies the character encoding used
by the scope. Since ColdFusion writes URL parameters to the URL scope, you specify "URL" as the scope parameter to
the function.
For example, if the URL parameters are passed using Shift-JIS, you could access them as follows:
<cfscript>
setEncoding("URL", "Shift_JIS");
writeoutput(URL.name);
writeoutput(URL.ID);
</cfscript>

Note: To specify the Shift-JIS character encoding, use the Shift_JIS attribute, with an underscore (_), not a hyphen (-).
Handling form data
The HTML form tag and the ColdFusion cfform tag let users enter text on a page, then submit that text to the server.
The form tags are designed to work only with single-byte character data. Since ColdFusion uses 2 bytes per character
when it stores strings, ColdFusion converts each byte of the form input into a two-byte representation.
However, if a user enters double-byte text into the form, the form interprets each byte as a single character, rather than
recognize that each character is 2 bytes. This corrupts the input text, as the following example shows:
1 A customer enters three double-byte characters in a form, represented by 6 bytes.
2 The form returns the six bytes to ColdFusion as six characters. ColdFusion converts them to a representation using

2 bytes per input byte for a total of 12 bytes.

3 Outputting these characters results in corrupt information displayed to the user.

To work around this issue, use the SetEncoding function to specify the character encoding of input form text. The
SetEncoding function takes two parameters: the first specifies the variable scope and the second specifies the
character encoding used by the scope. Since ColdFusion writes form parameters to the Form scope, you specify "Form"
as the scope parameter to the function. If the input text is double-byte, ColdFusion preserves the two-byte
representation of the text.
The following example specifies that the form data contains Korean characters:
<cfscript>
setEncoding("FORM", "EUC-KR");
</cfscript>
<h1> Form Test Result </h1>
<strong>Form Values :</strong>
<cfset text = "String = #form.input1# , Length = #len(Trim(form.input1))#">
<cfoutput>#text#</cfoutput>

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File data
You use the cffile tag to write to and read from text files. By default, the cffile tag assumes that the text that you are
reading, writing, copying, moving, or appending is in the JVM default file character encoding, which is typically the
system default character encoding. For cffile action="Read", ColdFusion also checks for a byte order mark (BOM)
at the start of the file; if there is one, it uses the character encoding that the BOM specifies.
Problems can arise if the file character encoding does not correspond to JVM character encoding, particularly if the
number of bytes used for characters in one encoding does not match the number of bytes used for characters in the
other encoding.
For example, assume that the JVM default file character encoding is ISO 8859-1, which uses a single byte for each
character, and the file uses Shift-JIS, which uses a two-byte representation for many characters. When reading the file,
the cffile tag treats each byte as an ISO 8859-1 character, and converts it into its corresponding two-byte Unicode
representation. Because the characters are in Shift-JIS, the conversion corrupts the data, converting each two-byte
Shift-JIS character into two Unicode characters.
To enable the cffile tag to correctly read and write text that is not encoded in the JVM default character encoding,
you can pass the charset attribute to it. Specify as a value the character encoding of the data to read or write, as the
following example shows:
<cffile action="read"
charset="EUC-KR"
file = "c:\web\message.txt"
variable = "Message" >

Databases
ColdFusion applications access databases using drivers for each of the supported database types. The conversion of
client native language data types to SQL data types is transparent and is done by the driver managers, database client,
or server. For example, the character data (SQL CHAR, VARCHAR) you use with JDBC API is represented using
Unicode-encoded strings.
Database administrators configure data sources and usually are required to specify the character encodings for
character column data. Many of the major vendors, such as Oracle, Sybase, and Informix, support storing character
data in many character encodings, including Unicode UTF-8 and UTF-16.
The database drivers supplied with ColdFusion correctly handle data conversions from the database native format to
the ColdFusion Unicode format. You do not have to perform any additional processing to access databases. However,
always check with your database administrator to determine how your database supports different character
encodings.

E-mail
ColdFusion sends e-mail messages using the cfmail, cfmailparam, and cfmailpart tags.
By default, ColdFusion sends mail in UTF-8 encoding. You can specify a different default encoding on the Mail page
in the ColdFusion Administrator, and you can use the charset attribute of the cfmail and cfmailpart tags to specify
the character encoding for a specific mail message or part of a multipart mail message.

HTTP
ColdFusion supports HTTP communication using the cfhttp and cfhttpparam tags and the GetHttpRequestData
function.

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The cfhttp tag supports making HTTP requests. The cfhttp tag uses the Unicode UTF-8 encoding for passing data
by default, and you can use the charset attribute to specify the character encoding. You can also use the cfhttpparam
tag mimeType attribute to specify the MIME type and character set of a file.

LDAP
ColdFusion supports LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) through the cfldap tag. LDAP uses the UTF-8
encoding format, so you can mix all retrieved data with other data and safely manipulated it. No extra processing is
required to support LDAP.

WDDX
ColdFusion supports the cfwddx tag. ColdFusion stores WDDX (Web Distributed Data Exchange) data as UTF-8
encoding, so it automatically supports double-byte character encodings. You do not have to perform any special
processing to handle double-byte characters with WDDX.

COM
ColdFusion supports COM through the cfobjecttype="com" tag. All string data used in COM interfaces is constructed
using wide characters (wchars), which support double-byte characters. You do not have to perform any special
processing to interface with COM objects.

CORBA
ColdFusion supports CORBA through the cfobjecttype="corba" tag. The CORBA 2.0 interface definition language
(IDL) basic type String used the Latin-1 character encoding, which used the full 8-bits (256) to represent characters.
As long as you are using CORBA later than version 2.0, which includes support for the IDL types wchar and wstring,
which map to Java types char and string respectively, you do not have to do anything to support double-byte
characters.
However, if you are using a version of CORBA that does not support wchar and wstring, the server uses char and string
data types, which assume a single-byte representation of text.

Searching and indexing

ColdFusion supports Verity search through the cfindex, cfcollection, and cfsearch tags. To support multilingual
searching, the ColdFusion product CD-ROM includes the Verity language packs that you install to support different
languages.

Debugging and Troubleshooting Applications

Adobe ColdFusion provides detailed debugging information to help you resolve problems with your application. You
configure ColdFusion to provide debugging information, and use the cftrace and cftimer tags to provide detailed
information on code execution. You can also use tools for validating your code before you run it and troubleshoot
particular problems.
Note: Adobe Dreamweaver provides integrated tools for displaying and using ColdFusion debugging output. For
information on using these tools, see the Dreamweaver online Help.

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Configuring debugging in the ColdFusion Administrator

ColdFusion can provide important debugging information for every application page requested by a browser. The
ColdFusion Administrator lets you specify which debugging information to make available and how to display it. The
Administrator settings briefly described. For more information, see the online Help for the Debugging pages.

Debugging Settings page

In the Administrator, the following options on the Debugging Settings page determine the information that
ColdFusion displays in debugging output:
Option

Description

Enable Robust Exception Information

Enables the display of the following information when ColdFusion displays the exception
error page. (Cleared by default.)

Enable Debugging

Path and URL of the page that caused the error

Line number and short snippet of the code where the error was identified

Any SQL statement and data source

Java stack trace

Enables debugging output. When this option is cleared, no debugging information is

displayed, including all output of cftrace and cftimer calls. (Cleared by default.)
You should disable debugging output on production servers. Doing so increases security by
ensuring that users cannot see debugging information. It also improves server response
times. You can also limit debugging output to specific IP addresses; for more information, see
Debugging IP addresses page on page 380.

Select Debugging Output Format

Determines how to display debugging output:

The classic.cfm template (the default) displays information as plain HTML text at the
bottom of the page.

The dockable.cfm template uses DHTML to display the debugging information using an
expanding tree format in a separate window. This window can be either a floating pane or
docked to the browser window. For more information on the dockable output format, see
Using the dockable.cfm output format on page 384.

Report Execution Times

Lists ColdFusion pages that run as the result of an HTTP request and displays execution
times, ColdFusion also highlights in red pages with processing times greater than the
specified value, and you can select between a summary display or a more detailed, tree
structured, display.

General Debug Information

Displays general information about the request: ColdFusion Version, Template, Time Stamp,
User Locale, User Agent, User IP, and Host Name.

Database Activity

Displays debugging information about access to SQL data sources and stored procedures.
(Selected by default.)

Exception information

Lists all ColdFusion exceptions raised in processing the request. (Selected by default.)

Tracing information

Displays an entry for each cftrace tag. When this option is cleared, the debugging output
does not include tracing information, but the output page does include information for
cftrace tags that specify inline="Yes". (Selected by default.)
For more information on using the cftrace tag, see Using the cftrace tag to trace
execution on page 385.

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Option

Description

Variables

Enables the display of ColdFusion variable values. When this option is cleared, disables
display of all ColdFusion variables in the debugging output. (Selected by default.)
When enabled, ColdFusion displays the values of variables in the selected scopes. You can
select to display the contents of any of the ColdFusion scopes except Variables, Attributes,
Caller, and ThisTag. To enhance security, Application, Server, and Request variable display is
disabled by default,

Enable Performance Monitoring

Allows the standard NT Performance Monitor application to display information about a

running ColdFusion application server.

Enable CFSTAT

Enables you to use of the cfstat command line utility to monitor real-time performance.
This utility displays the same information that ColdFusion writes to the NT System Monitor,
without using the System Monitor application. For information on the cfstat utility, see
Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Debugging IP addresses page

By default, when you enable debugging output, the output is visible only to local users (that is, via IP address 127.0.0.1).
You can specify additional IP addresses whose users can see debugging output, or even disable output to local users.
In the Administrator, use the Debugging IPs page to specify the addresses that can receive debugging messages.
Note: If you must enable debugging on a production server, for example to help locate the cause of a difficult problem, use
the Debugging IP Addresses page to limit the output to your development systems and prevent clients from seeing the
debugging information.

Using debugging information from browser pages

The ColdFusion debugging output that you configure in the Administrator displays whenever an HTML request
completes. It represents the server conditions at the end of the request. For information on displaying debugging
information while a request is processed, see Using the cftrace tag to trace execution on page 385.
The dockable.cfm debugging output format shows the debugging output in collapsed format. The next sections show
each of the debugging sections and describe how you can use the information they display.

General debugging information

ColdFusion displays general debugging information. In the classic.cfm output format, the information appears at the
top of the debugging output and has no heading.
The general debugging information includes the following values. The table lists the names used in the classic output
template view.
Name

Description

ColdFusion

The ColdFusion version.

Template

The requested template. (In the dockable.cfm format, this appears in the Page Overview section and is called
Page.)

TimeStamp

The time the request was completed. (In the dockable.cfm format, this appears in the Page Overview section and
is called Date.)

Locale

The locality and language that determines how information is processed, particularly the message language.

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Name

Description

User Agent

The identity of the browser that made the HTTP request.

Remote IP

The IP address of the client system that made the HTTP request.

Host Name

The name of the host running the ColdFusion server that executed the request.

Execution Time
The Execution Time section displays the time required to process the request. It displays information about the time
required to process all pages required for the request, including the Application.cfc, Application.cfm, and
OnRequestEnd.cfm pages, if used, and any CFML custom tags, pages included by the cfinclude tag, and any
ColdFusion component (CFC) pages.
To display execution time for a specific block of code, use the cftimer tag.
You can display the execution time in two formats:

Summary
Tree
Note: Execution time decreases substantially between the first and second time you use a page after creating it or changing
it. The first time ColdFusion uses a page it compiles the page into Java bytecode, which the server saves and loads into
memory. Subsequent uses of unmodified pages do not require recompilation of the code, and therefore are substantially
faster.
Summary execution time format
The summary format displays one entry for each ColdFusion page processed during the request. If a page is processed
multiple times it appears only once in the summary. For example, if a custom tag gets called three time in a request, it
appears only once in the output.
The following table describes the display fields:
Column

Description

Total Time

The total time required to process all instances of the page and all pages that it uses. For example, if a request
causes a page to be processed two times, and the page includes another page, the total time includes the time
required to process both pages twice.

Avg Time

The average time for processing each instance of this page and the pages that it uses. The Avg Time multiplied
by the Count equals the Total Time.

Count

The number of times the page is processed for the request.

Template

The path name of the page.

The page icon indicates the requested page.

Any page with an average processing time that exceeds the highlight value that you set on the Debugging Settings page
in the ColdFusion Administrator appears in red.
The next to last line of the output displays the time that ColdFusion took to parse, compile, and load pages, and to start
and end page processing. This image is not included in the individual page execution times. The last line shows the
sum of all the time it took to process the request.

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Tree execution time format

The tree execution time format is a hierarchical, detailed view of how ColdFusion processes each page. If a page
includes or calls second page, the second page appears below and indented relative to the page that uses it. Each page
appears once for each time it is used. Therefore, if a page gets called three times in processing a request, it appears three
times in the tree. Therefore the tree view displays both processing times and an indication of the order of page
processing.
As in the summary view, the execution times (in parentheses) show the times to process the listed page and all pages
required to process the page, that is, all pages indented below the page in the tree.
By looking at this output in this image you can determine the following information:

ColdFusion took 0 ms to process an Application.cfm page as part of the request.

The requested page was tryinclude.cfm. It took 203 ms to process this page and all pages required to execute it. The
code directly on this page took 71 milliseconds (203 - 93 - 16 - 23) to process.

The mytag2.cfm page was processed three times. All processing took 93 milliseconds, and the average processing
time was 31 milliseconds. (This page does not call any other pages.)

The mytag1.cfm page was processed two times. All processing took 78 milliseconds, and the average processing
time was 39 milliseconds. This time included the time to process mytag2.cfm (this tag calls the mytag2 custom tag);
therefore, the code directly on the page took an average of 8 milliseconds and a total of 16 milliseconds to process.

The includeme.cfm page took about 62 ms to process. This processing time includes the time to process the
mytag1.cfm, and therefore also the time to process mytag2.cfm once. Therefore the code directly on the page took
23 milliseconds (62-39) to process.

ColdFusion took 125 ms for processing that was not associated with a specific page.
The total processing time was 328 milliseconds, the sum of 125 + 203.

Database Activity
In the Administrator, when Database Activity is selected on the Debugging Settings page, the debugging output
includes information about database access.
SQL Queries
The SQL Queries section provides information about tags that generate SQL queries or result in retrieving a cached
database query: cfquery, cfinsert, cfgridupdate, and cfupdate.
The output displays the following information:

Page on which the query is located.

The time when the query was made.
Query name.
An indicator if the result came from a cached query.
SQL statement, including the results of processing any dynamic elements such as CFML variables and
cfqueryparam tags. This information is useful because it shows the results of all ColdFusion processing of the SQL

statement.

Data source name.

Number of records returned; 0 indicates no match to the query.
Query execution time.
Any query parameters values from cfqueryparam tags.
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Stored Procedures
The stored procedures section displays information about the results of using the cfstoredproc tag to execute a
stored procedure in a database management system.
The output displays the following information:

Stored procedure name

Data source name
Query execution time
Page on which the query is located.
The time when the query was made.
A table displaying the procedure parameters sent and received, as specified in the cfprocparam tags, including the
ctype, CFSQLType, value, variable, and dbVarName attributes. The variable information for OUT and INOUT

parameters includes the returned value.

A table listing the procedure result sets returned, as specified in the cfprocresult tag.

Exceptions
In the Administrator, when Exception Information is selected on the Debugging Settings page, the debugging output
includes a list of all ColdFusion exceptions raised in processing the application page.
The exception information includes information about any application exceptions that are caught and handled by
your application code or by ColdFusion.
Exceptions represent events that disrupt the normal flow of an application. You should catch and, whenever possible,
recover from foreseeable exceptions in your application, as described in Handling Errors on page 275. However, you
might also want to be alerted to caught exceptions when you are debugging your application. For example, if a file is
missing, your application can catch the cffile exception and use a backup or default file instead. If you enable
exception information in the debugging output, you can immediately see when this happens.

Trace points
In the Administrator, when Tracing Information is selected on the Debugging Settings page, the debugging output
includes the results of all cftrace tags, including all tags that display their results inline. Therefore, the debugging
output contains a historical record of all trace points encountered in processing the request.
For more information on using the cftrace tag, see Using the cftrace tag to trace execution on page 385.

Scope variables
In the Administrator, when the Variables option and one or more variable scopes are selected on the Debugging
Settings page, the debugging output displays the values of all variables in the selected scopes. The debugging output
displays the values that result after all processing of the current page.
By displaying selected scope variables you can determine the effects of processing on persistent scope variables, such
as application variables. This can help you locate problems that do not generate exceptions.
The Form, URL, and CGI scopes are useful for inspecting the state of a request. They let you inspect parameters that
affect page behavior, as follows:
URL variables Identify the HTTP request parameters.
Form variables Identify the form fields posted to an action page.
CGI variables Provide a view of the server environment following the request.

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Similarly, the Client, Session, Application, and Server scope variables show the global state of the application, and can
be useful in tracing how each page affects the state of the ColdFusion persistent variables.

Using the dockable.cfm output format

The dockable.cfm output format has several features that are not included in the classic.cfm debugging display.
Application page selections
ColdFusion displays two buttons at the bottom of each page, as described in the following table:
Button

Description

Debug This page

Tells ColdFusion to display the debugging information for the selected frame. Refreshes the debug
pane if you select it for the current frame (or the application does not use frames).

Floating/Docked debug pane

Toggles the display between a floating window and a pane docked to the left of the selected frame.

Debug pane features

The debug pane has the following features:

You can expand and collapse each debugging information category, such as Exceptions, by clicking the plus or
minus sign (+ or -) in front of each category heading. You can also expand and collapse each scope data type display
in the Scoped Variables section.

The top of the debug pane displays the URL of the application page being debugged (as identified by the
cgi.script_name variable). Click this link to refresh the page and display the debugging information that results.
(You can also refresh the page and debugging information by using your browsers Refresh button or key.)

The debug pane also displays a box where you can enter a page path or URL. When you click the Go button,
ColdFusion processes the page and the debug pane is updated with the debugging information for the new page.

Controlling debugging information in CFML

The following sections describe how you can use CFML tags and functions to display or hide debugging and tracing
information.

Generating debugging information for an individual query

In the Administrator, the cfquery tag debug attribute overrides the Database Activity setting on the Debugging
Settings page. The debug attribute has an effect only when debugging output is enabled on the Debugging Settings
page, as follows:

If Database Activity is selected in the Administrator, specify debug="No" to prevent ColdFusion from displaying
the querys SQL and statistics in the debugging output.

If Database Activity is not selected in the Administrator, specify debug="Yes" or debug to have ColdFusion display
the querys SQL and statistics in the debugging output.
For example, if Database Activity is not selected in the Administrator, you can use the following code to show the query
execution time, number of records returned, ColdFusion page, timestamp, and the SQL statement sent to the data
source for this query only:
<cfquery name="TestQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples" debug>
SELECT * FROM TestTable
</cfquery>

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The debug attribute can be useful to disable query debugging information generated by queries in custom tags that
you call frequently, so that you only see the debugging information for queries in pages that call the tags.
You can also view stored procedure-specific debugging information by specifying the debug attribute in the
cfstoredproc tag.

Controlling debugging output with the cfsetting tag

Use the cfsetting tag showDebugOutput attribute to turn off debugging output for a specific page. The attribute
controls debugging output only if the Debugging Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator enables debugging
output. The default value of the attribute is Yes. The following tag suppresses all debugging output for the current page:
<cfsetting showDebugOutput="No">

You can put this tag in the initialization code of the Application.cfc file or on your Application.cfm page to suppress
all debugging output for an application, and override it on specific pages by setting showDebugOutput="Yes" in
cfsetting tags on those pages. Conversely, you can leave debugging on for the application, and use the cfsetting
showDebugOutput="No" tag to suppress debugging on individual pages where the output could cause errors or
confusion.
You can also use the showDebugOutput attribute to control debugging output if you do not have access to the
ColdFusion Administrator, but only if the Administrator enables debugging.

Using the IsDebugMode function to run code selectively

The IsDebugMode function returns True if debugging is enabled. You can use this function in a cfif tag condition to
selectively run code only when debugging output is enabled. The IsDebugMode function lets you tell ColdFusion to
run any code in debug mode, so it provides more flexibility than the cftrace tag for processing and displaying
information.
You can use the IsDebugMode function to selectively log information only when debugging is enabled. Because you
control the log output, you have the flexibility of silently logging information without displaying trace information in
the browser. For example, the following code logs the application page, the current time, and the values of two variables
to the log file MyAppSilentTrace.log when debugging is enabled:
<cfquery name="MyDBQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT *
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfif IsDebugMode()>
<cflog file="MyAppSilentTrace" text="Page: #cgi.script_name#,
completed query MyDBQuery; Query Execution time:
#cfquery.ExecutionTime# Status: #Application.status#">
</cfif>

If you use cfdump tags frequently for debugging, place them in <cfif IsDebugMode()> tags; for example <cfif
IsDebugMode()><cfdump var=#myVar#></cfif>. This way you ensure that if you leave any cfdump tags in
production code, they are not displayed when you disable debugging output.

Using the cftrace tag to trace execution

The cftrace tag displays and logs debugging data about the state of your application at the time the cftrace tag
executes. You use it to provide snapshots of specific information as your application runs.

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About the cftrace tag

The cftrace tag provides the following information:

A severity identifier specified by the cftrace tag type attribute

A timestamp indicating when the cftrace tag executed
The time elapsed between the start of processing the request and when the current cftrace tag executes.
The time between any previous cftrace tag in the request and the current one. If this is the first cftrace tag
processed for the request, the output indicates 1st trace. ColdFusion does not display this information in inline
trace output, only the log and in the standard debugging output.

The name of the page that called the cftrace tag

The line on the page where the cftrace call is located
A trace category specified by the category attribute
A message specified by the text attribute
The name and value, at the time the cftrace call executes, of a single variable specified by the var attribute
A typical cftrace tag might look like the following:
<cftrace category="UDF End" inline = "True" var = "MyStatus"
text = "GetRecords UDF call has completed">

You can display the cftrace tag output in either or both of the following ways:

As a section in the debugging output: To display the trace information in the debugging output, in the
Administrator, select Tracing Information on the Debugging Settings page.

Inline in your application page: When you specify the inline attribute in a cftrace tag, ColdFusion displays the
trace output on the page at the cftrace tag location. (An inline cftrace tag does not display any output if it is
inside a cfsilent tag block.)
The cftrace tag executes only if you select Enable Debugging on the ColdFusion Administrator Debugging Settings
page. To display the trace results in the debugging output, you must also specify Tracing Information on the
Debugging Settings page; otherwise, the trace information is logged and inline traces are displayed, but no trace
information appears in the debugging output.
Note: When you use inline trace tags, ColdFusion sends the page to the browser after all page processing is completed, but
before it displays the debugging output from the debug template. As a result, if an error occurs after a trace tag but before
the end of the page, ColdFusion might not display the trace for that tag.
The following image shows inline trace messages:

The following table lists the displayed information:

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Entry

Meaning
Trace type (severity) specified in the cftrace call; in this case,
Information.

[CFTRACE 13:21:11.011]

Time when the cftrace tag executed.

[501 ms]

Time taken for processing the current request to the point of the
cftrace tag.

[C:\CFusion\wwwroot\MYStuff\mydocs\tractest.cfm]

Path in the web server of the page that contains the cftrace tag.

@ line:14

The line number of the cftrace tag.

[UDF End]

Value of the cftrace tag category attribute.

GetRecords UDF call has completed

The cftrace tag text attribute with any variables replaced with their
values.

MyStatus Success

Name and value of the variable specified by the cftrace tag var
attribute.

ColdFusion logs all cftrace output to the file logs\cftrace.log in your ColdFusion installation directory.
A log file entry looks like the following:
"Information","web-29","04/01/02","13:21:11","MyApp","[501 ms (1st trace)]
[C:\ColdFusion9\wwwroot\MYStuff\mydocs\tractest.cfm @ line: 14] - [UDF End] [MyStatus =
Success] GetRecords UDF call has completed "

This entry is in standard ColdFusion log format, with comma-delimited fields inside double-quote characters. The
information displayed in the trace output is in the last, message, field.
The following table lists the contents of the trace message and the log entries. For more information on the log file
format, see Logging errors with the cflog tag on page 285.
Entry

Meaning

Information

The Severity specified in the cftrace call.

web-29

Server thread that executed the code.

04/01/02

Date the trace was logged.

13:21:11

Time the trace was logged.

MyApp

The application name, as specified in a cfapplication tag.

501 ms (1st trace)]

The time ColdFusion took to process the current request

up to the cftrace tag, This is the first cftrace tag
processed in this request. If there had been a previous
cftrace tag, the parentheses would contain the
number of milliseconds between when the previous
cftrace tag ran and when this tag ran.

[C:\CFusion\wwwroot\MYStuff\mydocs\tracetest.cfm @ line: 14]

Path of the page on which the trace tag is located and the
line number of the cftrace tag on the page.

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Entry

Meaning

[UDF End]

Value of the cftrace tag category attribute.

[MyStatus = Success]

Name and value of the variable specified by the cftrace

tag var attribute. If the variable is a complex data type,
such as an array or structure, the log contains the variable
value and the number of entries at the top level of the
variable, such as the number of top-level structure keys.

GetRecords UDF call has completed

The cftrace tag text attribute with any variables

replaced with their values.

Using tracing
As its name indicates, the cftrace tag is designed to help you trace the execution of your application. It can help you
do any of several things:

You can time the execution of a tag or code section. This capability is useful for tags and operations that can take
substantial processing time. Typical candidates include all ColdFusion tags that access external resources, including
cfquery, cfldap, cfftp, cffile, and so on. To time execution of any tag or code block, call the cftrace tag
before and after the code you want to time.

You can display the values of internal variables, including data structures. For example, you can display the raw
results of a database query.

You can display an intermediate value of a variable. For example, you could use this tag to display the contents of
a raw string value before you use string functions to select a substring or format it.

You can display and log processing progress. For example, you can place a cftrace call at the head of pages in your
application or before critical tags or calls to critical functions. (Doing this could result in massive log files in a
complex application, so use this technique with care.)

If a page has many nested cfif and cfelseif tags you can place cftrace tags in each conditional block to trace
the execution flow. When you do this, use the condition variable in the message or var attribute.

If you find that the ColdFusion server is hanging, and you suspect a particular block of code (or call to a cfx tag,
COM object, or other third-party component), you can place a cftrace tag before and after the suspect code, to
log entry and exit.

Calling the cftrace tag

The cftrace tag takes the following attributes. All attributes are optional.

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Attribute

Purpose

abort

A Boolean value. If you specify True, ColdFusion stops processing the current request immediately after the tag.
This attribute is the equivalent of placing a cfabort tag immediately after the cftrace tag. The default is False.
If this attribute is True, the output of the cftrace call appears only in the cftrace.log file. The line in the file
includes the text [ABORTED].

category

A text string specifying a user-defined trace type category. This attribute lets you identify or process multiple
trace lines by categories. For example, you could sort entries in a log according to the category.
The category attribute is designed to identify the general purpose of the trace point. For example, you might
identify the point where a custom tag returns processing to the calling page with a Custom Tag End category.
You can also use finer categories; for example, by identifying the specific custom tag name in the category.
You can include simple ColdFusion variables, but not arrays, structures, or objects, in the category text by
enclosing the variable name in number signs (#).

inline

A Boolean value. If you specify True, ColdFusion displays trace output in-line in the page. The default is False.
The inline attribute lets you display the trace results at the place that the cftrace call is processed. This
provides a visual cue directly in the ColdFusion page display.
Trace output also appears in a section in the debugging information display.

text

A text message describing this trace point. You can include simple ColdFusion variables, but not arrays,
structures, or objects, in the text output by enclosing the variable name in number signs (#).

type

A ColdFusion logging severity type. The inline trace display and dockable.cfm output format show a symbol for
each type. The default debugging output shows the type name, which is also used in the log file. The type name
must be one of the following:
Information (default)
Warning
Error
Fatal Information

var

The name of a single variable that you want displayed. This attribute can specify a simple variable, such as a string,
or a complex variable, such as a structure name. Do not surround the variable name in number signs.
Complex variables are displayed in inline output in cfdump format; the debugging display and log file report the
number of elements in the complex variable, instead of any values.
You can use this attribute to display an internal variable that the page does not normally show, or an intermediate
value of a variable before the page processes it further.
To display a function return value, place the function inside the message. Do not use the function in the var
attribute, because the attribute cannot evaluate functions.

Note: If you specify inline trace output, and a cftrace tag is inside a cfsilent tag block, ColdFusion does not display
the trace information in line, but does include it in the standard debugging display.
The following cftrace tag displays the information in the example output and log entry in About the cftrace tag on
page 386 :
<cftrace abort="False" category="UDF End" inline = "True" text = "GetRecords UDF
call has completed" var = "MyStatus">

Using the cftimer tag to time blocks of code

The cftimer tag displays execution time for a specified section of CFML code.

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Using timing
Use this tag to determine how long it takes for a block of code to execute. This is useful when ColdFusion debugging
output indicates excessive execution time, but does not pinpoint the long-running block of code.
To use this tag, enable debugging in the ColdFusion Administrator Debugging Settings page. In the Debugging
Settings page, you must also specifically enable usage of the cftimer tag by checking the Timer Information check box.
If you enable debugging for the cftimer tag only and display timing information in an HTML comment, you can
generate timing information without disturbing production users.

Calling the cftimer tag

You can control where the cftimer tag displays timing information, as follows:

Inline: Displays timing information following the </cftimer> tag.

Outline: Displays timing information at the beginning of the timed code and draws a box around the timed code.
(This requires browser support for the HTML FIELDSET attribute.)

Comment: Displays timing information in an HTML comment in the format <!--label: elapsed-timems >--. The
default label is cftimer.

Debug: Displays timing information in the debugging output under the heading CFTimer Times.
The following example calls the cftimer tag multiple times, each time using a different type attribute:
<HTML>
<body>
<h1>CFTIMER test</h1>
<!--- type="inline" --->
<cftimer label="Query and Loop Time Inline" type="inline">
<cfquery name="empquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select *
from Employees
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="empquery">
<cfoutput>#lastname#, #firstname#</cfoutput><br>
</cfloop>
</cftimer>
<hr><br>
<!--- type="outline" --->
<cftimer label="Query and CFOUTPUT Time with Outline" type="outline">
<cfquery name="coursequery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select *
from CourseList
</cfquery>
<table border="1" width="100%">
<cfoutput query="coursequery">
<tr>
<td>#Course_ID#</td>
<td>#CorName#</td>
<td>#CorLevel#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</cftimer>
<hr><br>

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<!--- type="comment" --->

<cftimer label="Query and CFOUTPUT Time in Comment" type="comment">
<cfquery name="parkquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select *
from Parks
</cfquery>
<p>Select View &gt; Source to see timing information</p>
<table border="1" width="100%">
<cfoutput query="parkquery">
<tr>
<td>#Parkname#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</cftimer>
<hr><br>
<!--- type="debug" --->
<cftimer label="Query and CFOUTPUT Time in Debug Output" type="debug">
<cfquery name="deptquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select *
from Departments
</cfquery>
<p>Scroll down to CFTimer Times heading to see timing information</p>
<table border="1" width="100%">
<cfoutput query="deptquery">
<tr>
<td>#Dept_ID#</td>
<td>#Dept_Name#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</cftimer>
</body>

Using the Code Analyzer

The Code Analyzer has two purposes:

It can validate the CFML syntax of your application. To do so, the analyzer runs the ColdFusion compiler on your
pages, but does not execute the compiled code. It reports errors that the compiler encounters.

It provides information about the incompatibility (and its severity), and suggests a remedy where one is required.
It can identify places where ColdFusion might behave differently than previous versions. The analyzer identifies the
following kinds of features:

No longer supported: Their use results in errors. For example, the closable attribute is not supported for the tag
cflayoutarea in border layout (cflayout with type="border").

Deprecated: They are still available, but their use is not recommended and they might not be available in future
releases. Deprecated features might also behave differently now than in previous releases. For example, in
cfcache tag the following attributes are deprecated: directory, cachedirectory, port, and protocol.

Modified behavior: They might behave differently than in previous versions. For example, if you use cfcache
tag in ColdFusion 9 without end tag (</cfcache>), then instead of caching only the current page (which was
the behavior in the previous releases), the entire request is cached.

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New: These are features newly added to ColdFusion 9. For example, if you use throw as a user-defined function
in a CFM, analyzer informs that throw is a built-in ColdFusion function and suggests you to rename. If you use
throw as a user-defined function in a CFC, analyzer informs that throw is a built-in function and suggests you
to prefix it with object scope. For more details on new features, see example, Whats new in ColdFusion 9 on
page 5.
You can run the Code Analyzer from the ColdFusion Administrator. Select Code Analyzer from the list of Debugging
& Logging pages.
Note: The Code analyzer does not execute the pages that it checks. Therefore, it cannot detect invalid attribute
combinations if the attribute values are provided dynamically at runtime.

Troubleshooting common problems

A few common problems that you might encounter and ways to resolve them are described here.
For more information on troubleshooting ColdFusion, see the ColdFusion Support Center Testing and
Troubleshooting page at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_troubleshoot_en. For common tuning and precautionary
measurements that can help you prevent technical problems and improve application performance, see the
ColdFusion tech tips article, TechNote number 13810. A link to the article is located near the top of the Testing and
Troubleshooting page.

CFML syntax errors

Problem: You get an error message such as the following:
Encountered "function or tag name" at line 12, column 1.
Encountered "\"" at line 37, column 20.
Encountered "," at line 24, column 61.
Unable to scan the character '\"' which follows "" at line 38, column 53.

These errors typically indicate that you have unbalanced <, ", or # characters. One of the most common coding errors
is to forget to close quoted code, number sign-delimited variable names, or opening tags. Make sure the code in the
identified line and previous lines do not have missing characters.
The line number in the error message often does not identify the line that causes the error. Instead, it identifies the
first line where the ColdFusion compiler encountered code that it could not handle as a result of the error.
Problem: You get an error message you do not understand.
Make sure all your CFML tags have matching end tags where appropriate. It is a common error to omit the end tag for
the cfquery, cfoutput, cftable, or cfif tag.
As with the previous problem, the line number in the error message often does not identify the line that causes the
error, but the first line where the ColdFusion compiler encounters code that it could not handle as a result of the error.
Whenever you have an error message that does not appear to report a line with an error, check the code that precedes
it for missing text.
Problem: Invalid attribute or value.
If you use an invalid attribute or attribute values, ColdFusion returns an error message. To prevent such syntax errors,
use the CFML Code Analyzer. Also see Using the cftrace tag to trace execution on page 385.
Problem: You suspect that there are problems with the structure or contents of a complex data variable, such as a
structure, array, query object, or WDDX-encoded variable.
Use the cfdump tag to generate a table-formatted display of the variables structure and contents. For example, to dump
a structure named relatives, use the following line. Surround the variable name with number signs (#).

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<cfdump var=#relatives#>

Data source access and queries

Problem: You cannot make a connection to the database.
Create the data source before you can connect. Connection errors can include problems with the location of files,
network connections, and database client library configuration.
Create data sources before you refer to them in your application source files. Verify that you can connect to the
database by clicking the Verify button on the Data Sources page of the ColdFusion Administrator. If you are unable to
make a simple connection from that page, you might need to consult your database administrator to help solve the
problem.
Also, check the spelling of the data source name.
Problem: Queries take too long.
Copy and paste the query from the Queries section of the debugging output into the query analysis tool of your
database. Then retrieve and analyze the execution plan generated by the query optimizer of the database server. (The
method for doing this varies from dbms to dbms.) The most common cause of slow queries is the lack of a useful index
to optimize the data retrieval. In general, avoid table scans (or "clustered index" scans) whenever possible.

HTTP/URL
Problem: ColdFusion cannot correctly decode the contents of your form submission.
The method attribute in forms sent to the ColdFusion server must be Post, for example:
<form action="test.cfm" method="Post">

Problem: The browser complains or does not send the full URL string when you include spaces in URL parameters.
Some browsers automatically replace spaces in URL parameters with the %20 escape sequence, but others might
display an error or just send the URL string up to the first character (as does Netscape 4.7).
URL strings cannot have embedded spaces. Use a plus sign (+) or the standard HTTP space character escape sequence
(%20), wherever you want to include a space. ColdFusion correctly translates these elements into a space.
A common scenario in which this error occurs is when you dynamically generate your URL from database text fields
that have embedded spaces. To avoid this problem, include only numeric values in the dynamically generated portion
of URLs.
Or, you can use the URLEncodedFormat function, which automatically replaces spaces with %20 escape sequences. For
more information on the URLEncodedFormat function, see the CFML Reference.

Using the ColdFusion Debugger

Adobe ColdFusion provides debugging information for individual pages. However, for complex development tasks,
you require a robust and interactive debugger. ColdFusion provides a line debugger that you can use when developing
ColdFusion applications in Eclipse or Adobe Flash Builder. You can set breakpoints, step over, into, or out of code,
and inspect variables. You can also view ColdFusion log files.

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About the ColdFusion Debugger

The ColdFusion Debugger is an Eclipse plugin. It runs in the Eclipse Debug perspective. You can use the ColdFusion
Debugger to perform debugging tasks, including the following:

Setting breakpoints
Viewing variables
Stepping over, into, and out of function calls

Install and uninstall the ColdFusion Debugger

To use the ColdFusion Debugger, you must have the following software installed:

Eclipse version 3.1.2, Eclipse version 3.2, Flex Builder 2, or Flash Builder
ColdFusion 9
To install the ColdFusion Debugger, you install the ColdFusion Eclipse plugins. For more information, see Installing
ColdFusion.

Set up ColdFusion to use the Debugger

Before you can use the Debugger, enable debugging in the ColdFusion Administrator.
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Debugging & Logging > Debugger Settings.
2 Enable the Allow Line Debugging option.
3 Specify the port to use for debugging if different from the default that appears.
4 Specify the maximum number of simultaneous debug session if different from the default.
5 Click Submit Changes.
6 You may have to increase the time after which requests time-out by doing the following:
a Select Server Settings > Settings.
b Enable the Timeout Requests After (Seconds) option.
c Enter 300 or other appropriate number in the text box.
7 The debugger server listens for commands from the Eclipse client from a separate port from the one specified in

step 3. By default, ColdFusion launches the debugger server with a random available port. This could be a problem
if ColdFusion (and hence debugger server) is behind a firewall and the firewall blocks the random port that the
debugger is listening..
To prevent this problem, you can specify a fixed debugger server port number and allow this port in the firewall.
To set a fixed debugger server port number, specify the following JVM argument on the Java and JVM page of the
ColdFusion Administrator (or the appropriate place for you J2EE Application Server), replacing portNumber with
the port you want to use:
-DDEBUGGER_SERVER_PORT=portNumber

8 Restart ColdFusion. If you are running the J2EE configuration of ColdFusion, restart the server in debug mode with

the debug port as specified.

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9 To modify the debug settings, in Eclipse, select Window > Preferences > ColdFusion > Debug Settings. You can

specify the home page URL, which points to the page that appears in the Debug Output Buffer of the debugger when
you click the Home button. You can also specify the extensions of the types of files that you can debug and variable
scopes that you want the Debugger to recognize. To improve performance when debugging large files, deselect all
scopes for which you do not require information.
Note: To ensure that the debugger stops in the template you are debugging on the line that causes a ColdFusion error,
select Preferences > ColdFusion > Debug Settings and select the Enable Robust Exception Information checkbox.
10 To configure an RDS server, in Eclipse, select Window > Preferences > ColdFusion > RDS Configuration.

If you are running ColdFusion on the same computer as Eclipse, localhost is configured by default. To use any
additional RDS servers, enter the configuration information.
11 If ColdFusion and Eclipse are not running on the same computer, in Eclipse, select Window > Preferences >

ColdFusion > Debug Mappings. Then specify the path that Eclipse uses to open files on the ColdFusion server and
the path that ColdFusion uses to find the files that you are editing in Eclipse.
Mapping ensures that Eclipse and ColdFusion are working on the same file. For example, if you are editing files in
an Eclipse project that points to D:\MyCoolApp. Then, when you deploy the files to the ColdFusion server, you
copy them to W:\websites\MyCoolSite\, which the ColdFusion server recognizes as
D:\Shared\websites\MyCoolSite. The mapping in Eclipse specifies that the Eclipse directory is D:\MyCoolApp and
the server is D:\Shared\websites\MyCoolSite. Eclipse translates the file path (D:\MyCoolApp\index.cfm) to a path
that the ColdFusion server recognizes (D:\Shared\websites\MyCoolSite\index.cfm). To see more information
about the interaction between the client and the server, add the following to the JVM arguments in the ColdFusion
Administrator:
-DDEBUGGER_TRACE=true

12 If you are not running the server configuration of ColdFusion, specify Java debugging parameters in the

configuration file or startup script of the application server you are running. The parameters should look like the
following:
-Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=<port_number>

Ensure that the port number you specify is the same port number specified on the Debugger Settings page of
ColdFusion Administrator.
If you are running the server configuration, ColdFusion writes these debugging parameters to the jvm.config file
when you use the Debugger Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
13 If you are not running the server configuration and your application server is not running on JRE 1.6, copy the

tools.jar file of the JDK version that your application server is running to the \lib folder of ColdFusion. For example,
if you are running JRun that runs on JRE 1.4, copy the tools.jar file of JDK 1.4 to the \lib folder of ColdFusion.
14 If you are running the server version of ColdFusion and you specify a JRE version other than JRE 1.6 in the

jvm.config file, copy the tools.jar file of the JDK version specified in your jvm.config file to the \lib folder of
ColdFusion.
Note: To debug ColdFusion applications running on the multiserver configuration, start the ColdFusion server from the
command line using the following command:
jrun -config <path_to_jvm_config> -start <server_name>

Test and modify the debugger in Eclipse

You can determine whether the Debugger server is configured correctly in Eclipse by selecting Window > Preferences
> ColdFusion > RDS Configuration, and then clicking Test Debugger.

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You can modify RDS configurations easily from the RDS Fileview or RDS Dataview by clicking the Edit RDS
Preferences button in the view.

About the Debug perspective

After you install the ColdFusion Plugin, enable the debugger in ColdFusion, and configure Eclipse, you can use the
ColdFusion Debugger in Eclipse. It is available in the Eclipse Debug perspective.
The Debug perspective includes the following:

Debug pane, which keeps the results of each completed session. The following buttons appear at the top of this pane:
Resume - Resumes a debugging session
Suspend - Pauses a debugging session
Terminate - Stops a debugging session
Disconnect - Disconnects the debugger from the selected debug target when debugging remotely
Remove All Terminated Launches - Clears all terminated debug targets from the display
Step Into - Executes code line by line, including included code, UDFs, CFCs, and the like
Step Over - Executes code line by line, excluding included code, UDFs, CFCs, and the like
Step Return - Returns to the original page from which you entered the included code, UDF, CFC, or the like
Drop to Frame -Reenters a specified stack frame, which is analogous to going in reverse and restarting your
program partway through

Use Step Filters/Step Debug - Ensures that all step functions apply step filters
Menu - Displays the menu that lets you manage the view, show system threads, show qualified names, and show
monitors

Variables pane, which shows the current variables, including the variable scope. The following buttons appear at
the top of this pane:

Show Type Names - Displays the type of the variables

Show Logical Structure - This button is not supported
Collapse All - Collapses the information in the panel to show only variable types
Breakpoints pane - Lists breakpoints in the ColdFusion application. The following buttons appear at the top of this pane:
Remove Selected Breakpoints - Removes a breakpoint
Remove All Breakpoints - Removes all breakpoints
Show Breakpoints Supported by Selected Targets - Displays the breakpoints for what you are currently
debugging

Go to File for Breakpoint - Goes to the file in which the selected breakpoint is set
Skip All Breakpoints - Ignores all breakpoints
Expand All - Expands the information in the pane
Collapse All - Collapses the information in the pane
Link with Debug View - Highlights the selected breakpoint when the application stops execution in the Debug View
Add Java Exception Breakpoint - Lets you specify which Java exception to throw when you reach the selected
breakpoint

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Menu - Lets you specify the type of information to display in the Breakpoints pane
Debug Output Buffer - Contains two panes: Browser, which displays what appears in the browser during
application execution; Server Output Buffer, which displays the debug output.

Edit pane, which displays the stacked source panes, one for each source file you have open.
Outline pane, which displays the current source files content in outline form

Using the ColdFusion Debugger

After you enabled the debugger in the ColdFusion Administrator and configure Eclipse, you can debug ColdFusion
pages that are in an Eclipse project.
You can use the ColdFusion Debugger to do the following tasks:

Setting a breakpoint
Executing code line by line
Inspecting variables

Begin debugging a ColdFusion application

1 Open the file in the Eclipse project to debug.

You do not have to create an Eclipse project in the same folder as CFML source. You can create a project in a
different folder, create a folder under that project, and then link it to the folder where CFML sources reside.
2 Click Debug in the upper-right corner of the Eclipse workbench to go to the Debug perspective.
3 Select Window > Show View > Debug Output Buffer to see the output from your application and how your

application appears in a browser.

4 Select Window > Preferences and specify the home page for your debugging session, the extensions of the file types

that you can debug, and the variable scopes of the variables to show in the Variables pane. Click OK.
The home page is the page that appears in the Debug Output Buffer pane when you click the Home button in the
Debug Output Buffer pane.
5 To begin debugging the file whose source appears in the Edit pane, click the Debug icon in the Eclipse toolbar.
6 Click New to create a new debugging configuration.
7 Specify the home page for the active debug session.

This is the page that appears in the Debug Output Buffer pane when you click the Debug Session Home button in
the Debug Output Buffer pane.
8 Click Debug to start the debug session.

Note: If you are in the process of debugging a template and then try to browse to or refresh that page, doing so can result
in unexpected behavior in the Debugger.

Setting a breakpoint
You can set breakpoints in your CFML file to stop execution of the page at particular points. When you set a
breakpoint on a line, execution of the CFML stops just before that line. For example, if you set a breakpoint on the
third line in the following CFML page, execution stops before <cfset myName = "Wilson">.
<cfset yourName = "Tuckerman">
<cfoutput>Your name is #yourName#.</cfoutput>
<cfset myName = "Wilson"

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Run the page that you want to debug before setting any breakpoints to compile it before debugging it. This improves
performance during debugging. You cannot set a breakpoint in a file that is not part of a project.
1 In Eclipse, open the file in which you want to set a breakpoint.
2 While highlighting the line where you want to set the breakpoint, do one of the following:

Double-click in the marker bar that appears to the left of the editor area.
Right click, and then select Toggle Breakpoint.
Press Alt+Shift+B.
A blue dot appears before the line on which you set the breakpoint.
Also, you can view a list of breakpoints set in the current Eclipse project in the Breakpoints panel.
ColdFusion breakpoints have four states in the Eclipse debugger:

Enabled and Valid - This is a breakpoint at a valid location. It is represented by a solid blue circle and stops code
execution when encountered.

Unresolved - ColdFusion sets the breakpoint for the page that is loaded in its memory. If you modify the page
and do not execute it, the source is not in sync with the page that ColdFusion sees on the server. In this situation,
ColdFusion may consider the line where you want to set breakpoint to be invalid. However, you have not yet
executed the page; when you do so, that line may be valid. This type of breakpoint is represented by a question
mark (?) icon.
For performance reasons, ColdFusion does not try to resolve unresolved breakpoints every time you execute the
page. It tries to resolve them when you modify the page and execute it. If you think that the line at which
ColdFusion shows an unresolved breakpoint is valid, delete the breakpoint and set it again.

Invalid - If ColdFusion determines that the CFML that you edit in Eclipse is the same as the CFML in its
memory, and that the breakpoint you have set is at an invalid line, the breakpoint appears as a red X.

Disabled.

Executing code line by line

You can use the Step Into, Step Over, and Step Return buttons to proceed through your CFML application line by line.
Use Step Into to proceed into included files, such as UDFs or CFCs. Use the Step Over button to proceed through your
CFML application, bypassing included files, such as UDFs or CFCs. Use the Step Return button to return to the
original page from which you entered the included file, such as UDFs or CFCs.
For the stepping process to work properly, clear the cache of compiled classes. To do so, recompile all CFML pages
compiled with an earlier version of ColdFusion. In large files, you might find that stepping and breakpoints are slow.
To improve performance, in Eclipse, select Windows > Preferences > ColdFusion > Debug Settings and deselect all
scopes for which you do not require information.
Avoid using Step In on CFML instructions such as the cfset tag. Step In is more performance intensive than Step
Over. You can use Step In for UDFs, CFCs, custom tags, and included files.
When stepping into functions, tags, and files, Eclipse expects the file to be displayed in one of the open projects. The
file that you are stepping in must be in an open Eclipse project.
Sometimes Eclipse 3.2.1 does not show the stack trace, and step buttons are disabled, even though the debugger has
stopped at a line. To enable the step buttons, click the debugger server instance in the Debug window. To see the stack
trace, click either Step In or Step Out.

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Inspecting variables
As you observe execution of your code, you can see the values and scope of variables in the Variables panel. The
Variables panel displays the scope and value of variables as the CFML code executes. Only variables whose scopes are
those you selected in the Preferences dialog box appear in the Variables pane.

Viewing ColdFusion log files

You can easily see the contents of all the log files that ColdFusion generates by using the Log File Viewer.
1 In Eclipse, select Window > Show View > Other > ColdFusion > CF Log Viewer.
2 To view details of a log file, double-click the name of the file.
3 To include the log files in another folder, click the Add Log Folder button, select the folder, and then click OK.
4 To remove a folder from the list, without deleting it from the computers file system, click the Remove Log Folder

button, select the folder, and then click OK.

5 To remove a log file from the computers file system, click the Delete Log File button.
6 To remove the contents of the detail pane, click the Menu button, and then click Clear Log.
7 To update the contents of the detail pane, click the Menu button, and then click Refresh Log.

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Chapter 7: Accessing and Using Data

Introduction to Databases and SQL
Adobe ColdFusion lets you create dynamic applications to access and modify data stored in a database. You do not
require a thorough knowledge of databases to develop ColdFusion applications, but you need to know some basic
database and SQL concepts and techniques.
Each database server (such as SQL Server, Oracle, or DB2) has unique capabilities and properties. For more
information, see the documentation that ships with your database server.

What is a database?
A database defines a structure for storing information. Databases are typically organized into tables, which are
collections of related items. You can think of a table as a grid of columns and rows. ColdFusion works primarily with
relational databases, such as Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server.
The following image shows the basic layout of a database table:
B

Layout of a database table

A. row B. column

A column defines one piece of data stored in all rows of the table. A row contains one item from each column in the
table.
For example, a table contains the ID, name, title, and other information for individuals employed by a company. Each
row, called a data record, corresponds to one employee. The value of a column within a record is referred to as a record
field.
The following image shows an example table, named employees, containing information about company employees:

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EmpID

LastName

FirstName

Title

DeptID

Email

Phone

Smith

John

Engineer

jsmith

x5833

Example employees table

The record for employee 4 contains the following field values:

LastName field is Smith

FirstName field is John
Title field is Engineer
This example uses the EmpID field as the tables primary key field. The primary key contains a unique identifier to
maintain each record's unique identity. Primary keys field can include an employee ID, part number, or customer
number. Typically, you specify which column contains the primary key when you create a database table.
To access the table to read or modify table data, you use the SQL programming language. For example, the following
SQL statement returns all rows from the table where the department ID is 3:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DEPTID=3

Note: The SQL keywords and syntax are represented here as uppercase letters. Table and column names use mixed
uppercase and lowercase letters.

Using multiple database tables

In many database designs, information is distributed to multiple tables. The following image shows two tables, one for
employee information and one for employee addresses:
EmpID

LastName

FirstName

Title

DeptID

Email

Phone

Jones

Joe

Engineer

jjones

x5844

Davis

Ken

Manager

kdavis

x5854

Baker

Mary

Engineer

mbaker

x5876

Smith

John

Engineer

jsmith

x5833

Morris

Jane

Manager

jmorris

x5833

Employees table

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EmpID

Street

City

State

Zip

4 Main St.

Newton

MA

02158

10 Oak Dr.

Newton

MA

02161

15 Main St.

Newton

MA

02158

56 Maple Ln.

Newton

MA

02160

25 Elm St.

Newton

MA

02160

Addresses tables

In this example, each table contains a column named EmpID. This column associates a row of the employees table with
a row in the addresses table.
For example, to obtain all information about an employee, you request a row from the employees table and the row
from the addresses table with the same value for EmpID.
One advantage of using multiple tables is that you can add tables containing new information without modifying the
structure of your existing tables. For example, to add payroll information, you add a new table to the database where
the first column contains the employees ID and the columns contain current salary, previous salary, bonus payment,
and 401(k) percent.
Also, an access to a small table is more efficient than an access to a large table. Therefore, if you update the street
address of an employee, you update only the addresses table, without having to access any other table in the database.

Database permissions
In many database environments, a database administrator defines the access privileges for users accessing the database,
usually through user name and password. When a person attempts to connect to a database, the database ensures that
the user name and password are valid and then imposes access requirements on the user.
Privileges can restrict user access so that a user can do the following:

Read data.
Read data and add rows.
Read data, add rows, modify existing tables.
In ColdFusion, you use the ColdFusion Administrator to define database connections, called data sources. As part of
defining these connections, you specify the user name and password used by ColdFusion to connect to the database.
The database can then control access based on this user name and password.
For more information on creating a data source, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Commits, rollbacks, and transactions

Before you access data stored in a database, it is important to understand several database concepts, including:

Commit
Rollback
Transactions

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A database commit occurs when you make a permanent change to a database. For example, when you write a new row
to a database, the write does not occur until the database commits the change.
Rollback is the process of undoing a change to a database. For example, if you write a new row to a table, you can
rollback the write up to the point where you commit the write. After the commit, you can no longer rollback the write.
Most databases support transactions where a transaction consists of one or more SQL statements. Within a
transaction, your SQL statements can read, modify, and write a database. You end a transaction by either committing
all your changes within the transaction or rolling back all of them.
Transactions can be useful when you have multiple writes to a database and want to make sure all writes occurred
without error before committing them. In this case, you wrap all writes within a single transaction and check for errors
after each write. If any write causes an error, rollback all of them. If all writes occur successfully, you commit the
transaction.
A bank might use a transaction to encapsulate a transfer from one account to another. For example, if you transfer
money from your savings account to your checking account, you do not want the bank to debit the balance of your
savings account unless it also credits your checking account. If the update to the checking account fails, the bank can
rollback the debit of the savings account as part of the transaction.
ColdFusion includes the cftransaction tag that lets you implement database transactions for controlling rollback
and commit. For more information, see the CFML Reference.

Database design guidelines

From this basic description, the following database design rules emerge:

Each record should contain a unique identifier as the primary key such as an employee ID, a part number, or a
customer number. The primary key is typically the column used to maintain each record's unique identity among
the tables in a relational database. Databases allow you to use multiple columns for the primary key.

When you define a column, you define a SQL data type for the column, such as allowing only numeric values to be
entered in the salary column.

Assessing user needs and incorporating those needs in the database design is essential to a successful
implementation. A well-designed database accommodates the changing data needs within an organization.
The best way to familiarize yourself with the capabilities of your database product or database management system
(DBMS) is to review the product documentation.

Using SQL
The following information introduces SQL, describes basic SQL syntax, and contains examples of SQL statements. so
that you can begin to use ColdFusion. For complete SQL information, see the SQL reference that ships with your
database.
A query is a request to a database. The query can ask for information from the database, write new data to the database,
update existing information in the database, or delete records from the database.
Structured Query Language (SQL) is an ANSI/ISO standard programming language for writing database queries. All
databases supported by ColdFusion support SQL, and all ColdFusion tags that access a database let you pass SQL
statements to the tag.

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SQL example
The most commonly used SQL statement in ColdFusion is the SELECT statement. The SELECT statement reads data
from a database and returns it to ColdFusion. For example, the following SQL statement reads all the records from the
employees table:
SELECT * FROM employees

You interpret this statement as "Select all rows from the table employees" where the wildcard symbol (*) corresponds
to all columns.
If you are using Dreamweaver MX 2004, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, or HomeSite+, you can use the built-in query
builder to build SQL statements graphically by selecting the tables and records to retrieve.
In many cases, you do not want all rows from a table, but only a subset of rows. The next example returns all rows from
the employees table, where the value of the DeptID column for the row is 3:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DeptID=3

You interpret this statement as "Select all rows from the table employees where the DeptID is 3".
SQL also lets you specify the table columns to return. For example, instead of returning all columns in the table, you
can return a subset of columns:
SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM employees WHERE DeptID=3

You interpret this statement as "Select the columns FirstName and LastName from the table employees where the
DeptID is 3".
In addition to with reading data from a table, you can write data to a table using the SQL INSERT statement. The
following statement adds a new row to the employees table:
INSERT INTO employees(EmpID, LastName, Firstname) VALUES(51, 'Doe', 'John')

Basic SQL syntax elements

The following tables briefly describe the main SQL command elements.
Statements
A SQL statement always begins with a SQL verb. The following keywords identify commonly used SQL verbs:
Keyword

Description

SELECT

Retrieves the specified records.

INSERT

Adds a new row.

UPDATE

Changes values in the specified rows.

DELETE

Removes the specified rows.

Statement clauses
Use the following keywords to refine SQL statements:
Keyword

Description

FROM

Names the data tables for the operation.

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Keyword

Description

WHERE

Sets one or more conditions for the operation.

ORDER BY

Sorts the result set in the specified order.

GROUP BY

Groups the result set by the specified select list items.

Operators
The following basic operators specify conditions and perform logical and numeric functions:
Operator

Description

AND

Both conditions must be met

OR

At least one condition must be met

NOT

Exclude the condition following

LIKE

Matches with a pattern

IN

Matches with a list of values

BETWEEN

Matches with a range of values

Equal to

<>

Not equal to

<

Less than

>

Greater than

<=

Less than or equal to

>=

Greater than or equal to

Addition

Subtraction

Division

Multiplication

Case sensitivity with databases

ColdFusion is a case-insensitive programming environment. Case insensitivity means the following statements are
equivalent:
<cfset foo="bar">
<CFSET FOO="BAR">
<CfSet FOO="bar">

However, many databases, especially UNIX databases, are case sensitive. Case sensitivity means that you must match
exactly the case of all column and table names in SQL queries.
For example, the following queries are not equivalent in a case-sensitive database:
SELECT LastName FROM EMPLOYEES
SELECT LASTNAME FROM employees

In a case-sensitive database, employees and EMPLOYEES are two different tables.

For information on how your database handles case, see the product documentation.

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SQL notes and considerations

When writing SQL in ColdFusion, keep in mind the following guidelines:

If you use a ColdFusion variable in your SQL expression, and the variable value is a string that contains single
quotes, place the variable in a PreserveSingleQuotes function to prevent ColdFusion from interpreting the
quotation marks. The following example shows this use:
<cfset List = "'Suisun', 'San Francisco', 'San Diego'">
<cfquery name = "GetCenters" datasource = "cfdocexamples">
SELECT Name, Address1, Address2, City, Phone
FROM Centers
WHERE City IN (#PreserveSingleQuotes(List)#)
</cfquery>

There is a lot more to SQL than what is covered here. It is a good idea to purchase one or several SQL guides for
reference.

To perform a successful query, the data source, columns, and tables that you reference must exist.
Some DBMS vendors use nonstandard SQL syntax (known as a dialect) in their products. ColdFusion does not
validate the SQL; it is passed on to the database for validation, so you are free to use any syntax that your database
supports. Check your DBMS documentation for nonstandard SQL usage.

Reading data from a database

You use the SQL SELECT statement to read data from a database. The SQL statement has the following general syntax:
SELECT column_names
FROM table_names
[ WHERE search_condition ]
[ GROUP BY group_expression ] [HAVING condition]
[ ORDER BY order_condition [ ASC | DESC ] ]

The statements in brackets [] are optional.

Note: There are additional options to SELECT depending on your database. For a complete syntax description for
SELECT, see the product documentation.
Results of a SELECT statement
When the database processes a SELECT statement, it returns a record set containing the requested data. The format of
a record set is a table with rows and columns. For example, if you write the following query:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DeptID=3

The query returns a database table. Because the data returned to ColdFusion by a SELECT statement is in the form of
a database table, ColdFusion lets you write a SQL query on the returned results. This functionality is called query of
queries. For more information on query of queries, see Accessing and Retrieving Data on page 410.
The next example uses a SELECT statement to return only a specific set of columns from a table:
SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM employees WHERE DeptID=3

Filtering results
The SELECT statement lets you filter the results of a query to return only those records that meet specific criteria. For
example, if you want to access all database records for employees in department 3, you use the following query:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DeptID=3

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You can combine multiple conditions using the WHERE clause. For example, the following example uses two
conditions:
SELECT * FROM employees WHERE DeptID=3 AND Title='Engineer'

Sorting results
By default, a database does not sort the records returned from a SQL query. In fact, you cannot guarantee that the
records returned from the same query are returned in the same order each time you run the query.
However, if you require records in a specific order, you can write your SQL statement to sort the records returned from
the database. To do so, you include an ORDER BY clause in the SQL statement.
For example, the following SQL statement returns the records of the table ordered by the LastName column:
SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY LastName

You can combine multiple fields in the ORDER BY clause to perform additional sorting:
SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY DepartmentID, LastName

This statement returns row ordered by department, then by last name within the department.
Returning a subset of columns
You want only a subset of columns returned from a database table, as in the following example, which returns only the
FirstName, LastName, and Phone columns. This example is useful if you are building a web page that shows the phone
numbers for all employees.
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Phone FROM employees

However, this query does not to return the table rows in alphabetical order. You can include an ORDER clause in the
SQL, as follows:
SELECT the FirstName, LastName, Phone
FROM employees
ORDER BY LastName, FirstName

Using column aliases

You have column names that you do not want to retain in the results of your SQL statement. For example, your
database is set up with a column that uses a reserved word in ColdFusion, such as EQ. In this case, you can rename the
column as part of the query, as follows:
SELECT EmpID, LastName, EQ as MyEQ FROM employees

The results returned by this query contains columns named EmpID, LastName, and MyEQ.
Accessing multiple tables
In a database, you can have multiple tables containing related information. You can extract information from multiple
tables as part of a query. In this case, you specify multiple table names in the SELECT statement, as follows:
SELECT LastName, FirstName, Street, City, State, Zip
FROM employees, addresses
WHERE employees.EmpID = addresses.EmpID
ORDER BY LastName, FirstName

This SELECT statement uses the EmpID field to connect the two tables. This query prefixes the EmpID column with
the table name. This is necessary because each table has a column named EmpID. Prefix a column name with its table
name if the column name appears in multiple tables.

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In this case, you extract LastName and FirstName information from the employees table and Street, City, State, and
ZIP information from the addresses table. You can use output such as this is to generate mailing addresses for an
employee newsletter.
The results of a SELECT statement that references multiple tables is a single result table containing a join of the
information from corresponding rows. A join means information from two or more rows is combined to form a single
row of the result. In this case, the resultant recordset has the following structure:
LastName

FirstName

Street

City

State

Zip

What is interesting in this result is that even though you used the EmpID field to combine information from the two
tables, you did not include that field in the output.

Modifying a database
You can use SQL to modify a database in the following ways:
Inserting data into a database
You use SQL INSERT statement to write information to a database. A write adds a new row to a database table. The
basic syntax of an INSERT statement is as follows:
INSERT INTO table_name(column_names) VALUES(value_list)

where:

column_names specifies a comma-separated list of columns.

value_list specifies a comma-separated list of values. The order of values has to correspond to the order that you
specified column names.
Note: There are additional options to INSERT depending on your database. For a complete syntax description for
INSERT, see the product documentation.
For example, the following SQL statement adds a new row to the employees table:
INSERT INTO employees(EmpID, LastName, Firstname) VALUES(51, 'Smith', 'John')

This statement creates a row in the employees table and sets the values of the EmpID, LastName, and FirstName fields
of the row. The remaining fields in the row are set to Null. Nullmeans that the field does not contain a value.
When you, or your database administrator, creates a table, you can set properties on the table and the columns of the
table. One of the properties you can set for a column is whether the field supports Null values. If a field supports Nulls,
you can omit the field from the INSERT statement. The database automatically sets the field to Null when you insert
a new row.

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However, if the field does not support Nulls, specify a value for the field as part of the INSERT statement; otherwise,
the database issues an error.
The LastName and FirstName values in the query are contained within single-quotation marks. This is necessary
because the table columns are defined to contain character strings. Numeric data does not require the quotation marks.
Updating data in a database
Use the UPDATE statement in SQL to update the values of a table row. Update lets you update the fields of a specific
row or all rows in the table. The UPDATE statement has the following syntax:
UPDATE table_name
SET column_name1=value1, ... , column_nameN=valueN
[ WHERE search_condition ]

Note: There are additional options to UPDATE depending on your database. For a complete syntax description for
UPDATE, see the product documentation.
Do not attempt to update a records primary key field. Your database typically enforces this restriction.
The UPDATE statement uses the optional WHERE clause, much like the SELECT statement, to determine which table
rows to modify. The following UPDATE statement updates the e-mail address of John Smith:
UPDATE employees SET Email='[email protected]' WHERE EmpID = 51

Be careful using UPDATE. If you omit the WHERE clause to execute the following statement:
UPDATE employees SET Email = '[email protected]'

you update the Email field for all rows in the table.
Deleting data from a database
The DELETE statement removes rows from a table. The DELETE statement has the following syntax:
DELETE FROM table_name
[ WHERE search_condition ]

Note: There are additional options to DELETE depending on your database. For a complete syntax description for
DELETE, see the product documentation.
You can remove all rows from a table using a statement in the form:
DELETE FROM employees

Typically, you specify a WHERE clause to the DELETE statement to delete specific rows of the table. For example, the
following statement deletes John Smith from the table:
DELETE FROM employees WHERE EmpID=51

Updating multiple tables

The preceding examples describe how to modify a single database table. However, you might have a database that uses
multiple tables to represent information.
One way to update multiple tables is to use one INSERT statement per table and to wrap all INSERT statements within
a database transaction. A transaction contains one or more SQL statements that can be rolled back or committed as a
unit. If any single statement in the transaction fails, you can roll back the entire transaction, canceling any previous
writes that occurred within the transaction. You can use the same technique for selects, updates, and deletes. The
following example uses the cftransaction tag to wrap multiple SQL statements:

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<cftransaction>
<cfquery name="qInsEmp" datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT INTO Employees (FirstName,LastName,EMail,Phone,Department)
VALUES ('Simon', 'Horwith', 'SHORWITH','(202)-797-6570','Research and Development')
</cfquery>
<cfquery name="qGetID" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT MAX(Emp_ID) AS New_Employee
FROM Employees
</cfquery>
</cftransaction>

Accessing and Retrieving Data

Several ColdFusion tags provide a way to retrieve data from a database and work with query data. Use the cfquery tag
to query a data source, the cfoutput tag to output the query results to a web page, and the cfqueryparam tag to help
reduce security risks in your applications.

Working with dynamic data

A web application page is different from a static web page because it can publish data dynamically. This can involve
querying databases, connecting to LDAP or mail servers, and leveraging COM, DCOM, CORBA, or Java objects to
retrieve, update, insert, and delete data at run timeas your users interact with pages in their browsers.
For ColdFusion developers, the term data source can refer to different types of structured content accessible locally or
across a network. You can query websites, LDAP servers, POP mail servers, and documents in a variety of formats.
Most commonly though, a database drives your applications, and for this discussion a data source means the entry
point from ColdFusion to a database.
Here, you build a query to retrieve data from the cfdocexamples data source.
To query a database, use:

ColdFusion data sources

The cfquery tag
SQL commands

Retrieving data
You can query databases to retrieve data at run time. The retrieved data, called the recordset, is stored on that page as
a query object. A query object is a special entity that contains the recordset values, plus RecordCount, CurrentRow,
ColumnList, SQL, Cached, and SQLParameter query variables. You specify the name of the query object in the name
attribute of the cfquery tag. The query object is often called simply the query.
The following is a simple cfquery tag:
<cfquery name = "GetSals" datasource = "cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
ORDER BY LastName
</cfquery>

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Note: The terms recordset and query object are often used synonymously when discussing recordsets for queries. For
more information, see Using Query of Queries on page 428.
When retrieving data from a database, perform the following tasks:

To tell ColdFusion how to connect to a database, use the cfquery tag on a page.
To specify the data that you want to retrieve from the database, write SQL commands inside the cfquery block.
Reference the query object and use its data values in any tag that presents data, such as cfoutput, cfgrid, cftable,
cfgraph, or cftree.

The cfquery tag

The cfquery tag is one of the most frequently used CFML tags. You use it to retrieve and reference the data returned
from a query. When ColdFusion encounters a cfquery tag on a page, it does the following:

Connects to the specified data source.

Performs SQL commands that are enclosed within the block.
Returns result set values to the page in a query object.

The cfquery tag syntax

The following code shows the syntax for the cfquery tag:
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SQL code...
</cfquery>

In this example, the query code tells ColdFusion to do the following:

Connect to the cfdocexamples data source (the cfdocexamples.mdb database).

Execute SQL code that you specify.
Store the retrieved data in the query object EmpList.
When creating queries to retrieve data, keep in mind the following guidelines:

Use opening <cfquery> and ending </cfquery> tags, because the cfquery tag is a block tag.
Enter the query name and datasource attributes within the opening cfquery tag.
To tell the database what to process during the query, place SQL statements inside the cfquery block.
When referencing text literals in SQL, use single-quotation marks ('). For example, SELECT

* FROM mytable

WHERE FirstName='Jacob' selects every record from mytable in which the first name is Jacob.

Surround attribute values with double quotation marks (attrib_value).

Make sure that a data source exists in the ColdFusion Administrator before you reference it in a cfquery tag.
Columns and tables that you refer to in your SQL statement must exist, otherwise the query fails.
Reference the query data by naming the query in one of the presentation tags, such as cfoutput, cfgrid, cftable,
cfgraph, or cftree.

When ColdFusion returns database columns, it removes table and owner prefixes. For example, if you query
Employee.Emp_ID in the query, the Employee, is removed and returns as Emp_ID. You can use an alias to handle
duplicate column names; for more information, see Using Query of Queries on page 428.

You cannot use SQL reserved words, such as MIN, MAX, COUNT, in a SQL statement. Because reserved words are
database-dependent, see the documentation of your database for a list of reserved words.

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If you use COMPUTE AVG() in your SQL, ColdFusion 9 returns avg() as the column name. (Previous versions
(ColdFusion 5 and ColdFusion MX 7) returned ave() as the column name.)

To retrieve results returned by database triggers, add the following connection parameter in the connection string:
AlwaysReportTriggerResults=true

This parameter determines how the driver reports results generated by database triggers (procedures that are stored
in the database and executed, or fired, when a table is modified). For Microsoft SQL Server 2005, this includes
triggers fired by Data Definition Language (DDL) events. If set to true, the driver returns all results, including
results generated by triggers. Multiple trigger results are returned one at a time. Use the method
Statement.getMoreResults to retrieve individual trigger results. Warnings and errors are reported in the results as
they are encountered.

Building queries
As discussed earlier, you build queries by using the cfquery tag and SQL.
Note: This procedure and many subsequent procedures use the cfdocexamples data source that connects to the
cfdocexamples.mdb database. This data source is installed by default. For information on adding or configuring a data
source, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.
Query the table
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Employee List</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Employee List</h1>
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
</body>
</html>

Note: Adobe recommends that you create structured, reusable code by placing queries in ColdFusion components;
however, for simplicity, the examples here include the query in the body of the ColdFusion page. For more information
about using ColdFusion components, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177.
2 Save the page as emplist.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root directory. For example, the default path

on a Windows computer would be:

C:\CFusion\wwwroot\myapps\
3 Enter the following URL in your web browser:

http://localhost/myapps/emplist.cfm
Only the header appears.
4 View the source in the browser.

ColdFusion creates the EmpList data set, but only HTML and text return to the browser. When you view the pages
source, you see only HTML tags and the heading Employee List. To display the data set on the page, use code tags
and variables to output the data.

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Reviewing the code

The query you just created retrieves data from the cfdocexamples database. The following table describes the
highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">

Queries the database specified in the cfdocexamples data source.

SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract

Gets information from the FirstName, LastName, Salary, and Contract

fields in the Employee table.

FROM Employee

Ends the cfquery block.

</cfquery>

Outputting query data

After you define a query, you can use the cfoutput tag with the query attribute to output data from the recordset.
When you use the query attribute, keep in mind the following:

ColdFusion loops through all the code contained within the cfoutput block, once for each row in the recordset
returned from the database.

Reference specific column names within the cfoutput block to output the data to the page.
You can place text, CFML tags, and HTML tags inside or surrounding the cfoutput block to format the data on
the page.

Although you do not have to specify the query name when you refer to a query column, use the query name as a
prefix for best practices reasons. For example, if you specify the Emplist query in your cfoutput tag, you can refer
to the Firstname column in the Emplist query as Firstname. However, using the query name as a prefix,
Emplist.Firstname, is preferred, and is in the following procedure.
The cfoutput tag accepts a variety of optional attributes but, ordinarily, you use the query attribute to define the
name of an existing query.
1 Edit emplist.cfm so that it appears as follows:
<html>
<head>
<title>Employee List</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Employee List</h1>
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="EmpList">
#EmpList.FirstName#, #EmpList.LastName#, #EmpList.Salary#, #EmpList.Contract#<br>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file and view it in your web browser:

A list of employees appears in the browser, with each line displaying one row of data.
Note: If necessary, refresh your browser to see your changes.

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You created a ColdFusion application page that retrieves and displays data from a database. At present, the output is
raw and needs formatting. For more information, see Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data on page 703.
Reviewing the code
The results of the query appear on the page. The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfoutput query="EmpList">

Displays information retrieved in the EmpList query.

#EmpList.FirstName#, #EmpList.LastName#,

Displays the value of the FirstName, LastName, Salary, and

Contract fields of each record, separated by commas and spaces.

#EmpList.Salary#, #EmpList.Contract#
<br>

Inserts a line break (go to the next line) after each record.

</cfoutput>

Ends the cfoutput block.

Query output notes and considerations

When outputting query results, keep in mind the following guidelines:

A cfquery must retrieve data before the cfoutput tag can display its results. Although you can include both on
the same page, Adobe recommends that you place queries in ColdFusion components and output the results on a
separate page. For more information, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177.

To output data from all the records of a query, specify the query name by using the query attribute in the cfoutput tag.
Columns must exist and be retrieved to the application to output their values.
Inside a cfoutput block that uses a cfquery attribute, you can prefix the query variables with the name of the
query; for example, Emplist.FirstName.

As with other attributes, surround the query attribute value with double-quotation marks (").
As with any variables that you reference for output, surround column names with number signs (#) to tell
ColdFusion to output the current values of the column.

Add a <br> tag to the end of the variable references so that ColdFusion starts a new line for each row that the query
returns.

Getting information about query results

Each time you query a database with the cfquery tag, you get the data (the recordset) and the query variables; together
they make up the query object. The following table describes the query variables, which are sometimes called query
properties:
Variable

Description

RecordCount

The total number of records returned by the query.

ColumnList

A comma-delimited list of the query columns, in alphabetical order.

SQL

The SQL statement executed.

Cached

Whether the query was cached.

SQLParameters

Ordered array of cfqueryparam values.

ExecutionTime

Cumulative time required to process the query, in milliseconds.

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In your CFML code, use these variables as if they are columns in a database table. Use the result attribute to specify
the name of the structure that ColdFusion populates with these variables. You then use that structure name to refer to
the query variables as the following example shows:

Output information about the query on your page

1 Edit emplist.cfm so that it appears as follows:
<cfset Emp_ID = 1>
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples" result="tmpResult">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract
FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = <cfqueryPARAM value = "#Emp_ID#"
CFSQLType = "CF_SQL_INTEGER">
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="EmpList">
#EmpList.FirstName#, #EmpList.LastName#, #EmpList.Salary#, #EmpList.Contract#<br>
</cfoutput> <br>
<cfoutput>
The query returned #tmpResult.RecordCount# records.<br>
The query columns are:#tmpResult.ColumnList#.<br>
The SQL is #tmpResult.SQL#.<br>
Whether the query was cached: #tmpResult.Cached#.<br>
Query execution time: #tmpResult.ExecutionTime#.<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#tmpResult.SQLParameters#">

2 Save the file and view it in your web browser:

The number of employees now appears below the list of employees. If necessary, refresh your browser and scroll to
see the RecordCount output.
Reviewing the code
You now display the number of records retrieved in the query. The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfoutput>

Displays what follows.

The query returned

Displays the text The query returned.

#EmpList.RecordCount#

Displays the number of records retrieved in the EmpList query.

records.

Displays the text records.

</cfoutput>

Ends the cfoutput block.

Query variable notes and considerations

When using query variables, keep in mind the following guidelines:

Reference the query variable within a cfoutput block so that ColdFusion outputs the query variable value to the page.
Surround the query variable reference with number signs (#) so that ColdFusion knows to replace the variable
name with its current value.

Do not use the cfoutput tag query attribute when you output the RecordCount or ColumnList property. If you
do, you get one copy of the output for each row. Instead, prefix the variable with the name of the query.

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Enhancing security with cfqueryparam

Some DBMSs let you send multiple SQL statements in a single query. However, hackers sometimes try to modify URL
or form variables in a dynamic query by appending malicious SQL statements to existing parameters. Be aware of
potential security risks when you pass parameters in a query string. These risks can exist in many development
environments, including ColdFusion, ASP, and CGI. Using the cfqueryparam tag can reduce this risk.

About query string parameters

When you let a query string pass a parameter, ensure that only the expected information is passed. The following
ColdFusion query contains a WHERE clause, which selects only database entries that match the last name specified in
the LastName field of a form:
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName='#Form.LastName#'
</cfquery>

Someone could call this page with the following malicious URL:
http://myserver/page.cfm?Emp_ID=7%20DELETE%20FROM%20Employee
The result is that ColdFusion tries to execute the following query:
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = 7 DELETE FROM Employee
</cfquery>

In addition to an expected integer for the Emp_ID column, this query also passes malicious string code in the form of
a SQL statement. If this query successfully executes, it deletes all rows from the Employee tablesomething you
definitely do not want to enable by this method. To prevent such actions, evaluate the contents of query string
parameters.

Using cfqueryparam
You can use the cfqueryparam tag to evaluate query string parameters and pass a ColdFusion variable within a SQL
statement. This tag evaluates variable values before they reach the database. You specify the data type of the
corresponding database column in the cfsqltype attribute of the cfqueryparam tag. In the following example,
because the Emp_ID column in the cfdocexamples data source is an integer, you specify a cfsqltype of
cf_sql_integer:
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = <cfqueryparam value = "#Emp_ID#"
cfsqltype = "cf_sql_integer">
</cfquery>

The cfqueryparam tag checks that the value of Emp_ID is an integer data type. If anything else in the query string is
not an integer, such as a SQL statement to delete a table, the cfquery tag does not execute. Instead, the cfqueryparam
tag returns the following error message:
Invalid data '7 DELETE FROM Employee' for CFSQLTYPE 'CF_SQL_INTEGER'.
Using cfqueryparam with strings
When passing a variable that contains a string to a query, specify a cfsqltype value of cf_sql_char, and specify the
maxLength attribute, as in the following example:

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<cfquery name = "getFirst" dataSource = "cfdocexamples">

SELECT * FROM employees
WHERE LastName = <cfqueryparam value = "#LastName#"
cfsqltype = "cf_sql_char" maxLength = "17">
</cfquery>

In this case, cfqueryparam performs the following checks:

It ensures that LastName contains a string.

It ensures that the string is 17 characters or less.
It escapes the string with single-quotation marks so that it appears as a single value to the database. Even if a hacker
passes a bad URL, it appears as follows:
WHERE LastName = 'Smith DELETE FROM MyCustomerTable'.
Using cfSqlType
The following table lists the available SQL types against which you can evaluate the value attribute of the
cfqueryparam tag:
BIGINT

BIT

CHAR

DATE

DECIMAL

DOUBLE

FLOAT

IDSTAMP

INTEGER

LONGVARCHAR

MONEY

MONEY4

NUMERIC

REAL

REFCURSOR

SMALLINT

TIME

TIMESTAMP

TINYINT

VARCHAR

Note: Specifying the cfsqltype attribute causes the DBMS to use bind variables, which can greatly enhance
performance.

Updating Your Database

Adobe ColdFusion lets you insert, update, and delete information in a database.

About updating your database

ColdFusion was originally developed as a way to readily interact with databases. You can quickly insert, update, and
delete the contents of your database by using ColdFusion forms, which are typically a pair of pages. One page displays
the form with which your end user enters values; the other page performs the action (insert, update, or delete).
Depending on the extent and type of data manipulation, you can use CFML with or without SQL commands. If you
use SQL commands, ColdFusion requires a minimal amount of SQL knowledge.

Inserting data
You usually use two application pages to insert data into a database:

An insert form
An insert action page

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You can create an insert form with standard HTML form tags or with cfform tags (see Creating custom forms with
the cfform tag on page 723). When the user submits the form, form variables are passed to a ColdFusion action page
that performs an insert operation (and whatever else is called for) on the specified data source. The insert action page
can contain either a cfinsert tag or a cfquery tag with a SQL INSERT statement. The insert action page should also
contain a confirmation message for the end user.

Creating an HTML insert form

The following procedure creates a form using standard HTML tags.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Insert Data Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Insert Data Form</h2>
<table>
<!--- begin html form;
put action page in the "action" attribute of the form tag. --->
<form action="insert_action.cfm" method="post">
<tr>
<td>Employee ID:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="Emp_ID" size="4" maxlength="4"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><input type="Text" name="FirstName" size="35" maxlength="50"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><input type="Text" name="LastName" size="35" maxlength="50"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Department Number:</td>
<td><input type="Text" name="Dept_ID" size="4" maxlength="4"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Start Date:</td>
<td><input type="Text" name="StartDate" size="16" maxlength="16"></td>

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</tr>
<tr>
<td>Salary:</td>
<td><input type="Text" name="Salary" size="10" maxlength="10"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Contractor:</td>
<td><input type="checkbox" name="Contract" value="Yes" checked>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td><input type="Submit" value="Submit">&nbsp;<input type="Reset"
value="Clear Form"></td>
</tr>
</form>
<!--- end html form --->
</table>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as insert_form.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in your web browser.

Note: The form does not work until you write an action page for it. For more information, see Creating an action page
to insert data on page 419.

Data entry form notes and considerations

If you use the cfinsert tag in the action page to insert the data into the database, follow these rules for creating the
form page:

Create HTML form fields for only the database columns into which you insert data.
By default, cfinsert inserts all of the forms fields into the database columns with the same names. For example,
it places the Form.Emp_ID value in the database Emp_ID column. The tag ignores form fields that lack
corresponding database column names.
Note: You can also use the formfields attribute of the cfinsert tag to specify which fields to insert; for example,
formfields="prod_ID,Emp_ID,status".

Creating an action page to insert data

You can use the cfinsert tag or the cfquery tag to create an action page that inserts data into a database.
Creating an insert action page with cfinsert
The cfinsert tag is the easiest way to handle simple inserts from either a cfform or an HTML form. This tag inserts
data from all the form fields with names that match database field names.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head> <title>Input form</title> </head>
<body>
<!--- If the Contractor check box is clear,
set the value of the Form.Contract to "No" --->
<cfif not isdefined("Form.Contract")>
<cfset Form.Contract = "N">
</cfif>
<!--- Insert the new record --->
<cfinsert datasource="cfdocexamples" tablename="EMPLOYEE">
<h1>Employee Added</h1>
<cfoutput> You have added #Form.FirstName# #Form.Lastname# to the employee database.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as insert_action.cfm.

3 View insert_form.cfm in your web browser and enter values.

Note: You might want to compare views of the Employee table in the cfdocexamples data source before and after
inserting values in the form.
4 Click Submit.

ColdFusion inserts your values into the Employee table and displays a confirmation message.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfif not isdefined("Form.Contract")>

<cfset Form.Contract = "N">
</cfif>

Sets the value of Form.Contract to No if it is not defined. If the Contractor check

box is unchecked, no value is passed to the action page; however, the database
field must have some value.

<cfinsert datasource="cfdocexamples"
tablename="EMPLOYEE">

Creates a row in the Employee table of the cfdocexamples database. Inserts data
from the form into the database fields with the same names as the form fields.

<cfoutput>You have added #Form.FirstName#

#Form.Lastname# to the employee
database.</cfoutput>

Informs the user that values were inserted into the database.

Note: If you use form variables in cfinsert or cfupdate tags, ColdFusion automatically validates any form data it
sends to numeric, date, or time database columns. You can use the hidden field validation functions for these fields to
display a custom error message. For more information, see Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data on
page 703.
Creating an insert action page with cfquery
For more complex inserts from a form submittal, you can use a SQL INSERT statement in a cfquery tag instead of
using a cfinsert tag. The SQL INSERT statement is more flexible because you can insert information selectively or
use functions within the statement.

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The following procedure assumes that you have created the insert_action.cfm page, as described in Creating an insert
action page with cfinsert on page 419.
1 In insert_action.cfm, replace the cfinsert tag with the following highlighted cfquery code:
<html>
<head>
<title>Input form</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- If the Contractor check box is clear), set the value of the Form.Contract
to "No" --->
<cfif not isdefined("Form.Contract")>
<cfset Form.Contract = "No">
</cfif>
<!--- Insert the new record --->
<cfquery name="AddEmployee" datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT INTO Employee
VALUES (#Form.Emp_ID#, '#Form.FirstName#',
'#Form.LastName#', #Form.Dept_ID#,
'#Form.StartDate#', #Form.Salary#, '#Form.Contract#')
</cfquery>
<h1>Employee Added</h1>
<cfoutput>You have added #Form.FirstName# #Form.Lastname# to the employee database.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page.

3 View insert_form.cfm in your web browser and enter values.
4 Click Submit.

ColdFusion inserts your values into the Employee table and displays a confirmation message.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfquery name="AddEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT INTO Employee VALUES
(#Form.Emp_ID#,
'#Form.FirstName#',
'#Form.LastName#',
#Form.Dept_ID#,
'#Form.StartDate#',
#Form.Salary#, '#Form.Contract#')
</cfquery>

Inserts a new row into the Employee table of the cfdocexamples database. Specifies each form
field to be added.
Because you are inserting data into all database fields in the same left-to-right order as in the
database, you do not have to specify the database field names in the query.
Because #From.Emp_ID#, #Form.Dept_ID#, and #Form.Salary# are numeric, they do
not need to be enclosed in quotation marks.

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Inserting into specific fields

The preceding example inserts data into all the fields of a table (the Employee table has seven fields). There might be
times when you do not want users to add data into all fields. To insert data into specific fields, the SQL statement in
the cfquery must specify the field names following both INSERT INTO and VALUES. For example, the following
cfquery omits salary and start date information from the update. Database values for these fields are 0 and NULL,
respectively, according to the databases design.
<cfquery name="AddEmployee" datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT INTO Employee
(Emp_ID,FirstName,LastName,
Dept_ID,Contract)
VALUES
(#Form.Emp_ID#,'#Form.FirstName#','#Form.LastName#',
#Form.Dept_ID#,'#Form.Contract#')
</cfquery>

Updating data
You usually use the following two application pages to update data in a database:

An update form
An update action page
You can create an update form with cfform tags or HTML form tags. The update form calls an update action page,
which can contain either a cfupdate tag or a cfquery tag with a SQL UPDATE statement. The update action page
should also contain a confirmation message for the end user.

Creating an update form

The following are the key differences between an update form and an insert form:

An update form contains a reference to the primary key of the record that is being updated.
A primary key is a fields in a database table that uniquely identifies each record. For example, in a table of employee
names and addresses, only the Emp_ID is unique to each record.

An update form is populated with existing record data.

The easiest way to designate the primary key in an update form is to include a hidden input field with the value of the
primary key for the record you want to update. The hidden field indicates to ColdFusion which record to update.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Update Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetRecordtoUpdate" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = #URL.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>

<cfoutput query="GetRecordtoUpdate">
<table>
<form action="update_action.cfm" method="Post">
<input type="Hidden" name="Emp_ID" value="#Emp_ID#"><br>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="FirstName" value="#FirstName#"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="LastName" value="#LastName#"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Department Number:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="Dept_ID" value="#Dept_ID#"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Start Date:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="StartDate" value="#StartDate#"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Salary:</td>
<td><input type="text" name="Salary" value="#Salary#"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Contractor:</td>
<td><cfif #Contract# IS "Yes">
<input type="checkbox" name="Contract" checked>Yes
<cfelse>
<input type="checkbox" name="Contract">Yes
</cfif></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td><input type="Submit" value="Update Information"></td>
</tr>
</form>
</table>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as update_form.cfm.

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3 View update_form.cfm in your web browser by specifying the page URL and an Employee ID; for example, enter

the following: http://localhost/myapps/update_form.cfm?Emp_ID=3

Note: Although you can view an employees information, code an action page before you can update the database. For
more information, see Creating an action page to update data on page 424.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfquery name="GetRecordtoUpdate"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = #URL.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>

Queries the cfdocexamples data source and returns records in which

the employee ID matches what was entered in the URL that called this
page.

<cfoutput query="GetRecordtoUpdate">
...
</cfoutput>

Makes available as variables the results of the GetRecordtoUpdate

query in the form created in subsequent lines.

<form action="update_action.cfm" method="Post">

...
</form>

Creates a form whose variables are processed on the

update_action.cfm action page.

<input type="Hidden" name="Emp_ID"

value="#Emp_ID#"><br>

Uses a hidden input field to pass the Emp_ID (primary key) value to
the action page.

First Name:
<input type="text" name="FirstName"
value="#FirstName#"><br>
Last Name:
<input type="text" name="LastName"
value="#LastName#"><br>
Department Number:
<input type="text" name="Dept_ID"
value="#Dept_ID#"><br>
Start Date:
<input type="text" name="StartDate"
value="#StartDate#"><br>
Salary:
<input type="text" name="Salary"
value="#Salary#"><br>

Populates the fields of the update form. This example does not use
ColdFusion formatting functions. As a result, start dates look like
1985-03-12 00:00:00 and salaries do not have dollar signs or commas.
The user can replace the information in any field using any valid input
format for the data.

Contracto r:
< cfif #Contract# IS "Yes">
<input type="checkbox" name="C ontract"
checked>Yes<br>
<cfelse>
<input type="checkbox" name="Contract"> Yes <br>
</cfif>
<br>
<input type="Submit" value="Update Information">
</form>
</cfoutput>

The Contract field requires special treatment because a check box

appears and sets its value. The cfif structure puts a check mark in the
check box if the Contract field value is Yes, and leaves the box empty
otherwise.

Creating an action page to update data

You can create an action page to update data with either the cfupdate tag or cfquery with the UPDATE statement.
Creating an update action page with cfupdate
The cfupdate tag is the easiest way to handle simple updates from a front-end form. The cfupdate tag has an almost
identical syntax to the cfinsert tag.

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To use the cfupdate tag, include the primary key fields in your form submittal. The cfupdate tag automatically
detects the primary key fields in the table that you are updating and looks for them in the submitted form fields.
ColdFusion uses the primary key fields to select the record to update (therefore, you cannot update the primary key
value itself). It then uses the remaining form fields that you submit to update the corresponding fields in the record.
Your form only needs to have fields for the database fields that you want to change.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Update Employee</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfif not isdefined("Form.Contract")>
<cfset form.contract = "N">
<cfelse>
<cfset form.contract = "Y">
</cfif>
<cfupdate datasource="cfdocexamples" tablename="EMPLOYEE">
<h1>Employee Updated</h1>
<cfoutput>
You have updated the information for #Form.FirstName# #Form.LastName# in the employee
database.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as update_action.cfm.

3 View update_form.cfm in your web browser by specifying the page URL and an Employee ID; for example, enter

the following: http://localhost/myapps/update_form.cfm?Emp_ID=3

4 Enter new values in any of the fields, and click Update Information.

ColdFusion updates the record in the Employee table with your new values and displays a confirmation message.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfif not isdefined("Form.Contract")>

<cfset Form.contract = "N">
<cfelse>
<cfset form.contract = "Y">
</cfif>

Sets the value of Form.Contract to No if it is not defined, or to Yes if it is

defined. If the Contractor check box is unchecked, no value is passed to the
action page; however, the database field must have some value.

<cfupdate datasource="cfdocexamples"
tablename="EMPLOYEE">

Updates the record in the database that matches the primary key on the
form (Emp_ID). Updates all fields in the record with names that match the
names of form controls.

<cfoutput>
You have updated the information for
#Form.FirstName# #Form.LastName# in the employee
database.
</cfoutput>

Informs the user that the change was made successfully.

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Creating an update action page with cfquery

For more complicated updates, you can use a SQL UPDATE statement in a cfquery tag instead of a cfupdate tag.
The SQL UPDATE statement is more flexible for complicated updates.
The following procedure assumes that you have created the update_action.cfm page as described in Creating an
update action page with cfupdate on page 424.
1 In update_action.cfm, replace the cfupdate tag with the following highlighted cfquery code:
<html>
<head>
<title>Update Employee</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfif not isdefined("Form.Contract")>
<cfset form.contract = "No">
<cfelse>
<cfset form.contract = "Yes">
</cfif>
<!--- cfquery requires date formatting when retrieving from
Access. Use the left function when setting StartDate to trim
the ".0" from the date when it first appears from the
Access database --->
<cfquery name="UpdateEmployee" datasource="cfdocexamples">
UPDATE Employee
SET FirstName = '#Form.Firstname#',
LastName = '#Form.LastName#',
Dept_ID = #Form.Dept_ID#,
StartDate = '#left(Form.StartDate,19)#',
Salary = #Form.Salary#
WHERE Emp_ID = #Form.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>
<h1>Employee Updated</h1>
<cfoutput>
You have updated the information for
#Form.FirstName# #Form.LastName#
in the employee database.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page.

3 View update_form.cfm in your web browser by specifying the page URL and an Employee ID; for example, enter

the following: http://localhost/myapps/update_form.cfm?Emp_ID=3

4 Enter new values in any of the fields, and click Update Information.

ColdFusion updates the record in the Employee table with your new values and displays a confirmation message.
When the cfquery tag retrieves date information from a Microsoft Access database, it displays the date and time with
tenths of seconds, as follows:

Deleting data
You use a cfquery tag with a SQL DELETE statement to delete data from a database. ColdFusion has no cfdelete tag.

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Deleting a single record

To delete a single record, use the tables primary key in the WHERE condition of a SQL DELETE statement. In the
following procedure, Emp_ID is the primary key, so the SQL Delete statement is as follows:
DELETE FROM Employee WHERE Emp_ID = #Form.Emp_ID#

You often want to see the data before you delete it. The following procedure displays the data to be deleted by reusing
the form page used to insert and update data. Any data that you enter in the form before submitting it is not used, so
you can use a table to display the record to be deleted instead.
1 In update_form.cfm, change the title to Delete Form and the text on the submit button to Delete Record.
2 Change the form tag so that it appears as follows:
<form action="delete_action.cfm" method="Post">

3 Save the modified file as delete_form.cfm.

4 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Delete Employee Record</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="DeleteEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
DELETE FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID = #Form.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>
<h1>The employee record has been deleted.</h1>
<cfoutput>
You have deleted #Form.FirstName# #Form.LastName# from the employee database.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

5 Save the page as delete_action.cfm.

6 View delete_form.cfm in your web browser by specifying the page URL and an Employee ID; for example, enter

the following: http://localhost/myapps/delete_form.cfm?Emp_ID=3.Click Delete Record

ColdFusion deletes the record in the Employee table and displays a confirmation message.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfquery name="DeleteEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
DELETE FROM Employee WHERE Emp_ID = #Form.Emp_ID#
</cfquery>

Deletes the record in the database whose Emp_ID column matches the
Emp_ID (hidden) field on the form. Since the Emp_ID is the tables primary
key, only one record is deleted.

<cfoutput>
You have deleted #Form.FirstName#
#Form.LastName# from the employee database.
</cfoutput>

Informs the user that the record was deleted.

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Deleting multiple records

You can use a SQL condition to delete several records. The following example deletes the records for everyone in the
Sales department (which has Dept_ID number 4) from the Employee table:
DELETE FROM Employee WHERE Dept_ID = 4

To delete all the records from the Employee table, use the following code:
DELETE FROM Employee

Important: Deleting records from a database is not reversible. Use DELETE statements carefully.

Using Query of Queries

A query that retrieves data from a recordset is called a Query of Queries. After you generate a recordset, you can interact
with its results as if they are database tables by using Query of Queries.

About recordsets
Query of Queries is based on manipulating the recordset, which you can create using the cfquery tag and other ways.
When you execute a database query, Adobe ColdFusion retrieves the data in a recordset. In addition to presenting
recordset data to the user, you can manipulate this recordset to improve the performance of your application.
Because a recordset contains rows (records) and columns (fields), you can think of it as a virtual database table, or as
a spreadsheet. For example, the cfpop tag retrieves a recordset in which each row is a message and each column is a
message component, such as To, From, and Subject.

Creating a recordset
You can perform a Query of Queries on any ColdFusion tag or function that generates a recordset, including the
following:

cfcollection

cfdirectory

cfftp

cfhttp

cfindex

cfldap

cfmail

cfpop

cfprocresult

cfquery(against a database or against another Query of Queries)

cfsearch

cfstoredproc

cfwddx

The QueryNew function

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Creating a recordset with the QueryNew() function

In addition to creating a recordset by using a cfquery or other CFML tags, you can create it with the QueryNew
function.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>The queryNew function</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>QueryNew Example</h2>
<!--- Create a query, specify data types for each column. --->
<cfset qInstruments = queryNew("name, instrument, years_playing",
"CF_SQL_VARCHAR, CF_SQL_VARCHAR, CF_SQL_INTEGER")>
<!--- Add rows. --->
<cfset newrow = queryaddrow(qInstruments, 3)>
<!--- Set values in cells. --->
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "name", "Thor", 1)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "instrument", "hammer", 1)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "years_playing", "1000", 1)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "name", "Bjorn", 2)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "instrument", "sitar", 2)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "years_playing", "24", 2)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "name", "Raoul", 3)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "instrument", "flute", 3)>
<cfset temp = querysetcell(qInstruments, "years_playing", "12", 3)>
<!--- Output the query. --->
<cfoutput query="qInstruments">
<pre>#name##instrument# #years_playing#</pre>
</cfoutput>
<h3>Individual record retrieval:</h3>
<cfoutput>
<p>#qInstruments.name[2]# has played #qInstruments.instrument[2]# for
#qInstruments.years_playing[2]# years.</p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as queryNew.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root directory.
3 Display queryNew.cfm in your browser

About Query of Queries

After you have created a recordset with a tag or function, you can retrieve data from the recordset in one or more
dependent queries. A query that retrieves data from a recordset is called a Query of Queries. A typical use of a Query
of Queries is to retrieve an entire table into memory with one query, and then access the table data (the recordset) with
subsequent sorting or filtering queries. In essence, you query the recordset as if it is a database table.

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Note: Because you can generate a recordset in ways other than using the cfquery tag, the term In Memory Query is
sometimes used instead of Query of Queries.

Benefits of Query of Queries

Performing a Query of Queries has many benefits, including the following:
1 When you have to access the same tables multiple times, you greatly reduce access time, because the data is already

in memory (in the recordset).

A Query of Queries is ideal for tables of 5,000 to 50,000 rows, and is limited only by the memory of the ColdFusion
host computer.
2 You can perform joins and union operations on results from different data sources.

For example, you can perform a union operation on queries from different databases to eliminate duplicates for a
mailing list.
3 You can efficiently manipulate cached query results in different ways. You can query a database once, and then use

the results to generate several different summary tables.

For example, to summarize the total salary by department, by skill, and by job, you can make one query to the
database and use its results in three separate queries to generate the summaries.
4 You can obtain drill-down, master-detail information for which you do not access the database for the details.

For example, you can select information about departments and employees in a query, and cache the results. You
can then display the names of the employees. When users select an employee, the application displays the details of
the employees by selecting information from the cached query, without accessing the database.
5 You can use a Query of Queries in report definitions to generate subreport data. For more information, see Using

subreports on page 1033.

Performing a Query of Queries

Perform a Query of Queries as follows:
1 Generate a recordset through a master query.

You can write a master query using a tag or function that creates a recordset. For more information, see Creating
a recordset on page 428.
2 Write a detail querya cfquery tag that specifies dbtype="query".
3 In the detail query, write a SQL statement that retrieves the relevant records. Specify the names of one or more

existing queries as the table names in your SQL code. Do not specify a datasource attribute.
4 If the database content does not change rapidly, use the cachedwithin attribute of the master query to cache the

query results between page requests. This way, ColdFusion accesses the database on the first page request, and does
not query the database again until the specified time expires. Use the CreateTimeSpan function to specify the
cachedwithin attribute value (in days, hours, minutes, seconds format).
The detail query generates a new query result set, identified by the value of the name attribute of the detail query. The
following example illustrates the use of a master query and a single detail query that extracts information from the
master.
Use the results of a query in a query
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<h1>Employee List</h1>
<!--- LastNameSearch (normally generated interactively) --->
<cfset LastNameSearch="Doe">
<!--- Master Query --->
<cfquery datasource="cfdocexamples" name="master"
cachedwithin=#CreateTimeSpan(0,1,0,0)#>
SELECT * from Employee
</cfquery>
<!--- Detail Query (dbtype=query, no data source) --->
<cfquery dbtype="query" name="detail">
SELECT Emp_ID, FirstName, LastName
FROM master
WHERE LastName=<cfqueryparam value="#LastNameSearch#"
cfsqltype="cf_sql_char" maxLength="20"></cfquery>
<!--- output the detail query results --->
<p>Output using a query of query:</p>
<cfoutput query=detail>
#Emp_ID#: #FirstName# #LastName#<br>
</cfoutput>
<p>Columns in the master query:</p>
<cfoutput>
#master.columnlist#<br>
</cfoutput>
<p>Columns in the detail query:</p>
<cfoutput>
#detail.columnlist#<br>
</cfoutput>

2 Save the page as query_of_query.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.
3 Display query_of_query.cfm in your browser

Reviewing the code

The master query retrieves the entire Employee table from the cfdocexamples data source. The detail query selects only
the three columns to display for employees with the specified last name. The following table describes the code and its
function:
Code

Description

cfset LastNameSearch="Doe"

Sets the last name to use in the detail query. In a complete application,
this information comes from user interaction.

<cfquery datasource="cfdocexamples" name="master"

cachedwithin=#CreateTimeSpan(0,1,0,0)#>
SELECT * from Employee
</cfquery>

Queries the cfdocexamples data source and selects all data in the
Employees table. Caches the query data between requests to this page,
and does not query the database if the cached data is less than an hour
old.

<cfquery dbtype="query" name="detail">

SELECT Emp_ID, FirstName, LastName FROM master
WHERE LastName=<cfqueryparam
value="#LastNameSearch#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_char"
maxLength="20">
</cfquery>

Uses the master query as the source of the data in a new query, named
detail. This new query selects only entries that match the last name
specified by the LastNameSearch variable. The query also selects only
three columns of data: employee ID, first name, and last name. The query
uses the cfqueryparam tag to prevent passing erroneous or harmful code.

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Code

Description

<cfoutput query=detail>
#Emp_ID#: #FirstName# #LastName# <br>
</cfoutput>

Uses the detail query to display the list of employee IDs, first names, and
last names.

<cfoutput>
#master.columnlist#<br>
</cfoutput>

Lists all the columns returned by the master query.

<cfoutput>
#detail.columnlist#<br>
</cfoutput>

Lists all the columns returned by the detail query.

Displaying recordset data incrementally

If your database is large, you can limit the number of rows displayed at one time. The following example shows how
to do this using the currentRow query variable of a Query of Queries. For more information on query variables, see
Getting information about query results on page 414.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>QoQ with incremental row return</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>QoQ with incremental row return</h3>
<!--- define startrow and maxrows to facilitate 'next N' style browsing --->
<cfparam name = "MaxRows" default = "5">
<cfparam name = "StartRow" default = "1">
<!--- master query: retrieve all info from Employee table --->
<cfquery name = "GetSals" datasource = "cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
ORDER BY LastName
</cfquery>
<!--- detail query: select 3 fields from the master query --->
<cfquery name = "GetSals2" dbtype = "query">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM GetSals
ORDER BY LastName
</cfquery>
<!--- build table to display output --->
<table cellpadding = 1 cellspacing = 1>
<tr>
<td bgcolor = f0f0f0>
<b><i>&nbsp;</i></b>
</td>
<td bgcolor = f0f0f0>
<b><i>FirstName</i></b>
</td>
<td bgcolor = f0f0f0>
<b><i>LastName</i></b>
</td>

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<td bgcolor = f0f0f0>

<b><i>Salary</i></b>
</td>
</tr>
<!--- Output the query and define the startrow and maxrows
parameters. Use the query variable currentRow to
keep track of the row you are displaying. --->
<cfoutput query = "GetSals2" startrow = "#StartRow#" maxrows = "#MaxRows#">
<tr>
<td valign = top bgcolor = ffffed>
<b>#GetSals2.currentRow#</b>
</td>
<td valign = top>
<font size = "-1">#FirstName#</font>
</td>
<td valign = top>
<font size = "-1">#LastName#</font>
</td>
<td valign = top>
<font size = "-1">#LSCurrencyFormat(Salary)#</font>
</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
<!--- If the total number of records is less than or equal to
the total number of rows, provide a link to the same page, with the
StartRow value incremented by MaxRows (5, in this example) --->
<tr>
<td colspan = 4>
<cfif (startrow + maxrows) lte getsals2.recordcount>
<a href="qoq_next_row.cfm?startrow=<cfoutput>#Evaluate(StartRow +
MaxRows)#</cfoutput>">See next <cfoutput>#MaxRows#</cfoutput>
rows</a>
</cfif>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as qoq_next_row.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.
3 Display qoq_next_row.cfm in your browser.

Using the cfdump tag with query results

As you debug your CFML code, you can use the cfdump tag to quickly display the contents of your query. This tag has
the following format:
<cfdump var="#query_name#">

For more information on the cfdump tag, see the CFML Reference.

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Using Query of Queries with non-SQL recordsets

A Query of Queries can operate on any CFML tag or function that returns a recordset; you are not limited to operating
on cfquery results. You can perform queries on non-SQL recordsets, such as a cfdirectory tag, a cfsearch tag, a
cfldap tag, and so on.
The following example shows how a Query of Queries interacts with the recordset of a Verity search. This example
assumes that you have a valid Verity collection, called bbb, which contains documents with a target word, film, or its
variants (films, filmed, filming). Change the name of the collection and the search criteria to as appropriate for your
Verity collection. For more information on Verity, see Building a Search Interface on page 476.

Use Query of Queries with a Verity recordset

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>QoQ and Verity</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Master query: retrieve all documents from the bbb collection
that contain 'film' (or its stemmed variants); change values for
collection and criteria as needed for your Verity collection. --->
<cfsearch name = "quick"
collection="bbb"
type = "simple"
criteria="film">
<h3>Master query dump:</h3>
<cfdump var="#quick#">
<!--- Detail query: retrieve from the master query only those
documents with a score greater than a criterion (here,
0.7743). --->
<cfquery name="qoq" dbtype="query">
SELECT * from quick
WHERE quick.score > 0.7743
</cfquery>
<h3>Detail query dump:</h3>
<cfdump var="#qoq#">
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as qoq_verity.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.
3 Display qoq_verity.cfm in your browser

The next example shows how a Query of Queries combines recordsets from a cfdirectory tag, which is limited to
retrieval of one file type per use.

Use Query of Queries to combine recordsets

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Images Folder</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Image Retrieval with QoQ</h2>
<!--- Set the images directory. --->
<cfset dir = ("C:\pix\")>
<!--- Retrieve all GIFs. --->
<cfdirectory name="GetGIF"
action="list"
directory="#dir#"
filter="*.gif">
<!--- Retrieve all JPGs --->
<cfdirectory name="GetJPG"
action="list"
directory="#dir#"
filter="*.jpg">
<!--- Join the queries with a UNION in a QoQ (cfdirectory
automatically returns the directory name as "Name"). --->
<cfquery dbtype="query" name="GetBoth">
SELECT * FROM GetGIF
UNION
SELECT * FROM GetJPG
ORDER BY Name
</cfquery>
<!--- Display output in a linked, ordered list. --->
<cfoutput>
<p>The <strong>#dir#</strong> directory contains #GetBoth.RecordCount#
images:<br>
<ol>
<cfloop query="GetBoth">
<li><a href="../images/#Name#">#GetBoth.Name#</a><br>
</cfloop>
</ol>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as qoq_cfdirectory.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.
3 Display qoq_cfdirectory.cfm in your browser.

Query of Queries user guide

If you know SQL or have interacted with databases, you might be familiar with some of the Query of Queries
functionality.

Using dot notation

Query of Queries supports using dot notation in table names.

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Example
If a structure named A contains a field named B, which contains a table named Products, you can refer to the table with
dot notation, as follows:
SELECT tape_ID, length
FROM A.B.Products;

Using joins
A join operation uses a single SELECT statement to return a result set from multiple, related tables, typically those
tables with a primary key - foreign key relationship. The two SQL clauses that perform joins are:

WHERE clause: Query of Queries supports joins through a WHERE clause.

INNER JOIN and OUTER JOIN: Query of Queries does not support joins through INNER JOIN or OUTER JOIN
clauses.
Note: Query of Queries supports joins between two tables only.

Using unions
The UNION operator lets you combine the results of two or more SELECT expressions into a single recordset. The
original tables must have the same number of columns, and corresponding columns must be UNION-compatible data
types. Columns are UNION-compatible data types if they meet one of the following conditions:

The same data type; for example, both Tinyint

Both Numeric; for example, Tinyint, Smallint, Integer, Bigint, Double, Float, Real, Decimal, or Numeric
Both Characters; for example, Char, Varchar, or LongVarchar
Both Dates; for example, Time, TimeStamp, or Date
Note: Query Of Queries does not support ODBC-formatted dates and times.
Syntax
select_expression = select_expression UNION [ALL] select_expression

Example
This example uses the following tables:
Table1
Type(int)

Name(varchar)

Tennis

Baseball

Football

Table2
ID(int)

Sport(varchar)

Football

Volleyball

PingPong

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To combine Table1 and Table2, use a UNION statement, as follows:

SELECT * FROM Table1
UNION
SELECT * FROM Table2

The UNION statement produces the following result (UNION) table:

Result table
Type(int)

Name(varchar)

Tennis

Baseball

Football

Volleyball

PingPong

Using aliases for column names

The column names of a UNION table are the column names in the result set of the first SELECT statement in the
UNION operation; Query of Queries ignores the column names in the other SELECT statement. To change the
column names of the result table, you can use an alias, as follows:
Select Type as SportType, Name as SportName from Table1
UNION
Select * from Table2

Duplicate rows and multiple tables

By default, the UNION operator removes duplicate rows from the result table. If you use the keyword ALL, then
duplicates are included.
You can combine an unlimited number of tables using the UNION operator, for example:
Select * from Table1
UNION
Select * from Table2
UNION
Select * from Table3
...

Parentheses and evaluation order

By default, the Query of Queries SQL engine evaluates a statement containing UNION operators from left to right.
You can use parentheses to change the order of evaluation. For example, the following two statements are different:

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/* First statement. */
SELECT * FROM TableA
UNION ALL
(SELECT * FROM TableB
UNION
SELECT * FROM TableC
)
/* Second statement. */
(SELECT * FROM TableA
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM TableB
)
UNION
SELECT * FROM TableC

In the first statement, there are no duplicates in the union between TableB and TableC. Then, in the union between
that set and TableA, the ALL keyword includes the duplicates. In the second statement, duplicates are included in the
union between TableA and TableB but are eliminated in the subsequent union with TableC. The ALL keyword has no
effect on the final result of this expression.
Using other keywords with UNION
When you perform a UNION, the individual SELECT statements cannot have their own ORDER BY or COMPUTE
clauses. You can only have one ORDER BY or COMPUTE clause after the last SELECT statement; this clause is applied
to the final, combined result set. You can only specify GROUP BY and HAVING expressions in the individual SELECT
statements.

Using conditional operators

Query of Queries lets you use the following conditional operators in your SQL statements:
Test conditional
This conditional tests whether a Boolean expression is True, False, or Unknown.
Syntax
cond_test ::= expression [IS [NOT] {TRUE | FALSE | UNKNOWN} ]

Example
SELECT _isValid FROM Chemicals
WHERE _isValid IS true;

Null conditional
This conditional tests whether an expression is null.
Syntax
null_cond ::= expression IS [NOT] NULL

Example
SELECT bloodVal FROM Standards
WHERE bloodVal IS NOT null;

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Comparison conditional
This conditional lets you compare an expression against another expression of the same data type (Numeric, String,
Date, or Boolean). You can use it to selectively retrieve only the relevant rows of a recordset.
Syntax
comparison_cond ::= expression [> | >= | <> | != | < | <=] expression

Example
The following example uses a comparison conditional to retrieve only those dogs whose IQ is at least 150:
SELECT dog_name, dog_IQ
FROM Dogs
WHERE dog_IQ >= 150;

BETWEEN conditional
This conditional lets you compare an expression against another expression. You can use it to selectively retrieve only
the relevant rows of a recordset. Like the comparison conditional, the BETWEEN conditional also compares; however,
the BETWEEN conditional compares against a range of values. Therefore, its syntax requires two values, which are
inclusive, a minimum and a maximum. Separate these values with the AND keyword.
Syntax
between_cond ::= expression [NOT] BETWEEN expression AND expression

Example
The following example uses a BETWEEN conditional to retrieve only those dogs whose IQ is between 150 and 165,
inclusive:
SELECT dog_name, dog_IQ
FROM Dogs
WHERE dog_IQ BETWEEN 150 AND 165;

IN conditional
This conditional lets you specify a comma-delimited list of conditions to match. It is similar in function to the OR
conditional. In addition to being more legible when working with long lists, the IN conditional can contain another
SELECT statement.
Syntax
in_cond ::= expression [NOT] IN (expression_list)

Example
The following example uses the IN conditional to retrieve only those dogs who were born at either Kens Kennels or
Barbs Breeders:
SELECT dog_name, dog_IQ, Kennel_ID
FROM Dogs
WHERE kennel_ID IN ('Kens','Barbs');

LIKE conditional
This conditional lets you perform wildcard searches, in which you compare your data to search patterns. This strategy
differs from other conditionals, such as BETWEEN or IN, because the LIKE conditional compares your data to a value
that is partially unknown.

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Syntax
like_cond ::= left_string_exp [NOT] LIKE right_string_exp [ESCAPE escape_char]

The left_string_exp can be either a constant string, or a column reference to a string column. The right_string_exp can
be either a column reference to a string column, or a search pattern. A search pattern is a search condition that consists
of literal text and at least one wildcard character. A wildcard character is a special character that represents an unknown
part of a search pattern, and is interpreted as follows:

The underscore (_) represents any single character.

The percent sign (%) represents zero or more characters.
Brackets [ ] represents any character in the range.
Brackets with a caret [^] represent any character not in the range.
All other characters represent themselves.
Note: Earlier versions of ColdFusion do not support bracketed ranges.
Examples
The following example uses the LIKE conditional to retrieve only those dogs of the breed Terrier, whether the dog is
a Boston Terrier, Jack Russell Terrier, Scottish Terrier, and so on:
SELECT dog_name, dog_IQ, breed
FROM Dogs
WHERE breed LIKE '%Terrier';

The following examples are select statements that use bracketed ranges:
SELECT
SELECT
SELECT
SELECT
SELECT

lname
lname
lname
lname
lname

FROM
FROM
FROM
FROM
FROM

Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects
Suspects

WHERE
WHERE
WHERE
WHERE
WHERE

lname
lname
lname
lname
lname

LIKE
LIKE
LIKE
LIKE
LIKE

'A[^c]%';
'[a-m]%';
'%[]';
'A[%]%';
'A[^c-f]%';

Case sensitivity
Unlike the rest of ColdFusion, Query of Queries is case-sensitive. However, Query of Queries supports two string
functions, UPPER() and LOWER(), which you can use to achieve case-insensitive matching.
Examples
The following example matches only 'Sylvester':
SELECT dog_name
FROM Dogs
WHERE dog_name LIKE 'Sylvester';

The following example is not case sensitive; it uses the LOWER() function to treat 'Sylvester', 'sylvester', 'SYLVESTER',
and so on, as all lowercase, and matches them with the all lowercase string, sylvester:
SELECT dog_name
FROM Dogs
WHERE LOWER(dog_name) LIKE 'sylvester';

If you use a variable on the right side of the LIKE conditional and want to ensure that the comparison is not casesensitive, use the LCase or UCase function to force the variable text to be all of one case, as in the following example:
WHERE LOWER(dog_name) LIKE '#LCase(FORM.SearchString)#';

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Escaping wildcards
You can specify your own escape character by using the conditional ESCAPE clause.
Example
The following example uses the ESCAPE clause to enable a search for a literal percent sign (%), which ColdFusion
normally interprets as a wildcard character:
SELECT emp_discount
FROM Benefits
WHERE emp_discount LIKE '10\%'
ESCAPE '\';

Managing data types for columns

A Query of Queries requires that every column has metadata that defines the data type of the column. All queries that
ColdFusion creates have metadata. However, a query created with QueryNew function that omits the second parameter
does not contain metadata. You use this optional second parameter to define the data type of each column in the query.
Specify column data types in the QueryNew function
Type a QueryNew function, specifying the column names in the first parameter and the data types in the second
parameter, as the following example shows:
<cfset qInstruments = queryNew("name, instrument, years_playing", "CF_SQL_VARCHAR,
CF_SQL_VARCHAR, CF_SQL_INTEGER")>

Note: To see the metadata for a Query of Queries, use the GetMetaData function.
Specify the column data types in the QueryAddColumn function
1 Create a query by specifying the QueryNew function with no parameters.
<!--- Make a query. --->
<cfset myQuery = QueryNew("")>

2 Add and populate a column with the QueryAddColumn function, specifying the data type in the third parameter:
<!--- Create an array. --->
<cfset FastFoodArray = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset FastFoodArray[1] = "French Fries">
<cfset FastFoodArray[2] = "Hot Dogs">
<cfset FastFoodArray[3] = "Fried Clams">
<cfset FastFoodArray[4] = "Thick Shakes">
<!--- Use the array to add a column to the query. --->
<cfset nColumnNumber = QueryAddColumn(myQuery, "FastFood", "CF_SQL_VARCHAR",
FastFoodArray)>

If you do not specify the data type, ColdFusion examines the first 50 rows of each column to determine the data type
when performing conditional expressions.
In some cases, ColdFusion can guess a data type that is inappropriate for your application. In particular, if you use
columns in a WHERE clause or other conditional expression, the data types must be compatible. If they are not
compatible, use the CAST function to recast one of the columns to a compatible data type. For more information on
casting, see Using the CAST function on page 442. For more information on data type compatibility, see
Understanding Query of Queries processing on page 448.
Note: Specifying the data type in the QueryNew function helps you avoid compatibility issues.

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Using the CAST function

In some cases, the data type of a column is not compatible with the processing you want to do. For example, query
columns returned by the cfhttp tag are all of type CF_SQL_VARCHAR, even if the contents are numeric. In this case,
use the Query of Queries CAST function to convert a column value into an expression of the correct data type.
The syntax for the CAST function is as follows:
CAST ( expression AS castType )

Where castType is one of the following:

BINARY
BIGINIT
BIT
DATE
DECIMAL
DOUBLE
INTEGER
TIME
TIMESTAMP
VARCHAR
For example:
<cfhttp
url="http://quote.yahoo.com/download/quotes.csv?Symbols=csco,jnpr&format=sc1l1&ext=.csv"
method="GET"
name="qStockItems"
columns="Symbol,Change,LastTradedPrice"
textqualifier=""""
delimiter=","
firstrowasheaders="no">
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#qStockItems#">
<cfdump var="#qStockItems.getColumnNames()#">
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#arrayLen(qStockItems.getColumnNames())#">
#qStockItems.getMetaData().getColumnTypeName(javaCast("int",i))#<br/>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>
<cftry>
<cfquery name="hello" dbtype="query">
SELECT SUM(CAST(qStockItems.LastTradedPrice as INTEGER))
AS SUMNOW from qStockItems
</cfquery>
<cfcatch>Error in Query of Queries</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#hello#">
</cfoutput>

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Using aggregate functions

Aggregate functions operate on a set of data and return a single value. Use these functions for retrieving summary
information from a table, as opposed to retrieving an entire table and then operating on the recordset of the entire
table.
Consider using aggregate functions to perform the following operations:

To display the average of a column

To count the number of rows for a column
To find the earliest date in a column
Since not every relational database management system (RDBMS) supports all aggregate functions, refer to the
documentation of your database. The following table lists the aggregate functions that Query of Queries supports:
Function

Description

AVG()

Returns the average (mean) for a column.

COUNT()

Returns the number of rows in a column.

MAX()

Returns the largest value of a column.

MIN()

Returns the lowest value of a column.

SUM()

Returns the sum of values of a column.

Syntax
aggregate_func ::= <COUNT>(* | column_name) | AVG | SUM | MIN | MAX)
([ALL | DISTINCT] numeric_exp)

Example
The following example uses the AVG() function to retrieve the average IQ of all terriers:
SELECT dog_name, AVG(dog_IQ) AS avg_IQ
FROM Dogs
WHERE breed LIKE '%Terrier';

Arbitrary expressions in aggregate functions

Query of Queries supports aggregate functions of any arbitrary expression, as follows:
SELECT lorange, count(lorange+hirange)
FROM roysched
GROUP BY lorange;

Aggregate functions in arbitrary expressions

Query of Queries supports mathematical expressions that include aggregate functions, as follows:
SELECT MIN(lorange) + MAX(hirange)
FROM roysched
GROUP BY lorange;

Using group by and having expressions

Query of Queries supports the use of any arbitrary arithmetic expression, as long as it is referenced by an alias.

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Examples
The following code is correct:
SELECT (lorange + hirange)/2 AS midrange,
COUNT(*)
FROM roysched
GROUP BY midrange;

The following code is correct:

SELECT (lorange+hirange)/2 AS x,
COUNT(*)
FROM roysched GROUP BY x
HAVING x > 10000;

The following code is not supported in Query of Queries:

SELECT (lorange + hirange)/2 AS midrange,
COUNT(*)
FROM roysched
GROUP BY (lorange + hirange)/2;

Using ORDER BY clauses

Query of Queries supports the ORDER BY clause to sort. Make sure that it is the last clause in your SELECT statement.
You can sort by multiple columns, by relative column position, by nonselected columns. You can specify a descending
sort direction with the DESC keyword (by default, most RDBMS sorts are ascending, which makes the ASC keyword
unnecessary).
Syntax
order_by_column ::= ( <IDENTIFIER> | <INTEGER_LITERAL> ) [<ASC> | <DESC>]

Example
The following example shows a simple sort using an ORDER BY clause:
SELECT acetylcholine_levels, dopamine_levels
FROM results
ORDER BY dopamine_levels

The following example shows a more complex sort; results are first sorted by ascending levels of dopamine, then by
descending levels of acetylcholine. The ASC keyword is unnecessary, and is used only for legibility.
SELECT acetylcholine_levels, dopamine_levels
FROM results
ORDER BY 2 ASC, 1 DESC

Using aliases
Query of Queries supports the use of database column aliases. An alias is an alternate name for a database field or
value. Query of Queries lets you reuse an alias in the same SQL statement.
One way to create an alias is to concatenate (append) two or more columns to generate a value. For example, you can
concatenate a first name and a last name to create the value fullname. Because the new value does not exist in a
database, you refer to it by its alias. The AS keyword assigns the alias in the SELECT statement.
Examples
Query of Queries supports alias substitutions in the ORDER BY, GROUP BY, and HAVING clauses.

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Note: Query of Queries does not support aliases for table names.
SELECT FirstName + ' ' + LastName AS fullname
from Employee;

The following examples rely on these two master queries:

<cfquery name="employee" datasource="2pubs">
SELECT * FROM employee
</cfquery>
<cfquery name="roysched" datasource="2pubs">
SELECT * FROM roysched
</cfquery>

ORDER BY example
<cfquery name="order_by" dbtype="query">
SELECT (job_id || job_lvl)/2 AS job_value
FROM employee
ORDER BY job_value
</cfquery>

GROUP BY example
<cfquery name="group_by" dbtype="query">
SELECT lorange || hirange AS x, count(hirange)
FROM roysched
GROUP BY x
</cfquery>

HAVING example
<cfquery name="having" dbtype="query">
SELECT (lorange || hirange)/2 AS x,
COUNT(*)
FROM roysched GROUP BY x
HAVING x > 10000
</cfquery>

Handling null values

Query of Queries uses Boolean logic to handle conditional expressions. Proper handling of NULL values requires the
use of ternary logic. The IS [NOT] NULL clause works correctly in Query of Queries. However the following
expressions do not work properly when the column breed is NULL:
WHERE (breed > 'A')
WHERE NOT (breed > 'A')

The correct behavior should not include NULL breed columns in the result set of either expression. To avoid this
limitation, add an explicit rule to the conditionals and rewrite them in the following forms:
WHERE breed IS NOT NULL AND (breed > 'A')
WHERE breed IS NOT NULL AND not (breed > 'A')

Concatenating strings
Query of Queries support two string concatenation operators: + and ||, as the following examples show:
LASTNAME + ', ' + FIRSTNAME
LASTNAME || ', ' || FIRSTNAME

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Escaping reserved keywords

ColdFusion has a list of reserved keywords, which are typically part of the SQL language and are not normally used for
names of columns or tables. To escape a reserved keyword for a column name or table name, enclose it in brackets.
Important: Earlier versions of ColdFusion let you use some reserved keywords without escaping them.
Examples
Query of Queries supports the following SELECT statement examples:
SELECT [from] FROM parts;
SELECT [group].firstname FROM [group];
SELECT [group].[from] FROM [group];

Query of Queries does not support nested escapes, such as in the following example:
SELECT [[from]] FROM T;

The following table lists ColdFusion reserved keywords:

ABSOLUTE

ACTION

ADD

ALL

ALLOCATE

ALTER

AND

ANY

ARE

AS

ASC

ASSERTION

AT

AUTHORIZATION

AVG

BEGIN

BETWEEN

BIT

BIT_LENGTH

BOTH

BY

CASCADE

CASCADED

CASE

CAST

CATALOG

CHAR

CHARACTER

CHARACTER_LENGTH

CHAR_LENGTH

CHECK

CLOSE

COALESCE

COLLATE

COLLATION

COLUMN

COMMIT

CONNECT

CONNECTION

CONSTRAINT

CONSTRAINTS

CONTINUE

CONVERT

CORRESPONDING

COUNT

CREATE

CROSS

CURRENT

CURRENT_DATE

CURRENT_TIME

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

CURRENT_USER

CURSOR

DATE

DAY

DEALLOCATE

DEC

DECIMAL

DECLARE

DEFAULT

DEFERRABLE

DEFERRED

DELETE

DESC

DESCRIBE

DESCRIPTOR

DIAGNOSTICS

DISCONNECT

DISTINCT

DOMAIN

DOUBLE

DROP

ELSE

END

END-EXEC

ESCAPE

EXCEPT

EXCEPTION

EXEC

EXECUTE

EXISTS

EXTERNAL

EXTRACT

FALSE

FETCH

FIRST

FLOAT

FOR

FOREIGN

FOUND

FROM

FULL

GET

GLOBAL

GO

GOTO

GRANT

GROUP

HAVING

HOUR

IDENTITY

IMMEDIATE

IN

INDICATOR

INITIALLY

INNER

INPUT

INSENSITIVE

INSERT

INT

INTEGER

INTERSECT

INTERVAL

INTO

IS

ISOLATION

JOIN

KEY

LANGUAGE

LAST

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LEADING

LEFT

LEVEL

LIKE

LOCAL

LOWER

MATCH

MAX

MIN

MINUTE

MODULE

MONTH

NAMES

NATIONAL

NATURAL

NCHAR

NEXT

NO

NOT

NULL

NULLIF

NUMERIC

OCTET_LENGTH

OF

ON

ONLY

OPEN

OPTION

OR

ORDER

OUTER

OUTPUT

OVERLAPS

PAD

PARTIAL

POSITION

PRECISION

PREPARE

PRESERVE

PRIMARY

PRIOR

PRIVILEGES

PROCEDURE

PUBLIC

READ

REAL

REFERENCES

RELATIVE

RESTRICT

REVOKE

RIGHT

ROLLBACK

ROWS

SCHEMA

SCROLL

SECOND

SECTION

SELECT

SESSION

SESSION_USER

SET

SMALLINT

SOME

SPACE

SQL

SQLCODE

SQLERROR

SQLSTATE

SUBSTRING

SUM

SYSTEM_USER

TABLE

TEMPORARY

THEN

TIME

TIMESTAMP

TIMEZONE_HOUR

TIMEZONE_MINUTE

TO

TRAILING

TRANSACTION

TRANSLATE

TRANSLATION

TRIM

TRUE

UNION

UNIQUE

UNKNOWN

UPDATE

UPPER

USAGE

USER

USING

VALUE

VALUES

VARCHAR

VARYING

VIEW

WHEN

WHENEVER

WHERE

WITH

WORK

WRITE

YEAR

ZONE

Using Queries of Queries with dates

If you create a query object with the QueryNew function and populate a column with date constants, ColdFusion stores
the dates as a string inside the query object until a Query of Queries is applied to the query object. When ColdFusion
applies a Query of Queries to the query object, it converts the string representations into date objects.
Query of Queries supports date constants in SQL and ODBC format, as follows:

SQL format: Dates, times, or timestamps in one of the following format:

Date string: yyyy-mm-dd, for example, 1955-06-13.
Time string: hh:mm:ss[.[nnn]], for example, 14:34:30.75.
Timestamp string: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss[.[nnn]], for example, 1924-01-14 12:00:00.000.
ODBC format: Dates, times, or timestamps in one of the following format:
Date string: {d 'value'}, for example, {d '2004-07-06'}.
Time string: {t 'value'}, for example, {t '13:45:30'}.
Timestamp string: {ts 'value'}, for example, {ts '2004-07-06 13:45:30'}.

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If you want to convert the date to its original format, use the DateFormat function and apply the "mm/dd/yy" mask.

Understanding Query of Queries performance

Query of Queries performs well on single-table query objects that were accessed directly from a database. This happens
because ColdFusion stores meta information for a query object accessed from a database.
When working with a query resulting in a SQL join, Query of Queries performs as follows:
1 Query of Queries is efficient for simple joins in which only one equality exists between two column references or

constants, for example:

SELECT T1.a, b, c, d FROM T1, T2 WHERE T1.a = T2.a

2 Query of Queries is less efficient for joins in which the predicate contains multiple expressions, for example:
SELECT T1.a, b, c, d FROM T1, T2
WHERE T1.a = T2.a AND T1.b + T1.c = T2.b + T2.c

Understanding Query of Queries processing

Query of Queries can process the following:

Column comparisons
Queries passed by reference
Complex objects
Comparing columns with different data types
Starting with ColdFusion MX 7, ColdFusion includes enhancements that allow you to compare columns with different
data types.
If one of the operands has a known column type (only constants have an unknown column type), Query of Queries
tries to coerce the constant with an unknown type to the type of the operand with metadata. The pairs of allowed
coercions are as follows:

Binary, string
Dates, string
Numeric, bigdecimal
Boolean, numeric
That is, ColdFusion can coerce between binary and string, but not between date and string.
If both operands have known data types, the types must be the same. The only exception is that ColdFusion can coerce
among integer, float, and double.
If both operands are constants, ColdFusion tries to coerce the values, first to the most restrictive type, then to the least
restrictive type.

First to binary then to string.

First to date then to string.
First to boolean then to numeric.

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Passing queries by reference

A Query of Queries is copied by reference from its related query; which means that ColdFusion does not create a query
when you create a Query of Queries. It also means that changes to a Query of Queries, such as ordering, modifying,
and deleting data, are also applied to the base query object.
If you do not want the original query to change, use the Duplicate function to create a copy and create the Query of
Queries using the copied query.
Managing complex objects
You cannot use Query Of Queries on a recordset that contains complex objects, such as arrays and structures.
Note: You can store a recordset in a complex object.

Managing LDAP Directories

CFML applications use the cfldap tag to access and manage LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
directories.
The following information teaches you to query and update an LDAP database. It is not assumed that you are familiar
with LDAP, and hence an introduction to LDAP directories and the LDAP protocol is provided. However, it is
assumed that you have information on the structure and attributes of your LDAP database. Hence, procedures to
create an LDAP directory or manage a directory server are not provided. To learn more about LDAP and LDAP
servers, see your LDAP server documentation and published books on LDAP.
The examples here use the Airius sample LDAP database that is supplied with the Netscape and iPlanet Directory
Servers.

About LDAP
The LDAP protocol enables organizations to arrange and access directory information in a hierarchy. In this context,
directory refers to a collection of information, such as a telephone directory, not a collection of files in a folder on a
disk drive.
LDAP originated in the mid-1990s as a response to the need to access ISO X.500 directories from computers that had
limited processing power. Since then, products such as iPlanet Server have been developed that are native LDAP
directory servers. Several companies now provide LDAP access to their directory servers, including Novell NDS,
Microsoft Active Directory Services (ADS), Lotus Domino, and Oracle.
An LDAP directory is typically a hierarchically structured database. Each layer in the hierarchy typically corresponds
to a level of organizational structure.

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The following image shows a simple directory structure:

World

Root

USA

Country

Ferrari

Adobe

Organization

Unit

Italy

R&D

Sales

Ben

Jack

Sales

R&D

Gina

Individual
Laura

Amy

Sophia

Marco

Enzo

This example is fully symmetrical: all the entries at each layer are of the same type.
You can also structure an LDAP directory so that the layers under one entry contain different information from the
layers under another entry.
The following image shows such an asymmetric directory:
airius.com

people

groups

Bruce

Laura

Ben

Amy

HR
Managers

Directory
Managers

QA
Managers

Accounting
Managers

In this directory structure, the second level of the tree divides the directory into two organizational units: people and
groups. The third level contains entries with information that is specific to the organizational unit. Each persons entry
includes a name, e-mail address, and telephone number. Each groups entry includes the names of group members.

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This complexity and flexibility is a key to the usefulness. of LDAP. With it, you can represent any organizational
structure.
LDAP offers performance advantages over conventional databases for accessing hierarchical, directory-like
information that is read frequently, and changed infrequently.
Although LDAP is often used for e-mail, address, telephone, or other organizational directories, it is not limited to
these types of applications. For example, you can store ColdFusion Advanced Security information in an LDAP
database.

The LDAP information structure

Several LDAP concepts are the basis of the LDAP information structure:

Entry
Attribute
Distinguished name (DN)
Schema, including the object class and attribute type

Entry
The basic information object of LDAP is the entry. An entry is composed of one or more attributes. Entries are subject
to content rules defined by the directory schema (see Schema on page 452).
Each node, not just the terminal nodes, of an LDAP directory is an entry. In the preceding images, each item is an entry.
For example, in the first diagram, both USA and Ferrari are entries. The USA entrys attributes could include a
Language attribute, and the Ferrari entry could include an entry for the chief executive officer.

Attribute
An LDAP directory entry consists of one or more attributes. Attributes have types and values. The type determines the
information that the values can contain. The type also specifies how the value is processed. For example, the type
determines whether an attribute can have multiple values. The mail attribute type, which contains an e-mail address,
is multivalued so you can store multiple e-mail addresses for one person.
Some commonly used attribute types have short keyword type names. Often these short keyword type names
correspond to longer type names, and the two names can be used interchangeably. The following table lists common
attribute type keywords used in LDAP directories:
Keyword

Long name

CountryName

st

stateOrProvinceName

LocalityName

street

StreetAddress

OrganizationName

ou

OrganizationalUnitName

cn

CommonName

Comment

Typically, city, but can be any geographical unit

Typically, first and last name

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Keyword

Long name

sn

SurName

dc

domaincomponent

mail

mail

Comment

E-mail address

For more information, see Attribute type on page 453.

Distinguished name (DN)

An entrys distinguished name uniquely identifies it in the directory. A DN is made up of relative distinguished names
(RDNs). An RDN identifies the entry among the children of its parent entry. For example, in the first image in About
LDAP, the RDN for the Ferrari entry is o=Ferrari.
An entrys DN consists of an entrys RDN followed by the DN of its parent. In other words, it consists of the RDNs for
the entry and each of the entrys parent entries, up to the root of the directory tree. Commas and optional spaces
separate the RDNs. For example, in the first image, the DN for the Ferrari entry is o=Ferrari, c=Italy.
As with file system paths and URLs, entering the correct LDAP name format is essential to successful search
operations.
Note: The RDN is an attribute of a directory entry. The full DN is not. However, you can output the full DN by specifying
"dn" in a querys attributes list. For more information, see cfldap in CFML Reference. Adobe ColdFusion always
returns DNs with spaces after the commas.
A multivalued RDN is made up of more than one attribute-value pair. In multivalued RDNs, a plus sign (+) separates
the attribute-value pairs. In the sample directories, individuals could have complex RDNs consisting of their common
name and their e-mail address, for example, cn=Robert Boyd + [email protected].

Schema
The concepts of schemas and object classes are central to a thorough understanding of LDAP. The information
provided here does not have detailed descriptions but is enough to use the cfldap tag effectively.
A directory schema is a set of rules that determines what can be stored in a directory. It defines, at a minimum, the
following two basic directory characteristics:

The object classes to which entries can belong

The directory attribute types
Object class
Object classes enable LDAP to group related information. Frequently, an object class corresponds to a real object or
concept, such as a country, person, room, or domain, which are all standard object type names. Each entry in an LDAP
directory must belong to one or more object classes.
The following characteristics define an object class:

The class name

A unique object ID that identifies the class
The attribute types that entries of the class must contain
The attribute types that entries of the class can optionally contain
(Optional) A superior class from which the class is derived

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If an entry belongs to a class that derives from another class, the entrys objectclass attribute lists the lowest-level class
and all the superior classes from which the lowest-level class derives.
When you add, modify, or delete a directory entry, you must treat the entrys object class as a possibly multivalued
attribute. For example, when you add a new entry, you specify the object class in the cfldap tag attributes attribute.
To retrieve an entrys object class names, specify objectclass in the list of query attributes. To retrieve entries that
provide a specific type of information, you can use the object class name in the cfldap tag filter attribute.
Attribute type
The attribute type specification of a schema defines the following properties:

The attribute type name

A unique object ID that identifies the attribute type
(Optional) An indication of whether the type is single-valued or multivalued (the default is multivalued)
The attribute syntax and matching rules (such as case sensitivity)
The attribute type definition can also determine limits on the range or size of values that the type represents, or provide
an application-specific usage indicator. For standard attributes, a registered numeric ID specifies the syntax and
matching rule information. For more information on attribute syntaxes, see ETF RFC 2252 at
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2252.txt.
Operational attributes, such as creatorsName or modifyTimeStamp, are managed by the directory service and cannot
be changed by user applications.

Using LDAP with ColdFusion

The cfldap tag extends the ColdFusion query capabilities to LDAP network directory services. The cfldap tag lets you
use LDAP in many ways, such as the following:

Create Internet White Pages so users can locate people and resources and get information about them.
Provide a front end to manage and update directory entries.
Build applications that incorporate data from directory queries in their processes.
Integrate applications with existing organizational or corporate directory services.
The cfldap tag action attribute supports the following operations on LDAP directories:
Action

Description

query

Returns attribute values from a directory.

add

Adds an entry to a directory.

delete

Deletes an entry from a directory.

modify

Adds, deletes, or changes the value of an attribute in a directory entry.

modifyDN

Renames a directory entry (changes its distinguished name).

The following table lists the attributes that are required and optional for each action. For more information on each
attribute, see the cfldap tag in the CFML Reference.

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Action

Required attributes

Optional attributes

query

server, name, start, attributes

port, username, password, timeout, secure, rebind, referral,

scope, filter, sort, sortControl, startRow, maxRows,
separator, delimiter

add

server, dn, attributes

port, username, password, timeout, secure, rebind, referral,

separator, delimiter

delete

server, dn

port, username, password, timeout, secure, rebind, referral

modify

server, dn, attributes

port, username, password, timeout, secure, rebind, referral,

modifyType, separator, delimiter

modifyDN

server, dn, attributes

port, username, password, timeout, secure, rebind, referral

Querying an LDAP directory

The cfldap tag lets you search an LDAP directory. The tag returns a ColdFusion query object with the results, which
you can use as you would any query result. When you query an LDAP directory, you specify the directory entry where
the search starts and the attributes whose values to return. You can specify the search scope and attribute content
filtering rules and use other attributes to further control the search.

Scope
The search scope sets the limits of a search. The default scope is the level below the distinguished name specified in the
start attribute. This scope does not include the entry identified by the start attribute. For example, if the start
attribute is ou=support, o=adobe the level below support is searched. You can restrict a query to the level of the
start entry, or extend it to the entire subtree below the start entry.

Search filter
The search filter syntax has the form attribute operator value. The default filter, objectclass=*, returns all entries in the
scope.
The following table lists the filter operators:
Operator

Example

Matches

=*

(mail=*)

All entries that contain a mail attribute.

(o=adobe)

Entries in which the organization name is adobe.

~=

(sn~=Hansen)

Entries with a surname that approximates Hansen. The matching rules for approximate
matches vary among directory vendors, but anything that sounds like the search string
should be matched. In this example, the directory server might return entries with the
surnames Hansen and Hanson.

>=

(st>=ma)

The name ma and names appearing after ma in an alphabetical state attribute list.

<=

(st<=ma)

The name ma and names appearing before ma in an alphabetical state attribute list.

(o=macro*)

Organization names that start with macro.

(o=*media)

Organization names that end with media.

(o=mac*ia)

Organization names that start with mac and end with ia. You can use more than one *
operator in a string; for example, m*ro*dia.

(o=*med*)

Organization names that contain the string med, including the exact string match med.

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Operator

Example

Matches

&

(&(o=adobe)

Entries in which the organization name is adobe and the country is usa.

(co=usa))
|

(|(o=adobe)
(sn=adobe)

Entries in which the organization name is adobe or the surname is adobe, or the common
name is adobe.

(cn=adobe))
!

(!(STREET=*))

Entries that do not contain a StreetAddress attribute.

The Boolean operators & and | can operate on more than two attributes and precede all of the attributes on which they
operate. You surround a filter with parentheses and use parentheses to group conditions.
If the pattern that you are matching contains an asterisk, left parenthesis, right parenthesis, backslash, or NUL
character, use the following three-character escape sequence in place of the character:
Character

Escape sequence

\2A

\28

\29

\5C

NUL

\00

For example, to match the common name St*r Industries, use the filter:
(cn=St\2Ar Industries).
LDAP v3 supports an extensible match filter that permits server-specific matching rules. For more information on
using extensible match filters, see your LDAP server documentation.
Searching and sorting notes
To search for multiple values of a multivalued attribute type, use the & operator to combine expressions for each
attribute value. For example, to search for an entry in which cn=Robert Jones and cn=Bobby Jones, specify the
following filter:
filter="(&(cn=Robert Jones)(cn=Bobby Jones))"

You can use object classes as search filter attributes; for example, you can use the following search filter:
filter="(objectclass=inetorgperson)"

To specify how query results are sorted, use the sort field to identify the attribute(s) to sort. By default, ColdFusion
returns sorted results in case-sensitive ascending order. To specify descending order, case-insensitive sorting, or
both, use the sortControl attribute.

ColdFusion requests the LDAP server to do the sorting. Doing so can have the following effects:
The sort order can differ between ColdFusion MX and previous versions.
If you specify sorting and the LDAP server does not support sorting, ColdFusion generates an error. To sort
results from servers that do not support sorting, use a query of queries on the results.

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Using filter operators to construct sophisticated search criteria can degrade performance if the LDAP server is slow
to process the synchronous search routines that cfldap supports. Use the cfldap tag timeout and maxRows
attributes to control the apparent performance of pages that perform queries, by limiting the number of entries and
by exiting the query if the server does not respond in a specified time.

Getting all the attributes of an entry

Typically, you do not use a query that gets all the attributes in an entry. Such a query would return attributes that only
the directory server uses. However, you can get all the attributes by specifying attributes="*" in your query.
If you do this, ColdFusion returns the results in a structure in which each element contains a single attribute namevalue pair. The tag does not return a query object. ColdFusion does this because LDAP directory entries, unlike the
rows in a relational table, vary depending on their object class.
For example, the following code retrieves the contents of the Airius directory:
<cfldap name="GetList"
server=#myServer#
action="query"
attributes="*"
scope="subtree"
start="o=airius.com"
sort="sn,cn">

This tag returns entries for all the people in the organization and entries for all the groups. The group entries have a
different object class, and therefore different attributes from the person entries. If ColdFusion returned both types of
entries in one query object, some rows would have only the group-specific attribute values and the other rows would
have only person-specific attribute values. Instead, ColdFusion returns a structure in which each attribute is an entry.

Example: querying an LDAP directory

The following example uses the cfldap tag to get information about the people in the Airius corporations Santa Clara
office. Users can enter all or part of a persons name and get a list of matching names with their departments, e-mail
addresses, and telephone numbers.
This example uses the sample Airius corporate directory that is distributed with the Netscape Directory Server. If you
do not have access to this directory, modify the code to work with your LDAP directory.
1 Create a file that looks like the following:

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<!--- This example shows the use of CFLDAP --->

<html>
<head> <title>cfldap Query Example</title> </head>
<h3>cfldap Query Example</h3>
<body>
<p>This tool queries the Airius.com database to locate all people in the company's
Santa Clara office whose common names contain the text entered in the form.</p>
<p>Enter a full name, first name, last name, or name fragment.</p>
<form action="cfldap.cfm" method="POST">
<input type="text" name="name"><br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>
<!--- make the LDAP query --->
<!-- Note that some search text is required.
A search filter of cn=** would cause an error -->
<cfif (isdefined("form.name") AND (form.name IS NOT ""))>
<cfldap
server="ldap.airius.com"
action="query"
name="results"
start="ou=People, o=Airius.com"
scope="onelevel"
filter="(&(cn=*#form.Name#*)(l=Santa Clara))"
attributes="cn,sn,ou,mail,telephonenumber"
sort="ou,sn"
maxrows=100
timeout=20000
>
<!--- Display results --->
<table border=0 cellspacing=2 cellpadding=2>
<tr>
<th colspan=4><cfoutput>#results.RecordCount# matches found</cfoutput>
</th>

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</tr>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Department</th>
<th>E-Mail</th>
<th>Phone</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="results">
<tr>
<td>#cn#</td>
<td>#listFirst(ou)#</td>
<td><a href="mailto:#mail#">#mail#</a></td>
<td>#telephonenumber#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</cfif>
</body>
</html>

2 Change the server attribute from ldap.airius.com to the name of your installation of the Airius database.
3 Save the page as cfldap.cfm and run it in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<form action="cfldap.cfm" method="POST">

<input type="text" name="name"><br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

Uses a form to get the name or name fragment to search for.

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Code

Description

<cfif (isdefined("form.name") AND (form.name

IS NOT ""))>

Ensures that the user has submitted the form. This is necessary because the
form page is also the action page. Ensures that the user entered search text.

<cfldap
server="ldap.airius.com"
action="query"
name="results"
start="ou=People, o=Airius.com"
scope="onelevel"
filter="(&(cn=*#form.Name#*)(l=Santa
Clara))"
attributes="cn,sn,ou,mail,telephonenumber"
sort="ou,sn"
maxrows=100
timeout=20000
>

Connects anonymously to LDAP server ldap.airius.com, query the directory, and

return the results to a query object named results.
Starts the query at the directory entry that has the distinguished name
ou=People, o=Airius.com, and searches the directory level immediately below
this entry.
Requests records for entries that contain the location (l) attribute value "Santa
Clara" and the entered text in the common name attribute.
Gets the common name, surname, organizational unit, e-mail address, and
telephone number for each entry.
Sorts the results first by organization name, then by surname. Sorts in the
default sorting order.
Limit the request to 100 entries. If the server does not return the data in 20
seconds, generates an error indicating that LDAP timed out.

<table border=0 cellspacing=2 cellpadding=2>

<tr>
<th
colspan=4><cfoutput>#results.RecordCount#
matches found</cfoutput>
</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Department</th>
<th>E-Mail</th>
<th>Phone</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="results">
<tr>
<td>#cn#</td>
<td>#listFirst(ou)#</td>
<td><a href="mailto:#mail#">#mail#</a></td>
<td>#telephonenumber#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</cfif>

Starts a table to display the output

Displays the number of records returned.

Displays the common name, department, e-mail address, and telephone

number of each entry.
Displays only the first entry in the list of organizational unit values. (For more
information, see the description that follows this table.)

This search shows the use of a logical AND statement in a filter. It returns one attribute, the surname, that is used only
for sorting the results.
In this query, the ou attribute value consists of two values in a comma-delimited list. One is the department name. The
other is People. This is because the Airius database uses the ou attribute type twice:

In the distinguished names, at the second level of the directory tree, where it differentiates between organizational
units such as people, groups, and directory servers

As the department identifier in each persons entry

Because the attribute values are returned in order from the person entry to the directory tree root, the ListFirst
function extracts the persons department name.

Updating an LDAP directory

The cfldap tag lets you perform the following actions on LDAP directory entries:

Add
Delete
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Add attributes
Delete attributes
Replace attributes
Change the DN (rename the entry)
These actions let you manage LDAP directory contents remotely.
You build a ColdFusion page that lets you manage an LDAP directory. The form displays directory entries in a table
and includes a button that lets you populate the form fields based on the unique user ID.
The example ColdFusion page does not add or delete entry attributes or change the DN. For information on these
operations, see Adding and deleting attributes of a directory entry on page 467 and Changing a directory entrys
DN on page 468.
To keep the code short, this example has limitations that are not appropriate in a production application. In particular,
it has the following limitations:

If you enter an invalid user ID and click either the Update or the Delete button, ColdFusion generates a No such
object error, because there is no directory entry to update or delete. Your application should verify that the ID
exists in the directory before it tries to change or delete its entry.

If you enter a valid user ID in an empty form and click Update, the application deletes all the attributes for the User.
The application should ensure that all required attribute fields contain valid entries before updating the directory.

Adding a directory entry

When you add an entry to an LDAP directory, you specify the DN, all the required attributes, including the entrys
object class, and any optional attributes. The following example builds a form that adds an entry to an LDAP directory.
1 Create a file that looks like the following:
<!--- Set the LDAP server ID, user name, and password as variables
here so they can be changed in only one place. --->
<cfset myServer="ldap.myco.com">
<cfset myUserName="cn=Directory Manager">
<cfset myPassword="password">
<!--- Initialize the values used in form fields to empty strings. --->
<cfparam name="fullNameValue" default="">
<cfparam name="surnameValue" default="">
<cfparam name="emailValue" default="">
<cfparam name="phoneValue" default="">
<cfparam name="uidValue" default="">
<!---When the form is submitted, add the LDAP entry. --->
<cfif isdefined("Form.action") AND Trim(Form.uid) IS NOT "">
<cfif Form.action is "add">
<cfif Trim(Form.fullName) is "" OR Trim(Form.surname) is ""
OR Trim(Form.email) is "" OR Trim(Form.phone) is "">
<h2>You must enter a value in every field.</h2>
<cfset fullNameValue=Form.fullName>
<cfset surnameValue=Form.surname>
<cfset emailValue=Form.email>
<cfset phoneValue=Form.phone>
<cfset uidValue=Form.uid>
<cfelse>
<cfset attributelist="objectclass=top, person,

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organizationalperson, inetOrgPerson;
cn=#Trim(Form.fullName)#; sn=#Trim(Form.surname)#;
mail=#Trim(Form.email)#;
telephonenumber=#Trim(Form.phone)#;
ou=Human Resources;
uid=#Trim(Form.uid)#">
<cfldap action="add"
attributes="#attributeList#"
dn="uid=#Trim(Form.uid)#, ou=People, o=Airius.com"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>
<cfoutput><h3>Entry for User ID #Form.uid# has been added</h3>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<html>
<head>
<title>Update LDAP Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Manage LDAP Entries</h2>
<cfform action="update_ldap.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr><td>Full Name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="Text"
name="fullName"
value=#fullNameValue#
size="20"
maxlength="30"
tabindex="1"></td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Surname:</td>
<td><cfinput type="Text"
name="surname"
Value= "#surnameValue#"
size="20"
maxlength="20"
tabindex="2"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>E-mail Address:</td>
<td><cfinput type="Text"
name="email"
value="#emailValue#"
size="20"
maxlength="20"
tabindex="3"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Telephone Number:</td>
<td><cfinput type="Text"
name="phone"
value="#phoneValue#"

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size="20"
maxlength="20"
tabindex="4"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>User ID:</td>
<td><cfinput type="Text"
name="uid"
value="#uidValue#"
size="20"
maxlength="20"
tabindex="5"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Add"
tabindex="8"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
*All fields are required for Add<br>
</cfform>
<!---Output the user list. --->
<h2>User List for the Human Resources Department</h2>
<cfldap name="GetList"
server=#myServer#
action="query"
attributes="cn,sn,mail,telephonenumber,uid"
start="o=Airius.com"
scope="subtree"
filter="ou=Human Resources"
sort="sn,cn"
sortControl="asc, nocase">
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Full Name</th>
<th>Surname</th>
<th>Mail</th>
<th>Phone</th>
<th>UID</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetList">
<tr>
<td>#GetList.cn#</td>
<td>#GetList.sn#</td>
<td>#GetList.mail#</td>
<td>#GetList.telephonenumber#</td>
<td>#GetList.uid#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</body>
</html>

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2 At the top of the file, change the myServer, myUserName, and myPassword variable assignments to values that are

valid for your LDAP server.

3 Save the page as update_ldap.cfm and run it in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfset myServer="ldap.myco.com">
<cfset myUserName="cn=Directory Manager">
<cfset myPassword="password">

Initializes the LDAP connection information variables. Uses variables for all
connection information so that any changes have to be made in only one
place.

<cfparam
<cfparam
<cfparam
<cfparam
<cfparam

Sets the default values of empty strings for the form field value variables.
The data entry form uses cfinput fields with value attributes so that the
form can be prefilled and so that, if the user submits an incomplete form,
ColdFusion can retain any entered values in the form when it redisplays
the page.

name="fullNameValue" default="">
name="surnameValue" default="">
name="emailValue" default="">
name="phoneValue" default="">
name="uidValue" default="">

<cfif isdefined("Form.action") AND

Trim(Form.uid) IS NOT "">

Ensures that the user entered a User ID in the form.

<cfif Form.action is "add">

If the user clicks Add, processes the code that follows.

<cfif Trim(Form.fullName) is "" OR

Trim(Form.surname) is ""
OR Trim(Form.email) is "" OR Trim(Form.phone) is
"">
<h2>You must enter a value in every field.</h2>
<cfset fullNameValue=Form.fullName>
<cfset surnameValue=Form.surname>
<cfset emailValue=Form.email>
<cfset phoneValue=Form.phone>
<cfset uidValue=Form.uid>

If any field in the submitted form is blank, display a message and set the
other form fields to display data that the user submitted.

<cfelse>
<cfset attributelist="objectclass=top, person,
organizationalperson, inetOrgPerson;
cn=#Trim(Form.fullName)#;
sn=#Trim(Form.surname)#;
mail=#Trim(Form.email)#;
telephonenumber=#Trim(Form.phone)#; ou=Human
Resources; uid=#Trim(Form.uid)#">

If the user entered data in all fields, sets the attributelist variable to specify
the entrys attributes, including the object class and the organizational
unit (in this case, Human Resources).

<cfldap action="add"
attributes="#attributeList#"
dn="uid=#Trim(Form.uid)#, ou=People,
o=Airius.com" server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName# password=#myPassword#>
<cfoutput>
<h3>Entry for User ID #Form.uid# has been
added</h3>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>

Adds the new entry to the directory.

The Trim function removes leading or trailing spaces from the user data.

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Code

Description

<cffo
rm action="update_ldap.cfm"
method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>Full Name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="Text"
name="fullName"
value=#fullNameValue#
size="20"
maxlength="30"
tabindex="1"></td>
</tr>

Outputs the data entry form, formatted as a table. Each cfinput field
always has a value, set by the value attribute when the page is called. The
value attribute lets ColdFusion update the form contents when the form
is redisplayed after the user clicks Add. The code that handles cases in
which the user fails to enter all the required data uses this feature.

.
.
<tr>
<td colspan="2">
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Add"
tabindex="8"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br>
*All fields are required for Add<br>
</cfform>
<cfldap name="GetList"
server=#myServer#
action="query"
attributes="cn,sn,mail,telephonenumber,uid"
start="o=Airius.com"
scope="subtree"
filter="ou=Human Resources"
sort="sn,cn"
sortControl="asc, nocase">

Queries the directory and gets the common name, surname, e-mail
address, telephone number, and user ID from the matching entries.

<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Full Name</th>
<th>Surname</th>
<th>Mail</th>
<th>Phone</th>
<th>UID</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetList">
<tr>
<td>#GetList.cn#</td>
<td>#GetList.sn#</td>
<td>#GetList.mail#</td>
<td>#GetList.telephonenumber#</td>
<td>#GetList.uid#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</body>
</html>

Displays the query results in a table.

Searches the subtree from the entry with the DN of o=Airius.com, and
selects all entries in which the organizational unit is Human Resources.
Sorts the results by surname and then common name (to sort by last name,
then first). Sorts in default ascending order that is not case sensitive.

Deleting a directory entry

To delete a directory entry,specify the entry DN.
The following example builds on the code that adds an entry. It adds Retrieve and Delete buttons. The Retrieve button
lets you view a users information in the form before you delete it.
1 Open update_ldap.cfm, which you created in Adding a directory entry on page 460.
2 Between the first and second cfif tags, add the following code:

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<cfelseif Form.action is "Retrieve">

<cfldap name="GetEntry"
server=#myServer#
action="query"
attributes="cn,sn,mail,telephonenumber,uid"
scope="subtree"
filter="uid=#Trim(Form.UID)#"
start="o=Airius.com">
<cfset fullNameValue = GetEntry.cn[1]>
<cfset surnameValue = GetEntry.sn[1]>
<cfset emailValue = GetEntry.mail[1]>
<cfset phoneValue = GetEntry.telephonenumber[1]>
<cfset uidValue = GetEntry.uid[1]>
<cfelseif Form.action is "Delete">
<cfldap action="delete"
dn="uid=#Trim(Form.UID)#, ou=People, o=Airius.com"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>
<cfoutput><h3>Entry for User ID #Form.UID# has been deleted
</h3></cfoutput>

3 At the end of the code for the Add button (the input tag with Value=Add at the bottom of the form), delete the
</td> end tag.

4 After the end of the Add button input tag, add the following code:
&nbsp
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Retrieve"
tabindex="7">
&nbsp
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Delete"
tabindex="8"></td>

5 Save the file and run it in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:

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Code

Description

<cfelseif Form.action is "Retrieve">

<cfldap name="GetEntry"
server=#myServer#
action="query"
attributes="cn,sn,mail,telephonenumber,uid"
scope="subtree"
filter="uid=#Trim(Form.UID)#"
start="o=Airius.com">
<cfset fullNameValue = GetEntry.cn[1]>
<cfset surnameValue = GetEntry.sn[1]>
<cfset emailValue = GetEntry.mail[1]>
<cfset phoneValue =
GetEntry.telephonenumber[1]>
<cfset uidValue = GetEntry.uid[1]>

If the user clicks Retrieve, queries the directory and gets the information for the
specified User ID.

<cfelseif Form.action is "Delete">

<cfldap action="delete"
dn="uid=#Trim(Form.UID)#, ou=People,
o=Airius.com"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>
<cfoutput><h3>Entry for User ID #Form.UID#
has been deleted
</h3>

The user clicks delete, deletes the entry with the specified User ID, and informs
the user that the entry was deleted.

&nbsp
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Retrieve"
tabindex="7">
&nbsp
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Delete"
tabindex="8"></td>

Displays submit buttons for the Retrieve and Delete actions.

Sets the form fields Value attribute to the corresponding query column.
This example uses the array index [1] to identify the first row of the GetEntry
query object. Because the query always returns only one row, the index can be
omitted.

Updating a directory entry

The cfldap tag lets you change the values of entry attributes. To do so, you specify the entry DN in the dn attribute, and
list the attributes to change and their new values in the attributes attribute.
The following example builds on the code that adds and deletes an entry. It can update one or more of an entrys
attributes. Because the UID is part of the DN, you cannot change it.
1 Open update_ldap.cfm, which you created in Adding a directory entry on page 460.
2 Between the cfelseif block and the </cfif tag, add the following code:
<cfelseif Form.action is "Update">
<cfset attributelist="cn=#Trim(form.FullName)#; sn=#Trim(Form.surname)#;
mail=#Trim(Form.email)#;
telephonenumber=#Trim(Form.phone)#">
<cfldap action="modify"
modifytype="replace"
attributes="#attributeList#"
dn="uid=#Trim(Form.UID)#, ou=People, o=Airius.com"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>
<cfoutput><h3>Entry for User ID #Form.UID# has been updated</h3>
</cfoutput>

3 At the end of the code for the Delete button (the input tag with Value=Delete at the bottom of the form), delete

the </td> mark.

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4 After the end of the Delete button input tag, add the following code:
&nbsp
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Update"
tabindex="9"></td>

5 Save the file and run it in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfelseif Form.action is "Update">

<cfset attributelist="cn=#Trim(form.FullName)#;
sn=#Trim(Form.surname)#; mail=#Trim(Form.email)#;
telephonenumber=#Trim(Form.phone)#">
<cfldap action="modify"
modifytype="replace"
attributes="#attributeList#"
dn="uid=#Trim(Form.UID)#, ou=People,
o=Airius.com"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>
<cfoutput><h3>Entry for User ID #Form.UID# has
been updated</h3>
</cfoutput>

If the user clicks Update, sets the attribute list to the form field values
and replaces the attributes for the entry with the specified UID.

&nbsp
<input type="Submit"
name="action"
value="Update"
tabindex="9"></td>

Defines the Submit button for the update action.

Displays a message to indicate that the entry was updated.

This code replaces all of the attributes in a form, without checking
whether they are blank. A more complete example would check for
blank fields and either require entered data or not include the
corresponding attribute in the attributes string.

Adding and deleting attributes of a directory entry

The following table lists the cfldap tag attributes that you must specify to add and delete LDAP attributes in an entry:
Action

cfldap syntax

Add attribute to entry

dn = "entry dn"
action = "modify"
modifyType = "add"
attributes = "attribname=attribValue[;...]"

Delete attribute from entry

dn = "entry dn"
action = "modify"
modifyType = "delete"
attributes = "attribName[;...]"

You can add or delete multiple attributes in one statement. To do this, use semicolons to separate the attributes in the
attribute string.
The following example specifies the description and seealso LDAP attributes:
attributes="description=Senior Technical Writer;seealso=writers"

You can change the character that you use to separate values of multivalued attributes in an attribute string. You can
also change the character that separates attributes when a string contains multiple attributes. For more information,
see Specifying an attribute that includes a comma or semicolon on page 468.
You can add or delete attributes only if the directory schema defines them as optional for the entrys object class.

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Changing a directory entrys DN

To change the DN of an entry, provide the following information in the cfldap tag:
dn="original DN"
action="modifyDN"
attributes="dn=new DN"

For example:
<cfldap action="modifyDN"
dn="#old_UID#, ou=People, o=Airius.com"
attributes="uid=#newUID#"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>

The new DN and the entry attributes must conform to the directory schema; therefore, you cannot move entries
arbitrarily in a directory tree. You can only modify a leaf only. For example, you cannot modify the group name if the
group has children.
Note: LDAP v2 does not let you change entry DNs.

Advanced topics
Some more advanced techniques enable you to use LDAP directories more effectively.

Specifying an attribute that includes a comma or semicolon

LDAP attribute values can contain commas. The cfldap tag normally uses commas to separate attribute values in a
value list. Similarly, an attribute can contain a semicolon, which cfldap normally uses to delimit (separate) attributes
in an attribute list. To override the default separator and delimiter characters, you use the cfldap tag separator and
delimiter attributes.
For example, assume that you want to add the following attributes to an LDAP entry:
cn=Proctor, Goodman, and Jones
description=Friends of the company; Rationalists

Use the cfldap tag in the following way:

<cfldap action="modify"
modifyType="add"
attributes="cn=Proctor, Goodman, and Jones: description=Friends of the company;
Rationalists"
dn="uid=goodco, ou=People, o=Airius.com"
separator="&"
delimiter=":"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#>

Using cfldap output

You can create a searchable Verity collection from LDAP data. For an example of building a Verity collection using an
LDAP directory, see Indexing query results obtained from an LDAP directory on page 503.
The ability to generate queries from other queries is useful when cfldap queries return complex data. For more
information on querying queries, see Using Query of Queries on page 428.

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Viewing a directory schema

LDAP v3 exposes a directory's schema information in a special entry in the root DN. You use the directory root
subschemaSubentry attribute to access this information.
The following ColdFusion query shows how to get and display the directory schema. It displays information from the
schemas object class and attribute type definitions. For object classes, it displays the class name, superior class,
required attribute types, and optional attribute types. For attribute types, it displays the type name, type description,
and whether the type is single- or multivalued.
The example does not display all the information in the schema. For example, it does not display the matching rules.
It also does not display the object class IDs, attribute type IDs, attribute type syntax IDs, or the object class descriptions.
(The object class description values are all Standard Object Class.)
Note: To be able to view the schema for an LDAP server, the server must support LDAP v3
This example does not work on iPlanet Directory Server 5.0. It does work on a 4.x server.
View the schema for an LDAP directory
1 Create a file that looks like the following:
<html>
<head>
<title>LDAP Schema</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Start at Root DSE to get the subschemaSubentry attribute. --->
<cfldap
name="EntryList"
server="ldap.mycorp.com"
action="query"
attributes="subschemaSubentry"
scope="base"
start="">
<!--- Use the DN from the subschemaSubEntry attribute to get the schema. --->
<cfldap
name="EntryList2"
server="ldap.mycorp.com"
action="query"
attributes="objectclasses, attributetypes"
scope="base"
filter="objectclass=*"
start=#entryList.subschemaSubentry#>
<!--- Only one record is returned, so query loop is not required. --->
<h2>Object Classes</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Superior class</th>
<th>Must have</th>
<th>May have</th>
</tr>
<cfloop index = "thisElement" list = #Entrylist2.objectclasses#>
<cfscript>

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thiselement = Trim(thisElement);
nameloc = Find("NAME", thisElement);
descloc = Find("DESC", thisElement);
suploc = Find("SUP", thisElement);
mustloc = Find("MUST", thisElement);
mayloc = Find("MAY", thisElement);
endloc = Len(thisElement);
</cfscript>
<tr>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, nameloc+6, descloc-nameloc-8)#
</cfoutput></td>
<cfif #suploc# NEQ 0>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, suploc+5, mustloc-suploc-7)#
</cfoutput></td>
<cfelse>
<td>NONE</td>
</cfif>
<cfif #mayloc# NEQ 0>
<td><cfoutput>#Replace(Mid(thisElement, mustloc+6,
mayloc-mustloc-9), " $ ", ", ", "all")#</cfoutput></td>
<td><cfoutput>#Replace(Mid(thisElement, mayloc+5, endloc-mayloc-8),
" $ ", ", ", "all")#</cfoutput></td>
<cfelse>
<td><cfoutput>#Replace(Mid(thisElement, mustloc+6,
endloc-mustloc-9), " $ ", ", ", "all")#</cfoutput></td>
<td>NONE</td>
</cfif>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
<br><br>
<h2>Attribute Types</h2>
<table border="1" >
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
<th>multivalued?</th>
</tr>
<cfloop index = "thisElement"
list = #ReplaceNoCase(EntryList2.attributeTypes, ", alias", "<br> Alias",
"all")# delimiters = ",">
<cfscript>
thiselement = Trim(thisElement);
nameloc = Find("NAME", thisElement);

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descloc = Find("DESC", thisElement);

syntaxloc = Find("SYNTAX", thisElement);
singleloc = Find("SINGLE", thisElement);
endloc = Len(thisElement);
</cfscript>
<tr>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, nameloc+6, descloc-nameloc-8)#
</cfoutput></td>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, descloc+6, syntaxloc-descloc-8)#
</cfoutput></td>
<cfif #singleloc# EQ 0>
<td><cfoutput>Yes</cfoutput></td>
<cfelse>
<td><cfoutput>No</cfoutput></td>
</cfif>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
</body>
</html>

2 Change the server from ldap.mycorp.com to your LDAP server. You might also need to specify a user ID and

password in the cfldap tag.

3 Save the template as ldapschema.cfm in myapps under your web root directory and view it in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:

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Code

Description

<cfldap
name="EntryList"
server="ldap.mycorp.com"
action="query"
attributes="subschemaSubentry"
scope="base"
start="">

Gets the value of the subschemaSubentry attribute from the root of

the directory server. The value is the DN of the schema.

<cfldap
name="EntryList2"
server="ldap.mycorp.com"
action="query"
attributes="objectclasses, attributetypes"
scope="base"
filter="objectclass=*"
start=#entryList.subschemaSubentry#>

Uses the schema DN to get the objectclasses and attributetypes

attributes from the schema.

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Code

Description

<h2>Object Classes</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Superior class</th>
<th>Must have</th>
<th>May have</th>
</tr>
<cfloop index = "thisElement" list =
#Entrylist2.objectclasses#>
<cfscript>
thiselement = Trim(thisElement);
nameloc = Find("NAME", thisElement);
descloc = Find("DESC", thisElement);
suploc = Find("SUP", thisElement);
mustloc = Find("MUST", thisElement);
mayloc = Find("MAY", thisElement);
endloc = Len(thisElement);
</cfscript>

Displays the object class name, superior class, required attributes,

and optional attributes for each object class in a table.

<tr>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, nameloc+6, desclocnameloc-8)#
</cfoutput></td>
<cfif #suploc# NEQ 0>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, suploc+5, mustlocsuploc-7)#
</cfoutput></td>
<cfelse>
<td>NONE</td>
</cfif>
<cfif #mayloc# NEQ 0>
<td><cfoutput>#Replace(Mid(thisElement, mustloc+6,
mayloc-mustloc-9), " $ ", ", ",
"all")#</cfoutput></td>
<td><cfoutput>#Replace(Mid(thisElement, mayloc+5,
endloc-mayloc-8),
" $ ", ", ", "all")#</cfoutput></td>
<cfelse>
<td><cfoutput>#Replace(Mid(thisElement, mustloc+6,
endloc-mustloc-9), " $ ", ", ",
"all")#</cfoutput></td>
<td>NONE</td>
</cfif>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>

Displays the field values. Uses the Mid function to extract individual
field values from the thisElement string.

The schema contains the definitions of all object classes in a comma

delimited list, so the code uses a list type cfloop tag.
The thisElement variable contains the object class definition. Trim off
any leading or trailing spaces, then use the class definition field
keywords in Find functions to get the starting locations of the
required fields, including the Object class ID. (The ID is not displayed.)
Gets the length of the thisElement string for use in later
calculations.

The top object class does not have a superior class entry. Handles this
special case by testing the suploc location variable. If the value is not
0, handles normally, otherwise, output "NONE".
There might not be any optional attributes. Handles this case
similarly to the superior class. The calculation of the location of
required attributes uses the location of the optional attributes if the
field exists; otherwise, uses the end of the object class definition
string.

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Code

Description

<h2>Attribute Types</h2>
<table border="1" >
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
<th>multivalued?</th>
</tr>
<cfloop index = "thisElement"
list = #ReplaceNoCase(EntryList2.attributeTypes, ",
alias", "<br> Alias",
"all")# delimiters = ",">
<cfscript>
thiselement = Trim(thisElement);
nameloc = Find("NAME", thisElement);
descloc = Find("DESC", thisElement);
syntaxloc = Find("SYNTAX", thisElement);
singleloc = Find("SINGLE", thisElement);
endloc = Len(thisElement);
</cfscript>
<tr>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, nameloc+6, desclocnameloc-8)#
</cfoutput></td>
<td><cfoutput>#Mid(thisElement, descloc+6,
syntaxloc-descloc-8)#
</cfoutput></td>
<cfif #singleloc# EQ 0>
<td><cfoutput>Yes</cfoutput></td>
<cfelse>
<td><cfoutput>No</cfoutput></td>
</cfif>
</tr>
</cfloop>

Does the same types of calculations for the attribute types as for the
object classes.

The attribute type field can contain the text ", alias for....". This text
includes a comma, which also delimits attribute entries. Use the
REReplaceNoCase function to replace any comma that precedes the
word "alias" with an HTML <br> tag.

The attribute definition includes a numeric syntax identifier, which

the code does not display, but uses its location in calculating the
locations of the other fields.

Referrals
An LDAP database can be distributed over multiple servers. If the requested information is not on the current server,
the LDAP v3 standard provides a mechanism for the server to return a referral to the client that informs the client of
an alternate server. (This feature is also included in some LDAP v2-compliant servers.)
ColdFusion can handle referrals automatically. If you specify a nonzero referral attribute in the cfldap tag,
ColdFusion sends the request to the server specified in the referral.
The referral attribute value specifies the number of referrals allowed for the request. For example, if the referral
attribute is 1, and server A sends a referral to server B, which then sends a referral to server C, ColdFusion returns an
error. If the referral attribute is 2, and server C has the information, the LDAP request succeeds. The value to use
depends on the topology of the distributed LDAP directory, the importance of response speed, and the value of
response completeness.
When ColdFusion follows a referral, the rebind attribute specifies whether ColdFusion uses the cfldap tag login
information in the request to the new server. The default, No, sends an anonymous login to the server.

Managing LDAP security

When you consider how to implement LDAP security, consider server security and application security.
Server security
The cfldap tag supports secure socket layer (SSL) v2 security. This security provides certificate-based validation of the
LDAP server. It also encrypts data transferred between the ColdFusion server and the LDAP server, including the user
password, and ensures the integrity of data passed between the servers. To specify SSL v2 security, set the cfladap tag
secure="cfssl_basic" attribute.

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About LDAP Server Security

ColdFusion uses Java Native Directory Interface (JNDI), the LDAP provider, and an SSL package to create the client
side of an SSL communication. The LDAP server provides the server side. The LDAP server that the cfldap tag
connects to using SSL holds an SSL server certificate, a certificate that is securely signed by a trusted authority and
identifies (authenticates) the sender. During the initial SSL connection, the LDAP server presents its server certificate
to the client. If the client trusts this certificate, the SSL connection is established and secure LDAP communication can
begin.
ColdFusion determines whether to trust the server by comparing the servers certificate with the information in the
jre/lib/security/cacerts keystore of the JRE used by ColdFusion. The ColdFusion default cacerts file contains
information about many certificate granting authorities. If you must update the file with additional information, you
can use the keytool utility in the ColdFusion jre/bin directory to import certificates that are in X.509 format. For
example, enter the following:
keytool -import -keystore cacerts -alias ldap -file ldap.crt -keypass bl19mq

The keytool utility initial keypass password is change it. For more information on using the keytool utility, see the
Sun JDK documentation.
Once ColdFusion establishes secure communication with the server, it must provide the server with login credentials.
You specify the login credentials in the cfldap tag username and password attributes. When the server determines
that the login credentials are valid, ColdFusion can access the directory.
Using LDAP security
To use security, first ensure that the LDAP server supports SSL v2 security.
Specify the cfldap tag secure attribute as follows:
secure = "cfssl_basic"

For example:
<cfldap action="modify"
modifyType="add"
atributes="cn=Lizzie"
dn="uid=lborden, ou=People, o=Airius.com"
server=#myServer#
username=#myUserName#
password=#myPassword#
secure="cfssl_basic"
port=636>

The port attribute specifies the server port used for secure LDAP communications, which is 636 by default. If you do
not specify a port, ColdFusion attempts to connect to the default, nonsecure, LDAP port 389.
Application security
To ensure application security, prevent outsiders from gaining access to the passwords that you use in cfldap tags. The
best way to do this is to use variables for your username and password attributes. You can set these variables on one
encrypted application page. For more information on securing applications, see Securing Applications on page 339.

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Building a Search Interface

You can provide a full text search capability for documents and data sources on an Adobe ColdFusion site by enabling
the Verity search engine. Verity full text search lets people visiting your site use simple one- and two-word searches to
quickly find the information they need. You can use the more robust Verity Query Language and the Verity advanced
search operators to transparently implement business-specific meaning behind searches. Verity search allows even one
word searches to return accurate results.
You can build a Verity search interface with which users can perform powerful searches on your site. You also can
index your documents and data sources so that users can search them.

About Verity
To efficiently search through paragraphs of text or files of varying types, you need full-text search capabilities.
ColdFusion includes the Verity search engine, which provides full-text indexing and searching.
The Verity engine performs searches against collections, not against the actual documents. A collection is a special
database created by Verity that contains metadata that describes the documents that you have indexed. The indexing
process examines documents of various types in a collection and creates a metadata descriptionthe indexwhich is
specialized for rapid search and retrieval operations.
The ColdFusion implementation of Verity supports collections of the following basic data types:

Text files such as HTML pages and CFML pages

Binary documents (see Supported file types on page 477)
Recordsets returned from a query and CF query object, including: cfquery, cfldap, and cfpop queries
You can build collections from individual documents or from an entire directory tree. Collections can be stored
anywhere, so you have a great deal of flexibility in accessing indexed data.
In your ColdFusion application, you can search multiple collections, each of which can focus on a specific group of
documents or queries, according to subject, document type, location, or any other logical grouping. Because you can
perform searches against multiple collections, you have substantial flexibility in designing your search interface.

Using Verity with ColdFusion

Here are some ways to use Verity with ColdFusion:

Index your website and provide a generalized search mechanism, such as a form interface, for executing searches.
Index specific directories that contain documents for subject-based searching.
Index specific categories of documents. By organizing your documents into categories, you can let users search
specific types of documents. For example, if your website contains FAQs, documentation, and tutorials, you can
create a search that lets users search within each of these categories.

Index cfquery recordsets, giving users the ability to search against the data. Because collections contain data
optimized for retrieval, this method is much faster than performing multiple database queries to return the same data.

Index cfldap and cfpop query results.

Manage and search collections generated outside ColdFusion using native Verity tools. Collections must be
registered with the Verity K2 administration service. To do this either use the Verity tools, or map the collection
using the cfcollection tag.

Index e-mail generated by ColdFusion application pages and create a searching mechanism for the indexed
messages.

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Build collections of inventory data and make those collections available for searching from your ColdFusion
application pages.

Support international users in a range of languages using the cfindex, cfcollection, and cfsearch tags.

Advantages of using Verity

Verity can index the output from queries so that you or a user can search against the recordsets. Searching query results
has a clear advantage over using SQL to search a database directly in speed of execution because metadata from the
recordsets are stored in a Verity index that is optimized for searching.
Performing a Verity search has the following advantages over other search methods:

You can reduce the programming overhead of query constructs by allowing users to construct their own queries
and execute them directly. You need to be concerned only with presenting the output to the client web browser.

Verity can index database text fields, such as notes and product descriptions, that native database tools cannot
effectively index.

When indexing collections that contain documents in formats such as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and Microsoft Word,
Verity scans for the document title (if one was entered), in addition to the document text, and displays the title in
the search results list.

When Verity indexes web pages, it can return the URL for each document. This is a valuable document
management feature.
For more information, see Indexing data returned by a query on page 497.

Supported file types

The ColdFusion Verity implementation supports a wide array of file and document types. As a result, you can index
web pages, ColdFusion applications, and many binary document types and produce search results that include
summaries of these documents.
Verity supports the following formats:
Document format

Format

Version(s)

Text and markup

ANSI (TXT)

All versions

ASCII (TXT)

All versions

HTML (HTM)

IBM DCA/RFT (Revisable Form Text) (DC)

SC23-0758-1

Rich Text Format/WordPad (RTF)

1 through 1.6

Unicode Text (TXT)

3, 4

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Document format

Format

Version(s)

Word processing

Adobe Maker Interchange Format (MIF)

5, 5.5, 6, 7

Applix Words (AW)

3.11, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4, 41, 4.2

DisplayWrite (IP)

Folio Flat File (FFF)

3.1

Fujitsu Oasys (OA2)

JustSystems Ichitaro (JTD)

8, 9, 10, 12

Lotus AMI Pro (SAM)

2, 3

Lotus Word Pro (LWP) (Windows only)

96, 97, Millennium Edition R9

Microsoft Word for PC (DOC)

4, 5, 5.5, 6

Microsoft Word for Windows (DOC)

1 through 2002

Microsoft Word for Macintosh (DOC)

4, 5, 6, 98

Microsoft Works (WPS)

1 through 2000

Microsoft Windows Write (WRI)

1, 2, 3

WordPerfect for Windows V5 (WO)

5, 5.1

WordPerfect for Windows V6 and higher (WPD)

6, 7, 8, 10, 2000

WordPerfect for Macintosh

1.02, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 3, 3.1

WordPerfect for Linux

XyWrite (XY4)

4.12

Applix Spreadsheets (AS)

4.2, 4.3, 4.4

Comma Separated Values (CSV)

No specific version

Corel Quattro Pro (QPW, WB3)

5, 6, 7, 8

Lotus 1-2-3 for SmartSuite (123)

96, 97, Millennium Edition R9

Lotus 1-2-3 (WK4)

2, 3, 4, 5

Lotus 1-2-3 Charts (123)

2, 3, 4, 5

Microsoft Excel for Windows (XLS)

2.2, 3, 4, 5, 96, 97, 2000, 2002

Microsoft Excel for Macintosh (XLS)

98

Microsoft Excel Charts (XLS)

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Microsoft Works Spreadsheet (S30,S40)

1, 2, 3, 4

Spreadsheet formats

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Document format

Format

Version(s)

Presentation formats

Applix Presents (AG)

4.0, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4

Corel Presentations (SHW)

7, 9, 10, 11, 2000

Lotus Freelance Graphics for Windows (PRE)

2, 96, 97, 98, Millennium Edition R9

Lotus Freelance Graphics 2 (PRE)

Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows (PPT)

95, 97, 2000, 2002

Microsoft PowerPoint for PC (PPT)

Microsoft PowerPoint for Macintosh (PPT)

98

Microsoft Project (MPP)

98, 2000, 2002

Display formats

Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)

1.1 (Acrobat 2.0) to 1.4 (Acrobat 5.0)

Graphics formats
supported for indexing

AutoCAD Drawing format (DWG) (standalone) (does not extract

metadata)

R13, R14, and R2000

AutoCAD Drawing format (DXF) (standalone) (does not extract

metadata)

R13, R14, and R2000

Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) (embedded)

No specific version

Enhanced Metafile (EMF) (embedded and standalone)

No specific version

Lotus Pic (PIC) (standalone)

No specific version

Microsoft Visio (standalone)

Tagged Image File (TIFF) (standalone)

Windows Metafile (WMF) (embedded and standalone)

Multimedia formats

MPEG-1 audio layer 3 (MP3)

ID3 versions 1 and 2

Container formats

DynaZIP

No specific version

PKZIP (zip)

PKWARE versions through 2.04g

WinZIP

No specific version

Microsoft Outlook (msg)

97, 2000, 2002

Microsoft Outlook Express (eml)

No specific version

E-mail formats

Specifying a language
If you install the optional ColdFusion International Search pack, you can specify a language other than English when
creating a collection.
ColdFusion supports Verity Locales in European, Asian, and Middle Eastern languages. For more information about
installing Verity Locales, see Installing ColdFusion.
For English language support, Verity provides two options: English (Basic) and English (Advanced). The default
language for Verity collections is English (Basic). Indexing a collection using English (Basic) is faster than using
English (Advanced), however, English (Advanced) provides better search results.

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Specify a language when you create the collection. The language you specify should match the language the documents
were authored in. By specifying the language your documents are written in, Verity is able to correctly interpret accented
characters, and, in many languages, use variations of word stems and roots. However, Verity does not support the
following in Eastern European and Middle Eastern languages, including these languages in the Universal language pack:

Stemming
Normalization
Decomposition of compound words into subwords
Part of speech
Special number handling
If you have documents in several languages, create separate collections for each of them.
To specify a language when you are indexing data, select the language from the pop-up menu when you create a
collection with the ColdFusion Administrator. In CFML, the cfcollection, cfindex, and cfsearch tags have an
optional language attribute that you use to specify the language of the collection.
Use the following table to find the correct value for the language attribute for your collection. For example, the
following code creates a collection for simplified Chinese:
<cfcollection action = "create" collection = "lei_01"
path = "c:\CFusion\verity\collections"
language = "simplified_chinese">

The following table lists the languages names and attributes that ColdFusion supports:
Language

Language attribute

Arabic

arabic

Chinese (simplified)

simplified_chinese

Chinese (traditional)

traditional_chinese

Czech

czech

Danish

danish

Dutch

dutch

English (Basic)

english

English (Advanced)

englishx

Finnish

finnish

French

french

German

german

Greek

greek

Hebrew

hebrew

Hungarian

hungarian

Italian

italian

Japanese

japanese

Korean

korean

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Language

Language attribute

Norwegian

norwegian

Norwegian (Bokmal)

bokmal

Norwegian (Nynorsk)

nynorsk

Polish

polish

Portuguese

portuguese

Russian

russian

Spanish

spanish

Swedish

swedish

Turkish

turkish

Multiple languages

uni

You can register collections in the ColdFusion Administrator or by creating a collection with the cfcollection tag.
If you register a given collection with ColdFusion and you specify a language attribute, you do not have to specify the
language attribute when using cfindex and cfsearch tags for that collection. If you do not register a given collection
with ColdFusion, ColdFusion uses English (Basic), the default language, unless you specify the language in the
language attribute for the cfindex and cfsearch tags for that collection.
Note: When you search a collection in a language other than English, translate operators such as AND and OR into the
language of the collection.

Creating a search tool for ColdFusion applications

The three main tasks in creating a search tool for your ColdFusion application are:
1 Create a collection.
2 Index the collection.
3 Design a search interface.

You can perform each task programmaticallythat is, by writing CFML code. Alternatively, you can use the
ColdFusion Administrator to create and index a collection.

Creating a collection with the ColdFusion Administrator

Use the following procedure to quickly create a collection with the ColdFusion Administrator:
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Data & Services > Verity Collections.
2 Enter a name for the collection; for example, DemoDocs.
3 Enter a path for the directory location of the new collection, for example, C:\CFusion\verity\collections\.

By default in the server configuration, ColdFusion stores collections in cf_root\verity\collections\ in Windows and
in cf_root/verity/collections on UNIX. In the multiserver configuration, the default location for collections is
cf_webapp_root/verity/collections. In the J2EE configuration, the default location for collections is
verity_root/verity/collections, where verity_root is the directory in which you installed Verity.
Note: This is the location for the collection, not for the files that you search.
4 (Optional) Select a language other than English for the collection from the Language drop-down list.

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For more information on selecting a language, see Specifying a language on page 479.
5 (Optional) Select Enable Category Support to create a Verity Parametric collection.

For more information on using categories, see Narrowing searches by using categories on page 492.
6 Click Create Collection.

The name and full path of the new collection appears in the list of Verity Collections.
You have successfully created an empty collection. A collection becomes populated with data when you index it.

About indexing a collection

In order for information to be searched, it must be indexed. Indexing extracts both meaning and structure from
unstructured information by indexing each document that you specify into a separate Verity collection that contains
a complete list of all the words used in a given document along with metadata about that document. Indexed
collections include information such as word proximity, metadata about physical file system addresses, and URLs of
documents.
When you index databases and other recordsets that you generated using a query, Verity creates a collection that
normalizes both the structured and unstructured data. Search requests then check these collections rather than
scanning the actual documents and database fields. This provides a faster search of information, regardless of the file
type and whether the source is structured or unstructured.
Just as with creating a collection, you can index a collection programmatically or by using the ColdFusion
Administrator. Use the following guidelines to determine which method to use:
Use the Administrator

Use the cfindex tag

To index document files

To index ColdFusion query results

When the collection does not require frequent updates

When the collection requires frequent updates

To create the collection without writing any CFML code

To dynamically update a collection from a ColdFusion application page

To create a collection once

When the collection requires updating by others

You can use cfcollectionaction="optimize" if you notice that searches on a collection take longer than they did
previously.
Updating an index
Documents are modified frequently in many user environments. After you index your documents, any changes that
you make are not reflected in subsequent Verity searches until you reindex the collection. Depending on your
environment, you can create a scheduled task to automatically keep your indexes current. For more information on
scheduled tasks, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Creating a ColdFusion search tool programmatically

You can create a Verity search tool for your ColdFusion application in CFML. Although writing CFML code can take
more development time than using these tools, in some situations, writing code is the preferred development method.
Creating a collection with the cfcollection tag
The following are cases in which you might prefer using the cfcollection tag rather than the ColdFusion
Administrator to create a collection:

You want your ColdFusion application to be able to create, delete, and maintain a collection.

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You do not want to expose the ColdFusion Administrator to users.

You want to create indexes on servers that you cannot access directly; for example, if you use a hosting company.
When using the cfcollection tag, you can specify the same attributes as in the ColdFusion Administrator:
Attribute

Description

action

(Optional) The action to perform on the collection (create, delete, or optimize). The default value for the action
attribute is list. For more information, see cfcollection in CFML Reference.

collection

The name of the new collection, or the name of a collection upon which you perform an action.

path

The location for the Verity collection.

language

The language.

categories

(Optional) Specifies that cfcollection create a Verity Parametric Index (PI) for this collection. By default, the
categories attribute is set to False. To create a collection that uses categories, specify Yes.

You can create a collection by directly assigning a value to the collection attribute of the cfcollection tag, as
shown in the following code:
<cfcollection action = "create"
collection = "a_new_collection"
path = "c:\CFusion\verity\collections\">

If you want your users to be able to dynamically supply the name and location for a new collection, use the following
procedures to create form and action pages.
Create a simple collection form page
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Collection Creation Input Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Specify a collection</h2>
<form action="collection_create_action.cfm" method="POST">
<p>Collection name:
<input type="text" name="CollectionName" size="25"></p>
<p>What do you want to do with the collection?</p>
<input type="radio"
name="CollectionAction"
value="Create" checked>Create<br>
<input type="radio"
name="CollectionAction"
value="Optimize">Optimize<br>
<input type="submit"
name="submit"
value="Submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>

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2 Save the file as collection_create_form.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory.

Note: The form does not work until you write an action page for it, which is the next procedure.
Create a collection action page
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>cfcollection</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Collection creation</h2>
<cfoutput>
<cfswitch expression=#Form.collectionaction#>
<cfcase value="Create">
<cfcollection action="Create"
collection="#Form.CollectionName#"
path="c:\CFusion\verity\collections\">
<p>The collection #Form.CollectionName# is created.</p>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="Optimize">
<cfcollection action="Optimize"
collection="#Form.CollectionName#">
<p>The collection #Form.CollectionName# is optimized.</p>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="Delete">
<cfcollection action="Delete"
collection="#Form.CollectionName#">
<p>The collection is deleted.</p>
</cfcase>
</cfswitch>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_create_action.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory.
3 In the web browser, enter the following URL to display the form page:

http://hostname:portnumber/myapps/collection_create_form.cfm
4 Enter a collection name; for example, CodeColl.
5 Verify that Create is selected and submit the form.
6 (Optional) In the ColdFusion Administrator, reload the ColdFusion Collections page.

The name and full path of the new collection appear in the list of Verity Collections.
You successfully created a collection, named CodeColl, that currently has no data.

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Indexing a collection by using the cfindex tag

You can index a collection in CFML by using the cfindex tag, which eliminates the need to use the ColdFusion
Administrator. The cfindex tag populates the collection with metadata that is then used to retrieve search results. You
can use the cfindex tag to index either physical files (documents stored within your websites root folder), or the
results of a database query.
Note: Before indexing a collection, create a Verity collection by using the ColdFusion Administrator, or the
cfcollection tag. For more information, see Creating a collection with the ColdFusion Administrator on page 481,
or Creating a collection with the cfcollection tag on page 482.
When using the cfindex tag, the following attributes correspond to the values that you would enter by using the
ColdFusion Administrator to index a collection:
Attribute

Description

collection

The name of the collection.

action

Specifies what the cfindex tag should do to the collection. The default action is to update the collection,
which generates a new index. Other actions are to delete, purge, or refresh the collection.

type

Specifies the type of files or other data to which the cfindex tag applies the specified action. The value you
assign to the type attribute determines the value to use with the key attribute (see the following list). When you
enter a value for the type attribute, cfindex expects a corresponding value in the key attribute. For example,
if you specify type=file, cfindex expects a directory path and filename for the key attribute.
The type attribute has the following possible values:

file: Specifies a directory path and filename for the file that you are indexing.

path: Specifies a directory path that contains the files that you are indexing.

custom: Specifies custom data, such as a recordset returned from a query.

extensions

(Optional) The delimited list of file extensions that ColdFusion uses to index files if type="path".

key

The value that you specify for the key attribute depends on the value set for the type attribute:

URLpath

If type="file", the key is the directory path and filename for the file you are indexing.

If type="path", the key is the directory path that contains the files you are indexing.

If type="custom", the key is a unique identifier specifying the location of the documents you are indexing;
for example, the URL of a specific web page or website whose contents you want to index. If you are indexing
data returned by a query (from a database for example), the key is the name of the recordset column that
contains the primary key.

(Optional) The URL path for files if type="file" and type="path". When the collection is searched with the
cfsearch tag, ColdFusion works as follows:

type="file": The URLpath attribute contains the URL to the file.

type="path": The path name is automatically prefixed to filenames and returned as the URLpath attribute.

recurse

(Optional) Yes or No. If type = "path" , Yes specifies that directories below the path specified in the key
attribute are included in the indexing operation.

language

(Optional) The language of the collection. The default language is English Basic.
To learn more about support for languages, see Specifying a language on page 479.

You can use form and action pages like the following examples to select and index a collection.
Select which collection to index
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Select the Collection to Index</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Specify the index you want to build</h2>
<form method="Post" action="collection_index_action.cfm">
<p>Enter the collection you want to index:
<input type="text" name="IndexColl" size="25" maxLength="35"></p>
<p>Enter the location of the files in the collection:
<input type="text" name="IndexDir" size="50" maxLength="100"></p>
<p>Enter a Return URL to prepend to all indexed files:
<input type="text" name="urlPrefix" size="80" maxLength="100"></p>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Index">
</form>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_index_form.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.

Note: The form does not work until you write an action page for it, which you do when you index a collection.
Use cfindex to index a collection
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Creating Index</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Indexing Complete</h2>
<cfindex collection="#Form.IndexColl#"
action="refresh"
extensions=".htm, .html, .xls, .txt, .mif, .doc"
key="#Form.IndexDir#"
type="path"
urlpath="#Form.urlPrefix#"
recurse="Yes"
language="English">
<cfoutput>
The collection #Form.IndexColl# has been indexed.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_index_action.cfm.

3 In the web browser, enter the following URL to display the form page:

http://hostname:portnumber/myapps/collection_index_form.cfm
4 Enter a collection name; for example, CodeColl.

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5 Enter a file location; for example, C:\ColdFusion9\wwwroot\vw_files.

6 Enter a URL prefix; for example, http://localhost:8500/vw_files (assuming that you are using the built-in web

server).
7 Click Index.

A confirmation message appears on successful completion.

Note: For information about using the cfindex tag with a database to index a collection, see Working with data
returned from a query on page 497.
Indexing a collection with the ColdFusion Administrator
As an alternative to programmatically indexing a collection, use the following procedure to index a collection with the
ColdFusion Administrator.
1 In the list of Verity Collections, select a collection name; for example, CodeColl.
2 Click Index to open the index page.
3 For File Extensions, enter the types of files to index. Use a comma to separate multiple file types; for example, .htm,

.html, .xls, .txt, .mif, .doc.

4 Enter (or Browse to) the directory path that contains the files to be indexed; for example,

C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\vw_files.
5 (Optional) To extend the indexing operation to all directories below the selected path, select the Recursively index

subdirectories check box.

6 (Optional) Enter a Return URL to prepend to all indexed files.

This step lets you create a link to any of the files in the index; for example, http://127.0.0.1/vw_files/.
7 (Optional) Select a language other than English.

For more information, see Specifying a language on page 479.

8 Click Submit Changes.

On completion, the ColdFusion Collections page appears.

Note: The time required to generate the index depends on the number and size of the selected files in the path.
This interface lets you easily build a very specific index based on the filename extension and path information you
enter. In most cases, you do not need to change your server file structures to accommodate the generation of indexes.

Creating a search page

You use the cfsearch tag to search an indexed collection. Searching a Verity collection is like a standard ColdFusion
query: both use a dedicated ColdFusion tag that requires a name attribute for their searches and both return a query
object that contains rows matching the search criteria. The following table compares the two tags:
cfquery

cfsearch

Searches a data source

Searches a collection

Requires a name attribute

Requires a name attribute

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cfquery

cfsearch

Uses SQL statements to specify search criteria

Uses a criteria attribute to specify search criteria

Returns variables keyed to database table field names

Returns a unique set of variables

Uses cfoutput to display query results

Uses cfoutput to display search results

Note: You receive an error if you attempt to search a collection that has not been indexed.
The following are important attributes for the cfsearch tag:
Attribute

Description

name

The name of the search query.

collection

The name of the collection(s) being searched. Separate multiple collections with a comma; for example,
collection = "sprocket_docs,CodeColl".

criteria

The search target (can be dynamic).

maxrows

The maximum number of records returned by the search. Always specify this attribute to ensure optimal
performance (start with 300 or less, if possible).

Each cfsearch returns variables that provide the following information about the search:
Attribute

Description

RecordCount

The total number of records returned by the search.

CurrentRow

The current row of the recordset.

RecordsSearched

The total number of records in the index that were searched. If no records are returned in the search, this
property returns a null value.

Summary

Automatic summary saved by the cfindex tag.

Context

A context summary that contains the search terms, highlighted in bold (by default). This is enabled if you
set the contextpassages attribute to a number greater than zero.

Additionally, if you specify the status attribute, the cfsearch tag returns the status structure, which contains the
information in the following table:
Variable

Description

found

The number of documents that contain the search criteria.

searched

The number of documents searched. Corresponds to the recordsSearched column in the search results.

time

The number of milliseconds the search took, as reported by the Verity K2 search service.

suggestedQuery

An alternative query, as suggested by Verity, that may produce better results. This often contains corrected
spellings of search terms. Present only when the suggestions tag attribute criteria is met.

Keywords

A structure that contains each search term as a key to an array of up to five possible alternative terms in order
of preference. Present only when the suggestions tag attribute criteria is met.

You can use search form and results pages like the following examples to search a collection.

Create a search form

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Searching a collection</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Searching a collection</h2>
<form method="post" action="collection_search_action.cfm">
<p>Enter search term(s) in the box below. You can use AND, OR, NOT, and
parentheses. Surround an exact phrase with quotation marks.</p>
<p><input type="text" name="criteria" size="50" maxLength="50">
</p>
<input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_search_form.cfm.

Enter search target words in this form, which ColdFusion passes as the variable criteria to the action page, which
displays the search results.

Create the results page

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Search Results</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfsearch
name = "codecoll_results"
collection = "CodeColl"
criteria = "#Form.criteria#"
contextPassages = "1"
contextBytes = "300"
maxrows = "100">
<h2>Search Results</h2>
<cfoutput>
Your search returned #codecoll_results.RecordCount# file(s).
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="codecoll_results">
<p>
File: <a href="#URL#">#Key#</a><br>
Document Title (if any): #Title#<br>
Score: #Score#<br>
Summary: #Summary#<br>
Highlighted Summary: #context#</p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_search_action.cfm.

3 View collection_search_form.cfm in the web browser.

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4 Enter target words and click Search.

Note: As part of the indexing process, Verity automatically produces a summary of every document file or every query
recordset that gets indexed. The default summary result set column selects the best sentences, based on internal rules, up
to a maximum of 500 characters. Every cfsearch operation returns summary information by default. For more
information, see Using Verity Search Expressions on page 505. Alternatively, you can use the context result set column,
which provides a context summary with highlighted search terms.

Enhancing search results

ColdFusion lets you enhance the results of searches by letting you incorporate search features that let users more easily
find the information they need. Verity provides the following search enhancements:

Highlighting search terms

Providing alternative spelling suggestions
Narrowing searches using categories

Highlighting search terms

Term highlighting lets users quickly scan retrieved documents to determine whether they contain the desired
information. This can be especially useful when searching lengthy documents, letting users quickly locate relevant
information returned by the search.
To implement term highlighting, use the following cfsearch attributes in the search results page:
Attributes

Description

ContextHighlightBegin

Specifies the HTML tag to prefix to the search term within the returned documents. This attribute
must be used in conjunction with ContextHighlightEnd to highlight the resulting search terms. The
default HTML tag is <b>, which highlights search terms using bold type.

ContextHighlightEnd

Specifies the HTML tag to append to the search term within the returned documents.

ContextPassages

The number of passages/sentences Verity returns in the context summary (the context column of
the results). The default value is 0; this disables the context summary.

ContextBytes

The total number of bytes that Verity returns in the context summary. The default is 300 bytes.

The following example adds to the previous search results example by highlighting the returned search terms with bold
type.
Create a search results page that includes term highlighting
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Search Results</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfsearch
name = "codecoll_results"
collection = "CodeColl"
criteria = "#Form.Criteria#"
ContextHighlightBegin="<b>"
ContextHighlightEnd="</b>"
ContextPassages="1"
ContextBytes="500"
maxrows = "100">
<h2>Search Results</h2>
<cfoutput>
Your search returned #codecoll_results.RecordCount# file(s).
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="codecoll_results">
<p>
File: <a href="#URL#">#Key#</a><br>
Document Title (if any): #Title#<br>
Score: #Score#<br>
Summary: #Summary#<br>
Highlighted Summary: #context#</p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_search_action.cfm.

Note: This overwrites the previous ColdFusion example page.

3 View collection_search_form.cfm in the web browser:
4 Enter target words and click Search.

Providing alternative spelling suggestions

Many unsuccessful searches are the result of incorrectly spelled query terms. Verity can automatically suggest
alternative spellings for misspelled queries using a dictionary that is dynamically built from the search index.
To implement alternative spelling suggestions, you use the cfsearch tags suggestions attribute with an integer
value. If the number of documents returned by the search is less than or equal to the value you specify, Verity provides
alternative search term suggestions. In addition to using the suggestions attribute, you can also use the cfif tag to
output the spelling suggestions, and a link through which to search on the suggested terms.
Note: Using alternative spelling suggestions incurs a small performance penalty. This occurs because the cfsearch tag must
also look up alternative spellings in addition to the specified search terms.
The following example specifies that if the number of search results returned is less than or equal to 5, an alternative
search termwhich is displayed using the cfif tagis displayed with a link that the user can click to activate the
alternate search.
Create a search results page that provides alternative spelling suggestions
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Search Results</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfsearch
name = "codecoll_results"
collection = "CodeColl"
criteria = "#Form.Criteria#">
status = "info"
suggestions="5"
ContextPassages = "1"
ContextBytes = "300"
maxrows = "100">
<h2>Search Results</h2>
<cfoutput>
Your search returned #codecoll_results.RecordCount# file(s).
</cfoutput>
<cfif info.FOUND LTE 5 AND isDefined("info.SuggestedQuery")>
Did you mean:
<a href="search,cfm?query=#info.SuggestedQuery#>#info.SuggestedQuery#</a>
</cfif>
<cfoutput query="codecoll_results">
<p>
File: <a href="#URL#">#Key#</a><br>
Document Title (if any): #Title#<br>
Score: #Score#<br>
Summary: #Summary#<br>
Highlighted Summary: #context#</p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_search_action.cfm.

Note: This overwrites the previous ColdFusion example page.

3 View collection_search_form.cfm in the web browser:
4 Enter any misspelled target words and click Search.

Narrowing searches by using categories

Verity lets you organize your searchable documents into categories. Categories are groups of documents (or database
tables) that you define, and then let users search within them. For example, if you wanted to create a search tool for a
software company, you can create categories such as whitepapers, documentation, release notes, and marketing
collateral. Users can then specify one or more categories in which to search for information. Thus, if users visiting the
website wanted to learn about a conceptual aspect of your companys technology, they might restrict their search to
the whitepaper and marketing categories.
Typically, you provide users with pop-up menus or check boxes from which they can select categories to narrow their
searches. Alternately, you can create a form that lets users enter both a category name in which to search, and search
keywords.
Create a search application that uses categories
1 Create a collection with support for categories enabled.

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2 Index the collection, specifying the category and categoryTree attributes appropriate to the collection.

For more information on indexing Verity collections with support for categories, see Indexing collections that
contain categories on page 493.
3 Create a search page that lets users search within the categories that you created.

Create a search page using the cfsearch tag that lets users more easily search for information by restricting
searches to the specified category and, if specified, its hierarchical tree.
For more information on searching Verity collections with support for categories, see Searching collections that
contain categories on page 494.
Creating collections with support for categories
You can either select Enable Category Support from the ColdFusion Administrator, or write a cfcollection tag that
uses the category attribute. By enabling category support, you create a collection that contains a Verity Parametric
Index (PI).
<cfcollection
action = "action"
collection = "collectionName"
path = "path_to_verity_collection"
language = "English"
categories = "yes">

For more information on using the cfcollection tag to create Verity collections with support for categories, see
cfcollection in the CFML Reference.
Indexing collections that contain categories
When you index a collection with support for categories enabled, do the following:

Specify a category name using the category attribute. The name (or names) that you provide identifies the
category so that users can specify searches on the documents that the collection contains. For example, you create
five categories named taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell. When performing a search, users could select from either
a pop-up menu or check box to search within one or more of the categories, thereby limiting their search within a
given range of topics.
<cfindex collection="#Form.IndexColl#"
action="update"
extensions=".htm, .html, .xls, .txt, .mif, .doc, .pdf"
key="#Form.IndexDir#"
type="path"
urlpath="#Form.urlPrefix#"
recurse="Yes"
language="English"
category="taste, touch, sight, sound, smell">

Specify a hierarchical document tree (like a file system tree) within which you can limit searches, when you use the
categoryTree attribute. With the categoryTree attribute enabled, ColdFusion limits searches to documents

contained within the specified path.

To use the categoryTree attribute, you specify a hierarchical document tree by listing each category as a string,
and separating them using forward slashes (/). The tree structure that you specify in a search is the root of the
document tree from which you want the search to begin. The type=path attribute appends directory names to the
end of the returned value (as it does when specifying the urlpath attribute).
Note: You can specify only a single category tree.

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<cfindex collection="#Form.IndexColl#"
action="update"
extensions=".htm, .html, .xls, .txt, .mif, .doc, .pdf"
key="#Form.IndexDir#"
type="path"
urlpath="#Form.urlPrefix#"
recurse="Yes"
language="English"
category="taste, touch, sight, sound, smell"
categoryTree="human/senses/taste">

For more information on using the cfindex tag to create Verity collections with support for categories, see cfindex
in the CFML Reference.
Searching collections that contain categories
When searching data in a collection created with categories, you specify category and categoryTree. The values
supplied to these attributes specify the category to be searched for the specified search string (the criteria attribute).
The category attribute can contain a comma-separated list of categories to search. Both attributes can be specified at
the same time.
<cfsearch collection="collectionName"
name="results"
maxrows = "100"
criteria="search keywords"
category="FAQ,Technote"
categoryTree="Docs/Tags">

Note: If cfsearch is executed on a collection that was created without category information, an exception is thrown.
To search collections that contain categories, you use the cfsearch tag, and create an application page that searches
within specified categories. The following example lets the user enter and submit the name of the collection, the
category in which to search, and the document tree associated with the category through a form. By restricting the
search in this way, the users are better able to retrieve the documents that contain the information they are looking for.
In addition to searching with a specified category, this example also makes use of the contextHighlight attribute,
which highlights the returned search results.
<cfparam name="collection" default="test-pi">
<cfoutput>
<form action="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#" method="POST">
Collection Name: <input Type="text" Name="collection" value="#collection#">
<P>
Category: <input Type="text" Name="category" value=""><br>
CategoryTree: <input Type="text" Name="categoryTree" value=""><br>
<P>
Search: <input Type="text" Name="criteria">
<input Type="submit" Value="Search">
</form>
</cfoutput>
<cfif isdefined("Form.criteria")>
<cfoutput>Search results for: <b>#criteria#</b></cfoutput>
<br>
<cfsearch collection="#form.collection#"
category="#form.category#"
categoryTree="#form.categoryTree#"
name="sr"

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status="s"
criteria="#form.criteria#"
contextPassages="3"
contextBytes="300"
contextHighlightBegin="<i><b>"
contextHighlightEnd="</b></i>"
maxrows="100">
<cfdump var="#s#">
<cfoutput>
<p>Number of records in query: #sr.recordcount#</P>
</cfoutput>
<cfdump var="#sr#">
<cfoutput Query="sr">
Title: <i>#title#</i><br>
URL: #url#<br>
Score: #score#<br>
<hr>
#context#<br>
<br>
#summary#<br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

For more information on using the cfindex tag to create Verity collections with support for categories, see cfsearch
in the CFML Reference.
Retrieving information about the categories contained in a collection
You can retrieve the category information for a collection by using the cfcollection tags categoryList action.The
categoryList action returns a structure that contains two keys:
Variable

Description

categories

The name of the category and its hit count, where hit count is the number of documents in the specified category.

categorytrees

The document tree (a/b/c) and hit count, where hit count is the number of documents at or below the branch of the
document tree.

Use the information returned by categoryList to display to users the number of documents available for searching,
as well the document tree available for searching. You can also create a search interface that lets the user select what
category to search within based on the results returned by categoryList.
<cfcollection
action="categoryList"
collection="collectionName"
name="info">
<cfoutput>
<cfset catStruct=info.categories>
<cfset catList=StructKeyList(catStruct)>
<cfloop list="catList" index="cat"> Category: #cat# <br>
Documents: #catStruct[cat]#<br>
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>

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To retrieve information about the categories contained in a collection, you use the cfcollection tag, and create an
application page that retrieves category information from the collection and displays the number of documents
contained by each category. This example lets the user enter and submit the name of the collection via a form, and then
uses the categoryList action to retrieve information about the number of documents contained by the collection,
and the hierarchical tree structure into which the category is organized.
<html>
<head>
<title>Category information</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfoutput>
<form action="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#" method="POST">
Enter Collection Name: <input Type="text" Name="collection"
value="#collection#"><br>
<input Type="submit" Value="GetInfo">
</form>
</cfoutput>
<cfif isdefined("Form.collection")>
<cfoutput>
Getting collection info...
<br>
<cfflush>
<cfcollection
action="categorylist"
collection="#collection#"
name="out">
<br>
<cfset categories=out.categories>
<cfset tree=out.categorytrees>
<cfset klist=StructKeyList(categories)>
<table border=1>
<th>Category</th> <th>Documents</th>
<cfloop index="x" list="#klist#">
<tr>
<td>#x#</td> <td align="center">#categories[x]#</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
<cfset klist=StructKeyList(tree)>
<table border=1>
<th>Category</th> <th>Documents</th>
<cfloop index="x" list="#klist#">
<tr>
<td>#x#</td> <td align="center">#tree[x]#</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</body>

For more information on using the cfcollection tag to create Verity collections with support for categories, see
cfcollection in CFML Reference.

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Working with data returned from a query

Using Verity, you can search data returned by a querysuch as a database recordsetas if it is a collection of
documents stored on your web server. Using Verity to search makes implementing a search interface much easier, as
well as letting users more easily find information contained in database files. A database can direct the indexing
process, by using different values for the type attribute of the cfindex tag. There are also several reasons and
procedures for indexing the results of database and other queries.

Recordsets and types of queries

When indexing recordsets generated from a query (using the cfquery, cfldap, or cfpop tag), cfindex creates indexes
based on the type attribute and its set value:
Type

Attribute values

File

The key attribute is the name of a column in the query that contains a full filename (including path).

Path

The key attribute is the name of a column in the query that contains a directory pathname.

Custom

The key attribute specifies a column name that can contain anything you want. In this case, the body attribute is
required, and is a comma-delimited list of the names of the columns that contain the text data to be indexed.

The cfindex tag treats all collections the same, whether they originate from a database recordset, or if they are a
collection of documents stored within your websites root folder.

Indexing data returned by a query

Indexing the results of a query is like indexing physical files located on your website, with the added step that you must
write a query that retrieves the data to search. The following are the steps to perform a Verity search on recordsets
returned from a query:
1 Create a collection.
2 Write a query that retrieves the data you want to search, and generate a recordset.
3 Index the recordset using the cfindex tag.

The cfindex tag indexes the recordset as if it is a collection of documents in a folder within your website.
4 Search the collection.

The information returned from the collection includes the database key and other selected columns. You can then
use the information as-is, or use the key value to retrieve the entire row from the database table.
Use Verity to search databases in the following cases:

You want to perform full-text search on database data. You can search Verity collections that contain textual data
much more efficiently with a Verity search than using SQL to search database tables.

You want to give your users access to data without interacting directly with the data source itself.
You want to improve the speed of queries.
You want users to be able to execute queries, but not update database tables.
Unlike indexing documents stored on your web server, indexing information contained in a database requires an
additional step first write a query (using the cfquery, cfldap, or cfpop tag) that retrieves the data you want to let
your users search. You then pass the information retrieved by the query to a cfindex tag, which indexes the data.
When indexing data with the cfindex tag, specify which column of the query represents the filename, which column
represents the document title, and which column (or columns) represents the documents body (the information that
you want to make searchable).

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When indexing a recordset retrieved from a database, the cfindex tag uses the following attributes that correspond
to the data source:
Attribute

Description

key

Primary key column of the data source table.

title

Specifies a query column name.

body

Columns that you want to search for the index.

type

If set to custom, this attribute specifies the columns that you want to index. If set to file or path, this is a column
that contains either a directory path and filename, or a directory path that contains the documents to be indexed.

Using the cfindex tag to index tabular data is like indexing documents, with the exception that you refer to column
names from the generated recordset in the body attribute. In the following example, the type attribute is set to custom,
specifying that the cfindex tag index the contents of the recordset columns Emp_ID, FirstName, LastName, and
Salary, which are identified using the body attribute. The Emp_ID column is listed as the key attribute, making it the
primary key for the recordset.
Index a ColdFusion query
1 Create a Verity collection for the data that you want to index.
The following example assumes that you have a Verity collection named CodeColl. You can use the ColdFusion
Administrator to create the collection, or you can create the collection programmatically by using the
cfcollection tag. For more information, see Creating a collection with the ColdFusion Administrator on
page 481 or Creating a collection with the cfcollection tag on page 482.
2 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Adding Query Data to an Index</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Retrieve data from the table. --->
<cfquery name="getEmps" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE
</cfquery>
<!--- Update the collection with the above query results. --->
<cfindex
query="getEmps"
collection="CodeColl"
action="Update"
type="Custom"
key="Emp_ID"
title="Emp_ID"
body="Emp_ID,FirstName,LastName,Salary">
<h2>Indexing Complete</h2>
<!--- Output the record set. --->
<p>Your collection now includes the following items:</p>
<cfoutput query="getEmps">
<p>#Emp_ID# #FirstName# #LastName# #Salary#</p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

3 Save the file as collection_db_index.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory.
4 Open the file in the web browser to index the collection.

The resulting recordset appears.

Search and display the query results
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Searching a collection</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Searching a collection</h2>
<form method="post" action="collection_db_results.cfm">
<p>Collection name: <input type="text" name="collname" size="30" maxLength="30"></p>
<p>Enter search term(s) in the box below. You can use AND, OR, NOT,
and parentheses. Surround an exact phrase with quotation marks.</p>
<p><input type="text" name="criteria" size="50" maxLength="50">
</p>
<p><input type="submit" value="Search"></p>
</form>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as collection_db_search_form.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.

This file is like collection_search_form.cfm, except the form uses collection_db_results.cfm, which you create in
the next step, as its action page.
3 Create another ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Search Results</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfsearch
collection="#Form.collname#"
name="getEmps"
criteria="#Form.Criteria#"
maxrows = "100">
<!--- Output the record set. --->
<cfoutput>
Your search returned #getEmps.RecordCount# file(s).
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="getEmps">
<p><table>
<tr><td>Title: </td><td>#Title#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Score: </td><td>#Score#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Key: </td><td>#Key#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Summary: </td><td>#Summary#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Custom 1:</td><td>#Custom1#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Column list: </td><td>#ColumnList#</td></tr>
</table></p>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

4 Save the file as collection_db_results.cfm in the myapps directory under the web_root.
5 View collection_db_search_form.cfm in the web browser and enter the name of the collection and search terms.

Indexing a file returned by using a query

You can index an individual file that uses a query by retrieving a table row whose contents are a filename. In this case,
the key specifies the column that contains the complete filename. The file is indexed using the cfindex tag as if it is a
document under the web server root folder.
In the following example, the cfindex tags type attribute has been set to file, and the specified key is the name of
the column that contains the full path to the file and the filename.
<cfquery name="getEmps" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE EMP_ID = 1
</cfquery>
<cfindex
query="getEmps"
collection="CodeColl"
action="Update"
type="file"
key="Contract_File"
title="Contract_File"
body="Emp_ID,FirstName,LastName,Contract_File">

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Search and display the file

Create a ColdFusion page that contains the following content:
<!--- Output the record set.--->
<p>Your collection now includes the following items:</p>
<cfoutput query="getEmps">
<p>#Emp_ID# #FirstName# #LastName# #Contract_File#</p>
</cfoutput>
<cfsearch
collection="#Form.collname#"
name="getEmps"
criteria="#Form.Criteria#"
maxrows = "100">
<!--- Output the filename contained in the record set. --->
<cfoutput>
Your search returned #getEmps.RecordCount# file(s).
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="getEmps">
<p><table>
<tr><td>Title: </td><td>#Title#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Score: </td><td>#Score#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Key: </td><td>#Key#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Summary: </td><td>#Summary#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Custom 1:</td><td>#Custom1#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Column list: </td><td>#ColumnList#</td></tr>
</table></p>
</cfoutput>

Indexing a path returned by using a query

You can index a directory path to a document (or collection of documents) using a query by retrieving a row whose
contents are a full directory path name. In this case, the key specifies the column that contains the complete directory
path. Documents located in the directory path are indexed using the cfindex tag as if they are under the web server
root folder.
In this example, the type attribute is set to path, and the key attribute is assigned the column name Project_Docs. The
Project_Docs column contains directory paths, which Verity indexes as if they are specified as a fixed path pointing to
a collection of documents without the use of a query.
Index a directory path within a query
1 Create a ColdFusion page that contains the following content:

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<cfquery name="getEmps" datasource="cfdocexamples">

SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Emp_ID = 15
</cfquery>
<!--- Update the collection with the above query results. --->
<!--- Key specifies a column that contains a directory path. --->
<cfindex
query="getEmps"
collection="CodeColl"
action="update"
type="path"
key="Project_Docs"
title="Project_Docs"
body="Emp_ID,FirstName,LastName,Project_Docs">
<h2>Indexing Complete</h2>
<p>Your collection now includes the following items:</p>
<cfoutput query="getEmps">
<p>#Emp_ID# #FirstName# #LastName# #Project_Docs#</p>
</cfoutput>

2 Save the file as indexdir.cfm in the myapps directory.

The ColdFusion cfindex tag indexes the contents of the specified directory path.
Search and display the directory path
1 Create a ColdFusion page that contains the following content:
<cfsearch
collection="#Form.collname#"
name="getEmps"
criteria="#Form.Criteria#"
maxrows = "100">
<!--- Output the directory path contained in the record set. --->
<cfoutput>
Your search returned #getEmps.RecordCount# file(s).
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="getEmps">
<p><table>
<tr><td>Title: </td><td>#Title#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Score: </td><td>#Score#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Key: </td><td>#Key#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Summary: </td><td>#Summary#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Custom 1:</td><td>#Custom1#</td></tr>
<tr><td>Column list: </td><td>#ColumnList#</td></tr>
</table></p>
</cfoutput>

2 Save the file as displaydir.cfm.

Indexing query results obtained from an LDAP directory

The widespread use of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to build searchable directory structures,
internally and across the web, gives you opportunities to add value to the sites that you create. You can index contact
information or other data from an LDAP-accessible server and let users search it.

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When creating an index from an LDAP query, remember the following considerations:

Because LDAP structures vary greatly, you must know the directory schema of the server and the exact name of
every LDAP attribute that you intend to use in a query.

The records on an LDAP server can be subject to frequent change.

In the following example, the search criterion is records with a telephone number in the 617 area code. Generally,
LDAP servers use the Distinguished Name (dn) attribute as the unique identifier for each record so that attribute is
used as the key value for the index.
<!--- Run the LDAP query. --->
<cfldap name="OrgList"
server="myserver"
action="query"
attributes="o, telephonenumber, dn, mail"
scope="onelevel"
filter="(|(O=a*) (O=b*))"
sort="o"
start="c=US">
<!--- Output query record set. --->
<cfoutput query="OrgList">
DN: #dn# <br>
O: #o# <br>
TELEPHONENUMBER: #telephonenumber# <br>
MAIL: #mail# <br>
=============================<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Index the record set. --->
<cfindex action="update"
collection="ldap_query"
key="dn"
type="custom"
title="o"
query="OrgList"
body="telephonenumber">
<!--- Search the collection. --->
<!--- Use the wildcard * to contain the search string. --->
<cfsearch collection="ldap_query"
name="s_ldap"
criteria="*617*"
maxrows = "100">
<!--- Output returned records. --->
<cfoutput query="s_ldap">
#Key#, #Title#, #Body# <br>
</cfoutput>

Indexing cfpop query results

The contents of mail servers are volatile; specifically, the message number is reset as messages are added and deleted.
To avoid mismatches between the unique message number identifiers on the server and in the Verity collection,
reindex the collection before processing a search.

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As with the other query types, provide a unique value for the key attribute and enter the data fields to index in the body
attribute.
The following example updates the pop_query collection with the current mail for user1, and searches and returns the
message number and subject line for all messages that contain the word action:
<!--- Run POP query. --->
<cfpop action="getall"
name="p_messages"
server="mail.company.com"
userName="user1"
password="user1">
<!--- Output POP query record set. --->
<cfoutput query="p_messages">
#messagenumber# <br>
#from# <br>
#to# <br>
#subject# <br>
#body# <br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Index record set. --->
<cfindex action="refresh"
collection="pop_query"
key="messagenumber"
type="custom"
title="subject"
query="p_messages"
body="body">
<!--- Search messages for the word "action". --->
<cfsearch collection="pop_query"
name="s_messages"
criteria="action"
maxrows = "100">
<!--- Output search record set. --->
<cfoutput query="s_messages">
#key#, #title# <br>
</cfoutput>

Using Verity Search Expressions

You can use Verity search expressions to refine your searches to yield the most accurate results.

About Verity query types

When you search a Verity collection, you can use a simple, explicit, natural, or Internet query. The following table
compares the query types:

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Query type

Content

Use of operators and modifiers

Simple

One or more words Uses STEM operator and MANY

modifier, by default

CFML example
<cfsearch name = "band_search"
collection="bbb"
type = "simple"
criteria="film">

Explicit

Words, operators,
modifiers

Must be specified

<cfsearch name = "my_search"

collection="bbb"
type = "explicit"
criteria="<WILDCARD>'sl[iau]m'">

Natural

One or more words Uses STEM operator and MANY

modifier, by default

<cfsearch name = "my_search"

collection="bbb"
type = "natural"
criteria="Boston subway maps">

Internet

Words, operators,
modifiers

<cfsearch name = "my_search"

collection="bbb"
type = "Internet"
criteria="Boston subway maps">

The query type determines whether the search words that you enter are stemmed, and whether the retrieved words
contribute to relevance-ranked scoring. Both of these conditions occur by default in simple queries. For more
information on the STEM operator and MANY modifier, see Stemming in simple queries on page 507.
Note: Operators and modifiers are formatted as uppercase letters here solely to enhance legibility. They might be all
lowercase or uppercase.

Using simple queries

The simple query is the default query type and is appropriate for the vast majority of searches. When entering text on
a search form, you perform a simple query by entering a word or comma-delimited strings, with optional wildcard
characters. Verity treats each comma as a logical OR. If you omit the commas, Verity treats the expression as a phrase.
Important: Many web search engines assume a logical AND for multiple word searches, and search for a phrase only if
you use quotation marks. Because Verity treats multiple word searches differently, it helps your users if you provide
examples on your search page or a brief explanation of how to search.
The following table shows examples of simple searches:
Example

Search result

low,brass,instrument

low or brass or instrument

low brass instrument

the phrase, low brass instrument

film

film, films, filming, or filmed

filming AND fun

film, films, filming, or filmed, and fun

filming OR fun

film, films, filming, or filmed, or fun

filming NOT fun

film, films, filming, or filmed, but not fun

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The operators AND and OR, and the modifier NOT, do not require angle brackets (<>). Operators typically require
angle brackets and are used in explicit queries. For more information about operators and modifiers, see Operators
and modifiers on page 515.

Stemming in simple queries

By default, Verity interprets words in a simple query as if you entered the STEM operator (and MANY modifier). The
STEM operator searches for words that derive from a common stem. For example, a search for instructional returns
files that contain instruct, instructs, instructions, and so on.
The STEM operator works on words, not word fragments. A search for instrument returns documents containing
instrument, instruments, instrumental, and instrumentation, whereas a search for instru does not. (A
wildcard search for instru* returns documents with these words, and also those with instruct, instructional, and so on.)
Note: The MANY modifier presents the files returned in the search as a list based on a relevancy score. A file with more
occurrences of the search word has a higher score than a file with fewer occurrences. As a result, the search engine ranks
files according to word density as it searches for the word that you specify, as well as words that have the same stem. For
more information on the MANY modifier, see Modifiers on page 521.
In CFML, enter your search terms, operators, and modifiers in the criteria attribute of the cfsearch tag:
<cfsearch name="search_name"
collection="bbb"
type="simple"
criteria="instructional">

Preventing stemming
When entering text on a search form, you can prevent Verity from implicitly adding the STEM operator by doing one
of the following:

Perform an explicit query.

Use the WORD operator. For more information, see Operators on page 515.
Enclose the search term that has double-quotation marks with single-quotation marks, as follows:
<cfsearch name="search_name"
collection="bbb"
type="simple"
criteria='"instructional"'

Using explicit queries

In an explicit query, the Verity search engine literally interprets your search terms. The following are two ways to
perform an explicit query:

On a search form, use quotation marks around your search terms.

In CFML, use type="explicit" in the cfsearch tag.
When you place a search term in quotation marks, Verity does not use the STEM operator. For example, a search for
instructional enclosed in quotation marks, as shown in Preventing stemming on page 507 does not return files
that contain instruct, instructs, instructions, and so on (unless the files also contain instructional).
Note: The Verity products and documentation refers to the Explicit parser as the BooleanPlus parser.

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When you specify type="explicit" the search expression must be a valid Verity Query Language expression. As a
result, an individual search term must be in explicit quotation marks. The following table shows valid and invalid
criteria:
Attribute

Effect

criteria="government"

Generates an error

criteria="'government'" or

Finds only government

criteria='"government"'
criteria="<WORD>government"

Finds only government

criteria="<STEM>government"

Finds government, governments, and governmental

criteria="<MANY><STEM>government"

Finds government, governments, and governmental ranked by relevance

criteria="<WILDCARD>governmen*"

Finds government, governments, and governmental

Using AND, OR, and NOT

Verity has many powerful operators and modifiers available for searching. However, users might use only the most
basic operatorsAND, OR, and the modifier NOT. The following are a few important points:

You can type operators in uppercase or lowercase letters.

Verity reads operators from left to right.
The AND operator takes precedence over the OR operator.
Use parentheses to clarify the search. Terms enclosed in parentheses are evaluated first; innermost parentheses are
evaluated first when there are nested parentheses.

To search for a literal AND, OR, or NOT, enclose the literal term in double-quotation marks; for example:
love "and" marriage

Note: Although NOT is a modifier, you use it only with the AND and OR operators. Therefore, it is sometimes casually
referred to as an operator.
For more information, see Operators and modifiers on page 515.
The following table gives examples of searches and their results:
Search term

Returns files that contain

doctorate AND nausea

both doctorate and nausea

doctorate and nausea

the phrase doctorate and nausea

doctorate and nausea

the phrase doctorate and nausea

masters OR doctorate AND nausea

masters, or the combination of doctorate and nausea

masters OR (doctorate AND nausea)

masters, or the combination of doctorate and nausea

(masters OR doctorate) AND nausea

either masters or doctorate, and nausea

masters OR doctorate NOT nausea

either masters or doctorate, but not nausea

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Using wildcards and special characters

Part of the strength of the Verity search is its use of wildcards and special characters to refine searches. Wildcard
searches are especially useful when you are unsure of the correct spelling of a term. Special characters help you search
for tags in your code.
Searching with wildcards
The following table shows the wildcard characters that you can use to search Verity collections:
Wildcard

Description

Example

Search result

Matches any single alphanumeric character.

apple?

apples or applet

Matches zero or more alphanumeric characters.

app*ed
Avoid using the asterisk as the first character in a
search string. An asterisk is ignored in a set, ([]) or an
alternative pattern ({}).

Appleseed, applied, appropriated,

and so on

[]

Matches any one of the characters in the brackets.

Brackets [] indicate an implied OR.

<WILDCARD> 'sl[iau]m'

slim, slam, or slum

{}

Matches any one of a set of patterns separated by a

comma,

<WILDCARD> 'hoist{s,ing,ed}'

hoists, hoisting, or hoisted

Matches any character not in the set.

<WILDCARD>'sl[^ia]m'

slum, but not slim or slam

Specifies a range for a single character in a set.

<WILDCARD> 'c[a-r]t'

cat, cot, but not cut (that is, every

word beginning with c, ending
with t, and containing any single
letter from a to r)

To search for a wildcard character as a literal, place a backslash character before it:

To match a question mark or other wildcard character, precede the ? with one backslash. For example, type the
following in a search form: Checkers\?

To match a literal asterisk, you precede the * with two backslashes, and enclose the search term with either single
or double quotation marks. For example, type the following in a search form: 'M\\*' (or "M\*") The following is the
corresponding CFML code:
<cfsearch name = "quick_search"
collection="bbb"
type = "simple"
criteria="'M\\*'">

Note: The last line is equivalent to criteria='"M\\*"'>.

Searching for special characters
The search engine handles several characters in particular ways as the following table describes:
Characters

Description

,()[

These characters end a text token.

A token is a variable that stores configurable properties. It lets the administrator or user configure various settings and
options.

=><!

These characters also end a text token. They are terminated by an associated end character.

'`<{[!

These characters signify the start of a delimited token. They are terminated by an associated end character.

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To search for special characters as literals, precede the following nonalphanumeric characters with a backslash
character (\) in a search string:

comma (,)
left parenthesis (
right parenthesis )
double-quotation mark (")
backslash (\)
left curly bracket ({)
left bracket ([)
less than sign (<)
backquote (`)
In addition to the backslash character, you can use paired backquote characters (` `) to interpret special characters as
literals. For example, to search for the wildcard string a{b you can surround the string with back quotation marks,
as follows:
`a{b`

To search for a wildcard string that includes the literal backquote character (`) use two backquote characters together
and surround the entire string in back quotation marks:
`*n``t`

You can use paired back quotation marks or backslashes to escape special characters. There is no functional difference
between the two. For example, you can query for the term: <DDA> using \<DDA\> or `<DDA>` as your search term.

Using natural queries

The Natural parser supports searching for similar documents, a search method sometimes referred to as similarity
searching. The Natural parser supports searching the full text of documents only. The Natural parser does not support
searching collection fields and zones. The Natural parser does not support Verity query language except for topics.
Note: The Verity products and documentation refer to the Natural parser as the Query-By-Example parser, as well as the
Free Text parser.
Meaningful words are automatically treated as if they are preceded by the MANY modifier and the STEM operator.
By implicitly applying the STEM operator, the search engine searches not only for the meaningful words themselves,
but also for words that have the same stem. By implicitly applying the MANY modifier, Verity calculates each
documents score based on the word density it finds for meaningful words; the denser the occurrences of a word in a
document, the higher the documents score.
By default, common words (such as the, has, and for) are stripped away, and the query is built based on the more
significant words (such as personnel, interns, schools, and mentors). Therefore, the results of a natural language search
are likely to be less precise than a search performed using the simple or explicit parser.
The Natural parser interprets topic names as topic objects. This means that if the specified text block contains a topic
name, the query expression represented by the topic is considered in the search.

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Using Internet queries

With the Internet query parser, users can search entire documents or parts of documents (zones and fields) entering
words, phrases, and plain language like what many web search engines use. Adobe ColdFusion supports two Internet
query parsers in the cfsearch type attribute.
Internet Uses standard, web-style query syntax. For more information, see Query syntax on page 512.
Internet_basic Like Internet. This query parser enhances performance, but produces less accurate relevancy statistics.

Note: Verity also includes the Internet_BasicWeb and Internet_AdvancedWeb query parsers, which are not directly
supported by ColdFusion.

Search terms
In a search form enabled with the Internet query parser, users can enter words, phrases, and plain language. The
Internet parser does not support the Verity query language (VQL).

Words
To search for multiple words, separate them with spaces.

Phrases
To search for an exact phrase, surround it with double-quotation marks. A string of capitalized words is assumed to
be a name. Separate a series of names with commas. Commas arent needed when the phrases are surrounded by
quotation marks.
The following example searches for a document that contains the phrases San Francisco and sourdough bread:
"San Francisco" "sourdough bread"

Plain language
To search with plain language, enter a question or concept. The Internet Query Parser identifies the important words
and searches for them. For example, enter a question such as:
Where is the sales office in San Francisco?

This query produces the same results as entering:

sales office San Francisco

Including and excluding search terms

You can limit searches by excluding or requiring search terms, or by limiting the areas of the document that are
searched.
A minus sign () immediately preceding a search term (word or phrase) excludes documents containing the term.
A plus sign (+) immediately preceding a search term (word or phrase) means that returned documents are guaranteed
to contain the term.
If neither sign is associated with the search term, the results can include documents that do not contain the specified
term as long as they meet other search criteria.

Field searches
The Internet parser lets users perform field searches. The fields that are available for searching depend on field
extraction rules based on the document type of the documents in the collection.

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To search a document field, type the name of the field, a colon (:), and the search term with no spaces.
field:term

If you enter a minus sign () immediately preceding field, documents that contain the specified term are excluded from
the search results. For example, if you enter -field:term, documents that contain the specified term in the specified
field are excluded from the results of the search.
If you enter a plus sign (+) immediately proceeding the field search specification, such as +field:term, documents
are included in the search results only if the search term is present in the specified field.
Field searches are enabled by the enableField parameter in a template file. This parameter, set to 0 by default, must
be set to 1 to allow searching a document field.
Important: The enableField parameter is the only thing in a template file to be modified.

Query syntax
The query syntax is like the syntax that users expect to use on the web. Queries are interpreted according to the
following rules:

Individual search terms are separated by whitespace characters, such as a space, tab, or comma, for example:
cake recipes

Search phrases are entered within double-quotation marks, for example:

"chocolate cake" recipe

Exclude terms with the negation operator, minus ( - ), or the NOT operator, for example:
cake recipes -rum
cake recipes NOT rum

Require a compulsory term with the unary inclusion operator, plus sign (+); in this example, the term chocolate
must be included:
cake recipes +chocolate

Require compulsory terms with the binary inclusion operator AND; in this example, the terms recipes and chocolate
must be included:
cake recipes and chocolate

Field searches
You can search fields or zones by specifying name: term, where:
name is the name of the field or zone
term is an individual search term or phrase

For example:
bakery city:"San Francisco"
bakery city:Sunnyvale

For more information, see Refining your searches with zones and fields on page 522.

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Pass-through of terms
Search terms are passed through to the VDK-level and are interpreted as Verity Query Language (VQL) syntax. No
issues arise if the terms contain only alphabetic or numeric characters. Other kinds of characters might be interpreted
by the language youre using. If a term contains a character that is not handled by the specified language, it can be
interpreted as VQL. For example, a search term that includes an asterisk (*)can be interpreted as a wildcard.

Stop words
The configurable Internet query parser uses its own stop-word list, qp_inet.stp, to specify terms to ignore for natural
language processing.
Note: You can override the stop out by using quotation marks around the word.
For example, the following stop words are provided in the query parsers stop-word file for the English (Basic)
template:
a

did

or

what

also

do

im

should

when

an

does

if

so

where

and

find

in

than

whether

any

for

is

that

which

am

from

it

the

who

are

get

its

there

whose

as

got

its

to

why

at

had

like

too

will

be

has

not

want

with

but

have

of

was

would

can

how

on

were

<or>

Verity provides a populated stop-word file for the English and English (Advanced) languages. You need not modify
the qp_inet.stp file for these languages. If you use the configurable Internet query parser for another language, provide
your own qp_inet.stp file that contains the stop words that you want to ignore in that language. This stop-word file
must contain, at a minimum, the language-equivalent words for or and <or>.
Note: The configurable Internet query parsers stop-word file contains a different word list than the vdk30.stp word file,
which is used for other purposes, such as summarization.

Composing search expressions

The following rules apply to the composition of search expressions.

Case sensitivity
Verity searches are case sensitive only when the search term is entered in mixed case. For example, a search for zeus
finds zeus, Zeus, or ZEUS; however, a search for Zeus finds only Zeus.
To have your application always ignore the case that the user types, use the ColdFusion LCase function in the
criteria attribute of cfsearch. The following code converts user input to lowercase, thereby eliminating case
sensitivity concerns:

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<cfsearch name="results"
collection="#form.collname#"
criteria="#LCase(form.criteria)#"
type="#form.type#">

Prefix and infix notation

By default, Verity uses infix notation, in which precedence is implicit in the expression; for example, the AND operator
takes precedence over the OR operator.
You can use prefix notation with any operator except an evidence operator (typically, STEM, WILDCARD, or WORD;
for a description of evidence operators, see Evidence operators on page 518). In prefix notation, the expression
explicitly specifies precedence. Rather than repeating an operator, you can use prefix notation to list the operator once
and list the search targets in parentheses. For example, the following expressions are equivalent:

Moses <NEAR> Larry <NEAR> Jerome <NEAR> Daniel <NEAR> Jacob

<NEAR>(Moses,Larry,Jerome,Daniel,Jacob)
The following prefix notation example searches first for documents that contain Larry and Jerome, and then for
documents that contain Moses:
OR (Moses, AND (Larry,Jerome))
The infix notation equivalent of this is as follows:
Moses OR (Larry AND Jerome)

Commas in expressions
If an expression includes two or more search terms within parentheses, a comma is required between the elements
(whitespace is ignored). The following example searches for documents that contain any combination of Larry and
Jerome together:
AND (Larry, Jerome)

Precedence rules
Expressions are read from left to right. The AND operator takes precedence over the OR operator; however, terms
enclosed in parentheses are evaluated first. When the search engine encounters nested parentheses, it starts with the
innermost term.
Example

Search result

Moses AND Larry OR Jerome

Documents that contain Moses and Larry, or Jerome

(Moses AND Larry) OR Jerome

(Same as above)

Moses AND (Larry OR Jerome)

Documents that contain Moses and either Larry or Jerome

Delimiters in expressions
You use angle brackets (< >), double quotation marks ("), and backslashes (\) to delimit various elements in a search
expression, as the following table describes:

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Character

Usage

<>

Left and right angle brackets are reserved for designating operators and modifiers. They are optional for the AND, OR,
and NOT, but required for all other operators.

"

Use double quotation marks in expressions to search for a word that is otherwise reserved as an operator or modifier,
such as AND, OR, and NOT.

To include a backslash in a search expression, insert two backslashes for each backslash character that you want
included in the search; for example, C:\\CFusion\\bin.

Operators and modifiers

You are probably familiar with searches containing AND, OR, and NOT. Verity has many additional operators and
modifiers, of various types, that offer you a high degree of specificity in setting search parameters.
Operators
An operator represents logic to be applied to a search element. This logic defines the qualifications that a document
must meet to be retrieved. You can use operators to refine your search or to influence the results in other ways.
For example, you can construct an HTML form for conducting searches. In the form, you can search for a single term.
You can refine the search by limiting the search scope in many ways. Operators are available for limiting a query to a
sentence or paragraph, and you can search words based on proximity.
Ordinarily, you use operators in explicit searches, as follows:
"<operator>search_string"

The following operator types are available:

Operator type

Purpose

Concept

Identifies a concept in a document by combining the meanings of search elements.

Relational

Searches fields in a collection.

Evidence

Specifies basic and intelligent word searches.

Proximity

Specifies the relative location of words in a document.

Score

Manipulates the score returned by a search element. You can set the score percentage display to four decimal
places.

The following table shows the operators, according to type, that are available for conducting searches of ColdFusion
Verity collections:
Concept

Relational

Evidence

Proximity

Score

ACCRUE

<

STEM

NEAR

YESNO

ALL

<=

WILDCARD

NEAR/N

PRODUCT

AND

WORD

PARAGRAPH

SUM

ANY

>

THESAURUS

PHRASE

COMPLEMENT

OR

>=

SOUNDEX

SENTENCE

CONTAINS

TYPO/N

IN

MATCHES

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STARTS
ENDS
SUBSTRING

Concept operators
Concept operators combine the meaning of search elements to identify a concept in a document. Documents retrieved
using concept operators are ranked by relevance. The following table describes each concept operator:
Operator

Description

AND

Selects documents that contain all the search elements that you specify.

OR

Selects documents that show evidence of at least one of the search elements that you specify.

ACCRUE

Selects documents that include at least one of the search elements that you specify. Documents are ranked based
on the number of search elements found.

ALL

Selects documents that contain all of the search elements that you specify. A score of 1.00 is assigned to each
retrieved document. ALL and AND retrieve the same results, but queries using ALL are always assigned a score of
1.00.

ANY

Selects documents that contain at least one of the search elements that you specify. A score of 1.00 is assigned to
each retrieved document. ANY and OR retrieve the same results, but queries using ANY are always assigned a score
of 1.00.

Relational operators
Relational operators search document fields (such as AUTHOR) that you defined in the collection. Documents that
contain specified field values are returned. Documents retrieved using relational operators are not ranked by
relevance, and you cannot use the MANY modifier with relational operators.
You use the following operators for numeric and date comparisons:
Operator

Description

Equal

!=

Not equal

>

Greater than

>=

Greater than or equal to

<

Less than

<=

Less than or equal to

For example, to search for documents that contain values for 1999 through 2002, you perform either of the following
searches:

A simple search for 1999,2000,2001,2002

An explicit search using the = operator: >=1999,<=2002
If a document field named PAGES is defined, you can search for documents that are five pages or fewer by entering
PAGES < 5 in your search. Similarly, if a document field named DATE is defined, you can search for documents dated
before and including December 31, 1999 by entering DATE <= 12-31-99 in your search.
The following relational operators compare text and match words and parts of words:

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Operator

Description

Example

CONTAINS

Selects documents by matching the word or phrase that you specify

with the values stored in a specific document field. Documents are
selected only if the search elements specified appear in the same
sequential and contiguous order in the field value.

In a document field named TITLE, to retrieve

documents whose titles contain music, musical,
or musician, search for TITLE <CONTAINS> Musi*.

To retrieve CFML and HTML pages whose meta

tags contain Framingham as a content word,
search for KEYWORD <CONTAINS> Framingham.

MATCHES

Selects documents by matching the query string with values stored in For examples, see the text immediately following
a specific document field. Documents are selected only if the search this table.
elements specified match the field value exactly. If a partial match is
found, a document is not selected. When you use the MATCHES
operator, you specify the field name to search, and the word, phrase,
or number to locate. You can use ? and * to represent individual and
multiple characters, respectively, within a string.

STARTS

Selects documents by matching the character string that you specify In a document field named REPORTER, to retrieve
with the starting characters of the values stored in a specific
documents written by Clark, Clarks, and Clarkson,
document field.
search for REPORTER <STARTS> Clark.

ENDS

Selects documents by matching the character string that you specify In a document field named OFFICER, to retrieve
with the ending characters of the values stored in a specific
arrest reports written by Tanner, Garner, and Milner,
document field.
search for OFFICER <ENDS> ner.

SUBSTRING

Selects documents by matching the query string that you specify

with any portion of the strings in a specific document field.

In a document field named TITLE, to retrieve

documents whose titles contain words such as
solution, resolution, solve, and resolve, search for
TITLE <SUBSTRING> sol.

For example, assume a document field named SOURCE includes the following values:

Computer
Computerworld
Computer Currents
PC Computing
To locate documents whose source is Computer, enter the following:
SOURCE <MATCHES> computer

To locate documents whose source is Computer, Computerworld, and Computer Currents, enter the following:
SOURCE <MATCHES> computer*

To locate documents whose source is Computer, Computerworld, Computer Currents, and PC Computing, enter the
following:
SOURCE <MATCHES> *comput*

For an example of ColdFusion code that uses the CONTAINS relational operator, see Field searches on page 523.
You can use the SUBSTRING operator to match a character string with data stored in a specified data source. In the
example described here, a data source called TEST1 contains the table YearPlaceText, which contains three columns:
Year, Place, and Text. Year and Place make up the primary key. The following table shows the TEST1 schema:

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Year

Place

Text

1990

Utah

Text about Utah 1990

1990

Oregon

Text about Oregon 1990

1991

Utah

Text about Utah 1991

1991

Oregon

Text about Oregon 1991

1992

Utah

Text about Utah 1992

The following application page matches records that have 1990 in the TEXT column and are in the Place Utah. The
search operates on the collection that contains the TEXT column and then narrows further by searching for the string
Utah in the CF_TITLE document field. Document fields are defaults defined in every collection corresponding to the
values that you define for URL, TITLE, and KEY in the cfindex tag.
<cfquery name="GetText"
datasource="TEST1">
SELECT Year || Place AS Identifier, text
FROM YearPlaceText
</cfquery>
<cfindex collection="testcollection"
action="Update"
type="Custom"
title="Identifier"
key="Identifier"
body="TEXT"
query="GetText">
<cfsearch name="GetText_Search"
collection="testcollection"
type="Explicit"
criteria="1990 and CF_TITLE <SUBSTRING> Utah">
<cfoutput>
Record Counts: <br>
#GetText.RecordCount# <br>
#GetText_Search.RecordCount# <br>
</cfoutput>
Query Results --- Should be 5 rows <br>
<cfoutput query="Gettext">
#Identifier# <br>
</cfoutput>
Search Results -- should be 1 row <br>
<cfoutput query="GetText_Search">
#GetText_Search.TITLE# <br>
</cfoutput>

Evidence operators
Evidence operators let you specify a basic word search or an intelligent word search. A basic word search finds
documents that contain only the word or words specified in the query. An intelligent word search expands the query
terms to create an expanded word list so that the search returns documents that contain variations of the query terms.
Documents retrieved using evidence operators are not ranked by relevance unless you use the MANY modifier.

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The following table describes the evidence operators:

Operator

Description

Example

STEM

Expands the search to include the word that you enter and its
variations. The STEM operator is automatically implied in any
simple query.

<STEM>believe retrieves matches such as

believe, believing, and believer.

WILDCARD

Matches wildcard characters included in search strings. Certain

characters automatically indicate a wildcard specification, such as
apostrophe (*) and question mark(?).

spam* retrieves matches such as, spam, spammer,

and spamming.

WORD

Performs a basic word search, selecting documents that include

one or more instances of the specific word that you enter. The
WORD operator is automatically implied in any SIMPLE query.

<WORD> logic retrieves logic, but not variations

such as logical and logician.

THESAURUS

Expands the search to include the word that you enter and its
synonyms. Collections do not have a thesaurus by default; to use
this feature you must build one.

<THESAURUS> altitude retrieves documents

containing synonyms of the word altitude, such as
height or elevation.

SOUNDEX

Expands the search to include the word that you enter and one or <SOUNDEX> sale retrieves words such as sale, sell,
more words that sound like, or whose letter pattern is similar to, seal, shell, soul, and scale.
the word specified. Collections do not have sound-alike indexes by
default; to use this feature you must build sound-alike indexes.

TYPO/N

Expands the search to include the word that you enter plus words <TYPO> swept retrieves kept.
that are similar to the query term. This operator performs
approximate pattern matching to identify similar words. The
optional N variable in the operator name expresses the maximum
number of errors between the query term and a matched term, a
value called the error distance. If N is not specified, the default error
distance is 2.

The following example uses an evidence operator:

<cfsearch name = "quick_search"
collection="bbb"
type = "explicit"
criteria="<WORD>film">

Proximity operators
Proximity operators specify the relative location of specific words in the document. To retrieve a document, the
specified words must be in the same phrase, paragraph, or sentence. In the case of NEAR and NEAR/N operators,
retrieved documents are ranked by relevance based on the proximity of the specified words. Proximity operators can
be nested; phrases or words can appear within SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH operators, and SENTENCE operators
can appear within PARAGRAPH operators.
The following table describes the proximity operators:

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Operator

Description

Example

NEAR

Selects documents containing specified search terms. The closer the

search terms are to one another within a document, the higher the
documents score. The document with the smallest possible region
containing all search terms always receives the highest score.
Documents whose search terms are not within 1000 words of each
other are not selected.

war <NEAR> peace retrieves documents that

contain stemmed variations of these words
within close proximity to each other (as defined
by Verity). To control search proximity, use
NEAR/N.

NEAR/N

Selects documents containing two or more search terms within N

number of words of each other, where N is an integer between 1 and
1024. NEAR/1 searches for two words that are next to each other.
The closer the search terms are within a document, the higher the
document's score.

commute <NEAR/10> bicycle <NEAR/10> train

<NEAR/10> retrieves documents that contain
stemmed variations of these words within 10
words of each other.

You can specify multiple search terms using multiple instances of

NEAR/N as long as the value of N is the same.
PARAGRAPH

Selects documents that include all of the words you specify within <PARAGRAPH> (mission, goal, statement) retrieves
the same paragraph. To search for three or more words or phrases in documents that contain these terms within a
a paragraph, you must use the PARAGRAPH operator between each paragraph.
word or phrase.

PHRASE

Selects documents that include a phrase you specify. A phrase is a

grouping of two or more words that occur in a specific order.

<PHRASE> (mission, oak) returns documents that

contain the phrase mission oak.

SENTENCE

Selects documents that include all of the words you specify within
the same sentence.

<SENTENCE> (jazz, musician) returns documents

that contain these words in the same sentence.

IN

Selects documents that contain specified values in one or more

Chang <IN> author searches document zones
document zones. A document zone represents a region of a
named author for the word Chang.
document, such as the documents summary, date, or body text. To
search for a term only within the one or more zones that have
certain conditions, you qualify the IN operator with the WHEN
operator.

The following example uses a proximity operator:

<cfsearch name = "quick_search"
collection="bbb"
type = "explicit"
criteria="red<near>socks">

For an example using the IN proximity operator to search XML documents, see Zone searches on page 522.
Score operators
Score operators control how the search engine calculates scores for retrieved documents. The maximum score that a
returned search element can have is 1.000. You can set the score to display a maximum of four decimal places.
When you use a score operator, the search engine first calculates a separate score for each search element found in a
document, and then performs a mathematical operation on the individual element scores to arrive at the final score
for each document.
The documents score is available as a result column. You can use the SCORE result column to get the relevancy score
of any document retrieved, for example:
<cfoutput>
<a href="#Search1.URL#">#Search1.Title#</a><br>
Document Score=#Search1.SCORE#<BR>
</cfoutput>

The following table describes the score operators:

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Operator

Description

Example

YESNO

Forces the score of an element to 1 if the elements score is nonzero.

<YESNO>mainframe. If the retrieval result of

the search on mainframe is 0.75, the YESNO
operator forces the result to 1. You can use
YESNO to avoid relevance ranking.

PRODUCT

Multiplies the scores for the search elements in each document

matching a query.

<PRODUCT>(computers, laptops) takes the

product of the resulting scores.

SUM

Adds the scores for the search element in each document matching a <SUM>(computers, laptops) takes the sum of
query, up to a maximum value of 1.
the resulting scores.

COMPLEMENT

Calculates scores for documents matching a query by taking the

complement (subtracting from 1) of the scores for the querys search
elements. The new score is 1 minus the search elements original
score.

<COMPLEMENT>computers. If the search

elements original score is .785, the
COMPLEMENT operator recalculates the score
as .215.

Modifiers
You combine modifiers with operators to change the standard behavior of an operator in some way. The following
table describes the available modifiers:
Modifier

Description

Example

CASE

Specifies a case-sensitive search. Normally, Verity searches are case<CASE>Java OR <CASE>java retrieves
insensitive for search text entered in all uppercase or all lowercase, and documents that contain Java or java, but not
case-sensitive for mixed-case search strings.
JAVA.

MANY

Counts the density of words, stemmed variations, or phrases in a

document and produces a relevance-ranked score for retrieved
documents. Use with the following operators:

<PARAGRAPH><MANY>javascript <AND>
vbscript.

WORD

You cannot use the MANY modifier with the

following operators:

WILDCARD

AND

STEM

OR

PHRASE

ACCRUE

SENTENCE

Relational operators

PARAGRAPH

NOT

Excludes documents that contain the specified word or phrase. Use

only with the AND and OR operators.

ORDER

Specifies that the search elements must occur in the same order in
<ORDER><PARAGRAPH> ("server", "Java")
which you specify them in the query. Use with the following operators: retrieves documents that contain server
before Java.
PARAGRAPH

SENTENCE

NEAR/N

Place the ORDER modifier before any operator.

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Java <AND> programming <NOT> coffee

retrieves documents that contain Java and
programming, but not coffee.

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Refining your searches with zones and fields

One of the strengths of Verity is its ability to perform full-text searches on documents of many formats. However,
sometimes you want to restrict a search to certain portions of a document, to improve search relevance. If a Verity
collection contains some documents about baseball and other documents about caves, a search for the word bat can
retrieve several irrelevant results.
If the documents are structured documents, you can take advantage of the ability to search zones and fields. The
following are some examples of structured documents:

Documents created with markup languages (XML, SGML, HTML)

Internet Message Format documents
Documents created by many word-processing applications
Note: Although your word processor opens with what appears to be a blank page, the document has many regions such
as title, subject, and author. Refer to the documentation of your application or online help system for how to view a
documents properties.

Zone searches
You can perform zone searches on markup language documents. The Verity zone filter includes built-in support for
HTML and several file formats; for a list of supported file formats, see Building a Search Interface on page 476. Verity
searches XML files by treating the XML tags as zones. When you use the zone filter, the Verity engine builds zone
information into the collections full-word index. This index, enhanced with zone information, permits quick and
efficient searches over zones. The zone filter can automatically define a zone, or you can define it yourself in the
style.zon file. You can use zone searching to limit your search to a particular zone. This can produce more accurate,
but not necessarily faster, search results than searching an entire file.
Note: The contents of a zone cannot be returned in the results list of an application.
Examples
The following examples perform zone searching on XML files. In a list of rock bands, you could have XML files with
tags for the instruments and for comments. In the following XML file, the word Pete appears in a comment field:
<band.xml>
<Lead_Guitar>Dan</Lead_Guitar>
<Rhythm_Guitar>Jake</Rhythm_Guitar>
<Bass_Guitar>Mike</Bass_Guitar>
<Drums>Chris</Drums>
<COMMENT_A>Dan plays guitar, better than Pete.</COMMENT_A>
<COMMENT_B>Jake plays rhythm guitar.</COMMENT_B>
</band.xml>

The following CFML code shows a search for the word Pete:
<cfsearch name = "band_search"
collection="my_collection"
type = "simple"
criteria="Pete">

The above search for Pete returns this XML file because this search target is in the COMMENT_A field. In contrast,
Pete is the lead guitarist in the following XML file:

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<band.xml>
<Lead_Guitar>Pete</Lead_Guitar>
<Rhythm_Guitar>Roger</Rhythm_Guitar>
<Bass_Guitar>John</Bass_Guitar>
<Drums>Kenny</Drums>
<COMMENT_A>Who knows who's better than this band?</COMMENT_A>
<COMMENT_B>Ticket prices correlated with decibels.</COMMENT_B>
</band.xml>

To retrieve only the files in which Pete is the lead guitarist, perform a zone search using the IN operator according to
the following syntax:
(query) <IN> (zone1, zone2, ...)

Note: As with other operators, IN might be uppercase or lowercase. Unlike AND, OR, or NOT, enclose IN within brackets.
Thus, the following explicit search retrieves files in which Pete is the lead guitarist:
(Pete) <in> Lead_Guitar

This is expressed in CFML as follows:

<cfsearch name = "band_search"
collection="my_collection"
type = "explicit"
criteria="(Pete) <in> Lead_Guitar">

To retrieve files in which Pete plays either lead or rhythm guitar, use the following explicit search:
(Pete) <in> (Lead_Guitar,Rhythm_Guitar)

This is expressed in CFML as follows:

<cfsearch name = "band_search"
collection="bbb"
type = "explicit"
criteria="(Pete) <in> (Lead_Guitar,Rhythm_Guitar)">

Field searches
Fields are extracted from the document and stored in the collection for retrieval and searching, and can be returned
on a results list. Zones, on the other hand, are merely the definitions of regions of a document for searching purposes,
and are not physically extracted from the document in the same way that fields are extracted.
You must define a region of text as a zone before it can be a field. Therefore, it can be only a zone, or it can be both a
field and a zone. Whether you define a region of text as a zone only or as both a field and a zone depends on your
particular requirements.
A field must be defined in the style file, style.ufl, before you create the collection. To map zones to fields (to display
field data), define and add these extra fields to style.ufl.
You can specify the values for the cfindex attributes TITLE, KEY, and URL as document fields for use with relational
operators in the criteria attribute. (The SCORE and SUMMARY attributes are automatically returned by a
cfsearch; these attributes are different for each record of a collection as the search criteria changes.) Text comparison
operators can reference the following document fields:

cf_title
cf_key
cf_url

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cf_custom1
cf_custom2
cf_custom3
cf_custom4
Text comparison operators can also reference the following automatically populated document fields:

title
key
url
vdksummary
author
mime-type
To explore how to use document fields to refine a search, consider the following database table, named Calls. This table
has four columns and three records, as the following table shows:
call_ID

Problem_Description

Short_Description

Product

Cant bold text properly under certain conditions

Bold Problem

HomeSite+

Certain optional attributes are acting as required attributes

Attributes Problem

ColdFusion

Cant do a File/Open in certain cases

File Open Problem

HomeSite+

A Verity search for the word certain returns three records. However, you can use the document fields to restrict your
search; for example, a search to retrieve HomeSite+ problems with the word certain in the problem description.
These are the requirements to run this procedure:

Create and populate the Calls table in a database of your choice

Create a collection named Training (you can do this in CFML or in the ColdFusion Administrator).
The following table shows the relationship between the database column and cfindex attribute:
Database column

The cfindex
attribute

Comment

call_ID

key

The primary key of a database table is often a key attribute.

Problem_Description

body

This column is the information to be indexed.

Short_Description

title

A short description is conceptually equivalent to a title, as in a running title of a journal

article.

Product

custom1

This field refines the search.

You begin by selecting all data in a query:

<cfquery name = "Calls" datasource = "MyDSN">
Select * from Calls
</cfquery>

The following code shows the cfindex tag for indexing the collection (the type attribute is set to custom for tabular
data):

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<cfindex
query = "Calls"
collection = "training"
action = "UPDATE"
type = "CUSTOM"
title = "Short_Description"
key = "Call_ID"
body = "Problem_Description"
custom1 = "Product">

To perform the refined search for HomeSite+ problems with the word certain in the problem description, the
cfsearch tag uses the CONTAINS operator in its criteria attribute:
<cfsearch
collection = "training"
name = "search_calls"
criteria = "certain and CF_CUSTOM1 <CONTAINS> HomeSite">

The following code displays the results of the refined search:

<table border="1" cellspacing="5">
<tr>
<th align="LEFT">KEY</th>
<th align="LEFT">TITLE</th>
<th align="LEFT">CUSTOM1</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query = "search_calls">
<tr>
<td>#KEY#</td>
<td>#TITLE#</td>
<td>#CUSTOM1#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>

Solr search support

The Solr search service is an open source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library.

Solr search service

Solr is a full-text search engine, based on Lucene, that contains the following features:

XML/HTTP Interfaces
Loose schema to define types and fields
Web Administration Interface
Extensive Caching
Index Replication
Extensible Open Architecture
Written in Java5, deployable as a WAR
Support for stemming
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Support for MS Office 2007 file formats

The ColdFusion installer automatically creates the ColdFusion 9 Solr service, which contains the Solr web application.
For UNIX and Linux, you need to start and stop the Solr shell script.

CFML tags used to configure Solr

cfcollection To create a collection using this tag, specify engine="solr"with action="create"/"list"/"map". For

a Solr collection, you do not need to specify the language. Language can be specified in the <cfindex> tag. All other
attributes remain the same.
cfindex ColdFusion detects the search engine based on the collection name.

Language support
Solr supports the following languages:

Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Norwegian
Spanish
Portugese
Russian
Swedish
Chinese
Japanese
Korean
Czech
Greek
Thai
Solr supports documents in any language. If the document has a language (for example, Arabic) not listed above, it can
still index the content, but stemming is not available. In this case, do not specify a language attribute in the cfindex tag.
Solr supports stemming. That is, it considers the root form (stem) of the word for search. This applies only if you
provide the attribute language.

Solr search examples

The following examples show the search syntax used while performing search operations using Solr:

Single word search: The following example shows how to search for a single word in a collection:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1" collection="solr_complex" criteria="Graphics">

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Multiple word search: The following example shows how to search a document or query having words
"ColdFusion" and "Green" in it:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria="+Green +Coldfusion">

Search with at least one word: The following example shows how search for at least "Coldfusion" OR (Green OR
Blue):
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria=" +Coldfusion Green Blue">

Search for one word, but not the other: The following example shows how to search for "Green" but NOT
"Coldfusion":
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria=" -Coldfusion +Green">

Fuzzy search: The following example shows how to search words like roam, roams, foam, foams:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria=" roam~">

Alternate way to perform a fuzzy search for "roam":

<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria="roam~">

Searching for higher similarity with roam:

<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria=" roam~0.8" >

Wildcard search: The following syntax searches for 'test', 'text', 'teat', and so on:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria=" te?t">

This example searches for 'test', 'text', 'teeeeeext', and 'texyzt':

<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria=" te*t">

Note: You cannot use a * or question mark (?) symbol as the first character of a search.

Proximity search: To search for "apache" and "jakarta" within five words of each other in a document, use the
following search:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria='"jakarta apache" ~10'>

Range Search: Following searches all documents with title between 'fuzzy1.txt' to 'text1.txt':
<cfsearch name="qsearch"
collection="solr_srch"
criteria="title:fuzzy1.txt TO text1.txt">

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To search a document whose modification date is between a given range:

<cfsearch name="qsearch"
collection="solr_srch"
criteia="modified:20080101 TO 20500101">

These ranges are inclusive of start and end terms. To exclude them, use curly brackets{} instead.

Field search: To search any document whose title contains "fuzzy1.txt"

<cfsearch name="qsearch"
collection="solr_srch"
criteria="title:fuzzy1.txt">

Searching for document that contains title as 'fuzzy1.txt' OR 'fuzzy2.txt':

<cfsearch name="qsearch"
collection="solr_srch"
criteria="title:fuzzy?.txt">

The following syntax can be used to perform the same search:

<cfsearch name="qsearch"
collection="solr_srch"
criteria=' ""title:fuzzy1.txt"" OR ""title:fuzzy2.txt"" '>

Alternatively, you can search using the following syntax:

<cfsearch name="qsearch"
collection="solr_srch"
criteria="title:(test* +fuzzy1*)">

String search:
<cfsearch name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria='"Cold Fusiongava" OR "Internet Tools"'>

Searching synonyms: There are two ways to search documents that have synonymous words like 'MB', 'megabyte',
'gig', and so on:
1 If collection is not yet created, go to:
<cf_home>/solr/multicore/template/conf/synonyms.txt

This file contains some default mappings such as 'GB, gig, gigabyte, gigabytes'. Define your synonym
mappings in the next row.
2 If you want to add a synonym mapping for a collection that is already created, go to
<collection_location>/conf/synonyms.txt and define your mapping.

Restart the Solr server after defining mapping.

Term highlighting
By default, Solr highlights searched terms in the summary content as described in the following snippet:

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<cfsearch
collection="syn1"
criteria="Services solr"
name="results"
status="r"
suggestions="always"
contextPassages="1">

To highlight contents in the entire document, modify the solrconfig.xml and schema.xml files. These files are available
in the following locations:

<Collection Directory>/conf: Modify files in this location to apply the changes to all future Solr collections.
<Solr Home>/multicore/template/conf: Modify files in this location to apply the changes only to a particular
collection.
1 Stop Solr service.
2 Replace the following section in the solrconfig.xml
<requestHandler name="standard" class="solr.StandardRequestHandler" default="true">
<!-- default values for query parameters -->
<lst name="defaults">
<str name="echoParams">explicit</str>
<str name="hl.fl">summary title </str>
<!-- omp = Only More Popular -->
<str name="spellcheck.onlyMorePopular">false</str>
<!-- exr = Extended Results -->
<str name="spellcheck.extendedResults">false</str>
<!-- The number of suggestions to return -->
<str name="spellcheck.count">1</str>
</lst>
<arr name="last-components">
<str>spellcheck</str>
</arr>
</requestHandler>

with
<requestHandler name="standard" class="solr.StandardRequestHandler" default="true">
<!-- default values for query parameters -->
<lst name="defaults">
<str name="echoParams">explicit</str>
<str name="hl.fl">contents title </str>
<!-- omp = Only More Popular -->
<str name="spellcheck.onlyMorePopular">false</str>
<!-- exr = Extended Results -->
<str name="spellcheck.extendedResults">false</str>
<!-- The number of suggestions to return -->
<str name="spellcheck.count">1</str>
</lst>
<arr name="last-components">
<str>spellcheck</str>
</arr>
</requestHandler>

3 Replace the following section in the schema.xml

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<field name="contents" type="text" indexed="true"

multiValued="true" omitNorms="true"/>

stored="false" required="false"

with
<field name="contents" type="text" indexed="true" stored="true" required="false"
multiValued="true" omitNorms="true"/>

4 Restart Solr.
5 Reindex the collection.

Note: The modifications to solrconfig.xml and schema.xml will increase the index size.

Migrating from Verity to Solr

To migrate from Verity to Solr, perform the following tasks:
Step1: Migrate collections from Verity to Solr using ColdFusion Administrator
1 Log into ColdFusion Administrator.
2 Click Data & Services > Migrate Verity Collection
3 Select the name of the collection from the Verity collection name to migrate drop-down list.
4 Specify the name of the collection in the Name field.
5 Browse and select the path of the Verity collection that you want to migrate.
6 Click Submit.

Step 2: Change search engine in <cfcollection> tag

Specify the search engine for the <cfcollection> tag as engine = solr.
Step 3: Change the search code within <cfsearch> tag
Syntax searching for Solr collection is different from searching syntax for a Verity collection. The following examples
show how searching syntax is different in Solr from Verity:
The search criteria is set differently in Solr and Verity. Check the search criteria specified in the <cfsearch> tag after
migrating the collection to Solr.
For example, in Solr the criteria for searching the term "Green" and "ColdFusion" is:
<cfsearch
name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria="+Green +Coldfusion">

However, in Verity the criteria for searching the same term is:
<cfsearch
name="qsearch1"
collection="Verity_complex"
type="simple"
criteria="Green AND Coldfusion">

Following are some more comparative examples:

Using wildcards:
Solr

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<cfsearch
name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria ="te?t">

Verity
<cfsearch
name="qsearch1"
collection="Verity_complex"
type="explicit"
criteria="<WILDCARD>te?t">

Searching titles
Solr:
<cfsearch
name="qsearch1"
collection="solr_complex"
criteria ="title:fuzzy?.txt">

Verity:
<cfsearch
name="qsearch1"
collection="Verity_complex"
type="explicit"criteria="CF_TITLE<SUBSTRING>fuzzy">

For more examples of how search criteria is set in Solr, see Solr search examples on page 526 and for Verity, see
Using Verity Search Expressions on page 505.

Configuring Solr memory

Perform the following steps to increase the memory for Solr.
Non-Windows platforms
1 Stop Solr using the following command:
sudo ./cfsolr stop

2 In the cfsolr script, modify the line that starts with VMARGS= by changing the default value -Xmx256m with an

appropriate value. For example, -Xmx1024m.

3 Start Solr using the following command:
sudo ./cfsolr start

Windows platform
1 Stop the Solr service ColdFusion 9 Solr Service.
2 In the solr.lax, modify the line that starts with lax.nl.java.option.additional= by changing the default value

-Xmx256m with an appropriate value. For example, -Xmx1024m.

3 Start Solr service.

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Solr enhancements in ColdFusion 9.0.1

Apart from overall improvement in the accuracy of indexing, the following are the enhancements:

Displays correct MIME types for all documents

Enhanced support for indexing of metadata for binary files such as mp3 and JPEG
Support for the attribute previousCriteria (in the tag cfsearch)
Both the tags cfindex and cfsearch support the attribute categoryTree.
A new section to enable/disable term highlighting for entire document has been added to the ColdFusion
Administrator. This applies only if Solr is running on local machine.
Note: The following steps apply only if Solr is running on local machine. If Solr is on a remote machine, follow the steps
provided in the section Term highlighting in Developing ColdFusion 9 Applications.
1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, go to ColdFusion Collections and then click a Solr collection.
2 Use the Enable/Disable button to enable/disable term highlighting.
3 Reindex the collection.

Note: Enabling term highlighting increases the size of the Solr collection. So ensure that you allocate adequate memory
for Solr if you are enabling term highlighting.

Upgrading Solr
Solr is upgraded as part of updater.
Therefore, to use Solr with ColdFusion 9.0.1, upgrade Solr.
For local installation, Solr is auto-upgraded when you run the ColdFusion Updater.
For remote installation, manually upgrade Solr using the following steps:
1 Stop Solr.
2 Back up solr.xml available in Solr_Home/multicore.
3 Uninstall Solr.
4 Reinstall the standalone version of Solr available on Adobe download location.
5 Stop Solr (if it has started automatically).
6 Bring back the backed up copy of solr.xml to Solr_Home/multicore.

Note: After you upgrade, ensure that you reindex the entire Solr collection before you use the search service.

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Chapter 8: ColdFusion ORM

Relational databases are the core of most enterprise applications. However, when you map a relational database to
objects, it becomes a challenge. Object relational mapping (ORM) is a programming framework that allows you to
define a mapping between application object model and the relational database.
In an object model, the application objects are not aware of the database structure. Objects have properties and
references to other objects. Databases consist of tables with columns that maybe related to other tables. ORM provides
a bridge between the relational database and the object model.
By using ORM, you can access and update data entirely using the object model of an application. ORM provides
features such as:

Database vendor independence

Caching
Concurrency
Performance optimization

Introducing ColdFusion ORM

In previous ColdFusion releases, database access was achieved by:

Managing relational data using tags such as cfquery, cfinsert, and cfupdate, which handle SQL statements.
Managing objects using ColdFusion components (CFCs), and object lifecycle using the application itself
Writing SQL queries for each CFC, even for basic CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete) operations.
The complexity of managing these tasks increases as your application grows.
ColdFusion ORM automates most of these tasks, which:

Makes application code cleaner and more manageable

Enhances your productivity and lets you develop database applications faster
Creates applications that can run faster because of built-in ORM optimizations
Minimizes the amount of code you write
Apart from providing a framework for mapping the object model with the relational database, ColdFusionORM
provides data query and retrieval facilities.
For more information, see www.hibernate.org.

ColdFusion ORM example

ColdFusion ORM manages persistence through objects, which are also called entities in the ORM context. In
ColdFusion, persistence is managed through CFCs and their properties. Each persistent CFC in ColdFusion
application maps to a table in the database. Each property in the persistent CFC maps to a column in the table.

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The following example explains these concepts by building a simple application, which would enable you to jumpstart
with ColdFusion ORM. The example uses the cfartgallery data source that is shipped as part of ColdFusion 9
documentation option in the installer. The cfartgallery data source has Artists and Art tables. Artists has a one-tomany relationship with the Art table.
Step 1:
Specify the ORM settings in the Application.cfc file.
The minimum required settings are mentioned in the following sample code snippet:
Application.cfc
<cfset this.name = "ArtGalleryApp">
<cfset this.ormenabled = "true">
<cfset this.datasource = "cfartgallery">

Apart from these, there are other settings that you can use to configure ORM. For details, see ORM settings on
page 538.
Important: Define these setting only in Application.cfc and not in Application.cfm.
Step 2:
Map the ARTISTS.cfc to the database table.
1 Create the ARTISTS.cfc.
2 Flag it as a persistent CFC and map it to the ARTISTS table.

To make the ARTISTS.cfc persistent, the persistent attribute should be set to true in the cfcomponent tag. The
table attribute should be set to the table name. If table attribute is not specified, then the CFC name is taken as the
table name.
Each CFC can be given an entity name. Entity name is the name used by the ORM related functions to work with
the persistent CFC. It can be specified by using the entityname attribute in cfcomponent. If entityname is not
specified, then the CFC name is taken as the entityname.
3 Now, create properties in ARTISTS.cfc and map them to the columns in the table. One property should be created

for each column in the table. To map the property to the column, the column attribute should be set to the
corresponding column name. If the column attribute is not specified, then the name of the property is taken as the
column name.
For details on setting the ORM-specific attributes, see Define ORM mapping on page 542.
The ARTISTS.cfc is defined as follows:
<cfcomponent persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="id" column = "ARTISTID" generator="increment">
<cfproperty name="FIRSTNAME">
<cfproperty name="LASTNAME">
<cfproperty name="ADDRESS">
<cfproperty name="CITY">
<cfproperty name="STATE">
<cfproperty name="POSTALCODE">
<cfproperty name="EMAIL">
<cfproperty name="PHONE">
<cfproperty name="FAX">
<cfproperty name="thepassword">
</cfcomponent>

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Step 3:
Perform CRUD operations.
To retrieve data from the ARTISTS table, use EntityLoad():
ARTISTS = EntityLoad("ARTISTS")

All the records from the ARTISTS table are retrieved as an object array.
To add a new artist, create a new artist object and call EntitySave() for this object.
<cfscript>
try {
newArtistObj = EntityNew("artists");
newArtistObj.setfirstname("John");
newArtistObj.setlastname("Smith");
newArtistObj.setaddress("5 Newport lane");
newArtistObj.setcity("San Francisco");
newArtistObj.setstate("CA");
newArtistObj.setPostalCode("90012");
newArtistObj.setphone("612-832-2343");
newArtistObj.setfax("612-832-2344");
newArtistObj.setemail("[email protected]");
newArtistObj.setThePassword("jsmith");
EntitySave(newartistobj);
ormflush();
} catch(Exception ex) {
WriteOutput("<p>#ex.message#</p>");
}
</cfscript>

To update an existing record, load that object and make changes to it. ColdFusion automatically detects that the row
for this object needs to be updated and it will get updated when ORMFlush() is called.
Note: ORMFlush() is called at the end of the request by default.
In the following code, the newArtistObj is already managed by ORM, so it does not need to be loaded again.
newArtistObj.setphone("612-832-1111");
ormflush();

To delete a record, EntityDelete() is used.

EntityDelete(newArtistObj);
ormflush();

Step 4:
Define Relationships
First define the mapping for the ART table to define a relationship between artwork and artists.
The ART.cfc is defined as follows:

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<cfcomponent persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="artid" generator="increment">
<cfproperty name="artname">
<cfproperty name="price">
<cfproperty name="largeimage">
<cfproperty name="mediaid">
<cfproperty name="issold">
</cfcomponent>

In cfartgallery, the table ARTISTS has a one-to-many relationship with ART table, which are joined using the foreign
key column ARTISTID. This means that each artist has created multiple artwork pieces and many artworks are created
by one artist. To represent this in the object model, each ARTISTS object would contain an array of ART objects. Each
ART object will contain a reference to its ARTISTS object. This is an example of a bidirectional relationship.
To achieve this, you need to add an extra property to the ARTISTS.cfc object that contains the array of ART objects
for that ARTIST.
<cfproperty name="art" type="array" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="Art" fkcolumn="ARTISTID">
fieldtype="one-to-many" specifies the type of relation.
CFC="Art" is used to convey that the relationship is with "ART" cfc.
fkcolumn="artistid" specifies the foreign key.

ART forms a many-to-one relationship with ARTISTS table because each piece of artwork is created by an artist and
many other pieces of artwork are created by the same artist. To define this relationship, add a property in ART.cfc to
define the relationship with ARTISTS.cfc.
<cfproperty name="artists" fieldtype="many-to-one" fkcolumn="artistid" cfc="Artists"
lazy="true">
fieldtype="many-to-one" specifies the type of relation.
CFC="ARTISTS" is used to convey that the relationship is with "ARTISTS" cfc.
fkcolumn="ARTISTID" specifies the foreign key.

Step 5:
Retrieve records in relationship
<cfscript>
artist = EntityLoad("Artists", 1, true);
arts = artist.getArts();
WriteOutput("<b>" & artist.getid() & " " & artist.getfirstname() & " " &
artist.getlastname() & "</b> has " & ArrayLen(arts) & " arts:<br>");
if (ArrayLen(arts) > 0)
{
for(j = 1; j <= ArrayLen(arts); j ++)
{
art = arts[j];
WriteOutput(art.getartname() & "<br>");
}
}
</cfscript>

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Architecture
In ColdFusion ORM, you need to define an object mapping to create persistent objects. The object mapping includes
details such as:

The table name for the object's class

The column name that corresponds to each field in the object
The join conditions for related objects
ColdFusion allows you to specify the mapping in CFCs. Such CFCs are called as persistent CFCs. Each persistent CFC
usually maps to a table in the database. Each property in the CFC usually maps to a column in the table. Additional
properties may be used to define relationships and other mapping details.
When ColdFusion creates the Hibernate configuration for the application, these persistent CFCs are used to
automatically generate Hibernate mapping files, which have the extension ".hbmxml". For example, if ARTISTS.cfc is
a persistent CFC, ColdFusion would automatically generate Artists.hbmxml. Hibernate mapping files contain the
mapping information in XML format that Hibernate defines, to work with ColdFusion ORM. These Hibernate
mapping files can be created manually.
For more information about creating Hibernate mappings manually, see Advanced mapping on page 566.
To use ColdFusion ORM, ColdFusion application must have ormenabled set to true in the THIS scope of
Application.cfc. To define a persistent CFC, set persistent="true" in cfcomponent tag. An array of attributes are
available in cfcomponent and cfproperty to specify mapping information.
For details, see Define ORM mapping on page 542.
When the application starts, ColdFusion first loads the Hibernate configuration file if it is specified in the application.
The Hibernate configuration file contains various configuration parameters like including, dialect, cache settings, and
mapping files that are required for the application. If a configuration file is not specified, ColdFusion ORM creates the
Hibernate configuration using the default settings.
For details about these configuration parameters, see www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/sessionconfiguration.html.
After loading the Hibernate configuration, all the mapping files (*.hbmxml) in the application folder and its mapped
folders are loaded and added to the configuration.
ColdFusion then searches for persistent CFCs in the application folder and its mapped folders. If the hibernate
mapping file is not present for any persistent CFC, ColdFusion generates it. If mapping information, such as primary
key, foreign key, and column data type is missing in the persistent CFCs, ColdFusion automatically inspects the
database and identifies the mapping.
ColdFusion then checks if DDL needs to be generated. This can be configured using the dbcreate option in the ORM
settings. Based on the configuration option specified in dbcreate, tables are created or updated.The Hibernate
SessionFactory is then built and made available to the application as long as the application is running. The
SessionFactory is used to create Hibernate sessions that manage the persistent object lifecycle.
In ColdFusion, a Hibernate session starts when the first CRUD method is called and ends when the request ends or
when the ORMCloseSession() method is called.
To improve performance, Hibernate batches all the Create/Update/Delete operations in the session and runs them
when the session is flushed or only when necessary. Session Flush happens when the request ends or when the
ORMFlush() method is called.

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For transactions, a new session is always created at the start of a transaction and ends at the end of a transaction. Any
previous open sessions are flushed and closed at the start of the transaction.
The Hibernate configuration is created and loaded only when the application starts. Therefore, any modifications to
the mapping in the persistent CFCs or in the Hibernate mapping files are not loaded automatically. To load these
modifications, you can either restart the application or call ORMReload().
To restart the application, you can stop the application using ApplicationStop() and the next request to any page
in this application automatically starts it.

Configure ORM
The configuration for ORM is done in Application.cfc which makes this configuration application specific. For a
ColdFusion application to use ORM, the following are the mandatory settings that need to be configured:
1 Enable ORM for the application. To do this, set the ormenabled property to true in the THIS scope of

application.cfc
2 Provide the data source name by either setting data source property to true in the THIS scope of application or by

defining it in ORM configuration for the application.

Note that the data source should be configured on the server.
The ORM configuration is specified using a struct called ormsettings, which is defined in the THIS scope of
Application.cfc. The following table describes the settings for ORM that can be defined in Application.cfc.
Property Name

Description

ormenabled

Specifies whether ORM should be used for the ColdFusion application.Set the value to true to
use ORM. The default is false.

datasource

Defines the data source that should be used by ORM.

ormsettings

The struct that defines all the ORM settings. For details, see ORM settings on page 538

ORM settings
The following settings can be set in the ormsettings struct that ColdFusion uses to configure ORM. All these settings
are optional. If you specify the value of any ORM setting to true or yes, then the setting is enabled, otherwise it is
disabled.

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Property Name

Default

Description

autogenmap

true

Specifies whether ColdFusion should automatically generate mapping for the

persistent CFCs. If autogenmap=false, mapping should be provided in the
form of .HBMXML files.

automanageSession

true

Lets you specify if ColdFusion must manage Hibernate session automatically.

Added in ColdFusion 9.0.1

If enabled: ColdFusion manages the session completely. That is, it decides

when to flush the session, when to clear the session, and when to close the
session.

If disabled: The application is responsible for managing flushing, clearing, or

closing of the session. The only exception is (in the case of transaction),
when the transaction commits, the application flushes the session.

ColdFusion closes the ORM session at the end of request irrespective of this flag
being enabled or disabled.
Specifies the location of the configuration file that should be used by the
secondary cache provider.This setting is used only when
secondarycacheenabled=true.

cacheconfig

See Secondary level cache on page 590 for details.

cacheprovider

ehcache

Specifies the cache provider that should be used by ORM as secondary cache.
The values can be:

Ehcache

JBossCache

Hashtable

SwarmCache

OSCache

Fully qualified name of the class for any other cache provider.
This setting is used only when secondarycacheenabled=true.
See Secondary level cache on page 590 for details.
catalog

Specifies the default Catalog that should be used by ORM.

cfclocation

Specifies the directory (or array of directories) that should be used by

ColdFusion to search for persistent CFCs to generate the mapping. If
cfclocation is set, ColdFusion looks at only the paths specified in it. If it is not
set, ColdFusion looks at the application directory, its sub-directories, and its
mapped directories to search for persistent CFCs.

datasource

Specifies the data source that should be used by ORM. If it is not specified here,
then the data source specified for the application is picked up. Use the
following convention to specify a datasource name:
this.datasource="<datasource_name>";

dbcreate

none

ColdFusion ORM can automatically create the tables for your application in the
database when ORM is initialized for the application. This can be enabled by
using dbcreate in ormsettings. dbCreate takes the following values:

update: Setting this value creates the table if it does not exist or update the

table if it exists.

dropcreate: Setting this value drops the table if it exists and then creates it.

none (default): Setting this value does not change anything in the database

schema.

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Property Name

Default

Description
Specifies the dialect.

dialect

ColdFusion supports the following dialects:

DB2

DB2AS400

DB2OS390

Derby

PostgreSQL

MySQL

MySQLwithInnoDB

MySQLwithMyISAM

Oracle8i

Oracle9i

Oracle10g

Sybase

SybaseAnywhere

MicrosoftSQLServer

Informix

Apart from these dialects, you can specify custom dialects by using the fully
qualified class name.

Note: For Microsoft Access, dialect cannot be detected

automatically. Use Microsoft SQL Server as the dialect for it.
eventHandling

false

Specifies whether ORM Event callbacks should be given. See Event Handling in
CFC for details.

flushatrequestend

true

Specifies whether ormflush should be called automatically at request end. If

flushatrequestend is false, ormflush is not called automatically at request
end.
See ORM session management.

logSQL

false

Specifies whether the SQL queries that are executed by ORM will be logged. If
LogSQL=true, the SQL queries are logged to the console.

namingstrategy

Defines database standard and naming convention. See Naming strategy.

ormconfig

The Hibernate configuration file.

This file contains various configuration parameters like, dialect, cache settings,
and mapping files that are required for the application. For more details, see
www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/session-configuration.html.
The settings defined in the ormsettings override the settings defined in the
Hibernate Configuration XML file.The connection information in the Hibernate
Configuration XML file is however ignored because ColdFusion uses its own
connection pool.
You will need to use this only when you need to use a hibernate setting that is
not available using ormsetting.

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Property Name

Default

Description

savemapping

false

Specifies whether the generated Hibernate mapping file has to be saved to

disc. If you set the value to true, the Hibernate mapping XML file is saved with
the filename "CFC name".hbmxml in the same directory as the CFC.
If any value of savemapping is specified in CFC, it will override the value
specified in the ormsetting.
Specifies the default Schema that should be used by ORM.

schema
secondarycacheenabled

false

Specifies whether secondary caching should be enabled. See Use secondary

cache for details.

skipCFCWithError

false

Lets you specify if ColdFusion must skip the CFCs that have errors. If set to
true, ColdFusion ignores the CFCs that have errors.

Added in ColdFusion 9.0.1

Path to the SQL script file that gets executed after ORM is initialized. This
applies if dbcreate is set to dropcreate. This must be the absolute file path
or the path relative to the application.The SQL script file lets you populate the
tables before the application is accessed.

sqlscript

useDBForMapping

true

Specifies whether the database has to be inspected to identify the missing

information required to generate the Hibernate mapping. The database is
inspected to get the column data type, primary key and foreign key
information.

Sample Application.cfc
<cfset this.name = "ArtGallery">
<cfset this.ormenabled = "true">
<cfset this.ormsettings={datasource="cfartgallery", logsql="true"}>

Logging
Monitoring SQL queries that get generated and executed by ORM is critical for troubleshooting and performance
optimization.
You can monitor and log the queries by:

Defining logsql in ormsettings: This is a simple way to quickly enable SQL logging. The flag should be enabled
in application.cfc:
<cfset this.ormsettings.logsql = "true">

This logs all the SQL queries that are generated by Hibernate to the console and servers output log file.

Using log4J.properties: Hibernate uses log4j for its logging and you can completely control its logging
including SQL by modifying the log4j.properties, which is present under <CF_HOME>/lib directory.
Following is a sample snippet from the log4j.properties file:

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###--------------- Hibernate Log Settings -----### Set Hibernate log

log4j.logger.org.hibernate=ERROR, HIBERNATECONSOLE
### log just the SQL
#log4j.logger.org.hibernate.SQL=DEBUG, HIBERNATECONSOLE
#log4j.additivity.org.hibernate.SQL=false
### Also log the parameter binding to the prepared statements.
#log4j.logger.org.hibernate.type=DEBUG
### log schema export/update ###
log4j.logger.org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl=DEBUG, HIBERNATECONSOLE
### log cache activity ###
log4j.logger.org.hibernate.cache=ERROR, HIBERNATECONSOLE
# HibernateConsole is set to be a ColsoleAppender for Hibernate message using a
PatternLayout.
log4j.appender.HIBERNATECONSOLE=org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender
log4j.appender.HIBERNATECONSOLE.layout=org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout
log4j.appender.HIBERNATECONSOLE.layout.ConversionPattern=%d{MM/dd HH:mm:ss} [%t] HIBERNATE
%-5p - %m%n%n
#---------------------------------------------

These settings control the SQLs that are generated for entity operations, how the data is bound to the statement
while executing, what SQLs are generated for DDL, and what operations are performed on the secondary cache. All
the logs get logged to console using HIBERNATECONSOLE which is actually a console appender. It can easily be
changed to a FileAppender, which will then be logged to a log file. The configuration controls the logging for the
following:

SQL generated for entity operations

Parameter binding for the prepared statements
SQL generated for DDL
Secondary cache operations
With the default settings, all the logs get logged to console. You can also direct the logging to a log file using the
FileAppender provided by log4j.
See log4j for more details on Appenders.
Log4j Properties

Description

log4j.logger.org.hibernate.SQL

This controls when and how the SQL will be logged. DEBUG says all the SQL will
be logged

log4j.logger.org.hibernate.type

This logs the parameter binding to the prepared statement.

log4j.logger.org.hibernate.tool.hbm2ddl

Logs SQL for DDL i.e schema export.

log4j.logger.org.hibernate.cache

Logs secondary cache information.

Define ORM mapping

The ORM mapping can be defined either in the CFC or in a separate Hibernate mapping file (.hbmxml). See
Advanced mapping on page 566 for details on Hibernate mapping file. The ORM mapping is defined in the CFC
using ORM-specific attributes on cfcomponent and cfproperty tag.
Following example shows a CFC (ARTIST.cfc) with mapping information:

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<cfcomponent persistent="true" entityname="Artist" table="Artists">

<cfproperty name="id" column="ARTISTID" generator="increment">
<cfproperty name="firstname">
<cfproperty name="lastname">
<cfproperty name="address">
<cfproperty name="city">
<cfproperty name="state">
<cfproperty name="postalcode">
<cfproperty name="email">
<cfproperty name="phone">
<cfproperty name="fax">
<cfproperty name="thepassword">
</cfcomponent>

Map a ColdFusion component

The tag cfcomponent defines a persistent CFC by setting persistent="true". It allows you to specify various other
mappings for a persistent CFC.
If your persistent CFC has init method, ensure that either it has no arguments or all arguments are optional.
Syntax
<cfcomponent
accessors= "yes|no"
persistent="true|[false]"
entityname="entity_name"
table="table_name"
schema="schema"
catalog="catalog"
dynamicInsert="true|[false]"
dynamicupdate="true|[false]"
readonly="true|[false]"
selectbeforeupdate="true|[false]"
discriminatorvalue="discriminator_value"
discriminatorcolumn="discriminator_column"
joincolumn="join_column"
cacheuse="read-only|read-write|nonstrict-read-write|transactional|[none]"
cachename="cache_name"
batchsize="batchsize"
optimisticLock="none|[version]|dirty|all"
lazy="[true]|false"
savemapping="true|false">

Attributes
Attribute

Req/Opt

accessors

true

batchsize

Optional

Default

Description
If set to false, ColdFusion ORM does not generate the
implicit getters and setters.

An integer value that specifies the number of records

to be retrieved at a single instance.
For details, see Lazy Loading.

cachename

optional

Use this value to specify the name of the secondary

cache. See Caching for details.

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Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

cacheuse

optional

none

Use this value to specify the caching strategy to be

used for caching this component's data in the
secondary cache. See Caching for details.

catalog

Optional

Used to specify the database catalog name.

discriminatorcolumn

optional

Use this attribute to define the discriminator column

to be used in inheritance mapping. See Inheritance
mapping for details.

discriminatorvalue

optional

Use this attribute to define the discriminator value to

be used in inheritance mapping. See Inheritance
mapping for details.

dynamicInsert

Optional

false

Whether INSERT SQL is to be generated at runtime:

true

false

Only those columns whose values are not null are

included in the SQL.
dynamicupdate

Optional

false

Whether UPDATE SQL is to be generated at runtime:

true

false

Only those columns that have changed values are

included in the SQL.
entityname

Optional

joincolumn

optional

lazy

Optional

Name of the CFC

Specifies the name of the entity. Entity name is the

name used by the ORM related functions to work
with the persistent CFC. If entityname is not
specified, then the CFC name is taken as the
entityname. The entityname must be unique in
the application.
Use this attribute to define the join column for
inheritance mapping. See Inheritance mapping for
details.

true

Whether loading is to be done lazily:

true

false

For details, see Lazy Loading.

optimisticLock

Optional

version

Determines the locking strategy.

It can be any one of the following four values:

none

version

dirty

all

For details, see Optimistic locking.

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Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

persistent

Required

false

Whether the CFC is a persistent CFC:

readonly

Optional

false

true

false

Whether the table is read-only:

true

false

This is inserted by the EntitySave() method.

savemapping

Optional

Saves the generated Hibernate mapping file to the

disk.If you have set savemapping for the
application, then the value you set here overrides it.

schema

Optional

Used to specify the schema name.

selectbeforeupdate

Optional

false

Whether Hibernate should never perform an SQL

UPDATE unless it is certain that an object is actually
modified:

true

false

In cases when a transient object is associated with a

new session using update(), Hibernate performs an
extra SQL SELECT to determine if an UPDATE is
actually required.
table

Optional

Name of the CFC

Specifies the name of the database table to which the

CFC maps.

Map the properties

The cfproperty tag is used to define:

Primary or composite key

Columns
Relationships
Versioning
The following table lists the common attributes that are used to define these mappings:

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Attribute

Req/Optional

default

optional

fieldtype

optional

Default

Description
This sets the default value on the property when the object is
created.

column

This attribute is used to specify the type of the property. Use this
attribute to specify the following:

Primary key: Specify fieldtype = "id" to map a property to

the primary key in the table. For details, see Primary key.

Column: Specify the fieldtype = "column" to map a

property to a column in the table. For details, see Column.

Relationship: Specify the fieldtype =

"relationship_type". The relationship_type can be oneto-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many. For
details, see Define Relationships.

Version: Specify the fieldtype="version to indicate that

the column contains versioned data. For details, see Version.

Timestamp: Specify the fieldtype="timestamp" to indicate

the column contains data with timestamp. For details, see Time
stamp.

Collection: Specify the fieldtype="collection" to define

the collection mapping. For details, see Collection Mapping

name

required

Specifies the name of the property.

type

optional

Specifies the ColdFusion data type for the property.

persistent

optional

true

Specifies whether this property should be persisted. If

persistent="false all the ORM related attributes are ignored.
Set this attribute to false if you do not want this property to be
persisted by ORM. For example:
<cfcomponent persistent=true>
<cfproperty name="a">
<cfproperty name="b" persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="c" persistent="false">
</cfcomponent>

When an object of this CFC is persisted, the properties a and b

would be persisted in the database but the property c would not
be persisted.
remotingFetc
h

optional

true

If remotingFetch is false, then the value of that attribute is not

sent over flash remoting. The attribute is true by default for all
properties. However, for ORM CFCs where persistent = true, the
value of the remotingFetch attribute is set to false, by default,
for one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many
relationships.

Primary key
Simple primary key
In a relational database, a primary key is defined as a key that uniquely identifies a row in a table. Typically, a table has
one primary key that represents a single column of information in the table.
To indicate that a cfproperty maps to a primary key in the table, set the attribute fieldtype="id".

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Syntax
<cfproperty
name="property_name"
fieldType="id"
ormtype="type"
column="column_name"
generator="increment|identity
|sequence|sequence-identity|seqhilo
|uuid|guid|native|[assigned]|select|foreign"
params="{key1=val1,key2=val2...}"
sqltype="sql_type"
length="column_length"
unsavedvalue="instantiated_instance">

Example
An example to define an assigned primary key:
<cfproperty name="artistid" fieldtype="id" column="ARTISTID" generator="assigned">

An example to define a auto-generated primary key using increment generator:

<cfproperty name="artid" fieldtype="id" column="ARTID" generator="increment">

An example to define a auto-generated primary key using a generator, which requires additional parameters:
<cfproperty name="id" fieldtype="id" column="ID" generator="sequence"
params="{sequence='id_sequence'}>

Attributes
Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

column

Optional

The value of the name

attribute

Used to specify the primary key column name.

fieldType

Optional

generator

Optional

length

optional

Use this attribute to specify the length of the column. This

attribute is used for table creation only.

name

Required

Name of the property

ormtype

Optional

Should be "id" for primary key. If fieldtype is not

specified and the useDBForMapping=true, then the
fieldtype is determined by inspecting the database.
assigned

String

Algorithm used to generate unique identifiers for

instances of the persistent CFC. See Generators for
details.

Used to specify the data type of the primary key. If data

type is not set and the ORM setting
useDBForMapping=true, then the ormtype is
determined by inspecting the database.
The different data types that are supported by
ColdFusion are specified in the ORM data types.

params

Additional parameters required by the various

generators to generate the ID.
The value for the params attribute should follow the CF
Struct syntax. For example: params =
{key1='value1', key2='value2'}

See Generators for details.

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Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

selectkey

optional

The column name that is used to retrieve the primary key

generated by a database trigger.

sqltype

optional

Use this attribute to specify the DB-specific SQLType that

should be used for the column. This attribute is used for
table creation only.
If this attribute is not specified, ColdFusion will
automatically decide the SQLType based on the
ormtype specified for this property.

unSavedValue

optional

An identifier property value that indicates that an

instance is newly instantiated and not saved/loaded in
the database

Composite Key
If the primary key consists of more than one column, it is called as a composite key. A composite key can be specified
by using fieldtype='id' on all the properties that form the primary key.
Example
If in a table, the columns Order_id and Product_id form a composite key, then, they should be defined as:
<cfproperty name="Order_Id" fieldtype="id" column="Order_Id">
<cfproperty name="Product_Id" fieldtype="id" column="Product_Id">

For a composite key, the generator should always be "assigned".

Generators
Generators are algorithms that are used to generate unique identifiers for instances of the persistent CFC. Generators
can have any one of the following values:

increment: This algorithm generates identifiers of type long, short, or int by incrementing a counter maintained

by ORM. This is commonly used when auto-generation for the primary key is not enabled in the table and you want
ORM to generate the primary key. This should be used when a single instance of ColdFusion is the only process to
insert data into the table.

identity: For databases such as DB2, MySQL, Sybase, and MS SQL, which support identity columns, you can use

identity key generation. The key is automatically generated by the database and the object is populated with the
generated key. This strategy requires ORM to execute two SQL queries to insert a new object.

sequence: For databases such as DB2, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Interbase, McKoi, and SAP, which support sequences,

you can use sequence style key generation. The key is automatically generated by the database and the object is
populated with the generated key. This strategy requires ORM to execute two SQL queries to insert a new object.
This generator includes the sequence parameter, which needs to be specified in the params attribute.
For example:
<cfproperty name="id" fieldtype="id" generator="sequence"
params="{sequence='id_sequence'}">

native: This algorithm is commonly used to automatically generate primary keys. This generator picks identity or
sequence depending upon the capabilities of the underlying database.

assigned: This algorithm is used when the application needs to assign its own identifier to the object. It is the

default generator used by ColdFusion.

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foreign: This is used with a <one-to-one> primary key association. In this case, the primary key is the same as

the primary key of the associated object. This generator would need the property parameter, which needs to be
specified in the params attribute. The value of the param property should be the name of the relationship property.
See One-to-one relationships for details.

seqhilo: See www.hibernate.org/5.html.

uuid: See www.hibernate.org/5.html.

guid: See www.hibernate.org/5.html.

select: See www.hibernate.org/5.html.

sequence-identity: See www.hibernate.org/5.html.

Column
To indicate that a cfproperty maps to a column in the table, specify fieldtype="column". If the fieldtype is not
specified for cfproperty, it is mapped as a column property.
Syntax
<cfproperty
name="Property name"
fieldtype="column"
column="column_name"
persistent="true|false"
formula="SQL expression"
ormtype="ormtype"
update="[true]|false"
insert="[true]|false"
optimisticLock="[true]|false"
generated="true|[false]"
length="column_length"
precision="precision"
scale="scale"
index="index_name"
unique = "true|[false]"
uniquekey="uniquekey_name"
notnull="true|[false]"
dbdefault="default_col_value"
sqltype="sql_type">

Example
To specify a simple property:
<cfproperty name="FIRSTNAME"/>

To specify a property which has a different name than that of the column name:
<cfproperty name="LNAME" column="LASTNAME"/>

To specify a property which should be read-only:

<cfproperty name="password" column="THEPASSWORD" insert="false" update="false">

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Attributes
Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

column

optional

Name of the property

Name of the column.

This sets the default value of a column in the table when schema is
exported.

dbdefault

fieldType

optional

formula

optional

column

Should be column for column property.

SQL expression that defines the value of the property. If you specify
a formula, the column value is ignored.
See Computed property.

generated

optional

never

Specifies that this property value is actually generated by the

database {never|always|insert}

never: Specifies that the value for this property is never

generated by database

always: Specifies that the value for this property is always

generated by database

insert: Specifies that the value for this property is generated at

the time of insert but is not regenerated at updates.

insert

optional

true

Specifies whether the column should be included in SQL UPDATE

and/or INSERT statements:
{true/false}
Set update=false and insert=false if the column needs to be
read-only.

name

Required

optimisticlock

optional

Name of the property. If this attribute is not specified, the name of

the property is used as the column name.
true

Whether updates to this property require acquisition of the

optimistic lock on the table row:
{true/false}

ormtype

optional

string

Specifies the data type.

If specified, then

update

optional

true

If ORM setting useDBForMapping is set to true and the table

exists, then ormtype is obtained by inspecting the table

(Otherewise) Type, if specified, is used as ormtype

Specifies whether the column should be included in SQL update

statement:
{true/false}
Set update=false and insert=false if the column needs to be
read-only.

DDL-only attributes
The following attributes are used only when DDL generation is required and not used for runtime.

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Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

dbdefault

optional

Specifies the default value of the column in the table.

index

optional

Specifies the name of an index that is created using the mapped

column.

length

optional

Specifies the length value.

notnull

optional

precision

optional

Specifies the precision value.

scale

optional

Specifies the scale value.

sqltype

optional

This allows user to override the default mapping of ormtype to SQL

datatype. sqltype is used as the DB specific SQL type for a column
when creating the table. If this attribute is not specified, ColdFusion
will automatically decide the sqltype based on the ormtype
specified for this property.

false

Description

A Boolean value that specifies whether a notnull constraint should

be added for this column.

For example:
<cfProperty name="active" ormtype="char"
sqltype="bit">
<cfProperty name="balance" ormtype="float"
sqltype="decimal(13,3)">
unique

optional

Specifies if there should be a unique constraint on the column.

uniquekey

optional

Groups columns in a single unique key constraint.

Computed property
Computed property is a property whose value does not come from a column but is computed using a SQL query. Use
formula attribute to specify the SQL to be used to retrieve the value for this property.
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="ARTISTS" schema="APP">
<cfproperty name="ID" column="ARTISTID" fieldtype="id"/>
<cfproperty name="FIRSTNAME"/>
<cfproperty name="LASTNAME"/>
<cfproperty name="NumberOfArts" formula="select count(*) from Art art where
art.ArtistID=ArtistID"/>
</cfcomponent>

Versioning
Versioning is a technique that allows you to implement concurrency control fora component. You can specify either
version or timestamp property for a component.
For details, see Optimistic locking.
Note: A component can have only one versioning property, either timestamp or version. If you specify multiple versioning
properties, such as two timestamps, or two versions, or a timestamp and a version, an error is thrown.
Version
Use the version attribute to indicate that the column contains versioned data. The version attribute is useful for long
transactions.

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Syntax
<cfproperty
name="fieldname"
fieldtype="version"
column="column name"
ormtype="type"
generated="true|[false]"
insert="[true]|false">

Example
To create a simple version property:
<cfproperty name="version" fieldtype="version">

Attribute
Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

column

Optional

The name of the column that contains versioned data

fieldtype

Required

Should be version for primary key.

generated

Optional

insert

Optional

Specifies if the versioned field should be included in

the SQL INSERT statement.

name

Required

Name of the property.

ormtype

Optional

never

int

Description

Specifies if the versioned field is generated by the

database. The values are "never" and "always".

The data type can be any one of the following:

integer
long
short

Time stamp
Use the timestamp attribute to indicate that the column contains time-stamped data. Use the timestamp attribute as
an alternative to the version attribute.
Syntax
<cfproperty
name="fieldname"
fieldtype="timestamp"
column="column name"
generated="true|[false]"
source="[vm]|db">

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Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

column

Optional

The name of the column that contains time-stamped

data.

fieldtype

Required

Specifies the field type.

Specify the field type value as timestamp for a timestamped field.

generated

Optional

false

Specifies if the timestamp field is generated by the

database. You can select from the following values:
false
true

name

Required

source

Optional

Name of the property.

vm

Specifies the source from where the timestamp has

to be retrieved. You can select from the following
values:
db
vm

ORM data types

You can use any of the following ORM data types for CFCs:

string

character

char

short

integer

int

long

big_decimal

float

double

Boolean

yes_no

true_false

text

date

timestamp

binary

serializable

blob

clob

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Escaping SQL keywords in table and column name

ColdFusion automatically escapes the table name or column name if it is an SQL keyword or if there is a space in it.
The list of SQL keywords are present in <CF_HOME>/lib/sqlkeywords.properties file. This file contains standard
ANSI SQL keywords and some database-specific keywords. You can modify this file to include any other SQL keyword
that is missing. In case you are adding SQL keyword for a database other than the ones specified in this file, you should
also add it to the 'ANSI' list so that ColdFusion can use it.

Define Relationships
Relationship is the most crucial aspect of ORM. In a relational database, relation between tables are defined using
foreign key. However, in case of objects, relation between two objects is defined using association where one object has
a reference to another. ORM defines how the object relation is mapped to the database relation.
In this topic, relation and association would be used interchangeably.
Before you learn how to define the mapping for relation, it is important to understand few key concepts:

Source object: Object having the reference to the related object is termed as source of the relationship.
Target object: Object being referred or associated is termed as target of the relationship.
Direction and Navigability: In relational database, the relationship is always unidirectional, which implies that you
can navigate from one table to another but not back to the same table. However, object model can be either
unidirectional or bidirectional. A unidirectional association means that source has the reference to the target but the
target does not know about the source. A bidirectional association means that both the objects have reference to each
other and you can navigate from either object to another. In other words, source has a reference to the target and
target also has a reference to the source. This also means that both the objects are source and target at the same time.
To set the association between objects, you need to set the references appropriately. For example, in case of PersonAddress relation, where one person as one address, you need to associate Address to person as:
person.setAddress(address);

At this point, person object knows about the Address object but the address object does not know the person object.
So, this is a unidirectional relation between Person-Address. To make this bidirectional, you need to associate
Person to Address as:
address.setPerson(person);

Multiplicity: This defines how many target entities can a particular source have and how many source entities can
a particular target have. Consider the example of artwork and artist, where an artist has many artwork pieces. In an
object model, an artwork has reference to one artist and an artist has reference to many pieces of artwork. So, for
artwork and artist the multiplicity is many-to-one and for artist and artwork, it is one-to-many. The other two type
of multiplicities are one-to-one and many-to-many.
In this topic, multiplicity would be referred to as the type of relationship.
To indicate that a property defines the relationship between two persistent components, as a result of relationship in
the database table, specify the fieldtype in the cfproperty tag to one of the following:

one-to-one
one-to-many
many-to-one
many-to-many

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You can also use the link table to establish a relationship. A link table contains the foreign key to both tables that
participate in the relationship. ORM looks for the map key column using the link table and not the target table.

Relationship attributes
This table specifies the attribute details for all the relationship types.
The "Applies to" column indicates the relationship type that the attribute is applicable to; "all" indicates that the
attribute is applicable to all relationship types.
Attribute

Applies to

Re/Opt

Default

batchsize

one-to-many

Optional

An integer value that specifies the "batchsize" for fetching

uninitialized collections. For details, see Batch fetching.

optional

Use this value to specify the caching strategy to be used for

caching this component's data in the secondary cache.

many-to-many
cacheuse

one-to-many
many-tomany

cachename

one-to-many

Description

See Caching for details.

optional

many-to-many

<entityname
>

Use this value to specify the name of the secondary cache.

See Caching for details.

<relationnam
e>
cascade

all

optional

See the Cascade options section for details.

cfc

all

Required

Name of the associated CFC.

constrained

one-to-one

Optional

false

Whether a constraint is set on this table's Primary Key column

to reference the Primary Key in the other table:
true
false
See One-to-one relationships for details.

fetch

all

Optional

select

Specifies whether join query or sequential select query will be

used to retrieve the associated objects. The values are:
join
select
See Lazy Loading for details.

fieldtype

all

Required

column

Specifies the type of relationship mapping:

one-to-one
one-to-many
many-to-one
many-to-many

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Attribute

Applies to

Re/Opt

fkcolumn

all

Optional

Default

Description
Specifies the foreign key column.
In case the relation is established using link table, this specifies
the foreign key column in the link table that references the
primary key of the source object.
If the relationship is established using multiple foreign key
columns (that reference the composite key of the source
table), then you must use comma-separated column
names.Also, the order in which the column names are
specified must match the order of composite keys defined. If
you do not specify any values, then

foreignkeyname

one-to-one

If the table exists and the constraints are defined,

ColdFusion automatically selects the values from the table

If the table does not exist, ColdFusion auto-generates the

values

optional

autogenerate Specifies the name of the foreign key constraint. This is used
d
only when the tables are created by ORM.

many-to-one,
many-tomany
index

many-to-one

optional

false

Specifies the name of the index for the foreign key column.

insert

many-to-one

Optional

true

Specifies whether the column should be included in SQL

UPDATE and/or INSERT statements. Values are:
true
false

Set update=false and insert=false if the column needs

to be read-only.
inverse

one-to-many

Optional

many-to-many

false

Specifies whether SQL query should be executed for this

association when persisting this object. Value are:
true
false
See Inverse section for details.

inversejoincolumn

all

Optional

Specifies the foreign key column in the Join table that

references the primary key column in the target table.
In case of a composite key, you can use a comma-separated list
of column names.
If the join table has multiple foreign key columns (that
reference the composite key of the target table), then you
must use comma-separated column names.Also, the order in
which the column names are specified must match the order
of composite keys defined.If you do not specify any values,
then

If the table exists and the constraints are defined, then

ColdFusion automatically selects the values from the table

If the table does not exist, then ColdFusion auto-generates

the values

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Attribute

Applies to

Re/Opt

Default

Description

lazy

all

Optional

true

Specifies if the association should be loaded lazily.

true
false
extra
See Lazy Loading for details.

linkcatalog

all

Optional

Catalog for the link table.

linkschema

all

Optional

Schema for the link table.

linktable

all

Required

Name of the link table.

mappedby

all

Optional

In a relationship, the foreign key can reference a unique

column other than the primary key. In such cases, use
mappedby to specify the property name that maps to the
unique key column.

missingrowIgnored

many-to-one,

Optional

false

many-tomany,

Values are:
true
false

(in ColdFusion
9.0.1) one-toone

If the value is true, and the row that is referenced by the foreign
key is missing, it is treated as a null association.
The default is false, in which case an exception is thrown.

name

all

Required

Name of the field

notnull

many-to-one

optional

false

Use this to add the not-null constraint for the foreign key
column when the table is created by ORM.

optimisticlock

all

Optional

true

Whether updates to this property need acquisition of the

optimistic lock on the table row. Values are:
true
false
See Optimistic locking for details.

orderby

one-to-many

Optional

Specifies the orderby string that needs to be used to sort the

associated collection. Use the following format to specify this
string:

many-to-many

"col1 <asc/desc> (, col2<asc/desc>)" or "col1(,

col2)"

In the latter case, asc is taken as default.

readonly

one-to-many

Optional

false

many-to-many

Values are:
true
false
If set to true, it indicates that the collection never changes and
can be cached.

remotingFetch

all

Optional

false

The value of the remotingFetch attribute is false by default for

any property that shares one-to-one, one-to-many, many-toone, or many-to-many relationship. Set this value to true to
retrieve data on the client-side.

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Attribute

Applies to

Re/Opt

Default

Description

singularname

one-to-many

optional

property
name

Use this property to define the custom name for generated

relationship methods. See Generated methods for
relationships between CFCs.

many-to-many
structkeycolumn

one-to-many

The column in the target table to use as key if the collection

type is struct.

many-to-many
type=struct
structkeytype

one-to-many

Optional

Specifies the data type of the key, when type=struct.

many-to-many

For the entire list of data types, see the Data Types section.

type =struct
type

one-to-many

Optional

Specifies the datatype of the relationship property:

many-to-many

array
struct

update

many-to-one

Optional

true

Specifies whether the column should be included in SQL

update statement:
true
false
Set update=false and insert=false if the column needs to be
read-only.

unique

many-to-one

optional

false

uniquekey

many-to-one

optional

Groups columns in a single unique key constraint.

where

one-to-many

optional

Use this to specify a SQL that will be used to filter the collection
retrieved. See Applying filters on relationship for details.

many-to-many

Use this to add the unique constraint for the foreign key
column when the table is created by ORM. This effectively
makes this relation one-to-one.

Cascade options
In an association, it is cumbersome to apply an action performed on object to the other object. For example, in case of
an Department-Employee one-to-many association, if you add an employee, the same change needs to be updated on
the Department as well. The cascade option in Hibernate allows you to perform such operations.
You can specify the following values in the cascade attribute:

all: Allows you to apply all operations to be cascaded to the associated object.

save-update: If the parent object is saved, the associated objects are saved as well.

delete: Deletes the child object if the delete operation is called on the parent object.

delete-orphan: This is a special kind of cascade option that applies to one-to-many relation only. Deletes all child

objects for which the association has been removed.

all-delete-orphan: Cascades all operations to child objects, and performs delete-orphan action.

refresh: Cascades the refresh action to the child object. The refresh action is used to reload an object and its

collections.
Typically, cascade attribute is not used on a many-to-one or a many-to-many relationship.

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You can also specify comma separated cascade values in the cascade attribute. For a one-to-one or a one-to-many
relationship, the most common values are all-delete-orphan.
For an association where the child object can continue to exist even if the parent object is deleted, you can apply the
save-update cascade value.
Applying filter on associated objects
In one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, an array or struct is retrieved. Filters can be applied to retrieve a
subset of the associated objects. The filter can be specified in the where attribute, which is an SQL where clause. In a
one-to-many association for artist and artwork:
If you want to retrieve only the unsold artwork for every Artist object, you need to define the mapping as follows:
<cfproperty name="unsoldArts" cfc="Art" fieldtype="one-to-many" fkcolumn="ARTISTID"
where="issold=0">

Inverse
In a bidirectional relationship, the inverse attribute is used on an association property to specify whether an SQL
query should be executed for the association, when persisting the object.
Consider the ART and ARTIST CFCs, which have a bidirectional one-to-many relationship. This means that each ART
object has a reference to the ARTIST object and ARTIST object has a reference to the ART object. While persisting
ARTIST and the associated ART, the relationship can be established in the database from both sides of the object.
Setting inverse=true on one side of the relation tells ORM to ignore this side of relation for executing the SQL.
As a general rule, in a bidirectional relation, one side must set inverse to true. For one-to-many or many-to-one
relation, inverse should be set on the many side of the relation. For example, in ARTIST-ART relation, inverse should
be set to true on the 'art' property in ARTIST.
In many-to-many relation, you can set inverse=true on any side of the relation.

One-to-one relationships
A one-to-one relationship is where the source object has an attribute that references another single target object and
vice-versa. An example of this relationship is the relationship between an employee and the assigned office cubicle,
where one employee has one office cubicle and one office cubicle belongs to only one employee.
A one-to-one relationship between two persistent components are defined using fieldtype value one-to-one.
Syntax:
<cfproperty name="fieldname"
fieldtype="one-to-one"
cfc="Referenced_CFC_Name"
linktable="Link table name"
linkcatalog="Catalog for the link table"
linkschema="Schema for the link table"
fkcolumn="Foreign Key column name"
inversejoincolumn="Column name or comma-separated list of primary key columns"
cascade="cascade_options"
constrained="true|[false]"
fetch="join|[select]"
lazy="[true]|false">

There are two types of one-to-one relationships:

Primary key association

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Unique Foreign Key association

Primary key association
In this type of association, the primary key of one table references to the primary key of another table. That is, both the
tables share the same primary key.
The following example shows how to define this mapping.
Example
Consider the EMPLOYEE and OFFICECUBICLE example. Both the tables share the same primary key. The mapping
for these tables are as follows:

EMPLOYEE.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Employee">
<cfproperty name="id" fieldtype="id" generator="native">
<cfproperty name="firstname">
<cfproperty name="lastname">
<cfproperty name="officecubicle" fieldtype="one-to-one" cfc="OfficeCubicle">
</cfcomponent>

OFFICECUBICLE.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="OfficeCubicle">
<cfproperty name="id" fieldtype="id" generator="foreign" params="{property='Employee'}"
ormtype="int">
<cfproperty name="Employee" fieldtype="one-to-one" cfc="Employee" constrained="true">
<cfproperty name="Location">
<cfproperty name="Size">
</cfcomponent>
fieldtype=one-to-one specifies that the property is a one-to-one property.
constrained=true on Employee property in OFFICECUBICLE.cfc, means that a constraint is set on the

OFFICECUBICLE table for its ID to reference the ID in the EMPLOYEE table.

The ID of EMPLOYEE table is auto-generated. The ID of the OFFICECUBICLE table should be the same as the ID
of the Employee table. For this, set generator="foreign". Foreign generator takes one parameter 'property' as
input, which should be the relationship property name of OFFICECUBICLE entity which is 'EMPLOYEE' in this case.
Here, primary key values of related rows in both the tables must be the same. The identity generator algorithm in
the mapping for the component (whose mapped table has the constraint), must be set to foreign.
Unique foreign key association
In this type of association, the foreign key of one table references the primary key of another table, and the foreign key
column has a unique constraint. To define this relationship, fkcolumn attribute should be specified on the
relationship-property of the CFC whose table contains the foreign key column. The other end of relation should use
mappedby attribute.
Syntax

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<cfproperty
name="fieldname"
fieldtype="one-to-one"
cfc="Referenced_CFC_Name"
linktable="Link table name"
linkcatalog="Catalog for the link table"
linkschema="Schema for the link table"
fkcolumn="Foreign Key column name"
inversejoincolumn="Column name or comma-separated list of primary key columns"
mappedby="Mapped_Field_name_in_referenced_CFC"
cascade="none"
fetch="join|[select]"
lazy="[true]|false">

Note: The mappedby attribute can not be specified with the fkcolumn attribute.
Example
In the EMPLOYEE and OFFICECUBICLE example, OFFICECUBICLE has a foreign key column, EMPLOYEEID.
This foreign key references the primary key of the Employee table. OFFICECUBICLE has an auto-generated primary
key, which does not participate in the relationship.
EMPLOYEE.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Employee">
<cfproperty name="EmployeeID" fieldtype="id" generator="native">
<cfproperty name="firstname">
<cfproperty name="lastname">
<cfproperty name="officecubicle" fieldtype="one-to-one" cfc="officecubicle"
mappedby="Employee">
</cfcomponent>

OFFICECUBICLE.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="officecubicle">
<cfproperty name="id" fieldtype="id" generator="native">
<cfproperty name="Employee" fieldtype="one-to-one" cfc="Employee" fkcolumn="EmployeeID">
<cfproperty name="Location">
<cfproperty name="Size">
</cfcomponent>

In OFFICECUBICLE entity, fkcolumn="EmployeeID" specifies that EmployeeID is the foreign key column in
OFFICECUBICLE table.

mappedby="Employee" specifies that the one-to-one relationship is with the foreign-key property 'EMPLOYEE' in
OFFICECUBICLE entity and not with its primary key.

In Employee entity, fkcolumn should not be specified.

In this case, OFFICECUBICLE entity has a independent Primary key which is auto-generated.

One-to-many relationship
A one-to-many relationship is where the source object has field that stores a collection of target objects. These target
objects may also have an inverse relationship back to the source object. This relationship is established by having a
foreign key in the target table that maps to the primary key of the source table.
An example of a one-to-many relationship is the relation between artist and art, where the artist has many artwork
pieces.

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A one-to-many relationship between two persistent components is defined using the fieldtype value one-to-many
in the cfproperty tag. The source object contains a collection of target objects. ColdFusion allows the collection to
be one of the following types:

Array
Struct
This collection is a persistence aware collection. Any addition or deletion from this collection is automatically persisted
in the database.
Array
An Artist object can contain the Art objects as an array. To define this mapping in the CFC, use the following syntax:
Syntax
<cfproperty
name="field_name"
fieldtype="one-to-many"
cfc="Referenced_CFC_name"
linktable="Link table name"
linkcatalog="Catalog for the link table"
linkschema="Schema for the link table"
fkcolumn="Foreign Key column name"
inversejoincolumn="Column name or comma-separated list of primary key columns "
type="array"
orderby="order_by_string"
cascade="cascade_options"
lazy="[true]|false|extra"
fetch="join|[select]"
inverse="true|[false]"
batchsize="N"
optimisticlock="[true]|false"
readonly="true|[false]">

For the artist-art example, the relationship property in Artist.cfc is defined as follows:
<cfproperty name="art" type="array" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="Art" fkcolumn="ARTISTID">

type-array specifies that the artist object will contain art objects in an array.
fkcolumn="ArtistID" specifies that the foreign key column is ARTISTID that references the primary key of

ARTIST table.
Struct
An Artist object can contain the Art objects as a struct. The key would be any column in the ART table (usually the
primary key or a unique key). The value would be the Art object. To define this mapping, use the following syntax.
Syntax

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<cfproperty
name="field_name"
fieldtype="one-to-many"
cfc="Referenced_CFC_name"
linktable="Link table name"
linkcatalog="Catalog for the link table"
linkschema="Schema for the link table"
fkcolumn="Foreign Key column name"
inversejoincolumn="Column name or comma-separated list of primary key columns"
type="struct"
orderby="order_by_String"
structkeycolumn = "Structure_Key_Column"
structkeytype="ormtype"
cascade="cascade_options"
lazy="[true]|false|extra"
fetch="join|[select]"
inverse="true|[false]"
batchsize="N"
optimisticlock="[true]|false"
readonly="true|[false]">

For the artist-art example, you can define the relationship property as:
<cfproperty name="art" type="struct" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="Art" fkcolumn="ARTISTID"
structkeytype="int" structkeycolumn="ArtID">

type=struct specifies that the artist object will contain art objects in a struct.

structkeycolumn="ArtID" specifies that the key of the struct would be ArtID.

Note that ARTID is the primary key in Art table.

structkeytype="int" specifies the datatype of structkeycolumn.

fkcolumn="ArtistID" specifies that the foreign key column is ARTISTID that references the primary key of Artist

table.

Many-to-one relationship
A many-to-one relationship is the inverse of a one-to-many relationship. In this relationship, many source objects can
reference the same target object.
An example of this relationship is the relation between Art and Artist, where many Art are created by the same Artist.
This relationship is established with the foreign key in the source table that references the primary key in the target
table.
A many-to-one relationship between two persistent components is defined using the fieldtype value many-to-one
in the cfproperty tag.

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Syntax
<cfproperty
name="fieldname"
fieldtype="many-to-one"
cfc="Referenced_CFC_Name"
linktable="Link table name"
linkcatalog="Catalog for the link table"
linkschema="Schema for the link table"
fkcolumn="Foreign Key column name"
inversejoincolumn="Column name or comma-separated list of primary key columns"
column="Foreign_Key_Column"
mappedby="Mapped_Field_name_in_referenced_CFC"
cascade="cascade_options"
fetch="join|[select]"
lazy="true|false"
insert="[true]|false"
update="[true]|false"
optimisticlock="[true]|false"
missingrowIgnored="true|[false]">

For the art-artist example, the relationship in the ART.cfc can be defined as:
<cfproperty name="artist" fieldtype="many-to-one" fkcolumn="artistid" cfc="Artist">
fkcolumn="ARTISTID" indicates that the foreign key column in Art table references the primary key ARTISTID of

ARTIST table.

Many-to-many relationships
A many-to-many relationship is where the source objects contain a collection of target objects and the target objects
in turn contain a collection of source objects.
An example of a many-to-many relationship is the relation between Order and Product, where an order has many
products and a product has many orders.
This relationship is established by using a third table called a 'LinkTable'. The LinkTable contains the foreign key to
both the tables participating in the relation. ORM looks for the map key column in the LinkTable and not the target
table.
In the preceding example of Order-Product, a many-to-many relationship is established by using LinkTable.
A many-to-many relationship between two persistent CFCs is defined using the fieldtype="many-to-many" value
in the cfproperty tag.
Note: If the fkcolumn name is not specified, ORM generates the fkcolumn name in the "#relationName#_ID" format.
Syntax
Order.cfc

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<cfproperty
name="fieldname"
fieldtype="many-to-many"
cfc="fully qualified name"
linktable="Link table name"
linkcatalog="Catalog for the link table"
linkschema="Schema for the link table"
fkcolumn="Foreign Key column name"
inversejoincolumn="Column name or a composite key with comma-separated primary key columns"
mappedby="Property in the target component that is referenced by fkcolumn in join table"
type="[array]|struct"
orderby="order by String
structkeycolumn="The structure key column name"
structkeydatatype="datatype".
cascade="cascade options" inverse="true|[false]" lazy = "[true]|false" [optional]
fetch="join|[select]" [optional] batchsize="integer" optimisticlock="[true]|false"
readonly="true|[false]"
missingrowIgnored="true|[false]">

For the Order-Product example, the many-to-many relationship is established using a third table "OrderProduct" that
has two foreign keys: OrderId and ProductId. OrderId references the primary key orderId in the order table, and
ProductId references the primary key productId in the Product table. This relationship can be defined as follows:

Order.cfc
<cfproperty
name="products"
fieldtype="many-to-many"
CFC="Product"
linktable="Order_Product"
FKColumn="orderId"
inversejoincolumn="productId"
lazy="true"
cascade="all"
orderby="productId">

Product.cfc
<cfproperty
name="orders"
fieldtype="many-to-many"
CFC="Order"
linktable="Order_Product"
FKColumn="productId"
inversejoincolumn="orderId"
lazy="true"
cascade="all"
orderby="orderId">

The fkcolumn here is the foreign key in the link table that references the primary key of the source table.
InverseJoinColumn is the foreign key in the link table that references the primary key of the target table. This
attribute can also take a composite key value, for example you can specify inversejoincolumn=field1, field2, where
field1 and field2 form the composite key.

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Advanced mapping
Collection Mapping
Collection mapping is similar to a one-to-many relationship mapping. However, in collection mapping, you have a
collection of values instead of a collection of persistent target objects.
Consider the Artist-Art tables. If you want each Artist object to contain an array of artwork names instead of artwork
objects, collection mapping should be used.
To define collection mapping in the CFC, use fieldtype="collection" in the cfproperty tag.
The collection can either be Array or Struct.
Array
Syntax
name="field_name"
fieldtype="collection"
type="array"
table="table_name"
fkcolumn="foreign_key_column_name"
elementtype="ormtype"
elementColumn="column_name from the link table that should be
used for populating"
orderby="order by string"
lazy = "true|[false]"
readonly="true|[false]"
optimisticlock="[true]|false"
batchsize="batch size">

Example
If each Artist object contains an array of artwork names instead of artwork objects, this mapping can be defined in
Artist.cfc as:
<cfproperty name="artNames" fieldtype="collection" type="array" table="ART"
fkcolumn="ARTISTID" elementcolumn="ARTNAME" elementtype="string">

Attribute
Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

batchsize

Optional

An integer value that specifies the

"batchsize" for fetching uninitialized
collections. For details, see Lazy Loading.

elementColumn

Required

Specifies the column name that contains

the data to be fetched for collection.

elementtype

Optional

fieldtype

Required

String

Description

Data type of the selected column. See ORM

data types for details.
Should be collection.

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Attribute

Req/Opt

fkcolumn

Optional

Default

Description
The foreign key column in the specified
table.
If you do not specify the foreign key
column and useDBForMapping is true
in ormsettings, ColdFusion
automatically determines a foreign key
column after inspecting the database.

lazy

Optional

true

Specifies if loading is to be done lazily:

true
false
See Lazy Loading for details.

name

Required

optimisticlock

Optional

Name of the collection.

true

Specifies the locking strategy.

true
false

orderBy

Optional

readonly

Optional

Specifies the Order By string.

false

true
false
If set to true, it indicates that the collection
never changes and can be cached.

table

Required

type

Optional

Name of the table from where the values

will be fetched.
array

Specifies if the collection type is:

array
struct

Struct
Syntax
<cfproperty
name="field_name"
fieldtype="collection"
type="struct"
table="table_name"
fkcolumn="foreign_key_column_name"
structkeycolumn="column in the target table to be used as key in the struct"
structkeytype="ormtype of the key in the struct"
elementtype="ormtype of the valye in the struct"
elementColumn="column name from the table that should be used in
value of struct"
orderby="order by string"
lazy = "[true]|false"
readonly="true|[false]"
optimisticlock="[true]|false"
batchsize="batch size">

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Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

batchsize

Optional

An integer value that specifies the "batchsize" for

lazily fetching instances of this collection.

elementcolumn

Required

Specifies the column name that contains the data to

be fetched for collection.

elementtype

Required

Data type of the value. See ORM data types for details.

fieldtype

Required

Should be a collection.

fkcolumn

Optional

The foreign key column in the table.

If foreign key column is not specified and
useDBForMapping is set to true in ORMSetting,
ColdFusion automatically determines the Foreign Key
column after inspecting the database.

lazy

Optional

true

Specifies if loading is to be done lazily:

true
false
See Lazy Loading for details.

name

Required

optimisticlock

Optional

Name of the collection property.

true

true
false

orderby

Optional

readonly

Optional

Specifies the Order By string.

false

Value are:
true
false
If you set it to true, the collection never changes and
can be cached.

structkeycolumn

Required

Column name in the table that will be used as key of

struct.

structkeyType

Required

Specifies the data type of the key, when

type=struct.
For the entire list of data types, see the Data Type
section.

table

Required

type

Optional

Name of the table from where the collection will be

fetched.
array

Specifies if the collection type is:

array
struct

Inheritance mapping
If the object you need to persist has a hierarchy, the CFCs of that object hierarchy need to be mapped to the relational
tables such that the entire hierarchy is persisted.
There are multiple strategies followed for inheritance mapping:

Table per hierarchy

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Table per subclass without discriminator

Table per subclass with discriminator
Table per hierarchy
In this model, the object hierarchy is persisted in a single table. This table includes columns for all the properties of all
the CFCs in the hierarchy. The concrete subclass represented by a row is identified based on the value of the
discriminator column. In this strategy, all the CFCs of the hierarchy must have the same table name.
Note: If the discriminator column and discriminator value is not specified, a default discriminator column name and
value is picked up.
Example
The following example demonstrates an implementation of table per hierarchy:
Payment
PaymentID <<PK>>
PaymentType <<Discriminator>>
Amount
CardNo
CardType
CheckNo
BankName
City

Payment Table
Payment (extended by)
Check Payment
CreditCard Payment

Example for table per hierarchy

In the preceding figure, discriminatorColumn is PaymentType. Depending on the values of PaymentType whether
it is credit card or check, the row is represented as a CreditCardpayment or checkPayment object respectively.
The following example illustrates how you can model the table per hierarchy:
Payment.cfc (parent class)
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Payment" discriminatorColumn="paymentType">
<cfproperty name="id">
<cfproperty name="amount">
</cfcomponent>

CreditCardPayment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" extends="Payment" table="Payment" discriminatorValue="CCard">
<cfproperty name="cardNo">
<cfproperty name="cardType">
</cfcomponent>

CheckPayment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" extends="Payment" table="Payment" discriminatorValue="check">
<cfproperty name="checkNo">
<cfproperty name="bankName">
<cfproperty name="city">
</cfcomponent>

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Table per subclass without discriminator

In this model, there are separate tables for each class in the hierarchy and these tables are joined by a primary key.
When the object is persisted, properties of the parent component are stored in the parent table and the remaining
properties are stored in the child table.
Payment
PaymentID <<PK>>
Amount

Payment class extended by

CheckPayment class
CheckPayment

CreditCardPayment
paymentID
cardNo
cardType

CreditCardPayment class

paymentID
checkNo
bankName
city

Table per subclass without discriminator

In the preceding figure, the tables are joined by join column paymentId. You can model the tables as follows:
Payment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Payment">
<cfproperty name="paymentId">
<cfproperty name="amount">
</cfcomponent>

CreditCardpayment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" extends="Payment" table="CreditCardPayment"
joinColumn="paymentId">
<cfproperty name="cardNo">
<cfproperty name="cardType">
</cfcomponent>

CheckPayment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" extends="Payment" table="CheckPayment" joinColumn="paymentId">
<cfproperty name="checkNo">
<cfproperty name="bankName">
<cfproperty name="city">
</cfcomponent>

When an object of type CreditCardPayment is persisted, the property amount is stored in the payment table and the
properties cardNo and cardType are stored in the CreditCardPayment table. The primary key of the
CreditCardPayment remains the same as the primary key of the Payment table.
Table per subclass with discriminator
This model is similar to the table per subclass without discriminator strategy except that there is a discriminator
column in the parent table. In addition, the child components has a disciminatorValue attribute in the
cfcomponent tag.
The following example demonstrates the table per subclass with discriminator attribute:
Payment.cfc

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<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Payment" discriminatorColumn="paymentType">

<cfproperty name="paymentId">
<cfproperty name="amount">
</cfcomponent>

CreditCardPayment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" extends="Payment" table="CreditCardPayment"
joinColumn="paymentId" discriminatorValue="CCard">
<cfproperty name="cardNo">
<cfproperty name="cardType">
</cfcomponent>

CheckPayment.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" extends="Payment" table="CheckPayment" joinColumn="paymentId"
discriminatorValue="Check">
<cfproperty name="checkNo">
<cfproperty name="bankName">
<cfproperty name="city">
</cfcomponent>

When an object of type CreditCardPayment is persisted, the property amount is stored in the payment table and the
properties cardNo and cardType are stored in the CreditCardPayment table. The primary key of CreditCardPayment
remains the same as the primary key of the Payment table. The value of PaymentType is the value of
disciminatorColumn attribute of the respective object.

Embedded mapping
This mapping is used when a CFC has an embedded object which also needs to be persisted along with the parent's
data. The CFC of the embedded object must have the attribute embedded set to "true" on the cfcomponent tag.
Important: The embedded object cannot be a persistent object. This feature is supported only when the hibernate
mapping is explicitly defined in the hibernate mapping file (.hbmxml files).
Name
FirstName
LastName
Title

Employee
EmployeeID
EmployeeName
Designation

Name.cfc embedded in Employee.cfc

The diagram shows two CFCs Employee and Name where EmployeeName field of the Employee.cfc is an object of
Name.cfc. In the database, both these objects are persisted in the Employee table as a single row. Name object itself
does not have its own identity. This mapping can be modeled as follows:
name.cfc
<cfcomponent embedded="true">
<cfproperty name="FirstName">
<cfproperty name="LastName">
<cfproperty name=" Title">
</cfcomponent>

employee.cfc

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<cfcomponent persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="EmployeeID">
<cfproperty name="EmployeeName">
<cfproperty name="Designation">
</cfcomponent>

employee.hbmxml
<hibernate-mapping >
<class name="cfc:Employee" table="Employees">
<id name="EmployeeID" type="integer" column="EmployeeID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<component name="EmployeeName" class="cfc:Name">
<property name="LastName" type="string" column="LastName"/>
<property name="FirstName" type="string" column="FirstName"/>
<property name="Title" type="string" column="Title"/>
</component>
<property name="Designation" type="string" column="Designation"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

If the persistent CFC has a collection of embedded objects, then this mapping also has to be defined in the XML as
shown in the following example. Here, employee object has a collection of IMData objects. Note that the IMData object
is not persistent.
employee.cfc
<cfcomponent
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
</cfcomponent>

persistent="true">
name="EmployeeID">
name="EmployeeName">
name= "IMIDs" type="array">
name="Designation">

IMData.cfc
<cfcomponent embedded="true">
<cfproperty name="type">
<cfproperty name="ID">
</cfcomponent>

employee.hbmxml
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="cfc:Employee" table="Employees">
<id name="EmployeeID" type="integer" column="EmployeeID">
<generator class="native"/>
</id>
<property name="EmployeeName" type="string" column="EmployeeName"/>
<bag name="IMIDs" table="IMData" lazy="true">
<key column="EmployeeID" />
<composite-element class="cfc:IMData">
<property name="type" type="string" column="Type"/>
<property name="ID" type="string" column="ID"/>
</composite-element>
</bag>
<property name="Designation" type="string" column="Designation"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

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Emp.cfm
<cfscript>
employee = EntityNew("Employee");
employee.setEmployeeName("Dan Watson");
imdata1 = new IMData();
imdata1.setType("IMClient1");
imdata1.setID("msngrId1");
imdata2 = new IMData();
imdata2.setType("IMClient 2");
imdata2.setID("msngrId2");
employee.setIMIDs([imdata1, imdata2]);
EntitySave(employee);
</cfscript>

For more details on component mapping in hibernate, see Component Mapping in Hibernate Reference Guide.

Join mapping in a CFC

Join mapping is used to map the properties of one CFC to several tables. In this case, tables are joined using a join
column. For example, consider a case where the Employee and Address tables, are mapped to a single CFC Employees.
Therefore, the employee.cfc has some fields, which are persisted in Employee table and some fields that are persisted
in Address table. The attributes joincolumn and table should be specified for those fields that need to be persisted
in Address table. In this case, table would be Address and joinColumn would be AddressID.
Note: Hibernate uses outer join by default for join fetching. For inner join, use HQL.
Following is a sample employee.cfc
Employee.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="id">
<cfproperty name="name">
<cfproperty name="houseno" column="houseno" table="Address" joincolumn="addressId">
<cfproperty name="street" table="Address" joincolumn="addressId">
<cfproperty name="city" table="Address" joincolumn="addressId">
<cfproperty name="country" table="Address" joincolumn="addressId">
</cfcomponent>

Define the ORM mapping in the Hibernate mapping file

ColdFusion can also use the standard Hibernate Mapping XML file to define the mapping between the object and the
database. You can use both Java classes and CFCs in Hibernate mapping. For a complete description of hibernate
mapping, see www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/mapping.html.
Note the following points when using Hibernate mapping files.

The extension of the Hibernate configuration file is *.hbmxml.

The file is placed in the Application folder.
The class name must be specified as cfc:<fully qualified name of cfc>. If a package is specified in the hibernate
mapping, then specify the class name as cfc:<name of cfc>.

The entityname attribute is optional. If you do not specify this attribute, it takes the component name, by default.
For example, for the component artgallery.art, the value of the entityname attribute is Art, by default.

The entity name must be unique for an application. If there are two components with the same name (even if they
are in different packages), specify different entity names for each of these components.

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The following is an example of Hibernate mapping:

<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
"http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping>
<class lazy="true" name="cfc:artGallery.Art" schema="APP" table="Art">
<id name="artid" type="int">
<column length="10" name="ARTID"/>
<generator class="identity"/>
</id>
<property name="artname" type="string">
<column length="50" name="ARTNAME"/>
</property>
<property name="price" type="java.math.BigDecimal">
<column length="19" name="PRICE"/>
</property>
<property name="largeimage" type="string">
<column length="30" name="LARGEIMAGE"/>
</property>
<property name="mediaid" type="int">
<column length="10" name="MEDIAID"/>
</property>
<property name="issold" type="boolean">
<column length="5" name="ISSOLD"/>
</property>
<many-to-one class="cfc:artGallery.Artists"
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

column="artistid" name="artist"/>

Mapping CFCs without properties

If a persistent CFC has no property, all table columns are added as properties provided that the table exists and you
have specified it.
Example
Artist.cfc
component persistent="true" table="artists"
{
}

index.cfm
<cfset artists = entityLoad("Artist")>
<cfdump var="#artists#">

The columns are fetched only as column properties. Relationship, timestamp, or version field are not added.
Limitations
If the mapping file for the CFC exists, then the properties are not added automatically.

In the case of inheritance, properties are not added to the CFC automatically.

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Working with objects

Operations can be performed on an Entity object, and the auto-generated methods in the entity can be called.

Generated accessors
As described in Define ORM mapping, the persistent fields for an object are defined in the CFC using cfproperty.
ColdFusion generates the accessor methods (getter and setter) for each property in the CFC that can be invoked. For
more information, see Implicit Get and Set Functions. For example, if a property is defined in Artist as follows:
<cfproperty name="firstName" >

There are two methods generated in the Artist object:

setFirstName(firstName)

getFirstName()

You can invoke these methods like regular methods in the CFC. For a property, the generated setter saves the value for
the property in the object's VARIABLES scope. The generated getter retrieves the value of the property from the
VARIABLES scope. ORM always uses the property value from the VARIABLES scope. That is, while saving the object's
data in the table, ORM retrieves the value of the property from VARIABLES scope. While populating the object after
reading from the table, ORM puts the property's value in the VARIABLES scope.If you define your own accessor
methods for a property, store the property value in the VARIABLES scope for ORM to access it.

Generated methods for relationships between CFCs

When a relationship is defined in a CFC, ColdFusion generates a few methods in the CFC object to add or remove
associated objects and to check their existence, for each relationship defined in the CFC.
The generated methods for relationships include:

add<relationship_property_name>()

This method is generated for one-to-many and many-to-many relationships. The method adds the given object to
the association collection (array or struct) of the component. For a bidirectional relationship, this method does not
set the association on the other end.
For type="array", the method signature is:
add<relationship_property_name>(<associated_object>)

For type="struct", the method signature is:

add<relationship_property_name>(<key>, <associated_object>)

boolean remove<relationship_property_name>()

This method is generated for one-to-many and many-to-many relationships. The method removes the object from
the associated collection (array or struct) of the component. If the associated object was removed from the
collection successfully, then true is returned. For a bidirectional relationship, this method does not remove the
association from the other end.
For type="array", the method signature is:
boolean remove<relationship_property_name>(<associated_object>)

For type="struct", the method signature is:

boolean remove<relationship_property_name>(<key>).

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boolean Has<relationship_property_name>()

This method is generated for all the relationships. For one-to-many and many-to-many, this method checks
whether the association collection is empty. If the association collection is empty, it will return true. For one-to-one
and many-to-one, this method checks whether the associated object exists.

boolean Has<relationship_property_name>(<associated_object>)

This method is generated for one-to-many and many-to-many relationships. The method checks whether the given
associated object is present in the association collection. If it is present, it returns true.
For type="array", the method signature is
boolean has<relationship_property_name>(<associated_object>)

For type="struct", the method signature is

boolean has<relationship_property_name>(<key>)

Example
Consider the following example of artists (ARTISTS table) and artwork (ART table), where the artist forms a one-tomany relationship with artwork.
Artist.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" schema="APP" table="Artists">
<cfproperty name="artistid" fieldtype="id"/>
<cfproperty name="firstname"/>
<cfproperty name="lastname"/>
<cfproperty name="state"/>
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="Art" fkcolumn="ArtistID" >
</cfcomponent>

Art.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" schema="APP" table="Art">
<cfproperty name="artid" fieldtype="id"/>
<cfproperty name="artname"/>
<cfproperty name="issold"/>
</cfcomponent>

In this example Artist has a relation field art with Art. The following methods are implicitly added to the Artist object:

addArts(Art art)
booleanremoveArts(Art art)
booleanhasArts()
booleanhasArts(Art art)
The attribute singularName provides the flexibility to change the name of the generated relationship methods. For
example, if the relationship property of Artist is specified as follows:
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="Art" fkcolumn="ArtistID"
singularName="Art">

then the following methods are generated:

addArt(Art art)
removeArt(Art art)
hasArt()

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hasArt(Art art)

Perform create, read, update, delete operations on ORM Objects

In any data-centric application, you can perform the following operations on the database:

Insert (Create)
Update
Retrieve
Delete
Once the object relational model is defined in a ColdFusion application, you can perform CRUD operations on the
objects directly using the methods provided by ColdFusion ORM. ColdFusion ORM, in turn, takes care of persisting
the object in the database.

Create entities
EntityNew

Creates an object for persistent CFC with the given entity name. This is similar to CreateObject but it uses entityname
whereas CreateObject takes CFC name. If there is no CFC defined in the application with the given entityname, an
error will be thrown.
If the persistent CFC has an init method, then the function EntityNew calls the init method while creating the
object.
Syntax
<entity> EntityNew("<entityName>")

Save entities
EntitySave

Saves or Updates the data of the entity and all related entities to the database.
ColdFusion automatically tries to find if a new record should be inserted or an existing record be updated for the given
entity. If forceinsert=true, then ColdFusion always tries to insert the entity as a new record.
Calling this method may not run the insert/update SQL immediately. It is possible that various SQL statements are
queued and then run as a batch for performance reasons. The SQL statements are run when the ORM session is
flushed.
Syntax
EntitySave(entity, [forceinsert])
Parameter

Description

entity

The Entity that needs to be saved in the database.

forceinsert

If true, then ColdFusion always tries to insert the entity as a new record.

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Example:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

artist = EntityNew("Artist")>
artist.setFirstName("Marcia")>
artist.setlastName("Em")>
EntitySave(artist)>

Update objects
EntitySave

The method to update an object is the same as saving an object. Load the object that needs to be updated, make updates,
and save the object.
Syntax
EntitySave(entity, [forceinsert])

Example
The following example changes the first name of an artist with an Artist ID 1:
<cfset artist1 = EntityLoad("Artist", 1, true)>
<cfset artist1.setFirstName("Garcia")>
<cfset EntitySave(artist1)>

Read/Load objects
Entities are loaded using the EntityLoad methods. All EntityLoad methods take the entity name as input.
If the persistent CFC has an init method, the methods call the init method while creating objects.
Syntax
EntityLoad (entityname)
EntityLoad (entityname, id [, unique])
EntityLoad (entityname, filtercriteria [,unique]
EntityLoad(entityname, filtercriteria, sortorder [, options])
EntityLoadByExample(sampleentity [, unique])
EntityReload(entity)

Examples

EntityLoad (entityname)

Loads and returns an array of entities of the specified entity name. For example, to retrieve all the objects of the
artist CFC:
<cfset artist = EntityLoad('ARTIST')>

EntityLoad (entityname, id [, unique])

Loads and returns an entity whose Primary key's value is id. The entity is returned as an array by default. If unique
is true, then the entity is returned.
If the entity has a composite key, then the id has to be specified as key-value pairs (ColdFusion struct).
Example 1:
This example loads the Artist object with PK 100 and returns a single-element array containing the artist object.
<cfset artistArr = EntityLoad('Artist', 100)>

Example 2:

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This example loads the Artist object with PK 100 and returns the artist object.
<cfset artistobj = EntityLoad('Artist', 100, true)>

Example 3:
This example loads the OrderDetail object which has the composite key OrderID=100 and ProductID=1 and
returns the orderdetail object.
<cfset orderDetail = EntityLoad('orderdetails', {OrderID=100, ProductID=1}, true)>

EntityLoad (entityname, filtercriteria [,unique]

Loads and returns an array of entities of the given entity name that matches the filtercriteria.
filtercriteria is a key-value pair (ColdFusion struct) of property names and its values. If there are more than
one key-value pair in filtercriteria, then they always use the AND operator. If you are sure that only one record
exists that matches this filtercriteria, unique=true can be specified so that a single entity is returned instead
of an array. If unique=true and multiple records are returned, then an exception occurs. For example, to retrieve
details of all artists that have state CA:
<cfset artistsFromCA = EntityLoad('Artist', {state="CA"})>

To retrieve a unique object, specify unique= "true". If more than one object satisfies the condition, an exception
occurs.
This example loads the artist object whose firstName is "Austin" and lastname is "Weber".
<cfset artist = EntityLoad('artist', {firstname="Austin", lastname="Weber"}, "true")>

EntityLoad(entityname,filtercriteria,sortorder[, options])

Loads and returns an array of entities that satisfy the filtercriteria that is sorted as specified by the sortorder
parameter.
filtercriteria is a key-value pair (ColdFusion struct) of property names and its values. If there are more than
one key-value pairs in filtercriteria, then they always use the AND operator.
sortorder is a string, and should be specified in the following syntax:

"propname1 asc, propname2 desc, ..."

Some examples of sortorder are as follows:
"firstname asc, lastname desc"
"firstname"
"country, age desc"
Example:
To retrieve artists whose state is CA, and sorted by City and FirstName:
<cfset artistsFromCA = EntityLoad('artist', {state="CA"}, "city asc, firstName")>

Certain configuration options can be input as name-value pairs as options argument. Several options can be
specified to control the behavior of entity retrieval.

maxResults: Specifies the maximum number of objects to be retrieved.

offset: Specifies the start index of the resultset from where it has to start the retrieval.

cacheable: Whether the result of this query is to be cached in the secondary cache. Default is false.

cachename: Name of the cache in secondary cache.

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timeout: Specifies the timeout value (in seconds) for the query.

Maxresults and timeout are used for pagination.

Example
To load first 5 artists whose state is "CA" that are sorted on the firstName.
<cfset artists = EntityLoad("Artist",{state='CA"}, "FirstName", {maxResults=5})>

EntityLoadByExample(sampleentity [,unique])

Loads and returns an array of objects that match the sampleentity. The filter criteria is constructed by ANDing
all the non-null properties of the sampleentity.For example, to retrieve an array of objects matching the specified
values:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

artist= CreateObject("component", "artist")>

artist.setState("CA")>
artist.setCity("Berkeley")>
artist=EntityLoadByExample(artist)>

If you are sure that only one record exists that matches the specified filtercriteria, you can specify
unique=true so that a single entity is returned instead of an array. If unique=true and multiple records are
returned, then an exception occurs.

EntityReload(entity)

Reloads data for an entity that is already loaded in this session. This method refetches data from the database and
repopulates the entity.

Delete objects
EntityDelete
This method deletes the record from the database for the specified entity. Depending on the cascade attribute specified
in the mapping, it also deletes the associated objects.
Syntax
EntityDelete(entity)

Example
For example, to delete an Artist with ArtistID 5:
<cfset artist = EntityLoad('artist', 5, true)>
<cfset EntityDelete(artist)>

Convert object to query

EntitytoQueryThis method converts the input entity object or the input array of entity objects to a query object. The

name of the properties are used as the query column names. Use the optional parameter Entity_name to return the
query of the given entity in the case of inheritance mapping. All the objects in the input array should be of the same
type. Relationship properties are not be included in the result query.
Syntax
EntitytoQuery (orm_object, [entity_name])
EntitytoQuery (orm_object_array, [entity_name])

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Example 1
<cfset artists = EntityLoad("Artist")>
<cfset artistQuery = EntityToQuery(artists)>

Example 2
<cfset creditCardPayments = EntityLoad("CreditCardPayment")>
<cfset paymentQuery = EntityToQuery(creditCardPayments, "payment")>

Merge entities
EntityMerge

To attach an entity to the current ORM session you can use the entitymerge function. It copies the state of the given
object onto the persistent object with the same identifier and returns the persistent object.
If there is no persistent instance currently associated with the session, it is loaded. The given instance is not associated
with the session. You need to use the returned object from this session. For details, see EntityMerge in CFML Reference.

Using queries
ColdFusion lets you use HQL (Hibernate Query Language) to run queries directly on the database. If you are familiar
with HQL, you can use it for running complex queries.
In general, use HQL in the following scenarios:

The query is not specific to a particular object but only to some fields in the object.
To retrieve some fields of the object without loading the object.
When you use table joins.
When you use aggregate functions like min, max, avg, and count.
To retrieve entities by specifying a filter that needs to use operators other than AND.
For more information on HQL, see
www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/queryhql.html
The HQL methods return a single or multi-dimensional array of values or entities, based on what the HQL query
returns.
If you are sure that only one record exists that matches this filter criteria, specify unique=true so that a single entity
is returned instead of an array. You can use unique=true to suppress the duplicate records from the query result.
Note: entityname and properties used in HQL are case sensitive.
The following HQL methods are available:
ORMExecuteQuery(hql, [params] [,unique])
ORMExecuteQuery(hql, [,unique] [, queryoptions])
ORMExecuteQuery(hql, params [,unique] [,queryOptions])
ORMExecuteQuery (hql, params, boolean unique, Map queryOptions)

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ORMExecuteQuery(hql, [,unique] [, queryoptions])

Runs the HQL on the default data source specified for the application. You can specify several options to control the
behavior of retrieval using queryoptions:

maxResults: Specifies the maximum number of objects to be retrieved.

offset: Specifies the start index of the resultset from where it has to start the retrieval.

cacheable: Whether the result of this query is to be cached in the secondary cache. Default is false.

cachename: Name of the cache in secondary cache.

timeout: Specifies the timeout value (in seconds) for the query

Maxresults and timeout are used for pagination.

Note: If the query returns an object or an array of objects, the init method of the persistent CFC is called (if available).
Examples
To retrieve an array of artwork objects from the ART table:
<cfset art = ORMExecuteQuery("from ART")>

To retrieve an array of artwork objects that have a price greater than 400 dollars:
<cfset art = ORMExecuteQuery("from ART where price > 400")>

To retrieve an array of artwork objects that have a priceid 100:

<cfset artObj = ORMExecuteQuery("from ART where priceid = 100>

To retrieve an array of objects that contain the first name of artists:

<cfset firstNameArray = ORMExecuteQuery("select FirstName from Artist")>

To retrieve the number of artwork objects:

<cfset numberOfArts = ORMExecuteQuery("select count(*) from Art")>

To retrieve an array of objects that have an artistid 1:

<cfset firstName = ORMExecuteQuery("select FirstName from Artist where ARTISTID = 1", true)>

To retrieve an array of ten artist objects starting from the fifth row in the query result:
<cfset artists = ORMExecuteQuery("from Artist", false, {offset=5, maxresults=10, timeout=5})>

ORMExecuteQuery(hql, params [,unique] [,queryOptions])

This type of ORMExecuteQuery lets you pass unnamed parameters to the query. Use '?' (question mark) as the placeholder for the parameters. The values to the parameters should be passed as an array to params.
Examples: unnamed parameters
To retrieve an array of artist objects with artistid equal to 40:
<cfset artists = ORMExecuteQuery("from ARTIST where artistid > ?", [40])>

To retrieve an array of artwork objects with a priceid equal to 1:

<cfset artObj = ORMExecuteQuery("from ART where priceid=?", [1], true)>

To retrieve an array of objects with a price id equal to 40, and price lesser than 80 dollars:
<cfset artists = ORMExecuteQuery("from ART where priceid > ? and price < ?", [40, 80])>

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Note: In case of more than one parameter, values are picked up based on the parameter sequence, for example, the first
parameter will be replaced by first value and second parameter will be replaced by second value.
Examples: named parameters
This type of ORMExecuteQuery lets you pass named parameters to the query. The placeholder for the parameter should
be a name and should start with ":" as in ":age" or ":id". The values to the names should be passed as key-value pairs.
For example, to retrieve artist details of all artists whose reside in USA and are also citizens of USA, your code should
look like this:
<cfset USArtists = ORMExecuteQuery("from ARTIST where country=:country and
citizenship=:country", {country='USA'})>
<cfset orderDetail = ORMExecuteQuery("from Orders where OrderID=:orderid and
ProductID=:productid", {orderid=1, productid=901}, true)>

Note: Parameters are not case-sensitive.

Examples: group by
This type of ORMExecuteQuery lets you retrieve aggregate or grouped values for the query.
For example, to retrieve the first name and last name along with the status of the artwork being sold or not, you can
write a query similar to the following:
<cfset artist = ORMExecuteQuery(
"SELECT art.Artist.Firstname, art.Artist.Lastname, SUM(art.Price) as Sold FROM
Art as art WHERE art.IsSold=1 GROUP BY art.Artist.Firstname, art.Artist.Lastname")>
<cfloop array="#artist#" index="artistItem">
<cfoutput>
#artistItem[1]# #artistItem[2]# #artistItem[3]#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

Note: Built-in functions to obtain the data such as getFirstName() or getLastName() cannot be used if you are using select
queries with specific column names. The result will be returned as an array object and values can be retrieved using array
index.
Example: order by
This type of ORMExecuteQuery lets you retrieve sorted data from a data source using the order by clause. For example,
to sort the data from the Artist table by firstname, use the following code:
<cfset artist = ORMExecuteQuery('FROM Artist ORDER BY firstname ASC', false, {maxresults=5} )>
<cfloop array="#artist#" index="artistObj">
<cfoutput>Name = #artistObj.getFirstName()#
#artistObj.getLastName()#<br></cfoutput>
<br>
</cfloop>

Example: aggregate functions

This type of ORMExecuteQuery lets you retrieve data when using aggregate functions such as sum, count, avg.
<cfset artist = ORMExecuteQuery(
"SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Art as art WHERE art.Artist.ArtistID=:ArtistID AND
art.IsSold=:Sold", { ArtistID=1, Sold=True }, True )>
<cfoutput>
#artist#
</cfoutput><br>

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Example: expressions
This type of ORMExecuteQuery lets you retrieve data using expressions such as mathematical operators, logical
operators, binary comparisons, and many others.
For example, the following code is used to retrieve the price of an artwork, which is greater than or equal to 10000 along
with the name and description of the artwork.
<cfset artArr = ORMExecuteQuery("from Art where price>=10000")>
<cfloop array="#artArr#" index="artObj">
<cfoutput>
Art Name = #artObj.getArtName()#<br>
Description = #artObj.getDescription()#<br>
Price = #artObj.getPrice()#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
</cfloop>

Transaction and concurrency

When ORM methods are invoked without any transaction, all the data is committed to the database when the ORM
session is flushed. ORM session is flushed when ORMFlush() is called or if autoflush is enabled when the request ends.
This works fine when there is not much concurrency, however in most practical scenarios you would need to use
transaction in your application so that the data in your database is always in a consistent state.
With ColdFusion ORM, you can manage transactions in the following two ways:

Using Hibernate transaction: User has full control and ColdFusion does not intervene. The application has to
flush/close the session and commit/rollback the transaction.
For more information on transactions, go to the following URL:
http://community.jboss.org/wiki/sessionsandtransactions

Using CFTransaction: ColdFusion manages the transaction. Since a transaction cannot be distributed (across
different data sources), application must ensure that the changes made in the transaction affect only one Hibernate
session. That is, only one data source.
ColdFusion allows reading of data from other sessions (data source) in a transaction but changes must be made in
only one session. Multiple dirty sessions at any time in the transaction can result in exceptions and the transaction
is rolled back. Before transaction begins, all existing sessions in the request are flushed. The previous session (if any)
is reused.
When the transaction is committed, the dirty session is automatically flushed (before committing the transaction).
When the transaction is rolled back, the changed session cannot be used any longer because it can cause rolled back
data to get committed later. Therefore, the session participating in the transaction is cleared when transaction is
rolled back.
A description of transaction is beyond the scope of this document. For more information on transactions, see the
hibernate documentation.
To run the ORM methods inside a transaction, they must be inside <cftransaction>. A simple example snippet of
using ORM with <cftransaction> is as follows:

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<cftransaction>
<cfset acct1 = EntityLoad("Account", "101")>
<cfset acct2 = EntityLoad("Account", "102")>
<cfset acct1.debit(1000)>
<cfset acct2.credit(1000)>
<cfset EntitySave(acct1)>
<cfset EntitySave(acct2)>
</cftransaction>

Because we have not called commit on the <cftransaction> specifically, it is automatically committed when the
<cftransaction> ends.
All <cftransaction> semantics including savepoint, multiple rollbacks, multiple commits, and nested transactions
work with ORM. You can also have both queries and ORM in the same <cftransaction>.
When <cftransaction> begins, any existing ORM session is flushed and closed, and a new ORM session is created.
The <cftransaction> can be committed or rolled back using appropriate ColdFusion tags in <cftransaction>.
When the transaction ends and has not been committed or rolled back explicitly, it is automatically committed and
the ORM session is closed. If there is any error inside the transaction, without any exception handling, the transaction
is rolled back.
For more details on <cftransaction>, see the CFML Reference Guide.
Note: Even if ORMFlush() is called explicitly inside a <cftransaction> tag, the SQL runs but the data is committed only
when the transaction commits.

Change of behavior in ColdFusion 9 Update 1

When..

Behavior in ColdFusion 9

Changed behavior

When the transaction starts

The existing session closes and a new session starts.

The existing session is flushed and is reused.

When the transaction is committed

The existing session is flushed and closed.

The existing session is flushed.

When the transaction is rolled back

The existing session is closed without flushing.

The existing session is cleared.

Optimistic locking
A <cftransaction> could prevent scalability in highly concurrent applications because it locks a database for a
transaction that could run for a longer time. Also, a transaction cannot run beyond the duration of a request. There
can be scenarios where an object is loaded in one request and the same instance is updated in another request or by
another application. In this scenario, the application needs to maintain the transaction semantics and prevent the
update if the row has been modified by some other request. This can be achieved by using optimistic concurrency
control, which allows high concurrency in your application along with high scalability.
Optimistic concurrency control uses either number-based or timestamp-based versioning approach. In a numberbased approach, a version number is incremented and for the timestamp approach, a timestamp is set to the current
time whenever the object is modified. It must be noted that version increment or timestamp updation is managed by
Hibernate and is not triggered at the database level.

Using version: To use optimistic concurrency control using version numbers, add a property with
fieldtype='version' in your CFC.

For example:

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/**
* @persistent
* @table Users
*/
component{
property name="id" fieldtype="id" datatype="int" generator="native";
property string fname;
property string lname;
property name="version" fieldtype="version" datatype="int" ;
}

Whenever a user object is updated, its version number is automatically incremented. The version number is used
in the SQL update statement in such a way that updating proceeds only when the version number has not been
changed by some other request or some other application.
In case updating fails because the version number was changed outside the current session, an error is thrown
specifying that the session contained stale data.

Using timestamp: To use optimistic concurrency control using timestamp, add a property with
fieldtype="timestamp" in your CFC.

For example:
/**
* @persistent
* @table Users
*/
component{
property name="id" fieldtype="id" datatype="int" generator="native";
property string fname;
property string lname;
property name="lastModified" fieldtype="timestamp";
}

Whenever a user object is updated, its timestamp is automatically set to the current time. Sometimes this is
preferred over version because it also tells you when the user object was last modified.
In case updating fails because the timestamp was changed outside of the current session, an error is thrown
specifying that the session contained stale data.
If you do not have version or timestamp properties in your object, it is still possible to use optimistic locking, but only
for objects that are retrieved and modified in the same ORM session. For optimistic locking of detached objects
(objects that were loaded in some other request/ORM session), you must use a version number or timestamp.
To use optimistic locking for objects that do not have version or timestamp, you need to set attribute 'optimisticlock' on the CFC. This attribute can take the following values:

all: This means that all the properties are included in the where clause of update query.

dirty (default): This means that only the modified properties are included in the where clause of the update query.

version: This means that only the version field is included in the where clause of update query.

none: This means that none of the properties are included in the where clause, which in effect means that optimistic

concurrency is disabled for that component.

Example:

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/**
* @persistent
* @table Users
* @optimistic-lock all
*/
component{
property name="id" fieldtype="id" datatype="int" generator="native";
property string fname;
property string lname;
}

Apart from defining optimistic lock control at the CFC level, you can also define it at the property level using
'optimisticlock' (true|false: default true) attribute.
You can specify optimisticlock=true for a property to acquire optimistic lock when the property is updated. Setting
this attribute determines whether a version increment will occur when the property is dirty.
In case of one-to-many and many-to-many association, if the state of the collection changes, then version of the
corresponding entity is incremented. It is advised that you disable this setting for one-to-many associations.

Performance optimization
Lazy Loading
Optimizing SQL queries enhances the performance of any data-centric application. Some of the common approaches
used to optimize SQL queries are:

Avoid round trips to the database and fetch all required data for an operation using a single SQL query using Joins.
Fetch only required data to reduce the load on the database
SQL queries are generated and executed by the underlying ORM engine. Therefore, Hibernate provides various hooks
to optimize SQL. The fetching strategy is one of the most important hooks, which defines the data that to be fetched,
the time of fetching the data, and the way in which it needs to be fetched.
There are four strategies for loading an object and its associations.

Immediate fetching
Lazy fetching
Eager fetching
Batch fetching
Note: If memory tracking is enabled on a server, it accesses each field of the object to compute its size. As a result, even
lazy fields are accessed causing the lazy fields to get loaded immediately.

Immediate fetching
In this strategy, the associated object is fetched immediately after the owning entity is fetched, either from the database
using a separate SQL query or from the secondary cache. This is not an efficient strategy to use, unless the associated
object is cached in the secondary cache or when separate queries are more efficient than a Join query. You can define
this strategy by setting lazy="false" and fetch="select" for the relationship property definition in the CFC.
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="ART" fkcolumn="ARTISTID" lazy="false"
fetch="select">

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With this strategy, on loading the artists object, its art object is loaded immediately using a separate SQL query. As a
result, this strategy is extremely vulnerable to 'N+1 Select problem'.

Lazy fetching
In this strategy, the associated object or collection is fetched only when required. Although you need to send a new
request to the database each time you need data, this strategy controls how much of data is loaded and when is it
loaded. This helps in reducing the database load.
When you load an entity, by default, ColdFusion ORM loads the entitys data but relations and any mapped collections
and are not loaded. They are loaded only when you want to load them by calling the getter method. Therefore, the
relations and collection mappings are lazily loaded. For example, when the artist object is loaded, all its artworks are
not loaded and they are loaded only when getarts() is called.
ColdFusion ORM provides three types of lazy loading for relationships:

lazy: This is the default lazy loading that applies to collection mapping, one-to-many and many-to-many
relationship. In this case, when you call the accessor for the collection/relation, the collection is fully loaded. So,
when you call EntityLoad() for a particular artist, its artworks are not loaded at that time. When you call
artist.getarts(), all the art object belonging to the artist will get loaded. This is achieved by setting lazy="true" on
the relationship property definition in the CFC.
Example:
In artist.cfc
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="ART" fkcolumn="artistId" lazy="true">

Extra lazy: This applies to one-to-many and many-to-many relationships. This type of lazy loading goes one step
ahead of lazy and does not load all the associated objects when the accessor for that relation is called. It just loads
the primary keys for those objects and keeps a proxy object for them. When you call any method on the wrapper
object, that object's data is loaded from the database.
For example, when you call artist.getarts(), it executes a query on the database to fetch the primary key of the
related artwork objects and creates a proxy artwork object. So, you do not load the data for all the artwork objects
in memory. When you access a particular artwork object and invoke any method on it, then it fires another query
to the database to load that particular artwork object. This is achieved by setting lazy="extra" on the relationship
property definition in the CFC.
Example:
In artist.cfc
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="art" fkcolumn="artistId" lazy="extra" >

proxy: This applies to one-to-one and many-to-one relationships. When the owner object is loaded, the related
object is not loaded from the database. ColdFusion only creates a proxy object for the related object and when any
method is invoked on the related object, the data for the proxy object is loaded from the database and populated in
the proxy object.
For example, if the art-artist table relation is lazy, when the art object is loaded, the artists object is not loaded and
when you call art.getartist(), you would only get a proxy object. When you call any method on the proxy
object, query gets executed on the database to load artist object's data. This is achieved by setting lazy="true" on
the relationship property definition in the CFC
Example:
In ART.cfc

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<cfproperty name="artist" fieldtype="many-to-one" cfc="artist" fkcolumn="artistId"

lazy="true">

Important: An entity is loaded only once in the request (in Hibernate session) and there is always only one copy of it
in the request. So, for artwork and artist relationship, which is lazy, if the artist is already loaded, calling
art.getartist() will not create a proxy object and will return the loaded artist object.
Lazy loading can be disabled by setting lazy="false" on the relationship property definition in the CFC.
Choosing an appropriate lazy loading option is very important for the performance of your application. Extra lazy
means more number of trips to the database (each trip to the database is expensive) but less data in memory whereas
no lazy loading means a huge object graph in the memory. So, you need to balance the approach based on the
application need.

Eager fetching
In this strategy, the associated object or collection is fetched together with the owning entity using a single SQL Join
query. This strategy reduces the number of trips to the database and is a good optimization technique when you always
access the associated object immediately after loading the owning entity. You can define this strategy by setting
fetch="join" for the relationship property definition in the CFC.

Batch fetching
This strategy tells Hibernate to optimize the second SQL select in Immediate fetching or lazy fetching to load batch of
objects or collections in a single query. This allows you to load a batch of proxied objects or uninitilized collections
that are referenced in the current request. This is generally useful in nested tree loading. You can specify this using
"batchsize" attribute for CFC or relationship property.
There are two ways you can tune batch fetching:

Batch fetching at CFC level: This allows batch fetching of the proxied objects and is applied to one-to-one and
many-to-one relationship. For example, consider artwork and artist example where there are 25 art instances
loaded in the request (ORM session). Each artwork has a reference to the artist and the relationship is lazy.
Therefore, art objects contain the proxied object for artist. If you now iterate through all the art objects and call
getartist() on each, by default 25 SELECT statements are executed to retrieve the proxied owners, one for each
artist proxy object. This can be batched by specifying the 'batchsize' attribute on the artist CFC:
<cfcomponent table="artist" batchsize="10" ...>

When you call getartist() on the first art object, it batch fetches 10 artist objects that are proxied in the current
request.
So for 25 art objects, this type of batch fetching makes Hibernate execute a maximum of three queries in batches of
10, 10, and 5.

Batch fetching at collections: This allows batch fetching of value collections, one-to-many or many-to-many
relationships that are uninitialized. For example, consider artist-art one-to-many relationship where there are 25
artists loaded and each artist has a lazy collection of artworks. If you now iterate through the artists and call
getarts() on each, by default 25 SELECT statements are executed, one for each artist to load its art objects. This
can be optimized by enabling batch fetching, which is done by specifying "batchsize" on the relationship
property:
Example:
In artist.cfc:
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="art" fkcolumn="artistId" lazy="true"
batchsize="10">

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One important thing to understand here is that batchsize here does not mean that 10 artworks are loaded at one
time for a artist. It actually means that 10 artwork collections (artworks for 10 artists) are loaded together.
When you call getarts() on the first artist, artworks for 9 other artists are also fetched along with the one that was
asked for.
The value for batchsize attribute should be chosen based on the expected number of proxied objects or
uninitialized collections in the session.

Caching
Caching is extensively used for optimizing database applications and effectively reducing traffic between the database
and the application.
ColdFusion ORM supports two levels of caching:

Session level
Secondary level

Session level cache

Objects that are loaded from the database are always cached in the ORM Session as long as the session is open. When
EntityLoad is called to retrieve an object in a session for the first time, ORM fetches the data from the database and
constructs the object. In any subsequent call to load the same object in the same session, ORM fetches the object from
the session cache. To forcefully retrieve the object from the database, EntityReload should be called on the object.
For more details on ORM Sessions and its lifecycle, see ORM session management on page 595 and Architecture
on page 537.

Secondary level cache

ColdFusion provides the ability to store the data that is retrieved from the database in secondary cache. The contents
in secondary cache live longer than the life-time of a session. It can also be the life-time of the process or in-definite
(disk-caching), depending on the ability of the secondary cache provider. The cache can also be used in a distributed
environment depending on the ability of the secondary cache provider.
An important difference between session level cache and secondary level cache is that the session level caches the whole
object but the secondary level caches only the data.
Secondary level cache can be leveraged by using an external cache provider with ColdFusion ORM. EHCache,
JBossCache, OSCache, SwarmCache, and Tangosol Coherence Cache are some popular secondary cache providers,
which can be plugged into Hibernate.
ColdFusion uses EHCache as the default secondary cache provider. EHCache is a distributed caching solution that
supports memory and disk-based caching. EHCache can be configured using a configuration file. Different cache
regions can be defined in the configuration file. Each cache region has its own configuration that specifies details
including the number of elements it can store, eviction policy, time to live (ttl), and idle time.
ehcache.xml is available in the following location: CF_root\lib\. For details of the properties in the ehcache.xml, refer
to the documentation available at the following URL:
http://ehcache.org/
The following is a sample EHCache configuration file (ehcache.xml):

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<ehcache>
<diskStore path="java.io.tmpdir"/>
<defaultCache
maxElementsInMemory="10000"
eternal="false"
timeToIdleSeconds="120"
timeToLiveSeconds="120"
overflowToDisk="true"
diskPersistent="false"
diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds="120"
memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LRU"
/>
<cache name="Artist"
maxElementsInMemory="20"
eternal="true"
overflowToDisk="false"
/>
</ehcache>

Modifications to ehcache.xml in ColdFusion 9.0.1

ehCache.xml includes the following configuration properties:

diskSpoolBufferSizeMB: Size to allocate the DiskStore for a spool buffer.

The default size is 30 MB. Each spool buffer is used only by its cache.
Turning on trace-level logging shows if backup for cache created/updated using action="put" occurs in the
diskstore.

clearOnFlush: Determines if the MemoryStore must be cleared when the cache is flushed. By default, the
MemoryStore is cleared.
diskExpiryThreadIntervalSeconds: The number of seconds between runs of the disk expiry thread. The default

value is 120 seconds.

Note: The functions cacheGetProperties and cacheSetProperties can be used to get/set these properties.

Use secondary cache

To use secondary cache, you must configure the following settings in the application:

ormsettings.secondarycacheenabled

This setting defines whether the secondary cache would be used by the application. By default, this is set to false.

ormsettings.Cacheprovider

This setting defines the cache provider that needs to be used for secondary cache. This defaults to EHCache. The
other values for this setting are JBossCache, OSCache, SwarmCache and Hashtable. You can also specify the fully
qualified class name of the cache provider.

ormsettings.cacheconfig

This setting defines the configuration file required by the secondary cache provider. For example, EHCache
requires EHCache.xml that defines the configuration settings for the secondary cache. Specify the path to the XML
file in this setting. If this setting is not defined, cache provider uses its default configuration.

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After you have configured the secondary cache, it is critical to identify the objects in your application that can be
cached because the data cached by secondary cache is shared by all the sessions of an application. Typically, caching
should be enabled for a CFC that represents:

Data that changes rarely

Data that is local to an application and is not modified by other applications
Non-critical data
For each type of object that needs to be cached, you also need to decide the access strategies. ORM provides the
following cache strategies that you can use for your objects:

read-only
This strategy is useful for data that is read frequently but never updated. This is the best performing cache strategy.

nonstrict-read-write
This strategy is useful for data that is updated occasionally. Typically, it is very unlikely that two transactions would
update the same object simultaneously.

read-write
This strategy may be appropriate if your data needs to be updated. It carries more overhead than the two preceding
strategies.

Transactional
This strategy provides the support for transactional cache. It can only be used if the cache provider is transaction
aware.
Support for these strategies depend on the cache provider. Not all the cache providers support all the cache strategies.
For more information on these strategies, see:
www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/reference/en/html/performance-cache.html
The secondary cache can cache the following types of data.

Persistent object data

Persistent object association
Query data
Cache data of a persistent object
In this case, the data of the persistent object is cached. It will not cache the associations or associated object's data. To
enable this flag on a persistent CFC, specify the following attributes on the component.

cacheuse: Defines the caching strategy.

cachename: Defines the name of the cache region to be used by the secondary cache provider. If you do not specify
a region name for the component, the entity name of the component is considered as the cache name. In case a
region is not specified in the configuration file, a region is automatically created with the default configuration.

For example:
<cfcomponent persistent="true" schema="APP" table="Artists" cachename="artist"
cacheuse="read-only">

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Cache the association data of a persistent object

In this case, the primary key of the associated objects are cached. It does not cache the objects loaded as part of the
association unless caching is enabled for those objects. To cache an association, specify the following attributes on the
association property.

cacheuse: Defines the caching strategy.

cachename: Defines the name of the cache region to be used by the secondary cache provider. If you do not specify
a region name for the association property, the <comoponent_name>.<property_name> is considered as the cache
name. In case a region is not specified in the configuration file, a region is automatically created with the default
configuration.

For example:
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="CArt" fkcolumn="ArtID"
cachename="ArtistArts" cacheuse="read-only">

Cache query data

In this case, the results of queries that are executed by ORMExecuteQuery() or EntityLoad() methods are cached in
the secondary cache. To enable caching query data, pass "cacheable=true" and "cachename='cachename' values in
the options struct of the methods. If you do not specify the cachename, the query is cached in the default query cache.
It is recommended that you to specify the cachename so that you can control eviction.
For example:
availableArts = ORMExecuteQuery("from CArt where issold=0", {}, false, {cacheable=true,
cachename="availableArtsQuery"});

Secondary cache example using EHCache

Step 1: Set the following in Application.cfc:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

this.name="Caching_Example">
this.datasource="cfartgallery">
this.ormenabled="true">
this.ormsettings.secondarycacheEnabled=true>
this.ormsettings.cacheProvider= "ehcache">
this.ormsettings.cacheConfig="ehcache.xml">

Step 2: Define the cache settings in the CFCs.

CArtist.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" schema="APP" table="Artists" cachename="artist"
cacheuse="read-only">
<cfproperty name="artistid" fieldtype="id"/>
<cfproperty name="firstname"/>
<cfproperty name="lastname"/>
<cfproperty name="state"/>
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="CArt" fkcolumn="ArtID"
cachename="ArtistArts" cacheuse="read-only">
</cfcomponent>

CArt.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" schema="APP" table="Art">
<cfproperty name="artid" generator="identity" fieldtype="id"/>
<cfproperty name="artname"/>
<cfproperty name="issold"/>
</cfcomponent>

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Step 3:
<cfscript>
//This will cache the Artist Component and also the association. It wouldn't cache the Art
objects.
artistObj = EntityLoad("CArtists", 3, true);
//This will cache the query.
availableArts = ORMExecuteQuery("from CArt where issold=0", {}, false, {cacheable=true,
cachename="availableArtsCache"});
</cfscript>

Evict content from secondary cache

ColdFusion provides the following methods to evict contents from the secondary cache.
ORMEvictEntity("<component_name>", [primarykey])

This method is used to evict items for the given component name, from the secondary cache. If the primary key is
specified, then the data of the entity with that primary key is evicted. Primary key should be a value in case of simple
primary key or should be a struct in case of composite primary key.
Example:
<cfset ORMEvictEntity("CArtists")>

Evicts all the cache data of CArtist entity.

<cfset ORMEvictEntity("CArtists", 1)>

Evicts the cache data of CArtists entity whose primary key is 1.

ORMEvictCollection("<component_name>", "<collection_name>", [primarykey])

This method is used to evict all the collection/association data for the given component name and collection name,
from the secondary cache. If the primary key is specified, then, the collection or association data of the entity with the
primary key is evicted.
Example:
<cfset ORMEvictCollection("CArtists", "art")>

Evicts all the association or collection data of collection art belonging to the component CArtists.
<cfset ORMEvictCollection("CArtists", "art", 1)>

Evict the association or collection data of collection art belonging to the component CArtists with primary key 1.
ORMEvictQueries([cachename])

This method is used to evict the data of all the queries from the default query cache. If cache name is specified, then,
the data of all the queries belonging to the cache region with the given cache name are evicted. Example:
<cfset ORMEvictQueries()>

Evicts the data of all the queries from the default query cache.
<cfset ORMEvictQueries("availableArtsCache")>

Evicts the data of all the queries from the cache region with the name availableArtsCache.

Support for user-defined caches in ColdFusion 9.0.1

Except in cacheSetProperties and cacheGetProperties, user-defined caches are supported in all caching
functions.

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Edit ehCache.xml (cfroot/lib)to set the properties for user-defined caches as shown in the following example:
<!--- item to put in user-defined cache --->
<cfset currentTime = Now()>
<!--- put item in user-defined cache --->
<cfset timeToLive=createtimespan(0,0,0,30)>
<cfset timeToIdle=createtimespan(0,0,0,30)>
<cfset customCache = "usercache">
<cfset id = "cache1">
<cfset cachePut(id,currentTime,timeToLive,timeToIdle,customCache)>
<!-- list items in the cache --->
List Items in cache:
<cfset cacheIds = cacheGetAllIds(customCache)>
<cfdump var="#cacheIds#"><br>
<!--- print cache data --->
<cfset cachedData = cacheGet(id,customCache)>
<cfoutput>#cachedData#</cfoutput>
<!--- print cache metadata --->
Cache metadata:
<cfset mdata = cacheGetMetadata(id,"object",customCache)>
<cfdump var="#mdata#">
<!--- clear user-defined cache --->
<cfset cacheRemove(ArrayToList(cacheIds),true,customCache)>

ORM session management

Hibernate Session is a thread-safe and short-lived object that represents a conversation between the application and
the persistence layer. This is required to perform CRUD operations (Create, Delete, Update, Retrieval) on a persistent
entity in Hibernate. For ColdFusion applications that use ORM, this session is automatically managed by ColdFusion.
Hibernate sessions also act as the first level of cache, which ensures that only one copy of an object exists in the session.
When CRUD operations are performed in the session, data of the entity is not synchronized with the database
immediately. That is, the SQL statements for the operations are not issued immediately and they are queued. The data
is synchronized with the database when the session is flushed. When the session is flushed, the SQL operations are
performed in the following order:
1 all entity insertions, in the same order the corresponding objects were saved using EntitySave()
2 all entity updates
3 all collection deletions
4 all collection element deletions, updates, and insertions
5 all collection insertions
6 all entity deletions, in the same order the corresponding objects were deleted using EntityDelete()

The only exception to this is that objects with nativeId generation are inserted immediately when the object is saved.
Note: ColdFusion creates and manages Hibernate sessions only if ormenabled is set to true in application scope.
When the ColdFusion application starts, it builds the Hibernate session factory that is available for the application life
time. This factory is used to create Hibernate sessions that manage the persistent object lifecycle. When the first CRUD
method is called, a Hibernate session gets created and is closed when the request ends or when the
ormclosesessionmethod is called. For details on how ColdFusion works with Hibernate, see the Architecture on
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In multiple data source scenarios supported in ColdFusion 9 Update 1, there are multiple sessions (one for each data
source) in the same request. For all entity functions, the appropriate sessions are used transparently.
ColdFusion exposes a few methods to let CFML developers work with the Hibernate sessions directly. ORM sessionrelated functions also take optional data source argument. If you do not specify a data source, the default data source
specified for ORM is used. The methods are as follows:

ORMGetSession()
Returns the current ORM session. That is, the Hibernate Session associated with the data source specified in the
application. This returns the underlying Hibernate Session that can be used to call the API, which otherwise is not
exposed by ColdFusion.
For information on Session API, see www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/v3/api/org/hibernate/Session.html.

ORMCloseSession()
Closes the current ORM session associated with the data source specified in the application.

ORMFlush()
Flushes the current ORM session associated with the data source specified in the application. ORMFlush flushes all the
pending CRUD operations in that request.

ORMClearSession()
ORMClearSession removes all the entities that are loaded or created in the session. This clears the first level cache and
removes the objects that are not yet saved to the database.

ORMGetSessionFactory()
ORMGetSessionFactory returns the underlying Hibernate SessionFactory object. For information on Session API,
see www.hibernate.org/hib_docs/v3/api/org/hibernate/SessionFactory.html

Event Handling in CFC

ORM provides callbacks to the event listeners for all the persistence events like Load, Insert, Update, Delete. These
events can be used for data validations or transformation or for some generic functions such as auditing. These events
can be handled at two levels in ColdFusion ORM:

In a persistent CFC
Using an event handler CFC
To enable event handling for an application, define the following setting: ormsettings.eventhandling= true"
By default, this flag is disabled. If you do not specify this flag while the event handler CFC is defined, the flag is
considered as enabled.

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Event handling in a persistent CFC

A persistent CFC can have various methods and if these methods are present, callbacks can be sent on those events to
the CFC. The CFC can then handle these events. In this case, the event for entity persistence comes to the CFC that the
system loads, inserts, updates, or deletes. These methods are:

preLoad(): This method is called before the load operation or before the data is loaded from the database.

postLoad(): This method is called after the load operation is complete.

preInsert(): This method is called just before the object is inserted.

postInsert(): This method is called after the insert operation is complete.

preUpdate(Struct oldData): This method is called just before the object is updated. A struct of old data is passed

to this method to know the original state of the entity being updated.

postUpdate(): This method is called after the update operation is complete.

Note: When you call the EntitySave() method on an object that is not loaded using EntityLoad(), it gets updated but
the intercepter call fails. This happens because an empty map is created for the object and there is no previous data
associated with it.

preDelete(): This method is called before the object is deleted.

postDelete(): This method is called after the delete operation is complete.

Event handling using an event handler CFC

An application-wide event handler CFC can be defined to handle callback when *any* entity is inserted, updated,
deleted, or retrieved. This CFC must be configured at the application level as an ORM setting:
ormsettings.evenHandler="X.Y.EventHandler"

The event handler CFC needs to implement the CFIDE.ORM.IEventHandler interface. This CFC gets the callbacks
from all persistence-related events and handles them accordingly. In this case, a single CFC handles the events for all
the CFCs.
This interface contains the following methods for the event handler CFC:
For application-wide event handler CFC, you need to specify the component name also along with other arguments.
The methods for application-wide event handler are:

preLoad(entity): This method is called before the load operation or before the data is loaded from the database.

postLoad(entity): This method is called after the load operation is complete.

preInsert(entity): This method is called just before the object is inserted.

postInsert(entity): This method is called after the insert operation is complete.

preUpdate(entity, Struct oldData): This method is called just before the object is updated. A struct of old
data is passed to this method to know the original state of the entity being updated.

Note: When you call the EntitySave() method on an object that is not loaded using EntityLoad(), it gets updated but
the intercepter call fails. This happens because an empty map is created for the object and there is no previous data
associated with it.

postUpdate(entity): This method is called after the update operation is complete.

preDelete(entity): This method is called before the object is deleted.

postDelete(entity): This method is called after the delete operation is complete.

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Note: If event handlers are defined in both persistent CFC and event handler CFC, the persistent CFC is given the callback
before calling the application wide event handler.

Autogenerating database schema

ColdFusion automatically creates tables when ORM is initialized for the application. For auto-generating tables, do
the following:
In the THIS scope of Application.cfc, in ormsettings struct, set the dbCreate property to one of the following values:

update: Creates the table (if it does not exist) or updates the table (if it exists).

dropcreate: Drops the table if it exists and then creates it.

For example,
<cfset this.ormsettings.dbCreate="update">

Certain specific attributes (DDL-only attributes) defined for the tags cfcomponent and cfproperty can be use to
define various attributes for the auto-generated tables and columns. DDL-only attributes are used only for DDL
generation. For details of these attributes, see the table in the section DDL-only attributes in Column on page 549.
Examples
Application.cfc
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

this.name = "AG"/>
this.ormenabled=true/>
this.datasource = "ORM_DDL">
this.ormsettings.dbCreate="dropcreate">
this.ormsettings.sqlscript="mysqlscript.sql">

Artists.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Artists">
<cfproperty name="artistid" fieldtype="id" ormtype="integer" length=10>
<cfproperty name="firstname" ormtype="string" length="20" notnull="true">
<cfproperty name="lastname" ormtype="string" length="20" notnull="true">
<cfproperty name="address" ormtype="string" length="50">
<cfproperty name="city" ormtype="string" length="20">
<cfproperty name="state" ormtype="string" length="2">
<cfproperty name="postalcode" ormtype="string" length="10">
<cfproperty name="email" ormtype="string" length="50" unique="true">
<cfproperty name="phone" ormtype="string" length="20">
<cfproperty name="fax" ormtype="string" length="12">
<cfproperty name="thepassword" ormtype="string" length="20">
</cfcomponent>

art.cfc

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<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="Art">

<cfproperty name="artid" generator="identity" fieldtype="id">
<cfproperty name="artname" ormtype="string" length="50">
<cfproperty name="price" ormtype="double">
<cfproperty name="largeimage" ormtype="string" length="30">
<cfproperty name="mediaid" ormtype="integer" length="10">
<cfproperty name="issold" ormtype="boolean" dbdefault=1>
<cfproperty name="artist" fkcolumn="artistid" fieldtype="many-to-one" cfc="CArtists">
</cfcomponent>

Naming strategy
When you build a database centric application, typically you would follow some database standard and naming
convention. ColdFusion ORM allows you to define this convention at one central place for the application using the
'naming strategy'.
The advantage of using a naming strategy is that you do not need to change the code throughout your application. The
naming strategy specifies how the table and column have to be named for a CFC and its properties.
Naming strategy takes "logical name" for a table or column and returns the actual table or column name that should
be used.

Logical table name: This is the table name specified for the CFC. If it is not specified, the entity name is taken as the
logical table name. If the entity name is also not specified, the unqualified CFC name, for example, Person for
a.b.c.Person, is taken as the logical table name.

Logical column name: This is the column name specified for a CFC property. If it is not specified, the property
name is taken as the logical column name.
Naming strategy is applied to an application by setting the following in Application.cfc
<cfset this.ormsettings.namingstrategy="strategy">

The value of strategy could be:

default: This strategy uses the logical table or column name as it is. ColdFusion ORM using this value as the

default strategy.

smart: This strategy changes the logical table or column name to uppercase. Also, if the logical table or column

name is in camel case, this strategy breaks the camelcased name and separates the broken words using underscore.
For example, for a CFC named "OrderProduct", this strategy changes the table name as "ORDER_PRODUCT".

your own cfc : You can get complete control of the naming strategy by providing your own implementation. You

need to specify the fully qualified name of the CFC as the value for naming strategy. This CFC must implement
cfide.orm.INamingStrategy interface.

The cfide.orm.INamingStrategy interface is as follows:

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/**
* Strategy to specify the table name for a CFC and column name for a property in the cfc.
* This can be used to specify the application specific table and column naming convention.
* This rule will be applied even if the user has specified the table/column name in the mapping
so that
* the name can be changed for any application at one place without changing the names in all the
code.
*/
interface
{
/**
* Defines the table name to be used for a specified table name. The specified table name is either
* the table name specified in the mapping or chosen using the entity name.
*/
public string function getTableName(string tableName);
/**
* Defines the column name to be used for a specified column name. The specified column name is
either
* the column name specified in the mapping or chosen using the proeprty name.
*/
public string function getColumnName(string columnName);
}

This interface is specified in the application using:

this.ormsettings.namingstrategy="com.adobe.UCaseStrategy"

Note: The naming strategy applies to all the table or column names, which you use in the mapping including link table
and fkcolumn, even though there is no CFC or cfproperty associated with them.

Populating the database using script

After the tables are created using DDL, you can optionally populate the database with data using SQL script. To do
this, specify the path (absolute file path or path relative to the application) to the SQL script file that has to be executed.
The script is run only when dbcreate is set to dropcreate. The SQL script file lets you populate the tables before the
application is accessed. Ensure that each SQL statement starts on a new line and ends with a semi-colon.
Example
Mysqlscript.sql
insert into Artists(artistid, firstname, lastname, address, city, state, postalcode, email,
phone, fax, thepassword)
values(1, 'Aiden', 'Donolan', '352 Corporate Ave.', 'Denver', 'CO', '80206-4526',
'[email protected]', '555-751-8464', '555-751-8463', 'peapod');
insert into Artists(artistid, firstname, lastname, address, city, state, postalcode, email,
phone, fax, thepassword)
values(2, 'Austin', 'Weber', '25463 Main Street, Suite C', 'Berkeley', 'CA', '94707-4513',
'[email protected]', '555-513-4318', '510-513-4888', 'nopolyes');
insert into Art(artname, price, largeimage, mediaid, issold, artistid)
values('Michael', 13900, 'aiden02.jpg', 1, 0, 1);
insert into Art(artname, price, largeimage, mediaid, issold, artistid)
values('Space', 9800, 'elecia01.jpg', 2, 1, 2);

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Support for multiple data sources for ORM

Note: This feature applies only if you have installed ColdFusion 9 Update 1.

Introduction
You can use multiple data sources for ORM in ColdFusion applications. A multiple data source setup is useful in
scenarios where your application has multiple modules that interact with each other.
Hibernate inherently supports single data source for a Hibernate configuration. To support multiple data sources,
ColdFusion builds and manages multiple Hibernate configurations and SessionFactory objects, one for each data
source in the application.

Usage scenario
Consider an application with the following three modules:

HR
Finance
Sales
Assume that all these modules have their own databases (and therefore separate data sources). But at the applicationlevel, all the three modules have to interact with each other. A single data source makes it impossible to build the entire
application using ORM. Building three separate applications is not advisable as the interaction between the
applications is possible only using web services.
If you use a multiple data source setup for ORM, all the three modules can be built in ORM. They can be part of the
same application and the modules can interact with each other.

Configuring the application to use multiple data sources

Configure Persistent CFCs with the attribute datasource pointing to the appropriate data source. You can specify the
attribute data source on the CFC using the tag cfcomponent or by specifying the annotation on Component in the
CFC definition. If you do not specify a data source, the default data source is used for that CFC.
Since a Hibernate configuration uses a single data source, all related CFCs (using ORM relationships) must have the
same data source.
Example
Art.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" datasource="artgallery" table="Art">
...
</cfcomponent>

Author.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" datasource="bookclub" table="author">

</cfcomponent>

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ORM settings
The following are the data source-specific ORM settings for which you can specify string or struct values in the
Application.cfc:

schema

catalog

dialect

dbcreate

sqlscript

For multiple data sources, a struct can be specified with data source name as the key and the appropriate setting as the
value. If a string value is specified, it applies to the default data source of ORM.
Example 1
<cfset this.ormsettings.dbcreate={artgallery="dropcreate", bookclub="none"}>

Example 2
<cfset this.ormsettings.dbcreate="dropcreate">

If multiple data sources are used for ORM, these settings apply to the default ORM data source.

Mapping using Hibernate mapping files

In multiple data source scenarios, the data source information must be provided in the CFC (and not in .hbmxml file).
Also, all CFCs used in one .hbmxml file must have the same data source.
Example
The following example illustrates two different entities using two different data sources. In this example, art.cfc and
artist.cfc are related and therefore use the same data source.
art.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="art" datasource="cfartgallery">
<cfproperty name="ArtID" fieldtype="id" generator="native">
<cfproperty name="ArtName">
<cfproperty name="IsSold">
</cfcomponent>

artists.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table="artists" datasource="cfartgallery">
<cfproperty name="ArtistID" fieldtype="id">
<cfproperty name="FirstName">
<cfproperty name="LastName">
<cfproperty name="art" fieldtype="one-to-many" cfc="art" fkcolumn="ArtistID">
</cfcomponent>

authors.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true" table=authors datasource="cfbookclub">
<cfproperty name="AuthorID" fieldtype="id">
<cfproperty name="LastName">
<cfproperty name="FirstName">
</cfcomponent>

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index.cfm
<cfoutput>Original Data<br></cfoutput>
<cfset artistObj = EntityLoad("artists", 1, true)>
<cfoutput>#artistObj.getArtistID()# | #artistObj.getFirstName()# |
#artistObj.getLastName()#<br></cfoutput>
<cfset artObj = artistObj.getart()>
<cfoutput>#artObj[1].getartname()# <br></cfoutput>
<cfset authorObj = EntityLoad("authors", 1, true)>
<cfoutput>#authorObj.getFirstName()#</cfoutput>
<cfoutput>#authorObj.getLastName()#</cfoutput>

ORM Function enhancements

Multiple data source support impacts the following ORM functions:

ORMGetSession
Description
Returns the Hibernate session associated with the data source in the request. If ORM is not configured for this data
source, it results in an exception. If data source is not specified, the Hibernate session of the default data source is
returned.
Use this session object to call the APIs, which, otherwise, ColdFusion does not expose.
For information on session APIs, see:
http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/3.3/api/org/hibernate/Session.html
Function syntax
ormgetsession([datasource])

ORMCloseSession
Description
Closes the Hibernate session associated with the data source in the request. If you do not specify a data source, the
Hibernate session associated with the default data source is closed.
Function syntax
ormclosesession([datasource])

ORMCloseAllSessions
Description
Closes all Hibernate sessions in the request.
Function Syntax
ormcloseallsessions()

History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function

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ORMFlush
Description
Flushes the Hibernate session associated with the data source in the request. ORMFlush flushes all pending CRUD
operations in the request. Any changes made in the objects, in the current ORM session, are saved to the database.
If you do not specify the data source, the Hibernate session associated with the default data source is flushed.
Function syntax
ormflush([datasource])

ORMFlushall
Description
Flushes all the current Hibernate sessions in the request.
Function syntax
ormflushall()

History
ColdFusion 9 Update 1: Added this function

ORMClearSession
Description
Clears the Hibernate session associated with the given data source.
The function clears the first level cache and removes the objects that are not yet saved to the database.
If you do not specify the data source, the Hibernate session associated with the default data source is cleared.
Function syntax
Ormclearsession([datasource])

ORMGetSessionFactory
Description
Returns the Hibernate Session Factory object associated with the data source. Results in an error if ORM is not
configured for this data source. If you do not specify the data source, the Hibernate session factory object associated
with the default data source is returned.
For information on Session API, go to the following URL:
http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/3.3/api/org/hibernate/SessionFactory.html
Function syntax
Ormgetsessionfactory([datasource])

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ORMEvictQueries
Description
This method is used to evict the data of all the queries from the default query cache of the specified data source. If cache
name is specified, then the data of all queries belonging to the cache region with the given cache name are evicted.
If no data source is specified, the default query cache of the default data source is evicted.
Syntax
ORMEvictQueries([cachename])
ORMEvictQueries([cachename], datasource)
Parameter

Description

cachename

Name of the cache region that you want to evict.

datasource

Name of the data source whose cache you want to evict. If you do not specify the cache, the default query cache is
evicted.

ORMExecuteQuery
Description
Executes a Hibernate Query Language (HQL) query.
By default, this function works on ORM's default data source. To use this function for another data source, specify the
data source key-value pair within the queryoptions.
Syntax
ORMExecuteQuery(hql, [params] [,unique])
ORMExecuteQuery(hql, [,unique] [, queryoptions])
ORMExecuteQuery(hql, params [,unique] [,queryOptions])

Parameters
Parameter

Description

Hql

The HQL query that has to be executed.

Params

Object parameter for the entity.

Unique

Specifies if the object parameter is unique.

Queryoptions

Key-value pair of options for the query.

Example
<cfset artistArr = ORMExecuteQuery("from Artists where artistid=1", true,
{datasource="cfartgallery"})>
<cfset countArray = ORMExecuteQuery("select count(*) from Authors", [], false,
{datasource="cfbookclub"})>

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Chapter 9: Flex and AIR Integration in

ColdFusion
Using the Flash Remoting Service
Using the Flash Remoting service of Adobe ColdFusion, ColdFusion developers can work together with Flash
designers to build dynamic Flash user interfaces for ColdFusion applications.
For a complete description of Flash Remoting capabilities, including how ColdFusion interacts with Flash Remoting,
see Using Flash Remoting MX 2004 and Flash Remoting ActionScript Dictionary in Flash Help. You can also access the
Flash Remoting documentation on the Flash Remoting Developer Center at
www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_flashremoting_en.

About using the Flash Remoting service with ColdFusion

Using the Flash Remoting service of ColdFusion, ColdFusion developers can work with Flash MX 2004 designers to
build Flash user interfaces (UIs) for ColdFusion applications. Building Flash UIs requires the separation of user
interface code from business logic code. You build user interface controls in Flash, and you build the business logic in
ColdFusion.

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The following is a simplified representation of the relationship between Flash and ColdFusion:

SWF files

.SWFs

Computer

Interactive TV

Mobile phone

PDA

HTTP

Application Server
Flash Remoting

Web
services

Database
Planning your SWF application
When you are planning ColdFusion application development with Flash UIs, remember the importance of separating
display code from business logic. Separating display code from business logic enables your ColdFusion applications to
interact with multiple client types, such as SWF applications, web browsers, and web services.
When you build ColdFusion applications for multiple clients, your ColdFusion pages and components return
common data types, including strings, integers, query objects, structures, and arrays. Clients that receive the results
can process the passed data according to the client type, such as ActionScript with Flash, or CFML with ColdFusion.

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To use the Flash Remoting service with ColdFusion, you build ColdFusion pages and components or deploy Java
objects. In ColdFusion pages, you use the Flash variable scope to interact with SWF applications. ColdFusion
components (CFCs) natively support Flash interaction. The public methods of Java objects are also available to the
Flash Remoting service.
The Flash Remoting ActionScript API has been updated to comply with ActionScript 2.0. The ActionScript 2.0 version
of the API consists of the following significant features:
Flash Remoting MX 2004 ActionScript 2.0 API Features
Enforcement of strict data typing, which requires you to declare the data types of variables and prohibits you from assigning different types
of data to them.
Enforcement of case sensitivity, which means that myvar and myVar are two different variables, though they were considered the same
variable with different spellings in ActionScript 1.0.
A new Service class, which lets you create a gateway connection and at the same time obtain a reference to a service and its methods. It
includes the connection property, which returns the connection and also lets you set credentials for authorization on the remote server.
Note: The NetServices class is still supported but has been deprecated in favor of the new Service and Connection classes
A new Connection class that helps you create and use Flash Remoting connections.
Note: The Connection class supersedes the former NetConnection class.
A new PendingCall object returned on each call to a service method that is run using the Service object. The PendingCall object contains the
responder property, which you use to specify the methods to handle the results of the service call.
A new RelayResponder class, which specifies the methods to which the result and fault outcomes of a service call are relayed.
A RecordSet object that contains new properties (columnNames, items, and length), new methods (clear(), contains(),
editField(), getEditingData(), getIterator(), getLocalLength(), getRemoteLength(), isEmpty(), and sortItems()),
and the new modelChanged event.

For more information on the ActionScript 2.0 Flash Remoting API, see Flash Remoting ActionScript Dictionary Help.

Configuring the Flash Remoting Gateway

The following parameters in the ColdFusion web.xml file point the Flash Remoting gateway to the gateway-config.xml
file.
<init-param>
<param-name>gateway.configuration.file</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/gateway-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>whitelist.configuration.file</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/gateway-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>whitelist.parent.node</param-name>
<param-value>gateway-config</param-value>
</init-param>

Both the web.xml file and the gateway-config.xml file are located in the WEB-INF directory of your ColdFusion server.
As a general rule, you do not have to change these web.xml settings.

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ColdFusion MX 7 and later versions of ColdFusion configure Flash gateways differently from previous ColdFusion
releases. Parameters that worked before this release are no longer supported, and you specify all configuration
parameters in the gateway-config.xml file. Also, the Flash gateway now supports a whitelist, which specifies which
remote sources can be accessed through the gateway. The two web.xml entries that identify the whitelist must specify
your gateway-config.xml file and gateway-config as the parent node.
You can modify the gateway-config.xml file to configure service adapters, add service names to the whitelist, change
the logging level, and specify how the gateway handles case sensitivity.
You can configure gateway features in the gateway-config.xml file as follows:

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Feature

Description

service adapters

By default, the PageableResultSetAdapter, the ColdFusionAdapter, the CFCAdapter (for

ColdFusion components), and the CFSSASAdapter (for server-side ActionScript)
adapters are enabled in ColdFusion.
You can also enable the JavaBeanAdapter, JavaAdapter, EJBAdapter, ServletAdapter,
and CFWSAdapter (for web services) by removing their enclosing comment symbols (<!- and -->). The following service adapter tags are defined as the default tag values:
<service-adapters>
<adapter>flashgateway.adapter.resultset.PageableResultSetAdapter
</adapter>
<adapter>coldfusion.flash.adapter.ColdFusionAdapter</adapter>
<adapter>coldfusion.flash.adapter.CFCAdapter</adapter>
<adapter>coldfusion.flash.adapter.CFSSASAdapter</adapter>
<!-- <adapter type="statefulclass">flashgateway.adapter.java.JavaBeanAdapter</adapter> -->
<!-- <adapter type="statelessclass">flashgateway.adapter.java.JavaAdapter</adapter> -->
<!-- <adapter
type="ejb">flashgateway.adapter.java.EJBAdapter</adapter> -->
<!-- <adapter
type="servlet">flashgateway.adapter.java.ServletAdapter</adapter
> -->
<!-- <adapter>coldfusion.flash.adapter.CFWSAdapter</adapter> ->
</service-adapters>

security

You can edit security settings in child tags of the <security> tag.
In the <login-command> tag, you can set the
flashgateway.security.LoginCommand implementation for performing local
authentication on a specific application server. By default, the <login-command> tag is
set to the following values:
<login-command>
<class>flashgateway.security.JRunLoginCommand</class>
<server-match>JRun</server-match>
</login-command>

In the <show-stacktraces> tag, you can enable stack traces. Stack traces are useful
for debugging and product support, but they should not be sent to the client in
production mode because they can expose internal information about the system. The
following <show-stacktraces> tag is the default tag:
<show-stacktraces>false</show-stacktraces>

The <whitelist> tag specifies which remote sources can be accessed through the
gateway. The * character can be used as a wildcard to imply ALL matches. The following
<whitelist> tag shows the default value:
<whitelist>
<source>*</source>
</whitelist>

When you deploy your application, ensure that you change this setting so that it
specifies only the services that the gateway needs to access to run your application.
Remember that for ColdFusion based services, directories are treated as "packages" and
thus you specify a period delimited path from the web root to the directory or file
containing the services you will allow access to. An asterisk wildcard allows access to all
services in a particular directory. You can have multiple <source> tags.
The following whitelist allows access to the webroot/cfdocs/exampleapps/ directory,
which includes the flash1 through flash5 Flash Remoting example directories. It also
allows access to a webroot/BigApp/remoting directory and its children.
<whitelist>
<source>cfdocs.exampleapps.*</source>
<source>BigApp.remoting.*</source>
</whitelist>

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Feature

Description

logger level

You can set the level of logging between None, Error, Info, Warning, and Debug. The
following tag is the default logger level tag:
<logger level="Error">coldfusion.flash.ColdFusionLogger</logger>

redirect URL

In the <redirect-url> tag, you can specify a URL to receive HTTP requests that are
not sent with AMF data. By default, the <redirect-url> tag is set to
{context.root}, which is the context root of the web application:
<redirect-url>{context.root}</redirect-url>

case sensitivity

The <lowercase-keys> tag specifies how the gateway handles case sensitivity.
ActionScript 1.0 and ColdFusion use case insensitive data structures to store associative
arrays, objects and structs. The Java representation of these data types requires a caseinsensitive Map, which the gateway achieves by forcing all keys to lowercase.
ActionScript 2.0 is case sensitive and requires a <lowercase-keys> tag value of false.
The following <lowercase-keys> tag is the default tag:
<lowercase-keys>true</lowercase-keys>

Using the Flash Remoting service with ColdFusion pages

When you build a ColdFusion page that interacts with a SWF application, the directory name that contains the
ColdFusion pages translates to the service name that you call in ActionScript. The individual ColdFusion page names
within that directory translate to service functions that you call in ActionScript.
Note: Flash Remoting cannot interact with virtual directories accessed through a ColdFusion mapping.
In your ColdFusion pages, you use the Flash variable scope to access parameters passed to and from a SWF application.
To access parameters passed from a SWF application, you use the parameter name appended to the Flash scope or
the Flash.Params array. To return values to the SWF application, use the Flash.Result variable. To set an
increment value for records in a query object to be returned to the SWF application, use theFlash.Pagesize variable.
The following table shows the variables contained in the Flash scope:
Variable

Description

For more information

Flash.Params

Array that contains the parameters passed from the SWF application. See Accessing parameters passed from
If you do not pass any parameters, Flash.params still exists, but it is Flash on page 612.
empty.

Flash.Result

The variable returned from the ColdFusion page to the SWF

application that called the function.

See Returning results to Flash on page 613.

Note: Because ActionScript performs automatic type conversion, do

not return a Boolean literal to Flash from ColdFusion. Return 1 to
indicate true, and return 0 to indicate false.

Flash.Pagesize

The number of records returned in each increment of a record set to a See Returning records in increments to
Flash on page 614.
SWF application.

The following table compares the ColdFusion data types and their ActionScript equivalents:
ActionScript data type

ColdFusion data type

Number (primitive data type)

Number

Boolean (primitive data type)

Boolean (0 or 1)

String (primitive data type)

String

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ActionScript data type

ColdFusion data type

ActionScript Object

Structure

ActionScript Object (as the only argument passed to a service

function)

Arguments of the service function. ColdFusion pages (CFM files): flash

variable scope, ColdFusion components (CFC files): named arguments

Null

Null (Asc() returns 0, which translates to not defined)

Undefined

Null (Asc() returns 0, which translates to not defined)

Ordered array

Array

Note: ActionScript array indexes start at zero (for example:

my_ASarray[0]).

Note: ColdFusion array indexes start at one (for example: my_CFarray[1]).

Named (or associative) array

Struct

Date object

Date

XML object

XML document

RecordSet

Query object (when returned to a SWF application only; you cannot pass a
RecordSet from a SWF application to a ColdFusion application)

Also, remember the following considerations regarding data types:

If a string data type on the server represents a valid number in ActionScript, Flash can automatically cast it to a
number if needed.

To return multiple, independent values to the SWF application, place them in a complex variable that converts to
a Flash Object, Array, or Associative Array, that can hold all of the required data. Return the single variable and
access its elements in the SWF application.
For a complete explanation of using Flash Remoting data in ActionScript, see Using Flash Remoting MX 2004Help.

Accessing parameters passed from Flash

To access variables passed from SWF applications, you append the parameter name to the Flash scope or use the
Flash.Params array. Depending on how the values were passed from Flash, you refer to array values using ordered
array syntax or structure name syntax. Only ActionScript objects can pass named parameters.
For example, if you pass the parameters as an ordered array from Flash,array[1] references the first value. If you pass
the parameters as named parameters, you use standard structure-name syntax like params.name.
You can use most of the CFML array and structure functions on ActionScript collections. However, the StructCopy
CFML function does not work with ActionScript collections. The following table lists ActionScript collections and
describes how to access them in ColdFusion:

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Collection

ActionScript example

Notes

Strict array

var myArray:Array = new Array();

myArray[0] = "zero";
myArray[1] = "one";
myService.myMethod(myArray);

The Flash Remoting service converts the Array argument to a

ColdFusion array. All CFML array operations work as expected.

Named or associative var myStruct:Array = new Array();

myStruct["zero"] = "banana";
array

Mixed array

<cfset p1=Flash.Params[1][1]>
<cfset p2=Flash.Params[1][2]>

Named array keys are not case-sensitive in ActionScript.

myStruct["one"] = "orange";
myService.myMethod(myStruct);

<cfset p1=Flash.Params[1].zero>
<cfset p2=Flash.Params[1].one>

var myMxdArray:Array = new Array();

myMxdArray["one"] = 1;
myMxdArray[2] = true;

Treat this collection like a structure in ColdFusion. However,

keys that start with numbers are invalid CFML variable names.
Depending on how you attempt to retrieve this data,
ColdFusion sometimes throws an exception. For example, the
following CFC method throws an exception:
<cfargument name="ca" type="struct">
<cfreturn ca.2>

The following CFC method does not throw an exception:

<cfargument name="ca" type="struct">
<cfreturn ca["2"]>

Using an ActionScript myService.myMethod({ x:1, Y:2, z:3 }); This notation provides a convenient way of passing named
object initializer for
arguments to ColdFusion pages. You can access these
named arguments
arguments in ColdFusion pages as members of the Flash scope:
<cfset p1 = Flash.x>
<cfset p2 = Flash.y>
<cfset p3 = Flash.z>

Or, you can access them as normal named arguments of a CFC

method.

The Flash.Params array retains the order of the parameters as they were passed to the method. You use standard
structure name syntax to reference the parameters; for example:
<cfquery name="flashQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT ItemName, ItemDescription, ItemCost
FROM tblItems
WHERE ItemName EQ '#Flash.paramName#'
</cfquery>

In this example, the query results are filtered by the value of Flash.paramName, whichreferences the first parameter
in the passed array. If the parameters are passed as an ordered array from the SWF application, you use standard
structure name syntax; for example:
<cfset Flash.Result = "Variable 1:#Flash.Params[1]#, Variable 2: #Flash.Params[2]#">

Note: ActionScript array indexes start at zero. ColdFusion array indexes start at one.

Returning results to Flash

In ColdFusion pages, only the value of the Flash.Result variable is returned to the SWF application. For more
information about supported data types between ColdFusion and Flash, see the data type table in Using the Flash
Remoting service with ColdFusion pages on page 611. The following procedure creates the service function
helloWorld, which returns a structure that contains simple messages to the SWF application.
Create a ColdFusion page that passes a structure to a SWF application
1 Create a folder in your web root, and name it helloExamples.

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2 Create a ColdFusion page, and save it as helloWorld.cfm in the helloExamples directory.

3 Modify helloWorld.cfm so that the CFML code appears as follows:
<cfset tempStruct = StructNew()>
<cfset tempStruct.timeVar = DateFormat(Now ())>
<cfset tempStruct.helloMessage = "Hello World">

In the example, two string variables are added to a structure; one with a formatted date and one with a simple
message. The structure is passed back to the SWF application using the Flash.Result variable.
<cfset Flash.Result = tempStruct>

4 Save the file.

Remember, the directory name is the service address. The helloWorld.cfm file is a method of the helloExamples Flash
Remoting service. The following ActionScript example calls the helloWorld ColdFusion page and displays the values
that it returns:
import mx.remoting.*;
import mx.services.Log;
import mx.rpc.*;
// Connect to helloExamples service and create the howdyService service object
var howdyService:Service = new Service(
"http://localhost/flashservices/gateway",
null,
"helloExamples",
null,
null );
// Call the service helloWorld() method
var pc:PendingCall = howdyService.helloWorld();
// Tell the service what methods handle result and fault conditions
pc.responder = new RelayResponder( this, "helloWorld_Result", "helloWorld_Fault" );
function helloWorld_Result(re:ResultEvent)
{
// Display successful result
messageDisplay.text = re.result.HELLOMESSAGE;
timeDisplay.text = re.result.TIMEVAR;
}
function helloWorld_Fault(fe:FaultEvent)
{
// Display fault returned from service
messageDisplay.text = fe.fault;
}

Note: Due to ActionScript's automatic type conversion, do not return a Boolean literal to Flash from ColdFusion. Return
1 to indicate true, and return 0 to indicate false.

Returning records in increments to Flash

ColdFusion lets you return record set results to Flash in increments. For example, if a query returns 20 records, you
can set the Flash.Pagesize variable to return five records at a time to Flash. Incremental record sets let you minimize
the time that a SWF application waits for the application server data to load.
Create a ColdFusion page that returns an incremental record set to Flash
1 Create a ColdFusion page, and save it as getData.cfm in the helloExamples directory.

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2 Modify getData.cfm so that the code appears as follows:

<cfparam name="pagesize" default="10">
<cfif IsDefined("Flash.Params")>
<cfset pagesize = Flash.Params[1]>
</cfif>
<cfquery name="myQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT *
FROM tblParks
</cfquery>
<cfset Flash.Pagesize = pagesize>
<cfset Flash.Result = myQuery>

In this example, if a single parameter is passed from the SWF application, the pagesize variable is set to the value
of the Flash.Params[1] variable; otherwise, the value of the variable is the default, 10. Next, a statement queries
the database. After the querying, the pagesize variable is assigned to the Flash.Pagesize variable. Finally, the
query results are assigned to the Flash.Result variable, which is returned to the SWF application.
3 Save the file.

When you assign a value to the Flash.Pagesize variable, you are specifying that if the record set has more than a
certain number of records, the record set becomes pageable and returns the number of records specified in the
Flash.Pagesize variable. For example, the following code calls the getData() function of the CFMService and uses
the first parameter to request a page size of 5:
import mx.remoting.*;
import mx.services.Log;
import mx.rpc.*;
// Connect to helloExamples service and create the CFMService service object
var CFMService:Service = new Service(
"http://localhost/flashservices/gateway",
null,
"helloExamples",
null,
null );
// Call the service getData() method
var pc:PendingCall = CFMService.getData(5);
// Tell the service what methods handle result and fault conditions
pc.responder = new RelayResponder( this, "getData_Result", "getData_Fault" );
function getData_Result(re:ResultEvent)
{
// Display successful result
DataGlue.bindFormatStrings(employeeData, re.result, "#PARKNAME#, #CITY#, #STATE#");
}
function getData_Fault(fe:FaultEvent)
{
// Display fault returned from service
trace("Error description from server: " + fe.fault.description);
}

In this example, employeeData is a Flash list box. The result handler, getData_Result, displays the columns
PARKNAME, CITY, and STATE in the employeeData list box. After the initial delivery of records, the RecordSet
ActionScript class assumes the task of fetching records. In this case, the list box requests more records as the user
scrolls the list box.
You can configure the client-side RecordSet object to fetch records in various ways using the
RecordSet.setDeliveryMode ActionScript function.

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Using Flash with CFCs

CFCs require little modification to work with a SWF application. The tag cffunction tag names the method and
contains the CFML logic, the cfargument tag names the arguments, and the cfreturn tag returns the result to the SWF
application. The name of the CFC file (*.cfc) translates to the service name in ActionScript.
Note: For CFC methods to communicate with SWF applications, set the cffunction tags access attribute to remote.
The following example replicates the helloWorld function that was previously implemented as a ColdFusion page.
For more information, see Using the Flash Remoting service with ColdFusion pages on page 611.
Create a CFC that interacts with a SWF application
1 Create a CFC and save it as flashComponent.cfc in the helloExamples directory.
2 Modify the code in flashComponent.cfc so that it appears as follows:
<cfcomponent name="flashComponent">
<cffunction name="helloWorld" access="remote" returnType="Struct">
<cfset tempStruct = StructNew()>
<cfset tempStruct.timeVar = DateFormat(Now ())>
<cfset tempStruct.helloMessage = "Hello World">
<cfreturn tempStruct>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

In this example, the helloWorld function is created. The cfreturn tag returns the result to the SWF application.
3 Save the file.

The helloWorld service function is now available through the flashComponent service to ActionScript. The
following ActionScript example calls this function:

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import mx.remoting.*;
import mx.services.Log;
import mx.rpc.*;
// Connect to the Flash component service and create service object
var CFCService:Service = new Service(
"http://localhost/flashservices/gateway",
null,
"helloExamples.flashComponent",
null,
null );
// Call the service helloWorld() method
var pc:PendingCall = CFCService.helloWorld();
// Tell the service what methods handle result and fault conditions
pc.responder = new RelayResponder( this, "helloWorld_Result", "helloWorld_Fault" );
function helloWorld_Result(re:ResultEvent)
{
// Display successful result
messageDisplay.text = re.result.HELLOMESSAGE;
timeDisplay.text = re.result.TIMEVAR;
}
function helloWorld_Fault(fe:FaultEvent)
{
// Display fault returned from service
messageDisplay.text = fe.fault;
}

In this example, the CFCService object references the flashComponent component in the helloExamples directory.
Calling the helloWorld function in this example executes the function that is defined in flashComponent.
For ColdFusion components, the component filename, including the directory structure from the web root, serves as
the service name. Remember to delimit the path directories with periods rather than backslashes.

Using the Flash Remoting service with ColdFusion Java objects

You can run various kinds of Java objects with ColdFusion, including JavaBeans, Java classes, and Enterprise
JavaBeans. You can use the ColdFusion Administrator to add additional directories to the classpath.
Add a directory to ColdFusion classpath
1 Open the ColdFusion Administrator.
2 In the Server Settings menu, click the Java and JVM link.
3 Add your directory to the Class Path form field.
4 Click Submit Changes.
5 Restart ColdFusion.

When you place your Java files in the classpath, the public methods of the class instance are available to your SWF
movie.
For example, assume the Java class utils.UIComponents exists in a directory in your ColdFusion classpath. The Java
file contains the following code:

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package utils;
public class UIComponents
{
public UIComponents()
{
}
public String sayHello()
{
return "Hello";
}
}

Note: You cannot call constructors with Flash Remoting. Use the default constructor.
In ActionScript, the following javaService call runs the sayHello public method of the utils.UIComponents class:
import mx.remoting.*;
import mx.services.Log;
import mx.rpc.*;
// Connect to service and create service object
var javaService:Service = new Service(
"http://localhost/flashservices/gateway",
null,
utils.UIComponents",
null,
null );
// Call the service sayHello() method
var pc:PendingCall = javaService.sayHello();
// Tell the service what methods handle result and fault conditions
pc.responder = new RelayResponder( this, "sayHello_Result", "sayHello_Fault" );
function sayHello_Result(re:ResultEvent)
{
// Display successful result
trace("Result is: " + re.result);
}
function sayHello_Fault(fe:FaultEvent)
{
// Display fault returned from service
trace("Error is: " + fe.fault.description);
}

Note: For more information about using Java objects with ColdFusion, see Using Java objects on page 1135

Handling errors with ColdFusion and Flash

To help with debugging, use cftry and cfcatch tags in your ColdFusion page or component to return error messages
to Flash Player. For example, the ColdFusion page, causeError.cfm, contains the code:
<cftry>
<cfset dev = Val(0)>
<cfset Flash.Result = (1 / dev)>
<cfcatch type = "any">
<cfthrow message = "An error occurred in this service: #cfcatch.message#">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

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The second cfset tag in this example fails because it tries to divide by zero (0). The message attribute of the cfthrow
tag describes the error; ColdFusion returns this attribute to the SWF application.
To handle the error in your SWF application, create a fault handler like causeError_Fault in the following example:
import mx.remoting.*;
import mx.services.Log;
import mx.rpc.*;
// Connect to service and create service object
var CFMService:Service = new Service(
"http://localhost/flashservices/gateway",
null,
"helloExamples",
null,
null );
// Call the service causeError() method
var pc:PendingCall = CFMService.causeError();
// Tell the service what methods handle result and fault conditions
pc.responder = new RelayResponder( this, "causeError_Result", "causeError_Fault" );
function causeError_Result(re:ResultEvent)
{
// Display successful result
messageDisplay.text = re.result;
}
function causeError_Fault(fe:FaultEvent)
{
// Display fault returned from service
trace("Error message from causeError is: " + fe.fault.description);
}

This example displays the trace message from the causeError_Fault function in the Flash Output panel. The portion
of the message that is contained in fe.fault.description is the portion of the message that is contained in
#cfcatch.message# in the causeError.cfm page.
Note: When you create a ColdFusion page that communicates with Flash, ensure that the ColdFusion page works before
using it with Flash.

Using Flash Remoting Update

You can use Flash Remoting Update to create Rich Internet Applications by using Adobe ColdFusion with Adobe
Flash Builder or earlier versions of Flex Builder, with the advanced data retrieval features of ColdFusion, such as the
cfpop, cfldap, and cfquery tags. In addition, you can use Flash Remoting Update to create Flash Forms and SWF
files that contain features, such as server call backs and customized user interface.

Prerequisites for using Flash Remoting Update

You can use Flash Remoting Update with all configurations of ColdFusion (server, multiserver, and J2EE) on all the
platforms that ColdFusion supports.
To use Flash Remoting Update, you must have the following installed:

Flex 2 SDK or later, Flex Builder 2 or later, Flash Builder 4.

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Note: With ColdFusion 9, you will need to install LiveCycle Data Services 2.6.1 manually because it is not available
as an option with the ColdFusion installer. However, ColdFusion 9 is available with the BLAZE DS installation, which
allows messaging support. For more information about manually installing LiveCycle Data Services ES 2.6.1, see
Installing LiveCycle Data Services Manually in the Installation Guide.

Flash Player 8.5 or later

Configure Flex Compilation

You use Flash Builder or the Flex SDK to compile Flex applications into SWF files. To use the Flash Remoting Update,
these programs must use the ColdFusion services-config.xml file when compiling the MXML.
You need to configure Flash Builder to use the ColdFusion configuration file, or specify the file when you use the SDK
to compile your application (as described in Compile and Run the application).

Configure Flex Builder 2 to use the ColdFusion configuration file

When you use the Flex Builder Project Setup Wizard and select ColdFusion as the server type, the wizard configures
Flex Builder to use the services-config.xml file for you. Use the following steps to configure your project:
1 Select File> New> Flex Project to open the New Flex Project Wizard. and enter the appropriate information in the

first sections of the Create a Flex project page.

2 Select one of the radio buttons, as follows:

Select ColdFusion Flash Remoting to compile in Flex Builder.

If you installed LiveCycle Data Services with ColdFusion and want to use messaging or data management, select
Flex Data Services.
3 If you select Flex Data services, select whether to compile the application locally in Flex Builder or on the

application server where the page is viewed. Do not select to compile code that you deploy on the server; this option
is for development purposes only.
4 Click Next and complete creating the project, then click Finish.

If you select Basic on the first Create a Flex Project page, and decide later to compile the application for use with
ColdFusion, configure Flex Builder manually, as follows:
1 Select Project > Properties.
2 Select Flex Complier in the right pane of the Properties dialog.
3 In the Additional Compiler arguments add -services= followed by the absolute path to the services-config.xml

file in the local ColdFusion installation. For example, on a Windows system with a default ColdFusion stand-alone
installation, specify the following argument string.
-services=C:/ColdFusion9/wwwroot/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml

Configure Flex Builder 3 to use the ColdFusion configuration file

When you use the Flex Builder Project Setup Wizard and select ColdFusion as the server type, the wizard configures
Flex Builder to use the services-config.xml file for you. Use the following steps to configure your project:
1 Select File> New> Flex Project to open the New Flex Project Wizard. and enter the appropriate information in the

first sections of the Create a Flex project page.

2 In the Server technology section of the Create a Flex project page, select ColdFusion as the Application server type,

and select Use remote object access service.

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3 Select one of the radio buttons, as follows:

Select ColdFusion Flash Remoting to compile in Flex Builder.

If you installed LiveCycle Data Services and want to compile the application on the server, select LiveCycle Data
services in Flex Builder 3.
4 Click Next to open the Configure ColdFusion page, and enter the required information. If you selected LiveCycle

Data services in step 3, you can select to compile the application locally or on the server. Select to compile on the
server only when you are developing your application, for convenience. Do not select to compile on the server code
that you deploy, because the MXML page is not compiled to a SWF file until the user requests it, and the compiler
does not create an HTML wrapper page.
5 Click Finish to complete the configuration.

If you do not specify ColdFusion in the Server technology section of the Create a Flex project page, and decide later to
compile the application for use with ColdFusion, configure Flex Builder manually, as follows:
1 Select Project > Properties.
2 Select Flex Complier in the right pane of the Properties dialog.
3 In the Additional Compiler arguments add -services= followed by the absolute path to the services-config.xml

file in the local ColdFusion installation. For example, on a Windows system with a default ColdFusion stand-alone
installation, specify the following argument string.
-services=C:/ColdFusion8/wwwroot/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml

Specify a CFC
To specify a CFC to connect to, you do one of the following:

Specify the dot-delimited path from the web root to the CFC in the MXML.
Create a named resource for the CFC. Creating this resource is like registering a data source; you then use the
resource name in your XML.

Specify the CFC in the MXML

To specify the CFC in your MXML, use code such as the following:
<mx:RemotObject
id="myCfc"
destination="ColdFusion"
source="myApplication.components.User"/>

ColdFusion 9 supports BlazeDS that allows messaging support for ColdFusion. When you install ColdFusion, the
following files are added to the /WEB-INF/flex directory:

remoting-config.xml
messaging-config.xml
services-config.xml
proxy-config.xml
The destination ColdFusion is preconfigured in remoting-config.xml. The default source value for this destination is
the wildcard, *. For more information about the changes in Flash Remoting for ColdFusion 9, see Changes in the XML
configuration files for Flash Remoting in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion 9.0.1.

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You do not have to use the ColdFusion destination if you have configured other valid destinations in the configuration
file. In this case, the destination definition must specify * as the value of its source element. If you specify a source
other than * in remoting-config.xml, then that source definition overrides the source specified in the MXML.
For details of defining a destination, see Create a named resource for a CFC.

Create a named resource for a CFC

1 Edit the WEB-INF/flex/remoting-config.xml file by adding a destination entry for the CFC, for example:
<service id="remoting-service" class="flex.messaging.services.RemotingService"
messageTypes="flex.messaging.messages.RemotingMessage">
<adapters>
<adapter-definition id="cf-object"
class="coldfusion.flash.messaging.ColdFusionAdapter" default="true" />
<adapter-definition id="java-object"
class="flex.messaging.services.remoting.adapters.JavaAdapter" />
</adapters>
<default-channels>
<channel ref="my-cfamf" />
</default-channels>
<destination id="ColdFusion">
<channels>
<channel ref="my-cfamf" />
</channels>
<properties>
<source>*</source>
</properties>
</destination>
</service>

The source attribute specifies the dot notation to the CFC from the web root (the classpath to the CFC).
The channel-ref tag refers to the channel-definition in the services-config.xml file. In the preceding sample, the mycfamf channel-definition has been referenced, which looks similar to the following:

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<channel-definition id="my-cfamf" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel"> <endpoint

uri="http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}/flex2gateway/"
class="coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFAMFEndPoint" />
<properties>
<polling-enabled>false</polling-enabled>
<serialization>
<enable-small-messages>false</enable-small-messages>
</serialization>
<coldfusion>
<access>
<use-mappings>true</use-mappings>
<method-access-level>remote</method-access-level>
</access>
<use-accessors>true</use-accessors>
<use-structs>false</use-structs>
<property-case>
<force-cfc-lowercase>false</force-cfc-lowercase>
<force-query-lowercase>false</force-query-lowercase>
<force-struct-lowercase>false</force-struct-lowercase>
</property-case>
</coldfusion>
</properties>
</channel-definition>

2 Restart the ColdFusion server.

The following table describes the XML attributes for remoting-config.xml:

Element

Description

destination id

The destination attribute that the MXML mx:RemoteObject tag must specify to access the
CFC.

channels

A container for one of more child channel attributes specifying the AMF channels to use to
access the ColdFusion server.

channel-ref

Reference to the channel-definition id specified in the services-config.xml file.

source

The dot-delimited file path to the CFC, from the cfWebRoot, or, if the use-mappings property is
true, an entry in the ColdFusion Administrator Mappings page.

access

Properties that control how the CFC is accessed on the ColdFusion server.

The following table lists the XML attributes for services-config.xml:

Elements

Description

channel-definition id

Channel definition

coldfusion

Contains tags to set access levels, mappings to find CFCs, access to public or remote methods.

access

define the resolution rules and access level of the CFC being invoked

use-mappings

Use the ColdFusion mappings to find CFCs, by default only CFC files under your web root can be
found.

method-access-level

Allow "public and remote" or just "remote" methods to be invoked

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Elements

Description

use-accessors

Whether the Value Object CFC has getters and setters. Set the value of use-accessors to true if
there are getters and setters in the Value Object CFC.

use-structs

Set the value of use-structs to true if you don't require any translation of ActionScript to CFCs. The
assembler can still return structures to Flex, even if the value is false. The default value is false.

force-cfc-lowercase
force-query-lowercase
force-struct-lowercase

Whether to make property names, query column names, and structure keys lowercase when
converting to ActionScript. Query column names must precisely match the case of the
corresponding ActionScript variables. The default value is false.

Use the CFC

Use the CFC in your application:
1 In the MXML file, you use the <mx:RemoteObject> tag to connect to your CFC named resource. With this

connection, you can call any remote method on the CFC.

2 If you created a destination for the CFC in the remoting-config.xml file, specify the destination name in the
mx:RemoteObject tag; for example:
<mx:RemoteObject
id="a_named_reference_to_use_in_mxml"
destination="CustomID"
result="my_CFC_handler(event)"/>

If you did not create a destination for the CFC, specify the ColdFusion destination and the CFC path in the
mx:RemoteObbject tag; for example:
<mx:RemotObject
id="myCfc"
destination="ColdFusion"
source="myApplication.components.User"/>

3 Call a CFC method, for example, as the following example shows:

<mx:Button label="reload" click="my_CFC.getUsers()"/>

In this example, when a user presses a button, the Click event calls the CFC method getUsers.
4 Specify a handler for the returned result of the CFC method call for the <mx:RemoteObject> tag, as the following

example shows.
private function my_CFC_handler( event:ResultEvent )
{
// Show alert with the value that is returned from the CFC.
mx.controls.Alert.show(ObjectUtil.toString(event.result));
}

Compile and Run the application

You can compile and run your application from Flash Builder or without using Flash Builder. The techniques you can
use also depend on whether you have installed LiveCycle Data Services.

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Compile and run the application using Flash Builder

To compile and run an application using Flash Builder, make sure that Flash Builder is configured as described in
Configure Flex Compilation on page 620. Compile your application normally to create a SWF file. When you
configure your Flash Builder project you can specify the location in which to place it. By default, Flash Builder attempts
to place the SWF file and an HTML wrapper page under the web root. You can then run the application as appropriate,
for example, by requesting the HTML wrapper for the SWF file in a browser.

Compile and Run the application without Flash Builder

To compile the application directly using the SDK, set the Flex compiler to use the ColdFusion services-config.xml file.
Set the Flex compiler by adding to the mxml command line -services= followed by the absolute path to the
services-config.xml file in the local ColdFusion installation. For example, on a Windows system with a default
ColdFusion standalone installation, specify the following argument string.
-services=C:/ColdFusionCentuar/wwwroot/WEB-INF/flex/services-config.xml

Offline AIR Application Support

ColdFusion 9 provides offline AIR application support, which includes data persistence and synchronization. These
features let an AIR application use a local SQLite database that represents data on the ColdFusion server.
You cannot use these features in applications built with Flash, which run in a browser or Flash Player. These features
only support AIR applications with intermittent connectivity to the ColdFusion data provider. They enable users to
run the AIR application offline and then synchronize data with the ColdFusion application the next time the
application runs online.
To support offline AIR data access, you code ActionScript elements on the client side and CFML on the server side.
Note: Some of the code in the following discussion uses an AIR application that displays and updated an Employee
database that ColdFusion manages for its sample code. However, the snippets below are not all from this example, and
do not make up a complete or consistent application.

More Help topics

Offline AIR application support in ColdFusion 9.0.1 on page 646

ColdFusion server side

The ColdFusion application uses a CFC to represent the data being exchanged and synchronized. For example, you
could have an ORM employee component with a structure as follows:
<cfcomponent persistent="true" displayname="EMP">
<cfproperty name="id" type="numeric" fieldtype="id" generator="native">
<cfproperty name="firstName" type="string">
<cfproperty name="lastName" type="string">
...
<cfproperty name="countryCode" type="string">
</cfcomponent>

You can also use a traditional non-ORM CFC. In this case, the Fetch and Sync Methods use the cfquery tag and
related tags and function for database operations.

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To manage interactions with the AIR application and keep the data synchronized, ColdFusion application uses a
component called the SyncManager. The SyncManager implements the CFIDE.AIR.ISyncManager interface. The
component has two functions:

A fetch function that the AIR application calls to get data from ColdFusion. This function is not part of the
ISyncManager interface, but is required. The function can have any arbitrary name, but is called fetch by
convention.

A sync function that the AIR application calls to synchronize the ColdFusion and AIR data sources when the
application updates or changes data. This function takes three parameters:
operations An array of operations to perform INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE.
clientObjects An array of objects, where each item in the array represents the client's current view of the data
to be synchronized.
originalObjects An array of objects, each item in this Array represents the corresponding original data from the

server (if any), such as an existing employee record that a user is updating. For an INSERT operation, this object is
null. For a DELETE operation, this object is normally the same as the current data.
Incase of Conflict during Sync process, the sync function returns to the AIR client an Array of
"CFIDE.AIR.Conflict.cfc" objects. Each of this Conflict object consists of a single serverObject element. The sync
function sets the element to equal the server copy of the record that is in conflict. The client application can then handle
the conflict as described in Conflict management on page 635.

Server-Side notes
When the sync function performs a DELETE operation, it gets the primary key ID from the OriginalObject of the
Sync method, as the ClientObject is NULL. For update and insert operations, use the ClientObject key value.

When you do an INSERT operation, the CFC checks whether the OriginalObject parameter of the sync method is
a simple value, as in the following code:
{NOT IsSimpleValue(OriginalObject)}

In an INSERT operation, OriginalObject passed to the Sync function is null. So if you attempt to retrieve any of its
properties, you get a Method NOT Found error. For Example, OriginalObject.GetID results in a Method GetID()
not found error. So, for Insert operation, use ClientObject to access various fields.

While a ColdFusion application can use cfquery to directly manage the database, most AIR applications are
expected to use the ORM feature. The discussion here uses ColdFusion ORM for server-side data management.

You may see the following kind of error message if you are using ColdFusion 8 Remoting with AIR offline
applications, which have server side "Sync" method using ORM EntitySave()/EntityDelete() methods.
Error handling message: flex.messaging.MessageException: Unable to invoke CFC - a different
object with the same identifier value was already associated with the session: [address#1].
Root cause:org.hibernate.NonUniqueObjectException: a different object with the same
identifier value was already associated with the session: [address#1]

You may also encounter this error with ColdFusion 9 Remoting but only for EntityDelete method.
To resolve this sort of error, call your EntitySave/EntityDelete method in following way in "Sync" method.
<cfif operation eq "INSERT" OR operation eq "UPDATE">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(clientobject)>
<cfset EntitySave(obj)>
<cfelseif operation eq "DELETE">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(originalobject)>
<cfset EntityDelete(obj)>
</cfif>

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In case of a conflict, the sync function returns an array of "CFIDE.AIR.Conflict" objects to the client. There are
four properties a conflict object can have: operation,serverobject,clientobject,originalobject.
The serverobject property of the conflict object must be a user-defined CFC type that represents the server-side
database table. The following example generates a conflict object with a valid ServerObject property of type
employee.cfc, which represents the Employee table:
<cfset serverobject = EntityLoadByPK("employee",originalobject.getId())>
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.conflict")>
<cfset conflict.serverobject = serverobject>
<cfset conflict.clientobject = clientobject>
<cfset conflict.originalobject = originalobject>
<cfset conflict.operation = operation>
<cfset conflicts[conflictcount++] = conflict>
<cfreturn conflicts>

If you are using ColdFusion ORM, you can replace the preceding example with the following code.
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.Conflict")
<cfset serverobject = EntityLoadByPK("employee",#res.IDENTITYCOL#)>
<cfset conflict.SetServerobject(serverobject)>

When an AIR client with stale data tries to update an already deleted record from the database, server throws the
conflict, and the client's conflict handle, which has the KeepAllServerObjects or KeepServerObject method
accepts the changes from the server. However, the client method does not delete the stale record, which no longer
exists in the server database, from the client database.
To prevent this issue: The serverObject property of the conflict object returned by the server must be null, if the
record that the client requests for updating is no longer in the database. For example:
<cfset serverobject = EntityLoadByPK("employee",originalobject.getId())>
<!----If the operation is INSERT, serverObject is also NULL.hence NEQ condition---->
<cfif not isdefined('serverobject') and operation NEQ "INSERT" >
<cflog text="CONFLICT::SERVER OBJECT NOT FOUND, RECORD MAY BE DELETED ALREADY">
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.conflict")>
<cfset conflict.clientobject = clientobject>
<cfset conflict.originalobject = originalobject>
<cfset conflict.operation = operation>
<cfset conflicts[conflictcount++] = conflict>
<cfcontinue>
</cfif>

Offline AIR application code constructs

To code an AIR application that synchronizes with ColdFusion, include the cfair.swc file in your AIR project. This file
contains all the ColdFusion client-side code to support interactions between AIR and ColdFusion. The file is installed
with ColdFusion in the cf_webroot/CFIDE/scripts/AIR directory. In Flash Builder, specify the swc file location in the
Project > Properties > FlexBuildPath > Library Path > Add SWClibrary dialog.

Data object
The AIR application represents the managed data in an ActionScript object that corresponds to the ColdFusion-side
data CFC. For example, in the Employee example, the AIR application has an Employee.as file containing an Employee
ActionScript class that corresponds to ColdFusion employee.cfc:

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package test.basic
{
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="AIRIntegration.employee")]
[Entity]
public class Employee
{
/** The user id of the employee **/
[Id]
public var id:int;
public var firstName : String;
public var lastName : String;
public var displayName : String;
....
public var countryCode : String = 'US';
....
}

Note: You do not need to create any SQLite databases or tables; they are created automatically. For example, once the
Employee class is defined as above, the first time you invoke the class, the equivalent SQLite table is created for server data
persistence.

Data object metadata

You use the following metadata to define the data object:
Metadata Element

Purpose

[Entity]

Specifies that instances of this class can be persisted to the SQLite database. This element is
required.

[Table(name="tableName")]

The name of the SQLite table in which the object is to be stored. Defaults to the name of the
class.

[Id]

Precedes a field definition. Indicates that the field is a primary key in the table. For composite
keys, use Id tags on all the primary key fields.

[Transient]

A Boolean value specifying whether the property or field is persistent. A True value indicates
that the field is not persistent and so it is not a part of the client side Sqlite table.

[Column(name="name",
columnDefinition="TEXT|INTEGER|
FLOAT|BOOLEAN|VARCHACHAR",
nullable=true|false, unique=true|false)]),

Specifies the SQLite database column that contains data for this field.
name: Column name. If not specified, defaults to the property name.
columnDefinition: The SQL Datatype to use for the column.
nullable: Specifies whether a field can have a null value.
unique: Specifies whether the value for each field must be unique within the column.

[RemoteClass]

Used for all remote objects, not just ColdFusion. The alias attribute identifies the
corresponding class on the remote server. This information is used to map between
ActionScript data types and the remote data types.
It is mandatory that you specify the [RemoteClass] metadata tag for the ActionScript classes
or entities that map with the server-side CFC. If you do not specify this metadata tag, you get
a runtime error. For example, you specify the alias name for the Address entity as follows:
[RemoteClass(alias="myFolder.AIRIntegration.Address")]
The alias name must be unique within the AIR application.

Note: For private properties in a class, set [Column] metadata on the accessor functions (getxxx and setxxx) and not on
the private property, as shown in the following code:

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private var name:String; // Private property

[Column(name="FNAME",columnDefinition="VARCHAR")]
public function set fname(name:String):void // accessor function
{
this.name = name;
}
public function get fname():String // accessor function
{
return name;
}

Client Side
ColdFusion 9 extends offline application support to the client side of the application by letting you code ActionScript
elements on the client side. The data that is exchanged and synchronized on the client side is managed through
persistent objects in the local or offline database.

Managing relationships
The ActionScript persistent framework lets you define the following relationship types between two persistent objects.

one-to-one
one-to-many
many-to-one
many-to-many
To understand how the persistent framework handles relationships, let us consider an example of the Employee and
Department objects in a database.
If you do not specify attribute values, the default values are taken as follows:

The default table name is the class name.

The default value for columnDefinition is the ActionScript type of the field.
The default value for referencedColumnName is the primary key of the target entity.

The default value for targetEntity is the ActionScript type of the referring field.

Note: In case you are using ORM CFCs, the remotingFetch attribute in the <cfproperty> tag is set to false by default for
all relationships. You must set this attribute to true to retrieve data on the client side.
One-to-one relationship
Consider a one-to-one relationship where one employee belongs to a single department. You can use code like the
following to define a one-to-one mapping between the Department and Employee objects with DEPTID as the foreign
key column name.
[Entity]
[Table(name="employee")]
public class Employee
{
[Id]
var id:uint;
[OneToOne(targetEntity="Department"|fetchType="EAGER(default)|LAZY")]
[JoinColumn(name="DEPTID", referencedColumnName="DEPT_ID")]
var dept:Department;
}

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The [JoinColumn]tag specifies the foreign key column and all the attributes of the column tag. Do not specify
[JoinColumn] for both the entities in the relationship. For example, in the one-to-one relationship between the
Department and Employee objects, specify [JoinColumn]only for one of the entities depending on the direction of
the relationship.
referencedColumnName specifies the primary key column that it refers to. Class indicates the target entity, which is
Department in this example.

The default fetchType value is EAGER. See Lazy loading and fetch type on page 631 for information on fetch types.
One-to-many relationship
Consider a one-to-many relationship where one employee belongs to many departments. You can use code like the
following to define a one-to-many mapping between the Department and Employee objects.
public class Employee
{
[Id]
var id:uint;
[OneToMany(targetEntity="Department",mappedBy="department",
fetchType="EAGER|LAZY(default)")]
var depts:ArrayCollection;
}

There is no column specified in the Employee table but refers to the field in the Department entity that points to the
Employee entity.
The default fetchType value is LAZY. See Lazy loading and fetch type on page 631 for information on fetch types
Many-to-one relationship
Consider a many-to-one relationship where many employees belong to a single department. You can use code like the
following to define a many-to-one mapping between the Department and Employee objects.
public class Employee
{
[Id]
var id:uint;
[ManyToOne(targetEntity="Department",fetchType="EAGER(default)|LAZY")]
[JoinColumn(name="deptId",referencedColumnName="DEPT_ID")]
var dept:Department;
}

The default fetchType value is EAGER. See Lazy loading and fetch type on page 631 for information on fetch types
Many-to-many relationship
Consider a many-to-many relationship where many employees belong to many departments. You can use code like
the following to define a many-to-many mapping between the Department and Employee objects.

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public class Employee

{
[Id]
[Column(name="ID")]
var id:uint;
[ManyToMany(targetEntity="Department",
fetchType="EAGER|LAZY(default)")]
[JoinTable(name="EMP_DEPT")]
[JoinColumn(name="EMPID", referencedColumnName="ID")]
[InverseJoinColumn(name="DEPID", referencedColumnName="DEPTID")]
var depts:ArrayCollection;
}

The default fetchType value is LAZY. See Lazy loading and fetch type on page 631 for information on fetch types.
For a many-to-many relationship, you specify metadata like the following only on one of the entities and not both.
[JoinTable(name="ORDER_PRODUCT")]
[JoinColumn(name="ORDER_ID",referencedColumnName="oid")]
[InverseJoinColumn(name="PRODUCT_ID",referencedColumnName="pid")]

The[JoinColumn]tag specifies the foreign key column and all the attributes of the column tag. The
[InverseJoinColumn] tag specifies the reference to the joining entity in the [JoinTable] tag. In this example, join
table "EMP_DEPT" has a column named "DEPID", which refers to the "DEPTID" column of the Department table.
The[JoinTable] tag defines the join table for the many-to-many relationship specifying the join column and inverse
join column. In this example, a join table named "EMP_DEPT" is created in the Offline SQLite DB with a many-tomany relationship between the Employee and Department tables.

Lazy loading and fetch type

The ActionScript persistent framework supports lazy loading although it may not be as intuitive because of the
asynchronous connection with the database.
The fetch type EAGER or LAZY determines the fetch type for the relationship that is loaded. An EAGER fetch type loads
the relationship and fetches data when the call is first made. A LAZY fetch type loads the relationship and fetches data
only when an explicit fetch call is made. The default value for the fetch type is EAGER and the default value for
ignoreLazyLoad is false.
When you specify fetchType="EAGER" at the class-definition level, the loadByPk function always loads the related
object, irrespective of the value you specify for the ignoreLazyLoad parameter.
When you specify fetchType="LAZY" at the class-definition level, you can have two possibilities:

When you specify the ignoreLazyLoad parameter as true, the related object is also loaded. For example, if you
have two related objects Address and Customer, and specify loadByPK(Customer,{id:3},true), the Address
object is also loaded.

When you do not specify any value for the ignoreLazyLoad parameter, it takes the default value that is false, and
the related object is not loaded. For example, if you have two related objects Address and Customer, and specify
loadByPK(Customer,{id:3}), the Address object is not loaded.

Cascading options
Cascading lets you specify the operations to be cascaded from the parent object to the associated object. The supported
operations are INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE. The cascadeType attribute lets you set any of the following values.
ALL If The source entity is inserted, updated, or deleted, the target entity is also inserted, updated, or deleted.

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PERSIST If The source entity is inserted or updated, the target entity is also inserted or updated.
REMOVE If The source entity is deleted, the target entity is also deleted.

The one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many relationships are all supported by cascading. You can
use code like the following to specify the cascading options:
ManyToMany(cascadeType="ALL or PERSIST or REMOVE")

If you do not specify the cascadeType option, only the source entity is persisted or updated.
When you specify cascadeType='ALL or REMOVE'to remove the parent object and the associated child objects, load
the parent object using load***() method and pass it through session.remove(parentObj). If you do not use this
method of loading, only the parent object gets deleted from SQLite database and the child objects remain.
Note: If you have enabled lazy loading by specifying fetchType='LAZY' at the entity level, when you load a parent object
using load***() method, the child objects are not loaded. When you specify cascadeType='ALL or REMOVE' and
try to delete the parent object by passing it through session.remove(parentObj), it does not delete the child objects.
To overcome this limitation, use the load***() method with ignorelazyloading='true'.

Using the AIR SyncManager class to manage data

The AIR application uses the SyncManager class to fetch data from the server and synchronize the local data with the
ColdFusion data source. The SyncManager uses a coldfusion.air.Session object to manage the session between the
client and the local SQLite database, and uses calls to the following methods in the ColdFusion sync manager CFC:

fetch to get data from the remote system

sync to synchronize the local and remote data
The following text describes basic functionality that you must implement. For details on the SyncManager and Session
classes, and other classes in the coldfusion.air package, see ActionScript 3.0 Reference. Alternatively, you can see the
standalone Adobe ColdFusion ActionScript Language Reference, which is accessible through the Documentation link
on the Resources page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
The AIR application init() function creates and configures a SyncManager instance, and fetches the initial data from
ColdFusion as shown in the following code:

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private function init():void

{
syncmanager = new SyncManager();
//The ColdFusion server and port. Port without double quotes as it is
//expected to be integer and IP is taken as String.
syncmanager.cfPort = CFServerPort;
syncmanager.cfServer = "CFServerIP";
//The CFC that implements the ColdFusion sync manager. Here
//AIRIntegration is the user defined folder under webroot.
syncmanager.syncCFC = "AIRIntegration.empManager";
//Specify a user-defined CF destination,if not specified, default destination
//'ColdFusion' will be used
syncmanager.destination = 'USerDefinedCFDestination'
//The event listener for conflict events returned byt the CFC
syncmanager.addEventListener(ConflictEvent.CONFLICT, conflictHandler);
//The local database file
var dbFile:File = File.userDirectory.resolvePath("EmpManager.db");
//Create a session object, which handles all interactions between the
//AIR application and the SQLite database.
var sessiontoken:SessionToken = syncmanager.openSession(dbFile, 999);
//Add a responder for handling session connection results.
sessiontoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(connectSuccess,
connectFault));
}

Fetching data from the server

Use the SyncManager fetch method to fetch data from the ColdFusion server by calling the fetch method of the server
data object. The syncManager.fetch method takes the name of the CFC fetch method (typically fetch) as its first
parameter, followed by any CFC fetch method parameters.
The syncManager.fetch method returns an AsyncToken object that provides access to the data. The function
returns the token synchronously. The ColdFusion CFC response returns asynchronously. Therefore, call the token's
addResponder method to specify a responder that handles the responses for successful and failed fetches.
To fetch the initial data from the server, you can include the following code in the Application init() method.
// fetch the data.
var token:AsyncToken = syncmanager.fetch("fetch");
//Specify the responder to handle the fetch results.
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(fetchSuccess, fetchFault));

Managing the local database

You use a Session object to manage the data in the local SQLite database. You call the syncmanager.openSession
method to create a session with a specific database file. The method returns a SessionToken token, and the
SessionToken.session property provides access to the session. You use code in the token's openSessionSuccess
responder event handler to provide access to the session object. This way, you do not access the session, and therefore
the database, until it is successfully opened.

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The following code expands on the session initialization code that was shown above. and shows an openSessionSuccess
event handler that uses the session to save the contents of the remote database in the local image. In this example, users
is the array collection fetched from server:
var dbFile:File = File.userDirectory.resolvePath("basic.db");
var token:SessionToken = syncmanager.openSession(dbFile, 113);
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(openSessionSuccess, openSessionFault));
function openSessionSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
//Initialize a variable for access to the session.
var session:Session = event.sessionToken.session;
//Save the remote database data in the local database.
//users is the array collection fetched from server
var saveToken:SessionToken = session.saveCache(users);
//Add responder event handlers for successful and failed saves.
saveToken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(saveSuccess, saveFault));
}

Once you have access to the session, you can get (load) data from the SQLite database, and insert, delete, and update
data database by calling the session objects methods. For details on the session object methods, see ActionScript 3.0
Reference. Alternatively, you can see the standalone Adobe ColdFusion ActionScript Language Reference, which is
accessible through the Documentation link on the Resources page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
Notes:
The SQLite database doesn't validate column types when it creates a table. If you give it an invalid value for column
data type, it creates the column with that type.

When you pass a unique integer ID parameter (one that is not used in the application) to the OpenSession method,
the method creates an intermediate database file, which tracks the client changes to be committed on the server. If
you use more than one database in a single application, use a unique ID for each database. Using a single ID ensures
that you use the correct database for each client-side transaction.

For asynchronous calls (such as SaveCache) that save fetched data in the local database, the call result can be
available by using the session token when the call returns, before the responders are added. This situation occurs if
the SaveCache operation tries to save null data. That is, if the fetch operation returned null data. In such cases, a
responder is not required.
There are two ways to handle this situation:
1

Check whether the result property of the session token returned by the function is null:
if (token.result == null) {
Add the responder here
}
else {
Directly use the token.result
}

2 Check that the ArrayCollection that is input to the SaveCache function is not null. The null response indicates

that the fetch operation did not get a result from the server:
If (ArrayCollection != null) {
Call SaveCache() function
Add Responder to the SaveCache Token
}
else {
Handle the condition here.
}

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If you call the SaveUpdate Method and a record with the specified primary key doesn't exist, the function inserts
the record. The method updates an existing record only if the primary key exists in the client database.

After you fetch data from the server, use only the SaveCache and SaveCacheUpdate methods to save the fetched
data into client side database. If you use the Save function to store the fetched data, the data is marked for insert on
server on commit, and the data you just got is written back to the server. In this case, a conflict occurs for the server
database primary key. If the server-side logic handles this conflict by ignoring the primary key ID from the client,
and lets the server generate a new ID, then the records are inserted, resulting in multiple copies of the data with
different IDs.

For AIR integration offline support, if you do not globally declare the variables for client side ActionScript classes
but attempt to save the data records fetched from server using session.saveCache() or
session.saveUpdateCache(), you might encounter AIR side error stackstrace with a message similar to the
following:
"Error: The object of type Object does not have the Entity metadata tag at
coldfusion.air::EntityCache/addMetadata()[D:\p4\depot\ColdFusion\cf_main\tools\AIRIntegrat
ion\OfflineSupport\src\coldfusion\air\EntityCache.as:228]"

Sending data to the server

The client SyncManager object tracks all the changes to the local data that happens through the session, so that the
local data and server data can be synchronized. The SyncManager also tracks the old data instances when data that is
already on the server is updated locally.
When the AIR application calls the Session.commit method, all changes that happened on the session are passed to
the CFC sync function. The sync function determines if there are any conflicts between the returned information. If
there are no conflicts, it updates the server data source. Otherwise, it handles the data as described in Conflict
management on page 635.
Note: When you call the session.commit method, if the server does not throw an error, the commit method dispatches a
CommitSucces event. This event indicates that the session.commit method has executed successfully, and the client data
has been handed to the server CFC sync method. (If an error occurs while sending data to the sync method, the client
receives a CommitFault event.) Therefore, the CommitSucces event does not mean that the server has saved the client
data, but only that it has received the data. For example, the server does not save the data if there is a conflict, but the
CommitSucces event is still dispatched. You handle conflicts separately by adding an event listener on the SyncManager.
The event Flow is the first to get the CommitSucces event, and then a ConflictEvent event.

Setting Remote Credentials for SyncManager

To authenticate the AIR client that is connecting to the ColdFusion server, you can send the remoting credentials,
which can be used on the server side under the <cflogin> tag. This is the same as setting the remoting credential for
a normal flash remoting object.
The following code contains the getRemoteObject() method in SyncManager, which gets the underlying flash
remoting object, so that you have full and same control over this as a normal flash remoting object.
syncmanager.getRemoteObject().SetRemoteCredentials("username","password");

Conflict management
Conflicts can happen in an offline application when the client modifies data that is already modified on the server. To
identify such a conflict, the session.Commit method passes the following data to the ColdFusion server sync method:
operations: An array of operations to perform INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE.
clientobjects: An array of new data changes.

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originalobjects: An array of data that was in the client database before the change. There is no conflict in the

following circumstances:

If your are updating a record and the data on the server is same as the data in the originalobject. The client before
the change had the same data as the server. In this case, the server updates its data source. If the old client data
differs from that on the server, the application must handle the conflict.

If you are inserting a new record. In this case, there is no originalobject value and ColdFusion can insert the record
in the data store.
You use the ColdFusion ObjectEquals function to identify conflicts. Pass the function the new instance of cfc from the
client and the original instance to check if they are equal. If they are equal, the client has been working with the latest
data. If it is not, the server can raise a conflict by returning the sever version of the instance present on the server from
the sync method by creating an instance of CFIDE.AIR.conflict.cfc, setting its serverobject property (its only
property) to the server value of the data, and returning the array of conflict objects to the AIR client.
The following code is an ideal example of sync method that uses ORM methods for syncing operations and also
handles conflicts.
<cffunction name="sync" returntype="any">
<cfargument name="operations" type="array" required="true">
<cfargument name="clientobjects" type="array" required="true">
<cfargument name="originalobjects" type="array" required="false">
<cfset conclits = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset conflictcount = 1>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#ArrayLen( operations )#">
<cfset operation = operations[i]>
<cfset clientobject = clientobjects[i]>
<cfset originalobject = originalobjects[i]>
<cfif operation eq "INSERT">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(clientobject)>
<cfset EntitySave(obj)>
<cfelseif listfindnocase("UPDATE,DELETE",operation) neq 0>
<cfset serverobject = EntityLoadByPK("employee",originalobject.getId())>
<cfif not isdefined('serverobject') >
<cflog text="CONFLICT::SERVER OBJECT NOT FOUND, RECORD MAY BE DELETED ALREADY">
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.conflict")>
<cfset conflict.clientobject = clientobject>
<cfset conflict.originalobject = originalobject>
<cfset conflict.operation = operation>
<cfset conflicts[conflictcount++] = conflict>
<cfcontinue>
</cfif>
<cfset isNotConflict = ObjectEquals(originalobject, serverobject)>
<cfif isNotConflict>
<cfif operation eq "UPDATE">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(clientobject)>
<cfset EntitySave(obj)>

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<cfelseif operation eq "DELETE">

<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(originalobject)>
<cfset EntityDelete(obj)>
</cfif>
<cfelse><!----Conflict--->
<cflog text = "is a conflict">
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.conflict")>
<cfset conflict.serverobject = serverobject>
<cfset conflict.clientobject = clientobject>
<cfset conflict.originalobject = originalobject>
<cfset conflict.operation = operation>
<cfset conflicts[conflictcount++] = conflict>
<cfcontinue>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfif conflictcount gt 1>
<cfreturn conflicts>
</cfif>
</cffunction>

The CFC handling of the conflict depends on your application. In some cases, it can be appropriate to ignore the
conflict and update the server data source with the new client data. In many cases, as in the preceding example, the
CFC informs the client about the conflict by returning the server value of the data.
On the client side, you use code such as the following to register the method that handles the conflict that the server
returns.
syncmanager.addEventListener(ConflictEvent.CONFLICT, conflictHandler);
function conflictHandler(event:ConflictEvent):void
{
var conflicts:ArrayCollection = event.result as ArrayCollection;
var token:SessionToken = session.keepAllServerObjects(conflicts);
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(conflictSuccess, conflictFault));
}

The conflictevent object contains an array of conflict objects that contain the clientinstance, originalinstance and the
serverinstance. To accept the server's data, the application calls keepAllServerObjects, which takes an ArrayCollection
that was passed to the conflict handler, or call the keepServerObject that takes an individual Conflict instance as shown
in the following code. This conflict handler simply accepts any returned server object.
function conflictHandler(event:ConflictEvent):void
{
var conflicts:ArrayCollection = event.result as ArrayCollection;
var conflict:Conflict = conflicts.getItemAt(0);
var token:SessionToken = session.keepServerObject(conflict);
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(conflictSuccess, conflictFault));
}

Conflicts can happen in the following cases:

When the client does an update after the server data was updated. In this case, the client was using an old instance
of data and not the latest data on the server. The server can inform the client by creating an instance of conflict.cfc
in the sync method and setting the server instance on it. On the client side, you can call the keepServerObject
function in the conflict handler to resolve the conflict by updating the client database with the server instance.

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When the client does an update but that record no longer exists on the server. Again, a conflict can be passed to the
client from the server by creating an instance of Conflict.cfc and returning it. There is no need to set a serverobject
property, as there is no server instance of the inserted data.

When the client did an insert, but for example, the server data uses an autoincrement primary key field. The server,
therefore, does not use the primary key inserted by the client. To inform the client of the correct key field value, the
server returns the conflict cfc instance with the server instance. The ActionScript Calling keepServerObject method
can then update the local data with the new primary key value from the server.
Note: After a commit or conflict resolution, it is recommended to synchronize the client database with the server data
source, because the server can have new data available from other clients.
ActionScript has a few reserved keywords. When you name the Class/SQLite table, ensure that you do not use any of
the reserved keywords. For example, Order is an ActionScript reserved keyword. If you name a table or class as Order,
the table creation fails. To avoid this name conflict, use the [Table(name="OrderTable")] metadata tag to override
the default name. Your code for the Order.as class could look something like the following:
package test
{
[Entity]
[Table(name="OrderTable")]
public class Order
{
public function Order()
{
}
[Id]
public var oid:uint;
public var name:String;
[ManyToMany(targetEntity="test::Product",cascadeType='ALL')]
public var products:Array;
}
}

Offline AIR application example

The example here describes how to build an offline AIR application that has a one-to-one relationship between the
Customer and Address objects in the database. You can use this example as a basis to build offline AIR applications
for the other relationship types.

Client-side (AIR application) code

Create a folder called onetoone in your AIR project and add the ActionScript class files: Customer.as and Address.as
with code that could be something like the following:

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Customer.as
package onetoone
{
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="AIRIntegration.custome r")]
[Entity]
public class Customer
{
[Id]
public var cid:int;
public var name: String;
[OneToOne(cascadeType='ALL',fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinColumn(name="add_id",referencedColumnName="aid")]
public var address:Address;
}
}

Address.as
package onetoone
{
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="AIRIntegration.address")]
[Entity]
public class Address
{
[Id]
public var aid:int;
public var street:String;
}
}

MainApplication.mxml
Add code like the following in the MainApplication.mxml file to perform CRUD operations on the database.
Note: For Customer.as and Address.as ActionScript classes, global variables have been declared.

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:WindowedApplic ation xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="absolute" creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
import mx.rpc.AsyncToken;
import mx.controls.Alert;
import coldfusion.air.events.*;
import coldfusion.air.*;
import onetoone.Address;
import onetoone.Customer;
private var session:Session;
private var dbFile:File;
private
private
private
private

var
var
var
var

cusColl:ArrayCollection;
syncmanager:SyncManager;
add:Address;//global variable for address.as
cus:Customer; //global variable for customer.as

private function init():void

{
// Provide Credentials for Server side Connection and CFC
syncmanager = new SyncManager();
syncmanager.cfPort = 80;
syncmanager.cfServer = "localhost";
// Path of the Server side CFC from CF webroot
syncmanager.syncCFC = "AIRIntegration.cusManager";
// This handler is called when any conflict occurs while
writing back changes on the server side
syncmanager.addEventListener(ConflictEvent.CONFLICT, conflictHandler);
// Fetch Server side DB data onto Client SQLite DB while
starting the App
var token:AsyncToken= syncmanager.fetch("fetch");
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(fetchSuccess, fetchFault));
}
private function conflictHandler(event:ConflictEvent):void
{
Alert.show("conflict man!");
var conflicts:ArrayCollection = event.result as ArrayCollection;
// Accept Server data and write it to client side SQLite DB
var token:SessionToken
= session.keepAllServerObjects(conflicts);
token.addResponder(new
mx.rpc.Responder(conflictSuccess, conflictFault));
}
private function conflictSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("conflict resolved");
}

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private function fetchSuccess(event:SyncResultEvent):void

{
var cus:Array = event.result as Array;
cusColl = new ArrayCollection(cus);
// Open a Session for the client side SQLite DB
dbFile = File.userDirectory.resolvePath("onetoonesync.db");
var sessiontoken:SessionToken
=syncmanager.openSession(dbFile,017915);
sessiontoken.addResponder(new
mx.rpc.Responder(connectSuccess,connectFault));
}
private function connectSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
session = event.sessionToken.session;
if(cusColl.length > 0)
{
// This operation saves it to the AIR SQLite DB
var savetoken:SessionToken
= session.saveCache(cusColl);
savetoken.addResponder(new
mx.rpc.Responder(saveCacheSuccess, savefault));
}
else
{
Alert.show("No data available from Server to save on local DB");
}
}
private function saveCacheSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Data saved on client Sqlite DB from Server");
/*
A new Insert is tried here. Note that this is not a complete user interface
application. Otherwise, typically, users need to provide inputs to populate
the Customer/Address Objects
*/
var cus:Customer = new Customer();
cus.cid=12;
cus.name="New Customer";
var add:Address = new Address();
add.aid = 14;
add.street = 'New Address';
cus.address = add;
/*
INSERT the new Records, this is first saved in client side SQLite DB.
On the Commit operation this new record is saved in the Server side DB
Notice that although you are saving the Customer object here,
this operation saves even the binded Address Object also,
as both the entities are CASCADED inside Customer Class
*/
var savetoken:SessionToken = session.save(cus);
savetoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(savesuccess, savefault));
}

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private function savesuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void

{
Alert.show("Customer was Inserted Successfully");
// Load some otehr Customer(ex: id=11) so that we can perform Update on
that Customer
var loadtoken:SessionToken =session.loadByPK(Customer,{cid:11});
loadtoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(loadCustomer,loadFault))
}
private function loadCustomer(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
var cus1:Customer = event.result as Customer;
cus1.name = "UpdateCustomerName";
var add1:Address = new Address;
add1.aid = 22;
add1.street = 'UpdatedCustomerAddress';
cus1.address = add1;
/*
Let's call update now and save it to Client side SQLite DB
*/
var savetoken:SessionToken = session.update(cus1);
savetoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(updateSuccess,updatefualt));
}
private function updateSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Customer was updated Successfully");
/*
Let's Load another Customer(for example, with id 128) to perform a Delete operation on that
*/
var loadtoken:SessionToken = session.loadByPK(Customer,{cid:128});
loadtoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(loadCustomerForDelete,loadFault));
}
private function loadCustomerForDelete(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
// pass the loaded customer to remove function
var removetoken:SessionToken = session.remove(event.result);
removetoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(removeSuccess,removeFault));
}
private function removeSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Customer was deleted Successfully");
}
private function commit():void
{
/*
Until now, you have performed Insert/Update/Delete operation on Customer/Address
entities on the client side SQLite DB. Now use the Commit opertaion to
send them to the Server.
*/
var committoken:SessionToken = session.commit();
committoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(commitSuccess, commitFault));
}
private function commitSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{

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Alert.show("Server has been updated with local changes");

/*
Now that you have completed all the operations, you can close the SQLite DB
connection/session. It is a good practice to Close the session,
after you complete all the operations.
*/
var closetoken:SessionToken
= session.close();
closetoken.addResponder(new
mx.rpc.Responder(sessionclosesuccess, sessionclosefault));
}
private function sessionclosesuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Session Close Success");
}
// Fault Handlers
private function fetchFault(event:SyncFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("fetch fault" + event.toString());
}
private function conflictFault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("conflict not resolved");
}
private function connectFault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("connect failure" + event.toString());
}
private function sessionclosefault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Session Close Failed::"+event.error);
}
private function removeFault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Delete Operation Failed::"+event.error);
}
private function commitFault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{

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Alert.show("Commit Failed::"+event.error);
}
private function loadFault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Load Failed::"+event.error);
}
private function updatefualt(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("update fault"+event.error);
}
private function savefault(event:SessionFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Save Fault::"+event.error);
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:Button click="commit()" name="commitbutton"
label="Commit/write local data to Server">
</mx:Button>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

Server-side code
Create the following cfc files - Application.cfc, Customer.cfc, Address.cfc, and Cusmanager.cfc with code like the
following. The AIR client interacts with the Cusmanager.cfc file, in which you specify the code to fetch and sync the
data back to the server.
Application.cfc
<cfcomponent>
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
</cfcomponent>

this.name = "OneTonOneExample">
this.datasource="testorm">
this.ormenabled="true">
this.ormsettings={dialect = "MicrosoftSQLServer"}>

Customer.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="cid" fieldtype="id" >
<cfproperty name="name" >
<cfproperty name="address" fieldType='one-to-one'
CFC="address" fkcolumn='aid' cascade='all' >
</cfcomponent>

Address.cfc
<cfcomponent persistent="true">
<cfproperty name="aid" fieldtype="id" >
<cfproperty name="street" >
</cfcomponent>

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Cusmanager.cfc
<cfcomponent implements="CFIDE.AIR.ISyncManager">
<!----Fetch method--->
<cffunction name="fetch" returnType="Array" access="remote">
<cfset cus = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset cus = EntityLoad("customer")>
<cfreturn cus>
</cffunction>
<!----SYNC method--->
<cffunction name="sync" returntype="any">
<cfargument name="operations" type="array" required="true">
<cfargument name="clientobjects" type="array" required="true">
<cfargument name="originalobjects" type="array" required="false">
<cfset conclits = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset conflictcount = 1>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#ArrayLen( operations )#">
<cfset operation = operations[i]>
<cfset clientobject = clientobjects[i]>
<cfset originalobject = originalobjects[i]>
<cfif operation eq "INSERT">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(clientobject)>
<cfset EntitySave(obj)>
<cfelseif listfindnocase("UPDATE,DELETE",operation) neq 0>
<cfset serverobject = EntityLoadByPK("employee",originalobject.getcid())>
<cfif not isdefined('serverobject') >
<cflog text="CONFLICT::SERVER OBJECT NOT FOUND, RECORD MAY BE DELETED ALREADY">
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.conflict")>
<cfset conflict.clientobject = clientobject>
<cfset conflict.originalobject = originalobject>
<cfset conflict.operation = operation>
<cfset conflicts[conflictcount++] = conflict>
<cfcontinue>
</cfif>
<cfset isNotConflict = ObjectEquals(originalobject, serverobject)>
<cfif isNotConflict>
<cfif operation eq "UPDATE">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(clientobject)>
<cfset EntitySave(obj)>
<cfelseif operation eq "DELETE">
<cfset obj = ORMGetSession().merge(originalobject)>

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<cfset EntityDelete(obj)>
</cfif>
<cfelse><!----Conflict--->
<cflog text = "is a conflict">
<cfset conflict = CreateObject("component","CFIDE.AIR.conflict")>
<cfset conflict.serverobject = serverobject>
<cfset conflict.clientobject = clientobject>
<cfset conflict.originalobject = originalobject>
<cfset conflict.operation = operation>
<cfset conflicts[conflictcount++] = conflict>
<cfcontinue>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfif conflictcount gt 1>
<cfreturn conflicts>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Offline AIR application support in ColdFusion 9.0.1

The AIR integration feature introduced in ColdFusion 9 has an ActionScript ORM for persisting entities in the SQLite
database present within Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). This release has the following enhancements for this
ActionScript ORM:

Support for auto-generating primary keys

Support for encrypted database (introduced in AIR 1.5).
Cache file used by ActionScript ORM to track the operations on SQLite database is now in the
applicationStoragedirectory instead of applicationDirectory. You can specify the location of the cahceDirectory in
openSession API on syncmanager.

Supports Self Join relationships for one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many database relationships.
Supports both Array and ArrayCollection for use in ActionScript Entity to represent a collection in a database
relationship.

ActionScript ORM logs all the SQL statements that ORM uses to persist entities into the SQLite database.
New APIs keepClientObject and keepAllClientObjects to ensure that the server updates are not retained
when ColdFusion server raises conflict.

The class SessionToken is dynamic and therefore, data can be stored on the token returned from the ORM APIs.
Supports autocommit mode

Auto-generating primary keys

This release supports primary key generation for the ActionScript ORM using the metadata tag GeneratedValue.
GeneratedValue
Description
Adding this tag on an ActionScript primary key file auto-generates primary key.

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Parameters
Parameter

Description

strategy

UUID uses the Flash UUID API to generate the ID (used for primary key of type string) or INCREMENT (for primary key
of type int).

initialValue

Applies only for INCREMENT strategy. Specifies the initial value of the primary key. The default value is 0.

incrementBy

Applies only for INCREMENT strategy. Specifies the integer with which the value must be incremented to generate the
primary key.

If the ID value is not present in the object, the value is generated and is assigned the primary key value. If the key value
is already present on the object instance, then the key generation is ignored.
For integer primary keys, the database table is checked for the presence of existing primary keys. If the highest key
value is greater than the initialValue, then the key that is generated next will be an increment of the highest key
value. For example, if the initialValue that you specify is 1, and the database (already) has a key value 5, then the
next key is generated with the value 6 (5+1, if incrementBy is set to 1).
Example
//Integer Primary Keys
===========
package test.apollo.CFSQLiteSupport.INCREMENTPK
{
[Entity]
[RemoteClass(alias="Customer")]
public class Customer
{
public function Customer()
{
}
[Id]
[GeneratedValue(strategy="INCREMENT",initialValue=5,incrementBy=2) ]
public var cid:int;
public var name:String;
[OneToOne(mappedBy="customer")]
public var ord:Order;
}
}

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//String Primary Keys

===========
package test.apollo.CFSQLiteSupport.UUIDPK
{
[Entity]
[RemoteClass(alias="Customer")]
public class Customer
{
public function Customer()
{
}
[Id]
[GeneratedValue(strategy="UUID") ]
public var cid:String;
public var name:String;
[OneToOne(mappedBy="customer")]
public var ord:Order;
}
}

Encrypting the database

You can protect the database used by ActionScript ORM with an encryption key.
Use the ByteArray encryption key for syncmanager.openSession method to encrypt the database. The userspecified database file and the cache database file (used by the ActionScript ORM) are both encrypted using the
encryption key you specify.
The key is optional.
Example
dbFile = File.userDirectory.resolvePath("customerManger.db");
dbDir = File.applicationStorageDirectory;
var keyGenerator:EncryptionKeyGenerator = new EncryptionKeyGenerator();
var encryptionKey:ByteArray = keyGenerator.getEncryptionKey("UserPassword");
var sessiontoken:SessionToken
=syncmanager.openSession(dbFile,179176,encryptionKey,dbDir);

For details on EncryptionKeyGenerator, see the section Using the EncryptionKeyGenerator class to obtain a secure
encryption key in Developing Adobe AIR 1.5 Applications with Flex.

Specifying the cache directory

The cache directory where you store the cache file can be specified using the cacheDirectory (instance of
flash.filesystem.File) for the syncmanager.openSession method.
The cacheDirectory is optional.
Note: By default, the cache file used by the ActionScript ORM is stored in the File.applicationStorageDirectory (in
ColdFusion 9, it was stored in File.applicationDirectory).
For example, see Encrypting the database on page 648

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Support for self joins

Database table can be related to itself through a foreign key. A typical example is an Employee table with a manager
relationship containing the employee id of the managers (who manage the employee).
The manager id refers to another row in the same table. This is an example of one-to-one self join.
There can be one-to-many self join and many-to-many self joins with an intermediate join table.
ColdFusion 9 Update 1 has self join support for all the relationships in the ActionScript ORM.
The following ActionScript class definition for customer entity illustrates how all the self-join relationships are
defined:
package
{
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="AIRIntegration.customer")]
[Entity]
public class Customer
{
[Id]
[GeneratedValue(strategy="INCREMENT",initialValue=5,incrementBy=2)]
public var cid:int;
public var name:String;
[OneToOne(cascadeType='ALL',fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinColumn(name="add_id",referencedColumnName="aid")]
public var address:Address;
// Many-to-One self Join
[ManyToOne(targetEntity="onetoone::Customer",fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinColumn(name="managerId",referencedColumnName="cid")]
public var manager:Customer;
// One-to-one Self Join
[OneToOne(targetEntity="onetoone::Customer",fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinColumn(name="spouseId",referencedColumnName="cid",unique="true")]
public var spouse:Customer;
// Many-to-Many self Join

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[ManyToMany(targetEntity="onetoone::Customer",fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinTable(name="CUSTOMER_PARENTS_MAPPINGS")]
[JoinColumn(name="CUST_ID",referencedColumnName="cid")]
[InverseJoinColumn(name="PARENT_ID",referencedColumnName="cid")]
public var parents:Array;

// Many-to-Many self Join

[ManyToMany(targetEntity="onetoone::Customer",fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinTable(name="CUSTOMER_CHILDREN_MAPPINGS")]
[JoinColumn(name="CUST_ID",referencedColumnName="cid")]
[InverseJoinColumn(name="CHILD_ID",referencedColumnName="cid")]
public var children:Array;
[OneToMany(targetEntity="onetoone::Order",cascadeType='REMOVE',mappedBy="customer",fetchType
="EAGER")]
public var orders:Array;
}
}

ArrayCollection to hold multiple entities

In addition to Array, you can now use ArrayCollection to hold multiple entities in a database relationship.
ArrayCollection can also be used in the ActionScript entities as Arrays are used to represent the related entities.
Example
package
{
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
[Bindable]
[RemoteClass(alias="AIRIntegration.customer")]
[Entity]
public class Customer
{
[Id]
[GeneratedValue(strategy="INCREMENT",initialValue=5,incrementBy=2)]
public var cid:int;
public var name:String;
[OneToOne(cascadeType='ALL',fetchType="EAGER")]
[JoinColumn(name="add_id",referencedColumnName="aid")]
public var address:Address;
[OneToMany(targetEntity="onetoone::Order",cascadeType='REMOVE',mappedBy="customer",fetchType
="EAGER")]
public var orders:ArrayCollection;
}
}

Server-side configuration
See the section Changes in the XML configuration files for Flash Remoting in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion 9.0.1
on page 674.

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Logging SQL statements

The ActionScript ORM logs all SQL statements that it executes.
The log can be configured as follows:
Add a log target for the AIR applications as shown in the following example:
var logTarget:TraceTarget = new TraceTarget();
logTarget.filters = "*";
logTarget.level = LogEventLevel.ALL;
Log.addTarget(logTarget);

The log target is the TraceTarget where all the trace statements appear. The log target can be set to any other log using
the Flash APIs.

ColdFusion ActionScript APIs

The following two APIs have been introduced to the session class in the coldfusion.air package:
keepAllClientObjects
Description
Takes an ArrayCollection of conflict instances and keeps the client object for every conflict instance in the
ArrayCollection.
Returns
An instance of coldfusion.air.SessionToken (which is the token for keepAllClientObjects call).
Syntax
public function keepAllClientObjects(conflicts:ArrayCollection):SessionToken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

mx.collections.ArrayCollection

An ArrayCollection of conflicts raised by the server.

Example
private function conflictHandler(event:ConflictEvent):void
{
// Alert.show("Server returned a Conflict !");
var conflicts:ArrayCollection = event.result as ArrayCollection;
// Ignore Server data and retain client Data in SQLite DB
var token:SessionToken = session.keepAllClientObjects(conflicts);
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(conflictSuccess, conflictFault));
}

keepClientObject
Description
Ensures that the client object is retained instead of the one from the server (despite server raising data conflict).
The API also ensures that the retained client object is not sent to the server as a new operation on sync.

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Returns
An instance of coldfusion.air.SessionToken associated with keepClientObject call.
Syntax
public function keepClientObject(conflict:coldfusion.air.Conflict):SessionToken

Parameters
Parameter

Description

coldfusion.air.Conflict

The conflict that the server raises.

Example
See the example in the section keepAllClientObjects. For keepClientObject, the only difference is that you must
iterate over each conflict in the conflictarray collection.
Offline AIR SQLite API enhancements
The following new parameters for openSession:
New Parameters

Type

Required/Optional

Description

encryptionKey

ByteArray

Optional

Used to encrypt offline SQLite database. For details, see Encrypting

the database on page 648.

cacehDirectory

File

Optional

Used to specify a custom cache directory. For details, see Specifying

the cache directory on page 648.

SessionToken class is dynamic

A class is dynamic in ActionScript if you can add additional key-value pairs to the instance of the class.
In this release, sessionToken is dynamic class. Therefore, you can add additional information that can be passed from
where the API is called to the success or fault handlers.
Example
private function fetchData():void
{
var token:AsyncToken= syncmanager.fetch("fetch");
token.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(fetchSuccess, fetchFault));
// Test For SessionToken class to be Dynamic, so that Dynamic Properties could
be added
token.userdefined_key = "value";
}
public function fetchSuccess(event:SyncResultEvent):void
{
if(event.token.userdefined_key == "value")
{ .... }
}

Support for AutoCommit

SyncManager supports a Boolean property autoCommit.
The default value is false.

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If true, the changes in the local database are committed to the server when the save, saveUpdate, and remove
methods are used as shown here:
private var syncmanager:SyncManager = new SyncManager();
syncmanager.autoCommit = true;

This functionality helps you minimize the conflicts during the synchronization with the server, particularly in the case
of auto-generation of primary key on client and serverside.

New attribute for SessionResultEvent and SessionToken

The classes SessionResultEvent and SessionToken have a new attribute autoGeneratedId that gets populated
with the auto-generated ID used by ActionScript ORM. autoGeneratedId is populated only when a key is generated
by the ActionScript ORM in that specific call.
Example
private function connectSuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
// Generate an Order Obect
.
.
.
.
// Save the Order
var savetoken:SessionToken = session.save(ord);
savetoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(savesuccess, savefault));
}
private function savesuccess(event:SessionResultEvent):void
{
// This is how, you can access autogenrated PK
RememberINTPK = event.autoGeneratedId.toString();
var loadtoken:SessionToken = session.loadByPK(Order,{oid:RememberINTPK},true);
loadtoken.addResponder(new mx.rpc.Responder(loadsuccess,loadfailure))
}

Note: Assume that the server database generates primary keys and you choose to generate primary key on client SQL Lite
table (as shown in the example). This scenario results in a conflict which the application developer must resolve. An
option is to design your application in such a way that you minimize conflicts between client and server objects. In this
case, you can set client object primary keys as null or empty string before saving data to the database server using
serverside ORM EntitySave function.

Proxy ActionScript Classes for ColdFusion Services

Flex-based applications in AIR and Flash can access several ColdFusion services by using ColdFusion proxy
ActionScript classes. This feature is available in all Flex-based applications that run on Flash and AIR. ColdFusion
provides services corresponding to the following tags and their child subtags: cfchart, cfdocument, cfimage,
cfmail, cfpdf, cfpop. Using ColdFusion you can also upload files from the application to the server.
ColdFusion provides the following Flex proxy classes and related support classes:

Config (configures the application for using ColdFusion services)

Util (includes file upload support)
Chart (cfchart)

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Document (cfdocument)
Image (cfimage)
Mail (cfmail)
PDF (cfpdf)
Pop (cfpop)
These classes are part of coldfusion.service.mxml package, distributed in the cfservices.swc file. You normally use these
classes in MXML tag format, using the cf namespace identifier, as in the following line:
<cf:Image id="image" action="AddBorder" source="Uploaded Image server URL" thickness="5"
color="Blue"/>

To use a ColdFusion service in an application built with Flex, you use the Config class to establish the connection, and
then use the other classes to access the ColdFusion services.
In ColdFusion 9, you can also specify the remoting destination in the Config class as well as all the proxy tags.
Note: To use ColdFusion services from Flex and AIR, you must enable access to the services as described in "Enable
ColdFusion Services" in the ColdFusion Web Services section.

About the cfservices.swc file

To use any ColdFusion service class in an application built with Flex/AIR, do the following:
1 Include the cfservices.swc file, located at /CFIDE/scripts/AIR/cfservices.swc, in your application
2 In Flash Builder, add the cfservices.swc file to your project by right-clicking Flex/AIR Project > Properties >Flex

BuildPath >Library Path >Add SWC.

For details on all ColdFusion service classes, and other classes in the coldfusion.air package, see ActionScript 3.0
Reference. Alternatively, you can see the standalone Adobe ColdFusion ActionScript Language Reference, which is
accessible through the Documentation link on the Resources page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
For information about attributes for specific services, such as Mail or Pop, see the attributes of corresponding
ColdFusion tags and functions.

Using the Config class

Use the Config class to set the configuration parameters for ColdFusion Services, including the connection details and
event handlers. Therefore, use the Config class before using any of the service classes. The parameters set on the Config
class are global and can be overridden by the individual service proxy classes.
The following table lists the Config class parameters, normally used as attributes of a Config tag.
Attribute

Description

serviceUserName

The userName set in the ColdFusion Administrator with the permission to access the specific service being
requested.

servicePassword

The password set in the ColdFusion Administrator for the user name.

cfServer

The server name or IP address of the CF server.

cfPort

The port on which the CF Server is running.

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Attribute

Description

cfContextRoot

The context root if any for the CF server.

secureHTTP

Boolean value specifying whether to use http or https to run the service.

destination

The destination attribute can be used to specify a user defined remoting destination in WEB-INF/flex/remotingconfig.xml. If not specified, default ColdFusion destination is used.

You normally specify the config class using an MXML tag as follows:
<cf:Config id="conf" cfServer="CF Server IP Address/HostName" CFPort="HTTP Port on Which CF
accepts request" destination="UserDefinedRemotingDestination" >

You can also override the server settings directly in the service tag, for example:
<cf:Image id="image" action="AddBorder" cfServer="IP Address" cfPort="Port number"
source="Uploaded Image server URL" thickness="5" color="Blue"
destination="UserDefinedRemotingDestination" />

Using the Util class

The Image, PDF, and Mail services typically act on a file that has been uploaded to the server. To upload the file to your
CF server, use the Util class to run the ColdFusion Upload service. The Util class consists of two elements:

The UPLOAD_URL constant contains the URL on the ColdFusion server of the Upload service, relative to cf_webroot.

The extractURLFromUploadResponse() method takes response returned by the Upload service as input and
returns the path of the uploaded file on the ColdFusion server.

You use the UPLOAD_URL constant and the extractURLFromUploadResponse() function in the following workflow
to upload a file and use the file in a ColdFusion service.

Event flow of the ColdFusion service

1

Use the ActionScript flash.net.FileReference APIs and the Util.UPLOAD_URL variable to upload an Image,
PDF, or mail attachment to the server on which the action has to be performed. The upload URL to supply to the
flash.net.FileReference APIs can be constructed as follows in the ActionScript part of the application:
uploadURL.url =
"http://"+conf.cfServer+":"+conf.cfPort+"/"+conf.contextRoot+"/"+Util.UPLOAD_URL;
var variables:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
variables.serviceusername = conf.serviceUserName;
variables.servicepassword = conf.servicePassword;
uploadURL.data = variables;
uploadURL.method="POST";

Here, specify "conf.cfServer", "conf.cfPort" and "conf.ContextRoot" in the <cf:Config> tag. Specify
"conf.ContextRoot" only if ColdFusion is deployed as a J2EE application.
Note: The ActionScript FileUpload functionality is out of the scope for this feature hence it is not explained in detail,
but an example of the usage is provided in code in MAIL class section. For further information on FileUpload
functionality see the ActionScript documentation.
2 Once the file is uploaded, the server returns an XML response containing URL of the uploaded file. Use the Util

class function extractURLFromUploadResponse() to extract the URL from the XML

3 Use the file URL in the source attribute of the service tags.
4 When the required service tag attributes are set, run the service action by calling the following method:

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serviceObject.execute()

5 If the action succeeds, the server returns the result. If there is an exception, it returns the fault. Handle the
ResultEvent and FaultEvent objects in the service-specific result handler and fault handler that you specify in

the service tag, or in global handlers that you specify in the <cf:config>. The ResultEvent object contains the URL
of the File on which the operations have been performed. Users can save this file by downloading it on their
machine or rendering it in the application. The FaultEvent object contains the exception details that occurred on
the server while performing the operation.
For granular control over proxy classes, you can get hold of the underlying RemotObject by using getRemoteObject()
method on the proxy class object. For example, for <cf:Mail id=mailId>, you can get it using the following code in
ActionScript.
var mailobject:RemoteObject = mailId.getRemoteObject();

Using the Mail class

The Mail class is the proxy for the ColdFusion Mail service, which provides the functionality of the cfmail tag. You
specify the required cfmail and child tag attributes for the action as Mail tag attributes. The default Mail action on this
tag is send.
The following AIR application uses the Mail Service and file upload functionality. It refers to the CFCredentials.mxml
file to reference the credentials of the user for authentication.
Following is the CFCredentials.mxml file being used for the example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Panel xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" currentState="collapsed" toolTip="Double
Click to Collapse/Expand" creationComplete="retrieveCredential()" headerHeight="5"
layout="vertical" mouseDown="check Collapse(event )" resizeEffect="Resize">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.rpc.http.HTTPService
import mx.rpc.events.Result Event;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import flash.data.EncryptedLocalStore;
import flash.utils.ByteArray;
public var service:HTTPService = new HTTPService();
private function testConnection () :void
{
var CF_HTTP URL:String;
if(cfip.text == null)
{
Alert.show("IP Not provided or Invalid IP Address");
}
else if(cfprt.text!= "" && cfcnxtrt.text != "")
{CF_HTTPURL="http://"+cfip.text+":"+cfprt. text+"/"
+cfcnxtrt.text+"/flex2gateway/";
}
else if(cf prt.text == "" && cfcnxtrt.text == "")
{
CF_HTTPURL ="http://"+cfip.text+"/flex2gateway/";
}
else if(cf prt.text!= "" && cfcnxtrt.text == "")
{
CF_HTTPURL="http://"+cf ip.text+":"+cfprt.text+"/flex2gateway/";

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}
if(cfserviceusername.text == "" && cfservicepassword.text == "")
{
Alert.show("CF Service UserName and Password are not required to test
CF server connectivity but they will be required while using the CF
services","Note");
}
service.url = CF_HTTPURL;
service.method = "POST";
service.addEventListener(ResultEvent.RESULT,httpResult);
service.addEventListener(FaultEvent.FAULT,httpFault);
service.send();
}
public function httpResult(event:ResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Connection with ColdFusion server Successful","Connection Status");
}
public function httpFault(event:FaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("ColdFusion server could not be reached, Make sure credentials are
correct and CF server is running","Error");
}
private function checkCollapse(event:MouseEvent):void
{
if( event.clickCount == 2)
{
currentState = currentState == "collapsed" ? "":"collapsed";
}
}
private function rememberCredential():void
{
var data:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
data.writeUTFBytes(cfip.text);
En cryptedLocalStore.setItem('IP', data );
var data:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
data.writeUTFBytes(cfprt.text);
Encr yptedLocalStore.setItem('PORT', data );
var data:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
data.writeUTFBytes(cfcnxtrt.text);
Encrypt edLocalStore.setItem('CONTEXT', data );
var data:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
data.writeUTFBytes(cfserviceusername.text);
Encr yptedLocalStore.setItem( 'USER', data );
var data:ByteArray = new ByteArray();
data.writeUTFBytes(cfservicepassword.text);
Encrypted LocalStore.setItem('PASS', data );
}
private function retrieveCredential():void
{
try{
cfip.text = EncryptedLocalStore.getItem('IP').toString();
cfprt.text = EncryptedLocalStore.getItem('PORT').toString();

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cfcnxtrt.text = EncryptedLocalStore.getItem('CONTEXT').toString();
cfserviceusername.text = EncryptedLocalStore.getItem('USER').toString();
cfservicepassword.text = EncryptedLocalStore.getItem(' PASS').to String();
}
catch(e:Error)
{
}
}
private function resetCredential():void
{
EncryptedLocalStore.reset();
cfip.text = "";
cfprt.text = "";
cfcnxtrt.text = "";
cfserviceusername.text = "" ;
cfservicepassword.text = "";
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:ControlBar>
<mx:Label text="CFServer IP"/>
<mx: TextInput id="cfip" text="" width="
70"/>
<mx:Label text="CFServer Port"/>
<mx:TextInput id="cfprt" text="" width="40"/>
<mx:Labeltext="CFServer Context Root (if any)"/>
<mx:TextInput id="cfcnxtrt" text="" width="70"/>
<mx:Label text="CFService UserName"/>
<mx:TextInput id= "cfserviceusername" text="" width="70"/>
<mx:Label text="CFService Password"/>
<mx:TextInput displayAsPassword="true" id="cfservicepassword" text="" width="70"/>
<mx:Button id="testconn" label="Test Connection" click="testConnection()"/>
<mx:Button id="save" label=" Remember"click="rememberCredential()"/>
<mx:Button id="reset" label ="Reset" click = "resetCred e n tial()"/>
</mx:ControlBar>
<mx:states>
<mx:State name="collapsed">
<mx: SetProperty name="height" value="10"/>
</mx:State>
</mx:states>
</mx:Panel>

The AIR application example is as follows:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute"
xmlns:local="com.*" creationComplete="init()" xmlns:cf="coldfusion.service.mxml.*">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import coldfusion.service.events.*;
import com.CFCredential;
import mx.collections.ArrayCollection;
import mx.binding.utils.BindingUtils;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import mx.controls.Alert;
import flash.events.*;
import flash.net.FileReference;
import flash.net.FileReferenceList;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.net.URLVariables;
import coldfusion.service.Util;
public var fileTypes:Array = new Array();
public var imageTypes:FileFilter = new FileFilter("Images (*.jpg; *.jpeg; *.gif; *.png)"
,"*.jpg; *.jpeg; *.gif; *.png");
public var documentTypes:FileFilter = new FileFilter("Documents (*.pdf), (*.doc), (*.rtf),
(*.txt)",("*.pdf; *.doc; *.rtf, *.txt"));
[Bindable]
private var fileslist:ArrayCollection;
private var filereflist:FileReferenceList
public var fileRef:FileReference = new FileReference();
[Bindable]
public var mailPartArray:Array = [{type:"text",content:"Plain text only"},
{type:"html",content:"<B>bold text man!!</B>"}];
public var uploadURL:URLRequest = new URLRequest();
[Bindable]
public var attachCollection:Array = new Array();
public var urlcnt:int=0;
public function init():void
{
fileslist = new ArrayCollection();
filereflist = new FileReferenceList;
fileRef = new FileReference;
uploadURL.url =
"http://"+conf.cfServer+":"+conf.cfPort+"/"+conf.contextRoot+"/"+Util.UPLOAD_URL;
var variables:URLVariables = new URLVariables();
variables.serviceusername = conf.serviceUserName;
variables.servicepassword = conf.servicePassword;
uploadURL.data = variables;
uploadURL.method = "POST"; //this can also be set to "POST" depending on your needs
uploadURL.contentType = "multipart/form-data";
fileTypes.push(imageTypes);
fileTypes.push(documentTypes);
//Add Event Listeners to UI
attachbutton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, browseFiles);
sendbutton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,uploadFiles);
filereflist.addEventListener(Event.SELECT, selectHandler);
//mailtest.send();
}
//Browse for files

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private function browseFiles(event:Event):void

{
filereflist.browse(fileTypes);
}
//

called after user selects files form the browse dialogue box.
private function selectHandler(event:Event):void
{var i:int;
for (i=0;i < event.currentTarget.fileList.length; i ++)
{
fileslist.addItem(event.currentTarget.fileList[i]);
attachList.text += event.currentTarget.fileList[i].name + ", ";
}
}
private function uploadFiles(event:Event):void
{
if (fileslist.length > 0)
{
fileRef = FileReference(fileslist.getItemAt(0));
fileRef.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
fileRef.addEventListener(DataEvent.UPLOAD_COMPLETE_DATA,dataHandler);
fileRef.upload(uploadURL);
}
else if (fileslist.length == 0)
{
sendmail();
}
}

// called after a file has been successfully uploaded | We use this as well to check if there
are any files left to upload and how to handle it
private function completeHandler(event:Event):void
{
// Alert.show("File Uploaded successfully");
fileslist.removeItemAt(0);
if (fileslist.length > 0)
{
uploadFiles(null);
}
}
//called after file upload is done and Data has been returned from Server
private function dataHandler(event:DataEvent):void
{
attachCollection[urlcnt++] = {"file":
Util.extractURLFromUploadResponse(event.data.toString())};
if (fileslist.length == 0)
sendmail();
}
private function sendmail():void
{
mailtest.execute();
}
public function handleResult(event:ColdFusionServiceResultEvent):void
{
from.text="";too.text=""; cc.text="";bcc.text="";
subject.text="";mailbody.text="";
attachList.text=""; fileslist.removeAll();

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Alert.show("Mail was delivered Successfully");

}
public function handleError(event:ColdFusionServiceFaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Failure"+ event.toString());
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:Panel width="100%" height="100%">
<local:CFCredential id="cred" />
<mx:ControlBar>
<mx:Spacer width="100%"/>
<mx:HBox>
<mx:Button label="Send Mail" id="sendbutton"/>
<mx:Button label="Attachment" id="attachbutton"/>
</mx:HBox>
</mx:ControlBar>
<mx:VBox width="100%" height="100%">
<mx:HBox width="100%">
<mx:Text text="From" width="100" />
<mx:TextInput width="100%" id="from"/>
</mx:HBox>
<mx:HBox width="100%">
<mx:Text text="To" width="100"/>
<mx:TextInput width="100%" id="too"/>
</mx:HBox>
<mx:HBox width="100%">
<mx:Text text="CC" width="100"/>
<mx:TextInput width="100%" id="cc"/>
</mx:HBox>
<mx:HBox width="100%">
<mx:Text text="Bcc" width="100"/>
<mx:TextInput width="100%" id="bcc"/>
</mx:HBox >
<mx:HBox width="100%">
<mx:Text text="Subject" width="100"/>
<mx:TextInput width="100%" id="subject"/>
</mx:HBox>
<mx:HBox width="100%">
<mx:Text text="Attachments" width="100"/>
<mx:TextInput width="100%" id="attachList" enabled="false"
backgroundDisabledColor="white"/>
</mx:HBox>
<mx:TextArea width="100%" height="100%" id="mailbody"/>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Panel>
<!--Provide your CF server credentials here-->
<cf:Config id="conf"

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cfServer="{cred.cfip.text}"
cfPort="{int(cred.cfprt.text)}"
cfContextRoot="{cred.cfcnxtrt.text}"
servicePassword="{cred.cfservicepassword.text}"
serviceUserName="{cred.cfserviceusername.text}"
/>
<cf:Mail id="mailtest"
server="xx.xxx.xx.xxx"
to="{too.text}" bcc="{bcc.text}" cc="{cc.text}"
failTo="[email protected]" replyTo="[email protected]"
subject="{subject.text}" content="{mailbody.text}"
from="{from.text}"
attachments="{attachCollection}"
type="text" charset="utf-8" mailerId="CF" priority="1"
timeout="60" useTLS="true" wrapText="5"
result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)"
/>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

Using the Image class

The Image class is the proxy for the ColdFusion Image service, which provides the functionality of the cfimage tag.
You specify the required cfimage attributes for the action as Image tag attributes. The following examples show typical
usage, in this case adding a border:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="vertical"
xmlns:cf="coldfusion.service.mxml.*" creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import coldfusion.service.events.*;
function init():void
{
img.execute();
}
function handleResult(event:ColdFusionServiceResultEvent):void
{
mx.controls.Alert.show("result=" + event.result.toString());
retImage.source = event.result.toString();
}
function handleError(event:ColdFusionServiceFaultEvent):void
{
mx.controls.Alert.show(event.toString());
}
]]>
</mx:Script>

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<cf:Config
id="configid"
cfServer="127.0.0.1"
cfPort="80"
servicePassword="service"
serviceUserName="service"/>
<!-- Add border-->
<cf:Image
id="img"
action="addborder"
color="red"
thickness="5"
source="http://127.0.0.1:80/GetExifmetaData.jpg"
result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)"/>
<mx:Image id="retImage"/>
</mx:Application>

Batch operation
A batch operation lets you perform multiple image manipulations on an image as part of one operation, instead of
performing the operations individually. You upload an image to the server, use the batch operation to perform
multiple Image operations on it, and get the modified image back from the server. To use this action, use an associative
array of actions and corresponding attributes. It is easier to create an associative array in ActionScript than MXML.
The following example shows code to create the associative array with the action information and perform the batch
operation:
ActionScript Part:
[Bindable]
public var attributes:Array =
[{AddBorder:{color:"Red",thickness:"50"}},
{Resize:{width:"50%",height:"50%",interpolation:"blackman",blurfactor:"2"}},
{Flip:{transpose:"270"}}]

MXML Part:
<!-- batch operation -<cf:Image id="img" action="batchoperation"
source="http://localhost:8500/cat.jpg"
attributes="{attributes}"/>

Using the PDF class

The Pdf class is the proxy for the ColdFusion PDF service, which provides the functionality of the cfpdf tag. You
specify the required cfpdf attributes for the action as Pdf tag attributes. The following examples show each supported
action:

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<!-- Get Info-->

<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="GETINFO"
source="http://localhost:8500/lcds26_devguide_040908.pdf"/>
<!-- Delete Pages-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest1" action="deletepages"
source="http://localhost:8500/lcds26_devguide_040908.pdf"
pages="1" resultHandler="handleDeleteResult"
errorHandler="handleDeleteError"/>
<!-- Merge files--><cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="mergeFiles"
source="http://localhost:8500/lcds26_devguide_040908.pdf,
http://localhost:8500/EC205W_JoelGeraci.pdf"
resultHandler="handleMergeResult"
errorHandler="handleMergeError"/>
<!-- extract pages-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="extractpages"
source="http://localhost:8500/lcds26_devguide_040908.pdf"
pages="2" keepBookmark="true"
resultHandler="handleExtractResult"
errorHandler="handleExtractError"/>
<!-- addwatermark-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="addwatermark"
source="http://localhost:8500/1page.pdf"
image="http://localhost:8500/IMG_8680.JPG"
resultHandler="handleExtractResult"
errorHandler="handleExtractError"/>
<!-- removewatermark-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="removewatermark"
source="http://localhost:8500/CFFileServlet/
_cfservicelayer/_cf3466030530070122606.pdf"
resultHandler="handleExtractResult"
errorHandler="handleExtractError"/>
<!-- protect-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="protect"
source="http://localhost:8500/1page.pdf"
newUserPassword="test" permissions="All"
resultHandler="handleExtractResult"
errorHandler="handleExtractError"/>
<!-- mergespecificpages-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="mergespecificpages"

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pdfParam="{pdfparams}" keepBookmark="true"
resultHandler="handleExtractResult"
errorHandler="handleExtractError"/>
<!-- set info-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="setinfo"
source="http://localhost:8500/1page.pdf" info="{elements}"
resultHandler="handleExtractResult"
errorHandler="handleExtractError"/>
<!-- thumbnail-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="thumbnail"
source="http://localhost:8500/EC205W_JoelGeraci.pdf"
resultHandler="handleThumbnailResult"
errorHandler="handleThumbnailError"/>
<!-- ProcessDDX-->
<cf:Pdf id="pdftest" action="processddx"
ddxString="{ddx}" outputFiles="{outputFiles}" result="handleProcessDDXResult"
fault="handleProcessDDXError"/>

Using the Chart class

The Chart class is the proxy for the ColdFusion Chart service, which provides the functionality of the cfchart tag and
its child chartdata and chartseries tags.

You specify the cfchart attributes as Chart object properties.

You represent chart series in the chartSeries element of the chart object. The chartSeries element is an arrays
of objects, each of which represents a single chart (chartseries tag) document section. These objects include a
type element for the chart type, a chartdata element for the chart data, and elements for any other series attributes.

You represent each chart's data as an array of objects, each of which contains an item element and a value element.
You use these arrays as the chartdata elements of the chartSeries object.

You call the document object execute() function to run the service.
The following example shows how you can use the chart service:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="absolute" xmlns:cf="coldfusion.service.mxml.*" creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
[Bindable]
public var chaSer:Array;
public var chaDat:Array;
function init():void
{
chaDat =
[{item:"Facilities",value:"35000"},
{item:"Facilities1",value:"32000"}];
chaSer = [{type:"bar",chartdata:chaDat},
{type:"line",chartdata:chaDat}];chartest.execute();
}
function handleResult(event:ResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("success" + event.result.toString());
}
function handleFault(event:FaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("failure" + event.toString());
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<cf:Config id="configid" cfServer="localhost"
cfPort="80" servicePassword="service"
serviceUserName="service" >
</cf:Config>
<cf:Chart id="chartest"
action="generate"
format="jpg"
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
chartSeries="{chaSer}"
result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleFault(event)"
backgroundColor = "Black"

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chartHeight = "500"
chartWidth = "600"
dataBackgroundColor = "yellow"
font = "ariel"
fontBold = "yes"
fontItalic = "yes"
fontSize = "12"
foregroundColor = "red"
gridLines = "2"
labelFormat = "number"
markerSize = "10"
showBorder = "yes"
showLegend = "yes"
showMarkers = "yes"
showxGridLines="yes"
showyGridLines="yes"
tipBgColor="blue"
tipStyle = "MouseOver"
title = "AIR Integration testing"/>
</mx:Application>

Using the Document class

The Document class is the proxy for the ColdFusion Document service, which provides the functionality of the
cfdocument tag and its child cfdocumentsection and cfdocumentitem tags.

You specify the cfdocument attributes as Document object properties. You specify document content that is not
in a section as a content element of the document object.

You represent document sections in the documentSection element of the document object. The documentSection
element is an arrays of objects, each of which represents a single document section. These objects include a content
element for the section content, an optional documentItem element for the document items, and elements for any
other section attributes.

You represent all document items in a document section (or the document object) as an array of objects with type
and content elements. The array element type field specifies whether the item is a header, footer, or page break. You
specify the document item array as a documentItem element of the document object or a documentSection object.

You call the document

object execute() function to run the service.

The following excerpt from the full example shows how to create sections and items and add them to a document:

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[Bindable]
var docItem:Array = [{type:"header",content:"<font size='-3'>
<i>Salary Report</i></font>"},{type:"footer",
content:"<font size='-3'>
Page #cfdocument.currentpagenumber#</font>"}];
[Bindable]var docSectionItem:Array = [{content:"<table width='95%'
border='2' cellspacing='2' cellpadding='2' >
<tr><th>Salary</th></tr><tr>
<td><font size='-1'>John</font></td>
<td align='right'><font size='-1'>Guess What</font></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'><font size='-1'>Total</font></td>
<td align='right'><font size='-1'>Peanuts</font></td></tr>",
documentitem:docItem},{content:"content2",documentitem:docItem}];
.
.
.
cfDoc.documentSection = docSectionItem;

The following example shows some typical document use:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
layout="vertical" xmlns:cf="coldfusion.service.mxml.*"
creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.controls.Alert;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import coldfusion.service.PdfParam;
[Bindable]
var docItem:Array = [{type:"header",content:"
<font size='-3'><i>Salary Report</i></font>"},
{type:"footer",content:"<font size='-3'>
Page <cfoutput>#cfdocument.currentpagenumber#
</cfoutput></font>"}];
[Bindable]
var docSection:Array =
[{content:"content1"},{content:"content2"},
{content:"content3"}];
[Bindable]
var docSectionItem:Array =
[{content:"content1",documentitem:docItem},
{content:"content2",documentitem:docItem},
{content:"content3",documentitem:docItem}];
[Bindable]
var res:String = new String();
private function init():void
{
doctestnow.execute();
}
private function handleResult(event:ResultEvent):void
{
res=event.result.toString();

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//Alert.show("httpurl= "+event.result.toString());
}
private function handleError(event:Event):void
{
mx.controls.Alert.show(event.toString());
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<cf:Config id="configid" cfServer="localhost"
cfPort="80" servicePassword="service" serviceUserName="service" />
<!-- simple case-->
<cf:Document id="doctestnow" action="generate"
format="flashpaper" result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)"
content="&lt;table&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;bird&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;
1&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;fruit&lt;/td&gt;&lt;
td&gt;2&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;rose&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;"/>
<!--doc item case -->
<!--<cf:Document id="doctestnow" action="generate"
format="flashpaper" result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)" documentItem="{docItem}"/>-->
<!-- doc section case-->
<!--<cf:Document id="doctestnow" action="generate"
format="flashpaper" result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)" documentSection="{docSection}"/>-->
<!-- doc section and doc item case
<cf:Document id="doctestnow" action="generate"
format="flashpaper" result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)" documentSection="{docSectionItem}" />-->
<mx:SWFLoader source="{res}"/>
</mx:Application>

Using the Pop class

The Pop class is the proxy for the ColdFusion Pop service, which provides the functionality of the cfpop tag. You
specify the cfpop action and required attributes as Pop object properties and call the object execute() function to
run the service. The following example shows the user each supported action:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute"
xmlns:cf="coldfusion.service.mxml.*" creationComplete="init()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
import mx.controls.Alert;
import coldfusion.service.events.*;
public function init():void
{
poptest.execute();
}
public function handleResult(event:ResultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Success" + event.toString());
}
public function handleError(event:FaultEvent):void
{
Alert.show("Failure");
}
public function handleGetAll(event:ResultEvent):void
{
var res:Array = event.result as Array;
for(var i:uint = 0; i < res.length; i++)
{
var key:String;
for(key in res[i])
{
trace("object key = " + key.toString());
if(res[i][key] != null)
{
trace("object value = " + res[i][key].toString());
}
}
}
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<cf:Config id="configid" cfServer="localhost" cfPort="8500"
servicePassword="service" serviceUserName="service" />
<!--<cf:Pop id="poptest" action="getall" result="handleGetAll(event)"
host="xx.xxx.xx.xxx" userName="failoveruser" password="password"
fault="handleError(event)"/>-->
<!--<cf:Pop id="poptest" action="getheaderonly" result="handleGetAll(event)"
host="xx.xxx.xx.xxx" userName="failoveruser" password="password"
fault="handleError(event)"/>-->
<cf:Pop id="poptest" action="delete" messageNumber="25" host="xx.xxx.xx.xxx"
userName="failoveruser" password="password" result="handleResult(event)"
fault="handleError(event)" />
</mx:Application>

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Using the LiveCycle Data Services ES Assembler

To use Adobe ColdFusion as the back-end data manager for an Adobe Flex application, you use the Adobe LiveCycle
Data Services ES assembler. You configure the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler and write an application that uses
the assembler.
To use LiveCycle Data Services ES with ColdFusion, you have to be familiar with ColdFusion components; accessing
and using data in ColdFusion applications; and using LiveCycle Data Services ES.

About ColdFusion and Flex

ColdFusion 9 supports LiveCycle Data Services 2.6.1 however the ColdFusion installation does not provide the option
to install LiveCycle Data Services. You need to manually install LiveCycle Data Services to use it with ColdFusion. For
more information about manually installing LiveCycle Data Services, see Installing LiveCycle Data Services Manually
in the Installation Guide.
By default, ColdFusion installs BlazeDS which provides messaging support in ColdFusion.
For more information about the changes in using Flash Remoting, see Changes in the XML configuration files for
Flash Remoting in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion 9.0.1.
The LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler lets you use ColdFusion components (CFCs) to provide the back-end data
management for a Flex application that uses the Data Management Service. You can run LiveCycle Data Services ES
as part of ColdFusion or remotely. If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES as part of ColdFusion, LiveCycle Data
Services ES and ColdFusion communicate directly. If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely, LiveCycle
Data Services ES and ColdFusion communicate by using RMI. The following diagram shows how ColdFusion and
LiveCycle Data Services ES interact in both cases:

Note: To use the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler, the Flex application must be running on Flex Data Services 2.0.1
or LiveCycle Data Services 2.5, although not every feature is supported in Flex Data Services 2.0.1.
The Flex server includes a ColdFusion Data Service adapter. The adapter processes changes to data to ensure that data
on the client is synchronized with back-end data and conversely; it executes the sync, fill, count, and get
operations, identifies conflicts, and passes results to LiveCycle Data Services ES.
ColdFusion includes the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler; along with the ActionScript translator, it converts the
input arguments where necessary and translates the return values.
Note: If you install LiveCycle Data Services ES, ColdFusion does not map .SWF files. This means that all .SWF files are
served through the ColdFusion web application instead of the web server.

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The following diagram shows the process that LiveCycle Data Services ES and ColdFusion use when a Flex application
calls a method in a ColdFusion component:

1 A Flash client requests data that the LiveCycle Data Management Service adapter handles.
2 Flex calls a fill, sync, get, or count method in the Data Service.
3 If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely, copy the lcds2.6_install/resources/lib/flex-*.jar files to the

<ColdFusion_home>/lib/ directory for a standalone deployment or WEB-INF/cfusion/lib directory for J2EE

deployment.
4 The ColdFusion Data Service adapter sends the request to the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler. If you are

running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely, the adapter sends the request by using Java Remote Method
Invocation (Java RMI).
5 The LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler and the ActionScript translator convert ActionScript 3.0 data types to

the appropriate ColdFusion values.

6 The ColdFusion server runs the fill, sync, get, or count method of the assembler CFC, which runs the

appropriate methods in the DAO CFC.

7 The ColdFusion application creates an array of Value Objects or appropriate return value, which it sends to the

ColdFusion server.
8 The ColdFusion server sends the results to the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler.
9 The LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler and the ActionScript translator convert ColdFusion values to the

appropriate ActionScript 3.0 data types, and then the assembler sends the results to the ColdFusion Data Service
adapter.
10 The ColdFusion Data Service adapter sends the results to the LiveCycle Data Management Service.
11 The LiveCycle Data Management Service passes the results to the Flash client.

Note: The RMI registry, which facilitates communication between the ColdFusion Data Service assembler and the remote
LiveCycle Data Management Service uses port 1099, which is the default port for Java RMI. You can change the port
number by adding -Dcoldfusion.rmiport=1234 to the Java JVM arguments on both the ColdFusion server and the Flex
server.

Application development and deployment process

The following is a typical process for developing and deploying a Flex application that uses the ColdFusion Data
Service adapter and LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler to manage back-end database tasks:
1 Design your application.

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2 Create the Flex application, in which you define a DataService component in MXML or ActionScript. The

DataService component calls methods on a server-side Data Management Service destination to perform activities
such as filling client-side data collections with data from remote data sources and synchronizing the client and
server versions of data.
3 Configure a destination for the ColdFusion Data Service adapter so that the Flex application to connect to the

ColdFusion back-end application. For more information, see Configuring a destination for the ColdFusion Data
Service adapter on page 673.
4 Write your ColdFusion CFCs. For more information, see Writing the ColdFusion CFCs on page 680.

Note: To make creating the CFCs easier, ColdFusion includes wizards that you can use in Flash Builder. For more
information, see Using the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse on page 1334.
5 Test your application by using Flex.

Configuring a destination for the ColdFusion Data Service adapter

To provide the information necessary for the Flex application to connect to the ColdFusion back-end application, you
configure a destination. In the destination, you specify the ColdFusion Data Service adapter, the channels to use to
transport messages to and from the destination, the CFC that contains the fill, get, sync, and count methods, and
other settings.
To provide configuration information, you edit the following files:
1 services-config.xml

You specify channel definitions and enable ColdFusion-specific debugging output in the Flex console in this file.
Change the port numbers in the services-config.xml file for the RTMP channels if you run more than one
ColdFusion instance with the integrated LiveCycle Data Services ES.
2 data-management-config.xml

This file is added only when you install LiveCycle Data Services 2.6.1 manually. You specify adapters and
destinations in this file.
To ensure that Flex recognizes the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler and can transport messages to and from the
destination, by doing the following:

Specifying ColdFusion-specific channel definitions

Specifying the ColdFusion Data Service adapter
Specifying a destination
Enabling ColdFusion-specific debugging output

Enhanced Flash Remoting

ColdFusion 9 has introduced enhanced Flash Remoting.

Enhanced Flash Remoting supports Circular references for objects which are not supported in old Flash Remoting
(ColdFusion 8).

Enhanced Flash Remoting is significantly faster than the old one

The default ColdFusion 9 installation makes use of this Enhanced Flash Remoting. The structure inside the xml
configuration files under WEB-INF/flex directory has been changed to support Enhanced Flash Remoting.

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ColdFusion 9 supports Old XML configurations files as well, but with these files it will not be using Enhanced Flash
Remoting. To take advantage of Enhanced Flash Remoting, while migrating your old XML files to ColdFusion9, you
should make sure that they comply with new XML structural changes.
If you are using LCDS with ColdFusion 9, then Flash Remoting works on LCDS 2.6.1. Ensure that you are on LCDS
2.6.1 to make use of the enhanced Flash Remoting.
ColdFusion 9 is backward compatible with old Flash Remoting as well, to support LCDS2.5 and prior releases.
Now in a case, where you require to continue with LCDS 2.5 or prior versions, it will not be possible for you to use
enhanced Flash Remoting offered by ColdFusion 9. In this scenario, you can continue working with LCDS2.5 and
prior versions with old style XML configuration files.
To use the old style flash remoting with LCDS 2.5, first remove the existing ColdFusion 9 flex-*.jar files from
cfusion/lib by taking a backup of the files and placing the LCDS2.5 flex-*.jar files in the cfusion\lib directory.
After this, you can continue to use the old style (ColdFusion 8) XML configuration files by placing them under WEBINF\Flex\ directory. Also make sure that WEB-INF\ flex\jar\cfdataserviceadapter.jar is also present.
For detailed steps on integrating LCDS2.5 with ColdFusion, see the technote on www.adobe.com.
Another case here could be that you have integrated LCDS 2.6.1 with ColdFusion 9 and still you want to use old Flash
Remoting. You can implement this scenario, but in this case you cannot take advantages offered by enhanced Flash
Remoting.

Changes in the XML configuration files for Flash Remoting in ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion
9.0.1
For ColdFusion 9, the structure of the services-config.xml file has changed. These structural changes are:

A new <coldfusion> tag has been added under the <properties> in <channel-definition>, where the
<access>, <use-accessor>, <use-structs>, and <property-case> tags are defined.

In old ColdFusion 8 style remoting, these tags used to be present in the destination, defined in data-managementconfig.xml file.

Previously, the <serialization> tag included:

<serialization>
<instantiate-types>false</instantiate-types>
</serialization>

However, now you need to either set the <instantiate-types> to true or remove it from the services-config.xml
file.

The <enable-small-messages> flag must be set to false under the serialization property.
Note: In case you create custom channel definition on your client side by overriding the XML-based channel
configurations, you still need to set enableSmallMessages flag to false. This is shown in the following code example:
<mx:ChannelSet id="myChannelSet">
<mx:channels>
<mx:AMFChannel enableSmallMessages="false"
url="http://localhost:8500/flex2gateway/cfamfpolling" id="cfAMFPolling"
pollingEnabled="true" pollingInterval="8"/>
</mx:channels>
</mx:ChannelSet>

In ColdFusion 9, the endpoint class names have been changed from the endpoint classes in ColdFusion 8. The
following table provides a list of channel-definitions and their corresponding endpoint classes:

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Channel-definition
ID

ColdFusion 9 Endpoint Class

ColdFusion 8 Endpoint Class

my-cfamf

coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFAMFEndPoint

flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint

cf-polling-amf

coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFAMFEndPoint

flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint

my-cfamf-secure

coldfusion.flash.messaging.SecureCFAMFEnd
Point

flex.messaging.endpoints.SecureAMFEn
dpoint

cf-rtmp

coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFRTMPEndPoint

flex.messaging.endpoints.RTMPEndpoin
t

Note: For LiveCycle Data Services ES, the cf-polling-amf and cf-rtmp channel definitions are used.

ColdFusion 9.0.1 supports BlazeDS 4.

The following table details the endpoint classes for BlazeDS:
Channel-definition ID

Endpoint Class

my-streaming-amf

coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFStreamingAMFEndPoint

secure-streaming-amf

coldfusion.flash.messaging.SecureCFStreamingAMFEndPoint

ColdFusion 9.0.1 supports LCDS 3 and LCDS 3.1.

The following table details the endpoint classes for LCDS:
Channel-definition ID

Endpoint Class

my-nio-amf

coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFNIOAMFEndPoint secure-nio-amf

secure-nio-amf

coldfusion.flash.messaging.SecureCFNIOAMFEndPoint

secure-cf-rtmp

coldfusion.flash.messaging.SecureCFRTMPEndPoint

my-nio-amf-stream

coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFStreamingNIOAMFEndPoint

secure-nio-amf-stream

coldfusion.flash.messaging.SecureCFStreamingNIOAMFEndPoint

In ColdFusion 9.0.1, a channel-definition construct has been introduced in services-config.xml

(CF_root/wwroot/WEB-INF/flex/) named serialize-array-to-arraycollection.
This construct provides more flexibility and control for users to decide whether to serialize the ColdFusion array
to ActionScript Array or ArrayCollection.
To serialize, in the XML, set the value to true for the following:
<serialize-array-to-arraycollection>false</serialize-array-to-arraycollection>

Note: This construct is not considered when ColdFusion Array is sent to LCDS Flex Client. In this case, ColdFusion
Array always gets translated to ActionScript ArrayCollection.

All the other files that need to be referenced from services-config.xml are now included in services-config.xml.
In ColdFusion 8, the services-config.xml files looked similar to the following:

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<channel-definition id="cf-polling-amf" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel">

<endpoint url="http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}/
flex2gateway/cfamfpolling" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.AMFEndpoint"/>
<properties>
<polling-enabled>true</polling-enabled>
<serialization>
<instantiate-types>false</instantiate-types>
</serialization>
</properties>
</channel-definition>
<channel-definition id="cf-rtmp" class="mx.messaging.channels.RTMPChannel">
<endpoint url="rtmp://{server.name}:2048" class="flex.messaging.endpoints.RTMPEndpoint"/>
<properties>
<idle-timeout-minutes>20</idle-timeout-minutes>
<serialization>
<!-- This must be turned off for any CF channel -->
<instantiate-types>false</instantiate-types>
</serialization>
</properties>
</channel-definition>

The new services-config.xml file looks similar to this:

<channel-definition id="cf-polling-amf "class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel">
<endpoint uri="http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}
/flex2gateway/cfamfpolling" class="coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFAMFEndPoint" />
<properties>
<polling-enabled>true</polling-enabled>
<polli ng-interval-seconds>8</polling-interval-seconds>
<serialization>
<enable-small-messages>false</enable-small-messages>
</serialization>
<coldfusion>
<access>
<use-mappings>true</use-mappings>
<method-access-level>remote</method-access-level>
</access>
<use-accessors>true</use-accessors>
<use-structs>false</use-structs>
<property-case>
<force-cfc-lowercase>false</force-cfc-lowercase>
<force-query-lowercase>false</force-query-lowercase>
<force-struct-lowercase>false</force-struct-lowercase>
</property-case>
</coldfusion>
</properties>
</channel-definition>
<channel-definition id="cf-rtmp" class="mx.messaging.channels.RTMPChannel">
<endpoint uri="rtmp://{server.name}:2048" class="coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFRTMPEndPoint"/>

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<properties>
<idle-timeout-minutes>20</idle-timeout-minutes>
<serialization>
<enable-small-messages>false</enable-small-messages>
</serialization>
<coldfusion>
<access>
<use-mappings>true</use-mappings>
<method-access-level>remote</method-access-level>
</access>
<use-accessors>true</use-accessors>
<use-structs>false</use-structs>
<property-case>
<force-cfc-lowercase>false</force-cfc-lowercase>
<force-query-lowercase>false</force-query-lowercase>
<force-struct-lowercase>false</force-struct-lowercase>
</property-case>
</coldfusion>
</properties>
</channel-definition>

Specifying ColdFusion-specific channel definitions

LiveCycle Data Services ES transports messages to and from destinations over message channels that are part of the
Flex messaging system. When you configure a destination, you reference the messaging channels to use. To connect
to a ColdFusion back-end application, ensure that the services-config.xml file contains definitions for the cfpolling-amf channel and the cf-rtmp channel in the channels section. If you are running LiveCycle Data Services
ES in ColdFusion, the services-config.xml file is in the wwwroot\WEB-INF\flex directory and contains the channel
definitions by default. If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely, the services-config.xml file is located
in the under \WEB-INF\flex directory when you install LiveCycle Data Services ES in the default location.
The new channel definitions include the following:
<channel-definition id="cf-polling-amf" class="mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel ">
<endpoint uri="http://{server.name}:{server.port}{context.root}
/flex2gateway/cfamfpolling"class="coldfusion.flash.messaging.CFAMFEndPoint" />
<properties>
<polling-enabled> true </polling-enabled>
<polling-interval-seconds>8</polling-interval-seconds>
<serialization>
<enable-small-messages>false</enable-small-messages>
</serialization>
<coldfusion>
<access>
<use-mappings>true</use-mappings>
<method-access-level>remote</method-access-level>
</access>
<use-accessors>true</use-accessors>
<use-structs>false</use-structs>
<property-case>
<force-cfc-lowercase>false</force-cfc-lowercase>
<force-query-lowercase>false</force-query-lowercase>
<force-struct-lowercase>false</force-struct-lowercase>
</property-case>
</coldfusion>
</properties>
</channel-definition>

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Element

Description

access

Define the resolution rules and access level of the CFC being invoked

use-accessors

Whether the Value Object CFC has getters and setters. Set the value of useaccessors to true if there are getters and setters in the Value Object CFC. However,
if you set use-accessors to true and there are no getters and setters in the value
object CFC, ColdFusion sets the value of any property of the value object CFC in the
this scope. If your CFC does not have any getters and setters, you can increase
performance by setting this to false so that ColdFusion does not spend time looking
for these methods. The default value is true.

use-structs

Whether to translate ActionScript to CFCs. Set the value of use-structs to true if

you don't require any translation of ActionScript to CFCs. The assembler can still return
structures to Flex, even if the value is false. The default value is false.

force-cfc-lowercase

Whether to make property names, query column names, and structure keys lowercase
when converting to ActionScript. Query column names must precisely match the case
of the corresponding ActionScript variables. The default value is false.

force-query-lowercase
force-struct-lowercase
use-mappings

A Boolean value specifying whether the source attribute can be relative to (start with)
a ColdFusion mapping. The default value is true.

method-access-level

Specifies the access attribute values a CFC must have for ColdFusion to respond to
the request. The following values are valid:

remote

Flex can access only functions that specify remote access. (the default)

public

Flex can access functions that specify both remote or public access.

Specifying the ColdFusion Data Service adapter

Flex provides adapters to connect to various back-end applications. To use the ColdFusion Data Service adapter, you
specify it in the data management configuration file by copying the following adapter-definition to the adapters section
of the data-management-config.xml file that is in the WEB-INF/flex folder of the server on which you want to run the
Flex application. If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES in ColdFusion, the data-management-config.xml file
contains the adapter definitions by default.
The adapter definition includes the following line:
<adapter-definition id="coldfusion-dao" class="coldfusion.flex.CFDataServicesAdapter"/>

Specifying a destination
A destination is the server-side service or object that you call. You configure Data Management destinations in the
data-management-config.xml file.
The destination contains the following elements:
Element

Description

destination id

The ID must be unique for each destination.

adapter-ref

The name of the adapter to use. You use the ColdFusion adapter-ref element for any ColdFusion
specific destinations.

channels-ref

Use the ColdFusion configured channels that have the instantiate-types flag set to false.

component

The name or path on the ColdFusion server.

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Element

Description

scope

The scope, which can be application, session, or request. The application value specifies that
there is only one instance; request specifies that there is a new CFC for each call. ColdFusion does not
support session. (Do not confuse this setting with the ColdFusion variable scope; they are not related.)

hostname

The host name or IP address of the ColdFusion host. If you are running LiveCycle Data Services as part of
ColdFusion you do not specify a host name or IP address; however, if you are running LiveCycle Data
Services ES remotely, specify a host name or IP address.

identity

The ID of the ColdFusion Data Management server as configured in the ColdFusion Administrator.
This is required only if you are accessing a ColdFusion server remotely using RMI and have more than
one instance of ColdFusion on a machine.

remote-username
remote-password

Credentials to pass to the assembler CFC for all clients. It is preferable to use the ActionScript
setRemoteCredentials() API on the client.

identity property

The property or list of properties that are the primary key in the database.

query-row-type

Optional. If the assembler fill method returns a query, define an ActionScript type for each row in the
query that the ArrayCollection returned.

fill-method

Whether to update the results of a fill operation after a create or update operation.

use-fill-contains

Optional. Whether the assembler has a fill-contains method. This method is used to determine
whether to refresh the fill. If the specified method returns true, the fill is re-executed after a create or
update operation. Set use-fill-contains to true only when auto-refresh is set to true. The
default value is false.

auto-refresh

Optional. Whether to refresh the fill after a create or update operation. The default value is true.

ordered

Optional. Whether order is important for this filled collection. Allows performance optimization when
order is not important. The default value is true.

The following code shows a sample destination:

<destination id="cfcontact">
<!-- Use the ColdFusion adapter for any CF specific destinations-->
<adapter ref="coldfusion-dao" />
<channels>
<channel ref="cf-polling-amf" />
</channels>
<properties>
<!--The component name or path on the CF server-->
<component>samples.contact.ContactAssembler</component>
<!--Either "application" or "request"-->
<scope>request</scope>
<!-- The hostname or IP address of the CF host. If Data Services is installed as
part of CF, you omit this. If Data Services runs outside of CF, you must
define this. <hostname>localhost</hostname>-->
<!--This is the ID of the ColdFusion Data Management service as configured in
the ColdFusion Administrator. Only needed if you have more than one instance of
CF on a machine and Data Services is not installed as part of CF.
<identity>default</identity> -->
<!--Credentials to pass to the assembler CFC for all clients. Generally better
to use setRemoteCredentials() API on client <remote-username></remote-username>
<remote-password></remote-password>-->
<metadata>
<identity property="contactId" />

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<!--Optional, If the Assembler fill routine returns a query,you must define an

Actionscript type for the rows.-->
<query-row-type>samples.contact.Contact</query-row-type>
</metadata>
<network>
<!-- Add network elements here-->
</network>
<server>
<!-- The method declarations are ignored for CFC Assemblers, with the exception of
the fill-method settings. No parameters are defined here, unlike Java. Any arguments
provided via the AS call are passed along to the CFC, just use optional arguments
when defining the CFC.-->
<fill-method>
<!--Does the assembler have a "fill-contains" method? This method is used to
determine whether to refresh the fill. If the specified method returns true the fill
is re-executed after a create or update. Auto-refresh determines if the fill is
always refreshed if not specified. May only be used when auto-refresh is true.
Optional. Default is false.-->
<use-fill-contains>false</use-fill-contains>
<!-- Determines whether to refresh the fill on updates or creates. Optional. Default
value is true.-->
<auto-refresh>true</auto-refresh>
<!--Determines whether order is important for this filled collection. Allows for
performance optimization when order is not important. Optional. Default value is
true.-->
<ordered>true</ordered>
</fill-method>
</server>
</properties>
</destination>

Enabling ColdFusion-specific debugging output

You enable ColdFusion-specific debugging output in the Flex console by adding the following <pattern> tag in the
<filters> tag in the logging section in the services-config.xml file:
<pattern>DataService.coldfusion</pattern>

For more information, see Configuring the Data Service in Developing Flex Applications, which is included in the
Flex documentation.
Note: The ColdFusion Administrator lets you enable or disable LiveCycle Data Management support. If you are running
more than one instance of ColdFusion, use a unique ID to specify each instance of ColdFusion for which you enable
LiveCycle Data Management support. You do so by specifying the identity in the identity element in the datamanagement-config.xml file.

Writing the ColdFusion CFCs

When you create your ColdFusion CFCs, you can do one of the following:

Create an assembler CFC and a Value Object CFC.

Create an assembler CFC, a Data Access Object (DAO) CFC, and a Value Object CFC.

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You place the database manipulation functionality directly in the methods in the assembler CFC and create a Value
Object CFC, which is a CFC that contains property definitions and related get and set methods.
To separate the lower level database functionality from the high-level Flex assembler operations, you create a Data
Access Object (DAO) CFC that contains the lower level database functionality. Using this approach, which is the
Bean/DAO methodology, requires that you place the fill, get, sync, and count methods in the assembler CFC. The
methods in the assembler CFC call methods in the DAO CFC that perform the lower level database functions such as
retrieving records. The DAO CFC creates Value Objects, which are CFCs that contain the values. A Value Object is
essentially a row in the result set.
The LiveCycle Data Management Service recognizes the methods: fill, get, sync, and count. The fill method
retrieves records from a database and populates an array with the records. The get method retrieves a specific record.
The sync method lets you keep track of synchronization conflicts by accepting a change list, which is an array of
change objects. The count method returns a number that indicates how many records are in a result set. To perform
any of these database tasks, the Flex application calls the appropriate fill, get, sync, or count method in the
assembler CFC. You can also use a fillContains method, which checks whether to update the results of a fill. For
more information, see Managing fills on page 683.

Creating the fill method

The fill method retrieves records from a database and populates an array with the records. If you use the Bean/DAO
methodology, you create the lower level read method separately in the DAO CFC.
The fill method returns the results of a read operation. In the fill method, you create an array to hold the results
of the read, and then return the results of the read operation. The essential elements of a fill method appear as
follows:
<cffunction name="fill" output="no" returntype="samples.contact.Contact[]" access="remote">
<cfreturn variables.dao.read()>
</cffunction>

You can return a Value Object CFC, a query, or an array of CFML structures. Using a query instead of a Value Object
CFC may improve performance. However, ColdFusion cannot handle nested results sets when you use a query. For
example, if one of the CFC properties you are returning from the fill method was populated with another complex
type such as another CFC type, ColdFusion cannot automatically convert a column in the query to an object with a
custom type. In this case, you return an array of CFCs, and the fill method or the read method in the DAO CFC
constructs the correct object.
You can use structures wherever you currently create a ColdFusion component in the Assembler. However, you still
receive CFC Value Objects from Flex. For example, the Change Objects that you receive in the sync method contain
CFCs, assuming that you have a remote alias defined in the ActionScript type.
You can create Value Object CFCs in the get method. However, using the structure functionality, you can create and
return a structure instead of a CFC, because the structures are translated in the same way as CFCs. You can also return
an array of structures from the fill method instead of an array of CFCs, for example, if you have to do processing on
your data and working with CFCs isn't fast enough. Generally, structures are faster than CFCs. You also use structures
when a member of the result object is a complex object. In this case, you create another structure as the value of that
key and provide the __type__ key for it.
You specify the returntype of the fill method as a Value Object CFC, a query, or an array:
1 Value Object:
<cffunction name="fill" output="no"
returntype="samples.contact.Contact[]" access="remote">

2 Query:

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<cffunction name="fill" output="no"

returntype="query" access="remote">

3 Array of structures:
<cffunction name="fill" output="no"
returntype="array" access="remote">

In addition to specifying the returntype of the fill function depending on whether you are using Value Objects, a
query, or an array of structures, you also do the following in the lower level read function:

Specify the returntype of the read function as the Value Object CFC, a query, or an array, for example:

<cffunction name="read" output="false" access="public"

returntype="samples.contact.Contact[]">

<cffunction name="read" output="false" access="public" returntype="query">

<cffunction name="read" output="false" access="public" returntype="array">

If you are using Value Objects:

Create the array to contain the Value Objects, as follows:
<cfset var ret = ArrayNew(1)>

Loop through the query to create each Value Object based on each row of the query, for example:
<cfloop query="qRead">
<cfscript>
obj = createObject("component",
"samples.contact.Contact").init();
obj.setcontactId(qRead.contactId);
obj.setfirstName(qRead.firstName);
obj.setlastName(qRead.lastName);
obj.setaddress(qRead.address);
obj.setcity(qRead.city);
obj.setstate(qRead.state);
obj.setzip(qRead.zip);
obj.setphone(qRead.phone);
ArrayAppend(ret, obj);
</cfscript>
</cfloop>

If you are using a query:

Ensure that you configured the destination with the row type for the destination so that ColdFusion correctly
labels each rows in the query with the corresponding ActionScript type. Use the query-row-type element,
which is in the metadata section of the destination.

Specify the following in the fill method:

<cffunction name="fill" output="no" returntype="query"
access="remote">
<cfargument name="param" type="string" required="no">
<cfquery name="myQuery" .>
</cfquery>
<!--- Return the result --->
<cfreturn myQuery>
</cffunction>

If you are using a DAO CFC, edit the read method to return a query instead of an array of CFCs.

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Ensure that the query column names match the case of the properties in the ActionScript object. Use the
property-case settings in the destination to do so. Set the force-query-lowercase element to false so that

ColdFusion converts all column names to lowercase.

If you are using an array of structures:

Create the array to contain the Value Objects, as follows:
<cfset var ret = ArrayNew(1)>

Loop through the query to create the structure that contains the results of the query, for example:
<cfloop query="qRead">
<cfscript>
stContact = structNew();
stContact["__type__"] = "samples.contact.Contact";
stContact["contactId"] = qRead.contactId;
stContact["firstName"] = qRead.firstName;
stContact["lastName"] = qRead.lastName;
stContact["address"] = qRead.address;
stContact["city"] = qRead.city;
stContact["state"] = qRead.state;
stContact["zip"] = qRead.zip;
stContact["phone"] = qRead.phone;
ArrayAppend(ret, duplicate(stContact));
</cfscript>
</cfloop>

Use the __type__ structure element to specify that the Value Object CFC is the type, for example:
stContact["__type_"] = "samples.contact.Contact";

Use the associative array syntax, for example, contact["firstName"] to ensure that you match the case of the
ActionScript property. If you use the other syntax, for example, contact.firstName="Joan", ColdFusion
makes the key name uppercase.

Managing fills
To determine whether to refresh a fill result after an item is created or updated, you include a fillContains method
in the assembler and set both use-fill-contains and auto-refresh to true in the fill-method section of the datamanagement-config.xml file. The following example shows a fill-method section:
<fill-method>
<use-fill-contains>true</use-fill-contains>
<auto-refresh>true</auto-refresh>
<ordered>false</ordered>
</fill-method>

In this example, ordered is set to false because the fill result is not sorted by any criteria. However, if the fill result is
sorted, you set ordered to true. When an item changes in a fill result that is ordered, refresh the entire fill result.
The fillContains method tells the Flex application whether it is necessary to run the fill again after an item in the
fill result has changed. The fillCcontains method returns a value that indicates how the fill be treated for that
change. When the fillContains method returns true, the fill is executed after a create or update operation.
The following example shows the fillContains method signature:
<cffunction name="fillContains" output="no" returnType="boolean" access="remote">
<cfargument name="fillArgs" type="array" required="yes">
<cfargument name="item" type="[CFC type object]" required="yes">
<cfargument name="isCreate" type="boolean" required="yes">

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The fillContains method has the following arguments:

fillArgs is a list of arguments to pass to the fill method.

item is the record to check to determine if it is in the result set.

isCreate indicates whether the record is new.

A sample fillContains method, which determines whether the fill arguments (part of the first or last name) are
in the Contact item passed to the function, is as follows:
<cffunction name="fillContains" output="no" returnType="boolean"access="remote">
<cfargument name="fillArgs" type="array" required="yes">
<cfargument name="item" type="samples.contact.Contact" required="yes">
<cfargument name="isCreate" type="boolean" required="yes">
<cfif ArrayLen(fillArgs) EQ 0>
<!--- This is the everything fill. --->
<cfreturn true>
<cfelseif ArrayLen(fillArgs) EQ 1>
<!--- This is a search fill. --->
<cfset search = fillArgs[1]>
<cfset first = item.getFirstName()>
<cfset last = item.getLastName()>
<!--- If the first or last name contains the search string, --->
<cfif (FindNoCase(search, first) NEQ 0) OR (FindNoCase(search, last)
NEQ 0)>
<!--- this record is in the fill. --->
<cfreturn true>
<cfelse>
<!--- this record is NOT in the fill. --->
<cfreturn false>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<!--- By default, do the fill.--->
<cfreturn true>
</cffunction>

If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES locally, you can determine whether a fill operation is a refresh or a
client triggered fill. You do so by calling the DataServiceTransaction.getCurrentDataServiceTransaction().isRefill()
method in your ColdFusion application as follows:
<cfscript>
dst = CreateObject("java", "flex.data.DataServiceTransaction");
t = dst.getCurrentDataServiceTransaction();
isRefill = t.isRefill();
</cfscript>

This does not work over RMI when ColdFusion and Flex are not in the same web application.

Creating the get method

The get method retrieves a specific record. The get method calls the lower level read method. If you use the
Bean/DAO methodology, as described in Writing the ColdFusion CFCs on page 680, you create the lower level read
method separately in the DAO CFC.
The following example shows the essential elements of a get method:

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<cffunction name="get" output="no" returnType="samples.contact.Contact" access="remote">

<cfargument name="uid" type="struct" required="yes">
<cfset key = uid.contactId>
<cfset ret=variables.dao.read(id=key)>
<cfreturn ret[1]>
</cffunction>

The returntype of a get method can be any of the following:

The Value Object CFC

Any
An array

Creating the sync method

The sync method lets you keep track of synchronization conflicts by accepting a change list, which is an array of
change objects. In the sync method, you pass in an array of changes, loop over the array and apply the changes, and
then return the change objects, as follows:
<cffunction name="sync" output="no" returnType="array" access="remote">
<cfargument name="changes" type="array" required="yes">
<!-- Create the array for the returned changes. -->
<cfset var newchanges=ArrayNew(1)>
<!-- Loop over the changes and apply them. --->
<cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(changes)#" index="i" >
<cfset co = changes[i]>
<cfif co.isCreate()>
<cfset x = doCreate(co)>
<cfelseif co.isUpdate()>
<cfset x = doUpdate(co)>
<cfelseif co.isDelete()>
<cfset x = doDelete(co)>
</cfif>
<cfset ArrayAppend(newchanges, x)>
</cfloop>
<!-- Return the change objects, which indicate success or failure. --->
<cfreturn newchanges>
</cffunction>

Creating the count method

The count method returns a number that indicates how many records are in a result set. If you use the Bean/DAO
methodology, as described in Writing the ColdFusion CFCs on page 680, you create the lower level count method
separately in the DAO CFC.
The count method contains the following essential elements, without any error handling:
<cffunction name="count" output="no" returntype="Numeric" access="remote">
<cfargument name="param" type="string" required="no">
<cfreturn variables.dao.count()>
</cffunction>

This count method calls a different count method in the DAO CFC, which contains the following essential elements,
without any error handling:

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<cffunction name="count" output="false" access="public" returntype="Numeric">

<cfargument name="id" required="false">
<cfargument name="param" required="false">
<cfset var qRead="">
<cfquery name="qRead" datasource="FDSCFCONTACT">
select COUNT(*) as totalRecords
from Contact
</cfquery>
<cfreturn qRead.totalRecords>
</cffunction>

Notifying the Flex application when data changes

You use the LiveCycle Data Services ES event gateway type provided with ColdFusion, to have ColdFusion
applications notify Flex when data that a destination manages has changed. You configure the LiveCycle Data Services
ES event gateway and write an application that uses the event gateway. For more information, see Using the Data
Management Event Gateway on page 1316.

Authentication
To authenticate users when using the LiveCycle Data Services ES assembler, you use the Flex
setRemoteCredentials() method on the DataService object. The credentials, which are in the FlexSession object,
are passed to the ColdFusion application, where you can use the cflogin tag to perform authentication. Alternatively,
you can set credentials in the Flex destination, although it is not the recommended way to do so.
You can set the credentials by doing either of the following:

Specifying credentials in ActionScript

Specifying credentials in the Flex destination

Specifying credentials in ActionScript

To specify credentials in ActionScript, you use the setRemoteCredentials() method, as the following example
shows:
ds = new DataService("mydest");
ds.setRemoteCredentials("wilsont", "password");

Specifying credentials in the Flex destination

To specify credentials in the Flex destination, you edit the data-management-config.xml file that is in the WEBINF/flex folder of the server on which you run the Flex application. In the properties element, you include the
remote-username and remote-password elements, as follows:

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<destination id="cfcontact">
<adapter ref="coldfusion-dao" />
<channels>
<channel ref="cf-dataservice-rtmp" />
</channels>
<properties>
<source>samples.contact.ContactAssembler</source>
<scope>application</scope>
<remote-username>wilsont</remote-username>
<remote-password>password</remote-password>
...
/properties>
</destination>

Enabling SSL
You encrypt communication between ColdFusion and Flex by enabling Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Enabling SSL only
makes sense if you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely. To use SSL, create a keystore file. The keystore is
a self-signed certificate. (You do not require a certificate signed by a Certificate Authority, although if you do use one,
you do not have to configure Flex as indicated in the following steps.) The information in the keystore is encrypted
and can be accessed only with the password that you specify. To create the keystore, you use the Java keytool utility,
which is included in your Java Runtime Environment (JRE).
To enable SSL, you do the following:
1 Create the keystore
2 Configure Flex
3 Enable SSL in the ColdFusion Administrator

Create the keystore

Generate the SSL server (ColdFusion) keystore file by using the keytool utility, with a command like the following:
keytool -genkey -v -alias FlexAssembler -dname "cn=FlexAssembler" -keystore cf.keystore keypass mypassword -storepass mypassword

The following table describes the parameters of the keytool utility that you use:
Parameter

Description

-alias

The name of the keystore entry. You can use any name as long as you are consistent when referring to it.

-dname

The Distinguished Name, which contains the Common Name (cn) of the server.

-keystore

The location of the keystore file.

-keypass

The password for your private key.

-storepass

The password for the keystore. The encrypted storepass is stored in ColdFusion configuration files.

-rfc

Generates the certificate in the printable encoding format.

-file

The name of the keystore file.

-v

Generates detailed certificate information.

Next, you place the certificate that you created in the file that the JVM uses to decide what certificates to trust. The file
in which you place the certificate (usually named cacerts), is located in the JRE, under the lib/security folder.

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Configure Flex
1 Export the keystore to a certificate by using the keytool utility, with a command like the following:
keytool -export -v -alias FlexAssembler -keystore cf.keystore -rfc -file cf.cer

2 Import the certificate into the JRE cacerts file for your server by using the keytool utility, with a command like the

following:
keytool -import -v -alias FlexAssembler -file cf.cer -keystore
C:\fds2\UninstallerData\jre\lib\security\cacerts

The previous example specifies the location of the keystore for LiveCycle Data Services ES with integrated JRun,
installed using the default settings. If you are using a different server, specify the location of the cacerts file for the
JRE that you are using. For example, if you are using JBoss, you specify the keystore location as
$JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts.

Enable SSL in the ColdFusion Administrator

1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Data & Services > Flex Integration, and specify the keystore file in the Full

Path to Keystore text box.

2 Specify the keystore password in the Keystore password text box.
3 Select the Enable RMI over SSL for Data Management option, and then click Submit Changes.

If you specify an invalid keystore file or password, ColdFusion does not enable SSL, and disables Flex Data
Management Support.

Data translation
The following table lists the ColdFusion data types and the corresponding Adobe Flash or ActionScript data type:
ColdFusion data type

Flash data type

String

String

Array

[] = Array

Struct

{} = untyped Object

Query

ArrayCollection

CFC

Class = typed Object (if a matching ActionScript class exists, otherwise the CFC becomes a
generic untyped Object (map) in ActionScript)

CFC Date

ActionScript Date

CFC String

ActionScript String

CFC Numeric

ActionScript Numeric

ColdFusion XML Object

ActionScript XML Object

Using Server-Side ActionScript

Adobe ColdFusion server configuration includes the Flash Remoting service, a module that lets Adobe Flash
developers create server-side ActionScript. These ActionScript files can directly access ColdFusion query and HTTP
features through two new ActionScript functions: CF.query and CF.http.

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About server-side ActionScript

ColdFusion includes a module called the Flash Remoting service that acts as a broker for interactions between Flash
and ColdFusion. Flash Remoting supports a range of object types, and lets you reference an ActionScript file that lives
on a ColdFusion server. You can partition data-intensive operations on the server, while limiting the amount of
network transactions necessary to get data from the server to the client.
Flash developers can create server-side ActionScript files to access ColdFusion resources; they do not have to learn
CFML (ColdFusion Markup Language). This ability lets you logically separate the Flash presentation elements of your
applications from the business logic. You have the option of creating ActionScript files that reside on the server to
partition this processing away from your client applications.
You have a simple interface for building queries using server-side ActionScript, and an equally simple interface for
running these queries from your client-side ActionScript.

Client-side ActionScript requirements

On the client side, you only need a small piece of code that establishes a connection to the Flash Remoting service and
references the server-side ActionScript you want to use.
For example (notice the embedded comments):
// This #include is needed to connect to the Flash Remoting service
#include "NetServices.as"
// This line determines where Flash should look for the Flash Remoting service.
// Ordinarily, you enter the URL to your ColdFusion server.
// Port 8500 is the Flash Remoting service default.
NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl("http://mycfserver:8500");
// With the Flash Remoting service URL defined, you can create a connection.
gatewayConnnection = NetServices.createGatewayConnection();
// Reference the server-side ActionScript.
// In this case, the stockquotes script file lives in the web root of the
// ColdFusion server identified previously. If it lived in a subdirectory
// of the web root called "mydir," you would reference it
// as "mydir.stockquotes".
stockService = gatewayConnnection.getService("stockquotes", this);
// This line invokes the getQuotes() method defined in the stockquotes
// server-side ActionScript.
stockService.getQuotes("macr");
// Once the record set is returned, you handle the results.
// This part is up to you.
function getQuotes_Result ( result )
{
// Do something with results
}

Note: Client-side ActionScript does not support the two new server-side ActionScript functions, CF.query and CF.http.

Server-side requirements
Creating ActionScript that executes on the server helps leverage your knowledge of ActionScript. It also provides direct
access to ColdFusion query and HTTP features. The CF.query and CF.http ActionScript functions let you perform
ColdFusion HTTP and query operations.

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Note: On the server side, ActionScript files use the extension .asr.
For example, the following server-side ActionScript code builds on the client-side code shown previously:
// Filename: stockquotes.asr
// Here is the getQuotes method invoked in the client-side ActionScript.
// It accepts a single stock quote symbol argument.
function getQuotes(symbol)
{
// Query some provider for the specified stock quote and return the
// results. In this case, the getQuotesFromProvider method is
// defined elsewhere in this ActionScript code.
data = getQuotesFromProvider(symbol);
// Return the data to the client.
// Note: this example does not include any of the error checking
// logic you would normally use prior to returning the data.
return data;
}

The getQuotes function conducts the stock quote request and returns the results of the request to the client as a
RecordSet object.

Software requirements
To use server-side ActionScript files, you must have the following software installed:

Adobe Flash
ColdFusion
Flash Remoting Components
For more information about these products, go to www.adobe.com.

Location of server-side ActionScript files

You can place ActionScript files (*.asr) on the server anywhere below the root directory of the web server. To specify
subdirectories of the web root or a virtual directory, use package dot notation (use dots instead of slashes in a fully
qualified directory name). For example, in the following assignment code, the stockquotes.asr file is located in the
mydir/stock/ directory:
stockService = gatewayConnnection.getService("mydir.stock.stockquotes", this);

You can also point to virtual mappings, such as cfsuite.asr.stock.stockquotes where cfsuite is a virtual
mapping and asr.stock is subdirectories of that mapping.

Benefits
Server-side ActionScript lets your ActionScript engineers use their knowledge of ActionScript to write code for the
back end of their SWF files, which can mean more meaningful levels of interactivity for your users. Your SWF files can
share a library of server-side ActionScript functions, which means you can define functions that are tailored to your
own business.
You could, for example, create a server-side ActionScript file that defines a whole library of SQL query methods. With
these query methods defined on the server side, your Flash designers only have to run the specific query function they
want to return data to their SWF movies. They do not have to write any SQL, and they do not have to create a query
every time they retrieve data from a ColdFusion data source. It is a way of creating reusable queries that your entire
Flash design team can use.

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Coding the ColdFusion query and HTTP operations in ActionScript is very straightforward. The CF.query and
CF.http functions provide a well-defined interface for building SQL queries and HTTP operations.
For example, the following is a typical server-side ActionScript function definition that returns query data:
// This function shows a basic CF.query operation using only
// arguments for data source name and for SQL.
function basicQuery()
{
mydata = CF.query({datasource:"customers",
sql:"SELECT * FROM myTable"});
return mydata;
}

What to do next
If you are already familiar with ActionScript, here a few things to get you started:

How to establish a connection with the Flash Remoting service using client-side ActionScript. See Connecting to
the Flash Remoting service on page 691

How to reference server-side ActionScript functions and methods. See Using server-side ActionScript functions
on page 692.

How to code the server-side CF.query and CF.http functions. See Using the CF.query function on page 694 and
Using the CF.http function on page 700. Also see the reference pages for these functions in the CFML Reference.
For additional information on using Flash Remoting, see Using the Flash Remoting Service on page 606 and Using
Flash Remoting.

Connecting to the Flash Remoting service

Before you can use functions defined in your server-side ActionScript files, connect the Adobe SWF movie to the
server-side Flash Remoting service.

Create a Flash Remoting service connection

1 Include the necessary ActionScript classes in the first frame of the SWF movie that uses server-side ActionScript

functions.
a Use the following command to include the NetServices class:
#include "NetServices.as"

b (Optional) Use the following command to include the NetDebug class:

#include "NetDebug.as"

For more information about the NetDebug and RecordSet classes, see Using Flash Remoting.
2 Since the Flash Remoting service serves as a broker for calls to server-side ActionScript functions, identify the Flash

Remoting service URL as an argument in the NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl function. For example:

NetServices.setDefaultGatewayURL("http://localhost:8500/flashservices")

Specify a server host name. The default port number for the Flash Remoting service is 8500.
3 Create the gateway connection using the NetServices.createGatewayConnection function; for example:
gatewayConnection = NetServices.createGatewayConnection();

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Using server-side ActionScript functions

After you connect to the Flash Remoting service, you call functions that are defined in your server-side ActionScript
files, and return results.

Call a function
1 Create an instance of the server-side ActionScript file using the getService function. This function instantiates

the server-side ActionScript file as an object to use on the client side. For example:
albumService = gatewayConnection.getService("recordsettest", this)

Where recordsettest represents the name of the server-side ActionScript file, without the filename extension
.asr.
2 Call a function defined in your server-side ActionScript object. Use dot notation to specify the object name followed

by the function name; for example:

albumService.getAlbum("The Color And The Shape", "1999");

Where albumService is the instance of the server-side ActionScript file and getAlbum is a function that passes two
arguments, "The Color and The Shape" and "1999".
Note: Arguments must occur in the order defined in the function declaration.
3 Handle the function results in ActionScript. See Using the function results in ActionScript on page 692.

Using the function results in ActionScript

To use the results returned by server-side ActionScript, create a corresponding results function. The results function
uses a special naming convention that ties it to the function that calls the server-side ActionScript. For example, if you
defined a client-side ActionScript function called basicCustomerQuery, you also must create a results function called
basicCustomerQuery_Result.
The results returned by server-side ActionScript functions differ somewhat depending on whether you are using
CF.http or CF.query:

The CF.query function returns a record set, which you manipulate using methods available in the RecordSet
ActionScript class object. See Using results returned by the CF.query function section.

The CF.http function returns simple text strings through properties that you reference in your server-side
ActionScript. See Using results returned by the CF.http function section.
Using results returned by the CF.query function
You use functions in the RecordSet ActionScript object to access the data returned in a CF.query record set; for
example, how many records are in the record set and the names of the columns. You can also use the RecordSet
functions to pull the query data out of the record set. To do so, you reference a specific row number in the record set
and use the getItemAt RecordSet function, as in the following example:
// This function populates a Flash text box with data in the first row
// of the record set under the "email" column name.
function selectData_Result ( result )
{
stringOutput.text = result.getItemAt(0)["email"];
_root.employeesView.setDataProvider(result);
}

In the example, the column name is referenced in the getItemAt function between square brackets [ ]. (In
ActionScript, indexes start at 0, so getItemAt(0) returns the first row.)

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For more information, see Using the CF.query function on page 694.
Using results returned by the CF.http function
The CF.http server-side ActionScript function returns data as simple text. You write server-side functions that
reference the properties available in the object returned by the CF.http function. These properties store the file
content of the retrieved file, HTTP status codes, the MIME type of the returned file, and so on. On the client side, you
create return functions to handle data returned by the CF.http function. You write these functions to handle simple
text data.
For more information, see Using the CF.http function on page 700.

Global and request scope objects

Global and request scope objects are implicitly available in all server-side ActionScript. The following table describes
these scope objects:
Scope name

Type

Description

config

Global

Initialization information for the server-side ActionScript adapter.

Class: javax.servlet.ServletConfig

application

Global

The context for the current web application. The context defines methods that provide, for
example, the MIME type of a file that can be used to write to a log file. There is one context per
web application.
Class: javax.servlet.ServletContext

request

Request

An object containing client request information. The object provides data, including
parameter name and values, attributes, and an input stream.
Class: HttpServletRequest (subtype of javax.servlet.ServletRequest)

response

Request

An object to assist in sending a response to the client. It provides HTTP-specific functionality

in sending a response. Do not use the OutputStream or PrintWriter to send data back to the
client.
Class: HttpServletResponse (subtype of javax.servlet.ServletResponse)

For more information about these scope objects, see the documentation on the javax.servlet class at
http://java.sun.com.

About the CF.query function and data sources

You use the CF.query function to populate SWF movie elements with data retrieved from a ColdFusion data source.
To use the CF.query function you do the following:

Pull data into your SWF movie from a ColdFusion data source
1 Create a server-side ActionScript file that performs queries against a ColdFusion data source.
2 Write ActionScript code in your SWF movie that references your ActionScript file (.asr) on the ColdFusion server.

You create server-side ActionScript to execute the query and return the data in a record set to the clientyour SWF
movie. You can use methods in the RecordSet ActionScript object on the client to manipulate data in the record set
and present data in your SWF movie.
Note: Client-side ActionScript files use the .as extension. Server-side ActionScript files use the .asr (ActionScript remote)
extension.

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Publishing dynamic data

You use the server-side ActionScript feature in ColdFusion to publish dynamic data. To do this, you write server-side
ActionScript files that perform queries against ColdFusion data sources. Before using ActionScript, you must
understand how to do the following:

Create database queries in the server-side ActionScript file using the CF.query ActionScript function. See Using
the CF.query function on page 694.

Reference the server-side ActionScript file in your SWF movie. See Connecting to the Flash Remoting service on
page 691.
Using the CF.query function, you can do the following tasks:

Create user login interfaces that validate users against a ColdFusion data source.
Populate form elements and data grids with data from a ColdFusion data source.
Create banners that pull data (such as URLs or image file paths) out of a database.
The CF.query function can retrieve data from any supported ColdFusion data source (see About ColdFusion data
sources on page 694).

About ColdFusion data sources

For ColdFusion developers, the term data source can mean many different types of structured data accessible locally
or across a network. You can query websites, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) servers, POP mail
servers, and documents in a variety of formats. For server-side ActionScript, a data source ordinarily means the entry
point to a ColdFusion database.
Your ColdFusion administrator can help you identify and configure data sources. To create ActionScript files that
successfully perform queries on ColdFusion data sources, you must know how ColdFusion identifies the data source,
as well as any other parameters that affect your ability to connect to that database, such as whether a user name and
password are required to connect.
You use server-side ActionScript in ColdFusion to return record set data to a Flash client from a ColdFusion data
source. You specify the ColdFusion data source name and the SQL statement you execute on the data source as
arguments in the CF.query function in server-side ActionScript.
Typically, your server-side ActionScript handles the interaction with the ColdFusion data source, and returns a record
set to the Flash client through the Flash Remoting service.
For more detailed information about ColdFusion data sources, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Using the CF.query function

You use the CF.query function in your server-side ActionScript to retrieve data from a ColdFusion data source. This
function lets you perform queries against any ColdFusion data source.
Note: The CF.query function maps closely to the cfquery CFML tag, although it currently supports a subset of the
cfquery attributes.
Use the CF.query function to do the following:

Identify the data source you want to query.

Pass SQL statements to the data source.
Pass other optional parameters to the database.
For reference information about the CF.query function, see CF.query in the CFML Reference.

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About CF.query function syntax

You can write the CF.query ActionScript function using either named arguments or positional arguments. The
named argument style is more readable, but it requires more code. Although the positional argument style supports a
subset of CF.query arguments, it allows a more compact coding style that is more appropriate for simple expressions
of the CF.query function.
Using CF.query named argument syntax
The CF.query function accepts the following named arguments:
// CF.query named argument syntax
CF.query
({
datasource:"data source name",
sql:"SQL stmts",
username:"username",
password:"password",
maxrows:number,
timeout:milliseconds
})

Note: The named argument style requires curly brackets {} to surround the function arguments.
Using CF.query positional argument syntax
Positional arguments support a subset of CF.query arguments, and you can create more efficient code. The following
is the syntax for the positional argument style:
// CF.query positional argument syntax
CF.query(datasource, sql);
CF.query(datasource, sql, maxrows);
CF.query(datasource, sql, username, password);
CF.query(datasource, sql, username, password, maxrows);

Note: When using positional arguments, do not use curly braces {}.

About the CF.query record set

The CF.query function returns a RecordSet object, which is an instance of the RecordSet class of objects. The
RecordSet class provides a wide range of functions for handling record set data.
You use methods in the RecordSet ActionScript class in your client-side ActionScript to change data returned in the
CF.query record set.
Currently, the following methods are available in the RecordSet class:
Method

Description

addItem

Appends a record to the end of the specified RecordSet

addItemAt

Inserts a record at the specified index

addView

Requests notification of changes in a RecordSet objects state

filter

Creates a RecordSet object that contains selected records from the original RecordSet object

getColumnNames

Returns the names of all the columns of the RecordSet

getItemAt

Retrieves a record from a RecordSet object

getItemID

Gets the unique ID corresponding to a record

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Method

Description

getLength

Returns the total number of records in a RecordSet object

getNumberAvailable

Returns the number of records that have been downloaded from the server

isFullyPopulated

Determines whether a RecordSet object can be edited or manipulated

isLocal

Determines whether a RecordSet object is local or server-associated

removeAll

Removes all records from the RecordSet object

removeItemAt

Removes a specified record

replaceItemAt

Replaces the entire contents of a record

setDeliveryMode

Changes the delivery mode of a server-associated record set

setField

Replaces one field of a record with a new value

sort

Sorts all records by a specified compare function

sortItemsBy

Sorts all the records by a selected field

These functions are available for every RecordSet object returned by the CF.query function to the Flash client. You
run these functions as follows:
objectName.functionName();

For example, in the result function that you create to handle record set data returned by the CF.query function, you
can reference the database column names returned in the record set using the getColumnNames RecordSet function:
function selectData_Result ( result )
{
//result holds the query data; employeesView is a Flash list box
stringOutput.text = result.getColumnNames();
_root.employeesView.setDataProvider(result);
}

Building a simple application

The following procedure describes how to build a simple server-side ActionScript application. The example
application, a corporate personnel directory, uses the NetServices object to connect to the personneldirectory
server-side ActionScript. The personneldirectory server-side ActionScript retrieves data from a ColdFusion data
source and returns the results to the SWF file as a RecordSet object.
Note: The server-side ActionScript application that you create provides the back-end services in an application.
This example requires the following:

A server-side ActionScript file named personneldirectory.asr that includes functions that interact with a
ColdFusion data source.

A client-side SWF movie in which the NetServices object is created.

Create the application

1 Write server-side ActionScript that performs the database query and returns data to the client through the Flash

Remoting service.
2 Create the SWF movie interface. See Creating the SWF movie interface on page 697.

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3 Define a search function that sends user data to the Flash Remoting service. See Submitting user data to the Flash

Remoting service on page 697.

4 Define a result function that captures the results returned from the Flash Remoting service. See Capturing Flash

Remoting service results on page 698.

5 Ensure that the SWF movie has established a connection to the Flash Remoting service. See Checking for a Flash

Remoting service connection on page 699.

Writing the server-side ActionScript function

The example here creates a search function that performs a simple search operation against a ColdFusion data source.
This function accepts two arguments, firstName and lastName, and returns any records found that match these
arguments.
Create a server-side ActionScript function
Create a server-side ActionScript file that contains the following code:
//search takes firstName lastName arguments
function search(firstName, lastName)
{
searchdata = CF.query({datasource: "bigDSN",
sql:"SELECT * from personnel WHERE fname = firstName AND lname = lastName"{);
if (searchdata)
return searchdata;
else
return null;
}

Creating the SWF movie interface

The SWF movie interface example here consists of one frame with a variety of text boxes and a submit button.
1 In the Flash authoring environment, create a Flash source file, and save it as pDirectory.fla.
2 Create two input text boxes. Name one text box variable lastName and the other firstName.
3 Create a dynamic text box, and name its variable status.
4 Insert a list box component, and name it dataView.
5 Insert a push-button component.
6 Save your work.

Submitting user data to the Flash Remoting service

To send data to server-side ActionScript, create a function that passes the data from the SWF movie to server-side
ActionScript. The search function, applied at the frame level, collects the user-entered data from the firstName and
lastName text boxes and passes the data as function arguments to the directoryService object, which is created when
the SWF movie connects to the Flash Remoting service. For more information, see Checking for a Flash Remoting
service connection on page 699.
The following is a Flash ActionScript example:

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#include "NetServices.as"
function search()
{
// The search() method is defined in the server-side AS file
directoryService.search(firstName.text, lastName.text);
dataView.setDataProvider(null);
status.text = "waiting...";
}

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

directoryService.search

Passes the contents of the firstName and lastName text boxes to server-side
ActionScript.

(firstName.text, lastName.text);

Clears the dataView list box component.

dataView.setDataProvider
(null);

Displays a message in the status text box while the record set is being
retrieved from server-side ActionScript.

status.text = "waiting...";

Capturing Flash Remoting service results

When you create a function that calls a server-side ActionScript function, also create a function to handle the data
returned by server-side ActionScript. Define the function with the same name as the function making the initial call,
but you append _Result to the name.
For example, if you create a function called basicQuery to return query data, you define a results function to handle
returned data; declare the results function as basicQuery_Result.
In the following example, the results function search_Result supplies the record set to the
dataView.setDataProvider function:
function search_Result(resultset)
{
dataView.setDataProvider(resultset);
status.text = (0+resultset.getLength())+" names found.";
}

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

function search_Result

The _Result suffix tells the Flash Remoting service to return the results of
the search function to this function.

(resultset)
dataView.setDataProvider
(resultset);
status.text = (0+resultset.

Assigns the results returned by the Flash Remoting service to the dataView
list box.
Displays the number of records returned by the Flash Remoting service.

getLength())+" names found.";

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Checking for a Flash Remoting service connection

To ensure that the SWF movie is connected to the Flash Remoting service, you use an if statement; for example:
if (inited == null)
{
inited = true;
NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl("http://localhost:8500/flashservices/
gateway");
gateway_conn = NetServices.createGatewayConnection();
directoryService = gateway_conn.getService(personneldirectory, this);
status.text = "Type into the text boxes, then click 'Search'";
}

In this example, the inited variable is evaluated for a value. If inited is null (not connected), the movie connects to
the Flash Remoting service using the NetServices object. For more information about connecting to the Flash
Remoting service, see Connecting to the Flash Remoting service on page 691.

About the CF.http function

You use the CF.http ActionScript function to retrieve information from a remote HTTP server using HTTP Get and
Post methods, as follows:

Using the Get method, you send information to the remote server directly in the URL. This method is common for
a one-way transaction in which the CF.http function retrieves an object, such as the contents of a web page.

The Post method can pass variables to a form or CGI program, and can also create HTTP cookies.
The most basic way to use the CF.http function is to use it with the Get method argument to retrieve a page from a
specified URL. The Get method is the default for the CF.http function.
The following server-side example retrieves file content from the specified URL:
function basicGet(url)
{
// Invoke with just the url argument. This is an HTTP GET.
result = CF.http(url);
return result.get("Filecontent");
}

The client-side example could look like the following:

#include "NetServices.as"
NetServices.setDefaultGatewayUrl("http://mycfserver:8500");
gatewayConnnection = NetServices.createGatewayConnection();
myHttp = gatewayConnnection.getService("httpFuncs", this);
// This is the server-side function invocation
url = "http://anyserver.com";
myHttp.basicGet(url);
// Create the results function
function basicGet_Result()
{
url = "http://anyserver.com
ssasFile.basicGet(url)
}

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Using the CF.http function

The CF.http function returns an object that contains properties, also known as attributes. You reference these
attributes to access the contents of the file returned, header information, HTTP status codes, and so on. The following
table shows the available properties:
Property

Description

Text

A Boolean value indicating whether the specified URL location contains text data.

Charset

The charset used by the document specified in the URL.

HTTP servers normally provide this information, or the charset is specified in the charset parameter of the
Content-Type header field of the HTTP protocol. For example, the following HTTP header announces that the
character encoding is EUC-JP:
Content-Type: text/html; charset=EUC-JP

Header

Raw response header. The following is an example header:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2002 17:27:44 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.22 (Unix) mod_perl/1.26
Set-Cookie: MM_cookie=207.22.48.162.4731015262864476;
path=/; expires=Wed, 03-Mar-04 17:27:44 GMT;
domain=.adobe.com
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

Filecontent

File contents, for text and MIME files.

Mimetype

MIME type. Examples of MIME types include text/html, image/png, image/gif, video/mpeg, text/css, and
audio/basic.

responseHeader

Response header. If there is one instance of a header key, this value can be accessed as a simple type. If there is
more than one instance, values are put in an array in the responseHeader structure.

Statuscode

HTTP error code and associated error string. Common HTTP status codes returned in the response header include
the following:
400: Bad Request
401: Unauthorized
403: Forbidden
404: Not Found
405: Method Not Allowed

Referencing HTTP Post parameters in the CF.http function

To pass HTTP Post parameters in the CF.http function, construct an array of objects and assign this array to a
variable named params. The following arguments can only be passed as an array of objects in the params argument of
the CF.http function:

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Parameter

Description

name

The variable name for data that is passed

type

Transaction type:

value

URL

FormField

Cookie

CGI

File

Value of URL, FormField, Cookie, File, or CGI variables that are passed

In the following example, the CF.http function passes HTTP Post parameters in an array of objects:
function postWithParamsAndUser()
{
// Set up the array of Post parameters. These are just like cfhttpparam tags.
params = new Array();
params[1] = {name:"arg2", type:"URL", value:"value2"};
url = "http://localhost:8500/";
// Invoke with the method, url, params, username, and password
result = CF.http("post", url, params, "karl", "salsa");
return result.get("Filecontent");
}

Using the CF.http Post method

You use the Post method to send cookie, form field, CGI, URL, and file variables to a specified ColdFusion page or CGI
program for processing. For POST operations, use the params argument for each variable that you post. The Post method
passes data to a specified ColdFusion page or an executable that interprets the variables being sent, and returns data.
For example, when you build an HTML form using the Post method, you specify the name of the page to which form
data is passed. You use the Post method in the CF.http function in a similar way. However, with the CF.http
function, the page that receives the Post does not display anything. See the following example:
function postWithParams()
{
// Set up the array of Post parameters. These are just like cfhttpparam tags.
// This example passes formfield data to a specified URL.
params = new Array();
params[1] = {name:"Formfield1", type:"FormField", value:"George"};
params[2] = [name:"Formfield2", type:"FormField", value:"Brown"};
url = "http://localhost:8500/";
// Invoke CF.http with the method, url, and params
result = CF.http("post", url, params);
return result.get("Filecontent");
}

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Using the CF.http Get method

You use the Get method to retrieve files, including text and binary files, from a specified server. You reference
properties of the object returned by the CF.http function to access things like file content, header information, MIME
type, and so on.
The following example uses the CF.http function to show a common approach to retrieving data from the web:
// Returns content of URL defined in url variable
// This example uses positional argument style
function get()
{
url = "http://www.adobe.com/software/coldfusion/";
//Invoke with just the url argument. Get is the default.
result = CF.http(url);
return result.get("Filecontent");
}

For more information about CF.http function properties, see CF.http in the CFML Reference.

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Information
Introduction to Retrieving and Formatting Data
Adobe ColdFusion lets you retrieve and format data. You can use forms to get user data and control the data that a
dynamic web page displays. You can also populate a table with query results and use ColdFusion functions to format
and manipulate data. To use these features, you should be familiar with HTML forms.

Using forms in ColdFusion

ColdFusion lets you use a variety of types of forms. You can use plain HTML or CFML, and you can generate HTML,
Flash, or skinned XML forms.

ColdFusion forms tags

You can use HTML or CFML tags to define your form. ColdFusion includes the following CFML tags that correspond
to HTML tags, but provide additional functionality:

cfapplet
cfform
cfinput
cfselect
cftextarea
These tags support all the attributes of their HTML counterparts, plus ColdFusion attributes and features.
ColdFusion also provides the following forms tags that have no direct equivalent in HTML:

cfcalendar Lets users select dates from a Flash month-by-month calendar.

cfgrid Displays and lets users enter data in a row and column grid format; can get data directly from a query.
cfslider Lets users input data by moving a sliding marker.
cftree Displays data in a hierarchical tree format with graphical indicators; can get data directly from a query.

ColdFusion Form tag features

ColdFusion forms tags provide the following features:
Built-in validation support You can validate data in the client browser or on the server. You can specify that a field is

required, contains a specific type of data, has a maximum length, or is in a range of values. You can also use data
masking to control user input. For more information on validation, see Validating Data on page 743.
Note: ColdFusion also provides a method of doing on-server validation of HTML form controls.
Flash format forms and elements You can display a form as Flash, which works identically on a variety of platforms

and provides additional display features not available in HTML. These features include accordion-style and multipletab form panes and automatic element positioning. You can also display cftree, cfgrid, and cfcalendar form

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elements as Flash items in an otherwise-HTML form. For more information on Flash forms and form elements, see
Creating Forms in Flash on page 765.
XML Skinable forms ColdFusion can generate XML forms and apply XSLT skins to format the forms. XML format
forms let you separate the form presentation from the form logic and data field information. They give you detailed
control over the appearance of the forms by applying custom skins, and let you create custom controls. For more
information on XML skinnable forms, see Creating Skinnable XML Forms on page 783.
Direct support for ColdFusion variables You can easily use ColdFusion variables directly to populate your form
controls. For example, you can specify a query result to populate the cfgrid and cftree tags.

These features make CFML forms tags powerful and flexible, and let you easily develop fully featured, pleasing forms.
The CFML tags used here, do not describe or use most of their special features. SeeBuilding Dynamic Forms with
cfform Tags on page 722 for information on how to use many of the tags that are specific to ColdFusion, such as
cftree and cfgrid.

Creating a basic form

The following simple form shows how you can create a form that lets a user enter data. This form uses basic CFML
form tags. It does not use any of the advanced features of ColdFusion, such as validation, Flash or XML format, or
special input controls. You could convert it to a purely HTML form by removing the initial cf prefix from the tag
names, and the form would work.

The following table shows the format of form control tags:

Control

Code

Text control

<cfinput type="Text" name="ControlName" size="Value" maxlength="Value">

List (select) box

<cfselect name="ControlName">
<option value="Value1">DisplayName1
<option value="Value2">DisplayName2
<option value="Value3">DisplayName3
</cfselect>

Radio buttons

<cfinput type="Radio" name="ControlName" value="Value1">DisplayName1

<cfinput type="Radio" name="ControlName" value="Value2">DisplayName2
<cfinput type="Radio" name="ControlName" value="Value3">DisplayName3

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Control

Code

Check box

<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="ControlName" value="Yes|No">Yes

Reset button

<cfinput type="Reset" name="ControlName" value="DisplayName">

Submit button

<cfinput type="Submit" name="ControlName" value="DisplayName">

The following listing shows the form source in detail. To test the form and use it as input for later examples, save this
code as formpage.cfm.
<html>
<head>
<title>Input form</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Specify the action page in the form tag. The form variables will
pass to this page when the form is submitted. --->
<cfform action="actionpage.cfm" method="post">
<!--- Text box. --->
<p>
First Name: <cfinput type="Text" name="FirstName" size="20"maxlength="35"><br>
Last Name: <cfinput type="Text" name="LastName" size="20" maxlength="35"><br>
Salary: <cfinput type="Text" name="Salary" size="10" maxlength="10">
</p>
<!--- List box. --->
<p>
City
<cfselect name="City">
<option value="Arlington">Arlington
<option value="Boston">Boston
<option value="Cambridge">Cambridge
<option value="Minneapolis">Minneapolis
<option value="Seattle">Seattle
</cfselect>
</p>
<!--- Radio buttons. --->
<p>
Department:<br>

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<cfinput type="radio" name="Department" value="Training">Training<br>

<cfinput type="radio" name="Department" value="Sales">Sales<br>
<input type="radio" name="Department"
value="Marketing">Marketing<br>
</p>
<!--- Check box. --->
<p>
Contractor? <cfinput type="checkbox" name="Contractor"
value="Yes" checked>Yes
</p>
<!--- Reset button. --->
<cfinput type="Reset" name="ResetForm" value="Clear Form">
<!--- submit button --->
<cfinput type="Submit" name="SubmitForm" value="Submit">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

Forms guidelines
When using forms, keep in mind the following guidelines:

To make the coding process easy to follow, name form controls the same as target database fields. For example, if
a text control corresponds to a data source FirstName field, use FirstName as the control name.

For ease of use, limit radio buttons to between three and five mutually exclusive options. If you need more options,
consider a drop-down list.

Use list boxes to allow the user to choose from many options or to choose multiple items from a list.
Check boxes, radio buttons, and list boxes do not pass data to action pages unless they are selected on a form. If you
try to reference these variables on the action page, you receive an error if they are not present. For information on
how to determine whether a variable exists on the action page, see Testing for a variables existence on page 709.

You can dynamically populate drop-down lists using query data. For more information, see Dynamically
populating list boxes on page 718.

Working with action pages

When the user submits a form, ColdFusion runs the action page specified by the cfform or form tag action attribute.
A ColdFusion action page is like any other application page, except that you can use the form variables that are passed
to it from an associated form.

Processing form variables on action pages

The action page gets a form variable for every form control that contains a value when the form is submitted.
Note: If multiple controls have the same name, one form variable is passed to the action page with a comma-delimited
list of values.
A form variables name is the name that you assigned to the form control on the form page. Refer to the form variable
by name within tags, functions, and other expressions on an action page.

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On the action page, the form variables are in the Form scope, prefix them with Form. to explicitly tell ColdFusion
that you are referring to a form variable. For example, the following code references the LastName form variable for
output on an action page:
<cfoutput>
#Form.LastName#
</cfoutput>

The Form scope also contains a list variable called Form.fieldnames. It contains a list of all form variables submitted
to the action page. If no form variables are passed to the action page, ColdFusion does not create the
Form.fieldnames list.

Using form data to generate SQL statements

As described in previous chapters, you can retrieve a record for every employee in a database table by composing a
query like the following:
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECTFirstName, LastName, Contract
FROM Employee
</cfquery>

When you want to return information about employees that matches user search criteria, you use the SQL WHERE
clause with a SQL SELECT statement. When the WHERE clause is processed, it filters the query data based on the
results of the comparison.
For example, to return employee data for only employees with the last name of Smith, you build a query that looks like
the following:
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Contract
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName = 'Smith'
</cfquery>

However, instead of placing the LastName directly in the SQL WHERE clause, you can use the text that the user
entered in the form for comparison:
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName=<cfqueryparam value="#Form.LastName#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfquery>

For security, this example encapsulates the form variable within the cfqueryparam tag to ensure that the user passed
a valid string value for the LastName. For more information on using the cfqueryparam tag with queries and on
dynamic SQL, see Accessing and Retrieving Data on page 410.

Creating action pages

Use the following procedure to create an action page for the formpage.cfm page that you created in the previous
example.
Create an action page for the form
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Retrieving Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName=<cfqueryparam value="#Form.LastName#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfquery>
<h4>Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</h4>
<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">
#FirstName#
#LastName#
#Salary#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
<cfoutput>Contractor: #Form.Contractor#</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as actionpage.cfm in the myapps directory.

3 View the formpage.cfm page in your browser.
4 Enter data, for example, Smith, in the Last Name box and submit the form.

The browser displays a line with the first and last name and salary for each entry in the database that match the
name you typed, followed by a line with the text Contractor: Yes.
5 Click Back in your browser to redisplay the form.
6 Remove the check mark from the check box and submit the form again.

This time an error occurs because the check box does not pass a variable to the action page. For information on
modifying the actionpage.cfm page to fix the error, see Testing for a variables existence on page 709.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfquery
name="GetEmployees"datasource="cfdocexamples">

Queries the data source cfdocexamples and names the query

GetEmployees.

SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary

Retrieves the FirstName, LastName, and Salary fields from the
FROM Employee
Employee table, but only if the value of the LastName field matches
WHERE LastName=<cfqueryparam
what the user entered in the LastName text box in the form on
value="#Form.LastName#" CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">

formpage.cfm.

<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">

Displays results of the GetEmployees query.

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Code

Description

#FirstName#
#LastName#
#Salary#<br>

Displays the value of the FirstName, LastName, and Salary fields for a
record, starting with the first record, then goes to the next line. Keeps
displaying the records that match the criteria you specified in the
SELECT statement, followed by a line break, until you run out of
records.

</cfoutput>

Closes the cfoutput block.

<br>
<cfoutput>Contractor: #Form.Contractor#
</cfoutput>

Displays a blank line followed by the text Contractor: and the value
of the form Contractor check box.
A more complete example would test to ensure the existence of the
variable and would use the variable in the query.

Testing for a variables existence

Before relying on a variables existence in an application page, you can test to see if it exists using the ColdFusion
IsDefined function. A function is a named procedure that takes input and operates on it. For example, the IsDefined
function determines whether a variable exists. CFML provides a large number of functions, which are documented in
the CFML Reference.
The following code prevents the error in the previous example by checking to see whether the Contractor Form
variable exists before using it:
<cfif IsDefined("Form.Contractor")>
<cfoutput>Contractor: #Form.Contractor#</cfoutput>
</cfif>

The argument passed to the IsDefined function must always be enclosed in double-quotation marks. For more
information on the IsDefined function, see the CFML Reference.
If you attempt to evaluate a variable that you did not define, ColdFusion cannot process the page and displays an error
message. To help diagnose such problems, turn on debugging in the ColdFusion Administrator. The Administrator
debugging information shows which variables are being passed to your application pages.

Requiring users to enter values in form fields

One of the limitations of HTML forms is the inability to define input fields as required. Because this is an important
requirement for database applications, ColdFusion lets you require users to enter data in fields. To specify a field as
required, you can do either of the following:

Use the required attribute of the cfinput, cfselect, cftextarea, and cftree tags.
Use a hidden field that has a name attribute composed of the field name and the suffix _required. You can use this
technique with CFML and HTML form tags.
For example, to require that the user enter a value in the FirstName field of a cfinput tag, use the following syntax:
<cfinput type="Text" name="FirstName" size="20" maxlength="35" required="Yes">

To require that the user enters a value in the FirstName field of an HTML input tag, use the following syntax:
<input type="Text" name="FirstName" size="20" maxlength="35">
<input type="hidden" name="FirstName_required">

In either of these examples, if the user leaves the FirstName field empty, ColdFusion rejects the form submittal and
returns a message informing the user that the field is required. You can customize the contents of this error message.
If you use a required attribute, you customize the message by using the message attribute, as follows:

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<cfinput type="Text" name="FirstName" size="20" maxlength="35" required="Yes"

message="You must enter your first name.">

If you use a hidden field tag, you customize the message using the value attribute of the hidden field, as follows:
<input type="hidden" name="FirstName_required"
value="You must enter your first name.">

Form variable notes and considerations

When using form variables in an action page, keep in mind the following guidelines:

A form variable is available on the action page and pages that it includes.
Prefix form variables with "Form."when referencing them on the action page.
Surround variable values with number signs (#) for output.
Variables for check boxes, radio buttons, and list boxes with size attributes greater than 1 only get passed to the
action page if you select an option. Text boxes, passwords, and text area fields pass an empty string if you do not
enter text.

An error occurs if the action page tries to use a variable that was not passed.
If multiple controls have the same name, one form variable is passed to the action page with a comma-delimited
list of values.

You can validate form variable values on the client or the server.

Working with queries and data

The ability to generate and display query data is one of the most important and flexible features of ColdFusion. Some
of these tools are effective for presenting any data, not just query results.

Using HTML tables to display query results

You can use HTML tables to specify how the results of a query appear on a page. To do so, you place the cfoutput tag
inside the table tags. You can also use the HTML th tag to place column labels in a header row. To create a row in the
table for each row in the query results, place the tr block inside the cfoutput tag.
In addition, you can use CFML functions to format individual pieces of data, such as dates and numeric values.
Place the query results in a table
1 Open the ColdFusion actionpage.cfm page in your editor.
2 Modify the page so that it appears as follows:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Retrieving Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM Employee
WHERE LastName=<cfqueryparam value="#Form.LastName#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfquery>
<h4>Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</h4>
<table>
<tr>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Salary</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">
<tr>
<td>#FirstName#</td>
<td>#LastName#</td>
<td>#Salary#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
<br>
<cfif IsDefined("Form.Contractor")>
<cfoutput>Contractor: #Form.Contractor#</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</body>
</html>

3 Save the page as actionpage.cfm in the myapps directory.

4 View the formpage.cfm page in your browser.
5 Enter Smith in the Last Name text box and submit the form.

The records that match the criteria specified in the form appear in a table.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<table>

Places data into a table.

<tr>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Salary</th>
</tr>

In the first row of the table, includes three columns, with the headings: First Name,
Last Name, and Salary.

<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">

Tells ColdFusion to display the results of the GetEmployees query.

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Code

Description

<tr>
<td>#FirstName#</td>
<td>#LastName#</td>
<td>#Salary#</td>
</tr>

For each record in the query, creates a row in the table, with three columns that
display the values of the FirstName, LastName, and Salary fields of the record.

</cfoutput>

Ends the output region.

</table>

Ends the table.

Formatting individual data items

You can format individual data items. For example, you can format the salary data as monetary values. To format the
salary data using the dollar format, you use the CFML function DollarFormat.
Change the format of the Salary
1 Open the file actionpage.cfm in your editor.
2 Change the following line:
<td>#Salary#</td>

to
<td>#DollarFormat(Salary)#</td>

3 Save the page.

Building flexible search interfaces

One option with forms is to build a search based on the form data. For example, you could use form data as part of the
WHERE clause to construct a database query.
To give users the option to enter multiple search criteria in a form, you can wrap conditional logic around a SQL AND
clause as part of the WHERE clause. The following action page allows users to search for employees by department,
last name, or both.
Note: ColdFusion provides the Verity search utility that you can also use to perform a search. For more information, see
Building a Search Interface on page 476.
Build a more flexible search interface
1 Open the ColdFusion actionpage.cfm page in your editor.
2 Modify the page so that it appears as follows:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Retrieving Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.FirstName,
Employee.LastName,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
<cfif IsDefined("Form.Department")>
AND Departmt.Dept_Name=<cfqueryparam value="#Form.Department#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfif>
<cfif Form.LastName IS NOT "">
AND Employee.LastName=<cfqueryparam value="#Form.LastName#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<h4>Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</h4>
<table>
<tr>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Salary</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">
<tr>
<td>#FirstName#</td>
<td>#LastName#</td>
<td>#Salary#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</body>
</html>

3 Save the file.

4 View the formpage.cfm page in your browser.
5 Select a department, optionally enter a last name, and submit the form.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:

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Code

Description

SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.FirstName,
Employee.LastName,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID

Retrieves the fields listed from the Departmt and Employee tables, joining the
tables based on the Dept_ID field in each table.

<cfif IsDefined("Form.Department")>
AND Departmt.Dept_Name=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.Department#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfif>

If the user specified a department on the form, only retrieves records where the
department name is the same as the one that the user specified. Use number signs
(#) in the SQL AND statement to identify Form.Department as a ColdFusion
variable, but not in the IsDefined function.

<cfif Form.LastName IS NOT "">

AND Employee.LastName=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.LastName#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfif>

If the user specified a last name in the form, only retrieves the records in which the
last name is the same as the one that the user entered in the form.

Returning results to the user

When you return your results to the user, ensure that your pages respond to the users needs and are appropriate for
the type and amount of information. In particular, consider the following situations:

When there are no query results

When you return partial results

Handling no query results

Your code must accommodate the cases in which a query does not return any records. To determine whether a search
has retrieved records, use the RecordCount query variable. You can use the variable in a conditional logic expression
that determines how to display search results appropriately to users.
Note: For more information on query variables, including RecordCount, see Accessing and Retrieving Data on
page 410.
For example, to inform the user when no records are found by the GetEmployees query, insert the following code
before displaying the data:
<cfif GetEmployees.RecordCount IS "0">
No records match your search criteria. <BR>
<cfelse>

Do the following:

Prefix RecordCount with the query name.

Add a procedure after the cfif tag that displays a message to the user.
Add a procedure after the cfelse tag to format the returned data.
Follow the second procedure with a </cfif> tag end to indicate the end of the conditional code.
Return search results to users
1 Edit the actionpage.cfm page.
2 Change the page so that it appears as follows:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Retrieving Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.FirstName,
Employee.LastName,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
<cfif isdefined("Form.Department")>
AND Departmt.Dept_Name = <cfqueryparam value="#Form.Department#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfif>
<cfif Form.LastName is not "">
AND Employee.LastName = <cfqueryparam value="#Form.LastName#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR">
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<cfif GetEmployees.recordcount is "0">
No records match your search criteria. <br>
Please go back to the form and try again.
<cfelse>
<h4>Employee Data Based on Criteria from Form</h4>
<table>
<tr>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Salary</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetEmployees">
<tr>
<td>#FirstName#</td>
<td>#LastName#</td>
<td>#Salary#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</table>
</body>
</html>

3 Save the file.

4 Return to the form, enter search criteria, and submit the form.
5 If no records match the criteria you specified, the message appears.

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Returning results incrementally

You can use the cfflush tag to incrementally display long-running requests to the browser before a ColdFusion page
is fully processed. This tag lets you give the user quick feedback when it takes a long time to complete processing a
request. For example, when a request takes time to return results, you can use the cfflush tag to display the message,
Processing your request -- please wait. You can also use it to incrementally display a long list as it gets retrieved.
The first time you use the cfflush tag on a page, it sends to the browser all of the HTML headers and any other
available HTML. Subsequent cfflush tags on the page send only the output that ColdFusion generated after the
previous flush.
You can specify an interval attribute to tell ColdFusion to flush the output each time that at least the specified
number of bytes become available. (The count does not include HTML headers and any data that is already available
when you make this call.) You can use the cfflush tag in a cfloop tag to incrementally flush data as it becomes
available. This format is useful when a query responds slowly with large amounts of data.
When you flush data, make sure that a sufficient amount of information is available, because some browsers do not
respond if you flush only a small amount. Similarly, if you use an interval attribute, set it for a reasonable size, such
as a few hundred bytes or more, but not many thousands of bytes.
Limitations of the cfflush tag: Because the cfflush tag sends data to the browser when it executes, it has several
limitations, including the following:

Using any of the following tags or functions on a page anywhere after the cfflush tag can cause errors or
unexpected results: cfcontent, cfcookie, cfform, cfheader, cfhtmlhead, cflocation, and SetLocale. (These
tags and functions normally modify the HTML header, but cannot do so after a cfflush tag, because the cfflush
tag sends the header.)

Using the cfset tag to set a cookie anywhere on a page that has a cfflush tag does not set the cookie in the browser.
Using the cfflush tag within the body of several tags, including cfsavecontent, cfqueryparam, and custom tags,
can cause errors.

If you save Client variables as cookies, any client variables that you set after a cfflush tag are not saved in the
browser.

You can catch cfflush errors, except Cookie errors, with a cfcatch tag. Catch cookie errors with a cfcatch
type="Any" tag.

Example: using the cfloop tag and Rand function

The following example uses the cfloop tag and the Rand random number generating function to artificially delay the
generation of data for display. It simulates a situation in which it takes time to retrieve the first data and additional
information becomes available slowly.

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<html>
<head>
<title>Your Magic numbers</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Your Magic numbers</h1>
<P>It will take us a little while to calculate your ten magic numbers.
It takes a lot of work to find numbers that truly fit your personality.
So relax for a minute or so while we do the hard work for you.</P>
<h2>We are sure you will agree it was worth the short wait!</h2>
<cfflush>
<cfflush interval=10>
<!--- Delay Loop to make is seem harder. --->
<cfloop index="randomindex" from="1" to="200000" step="1">
<cfset random=rand()>
</cfloop>
<!--- Now slowly output 10 random numbers. --->
<cfloop index="Myindex" from="1" to="10" step="1">
<cfloop index="randomindex" from="1" to="100000" step="1">
<cfset random=rand()>
</cfloop>
<cfoutput>
Magic number #Myindex# is:&nbsp;&nbsp;#RandRange(
100000, 999999)#<br><br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>
</body>
</html>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<h2>We are sure you will agree it was worth the short
wait!</h2>
<cfflush>

Sends the HTML header and all HTML output to the cfflush tag to the
user. This displays the explanatory paragraph and H2 tag contents.

<cfflush interval=10>

Flushes additional data to the user whenever at least 10 bytes are

available.

<cfloop index="randomindex" from="1" to="200000"

step="1">
<cfset random=Rand()>
</cfloop>

Inserts an artificial delay by using the Rand function to calculate many

random numbers.

<cfloop index="Myindex" from="1" to="10" step="1">

<cfloop index="randomindex" from="1" to="100000"
step="1">
<cfset random=rand()>
</cfloop>
<cfoutput>
Magic number #Myindex# is:&nbsp;&nbsp;#RandRange
(100000,999999)#<br><br>
</cfoutput>
</cfloop>

Generates and displays 10 random numbers. This code uses two

loops. The outer loop repeats ten times, once for each number to
display. The inner loop uses the Rand function to create another delay
by generating more (unused) random numbers. It then calls the
RandRange function to generate a six-digit random number for
display.

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Dynamically populating list boxes

The code in Creating a basic form on page 704 hard-coded the forms list box options. Instead of manually entering
the information on a form, you can dynamically populate a list box with database fields. When you write code this way,
the form page automatically reflects the changes that you make to the database.
You use two tags to dynamically populate a list box:

Use the cfquery tag to retrieve the column data from a database table.
Use the cfselect tag with the query attribute to dynamically populate the options of this form control.

Dynamically populate a list box

1 Open the formpage.cfm page.
2 Modify the file so that it appears as follows:
<html>
<head>
<title>Input form</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetDepartments" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT DISTINCT Location
FROM Departmt
</cfquery>
<!--- Define the action page in the form tag.
The form variables pass to this page
when the form is submitted --->
<cfform action="actionpage.cfm" method="post">
<!--- Text box. --->
<p>
First Name: <cfinput type="Text" name="FirstName" size="20" maxlength="35"><br>
Last Name: <cfinput type="Text" name="LastName" size="20" maxlength="35"><br>
Salary: <cfinput type="Text" name="Salary" size="10" maxlength="10">
</p>
<!--- List box. --->
City
<cfset optsize=getDepartments.recordcount + 1>
<cfselect name="City" query="GetDepartments" value="Location" size="#optsize#">
<option value="">Select All
</cfselect>
<!--- Radio buttons. --->
<p>

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Department:<br>
<cfinput type="radio"
<cfinput type="radio"
<cfinput type="radio"
<cfinput type="radio"
</p>

name="Department"
name="Department"
name="Department"
name="Department"

value="Training">Training<br>
value="Sales">Sales<br>
value="Marketing">Marketing<br>
value="HR">HR<br>

<!--- Check box. --->

<p>
Contractor? <cfinput type="checkbox" name="Contractor" value="Yes" checked>Yes
</p>
<!--- Reset button. --->
<cfinput type="reset" name="ResetForm" value="Clear Form">
<!--- Submit button. --->
<cfinput type="submit" name="SubmitForm" value="Submit">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

3 Save the page as formpage.cfm.

4 View the formpage.cfm page in a browser.

The changes that you just made appear in the form.

Remember that you need an action page to submit values.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfquery name="GetDepartments"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT DISTINCT Location
FROM Departmt
</cfquery>

Gets the locations of all departments in the Departmt table.

The DISTINCT clause eliminates duplicate location names from
the returned query results.

<cfset optsize=getDepartments.recordcount + 1>

Sets the optsize variable to the number of entries to add

dynamically to the selection list, plus one for the manually
coded Select All option.

<cfselect name="City" query="GetDepartments"

value="Location" size="#optsize#">
<option value="">Select All
</cfselect>

Populates the City selection list from the Location column of

the GetDepartments query. The control has one option for
each row returned by the query.
Adds an option that allows users to select all locations. If the
user selects this option, the form value is an empty string. The
action page must check for the empty string and handle it
appropriately.

Creating dynamic check boxes and multiple-selection list boxes

When an HTML or CFML form contains a list of check boxes with the same name or a multiple-selection list box (that
is, a box in which users can select multiple items from the list), the users entries are made available as a commadelimited list with the selected values. These lists can be useful for a wide range of input types.

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Note: If the user does not select a check box or make a selection from a list box, no variable is created. The cfinput and
cfupdate tags do not work correctly if there are no values. To prevent errors, make the form fields required, use dynamic
SQL, or use the cfparam tag to set a default value for the form field.

Check boxes
When you place a series of check boxes with the same name in a form, the variable that is created contains a commadelimited list of values. The values can be either numeric values or alphanumeric strings. These two types of values are
treated slightly differently.
Handling numeric values
Suppose you want a user to select one or more departments using check boxes. You then query the database to retrieve
detailed information on the selected departments. The code for a simple set of check boxes that lets the user select
departments looks like the following:
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="1">
Training<br>
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="2">
Marketing<br>
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="3">
HR<br>
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="4">
Sales<br>
</html>

The user sees the name of the department, but the value attribute of each check box is a number that corresponds to
the underlying database primary key for the departments record.
If the user checks the Marketing and Sales items, the value of the SelectedDepts form field is 2,4 and you use the
SelectedDepts value in the following SQL statement:
SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_ID IN ( #Form.SelectedDepts# )

The ColdFusion server sends the following statement to the database:

SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_ID IN ( 2,4 )

Handling string values

To search for a database field that contains string values (instead of numeric), modify the checkbox and cfquery
syntax to make sure that the string values are sent to the data source in single-quotation marks (').

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The first example searched for department information based on a numeric primary key field called Dept_ID.
Suppose, instead, that the primary key is a database field called Dept_Name that contains string values. In that case,
your code for check boxes should look like the following:
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="Training">
Training<br>
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="Marketing">
Marketing<br>
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="HR">
HR<br>
<cfinput type="checkbox"
name="SelectedDepts"
value="Sales">
Sales<br>

If the user checked Marketing and Sales, the value of the SelectedDepts form field would be the list Marketing,Sales
and you use the following SQL statement:
SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_Name IN
(#ListQualify(Form.SelectedDepts,"'")#)

In SQL, all strings must be surrounded in single-quotation marks. The ListQualify function returns a list with the
specified qualifying character (here, a single-quotation mark) around each item in the list.
If you select the second and fourth check boxes in the form, the following statement gets sent to the database:
SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_Name IN ('Marketing','Sales')

Multiple selection lists

A multiple-selection list box is defined by a select or cfselect tag with a multiple or multipe="yes" attribute
and a size attribute value greater than 1. ColdFusion treats the result when a user selects multiple choices from a
multiple-selection list box like the results of selecting multiple check boxes. The data made available to your page from
any multiple-selection list box is a comma-delimited list of the entries selected by the user; for example, a list box could
contain the four entries: Training, Marketing, HR, and Sales. If the user selects Marketing and Sales, the form field
variable value is Marketing, Sales.
You can use multiple-selection lists to search a database in the same way that you use check boxes.
Handling numeric values
Suppose you want the user to select departments from a multiple-selection list box. The query retrieves detailed
information on the selected departments, as follows:

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Select one or departments to get more information on:

<cfselect name="SelectDepts" multiple>
<option value="1">Training
<option value="2">Marketing
<option value="3">HR
<option value="4">Sales
</cfselect>

If the user selects the Marketing and Sales items, the value of the SelectDepts form field is 2,4. If this parameter is used
in the following SQL statement:
SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_ID IN (#form.SelectDepts#)

The following statement is sent to the database:

SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_ID IN (2,4)

Handling string values

Suppose you want the user to select departments from a multiple-selection list box. The database search field is a string
field. The query retrieves detailed information on the selected departments, as follows:
<cfselect name="SelectDepts" multiple>
<option value="Training">Training
<option value="Marketing">Marketing
<option value="HR">HR
<option value="Sales">Sales
</cfselect>

If the user selects the Marketing and Sales items, the SelectDepts form field value is Marketing,Sales.
Just as you did when using check boxes to search database fields containing string values, use the ColdFusion
ListQualify function with multiple-selection list boxes:
SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_Name IN (#ListQualify(Form.SelectDepts,"'")#)

The following statement is sent to the database:

SELECT *
FROM Departmt
WHERE Dept_Name IN ('Marketing','Sales')

Building Dynamic Forms with cfform Tags

You can use the cfform tag to create rich, dynamic forms with sophisticated graphical controls, including several Java
applet or Flash controls. You can use these controls without writing a line of Java or Flash code.

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Creating custom forms with the cfform tag

The cfform tag and its CFML subtags let you create dynamic forms in three formats:
HTML Generates standard HTML tags wherever possible, and uses applets or Flash for more complex controls, such

as grids, trees, and calendars. HTML lets you present a familiar appearance, but does not let you easily separate data
and presentation, or provide some of the more complex structures, such as Flash tabbed navigators or accordions, or
customized XML controls.
Flash Presents a modern, visually pleasing appearance. Flash format supports several controls, such as tabbed
navigators and accordions, that are not available in HTML. Flash forms are also browser-independent. In Flash format,
Flash Player works in all commonly used browsers on Windows and Macintosh systems, and in Netscape and Mozilla
on Linux.
XML Lets you specify an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) skin that converts the XML into

styled HTML output. Adobe ColdFusion provides several skins that you can use, and you can write your own custom
skins and support custom controls.
The cfform tag and its subtags also provide you with several methods for validating input data. For example, you can
perform the validation on the browser or on the server. You can check the data type, or you can mask data input.
Individual cfform tags have additional dynamic features. Several of the tags do not have HTML counterparts, and
others directly support dynamically populating the control from data sources. Also, the cfform tag preservedata
attribute retains user input in a form after the user submits the form, so the data reappears if the form gets redisplayed.
The information here describes features of the cfform tag and focuses on using several of the cfform child tags that
do not have HTML counterparts. For other features of ColdFusion forms that you create using the cfform tag, see the
following:

Validating Data on page 743

Creating Forms in Flash on page 765
Creating Skinnable XML Forms on page 783

The cfform controls

The following table describes the ColdFusion controls that you use in forms created using the cfform tag. You can use
these tags only inside a cfform tag. Unless otherwise stated, these controls are supported in HTML, Flash, and XML
skinnable forms.
Control

Description

For more information

cfapplet

Embeds a custom Java applet in the form. Not supported in Flash format Embedding Java applets on page 741.
forms.

cfcalendar

Displays an interactive Flash calendar that can be included in an HTML The cfcalendar tag in the CFML Reference
or Flash format form. ignored in XML skinable forms. The calendar lets a
user select a date for submission as a form variable.

cfform

Creates a container control for organizing and formatting multiple form Creating Forms in Flash on page 765,
controls. Used in the cfform tag body of Flash and XML skinable forms. Creating Skinnable XML Forms on
page 783
Ignored in HTML forms.

cfformitem

Inserts a horizontal line, a vertical line, or formatted or unformatted text Creating Forms in Flash on page 765,
in a Flash form. Used in the cfform or cfformgroup tag body for Flash Creating Skinnable XML Forms on
page 783
and XML forms. Ignored in HTML forms.

cfgrid

Creates a Java applet or Flash data grid that you can populate from a
query or by defining the contents of individual cells. You can also use
grids to insert, update, and delete records from a data source.

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Control

Description

For more information

cfinput

Equivalent to the HTML input tag, with the addition of input validation. Creating a basic form on page 704

cfselect

Displays a selection box. Equivalent to the HTML select tag, with the
addition of input validation.

cfslider

Creates a Java applet-based control that lets users enter data by moving Building slider bar controls on page 732
a slider. Not supported in Flash format forms.

cftextarea

Displays a text input area. Equivalent to the HTML textarea tag, with
the addition of input validation.

The cftextarea tag in the CFML Reference

cftree

Creates a Java applet or Flash hierarchical tree-format control that can

include graphical images for the different elements. Can also generate
a ColdFusion structure that represents the tree data and attributes.

Building tree controls with the cftree tag

on page 725

Building drop-down list boxes on

page 731

Preserving input data with the preservedata attribute

The cfformpreservedata attribute tells ColdFusion to continue displaying the user data in a form after the user
submits the form. Data is preserved in the cfinput, cfslider, cftextinput, and cftree controls and in cfselect
controls populated by queries. If you specify a default value for a control, and a user overrides that default in the form,
the user input is preserved.
You can retain data on the form when the same page contains the form and the forms action code; that is, the form
submits to itself. You can also retain the data if the action page has a copy of the form, and the control names are the
same in the forms on both pages. (The action page form need not be identical to the initial form. It can have more or
fewer elements than the initial page form; only the form elements with identical names on both pages keep their data.)
Note: The preservedata setting on the action page controls the preservation of the data.
For example, if you save this form as preserve.cfm, it continues to display any text that you enter after you submit it,
as follows:
<cfform action="preserve.cfm" preservedata="Yes">
<p>Please enter your name:
<cfinput type="Text" name="UserName" required="Yes"><p>
<input type="Submit" name=""> <input type="RESET">
</cfform>

Usage notes for the preservedata attribute

When you use the preservedata attribute, follow these guidelines:

In the cftree tag, the preservedata attribute causes the tree to expand to the previously selected element. For this
to work correctly, set the completePath attribute to True.

The preservedata attribute has no effect on a cfgrid tag. If you populate the control from a query, update the
data source with the new data (typically by using a cfgridupdate tag) before redisplaying the grid. The grid then
displays the updated database information.

Browser considerations
The applet-based versions of the cfgrid, cfslider, and cftree forms use JavaScript and Java to display their
content. To allow them to display consistently across a variety of browsers, these applets use the Java plug-in. As a
result, they are independent of the level of Java support provided by the browser.
ColdFusion downloads and installs the browser plug-in if necessary. Some browsers display a single permission dialog
box asking you to confirm the plug-in installation. Other browsers, like older versions of Netscape, require you to
navigate some simple option windows.

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Because the controls use JavaScript to return data to ColdFusion, if you disable JavaScript in your browser, it cannot
properly run forms that contain these controls. In that case, the controls still display, but data return and validation
does not work and you can receive a JavaScript error.
Because Java is handled by the plug-in and not directly by the browser, disabling Java execution in the browser does
not affect the operation of the controls. If for some other reason, however, the browser is unable to render the controls
as requested, a "not supported" message appears in place of the control.
You can use the cfform tags notsupported attribute to specify an alternative error message.
You can avoid browser Java and JavaScript issues with the cfgrid and cftree controls by using the Flash format
versions of these controls. These controls work on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and do not rely on Java support.
There is no Flash version of the cfslider control, and there is no applet version of the cfcalendar control.

Building tree controls with the cftree tag

The cftree tag lets you display hierarchical information within a form in a space-saving collapsible tree populated
from data source queries. To build a tree control with the cftree tag, you use individual cftreeitem tags to populate
the control.
You can create trees in three formats:
Applet Creates a Java applet that the client must download. Downloading an applet takes time; therefore, using the
cftree tag can be slightly slower than using an HTML form element to retrieve the same information. In addition,

browsers must be Java-enabled for the cftree tag to work properly.

Flash Generates a Flash control that you can include in an HTML or Flash form. For more information on Flash
Forms see Creating Forms in Flash on page 765.
Object Creates a hierarchical ColdFusion structure that represents the tree data and many of the cftree and
cftreeitem attributes.

The different formats support different sets of features and attributes. The information here discusses general
techniques that apply to all three formats, and indicates any techniques that do not apply to a specific format. It uses
applet format for all examples, which use applet-specific attributes. For details on the features and attributes supported
in each format, see the cftree entry in the CFML Reference.

Create and populate a tree control from a query

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfquery name="engquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName || ' ' || LastName AS FullName
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfform name="form1" action="submit.cfm">
<cftree name="tree1"
required="Yes"
hscroll="No">
<cftreeitem value="FullName"
query="engquery"
queryasroot="Yes"
img="folder,document">
</cftree>
</cfform>

2 Save the page as tree1.cfm and view it in your browser.

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Reviewing the code

The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cftree name="tree1"

Creates a tree and names it tree1.

required="Yes"

Specifies that a user must select an item in the tree.

hscroll="No"

Does not allow horizontal scrolling.

<cftreeitem value="FullName" query="engquery"

Creates an item in the tree and puts the results of the query named engquery
in it. Because this tag uses a query, it puts one item on the tree per query
entry.

queryasroot="Yes"

Specifies the query name as the root level of the tree control.

img="folder,document"

Uses the folder and document images that ship with ColdFusion in the tree
structure.
When populating a cftree tag with data from a cfquery tag, you can specify
images or filenames for each level of the tree as a comma-separated list.

Grouping output from a query

In a query that you display using a cftree control, to organize your employees by department, separate column names
with commas in the cftreeitemvalue attribute.
Organize the tree based on ordered results of a query
1 Create a ColdFusion page named tree2.cfm with the following content:
<!--- CFQUERY with an ORDER BY clause. --->
<cfquery name="deptquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Dept_ID, FirstName || ' ' || LastName
AS FullName
FROM Employee
ORDER BY Dept_ID
</cfquery>
<!--- Build the tree control. --->
<cfform name="form1" action="submit.cfm">
<cftree name="tree1"
hscroll="No"
border="Yes"
height="350"
required="Yes">
<cftreeitem value="Dept_ID, FullName"
query="deptquery"
queryasroot="Dept_ID"
img="computer,folder,document"
imgopen="computer,folder"
expand="yes">
</cftree>
<br>
<br><input type="Submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

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2 Save the page and view it in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the highlighted code and its function
Code

Description

ORDER BY Dept_ID

Orders the query results by department.

<cftreeitem value="Dept_ID,FullName"

Populates the tree with the department ID, and under each department, the full
name for each employee in the department.

queryasroot="Dept_ID"

Labels the root "Dept_ID".

img="computer,folder,document"

Uses the ColdFusion supplied computer image for the root level, folder image for the
department IDs, and document for the names, independent of whether any level is
expanded (open) or collapsed. The imgopen attribute has only two items, because
the employee names can never be open.

imgopen="computer,folder"

The cftreeitem comma-separated value, img, and imgopen attributes correspond to the tree level structure. In
applet format, if you omit the img attribute, ColdFusion uses the folder image for all levels in the tree; if you omit the
imgopen attribute, ColdFusion uses the folder image for all expanded levels in the tree. Flash format ignores the img
and imgopen attributes and always uses folders for levels with children and documents for nodes without children.

The cftree form variables

The cftree tag lets you force a user to select an item from the tree control by setting the required attribute to Yes.
With or without the required attribute, ColdFusion passes two form variables to the application page specified in the
cfformaction attribute:

Form.treename.path Returns the complete path of the user selection, in the form:
[root]\node1\node2\node_n\value

Form.treename.node Returns the node of the user selection.

To return the root part of the path, set the completepath attribute of the cftree tag to Yes; otherwise, the path value
starts with the first node. If you specify a root name for a tree item using the queryasroot tag, that value is returned
as the root. If you do not specify a root name, ColdFusion returns the query name as the root. If there is no query name,
ColdFusion returns the tree name as the root.
In the previous example, if the user selects the name "John Allen" in the tree, ColdFusion returns the following form
variables:
Form.tree1.path = 3\John Allen
Form.tree1.node = John Allen

The deptquery root does not appear in the path, because the cftree tag does not specify completePath="Yes". You
can specify the character used to delimit each element of the path form variable in the cftreedelimiter attribute.
The default is a backslash character (\).

Input validation
Although the cftree tag does not include a validate attribute, you can use the required attribute to force a user to
select an item from the tree control. In addition, you can use the onValidate attribute to specify your own JavaScript
code to perform validation.

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Structuring tree controls

Tree controls built with the cftree tag can be complex. Knowing how to specify the relationship between multiple
cftreeitem entries helps you handle the most complex cftree constructs.
Creating a one-level tree control
The following example consists of a single root and some individual items:
<cfquery name="deptquery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Dept_ID, FirstName || ' ' || LastName
AS FullName
FROM Employee
ORDER BY Dept_ID
</cfquery>
<cfform name="form1" action="submit.cfm">
<cftree name="tree1">
<cftreeitem value="FullName"
query="deptquery"
queryasroot="Department">
img="folder,document">
</cftree>
<br>
<cfinput type="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

Creating a multilevel tree control

When populating a cftree control, you create the multilevel structure of the tree by specifying a parent for each item
in the tree. The parent attribute of the cftreeitem tag allows your cftree tag to show relationships between
elements in the tree.
In this example, every cftreeitem tag, except the top level Divisions, specifies a parent. For example, the cftreeitem
tag specifies Divisions as its parent.
The following code populates the tree directly, not from a query:

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<cfform name="form2" action="cfform_submit.cfm">

<cftree name="tree1" hscroll="No" vscroll="No"
border="No">
<cftreeitem value="Divisions">
<cftreeitem value="Development"
parent="Divisions" img="folder">
<cftreeitem value="Product One"
parent="Development" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Product Two"
parent="Development">
<cftreeitem value="GUI"
parent="Product Two" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Kernel"
parent="Product Two" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Product Three"
parent="Development" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="QA"
parent="Divisions" img="folder">
<cftreeitem value="Product One"
parent="QA" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Product Two"
parent="QA" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Product Three"
parent="QA" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Support"
parent="Divisions" img="fixed">
<cftreeitem value="Product Two"
parent="Support" img="document">
<cftreeitem value="Sales"
parent="Divisions" img="computer">
<cftreeitem value="Marketing"
parent="Divisions" img="remote">
<cftreeitem value="Finance"
parent="Divisions" img="element">
</cftree>
</cfform>

Image names in a cftree tag

Note: The information here applies to applet format trees. In Flash, you cannot control the tree icons. Flash uses open and
closed folders and documents as the icons. In object format, the image information is preserved in fields in the object
structure.
The default image displayed in a tree is a folder. However, you can use the img attribute of the cftreeitem tag to
specify a different image.
When you use the img attribute, ColdFusion displays the specified image beside the tree items when they are not open.
When you use the imgopen attribute, ColdFusion displays the specified image beside the tree items when they are open
(expanded). You can specify a built-in ColdFusion image name, the file path to an image file, or the URL of an image
of your choice, such as http://localhost/Myapp/Images/Level3.gif. You cannot use a custom image in Flash format. As
a general rule, make the height of your custom images less than 20 pixels.
When populating a cftree control with data from a cfquery tag, you can use the img attribute of cftreeitem tag to
specify images or filenames for each level of the tree as a comma-separated list.

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The following are the ColdFusion built-in image names:

computer
document
element
folder
floppy
fixed
remote
Note: In applet format, you can also control the tree appearance by using the cftree tag lookAndFeel attribute to
specify a Windows, Motif, or Metal look.

Embedding URLs in a cftree tag

The href attribute in the cftreeitem tag lets you designate tree items as links. To use this feature in a cftree control,
you define the destination of the link in the href attribute of the cftreeitem tag. The URL for the link can be a relative
URL or an absolute URL, as in the following examples.
Embed links in a cftree control
1 Create a ColdFusion page named tree3.cfm with the following contents:
<cfform action="submit.cfm">
<cftree name="oak"
highlighthref="Yes"
height="100"
width="200"
hspace="100"
vspace="6"
hscroll="No"
vscroll="No"
border="No">
<cftreeitem value="Important Links">
<cftreeitem value="Adobe Home"
parent="Important Links"
img="document"
href="http://www.adobe.com">
<cftreeitem value="ColdFusion Developer Center"
parent="Important Links"
img="document"
href="http://www.adobe.com/devnet/coldfusion/">
</cftree>
</cfform>

2 Save the page and view it in your browser.

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Code

Description

href="http://www.adobe.com">

Makes the node of the tree a link.

href="http://www.adobe.com/devnet/mx/coldfu
sion/">

Makes the node of the tree a link.

Although this example does not show it, the href attribute can refer to the
name of a column in a query if that query populates the tree item.

Specifying the tree item in the URL

When a user clicks a tree item to link to a URL, the cftreeItemKey variable, which identifies the selected value, is
appended to the URL in the following form:
http://myserver.com?CFTREEITEMKEY=selected_item_value_attribute

If the value attribute includes spaces, ColdFusion replaces the spaces with plus characters (+).
Automatically passing the name of the selected tree item as part of the URL makes it easy to implement a basic drill
down application that displays additional information based on the selection. For example, if the specified URL is
another ColdFusion page, it can access the selected value as the variable URL.CFTREEITEMKEY.
To disable this behavior, set the appendkey attribute in the cftree tag to no.

Building drop-down list boxes

The drop-down list box that you can create in a cfform tag with a cfselect tag is like the HTML select tag.
However, the cfselect tag gives you more control over user inputs, provides error handling, and, most importantly,
lets you automatically populate the selection list from a query.
You can populate the drop-down list box from a query, or using lists of option elements created by the option tag.
The syntax for the option tag with the cfselect tag is the same as for the HTML option tag.
When you populate a cfselect tag with data from a query, you only need to specify the name of the query that is
supplying data for the cfselect tag and the query column name for each list element to display.

Populate a drop-down list box with query data using the cfselect tag
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfquery name="getNames"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfform name="Form1" action="submit.cfm">
<cfselect name="employees"
query="getNames"
value="Emp_ID"
display="FirstName"
required="Yes"
multiple="Yes"
size="8">
</cfselect>
<br><input type="Submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

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2 Save the file as selectbox.cfm and view it in your browser.

Because the tag includes the multiple attribute, the user can select multiple entries in the list box. Also, because the
value tag specifies Emp_ID, the primary key for the Employee table, Employee IDs (not first names) get passed in the
Form.Employee variable to the application page specified in the cfformaction attribute.
You can use a query to create a two-level hierarchical list grouped by one of the query columns. For an example of this
use, see the example for the cfselect entry in the CFML Reference.

Building slider bar controls

You can use the cfslider control in a cfform tag to create a slider control and define a variety of characteristics,
including label text, label font name, size, boldface, italics, and color, and slider range, positioning, and behavior. Slider
bars are useful because they are highly visual and users can only enter valid values. The cfslider tag is not supported
in Flash format forms.

Create a slider control

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfform name="Form1" action="submit.cfm">
<cfslider name="myslider"
bgcolor="cyan"
bold="Yes"
range="0,1000"
scale="100"
value="600"
fontsize="14"
label="Slider %value%"
height="60"
width="400">
</cfform>

2 Save the file as slider.cfm and view it in your browser.

To get the value of the slider in the action page, use the variable Form.slider_name; in this case, Form.myslider.

Creating data grids with the cfgrid tag

The cfgrid tag creates a cfform grid control that resembles a spreadsheet table and can contain data populated from
a cfquery tag or from other sources of data. As with other cfform tags, the cfgrid tag offers a wide range of data
formatting options, as well as the option of validating user selections with a JavaScript validation script.
You can also perform the following tasks with a cfgrid tag:

Sort data in the grid alphanumerically.

Update, insert, and delete data.
Display images in the grid.
Note: Flash format grids support a subset of the features available in applet format grids. For details on features supported
in each format, see the cfgrid tag in the CFML Reference.
Users can sort the grid entries in ascending order by double-clicking any column header. Double-clicking again sorts
the grid in descending order. In applet format, you can also add sort buttons to the grid control.
When users select grid data and submit the form, ColdFusion passes the selection information as form variables to the
application page specified in the cfformaction attribute.

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Just as the cftree tag uses the cftreeitem tag, the cfgrid tag uses the cfgridcolumn and cfgridrow tags. You can
define a wide range of row and column formatting options, as well as a column name, data type, selection options, and
so on. You use the cfgridcolumn tag to define individual columns in the grid or associate a query column with a grid
column.
Use the cfgridrow tag to define a grid that does not use a query as the source for row data. If a query attribute is
specified in the cfgrid tag, the cfgridrow tags are ignored.
The cfgrid tag provides many attributes that control grid behavior and appearance. Only the most important of these
attributes are described here. For detailed information on these attributes, see the cfgrid tag in the CFML Reference.

Working with a data grid and entering data

The following image shows an example applet format grid created using a cfgrid tag.
The following table describes some navigating tips:
Action

Procedure

Sorting grid rows

Double-click the column header to sort a column in ascending order. Double-click again to sort the
rows in descending order.

Rearranging columns

Click any column heading and drag the column to a new position.

Determining editable grid areas

When you click an editable cell, it is surrounded by a yellow box.

Determining noneditable grid areas

When you click a cell (or row or column) that you cannot edit, its background color changes. The
default color is salmon pink.

Editing a grid cell

Double-click the cell. Press Return when you finish entering the data.

Deleting a row

Click any cell in the row and click the Delete button. (Not available in Flash format grids.)

Inserting a row

Click the Insert button. An empty row appears at the bottom of the grid. To enter a value in each cell,
double-click the cell, enter the value, and click Return. (Not available in Flash format grids.)

Populate a grid from a query

1 Create a ColdFusion page named grid1.cfm with the following contents:
<cfquery name="empdata" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfform name="Form1" action="submit.cfm" >
<cfgrid name="employee_grid" query="empdata"
selectmode="single">
<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID">
<cfgridcolumn name="LastName">
<cfgridcolumn name="Dept_ID">
</cfgrid>
<br>
<cfinput name="submitit" type="Submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

Note: Use the cfgridcolumndisplay="No" attribute to hide columns that you want to include in the grid but not
expose to an end user. You typically use this attribute to include columns such as the tables primary key column in
the results returned by the cfgrid tag.
2 Save the file and view it in your browser.

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Reviewing the code

The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfgrid name="employee_grid" query="empdata"

Creates a grid named employee_grid and populate it with the

results of the query empdata.
If you specify a cfgrid tag with a query attribute defined and no
corresponding cfgridcolumn attributes, the grid contains all the
columns in the query.

selectmode="single">

Allows the user to select only one cell; does not allow editing.
Other modes are row, column, and edit.

<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID">

Puts the contents of the Emp_ID column in the query results in

the first column of the grid.

<cfgridcolumn name="LastName">

Puts the contents of the LastName column in the query results

in the second column of the grid.

<cfgridcolumn name="Dept_ID">

Puts the contents of the Dept_ID column in the query results in

the third column of the grid.

Creating an editable grid

You can build grids to allow users to edit data within them. Users can edit individual cell data, as well as insert, update,
or delete rows. To enable grid editing, you specify selectmode="edit" in the cfgrid tag.
You can let users add or delete grid rows by setting the insert or delete attributes in the cfgrid tag to Yes. Setting
the insert and delete attribute to Yes causes the cfgrid tag to display Insert and Delete buttons as part of the grid.
You can use a grid in two ways to change your ColdFusion data sources:

Create a page to which you pass the cfgrid form variables. In that page, perform cfquery operations to update
data source records based on the form values returned by the cfgrid tag.

Pass grid edits to a page that includes the cfgridupdate tag, which automatically extracts the form variable values
and passes that data directly to the data source.
Using the cfquery tag gives you complete control over interactions with your data source. The cfgridupdate tag
provides a much simpler interface for operations that do not require the same level of control.
Controlling cell contents
You can control the data that a user can enter into a cfgrid cell in the following ways:

By default, a cell is not editable. Use the cfgrid attribute selectmode="edit" to edit cell contents.
Use the cfgridcolumntype attribute to control sorting order, to make the fields check boxes, or to display an
image.

Use the cfgridcolumnvalues attribute to specify a drop-down list of values from which the user can choose. You
can use the valuesDisplay attribute to provide a list of items to display that differs from the actual values that you
enter in the database. You can use the valuesDelimiter attribute to specify the separator between values in the
valuesvaluesDisplay lists.

Although the cfgrid tag does not have a validate attribute, it does have an onValidate attribute that lets you
specify a JavaScript function to perform validation.
For more information on controlling the cell contents, see the attribute descriptions for the cfgridcolumn tag in the
CFML Reference.

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How user edits are returned

When a user inserts or deletes a row in a grid or changes any cells in a row and submits the grid, ColdFusion creates
the following arrays as Form variables:
Array name

Description

gridname.colname

Stores the new values of inserted, deleted, or updated cells. (Entries for deleted cells contain
empty strings.)

gridname.Original.colname

Stores the original values of inserted, deleted, or updated cells.

gridname.RowStatus.Action

Stores the type of change made to the grid rows: D for delete, I for insert, or U for update.

Note: The periods in these names are not structure separators; they are part of the text of the array name.
ColdFusion creates a gridname.colname array and a gridname.Original.colname array for each column in the grid. For
each inserted, deleted, or changed row in the grid, ColdFusion creates a row in each of these arrays.
For example, the following arrays are created if you update a cfgrid tag called mygrid that consists of two displayable
columns (col1, col2) and one hidden column (col3):
Form.mygrid.col1
Form.mygrid.col2
Form.mygrid.col3
Form.mygrid.original.col1
Form.mygrid.original.col2
Form.mygrid.original.col3
Form.mygrid.RowStatus.Action

The value of the array index increments for each row that is added, deleted, or changed, and does not indicate a grid
row number. All rows for a particular change have the same index in all arrays. Unchanged rows do not have entries
in the arrays.
If the user changes a single cell in col2, the following array elements contain the edit operation, the edited cell value,
and the original cell value:
Form.mygrid.RowStatus.Action[1]
Form.mygrid.col2[1]
Form.mygrid.original.col2[1]

If the user changes the values of the cells in col1 and col3 in one row and the cell in col2 in another row, the information
about the original and changed values is in the following array entries:
Form.mygrid.RowStatus.Action[1]
Form.mygrid.col1[1]
Form.mygrid.original.col1[1]
Form.mygrid.col3[1]
Form.mygrid.original.col3[1]
Form.mygrid.RowStatus.Action[2]
Form.mygrid.col2[2]
Form.mygrid.original.col2[2]

The remaining cells in the arrays (for example, Form.mygrid.col2[1] and Form.mygrid.original.col2[1]) have the
original, unchanged values.

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Example: editing data in a grid

The following example creates an editable grid. For code brevity, the example handles only three of the fields in the
Employee table. A more realistic example would include, at a minimum, all seven table fields. It can also hide the
contents of the Emp_ID column or display the Department name (from the Departmt table), instead of the
Department ID.

Create the editable grid

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfquery name="empdata" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfform name="GridForm"
action="handle_grid.cfm">
<cfgrid name="employee_grid"
height=425
width=300
vspace=10
selectmode="edit"
query="empdata"
insert="Yes"
delete="Yes">
<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID"
header="Emp ID"
width=50
headeralign="center"
headerbold="Yes"
select="No">
<cfgridcolumn name="LastName"
header="Last Name"
width=100
headeralign="center"
headerbold="Yes">
<cfgridcolumn name="Dept_ID"
header="Dept"
width=35
headeralign="center"
headerbold="Yes">
</cfgrid>
<br>
<cfinput name="submitit" type="Submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

2 Save the file as grid2.cfm.

3 View the results in your browser.

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Code

Description

<cfgrid name="employee_grid"
height=425
width=300
vspace=10
selectmode="edit"
query="empdata"
insert="Yes"
delete="Yes">

Populates a cfgrid control with data from the empdata query. Selecting a grid cell enables
you to edit it. You can insert and delete rows. The grid is 425 X 300 pixels and has 10 pixels
of space above and below it.

<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID"
header="Emp ID"
width=50
headeralign="center"
headerbold="Yes"
select="No">

Creates a 50-pixel wide column for the data in the Emp_ID column of the data source.
Centers a header named Emp ID and makes it bold.

<cfgridcolumn name="LastName"
header="Last Name"
width=100
headeralign="center"
headerbold="Yes">

Creates a 100-pixel wide column for the data in the LastName column of the data source.
Centers a header named Last Name and makes it bold.

<cfgridcolumn name="Dept_ID"
header="Dept"
width=35
headeralign="center"
headerbold="Yes">

Creates a 35-pixel wide column for the data in the Dept_ID column of the data source.
Centers a header named Dept and makes it bold.

Does not allow users to select fields in this column for editing. Since this field is the tables
primary key, users should not be able to change it for existing records, and the DBMS
should generate this field as an autoincrement value.

Updating the database with the cfgridupdate tag

The cfgridupdate tag provides a simple mechanism for updating the database, including inserting and deleting
records. It can add, update, and delete records simultaneously. It is convenient because it automatically handles
collecting the cfgrid changes from the various form variables, and generates appropriate SQL statements to update
your data source.
In most cases, use the cfgridupdate tag to update your database. However, this tag does not provide the complete
SQL control that the cfquery tag provides. In particular, the cfgridupdate tag has the following characteristics:

You can update only a single table.

Rows are deleted first, then rows are inserted, then any changes are made to existing rows. You cannot modify the
order of changes.

Updating stops when an error occurs. It is possible that some database changes are made, but the tag does not
provide any information on them.

Update the data source with the cfgridupdate tag

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following contents:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Update grid values</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Updating grid using cfgridupdate tag.</h3>
<cfgridupdate grid="employee_grid"
datasource="cfdocexamples"
tablename="Employee">
Click <a href="grid2.cfm">here</a> to display updated grid.
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as handle_grid.cfm.

3 View the grid2.cfm page in your browser, change the grid, and then submit them.

Note: To update a grid cell, modify the cell contents, and then press Return.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfgridupdate grid="employee_grid"

Updates the database from the Employee_grid grid.

datasource="cfdocexamples"

Updates the cfdocexamples data source.

tablename="Employee"

Updates the Employee table.

Updating the database with the cfquery tag

You can use the cfquery tag to update your database from the cfgrid changes. This tag provides you with full control
over how the updates are made and lets you handle any errors that arise.

Update the data source with the cfquery tag

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Catch submitted grid values</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Grid values for Form.employee_grid row updates</h3>
<cfif isdefined("Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action")>
<cfloop index = "counter" from = "1" to =
#arraylen(Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action)#>
<cfoutput>
The row action for #counter# is:
#Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter]#
<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfif Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter] is "D">
<cfquery name="DeleteExistingEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
DELETE FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.original.Emp_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER" >
</cfquery>
<cfelseif Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter] is "U">
<cfquery name="UpdateExistingEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
UPDATE Employee
SET
LastName=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.LastName[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" >,
Dept_ID=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.Dept_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER" >
WHERE Emp_ID=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.original.Emp_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER">
</cfquery>

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<cfelseif Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter] is "I">

<cfquery name="InsertNewEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT into Employee (LastName, Dept_ID)
VALUES (<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.LastName[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" >,
<cfqueryparam value="#Form.employee_grid.Dept_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER" >)
</cfquery>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfif>
Click <a href="grid2.cfm">here</a> to display updated grid.
</body>
</html>

2 Rename your existing handle_grid.cfm file as handle_grid2.cfm to save it, and then save this file as

handle_grid.cfm.
3 View the grid2.cfm page in your browser, change the grid, and then submit them.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfif isdefined("Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action")>
<cfloop index = "counter" from = "1" to =
#arraylen(Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action)#>

If there is an array of edit types, changes the table.

Otherwise, does nothing. Loops through the remaining
code once for each row to be changed. The counter
variable is the common index into the arrays of change
information for the row being changed.

<cfoutput>
The row action for #counter# is:
#Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter]#
<br>
</cfoutput>

Displays the action code for this row: U for update, I for
insert, or D for delete.

<cfif Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter] is "D">

<cfquery name="DeleteExistingEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
DELETE FROM Employee
WHERE Emp_ID=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.original.Emp_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER" >
</cfquery>

If the action is to delete a row, generates a SQL DELETE

query specifying the Emp_ID (the primary key) of the
row to be deleted.

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Code

Description

<cfelseif Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter] is "U">

<cfquery name="UpdateExistingEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
UPDATE Employee
SET
LastName=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.LastName[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" >,
Dept_ID=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.Dept_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER" >
WHERE Emp_ID=<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.original.Emp_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER">
</cfquery>

Otherwise, if the action is to update a row, generates a

SQL UPDATE query to update the LastName and
Dept_ID fields for the row specified by the Emp_ID
primary table key.

<cfelseif Form.employee_grid.rowstatus.action[counter] is "I">

<cfquery name="InsertNewEmployee"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
INSERT into Employee (LastName, Dept_ID)
VALUES (<cfqueryparam
value="#Form.employee_grid.LastName[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_VARCHAR" >,
<cfqueryparam value="#Form.employee_grid.Dept_ID[counter]#"
CFSQLType="CF_SQL_INTEGER" >)
</cfquery>

Otherwise, if the action is to insert a row, generates a

SQL INSERT query to insert the employees last name
and department ID from the grid row into the database.
The INSERT statement assumes that the DBMS
automatically increments the Emp_ID primary key. If
you use the version of the cfdocexamples database that
is provided for UNIX installations, the record is inserted
without an Emp_ID number.

</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfif>

Closes the cfif tag used to select among deleting,

updating, and inserting.
Closes the loop used for each row to be changed.
Closes the cfif tag that surrounds all the active code.

Embedding Java applets

The cfapplet tag lets you embed Java applets either on a ColdFusion page or in a cfform tag. To use the cfapplet
tag, first register your Java applet using the ColdFusion Administrator Java Applets page (under Extensions). In the
ColdFusion Administrator, you define the interface to the applet, encapsulating it so that each invocation of the
cfapplet tag is simple.
The cfapplet tag within a form offers several advantages over using the HTML applet tag:

Return values: The cfapplet tag requires a form field name attribute, so you can avoid coding additional
JavaScript to capture the applets return values. You can reference return values like any other ColdFusion form
variable: Form.variablename.

Ease of use: The applets interface is defined in the ColdFusion Administrator, so each instance of the cfapplet
tag in your pages only needs to reference the applet name and specify a form variable name.

Parameter defaults: ColdFusion uses the parameter value pairs that you defined in the ColdFusion Administrator.
You can override these values by specifying parameter value pairs in the cfapplet tag.
When an applet is registered, you enter just the applet source and the form variable name:
<cfapplet appletsource="Calculator"name="calc_value">

By contrast, with the HTML applet tag, you must declare all the applets parameters every time you want to use it in
a ColdFusion page.

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Registering a Java applet

Before you can use a Java applet in your ColdFusion pages, register the applet in the ColdFusion Administrator.
1 Open the ColdFusion Administrator by clicking the Administrator icon in the ColdFusion Program group and

entering the Administrator password.

2 Under Extensions, click Java Applets.

The Java Applets page appears.

3 Click the Register New Applet button.

The Add/Edit Applet page appears.

4 Enter options in the applet registration fields, as described in the ColdFusion Administrator online help. Use the

Add button to add parameters.

5 Click Submit.

Using the cfapplet tag to embed an applet

After you register an applet, you can use the cfapplet tag to place the applet in a ColdFusion page. The cfapplet tag
has two required attributes: appletsource and name. Because you registered the applet and you defined each applet
parameter with a default value, you can run the applet with a simple form of the cfapplet tag:
<cfapplet appletSource="appletname" name="form_variable">

Overriding alignment and positioning values

To override any of the values defined in the ColdFusion Administrator for the applet, you can use the optional
cfapplet parameters to specify custom values. For example, the following cfapplet tag specifies custom spacing and
alignment values:
<cfapplet appletSource="myapplet"
name="applet1_var"
height=400
width=200
vspace=125
hspace=125
align="left">

Overriding parameter values

You can override the values that you assigned to applet parameters in the ColdFusion Administrator by providing new
values for any parameter. To override a parameter, you must have already defined the parameter and its default value
in the ColdFusion Administrator Applets page. The following example overrides the default values of two parameters,
Param1 and Param2:
<cfapplet appletSource="myapplet"
name="applet1_var"
Param1="registered parameter1"
Param2="registered parameter2">

Handling form variables from an applet

The cfapplet tag name attribute corresponds to a variable in the action page, Form.appletname, which holds any value
that the applet method returns when it is executed in the cfform tag.

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Not all Java applets return values. For instance, graphical widgets might not return a specific value. For this type of
applet, the method field in the ColdFusion Administrator remains empty, but you must still provide a cfappletname
attribute.
You can only use one method for each applet that you register. If an applet includes more than one method that you
want to access, you can register the applet with a unique name for each additional method you want to use.
Reference a Java applet return value in your application page
1 Specify the name of the method in the Add/Registered Java Applet page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
2 Specify the method name in the name attribute of the cfapplet tag.

When your page executes the applet, ColdFusion creates a form variable with the name that you specified. If you do
not specify a method, ColdFusion does not create a form variable.

Validating Data
You can validate data in Adobe ColdFusion, including form data, variable data and function parameters.

About ColdFusion validation

Data validation lets you control data that is entered into an application by ensuring that the data conforms to specific
type or formatting rules. Validation techniques have the following features:

They let you provide feedback to users so that they can immediately correct information they provide. For example,
a form can provide immediate feedback when a user enters a name in a telephone number field, or the form could
force the user to enter the number in the correct format.

They help prevent application errors that can arise when processing invalid data. For example, a validation test can
prevent a variable that is used in a calculation from having nonnumeric data.

They can help enhance security by preventing malicious users from providing data that takes advantage of system
security weaknesses, such as buffer overrun attacks.
ColdFusion provides several techniques to ensure that data is valid. These include techniques for validating form data
and for validating ColdFusion variables. They also include techniques for validating form data before the user submits
it to ColdFusion, or on the ColdFusion server.
When you design data validation you consider the following factors:
The validation technique Whether to validate on the clients browser or on the server, and the specific server- or
client-side validation technique, such as whether to validate when a field loses focus or when the user submits the form.
The validation type The specific method that you use to validate the data, including the rules that you apply to test the

data validity, such as testing for a valid telephone number.

Validation techniques
Different validation techniques apply to different ColdFusion tags or coding environments; for example, you can use
masking only in HTML and Flash format cfinput tags. Validation techniques also vary in where and when they
execute; for example, on the client browser when the user submits form data, or on the server when processing data.
The following table describes the ColdFusion validation techniques:

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Validation technique

Applies to

mask

HTML and Flash format On the client as the

cfinput tags
user enters data

(mask attribute)

Where and when

performed

Description

ColdFusion generates JavaScript or ActionScript

to directly control the data a user enters by
specifying a pattern. For example, 999-999-9999
requires a user to enter ten digits, and
automatically fills in the dash (-) separators to
create a formatted telephone number.
For detailed information on using masks, see
Handling invalid data on page 750.

onBlur
(validateat="onBlur" attribute)

cfinput and
cftextarea tags

On the client when the In HTML and XML format, ColdFusion generates
data field loses focus
JavaScript that runs on the browser to check
whether entered data is valid and provide
immediate feedback, if the entry is invalid.
In Flash format, uses Flash built-in validation
routines.

onSubmit
(validateat="onSubmit"
attribute)

cfinput and
cftextarea tags

On the client when the In HTML or XML format, the validation logic is
user clicks Submit
identical to onBlur validation, but the test is not
done until the user submits the form.
In Flash format, this validation type is identical to
onBlur Validation. Flash checks do not
differentiate between the two events for
validation.

onServer
(validateat="onServer"
attribute)
hidden field

cfinput and

cftextarea tags

All Forms, including

HTML-only forms

On the server when

ColdFusion gets the
submitted form

ColdFusion checks submitted data for validity and

runs a validation error page if the data is not valid.
You can use the cferror tag to specify the
validation error page.

On the server when

ColdFusion gets the
submitted form

ColdFusion uses the same validation logic as with

onServer validation, but you must create
additional, hidden, fields and you can use this
technique with HTML tags or CFML tags.
For detailed information on using hidden fields,
see Validating form data using hidden fields on
page 755.

JavaScript
(onValidate ="function"
attribute)

cfgrid, cfinput,
cfslider,
cftextarea, and
cftree tags in HTML

and XML format forms

On the client, when the ColdFusion includes the specified JavaScript

user clicks Submit,
function in the HTML page it sends to the browser,
before field-specific
and the browser calls it.
onSubmit validation
For detailed information on using JavaScript for
validation, see Validating form input and
handling errors with JavaScript on page 759.

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Validation technique

Applies to

Where and when

performed

Description

IsValid function

ColdFusion variables

On the server, when

the function executes

ColdFusion tests the variable to determine

whether it follows a specified validation rule and
the function returns true or false.
For more information on using the IsValid
function for validation, see Validating data with
the IsValid function and the cfparam tag on
page 762.

cfparam tag

ColdFusion variables

On the server, when

the tag executes

ColdFusion checks the specified variable. If the

value does not meet the validation criteria,
ColdFusion generates an expression exception.
For more information on using the cfparam tag
for validation, see, Validating data with the IsValid
function and the cfparam tag on page 762.

cfargument tag

UDF and CFC function

arguments

On the server, when a

function is called or
invoked

ColdFusion checks the argument value when it is

passed to the function. If the value does not meet
the validation criteria, ColdFusion generates an
application exception.
For more information on using the cfargument
tag, see Writing and Calling User-Defined
Functions on page 153.

Note: For more information on ColdFusion error handling, see Handling Errors on page 275.

Selecting a validation technique

The following considerations affect the validation technique that you select:

If you are validating form data, the techniques you use can vary depending on whether you are using HTML, Flash,
or XML forms; for example, different form types have different validation limitations.

Different validation techniques are appropriate for different form controls and data types.
Available techniques vary depending on when and where you want the data validated; on the client or the server,
when the user enters data or submits a form, or when ColdFusion processes a variable or function argument.

Each technique has specific features and considerations, such as the form of user feedback, feature limitations, and
so on.

Security issues or concerns that apply to your environment or application can affect the technique you select.
The table in the preceding section described some of the considerations (see Validation techniques on page 743). The
following table describes additional considerations for selecting a validation technique. For additional considerations
that are specific to form fields, see Validation type considerations on page 749.

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Validation technique

Features

Considerations

Security issues

mask

Directly controls user input.

Limited to cfinput tags.

Provides limited control over
user input patterns.

In HTML and XML format, can be

circumvented because JavaScript
runs directly in the browser.

Provides immediate
feedback if a user enters
invalid data.

Limited to cfinput and

In HTML and XML format, can be
cftextarea tags. In HTML
circumvented because JavaScript
or XML format, requires the
runs directly in the browser.
browser to enable JavaScript.

All entered data is available

to the user; only the invalid
data needs reentering.

Limited to cfinput and

cftextarea tags. In Flash
format, is identical to onBlur.
In HTML or XML format,
validates after all fields have
been entered, and requires
the browser to enable
JavaScript.

In HTML and XML format, can be

circumvented because JavaScript
runs directly in the browser.

Does not require browser

support.

Limited to cfinput and

cftextarea tags.

Can be circumvented because

validation rules are submitted with
the form.

Hidden form field

Does not require browser

support. Can be used with
HTML or CFML form
elements.

Limited to forms.

Can be circumvented because

validation rules are submitted with
the form.

JavaScript

Allows all on-client

processing supported by the
browser. Can be used with
HTML or CFML form
elements.

Limited to specific
ColdFusion form tags. Calls a
single JavaScript function.
JavaScript levels of support
can vary among browsers,
and users can disable
JavaScript in their browsers.

Can be circumvented because

JavaScript runs directly in the
browser.

IsValid function

Can be used for any variable,

not just form fields. Returns a
Yes or No result that you use
to determine further
processing.

When used with a form field, None

runs after the data is
submitted. Must be used
each time a variable needs to
be validated. Provides some
data type checks not
available in forms validation
techniques.

cfparam tag

Can be used for any variable,

not just form fields. The tag
can set a default value in
addition to validating data.

When used with a form field,

the tag runs after the data is
submitted. You respond to
validation failures using
error-handling code.

cfargument tag

Used for arguments to

functions written using the
cffunction tag.

Runs when the function is

None
called on the server. You
respond to validation failures
using error-handling code.

(mask attribute)
onBlur
(validateat="onBlur" attribute)

onSubmit
(validateat="onSubmit" attribute)

onServer
(validateat="onServer" attribute)

(onValidate = "function"
attribute)

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Security considerations
Although form-specific validation techniques provide good methods for preventing users from submitting invalid or
badly formatted data, they cannot prevent users from submitting maliciously formatted data from HTML forms.
Malicious users can circumvent validation techniques that require validation on the browser using JavaScript or
submission of validation rules in hidden fields. If you must use a technique for preventing malicious data submissions,
consider using the following techniques:

The onSubmit or OnBlur validation in Flash forms, which use Flash built-in validation.
The IsValid function and the cfparam, and cfargument tags, which let you test variables and arguments in your
CFML code.

The cfqueryparam tag in cfquery tags, which can help protect databases from malicious query input (see
Enhancing security with cfqueryparam on page 416.

The script protection option, which helps prevent cross-site scripting attacks. You can set this option on the
ColdFusion Administrator Server Settings > Settings page or by using the Application.cfc This.scriptProtect
variable or the cfapplication tag scriptprotect attribute. For more information on cross-site scripting attacks and
this option, see the cfapplication tag page in the CFML Reference.

Data validation types

The following table lists the types of data you can validate when you use most ColdFusion validation techniques. It
does not include mask validation. Some validation types are not available for all techniques; in these cases the table
indicates the limitations. The onBlur and onSubmit validation algorithms for Flash forms can vary from the validation
algorithms described in the following table, and most commonly have less functionality. The asterisk (*) in the Type
field column indicates that the field is required. For more detailed descriptions of the onServer validation algorithms,
see the table in Validating form data using hidden fields on page 755.
Type field

Description

date

When validating on the server, allows any date/time format that returns true in the IsDate
function, including a time value. When validating on the client, same as USdate.

USdate *

A U.S. date of the format mm/dd/yy, with 1- or 2-digit days and months, and 1-through 4-digit
years. The separators can be slash (/), hyphen (-), or period (.) characters

eurodate *

A date of the format dd/mm/yy, with 1- or 2-digit days and months, and 1- through 4-digit years.
The separators can be slash (/), hyphen (-), or period (.) characters.

time *

When validating on the server, allows any date/time format that returns True in the IsDate
function, including a date value. When validating on the client, allows a time of format hh:mm[:ss]
[A/PM].

float *

A number; allows integers. When validating form fields on the server, integer values are converted
to real numbers.

numeric

A number; allows integers. When validating form fields on the server, integer values are
unchanged.

integer *

An integer.

range *

A numeric range specified by a range attribute or max and min attributes.

boolean

A value that can be converted to a Boolean value: Yes, No, True, or False (all case-independent), or
a number.

telephone *

Standard U.S. telephone formats. Allows an initial 1 long-distance designator and up to 5-digit
extensions, optionally starting with x.

zipcode *

U.S. 5- or 9-digit ZIP code format #####-####. The separator can be a hyphen (-) or a space.

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Type field

Description

creditcard *

Strips blanks and dashes; verifies number using mod10 algorithm. The number must have 1316
digits.

ssn * or social_security_number *

US. Social Security number format, ###-##-####. The separator can be a dash (-) or a space.

email *

A valid e-mail address of the form [email protected]. ColdFusion validates the format only; it
does not check that entry is a valid active e-mail address.

URL *

A valid URL pattern; supports http, https, ftp file, mailto, and news URLs.

guid *

A unique identifier that follows the Microsoft/DCE format, xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,

where x is a hexadecimal number.

uuid *

A universally unique identifier (UUID) that follows the ColdFusion format, xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, where x is a hexadecimal number.

regex * or regular_expression *

Matches the value against a regular expression specified in a pattern attribute. Valid in HTML and
XML format only; ignored in Flash format.

Note: For more details on how ColdFusion handles data when it does onServer and hidden field validation, see
Validating form data using hidden fields on page 755.
The following validation types can only be used in cfinput tags:
Type

Description

maxlength

Limits the input to a maximum number of characters specified by a maxlength attribute.

noblanks

Does not allow fields that consist only of blanks. ColdFusion uses this validation only if the required attribute is
True.

SubmitOnce

Used only with cfformsubmit and image types; prevents the user from submitting the same form multiple
times before until the next page loads, Use this attribute, for example, to prevent a user from submitting an order
form a second time before getting the confirmation for the initial order, and thereby making a duplicate order,
Valid in HTML and XML format only; ignored in Flash format.

You can use the following validation types in cfparam and cfargument tags and the IsValid function only:
Type

Description

any

Any type of value

array

An array of values

binary

A binary value

query

A query object

string

A string value or single character

struct

A structure

variableName *

A string formatted according to ColdFusion variable naming conventions.

Validating form fields

In basic form field validation, do the following:

Use a cfinput or cftextarea tag.

Specify a validation type, such as numeric, or multiple types.

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Optionally, specify an error message.

Optionally, specify a validation technique. (By default, ColdFusion uses onSubmit validation.)
The following example specifies onBlur validation of a telephone number:
Phone: <cfinput type="text" name="HPhone"
validateat="onBlur"
validate="required,telephone"
message="Please enter a standard U.S. telephone number with an optional
extension, such as x12345">

The following information describes considerations for validation in cfinput and cftextarea tags, and show a more
complete example.

Validation type considerations

General considerations: Consider the following issues when you determine how to validate form data:

When you validate form data using onBlur, onSubmit, onServer, or hidden form field validation, you can specify
one or more validation types for each field that you validate. For example, you can specify that a field entry is
required and that it must be numeric. To specify multiple validation types for onSubmit, onBlur, or onServer
validation, specify the type values in a comma-delimited list.

If you use onBlur, onSubmit, or onServer type validation, you can specify only one error message for each field that
you validate. If you use hidden field validation, you can create a custom message for each validation rule (except for
range checking).

In the cfinput tag, most validation type attributes apply only to text or password fields.
Validation algorithm differences: The underlying validation code used when validating form data can differ
depending on the validation technique and the form type. As a result, the algorithms used vary in some instances,
including the following:

The validation algorithms used for date/time values in onSubmit and OnBlur validation are different from those
validation algorithms used for all server-side validation techniques.

The algorithms used for onSubmit and OnBlur validation in Flash can vary from those algorithms used for HTML
or XML format, and generally follow simpler rules.
For detailed information on the validation algorithms used for validation techniques used on the server, see
Validating form data using hidden fields on page 755.

Validating data in XML skinnable forms

If you create an XML skinnable form and use any skin provided by Adobe, such as the basic.xsl or silver.xsl skin, you
can use all form validation techniques that are available for HTML forms.
If you use a custom skin (XSL file), the available validation techniques depend on the skin. The
cf_webroot\CFIDE\scripts\xsl directory contains a _cfformvalidation.xsl file that implements all ColdFusion HTML
form validation techniques and supports onBlur, onSubmit, onServer, and hidden form field validation. XML skin
writers can include this file in their skin XSLT to implement ColdFusion validation for their skin.

Example: basic form validation

The following form asks for information to use when registering a new user. It checks to make sure that the user enters
required information. (Only the telephone number is optional.) It also checks to make sure that the telephone number
and e-mail address are properly formatted and that the number to use in a challenge question is in the proper range.
This example performs onSubmit validation. It posts back to itself, and dumps the submitted results.

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<cfif IsDefined("form.fieldnames")>
<cfdump var="#form#"><br>
</cfif>
<cfform name="myform" preservedata="Yes" >
First Name: <cfinput type="text" size="15" name="firstname"
required="yes" message="You must enter a first name."><br>
Last Name: <cfinput type="text" size="25" name="lastname"
required="yes" message="You must enter a last name."><br>
Telephone: <cfinput type="text" size="20" name="telephone"
validate="telephone" message="You must enter your telephone
number, for example 617-555-1212 x1234"><br>
E-mail: <cfinput type="text" size="25" name="email"
validate="email" required="Yes"
message="You must enter a valid e-mail address."><br>
Password:<cfinput type="password" size="12" name="password1"
required="yes" maxlength="12"
message="You must enter a password."><br>
Reenter password:<cfinput type="password" size="12" name="password2"
required="yes" maxlength="12"
message="You must enter your password twice."><br>
We will ask you for the following number, in the range 100-999 if you forget
your password.<br>
Number: <cfinput type="text" size="5" name="chalenge"
validate="range" range="100,999" required="Yes"
message="You must enter a reminder number in the range 100-999."><br>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submitit">
</cfform>

Handling invalid data

How you handle invalid data depends on the validation type. The information here describes validation errorhandling rules and considerations. For detailed information on error handling in ColdFusion, including invalid data
handling, see Handling Errors on page 275.
1 For onBlur, onSubmit, or onServer validation, you can use the cfinput or cftextarea tags message attribute to

specify a text-only error message to display. Otherwise, ColdFusion uses a default message that includes the name
of the form field that was invalid. (For OnServer validation, you can customize this message, as described in
Handling form field validation errors on page 282.) The following example displays an error message when the
user enters an invalid e-mail address:
E-mail: <cfinput type="text" size="25" name="email"
validate="email" message="You must enter a valid e-mail address.">

2 For hidden form validation, you can specify a text-only error message in the hidden fields value attribute.

Otherwise, ColdFusion uses a default message that includes the name of the form field that was invalid. (You can
customize this message, as described in Handling form field validation errors on page 282.) The following
cfinput tag, for example, uses a hidden field validation to display an error message if the user enters an invalid
address. (It uses onServer validation to display a different error message if the user fails to enter a number.)
Telephone: <cfinput type="text" size="20" name="telephone"
validateat="onServer" required="Yes"
message="You must enter a telephone number">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="telephone_cfformtelephone"
value="The number you entered is not in the correct format.<br>Use a
number such as (617) 555-1212, 617-555-1212, or 617-555-1212 x12345">

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3 For HTML and XML format forms (using ColdFusion skins), most ColdFusion form tags have an onError

attribute that lets you specify a Javascript function to run if an onSubmit error occurs.
4 For the IsValid function, you write separate code paths to handle valid and invalid data. The following example

shows a simplified case that displays an error message if the user entered an invalid e-mail address, or a different
message if the address is valid:
<cfif IsValid("email", custEmail)>
Thank you for entering a valid address.
<!--- More processing would go here. --->
<cfelse>
You must enter a valid e-mail address.<br>
Click the Back button and try again.
</cfif>

5 For cfparam and cfargument tags, you use standard ColdFusion error-handling techniques. You can include the

tag in a try block and use a catch block to handle the error, or you can use a custom error-handling page. The
following example form action page code uses a custom error page, expresserr.cfm, to handle the error that the
cfparam tag generates if a user submits a form with an invalid e-mail address:
<cferror type="EXCEPTION" exception="expression" template="expresserr.cfm">
<cfif IsDefined("form.fieldnames")>
<cfparam name="form.custEmail" type="email">
<!--- Normal form processing code goes here. --->
</cfif>

Masking form input values

The cfinput tag mask attribute controls the format of data that can be entered into a text or datefield input field.
You can also use a mask attribute in the cfcalendar tag. You can combine masking and validation on a field.

In HTML and Flash form format, a mask can control the format of data entered into a text field.
In the cfcalendar tag, and, for Flash format forms, the datefield type cfinput field, a mask can control the
format of the date that ColdFusion uses for the date a user chooses in the displayed calendar.
Note: The standard ColdFusion XML skins do not support masking.

Masking text input

In text fields, ColdFusion automatically inserts literal mask characters, such as - characters in telephone numbers.
Users type only the variable part of the field. You can use the following characters to mask data:
Mask character

Effect

Allows an uppercase or lowercase character: AZ and az.

Allows an uppercase or lowercase character or number: AZ, az, and 09.

Allows a number: 09.

Allows any character.

All other characters

Automatically inserts the literal character.

The following pattern enforces entry of a part number of the format EB-1234-c1-098765, where the user starts the
entry by typing the first numeric character, such as 1. ColdFusion fills in the preceding EB prefix and all hyphen (-)
characters. The user must enter four numbers, followed by two alphanumeric characters, followed by six numbers.
<cfinput type="text" name="newPart" mask="EB-9999-XX-999999" />

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Note: You cannot force a user to type an A, X, 9, or question mark (?) character. To ensure that a pattern is all-uppercase
or all-lowercase, use the ColdFusion UCase or LCase functions in the action page.

Masking cfcalendar and datefield input

In the cfcalendar tag and the Flash format datefield input control, you use the following masks to determine the
format of the output. You can use uppercase or lowercase characters in the mask:
Mask

Pattern

Single- or double-digit day of month, such as 1 or 28

DD

Double-digit day of month, such as 01 or 28

Single- or double-digit month, such as 1 or 12

MM

Double-digit month, such as 01 or 12

MMM

Abbreviated month name, such as Jan or Dec

MMMM

Full month name, such as January or December

YY

Two-character year, such as 05

YYYY

Four-character year, such as 2005

Single-digit day of week, in the range 0 (Sunday)6 (Saturday)

EEE

Abbreviated day of week name, such as Mon or Sun

EEEE

Full month day of week name, such as Monday or Sunday

The following pattern specifies that the Flash form sends the date selected using a datefield input control to
ColdFusion as text in the format 04/29/2004:
<cfinput name="startDate" type="datefield" label="date:" mask="mm/dd/yyyy"/>

Validating form data with regular expressions

You can use regular expressions to match and validate the text that users enter in cfinput and cftextinput tags.
Ordinary characters are combined with special characters to define the match pattern. The validation succeeds only if
the user input matches the pattern.
Regular expressions let you check input text for a wide variety of custom conditions for which the input must follow a
specific pattern. You can concatenate simple regular expressions into complex search criteria to validate against
complex patterns, such as any of several words with different endings.
You can use ColdFusion variables and functions in regular expressions. The ColdFusion server evaluates the variables
and functions before the regular expression is evaluated. For example, you can validate against a value that you
generate dynamically from other input data or database values.
Note: The rules listed here are for JavaScript regular expressions, and apply to the regular expressions used in cfinput
and cftextinput tags only. These rules differ from the rules used by the ColdFusion functions REFind, REReplace,
REFindNoCase, and REReplaceNoCase. For information on regular expressions used in ColdFusion functions, see
Using Regular Expressions in Functions on page 131.

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Special characters
Because special characters are the operators in regular expressions, to represent a special character as an ordinary one,
escape it by preceding it with a backslash. For example, use two backslash characters (\\) to represent a backslash
character.

Single-character regular expressions

The following rules govern regular expressions that match a single character:

Special characters are:

+ * ? . [ ^ $ ( ) { | \

Any character matches itself if it is not a special character or if a preceding backslash (\) escapes the character.
A backslash (\) followed by any special character matches the literal character itself; that is, the backslash escapes
the special character.

A period (.) matches any character except newline.

A set of characters enclosed in brackets ([]) is a one-character regular expression that matches any of the characters
in that set. For example, [akm] matches an a, k, or m. If you include ] (closing square bracket) in square brackets,
it must be the first character. Otherwise, it does not work, even if you use \].

A dash can indicate a range of characters. For example, [a-z] matches any lowercase letter.
If the first character of a set of characters in brackets is the caret (^), the expression matches any character except
those characters in the set. It does not match the empty string. For example: [^akm] matches any character except
a, k, or m. The caret loses its special meaning if it is not the first character of the set.

You can make regular expressions case insensitive by substituting individual characters with character sets; for
example, [Nn][Ii][Cc][Kk] is a case-insensitive pattern for the name Nick (or NICK, or nick, or even nIcK).

You can use the following escape sequences to match specific characters or character classes:
Escape seq

Matches

Escape seq

Meaning

[\b]

Backspace.

\s

Any of the following white-space characters: space,

tab, form feed, and line feed.

\b

A word boundary, such as a space.

\S

Any character except the white-space characters

matched by \s.

\B

A nonword boundary.

\t

Tab.

\cX

The control character Ctrl-x. For example, \cv

matches Ctrl-v, the usual control character for
pasting text.

\v

Vertical tab.

\d

A digit character [0-9].

\w

An alphanumeric character or underscore. The

equivalent of [A-Za-z0-9_].

\D

Any character except a digit.

\W

Any character not matched by \w. The equivalent of

[^A-Za-z0-9_].

\f

Form feed.

\n

Backreference to the nth expression in parentheses.

See Backreferences on page 754.

\n

Line feed.

\ooctal

The character represented in the ASII character table

by the specified octal number.

\r

Carriage return.

\\xhex

The character represented in the ASCII character

table by the specified hexadecimal number.

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Multicharacter regular expressions

Use the following rules to build a multicharacter regular expression:

Parentheses group parts of regular expressions into a subexpression that can be treated as a single unit. For example,
(ha)+ matches one or more instances of ha.

A one-character regular expression or grouped subexpression followed by an asterisk (*) matches zero or more
occurrences of the regular expression. For example, [a-z]* matches zero or more lowercase characters.

A one-character regular expression or grouped subexpression followed by a plus sign (+) matches one or more
occurrences of the regular expression. For example, [a-z]+ matches one or more lowercase characters.

A one-character regular expression or grouped subexpression followed by a question mark (?) matches zero or one
occurrence of the regular expression. For example, xy?z matches either xyz or xz.

The carat (^) at the beginning of a regular expression matches the beginning of the field.
The dollar sign ($) at the end of a regular expression matches the end of the field.
The concatenation of regular expressions creates a regular expression that matches the corresponding
concatenation of strings. For example, [A-Z][a-z]* matches any capitalized word.

The OR character (|) allows a choice between two regular expressions. For example, jell(y|ies) matches either jelly
or jellies.

Curly brackets ({}) indicate a range of occurrences of a regular expression. You use them in the form {m, n} where
m is a positive integer equal to or greater than zero indicating the start of the range and n is equal to or greater than
m, indicating the end of the range. For example, (ba){0,3} matches up to three pairs of the expression ba. The form
{m,} requires at least m occurrences of the preceding regular expression. The form {m} requires exactly m
occurrences of the preceding regular expression. The form {,n} is not allowed.

Backreferences
Backreferencing lets you match text in previously matched sets of parentheses. A slash followed by a digit n (\n) refers
to the nth parenthesized subexpression.
One example of how you can use backreferencing is searching for doubled words; for example, to find instances of the
the or is is in text. The following example shows backreferencing in a regular expression:
(\b[A-Za-z]+)[ ]+\1

This code matches text that contains a word that is repeated twice; that is, it matches a word (specified by the \b word
boundary special character and the [A-Za-z]+) followed by one or more spaces (specified by [ ]+), followed by the
first matched subexpression, the first word, in parentheses. For example, it would match is is, but not This is.

Exact and partial matches

ColdFusion validation normally considers a value to be valid if any of it matches the regular expression pattern. If you
want to ensure that the entire entry matches the pattern, anchor it to the beginning and end of the field, as follows:

If a caret (^) is at the beginning of a pattern, the field must begin with a string that matches the pattern.
If a dollar sign ($) is at the end of a pattern, the field must end with a string that matches the pattern.
If the expression starts with a caret and ends with a dollar sign, the field must exactly match the pattern.

Expression examples
The following examples show some regular expressions and describe what they match:

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Expression

Description

[\?&]value=

Any string containing a URL parameter value.

^[A-Z]:(\\[A-Z0-9_]+)+$

An uppercase Windows directory path that is not the root of a drive and has only letters,
numbers, and underscores in its text.

^(\+|-)?[1-9][0-9]*$

An integer that does not begin with a zero and has an optional sign.

^(\+|-)?[1-9][0-9]*(\.[0-9]*)?$

A real number.

^(\+|-)?[1-9]\.[0-9]*E(\+|-)?[0-9]+$

A real number in engineering notation.

a{2,4}

A string containing two to four occurrences of a: aa, aaa, aaaa; for example, aardvark, but not
automatic.

(ba){2,}

A string containing least two ba pairs; for example, Ali baba, but not Ali Baba.

Note: An excellent reference on regular expressions is Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey E.F. Friedl, published by
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

Validating form data using hidden fields

ColdFusion lets you specify form field validation on the server by using hidden form fields whose names consist of the
name of the field to validate and the validation type. Hidden field validation uses the same underlying techniques and
algorithms as onServer validation of ColdFusion form fields.
Hidden field validation has the following features:

You can use it with standard HTML tags. For example, you can validate data in an HTML input tag. This feature
was useful in releases previous to ColdFusion MX 7, because the cfinput tag did not support all HTML type
attributes.

It is backward-compatible with validation previous to ColdFusion MX 7, when hidden field validation was the only
way to do validation on the server.

Because you use a separate tag for each validation type, if you specify multiple validation rules for a field, you can
specify a different error message for each rule.

You can use hidden field validation with any form field type that submits a data value, not input, cfinput,
textarea, or cftextarea.

Specifying hidden form field validation

To specify hidden field validation, you do the following:

Create one HTML input element or CFML cfinput tag of type="hidden" for each validation rule.
Specify the name of the field to validate as the first part of the hidden field name.
Specify the type of validation, starting with an underscore character (_), as the second part of the hidden field name.
You can specify multiple rules for each form data field. For example, to specify range and required validation for a
field named myValue, create hidden myValue_cfformrange and myValue_cfformrequired fields.

For most types of validation, specify the error message as the field value attribute.
For range, maximum length, or regular expression validation, specify the rule, such as the maximum length, in the
value attribute. For these validation types, you cannot specify a custom error message.

The following example uses hidden fields to require data in a date field and ensure that the field contains a date. It
consists only of HTML tags.

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<input type="text" name="StartDate" size="16" maxlength="16"><br>

<input type="hidden" name="StartDate_required"
value="You must enter a start date.">
<input type="hidden" name="StartDate_date"
value="Please enter a valid date as the start date.">

Use the following suffixes at the end of hidden form field names to specify the validation type. The type identifier
always starts with an underscore. Several validation rules have two names you can use. The names that do not start
with _cf were used in earlier releases and are retained for backward compatibility. For consistency and clarity, Adobe
recommends using the names that start with _cf in new forms.
Field name suffix

Verifies

_integer, _cfforminteger

An integer of the range -2,147,483,648 2,147,483,647. Treats the initial characters $ + as

valid input, but removes them from the number.

_cfformnumeric

Any numeric value. Treats the initial characters $ +as valid input, but does NOT remove them
from the number.

_float, _cfformfloat

Any value (including an integer) that can be represented as a floating point number with up to 12
significant digits. Treats the initial characters $ + as valid input, but removes them from the
number.
Converts input data to a real number; for example a dump of an integer value on the action page
includes a decimal point followed by a 0.

_range, _cfformrange

A numeric value within boundaries specified by the value attribute. Specify the range in the value
attribute using the format min=minvalue max=maxvalue. You cannot specify a custom error
message for this validation.

_date, _cfformdate

A date in any format that ColdFusion can understand; converts the input to ODBC date format.
Allows entry of a time part, but removes it from the ODBC value.

_cfformusdate

A date in the form m/d/y, m-d-y , or m.d.y, The m and d format can be 1 or 2 digits; y can be 2 or 4
digits. Does not convert the string to an ODBC value and does not allow a time part.

_eurodate, _cfformeurodate

A date in the form d/m/y, d-m-y, or d.m.y. The m and d format can be 1 or 2 digits; y can be 2 or 4
digits. Converts the input to ODBC date format. Allows entry of a time part, but removes it from the
ODBC value.

_time, _cfformtime

A time. Can be in 12-hour or 24-hour clock format, and can include seconds in the form hh:mm:ss
or a case-independent am or pm indicator.
Converts the input to ODBC time format. Allows entry of a date part, but removes it from the ODBC
value.

_cfformcreditcard

After stripping blanks and dashes, a number that conforms to the mod10 algorithm. Number must
have 13-16 digits.

_cfformSSN,
_cfformsocial_security_number

A nine-digit Social Security number. Can be of the form xxx-xx-xxxx or xxx xx xxxx.

_cfformtelephone

Standard U.S. telephone formats. Does not support international telephone numbers.
Allows area codes with or without parentheses, and hyphens (-), spaces, periods, or no separators
between standard number groups. Can be preceded by a 1 long-distance designator, and can end
with an up-to-5 digit extension, optionally starting with x. The area code and exchange must begin
with a digit in the range 1 - 9.

_cfformzipcode

A 5-digit or 9-digit U.S. ZIP code. In 9-digit codes, precede the final four digits by a hyphen (-) or
space.

_cfformemail

A valid e-mail address. Valid address characters are a-zA-Z0-9_- and the period and separator.
There must be a single at sign (@) and the text after the @ character must include a period, as in
[email protected] or [email protected].

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Field name suffix

Verifies

_cfformURL

A valid URL. Must start with http:\\, https:\, ftp:\, file:\, mailto:, or news:. Can include, as appropriate,
user name and password designators and query strings. The main part of the address can only have
the characters A-Za-z0-9 and -.

_cfformboolean

A value that can be treated as a Boolean: Yes, No, True, False, 0, 1.

_cfformUUID

A universally unique identifier (UUID) that follows the ColdFusion format, xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, where x is a hexadecimal number.

_cfformGUID

A unique identifier that follows the Microsoft/DCE format, xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx,

where x is a hexadecimal number.

_cfformnoblanks

The field must not include blanks. ColdFusion uses this validation only if you also specify a
_required hidden field.

_cfformmaxlength

The number of characters must not exceed the number specified by the tag value attribute.

_cfformregex,
_cfformregular_expression

The data must match a JavaScript regular expression specified by the tag value attribute.

_required, _cfformrequired

Data must be entered or selected in the form field.

Hidden form field considerations

Consider the following rules and recommendations when determining whether and how to use hidden form field
validation:

Use hidden field validation if you want to validate data from standard HTML input tags. The cfinput and
cftextarea tags include a validateAt attribute that provides a simpler method for specifying server-side

validation.

Consider using hidden field validation with the cfinput and cftextarea tags if you specify multiple validation
rules for a single field and want to provide a separate error message for each validation.

Do not use the suffixes listed in the table as field names.

Adding a validation rule to a field does not make it a required field. Add a separate _required hidden field to
ensure user entry.

Hidden form field example

The following procedure creates a simple form for entering a start date and a salary. It uses hidden fields to ensure that
you enter data and that the data is in the right format.
This example uses a self-submitting form; the same ColdFusion page is both the form page and its action page. The
page uses an IsDefined function to check that form data has been submitted. This way, the pages does not show any
results until you submit the input. The form uses HTML tags only; you can substitute these tags with the CFML
equivalents.

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<html>
<head>
<title>Simple Data Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Simple Data Form</h2>
<!--- Form part. --->
<form action="datatest.cfm" method="Post">
<input type="hidden"
name="StartDate_cfformrequired"
value="You must enter a start date.">
<input type="hidden"
name="StartDate_cfformdate"
value="Enter a valid date as the start date.">
<input type="hidden"
name="Salary_cfformrequired"
value="You must enter a salary.">
<input type="hidden"
name="Salary_cfformfloat"
value="The salary must be a number.">
Start Date:
<input type="text"
name="StartDate" size="16"
maxlength="16"><br>
Salary:
<input type="text"
name="Salary"
size="10"
maxlength="10"><br>
<input type="reset"
name="ResetForm"
value="Clear Form">
<input type="submit"
name="SubmitForm"
value="Insert Data">
</form>
<br>
<!--- Action part. --->
<cfif isdefined("Form.StartDate")>
<cfoutput>
Start Date is: #DateFormat(Form.StartDate)#<br>
Salary is: #DollarFormat(Form.Salary)#
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</html>

When the user submits this form, ColdFusion scans the form fields to find any validation rules. It then uses the rules
to analyze the users input. If any of the input rules are violated, ColdFusion displays an error page with the error
message that you specified in the hidden fields value attribute. The user must go back to the form, correct the
problem, and resubmit the form. ColdFusion does not accept form submission until the user enters the entire form
correctly.

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Because numeric values often contain commas and currency symbols, ColdFusion automatically deletes these
characters from fields with _cfforminteger and _cfformfloat rules before it validates the form field and passes the data
to the form's action page. ColdFusion does not delete these characters from fields with _cfformnumeric rules.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<form action="datatest.cfm" method="Post"> Gathers the information from this form sends it to the dataform.cfm page (this

page) using the Post method.

<input type="hidden"
name="StartDate_cfformrequired" value="You
must enter a start date.">
<input type="hidden"
name="StartDate_cfformdate" value="Enter a
valid date as the start date.">

Requires input into the StartDate input field. If there is no input, displays the error
information You must enter a start date. Requires the input to be in a valid date
format. If the input is not valid, displays the error information Enter a valid date as
the start date.

<input type="hidden"
name="Salary_cfformrequired" value="You
must enter a salary.">
<input type="hidden"
name="Salary_cfformfloat" value="The
salary must be a number.">

Requires input into the Salary input field. If there is no input, displays the error
information You must enter a salary. Requires the input to be in a valid number.
If it is not valid, displays the error information The salary must be a number.

Start Date:
<input type="text" name="StartDate"
size="16" maxlength="16"><br>

Creates a text box called StartDate in which users can enter their starting date.
Makes it 16-characters wide.

Salary:
<input type="text" name="Salary" size="10"
maxlength="10"><br>

Creates a text box called Salary in which users can enter their salary. Makes it tencharacters wide.

<cfif isdefined("Form.StartDate")>
<cfoutput>
Start Date is:
#DateFormat(Form.StartDate)#<br>
Salary is: #DollarFormat(Form.Salary)#
</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Displays the values of the StartDate and Salary form fields only if they are defined.
They are not defined until you submit the form, so they do not appear on the initial
form. Uses the DateFormat function to display the start date in the default date
format. Uses the DollarFormat function to display the salary with a dollar sign and
commas.

Validating form input and handling errors with JavaScript

ColdFusion lets you write your own validation routines in JavaScript, and lets you create JavaScript error handlers.

Validating input with JavaScript

In addition to native ColdFusion input validation using the validate attribute of the cfinput and cftextarea tags,
the following tags support the onValidate attribute, which lets you specify a JavaScript function to handle your
cfform input validation:

cfgrid

cfinput

cfslider

cftextarea

cftree

ColdFusion passes the following arguments to the JavaScript function that you specify in the onValidate attribute:

The form JavaScript DOM object

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The name attribute of the form element

The value of the control to validate
For example, if you write the cfinput tag as the following:
<cfinput type="text"
...
<!--- Do not include () in JavaScript function name. --->
onvalidate="handleValidation"
...
>

You define the JavaScript function as the following:

<script>
<!-function handleValidation(form_object, input_object, object_value) {
...
}
//-->
</script>

Example: validating a password

The following example validates a password. The password must have at least one of each of the following: an
uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and a number. It must be from 8 through 12 characters long. If the password is
invalid, the browser displays a message box. If the password is valid, it redisplays the page with a brief success message.
Use JavaScript to validate form data
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>JavaScript Validation</title>
<!--- JavaScript used for validation. --->
<script>
<!-// Regular expressions used for pattern matching.
var anUpperCase = /[A-Z]/;
var aLowerCase = /[a-z]/;
var aNumber = /[0-9]/;
/* The function specified by the onValidate attribute.
Tests for existence of at least one uppercase, lowercase, and numeric
character, and checks the length for a minimum.
A maximum length test is not needed because of the cfinput maxlength
attribute. */
function testpasswd(form, ctrl, value) {
if (value.length < 8 || value.search(anUpperCase) == -1 ||
value.search (aLowerCase) == -1 || value.search (aNumber) == -1)
{
return (false);
}
else
{
return (true);
}

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}
//-->
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h2>JavaScript validation test</h2>
<!--- Form is submitted only if the password is valid. --->
<cfif IsDefined("Form.passwd1")>
<p>Your Password if valid.</p>
</cfif>
<p>Please enter your new password:</p>
<cfform name="UpdateForm" preservedata="Yes" >
<!--- The onValidate attribute specifies the JavaScript validation
function. The message attribute is the message that appears
if the validation function returns False. --->
<cfinput type="password" name="passwd1" required="YES"
onValidate="testpasswd"
message="Your password must have 8-12 characters and include uppercase
and lowercase letters and at least one number."
size="13" maxlength="12">
<input type="Submit" value=" Update... ">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as validjs.cfm.

3 View the validjs.cfm page in your browser.

Handling failed validation

The onError attribute lets you specify a JavaScript function to execute if an onValidate, onBlur, or onSubmit
validation fails. For example, if you use the onValidate attribute to specify a JavaScript function to handle input
validation, you can also use the onError attribute to specify a JavaScript function to handle a failed validation (that is,
when onValidate returns a False value). If you use the onValidate attribute, you can also use the onError attribute
to specify a JavaScript function that handles the validation errors. The following cfform tags support the onerror
attribute:

cfgrid

cfinput

cfselect

cfslider

cftextinput

cftree

ColdFusion passes the following JavaScript objects to the function in the onerror attribute:

The JavaScript form object

The name attribute of the form element
The value that failed validation

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The error message text specified by the CFML tags message attribute
The following example shows a form that uses an onError attribute to tell ColdFusion to call a showErrorMessage
JavaScript function that uses the alert method to display an error message. The function assembles the message from
the invalid value and the contents of the cfinput tags message attribute.
<!--- The JavaScript function to handle errors.
Puts a message, including the field name and value, in an alert box. --->
<script>
<!-function showErrorMessage(form, ctrl, value, message) {
alert("The value " + value +" of the " + ctrl + " field " + message);
}
//-->
</script>
<!--- The form.
The cfinput tags use the onError attribute to override the ColdFusion
default error message mechanism. --->
<cfform>
<!--- A minimum quantity is required and must be a number. --->
Minimum Quantity: <cfinput type="Text" name="MinQuantity"
onError="showErrorMessage" validate="numeric" required="Yes"
message="is not a number." ><br>
<!--- A maximum quantity is optional, but must be a number if supplied. --->
Maximum Quantity: <cfinput type="Text" name="MaxQuantity"
onError="showErrorMessage" validate="numeric"
message="is not a number." ><br>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submitit">
</cfform>

Validating data with the IsValid function and the cfparam tag
The IsValid function and cfparam tag validate any ColdFusion variable value, not just forms variables. Because they
reside entirely on the ColdFusion server, they can provide a secure mechanism for ensuring that the required
validation steps get performed. Users cannot evade any of the checks by modifying the form data that gets submitted.
These techniques also provide greater flexibility in how you respond to user errors, because you can use full CFML
syntax in your error-handling code.
These two validation techniques operate as follows:

The IsValid function tests the value of a ColdFusion variable. If the value is valid, it returns True; if the value is
invalid, it returns False.

The cfparam tag with a type attribute tests the value of a ColdFusion value for validity. If the value is valid, it does
nothing; if the value is invalid, it throws a ColdFusion expression exception.
You can use either technique interchangeably. The technique you choose should depend on your coding style and
programming practices. It can also depend on the specific information that you want to display if an error occurs.

Example: IsValid function validation

The following example checks whether a user has submitted a numeric ID and a valid e-mail address and phone
number. If any of the submitted values does not meet the validation test, the page displays an error message.

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<!--- Action code. First make sure the form was submitted. --->
<cfif isDefined("form.saveSubmit")>
<cfif isValid("integer", form.UserID) and isValid("email", form.emailAddr)
and isValid("telephone", form.phoneNo)>
<cfoutput>
<!--- Application code to update the database goes here --->
<h3>The e-mail address and phone number for user #Form.UserID#
have been added</h3>
</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<H3>Please enter a valid user ID, phone number, and e-mail address.</H2>
</cfif>
<cfelse>
</cfif>
<!--- The form. --->
<cfform action="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#">
User ID:<cfinput type="Text" name="UserID"><br>
Phone: <cfinput type="Text" name="phoneNo"><br>
E-mail: <cfinput type="Text" name="emailAddr"><br>
<cfinput type="submit" name="saveSubmit" value="Save Data"><br>
</cfform>

Examples: cfparam tag validation

The following two examples use cfparam tags to do the same tests as in the Example: IsValid function validation on
page 762. They check whether a user has submitted a numeric ID and a valid e-mail address and phone number. If any
of the submitted values does not meet the validation test, ColdFusion throws an expression exception.
In the first example, the error is handled by the exprerr.cfm page specified in the cferror tag. In this case, if the user
made multiple errors, ColdFusion lists only one.
In the second example, each invalid field is handled in a separate try/catch block. In this case, the user gets information
about each error.
Using an error-handling page
The self-posting form and action page looks as follows:

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<!--- Action part of the page. --->

<!--- If an expression exception occurs, run the expresser.cfm page. --->
<cferror type="EXCEPTION" exception="expression" template="expresserr.cfm">
<!--- Make sure the form was submitted. --->
<cfif isDefined("form.saveSubmit")>
<!--- Use cfparam tags to check the form field data types. --->
<cfparam name="form.emailAddr" type="email">
<cfparam name="form.UserID" type="integer">
<cfparam name="form.phoneNo" type="telephone">
<!--- Application code to update the database goes here. --->
<cfoutput>
<h3>The e-mail address and phone number for user #Form.UserID#
have been added</h3>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<!--- The form. --->
<cfform action="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#">
User ID:<cfinput type="Text" name="UserID"><br>
Phone: <cfinput type="Text" name="phoneNo"><br>
E-mail: <cfinput type="Text" name="emailAddr"><br>
<cfinput type="submit" name="saveSubmit" value="Save Data"><br>
</cfform>

The expresserr.cfm page looks as follows:

<cfoutput>
You entered invalid data.<br>
Please click the browser Back button and try again<br>
#cferror.RootCause.detailMessage#
</cfoutput>

Using cftry and cfcatch tags

The self-posting form and action page looks as follows:
<!--- Use a Boolean variable to indicate whether all fields are good. --->
<cfset goodData="Yes">
<!--- Make sure the form was submitted. --->
<cfif isDefined("form.saveSubmit")>
<!--- The cftry block for testing the User ID value. --->
<cftry>
<!--- The cfparam tag checks the field data types. --->
<cfparam name="form.UserID" type="integer">
<!--- If the data is invalid, ColdFusion throws an expression exception. --->
<!--- Catch and handle the exception. --->
<cfcatch type="expression">
<!--- Set the data validity indicator to False. --->
<cfset goodData="No">
<cfoutput>
Invalid user ID.<br>
#cfcatch.detail#<br><br>
</cfoutput>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- The cftry block for testing the e-mail address value. --->
<cftry>
<cfparam name="form.emailAddr" type="email">

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<cfcatch type="expression">
<cfset goodData="No">
<cfoutput>
Invalid e-mail address.<br>
#cfcatch.detail#<br><br>
</cfoutput>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- The cftry block for testing the telephone number value. --->
<cftry>
<cfparam name="form.phoneNo" type="telephone">
<cfcatch type="expression">
<cfset goodData="No">
<cfoutput>
Invalid telephone number.<br>
#cfcatch.detail#<br><br>
</cfoutput>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- Do this only if the validity indicator was not set to False in a
validation catch block. --->
<cfif goodData>
<!--- Application code to update the database goes here. --->
<cfoutput>
<h3>The e-mail address and phone number for user #Form.UserID#
have been added</h3>
</cfoutput>
</cfif> <!--- goodData is True--->
</cfif> <!--- Form was submitted. --->
<cfform action="#CGI.SCRIPT_NAME#" preservedata="Yes">
User ID:<cfinput type="Text" name="UserID"><br>
Phone: <cfinput type="Text" name="phoneNo"><br>
E-mail: <cfinput type="Text" name="emailAddr"><br>
<cfinput type="submit" name="saveSubmit" value="Save Data"><br>
</cfform>

Creating Forms in Flash

You can create effective forms in Adobe Flash format, in which Adobe ColdFusion displays forms using Flash, not
HTML.

About Flash forms

ColdFusion can deliver forms to the client in Flash (SWF file) format. ColdFusion automatically generates the Flash
binary from your CFML code and displays it on the client. Flash forms have the following advantages over HTML
forms:

They are browser-independent. Flash Player works in all commonly used browsers on Windows and Macintosh
systems, and in Netscape and Mozilla on Linux.

By default, they present a modern, visually pleasing appearance, and you can apply predefined color skins or
customize the appearance with specifications like those specifications in a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS).

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They let you develop complex, multipart forms that do not require multiple pages, by using tabbed or accordionstyle dialog boxes.

They automatically do much of the layout work for you.

Note: Flash form configuration requirements differ from ColdFusion requirements. For example, Flash forms do not
work sometimes with all J2EE servers supported by ColdFusion. For more information, see Installing ColdFusion.
In addition to creating Flash forms, ColdFusion lets you specify Flash format for cfcalendar, cftree, and cfgrid
tags. Use these tags to embed Flash calendar choosers, trees, and grids in HTML forms, to eliminate the need to use
Java applets. Information about using Flash grids and trees in HTML forms is not discussed here. However, the
information about grids and trees also applies to these elements.

A Flash form example

Flash forms provide many features that help you quickly create easy-to-use, professional-looking, complex forms. The
following image contains a two-tab form that shows many of these features:

This form includes the following features:

Each tab contains a different section of the overall form, and users can enter data on both tabs before submitting
the form. This technique can eliminate the need for multiple forms on multiple HTML pages.

The first and last names are required fields, indicated by the red asterisks.
The Flash form automatically fills the e-mail field with data from the name fields, but the user can override this
information.

When the user selects the date field, a calendar automatically opens for picking the date.

Flash form CFML differences from HTML forms

Because ColdFusion sends a Flash form to the client in SWF file format, everything inside a Flash form is rendered by
Flash. Rendering the form in Flash has several effects:

Plain text and HTML tags in the body of a Flash Form have no effect.
Specify all form content inside CFML tags that support Flash forms.

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ColdFusion provides two tags that let you take advantage of Flash features and perform tasks that you would
otherwise do in HTML: use the cfformitem tag to add text blocks and horizontal and vertical rules to your form,
and you use the cfformgroup tag to structure your form.

Standard ColdFusion forms tags, such as cfinput and cftree, include attributes that work only with Flash forms,
and attribute values that let you specify form style and behavior. These tags include the skin attribute with many
Flash-specific style attribute values for appearance, and the bind attribute for filling a field value with data from
other fields.
The reference pages for the individual tags in the CFML Reference describe the form tags and their features,
indicating which attributes and values work with Flash forms.

Building Flash forms

You build Flash forms using standard ColdFusion form tags, plus the cfformgroup and cfformitem tags. These tags
create the elements of the form, as follows:

The cfcalendar, cfgrid, cfinput, cfselect, cftextarea, and cftree tags create controls for data display and
user input.

The cfformitem tag lets you add formatted or unformatted text, spacers, and horizontal and vertical rules without
using HTML.

The cfformgroup tag creates containers, such as horizontally aligned boxes or tabbed navigators, that let you
group, organize, and structure the form contents.
Flash forms follow a hierarchical structure of containers and children.
1 The cfform tag is the master container, and its contents are child containers and controls.
2 The cfformgroup tag defines a container that organizes its child elements.
3 All other tags create individual controls, including display elements such as rules.

For example, the image in the About Flash forms section has the following hierarchical structure of containers and
children. (This outline only shows the structure of the page that is visible in the image. It omits the structure of the
Preferences tab.)
1
2
3
4
5
5
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3

2
3
3

cfform
cfformgroup type="tabnavigator" -- Tab navigator container
cfformgroup type="page" -- Tabbed page container, child of tabnavigator
cfformgroup type="horizontal" -- Aligns its two children horizontally
cfinput type="text" -- First name input control
cfinput type="spacer" -- Space between the name input controls
cfinput type="text" -- Last name input control
cfformitem type="hrule" -- Displays a rule
cfformitem type="html" -- Displays formatted text
cffinput type="text" -- E-mail input control
cfformitem type="hrule" -- Displays a rule
cfinput type="text" -- Phone number input control
cfinput type="spacer" -- Space between the phone and date controls
cfinput type="datefield" -- Date input control
cfinput type="page" -- Second tabbed page container for preferences
.
.
cfformgroup type="horizontal" -- Follows the tabnavigator in the form
cfinput type="submit" -- Submit button control
cfinput type="reset" -- Reset button control

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Adding text, images, rules, and space with the cfformitem tag
Because Flash forms do not support inline HTML, you use the cfformitem tag to add text blocks and horizontal and
vertical rules to your form. (Flash form controls, such as cfinput, use the label or value attribute to specify text
labels.) You can also use the cfformitem tag to add spacers between visual form elements.
The cfformitem type="hrule" and cfformitem type="vrule" tags put horizontal and vertical rules in the form.
You can specify the rule thickness, color, and shadow characteristics by using style specifications. For more
information on specifying rule styles, see Styles for cfformitem with hrule or vrule type attributes in ColdFusion Flash
Form Style Reference in the CFML Reference.
The cfformitem type="spacer" tag puts a blank space of the specified height and width on the form. This tag type
does not use styles; it can be useful in improving the form appearance by helping you control the form layout.
The cfformitem type="text" tag lets you insert plain text in the form You can use the style attribute to apply a
consistent format to the text.
The cfformitem type="html" tag lets you insert formatted text and images in the form. You can include basic
HTML-style formatting tags in the body of this tag to add images and to format and style the text.
You can use the following formatting tags and attributes in the body of a cfformitem type="html" tag:
Tag

Valid attributes

href

URL to link to.

target

window name; can be a standard HTML window name such as _blank.

None.

br

None.

font

color

Must be in hexadecimal format, such as #FF00AA. Use a single number sign (#) character.

faceC

an be a comma-delimited list of font face names; Flash uses the first font that is available on the client

system.
size

In pixels; + and -relative values are allowed.

None.

img

See the attribute table for the img tag.

Note: Close this tag with /> or an </img> tag.

li

None.

align Must be one of the following: left, right, center.

textformat

See the attribute table for the textformat tag.

None.

The img tag supports the following attributes:

Attribute

Description

src

(Required) URL or path to a JPEG or SWF file. Images are not displayed until they have downloaded completely.
Flash Player does not support progressive JPEG files.

width

Width of the image, in pixels.

height

Height of the image in pixels.

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Attribute

Description

align

Horizontal alignment of the embedded image within the text field. Valid values are left and right. The default
value is left.

hspace

Number of pixels of horizontal space that surround the image where no text appears. The default value is 8.

vspace

Number of pixels of vertical space that surround the image where no text appears. The default value is 8.

Note: Because of the Flash dynamic sizing rules, to ensure that the image displays properly, you sometimes have to specify
the formitem tag height attribute and the width and height attributes for the form or the containing cfformgroup
tag. Also, the image always displays on a new line, not inline with text, and text that follows the image in your code
occupies any available space to the right of the image.
The textformat tag is specific to Flash, and has the following attributes:
Attribute

Description

blockindent

Block indentation, in points.

indent

Indentation from the left margin to the first character in the paragraph.

leading

Amount of leading (vertical space) between lines.

leftmargin

Left margin of the paragraph, in points.

rightmargin

Right margin of the paragraph, in points.

tabstops

Custom tab stops as an array of nonnegative integers. To specify tabs in text, use the \t escape character.

For detailed descriptions of these tags, see the Flash documentation.

The following code creates a simple Flash form that consists of a formatted text area surrounded by horizontal rules:
<cfform name="myform" height="220" width="400" format="Flash" >
<!--- Use text formitem tag with style specifications for the heading. --->
<cfformitem type="text" style="fontWeight:bold; fontSize:14;">
Flash form with formatted text and rules
</cfformitem>
<!--- The spacer adds space between the text and the rule --->
<cfformitem type="spacer" height="2" />
<cfformitem type="hrule" />
<cfformitem type="html">
<b><font color="#FF0000" size="+4" face="serif">
This form has formatted text, including:</font></b><br>
<textformat blockindent="20" leading="2">
<li>colored text</li>
<li><i>italic and bold text</i></li>
<li>a bulleted list in an indented block</li>
</textformat>
<p><b>The text is preceded and followed by horizontal rules</b></p>
It also has a link to a web page.</b><br>
<a href="http://www.adobe.com/" target="_blank">
<font color="#0000FF"><u>
This link displays the Adobe home page in a new browser window
</u></font></a>
</cfformitem>
<cfformitem type="spacer" height="2"/>
<cfformitem type="hrule"/>
</cfform>

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Using the cfformgroup tag to structure forms

ColdFusion provides form group container types that provide basic structure to a Flash form. You specify these types
in the type attribute of the cfformgroup tag. Use the following container types to control the layout of controls and
groups of controls:
Type

Description

horizontal

Arranges individual controls horizontally, and optionally applies a label to the left of the controls. Use only for
arranging ColdFusion form controls, including cfformitem controls. As a general rule, do not use to organize
cfformgroup containers; use the hbox attribute instead.
If you put other cfformgroup tags inside a horizontal form group, the controls inside the included
cfformgroup tag do not align with other controls in the horizontal group.

vertical

Arranges individual controls vertically, and optionally applies a label to the left (not top) of the controls. Use only
for groups of ColdFusion form controls, including cfformitem controls. As a general rule, do not use to organize
cfformgroup containers; use the vbox attribute instead.
If you put other cfformgroup tags inside a vertical form group, the controls inside the included
cfformgroup tag do not align with other controls in the vertical group.

hbox

Arranges groups of controls horizontally. Does not apply a label. Use this attribute value to arrange other
cfformgroup containers. This tag does not enforce alignment of child controls that have labels, so you should
not use it to align individual controls.

vbox

Arranges groups of controls vertically. Does not apply a label. Use this attribute value to arrange other
cfformgroup containers. This tag does not enforce alignment of child controls that have labels, so do not use it
to align individual controls.

hdividedbox

Arranges two or more children horizontally, and places divider handles between the children that users can drag
to change the relative sizes of the children. Does not apply a label. The direct children of an hdividedbox
container must be cfformgroup tags with type attributes other than horizontal or vertical.

vdividedbox

Arranges two or more children vertically, and places divider handles between the children that users can drag to
change the relative sizes of the children. Does not apply a label. The direct children of a vdividedbox container
must be cfformgroup tags with type attributes other than horizontal or vertical.

tile

Arranges its children in a rectangular grid in row-first order. Does not apply a label.

panel

Consists of a title bar containing the label attribute text, a border, and a content area with vertically arranged
children.

accordion

Places each of its child pages in an accordion pleat with a label bar. Displays the contents of one pleat at a time.
Users click the labels to expand or contract the pleat pages. Does not apply a label.

tabnavigator

Places each of its children on a tabbed page. Users click the tabs to display a selected page. Does not apply a label.

page

The immediate child of an accordion or tab navigator container. Specifies the label on the pleat bar or tab, and
arranges its child containers and controls vertically.

For more information on using the accordion, tabnavigator, and pagecfformgroup types, see Creating complex
forms with accordion and tab navigator containers on page 773.
Example: structuring with the cfformgroup tag
The following example shows a form with an hdividedbox container with two vbox containers. The left box uses a
horizontal container to arrange two radio buttons. The right box uses a tile container to lay out its check boxes.
You can drag the divider handle to resize the two boxes. When you submit the form, the ColdFusion page dumps the
Form scope to show the submitted data.

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<cfif Isdefined("Form.fieldnames")>
<cfdump var="#form#" label="form scope">
<br><br>
</cfif>
<cfform name="myform" height="200" width="460" format="Flash" skin="HaloBlue">
<cfformitem type="html" height="20">
<b>Tell us your preferences</b>
</cfformitem>
<!--- Put the pet selectors to the left of the fruit selectors. --->
<cfformgroup type="hdividedbox" >
<!--- Group the pet selector box contents, aligned vertically. --->
<cfformgroup type="VBox"height="130">
<cfformitem type="text" height="20">
Pets:
</cfformitem>
<cfformgroup type="vertical" height="80">
<cfinput type="Radio" name="pets" label="Dogs" value="Dogs"
checked>
<cfinput type="Radio" name="pets" label="Cats" value="Cats">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
<!--- Group the fruit selector box contents, aligned vertically. --->
<cfformgroup type="VBox" height="130">
<cfformitem type="text" height="20">
Fruits:
</cfformitem>
<cfformgroup type="tile" height="80" width="190" label="Tile box">
<--- Flash requires unique names for all controls --->
<cfinput type = "Checkbox" name="chk1" Label="Apples"
value="Apples">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk2" Label="Bananas"
value="Bananas">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk3" Label="Pears"
value="Pears">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk4" Label="Oranges"
value="Oranges">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk5" Label="Grapes"
value="Grapes">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk6" Label="Cumquats"
value="Cumquats">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
<cfformgroup type="horizontal">
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" width="100" value="Show Results">
<cfinput type="reset" name="reset" width="100" value="Reset Fields">
</cfformgroup>
</cfform>

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Controlling sizes in Flash forms

Sizing elements in a Flash form is something of an art, rather than a science. As a general rule, if you dont specify the
height and width attributes, Flash tends to do a good job of laying out the form. However, keep in mind the following
considerations:

If you do not specify the height and width attributes in the cfform tag, Flash reserves the full dimensions of the
visible browser window, if the form is not in a table, or the table cell, if the form is in a table, even if they are not
required for the form contents. Any HTML output that precedes or follows the form causes the output page to
exceed the size of the browser window.

If you do not specify the height or width of a control, including a form group, Flash adjusts the dimensions, trying
to fit the controls in the available space. For example, Flash often extends input boxes to the width of the containing
control, if not otherwise specified.
In general, it is best to use the following process when you design your Flash form.
Determine the sizes of a Flash form and its controls
1 When you first create the form, dont specify any height and width attributes on the form or its child tags. Run
the form and examine the results to determine height and width values to use.
2 Specify height and width attributes in the cfform tag for the desired dimensions of the form. You can specify

absolute pixel values, or percentage values relative to the size of the containing window.
3 Specify any height or width attributes on individual tags. These values must be in pixels.
4 Repeat step 3 for various tags, and possibly step 2, until your form has a pleasing appearance.

Repeating Flash form elements based on query data

The repeatercfformgroup type tells Flash Player to iterate over a query and create a set of the cfformgroup tags
child controls for each row in the query. For each set of child controls, bind attributes in the child tags can access fields
in the current query row. This cfformgroup type lets you create Flash forms where the number of controls can change
based on a query, without requiring ColdFusion to recompile the Flash SWF file for the form. This significantly
enhances server performance.
Note: For more information on binding data, see Binding data in Flash forms on page 776.
Optionally, you can specify a start row and a maximum number of rows to use in the repeater. Unlike most
ColdFusion tags, repeater index values start at 0, not 1. To specify a repeater that starts on the first line of the query
object and uses no more than 15 rows, use a tag such as the following:
<cfformgroup type="repeater" query="q1" startrow="0" maxrows="15">

One example that can use a repeater is a form that lets a teacher select a specific class and update the student grades.
Each class can have a different number of students, so the form must have a varying number of input lines. Another
example is a shopping cart application that displays the product name and quantity ordered and lets users change the
quantity.
The following example uses the cfformgroup tag with a repeatertype attribute value to populate a form. It creates
a query, and uses the repeater to iterate over a query and create a firstname and lastname input box for each row in the
query.

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<cfif IsDefined("Form.fieldnames")>
<cfdump var="#form#" label="form scope">
<br><br>
</cfif>
<cfscript>
q1 = queryNew("id,firstname,lastname");
queryAddRow(q1);
querySetCell(q1, "id", "1");
querySetCell(q1, "firstname", "Rob");
querySetCell(q1, "lastname", "Smith");
queryAddRow(q1);
querySetCell(q1, "id", "2");
querySetCell(q1, "firstname", "John");
querySetCell(q1, "lastname", "Doe");
queryAddRow(q1);
querySetCell(q1, "id", "3");
querySetCell(q1, "firstname", "Jane");
querySetCell(q1, "lastname", "Doe");
queryAddRow(q1);
querySetCell(q1, "id", "4");
querySetCell(q1, "firstname", "Erik");
querySetCell(q1, "lastname", "Pramenter");
</cfscript>
<cfform name="form1" format="flash" height="220" width="450">
<cfselect label="select a teacher" name="sel1" query="q1" value="id"
display="firstname" width="100" />
<cfformgroup type="repeater" query="q1">
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="name">
<cfinput type="Text" name="fname"bind="{q1.currentItem.firstname}">
<cfinput type="Text" name="lname" bind="{q1.currentItem.lastname}">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submitBtn" value="Send Data" width="100">
</cfform>

Creating complex forms with accordion and tab navigator containers

The accordion and tabnavigator attributes of the cfformgroup tag let you construct complex forms that would
otherwise require multiple HTML pages. With accordions and tab navigator containers, users can switch among
multiple entry areas without submitting intermediate forms. All data that they enter is available until they submit the
form, and all form elements load at one time.

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An accordion container places each logical form page on an accordion pleat. Each pleat has a label bar; when the user
clicks a bar, the current page collapses and the selected page expands to fill the available form space. The following
image shows a three-pleat accordion, open to the middle pleat, Preferences:

A tab navigator container places each logical form page on a tabbed frame. When the user clicks a tab, the selected page
replaces the previous page. The image in About Flash forms shows a tab navigator container.
The following example generates a two-tab navigator container that gets contact information and preferences. You can
change it to an accordion container by changing the type attribute of the first cfformgroup tag from tabnavigator
to accordion. To prevent the accordion from having scroll bars, increase the cfform tag height attribute to 310 and
the tabnavigator tag height attribute to 260.
<cfif IsDefined("Form.fieldnames")>
<cfdump var="#form#" label="form scope">
<br><br>
</cfif>
<br>
<cfform name="myform" height="285" width="480" format="Flash" skin="HaloBlue">
<cfformgroup type="tabnavigator" height="240" style="marginTop: 0">
<cfformgroup type="page" label="Contact Information">
<!--- Align the first and last name fields horizontally. --->
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Your Name">
<cfinput type="text" required="Yes" name="firstName" label="First"
value="" width="100"/>
<cfinput type="text" required="Yes" name="lastName" label="Last"
value="" width="100"/>
</cfformgroup>
<cfformitem type="hrule" />
<cfformitem type="HTML"><textformat indent="95"><font size="-2">
Flash fills this field in automatically.
You can replace the text.
</font></textformat>
</cfformitem>
<!--- The bind attribute gets the field contents from the firstName
and lastName fields as they get filled in. --->
<cfinput type="text" name="email" label="email"
bind="{firstName.text}.{lastName.text}@mm.com">
<cfformitem type="spacer" height="3" />
<cfformitem type="hrule" />
<cfformitem type="spacer" height="3" />
<cfinput type="text" name="phone" validate="telephone" required="no"

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label="Phone Number">
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate1" label="Requested date">
</cfformgroup>
<cfformgroup type="page" label="Preferences" style="marginTop: 0">
<cfformitem type="html" height="20">
<b>Tell us your preferences</b>
</cfformitem>
<!--- Put the pet selectors to the left of the fruit selectors. --->
<cfformgroup type="hdividedbox" >
<!--- Group the pet selector box contents, aligned vertically. --->
<cfformgroup type="VBox"height="130">
<cfformitem type="text" height="20">
Pets:
</cfformitem>
<cfformgroup type="vertical" height="80">
<cfinput type="Radio" name="pets" label="Dogs" value="Dogs"
checked>
<cfinput type="Radio" name="pets" label="Cats" value="Cats">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
<!--- Group the fruit selector box contents, aligned vertically. --->
<cfformgroup type="VBox" height="130">
<cfformitem type="text" height="20">
Fruits:
</cfformitem>
<cfformgroup type="tile" height="80" width="190" label="Tile box">
<--- Flash requires unique names for all controls. --->
<cfinput type = "Checkbox" name="chk1" Label="Apples"
value="Apples">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk2" Label="Bananas"
value="Bananas">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk3" Label="Pears"
value="Pears">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk4" Label="Oranges"
value="Oranges">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk5" Label="Grapes"
value="Grapes">
<cfinput type="Checkbox" name="chk6" Label="Kumquats"
value="Cumquats">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
<cfformgroup type="horizontal">
<cfinput type = "submit" name="submit" width="100" value = "Show Results">
<cfinput type = "reset" name="reset" width="100" value = "Reset Fields">
</cfformgroup>
</cfform>

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Binding data in Flash forms

The bind attribute lets you set the value of the fields using the contents of other form fields. You can use the bind
attribute with the cftextarea tag and any cfinput type that takes a value, including hidden. This data binding
occurs dynamically as the user enters data within Flash on the client system. Flash does not send any information to
ColdFusion until the user submits the form. To use the bind attribute to specify the field value, use the following
formats:
Data source

bind attribute format

cfinputtype="text" or
cftextarea text

bind="{sourceName.text}"

cfinput selected radio button

bind="{sourceName.selectedData}"

cftree selected item

bind="{sourceName.selectedNode.getProperty('data').value}

cfgrid selected item

bind="{sourceName.selectedItem.COLUMNAME}"

cfselect selected item

bind="{sourceName.selectedItem.data}"

Note: If you use the bind attribute, you cannot use the value attribute.
The following rules and techniques apply to the binding formats:

The sourceName value in these formats is the name attribute of the tag that contains the element that you are
binding to.

You can bind to additional information about a selected item in a tree. Replace value with display to get the
displayed value, or with path to get the path to the node in the tree.

You can bind to the displayed value of a cfselect item by replacing data with label.
If the user selects multiple items in a cfselect control, the selectedItem object contains the most recent selection,
and a selectedItems array contains all selected items. You can access the individual values in the array, as in
myTree.selectedItems[1].data. The selectedItems array exists only if the user selects multiple items; otherwise, it is
undefined.

You can use ActionScript expressions in Flash bind statements.

The following example shows how to use the values from the firstName and lastName fields to construct an e-mail
address. The user can change or replace this value with a typed entry.
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Your Name">
<cfinput type="text" required="Yes" name="firstName" label="First"
value="" width="100"/>
<cfinput type="text" required="Yes" name="lastName" label="Last"
value="" width="100"/>
</cfformgroup>
<cfinput type="text" name="email" label="email"
bind="{firstName.text}.{lastName.text}@mm.com">

Setting styles and skins in Flash forms

ColdFusion provides the following methods for controlling the style and appearance of Flash forms and their elements:
Skins provide a simple method for controlling the overall appearance of your form. A single skin controls the entire

form.
Styles provide a finer-grained level of control than skins. Each style specifies a particular characteristic for a single

control. Many styles are also inherited by a controls children.

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You can use both techniques in combination: you can specify a skin for your form and use styles to specify the
appearance (such as input text font) of individual controls.
For detailed information on the style names and values that you can use, see ColdFusion Flash Form Style Reference
in the CFML Reference.

Controlling form appearance with Flash skins

The cfform tag takes a skin attribute, which lets you select an overall appearance for your form. The skin determines
the color used for highlighted and selected elements.
You can select the following Flash skins:

haloBlue
haloGreen (the default)
haloOrange
haloSilver

About Flash form styles

The ColdFusion Flash form tags have a style attribute that lets you specify control characteristics using CSS syntax.
You can specify a style attribute in the following tags:

cfform

cfformgroup

cfcalendar

cfformitem, types hrule and vrule

cfgrid

cfinput

cfselect

cftextarea

cftree

The attributes for the cfform and cfformgroup generally apply to all the form or form groups children.
Flash supports many, but not all, standard CSS styles. ColdFusion Flash forms only support applying specific CSS
style specifications to individual CFML tags and their corresponding Flash controls and groups. You cannot use an
external style sheet or define a document-level style sheet, as you can for HTML forms.

Flash form style specification syntax

To specify a Flash style, use the following format:
style="stylename1: value; stylename2: value; ..."

For example, the following code specifies three style values for a text input control:
<cfinput type="text" name="text2" label="Last"
style="borderSyle:inset; fontSize:12; backgroundColor:##FFEEFF">

About Flash form style value formats

Style properties can be Boolean values, strings, numbers, or arrays of these values.

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Length format
You specify styles that take length or dimension values, including font sizes, in pixels.
The fontSize style property lets you use a set of keywords in addition to numbered units. You can use the following
keywords when you set the fontSize style property. The exact sizes are defined by the client browser.

xx-small

x-small

small

medium

large

x-large

xx-large

The following cfinput tag uses the style attribute with a fontSize keyword to specify the size of the text in the
input box:
<cfinput type="text" name="text1" style="fontSize:X-large" label="Name">

Time format
You specify styles that take time values, such as the openDuration style that specifies how fast an accordion pleat
opens, in milliseconds. The following example shows an accordion tag that takes one-half second to change between
accordion pleats:
<cfformgroup type="accordion" height="260" style="openDuration: 500">

Color format
You define color values, such as those for the backgroundColor style, in the following formats:
Format

Description

hexadecimal

Hexadecimal colors are represented by a six-digit code preceded by two number sign characters (##). Two # characters
are required to prevent ColdFusion from interpreting the character. The range of possible values is ##000000 to
##FFFFFF.

VGA color names

VGA color names are a set of 16 basic colors supported by all browsers that support CSS. The available color names are
Aqua, Black, Blue, Fuchsia, Gray, Green, Lime, Maroon, Navy, Olive, Purple, Red, Silver, Teal, White, and
Yellow. Some browsers support a larger list of color names. VGA color names are not case-sensitive.

Some styles support only the hexadecimal color format.

Some controls accept multiple colors. For example, the tree controls depthColors style property can use a different
background color for each level in the tree. To assign multiple colors, use a comma-delimited list, as the following
example shows:
style="depthColors: ##EAEAEA, ##FF22CC, ##FFFFFF"

About Flash form style applicability and inheritance

Because of the way Flash control styles are implemented, some common styles are valid, but have no effect, in some
tags. Therefore, in the table in Styles valid for all controls in ColdFusion Flash Form Style Reference in the CFML
Reference, the listed styles do not cause errors when used in controls, but might not have any effect.

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Styles can be inheritable or noninheritable. If a style is noninheritable, it only affects the tag, and does not affect any of
its children. For example, to maintain a consistent background color in an hbox form group and its children tags,
specify the color in all tags. If a style is inheritable, it applies to the tag and its children.

Example: applying styles to a Flash form

The following code creates a Flash form that uses a skin and styles to control its appearance.
The code for the form is as follows. Comments in the code explain how formatting controls and styles determine the
appearance.
<!--- Specify the form height and width, use the HaloBlue skin.
Note: Flash ignores a backgroundColor style set in cfform. --->
<cfform name="myform" height="390" width="440" format="Flash" skin="HaloBlue">
<!--- The input area is a panel. Styles to specify panel characteristics.
Child controls inherit the background color and font settings. --->
<cfformgroup type="Panel" label="Contact Information"
style="marginTop:20; marginBottom:20; fontSize:14; fontStyle:italic;
headerColors:##FFFF00, ##999900; backgroundColor:##FFFFEE;
headerHeight:35; cornerRadius:12">
<!--- This vbox sets the font size and style, and spacing between and
around its child controls. --->
<cfformgroup type="vbox" style="fontSize:12; fontStyle:normal;
verticalGap:18; marginLeft:10; marginRight:10">
<!--- Use a horizontal group to align the first and last name fields
and set a common label. --->
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Name" >
<!--- Use text styles to highlight the entered names. --->
<cfinput type="text" required="Yes" name="firstName" label="First"
value="" width="120" style="color:##006090; fontSize:12;
fontWeight:bold" />
<cfinput type="text" required="Yes" name="lastName" label="Last"
value="" width="120" style="color:##006090; fontSize:12;
fontWeight:bold"/>
</cfformgroup>
<!--- Horizontal rules surround the e-mail address.
Styles specify the rule characteristics. --->
<cfformitem type="hrule" style="color:##999900; shadowColor:##DDDD66;
strokeWidth:4"/>
<cfformitem type="HTML" Style="marginTop:0; marginBottom:0">
<textformat indent="57"> <font size="-1">Flash fills this field in

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automatically. You can replace the text.</font></textformat>

</cfformitem>
<cfinput type="text" name="email" label="email"
bind="{firstName.text}.{lastName.text}@mm.com">
<cfformitem type="hrule" style="color:##999900; shadowColor:##DDDD66;
strokeWidth:4"/>
<cfinput type="text" name="phone" validate="telephone" label="Phone">
<!--- Styles control the colors of the current, selected, and
rolled-over dates. --->
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate1" label="Date"
style="rollOverColor:##DDDDFF; selectionColor:##0000FF;
todayColor:##AAAAFF">
</cfformgroup> <!--- vbox --->
</cfformgroup> <!--- panel --->
<!--- A style centers the buttons at the bottom of the form. --->
<cfformgroup type="horizontal"style="horizontalAlign:center">
<cfinput type = "submit" name="submit" width="100" value = "Show Results">
<cfinput type = "reset" name="reset" width="100" value = "Reset Fields">
</cfformgroup>
</cfform>

Using ActionScript in Flash forms

ActionScript 2.0 is a powerful scripting language that is used in Flash and other related products and is like JavaScript.
You can use a subset of ActionScript 2.0 code in your Flash forms.
Information on how to include ActionScript in your Flash forms, and restrictions and additions to ActionScript that
apply to ColdFusion Flash forms are described here. However, information on writing ActionScript is not provided.
For details on ActionScript and how you can use it, see the Flash ActionScript 2.0 documentation, including the
documents available in the Flash and Flex sections of LiveDocs at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_docs_en.

Using ActionScript code in CFML

You can use ActionScript in the following attribute of tags in CFML Flash format forms:

Form and control events, such as the onSubmit attribute of the cfform tag, or the onChange and onClick
attributes of the cfinput tag. The attribute description on the tag reference pages in the CFML Reference list the
event attributes.

Bind expressions, which you can use to set field values. For more information on binding data, see Binding data
in Flash forms on page 776.
Your ActionScript code can be inline in the form attribute specification, you can make a call to a custom function
that you define, or you can use the ActionScript include command in the attribute specification to get the
ActionScript from a .as file.
The following example shows a simple Fahrenheit to Celsius converter that does the conversion directly on the
client, without requiring the user to submit a form to the ColdFusion server.
<cfform format="flash" width="200" height="150">
<cfinput type="text" name="fahrenheit" label="Fahrenheit" width="100"
value="68">
<cfinput type="text" name="celsius" label="Celsius" width="100">
<cfinput type="button" name="convert" value="Convert" width="100"
onClick="celsius.text = Math.round((farenheit.text-32)/1.8*10)/10">
</cfform>

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Note: You do not use the text property (for example, fieldname.text) to access hidden fields. To access a hidden field,
use the format formname.fieldname = 'value'.

Custom ActionScript functions

Custom ActionScript functions are the equivalent of CFML UDFs. You can define your own functions in ColdFusion
by using the cfformitem tag with a type attribute value of script, or you can define the functions in an ActionScript
(.as) file. Also, ColdFusion includes a small number of predefined custom ActionScript functions that you can use in
your Flash form controls.
You can use the following custom functions in the ActionScript for all form controls to reset or submit the form:

resetForm()

submitForm()

You can use the following custom functions in cfgrid tags only to insert and delete rows in the grid:

GridData.insertRow(gridName)

GridData.deleteRow(gridName)

The following example shows how you can use the two GridData functions to add custom buttons that add and delete
rows from a Flash form. These buttons are equivalent to the buttons that ColdFusion creates if you specify
insert="yes" and delete="yes" in the cfgrid tag, but they allow you to specify you own button text and
placement. This example puts the buttons on the side of the grid, instead of below it and uses longer than standard
button labels.
<cfform format="flash" height="265" width="400">
<cfformitem type="html">
You can edit this grid as follows:
<ul>
<li>To change an item, click the field and type.</li>
<li>To add a row, click the Insert Row button and type in the fields
in the highlighted row.</li>
<li>To delete a row, click anywhere in the row and click the
Delete Row button</li>
</ul>
<p><b>When you are done, click the submit button.</b></p>
</cfformitem>
<!--- The hbox aligns the grid and the button vbox horizontally --->
<cfformgroup type="hbox" style="verticalAlign:bottom;
horizontalAlign:center">
<!--- To make all elements align properly, all of the hbox children must
be containers, so we must put the cfgrid tag in a vbox tag. --->
<cfformgroup type="vbox">
<!-- An editable grid with hard coded data (for simplicity).
By default, this grid does not have insert or delete buttons. --->
<cfgrid name="mygrid" height="120" width="250" selectmode="edit">
<cfgridcolumn name="city">
<cfgridcolumn name="state">
<cfgridrow data="Rockville,MD">
<cfgridrow data="Washington,DC">
<cfgridrow data="Arlington,VA">
</cfgrid>
</cfformgroup>
<!--- Group the Insert and Delete buttons vertically;
use a vbox to ensure correct alignment. --->

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<cfformgroup type="vbox" name="buttons"style="verticalAlign:bottom;

horizontalAlign:center">
<!--- Use a spacer to position the buttons. --->
<cfformitem type="spacer" height="18" />
<!--- Use the insertRow method in the onClick event to add a row. --->
<cfinput type="button" name="ins" value="Insert a new row" width="125"
onClick="GridData.insertRow(mygrid);">
<!--- Use the deleteRow method in the onClick event to delete
the selected row --->
<cfinput type="button" name="del" value="Delete selected row"
width="125" onClick="GridData.deleteRow(mygrid)">
<cfinput type="submit" name="f1" value="Submit" width="125">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
</cfform>
<!--- Dump the form if it has been submitted. --->
<cfif IsDefined("form.fieldnames")>
<cfdump var="#form#"><br>
</cfif>

Best practices for Flash forms

Minimizing form recompilation
Flash forms are sent to the client as SWF files, which ColdFusion must compile from your CFML code. The following
techniques can help limit how frequently ColdFusion must recompile a Flash form.

Only data must be dynamic. Whenever a variable name changes, or a form characteristic, such as an element width
or a label changes, the Flash output must be recompiled. If a data value changes, the output does not need to be
recompiled.

Use cfformgroup

type="repeater" if you must loop no more than ten times over no more than ten elements.
This tag does not require recompiling when the number of elements changes. It does have a processing overhead
that increases with the number of loops and elements, however, so for large data sets or many elements, it is often
more efficient not to use the repeater.

Caching data in Flash forms

The cfform tag timeout attribute specifies how many seconds ColdFusion retains Flash form data on the server.
When a Flash form is generated, the values for the form are stored in memory on the server. When the Flash form is
loaded on the client, it requests these form values from the server. If this attribute is 0, the default, the data on the server
is immediately deleted after the data has been requested from the Flash form.
A Flash form can be reloaded multiple times if a user displays a page with a Flash form, goes to another page, and uses
the browser Back button to return to the page with the form. This behavior is common with search forms, login forms,
and the like. When the user returns to the original page:

If the timeout value is 0, or the time-out period has expired, the data is no longer available, and ColdFusion returns
a data-expired exception to the browser; in this case, the browser typically tells the user to reload the page.

If the time-out has not expired, the browser displays the original data.
If your form data contains sensitive information, such as credit card numbers or social security numbers, leave the
time-out set to 0. Otherwise, consider setting a time-out value that corresponds to a small number of minutes.

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Using Flash forms in a clustered environment

Flash forms require sticky sessions when used in a cluster.

Creating Skinnable XML Forms

You can create XML skinnable forms, which are forms that generate XForms-compliant XML and are normally
formatted using an XSLT (extensible stylesheet language transformations) skin.
You can use XML skinnable forms with the skins that Adobe ColdFusion provides without having any knowledge of
either XML or XSLT. For information on using XML with ColdFusion, see Using XML and WDDX on page 1058.

About XML skinnable forms

A ColdFusion form with a format="XML" attribute is an XML skinnable form. When ColdFusion processes an XML
skinnable form, it generates the form as XML. By default, it applies an XML Stylesheet Language Transform (XSLT)
skin to the XML and generates a formatted HTML page for display on the users browser. Optionally, you can specify
an XSLT file, or you can process the raw XML in your ColdFusion page.
By using XML skinnable forms, you can control the type and appearance of the forms that ColdFusion generates and
displays. ColdFusion provides a set of standard skins, including a default skin that it uses if you do not specify another
skin (or tell it not to apply a skin). You can also create your own XSLT skin and have ColdFusion use it to give your
forms a specific style or appearance.

ColdFusion forms and XForms

ColdFusion skinnable forms conform to and extend the W3C XForms specification. This specification provides an
XML syntax for defining interactive forms using a syntax that is independent of form appearance. ColdFusion forms
tags include attributes that provide information that does not correspond directly to the XForms model, such as
appearance information, validation rules, and standard HTML attributes. ColdFusion skinnable forms retain this
information in XForms extensions so that an XSL transformation can use the values to determine appearance or do
other processing.
For more information on XML structure of ColdFusion skinnable forms, see ColdFusion XML format on page 788.

The role of the XSLT skin

An XSLT skin and associated cascading style sheet (CSS) determine how an XML skinnable form is processed and
displayed, as follows:

The XSLT skin tells ColdFusion how to process the XML, and typically converts it to HTML for display. The skin
specifies the CSS style sheet to use to format the output.

The CSS style sheet specifies style definitions that determine the appearance of the generated output.
XSLT skins give you extensive freedom in the generated output. They let you create a custom appearance for your
forms, or even different appearances for different purposes. For example, you could use the same form in an intranet
and on the Internet, and change only the skin to give a different appearance (or even select different subsets of the form
for display). You can also create skins that process your form for devices, such as wireless mobile devices.

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How ColdFusion processes XML skinnable forms

When ColdFusion processes a cfform tag that specifies XML format and an XSLT skin, it does the following to the form:
1 Converts the CFML form tags into an XForms-compliant XML text format and makes it available in a variable with

the same name as the form. ColdFusion ignores inline text or HTML tags in the form, and does not pass them to
the XML. (It does process HTML option tags that are children of a cfselect tag.)
2 Applies an XSLT skin to the XML; for example, to convert the form into HTML. The XSLT file specifies the CSS

style sheet.
3 Returns the resulting, styled, form to the client, such as a users browser.

If you omit the cfform tag skin attribute, ColdFusion uses a default skin.
If you specify skin="none", ColdFusion performs the first step, but omits the remaining steps. Your application must
handle the XML version of the form as needed. This technique lets you specify your own XSL engine, or incorporate
the form as part of a larger form.

ColdFusion XSL skins

ColdFusion provides the following XSLT skins:

basic
basiccss
basiccss_top
beige
blue
default
lightgray
red
silver
The XSLT skin files are located in the cf_webroot\CFIDE\scripts\xsl directory, and the CSS files that they use for style
definitions are located in the cf_webroot\CFIDE\scripts\css directory.
The default skin and the basic skin format forms identically. ColdFusion uses the default skin if you do not specify a
skin attribute in the cfform tag. The default and basic skins are simple skins that use tables for arranging the form
contents. The basic skin uses div and span tags to arrange the elements. The skins with names of colors are like the
basic skin, but make more use of color.

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Example: a simple skinnable form

The following image shows a simple XML skinnable form that uses the default skin to format the output:

This form is used in the examples and description.

Building XML skinnable forms

You build ColdFusion XML skinnable forms using standard ColdFusion forms tags, including cfformgroup and
cfformitem tags. These tags create the elements of the form, the building blocks of the form.
ColdFusion converts the following tags to XML for processing by the XSLT:
Standard ColdFusion form data control tags The cfgrid, cfinput, cfselect, cfslider, cftextarea, and tree
tags specify the controls that the form displays.
cfformitem tags Add individual items to your form, such as text or rules. The valid types depend on the skin.
cfformgroup tags Group, organize, and structure the form contents. The valid types depend on the skin.

These tags are designed so you can develop forms in a hierarchical structure of containers and children. Using this
model, the cfform tag is the master container, and its contents are children containers and controls. Each
cfformgroup tag defines a container that organizes its child elements.
The specific tags and attributes that you use in your form depend on the capabilities of the XSLT skin. You use only
the tag and attribute combinations that the skin supports. If you are using a skin provided by a third party, make sure
that the supplier provides information on the supported attributes.

Using standard ColdFusion form tags

You use standard ColdFusion form tags, such as cfinput or cftree, as you normally do in standard CFML forms to
generate form input elements. ColdFusion maps most of these tags and their subtags (such as option tags in the
cfselect tag) to equivalent XForms elements. ColdFusion maps applet and Flash format cfgrid and cftree tags to
ColdFusion XML extensions that contain Java applet or Flash objects. It converts XML format cfgrid and cftree
tags to ColdFusion XML extension.
The specific attributes you can use and their meanings can depend on the skins.
Using ColdFusion skins: The skins that are supplied with ColdFusion support the attributes that you can use with
HTML forms. You can also use label attributes to provide labels for the following tags:

cfinput with type attribute values of text, button, password, and file

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cfselect

cfslider

cftextarea

Using other skins: If you use any other skin, some attributes are not supported, or the skin supports custom attributes.
Get the information about the supported attributes from the XSLT skin developer.

Using cfformitem tags

ColdFusion does not process inline text or standard HTML tags when it generates an XML form; therefore, you use
the cfformitem tag to add formatted HTML or plain text blocks and any other display elements, such as horizontal
and vertical rules, to your form.
ColdFusion converts all cfformitemtype attribute values to all-lowercase. For example, if you specify
type="MyType" ColdFusion converts the type name to "mytype".
ColdFusion makes no other limitations on the cfformitemtype attributes that you can use in a form, but the XSLT
skin must process the attributes to display the items.
Using ColdFusion skins: The skins provided in ColdFusion support the following cfformitem types:

hrule

text

html

The hrule type inserts an HTML hr tag, and the text type displays unformatted plain text.
The html type displays HTML-formatted text. You can include standard HTML text markup tags, such as strong, p,
ul, or li, and their attributes. For example, the following text from the Example: a simple skinnable form section
shows how you could use a cfformitem tag to insert descriptive text in a form:
<cfformitem type="html">
<b>We value your input</b>.<br>
<em>Please tell us a little about yourself and your thoughts.</em>
</cfformitem>

Using other skins: If you use any other skin, the supported attributes and attribute values depend on the skin
implementation. Get the information about the supported attributes and attribute values from the XSLT skin
developer.

Using cfformgroup tags

The cfformgroup tag lets you structure forms by organizing its child tags, for example, to align them horizontally or
vertically. Some skins use cfformgroup tags for more complex formatting, such as tabbed navigator or accordion
containers. ColdFusion makes no limitations on the type attributes that you can use in a form, but the XSLT must
process the resulting XML to affect the display.
Using ColdFusion skins: The skins provided in ColdFusion support the following type attribute values:

horizontal

vertical

fieldset

The horizontal and vertical types arrange their child tags in the specified direction and place a label to the left of
the group of children. The following text from the Example: a simple skinnable form section shows how you could use
a cfformgroup tag to apply a Name label and align first and last name fields horizontally:

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<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Name">

<cfinput type="text" name="firstname" label="First" required="yes">
<cfinput type="text" name="lastname" label="Last" required="yes">
</cfformgroup>

The fieldset type corresponds to the HTML fieldset tag, and groups its children by drawing a box around them
and replacing part of the top line with legend text. To specify the legend, use the label attribute. To specify the box
dimensions, use the style attribute with height and width values.
The following code shows a simple form group with three text controls. The cfformgroup type="vertical" tag ensures
that the contents of the form is consistently aligned. The cfformgroup type="horizontal" aligns the firstname and
lastname fields horizontally.
<cfform name="comments" format="xml" skin="basiccss" width="400"
preservedata="Yes" >
<cfformgroup type="fieldset" label="Contact Information">
<cfformgroup type="vertical">
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Name">
<cfinput type="text" size="20" name="firstname" required="yes">
<cfinput type="text" size="25" name="lastname" required="yes">
</cfformgroup>
<cfinput type="text" name="email" label="E-mail" validation="email">
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
</cfform>

Note: Because XML is case-sensitive, but ColdFusion is not, ColdFusion converts cfformgroup and cfformitem
attributes to all-lowercase letters. For example, if you specify cfformgroup type="Random", ColdFusion converts the
type to random in the XML.
Using other skins: If you use any other skin, the supported attributes and attribute values depend on the skin
implementation. Get the information about the supported attributes and attribute values from the skin developer.

Example: CFML for a skinnable XML form

The following CFML code creates the form shown in the image in About XML skinnable forms on page 783. It shows
how you can use CFML to structure your form.

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<cfform name="comments" format="xml" skin="basiccss" width="400" preservedata="Yes" >

<cfinput type="hidden" name="revision" value="12a">
<cfformgroup type="fieldset" label="Basic Information">
<cfformgroup type="vertical">
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Name">
<cfinput type="text" size="20" name="firstname" required="yes">
<cfinput type="text" size="25" name="lastname" required="yes">
</cfformgroup>
<cfinput type="text" name="email" label="E-mail" validate="email" maxlength="35">
<cfselect name="satisfaction" style="width:120px" multiple="false"
label="Satisfaction">
<option selected>very satisfied</option>
<option>somewhat satisfied</option>
<option>somewhat dissatisfied</option>
<option>very dissatisfied</option>
<option>no opinion</option>
</cfselect>
</cfformgroup>
</cfformgroup>
<cfformitem name="html1" type="html">
<p><b>We value your input</b>.<br>
<em>Please tell us a little about yourself and your thoughts.</em></p>
</cfformitem>
<cftextarea name="thoughts" label="Additional Comments" rows="5" cols="66">We really want
to hear from you!</cftextarea>
<cfformgroup type="horizontal">
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" style="width:80" value="Tell Us">
<cfinput type="reset" name="reset" style="width:80" value="Clear Fields">
</cfformgroup>
</cfform>

ColdFusion XML format

The XML generated from a ColdFusion cfform tag and its children are described here. It provides a building block
toward creating your own XSL skins.

XML namespace use

The XML that ColdFusion generates for forms uses elements and attributes in several XML namespaces. Namespaces
are named collections of names that help ensure that XML names are unique. They often correspond to a web standard,
a specific document type definition (DTD), or a schema. In XML, the namespace name and a colon (:) precede the name
of the tag that is defined in that namespace; for example xf:model for the XForms namespace model tag.
ColdFusion uses several standard XML namespaces defined by the World Wid Web Consortium (W3C). These
namespaces correspond to specifications for standard XML dialects such as XHTML, XForms, and XML Events.
ColdFusion XML forms also use a custom namespace for skinnable forms XML extensions. The following table lists
the namespaces in the XML that ColdFusion generates.
Prefix

URL

Used for

html

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml

Form tag information, including action, height, width, and name. XHTML
compliant.

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Prefix

URL

Used for

xf

http://www.w3.org/2002/xforms

XForms model (including initial field values) and XForms elements that
correspond to cfform tags.

ev

http://www.w3.org/2001/xml-events

System events. Used for the cfinput type="reset".

cf

All ColdFusion extensions, including passthrough of attributes that do not

correspond to XForms elements or attributes.

XML structure
For each CFML tag, ColdFusion converts attributes and element values to XML in the XForms xf:model element, or
in individual control elements, such as the XForms xf:input, xf:secret, or xf:group elements.
ColdFusion generates XForms XML in the following format. The numbers on each line indicate the level of nesting of
the tags.
1
2
3
4
3
3
3
3
3
3
2
2
2

form tag
XForms model element
XForms instance element
cf:data element
XForms submission element
XForms bind element
XForms bind element
.
.
.
(end of model element)
XForms or ColdFusion extension control element
XForms or ColdFusion extension control element
.
.
.
(end of form)

Data model
The XForms data model specifies the data that the form submits. It includes information on each displayed control
that can submit data, including initial values and validation information. It does not contain information about
cfformgroup or cfformitem tags. The data model consists of the following elements and their children:

One xf:instance element

One xf:submission element
One xf:bind element for each form control that can submit data
xf:instance element
The XForms xf:instance element contains information about the form data controls. Any control that can submit
data has a corresponding instance element. If the control has an initial value, the instance element contains that value.
The xf:instance element contains a single cf:data element that contains an element for each data control: cfgrid,
most cfinput tag types, cfselect, cfslider, cftextarea, and cftree. Each element name is the corresponding
CFML tags name attribute. For applet and Flash format cfgrid and cftree tags, the element name is the value of the
cf_param_name parameter of the tree or grids Java applet object. Only cfinput tags of types submit, image, reset,
andbutton do not have instance data, because they cannot submit data.

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The body of each element contains the initial control data from the CFML tags value attribute or its equivalent. For
example, for a cfselect tag, the xf:instance element body is a comma-delimited list that contains the name
attributes of all the option tags with a selected attribute. For submit and image buttons, the body contains the name
attribute value.
The following example shows the xf:instance element for the form shown in the image in About XML skinnable
forms on page 783:
<xf:instance>
<cf:data>
<firstname/>
<lastname/>
<email/>
<revision>Comment Form revision 12a</revision>
<satisfaction>very satisfied</satisfaction>
<thoughts>We really want to hear from you!</thoughts>
</cf:data>
</xf:instance>

xf:submission element
The xf:submission element specifies the action when the form is submitted, and contains the values of the
cfformaction and method attributes.:
The following example shows the XML for the form shown in the image in About XML skinnable forms on page 783:
<xf:submission action="/_MyStuff/phase1/forms/XForms/FrameExamples/Figure1.cfm"
method="post"/>

xf:bind elements
The xf:bind elements provide information about the input control behavior, including the control type and any data
validation rules. The XML has one bind element for each instance element that can submit data. It does not have bind
elements for controls such as cfformitem tags, or cfinput tags with submit, input, reset, or image types. Each element
has the following attributes:
Attribute

Description

id

CFML tag name attribute value

nodeset

XPath expression with the path in the XML to the instance element for the control

required

CFML tag required attribute value

Each xf:bind element has an xf:extension element with ColdFusion specific information, including type and
validation values. The following table lists the cf namespace elements that are used here.
Element

Description

cf:attribute name="type"

Control type. One of the following:

CHECKBOX, FILE, IMAGE, PASSWORD, RADIO, SELECT, SUBMIT TEXT, CFSLIDER.
The TEXT type is used for cfinputtype="text" and cftextinput.

cf:attribute name="onerror"

JavaScript function specified by the controls onError attribute, if any.

cfargument name="maxlength"

Value of the controls maxlength attribute, if any.

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Element

Description

cf:validate type="valiadationtype"

Data validation information.

Has one attribute, type, the validation type, and one or more cf:argument
and cf:trigger children. ColdFusion generates a cf:validate element for
each of the following:

cfinput or cftextareavalidation attribute

cfinput or cftextarearange attribute

cfslider: the range and message attributes are specified by a

cf:validate type="range" element

cf:argument

Data validation specification.

(in the body of a cf:validate element)

Has one attribute, name, and body text. Each cf:validate element can have
multiple cf:argument children, corresponding to the validation-related
CFML tag attribute values, such as maximum length, and maximum and
minimum range values. The element body contains the CFML attribute value.
Valid name values are as follows. Unless specified otherwise, the name is
identical to the corresponding CFML tag attribute name.

cf:trigger

(in the body of a cf:validate element)

max

message

min

pattern

When to do the validation; specifies a form element validateAt attribute

value.
Has one attribute, event, which can be one of the following:

onBlur

onSubmit

onServer

If a validateAt attribute specifies multiple validation triggers, the XML has

one cf:trigger element for each entry in the list.

The following example shows the xf:bind element of the form shown in the image in About XML skinnable forms
on page 783:

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<xf:bind id="firstname"
nodeset="//xf:model/xf:instance/cf:data/firstname"
required="true()">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">TEXT</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="onerror">_CF_onError</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:bind>
<xf:bind id="lastname"
nodeset="//xf:model/xf:instance/cf:data/lastname"
required="true()">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">TEXT</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="onerror">_CF_onError</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:bind>
<xf:bind id="email"
nodeset="//xf:model/xf:instance/cf:data/email" required="false()">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">TEXT</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="onerror">_CF_onError</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:bind>
<xf:bind id="satisfaction"
nodeset="//xf:model/xf:instance/cf:data/satisfaction"
required="false()">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">SELECT</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="onerror">_CF_onError</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:bind>
<xf:bind id="thoughts"
nodeset="//xf:model/xf:instance/cf:data/thoughts" required="false()">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">TEXT</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="onerror">_CF_onError</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:bind>

Control elements
The XML tags that follow the xf:bind element specify the form controls and their layout. The XML includes one
element for each form control and cfformitem or cfformgroup tag.
CFML to XML tag mapping
ColdFusion maps CFML tags to XForms elements and ColdFusion extensions as the following table shows:
CFML tag

XML tag

cfinput type="text"

xf:input

cfinput type="password"

xf:secret

cfinput type="hidden"

None: instance data only

cfinput type="file"

xf:upload

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CFML tag

XML tag

cfinput type="radio"

xf:select1

cfinput type="checkbox"

xf:select

cfinput type="button"

xf:trigger

cfinput type="image"

xf:submit

cfinput type="reset"

xf:submit

cfinput type="submit"

xf:submit

cfselect multiple="false"

xf:select1

cfselect multiple="true"

xf:select

cftextarea

xf:textarea

cfslider

xf:range

cfgrid

cf:grid

cftree

cf:tree

cfformitem type="text"

xf:output

cfformitem type="html"

xf:output

cfformitem type="*" (all but text, html)

xf:group appearance="*"

cfformgroup type="*"

xf:group appearance="*"

ColdFusion converts cfformitem tags with text and html type attributes to XForms output elements with the tag
body in a <![CDATA[ section. It converts all other cfformitem tags to XForms group elements, and sets each
elements appearance attribute to the cfformitem tags type attribute. The XSLT must process these elements to
produce meaningful output. For example, the ColdFusion default skin transform displays the xf:output text blocks
and processes the xf:groupappearance="hrule" element, but it ignores all other xf:group elements.
General control element structure
Each control element that a standard XForms control element can represent has the following general structure.
<xf:tagname bind="bindid" id="bindid">
<xf:label>label</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">controltype</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="attribname>attribvalue</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="attribname>attribvalue</cf:attribute>
.
.
.
</xf:extension>
</xf:tagname>

The following table describes the variable parts of this structure:

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Part

Description

tagname

The xf or cf namespace element name, as identified in the table in CFML to XML tag mapping on page 792.

bindid

ID attribute of the model xf:bind element for this control. Specified by the controls CFML tag name attribute.

label

Control label text. Specified by one of the following:

controltype

The CFML tag label attribute

The value attribute of the radiobutton, radio, submit, and resetcfinput tags

The tag body content of cfselectoption subtags,

Not used for cfgrid and cftree tags.

Type of control. One of the following:

The cfinputtype attribute

Select, slider, or textarea, for the cfselect, cfslider, or cftextarea tags, respectively.

Not used for cfgrid and cftree tags.

attribname

Name of a CFML tag attribute. There is a cf:attribute tag for each attribute specified in the CFML code that
does not otherwise have an entry in the XML.

attribvalue

Value of a CFML tag attribute.

Tag-specific element structure

The information described here about the tag-specific features of the XML for several types of input tags is not allinclusive. For the specific structure of any ColdFusion form tag, see the XML generated from the tag by ColdFusion.

Selection tags
Tags that are used for selection, cfselect, cfinputtype="radio", and cfinputtype="checkbox" are converted to
XForms select and select1 elements. These elements include an xf:choices element, which in turn has an
xf:item element for each item a user can choose. Each item normally has an xf:label element and an xf:value
element. Check boxes have a single item; select and radio button controls have more than one.
The following example shows the CFML code for a group of two radio buttons, followed by the generated XML control
elements. This example also shows the use of a cfformgroup tag to arrange and label the radio button group.
CFML
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="Accept?">
<cfinput type = "Radio" name = "YesNo" value = "Yes" checked>
<cfinput type = "Radio" name = "YesNo" value = "No">
</cfformgroup>

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XML
<xf:group appearance="horizontal">
<xf:label>Accept?</xf:label>
<xf:extension/>
<xf:select1 appearance="full" bind="YesNo" id="YesNo">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">radio</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
<xf:choices>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>Yes</xf:label>
<xf:value>Yes</xf:value>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="checked">checked</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:item>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>No</xf:label>
<xf:value>No</xf:value>
<xf:extension/>
</xf:item>
</xf:choices>
</xf:select1>
</xf:group>

cfgrid tags
ColdFusion represents a cfgrid tag using the cf:grid XML tag. This tag has four attributes: format, which can be
Flash, Applet, or XML; and the id, name, and bind attributes, which all have the value of the cfgrid tag name attribute.
For applet and Flash format grids, ColdFusion inserts cfgrid controls in the XML as HTML embed objects in
<![CDATA[ sections in the body of a cf:grid tag. The controls can be Java applets or in SWF file format.
For XML format grids, ColdFusion converts the CFML to XML in the following format:

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<cf:grid bind="gridname" name="gridname" format="xml" id="gridname>

<metadata>
<cfgridAttribute1>attributeValue</cfgridAttribute1>
...
(There are an entry for attributes with a specified or default value.)
</metadata>
<columns>
<column cfgridcolumnAttribute1="value" ... />
...
</columns>
<rows>
<row>
<column1Name>row1Column1Value</column1Name>
<column2Name>row1Column2Value</column2Name>
...
</row>
<row>
<column1Name>row2Column1Value</column1Name>
<column2Name>row2Column2Value</column2Name>
</row>
...
</rows>
</cf:grid>

The following example shows a minimal grid with two nodes.

CFML
<cfgrid name="mygrid" Format="xml" selectmode="Edit" width="350">
<cfgridcolumn name="CorName" header="Course Name" >
<cfgridcolumn name="Course_ID" header="ID">
<cfgridrow data="one0,two0">
<cfgridrow data="one1,two1">
</cfgrid>

XML
Most metadata lines are omitted for brevity:

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<cf:grid bind="mygrid" format="XML" id="mygrid" name="mygrid">

<metadata>
<autowidth>false</autowidth>
<insert>false</insert>
<delete>false</delete>
<sort>false</sort>
<italic>false</italic>
<bold>false</bold>
<appendkey>true</appendkey>
<highlughthref>true</highlughthref>
<griddatalines>Left</griddatalines>
<gridlines>true</gridlines>
<rowheaders>true</rowheaders>
<rowheaderalign>Left</rowheaderalign>
<rowheaderitalic>false</rowheaderitalic>
<rowheaderbold>false</rowheaderbold>
<colheaders>true</colheaders>
<colheaderalign>Left</colheaderalign>
<colheaderitalic>false</colheaderitalic>
<colheaderbold>false</colheaderbold>
<selectmode>Edit</selectmode>
<notsupported>&lt;b&gt; Browser must support Java to view ColdFusion Java
Applets&lt;/b&gt;</notsupported>
<picturebar>false</picturebar>
<insertbutton>insert</insertbutton>
<deletebutton>delete</deletebutton>
<sortAscendingButton>SortAsc</sortAscendingButton>
<sortDescendingButton>SortDesc</sortDescendingButton>
</metadata>
<columns>
<column bold="false" display="true" header="Course Name"
headerBold="false" headerItalic="false" italic="false"
name="CorName" select="true"/>
<column bold="false" display="true" header="ID"
headerBold="false" headerItalic="false" italic="false"
name="Course_ID" select="true"/>
</columns>
<rows>
<row>
<CorName>one0</CorName>
<Course_ID>two0</Course_ID>
</row>
<row>
<CorName>one1</CorName>
<Course_ID>two1</Course_ID>
</row>
</rows>
</cf:grid>

The cftree tags

For applet and Flash format trees, ColdFusion inserts cftree controls in the XML as HTML embed objects in
<![CDATA[ sections in the tag body. The controls can be Java applets or in Flash SWF file format. The cf:tree XML
tag has two attributes: format, which can be Flash or Applet, and id.
For XML format trees, ColdFusion converts the CFML to XML in the following format:

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cf:tree format="XML" id="treename>

<metadata>
<cftreeAttribute1>attributeValue</cftreeAttribute1>
...
</metadata>
<node cfml tree item attributes>
<node //nested node with no children
cfml tree item attributes />
...
</node>
...
</cf:tree>

The following example shows a minimal tree with two nodes:

CFML
<cfform name="form2" Format="XML" >
<cftree name="tree1" hscroll="No" vscroll="No" format="xml"
border="No">
<cftreeitem value="Divisions">
<cftreeitem value="Development"
parent="Divisions" img="folder">
</cftree>
</cfform>

XML
The following code shows only the XML that is related to the tree appearance:
<cf:tree format="xml" id="tree1">
<metadata>
<fontWeight/>
<align/>
<lookAndFeel>windows</lookAndFeel>
<delimiter>\</delimiter>
<completePath>false</completePath>
<border>false</border>
<hScroll>false</hScroll>
<vScroll>false</vScroll>
<appendKey>true</appendKey>
<highlightHref>true</highlightHref>
<italic>false</italic>
<bold>false</bold>
</metadata>
<node display="Divisions" expand="true" href="" img=""
imgOpen="" parent="" path="Divisions" queryAsRoot="true"
value="Divisions">
<node display="Development" expand="true" href=""
img="folder" imgOpen="" parent="Divisions"
path="Divisions\Development" queryAsRoot="true"
value="Development"/>
</node>
</cf:tree>

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The cfformgroup and cfformitem tags

All cfformgroup tags and all cfformitem tags, except type="html" and type="text", generate xf:group
elements. The following rules determine the element structure:

The CFML tag type attribute determines the xf:groupappearance attribute.

ColdFusion converts type attribute values to all-lowercase characters.
For cfformgroup tags only, the CFML label attribute determines the xf:grouplabel attribute.
All other CFML attributes are placed in cf:attribute elements in a xf:extension element.
The cfformitem tags generate an xf:output element with the body text in a <![CDATA[ section.
The following example shows two cformitem tags, and the resulting XML:
CFML
<cfformitem name="text1" type="text" style="color:green">
Please tell us a little about yourself and your thoughts.
</cfformitem>
<cfformitem type="hrule" height="3" width="200" testattribute="testvalue" />

XML
<xf:output><![CDATA[Please tell us a little about yourself and your
thoughts.]]>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="style">color:green</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:output>
<xf:group appearance="hrule">
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="width">200</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="height">3</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="testattribute">testvalue</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:group>

Example: control element XML

The following code shows the XML for the input controls for the form shown in the image in About XML skinnable
forms on page 783. This code immediately follows the end of the xf:model element.

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<xf:group appearance="horizontal">
<xf:label>name</xf:label>
<xf:extension/>
<xf:input bind="firstname" id="firstname">
<xf:label>First</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">text</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="size">20</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:input>
<xf:input bind="lastname" id="lastname">
<xf:label>Last</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">text</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="size">25</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:input>
</xf:group>
<xf:input bind="email" id="email">
<xf:label>Email</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">text</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="validation">email</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:input>
<xf:output><![CDATA[<b>We value your input</b>.<br>
<em>Please tell us a little about yourself and your thoughts.</em>]]>
<xf:extension/>
</xf:output>
<xf:group appearance="vertical">
<xf:extension/>
<xf:select1 appearance="minimal" bind="satisfaction" id="satisfaction">
<xf:label>Satisfaction</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">select</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="style">width:200</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
<xf:choices>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>very satisfied</xf:label>
<xf:value>very satisfied</xf:value>
</xf:item>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>somewhat satisfied</xf:label>
<xf:value>somewhat satisfied</xf:value>
</xf:item>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>somewhat dissatisfied</xf:label>
<xf:value>somewhat dissatisfied</xf:value>
</xf:item>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>very dissatisfied</xf:label>
<xf:value>very dissatisfied</xf:value>
</xf:item>
<xf:item>
<xf:label>no opinion</xf:label>
<xf:value>no opinion</xf:value>

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</xf:item>
</xf:choices>
</xf:select1>
<xf:textarea bind="thoughts" id="thoughts">
<xf:label>Additional Comments</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">textarea</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="rows">5</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="cols">40</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:textarea>
</xf:group>
<xf:group appearance="horizontal">
<xf:extension/>
<xf:submit id="submit" submission="comments">
<xf:label>Tell Us</xf:label>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="type">submit</cf:attribute>
<cf:attribute name="name">submit</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:submit>
<xf:submit id="reset">
<xf:label>Clear Fields</xf:label>
<reset ev:event="DOMActivate"/>
<xf:extension>
<cf:attribute name="name">reset</cf:attribute>
</xf:extension>
</xf:submit>
</xf:group>

Creating XSLT skins

You can create your own XSLT skins to process the XML that ColdFusion generates. You must be familiar with XSLT
and CSS programming. General information on writing XSLT transformations or CSS styles is not provided here.
However, information about the following areas is provided:

How ColdFusion passes form attribute values to the XML file

How to extend XSLT skins that ColdFusion provides as templates
Basic techniques for extending the basic.xsl file to support additional cfformgroup and cfformitem tag type
attributes

How to extend the ColdFusion CSS files to enhance form appearance.

XSLT skin file locations

If you specify an XSLT skin by name and omit the .xsl extension, ColdFusion looks for the file in the cfform script
source directory and its subdirectories. You can specify the script source directory in your cfform tag scriptsrc
attribute, and you can set a default location on the Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator. When you install
ColdFusion, the default location is set to /CFIDE/scripts/ (relative to the web root).
You can also use a relative or absolute file path, or a URL, to specify the XSLT skin location. ColdFusion uses the
directory of the CFML page as the root of relative paths. The following formats are valid:

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Format

Location

<cfform format="xml" skin="basic">

Searches for XML/CSS in the default directory and its

subdirectories.

<cfform format="xml" skin="c:\foo\bar\basic.xsl">

Uses the absolute path.

<cfform format="xml" skin="basic.xsl">

Searches in the current directory.

<cfform format="xml" skin="..\basic.xsl:">

Searches the parent of the current directory.

<cfform format="xml" skin="http://anywhereOnTheWeb/basic.xsl">

Uses the specified URL.

Note: Hosting companies sometimes move the default skin location folder out of CFIDE. Doing this lets them secure the
CFIDE while giving site developers access to the files that you need for cfform.

Attribute and value passthrough

ColdFusion passes form tag attributes or attribute values that it does not specifically process directly to the XML, as
follows:

It converts cfformitem and cfformgrouptype attributes to xf:group element appearance attributes.

It passes the name and value of tag attributes that it does not recognize or process in cf:attribute elements.
This passthrough feature lets you create custom versions of any of the following items for your XSLT to process:

The cfformitem types, such as rules, spacers, or other display elements

The cfgroup types, such as divided boxes or tabbed dialog boxes
The custom cfinput types, such as a custom year chooser element
ColdFusion tag attributes, such as those used to control validation

Extending ColdFusion XSLT skins

ColdFusion provides basic XSLT transforms that you can use as templates and extend for making your own skin. Each
skin has a base XSL file, which include several utility XSL files. Utility filenames start with an underscore (_), and
multiple base skins share the files. The following table describes the XSL files, which are located in the cf_webroot\\x
File

Description

default.xsl

The default transform that ColdFusion uses if you do not specify a skin attribute for an XML format form.
Identical to the basic.xsl file.

basic.xsl

A basic form format that arranges form elements using a table.

basiccss.xsl

A basic form format that arranges form elements using HTML div and span tags.

colorname.xsl

A basic form format that arranges form elements using a table and applies a color scheme determined by
the colorname to the form. Based on the basic.xsl file.

_cfformvalidation.xsl

Applies ColdFusion validation rules. Used by all skins.

_formelements.xsl

Transformation rules for form elements except for those defined using cfformgroup tags. Used by all
skins

_group_type.xsl

Transformation rules for cfformgroup tags. The tag type attribute is part of the filename. Files with table
in the name are used by basic.xsl and its derivatives. Files with css in the name are used by basiccss.xsl.

_group_type_table.xsl
_group_type_css.xsl

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All skins support the same set of CFML tags and tag types, and do a relatively simple transformation from XML to
HTML. For example, they do not support horizontal or vertical rules.
The ColdFusion skin XSL files have several features that you can use when designing and developing your own
transformation. They do the following:

Provide an overall structure and initial templates for implementing custom transformations.
Show how you can handle the various elements in the ColdFusion-generated XML.
Use a structure of included files that can form a template for your XSLT code.
The base XSL files include a separate file, _cfformvalidation.xsl, with complete code for generating the hidden fields
required for ColdFusion onServer validation and the JavaScript for performing ColdFusion onSubmit and onBlur
validation. You can include this file without modification to do ColdFusion validation in your XSLT template, or
you can change it to add other forms of validation or to change the validation rules.

The base XSL files include files, that implement several form groups, laying out the child tags and applying a label
to the group. These files can serve as templates for implementing additional form group types or you can expand
them to provide more sophisticated horizontal and vertical form groups.

You can add custom cfformgroup and cfformitemtype attributes by including additional XSL files.
Extending basic.xsl cfformgroup and cfformitem support
The following procedure describes the steps for extending the basic.xsl file to support additional cfformgroup and
cfformitem types. You can use similar procedures to extend other xsl files.
Add support for cfformgroup and cfformitem types to the basic.xsl
1 Create an XSL file.
2 For each type attribute that you want to support, create an xsl:template element to do the formatting. The match

attribute of the element must have the following format:

match="xf:group[@appearance='type_attribute_name']"

For example, to add a panel cfformgroup type, add an element with a start tag such as the following:
<xsl:template match="xf:group[@appearance='panel']">

3 Deploy your XSL file or files to the cf_webroot\\x

4 Add an include statement to the basic.xsl file at the end of the Supported groups section; for example, if you create

a my_group_panel.xsl file to handle a panel cfformgroup type, your basic.xsl file would include the following lines:
<!-- include
<xsl:include
<xsl:include
<xsl:include
<xsl:include

groups that will be supported for this skin-->

href="_group_vertical_table.xsl" />
href="_group_horizontal_table.xsl" />
href="_group_fieldset.xsl"/>
href="my_group_panel.xsl" />

Styling forms by extending the ColdFusion CSS files

Each ColdFusion skinnable form XSL file uses a corresponding CSS style sheet to specify the form style and layout
characteristics. The following CSS files are located in the cf_webroot\CFIDE\scripts\css directory:

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File

Description

basic_style.css

Provides a plain style for ColdFusion XSL files that use table-based formatting. These files are identical and
are used by the basic.xsl and default.xsl transforms. ColdFusion uses the default_style.css if you do not
specify a skin in your cfform tag.

default_style.css
basic2_style.css

The basic_style with limited positioning changes for use with XSL files that have div-based formatting.
Used by the basiccss.xsl transform.

css_layout.css

Style specifications for laying out forms that use div-based formatting. Used by the basiccss.xsl transform.

colorname_style.css

Used by the color-formatted ColdFusion skins. Defines the same classes as basic_style.css, with additional
property specifications.

The ColdFusion XSL files and their corresponding CSS style sheets use classes extensively to format the form. The
basic.xsl file, for example, has only one element style; all other styles are class-based. Although the CSS files contain
specifications for all classes used in the XSL files, they do not always contain formatting information. The horizontal
class definition in basic_style.css, which is used for horizontal form groups, for example, is empty.
You can enhance the style of XML skinnable forms without changing the XSL transform by enhancing the style sheets
that ColdFusion provides.

Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features

Use Adobe ColdFusion Ajax-based layout and form controls and other Ajax-based user interface capabilities to create
a dynamic application.
For information about how ColdFusion uses the Ajax framework in general, or how to use ColdFusion Ajax data and
programming capabilities, including binding to form data and managing JavaScript resources, see Using Ajax Data
and Development Features on page 858.

About Ajax and ColdFusion user interface features

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a set of web technologies for creating interactive web applications. Ajax
applications typically combine:

HTML and CSS for formatting and displaying information.

JavaScript for client-side dynamic scripting
Asynchronous communication with a server using the XMLHttpRequest function.
XML or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as a technique for serializing and transferring data between the sever
and the client.
ColdFusion provides many tools that simplify using Ajax technologies for dynamic applications. By using ColdFusion
tags and functions, you can easily create complex Ajax applications.

ColdFusion Ajax features

ColdFusion provides two types of Ajax features:

Data and development features

User interface features

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Data and development features

ColdFusion data and development features help you develop effective Ajax applications that use ColdFusion to
provide dynamic data. They include many features that you can use with other Ajax frameworks, including Spry.
The following data and development features are important for use with form and layout tags:

ColdFusion supports data binding in many tags. Binding allows form and display tags to dynamically display
information based on form input. In the simplest application, you display form data directly in other form fields.
But usually, you pass form field data as parameters to CFC or JavaScript functions or CFM pages, and use the results
to control the display.

The cfajaximport tag specifies the location of the JavaScript and CSS files that a ColdFusion page imports or to
selectively import files required by specific tags. The ability to change the file location lets you support a wide range
of configurations and use advanced techniques, such as application-specific styles.
For more information about the data and development features and how to use them, see Using Ajax Data and
Development Features on page 858.
User Interface tags and features
Several ColdFusion user interface elements incorporate Ajax features. The tags and tag-attribute combinations can be
divided into the following categories:

Container tags that lay out or display contents

File management tags that handle files
Form tags that dynamically display data
A menu tag that lets you create menu bars and pull-down menus
User assistance features that provide tool tips and form completion
Four other tags for using geographical maps, progress bar, media player, and message box.
The following table lists the basic tags and attributes that display the Ajax-based features. For information on
additional forms-specific features, see Using Ajax form controls and features on page 820.
Tag/attribute

Description

Container tags
cfdiv

An HTML div region that can be dynamically populated by a bind expression. Forms
in this region submit asynchronously.

cflayout

A horizontal or vertical box, a tabbed region, or a set of bordered regions that can
include a top, bottom, left, right, and center regions.

cflayoutarea

An individual region within a cflayout area, such as the display that appears in a
tabbed layout when the user select a tab. Forms in this region submit asynchronously.

cfpod

An area of the browser window with an optional title bar and a body that contains
display elements. Forms in this region submit asynchronously.

cfwindow

A pop-up window within the browser. You can also use the
ColdFusion.Window.createWindow function to create a pop-up window. Forms
in this region submit asynchronously.

File management tags

cffileupload

A dialog for uploading multiple files from the user's system.

Forms tags

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Tag/attribute

Description

cfgrid format="html"

A dynamic, editable, sortable, data grid.

cfinput type="datefield"

An input control that users can fill by selecting a date from a pop-up calendar.

cftextarea richtext="yes"

A text area with a set of controls that let users format the displayed text.

cftree format="html"

A dynamic tree-format representation of data.

cfslider

A slider control, for selecting a numeric value from a range, in a ColdFusion form.

Menu tags
cfmenu

A menu bar or the root of a drop-down menu.

cfmenuitem

An individual item in a menu, or the root of a submenu.

User assistance tags and attributes

cfinput type="text"
autosuggest="bindexpression"

A drop-down autofill suggestion box. As the user types, a list appears with completion
suggestions based on the text the user has typed.

cftooltip tag, and the tooltip attribute on

cfinput, cfselect, cftextarea controls

A textual description of a control or region that appears when the user hovers the
mouse over the control or region.

Other tags
cfprogressbar

A progress bar to indicate the progress of an activity such as a file download.

cfmap

A geographical map within a ColdFusion web page.

cfmediaplayer

An inbuild media player.

cfmessagebox

A control for displaying pop-up messages.

In addition to the tags and attributes, ColdFusion provides many JavaScript functions that let you control and manage
the display. Many functions control the display of specific tags. For example, you can use JavaScript functions to
dynamically display and hide the window. There are also several utility tags, such as the
ColdFusion.getElementValue function that gets the value of a control attribute, or the ColdFusion.navigate
function that displays the results of a URL in a container tag. For a complete list of all ColdFusion Ajax JavaScript
functions, and detailed function descriptions, see Ajax JavaScript Functions in the CFML Reference.

Using ColdFusion Ajax user interface features

ColdFusion Ajax user interface features let you create data-driven pages that update dynamically without requiring
multiple HTML pages or page refreshes or non-HTML display tools such as Flash forms. Many user interface features
use data binding to dynamically get data based on other data values: form field values, form control selections, and
selections in Spry data sets.
ColdFusion Ajax user interface controls and features can be divided into two major categories:

Display layout
Data interaction
Display layout controls include the cflayout, cfpod, and cfwindow controls. Some of the data interaction features
include the HTML cfgrid control, the cfmenu control, and dynamic autosuggest lists for text input controls. Most
display layout and data interaction features can use data binding to dynamically interact with the user.

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ColdFusion Ajax user interface features are based on the Yahoo User Interface Library and the Ext JavaScript Library.
Also, the cftextarea rich text editor is based on the FCKeditor text editor. In most situations, you require only
ColdFusion tags and functions (including JavaScript functions) to create and manage the interface. However,
advanced developers can modify the library code, particularly the CSS styles, to customize the controls in more
complex ways.

Controlling Ajax user interface layout

The following layout tags let you dynamically control the display:

cfdiv
cflayout
cfpod
cfwindow
For information about how you can use these tags to submit form contents asynchronously, see Using Ajax containers
for form submission on page 820.

Using the cfdiv tag

The cfdiv tag is a general-purpose container that lets you use a bind expression to specify its contents. It therefore lets
you dynamically refresh any arbitrary region on the page based on bind events. By default, the tag creates an HTML
div region, but it can create any HTML tag with body contents. Unlike other ColdFusion Ajax container tags, you can
use any type of bind expression to populate contents: CFC or JavaScript function, URL, or a string with bind
parameters. As a result, the cfdiv tag provides substantial flexibility in dynamically populating the page contents.
The cfdiv tag is also useful if you want a form to submit asynchronously. That is, whether or not you use a bind
expression to populate the tag. If you submit a form that is inside a cfdiv tag (including in HTML returned by a bind
expression), the form submits asynchronously. The response from the form submission populates the cfdiv region.
(The cflayoutarea, cfwindow, and cfpod tags have the same behavior.) For example, you could have a page with a
form that includes a list of artists, and lets you add artists. If the form is in a cfdiv tag, when the user submits the form,
the entire page is not refreshed, only the region inside the cfdiv tag. For an example of using container controls for
asynchronous forms, see Using Ajax containers for form submission on page 820.
One use case for a cfdiv tag is an application where a cfgrid tag displays an employee list. Details of the selected row
in the grid are displayed inside a cfdiv tag with a bind expression that specifies the cfgrid in a bind parameter. As
users click through different employees on the grid, they get the employee details in the cfdiv region.
The following simple example shows how you can use the cfdiv tag to get data using a bind expression. It uses binding
to display the contents of a text input field in an HTML div region. When a user enters text in the input box and tabs
out of it, or clicks another region of the application, the div region displays the entered text.
The cfdiv tag.cfm file, the main application file, has the following contents.

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>cfdiv Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfform>
<cfinput name="tinput1" type="text">
</cfform>
<h3> using a div</h3>
<cfdiv bind="url:divsource.cfm?InputText={tinput1}" ID="theDiv"
style="background-color:##CCffFF; color:red; height:350"/>
</body>
</html>

The divsource.cfm file that defines the contents of the div region has the following code:
<h3>Echoing main page input:</h3>
<cfoutput>
<cfif isdefined("url.InputText")>
#url.InputText#
<cfelse>
No input
</cfif>
</cfoutput>

Using layouts
The cflayout tag controls the appearance and arrangement of one or more child cflayoutarea regions. The
cflayoutarea regions contain display elements and can be arranged in one of the following ways:

Horizontally or vertically.
In a free-form bordered grid (panel layout) with up to five regions: top, bottom, left. right, and center. You can
optionally configure the layout so that users can resize or collapse any or all of the regions, except the center region.
The center region grows or shrinks to take up any space that other regions do not use. You can also dynamically
show or hide individual regions, or let users collapse, expand, or close regions.

As a tabbed display, where selecting a tab changes the display region to show the contents of the tabs layout area.
You can dynamically show and hide, and enable and disable tabs, and optionally let users close tabs.
You can configure a layout area to have scroll bars all the time, only when the area content exceeds the available screen
size, or never. You can let layout area contents extend beyond the layout area. You can also nest layouts inside layout
areas to create complex displays.
You can define the layout area content in the cflayoutarea tag body. But, you can also use a bind expression to
dynamically get the content by calling a CFC function, requesting a CFML page, or calling a JavaScript function.
ColdFusion provides many JavaScript functions for managing layouts, including functions to collapse, expand, show,
and hide border areas; and to create, enable, disable, select, show, and hide tabs. For a complete list of functions, see
Ajax JavaScript Functions in the CFML Reference.
The following example shows the use of a tabbed layout, including the use of JavaScript functions to enable and disable
a tab, and to show and hide a tab.

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<!--- The tabheight attribute sets the height of all tab content areas and therefore the
layout height. The width style controls the layout width. --->
<cflayout type="tab" name="mainTab" tabheight="300px" style="width:400px">
<!--- Each layoutarea is one tab. --->
<cflayoutarea title="First Tab" name="tab1">
<h2>The First Tab</h2>
<p>
Here are the contents of the first tab.
</p>
</cflayoutarea>
<cflayoutarea title="Second Tab" name="tab2">
<h2>The Second Tab</h2>
<p>
This is the content of the second tab.
</p>
</cflayoutarea>
</cflayout>
<p>
Use these links to test selecting tabs via JavaScript:<br />
<a href="" onClick="ColdFusion.Layout.selectTab('mainTab','tab1');return false;">
Click here to select tab 1.</a><br />
<a href="" onClick="ColdFusion.Layout.selectTab('mainTab','tab2');return false;">
Click here to select tab 2.</a><br />
</p>
<p>
Use these links to test disabling/enabling via JavaScript. Notice that you cannot disable
the currently selected tab.<br />
<a href="" onClick="ColdFusion.Layout.enableTab('mainTab','tab1');return false;">
Click here to enable tab 1.</a><br />
<a href="" onClick="ColdFusion.Layout.disableTab('mainTab','tab1');return false;">
Click here to disable tab 1.</a><br />
</p>
</body>
</html>

For an example that uses a bordered layout with cfpod children, see the next section. For another example of a tab
layout, see the cflayoutarea tag in the CFML Reference. For an example of a bordered layout nested inside a layout area
of a vertical layout, see cflayout in the CFML Reference.

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Styling layouts
The cflayout and cflayoutarea tags have style attributes. The cflayout tag style attribute controls the style of
the layout container, and sets default values for many, but not all, styles for the layout areas. For example, the color and
background color styles of the cflayout tag set the default text and background colors in the layout areas. But the
cflayout tag border style sets only the color of the border around the entire layout, not the layout area borders. The
cflayoutarea tag style attribute controls the style of the individual layout area and overrides any corresponding
settings in the cflayout tag.
As is often the case with complex controls, the effects of layout and layout area styles can vary. For example, do not
often specify the height style in the cflayout tag; instead, specify height styles on each of the cflayoutarea tags.
The following simple example shows a tab layout with two layout areas. The layout has a light pink background color,
and the layout areas have three pixel-wide red borders.:
<cflayout name="layout1" type="tab" style="background-color:##FFCCCC">
<cflayoutarea title="area1" style="border:3px solid red">
Layout area 1
</cflayoutarea>
<cflayoutarea title="area1" style="border:3px solid red">
Layout area 2
</cflayoutarea>
</cflayout>

Using pods
The cfpod control creates a content region with a title bar and surrounding border. You can define the pod content in
the cfpod tag body, or you can use a bind expression to dynamically get the content from a URL. Pods are frequently
used for portlets in a web portal interface and for similar displays that are divided into independent, possibly
interactive, regions.
You control the pod header style and body style independently by specifying CSS style properties in the headerStyle
and bodyStyle attributes.
The following example uses multiple pods inside cflayoutarea tags to create a simple portal. The time pod gets the
current time from a CFML page. The contents of the other pods is defined in the cfpod bodies for simplicity. Each pod
uses the headerStyle and bodyStyle attributes to control the appearance.
The cfpodExample.cfm application has the following code:

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<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cflayout name="theLayout" type="border" style="height:300;">
<cflayoutarea position="left" size="300" style="float:right;">
<cfpod width="300" name="theNews" title="All the latest news"
headerstyle="background-color:##DDAADD; font-size:large;
font-style:italic; color:black"
bodyStyle="background-color:##FFCCFF; font-family:sans-serif;
font-size:80%">
Contents of a news feed would go here.
</cfpod>
</cflayoutarea>
<cflayoutarea position="center" align="center" >
<cfpod name="theSports" width="500"
title="What's new in your favorite sports"
headerstyle="background-color:##AADDDD; font-size:large;
font-style:italic; color:black"
bodyStyle="background-color:##CCFFFF; font-family:sans-serif;
font-size:90%">
Contents of a sports feed would go here.
</cfpod>
</cflayoutarea>
<cflayoutarea position="right" size="302">
<cfpod width="300" height="20" name="thetime" title="The Weather"
source="podweather.cfm"
headerstyle="background-color:##DDAADD; font-style:italic;
color:black"
bodyStyle="background-color:##FFCCFF; font-family:sans-serif;
font-size:80%" />
<cfpod width="300" name="thestocks" title="What's new in business"
headerstyle="background-color:##DDAADD; font-size:large;
color:black; font-style:italic"
bodyStyle="background-color:##FFCCFF; font-family:sans-serif;
font-size:80%">
Contents of a news feed would go here.
</cfpod>
</cflayoutarea>
</cflayout>
</body>
</html>

In this example, the podweather.cfm page contains only the following line. A more complete example would
dynamically get the weather from a feed and format it for display.
Partly Cloudy, 76 degrees

Using pop-up windows

ColdFusion HTML pop-up windows have the following characteristics:

They have title bars

They float over the browser window and can be placed at an arbitrary location over the window.

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They can be modal (users cannot interact with the main window when the pop-up window is displayed) or nonmodal (users can interact with both windows).

You can specify that the user can drag, close, or resize the window.
You can create and show a window independently. After you create the window, you can use JavaScript functions
to show and hide it multiple times without having to create it again.
Display and hide windows
You display a window in the following ways:

By using a ColdFusion cfwindow tag with an initShow attribute value of to create and show the window.
By using a ColdFusion cfwindow tag with an initShow attribute value of false and calling the
ColdFusion.Window.show JavaScript function to display it.

By using ColdFusion.Window.create and ColdFusion.Window.show JavaScript functions.

You can hide a window that is currently showing by calling the ColdFusion.Window.hide function. You can use the
ColdFusion.Window.onShow and ColdFusion.Window.onhide functions to specify JavaScript functions to run
when a window shows or hides.
The following example shows how you can create, display, and hide a window. It also shows several of the
configuration options that you can set, including whether the user can close, drag, or resize the window. When you
run the application, the cfwindow tag creates and shows Window 1. You can then hide it and reshow it. To show
Window 2, click the Create Window 2 button, followed by the Show Window 2 button. You can then hide and show it.
The following example shows the main application page:
<html>
<head>
<script>
<!-//Configuration parameters for window 2.
var config =
{x:250,y:300,height:300,width:300,modal:false,closable:false,
draggable:true,resizable:true,initshow:false,minheight:200,minwidth:200
}
-->
</script>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Create a window with a title and show it. Don't allow dragging or resizing. --->
<cfwindow name="window1" title="CFML Window" draggable="false"
resizable="false" initshow="true" height="250" width="250" x=375 y=0>
<p>
This content was defined in the cfwindow tag body.
</p>
</cfwindow>

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<form>
<!--- Use the API to show and hide Window 1. --->
<input type="button" value="Show Window1"
onClick="ColdFusion.Window.show('window1')">
<input type="button" value="Hide Window1"
onClick="ColdFusion.Window.hide('window1')"><br />
<!--- Use the API to create, show, and hide Window 2 --->
<input type="button" value="Create Window2"
onClick="ColdFusion.Window.create('window2', 'JavaScript Window',
'window2.cfm', config)">
<input type="button" value="Show Window2"
onClick="ColdFusion.Window.show('window2')">
<input type="button" value="Hide Window2"
onClick="ColdFusion.Window.hide('window2')">
</form>
</body>
</html>

The window2.cfm file with the contents of Window 2 has the following contents:
<cfoutput>
<p>
This content was loaded into window 2 from a URL.<br />
</p>
</cfoutput>

Use the window show and hide events

You can use the onShow and onHide events that are triggered each time a window shows and hides to control your
application. To do so, call the ColdFusion.Window.onShow and ColdFusion.Window.onHide functions to specify the
event handlers. Both functions take the window name and the handler function as parameters. The event handler
functions can take a single parameter, the window name.
The following example displays an alert message when a window hides or shows. The alert message includes the
window name. The alert does not show when the window first appears, because the cfwindow tag uses the initShow
attribute to initially display the window. An alert message does appear when the user hides the window by clicking the
Toggle Window button or the close button on the window.

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<html>
<head>
<script language="javascript">
//Boolean value tacking the window state.
var shown=true;
//Functions to display an alert box when
function onshow(name) {
alert("window shown = " + name);
}
function onhide(name) {
alert("window hidden = " + name);
}
//Initialize the window show/hide behavior.
function initWindow() {
ColdFusion.Window.onShow("testWindow", onshow);
ColdFusion.Window.onHide("testWindow", onhide);
}
//Show or hide the window, depending on its current state.
function toggleWindow() {
if (shown) {
ColdFusion.Window.hide("testWindow");
shown = false;
}
else {
ColdFusion.Window.show("testWindow");
shown = true;
}
}
</script>
</head>
<!-- The body tag onLoad event calls the window show/hide initializer function. -->
<body onLoad="initWindow()">
<cfwindow name="testWindow" initshow=true title="test window" closable=true> Window contents
</cfwindow>
<cfform>
<cfinput name="button" value="Toggle Window" onclick="javascript:toggleWindow()"
type="button"/>
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

Control container contents

ColdFusion provides a variety of ways to set and change container tag contents:

You can use bind expressions in the container tag source (or for cfdiv, bind) attribute. The container then
dynamically updates any time a bound control changes.

You can call the ColdFuson.navigate function to change the container body to be the contents returned by a
specified URL. This function lets you specify a callback handler to do additional processing after the new content
loads, and also lets you specify an error handler.

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The callback handler can be useful to provide information about a successful navigation operation. For example,
you could make a pod's title bar italic to indicate loading (just before the navigate call), and use the callback handler
to switch it back to normal once the navigate completes. Similarly, if a pod is showing pages from a book, the
callback handler could update a page number in a separate field once a page loads

You can use the special controlName_body variable to access and change the body contents for cfpod and
cfwindow controls. For example, you can use the controlName_body.innerHTML property to set the body HTML.
For cfpod and cfwindow tags, you can also use the controlName_title to get or set the title bar contents of the
control.

These different techniques provide you with flexibility in writing your code. For example, the ColdFuson.navigate
function and the controlName_body variable provide similar functionality. However, with the controlName_body
technique, you make explicit Ajax requests to get markup for the body, and the JavaScript functions in the retrieved
markup might not work properly. ColdFusion.navigate takes care of these issues. Therefore, limit use of the
controlName_body technique to simpler use cases.
The following example shows how you can use various techniques to change container contents. It consists of a main
page and a second windowsource.cfm page with text that appears in a main page window when you click a button. The
main page has a cfpod control, two cfwindow controls, and the following buttons:

The Simple navigate button calls a ColdFusion.navigate function to change the contents of the second
window.

The Change w2 body & title button replaces the second windows body and title innerHTML values directly to
specific strings.

The Change pod body button changes the pod body innerHTML to the value of the second windows title
innerHTML.
The following example shows the main page:
<html>
<head>
<!--- Callback handler puts text in the window.cfm callback div block. --->
<script language="javascript">
var mycallBack = function(){
document.getElementById("callback").innerHTML = "<br><br>
<b>This is printed by the callback handler.</b>";
}
<!--- The error handler pops an alert with the error code and message. --->
var myerrorHandler = function(errorCode,errorMessage){
alert("[In Error Handler]" + "\n\n" + "Error Code: " + errorCode + "\n\n" +
"Error Message: " + errorMessage);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<cfpod height="50" width="200" title="The Title" name="theTitle">
This is a cfpod control.
</cfpod><br>
<!--- Clicking the link runs a ColdFusion.navigate function that replaces the second window's
contents with windowsource.cfm. The callback handler then updates the window
contents further. --->
<cfwindow name="w1" title="CF Window 1" initShow=true
x=10 y=200 width="200">

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This is a cfwindow control.<br><br>

<a href="javascript:ColdFusion.navigate('windowsource.cfm','w2',
mycallBack,myerrorHandler);">Click</a> to navigate Window 2</a>
</cfwindow>
<cfwindow name="w2" title="CF Window 2" initShow=true
x=250 y=200 width="200">
This is a second cfwindow control.
</cfwindow>
<cfform>
<!--- This button only replaces the second window body with the body of the
windowsrc.cfm page. --->
<cfinput type="button" name="button" value="Simple navigate"
onClick="ColdFusion.navigate('windowsource.cfm','w2');">
<!--- This button replaces the second window body and title content. --->
<cfinput type="button" name="button2" value="Change w2 body & title"
onClick="w2_body.innerHTML='New body inner HTML';w2_title.innerHTML=
'New Title inner HTML'">
<!--- This button puts the second window title in the pod body. --->
<cfinput type="button" name="button3" value="Change pod body"
onClick="theTitle_body.innerHTML=w2_title.innerHTML;">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The following example shows the windowsource.cfm page:

This is markup from "windowsource.cfm"
<!--- The callback handler puts its output in the following div block. --->
<div id="callback"></div>

Using menus and toolbars

The cfmenu and cfmenuitem tags let you create vertical menus and horizontal toolbars.

Define menus and toolbars

Use a single cfmenu tag to define the general menu characteristics.
Create a horizontal (toolbar) menu or vertical menu by specifying a cfmenutype attribute value of horizontal or
vertical.

Menus can have submenus, but only the top menu can be horizontal. All children of a horizontal menu are vertical.
The top-level menu shows initially, a submenu shows when the user moves the mouse over the menu root in the
parent menu.

Use cfmenuitem tags to specify individual menu items.

To create submenus, nest cfmenuitem tags. The parent tag becomes the root of the submenu.
All cfmenuitem tags, except tags for dividers, must have a display attribute, which defines the text to show on the
menu item, and can optionally have an image attribute.

A horizontal menu has dividers between all items. You place dividers in vertical menus by specifying a cfmenuitem
tag with a divider attribute.

To make a menu item active, specify a href attribute with a URL or a JavaScript function to call when the user clicks
the menu item.

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The following example shows a simple horizontal menu with submenus that uses JavaScript to change the display
contents. When the user selects an end item in a menu, the text in the div block below the menu shows the path to the
selected menu.
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<!--- The selected function changes the text in the selectedItemLabel div block to show the
selected item. --->
<script type="text/javascript">
function selected(item) {
var el = document.getElementById("selectedItemLabel");
el.innerHTML = "You selected: " + item;
}
</script>
<!--- A horizontal menu with nested submenus. Clicking an end item calls the selected
function. --->
<cfmenu name="hmenu" bgcolor="##9999ff" selectedfontcolor="##0000dd"
selecteditemcolor="##ddddff">
<cfmenuitem display="Home" href="javascript:selected('Home');" />
<cfmenuitem display="File">
<cfmenuitem display="Open...">
<cfmenuitem display="Template" href="javascript:selected('File &gt;
Open... &gt; Template');" />
<cfmenuitem divider="true" />
<cfmenuitem display="CSS" href="javascript:selected('File &gt; Open... &gt;
CSS');" />
</cfmenuitem>
<cfmenuitem display="Close" href="javascript:selected('File &gt; Close');" />
</cfmenuitem>
<cfmenuitem display="Help">
<cfmenuitem display="About" href="javascript:selected('Help &gt; About');" />
</cfmenuitem>
</cfmenu>
<!--- A div with initial text.
The selected function changes the text by resetting the innerHTML. --->
<div style=" margin-top: 100; margin-left: 10;"><span id="selectedItemLabel">
Please select an item!</span></div>
</body>
</html>

Styling menus
The cfmenu and cfmenuitem tags have several attributes that let you easily control the menu appearance. These
attributes consist of two types: basic and CSS style. Basic attributes, such as the cfmenu tag fontColor attribute,
control individual menu characteristics. CSS style attributes let you specify a CSS style specification for a whole menu
or part of a menu. The following information describes how the CSS style specifications interact and affect the menu
style. For descriptions of all style-related attributes, see the cfmenu and cfmenuitem descriptions in the CFML
Reference.

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The cfmenu and cfmenuitem tags provide a hierarchy of CSS style attributes that affect different parts of the menu.
The following table describes these attributes in hierarchical order:
Attribute

Description

cfmenu attributes
menuStyle

Applies to the menu, including any parts of the menu that surround the menu items. If you do not
override this style in a cfmenu tag childStyle attribute or by specifying style information in the
cfmenuitem tags, this attribute controls the style of the top-level items.

childStyle

Applies to the items in the top level menu and all child menu items, including the children of submenus.
This attribute lets you use a single style specification for all menu items.

cfmenuitem attributes
style

Applies to the current menu item only. It is not overridden by the childStyleattribute.

menuStyle

Controls the overall style of any submenu of this menu item. This attribute controls the submenu of the
current menu item, but not to any child submenus of the submenu.

childStyle

Applies to all child menu items of the current menu item, including the children of submenus.

In addition to these styles, consider any style-related attributes, such as bgcolor, that you set on the cfmenu tag.
When you design your menu, keep in mind the following issues:

Keep font sizes at 20 pixels or smaller. Larger sizes can result in menu text in vertical menus exceeding the menu
boundaries.

Consider how the style attributes interact. Because each menu and submenu consists of a surrounding menu area
and individual child items, be careful when you choose background colors. For example, if you specify different
background-color styles in the cfmenu tags menuStyle and childStyle attributes, the menu items are one color
and the surrounding menu area are a different color.
For an application that shows some of the effects of menu style attributes, see the example in the cfmenuitem tag in
the CFML Reference.
ColdFusion attributes provide most style options that you are likely to require. However, you can, if necessary, modify
the basic menu styles for all menus by editing the menu-related styles in the CSS files in the yui.css file. This file is
located by default in the web_root/CFID/scripts/ajax/resources/yui directory. For more information about these styles,
see the Yahoo! User Interface Library menu documentation.

Uploading files
The cffileupload tag lets you select multiple files and upload them to a server.

Working with the cffileupload

The cffileupload tag displays a dialog that lets you upload multiple files. The following are the file upload features:

Uses callback and error handlers that lets provides control over file upload process after upload completion or if
errors occur.

Lets you style the file upload control

Provides option to stop or continue with upload in case of errors
Provides option to send custom response to callback and error handlers

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Sending custom response to the callback and error handlers

The page/URL that handles the upload operation on the server can send back a struct with the keys status and
message as shown here:
<cffile action = "upload"
destination = "#Expandpath('./upload')#"
nameconflict="makeunique">
<cfset str.STATUS = 200>
<cfset str.MESSAGE = "File Upload Successful"><cfoutput>#serializeJSON(str)#</cfoutput>

The following example illustrates the error handler:

<cftry>
<cffile action = "upload"
destination = "#Expandpath('./upload')#">
<cfcatch type="any">
<cfset str.STATUS = 500>
<cfset str.MESSAGE = "Error occurred while uploading the file">
<cfoutput>#serializeJSON(str)#</cfoutput>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

If the user tries to upload a file already present in the upload directory, it results in an error. The status and message
are set to the specifications in the catch block.
Using styles
The attributes headercolor, textcolor, bgcolor, titletextalign, titletextcolor, and rollovercolor lets
you style the file upload control.
The following example illustrates the styling of file upload control:
<cffileupload
url="uploadAll.cfm"
name="myuploader3"
align="right"
style="headercolor:silver;textcolor:1569C7;titletextalign:right;titletextcolor:black;bgcolor
:74BBFB;"/>

The following code shows how the attribute onUploadComplete is used:

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<!--- upload.cfm --->

<!--- <cffile action = "upload" destination = "#Expandpath('./upload')#"
nameconflict="makeunique"> --->
<script language="javascript">
var uploadCompleteHandler = function(obj){
var result = "Upload Details:" + "\n\n";
for(var i=0;i < obj.length; i++){
result = result + "FILENAME: " + obj[i].FILENAME + "\n" + "STATUS: " + obj[i].STATUS
+ "\n" + "MESSAGE: " + obj[i].MESSAGE + "\n\n";
}
}
</script>
<br>
<cffileupload
url="uploadall.cfm"
name="myuploader"
onUploadComplete="uploadCompleteHandler"
maxUploadSize=100
stopOnError=false
/>

Using Ajax form controls and features

ColdFusion HTML forms and controls provide the following Ajax-based features:

The cfgrid, cfinput, cfselect, cftextarea, and cftree controls support binding to get control contents.
ColdFusion functions support asynchronous submission of forms without refreshing the entire page. When a form
is in an Ajax container control, it is done automatically. Also, the ColdFusion.Ajax.SubmitForm JavaScript
function and Ajax proxy setForm function support manual asynchronous submissions.

The cfgrid and cftree tags provide HTML grids and trees that do not require a Java applet or Flash.
The cftextarea control has a rich text editor option. The text editor is configurable.
The cfinput tag supports a datefield type with an Ajax-based pop-up calendar from which user can select the date.
The cfinput tag with text type supports an autosuggest attribute that lets you dynamically supply a drop-down
list of field completions based on the current user input.

The cfinput, cfselect, and cftextarea tags support a tooltip attribute that specifies a pop-up tool tip to
display when the user moves the mouse over the control. The cftooltip tag displays a tool over any region of a
page, not just a form control.

Using Ajax form controls

ColdFusion Ajax-based form controls let you submit Ajax forms in your applications without refreshing the entire page.
Note: When you use Ajax to submit forms asynchronously from the page, you cannot use cfinput or input tags to
upload files.
Using Ajax containers for form submission
The ColdFusion Ajax container tags, cfdiv, cflayoutarea, cfpod, and cfwindow, automatically submit any forms
that they contain asynchronously. When the form is submitted, the result returned by the action page replaces the
contents of the container, but has no effect on the rest of the page.
The following example shows this behavior in the submitSimple.cfm page:

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cflayout type="vbox" name="layout1">
<cflayoutarea>
<h3>This area is not refreshed when the form is submitted.</h3>
<br />
</cflayoutarea>
<cflayoutarea>
<h3>This form is replaced by the action page</h3>
<cfform name="myform" format="html" action="showName.cfm">
<cfinput type = "Text" name = "name">
<cfinput type = "submit" name = "submit" value = "Enter name">
</cfform>
</cflayoutarea>
</cflayout>
</body>
</html>

In the following example, when you enter a name in the text input and click the Enter name button, the entered text
replaces the form on the page, but the rest of the page is not refreshed. This example shows the showName.cfm action page:
<cfif IsDefined("Form.name")>
<cfoutput>The Name is : <strong>#Form.name#</strong></cfoutput>
</cfif>

Using the cfajaxproxy SetForm function

The SetForm function of the proxy object created by the cfajaxproxy tag causes the proxy to pass the form values as
arguments to the next CFC function that you call after the SetForm function. This way, you can pass the current values
of fields in a form to a CFC function, which can then do the necessary processing and return a result.
When you use the SetForm function, the following rules apply to the arguments in the called CFC function:

The function does not need to specify the form fields in cfargument tags, and the function gets the field values
passed by name.

Form fields that have the same names as CFC arguments override the CFC argument values.
If you do not specify form fields in the cfargument tags, they do not necessarily follow any declared arguments,
when you use positional (array) notation to access them in the arguments structure.

The arguments scope in the CFC function includes two fields that ColdFusion uses to control its behavior. These
fields are intended for internal use, and their names might change in future releases. Both field values are set to
true:

_CF_NODEBUG tells ColdFusion not to return debugging output in the call response.

_CF_NOCACHE tells ColdFusion to send a no cache header on the response, which prevents the browser from
caching the response and ensures that every Ajax request results in a network call.

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The following example shows how to use the SetForm tag to submit the contents of a login form. When the user clicks
the Login! button, the doLogin function calls the proxy setForm function and then the AuthenticationSystem.cfc
validateCredentials method. The validateCredentials method checks the password of the user and if it is
valid, returns true to the proxy. Because the proxy is synchronous (the default), the doLogin method gets the returned
value. If the value is true, it hides the login window; the user can then access the page contents. If the return value is
false, the doLogin function displays a message in the login window title bar.
The following example shows the setForm.cfm application:
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function doLogin() {
// Create the Ajax proxy instance.
var auth = new AuthenticationSystem();
// setForm() implicitly passes the form fields to the CFC function.
auth.setForm("loginForm");
//Call the CFC validateCredentials function.
if (auth.validateCredentials()) {
ColdFusion.Window.hide("loginWindow");
} else {
var msg = document.getElementById("loginWindow_title");
msg.innerHTML = "Incorrect username/password. Please try again!";
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<cfajaxproxy cfc="AuthenticationSystem" />
<cfif structKeyExists(URL,"logout") and URL.logout>
<cflogout />
</cfif>
<cflogin>
<cfwindow name="loginWindow" center="true" closable="false"
draggable="false" modal="true"
title="Please login to use this system"
initshow="true" width="400" height="200">
<!--- Notice that the form does not have a submit button.

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Submit action is performed by the doLogin function. --->

<cfform name="loginForm" format="xml">
<cfinput type="text" name="username" label="username" /><br />
<cfinput type="password" name="password" label="password" />
<cfinput type="button" name="login" value="Login!" onclick="doLogin();" />
</cfform>
</cfwindow>
</cflogin>
<p>
This page is secured by login.
You can see the window containing the login form.
The window is modal; so the page cannot be accessed until you log in.
<ul>
<li><a href="setForm.cfm">Continue using the application</a>!</li>
<li><a href="setForm.cfm?logout=true">Logout</a>!</li>
</ul>
</p>
</body>
</html>

The following example shows the AuthenticationSystem.cfc file:

<cfcomponent output="false">
<cffunction name="validateCredentials" access="remote" returntype="boolean"
output="false">
<cfargument name="username" type="string"/>
<cfargument name="password" type="string"/>
<cfset var validated = false/>
<!--- Ensure that attempts to authenticate start with new credentials. --->
<cflogout/>
<cflogin>
<cfif arguments.username is "user" and arguments.password is "secret">
<cfloginuser name="#arguments.username#"
password="#arguments.password#" roles="admin"/>
<cfset validated = true/>
</cfif>
</cflogin>
<cfreturn validated/>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Using the ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm function

You can use the ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm function to submit form contents to a CFML page (or other active
page) at any time. For example, you could use this function to automatically save a partially completed form. This
function does not support uploading a file attachment to the form.
When you use this function, you pass it the name of the form to submit and the URL of the page that processes the
form. You can also specify the following optional parameters:

A callback function that handles the returned results

An error handler that takes two parameters, an HTTP error code and a message

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The HTTP method (by default, POST)

Whether to submit the form asynchronously (by default, true)
The following proof of concept example uses the ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm function to submit two form fields
to an asyncFormHandler.cfm page, which simply echoes the form values. The callback handler displays an alert with
the returned information.
<html>
<head>
<!--- The cfajaximport tag is required for the submitForm function to work
because the page does not have any Ajax-based tags. --->
<cfajaximport>
<script>
function submitForm() {
ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm('myform', 'asyncFormHandler.cfm', callback,
errorHandler);
}
function callback(text)
{
alert("Callback: " + text);
}
function errorHandler(code, msg)
{
alert("Error!!! " + code + ": " + msg);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="myform">
<cfinput name="mytext1"><br />
<cfinput name="mytext2">
</cfform>
<a href="javascript:submitForm()">Submit form</a>
</body>
</html>

The asynchFormHandler.cfm page consists of a single line, as follows:

<cfoutput>Echo: #form.mytext1# #form.mytext2#</cfoutput>

Using the ColdFusion.navigate function to submit a form

The ColdFusion.navigate JavaScript function can submit a form to a URL and have the returned output appear in
a specified container control, such as a cfdiv, cflayout, cfpod, or cfwindow tag. This function lets you populate a
control other than the one that contains the form when the user submits the data. You can also use the function to
submit the form asynchronously when a user performs an action outside the form, such as clicking a menu item.
For an example that uses this function, see the ColdFusion.navigate function in the CFML Reference.

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Using HTML grids

The ColdFusion HTML cfgrid control lets you use a bind expression to dynamically populate the grid. HTML grids
that use bind expressions are paged; as users navigate from page to page of the grid, the grid dynamically gets the data
for only the required page from the data source. You also use bind expressions when you let users edit form contents,
and other ColdFusion controls can bind to the grid. Also, HTML grids provide several JavaScript functions that you
can use to manage and manipulate the grids.
You can also create a static HTML grid by specifying a cfgrid tag that does not use a bind expression. With static
grids, all data is initially available.
In HTML mode, if you move the mouse over a column heading, a down arrow button appears. Clicking the button
displays a list with the following options:

Sort the grid in ascending or descending order based on the columns content.
Select the columns to display.
If the grid has a groupfield attribute: turn grouping off and on and group by the column value.
If you specify selectMode="edit" for an HTML grid, the grid displays Insert, Save, Cancel, and Delete buttons to
the bottom bar. The Insert button opens a new editable row. The Save button commits any changes to the bind source.
The Cancel button rolls back any changes that have not been saved. The Delete button deletes a selected row. You need
not press the Save button after clicking the Delete button.
Dynamically filling form data
HTML grids can dynamically fill the grid data by using a bind attribute with a bind expression that calls a CFC or
JavaScript function, or a URL. The bind expression uses bind parameters to specify dynamic information provided by
the grid and the values of any other form field attributes.
Pass the following bind parameters to the bind expression. If you omit any of the parameters in the function call or
URL, you get an error. These parameters send information about the grid and its state to the data provider function.
The data for these parameters is provided automatically. You do not set any values manually.
Parameter name

Description

cfgridpage

The number of the page for which to retrieve data.

cfgridpagesize

The number of rows of data in the page. The value of this parameter is the value of the pageSize
attribute.

cfgridsortcolumn

The name of the column that determines the sorting order of the grid. This value is set only after the user
clicks a column heading.

cfgridsortdirection

The direction of the sort, may be 'ASC' (ascending) or 'DESC' (descending). This value is set only after the
user clicks a column heading.

Note: The cfgridsortcolumn and cfgridsortdirection parameters can be empty if the user or application has not
sorted the grid, for example, by clicking a grid column header.
For more information on binding and bind parameters, see Using Ajax Data and Development Features on page 858
in the CFML Reference.
You can use optional parameters to specify additional information to pass to the called function. These parameters
provide data that the called function requires to determine the data to return. For example, if the function returns the
cities in a state, you would pass it the state name. Any or all of the optional function parameters can be bind parameters.
A state name, for example, could come from the selection in a states cfselect control.

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If you do not want the grid to refresh automatically when other controls change, you can use the @none specifier on all
optional bind parameters. Doing this, prevents automatic updating of the grid based on the bound control values. Use
the ColdFusion.Grid.refresh JavaScript function to explicitly refresh the grid contents. For more information on the
use of the @none specifier and explicitly refreshing the control, see Specifying bind parameters on page 861.
If the grid supports user sorting of the data (the sort attribute is true), the function called by the bind expression must
return data in the desired sorted order, and must use the values of the cfgridsortcolumn and
cfgridsortdirection bind parameters to determine the order. Even if you do not allow user sorting, still pass these
parameters to the function; otherwise, you get an error. Also, your function or action page must handle cases where
these parameters are empty strings, because their values are not set until the user selects a column header to sort the
grid, or you call the JavaScript ColdFusion.Grid.sort function.
The format of the returned data depends on how you get the data:
Bind type

Return value

CFC

A ColdFusion structure. ColdFusion automatically converts the structure for return to the caller.
Alternatively, you can return a JSON representation of the structure.

URL

A JSON representation of a structure. No other body contents is allowed.

JavaScript

A JavaScript object.

When you specify a CFC in the bind attribute, use the queryConvertForGrid function to convert a query directly
into a structure that you can use as your CFC return value.
When you specify a CFML page in the bind attribute, use the queryConvertForGrid function to convert a query into
a structure, and then use the serializeJSON function to convert the structure into a JSON representation.
If you manually create a JavaScript object or its JSON representation, it must have two top-level keys:

TOTALROWCOUNT: The total number of rows in the query data set being returned. This value is the total number of

rows of data in all pages in the grid, and not the number of rows in the current page.

QUERY: The contents of the query being returned. The QUERY value must also be an object with two keys:

COLUMNS: An array of the column names.

DATA: A two-dimensional array, where the first dimension corresponds to the rows and the second dimension
corresponds to the field values, in the same order as the COLUMNS array.

Note: If a CFC manually creates a return structure, the QUERY value can be a ColdFusion query object; ColdFusion
automatically converts it for remote access.
The following example defines an object that a JavaScript bind function can return to provide the data for a cfgrid tag:
var myobject =
{"TOTALROWCOUNT":6,"QUERY":{"COLUMNS":["EMP_ID","FIRSTNAME",
"EMAIL"],"DATA":[[1,"Carolynn","CPETERSON"],
[2,"Dave","FHEARTSDALE"], [3,"Linda","LSTEWART"],
[4,"Aaron","ASMITH"], [5,"Peter","PBARKEN"],
[6,"Linda","LJENNINGS"],]}};

The following example uses a bind expression and a CFC to populate a dynamic, paged, data grid. The CFML page
contains the following form:

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="form01">
<cfgrid format="html" name="grid01" pagesize=5 sort=true
bind="cfc:places.getData({cfgridpage},{cfgridpagesize},
{cfgridsortcolumn},{cfgridsortdirection})">
<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID" display=true header="eid" />
<cfgridcolumn name="FirstName" display=true header="Name"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Email" display=true header="Email" />
</cfgrid>
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The places.cfc file looks as follows. Notice that the query gets the full data set each time the function gets called. the
QueryConvertForGrid function selects and returns only the required page of data:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getData" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="page">
<cfargument name="pageSize">
<cfargument name="gridsortcolumn">
<cfargument name="gridsortdirection">
<cfquery name="team" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Emp_ID, FirstName, EMail
FROM Employees
<cfif gridsortcolumn neq "" or gridsortdirection neq "">
order by #gridsortcolumn# #gridsortdirection#
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<cfreturn QueryConvertForGrid(team, page, pageSize)>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The following example is equivalent to the previous one, but uses a URL bind expression in the main page and a CFML
page to return the data.
The main page contains the following form:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="form01">
<cfgrid format="html" name="grid01" pagesize=5 sort=true
bind="url:getdata.cfm?page={cfgridpage}&pageSize={cfgridpagesize}
&sortCol={cfgridsortcolumn}&sortDir={cfgridsortdirection}">
<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID" display=true header="eid" />
<cfgridcolumn name="FirstName" display=true header="Name"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Email" display=true header="Email" />
</cfgrid>
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

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The following example shows the getdata.cfm page:

<!--- Empty string; the default end of the query SQL. --->
<cfset queryEnd="">
<cfquery name="team" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Emp_ID, FirstName, EMail
FROM Employees
<cfif sortcol neq "" or sortdir neq "">
order by #sortcol# #sortdir#
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<!--- Format the query so that the bind expression can use it. --->
<cfoutput>#serializeJSON(QueryConvertForGrid(team, page, pageSize))#
</cfoutput>

If your database lets you specify SQL to retrieve only the required page of data in a query, you can optimize efficiency
by using such a query. Do not use the QueryConvertForGrid function. Instead, manually create the return structure
and return only the single page of data. Ensure that you set the TotalRowCount field to the number of rows in the entire
data set, not the number of rows in the returned page of data.
Using the bindOnLoad attribute
The bindOnLoad attribute causes a control to execute its bind expression immediately when it loads, and not wait until
the event that normally triggers the bind expression evaluation to occur. This way, the control can be filled with an
initial value. This attribute is false by default for all ColdFusion Ajax controls that have the attribute, except cfdiv
and cfgrid, for which it is true by default. Having a truebindOnLoad value on these controls ensures that they are
populated when they load.
When a control with a truebindOnLoad attribute is bound to a control that also binds when the page loads, the first
and second control load themselves at the onLoad page event. Then the first control loads itself again in response to a
change event from the second control when that control completes loading. So, the first control makes two Ajax calls,
whereas it must make only one, when the second control finished loading.
Because the cfinput, cfselect, and cftextarea control bindOnLoad attributes are false by default, you do not
encounter any problems if a cfgrid or cfdiv tag binds to any of these controls and you do not explicitly set the
bindOnLoad attributes. However, if the control does set its bindOnLoad attribute to true, set the cfgrid or cfdiv
attribute to false to ensure that the control only fetches data when the control that it is bound to returns.
You can also get a double loading if a grid binds to a Spry data set. By default, the grid and data set load data at page
load, and then the grid loads data again in response to a selection change event from the data set when it sets focus to
its first row. Set bindOnLoad to false to ensure that the grid fetches data only when it receives a selection change
event from the data set.
Dynamically editing grid contents
When you use a bind expression to get cfgrid data dynamically, you can also update the data source dynamically with
user input, without requiring the user to submit the form. You can use dynamic updating to update or delete data in
the data source. (To edit cfgrid data, select the contents of a field and type the new value; to delete a row, select a field
in the row and click the delete button at the bottom of the grid.)
You cannot insert new rows directly in a grid that uses a bind expression. To add rows, enter the data in a form, and
make sure that the grid refreshes after the form has been submitted.

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To update or delete data dynamically, do the following:

Specify selectmode="edit" in the cfgrid tag. This lets the user edit the grid.
Specify an onChange attribute in the cfgrid tag. The attribute must use a bind expression to specify a CFC method,
JavaScript function, or URL of a page that updates the data source. The bind expression has the same format as the
bind expression described in Dynamically filling form data on page 825; however, it must take the following bind
parameters that the grid automatically passes. These parameters send information about the grid and its state to the
onChange function.
Parameter name

Description

cfgridaction

The action performed on the grid. 'U' for update, or 'D' for delete.

cfgridrow

A structure or JavaScript Object whose keys are the column names and values are the original values
of the updated or deleted row.

cfgridchanged

A structure or JavaScript Object with a single entry, whose key is the name of the column with the
changed value, and whose value is the new value of the field. If the grid action is delete, this structure
exists but is empty.

When you update data dynamically, you can also use the onError attribute to specify the name of a JavaScript function
to handle any errors that result in a CFC or URL returning an HTTP error status. The method must take two
parameters: the HTTP error code and a text message that describes the error. The following example shows an
onError handler function:
<script type="text/javascript">
function errorhandler(id,message) {
alert("Error while updating \n Error code: "+id+" \nMessage:
"+message);}
</script>

The following example displays the members of a department and lets users edit the data in the fields. When the focus
leaves the edited field an onChange event triggers and the form calls the editData CFC function to update the data
source.

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
function errorhandler(id,message) {
alert("Error while updating\n Error code: "+id+"\n Message: "+message);
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="form01">
<cfgrid format="html" name="grid01" pagesize=11
stripeRows=true stripeRowColor="gray"
bind="cfc:places.getData({cfgridpage},{cfgridpagesize},
{cfgridsortcolumn},{cfgridsortdirection})"
delete="yes" selectmode="edit"
onchange="cfc:places.editData({cfgridaction},{cfgridrow},{cfgridchanged})">
<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID" display=true header="Employee ID"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="FirstName" display=true header="Name"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Email" display=true header="Email"/>
</cfgrid>
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The getData function is identical to the getData function in Dynamically filling form data on page 825. This
example shows the editData function in the CFC:
<cffunction name="editData" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="gridaction">
<cfargument name="gridrow">
<cfargument name="gridchanged">
<cfif isStruct(gridrow) and isStruct(gridchanged)>
<cfif gridaction eq "U">
<cfset colname=structkeylist(gridchanged)>
<cfset value=structfind(gridchanged,#colname#)>
<cfquery name="team" datasource="cfdocexamples">
update employees set <cfoutput>#colname#</cfoutput> =
'<cfoutput>#value#</cfoutput>'
where Emp_ID = <cfoutput>#gridrow.Emp_ID#</cfoutput>
</cfquery>
<cfelse>
<cfquery name="team" datasource="cfdocexamples">
delete from employees where emp_id = <cfoutput>#gridrow.Emp_ID#
</cfoutput>
</cfquery>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cffunction>

Binding controls to grid contents

You can bind the contents of a form control to the data in a grid field by specifying a bind parameter as the form control
bind attribute value. To do so, use the following syntax:
<cfinput name="name" type="text" bind="{gridName.columnName}">

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By default, each time the selected row in the grid changes, the bind parameter is re-evaluated, and the control value
changes to the value of the specified column of selected grid cell.
Grid JavaScript functions
You can use the following JavaScript functions to manage an HTML format grid:
Function

Description

ColdFusion.Grid.getGridObject

Gets the underlying Ext JS JavaScript library object.

ColdFusion.Grid.refresh

Manually refreshes a displayed grid.

ColdFusion.Grid.sort

Sorts the grid.

For more information, see the ColdFusion.Grid.getGridObject, ColdFusion.Grid.refresh, and ColdFusion.Grid.sort

functions in the CFML Reference.
Using the Boolean column and grouping
The example in this section shows how to use the Boolean column. The code also illustrates how to group data in a
grid on a selected grid column.
This example uses all types of Boolean representations. For grouping, groupField is set to active and the grid data is
grouped accordingly.
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

emps = querynew("firstname,department, salary,active")>

queryaddrow(emps,10)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Debra",1)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","Accounting",1)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","100000",1)>
querysetcell(emps,"active","Y",1)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Doherty",2)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","Finance",2)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","120000",2)>
querysetcell(emps,"active","Yes",2)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Ben",3)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","Law",3)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","200000",3)>
querysetcell(emps,"active","true",3)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Aaron",4)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","Accounting",4)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","200000",4)>
querysetcell(emps,"active","1",4)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Josh",5)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","CF",5)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","400000",5)>
querysetcell(emps,"active",true,5)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Peterson",6)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","Accounting",6)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","150000",6)>
querysetcell(emps,"active","0",6)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Damon",7)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","Finance",7)>
querysetcell(emps,"salary","100000",7)>
querysetcell(emps,"active","N",7)>
querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Tom",8)>
querysetcell(emps,"department","CF",8)>

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<cfset querysetcell(emps,"salary","100000",8)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"active","false",8)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Adam",9)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"department","CF",9)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"salary","300000",9)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"active",false,9)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Sean",10)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"department","CF",10)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"salary","250000",10)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"active","No",10)>
<cfform name="form01">
<cfgrid format="html" insert="yes" insertButton="Add Row"
name="grid01"
selectmode="edit"
width=600
collapsible="true"
title="Employees"
autowidth="yes"
query="emps"
sort="yes"
groupField="active">
<cfgridcolumn name="FirstName" header="FirstName"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Department" header="Department" />
<cfgridcolumn name="Salary" display=true header="Salary" type="numeric"
values="1000000,1200000" valuesdisplay="1000000,1200000"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Active" display=true header="Contract" type="boolean" />
</cfgrid>
</cfform>

Using the date column

The following example shows how to use the date column. In the code, startdatecolumn is of type date. A
mask,Y/m/d is used. Y is year in four digits, m months with leading zero, and d the days with leading zero.

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<!--- using cfgridcolum type="date" --->

<cfset emps = querynew("firstname,department, salary,startdate")>
<cfset queryaddrow(emps,3)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Debra",1)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"department","Accounting",1)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"salary","100000",1)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"startdate","2009/1/1",1)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Doherty",2)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"department","Finance",2)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"salary","120000",2)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"startdate","2005/2/21",2)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"firstname","Ben",3)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"department","Law",3)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"salary","200000",3)>
<cfset querysetcell(emps,"startdate","2008/03/03",3)>
<cfform name="form01">
<cfgrid format="html" insert="yes" insertButton="Add Row"
name="grid01"
selectmode="edit"
width=600
collapsible="true"
title="Employees"
autowidth="yes"
query="emps"
sort="yes"
groupField="department">
<cfgridcolumn name="FirstName" header="FirstName"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Department" header="Department" />
<cfgridcolumn name="Salary" display=true header="Salary" type="numeric"
values="1000000,1200000" valuesdisplay="1000000,1200000"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="StartDate" display=true header="StartDate" type="date"
mask="Y/m/d"/>
</cfgrid>
</cfform>

For details of various types of masks that can be used, see the CFML Reference Guide.
Datehandling when the attribute mask is used in ColdFusion 9.0.1
If the attribute mask is applied to a datefield column in an HTML grid, ColdFusion converts the date to an intermediate
format as shown here:
MMMMM, dd yyyy HH:mms

for example,
January, 19 2005 07:35:42

This is required for proper date conversion and is applicable both when data is sent to the server (for example, when
using an onChange grid event) and when data is received from the server (for example, populating a date field in a
grid). Therefore, in some cases, users might have to format the date if they are updating a date column in the database.
Note: Date values which are NULL are sent as empty strings when the form is submitted. In such cases, set the value to
NULL explicitly while updating the date column in the database.

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Using HTML trees

An HTML cftree tag creates an Ajax-based tree data representation that you can populate from a query or a bind
expression. The behavior with a query is equivalent to the behavior of applet or Flash trees. Bind expressions let you
populate the tree based on the values of other controls or Spry data sets. Also, when you use a bind expression, the tree
loads dynamically, getting only the data required for the current display.
Populating the tree using a bind expression
You use the bind attribute and bind expressions to dynamically and incrementally load and display tree data as the
user navigates the tree. The child tree items do not exist until the parent node expands. This behavior avoids prefilling
a tree with large amounts of data. It lets the tree children change dynamically (you can optionally get the children each
time the item expands) and can enhance application responsiveness.
For more information about binding and bind parameters, see Binding data to form fields on page 860.
Bind expressions in trees work in the following ways:

If you use a bind expression, the cftree tag can have only a single cftreeitem tag. Therefore, the function or URL
called by the bind expression must be able to populate all levels of the tree.

When a tree item expands, the CFC or JavaScript function or active page specified by the bind attribute returns an
array with the values for the child nodes of the item. The dynamic tree code on the client constructs the child items
by using these values.

When a control to which the tree is bound generates an event that the tree is listening for, the tree is refreshed. For
example, if the tree uses a bind expression that includes a select box as a bind parameter, the tree collapses to the
root nodes when the selected value in the select box changes.
When you use a bind expression to populate a cftree control, specify a CFC function, JavaScript function, or URL,
and pass the following bind parameters. If you omit either of the parameters from your function call or URL, you get
an error. These parameters provide information about the tree and its state, and are automatically provided by the
control.
Bind parameter

Description

{cftreeitempath}

Passes the path of the current (parent) node to the method, which uses it to generate the next node.

{cftreeitemvalue}

Passes the current tree item value (normally the value attribute)

The called function or URL cannot return nested arrays and structures, that is, it can only return a single level of items.
When a function or URL is first called to populate the root-level tree items, the value passed in the cftreeitemvalue
variable is the empty string. Your bind function can test for an empty string to determine that it is populating the root
level of the tree.
The @none event specifier is also useful if you use the ColdFusion.Tree.refresh JavaScript function to manually refresh
the tree. When you call the Refresh function, the bind expression fetches data from all bind parameters, including
@none parameters. If you specify @none in all bind parameters that specify other controls, the tree does not respond
automatically to changes in the other controls, but it does pick up data from the bind parameters when you use the
ColdFusion.Tree.Referesh function to explicitly refresh the tree.
The format of the data that the function or URL in a bind expression must return depends on the type of bind
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Bind type

Return value

CFC

A ColdFusion array of structures. ColdFusion automatically converts the structure to JSON format when it
returns the result to the caller. Alternatively, you can return a JSON representation of the structure.

JavaScript

A JavaScript Array of Objects.

URL

A JSON representation of an array of structures. No other body content is allowed.

Each structure in the array of structures or objects defines the contents and appearance of the node for a child item.
Each structure must have a VALUE field, and can have the following fields. Except for LEAFNODE, these structure
keys correspond to cftreeitem attributes.

DISPLAY
EXPAND
HREF
IMG
IMGOPEN
LEAFNODE
TARGET
Note: If a CFC does not return a value field, you do not get an error, but the tree does not work properly.
The LEAFNODE structure element is only used in the bind response structures. It must be a Boolean value that
identifies whether the node is a leaf. If the value is true, the tree does not show a +/- expansion indicator in front of
the node, and users cannot expand the node.
If your bind expression specifies a JavaScript function, the function must use all-uppercase letters for the field names;
for example, use VALUE and DISPLAY, not value and display. ColdFusion uses all capital letters in the structure key
names. ColdFusion is not case-sensitive, so CFCs can use lowercase letters for the field names; JavaScript is casesensitive, so the JavaScript function must match the uppercase field names.
If you use a URL to get the tree items from a CFML page, you can use the serializeJSON function to convert the array
to JSON format. If the array with the tree items is named itemsArray, for example, the following line specifies the page
output:
<cfoutput>#serializeJSON(itemsArray)#</cfoutput>

Example 1: a simple tree

The following simple example creates a simple hierarchical tree of unlimited depth, with one node per level. Each node
label (specified by the display attribute) identifies the node depth:
The following example shows the CFML page:
<cfform name="testform">
<cftree name="t1" format="html">
<cftreeitem bind="cfc:makeTree.getNodes({cftreeitemvalue},{cftreeitempath})">
</cftree>
</cfform>

The following example shows the maketree.cfc file with the getNodes method that is called when the user expands a node:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getNodes" returnType="array" output="no" access="remote">
<cfargument name="nodeitemid" required="true">
<cfargument name="nodeitempath" required="true">
<!--- The initial value of the top level is the empty string. --->
<cfif nodeitemid IS "">
<cfset nodeitemid =0>
</cfif>
<!--- Create an array with one element defining the child node. --->
<cfset nodeArray = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset element1 = StructNew()>
<cfset element1.value = nodeitemid + 1>
<cfset element1.display = "Node #nodeitemid#">
<cfset nodeArray[1] = element1>
<cfreturn nodeArray>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Handling leaf nodes

Code that returns the information for leaf nodes of the trees must always set the LEAFNODE structure field to true.
This prevents the tree from displaying a + expansion indicator in the tree leaf node tree entries and from attempting
to expand the node. The following example shows how you use the LEAFNODE field.
Example 2: a more complex tree with leaf node handling
The following tree uses the cfartgallery database to populate a tree where the top level is the art medium, the second
level is the artist, and the leaf nodes are individual works of art. When the user clicks an artwork, the application shows
the art image.
This example shows how to generate return values that are specific to the level in the tree and the parent value. It also
shows the use of the LEAFNODE return structure element.
In this application, the CFC return structure keys are specified in lowercase letters, and ColdFusion automatically
converts them to uppercase. Notice that the database contains entries only for the painting, sculpture, and
photography categories, so just those top-level tree nodes have child nodes.
The following example shows the main application page:

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<!--- The loadimage function displays the image of the selected art.
It is called when the user clicks the image item. --->
<script>
function loadImage(img) {
var imgURL = '<img src="/cfdocs/images/artgallery/'+img+'">';
var imgDiv = document.getElementById('image');
imgDiv.innerHTML = imgURL;
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<!--- The form uses a table to place the tree and the image. --->
<cfform name="ex1" action="ex1.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr valign="top">
<td>
<cftree name="mytree" format="html">
<!--- When you use a bind expression, you must have only one
cftreeitem, which populates the tree level. --->
<cftreeitem bind="cfc:tree.getItems({cftreeitempath},
{cftreeitemvalue})">
</cftree>
</td>
<td>
<div id="image"></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The following example shows the tree.cfc file:

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<cfcomponent output="false">
<cfset variables.dsn = "cfartgallery">
<!--- Function to populate the current level of the tree. --->
<cffunction name="getItems" returnType="array" output="false" access="remote">
<cfargument name="path" type="string" required="false" default="">
<cfargument name="value" type="string" required="false" default="">
<cfset var result = arrayNew(1)>
<cfset var q = "">
<cfset var s = "">
<!--- The cfif statements determine the tree level. --->
<!--- If there is no value argument, the tree is empty. Get the media types. --->
<cfif arguments.value is "">
<cfquery name="q" datasource="#variables.dsn#">
SELECT mediaid, mediatype
FROM media
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="q">
<cfset s = structNew()>
<cfset s.value = mediaid>
<cfset s.display = mediatype>
<cfset arrayAppend(result, s)>
</cfloop>
<!--- If the value argument has one list entry, it is a media type. Get the artists for
the media type.--->
<cfelseif listLen(arguments.value) is 1>
<cfquery name="q" datasource="#variables.dsn#">
SELECT artists.lastname, artists.firstname, artists.artistid
FROM art, artists
WHERE art.mediaid = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer"
value="#arguments.value#">
AND art.artistid = artists.artistid
GROUP BY artists.artistid, artists.lastname, artists.firstname
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="q">
<cfset s = structNew()>
<cfset s.value = arguments.value & "," & artistid>
<cfset s.display = firstName & " " & lastname>
<cfset arrayAppend(result, s)>
</cfloop>
<!--- We only get here when populating an artist's works. --->
<cfelse>
<cfquery name="q" datasource="#variables.dsn#">
SELECT art.artid, art.artname, art.price, art.description,
art.largeimage, artists.lastname, artists.firstname
FROM art, artists
WHERE art.mediaid = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer"
value="#listFirst(arguments.value)#">
AND art.artistid = artists.artistid
AND artists.artistid = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer"

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value="#listLast(arguments.value)#">
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="q">
<cfset s = structNew()>
<cfset s.value = arguments.value & "," & artid>
<cfset s.display = artname & " (" & dollarFormat(price) & ")">
<cfset s.href = "javaScript:loadImage('#largeimage#');">
<cfset s.children=arrayNew(1)>
<!--- leafnode=true prevents node expansion and further calls to the
bind expression. --->
<cfset s.leafnode=true>
<cfset arrayAppend(result, s)>
</cfloop>
</cfif>
<cfreturn result>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Binding other controls to a tree

ColdFusion tags that use bind expressions can bind to the selected node of a tree by using the following formats:

{[form:]tree.node} retrieves the value of the selected tree node.

{[form:]tree.path} retrieves the path of the selected tree node. If the completePath attribute value is true, the
bound path includes the root node.
The bind expression is evaluated each time a select event occurs on an item in the tree. If you specify any other event
in the bind parameter, it is ignored.

Tree JavaScript functions

You can use the following JavaScript functions to manage an HTML tree:
Function

Description

ColdFusion.Tree.getTreeObject

Gets the underlying Yahoo User Interface Library TreeView JavaScript object.

ColdFusion.Tree.refresh

Manually refreshes a tree.

For more information, see the ColdFusion.Tree.getTreeObject and ColdFusion.Tree.refresh functions in the CFML
Reference.

Using the rich text editor

The ColdFusion rich text editor lets users enter and format rich HTML text by using an icon-driven interface based
on the open source FCKeditor Ajax widget. The editor includes numerous formatting controls, and icons for such
standard operations as searching, printing, and previewing text. Text editor controls are not covered. For detailed
information on the editor icons and controls, see http://wiki.fckeditor.net/UsersGuide.
Note: Do not bind to a rich text area on load of a page, for example, from another control, such as a text box.
The following example shows a simple rich text editor. When a user enters text and clicks the Enter button, the
application refreshes and displays the formatted text above the editor region.

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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Display the text if the form has been submitted with text. --->
<cfif isdefined("form.text01") AND (form.text01 NEQ "")>
<cfoutput>#form.text01#</cfoutput><br />
</cfif>
<!--- A form with a basic rich text editor and a submit button. --->
<cfform name="form01" >
<cftextarea richtext=true name="text01" />
<cfinput type="submit" value="Enter" name="submit01"/>
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

Note: If you use the rich text editor in your pages, you cannot configure your web server to have ColdFusion process files
with the .html or .htm extensions. The default HTML processor must handle pages with these extensions.
Configuring the rich text editor
You can customize the rich text editor in many ways. The cftextarea attributes support some basic customization
techniques. For more detailed information, see the FCKEditor website at http://wiki.fckeditor.net/.
Defining custom toolbars
You can use the following techniques to control the appearance of the toolbar:

Specify the toolbar name in the toolbar attribute

Create custom toolbars in the fckconfig.js file.
The editor has a single toolbar consisting of a set of active icons and fields, and separators. The toolbar attribute lets
you select the toolbar configuration. The attribute value specifies the name of a toolbar set, which you define in a
FCKConfig.ToolbarSets entry in the cf_webRoot/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/FCKEditor/fckconfig.js file.
The rich text editor comes configured with two toolbar sets: the Default set, which contains all supported editing
controls, and a minimal Basic set. By default, the editor uses the Default set. To create a custom toolbar named
BasicText with only text-editing controls, create the following entry in the fckconfig.js file, and specify
toolbar="BasicText" in the textarea tag.
FCKConfig.ToolbarSets["BasicText"] = [
['Source','DocProps','-','NewPage','Preview'],
['Cut','Copy','Paste','PasteText','PasteWord','-','Print','SpellCheck'],
['Undo','Redo','-','Find','Replace','-','SelectAll','RemoveFormat'],
['Bold','Italic','Underline'],
['Outdent','Indent'],
['JustifyLeft','JustifyCenter','JustifyRight','JustifyFull'],
'/',
['Style','FontFormat','FontName','FontSize'],
['TextColor','BGColor'],
['FitWindow','-','About']
];

This configuration defines a toolbar with two rows that contain a subset of the full tool set designed to support basic
text editing.

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Follow these rules when you define a toolbar:

Start the definition with FCKConfig.ToolbarSets.

Specify the toolbar name in double quotation marks and brackets ([""]). Use this name, case correct, in the
cftextarea tag toolbar attribute.

Follow the toolbar name with an equal sign (=).

Place all the toolbar controls inside a set of brackets, and follow the definition with a semicolon (;).
Group controls in brackets.
Place each entry in single quotation marks (') and separate the entries with commas (,).
Use the hyphen (-) character to specify a separator.
Use a forward slash (/) character to start a new row.
For a complete list of the valid toolbar entries, see the Default configuration in fckconfig.js.
Defining custom styles
You can add custom styles that users choose in the Styles selector and apply to selected text. To create a custom style,
add a Style element to /CFIDE/scripts/ajax/FCKEditor/fckstyles.xml. The Style XML element has the following
format:

The name attribute specifies the name that appears in the Style selector.
The element attribute specifies the HTML element that surrounds the text.
Each Attribute child element defines the name and value of an attribute of the HTML tag.
For example, the following definition creates a style that makes the selected text bold and underlined:
<Style name="Custom Bold And Underline " element="span">
<Attribute name="style" value="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"/>
</Style>

If you use a custom XML file, instead of fckstyles.xml, to define your styles, specify the filepath in the stylesXML
attribute.
Defining custom templates
The editor includes a set of basic templates that insert HTML formatting into the textarea control. For example, the
ImageandTitle template places a placeholder for an image on the left of the area, and a title and text to the right of
the image. Then right-click the image area to specify the image source and other properties, and replace the
placeholder title and text.
You create your own templates by creating entries in cf_webRoot/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/FCKEditor/fcktemplates.xml
file. Each template XML entry has the following format:
<Template title="template title" image="template image">
<Description>template description</Description>
<Html>
<![CDATA[
HTML to insert in the text area when the user selects the template.
]]>
</Html>
</Template>

The template title, image, and description appear in the Templates dialog box that appears when the user clicks the
template icon on the rich text editor toolbar.

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The following example template defines a title followed by text:

<Template title="Title and Text" image="template1.gif">
<Description>A Title followed by text.</Description>
<Html>
<![CDATA[
<h3>Type the title here</h3>
Type the text here
]]>
</Html>
</Template>

The name "Title and Text" and the template1.gif image appear in the template selection dialog box.
If you use a custom XML file, instead of fcktemplates.xml, to define your templates, specify the file path in the
templatesXML attribute.
Defining custom skins
To create a custom skin that you specify in the skin attribute, create a subdirectory of the
cf_webRoot/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/FCKeditor/editor/skins directory. The name of this subdirectory is the name that you
use to specify the skin in the skin attribute. The custom skin directory must contain an images subdirectory and have
the following files:

fck_editor.css: Defines the main interface, including the toolbar, its items (like, buttons, panels) and the context menu.
fck_dialog.css: Defines the basic structure of dialog boxes (standard for all dialogs).
fck_strip.gif: Defines the Default toolbar buttons and context menu icons. It is a vertical image that contains all
icons placed one above the other. Each icon must correspond to a 16x16 pixels image. You can add custom images
to this strip.

images/toolbar.buttonarrow.gif: Defines the small arrow image used in the toolbar combos and panel buttons.
Place all other images used by the skin (that are specified in the CSS files) in the images subfolder.
The most common way of customizing the skin is to change the fck_editor.css and fck_dialog.css files. For information
on the skin format and contents, see the comments in those files.

Using the datefield input control

The HTML cfinput control with a type value of datefield lets users select dates from a pop-up calendar or enter
the dates directly in the input box. When you use the control, keep in mind the following considerations:

To correctly display label text next to the control in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, surround the label text in
a <div style="float:left;"> tag and place three <br> tags between each line.

Consider specifying an overflow attribute with a value of visible in the cflayoutarea tag so that if the pop-up
calendar exceeds the layout area boundaries, it appears completely.

If you use a mask attribute to control the date format, it does not prevent the user from entering dates that do not
conform to the mask. The mask attribute determines the format for dates that users select in the pop-up calendar.
Also, if the user types a date in the field and opens the pop-up calendar, the calendar displays the selected date only
if the entered text follows the mask pattern. If you do not specify a mask attribute, the pop-up only matches the
default matching pattern.

If the user types a date with a month name or abbreviation in the control, instead of picking a date from the
calendar, the selected date appears in the pop-up calendar only if both of the following conditions are true:

The month position and name format match the mask pattern.

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The month name matches, case correct, the month names specified by the monthNames attribute, or, for an mmm
mask, their three-letter abbreviations.

If the date mask specifies yy for the years, the pop-up calendar uses dates in the range 1951-2050, so if the user
enters 3/3/49 in the text field, the calendar displays March 3, 2049.

If the user enters invalid numbers in a date, the pop-up calendar calculates a valid date that corresponds to the
invalid input. For example, if the user enters 32/13/2007 for a calendar with a dd/mm/yyyy mask, the pop-up
calendar displays 01/02/2008.
The following example shows a simple tabbed layout where each tab contains a form with several datefield controls.:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cflayout type="tab" tabheight="250px" style="width:400px;">
<cflayoutarea title="test" overflow="visible">
<br>
<cfform name="mycfform1">
<div style="float:left;">Date 1: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate1"><br><br><br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 2: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate2" value="15/1/2007"><br><br><br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 3: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate3" required="yes"><br><br><br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 4: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate4" required="no"><br><br><br>
</cfform>
</cflayoutarea>
<cflayoutarea title="Mask" overflow="visible">
<cfform name="mycfform2">
<br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 1: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate5" mask="dd/mm/yyyy">
(dd/mm/yyyy)<br><br><br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 2: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate6" mask="mm/dd/yyyy">
(mm/dd/yyyy)<br><br><br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 3: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate7" mask="d/m/yy">
(d/m/yy)<br><br><br>
<div style="float:left;">Date 4: </div>
<cfinput type="datefield" name="mydate8" mask="m/d/yy">
(m/d/yy)<br><br><br>
</cfform>
</cflayoutarea>
</cflayout>
</body>
</html>

Note: In Internet Explorer versions previous to IE 7, this example shows the calendars for the first three fields in a page
behind the following input controls.

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Using autosuggest text input fields

When you create a text input (type="text") in HTML, use the autosuggest attribute to specify a static or dynamic
source that provides field completion suggestions as the user types. Use the autosuggestMinLength attribute to
specify the number of characters the user must type before first displaying any suggestions.
Note: To place label text next to a cfinput control that uses an autosuggest attribute and have it display correctly in
both Internet Explorer and Firefox, surround the label text in an HTML div tag with a style="float: left"
attribute. Also if you have multiple controls, and place them on separate lines, follow the input controls with three <br>
tags, as in the following example. Otherwise, the label and control do not lay out properly.
<div style="float: left"> Name: </div>
<cfinput name="userName" type="text" autosuggest="Andrew, Jane, Robert"> <br><br><br>

The control suggests entries from a static list of values. To use a static suggestion list, specify the list entries in the
autosuggest attribute, and separate the entries by the character specified by the delimiter attribute (by default, a
comma), as the following example shows:
<cfinput type="text"
autosuggest="Alabama\Alaska\Arkansas\Arizona\Maryland\Minnesota\Missouri"
name="city" delimiter="\">

In this example, if you type the character a (in uppercase or lowercase) in the cfinput control, the list of states that
start with A appears in a drop-down list. You navigate to a selection by using the arrow keys, and press Enter to select
the item.
You also have the control suggest values from a dynamically generated suggestion list. To use a dynamic list, specify a
CFC function, JavaScript function, or URL in the autosuggest attribute. Use the autosuggestBindDelay attribute
to specify the minimum time between function invocations as the user types. This limits the number of requests that
are sent to the server. If you use a dynamic list, the input field has an icon to its right that animates while suggestions
are fetched.
When you use a bind expression you must include a {cfautosuggestvalue} bind parameter in the function call or
URL parameters. This parameter binds to the user input in the input control and passes it to the function or page.
A CFC or JavaScript autosuggest function must return the suggestion values as a one-dimensional array or as a
comma-delimited list.
The HTTP response body from a URL must consist only of the array or list of suggestion values in JSON format. In
ColdFusion, you can use the serializeJSON function to convert an array to JSON format. If an array with the
suggestions is named nodeArray, for example, the following line would specify the only output on a CFML page that
is called by using a bind expression with a URL:
<cfoutput>#serializeJSON(nodeArray)#</cfoutput>

You do not have to limit the returned data to values that match the cfautosuggestvalue contents, because the clientside code displays only the values that match the user input. In fact, the called function or page does not even have to
use the value of the cfautosuggestvalue parameter that you pass to it. However, use the parameter if the returned
data would otherwise be long.
The following example shows how to use a bind expression to populate autosuggest lists. The Last Name text box
displays an autosuggest list with all last names in the database that match the keys typed in the box. The First Name
text box uses binding to the Last Name text box to display only the first names that correspond to the last name and
the text entered in the box. The database query limits the responses to only include results that match the autosuggest
criteria, so the autosuggest list displays all the returned results, and the suggestions only match if the database entry
has a case-correct match.

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To test this example with the cfdocexamples database, type S in the first box and the autosuggest list shows Smith and
Stewart. If you select Smith and enter A or J in the First Name box, you get a name suggestion.
The following example shows the application:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cfform>
Last Name:<br />
<cfinput type="text" name="lastName"
autosuggest="cfc:suggestcfc.getLNames({cfautosuggestvalue})"><br />
<br />
First Name:<br />
<cfinput type="text" name="firstName"
autosuggest="cfc:suggestcfc.getFNames({cfautosuggestvalue},{lastName})">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The following example shows the suggestcfc.cfc file:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getLNames" access="remote" returntype="array" output="false">
<cfargument name="suggestvalue" required="true">
<!--- The function must return suggestions as an array. --->
<cfset var myarray = ArrayNew(1)>
<!--- Get all unique last names that match the typed characters. --->
<cfquery name="getDBNames" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT DISTINCT LASTNAME FROM Employees
WHERE LASTNAME LIKE <cfqueryparam value="#suggestvalue#%"
cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">
</cfquery>
<!--- Convert the query to an array. --->
<cfloop query="getDBNames">
<cfset arrayAppend(myarray, lastname)>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn myarray>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getFNames" access="remote" returntype="array"
output="false">
<cfargument name="suggestvalue" required="true">
<cfargument name="lastName" required="true">
<cfset var myarray = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfquery name="getFirstNames" datasource="cfdocexamples">
<!--- Get the first names that match the last name and the typed characters. --->
SELECT FIRSTNAME FROM Employees
WHERE LASTNAME = <cfqueryparam value="#lastName#"
cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">
AND FIRSTNAME LIKE <cfqueryparam value="#suggestvalue & '%'#"
cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="getFirstNames">
<cfset arrayAppend(myarray, Firstname)>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn myarray>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Issue with numeric data

For CFC methods that returns numeric data with a leading zero, for example, zip code 02674, the zero is interpreted
by the bind expression as an octal number and its decimal equivalent (in this case 1468) even if you set
returnformat="string". To resolve this issue, for URL binds or binds routed by way of a JavaScript function (for
example, using cfajaxproxy), you can set returnformat=plain to retain the numeric value. Also, leading zeros are
stripped from the suggestion list for autosuggest controls.

Using the cfslider tag

The cfslider tag places a slider control, for selecting a numeric value from a range, in a ColdFusion form. The slider
can be used within a cfform tag for forms in HTML and applet format. The cfslider is not supported with Flash
forms.

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In HTML forms, you can specify maximum, minimum, and increment values, to help you quickly filter complex
results. The available slider controls are: Vertical, with controls that can be adjusted to the top or bottom; Horizontal,
with controls that can be adjusted to the left or right; Tip, that displays the values as data tips; and Snapping, that moves
in incremental values.
Manipulating slider at runtime
The following code illustrates how you can manipulate a slider at runtime:
<script language="javascript">
//use Coldfusion AJAX functions
var sliderChange = function(slider,value)
{
//get slider name
slidername = slider.getId();
//get slider value
currValue = ColdFusion.Slider.getValue(slidername);
//set a new slider value
newValue = parseInt(currValue+10);
ColdFusion.Slider.setValue(slidername,newValue);
//hide slider
if(confirm("Do you want to hide slider?"))
{
ColdFusion.Slider.hide(slidername);
}
//show slider
if(confirm("Do you want to show slider?"))
{
ColdFusion.Slider.show(slidername);
}
//disable slider
if(confirm("Do you disable the slider?"))
{
ColdFusion.Slider.disable(slidername);
}
//enable slider
if(confirm("Do you enable the slider?"))
{
ColdFusion.Slider.enable(slidername);
}
}
var sliderDrag = function(slider)
{
//get slider name
slidername = slider.getId();
document.getElementById('currentSliderValue').innerHTML = "Current Slider value :
<font color='red'><strong>" + ColdFusion.Slider.getValue(slidername) + "<strong></font>";
}
</script>
<br>
<cfform name="frm1">

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<p>
<span id="currentSliderValue">Current Slider Value: <font
color="red"><strong>50</strong></font></span><br>
</p>
</cfform>
<p>
<br><b>Volume</b>:
<cfslider
name="s"
format="html"
min=1
max=100
value="50"
tip="yes"
onChange="sliderChange"
onDrag = "sliderDrag"
vertical="no"
width="200pt"
>
</p>

Using geographical maps

The cfmap tag lets you embed a geographical map within your ColdFusion page. The following are the supported map
types:

earth
terrain
satellite
hybrid
map (default)

Using the marker window

The marker window opens when you click the marker icon in the map. It is used to provide information pertaining to
the locations in the map, for example address or latitude and longitude. The marker window can be populated with
static or dynamic content.
Populating data using static content
To manually populate data in the marker window, specify the value in the markerwindowcontent attribute.
Populating dynamic data using bind expression
To dynamically populate data, use the markerbind attribute with a bind expression that calls a CFC, JavaScript
function, or a URL. The bind expression uses bind parameters to specify dynamic information and the values of any
other form field attributes.
Pass the bind parameters to the bind expression. If you omit any of the parameters in the function call or URL, you get
an error. These parameters send information about the map and its state to the data provider function. The data for
these parameters is provided automatically. You do not set any values manually.
Provide the data as provided in the following code:

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<br>
<cfoutput>
<table>
<tr>
<td bgcolor='red'><h4><font color='white'>URL Bind Example</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
Map Name: #cfmapname#<br>
Latitude, Longitude: (#DecimalFormat(cfmaplatitude)#,#DecimalFormat(cfmaplongitude)#)<br>
Address: #cfmapaddress#<br>
</cfoutput>

The following table provides details of the parameters:

Parameter name

Description

cfmapname

The name of the map.

cfmaplatitude

The latitude value for the location, in degrees. This value is set as the center of the map.

cfmaplongitude

The longitude value for the location, in degrees. This value is set as the center of the map.

cfmapaddress

The address of the location, which is set as the center of the map.

The format of the returned data depends on how you get the data:
Bind type

Return value

CFC

A ColdFusion structure. ColdFusion automatically converts the structure for return to the caller.
Alternatively, you can return a JSON representation of the structure.

URL

A JSON representation of a structure. No other body contents is allowed.

JavaScript

A JavaScript object.

Use the showmarkerwindow attribute to control the display of the window.

The following example uses a bind expression and a CFC to populate dynamic data using a CFC bind expression. The
CFML page contains the following:
<br>
<cfmap
centeraddress="Hobart, Tasmania, Australia"
name="map1"
type="map"
tip="Hobart, Tasmania, Australia"
zoomControl="small3d"
markerbind="cfc:maps.getMapData({cfmapname}, {cfmaplatitude}, {cfmaplongitude},
{cfmapaddress})"
showmarkerwindow = true>
<cfmapitem name="m1" address="Taj Mahal, Agra, India" tip="Taj Mahal, Agra, India">
<cfmapitem name="m2" latitude="40.46" longitude="117.05" showmarkerwindow=true
tip="Great Wall of China, Bejing">
<cfmapitem name="m3" address="Stonehenge, England" tip="Stonehenge, England"
showmarkerwindow = false>
</cfmap>

The map.cfc is as follows:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getMapData" access="remote">
<cfargument name="cfmapname">
<cfargument name="cfmaplatitude">
<cfargument name="cfmaplongitude">
<cfargument name="cfmapaddress">
<cfsavecontent variable="markup">
<br>
<cfoutput>
<table>
<tr>
<td bgcolor='red'><h4><font color='white'>CFC Bind Example</font></td>
</tr>
</table>
Map Name: #cfmapname#<br>
Latitude, Longitude:
(#DecimalFormat(cfmaplatitude)#,#DecimalFormat(cfmaplongitude)#)<br>
Address: #cfmapaddress#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfsavecontent>
<cfreturn markup>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The following example shows how to populate dynamic data using a JavaScript bind expression:
<script language="JavaScript">
var getMapData = function(cfmapname, cfmaplatitude, cfmaplongitude, cfmapaddress){
var msg = "";
msg = msg + "Map Name: " + cfmapname + "<br>";
msg = msg + "Latitude,longitude: " + "(" + cfmaplatitude + "," + cfmaplongitude + ")"
+ "<br>";
msg = msg + "Address: " + cfmapaddress + "<br>";
//alert(msg);
return "<br><table><tr><td bgcolor='red'><h4><font color='white'>" + "Javascript Bind
Example" + "</font></td></tr></table><hr>" + msg;
}
</script>
<cfmap
centeraddress="Hobart, Tasmania, Australia"
name="map1"
type="map"
tip="Hobart, Tasmania, Australia"
zoomControl="small3d"
markerbind="javascript:getMapData({cfmapname}, {cfmaplatitude}, {cfmaplongitude},
{cfmapaddress})"
showmarkerwindow = true>
<cfmapitem name="m1" address="Taj Mahal, Agra, India" tip="Taj Mahal, Agra, India">
<cfmapitem name="m2" latitude="40.46" longitude="117.05" showmarkerwindow=true tip="Great
Wall of China, Bejing">
<cfmapitem name="m3" address="Stonehenge, England" tip="Stonehenge, England"
showmarkerwindow = false>
</cfmap>

The following example shows how to populate dynamic data using a URL bind expression:

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<cfmap
centeraddress="Hobart, Tasmania, Australia"
name="map1"
type="map"
tip="Hobart, Tasmania, Australia"
zoomControl="small3d"
markerbind="url:mapdata.cfm?cfmapname={cfmapname}&cfmaplatitude={cfmaplatitude}&cfmaplongitu
de={cfmaplongitude}&cfmapaddress={cfmapaddress}"
showmarkerwindow = true>
<cfmapitem name="m1" address="Taj Mahal, Agra, India" tip="Taj Mahal, Agra, India">
<cfmapitem name="m2" latitude="40.46" longitude="117.05" showmarkerwindow=true tip="Great
Wall of China, Bejing">
<cfmapitem name="m3" address="Stonehenge, England" tip="Stonehenge, England"
showmarkerwindow = false>
</cfmap>

Specifying Google map key

The Google Maps API key is required to embed Google Maps in your web pages.
The following URL provides details of how to sign up for the Google Maps API key:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/signup.html
Currently, ColdFusion supports only embedding of Google map. To generate a map, provide a valid Google map API
key, and specify the latitude and longitude of the location, or the address of the location. The Google map API key can
be specified in the following ways:

Using the cfajaximport tag. You specify the map API key in the params attribute as follows:
<cfajaximport params="#{googlemapkey='Map API Key'}#"

Using Application.cfc as follows:

<cfset this.googlemapkey="Map API Key">

Using the Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator. Specify the map API key in the Google Map Key field.
You can also specify the map API key in runtime.cfc.

Styling markers
You can specify the following:

Custom marker icon: Specify the path to the icon using the markericon attribute. Ensure that you specify an image
of appropriate size.

Marker icon color: Use the markercolor attribute. You can specify a color of your preference only for the default
icon and not for others.

Map title: Use the title attribute.

Using the cfprogressbar tag

The cfprogressbar tag has the following characteristics:

Automatically runs the progress bar for a duration that you specify.
Dynamically loads data using bind expressions
Lets styling of the progress bar

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Uses callback and error handlers that give control to the users after the progress bar completes processing or if it
encounters any exceptions.

Lets programmatic control over progress bar using JavaScript APIs.

Progress bar modes

The progress bar supports the following two modes:
Dynamic mode
User specifies the bind expression to provide data for the progress bar to display. The bind attribute specifies a
function that determines the indicator length.
The following CFM code shows how to use a CFC bind expression:
<cfajaxproxy cfc="pbar" jsclassname="pbar">
<head>
<script>
var utils = new pbar();
var count = 0;
var init = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'block';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.show('pBar');
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.start('pBar');
}
var hideProgessBar = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'none';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.hide('pBar');
utils.resetStatus();
}
</script>
</head>
<cfform>
<div id="cfpbLabel" style="display:none">
Saving File:
</div>
<cfprogressbar
name="pBar"
autodisplay=false
bind="cfc:pbar.getProgessData()"
onComplete="hideProgessBar"
width="400">
<cfset ajaxOnLoad('init')>
</cfform>

The following pb.cfc has the function that returns data for the progressbar:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="resetStatus" access="remote">
<!--Clear count from session so that next time the progress bar runs from the start
time.
--->
<cfif session.count gte 10>
<cfset structdelete(session,"count")>
</cfif>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getProgessData" access="remote">
<!--- use a count to track progress --->
<cfif not isdefined('session.count')>
<cfset session.count = 1>
<cfelse>
<cfset session.count = session.count + 1 >
</cfif>
<!--- struct with status and message components of the progressbar --->
<cfset data = {status=session.count * 0.1,message=(session.count * 10) & "%"}>
<cfreturn data>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The following CFM code explains how to use the URL bind expression:
<head>
<script>
var init = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'block';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.show('pBar');
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.start('pBar');
}
var hideProgessBar = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'none';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.hide('pBar');
}
</script>
</head>
<cfform>
<div id="cfpbLabel" style="display:none">
Saving File:
</div>
<cfprogressbar
name="pBar"
autodisplay=false
bind="url:progressdata.cfm"
onComplete="hideProgessBar"
width="400">
<cfset ajaxOnLoad('init')>
</cfform>

The following is the Progressdata.cfm:

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<!--- use a count to indicate progress --->

<cfif not isdefined('session.count')>
<cfset session.count = 1>
<cfelse>
<cfset session.count = session.count + 1 >
</cfif>
<!--- the struct to be sent back; using the populate the status and message components of the
progressbar --->
<cfset data = {status=session.count * 0.1,message=(session.count * 10) & "%"}>
<!--- clear count from session to start afresh the next time the program is run --->
<cfif session.count eq 10>
<cfset structdelete(session,"count")>
</cfif>
<!--- data sent back via URL binds must use SerializeJSON() --->
<cfoutput>#SerializeJSON(data)#</cfoutput>

The following CFM code has the JavaScript bind expression:

<head>
<script>
var count = 0;
var init = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'block';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.show('pBar');
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.start('pBar');
}
var hideProgessBar = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'none';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.hide('pBar');
}
var getProgessData = function()
{
count++;
if(count > 10)
return {STATUS:1,MESSAGE:"Done"}
else
return {STATUS:count*0.1,MESSAGE:(count * 10) + "%"}
}
</script>
</head>
<cfform>
<div id="cfpbLabel" style="display:none">
Saving File:
</div>
<cfprogressbar
name="pBar"
autodisplay=false
bind="javascript:getProgessData()"
onComplete="hideProgessBar"
width="400"
>
<cfset ajaxOnLoad('init')>
</cfform>

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Manual mode
In the manual mode, you specify the duration the progress bar takes to complete the display of progress.
In the following example, autodisplay is set to false as a result of which the progress bar is not shown when the
page is first loaded. When the page is loaded, init function is invoked and the function displays and runs the progress
bar. The default interval used in this mode is one second.
<head>
<script>
var init = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'block';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.show('pBar');
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.start('pBar');
}
var hideProgessBar = function(){
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'none';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.hide('pBar');
}
</script>
</head>
<cfform>
<div id="cfpbLabel" style="display:none">
Saving File:
</div>
<cfprogressbar
name="pBar"
duration="10000"
autodisplay=false
onComplete="hideProgessBar"
width="400"
/>
<cfset ajaxOnLoad('init')>
</cfform>

Working with a progress bar at runtime

This section illustrates how to use the JavaScript API to update the progress bar status. The following CFM code loads
a progress bar using the JavaScript API ColdFusion.ProgressBar.updatestatus.
On program load, intit function displays the progress bar and calls the getProgressData JavaScript function to
manually update the progress bar. The getProgressData function assigns the status and message variables passed to the
JavaScript API update status.
While working with a progress bar at runtime, ensure that you specify a dummy duration (for instance,
duration=5000). Even though the custom JavaScript function decides the actual duration, duration is a mandatory
attribute.

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<cfajaxproxy cfc="pbar" jsclassname="pbar">

<head>
<script>
var utils = new pbar();
var init = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'block';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.show('pBar');
getProgessData();
}
var hideProgessBar = function()
{
document.getElementById('cfpbLabel').style.display = 'none';
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.hide('pBar');
}
var getProgessData = function()
{
for(i=1;i <= 10;i++)
{
var status = parseFloat(i * 0.10);
var message = Math.round(status * 100) + "%";
ColdFusion.ProgressBar.updateStatus('pBar',status,message);
utils.sleep(1000);
}
hideProgessBar();
}
</script>
</head>
<cfform>
<div id="cfpbLabel" style="display:none">
Saving File:
</div>
<cfprogressbar
name="pBar"
autodisplay=false
duration=15000
onComplete="hideProgessBar"
width="400">
<cfset ajaxOnLoad('init')>
</cfform>

The sleep function in the following CFC provides sleep functionality in the JavaScript code:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="sleep" access="remote">
<cfargument name="timetosleep" default="1000">
<cfset sleep(timetosleep)>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Styling the progress bar

The cfprogressbar has style attribute that lets you decide:

Background color of the progress bar

Color of the progress message
Color of the progress indicator

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The following code illustrates styling: style="bgcolor:ADD8E6;progresscolor:6183A6;textcolor:191970"

Using the cfmessagebox tag

The cfmessagebox tag lets you define controls for displaying pop-up messages. In addition to the standard alert box,
this tag lets you include a prompt and entry field in the box.

Using confirm dialog

The following code shows how to build a confirm message box with two buttons YES and NO.
<cfmessagebox
type="confirm"
name="msgbox1"
title="Confirm Dialog"
message="Do you want proceed?"
buttonType="YesNo"
icon="info"
labelYes="Click Yes to continue"
labelNo="No"
x=100
y=200>
<!--- This example illustrates usage of the Confirm dialog in "YesNoCancel" mode --->
<cfmessagebox
type="confirm"
name="msgbox2"
title="Save File"
message="Do you want to save the file?"
buttonType="YesNoCancel"
icon="question"
labelYes="Click Yes to save the file"
labelNo="No"
labelCancel="Quit"
width="400"
x=500
y=200>
<br><br>
<input
type="button"
name="confirm1"
onClick="javascript:ColdFusion.MessageBox.show('msgbox1');"
value="YesNo Confirm"
>
<input
type="button"
name="confirm2"
onClick="javascript:ColdFusion.MessageBox.show('msgbox2');"
value="YesNoCancel Confirm"
>

Styling a message box

The bodyStyle attribute, a CSS style specification for the body of the message box helps you to style the message. As
a general rule, use this attribute to set color and font styles.
The following example illustrates the usage of the bodyStyle attribute:

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<cfmessagebox
type="alert"
name="msgbox1"
title="Download Status"
message="File Download Complete"
icon="info"
width="400"
bodyStyle="background-color:white;color:blue"
x=300
y=200>
<br><br>
<input
type="button"
name="alert"
onClick="javascript:ColdFusion.MessageBox.show('msgbox1');"
value="Alert MessageBox"
>

Using Ajax Data and Development Features

Adobe ColdFusion supports Ajax features to use data dynamically in web pages.
For information on ColdFusion Ajax user interface capabilities, see Using Ajax User Interface Components and
Features on page 804.

About ColdFusion Ajax data and development features

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a set of web technologies for creating interactive web applications. Ajax
applications typically combine:

HTML and CSS for formatting and displaying information.

JavaScript for client-side dynamic scripting
Asynchronous communication with a server using the XMLHttpRequest function.
XML or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as a technique for serializing and transferring data between the sever
and the client.
ColdFusion provides many tools that simplify using Ajax technologies for dynamic applications. By using ColdFusion
tags and functions, you can easily create complex Ajax applications.

ColdFusion Ajax features

ColdFusion provides data management and development, and user interface Ajax features.

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Data and development features

ColdFusion data and development features help you develop effective Ajax applications that use ColdFusion to
provide dynamic data. They include many features that you can use with other Ajax frameworks, including Spry.

ColdFusion supports data binding in many tags. Binding allows an application that uses form and display tags, such
as cfselect and cfwindow, to dynamically display information based on form input. In the simplest application,
you display form data directly in other form fields, but usually you pass form field data as parameters to CFC or
JavaScript functions or URLs and use the results to control the display. Data binding uses events to automatically
update the display, typically when the bound input data changes. You can also use the
ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm JavaScript function to get the current value of any bindable element.

The cfajaxproxy tag creates a JavaScript proxy that represents a CFC on the server. It manages the
communication between the client and server, and provides several functions to simplify and manage handling the
communication and its results. This tag provides access to all remote functions in a CFC. It also lets applications,
including applications that use Ajax frameworks or widget sets such as Dojo or Backbase, easily access data from
ColdFusion servers.

The cfsprydataset tag lets you use bind expressions to dynamically create and update Adobe Spry data sets.
Applications that use Spry framework elements, such as dynamic regions, use this tag to populate the Spry elements
with information based on ColdFusion control input. This feature lets you easily intermix Spry and ColdFusion
controls.

The cfajaximport tag specifies the location of the JavaScript and CSS files that a ColdFusion page imports. You
also use this tag to selectively import files required by specific Ajax-based tags and functions. The ability to change
the file location lets you support a wide range of configurations and use advanced techniques, such as applicationspecific styles. Although ColdFusion automatically determines and imports the required files, sometimes you must
manually specify the information.

ColdFusion provides several CFML functions that let you create and consume JSON format data on the server and
let you prepare data for use in HTML cfgrid tags.

You display a floating logging window that shows client-side logging and debugging information. ColdFusion Ajax
features display information and error messages in this window, and several logging tags let you display additional
information, including the structure of complex JavaScript variables.
User interface features
Ajax-based HTML controls including the following:

Tree
Grid
Rich text editor
Date field
Autosuggest text input
Pop-up menus and menu bars.
Container tags that provide bordered, box, and tabbed layouts, pop-up windows, and pod regions.
A cfdiv container tag that enables asynchronous form submission and binding in HTML div and other regions.
Tool tips for specific controls and HTML regions.
For detailed information on using the user interface features, see Using Ajax User Interface Components and
Features on page 804.

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ColdFusion Ajax tags

The following table lists ColdFusion Ajax-related tags and functions, including all tags that support Ajax-based
features. It does not include subtags that are used only in the bodies of the listed tags:
Data tags

UI tags

UI tags

Functions

cfajaximport

cfdiv

cfselect

AjaxLink

cfajaxproxy

cfgrid

cftextarea

AjaxOnLoad

cfsprydataset

cfinput

cftree

DeserializeJSON

cflayout

cftooltip

IsJSON

cfmenu

cfwindow

QueryConvertForGrid

cfpod

SerializeJSON

Binding data to form fields

Many ColdFusion Ajax features use binding to provide dynamic interactivity based on user input or changing data.
When you use binding, a bind expression gets evaluated, and the display gets updated based on new data each time a
specific event (onChange by default) occurs on a form control field specified by a bind parameter. This way, the value
of the tag that specifies the bind expression, and the display, get updated dynamically based on changing information,
including user-entered form data. When you use binding the page contents updates, but the entire page is not
refreshed.
Note: When a bound window is not visible, or a tab is not selected, its contents is not updated when the controls it is bound
to change. When the tab or window is made visible, it is updated only if events have been received from the bound controls
while the control was not visible.
Depending on the specific ColdFusion tag, a bind expression uses bind parameter values directly or passes bind
parameter values as parameters to a CFC function, a JavaScript function, or an HTTP request and uses the function or
request response to update the page. Use the following as the data source for a bind expression:

ColdFusion form control attributes and values. You can bind to the following controls:
cfgrid
cfinput with checkbox, datefield, file, hidden, radio, or text types
cfselect
cftextarea
cftree
Spry data set elements
Note: You cannot use a bind expression to bind to controls in a dynamically loaded region. For example, you cannot bind
from a control on one page to a control in a layout area on that page if the cflayoutarea tag uses a source attribute
for its contents. However, a dynamically loaded region binds to controls on the page that loads it, so the file specified by
the source attribute uses bind expressions that specify controls on the page that contains the cflayoutarea tag.
The results of the bind expression determine the value of the tag that uses the expression. For example, if you specify
a URL in a bind expression as the source attribute of a cfwindow control, the page specified by the URL must return
the full contents of the window.
For more examples, see Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features on page 804 and the reference pages
for controls that support binding.

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Using bind expressions

To specify a bind expression, use one of the following formats:

cfc:componentPath.functionName(parameters)
Note: In ColdFusion 9, the component path cannot use a mapping. The componentPath value must be a dotdelimited path from the web root or the directory that contains the current page.

javascript:functionName(parameters)
url:URL?parameters
URL?parameters
A string containing one or more instances of {bind parameter}, such as {firstname}.{lastname}@{domain}
In formats 1-4 the parameters normally include one or more bind parameters. The following table lists the tag
attributes that support bind expressions and the formats each use:
Attribute

Tags

Supported formats

autosuggest

cfinput type="text"

1, 2, 3

bind

cfdiv, cfinput, cftextarea

1, 2, 3, 5

bind

cfajaxproxy, cfgrid, cfselect, cfsprydataset, cftreeitem

1, 2, 3

onChange

cfgrid

1, 2, 3

source

cflayoutarea, cfpod, cfwindow

The following examples show some of these uses:

bind="cfc:myapp.bookorder.getChoices({book})"
source="/myApp/innerSource/cityWindow.cfm?cityname={inputForm:city}

In these examples, {book} and {inputForm:city} specify bind parameters that dynamically get data from the book
and city controls, and the city control is in the inputForm form.
If a bind attribute specifies a page that defines JavaScript functions, the function definitions on that page must have
the following format:
functionName = function(arguments) {function body}

Function definitions that use the following format may not work:
function functionName (arguments) {function body}

However, Adobe recommends that you include all custom JavaScript in external JavaScript files and import them on
the applications main page, and not write them inline in code that you get using the source attribute. Imported pages
do not have this function definition format restriction.
Specifying bind parameters
A bind parameter specifies a form control value or other attribute, as in the following example:
bind="cfc:myapplication.bookSearch.getStores({form1:bookTitle})"

In this example, the bind parameter is form1:bookTitle and specifies the value attribute of the bookTitle field of the
form1 form.
Bind parameters have either of the following formats:

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{[formName:]controlName[.attributeName][@event]}
{SpryDataSetName.fieldName}

The brackets ([]) indicate optional contents and are not part of the parameter.
Note: To include a literal brace character in a bind expression, escape the character with a backslash, as \{, \}.
The formname value
The formname entry identifies the form that contains the control you are binding to. Specify a form name if multiple
forms contain bind targets with the same names. To specify the form name, start the bind expression with the forms
id attribute the name attribute if you did not specify an id attribute, and follow it with a colon (:). To specify the book
control that is in a form named inputForm, for example, use the following format:
bind="cfc:myapp.bookorder.getChoices({inputForm:book})"

The controlName value

To bind to a form field, the controlName value must be the value of the id or name attribute of the form control to
which you are binding. If a control has both an id and a name attribute, use either value.
You can bind to any ColdFusion form control, including cfgrid and cftree. You cannot bind to values in other
ColdFusion tags, such as cftable.
To bind to a Spry data set, specify the data set name in this part of the bind parameter.
You can bind to multiple radio buttons or check boxes by giving them the same name value. If all the radio buttons in
a radio button group have the same name value, the bind parameter represents the selected button. If multiple check
boxes have the same name value, the bind parameter represents the values of the selected controls in a commadelimited list. If you also specify a unique id attribute for each check box or radio button, specify an HTML label tag
for each button or check box and use the id value in the for attribute; in this case, users select items by clicking the
label, not just the button or box.
If a cfselect control supports multiple selections, the bind expression returns the information about the selected
items in a comma-delimited list.
You can bind only to controls that are available in the DOM tree when the bind is registered. Binds are registered when
the page with the bind expression loads, either in the browser window or in a container tag. As a result, if you have two
cfdiv, cflayoutarea, cfpod, or cfwindow containers that you load by using a source (or for cfdiv tag, bind)
attribute, you cannot bind controls in one container to controls in the other, because one container cannot be assured
that the other is loaded when it loads. Similarly, elements on the main page cannot bind to elements on a dynamically
loaded container. To prevent this problem, define the bind target in line on the main page, instead of using a source
or bind attribute to retrieve the markup that contains the bind target. In other words, the master form with fields
that serve as sources of bind expressions is loaded statically (on the main page), and the child controls that depend
on the data are loaded dynamically, on a page that is specified in a source or bind attribute.
The attributeName value
When you bind to a form control, by default, the bind expression represents the value attribute of the specified
control. If the bind target is a cfselect tag, the bind expression represents a comma delimited list of the values of the
selected items.
To bind to a different attribute, follow the control name or id with a period (.) and the attribute name. To pass the
checked attribute of a checkbox cfinput tag as a CFC parameter, for example, use an expression such as the
following:
bind="cfc:myapp.bookorder.useStatus({myForm:approved.checked@click})

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Note: You can bind to the display text of a select box, instead of the value, by specifying an attribute name of innerHTML.
Note: When you bind to a check box, use the @click event specifier to ensure that the bind expression is triggered in
Internet Explorer when the user selects or deselects the check box, not when the box loses focus.
Grids and trees do not have default bind attributes.

Always specify a grid target attribute by using the format {gridID.columnName}. The bind expression gets the value
of the specified column in the selected row.

For trees, you must bind to a specific node in the tree. Specify the node by using the node ID or an explicit path to
the node.
To bind to a Spry data set element or attribute, use standard Spry path notation. For example, specify an element name.
The event value
By default, the bind expression function executes each time the control specified in the bind parameter has an
onChange event. To trigger updates on a different JavaScript event, end the bind expression with an at sign (@) and
the event name, without the on prefix. The following code, for example, executes the getChoices CFC each time the
user presses the mouse button while the pointer is over the book control:
bind="cfc:myapp.bookorder.getChoices({inputForm:book@mousedown})"

Note: To bind to a cfinput control with type attribute of button, specify a bind event setting, such as click. The
change event is the default event has no effect.
When you bind to a Spry data set, do not specify an event. The expression is evaluated when the selected row changes
in the data set, or when the data set reloads with new data.
You can also specify that a specific bind parameter never triggers bind expression reevaluation, by specifying @none as
the event. This is useful, for example, if a bind expression uses multiple bind parameters binding to different form
fields, and you want the bind expression to trigger changes only when one of the fields changes, not when the others
change. In this case, you would specify @none for the remaining fields, so events from those fields would not trigger
the bind. The following code shows this use:
bind="cfc:books.getinfo({iForm:book}, {iForm:author@none})"

The @none event specifier is also useful when used with autosuggest text inputs, trees and grids, as follows:

When you use an autosuggest text input, the bind expression is evaluated as a user types in text, and picks up data
from all bind parameters, including those parameters with @none specified. Therefore, for autosuggest, specify
@none for all bind parameters, because there is no way for it to react to changes in the parameters.

When you call the ColdFusion.Grid.refresh or ColdFusion.Tree.refresh function, the function fetches data
from all bind parameters when it evaluates the bind expression, including any parameters with @none specified. If
you specify @none for all bind parameters, the tree or grid might not respond to changes in other controls, but gets
data from all the bind parameters each time you explicitly refresh it.
Using CFC functions in bind expressions
As with JavaScript functions, you pass arguments to a CFC function specified in a bind expression positionally. When
you do this, the argument names in a CFC function definition do not have to be the same as the bind parameter names,
but the arguments in the bind expression must be in the same order as the arguments in the CFC function definition.
Alternatively, you pass named CFC function arguments. Then, the bind expression and CFC function must use the
same names for the arguments, and the function does not have to define the arguments in the same order as they are
passed. To specify argument names in a bind expression, use a format such as the following, which uses two named
parameters, arg1 and arg2:

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bind="cfc:mycfc.myfunction(arg1={myform:myfield1},arg2={myform:myfield2})"

Support for CFCs outside webroot

Note: To use this feature, you must install ColdFusion 9 Update 1.
Components outside the webroot can be accessed in bind expressions. This implies that tags such as cfajaxproxy or
Ajax components such as grid, map, or progress bar can be used in more effective ways.
Note: In the previous releases, the CFCs had to be web-accessible for Ajax applications to function.
In addition to accessing CFCs using relative or absolute path, you can also use any of the following methods to access CFCs:

logical mappings (defined in the ColdFusion Administrator)

per-app mappings (defined in Application.cfc)
imports (using cfimport/import)
Usage
The following code shows the usage of this enhancement using per-map mappings:
Application.cfc
THIS.mappings["/mycfc"] = "C:\www\shared\components";

Test.cfm
<cfajaxproxy cfc="mycfc.utils" jsclassname='jsobjname' />

Example
In this example, a per-app mapping named mycfcs has been created in Application.cfc pointing to "c:\components".
For the sample code to work, create a folder named components in your system root (in this example, c:\) and copy
the Employee.cfc to that folder.
Application.cfc
<cfcomponent>
<cfset this.name = "cfcoutsidewebroot">
<cfset this.sessionmanagement = true>
<Cfset mappingname = "/mycfcs">
<Cfset mappingpath = "c:\components\">
<cfset this.mappings[mappingname] = mappingpath>
</cfcomponent>

Employee.cfc

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<cfcomponent>
<cfscript>
remote any function
getEmployees(page,pageSize,gridsortcolumn="EMP_ID",gridsortdirection="ASC"){
var startRow = (page-1)*pageSize;
var endRow = page*pageSize;
if(!isdefined("arguments.gridsortcolumn") or
isdefined("arguments.gridsortcolumn") and trim(arguments.gridsortcolumn) eq "")
gridsortcolumn = "EMP_ID";
if(!isdefined("arguments.gridsortdirection") or
isdefined("arguments.gridsortdirection") and arguments.gridsortdirection eq "")
gridsortdirection = "ASC";
var mysql = "SELECT Emp_ID, FirstName, EMail, Department FROM Employees";
if(isdefined("arguments.gridsortcolumn") and arguments.gridsortcolumn neq "")
mysql = mysql & " ORDER BY " & gridsortcolumn;
if(isdefined("arguments.gridsortdirection") and arguments.gridsortdirection neq
"")
mysql = mysql & " " & gridsortdirection ;
rs1 = new query(name="team", datasource="cfdocexamples", sql=mysql).execute();
return QueryConvertForGrid(rs1.getResult(), page, pageSize);
}

remote any function editEmployees(gridaction,gridrow,gridchanged){

writelog("edit employee info");
}
</cfscript>
</cfcomponent>

Employee.cfm
<cfform>
<cfgrid
format="html"
name="grid01"
pagesize=10
title="Employee database"
bind="cfc:mycfcs.employee.getEmployees({cfgridpage},{cfgridpagesize},{cfgridsortcolumn},{cfg
ridsortdirection})"
onChange="cfc:mycfcs.
employee.editEmployees({cfgridaction},{cfgridrow},{cfgridchanged})">
<cfgridcolumn name="Emp_ID" display=false header="ID" />
<cfgridcolumn name="FirstName" display=true header="First Name"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Email" display=true header="Email"/>
<cfgridcolumn name="Department" display=true header="Department" />
</cfgrid>
</cfform>

Using binding in control attributes

When you use direct binding you specify a bind expression in a ColdFusion form or display control attribute. In the
simplest, form of binding you use form fields, such as a name field, to fill other fields, such as an e-mail field, as the
following example. shows. When you enter a name or domain and tab to click in another field, the name is added to
the e-mail field.

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<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="mycfform">
First Name: <cfinput type="text" name="firstname" value=""><br>
Last Name: <cfinput type="text" name="lastname" value=""><br>
Domain: <cfinput type="text" name="domain" value=""><br>
E-mail: <cfinput type="text" name="email1" size="30"
bind="{firstname}.{lastname}@{domain}">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The following example shows the results of binding to radio buttons and check boxes with the same name attribute but
different id attributes. Notice that because each control has a separate id value that is used in the label tags, you click
the labels to select and deselect the controls.
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="myform">
Pick one:
<cfinput id="pickers1" name="pickone" type="radio" value="Apples">
<label for="pickers1">Apples</label>
<cfinput id="pickers2" name="pickone" type="radio" value="Oranges">
<label for="pickers2">Oranges</label>
<cfinput id="pickers3" name="pickone" type="radio" value="Mangoes">
<label for="pickers3">Mangoes</label>
<br>
<cfinput name="pickone-selected" bind="{pickone}"><br />
<br />
Pick as many as you like:
<cfinput id="pickers4" name="pickmany" type="checkbox" value="Apples">
<label for="pickers4">Apples</label>
<cfinput id="pickers5" name="pickmany" type="checkbox" value="Oranges">
<label for="pickers5">Oranges</label>
<cfinput id="pickers6" name="pickmany" type="checkbox" value="Mangoes">
<label for="pickers6">Mangoes</label>
<br/>
<cfinput name="pickmany-selected" bind="{pickmany}"><br />
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

Most applications call a CFC function, or JavaScript function, or use a URL to make an HTTP request (typically to a
CFML page), and pass bind parameters as the function or URL parameters.
The following example uses the same form as the first example in the preceding section, but uses a different bind
expression with the following features:

It uses the keyup events of the name and domain fields to trigger binding. So the e-mail field gets updated each time
that you enter a letter in any of these fields.

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It calls a CFC, which uses only the first letter of the first name when forming the e-mail address, and forces the
domain name to be all lowercase.
The following example shows the bindapp.cfm page:
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="mycfform">
First Name: <cfinput type="text" name="firstname" value=""><br>
Last Name: <cfinput type="text" name="lastname" value=""><br>
Domain: <cfinput type="text" name="domain" value=""><br>
E-mail: <cfinput type="text" name="email"
bind="cfc:bindFcns.getEmailId({firstname@keyup},{lastname@keyup},
{domain@keyup})">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

The following example shows the bindFcns.cfc CFC file:

<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="getEmailId" access="remote">
<cfargument name="firstname">
<cfargument name="lastname">
<cfargument name="domain">
<cfreturn
"#left(arguments.firstname,1)#.#arguments.lastname#@#lcase(arguments.domain)#">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Many of the examples in the documentation for ColdFusion Ajax features use binding, including more complex forms
of binding.

Using the cfajaxproxy tag to bind to display controls

The cfajaxproxy tag with a bind attribute makes any of the following elements dependent on one or more bound
ColdFusion Ajax controls:

A single CFC function

A single JavaScript function
An HTTP request; for example, the URL of a CFML page
The function or request executes whenever a specific event (by default, the onChange event) of the bound control
occurs.
Note: if you specify a bind attribute with a URL, the HTTP request includes a _CF_NODEBUG URL parameter. ColdFusion
checks this value, and when it is true, does not append to the response any debugging information that it normally would
send. This behavior ensures that JSON responses to Ajax requests do not include any non-JSON (that is, debugging
information) text.
The cfajaxproxy tag includes the following attributes that determine how the proxy handles the data returned by the
function or the page:

The onError function specifies code to handle an HTTP error return. You use this attribute with a URL or CFC bind.

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The onSuccess function handles a valid return from the function or page and updates the display as required with
the returned information.
Binding a function or request by using the cfajaxproxy tag enables you to perform a server-side action, such as
updating a database by using bind parameter values based on a user action in some control, and then run a specific
action or set of actions in one or more controls based on the server response. Because it uses an onSuccess function
to process the return from the server, this form of binding provides substantially more flexibility than a CFML control
bind parameter. This format also lets you use a control bind parameter for one kind of action, and the cfajaxproxy
tag for a different activity.
For example, if you have a form with an editable cfgrid control and a delete button that a user clicks to delete a grid
row. The application must have the following behaviors:

When the user clicks the delete button two things must happen:
The application must call a mycfc.deleteButton CFC function to delete the row from the database.
The grid must update to remove the deleted row.
When the user edits the grid content, the grid must call a mycfc.update function to update the database.
Implement these behaviors by doing the following:

In the cfgrid tag, specify a bind attribute that uses a bind expression to call a mycfc.update function each time the
user changes the grid contents.

In a cfajaxproxy tag, specify a bind attribute that calls the mycfc.deleterow CFC function, and specify an
onSuccess attribute that calls the ColdFusion.Grid.refresh function to update the displayed grid when the
CFC function returns successfully.

The following code snippets show how you could do this:

<cfajaxproxybind="cfc:mycfc.deleteRow({deletebutton@click},
{mygrid.id@none}"onSuccess="ColdFusion.Grid.refresh('mygrid', true)">
...
<cfinput type="button" name="deletebutton">
<cfgrid name="mygrid" bind="mycfc.update({cfgridpage}, {cfgridpagesize},
{cfgridsortcolumn}, {cfgridsortdirection})>

The following complete example shows a simple use of the bind attribute in a cfajaxproxy tag. For the sake of brevity,
the bind expression calls a JavaScript function; as a result, the cfajaxproxy tag cannot use a onError attribute.

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<html>
<head>
<script language="javascript">
function test(x,y){
return "Hello, " + x + "!";
}
function callbackHandler(result){
alert("Bind expression evaluated. Result: \n" + result);
}
</script>
<cfajaxproxy bind="javascript:test({input1@none},{button1@click})"
onSuccess="callbackHandler">
</head>
<body>
<cfform name="mycfform">
<cfinput type="text" value="" name="input1" size="30">
<cfinput type="button" name="button1" value="Submit">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

Getting bindable attribute values in JavaScript

Use the ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm function in your JavaScript code to get the current value of any attribute of
a bindable control. This technique is useful for getting values for complex controls such as cfgrid and cftree. For
more information, see the ColdFusion.Ajax.submitForm function in the CFML Reference.

Managing the client-server interaction

Manage the client-server interaction in several ways:

Use the cfajaxproxy tag to create a client-side JavaScript proxy for a CFC and its functions. You then call the
proxy functions in client JavaScript code to access the server-side CFC functions.

Use the cfsprydataset tag to dynamically populate a Spry data set from a URL or a CFC. You then use the data
set to populate Spry dynamic regions. You also use Spry data sets in bind expressions.

Use the cfajaxproxy tag to bind fields of ColdFusion Ajax form controls as parameters to a specific CFC function,
JavaScript function, or HTTP request, and specify JavaScript functions to handle successful or error results. The
function is run each time the event determined by the bind expression occurs.

Use ColdFusion Ajax-based UI tags, such as cftree or cfgrid that automatically get data from CFCs or URLs by
using data binding.
For Information on working with Spry, including how to use the cfsprydataset tag, see Using Spry with
ColdFusion on page 874. For detailed information on using binding, including how to use binding with ColdFusion
UI tags and the cfajaxproxy tag, see Binding data to form fields on page 860. For more information on using the
ColdFusion Ajax-based UI tags, see Using Ajax User Interface Components and Features on page 804.

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Using ColdFusion Ajax CFC proxies

Use the cfajaxproxy tag to create a client-side JavaScript proxy for a CFC and its functions. The proxy object has the
following characteristics:

It provides a JavaScript function that corresponds to each CFC remote function. Calling these functions in your
client-side JavaScript code remotely calls the CFC functions on the server.

It provides JavaScript support functions for controlling the communication, which specifies asynchronous result
and error handler callbacks, and sends form data to the server. For detailed information on these functions, see the
cfajaxproxy tag in the CFML Reference.

It manages the interactions between the client and the CFC, including serializing and deserializing JavaScript arrays
and structures to and from JSON format for transmission over the web.

It ensures automatic serialization (into JSON format) and deserialization of CFC return values.
By using a ColdFusion Ajax proxy, any JavaScript code can call the proxied CFC functions. Thus, any Ajax application,
not just one that uses ColdFusion Ajax UI elements, can use dynamic data provided by CFCs. Also, the proxy provides
access to all of the functions in a CFC, not just the single function that you specify in a bind expression.
Creating a JavaScript CFC proxy
The cfajaxproxy tag with a cfc attribute generates a JavaScript proxy that represents a CFC on the web client.
Because a ColdFusion page that uses the cfajaxproxy tag is used as an Ajax client web page, the page typically starts
with the cfajaxproxy tag (or tags), and the remainder of the page consists of the HTML and JavaScript required to
control the display and perform the page logic on the client.
Note: Because JavaScript is case-sensitive, make sure that you match the case of the keys in any ColdFusion structure or
scope that you send to the client. By default, ColdFusion sets variable names and structure element names to alluppercase. (You create structure element names with lowercase characters by specifying the names in associative array
notation, for example, myStruct["myElement"]="value".) The keys for the two arrays in the JSON object that the
ColdFusion SerializeJSON function generates to represent a query are COLUMNS and DATA, for example, not columns
and data.
For more information about creating and using CFC proxies, see the cfajaxproxy tag in the CFML Reference.
Configuring the CFC proxy
The proxy provides several JavaScript functions that you use to control the behavior of the proxy:

You use the setAsyncMode and setSyncMode functions to control the call mode. By default, all calls to remote CFC
functions are asynchronous, the most common synchronization method for Ajax applications.

You use the setCallbackHandler and setErrorHandler functions to specify the functions that handle the results
of successful and unsuccessful asynchronous calls.
Note: For error handling to work properly, select the Enable HTTP Status Codes option on the Server Settings >
Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.

You use the setHTTPMethod function to control whether the call uses a GET HTTP request (the default) or a POST
request.

You use the setForm function to prepare the proxy to send full form data to the remote function. This function
causes the proxy to pass each form field as a separate parameter to the CFC function.

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You use the setReturnFormat function to specify whether to return the result in JSON format (the default), in
WDDX format, or as plain text. Use the setQueryFormat function to specify whether to return a JSON format
query as an object with an array of column names and an array of row arrays, or as an object that corresponds to
the WDDX query format. These functions only effect the format of data returned by ColdFusion. Data sent from
the proxy to the server is always in JSON format.
Submitting data to a CFC
When you use an Ajax CFC proxy, you send to the CFC function any client-side data that can be serialized to JSON
format, not just form data. However, the proxy cannot serialize DOM tree elements because they are wrappers on
native code. Therefore, you cannot use DOM tree elements directly as parameters to a CFC function that you call by
using an Ajax proxy. To ensure correct serialization to JSON for sending to the CFC, use basic JavaScript types only:
array, object, and simple types. Instead of using a DOM element directly, you pass only the specific element attributes
that you require to the CFC function, either individually or in an array or object.
When you use the cfc attribute, you submit form data to the CFC without refreshing the client page by calling the
proxy setForm function before you call a CFC proxy function in your JavaScript. The proxy function then passes all
field values of the specified form to the CFC function. In the CFC function Arguments scope, the argument names are
the form control ID attributes (or, by default, the name attributes) and the argument values are the control values.
Note: You cannot use the setForm function to submit the contents of file fields.
To pass the form parameters to your proxy function, invoke the proxy function immediately after you call the setForm
function. Subsequent proxy function invocations do not get the form parameters.
If you also pass arguments explicitly to the CFC, cfargument tags in the CFC function that specify the explicitly passed
arguments must precede any cfargument tags for the form fields. For example, if you have the following submitForm
JavaScript function:
function submitForm() {
var proxy = new remoteHandler();
proxy.setCallbackHandler(callbackHandler);
proxy.setErrorHandler(errorHandler);
proxy.setForm('myform');
proxy.setData('loggedIn');
}

In this example, the remoteHandler.cfc setData function starts as follows:

<cffunction name="setData" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="loggedIn">
<cfargument name="userName">
...

In this example, userName is the name of a form field. If the cfargument tag for userName preceded the cfargument
tag for the loggedIn explicitly passed variable, the CFC function would not get the value of loggedIn. Your CFC
function can omit cfargument tags for the form fields.

Example: Using an asynchronous CFC proxy

The following example uses a remote CFC method to populate a drop-down list of employees. When you select a name
from the list, it uses a call to the CFC method to get information about the employee, and displays the results.
The main application page has the following lines:

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<!--- The cfajaxproxy tag creates a client-side proxy for the emp CFC.
View the generated page source to see the resulting JavaScript.
The emp CFC must be in the components subdirectory of the directory
that contains this page. --->
<cfajaxproxy cfc="components.emp" jsclassname="emp">
<html>
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Function to find the index in an array of the first entry
// with a specific value.
// It is used to get the index of a column in the column list.
Array.prototype.findIdx = function(value){
for (var i=0; i < this.length; i++) {
if (this[i] == value) {
return i;
}
}
}
// Use an asynchronous call to get the employees for the
// drop-down employee list from the ColdFusion server.
var getEmployees = function(){
// Create an instance of the proxy.
var e = new emp();
// If you set a callback handler for the proxy, the proxy's calls
// are asynchronous.
e.setCallbackHandler(populateEmployees);
e.setErrorHandler(myErrorHandler);
// The proxy getEmployees function represents the CFC
// getEmployees function.
e.getEmployees();
}
// Callback function to handle the results returned by the
// getEmployees function and populate the drop-down list.
var populateEmployees = function(res)
{
with(document.simpleAJAX){
var option = new Option();
option.text='Select Employee';
option.value='0';
employee.options[0] = option;
for(i=0;i<res.DATA.length;i++){
var option = new Option();
option.text=res.DATA[i][res.COLUMNS.findIdx('FIRSTNAME')]
+ ' ' + res.DATA[i][[res.COLUMNS.findIdx('LASTNAME')]];
option.value=res.DATA[i][res.COLUMNS.findIdx('EMP_ID')];
employee.options[i+1] = option;
}
}
}
// Use an asynchronous call to get the employee details.
// The function is called when the user selects an employee.
var getEmployeeDetails = function(id){

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var e = new emp();

e.setCallbackHandler(populateEmployeeDetails);
e.setErrorHandler(myErrorHandler);
// This time, pass the employee name to the getEmployees CFC
// function.
e.getEmployees(id);
}
// Callback function to display the results of the getEmployeeDetails
// function.
var populateEmployeeDetails = function(employee)
{
var eId = employee.DATA[0][0];
var efname = employee.DATA[0][1];
var elname = employee.DATA[0][2];
var eemail = employee.DATA[0][3];
var ephone = employee.DATA[0][4];
var edepartment = employee.DATA[0][5];
with(document.simpleAJAX){
empData.innerHTML =
'<span style="width:100px">Employee Id:</span>'
+ '<font color="green"><span align="left">'
+ eId + '</font></span><br>'
+ '<span style="width:100px">First Name:</span>'
+ '<font color="green"><span align="left">'
+ efname + '</font></span><br>'
+ '<span style="width:100px">Last Name:</span>'
+ '<font color="green"><span align="left">'
+ elname + '</font></span><br>'
+ '<span style="width:100px">Email:</span>'
+ '<font color="green"><span align="left">'
+ eemail + '</span></font><br>'
+ '<span style="width:100px">Phone:</span>'
+ '<font color="green"><span align="left">'
+ ephone + '</font></span><br>'
+ '<span style="width:100px">Department:</span>'
+ '<font color="green"><span align="left">'
+ edepartment + '</font></span>';
}
}
// Error handler for the asynchronous functions.
var myErrorHandler = function(statusCode, statusMsg)
{
alert('Status: ' + statusCode + ', ' + statusMsg);

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}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<!--- The form to display the employee drop-down list and
employee data. --->
<form name="simpleAJAX" method="get">
List of Employees:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<select name="employee" onChange="getEmployeeDetails(this.value)">
<script language="javascript">
getEmployees();
</script>
</select>
<br><br>
<span id="empData"></span>
</form>
</body>
</html>

The following component, which gets the data from the data source, must be in a file named emp.cfc in the
components subdirectory of the application directory. The CFC uses the cfdocexamples data source that is installed
with ColdFusion if you install the documentation.
<cfcomponent>
<cfset this.dsn = "cfdocexamples">
<cffunction name="getEmployees" access="remote" returnFormat="json" output="false">
<cfargument name="empid" required="no" type="string" default="0">
<Cfquery name="qryEmp" datasource="#this.dsn#">
select * from Employees
<cfif empid neq 0>
where Emp_ID = #empid#
</cfif>
</Cfquery>
<cfreturn qryEmp>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Using Spry with ColdFusion

ColdFusion provides support for mixing native ColdFusion elements and Spry elements in a single application.

ColdFusion tags use Spry data sets directly in bind expressions. Therefore, a ColdFusion form element, such as
cfinput, binds to a field in a dynamic Spry data set, and is updated each time the data set updates, including when

the user selects an item in a Spry control or dynamic region that the data set populates.
To bind to a Spry data set, specify the data set name followed by the path to the specific element that you bind to,
by using standard Spry path syntax. For example, if dsFilters is a Spry data set with a name column, the
{dsFilters.name} bind parameter binds to the value of the current rows name column. The bind parameter
cannot specify an event; the bind expression is re-evaluated each time the selected row in the data set changes. The
following example shows the bind syntax:
<cfinput name="Input1" type="text"
bind="CfC:DataManager.getInData(filter={dsFilters.name})

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Spry data sets use a CFC function as the data source. To do this, you simply specify the URL of the CFC in the
Spry.Data.XMLDataSet function, just as you would invoke any remote CFC method using a URL. Specify the
method name with a method URL parameter, and pass data to the function in additional URL parameters, as in the
following example:
Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("MyAppMgr.cfc?method=getFilter&filter=scores",
"filters/filter");

The cfsprydataset tag dynamically creates and updates Spry XML or JSON data sets based on ColdFusion form data.
Spry dynamic regions and other elements then use this data to control their display.
The following example shows a cfsprydataset tag that creates a Spry XML data set named dsProducts by calling
the getData.getProductDetails function and passing it the value of the selected name in a cfgrid control. The data
set updates each time the name value changes.
<cfsprydataset
name="dsProducts"
type="xml"
bind="CFC:getData.getProductDetails(prodname={myform:mygrid.name})"
xpath="products/product"
options="{method: 'POST'}"
onBindError="errorHandler">

ColdFusion includes the complete Spry 1.5 framework release in web_root/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/spry directory. For
more information about Spry framework, see www.adobe.com/go/learn_spry_framework_en. For more information,
see the cfsprydataset tag in the CFML Reference.

Spry data set example

This example has the following behavior:
1 It uses a CFC function directly to populate a Spry XML data set, from an XML file.
2 It displays information from the Spry data in a Spry dynamic region list box.
3 It uses the selected item in the Spry data set to control the contents of a cfgrid control. The cfgrid bind expression

calls a CFC and passes it a parameter bound to the selected item in the Spry XML data set.
4 It creates a second Spry XML data set by using a cfsprydataset tag that binds to the selected item in the cfgrid

control and calls a CFC function.

5 It displays information from the second Spry data set in a second Spry dynamic region.

The example lets a user select the genre of books to display: all books, fiction, or nonfiction from a Spry list box
populated from the XML file. The selected genre determines the information displayed by a cfgrid control, and a text
input control shows the selected genre. The selected item in the cfgrid control determines the information that is
displayed in a second Spry dynamic region.
The application consists of the following files:

A roundtrip.cfm page with the display controls and related logic

A GridDataManager.cfc file with two functions:
A getFilter function that gets the XML for the spry data set
A getData function that gets the contents of the cfgrid control
A getProduct function that gets detailed information on the selected book
A Filters.xml file with the XML data for the spry data set

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For this example to display images, create an images subdirectory of your application directory that contains images
with the names specified by the BOOKIMAGE column of the cfbookclub database BOOKS table.
The roundtrip.cfm page
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:spry="http://ns.adobe.com/spry">
<head>
<!--- The screen.css style sheet is provided in the Spry distribution. --->
<link href="screen.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all"/>
<!--- Include the XPath and Spry JavaScript files. --->
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/spry/includes/xpath.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/CFIDE/scripts/ajax/spry/includes/SpryData.js"></script>
<!--- Create the dsFilters Spry XML data set used to populate the FiltersList dynamic region
that lists the filters. Call the GridDataManager CFC getFilter method directly from a
Spry XMLDataSet function because no binding is needed. --->
<script>
var dsFilters = new
Spry.Data.XMLDataSet("GridDataManager.cfc?method=getFilter", "filters/filter");
</script>
<!--- Use a cfsprydataset tag with binding to generate a dsProduct Spry data set with details
about the book grid selection. --->
<cfsprydataset
name="dsProduct"
type="xml"
bind="CFC:GridDataManager.getProductDetails(prodname={bookform:bookgrid.TITLE})"
xpath="products/product"
options="{method: 'POST'}"
onBindError="errorHandler">
<!--- Function to handle bind errors. --->
<script language="javascript">
errorHandler = function(code,msg){
alert("Error w/bind occurred. See details below:\n\n" + "Error Code: "
+ code + "\n" + "Error Message: " + msg);
}
</script>
<!--- Specify the size of the FiltersList Spry dynamic region.
By default it would be unnecessarily large. --->
<style type="text/css">
<!-#FiltersList {
height:100px;
width: 150px;
}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<!--- A Spry dynamic region containing repeated ListBoxItem controls.
Each item specifies a filter to use in filling the book list grid.

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The items are populated by the data from the CFC getFilter method. --->
<div id="FiltersList" spry:region="dsFilters" class="SpryHiddenRegion">
<div spry:repeat="dsFilters" class="ListBoxItemGroup">
<div class="ListBoxItem"
onclick="dsFilters.setCurrentRow('{dsFilters::ds_RowID}');"
spry:selectgroup="feedsList" spry:select="SelectedListBoxItem"
spry:hover="ListBoxItemHover">
{dsFilters::description}
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!--- A ColdFusion form with the book list data grid. --->
<cfform name="bookform">
<!--- Create a book list grid.
Users select the book for which to get details from this grid.
Populate it with the results of the CFC getData method.
Pass the method the value of the name field of the selected
item in the dsfilters Spry dynamic region. --->
<cfgrid name="bookgrid"
format="html"
bind="CfC:GridDataManager.getData(page={cfgridpage},
pageSize={cfgridpagesize},sortCol={cfgridsortcolumn},
sortDir={cfgridsortdirection},filter={dsFilters.name})"
selectMode="browse"
width=400
delete="true"
pageSize=7>
<cfgridcolumn name="TITLE" header="Name" width=200>
<cfgridcolumn name="GENRE" header="Type" width=200>
</cfgrid><br />
<!--- Show the value of the name field of the selected item in the Spry dynamic region.
--->
<cfinput name="filter" bind="{dsFilters.name}">
</cfform>
<hr>
<!--- A Spry dynamic region that uses the dsProduct data set to display information on the
selected product. --->
<div id="RSSResultsList" spry:detailregion="dsProduct" class="SpryHiddenRegion">
<strong>{name}</strong><br>
<img src="images/{bookimage}" alt="product box shot" width="238" height="130"/>
<div>{desc}</div>
</div>
<hr>
</body>
</html>

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The gridDataManager.cfc file

<cfcomponent name="GridDataManager">
<!--- The getFilter function gets the filter XML to populate the dsFilters Spry data set.
It specifies returnFormat=plain to send XML text. --->
<cffunction name="getFilter" access="remote" output="false" returnFormat="plain">
<cffile action="read" file="#ExpandPath('.')#\Filters.xml" variable="filtersxml">
<cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes">
<cfreturn filtersxml>
</cffunction>
<!--- The getData function returns books that match the specified genre, or all books if
there is no genre. --->
<cffunction name="getData" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="page" required="yes">
<cfargument name="pageSize" required="yes">
<cfargument name="sortCol" required="yes">
<cfargument name="sortDir" required="yes">
<cfargument name="filter" required="no">
<cfquery name="books" datasource="cfbookclub">
select TITLE, GENRE from BOOKS
<cfif isDefined("arguments.filter") AND arguments.filter NEQ "">
where GENRE = '#arguments.filter#'
</cfif>
<cfif arguments.sortCol NEQ "" AND arguments.sortDir NEQ "">
order by #arguments.sortCol# #arguments.sortDir#
<cfelse>
order by TITLE ASC
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<!--- Return the data only for the current page. --->
<cfreturn QueryConvertForGrid(books, arguments.page,
arguments.pageSize)>
</cffunction>
<!--- The getProductDetails gets data for a single book and converts it to XML for use
in the dsProduct Spry data set. --->
<cffunction name="getProductDetails" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="prodname" default="The Road">
<!--- Get the information about the book from the database. --->
<cfquery name="bookDetails" datasource="cfbookclub">
select TITLE, GENRE, BOOKIMAGE, BOOKDESCRIPTION from BOOKS
where TITLE = '#arguments.prodname#'
</cfquery>
<!--- Convert the query results to XML. --->

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<cfoutput>
<cfxml variable="BookDetailsXML" >
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<products>
<product>
<name>#BookDetails.TITLE#</name>
<category>#BookDetails.GENRE#</category>
<bookimage>#BookDetails.BOOKIMAGE#</bookimage>
<desc>#BookDetails.BOOKDESCRIPTION#</desc>
</product>
</products>
</cfxml>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Convert the XML object to an XML string. --->
<cfset xmldata = xmlparse(BookDetailsXML)>
<cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes">
<cfreturn xmldata>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The Filters.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<filters>
<filter>
<filterid>1</filterid>
<name></name>
<description>No Filter</description>
</filter>
<filter>
<filterid>2</filterid>
<name>Fiction</name>
<description>Look for Fiction</description>
</filter>
<filter>
<filterid>3</filterid>
<name>Non-fiction</name>
<description>Look for Nonfiction</description>
</filter>
</filters>

Specifying client-side support files

By default, ColdFusion does the following:

Gets all the client-side JavaScript, CSS, and other files required for Ajax-based features from the
web_root/CFIDE/scripts/ajax directory.

For each application page, imports only the JavaScript files required for the tags that are explicitly included on the page.
In some cases, override these default behaviors.

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Specifying a custom script or CSS location

In some situations, you cannot use the default location for the CFIDE directory, because a hosting site blocks access to
it to prevent access to the ColdFusion Administrator. Then, move the CFIDE/scripts directory, or the subdirectories
that you use in your applications, to a different location.
In other situations, you have custom versions of some of the client-side files, such as the CSS files that specify form
control appearance, that apply only to certain applications.
In both situations, inform ColdFusion of the new location. Specify the location of either or both directories containing
the following files:

All client-side resources required by the ColdFusion Ajax features

Only the CSS files required by the ColdFusion Ajax features
Specify the client-side resource location
Use any of the following techniques to control the location of the directory that contains the client-side resources
required by the ColdFusion Ajax features:

If the ColdFusion client-side files required by all applications, including the files used by cfform tags are in a single
location, you specify the directory in the ColdFusion Administrator > Server Settings > Settings page, Default
CFFORM ScriptSrc Directory field. The directory you specify and its subdirectories must have the same structure
and contents as the CFIDE/scripts directory tree.

If the client-side files required for Ajax features on a specific page are in one location, you use the cfajaximport
tag scriptsrc attribute to specify the source directory. This tag overrides the setting in the administrator, and does
not affect the files used for standard cfform features. The directory you specify must have an ajax subdirectory with
the same structure and contents as the CFIDE/scripts/ajax directory tree.

You specify the client-side source directory for a specific form in the cfform tag scriptsrc attribute. This setting
overrides any cfajaximport tag setting for the form and its child controls. The directory you specify and its
subdirectories must have the same structure and contents as the CFIDE/scripts directory tree.
If you require multiple resource locations for a single page, make sure that each JavaScript file is imported only once
on a page, the first time it is required. Therefore, you cannot use different copies of one JavaScript file on the same page.
To prevent problems, ColdFusion generates an error if you specify more than one scriptsrc attribute on a page.
Therefore, if multiple forms require custom client-side resource files, specify their location in a single cfajaximport
tag, not in scriptsrc attributes in the cfform tags.
Specify the CSS file location
Use the cfajaximport tag cssSrc attribute to specify the location of a directory that contains only the CSS files that
control the style of ColdFusion Ajax-based controls. This attribute overrides any scriptsrc value in determining the
CSS file location. Therefore, you could use the CSS files in the scriptsrc directory tree for most pages, and specify a
cssSrc attribute on selected application pages that require a custom look.
For detailed information on how to use the scriptsrc and cssSrc attributes, and requirements for the contents of
the specified directory, see the cfajaximport tag in the CFML Reference.

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Importing tag-specific JavaScript files

In the following situations, ColdFusion does not automatically import the JavaScript files that are required for Ajaxbased tags:

If you use a ColdFusion Ajax-based tag on a page that you specify by using a source or bind attribute in a container
tag, such as cfdiv, cflayoutarea, cfpod, or cfwindow. Place a cfajaximport tag on the page that has the
container tag and use the tags attribute to specify the Ajax feature tags that are on the other pages. (You do not
have to do this for any tags that are also used on the page with the source attribute.)

If you use a ColdFusion Ajax JavaScript function, such as ColdFusion.Window.create or ColdFusion.navigate, on

a page that does not otherwise import the required ColdFusion Ajax JavaScript functions, use the cfajaximport
tag to import the required JavaScript functions. If you are using a function, such as coldFuson.navigate, that is
not used for a specific control, you can omit any attributes; the default behavior is to import the base functions that
are not control-specific. If you are using a function such as ColdFusion.Window.create, use the tags attribute
and identify the associated control, for example, cfwindow in the following line:
<cfajaximport tags="cfwindow">

For detailed information on importing tag-specific JavaScript files, see the cfajaximport tag in the CFML Reference.

Using data interchange formats

All complex data that is communicated over an HTTP connection must be serialized into a string representation that
can be transmitted over the web. Most commonly, web client applications use XML or JSON.
As a general rule, ColdFusion automatically handles all necessary serialization and deserialization when you use
ColdFusion Ajax features. The proxies that you create with the cfajaxproxy tag, and the bind expressions that call
CFC functions automatically request data in JSON format, and automatically deserialize JSON data to JavaScript
variables.
ColdFusion also provides the capability to create, convert, and manage data in web interchange formats. This is
helpful, for example, if you use custom Ajax elements to get data from ColdFusion servers.
Also, you use ColdFusion data serialization capability for any applications that create or consume complex data
transmitted over an HTTP connection. For example, if you want to make a web service or feed available in JSON
format, many Yahoo! web services currently are accessible by using simple URLS that return data as JSON.
Note: For information on ColdFusion tags and functions for handling XML or WDDX data, see Using XML and
WDDX on page 1058.

Controlling CFC remote return value data format

By default, CFC functions convert data that they return to remote callers to WDDX format. However, they can also
return the data in JSON format, or as plain string data. (XML objects are automatically converted to string
representation when returning plain data.)
ColdFusion Ajax elements that request data from CFC functions, including bind expressions and the function proxies
generated by the cfajaxproxy tag, automatically generate a returnFormat parameter in the HTTP URL to request
JSON data from the CFC function.
Control the CFC function return format in the following ways:

Use the returnFormat attribute on the cffunction tag.

Set a returnFormat parameter in the HTTP request that calls the CFC function.
Use the CFC proxy setReturnFormat function. (You do this only if your client-side code requires non-JSON
format data, for example, XML or WDDX.)

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If the requested return format is JSON and the function returns a query, ColdFusion serializes the query into a JSON
object in either of the following formats:

As a JSON object with two entries: an array of column names, and an array of column data arrays.
These entries are returned in the following situations:

By default
If you specify an HTTP URL parameter of queryFormat="row"
If you use the cfajaxproxy tag and call the proxy objects setReturnFormat function with a parameter value
of row
ColdFusion client-side binding and proxy code automatically converts this data into JavaScript that is consumed
directly by HTML grids.

As a JSON object with three entries: the number of rows, an array of column names, and an object where each key
is a column name and each value is an array with the column data
These entries are returned in the following situations:

If you specify an HTTP URL parameter of queryFormat="column"

If you use the cfajaxproxy tag and call the proxy objects setQueryFormat function with a parameter value of
column

ColdFusion client-side binding and proxy code does not convert column format data into JavaScript that is
consumed directly by HTML grids. However, use this format with the cfajaxproxy tag, because you can refer to
the returned data by using the column names directly. For example, if a CFC function returns a query with user
data, you get the user names in your JavaScript by specifying values such as userData.firstName[0] and
userData.lastName[0].
For more information, see the SerializeJSON function in the CFML Reference.

Using JSON
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight JavaScript-based data interchange format for transmission between
computer systems. It is a much simpler format than XML or WDDX, and is an efficient, compact format for
transmitting data required for Ajax applications. ColdFusion Ajax bind expressions that use CFCs tell the CFC
function to send the data in JSON format by including a returnformat="json" parameter in the HTTP request, and
automatically handle the JSON-formatted result.
JSON represents objects by using { key : value , key : value... } notation, and represents arrays in standard [ value ,
value... ] notation. Values can be strings, numbers, objects, arrays, true, false, or null. Therefore, you can nest arrays
and objects inside each other. For a detailed specification of the JSON format, see www.JSON.org.
Although ColdFusion Ajax-based controls and the cffunction tag interoperate transparently, without you
converting anything to JSON format, other applications can take advantage of JSON format data. Many public feeds
are now available in JSON format. For example, the Yahoo! search interface returns a JSON data set, del.icio.us
provides JSON feeds showing your posts and tags, and Blogger feeds are available in JSON format. You dont have to
use Ajax to display these feeds; use standard ColdFusion tags and functions to display the results.
The following CFML functions support using JSON format in server-side code:

DeserializeJSON

SerializeJSON

IsJSON

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For more information about these functions and examples, see the CFML Reference.
The following example shows how to use ColdFusion JSON functions in a non-Ajax application. It does a Yahoo
search for references to "ColdFusion Ajax" and displays these results:

The total number of web pages found

The titles and summaries of the (by default 10) returned results. The title is a link to the web pageURL.
<!--- Send an http request to the Yahoo Web Search Service. --->
<cfhttp
url='http://api.search.yahoo.com/WebSearchService/V1/webSearch?appid=YahooDemo&query=
"ColdFusion Ajax"&output=json'>
<!--- The result is a JSON-formatted string that represents a structure.
Convert it to a ColdFusion structure. --->
<cfset myJSON=DeserializeJSON(#cfhttp.FileContent#)>
<!--- Display the results. --->
<cfoutput>
<h1>Results of search for "ColdFusion 9"</h1>
<p>There were #myJSON.ResultSet.totalResultsAvailable# Entries.<br>
Here are the first #myJSON.ResultSet.totalResultsReturned#.</p>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#myJSON.ResultSet.totalResultsReturned#">
<h3><a href="#myJSON.ResultSet.Result[i].URL#">
#myJSON.ResultSet.Result[i].Title#</a></h3>
#myJSON.ResultSet.Result[i].Summary#
</cfloop>
</cfoutput>

Serialization of numeric values

Note: To use this feature, you must install ColdFusion 9 Update 1.
In the previous releases (including ColdFusion 9), serializing an integer using serializeJSON, converts the number to
a double. For example, SerializeJSON (123) returns 123.0.
In ColdFusion 9.0.1, the integer is retained in its original format but enclosed within quotes. That is, SerializeJSON
(123) returns "123". This is applicable only to positive integers.
The following table gives more examples:
Input

Serialized JSON

10

10

012

012

10.25

10.25

10.25E5

1025000.0

10.25E-5

1.025E-4

-10

-10.0

-10.25

-10.25

Note: To remove the quotes in the returned value, for positive integers and integers within quotes, set the jvm argument
json.numberasdouble totrue . However, negative integers such as -10 will still be serialized to -10.0 even if
json.numberasdouble=true.

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Ajax plumbing enhancement in ColdFusion 9.0.1

ORM CFCs support the attribute remotingfetch for a property.
By default, remotingfetch is set to false.
While serializing ORM CFCs, ColdFusion introspects the remotingfetch property and if it is false, does not return
any relationship information.
If it is set to true, relationship information is shown. If circular reference is detected, only one level of relationship is
shown.

Debugging Ajax applications

ColdFusion provides a set of JavaScript functions that log information to a pop-up display window. ColdFusion also
logs many standard client-side activities to the window.

Display logging information

To display the logging window you must do the following:
1 Enable ColdFusion to send information to the logging window
2 Request logging window information in the main CFML page request.

Enable logging output

To enable ColdFusion to send information to the logging window, do the following:

Select the Enable Ajax Debug Log Window option on the ColdFusion Administrator > Debugging & Logging >
Debug Output Settings page. To view exception messages in the logging window, select the Enable Robust
Exception Information option on the Debug Output Settings page.

Make sure that the IP address of the system where you do the debugging is included on the ColdFusion
Administrator > Debugging & Logging > Debugging IP List page of the ColdFusion Administrator. By default this
list includes only 127.0.0.1.
Display logging information for a page
To display the logging window when you request a CFML page in the browser, specify an HTTP parameter of cfdebug
in the URL when you request a page, as in the following URL:
http://localhost:8500/myStore/products.cfm?cfdebug

After the debug log window appears, it continues running until you navigate to a new page in the browser. The logging
window includes options that let you filter the messages by either or both of the following criteria:

Severity
Category
You can select to display logging information at any combination of four levels of severity: debug, info, error, and
window. The specific logging function that you call determines the severity level.
The logging window always displays options to filter the output by using standard categories: bind, global, http,
LogReader, and widget. (For information on these categories, see Standard ColdFusion logging messages on
page 885.) It also displays a filter option for each custom category that you specify in a ColdFusion logging call.
ColdFusion does not limit the number of categories you create, but create only as many categories as you require to
debug your application effectively.

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Logging information
You call the following JavaScript functions to send information to the logger. In most cases, the function corresponds
to a severity level, as follows:
Function

Severity

Purpose

ColdFusion.Log.debug

debug

A message that aids in debugging problems.

ColdFusion.Log.dump

debug

A representation of a single variable in a format similar to cfdump. This

function displays the structure and contents of JavaScript Array and Object
variables.

ColdFusion.Log.error

error

Information about an error. Use this function only in error-handling code.

ColdFusion.Log.info

info

Information about properly operating code that is useful in tracing and

analyzing the client-side codes execution.

You cannot generate a window-level message. This level is reserved for messages generated by the log reader window,
including information about JavaScript errors in the log function calls.
When you call a logging function, you specify a message and a category.

The message can include JavaScript variables and HTML markup, such as bold text and line breaks.
The category is a short descriptive name. ColdFusion generates a check box option for each category to filter the
logging window output. This parameter is optional; the default value is global. You can specify a standard
ColdFusion category or a custom category.
To log information for a page, you must have a ColdFusion Ajax tag on the page, or use the cfajaximport tag. The
cfajaximport tag does not require any attributes to enable logging.
The following logging function generates an error level, Pod A category log message:
ColdFusion.Log.error("<b>Invalid value:</b><br>" + arg.A, "Pod A");

Standard ColdFusion logging messages

ColdFusion automatically logs messages in the following categories:
Category

Description

global

(the default) Messages that are not logged from within the ColdFusion Ajax libraries, for example, initialization
of the logging infrastructure.

http

Information about HTTP calls and their responses, including the contents of HTTP requests and information on
CFC invocations and responses.

LogReader

Messages about the log display window.

bind

Bind-related actions such as evaluating a bind expression.

widget

Control-specific actions such as tree and grid creation.

Ajax programming rules and techniques

The following techniques help you to prevent Ajax application errors, improve application security, and develop more
effective applications.

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Preventing errors
The following rules and techniques help you prevent errors in your applications:

To ensure that your code works properly, make sure that all your pages, including dynamically loaded content and
pages that contain dynamic regions, have valid html, head, and body tags, and that all script tags are located in
the page head. This is important for any page with ColdFusion Ajax tags and script tags, where it ensures that the
script code is processed and that code is generated in the correct order. It also prevents problems in some browsers,
such as Internet Explorer.

All JavaScript function definitions on pages that you include dynamically, for example by using a bind expression,
the ColdFusion.navigate function, or a form submission within a ColdFusion Ajax container tag, must have the
following syntax format:
functionName = function(arguments) {function body}

Function definitions that use the following format might not work:
function functionName (arguments) {function body}

However, Adobe recommends that you include all custom JavaScript in external JavaScript files and import them
on the applications main page, and not write them in-line in code that you get dynamically. Imported pages do not
have this restriction on the function definition format.

In a CFM page, if you call a JavaScript function present in a file that is bound to the page, ensure that you do not
use the keyword var while declaring the function. var declares a function-local scope variable. Therefore, you
cannot invoke the JavaScript function from the parent page.

As a general rule, the id attributes or name attributes, when you do not specify id attributes, of controls should be
unique on the page, including on any pages that you specify in source attributes. Exceptions to this rule include
the following:

You can use the same name attribute for all options in a radio button group. Bind expressions get information
about the selected button.

You can use the same name attribute for check boxes in a group if you want a single bind expression to get
information about all selected controls in the group.

If you have multiple similar forms on a page, you might have controls in each form with the same name or ID.
You specify the individual controls in bind expressions by including the form name in the bind parameter.

Do not use an Application.cfc onRequestEnd function or onRequestEnd.cfm page that creates output in
applications that use the cfajaxproxy tag or bind expressions that call CFC functions to get data. ColdFusion Ajax
features normally require that all returned data from the server must be in JSON format; the onRequestEnd
method onRequestEnd.cfm page appends any output as non-JSON information to the end of the returned data.

By default, all ColdFusion structure element names are in all uppercase characters. Therefore, your client-side Ajax
code, such as an onSuccess function specified by a cfajaxproxy tag, must use uppercase letters for the returned
objects element names if you do not explicitly ensure that the element names are not all uppercase. (You can create
structure element names with lowercase characters by specifying the names in associative array notation, for
example, myStruct["myElement"]="value".)

ColdFusion Ajax controls throw JavaScript errors if badly formed HTML causes errors in the browser DOM
hierarchy order. One example of such badly formed HTML is a table that contains a cfform tag, which in turn
contains table rows. In this situation, you place the table tag inside the cfform tag.
For browser-specific issues and other issues that could affect application appearance and behavior, see the ColdFusion
Release Notes on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_docs_en, and the ColdFusion Developer Center
on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/go/prod_techarticles.

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Improving security
ColdFusion includes several capabilities that help to ensure the security of Ajax application. Also, the ColdFusion
Administrator disables output to the client-side logging window by default (see Enable logging output on page 884).

To prevent cross-site scripting, you cannot use remote URLs in code that executes on the client. For example, if you
use a URL such as http://www.myco.com/mypage.cfm in a cfwindow tag source attribute, the remote page does
not load in the window and the window shows an error message. If you must access remote URLs, do so in CFML
code that executes on the server, for example, by using a cfhttp tag on the page specified by a source attribute.

When a CFC function returns remote data in JSON format, by default, the data is sent without any prefix or
wrapper. To help prevent cross-site scripting attacks where the attacker accesses the JSON data, you can tell
ColdFusion to prefix the returned data with one or more characters. You can specify this behavior in several ways.
The value of an item in the following list is determined by the preceding item in this list:
1 In the Administrator, enable the Prefix Serialized JSON option on Server Settings > Settings page (the default

value is false). You can also use this setting to specify the prefix characters. The default prefix is //, which is
the JavaScript comment marker that turns the returned JSON code into a comment from the browsers
perspective. The // prefix helps prevent security breaches because it prevents the browser from converting the
returned value to the equivalent JavaScript objects.
2 Set the Application.cfc file This.secureJSON and This.secureJSONPrefix variable values, or set the
cfapplication tag secureJSON and secureJSONPrefix attributes.

3 Set the cffunction tag secureJSON attribute. (You cannot use the cffunction tag to set the prefix.)

As a general rule, use one of these techniques for any CFC or CFML page that returns sensitive data, such as
credit card numbers.
When you use any of these techniques, the ColdFusion Ajax elements that call CFC functions, including bind
expressions and the CFC proxies created by the cfajaxproxy tag, automatically remove the security prefix
when appropriate. You do not have to modify your client-side code.

ColdFusion provides capabilities that help prevent security attacks where an unauthorized party attempts to
perform an action on the server, such as changing a password. Use the following techniques to ensure that a request
to a CFML page or remote CFC function comes from a ColdFusion Ajax feature, such as a bind expression or CFC
proxy, that is a valid part of your application:

In the cffunction tag in a CFC function that returns data to an Ajax client, specify a verifyClient attribute
with a value of yes.

At the top of a CFML page or function that is requested by a ColdFusion Ajax client, call the VerifyClient
ColdFusion function. This function takes no parameters.
The VerifyClient function and attribute tell ColdFusion to require an encrypted security token in each request.
To use this function, enable client management or session management in your application; otherwise, you do not
get an error, but ColdFusion does not verify clients.
Enable client verification only for code that responds to ColdFusion Ajax client code, because only the ColdFusion
Ajax library contains the client-side support code. Enabling client verification for clients other than ColdFusion
Ajax applications can result in the client application not running.
As a general rule, use this function for Ajax requests to the server to perform sensitive actions, such as updating
passwords. Typically, do not enable client verification for public APIs that do not need protected, search engine web
services. Also, do not enable client verification for the top-level page of an application, because the security token
is not available when the user enters a URL in the browser address bar.

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Programming effectively
The following recommendations help improve or customize your ColdFusion Ajax application.

Use the AjaxOnLoad function, which specifies a JavaScript function to run when the page loads, to perform any
initialization actions that are required for a page to function properly. Use the AjaxOnLoad function to call
functions when a page is loaded in a container tag. One use for this function could be on a page that pops up a login
window if the user is not already logged in when it displays. You can use the AjaxOnLoad function to specify a
JavaScript function that determines the login status and pops up the window only if necessary.

Use the following ColdFusion JavaScript functions to access the Ext JS or Yahoo YUI JavaScript library objects that
underlie border and tab style cflayout controls, cfwindow controls, and HTML format cfgrid and cftree
controls. Then use the raw object to modify the displayed control.

ColdFusion.Layout.getBorderLayout
ColdFusion.Grid.getGridObject
ColdFusion.Layout.getTabLayout
ColdFusion.Tree.getTreeObject
ColdFusion.Window.getWindowObject
For documentation on the objects and how to manage them, see the Ext documentation at
extjs.com/deploy/ext/docs/ and the Yahoo toolkit documentation at developer.yahoo.com/yui/.

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Chapter 11: Office file interoperability

Adobe ColdFusion provides interfaces to work with PDF, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Connect. ColdFusion 9 now
extends the integration support to OpenOffice and Microsoft Office application formats such as Excel, PowerPoint,
and SharePoint.
Office interoperability supports both OpenOffice and Apache POI libraries (see http://poi.apache.org/ for information
on Apache POI). OpenOffice libraries support conversion of all Office file formats, including Word documents to
PDF. When you use the cfdocument, cfpresentation, or cfspreadsheet tags to convert Office files, the tags first
search for an OpenOffice installation.
If an OpenOffice installation is not found, POI libraries are used. POI libraries support conversion of all office files
except Word documents.
See Supported Office conversion formats on page 893 for the complete list of supported Office conversion formats.

Using cfdocument
In addition to the existing functionality, the cfdocumenttag lets you convert Word documents and PowerPoint
presentations to PDF. All versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint from 97 to 2003 are supported.

Working with documents using OpenOffice

OpenOffice is an open-source office software that supports word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and more.
OpenOffice stores data in an international open standard format. See http://www.openoffice.org/ for details.
ColdFusion 9 supports OpenOffice, which uses the cfdocument tag to convert a Word document (.doc format) to PDF.
When you use cfdocument to convert a document file, the tag first checks for an OpenOffice installation. When the
OpenOffice installation is found, the tag processes the rich text conversion through the OpenOffice libraries.
The cfdocument attributes, userPassword and permissions are used to open the converted PDF documents. For
complete information about the cfdocument attributes that support OpenOffice document conversion, see the CFML
Reference.
To install OpenOffice, see http://download.openoffice.org/index.html . See the ColdFusion 9 Installation Guide for
information about installing and configuring OpenOffice.
Example
The following example converts a document, MyDocument.doc, to a PDF file. The PDF conversion occurs only when
you specify the format attribute as "pdf".
Note: When you convert, specify only the absolute path, for example, "c:\documents\MyDocument.doc"
<cfdocument
format="pdf"
srcfile="C:\documents\MyDocument.doc"
filename="C:\documents\MyDocument.pdf">
</cfdocument>

Note: If you do not specify the filename attribute, the converted PDF opens in a browser.

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Working with PowerPoint presentation files

You use the cfdocument tag to convert a PowerPoint presentation (PPT file) to a PDF document.
Example
The following example converts a PowerPoint presentation to a PDF file.
<cfdocument
format="pdf"
srcfile="C:\presentations\MyPresentation.ppt"
filename="C:\presentations\MyPresentation.pdf">
</cfdocument>

Using cfpresentation
The cfpresentation tag is the parent tag for one or more cfpresentationslide tags, where you define the content
for the presentation, and the cfpresenter tags, which provide information about the people presenting the slides.
You use the cfpresentation tag to convert a PowerPoint presentation to an Adobe Connect presentation or HTML.
Browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari are all compatible with the conversion from PPT to a
Connect presentation or HTML.
For complete information about cfpresentation, and cfpresentationslide, see CFML Reference.
Examples
The following example converts a PowerPoint presentation to an Adobe Connect presentation.
<cfpresentation
title="my presentation"
directory="C:\presentations\"
overwrite=true>
<cfpresentationslide
src="#ppttemplate#backgrounds.ppt"
slides="1">
</cfpresentationslide>
<cfpresentationslide
duration="4"
video="video1.flv">
Sample slide
</cfpresentationslide>
</cfpresentation>

The following example converts an HTML file to a PowerPoint presentation.

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<cfpresentation
title = "text string"
format= "ppt"
destination="#generated#html_to_ppt_01.ppt"
backgroundColor = "YELLOW"
overwrite = "yes">
<cfpresentationslide
Title="Q1 Sales Figures"
duration="14">

<h3>Q1 Sales Figures</h3>

<cfchart
format="png"
showborder="yes"
chartheight="250"
chartwidth="300"
pieslicestyle="sliced">
<cfchartseries type="pie">
<cfchartdata
item="Europe"
value="9">
<cfchartdata
item="Asia"
value="20">
<cfchartdata
item="North America"
value="50">
<cfchartdata
item="South America"
value="21">
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>
</cfpresentationslide>
<cfpresentationslide
src="cfdocument_pos24.html"
duration="15" />
</cfpresentation>

The following example converts a PowerPoint presentation to a Connect presentation.

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<cfpresentation
title="my presentation"
directory="C:\presentations"
overwrite=true>
<cfpresentationslide
src="#ppttemplate#backgrounds.ppt"
slides="1-3,5">
</cfpresentationslide>
<cfpresentationslide
duration="4"
video="video1.flv">
Sample slide
</cfpresentationslide>
</cfpresentation>

Using cfspreadsheet
The cfspreadsheet tag lets you manage Excel spreadsheets. The tag lets you do the following:

Read a spreadsheet file (XLS file) and store it in a ColdFusion spreadsheet object, query, CSV string, or HTML
string.

Write a single sheet to a new XLS from a query, ColdFusion spreadsheet object, or CSV string variable.
Add a sheet to an existing XLS file.
Use the spreadsheet functions to manipulate rows and columns in a spreadsheet and the data in the rows and columns.
You can also specify and get comments, values, and formulas for a cell in the spreadsheet.
Microsoft Office Excel 2007 is supported by cfspreadsheet and all the spreadsheet functions except the following:

SpreadSheetAddSplitPane

SpreadSheetAddFreezePane

For detailed information about cfspreadsheet and all the spreadsheet functions, see CFML Reference.
Examples
The following example reads the spreadsheet file - SingleSheet.xls and stores the spreadsheet data in a CSV string.
<cfspreadsheet action = "read"
format="csv"
src="C:\documents\SingleSheet.xls"
name="csvvar"
rows="1-4,5,6,7-8">
<cfoutput>#csvvar#</cfoutput>

The following example reads the spreadsheet file - template_02.xls and stores the spreadsheet data in a query.

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<cfspreadsheet
action = "read"
src="C:\dcuments\template_02.xls"
query="excelquery"
sheet="1"
rows="1-3,4-5"
columns="1,4">
<cfoutput
query="excelquery"
startrow="1"
maxrows="#excelquery.recordcount#">
#excelquery.col_1#
#excelquery.col_2#
</cfoutput>

The following example reads a spreadsheet file - template_08_Charts_Graph.xls and stores the spreadsheet data in an
HTML string.
<cfspreadsheet
action = "read"
format="html"
src="C:\documents\template_08_Charts_Graph.xls"
name="report1"
rows="5-11"
columns="1-6">
<cfoutput>
#report1#
</cfoutput>

The following example uses data from a query and writes it to a single sheet in the spreadsheet file - SingleSheet1.xls
<cfquery
name="excelquery"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT PARKNAME, REGION, STATE FROM Parks WHERE STATE='WI'
ORDER BY ParkName, State
</cfquery>
<cfspreadsheet
action = "write"
filename="C:\SingleSheet1.xls"
query="excelquery"
overwrite="true">

Supported Office conversion formats

The following table lists the conversion formats supported by Office applications, and the CFML tags that support the
conversion. It also shows whether OpenOffice installation is required for the conversion.
All versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint from 97 to 2003 are supported. Also, all versions of
Microsoft Excel from Versions 97 to 2007 are supported.

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Format

CFML Tag

OpenOffice installation

From

To

PPT

Connect Presentation

cfpresentation

optional

PPT

HTML

cfpresentation

optional

PPT

PDF

cfdocument

optional

HTML

PPT

cfpresentation

not required

Excel

HTML

cfspreadsheet

not required

Excel

Query

cfspreadsheet

not required

Excel

In-memory Variable

cfspreadsheet

not required

Query

Excel

cfspreadsheet

not required

In-memory variable

Excel

cfspreadsheet

not required

Word

PDF

cfdocument

required

SharePoint integration
You can use ColdFusion with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 or 3.0, and Microsoft Office SharePoint
Portal Server 2003 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. You can integrate ColdFusion applications with
SharePoint features that are exposed as web service actions.

Load SharePoint actions from ColdFusion

Use the cfsharepoint tag to access exposed SharePoint features, without loading the web services directly. The
cfsharepoint tag works only if the SharePoint server uses basic authentication. By default, ColdFusion supports a
subset of features that are exposed as web services in SharePoint. If a web service is not supported in ColdFusion,
specify the URL to the WSDL (Web Services Description Language) of the web service that is loaded.
For information about the supported SharePoint features, see the CFML Reference.

Using cfsharepoint
Sharepoint integration with ColdFusion helps you dynamically manage user lists, views, and groups; work with images
and document workspaces; and use search effectively. The cfsharepoint tag lets you create new lists, retrieve list
items, and update list items on the SharePoint server.
The following example shows how to create a picture library list called "getpics".

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<cfsharepoint
action="addlist"
login="#login#"
params="#{ listname ="getpics",
description="This a picture library list",
templateId= "109 " }#"/>
<! --- Creates a folder within the picture library list>
< cfsharepoint
action ="create new folder"
login= "#login#"
name="collection1"
params="#{strListName="getpics",
strParentFolder=""}#"/>
<!--- Uploads pictures to the folder that you created --->
<cfscript>
myimage = filereadbinary(expandpath("Bird.jpg"));
//convert the image into byte array to pass as input for "upload" action.
</cfscript>
<cfsharepoint
action="upload" login="#login#"
params="#{strListName="testpics",
strfolder="Collection1",
bytes="#myimage#",
filename="bird.jpg",
fOverwriteifexist=true}#"/>
<!--- Rotates the picture downloaded from the SharePoint server.--->
<cfsharepoint
name ="result1"
action="download"
login="#login#"
params="#{strListName="getpics",
strfolder="New Folder",
itemFileNames=["bird.jpg"],type=1,
fFetchoriginalIfNotAvailable=true}#"/>
<cfimage
action="rotate"
source="#result1.file#"
isbase64="yes"
angle="45"
name="temp"
destination="bird.jpg"
overwrite="yes"/>
<cfscript>
baseimage = filereadbinary(expandpath("bird.jpg"));
//convert the image into byte array to pass as input for "upload" action.
</cfscript>
<!--- Uploads the rotated image back to the SharePoint server --->
<cfsharepoint
action="upload"
login="#login#"
params="#{strListName="getpics",strfolder="Collection1",
bytes="#baseimage#",filename="bird.jpg",fOverwriteifexist=true}#"/>

To check and ensure that all the updates are made, you can retrieve the list items using code like the following:

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<cfsharepoint
action="getimaginglistitems"
login="#login#" name="result"
params="#{strListName="getpics",strFolder="#result3.title#"}#"/>
<cfloop array="#result.Library#" index="n">
<cfif n.ows_FileLeafRef contains "temppicrotate.jpg">
SUCCESS
<cfbreak>
</cfif>
</cfloop>

Access ColdFusion from SharePoint using custom Web Parts

You can access ColdFusion applications from within SharePoint using custom Web Parts. You can create a custom
Web Part using the Page Viewer Web Part template that is shipped, by default, with SharePoint services 2.0 and 3.0,
and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
1 From the SharePoint Server page, click Modify Shared Page.
2 Select Add Web Part.
3 Click Browse from the pop-up menu. The Web Parts list appears.
4 Select Page Viewer Web Part.
5 Click Add. The Page Viewer Web Part loads.
6 Click the Open the Tools Pane link.
7 Specify the URL of the ColdFusion application in the URL text field. The ColdFusion application loads within the

Web Part.
Note: In a Multiserver installation on the Macintosh platform, SharePoint does not work properly if the tools.jar file is
present in WEB-INF/cfusion/lib. In this case, you see the following error message:"coldfusion.jsp.JavaCompilers
UnknownCompiler: Unable to run the internal Java compiler: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError:
javax/tools/StandardJavaFileManager. To overcome this issue, copy the tools.jar file to a backup directory and delete
the tools.jar file from WEB-INF/cfusion/lib.

Use Single Sign-On to access ColdFusion applications via SharePoint

SharePoint custom Web Parts let you access multiple ColdFusion applications from the SharePoint server using Single
Sign-On (SSO). After signing in, users can access multiple secure ColdFusion applications by accessing ColdFusion
services from multiple Web Parts.
Note: For single sign-on capability, you need Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 or Microsoft Office
SharePoint Server 2007.
To make a ColdFusion application available from SharePoint, use the CFSharepoint SSO WebPart template. This
template is a customized version of PageViewer WebPart. It enables you to pass SSO credentials to the ColdFusion
application. Download this template from the Adobe website or copy it from the ColdFusion 9 DVD.
Remember these points:

Web Parts support only the native single sign-on solution; other pluggable single sign-on services are not
supported.

Only single sign-on credentials are passed to the ColdFusion application. The ColdFusion application must have
the necessary logic to retrieve the credentials and login to the application.

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Deploy the CF9SSOWebPart.wsp Web Part for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
To configure single sign-on for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, deploy the CF9SSOWebPart.wsp file to the
SharePoint server.
1 Copy the CF9SSOWebPart.wsp file to the BIN folder within the Web Server extensions. It is normally located at

Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN in the SharePoint server.

2 To deploy the solution to SharePoint, use the command prompt to navigate to Program Files\Common

Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\BIN and enter the following commands, as required.
To delete the solution if it is already present:
STSADM.EXE -o deletesolution -name CF9SSOWebPart.wsp -override

To add the solution to SharePoint:

STSADM.EXE -o addsolution -f CF9SSOWebPart.wsp

To deploy the solution to the configured website by specifying the URL:

STSADM.EXE -o deploysolution -name CF9SSOWebPart.wsp
-url <virtual server url> -local -allowGacDeployment

To deploy the solution to all the configured websites:

STSADM.EXE -o deploysolution -name CF9SSOWebPart.wsp -allcontenturls -local allowGacDeployment

Import the CF9SSOWebPart.wsp Web Part into a Web Part Page

1 Navigate to the web page on the SharePoint server where you want the Web Part to be accessible.
2 In the Web Part page, click Site Actions > Site Settings.
3 In the Site Settings page, click Galleries > Web Parts.
4 In the Web Part gallery, click Upload in the toolbar pane.
5 Select the CF9SSOWebPart.wsp Web Part.
6 Enter the following details in the toolbar pane.

URL of the ColdFusion application to access

The form field name as the User ID
The form field name as the password
Name of the SSO application where the credentials are configured
Once the Web Part is deployed, it takes the credentials from the SharePoint Single Sign-On database (based on the
application name entered in the Tools Pane). These credentials are transferred to the ColdFusion application through
the URL (provided in the Tools Pane) in a FORM containing the specified form fields.

Deploy the CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB Web Part for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal
Server 2003
To configure single sign-on for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, deploy the CAB file CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB
1 Copy the CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB to the BIN folder within the Web Server extensions. It is normally located

at Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\BIN in the SharePoint server.

2 Create a folder named CFSharePointSSO within the Layouts folder. The Layouts folder is normally located at

Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Template\Layouts.

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3 From the CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB file, copy the template file CFSSO.aspx to the CFSharePointSSO folder that

you created in the previous step.

4 In the command prompt, navigate to Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server

Extensions\60\bin and enter the following command to add the CAB file:
stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB -globalinstall

If the CAB file exists, delete the CAB file and then enter the command to add the CAB file as follows:
stsadm.EXE -o deletewppack -name CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB
stsadm.exe -o addwppack -filename CF9SharepointSSOCab.CAB -globalinstall

Configure the CFSharepointSSO Web Part

1 In the Site Settings page, go to Manage Security and Additional Settings > Manage Web Part Gallery.
2 Click New in the toolbar in the Web Part Gallery. The New Web Parts List appears.
3 Select the CFSSOwebpart.dwp Web Part and click Populate Gallery.
4 Add the CFSharepointSSO Web Part to the Virtual Server Gallery. Clicking Edit Page > Modify Shared Page > Add

Web Parts > Browse > Virtual Server Gallery. Then add the Web Part to the Web Parts list.
5 After adding the CFSharepointSSO Web Part, click the Tools pane and enter the following details.

URL of the ColdFusion application to access

The form field name as the User ID
The form field name as the password
Name of the SSO application where the credentials are configured
Once the Web Part is deployed, it takes the credentials from the SharePoint Single Sign-On database (based on the
application name entered in the Tools Pane). These credentials are transferred to the ColdFusion application through
the URL (provided in the Tools Pane) in a FORM containing the specified form fields.

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Chapter 12: ColdFusion Portlets

You can now build your own portlets by leveraging Adobe ColdFusion components (CFCs). You can create your own
portlet using ColdFusion and run it on:

JBoss portal server

WebSphere portal server 6.1

Run a ColdFusion portlet on JBoss Portal Server

You can run and access ColdFusion portlets on a JBoss portal server, which can be either local or remote.

A local host: A portal can access portlets on the same computer where JBoss Portal server exists.
A remote host: A portal can access portlets deployed on a remote ColdFusion server instance.

Prerequisites
Before you start developing ColdFusion portlets, you must:

Install JDK 1.5.x.

For JSR-168, install bundled version of JBoss 2.6.7 or 2.6.8 portal server and JBoss 4.2.3 Application server. For JSR286, install bundled version of JBoss 2.7.2 portal server and JBoss 4.2.3 Application server.

Deploy ColdFusion on JBoss application server.

Enable the J2EE sessions in ColdFusion Administrator.

Build a portlet for a local server

To write a ColdFusion portlet:
1 Create a CFC that extends the CFIDE.portlets.ColdFusionPortlet package.

For example, the following HelloPortlet.cfc extends this package and defines the doView() and doHelp()
methods:

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<cfcomponent extends="CFIDE.portlets.ColdFusionPortlet">
<cffunction name="doView" returntype="void" output="true">
<cfargument name="renderRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderRequest java object">
<cfargument name="renderResponse" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderResponse java object">
<cfoutput>
Hello World ColdFusion Portlet
</cfoutput>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="doHelp" returntype="void" output="true">
<cfargument name="renderRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderRequest java object">
<cfargument name="renderResponse" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderResponse java object">
<h1>ColdFusion Help</h1>
<p>This is a Help message for the Hello Portlet.</p>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

2 Save HelloPortlet.cfc in
<jboss_server_home>\server\default\deploy\cfusion.ear\cfusion.war\portlets\hello.

3 Define HelloPortlet.cfc in portlet.xml, which is located in the WEB-INF folder of ColdFusion web root. The
portlet.xml file looks similar to the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<portlet-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd" version="1.0">
<portlet>
<description xml:lang="en">This Portlet is a Hello World CF Portlet</description>
<portlet-name>ColdFusionPortlet</portlet-name>
<display-name xml:lang="en">CF Hello Portlet</display-name>
<portlet-class>coldfusion.portlet.ColdFusionPortlet</portlet-class>
<init-param>
<name>cfcName</name>
<value>portlets.hello.HelloPortlet</value>
</init-param>
<supports>
<mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
<portlet-mode>VIEW</portlet-mode>
<portlet-mode>HELP</portlet-mode>
</supports>
<portlet-info>
<title>ColdFusion Hello World Portlet</title>
</portlet-info>
</portlet>
</portlet-app>

The portlet is defined and registered for portlet definition, with targeted cfcName defined as the INIT parameter.
The INIT parameter value must be from the web root of ColdFusion.
4 Run the JBoss server by running one of the following commands:

On UNIX

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<JBoss_home>/bin/run.sh

On Windows
<JBoss_home>\bin\run.bat
By default JBoss only binds to localhost. You can have it bind to any IP address by running bin/run.sh -b
0.0.0.0 on UNIX or bin/run.bat -b 0.0.0.0 on Windows.

5 Launch the JBoss portal server. By default, JBoss binds to port 8080, so launch the server using the URL:

http://<matching_IP>:<port>/portal/.
For example: http://127.0.0.1:8080/portal.
6 Log in to the portal by clicking the login link in the upper-right corner. The default credentials are admin/admin.
7 Click the Admin option in the upper-right corner.
8 Click the Portlet Definitions tab. The portlet name, CF HelloPortlet is listed here.

Portal definition tab displaying CFHelloPortlet

9 Create an instance of this portlet by clicking Create Instance under Actions.

10 Specify the instance name.
11 Add the instance display name.

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Adding instance of CFHelloPortlet

12 Click the Portal Objects tab.

13 Create a new portal page by specifying the portal name in the Create a portal named box.

Creating a portal

14 Select the created portal page from the list of portals.

15 From Actions, select Page Layout.

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Managing created portal

16 From the Portlet instance associated with this Window list, select the portlet instance you created in step 10.

Portal instance selected

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17 In the Page Layout section, click Add for the center region or left region to add the portlet container in the required area.
18 Go back to the Portal Objects > Portals page and select Make Default option to set the new portal as default.
19 Click the Portal option on the upper-right corner to view the new portal page containing the portlet.

Portal displaying CFHelloPortlet

Access remote ColdFusion portlets (WSRP)

To access remote ColdFusion portlets and expose them as web services using the Web Service Response Protocol
(WSRP), configure the following:

WSRP Producer: The Web Service Response Protocol (WSRP) is used to create the producer of the WSDL. A
WSRP producer can be any ColdFusion standalone, multiserver, or J2EE instance.

WSRP Consumer: Portlets are exposed as web services, which are then consumed by the portal server (JBoss).

Configure the WSRP producer

1 Create the ColdFusion HelloPortlet.cfc as described in step 1 of Build a portlet for a local server on page 899.
2 Save the HelloPortlet.cfc file in the following directory:
<ColdFusion_webroot>/portlets/hello/

3 Define HelloPortlet.cfc in the cf-wsrp-portlet.xml file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<portlet-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd"
version="1.0">
<portlet>
<description xml:lang="en">This Portlet is a Hello World CF Portlet</description>
<portlet-name>HelloPortlet</portlet-name>
<display-name xml:lang="en">Hello Portlet</display-name>
<portlet-class>portlets.hello.HelloPortlet</portlet-class>
<supports>
<mime-type>text/html</mime-type>
<portlet-mode>VIEW</portlet-mode>
<portlet-mode>HELP</portlet-mode>
</supports>
<supported-locale>en</supported-locale>
<portlet-info>
<title>Hello ColdFusion Portlet</title>
<short-title>CF Hello</short-title>
<keywords>hello, portlet</keywords>
</portlet-info>
</portlet>
</portlet-app>

After updating cf-wsrp-portlet.xml, restart your ColdFusion instance.

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Configure the WSRP consumer

1 Run the JBoss server by running the command:

On UNIX
bin/run.sh

On Windows
bin\run.bat

By default JBoss only binds to localhost. You can have it bind to any IP address by running bin/run.sh -b
0.0.0.0 on UNIX or bin\run.bat -b 0.0.0.0 on Windows.

2 Launch the JBoss portal server. By default, JBoss binds to port 8080, so launch the server using the URL:

http://localhost:8080/portal/.
3 Log in to the portal by clicking the login link in the upper-right corner. The default credentials are admin/admin.
4 Click the Admin option in the upper-right corner.
5 Click the WSRP tab.
6 Specify the WSRP consumer name, such as wsrp-test in the Create a Consumer Named box.
7 Click Create Consumer.
8 On the next page, specify the WSDL URL of the WSRP producer:

http://<WSRPProducer_IP>:<port>/<context_root>/WSRPProducer?wsdl
9 Click Refresh & Save. If successful, the following message appears

Refresh was successful.

Note: You can try a demo WSRP consumer hosted by BEA, by entering the WSDL URL:
http://wsrp.bea.com:7001/producer/producer?WSDL. After clicking Refresh & Save, the system prompts you to
provide the consumerRole registration property. Use the string public and click Update Properties. If the BEA WSRP
Producer does not get configured, the problem could be with the JBoss Portal Server, rather than the WSRP Producer.
Make sure that you are using Java 1.5 JVM.
10 Click the Portlet Definitions tab.
11 Select wsrp-test from the View portlets provided by the portlet provider named drop-down list.
12 From the Select the WSRP Portlet You Created box, select the WSRP portlet.
13 Click View Portlets.
14 From Actions column, select Create Instance.
15 Specify the instance name and click Create instance.
16 Optionally, specify the instance display name and other details.
17 Go back to Portal Objects and select default. Alternatively, you can create your own portal object.
18 From the Actions column, select Page Layout.
19 From the Portal Instance Associated to this Window list, select the WSRP portlet instance you created earlier.
20 From the Page Layout section, add the instance to the required region by clicking Add.
21 Go back to the Portal Objects > Portal page.
22 Click Make Default to make the portal which contains the WSRP portlet as default.
23 Click the Portal link on the upper-right corner to view the portal page.

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Common methods used in portlet.cfc

Some common methods that are used frequently while creating the ColdFusion component portlet, such as
HelloPortlet.cfc, are:
Method

Description

Syntax

doView()

This method renders the

portlet content. It is called by
the portlet container to allow
the portlet to generate the
content of the response based
on its current state.

<cffunction name="doView" returntype="void" output="true">

<cfargument name="renderRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderRequest java object">
<cfargument name="renderResponse" type="any" required="true"
hint="A javax.portlet.RenderResponse java object">
<!--- User code goes here --?>
</cffunction>

doHelp()

Helper method to serve up the

HELP mode.

<cffunction name="doHelp" returntype="void" output="true">

<cfargument name="renderRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderRequest java object">
<cfargument name="renderResponse" type="any" required="true"
hint="A javax.portlet.RenderResponse java object">
<!--- User code goes here --? </cffunction>

doEdit()

Helper method to serve up the

EDIT mode.

<cffunction name="doEdit" returntype="void" output="true">

<cfargument name="renderRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderRequest java object"><cfargument
name="renderResponse" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderResponse java object">
<!--- User code goes here --? </cffunction>

ProcessAction
()

Called by the portlet container

to allow the portlet to process
an action request

<cffunction name="processAction" returntype="void" access="public"

output="false" hint="Called by the portlet container to allow the
portlet to process an action request.">
<cfargument name="actionRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.ActionRequest java object">
<cfargument name="actionResponse" type="any" required="true"
hint="A javax.portlet.ActionResponse java object">
<!--- User code goes here --? </cffunction>

Init()

Called by the portlet container

to indicate to a portlet that the
portlet is being placed into
service

<cffunction name="init" returntype="void" access="public"

output="false" hint="Called by the portlet container to indicate to
a portlet that the portlet is being placed into service.">
<cfargument name="portletConfig" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.PortletConfig java object">
<!--- User code goes here --? </cffunction>

processEvent

This is used to consume the

event once it is published.

<cffunction name="processEvent" returntype="void" access="public"

output="false" hint="Called by the portlet container requesting the
portlet to process a specific event.">
<!---user code--->
</cffunction>

ColdFusion portlet components

You can configure your ColdFusion portlet components to define its modes, window states, title, scope, and
parameters.
For references of ColdFusion Portlet API, see the JSR-168 specification for all javax.portlet.* classes.
Currently, WSRP 1.0 is the supported standard for portlets.

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Portlet modes
Portal servers typically allow three portlet modes: View, Edit, and Help.
The View mode is the default state when rendering a portlet. The portlet window has links in the title bar that enable
you to change the mode to Help or Edit.
To add a Help mode view, add the doHelp() with the same signature as the doView() function.
To support the edit mode create the doEdit().

More Help topics

Common methods used in portlet.cfc on page 906

Portlet window states

Most portal servers support three window states (normal, minimized, and maximized). You can obtain the current
window state by calling the getWindowState() method of the ColdFusionPortlet base component.

Portlet title
To set the portlet title, add a method to the CFC called getTitle as follows:
<cffunction name="getTitle" returntype="string" output="false" access="public">
<cfargument name="renderRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.RenderRequest java object">
<cfreturn "My ColdFusion Portlet">
</cffunction>

Portlet scope
The ColdFusion portlet toolkit defines the variable request.portlet. It contains the following structures:
request.portlet.parameters - Parameters of the Portlet Request
request.portlet.attributes - attributes of the Portlet Request
request.portlet.properties - properties of the Portlet Request

These variables are defined for convenience and convention.

Create portlet parameters

To create different page views within your portlet you can configure the render parameters such as renderURL.
For example, to set the renderURL parameter:
1 Create a renderURL parameter
<cfset params = StructNew()>
<cfset params.page = "somepage">
<cfoutput><a href="#createRenderURL(params)#">Link to somepage</a>

Check for parameter in the page and render conditionally:

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<cfparam name="request.portlet.parameters.page" default="">

<cfif request.portlet.parameters.page IS "somepage">
<cfinclude template="somepage.cfm">
<cfelse>
<!--- put step 1 here --->
</cfif>

Processing actions using form posts

To process a form post, use the createActionURL() function, which generates the form action URL.
For example:
<cfoutput>
<form action="#createActionURL()#" method="post">
Value: <input type="text" name="action_value" >
<input type="submit" value="Process Action" />
</form>
</cfoutput>

When the form is submitted, the portal container calls the processAction() method in your CFC. So, add this
method as follows:
<cffunction name="processAction" returntype="void" access="public" output="false"
hint="Called by the portlet container to allow the portlet to process an action request.">
<cfargument name="actionRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.ActionRequest java object">
<cfargument name="actionResponse" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.ActionResponse java object">
<cfif IsDefined("request.portlet.parameters.action_value")>
<!--- do something with this value, such as update your database --->
</cfif>
</cffunction>

Examples
The following examples show how you can configure portlets. You can add the following code to the doView()
method depending on whether you are configuring the portlet on a local or remote server.

To get portal user information:

JSR:
<cfoutput>#renderRequest.getRemoteUser()#</cfoutput>

WSRP:
<cfdump var = #renderRequest.getAttribute("javax.portlet.userinfo")#>

To display PDF:
<cfdocument format="pdf" src="http://www.google.com" filename="cfdoc1.pd f "
overwrite="true">
</cfdocument>
<cfset pdfURL = getPortletResponse().encodeURL(getPortletRequest().getContextPath() &
"/<path of pdf>/cfdoc1.pdf")>
<cfoutput>
<object data="#pdfURL#" type="application/pdf" width="600" height="400">
</object>
</cfoutput>

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To display Ajax components, all the URLs used in portlets must be encoded.
CFPOD:
<cfset sourceURL = getPortletResponse().encodeURL(getPortletRequest().getContextPath() &
"/<path to cfm>/expandpath.cfm")>
<cfpod name="pod01" source="#sourceURL#" height="500" width="300" title="Example CFPod"/>
expandpath:
<cfoutput>#ExpandPath("./")#</cfoutput>
CFWINDOW:
<cfset sourceURL = getPortletResponse().encodeURL(getPortletRequest().getContextPath() &
"/<path to cfm>/expandpath.cfm")>
<cfwindow title="Test Window" name="myWindow" width="200" height="200" initShow="true"
source="#sourceURL#">
</cfwindow>

JSR-286 Support
ColdFusion 9 also supports JSR-286 specifications. In portlets there are three types of requests: action, event, and
render. A portlet first handles an action request, and then an event request, and only after that, it would render any
request.
Some of the capabilities of JSR-286 include the following:

Publishing and Processing Events

To define an event, you would have to declare it in portlet.xml
<event-definition>
<qname xmlns:cf="http://adobe.com/coldfusion/portlet/example">cf:HelloEvent
</qname>
<value-type>java.lang.String</value-type>
</event-definition>

This code defines an event named cf:HelloEvent, where cf refers to the namespace and HelloEvent is the local name.
Its type is defined by the <value-type> tag. These event definitions require you to use qname to uniquely identify the
event.
Now add the events to specific portlets, which are either going to publish (generate) an event or process (consume) an
event. You add this information to portlet.xml as well.
<supported-publishing-event> tag is used to publish an event.

Publishing an event (Event producer)

<portlet>

<supported-publishing-event>
<qname xmlns:cf="http://adobe.com/coldfusion/portlet/example">cf:HelloEvent</qname>
</supported-publishing-event>

</portlet>

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Processing an event (event consumer)

<portlet>
.
<supported-processing-event>
<qname xmlns:cf="http://adobe.com/coldfusion/portlet/example">cf:HelloEvent</qname>
</supported-processing-event>
..
</portlet>

Portlet definition can have both publishing and processing tags. portlet.xml file has event definition, publishing
event, and processing event tags, as its portlets create and consume events.

Initiate events in portlet (CFC)

You publish events in the processAction() method of the portlet code by calling setEvent() on the
ActionResponse object. This setEvent() method takes two parameters: the QName of the event object and the type
of object defined in portlet.xml.
Following is an example of processAction() method.
<cffunction name="processAction" returntype="void" access="public" output="false"
hint="Called by the portlet container to allow the portlet to process an action request.">
<cfargument name="actionRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.ActionRequest java object">
<cfargument name="actionResponse" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.ActionResponse java object">
<cfset super.processAction(arguments.actionRequest, arguments.actionResponse)>
<!--- send event notification --->
<cftry>
<cfset arguments.actionResponse.setEvent("HelloEvent",
request.portlet.parameters.event_value)>
<cfcatch type="any">
<cflog file="simple-event-portlet" type="error" text="processAction() threw
exception: #cfcatch.message#">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
</cffunction>

Capture events in processEvent() method:

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<cffunction name="processEvent" returntype="void" access="public" output="false" hint="Called

by the portlet container requesting the portlet to process a specific event.">
<cfargument name="eventRequest" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.EventRequest java object">
<cfargument name="eventResponse" type="any" required="true" hint="A
javax.portlet.EventResponse java object">
<cfset var e = StructNew()>
<cftry>
<cfset e.name = arguments.eventRequest.getEvent().getName()>
<cfset e.value = arguments.eventRequest.getEvent().getValue()>
<cfif NOT IsDefined("application.EventReceivingPortletEvents")>
<cfset application.EventReceivingPortletEvents = ArrayNew(1)>
</cfif>
<cfset ArrayAppend(application.EventReceivingPortletEvents,e)>
<cfcatch type="any">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
</cffunction>

Using filters
Filter definition and mapping in portlet.xml
<filter>
<filter-name>Example ColdFusion Filter</filter-name>
<filter-class>coldfusion.portlet.ColdFusionPortletFilter</filter-class>
<lifecycle>RENDER_PHASE</lifecycle>
<lifecycle>EVENT_PHASE</lifecycle>
<lifecycle>RESOURCE_PHASE</lifecycle>
<lifecycle>ACTION_PHASE</lifecycle>
<init-param>
<name>cfcName</name>
<value>portlets.filter.ExampleFilter</value>
</init-param>
</filter>

Add filter mapping, that filter applied to particular portlet.

<!-- Applies Example Filter to All Portlets -->
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>Example ColdFusion Filter</filter-name>
<portlet-name>*</portlet-name>
</filter-mapping>

ExampleFilter.cfc:
The following is the ExampleFilter.cfc mentioned in the portlet.xml.

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<cfcomponent extends="CFIDE.portlets.filter.ColdFusionPortletFilter">
<cffunction name="doRenderFilter" returntype="void">
<cfargument name="renderRequest">
<cfargument name="renderResponse">
<cfargument name="filterChain">
<cflog file="portlet-filter" type="information" text="doRenderFilter() invoked">
<!--- call the next filter in the chain --->
<cfset arguments.filterChain.doFilter(arguments.renderRequest,
arguments.renderResponse)>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="doActionFilter" returntype="void">
<cfargument name="actionRequest">
<cfargument name="actionResponse">
<cfargument name="filterChain">
<cflog file="portlet-filter" type="information" text="doActionFilter() invoked">
<!--- call the next filter in the chain --->
<cfset arguments.filterChain.doFilter(arguments.actionRequest,
arguments.actionResponse)>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="doResourceFilter" returntype="void">
<cfargument name="resourceRequest">
<cfargument name="resourceResponse">
<cfargument name="filterChain">
<cflog file="portlet-filter" type="information" text="doResourceFilter() invoked">
<!--- call the next filter in the chain --->
<cfset arguments.filterChain.doFilter(arguments.resourceRequest,
arguments.resourceResponse)>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="doEventFilter" returntype="void">
<cfargument name="eventRequest">
<cfargument name="eventResponse">
<cfargument name="filterChain">
<cflog file="portlet-filter" type="information" text="doEventFilter() invoked">
<!--- call the next filter in the chain --->
<cfset arguments.filterChain.doFilter(arguments.eventRequest,
arguments.eventResponse)>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Run a ColdFusion portlet on WebSphere Portal Server

To access and run ColdFusion portlets on WebSphere Portal Server 6.1:
1 Create cfusion.war file.
2 Extract it using jar -xvf cfusion.war
3

Create a /portlets directory under cfusion.war.

4 Add portlets to the /portlets directory. Add portlet entries to portlet.xml, present at:
cfusion.war/WEB-INF/portlet.xml

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ColdFusion Portlets

5 Go to repackage the WAR file using jar cvf cfusion.war.

6 Deploy it through WebSphere Portal Server administrator console. The portlets would be visible present in

portlet.xml
7 Create a portal page and add the portlets.

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Chapter 13: Working with Documents,

Charts, and Reports
Manipulating PDF Forms in ColdFusion
You can use Adobe ColdFusion to manipulate PDF forms created in Adobe Acrobat Professional and Adobe
LiveCycle Designer.

About PDF forms

Adobe ColdFusion lets you incorporate interactive PDF forms in your application. You can extract data submitted
from the PDF forms, populate form fields from an XML data file or a database, and embed PDF forms in PDF
documents created in ColdFusion.
ColdFusion supports interactive forms created with Adobe Acrobat forms and with LiveCycle. In Adobe Acrobat 6.0
or earlier, you can create interactive Acroforms. Using Adobe LiveCycle Designer, which is provided with Adobe
Acrobat Professional 7.0 and later, you can generate interactive forms.
The type of form is significant because it affects how you manipulate the data in ColdFusion. For example, you cannot
use an XML data file generated from a form created in Acrobat to populate a form created in LiveCycle, or the reverse,
because the XML file formats differ between the two types of forms.
Forms created in Acrobat use the XML Forms Data Format (XFDF) file format. Forms created in LiveCycle use the
XML Forms Architecture (XFA) format introduced in Acrobat and Adobe Reader 6. For examples, see Populating a
PDF form with XML data on page 915. The file format also affects how you prefill fields in a form from a data source,
because you map the data structure as well as the field names. For examples, see Prefilling PDF form fields on
page 916.
The use of JavaScript also differs based on the context. The JavaScript Object Model in a PDF file differs from the
HTML JavaScript Object Model. Consequently, scripts written in HTML JavaScript do not apply to PDF files. Also,
JavaScript differs between forms created in Acrobat and those forms created in LiveCycle: scripts written in one format
do not work with other.
ColdFusion 9 introduced several tags for manipulating PDF forms:
Tag

Description

cfpdfform

Reads data from a form and writes it to a file or populates a form with data from a data source.

cfpdfformparam

A child tag of the cfpdfform tag or the cfpdfsubform tag; populates individual fields in PDF forms.

cfpdfsubform

A child tag of the cfpdfform tag; creates the hierarchy of the PDF form so that form fields are filled
properly. The cfpdfsubform tag contains one or more cfpdpformparam tags.

The following table describes a few of the tasks that you can perform with PDF forms:

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Task

Tags and actions

Populate a PDF form with XML data

populate action of the cfpdf tag

Prefill individual fields in a PDF form with data from a data

source

populate action of the cfpdfform tag with the cfpdfsubform and

cfpdfparam tags

Determine the structure of a PDF form

read action of the cfpdfform tag with the cfdump tag

Embed an interactive PDF form within a PDF document

populate action of the cfpdfform tag within the cfdocument tag.

Note: The cfpdfform tag must be at the same level as the

cfdocumentsection tags, not contained within them.
Write a PDF form directly to the browser

populate action of the cfpdfform tag with the destination attribute not

specified
Write PDF form output to an XML file

read action of the cfpdfform tag

Print a PDF form from ColdFusion

cfprint tag

Extract data from a PDF form submission

source="#PDF.Content#" for the read action of the cfpdfform tag

Write data extracted from a PDF form submission to a PDF source="#PDF.Content#" for the populate action of the cfpdfform tag,
file
and the destination attribute
Write data in a form generated in LiveCycle to an XDP file

source="#PDF.Content#" for the populate action of the cfpdfform tag,

and an XDP extension for the output file

Extract data from an HTTP post submission

cfdump tag determines the structure of the form data; map the form fields to the

output fields
Flatten forms generated in Acrobat (not used forms
generated in LiveCycle)

cfpdf
For more information, see Flattening forms created in Acrobat on page 941.

Merge forms generated in Acrobat or LiveCycle with other cfpdf action="merge"

PDF documents
For more information, see Merging PDF documents on page 939.

Populating a PDF form with XML data

Some applications submit PDF form data in an XML data file. For example, the e-mail submit option in forms created
in LiveCycle generates an XML data file and delivers it as an attachment to the specified e-mail address. This technique
is an efficient way to transmit and archive data because XML data files are smaller than PDF files. However, XML files
are not user-friendly: to view the file in its original format, the user has to open the PDF form template in Acrobat and
import the XML data file.
ColdFusion automates the process of reuniting XML data with the PDF form that generated it. To reunite them, you
use the populate action of the cfpdfform tag, specify the source, which is the PDF form used as a template, and
specify the XML data file that contains the information submitted by the person who completed the form. You also
have the option to save the result to a new file, which lets you save the completed forms in their original format (and
not just the form data). In the following example, ColdFusion populates the payslipTemplate.pdf form with data from
the formdata.xml data file and writes the form to a new PDF file called employeeid123.pdf:
<cfpdfform source="c:\payslipTemplate.pdf" destination="c:\empPayslips\employeeid123.pdf"
action="populate" XMLdata="c:\formdata.xml"/>

For forms created in LiveCycle, you have the option to write the output to an XML Data Package (XDP) file rather than
a PDF file. For more information, see Writing LiveCycle form output to an XDP file on page 920.
Note: If you do not specify a destination, the populate action displays the populated PDF form in a browser window.

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When you populate a form with an XML data file, ensure that the XML data is in the appropriate format. The format
of the XML data file differs based on whether it was generated from Acrobat or LiveCycle. Acrobat generates an XML
Forms Data Format (XFDF) file format. The following example shows the XFDF format:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
- <xfdf xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/" xml:space="preserve">
- <fields>
- <field name="textname">
<value>textvalue</value>
</field>
- <field name="textname1">
<value>textvalue1</value>
</field>
</fields>
</xfdf>

Forms created in LiveCycle require an XML Forms Architecture (XFA) format. The following example shows an XFA
format:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
- <xfa:data xmlns:xfa="http://www.xfa.org/schema/xfa-data/1.0/">
- <form1>
<SSN>354325426</SSN>
<fname>coldfusion</fname>
<num>354325426.00</num>
- <Subform1>
<SSN />
</Subform1>
</form1>
</xfa>

Prefilling PDF form fields

ColdFusion lets you prefill individual form fields with data extracted from a data source. For example, you can run a
query to extract returning customer information from a data source based on a user name and password and populate
the related fields in an order form. The customer can complete the rest of the fields in the form and submit it for
processing. To do so, map the field names and the data structure of the PDF form to the fields in the data source.
To determine the structure of the PDF form, use the read action of the cfpdfform tag, as the following example shows:
<cfpdfform source="c:\forms\timesheet.pdf" result="resultStruct" action="read"/>

Then use the cfdump tag to display the structure:

<cfdump var="#resultStruct#">

The result structure for a form created in Acrobat form could look something like the following example:
struct
firstName

[empty string]

lastName

[empty string]

department

[empty string]

...

...

To prefill the fields in ColdFusion, you add a cfpdfformparam tag for each of the fields directly under the cfpdfform tag:

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<cfpdfform action="populate" source="c:\forms\timsheet.PDF">

<cfpdfformparam name="firstName" value="Boris">
<cfpdfformparam name="lastName" value="Pasternak">
<cfpdfformparam name="department" value="Marketing">
...
</cfpdfform>

Forms created in LiveCycle from the standard blank forms contain a subform called form1. The result structure of a
form created in LiveCycle could look like the following example:
struct
form1

struct
txtfirstName

[empty string]

txtlastName

[empty string]

txtdepartment

[empty string]

...

...

To prefill the fields in ColdFusion, add a cfpdfsubform tag for form1 and a cfpdfformparam tag for each of the fields
to fill directly below the cfpdfsubform tag:
<cfpdfform source="c:\forms\timesheetForm.pdf" action="populate">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtfirstName" value="Harley">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtlastName" value="Davidson">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtDeptName" value="Engineering">
...
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>

Note: In dynamic forms created in LiveCycle forms (forms saved as Dynamic PDF Form Files in LiveCycle Designer), you
have the option to mark how many times a record is repeated. Therefore, if no record exists for a subform, the subform
does not appear in the structure returned by the read action of the cfpdfform tag. You view these forms in LiveCycle
Designer to see the hierarchy.

Nesting subforms
Although Acrobat forms do not contain subforms, some contain complex field names. For example, an Acrobat form
could contain the following fields: form1.x.f1, form1.x.f2, form1.x.f3, and so on.
Because the cfpdfparam tag does not handle field names with periods in them, ColdFusion treats forms with complex
field names created in Acrobat the same way as subforms created in LiveCycle. Therefore, the result structure of an
Acrobat form with complex field names would look like the following example:
struct
form1

struct
x

struct
f1

[empty string]

f2

[empty string]

...

...

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In ColdFusion, to prefill the fields in forms created in Acrobat, nest the field names as subforms:
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="acrobatForm.pdf">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfsubform name="x">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1" value="AGuthrie">
<cfpdfformparam name="f2" value="123">
<cfpdfformparam name="f3" value="456">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>

Often, forms created in LiveCycle contain subforms within the form1 subform. For example, the following grant
application contains nested subforms:
struct
form1

struct
grantapplication

struct
page1

page2

struct
orgAddress

[empty string]

orgCity

[empty string]

orgState

[empty string]

...

...

struct
description

[empty string]

pageCount

[empty string]

...

...

To populate the fields in ColdFusion, map the structure by using nested cfpdfsubform tags:
<cfpdfform source="c:\grantForm.pdf" destination="c:\employeeid123.pdf" action="populate">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfsubform name="grantapplication">
<cfpdfsubform name="page1">
<cfpdfformparam name="orgAddress" value="572 Evergreen Terrace">
<cfpdfformparam name="orgCity" value="Springfield">
<cfpdfformparam name="orgState" value="Oregon">
...
</cfpdfsubform>
<cfpdfsubform name="page2">
<cfpdfformparam name="description" value="Head Start">
<cfpdfformparam name="pageCount" value="2">
...
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>

Note: A PDF file can contain only one interactive form. Therefore, if a PDF file contains subforms, a Submit button
submits data for all the subforms simultaneously.

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Embedding a PDF form in a PDF document

You can use the cfpdfform tag inside the cfdocument tag to embed an existing interactive PDF form in a PDF
document. This technique is useful to include additional information with a standard interactive form. For example,
a company could have a generic PDF form for maintaining employee information. You could reuse this form in
different contexts to ensure that the employee information is current.
To create the static PDF pages, use the cfdocument tag and cfdocumentsection tags. Then use the cfpdfform tag
in the cfdocument tag to create an interactive form in the PDF document. When the user updates the form and prints
or submits it, all of the pages in the document, including the static PDF pages, are printed or submitted with the form.
Note: You can embed only one interactive form in a PDF document; therefore, include only one cfpdfform tag in a
cfdocument tag. However, each cfpdfform tag can include multiple cfpdfsubform tags and cfpdfformparam tags.
Use at least one cfdocumentsection tag with the cfpdfform tag, but do not place the cfpdfform tag within the
cfdocumentsection tag. Instead, insure that the cfpdfform and cfdocumentsection tags are at the same level, the
following example shows:
<cfdocument format="pdf">
<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<font size="+1">This is the Header</font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentitem type="footer">
<font size="+1">This is the Footer</font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentsection>
<p>This is the first document section.</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
<cfpdfform source="c:\forms\embed.pdf" action="populate">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtManagerName" value="Janis Joplin">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtDepartment" value="Sales">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>
<cfdocumentsection>
<p>This is another section</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
</cfdocument>

The contents of the cfpdfform tag start on a new page. Any text or code directly after the cfdocument tag and before
the cfpdfform tag applies to the document sections but not to the interactive PDF form in the cfpdfform tag.
The headers and footers that are part of the embedded PDF form do not apply to the rest of the PDF document, and
the headers and footers that are defined in the cfdocument tag do not apply to the interactive form. However, header
and footer information defined in the cfdocumentitem tags resumes in the sections that follow the embedded form
and account for the pages in the embedded form.
Note: The read action of the cfpdfform tag is not valid when you embed a PDF form. Also, you cannot specify a
destination in the cfpdfform tag. However, you can specify a filename in the cfdocument tag to write the PDF
document with the PDF form to an output file. If you do not specify a filename, ColdFusion displays the PDF form in the
context of the PDF document in the browser.

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Extracting data from a PDF form submission

Data extraction differs based on how the PDF form is submitted. ColdFusion supports two types of PDF form
submission: HTTP post, which submits the form data, but not the form itself, and PDF, which submits the entire PDF file.
One use for PDF submission is for archival purpose: because the form is submitted with the data, you can write the
output to a file. HTTP post submissions process faster because only the field data is transmitted, which is useful for
updating a database or manipulating specific data collected from the form, but you cannot write an HTTP post
submission directly to a file.
Note: Although forms created in LiveCycle Designer allow several types of submission, including XDP and XML,
ColdFusion can extract data from HTTP post and PDF submissions only.
In LiveCycle Designer, the XML code for an HTTP post submission looks like the following example:
<submit format="formdata" target="http://localhost:8500/pdfforms/pdfreceiver.cfm"
textEncoding="UTF-8"/>

In LiveCycle Designer, the XML code for a PDF submission looks like the following example:
<submit format="pdf" target="http://localhost:8500/pdfforms/pdfreceiver.cfm"
textEncoding="UTF-16" xdpContent="pdf datasets xfdf"/>

Note: Acrobat forms are submitted in binary format, not XML format.

Extracting data from a PDF submission

Use the following code to extract data from a PDF submission and write it to a structure called fields:
<!--- The following code reads the submitted PDF file and generates a result structure called
fields. --->
<cfpdfform source="#PDF.content#" action="read" result="fields"/>

Use the cfdump tag to display the data structure, as follows:

<cfdump var="#fields#">

Note: When you extract data from a PDF submission, always specify "#PDF.content#" as the source.
You can set the form fields to a variable, as the following example shows:
<cfset empForm="#fields.form1#">

Use the populate action of the cfpdfform tag to write the output to a file. Specify "#PDF.content#" as the source. In
the following example, the unique filename is generated from a field on the PDF form:
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="#PDF.content#"
destination="timesheets\#empForm.txtsheet#.pdf" overwrite="yes"/>

Writing LiveCycle form output to an XDP file

For Acrobat forms, you can write the output to a PDF file only. For LiveCycle forms, you have the option to write the
output to an XDP file. The filename extension determines the file format: to save the output in XDP format, simply
use an XDP extension in the destination filename, as the following example shows:
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="#PDF.content#"
destination="timesheets\#empForm.txtsheet#.xdp" overwrite="yes"/>

An XDP file is an XML representation of a PDF file. In LiveCycle Designer, an XDP file contains the structure, data,
annotations, and other relevant data to LiveCycle forms, which renders the form at run time.

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ColdFusion XDP files contain the XDP XML code and the PDF image. Therefore, the file size is larger than a PDF file.
Only write PDF forms to XDP files if you must incorporate them into the LiveCycle Designer workflow on a LiveCycle
server.
Writing PDF output to an XML file
ColdFusion lets you extract data from a PDF form and write the output to an XML data file. To do so, you must save
the form output as a PDF file. (The cfpdfform tag source must always be a PDF file.)
To write the output of a PDF file to an XML file, use the read action of the cfpdfform tag, as the following example
shows:
<cfpdfform action="read" source="#empForm.txtsheet#.pdf"
XMLdata="timesheets\#empForm.txtsheet#.xml"/>

To save disk space, you can delete the PDF file and maintain the XML data file. As long as you keep the blank PDF
form used as the template, you can use the populate action to regenerate the PDF file. For more information on
populating forms, see Populating a PDF form with XML data on page 915.

Extracting data from an HTTP post submission

For an HTTP post submission, use the cfdump tag with the form name as the variable to display the data structure, as
follows:
<cfdump var="#FORM.form1#">

Note: When you extract data from an HTTP post submission, always specify the form name as the source. For example,
specify "#FORM.form1#" for a form generated from a standard template in LiveCycle.
Notice that the structure is not necessarily the same as the structure of the PDF file used as the template (before
submission). For example, the structure of a form before submission could look like the following example:
struct
form1

struct
txtDeptName

[empty string]

txtEMail

[empty string]

txtEmpID

[empty string]

txtFirstName

[empty string]

txtLastName

[empty string]

txtPhoneNum

[empty string]

After submission by using HTTP post, the resulting structure would look like the following example:
struct
FORM1

struct

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struct
SUBFORM

struct
HEADER

struct
HTTPSUBMITBUTTON1

[empty string]

TXTDEPTNAME

Sales

TXTFIRSTNAME

Carolynn

TXTLASTNAME

Peterson

TXTPHONENUM

(617) 872-9178

TXTEMPID

TXTEMAIL

carolynp@company

Note: When data extraction using the cfpdfform tag results in more than one page, instead of returning one structure,
the extraction returns one structure per page.
The difference in structure reflects internal rules applied by Acrobat for the HTTP post submission.
To extract the data from the HTTP post submission and update a database with the information, for example, map the
database columns to the form fields, as the following code shows:
<cfquery name="updateEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
UPDATE EMPLOYEES
SET FIRSTNAME = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTFIRSTNAME#",
LASTNAME = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTLASTNAME#",
DEPARTMENT = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTDEPTNAME#",
IM_ID = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.TXTEMAIL#",
PHONE = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTPHONENUM#"
WHERE EMP_ID = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM1.SUBFORM.TXTEMPID#">
</cfquery>

You can set a variable to create a shortcut to the field names, as the following code shows:
<cfset fields=#form1.subform.header#>

Use the cfoutput tag to display the form data:

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<h3>Employee Information</h3>
<cfoutput>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Name:</td>
<td>#fields.txtfirstname# #fields.txtlastname#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Department:</td>
<td>#fields.txtdeptname#</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>E-Mail:</td>
<td>#fields.txtemail#</td>
<tr>
<td>Phone:</td>
<td>#fields.txtphonenum#</td>
</tr>
<table>
</cfoutput>

Application examples that use PDF forms

The following examples show how you can use PDF forms in your applications.

PDF submission example

The following example shows how to populate fields in a PDF form created in LiveCycle Designer based on an
employee login information. When the employee completes the form and clicks the PDF Submit button, the entire
PDF form with the data is submitted to a second processing page where ColdFusion writes the completed form to a file.
On the ColdFusion login page, an employee enters a user name and password:
<!--- The following code creates a simple form for entering a user name and password.
The code does not include password verification. --->
<h3>Timesheet Login Form</h3>
<p>Please enter your user name and password.</p>
<cfform name="loginform" action="loginform_proc.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>user name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="username" required="yes"
message="A user name is required."></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>password:</td>
<td><cfinput type="password" name="password" required="yes"
message="A password is required."></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br/>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

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On the first processing page, a query retrieves all of the information associated with the user name from the
cfdocexamples database. The cfpdfform tag populates an associated PDF form created in LiveCycle Designer (called
timesheetForm.pdf) with the employee name, phone number, e-mail address, and department. ColdFusion displays
the populated form in the browser, where the employee can complete the form and submit it.
<!--- The following code retrieves all of the employee information for the user name entered
on the login page. --->
<cfquery name="getEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES
WHERE EMAIL = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM.username#">
</cfquery>
<!--The following code populates the template called "timesheetForm.pdf" with data from the query
and displays the interactive PDF form in the browser. A field in the PDF form contains the name
of the output file being written. It is a combination of the user name and the current date.
--->
<!--- Notice the use of the cfpdfsubform tag. Forms created from templates in LiveCycle
Designer include a subform called form1. Use the cfpdfsubform tag to match the structure of
the form in ColdFusion. Likewise, the field names in the cfpdfformparam tags must match the
field names in the PDF form. If the form structures and field names do not match exactly,
ColdFusion does not populate the form fields. --->
<cfpdfform source="c:\forms\timesheetForm.pdf" action="populate">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtEmpName" value="#getEmpInfo.FIRSTNAME#
#getEmpInfo.LASTNAME#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtDeptName" value="#getEmpInfo.DEPARTMENT#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtEmail" value="#getEmpInfo.IM_ID#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtPhoneNum" value="#getEmpInfo.PHONE#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtManagerName" value="Randy Nielsen">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtSheet"
value="#form.username#_#DateFormat(Now())#">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>

When the user completes the timesheet form (by filling in the time period, projects, and hours for the week) and clicks
the Submit button, Acrobat sends the PDF file in binary format to a second ColdFusion processing page.
Note: In LiveCycle Designer, use the standard Submit button on the PDF form and specify submit as: PDF in the button
Object Properties. Also, ensure that you enter the URL to the ColdFusion processing page in the Submit to URL field.
The cfpdfform tag read action reads the PDF content into a result structure named fields. The cfpdfform tag
populate action writes the completed form to a file in the timesheets subdirectory.

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<!--- The following code reads the PDF file submitted in binary format and generates a result
structure called fields. The cfpdfform populate action and the cfoutput tags reference the
fields in the structure. --->
<cfpdfform source="#PDF.content#" action="read" result="fields"/>
<cfset empForm="#fields.form1#">
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="#PDF.content#"
destination="timesheets\#empForm.txtsheet#.pdf" overwrite="yes"/>
<h3>Timesheet Completed</h3>
<p><cfoutput>#empForm.txtempname#</cfoutput>,</p>
<p>Thank you for submitting your timesheet for the week of
<cfoutput>#DateFormat(empForm.dtmForPeriodFrom, "long")#</cfoutput> through
<cfoutput>#DateFormat(empForm.dtmForPeriodto, "long")#</cfoutput>. Your manager,
<cfoutput>#empForm.txtManagerName#</cfoutput>, will notify you upon approval.</p>

HTTP post example

The following example shows how to extract data from a PDF form submitted with HTTP post and use it to update an
employee database. The form was created in LiveCycle Designer.
On the ColdFusion login page, an employee enters a user name and password:
<!--- The following code creates a simple form for entering a user name and password. The code
does not include password verification. --->
<h3>Employee Update Login Form</h3>
<p>Please enter your user name and password.</p>
<cfform name="loginform" action="loginform_procHTTP.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>user name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="username" required="yes"
message="A user name is required."></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>password:</td>
<td><cfinput type="password" name="password" required="yes"
message="A password is required."></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br/>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

On the first processing page, a query retrieves all of the information associated with the user name from the
cfdocexamples database. The cfpdfform tag populates an associated PDF form created in LiveCycle Designer (called
employeeInfoHTTP.pdf) with the employee name, phone number, e-mail address, and department. The form also
includes the employee ID as a hidden field. ColdFusion displays the populated form in the browser where the employee
can change personal information in the form and submit it.

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<!--- The following code retrieves all of the employee information for the user name entered
on the form page. --->
<cfquery name="getEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES
WHERE EMAIL = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM.username#">
</cfquery>
<!--- The following code populates the template called "employeeInfoHTTP.pdf" with data from
the query. As in the previous example, notice the use of the cfpdfsubform tag. The txtEmpID
field is a hidden field on the PDF form. --->
<cfquery name="getEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES
WHERE EMAIL = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM.username#">
</cfquery>
<cfpdfform source="c:\forms\employeeInfoHTTP.pdf" action="populate">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtFirstName" value="#getEmpInfo.FIRSTNAME#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtLastName" value="#getEmpInfo.LASTNAME#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtDeptName" value="#getEmpInfo.DEPARTMENT#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtEmail" value="#getEmpInfo.IM_ID#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtPhoneNum" value="#getEmpInfo.PHONE#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtEmpID" value="#getEmpInfo.Emp_ID#">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>

When the employee updates the information in the form and clicks the HTTP post Submit button, Acrobat sends the
form data (but not the form itself) to a second ColdFusion processing page.
Note: In LiveCycle Designer, use the HTTP Submit button on the PDF form. Also, ensure that you enter the URL to the
ColdFusion processing page in the URL field of button Object Properties.
Reproduce the structure, not just the field name, when you reference form data. To determine the structure of the form
data, use the cfdump tag.
<!--- The following code reads the form data from the PDF form and uses it to update
corresponding fields in the database. --->
<cfquery name="updateEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
UPDATE EMPLOYEES
SET FIRSTNAME = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTFIRSTNAME#",
LASTNAME = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTLASTNAME#",
DEPARTMENT = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTDEPTNAME#",
IM_ID = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTEMAIL#",
PHONE = "#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTPHONENUM#"
WHERE EMP_ID = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM1.SUBFORM.TXTEMPID#">
</cfquery>
<h3>Employee Information Updated</h3>
<p><cfoutput>#FORM1.SUBFORM.HEADER.TXTFIRSTNAME#</cfoutput>,</p>
<p>Thank you for updating your employee information in the employee database.</p>

Embedded PDF form example

The following example shows how to embed an interactive PDF form in a PDF document created with the
cfdocument tag.
On the login page, an employee enters a user name and password:

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<h3>Employee Login Form</h3>

<p>Please enter your user name and password.</p>
<cfform name="loginform" action="embed2.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>user name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="username" required="yes"
message="A user name is required."></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>password:</td>
<td><cfinput type="password" name="password" required="yes"
message="A password is required."></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br/>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

On the processing page, a query populates an interactive PDF form from the cfdocexamples database. The interactive
PDF form is embedded in a PDF document created with the cfdocument tag. The PDF document comprises three
sections: the cfdocumentsection tags define the first and last sections of the document; the cfpdfform tag defines
the second section embedded in the PDF document. Each section starts a new page in the PDF document. The Print
button on the PDF form prints the entire document, including the pages in the sections before and after the interactive
PDF form.
<cfquery name="getEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES
WHERE EMAIL = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM.username#">
</cfquery>
<!--- The following code creates a PDF document with headers and footers.
--->
<cfdocument format="pdf">
<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<font size="-1" align="center"><i>Nondisclosure Agreement</i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentitem type="footer">
<font size="-1"><i>Page <cfoutput>#cfdocument.currentpagenumber#
of#cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfoutput></i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<!--- The following code creates the first section in the PDF document. --->
<cfdocumentsection>
<h3>Employee Nondisclosure Agreement</h3>
<p>Please verify the information in the enclosed form. Make any of the necessary changes
in the online form and click the <b>Print</b> button. Sign and date the last page. Staple
the pages together and return the completed form to your manager.</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
<!--- The following code embeds an interactive PDF form within the PDF document with fields
populated by the database query. The cfpdpfform tag automatically creates a section in
the PDF document. Do not embed the cfpdfform within cfdocumentsection tags. --->
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="c:\forms\embed.pdf">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtEmpName"

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value="#getEmpInfo.FIRSTNAME# #getEmpInfo.LASTNAME#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtDeptName" value="#getEmpInfo.DEPARTMENT#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtEmail" value="#getEmpInfo.IM_ID#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtPhoneNum" value="#getEmpInfo.PHONE#">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtManagerName" value="Randy Nielsen">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>
<!--- The following code creates the last document section. Page numbering resumes in this
section. --->
<cfdocumentsection>
<p>I, <cfoutput>#getEmpInfo.FIRSTNAME# #getEmpInfo.LASTNAME#</cfoutput>, hereby attest
that the information in this document is accurate and complete.</p>
<br/><br/>
<table border="0" cellpadding="20">
<tr><td width="300">
<hr/>
<p><i>Signature</i></p></td>
<td width="150">
<hr/>
<p><i>Today's Date</i></p></td></tr>
</table>
</cfdocumentsection>
</cfdocument>

Update PDF form example

The following example shows how ColdFusion lets you update a PDF form while retaining existing data. The
application lets a user create an office supply request from a blank form created in LiveCycle or modify an existing
supply request. The user has the option to submit the completed form as an e-mail attachment.
<!--- supplyReq1.cfm --->
<!--- The following code prefills fields in a blank form in LiveCycle and writes the prefilled
form to a new file called NewRequest.pdf in the supplyReqs directory. --->
<cfpdfform source="SupplyReq.pdf" action="populate" destination="supplyReqs/NewRequest.pdf"
overwrite="yes">
<cfpdfsubform name="form1">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtContactName" value="Constance Gardner">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtCompanyName" value="Wild Ride Systems">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtAddress" value="18 Melrose Place">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtPhone" value="310-654-3298">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtCity" value="Hollywood">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtStateProv" value="CA">
<cfpdfformparam name="txtZipCode" value="90210">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfform>
<!--- The following code lets users choose an existing supply request form or create a new
request from the NewRequest.pdf form. --->
<h3>Office Supply Request Form</h3>
<p>Please choose the office supply request form that you would like to open. Choose <b>New
Supply Request</b> to create a request.</p>
<!--- The following code populates a list box in a form with files located in the specified
directory. --->
<cfset thisDir = expandPath(".")>
<cfdirectory directory="#thisDir#/supplyReqs" action="list" name="supplyReqs">

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<cfif #supplyReqs.name# is "NewRequest.pdf">

<cfset #supplyReqs.name# = "---New Supply Request---">
</cfif>
<cfform name="fileList" action="supplyReq2.cfm" method="post">
<cfselect name="file" query="supplyReqs" value="name" display="name"
required="yes" size="8" multiple="no"/><br/>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="OK">
</cfform>
<!--- supplyReq2.cfm --->
<!--- The following code displays the PDF form that the user selected. --->
<cfif #form.file# is "---New Supply Request---">
<cfset #form.file# = "NewRequest.pdf">
</cfif>
<cfpdfform source="supplyReqs/#form.file#" action="populate"/>

<!--- supplyReq3.cfm --->

<!--- The following code reads the PDF file content from the submitted PDF form. --->
<cfpdfform source="#PDF.content#" action="read" result="fields"/>
<!--- The following code writes the PDF form to a file and overwrites the file if it exists.
--->
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="#PDF.content#"
destination="SupplyReqs/supplyReq_#fields.form1.txtRequestNum#.pdf" overwrite="yes"/>
<!--- The following code customizes the display based on field values extracted from the PDF
form. --->
<p><cfoutput>#fields.form1.txtRequester#</cfoutput>,</p>
<p>Your changes have been recorded for supply request
<cfoutput>#fields.form1.txtRequestNum#</cfoutput>.</p>
<p>If the form is complete and you would like to submit it to
<cfoutput>#fields.form1.txtContactName#</cfoutput> for processing, click <b>Submit</b>.
<!--- The following code gives the option to e-mail the submitted form as an attachment or
return to the home page. --->
<cfform name="send" method="post" action="supplyReq4.cfm">
<cfinput type="hidden"
value="SupplyReqs/supplyReq_#fields.form1.txtRequestNum#.pdf" name="request">
<cfinput type="hidden" value="#fields.form1.txtRequester#" name="requester">
<cfinput type="submit" value="Submit" name="Submit">
</cfform>
<p>If you would like to modify your request or choose another request,
<a href="supplyReq1.cfm">click here</a>.</p>
<!--- supplyReq4.cfm --->
<!--- The following code sends the completed PDF form as an attachment to the person
responsible for processing the form. --->
<p>Your request has been submitted.</p>
<cfmail from="#form.requester#@wildride.com" to="[email protected]"
subject="see attachment">
Please review the attached PDF supply request form.
<cfmailparam file="#form.request#">
</cfmail>

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Assembling PDF Documents

You can use Adobe ColdFusion to assemble PDF documents. You create a unified document from multiple source files
or pages from multiple files by using the cfpdf and cfpdfparam tags.

About assembling PDF documents

You use the cfpdf tag to assemble PDF documents in Adobe ColdFusion. The tag provides several actions for creating
unified output files from multiple sources, as the following table shows:
Action

Description

addWatermark

Adds a watermark image to one or more pages in a PDF document.

deletePages

Deletes one or more pages from a PDF document.

addheader

Adds header to a PDF document.

addfooter

Adds footer to a PDF document.

removeheaderfooter

Removes header and footer from a PDF document.

optimize

Reduces the quality of PDF documents by image downsampling and removing unused objects.

extracttext

Extracts text from the specified pages or the entire PDF documents

extractimage

Extracts images from the specified pages or the entire PDF document

transform

Performs page level transformations

getInfo

Extracts information associated with the PDF document, such as the author, title, and creation date.

merge

Assembles PDF documents or pages from PDF source files into one output file.

processddx

Extends the cfpdf tag by providing a subset of Adobe LiveCycle Assembler functionality. This action is the
default.

protect

Password-protects and encrypts a PDF document.

read

Reads a PDF document into a ColdFusion variable.

removeWatermark

Removes watermarks from specified pages in a PDF document.

setInfo

Sets the Title, Subject, Author, and Keywords for a PDF document,

thumbnail

Generates thumbnail images from specified pages in a PDF document.

write

Writes PDF output to a file. Also use to flatten forms created in Acrobat and linearize documents.

Note: You cannot use the cfpdf tag to create a PDF document from scratch. To create a PDF document from HTML
content, use the cfdocument tag. Also, you can use Report Builder to generate a report as a PDF document. Instead of
writing a PDF document to file, you can specify a PDF variable generated as the source for the cfpdf tag.
All but one of the cfpdf tag actions provide shortcuts to common tasks; for example, with one line of code, you can
add a watermark image to one or more pages in an output file, merge all the PDF documents in a directory into a single
output file, or password-protect a PDF document. ColdFusion provides two ways to extend the functionality of the
cfpdf tag: the cfpdfparam tag and the processddx action.
You use the cfpdfparam tag only with the merge action of the cfpdf tag. The cfpdfparam tag gives you more control
over which files are included in the output file; for example you can merge pages from multiple files in different
directories.

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The processddx action extends the cfpdf tag by providing a subset of Adobe LiveCycle Assembler functionality. You
use the processddx action to process Document Description XML (DDX) instructions explained in Using DDX to
perform advanced tasks on page 943. Using DDX instructions requires more coding, but it lets you perform complex
tasks, such as generating a table of contents and adding automatic page numbers.
Also, ColdFusion provides three functions for PDF file, DDX file, and PDF variable verification:
Function

Description

IsDDX

Determines whether a DDX file, path, and instructions are not null and are valid. Also verifies that ColdFusion
supports the schema used for the DDX instructions.

IsPDFFile

Determines whether a PDF source file, path, and version are valid and supported on the server running
ColdFusion. Also verifies whether a PDF file is corrupted.

IsPDFObject

Determines whether a PDF object stored in memory is valid. Also verifies the contents of PDF variables
generated by the cfdocument and cfpdf tags.

The following table describes a few document assembly tasks that you can perform with ColdFusion:
Task

Action

Add a generated table of contents to a PDF document

cfpdf action="processddx" with the TableOfContents DDX element

cfpdf action="extracttext" can also be used.

Add automatic page numbers to a PDF document

cfpdf action="processddx" with the _PageNumber and

_LastPagenumber built-in keys. Valid only in the Header and Footer DDX

elements.
Add headers and footers to a PDF document

cfpdf action="processddx" with the Header and Footer DDX

elements
or
cfpdf action="addheader" and cfpdf action="addfooter"

Add or remove watermarks

cfpdf action="processddx" with the Watermark and Background DDX

elements
cfpdf action="addWatermark" and cfpdf
action="removeWatermark"

Change the encryption algorithm for PDF documents

cfpdf action="protect" encrypt="encryption algorithm"

Change user permissions on a PDF document

cfpdf action="protect"
newOwnerPassword="xxxxx"permissions="comma-separated list"

Delete pages from a PDF document

cfpdf action="deletePages"

Extract text from a PDF document and export it to an XML

file

cfpdf action="processddx" with the DocumentText DDX element

Flatten (remove interactivity from) forms created in Acrobat cfpdf action="write" flatten="yes"
Generate thumbnail images from PDF document pages

cfpdf action="thumbnail"pages="page numbers"

Linearize PDF documents for faster web display

cfpdf action="write" saveOption="linear"

Merge pages and page ranges from multiple documents in cfpdf action="merge" with multiple cfpdfparam tags
different locations into one PDF document
Merge PDF documents in a directory into one PDF
document

cfpdf action="merge" directory="path"

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Task

Action

Password-protect PDF documents

cfpdf action="protect" newUserPassword="xxxx"

Set the initial view for a PDF document

cfpdf action="processddx" with the InitialViewProfile DDX

element
Create different versions of a PDF document

Duplicate function to clone PDF variables

Using shortcuts for common tasks

You use the cfpdf tag actions to perform shortcuts to common PDF document assembly and manipulation.

Adding and removing watermark images

Use the addWatermark and removeWatermark actions to add and remove watermarks from PDF documents. You can
create a watermark and apply it to a PDF document in one of the following ways:

Use an image file as a watermark.

Specify a variable that contains an image file.
Specify a ColdFusion image.
Use the first page of a PDF document as a watermark.
Note: You can also use the Watermark or Background DDX elements with the processddx action to create a text-string
watermark. For more information, see Using DDX to perform advanced tasks on page 943.
Using an image file as a watermark
The following example shows how to specify an image file as a watermark:
<cfpdf action="addWatermark" source="artBook.pdf"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg" destination="output.pdf"
overwrite="yes">

By default, ColdFusion centers the image on the page, sets the opacity of the image to 3 out of 10 (opaque), and displays
the image in the background of each page in the output file. In the following example, ColdFusion displays the
watermark in the foreground, offset 100 pixels from the left margin of the page and 100 pixels from the bottom margin
of the page. Because the opacity is set to 1, the image does not obscure the page content.
<cfpdf action="addWatermark" source="artBook.pdf"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg" destination="output.pdf"
overwrite="yes" foreground="yes" opacity=1 showOnPrint="no" position="100,100">

For a complete list of attributes and settings, see the cfpdf tag in the CFML Reference.
With the ColdFusion 9 release, the addWatermark action now supports the rgb and argb formats also. The following
example shows that if you set the parameters for a new image to rgb or argb and then use the cfpdf
action=addwatermark, ColdFusion allows this action:
<!---setting the argb format for myImage--->
<cfset myImage = ImageNew("",200,200,"argb","gray")>
<!---adding watermark for myImage--->
<cfpdf action="addwatermark" rotation="45" foreground="true" image="#myImage#"
source="RemoveArts.pdf" destination="dest.pdf" overwrite="yes">

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Using a variable that contains an image file

You can specify a variable that contains an image as a watermark. The following example shows how to create a form
from which the user can select an image:
<!--- The following code creates a form where you can choose an image to use
as a watermark. --->
<h3>Choosing a Watermark</h3>
<p>Please choose the image you would like to use as a watermark.</p>
<!--- Create the ColdFusion form to select an image. --->
<table>
<cfform action="addWatermark2.cfm" method="post"
enctype="multipart/form-data">
<tr>
<td><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/maxwell01.jpg"/><br/>
<cfinput type="radio" name="art" value="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/maxwell01.jpg"
checked="yes">
Birch Forest</td>
<td><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg"/><br/>
<cfinput type="radio" name="art" value="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg">
Lounging Woman</td>
<td><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg"/><br/>
<cfinput type="radio" name="art"
value="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg">Celebration</td>
<td><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg"/><br/>
<cfinput type="radio" name="art"
value="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg">Guitarist
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br/>
<cfinput type="Submit" name="submit" value="Submit"></p>
</cfform>

The processing page uses the image selected from the form as the watermark for a PDF file:
<!--- ColdFusion applies the image selected from the form as the watermark in a PDF document
by using the input variable form.art. --->
<cfpdf action="addwatermark" source="check.pdf" image="#form.art#" destination="output.pdf"
foreground="yes" overwrite="true">
<p>The watermark has been added to your personalized checks.</p>

Using a ColdFusion image as a watermark

You can specify a ColdFusion image as a watermark. You can extract an image from a database and manipulate the
image in memory, but you dont have to write the manipulated image to a file. Instead, you can apply the manipulated
image as a watermark in a PDF document.
In the following example, the first ColdFusion page extracts images from a database and populates a pop-up menu with
the titles of the artwork:

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<!--- Create a query to extract artwork from the cfartgallery database. --->
<cfquery name="artwork" datasource="cfartgallery">
SELECT ARTID, ARTNAME, LARGEIMAGE
FROM ART
ORDER BY ARTNAME
</cfquery>
<!--- Create a form that lists the artwork titles generated by the query. Set the value to
LARGEIMAGE so that the image file is passed to the processing page. --->
<cfform action="addWatermarkB.cfm" method="post">
<p>Please choose a title:</p>
<cfselect name="art" query="artwork" display="ARTNAME" value="LARGEIMAGE" required="yes"
multiple="no" size="8">
</cfselect>
<br/>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="OK">
</cfform>

The action page generates a ColdFusion image from the selected file by using the cfimage tag. The ImageScaleToFit
function resizes the image and applies the bicubic interpolation method to improve the resolution. To use the
manipulated image as a watermark, specify the image variable, as the following example shows:
<!--- Verify that an image file exists and is in a valid format. --->
<cfif IsImageFile("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#form.art#")>
<!--- Use the cfimage tag to create a ColdFusion image from the file chosen from the list. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#form.art#" action="read" name="myWatermark">
<!--- Use the ImageScaleToFit function to resize the image by using the bicubic interpolation
method for better resolution. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myWatermark,450,450,"bicubic")>
<!--- Use the ColdFusion image variable as the watermark in a PDF document. --->
<cfpdf action="addWatermark" source="title.pdf" image="#myWatermark#"
destination="watermarkTitle.pdf" overwrite="yes">
<cfelse>
<p>I'm sorry, no image exists for that title. Please click the Back button and try
again.</p>
</cfif>

For more information on ColdFusion images, see Creating and Manipulating ColdFusion Images on page 959.
Creating a text image and using it as a watermark
You can use the ImageDrawText function to create a text image in ColdFusion and apply the image as a watermark,
as the following example shows:

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<!--- Create a blank image that is 500 pixels square. --->

<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",500,500)>
<!--- Set the background color for the image to white. --->
<cfset ImageSetBackgroundColor(myImage,"white")>
<!---Clear the rectangle specified on myImage and apply the background color. --->
<cfset ImageClearRect(myImage,0,0,500,500)>
<!--- Turn on antialiasing. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage)>
<!--- Draw the text. --->
<cfset attr=StructNew()>
<cfset attr.size=50>
<cfset attr.style="bold">
<cfset attr.font="Verdana">
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(myImage,"blue")>
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage,"PROOF",100,250,attr)>
<!--- Write the text image to a file. --->
<cfimage action="write" source="#myImage#" destination="text.tiff" overwrite ="yes">
<!--- Use the text image as a watermark in the PDF document. --->
<cfpdf action="addwatermark" source="c:/book/1.pdf" image="text.tiff"
destination="watermarked.pdf" overwrite="yes">

For more information on ColdFusion images, see Creating and Manipulating ColdFusion Images on page 959. For
an example of using DDX elements to create a text-string watermark, see Adding text-string watermarks on
page 949.
Using a PDF page as a watermark
Use the copyFrom attribute to create a watermark from the first page of a PDF file and apply it to another PDF
document. In the following example, ColdFusion creates a watermark from the first page of image.PDF, applies the
watermark to the second page of artBook.pdf, and writes the output to a new file called output.pdf:
<cfpdf action="addWatermark" copyFrom="image.pdf" source="artBook.pdf" pages="2"
destination="output.pdf" overwrite="yes">

In this example, image.pdf appears in the background of the second page of artBook.pdf. ColdFusion does not change
the size of the watermark image to fit the page. The page used as a watermark can contain text, graphics, or both.
Removing watermarks
Use the removeWatermark action to remove a watermark from one or more pages in a PDF document. The following
example shows how to remove a watermark from the entire PDF document and write the document to a new output file:
<cfpdf action="removeWatermark" source="artBook.pdf" destination="noWatermark.pdf">

The following example shows how to remove a watermark from the first two pages of a PDF document and overwrite
the source document:
<cfpdf action="removeWatermark" source="artBook.pdf" destination="artBook.pdf"
overwrite="yes" pages="1-2">

Because the source and the destination are the same and the overwrite attribute is set to yes, ColdFusion overwrites
the source file with the output file.

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Optimizing PDF documents

To optimize a PDF document you can reduce the quality of the document. To reduce the quality of a PDF document
you can either downsample the images or remove unused objects from the document.
To downsample images the algos attribute is used with values bilinear, bicubic, and nearest_neighbour. The
following code snippet generates a PDF after image downsampling:
<cfpdf action = "optimize" algo = "bicubic" source = "..\myBook.pdf" name = #myBook#>

To discard unused objects such as comments, JavaScripts, attachments, bookmarks, and metadata from your PDF
document using the following attributes with optimize action:
<cfpdf action = "optimize"
noJavaScript
noThumbnails
noBookmarks
noComments
noMetadata
noFileAttachments
noLinks
nofonts>

Optimizing page count using encodeall

The new encodeall attribute encodes all the unencoded streams in the source. However, it does not discriminate
between dumb encodings like LZW and encodings like flate, so only unencoded streams get flate encoded.
Example:
<cfpdf action=write
encodeAll="yes">

source="./inputFiles/Source.pdf" destination="./outputFiles/Output.pdf"

Adding and deleting headers and footers from a PDF

You can add a header and footer to a PDF document using the addheader and addfooter actions, as shown in the
following snippet:
<!---addfooter--->
<cfpdf action = "addfooter"
source = "../myBook.pdf"
destination = "../myBookwithfooter.pdf"
image = "adobelogo.JPG" // Use this attribute to add an image in the footer
align = "right"> // By default, the alignemnt is center
<!---addheader--->
<cfpdf action = "addheader"
source = "../myBook.pdf"
destination = "../myBookwithheader.pdf"
text = "Adobe"
align = "left">

Specify the source where the PDF document is located and the destination where the new PDF document with the
header and footer will be saved.
You can also specify an image or text that you need to insert in the footer along with various other attributes such as
align, bottommargin, leftmargin, numberformat, and opacity.
To remove header and footer from a PDF document, use the removeheaderfooter action, as shown in the following
snippet:

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<cfpdf action = "removeheaderfooter" source="..\mybook.pdf" destination = "new.pdf">

Use this action to remove the header and footer from a PDF document or from specified pages in a document.

Extracting images and text

You can extract text and images from a PDF document using the extracttext and extractimage actions.
The extracttext action extracts all words from the specified page numbers in the PDF document, as shown in the
following code snippet:
<cfpdf action = "extracttext" source = "../myBook.pdf" pages = "5-20, 29, 80" destination
="../adobe/textdoc.txt"

The extractimage action extracts all images from the specified page number in a PDF document, as shown in the
following code snippet:
<cfpdf action = "extractimage" source = "../myBook.pdf" pages = "1-200" destination =
"..\mybookimages" imageprefix = "mybook">

The images are extracted and saved in the directory that you specify in the destination attribute. You can specify a
prefix for the images (imageprefix) being extracted, otherwise the system prefixes the image name similar to cf+page
number. To save the images in a specific format, use the format attribute.

Performing page level transformations

You can scale a page, specify the position, and rotation values for pages in a PDF document using the transform
action. This action has four attributes that define the size (hscale, vscale), position(position), and rotation (rotation)
of a page. The following code snippet shows the usage. The value for rotation needs to be in steps (0, 90, 180, 270). If
you specify any other value, the system generates an error.
<cfpdf action = "transform"
source = "..\myBook.pdf"
destination = "..\new\myBook.pdf">
hscale = ".5"
vscale = ".15"
position = "8, 10"
rotation = "180">

Deleting pages from a PDF document

Use the deletepages action to remove pages from a PDF document and write the result to a file. You can specify a
single page, a page range (for example, 8197), or a comma-separated list of pages to delete, as the following example
shows:
<cfpdf action="deletePages" source="myBook.pdf" pages="10-15,21,89"
destination="abridged.pdf" overwrite="yes">

Protecting PDF files

Use the protect action to password-protect, set permissions, and encrypt PDF documents for security.
Setting passwords
ColdFusion supports two types of passwords: an owner password and a user password. An owner password controls
the ability to change the permissions on a document. When you specify an owner password, you set permissions to
restrict the operations users can perform, such as the ability to print a document, change its content, and extract
content. The following code creates an owner password for a document:

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<cfpdf action="protect" newOwnerPassword="splunge" source="timesheet.pdf"

destination="timesheet.pdf" overwrite="yes" permissions="AllowPrinting">

To password-protect a document, set the user password. A user password controls the ability to open a document. If
you set a user password for a document, any person attempting to open the file is prompted to enter a password. The
following example sets the user password for a document:
<cfpdf action="protect" newUserPassword="openSesame" source="timesheet.pdf"
destination="myTimesheet.pdf">

In the previous example, no restrictions apply to the PDF document after the user enters the correct password. To
restrict usage and password-protect a document, add a user password and an owner password. Use the owner
password to set the permissions, as the following example shows:
<cfpdf action="protect" newUserPassword="openSesame" newOwnerPassword="topSecret"
source="timesheet.pdf" destination="myTimesheet.pdf" overwrite="yes"
permissions="AllowPrinting>

In the previous example, a person who enters the user password (openSesame) can print the document only. A person
who enters the owner password (topSecret) is considered the owner of the document, has full access to the file, and
can change the user permissions for that file.
Setting permissions on a PDF document
To set permissions on a PDF document, specify a newOwnerPassword. Conversely, you cannot set the
newOwnerPassword without also setting the permissions attribute. Only an owner can change permissions or add
passwords. For a list of permissions that an owner can set for PDF documents, see cfpdf in the CFML Reference.
Except for all or none, owners can specify a comma-separated list of permissions on a document, as the following
example shows:
<cfpdf action="protect" permissions="AllowinPrinting,AllowDegradedPrinting,AllowSecure"
source="timesheet.pdf" newOwnerPassword="private" newUserPassword="openSesame"
destination="myTimesheet.pdf">

In this example, a user must enter the password openSesame before opening the PDF form. All users can print the
document at any resolution, but only the owner can modify the document or change the permissions.
Encrypting PDF files
When you specify the protect action for a PDF file, ColdFusion encrypts the file with the RC4 128-bit algorithm by
default. Depending on the version of Acrobat running on the ColdFusion server, you can set the encryption to protect
the document contents and prevent search engines from accessing the PDF file metadata.
You can change the encryption algorithm by using the encrypt attribute. For a list of supported encryption
algorithms, see cfpdf in the CFML Reference.
The following example changes the password encryption algorithm to RC4 40-bit encryption:
<cfpdf action="protect" source="confidential.pdf" destination="confidential.pdf"
overwrite="yes" newOwnerPassword="paSSword1" newUserPassword="openSesame"
encrypt="RC4_40">

To prevent ColdFusion from encrypting the PDF document, set the encryption algorithm to none, as the following
example shows:
<cfpdf action="protect" source="confidential.pdf" encrypt="none" destination="public.pdf">

To decrypt a file, provide the owner or user password and write the output to another file. The following code decrypts
the confidential.pdf file and writes it to a new file called myDocument.pdf:

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<cfpdf action="write" source="confidential.pdf" password="paSSword1"

destination="myDocument.pdf">

Managing PDF document information

To retrieve information stored with a source PDF document, such as the creation date, the application used to create
the PDF document, and the name of the person who created the document, use the getInfo action. For a list of data
elements, see PDF file information elements in the CFML Reference.
Use the setInfo action to specify information, such as the author, subject, title, and keywords associated with the
output file. This information is useful for archiving and searching PDF documents. PDF document information is not
displayed or printed with the document.
The following example shows how to set keywords for tax documents. The information is useful for assembling the
documents based on the tax filing requirements for different business types (Sole Proprietor, Partnership, and S
Corporation). Some business types share the same forms and documents. By setting the business type keywords for
each document, you can store the documents in one directory and search them based on keyword values. The
following code sets three keywords for the p535.pdf tax booklet:
<cfset taxKeys=StructNew()>
<cfset taxKeys.keywords="Sole Proprietor,Partnership,S Corporation">
<cfpdf action="setInfo" source="taxes\p535.pdf" info="#taxKeys#"
destination="taxes\p535.pdf" overwrite="yes">

When you use the setInfo action, ColdFusion overwrites any existing information for that key-value pair. In the
previous example, if the pc535.pdf document contained a keyword of tax reference, ColdFusion overwrites that
keyword with Sole Proprietor, Partnership, S Corporation.
To retrieve all of the information associated with the tax file, use the cfdump tag with the getInfo action, as the
following example shows:
<cfpdf action="getInfo" source="taxes\p535.pdf" name="taxInfo">
<cfdump var="#taxInfo#">

To retrieve just the keywords for the PDF document, use this code:
<cfpdf action="getInfo" source="taxes\p535.pdf" name="taxInfo">
<cfoutput>#taxInfo.keywords#</cfoutput>

Using the name attribute with write action

You can now use the name attribute with <cfpdf action = write> and specify a variable name for your PDF document.
For example:
<cfpdf action="write" source="myBook" name=#myBook# version="1.4">

This feature is available with both cfpdf and cfpdfform tags.

Merging PDF documents

ColdFusion lets you merge PDF documents in the following ways:

Merge all of the PDF files in a specified directory.

Merge a comma-separated list of PDF files.
Merge individual PDF files, and pages within those files, explicitly, even if the source files are stored in different
locations.

Merge the contents of a PDF variable generated by the cfdocument tag or a cfpdf tag

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Create PDF packages

To merge the contents of a directory, use the merge action and specify the directory where the source PDF files are
located, as the following example shows:
<cfpdf action="merge" directory="c:/BookFiles" destination="myBook.pdf" overwrite="yes">

By default, ColdFusion merges the source files in descending order by timestamp. You can control the order in which
the PDF files are added to the book by setting the order and ascending attributes. The following code merges the files
in ascending order according to the timestamp on the files:
<cfpdf action="merge" directory="c:/BookFiles" destination="myBook.pdf" order="name"
ascending="yes" overwrite="yes">

By default, ColdFusion continues the merge process even if it encounters a file that is not a valid PDF document in the
specified directory. To override this setting, set the stopOnError attribute to yes, as the following example shows:
<cfpdf action="merge" directory="c:/BookFiles" destination="myBook.pdf" order="time"
ascending="yes" overwrite="yes" stopOnError="yes">

You can merge a comma-separated list of PDF files. To do this merge, specify the absolute path for each file, as the
following example shows:
<cfpdf action="merge"
source="c:\coldfusion\wwwroot\lion\Chap1.pdf,c:\coldfusion\wwwroot\lion\Chap2.pdf"
destination="twoChaps.pdf" overwrite="yes">

For more control over which files are added to the merged document, use the cfpdfparam tag with the cfpdf tag. The
cfpdfparam tag merges documents or pages from documents located in different directories into a single output file.
When you use the cfpdfparam tag, the PDF files are added to the output file in the order they appear in the code. In
the following example, the cover, title, and copyright pages are followed by the first five pages of the introduction, then
all of the pages in Chapter 1, and then the first page followed by pages 8095 in Chapter 2:
<!--- Use the cfdocument tag to create PDF content and write the output to a variable called
coverPage.--->
<cfdocument format="PDF" name="coverPage">
<html>
<body>
<h1>Cover page</h1>
<p>Please review the enclosed document for technical accuracy and completeness.</p>
</body>
</html>
</cfdocument>
<!--- Use the cfpdf tag to merge the cover page generated in ColdFusion with pages from PDF
files in different locations. --->
<cfpdf action="merge" destination="myBook.pdf" overwrite="yes" keepBookmark="yes">
<cfpdfparam source="coverPage">
<cfpdfparam source="title.pdf">
<cfpdfparam source="e:\legal\copyright.pdf">
<cfpdfparam source="boilerplate\intro.pdf" pages="1-5">
<cfpdfparam source="bookfiles\chap1.pdf">
<cfpdfparam source="bookfiles\chap2.pdf" pages="1,80-95">
</cfpdf>

Because the keepbookmark attribute is set to yes, ColdFusion retains the bookmarks from the source documents in
the output file.
Note: You cannot use the cfpdf tag to create bookmarks in a PDF document.

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Creating PDF Portfolios

You can now create PDF packages using the package = "true" attribute with the merge action:
<cfpdf action="merge" package="yes" destination="./myBook/adobetest.pdf" overwrite="yes">
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/c.zip" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/d.jpg" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/a.pdf" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/z.txt" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/MSTribute.pps" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/Test1.docx" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/NewMovie.mp3" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/testserver.air" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/123.xml" >
<cfpdfparam source="./inputFiles/New_test_case.xls" >
</cfpdf>

Flattening forms created in Acrobat

Flattening forms involves removing the interactivity from the form fields. This action is useful for displaying form data
and presenting it without allowing it to be altered. Use the write action to flatten PDF forms, as the following example
shows:
<cfpdf action="write" flatten="yes" source="taxForms\f1040.pdf"
destination="taxforms/flatForm.pdf" overwrite="yes">
<a href="http://localhost:8500/Lion/taxforms/flatForm.pdf">1040 form</a>

Note: If you flatten a prefilled form created in Acrobat, ColdFusion flattens the form and removes the data from the form
fields. When you specify a form created in Acrobat as a source file for merge action of the cfpdf tag, ColdFusion
automatically flattens the form and removes data from the form fields, if the fields are filled in. ColdFusion does not
support flattening forms created in LiveCycle.

Linearizing PDF documents for faster web display

For efficient access of PDF files over the web, linearize PDF documents. A linearized PDF file is structured in a way
that displays the first page of the PDF file in the browser before the entire file is downloaded from the web server. As
a result linear PDF documents open almost instantly.
To linearize PDF documents, specify the saveOption attribute of the write action. The following example saves the
output file in linear format:
<cfpdf action="write" saveOption="linear" source="myBook.pdf" destination="fastBook.pdf"
overwrite="yes">

Note: Linearization can decrease performance when handling large documents.

Generating thumbnail images from PDF pages

Use the thumbnail action to generate thumbnail images from PDF pages. If you specify only the source attribute with
the thumbnail action, ColdFusion automatically creates a directory relative to the CFM page called thumbnails where
it stores a generated JPEG image for each page in the document. The filenames are in the following format:
PDFdocumentName_page_n.JPG

For example, assume that the source file in the following example has 100 pages:
<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="myBook.pdf">

ColdFusion generates the following files and stores them in the thumbnails directory:

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myBook_page_1.jpg
myBook_page_2.jpg
myBook_page_3.jpg
...
myBook_page_100.jpg

If you specify a destination, ColdFusion does not create the thumbnails directory and stores the files in the specified
directory instead. The following code generates a thumbnail image called myBook_page_1.jpg from the first page of
myBook.pdf and stores it in a directory called images, which is relative to the CFM page:
<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="myBook.pdf" pages="1" destination="images">

You change the prefix for the thumbnail filename and the change image file format to PNG or TIFF by specifying the
imagePrefix and format attributes. The following code generates a file called TOC_page_2.PNG from the second
page of myBook.pdf:
<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="myBook.pdf" pages="2" imagePrefix="TOC" format="PNG"
destination="images">

The following code generates thumbnails from a range of pages and changes the image background to transparent (the
default is opaque):
<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="myBook.pdf" pages="1-10,15,8-16,59" transparent="yes"
destination="\myBook\subset" imagePrefix="abridged">

For an example of how to generate thumbnail images and link them to pages in the source PDF document, see the cfpdf
tag in the CFML Reference.
ColdFusion 9 release has introduced some new attributes for the thumbnail action:

hires: You can set this attribute to true to extract high resolution images from the page. If a document contains

high resolution images and you want to retain the resolution of the images, then this attribute is useful.
For example:
<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="./WORK/myBook.pdf" destination="./WORK/Testing_CFPDF"
overwrite="true" hires="yes">

overridepage: If you set this attribute to true, the thumbnail generated does not adhere to the PDF page size, but
to the image size that is present in that page. If the image is not present, the size is set to the maximum size of the page.

compresstiffs: Use this attribute to compress the size of the thumbnail images. As the name of the attribute

suggests, it is only valid for the TIFF format. Following is an example:

<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="C:\WORK\myBook.pdf" destination="C:\WORK\Testing_CFPDF"
overwrite="true" hires="yes" format="tiff" compresstiffs="yes">

maxscale : Use this attribute to specify an integer value for the maximum scale of the thumbnail images.

maxlength: Use this attribute to specify an integer value of the maximum length of the thumbnail images.

maxbreadth: Use this attribute to specify an integer value of the maximum width of the thumbnail.

The following example illustrates the use of maxscale, maxlength, and maxbreadth:
<cfpdf action="thumbnail" source="./WORK/myBook.pdf" destination="./WORK/Testing_CFPDF"
overwrite="true" format="jpg" maxscale="3" maxlength="300" maxbreadth="200" hires="yes"
scale="100">

Note: Typically, the value of the scale attribute is set to 100 when using the maxscale attribute.

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Using the Duplicate function to create versions of a PDF document

You can use the Duplicate function to clone PDF variables, which is an efficient way to create different versions of a
PDF document from a single source file. For example, you can customize PDF output based on your audience by
creating clones of a PDF variable and performing different actions on each clone. The following example shows how
to create a clone of a PDF document in memory, and create one version of the document with a watermark and another
version of the document where permissions are restricted:
<cfset filename="coldfusion.pdf">
<!--- This code reads a PDF document into a PDF variable called pdfVar1.
--->
<cfpdf action="read" source="#filename#" name="pdfVar1">
<!--- This code uses the Duplicate function to create a clone of pdfVar1 called pdfVar2. --->
<cfset pdfVar2=Duplicate(pdfVar1)>
<!--- This code creates a watermarked version of the source PDF document from the pdfVar1
variable. --->
<cfpdf action="addwatermark" source="pdfVar1" rotation="45" image="watermark.jpg"
destination="watermark_coldfusion.pdf" overwrite="yes">
<!--- This code creates a protected version of the source PDF document from the pdfVar2
variable. --->
<cfpdf action=protect source="pdfVar2" encrypt="RC4_128" permissions="none"
newownerpassword="owner1" destination="restricted_coldfusion.pdf" overwrite="yes">

Using DDX to perform advanced tasks

LiveCycle Assembler is a server-based application that processes DDX, a declarative markup language used to define
PDF output files.
The processddx action lets you process DDX instructions without installing LiveCycle Assembler. In addition to all
of the functionality available with the other cfpdf actions, you can use DDX instructions to perform advanced tasks,
such as adding a generated table of contents to a PDF document, adding headers and footers with automatic page
numbers, and creating groups of PDF documents to which you can apply formatting instructions.
ColdFusion does not provide complete LiveCycle Assembler functionality. For a list of DDX elements that you can
access from ColdFusion, see Supported DDX elements in the CFML Reference.
For complete DDX syntax, see the Adobe LiveCycle Assembler Document Description XML Reference.

Using DDX instructions with ColdFusion

Although you can type DDX instructions directly in ColdFusion, typically you use an external DDX file. A DDX file
is basically an XML file with a DDX extension (for example, merge.ddx). You can use any text editor to create a DDX
file. The DDX syntax requires that you enclose the instructions within DDX start and end tags. In the following
example, the PDF element provides instructions for merging two PDF source files (Doc1 and Doc2) into a result file
(Out1):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="Doc1"/>
<PDF source="Doc2"/>
</PDF>
</DDX>

In ColdFusion, you verify the source DDX file with the IsDDX function:

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<!--- The following code verifies that the DDX file exists and the DDX instructions are
valid. --->
<cfif IsDDX("merge.ddx")>

To implement the DDX instructions in ColdFusion, you create two structures: an input structure that maps the DDX
input instructions to the PDF source files, and an output structure that maps the DDX output instructions to a PDF
output file,
The following code maps two files called Chap1.pdf and Chap2.pdf to the Doc1 and Doc2 sources that you defined in
the DDX file:
<!--- This code creates a structure for the input files. --->
<cfset inputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset inputStruct.Doc1="Chap1.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc2="Chap2.pdf">

The following code maps the output file called twoChaps.pdf to the Out1 result instruction that you defined in the
DDX file:
<!--- This code creates a structure for the output file. --->
<cfset outputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset outputStruct.Out1="twoChaps.pdf">

To process the DDX instructions, you use the processddx action of the cfpdf tag, in which you reference the DDX
file, the input structure, and the output structure, as the following example shows:
<cfpdf action="processddx" ddxfile="merge.ddx" inputfiles="#inputStruct#"
outputfiles="#outputStruct#" name="myBook">

The name attribute creates a variable that you can use to test the success or failure of the action. If the action is
successful, ColdFusion generates an output file with the name and location specified in the output structure. The
following code returns a structure that displays a success, reason for failure, or failure message (if the reason is
unknown) for each output file, depending on the result:
<cfdump var="#myBook#">

The previous example performs the same task as the merge action in ColdFusion, as the following example shows:
<cfpdf action="merge" destination="twoChaps.pdf" overwrite="yes">
<cfpdfparam source="Chap1.pdf">
<cfpdfparam source="Chap2.pdf">
</cfpdf>
</cfif>

In this situation, it makes more sense to use the merge action because it is easier. DDX is useful when you have to
perform tasks that you cant perform with other actions in the cfpdf tag, or you require more control over specific
elements.

Adding a table of contents

You use DDX instructions to add a generated table of contents page to the PDF output file. Generating a table of
contents is useful if you are assembling documents from multiple sources. You can generate a table of contents that
contains active links to pages in the assembled PDF document. The following code shows how to create DDX
instructions to merge two documents and add a table of contents:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="DocumentTitle"/>
<TableOfContents/>
<PDF source="Doc1"/>
<PDF source="Doc2"/>
</PDF>
</DDX>

The TableOfContents element generates a table of contents from the PDF source elements that follow it. Order is
important: in the previous example, the table of contents appears on a separate page after the Title and before Doc 1
and Doc 2. The table of contents contains entries from Doc 1 and 2, but not from the title page, because the title page
precedes the table of contents in the order of instructions.
You do not reference the TableOfContents element on the corresponding ColdFusion page, as the following example
shows:
<!--- The following code verifies that the DDX file exists and the DDX instructions are
valid. --->
<cfif IsDDX("makeBook.ddx")>
<!--- This code creates a structure for the input files. --->
<cfset inputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset inputStruct.Title="Title.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc1="Chap1.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc2="Chap2.pdf">
<!--- This code creates a structure for the output file. --->
<cfset outputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset outputStruct.Out1="Book.pdf">
<!--- This code processes the DDX instructions and generates the book. --->
<cfpdf action="processddx" ddxfile="makeBook.ddx" inputfiles="#inputStruct#"
outputfiles="#outputStruct#" name="myBook">
</cfif>

ColdFusion generates a table of contents from the DDX instructions and inserts it in the PDF document in the location
that you provided in the DDX file. By default, the table of contents contains active links to the top-level bookmarks in
the merged PDF document.
You can change the default TableOfContents settings in the DDX file, as the following example shows:
<TableOfContents maxBookmarkLevel="infinite" bookmarkTitle="Table of Contents"
includeInTOC="false"/>

Use the maxBookmarkLevel attribute to specify the level of bookmarks included on the table of contents page. Valid values
are infinite or an integer. Use the bookmarkTitle attribute to add a bookmark to the table of contents page in the
output file. The includeInTOC attribute specifies whether the bookmark title is included on the table of contents page.
Note: You cannot specify keywords as the source for DDX. For example, if you specify <PDF source = Title/> and then
add the <_BookmarkTitle/> tag in the DDX file, ColdFusion throws an exception. This is because, the _BookmarkTitle
tag is converted to TITLE and DDX is case-sensititve.
For more information on the TableOfContents element, see the Adobe LiveCycle Assembler Document Description
XML Reference.

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Adding headers and footers

To add headers and footers to a PDF document, specify the Header and Footer elements in the DDX file. The
following example specifies headers and footers for the PDF source called Doc2:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="Title"/>
<TableOfContents/>
<PDF source="Doc2" >
<Header>
<Right>
<StyledText><p>Right-justified header text</p></StyledText>
</Right>
<Left>
<StyledText><p>Left-justified header text</p></StyledText>
</Left>
</Header>
<Footer>
<Center>
<StyledText><p>Centered Footer</p></StyledText>
</Center>
</Footer>
</PDF>
</PDF>
</DDX>

In this example, the Header and Footer elements apply only to Doc2 because they are contained within that PDF
source start and end tags; they do not apply to the table of contents or to the title page, which precede the Header and
Footer elements.

Formatting headers and footers

You use DDX instructions to perform the following tasks:

Add automatic page numbers to headers and footers

Use style profiles
Group documents in the PDF output file
Adding automatic page numbers
To add automatic page numbers, use the _PageNumber and _LastPagenumber built-in keys within the Header or
Footer elements. The following code shows how to create footers with right-justified automatic page numbers:
<Footer>
<Right>
<StyledText>
<p>Page <_PageNumber/> of <_LastPageNumber/></p>
</StyledText>
</Right>
</Footer>

The first page of the output file is numbered Page 1 of n, and so on.
For more information on built-in keys, see the Adobe LiveCycle Assembler Document Description XML Reference.

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Using style profiles

The previous example uses the StyledText element to define inline text formatting. To define styles that you can
apply by reference, use the StyleProfile element. Style profiles let you apply a set of styles to different elements in
the PDF output file. The following code shows how to define a style profile for the table of contents Header:
<StyleProfile name="TOCheaderStyle">
<Header>
<Center>
<StyledText>
<p> color="red" font-weight="bold" font="Arial">Table of Contents</p>
</StyledText>
</Center>
</Header>
</StyleProfile>

To apply the style profile, specify the StyleProfile name by using the styleReference attribute of the Header
element, as the following example shows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="Title"/>
<TableOfContents>
<Header styleReference="TOCheaderStyle"/>
</TableOfContents>
<PDF source="Doc1"/>
<PDF source="Doc2"/>
<PDF source="Doc3"/>
<PDF source="Doc4"/>
</PDF>
<StyleProfile name="TOCheaderStyle">
<Header>
<Center>
<StyledText>
<p> color="red" font-weight="bold" font="Arial">Table of Contents</p>
</StyledText>
</Center>
</Header>
</StyleProfile>
</DDX>

Grouping PDF documents

To apply a style profile to a group of documents in the output PDF file, use the PDFGroup element. The following
example shows how to create a group of chapters in the output file and apply a style profile to the Footer element for
all of the documents in the group:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PageLabel prefix="page " format="Decimal"/>
<PDF source="Title"/>
<TableOfContents>
...
</TableOfContents>
<PDFGroup>
<Footer styleReference="FooterStyle" />
<PDF source="Doc1"/>
<PDF source="Doc2"/>
<PDF source="Doc3"/>
<PDF source="Doc4"/>
</PDFGroup>
</PDF>
<StyleProfile name="FooterStyle">
<Footer>
<Left>
<StyledText>
<p font-size="9pt"><i>CFML Reference</i></p>
</StyledText>
</Left>
<Right>
<StyledText>
<p font-size="9pt">Page <_PageNumber/> of <_LastPageNumber/></p>
</StyledText>
</Right>
</Footer>
</StyleProfile>
</DDX>

For a complete example, see Using DDX instructions to create a book on page 954.

Setting the initial view of a PDF document

To set the initial view of a PDF document, use the InitialViewProfile DDX element. Setting the initial view
determines how the PDF output file is displayed on the screen when it is first opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader. You
reference the InitialViewProfile by using the InitialView attribute of the PDFresult element, as the following
example shows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1" initialView="firstView">
...
<InitialViewProfile name="firstView" show="BookmarksPanel" magnification="FitPage"
openToPage="2"/>
...
</DDX>

In this example, the first time the PDF document is displayed in Acrobat Reader, the document is opened to page two
and the bookmark panel is displayed. The magnification of the document is adjusted to fit the page.

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For more information on IntialViewProfile settings, see the Adobe LiveCycle Assembler Document Description
XML Reference.

Adding text-string watermarks

You use the processddx action with the Background or Watermark DDX elements to create a text-string watermark.
Background elements appear in the background (behind the contents of the page); Watermark elements display in the
foreground (over the contents of the page). The syntax for both the elements is the same.
The following example shows the DDX page for using the text string "DRAFT" as a watermark. The watermark appears
on every page of the output file. By default, the watermark appears in the middle of the page. In this example, the
watermark is rotated 30 degrees:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<Watermark rotation="30" opacity="65%">
<StyledText><p font-size="50pt" font-weight="bold" color="lightgray"
font="Arial">DRAFT</p></StyledText>
</Watermark>
...
</PDF>
</DDX>

The following example shows how to add different backgrounds on alternating pages. The verticalAnchor attribute
displays the background text at the top of the page:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<Background alternation="EvenPages" verticalAnchor="Top">
<StyledText><p font-size="20pt" font-weight="bold" color="gray"
font="Arial">DRAFT</p></StyledText>
</Background>
<Background alternation="OddPages" verticalAnchor="Top">
<StyledText><p font-size="20pt" font-weight="bold" color="gray"
font="Arial"><i>Beta 1</i></p></StyledText>
</Background>
...
</PDF>
</DDX>

Instead of applying watermarks to the entire output file, you can apply them to individual source files. The following
example applies a different background to the first three chapters of a book. The fourth chapter has no background:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="Doc1">
<Background>
<StyledText><p font-size="20pt" font-weight="bold" color="lightgray"
font="Arial">CHAPTER 1</p></StyledText>
</Background>
</PDF>
<PDF source="Doc2">
<Background>
<StyledText><p font-size="20pt" font-weight="bold"
color="lightgray" font="Arial">CHAPTER 2</p></StyledText>
</Background>
</PDF>
<PDF source="Doc3">
<Background>
<StyledText><p font-size="20pt" font-weight="bold"
color="lightgray" font="Arial">CHAPTER 3</p></StyledText>
</Background>
</PDF>
<PDF source="Doc4"/>
</PDF>
</DDX>

For more information on using DDX instructions to create watermarks, see the Adobe LiveCycle Assembler Document
Description XML Reference.

Extracting text from a PDF document

You can use the DocumentText DDX element to return an XML file that contains the text in one or more PDF
documents. As with the PDF element, you specify a result attribute the DocumentText element and enclose one or more
PDFsource elements within the start and end tags, as the following example shows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<DocumentText result="Out1">
<PDF source="doc1"/>
</DocumentText>
</DDX>

The following code shows the CFM page that calls the DDX file. Instead of writing the output to a PDF file, you specify
an XML file for the output:

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<cfif IsDDX("documentText.ddx">
<cfset ddxfile = ExpandPath("documentText.ddx")>
<cfset sourcefile1 = ExpandPath("book1.pdf")>
<cfset destinationfile = ExpandPath("textDoc.xml")>
<cffile action="read" variable="myVar" file="#ddxfile#"/>
<cfset inputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset inputStruct.Doc1="#sourcefile1#">
<cfset outputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset outputStruct.Out1="#destinationfile#">
<cfpdf action="processddx" ddxfile="#myVar#" inputfiles="#inputStruct#"
outputfiles="#outputStruct#" name="ddxVar">
<!--- Use the cfdump tag to verify that the PDF files processed successfully. --->
<cfdump var="#ddxVar#">
</cfif>

The XML file conforms to a schema specified in doctext.xsd. For more information, see
http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/DocText/1.0
When you specify more than one source document, ColdFusion aggregates the pages into one file. The following
example shows the DDX code for combining a subset of pages from two documents into one output file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<DocumentText result="Out1">
<PDF source="doc1" pages="1-10"/>
<PDF source="doc2" pages="3-5"/>
</DocumentText>
</DDX>

FDF format support for AcroForms

PDF Acro Form now support the Forms Data Format (FDF). You can now export, import, and populate Acroforms
in FDF using the read and populate actions. The action attribute of the cfpdfform tag contains a new attribute called
fdfdata, where you provide the name of the PDF form to be exported or imported.
Following is an example of how can export a PDF form in FDF format using the read action:
<cfpdfform source= "acroform_export.pdf" action="read" fdfdata="abc.fdf" >
</cfpdfform>

To import form data:

<cfpdfform source= "write_acrroform.pdf" action="populate" fdfdata="abc.fdf"
destination="hello.pdf">
</cfpdfform>

Form data can now be populated in a PDF document using the populate action. The new fdf attribute with populate
allows you use the FDF format internally. Following code snippet illustrates this feature:

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<cfpdfform source="acroform2.pdf" destinat ion="source_result1 7.pdf" action="populate"

overwrite="true" fdf ="true">
<cfpdfsubform name="Text1">
<cfpdf subform name="0">
<cfp dfformparam name="0" val ue="Test1.0.0">
<cfpd fformparam name="1" value ="Test1.0.1">
<cfpdfformparam name="2" value="Test1.0.2">
</cfpdfsubform>
<cfpdfsubform name="1">
<cfpdfformparam name="0" value="Test1.1.0">
<cfpdfformparam name="1" value="Test1.1.1">
<cfpdfformparam name="2" value="Test1.1.2">
</cfpdfsubform>
</cfpdfsubform>
<cfpdfsubform name="Text2">
<cfpdfformparam name="0" value="Test2.0">
<cfpdfformparam name="1" value="Test2.1">
<cfpdfformparam name="2" value="Test2.2">
<cfpdfformparam name="3" value="Test2.3">
</cfpdfsubform><cfpdfformparam name="Text3" value="Test3">
<cfpdfformparam name="Text4" value="Test4">
<cfpdfformparam name="checkbox1" value="Yes">
<cfpdfformparam name="listbox1" value="item4">
<cfpdfformparam name="radiobutton1" value="2">
</cfpdfform>

Application examples
The following examples show you how to use the cfpdf tag to perform PDF document operations in simple
applications.

Merging documents based on a keyword search

The following example shows how to use the getInfo and merge actions to assemble a PDF document from multiple
tax files based on business type (Sole Proprietor, Partnership, or S Corporation). The application assembles the tax
forms and information booklets based on a radio button selection. Some tax forms and booklets apply to more than
one business type (for example, Partnership and S Corporations both use the tax form f8825.pdf). For instructions on
setting keywords for PDF documents, see Managing PDF document information on page 939.
This example shows how to perform the following tasks:

Use the getInfo action to perform a keyword search on PDF files in a directory.
Create a comma-separated list of files that match the search criteria.
Use the merge action to merge the PDF documents in the comma-separated list into an output file.
The first CFM page creates a form for selecting the tax documents based on the business type:

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<h3>Downloading Federal Tax Documents</h3>

<p>Please choose the type of your business.</p>
<!--- Create the ColdFusion form to determine which PDF documents to merge. --->
<table>
<cfform action="cfpdfMergeActionTest.cfm" method="post">
<tr><td><cfinput type="radio" name="businessType"
Value="Sole Proprieter">Sole Proprietor</td></tr>
<tr><td><cfinput type="radio" name="businessType"
Value="Partnership">Partnership</td></tr>
<tr><td><cfinput type="radio" name="businessType" Value="S Corporation">
S Corporation</td></tr>
<cfinput type = "hidden" name = "selection required" value = "must make a selection">
<tr><td><cfinput type="Submit" name="OK" label="OK"></td></tr>
</tr>
</cfform>
</table>

The action page loops through the files in the taxes subdirectory and uses the getInfo action to retrieve the keywords
for each file. If the PDF file contains the business type keyword (Sole Proprietor, Partnership, or S Corporation),
ColdFusion adds the absolute path of the file to a comma-separated list. The merge action assembles the files in the list
into an output PDF file:
<!--- Create a variable for the business type selected from the form. --->
<cfset bizType=#form.businessType#>
<!--- Create a variable for the path of the current directory. --->
<cfset thisPath=ExpandPath(".")>
<!--- List the files in the taxes subdirectory. --->
<cfdirectory action="list" directory="#thisPath#\taxes" name="filelist">
<!--- The following code loops through the files in the taxes subdirectory. The getInfo
action to retrieves the keywords for each file and determines whether the business type
matches one of the keywords in the file. If the file contains the business type keyword,
ColdFusion adds the file to a comma-separated list. --->
<cfset tempPath="">
<cfloop query="filelist">
<cfset fPath="#thisPath#\taxes\#filelist.name#">
<cfpdf action="GetInfo" source="#fPath#" name="kInfo"></cfpdf>
<cfif #kInfo.keywords# contains "#bizType#">
<cfset tempPath=#tempPath# & #fPath# & ",">
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<!--- Merge the files in the comma-separated list into a PDF output file called "taxMerge.pdf".
--->
<cfpdf action="merge" source="#tempPath#" destination="taxMerge.pdf" overwrite="yes"/>
<h3>Assembled Tax Document</h3>
<p>Click the following link to view your assembled tax document:</p>
<a href="http://localhost:8500/Lion/taxmerge.pdf">
<p>Your Assembled Tax Document</a></p>

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Using DDX instructions to create a book

The following example shows how to create a book using DDX instructions with the processddx action. Specifically,
it shows how to perform the following tasks:

Merge several PDF documents into an output file.

Add a generated table of contents page.
Add headers and footers.
Add automatic page numbers.
Apply different styles to the table of contents and the body of the book.
The following code shows the DDX file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="Doc0"/>
<TableOfContents maxBookmarkLevel="3" bookmarkTitle="Table of Contents"
includeInTOC="false">
<Header styleReference="TOCheaderStyle"/>
<Footer styleReference="TOCFooterStyle"/>
</TableOfContents>
<PDFGroup>
<Footer styleReference="FooterStyle"/>
<PDF source="Doc1"/>
<PDF source="Doc2"/>
<PDF source="Doc3"/>
<PDF source="Doc4"/>
</PDFGroup>
</PDF>
<StyleProfile name="TOCheaderStyle">
<Header>
<Center>
<StyledText>
<p color="red" font-weight="bold" font="Arial">Table of Contents</p>
</StyledText>
</Center>
</Header>
</StyleProfile>
<StyleProfile name="TOCFooterStyle">
<Footer>
<Right>
<StyledText>
<p font-size="9pt">Page <_PageNumber/> of <_LastPageNumber/></p>
</StyledText>

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</Right>
</Footer>
</StyleProfile>
<StyleProfile name="FooterStyle">
<Footer>
<Left>
<StyledText>
<p font-size="9pt"><i>CFML Reference</i></p>
</StyledText>
</Left>
<Right>
<StyledText>
<p font-size="9pt">Page <_PageNumber/> of <_LastPageNumber/></p>
</StyledText>
</Right>
</Footer>
</StyleProfile>
</DDX>

The following code shows the ColdFusion page that processes the DDX instructions:
<cfif IsDDX("Book.ddx")>
<cfset inputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset inputStruct.Doc0="Title.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc1="Chap1.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc2="Chap2.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc3="Chap3.pdf">
<cfset inputStruct.Doc4="Chap4.pdf">
<cfset outputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset outputStruct.Out1="myBook.pdf">
<cfpdf action="processddx" ddxfile="book.ddx" inputfiles="#inputStruct#"
outputfiles="#outputStruct#" name="ddxVar">
<cfoutput>#ddxVar.Out1#</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Applying a watermark to a form created in Acrobat

The following example shows how to prefill an interactive Acrobat tax form and apply a text-string watermark to the
completed form that the user posted. Specifically, this example shows how to perform the following tasks:

Use the cfpdfform and cfpdfformparam tags to populate a form created in Acrobat.
Use the cfpdfform tag to write the output of a PDF post submission to a file.
Use the cfpdfprocessddx action to apply a text-string watermark to the completed form.
Note: This example uses the cfdocexamples database and the 1040 and 1040ez Federal tax forms. A valid user name is
cpeterson. To download the 1040 and 1040ez IRS tax forms used in this example, go to the IRS website. Open the forms
in Acrobat (not LiveCycle Designer) and add a submit button that points to the URL for the ColdFusion processing page.
Also, add a hidden field with a variable that contains a unique filename used for the completed tax form.
The first ColdFusion page creates a login form that prompts for the user name and Social Security Number:

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<!--- The following code creates a simple form for entering a user name and password. The
code does not include password verification. --->
<h3>Tax Login Form</h3>
<p>Please enter your user name and your social security number.</p>
<cfform name="loginform" action="TaxFile2.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>User name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="username" required="yes"
message="A user name is required."></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SSN#:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="SS1" maxLength="3" size="3"
required="yes" mask="999"> <cfinput type="text" name="SS2" maxLength="2" size="2" required="yes"
mask="99"> <cfinput type="text" name="SS3" maxLength="4" size="4" required="yes"
mask="9999"></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br/>
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

The second ColdFusion page retrieves the user information from the cfdocexamples database. Also, it creates a popup menu with a list of available tax forms:

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<!--- The following code retrieves all of the employee information for the
user name entered on the login page. --->
<cfquery name="getEmpInfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEES
WHERE EMAIL = <cfqueryparam value="#FORM.username#">
</cfquery>
<h3>Choose a tax form</h3>
<p>Hello <cfoutput>#getEmpInfo.firstname#</cfoutput>,</p>
<p>Please choose a tax form from the list:</p>
<!--- Create a pop-up menu with a list of tax forms. --->
<cfset thisPath=ExpandPath(".")>
<!--- Create a variable called filerID that is a combination of the username and the last
three digits of the Social Security number. --->
<cfset filerID="#form.username#_#form.SS3#">
<cfdirectory action="list" name="taxForms" directory="#thisPath#/taxforms">
<cfform name="taxList" method="post" action="TaxFile3.cfm">
<cfselect query="taxForms" value="name" size="10" required="yes" multiple="no"
name="myTaxForm"/>
<br/><br/>
<cfinput type="Submit" name="OK" label="OK">
<!--- Use hidden fields to pass the first name, last name, and the three parts of
the SSN# to the tax form. Also, create a hidden field for the filerID variable. --->
<cfinput type="hidden" name="FirstName" value="#getEmpInfo.FirstName#">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="LastName" value="#getEmpInfo.LastName#">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="Phone" value="#getEmpInfo.Phone#">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="SS1" value="#form.SS1#">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="SS2" value="#form.SS2#">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="SS3" value="#form.SS3#">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="taxFiler" value="#filerID#">
</cfform>

The third ColdFusion page uses the cfpdfform and cfpdfformparam tags to populate the tax form with the user
information. ColdFusion displays the tax prefilled tax form in the browser window where the user can complete the
rest of the form fields. When the user clicks the submit button, Acrobat sends the completed PDF form to the
ColdFusion processing page.
Note: To prefill forms, map each PDF form field name to the corresponding data element in a cfpdfformparam tag. To
view the form fields, open the form in Acrobat Professional and select Forms > Edit Forms in Acrobat. For more
information about prefilling forms, see Manipulating PDF Forms in ColdFusion on page 914.

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<!--- The following code populates the tax form template chosen from the list with
information from the database query and the login form. Because no destination is
specified, ColdFusion displays the interactive PDF form in the browser. A hidden field
in the PDF form contains the name of the output file to write. It is a combination of
the user name and the last three numerals of the user SSN#. The submit button added to
the form created in Acrobat contains a URL to the ColdFusion processing page. --->
<cfpdfform source="taxForms/#form.myTaxForm#" action="populate">
<cfif "taxForms/#form.myTaxForm#" is "taxForms/f1040.pdf">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_04(0)" value="#form.Firstname#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_05(0)" value="#form.Lastname#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f2_115(0)" value="#form.Phone#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_06(0)" value="#form.SS1#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_07(0)" value="#form.SS2#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_08(0)" value="#form.SS3#">
<cfpdfformparam name="filerID" value="#form.taxFiler#_1040">
<cfelseif "taxForms/#form.myTaxForm#" is "taxForms/f1040ez.pdf">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_001(0)" value="#form.Firstname#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_002(0)" value="#form.Lastname#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_070(0)" value="#form.Phone#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_003(0)" value="#form.SS1#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_004(0)" value="#form.SS2#">
<cfpdfformparam name="f1_005(0)" value="#form.SS3#">
<cfpdfformparam name="filerID" value="#form.taxFiler#_1040ez">
</cfif>
</cfpdfform>

The fourth ColdFusion page uses the cfpdfform tag to process the PDF post submission and generate an output file.
The filename is generated from the value of the hidden field in the tax form. The processddx action of the cfpdf tag
uses the DDX instructions in the watermark.ddx file to generate a text-string watermark and apply it to the form.
The following code shows the contents of the watermark.ddx file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<DDX xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://ns.adobe.com/DDX/1.0/ coldfusion_ddx.xsd">
<PDF result="Out1">
<PDF source="Doc1">
<Watermark rotation="30" opacity="65%">
<StyledText><p font-size="85pt" font-weight="bold" color="gray"
font="Arial">FINAL</p></StyledText>
</Watermark>
</PDF>
</PDF>
</DDX>
<!--- The following code reads the PDF file submitted in binary format and generates a result
structure called fields. The cfpdfform populate action and the cfoutput tags reference
the fields in the structure. --->
<cfpdfform source="#PDF.content#" action="read" result="fields"/>
<cfpdfform action="populate" source="#PDF.content#"
destination="FiledForms\#fields.filerID#.pdf" overwrite="yes"/>
<!--- The following code verifies that the DDX file exists and the DDX instructions are
valid. --->

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<cfif IsDDX("watermark.ddx")>
<!--- The following code uses the processddx action of the cfpdf tag to create a textstring watermark. --->
<!--- This code creates a structure for the input files. --->
<cfset inputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset inputStruct.Doc1="FiledForms\#fields.filerID#.pdf">
<!--- This code creates a structure for the output file. --->
<cfset outputStruct=StructNew()>
<cfset outputStruct.Out1="FiledForms\#fields.filerID#.pdf">
<!--- This code processes the DDX instructions and applies the watermark to the form. --->
<cfpdf action="processddx" ddxfile="watermark.ddx" inputfiles="#inputStruct#"
outputfiles="#outputStruct#" name="Final">
</cfif>
<h3>Tax Form Completed</h3>
<p>Thank you for filing your tax form on line. Copy this URL to view or download your filed
tax form:</p>
<cfoutput>
<a href="http://localhost:8500/Lion/FiledForms/#fields.filerID#.pdf">
Link to your completed tax form</a>
</cfoutput>

Creating and Manipulating ColdFusion Images

You can use Adobe ColdFusion to create and manipulate images, retrieve and store images in a database, retrieve
image information for indexes and searches, convert images from one format to another, and write images to the hard
drive.

About ColdFusion images

ColdFusion lets you create and manipulate images dynamically. With ColdFusion, you can automate many image
effects and drawing functions that you perform manually in Adobe Photoshop or other imaging software packages
and integrate the images in your application. For example, contributors to a website can upload photos in different
formats. You can add a few lines of code to your ColdFusion application to verify the images, reformat the images to
a standard size and appearance, write the modified images to a database, and display the images in a browser.
The following table describes a few of the tasks you can perform with ColdFusion images:
Task

Functions and actions

Verify whether a ColdFusion variable returns an image

IsImage function

Verify whether a file is a valid image

IsImageFile function

Create thumbnail images

ImageScaleToFit function, the ImageResize function, or the resize

action of the cfimage tag

Create a watermark

ImageSetDrawingTransparency function with any of the ImageDraw

functions and the ImagePaste function

Get information about an image (for example, so you can

enforce size restrictions)

ImageGetHeight and the ImageGetWidth functions or the ImageInfo

function

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Task

Functions and actions

Enforce compression on JPEG images

quality attribute of the write action of the cfimage tag or the

ImageWrite function

Convert an image from one image file format to another (for

example, convert a BMP file to a JPEG)

cfimage tag or ImageRead and ImageWrite functions

Convert an image file to a Base64 string

cfimage tag or the ImageWriteBase64 function

Create a ColdFusion image from a Base64 string

ImageReadBase64 function

Insert a ColdFusion image as a Binary Large Object Bitmap

(BLOB) in a database

ImageGetBlob function within a cfquery statement

Create an image from a BLOB in a database

cfimage tag or the ImageNew function with a cfquery statement

Create an image from a binary object

cffile tag to convert an image file to a binary object and then pass the
binary object to the ImageNew function

Create a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell

Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) image

captcha action of the cfimage tag

The ColdFusion image

A ColdFusion image is a construct that is native to ColdFusion. The ColdFusion image contains image data that it
reads from a source. The source can be an image file or another ColdFusion image, which is expressed as a ColdFusion
image variable. The ColdFusion image variable lets you manipulate information dynamically in memory. Optionally,
you can write a ColdFusion image to a file, to a database column, or to a browser.

The cfimage tag

You use the cfimage tag to create a ColdFusion image and as a shortcut to commonly performed image functions,
such as resizing an image, adding a border to an image, and converting an image to a different file format. You can use
the cfimage tag independently or in conjunction with Image functions. You can pass a ColdFusion image created with
the cfimage tag to one or more Image functions to perform complex image manipulation operations.
The following table summarizes the cfimage tag actions:
Action

Description

border

Creates a rectangular border around the outer edge of an image.

captcha

Creates a CAPTCHA image.

convert

Converts an image from one file format to another.

info

Creates a ColdFusion structure that contains information about the image, including the color model, height, width,
and source of the image.

read

Reads an image from the specified local file path or URL. If you do not specify an action explicitly, ColdFusion uses
read as the default value.

resize

Resizes the height and width of an image.

rotate

Rotates an image by degrees.

write

Writes the image to a file. You can use the write action to generate lower-resolution JPEG files. Also, use the write
action to convert images to other file formats, such as PNG and GIF.

writeToBrowser

Writes one or more images directly to a browser. Use this action to test the appearance of a single image or write
multiple images to the browser without saving the images to files.

For more information, see the cfimage tag in the CFML Reference.

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Image functions
ColdFusion provides more than 50 Image functions that expand on the functionality of the cfimage tag. You can pass
images created with the cfimage tag to Image functions or create images with the ImageNew function. The following
table groups the Image functions by category:
Category

Image functions

Verifying images and supported

image formats

IsImage, IsImageFile, GetReadableImageFormats, GetWriteableImageFormats

Retrieving image information

ImageGetEXIFTag, ImageGetHeight, ImageGetIPTCTag, ImageGetWidth, ImageInfo

Reading, writing, and converting

images

ImageGetBlob, ImageGetBufferedImage, ImageNew, ImageRead, ImageReadBase64, ImageWrite,

ImageWriteBase64

Manipulating images

ImageAddBorder, ImageBlur, ImageCopy, ImageCrop, ImageFlip, ImageGrayscale, ImageNegative,

ImageOverlay, ImagePaste, ImageResize, ImageRotate, ImageScaleToFit, ImageSharpen, ImageShear,
ImageTranslate

Drawing lines, shapes, and text

ImageDrawArc, ImageDrawBeveledRect, ImageDrawCubicCurve, ImageDrawLine, ImageDrawLines,

ImageDrawOval, ImageDrawPoint, ImageDrawQuadraticCurve, ImageDrawRect, ImageDrawRoundRect,
ImageDrawText

Setting drawing controls

ImageClearRect, ImageRotateDrawingAxis, ImageSetAntialiasing, ImageSetBackgroundColor,

ImageSetDrawingColor, ImageSetDrawingStroke, ImageSetDrawingTransparency,
ImageShearDrawingAxis, ImageTranslateDrawingAxis, ImageXORDrawingMode

Creating ColdFusion images

The ColdFusion image contains image data in memory. Before you can manipulate images in ColdFusion, you create
a ColdFusion image. The following table shows the ways to create a ColdFusion image:
Task

Functions and tags

Create a ColdFusion image from an existing image file.

cfimage tag or the ImageNew function

Create a blank image from scratch.

ImageNew function

Create a ColdFusion image from BLOB data in a database. ImageNew function with the cfquery tag
Create a ColdFusion image from a binary object.

cffile tag with the ImageNew function

Create a ColdFusion image from a Base64 string.

ImageReadBase64 function and the ImageNew function or the cfimage tag

Create a ColdFusion image from another ColdFusion

image.

ImageCopy function with the ImageWrite function or the Duplicate function,

or by passing the image to the ImageNew function or the cfimage tag

Using the cfimage tag

The simplest way to create a ColdFusion image with the cfimage tag is to specify the source attribute, which is the
image file that ColdFusion reads, and the name attribute, which is the variable that defines the image in memory:
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" name="myImage">

You do not have to specify the read action because it is the default action. Specify the name attribute for the read
action, which creates a variable that contains the ColdFusion image, for example, myImage.
You can pass the myImage variable to another cfimage tag or to Image functions. The following example shows how
to specify a ColdFusion image variable as the source:
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="test_myImage.jpg">

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The write action writes the file to the specified destination, which can be an absolute or relative path. The following
example shows how to create a ColdFusion image from a URL and write it to a file on the local storage drive:
<cfimage source="http://www.google.com/images/logo_sm.gif" action="write"
destination="c:\images\logo_sm.gif">

Specify the destination for the write action.

When you specify a destination, set the overwrite attribute to "yes" to write to the same file more than once.
Otherwise, ColdFusion generates an error:
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="images/jeff01.jpg" overwrite="yes">

Using the ImageNew function

You create a ColdFusion image with the ImageNew function the same way you define a ColdFusion variable. The
following example creates a ColdFusion image variable named myImage from the jeff01.jpg source file:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg")>

This line produces the same result as the following code:

<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" name="myImage">

As with the cfimage tag, you can specify an absolute or relative path, a URL, or another ColdFusion image as the
source. In the following example, ColdFusion reads a file from the local drive and passes it to the ImageWrite function,
which writes the image to a new file:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg")>
<cfset ImageWrite(myImage,"myImageTest.png")>

The following code produces the same result:

<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" name="myImage">
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="myImageTest.png">

Also, you can create a blank image. When using the ImageNew function, you do not specify the source to create a blank
image. However, you can specify the width and height, respectively. The following example shows how to create a
blank canvas that is 300 pixels wide and 200 pixels high:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",300,200)>

Optionally, you can specify the image type, as in the following example:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",200,300,"rgb")>

Other valid image types are argb and grayscale. You can use blank images as canvasses for drawing functions in
ColdFusion. For examples, see Creating watermarks on page 973.
Also, you can use the ImageNew function to create ColdFusion images from other sources, such as Base64 bytearrays,
file paths, and URLs. The following example creates a ColdFusion image from a JPEG file (x), and then creates another
ColdFusion image (y) from the image in memory:
<cfset x = ImageNew("c:\abc.jpg")>
<cfset y = ImageNew(x)>

For more information about the ImageNew function, see the CFML Reference.

Creating an image from a binary object

You can use the cffile tag to write an image file to ColdFusion variable. Then, you can pass the variable to the
ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion image from the binary object, as the following example shows:

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<!--- Use the cffile tag to read an image file, convert it to binary format, and write the
result to a variable. --->
<cffile action = "readBinary" file = "jeff05.jpg" variable = "aBinaryObj">
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion image from the variable. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew(aBinaryObj)>

Creating images from BLOB data

Many databases store images as BLOB data. To extract BLOB data from a database, create a query with the cfquery
tag. The following example shows how to extract BLOB data and use the cfimage tag to write them to files in PNG
format:
<!--- Use the cfquery tag to retrieve employee photos and last names from the database. --->
<cfquery
name="GetBLOBs" datasource="myblobdata">
SELECT LastName,Image
FROM Employees
</cfquery>
<cfset i = 0>
<table border=1>
<cfoutput query="GetBLOBs">
<tr>
<td>
#LastName#
</td>
<td>
<cfset i = i+1>
<!--- Use the cfimage tag to write the images to PNG files. --->
<cfimage source="#GetBLOBs.Image#" destination="employeeImage#i#.png"
action="write">
<img src="employeeImage#i#.png"/>
</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>

The following example shows how to use the ImageNew function to generate ColdFusion images from BLOB data:
<!--- Use the cfquery tag to retrieve all employee photos and employee IDs from a database. --->
<cfquery name="GetBLOBs" datasource="myBlobData">
SELECT EMLPOYEEID, PHOTO FROM Employees
</cfquery>
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion images from the BLOB data that was
retrieved from the database. --->
<cfset myImage = ImageNew(GetBLOBs.PHOTO)>
<!--- Create thumbnail versions of the images by resizing them to fit in a 100-pixel square,
while maintaining the aspect ratio of the source image. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,100,100)>
<!--- Convert the images to JPEG format and save them to files in the thumbnails subdirectory,
using the employee ID as the filename. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write"
destination="images/thumbnails/#GetBLOBs.EMPLOYEID#.jpg">

For information on converting a ColdFusion image to a BLOB, see Inserting an image as a BLOB in a database on
page 966.

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Creating an image from a Base64 string

Base64 is a way to describe binary data as a string of ASCII characters. Some databases store images in Base64 format
rather than as BLOB data. You can use the cfimage tag or the ImageReadBase64 function to read Base64 data directly
from a database. Doing so eliminates the intermediary steps of binary encoding and decoding.
The following examples show how to use the cfimage tag to create a ColdFusion image from a Base64 string:
<!--- This example shows how to create a ColdFusion image from a Base64 string with headers
(used for display in HTML). --->
<cfimage source="data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQA.............."
destination="test_my64.jpeg" action="write" isBase64="yes">
<!--- This example shows how to use the cfimage tag to write a Base64 string without headers.
--->
<cfimage source="/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQA.............." destination="test_my64.jpeg"
action="write" isBase64="yes">

The following examples show how to use the ImageReadBase64 function to create a ColdFusion image from a Base64
string:
<!--- This example shows how to use the ImageReadBase64 function to read a Base64 string
with headers. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageReadBase64("data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQA..............")>
<!--- This example shows how to read a Base64 string without headers. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageReadBase64("/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQA..............")>

For more information on Base64 strings, see Converting an image to a Base64 string on page 966.

Copying an image
You use the ImageCopy function to copy a rectangular area of an existing image and generate a new ColdFusion image
from it. You can paste the new ColdFusion image onto another image, or write it to a file, as the following example
shows:
<!--- Use the cfimage tag to create a ColdFusion image from a JPEG file.
--->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/lori05.jpg" name="myImage">
<!--- Turn on antialiasing to improve image quality. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage)>
<!--- Copy the rectangular area specified by the coordinates (25,25,50,50) in the image to
the rectangle beginning at (75,75), and return this copied rectangle as a new ColdFusion
image. --->
<cfset dupArea = ImageCopy(myImage,25,25,50,50,75,75)>
<!--- Write the new ColdFusion image (dupArea) to a PNG file. --->
<cfimage source="#dupArea#" action="write" destination="test_myImage.png" overwrite="yes">

Duplicating an image
Another way to create a ColdFusion image is to duplicate it. Duplicating an image creates a clone, which is a copy of
an image that is independent of it: if the original image changes, those changes do not affect the clone, and the reverse.
This technique is useful if you want to create several versions of the same image. Duplicating an image can improve
processing time because you retrieve image data from a database or a file once to create the ColdFusion image. Then
you can create several clones and manipulate them in memory before writing them to files. For example, you could
create a thumbnail version, a grayscale version, and an enlarged version of an image uploaded to a server. To do so,
you use the cfimage tag or the ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion image from the uploaded file. You use the
Duplicate function to create three clones of the ColdFusion image.

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To create a clone, you can pass a ColdFusion image variable to the Duplicate function:
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion image from a JPEG file. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg")>
<!--- Turn on antialiasing to improve image quality. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage)>
<!--- Use the Duplicate function to create three clones of the ColdFusion image. --->
<cfset cloneA=Duplicate(myImage)>
<cfset cloneB=Duplicate(myImage)>
<cfset cloneC=Duplicate(myImage)>
<!--- Create a grayscale version of the image. --->
<cfset ImageGrayscale(cloneA)>
<!--- Create a thumbnail version of the image. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(cloneB,50,"")>
<!--- Create an enlarged version of the image. --->
<cfset ImageResize(cloneC,"150%","")>
<!--- Write the images to files. --->
<cfset ImageWrite(myImage,"paul01.jpg","yes")>
<cfset ImageWrite(cloneA,"paul01_bw.jpg","yes")>
<cfset ImageWrite(cloneB,"paul01_sm.jpg","yes")>
<cfset ImageWrite(cloneC,"paul01_lg.jpg","yes")>
<!--- Display the images. --->
<img src="paul01.jpg">
<img src="paul01_bw.jpg">
<img src="paul01_sm.jpg">
<img src="paul01_lg.jpg">

Also, you can use the cfimage tag and the ImageNew function to duplicate images, as the following example shows:
<!--- Use the cfimage tag to create a ColdFusion image (myImage) and make a copy of it
(myImageCopy). --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg" name="myImage">
<cfimage source="#myImage#" name="myImageCopy">
<!-- Use the ImageNew function to make a copy of myImage called myImageCopy2. --->
<cfset myImageCopy2 = ImageNew(myImage)>

Converting images
ColdFusion makes it easy to convert images from one file format to another. Also, you can convert an image file to a
binary object, BLOB data, or a Base64 string.

Converting an image file

The extension of the destination file determines the file format of the image. Therefore, to convert an image, simply change
the filename extension in the destination file. The following example shows how to convert a JPEG file to a GIF file:
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" action="write" destination="jeff01.gif">

Similarly, you can use the ImageWrite function with the ImageNew function:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg")>
<cfset ImageWrite(myImage,"jeff01.gif")>

In both examples, the convert action is implied.

The write action does not create a ColdFusion image; it simply writes an image to a file. To convert an image and
generate a ColdFusion image variable, use the convert action:

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<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" action="convert"

destination="jeff01.gif" name="myImage">

ColdFusion reads and writes most standard image formats. For more information, see Supported image file formats
in the CFML Reference.

Converting an image to a Base64 string

To convert a ColdFusion image to a Base64 string, use the ImageWriteBase64 function. In the following example, the
yes value determines that the output includes the headers required for display in HTML:
<!--- This example shows how convert a BMP file to a Base64 string. --->
<cfset ImageWriteBase64(myImage,"jeffBase64.txt","bmp","yes")>

Note: Microsoft Internet Explorer does not support Base64 strings.

Inserting an image as a BLOB in a database

Many databases store images as BLOB data. To insert a ColdFusion image into a BLOB column of a database, use the
ImageGetBlob function within a cfquery statement, as the following example shows:
<!--- This example shows how to add a ColdFusion image to a BLOB column of a database. --->
<!--- Create a ColdFusion image from an existing JPEG file. --->
<cfimage source="aiden01.jpg" name="myImage">
<!--- Use the cfquery tag to insert the ColdFusion image as a BLOB in the database. --->
<cfquery name="InsertBlobImage" datasource="myBlobData">
INSERT into EMPLOYEES (FirstName,LastName,Photo)
VALUES ("Aiden","Quinn",<cfqueryparam value="#ImageGetBlob(myImage)#"
cfsqltype="cf_sql_blob">)
</cfquery>

Verifying images
Use the IsImage function to test whether an image variable represents a valid ColdFusion image. This function takes
a variable name as its only parameter and returns a Boolean value.
Note: You cannot use the IsImage function to verify whether files are valid images. Instead, use the IsImageFile
function.
Also, ColdFusion provides two tags for determining which image file formats are supported on the server where the
ColdFusion application is deployed: GetReadableImageFormats and GetWriteableImageFormats. For more
information, see the CFML Reference.

Enforcing size restrictions

ColdFusion provides several functions for retrieving information associated with images, including the height and
width of an image. For example, you can use the ImageGetWidth and ImageGetHeight functions to determine
whether an image is too large to upload to a website or database.
The following example shows how to prevent users from uploading images that are greater than 300 pixels wide or 300
pixels high:

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<!--- Create a ColdFusion image named "myImage" from a file uploaded to the server. --->
<cfimage action="read" source="#fileUpload.serverFile#" name="myImage">
<!--- Determine whether the file is greater than 300 pixels in width or height. --->
<cfif ImageGetHeight(myImage) gt 300 or ImageGetWidth(myImage) gt 300>
<!--- If the file exceeds the size limits, delete it from the server. --->
<cffile action="delete" file="#fileUpload.serverDirectory#/#fileUpload.serverFile#">
<cfoutput>
<!--- Display the following message. --->
<p>
The image you uploaded was too big. It must be less than 300 pixels wide and 300 pixels
high. Your image was #imageGetWidth(myImage)# pixels wide and
#imageGetHeight(myImage)# pixels high.
</p>
</cfif>

For information about retrieving image metadata, see the ImageGetEXIFTag, ImageGetIPTCTag, and ImageInfo
functions in the CFML Reference.

Compressing JPEG images

To reduce the size of large files, you can convert a JPEG file to a lower quality image by using the write action of the
cfimage tag. Specify a value between 0 (low) and 1 (high) for the quality attribute, as the following example shows:
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff05.jpg" action="write"
destination="jeff05_lq.jpg" quality="0.5" overwrite="yes">

You can perform the same operation by using the ImageWrite function:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("jeff05.jpg")>
<cfset ImageWrite(myImage,"jeff05_lq.jpg","0.5")>

Manipulating ColdFusion images

You can perform a few common manipulation operations on ColdFusion images. For more information on
manipulating ColdFusion images, see the CFML Reference.

Adding borders to images

To create a simple border, use the cfimage tag. The following example creates a ColdFusion image with a 5-pixel blue
border:
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" action="border" thickness="5"
color="blue" destination="testMyImage.jpg" overwrite="yes">
<img src="testMyImage.jpg">

The border is added to the outside edge of the source image. This increases the area of the image.
To create complex borders, use the ImageAddBorder function. The following example shows how to nest borders:

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<!--- Create a ColdFusion image from a JPEG file. --->

<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg")>
<!--- Add a 5-pixel blue border around the outside edge of the image. --->
<cfset ImageAddBorder(myImage,5,"blue")>
<!--- Add a 10-pixel magenta border around the blue border. --->
<cfset ImageAddBorder(myImage,10,"magenta")>
<!--- Add a 5-pixel green border around the magenta border. --->
<cfset ImageAddBorder(myImage,20,"green")>
<!--- Write the ColdFusion image to a file. --->
<cfset ImageWrite(myImage,"testMyImage.jpg")>
<img src="testMyImage.jpg"/>

Also, with the ImageAddBorder function, you can add a border that is an image effect. For example, you can use the
wrap parameter to create a tiled border from the source image. The wrap parameter creates a tiled border by adding
the specified number of pixels to each side of the image, as though the image were tiled.
In the following example, 20 pixels from the outside edge of the source image are tiled to create the border:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff03.jpg")>
<cfset ImageAddBorder(myImage,20,"","wrap")>
<cfset ImageWrite(myImage,"testMyImage.jpg")>
<img src="testMyImage.jpg"/>

For examples of other border types, see the ImageAddBorder function in the CFML Reference.

Creating text images

You can create two types of text images:

A CAPTCHA image, in which ColdFusion randomly distorts the text

A text image, in which you control the text attributes
Creating a CAPTCHA image
You use the captcha action of the cfimage tag to create a distorted text image that is human-readable but not machine
readable. When you create a CAPTCHA image, you specify the text that is displayed in the CAPTCHA image;
ColdFusion randomly distorts the text. You can specify the height and width of the text area, which affects the spacing
between letters, the font size, the fonts to use for the CAPTCHA text, and the level of difficulty, which affects
readability. Do not use spaces in the text string specified for the text attribute: users cannot detect the spaces as part
of the CAPTCHA image.
The following example shows how to write a CAPTCHA image directly to the browser.

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<!--- This example shows how to create a CAPTCHA image with the text "rEadMe" and write the
image directly to the browser. --->
<cfimage action="captcha" fontSize="25" width="162" height="75" text="rEadMe"
fonts="Verdana,Arial,Courier New,Courier">

Note: For the CAPTCHA image to display, the width value must be greater than: fontSize times the number of
characters specified in text times 1.08. In this example, the minimum width is 162.
ColdFusion 9 supports CAPTCHA images in PNG format only.
Note: If you specify the destination attribute to write CAPTCHA images to files, use unique names for the CAPTCHA
image files so that when multiple users access the CAPTCHA images, the files are not overwritten.
The following example shows how to create CAPTCHA images with a high level of text distortion.
<!--- Use the GetTickCount function to generate unique names for the CAPTCHA files. --->
<cfset tc = GetTickCount()>
<!--- Set the difficulty to "high" for a higher level of text distortion. --->
<cfimage action="captcha" fontSize="15" width="180" height="50" text="rEadMe"
destination="readme#tc#.png" difficulty="high">

For a detailed example, see Using CAPTCHA to verify membership on page 979.
The following image shows three CAPTCHA images with low, medium, and high levels of difficulty, respectively:

Using the ImageDrawText function

To create a text image by using the ImageDrawText function, specify the text string and the x and y coordinates for
the location of the beginning of the text string. You can draw the text on an existing image or on a blank image, as the
following examples show:
<!--- This example shows how to draw a text string on a blank image. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",200,100)>
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage, "Congratulations!",10,50)>
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="myImage.png" overwrite="yes">
<img src="myImage.png">
<!--- This example shows how to draw a text string on an existing image.
--->
<cfset myImage2=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg")>
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage2,"Congratulations!",10,50)>
<cfimage source="#myImage2#" action="write" destination="myImage2.png" overwrite="yes">
<img src="myImage2.png">

In the previous examples, the text is displayed in the default system font and font size. To control the appearance of
the text, you specify a collection of text attributes, as the following example shows:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

attr = StructNew()>
attr.style="bolditalic">
attr.size=20>
attr.font="verdana">
attr.underline="yes">

To apply the text attributes to the text string, include the attribute collection name in the ImageDrawText definition.
In the following examples, the "attr" text attribute collection applies the text string "Congratulations!":

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...
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage,"Congratulations!",10,50,attr)>

To change the color of the text, use the ImageSetDrawingColor function. This function controls the color of all
subsequent drawing objects on an image. In the following example, two lines of text, Congratulations! and
Gabriella, inherit the color magenta.
<!--- This example shows how to draw a text string on a blank image. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg")>
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(myImage,"magenta")>
<cfset attr = StructNew()>
<cfset attr.style="bolditalic">
<cfset attr.size=20>
<cfset attr.font="verdana">
<cfset attr.underline="yes">
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage,"Congratulations!",10,50,attr)>
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage,"Gabriella",50,125,attr)>
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="myImage.jpg" overwrite="yes">
<img src="myImage.jpg"/>

For a list of valid named colors, see the cfimage tag in the CFML Reference.

Drawing lines and shapes

ColdFusion provides several functions for drawing lines and shapes. For shapes, the first two values represent the x
and y coordinates, respectively, of the upper-left corner of the shape. For simple ovals and rectangles, the two numbers
following the coordinates represent the width and height of the shape in pixels. For a line, the values represent the x
and y coordinates of the start point and end point of the line, respectively. To create filled shapes, set the filled
attribute to true. The following example shows how to create an image with several drawing objects:
<!--- Create an image that is 200-pixels square. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",200,200)>
<!--- Draw a circle that is 100 pixels in diameter. --->
<cfset ImageDrawOval(myImage,40,20,100,100)>
<!--- Draw a filled rectangle that is 40 pixels wide and 20 pixels high.
--->
<cfset ImageDrawRect(myImage,70,50,40,20,true)>
<!--- Draw a 100-pixel square. --->
<cfset ImageDrawRect(myImage,40,40,100,100)>
<!--- Draw two lines. --->
<cfset ImageDrawLine(myImage,130,40,100,200)>
<cfset ImageDrawLine(myImage,50,40,100,200)>
<!--- Write the ColdFusion image to a file. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="testMyImage.gif" overwrite="yes">
<img src="testMyImage.gif"/>

Note: To draw a sequence of connected lines, use the ImageDrawLines function. For more information, see the CFML
Reference.

Setting drawing controls

ColdFusion provides several functions for controlling the appearance of drawing objects. As shown in the
ImageDrawText example, you use the ImageSetDrawingColor function to define the color of text in an image. This
function also controls the color of lines and shapes. To control line attributes (other than color), use the
ImageSetDrawingStroke function. The ImageSetDrawingStroke function uses a collection to define the line
attributes.

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Drawing controls apply to all subsequent drawing functions in an image; therefore, order is important. In the following
example, the drawing stroke attributes defined in the attribute collection apply to the square and the two lines.
Similarly, the color green applies to the rectangle and the square, while the color red applies only to the two lines. You
can reset a drawing control as many times as necessary within an image to achieve the desired effect.
<!--- Create an attribute collection for the drawing stroke. --->
<cfset attr=StructNew()>
<cfset attr.width="4">
<cfset attr.endcaps="round">
<cfset attr.dashPattern=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset dashPattern[1]=8>
<cfset dashPattern[2]=6>
<cfset attr.dashArray=dashPattern>
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",200,200)>
<cfset ImageDrawOval(myImage,40,20,100,100)>
<!--- Set the drawing color to green for all subsequent drawing functions. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(myImage,"green")>
<cfset ImageDrawRect(myImage,70,50,40,20,true)>
<!--- Apply the attribute collection to all subsequent shapes and lines in the image. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingStroke(myImage,attr)>
<cfset ImageDrawRect(myImage,40,40,100,100)>
<!--- Set the drawing color to red for all subsequent drawing functions. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(myImage,"red")>
<cfset ImageDrawLine(myImage,130,40,100,200)>
<cfset ImageDrawLine(myImage,50,40,100,200)>
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="testMyImage.gif" overwrite="yes">
<img src="testMyImage.gif"/>

Resizing images
ColdFusion makes it easy to resize images. You can reduce the file size of an image by changing its dimensions, enforce
uniform sizes on images, and create thumbnail images. The following table describes the ways to resize images in
ColdFusion:
Task

Functions and actions

Resize an image

ImageResize function, or the resize action of the cfimage tag

Resize images so that they fit in a defined square or rectangle and

control the interpolation method

ImageScaleToFit function

Resize an image and control the interpolation method

ImageResize function

Using the cfimage tag resize action

Use the cfimage tag resize action to resize an image to the specified height and width. You can specify the height
and width in pixels or as a percentage of the original dimensions of the image. To specify a percentage, include the
percent symbol (%) in the height and width definitions.

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<!--- This example shows how to specify the height and width of an image in pixels. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg" action="resize" width="100"
height="100" destination="jeff01_sm.jpg">
<!--- This example shows how to specify the height and width of an image as percentages. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff02.jpg" action="resize" width="50%"
height="50%" destination="jeff02_sm.jpg">
<!--- This example shows how to specify the height of an image in pixels and its width as a
percentage. Notice that this technique can distort the image. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff03.jpg" action="resize" width="50%"
height="100" destination="jeff03_sm.jpg" overwrite="yes">

The cfimage tag requires that you specify both the height and the width for the resize action.
The cfimage tag resize action uses the highestQuality interpolation method for the best quality image (at the cost
of performance). For faster display, use the ImageResize function or the ImageScaleToFit function.
Using the ImageResize function
The ImageResize function is like the cfimage tag resize action. To ensure that the resized image is proportional,
specify a value for the height or width and enter a blank value for the other dimension:
<!--- This example shows how to resize an image to 50% of original size and resize it
proportionately to the new width. The height value is blank. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("http://www.google.com/images/logo_sm.gif")>
<cfset ImageResize(myImage,"50%","")>
<!--- Save the modified image to a file. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="test_myImage.jpeg" overwrite="yes">
<!--- Display the source image and the resized image. --->
<img src="http://www.google.com/images/logo_sm.gif"/>
<img src="test_myImage.jpeg"/>

The ImageResize function also lets you specify the type of interpolation used to resize the image. Interpolation lets
you control the trade-off between performance and image quality. By default, the ImageResize function uses the
highestQuality interpolation method. To improve performance (at the cost of image quality), change the
interpolation method. Also, you can set the blur factor for the image. The default value is 1 (not blurred). The highest
blur factor is 10 (very blurry). The following example shows how to resize an image using the highPerformance form
of interpolation with a blur factor of 10:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/aiden01.jpg")>
<cfset ImageResize(myImage,"","200%","highPerformance", 10)>
<cfimage action="writeToBrowser" source="#myImage#">

Note: Increasing the blur factor reduces performance.

For a complete list of interpolation methods, see ImageResize in the CFML Reference.
Using the ImageScaleToFit function
To create images of a uniform size, such as thumbnail images or images displayed in a photo gallery, use the
ImageScaleToFit function. You specify the area of the image in pixels. ColdFusion resizes the image to fit the square
or rectangle and maintains the aspect ratio of the source image. Like the ImageResize function, you can specify the
interpolation, as the following example shows:

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<!--- This example shows how to resize an image to a 100-pixel square, while maintaining the
aspect ratio of the source image. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff05.jpg" name="myImage" action="read">
<!--- Turn on antialiasing. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage)>
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,100,100,"mediumQuality")>
<!--- Display the modified image in a browser. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="writeToBrowser">

To fit an image in a defined rectangular area, specify the width and height of the rectangle, as the following example
shows:
<!--- This example shows how to resize an image to fit in a rectangle that is 200 pixels
wide and 100 pixels high, while maintaining the aspect ratio of the source image. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff05.jpg" name="myImage">
<!--- Turn on antialiasing. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage)>
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,200,100)>
<!--- Display the modified image in a browser. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="writeToBrowser">

In this example, the width of the resulting image is less than or equal to 200 pixels and the height of the image is less
than or equal to 100 pixels.
Also, you can specify just the height or just the width of the rectangle. To do so, specify an empty string for the
undefined dimension. The following example resizes the image so that the width is exactly 200 pixels and the height
of the image is proportional to the width:
<!--- This example shows how to resizes an image so that it is 200 pixels wide, while
maintaining the aspect ratio of the source image. The interpolation method is set to
maximize performance (which reduces image quality). --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff05.jpg" name="myImage">
<!--- Turn on antialiasing. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(myImage)>
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,200,"","highestPerformance")>
<!--- Display the modified image in a browser. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="writeToBrowser">

For more information, see ImageScaleToFit in the CFML Reference.

Creating watermarks
A watermark is a semitransparent image that is superimposed on another image. One use for a watermark is for
protecting copyrighted images. To create a watermark in ColdFusion, you use the ImageSetDrawingTransparency
function with the ImagePaste function. You can create a watermark image in one of three ways:

Create a watermark from an existing image file. For example, you can use a company logo as a watermark.
Create a text image in ColdFusion and apply the image as a watermark. For example, you can create a text string,
such as Copyright or PROOF and apply it to all the images in a photo gallery.

Create a drawing image in ColdFusion and use it as a watermark. For example, you can use the drawing functions
to create a green check mark and apply it to images that have been approved.
Creating a watermark from an image file
The following example shows how to create a watermark from an existing GIF image located on a website:

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<!--- This example shows how to create a watermark from an existing image. --->
<!--- Create two ColdFusion images from existing JPEG files. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg" name="myImage">
<cfimage source="http://www.google.com/images/logo_sm.gif" name="myImage2">
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="logo.jpg" overwrite="yes">
<cfset ImageSetDrawingTransparency(myImage,50)>
<!--- Paste myImage2 on myImage at the coordinates (0,0). --->
<cfset ImagePaste(myImage,myImage2,0,0)>
<!--- Write the result to a file. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" destination="watermark.jpg" action="write" overwrite="yes">
<!--- Display the result. --->
<img src="watermark.jpg"/>

Creating a watermark from a text image

The following example shows how to create a text image in ColdFusion and use it as a watermark:
<!--- Create a ColdFusion image from an existing JPG file. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg")>
<!--- Scale the image to fit in a 200-pixel square, maintaining the aspect ratio of the
source image. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,200,200)>
<!--- Set the drawing transparency to 75%. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingTransparency(myImage,75)>
<!--- Create a ColdFusion image from scratch. --->
<cfset textImage=ImageNew("",150,140)>
<!--- Set the drawing color to white. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(textImage,"white")>
<!--- Create a collection of text attributes. --->
<cfset attr=StructNew()>
<cfset attr.size=40>
<cfset attr.style="bold">
<cfset attr.font="Arial">
<!--- Turn on antialiasing. --->
<cfset ImageSetAntialiasing(textImage)>
<!--- Draw the text string "PROOF" on the ColdFusion image. Apply the text attributes that
you specified. --->
<cfset ImageDrawText(textImage,"PROOF",1,75,attr)>
<!--- Rotate the text image by 30 degrees. --->
<cfset ImageRotate(textImage,30)>
<!--- Scale the image to fit in a 200-pixel square, maintaining the aspect ratio of the
source image. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(textImage,200,200)>
<!--- Paste the text image onto myImage. --->
<cfset ImagePaste(myImage,textImage,0,0)>
<!--- Write the combined image to a file. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="test_watermark.jpg" overwrite="yes">
<!--- Display the image. --->
<img src="test_watermark.jpg"/>

Creating a watermark from a ColdFusion drawing

The following example shows how to draw an image in ColdFusion and use it as a watermark. You use the
ImageSetDrawingStroke function to define the attributes of lines and shapes you create with drawing functions and
the ImageSetDrawingColor function to define the color.

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<!--- This example shows how to draw a red circle with a line through it and use it as a
watermark. --->
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a ColdFusion image that is 201x201 pixels. --->
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("",201,201)>
<!--- Set the drawing transparency of the image to 30%. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingTransparency(myImage,30)>
<!--- Set the drawing color to red. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(myImage,"red")>
<!--- Create an attribute collection that sets the line width to ten pixels. --->
<cfset attr=StructNew()>
<cfset attr.width = 10>
<!--- Apply the attribute collection to the ImageSetDrawingStroke function. --->
<cfset ImageSetDrawingStroke(myImage,attr)>
<!--- Draw a diagonal line starting at (40,40) and ending at (165,165) on myImage. The drawing
attributes you specified are applied to the line. --->
<cfset ImageDrawLine(myImage,40,40,165,165)>
<!--- Draw a circle starting at (5,5) and is 190 pixels high and 190 pixels wide. The drawing
attributes you specified are applied to the oval. --->
<cfset ImageDrawOval(myImage,5,5,190,190)>
<!--- Create a ColdFusion image from a JPEG file. --->
<cfimage source="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg" name="myImage2">
<!--- Scale the image to fit in a 200-pixel square, maintaining the aspect ratio of the
source image. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage2,200,200)>
<!--- Paste the myImage2 directly over the myImage. --->
<cfset ImagePaste(myImage,myImage2,0,0)>
<!--- Save the combined image to a file. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write" destination="test_watermark.jpg" overwrite="yes">
<!--- Display the image in a browser. --->
<img src="test_watermark.jpg"/>

Writing images to the browser

Use the writeToBrowser action of the cfimage tag to display images directly in the browser without writing them to
files. This technique is useful for testing the appearance of a ColdFusion image. The following example shows how to
test the display of two effects applied to an image:
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg")>
<cfset ImageBlur(myImage,5)>
<cfset ImageNegative(myImage)>
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="writeToBrowser">

The writeToBrowser action displays images in PNG format.

Also, you can write multiple images to the browser which is useful if you want to manipulate images in memory and
display them without writing them to files. For example, you can duplicate several versions of the same image, display
the versions in a browser, and allow the user to choose one of the images to write to a file. Or, you can extract images
from a database, add a watermark to the images that appear in the browser, such as Proof or Draft, without having to
write the modified images to files first. This way you can maintain one set of image files and change them on-the-fly.
For an example of writing multiple images to the browser, see Generating a gallery of watermarked images on
page 977.

Application examples that use ColdFusion images

You can create simple applications that automate image processes by using ColdFusion images.

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Generating thumbnail images

The following example shows how to create a form for uploading images. A visitor to the site can use the form to
upload an image file and generate a thumbnail image from it. You use ColdFusion image operations to perform the
following tasks:

Verify that the uploaded file is a valid image.

Ensure that the height or the width of the image does not exceed 800 pixels.
If the image is valid and within the size limits, generate a thumbnail version of the source image and save it to a file.
Enter the following code on the form page:
<!--- This code creates a form with one field where the user enters the image file to upload.
--->
<cfform action="makeThumbnail.cfm" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
Please upload an image: <cfinput type="file" name="image">
<cfinput type="submit" value="Send Image" name="Submit">
</cfform>

Enter the following code on the action page:

<cfset thisDir = expandPath(".")>
<!--- Determine whether the form is uploaded with the image. --->
<cfif structKeyExists(form,"image") and len(trim(form.image))>
<!--- Use the cffile tag to upload the image file. --->
<cffile action="upload" fileField="image" destination="#thisDir#" result="fileUpload"
nameconflict="overwrite">
<!--- Determine whether the image file is saved. --->
<cfif fileUpload.fileWasSaved>
<!--- Determine whether the saved file is a valid image file. --->
<cfif IsImageFile("#fileUpload.serverfile#")>
<!--- Read the image file into a variable called myImage. --->
<cfimage action="read" source="#fileUpload.serverfile#" name="myImage">
<!--- Determine whether the image file exceeds the size limits. --->
<cfif ImageGetHeight(myImage) gt 800 or ImageGetWidth(myImage) gt 800>
<!--- If the file is too large, delete it from the server. --->
<cffile action="delete"
file="#fileUpload.serverDirectory#/#fileUpload.serverFile#">
<cfoutput>
<p>
The image you uploaded was too large. It must be less than 800 pixels wide
and 800 pixels high. Your image was #imageGetWidth(myImage)# pixels wide
and #imageGetHeight(myImage)# pixels high.
</p>
</cfoutput>
<!--- If the image is valid and does not exceed the size limits,
create a thumbnail image from the source file that is 75-pixels
square, while maintaining the aspect ratio of the source image.
Use the bilinear interpolation method to improve performance.
--->
<cfelse>
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,75,75,"bilinear")>
<!--- Specify the new filename as the source filename with
"_thumbnail" appended to it. --->
<cfset newImageName = fileUpload.serverDirectory & "/" &
fileUpload.serverFilename & "_thumbnail." &
fileUpload.serverFileExt>

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<!--- Save the thumbnail image to a file with the new filename. --->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="write"
destination="#newImageName#" overwrite="yes">
<cfoutput>
<p>
Thank you for uploading the image. We have created a thumbnail for
your picture.
</p>
<p>
<!--- Display the thumbnail image. --->
<img src="#getFileFromPath(newImageName)#">
</p>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<!--- If it is not a valid image file, delete it from the server. --->
<cfelse>
<cffile action="delete"
file="#fileUpload.serverDirectory#/#fileUpload.serverFile#">
<cfoutput>
<p>
The file you uploaded, #fileUpload.clientFile#, was not a valid image.
</p>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfif>

Generating a gallery of watermarked images

The following example extracts images and information from the cfartgallery database. You use ColdFusion image
operations to perform the following tasks:

Verify that an image exists for records returned from the database.
Display the text, SOLD! on images that have been sold.
Resize images to 100 pixels, maintaining the aspect ratio of the source image.
Add a 5-pixel border to the images.
Display the modified images directly in the browser without writing them to files.

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Example
<!--- Create a query to extract artwork and associated information from the cfartgallery
database. --->
<cfquery name="artwork" datasource="cfartgallery">
SELECT FIRSTNAME, LASTNAME, ARTNAME, DESCRIPTION, PRICE, LARGEIMAGE, ISSOLD, MEDIATYPE
FROM ARTISTS, ART, MEDIA
WHERE ARTISTS.ARTISTID = ART.ARTISTID
AND ART.MEDIAID = MEDIA.MEDIAID
ORDER BY ARTNAME
</cfquery>
<cfset xctr = 1>
<table border="0" cellpadding="15" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<cfoutput query="artwork">
<cfif xctr mod 3 eq 1>
<tr>
</cfif>
<!--- Use the IsImageFile function to verify that the image files extracted
from thedatabase are valid. Use the ImageNew function to create a
ColdFusion image fromvalid image files. --->
<cfif IsImageFile("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#artwork.largeImage#")>
<cfset myImage=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#artwork.largeImage#")>
<td valign="top" align="center" width="200">
<cfset xctr = xctr + 1>
<!--- For artwork that has been sold, display the text string "SOLD!"
in white on the image. --->
<cfif artwork.isSold>
<cfset ImageSetDrawingColor(myImage,"white")>
<cfset attr=StructNew()>
<cfset attr.size=45>
<cfset attr.style="bold">
<cfset ImageDrawText(myImage,"SOLD!",35,195, attr)>
</cfif>
<!--- Resize myImage to fit in a 110-pixel square, scaled proportionately. --->
<cfset ImageScaleToFit(myImage,110,"","bicubic")>
<!--- Add a 5-pixel black border around the images. (Black is the default color. --->
<!--- Add a 5-pixel black border to myImage. --->
<cfset ImageAddBorder(myImage,"5")>
<!--- Write the images directly to the browser without saving them to the hard drive.
--->
<cfimage source="#myImage#" action="writeToBrowser"><br>
<strong>#artwork.artName#</strong><br>
Artist: #artwork.firstName# #artwork.lastName#<br>
Price: #dollarFormat(artwork.price)#<br>
#artwork.mediaType# - #artwork.description#<br>
</td>
</cfif>
<cfif xctr-1 mod 3 eq 0>
</tr>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>
</table>

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Using CAPTCHA to verify membership

The following example shows how to create a simple form to verify whether a person (rather than a computer
generating spam) is registering to receive an online newsletter. You generate the CAPTCHA image from a random text
string on the form page and verify the response on the action page.
Example
Enter the following code on the form page:
<!--- Set the length of the text string for the CAPTCHA image. --->
<cfset stringLength=6>
<!--- Specify the list of characters used for the random text string. The following list
limits the confusion between upper- and lowercase letters as well as between numbers and
letters. --->
<cfset
stringList="2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,a,b,d,e,f,g,h,j,n,q,r,t,y,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,K,L,M,N,P,Q,R,S,
T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z">
<cfset rndString="">
<!--- Create a loop that builds the string from the random characters. --->
<cfloop from="1" to="#stringLength#" index="i">
<cfset rndNum=RandRange(1,listLen(stringList))>
<cfset rndString=rndString & listGetAt(stringList,rndNum)>
</cfloop>
<!--- Hash the random string. --->
<cfset rndHash=Hash(rndString)>
<!--- Create the user entry form. --->
<cfform action="captcha2.cfm" method="post">
<p>Please enter your first name:</p>
<cfinput type="text" name="firstName" required="yes">
<p>Please enter your last name:</p>
<cfinput type="text" name="lastName" required="yes">
<p>Please enter your e-mail address:</p>
<cfinput type="text" name="mailTo" required="yes" validate="email">
<!--- Use the randomly generated text string for the CAPTCHA image. --->
<p><cfimage action="captcha" fontSize="24" fonts="Times New Roman" width="200" height="50"
text="#rndString#"></p>
<p>Please type what you see: </p>
<p><cfinput type="text" name="userInput" required="yes" maxlength=6>
<cfinput type="hidden" name="hashVal" value="#rndHash#">
<p><cfinput type="Submit" name ="OK" value="OK"></p>
</cfform>

Enter the following code on the action page:

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<!--- Verify whether the text entered by the user matches the CAPTCHA string. --->
<cfif #form.hashval# eq Hash(#form.userInput#)>
<cfoutput>
<p>
Thank you for registering for our online newsletter, #form.firstName# #form.lastName#.
</p>
<p>
A notification has been sent to your e-mail address: #form.mailTo#.
</p>
<cfmail from="[email protected]" to="#form.mailTo#" subject="Newsletter">
Thank you for your interest in our Newsletter.
</cfmail>
</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<p>I'm sorry; please try again.</p>
</cfif>

Creating versions of an image

The following example shows how to create an application that lets you generate four versions of the same image,
display the versions in a form, and choose which one to save. The application comprises three ColdFusion pages that
perform the following tasks:

Dynamically populate a drop-down list box from a database query.

Use the cfimage tag to create a ColdFusion image from the title selected from the list. Use the ImageNew function
to create three clones of the ColdFusion image. Use the ImageSharpen function to change the sharpness setting for
each clone.

Save the file chosen from the form to a new location.

Example
On the first form page, create a query that selects the artwork from the cfartgallery database and displays the titles
in a pop-up menu:
<!--- Create a query to extract artwork from the cfartgallery database. --->
<cfquery name="artwork" datasource="cfartgallery">
SELECT ARTID, ARTNAME, LARGEIMAGE
FROM ART
ORDER BY ARTNAME
</cfquery>
<!--- Create a form that lists the artwork titles generated by the query. Set the value to
LARGEIMAGE so that the image file is passed to the action page. --->
<cfform action="dupImage2.cfm" method="post">
<p>Please choose a title:</p>
<cfselect name="art" query="artwork" display="ARTNAME" value="LARGEIMAGE" required="yes"
multiple="no" size="8">
</cfselect>
<br/><cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="OK">
</cfform>

On the first action page, clone the original image three times, change the sharpness setting for each clone, and display
the results:

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<!--- Determine whether a valid image file exists. --->

<cfif IsImageFile("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#form.art#")>
<cfset original=ImageNew("../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#form.art#")>
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a clone of the ColdFusion image. --->
<cfset clone1=ImageNew(original)>
<!--- Use the ImageSharpen function to blur the cloned image. --->
<cfset ImageSharpen(clone1,-1)>
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a second clone of the original image. --->
<cfset clone2=ImageNew(original)>
<!--- Use the ImageSharpen function to sharpen the cloned image. --->
<cfset ImageSharpen(clone2,1)>
<!--- Use the ImageNew function to create a third clone for the original image. --->
<cfset clone3=ImageNew(original)>
<!--- Use the ImageSharpen function to sharpen the cloned image to the maximum setting.
--->
<cfset ImageSharpen(clone3,2)>
<!--- Create a form with a radio button for each selection. The value of the hidden field
is the relative path of the original image file. --->
<p>Please choose an image:</p>
<table>
<tr>
<cfform action="dupImage3.cfm" method="post">
<td><cfimage source="#original#" action="writeToBrowser"><br />
<cfinput type="radio" name="foo" value="original">Original Image</td>
<td><cfimage source="#clone1#" action="writeToBrowser"><br />
<cfinput type="radio" name="foo" value="blurred">Blurred Image</td>
<td><cfimage source="#clone2#" action="writeToBrowser"><br />
<cfinput type="radio" name="foo" value="sharper">Sharper Image</td>
<td><cfimage source="#clone3#" action="writeToBrowser"><br />
<cfinput type="radio" name="foo" value="sharpest">Sharpest Image</td>
<tr><td><cfinput type="Submit" name="OK" value="OK">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="orig_file"
value="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/#form.art#">
</td></tr>
</cfform>
</tr>
</table>
<cfelse>
<p>There is no image associated with the title you selected. Please click the Back button
and try again.</p>
</cfif>

On the second action page, save the selected image to the C drive:

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<p>The image you have chosen has been saved.</p>

<cfset img=ImageNew("#form.orig_file#")>
<cfswitch expression=#form.foo#>
<cfcase value="blurred">
<cfset ImageSharpen(img,-1)>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="sharper">
<cfset ImageSharpen(img,1)>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="sharpest">
<cfset ImageSharpen(img,2)>
</cfcase>
</cfswitch>
<!--- Use the cfimage tag to write the image selected from the form to a file in the C drive.
Use the value of the hidden field as the source file for the image. --->
<cfimage source="#img#" action="write" destination="c:/myImage.jpg" overwrite="yes">
<img src="c:/myImage.jpg" />

Creating Charts and Graphs

You can use the cfchart tag to display charts and graphs.

About charts
The ability to display data in a chart or graph can make data interpretation much easier. Rather than present a simple
table of numeric data, you can display a bar, pie, line, or other applicable type of chart using colors, captions, and a
two-dimensional or three-dimensional representation of your data.
The cfchart tag, along with the cfchartseries and cfchartdata tags, provide many different chart types. The
attributes to these tags let you customize your chart appearance.
You can create 11 types of charts in Adobe ColdFusion in two and three dimensions. The following figure shows a
sample of each type of chart.

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Note: In two dimensions, bar and cylinder charts appear the same, as do cone and pyramid charts.

Creating a basic chart

You can create a chart in either of the following ways:

Using the cfchart, cfchartseries, and cfchartdata tags in a ColdFusion page.

Using the chart wizard that is included with the ColdFusion Report Builder. For more information, see Creating
Reports and Documents for Printing on page 1007.

Creating a chart with ColdFusion tags

To create a chart with ColdFusion tags, you use the cfchart tag along with at least one cfchartseries tag. You can
optionally include one or more cfchartdata tags within a cfchartseries tag. The following table describes these tags:

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Tag

Description

cfchart

Specifies the container in which the chart appears. This container defines the height, width, background color, labels,
fonts, and other characteristics of the chart.
Include at least one cfchartseries tag within the cfchart tag.

cfchartseries

Specifies a database query that supplies the data to the chart and one or more cfchartdata tags that specify
individual data points. Specifies the chart type, colors for the chart, and other optional attributes.

cfchartdata

Optionally specifies an individual data point to the cfchartseries tag.

The following example shows an outline of the basic code that you use to create a chart:
<cfchart>
<cfchartseries type="type">
<cfchartdata item="something" value="number">
</cfchartseries>
</chart>

The following example displays a simple pie chart that shows four values:
<cfchart>
<cfchartseries type="pie">
<cfchartdata item="New car sales" value="50000">
<cfchartdata item="Used car sales" value="25000">
<cfchartdata item="Leasing" value="30000">
<cfchartdata item="Service" value="40000">
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>

Note: If you access charting functionality using Java calls, a watermark Developer Edition - Not for Production Use
might be displayed on the chart images. To avoid this, when you assign the server object to a reference, instead of
svr.getDefaultInstance(getPageContext().getServletContext());), use the following code (by prefixing
svr=) :svr=svr.getDefaultInstance(getPageContext().getServletContext());). Ensure that you restart
the server for the changes to take effect.

Creating a chart with the Report Builder wizard

The ColdFusion Report Builder includes a wizard that lets you create charts easily. The wizard lets you specify all of
the chart characteristics that you can specify using the cfchart, cfchartseries, and cfchartdata tags. For
information about using the Report Builder chart wizard, see Creating Reports and Documents for Printing on
page 1007.

Charting data
One of the most important considerations when you chart data is the way that you supply the data to the cfchart tag.
You can supply data in the following ways:

Specify individual data points by using cfchartdata tags.

Provide all the data in a single query by using cfchartseries tags.
Combine data from a query with additional data points from cfchartdata tags.
Provide all the data in a report created with Report Builder. For more information, see Creating Reports and
Documents for Printing on page 1007.
Note: The cfchart tag charts numeric data only. As a result, convert any dates, times, or preformatted currency values,
such as $3,000.53, to integers or real numbers.

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Charting individual data points

When you chart individual data points, you specify each data point by inserting a cfchartdata tag in the
cfchartseries tag body. For example, the following code creates a simple pie chart:
<cfchart>
<cfchartseries type="pie">
<cfchartdata item="New Vehicle Sales" value=500000>
<cfchartdata item="Used Vehicle Sales" value=250000>
<cfchartdata item="Leasing" value=300000>
<cfchartdata item="Service" value=400000>
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>

This pie chart displays four types of revenue for a car dealer. Each cfchartdata tag specifies the income for a
department and a description for the legend.
Note: If two data points have the same item name, ColdFusion creates a graph of the value for the last one specified within
the cfchart tag.
The cfchartdata tag lets you specify the following information about a data point:
Attribute

Description

value

The data value to chart. This attribute is required.

item

(Optional) The description for this data point. The item appears on the horizontal axis of bar and line charts, on
the vertical axis of horizontal bar charts, and in the legend of pie charts.

Charting a query
Each bar, dot, line, or slice of a chart represents data from one row/column coordinate in your result set. A related
group of data is called a chart series.
Because each bar, dot, line, or slice represents the intersection of two axes, craft the query result set such that the row
and column values have meaning when displayed in a chart. Often, doing so requires you aggregate data in the query.
You typically aggregate data in a query using one of the following:

Specify a SQL aggregate function (SUM, AVG, MAX, and so on) using a GROUP BY clause in the SELECT
statement.

Use a Query of Queries.

Retrieve data from a view, instead of a table.
When you chart a query, you specify the query name using the query attribute of the cfchartseries tag. For
example, the code for a simple bar chart could be as follows:
<cfchart
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
>
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
query="DataTable"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
/>
</cfchart>

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This example displays the values in the AvgByDept column of the DataTable query. It displays the Dept_Name column
value as the item label by each bar.
The following table lists the attributes of the cfchartseries tag that you use when working with queries:
Attribute

Description

query

The query that contains the data. Also specify the valueColumn and itemColumn.

valueColumn

The query column that contains the values to chart.

itemColumn

The query column that contains the description for this data point. The item normally appears on the horizontal
axis of bar and line charts, on the vertical axis of horizontalbar charts, and in the legend in pie charts.

Charting a query of queries

In addition to charting the results of a query, you can also chart the results of a query of queries. For more information
about using query of queries, see Using Query of Queries on page 428. Query of queries provides significant power
in generating the data for the chart. For example, you can use aggregating functions such as SUM, AVG, and GROUP
BY to create a query of queries with statistical data based on a raw database query. For more information, see Using
Query of Queries on page 428.
You can also take advantage of the ability to dynamically reference and modify query data. For example, you can loop
through the entries in a query column and reformat the data to show whole dollar values.
The example in the following procedure analyzes the salary data in the cfdocexamples database using a query of
queries, and displays the data as a bar chart.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<!--- Get the raw data from the database. --->
<cfquery name="GetSalaries" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.Salary
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
</cfquery>
<!--- Generate a query with statistical data for each department. --->
<cfquery dbtype = "query" name = "DeptSalaries">
SELECT
Dept_Name,
AVG(Salary) AS AvgByDept
FROM GetSalaries
GROUP BY Dept_Name
</cfquery>
<!--- Reformat the generated numbers to show only thousands. --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#DeptSalaries.RecordCount#">
<cfset DeptSalaries.AvgByDept[i]=Round(DeptSalaries.AvgByDept[i]/1000)*1000>
</cfloop>
<html>
<head>
<title>Employee Salary Analysis</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Employee Salary Analysis</h1>

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<!--- Bar chart, from DeptSalaries Query of Queries. --->

<cfchart
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
font="Arial"
gridlines=6
showXGridlines="yes"
showYGridlines="yes"
showborder="yes"
show3d="yes"
>
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
seriesColor="olive"
paintStyle="plain"
/>
</cfchart>
<br>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as chartdata.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory. For example, the directory

path in Windows could be C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\myapps.

3 Return to your browser and enter the following URL to view the chartdata.cfm page:

http://localhost/myapps/chartdata.cfm
Note: If a query contains two rows with the same value for the itemColumn attribute, ColdFusion graphs the last row in
the query for that value. For the preceding example, if the query contains two rows for the Sales department, ColdFusion
graphs the value for the last row in the query for Sales.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:

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Code

Description

<cfquery name="GetSalaries" datasource="cfdocexamples">

SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name, Employee.Salary
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
</cfquery>

Query the cfdocexamples database to get the Dept_Name

and Salary for each employee. Because the Dept_Name is
in the Departmt table and the Salary is in the Employee
table, you need a table join in the WHERE clause. You can
use the raw results of this query elsewhere on the page.

<cfquery dbtype = "query" name = "DeptSalaries">

SELECT
Dept_Name,
AVG(Salary) AS AvgByDept
FROM GetSalaries
GROUP BY Dept_Name
</cfquery>

Generate a new query from the GetSalaries query. Use the

AVG aggregating function to get statistical data on the
employees. Use the GROUP BY statement to ensure that
only one row exists for each department.

<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#DeptSalaries.RecordCount#">

<cfset
DeptSalaries.AvgByDept[i]=Round(DeptSalaries.AvgByDept[i]/1
000)*1000>
</cfloop>

Loop through all the rows in the DeptSalaries query and

round the salary data to the nearest thousand. This loop
uses the RecordCount query variable to get the number of
rows, and directly changes the contents of the query
object.

<cfchart
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
font="Arial"
gridlines=6
showXGridlines="yes"
showYGridlines="yes"
showborder="yes"
show3d="yes"
>
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
seriesColor="olive"
paintStyle="plain"
/>
</cfchart>

Create a bar chart using the data from the AvgByDept

column of the DeptSalaries query. Label the bars with the
department names.

You can also rewrite this example to use the cfoutput and cfchartdata tags within the cfchartseries tag, instead
of using the loop, to round the salary data, as the following code shows:
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
seriesColor="olive"
paintStyle="plain">
<cfoutput query="deptSalaries">
<cfchartdata item="#dept_name#" value=#Round(AvgByDept/1000)*1000#>
</cfoutput>
</cfchartseries>

Combining a query and data points

To chart data from both query and individual data values, you specify the query name and related attributes in the
cfchartseries tag, and provide additional data points by using the cfchartdata tag.
ColdFusion displays the chart data specified by a cfchartdata tag before the data from a query, for example, to the
left on a bar chart. You can use the sortXAxis attribute of the cfchart tag to sort data alphabetically along the x axis.

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One use of combining queries and data points is to provide data that is missing from the database; for example, to
provide the data for one department if the data for that department is missing. The example in the following procedure
adds data for the Facilities and Documentation departments to the salary data obtained from the query shown in the
previous section:
1 Open the chartdata.cfm file in your editor.
2 Edit the cfchart tag so that it appears as follows:
<cfchart chartwidth="600">
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
query="DeptSalaries"
itemColumn ="Dept_Name"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
>
<cfchartdata item="Facilities" value="35000">
<cfchartdata item="Documentation" value="45000">
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>

3 Save the page as chartqueryanddata.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory. For example, the

directory path in Windows could be C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\myapps.

4 Return to your browser and enter the following URL to view the chartqueryanddata.cfm page:

http://localhost/myapps/chartqueryanddata.cfm

Charting multiple data collections

Sometimes, you could have more than one series of data to display on a single chart, or you want to compare two sets
of data on the same chart. In some cases, you might want to use different charting types on the same chart. For
example, you could include a line chart on a bar chart.
To combine multiple data series into a single chart, insert multiple cfchartseries tags within a single cfchart tag.
You control how the multiple data collections are charted using the seriesPlacement attribute of the cfchart tag.
Using this attribute, you can specify the following options:
default Let ColdFusion determine the best method for combining the data.
cluster Place corresponding chart elements from each series next to each other.
stacked Combine the corresponding elements of each series.
percent Show the elements of each series as a percentage of the total of all corresponding elements.

The following image shows these options for combining two bar charts:

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You can also combine chart types. The following is a combination bar and line chart:

The only chart type that you cannot mix with others is the pie chart. If you define one of the data series to use a pie
chart, no other chart appears.
The example in the following procedure creates the chart in the previous figure, which shows a bar chart with a line
chart added to it. In this example, you chart the salary of permanent employees (bar) against contract employees (line).
Note: The layering of multiple series depends on the order that you specify the cfchartseries tags. For example, if you
specify a bar chart first and a line chart second, the bar chart appears in front of the line chart in the final chart.
Create a combination bar chart and line chart
1 Open the chartdata.cfm file in your editor.
2 Edit the cfchart tag so that it appears as follows:

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<cfchart
backgroundColor="white"
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
font="Arial"
gridlines=6
showXGridlines="yes"
showYGridlines="yes"
showborder="yes"
>
<cfchartseries
type="line"
seriesColor="blue"
paintStyle="plain"
seriesLabel="Contract Salaries"
>
<cfchartdata item="HR" value=70000>
<cfchartdata item="Marketing" value=95000>
<cfchartdata item="Sales" value=80000>
<cfchartdata item="Training" value=93000>
</cfchartseries>
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
seriesColor="gray"
paintStyle="plain"
seriesLabel="Dept. Average Salaries"
/>
</cfchart>

3 Save the file as chart2queries.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory.
4 Return to your browser and view the chart2queries.cfm page.

Controlling chart appearance

You can control the appearance of charts by doing any of the following:

Using the default chart styles included with ColdFusion

Using the attributes of the cfchart and cfchartseries tags
Creating your own chart styles

Using the default chart styles included with ColdFusion

ColdFusion supplies the following chart styles:

beige
blue
default
red
silver

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yellow
To use any of these styles, specify the style using the style attribute of the cfchart tag. The following example
illustrates using the beige style:
<cfchart style="beige">
<cfchartseries type="pie">
<cfchartdata item="New car sales" value="50000">
<cfchartdata item="Used car sales" value="25000">
<cfchartdata item="Leasing" value="30000">
<cfchartdata item="Service" value="40000">
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>

You can specify the appearance of charts by using the attributes of the cfchart and cfchartseries tags.
You can optionally specify the following characteristics to the cfchart tag on the types of charts indicated:
Chart characteristic

Attributes used

Description

Chart type

File type

format

Whether to send the chart to the user as a JPEG, PNG, or SWF file.
The SWF file is the default format.

All

Size

chartWidth

The width and height, in pixels, of the chart. This size defines the
entire chart area, including the legend and background area
around the chart.

All

chartHeight

The default height is 240 pixels; the default width is 320 pixels.
Color

foregroundColor

The colors used for foreground and background objects.

dataBackgroundColor

The default foreground color is black; the default background

colors are white.

backgroundColor

You can specify 16 color names, use any valid HTML color format,
or specify an 8-digit hexadecimal value to specify the RGB value
and transparency. If you use numeric format, use double number
signs; for example, blue or ##FF33CC. To specify the color and
transparency, use the format ##xxFF33CC, where xx indicates the
transparency. The value FF indicates opaque; the value 00
indicates transparent. For the complete list of colors, see
Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

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Chart characteristic

Attributes used

Description

Labels

font

The font attribute specifies the font for all text. The default value All
is Arial. If you are using a double-byte character set on UNIX, or
using a double-byte character set in Windows with a file type of
Flash, specify ArialUnicodeMs as the font.

fontSize
fontBold
frontItalic
labelFormat
xAxisTitle
yAxisTitle

Chart type

Note: If a chart attempts to use a font that is not installed on the

ColdFusion server, it uses a different font that is available. Also, if
you do not specify the font, characters that are not ASCII, such as
Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and so on, can display improperly.
The fontSize specifies an Integer font size used for all text. The
default value is 11.
The fontBold attribute specifies to display all text as bold. The
default value is no.
The fontItalic attribute specifies to display all text as italic. The
default value is no.
The labelFormat attribute specifies the format of the y-axis
labels, number, currency, percent, or date. The default value is
number.
The xAxisTitle and yAxisTitle attributes specify the title for
each axis.

Border

showBorder

Use the showBorder attribute to draw a border around the chart. All
The foregroundColor attribute specifies the border color. The
default value is no.

Grid lines

showXGridlines

Use the showXGridlines and showYGridlines attributes to

display x-axis and y-axis grid lines. The default value no for x-axis
gridlines, and yes for y-axis gridlines.

Area

The gridLines attribute specifies the total number of grid lines

on the value axis, including the axis itself. The value of each grid
line appears along the value axis. The cfchart tag displays
horizontal grid lines only. The default value is 0, which means no
grid lines.

Cone

showYGridlines
gridLines

Bar

Curve
Cylinder
Horizontalbar
Line
Pyramid
Scatter
Step

Slice style

pieSliceStyle

Displays the pie chart as solid or sliced. The default value is

sliced.

Pie

Markers

showMarkers

The showMarkers attribute displays markers at the data points

for two-dimensional line, curve, and scatter charts. The default
value is yes.

All

markerSize

The markerSize attribute specifies an integer number of pixels

for the marker size. ColdFusion determines the default value.

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Chart characteristic

Attributes used

Description

Chart type

Value axis

scaleFrom

The minimum and maximum points on the data axis.

Area

scaleTo

By default, the minimum is 0 or the lowest negative chart data

value, and the maximum is the largest data value.

Bar

Cone
Note: If you specify a scaleFrom or scaleTo attribute that would
result in cropping the chart, cfchart uses a value that shows the Curve
entire chart without cropping.
Cylinder
Horizontalbar
Line
Pyramid
Scatter
Step
Axis type

XAxisType
sortXAxis

Whether the x axis corresponds to a numeric scale or identifies

different categories, and how to sort the items on the axis.

Area

If the attribute value is category (the default), the axis indicates

the data category.

Horizontalbar

Bar
If the XAxisType attribute value is scale, the x axis is numeric.
All cfchartdataitem attribute values must be numeric, and the Cone
axis is automatically sorted numerically. The scale value lets you Curve
create graphs of numeric relationships, such as population
Cylinder
against age.

The sortXAxis attribute determines the order of items when

you specify the cfchartdataitem attribute, whose values are
treated as text. By default, the items are displayed in the order in
which they are entered in the first chart series.

Line
Pyramid
Scatter
Step

3D appearance

show3D
xOffset
yOffset

The show3D attribute displays the chart in three dimensions. The

default value is no.

All

The xOffset and yOffset attributes specify the amount by

which to rotate the chart on a horizontal axis (xOffset) or vertical
axis (yOffset). The value 0 is flat (no rotation), -1 and 1 are for a
full 90 degree rotation left.
(-1) or right (1). The default value is 0.1

Multiple series

showLegend
seriesPlacement

The showLegend attribute lets you display the chart legend when All
the chart contains more than one series of data. The default value
is Yes.
The seriesPlacement attribute specifies the location of each
series relative to the others. By default, ColdFusion determines the
best placement based on the graph type of each series.

Tips

tipStyle
tipBGColor

The tipStyle attribute lets you display a small pop-up window All
that shows information about the chart element pointed to by the
mouse pointer. Options are none, mousedown, or mouseover.
The default value is mouseover.
The tipBGColor attribute specifies the background color of the
tip window for Flash format only. The default value is white.

You can also use the cfchartseries tag to specify attributes of chart appearance. The following table describes these
attributes:

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Chart characteristic

Attributes used

Description

Chart type

Multiple series

seriesLabel

The seriesLabel attribute specifies the text that displays for the
series label.

All

seriesColor

The seriesColor attribute specifies a single color of the bar, line,

pyramid, and so on. For pie charts, the color is that of the first slice.
Subsequent slices are automatically colored based on the specified
initial color, or use the colorList attribute.
Paint

paintStyle

Specifies the way color is applied to a data series. You can specify All
solid color, raised button, linear gradient fill with a light center and
darker outer edge, and gradient fill on lighter version of color. The
default value is solid.

Data point colors

colorList

A comma-separated list of colors to use for each data point for bar, Pie
pyramid, area, horizontalbar, cone, cylinder, step, and pie charts.
You can specify 16 color names, use any valid HTML color format, or
specify an 8-digit hexadecimal value to specify the RGB value and
transparency. If you use numeric format, use double number signs;
for example, blue or ##FF33CC. To specify the color and
transparency, use the format ##xxFF33CC, where xx indicates the
transparency. The value FF indicates opaque; the value 00 indicates
transparent. For the complete list of colors, see Configuring and
Administering ColdFusion.
If you specify fewer colors than data points, the colors repeat. If you
specify more colors than data points, the extra colors are not used.

Data markers

markerStyle

Specifies the shape used to mark the data point. Shapes include
Curve
circle, diamond, letterx, mcross, rcross, rectangle, snow,
and triangle. Supported for two-dimensional charts. The default Line
value is rectangle.
Scatter

Labels

dataLabelStyle

Specifies the way in which the color is applied to the item in the
All
series Styles include None,Value, Rowlabel, Columnlabel, and
Pattern.

Creating your own chart styles

You can create your own chart styles by doing either of the following:

Modifying the chart style XML files

Using WebCharts3D to create chart styles
Modifying the chart style XML files
You can modify the chart styles included with ColdFusion to create your own chart styles. The files that contain the
style information are XML files located in the cf_root\charting\styles directory. Modify only attributes specified in the
file. To specify additional attributes, follow the instructions in the section Using WebCharts3D to create chart styles
on page 996.
Note: Two XML files exist for each default chart style. For example, the beige style for pie charts is defined in the
beige_pie.xml file; the beige style for all other types of charts is defined in the beige.xml file.
1 Open the XML file that you want to modify, for example beige.xml.
2 Modify the file contents.
3 Save the file with a different name; for example myBeige.xml.

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Using WebCharts3D to create chart styles

Starting with ColdFusion MX 7, ColdFusion includes the WebCharts3D utility, which you can use to create chart style
files.
1 Start WebCharts3D by double-clicking the webcharts.bat file in the CFusion\charting directory.
2 (Optional) Open an existing chart.
3 Make the changes you want to the appearance of the chart.

Note: To use the chart style file in the cfchart tag, you can only make the modifications indicated in the table that
follows this procedure.
4 Click the XML style tab.
5 Click the Save button in the lower-right corner.
6 Specify the name of the file; for example, mystyle.xml.
7 Specify the directory in which you want to save the chart style file.

Note: ColdFusion uses the same rules to look for the chart style XML files as it does for files included using the
cfinclude tag. For more information, seecfinclude.
8 Click Save.

The following table lists the attributes of the cfchart and cfchartseries tags and the associated WebCharts3D
commands:
Attribute

WebCharts3D command

chartHeight

Drag the chart by handles.

chartWidth

Drag the chart by handles.

dataBackgroundColor

Background: minColor (type must be PlainColor)

font

font: Family (specify only supported fonts)

fontBold

font: check Bold

fontItalic

font: check Italic

fontSize

font: Size

foregroundColor

foreground

gridlines

X-axis: labelcount

labelFormat

Y-axis: LabelFormat: Number | Percent| Currency | Datetime

markerSize

Elements: markerSize

pieSliceStyle

style: solid | slice

rotated

Type Frame chart: Elements: Shape:

scaleFrom

Yaxis: isAbsolute; scaleMin(int)

scaleTo

Yaxis: isAbsolute; scaleMax(int)

seriesPlacement

Elements: place

show3D

is3D

showBorder

Decoration: style (none or simple)?

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Attribute

WebCharts3D command

showLegend

Legend: isVisible

showMarkers

Elements: showMarkers

showXGridlines

Frame: isVGridVisible

showYGridlines

Frame: isHGridVisible

tipbgColor

Popup: background

tipStyle

Popup: show on MouseOver | show on MouseDown | Disabled

url

Elements: action | Series: action

xAxisTitle

X-axis: TitleStyle: text (enter text)

xAxisType

X-axis: type: (category or scale)

xOffset

Frame: xDepth

yAxisTitle

Y-axis: TitleStyle: text (enter text)

yAxisType

Currently has no effect.

yOffset

Frame: yDepth

The following table lists the attributes of the cfchartseries tag and the associated WebCharts3D commands:
Attribute

WebCharts3D command

colorlist

Elements: series: Paint: color

markerStyle

Elements: series: Marker type: Rectangle | Triangle | Diamond | Circle | Letter | MCROSS | Snow |
RCROSS

paintStyle

Paint: paint: Plain | Shade | Light

seriesColor

Elements: series: Paint: color

seriesLabel

Elements: series:

type

Type: Pie chart |

Type Frame chart: Elements: Shape: Bar | Line | Pyramid | Area | Curve | Step | Scatter | Cone |
Cylinder | Horizontalbar |

Creating charts: examples

Creating a bar chart
The example in the following procedure adds a title to the bar chart, specifies that the chart is three-dimensional, adds
grid lines, sets the minimum and maximum y-axis values, and uses a custom set of colors.
1 Open the chartdata.cfm file in your editor.
2 Edit the cfchart tag so that it appears as follows:

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<!--- Bar chart, from Query of Queries --->

<cfchart
scaleFrom=40000
scaleTo=100000
font="arial"
fontSize=16
gridLines=4
show3D="yes"
foregroundcolor="##000066"
databackgroundcolor="##FFFFCC"
chartwidth="450"
>
<cfchartseries
type="bar"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
seriescolor="##33CC99"
paintstyle="shade"
/>
</cfchart>

3 Save the file as chartdatastyle1.cfm.

4 View the chartdatastyle1.cfm page in your browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code in the preceding example.
Code

Description

scaleFrom=40000

Set the minimum value of the vertical axis to 40000.

scaleTo=100000

Set the maximum value of the vertical axis to 100000. The minimum value is the default, 0.

font="arial"

Displays text using the Arial font.

fontSize=16

Makes the point size of the labels 16 points.

gridLines = 4

Displays four grid lines between the top and bottom of the chart.

show3D = "yes"

Shows the chart in 3D.

foregroundcolor="##000066"

Sets the color of the text, gridlines, and labels.

databackgroundcolor="##FFFFCC"

Sets the color of the background behind the bars.

seriescolor="##33CC99"

Sets the color of the bars.

paintstyle="shade"

Sets the paint display style.

Creating a pie chart

The example in the following procedure adds a pie chart to the page.
1 Open the chartdata.cfm file in your editor.
2 Edit the DeptSalaries query and the cfloop code so that it appears as follows:

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<!--- A query to get statistical data for each department. --->

<cfquery dbtype = "query" name = "DeptSalaries">
SELECT
Dept_Name,
SUM(Salary) AS SumByDept,
AVG(Salary) AS AvgByDept
FROM GetSalaries
GROUP BY Dept_Name
</cfquery>
<!--- Reformat the generated numbers to show only thousands. --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#DeptSalaries.RecordCount#">
<cfset DeptSalaries.SumByDept[i]=Round(DeptSalaries.SumByDept[i]/
1000)*1000>
<cfset DeptSalaries.AvgByDept[i]=Round(DeptSalaries.AvgByDept[i]/
1000)*1000>
</cfloop>

3 Add the following cfchart tag:

<!--- Pie chart, from DeptSalaries Query of Queries. --->
<cfchart
tipStyle="mousedown"
font="Times"
fontsize=14
fontBold="yes"
backgroundColor = "##CCFFFF"
show3D="yes"
>
<cfchartseries
type="pie"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="SumByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
colorlist="##6666FF,##66FF66,##FF6666,##66CCCC"
/>
</cfchart>
<br>

4 Save the file as chartdatapie1.cfm.

5 View the chartdatapie1.cfm page in your browser:

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Code

Description

SUM(Salary) AS SumByDept,

In the DeptSalaries query, add a SUM aggregation function to get the sum of all
salaries per department.

<cfset
In the cfloop tag, round the salary sums to the nearest thousand.
DeptSalaries.SumByDept[i]=Round(DeptSalari
es.SumByDept[i]/ 1000)*1000>
<cfchart
tipStyle="mousedown"
font="Times"
fontsize=14
fontBold="yes"
backgroundColor = "##CCFFFF"
show3D="yes"
>

Show a tip only when a user clicks the chart, display text in Times bold font, set the
background color to light blue, and display the chart in three dimensions.

<cfchartseries
type="pie"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="SumByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"

Create a pie chart using the SumByDept salary sum values from the DeptSalaries
query.
Use the contents of the Dept_Name column for the item labels displayed in the
chart legend.

colorlist="##6666FF,##66FF66,##FF6666,##66 Get the pie slice colors from a custom list, which uses hexadecimal color numbers.
CCCC"
The double number signs prevent ColdFusion from trying to interpret the color
/>

data as variable names.

Creating an area chart

The example in the following procedure adds an area chart to the salaries analysis page. The chart shows the average
salary by start date to the salaries analysis page. It shows the use of a second query of queries to generate a new analysis
of the raw data from the GetSalaries query. It also shows the use of additional cfchart attributes.
1 Open the chartdata.cfm file in your editor.
2 Edit the GetSalaries query so that it appears as follows:
<!-- Get the raw data from the database. -->
<cfquery name="GetSalaries" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
</cfquery>

3 Add the following code before the html tag:

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<!--- Convert start date to start year. --->

<!--- Convert the date to a number for the query to work --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#GetSalaries.RecordCount#">
<cfset GetSalaries.StartDate[i]=NumberFormat(DatePart("yyyy", GetSalaries.StartDate[i])
,9999)>
</cfloop>
<!--- Query of Queries for average salary by start year. --->
<cfquery dbtype = "query" name = "HireSalaries">
SELECT
StartDate,
AVG(Salary) AS AvgByStart
FROM GetSalaries
GROUP BY StartDate
</cfquery>
<!--- Round average salaries to thousands. --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#HireSalaries.RecordCount#">
<cfset HireSalaries.AvgByStart[i]=Round(HireSalaries.AvgByStart[i]/1000)*1000>
</cfloop>

4 Add the following cfchart tag before the end of the body tag block:
<!--- Area-style Line chart, from HireSalaries Query of Queries. --->
<cfchart
chartWidth=400
BackgroundColor="##FFFF00"
show3D="yes"
>
<cfchartseries
type="area"
query="HireSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByStart"
itemColumn="StartDate"
/>
</cfchart>
<br>

5 Save the page.

6 View the chartdata.cfm page in your browser.

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Code

Description

Employee.StartDate,

Add the employee start date to the data in the GetSalaries query.

<cfloop index="i" from="1"

to="#GetSalaries.RecordCount#">
<cfset
GetSalaries.StartDate[i]=NumberFormat(DatePart("yy
yy", GetSalaries.StartDate[i]) ,9999)>
</cfloop>

Use a cfloop tag to extract the year of hire from the hire data, and
convert the result to a four-digit number.

<cfquery dbtype = "query" name = "HireSalaries">

SELECT
StartDate,
AVG(Salary) AS AvgByStart
FROM GetSalaries
GROUP BY StartDate
</cfquery>

Create a second query from the GetSalaries query. This query contains
the average salary for each start year.

<cfloop index="i" from="1"

to="#HireSalaries.RecordCount#">
<cfset
HireSalaries.AvgByStart[i]=Round(HireSalaries.AvgB
yStart[i]/1000)*1000>
</cfloop>

Round the salaries to the nearest thousand.

<cfchart
chartWidth=400
BackgroundColor="##FFFF00"
show3D="yes"
>
<cfchartseries
type="area"
query="HireSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByStart"
itemColumn="StartDate"
/>
</cfchart>

Create an area chart using the HireSalaries query. Chart the average
salaries against the start date.
Limit the chart width to 400 pixels, show the chart in three dimensions,
and set the background color to white.

Setting curve chart characteristics

Curves charts use the attributes already discussed. However, curve charts require a large amount of processing to
render. For fastest performance, create them offline, write them to a file or variable, and then reference them in your
application pages. For information on creating offline charts, see Writing a chart to a variable on page 1003.

Administering charts
Use the ColdFusion Administrator to administer charts. In the Administrator, you can choose to save cached charts
in memory or to disk. You can also specify the number of charts to cache, the number of charting threads, and the disk
file for caching images to disk.
ColdFusion caches charts as they are created. In that way, repeated requests of the same chart load the chart from the
cache rather than having ColdFusion render the chart over and over again.
Note: You do not have to perform any special coding to reference a cached chart. Whenever you use the cfchart tag,
ColdFusion inspects the cache to see if the chart has already been rendered. If so, ColdFusion loads the chart from the
cache.
The following table describes the settings for the ColdFusion charting and graphing engine:

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Option

Description

Cache Type

Sets the cache type. Charts can be cached in memory or to disk. Caching in memory is faster, but more memory
intensive.

Maximum number of
images in cache

Specifies the maximum number of charts to store in the cache. When the limit is reached, the oldest chart in the
cache is deleted to make room for a new one. The maximum number of charts you can store in the cache is 250.

Max number of charting

threads

Specifies the maximum number of chart requests that can be processed concurrently. The minimum number is
1 and the maximum is 5. Higher numbers are more memory-intensive.

Disk cache location

When caching to disk, specifies the directory in which to store the generated charts.

Writing a chart to a variable

In some cases, your application could have charts that are static or charts that, because of the nature of the data input,
take a long time to render. In this scenario, you can create a chart and write it to a variable.
Once written to a variable, other ColdFusion pages can access the variable to display the chart, or you can write the
variable to disk to save the chart to a file. Saving the variable on disk lets you create or update charts only as needed,
rather than every time someone requests a page that contains a chart.
You use the name attribute of the cfchart tag to write a chart to a variable. If you specify the name attribute, the chart
is not rendered in the browser but is written to the variable.
You can save the chart as an Adobe Flash SWF file, or as a JPEG or PNG image file. If you save the image as a SWF file,
you can pass the variable back to a Flash client using ColdFusion Flash Remoting. For more information, see Using
the Flash Remoting Service on page 606.
Note: If you write the chart to a JPEG or PNG file, mouseover tips and URLs embedded in the chart for data drill-down
do not work when you redisplay the image from the file. However, if you save the image as a SWF file, both tips and drilldown URLs work. For more information on data drill-down, see Linking charts to URLs on page 1004.

Write a chart to a variable and a file

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfchart name="myChart" format="jpg">
<cfchartseries type="pie">
<cfchartdata item="New Vehicle Sales" value=500000>
<cfchartdata item="Used Vehicle Sales" value=250000>
<cfchartdata item="Leasing" value=300000>
<cfchartdata item="Service" value=400000>
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>
<cffile
action="WRITE"
file="c:\inetpub\wwwroot\charts\vehicle.jpg"
output="#myChart#">
<img src="/charts/vehicle.jpg" height=240 width=320>

2 Save the page as chartToFile.cfm in myapps under the web root directory.
3 View the chartToFile.cfm page in your browser.

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Code

Description

<cfchart name="myChart" format="jpg">

Define a chart written to the myChart variable by using the JPEG

format.

<cffile action="WRITE"
file="c:\inetpub\wwwroot\charts\vehicle.jpg"
output="#myChart#">

Use the cffile tag to write the chart to a file.

<img src="/charts/vehicle.jpg" height=240

width=320>

Use the HTML img tag to display the chart.

Linking charts to URLs

ColdFusion provides a data drill-down capability with charts, which lets you click the data and legend areas of a chart
to request a URL. For example, if you have a pie chart and want a user to be able to select a pie wedge for more
information, you can build that functionality into your chart.
You use the url attribute of the cfchart tag to specify the URL to open when a user clicks anywhere on the chart. For
example, the following code defines a chart that opens the page moreinfo.cfm when a user clicks the chart:
<cfchart
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
url="moreinfo.cfm"
>
<cfchartseries
seriesLabel="Department Salaries"
...
/>
</cfchart>

You can use the following variables in the url attribute to pass additional information to the target page:

$VALUE$: The value of the selected item, or an empty string

$ITEMLABEL$: The label of the selected item, or an empty string

$SERIESLABEL$: The label of the selected series, or an empty string

For example, to let users click the graph to open the page moreinfo.cfm, and pass all three values to the page, you use
the following URL:
url="moreinfo.cfm?Series=$SERIESLABEL$&Item=$ITEMLABEL$&Value=$VALUE$"

The variables are not enclosed in number signs like ordinary ColdFusion variables. They are enclosed in dollar signs.
If you click a chart that uses this url attribute value, it could generate a URL in the following form:
http://localhost:8500/tests/charts/moreinfo.cfm?
Series=Department%20Salaries&Item=Training&Value=86000

You can also use JavaScript in the URL to execute client-side scripts. For an example, see Linking to JavaScript from
a pie chart on page 1007.

Dynamically linking from a pie chart

In the following example, when you click a pie wedge, ColdFusion displays a table that contains the detailed salary
information for the department represented by the wedge. The example is divided into two parts: creating the detail
page and making the pie chart dynamic.

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Part 1: Creating the detail page

This page displays salary information for the department you selected when you click a wedge of the pie chart. The
department name is passed to this page using the $ITEMLABEL$ variable.
1 Create an application page with the following content:
<cfquery name="GetSalaryDetails" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.FirstName,
Employee.LastName,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary,
Employee.Contract
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_Name = '#URL.Item#'
AND Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
ORDER BY Employee.LastName, Employee.Firstname
</cfquery>
<html>
<head>
<title>Employee Salary Details</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><cfoutput>#GetSalaryDetails.Dept_Name[1]# Department
Salary Details</cfoutput></h1>
<table border cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5>
<tr>
<th>Employee Name</th>
<th>StartDate</th>
<th>Salary</th>
<th>Contract?</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetSalaryDetails">
<tr>
<td>#FirstName# #LastName#</td>
<td>#dateFormat(StartDate, "mm/dd/yyyy")#</td>
<td>#numberFormat(Salary, "$999,999")#</td>
<td>#Contract#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the page as Salary_details.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory.

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Code

Description

<cfquery name="GetSalaryDetails"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.FirstName,
Employee.LastName,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary,
Employee.Contract
FROM Departmt, Employee
WHERE Departmt.Dept_Name = '#URL.Item#'
AND Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
ORDER BY Employee.LastName, Employee.Firstname
</cfquery>

Get the salary data for the department whose name was passed in
the URL parameter string. Sort the data by the last and first names
of the employee.

<table border cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5>

<tr>
<th>Employee Name</th>
<th>StartDate</th>
<th>Salary</th>
<th>Contract?</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetSalaryDetails">
<tr>
<td>#FirstName# #LastName#</td>
<td>#dateFormat(StartDate, "mm/dd/yyyy")#</td>
<td>#numberFormat(Salary, "$999,999")#</td>
<td>#Contract#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>

Display the data retrieved by the query as a table. Format the start
date into standard month/date/year format, and format the salary
with a leading dollar sign, comma separator, and no decimal
places.

Part 2: Making the chart dynamic

1 Open chartdata.cfm in your editor.
2 Edit the cfchart tag for the pie chart so it appears as follows:
<cfchart
font="Times"
fontBold="yes"
backgroundColor="##CCFFFF"
show3D="yes"
url="Salary_Details.cfm?Item=$ITEMLABEL$"
>
<cfchartseries
type="pie"
query="DeptSalaries"
valueColumn="AvgByDept"
itemColumn="Dept_Name"
colorlist="##990066,##660099,##006699,##069666"
/>
</cfchart>

3 Save the file as chartdetail.cfm.

4 View the chartdata.cfm page in your browser.
5 Click the slices of the pie chart to request the Salary_details.cfm page and pass in the department name of the wedge

you clicked. The salary information for that department appears.

Reviewing the code
The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:

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Code

Description

url = "Salary_Details.cfm?Item=$ITEMLABEL$"

When the user clicks a wedge of the pie chart, call the Salary_details.cfm
page in the current directory, and pass it the parameter named Item that
contains the department name of the selected wedge.

Linking to JavaScript from a pie chart

In the following example, when you click a pie wedge, ColdFusion uses JavaScript to display a pop-up window about
the wedge.
Create a dynamic chart with JavaScript:
1 Create an application page with the following content:
<script>
function Chart_OnClick(theSeries, theItem, theValue){
alert("Series: " + theSeries + ", Item: " + theItem + ", Value: " + theValue);
}
</script>
<cfchart
xAxisTitle="Department"
yAxisTitle="Salary Average"
tipstyle=none
url="javascript:Chart_OnClick('$SERIESLABEL$','$ITEMLABEL$','$VALUE$');"
>
<cfchartseries type="bar" seriesLabel="Average Salaries by Department">
<cfchartData item="Finance" value="75000">
<cfchartData item="Sales" value="120000">
<cfchartData item="IT" value="83000">
<cfchartData item="Facilities" value="45000">
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>

2 Save the page as chartdata_withJS.cfm in the myapps directory under the web root directory.
3 View the chartdata_withJS.cfm page in your browser:
4 Click the slices of the pie chart to display the pop-up window.

Creating Reports and Documents for Printing

You can use Adobe ColdFusion tags, functions, and tools to create pages and reports that are suitable for printing.

About printable output

Although all web browsers let you print HTML pages, HTML-format pages are not optimized for printed output. For
example, lack of control over line breaks, page breaks, headers, footers, and page numbers are just a few of the
problems that you encounter when designing reports and other pages meant to be printed.
In the context of ColdFusion, the term printable output refers to pages that include the following features:

Page numbers
Headers and footers

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Page breaks
Clickable hypertext links when viewed online
ColdFusion provides the following tags for generating printable output:

cfdocument: Creates printable output and returns it to the browser or saves it in a file. For more information, see

Creating PDF and FlashPaper output with the cfdocument tag on page 1008.

cfreport: Uses the specified report definition to create printable output and return it to the browser or save it in

a file. ColdFusion supports report definitions from the following tools:

ColdFusion Report Builder: The ColdFusion Report Builder is a banded report writer that is integrated with
ColdFusion. For more information, see About Report Builder on page 1015.

Crystal Reports: Crystal Reports is a report writer whose report definitions you can use with the cfreport tag.
For more information, see Creating reports with Crystal Reports (Windows only) on page 1014.
ColdFusion printable reports are available in the following formats:
FlashPaper ColdFusion creates a SWF file. Clients must have an up-to-date version of Adobe Flash Player installed.
Adobe Acrobat ColdFusion creates a PDF file. Clients must have the Adobe Reader installed.
Microsoft Excel (ColdFusion reporting only) ColdFusion creates an Excel spreadsheet.

Note: The Excel report output format type provides limited support for the formatting options available in ColdFusion
reporting. Images and charts are not supported and numeric data containing formatting (such as commas, percents,
currency) appears as plain text in Excel. The Excel output format supports simple reports only and it is recommended that
you give careful design and layout consideration to reports designed for Excel output.
Crystal Reports (Windows only) ColdFusion passes control to Crystal Reports, which creates HTML. This option is
available with the cfreport tag only.

Creating PDF and FlashPaper output with the cfdocument tag

The cfdocument tag converts everything between its start and end tags into PDF or FlashPaper output format and
returns it to the browser or saves it to a file. As a result you can easily convert HTML to printable output, as the
following example shows:
<cfdocument format="FlashPaper">
<p>This is a document rendered by the cfdocument tag.</p>
</cfdocument>

The cfdocument tag supports all HTML and CFML tags, with the following exceptions:

cfchart

Tags that generate content displayed in Flash Player.

Interactive tags, such as form, cfform, and cfapplet
JavaScript that dynamically modifies elements or element positions
Additionally, the HTML wrapped by the cfdocument tag must be well-formed, with end tags for every start tag and
proper nesting of block-level elements.
Note: ColdFusion does not return HTML and CFML outside the <cfdocument></cfdocument> pair.

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Creating basic reports from HTML and CFML

You can convert HTML-based reports into PDF or FlashPaper output by wrapping the HTML in the cfdocument start
and end tags, and specifying cfdocument attributes, as appropriate, to customize the following items:

Page size
Page orientation
Margins
Encryption (PDF only)
User password and owner password (PDF only)
Permissions (PDF only)
For complete information on these options, see the cfdocument tag discussion in the CFML Reference.
Note: Embedding fonts in the report can help ensure consistent display across multiple browsers and platforms. For more
information on the considerations related to embedding fonts, see Creating a simple report on page 1036.
The following example displays a list of employees, using a cfoutput tag to loop through the query:
<cfdocument format="flashpaper">
<h1>Employee List</h1>
<!--- Inline query used for example purposes only. --->
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary, Contract
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="EmpList">
#EmpList.FirstName#, #EmpList.LastName#, #LSCurrencyFormat(EmpList.Salary)#,
#EmpList.Contract#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfdocument>

Creating sections, headers, and footers

You can use the cfdocument and cfdocumentsection tags to fine-tune your printable output, as follows:

cfdocumentitem: Creates page breaks, headers, or footers.

cfdocumentsection: Divides output into sections, optionally specifying custom margins. Within a section, use the
cfdocumentitem tag to specify unique headers and footers for each section. Each document section starts on a new page.

The cfdocumentitem tag

You use one or more cfdocumentitem tags to specify headers and footers or to create a page break. You can use
cfdocumentitem tags with or without the cfdocumentsection tag, as follows:

With cfdocumentsection: The cfdocumentitem attribute applies only to the section, and overrides previously
specified headers and footers.

Without cfdocumentsection: The cfdocumentitem attribute applies to the entire document, as follows:
If the tag is at the top of the document, it applies to the entire document.
If the tag is in the middle of the document, it applies to the rest of the document.
If the tag is at the end of the document, it has no affect.
You can use the cfdocumentitem tag to create a running header for an entire document, as the following example
shows:

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<cfdocument format="PDF">
<!--- Running header --->
<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<font size="-3"><i>Directory Report</i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<h3>cfdirectory Example</h3>
<!--- Use cfdirectory to display directories by name and size --->
<cfdirectory
directory="#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetTemplatePath())#"
name="myDirectory" recurse="yes"
sort="directory ASC, name ASC, size DESC">
<!---- Output the contents of the cfdirectory as a cftable ----->
<cftable query="myDirectory"
htmltable colheaders>
<cfcol header="DIRECTORY:" text="#directory#">
<cfcol header="NAME:" text="#Name#">
<cfcol header="SIZE:" text="#Size#">
</cftable>
</cfdocument>

The cfdocumentsection tag

When using cfdocumentsection, all text in the document must be enclosed within cfdocumentsection tags.
ColdFusion ignores HTML and CFML outside cfdocumentsection tags. The margin attributes override margins
specified in previous sections or in the parent cfdocument tag. If you specify margin attributes, the unit attribute of
the parent cfdocument tag control the units; the default for the unit attribute is inches.
Within a section, use the cfdocumentitem tag to specify unique headers and footers for each section and a page break
before each section, as the following example shows:
<cfquery datasource="cfdocexamples" name="empSalary">
SELECT Emp_ID, firstname, lastname, e.dept_id, salary, d.dept_name
FROM employee e, departmt d
WHERE e.dept_id = d.dept_id
ORDER BY d.dept_name
</cfquery>
<cfdocument format="PDF">
<cfoutput query="empSalary" group="dept_id">
<cfdocumentsection>
<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<font size="-3"><i>Salary Report</i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentitem type="footer">
<font size="-3">Page #cfdocument.currentpagenumber#</font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<h2>#dept_name#</h2>
<table width="95%" border="2" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" >
<tr>
<th>Employee</th>
<th>Salary</th>
</tr>
<cfset deptTotal = 0 >
<!--- inner cfoutput --->

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<cfoutput>
<tr>
<td><font size="-1">
#empSalary.lastname#, #empSalary.firstname#</font>
</td>
<td align="right"><font size="-1">
#DollarFormat(empSalary.salary)#</font>
</td>
</tr>
<cfset deptTotal = deptTotal + empSalary.salary>
</cfoutput>
<tr>
<td align="right"><font size="-1">Total</font></td>
<td align="right"><font size="-1">#DollarFormat(deptTotal)#</font></td>
</tr>
<cfset deptTotal = 0>
</table>
</cfdocumentsection>
</cfoutput>
</cfdocument>

Using the cfdocument scope

When you use the cfdocument tag, ColdFusion creates a scope named cfdocument. This scope contains the following
variables:
currentpagenumber Displays the current page number.
totalpagecount Displays the total page count.
currentsectionpagenumber Displays the current section number.
totalsectionpagecount Displays the total number of sections.

Note: You can use the cfdocument scope variables in expressions within the cfdocumentitem tag only.
You typically use these variables in a header or footer to display the current page number and total number or pages,
as the following example shows:
<cfdocumentitem type= "footer> #cfdocument.currentpagenumber# of
#cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfdocumentitem>

Creating bookmarks in PDF files

You can use the cfdocumentbookmark attribute to create bookmarks for each section within a PDF document, as the
following example shows:

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<cfdocument format="PDF" bookmark="yes">

<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<font size="-1" align="center"><i>Building Better Applications</i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentitem type="footer">
<font size="-1"><i>Page <cfoutput>#cfdocument.currentpagenumber# of
#cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfoutput></i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentsection name="Introduction">
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<p>The introduction goes here.</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
<cfdocumentsection name="Chapter 1">
<h3>Chapter 1: Getting Started</h3>
<p>Chapter 1 goes here.</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
<cfdocumentsection name="Chapter 2">
<h3>Chapter 2: Building Applications</h3>
<p>Chapter 2 goes here.</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
<cfdocumentsection name="Conclusion">
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>The conclusion goes here.</p>
</cfdocumentsection>
</cfdocument>

The bookmarks appear in the bookmarks panel of the PDF document.

Using cfhttp to display web pages

You can use the cfhttp tag in combination with the cfdocument tag to display entire web pages in PDF or FlashPaper
output format, as the following example shows:
<!--- You can pass a URL in the URL string --->
<cfparam name="url.target_url" default="http://www.boston.com">
<cfoutput>
<cfhttp url="#url.target_url#" resolveurl="yes">
<cfdocument format="FlashPaper">
<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<cfoutput>#url.target_url#</cfoutput>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentitem type="footer">
<cfoutput>#cfdocument.currentpagenumber# / #cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfoutput>
</cfdocumentitem>
<!--- Display the page --->
#cfhttp.filecontent#
</cfdocument>
</cfoutput>

Using advanced PDF options

The cfdocument tag supports the Acrobat security options, as the following table shows:

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Security option

Description

Encryption

Use the encryption attribute to specify whether PDF output is encrypted. Specify one of the following:

128-bit

40-bit

none

User password

Use the userpassword attribute to specify a password that users must enter to view the document.

Owner password

Use the ownerpassword attribute to specify a password that users must enter to view and optionally modify
the document.

Additionally, the cfdocument tag supports the following Acrobat security permissions through the permissions
attribute. Specify one or more of the following values; separate multiple permissions with a comma:
Permission

Description

Printing

Specify the AllowPrinting attribute to enable viewers to print the document.

Modification

Specify the AllowModifyContents attribute to let viewers modify the document, assuming they have the
required software.

Copy

Specify the AllowCopy attribute to let viewers select and copy text from the document.

Annotation

Specify AllowModifyAnnotations to let viewers add comments to the document. If users add annotations,
they must save the PDF after making changes.

Screen readers

Specify AllowScreenReaders to enable access to the document through a screen reader.

Fill in

Specify AllowFillIn to enable users to use form fields.

Assembly

Specify AllowAssembly to enable users to create bookmarks and thumbnails, as well as insert, delete, and
rotate pages.

Degraded printing

Specify AllowDegradedPrinting to enable lower-resolution printing. This format prints each page as a
bitmap, so printing can be slower.

Note: The defaults for these options vary, based on encryption level. These options apply to PDF only. For more
information, see the cfdocument discussion in the CFML Reference.
The following example creates a PDF document that allows copying only:
<cfdocument format="PDF" encryption="40-bit"
ownerpassword="us3rpa$$w0rd" userpassword="us3rpa$$w0rd"
permissions="AllowCopy" >
<h1>Employee List</h1>
<cfquery name="EmpList" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="EmpList">
#EmpList.FirstName#, #EmpList.LastName#, #LSCurrencyFormat(EmpList.Salary)#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfdocument>

Saving printable reports in files

You can use the cfdocument filename attribute to save the generated PDF or SWF content to a file, as the following
example shows:

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<!--- The compasstravel database is part of the Getting Started

tutorial application, found under the cfdocs directory. --->
<cfquery datasource="compasstravel" name="compasstrips">
SELECT tripName, tripDescription, tripLocation, price
FROM trips
ORDER BY price
</cfquery>
<cfdocument format="pdf"
filename="#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetTemplatePath())#/compasstrips.pdf"
overwrite="yes">
<cfdocumentsection>
<h1 align="center">Compass Travel</h1>
<h2 align="center">Destination Guide</h2>
<p align="center"><img src="cfdocs/getting_started/photos/somewhere.jpg"></p>
</cfdocumentsection>
<cfdocumentsection>
<cfdocumentitem type="header">
<font size="-3"> <i>Compass Travel Trip Descriptions</i></font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfdocumentitem type="footer">
<font size="-3">
<cfoutput>Page #cfdocument.currentpagenumber#</cfoutput>
</font>
</cfdocumentitem>
<cfoutput query="compasstrips">
<hr>
<h2>#tripName#</h2>
<p><b>#tripLocation#</b></p>
<p>Price: #DollarFormat(price)#</p>
<p>#tripDescription#</p>
</cfoutput>
</cfdocumentsection>
</cfdocument>

Creating reports with Crystal Reports (Windows only)

When running on Windows, the cfreport tag also supports the execution of reports created using Crystal Reports
version 9 or 10.
Note: When you install Crystal Reports, select the Enable export to HTML and Enable export to Disk options. These
options are not enabled by default, so you must use the Custom Install option.
1 Create a report definition in Crystal Reports.
2 Create a CFM page and add a cfreport tag that invokes the Crystal Reports report definition. The following

example shows the cfreport tag invoking a Crystal Reports report definition and passing a filter condition:
<cfreport report = '/reports/monthlysales.rpt'>
{Departments.Department} = 'International'
</cfreport>

3 Open a browser and display the CFM page.

ColdFusion uses COM to call Craxdrt9.dll for Crystal Reports version 9, and Craxdrt.dll for Crystal Reports version
10. If you have problems with the cfreport tag, ensure that these DLLs are registered and, if not, use regsvr32 to
register them (the default location for these DLLs is C:\Program Files\Crystal Decisions\Report Designer Component\).
For complete information on defining reports in Crystal Reports, see the Crystal Reports documentation.

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Creating Reports with Report Builder

Improve your access to important business data by creating integrated business reports with Adobe ColdFusion
Report Builder and CFML.

About Report Builder

ColdFusion reporting adds integrated business reporting to ColdFusion, providing access to important business data.
ColdFusion reporting consists of server-side run-time processing and a graphical user interface (GUI), called the
Report Builder.
For information on installing the Report Builder, see Getting started on page 1015.
The Report Builder is a Windows-only tool that lets you build banded reports. A banded report consists of multiple
horizontal sections (bands), one band for each part of a printed report. For example, data and text in the report header
band prints at the beginning of the report, data and text in the page header band prints at the beginning of each page,
and data and text in the page footer band prints at the end of each page. In the middle of the report is the detail band,
which, at run time, contains one row for each row in the reports result set or database query.
The Report Builder contains an extensive online Help system, including quick-start tutorial topics and contextsensitive dialog box Help. Press F1 to consult the online Help.

Report Builder and CFR files

The Report Builder is a stand-alone application that creates report definitions, interacting with a ColdFusion server,
as necessary. The Report Builder stores report definition information in a ColdFusion Report (CFR) file. This file
contains field definitions, formatting, database SQL statements, CFML, and other information. You display a CFR file
by using the cfreport tag and, if enabled for the report, display the report by running the CFR file in a browser.
Note: The Report Builder runs in the Windows platform only. However, the CFR files created by the Report Builder run
on all platforms that ColdFusion runs on and that have ColdFusion Reporting enabled.

RDS
Remote Development Services (RDS) is a proprietary protocol that uses HTTP to enable the Query Builder and Chart
Wizard to access database data through a ColdFusion data source. To enable this functionality in the Report Builder, you
define settings for an RDS server. RDS server is another name for an associated ColdFusion server that has enabled RDS.
For more information, see Using CFML in reports on page 1030.

Run time
At run time, you display the CFR file by using a ColdFusion server that has ColdFusion Reporting enabled. You can
display the CFR file directly or run it through the cfreport tag. Also, you can save the report to a file instead of
returning output to the browser. If the report requires input parameters or a passed query, use the cfreport tag. If
you pass a query attribute in the cfreport tag, it overrides any internal SQL statement in the report definition.

Getting started
For installation instructions, see Installing ColdFusion. When you install the Report Builder, it also registers Windows
DLLs that RDS uses. If these DLLs fail to register properly, the Report Builder generates errors at startup and when
using RDS.

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Setup Wizard
The first time you start the Report Builder, it runs the Setup Wizard. The Setup Wizard prompts you to define default
settings for an associated ColdFusion server. These settings include the following:

Default unit of measurement: Inches, centimeters, or pixels.

ColdFusion server. The RDS server that the Query Builder and Chart Wizard use to access database data (RDS must
be enabled on this server). The Setup Wizard requires the following information:

Host name or IP address.

Web server port. Typically, the port is 80 if you are using a web server connector, 8500 if you are using the builtin web server in the server configuration, 8300 if you are using the built-in web server with the cfusion server in
the multiserver configuration, or a J2EE-server-specific web server port number.

RDS password for the associated ColdFusion server.

Directory path to the web root used by the associated ColdFusion server (for example, C:\Inetpub\wwwroot or
C:\ColdFusion\wwwroot).

URL for the web root used by the associated ColdFusion server (for example, http://localhost or
http://localhost:8500).
After running the Setup Wizard, the Report Gallery dialog box appears. When you click the Using A Report Wizard
radio button, the Report Builder runs the Report Creation Wizard, which prompts you for information and
automatically generates a complete report definition.
For more information on the Report Creation Wizard, see the Report Builder online Help.
Configuring RDS
Configure one RDS server for each ColdFusion server for which you define reports. After you configure an RDS server,
you can use the Query Builder to access data sources that you defined in the associated ColdFusion server, and select
database columns for use as query fields in a report.

Add an RDS server

1 Open the Preferences dialog box by selecting Edit > Preferences from the menu bar.
2 Click Server Connection.
3 Click the plus sign (+) next to the pop-up menu in the upper-left corner of the dialog box.
4 In the Configure RDS Server dialog box, specify the following information, and then click OK:
Description A name for the server connection. This name appears in the pop-up menu on the left side of the Query

Builder.
Host name The host on which ColdFusion runs. Type localhost or an IP address.
Port Web server port number. Accept the default port (80) or enter the port number of the ColdFusion servers
built-in web server (8500 is the default port number).
Context Root (J2EE configuration only) The context root (if any) for the ColdFusion web application.
Use Secure Sockets Layer (Optional) Enables SSL security.
User Name Not applicable to ColdFusion RDS.
Password RDS password. You set this password in the ColdFusion Administrator.

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Do not confuse the RDS password with the ColdFusion Administrator password, which you also manage through
the ColdFusion Administrator.
Prompt for password Specifies whether to prompt for an RDS password each time you use the Query Builder. If
you select this option, leave the User Name and Password fields blank.

Designate a default RDS server

1 Open the Preferences dialog box by selecting Edit > Preferences from the menu bar.
2 Click Server Connection.
3 Select an RDS server from the Preferred RDS Server pop-up menu, and click OK.

The Report Builder automatically connects to the specified server when you display the Query Builder or Chart
Wizard.

User interface usage, tips, and techniques

The Report Builder workspace includes the following areas:

Toolbox: Contains nonvariable elements placed in a report, including text, shapes, images, subreports, and graphs.
To use toolbox elements, click the element, and then drag in the report band to define the elements size. After you
place an element on a report band, you can modify its appearance and behavior by using the Properties panel.

Alignment panel: Use Control-click or Shift-click to select multiple elements in a report band, and then click the
appropriate alignment icon. You can also use Control+A to select all elements in a report band.

Report bands: Place toolbox elements, query fields, and calculated fields on report bands. The default report bands
are report header, page header, column header, page footer, report footer, and watermark. Page header, page footer,
and watermark are closed by default; to open them drag one of the adjacent splitter bars. To define additional bands
for groups, select Report > Group Management.
ColdFusion provides three panels that you use to place and format data elements in the workspace:

Properties panel: Contains display and report characteristics for the selected field. To display the Properties panel,
choose Window > Properties Inspector from the main menu. To change a property value, type or select a new value,
and press Enter. For complete information on properties, see the Report Builder online Help.

Fields and parameters panel: Contains items for query fields, input parameters, and calculated fields. To display
the Fields and parameters panel, choose Window > Fields and Parameters from the main menu. Use the add, edit,
and delete icons to manage these fields. After you define a field, drag the field name to add the field, its associated
label, or both, to a report band.

Report styles panel: Contains the styles that you define for a report. To display the Report styles panel, choose
Window > Report Styles from the main menu. Use the add, edit, and delete icons to manage report styles. After you
define styles, you apply them to elements on the report instead of specifying font, font size, and so on, for each
individual element. If your report layout, platform, or font availability requirements change, you can modify the
style to apply the changes throughout the report. Additionally, you can specify a style as the default for the report:
if no other style is applied to an element in the report, Report Builder applies the default style to that element.
The View menu lets you control whether toolboxes and panel windows appear. Also, you can click a windows title to
undock it and drag it to another area of the screen. For example, you can drag all three panels and dock them in the
same window. Report Builder lets you switch between them by clicking the tabs at the top of the window. To redock a
tool window or panel, drag it to the side or corner until a rectangle appears, and then release the mouse button.
For more information, see Common reporting tasks and techniques on page 1019 and the online Help.

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Report definition guidelines

To ensure a successful report, plan the following before defining it in the ColdFusion Report Builder:

Report design issues:

Audience Why are you creating this report? Who is the audience?
Data What data must be in the report? Where does it come from? Whether you use the Query Builder or pass a
query to the report, plan the data in advance.
Grouping Are groups required? If so, ensure that the result set is returned in the correct order, and you define a
group based on the sort column.
Calculated fields Are there fields that must be totaled or calculated? For column totals, use calculated fields. For

calculated totals on individual rows, use SQL. For more information, see Common reporting tasks and
techniques on page 1019.
Input parameters Does the report require variable input? If so, define an input parameter and pass values to the
report at run time by using the cfreportparam tag. For more information, see Common reporting tasks and
techniques on page 1019.

Data retrieval strategy:

Query Builder and basic SQL Use this option when your report has standard selection criteria (such as a WHERE
clause with sorting and a fixed set of selection criteria) and when you have to develop a report quickly. This method
also lets you specify cfquery options, such as caching.
Query Builder and advanced query mode Use this option when you use a ColdFusion query encapsulated in the
report definition. This option is also useful if the query comes from the cfdirectory, cfldap, or cfpop tags; query
of queries; or is dynamically constructed with the QueryNew function.
The cfreport tag and a passed query Use this option when you require more control over the result set used in the

report. For example, use this option if your application has a form that your clients use to construct dynamic
selection criteria.

Related visual information:

Charts For more information, see Using charts on page 1033.
Subreports For more information, see Using subreports on page 1033.

Managing fonts with printable reports

Ideally, reports achieve a consistent look across all client platforms and all browsers. ColdFusion handles this
consistency automatically for graphics and images, using the size specifications in the report definition. However,
potential differences in font availability across browsers, browser versions, languages, and platforms can affect the font
display for your report. A variety of factors ensure a consistent report display.
Embedded fonts
You can ensure consistent report display by embedding fonts. However, reports with embedded fonts have a larger file size.
Output format
The FlashPaper and PDF output formats handle embedded fonts differently.
FlashPaper FlashPaper always embeds fonts, which ensures that reports always display appropriately.
PDF PDF reports can optionally embed fonts, however, if your report doesn't use embedded fonts, ensure that the

fonts are available on the client computers.

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Font availability on the server computer and the client computer

ColdFusion has different requirements for rendering the fonts in a report, depending on where the fonts are located.
Server computer For all formats, the fonts used in a report must reside on the computer that runs ColdFusion.

ColdFusion requires these fonts to render the report accurately. ColdFusion automatically locates Acrobat built-in
fonts and fonts stored in typical font locations (such as the Windows\fonts directory). However, if your server has
additional fonts installed in nonstandard locations, register them with the ColdFusion Administrator so that the
cfdocument and cfreport tags can locate and render PDF and FlashPaper reports.
Client computer If your PDF report does not embed fonts, the fonts reside on the client computer to ensure consistent

report display.
Mapping logical fonts to physical fonts
If you are using Java logical fonts, such as serif, sans serif, or monospaced, ColdFusion maps these fonts to physical
fonts by using specifications in the cf_root/lib/cffont.properties file. (On the multiserver or J2EE configuration, this file
is in the cf_webapp_root/WEB-INF/cfusion/lib directory). You can modify these mappings, if necessary. Also, if you
are using an operating system whose locale is not English, you can create a locale-specific mapping file by appending
.java-locale-code to the filename. If ColdFusion detects that it is running on a non-English locale, it first checks for a
cffont.properties.java-locale-code file. For example, on a computer that uses the Chinese locale, name the file
cffont.properties.cn. For more information on Java locale codes, see the Sun website.
The ColdFusion install includes a cffont.properties.ja file for the Japanese locale.
This discussion applies to both the cfdocument and cfreport tags. For more information, see the Report Builder
online Help.

Common reporting tasks and techniques

With Report Builder, you can include data in reports in a variety of formats, and perform calculations on the
information. For more information, including troubleshooting tips, see Report Builder online Help.

Grouping and group breaks

You can add clarity to a reports organization by grouping the information. You can define separate headings for each
new group and also display group-specific summary information, such as subtotals at the end of each groups area of
the report. For example, you could create a report that displays departments, employees, and their salaries. Grouping
the data by department lets users quickly understand department salary characteristics. When the department ID
changes, the ColdFusion Report Builder triggers a group break. The group break completes the old group by displaying
the group footer and starts the new group by displaying the group header.
The ColdFusion Report Builder does not group data itself. Ensure that the SQL used to retrieve the result set is already
grouped in the appropriate order; typically you implement grouping by specifying an ORDER BY clause in the SQL
SELECT statement used for the report. For example, you could use the following SQL SELECT statement:
SELECT EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, Title, City, Region, Country
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Country, City

For this example, you can define two groups: one that corresponds to Country, and a second group that corresponds
to City. When you define more than one group, the Group Management dialog box appears with Up Arrow and Down
Arrow keys, which you can use to control group hierarchy. For example, country should precede city, because
countries contain cities.

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Define a group
1 Select Report > Group Management from the menu bar.
2 Click Add.
3 Specify a group name in the Name field.
4 Specify the value that controls grouping (also called a group expression) in the Group on field. At run time,

ColdFusion triggers a group break when the result of this value changes. These values are often query field names.
However, this value can also be a calculated field or other type of expression. Sample group expressions include the
following:
Query field Creates a group break when the associated column in the result set contains a different value. The field
that you specify must be one of the sort criteria for the result set; for example, query.country.
Calculated field Creates a group break when a calculated field returns a different value. For example, if the

expression calc.FirstLetter returns the first letter of a query column, you can group a report in alphabetical order.
Boolean expression Creates a group break when a Boolean expression returns a different value. For example, if
your result set is sorted by the passpercentage column, you could use the Boolean expression query.passpercentage
LT 50.

5 Specify group break options:

Start New Column Forces a new column on a group break.
Start New Page Forces a new page on a group break.
Reset Page Number Resets the page number to 1 on a group break.

6 Specify band size and printing information:

Min. height for group The minimum height that must remain on a page for ColdFusion to print the group band on

that page.
Reprint Header on Each Page Displays the group header on each page.

7 Click OK.

The Report Builder adds the group to the report and creates header and footer bands for the group.
8 Click OK again.
9 Add headings, text, query fields, calculated fields, and other information to the groups header and footer.

Create group subtotals

1 Create a calculated field to contain the group subtotal. Create the calculated field that uses the following criteria:

Specify a numeric data type.

Select Sum in the Calculation field.
Specify the field to sum on in the Perform Calculation On field. For example, a report on employees by
department could sum on query.emp_salary.

Specify to reset the field when the group changes.

2 Place the calculated field on the report.

For more information on calculated fields, see the Report Builder online Help.

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Defining, modifying, and using fields and input parameters

The Report Builder supports variable data through query fields, input parameters, and calculated fields, as follows:
Query field Maps to columns in the database result set associated with the report. You define one query field for each

column in the associated database query.

Calculated field Analyzes or sums multiple detail rows in a report. ColdFusion dynamically generates calculated field
values at report-generation time, optionally recalculating the value with each new report, page, column, or group.
Input parameter Specifies data fields that you pass to the report at run time through the cfreportparam tag or from
a main report to a subreport. You can place input parameters directly on a report band or you can use them as input
to a calculated field.

Define a query field

1 Choose Window > Fields and Parameters.
2 Click Query Fields.
3 Click the plus sign (+) at the upper edge of the tab.
4 Type a value for the name field. This value must match a column name in the corresponding cfquery statement and

cannot contain a period.

5 Type a default label.
6 Specify the data type of the corresponding database column, as follows:
Object

Time

Long

Boolean

Double

Short

Byte

Float

Big Decimal

Date

Integer

String

Time Stamp

BLOB

CLOB

7 Click OK.

Note: The Query Builder defines query fields automatically for all database columns in the result set (this action does not
apply to the Advanced Query Builder). Also, if you run the Query Builder as part of the Report Creation Wizard, the
wizard places query fields on the report.
Define a calculated field
1 Choose Window > Fields and Parameters.
2 Click Calculated Fields.
3 Click the plus sign (+) at the upper edge of the tab.
4 Specify a name, default label text, and data type. Data type options are the same as for query fields.
5 Specify calculation options:
Calculation Specifies the type of calculation that ColdFusion performs. Valid values are: Average, Count,
DistinctCount, First, Highest, Lowest, Nothing, Standard Deviation, Sum, System, and Variance. If you specify
Nothing, you typically use the Perform Calculation On field to specify a dynamic expression. Except for Nothing
(for which you use the Perform Calculation On field) and System (for which you write a customized scriptlet class),
you use these calculations for group, page, and report totals.
Perform Calculation On Specifies a field or expression. Click the ... button to display the Expression Builder.

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Initial Value Specifies an initial value for the calculated field.

6 Specify the following reset options, and click OK:

Reset Field When Specifies when to reset the calculated field value. Valid values are: None, Report, Page, Column

Group.
Reset Group If Reset Field When is set to Group, use this field to specify the group whose group break triggers the

reset.
For additional information on calculated fields, see the Report Builder online Help.
Define an input parameter
1 Choose Window > Fields and Parameters.
2 In the Fields and Parameters panel, click Input Parameters.
3 Click the plus sign (+) at the upper edge of the tab.
4 In the Add Input Parameter dialog box, enter a value for the name field. This value must match an input parameter,

such as the name attribute of a cfreportparam tag included in the cfreport tag that uses the report definition.
5 Enter the default label text.
6 Specify a data type and default value, and click OK. Data type options are the same as for query fields.

For more information on using input parameters, see Using input parameters to pass variables and other data at run
time on page 1029 and Using subreports on page 1033.
Place a query field, calculated field, or input parameter on a report band
1 In the Fields and Parameters panel, use the radio buttons to specify whether to place the label, the field, or both.
2 Drag the query field, calculated field, or input parameter from the Fields and Parameters tab to the appropriate

report band.
3 Drag the query field, calculated field, or input parameter to the desired band.
4 (Optional) Use the Properties panel to customize the field display.

For example, you could have a query field named query.emp_salary and a calculated field that sums query.emp_salary,
resetting it with each group. Place query.emp_salary in the detail band, and the associated calculated field in the group
footer band.

Using toolbox elements on report bands

You use the toolbox to add graphic and textual elements, such as images, circles, squares, lines, dynamic fields, charts,
and subreports, to report bands.
The basic technique for adding toolbox elements is to click in the toolbox element and then drag to define an area in
the appropriate report band. For some toolbox elements, such as image and text box, a dialog box immediately appears,
prompting for more information. For all toolbox elements, you customize the appearance of the element by using the
Properties sheet.
You can add toolbox elements from the Insert menu.
For information on charts, see Using charts on page 1033. For information on subreports, see Using subreports on
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Create a text box

1 Click the Label icon (abc) in the toolbox.
2 Define the area for the label by dragging on the desired band.
3 Enter the label text in the Edit Label Text dialog box. To add a line break, press Control+Enter.
4 Click OK, or press Enter.

Note: ColdFusion trims leading and trailing blanks from labels. To include leading and trailing blanks, define a dynamic
field and include the blanks in the expression, for example, " My Title ".
Import image files
1 Click the Image icon in the toolbox.
2 Define the area for the image by dragging on the desired band.
3 In the Image File Name dialog box, navigate to the file that contains the image, select the file, and click OK.

Use a database BLOB column as an image source

1 Click the image icon in the toolbox (the icon has a tree on it).
2 Define the area for the image by dragging on the desired band.

The Image File Name dialog box appears.

You can also drag the BLOB field from the Fields and Parameters tab to a report band.
1 Click Cancel.

The Expression Builder appears.

2 Click the Image Type pop-up menu and change File/URL to BLOB.
3 Select the query field or input parameter that contains the BLOB column.

Note: The BLOB column must contain a binary image in GIF, JPEG, or PNG format.
4 Click OK.

Note: These instructions assume that the contents of the BLOB column can be rendered as an image.
Add rectangles, ellipses, and lines
1 Click the rectangle, ellipses, or line icon in the toolbox.
2 Define the area or line by dragging on the desired band.
3 Resize the selected element by dragging the handles that surround it.

Pressing the Control key while resizing a rectangle, ellipsis, or line, constrains the element to a square, circle, or angles
that are multiples of 45 degrees.
Add dynamic fields
1 Click the Field icon in the toolbox.
2 Define the area for the dynamic field by dragging on the desired band.

The Add Field dialog box appears (if you havent defined any query fields, the Expression Builder appears).
3 Select the field to add. Selecting a query field, calculated field, or input parameter is the same as dragging from the

Fields and Parameters tab.

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4 (Optional) Select Manually Entered Expression.

The Expression Builder appears. This option is useful for calculations that use variables in the same row. For
example, to compute total price for an order detail line item, you could use the following expression:
LSNumberFormat((query.unitprice * query.quantity), ",_.__")

5 Click OK.

Aligning elements
Organized element layout is essential to a visually pleasing report. You achieve this organization by aligning, spacing,
and centering visual elements on each band relative to each other, to the band itself, and to elements on other bands.
The Report Builder Align Palette includes the following options:

Align left, center, and right

Align top, horizontal, and bottom
Same heights, widths, and both
Space equally horizontally
Space equally vertically
You align, size, and space multiple report elements, as follows:
Relative to the band they are in: You control relative alignment through the Align to Band icon, which is the bottom
icon in the Align Palette. When it is enabled, the Align to Band icon has a rectangle surrounding it, and the Report
Builder aligns and spaces one or more elements relative to the height and width of the band.
Relative to each other: When Align to Band is disabled, Report Builder aligns and spaces two or more elements
relative to each other.
Use the Align Palette
1 Select two or more elements by pressing Control-click, Shift-click, or using lasso select.
2 Click the alignment icon, or select Modify > Alignment > alignment option from the menu bar.

The Align Palette options are also available from Modify > Alignment on the menu bar.
For complete information on fine-tuning element display, see the Report Builder online Help.

Using report styles

A report style is like a font style in Microsoft Word. Instead of explicitly associating an element with formatting
specifications, you associate the element with a style. doing so provides you with report-wide control of the formatting
characteristics of your report.
Additionally, you can specify style that is the default for the report. The ColdFusion Report Builder uses the default
style for all fields for which you have applied no other font specifications or styles. The default style, if defined, is
displayed in bold in the Report Styles panel.
Report Builder also lets you import styles from a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file and export styles defined in Report
Builder to a CSS file. This way you can enforce standard formatting across reports and override styles at run time from
a CFM page. For more information, see Using Cascading Style Sheets on page 1044 and the CFML Reference.

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Note: When choosing fonts for your report, ensure that the fonts are available on the server that runs ColdFusion and (if
you dont embed fonts) on the client computer. For more information on fonts, see Creating a simple report on
page 1036.
Define a style
1 Choose Window > Report Styles.
2 Click the (+) icon at the upper edge of the Report Styles tab.
3 Type a value for the Name field. Style names must be unique.
4 Add other style characteristics, and click OK.

Specify a style as the default

1 Edit a text style or create one.
2 Select the option with this label: This option is the default style if no other style is selected for an object.
3 Add or modify other text style characteristics, and click OK.

Apply a style to a report element

1 Select the element in the report band.
2 Choose Window > Properties Inspector.
3 Choose the style from the Style pop-up menu.

For more information, see the Report Builder online Help.

Previewing reports
Report building is an iterative process and most developers periodically display the in-progress report to review their
most recent changes. If your report uses an internal query and you established default web root settings, preview
functionality is enabled automatically. If your report uses a passed query, define an associated CFM page and associate
that page with the report. The Report Builder runs this page when you request Report Preview.
Preview a report that uses an internal query
1 (Optional) Define default server connection information using the Preferences dialog box, if you did not define
these settings previously:

Default RDS server configuration (used for Query Builder and Chart Wizard only; not required for report
preview).

Fully qualified path for the local web root directory; for example, C:\ColdFusion\wwwroot or
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot.

URL for the local web root, for example, http://localhost:8500 or http://localhost.
2 (Optional) Specify the output format in the Report Properties dialog box (the default format is FlashPaper).
3 (Optional) If a CFM page runs, specify the URL of the CFM page in the Report Properties dialog box.
4 Save your report.
5 Select File > Preview from the menu bar to display the report.

Note: If the Report Builder displays the Edit Preview Report URL dialog box instead of displaying the Preview window,
select Edit > Preferences from the menu bar and insure that the web root file and URL settings are correct on the Server
Connection pane.

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6 Close the preview window by pressing F12.

If your report is designed to accept a query object from a cfreport tag, associate a URL with the report. If necessary,
the Report Builder prompts for this URL when you preview the report. Otherwise, you can open the Report Properties
dialog box, and specify the URL of the CFM page in the Report Preview URL field.
You can use the cfreport tag to run a report, regardless of whether the report has an internal query or is passed a
query.
Preview with an associated CFM file
1 Select Report > Report Properties from the menu bar.
2 Specify the URL of the associated CFM page in the Report Preview URL field. This CFM page must contain a
cfreport tag whose template attribute specifies the current CFR file and, if necessary, passes a query in the query

attribute.
3 Save your report.
4 Press F12. Depending on the output format that you have chosen, the Preview Report window displays your report

in PDF, FlashPaper, RTF, XML, HTML, or Excel format.

Displaying page numbers

The Report Builder includes a built-in calculated field named PAGE_NUMBER, which displays the current page number
when you place it on a report band.
Add a built-in calculated field
1 Click the Field tool in the toolbox.
2 Drag in the center of the header or footer band to define the size of the page number field.

The Add Field dialog box appears, listing all fields defined for the report, including built-in calculated fields and
input parameters.
3 Select calc.PAGE_NUMBER, and click OK.

You can use the Field tool to add any type of field (query field, calculated field, input parameter) to a report.
For information on the other built-in calculated fields, see the Report Builder online Help.

Using layered controls

Layered controls are elements that you place at the same location of a report band, and then use PrintWhen
expressions to conditionally display one or the other at run time. You can use layered elements to customize the
circumstances under which the elements display and enhance a reports ability to communicate important
information.
Place an element directly over another element
1 Place the elements on the band.
2 Choose Window > Properties to display the Properties panel.
3 Specify a PrintWhen expression, display properties, and placement properties for each element using the Properties

panel, as follows:

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4 Specify a PrintWhen expression for each element. For example, you could specify the following expression to

display one element when shippeddate is later than requireddate (that is, late) and another element when
shippeddate is earlier than requireddate:
First element query.shippeddate LTE query.requireddate
Second element query.shippeddate GT query.requireddate

5 Specify different display characteristics for each element. For example, if an order is late, display it in red text.
6 Set the Top, Left, Height, and Width properties to the same values for each element.

When you specify identical placement properties, you access the individual elements through the Layered Controls
menu.
Use the Layered Controls menu
1 Right-click on the top element.
2 Select Layered Controls > elementname from the pop-up menu. The Report Builder identifies each layered element

by displaying its PrintWhen expression.

3 Select the element and choose Window > Properties Inspector to view the element properties.

Using links
You can include hypertext links from query fields, calculated fields, input parameters, charts, and images to a variety
of destinations:

An anchor or page within the same report

An anchor or page within another report
An HTML page, optionally specifying an anchor and URL parameters
One use for links is to create drill-down reports, in which you click an item to display detailed information. For
example, clicking an employee line item passes the employee ID as a parameter to a page that displays complete
information for the employee.
For complete usage information on creating anchors and hypertext links, see the Report Builder online Help.

Defining properties for report elements

A set of properties defines every element on a report, including the report itself. These properties affect the look, feel,
and behavior of each element.
For many properties, the Report Builder lets you define their values through user interface elements, such as dialog
boxes, toolbar icons, and menu items. For example, you set a text labels font size using a toolbar icon. You can set
values for all properties, however, through the Properties panel, which display all properties for the currently selected
element.
Sometimes a report contains multiple, closely spaced elements and it is difficult to select an individual element using
the mouse. In this case, selecting the element from the Properties panel pop-up menu is an easy way to select an
element.
The Properties panel has two views:
Sort alphabetically All properties for the currently selected element display in alphabetical order.
Sort into groups The Properties panel displays related properties in the following predefined groups:

Advanced

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Columns
Page Layout
Printing
Colors and Style
Data
Font
Font Style
Formatting
Hyperlinks
Layout
Print Control
The Report Builder displays only groups that relate to the currently selected element.
Set or modify a property for an element in the workspace
1 Select the element.
2 (Optional) If the Properties panel is not already displayed, choose Window > Properties Inspector.

The Report Builder displays its properties in the Properties panel.

3 Modify the property. Depending on the property, you enter a value, select a value from a pop-up menu, or open the

Expression Builder to use an expression.

4 Press Enter.

When you select a color, double-click the color.

Choose a different element

Select the element from the pop-up menu. When you select a new element, the Report Builder selects the element and
displays its properties.
Although the Properties panel is a powerful way to set properties, you typically set properties through dialog boxes and
toolbar icons. For example, you use the Report Properties dialog box to set report-wide settings. For complete
information on setting properties, see Property reference in the Report Builder online Help.

Displaying reports
Your application can run a report by displaying the CFR file in a browser or by displaying a CFM page whose cfreport
tag runs the report.
You can optionally use the cfreport tag to save the report to a file.
The cfreport tag supports advanced PDF encryption options. For more information, see cfreport in the CFML
Reference.
For information on report preview, see Previewing reports on page 1025.
Display a report by using the cfreport tag
1 Create a report, with or without an internal query.

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2 Create a CFM page and add a cfreport tag that runs the report. If the report does not use an internal query, also

populate a query and pass it using the query attribute. If the report uses an internal query and you use the query
attribute, the passed query overrides the internal query.
<cfquery name="northwindemployees" datasource="localnorthwind">
SELECT EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, Title, City, Region, Country
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Country, City
</cfquery>
<CFREPORT format="PDF" template="EmpReport.cfr"
query="#northwindemployees#"/>

Note: ColdFusion does not render text that occurs before or after the cfreport tag.
3 Open a browser and display the CFM page.

ColdFusion generates the report.

If you display an HTML report, ColdFusion generates temporary files for images in the report. You can specify how
long the temporary files are saved on the server by using the resourceTimespan attribute of the cfreport tag. For
more information, see the CFML Reference.
Display a CFR file in a browser
1 Create a report that uses an internal query and does not use input parameters.
2 Open a browser and display the CFR file.

Save a report to a file

1 Create a report, with or without an internal query.
2 Create a CFM page and add a cfreport tag that runs the report. Optionally pass a query attribute, as described in

the previous procedure. Include a filename attribute that specifies the fully qualified name of the file being created,
as the following example shows:
<CFREPORT format="PDF" template="emppicture.cfr"
filename="#GetDirectoryFromPath(GetTemplatePath())#/emppicture.pdf"
overwrite="yes"/>

If you write the report output to an HTML file, ColdFusion creates a directory located relative to the HTML file,
generates files for the images (including charts) in the report, and stores the image files in the directory. For more
information, see Exporting the report in HTML on page 1047.
Use the .pdf extension for PDF output format, the .swf extension for FlashPaper output format, .xml extension for
an XML file, .rtf extension for an RTF file, .html extension for HTML files, and the .xls extension for Excel format.
3 Open a browser and display the CFM page. ColdFusion generates the report, saves the file, and displays an empty

page in the browser.

Disable browser display of the CFR file
1 Open the Report Properties dialog box by selecting Report > Report Properties from the menu bar.
2 Clear the Allow Direct .CFR Browser Invocation option, and click OK.

Using input parameters to pass variables and other data at run time
Input parameters are data fields that you pass to the report at run time. You can place input parameters directly on a
report band or you can use them as input to a calculated field.

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Define input parameters in the same manner as query fields. You can specify a default value that ColdFusion uses when
no corresponding parameter exists. For more information on defining input parameters, see Defining, modifying,
and using fields and input parameters on page 1021.
You use input parameters in the following ways:

Through the cfreportparam tag: Input parameters must correspond, by name, to cfreportparam tags embedded
in the CFM page invocation. For example, if you define an input parameter named ReportTime, you pass a
cfreportparam tag with a name attribute set to ReportTime, as the following example shows:
<cfreport format="PDF" template="FourthReport.cfr" query="#coursedept#">
<cfreportparam name="ReportTime" value="#DateFormat(Now())#, #TimeFormat(Now())#">
</cfreport>

Subreport parameters: When a subreport requires information from a main report, you define subreport
parameters in the main report and corresponding input parameters in the subreport. For more information, see
Using subreports on page 1033.
For information on dynamically populating input parameters at run time, see Advanced query mode on page 1030.

Using CFML in reports

CFML is the scripting language for the Report Builder. By leveraging CFML, you can create reports that select and
format data to meet your needs. You use CFML in the following areas of the Report Builder:

Advanced query mode

Report functions
Expressions
Advanced query mode
In some cases, you create a complex query, reuse an existing query, or encapsulate additional CFML processing as part
of query creation for the report. To use a query in these ways, you use advanced query mode to create CFML that
returns a query. When you click the Advanced button at the top of the Query Builder, the Report Builder displays a
text entry area in which you can enter CFML that generates a query. ColdFusion executes this tag at report execution
time and passes the query result set to the report.
Note: When you use advanced query mode, the Query Builder does not create query fields automatically. create the
associated query fields manually.
The CFML used in advanced query mode must include a query object whose name matches that in the Variable that
contains the query object field. You can use any CFML tag that returns a query object or the QueryNew function. The
CFML can use multiple query objects, but can only return one.
Note: If you set an empty variable (for example, <cfset name=" ">), the Report Builder throws a Report data binding
error.
This example CFML uses the cfhttp tag to retrieve a query:
<cfhttp
url="http://quote.yahoo.com/download/quotes.csv?Symbols=csco,jnpr&format=sc1l1&ext=.csv"
method="GET"
name="qStockItems"
columns="Symbol,Change,LastTradedPrice"
textqualifier=""""
delimiter=","
firstrowasheaders="no">

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Another possible use of advanced query mode is to test for passed parameters in the URL or FORM scopes and use
those parameters to retrieve data, as the following example shows:
<!--- First look for URL param. URL overrides cfreportparam. --->
<cfif isDefined("url.deptidin")>
<cfset param.deptidin = url.deptidin>
</cfif>
<!-- Then look for FORM param. Overrides URL param. --->
<cfif isDefined("form.deptidin")>
<cfset param.deptidin = form.deptidin>
</cfif>
<cfquery name="CFReportDataQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECTLastName, FirstName, Dept_ID
FROMEmployee
WHERE (Dept_ID = #param.deptidin#)
</cfquery>

Using report functions

Report functions are user-defined CFML functions that you code using the Report Function Editor and run in report
fields. You can use them to format data (such as concatenating and formatting all the field that make up an address),
to retrieve data, and for many other purposes.
Three built-in functions are unique to Report Builder: InitializeReport, BeforeExport, and FinalizeReport.
For more information, see the Report Builder online Help.
Report Builder built-in functions
1 Select Report > Report Functions from the menu bar.
The Report Function Editor displays.
2 Click the Add Default Functions icon (the first on the left).

The built-in functions are added to the left pane.

3 Select a function from the left pane.

Commented code associated with the function appears in the right pane.
4 Modify the code and click OK.

Create a report function

1 Select Report > Report Functions from the menu bar.
The Report Function Editor displays.
2 Click the plus sign to add a new report function.

The Add Report Function dialog box displays.

3 Specify a name and click OK.
4 The Report Function Editor places a cfreturn tag in the text entry area.
5 Code the function, and click OK. The function is a ColdFusion user-defined function so all UDF rules and features

are available for use. The following example shows a report function that concatenates address fields:

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<cfargument
<cfargument
<cfargument
<cfargument
<cfargument
<cfargument

name="Name" required="yes"/>
name="Address1" required="yes"/>
name="Address2" required="yes"/>
name="City" required="yes"/>
name="State" required="yes"/>
name="Zip" required="yes"/>

<cfset variables.CRLF = Chr(13) & Chr(10)>

<cfset variables.ResultVar="">
<cfif Trim(arguments.Name) NEQ "">
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#arguments.Name#'>
</cfif>
<cfif Trim(arguments.Address1) NEQ "">
<cfif variables.ResultVar NEQ "">
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#variables.ResultVar & variables.CRLF#'>
</cfif>
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#variables.ResultVar & arguments.Address1#'>
</cfif>
<cfif Trim(arguments.Address2) NEQ "">
<cfif variables.ResultVar NEQ "">
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#variables.ResultVar & variables.CRLF#'>
</cfif>
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#variables.ResultVar & arguments.Address2#'>
</cfif>
<cfif variables.ResultVar NEQ "">
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#variables.ResultVar & variables.CRLF#'>
</cfif>
<cfset variables.ResultVar='#variables.ResultVar & arguments.City & ", " & arguments.State
& " " & arguments.Zip#'>
<cfreturn variables.ResultVar>

Use a report function

1 Place a dynamic field on the appropriate report band.
The Add Field dialog box displays.
2 Specify Manually Entered Expression, and click OK.

The Expression Builder displays.

3 Specify "report.functionname", and click OK.

Using expressions
Many elements of the Report Builder (including query fields, calculated fields, input parameters, images, and report
object attributes) are single operand ColdFusion expressions. Because these elements are expressions, you can
manipulate them with CFML functions.
The Expression Builder is a graphical interface that lets you quickly apply CFML functions to Report Builder elements.
Uses for the Expression Builder include the following:

Many of the report object attributes (such as PrintWhen) accept expressions, which you can associate with query
parameters, input parameters, or ColdFusion page variables. You can tie report attributes and columns to display
based on run-time data or user preference.

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Concatenating fields
Formatting fields
Calculated fields
Accessing and displaying ColdFusion page variables and scopes
For information on using the Expression Builder, see Report Builder online Help.
For more information on expressions, see Using Expressions and Number Signs on page 64.

Using charts
Charts can help clarify large or complex data sets. The Report Builder lets you place a chart in any report band and
supports many types of charts.
To add a chart to a report, you use the Chart Wizard, which steps you through the chart building process. The Chart
Wizard, which is fully integrated with the Query Wizard to facilitate database-driven charts, helps you define the chart
type, the data used for the report and other formatting options.
As you use the Chart Wizard to choose and define the various aspects of a given chart, the Report Builder uses RDS
to generate chart images in real time. However, the data in these chart images is not real.
The Chart Wizard includes the following panels:

Chart Types: Select the chart type (for example, bar) and subtype (for example, 3D-stacked).
Chart Series: Select the data for the series. When you add a series, the Report Builder lets you hard-code series data
or open the Query Builder to populate the series using a database query.

Chart Formatting: Specifies title and series, general appearance, 3D appearance, lines and markers, and font.
The data you specify through the Chart Wizard corresponds to the attributes specified in the cfchart, cfchartseries, and
cfchartdata tags. For more information on these tags, see the CFML Reference.
For complete information on ColdFusion charting capabilities, see Creating Charts and Graphs on page 982. For
more information on charting using the Report Builder, see Report Builder online Help.

Using subreports
Subreports let you nest a report within your report. The data that you display in a subreport is typically related to the
data in the main report. You enable this display by passing one or more subreport parameters to the subreport.
However, the data displayed in a subreport can also be unrelated to the data in the main report.
Reasons to use subreports including the following:

You prefer to avoid complex SQL, such as a RIGHT OUTER JOIN.

Your report requires data from multiple databases.

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The following example shows the use of subreport parameters and the relationship between a report and a subreport:

mainreport.cfr
Subreport:
subreport.cfr
Subreport expression :
custid = #query.CustomerID

subreport.cfr
param.custid
SELECT CustomerID, CompanyName,
ContactName
FROM Customers
WHERE (CustomerID = '#param.custid#')

Note: Although the Report Builder supports multiple levels of nesting, it displays one level of nesting only.
For additional information on subreports, see the Report Builder online Help.
Defining a subreport
You can define a subreport and include it in a report, or you can define it as part of inserting the subreport in the main
report.
A subreport has the following characteristics:

Data displayed in the detail band only. A subreport uses no header or footer bands.
If the subreport is related to the main report, it must include an internal query that uses a SELECT statement with
a WHERE clause specifying the name of the input parameter used in the main reports Subreport Expression
property.
If you have already defined a subreport, you add it to the main report and define subreport parameters, as necessary.
Add an existing subreport
1 Define or open your main report.
2 Click the Subreport icon in the toolbox.
3 Drag an area for the subreport in the desired report band.
4 Select From An Existing Report, specify the subreport, and click Next.
5 Select the fields in the main report that correspond to fields in the subreport and click Next.
6 Click Finish.

The Report Builder adds the subreport to the main report, saving the report to subreport mappings as subreport
parameters.
7 To modify subreport parameter settings, select the subreport and click Subreport Parameters in the Properties

panel.

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If you are certain about the data required for a subreport, you can define a new subreport while adding it to the main
report.
Add a new subreport
1 Define or open your main report.
2 Click the Subreport icon in the toolbox.
3 Drag an area for the subreport in the report band.
4 Select As A New Report and click Next.
5 Click Query Builder.
6 Select the tables and columns for the subreport.
7 Specify a WHERE clause for the report by using the Condition and Criteria columns for the key columns.

Specify a WHERE for Condition and either ='#CFVariable#' (string column) or =#CFVariable# (numeric
column) for Criteria, and then overtype CFVariable with the name of the input parameter for the subreport (you
define the input parameter name later in the procedure.)
8 Click Save, and then click Next.
9 Specify grouping fields, if appropriate for your subreport, and click Next.
10 Specify Free Form or Grid, and click Next.
11 Specify Only Detail Band, and click Next.
12 Specify a color scheme, and click Next.
13 Specify headings, as appropriate, and click Next.
14 For each parameter required by the subreport, specify the following:

Parameter name.
Associated value from the main report (select from the pop-up menu).
Data type.
15 Click Next.
16 Specify a fully qualified filename for the subreport, and then click Next.
17 Click Finish.

Report Builder adds the subreport to the main report. Report Builder lets you change subreport name and modify
subreport parameters in a main report.
Modify subreport settings
1 Click the subreport element in the main report.
2 To change the subreport, modify Subreport Expression.
3 To modify subreport parameters:
a Click the Subreport Parameters property.
b Click the ... button.
c Add, modify, or delete subreport parameters, and click OK.

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Creating a simple report

The following example shows how to create a simple report by using the Report Wizard and then modifying it. The
example uses the cfartgallery database, which is installed with ColdFusion.
The example shows how to perform the following tasks:

Create a base report by using the Report Wizard and the Query Builder.
Use the Expression Builder to modify the data presentation in the report.
Modify the display text for column data.
Add a text field to the report and format text and data elements by using report styles.
Add an image file and images from a database.
Create and add a calculated field to display the total sales by artist.
Add group-level and report-level pie charts that show the ratio of sold and unsold art for each artist and for all the
artists in the database.

Export report styles to a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file.

Create a report by using the Report Wizard

1 Start Report Builder.
2 Select Report Creation Wizard and click OK.
3 Click the Query Builder button:

Note: If you have RDS configured, provide the RDS password.

a From the list of data sources in the database pane, expand the cfartgallery database.
b Expand the Tables folder.
c Double-click the APP.ART table in the database pane. Report Builder adds the APP.ART table to the table pane.
d Double-click the APP.ARTISTS table in the database pane. Report Builder adds the APP.ARTISTS table to the

table pane. Notice that it automatically creates the join between the two tables based on the ARTISTID column.
e In the APP.ARTISTS table, double-click the FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME columns. The Query Builder adds

the fields to the select statement in the SQL pane.

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In the ART table, double-click the ARTNAME, DESCRIPTION, PRICE, and ISSOLD columns. The following
example shows the completed query in the Query Builder:

g Click the Test Query button to preview the results.

h Close the test query window and click the Save button in the Query Builder window.
4 Double-click the FIRSTNAME column to add it to the Non-printed Fields pop-up menu and click the Next button.
5 In the Available Fields list, double-click LASTNAME to group the records by the artists last names.
6 Click the Next button three times to accept the default values.
7 Choose Silver and click the Next button.
8 Change the title of the report to Sales Report and click the Finish button. The Report Creation Wizard generates

the report and displays it in the Report Builder workspace.

9 Choose File > Save As and save the report as ArtSalesReport1 in the default directory. Report Builder automatically

adds the CFR extension.

10 Press F12 to preview the report. Report Builder displays the records grouped by the artists last names.
11 Click the close box to close the Preview Report window and return to the Report Builder workspace.

Changing the column heading labels

By default, the Report Wizard uses the column name for the column headers in the report, but you can change the label
text for column headings.

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Edit the heading label text

1 Double-click the LASTNAME field in the Column Header band.
2 Replace the column name with Artist Name, and click OK.
3 Replace the remaining column labels as follows:

ARTNAME > Title

DESCRIPTION > Description
PRICE > Price
ISSOLD > Sold?

Using expressions to format data

Use the Expression Builder to perform the following tasks:

Change the display of the ISSOLD value to a yes/no expression. By default, Report Builder displays 0 (not sold) or
1 (sold) for the ISSOLD column based on how the data is stored in the database. You can use a function to change
the display to yes or no.

Change the value of the PRICE column to a dollar format.

Concatenate the artists first and last names. Even though the FirstName field is a nonprinted field in the report,
you can add it to an expression because it is part of the SQL query that you created.
Change a Boolean value to yes/no
1 Double-click the query.ISSOLD element in the detail band. Report Builder displays the Expression Builder for that
element.
2 In the Expression Builder, expand the Functions folder.
3 Choose Display and Formatting from the Functions list. Report Builder displays the list of functions in the right

pane of the Expression Builder.

4 Double-click YesNoFormat from the list of functions. Report Builder automatically completes the following

expression in the expression pane:

YesNoFormat(query.ISSOLD)

5 Click OK to close the Expression Builder and return to the report.

6 Choose File > Save to save your changes to the report.
7 Press F12 to preview the report. Yes or no appears in the Sold? column based on whether the artwork sold.

Display numbers in dollar format

1 Double-click the field in the PRICE column of the detail band.
2 In the expression pane, change the expression to the following text:
DollarFormat(query.PRICE)

3 Click OK to close the Expression Builder and return to the report.

Concatenate the FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME fields

1 Double-click the query.LASTNAME field in the LASTNAME group header.
2 In the Expression Builder, type the following expression:
query.FIRSTNAME &" "& query.LASTNAME

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Notice that the Expression Builder prompts you with the available field names as you type.
3 Click the OK button in the Expression Builder.
4 Choose File > Save from the Report Builder menu bar to save your changes to the report.
5 Press F12 to preview the report.

Report Builder displays the first and last name for each of the artists. Notice that the report still is grouped
alphabetically by last name.
6 Close the preview window.

Adding page breaks before group changes

Create a page break so that each artist name starts on at the top of a page in the report output.
Add page breaks between artist names
1 Choose Report > Group Management from the main menu bar. The Group Management dialog box appears with
LASTNAME selected.
2 Click the Edit button.
3 Select the Start New Page option and click OK.

Adding a calculated field

Calculate the sum of the artwork sold by artist
1 Choose Window > Fields and Parameters.
2 Report Builder displays the Fields and Parameters panel.
3 Expand the list of calculated fields.
4 With Calculated Fields selected, click the (+) button at the upper edge of the Fields and Parameters panel.
5 Make the following changes in the Add Calculated Field dialog box:
a Change the name of the calculated field to Sold.
b Change the label text to Sold.
c Change the Data Type to Float.
d Change the Calculation to Sum.
e In the Perform Calculation On field, enter the following expression:
Iif(IsBoolean(query.ISSOLD) and query.ISSOLD, query.Price,0)

This expression multiplies the total price of the artwork per artist by the number of items sold to calculate the
total sales per artist. If the ISSOLD value for a record is 1 (sold), the value is multiplied by 1 and added to the
total; if the ISSOLD value for a record is 0 (unsold), the value is multiplied by 0.
f

Change the Reset Field When value to Group.

g Change the Reset Group value to LASTNAME, and click OK. Report Builder adds the calculated field definition

in the Fields and Parameters panel.

Add the calculated field to your report
1 Insert a field in the LASTNAME Footer band.
2 In the Add Field dialog box, select calc.Sold from the pop-up menu.

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3 In the Expression Builder, type the following code:

DollarFormat(calc.Sold)

4 Press F12 to preview the report. Report Builder displays the sum of the artwork sold for each artist.

Adding and formatting fields

You can add a text field to your report and define a style for it. When you define a style, you can reuse it throughout
your report or export the style so that you can use it in other reports. Also, you can override report styles at run time
by using the cfreport and the cfreportparam tags. For more information, see Overriding report styles on
page 1048.
Add a text field
1 In the Controls toolbox on the left side of the Report Builder window, click the text icon (the button with abc on it)
and place the text field to the left of the calculated field in the LASTNAME footer.
2 In the Edit Label dialog box, type Total Sales, and click OK.

Create a style
1 Choose Window > Report Styles from the main menu.
2 Click the (+) button.
3 In the Name field, enter GroupFooter.
4 Click the Color and Style tab and change the color to #9999CC.
5 Click the Font tab and change the Font to Tahoma and click the bold option. Then click OK. Report Builder adds

GroupFooter style to the pop-up menu of available styles in the report.

6 Choose File > Save from the menu bar to save your changes to the report.

Apply the style to text and data elements in the report

1 Select the Total Sales text box in the LASTNAME Footer band.
2 Choose Window > Properties Inspector.
3 Choose GroupFooter from the Style pop-up menu.
4 Select the calculated field element and apply the GroupFooter Style to it.
5 Press F12 to preview your report:

Adding images
When you add images with Report Builder, you can perform the following types of tasks:

Replace the company name text box with a company logo in the report header.
Use the Query Builder to add images from a database.
Display the report in RTF format for faster display.
Add a logo to the report header
1 Select the Company Name text box located in the header band preceding Sales Report.
2 Choose Edit > Cut to remove the text box from the report.
3 Click the Add Image icon in the Controls toolbox. (The icon has a picture of a tree on it.)

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4 Drag the mouse in the header band preceding the Sales Report text box. When you release the mouse, the Image

File Name dialog box appears.

5 Navigate to the Art World logo file:

C:\ColdFusion9\wwwroot\cfdocs\getting_started\photos\somewhere.jpg
6 Click Open. Report Builder displays the Art World logo in the area that you selected.
7 With the image selected in the workspace, choose Windows > Properties Inspector. The Properties Inspector for

the image appears:

a Under Colors and Style, change the Transparency to Transparent.
b Under Formatting, change Scale Image to Retain Shape.
8 In the Header band, control-click the logo image and the Sales Report text box in the workspace to select them.
9 Click the Align Left Sides icon in the Controls toolbox.
10 Choose File > Save to save your changes.
11 Press F12 to preview the report.
12 Close the preview window and readjust the image size and location as needed.

Add images from a database

1 From the menu bar, choose Report > Report Query.
2 In the Art table, double-click LARGEIMAGE. The Query Builder adds the LARGEIMAGE column to the select

statement.
3 Click the Test Query button. A list of image filenames appears to the right of the ISSOLD column.
4 Close the Test Query window and click the Save button in the Query Builder.
5 In the Report window, expand the Detail band by clicking the lower splitter bar and dragging down.
6 Click the Add Image icon in the Controls toolbox and drag the mouse in Detail band of the report to the left of the

query.ARTNAME field. When you release the mouse, the Image File Name dialog box appears.
7 Navigate to the cfartgallery images directory:

C:\ColdFusion9\wwwroot\cfdocs\images\artgallery
8 In the File Name field, type #query.largeimage#.
9 Click the Open button. Report Builder adds the column to the Detail band of the report.
10 Align the image column with the top of the Detail band.
11 With the image element selected in the detail band, choose Window > Properties Inspector.
12 Change the following properties:
a Transparency: Transparent.
b Scale Image: Retain Shape. This option scales the images proportionately within the bounding box.
c Error Control: No Image. This option ensures that Report Builder displays blank images rather than generates

an error for images missing from the database.

d Using Cache: False. This option refreshes the display each time you preview the report output in the browser.
13 Choose File > Save to save your changes.

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Change the report output format

1 Choose Report > Report Properties from the menu bar.
2 From the Default Output Format pop-up menu, choose RTF. Use this format for faster display in a web browser.
3 Click OK to close the Report Properties dialog box and return to the report.
4 Choose File > Save to save your changes.
5 Press F12 to preview the report. The images are displayed beneath Artist name and to the left of the art title.
6 Change the Default Output Format to HTML and preview the results.

Adding charts
You can use the Chart Builder to add two pie charts to your report: the first pie chart shows the total dollar amount of
the art sold versus the total dollar amount unsold art for each artist; the second pie chart shows the sum of artwork
sold versus unsold for all of the artists.
The two pie charts are the same except for the scope. To apply a pie chart to a group (the ratio of sold to unsold art for
each artist), add the pie chart to the group footer band. To apply the pie chart to the report (the ratio of sold to unsold
art for all artists), add the pie chart to the report footer band.
In Adding a calculated field on page 1039, you added a calculated field for the total dollar amount of artwork sold.
Before you can create the pie chart for this example, create a second calculated field for the total dollar amount of
unsold art.
Add a calculated field for the sum of unsold art
1 Choose Window > Fields and Parameters.
2 Select the Calculated Fields heading in the Fields and Parameters panel.
3 Click the (+) icon at the upper edge of the panel:
a In the Name field, type Unsold.
b In the Default Label Text field, type Unsold.
c In the Data Type field, choose Big Decimal from the pop-up menu.
d In the Calculation field, choose Sum from the pop-up menu.
e In the Perform Calculation On field, enter the following expression to calculate the dollar amount of unsold art:
Iif(IsBoolean(query.ISSOLD) and not(query.ISSOLD), query.Price,0)

In the Reset Field When field, choose Group from the pop-up menu.

g In the Reset Group field, choose LASTNAME.

h Click OK to close the Add Calculated Field dialog box and return to the report.
4 Choose File > Save from the menu bar to save your changes to the report.

Add a pie chart to the group footer

1 Expand the LASTNAME Footer band.
2 Choose Insert > Chart from the Report Builder menu bar:
a Choose Pie from the Base Chart Type list. The Chart Sub-Type appears to the right of the Base Chart Type.
b Choose the 3D chart.

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3 Click the Next button. Then click the Add button:

a In the Series Label field, type Total Sales.
b In the Paint Style field, choose Light.
c In the Data Label field, choose Value.
d In the Color List, type Teal,Gray.
e In the Chart Data Source area, ensure that the Data From A Fixed List of Values option is selected.
4 Click the Add button:
a In the Label field, type Sold.
b In the Value field, choose #calc.Sold# from pop-up menu.
c Click OK.
5 Click the Add button again:
a In the Label field, type Unsold.
b In the Value field, choose #calc.Unsold# from the pop-up menu.
c Click OK twice to return to the Chart Series dialog box.
6 Click the Next button. In the Chart Formatting dialog box, click the Titles & Series tab and make the following

changes:
a In the Chart Title field, type Total Sales for #query.LASTNAME#.
b In the X Axis Title field, type Sold.
c In the Y Axis Title field, type Unsold.
d In the Label Format field, choose Currency from the pop-up menu.
e Click the 3-D Appearance tab and ensure that Show 3-D is selected.
7 Click the Font tab and make the following changes:
a Change the Font Name to Arial.
b Change the Font Size to 9.
8 Click the Finish button. Report Builder adds a place holder for the pie chart in the report.
9 Resize and move the chart to the desired location within the LASTNAME Footer band.
10 Choose File > Save to save your changes to the report.
11 Press F12 to preview the report.

Add a pie chart to the report footer

1 Create two calculated fields to use in the report footer pie chart with the following parameters:
Name

TotalSold

TotalUnsold

Default Label Text:

Total Sold

Total Unsold

Data Type:

Big Decimal

Big Decimal

Calculation:

Sum

Sum

Perform Calculation On:

Iif(IsBoolean(query.ISSOLD) and
query.ISSOLD, query.Price,0)

Iif(IsBoolean(query.ISSOLD) and
not(query.ISSOLD), query.Price,0)

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Name

TotalSold

TotalUnsold

Initial Value:

Reset Field When:

Report (Changes)

Report (Changes)

Reset Group:

LASTNAME

LASTNAME

2 Expand the Report Footer band, which is located directly below the Page Footer band.
3 Copy the pie chart from the Group Footer and paste it in the Report Footer.
4 Double-click the pie chart and click the Next button.
5 Double-click Total Sales to display the Edit Chart Series dialog box.
6 Change the Series Label to Total Sales for Artists.
7 Change the chart series values:
Label

Value

Sold

#calc.TotalSold#

Unsold

#calc.TotalUnsold#

8 Click the Next button, and then Click the Title & Series tab.
9 Change the Chart Title to Total Sales for Artists, and click Finish.
10 Choose File > Save from the menu bar to save your changes to the report.
11 Press F12 to preview the report.

The Total Sales for Artists pie chart appears only on the last page of the report. Verify that the calculations are correct.

Using Cascading Style Sheets

The Report Creation Wizard automatically creates and applies the following styles to your report:

ReportTitle
CompanyName
PageTitle
ReportDate
SubTitle
DetailData (default style)
DetailLabel
PageFooter
RectangleStyle
LineStyle
The instructions on Adding and formatting fields on page 1040 show how to add a field called GroupFooter and
apply it to a text field and a data field in the GroupFooter band. You can export the styles in a report to a CSS file.
Report Builder automatically generates the CSS code for the styles. This technique is an efficient way to maintain a
single set of styles to use with multiple reports. You can modify the styles in the CSS file by using any text editor and
either import the CSS file in Report Builder or override the styles in the report at run time.

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Export report styles to a CSS file

1 Choose Window > Report Styles.
2 Click the export icon (the icon with the orange arrow).
3 In the File Name field, type artstyles. Report Builder automatically adds the CSS extension.
4 Navigate the artStyles.css file and double-click it to open it. The following example shows the generated CSS code:
ReportTitle
{
color:Black;
font-size:24pt;
}
CompanyName
{
color:#6188A5;
font-weight:bold;
}
PageTitle
{
color:#333333;
font-size:14pt;
font-weight:bold;
}
ReportDate
{
color:#333333
}
SubTitle
{
color:#6089A5;
font-size:12pt;
font-weight:bold;
}
DetailLabel
{
color:Black;
background-color:#E3EDEF;
font-weight:bold;
}
DetailData
{
default-style:true;
color:Black;
line-size:thin;
}

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PageFooter
{
color:#2F2F2F;
font-size:8pt;
}
RectangleStyle
{
color:#E3EDEF;
background-color:#E3EDEF;
}
LineStyle
{
color:#CCCCCC;
background-color:#CCCCCC;
}
GroupFooter
{
color:Blue;
font-weight:bold;
font-family:Tahoma;

5 Change the ReportTitle style color attribute to Red and add the font-weight attribute, as the following code

shows:
ReportTitle
{
color:Red;
font-size:24pt;
font-weight: bold;
}

6 Save the CSS file.

Also, you can override report styles from ColdFusion. Form more information, see Overriding report styles on
page 1048.
Note: If you add a style to the CSS file, add a style with the same name to the report in Report Builder. Also, Report Builder
does not support all CSS styles. For more information, see the cfreport tag in the CFML Reference.
Import the CSS file
1 Choose Window > Report Styles.
2 Click the import styles icon (the one with the blue arrow).
3 Navigate to the location of the artStyles.css file, and click OK. Report Builder automatically updates the report style

definition and applies the updated style to report title.

4 Press F12 to preview the report.

Overriding report settings at run time

You can use the cfreport tag in ColdFusion to override report settings in a Report Builder report at run time. The
examples use the CFR file that you created in Creating a simple report on page 1036.
Overriding the report query
This example filters the data in the report based on the login ID of the artist. When the artist logs on, the report displays
the data and pie chart for that artist. The report also includes the pie chart with data from all the artists.

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The following code creates a simple login page in ColdFusion. The form uses artists last name as the user ID. (The
code does not include password verification):
<h3>Artist Login Form</h3>
<p>Please enter your last name and password.</p>
<cfform name="loginform" action="artSalesReport.cfm" method="post">
<table>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><cfinput type="text" name="username" required="yes" message="A username is
required."></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password:</td>
<td><cfinput type="password" name="password" required="yes" message="A password is
required."></td>
</tr>
</table>
<br />
<cfinput type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>

On the processing page, add a query like the one you created in the Report Builder report. The ColdFusion query must
contain at least all of the columns included in the Report Builder query; however, the ColdFusion query can contain
additional data.
The query in the following example selects all of the data from the ART and ARTISTS tables based on the artists last
name. The cfreport tag uses the pathname of the CFR file as the report template.
<cfquery name="artsales" datasource="cfartgallery">
SELECT *
FROMAPP.ART, APP.ARTISTS
WHERE APP.ART.ARTISTID = APP.ARTISTS.ARTISTID
AND APP.ARTISTS.LASTNAME= <cfqueryparam value="#FORM.username#">
ORDER BY ARTISTS.LASTNAME
</cfquery>
<cfreport query="#artsales#" template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" format="RTF"/>

ColdFusion displays the report for the artist in RTF format. Notice that the value of the format attribute overrides the
Default Output format defined in the CFR file.
Exporting the report in HTML
To generate a report in HTML and display it directly in the browser, change the format attribute to HTML:
<cfreport template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" format="HTML"/>

ColdFusion automatically generates a temporary directory where it stores all of the image files in the report (charts are
saved as PNG files). The location of the temporary directory is:
C:\ColdFusion9\tmpCache\CFFileServlet\_cfreport\_report[unique_identifier]
You can specify when the temporary directory is removed from the server by using the CreateTimeSpan function as
a value for the resourceTimespan attribute:
<cfreport query="#artsales#" template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" format="HTML"
resourceTimespan="#CreateTimeSpan(0,1,0,0)#"/>

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You can specify the time span in days, hours, minutes, and seconds. In this example, the temporary directory is deleted
after one hour. For more information, see the CFML Reference.
To export the report output to an HTML file, specify the filename attribute. The following code writes the report
output to an HTML file called artSales.html:
<cfreport template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" format="HTML" filename="artSales.html"
overwrite="yes"/>

ColdFusion creates an image directory relative to the HTML output file in the format filename_files. In this example,
ColdFusion automatically generates PNG files for the charts in the report and saves them to a directory called
artSales_files. Also, it generates copies of all of the JPG images extracted from the cfartgallery database and stores them
in the artSales_files directory. For more information, see the CFML Reference.
Overriding report styles
To override the report styles in a report, specify the style attribute of the cfreport tag. The value must contain valid
CSS syntax, the pathname to a CSS file, or a variable that points to valid CSS code. The CSS style names must match
the report style names defined in Report Builder.
The following code shows how to override the styles in the ArtSalesReport1.cfr report with the styles defined in the
artStyles.css file:
<cfreport template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" style="artStyles.css" format="PDF"/>

The following code shows how to apply a CSS style as a value of the style attribute:
<cfreport template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" style='ReportTitle {defaultStyle: false;
font-family:"Tahoma"; color: "lime";}' format="FlashPaper">
</cfreport>

The following code shows how to create a variable called myStyle and use it as a value of the style attribute:
<cfset mystyle='DetailData { defaultStyle: true; font-family: "Tahoma"; color: ##00FFF0;}'>
<cfreport template="ArtSalesReport1.cfr" style="#mystyle#" format="HTML">
</cfreport>

For more information, see the cfreport tag in the CFML Reference.

Creating Slide Presentations

You can use Adobe ColdFusion to create slide presentations.

About ColdFusion presentations

ColdFusion lets you create dynamic slide presentations from source files and from CFML and HTML code on a
ColdFusion page. You can use data extracted from a database to populate the slide content, including graphs and
charts. Also, you can add images, audio tracks, and video clips to each slide in the presentation. ColdFusion provides
three tags for creating slide presentations:

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Tag

Description

cfpresentation

Defines the look of the presentation and determines whether the presentation is saved to files or run
directly in the client browser.

cfpresentationslide

Defines the content of the slide from one of the following:

cfpresenter

A SWF file

An HTML file

A URL that returns HTML content

HTML and CFML code in the cfpresentationslide start and end tags

Provides information about the person presenting a slide. You can assign a presenter to one or more
slides. Presenter information is displayed in the control panel for the duration of the slide.

You specify at least one slide for the presentation and can assign each presenter to one or more slides. The following
example shows a slide presentation with content from four different sources and two presenters:
<cfpresentation title="myPresentation">
<cfpresenter name="Tuckerman" title="V.P. of Marketing"
email="[email protected]">
<cfpresenter name="Anne" title="V.P. of Sales" email="[email protected]">
<cfpresentationslide src="slide1.swf" title="Overview" duration="10"
presenter="Anne"/>
<cfpresentationslide src="slide2.htm" title="Q1 Sales" duration="30"
presenter="Anne"/>
<cfpresentationslide src="http://www.markettrends.com/index.htm"
title="Market Trends" duration="30" presenter="Tuckerman"/>
<cfpresentationslide title="Summary" duration="10">
<h3>Summary</h3>
<ul>
<li>Projected Sales</li>
<li>Challenges Ahead</li>
<li>Long Term Goals</li>
</ul>
</cfpresentationslide>
</cfpresentation>

Note: The cfpresentationslide tag requires an end tag. If you specify a source file as the slide content, use the end
slash as a shortcut for the end tag.
When the presentation runs, the slides appear in the order they are listed on the ColdFusion page for the duration
specified in each slide. The presenter information is displayed in a control panel next to the slide to which it is assigned.

Creating a slide presentation

Use the cfpresentation tag to customize the look of the slide presentation. Customizations can include the control
locations and the colors used in the presentation interface, as the following example shows:
<cfpresentation title="Sales Presentation" controlLocation="left" primaryColor="##0000FF"
shadowColor="###000033" textColor="##FFFF00" showNotes="yes">

The title appears at the top of the control panel. The color settings affect the presentation interface, but not the format
of the slides within the presentation. Set the showNotes attribute to yes to display text notes that are defined for
individual slides.

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If you do not specify a directory, as in the previous example, ColdFusion runs the presentation directly in the client
browser. The presentation uses files written to a temp directory on the server. To save the presentation, specify an
absolute path or a directory relative to the CFM page. (ColdFusion does not create the directory; it must exist already.)
In the following example, the presentation files are stored in the salesPresentation directory on the local drive:
<cfpresentation title="Sales Presentation" directory="c:\salesPresenation">

ColdFusion automatically generates the following files necessary to run the presentation and saves them in the
specified directory:

components.swf
index.htm
loadflash.js
viewer.swf
Also, ColdFusion creates a subdirectory called data where it stores the following files:

srchdata.xml (which creates the search interface)

vconfig.xml
viewer.xml
A SWF file generated for each slide in the presentation
Copies of the media files referenced in the presentation slides
Media files can include JPEG files, FLV and SWF video files, and mp3 audio files. To run the presentation that you
saved to files, double-click the index.htm file.
Note: ColdFusion does not overwrite the files referenced by the slides in the presentation; changes to the generated
presentation files do not affect the source files.

Adding presenters
Optionally, you can add one or more presenters under the cfpresentation tag. ColdFusion displays the presenter
information in the control panel for the current slide to which it is assigned. A slide does not require a presenter.
Use the cfpresenter tag to specify personal information. This information can include a title, an e-mail address, a
logo and an image of the person, as the following code shows:
<cfpresentation title="Sales Presentation">
<cfpresenter name="Anne" title="V.P. of Sales" biography="Anne Taylor has been a top seller
at Widgets R Us for five years." logo="images/logo.jpg" image="images/ataylor_empPhoto.jpg"
email="[email protected]">

The name attribute is required. You use this value to assign the presenter to one or more slides. To assign a presenter
to a slide, use the cfpresenter tag name attribute value as the cfpresentationslide tag presenter attribute. The
following example creates a presenter named Tuckerman and assigns him to a slide called Overview:
<cfpresentation title="Sales Presentation">
<cfpresenter name="Tuckerman" title="V.P. of Marketing">
<cfpresentationslide title="Overview" src="overview.swf" presenter="Tuckerman"
duration="10"/>
...
</cfpresentation>

Note: Assign presenters explicitly to slides. To assign a presenter to more than one slide, use the presenter name in each
of the cfpresentationslide tags.

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When you assign a presenter to a slide, the presenter information is displayed in the control panel for the duration of
the slide. Images must be in JPEG format and the files must be located in a path relative to the ColdFusion page.
ColdFusion maps the email attribute value to the contact link in the control panel. This link opens an e-mail message
in the local e-mail application when you click it.
The following code creates three presenters for a presentation and assigns two of the presenters to slides:
<cfpresentation title="Sales Presentation">
<cfpresenter name="Hannah" title="V.P. of Marketing" image="hannah.jpg">
<cfpresenter name="Anne" title="V.P. of Sales" image="Anne.jpg">
<cfpresenter name="Wilson" title="V.P. of Engineering"
image="Wilson.jpg">
<cfpresentationslide title="Overview" presenter="Hannah" duration="30"
src="slide1.htm"/>
<cfpresentationslide title="Q1 Sales" presenter="Anne" duration="15"
src="slide2.htm"/>
<cfpresentationslide title="Projected Sales" presenter="Anne"
duration="15" src="slide3.htm" video="promo.flv"/>
<cfpresentationslide title="Conclusion" src="slide4.htm"/>
</cfpresentation>

The presenter Hannah is assigned to one slide and Anne is assigned to two slides. The last slide in the presentation has
no presenter assigned to it. Because Wilson is not assigned to a slide, his information does not appear in the
presentation. In the second slide, Annes photo is displayed in the control panel. In the third slide, however, the video
called promo.flv runs in place of Annes photo in the control panel for the duration of the slide. The video does not
display in the slide.
Note: Videos must be in SWF or FLV format. You cannot specify audio and video for the same slide.

Adding slides
Use one cfpresentationslide tag for each slide in the presentation. The presentation runs the slides in the order
they are listed beneath the cfpresentation tag. You can create content for a slide in one of the following ways:
Source

Description

Example

A SWF or HTML file

The file must be located on the system

running ColdFusion. You can specify an
absolute path or a path relative to the
ColdFusion page.

<cfpresentationslide title="slide 1"

src="presentation/slide1.swf"/>

<cfpresentationslide title="slide 2"

src="c:/presentation/slide2.htm"/>

A URL

The URL must return HTML content.

<cfpresentationslide title="slide 3"

src="http://www.worldview.com/index.htm"/>

HTML and CFML code

Enclose the HTML and CFML code within the <cfpresentationslide>
on the ColdFusion page cfpresentationslide start and end tags.
<h3>Total Sales</h3>

<cfchart format="jpg" chartwidth="500"

show3d="yes">
<cfchartseries type="pie" query="artwork"
itemcolumn="issold" valuecolumn="price"/>
</cfchart>
</cfpresentationslide>

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Creating content from source files

The following code creates a presentation with three slides from source files in different locations:
<cfpresentation title="Garden Mania" directory="gardenPresentation">
<cfpresentationslide title="Seeds of Change" src="c:\gardening\seeds.html"
audio="media\hendrix.mp3" duration="30"/>
<cfpresentationslide title="Flower Power" src="shockwave\flowerPower.swf" duration="40"/>
<cfpresentationslide title="Dig Deep" src="http://www.smartgarden.com/index.htm"
duration="15"/>
</cfpresentation>

In this example, ColdFusion generates the files required to run the presentation in the gardenPresentation directory.
It generates a new SWF file in the data subdirectory from each of the slides. ColdFusion also copies the hendrix.mp3
file and saves it in the data subdirectory.
Note: Links within slides created from HTML files are not active.

Creating content from HTML and CFML code

If you do not specify a source file for a slide, create the content by using HTML or CFML in the cfpresentationslide
tag body. The following presentation contains one slide with each with the following types of content:

Generated from HTML

Generated from HTML and CFML
Extracted from an HTML file on an external website

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<cfpresentation title="The Road Ahead">

<cfpresentationslide title="Yellow Bricks" audio="myaudio1.mp3" duration="10">
<h3>Yellow Bricks</h3>
<table cellpadding=10>
<tr>
<td>
<ul>
<li>Way to go Dorothy</li>
<li>Making tracks</li>
<li>No place like home</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/maxwell01.jpg"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</cfpresentationslide>
<cfpresentationslide title="Wild Ride" duration="5">
<h3>Wild Ride</h3>
<cfchart format="jpg" title="Who's Ahead" show3D="yes" chartHeight=500 chartWidth=500>
<cfchartseries type="pyramid">
<cfchartdata item="Dorothy" value=10>
<cfchartdata item="Tin Man" value=30>
<cfchartdata item="Scarecrow" value=15>
<cfchartdata item="Lion" value=50>
<cfchartdata item="Toto" value=5>
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>
</cfpresentationslide>
<cfpresentationslide title="The Golden Age of Ballooning" duration="10"
src="http://www.balloning.com/index.htm"/>
</cfpresentation>

Note: The value for the format attribute of the cfchart tag must be JPG or PNG.
The content for slides is not limited to static data: you can generate content from information extracted from a
database or a query of queries.

Sample presentations
This section provides two sample presentations.

Example 1
The following example creates a simple presentation that incorporates data retrieved from the cfdocexamples
database. It shows how to perform the following tasks:

Create slides generated from HTML and CFML.

Add images to slides.
Add charts and tables with data extracted from a database.
Add audio tracks to individual slides.

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<!--- The following query extracts employee data from the cfdocexamples
database. --->
<cfquery name="GetSalaryDetails" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Departmt.Dept_Name,
Employee.FirstName,
Employee.LastName,
Employee.StartDate,
Employee.Salary,
Employee.Contract
From Departmt, Employee
Where Departmt.Dept_ID = Employee.Dept_ID
ORDER BY Employee.LastName, Employee.Firstname
</cfquery>
<!--- The following code creates a presentation with three presenters. --->
<cfpresentation title="Employee Satisfaction" primaryColor="##0000FF" glowColor="##FF00FF"
lightColor="##FFFF00" showoutline="no">
<cfpresenter name="Jeff" title="CFO" email="[email protected]"
logo="../cfdocs/getting_started/photos/somewhere.jpg"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/jeff01.jpg">
<cfpresenter name="Lori" title="VP Marketing" email="[email protected]"
logo="../cfdocs/getting_started/photos/somewhere.jpg"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/lori01.jpg">
<cfpresenter name="Paul" title="VP Sales" email="[email protected]"
logo="../cfdocs/getting_started/photos/somewhere.jpg"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg">
<!--- The following code creates the first slide in the presentation
from HTML. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Introduction" presenter="Jeff"
audio="myAudio1.mp3" duration="5">
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<table>
<tr><td>
<ul>
<li>Company Overview</li>
<li>Salary by Department</li>
<li>Employee Salary Details</li>
</ul>
</td></tr>
</table>
</cfpresentationslide>
<!--- The following code creates the second slide in the presentation.
The chart is populated with data from the database query. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Salary by Department" presenter="Lori"
duration="5" audio="myAudio3.mp3">
<h3>Salary by Department</h3>
<cfchart format="jpg" xaxistitle="Department" yaxistitle="Salary">
<cfchartseries type="bar" query="GetSalaryDetails"
itemcolumn="Dept_Name" valuecolumn="salary">
</cfchartseries>
</cfchart>
</cfpresentationslide>
<!--- The following code creates the third slide in the presentation. The table is populated
with data from the query. The table also contains an image located relative to the CFM page on

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the server. --->

<cfpresentationslide title="Salary Details" presenter="Paul"
duration="10" audio="myAudio1.mp3">
<h3>Employee Salary Details</h3>
<table border cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 valign="top">
<tr>
<td>
<table border cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 valign="top">
<tr>
<th>Employee Name</th>
<th>Start Date</th>
<th>Salary</th>
<th>Department</th>
<th>Contract?</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="GetSalaryDetails">
<tr>
<td>#FirstName# #LastName#</td>
<td>#dateFormat(StartDate, "mm/dd/yyyy")#</td>
<td>#numberFormat(Salary, "$9999,9999")#</td>
<td>#dept_name#</td>
<td>#Contract#</td>
</tr></cfoutput>
</table>
</td>
<td width="200" >
<img src="images/raquel02.jpg"/>
</td>
</table>
</cfpresentationslide>
</cfpresentation>

Example 2
The following example shows how to create a simple sales presentation with data from the cfartgallery database.
Specifically, it shows how to perform the following tasks:

Create slides generated from HTML and CFML.

Create a slide from a URL that returns HTML content.
Add charts with data extracted from a database and a query of queries.
Add video and audio tracks to individual slides.

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<!--- The following query extracts data from the cfartgallery database. --->
<cfquery name="artwork" datasource="cfartgallery">
SELECT FIRSTNAME || ' '|| LASTNAME AS FULLNAME, ARTISTS.ARTISTID, ARTNAME, PRICE, ISSOLD
FROM ARTISTS, ART
WHERE ARTISTS.ARTISTID = ART.ARTISTID
ORDER BY LASTNAME
</cfquery>
<!--- The following query of queries determines the total dollar amount of
sales per artist. --->
<cfquery dbtype="query" name="artistname">
SELECT FULLNAME,
SUM(PRICE) AS totalSale
FROM ARTWORK
WHERE ISSOLD = 1
GROUP BY FULLNAME
ORDER BY totalSale
</cfquery>
<!--- The following code determines the look of the slide presentation. ColdFusion displays
the slide presentation directly in the browser because no destination is specified. The title
appears above the presenter information. --->
<cfpresentation title="Art Sales Presentation" primaryColor="##0000FF" glowColor="##FF00FF"
lightColor="##FFFF00" showOutline="yes" showNotes="yes">
<!--- The following code defines the presenter information. You can assign each presenter
to one or more slides. --->
<cfpresenter name="Aiden" title="Artist" email="[email protected]"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/aiden01.jpg">
<cfpresenter name="Raquel" title="Artist" email="[email protected]"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/raquel05.jpg">
<cfpresenter name="Paul" title="Artist" email="[email protected]"
image="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul01.jpg">
<!--- The following code defines the content for the first slide in the presentation. The
duration of the slide determines how long the slide plays before proceeding to the next
slide. The audio plays for the duration of the slide. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Introduction" presenter="Aiden" duration="5"
audio="myAudio1.mp3">
<h3>Introduction</h3>
<table>
<tr><td>
<ul>
<li>Art Sales Overview</li>
<li>Total Sales</li>
<li>Total Sales by Artist</li>
<li>Conclusion</li>
</ul>
</td>
<td><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/maxwell01.jpg"/></td></tr>
</table>
</cfpresentationslide>
<!--- The following code generates the second slide in the presentation from an HTML file
located on an external website. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Artwork Sales Overview" presenter="Raquel"
audio="myAudio2.mp3" duration="5" src="http://www.louvre.com/index.html"/>

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<!--- The following code generates the third slide in the presentation, which contains a
pie chart with data extracted from the initial database query. ColdFusion runs the video
defined in the cfpresentationslide tag in place of the presenter image defined in the
cfpresenter tag. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Total Artwork Sold" presenter="Aiden"
duration="5" video="video1.flv">
<h3>Total Sales</h3>
<cfchart format="jpg" chartwidth="500" show3d="yes">
<cfchartseries type="pie" query="artwork"
colorlist="##00FFFF,##FF00FF" itemcolumn="issold"
valuecolumn="price"/>
</cfchart>
</cfpresentationslide>
<!--- The following code generates the fourth slide in the presentation with
data extracted from the query of queries. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Sales by Artist" presenter="Paul"
duration="5" audio="myAudio3.mp3">
<h3>Total Sales by Artist</h3>
<table border cellspacing=10 cellpadding=0>
<TR>
<TD>
<table border cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5>
<tr>
<th>Artist Name</th>
<th>Total Sales</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<cfoutput query="artistname">
<td>#FULLNAME#</td>
<td>#dollarFormat(totalSale)#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</td>
<td>
<cfchart format="jpg" xaxistitle="Artist" yaxistitle="Total Sales"
chartwidth="400">
<cfchartseries type="bar" query="artistname"
itemcolumn="fullname" valuecolumn="totalSale"/>
</cfchart>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</cfpresentationslide>
<!--- The following code defines the final slide in the presentation. This slide does not
have a presenter assigned to it. --->
<cfpresentationslide title="Conclusion" duration="1" notes="Special thanks to Lori and
Jeff for contributing their art and expertise.">
<h1>Great Job Team!</h1>
<p><img src="../cfdocs/images/artgallery/paul05.jpg"></p>
</cfpresentationslide>
</cfpresentation>

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Chapter 14: Using Web Elements and

External Objects
Using XML and WDDX
You can use Adobe ColdFusion to create, use, and manipulate XML documents. You can also use Web Distributed
Data Exchange (WDDX), an XML dialect, for transmitting structured data, including transferring data between
applications and between CFML and JavaScript.

About XML and ColdFusion

XML has rapidly become the universal language for representing documents and data on the web. These documents
can extend beyond the traditional concept of a paper document or its equivalent. For example, XML is often used to
represent database or directory information. XML is also commonly used to represent transaction information, such
as product orders or receipts, and for information such as inventory records and employee data.
Because XML represents data in a tagged, textual format it is an excellent tool for representing information that must
be shared between otherwise-independent applications such as order entry and inventory management. No
application must know anything about the other. Each application only must be prepared to get data in a format that
is structured according to the XML DTD or Schema. For example, in a distributed order processing application, the
order placement component, order fulfillment component, inventory management component, and billing
component can all share information with each other in XML format. They could use a common XML DTD, of
different components could communicate with each other using different DTDs.
After an application parses the XML document, it can then manipulate the information in any way that is appropriate.
For example, you can convert tabular XML data into a ColdFusion recordset, perform queries on the data and then
export the data an XML document. For example, the code in Example: using XML in a ColdFusion application on
page 1080 takes a customer order in XML, converts the data to a recordset, and uses a query to determine the order
cost. It then prepares a receipt as an XML document.
ColdFusion provides a comprehensive and easy-to-use set of tools for creating and using XML documents.
ColdFusion lets you do the following with XML documents:

Convert XML text into ColdFusion XML document objects.

Create new ColdFusion XML document objects.
Modify ColdFusion XML document objects.
Validate XML against a DTD or Schema
Transform XML using XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation).
Extract data from XML documents using XPath expressions.
Convert ColdFusion XML document objects to text and save them in files.
ColdFusion can also represent forms that you create using the cfform tag as XML. You can have ColdFusion generate
the XML and process it using an XSLT skin to generate output for display, or ColdFusion can generate XML text and
place it in a variable for further processing. For more information on XML Forms, see Creating Skinnable XML
Forms on page 783

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The XML document object

ColdFusion represents an XML document as an object, called an XML document object, that is much like a standard
ColdFusion structure. In fact, most ColdFusion structure functions, such as StructInsert, work with XML
document objects. For a full list of ColdFusion functions that work on XML document objects, see Functions for XML
object management on page 1069.
You can look at the overall structure of an XML document in two ways: a basic view and a DOM (Document Object
Model)-based node view. The basic view presents all the information in the document, but does not separate the data
into as fine-grained units as the node view. ColdFusion can access XML document contents using either view.

A simple XML document

The descriptions of the basic and node views use the following simple XML document. This document is used in many
of the examples in the ColdFusion XML documentation.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<employee>
<!-- A list of employees -->
<name EmpType="Regular">
<first>Almanzo</first>
<last>Wilder</last>
</name>
<name EmpType="Contract">
<first>Laura</first>
<last>Ingalls</last>
</name>
</employee>

Basic view
The basic view of an XML document object presents the object as a container that holds one root element structure.
The root element can have any number of nested element structures. Each element structure represents an XML tag
(start tag/end tag set) and all its contents; it can contain additional element structures. A basic view of the simple XML
document looks like the following:
Document object

Root Element: employee

Comment: A list of employees
Element: name
Attributes: EmpType = Regular
Element: first
Text:
Almanzo

Element: last
Text:
Wilder

Element: name
Attributes: EmpType = Contract
Element: first
Text:
Laura

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Element: last
Text:
Ingalls

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DOM node view

The DOM node view presents the XML document object using the same format as the documents XML Document
Object Model (DOM). In fact, an XML document object is a representation of a DOM object.
The DOM is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation (specification) for a platform- and languageneutral interface to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. ColdFusion
conforms to the DOM Level 2 Core specification, available at www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-Core.
In the DOM node view, the document consists of a hierarchical tree of nodes. Each node has a DOM node type, a node
name, and a node value. Node types include Element, Comment, Text, and so on. The DOM structures the document
object and each of the elements it contains into multiple nodes of different types, providing a finer-grained view of the
document structure than the basic view. For example, if an XML comment is in the middle of a block of text, the DOM
node view represents its position in the text while the basic view does not.
ColdFusion also lets you use the DOM objects, methods, and properties defined in the W3C DOM Level 2 Core
specification to manipulate the XML document object.
For more information on referencing DOM nodes, see XML DOM node structure on page 1061. This document
does not cover the node view and using DOM methods and properties in detail.

XML document structures

An XML document object is a structure that contains a set of nested XML element structures. The following image
shows a section of the cfdump tag output for the document object for the XML in A simple XML document on
page 1059. This image shows the long version of the dump, which provides complete details about the document
object. Initially, ColdFusion displays a short version, with basic information. Click the dump header to change between
short, long, and collapsed versions of the dump.

The following code displays this output. It assumes that you save the code in a file under your web root, such as
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\testdocs\employeesimple.xml
<cffile action="read" file="C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\testdocs\employeesimple.xml"
variable="xmldoc">
<cfset mydoc = XmlParse(xmldoc)>
<cfdump var="#mydoc#">

The document object structure

At the top level, the XML document object has the following three entries:

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Entry name

Type

Description

XmlRoot

Element

The root element of the document.

XmlComment

String

A string made of the concatenation of all comments on the document, that is, comments in
the document prologue and epilog. This string does not include comments inside document
elements.

XmlDocType

XmlNode

The DocType attribute of the document. This entry only exists if the document specifies a
DocType. This value is read only; you cannot set it after the document object has been created
This entry does not appear when the cfdump tag displays an XML element structure.

The element structure

Each XML element has the following entries:
Entry name

Type

Description

XmlName

String

The name of the element; includes the namesapce prefix.

XmlNsPrefix

String

The prefix of the namespace.

XmlNsURI

String

The URI of the namespace.

XmlText or

String

A string made of the concatenation of all text and CData text in the element, but not inside any
child elements. When you assign a value to the XmlCdata element, ColdFusion places the text
inside a CDATA information item. When you retrieve information from document object, these
element names return identical values.

XmlComment

String

A string made of the concatenation of all comments inside the XML element, but not inside
any child elements.

XmlAttributes

Structure

All of this elements attributes, as name-value pairs.

XmlChildren

Array

All this elements children elements.

XmlParent

XmlNode

The parent DOM node of this element.

XmlCdata

This entry does not appear when the cfdump tag displays an XML element structure.
XmlNodes

Array

An array of all the XmlNode DOM nodes contained in this element.

This entry does not appear the cfdump tag when displays an XML element structure.

XML DOM node structure

The following table lists the contents of an XML DOM node structure:
Entry name

Type

Description

XmlName

String

The node name. For nodes such as Element or Attribute, the node name is the element or
attribute name.

XmlType

String

The node XML DOM type, such as Element or Text.

XmlValue

String

The node value. This entry is used only for Attribute, CDATA, Comment, and Text type nodes.

Note: The cfdump tag does not display XmlNode structures. If you try to dump an XmlNode structure, the cfdump tag
displays Empty Structure.
The following table lists the contents of the XmlName and XmlValue fields for each node type that is valid in the
XmlType entry. The node types correspond to the objects types in the XML DOM hierarchy.

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Node type

XmlName

xmlValue

CDATA

#cdata-section

Content of the CDATA section

COMMENT

#comment

Content of the comment

ELEMENT

Tag name

Empty string

ENTITYREF

Name of entity referenced

Empty string

PI (processing instruction)

Target entire content excluding the target

Empty string

TEXT

#text

Content of the text node

ENTITY

Entity name

Empty string

NOTATION

Notation name

Empty string

DOCUMENT

#document

Empty string

FRAGMENT

#document-fragment

Empty string

DOCTYPE

Document type name

Empty string

Note: Although XML attributes are nodes on the DOM tree, ColdFusion does not expose them as XML DOM node data
structures. To view an elements attributes, use the element structures XMLAttributes structure.
The XML document object and all its elements are exposed as DOM node structures. For example, you can use the
following variable names to reference nodes in the DOM tree that you created from the XML example in A simple
XML document on page 1059:
mydoc.XmlName
mydoc.XmlValue
mydoc.XmlRoot.XmlName
mydoc.employee.XmlType
mydoc.employee.XmlNodes[1].XmlType

ColdFusion XML tag and functions

The following table lists the ColdFusion tags and functions that create and manipulate XML documents:

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Tag or function

Description

<cfxml variable="objectName"

Creates a ColdFusion XML document object consisting of the markup in the tag body. The tag can
include XML and CFML tags. ColdFusion processes all CFML in the tag body before converting the
resulting text to an XML document object.

[caseSensitive="Boolean"]>

If you specify the CaseSensitive="True" attribute, the case of names of elements and attributes
in the document is meaningful. The default value is False.
For more information on using the cfxml tag, see Creating an XML document object using the
cfxml tag on page 1067.
XmlParse (XMLText
[[, caseSensitive],
validator])

Converts an XML document in a file or a string variable into an XML document object, and optionally
validates the document against a DTD or schema.
If you specify the optional second argument as True, the case of names of elements and attributes
in the document is meaningful. The default value is False.
For more information on using the XmlParse function, see Creating an XML document object from
existing XML on page 1068.

XmlNew([caseSensitive])

Returns an empty XML document object.

If you specify the optional argument as True, the case of names of elements and attributes in the
document is meaningful. The default value is False.
For more information on using the XmlNew function, see Creating an XML document object using
the XmlNew function on page 1068.

XmlElemNew(objectName{,
namespaceURI],

Returns an XML document object element with the specified name, optionally belonging to the
specified namespace. You can omit the namespaceURI parameter and use only a namespace prefix
if the prefix is defined elsewhere in the object.

elementName)

For more information on using theXmlElemNew function, see Adding an element on page 1073.

XmlTransform(XMLVar,

Applies an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) to an XML document. The

document can be represented as a string variable or as an XML document object. The function
returns the resulting XML document as a string.

XSLTStringVar[,
parameters])

For more information on using theXmlTransform function, see Transforming documents with XSLT
on page 1079.

XmlSearch(objectName,

Uses an XPath expression to search an XML document object and returns an array of XML elements
that match the search criteria.

XPathExpression)

For more information on using the XmlSearch function, see Extracting data with XPath on
page 1080.
XmlValidate(xmlDoc[,
validator])

XmlChildPos(element,
elementName, position)

Uses a Document Type Definition (DTD) or XML Schema to validate an XML text document (in a
string or file) or an XML document object. The validator can be a DTD or Schema. If you omit the
validator parameter, the document must specify a DTD or schema. For more information on
using the XmlValidate function, see Validating XML documents on page 1079
Returns the position (index) in an XmlChildren array of the Nth child with the specified element
name. For example, XmlChildPos(mydoc.employee, "name", 2) returns the position in
mydoc.employee.XmlChildren of the mydoc.employee.name[2] element. This index can be used in
the ArrayInsertAt and ArrayDeleteAt functions.
For more information on using theXmlChildPos function, see Determining the position of a child
element with a common name on page 1073, Adding an element on page 1073, and Deleting
elements on page 1075.

XmlGetNodeType(xmlNode)

Returns a string identifying the type of an XML document object node returned by the function or
in an elements XmlNodes array.

IsWDDX(String)

Determines whether a string is a well-formed WDDX packet.

IsXML(String)

Determines whether a string is well-formed XML text.

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Tag or function

Description

IsXmlAttribute(variable)

Determines whether the function parameter is an XML Document Object Model (DOM) attribute
node.

IsXmlDoc(objectName)

Returns True if the function argument is an XML document object.

IsXmlElem(elementName)

Returns True if the function argument is an XML document object element.

IsXmlNode(variable)

Determines whether the function parameter is an XML document object node.

IsXmlRoot(elementName)

Returns True if the function argument is the root element of an XML document object.

ToString(objectName)

Converts an XML document object to a string representation.

XmlFormat(string)

Escapes special XML characters in a string so that the string can be used as text in XML.

About case sensitivity and XML document objects

The tags and functions that create XML document objects let you specify whether ColdFusion treats the object in a
case-sensitive manner. If you do not specify case sensitivity, ColdFusion ignores the case of XML document object
component identifiers, such as element and attribute names. If you do specify case sensitivity, names with different
cases specify different components. For example, if you do not specify case sensitivity, the names
mydoc.employee.name[1] and mydoc.employee.NAME[1] always specify the same element. If you specify case
sensitivity, these names specify two separate elements. You cannot use dot notation references for element or attribute
names in a case-sensitive XML document; for more information see Referencing the contents of an XML object on
page 1064.

Using an XML object

Because an XML document object is represented as a structure, you can access XML document contents using either,
or a combination of both, of the following ways:

Using the element names, such as mydoc.employee.name[1]

Using the corresponding structure entry names (that is, XmlChildren array entries), such as
mydoc.employee.XmlChildren[1]
Similarly, you can use either, or a combination of both, of the following notation methods:

Structure (dot) notation, such as mydoc.employee

Associative array (bracket) notation, such as mydoc["employee"]

Referencing the contents of an XML object

Use the following rules when you reference the contents of an XML document object on the right side of an assignment
or as a function argument:

By default, ColdFusion ignores element name case. As a result, it considers the element name MyElement and the
element name myELement to be equivalent. To make element name matching case-sensitive, specify
CaseSensitive="True" in the cfxml tag, or specify True as a second argument in the XmlParse or XmlNew
function that creates the document object.

If your XML object is case sensitive, do not use dot notation to reference an element or attribute name. Use the
name in associative array (bracket) notation, or a reference that does not use the case-sensitive name. For example,
do not use names such as the following:

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MyDoc.employee.name[1]
MyDoc.employee.XmlAttributes.Version

Instead, use names such as the following:

MyDoc.xmlRoot.XmlChildren[1]
MyDoc.xmlRoot["name"][1]
MyDoc.["employee"]["name"][1]
MyDoc.xmlRoot.XmlAttributes["Version"]
MyDoc["employee"].XmlAttributes["Version"]

Important: Because ColdFusion always treats variable names as case-insensitive, using dot notation for element and
attribute names in a case-sensitive XML document can generate unexpected results (such as all-uppercase variable
names), exceptions, or both.

If your XML object is case sensitive, you cannot use dot notation to reference an element or attribute name. Use the
name in associative array (bracket) notation, or a reference that does not use the case-sensitive name (such as
XmlChildren[1]) instead.

Use an array index to specify one of multiple elements with the same name; for example,
#mydoc.employee.name[1] and #mydoc.employee.name[2].

If you omit the array index on the last component of an element identifier, ColdFusion treats the reference as the
array of all elements with the specified name. For example, mydoc.employee.name refers to an array of two name
elements.

Use an array index into the XmlChildren array to specify an element without using its name; for example,
mydoc.XmlRoot.XmlChildren[1].

Use associative array (bracket) notation to specify an element name that contains a period or colon; for example,
myotherdoc.XmlRoot["Type1.Case1"].

You can use DOM methods in place of structure entry names.

For example, the following variables all reference the XmlText value Almanzo in the XML document created in A
simple XML document on page 1059:
mydoc.XmlRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlChildren[1].XmlText
mydoc.employee.name[1].first.XmlText
mydoc.employee.name[1]["first"].XmlText
mydoc["employee"].name[1]["first"].XmlText
mydoc.XmlRoot.name[1].XmlChildren[1]["XmlText"]

The following variables all reference the EmpType attribute of the first name element in the XML document created
in A simple XML document on page 1059:
mydoc.employee.name[1].XmlAttributes.EmpType
mydoc.employee.name[1].XmlAttributes["EmpType"]
mydoc.employee.XmlChildren[1].XmlAttributes.EmpType
mydoc.XmlRoot.name[1].XmlAttributes["EmpType"]
mydoc.XmlRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlAttributes.EmpType

Neither of these lists contains a complete set of the possible combinations that can make up a reference to the value or
attribute.

Assigning data to an XML object

When you use an XML object reference on the left side of an expression, most of the preceding rules apply to the
reference up to the last element in the reference string.

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For example, the rules in Referencing the contents of an XML object on page 1064 apply to
mydoc.employee.name[1].first in the following expression:
mydoc.employee.name[1].first.MyNewElement = XmlElemNew(mydoc, NewElement);

The rule for naming in case correct document objects, however, applies to the full reference string, as indicated by the
following caution:
Important: Because ColdFusion always treats variable names as case-insensitive, using dot notation for element and
attribute names in a case-sensitive XML document can generate unexpected results (such as all-uppercase variable
names), exceptions, or both. In case-sensitive XML documents, use associative array notation or DOM notation names
(such as XmlRoot or XmlChldren[2]).
Referencing the last element on the left side of an expression
The following rules apply to the meaning of the last component on the left side of an expression:
1 The component name is an element structure key name (XML property name), such as XmlComment, ColdFusion

sets the value of the specified element structure entry to the value of the right side of the expression. For example,
the following line sets the XML comment in the mydoc.employee.name[1].first element to This is a comment:
mydoc.employee.name[1].first.XmlComment = "This is a comment";

2 If the component name specifies an element name and does not end with a numeric index, for example
mydoc.employee.name, ColdFusion assigns the value on the right of the expression to the first matching element.

For example, if both mydoc.employee.name[1] and mydoc.employee.name[2] exist, the following expression
replaces mydoc.employee.name[1] with a new element named address, not an element named name:
mydoc.employee.name = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "address");

After executing this line, if there had been both mydoc.employee.name[1] and mydoc.employee.name[2], now
only one mydoc.employee.name element exists with the contents of the original mydoc.employee.name[2].
3 If the component name does not match an existing element, the element names on the left and right sides of the

expression must match. ColdFusion creates an element with the name of the element on the left of the expression.
If the element names do not match, it generates an error.
For example if a, mydoc.employee.name.phoneNumber element does not exist, the following expression creates
an mydoc.employee.name.phoneNumber element:
mydoc.employee.name.phoneNumber = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "phoneNumber");

The following expression causes an error:

mydoc.employee.name.phoneNumber = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "address");

4 If the component name does not match an existing element and the components parent or parents also do not exist,

ColdFusion creates any parent nodes as specified on the left side and use the previous rule for the last element. For
example, no mydoc.employee.phoneNumber element exists, the following expression creates a phoneNumber
element containing an AreaCode element:
mydoc.employee.name.phoneNumber.AreaCode = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "AreaCode");

Assigning and retrieving CDATA values

To identify that element text is CDATA by placing it inside CDATA start and end marker information items, assign
the text to the XmlCdata element, not the XmlText element. Specify CDATA because ColdFusion escapes the < and >
symbols in the element text when you assign it to an XmlText entry. You can assign a value to an elements XmlText
entry or its XmlCdata entry, but not to both, as each assignment overwrites the other.

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When you retrieve data from the document object, references to XmlCdata and XmlText return the same string.
The following example shows how ColdFusion handles CDATA text:
<cfscript>
myCDATA = "This is CDATA text";
MyDoc = XmlNew();
MyDoc.xmlRoot = XmlElemNew(MyDoc,"myRoot");
MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1] = XmlElemNew(MyDoc,"myChildNodeCDATA");
MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlCData = "#myCDATA#";
</cfscript>
<h3>Assigning a value to MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlCdata.</h3>
<cfoutput>
The type of element MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1] is:
#MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlType#<br>
The value when output using XmlCdata is: #MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlCData#<br>
The value when output using XmlText is: #MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlText#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
The XML text representation of Mydoc is:
<cfoutput><XMP>#tostring(MyDoc)#</XMP></cfoutput>
<h3>Assigning a value to MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlText.</h3>
<cfset MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlText = "This is XML plain text">
<cfoutput>
The value when output using XmlCdata is: #MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlCData#<br>
The value when output using XmlText is: #MyDoc.myRoot.XmlChildren[1].XmlText#<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
The XML text representation of Mydoc is:
<cfoutput><XMP>#tostring(MyDoc)#</XMP></cfoutput>

Creating and saving an XML document object

You can use several methods to create and save an XML document object. The specific technique that you use depends
on the application and your coding style.

Creating an XML document object using the cfxml tag

The cfxml tag creates an XML document object that consists of the XML markup in the tag body. The tag body can
include CFML code. ColdFusion processes the CFML code and includes the resulting output in the XML. The
following example shows a simple cfxml tag:

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<cfset testVar = True>

<cfxml variable="MyDoc">
<MyDoc>
<cfif testVar IS True>
<cfoutput>The value of testVar is True.</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
<cfoutput>The value of testVar is False.</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<cfloop index = "LoopCount" from = "1" to = "4">
<childNode>
This is Child node <cfoutput>#LoopCount#.</cfoutput>
</childNode>
</cfloop>
</MyDoc>
</cfxml>
<cfdump var=#MyDoc#>

This example creates a document object with a root element MyDoc, which includes text that displays the value of the
ColdFusion variable testVar. MyDoc has four nested child elements, which are generated by an indexed cfloop tag. The
cfdump tag displays the resulting XML document object.
Note: When you use the cfxml tag, do not include an <?xml ?> processing directive in the tag body. This directive is not
required, and causes an error. To process XML text that includes the <?xml ?> directive, use the XmlParse function.

Creating an XML document object using the XmlNew function

The XmlNew function creates an XML document object, which you must then populate. For information on how to
populate a new XML document, see Adding, deleting, and modifying XML elements on page 1073.
Note: You cannot set the XmlDocType property for an XML document object that you create with the XmlNew function.
The following example creates and displays the same ColdFusion document object as in Creating an XML document
object using the cfxml tag on page 1067.
<cfset testVar = True>
<cfscript>
MyDoc = XmlNew();
MyDoc.xmlRoot = XmlElemNew(MyDoc,"MyRoot");
if (testVar IS TRUE)
MyDoc.MyRoot.XmlText = "The value of testVar is True.";
else
MyDoc.MyRoot.XmlText = "The value of testVar is False.";
for (i = 1; i LTE 4; i = i + 1)
{
MyDoc.MyRoot.XmlChildren[i] = XmlElemNew(MyDoc,"childNode");
MyDoc.MyRoot.XmlChildren[i].XmlText = "This is Child node " & i &".";
}
</cfscript>
<cfdump var=#MyDoc#>

Creating an XML document object from existing XML

The XmlParse function converts an XML document or document fragment represented as text into a ColdFusion
document object. You can use a string variable containing the XML or the name or URL of a file that contains the text.
For example, if your application uses cfhttp action="get" to get the XML document, use the following line to create
the XML document object:
<cfset myXMLDocument = XmlParse(cfhttp.fileContent)>

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The following example converts an XML text document in a file to an XML document object:
<cfset myXMLDocument=XmlParse("C:\temp\myxmldoc.xml" variable="XMLFileText")>

The XmlParse function takes a second, optional, attribute that specifies whether to maintain the case of the elements
and attributes in the document object. The default is to have the document object be case-insensitive. For more
information on case sensitivity, see Referencing the contents of an XML object on page 1064.
The XmlParse function also lets you specify a DTD or Schema to validate the XML text; if the XML is not valid,
ColdFusion generates an error. You can specify the filename or URL of the validator, or the DTD or Schema can be in
a CFML variable. You can also tell ColdFusion to use a DTD or Schema that is identified in the XML text. If you specify
validation, also specify whether the document is case sensitive. The following example validates an XML document
on file using a DTD that it specifies using a URL:
myDoc=XMLParse("C:\CFusion\wwwroot\examples\custorder.xml", false,
"http://localhost:8500/examples/custorder.dtd")>

Saving and exporting an XML document object

The ToString function converts an XML document object to a text string. You can then use the string variable in any
ColdFusion tag or function.
To save the XML document in a file, use the ToString function to convert the document object to a string variable,
then use the cffile tag to save the string as a file. For example, use the following code to save the XML document
myXMLDocument in the file C:\temp\myxmldoc.xml:
<cfset XMLText=ToString(myXMLDocument)>
<cffile action="write" file="C:\temp\myxmldoc.xml" output="#XMLText#">

Modifying a ColdFusion XML object

As with all ColdFusion structured objects, you can often use several methods to change the contents of an XML
document object. For example, you often have the choice of using an assignment statement or a function to update the
contents of a structure or an array. You can use array and structure functions that you can use to modify an XML
document object. The section XML document object management reference on page 1071 provides a quick
reference to modifying XML document object contents. Later sections describe these methods for changing document
content in detail.

Functions for XML object management

The following table lists the ColdFusion array and structure functions that you can use to manage XML document
objects and their functions, and describes their common uses. In several cases you can use either an array function or
a structure function for a purpose, such as for deleting all of an elements attributes or children.
Function

Use

ArrayLen

Determines the number of child elements in an element, that is, the number of elements in an elements
XmlChildren array.

ArrayIsEmpty

Determines whether an element has any elements in its XmlChildren array.

StructCount

Determines the number of attributes in an elements XmlAttributes structure.

StructIsEmpty

Determines whether an element has any attributes in its XmlAttributes structure.

Returns True if the specified structure, including the XML document object or an element, exists and is empty.

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Function

Use

StructKeyArray

Gets an array or list with the names of all of the attributes in an elements XmlAttributes structure. Returns
the names of the children of an XML element.

StructKeyList
ArrayInsertAt

Adds a new element at a specific location in an elements XmlChildren array.

ArrayAppend

Adds a new element at the end or beginning of an elements XmlChildren array.

ArrayPrepend
ArraySwap

Swaps the children in the XmlChildren array at the specified position.

ArraySet

Sets a range of entries in an XmlChildren array to equal the contents of a specified element structure. Each
entry in the array range is a copy of the structure. Can be used to set a single element by specifying the same
index as the beginning and end of the range.

ArrayDeleteAt

Deletes a specific element from an elements XmlChildren array.

ArrayClear

Deletes all child elements from an elements XmlChildren array.

StructDelete

Deletes a selected attribute from an elements XMLAttributes structure.

Deletes all children with a specific element name from an elements XmlChildren array.
Deletes all attributes of an element.
Deletes all children of an element.
Deletes a selected property value.

StructClear

Deletes all attributes from an elements XMLAttributes structure.

Duplicate

Copies an XML document object, element, or node structure.

IsArray

Returns True for the XmlChildren array. Returns false if you specify an element name, such as
mydoc.XmlRoot.name, even if multiple name elements exist in XmlRoot.

IsStruct

Returns False for XML document objects, elements, and nodes. Returns True for XmlAttributes structures.

StructGet

Returns the specified structure, including XML document objects, elements, nodes, and XmlAttributes
structures.

StructAppend

Appends a document fragment XML document object to another XML document object.

StructInsert

Adds a new entry to an XmlAttributes structure.

StructUpdate

Sets or replaces the value of a document object property such as XmlName, or of a specified attribute in an
XmlAttributes structure.

Note: Array and structure functions not in the preceding or table or the table in the next section, do not work with XML
document objects, XML elements, or XML node structures.

Treating elements with the same name as an array

In many cases, an XML element has multiple children with the same name. For example, the example document used
in many XML examples has multiple name elements in the employee elements. In many cases, you can treat the child
elements with identical names as an array. For example, to reference the second name element in mydoc.employee,
you can specify mydoc.employee.name[2]. However, you can only use a limited set of Array functions when you use
this notation. The following table lists the array functions that are valid for such references:

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Array function

Result

IsArray(elemPath.elemName)

Always returns False.

ArrayClear(elemPath.elemName)

Removes all the elements with name elemName from the elemPath element.

ArrayLen(elemPath.elemName)

Returns the number of elements named elemName in the elemPath element.

ArrayDeleteAt(elemPath.elemName, n)

Deletes the nth child named elemName from the elemPath element.

ArrayIsEmpty(elemPath.elemName)

Always returns False.

ArrayToList(elemPath.elemName, n)

Returns a comma-separated list of all the XmlText properties of all the children of
elemPath named elemName.

XML document object management reference

The following tables provide a quick reference to the ways you can modify the contents of an XML document object.
The sections that follow describe in detail how to modify XML contents.
Note: If your XML object is case sensitive, you cannot use dot notation to reference an element or attribute name. Use the
name in associative array (bracket) notation, or a reference that does not use the case-sensitive name (such as
xmlChildren[1]) instead.
Adding information to an element
Use the following techniques to add new information to an element:
Type

Using a function

Using an assignment statement

Attribute

StructInsert(xmlElemPath.XmlAttributes, "key",
"value")

xmlElemPath.XmlAttributes.key ="value"

xmlElemPath.XmlAttributes["key"]="valu
e"

Child element

To append:

To append:

ArrayAppend(xmlElempath.XmlChildren,newElem)

xmlElemPath.XmlChildren[i] =newElem

To insert:
ArrayInsertAt(xmlElempath.XmlChildren,
position, newElem)

Deleting information from an element

Use the following techniques to delete information from an element:

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xmlElemPath.newChildName =newElem

(where newChildName must be the same as

newElem.XmlName and cannot be an indexed
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Type

Using a function

Using an assignment statement

Property

StructDelete(xmlElemPath, propertyName)

xmlElemPath.propertyName=""

Attribute

All attributes:

Not available

StructDelete(xmlElemPath, XmlAttributes)

A specific attribute:
StructDelete(xmlElemPath.XmlAttributes,"attributeName")

Child element

All children of an element:

Not available

StructDelete(xmlElemPath, "XmlChildren")

or
ArrayClear(xmlElemPath.XmlChildren)

All children with a specific name:

StructDelete(xmlElementpath,"elemName")
ArrayClear(xmlElemPath.elemName)

A specific child:
ArrayDeleteAt(xmlElemPath.XmlChildren,position)
ArrayDeleteAt(xmlElemPath.elemName,position)

Changing contents of an element

Use the following techniques to change the contents of an element:
Type

Using a function

Using an assignment statement

Property

StructUpdate(xmlElemPath,"propert
yName", "value")

xmlElemPath.propertyName ="value"

xmlElemPath["propertyName"] ="value"

Attribute

StructUpdate(xmlElemPath.XmlAttri
butes,"attributeName", "value")

xmlElemPath.XmlAttributes.attributeName="value"

xmlElemPath.XmlAttributes["attributeName"] =
"value"

Child element

ArraySet(xmlElemPath.XmlChildren,
index,index, newElement)

Replace first or only child named elementName:

parentElemPath.elementName =newElement

(replace)
(use the same value for both index entries to
change one element)

parentElemPath["elementName"]= newElement

Replace a specific child named elementName:

parentElemPath.elementName[index] = newElement

or
parentElemPath["elementName"][index] = newElement

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Adding, deleting, and modifying XML elements

Several basic techniques exist for adding, deleting, and modifying XML elements. The example code in the technique
description uses the XML document described in A simple XML document on page 1059.
Counting and finding the position of child elements
Often, an XML element has several children with the same name. For example, in the XML document defined in the
simple XML document, the employee root element has multiple name elements.
To manipulate such an object, you often must know the number of children of the same name, and you could have to
know the position in the XmlChildren array of a specific child name that is used for multiple children.
Counting child elements
The following user-defined function determines the number of child elements with a specific name in an element:
<cfscript>
function NodeCount (xmlElement, nodeName)
{
nodesFound = 0;
for (i = 1; i LTE ArrayLen(xmlElement.XmlChildren); i = i+1)
{
if (xmlElement.XmlChildren[i].XmlName IS nodeName)
nodesFound = nodesFound + 1;
}
return nodesFound;
}
</cfscript>

The following lines use this function to display the number of nodes named name in the mydoc.employee element:
<cfoutput>
Nodes Found: #NodeCount(mydoc.employee, "name")#
</cfoutput>

Determining the position of a child element with a common name

The XmlChildPos function determines the location in the XmlChildren array of a specific element with a common
name. You use this index when ColdFusion must know where to insert or delete child elements. For example, if several
name elements exist in mydoc.employee, use the following code to locate name[2] in the XmlChildren array:
<cfset nameIndex = XmlChildPos(mydoc.employee, "name", 2)>

Adding an element
You can add an element by creating an element or by using an existing element.
Use the XmlElemNew function to create a new, empty element. This function has the following form:
XmlElemNew(docObject, elementName)

where docObject is the name of the XML document object in which you are creating the element, and elementName is
the name you are giving the new element.
Use an assignment statement with an existing element on the right side to create an element using an existing element.
See Copying an existing element on page 1075 for more information on adding elements using existing elements.

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Adding an element using a function

You can use the ArrayInsertAt or the ArrayAppend function to add an element to an XML document object. For
example, the following line adds a phoneNumber element after the last element for employee.name[2]:
<cfset ArrayAppend(mydoc.employee.name[2].XmlChildren, XmlElemNew(mydoc,
"phoneNumber"))>

The following line adds a new department element as the first element in employee. The name elements become the
second and third elements.
<cfset ArrayInsertAt(mydoc.employee.XmlChildren, 1, XmlElemNew(mydoc,
"department"))>

Use the format parentElement.XmlChildren to specify the array of elements to which you are adding the new
element. For example, the following line causes an error:
<cfset ArrayInsertAt(mydoc.employee.name, 2, XmlElemNew(mydoc, "PhoneNumber")>

If you have multiple child elements with the same name, and you want to insert a new element in a specific position,
use the function XmlChildPos to determine the location in the XmlChildren array where you want to insert the new
element. For example, the following code determines the location of mydoc.employee.name[1] and inserts a new name
element as the second name element:
<cfscript>
nameIndex = XmlChildPos(mydoc.employee, "name", 1);
ArrayInsertAt(mydoc.employee.XmlChildren, nameIndex + 1, XmlElemNew(mydoc,
"name"));
</cfscript>

Using a namespace: When you use a function to add an element, you can assign the element to a namespace by
including the namespace prefix in the element name. If you have not yet associated the prefix with a namespace URI,
also include a parameter with the namespace URI in the XmlElemNew function. This parameter must be the second
parameter in the method, and the element name must be the third parameter. ColdFusion then associates the
namespace prefix with the URI, and you can omit the URI parameter in further xmlElemNew functions.
The following example adds two to the supplies document root two elements in the Prod namespace. The first
XmlElemNew function use sets the association between the Prod namespace prefix and the URI; the second use only
requires the prefix on the element name.
<cfscript>
mydoc.supplies.XmlChildren[1] = XmlElemNew(mydoc,
"http://www.foo.com/Products", "Prod:soap");
mydoc.supplies.XmlChildren[2] = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "Prod:shampoo");
</cfscript>

Adding an element using direct assignment

You can use direct assignment to append a new element to an array of elements. You cannot use direct assignment to
insert an element into an array of elements.
When you use direct assignment, you can specify on the left side an index into the XmlChildren array greater than the
last child in the array. For example, if two elements exist in mydoc.employee, you can specify any number greater than
two, such as mydoc.employee.XmlChildren[6]. The element is always added as the last (in this case, third) child.
For example, the following line appends a name element to the end of the child elements of mydoc.employee:
<cfset mydoc.employee.XmlChildren[9] = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "name")>

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If the parent element does not have any children with the same name as the new child, you can specify the name of the
new node or the left side of the assignment. For example, the following line appends a phoneNumber element to the
children of the first name element in mydoc.employee:
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[1].phoneNumber = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "phoneNumber")>

You cannot use the node name on the left to add an element with the same name as an existing element in the parent.
For example, if mydoc.employee has two name nodes, the following line causes an error:
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[3] = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "name")>

However, the following line does work:

<cfset mydoc.employee.XmlChilren[3] = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "name")>

Copying an existing element

You can add a copy of an existing element elsewhere in the document. For example, if a
mydoc.employee.name[1].phoneNumber element exists, but no mydoc.employee. name[2].phoneNumber, the
following line creates an mydoc.employee. name[2]. phoneNumber element with the same value as the original
element. This assignment copies the original element. Unlike with standard ColdFusion structures, you get a true copy,
not a reference to the original structure. You can change the copy without changing the original.
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[2].phoneNumber = mydoc.employee.name[1].phoneNumber>

When you copy an element, the new element must have the same name as the existing element. If you specify the new
element by name on the left side of an assignment, the element name must be the same as the name on the right side.
For example, the following expression causes an error:
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[2].telephone = mydoc.employee.name[1].phoneNumber>

Deleting elements
You can use many methods to delete individual or multiple elements.
Deleting individual elements
Use the ArrayDeleteAt function to delete a specific element from an XML document object. For example, the
following line deletes the second child element in the mydoc.employee element:
<cfset ArrayDeleteAt(mydoc.employee.XmlChildren, 2)>

If an element has only one child element with a specific name, you can also use the StructDelete function to delete
the child element. For example, the following line deletes the phoneNumber element named in the second
employee.name element:
<cfset StructDelete(mydoc.employee.name[2], "phoneNumber")>

When multiple child elements have the same name, specify the element position, either among the elements of the
same name, or among all child elements. Fore example, you can use the following line to delete the second name
element in mydoc.employee:
<cfset ArrayDeleteAt(mydoc.employee.name, 2)>

You can also determine the position in the XmlChildren array of the element you want to delete and use that position.
To do so, use the XmlChildPos function. For example, the following lines determine the location of
mydoc.employee.name[2] and delete the element:
<cfset idx = XmlChildPos(mydoc.employee, "name", 2)>
<cfset ArrayDeleteAt(mydoc.employee.XmlChildren, idx)>

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Deleting multiple elements

If an element has multiple children with the same name, use the StructDelete function or ArrayClear function with
an element name to delete all of an elements child elements with that name. For example, both of the following lines
delete all name elements from the employee structure:
<cfset StructDelete(mydoc.employee, "name")>
<cfset ArrayClear(mydoc.employee.name)>

Use the StructDelete or ArrayClear function with XmlChildren to delete all of an elements child elements. For
example, each of the following lines deletes all child elements of the mydoc.employee.name[2] element:
<cfset StructDelete(mydoc.employee.name[2], "XmlChildren")>
<cfset ArrayClear(mydoc.employee.name[2].XmlChildren)>

Adding, changing, and deleting element attributes

You modify an elements attributes the same way you change the contents of any structure. For example, each of the
following lines adds a Status attribute the second mydoc.employee.name element:
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[2].XmlAttributes.Status="Inactive">
<cfset StructInsert(mydoc.employee.name[2].XmlAttributes, "Status", "Inactive")>

To change an attribute, use a standard assignment statement; for example:

<cfset mydoc.employee.name[2].XmlAttributes.Status="Active">

To delete an attribute, use StructDelete; for example:

<cfset StructDelete(mydoc.employee.name[1].XmlAttributes, "Status")>

Changing element properties

To change an elements properties, including its text and comment, use a standard assignment expression. For
example, use the following line to add in the MyCompany Documentation Department to the mydoc.employee XML
comment:
<cfset mydoc.employee.XmlComment = mydoc.employee.XmlComment & "in the
MyCompany Documentation Department">

Changing an element name

The XML DOM does not support changing an element name directly. To change the name of an element, create an
element with the new name, insert it into the XML document object before or after the original element, copy all the
original elements contents to the new element, and then delete the original element.
Clearing an element property value
To clear an element property value, either assign the empty string to the property or use the StructDelete function.
For example, each of the following lines clears the comment string from mydoc.employee:
<cfset mydoc.employee.XmlComment = "">
<cfset StructDelete(mydoc.employee, "XmlComment")>

Replacing or moving an element

To replace an element with a new element, use a standard replacement expression. For example, to replace the
mydoc.employee.department element with a new element named organization, use either of the following lines:
<cfset mydoc.employee.department = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "Organization")>
<cfset mydoc.employee.XmlChildren[1] = XmlElemNew(mydoc, "Organization")>

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To replace an element with a copy of an existing element, use the existing element on the right side of an expression.
For example, the following line replaces the phoneNumber element for mydoc.employee.name[2] with the
phoneNumber element from mydoc.employee.name[1]:
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[2].phoneNumber=mydoc.employee.name[1].phoneNumber>

This code creates a true copy of the name[1].phoneNumber element as name[2].phoneNumber.

To move an element, assign it to its new location, then delete it from its old location. For example, the following lines
move the phoneNumber element from mydoc.employee.name[1] to mydoc.employee.name[2]:
<cfset mydoc.employee.name[2].phoneNumber=mydoc.employee.name[1].phoneNumber>
<cfset StructDelete(mydoc.employee.name[1], "phoneNumber")>

Note: You cannot copy or move an element from one document object to another document object.

Using XML and ColdFusion queries

You can convert XML documents into ColdFusion query objects and manipulate them using queries of queries. This
technique does not require the use of XPath and provides a method of searching XML documents and extracting data
that is natural to ColdFusion programmers.
Converting XML to a ColdFusion query
The following example reads an XML document, converts it to a query object, and then performs a query of queries
on the object to extract selected data:

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<!--- Read the file and convert it to an XML document object --->
<cffile action="read" file="C:\CFusion\wwwroot\myexamples\employees.xml" variable="myxml">
<cfset mydoc = XmlParse(myxml)>
<!--- get an array of employees --->
<cfset emp = mydoc.employee.XmlChildren>
<cfset size = ArrayLen(emp)>
<cfoutput>
Number of employees = #size#
<br>
</cfoutput>
<br>
<!--- create a query object with the employee data --->
<cfset myquery = QueryNew("fname, lname") >
<cfset temp = QueryAddRow(myquery, #size#)>
<cfloop index="i" from = "1" to = #size#>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(myquery, "fname",
#mydoc.employee.name[i].first.XmlText#, #i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(myquery, "lname",
#mydoc.employee.name[i].last.XmlText#, #i#)>
</cfloop>
<!--- Dump the query object --->
Contents of the myquery Query object: <br>
<cfdump var=#myquery#>
<br><br>
<!--- Select entries with the last name starting with A and dump the result --->
<cfquery name="ImqTest" dbType="query">
SELECT lname, fname
FROM myquery
WHERE lname LIKE 'A%'
</cfquery>
<cfdump var=#imqtest#>

Converting a query object to XML

The following example shows how to convert a query object to XML. It uses cfquery to get a list of employees from
the cfdocexamples database and saves the information as an XML document.

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<!--- Query the database and get the names in the employee table --->
<cfquery name="myQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName
FROM employee
</cfquery>
<!--- Create an XML document object containing the data --->
<cfxml variable="mydoc">
<employee>
<cfoutput query="myQuery">
<name>
<first>#FirstName#</first>
<last>#LastName#</last>
</name>
</cfoutput>
</employee>
</cfxml>
<!--- dump the resulting XML document object --->
<cfdump var=#mydoc#>
<!--- Write the XML to a file --->
\\x
output=#toString(mydoc)#>

Validating XML documents

ColdFusion provides the following methods for validating a document against a DTD or an XML Schema:

The XmlParse function can validate XML text that it is parsing against a DTD or Schema. It the function
encounters a validation error, ColdFusion generates an error and stops parsing the text. If the validator generates
warnings, but no errors, ColdFusion parses the document and returns the result.

The XmlValidate function can validate an XML text document or XML document object. against a DTD or
Schema. The function returns a data structure with detailed information from the validator, including arrays of
warning, error, and fatal error messages, and a Boolean status variable indicating whether the document is valid.
Your application can examine the status information and determine how to handle it further.
For examples of XML validation, see XmlParse and XmlValidate in the CFML Reference. The XmlParse example
validates a document using a DTD. The XmlValidate example validates the document using an XML Schema that
represents the same document structure as the DTD.

Transforming documents with XSLT

The Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) technology transforms an XML document into another
format or representation. For example, one common use of XSLT is to convert XML documents into HTML for
display in a browser. XSLT has many other uses, including converting XML data to another format, such as converting
XML in a vocabulary used by an order entry application into a vocabulary used by an order fulfillment application.
XSLT transforms an XML document by applying an Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) style sheet. (When stored
in a file, XSL style sheets typically have the .xsl extension.) ColdFusion provides the XmlTransform function to apply
an XSL transformation to an XML document. The function takes an XML document in string format or as an XML
document object, and an XSL style sheet in string format, and returns the transformed document as a string.
The following code:
1 Reads the simpletransform.xsl style sheet file into a string variable.

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2 Uses the style sheet to transform the mydoc XML document object.
3 Saves the resulting transformed document in a second file.
<cffile action="read" file="C:\CFusion\wwwroot\testdocs\simpletransform.xsl"
variable="xslDoc">
<cfset transformedXML = XmlTransform(mydoc, xslDoc)>
<cffile action="write" file="C:\CFusion\wwwroot\testdocs\transformeddoc.xml"
output=transformedXML>

XSL and XSLT are specified by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For detailed information on XSL, XSLT, and
XSL style sheets, see the W3C website at www.w3.org/Style/XSL/. Several books are available on using XSL and XSLT.

Extracting data with XPath

XPath is a language for addressing parts of an XML document. Like XSL, XPath is a W3C specification. One of the
major uses of XPath is in XSL transformations. However, XPath has more general uses. In particular, it can extract data
from XML documents, such as complex data set representations. Thus, XPath is another data querying tool.
XPath uses a pattern called an XPath expression to specify the information to extract from an XML document. For
example, the simple XPath expression /employee/name selects the name elements in the employee root element.
The XmlSearch function uses XPath expressions to extract data from XML document objects. The function takes an
XML document object and an XPath expression in string format, and returns the results of matching the XPath
expression with the XML. The returned results can be any XPath return type that ColdFusion can represent, such as
an array of XML object nodes or a Boolean value. For more information, see XmlSearch in the CFML Reference.
The following example extracts all the elements named last, which contain the employees last names, from the
employeesimple.xml file, and displays the names:
<cffile action="read"
file="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\examples\employeesimple.xml"
variable="myxml">
<cfscript>
myxmldoc = XmlParse(myxml);
selectedElements = XmlSearch(myxmldoc, "/employee/name/last");
for (i = 1; i LTE ArrayLen(selectedElements); i = i + 1)
writeoutput(selectedElements[i].XmlText & "<br>");
</cfscript>

XPath is specified by the World Wide Web Consortium. For detailed information on XPath, see the W3C website at
www.w3.org/TR/xpath. Most books that cover XSLT also discuss XPath.

Example: using XML in a ColdFusion application

The following shows how you can use XML to represent data, and how ColdFusion can use XML data in an
application. Although the example is too simple to be used in an application without substantial changes, it presents
some of the common uses of XML with ColdFusion.
The example receives an order in the form of an XML document, processes it, and generates an XML receipt
document. In this case, the order document is in a file, but it could be received as the result of an HTTP request, or
retrieved using cfpop, cfftp, or other methods. The ColdFusion page does the following with the order:
1 Generates a query object from an XML document.
2 Queries a database table to determine the order discount percentage to use.
3 Uses a query of queries to calculate the total price, then calculates the discounted price.

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4 Generates the receipt as an XML document.

This example displays the results of the processing steps to show you what has been done.
The XML document
The order.xml document has the following structure:

The root element is named order and has one attribute, id.
One customer element exists with firstname, lastname, and accountnum attributes. The customer element does not
have a body

One items element exists that contains multiple item elements

Each item element has an id attribute and contains a name, quantity, and unitprice element. The name, quantity,
and unitprice elements contain their value as body text.
The following order.xml document works correctly with the information in the cfdocexamples database:
<order id="4323251">
<customer firstname="Philip" lastname="Cramer" accountNum="21"/>
<items>
<item id="43">
<name>
Large Hammer
</name>
<quantity>
1
</quantity>
<unitprice>
15.95
</unitprice>
</item>
<item id="54">
<name>
Ladder
</name>
<quantity>
2
</quantity>
<unitprice>
40.95
</unitprice>
</item>
<item id="68">
<name>
Paint
</name>
<quantity>
10
</quantity>
<unitprice>
18.95
</unitprice>
</item>
</items>
</order>

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The ColdFusion page

The ColdFusion page looks like the following:
<!--- Convert file to XML document object --->
<cffile action="read" file="C:\CFusion\wwwroot\examples\order.xml" variable="myxml">
<cfset mydoc = XmlParse(myxml)>
<!--- Extract account number --->
<cfset accountNum=#mydoc.order.customer.XmlAttributes.accountNum#>
<!--- Display Order Information --->
<cfoutput>
<b>Name=</b>#mydoc.order.customer.XmlAttributes.firstname#
#mydoc.order.customer.XmlAttributes.lastname#
<br>
<b>Account=</b>#accountNum#
<br>
<cfset numItems = ArrayLen(mydoc.order.items.XmlChildren)>
<b>Number of items ordered=</b> #numItems#
</cfoutput>
<br><br>
<!--- Process the order into a query object --->
<cfset orderquery = QueryNew("item_Id, name, qty, unitPrice") >
<cfset temp = QueryAddRow(orderquery, #numItems#)>
<cfloop index="i" from = "1" to = #numItems#>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "item_Id",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].XmlAttributes.id#,#i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "name",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].name.XmlText#, #i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "qty",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].quantity.XmlText#, #i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "unitPrice",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].unitprice.XmlText#, #i#)>
</cfloop>
<!--- Display the order query --->
<cfdump var=#orderquery#>
<br><br>
<!--- Determine the discount --->
<cfquery name="discountQuery" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT *
FROM employee
WHERE Emp_Id = #accountNum#
</cfquery>
<cfset drate = 0>
<cfif #discountQuery.RecordCount# is 1>
<cfset drate = 10>
</cfif>
<!--- Display the discount rate --->
<cfoutput>
<b>Discount Rate =</b> #drate#%
</cfoutput>
<br><br>
<!--- Compute the total cost and discount price--->

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<cfquery name="priceQuery" dbType="query">

SELECT SUM(qty*unitPrice)
AS totalPrice
FROM orderquery
</cfquery>
<cfset discountPrice = priceQuery.totalPrice * (1 - drate/100)>
<!--- Display the full price and discounted price --->
<cfoutput>
<b>Full Price=</b> #priceQuery.totalPrice#<br>
<b>Discount Price=</b> #discountPrice#
</cfoutput>
<br><br>
<!---Generate an XML Receipt --->
<cfxml variable="receiptxml">
<receipt num = "34">
<cfoutput>
<price>#discountPrice#</price>
<cfif drate GT 0 >
<discountRate>#drate#</discountRate>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>
<itemsFilled>
<cfoutput query="orderQuery">
<name>#name# </name>
<qty> #qty# </qty>
<price> #qty*unitPrice# </price>
</cfoutput>
</itemsFilled>
</receipt>
</cfxml>
<!--- Display the resulting receipt --->
<cfdump var=#receiptxml#>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the CFML code and its function. For the sake of brevity, it does not include code that
displays the processing results.

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Code

Description

<cffile action="read"
file="C:\CFusion\wwwroot\examples\order.xml"
variable="myxml">
<cfset mydoc = XmlParse(myxml)>
<!--- Extract account number --->
<cfset
accountNum=#mydoc.order.customer.XmlAttributes.acc
ountNum#>

Reads the XML from a file and convert it to an XML document object.

<cfset orderquery = QueryNew("item_Id, name, qty,

unitPrice") >
<cfset temp = QueryAddRow(orderquery, #numItems#)>
<cfloop index="i" from = "1" to = #numItems#>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "item_Id",

Converts the XML document object into a query object.

#mydoc.order.items.item[i].XmlAttributes.id#,#i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "name",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].name.XmlText#, #i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery, "qty",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].quantity.XmlText#,
#i#)>
<cfset temp = QuerySetCell(orderquery,
"unitPrice",
#mydoc.order.items.item[i].unitprice.XmlText#,
#i#)>
</cfloop>

Sets the accountNum variable from the customer entrys accountnum

attribute.

Creates a query with columns for the item_id, name, qty, and unitPrice
values for each item.
For each XML item entry in the mydoc.order.items entry, fills one row
of the query with the items id attribute and the text in the name,
quantity, and unitprice entries that it contains.

<cfquery name="discountQuery"
datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT *
FROM employee
WHERE Emp_Id = #accountNum#
</cfquery>
<cfset drate = 0>
<cfif #discountQuery.RecordCount# is 1>
<cfset drate = 10>
</cfif>

If the account number is the same as an employee ID in the

cfdocexamples database Employee table, the query returns one
record. and RecordCount equals 1. In this case, sets a discount rate of
10%. Otherwise, sets a discount rate of 0%.

<cfquery name="priceQuery" dbType="query">

SELECT SUM(qty*unitPrice)
AS totalPrice
FROM orderquery
</cfquery>
<cfset discountPrice = priceQuery.totalPrice * (1
- drate/100)>

Uses a query of queries with the SUM operator to calculate the total
cost before discount of the ordered items, then applies the discount to
the price. The result of the query is a single value, the total price.

<cfxml variable="receiptxml">
<receipt num = "34">
<cfoutput>
<price>#discountPrice#</price>
<cfif drate GT 0 >
<discountRate>#drate#</discountRate>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>
<itemsFilled>
<cfoutput query="orderQuery">
<name>#name# </name>
<qty> #qty# </qty>
<price> #qty*unitPrice# </price>
</cfoutput>
</itemsFilled>
</receipt>
</cfxml>

Creates an XML document object as a receipt. The receipt has a root

element named receipt, which has the receipt number as an attribute.
The receipt element contains a price element with the order cost and
an itemsFilled element with one item element for each item.

Moving complex data across the web with WDDX

WDDX is an XML vocabulary for describing a complex data structure, such as an array, associative array (such as a
ColdFusion structure), or a recordset, in a generic fashion. It lets you use HTTP to move the data between different
application server platforms and between application servers and browsers. Target platforms for WDDX include
ColdFusion, Active Server Pages (ASP), JavaScript, Perl, Java, Python, COM, Flash, and PHP.

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The WDDX XML vocabulary consists of a document type definition (DTD) that describes the structure of standard
data types and a set of components for each of the target platforms to do the following:

Serialize: The data from its native representation into a WDDX XML document or document fragment.
Deserialize: A WDDX XML document or document fragment into the native data representation, such as a CFML
structure.
This vocabulary creates a way to move data, its associated data types, and descriptors that allow the data to be
manipulated on a target system, between arbitrary application servers.
Note: The WDDX DTD, which includes documentation, is located at
www.openwddx.org/downloads/dtd/wddx_dtd_10.txt.
WDDX is a valuable tool for ColdFusion developers, however, its usefulness is not limited to CFML. If you serialize a
common programming data structure (such as an array, recordset, or structure) into WDDX format, you can use
HTTP to transfer the data across a range of languages and platforms. Also, you can use WDDX to store complex data
in a database, file, or even a client variable.
WDDX has two features that make it useful for transferring data in a web environment:

It is lightweight. The JavaScript used to serialize and deserialize data, including a debugging function to dump
WDDX data, occupies less than 22 K.

Unlike traditional client-server approaches, the source and target system can have minimal-to-no prior knowledge
of each other. They only must know the structure of the data that is being transferred.
WDDX was created in 1998, and many applications now expose WDDX capabilities. The best source of information
about WDDX is www.openwddx.org. This site offers free downloads of the WDDX DTD and SDK and additional
resources, including a WDDX FAQ, a developer forum, and links to additional sites that provide WDDX resources.

Uses of WDDX
WDDX is useful for transferring complex data between applications. For example, you can use it to exchange data
between a CFML application and a CGI or PHP application. WDDX is also useful for transferring data between the
server and client-side JavaScript.
Exchanging data across application servers
WDDX is useful for the transfer of complex, structured data seamlessly between different application server platforms.
For example, an application based on ColdFusion at one business could cfwddx use to convert a purchase order
structure to WDDX. It could then use cfhttp to send the WDDX to a supplier running a CGI-based system.
The supplier could then deserialize the WDDX to its native data form, the extract information from the order, and pass
it to a shipping company running an application based on ASP.
Transferring data between the server and browser
You can use WDDX for server-to-browser and browser-to-server data exchanges. You can transfer server data to the
browser in WDDX format and convert it to JavaScript objects on the browser. Similarly, your application pages can
serialize JavaScript data generated on the browser into WDDX format and transfer the data to the application server.
You then deserialize the WDDX XML into CFML data on the server.
On the server, you use the cfwddx tag to serialize and deserialize WDDX data. On the browser, you use WddxSerializer
and WddxRecordset JavaScript utility classes to serialize the JavaScript data to WDDX. (ColdFusion installs these
utility classes on your server as webroot/CFIDE/scripts/wddx.js.)

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WDDX and web services

WDDX does not compete with web services. It is a complementary technology focused on solving simple problems of
application integration by sharing data on the web in a pragmatic, productive manner at low cost.
WDDX offers the following advantages:

It can be used by lightweight clients, such as browsers or Flash Player.

It can be used to store complex data structures in files and databases.
Applications that take advantage of WDDX can continue to do so if they start to use web services. These applications
could also be converted to use web services standards exclusively; only the service and data interchange formats: not
the application model, must change.

How WDDX works

The following example shows how WDDX works. A simple structure with two string variables could have the
following form after it is serialized into a WDDX XML representation:
<var name='x'>
<struct>
<var name='a'>
<string>Property a</string>
</var>
<var name='b'>
<string>Property b</string>
</var>
</struct>
</var>

When you deserialize this XML into CFML or JavaScript, the result is a structure that is created by either of the
following scripts:
JavaScript

CFScript

x = new Object();

x = structNew();

x.a = "Property a";

x.a = "Property a";

x.b = "Property b";

x.b = "Property b";

Conversely, when you serialize the variable x produced by either of these scripts into WDDX, you generate the XML
listed in the preceding code.
ColdFusion provides a tag and JavaScript objects that convert between CFML, WDDX, and JavaScript. Serializers and
deserializers for other data formats are available on the web. For more information, see www.openwddx.org.
Note: The cfwddx tag and the wddx.js JavaScript functions use UTF-8 encoding to represent data. Any tools that
deserialize ColdFusion-generated WDDX must accept UTF-8 encoded characters. UTF-8 encoding is identical to the
ASCII and ISO 8859 single-byte encodings for the standard 128 "7-bit" ASCII characters. However, UTF-8 uses a twobyte representation for "high-ASCII" ISO 8859 characters where the initial bit is 1.
WDDX data type support
The following text describes the data types that WDDX supports. This information is a distillation of the description
in the WDDX DTD. For more detailed information, see the DTD at www.openwddx.org.

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Basic data types

WDDX can represent the following basic data types:
Data type

Description

Null

Null values in WDDX are not associated with a type such as number or string. The tag converts WDDX Nulls to
empty strings.

Numbers

WDDX documents use floating-point numbers to represent all numbers. The range of numbers is restricted to
+/-1.7E+/-308. The precision is restricted to 15 digits after the decimal point.

Date-time values

Date-time values are encoded according to the full form of ISO8601; for example, 2002-9-15T09:05:32+4:0.

Strings

Strings can be of arbitrary length and must not contain embedded nulls. Strings can be encoded using doublebyte characters.

Complex data types

WDDX can represent the following complex data types:
Data type

Description

Array

Arrays are integer-indexed collections of objects of arbitrary type. Because most languages start array indexes at 0,
while CFML array indexes start at 1, working with array indexes can lead to nonportable data.

Structure

Structures are string-indexed collections of objects of arbitrary type, sometimes called associative arrays. Because
some of the languages supported by WDDX are not case-sensitive, no two variable names in a structure can differ only
in their case.

Recordset

Recordsets are tabular rows of named fields, corresponding to ColdFusion query objects. Only simple data types can
be stored in recordsets. Because some of the languages supported by WDDX are not case-sensitive, no two field names
in a recordset can differ only in their case. Field names must satisfy the regular expression [_A-Za-z][_.0-9A-Za-z]*
where the period (.) stands for a literal period character, not any character.

Binary

The binary data type represents strings (blobs) of binary data. The data is encoded in MIME base64 format.

Data type comparisons

The following table compares the basic WDDX data types with the data types to which they correspond in the
languages and technologies commonly used on the web:
WDDX

CFML

XML

Java

Schema

ECMAScript/

COM

JavaScript

null

N/A

N/A

null

null

VT_NULL

boolean

Boolean

boolean

java.lang.Boolean

boolean

VT_BOOL

number

Number

number

java.lang.Double

number

VT_R8

dateTime

DateTime

dateTime

java.lang.Date

Date

VT_DATE

string

String

string

java.lang.String

string

VT_BSTR

array

Array

N/A

java.lang.Vector

Array

VT_ARRAY | VT_VARIANT

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WDDX

CFML

XML

Java

Schema
struct

Structure

ECMAScript/

COM

JavaScript

N/A

java.lang.

Object

IWDDXStruct

Hashtable
recordset

Query object

N/A

coldfusion.runtime.
QueryTable

WddxRecordset

IWDDXRecordset

binary

Binary

binary

byte[]

WddxBinary

V_ARRAY | UI1

Time zone processing

Producers and consumers of WDDX packets can be in geographically dispersed locations. Therefore, it is important
to use time zone information when serializing and deserializing data, to ensure that date-time values are represented
correctly.
The cfwddx action=cfml2wddx tag useTimezoneInfo attribute specifies whether to use time zone information in
serializing the date-time data. In the JavaScript implementation, useTimezoneInfo is a property of the
WddxSerializer object. In both cases, the default useTimezoneInfo value is True.
Date-time values in WDDX are represented using a subset of the ISO8601 format. Time zone information is
represented as an hour/minute offset from universal time (UTC); for example, 2002-9-8T12:6:26-4:0.
When the cfwddx tag deserializes WDDX to CFML, it automatically uses available time zone information, and
converts date-time values to local time. In this way, you need not worry about the details of time zone conversions.
However, when the JavaScript objects supplied with ColdFusion deserialize WDDX to JavaScript expressions, they do
not use time zone information, because in JavaScript it is difficult to determine the time zone of the browser.

Using WDDX
ColdFusion provides several tools for creating and converting WDDX that you can use for common application uses.

Using the cfwddx tag

The tag can do the following conversions:
From

To

CFML

WDDX

CFML

JavaScript

WDDX

CFML

WDDX

JavaScript

A typical cfwddx tag used to convert a CFML query object to WDDX looks like the following:
<cfwddx action="cfml2wddx" input="#MyQueryObject#" output="WddxTextVariable">

In this example, MyQueryObject is the name of the query object variable, and WddxTextVariable is the name of the
variable in which to store the resulting WDDX XML.
Note: For more information on thecfwddx tag, see the CFML Reference.

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Validating WDDX data

The cfwddx tag has a Validate attribute that you can use when converting WDDX to CFML or JavaScript. When you
set this attribute to True, the XML parser uses the WDDX DTD to validate the WDDX data before deserializing it. If
the WDDX is not valid, ColdFusion generates an error. By default, ColdFusion does not validate WDDX data before
trying to convert it to ColdFusion or JavaScript data.
The IsWDDX function returns True if a variable is a valid WDDX data packet. It returns False otherwise. You can use
this function to validate WDDX packets before converting them to another format. For example, you can use it instead
of the cfwddxvalidate attribute, so that invalid WDDX is handled within conditional logic instead of error-handling
code. You can also use it to pre-validate data that JavaScript at the browser deserializes.

Using JavaScript objects

ColdFusion provides two JavaScript objects, WddxSerializer object and WddxRecordset object, that you can use
in JavaScript to convert data to WDDX. These objects are defined in the file webroot/cfide/scripts/wddx.js.
The CFML Reference describes these objects and their methods in detail. The example Transferring data from the
browser to the server on page 1090 shows how you can use these objects to serialize JavaScript to WDDX.

Converting CFML data to a JavaScript object

The following example demonstrates the transfer of a cfquery recordset from a ColdFusion page executing on the
server to a JavaScript object that is processed by the browser.
The application consists of four principal sections:

Running a data query

Including the WDDX JavaScript utility classes
Calling the conversion function
Writing the object data in HTML
The following example uses the cfdocexamples data source that is installed with ColdFusion:
<!--- Create a simple query --->
<cfquery name = "q" datasource ="cfdocexamples">
SELECT Message_Id, Thread_id, Username, Posted
FROM messages
</cfquery>
<!--- Load the wddx.js file, which includes the dump function --->
<script type="text/javascript" src="/CFIDE/scripts/wddx.js"></script>
<script>
// Use WDDX to move from CFML data to JavaScript
<cfwddx action="cfml2js" input="#q#" topLevelVariable="qj">
// Dump the recordset to show that all the data has reached
// the client successfully.
document.write(qj.dump(true));
</script>

Note: To see how cfwddx Action="cfml2js" works, save this code under your web root directory, for example in
wwwroot/myapps/wddxjavascript.cfm, run the page in your browser and select View Source in your browser.

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Transferring data from the browser to the server

The following example serializes form field data, posts it to the server, deserializes it, and displays the data. For
simplicity, it only collects a small amount of data. In applications that generate complex JavaScript data collections,
you can extend this basic approach effectively. This example uses the WddxSerializer JavaScript object to serialize
the data, and the cfwddx tag to deserialize the data.
Use the example
1 Save the file under your web root directory, for example in wwwroot/myapps/ wddxserializedeserialze.cfm.
2 Display http://localhost/myapps/wddxserializedeserialze.cfm in your browser.
3 Enter a first name and last name in the form fields.
4 Click Next.

The name appears in the Names added so far box.

5 Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add as many names as you wish.
6 Click Serialize to serialize the resulting data.

The resulting WDDX packet appears in the WDDX packet display box. This step is intended only for test purposes.
Real applications handle the serialization automatically.
7 Click Submit to submit the data.

The WDDX packet is transferred to the server-side processing code, which deserializes it and displays the
information.
<!--- load the wddx.js file --->
<script type="text/javascript" src="/CFIDE/scripts/wddx.js"></script>
<!--- Data binding code --->
<script>
// Generic serialization to a form field
function serializeData(data, formField) {
wddxSerializer = new WddxSerializer();
wddxPacket = wddxSerializer.serialize(data);
if (wddxPacket != null) {
formField.value = wddxPacket;
}
else {
alert("Couldn't serialize data");
}
}
// Person info recordset with columns firstName and lastName
// Make sure the case of field names is preserved
var personInfo = new WddxRecordset(new Array("firstName", "lastName"), true);
// Add next record to end of personInfo recordset
function doNext() {
// Extract data
var firstName = document.personForm.firstName.value;
var lastName = document.personForm.lastName.value;
// Add names to recordset
nRows = personInfo.getRowCount();
personInfo.firstName[nRows] = firstName;

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personInfo.lastName[nRows] = lastName;
// Clear input fields
document.personForm.firstName.value = "";
document.personForm.lastName.value = "";
// Show added names on list
// This gets a little tricky because of browser differences
var newName = firstName + " " + lastName;
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE") == -1) {
document.personForm.names[length] =
new Option(newName, "", false, false);
}
else {
// IE version
var entry = document.createElement("OPTION");
entry.text = newName;
document.personForm.names.add(entry);
}
}
</script>
<!--- Data collection form --->
<form action="#cgi.script_name#" method="Post" name="personForm">
<!--- Input fields --->
Personal information<br>
First name: <input type=text name=firstName><br>
Last name: <input type=text name=lastName><br>
<br>
<!--- Navigation & submission bar --->
<input type="button" value="Next" onclick="doNext()">
<input type="button" value="Serialize"
onclick="serializeData(personInfo, document.personForm.wddxPacket)">
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
<br><br>
Names added so far:<br>
<select name="names" size="5">
</select>
<br>
<!--- The WDDX packet is stored here.--->
<!--- In a real application this text area would be a hidden
input field. --->
<br>
WDDX packet display:<br>
<textarea name="wddxPacket" rows="10" cols="80" wrap="Virtual">
</textarea>
</form>

<!--- Server-side processing --->

<hr>

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<b>Server-side processing</b><br>
<br>
<cfif isdefined("form.wddxPacket")>
<cfif form.wddxPacket neq "">
<!--- Deserialize the WDDX data --->
<cfwddx action="wddx2cfml" input=#form.wddxPacket#
output="personInfo">
<!--- Display the query --->
The submitted personal information is:<br>
<cfoutput query=personInfo>
Person #CurrentRow#: #firstName# #lastName#<br>
</cfoutput>
<cfelse>
The client did not send a well-formed WDDX data packet!
</cfif>
<cfelse>
No WDDX data to process at this time.
</cfif>

Storing complex data in a string

The following simple example uses WDDX to store complex data, a data structure that contains arrays as a string in a
client variable. It uses the cfdump tag to display the contents of the structure before serialization and after
deserialization. It uses the HTMLEditFormat function in a cfoutput tag to display the contents of the client variable.
The HTMLEditFormat function is required to prevent the browser from trying to interpret (and throwing away) the
XML tags in the variable.

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<!--- Enable client state management --->

<cfapplication name="relatives" clientmanagement="Yes">
<!--- Build a complex data structure --->
<cfscript>
relatives = structNew();
relatives.father = "Bob";
relatives.mother = "Mary";
relatives.sisters = arrayNew(1);
arrayAppend(relatives.sisters, "Joan");
relatives.brothers = arrayNew(1);
arrayAppend(relatives.brothers, "Tom");
arrayAppend(relatives.brothers, "Jesse");
</cfscript>
A dump of the original relatives structure:<br>
<br>
<cfdump var="#relatives#"><br>
<br>
<!--- Convert data structure to string form and save it in the client scope --->
<cfwddx action="cfml2wddx" input="#relatives#" output="Client.wddxRelatives">
The contents of the Client.wddxRelatives variable:<br>
<cfoutput>#HtmlEditFormat(Client.wddxRelatives)#</cfoutput><br>
<!--- Now read the data from client scope into a structure --->
<cfwddx action="wddx2cfml" input="#Client.wddxRelatives#" output="sameRelatives">
<br>
A dump of the sameRelatives structure generated from client.wddxRelatives<br>
<cfdump var="#sameRelatives#">

Using Web Services

Web services let you publish and consume remote application functionality over the Internet. When you consume web
services, you access remote functionality to perform an application task. When you publish a web service, you let
remote users access your application functionality to build it into their own applications.

Web services
Since its inception, the Internet has allowed people to access content stored on remote computers. This content can be
static, such as a document represented by an HTML file, or dynamic, such as content returned from a ColdFusion page
or CGI script.
Web services let you access application functionality that someone created and made available on a remote computer.
With a web service, you can make a request to the remote application to perform an action.
For example, you can request a stock quote, pass a text string for translation, or request information from a product
catalog. The advantage of web services is that you do not have to re-create application logic that someone else has
already created and, therefore, you can build your applications faster.

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Referencing a remote web service within your ColdFusion application is called consuming web services. Since web
services adhere to a standard interface regardless of implementation technology, you can consume a web service
implemented as part of a ColdFusion application, or as part of a .NET or Java application.
You can also create your own web services and make them available to others for remote access, called publishing web
service. Applications that consume your web service can be implemented in ColdFusion or by any application that
recognizes the web service standard.

Accessing a web service

In its simplest form, an access to a web service is like a function call. Instead of the function call referencing a library
on your computer, it references remote functionality over the Internet.
One feature of web services is that they are self-describing. A person who makes a web service available also publishes
a description of the API to the web service as a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file.
A WSDL file is an XML-formatted document that includes information about the web service, including the following
information:

Operations that you can call on the web service

Input parameters that you pass to each operation
Return values from an operation
Consuming web services typically is a two-step process:
1 Parse the WSDL file of the web service to determine its interface.

A web service makes its associated WSDL file available over the Internet. You must know the URL of the WSDL
file defining the service. For example, you can access the WSDL file for the TemperatureService web service at the
following URL:
www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl
For an overview of WSDL syntax, see Working with WSDL files on page 1095.
2 Make a request to the web service.

The following example runs an operation on the Temperature web service to retrieve the temperature in ZIP code
55987:
<cfinvoke
webservice="http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl"
method="getTemp"
returnvariable="aTemp">
<cfinvokeargument name="zipcode" value="55987"/>
</cfinvoke>
<cfoutput>The temperature at ZIP code 55987 is #aTemp#</cfoutput>

For more information on consuming web services, see Consuming web services on page 1098.

Basic web service concepts

To fully understand how web services work make sure that you are familiar with the underlying architecture of a web
service provider.
Note: For detailed information, consult one of the many web services books.
The following are three primary components of the web services platform:

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

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WSDL (Web Services Description Language)

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration)
Supporting web services with SOAP
SOAP provides a standard XML structure for sending and receiving web service requests and responses over the
Internet. Usually you send SOAP messages using HTTP, but you also can send them using SMTP and other protocols.
ColdFusion integrates the Apache Axis SOAP engine to support web services.
The ColdFusion Web Services Engine performs the underlying functionality to support web services, including
generating WSDL files for web services that you create. In ColdFusion, to consume or publish web services does not
require you to be familiar with SOAP or to perform any SOAP operations.
You can find additional information about SOAP in the W3C SOAP 1.1 note at www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/.
Describing web services with WSDL
A WSDL document is an XML file that describes the purpose of the web service, where it is located, and how to access
it. The WSDL document describes the operations that you can invoke and their associated data types.
ColdFusion can generate a WSDL document from a web service, and you can publish the WSDL document at a URL
to provide information to potential clients. For more information, see Working with WSDL files on page 1095.
Finding web services with UDDI
As a consumer of web services, you want to know what web services are available. As a publisher of web services, you
want others to be able to find information about your web services. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
(UDDI) provides a way for web service clients to dynamically locate web services that provide specific capabilities. You
use a UDDI query to find service providers. A UDDI response contains information, such as business contact
information, business category, and technical details, about how to invoke a web service.
Although ColdFusion does not directly support UDDI, you can manually register or find a web service using a public
UDDI registry, such as the IBM UDDI Business Registry at https://www3.ibm.com/services/uddi/protect/registry.html.
You can find additional information about UDDI at www.uddi.org/about.htm.

Working with WSDL files

WSDL files define the interface to a web service. To consume a web service, you access the service WSDL file to
determine information about it. If you publish your application logic as a web service, create a WSDL file for it.
WSDL is a draft standard supported by the World Wide Web Consortium. You can access the specification at
www.w3.org/TR/wsdl.

Creating a WSDL file

To publish a web service, you construct the service functionality and then create the WSDL file defining the service. In
ColdFusion, you use components to create web services. ColdFusion automatically generates the WSDL file for a
component that you use to produce a web service. For more information on creating web services, see Publishing web
services on page 1104.
For more information on components, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177.

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Accessing web services using Dreamweaver

The Dreamweaver Components tab lets you view web services, including operation names, parameter names, and
parameter data types.
Open the Components tab in Dreamweaver and add a web service
1 Select Window > Components, or use Control+F7, to open the Components panel.
2 In the Components panel, select Web Services from the drop-down list in the upper left of the panel.
3 Click the Plus (+) button.

The Add Using WSDL dialog box appears.

4 Specify the URL of the WSDL file.

After the web service is defined to Dreamweaver, you can drag it onto a page to call it using the cfinvoke tag.
For more information on using Dreamweaver, see its online Help system.
Note: The Web Services option is not available if you are running Dreamweaver on the Macintosh. However, you can
still use web services by writing code manually.

Reading a WSDL file

A WSDL file takes practice to read. You can view the WSDL file in a browser, or you can use a tool such as
Dreamweaver, which contains a built-in utility for displaying WSDL files in an easy-to-read format.
The following example shows a WSDL file for the TemperatureService web service:

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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<definitions name="TemperatureService"
targetNamespace="http://www.xmethods.net/sd/TemperatureService.wsdl"xmlns:tns="http://www.xm
ethods.net/sd/TemperatureService.wsdl" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/">
<message name="getTempRequest">
<part name="zipcode" type="xsd:string"/>
</message>
<message name="getTempResponse">
<part name="return" type="xsd:float"/>
</message>
<portType name="TemperaturePortType">
<operation name="getTemp">
<input message="tns:getTempRequest"/>
<output message="tns:getTempResponse"/>
</operation>
</portType>
<binding name="TemperatureBinding" type="tns:TemperaturePortType">
<soap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
<operation name="getTemp">
<soap:operation soapAction=""/>
<input>
<soap:body use="encoded" namespace="urn:xmethods-Temperature"
encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="encoded" namespace="urn:xmethods-Temperature"
encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
</output>
</operation>
</binding>
<service name="TemperatureService">
<documentation>Returns current temperature in a given U.S. zipcode</documentation>
<port name="TemperaturePort" binding="tns:TemperatureBinding">
<soap:address
location="http://services.xmethods.net:80/soap/servlet/rpcrouter"/>
</port>
</service>
</definitions>

The following are the major components of the WSDL file:

Component

Definition

definitions

The root element of the WSDL file. This area contains namespace definitions that you use to avoid naming
conflicts between multiple web services.

types

(Not shown) Defines data types used by the service messages.

message

Defines the data transferred by a web service operation, typically the name and data type of input parameters
and return values.

port type

Defines one or more operations provided by the web service.

operation

Defines an operation that can be remotely invoked.

input

Specifies an input parameter to the operation using a previously defined message.

output

Specifies the return values from the operation using a previously defined message.

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Component

Definition

fault

(not shown) Optionally specifies an error message returned from the operation.

binding

Specifies the protocol used to access a web service including SOAP, HTTP GET and POST, and MIME.

service

Defines a group of related operations.

port

Defines an operation and its associated inputs and outputs.

For additional descriptions of the contents of this WSDL file, see Consuming web services on page 1098.

Consuming web services

ColdFusion provides a variety of methods for consuming web services. The method that you choose depends on your
ColdFusion programming style and application.
The following table describes these methods:
Method

CFML operator

Description

CFScript

()

Consumes a web service from within a CFScript block.

CFML tag

Consumes a web service from within a block of CFML code.

CFML tag

Consumes a web service from within a block of CFML code.

One important consideration is that all consumption methods use the same underlying technology and offer the same
performance.

About the examples

The examples shown here reference the TemperatureService web service from XMethods. This web service returns the
temperature for a given ZIP code. You can read the WSDL file for this web service in Reading a WSDL file on
page 1096.
The TemperatureService web service has one input parameter, a string that contains the requested ZIP code. It returns
a float that contains the temperature for the specified ZIP code.

Passing parameters to a web service

The message and operation elements in the WSDL file contains subelements that define the web service operations
and the input and output parameters of each operation, including the data type of each parameter. The following
example shows a portion of the WSDL file for the TemperatureService web service:
<message name="getTempRequest">
<part name="zipcode" type="xsd:string"/>
</message>
<message name="getTempResponse">
<part name="return" type="xsd:float"/>
</message>
<portType name="TemperaturePortType">
<operation name="getTemp">
<input message="tns:getTempRequest"/>
<output message="tns:getTempResponse"/>
</operation>
</portType>

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The operation name used in the examples is getTemp. This operation takes a single input parameter defined as a
message of type getTempRequest.
You can see that the message element named getTempRequest contains one string parameter: zipcode. When you call
the getTemp operation, you pass the parameter as input.

Handling return values from a web service

Web service operations often return information back to your application. You can determine the name and data type
of returned information by examining subelements of the message and operation elements in the WSDL file.
The following example shows a portion of the WSDL file for the TemperatureService web service:
<message name="getTempRequest">
<part name="zipcode" type="xsd:string"/>
</message>
<message name="getTempResponse">
<part name="return" type="xsd:float"/>
</message>
<portType name="TemperaturePortType">
<operation name="getTemp">
<input message="tns:getTempRequest"/>
<output message="tns:getTempResponse"/>
</operation>
</portType>

The operation getTemp returns a message of type getTempResponse. The message statement in the WSDL file defines
the getTempResponse message as containing a single string parameter named return.

Using cfinvoke to consume a web service

With the cfinvoke tag, you reference the WSDL file and invoke an operation on the web service with a single tag.
The cfinvoke tag includes attributes that specify the URL to the WSDL file, the method to invoke, the return variable,
and input parameters. For complete syntax, see the CFML Reference.
Note: You can pass parameters to a web service using the cfinvokeargument tag or by specifying parameter names in
the cfinvoke tag itself. For more information, see Passing parameters to methods by using the cfinvoke tag on
page 196.
Access a web service using cfinvoke
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfinvoke
webservice="http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl"
method="getTemp"
returnvariable="aTemp">
<cfinvokeargument name="zipcode" value="55987"/>
</cfinvoke>
<cfoutput>The temperature at ZIP code 55987 is #aTemp#</cfoutput>

2 Save the page as wscfc.cfm in your web root directory.

3 View the page in your browser.

You can omit a parameter by setting the omit attribute to "yes". If the WSDL specifies that the argument is nullable,
ColdFusion sets the associated argument to null. If the WSDL specifies minoccurs=0, ColdFusion omits the argument
from the WSDL. However, CFC web services must still specify required="true" for all arguments.

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You can also use an attribute collection to pass parameters. An attribute collections is a structure where each structure
key corresponds to a parameter name and each structure value is the parameter value passed for the corresponding
key. The following example shows an invocation of a web service using an attribute collection:
<cfscript>
stArgs = structNew();
stArgs.zipcode = "55987";
</cfscript>
<cfinvoke
webservice="http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl"
method="getTemp"
argumentcollection="#stArgs#"
returnvariable="aTemp">
<cfoutput>The temperature at ZIP code 55987 is #aTemp#</cfoutput>

In this example, you create the structure in a CFScript block, but you can use any ColdFusion method to create the
structure.

Using CFScript to consume a web service

The following example uses CFScript to consume a web service. In CFScript, you use the CreateObject function to
connect to the web service. After connecting, you can make requests to the service. For CreateObject syntax, see the
CFML Reference.
After creating the web service object, you can call operations of the web service using dot notation, in the following form:
webServiceName.operationName(inputVal1, inputVal2, ... );

You can handle return values from web services by writing them to a variable, as the following example shows:
resultVar = webServiceName.operationName(inputVal1, inputVal2, ... );

Or, you can pass the return values directly to a function, such as the WriteOutput function, as the following example
shows:
writeoutput(webServiceName.operationName(inputVal1, inputVal2, ...) );

Access a web service from CFScript

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice",
"http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl");
xlatstring = ws.getTemp("55987");
writeoutput(xlatstring);
</cfscript>

2 Save the page as wscfscript.cfm in your web root directory.

3 View the page in your browser.

You can also use named parameters to pass information to a web service. The following example performs the same
operation as the preceding code, except that it uses named parameters to make the web service request:

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<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice",
"http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl");
xlatstring = ws.getTemp(zipcode = "55987");
writeoutput("The temperature at 55987 is " & xlatstring);
</cfscript>

Consuming web services that ColdFusion does not generate

To consume a web service that is implemented in a technology other than ColdFusion, the web service must have one
of the following sets of options:

rpc as the SOAP binding style and encoding as the encodingStyle

document as the SOAP binding style and literal as the encodingStyle
The following example shows a portion of the WSDL file for the TemperatureService web service:
<binding name="TemperatureBinding" type="tns:TemperaturePortType">
<soap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
<operation name="getTemp">
<soap:operation soapAction=""/>
<input>
<soap:body use="encoded" namespace="urn:xmethods-Temperature"
encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
</input>
<output>
<soap:body use="encoded" namespace="urn:xmethods-Temperature"
encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
</output>
</operation>
</binding>

The WSDL file for the TemperatureService web service is compatible with ColdFusion because it uses rpc as the
binding style, and encoding as the encodingStyle.

Calling web services from a Flash client

The Flash Remoting service lets you call ColdFusion pages from a Flash client, but it does not let you call web services
directly. To call web services from a Flash client, you can use Flash Remoting to call a ColdFusion component that calls
the web service. The Flash client can pass input parameters to the component, and the component can return to the
Flash client any data returned by the web service.
For more information, see Using the Flash Remoting Service on page 606.

Catching errors when consuming web services

During processing, you can catch in your application errors, including SOAP faults, that otherwise propagate to the
browser.
To catch errors, you specify an error type of application to the ColdFusion cfcatch tag, as the following example
shows:

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<cftry>
Place your application code here ...
<cfcatch type="application">
<!--- Add exception processing code here ... --->
</cfcatch>
...
<cfcatch type="Any">
<!--- Add exception processing code appropriate for all other
exceptions here ... --->
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

For more information on error handling, see Handling Errors on page 275.

Handling inout and out parameters

Some web services define inout and out parameters. You use out parameters to pass a placeholder for a return value to
a web service. The web service then returns its result by writing it to the out parameter. Inout parameters let you pass
a value to a web service and lets the web service return its result by overwriting the parameter value.
The following example shows a web service that takes as input an inout parameter containing a string and writes its
results back to the string:
<cfset S="foo">
<cfscript>
ws=createobject("webservice", "URLtoWSDL")
ws.modifyString("S");
</cfscript>
<cfoutput>#S#</cfoutput>

Even though this web service takes as input the value of S, because you pass it as an inout parameter, you do not enclose
it in number signs.
Note: ColdFusion supports the use of inout and out parameters to consume web services. However, ColdFusion does not
support inout and out parameters when creating web services for publication.

Configuring web services in the ColdFusion Administrator

The ColdFusion Administrator lets you register web services so that you do not have to specify the entire WSDL URL
when you reference the web service.
Note: The first time you reference a web service, ColdFusion automatically registers it in the Administrator.
For example, the following code references the URL to the TemperatureService WSDL file:
<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice",
"http://www.xmethods.net/sd/2001/TemperatureService.wsdl");
xlatstring = ws.getTemp("55987");
writeoutput(xlatstring);
</cfscript>

If you register the TemperatureService web service in the Administrator using (for example, the name wsTemp), you
can then reference the web service as follows:
<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice", "wsTemp");
xlatstring = ws.getTemp("55987");
writeoutput("wsTemp: " & xlatstring);
</cfscript>

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Not only does registering the service in the Administrator enable you to shorten your code, it lets you change a web
service URL without modifying your code. So, if the TemperatureService web service moves to a new location, you only
update the administrator setting, not your application code.
For more information, see the ColdFusion Administrator online Help.

Data conversions between ColdFusion and WSDL data types

A WSDL file defines the input and return parameters of an operation, including data types. For example, the
TemperatureService web service contains the following definition of input and return parameters:
<message name="getTempRequest">
<part name="zipcode" type="xsd:string"/>
</message>
<message name="getTempResponse">
<part name="return" type="xsd:float"/>
</message>

As part of consuming web services, understand how ColdFusion converts WSDL defined data types to ColdFusion
data types. The following table shows this conversion:
ColdFusion data type

WSDL data type

numeric

SOAP-ENC:double

Boolean

SOAP-ENC:boolean

string

SOAP-ENC:string

array

SOAP-ENC:Array

binary

xsd:base64Binary

numeric

xsd:float

string

xsd:enumeration

date

xsd:dateTime

void (operation returns nothing)

struct

complex type

query

tns1:QueryBean (Returned by CFCs)

For many of the most common data types, such as string and numeric, a WSDL data type maps directly to a
ColdFusion data type. For complex WSDL data types, the mapping is not as straight forward. In many cases, you map
a complex WSDL data type to a ColdFusion structure. For more information on handling complex data types, see
Handling complex data types on page 1115.

Consuming ColdFusion web services

Your application can consume web services created in ColdFusion. You do not have to perform any special processing
on the input parameters or return values because ColdFusion handles data mappings automatically when consuming
a ColdFusion web service.
For example, when ColdFusion publishes a web service that returns a query, or takes a query as an input, the WSDL
file for that service lists its data type as QueryBean. However, a ColdFusion application consuming this web service
can pass a ColdFusion query object to the function as an input, or write a returned QueryBean to a ColdFusion query
object.

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Note: For a list of how ColdFusion data types map to WSDL data types, see Data conversions between ColdFusion and
WSDL data types on page 1103.
The following example shows a ColdFusion component that takes a query as input and echoes the query back to the
caller:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name='echoQuery' returnType='query' access='remote'>
<cfargument name='input' type='query'>
<cfreturn #arguments.input#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

In the WSDL file for the echotypes.cfc component, you see the following definitions that specify the type of the
function input and output as QueryBean:
<wsdl:message name="echoQueryResponse">
<wsdl:part name="echoQueryReturn" type="tns1:QueryBean"/>
</wsdl:message>
<wsdl:message name="echoQueryRequest">
<wsdl:part name="input" type="tns1:QueryBean"/>
</wsdl:message>

For information on displaying WSDL, see Producing WSDL files on page 1106.
Since ColdFusion automatically handles mappings to ColdFusion data types, you can call this web service as the
following example shows:
<head>
<title>Passing queries to web services</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfquery name="GetEmployees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT FirstName, LastName, Salary
FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<cfinvoke
webservice = "http://localhost/echotypes.cfc?wsdl"
method = "echoQuery"
input="#GetEmployees#"
returnVariable = "returnedQuery">
<cfoutput>
Is returned result a query? #isQuery(returnedQuery)# <br><br>
</cfoutput>
<cfoutput query="returnedQuery">
#FirstName#, #LastName#, #Salary#<br>
</cfoutput>
</body>

Publishing web services

To publish web services for consumption by remote applications, you create the web service using ColdFusion
components. For more information on components, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177.

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Creating components for web services

ColdFusion components (CFCs) encapsulate application functionality and provide a standard interface for client
access to that functionality. A component typically contains one or more functions defined by the cffunction tag.
For example, the following component contains a single function:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="echoString" returnType="string" output="no">
<cfargument name="input" type="string">
<cfreturn #arguments.input#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The function, named echoString, echoes back any string passed to it. To publish the function as a web service, modify
the function definition to add the access attribute and specify remote, as the following example shows:
<cffunction name="echoString" returnType="string" output="no" access="remote">

By defining the function as remote, ColdFusion includes the function in the WSDL file. Only those functions marked
as remote are accessible as a web service.
The following list defines the requirements for how to create web services for publication:
1 The value of the access attribute of the cffunction tag must be remote.
2 The cffunction tag must include the returnType attribute to specify a return type.
3 The output attribute of the cffunction tag must be set to No because ColdFusion converts all output to XML to

return it to the consumer.

4 The attribute setting required="false" for the cfargument tag is ignored. ColdFusion considers all parameters

as required.

Specifying data types of function arguments and return values

The cffunction tag lets you define a single return value and one or more input parameters passed to a function. As
part of the function definition, you include the data type of the return value and input parameters.
The following example shows a component that defines a function with a return value of type string, one input
parameter of type string, and one input parameter of type numeric:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="trimString" returnType="string" output="no">
<cfargument name="inString" type="string">
<cfargument name="trimLength" type="numeric">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

As part of publishing the component for access as a web service, ColdFusion generates the WSDL file that defines the
component where the WSDL file includes definitions for how ColdFusion data types map to WSDL data types. The
following table shows this mapping:
ColdFusion data type

WSDL data type published

numeric

SOAP-ENC:double

Boolean

SOAP-ENC:boolean

string

SOAP-ENC:string

array

SOAP-ENC:Array

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ColdFusion data type

WSDL data type published

binary

xsd:base64Binary

date

xsd:dateTime

guid

SOAP-ENC:string

uuid

SOAP-ENC:string

void (operation returns nothing)

struct

Map

query

QueryBean

any

complex type

component definition

complex type

In most cases, consumers of ColdFusion web services can easily pass data to and return results from component
functions by mapping their data types to the WSDL data types shown in the preceding table.
Note: Document-literal web services use XML schema data types, not SOAP-ENC data types. For more information, see
Publishing document-literal style web services on page 1110.
For ColdFusion structures and queries, Some clients must process their data to map it to the correct type. For more
information, see Publishing web services that use complex data types on page 1119.
You can also define a data type in one ColdFusion component based on another component definition. For more
information on using components to specify a data type, see Using ColdFusion components to define data types for
web services on page 1109.

Producing WSDL files

ColdFusion automatically creates a WSDL file for any component referenced as a web service. For example, if you have
a component named echo.cfc in your web root directory, you can view its corresponding WSDL file by requesting the
component as follows:
http://localhost/echo.cfc?wsdl

The cfcomponent tag includes optional attributes that you can use to control the WSDL that ColdFusion generates.
You can use these attributes to create meaningful WSDL attribute names, as the following example shows:
<cfcomponent style="document"
namespace = "http://www.mycompany.com/"
serviceportname = "RestrictedEmpInfo"
porttypename = "RestrictedEmpInfo"
bindingname = "myns:RestrictedEmpInfo"
displayname = "RestrictedEmpInfo"
hint = "RestrictedEmpInfo">

For complete control of the WSDL, advanced users can specify the cfcomponentwsdlFile attribute to use a
predefined WSDL file.
The following example defines a ColdFusion component that can be invoked as a web service:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction
name = "echoString"
returnType = "string"
output = "no"
access = "remote">
<cfargument name = "input" type = "string">
<cfreturn #arguments.input#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

If you register the component in Dreamweaver, it appears in the Components tab of the Application panel.
Requesting the WSDL file in a browser returns the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wsdl:definitions targetNamespace="http://ws"
xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:apachesoap="http://xml.apache.org/xml-soap"
xmlns:impl="http://ws"
xmlns:intf="http://ws"
xmlns:soapenc="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
xmlns:tns1="http://rpc.xml.coldfusion"
xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
xmlns:wsdlsoap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<!--WSDL created by ColdFusion -->
<wsdl:types>
<schema targetNamespace="http://rpc.xml.coldfusion"
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<import namespace="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"/>
<complexType name="CFCInvocationException">
<sequence/>
</complexType>
</schema>
</wsdl:types>
<wsdl:message name="CFCInvocationException">
<wsdl:part name="fault" type="tns1:CFCInvocationException"/>
</wsdl:message>
<wsdl:message name="echoStringResponse">
<wsdl:part name="echoStringReturn" type="xsd:string"/>
</wsdl:message>
<wsdl:message name="echoStringRequest">
<wsdl:part name="input" type="xsd:string"/>
</wsdl:message>
<wsdl:portType name="echo">
<wsdl:operation name="echoString" parameterOrder="input">
<wsdl:input message="impl:echoStringRequest" name="echoStringRequest"/>
<wsdl:output message="impl:echoStringResponse"
name="echoStringResponse"/>
<wsdl:fault message="impl:CFCInvocationException" name="CFCInvocationException"/>
</wsdl:operation>
</wsdl:portType>
<wsdl:binding name="echo.cfcSoapBinding" type="impl:echo">
<wsdlsoap:binding style="rpc" transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/
http"/>

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<wsdl:operation name="echoString">
<wsdlsoap:operation soapAction=""/>
<wsdl:input name="echoStringRequest">
<wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/
encoding/" namespace="http://ws" use="encoded"/>
</wsdl:input>
<wsdl:output name="echoStringResponse">
<wsdlsoap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/
encoding/" namespace="http://ws" use="encoded"/>
</wsdl:output>
<wsdl:fault name="CFCInvocationException">
<wsdlsoap:fault encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/
encoding/" name="CFCInvocationException" namespace=
"http://ws" use="encoded"/>
</wsdl:fault>
</wsdl:operation>
</wsdl:binding>
<wsdl:service name="echoService">
<wsdl:port binding="impl:echo.cfcSoapBinding" name="echo.cfc">
<wsdlsoap:address location="http://localhost:8500/ws/echo.cfc"/>
</wsdl:port>
</wsdl:service>
</wsdl:definitions>

Publish a web service

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfcomponent output="false">
<cffunction
name = "echoString"
returnType = "string"
output = "no"
access = "remote">
<cfargument name = "input" type = "string">
<cfreturn #arguments.input#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

2 Save this file as echo.cfc in your web root directory.

3 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfinvoke webservice ="http://localhost/echo.cfc?wsdl"
method ="echoString"
input = "hello"
returnVariable="foo">
<cfoutput>#foo#</cfoutput>

4 Save this file as echoclient.cfm in your web root directory.

5 Request echoclient.cfm in your browser.

The following string appears in your browser:

hello

You can also invoke the web service using the following code:

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<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice", "http://localhost/echo.cfc?wsdl");
wsresults = ws.echoString("hello");
writeoutput(wsresults);
</cfscript>

Using ColdFusion components to define data types for web services

ColdFusion lets you define components that contain only properties. Once defined, you can use components to define
data types for web services. The following code defines a component in the file address.cfc that contains properties that
represent a street address:
<cfcomponent>
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
<cfproperty
</cfcomponent>

name="AddrNumber" type="numeric">
name="Street" type="string">
name="City" type="string">
name="State" type="string">
name="Country" type="string">

The following code defines a component in the filename.cfc that defines first and last name properties:
<cfcomponent>
<cfproperty name="Firstname" type="string">
<cfproperty name="Lastname" type="string">
</cfcomponent>

You can then use address and name to define data types in a ColdFusion component created to publish a web service,
as the following example shows:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction
name="echoName" returnType="name" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="input" type="name">
<cfreturn #arguments.input#>
</cffunction>
<cffunction
name="echoAddress" returnType="address" access="remote" output="false">
<cfargument name="input" type="address">
<cfreturn #arguments.input#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Note: If the component files are not in a directory under your web root, create a web server mapping to the directory that
contains them. You cannot use ColdFusion mappings to access web services.
The WSDL file for the web service contains data definitions for the complex types name and address. Each definition
consists of the elements that define the type as specified in the ColdFusion component file for that type. For example,
the following example shows the definition for name:
<complexType name="name">
<sequence>
<element name="firstname" nillable="true" type="soapenc:string"/>
<element name="lastname" nillable="true" type="soapenc:string"/>
</sequence>
</complexType>

You can also specify an array of CFCs in the returnType attribute, as the following example shows:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction
name="allNames" returnType="name[]" access="remote" output="false">
<cfset var returnarray = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset var temp = "">
<cfquery name="empinfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT firstname, lastname
FROM employee
</cfquery>
<cfloop query="empinfo" >
<cfobject component="name" name="tempname">
<cfset tempname.Firstname = #empinfo.firstname#>
<cfset tempname.Lastname = #empinfo.lastname#>
<cfset temp = ArrayAppend(returnarray, tempname)>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn returnarray>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

When you invoke the web service, it returns an array of CFCs. Access the properties in the CFC by using dot notation,
as the following example shows:
<cfinvoke webservice ="http://localhost:8500/ws/cfcarray.cfc?wsdl"
method ="allNames"
returnVariable="thearray">
<cfif IsArray(thearray)>
<h1>loop through the employees</h1>
<p>thearray has <cfoutput>#ArrayLen(thearray)#</cfoutput> elements.</p>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(thearray)#">
<cfoutput>#thearray[i].firstname#, #thearray[i].lastname# </cfoutput><br>
</cfloop>
<cfelse>
<h1>Error: thearray is not an array</h1>
</cfif>

Publishing document-literal style web services

In addition to RPC-oriented operations, for which consumers specify a method and arguments, ColdFusion also lets
you publish web services using the document-literal style. When you use document-literal style, the WSDL for the web
service tells the client to use XML schemas rather than RPC calling conventions.
In most cases, the publisher of a web services identifies it as document-literal or RPC style. To identify the type, open
the WSDL document and find the soap:binding element and examine its style attribute, as the following example
shows:
<wsdl:binding name="WeatherForecastSoap" type="tns:WeatherForecastSoap">
<soap:binding transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http" style="document" />

In this example, the style is document-literal. Examine the WSDL to determine the methods you can call and the
parameters for each method.
On the client side, the cfinvoke tag and other ColdFusion methods for calling web services handle the style
automatically. In most cases, no modifications are necessary. Similarly, when publishing CFCs as document-literal
style web services, ColdFusion automatically creates and manages the appropriate WSDL.

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To publish CFCs as document-literal style web services, specify cfcomponent style="document", along with the
other attributes required for document-literal style web services. For example, ColdFusion publishes the following
CFC using document-literal style:
<cfcomponent style="document" >
<cffunction
name = "getEmp"
returntype="string"
output = "no"
access = "remote">
<cfargument name="empid" required="yes" type="numeric">
<cfset var fullname = "">
<cfquery name="empinfo" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT emp_id, firstname, lastname
FROM employee
WHERE emp_id = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer"
value="#arguments.empid#">
</cfquery>
<cfif empinfo.recordcount gt 0>
<cfset fullname = empinfo.lastname & ", " & empinfo.firstname>
<cfelse>
<cfset fullname = "not found">
</cfif>
<cfreturn #fullname#>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Securing your web services

You can restrict access to your published web services to control the users allowed to invoke them. You can use your
web server to control access to the directories containing your web services, or you can use ColdFusion security in the
same way that you would to control access to any ColdFusion page.
To browse the HTML description of a CFC file, you request the file by specifying a URL to the file in your browser. By
default, ColdFusion secures access to all URLs that directly reference a CFC file, and prompts you to enter a password
upon the request. Use the ColdFusion RDS password to view the file.
To disable security on CFC file browsing, use the ColdFusion Administrator to disable the RDS password.
For more information, see Building and Using ColdFusion Components on page 177.
Using your web server to control access
Most web servers, including IIS and Apache, implement directory access protection using the basic HTTP
authentication mechanism. When a client attempts to access one of the resources under a protected directory, and has
not properly authenticated, the web server automatically sends back an authentication challenge, typically an HTTP
Error 401 Access Denied error.
In response, the client browser opens a login prompt containing a user name and password field. When the user
submits this information, the browser sends it back to the web server. If authentication passes, the web server allows
access to the directory. The browser also caches the authentication data as long as it is open, so subsequent requests
automatically include the authentication data.
Web service clients can also pass the user name and password information as part of the request. The cfinvoke tag
includes the user name and password attributes that let you pass login information to a web server using HTTP basic
authentication. You can include these attributes when invoking a web service, as the following example shows:

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<cfinvoke
webservice = "http://some.cfc?wsdl"
returnVariable = "foo"
...
username="aName"
password="aPassword">
<cfoutput>#foo#</cfoutput>

ColdFusion inserts the user name/password string in the authorization request header as a base64 binary encoded
string, with a colon separating the user name and password. This method of passing the user name/password is
compatible with the HTTP basic authentication mechanism used by web servers.
The ColdFusion Administrator lets you predefine web services. As part of defining the web service, you can specify the
user name and password that ColdFusion includes as part of the request to the web service. Therefore, you do not have
to encode this information using the cfinvoke tag. For information on defining a web service in the ColdFusion
Administrator, see Configuring web services in the ColdFusion Administrator on page 1102.
Using ColdFusion to control access
Instead of letting the web server control access to your web services, you can handle the user name/password string in
your Application.cfc or Application.cfm file as part of your own security mechanism. In this case, you use the cflogin
tag to retrieve the user name/password information from the authorization header, decode the binary string, and
extract the user name and password, as the following excerpt from an Application.cfc onRequestStart method
shows:
<cflogin>
<cfset isAuthorized = false>
<cfif isDefined("cflogin")
<!--- Verify user name from cflogin.name and password from
cflogin.password using your authentication mechanism. --->
>
<cfset isAuthorized = true>
</cfif>
</cflogin>
<cfif not isAuthorized>
<!--- If the user does not pass a user name/password, return a 401 error.
The browser then prompts the user for a user name/password. --->
<cfheader statuscode="401">
<cfheader name="WWW-Authenticate" value="Basic realm=""Test""">
<cfabort>
</cfif>

This example does not show how to perform user verification. For more information on verification, see Securing
Applications on page 339.

Best practices for publishing web services

ColdFusion web services provide a powerful mechanism for publishing and consuming application functionality.
However, before you produce web services for publication, consider the following best practices:
1 Minimize the use of ColdFusion complex types, such as query and struct, in the web services you create for

publication. These types require consumers, especially ones that consume the web service using a technology other
than ColdFusion, to create special data structures to handle complex types.
2 Locally test the ColdFusion components implemented for web services before publishing them over the Internet.

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Using request and response headers

ColdFusion includes a set of functions that enable your web service to get and set request and response headers. You
use these functions to retrieve the response headers from a web service request and to create SOAP headers in a request
that has the mustUnderstand attribute set to be True.
You typically use different functions in web services clients and in the web service CFC, itself:
In the client:

AddSOAPRequestHeader, called before the request to set a SOAP header.

GetSOAPResponseHeader, called after the request to retrieve a SOAP header.
GetSOAPResponse, called after the request to retrieve a SOAP response.
In the web service CFC:

IsSOAPRequest, called to determine whether the CFC method is being called as a web service.
GetSOAPRequestHeader, called to retrieve a SOAP header set by the client.
GetSOAPRequest, called to retrieve a SOAP request sent by the client.
AddSOAPResponseHeader, called to set a SOAP header that is returned to the client.
Note: When used in a CFC, you can only use these functions in CFC methods if they are being used as web services. Use
the IsSOAPRequest function to determine whether the CFC method is being called as a web service.
The following example CFM page uses the AddSOAPRequestHeader, getSOAPRequest, and GetSOAPResponse
functions:

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<cfsavecontent variable="my_xml">
<Request xmlns="http://www.oasis-open.org/asap/0.9/asap.xsd">
<SenderKey>ss</SenderKey>
<ReceiverKey>zz</ReceiverKey>
<ResponseRequired>Yes</ResponseRequired>
<RequestID>id</RequestID>
</Request>
</cfsavecontent>
<cfset xml_obj = xmlparse(my_xml)>
<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice", "http://localhost:8500/soapexamples/HeaderFuncs.cfc?WSDL");
addSOAPRequestHeader(ws, "http://www.cfdevguide.com/", "testrequestheader", "#xml_obj#");
</cfscript>
<cfscript>
ret=ws.showSOAPHeaders();
inxml = getSOAPRequest(ws);
outxml = getSOAPResponse(ws);
</cfscript>
<cfoutput>
<h2>Return Value</h2>
<!--- This code is XML, so use HTMLCodeFormat. --->
The return value was #ret#
<h2>Complete Request XML</h2>
#htmlcodeformat(inxml)#
<h2>Complete Response XML</h2>
#htmlcodeformat(outxml)#
</cfoutput>

The following example CFC uses the IsSOAPRequest and AddSOAPResponseHeader functions:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction
name = "showSOAPHeaders"
returnType = "string"
output = "no"
access = "remote"
hint="After calling this function, use GetSOAPRequest and GetSOAPResponse to view
headers">
<cfset var xml_obj = "">
<cfset var ret = "">
<cfif IsSOAPRequest()>
<!--- Define a response header --->
<cfsavecontent variable="response_xml">
<ThisResponseHeader xmlns="http://www.cfdevguide.com">
<CreatedDateTime><cfoutput>#now()#</cfoutput></CreatedDateTime>
<ExpiresInterval>6000</ExpiresInterval>
</ThisResponseHeader>
</cfsavecontent>
<cfset xml_obj = xmlparse(response_xml)>
<!--- Add the response header --->
<cfscript>
addSOAPResponseHeader("http://www.cfdevguide.com/", "testresponseheader", "#xml_obj#");
ret = "Invoked as a web service. Use GetSOAPRequest and GetSOAPResponse to view headers.";
</cfscript>
<cfelse>
<cfset ret = "Not invoked as a web service">
</cfif>
<cfreturn ret>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Handling complex data types

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

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ColdFusion data type

WSDL data type

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:complexType name="Employee">
<s:sequence>
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"
<s:element minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"
</s:sequence>
</s:complexType>

name="fname" type="s:string" />

name="lname" type="s:string" />
name="active" type="s:boolean" />
name="age" type="s:int" />
name="hiredate" type="s:dateTime" />
name="number" type="s:double" />

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:
<message name="updateEmployeeInfoSoapIn">
<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:
<operation name="updateEmployeeInfo">
<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:

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<!--- Create a structure using CFScript, then call the web service. --->
<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:
<message name="updateEmployeeInfoSoapOut">
<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:

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<!--- Create a structure using CFScript, then call the web service. --->
<!--- 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:
<cfscript>
...
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.

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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 on page 1103.
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:
<complexType name="mapItem">
<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:
<complexType name="QueryBean">
<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:

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<complexType name="ArrayOf_SOAP-ENC_Array">
<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>

Troubleshooting SOAP requests and responses

ColdFusion provides the following facilities for troubleshooting SOAP requests and responses:

The getSOAPRequest and getSOAPResponse functions.

The TCP monitor.

Viewing SOAP requests and responses

You can use the getSOAPRequest and getSOAPResponse functions to retrieve and display the XML passed to and
from a web service. Although advanced users can use this information for custom functionality, you typically use these
functions for debugging.
Use these functions in the following places:

Clients call this function after the web service request; web service CFCs call this function in
the web service CFC method.

GetSOAPResponse

GetSOAPRequest

Clients call this function after the web service request completes; web service CFCs cannot use

this method.
The following example uses the GetSOAPRequest and GetSOAPResponse functions in a web service client:
<cfscript>
ws = CreateObject("webservice", "http://localhost:8500/soapexamples/tester.cfc?WSDL");
addSOAPRequestHeader(ws, "http://mynamespace/", "username", "randy");
ret = ws.echo_me("value");
</cfscript>
<cfset soapreq = GetSOAPRequest(ws)>
<h2>SOAP Request</h2>
<cfdump var="#soapreq#">
<cfset soapresp = GetSOAPResponse(ws)>
<h2>SOAP Response</h2>
<cfdump var="#soapresp#">
...

The following example uses the GetSOAPRequest function in a web service CFC method:

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<cfcomponent displayName="testerdebug" hint="Test for underscores">

<cffunction access="remote" name="echo_me" output="false" returntype="string"
displayname="Echo Test" hint="Header test">
<cfargument name="in_here" required="true" type="string">
<cfset var soapreq = "">
<cfif IsSOAPRequest()>
<cfset soapreq = GetSOAPRequest()>
<cflog text="#soapreq#"
log="APPLICATION"
type="Information">
...

Using the TCP monitor

TCPMonitor is a swing-based application that lets you watch the request and response flow of HTTP traffic. You can
also watch the request and response flow of SOAP traffic. TCPMonitor replaces the Sniffer service formerly used in
Macromedia JRun.
Run TCPMonitor
On Windows and UNIX platforms, you can execute the TCPMonitor by launching the sniffer utility in the
jrun_root/bin directory.
The TCP Monitor main window appears.
TCPMonitor is a swing-based application that lets you watch the request and response flow of HTTP traffic.
However, you can also use it to watch the request and response flow of SOAP traffic.

To run TCPMonitor:
1 On Windows and UNIX platforms, you can execute the TCPMonitor by launching the sniffer utility in the

cf_root/bin (server configuration) or jrun_root/bin (multiserver configuration) directory.

The TCP Monitor main window appears.
Note: In the J2EE configuration, run the utility directly out of the JAR file by using the following command:
java -cp cf_webapp_root/WEB-INF/cfusion/lib/axis.jar java org.apache.axis.utils.tcpmon
[listening_port] [target_host] [target_port]

2 Enter the values in the main window as described in the following table:
Field

Description

Listen Port#

Enter a local port number, such as 8123, to monitor for incoming connections. Instead of requesting
the usual port on which your server runs, you request this port. TCPMonitor intercepts the request
and forwards it to the Target Port.

Listener

Select Listener to use TCPMonitor as a sniffer service in JRun.

Proxy

Select Proxy to enable proxy support for TCPMonitor.

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Field

Description

Target Hostname

Enter the target host to which incoming connections are forwarded.

For example, if you are monitoring a service running on a local server, the hostname is localhost.

Target Port#

Enter the port number on the target machine to which TCPMonitor connects. For example, if you are
monitoring a service running on your local ColdFusion server in the server configuration, the default
port number is 8500.

HTTP Proxy Support

Select this check box only to configure proxy support for TCPMonitor.

You can optionally specify the Listen Port#, Target Hostname and Target Port# values when invoking TCPMonitor
on the command line. The following is the syntax for TCPMonitor:
java org.apache.axis.utils.tcpmon [listening_port] [target_host] [target_port]

3 To add this profile to your TCPMonitor session, click Add.

A tab appears for your new tunneled connection.

4 Select the new tab. If port conflicts exist, TCPMonitor alerts you in the Request panel.
5 Request a page using the Listen Port defined in this TCPMonitor session. For example, if you entered 8123 for the

Listen Port, enter the following URL in your browser:

http://localhost:8123/

TCPMonitor displays the current request and response information:

For each connection, the request appears in the Request panel and the response appears in the Response panel.
TCPMonitor keeps a log of all request-response pairs and lets you view any particular pair by selecting an entry in
the top panel.
6 To save results to a file for later viewing, click Save. To clear the top panel of older requests that you do not want to

save, click Remove Selected and Remove All.

7 To resend the request that you are currently viewing and view a new response, click Resend. You can edit the

request in the Request panel before resending, and test the effects of different requests.
8 To change the ports, click Stop, change the port numbers, and click Start.
9 To add another listener, click the Admin tab and enter the values as described previously.
10 To end this TCPMonitor session, click Close.

Using ColdFusion Web Services

ColdFusion can now expose many of its features as document or literal style SOAP web services. You can leverage
ColdFusion functionality using web services from other languages like PHP, .NET, or Ruby.You can access the features
of the following tags (and their child tags) as SOAP services:

cfchart
cfdocument
cfimage
cfmail
cfpop

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cfpdf

WorkFlow for a ColdFusion web service

To start using ColdFusion web services, you need to first enable access to ColdFusion services using ColdFusion
Administrator. Once you configure the access permissions:
1 Upload the file to the server (for example, PHP), which calls ColdFusion web services.
2 Call ColdFusion web service with the HTTP source URL pointing to the uploaded file, service user name, and

password and other attributes.

3 ColdFusion server returns the response.

Enable ColdFusion services

Using ColdFusion Administrator you can set the access permissions for a user or create multiple users with access to
different subsets of the available service. For example, you can allow an internal application access to all services, but
limit the access of another application to image and charting services.
To enable service access:
1 On the Administrator Services > IP Addresses page specify the URL addresses that can access the services. You can

specify individual addresses, address ranges of the form 10-30, or * wild cards. You can specify IPv4 or IPv6
addresses.
For example, you can use the following address patterns:
10.*.*.*
10*.30-50.20-30
10:10:10:10:10:10:10-FF:*
2 On the Administrator Service > User Manager page, specify the users that can access the services. You must specify

the user name and password. Also specify the allowed services in the Exposed Services section of the page.

Access ColdFusion services using SOAP

You use SOAP to access ColdFusion services as document/style web services. To see the available service requests and
responses, view the service WSDL in the cfWebRoot\CFIDE\services directory. The service WSDL is available from
the following CFC files: chart.cfc, document.cfc, image.cfc, mail.cfc, pdf.cfc, pop.cfc.
For example, to see the image services, use a URL such as the following:
http://<CF server >:<port>/CFIDE/services/image.cfc?wsdl

All the methods and attributes exposed through services can be found in WSDL. Attribute explanation is same as the
attributes of corresponding ColdFusion TAGS/Functions.

Access ColdFusion services from a PHP server

To access ColdFusion services from PHP:
1 Install PHP
2 Use a library or framework, which helps convert WSDL to PHP classes, for example, "WSO2 Web services Frame

Work for PHP".

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3 Invoke the class with required parameters.

The following example shows a section of a PHP page that adds a border to an image:
$input = new AddBorder();
//Fill in the class fields of $input to match your business logic
$input->serviceusername = "myuser";
$input->servicepassword = "mypassword";
$input->source = "http://myPHPSite/Images/image.jpg";
$input->thickness = "30";
$input->color = "blue";
$input->bordertype = "";
// call the operation
$response = $proxy->AddBorder($input);

In this code snippet,

serviceusername is the user name set in the ColdFusion administrator with the permission to access the specific

service being requested.

servicepassword is the password set for the service user name.
source is the source URL of the image in the PHP server.Other attributes are the same as the ImageAddborder()
ColdFusion function.

Batch operation on Image:

The following code performs multiple operations on an uploaded image such as batchOperation() to crop an image
and add a border to it.
$input = new batchOperation();
//TODO: fill in the class fields of $input to match your business logic
//Crop
$element1 = new Element();
$element2 = new Element();
$element3 = new Element();
$element4 = new Element();
$elementArray1 = new ArrayOf_xsd_anyType();
$element1->key = 'x';
$element1->value = '10';
$element2->key = 'y';
$element2->value = '10';
$element3->key = 'width';
$element3->value = '200';
$element4->key = 'height';
$element4->value = '200';
$elementArray1->item[0] = $element1;
$elementArray1->item[1] = $element2;
$elementArray1->item[2] = $element3;
$elementArray1->item[3] = $element4;
$ElementcollectionCrop = new Elementcollection();
$ElementcollectionCrop->key = 'Crop';
$ElementcollectionCrop->value = $elementArray1;
//AddBorder
$element5 = new Element();
$element6 = new Element();

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$element7 = new Element();

$elementArray2 = new ArrayOf_xsd_anyType();
$element5->key = 'thickness';$element5->value = '30';
$element6->key = 'color';
$element6->value = 'green';
$element7->key = 'bordertype';
$element7->value = '';
$elementArray2->item[0] = $element5;
$elementArray2->item[1] = $element6;
$elementArray2->item[2] = $element7;
$ElementcollectionAddBorder = new Elementcollection();
$ElementcollectionAddBorder->key = 'AddBorder';
$ElementcollectionAddBorder->value = $elementArray2;
$input->serviceusername = "myuser";
$input->servicepassword = "mypassword";
$input->source = "http:/<php server>:<port>/image.jpg";
$input->attributes =
array($ElementcollectionCrop,$ElementcollectionAddBorder);
// call the operation
$response = $proxy->batchOperation($input);

Access a ColdFusion service from .NET

Create a new Web service project in Visual Studio and add ColdFusion WSDL as a web reference to the project. Then
add a new item such a web form.

Example: Creating a PDF using .NET

Following is the sample .NET code for creating a PDF from the web site www.google.com.
Document.DocumentService objWebService = new
Document.DocumentService();
Document.Documentsection[] docsectionArray = { };
Document.Documentitem[] docitemArray = { };
string result = objWebService.generate("myuser", "mypassword", "pdf",
"", "", "", "", "yes", "", "", "", "", "","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "",
"", "", "", "http://www.google.com/", "", "", "", "", docsectionArray,
docitemArray);

In this code snippet:

Document is the web reference for document WSDL.
generate() is the method to generate the PDF from the HTML source.

Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML

Applications
You can integrate J2EE elements, including JSP pages and servlets; JSP tags; and Java objects, including Enterprise
JavaBeans (EJBs); into your Adobe ColdFusion application.

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About ColdFusion, Java, and J2EE

ColdFusion is built on a J2EE-compliant Java technology platform. This structure lets ColdFusion applications take
advantage of, and integrate with, J2EE elements. ColdFusion pages can do any of the following:

Include JavaScript and client-side Java applets on the page.

Use JSP tags.
Interoperate with JSP pages.
Use Java servlets.
Use Java objects, including JavaBeans and Enterprise JavaBeans.

About ColdFusion and client-side JavaScript and applets

ColdFusion pages, like HTML pages, can incorporate client-side JavaScript and Java applets. To use JavaScript, you
write the JavaScript code just as you do on any HTML page. ColdFusion ignores the JavaScript and sends it to the
client.
The cfapplet tag simplifies using Java client-side applets.
Use an applet on a ColdFusion page
1 Register the applet .class file in ColdFusion Administrator Java Applets Extensions page. (For information on
registering applets, see the ColdFusion Administrator online Help.)
2 Use the cfapplet tag to call the applet. The appletSource attribute must be the Applet name assigned in the

ColdFusion Administrator.
For example, ColdFusion includes a Copytext sample applet that copies text from one text box to another. The
ColdFusion Setup automatically registers the applet in the Administrator. To use this applet, incorporate it on your
page. For example:
<cfform action = "copytext.cfm">
<cfapplet appletsource = "copytext" name = "copytext">
</cfform>

About ColdFusion and JSP

ColdFusion supports JSP tags and pages in the following ways:

Interoperates with JSP pages: ColdFusion pages can include or forward to JSP pages, JSP pages can include or
forward to ColdFusion pages, and both types of pages can share data in persistent scopes.

Imports and uses JSP tag libraries: the cfimport tag imports JSP tag libraries and lets you use its tags.
ColdFusion pages are not JSP pages, however, and you cannot use most JSP syntax on ColdFusion pages. In particular,
you cannot use the following features on ColdFusion pages:
Include, Taglib, and Page directives: Instead, you use CFML import tag to import tag libraries, and the include (or
forward) method of the page context object returned by the ColdFusion GetPageContext function to include pages.
For more information, see Using JSP tags and tag libraries on page 1128 and Interoperating with JSP pages and
servlets on page 1129.
Expression, Declaration, and Scriptlet JSP scripting elements: Instead, you use CFML elements and expressions.
JSP comments: Instead, you use CFML comments. (ColdFusion ignores JSP comments and passes them to the
browser.)

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Standard JSP tags: Such as jsp:plugin, unless your J2EE server provides access to these tags in a JAR file. Instead, you
use ColdFusion tags and the PageContext object.

About ColdFusion and servlets

Some Java servlets are not exposed as JSP pages; instead they are Java programs. You can incorporate JSP servlets in
your ColdFusion application. For example, your enterprise could have an existing servlet that performs some business
logic. To use a servlet, the ColdFusion page specifies the servlet by using the ColdFusion GetPageContext function.
When you access the servlet with the GetPageContext function, the ColdFusion page shares the Request, Application,
and Session scopes with the servlet, so you can use these scopes for shared data.
ColdFusion pages can also access servlets by using the cfservlet tag, use the servlet URL in a form tag, or access an
SHTML page that uses a servlet tag.
Note: The cfservlet tag, which provides access to servlets on JRun servers, is deprecated since ColdFusion MX.

About ColdFusion and Java objects

Java objects include the following:

Standard Java classes and methods that make up the J2EE API
Custom-written Java objects, including the following:
Custom classes, including JavaBeans
Enterprise JavaBeans
ColdFusion pages use the cfobject tag to access Java objects.
ColdFusion searches for the objects in the following order:
1 The ColdFusion Java Dynamic Class Load directories:
2 Java archive (.jar) files in web_root/WEB-INF/lib
3 Class (.class) files in web_root/WEB-INF/classes

ColdFusion reloads classes from these directories, as described in the next section, About class loading.
1 The classpath specified on the JVM and Java Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator.
2 The default JVM classpath.

About class loading

ColdFusion dynamically loads classes that are either .class files in the web_root/WEB-INF/classes directory or in JAR
files in the web_root/WEB-INF/lib directory. ColdFusion checks the timestamp on the file when it creates an object
that is defined in either directory, even when the class is already in memory. If the file that contains the class is newer
than the class in memory, ColdFusion loads the class from that directory.
To use this feature, make sure that the Java implementation classes that you modify are not in the general JVM
classpath.
To disable automatic class loading of your classes, place the classes in the JVM classpath. Classes located on the JVM
classpath are loaded once per server lifetime. To reload these classes, stop and restart ColdFusion.
About GetPageContext and the PageContext object
Because ColdFusion pages are J2EE servlet pages, all ColdFusion pages have an underlying Java PageContext object.
CFML includes the GetPageContext function that you can then use in your ColdFusion page.

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The PageContext object exposes several fields and methods that can be useful in J2EE integration. In particular, it
includes the include and forward methods that provide the equivalent of the corresponding standard JSP tags.
For more information on other features of the PageContext object, see Java documentation. You can find the Javadoc
description of this class at http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/api/javax/servlet/jsp/PageContext.html.

About CFML variables and Java variables

Because ColdFusion variables are case-independent and Java variables are case-dependent, be careful about variable
names. Use the following rules and guidelines when sharing data between ColdFusion and Java code, including JSP
pages and servlets.
Rules
If you use mixed case variables, all variable names must be unique, independent of case. For example, you must not
have two Java variables, MyVariable and MYVARIABLE. ColdFusion cannot distinguish between the two.

If you share Request scope variables between a CFML page and a JSP page or servlet, all shared Request scope
variable names must be all-lowercase in the JSP page or servlet. Mixed case or all-uppercase variables cause null
pointer exceptions if CFML refers to these variables.

If you share Application or Session scope variables between a CFML page and a JSP page or servlet and use a named
ColdFusion application (the common usage), the variables on the JSP page or servlet are case-independent.

If you share the Application or Session scope variables between a CFML page and a JSP page or servlet, and use an
unnamed ColdFusion application, the variable names in the JSP page or servlet must be all lowercase.

When you specify a class name in the cfobject tag or CreateObject function, the name must be case-correct.
Guidelines
You can prevent problems by consistently using all-lowercase variable names.

In your CFML, use the same case as you do in your Java or JSP. Doing so does not change how the application
works, but does help prevent confusion.

Using JSP tags and tag libraries

You can use JSP tags from any JSP tag library. For example, you can use any of the custom tags in the open-source
Apache Jakarta Project Taglibs project tag libraries, located at http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/index.html. This
project consists of several individual JSP custom tag libraries for purposes ranging from JNDI access to generating
random text strings.

Using a JSP tag in a ColdFusion page

JSP pages use a standard set of tags, such as jsp:forward and jsp:include. You can also import custom JSP tag
libraries into a JSP application. You can use both the standard JSP tags and custom JSP tags in ColdFusion pages.
Standard JSP tags and ColdFusion
ColdFusion tags provide equivalent features to most standard JSP tags. For example, the cfapplet tag provides the same
service as the jsp:plugin tag, and cfobject tag lets you use JavaBeans, as does the jsp:usebean tag. Similarly, you do
not use the jsp:getproperty tag because ColdFusion automatically gets properties when you reference them.
Therefore, ColdFusion does not support the use of standard JSP tags directly.

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However, two standard JSP tags provide functionality that is useful in ColdFusion pages: the forward and include
tags invoke JSP pages and Java servlets. The PageContext object described in About GetPageContext and the
PageContext object section has forward and include methods that provide the same operations. For more
information about using these methods, see Accessing a JSP page or servlet from a ColdFusion page on page 1130.
Using custom JSP tags in a ColdFusion page
Follow these steps to use a custom JSP tag on a ColdFusion page:
Use a custom tag
1 Place the tag library, consisting of the taglibname.jar file, and the taglibname.tld file, if one is supplied, in the
web_root/WEB-INF/lib directory. The JSP custom tag library must be in this directory for you to use the cfimport
tag.
2 Restart ColdFusion.
3 In the ColdFusion page that uses a JSP tag from the tag library, specify the tag library name in a cfimport tag; for

example:
<cfimport taglib="/WEB-INF/lib/random.jar" prefix="random">

If the TLD file is not included in the JAR file, use the .tld extension in place of the .jar extension.
Note: The cfimport tag must be on the page that uses the imported tag. You cannot place the cfimport tag in
Application.cfm.
4 Use the custom tag using the form prefix:tagName; for example:
<random:number id="myNum" range="000000-999999" />

Note: You cannot use the cfsavecontent tag to suppress output of a custom JSP tag.

Example: using the random tag library

The following example uses the random tag library from the Apache Jakarta Taglibs project and calls the number tag.
The number tag initializes a random number generator that uses a secure algorithm to generate a six-digit random
number. You get a new random number each time you reference the variable randPass.random.
<cfimport taglib="/WEB-INF/lib/taglibs-random.jar" prefix="myrand">
<myrand:number id="randPass" range="000000-999999" algorithm="SHA1PRNG" provider="SUN" />
<cfset myPassword = randPass.random>
<cfoutput>
Your password is #myPassword#<br>
</cfoutput>

For more information on the Jakarta random tag library and how to use its tags, see the documentation at the Apache
Jakarta Taglibs project website, http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/index.html. The Taglibs project includes many open
source custom tag libraries.

Interoperating with JSP pages and servlets

ColdFusion pages and JSP pages can interoperate in several ways:

ColdFusion pages can invoke JSP pages and servlets.

JSP pages can invoke ColdFusion pages.
ColdFusion pages, JSP pages, and servlets can share data in three scopes.

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Integrating JSP and servlets in a ColdFusion application

You can integrate JSP pages and servlets in your ColdFusion application. For example, you can write some application
pages in JSP and write others in CFML. ColdFusion pages can access JSP pages by using the JSP include and forward
methods to call the page. As with any web application, you can use href links in ColdFusion pages to open JSP pages.
The ability to use JSP lets you incorporate legacy JSP pages in your ColdFusion application, or conversely, use CFML
to expand an existing JSP application using ColdFusion pages.
If you have a JSP page that must call a ColdFusion page, you also use a jsp:forward or jsp:include tag to call the
ColdFusion page. For an example of calling a ColdFusion page from a JSP page, see Calling a JSP page from a
ColdFusion page on page 1132.
Accessing a JSP page or servlet from a ColdFusion page
To access a JSP page or servlet from a ColdFusion page, you use the GetPageContext function with the forward or the
include method. For example, to include a JSP Hello World" page in your ColdFusion application, use the following line:
GetPageContext().include("hello.jsp");

To pass parameters to the JSP page, include the parameters in the page URL.
For example, you could want to integrate an existing JSP customer response component into a new ColdFusion order
processing application. The order processing application provides the order number, total cost, and expected shipping
date, and the customer response component sends the response to the e-mail address on file for the particular
customer number. The ColdFusion application could use the following CFScript code to call the response JSP page:
urlParams =
"UID=#order.uid#&cost=#order.total#&orderNo=#order.orderNo#&shipDate=#order.shipDateNo#"
getPageContext().forward(URLEncodedFormat("/responsegen/responsegen.jsp?#urlParams#"));

To access a servlet that exposes the same functionality, you use the same code, although the URL would change. For
example, to run a servlet called HelloWorldServlet, you place the servlet .java or .class file in the serverroot/WEBINF/classes directory and access the servlet with the URL /servlet/HelloWorldServlet.
Accessing ColdFusion application and session variables in JSP pages
ColdFusion runs as a J2EE application on the J2EE application server. The J2EE application ServletContext is a data
structure that stores objects as attributes. A ColdFusion Application scope is represented as an attribute named by the
Application scope name. The attribute contains the scope values as a hash table. Therefore, you access ColdFusion
Application scope variable in a JSP page or servlet using the following format:
((Map)application.getAttribute("CFApplicationName"))).get("appVarName")

Similarly, the ColdFusion Session scope is a structure within the J2EE session. Because ColdFusion identifies sessions
by the application name. the session structure is contained in an attribute of the J2EE session that the application name
identifies. Therefore, you access ColdFusion session variables as follows:
((Map)(session.getAttribute("CFApplicationName"))).get("sessionVarName")

Sharing data between ColdFusion pages and JSP pages or servlets

If an application includes ColdFusion pages and JSP pages or servlets, they can share data in the Request, Session and
Application scopes. The following table lists the ways that you can access JSP pages with which you want to share the
scope data:

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Scope

Can share data using

Request

forward, include
Note: Shared Request scope variable names in the JSP page or servlet must be all-lowercase.

Session

href, cfhttp, forward, include

Application

href, cfhttp, forward, include

Note: When you share data between ColdFusion pages and JSP pages, be careful about data type conversion issues. For
more information, see Java and ColdFusion data type conversions on page 1139.
To share session variables, specify J2EE session management in the ColdFusion Administrator. For more information
on configuring and using J2EE Session scope management, see ColdFusion and J2EE session management on
page 312.
For example, you could put the customer order structure used in the previous example in the Session scope. Then, you
would not have to pass the order values as a set of parameters. Instead, the JSP pages could access the Session scope
variables directly, and the ColdFusion page would only require a line like the following to call the JSP page:
getPageContext().forward(URLEncodedFormat("/responsegen/responsegen.jsp"));

For examples of using the Request, Session, and Application scopes to share data between ColdFusion pages and JSP
pages, including samples of the appropriate JSP code, see Examples: using JSP with CFML on page 1132.
Note: When running in the server configuration, ColdFusion also shares the Form scope when calling a JSP or servlet. In
the J2EE configuration, however, sharing the Form scope is dependent on the J2EE application server. For example, JRun
shares the Form scope, IBM WebSphere does not. ColdFusion always shares the Request, Session, and Application scopes.
Unnamed ColdFusion Application and Session scopes
If you do not specify an application name in the This.name variable in the Application.cfc initialization code or by
using the ColdFusion cfapplication tag, the application is unnamed, and the Application scope corresponds to the
ColdFusion J2EE servlet context. ColdFusion, therefore, supports only a single unnamed application. If multiple
cfapplication tags and Application.cfc files do not specify an application name, all pages in these applications share
the servlet context as their Application scope.
All sessions of unnamed applications correspond directly to the session object of the J2EE application server. (If you do
not use J2EE session variables, ColdFusion ensures that the J2EE session lasts at least as long as the session time-out.)
You access an Application scope variable from a ColdFusion unnamed application in a JSP page using the following
format:
application.getAttribute("applicationVariableName")

You access Session scope variables in a ColdFusion unnamed application as follows:

session.getAttribute("sessionVariableName")

Note: When you use application and session variables for the unnamed ColdFusion application in JSP pages and servlets,
the variable names must be case-correct. The characters in the variable name must have the same case as you used when
you created the variable in ColdFusion. You do not have to use case-correct application and session variable names for
named ColdFusion applications.

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Examples: using JSP with CFML

The following simple examples show how you can integrate JSP pages, servlets, and ColdFusion pages. They also show
how you can use the Request, Application, and Session scopes to share data between ColdFusion pages, JSP pages, and
servlets.
Calling a JSP page from a ColdFusion page
The following page sets Request, Session, and application variables and calls a JSP page, passing it a name parameter:
<cfapplication name="myApp" sessionmanagement="yes">
<cfscript>
Request.myVariable = "This";
Session.myVariable = "is a";
Application.myVariable = "test.";
GetPageContext().include("hello.jsp?name=Bobby");
</cfscript>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the CFML code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfapplication name="myApp"
sessionmanagement="yes">

Specifies the application name as myApp and enables session management. In most
applications, this tag is in the Application.cfm page.

<cfscript>
Request.myVariable = "This";
Session.myVariable = "is a";
Application.myVariable = "test.";

Sets ColdFusion Request, Session, and Application, scope variables. Uses the same
name, myVariable, for each variable.

GetPageContext().include("hello.jsp?name
=Bobby");
</cfscript>

Uses the GetPageContext function to get the current servlet page context for the
ColdFusion page. Uses the include method of the page context object to call the
hello.jsp page. Passes the name parameter in the URL.

The ColdFusion page calls the hello.jsp page. It displays the name parameter in a header and the three variables in the
remainder of the body.
<%@page import="java.util.*" %>
<h2>Hello <%= request.getParameter("name")%>!</h2>
<br>Request.myVariable: <%= request.getAttribute("myVariable")%>
<br>session.myVariable: <%= ((Map)(session.getAttribute("myApp"))).get("myVariable")%>
<br>Application.myVariable: <%=
((Map)(application.getAttribute("myApp"))).get("myVariable")%>

The following table describes the JSP code and its function (line breaks added for clarity):

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Code

Description

<%@page import="java.util.*" %>

Imports the java.util package. This package contains methods required in the JSP page.

<h2>Hello <%= request.getParameter

("name")%>!</h2>

Displays the name passed as a URL parameter from the ColdFusion page. The parameter
name is case sensitive,
Note: The getParameter request method cannot get all ColdFusion page request
parameter values on some application servers. For example, on IBM WebSphere, you
cannot use getParameter to get form fields.

<br>request.myVariable: <%= request.

getAttribute("myvariable")%>

Uses the getAttribute method of the JSP request object to displays the value of the
Request scope variable myVariable.
The JSP page must use all lowercase characters to reference all request scope variables
that it shares with CFML pages. You can use any case on the CFML page, but if you use
mixed case or all uppercase on the JSP page, the variable is not set from the ColdFusion
page.

<br>session.myVariable: <%=
((Map)(session.getAttribute("myApp"))
).get("myVariable")%>

Uses the getAttribute method of the JSP session object to get the myApp object (the
Application scope). Casts this object to a Java Map object and uses the get method to
obtain the myVariable value for display.
CFML pages and JSP pages share Session variables independent of the variable name
case. The variable on the JSP page can have any case mixture and still receive the value
from the ColdFusion page. For example, instead of myVariable, you could use
MYVARIABLE or myvariable on this line.

<br>Application.myVariable:
<%=((Map)(application.getAttribute("m
yApp"))).get("myVariable")%>

Uses the getAttribute method of the JSP myApp application object to obtain the
value of myVariable in the Application scope.
CFML pages and JSP pages share Application variables independent of the variable
name case. The variable on the JSP page can have any case mixture and still receive the
value from the ColdFusion page. For example, instead of myVariable, you could use
MYVARIABLE or myvariable on this line.

Calling a ColdFusion page from a JSP page

The following JSP page sets Request, Session, and application variables and calls a ColdFusion page, passing it a name
parameter:
<%@page import="java.util.*" %>
<% request.setAttribute("myvariable", "This");%>
<% ((Map)session.getAttribute("myApp")).put("myVariable", "is a");%>
<% ((Map)application.getAttribute("myApp")).put("myVariable", "test.");%>
<jsp:include page="hello.cfm">
<jsp:param name="name" value="Robert" />
</jsp:include>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the JSP code and its function:

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Code

Description

<%@page import="java.util.*" %>

Imports the java.util package. This package contains methods required in the JSP
page.

<% request.setAttribute("myvariable",
"This");%>

Uses the setAttribute method of the JSP request object to set the value of the
Request scope variable myVariable.
The JSP page must use all lowercase characters to refer to all request scope
variables that it shares with CFML pages. You can use any case on the CFML page,
but if you use mixed case to all uppercase on the JSP page, the JSP page does not
share it with the ColdFusion page.

<%
((Map)session.getAttribute("myApp")).put(
"myVariable", "is a");%>

Uses the getAttribute method of the JSP session object to get the myApp
object (the Application scope). Casts this object to a Java Map object and uses the
set method to set the myVariable value.
CFML pages and JSP pages share Session variables independent of the variable
name case. The variable on the JSP page can have any case mixture and still share
the value with the ColdFusion page. For example, instead of myVariable, you could
use MYVARIABLE or myvariable on this line.

<%
((Map)application.getAttribute("myApp")).
put("myVariable","test.");%>

Uses the getAttribute method of the JSP application object to get myApp
object (the Application scope) and casts it to a Map object. It then sets the value of
myVariable in the myApp application scope object.
CFML pages and JSP pages share Application variables independent of the variable
name case. The variable on the JSP page can have any case mixture and still share
the value with the ColdFusion page. For example, instead of myVariable, you could
use MYVARIABLE or myvariable on this line.

<jsp:include page="hello.cfm">
<jsp:param name="name" value="Robert"/>
</jsp:include>

Sets the name parameter to Robert and calls the ColdFusion page hello.cfm.

The JSP page calls the following hello.cfm page. It displays the Name parameter in a heading and the three variables in
the remainder of the body.
<cfapplication name="myApp" sessionmanagement="yes">
<cfoutput>
<h2>Hello #URL.name#!</h2>
Request.myVariable: #Request.myVariable#<br>
Session.myVariable: #Session.myVariable#<br>
Application.myVariable: #Application.myVariable#<br>
</cfoutput>

The following table describes the CFML code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfapplication name="myApp"
sessionmanagement="yes">

Specifies the application name as myApp and enables session management. In

most applications, this tag is in the Application.cfm page.

<cfoutput><h2>Hello #URL.name#!</h2>

Displays the name passed using the jsp:param tag on the JSP page. The
parameter name is not case sensitive.

Request.myVariable:
#Request.myVariable#<br>
Session.myVariable:
#Session.myVariable#<br>
Application.myVariable:
#Application.myVariable#<br>
</cfoutput>

Displays the Request.myVariable, Session. myVariable, and

Application.myVariable values. All variable names on CFML pages are case
independent.

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Using Java objects

You use the cfobject tag to create an instance of a Java object. You use other ColdFusion tags, such as cfset and
cfoutput, or CFScript to invoke properties (attributes), and methods (operations) on the object.
Method arguments and return values can be any valid Java type; for example, simple arrays and objects. ColdFusion
does the appropriate conversions when strings are passed as arguments, but not when they are received as return
values. For more information on type conversion issues, see Java and ColdFusion data type conversions on
page 1139.
The examples in this discussion assume that the name attribute in the cfobject tag specified the value obj, and that
the object has a property called Property, and methods called Method1, Method2, and Method3.
Note: The cfdump tag displays the public methods and data of an object.

Using basic object techniques

You can use ColdFusion to invoke Java objects and access object methods and properties.
Invoking objects
The cfobject tag makes Java objects available in ColdFusion. It can access any Java class that is available on the JVM
classpath or in either of the following locations:

In a Java archive (.jar) file in web_root/WEB-INF/lib

In a class (.class) file in web_root/WEB-INF/classes
For example:
<cfobject type="Java" class="MyClass" name="myObj">

Although the cfobject tag loads the class, it does not create an instance object. Only static methods and fields are
accessible immediately after the call to cfobject.
If you call a public non-static method on the object without first calling the init method, ColdFusion makes an
implicit call to the default constructor.
To call an object constructor explicitly, use the special ColdFusion init method with the appropriate arguments after
you use the cfobject tag; for example:
<cfobject type="Java" class="MyClass" name="myObj">
<cfset ret=myObj.init(arg1, arg2)>

Note: The init method is not a method of the object, but a ColdFusion identifier that calls the new function on the class
constructor. So, if a Java object has an init method, a name conflict exists and you cannot call the object init method.
To have persistent access to an object, use the init function, because it returns a reference to an instance of the object,
and cfobject does not.
An object created using cfobject or returned by other objects is implicitly released at the end of the ColdFusion page
execution.
Using properties
Use the following coding syntax to access properties if the object does either of the following actions:

Exposes the properties as public properties.

Does not make the properties public, but is a JavaBean that provides public getter and setter methods of the form
getPropertyName() and setPropertyName(value). For more information, see Calling JavaBean get and set
methods on page 1136.

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To set a property: <cfset

obj.property = "somevalue">

To get a property: <cfset

value = obj.property>

Note: ColdFusion does not require consistently capitalized property and method names. However, it is good
programming practice to use the same case in ColdFusion as you do in Java to ensure consistency.
Calling methods
Object methods usually take zero or more arguments. Some methods return values, while others might not. Use the
following techniques to call methods:
1 If the method has no arguments, follow the method name with empty parentheses, as in the following cfset tag:
<cfset retVal = obj.Method1()>

2 If the method has one or more arguments, place the arguments in parentheses, separated by commas, as in the

following example, which has one integer argument and one string argument:
<cfset x = 23>
<cfset retVal = obj.Method1(x, "a string literal")>

Note: When you invoke a Java method, the type of the data being used is important. For more information see Java and
ColdFusion data type conversions on page 1139.
Calling JavaBean get and set methods
ColdFusion can automatically invoke getPropertyName() and setPropertyName(value) methods if a Java class
conforms to the JavaBeans pattern. As a result, you can set or get the property by referencing it directly, without having
to explicitly invoke a method.
For example, if the myFishTank class is a JavaBean, the following code returns the results of calling the getTotalFish()
method on the myFish object:
<cfoutput>
There are currently #myFish.TotalFish# fish in the tank.
</cfoutput>

The following example adds one guppy to a myFish object by implicitly calling the setGuppyCount(int number)
method:
<cfset myFish.GuppyCount = myFish.GuppyCount + 1>

Note: You can use the direct reference method to get or set values in some classes that have getProperty and setProperty
methods but do not conform fully to the JavaBean pattern. However, you cannot use this technique for all classes that
have getProperty and setProperty methods. For example, you cannot directly reference any of the following standard Java
classes, or classes derived from them: Date, Boolean, Short, Integer, Long, Float, Double, Char, Byte, String, List, Array.
Calling nested objects
ColdFusion supports nested (scoped) object calls. For example, if an object method returns another object and you
invoke a property or method on that object, you can use the following syntax:
<cfset prop = myObj.X.Property>.

Similarly, you can use code such as the following CFScript line:
GetPageContext().include("hello.jsp?name=Bobby");
In this code, the ColdFusion GetPageContext function returns a Java PageContext object, and the line invokes the
include method of the PageContext object.

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Creating and using a simple Java class

Java is a strongly typed language, unlike ColdFusion, which does not enforce data types. As a result, some subtle
considerations exist when calling Java methods.
The Employee class
The Employee class has four data members: FirstName and LastName are public, and Salary and JobGrade are private.
The Employee class has three overloaded constructors and an overloaded SetJobGrade method.
Save the following Java source code in the file Employee.java, compile it, and place the resulting Employee.class file in
a directory that is specified in the classpath:
public class Employee {
public String FirstName;
public String LastName;
private float Salary;
private int JobGrade;
public Employee() {
FirstName ="";
LastName ="";
Salary = 0.0f;
JobGrade = 0;
}
public Employee(String First, String Last) {
FirstName = First;
LastName = Last;
Salary = 0.0f;
JobGrade = 0;
}
public Employee(String First, String Last, float salary, int grade) {
FirstName = First;
LastName = Last;
Salary = salary;
JobGrade = grade;
}
public void SetSalary(float Dollars) {
Salary = Dollars;
}
public float GetSalary() {
return Salary;
}
public void SetJobGrade(int grade) {

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JobGrade = grade;
}
public void SetJobGrade(String Grade) {
if (Grade.equals("CEO")) {
JobGrade = 3;
}
else if (Grade.equals("MANAGER")) {
JobGrade = 2;
}
else if (Grade.equals("DEVELOPER")) {
JobGrade = 1;
}
}
public int GetJobGrade() {
return JobGrade;
}
}

A CFML page that uses the Employee class

Save the following text as JEmployee.cfm:
<html>
<body>
<cfobject action="create" type="java" class="Employee" name="emp">
<!--- <cfset emp.init()> --->
<cfset emp.firstname="john">
<cfset emp.lastname="doe">
<cfset firstname=emp.firstname>
<cfset lastname=emp.lastname>
</body>
<cfoutput>
Employee name is #firstname# #lastname#
</cfoutput>
</html>

When you view the page in your browser, you get the following output:
Employee name is john doe
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the CFML code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfobject action=create type=java

class=Employee name=emp>

Loads the Employee Java class and gives it an object name of emp.

<!--- <cfset emp.init()> --->

Does not call a constructor. ColdFusion calls the default constructor when it first uses
the class; in this case, when it processes the next line.

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Code

Description

<cfset emp.firstname="john">
<cfset emp.lastname="doe">

Sets the public fields in the emp object to your values.

<cfset firstname=emp.firstname>
<cfset lastname=emp.lastname>

Gets the field values back from emp object.

<cfoutput>
Employee name is #firstname# #lastname#
</cfoutput>

Displays the retrieved values.

Java considerations
The following points are important when you write a ColdFusion page that uses a Java class object:

The Java class name is case sensitive. Ensure that the Java code and the CFML code use Employee as the class name.
Although Java method and field names are case sensitive, ColdFusion variables are not case sensitive, and
ColdFusion does any necessary case conversions. As a result, the sample code works even though the CFML uses
emp.firstname and emp.lastname; the Java source code uses FirstName and LastName for these fields.

If you do not call the constructor (or, as in this example, comment it out), ColdFusion automatically runs the
default constructor when it first uses the class.
Using an alternate constructor
The following ColdFusion page explicitly calls one of the alternate constructors for the Employee object:
<html>
<body>
<cfobject action="create" type="java" class="Employee" name="emp">
<cfset emp.init("John", "Doe", 100000.00, 10)>
<cfset firstname=emp.firstname>
<cfset lastname=emp.lastname>
<cfset salary=emp.GetSalary()>
<cfset grade=emp.GetJobGrade()>
<cfoutput>
Employee name is #firstname# #lastname#<br>
Employee salary #DollarFormat(Salary)#<br>
Employee Job Grade #grade#
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

In this example, the constructor takes four arguments: the first two are strings, the third is a float, and the fourth is an
integer.

Java and ColdFusion data type conversions

ColdFusion does not use explicit types for variables, while Java is strongly typed. However, ColdFusion data does use
underlying Java types to represent data.

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Under most situations, when the method names are not ambiguous, ColdFusion can determine the data types that a
Java object requires, and often it can convert ColdFusion data to the required types. For example, ColdFusion text
strings are implicitly converted to the Java String type. Similarly, if a Java object contains a doIt method that expects a
parameter of type int, and CFML is issuing a doIt call with a CFML variable x that contains an integer value,
ColdFusion converts the variable x to Java int type. However, ambiguous situations can result from Java method
overloading, where a class has multiple implementations of the same method that differ only in their parameter types.
Default data type conversion
Whenever possible, ColdFusion automatically matches Java types to ColdFusion types.
The following table lists how ColdFusion converts ColdFusion data values to Java data types when passing arguments.
The left column represents the underlying ColdFusion representation of its data. The right column indicates the Java
data types into which ColdFusion can automatically convert the data:
CFML

Java

Integer

short, int, long (short and int can result in a loss of precision).

Real number

float double (float can result in a loss of precision.

Boolean

boolean

Date-time

java.util.Date

String, including lists

String
short, int, long, float, double, java.util.Date, when a CFML string represents a number or date.
boolean, for strings with the value Yes, No, True, and False (case-insensitive).

Array

java.util.Vector (ColdFusion Arrays are internally represented using an instance of a java.util.Vector

object.)
ColdFusion can also map a CFML array to any of the following when the CFML array contains
consistent data of a type that can be converted to the data type of the Java arr: byte[], char[],
boolean[], int[], long[], float[], double[], String[], or Object[]. When a CFML array contains data of
different of types, the conversion to a simple array type could fail.

Structure

java.util.Map

Query object

java.util.Map

XML document object

Not supported.

ColdFusion component

Not applicable.

The following table lists how ColdFusion converts data returned by Java methods to ColdFusion data types:
Java

CFML

boolean/Boolean

Boolean

byte/Byte

String

char/Char

String

short/Short

Integer

int/Integer

Integer

long/Long

Integer

float/Float

Real Number

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Java

CFML

double/Double

Real Number

String

String

java.util.Date

Date-time

java.util.List

Comma-delimited list

byte[]

Array

char[]

Array

boolean[]

Array

String[]

Array

java.util.Vector

Array

java.util.Map

Structure

Resolving ambiguous data types with the JavaCast function

You can overload Java methods so a class can have several identically named methods. At runtime, the JVM resolves
the specific method to use based on the parameters passed in the call and their types.
In the section The Employee class, the Employee class has two implementations for the SetJobGrade method. One
method takes a string variable, the other an integer. If you write code such as the following, which implementation to
use is ambiguous:
<cfset emp.SetJobGrade("1")>

The 1 could be interpreted as a string or as a number, so no way exists to know which method implementation to
use. When ColdFusion encounters such an ambiguity, it throws a user exception.
The ColdFusion JavaCast function helps you resolve such issues by specifying the Java type of a variable, as in the
following line:
<cfset emp.SetJobGrade(JavaCast("int", "1"))>

The JavaCast function takes two parameters: a string representing the Java data type, and the variable whose type you
are setting. You can specify the following Java data types: boolean, int, long, float, double, and String.
For more information about the JavaCast function, see the CFML Reference.

Handling Java exceptions

You handle Java exceptions just as you handle standard ColdFusion exceptions, with the cftry and cfcatch tags. You
specify the name of the exception class in the cfcatch tag that handles the exception. For example, if a Java object
throws an exception named myException, you specify myException in the cfcatch tag.
Note: To catch any exception generated by a Java object, specify java.lang.Exception for the cfcatchtype attribute. To
catch any Throwable errors, specify java.lang.Throwable in the cfcatch tag type attribute.
For more information on exception handling in ColdFusion, see Handling Errors on page 275.
Example: exception-throwing class
The following Java code defines the testException class that throws a sample exception. It also defines a myException
class that extends the Java built-in Exception class and includes a method for getting an error message.

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The myException class has the following code. It throws an exception with a message that is passed to it, or if no
argument is passed, it throws a canned exception.
//class myException
public class myException extends Exception
{
public myException(String msg) {
super(msg);
}
public myException() {
super("Error Message from myException");
}
}

The testException class contains one method, doException, which throws a myException error with an error message,
as follows:
public class testException {
public testException ()
{
}
public void doException() throws myException {
throw new myException("Throwing an exception from testException class");
}
}

Example: CFML Java exception handling code

The following CFML code calls the testException class doException method. The cfcatch block handles the resulting
exception.
<cfobject action=create type=java class=testException name=Obj>
<cftry>
<cfset Obj.doException() >
<cfcatch type="myException">
<cfoutput>
<br>The exception message is: #cfcatch.Message#<br>
</cfoutput>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

Examples: using Java with CFML

The following examples show several examples of using Java objects in CFML. They include examples of using a
custom Java class, a standard Java API class in a user-defined function, a JavaBean, and an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB).
Using a Java API in a UDF
The following example of a user-defined function (UDF) is functionally identical to the GetHostAddress function
from the NetLib library of UDFs from the Common Function Library Project, www.cflib.org. It uses the InetAddress
class from the standard Java 2 java.net package to get the Internet address of a specified host:

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<cfscript>
function GetHostAddress(host) {
// Define the function local variables.
var iaddrClass="";
var address="";
// Initialize the Java class.
iaddrClass=CreateObject("java", "java.net.InetAddress");
// Get the address object.
address=iaddrClass.getByName(host);
// Return the address
return address.getHostAddress();
}
</cfscript>
<cfoutput>#gethostaddress("adobe.com")#</cfoutput>

Using an EJB
ColdFusion can use EJBs that JRun 4.0 servers provide. The JRun server jrun.jar file must have the same version as the
jrun.jar file in ColdFusion.
To call an EJB, you use cfobject to create and call the appropriate objects. Before you use an EJB, do the following:
1 Have a properly deployed EJB running on a J2EE server. The bean must be registered with the JNDI server.
2 Have the following information:

Name of the EJB server

Port number of the JNDI naming service on the EJB server
Name of the EJB, as registered with the naming service
3 Install the EJB home and component interface compiled classes on your ColdFusion web server, either as class files

in the web_root/WEB-INF/classes directory or packaged in a JAR file the web_root/WEB-INF/lib directory.

Note: To use an EJB served by a JRUN server, your ColdFusion installation and the JRun server that hosts the EJB must
have the same version of the jrun.jar file (located in cf_root\runtime\lib directory in ColdFusion).
Although the specific steps for using an EJB depend on the EJB server and on the EJB itself, they generally correspond
to the following order.
1 Use the cfobject tag to create an object of the JNDI naming context class (javax.naming.Context). You use fields

from this class to define the information that you use to locate the EJB. Because you only use fields, you do not
initialize the object.
2 Use the cfobject tag to create a java.util.Properties class object to contain the context object properties.
3 Call the init method to initialize the Properties object.
4 Set the Properties object to contain the properties that are required to create an initial JNDI naming context. These

properties include the INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY and PROVIDER_URL properties. You could also need to
provide SECURITY_PRINCIPAL and SECURITY_CREDENTIALS values required for secure access to the
naming context. For more information on these properties, see the JNDI documentation.
5 Use the cfobject tag to create the JNDI InitialContext (javax.naming. InitialContext) object.
6 Call the init method for the InitialContext object with the Properties object values to initialize the object.
7 Call the lookup method of the InitialContextext object to get a reference to the home interface for the bean that

you want. Specify the JNDI name of the bean as the lookup argument.
8 Call the create method of the bean home object to create an instance of the bean. If you are using Entity beans,

you typically use a finder method instead. A finder method locates one or more existing entity beans.

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9 Now you can use the bean methods as required by your application.
10 When finished, call the close method of the context object to close the object.

The following code shows this process using a simple Java Entity bean on a JRun 4.0 server. It calls the getMessage
method of the bean to obtain a message.
<html>
<head>
<title>cfobject Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<H1>cfobject Test</H1>
<!--- Create the Context object to get at the static fields. --->
<CFOBJECT
action=create
name=ctx
type="JAVA"
class="javax.naming.Context">
<!--- Create the Properties object and call an explicit constructor--->
<CFOBJECT
action=create
name=prop
type="JAVA"
class="java.util.Properties">
<!--- Call the init method (provided by cfobject)
to invoke the Properties object constructor. --->
<cfset prop.init()>
<!--- Specify the properties These are required for a remote server only --->
<cfset prop.put(ctx.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY, "jrun.naming.JRunContextFactory")>
<cfset prop.put(ctx.PROVIDER_URL, "localhost:2908")>
<!--- <cfset prop.put(ctx.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, "admin")>
<cfset prop.put(ctx.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "admin")>
--->
<!--- Create the InitialContext --->
<CFOBJECT
action=create
name=initContext
type="JAVA"
class="javax.naming.InitialContext">
<!--- Call the init method (provided through cfobject)
to pass the properties to the InitialContext constructor. --->
<cfset initContext.init(prop)>

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<!--- Get reference to home object. --->

<cfset home = initContext.lookup("SimpleBean")>
<!--- Create new instance of entity bean.
(hard-wired account number). Alternatively,
you would use a find method to locate an existing entity bean. --->
<cfset mySimple = home.create()>
<!--- Call a method in the entity bean. --->
<cfset myMessage = mySimple.getMessage()>
<cfoutput>
#myMessage#<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Close the context. --->
<cfset initContext.close()>
</body>
</html>

Using a custom Java class

The following code provides a more complex custom class than in the example Creating and using a simple Java class
on page 1137. The Example class manipulates integer, float, array, Boolean, and Example object types.
The Example class
The following Java code defines the Example class. The Java class Example has one public integer member,
mPublicInt. Its constructor initializes mPublicInt to 0 or an integer argument. The class has the following public
methods:
Method

Description

ReverseString

Reverses the order of a string.

ReverseStringArray

Reverses the order of elements in an array of strings.

Add

Overloaded: Adds and returns two integers or floats or adds the mPublicInt members of two
Example class objects and returns an Example class object.

SumArray

Returns the sum of the elements in an integer array.

SumObjArray

Adds the values of the mPublicInt members of an array of Example class objects and returns an
Example class object.

ReverseArray

Reverses the order of an array of integers.

Flip

Switches a Boolean value.

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public class Example {

public int mPublicInt;
public Example() {
mPublicInt = 0;
}
public Example(int IntVal) {
mPublicInt = IntVal;
}
public String ReverseString(String s) {
StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer(s);
return new String(buffer.reverse());
}
public String[] ReverseStringArray(String [] arr) {
String[] ret = new String[arr.length];
for (int i=0; i < arr.length; i++) {
ret[arr.length-i-1]=arr[i];
}
return ret;
}
public int Add(int a, int b) {
return (a+b);
}
public float Add(float a, float b) {
return (a+b);
}
public Example Add(Example a, Example b) {
return new Example(a.mPublicInt + b.mPublicInt);
}
static public int SumArray(int[] arr) {
int sum=0;
for (int i=0; i < arr.length; i++) {
sum += arr[i];
}
return sum;
}
static public Example SumObjArray(Example[] arr) {

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Example sum= new Example();

for (int i=0; i < arr.length; i++) {
sum.mPublicInt += arr[i].mPublicInt;
}
return sum;
}
static public int[] ReverseArray(int[] arr) {
int[] ret = new int[arr.length];
for (int i=0; i < arr.length; i++) {
ret[arr.length-i-1]=arr[i];
}
return ret;
}
static public boolean Flip(boolean val) {
System.out.println("calling flipboolean");
return val?false:true;
}
}

The useExample ColdFusion page

The following useExample.cfm page uses the Example class to manipulate numbers, strings, Booleans, and Example
objects. The CFML JavaCast function ensures that CFML variables convert into the appropriate Java data types.
<html>
<head>
<title>CFOBJECT and Java Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<!--- Create a reference to an Example object --->
<cfobject action=create type=java class=Example name=obj>
<!--- Create the object and initialize its public member to 5 --->
<cfset x=obj.init(JavaCast("int",5))>
<!--- Create an array and populate it with string values,
then use the Java object to reverse them. --->
<cfset myarray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset myarray[1]="First">
<cfset myarray[2]="Second">
<cfset myarray[3]="Third">
<cfset ra=obj.ReverseStringArray(myarray)>
<!--- Display the results --->
<cfoutput>
<br>
original array element 1: #myarray[1]#<br>
original array element 2: #myarray[2]#<br>
original array element 3: #myarray[3]#<br>
after reverseelement 1: #ra[1]#<br>
after reverseelement 2: #ra[2]#<br>
after reverseelement 3: #ra[3]#<br>
<br>
</cfoutput>

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<!--- Use the Java object to flip a Boolean value, reverse a string,
add two integers, and add two float numbers --->
<cfset c=obj.Flip(true)>
<cfset StringVal=obj.ReverseString("This is a test")>
<cfset IntVal=obj.Add(JavaCast("int",20),JavaCast("int",30))>
<cfset FloatVal=obj.Add(JavaCast("float",2.56),JavaCast("float",3.51))>
<!--- Display the results --->
<cfoutput>
<br>
StringVal: #StringVal#<br>
IntVal: #IntVal#<br>
FloatVal: #FloatVal#<br>
<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Create a two-element array, sum its values,
and reverse its elements --->
<cfset intarray=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset intarray[1]=1>
<cfset intarray[2]=2>
<cfset IntVal=obj.sumarray(intarray)>
<cfset reversedarray=obj.ReverseArray(intarray)>
<!--- Display the results --->
<cfoutput>
<br>
IntVal1 :#IntVal#<br>
array1: #reversedarray[1]#<br>
array2: #reversedarray[2]#<br>
<br>
</cfoutput><br>
<!--- Create a ColdFusion array containing two Example objects.
Use the SumObjArray method to add the objects in the array
Get the public member of the resulting object--->
<cfset oa=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfobject action=create type=java class=Example name=obj1>
<cfset VOID=obj1.init(JavaCast("int",5))>
<cfobject action=create type=java class=Example name=obj2>
<cfset VOID=obj2.init(JavaCast("int",10))>
<cfset oa[1] = obj1>
<cfset oa[2] = obj2>
<cfset result = obj.SumObjArray(oa)>
<cfset intval = result.mPublicInt>
<!--- Display the results --->
<cfoutput>
<br>
intval1: #intval#<br>
<br>
</cfoutput><br>
</body>
</html>

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Using Microsoft .NET Assemblies

You can use Adobe ColdFusion to call local or remote Microsoft .NET assembly class methods and access assembly
fields. This documentation describes how to configure and run the ColdFusion .NET extension software and how to
access and use .NET classes in your ColdFusion code. For information about .NET technology or how to develop .NET
applications, see Microsoft .NET documentation.

About ColdFusion and .NET

ColdFusion lets you access and use Microsoft .NET assembly classes as CFML objects. CFML applications can use
.NET assemblies in the following ways:

Directly access and control Microsoft products, such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.
Use existing .NET components.
Use .NET assemblies that you create to leverage features that are difficult to use or not available in ColdFusion or
Java. (Because ColdFusion is a J2EE application, if you cannot code a feature in CFML, it is more efficient to create
it in Java than to use .NET.)
The .NET classes that your application uses do not have to be local; your ColdFusion application can access .NET
components that are located on remote systems, even systems that are located outside your firewall. Also, the
ColdFusion system does not require .NET run-time software installed to use remote .NET components, so ColdFusion
running on a UNIX, Linux, Solaris, or OS-X system can access and use .NET assemblies.
You can use the cfobject tag or CreateObject function to create a reference to a .NET class object, by specifying
either .NET or dotnet as the object type. You use the reference to access the .NET class fields and call the .NET class
methods. This technique provides a tightly coupled, stateful, efficient method for accessing .NET classes from
ColdFusion. As an alternative, your .NET application can make the class methods available as web services; however,
using a web service is less reliable, has lower performance, and is less scalable than using ColdFusion objects for the
.NET classes.
Note: .NET applications cannot access ColdFusion component functions directly. You can make the functions available
as web services by specifying remote access. For more information on creating ColdFusion web services, see Using Web
Services on page 1093.
Because you use the .NET assembly classes the same way that you use any other ColdFusion object, you do not have
to understand the details of .NET technology; you only have to understand how to use the specific .NET class that you
are accessing. Code that uses a .NET method can be as simple as the following lines:
<cfobject type = ".NET" name = "mathInstance" class = "mathClass"
assembly = "C:/Net/Assemblies/math.dll">
<cfset myVar = mathInstance.multiply(1,2)>

ColdFusion .NET access has the following additional features:

If you make a change in the .NET assembly, ColdFusion automatically recognizes the change and uses that version
for the next invocation.

Your application can access .NET assemblies running on multiple machines.

You can secure the communication between ColdFusion and .NET by using SSL.
Primitive data types are automatically mapped between ColdFusion and .NET data types.

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How .NET access works

For ColdFusion to access .NET assemblies, ColdFusion .NET extension software must run on the system that hosts the
assemblies. A ColdFusion system that accesses only remote assemblies does not require the .NET extension. The .NET
extension software provides the .NET-side connectivity features that enable access to .NET assemblies, including a
.NET-side agent (which normally runs as the ColdFusion .NET service) that listens for and handles requests from the
ColdFusion system.
On the ColdFusion system, the ColdFusion objects use Java proxies that act as local representatives of the .NET classes.
These proxies use binary TCP or SOAP-based HTTP communication to access a .NET-side agent. The agent then uses
a DLL to invoke the .NET assembly classes. This communication is required in all cases, even if ColdFusion and the
.NET assemblies are on the same system.
The following image shows how CFML-to-.NET access works:

CFML Page

Application view

.NET Assembly

Invokes
Invokes

JNBShare.dll
Java Proxy

JNBDotNetSide.
exe.config

Uses

Uses
Specifies
assembly classes
JNBCore.jar
(installed on all

TCP/Binary or

ColdFuson
systems)

HTTP/SOAP
communications

ColdFusion Side

both sides can be

on a single system

JNBDotNetSide.exe
(runs as a Windows
service)

.NET Side

If your .NET assemblies are on the local system, ColdFusion automatically creates and manages all required proxies
and configuration information. Ensure only that the .NET extension is installed on your system and that the
ColdFusion .NET Service is running. You can use the cfobject tag or CreateObject function to access the
assemblies without any additional steps.

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If the assemblies are on a remote system, you install and use the ColdFusion .NET extension software on the .NET
system to create Java proxies for the .NET classes, and then move or copy them to the ColdFusion system. Also edit
the JNBDotNetSide.exe.config file on the remote system to specify the .NET classes you use. The .NET system requires
the following .NET extension software:

JNBDotNetSide.exe, the .NET-side agent that communicates with the ColdFusion system (normally run as the
ColdFusion .NET service).

JNBDotNetSide.exe.config, a configuration file that identifies the .NET assemblies that ColdFusion can access.
jnbproxy.exe and jnbproxyGui.exe are command line and GUI-based programs that generate the Java proxies that
represent the .NET assemblies.

Additional support files, including JNBShare.dll, which invoke the .NET assembly classes.
For information on installing the ColdFusion .NET extension, see Installing ColdFusion guide.
Note: When you install a new .NET version, reinstall the ColdFusion .NET extension.

Accessing .NET assemblies

ColdFusion provides two methods for accessing .NET assemblies:

A local access method for .NET objects that are installed on the ColdFusion system
A remote access method for .NET objects located on other systems.
For both methods, install the ColdFusion .NET extension and run the ColdFusion .NET service on the system that
hosts the assemblies. You need not install the extension or run the service on a ColdFusion system that accesses only
remote assemblies. For information on installing the ColdFusion .NET extension, see Installing ColdFusion guide.

Accessing local assemblies

For local access, ColdFusion automatically generates and uses proxies for the required .NET assemblies when you first
use the cfobject tag or CreateObject function. ColdFusion caches the proxies for future use, so it does not generate
assembly proxies each time.
Usually when you are accessing local .NET assemblies, you do not have to override the default communication
configuration settings. Sometimes you could have to specify these settings, however. If other software on your system
uses the default 6086 port, for example, change the port number specification in the jnbridge\DotNetSide.exe.config
file, and specify the changed port number in your cfobject tag or CreateObject tag. For information on changing
the port number specification, see Configuring the .NET-side system on page 1154,
To use the local access method, use the cfobject tag or CreateObject function to create and access the proxy. You
can use the resulting ColdFusion object to construct the .NET object, call the .NET objects methods, and access its
fields. For detailed information on using .NET classes, see Using .NET classes on page 1155.

Accessing remote assemblies

The remote access technique accesses .NET assemblies by using TCP or HTTP to communicate with a .NET-side agent
on a remote system. You create proxy instances and call assembly methods as you do in the Local access method, but
first configure the remote .NET-side agent and, in most cases, the proxy classes that represent the remote .NET classes.
Configure remote .NET access
1 On the remote system, install the ColdFusion .NET integration software and run the .NET-side agent (see Installing
ColdFusion guide).

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2 If the .NET assemblies reside only on the remote system, generate proxy JAR files on that system that represent the

assemblies (see Generating the Java proxy classes on page 1152). Then copy or move the proxy files to the local
system. If identical .NET assemblies also reside on the local system, you can skip this step.
3 Configure the .NET-side system for remote access (see Configuring the .NET-side system on page 1154).

Generating the Java proxy classes

The Java proxy generation code requires direct access to the .NET assemblies to generate the proxy classes. Therefore,
if the system that runs your ColdFusion application does not have the assemblies installed, run a tool on the .NET-side
system to create the Java proxies. ColdFusion installs two proxy generation programs, jnbproxyGui.exe and
jnbproxy.exe in the jnbridge directory when you install the .NET services. The jnbproxyGui.exe program is a Windows
user interface application, and the jnbproxy.exe program is a command line application. Both programs have identical
capabilities.
Note: If the system running the ColdFusion application has the assemblies installed, but must access remote versions of
the assemblies (for example, because of configuration differences), you need not manually generate the proxy classes, and
you can skip this step. Instead, specify the paths to the local .exe or .dll files in the assembly attribute of the cfobject
tag (or CreateObject function) and specify the remote server in the server attribute. Configure the remote system for
access, however.
On a ColdFusion system, the jnbproxyGui and jnbproxy programs are located in the cfroot\jnbridge directory. When
you use the stand-alone installer, the programs are located in the installDir\jnbridge directory.
This document provides the basic information necessary to generate a proxy JAR file using the jnbproxyGui tool.
Additional information is available in the following locations:

The jnbridge directory includes a jnbproxy.chm Windows Help file with more complete documentation on the
JNBridge technology that powers the ColdFusion .NET feature, including detailed information on both the
jnbproxyGui and jnbproxy programs.

The jnbridge\docs subdirectory includes additional documentation, including users guide.pdf, a PDF version of the
information in the Help file.
Note: The JNBridge documentation includes information on features that are not supported in ColdFusion. ColdFusion,
for example, does not support access from .NET assemblies to ColdFusion or memory-only communication.
Using the jnbproxyGui tool
You use the jnbproxyGui program to generate a proxy JAR file.
Generate and install a proxy JAR
1 Start JNBProxyGui.exe.
2 The first time you run the program, it displays the Enter Java Options dialog box. Configure the options, and click OK.

You can change the configuration settings at a later time by selecting Project > Java Options.
On a system with ColdFusion: If ColdFusion is currently running on this system, ensure that the Start Java
Automatically option, located on the right side of the JNBProxy Enter Java Options (Project > Java Options) dialog
box is cleared. Leave the default values for the other settings.
When you open an existing project, you could get a Restart Java Side pop-up window with the message "You must
stop and restart the Java side before these changes to the classpath can take effect." You can ignore this message and
click OK to proceed.
When you start the program, the Java Options dialog box could appear. You do not have to change anything; click
OK or Cancel to open the Launch JNBProxy dialog box.

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In some cases, JNBProxyGui could behave as follows when the Start Java Automatically option is not selected.
On a system without ColdFusion: If ColdFusion is not currently running on the system, ensure that the following
options, which are located on the right side of the interface, are set. Leave the default values for the other settings.

Ensure that the Start Java Automatically option is selected.

Specify the java.exe file to use to compile the JAR file. You can use a Java 1.4 or 1.5 (J2SE 5.0) version of this file.
Specify the jnbcore.jar file. The ColdFusion server installer places this file in the cfroot\lib directory. The J2EE
installer places the file in the cf_webapp_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\lib directory.

Specify the bcel.jar file. The ColdFusion server installer places this file in the cfroot\lib directory. The J2EE
installer places the file in the cf_webapp_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\lib directory.
3 In the Launch JNBProxy dialog box, select Create New Java > .NET Project, and click OK.
4 In the main Java proxy generation interface, set up and build a project:
a If you have not already done so, add the directory that contains your assembly files to the JNBProxy your project.

Select Project >Edit Assembly List. In the Assembly List dialog box, click the Add button. In the New Assembly
List Element dialog box, navigate to the directory that contains your assemblies. Select the directory (or
directories) in the tree, and click OK. Then click OK in the Edit Assembly List dialog box.
b Open the Locate Assembly File dialog box (Project > Add Classes From Assembly File) and navigate to the

directory that you added to the assembly list in step a. Select the assembly file or files that contain classes that
require proxies and click OK.
c The classes in the selected file, and other .NET core classes on which they depend, appear in the Environment

pane. Select all classes for which you want proxies in your JAR file, and click the Add+ button to add the selected
classes and all supporting classes.
d In the Exposed Proxies list, select the classes to include in the JAR file. Normally, select all the listed classes,

which ensures that all required classes are included.

e Select Project > Build from the main menu. In the Save Generated Proxies dialog box, specify the location and

JAR file in which to save the generated proxies, and click Save.
f

After the project is built, select File > Save Project and specify the file in which to save your project.
The next time you run the jnbproxyGui program, you can select your project and reuse your previous settings,
including the Assembly List.

5 Copy the JAR file to a directory on your ColdFusion system. You specify this path in the cfobject tag assembly

attribute.
Supporting classes
JNBProxy can generate proxies not only for the .NET classes that are explicitly listed, but also for supporting classes. A
supporting class for a given .NET class is any class that could be needed as a direct or indirect result of using that .NET
class. For a given .NET class, supporting classes include all of the following:

The class.
The classs superclass or superinterface (if it exists) and all of its supporting classes.
The classs implemented interfaces (if any) and all of their supporting classes.
For each field in the class:
The fields class and all of its supporting classes.
For each of the fields index parameters, the parameters class and all of its supporting classes.

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For each method in the class:

The methods return values class (if any) and all of its supporting classes.
For each of the methods parameters, the parameters class and all of its supporting classes.
For each constructor in the class, for each of the constructors parameters, the parameters class and all of its
supporting classes.
Unlike Java, where supporting classes include exceptions that methods throw, .NET supporting classes dont include
thrown exceptions, because they are not declared in advance.
The number of supporting classes depends on the classes explicitly listed, but it often can be 200-250 classes. Usually
you generate all supporting classes. However, to save time or space, you can generate only those classes explicitly
specified, without supporting classes.
If a proxy for a supporting class has not been generated, and a proxy for such a class is later needed when the proxies
are used, the proxy for the nearest superclass to the required class is used instead. If that proxy hasnt been generated,
the proxy for the superclass of that superclass is used if it has been generated, and so forth, until the proxy for
System.Object (which is always generated) is encountered. Thus, even with an incomplete set of proxies, code executes,
although functionality and other information could be lost.
In the jnbproxyGui tool, when you click the Add button, the list includes only the explicitly listed classes. When you
click the Add+ button, the list also includes the supporting classes. In the jnbproxy command line program, the default
command generates proxies for the supporting classes; use the /ns option to override this default.
Configuring the .NET-side system
To configure the .NET-side system, you edit the jnbridge\JNBDotNetSide.exe.config configuration file in the
following ways:

For local assemblies, edit this file only if you do not use the default port, or if you use SSL security.
For a .NET assembly on a remote machine, register the assemblies in this file to make it accessible to ColdFusion.
Edit the configuration file
1 Ensure that the following lines are in the <configSections> subsection of the <configuration> section:
<jnbridge>
<javaToDotNetConfig scheme="Protocol" port="local port number"
useSSL="true|false" certificateLocation="server certificate path"/>
</jnbridge>

The scheme attribute specifies the communications protocol, and must be jtcp or http.
The port number is the port of the .NET-side agent, normally 6086.
The useSSL attribute specifies whether to use SSL for secure communications. The attribute is optional; the
default is to not use SSL.

The certificateLocation attribute specifies the location of the server SSL certificate. It is required only if the
useSSL attribute is true.

These settings must be the same as the corresponding attributes in your cfobject tag.
2 If the .NET assemblies are on a remote system, specify the assemblies that ColdFusion accesses by adding the

following elements inside the <jnbridge> section.

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<assemblyList>
<assembly file="path to assembly or fully qualified name"/>
...
</assemblyList>

3 Stop and restart the .NET-side agent, if it is running. For example, on a ColdFusion system, restart the ColdFusion

.NET Service. Your ColdFusion application can now access the .NET classes that you configured.
The following example is a bare-bones JNBDotNetSide.exe.config file that specifies a .NET-side TCP server
configuration. The server communicates by using TCP binary mode and listens on port 6086. Java clients can access \\x
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<sectionGroup name="jnbridge">
<section name="dotNetToJavaConfig"
type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler"/>
<section name="javaToDotNetConfig"
type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler"/>
<section name="tcpNoDelay"
type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler"/>
<section name="javaSideDeclarations"
type="System.Configuration.NameValueSectionHandler"/>
<section name="assemblyList"
type="com.jnbridge.jnbcore.AssemblyListHandler, JNBShare"/>
</sectionGroup>
<jnbridge>
<javaToDotNetConfig scheme="jtcp" port="6086"/>
<assemblyList>
\\x
<assembly file="System.Windows.Forms, Version=1.0.5000.0,
Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>
</assemblyList>
</jnbridge>
</configuration>

Using .NET classes

You use .NET assembly classes the same way you use Java and other objects that you create using the cfobject tag or
CreateObject function. In the simplest case, your application code only has to use the following format to include a
local .NET class method:
<cfobject type = ".NET" name = "mathInstance" class = "mathClass"
assembly = "C:/Net/Assemblies/math.dll">
<cfset myVar = mathInstance.multiply(1,2)>

Using CFScript and the CreateObject function, you can do the following:
<cfscript>
mathInstance = CreateObject(".NET", "mathClass",
"C:/Net/Assemblies/math.dll");
myVar = mathInstance.multiply(1,2);
</cfscript>

Note: You cannot load two DLLs with same fully qualified name. ColdFusion always uses the first DLL that it accesses
until the server is restarted. For example, if page1.cfm uses c:\dev\a.dll and page2.cfm uses c:\dev2\a.dll, and both DLLs
have the same fully qualified name, the first DLL file to be loaded remains loaded, and both CFML pages use it.

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When you create objects and access class methods and fields, and convert data types between ColdFusion and .NET,
be aware of the following considerations and limitations:

Data type conversion considerations described in Converting between .NET and ColdFusion data types on
page 1157

Limitations described in the Limitations section of cfobject: .NET object in the CFML Reference.

Instantiating objects and calling class constructors

When you use the cfobject tag to create a .NET object, ColdFusion does not create an instance of the object.
ColdFusion creates the object instance in either of the following cases:

If the class has a default constructor, ColdFusion automatically calls the constructor when you first invoke a nonstatic method of the object.

If the class does not have a default constructor, or if the class has multiple constructors and you do not want to use
the default, call the special init method of the ColdFusion object. The cfobject tag automatically creates init
methods for all class constructors. Using the init method causes ColdFusion to call the class constructor with the
corresponding number and types of parameters. For example, the following tags cause ColdFusion to call the
MyClass constructor that takes two integer parameters:
<cfobject type=".NET" name="myObj" class="com.myCo.MyClass"
assembly="c:\assemblies\myLib.dll">
<cfset myObj.init(10, 5)>

Note: ColdFusion does not create instances of objects if you use only their static methods.

Calling methods
You call .NET methods in the same way that you use any other ColdFusion object methods. For example, if the
MyClass class has a getName method that takes a numeric ID and returns a name, you would call the method as
follows:
<cfset theID="2343">
<cfset userName=mObj.getName(theID)>

Getting and setting fields

You can access and change public fields of any .NET class by calling the following methods:
Get_fieldName()
Set_fieldName(value)

For example, if the .NET class has a public field named accountID, you can access and change its value by using the
Get_accountID() and Set_accountID() methods, as follows:
<cfobject type=".NET" class="com.myCo.MyClass"
assembly="c:\assemblies\myLib.dll" name="myObj">
<cfset theAccount=myObj.Get_accountID()>
<cfset myObj.Set_accountID(theAccount + 1)>

You can access, but not modify final fields, so you can only call Get_fieldName() for these fields.

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Converting between .NET and ColdFusion data types

Accessing .NET classes requires a Java proxy on the ColdFusion system and .NET code on the target system, so data
must be converted among ColdFusion, Java, and .NET (to be exact, Microsoft Intermediate Language, or MSIL) data
types. ColdFusion converts data types automatically. Usually, you do not have to take any special steps to ensure
correct conversion. Some conversion limitations exist, and in some cases you must explicitly specify a data type when
you call a method in a .NET proxy object.
The following paragraphs describe data conversion issues and how to handle them. For a detailed specification of how
ColdFusion converts among ColdFusion data, Java data types, and .NET data types, see cfobject: .NET object in the
CFML Reference.
Data type conversion rules and techniques
ColdFusion converts data automatically among ColdFusion, Java, and CLR data types. The following table indicates
how ColdFusion converts among .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) primitive and standard data types, the
Java data types used in the proxies to represent CLR data types, and ColdFusion data types in your CFML application.
.NET type

Java type

ColdFusion type

sbyte

byte

Integer

byte

short

Integer

short

short

Integer

ushort

int

Integer

int

int

Integer

uint

long

Number

char

char

Integer or string

long

long

Number

ulong

float

Number

float

float

Number

double

double

Number
The returned number retains greater precision than is normally displayed in ColdFusion.
Use the PrecisionEvaluate function to access and display the full precision of a returned
double value. You can also pass a value with full double precision to a .NET method.

bool

boolean

enum

Boolean
Not converted, but enumerator elements can be accessed directly by using the format
Enumerator_variable.enumerator, as in MyColor.Red

array

array

Array

string

String

String

System.Collections.ArrayLis java.util.ArrayList
t

Array

System.Collections.Hashtab java.util.Hashtable
le

Structure

Note: ColdFusion converts from .NET type to ColdFusion type only, it does not convert
ColdFusion Arrays to .NET ArrayLists.

Note: ColdFusion converts from .NET type to ColdFusion type only, it does not convert
ColdFusion Structures to .NET Hashtables

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.NET type

Java type

System.Data.DataTable

ColdFusion type
Query
Note: ColdFusion converts from .NET type to ColdFusion type only, it does not convert
ColdFusion Queries to .NET DataTables

System.DateTime

java.util.Date

decimal

java.math.BigDecima String representation of the decimal number.

l
For details on using decimal numbers, see Using decimal numbers on page 1158.

System.Decimal
System.Object

Date/time

If a .NET argument is of type System.Object, ColdFusion Strings are converted directly.

Other types require using the JavaCast function.
ColdFusion cannot convert System.object instances returned by .NET methods to
ColdFusion types, but you can access them using the Object methods.
For detailed information, see Converting data to System.Object type on page 1158.

Using decimal numbers

Use the JavaCast function to convert ColdFusion data into BigDecimal format before you pass the value to a .NET
function, as in the following example:
<cfset netObj.netFunc(javacast("bigdecimal","439732984732048"))>

ColdFusion automatically converts returned decimal and System.Decimal values to ColdFusion string
representations.
Ensuring decimal and date/time conversions
ColdFusion converts .NET decimal or System.Decimal types only if the proxy for System.Decimal is a value type proxy.
Similarly, it converts .NET System.DateTime values to ColdFusion Date-time values only if the proxy for
System.DateTime is a value type proxy. The ColdFusion server always uses value proxies when it generates these
proxies. If you use the JNBProxyGUI.exe tool to generate the proxy, however, make sure to generate the proxy for
System.Decimal as value type.
Converting data to System.Object type
When a .NET method specifies System.Object (as opposed to a specific Object subclass, such as System.Boolean)
as the argument type, and you want to pass primitive values as arguments to that method, use the javacast function
to identify the data conversion. Once ColdFusion knows the data type, it automatically converts to the appropriate
.NET type. Here is the table that describes the conversion rule from ColdFusion type to .NET type.
.NET Type

Type used in javacast

bool / System.Boolean

boolean

bool[] / System.Boolean[]

boolean[]

char / System.Char

char

char[] / System.Char[]

char[]

double / System.Double

double

double[] / System.Double[]

double[]

float / System.Single

float

float[] / System.Single[]

float[]

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int / System.Int32

int

int[] / System.Int32[]

int[]

long / System.Int64

long

long[] / System.Int64[]

long[]

sbyte / System.Sbyte

byte

sbyte []/ System.Sbyte[]

byte []

short / System.Int16

short

short[] / System.Int16[]

short[]

System.Decimal

bigdecimal

System.String

String

Note: You do not have to use a JavaCast function to convert ColdFusion string variables. They are automatically
converted to .NET System.String.
Create special objects for .NET primitive unsigned data types, such as byte (unsigned byte), ushort (unsigned short),
uint (unsigned int) and ulong (unsigned long), for which no corresponding java types exist. The following table lists
the .NET primitive types and the corresponding class you must use.
.NET type

Class used in cfobject/createObject

byte / System.Byte

System.BoxedByte

ushort / System.UInt16

System.BoxedUShort

uint / System.UInt32

System.BoxedUInt

ulong / System.UInt64

System.BoxedULong

Use the createObject function or cfobject tag to create these special objects, in the same manner as you create
other .NET classes, before you use them in your assignment statement. For example, the following line creates a ushort
representation of the value 100:
<cfset boxedUShort = createObject(".NET". "System.BoxedUShort").init(100)>

The following example creates a System.Hashtable object and populates it with examples of all types of primitives.

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<!--- create a .NET Hashtable --->

<cfset table = createObject(".NET", "System.Collections.Hashtable")>
<!--- call HashTable.add(Object, Object) method for all primitives --->
<cfset table.add("shortVar", javacast("short", 10))>
<cfset table.add("sbyteVar", javacast("byte", 20))>
<cfset table.add("intVar", javacast("int", 123))>
<cfset table.add("longVar", javacast("long", 1234))>
<cfset table.add("floatVar", javacast("float", 123.4))>
<cfset table.add("doubleVar", javacast("double", 123.4))>
<cfset table.add("charVar", javacast("char", 'c'))>
<cfset table.add("booleanVar", javacast("boolean", "yes"))>
<cfset table.add("StringVar", "Hello World")>
<cfset table.add("decimalVar", javacast("bigdecimal", 123234234.505))>
<!--- call HashTable.add(Object, Object) for unsigned primitive types. --->
<cfset boxedByte = createObject(".NET", "System.BoxedByte").init(10)>
<cfset table.add("byteVar", boxedByte)>
<cfset boxedUShort = createObject(".NET", "System.BoxedUShort").init(100)>
<cfset table.add("ushortVar", boxedUShort)>
<cfset boxedUInt = createObject(".NET", "System.BoxedUInt").init(123)>
<cfset table.add("uintVar", boxedUInt)>
<cfset boxedULong = createObject(".NET", "System.BoxedULong").init(123123)>
<cfset table.add("ulongVar", boxedULong)>
<cfdump var="#DotNetToCFType(table)#">

Any other .NET objects can be passed as it is.

Handling ambiguous type conversions
ColdFusion cannot determine the correct data type conversion if a method has multiple signatures with the same
number of parameters that differ only in the parameter data types. In this case, use the JavaCast method to convert the
ColdFusion data to the Java type that corresponds to the .NET type.
For example, if a .NET class has methods myFunc(ulong) and myFunc(int), use the JavaCast method to convert your
ColdFusion variable to the Java float or int data type, as the following line shows:
myFunc(JavaCast(int, MyVar));

Similarly, if a .NET class has methods myFunc(int) and myFunc(String), use the JavaCast method to convert your
ColdFusion variable to the Java int or String data type, as shown in the following line:
myFunc(JavaCast(String, "123");

In some cases, the JavaCast function cannot eliminate ambiguity because a single Java type corresponds to multiple
.NET types. In these cases, ColdFusion creates a proxy with only one method, which uses the .NET data type that
corresponds directly to a Java type.
For example, if the .NET class has methods myFunc(ulong) and myFunc(float), the generated proxy has only one
method. This method calls myFunc(float), because the Java float type used to handle ColdFusion floating-point
numbers corresponds directly to the .NET float type. In this case, you can never call the .NET myFunc(ulong) method.

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Working with complex .NET data types

When you use complex .NET data such as Hashtable, ArrayList and DataTable, ColdFusion normally automatically
converts the data to the corresponding ColdFusion data type: structure, array, and query, respectively. When you work
with this data you take specific actions to enable the proper access and conversion of the data, as follows:

Use associative array notation to properly access .NET Hashtable data from ColdFusion
You cannot use ColdFusion variables directly in parameters that take Hashtable, ArrayList, or DataTable input.
You can disable automatic conversion of complex .NET data to ColdFusion types.
You can manually convert complex .NET data to ColdFusion types.
Using Hashtable data in ColdFusion
.NET Hashtables are case sensitive, but most methods of ColdFusion structure access are not case sensitive. Only
associative array notation of the form structName["keyName"] is case sensitive. When .NET Hashtables are
converted to CF structure, the entire data set is converted, even if the element keys differ only in case. Therefore, to get
the values of the keys that differ only in case, use associative array notation.
The following example shows this issue. It creates a Hashtable object with three entries whose key values vary only in
case. In the example, output using dot-delimited structure notation always returns the same value, corresponding to
the all-uppercase key, but associative array notation returns the correct result.
<!--- Create a Hashtable and convert it to a ColdFusion structure. --->
<cfset table = createObject(".NET", "System.Collections.Hashtable")>
<cfset table.add("Key", "Value1")>
<cfset table.add("KEY", "Value2")>
<cfset table.add("key", "Value3")>
<cfset cftable = DotNetToCFType(table)>
<cfdump var="#cftable#">
<h3>Using dot notation</h3>
Key : <cfoutput>#cftable.Key#</cfoutput><br>
KEY : <cfoutput>#cftable.KEY#</cfoutput><br>
key : <cfoutput>#cftable.key#</cfoutput><br>
<p>
<h3>Using associative array notation</h3>
Key : <cfoutput>#cftable["Key"]#</cfoutput><br>
KEY : <cfoutput>#cftable["KEY"]#</cfoutput><br>
key : <cfoutput>#cftable["key"]#</cfoutput><br>

Using .Net ArrayList in ColdFusion

ColdFusion converts System.Collections.ArrayList objects to ColdFusion arrays, and you can perform all standard
ColdFusion array operations on them. The following example shows this usage:
.Net Code:
public ArrayList getList(){
ArrayList myAL = new ArrayList();
myAL.Add("Hello");
myAL.Add(1);
myAL.add(true);
Return AL;
}

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ColdFusion Code:
<cfset cflist = netObject.getList()>
<cfloop array="#cflist#" index="item">
<cfoutput>#item#</cfoutput><br>
</cfloop>
<cfif cflist[3]>
<cfoutput>Third element in the list is true</cfoutput>
</cfif>

Using ADO.Net DataTable in ColdFusion

ColdFusion converts System.Data.DataTable objects to ColdFusion query objects, and you can perform all standard
ColdFusion query operations on them. The following example shows this usage:
.Net code:
public DataTable datasetMethod()
{
//conn string
string connectionString = "...";
//connection
using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
{
SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(@"SELECT * FROM [tblEmployees]", connection);
connection.Open();
SqlDataReader reader = cmd.ExecuteReader();
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Load(reader);
return dt;
}
}

ColdFusion code:
<cfset query1 = netObject.datasetMethod()>
<cfoutput query="query1">
Query1.CurrentRow = #query1.CurrentRow#<br>
</cfoutput>

Using ColdFusion complex types in .NET input parameters

When a .NET method returns an ArrayList, Hashtable, or DataTable, ColdFusion automatically converts it to a
ColdFusion array, structure, or query, respectively. However ColdFusion does not automatically convert from
ColdFusion data types to these .NET types. (ColdFusion does automatically convert ColdFusion arrays to .Net array
types.) Therefore, you cannot use ColdFusion variables directly as input parameters to .NET object instance methods
that require .NET System.Collection.ArrayList, System.Collection.Hashtable, or System.Data.DataTable types.
Instead create instances of these .NET types and populate them with the required data before you pass them to the
.NET method. For an example of creating and populating a System.Collection.Hashtable object, see the example at the
end of the Converting data to System.Object type section.

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Disabling automatic conversion of complex .NET data

You can disable automatic conversion of .NET System.Collections.Hashtable,
System.Collections.ArrayList or System.Data.DataTable objects to the corresponding ColdFusion structure,
array, or query objects. You could want to disable the conversion under the following circumstances:

If a collection or DataTable returned by a .NET method is large and you only want a small subset of the data. If auto
conversion is enabled, ColdFusion creates a data structure with all the objects fields. Creating the structure could
take significant time and resources, because ColdFusion must invoke .NET methods internally to get each of the
fields. You can disable the automatic conversion and retrieve the fields or data from .NET objects like any other
objects.

If you invoke a .NET method that returns a complex variable, and then pass the variable to another .NET method
as argument. If automatic conversion is enabled, you cannot pass the Hashtable object from the first method
directly to the second method.
To disable automatic conversion, set the JVM coldfusion.dotnet.disableautoconversion system property to true. For
example, in a ColdFusion stand-alone server, or if you use JRun as your J2EE server, include the following setting in
the JVM.config file:
-Dcoldfusion.dotnet.disableautoconversion=true

Manually converting complex .NET objects

Use the DotNetToCFType function to convert a System.Collections.Hashtable,
System.Collections.ArrayList or System.Data.DataTable object to a ColdFusion structure, array, or query
respectively when either of the following circumstances are true:

You have set the coldfusion.dotnet.disableautoconversion system property to true.

Automatic conversion is enabled, you created the complex .NET object by using the createObject function or
cfobject tag, and you want to convert this object into the corresponding ColdFusion representation.

For an example of using the function, see DotNetToCFType in the CFML Reference.
Using .NET objects
.NET fields and return values with class types are available in ColdFusion as .NET objects. You can use the objects
methods to access object data and make it available to ColdFusion using supported data types.
The following example gets information about a systems drives. It calls the System.IO.DriveInfo.GetDrives() method
to get an array of System.IO.DriveInfo objects, one per drive. It then calls the object methods to get specific
information about the drives, and displays the information. The example uses a cfdump tag to simplify the code.
Note: The System.IO.DriveInfo is not included in the .NET 1.x framework. It is included in .NET 2.0 and later
frameworks. For information on determining the .NET framework, see Determining and changing the .NET version on
page 1170.

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<!--- Create a query for the drive information results. --->

<cfset result=QueryNew("name,type,isready,format,label,totalsize,freespace"
,"varchar,varchar,bit,varchar,varchar,double,double")>
<!--- Create a .NET System.IO.DriveInfo object. --->
<cfobject type=".NET" name="sidiClass" class="System.IO.DriveInfo">
<!--- Get the drives. --->
<cfset drives=sidiClass.GetDrives()>
<!--- Loop through drives. --->
<cfloop from="1" to="#ArrayLen(drives)#" index="i">
<!--- Add a row to the query.--->
<cfset QueryAddRow(result)>
<!--- Get the drive name, type, and ready flag. --->
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "name", drives[i].Get_Name())>
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "type",
drives[i].Get_DriveType().ToString())>
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "isready", drives[i].Get_IsReady())>
<!--- Get extra details ONLY if the drive is ready. --->
<cfif drives[i].Get_IsReady()>
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "format", drives[i].Get_DriveFormat())>
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "label", drives[i].Get_VolumeLabel())>
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "totalsize", drives[i].Get_TotalSize())>
<cfset QuerySetCell(result, "freespace",
drives[i].Get_AvailableFreeSpace())>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfdump var="#result#">

.NET Interoperability Limitations

ColdFusion .NET interoperability has the following limitations

You cannot invoke methods with pointers as arguments or the return type.
You cannot invoke methods that take Out parameters.
ColdFusion can only convert from System.Data.DataTable, System.Collection.Hashtable and
System.Collection.ArrayList to ColdFusion data types. ColdFusion cannot convert from ColdFusion queries,
structures, and arrays to these System data types; however, it can convert from ColdFusion arrays to the CLR array
type. Therefore, you cannot pass structures or queries directly to .NET methods.

You cannot access .NET user interface components.

You cannot use callbacks (events and Delegates) from .NET side.
ColdFusion cannot determine the correct data type conversion if a method has multiple signatures that have the
same number of parameters and differ only in the parameter data types. In this case, use the JavaCast method to
convert the ColdFusion data to the Java type that corresponds to the .NET type.

If the JavaCast function cannot eliminate ambiguity between functions with the same number of parameters
because a single Java type corresponds to multiple .NET types, ColdFusion creates a single proxy that uses the .NET
data type that corresponds directly to a Java type.
For more information on how to ambiguous handle type conversions, see Converting between .NET and
ColdFusion data types on page 1157.

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Assemblies registered in the DotNetSide.exe.config file must have unique class names. If two or more assemblies
have the same class name, method invocation can result in an error or can give the wrong result. For example, do
not have two DLLs, a.dll and b.dll, that contain the same class name, nam1.name2.MyClass. If you use one DLL and
later want to use another DLL that contains a class that clashes with first, restart the ColdFusion .NET Service if
ColdFusion and .NET both are on the same machine. If they are on the different machines, remove the entry for
the first DLL from the DotNetSide.exe.config file and restart the ColdFusion .NET Service on the Windows
machine hosting the .NET service.

Example applications
The first application example uses a Microsoft .NET system class method directly. The second application example
uses a custom C# class to access Microsoft Word.

Example: Using a .NET class directly

The following example uses the Microsoft .NET System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping class method directly to ping
servers. This class is supported in .NET version 2.0 and later.
<!--- This function pings the specified host. --->
<cffunction name="Ping" returntype="string" output="false">
<cfargument name="host" type="string" required="yes">
<!--- Local variables --->
<cfset var pingClass="">
<cfset var pingReply="">
<!--- Get Ping class --->
<cfobject type=".NET" name="pingClass"
class="System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping">
<!--- Perform synchronous ping (using defaults) --->
<cfset pingReply=pingClass.Send(Arguments.host)>
<!--- Return result --->
<cfreturn pingReply.Get_Status().ToString()>
</cffunction>
<h3>Ping Test</h3>
<cfoutput>
127.0.0.1: #Ping("127.0.0.1")#<br>
www.adobe.com: #Ping("www.adobe.com")#<br>
</cfoutput>

Example: Using a custom class to access Microsoft Word

The following ColdFusion application uses a custom C# WordCreator class, and supporting classes in Microsoft Office
and Word DLLs, to create a Word document. The application opens Microsoft Word, writes five copies of the text
specified by the someText variable, and saves the document in the file specified by the filename variable. The
application leaves the instance of Word open.
Note: For an example that uses a .NET System class directly and does not require any cousin .NET code, see the
Limitations section of cfobject: .NET object in the CFML Reference.
The second listing shows the WordCreator C# source code. To run this application locally, compile this class and the
Microsoft Interop.Word.dll file, and place them in the C:\dotnet directory. (Alternatively, you can place them
elsewhere and change the paths in the cfobjectassembly attribute.) You could need additional or different Microsoft
DLL files, depending on the version of Microsoft Office that you have installed.
The ColdFusion application contains the following code:

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<cfset filename="C:\dotNet\demo.doc">
<cfif fileexists(filename)>
<cffile action="delete" file="#filename#">
</cfif>
<cfobject type=".NET" assembly="C:\dotNetApp\WordApp.dll,C:\dotNet\Interop.Office.dll"
name="wordCreator" class="WordApp.WordCreator">
<cfset wordCreator.init("#filename#")>
<cfdump label="WordCreator Class Dump" var="#wordCreator#">
<cfset someText = "ColdFusion created this sample document using Windows .NET class methods.
The text is long enough to appear in the Word file on multiple lines.">
<cfloop from=1 to=5 index =i>
<cfset wordCreator.addText(someText)>
<cfset wordCreator.newParagraph()>
<cfset wordCreator.newParagraph()>
<cfset wordCreator.addText("Starting a new paragraph. It starts a
a new line.")>
<cfset wordCreator.newParagraph()>
<cfset wordCreator.newParagraph()>
</cfloop>
<cfset wordCreator.save()>

The C# source for the WordCreator class is as follows:

using
using
using
using

System;
System.IO;
System.Collections.Generic;
System.Text;

// The commented-out lines could be needed on some systems in place of,

// or in addition to, the line that follows them.
// using Microsoft.Office.Core;
// using Word;
// using Microsoft.Office;
// using Microsoft.Office.Interop;
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;
namespace WordApp {
public class WordCreator {
object readOnly = false;
object isVisible = true;
object missing = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;
object docType = 0;
object newTemplate = false;
object template = "normal.dot";
object format = WdSaveFormat.wdFormatDocument;
ApplicationClass app = new ApplicationClass();
private object fileName;
private Document doc;
private bool isNewDoc = false;
public WordCreator(String fileName) {
this.fileName = fileName;
app.Visible = true;
if (File.Exists(fileName))
doc = app.Documents.Open(ref this.fileName, ref missing, ref
readOnly, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,

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ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref

isVisible, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing);
else {
doc = app.Documents.Add(ref template, ref newTemplate,
ref docType, ref isVisible);
isNewDoc = true;
}
doc.Activate();
}
public void addText(String text) {
app.Selection.TypeText(text);
}
public void newParagraph() {
app.Selection.TypeParagraph();
}
public void save() {
if(!isNewDoc)
doc.Save();
else doc.SaveAs(ref fileName, ref format, ref missing, ref missing,
ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing, ref missing,
ref missing, ref missing);
}
}
}

Advanced tools
Occasionally, the use of additional tools for generating proxies and running the .NET extension software can be helpful
in some workflows.

Using the jnbproxy command

You can use the jnbproxy command-line tool as an alternative to the jnbproxyGui program, to generate Java proxies.
For more information, see Generating the Java proxy classes on page 1152.
For example, you can use this command in a batch file to generate multiple proxy JAR files in a single operation.
The jnbproxy command has the following format:
jnbproxy options... classes...

For example:
jnbproxy /al C:\dotNet\netdll\PrimitiveTypes.dll /d C:\dotNet\MyJavajars
/host localhost /n PrimitiveTypes /nj /pd j2n /port 6085 /pro b
/pp C:\ColdFusion8\lib CSharpDatatypes.PrimitiveTypes

Options
The following table lists the options that you can use. To create proxies on a system that is running ColdFusion, use
the /nj option and do not specify the /bp, /java, or /jp options.

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Option

Req/Opt

/al assemblylist

Required

/bp bcelpath

Optional

/cf

Required

/d directory

Optional

/f classfile

Optional

Default

Description
Specifies a semicolon-separated series of file paths of .NET assemblies
(DLL and EXE files) that contain the required .NET classes.

Use the CLASSPATH

environment variable to
locate the file.

Specifies the path to the folder that contains the bcel.jar file.
Ignored if you use the /nj option.
Use the ColdFusion software license. If you do not include this option,
your proxies are limited to a 30-day trial period.

The current execution

directory.

Specifies the directory in which to write a JAR file with the generated
proxies.
Reads the classes from the specified text file, not the command line.
For more information, see the JNBridge documentation.

/h

Optional

Lists the options and usage information. Typing the command jnbproxy
with no options or arguments results in the same information.

/host hostname

Required

Specifies the host on which the .NET code is located. This option can be a
host name or an IP address. Normally, you specify localhost.

/java javapath

Optional

Use the first java.exe file

Specifies the path of the directory that contains the java.exe program to
found using the system
use when automatically starting Java.
PATH environment variable.
Ignored if you use the /nj option.

/jp jnbcorepath

Optional

Use, the CLASSPATH

environment variable.

Specifies the path of the folder containing the file jnbcore.jar.

Ignored if you use the /nj option.

/ls

Optional

Generate and list the

proxies.

Lists all classes that are generated in support of the specified classes (see
Supporting classes on page 1153), but don't generate the proxies.

/n name

Optional

Create a file named

jnbproxies.jar.

Specifies the name of the JAR file in which to place the proxies. Do not
specify the .jar extension; the tool automatically adds it.

/nj

Optional

Start Java automatically.

Does not start Java automatically. If you use this option, Java must be
running, and the /bp, /java, /jp, and /wd options, if present, are
ignored.

/ns

Optional

Generate proxies for all

supporting classes.

Generates proxies for the classes specified on the command line (or class
file) only, not for any supporting classes.

/pd

Required

Specifies the direction in which the proxies operate. Must be j2n.

/port portNum

Required

Specifies the port on which the .NET side listens when generating the
proxies. Must be an integer. Normally this value is 6085.

/pro protocol

Required

Specifies the communication mechanism between the .NET and Java

sides. The valid values are:

/wd dir

optional

The systems default

working directory.

TCP/binary

(HTTP/SOAP

Specifies the working directory for the JVM.

Ignored if the /nj option is present.

Classes
A space-separated sequence of fully qualified .NET class names (for example, CSharpDatatypes.PrimitiveTypes)
for which to generate proxies. The proxies for System.Object and System.Type are always generated, even if they are
not listed in the class list.

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Passing data by reference and value

The proxy generators let you specify whether to pass parameters and return values by reference or by value.
About passing by reference and value
When you pass data by reference, the information transferred between the Java Proxy and the .NET side is a logical
pointer to the underlying .NET object, which continues to reside on the .NET side. When you pass data by value, the
transferred information contains a copy of the contents of the .NET object, which could or continue to reside on the
.NET side after a function call. Passing by reference and value have different advantages.
When you pass data by reference, only changed values are passed between the Java proxy and the .NET object directly.
All other information is passed as reference to its representation in the corresponding objects. Because the reference
is typically much smaller than the actual object, passing by reference is typically fast. Also, because the reference points
to a .NET object that continues to exist on the .NET side, if that .NET object is updated, the updates are immediately
accessible to the proxy object on the Java side. The disadvantage of reference proxies is that any access to data in the
underlying object (for example, field or method accesses) requires a round trip from the Java side to the .NET side
(where the information resides) and back to the Java side.
When you pass data by value, a copy of the data is passed between .NET and Java. Because the data object itself is
typically bigger than a reference, passing an object by value takes longer than passing it by reference. Also, the value
that is passed is a snapshot of the object taken at the time that it was passed. The passed object maintains no connection
to the underlying .NET object, therefore, the passed value does not reflect any updates to the underlying .NET object
that are made after the object is passed. The advantage of passing data by value proxies is that all data in the object is
local to the Java side, and field accesses are fast, because they do not require a round trip to the .NET side and back to
get the data.
The choice of whether to use reference or value proxies depends on the desired semantics of the generated proxies, and
on performance.

In general, use reference proxies (the default), because they maintain the normal parameter-passing semantics of
Java and C#.

In general, use value proxies in any of the following cases:

The class functions always must pass parameter values and return values back and forth.
The class object contains little data.
The object data changes frequently, and the object is either relatively small or the frequency of accesses to data
outweighs the time taken to transfer the object.
Specifying the data passing method
When you use the JNBProxy.gui tool to generate proxies, you can designate the proxies that pass by reference and
which proxies pass by value. The default proxy type is reference.
To set the data passing method for a class, right-click on the class in the Exposed Proxies pane. Select the desired
passing method from the list that appears. After you select the passing method, the color of the proxy class changes, to
indicate its type: black for reference, or blue for value (public fields/properties style).
Set the passing method for multiple proxy classes simultaneously
1 Select Project > Pass By Reference / Value from the menu bar.
2 The Pass by Reference / Value dialog box lists all proxy classes in the Exposed Proxies pane. Select the classes whose

passing value you want to set.

3 Click the Reference or Value (Public fields/properties) button to associate the selected classes to the desired type.

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4 Repeat steps 2 and 3 to select multiple groups of classes and set their passing methods.
5 Click OK.

Determining and changing the .NET version

If you get errors when using a .NET object in your application, you could have version issues. For example, many
Microsoft system classes were added in .NET Version 2.0, including System.IO.DriveInfo and
System.Net.NetworkInformation.Ping. For examples of these classes in applications, see Using .NET objects on
page 1163 and Example: Using a .NET class directly on page 1165, respectively.
Use the following function to get the current .NET version:
<cffunction name="GetDotNetVersion" returntype="string">
<cfset var seClass="">
<cfobject type=".NET" name="seClass" class="System.Environment">
<cfreturn seClass.Get_Version().ToString()>
</cffunction>

If the function reports that the active version is not the one you require, install or reinstall the correct version of the
.NET framework redistributable package on the system that runs ColdFusion. Then reinstall the ColdFusion .NET
extension so that it uses the correct .NET version.

Running the .NET extension agent as an application

The ColdFusion .NET extension installer configures the .NET-side extension agent to run automatically as the
ColdFusion .NET service. You can also run the .NET extension agent as an application.
Run the .NET extension agent as an application
1 Ensure that you stopped the ColdFusion .NET service, if it was running.
2 Open a command prompt window and navigate to the jnbridge directory. On a stand-alone ColdFusion server

configuration, this directory is installDir\jnbridge. On a system with a stand-alone .NET extension installation, or
a J2EE or multiserver configuration, it is in the .NETInstallDir\jnbridge directory, and the default installation
directory is C:\ColdFusonDotNetExtension.
3 Enter the following command:
JNBDotNetSide

Integrating COM and CORBA Objects in CFML

Applications
You can invoke COM (Component Object Model) or DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) and CORBA
(Common Object Request Broker) objects.

About COM and CORBA

Adobe ColdFusion supports access to COM and CORBA objects, which can be used in many applications.

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About objects
COM and CORBA are two of the object technologies supported by ColdFusion. Other object technologies include Java
and ColdFusion components. For more information on ColdFusion components see Building and Using ColdFusion
Components on page 177.
An object is a self-contained module of data and its associated processing. An object is a building block that you can
together with other objects and integrate into ColdFusion code to create an application.
A handle, or name, represents an object. Objects have properties that represent information. Objects also provide
methods for manipulating the object and getting data from it. The exact terms and rules for using objects vary with the
object technology.
You create instances of objects using the cfobject tag or the CreateObject function. You then use the object and its
methods in ColdFusion tags, functions, and expressions. For more information on the ColdFusion syntax for using
objects, see Creating and using objects on page 1172.

About COM and DCOM

COM (Component Object Model) is a specification and a set of services defined by Microsoft to enable component
portability, reusability, and versioning. DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) is an implementation of COM
for distributed services, which allows access to components residing on a network.
COM objects can reside locally or on any network node. COM is supported on Microsoft Windows platforms.
For more information on COM, go to the Microsoft COM website, www.microsoft.com/com.

About CORBA
CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) is a distributed computing model for object-oriented
applications defined by the Object Management Group (OMG). In this model, an object is an encapsulated entity
whose services are accessed only through well-defined interfaces. The location and implementation of each object is
hidden from the client requesting the services. ColdFusion supports CORBA 2.3 on both Windows and UNIX.
CORBA uses an Object Request Broker (ORB) to send requests from applications on one system to objects executing
on another system. The ORB allows applications to interact in a distributed environment, independent of the
computer platforms on which they run and the languages in which they are implemented. For example, a ColdFusion
application running on one system can communicate with an object that is implemented in C++ on another system.
CORBA follows a client-server model. The client invokes operations on objects that the server manages, and the server
replies to requests. The ORB manages the communications between the client and the server using the Internet InterORB Protocol (IIOP).
Each CORBA object has an interface that is defined in the CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL). The CORBA
IDL describes the operations that can be performed on the object, and the parameters of those operations. Clients do
not have to know anything about how the interface is implemented to make requests.
To request a service from the server, the client application gets a handle to the object from the ORB. It uses the handle
to call the methods specified by the IDL interface definition. The ORB passes the requests to the server, which
processes the requests and returns the results to the client.
For information about CORBA, see the following OMG website, which is the main web repository for CORBA
information: www.omg.com.

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Creating and using objects

You use the cfobject tag or the CreateObject function to create a named instance of an object. You use other
ColdFusion tags, such as cfset and cfoutput, to invoke the object properties and methods.
Many of the techniques for creating and using objects apply to both COM and CORBA objects. The examples here
assume a sample object named obj, and that the object has a property called Property, and methods called
Method1, Method2, and Method3.

Creating objects
You create, or instantiate (create a named instance of) an object in ColdFusion with the cfobject tag or
CreateObject function. The specific attributes or parameters that you use depend on the type of object you use, and
are described in detail in Creating and using COM objects on page 1174 and Creating CORBA objects on
page 1184. The following examples use a cfobject tag to create a COM object and a CreateObject function to create
a CORBA object:
<cfobject type="COM" action="Create" name="obj" class="sample.MyObject">
obj = CreateObject("CORBA", "d:\temp\tester.ior", "IOR", "Visibroker")

ColdFusion releases any object created by cfobject or CreateObject, or returned by other objects, at the end of the
ColdFusion page execution.

Using properties
Use standard ColdFusion statements to access properties as follows:
1 To set a property, use a statement or cfset tag, such as the following:
<cfset obj.property = "somevalue">

2 To get a property, use a statement or cfset tag, such as the following:

<cfset value = obj.property>

As shown in this example, you do not use parentheses on the right side of the equation to get a property value.

Calling methods
Object methods usually take zero or more arguments. You send In arguments, whose values are not returned to the
caller by value. You send Out and In,Out arguments, whose values are returned to the caller, by reference. Arguments
sent by reference usually have their value changed by the object. Some methods have return values, while others do not.
Use the following techniques to call methods:

If the method has no arguments, follow the method name with empty parentheses, as in the following cfset tag:
<cfset retVal = obj.Method1()>

If the method has one or more arguments, place the arguments in parentheses, separated by commas, as in the
following example, which has one integer argument and one string argument:
<cfset x = 23>
<cfset retVal = obj.Method1(x, "a string literal")>

If the method has reference (Out or In,Out) arguments, use double quotation marks (") around the name of the
variable you are using for these arguments, as shown for the variable x in the following example:
<cfset x = 23>
<cfset retVal = obj.Method2("x","a string literal")>
<cfoutput> #x#</cfoutput>

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In this example, if the object changes the value of x, it now contains a value other than 23.

Calling nested objects

ColdFusion supports nested (scoped) object calls. For example, if an object method returns another object, and you
invoke a property or method on that object, you can use the syntax in either of the following examples:
<cfset prop = myObj.X.Property>

or
<cfset objX = myObj.X>
<cfset prop = objX.Property>

Getting started with COM and DCOM

ColdFusion is an automation (late-binding) COM client. As a result, the COM object must support the IDispatch
interface, and arguments for methods and properties must be standard automation types. Because ColdFusion is a
typeless language, it uses the object type information to correctly set up the arguments on call invocations. Any
ambiguity in the object data types can lead to unexpected behavior.
In ColdFusion, only use server-side COM objects, which do not have a graphical user interface. If your ColdFusion
application invokes an object with a graphical interface in a window, the component could appear on the web server
desktop, not on the client desktop. This behavior can take up ColdFusion server threads and prevent further web server
requests from being serviced.
ColdFusion can call Inproc, Local, or Remote COM objects. The attributes specified in the cfobject tag determine
which type of object is called.

COM requirements
To use COM components in your ColdFusion application, you need at least the following items:

The COM objects (typically DLL or EXE files) that you want to use in your ColdFusion application pages. Ensure
that these components implement the IDispatch interface, and therefore allow late binding.

Microsoft OLE/COM Object Viewer, available from Microsoft. This tool lets you view registered COM objects.
Object Viewer lets you view the class information of an object so that you can properly define the class attribute
for the cfobject tag. It also displays the interfaces the object supports, so you can discover the properties and
methods (for the IDispatch interface) of the object.

Registering the object

After you acquire an object, register it with Windows for ColdFusion (or any other program) to find it. Some objects
have setup programs that register objects automatically, while others require manual registration.
You can register Inproc object servers (.dll or .ocx files) manually by running the regsvr32.exe utility using the
following form:
regsvr32 c:\path\servername.dll

You typically register Local servers (.exe files) either by starting them or by specifying a command-line parameter, such
as the following:
C:\pathname\servername.exe -register

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Finding the component ProgID and methods

Your COM object supplier provides documentation that explains each of the component methods and the ProgID. If
you do not have documentation, use either the ColdFusion cfdump tag or the OLE/COM Object Viewer to view the
component interface.
Using the cfdump tag to view COM object interfaces
Effective with ColdFusion, the ColdFusion cfdump tag displays the following information about a COM object:

Public methods
Put properties
Get properties
The method and property information include the parameter or property types and whether they are in, out, optional,
or retval values. The cfdump tag output does not include the ProgID of the object.
Note: The dump header indicates the ColdFusion object class, which is coldfusion.runtime.com.ComProxy, and the COM
object CLSID.
Using the OLE/COM Object Viewer
The OLE/COM Object Viewer installation installs the executable, by default, as \mstools\bin\oleview.exe. You use the
Object Viewer to retrieve a COM object ProgID, as well as its methods and properties.
To find an object in the Object Viewer, it must be registered, as described in Registering the object on page 1173. The
Object Viewer retrieves all COM objects and controls from the Registry, and presents the information in a simple
format, sorted into groups for easy viewing.
By selecting the category and then the component, you can see the ProgID of a COM object. The Object Viewer also
provides access to options for the operation of the object.
To view object properties:
1 Open the Object Viewer and scroll to the object that you want to examine.
2 Select and expand the object in the left pane of the Object Viewer.
3 Right-click the object to view it, including the TypeInfo.

If you view the TypeInfo, you see the object methods and properties. Some objects do not have access to the
TypeInfo area, which is determined when an object is built and by the language used.

Creating and using COM objects

Use the cfobject tag or the CreateObject function to create an instance of the COM object (component) in
ColdFusion before your application pages can invoke any methods or assign any properties in the component.
For example, the following code uses the cfobject tag to create the Windows CDO (Collaborative Data Objects) for
NTS NewMail object to send mail:
<cfobject type="COM"
action="Create"
name="Mailer"
class="CDONTS.NewMail">

The following line shows how to use the corresponding CreateObject function in CFScript:
Mailer = CreateObject("COM", "CDONTS.NewMail");

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Several examples in this documentation use this object.

Note: CDO is installed by default on all Windows NT and 2000 operating systems that have installed the Microsoft SMTP
server. In Windows NT Server environments, the SMTP server is part of the Option Pack 4 setup. In Windows 2000 Server
and Workstation environments, it is bundled with the operating system.
note. >>>The CDO for NTS NewMail component includes methods and properties to perform a wide range of mailhandling tasks. (In the OLE/COM Object Viewer, methods and properties can be grouped, so you could find it difficult
to distinguish between them at first.)
The CDO for NTS NewMail object includes the following properties:
Body [ String ]
Cc[ String ]
From[ String ]
Importance[ Long ]
Subject[ String ]
To[ String ]

You use these properties to define elements of your mail message. The CDO for NTS NewMail object also includes a
send method which has optional arguments to send messages.

Connecting to COM objects

The action attribute of the cfobject tag provides the following two ways to connect to COM objects:
Create method (cfobject action="Create") Takes a COM object, typically a DLL, and instantiates it before

executing methods and assigning properties.

Connect method (cfobject action="Connect") Links to an object, typically an executable, that is already running

on the server.
You can use the optional cfobjectcontext attribute to specify the object context. If you do not specify a context,
ColdFusion uses the setting in the Registry. The following table describes the context attribute values:
Attribute value

Description

InProc

An in-process server object (typically a DLL) that is running in the same process space as the calling
process, such as ColdFusion.

local

An out-of-process server object (typically an EXE file) that is running outside the ColdFusion process space
but running locally on the same server.

remote

An out-of-process server object (typically an EXE file) that is running remotely on the network. If you
specify remote, Also use the server attribute to identify where the object resides.

Setting properties and executing methods

The following example, which uses the sample Mailer COM object, shows how to assign properties to your mail
message and how to execute component methods to handle mail messages.
In the example, form variables contain the method parameters and properties, such as the name of the recipient, the
desired e-mail address, and so on:

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<!--- First, create the object --->

<cfobject type="COM"
action="Create"
name="Mailer"
class="CDONTS.NewMail">
<!--- Second, use the form variables from the user entry form to populate a number
of properties necessary to create and send the message. --->
<cfset Mailer.From = "#Form.fromName#">
<cfset Mailer.To = "#Form.to#">
<cfset Mailer.Subject = "#Form.subject#">
<cfset Mailer.Importance = 2>
<cfset Mailer.Body = "#Form.body#">
<cfset Mailer.Cc = "#Form.cc#">
<!--- Last, use the Send() method to send the message.
Invoking the Send() method destroys the object.--->
<cfset Mailer.Send()>

Note: Use the cftry and cfcatch tags to handle exceptions thrown by COM objects. For more information on exception
handling, see Handling runtime exceptions with ColdFusion tags on page 287.
Releasing COM objects
By default, COM object resources are released when the Java garbage collector cleans them. You can use the
ReleaseCOMObject function to immediately release resources if an object is no longer needed.
Use the ReleaseCOMObject function to release COM objects that are launched as an external process, such as
Microsoft Excel. The garbage collector does not always clean these processes in a short time, resulting in multiple
external processes running, which drains system resources.
If the COM object has an end method, such as a quit method that terminates the program, call this method before you
call the ReleaseComObject function. If you use the ReleaseComObject function on an object that is in use, the object
is prematurely released and your application gets exceptions.
Example
The following example creates a Microsoft Excel application object, uses it, then releases the object when it is no longer
needed:
<h3>ReleaseComObject Example</h3>
<cfscript>
obj = CreateObject("Com", "excel.application.9");
//code that uses the object goes here
obj.quit();
ReleaseComObject(obj);
</cfscript>

General COM object considerations

When you use COM objects, consider the following to prevent and resolve errors:

Ensuring correct threading

Using input and output arguments
Understanding common COM-related error messages

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Ensuring correct threading

Improper threading can cause serious problems when using a COM object in ColdFusion. Make sure that the object
is thread-safe. An object is thread-safe if it can be called from many programming threads simultaneously, without
causing errors.
Visual Basic ActiveX DLLs are typically not thread-safe. If you use such a DLL in ColdFusion, you can make it threadsafe by using the OLE/COM Object Viewer to change the threading model of the object to the Apartment model.
If you are planning to store a reference to the COM object in the Application, Session, or Server scope, do not use the
Apartment threading model. This threading model is intended to service only a single request. If your application
requires you to store the object in any of these scopes, keep the object in the Both threading model, and lock all code
that accesses the object, as described in Locking code with cflock on page 318.
Change the threading model of a COM Object
1 Open the OLE/COM Object Viewer.
2 Select All Objects under Object Classes in the left pane.
3 Locate your COM object. The left pane lists the objects by name.
4 Select your object.
5 Select the Implementation tab in the right pane.
6 Select the Inproc Server tab, below the App ID field.
7 Select the Threading Model drop-down list and select Apartment or Both, as appropriate.

Using input and output arguments

COM object methods in arguments are passed by value. The COM object gets a copy of the variable value, so you can
specify a ColdFusion variable without surrounding it with quotation marks.
COM object out method arguments are passed by reference. The COM object modifies the contents of the variable on
the calling page, so the calling page can use the resulting value. To pass a variable by reference, surround the name of
an existing ColdFusion variable with quotation marks. If the argument is a numeric type, assign the variable a valid
number before you make the call. For example:
<cfset inStringArg="Hello Object">
<cfset outNumericArg=0>
<cfset result=myCOMObject.calculate(inStringArg, "outNumericArg")>

The string "Hello Object" is passed to the object's calculate method as an input argument. The method sets the value
of outNumericArg to a numeric value.
Understanding common COM-related error messages
The following table described some error messages you could encounter when using COM objects:

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Error

Cause

Error Diagnostic Information

The COM object is not registered or does not exist.

Error trying to create object specified in the tag.

COM error 0x800401F3. Invalid class string.
Error Diagnostic Information

The COM object is not registered or does not exist. This error usually
occurs when an object existed previously, but was removed.

Error trying to create object specified in the tag.

COM error 0x80040154. Class not registered.
Error Diagnostic Information
Failed attempting to find "SOMEMETHOD" property/method on the
object COM error 0x80020006.

The COM object was instantiated correctly, but the method you
specified does not exist.

Unknown name.

Accessing Complex COM Objects using Java proxies

ColdFusion supports Java proxies to access COM objects. If you do not create Java proxies in advance, ColdFusion
must dynamically discover the COM interface. This technique can have two disadvantages:

Dynamic discovery takes time and can reduce server performance with frequently used complex COM objects.
Dynamic discovery uses the IDispatcher interface to determine the COM object features, and does not always
handle some complex COM interfaces.
To overcome these problems, ColdFusion includes a utility, com2java.exe, that creates static Java stub proxy classes
for COM objects. ColdFusion can use these Java stubs to access COM objects more efficiently than when it creates the
proxies dynamically. Additionally, the com2java.exe utility can create stubs for features that the dynamic proxy
generator could miss.
ColdFusion ships with pregenerated stubs for the Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows 97 editions of Microsoft
Excel, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Access. ColdFusion is configured to automatically use these stubs.
If you create Java stub files for a COM object, you continue to use the cfobject tag with a type attribute value of COM,
or the CreateObject function with a first argument of COM, and you access the object properties and methods as you
normally do for COM objects in ColdFusion.
Use the following steps to use the com2java.exe utility. This procedure uses Microsoft Outlook as an example.
To create Java stub files for COM objects:
1 Configure your system as follows:
a Ensure that a JDK (Java Development Kit) is correctly installed, including proper configuration of the

CLASSPATH and the command prompt PATH variable.

b Add CF_root\lib\jintegra.jar to your CLASSPATH.
2 Make a new directory for the Java stub files; for example:
mkdir C:\src\outlookXP

This directory can be temporary. You add files from the directory to a ColdFusion JAR file.

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3 Run the CF_root\Jintegra\bin\com2java.exe program from a command line or the Windows Start Menu. A window

appears.
a If a COM class implements multiple interfaces that define methods with the same names, click the Options

button and clear the Implement interfaces that may conflict option. The generated Java stub classes do not
implement the additional, conflicting, interfaces. You can still access the interfaces using the getAsXXX method
that is generated. See the generated comments in the Java files.
b Click the Select button.
c Select your COM objects Type Library or DLL. For Microsoft Outlook in Windows XP, it is normally Program

Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\MSOUTL.OLB.
d Enter a package name (for example, outlookXP) in the Java package field in the com2java dialog box. This

package will contain all the classes for the Java stubs for the COM object.
Note: Adobe uses a package name that starts with coldfusion.runtime.com.com2java for the packages that contain
the preinstalled Java stubs for Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Access. For example, the name for
the package containing the Microsoft Word XP Java stub classes is coldfusion.runtime.com.com2java.wordXP.
This package name hierarchy results in the wordXP classes having a path inside the msapps.jar file of
coldfusion\runtime\com\com2java\wordXP\className.class. Although this naming convention is not necessary,
consider using a similar package naming convention for clarity, if you use many COM objects.
e Click the Generate Proxies button to display the File browser. Select the directory you created in step 2., and click

the file browser OK button to generate the stub files.

f

Click Close to close the com2java.exe utility.

The files generated in your directory include the following:

A Java interface and proxy class for each COM interface

A Java class for each COM class
A Java interface for each ENUM (a set of constant definitions)
4 Compile your Java code. In a command prompt, do the following:
a Make the directory that contains the Java stubs (in this example, C:\src\outlookXP) your working directory.
b Enter the following line:
javac -J-mx100m -J-ms100m *.java

The compiler switches ensure that you have enough memory to compile all the necessary files.
Note: If you did not place jintegra.jar on your CLASSPATH in step 1b, add the switch classpath:/cf_root/lib/jintegra.jar, where cf_rootis the directory where ColdFusion is installed, to the
command.
5 Ensure that the ColdFusion server is not running. To stop the ColdFusion server, open the Services control panel,

select ColdFusion application server, and click Stop.

6 Add your .class files to the ColdFusion Microsoft application Java stubs file by doing the following:
a In the Windows Command prompt, make the parent directory of the directory that contains your class files your

working directory. In this example, make c:\src your working director by entering cd .. in the Command prompt
from step 4.
b Enter the following command:
jar -uvf cf_root\lib\msapps.jar directoryName\*.class

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Where cf_root is the directory where ColdFusion is installed and directoryName is the name of the directory that
contains the class files. For the OutlookXP example, enter the following line:
jar -uvf C:\CFusion\lib\msapps.jar outlookXP\*.class

7 Update the cf_root /lib/neo-comobjmap.xml file by appending your object definition to the list. The object

definition consists of the following lines:

<var name="progID">
<string>PackageName.mainClass</string>
</var>

Use the following values in these lines:

ProgID The COM object ProgID, as displayed in the OLE/COM object viewer.
PackageName The package name you specified in step 3c.
mainClass The main class of the COM object. The main class contains the methods you invoke. For many

Microsoft applications, this class is Application. In general, the largest class file created in step 4 is the main class.
For example, to add outlookXP to neo-comobjmap.xml, add the lines in bold text above the </struct> end tag:
<var name="access.application.9">
<string>coldfusion.runtime.com.com2java.access2k.Application</string>
</var>
<var name="outlook.application.10">
<string>outlookXP.Application</string>
</var>
</struct>

In this example, outlook.application.10 is the ProgID of the Outlook COM object, outlookXP is the package name
you specified in step 3c, and Application is the main class of the COM object.
8 Restart the ColdFusion server: Open the Services control panel, select ColdFusion application server, and click

Start.
9 After you have installed the stubs, you can delete the directory you created in step 2., including all its contents.

Using the Application Scope to improve COM performance

The Java call to create a COM object instance can take substantial time. As a result, creating COM objects in
ColdFusion can be substantially slower than in ColdFusion 5. For example, on some systems, creating a Microsoft
Word application object could take over one second using ColdFusion, while on the same system, the overhead of
creating the Word object could be about 200 milliseconds.
Therefore, in ColdFusion, you can improve COM performance substantially if you can share a single COM object in
the Application scope among all pages.
Use this technique only if the following are true:

The COM object need not be created for every request or session. (For session-specific objects, consider using the
technique described here with the Session scope in place of the Application scope.)

The COM object is designed for sharing.

Because the object can be accessed from multiple pages and sessions simultaneously, also consider the following
threading and locking issues:

For best performance, make the object multi-threaded. Otherwise, only one request can access the object at a time.

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Lock the code that accesses and modifies common data. In general, you do not have to lock code that modifies a
shared objects data, including writable properties or file contents, if multiple requests do not share the data (as
opposed to the object) . However, specific locking needs depend on the COM objects semantics, interface, and
implementation.

All cflock tags in the application that use an Application scope lock share one lock. Therefore, code that accesses
a frequently used COM object inside an Application scope lock can become a bottleneck and reduce throughput if
many users request pages that use the object. In some cases, you can avoid some contention by placing code that
uses the COM object in named locks. Place the code that creates the object in an Application scope lock.
Note: You can also improve the performance of some COM objects by creating Java stubs, as described in Accessing
Complex COM Objects using Java proxies on page 1178. Using a Java stub does not improve performance as much as
sharing the COM object, but the technique works with all COM objects. Also, generate Java stubs to correctly access
complex COM objects that do not properly make all their features available through the COM IDispatcher interface.
Therefore, to get the greatest performance increase and prevent possible problems, use both techniques.
Example 1: Using the FileSystem object
The following example uses the Microsoft FileSystem Scripting object in the Application scope. This code creates a
user-defined function that returns a structure that consists of the drive letters and free disk space for all hard drives on
the system.
<cfapplication name="comtest" clientmanagement="No" Sessionmanagement="yes">
<!--- Uncomment the following line if you must delete the object from the
Application scope during debugging. Then restore the comments.
This technique is faster than stopping and starting the ColdFusion server. --->
<!--- <cfset structdelete(Application, "fso")> --->
<!--- The getFixedDriveSpace user-defined function returns a structure with
the drive letters as keys and the drive's free space as data for all fixed
drives on a system. The function does not take any arguments --->
<cffunction name="getFixedDriveSpace" returnType="struct" output=True>
<!--- If the FileSystemObject does not exist in the Application scope,
create it. --->
<!--- For information on the use of initialization variables and locking in
this code, see "Locking application variables efficiently" in Chapter 15,
"Using Persistent Data and Locking" --->
<cfset fso_is_initialized = False>
<cflock scope="application" type="readonly" timeout="120">
<cfset fso_is_initialized = StructKeyExists(Application, "fso")>
</cflock>
<cfif not fso_is_initialized >
<cflock scope="Application" type="EXCLUSIVE" timeout="120">
<cfif NOT StructKeyExists(Application, "fso")>
<cfobject type="COM" action="create" class="Scripting.FileSystemObject"
name="Application.fso" server="\\localhost">
</cfif>
</cflock>
</cfif>
<!--- Get the drives collection and loop through it to populate the

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structure. --->
<cfset drives=Application.fso.drives()>
<cfset driveSpace=StructNew()>
<cfloop collection="#drives#" item="curDrive">
<!--- A DriveType of 2 indicates a fixed disk --->
<cfif curDrive.DriveType IS 2>
<!--- Use dynamic array notation with the drive letter for the struct key
--->
<cfset driveSpace["#curDrive.DriveLetter#"]=curDrive.availablespace>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfreturn driveSpace>
</cffunction>
<!--- Test the function. Get the execution time for running the function --->
<cfset start = getTickCount()>
<cfset DriveInfo=getFixedDriveSpace()>
<h3>Getting fixed drive available space</h3>
<cfoutput>Execution Time: #int(getTickCount()-start)# milliseconds</cfoutput><br><br>
<cfdump label="Drive Free Space" var="#driveInfo#">

Example 2: Using the Microsoft Word application object

The following example uses the Microsoft Word application COM object in the Application scope to convert a Word
document to HTML. This example works with Word 2000 as written. To work with Word 97, change Val(8) to
Val(10).
This example uses an Application scope lock to ensure that no other page interrupts creating the object. Once the
Word object exists, the example uses a named lock to prevent simultaneous access to the file that is being converted.
<cfapplication name="comtest" clientmanagement="No" Sessionmanagement="yes">
<!--- Uncomment the following line if you must delete the object from the
Application scope --->
<!--- <cfset structdelete(Application, "MyWordObj")> --->
<!--- use the GetTickCount function to get a current time indicator, used for
displaying the total processing time. --->
<cfset start = GetTickCount()>
<!--- If necessary, create the Word.application object and place it in the
Application scope --->
<cfset WordObj_is_initialized = False>
<cflock scope="application" type="readonly" timeout=120>
<cfset WordObj_is_initialized = StructKeyExists(application, "MyWordObj")>
</cflock>
<cfif not WordObj_is_initialized >
<cflock scope="Application" type="exclusive" timeout="120">
<cfif not StructKeyExists(application, "MyWordObj")>
<!--- First try to connect to an existing Word object --->
<cftry>
<cfobject type="com"
action="connect"
class="Word.application"
name="Application.MyWordobj"
context="local">
<cfcatch>
<!--- No object exists, create one --->

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<cfobject type="com"
action="Create"
class="Word.application"
name="Application.MyWordobj"
context="local">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<cfset Application.mywordobj.visible = False>
</cfif>
</cflock>
</cfif>
<!--- Convert a Word document in temp.doc to an HTML file in temp.htm. --->
<!--- Because this example uses a fixed filename, multiple pages could try
to use the file simultaneously. The lock ensures that all actions from
reading the input file through closing the output file are a single "atomic"
operation, and the next page cannot access the file until the current page
completes all processing.
Use a named lock instead of the Application scope lock to reduce lock contention. --->
<cflock name="WordObjLock" type="exclusive" timeout="120">
<cfset docs = application.mywordobj.documents()>
<cfset docs.open("c:\CFusion\wwwroot\temp.doc")>
<cfset converteddoc = application.mywordobj.activedocument>
<!--- Val(8) works with Word 2000. Use Val(10) for Word 97 --->
<cfset converteddoc.saveas("c:\CFusion\wwwroot\temp.htm",val(8))>
<cfset converteddoc.close()>
</cflock>
<cfoutput>
Conversion of temp.htm Complete<br>
Execution Time: #int(getTickCount()-start)# milliseconds<br>
</cfoutput>

Getting started with CORBA

The ColdFusion cfobject tag and CreateObject function support CORBA through the Dynamic Invocation Interface
(DII). As with COM, the object's type information must be available to ColdFusion. Therefore, an IIOP-compliant
Interface Repository (IR) must be running on the network, and the object's Interface Definition Language (IDL)
specification must be registered in the IR. If your application uses a naming service to get references to CORBA objects,
a naming service must also be running on the network.
ColdFusion loads ORB runtime libraries at startup using a connector, which does not tie ColdFusion customers to a
specific ORB vendor. ColdFusion currently includes connectors for the Borland Visibroker 4.5 ORB. The source
necessary to write connectors for other ORBs is available under NDA to select third-party candidates and ORB
vendors.
configuring and enabling CORBA access in ColdFusion requires several steps. For detailed instructions, see Installing
ColdFusion.
Note: When you enable CORBA access in ColdFusion, one step requires you to start the Interface Repository using an
IDL file. This file must contain the IDL for all the CORBA objects that you invoke in ColdFusion applications on the
server.

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Creating CORBA objects

In ColdFusion, the cfobject tag and CreateObject function create a stub, or proxy object, for the CORBA object on the
remote server. You use this stub object to invoke the remote object.
The following table describes the attributes you use in the cfobject tag to create a CORBA object:
Attribute

Description

type

Must be CORBA. COM is the default.

context

Specifies the CORBA binding method, that is, how the object is obtained, as follows:

class

IOR

NameService

Uses a file containing the object's unique Interoperable Object Reference.

Uses a naming service.

Specifies the information required for the binding method to access the object.
If you set the context attribute to IOR, The class attribute must be to the full path of a file containing the string
version of the IOR. ColdFusion must be able to read this IOR file at all times, so make it local to the server or locate
it on the network in an accessible place.
If you set the context attribute to NameService, The class attribute must be a name delimited by forward
slashes (/), such as MyCompany/Department/Dev. You can use period-delimited kind identifiers as part of the
class attribute; for example, adobe.current/Eng.current/CF"

name

Specifies the name (handle) that your application uses to call the object's interface.

locale

(Optional) Identifies the connector configuration. You can omit this option if ColdFusion Administrator has only
one connector configuration, or if it has multiple connector configurations and you want to use the one that is
currently selected in the Administrator. If you specify this attribute, it must be an ORB name you specified in the
CORBA Connector ORB Name field when you configured a CORBA connector in ColdFusion Administrator; for
example, Visibroker.

For example, use the following CFML to invoke a CORBA object specified by the tester.ior file if you configured your
ORB name as Visibroker:
<cfobject action = "create" type = "CORBA" context = "IOR"
class = "d:\temp\tester.ior" name = "handle" locale = "Visibroker">

When you use the CreateObject function to invoke this CORBA object, specify the name as the function return
variable, and specify the type, class, context, and locale as arguments. For example, the following line creates the same
object as the preceding cfobject tag:
handle = CreateObject("CORBA", "d:\temp\tester.ior", "IOR", "Visibroker")

Using a naming service

Currently, ColdFusion can only resolve objects registered in a CORBA 2.3-compliant naming service.
If you use a naming service, make sure that its naming context is identical to the naming context specified in the
property file of the Connector configuration in use, as specified in the ColdFusion Administrator CORBA Connectors
page. The property file must contain the line "SVCnameroot=name" where name is the naming context being used.
The server implementing the object must bind to this context, and register the appropriate name.

Using CORBA objects in ColdFusion

After you create the object, you can invoke attributes and operations on the object using the syntax described in
Creating and using objects on page 1172.

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Using CORBA interface methods in ColdFusion

When you use the cfobject tag or the CreateObject function to create a CORBA object, ColdFusion creates a handle to
a CORBA interface: the cfobjectname attribute or the CreateObject function return variable. For example, the
following CFML creates a handle named myHandle:
<cfobject action = "create" type = "CORBA" context = "IOR"
class = "d:\temp\tester.ior" name = "myHandle" locale="visibroker">
<cfset myHandle = CreateObject("CORBA", "d:\temp\tester.ior", "IOR", "visibroker")

You use the handle name to invoke all of the interface methods, as in the following CFML:
<cfset ret=myHandle.method(foo)>

Method name case considerations

Method names in IDL are case sensitive. However, ColdFusion is not case sensitive. Therefore, do not use methods
that differ only in case in IDL.
For example, the following IDL method declarations correspond to two different methods:
testCall(in string a); // method #1
TestCall(in string a); // method #2

However, ColdFusion cannot differentiate between the two methods. If you call either method, you cannot be sure
which of the two gets invoked.
Passing parameters by value (in parameters)
CORBA in parameters are always passed by value. When calling a CORBA method with a variable in ColdFusion,
specify the variable name without quotation marks, as shown in the following example:
IDL

void method(in string a);

CFML

<cfset foo="my string">

<cfset ret=handle.method(foo)>

Passing variables by reference (out and inout parameters)

CORBA out and inout parameters are always passed by reference. As a result, if the CORBA object modifies the value
of the variable that you pass when you invoke the method, your ColdFusion page gets the modified value.
To pass a parameter by reference in ColdFusion, specify the variable name in double-quotation marks in the CORBA
method. The following example shows an IDL line that defines a method with a string variable, b, that is passed in and
out of the method by reference. It also shows CFML that calls this method.
IDL

void method(in string a, inout string b);

CFML

<cfset foo = "My Initial String">

<cfset ret=handle.method(bar, "foo")>
<cfoutput>#foo#</cfoutput>

In this case, the ColdFusion variable foo corresponds to the inout parameter b. When the CFML executes, the
following happens:
1 ColdFusion calls the method, passing it the variable by reference.
2 The CORBA method replaces the value passed in, "My Initial String", with some other value. Because the variable

was passed by reference, this action modifies the value of the ColdFusion variable.

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3 The cfoutput tag prints the new value of the foo variable.

Using methods with return values

Use CORBA methods that return values as you would any ColdFusion function; for example:
IDL

double method(out double a);

CFML

<cfset foo=3.1415>
<cfset ret=handle.method("foo")>
<cfoutput>#ret#</cfoutput>

Using IDL types with ColdFusion variables

ColdFusion supports specific CORBA data types and converts between CORBA types and ColdFusion data.
IDL support
The following table shows which CORBA IDL types ColdFusion supports, and whether they can be used as parameters
or return variables. (NA means not applicable.)
CORBA IDL type

General support

As parameters

As return value

constants

No

No

No

attributes

Yes (for properties)

NA

NA

enum

Yes (as an integer)

Yes

Yes

union

No

No

No

sequence

Yes

Yes

Yes

array

Yes

Yes

Yes

interface

Yes

Yes

Yes

typedef

Yes

NA

NA

struct

Yes

Yes

Yes

module

Yes

NA

NA

exception

Yes

NA

NA

any

No

No

No

boolean

Yes

Yes

Yes

char

Yes

Yes

Yes

wchar

Yes

Yes

Yes

string

Yes

Yes

Yes

wstring

Yes

Yes

Yes

octet

Yes

Yes

Yes

short

Yes

Yes

Yes

long

Yes

Yes

Yes

float

Yes

Yes

Yes

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CORBA IDL type

General support

As parameters

As return value

double

Yes

Yes

Yes

unsigned short

Yes

Yes

Yes

unsigned long

Yes

Yes

Yes

longlong

No

No

No

unsigned longlong

No

No

No

void

Yes

NA

Yes

Data type conversion

The following table lists IDL data types and the corresponding ColdFusion data types:
IDL type

ColdFusion type

boolean

Boolean

char

One-character string

wchar

One-character string

string

String

wstring

String

octet

One-character string

short

Integer

long

Integer

float

Real number

double

Real number

unsigned short

Integer

unsigned long

Integer

void

Not applicable (returned as an empty string)

struct

Structure

enum

Integer, where 0 corresponds to the first enumerator in the enum type

array

Array (must match the array size specified in the IDL)

sequence

Array

interface

An object reference

module

Not supported (cannot dereference by module name)

exception

ColdFusion throws an exception of type coldfusion.runtime.corba.CorbaUserException

attribute

Object reference using dot notation

Boolean data considerations

ColdFusion treats any of the following as Boolean values:

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True

"yes", "true", or 1

False

"no", "false", or 0

You can use any of these values with CORBA methods that take Boolean parameters, as the following code shows:
IDL

module Tester
{
interface TManager
{
void testBoolean(in boolean a);
void testOutBoolean(out boolean a);
void testInoutBoolean(inout boolean a);
boolean returnBoolean();
}
}

CFML

<cfset handle = CreateObject("CORBA", "d:\temp\tester.ior", "IOR", "") >

<cfset ret = handle.testboolean("yes")>
<cfset mybool = True>
<cfset ret = handle.testoutboolean("mybool")>
<cfoutput>#mybool#</cfoutput>
<cfset mybool = 0>
<cfset ret = handle.testinoutboolean("mybool")>
<cfoutput>#mybool#</cfoutput>
<cfset ret = handle.returnboolean()>
<cfoutput>#ret#</cfoutput>

Struct data type considerations

For IDL struct types, use ColdFusion structures. You can prevent errors by using the same case for structure key names
in ColdFusion as you do for the corresponding IDL struct field names.
Enum type considerations
ColdFusion treats the enum IDL type as an integer with the index starting at 0. As a result, the first enumerator
corresponds to 0, the second to 1, and so on. In the following example, the IDL enumerator a corresponds to 0, b to 1
and c to 2:
IDL

module Tester
{
enum EnumType {a, b, c};
interface TManager
{
void testEnum(in EnumType a);
void testOutEnum(out EnumType a);
void testInoutEnum(inout EnumType a);
EnumType returnEnum();
}
}

CFML

<cfset handle = CreateObject("CORBA", "d:\temp\tester.ior", "IOR", "") >

<cfset ret = handle.testEnum(1)>

In this example, the CORBA object gets called with the second (not first) entry in the enumerator.
Double-byte character considerations
If you are using an ORB that supports CORBA later than version 2.0, you do not have to do anything to support
double-byte characters. Strings and characters in ColdFusion convert appropriately to wstring and wchar data when
they are used. However, the CORBA 2.0 IDL specification does not support the wchar and wstring types, and uses the
8-bit Latin-1 character set to represent string data. In this case, you cannot pass parameters containing those
characters, however, you can call parameters with char and string types using ColdFusion string data.

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Handling exceptions
Use the cftry and cfcatch tags to catch CORBA object method exceptions thrown by the remote server, as follows:
1 Specify type="coldfusion.runtime.corba.CorbaUserException" in the cfcatch tag to catch CORBA

exceptions.
2 Use the cfcatch.getContents method to get the contents of the exception object.

The cfcatch.getContents method returns a ColdFusion structure containing the data specified by the IDL for the
exception.
The following code example shows the IDL for a CORBA object that raises an exception defined by the
PrimitiveException exception type definition, and the CFML that catches the exception and displays the contents of
the object.
IDL

interface myInterface
{
exception PrimitiveException
{
long l;
string s;
float f;
};
void testPrimitiveException() raises (PrimitiveException);
}

CFML

<cftry>
<cfset ret0 = handle.testPrimitiveException()>
<cfcatch type=coldfusion.runtime.corba.CorbaUserException>
<cfset exceptStruct= cfcatch.getContents()>
<cfdump var ="#exceptStruct#">
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

CORBA example
The following code shows an example of using a LoanAnalyzer CORBA object. This simplified object determines
whether an applicant is approved for a loan based on the information that is supplied.
The LoanAnalyzer CORBA interface has one method, which takes the following two in arguments:

An Account struct that identifies the applicants account. It includes a Person struct that represents the account
holder, and the applicants age and income.

A CreditCards sequence, which corresponds to the set of credit cards the user currently has. A member of the
CardType enumerator represents the credit card type. (This example assumes that the applicant has no more than
one of any type of card.)
The object returns a Boolean value indicating whether the application is accepted or rejected.

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The CFML does the following:

1 Initializes the values of the ColdFusion variables that are used in the object method. In a more complete example,

the information would come from a form, query, or both.

The code for the Person and Account structs is straightforward. The cards variable, which represents the applicants
credit cards, is more complex. The interface IDL uses a sequence of enumerators to represent the cards. ColdFusion
represents an IDL sequence as an array, and an enumerator as 0-indexed number indicating the position of the
selected item among the items in the enumerator type definition.
In this case, the applicant has a Master Card, a Visa card, and a Diners card. Because Master Card (MC) is the first
entry in the enumerator type definition, it is represented in ColdFusion by the number 0. Visa is the third entry, so
it is represented by 2. Diners is the fifth entry, so it is represented by 4. To represent the sequence, place these
numbers in an array. Doing so results in a three-element, one-dimensional array containing 0, 2, and 4.
2 Instantiates the CORBA object.
3 Calls the approve method of the CORBA object and gets the result in the return variable, ret.
4 Displays the value of the ret variable, Yes, or No.
IDL
struct Person
{
long pid;
string name;
string middle;
string last_name;
}
struct Account
{
Person person;
short age;
double income;
}
double loanAmountl
enum cardType {AMEX, VISA, MC, DISCOVER, DINERS};
typedef sequence<cardType> CreditCards;
interface LoanAnalyzer
{
boolean approve( in Account, in CreditCards);
}

CFML

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<!--- Declare a "person" struct ---->

<cfset p = StructNew()>
<cfif IsStruct(p)>
<cfset p.pid = 1003232>
<cfset p.name = "Eduardo">
<cfset p.middle = "R">
<cfset p.last_name = "Doe">
</cfif>
<!---- Declare an "Account" struct --->
<cfset a = StructNew()>
<cfif IsStruct(a)>
<cfset a.person = p>
<cfset a.age = 34>
<cfset a.income = 150120.50>
</cfif>
<!----- Declare a "CreditCards" sequence --->
<cfset cards = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset cards[1] = 0> <!--- corresponds to Amex --->
<cfset cards[2] = 2> <!--- corresponds to MC --->
<cfset cards[3] = 4> <!--- corresponds to Diners --->
<!---- Creating a CORBA handle using the Naming Service---->
<cfset handle = CreateObject("CORBA", "FirstBostonBank/MA/Loans",
"NameService") >
<cfset ret=handle.approve(a, cards)>
<cfoutput>Account approval: #ret#</cfoutput>

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Sending and Receiving E-Mail
You can add interactive e-mail features to your Adobe ColdFusion applications by using the cfmail and cfpop tags.
This complete two-way interface to mail servers makes the ColdFusion e-mail capability a vital link to your users.

Using ColdFusion with mail servers

Adding e-mail to your ColdFusion applications lets you respond automatically to user requests. You can use e-mail in
your ColdFusion applications in many different ways, including the following:

Trigger e-mail messages based on requests or orders from users.

Allow users to request and receive additional information or documents through e-mail.
Confirm customer information based on order entries or updates.
Send invoices or reminders, using information pulled from database queries.
ColdFusion offers several ways to integrate e-mail into your applications. To send e-mail, you generally use the Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). To receive e-mail, you use the Post Office Protocol (POP) to retrieve e-mail from the
mail server. To use e-mail messaging in your ColdFusion applications, you must have access to an SMTP server, a valid
POP account, or both.
In your ColdFusion application pages, you use the cfmail and cfpop tags to send and receive e-mail, respectively.

How ColdFusion sends mail

The ColdFusion implementation of SMTP mail uses a spooled architecture. If you select to spool mail on the Mail page
in the ColdFusion Administrator, when an application page processes a cfmail tag, the messages that are generated are
not sent immediately. Instead, they are spooled to disk and processed in the background. This architecture has two
advantages:

End users of your application are not required to wait for SMTP processing to complete before a page returns to
them. This design is especially useful when a user action causes the sending of more than a handful of messages.

Messages sent using cfmail are delivered reliably, even in the presence of unanticipated events like power outages
or server crashes.
You can set how frequently ColdFusion checks for spooled mail messages on the Mail page in the ColdFusion
Administrator. If ColdFusion is busy or has a large existing queue of messages, however, delivery can occur after the
spool interval.
Some ColdFusion editions have advanced spooling options that let you fine-tune how ColdFusion sends mail. For
more information, see Configuring and Administering ColdFusion.

Error logging and undelivered messages

ColdFusion logs all errors that occur during SMTP message processing to the file mail.log in the ColdFusion log
directory. The log entries contain the date and time of the error as well as diagnostic information about why the error
occurred.

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If a message is not delivered because of an error, ColdFusion writes it to this directory:

In Windows: \CFusion\Mail\Undelivr
On UNIX: /opt/coldfusion/mail/undelivr
The error log entry that corresponds to the undelivered message contains the name of the file written to the UnDelivr
(or undelivr) directory.
Note: To have ColdFusion try to resend a message that it could not deliver, move the message file from the Undelivr
directory to the Spool directory.
For more information about the mail logging settings in the ColdFusion Administrator, see Configuring and
Administering ColdFusion.

Sending e-mail messages

Before you configure ColdFusion to send e-mail messages, you must have access to an SMTP e-mail server. Also,
before you run application pages that access the e-mail server, you can configure the ColdFusion Administrator to use
the SMTP server. If you must override the ColdFusion Administrator SMTP server setting for any messages, you can
specify a new mail server in the server attribute of the cfmail tag.

Configure ColdFusion for e-mail

1 In the ColdFusion Administrator, select Server Settings > Mail.
2 In the Mail Server box, enter the name or IP address of your SMTP mail server.
3 (Optional) Change the Server Port and Connection Timeout default settings.
4 Select the Verify Mail Server Connection option to make sure ColdFusion can access your mail server.
5 If your mail server does not use port 25, the default, SMTP port, change the Server Port default settings.
6 Depending on your ColdFusion edition, the Mail page in the Administrator has additional options that you can use

to configure and optimize ColdFusion mail behavior. Select these options as appropriate.
7 Click Submit Changes.

ColdFusion saves the settings. The page displays a message indicating success or failure for connecting to the server.
ColdFusion Enterprise edition includes additional mail spooling and delivery features. For more information on these
features, and for information on the ColdFusion Administrator mail settings, see Configuring and Administering
ColdFusion.

Sending SMTP e-mail with the cfmail tag

The cfmail tag provides support for sending SMTP e-mail from within ColdFusion applications. The cfmail tag is
like the cfoutput tag, except that cfmail outputs the generated text as an SMTP mail message rather than to a page.
The cfmail tag supports all the attributes and commands that you use with cfoutput, including query. The following
table describes basic cfmail tag attributes that you could use to send a simple e-mail message. For a complete list of
attributes, see the cfmail description in the CFML Reference.
Attribute

Description

subject

The subject of the message.

from

The e-mail address of the sender.

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Attribute

Description

to

The e-mail address of the recipient. Use a comma-delimited list to specify multiple recipients.

cc

(Optional) The e-mail address of a carbon copy recipient. The recipient address is visible to other recipients. Use
a comma-delimited list to specify multiple cc recipients.

bcc

(Optional) The e-mail address of a blind carbon copy recipient. The recipient address is not visible to other
recipients. Use a comma-delimited list to specify multiple bcc recipients.

Send a simple e-mail message

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Sending a simple e-mail</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Sample e-mail</h1>
<cfmail
from="[email protected]"
to="#URL.email#"
subject="Sample e-mail from ColdFusion">
This is a sample e-mail message to show basic e-mail capability.
</cfmail>
The e-mail was sent.
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as send_mail.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root directory.
3 Open your browser and enter the following URL:

http://localhost:8500/myapps/[email protected]
(Replace [email protected] with your e-mail address.)
The page sends the e-mail message to you, through your SMTP server.
Note: If you do not receive an e-mail message, check whether you have configured ColdFusion to work with your SMTP
server; for more information, see Sending e-mail messages on page 1193.
The cfmail tag has many options that let you customize your mail or control how it is sent. For a description of all
attributes, including options to wrap mail text at a specified column, specify the mail character encoding, and specify
the mail server, user name, and password, see the cfmail description in the CFML Reference.

Sending HTML e-mail

If you know all the mail recipients use mail applications that are capable of reading and interpreting HTML code in a
mail message, you can use the cfmail tag to send an HTML message. The cfmail tag type="HTML" attribute informs
the receiving e-mail client that the message contains embedded HTML tags that must be processed. For an example
that sends HTML mail, see Including images in a message on page 1200.

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Sending multipart mail messages

The cfmailpart tag lets you create multipart mail messages, with each part having a different MIME type or character
set. For example, if you do not know that all recipients can interpret HTML mail messages, you can send your message
as a multipart mail with a text part and an HTML part. To do so, use two cfmailpart tags, one with the HTML version
of the message and one with the plain text message, as shown in the following example. To test this example, replace
the To attribute value with a valid e-mail address, save and run the page, and check the incoming e-mail at the address
you entered.
<cfmail from = "[email protected]" To = "[email protected]"
Subject = "Which version do you see?">
<cfmailpart
type="text"
wraptext="74">
You are reading this message as plain text, because your mail reader
does not handle HTML text.
</cfmailpart>>
<cfmailpart
type="html">
<h3>HTML Mail Message</h3>
<p>You are reading this message as <strong>HTML</strong>.</p>
<p>Your mail reader handles HTML text.</p>
</cfmailpart>
</cfmail>

Note: In the HTML version of the message, escape any number signs, such as those used to specify colors, by using two #
characters; for example, bgcolor="##C5D9E5".

Sample uses of the cfmail tag

An application page containing the cfmail tag dynamically generates e-mail messages based on the tag settings. Some
of the tasks that you can accomplish with cfmail include the following:

Sending a mail message in which the data the user enters in an HTML form determine the recipient and contents
Using a query to send a mail message to a database-driven list of recipients
Using a query to send a customized mail message, such as a billing statement, to a list of recipients that is
dynamically populated from a database

Sending form-based e-mail

In the following example, the contents of a customer inquiry form submittal are forwarded to the marketing
department. You could also use the same application page to insert the customer inquiry into the database. You
include the following code on your form so that it executes when users enter their information and submit the form:
<cfmail
from="#Form.EMailAddress#"
to="[email protected],[email protected]"
subject="Customer Inquiry">
A customer inquiry was posted to our website:
Name: #Form.FirstName# #Form.LastName#
Subject: #Form.Subject#
#Form.InquiryText#
</cfmail>

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Sending query-based e-mail

In the following example, a query (ProductRequests) retrieves a list of the customers who inquired about a product
during the previous seven days. ColdFusion sends the list, with an appropriate header and footer, to the marketing
department:
<cfmail
query="ProductRequests"
from="[email protected]"
to="[email protected]"
subject="Widget status report">
Here is a list of people who have inquired about
MyCompany Widgets during the previous seven days:
<cfoutput>
#ProductRequests.FirstName# #ProductRequests.LastName# (#ProductRequests.Company#) #ProductRequests.EMailAddress#&##013;
</cfoutput>
Regards,
The webmaster
[email protected]
</cfmail>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code:
Code

Description

<cfoutput>
#ProductRequests.FirstName#
#ProductRequests.LastName#
(#ProductRequests.Company#) #ProductRequests.EMailAddress#&##013;
</cfoutput>

Presents a dynamic list embedded within a normal message,

repeating for each row in the ProductRequests query. Because the
cfmail tag specifies a query, the cfoutput tag does not use a query
attribute. The &##013; forces a carriage return between output
records.

Sending e-mail to multiple recipients

In addition to simply using a comma-delimited list in the to attribute of the cfmail tag, you can send e-mail to multiple
recipients by using the query attribute of the cfmail tag. The following examples show how you can send the same
message to multiple recipients and how you can customize each message for the recipient.
Sending a simple message to multiple recipients
In the following example, a query (BetaTesters) retrieves a list of people who are beta testing ColdFusion. This query
then notifies each beta tester that a new release is available. The contents of the cfmail tag body are not dynamic. What
is dynamic is the list of e-mail addresses to which the message is sent. Using the variable #TesterEMail#, which refers
to the TesterEmail column in the Betas table, in the to attribute, enables the dynamic list:

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<cfquery name="BetaTesters" datasource="myDSN">

SELECT * FROM BETAS
</cfquery>
<cfmail query="BetaTesters"
from="[email protected]"
to="#BetaTesters.TesterEMail#"
subject="Widget Beta Four Available">
To all Widget beta testers:
Widget Beta Four is now available
for downloading from the MyCompany site.
The URL for the download is:
http://beta.mycompany.com
Regards,
Widget Technical Support
[email protected]
</cfmail>

Customizing e-mail for multiple recipients

In the following example, a query (GetCustomers) retrieves the contact information for a list of customers. The query
then sends an e-mail to each customer to verify that the contact information is still valid:

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<cfquery name="GetCustomers" datasource="myDSN">

SELECT * FROM Customers
</cfquery>
<cfmail query="GetCustomers"
from="[email protected]"
to="#GetCustomers.EMail#"
subject="Contact Info Verification">
Dear #GetCustomers.FirstName# We'd like to verify that our customer
database has the most up-to-date contact
information for your firm. Our current
information is as follows:
Company Name: #GetCustomers.Company#
Contact: #GetCustomers.FirstName# #GetCustomers.LastName#
Address:
#GetCustomers.Address1#
#GetCustomers.Address2#
#GetCustomers.City#, #GetCustomers.State# #GetCustomers.Zip#
Phone: #GetCustomers.Phone#
Fax: #GetCustomers.Fax#
Home Page: #GetCustomers.HomePageURL#
Please let us know if any of this
information has changed, or if we must
get in touch with someone else in your
organization regarding this request.
Thanks,
Customer Service
[email protected]
</cfmail>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:

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Code

Description

<cfquery name="GetCustomers" datasource="myDSN">

SELECT * FROM Customers
</cfquery>

Retrieves all data from the Customers table into a query named
GetCustomers.

<cfmail query="GetCustomers"
from="[email protected]"
to="#GetCustomers.EMail#"
subject="Contact Info Verification">

Uses the to attribute of cfmail, the #GetCustomers.Email# query

column causes ColdFusion to send one message to the address listed
in each row of the query. Therefore, the mail body does not use a
cfoutput tag.

Dear #GetCustomers.FirstName# -

Uses other query columns (#GetCustomers.FirstName#,

#GetCustomers.LastName#, and so on) within the cfmail section
to customize the contents of the message for each recipient.

......
Company Name: #GetCustomers.Company#
Contact: #GetCustomers.FirstName#
#GetCustomers.LastName#
Address:
#GetCustomers.Address1#
#GetCustomers.Address2#
#GetCustomers.City#, #GetCustomers.State#
#GetCustomers.Zip#
Phone: #GetCustomers.Phone#
Fax: #GetCustomers.Fax#
Home Page: #GetCustomers.HomePageURL#

Digitally signing e-mail

To add digital signature to your mail, specify the attributes sign, keystore, keystorepassword, keyalias, and
keypassword as provided in the following example:
<cfmail from="[email protected]" server="sendmail.myCo.com" sign="true"
keystore="C:\OpenSSL\bin\hello.jks" keystorepassword="digital" to="[email protected]"
keyalias="crypto" keypassword="signature" subject="Mail with Digital Signature">

To add digital signature to all the mails you send, instead of adding the attributes to the tag, specify the settings in the
Server Settings > Settings page of the ColdFusion Administrator.
The supported keystores are JKS and PKCS12.
Due to import control restrictions in various countries, the policy files (local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar)
support only limited cryptography. If the key strength exceeds the limit, you might encounter the error suggesting that
the keystore cannot be loaded. If you are from an eligible country, you can download the unlimited strength version of
the policy files and replace the default cryptography JAR files with them. The files are available on the Java SDK web site.

Using the cfmailparam tag

You use the cfmailparam tag to include files in your message or add a custom header to an e-mail message. You can
send files as attachments or display them inline in the message. You nest the cfmailparam tag within the cfmail tag.

Attaching files to a message

You can use one cfmailparam tag for each attachment, as the following example shows:

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<cfmail from="[email protected]"
to="[email protected]"
subject="Requested Files">
Jake,
Here are the files you requested.
Regards,
Dan
<cfmailparam file="c:\widget_launch\photo_01.jpg">
<cfmailparam file="c:\widget_launch\press_release.doc">
</cfmail>

Use a fully qualified system path for the file attribute of cfmailparam. The file must be located on a drive on the
ColdFusion server machine (or a location on the local network), not the browser machine.

Including images in a message

You can use the cfmailparam to include images from other files in an HTML message, as follows:
1 Place a cfmailparam tag for each image following the cfmail start tag.
2 In each cfmailparam tag, do the following

Set the file attribute to the location of the image.

Specify disposition="inline"
Set the contentID attribute to a unique identifier; for example, myImage1.
3 In the location in your HTML where you want the message included, use an img tag such as the following:
<img src="cid:myImage1">

The following example shows a simple mail message with an inline image. In this case, the image is located between
paragraphs, but you could include it directly inline with the text. To test this example, replace the cfmailto parameter
with a valid e-mail address and change the file parameter to the path to a valid image.
<cfmail type="HTML"
to = "[email protected]"
from = "[email protected]"
subject = "Sample inline image">
<cfmailparam file="C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\web.gif"
disposition="inline"
contentID="image1">
<P>There should be an image here</p>
<img src="cid:image1">
<p> This text follows the picture</p>
</cfmail>

Adding a custom header to a message

When the recipient of an e-mail message replies to the message, the reply is sent, by default, to the address specified in
the From field of the original message. You can use the cfmailparam tag to provide a Reply-To e-mail address that tells
the mail client to override the value in the From field. Using cfmailparam, the reply to the following example is
addressed to [email protected]:

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<cfmail from="[email protected]"
to="[email protected]"
subject="Requested Files">
<cfmailparam name="Reply-To" value="[email protected]">
Dan,
Thanks very much for the sending the widget press release and graphic.
I'm now the company's Widget Master and am accepting e-mail at
[email protected].
See you at Widget World 2002!
Jake
</cfmail>

Note: You can combine the two uses of cfmailparam within the same ColdFusion page. Write a separate cfmailparam
tag for each header and for each attached file.

Receiving e-mail messages

You create ColdFusion pages to access a Post Office Protocol (POP) server to retrieve e-mail message information.
ColdFusion can then display the messages (or just header information), write information to a database, or perform
other actions.
The cfpop tag lets you add Internet mail client features and e-mail consolidation to applications. Although a
conventional mail client provides an adequate interface for personal mail, in many cases an alternative interface to
some mailboxes is advantageous. You use cfpop to develop targeted mail clients to suit the specific needs of a wide
range of applications. The cfpop tag does not work with the other major e-mail protocol, Internet Mail Access
Protocol (IMAP).
Here are three instances in which implementing POP mail makes sense:

If your site has generic mailboxes that more than one person reads ([email protected]), it can be more
efficient to construct a ColdFusion mail front end to supplement individual user mail clients.

In many applications, you can automate mail processing when the mail is formatted to serve a particular purpose;
for example, when subscribing to a list server.

If you want to save e-mail messages to a database.

Using cfpop with your POP server is like running a query on your mailbox contents. You set its action attribute to
retrieve either headers (using the GetHeaderOnly value) or entire messages (using the GetAll value) and assign it a
name value. You use the name to access the recordset that cfpop returns, for example, when using the cfoutput tag. To
access a POP server, you also must define the server, username, and password attributes.
Note: If the cfpop tag encounters an error, such as an improperly formatted e-mail message, when retrieving messages,
it tries to ignore the error; it returns empty fields in the result structure and retrieves any available messages.
For more information on the cfpop tag syntax and variables, see the CFML Reference.

Using the cfpop tag

Use the following steps to add POP mail to your application.
Implement the cfpop tag in your application
1 Choose the mailboxes to access within your ColdFusion application.

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2 Determine which mail message components you must process: message header, message body, attachments, and

so on.
3 Decide whether you must store the retrieved messages in a database.
4 Decide whether to delete messages from the POP server after you retrieve them.
5 Incorporate the cfpop tag in your application and create a user interface for accessing a mailbox.
6 Build an application page to handle the output. Retrieved messages can include characters that do not display

properly in the browser.

You use the cfoutput tag with the HTMLCodeFormat and HTMLEditFormat functions to control output to the
browser. These functions convert characters with special meanings in HTML, such as the less than (<), greater than
(>), and ampersand (&) symbols, into HTML-escaped characters, such as &lt;, &gt;, and &amp;. The HTMLCodeFormat
tag also surrounds the text in a pre tag block.

The cfpop query variables

Like any ColdFusion query, each cfpop query returns variables that provide information about the record:
RecordCount The total number of records returned by the query.
ColumnList A list of the headings of the columns that the query returns.
CurrentRow The current row of the query that cfoutput, or cfloop in a query-driven loop, is processing.

The query includes one variable that the cfquery tag does not return: the UID variable contains the unique identifier
of the e-mail message file.
You can reference these properties in a cfoutput tag by prefixing the query variable with the query name in the name
attribute of cfpop:
<cfoutput>
This operation returned #Sample.RecordCount# messages.
</cfoutput>

Handling POP mail

You use cfpop tag to manage mail. You can specify the messages to act on. You can get message headers, messages, and
attachments, and you can delete messages.

Specifying the message or messages

For all cfpop actions, you can tell the tag to perform the action on all messages, or to do it on selected messages. To
operate on all messages, for example to get all message headers, do not specify a messageNumber or UID attribute. To
operate on specific messages, for example, to delete three selected messages, specify a messageNumber or UID attribute
with a comma-delimited list of messages to act on.

Retrieving message headers

To retrieve message headers without getting the messages, specify action="GetHeaderOnly" in the cfpop tag.
Whether you use cfpop to retrieve the header or the entire message, ColdFusion returns a query object that contains
one row for each message in the specified mailbox. you specify the query object name in the cfpop tag name attribute.
The query has the following fields:

date
from

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header (A string with all the mail header fields, including entries that have separate fields in the query object)
messageNumber (The sequential number of the message in the POP server; identical to the row number of the entry
in the query object)

messageID (The mail header Message-ID field)

replyTo
subject
cc
to
UID (The mail header X-UID field)
The cfpop tag with the getHeaderOnly attribute retrieves any file attachments if you specify an attachmentPath
attribute; otherwise, it does not get the attachments, and the attachmentfiles column contains empty strings.
Retrieve only the message header
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>POP Mail Message Header Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>This example retrieves message header information:</h2>
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#
action="GetHeaderOnly"
name="Sample">
<cfoutput query="Sample">
MessageNumber: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.messageNumber)# <br>
To: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.to)# <br>
From: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.from)# <br>
Subject: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.subject)# <br>
Date: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.date)#<br>
Cc: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.cc)# <br>
ReplyTo: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.replyTo)# <br><br>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Edit the following lines so that they use valid values for your POP mail server, user name, and password:
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#

3 Save the file as header_only.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in your web browser:

This code retrieves the message headers and stores them in a cfpop recordset called Sample. For more information
about working with recordset data, see Using Query of Queries on page 428.

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The HTMLCodeFormat function replaces characters that have meaning in HTML, such as the less than (<) and greater
than (>) signs that can surround detailed e-mail address information, with escaped characters such as &lt; and &gt;.
In addition, you can process the date returned by cfpop with the ParseDateTime function, which accepts an argument
for converting POP date/time objects into a CFML date-time object.
You can reference any of these columns in a cfoutput tag, as the following example shows:
<cfoutput>
#ParseDateTime(queryname.date, "POP")#
#HTMLCodeFormat(queryname.from)#
#HTMLCodeFormat(queryname.messageNumber)#
</cfoutput>

Retrieving messages
When you use the cfpop tag with action="GetAll", ColdFusion returns the same columns as with getheaderonly,
plus the following additional columns:

attachments (A tab-delimited list of attachment filenames)

attachmentfiles (A tab-delimited list of paths to the attachment files retrieved to the local server, if any. You get the
files only if you specify an attachmentpath attribute.)

body
htmlbody
textbody
If the message is multipart, the htmlbody and textbody fields contain the contents of the HTML and plain text parts,
and the body field has the first part in the message. If the message has only one part, the body contains the message,
and either the htmlbody or textbody field, depending on the message type, also has a copy of the message.
Retrieve entire messages
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head><title>POP Mail Message Body Example</title></head>
<body>
<h2>This example adds retrieval of the message body:</h2>
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#
action="GetAll"
name="Sample">
<cfoutput query="Sample">
MessageNumber: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.messageNumber)# <br>
To: #Sample.to# <br>
From: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.from)# <br>
Subject: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.subject)# <br>
Date: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.date)#<br>
Cc: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.cc)# <br>
ReplyTo: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.replyTo)# <br>
<br>
Body:<br>
#Sample.body#<br>
<br>
Header:<br>
#HTMLCodeFormat(Sample.header)#<br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Edit the following lines so that they use valid values for your POP mail server, user name, and password:
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#

3 Save the file as header_body.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in your web browser:

This example does not use a CFML function to encode the body contents. As a result, the browser displays the
formatted message as you would normally see it in a mail program that supports HTML messages.

Retrieving messages and attachments

When you use the cfpop tag with an attachmentpath attribute to specify the directory in which to store attachments,
ColdFusion retrieves any attachment files from the POP server and saves them in the specified directory. The cfpop
tag fills the attachmentfiles field with a tab-separated list of the locations of the attachment files. Use the cffile tag to
delete these temporary files when they are no longer needed. ColdFusion creates the directory if it does not exist.
(ColdFusion must have the appropriate rights on the system to create the directory.)
If a message has no attachments, the attachments and attachmentfiles columns contain empty strings.
Note: CFML does not provide a way to change the name of a mail attachment returned by cfpop before it tries to save
the file. If the attachment name is invalid for the file system on which ColdFusion is running, the attachment cannot be
saved.

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Retrieve all parts of a message, including attachments

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>POP Mail Message Attachment Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>This example retrieves message header,
body, and all attachments:</h2>
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#
action="GetAll"
attachmentpath="c:\temp\attachments"
name="Sample">
<cfoutput query="Sample">
MessageNumber: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.MessageNumber)# <br>
To: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.to)# <br>
From: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.from)# <br>
Subject: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.subject)# <br>
Date: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.date)# <br>
Cc: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.cc)# <br>
ReplyTo: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.ReplyTo)# <br>
Attachments: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.Attachments)# <br>
Attachment Files: #HTMLEditFormat(Sample.AttachmentFiles)# <br>
<br>
Body:<br>
#Sample.body# <br>
<br>
Header:<br>
HTMLCodeFormat(Sample.header)# <br>
<hr>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Edit the following lines so that they use valid values for your POP mail server, user name, and password:
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#

3 Save the file as header_body_att.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in your web browser:

Note: To avoid duplicate filenames when saving attachments, set the generateUniqueFilenames attribute of cfpop to Yes.

Deleting messages
Using the cfpop tag to delete a message permanently removes it from the server. By default, retrieved messages remain
on the POP mail server. To delete the messages, set the action attribute of the cfpop tag to Delete. Use the
messagenumber attribute to specify the messages to delete; omit the attribute to delete all the users messages from the
server.

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Note: Message numbers are reassigned at the end of every POP mail server communication that contains a delete action.
For example, if you retrieve four messages from a POP mail server, the server returns the message numbers 1,2,3,4. If you
delete messages 1 and 2 with a single cfpop tag, messages 3 and 4 are assigned message numbers 1 and 2, respectively.
Delete messages
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>POP Mail Message Delete Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>This example deletes messages:</h2>
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#username#
password=#password#
action="Delete"
messagenumber="1,2,3">
</body>
</html>

2 Edit the following lines so that they use valid values for your POP mail server, user name, and password:
<cfpop server="mail.company.com"
username=#myusername#
password=#mypassword#

3 Save the file as message_delete.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view the file in your web

browser.
4 Run the header_only.cfm page that you created to confirm that the messages have been deleted.

Important: When you view this page in your web browser, ColdFusion immediately deletes the messages from the POP
server.

Interacting with Microsoft Exchange Servers

You can use Adobe ColdFusion to interact with Microsoft Exchange servers to send, get, and manage mail; and to
create, get, and manage calendar events, connections, and tasks.

Using ColdFusion with Microsoft Exchange servers

ColdFusion can interact with the Microsoft Exchange server to perform the following actions:
Item

Actions

Mail messages

get, get attachments, get meeting information, move to a different folder, delete, delete attachments, set
properties

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Item

Actions

Calendar events

create, get, get attachments, delete, delete attachments, modify, respond

Contacts

create, get, get attachments, delete, delete attachments, modify

Tasks

create, get, get attachments, delete, delete attachments, modify

To perform these actions, you use the following ColdFusion tags:

Tag

Purpose

cfexchangeconnection

Opens and closes persistent connections between an application and the Exchange server.
Gets information about subfolders of the Inbox.

cfexchangecalendar

Creates, gets, and manages calendar events.

cfexchangecontact

Creates, gets, and manages contacts.

cfexchangemail

Gets and manages mail messages. Does not send mail.

cfmail

Sends mail to the exchange server.

cfexchangetask

Creates, gets, and manages tasks.

cfexchangefilter

Specifies the criteria to get specific items. Used only as a child of the cfexchangecalendar,
cfexchangecontact, cfexchangemail, and cfexchangetask tags that specify the get action.

The following list describes a few of the activities you can do using ColdFusion with the Exchange server:

Build a customized Exchange web client interface.

View information about upcoming tasks.
Create mailing lists based on contact entries.
Automatically add tasks to users task lists based on new bug reports or customer contacts.
Schedule meetings and appointments.
Show and manage meeting attendee availability.

Managing connections to the Exchange server

To communicate with an Exchange server, establish a connection with the server. The connection can use the HTTP
protocol or the HTTPS protocol. By default, ColdFusion connects to the mailbox that belongs to the login user name,
but you can also connect to any mailbox whose owner has delegated access rights to the login user name. You can also
access the server by using a proxy host.
Note: To establish any connection, the Exchange server must grant the login user Outlook web access. For information
on how to enable this access, see Enabling Outlook web access on page 1209.
Connections to the server can be persistent or transient:

A persistent connection lasts until you explicitly close it. Persistent connections let you use a single connection for
multiple tasks, which saves the processing overhead of opening and closing a separate connection for each
interaction with the Exchange server.

A transient connection lasts for the duration of the tag that interacts with the Exchange server. Transient
connections are a useful technique on ColdFusion pages where you only have to access the Exchange server for a
single tag; for example, where you only get a set of contacts.

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Enabling access to the Exchange server

To enable access to the Exchange server, ensure the following:

The Exchange server, Exchange access, and WebDav access are configured in IIS.
The Exchange server enables Outlook web access to all login users.
If you are using HTTPS to log into the exchange server, you have a valid client certificate in the JRE certificate store.
Ensure that IIS is configured for access to the Exchange server
1 Open the IIS manager from the Administrative Tools control panel on the machine where the Exchange server is
installed.
2 Expand the Web Sites node in the tree on the left pane. If you see Exchange there, the web application is configured

for Exchange. If you do not see it, follow the Microsoft instructions for configuring Exchange in the website
3 Click the Web Service Extension node in the tree on the left pane. The right pane shows Web Service Extensions

and their status. Make sure that Microsoft Exchange Server and WebDav entries are both allowed. If either entry is
prohibited, select it and click the Allow button.
Enabling Outlook web access
To establish any connection, the Exchange server must grant the login user Outlook web access.
Check and grant web access
1 In the Exchange administrator, open Administrative Tools > Active Directory Users and Computers > your domain
name > users.
2 Right-click the user whose ID you use to establish connections.
3 Select the Exchange Features tab.
4 In the Protocols section, enable the Outlook Web Access entry if it is disabled.

Enabling HTTPS access to the Exchange server

To enable HTTPS access from ColdFusion to the Exchange server you must

Enable SSL on the Exchange server system

Ensure that the JRE certificate store has a valid client certificate
Enabling SSL on the Exchange server system
Use the following steps to enable SSL on the Exchange server system:
1 On the system where the Exchange server is installed, open the IIS manager from the Administrative Tools control

panel.
2 In the tree on the left pane, expand the Web Sites node,
3 Right-click Exchange and ExchWeb in the expanded list and open the Web Site Properties dialog, then click the

Directory Security tab.

4 In the Secure Communications section, click Edit to open the Secure Communications dialog. Select the Require

secure channel (SSL) option, click OK, and click Apply.

As an alternative to steps 3 and 4, you could do the following: Right-click Default Web Site. In Secure
Communications->Edit, check the Require secure channel (SSL) option, click OK, and Click Apply. Select the nodes
(for example Exchange) for which to enable SSL.

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Enabling HTTPS access on the ColdFusion server

To use HTTPS to access the exchange server, you must have a valid client certificate in the JRE certificate store. If a
known authority did not issue the certificate on the Exchange server, install a certificate. The Java certificate store
already contains certificates from some authorities.
You can ask your system administrator to give you a certificate that you can install on the ColdFusion server, or you
can do the following:
1 Open Outlook Web Access in Internet Explorer and go to File->Properties.
2 Click the certificates button.
3 Click the Details tab and the 'Copy To File' button on the tab. Then follow the wizard options to save the certificate.

To install the certificate, run the following command using keytool.exe, which is in the jre\bin folder:
keytool.exe -importcert -file <path_to_certificate_file> -keystore ..\lib\security\cacerts

Note: The keytool.exe program requires you to enter a password. The default password is changeit.

Using persistent connections

To open a persistent connection, you use the cfexchangeconnection tag and specify the open action, the server IP
address or URL, the user name, and the name of the connection (which you use in subsequent tags to specify the
connection). You typically also specify a password, and can specify several other attributes, including a proxy host or
a delegate mailbox ID. For details, see cfexchangeconnection in the CFML Reference.
Persistent connections use HTTP or HTTPS protocol with the keepAlive property set to true. As a result, the
connections do not automatically close at the end of an HTTP request or ColdFusion page. Close the connection when
you are done using it. If you do not, ColdFusion retains the connection until an inactivity time-out period elapses, after
which, ColdFusion recovers the connection resources.
Note: You can store a connection in a persistent scope, such as the Application scope, and reuse it on multiple pages.
However, you get no advantage by doing so, because the connections are lightweight and you get no substantial
performance gain if you use a persistent scope.
The following example opens a connection, gets all mail sent from spamsource.com, and deletes the messages from the
Exchange server:
<cfexchangeConnection
action = "open"
username = "#user1#"
password = "#password1#"
server = "#exchangeServerIP#"
connection = "conn1">
<cfexchangemail action = "get" name = "spamMail" connection = "conn1">
<cfexchangefilter name = "fromID" value = "spamsource.com">
</cfexchangemail>
<cfloop query="spamMail">
<cfexchangemail action = "delete" connection = "conn1"
uid = "#spamMail.uid#">
</cfloop>
<cfexchangeConnection
action = "close"
connection = "conn1">

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Using transient connections

Transient connections last only as long as the tag that uses them takes to complete processing. To create a transient
connection, you specify the connection directly in your action tag (such as cfexchangetask) by using the same
attributes as you do in the cfexchangeconnection tag (except for the connection name).
The following example uses a transient connection to create a single task:
<!--- Create a structure with the task fields. --->
<cfscript>
stask = StructNew();
stask.Priority = "high";
stask.Status = "Not_Started";
stask.DueDate = "3:00 PM 09/14/2007";
stask.Subject = "My New Task";
stask.PercentCompleted = 0;
Message = "Do this NOW!";
</cfscript>
<!--- Create the task by using a transient connection. --->
<cfexchangetask action = "create"
username = "#user1#"
password = "#password1#"
server = "#exchangeServerIP#"
task = "#stask#"
result = "theUID">
<!--- Display the UID to confirm that the action completed. --->
<cfdump var = "#theUID#">

Accessing delegated accounts

In Exchange, one user can grant, or delegate, another user access rights to their account. Users can delegate reviewer
(read-only), author (read/write), or editor (read-write-delete) rights to any combination of the calendar, contacts,
Inbox, or task list.
Note: You cannot use ColdFusion to delegate access rights.
To access the delegators account as a delegated user, specify the following information:

Specify the delegated users user name and password in the username and password attributes.
Specify the mailbox name of the account that you are accessing in the mailboxName attribute.
You can access the account in a cfexchangeconnection tag that opens a persistent connection, or in a ColdFusion
Exchange tag that uses a transient connection.
For example, if access rights to the docuser3 account are delegated to docuser4, you can use the
cfexchangeconnection tag as in the following example to open a connection to the docuser3 account by using
docuser4s credentials:
<cfexchangeconnection action="open"
connection="theConnection"
server="myexchangeserver.mycompany.com"
username="docuser4"
password="secret"
mailboxName="docuser3">

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You can use this connection for any activities that docuser3 has delegated to docuser4. If docuser3, for example, has
only delegated reviewer rights to the calendar, you can use this connection only with the cfexchangecalendar tag
with get and getAttachments attributes.

Creating Exchange items

You can create Exchange events, contacts, and tasks by using the cfexchangecalendar, cfexchangecontact, or
cfexchangetask tag, respectively, and specifying an action attribute value of create. You create mail messages by
using the cfmail tag to send the message. For information on sending mail, see Sending and Receiving E-Mail on
page 1192.
When you create a calendar event, contact, or task, you specify the action, the connection information (persistent
connection name or transient connection attributes) and an attribute that specifies a structure with the information
you are adding. You can also specify a result variable that contains the value of the Exchange UID for the entry that
you create. You can use this UID to identify the entry in tags that modify or delete the entry.
The name of the attribute that you use to specify the entry information varies with the tag you are using, as follows:
Tag

Attribute

cfexchangecalendar

event

cfexchangecontact

contact

cfexchangetask

task

Enclose in number signs (#) the variable that contains the details of the event, contact, or task data, as in the following
example:
<cfexchangecalendar action="create" connection="myConn" event="#theEvent#"
result="resultUID">

The contents of the entry information structure depend on the tag. For details of the structure contents, see
cfexchangecalendar, cfexchangecontact, and cfexchangetask in the CFML Reference.
Note: To create an Exchange calendar appointment, create a calendar event and do not specify any required or optional
attendees.
The following example lets a user enter information in a form and creates a contact on the Exchange server with the
information:

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<!--- Create a structure to hold the contact information. --->

<cfset sContact="#StructNew()#">
<!--- A self-submitting form for the contact information --->
<cfform format="flash" width="550" height="460">
<cfformitem type="html"><b>Name</b></cfformitem>
<cfformgroup type="horizontal" label="">
<cfinput type="text" label="First" name="firstName" width="200">
<cfinput type="text" label="Last" name="lastName" width="200">
</cfformgroup>
<cfformgroup type="VBox">
<cfformitem type="html"><b>Address</b></cfformitem>
<cfinput type="text" label="Company" name="Company" width="435">
<cfinput type="text" label="Street" name="street" width="435">
<cfinput type="text" label="City" name="city" width="200">
<cfselect name="state" label="State" width="100">
<option value="CA">CA</option>
<option value="MA">MA</option>
<option value="WA">WA</option>
</cfselect>
<cfinput type="text" label="Country" name="Country" width="200"
Value="U.S.A.">
<cfformitem type="html"><b>Phone</b></cfformitem>
<cfinput type="text" validate="telephone" label="Business"
name="businessPhone" width="200">
<cfinput type="text" validate="telephone" label="Mobile"
name="cellPhone" width="200">
<cfinput type="text" validate="telephone" label="Fax" name="fax"
width="200">
<cfformitem type="html"><b>Email</b></cfformitem>
<cfinput type="text" validate="email" name="email" width="200">
</cfformgroup>
<cfinput type="Submit" name="submit" value="Submit" >
</cfform>

<!--- If the form was submitted, fill the contact structure from it. --->
<cfif isDefined("Form.Submit")>
<cfscript>
sContact.FirstName=Form.firstName;
sContact.Company=Form.company;
sContact.LastName=Form.lastName;
sContact.BusinessAddress.Street=Form.street;
sContact.BusinessAddress.City=Form.city;
sContact.BusinessAddress.State=Form.state;

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sContact.BusinessAddress.Country=Form.country;
sContact.BusinessPhoneNumber=Form.businessPhone;
sContact.MobilePhoneNumber=Form.cellPhone;
sContact.BusinessFax=Form.fax;
sContact.Email1=Form.email;
</cfscript>
<!--- Create the contact in Exchange --->
<cfexchangecontact action="create"
username ="#user1#"
password="#password1#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
contact="#sContact#"
result="theUID">
<!--- Display a confirmation that the contact was added. --->
<cfif isDefined("theUID")>
<cfoutput>Contact Added. UID is#theUID#</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>

For another example of creating items, which creates a task, see Using transient connections on page 1211.

Getting Exchange items and attachments

You can get calendar events, contacts, mail messages, and tasks from the Exchange server. You can also get
attachments to these items.
Getting an exchange item and its attachments can require multiple operations.

To get mail that is not directly in the Inbox, specify the path from the root of the mailbox to the mail folder, and
you can get items from only a single mail folder at a time. You can use the cfexchangeconnection tag to get the
names, paths, and sizes of all folders in a mailbox, and can use the results to iterate over the folders.

To get an attachment to an item, you must first get the item, and then use the item UID to get its attachments.
If an Exchange item contains a message with inline images, the images are available as attachments. You can get the
attachments, use the attachment CID to locate the image in the message, and display the image inline.
Note: The getattachment action does not always populate the CID field for HTML mail that contains inline
attachments, such as images. This problem occurs because some Exchange clients do not always set the CID values if
the attachments are sent inline.

Getting and using folder names

To get the names of folders in the mailbox, or the subfolders of a particular folder, use the cfexchangeconnection tag
with the getSubfolders action. This action returns a query with a row for each subfolder. The query has three
columns:

folder name
full path from the mailbox to the folder, including the Inbox
folder size, in bytes
You can specify the folder whose subfolders you are getting and whether to recursively get all levels of subfolders.

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You can use a folder path from the getSubfolders action in the cfexchangemail tag folder attribute to specify the
folder that contains the mail message that requires action. If you do not specify a folder, the cfexchangemail tag
searches only the top level of the Inbox for the message on which to act.
To perform operations on mail from multiple folders, including getting mail items or attachments, you can loop over
the entries in the query returned by the getSubfolders action, as the following example shows. This example
generates a report of all declined meeting messages in the Inbox and all its subfolders.
<!--- Create a connection. --->
<cfexchangeConnection
action="open"
username ="#user2#"
password="#password2#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
connection="conn1">
<!--- Get the names and paths to all subfolders. --->
<cfexchangeconnection action="getSubfolders" connection="conn1"
name="folderInfo" folder="Inbox" recurse="yes">
<!--- Get the information from the Inbox top level.
The getSubfolders results do not include an Inbox row. --->
<cfexchangemail action="get" connection="conn1"
name="theResponses">
<cfexchangefilter name="MessageType" value="Meeting_Response">
</cfexchangemail>
<!--- Use a query of queries to select only the declined meetings. --->
<!--- You cannot use cfexchangefilter to filter for the meeting response type. --->
<cfquery dbtype="query" name="theResponses">
SELECT * FROM theResponses
WHERE MEETINGRESPONSE = 'Decline'
</cfquery>
<!--- Loop through the subfolders and get the meeting responses from each
folder. --->
<cfloop query="folderInfo">
<cfexchangemail action="get" connection="conn1"
name="#folderinfo.foldername#">
<cfexchangefilter name="folder" value="#folderinfo.folderpath#">
<cfexchangefilter name="MessageType" value="Meeting_Response">
</cfexchangemail>
<!--- Use the evaluate function to get the name of the folder. --->
<cfset meetingData=evaluate(folderinfo.foldername)>
<!--- Use a query of queries with a UNION clause to add this folder's
results to the theResponses query. --->

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<cfquery dbtype="query" name="theResponses">

SELECT * FROM meetingData
WHERE MEETINGRESPONSE = 'Decline'
UNION
SELECT * FROM theResponses
</cfquery>
</cfloop>
<!--- Close the connection. --->
<cfexchangeConnection
action="close"
connection="conn1">
<!--- Display the results. --->
<h3>The Declined Responses:</h3>
<cftable query="theResponses" colheaders="yes" border="yes">
<cfcol header="From" text="#FROMID#">
<cfcol header="Subject" text="#SUBJECT#">
<cfcol header="Message" text="#MESSAGE#">
</cftable>

Getting items
You get one or more events, contacts, mail messages, or tasks from the Exchange server by using a cfexchangecalendar,
cfexchangecontact, cfexchangemail, or cfexchangetask tag, respectively, and specifying an action attribute value of
get. ColdFusion returns the items in a query object that you specify in the name attribute. You determine the items to
get by specifying selection conditions in cfexchangefilter child tags. The code to get items from the Exchange server
has the following pattern:
<cfexchange***
action="get"
name="results query object name"
connection information>
<cfexchangefilter
name="filter type"
value"filter value>
<cfexchangefilter
name="data/time filter type"
from="start date/time"
to="end date/time">
.
.
.
</cfexchange>

The following rules determine how you get items:

You can have zero or more cfexchangefilter tags.

If you do not specify a maxrows field in the structure specified by the name attribute, ColdFusion gets a
maximum of 100 items. To get more items, specify a maxrows field value greater than 100.

If you specify multiple cfexchangefilter tags with differentname attributes, ColdFusion gets all items that
match all of the specified conditions.

If you specify multiple cfexchangefilter tags with identicalname attributes ColdFusion gets the items that
match only the last tag with the duplicate name attribute.

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The name attributes correspond to field names in the Exchange item records. The valid values for the name
attributes depend on the type of item you are getting. For detailed lists of the valid values, see the corresponding tag
references in the CFML Reference.

If the name attribute specifies a field that takes text or numeric information, you use the value attribute to specify
the condition.

If the name attribute specifies a field that takes a date, time, or date and time, you use the from and to attributes to
specify the range. You can omit one of these attributes to specify an open-ended range, such as all dates up to and
including December 1, 2007.

Date ranges are inclusive. The selected items include ones with the specified to or from dates.
You cannot use the empty string as a value attribute to search for an empty value. To find entries where a particular
field has an empty value, get all entries and use a query of queries to filter the results to include only entries where
the field is empty.

In fields that take text strings such as Message and or Subject, ColdFusion returns items that contain the exact
phrase that you specify in the value attribute.

When you use the cfexchangemail tag, ColdFusion gets only items a single folder. If you include a filter for a
folder, ColdFusion gets items that are directly in the Inbox only and does not search any subfolders. For an example
of getting information from multiple folders, see Getting and using folder names on page 1214.
When ColdFusion gets the results, it creates the query object specified in the name attribute, if it does not exist, and
populates each row with a single item such as a mail message. The query columns depend on the type of item. For
example, a mail message has FromID and ToID fields, and a contact has FirstName and LastName fields. For detailed
information on the returned structures, see the corresponding tag in the CFML Reference.
The query results for all types of items have two columns:

A UID column with the unique ID of the item. You use this value to specify the item when you delete, modify, or
(for calendar entries) respond to it. You also use the UID value to get the item attachments.

A HasAttachments column with a Boolean value specifying whether the item has any attachments. If this field is
true, you can use the getAttachments action to get the attachments.
The following example gets the mail messages that were sent during the last week to the docuser1 user from any e-mail
address that includes adobe.com. To keep this code short, the example uses the cfdump tag to show the results.
<cfset rightNow = Now()>
<cfset lastWeek = DateAdd("d","-7", rightNow)>
<cfexchangemail action="get" name="weeksMail"
username ="#user1#" password="#password1#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#">
<cfexchangefilter name="FromID" value="adobe.com">
<cfexchangefilter name="TimeSent" from="#lastWeek#" to="#rightNow#">
</cfexchangemail>
<cfdump var="#weeksMail#">

Getting item attachments

To get the attachments to an Exchange contact, event, message, or task, use a ColdFusion Exchange tag with a
getAttachments action. Also specify the following information in the tag:

The UID of the message that contains the attachment or attachments.

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The name of the query to hold the information about the returned attachments. When the tag completes
processing, the query object contains one record for each retrieved attachment. The query has six columns that
contain the filename, complete path to the saved attachment file, MIME type, file size, CID value (or an empty
string) and an indicator that shows whether the attachment is a message.

The path where the attachment is saved. (If you omit the path, ColdFusion does not get the attachments, but does
get the information about the attachments.)

Optionally, whether to create unique filenames by appending numbers to the names when two or more attachments
have the same names. (The default is to not create unique filenames.)
The following ColdFusion Exchange tag gets all attachments to the message identified by the theUID variable, saves
them in the C:/temp/cf_files/attachments directory, and stores information about the attachments in the attachInfo
structure:
<cfexchangemail action="getattachments"
connection="myconn1"
uid="#theUID#"
name="#attachInfo#"
attachmentPath="C:/temp/cf_files/attachments"
generateUniqueFilenames="true">

To get message attachments, you must have the UID of the message and know that the message has attachments. Use
a ColdFusion Exchange tag, such as cfexchangemail, with the get action to determine this information. When the
tag completes processing, the query specified by the name attribute includes the following columns:

The HasAttachments field is true if a message has one or more attachments

The UID field contains the Exchange UID of the item. The exact UID format depends on the type of item; event,
contact, message, or task.
You can use these fields in your decision logic that determines whether to get attachments for a message and
determines the message UID.
The following example gets the attachments to all mail messages from docuser2 in the last week. It places each
messages attachments in a directory whose name is the hexadecimal part of the message UID. For each message with
attachments, the application reports subject and date of the message, followed by a table listing the messages
attachments. The table includes the attachment name, MIME type, and size.
Notice that if a message has multiple attachments with the same name, the attachment information query always lists
the attachments with their original, duplicate names, even if you specify generateUniqueFilenames="true". The
generateUniqueFilenames attribute only affects the names of the files on disk. The attachmentFilePath column of
the attachment information structure does have the unique filenames, however.

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<cfset rightNow = Now()>

<cfset lastWeek = DateAdd("d","-7", rightNow)>
<cfexchangeconnection
action="open"
username ="#user1#"
password="#password1#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
connection="conn1">
<cfexchangemail action="get" folder="Inbox/MailTest" name="weeksMail"
connection="conn1">
<cfexchangefilter name="FromID" value="docuser2">
<cfexchangefilter name="TimeSent" from="#lastWeek#" to="#rightNow#">
</cfexchangemail>
<cfloop query="weeksMail">
<cfif weeksmail.HasAttachment>
<!--- The UID is surrounded in <> characters and has an @ character.
Extract the hexadecimal number part for use as a directory name. --->
<cfset atpos=Find('@', weeksMail.UID)>
<cfset shortUID=Mid(weeksMail.UID, 2, atpos-2)>
<cfexchangemail action="getAttachments"
connection="conn1"
folder="Inbox/MailTest"
uid="#weeksMail.uid#"
name="attachData"
attachmentPath="C:/temp/cf_files/attachments/#shortUID#"
generateUniqueFilenames="true">
<cfoutput>
Directory #shortUID# contains these attachments to the
following message:<br />
Subject: #weeksMail.Subject#<br />
Sent: #dateFormat(weeksmail.TimeSent)#<br />
<cftable query="attachData" colheaders="true">
<cfcol header="Filename" text="#attachmentFilename#">
<cfcol header="Size" text="#size#">
<cfcol header="MIME type" text="#mimeType#">
</cftable>
</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfexchangeconnection
action="close"
connection="conn1">

Displaying images inline

If an HTML message includes inline images, the Exchange server saves the images as attachments. Take the following
steps to display the images in the retrieved message:
1 Use cfexchangemail tag get action to get the mail message.

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2 Use cfexchangemail tag getattachments action to get the message attachments. Specify the UID of the mail

message you got in the previous step. Also specify an attachmentPath attribute value that is under your web root,
so that you can access the saved files by using a URL.
3 Search through the HTMLMessage field text that you got in step 1 and find the image items. Get the CID (content

ID) value for each image.

4 Search the attachments query that you got in step 1. For each row with a CID column value that you got in step 3,

get the corresponding attachmentFilePath column value.

5 Replace every img tag src attribute value with the attachmentFilePath field value that corresponds to the cid

value.
6 Display the resulting HTML.

The following example shows how to display a message with an inline image by retrieving the image from the
attachments.
<!--- Open the connection to the Exchange server. --->
<cfexchangeconnection
action="open"
username = "#user1#"
password = "#password1#"
server = "#exchangeServerIP#"
connection = "testconn">
<!--- Get the mail message. --->
<cfexchangeMail action="get" connection ="testconn" name="getMail">
<cfexchangeFilter name="Subject" value="sample inline image">
</cfexchangeMail>
<cfdump var="#getMail#">
<!--- The following code assumes we found only one matching message. --->
<cfoutput query="getMail">
<cfset theUID = #getMail.UID#>
<cfset htmlmessage = getMail.htmlmessage>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Get the message attachments. --->
<CFExchangeMail action="getAttachments" UID ="#theUID#" connection="testconn"
name="attachments"
attachmentPath="C:\ColdFusion8\wwwroot\My_Stuff\cfexchange\Book\attachments"
generateuniquefilenames="no">
<!--- Extract the image names from the mail message --->
<!--- Initialize the index into the message used in finding --->
<cfset findstart = 1>
<!--- Use an index loop to find all image source entries in the message --->
<!--- This example supports up to 25 inline images --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="25">
<!--- find a cid: entry --->
<cfset stringStart[i] = Find('"cid:', htmlmessage, findstart)>
<!--- Exit the loop if no match was found --->
<cfif (stringstart[i] EQ 0)>
<cfbreak>
</cfif>

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<!--- Increment the string index used in finding images. --->

<cfset findstart = stringstart[i] +5 >
<!--- Get text to the right of BADCHARcid:.BADCHAR
Using a string length of 30 should get more than the image name. --->
<cfset rightpart[i]=Mid(htmlmessage, findstart, 30)>
<!--- use the ListFirst function to remove all the text starting
at the quotation mark. --->
<cfset imagename[i]=ListFirst(rightpart[i], '"')>
<!--- Loop over the attachments query and find the CID. --->
<cfloop query="attachments">
<!--- Replace the image name with the contents of the attachment --->
<cfif attachments.CID EQ imagename[i]>
<cfset htmlmessage = Replace(htmlmessage,"cid:#imagename[i]#",
"attachments/#attachments.ATTACHMENTFILENAME#")>
</cfif>
</cfloop>
</cfloop>
<h3>The full mail message</h3>
<cfoutput>#htmlmessage#</cfoutput>
<cfexchangeconnection
action="close"
connection = "testconn">

Modifying Exchange items

You can modify any elements of calendar, contact, and task items that you can set in ColdFusion. For mail message,
you can change the Importance, Sensitivity, and IsRead flags, and you can move the mail messages between
folders.
Note: If an item has attachments and you specify attachments when you modify the item, the new attachments are added
to the previous attachments; they do not replace them. Use the deleteAttachments action to remove any obsolete or
changed attachments.

Modifying calendar, contact, and task items

You can modify calendar, contact, and task items by using the cfexchangecalendar, cfexchangecontact, or
cfexchangetask tag with an action attribute value of modify. You specify a contact, event, or task attribute with
a structure that contains the item properties that you want to change, and their new values. You do not have to specify
the values for properties that you are not changing. To change the end time of a calendar task, for example, you specify
only an EndTime field in the event attribute structure.
The following example lets you create, and then modify a calendar event. When you first submit the form, ColdFusion
creates the calendar event and redisplays the form with the data you entered. Accept the event before you modify the
form and resubmit it. When you submit the form a second time, ColdFusion sends the modification information. For
information about accepting events, see Working with meetings and appointments on page 1225.
The following example resends all the event data (to limit the example length), but you could change the example so
that it only sends modified data. This example also omits recurrence information to keep the code relatively simple:

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<!--- Initialize the form.eventID to 0, to indicate a new event. --->

<!--- The EventID field is a hidden field managed by this application. --->
<cfparam name="form.eventID" default="0">
<!--- If the form was submitted, populate an event structure from it. --->
<cfif isDefined("Form.Submit")>
<cfscript>
sEvent=StructNew();
sEvent.AllDayEvent="false";
sEvent.Subject=Form.subject;
if (IsDefined("Form.allDay")) {
sEvent.AllDayEvent="true";
sEvent.StartTime=createDateTime(Year(Form.date), Month(Form.date),
Day(Form.date), 8, 0, 0);
}
else {
sEvent.StartTime=createDateTime(Year(Form.date), Month(Form.date),
Day(Form.date), Hour(Form.startTime), Minute(Form.startTime), 0);
sEvent.EndTime=createDateTime(Year(Form.date), Month(Form.date),
Day(Form.date), Hour(Form.endTime), Minute(Form.endTime), 0);
}
sEvent.Location=Form.location;
sEvent.RequiredAttendees=Form.requiredAttendees;
sEvent.OptionalAttendees=Form.optionalAttendees;
//sEvent.Resources=Form.resources;
if (Form.reminder NEQ "") {
sEvent.Reminder=Form.reminder;
}
else {
sEvent.Reminder=0;
}
sEvent.Importance=Form.importance;
sEvent.Sensitivity=Form.sensitivity;
sEvent.message=Form.Message;
</cfscript>
<!--- If the form is being submitted for the first time,
create an event. --->
<cfif form.eventID EQ 0>
<!--- Create the event in Exchange --->
<cfexchangecalendar action="create"
username ="#user1#"
password="#password1#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
event="#sEvent#"
result="theUID">
<!--- Display the new event UID and set form.eventID to it. --->
<cfif isDefined("theUID")>
<cfoutput>Event Added. UID is #theUID#</cfoutput>
<cfset Form.eventID = theUID >
</cfif>
<cfelse>
<!--- The form is being resubmitted with new data; update the event. --->
<cfexchangecalendar action="modify"
username ="#user1#"
password="#password1#"

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server="#exchangeServerIP#"
event="#sEvent#"
uid="#Form.eventID#">
<cfoutput>Event ID #Form.eventID# Updated.</cfoutput>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<!--- A self-submitting form for the event information --->
<cfform format="xml" preservedata="true" style="width:500" height="600">
<cfinput type="text" label="Subject" name="subject" style="width:435">
<br />
<cfinput type="checkbox" label="All Day Event" name="allDay">
<cfinput type="datefield" label="Date" name="date" validate="date"
style="width:100">
<cfinput type="text" label="Start Time" name="startTime" validate="time"
style="width:100">
<cfinput type="text" label="End Time" name="endTime" validate="time"
style="width:100"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Location" name="location"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Required Attendees" name="requiredAttendees"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Optional Attendees" name="optionalAttendees"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Resources" name="resources"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Reminder (minutes)" validate="integer"
name="reminder" style="width:200">
<cfselect name="importance" label="Importance" style="width:100">
<option value="normal">Normal</option>
<option value="high">High</option>
<option value="low">Low</option>
</cfselect>
<cfselect name="sensitivity" label="Sensitivity" style="width:100">
<option value="normal">Normal</option>
<option value="company-confidential">Confidential</option>
<option value="personal">Personal</option>
<option value="private">Private</option>
</cfselect>
<cfinput type="textarea" label="Message" name="message" style="width:435;
height:100">
<cfinput type="hidden" name="eventID" value="#Form.EventID#">
<cfinput type="Submit" name="submit" value="Submit" >
</cfform>

Setting mail attributes

To set a mail messages Importance, Sensitivity, or IsRead flag, use the cfexchangemail tag with an action
attribute value of set. Specify only the flags that you are changing in the message attribute.
The following example snippet implements a catch-up operation by changing the IsRead flag to true on all mail
messages that are directly in the Inbox and are more than two weeks old. The example does not change the flags on
any messages in folders in the Inbox; to do so, use a separate cfexchangemail tag for each folder. For information on
accessing and using multiple folders, see Getting and using folder names on page 1214.

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<!--- Create a structure with a true IsRead field --->

<cfset changeValues.IsRead="true">
<!--- Open the connection. --->
<cfexchangeConnection
action="open"
username ="#user1#"
password="#password1#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
connection="conn1">
<!--- Get the mail in the Inbox that is at least two weeks old. --->
<cfexchangemail action="get" name="oldMail" connection="conn1">
<cfexchangefilter name="timeSent" from="01/01/2000"
to="#DateAdd("d","-14", Now())#">
</cfexchangemail>
<!--- Loop through the resulting oldMail query and set the IsRead indicator
to true. --->
<cfloop query="oldMail">
<cfexchangemail action="set"
connection="conn1"
message="#changeValues#"
uid="#oldMail.uid#">
</cfloop>
<!--- Close the connection. --->
<cfexchangeConnection
action="close"
connection="conn1">

Moving mail between folders

To move a one or more mail messages from one folder to another, use the cfexchangemail tag move action, as shown
in the following code snippet, which moves all messages with the subject Rams and Ewes from the Unread folder in
the Inbox to the Sheep folder in the inbox.
<cfexchangemail action="move" connection="con1" folder="Inbox/Unread"
destinationfolder="Inbox/Sheep">
<cfexchangefilter name="subject" value="Rams and Ewes">
</cfexchangemail>

Deleting Exchange items and attachments

To delete an exchange item, use the ColdFusion Exchange tag with the action attribute of delete and specify the item
UID. Deleting the exchange item deletes all attachments
To delete only the attachments to an exchange item, use the ColdFusion Exchange tag with the action attribute of
deleteAttachments and specify the item UID,
This example deletes all meeting requests in the Inbox for meetings that have passed, but does not delete any requests
in folders in the Inbox. To delete requests in the Inbox, use a separate cfexchangemail tag for each folder. For
information on accessing and using multiple folders, see Getting and using folder names on page 1214.

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<cfexchangeconnection
action="open"
username ="#user#"
password="#password#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
connection="conn1">
<!--- Get all meeting notifications from the Inbox. --->
<cfexchangemail action="get" name="requests" connection="conn1">
<cfexchangefilter name="MessageType" value="Meeting">
</cfexchangemail>
<!--- Get the meeting request data and put it in an array. --->
<cfset i=1>
<cfset meetingData=ArrayNew(1)>
<cfloop query="requests">
<cfexchangemail action="getmeetinginfo" connection="conn1"
name="meeting" meetinguid="#MeetingUID#" mailUID="#UID#">
<cfset meetingData[i]=meeting>
<cfset i=i+1>
</cfloop>
<!--- Loop through the request data array and delete any outdated
meeting messages from the Inbox. --->
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(meetingData)#" >
<cfif meetingData[i].StartTime LTE now()>
<cfexchangemail action="delete" connection="conn1"
UID="#meetingData[i].UID#">
</cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfexchangeconnection
action="close"
connection="conn1">

For another example that deletes all mail from a known spam address, see Using persistent connections on
page 1210.

Working with meetings and appointments

The following techniques apply specifically to calendar events and the notices about meetings that you get in your mail
Inbox:

How to get detailed information about meeting requests, cancellation notices, and responses to invitations
How to specify event recurrence

Working with meeting notices and requests

Your mailbox gets a meeting notice when someone takes any of the following actions:

Sends you a meeting request

Cancels a meeting in your calendar
Responds to a meeting request that you sent and tells Exchange to notify you

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The information provided by the cfexchangemail tag with the get action does not provide detailed information
about meeting. It only includes the following meeting-related information:

The event UID

The type of message type: a meeting request, response, or cancellation
If the message is a response to a meeting request, an indication whether the meeting was accepted, declined, or
tentatively accepted
Also, a meeting request does not appear in your calendar (so you cannot get detailed information about it using the
cfexchangecalendar tag) until you accept it.
To get detailed information about a meeting message, use the cfexchangemail tag with the getMeetingInfo action.
After getting the information, you can take the necessary action, such as using an cfexchangecalendar tag with the
response action to accept or decline a meeting request.
Get meeting message details and respond to meeting requests
1 Get the mail messages that contain the meeting notifications by using a cfexchangemail tag with an action
attribute value of get and a cfexchangefilter child tag with the following attributes:

A name attribute with a value MessageType

A value attribute with a value of Meeting, Meeting_Request, Meeting_Response, or Meeting_Cancel. A
value of Meeting gets all meeting notifications.
You can use additional cfexchangefilter tags to further limit the messages you get.
When the cfexchangemail tag completes processing, the MeetingUID column of the structure specified by the
cfexchangemail tag name attribute contains the UIDs of the meetings.
2 For each meeting, get the information about the meeting by using a cfexchangemail tag with the following

attributes:

An action attribute value of getMeetingInfo.

A meetingUID attribute value with the value from the MeetingUID column of the structure specified by the
cfexchangemail tag name attribute.

(Optional) A mailuid attribute with the UID of the message that contained the meeting notification. Use this
attribute to identify a specific message if the Inbox contains multiple messages about a single meeting.
3 Use the information returned in step 2 in application-specific logic to determine the required messages and actions.

For example, you could display all meeting requests in a form that lets a user submit a response to each message.
4 To respond to a meeting request, use the cfexchangecalendar tag with an action value of respond and set the

following the attributes:

Set the uid attribute to the Meeting UID you received in step 2. Do not use the Message UID.
Specify a responseType value of accept, decline, or tentative.
(Optional) Specify a notify value of true (the default value) or false to control whether the event owner
receives a meeting response message.

If the owner receives a notification, you can also specify a message attribute with a text message that is included
in the response.
The following example shows how you can use this process. It displays all meeting invitations in the Inbox and lets the
user respond to each request and send a message with the response:

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<cfexchangeconnection
action="open"
username ="#user2#"
password="#password2#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
connection="conn1">
<cfif isDefined("Form.Submit")>
<!--- When the form has been submitted, send the responses. --->
<cfloop index="k" from="1" to="#Form.responses#">
<cfset resp = Form["response" & k] >
<cfset msg = Form["respMessage" & k] >
<cfset msguid = Form["UID" & k] >
<cfexchangecalendar action="respond" connection="conn1"
uid="#msguid#" responseType="#resp#" message="#msg#">
<cfoutput><h4>Response #k# sent!</h4></cfoutput>
</cfloop>
<cfelse>
<!--- Get all messages with meeting Requests. --->
<cfexchangemail action="get" name="requests" connection="conn1">
<cfexchangefilter name="MessageType" value="Meeting_Request">
</cfexchangemail>
<!--- Get the meeting request data. --->
<cfloop query="requests">
<cfexchangemail action="getmeetinginfo" connection="conn1"
name="meeting" meetinguid="#MeetingUID#">
<cfset meetingData[requests.currentrow]=meeting>
</cfloop>
<!--- Display the invitation data in a form. --->
<cfform name="bar">
<cfloop index="j" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(meetingData)#">
<cfoutput>
<h3>Meeting Request #j#</h3>
Subject: #meetingData[j].Subject# <br />
Sensitivity: #meetingData[j].Sensitivity# <br />
Organizer: #meetingData[j].Organizer# <br />
All Day?: #meetingData[j].AllDayEvent# <br />
Day: #DateFormat(meetingData[j].StartTime)#&nbsp;&nbsp;
Starts: #TimeFormat(meetingData[j].StartTime)#&nbsp;&nbsp;
Ends: #TimeFormat(meetingData[j].EndTime)# <br />
Duration: #meetingData[j].Duration# <br />
Location: #meetingData[j].Location# <br />
Message: #meetingData[j].Message# <br />
</cfoutput>
<!--- Specify the response to this invitation. --->
<h4>response:</h4>
<cfinput type="radio" checked name="response#j#" value="accept">

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Accept
<cfinput type="radio" name="response#j#" value="decline">Decline
<cfinput type="radio" name="response#j#" value="tentative">Tentative
<br />
<cftextarea name="respMessage#j#" label="Message (optional)"
width="300" height="200" />
<cfinput type="hidden" name="UID#j#"
value="#meetingData[j].MeetingUID#">
<hr />
</cfloop>
<cfinput type="hidden" name="responses"
value="#ArrayLen(meetingData)#">
<cfinput type="Submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</cfform>
</cfif>
<cfexchangeconnection
action="close"
connection="conn1">

For an example that gets information about all declined meeting messages in the Inbox and all its subfolders, see the
example in Getting and using folder names on page 1214.

Specifying Calendar recurrence

To create an event that recurs multiple times, you specify the following fields in the event attribute structure:

Set the IsRecurring field to true.

Specify a RecurrenceType field value of DAILY, WEELY, MONTHLY, or YEARLY.
(Optional) Specify one of the following mutually exclusive fields: RecurrenceCount, RecurrenceEndDate, or
RecurrenceNoEndDate.

Note: If you omit all three of these fields, the event is created with no end date, and if you specify a count or end date,
the RecurrenceNoEndDate value is automatically false; therefore, Specify a RecurrenceNoEndDate field only if you
are changing an existing event with a recurrence count or end date to one with no end date.

Specify the recurrence details in additional fields that depend on the recurrence type.
To change an event recurrence, including to change whether the event recurs, you specify only the fields whose values
change. To stop an event from recurring, set the IsRecurring field to false. To convert an event from nonrecurring
to recurring, set the IsRecurring field to true and set all the necessary recurrence fields.
The following sections describe how to specify each type of recurrence. For detailed descriptions of the fields that you
use, see cfexchangecalendar in the CFML Reference.
Note: If you specify a recurrence rule that conflicts with the start date that you specify, the first occurrence of the event is
on first day following the start date that conforms to the rule, not on the start date. For example, if you schedule an event
for the second Tuesday of the month, and specify a start date of June 2, 2007, the first occurrence of the event is on June
12, 2007.
Specifying daily recurrence
To set a recurrence that is based on days, you do one of the following:

Define a RecurrenceFrequency field to specify the frequency of the event, in days. To schedule a meeting for every
third day, for example, specify RecurrenceFrequency="3".

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Specify RecurEveryWeekDay="true" to specify a meeting that is held five days a week.

You cannot use daily recurrence to schedule a single event that occurs a multiple number of times, but only on week
days. To schedule such an event, specify a weekly recurrence with multiple recurrence days.
The following CFScript code sample sets daily recurrence for every three days and sets the event to occur 20 times:
IsRecurring="true";
RecurrenceType="DAILY";
RecurrenceCount="20";
RecurrenceFrequency="3";

Specifying weekly recurrence

You can create an event that always occurs on the same day or days of the week, and occurs every week or every several
weeks by specifying RecurrenceType="WEEKLY". You use the following fields to control the frequency:

Define a RecurrenceFrequency field to specify the frequency of the event, in weeks. If you omit this field, the event
occurs every week. To schedule a meeting for every fourth week, for example, specify RecurrenceFrequency="4".

Specify a

RecurrenceDays field with a comma-delimited list of one of more of the following strings: MON, TUE, WED,

THUR, FRI, SAT, SUN. If you omit this attribute, the event recurs on the day of the week determined by the startTime

field value.
The following CFScript code sample sets an event that occurs on Tuesday and Thursday of every other week until
December 3, 2007.
IsRecurring="true";
RecurrenceType="WEEKLY";
RecurrenceEndDate="12/13/2007";
RecurrenceFrequency="2";
RecurrenceDays="TUE,THU;

Specifying monthly recurrence

You can create an event that always occurs on a monthly basis, or occurs every several months by specifying
RecurrenceType="MONTHLY". You can schedule two types of events:

Events that occur on the same date of each scheduled month, for example, on the tenth day of every three months.
Events that occur on the same week of the month and the same day of the week, for example, on the second thursday
of every month, or on the last Friday of every six months.
To specify a date-based monthly event, you only specify the recurrence type, and, if the recurrence is not every month,
the frequency. ColdFusion schedules the event to occur on the day of the week determined by the startTime field
value. To schedule a meeting that occurs on the start date every four months, specify the following recurrence fields:
IsRecurring="true";
RecurrenceType="MONTHLY";
RecurrenceFrequency="4";

To specify an event that occurs on the same day of the week, specify the following fields in addition to
RecurrenceType:

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Field

Description

RecurrenceFrequency

The frequency of the event, in months. If you omit this field, the event occurs every month.

RecurrenceWeek

The week of the month on which the event occurs. Valid values are first, second, third, fourth,
and last.

RecurrenceDay

The day of the week on which the event occurs. Valid values are SUN, MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, and SAT.

The following CFScript code sample sets an event that occurs on the third Thursday of every three months:
IsRecurring="true";
RecurrenceType="Monthly";
RecurrenceFrequency="3";
RecurrenceWeek="third";
RecurrenceDay="THU";

Specifying yearly recurrence

You can create an event that always occurs on a yearly basis by specifying RecurrenceType="YEARLY". You can
schedule two types of events:

Events that occur on the same date of each year, for example, on every August 10.
Events that occur on a specific day week and month, for example, on the second Thursday of August.
To specify a date-based yearly event, you only specify the recurrence type. ColdFusion schedules the event to occur
each year on the date determined by the startTime field value. To schedule a meeting that occurs on the start date
every year, specify the following recurrence fields:
IsRecurring="true";
RecurrenceType="YEARLY";

To specify an event that occurs on the same day of the week and month each year, specify the following fields in
addition to RecurrenceType:
Field

Description

RecurrenceMonth

The month of the year which the event occurs. Valid values are JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG,
SEP, OCT, NOV, and DEC.

RecurrenceWeek

The week of the month during which the event occurs. Valid values are first, second, third,
fourth, and last.

RecurrenceDay

The day of the week on which the event occurs. Valid values are SUN, MON, TUE, WED, THU, FRI, and SAT.

The following CFScript code sample sets an event that occurs on the third Thursday of August three months:
IsRecurring="true";
RecurrenceType="YEARLY";
RecurrenceMonth="AUG";
RecurrenceWeek="third";
RecurrenceDay="THU";

Example: Setting calendar recurrence

The following example lets you create events with all types of recurrence. To limit the code length, it does not prevent
you from attempting to create events with invalid field combinations. When you submit the form, if an event is created,
the form redisplays, preceded by a dump that shows the field values that were used to create the event, and the event
UID. You cannot resubmit the form to modify the event, but you can change some values in the form and create an
event.

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<!--- Create a structure to hold the event information. --->

<cfparam name="form.eventID" default="0">
<!--- If the form was submitted, populate the event structure from it. --->
<cfif isDefined("Form.Submit")>
<cfscript>
sEvent.AllDayEvent="false";
sEvent=StructNew();
sEvent.Subject=Form.subject;
if (IsDefined("Form.allDay")) {
sEvent.AllDayEvent="true";
sEvent.StartTime=createDateTime(Year(Form.date), Month(Form.date),
Day(Form.date), 8, 0, 0);
}
else {
sEvent.StartTime=createDateTime(Year(Form.date), Month(Form.date),
Day(Form.date), Hour(Form.startTime), Minute(Form.startTime), 0);
sEvent.EndTime=createDateTime(Year(Form.date), Month(Form.date),
Day(Form.date), Hour(Form.endTime), Minute(Form.endTime), 0);
}
sEvent.Location=Form.location;
sEvent.RequiredAttendees=Form.requiredAttendees;
sEvent.OptionalAttendees=Form.optionalAttendees;
//sEvent.Resources=Form.resources;
if (Form.reminder NEQ "") {
sEvent.Reminder=Form.reminder;
}
else {
sEvent.Reminder=0;
}
sEvent.Importance=Form.importance;
sEvent.Sensitivity=Form.sensitivity;
//Recurrence Fields
if (IsDefined("Form.isRecurring")) {
sEvent.IsRecurring="true";}
if (IsDefined("Form.recurrenceNoEndDate")) {
sEvent.RecurrenceNoEndDate="true";}
if (Form.recurrenceCount NEQ "") {
sEvent.RecurrenceCount=Form.recurrenceCount;}
if (Form.recurrenceEndDate NEQ "") {
sEvent.RecurrenceEndDate=createDateTime(Year(Form.recurrenceEndDate),
Month(Form.recurrenceEndDate), Day(Form.recurrenceEndDate), 0, 0,
0);}
sEvent.RecurrenceType=Form.recurrenceType;
if (Form.recurrenceFrequency NEQ "") {
sEvent.recurrenceFrequency=Form.recurrenceFrequency;}
if (IsDefined("Form.recurEveryWeekDay")) {
sEvent.RecurEveryWeekDay="true";}
if (Form.recurrenceDays NEQ "") {
sEvent.RecurrenceDays=Form.recurrenceDays;}
if (Form.recurrenceDay NEQ "") {
sEvent.RecurrenceDay=Form.recurrenceDay;}
if (Form.recurrenceWeek NEQ "") {
sEvent.RecurrenceWeek=Form.recurrenceWeek;}
if (Form.recurrenceMonth NEQ "") {
sEvent.RecurrenceMonth=Form.recurrenceMonth;}

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sEvent.message=Form.Message;
</cfscript>
<cfdump var="#sEvent#">
<!--- Create the event in Exchange. --->
<cfexchangecalendar action="create"
username ="#user1#"
password="#password1#"
server="#exchangeServerIP#"
event="#sEvent#"
result="theUID">
<!--- Output the UID of the new event --->
<cfif isDefined("theUID")>
<cfoutput>Event Added. UID is#theUID#</cfoutput>
<cfset Form.eventID = theUID >
</cfif>
</cfif>
<cfform format="xml" preservedata="true" style="width:500" height="700">
<cfinput type="text" label="Subject" name="subject" style="width:435">
<br />
<cfinput type="checkbox" label="All Day Event" name="allDay">
<cfinput type="datefield" label="Date" name="date" validate="date"
style="width:100">
<cfinput type="text" label="Start Time" name="startTime" validate="time"
style="width:100">
<cfinput type="text" label="End Time" name="endTime" validate="time"
style="width:100"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Location" name="location"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Required Attendees" name="requiredAttendees"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Optional Attendees" name="optionalAttendees"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Resources" name="resources"
style="width:435"><br />
<cfinput type="text" label="Reminder (minutes)" validate="integer"
name="reminder" style="width:200">
<cfselect name="importance" label="Importance" style="width:100">
<option value="normal">Normal</option>
<option value="high">High</option>
<option value="low">Low</option>
</cfselect>
<cfselect name="sensitivity" label="Sensitivity" style="width:100">
<option value="normal">Normal</option>
<option value="company-confidential">Confidential</option>
<option value="personal">Personal</option>
<option value="private">Private</option>
</cfselect>
<hr />
<!--- Recurrence Information --->
<cfinput type="checkbox" label="IsRecurring" name="isRecurring">
<cfinput type="checkbox" label="RecurrenceNoEndDate" name="noEndDate">
<cfinput type="text" label="RecurrenceCount" validate="integer"
required="false" name="recurrenceCount">
<cfinput type="text" label="RecurrenceEndDate" validate="date"

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required="false" name="recurrenceEndDate">
<cfselect name="RecurrenceType" label="Recurrence Type"
style="width:100">
<option value="DAILY">Daily</option>
<option value="WEEKLY">Weekly</option>
<option value="MONTHLY">Monthly</option>
<option value="YEARLY">Yearly</option>
</cfselect>
<cfinput type="text" label="RecurrenceFrequency" validate="integer"
name="recurrenceFrequency">
<cfinput type="checkbox" label="RecurEveryWeekDay"
name="recurEveryWeekDay">
<cfinput type="text" label="RecurrenceDays" name="recurrenceDays">
<cfinput type="text" label="RecurrenceDay" name="recurrenceDay">
<cfselect name="RecurrenceWeek" label="RecurrenceWeek" style="width:100">
<option value=""></option>
<option value="first">First</option>
<option value="second">Second</option>
<option value="third">Third</option>
<option value="fourth">Fourth</option>
<option value="last">Last</option>
<cfinput type="text" label="RecurrenceMonth" name="recurrenceMonth">
</cfselect>
<hr />
<cfinput type="textarea" label="Message" name="message" style="width:300;
height:100">
<cfinput type="Submit" name="submit" value="Submit" >
</cfform>

Interacting with Remote Servers

Adobe ColdFusion wraps the complexity of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
communications in a simplified tag syntax that lets you extend your site offerings across the web.

About interacting with remote servers

Transfer protocols are mechanisms for moving files and information from a source to one or more destinations. Two
of the more common protocols are the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
ColdFusion has the cfhttp and cfftp tags that let you use these protocols to interact with remote servers.
The cfhttp tag lets you receive a web page or web-based file, just as a web browser uses HTTP to transport web pages.
When you type a URL into a web browser, you make an HTTP request to a web server. With the cfhttp tag, you can
display a web page, send variables to a ColdFusion or CGI application, retrieve specialized content from a web page,
and create a ColdFusion query from a text file. You can use the Get or Post methods to interact with remote servers.
The cfftp tag takes advantage of the main purpose of FTPtransporting files. Unlike HTTP, FTP was not designed
to interact with other servers for processing and interacting with data. After you establish an FTP connection with the
cfhttp tag, you can use it to upload, download, and manage files and directories.

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Using cfhttp to interact with the web

The cfhttp tag, which lets you retrieve information from a remote server, is one of the more powerful tags in the CFML
tag set. You can use one of two methodsGet or Postto interact with a remote server using the cfhttp tag:

Using the Get method, you can only send information to the remote server in the URL. This method is often used
for a one-way transaction in which cfhttp retrieves an object.

Using the Post method, you can pass variables to a ColdFusion page or CGI program, which processes them and
returns data to the calling page. The calling page then appears or further processes the data that was received. For
example, when you use cfhttp to Post to another ColdFusion page, that page does not appear. It processes the
request and returns the results to the original ColdFusion page, which then uses the information as appropriate.

Using the cfhttp Get method

You use Get to retrieve files, including text and binary files, from a specified server. The retrieved information is stored
in a special variable, cfhttp.fileContent. The following examples show several common Get operations.
Retrieve a file and store it in a variable
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Use Get Method</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfhttp
method="Get"
url="http://www.adobe.com"
resolveurl="Yes">
<cfoutput>
#cfhttp.FileContent# <br>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 (Optional) Replace the value of the url attribute with another URL.
3 Save the file as get_webpage.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the web browser.

The browser loads the web page specified in the url attribute.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfhttp method="Get"
url="http://www.adobe.com"
resolveurl="Yes">

Get the page specified in the URL and make the links absolute instead of relative
so that they appear properly.

<cfoutput>
#cfhttp.FileContent# <br>
</cfoutput>

Display the page, which is stored in the variable cfhttp.fileContent, in the

browser.

Get a web page and save it in a file

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>Use Get Method</title>
</head>
<body>
<cfhttp
method = "Get"
url="http://www.adobe.com/software"
path="c:\temp"
file="adobe_software.htm">
</body>
</html>

2 (Optional) Replace the value of the url attribute with another URL and change the filename.
3 (Optional) Change the path from C:\temp to a path on your hard drive.
4 Save the page as save_webpage.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root directory.
5 Go to the specified path and view the file that you specified in a text editor (using the values specified in step 1, the

path is C:\temp\macr_software.htm).
The saved file does not appear properly in your browser because the Get operation saves only the specified web page
HTML. It does not save the frame, image, or other files that the page could include.
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfhttp
method = "Get"
url="http://www.adobe.com/software"
path="c:\temp"
file="macr_software.htm">

Get the page specified in the URL and save it in the file specified by the path and
file attributes.
When you use the path and file attributes, ColdFusion ignores any
resolveurl attribute. As a result, frames and other included files cannot appear
when you view the saved page.

Get a binary file and save it

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<cfhttp
method="Get"
url="http://www.adobe.com/adobe/accessibility/images/spotlight.jpg"
path="c:\temp"
file="My_SavedBinary.jpg">
<cfoutput>
#cfhttp.MimeType#
</cfoutput>

2 (Optional) Replace the value of the url attribute with the URL of a binary file that you want to download.
3 (Optional) Change the path from C:\temp to a path on your hard drive.
4 Save the file as save_binary.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and open it in the web browser to

view the MIME type.

5 (Optional) Verify that the binary file now exists at the location you specified in the path attribute.

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Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfhttp method="Get"
url="http://www.adobe.com/adobe/accessibility/
images/spotlight.jpg" path="c:\temp"
file="My_SavedBinary.jpg">

Get a binary file and save it in the path and file specified.

<cfoutput>
#cfhttp.MimeType#
</cfoutput>

Display the MIME type of the file.

Creating a query object from a text file

You can create a query object from a delimited text file by using the cfhttp tag and specifying method="Get" and the
name attribute. This technique is a powerful method for processing and handling text files. After you create the query
object, you can easily reference columns in the query and perform other ColdFusion operations on the data.
ColdFusion processes text files in the following manner:

You can specify a field delimiter with the delimiter attribute. The default is a comma.
If data in a field could include the delimiter character, surround the entire field with the text qualifier character,
which you can specify with the textqualifier attribute. The default text qualifier is the double-quotation mark (").

The textqualifier="" specifies that no text qualifier

exists. If you use textqualifier="""" (four " marks in

a row), it explicitly specifies the double-quotation mark as the text qualifier.

If a text qualifier exists, surround all field values with the text qualifier character.
To include the text qualifier character in a field, use a double character. For example, if the text qualifier is ", use ""
to include a quotation mark in the field.

The first row of text is always interpreted as column headings, so that row is skipped. You can override the file
column heading names by specifying a different set of names in the columns attribute. Specify a name for each
column. You then use these new names in your CFML code. However, ColdFusion never treats the first row of the
file as data.

When duplicate column heading names are encountered, ColdFusion adds an underscore character to the
duplicate column name to make it unique. For example, if two CustomerID columns are found, the second is
renamed "CustomerID_".

Create a query from a text file

1 Create a text file with the following content:
OrderID,OrderNum,OrderDate,ShipDate,ShipName,ShipAddress
001,001,01/01/01,01/11/01,Mr. Shipper,123 Main Street
002,002,01/01/01,01/28/01,Shipper Skipper,128 Maine Street

2 Save the file as text.txt in the myapps directory under your web_root.
3 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<cfhttp method="Get"
url="http://127.0.0.1/myapps/text.txt"
name="juneorders"
textqualifier="">
<cfoutput query="juneorders">
OrderID: #OrderID#<br>
Order Number: #OrderNum#<br>
Order Date: #OrderDate#<br>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Now substitute different column names --->
<!--- by using the columns attribute --->
<hr>
Now using replacement column names<br>
<cfhttp method="Get"
url="http://127.0.0.1/myapps/text.txt"
name="juneorders"
columns="ID,Number,ODate,SDate,Name,Address"
textqualifier="">
<cfoutput query="juneorders">
Order ID: #ID#<br>
Order Number: #Number#<br>
Order Date: #SDate#<br>
</cfoutput>

4 Save the file as query_textfile.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the web browser.

Using the cfhttp Post method

Use the Post method to send cookie, form field, CGI, URL, and file variables to a specified ColdFusion page or CGI
program for processing. For Post operations, use the cfhttpparam tag for each variable you want to post. The Post method
passes data to a specified ColdFusion page or an executable that interprets the variables being sent and returns data.
For example, when you build an HTML form using the Post method, you specify the name of the page to which form
data is passed. You use the Post method in cfhttp in a similar way. However, with the cfhttp tag, the page that receives
the Post does not, itself, display anything.

Pass variables to a ColdFusion page

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>HTTP Post Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>HTTP Post Test</h1>
<cfhttp method="Post"
url="http://127.0.0.1:8500/myapps/post_test_server.cfm">
<cfhttpparam type="Cookie"
value="cookiemonster"
name="mycookie6">
<cfhttpparam type="CGI"
value="cgivar "
name="mycgi">
<cfhttpparam type="URL"
value="theurl"
name="myurl">
<cfhttpparam type="Formfield"
value="[email protected]"
name="emailaddress">
<cfhttpparam type="File"
name="myfile"
file="c:\pix\trees.gif">
</cfhttp>
<cfoutput>
File Content:<br>
#cfhttp.filecontent#<br>
Mime Type:#cfhttp.MimeType#<br>
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Replace the path to the GIF file to a path on your server (just before the closing cfhttp tag).
3 Save the file as post_test.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root.

Note: Write a page to view the variables, as described in next procedure.

Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfhttp method="Post"
url="http://127.0.0.1:8500/myapps/post_test_server
.cfm">

Post an HTTP request to the specified page.

<cfhttpparam type="Cookie" value="cookiemonster"

name="mycookie6">

Send a cookie in the request.

<cfhttpparam type="CGI" value="cgivar "

name="mycgi">

Send a CGI variable in the request.

<cfhttpparam type="URL" value="theurl"

name="myurl">

Send a URL in the request.

<cfhttpparam type="Formfield"
value="[email protected]" name="emailaddress">

Send a Form field in the request.

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Code

Description

<cfhttpparam type="File" name="myfile"

file="c"\pix\trees.gif">

Send a file in the request.

The </> tag ends the http request.

<cfoutput>
File Content:<br>
#cfhttp.filecontent#<br>

Display the contents of the file that the page that is posted to creates
by processing the request. In this example, the contents is the output
from the cfoutput tag in server.cfm.

Mime Type: #cfhttp.MimeType#<br>

</cfoutput>

Display the MIME type of the created file.

View the variables

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head><title>HTTP Post Test</title> </head>
<body>
<h1>HTTP Post Test</h1>
<cffile destination="C:\temp\"
nameconflict="Overwrite"
filefield="Form.myfile"
action="Upload"
attributes="Normal">
<cfoutput>
The URL variable is: #URL.myurl# <br>
The Cookie variable is: #Cookie.mycookie6# <br>
The CGI variable is: #CGI.mycgi#. <br>
The Formfield variable is: #Form.emailaddress#. <br>
The file was uploaded to #File.ServerDirectory#\#File.ServerFile#.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Replace C:\temp\ with an appropriate directory path on your hard drive.

3 Save the file as post_test_server.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root.
4 View post_test.cfm in your browser and look for the file in C:\temp\ (or your replacement path).

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cffile destination="C:\temp\"
nameconflict="Overwrite" filefield="Form.myfile"
action="Upload" attributes="Normal">

Write the transferred document to a file on the server. You send the
file using the type="File" attribute, but the receiving page gets it as
a Form variable, not a File variable. This cffile tag creates File variables,
as follows.

<cfoutput>

Output information. This page does not display the results. They are
passed back to the posting page in its cfhttp.filecontent
variable.

The URL variable is: #URL.myurl# <br>

Output the value of the URL variable sent in the HTTP request.

The Cookie variable is: #Cookie.mycookie# <br>

Output the value of the Cookie variable sent in the HTTP request.

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Code

Description

The CGI variable is: #CGI.mycgi# <br>

Output the value of the CGI variable sent in the HTTP request.

The Form variable is: #Form.emailaddress#. <br>

Output the Form variable sent in the HTTP request. You send the
variable using the type="formField" attribute but the receiving
page gets it as a Form variable.

The file was uploaded to

#File.ServerDirectory#\#File.ServerFile#.
</cfoutput>

Output the results of the cffile tag on this page. This time, the
variables really are File variables.

Return results of a CGI program

The following code runs a CGI program search.exe on a website and displays the results, including both the MIME
type and length of the response. The search.exe program must expect a search parameter.
<cfhttp method="Post"
url="http://www.my_favorite_site.com/search.exe"
resolveurl="Yes">
<cfhttpparam type="Formfield"
name="search"
value="ColdFusion">
</cfhttp>
<cfoutput>
Response Mime Type: #cfhttp.MimeType#<br>
Response Length: #len(cfhttp.filecontent)# <br>
Response Content: <br>
#htmlcodeformat(cfhttp.filecontent)#<br>
</cfoutput>

Performing file operations with cfftp

The cfftp tag lets you perform tasks on remote servers using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You can use cfftp to cache
connections for batch file transfers when uploading or downloading files.
Note: To use cfftp, select the Enable ColdFusion Security option on the Sandbox Security page in the Security area in
the ColdFusion Administrator. (In the Standard Edition, select Security > Basic Security.)
For server/browser operations, use the cffile, cfcontent, and cfdirectory tags.
Using cfftp involves two major types of operations: connecting, and transferring files. The FTP protocol also provides
commands for listing directories and performing other operations. For a complete list of attributes that support FTP
operations and additional details on using the cfftp tag, see the CFML Reference.

Open an FTP connection and retrieve a file listing

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<html>
<head>
<title>FTP Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>FTP Test</h1>
<!--- Open ftp connection --->
<cfftp connection="Myftp"
server="MyServer"
username="MyUserName"
password="MyPassword"
action="Open"
stoponerror="Yes">
<!--- Get the current directory name. --->
<cfftp connection=Myftp
action="GetCurrentDir"
stoponerror="Yes">
<!--- output directory name --->
<cfoutput>
The current directory is:#cfftp.returnvalue#<p>
</cfoutput>
<!--- Get a listing of the directory. --->
<cfftp connection=Myftp
action="listdir"
directory="#cfftp.returnvalue#"
name="dirlist"
stoponerror="Yes">
<!--- Close the connection.--->
<cfftp action="close" connection="Myftp">
<p>Did the connection close successfully?
<cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput></p>
<!--- output dirlist results --->
<hr>
<p>FTP Directory Listing:</p>
<cftable query="dirlist" colheaders="yes" htmltable>
<cfcol header="<B>Name</b>" TEXT="#name#">
<cfcol header="<B>Path</b>" TEXT="#path#">
<cfcol header="<B>URL</b>" TEXT="#url#">
<cfcol header="<B>Length</b>" TEXT="#length#">
<cfcol header="<B>LastModified</b>"
TEXT="#DateFormat(lastmodified)#">
<cfcol header="<B>IsDirectory</b>"
TEXT="#isdirectory#">
</cftable>

2 Change MyServer to the name of a server for which you have FTP permission.
3 Change MyUserName and MyPassword to a valid user name and password.

To establish an anonymous connection, enter anonymous as the user name and an e-mail address (by
convention) for the password.

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4 Save the file as ftp_connect.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the web browser.

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cfftp connection="Myftp" server="MyServer"

username="MyUserName" password="MyPassword"
action="Open" stoponerror="Yes">

Open an FTP connection to the MyServer server and log on as

MyUserName. If an error occurs, stop processing and display an error.
You can use this connection in other cfftp tags by specifying the
Myftp connection.

<cfftp connection=Myftp action="GetCurrentDir"

stoponerror="Yes">
<cfoutput>
The current directory is: #cfftp.returnvalue#<p>
</cfoutput>

Use the Myftp connection to get the name of the current directory;
stop processing if an error occurs.

<cfftp connection=Myftp action="ListDir"

directory="#cfftp.returnvalue#" name="dirlist"
stoponerror="Yes">

Use the Myftp connection to get a directory listing. Use the value
returned by the last cfftp call (the current directory of the
connection) to specify the directory to list. Save the results in a
variable named dirlist (a query object). Stop processing if an error
occurs.

<cfftp action="close" connection="Myftp">

<p>Did the connection close successfully?
<cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput></p>

Close the connection, and do not stop processing if the operation fails
(because you can still use the results). Instead, display the value of the
cfftp.succeeded variable, which is Yes if the connection is closed,
and No if the operation failed.

<cftable query="dirlist" colheaders="yes"

htmltable>
<cfcol header="<B>Name</b>" TEXT="#name#">
<cfcol header="<B>Path</b>" TEXT="#path#">
<cfcol header="<B>URL</b>" TEXT="#url#">
<cfcol header="<B>Length</b>" TEXT="#length#">
<cfcol header="<B>LastModified</b>"
TEXT="#DateFormat(lastmodified)#">
<cfcol header="<B>IsDirectory</b>"
TEXT="#isdirectory#">
</cftable>

Display a table with the results of the ListDir FTP command.

Display the current directory.

After you establish a connection with cfftp, you can reuse the connection to perform additional FTP operations until
either you or the server closes the connection. When you access an already-active FTP connection, you need not
respecify the user name, password, or server. In this case, make sure that when you use frames, only one frame uses
the connection object.
Note: For a single simple FTP operation, such as GetFile or PutFile, you need not establish a connection. Specify all the
necessary login information, including the server and any login and password, in the single cfftp request.

Caching connections across multiple pages

The FTP connection established by the cfftp tag is maintained only in the current page unless you explicitly assign the
connection to a variable with Application or Session scope.
Assigning a cfftp connection to an application variable could cause problems, since multiple users could access the
same connection object at the same time. Creating a session variable for a cfftp connection makes more sense,
because the connection is available to only one client and does not last past the end of the session.

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Example: caching a connection

<cflock scope="Session" timeout=10>
<cfftp action="Open"
username="anonymous"
password="[email protected]"
server="ftp.eclipse.com"
connection="Session.myconnection">
</cflock>

In this example, the connection cache remains available to other pages within the current session. For this approach
to work, enable session variables in your application, and lock code that uses session variables. For more information
on locking, see Using Persistent Data and Locking on page 301.
Note: Changing connection characteristics, such the retrycount or timeout values, could require you to re-establish
the connection.

Connection actions and attributes

The following table shows the available cfftp actions and the attributes they require when you use a named (that is,
cached) connection. If you do not specify an existing connection name, specify the username, password, and server
attributes.
Action

Attributes

Action

Attributes

Open

none

Rename

existing
new

Close

none

Remove

server
item

ChangeDir

directory

GetCurrentDir

none

CreateDir

directory

GetCurrentURL

none

ListDir

name

ExistsDir

directory

directory
RemoveDir

directory

ExistsFile

remotefile

GetFile

localfile

Exists

item

remotefile
PutFile

localfile
remotefile

Managing Files on the Server

The cffile, cfdirectory, and cfcontent tags handle browser and server file management tasks, such as uploading files
from a client to the web server, viewing directory information, and changing the content type that is sent to the web
browser. To perform server-to-server operations, use the cfftp tag, described in Performing file operations with cfftp
on page 1240.

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About file management

Adobe ColdFusion lets you access and manage the files and directories on your ColdFusion server. The cffile tag has
several attributes for moving, copying, deleting, and renaming files. You use the cfdirectory tag to list, create, delete,
and rename directories. The cfcontent tag lets you define the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) content
type that returns to the web browser.

Using cffile
You can use the cffile tag to work with files on the server in several ways:

Upload files from a client to the web server using an HTML form
Move, rename, copy, or delete files on the server
Read, write, or append to text files on the server
You use the action attribute to specify any of the following file actions: upload, move, rename, copy, delete, read,
readBinary, write, and append. The required attributes depend on the action specified. For example, if
action="write", ColdFusion expects the attributes associated with writing a text file.
Note: Consider the security and logical structure of directories on the server before allowing users access to them. You can
disable the cffile tag in the ColdFusion Administrator. Also, to access files that are not located on the local ColdFusion
system, ColdFusion services must run using an account with permission to access the remote files and directories.

Uploading files
File uploading requires that you create two files:

An HTML form to specify file upload information

An action page containing the file upload code
The following procedures describe how to create these files.
Create an HTML file to specify file upload information
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<head><title>Specify File to Upload</title></head>
<body>
<h2>Specify File to Upload</h2>
<!--- the action attribute is the name of the action page --->
<form action="uploadfileaction.cfm"
enctype="multipart/form-data"
method="post">
<p>Enter the complete path and filename of the file to upload:
<input type="file"
name="FiletoUpload"
size="45">
</p>
<input type="submit"
value="Upload">
</form>
</body>

2 Save the file as uploadfileform.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the browser.

Note: The form does not work until you write an action page for it (see the next procedure).

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Reviewing the code

The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<form action="uploadfileaction.cfm"
enctype="multipart/form-data"
method="post">

Create a form that contains file selection fields for upload by the user. The action
attribute value specifies the ColdFusion template that processes the submitted
form. The enctype attribute value tells the server that the form submission
contains an uploaded file. The method attribute is set to post to submit a
ColdFusion form.

<input type="file" name="FiletoUpload"

size="45">

Allow the user to specify the file to upload. The file type instructs the browser to
prepare to read and transmit a file from the user system to your server. It
automatically includes a Browse button to let the user look for the file instead of
manually entering the entire path and filename.

The user can enter a file path or browse the system and select a file to send.
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head> <title>Upload File</title> </head>
<body>
<h2>Upload File</h2>
<cffile action="upload"
destination="c:\temp\"
nameConflict="overwrite"
fileField="Form.FiletoUpload">
<cfoutput>
You uploaded #cffile.ClientFileName#.#cffile.ClientFileExt#
successfully to #cffile.ServerDirectory#.
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Change the following line to point to an appropriate location on your server:

destination="c:\temp\"

Note: This directory must exist on the server.

3 Save the file as uploadfileaction.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root.
4 View uploadfileform.cfm in the browser, enter a file to upload, and submit the form.

The file you specified uploads.

Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
Code

Description

<cffile action="upload"

Output the name and location of the uploaded file on the client machine.

destination="c:\temp\"

Specify the destination of the file.

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Code

Description

nameConflict="overwrite"

If the file exists, overwrite it.

fileField="Form.FiletoUpload">

Specify the name of the file to upload. Do not enclose the variable in number signs.

You uploaded
#cffile.ClientFileName#.#cffile.
ClientFileExt# successfully to
#cffile.ServerDirectory#.

Inform the user of the file that was uploaded and its destination. For information
on scope variables, see Evaluating the results of a file upload on page 1247.

Note: This example performs no error checking and does not incorporate any security measures. Before deploying an
application that performs file uploads, ensure that you incorporate both error handling and security. For more
information, see Securing Applications on page 339 and Handling Errors on page 275.
Resolving conflicting filenames
When you save a file to the server, a file with the same name could exist. To resolve this problem, assign one of these
values to the nameConflict attribute of the cffile tag:
Error (default) ColdFusion stops processing the page and returns an error. The file is not saved.
Skip Allows custom behavior based on file properties. The tag does not save the file or return an error.
Overwrite Overwrites a file that has the same name as the uploaded file.
MakeUnique Generates a unique filename for the uploaded file. The name is stored in the file object variables

serverFile and serverFileName. You can use this variable to record the name used when the file was saved. The unique
name might not resemble the attempted name. For more information on file upload status variables, see Evaluating
the results of a file upload on page 1247.
Controlling the type of file uploaded
For some applications, you could want to restrict the type of file that is uploaded, for example, to not accept graphic
files in a document library.
You use the accept attribute to restrict the type of file that you allow in an upload. When an accept qualifier is
present, the uploaded file MIME content type must match the criteria specified or an error occurs. The accept
attribute takes a comma-separated list of MIME data names, optionally with wildcards.
The browser determines the file MIME type. Common types, such as image/gif and text/plain, are registered in the
browser.
Note: Current versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape support MIME type associations. Other browsers and
earlier versions might ignore these associations.
ColdFusion saves any uploaded file if you omit the accept attribute or specify "*/*". You can restrict the file types, as
demonstrated in the following examples.
The following cffile tag saves an image file only if it is in the GIF format:
<cffile action="Upload"
fileField="Form.FiletoUpload"
destination="c:\uploads\"
nameConflict="Overwrite"
accept="image/gif">

The following cffile tag saves an image file only if it is in GIF or JPEG format:

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<cffile action="Upload"
fileField="Form.FiletoUpload"
destination="c:\uploads\"
nameConflict="Overwrite"
accept="image/gif, image/jpeg">

Note: If you receive an error like "The MIME type of the uploaded file (image/jpeg) was not accepted by the server", enter
accept="image/jpeg" to accept JPEG files.
This cffile tag saves any image file, regardless of the format:
<cffile action="Upload"
fileField="Form.FiletoUpload"
destination="c:\uploads\"
nameConflict="Overwrite"
accept="image/*">

Setting file and directory attributes

In Windows, you specify file attributes using attributes attribute of the cffile tag. In UNIX, you specify file or
directory permissions using the mode attribute of the cffile or cfdirectory tag.
Windows
In Windows, you can set the following file attributes:

Hidden
Normal
ReadOnly
To specify several attributes in CFML, use a comma-separated list for the attributes attribute; for example,
attributes="ReadOnly,Hidden". If you do not use the attributes attribute, the existing attributes of the file are
maintained. If you specify any other attributes in addition to Normal, the additional attribute overrides the Normal
setting.
UNIX
In UNIX, you can individually set permissions on files and directories for each of three types of usersowner, group,
and other. You use a number for each user type. This number is the sum of the numbers for the individual permissions
allowed. Values for the mode attribute correspond to octal values for the UNIX chmod command:

4 = read
2 = write
1 = execute
You enter permissions values in the mode attribute for each type of user: owner, group, and other in that order. For
example, use the following code to assign read permissions for everyone:
mode=444

To give a file or directory owner read/write/execute permissions and read-only permissions for everyone else:
mode=744

Evaluating the results of a file upload

After a file upload is completed, you can retrieve status information using file upload status variables. This status
information includes data about the file, such as its name and the directory where it was saved.

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You can access file upload status variables using dot notation, using either file.varname or cffile.varname. Although
you can use either the File or cffile prefix for file upload status variables, cffile is preferred; for example,
cffile.ClientDirectory. The File prefix is retained for backward compatibility.
Note: File status variables are read only. They are set to the results of the most recent cffile operation. If two cffile tags
execute, the results of the first are overwritten by the subsequent cffile operation.
The following table describes the file upload status variables that are available after an upload:
Variable

Description

attemptedServerFile

Initial name that ColdFusion uses when attempting to save a file; for example, myfile.txt. (see
Resolving conflicting filenames on page 1246).

clientDirectory

Directory on the client system from which the file was uploaded.

clientFile

Full name of the source file on the client system with the filename extension; for example,
myfile.txt.

clientFileExt

Extension of the source file on the client system without a period; for example, txt (not .txt).

clientFileName

Name of the source file on the client system without an extension; for example, myfile.

contentType

MIME content type of the saved file; for example, image for image/gif.

contentSubType

MIME content subtype of the saved file; for example, gif for image/gif.

dateLastAccessed

Date that the uploaded file was last accessed.

fileExisted

Indicates (Yes or No) whether the file existed with the same path.

fileSize

Size of the uploaded file.

fileWasAppended

Indicates (Yes or No) whether ColdFusion appended the uploaded file to an existing file.

fileWasOverwritten

Indicates (Yes or No) whether ColdFusion overwrote a file.

fileWasRenamed

Indicates (Yes or No) whether the uploaded file was renamed to avoid a name conflict.

fileWasSaved

Indicates (Yes or No) whether ColdFusion saved the uploaded file.

oldFileSize

Size of the file that was overwritten in the file upload operation. Empty if no file was overwritten.

serverDirectory

Directory where the file was saved on the server.

serverFile

Full name of the file saved on the server with the filename extension; for example, myfile.txt.

serverFileExt

Extension of the file saved on the server without a period; for example, txt (not .txt).

serverFileName

Name of the file saved on the server without an extension; for example, myfile.

timeCreated

Date and time the uploaded file was created.

timeLastModified

Date and time of the last modification to the uploaded file.

Moving, renaming, copying, and deleting server files

With the cffile tag, you can create application pages to manage files on your web server. You can use the tag to move
files from one directory to another, rename files, copy a file, or delete a file.
The examples in the following table show static values for many of the attributes. However, the value of all or part of
any attribute in a cffile tag can be a dynamic parameter.

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Action

Example code

Move a file

<cffile action="move" source="c:\files\upload\KeyMemo.doc" destination="c:\files\memo\">

Rename a file

<cffile action="rename" source="c:\files\memo\KeyMemo.doc"

destination="c:\files\memo\OldMemo.doc">

Copy a file

<cffile action="copy" source="c:\files\upload\KeyMemo.doc"

destination="c:\files\backup\">

Delete a file

<cffile action="delete" file="c:\files\upload\oldfile.txt">

This example sets the ReadOnly flag bit for the uploaded file:
<cffile action="Copy"
source="c:\files\upload\keymemo.doc"
destination="c:\files\backup\"
attributes="ReadOnly">

Note: Ensure that you include the trailing slash (\) when you specify the destination directory. Otherwise, ColdFusion
treats the last element in the path as a filename. This rule only applies to copy actions.

Reading, writing, and appending to a text file

In addition to managing files on the server, you can use the cffile tag to read, create, and modify text files. As a result,
you can do the following things:

Create log files. (You can also use cflog to create and write to log files.)
Generate static HTML documents.
Use text files to store information that can be incorporated into web pages.
Reading a text file
You can use the cffile tag to read an existing text file. The file is read into a local variable that you can use anywhere
in the application page. For example, you could read a text file and then insert its contents into a database, or you could
read a text file and then use one of the string replacement functions to modify the contents.

Read a text file

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Read a Text File</title>
</head>
<body>
Ready to read the file:<br>
<cffile action="read"
file="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine\message.txt"
variable="Message">
<cfoutput>
#Message#
</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

2 Replace C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine\message.txt with the location and name of a text file on the server.

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3 Save the file as readtext.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the browser.

Writing a text file on the server

You can use the cffile tag to write a text file based on dynamic content. For example, you could create static HTML
files or log actions in a text file.

Create a form in to capture data for a text file

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Put Information into a Text File</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Put Information into a Text File</h2>
<form action="writetextfileaction.cfm" method="Post">
<p>Enter your name: <input type="text" name="Name" size="25"></p>
<p>Enter the name of the file: <input type="text" name="FileName" size="25">.txt</p>
<p>Enter your message:
<textarea name="message"cols=45 rows=6></textarea>
</p>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>

2 Save the file as writetextfileform.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root.

Note: The form does not work until you write an action page for it (see the next procedure).

Write a text file

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>Write a Text File</title>
</head>
<body>
<cffile action="write"
file="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine\#Form.FileName#.txt"
output="Created By: #Form.Name#
#Form.Message# ">
</body>
</html>

2 Modify the path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine\ to point to a path on your server.

3 Save the file as writetextfileaction.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root.
4 View the file writetextfileform.cfm in the browser, enter values, and submit the form.

The text file is written to the location you specified. If the file exists, it is replaced.

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Appending a text file

You can use the cffile tag to append additional text to the end of a text file; for example, when you create log files.

Append a text file

1 Open the writetextfileaction.cfm file.
2 Change the value for the action attribute from write to append so that the file appears as follows:
<html>
<head>
<title>Append a Text File</title>
</head>
<body>
<cffile action="append"
file="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine\message.txt"
output="Appended By: #Form.Name#">
</body>
</html>

3 Save the file as writetextfileaction.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root.
4 View the file in the browser, enter values, and submit the form.

The appended information displays at the end of the text file.

Using cfdirectory
Use the cfdirectory tag to return file information from a specified directory and to create, delete, and rename
directories. When listing directory contents or deleting a directory, you can optionally use the recurse attribute to
access or delete all subdirectories.
As with the cffile tag, you can disable cfdirectory processing in the ColdFusion Administrator. For details on the
syntax of this tag, see the CFML Reference.

Returning file information

When you use the action="list" attribute setting, the cfdirectory returns a query object as specified in the name
attribute. The name attribute is required when you use the action="list" attribute setting. This query object contains
result columns that you can reference in a cfoutput tag, using the value specified in the name attribute:
name Directory entry name.
directory Directory containing the entry.
size Directory entry size.
type File type: File or Dir.
dateLastModified Date an entry was last modified.
attributes (Windows only) File attributes, if applicable.
mode (UNIX only) The octal value representing the permissions setting for the specified directory.

Note: ColdFusion supports the ReadOnly and Hidden values for the attributes attribute for cfdirectory sorting.
Depending on whether your server is on a UNIX system or a Windows system, either the Attributes column or the
Mode column is empty. Also, you can specify a filename in the filter attribute to get information on a single file.
The following procedure describes how to create a ColdFusion page in which to view directory information.

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View directory information

1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>List Directory Information</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>List Directory Information</h3>
<cfdirectory
directory="c:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine"
name="mydirectory"
sort="size ASC, name DESC, datelastmodified">
<table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=10>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Size</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Modified</th>
<th>Attributes</th>
<th>Mode</th>
</tr>
<cfoutput query="mydirectory">
<tr>
<td>#mydirectory.name#</td>
<td>#mydirectory.size#</td>
<td>#mydirectory.type#</td>
<td>#mydirectory.dateLastModified#</td>
<td>#mydirectory.attributes#</td>
<td>#mydirectory.mode#</td>
</tr>
</cfoutput>
</table>
</body>
</html>

2 Modify the path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mine so that it points to a directory on your server.

3 Save the file as directoryinfo.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the browser.

Using cfcontent
The cfcontent tag downloads files from the server to the client. You can use this tag to set the MIME type of the content
returned by a ColdFusion page and, optionally, define the name of a file for the current page to download. By default,
ColdFusion returns a MIME content type of text/html so that a web browser renders your template text as a web page.
As with the cffile and cfdirectory tags, you can disable processing in the ColdFusion Administrator.

About MIME types

A MIME type is a label that identifies the contents of a file. the browser uses the MIME type specification to determine
how to interact with the file. For example, the browser could open a spreadsheet program when it encounters a file
identified by its MIME content type as a spreadsheet file.

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A MIME content type consists of "type/subtype" format. The following are common MIME content types:

text/html
image/gif
application/pdf

Changing the MIME content type with cfcontent

You use the cfcontent tag to change the MIME content type that returns to the browser along with the content
generated from your ColdFusion page.
The cfcontent tag has one required attribute, type, which defines the MIME content type returned by the current page.
Change the MIME content type with cfcontent
1 Create an HTML page with the following content:
<h1>cfcontent_message.htm</h1>
<p>This is a <em>test message</em> written in HTML.</p>
<p>This is the <em>second paragraph</em> of the test message.
As you might expect, it is also written in HTML.</p>

2 Save the file as cfcontent_message.htm in the myapps directory under your web_root.

The ColdFusion file that you write in steps 3 through 7 calls this file.
3 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:
<html>
<head>
<title>cfcontent Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h3>cfcontent Example</h3>
<cfcontent
type = "text/html"
file = "C:\CFusion\wwwroot\myapps\cfcontent_message.htm"
deleteFile = "No">
</body>
</html>

4 If necessary, edit the file = line to point to your myapps directory.

5 Save the file as cfcontent.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the browser.

The text of the called file (cfcontent_message.htm) displays as normal HTML.

6 In cfcontent.cfm, change type = "text/html" to type = "text/plain".
7 Save the file and view it in the browser (refresh it if necessary).

The text displays as unformatted text, in which HTML tags are treated as text.
The following example shows how the cfcontent tag can create an Excel spreadsheet that contains your data.
Create an Excel spreadsheet with cfcontent
1 Create a ColdFusion page with the following content:

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<!--- Use cfsetting to block output of HTML

outside cfoutput tags. --->
<cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="Yes">
<!--- Get employee info. --->
<cfquery name="GetEmps" datasource="cfdocexamples">
SELECT * FROM Employee
</cfquery>
<!--- Set content type. --->
<cfcontent type="application/msexcel">
<!--- Suggest default name for XLS file. --->
<!--- "Content-Disposition" in cfheader also ensures
relatively correct Internet Explorer behavior. --->
<cfheader name="Content-Disposition" value="filename=Employees.xls">
<!--- Format data using cfoutput and a table.
Excel converts the table to a spreadsheet.
The cfoutput tags around the table tags force output of the HTML when
using cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="Yes" --->
<cfoutput>
<table cols="4">
<cfloop query="GetEmps">
<tr>
<td>#Emp_ID#</td>
<td>#FirstName#</td>
<td>#LastName#</td>
</tr>
</cfloop>
</table>
</cfoutput>

2 Save the file as employees_to_excel.cfm in the myapps directory under your web_root and view it in the browser.

The data appears in an Excel spreadsheet.

Using Event Gateways

Adobe ColdFusion provides event gateways, which you can use when writing applications. You configure an event
gateway for an application and deploy the application.
To use event gateways, you should have a thorough knowledge of ColdFusion development concepts and practices,
including ColdFusion components (CFCs). To write applications for custom gateways that are not provided in
ColdFusion, you must also know the details of the event gateway you are using, including its requirements.

About event gateways

ColdFusion event gateways are ColdFusion elements that let ColdFusion react to or generate external events or
messages in an asynchronous manner. Event gateways let a ColdFusion application handle information that does not
come through an HTTP request. For example, you can use event gateways to handle instant messages, short messages
from mobile devices, or messages sent to a TCP/IP port.

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The event gateway mechanism has the following major features:

ColdFusion event gateways do not require HTTP requests. ColdFusion developers can write ColdFusion gateway
applications without using any CFM pages (just CFCs).

ColdFusion CFCs can use event gateways to listen for and respond directly to external events.
Event gateways operate asynchronously. A gateway typically gets a message and dispatches it for processing,
without requiring or waiting for a response.

ColdFusion developers can create event gateways to handle any type event that a Java application can receive.
ColdFusion includes several product-level event gateways, such as a gateway for the XMPP (Extensible Messaging and
Presence Protocol) instant messaging protocol. Adobe also provides the source for several example gateways, such as
a generalized socket gateway, that you can extend to handle your specific needs. You can also write your own gateways
in Java to handle other event or messaging technologies supported by the Java runtime or by third-party providers,
such as gateways for additional instant messaging protocols, gateways for specific ERP systems, or other protocols,
such as NNTP.

Using event gateways

Because event gateways provide a generalized asynchronous messaging mechanism, you can use them with many
kinds of event or messaging resources. For example, ColdFusion includes gateways (either product quality, or lighter
weight example gateways) for communicating between ColdFusion applications and the following types of resources:

Mobile phones and other devices that support short messaging services (SMS)
XMPP or IBM Sametime Instant message clients
Java Sockets (which let your ColdFusion application communicate with TCP/IP-based devices and programs, such
as Telnet terminal clients).

Java Messaging Service (JMS) resources, such as storefront sales order handling systems.
Event gateways are not limited to sending or receiving information using communications protocols. For example,
ColdFusion includes an example event gateway that monitors changes to a directory and invokes a CFC method
whenever the directory changes. ColdFusion also includes an event gateway that lets a CFML application call a CFC
asynchronously and continue processing without getting a response from the CFC.
Just as you can create event gateways that serve many different event or messaging based technologies, you can write
many kinds of applications that use them. Just a few examples of possible gateway uses include the following.
Server to client push examples
An application that sends an instant message (IM) or SMS text message to a person who can approve a purchase
order, get a response, and mark the purchase order as approved or denied.

A bot that notifies users through their preferred messaging method (mobile phone, instant messaging, or even email) when watch list stock goes up, and offers to buy or sell the stock immediately.

An application that authenticates web users by sending them an SMS message that includes code that they must to
enter into the browser to proceed.
Client to server examples
A menu-based SMS application that lets users get information from any of several web service data providers.
ColdFusion includes an SMS menuing example int the gateways/cfc directory.

An instant messaging application that takes messages from users to technical support and assigns and directs the
messages to the most available support staff member. The application could also log the user ID and session, and
you could use ColdFusion to generate usage reports.

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A directory lookup robot IM "buddy" that responds to messages chat contain an employee name with the
employees phone number or buddy ID.
Server to serve examples
A JMS subsystem that publishes status updates that business intelligence systems consume.

A system that monitors and publishes download events from a website.

Event gateway terms and concepts

This document uses the following terms when referring to event gateways:
Event A trigger that ColdFusion can receive from an external source. ColdFusion event gateways receive events.
Message The information provided by an event. In ColdFusion, a message is the data structure that the event gateway

receives when an event is triggered.

Event gateway Java code that receives events and sends them to and from ColdFusion application code. This

document uses the term event gateway, without the word type or instance, for the general concept of a ColdFusion
event gateway. Where the context makes the meaning obvious, the term can also mean event gateway type or event
gateway instance.
Event gateway type A specific event gateway implementation, represented by a Java class. Each event gateway type
handles messages belonging to a particular a communications method or protocol, such as short message service
(SMS), an instant messaging protocol, or Sockets. You generally have one event gateway type per communication
protocol. You configure each event gateway type on the Gateway Types page in the Event Gateways area in the
ColdFusion Administrator.
Event gateway instance A specific instance of an event gateway type class. You configure each event gateway instance

on the ColdFusion Gateway Instances page by specifying the event gateway type, an ID, the path to the event gateway
application CFC that uses this instance, and a configuration file (if needed for the selected event gateway type). You
can have multiple event gateway instances per event gateway type, for example, for different event gateway
applications.
Event gateway application One or more CFCs and any supporting CFM pages that handle events from an event

gateway instance and send messages using the event gateway instance. The event gateway application is not part of an
event gateway instance, but the code that is responsible for processing event messages to and from the instance.
Event gateway listener Code in an event gateway that receives events from an event source and passes them to the
ColdFusion gateway service for delivery to a CFML listener CFC.
Listener CFC A CFC that contains one or more methods that respond to incoming messages from one or more event

gateway instances. Part of an event gateway application.

ColdFusion gateway service The part of ColdFusion that provides underlying support for event gateways, including a

path between an event gateway instance and listener CFCs.

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How event gateway applications work

The following diagram shows the architecture of ColdFusion event gateway applications:

SMSC server
(for SMS
messages )

Instant
messaging
provider

.
.
.
.
Other message
generator /
receiver

Event
Event

Event
Event

Event
Event

Event Gateway
Instance

Event Gateway
Instance

CFEvent

CFEvent

Java

Listener
CFC
Event Gateway
Application

CFEvent
Message

CFEvent

.
.
.
.
Event Gateway
Instance

CFEvent
Message

CFEvent

ColdFusion
Event
Gateway
Service

CFEvent

Listener
CFC

Message

CFM
Page

CFEvent
CFEvent

ColdFusion

Listener
CFC
Event Gateway
Application
.
.
.

Event Gateway
Application
CFML

How event gateways interact

Typically, a ColdFusion event gateway instance, a Java object, listens for events coming from an external provider. For
example, a general socket event gateway listens for messages on an IP socket, and an SMS event gateway receives
messages from an SMSC server.
Each event gateway instance communicates with one or more listener CFCs through the ColdFusion event gateway
service. The listener CFCs receive CFEvent object instances that contain the messages, process them, and can send
responses back to the event gateway, which can send the messages to the external resources.
Alternatively, a ColdFusion application can initiate a message by calling a ColdFusion function that sends the message
to the event gateway. The event gateway then forwards the message to an external resource, such as an instant
messaging server. A CFC in the application listens for any responses to the sent message.
Some event gateways can be one way: they listen for a specific event and send it to a CFC, or they get messages from a
ColdFusion function and dispatch it, but they do not do both. The example DirectoryWatcherGateway discussed in
Example event gateways on page 1271 listens for events only, and the asynchronous CFML event gateway receives
messages from CFML only. (You could even say that the directory watcher gateway doesnt listen for events; it creates
its own events internally by periodically checking the directory state.) For information on the asynchronous CFML
event gateway, see Using the CFML event gateway for asynchronous CFCs on page 1269.
Event gateway structure
Java programmers develop ColdFusion event gateways by writing Java classes that implement the
coldfusion.eventgateway.Gateway interface. ColdFusion event gateways normally consist of one or more threads that
listen for events from an event provider, such as a Socket, an SMSC server, or some other source. The event gateway
sends event messages to the ColdFusion event gateway service message queue, and provides a method that gets called
when an event gateway application CFC or CFM page sends an outgoing message.

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The event gateway class can also do the following:

Provide the ColdFusion application with access to a helper class that provides event gateway-specific services, such
as buddy-list management or connection management.

Use a file that specifies configuration information, such as IP addresses and ports, passwords, and other ID
information, internal time-out values, and so on.

About developing event gateway applications

ColdFusion application developers write applications that use event gateways. The person or company that provides
the event gateway supplies gateway-specific information to the ColdFusion developer. This information must include
the structure and contents of the messages that the ColdFusion application receives and sends to the event gateway,
plus any information about configuration files or helper methods that the ColdFusion application could use.
The ColdFusion developer writes a CFC that listens for messages. Many event gateway types send messages to a
listener CFC method named onIncomingMessage. A minimal event gateway application could implement only this
single method. More complex event gateway types can require multiple CFC listener methods. For example, the
ColdFusion XMPP IM event gateway sends user messages to the onIncomingMessage CFC method, but sends
requests to add buddies to the onAddBuddyRequest CFC method.
Depending on the event gateway and application types, the event gateway application could include CFM pages or
CFC methods to initiate outgoing messages. The application also could use an event gateway-specific GatewayHelper
object to do tasks such as getting buddy lists in IM applications or getting the status of a messaging server.
The ColdFusion application developer also configures an event gateway instance in the ColdFusion Administrator,
and possibly in a configuration file. The ColdFusion Administrator configuration information specifies the listener
CFC that handles the messages from the event gateway and other standard event gateway configuration details. The
configuration file, if necessary, contains event gateway type-specific configuration information.

Event gateway facilities and tools

ColdFusion provides several features and tools for developing and deploying event-handling applications, these
including the following:

Standard event gateways.

Development tools and example code.
A gateway directory structure configured for use by custom event gateways and event gateway applications. This
directory also contains the example code.

An event gateway-specific log file

Three pages in the ColdFusion Administrator for managing event gateways.

Standard event gateways

Adobe provides several event gateways as part of ColdFusion. These event gateways support the following messaging
protocols:
SMS (Short Message Service) A system designed for exchanging short, often text, messages with wireless devices, such

as mobile phones or pagers. For detailed information on using the SMS event gateway, see Using the SMS Event
Gateway on page 1292.
XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol): An open, XML-based protocol for instant messaging. For
detailed information on using the XMPP event gateway, see Using the Instant Messaging Event Gateways on
page 1276.

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IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (commonly referred to as Lotus Sametime)

The IBM product for real-time

collaboration. For detailed information on using the Lotus Sametime event gateway, see Using the Instant Messaging
Event Gateways on page 1276.
ColdFusion also provides an event gateway, the CFML asynchronous event gateway, that lets a CFML application
invoke a CFC method asynchronously. This event gateway does not follow the model of providing a mechanism for
exchanging messages with resources outside ColdFusion. Instead, it provides a one-way path for invoking CFCs when
an application does not require (indeed, cannot receive) a return value from the CFC. For detailed information on
using the CFML asynchronous event gateway, see Using the CFML event gateway for asynchronous CFCs on
page 1269.

Development tools and example code

ColdFusion provides the following tools and example code for developing your own event gateways and event gateway
applications:

An SMS client (phone simulator) and a short message service center (SMSC) server simulator, for developing SMS
applications without requiring an external SMS provider.

Four sample event gateways with source code:

A template for an empty event gateway that contains a skeleton on which you can build your own event gateways
A TCP/IP socket event gateway that listens on a TCP/IP port
A directory watcher event gateway that monitors changes to the contents of a directory
A Java Messaging Service (JMS) gateway that acts as a JMS consumer or producer.
Several sample applications, including the following:
A menu application that uses an inquiry-response drill-down menu to provide services such as weather reports
and stock quotes.

A simple echo application that sends back the messages that it receives.
A temperature converter, an asynchronous logging application.
An application that returns employee phone number and other information.
The chapters in this document use these example applications.

JavaDoc documentation for the Java interfaces and classes that you use to create gateways.
For more information on these examples, see Using the example event gateways and gateway applications on
page 1271.

The ColdFusion gateway directory

The ColdFusion installation includes a cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\gateway directory on J2EE configurations, or
cf_root\gateway directory on server configurations. This directory contains all the code for ColdFusion example event
gateways and example event gateway applications, and example configuration files for use by standard ColdFusion
event gateways. You do not have to place your event gateways, event gateway application CFCs, or event gateway
configuration files in this directory, but ColdFusion is configured to find event gateways and CFCs that you place
there.
The following table lists the event gateway directory subdirectories, their purpose, and their initial contents. For more
information on using the example event gateways and applications, see Using the example event gateways and
gateway applications on page 1271.

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Directory

Purpose

cfc

Event gateway application CFCs. ColdFusion is installed with an Administrator Mapping between /gateway and
this cfc directory.

cfc/examples

Code for the ColdFusion sample applications.

config

Configuration files for all ColdFusion event gateways, including standard ColdFusion event gateways, such as
SMS, and example event gateways, such as the directory watcher event gateway.

doc/api

JavaDoc for the Gateway, and GatewayHelper interfaces, and the CFEvent, GatewayServices, and GenericGateway
classes that gateway developer use when writing gateways. This documentation is a subset of the information in
Gateway development interfaces and classes in the CFML Reference.

lib

Executable code for example and user-developed event gateway classes. The ColdFusion class loader includes
this directory on its classpath and includes any JAR files that are in that directory on the class path. The
examples.jar file in this directory contains the class files for the DirectoryWatcherGateway, EmptyGateway, and
SocketGateway classes.

src/examples

Source code for the example event gateway classes that Adobe provides. Includes the EmptyGateway.java file
and the following subdirectories:

socket: Socket gateway source files

watcher: directory watcher gateway source files

JMS: JMS gateway source files

The eventgateway.log file

Event gateways provided with ColdFusion log event gateway errors and events to the cf_root\WEBINF\cfusion\logs\eventgateway.log file on J2EE configurations, or the cf_root\logs\eventgateway.log file on server
configurations. ColdFusion includes methods that let any event gateway use this file. This log file can be useful in
debugging event gateways and event gateway applications.

ColdFusion Administrator event gateway pages

The ColdFusion Administrator includes a Gateways section with three pages for managing event gateways:

Settings
Gateway types
Gateway Instances
The Settings page lets you enable and disable support for event gateways, specify the number of threads that
ColdFusion can devote to processing events, specify the maximum number events that ColdFusion can hold in its
event queue (which holds events that are waiting to be processed) and start the SMS test server.
The Gateway Types page lets you add, remove, and configure event gateway types by specifying a name, a Java class,
and startup time-out behavior.
Note: The gateway type name in the ColdFusion Administrator does not have to be the same as the gateway type that is
used in the gateway Java code and the CFEvent data structure; however, use the same name in both places for consistency.
The Gateway Instances page lets you add, remove, configure, start, and stop individual event gateway instances. You
configure an event gateway instance by specifying a unique ID, the gateway type, one or more listener CFC paths, a
configuration file (not required for all gateway types), and a startup mode (manual, automatic, or disabled).

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Structure of an event gateway application

To develop an event gateway application, you create and use some or all of the following elements:

One or more listener CFCs that handle any incoming messages and send any necessary responses.
In some applications, ColdFusion pages that generate outgoing messages directly.
An event gateway instance configuration in the ColdFusion Administrator. This configuration could require a
separate event gateway configuration file.

In some applications, a GatewayHelper object to provide access to additional features of the protocol or technology;
for example, to manage instant messaging buddy lists.

The role of the listener CFC

All incoming event messages must be handled by one or more listener CFCs. You specify the listener CFCs when you
configure an event gateway in the ColdFusion Administrator. Specify at least one CFC in the administrator. Some
gateway types can use more than one CFC. By default, the ColdFusion event gateway service delivers events by calling
the onIncomingMessage method of the CFC.
The event gateway developer must inform the event gateway application developer of methods that the listener CFC
must implement (could be only the onIncomingMessage method) and of the structure and contents of the event
message data, contained in the CFEvent instance, that the listener CFC must handle. Outgoing messages have the same
event message data structure as incoming messages.
Many gateways let the listener CFCs send a response by calling the cfreturn function, but ColdFusion does not
require a return value. Listener CFCs can also use the SendGatewayMessage function, which provides more flexibility
than the cfreturn tag.

The role of ColdFusion pages

ColdFusion CFM pages cannot receive event messages. However, they can send messages using an event gateway.
Therefore, an event gateway application that initiates outgoing messages could use one or more SendGatewayMessage
functions to send the messages. An application that sends an SMS message to notify users when a package ships, for
example, could use the SendGatewayMessage function to send the notification.

The role of the ColdFusion Administrator

The Gateway Instances page in the ColdFusion Administrator associates a specific event gateway instance with one or
more listener CFCs that processes messages from the event gateway. It tells the ColdFusion event gateway service to
send messages received by the event gateway to the listener CFC. It also lets you specify a configuration file for the event
gateway instance and whether to start the event gateway instance (and therefore any responder application) when
ColdFusion starts. For more information on using the Administrator, see the ColdFusion Administrator online Help.

The role of the GatewayHelper object

A ColdFusion event gateway provides an information conduit: at its most basic, it receives and dispatches event
messages. In some cases, however, an event gateway must provide additional functionality. An instant messaging event
gateway, for example, must provide such services as managing buddies and providing status information. To support
such use, an event gateway can enable access to a GatewayHelper object. The event gateway developer writes a Java
class that provides the necessary utility routines as Java methods, and ColdFusion application developers can get an
instance of the class by calling the CFML GetGatewayHelper method. The application calls the GatewayHelper object
methods using normal ColdFusion object access techniques. The ColdFusion instant messaging event gateways and
the example socket event gateway provide GatewayHelper objects.

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Configuring an event gateway instance

Before you develop or deploy an event gateway application, use the ColdFusion Administrator to configure an event
gateway instance that handles the event messages. You specify the following information:

An event gateway ID to identify the specific event gateway instance. You use this value in the CFML
GetGatewayHelper and SendGatewayMessage functions.

The event gateway type, which you select from the available event gateway types, such as SMS or Socket.
The absolute path to the listener CFC or CFCs that handles incoming messages. If you have multiple listener CFCs,
enter the paths separated by commas. Specify absolute file paths, even if you place the CFCs in the ColdFusion
gateway\cfc directory.

A configuration file, if necessary for this event gateway type or instance.

The event gateway start-up status; one of the following:
Automatic Start the event gateway when ColdFusion starts.
Manual Do not start the event gateway with ColdFusion, but allow starting it from the ColdFusion Administrator

Event Gateways list.

Disabled Do not allow the event gateway to start.

Developing an event gateway application

All event gateway applications handle information. They exchange event messages, and possibly other types of
information, with other resources. Event gateway applications require a listener CFC to handle events that are sent to
the event gateway. Event gateway applications can also use the following code elements:

SendGatewayMessage CFML functions to send messages from outside the listener CFC (or, optionally, from the CFC)

GatewayHelper objects
The eventgateway log file

Event gateway application models

Event gateway applications follow one or both of the following models:
Responder applications Where event messages from external sources initiate a response from a ColdFusion listener CFC
Initiator applications Where a ColdFusion application generates event messages to send out using the event gateway

Unlike other ColdFusion applications, responder applications are request-free. They do not have CFM pages, just
CFCs, and they do not respond to HTTP requests. Instead, ColdFusion the event gateway service deliver the event
messages directly to the listener CFC, and the CFC listener method returns any response directly to the event gateway
service. Applications that allow mobile phone owners to get a news feed, check for text messages, or request other
forms of information follow this model.
Initiator applications are like most ColdFusion applications. At some point, ColdFusion executes a CFM page in
response to a request. (The ColdFusion Administrator Scheduled Tasks page can initiate the request.) ColdFusion
sends a message to the event gateway when the application calls a CFML SendGatewayMessage function. An
application that uses SMS to notify customers when orders have been shipped follows this model.

Sending information to the event gateway

A ColdFusion application can send an outgoing message to the event gateway in either of the following ways:

In a cfreturn tag in the listener CFC listener method

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By calling the ColdFusion SendGatewayMessage function

The first method is useful to automatically respond to incoming messages. Some complex applications that respond
to incoming messages could use the SendGatewayMessage function either in place or in addition to the return value.
Some event gateway types also use a GatewayHelper object to send information to external resources. For example, the
ColdFusion XMPP and Lotus Sametime instant messaging event gateways provide a GatewayHelper object that can
manage buddy lists, and set configuration and status information on the instant messaging server. For more
information on the GatewayHelper object, see Using the GatewayHelper object on page 1268. For more information
on the instant messaging GatewayHelper object, see Sample IM message handling application on page 1282.
The example code in Example event gateway CFC on page 1266 shows the use of a listener return value, and indicates
how event gateways can require different data in the return structure to send equivalent messages.

Developing event gateway listener CFCs

The listener CFC responds to event gateway messages. The listener CFC uses, at a minimum, the following basic
software elements:

One or more listener methods

CFEvent structures that contain the messages
Listener CFCs can use ColdFusion persistent scopes to store data that must be preserved over multiple CFC
invocations or shared with other CFML elements.
Listener methods
The ColdFusion event gateway service calls one or more listener methods in the CFC to process incoming messages.
The number of listener methods that you must write and their names depends on the event gateway. For example, the
ColdFusion SMS event gateway requires a single listener method, which is typically named onIncomingMessage. (You
can change the SMS event gateway listener method name in the event gateway configuration file.) The ColdFusion
XMPP IM event gateway expects the listener CFC to have five methods: onIncomingMessage, onAddBuddyRequest,
onAddBuddyResponse, onBuddyStatus, and onIMServerMessage. By default, if the event gateway does not specify
the method name, ColdFusion calls the onIncomingMessage method of the listener CFC. For the sake of consistency,
Adobe recommends you to use the onIncomingMessage method for any event gateway with a single listener method.
The listener method does the following:
1 Takes a single parameter, a CFEvent structure.
2 Processes the contents of the instance as required by the application.
3 Optionally, returns an outgoing message to the event gateway in a cfreturn tag. It can also send a message back

to the event gateway by calling the ColdFusion SendGatewayMessage function.

The following code shows a listener CFC with an onIncomingMessage method that echoes a message back to the
Socket event gateway that sent it. It contains the minimum code required to process an incoming message and respond
to the sender using the socket gateway.

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<cfcomponent displayname="echo" hint="echo messages from the event gateway">

<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<!--- Create a return structure that contains the message. --->
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.DestinationID = arguments.CFEvent.OriginatorID>
<cfset retValue.MESSAGE = "Echo: " & arguments.CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE>
<!--- Send the return message back. --->
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Other event gateways require different fields in the return structure. For example, to echo a message using the SMS
event gateway, you use the following lines to specify the return value:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

retValue.command = "submit">
retValue.sourceAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.gatewayid>
retValue.destAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.originatorid>
retValue.ShortMessage = "Echo: " & arguments.CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE>

The CFEvent structure

The ColdFusion event gateway service passes a CFEvent structure with information about the message event to the
listener method. The following table describes the structure fields:
Field

Description

GatewayID

The event gateway that sent the event; the value is the ID of an event gateway instance configured on the
ColdFusion Administrator Gateway Instances page. If the application calls the SendGatewayMessage function
to respond to the event gateway, it uses this ID as the functions first parameter.

Data

A structure containing the event data, including the message. The Data structure contents depend on the event
gateway type.

OriginatorID

The originator of the message. The value depends on the protocol or event gateway type. Many event gateways
require this value in response messages to identify the destination of the response. Identifies the sender of the
message.

GatewayType

The type of event gateway, such as SMS. An application that can process messages from multiple event gateway
types can use this field. This value is the gateway type name that the event Gateway class specifies. It is not
necessarily the same as the gateway type name in the ColdFusion Administrator.

CFCPath

The location of the listener CFC. The listener CFC does not require this field.

CFCMethod

The listener method that ColdFusion invokes to process the event. The listener CFC does not require this field.

CFCTimeout

The time-out, in seconds, for the listener CFC to process the event request. The listener CFC does not require this
field.

When a ColdFusion application responds to an event gateway message, or sends a message independently, it does not
use a CFEvent structure. However, the ColdFusion event gateway service creates a Java CFEvent instance with the
message data before calling the outgoingMessage method of the event gateway.
Using persistent scopes in listener CFCs
ColdFusion listener CFCs can use the Application, Client, and Session persistent scopes.
Because incoming event gateway messages are not associated with HTTP requests, ColdFusion uses different session
and client IDs for interactions initiated by these events than for CFM Page requests, as follows:

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Identifier

Structure

Session ID

gatewayType_gatewayID_originatorID

cfid

originatorID

cftoken

gatewayType_gatewayID

The gatewayID value is the event gateway ID that you set in the ColdFusion Administrator, and gatewayType and
originatorID are the values that the event gateway sets in the CFEvent instance for an incoming message.
Application scope
The Application scope lets the CFC share data with any ColdFusion page or CFC that uses the same application name.
This way, a listener CFC can use the same Application scope as CFML pages that send messages. Also, you can place
multiple listener CFCs in a single directory and have them share an Application.cfc or Application.cfm file and
application name.
As with all ColdFusion code, use the Application.cfc This.name variable or the cfapplication tag to set the
application name. The listener CFC can use an Application.cfc or Application.cfm file if the CFC is in a directory that
is in or under one of the following places:

the ColdFusion web root

a directory that is in the ColdFusion Administrator Mappings list.
The ColdFusion installer creates a mapping in the ColdFusion Administrator for the gateway\cfc directory.
Client scope
The Client scope can store long-term information associated with the ID of the message sender. For example, it can
store information about an IM buddy.
To use Client variables across multiple connections, your gateway type must use the same client ID for all interactions
with a particular client. For many technologies and gateways, such as the IM and SMS gateways, this requirement is
not an issue.
Note: To use Client scope variables with gateways, you must store the Client scope variables in a data source or the
registry. You cannot store the variables in cookies, because gateways do not use cookies.
Session scope
The Session scope can store information required across multiple interactions. For example, an interactive IM or SMS
application that uses a drill-down menu to select a service can store the information about the menu selections in the
Session scope.
Event gateway sessions terminate when they time out. Because the identifiers for event sessions and clients differ from
request-driven session and client identifiers, you cannot use the same Session or Client scope on a standard CFM page
that sends an outgoing message and in a listener CFC that handles an incoming response to that message.
For an example of using the Session scope, see the example Menu application in the gateway\cfc\examples\menu
directory.
Note: ColdFusion cannot create a session if an initiator application uses a SendGatewayMessage method to start an
interaction with a client, such as an SMS user. In this case, the sending code must keep track (for example, in a database)
of the messages it sends and their destinations. When a response event arrives, it can look up the originatorID to
determine whether it was in response to an outgoing message.

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Debugging event gateway CFCs

When an event gateway CFC responds to an event, it cannot display debugging information in the response page, as
CFM pages do. As a result, many of the normal ColdFusion debugging techniques, including the cfdump tag, are not
available. When you develop event gateway CFCs, consider the following debugging techniques:

Place trace variables in the Application scope. These variables persist, and you can specify an application name for
your CFC (see Application scope on page 1265). You can inspect the Application scope contents, including your
trace variables, in any CFML page that has the same application name as your CFC.

Use cflog tags to help you trace any errors by logging significant events to a file. Also, carefully inspect the
eventgateway.log and exceptions.log files that ColdFusion maintains. For more information on using the
eventgateway.log file, see The eventgateway.log file on page 1260.

You can simulate responses from CFCs to the event gateway by using the SendGatewayMessage function in a CFM
page. The functions message parameter should contain the information that the CFC would place in its return
variable.

If you run ColdFusion from the command line, you can use the Java System.out.println method to write
messages to the console window, as the following code shows:
<cfscript>
sys = createObject("java", "java.lang.System");
sys.out.println("Debugging message goes here");
</cfscript>

Note: You do not have to restart the event gateway instance when you change a CFC. ColdFusion automatically uses the
updated CFC when the next event occurs.
Example event gateway CFC
The following code shows a temperature scale converter tool that can work with any of several event gateways: SMS,
XMPP, Lotus Sametime, or the example Socket event gateway. Users enter a string that consists of the temperature
scale (F, Fahrenheit, C, or Celsius), a comma, and a temperature on their device. The CFC converts Celsius to
Fahrenheit or Fahrenheit to Celsius, and returns the result.
This example shows how a responder event gateway application can work, and illustrates how different event gateway
types require different outgoing message formats:
<cfcomponent displayname="tempconverter" hint="Convert temperatures between
Celsius and Fahrenheit">
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<!--- Standard error message giving the correct input format. --->
<cfset var errormsg = "Please enter scale, integer where scale is F or C,
for example:F, 32">
<!--- Get the message. --->
<cfset data=cfevent.DATA>
<cfset message="#data.message#">
<!--- Where did it come from? --->
<cfset orig="#CFEvent.originatorID#">
<!--- Process the input, generate a message with the new temperature. --->
<!--- Input format is: degrees, temperature. --->
<cfif listlen(message) eq 2>
<cfif (listgetat(message,1) IS "F") OR
(listgetat(message,1) IS "Fahrenheit") OR

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(listgetat(message,1) IS "C") OR
(listgetat(message,1) IS "Celsius")>
<cfset scale=listgetat(message,1)>
<cfif isNumeric(listgetat(message,2))>
<cfset temperature=listgetat(message,2)>
<cfswitch expression="#scale#">
<cfcase value="F, Fahrenheit">
<cfset retmsg = temperature & " degrees Fahrenheit is "
& (temperature-32.0) * (5.0/9.0) & " degrees Celsius">
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="C, Celsius">
<cfset retmsg = temperature & " degrees Celsius is "
&(temperature * 9.0/5.0) + 32 & " degrees Fahrenheit">
</cfcase>
</cfswitch>
<cfelse>
<cfset retmsg=errormsg>
</cfif>
<cfelse>
<cfset retmsg=errormsg>
</cfif>
<cfelse>
<cfset retmsg=errormsg>
</cfif>
<!--- Fill the return value as required for the event gateway type. --->
<cfif arguments.CFEVENT.GatewayType is "Socket">
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.MESSAGE = retmsg>
<cfset retValue.originatorID = orig>
<cfelseif (arguments.CFEVENT.GatewayType is "Sametime") OR
(arguments.CFEVENT.GatewayType is "XMPP")>
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.MESSAGE = retmsg>
<cfset retValue.BuddyID = arguments.CFEVENT.DATA.SENDER>
<cfset retValue.originatorID = orig>
<cfelseif arguments.CFEVENT.GatewayType is "SMS">
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.command = "submit">
<cfset retValue.sourceAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.gatewayid>
<cfset retValue.destAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.originatorid>
<cfset retValue.shortMessage = retmsg>
</cfif>
<!--- Send the return message back. --->
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Sending a message using the SendGatewayMessage function

The SendGatewayMessage function has the following format:

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SendGatewayMessage(gatewayID, messageStruct)

The gatewayID parameter must be the gateway ID specified in the ColdFusion Administrator for the event gateway
instance that sends the message.

The messageStruct parameter is a structure whose contents depends on the requirements of the outgoingMessage
method of the event gateway, and possibly the recipient application. For example, in addition to any message, the
structure could include a destination identifier.
The CFEvent instance passed to the event gateway contains these two parameters in the GatewayID and Data fields;
the remaining fields are empty.
The following example sends a message to a logging CFC, which logs information to a file. If the SendGatewayMessage
function returns OK, the example code displays a message. The code uses an instance of the asynchronous CFML
event gateway named Asynch Logger. The props variable used in the messageStruct parameter has two entries, the
destination file and the message to log.
<cfscript>
status = "No";
props = structNew();
props.Message = "Replace me with a variable with data to log";
status = SendGatewayMessage("Asynch Logger", props);
if (status IS "OK") WriteOutput("Event Message ""#props.Message#"" has been sent.");
</cfscript>

Note: To see the code for the CFC that logs the information, see Using the CFML event gateway for asynchronous CFCs
on page 1269.

Using the GatewayHelper object

The ColdFusion GetGatewayHelper function tells ColdFusion to create and initialize a Java GatewayHelper object
that provides event gateway-specific helper methods and properties. To use this function, the event gateway must
implement a GatewayHelper class. For example, an instant messaging event gateway could make buddy list
management methods available in a GatewayHelper object.
The ColdFusion GetGatewayHelper function takes a single parameter, the ID of the event gateway instance that
provides the helper, and returns a GatewayHelper Java object. The parameter value must be the gateway ID for the
instance that is specified in the ColdFusion Administrator. If you do not want to hard-code an ID value in the
application (for example, if your listener CFC can respond to multiple event gateway instances), get the gateway ID
from the CFEvent structure of the first incoming message.
The CFML code accesses the GatewayHelper objects methods and properties using standard ColdFusion Java object
access techniques (see Integrating J2EE and Java Elements in CFML Applications on page 1125). For example, if an
event gateways GatewayHelper class includes an addBuddy method that takes a single String parameter, you could use
the following code to get the ColdFusion XMPP or Sametime gateway GatewayHelper object and add a buddy to the
buddies list:
<cfscript>
myHelper = GetGatewayHelper(myGatewayID);
status = myHelper.addBuddy("jsmith23", "Jim Smith", "support");
</cfscript>

Using the event gateway error log file

When a standard ColdFusion event gateway encounters an error that does not prevent the event gateway from
continuing to process, it logs it to the eventgateway.log file in the ColdFusion logs directory. Other event gateways can
also to log information in this file, or to other application-specific files in the logs directory.

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The standard ColdFusion event gateways log errors in interaction with any messaging server, errors in messages sent
by the ColdFusion application, and recoverable errors in event gateway operation. The event gateways also log
informational status messages for significant normal events, including event gateway initialization and restarts.
ColdFusion event gateway messages in the eventgateway.log file normally have the following format:
gatewayType (gatewayID) message body

When you are developing an event gateway application, you can use the ColdFusion Log viewer to inspect the
eventgateway.log file and filter the display by using the gateway type and possibly the gateway ID as keywords. By
selecting different severity levels, you can get a good understanding of errors and possible inefficiencies in your
application and event gateway operation.

Deploying event gateways and applications

To deploy an event gateway application in a ColdFusion server, install your listener CFC and configure a gateway
instance that uses the CFC.

Deploy an event gateway application

1 Ensure that the ColdFusion Administrator is configured with the required event gateway type. If it is not, deploy

the event gateway type (see Deploying an event gateway on page 1333).
2 If the event gateway type requires a configuration file, ensure that a valid file exists in the gateway\config directory.

Some event gateways could be designed to let multiple event gateway instances share a configuration file. Others
could require a separate file for each event gateway instance.
3 Install the event gateway application listener CFC and any other application components. ColdFusion provides a

cf_root\gateways\cfc directory as a convenient location for these CFCs, and includes a mapping in the ColdFusion
Administrator page for that directory. However, ColdFusion does not require you to install the listener CFC in this
directory.
4 Configure an event gateway instance on the Gateway Instances page of the Event Gateways section in the

ColdFusion Administrator (see Configuring an event gateway instance on page 1262)

Using the CFML event gateway for asynchronous CFCs

The ColdFusion CFML event gateway lets CFML code send a message to CFC methods asynchronously. This event
gateway lets you initiate processing by a CFC method without waiting for it to complete or return a value. Possible uses
for asynchronous CFCs that you access using this event gateway include the following:

Reindexing a Verity collection with new information without delaying an application, for example, when a user
uploads a new file

Logging information, particularly if significant amount of data must be logged

Running batch processes that could take a substantial amount of time to complete
Because asynchronous CFCs run independently of a request, they do not provide feedback to the user. Save any results
or error information to a file, data source, or other external resource.
By default, ColdFusion delivers the message to a CFC method named onIncomingMessage. You can specify any
method name, however, in the SendGatewayMessage methods data parameter.

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CFML event gateway data structure

The structure that you use in the CFML SendGatewayMessage function can include two types of fields:

The structure can include any number of fields with arbitrary contents for use in by the CFC.
Several optional fields can configure how the gateway delivers the information to the CFC.
The CFML gateway looks for the following optional fields, and, if they exist, uses them to determine how it delivers
the message. Do not use these field names for data that you send to your CFC method.
Field

Use

cfcpath

Overrides the CFC path specified in the ColdFusion Administrator. This field lets you use a single gateway
configuration in the ColdFusion Administrator multiple CFCs.

method

Sets the name of the method to invoke in the CFC. The default method is onIncomingMessage. This field lets
you use a single gateway configuration in the ColdFusion Administrator for a CFC that has several methods.

originatorID

Sets the originatorID field of the CFEvent object that ColdFusion delivers to the CFC. The default value is
CFMLGateway.

timeout

Sets the time-out, in seconds, during which the listener CFC must process the event request and return before
ColdFusion gateway services terminates the request. The default value is the Timeout Request value set on the
Server Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator. Set this value if a request could validly take longer to
process than the default timeout; for example, if the request involves a long processing time.

Using the CFML gateway

The following procedure describes how to use an asynchronous CFC that has a single, onIncomingMessage method.
Use an asynchronous CFC
1 Create a CFC with an onIncomingMessage method. Place the CFC in an appropriate directory for your
application. For example, you can place it in the cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\gateway\cfc directory on J2EE
configurations, in the cf_root\gateway\cfc directory on server configurations, or in a subdirectory of these
directories. ColdFusion is installed with mappings to these cfc gateway directories.
The onIncomingMessage method must take a CFEvent structure that contains input information in its Data field,
and processes the contents of the Data field as needed.
2 Use the Gateway Instances page in the ColdFusion Administrator to add an instance of the CFML event gateway

type. Specify the following:

A unique Gateway ID.

The path to the CFC that you created in step 1.
The startup mode. Select Automatic startup mode to start the event gateway when ColdFusion starts up.
Do not specify a configuration file.
3 Start the event gateway instance.
4 Write CFML code that uses SendGatewayMessage functions to send messages in structures to the event gateway

instance ID that you specified in step 2. The SendGatewayMessage function returns true if the gateway successfully
queues the message in the ColdFusion Gateway Service; false, otherwise. It does not ensure that the CFC receives
or processes the message.
5 Run your CFML application.

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Example: logging messages

The following asynchronous CFML event gateway CFC uses the cflog tag to log a message to a file in the ColdFusion
logs directory. The CFC takes a message with the following fields:

file The name of the file in which to place the message. The default value is defaultEventLog.
type The cflog type attribute to use. The default value is info.
message The message text.
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<cfscript>
if (NOT IsDefined("CFEvent.Data.file")) {
CFEvent.Data.file="defaultEventLog"; }
if (NOT IsDefined("CFEvent.Data.type")) {
CFEvent.Data.type="info"; }
</cfscript>
<cflog text="#CFEvent.Data.message#"
file="#CFEvent.Data.file#"
type="#CFEvent.Data.type#"
thread="yes"
date="yes"
time="yes"
application="yes">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

The following minimal CFML page tests the event gateway:

Sending an event to the CFML event gateway that is registered in the
ColdFusion Administrator as Asynch Logger.<br>
<cfscript>
status = false;
props = structNew();
props.Message = "Replace me with a variable with data to log";
status = SendGatewayMessage("Asynch Logger", props);
if (status IS True) WriteOutput('Event Message "#props.Message#" has been sent.');
</cfscript>

Using the example event gateways and gateway applications

ColdFusion provides several example event gateways and applications in the cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\gateway
directory on J2EE configurations or the cf_root\gateway directory on server configurations. These gateways provide
example code that you can examine or use in developing your gateways. They are intended as examples only, and are
not complete, product-quality, implementations.

Example event gateways

The gateway\src\examples directory and its subdirectories include the sources for the example event gateways.
Compiled versions are located in the gateway\lib\examples.jar file. This document briefly describes the event gateways
and their functions. For more detailed information, see the code and comments in the files.

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EmptyGateway
The EmptyGateway.java file contains an event gateway template that you can use as a skeleton for creating your own
event gateway. For more information on this class, and on creating new event gateways, see Creating Custom Event
Gateways on page 1320
SocketGateway
The SocketGateway event gateway listens on a TCP/IP port. Therefore, you can use this gateway for applications that
send and respond to messages using TCP/IP-based protocols such as Telnet, or for applications that send messages
between sockets. For example, a simple gateway application that responds to messages from a Telnet terminal client
without supporting the full Telnet protocol.
Note: The ColdFusion Administrator uses Socket as the gateway type name for the SocketGateway class.
The SocketGateway.java file defines two classes: SocketGateway, the event gateway, and SocketHelper, a
GatewayHelper class. The Source file is located in the gateway\src\examples\socket directory.
SocketGateway Listens on a TCP/IP port. This event gateway is multi-threaded and can handle multiple clients

simultaneously. It can send outgoing messages to existing clients, but cannot establish a link itself.
By default, the SocketGateway class listens on port 4445, but you can specify the port number in a configuration file.
The file should contain a single line in the following format:
port=portNumber

SocketHelper A GatewayHelper class with the following methods:

getSocketIDs() returns an array containing the socket IDs of all Java sockets that are open. The event gateway opens
a socket for each remote client.
killSocket(String socketid)removes the specified socket. Returns a Boolean success indicator.

DirectoryWatcherGateway
The DirectoryWatcherGateway event gateway sends events to the listener CFC when a file is created, deleted, or
modified in a directory. The watcher runs in a thread that sleeps for an interval specified in the configuration file, and
when the interval has passed, checks for changes since the last time it was awake. If it finds added, deleted, or changed
files, it sends a message to a listener CFC. You can configure separate CFCs for add, delete, and change events, or use
a single CFC for all events. The source for this event gateway is located in the gateway/src/examples/watcher directory.
Note: The ColdFusion Administrator uses DirectoryWatcher as the gateway type name for the
DirectoryWatcherGateway class.
Configuration file
This event gateway requires a configuration file, consisting of lines in the following format:
directory=C:/temp

Note: If you use backward slash characters (\) as directory separators in Windows the file paths, escape them by using
double slashes, as in C:\\temp. You can use forward slashes (/) as the directory separator on all operating systems,
including Windows.
Note: When you specify filename extensions in the Directory Watcher configuration file, do not include the period,
instead use a comma, for example, doc,txt.
The configuration file can have comment lines, preceded by a number sign (#). If you omit a property or comment it
out, ColdFusion uses the default value. If you specify a property with no value, ColdFusion sets an empty property.
The configuration file can define the following values:

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Property

Req/Opt

Description

directory

Required

Path to the directory to watch.

recurse

Optional

Whether to check subdirectories. The default value is no.

extensions

Optional

Comma-delimited list of extensions to watch. The event gateway logs only changed files with these
extensions. An asterisk (*) indicates all files. The default value is all files.

interval

Optional

Number of milliseconds between the times that the event gateway checks the directory. The
default value is 60 seconds.

addFunction

Optional

Name of the function to call when a file is added. The default value is onAdd.

changeFunction

Optional

Name of the function to call when a file is changed. The default value is onChange.

deleteFunction

Optional

Name of the function to call when a file is deleted. The default value is onDelete.

An example configuration file is located in the gateway\config\directory-watcher.cfg file.

CFC methods
When the directory contents change, the event gateway calls one of the following CFC listener methods, unless you
change the names in the configuration file:

onAdd

onChange

onDelete

The CFEvent.Data field sent to the listener methods includes the following fields:
Field

Description

TYPE

Event type, one of ADD, CHANGE, DELETE.

FILENAME

Absolute path from the system directory root to the file that was added, deleted, or changed.

LASTMODIFIED

The date and time that the file was created or modified. This field is not included if the file was deleted.

The event gateway supports multiple listener CFCs and sends the event messages to all listeners. The event gateway is
one way; it watches for events and dispatches event information to a CFC, but it does not accept return values from
the CFC or input from SendGatewayMessage functions.
The directory watcher logs errors to the watcher.log file in the ColdFusion logs directory.
Example DirectoryWatcher application
The following code shows a simple directory watcher application. It enters a line in a log file each time a file is added,
deleted, or changed in the directory specified in the configuration file. ColdFusion includes the date and time that a
log entry is made. However, if the directory watcher monitors changes infrequently, for example once every minute or
more, the time in the log entry could differ from the time a file was added or changed, so the information includes the
time (but not date) for these actions.

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="onAdd" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<cfset data=CFEvent.data>
<cflog file="MydirWatcher" application="No"
text="ACTION: #data.type#;FILE: #data.filename#;
TIME: #timeFormat(data.lastmodified)#">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onDelete" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<cfset data=CFEvent.data>
<cflog file="MydirWatcher" application="No"
text=" ACTION: #data.type#;FILE: #data.filename#">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onChange" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<cfset data=CFEvent.data>
<cflog file="MydirWatcher" application="No"
text=" ACTION: #data.type#;FILE: #data.filename#;
TIME: #timeFormat(data.lastmodified)#">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

JMSGateway
The JMSGateway class acts as a Java Messaging Service consumer or producer. The source for this event gateway is
located in gateway/src/examples/JMS. The gateway requires a configuration file, which is in
gateway/config/jmsgateway.cfg. For full documentation of the configuration options, See the configuration file. The
ColdFusion Administrator lists the compiled gateway (which is included in the gateway\lib\examples.jar file) on the
Gateway Types page.
Note: The ColdFusion Administrator uses JMS as the gateway type name for the JMSGateway class.
Using the JMS Gateway as a consumer
The JMSGateway class creates a subscriber to the topic specified in the configuration file. The gateway consumes the
following types of messages:

TextMessage
BytesMessage containing raw UTF-8 text
The gateway passes the contents of the message to the configured CFC in the event structure, as follows:
Field

Contents

data.id

Message correlation ID

data.msg

Text of the message

gatewayType

Gateway type: JMS

originatorID

Topic name from which the message was consumed

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The listener CFC method must be named onIncomingMessage. If the CFC method does not send a message in
response, it should return a structure containing a status field with a value of OK or EXCEPTION. (In this case, The
gateway checks the return status field, but does not process these return values further.) To send a message, the CFC
method must return a structure as documented in the following section.
Using the JMS Gateway as a producer
To send a JMS message, the return value of your CFC method or the second, messageStruct, parameter to the
SendGatewayMessage function must be a structure with the following fields:
Field

Contents

status

Must be SEND.

topic

Name of the topic to publish the message to.

id

(Optional) The JMS correlation ID to associate with the message. The default is null.

message

Text of the message to publish.

asBytes

(Optional) How to publish the message:

If omitted, no, or false, send the message as text.

If any other value, send the message as byte-encoded UTF-8.

If you send the message in a SendGatewayMessage function, the function returns OK if the gateway sends the
message, or EXCEPTION if it fails to send the message.
ActiveMQ JMS event gateway
Apache ActiveMQ is a message broker that implements JMS. The source for this event gateway is located in
gateway/src/examples/ActiveMQ. For information about using the ActiveMQ JMS event gateway, see the
gateway\docs\ActiveMQDeveloperGuide.pdf file.

Menu example application

ColdFusion is installed with a menu-based responder application. The menu application is written to work with any
of the standard ColdFusion event gateways (SMS, XMPP, and Sametime) and with the Socket example event gateway,
and ColdFusion is preconfigured with an instance of the application that uses SMS, as follows:

The Gateway Instances page in the ColdFusion Administrator includes a gateway instance for this application that
uses the SMS gateway type.

The gateway/cfc/examples/menu directory and its subdirectories include the CFML for the application
The gateway/config/sms-test.cfg file is configured to use this application with the SMS client (phone simulator),
and short message service center (SMSC) server simulator that are provided with ColdFusion.
The application presents users with a drill-down menu of tools that they can use, including a weather report, stock
information, status and configuration information, and language tools such as a dictionary.
The code for this application is relatively complex and is distributed among 13 files. The following brief description
provides an overview of how it works. To get a full understanding of how the application works, see the source code.

The top level, menu, directory contains two files: Application.cfm and main.cfc.
The Application.cfm file consists of a single cfapplication tag that enables session management and names the
application. Session variables maintain the current state information of the session, such as the active menu, and so on.

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The main.cfc file contains the master CFC; the event gateway configuration in ColdFusion Administrator uses it as
the listener CFC. The main CFC file processes CFEvent structures from the event gateway. It does the following:
1 Inspects the gatewayType field to determine the rest of the structure contents. This check is necessary because

different event gateways place the message in fields with different names.
2 If a Session.menu variable does not exist, initializes the menu system. To do so, it calls methods in two other

CFCs: menu and menunode. These two CFCs contain the menu system code.
3 Calls the session.menu.process method to process the user input. This method can dispatch a message to an

individual application for processing, if appropriate.

The apps directory contains several CFCs. Each file contains the code for a single application, such as the weather
report or dictionary lookup (definition.cfc).
Use the menu application with the Socket event gateway
1 On the Gateway Settings page in the ColdFusion Administrator, click the Start SMS Test Server button.
2 On the Gateway Instances page in the ColdFusion Administrator, start the SMS Menu App - 5551212 event gateway

by clicking the green play button (third button from the left in the Actions column). If the Status does not say
Running after a few seconds, click Refresh to check that the server started.
3 In the cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\bin directory on J2EE configurations or the cf_root\bin directory on server

configurations, run the SMSClient.bat file (on Windows) or SMSClient.sh file (on UNIX or Linux) to start the SMS
phone simulator. The simulator is preconfigured by default to call the default SMS event gateway configuration.
4 Enter any character by typing or by using the mouse to click the simulator keypad, and press Enter on your

keyboard or click Send on the simulator.

5 The menu application responds with the top-level menu. Enter L for language tools such as a dictionary and

thesaurus, S to get stock quotes or weather forecasts, or C to get information about the server. Press Enter on your
keyboard or click Send on the simulator.
6 The application displays a submenu. For example, if you select S in step 5, the options are Q for a stock quote, W

for weather, or B to go back to the previous menu. Enter your selection.

7 The application requests information such as a Zip code for the weather, stock symbol for a price, word for the

dictionary, and so on. Enter and send the required information (or enter B to go back to the menu).
8 The application gets and displays the requested information. Depending on the application, you could also be

prompted to enter M to get more. Enter M (if more information is available), another term, or B to return to the
previous menu.
9 Continue by entering menu items and detailed information requests.
10 To exit, select File > Exit from the menu bar.

Using the Instant Messaging Event Gateways

You can develop an application that uses either of two instant message (IM) event gateway types provided with Adobe
ColdFusion: an IBM Lotus Sametime gateway, and an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) gateway.
Before you use the IM event gateways, become familiar with ColdFusion event gateway principles and programming
techniques (see Using Event Gateways on page 1254).

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About ColdFusion and instant messages

ColdFusion includes two instant messaging gateway types: one for messaging using the XMPP protocol, and one for
IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (Sametime). These gateway types use identical interfaces for sending and receiving
messages and for managing the IM presence information and infrastructure. This documentation, therefore, refers to
IM gateways, and only describes the two types where differences exist.
The ColdFusion IM gateways act as IM clients and let you do the following:

Send and receive instant messages.

Send and respond to buddy or friend requests and manage buddy/friend information.
Set and get status and other information.
Receive and handle messages from the IM server.

About XMPP
XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) is an open, XML-based protocol for instant messaging. It is the
core protocol of the Jabber Instant Messaging and Presence technology that the Jabber Software Foundation develops.
As of November 2004, four Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications (RFCs) defined XMPP, numbers
3920-3923. RFC 3920 covers the XMPP core, and 3921 covers instant messaging and presence. Numerous XMPP
servers and clients are available. ColdFusion supports the IETF XMPP protocol.
The following websites provide additional information about the XMPP protocol:

Jabber Software Foundation: www.jabber.org/. This site includes information on available XMPP servers and
clients.

IETF has copies of the Internet standards for XMPP: www.ietf.org/rfc.html.

The xmpp.org website was under development as of December 2004; at that time it included several useful links,
including links to relevant specifications: www.xmpp.org/.

About IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (Sametime)

IBM Lotus Instant Messaging, commonly referred to as Lotus Sametime, is the IBM product for real-time
collaboration. For more information about this product, see www.lotus.com/sametime.
Note: In the Enterprise Edition, to use the Lotus Sametime event gateway, disable FIPS-140 Compliant Strong
Cryptography by adding the following to the JVM arguments in the ColdFusion Administrator:
-Dcoldfusion.disablejsafe=false

About IM application development and deployment

The following information introduces the ColdFusion IM application development tools and process, and discuss IM
messaging providers.
ColdFusion IM gateway classes
ColdFusion provides the following instant messaging gateway classes:
XMPPGateway The class for the XMPP event gateway type
SAMETIMEGateway The class for the IBM Lotus Instant Messaging event gateway

You implement your IM application by configuring a gateway instance in ColdFusion Administrator that uses one of
these gateway classes and creating a ColdFusion application that uses the gateway instance to communicate with an
instant messaging server.

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Application development and deployment process

The following is a typical process for developing and deploying an IM application:
1 Design your application.
2 Configure an IM event gateway instance to use an available XMPP or Lotus Sametime server.
3 Write your CFCs, CFM pages, and any other application elements.
4 Test your application using your XMPP or Lotus Sametime server and an appropriate client application.
5 Deploy the application (see Deploying event gateways and applications on page 1269).

How the IM event gateway and provider interact

Each IM event gateway instance has a single instant messaging ID. Establish the ID and its related password on the IM
server using server-specific tools, such as a standard instant messaging client. In ColdFusion, you set the ID, password, and
other gateway-specific information in a gateway configuration file, and you create a gateway instance that uses this file.
When you start the gateway, it logs on to the IM server with the ID and password, and receives and sends the messages
for the ID. The gateway sends incoming messages to a CFC, which you specify when you configure the gateway
instance in the ColdFusion Administrator. The gateway passes outgoing messages from this CFC and from other
CFML code to the IM server.
The IM event gateway also provides several helper methods for managing the gateway and its configuration
information.
Incoming message handling
You write the following ColdFusion CFC methods to handle incoming messages and requests from the IM event
gateway. These CFCs receive messages from the IM server and can respond to them by setting a return value.
CFC method

Message type

onIncomingMessage

Standard message from IM users.

onAddBuddyRequest

Requests from others to add the gateway ID to their buddy list.

onAddBuddyResponse

Responses from others to requests from your gateway to add them to your buddy lists. Also used by
buddies to ask to be removed from your list.

onBuddyStatus

Presence status messages from other users.

onIMServerMessage

Error and status messages from the IM server.

For more information on these methods, see Handling incoming messages on page 1280.

Outgoing message handling

Applications send outgoing instant messages using the CFML SendGatewayMessage method. Incoming messagehandling CFC methods can also send messages, including responses to requests from others to add the ColdFusion
gateways ID to their buddy list. For more information on sending messages, see Sending outgoing messages on
page 1281.

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IMGatewayHelper methods
The ColdFusion IM gateway provides the IMGatewayHelper class, a gateway helper that you can access by calling the
CFML GetGatewayHelper function. The IMGatewayHelper class has methods that let you do the following:

Get and set gateway configuration information and get gateway statistics
Get and set the gateway online presence status
Manage the gateways buddy list
Manage permissions for others to get information about the gateway status.
For more information on using GatewayHelper methods, including lists of all the methods, see Using the
GatewayHelper object on page 1287.

Configuring an IM event gateway

You provide IM-specific configuration information to the IM event gateway in a configuration file. You specify the
configuration file location when you configure the IM event gateway instance in the ColdFusion Administrator.
ColdFusion provides sample XMPP and Lotus Sametime event gateway configuration files in the cf_root\WEBINF\cfusion\gateway\config directory on J2EE configurations, and cf_root\gateway\config directory on server
configurations. The configuration file can have the following information.
Note: The default value in the table is the value the gateway uses if the configuration file omits the property, not the value
in the default configuration files.
Property

Default value

Description

userID

none

(Required) The IM user ID to use to connect to the IM server.

password

none

(Required) Password for the user.

secureprotocol

none

XMPP only.
Required if you set securerequirement to true.
The protocol to use for secure communications. The following values are valid:

securerequirement

false

TSL

SSL

XMPP only.
Specifies whether the gateway must use secure communications. The following values
are valid:

true

false

If this value is true, specify a secureprotocol value, and connections succeed only if
a secure connection is established.
serverip

XMPP: jabber.org
Sametime:
stdemo3.dfw.ibm.com

serverport

Address of XMPP or Lotus Sametime server to which to send messages. Can be a server
name or IP address.

XMPP: 5222

Port on the server to which to send the messages.

Sametime:1533

If the XMPP secureprotocol parameter is set to SSL, specify 5223.

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Property

Default value

Description

retries

-1

Integer number of times to retry connecting to the IM server on gateway startup or if the
Gateway gets disconnected.
0 = do not to retry
-1 = try forever

retryinterval

Real number of seconds to wait between connection attempts. The minimum is 1

second.

onIncomingMessageFu
nction

onIncomingMessage

Name of CFC method to call to handle an incoming message. If you specify the property
without a value, such as onIncomingMessageFunction=, the gateway does not send
this event to a CFC.

onAddBuddyRequestFu
nction

onAddBuddyRequest

Name of CFC method to call to handle an incoming buddy request. If you specify the
property without a value, the gateway does not send this event to a CFC.

onAddBuddyResponseF
unction

onAddBuddyResponse

Name of CFC method to call to handle an incoming response to a buddy request sent by
ColdFusion. If you specify the property without a value, the gateway does not send this
event to a CFC.

onBuddyStatusFunction onBuddyStatus

Name of CFC method to call to handle an incoming buddy status message, such as If you
specify the property without a value, the gateway does not send this event to a CFC.

onIMServerMessageFun
ction

Name of CFC method to call to handle an incoming message method. If you specify the
property without a value, the gateway does not send this event to a CFC.

onIMServerMessage

Note: If you do not have a CFC method to handle any of the event types, specify the corresponding property without a
value. Use the following entry in the configuration file, for example, if you do not have a method to handle
IMServerMessage events: onIMServerMessageFunction=

Handling incoming messages

The IM event gateway handles five types of messages, and your CFC must implement a listener method for each
message type. The following table describes the message-handling CFC methods and the messages they handle. It lists
the default CFC method names; however, you can change the names in the gateway configuration file.
CFC method

Description

onIncomingMessage

Standard message from an IM user. The application processes the message body appropriately; for
example, it could display the message in an interface window.
This method can return a response message to the sender.

onAddBuddyRequest

Request from another IM user to add your applications IM ID to their buddy list. The CFC must
determine whether to accept or reject the request, or to take no action. An action is not always
appropriate in cases where the request must be reviewed offline for approval and responses are
sent at a later time.
The CFC returns a message with the decision as a command value and optionally a text message
specifying the reason. If you accept the request, the requestor automatically gets added to the list
of IDs that can get status information for the gateway. If you specify no action, ColdFusion does not
respond.

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CFC method

Description

onAddBuddyResponse

Response from another IM user to a request from the gatewaybeing added to their buddy list. The
response message is accept or decline.
Your application can handle this response as appropriate; for example, to add or remove the ID
from a list of message recipients.
This method does not return a value.

onBuddyStatus

Message indicating a gateway buddys status. Received when a buddys status changes; for
example, from OFFLINE to ONLINE.
This method does not return a value.

onIMServerMessage

Status messages from the IM server, such as warning or error messages. The messages you can
receive depend on the IM server that sends them. For information on the server messages, see the
documentation for the IM server that your gateway instance uses.
This method does not return a value.

For detailed information on each method, including examples of their use, see IM Gateway CFC incoming message
methods in the CFML Reference. For an example that uses these functions, see Sample IM message handling
application on page 1282.

Sending outgoing messages

You use the SendGatewayMessage CFML function or the return value of a CFC listener method to send outgoing
messages. The ColdFusion IM gateway accepts the following outgoing message commands:
Command

Description

submit

(Default) Sends a normal message to another IM user.

accept

Accepts an add buddy request. Adds the buddy to the list of IDs that get your presence information and sends an
acceptance message to the buddy ID.

decline

Declines an add buddy request and sends a rejection message to the buddy ID.

noact

Tells the gateway to take no action. The gateway logs a message that indicates that it took no action, and contains the
gateway type, gateway ID, and buddy ID.

The message structure that you return in the gateway listener CFC function or use as the second parameter in the
CFML SendGatewayMessage function can have the following fields. The table lists the fields and the commands in
which they are used, and describes each fields use.
Field

Commands

Description

buddyID

All

The destination user ID.

command

All

The command; if omitted, ColdFusion treats the message as a submit command.

message

submit

A text message to send to the destination user.

reason

accept, decline

A text description of the reason for the action or other message to send to the add buddy
requestor.

In typical use, a ColdFusion application uses the accept, decline, and noact commands in the return value of the
onAddBuddyRequest method, and uses the submit command (or no command, because submit is the default
command) in SendGatewayMessage CFML functions and the return value of the onIncomingMessage CFC method.

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The SendGatewayMessage CFML function can send any command, and can be used to send an accept or decline
message. One possible use is in an application where someone must review all buddy requests before they are added.
In this case, the onAddBuddyRequest CFC method could initially send a noact command in its return value, and save
the request information in a database. Administrators could use a separate ColdFusion application to review the
request information. This application could use the SendGatewayMessage function with an accept or decline
command to act on the request and inform the requestor.
The following example onIncomingMessage method of a listener CFC echoes incoming IM messages to the message
originator:
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<cfset retValue.MESSAGE = "echoing: " & CFEvent.DATA.message>
<cfset retValue.BuddyID = arguments.CFEVENT.DATA.SENDER>
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>

Sample IM message handling application

The application described here consists of two CFCs: an employee phone directory lookup CFC that responds to an
onIncomingMessage event, and a Gateway management CFC that responds to all other events. This example shows
how an application can respond to events and send outgoing messages.
You can configure a gateway to use both CFCs by entering the paths to the two CFCs, separated by a comma, in the
CFC Path field of the Add/Edit ColdFusion Event Gateways form on the Gateway Instances page in the ColdFusion
Administrator.

Phone directory lookup CFC

The following CFC implements a simple employee phone directory lookup application. The user sends an instant
message containing some part of the name to looked up (a space requests all names). The onIncomingMessage
response depends on the number matches.

If there is no match, the onIncomingMessage function returns a message indicating that there are no matches.
If there is one match, the function returns the name, department, and phone number.
If there are up to ten matches, the function returns a list of the names preceded by a number that the user can enter
to get the detailed information.

If there are over ten matches, the function returns a list of only the first ten names. A more complex application can
let the user get multiple lists of messages to provide access to all names.

If the user enters a number, and previously got a multiple-match list, the application returns the information for
the name that corresponds to the number.
The following listing shows the CFC code:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="YES">
<!--- Remove any extra white space from the message. --->
<cfset message =Trim(arguments.CFEvent.data.MESSAGE)>
<!--- If the message is numeric, a previous search probably returned a
list of names. Get the name to search for from the name list stored in
the Session scope. --->
<cfif isNumeric(message)>
<cfscript>
if (structKeyExists(session.users, val(message))) {
message = session.users[val(message)];
}
</cfscript>
</cfif>
<!--- Search the database for the requested name. --->
<cfquery name="employees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select FirstName, LastName, Department, Phone
from Employees
where 0 = 0
<!--- A space indicates the user entered a first and last name. --->
<cfif listlen(message, " ") eq 2>
and FirstName like '#listFirst(message, " ")#%'
and LastName like '#listlast(message, " ")#%'
<!--- No space: the user entered a first or a last name. --->
<cfelse>
and (FirstName like '#listFirst(message, " ")#%'
or LastName like '#listFirst(message, " ")#%')
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<!--- Generate andreturn the message.--->
<cfscript>
retrunVal = structNew();
retrunVal.command = "submit";
retrunVal.buddyID = arguments.CFEvent.data.SENDER;
//No records were found.
if (employees.recordCount eq 0) {
retrunVal.message = "No records found for '#message#'";
}
//One record was found.
else if (employees.recordCount eq 1) {
// Whitespace in the message text results in bad formatting,
// so the source cannot be indented.
retrunVal.message = "Requested information:
#employees.firstName# #employees.lastName#
#employees.Department#
#employees.Phone#";
}
//Multiple possibilities were found.
else if (employees.recordCount gt 1) {
//If more than ten were found, return only the first ten.
if (employees.recordCount gt 10)
{
retrunVal.message = "First 10 of #employees.recordCount# records";

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}else{
retrunVal.message = "Records found: #employees.recordCount#";
}
// The session.users structure contains the found names.
// The record key is a number that is also returned in front of the
// name in the message.
session.users = structNew();
for(i=1; i lte min(10, employees.recordCount); i=i+1)
{
// These two lines are formatted to prevent extra white space.
retrunVal.message = retrunVal.message & "
#i# - #employees.firstName[i]# #employees.lastName[i]#";
// The following two lines must be a single line in the source
session.users[i]="#employees.firstName[i]#
#employees.lastName[i]#";
}
}
return retrunVal;
</cfscript>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Status and request-handling CFC

The following CFC handles all IM events, except onIncomingMessage. It maintains an Application scope buddyStatus
structure that contains information on the gateway buddies. This structure limits the interactions that are needed with
the IM server to get buddy and status information. The application also logs significant events, such as requests to add
buddies and error messages from the IM server. In particular, it does the following:

The onBuddyStatus function updates the Application scope buddy status structure when the gateway gets an event
message indicating that a buddys status has changed.

The onAddBuddyRequest function searches for the requested buddys name in a data source. If it finds a single
instance of the name, it adds the buddy and updates the status in the Application scope buddyStatus structure. If it
doesnt find name, it declines the buddy request. If it finds multiple instances of the name, it tells the gateway to
take no action. It also logs all actions.

The onAddBuddyResponse function adds the buddy to the Application scope buddy status structure if the buddy
request is accepted, and sets the current status. It logs all responses.

The onIMServerMessage function logs all messages that it receives.

This example uses the IM_ID column of the Employees database of the cfdocexamples database that is included
with ColdFusion. The entries in this column assume that you use an XMPP server company. To run this
exampleconfigure an XMPP server with this name and with clients with names in this database, or change the
database entries to match IM server clients. Also, configure a gateway instance in the ColdFusion Administrator
that uses this server.
The following listing shows the CFC code:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="onBuddyStatus">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="YES">
<cflock scope="APPLICATION" timeout="10" type="EXCLUSIVE">
<cfscript>
// Create the status structures if they don't exist.
if (NOT StructKeyExists(Application, "buddyStatus")) {
Application.buddyStatus=StructNew();
}
if (NOT StructKeyExists(Application.buddyStatus, CFEvent.Data.BUDDYNAME)) {
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.BUDDYNAME#]=StructNew();
}
// Save the buddy status and timestamp.
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.BUDDYNAME#].status=CFEvent.Data.BUDDYSTATUS;
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.BUDDYNAME#].timeStamp=CFEvent.Data.TIMESTAMP;
</cfscript>
</cflock>
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="onAddBuddyRequest">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="YES">
<cfquery name="buddysearch" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select IM_ID
from Employees
where IM_ID = '#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#'
</cfquery>
<cflock scope="APPLICATION" timeout="10" type="EXCLUSIVE">
<cfscript>
// If the name is in the DB once, accept; if it is missing, decline.
// If it is in the DB multiple times, take no action.
if (buddysearch.RecordCount IS 0) {
action="decline";
reason="Invalid ID";
}
else if (buddysearch.RecordCount IS 1) {
action="accept";
reason="Valid ID";
//Add the buddy to the buddy status structure only if accepted.
if (NOT StructKeyExists(Application,
"buddyStatus")) {
Application.buddyStatus=StructNew();
}
if (NOT StructKeyExists(Application.buddyStatus,
CFEvent.Data.SENDER)) {
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#]=StructNew();
}
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#].status=
"Accepted Buddy Request";
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#].timeStamp=
CFEvent.Data.TIMESTAMP;
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#].message=
CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE;
}
else {

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action="noact";
reason="Duplicate ID";
}
</cfscript>
</cflock>
<!--- Log the request and decision information. --->
<cflog file="#CFEvent.GatewayID#Status"
text="onAddBuddyRequest; SENDER: #CFEvent.Data.SENDER# MESSAGE:
#CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE# TIMESTAMP: #CFEvent.Data.TIMESTAMP# ACTION: #action#">
<!--- Return the action decision. --->
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.command = action>
<cfset retValue.BuddyID = CFEvent.DATA.SENDER>
<cfset retValue.Reason = reason>
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="onAddBuddyResponse">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="YES">
<cflock scope="APPLICATION" timeout="10" type="EXCLUSIVE">
<cfscript>
//Do the following only if the buddy accepted the request.
if (NOT StructKeyExists(Application, "buddyStatus")) {
Application.buddyStatus=StructNew();
}
if (#CFEVENT.Data.MESSAGE# IS "accept") {
//Create a new entry in the buddyStatus record for the buddy.
if (NOT StructKeyExists(Application.buddyStatus,
CFEvent.Data.SENDER)) {
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#]=StructNew();
}
//Set the buddy status information to indicate buddy was added.
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#].status=
"Buddy accepted us";
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#].timeStamp=
CFEvent.Data.TIMESTAMP;
Application.buddyStatus[#CFEvent.Data.SENDER#].message=
CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE;
}
</cfscript>
</cflock>
<!--- Log the information for all responses. --->
<cflog file="#CFEvent.GatewayID#Status"
text="onAddBuddyResponse; BUDDY: #CFEvent.Data.SENDER# RESPONSE:
#CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE# TIMESTAMP: #CFEvent.Data.TIMESTAMP#">
</cffunction>

<cffunction name="onIMServerMessage">
<!--- This function just logs the message. --->
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="YES">
<cflog file="#CFEvent.GatewayID#Status"
text="onIMServerMEssage; SENDER: #CFEvent.OriginatorID# MESSAGE:
#CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE# TIMESTAMP: #CFEvent.Data.TIMESTAMP#">
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

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Using the GatewayHelper object

The CFML GetGatewayHelper function returns a GatewayHelper object with several methods that manage your
gateway and buddy list. The GatewayHelper methods let you do the following:

Get and set gateway configuration information and get gateway statistics.
Get and set the gateway online status.
Manage the gateways buddy list
Manage permissions for others to get information about the gateway status.
The following sections briefly describe the class methods. For detailed information about each method, see IM
Gateway GatewayHelper class methods in the CFML Reference.

Gateway configuration information and statistics methods

The following table describes the methods that you can use to get and set configuration information and get gateway
statistics:
Method

Description

getName

Returns the gateways user name.

getNickName

Returns the gateways display name (nickname).

getProtocolName

Returns the name of the instant messaging protocol (JABBER for XMPP, or SAMETIME).

numberOfMessagesReceived

Returns the number of messages received by the gateway since it was started.

numberOfMessagesSent

Returns the number of messages sent by the gateway since it was started.

setNickName

Sets the gateways display name (nickname).

Gateway online status methods

The following table describes the methods that you can use to get and set the gateways online availability status
(presence information):
Method

Description

getCustomAwayMessage

Returns the gateways custom away message if the setStatus method set it.

getStatusAsString

Returns the online status of the gateway.

getStatusTimeStamp

Returns the date/time that the gateway changed its online status.

isOnline

Returns True if the gateway is connected to the IM server; otherwise, returns false.

setStatus

Changes the gateways online status; for example, to away or idle.

Gateway buddy management methods

The following table describes the methods that you can use to manage the gateways buddy list:
Method

Description

addBuddy

Adds a buddy to the gateways buddy list and tells the IM server to send the gateway messages with
the buddys online state.

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Method

Description

getBuddyInfo

Gets information about the specified user from the buddy list, deny list, and permit list.

getBuddyList

Returns the gateways buddy list.

removeBuddy

Removes the specified user name from the gateways buddy list and tells the IM server to stop
sending the gateway messages with the users online state.

Gateway permission management methods

The IM gateways can manage the information that other users can get about the gateways online status.
Note: XMPP permission management is included in the XMPP 1.0 specification, but several XMPP servers that were
available at the time of the ColdFusion release do not support permission management.
The following table describes the gateway permission management methods:
Method

Description

addDeny

Tells the IM server to add the specified user to the gateways deny list. If the permitMode is
DENY_SOME, these users cannot receive messages on the gateways state.

addPermit

Tells the IM server to add the specified user to the servers permit list. If the permitMode is
PERMIT_SOME, these users receive messages on the gateways state.

getDenyList

Returns the list of users that the server has been told not to send state information to.

getPermitList

Returns the list of users that the server has been told to send state information to.

getPermitMode

Gets the gateways permit mode from the IM server. The permit mode determines whether all users
can get the gateways online state information, or whether the server uses a permit list or a deny list
to control which users get state information.

removeDeny

Removes the user from the gateways deny list.

removePermit

Removes the user from the gateways permit list.

setPermitMode

Sets the gateways permit mode on the IM server.

GatewayHelper example
This example lets you use the XMPP or SameTime GatewayHelper class to get and set status and other information,
including managing buddy lists and view permissions lists.

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<cfapplication name="gateway_tool" sessionmanagement="yes">

<!--- Set the gateway buddy name to default values.--->
<cfparam name="session.gwid" default="XMPP Buddy Manager">
<cfparam name="session.buddyid" default="hlichtin2@mousemail">
<!--- Reset gateway and buddy ID if form was submitted. --->
<cfif isdefined("form.submitbuddy")>
<cfset session.buddyid=form.buddyid>
<cfset session.gwid=form.gwid>
</cfif>
<!--- Display the current gateway and buddy ID. --->
<h3>Using the GatewayHelper</h3>
<!--- Form to display and reset gateway and Buddy ID. --->
<cfform action="#cgi.script_name#" method="post" name="changeIDs">
Current buddy ID: <cfinput type="text" name="buddyid" value="#session.buddyid#"><br>
Current gateway ID: <cfinput type="text" name="gwid" value="#session.gwid#"><br>
<cfinput name="submitbuddy" value="Change gateway/buddy" type="submit">
</cfform>
<!--- When a buddy is set, display the links and forms to get and set
information, and so on, Where form input is required, the form uses a GET method
so a url.cmd variable represents each selection. --->
<cfoutput>
<h3>Select one of the following to get or set.</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=buddyinfo">buddyinfo</a>
<li>LIST: <a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=buddylist">buddylist</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=permitlist">permitlist</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=denylist">denylist</a>
<li>ADD: <a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=addbuddy">addbuddy</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=addpermit">addpermit</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=adddeny">adddeny</a>
<li>REMOVE: <a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=removebuddy">removebuddy</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=removepermit">removepermit</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=removedeny">removedeny</a>
<!--- NOTE: This list does not include OFFLINE because the gateway resets itself to online.
--->
<li>setStatus (XMPP):
<cfloop list="ONLINE,AWAY,DND,NA,FREE_TO_CHAT" index="e">
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=setstatus&status=#e#">#e#</a> |
</cfloop>
<li>setStatus (Sametime):
<cfloop list="ONLINE,AWAY,DND,IDLE" index="e">
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=setstatus&status=#e#">#e#</a> |
</cfloop>
<li>
<form action="#cgi.script_name#" method="get">
setStatus with CustomAwayMessage:
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="setstatus2">
<select name="status">
<cfloop
list="ONLINE,OFFLINE,AWAY,DND,IDLE,INVISIBLE,NA,OCCUPIED,FREE_TO_CHAT,ONPHONE,ATLUNCH,BUSY,N
OT_AT_HOME,NOT_AT_DESK,NOT_IN_OFFICE,ON_VACATION,STEPPED_OUT,CUSTOM_AWAY" index="e">
<option value="#e#">#e#</option>

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</cfloop>
</select>
<input type="text" name="custommsg" value="(custom away massage)" size="30"/>
<input type="submit"/>
</form>
<li>
<form action="#cgi.script_name#" method="get">
setNickName:
<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="setnickname">
<input type="text" name="nickname" value="(enter nickname)">
<input type="submit">
</form>
--->
<li>INFO: <a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getname">getname</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getnickname">getnickname</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getcustomawaymessage">getcustomawaymessage</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getprotocolname">getprotocolname</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getstatusasstring">getstatusasstring</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=isonline">isonline</a>
<li>MESSAGE COUNT:
<a
href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=numberofmessagesreceived">numberofmessagesreceived</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=numberofmessagessent">numberofmessagessent</a>
<li>RUNNING TIME: <a
href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getsignontimestamp">getsignontimestamp</a> |
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getstatustimestamp">getstatustimestamp</a>
<li>setPermitMode:
<cfloop
list="PERMIT_ALL,DENY_ALL,PERMIT_SOME,DENY_SOME,IGNORE_IN_LIST,IGNORE_NOT_IN_LIST"
index="e"><a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=setpermitmode&mode=#e#">#e#</a> |
</cfloop> <span class="note">doesn't work for XMPP</span>
<li><a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getpermitmode">getpermitmode</a>
<li>setPlainTextMode:
<cfloop list="PLAIN_TEXT,RICH_TEXT" index="e">
<a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=setplaintextmode&mode=#e#">#e#</a> |
</cfloop>
<li><a href="#cgi.script_name#?cmd=getplaintextmode">getplaintextmode</a>
</ul>
</cfoutput>
<!--- The url.cmd value exists if one of the previous links or forms has been submitted, and
identifies the type of request. --->
<cfoutput>
<cfif isdefined("url.cmd")>
<!--- Get the GatewayHelper for the gateway. --->
<cfset helper = getGatewayHelper(session.gwid)>
<!--- Get the buddy list if the list or full buddy information was requested. --->
<cfswitch expression="#LCase(url.cmd)#">
<cfcase value="buddylist,buddyinfo">
<cfset ret=helper.getBuddyList()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="denylist">
<cfset ret=helper.getDenyList()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="permitlist">
<cfset ret=helper.getPermitList()>
</cfcase>

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<cfcase value="addbuddy">
<cfset ret=helper.addBuddy("#session.buddyid#",
"#session.buddyid#", "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="addpermit">
<cfset ret=helper.addPermit("#session.buddyid#",
"#session.buddyid#", "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="adddeny">
<cfset ret=helper.addDeny("#session.buddyid#",
"#session.buddyid#", "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="removebuddy">
<cfset ret=helper.removeBuddy("#session.buddyid#", "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="removepermit">
<cfset ret=helper.removePermit("#session.buddyid#", "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="removedeny">
<cfset ret=helper.removeDeny("#session.buddyid#", "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="setstatus">
<cfset ret=helper.setStatus(url.status, "")>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="setstatus2">
<cfset ret=helper.setStatus(url.status, url.custommsg)>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getcustomawaymessage">
<cfset ret=helper.getCustomAwayMessage()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getname">
<cfset ret=helper.getName()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getnickname">
<cfset ret=helper.getNickname()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getprotocolname">
<cfset ret=helper.getProtocolName()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getsignontimestamp">
<cfset ret=helper.getSignOnTimeStamp()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getstatusasstring">
<cfset ret=helper.getStatusAsString()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getstatustimestamp">
<cfset ret=helper.getStatusTimeStamp()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="isonline">
<cfset ret=helper.isOnline()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="numberofmessagesreceived">
<cfset ret=helper.numberOfMessagesReceived()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="numberofmessagessent">
<cfset ret=helper.numberOfMessagesSent()>
</cfcase>

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<cfcase value="setnickname">
<cfset ret=helper.setNickName(url.nickname)>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="setpermitmode">
<cfset ret=helper.setPermitMode(url.mode)>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getpermitmode">
<cfset ret=helper.getPermitMode()>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="setplaintextmode">
<cfset ret=helper.setPlainTextMode(url.mode)>
</cfcase>
<cfcase value="getplaintextmode">
<cfset ret=helper.getPlainTextMode()>
</cfcase>
<cfdefaultcase>
<cfset ret[1]="Error; Invalid command. You shouldn't get this.">
</cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>
<br>
<!--- Display the results returned by the called GatewayHelper method. --->
<strong>#url.cmd#</strong><br>
<cfdump var="#ret#">
<br>
<!--- If buddy information was requested, loop through buddy list to get
information for each buddy and display it. --->
<cfif comparenocase(url.cmd, "buddyinfo") is 0 and arraylen(ret) gt 0>
<b>Buddy info for all buddies</b><br>
<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#arraylen(ret)#">
<cfdump var="#helper.getBuddyInfo(ret[i])#" label="#ret[i]#"></cfloop>
</cfif>
</cfif>
</cfoutput>

Using the SMS Event Gateway

You can develop an application that uses the short message service (SMS) event gateway type provided with Adobe
ColdFusion. ColdFusion provides tools for developing SMS applications.
Before you use the SMS event gateway, become familiar with ColdFusion event gateway principals and programming
techniques (see Using Event Gateways on page 1254). Although not required, a basic knowledge of SMS is helpful.

About SMS and ColdFusion

Short Message Service (SMS) is a system designed for sending short, often text, messages to and from wireless devices,
such as mobile phones or pagers. SMS is widely used in Europe and Asia and is becoming increasingly popular in the
United States and elsewhere. Some uses for SMS include the following:

Performing banking transactions

Sending authentication codes, for example, to be used to access web resources
Voting, such as popularity voting for reality television shows
Initiating an action (such as a server restart) and getting a response

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Notifying users of events such as package shipments or restaurant table availability, or providing stock or weather
alerts

Sending person-to-person text messages

Presenting interactive text-based menus on a mobile phone
Providing cellular phone updates, such as direct download of logos
Providing telematics and mobile or remote wireless device applications, such as soda machines, vehicle tracking,
smart gas pumps, and so on
SMS protocol features include, but are not limited to, the following:

Authentication verification is built in.

Communications can be secure.
Store and forward communication is performed in near real time.
Communications can be two-way and session-aware.
Mobile devices such as mobile phones already include support; you do not install software on the client.

About SMS
The following discussion simplifies SMS technology and describes only a typical use with a ColdFusion application. For
a more complete discussion of SMS, see the publicly available literature, including the several books that discuss SMS.
In a ColdFusion SMS application, a mobile device such as a mobile phone communicates (via intermediate steps) with
a message center, such as a short message service center (SMSC). For example, a mobile phone user calls a telephone
number that the SMS provider has associated with your account; the SMSC gets the messages that are sent to this
number. The SMSC can store and forward messages. A ColdFusion application can initiate messages to wireless
devices, or it can respond to incoming messages from the devices.
The SMSC communicates with a ColdFusion SMS event gateway using short message peer-to-peer protocol (SMPP)
over TCP/IP. Information is transferred by exchanging Protocol Data Units (PDUs) with structures that depend on
the type of transaction, such as a normal message submission, a binary data submission, or a message intended for
multiple recipients.
Because the SMSC is a store-and-forward server, it can hold messages that cannot be immediately delivered and try to
deliver them when the receiving device is available. The SMSC provider configures the time that a message is held on
the server for delivery. For example, AT&T Wireless saves messages for 72 hours; after that time, any undelivered
messages are deleted. Your messages can request a different time-out (by specifying a ValidityPeriod field). The
message can also use a registeredDelivery field to tell the SMSC to inform you about whether and when the
message is delivered.
SMS communication can be secure. Voice and data communications, including SMS message traffic between the
SMSC and the mobile device is encrypted as part of the GSM standard. The SMSC authenticates the mobile user's
identity before the encrypted communication session begins. Secure the communications between ColdFusion and the
SMSC. Typically, you use a secure hardware or software VPN connection around the SMPP connection.

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The following image shows the SMS path between mobile devices and ColdFusion gateways:

SMS gateway
instance

SMPPTCP/IP
PP
SM P/IP
TC

Cell Phone

Carrier SMSC

SMS gateway
Instance
Wireless network

SMS Gateway
instance
ColdFusion

PDA

SMPPTCP/IP

Carrier SMSC

Telephone

Using the SMS event gateway, ColdFusion establishes a two-way (transceiver) connection to the SMSC of the
telecommunications carrier or other SMPP account provider. The SMPP provider assigns an address for your account,
and you associate an event gateway instance with the address. Addresses are normally telephone numbers, but carriers
often support short code addresses that do not require a full 10-digit number. You also configure the gateway
instance to communicate with the providers specified TCP/IP address using a system ID and a password.
Note: The ColdFusion SMS event gateway conforms to the SMPP 3.4 specification, which you can download from the
SMS Forum at www.smsforum.net.
A ColdFusion application can initiate and send messages to SMS-enabled devices by specifying the destination mobile
device telephone number, or mobile devices can send messages to a ColdFusion listener CFC by using the gateway
instances telephone number. Incoming messages include the senders number, so listener CFCs can respond to
messages sent by mobile devices.

About SMS application development and deployment

To develop an SMS gateway application, you use the ColdFusion SMS application development tools and process to
interact with SMS messaging providers.
ColdFusion SMS application tools
ColdFusion provides the following tools for developing SMS applications:
SMSGateway The class for the SMS event gateway type
SMS test server A lightweight SMSC simulator
SMS client simulator A graphical interface for sending and receiving SMS messages with the SMS test server

You implement your SMS application by creating a ColdFusion application that uses an instance of the SMSGateway
class to communicate with one or more SMSCs. You can use the SMS testing server and client simulator to test your
application without requiring an outside SMS service provider.

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Application development and deployment process

The following is a typical process for developing and deploying an SMS application:
1 Design your application.
2 Configure an SMS event gateway instance to use the ColdFusion SMS test server.
3 Write your ColdFusion CFCs, CFM pages, and any other application elements.
4 Test your application using the test server and client simulator.
5 Establish an SMPP account with a telecommunications provider.
6 Reconfigure your event gateway, or create an event gateway instance, to use your telecommunications providers

SMSC. Configure the gateway using the information supplied by your provider.
7 Test your application using the telecommunications providers SMSC and target mobile devices.
8 Make the application publicly available.

About SMS providers

Before you can deploy an SMS application, establish an account with a provider that supports SMPP 3.4 over TCP/IP.
Two kinds of providers exist:

Telecommunications carriers such as nation-wide cellular phone providers

Third-party SMPP aggregators
The type of provider and specific provider you use depend on your needs and provider capabilities and price
structures. Less expensive providers could have slower response times. Telecommunications carriers could be more
expensive but might provide more throughput and faster SMPP response times.

How the SMS event gateway and provider SMSC interact

This following information provides a brief overview of the interactions between the ColdFusion SMS event gateway
and the SMPP providers SMSC. It is designed to help you to understand the basics of SMPP interactions, and defines
the terms necessary to for you to understand gateway configuration and message handling. For more details, see the
SMPP specification, which is available at www.smsforum.net/.
A typical interaction between an SMSC and a ColdFusion SMS event gateway instance consists of messages, or PDUs
sent between the two entities, such as a mobile device and a ColdFusion event gateway instance (and therefore, and
event gateway application).
Gateway binding
The event gateway must bind to the SMSC before they can communicate. The SMS event gateway instance initiates a
binding by sending a bind_transceiver PDU to the SMSC, which includes the gateways ID and password. If the initial
bind request fails, the gateway retries the bind at the rate specified by the gateway configuration file retry-interval value
until either the bind is successful or the gateway reaches the maximum number of retries, specified by the retries
configuration value. If the bind operation fails, ColdFusion logs an error to the eventgateway.log file, and you restart
the gateway instance in the ColdFusion Administrator to establish the connection.
Note: Some SMSCs can send a prohibited status in response to a bind request. If the gateway receives such a status
response, it sets the retry interval to one minute and the maximum number of retries to 15. The SMS gateway detects
SMPP 5.0-compliant and AT&T prohibited status responses.
When the SMSC accepts the bind request, it returns a bind_transceiver_resp PDU. The binding remains in effect until
the gateway instance shuts down and sends an unbind PDU to the SMSC. Because the gateway binds as a transceiver,
it can initiate messages to the SMSC, and the SMSC can send messages to it.

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Incoming PDU handling

If the ColdFusion SMS event gateway gets an Unbind PDU from the SMSC, it sends an unbind_resp PDU to the SMSC,
does a restart, and attempts to rebind to the SMSC.
When the event gateway receives an EnquireLink or any other request PDU from the SMSC, it sends a default response
to the SMSC.
The gateway receives incoming messages from the SMSC in deliver _sm PDUs; it does not handle data_sm PDUs.
Deliver_sm PDUs can contain user- or application-generated messages, or disposition responses for messages that the
gateway has sent. The gateway extracts the short message field and source and destination addresses from the PDU,
places them in a CFEvent object, and sends the object to ColdFusion event gateway services for delivery to the listener
CFC. For information on how the CFML application must handle these incoming messages, see Handling incoming
messages on page 1298.
Outgoing message handling
The gateway supports three types of outgoing messages from ColdFusion applications. The CFML
sendGatewayMessage function or a listener CFC method cfreturn tag can specify the following commands:
submit Sends a submit_sm PDU with the message contents to the SMSC. This PDU sends a message to a single
destination.
submitMulti Sends a submit_multi PDU with the message contents to the SMSC. This PDU sends a message to
multiple destinations.
data Sends a data_sm PDU with the message contents to the SMSC. This command is an alternative to the submit

command, and interactive applications such as those provided via a wireless application protocol (WAP) framework
typically use it.
The SMS gateway lets you control the contents of all of the fields of these PDUs. For more information on the
individual commands, see Sending outgoing messages on page 1300.
When you send a message, if the SMSC responds with a status that indicates that the message was rejected or not sent,
ColdFusion logs information about the failure in the eventgateway.log file. If the SMSC indicates that the service type
is not available (SMPP v5 ESME_RSERTYPUNAVAIL status or AT&T Serviced denied status), and the gateway
configuration file transient-retry value is set to yes, the gateway also tries to resend the message.
Outgoing message synchronization and notification
The gateway and SMSC communicate asynchronously: the gateway does not wait for a response from the SMSC for
one message before it sends another message. However, you can configure your gateway instance so that the CFML
sendGatewayMessage function behaves asynchronously or synchronously.

In asynchronous mode, the function returns when the message is queued in ColdFusion gateway services.
In synchronous mode, the function waits until the SMSC receives the message and returns a message ID, or an error
occurs.
For more information on configuring message synchronization and sending messages synchronously, see
Controlling SMS message sending and response on page 1303.

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Configuring an SMS event gateway

You provide SMS-specific configuration information to the SMS event gateway in a configuration file. You specify the
configuration file location when you configure the SMS event gateway instance in the ColdFusion Administrator.
ColdFusion provides a sample SMS event gateway configuration file in cf_root\WEBINF\cfusion\gateway\config\sms-test.cfg on J2EE configurations, and cf_root\gateway\config\sms-test.cfg on server
configurations. The following table describes the configuration file contents.
Note: The following configuration information describes the configuration fields, but does not include detailed
explanations of SMPP-specific terminology, listings of all valid values of properties that are defined in the SMPP
specification, or explanations of how to select appropriate SMPP-specific values for your application. For further
information, see documentation on the SMPP 3.4 protocol at www.smsforum.net/ and other publicly available
documentation. Your SMS service provider generally specifies requirements for several of these configuration values.
Consult the provider documentation.
Property

Default

ip-address

port

Description
IP address of the SMSC, as specified by the SMPP provider. For the ColdFusion SMS test
server, you normally use 127.0.0.1.

Port number to bind to on the SMSC. The ColdFusion SMS test server uses port 7901.

system-id

Name that identifies the event gateway to the SMSC, as established with the SMPP provider.
To connect to the ColdFusion SMS test server, the system-id must be cf.

password

Password for authenticating the event gateway to the SMSC. To connect to the ColdFusion
SMS test server, the password must be cf.

source-ton

Type of Number (TON) of the source address, that is, of the address that the event gateway
uses for outgoing messages, as specified in the SMPP specification. Values include 0,
unknown; 1, international number; 2, national number.

source-npi

Numeric Plan Indicator (NPI) of the source address as specified in the SMPP specification.
Values include 0, unknown; 1, ISDN.

source-address

empty string

Address (normally, a phone number) of the event gateway. Identifies the sender of
outgoing messages to the SMSC.

addr-ton

TON for the incoming addresses that this event gateway serves.

addr-npi

NPI for the incoming addresses that this event gateway serves.

address-range

The range of incoming addresses (phone numbers) that remote devices can use to send
messages to the event gateway instance; often, the same as the source-address.

message-rate

100

Integer or decimal value that specifies the number of messages the gateway is allowed to
send to your service provider per second. 0 is unlimited.

mode

synchronous

Message transmission mode:

synchronous The gateway waits for the response from the server when sending a
message. In this mode, the SendGatewayMessage CFML function returns the SMS
messageID of the message, or an empty string if an error occurs.

asynchronous

The gateway does not wait for a response. In this mode, the

SendGatewayMessage CFML function always returns an empty string.

network-retry

no

Gateway behavior when a network error occurs while trying to deliver a message:

yes The gateway queues the message for delivery when the gateway is able to rebind
to the SMSC. Retrying is useful if the gateway is in asynchronous mode, where the CFML
SendGatewayMessage function does not return an error.

no The gateway does not retry sending the message.

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Property

Default

Description

transient-retry

no

Gateway behavior when the SMSC returns an error that indicates a transient error, where it
may be able to accept the message in the future:

yes The gateway attempts to resend the message. Retrying is useful if the gateway is in
asynchronous mode, where the CFML SendGatewayMessage function does not return
an error.

no The gateway does not retry sending the message.

cfc-method

onIncomingMessage

Listener CFC method for ColdFusion to invoke when the gateway gets incoming messages.

destination-ton

Default TON of addresses for outgoing messages.

destination-npi

Default NPI of addresses for outgoing messages.

service-type

empty string

Type of messaging service; can be empty or one of the following values: CMT, CPT, VMN,
VMA, WAP, or USSD.

system-type

empty string

Type of system (ESME, External Short Message Entity ); used when binding to the SMSC.
Some SMSCs might be able to send responses that are specific to a given type of ESME.
Normally set to SMPP.

receive-timeout

-1 (do not time out)

The time-out, in seconds, for trying to receive a message from the SMSC after it establishes
a connection. To wait indefinitely until a message is received, set the receive-timeout
to -1.

ping-interval

60

Number of seconds between EnquireLink messages that the event gateway sends to the
server to verify the health of the connection.

retries

-1 (try forever)

Number of times to retry connecting to the SMSC to send a message before the gateway
goes into a failed state. If the gateway is in a failed state, the getStatus method returns
FAILED, and theColdFusion Administrator shows the gateway status as Failed. The gateway
must be restarted before it can be used.

retry-interval

10

Number of seconds between connection retries.

You can also set the following values in each outgoing message: source-ton, source-npi, source-address, destinationton, destination-npi, and service-type. The message field names differ from the configuration file property names.

Handling incoming messages

The SMS event gateway handles messages that are contained in deliver_sm PDUs. These PDUs request the gateway to
deliver one of the following types of message:

A user- or application-generated text message

A message disposition response
Note: The SMS event gateway does not handle messages that are contained in data_sm PDUs.
The event gateway sends the object to event gateway services, which delivers it to the listener CFC. The CFEvent object
that the listener CFC receives contains the following fields:
Note: Consider SMS messages and any other data that enters through an Event Gateway handler to be potentially hostile.
For example, if SMS data is archived in a SQL database, an attacker could construct a message that modifies or deletes
data, or even takes over the SQL Server. Therefore, be sure to perform Event Gateway input validation, just as you would
validate web form input.

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Field

Value

CfcMethod

Listener CFC method name

Data.dataCoding

Character set or the noncharacter data type of the message contents

Data.destAddress

Address to which the message was sent

Data.esmClass

Message type

Data.MESSAGE

Message contents

Data.messageLength

Length of the MESSAGE field

Data.priority

Message priority level, in the range 0-3

Data.protocol

GSM protocol; not used for other networks

Data.registeredDelivery

Requested type of delivery receipt or acknowledgment, if any

Data.sourceAddress

Address of the device that sent this message

GatewayType

Always SMS

OriginatorID

Address of the device that sent the message

For a detailed description of each field, see SMS Gateway incoming message CFEvent structure in the CFML Reference.
The CFCs listener method extracts the message from the Arguments.CFEvent.Data.MESSAGE field and acts on it as
appropriate for the application. If necessary, the listener can use two fields to determine the required action:

CFEvent.Data.esmClass indicates the type of information in the MESSAGE field.

CFEvent.Data.registeredDelivery indicates whether the sender requested any type of delivery receipt or
acknowledgment.

CFEvent.Data.esmClass field
The CFEvent.Data.esmClass field identifies whether the CFEvent.Data.Message field contains a message, or any of the
following types of message disposition responses. For these responses, the CFEvent object Data.MESSAGE field
contains the acknowledgment or receipt information.
SMSC Delivery Receipt An indication of the messages final status, sent by the SMSC. The short message text includes

the message ID of the original message, the number of messages sent and delivered (for messages sent to a distribution
list), the date and time that the message was sent and delivered or otherwise disposed of, the message disposition, a
network-specific error code (if available), and the first 20 bytes of the message. For details of the SMSC delivery receipt
message structure, see Appendix B of the SMS 3.4 specification.
SME Delivery Acknowledgement An indication from the recipient device that the user has read the short message.

Supported by TDMA and CDMA wireless networks only.

SME Manual/User Acknowledgement An application-generated reply message sent in response to an application

request message. Supported by TDMA and CDMA wireless networks only.

Intermediate Delivery Notification A provider-specific notification on the status of a message that has not yet been

delivered, sent during the SMSC retry lifetime for the message. Intermediate Notification support depends on the
SMSC implementation and SMSC service provider. For more information, see your provider documentation.
When you send a message, you can request any combination of message disposition responses in the outgoing
messages registered_delivery parameter. If your application requests responses, the listener CFC must be
prepared to handle these messages, as appropriate.

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CFEvent.Data.registeredDelivery field
The CFEvent.Data.registeredDelivery field indicates whether the message sender has requested a receipt or
acknowledgment. Your application can respond to a request for an SME Delivery Acknowledgement or an SME
Manual/User Acknowledgement. (Only the SMSC sends the other notification types.) For more information on these
notification types, see the SMS 3.4 specification. Appendix B contains detailed information on the information that
you must place in the shortMessage field of the returned acknowledgment message.

Incoming message handling example

The following example code is an SMS-only version of the echo.cfc example that is included in the ColdFusion
gateway/cfc/examples directory. This example shows the minimal code required to receive and respond to an SMS
message.
<cfcomponent displayname="echo" hint="Process events from the test gateway and return echo">
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<!--- Get the message --->
<cfset data=cfevent.DATA>
<cfset message="#data.message#">
<!--- where did it come from? --->
<cfset orig="#CFEvent.originatorID#">
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.command = "submit">
<cfset retValue.sourceAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.gatewayid>
<cfset retValue.destAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.originatorid>
<cfset retValue.shortMessage = "echo: " & message>
<!--- send the return message back --->
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Sending outgoing messages

Your ColdFusion application can send submit, submitMulti, and data commands to the event gateway in an
outgoing message.

The submit command

To send a message to a single destination address in an SMPP SUBMIT_SM PDU, the structure used in the Data
parameter of a SendGatewayMessage function or the return variable of the CFC listener method normally has the
following fields:
Field

Contents

command

If present, the value must be "submit". If you omit this field, the event gateway sends a submit message.

shortMessage

messagePayload

The Message contents. specify one of these fields, but not both. The SMPP specification imposes a maximum
size of 254 bytes on the shortMessage field, and some carriers could limit its size further. The
messagePayload field can contain up to 64 K bytes; it must start with 0x0424, followed by 2 bytes specifying
the payload length, followed by the message contents.

destAddress

The address to which to send the message (required).

sourceAddress

The address of this application. You can omit this field if it is specified in the configuration file.

or

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You can also set optional fields in the structure, such as a field that requests a delivery receipt. For a complete list of
fields, see submit command in the CFML Reference. For detailed descriptions of these fields, see the documentation
for the SUBMIT_MULTI PDU in the SMPP3.4 specification, which you can download from the SMS Forum at
www.smsforum.net/.
Note: To send long messages, you can separate the message into multiple chunks and use a submit command to send each
chunk separately. In this case, a CFC would use multiple SendGatewayMessage functions, instead of the cfreturn
function.
Example: Using the submit command in sendGatewayMessage function
The following example from a CFM page uses a sendGatewyMessage CFML function with a submit command to
send an SMS messages that you enter in the form. This example uses the SMS gateway that is configured in the
ColdFusion installation, and sends the message to the SMS client simulator.
<h3>Sending SMS From a Web Page Example</h3>
<cfif IsDefined("form.oncethrough") is "Yes">
<cfif IsDefined("form.SMSMessage") is True AND form.SMSMessage is not "">
<h3>Sending Text Message: </h3>
<cfoutput>#form.SMSMessage#</cfoutput><br>
<cfscript>
/* Create a structure that contains the message. */
msg = structNew();
msg.command = "submit";
msg.destAddress = "5551234";
msg.shortMessage = form.SMSMessage;
ret = sendGatewayMessage("SMS Menu App - 5551212", msg);
</cfscript>
</cfif>
<hr noshade>
</cfif>
<!--- begin by calling the cfform tag --->
<cfform action="command.cfm" method="POST">
SMS Text Message: <cfinput type="Text" name="SMSMessage" value="Sample text Message"
required="No" maxlength="160">
<p><input type = "submit" name = "submit" value = "Submit">
<input type = "hidden" name = "oncethrough" value = "Yes">
</cfform>
</body>
</html>

For a simple example of a listener CFC uses the submit command to echo incoming SMS messages to the message
originator, see Incoming message handling example on page 1300.

The submitMulti command

To send a single text message to multiple recipients using an SMPP SUBMIT_MULTI PDU, the Data parameter of a
SendGatewayMessage function or the return variable of the CFC listener method normally has the following fields:

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Field

Contents

command

Must be "submitMulti".

shortMessage

messagePayload

The message contents. Specify one of these fields, but not both. The SMPP specification imposes a maximum size
of 254 bytes on the shortMessage field, and some carriers could limit its size further. The messagePayload
field can contain up to 64 K bytes; it must start with 0x0424, followed by 2 bytes specifying the payload length,
followed by the message contents.

destAddress

A ColdFusion array of destination addresses (required).

or

You cannot specify individual TON and NPI values for these addresses; all must conform to a single setting.
sourceAddress

The address of this application; you can omit this field if it is specified in the configuration file.

You can also set optional fields in the structure, such as a field that requests delivery receipts. For a complete list of
fields, see submitMulti command in the CFML Reference. For detailed descriptions of these fields, see the
documentation for the SUBMIT_MULTI PDU in the SMPP 3.4 specification, which you can download from the SMS
Forum at www.smsforum.net/.
Example: Using the submitMulti command in an onIncomingMessage method
The following example onIncomingMessage method sends a response that echoes an incoming message to the
originator address, and sends a copy of the response to a second address. To test the example, run two instances of the
ColdFusion SMS client application. Use the default phone number of 5551212 for the first, and set the second one to
have a phone number of 555-1235. (Notice that the second phone number requires a hyphen (-).) Send a message from
the first simulator, and the response appears in both windows.
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<!--- Get the message. --->
<cfset data=CFEvent.DATA>
<cfset message="#data.message#">
<!--- Create the return structure. --->
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.command = "submitmulti">
<cfset retValue.sourceAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.gatewayid>
<cfset retValue.destAddresses=arraynew(1)>
<!--- One destination is incoming message originator;
get the address from CFEvent originator ID. --->
<cfset retValue.destAddresses[1] = arguments.CFEvent.originatorid>
<cfset retValue.destAddresses[2] = "555-1235">
<cfset retValue.shortMessage = "echo: " & message>
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>
</cffunction>

The data command

To send binary data to a single destination address in an SMPP DATA_SM PDU, the Data parameter of a
SendGatewayMessage function or the return variable of the CFC listener method must have the following fields:
Field

Contents

command

Must be "data" .

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Field

Contents

messagePayload

Message data. To convert data to binary format, use the ColdFusion toBinary function.

destAddress

Address to which to send the message.

sourceAddress

Address of this application; can be omitted if specified in the configuration file.

You can also set optional fields in the structure, such as a field that requests a delivery receipt. For a complete list of
fields, see data command in the CFML Reference. For detailed descriptions of these fields, see the documentation for
the SUBMIT_MULTI PDU in the SMPP3.4 specification, which you can download from the SMS Forum at
www.smsforum.net/.
Example: Using the data command
The following example onIncomingMessage method converts an incoming message to binary data, and sends the
binary version of the message back to the originator address:
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" output="no">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="yes">
<!--- Get the message. --->
<cfset data=CFEvent.DATA>
<cfset message="#data.message#">
<!--- Create the return structure. --->
<cfset retValue = structNew()>
<cfset retValue.command = "data">
<!--- Sending to incoming message originator; get value from CFEvent. --->
<cfset retValue.destAddress = arguments.CFEvent.originatorid>
<cfset retValue.messagePayload = tobinary(tobase64("echo: " & message))>
<cfreturn retValue>
</cffunction>

Controlling SMS message sending and response

This documentation describes some of the more common options for sending messages, and how they affect your
application. For information on other ways to configure outgoing message, see the SMPP specification.
Synchronization mode
You can specify asynchronous or synchronous message mode in the gateway configuration file.

If you specify asynchronous mode, the sendGatewayMessage function returns an empty string when the gateway
submits the message to service code for sending to the SMSC. ColdFusion logs errors that occur after this point,
such as if a message sent by the gateway to the SMSC times out or if the gateway gets an error response; the
application does not get notified of any errors.

If you specify synchronous mode (the default), the sendGatewayMessage function does not return until the
gateway gets a response from the SMSC or the attempt to communicate times out. If the message is sent
successfully, the function returns the SMPP message ID string. If an error occurs, the function returns an error
string.
Use synchronous mode if your application must determine whether its messages reach the SMSC. Also use
synchronous mode if the application requests return receipts.
Note: If you use synchronous mode and the SMSC returns the messgeID as a hexadecimal string, ColdFusion converts it
automatically to its decimal value.

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The following example is an expansion of Example: Using the submit command in sendGatewayMessage function
discussed in The submit command on page 1300. It checks for a nonempty return value and displays the message
number returned by the SMS. This example uses the SMS gateway that is configured when ColdFusion is installed. If
you change the gateway specified in the SendGatewayMessage function, make sure that your gateways configuration
file specifies synchronous mode.
<h3>Sending SMS From a Web Page Example</h3>
<cfif IsDefined("form.oncethrough") is "Yes">
<cfif IsDefined("form.SMSMessage") is True AND form.SMSMessage is not "">
<h3>Sending a Text Message: </h3>
<cfoutput>#form.SMSMessage#</cfoutput><br><br>
<cfscript>
/* Create a structure that contains the message. */
msg = structNew();
msg.command = "submit";
msg.destAddress = "5551234";
msg.shortMessage = form.SMSMessage;
ret = sendGatewayMessage("SMS Menu App - 5551212", msg);
</cfscript>
</cfif>
<cfif isDefined("ret") AND ret NEQ "">
<h3>Text message sent</h3>
<cfoutput>The Message Id is: #ret#</cfoutput>
<br><br>
</cfif>
<hr noshade>
</cfif>
<!--- begin by calling the cfform tag --->
<cfform>
SMS Text Message: <cfinput type="Text" name="SMSMessage"
value="Sample text Message" required="No" maxlength="160">
<p><input type = "submit" name = "submit" value = "Submit">
<input type = "hidden" name = "oncethrough" value = "Yes">
</cfform>

Optional parameters for outgoing SMS

You can send vendor-specific optional parameters by way of ColdFusion SMS gateway.
To set the optional parameters, specify them using the optionalparameter attribute.
If the gateway receives optional parameters in a message, they are included in the data struct that is returned to the
listener CFC method named onIncomingMessage under the optionalParameters key.
The following code describes how to add optional parameters:
params=StructNew();
params["parameter"]=BinaryDecode("string","binaryencoding");
params["parameter"]=CharsetDecode("string, encoding");
outgoingSMS.optionalParameters=params;

parameter: Vendor-specific optional parameter.

BinaryDecode: See BinaryDecode in CFML Reference.

CharsetDecode: See CharsetDecode in CFML Reference.

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If there is only one optional parameter, you can instead use the following code:
out.optionalParameter=parameter;
out.optionalParameterValue="value";

Note: Ensure that the Java Short.decode(String) function can parse the key or the value is a byte.
Message disposition notification
You can request the SMSC to return a message disposition response to indicate the fate of your message. To request a
delivery receipt, include a RegisteredDelivery field in the Data parameter of a SendGatewayMessage function or the
return variable of the CFC listener method. This field can have the following values:
Value

Meaning

(Default) Do not return delivery information.

Return a receipt if the message is not delivered before the time-out.

Return a receipt if the message is delivered or fails.

Some providers also support intermediate delivery notifications. For more information, see your providers
documentation.
To use delivery notification, send your message using synchronous mode, so you get a message ID. Your incoming
message routine must be able to handle the receipts (see Handling incoming messages on page 1298).
Validity period
You can change the length of time that the SMSC keeps a message and tries to deliver it. (Often the default value is 72
hours.) For a message sent to an emergency worker, for example, a short validity period (such as 15 min.) can be
appropriate. To change this value, include a validityPeriod field in the Data parameter of a SendGatewayMessage
function or the return variable of the CFC listener method. To specify a time period, use the following pattern:
YYMMDDhhmmsst00R. In this pattern, t indicates tenths of seconds, and 00R specifies that this value is a relative time
period, not a date-time value. The time format 000001063000000R, for example, specifies a validity period of 0 years,
0 months, 1 day, 6 hours, 30 minutes.

ColdFusion SMS development tools

ColdFusion provides the following tools for developing SMS applications:

SMS test server

SMS client simulator

SMS test server

The ColdFusion SMS test server is a lightweight SMSC simulator that listens on TCP/IP port 7901 for SMPP
connection requests from other SMS resources, such as ColdFusion SMS gateways or the SMS client simulator. The
resource supplies a user name, password, and telephone number (address). The user name and password must
correspond to a name and password in the simulators configuration file (described later).
After the SMS test server establishes a connection, it listens for incoming messages and forwards them to the specified
destination address, if the destination address also corresponds to an existing SMPP connection.

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The SMS test server lets you develop SMS applications without having to use an external SMSC supplier such as a
telecommunications provider. The server supports the ColdFusion SMS gateway submit and submitMulti
commands. It also accepts, but does not deliver messages sent using the SMS gateway data command. It does not
include any store and forward capabilities.
Start the SMS test server by clicking the Start SMS Test Server button on the Settings page in the Event Gateways area
in the ColdFusion Administrator.
Note: The SMS test server does not automatically restart when you restart ColdFusion. Manually restart the server if you
restart ColdFusion.
The SMS test server reads the cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\lib\sms-test-users.txt file on J2EE configurations or
cf_root\lib\sms-test-users.txt file on server configurations to get valid user names and passwords. ColdFusion includes
a version of this file configured with several names and passwords. One valid combination is user name cf and
password cf. You can edit this file to add or delete entries. The file must include a name and password entry for each
user that connects to the test server. Separate user entries with blank lines, as the following example shows:
name=cf
password=cf
name=user1
password=user1

SMS client simulator

The ColdFusion SMS client simulator is a simple External Short Message Entity (ESME) that simulates a (limitedfunction) mobile phone. It can connect to the SMS test server and exchange messages with it.
Note: On UNIX and Linux systems, the client simulator requires X-Windows.
Use the following procedure to use the simulator.
Use the SMS simulator
1 Ensure that you have started the SMS test server and configured and started an SMS event gateway instance in
ColdFusion Administrator.
2 Run SMSClient.bat in Windows or SMSClient.sh on UNIX or Linux. These files are located in the cf_root\WEB-

INF\cfusion\bin directory on J2EE configurations and the cf_root\bin directory on server configurations.
If you installed a pure Java version of ColdFusion, for example, on Apple Mac OS X systems, enter the following
command to start the simulator:
java -jar cf_root/WEB-INF/cfusion/lib/smpp.jar

3 A dialog box appears, requesting the server, port, user name, password, and the phone number to use for this

device. The simulator sends this phone number as the source address, and accepts SMS messages sent by the SMSC
server to it using this number as the destination address.
To connect to the SMS test server, accept the default values and specify an arbitrary phone number; you can also
specify any user name-password pair that is configured in the cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\lib\sms-test-users.cfg file
or cf_root\lib\sms-test-users.cfg or file.
4 Click Connect.
5 The SMS device simulator client appears. In the Send SMS To field, enter a phone number in the address-range

property specified in the configuration file of the SMS event gateway that you want to send messages to.
6 Type a message directly into the message field (to the left of the Send button), or use the simulator keypad to enter

the message.

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7 Click the Send button.

The client simulator has a Connection menu with options to connect and disconnect from the SMSC server, and to
check the connection. The connection information appears in a status line at the bottom of the client.

Sample SMS application

The following CFC implements a simple employee phone directory lookup application. The user sends a message
containing some part of the name being looked up (a space requests all names). The onIncomingMessage response
depends on the number matches.

If no match exists, the onIncomingMessage function returns a message indicating that no matches exist.
If one match exists, the function returns the name, department, and phone number.
If up to ten matches exist, the function returns a list of the names preceded by a number that the user can enter to
get the detailed information.

If over ten matches exist, the function returns a list of only the first ten names. A more complex application could
let the user get multiple lists of messages to provide access to all names.

If the user enters a number, and previously got a multiple-match list, the application returns the information for
the name that corresponds to the number.
The following listing shows the CFC code:
<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage">
<cfargument name="CFEvent" type="struct" required="YES">
<!--- Remove any extra white space from the message. --->
<cfset message =Trim(arguments.CFEvent.data.MESSAGE)>
<!--- If the message is numeric, a previous search probably returned a
list of names. Get the name to search for from the name list stored in
the Session scope. --->
<cfif isNumeric(message)>
<cfscript>
if (structKeyExists(session.users, val(message))) {
message = session.users[val(message)];
}
</cfscript>
</cfif>
<!--- Search the database for the requested name. --->
<cfquery name="employees" datasource="cfdocexamples">
select FirstName, LastName, Department, Phone
from Employees
where 0 = 0
<!--- A space indicates the user entered a first and last name. --->
<cfif listlen(message, " ") eq 2>
and FirstName like '#listFirst(message, " ")#%'
and LastName like '#listlast(message, " ")#%'
<!--- No space: the user entered a first or a last name. --->
<cfelse>
and (FirstName like '#listFirst(message, " ")#%'
or LastName like '#listFirst(message, " ")#%')
</cfif>
</cfquery>
<!--- Generate andreturn the message.--->

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<cfscript>
returnVal = structNew();
returnVal.command = "submit";
returnVal.sourceAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.gatewayid;
returnVal.destAddress = arguments.CFEVENT.originatorid;
//No records were found.
if (employees.recordCount eq 0) {
returnVal.shortMessage = "No records found for '#message#'";
}
//One record was found.
else if (employees.recordCount eq 1) {
// Whitespace in the message text results in bad formatting,
// so the source cannot be indented.
returnVal.shortMessage = "Requested information:
#employees.firstName# #employees.lastName#
#employees.Department#
#employees.Phone#";
}
//Multiple possibilities were found.
else if (employees.recordCount gt 1) {
//If more than ten were found, return only the first ten.
if (employees.recordCount gt 10)
{
returnVal.shortMessage = "First 10 of #employees.recordCount# records";
}else{
returnVal.shortMessage = "Records found: #employees.recordCount#";
}
// The session.users structure contains the found names.
// The record key is a number that is also returned in front of the
// name in the message.
session.users = structNew();
for(i=1; i lte min(10, employees.recordCount); i=i+1)
{
// These two lines are formatted to prevent extra white space.
returnVal.shortMessage = returnVal.shortMessage & "
#i# - #employees.firstName[i]# #employees.lastName[i]#";
// The following two lines must be a single line in the source
session.users[i]="#employees.firstName[i]# #employees.lastName[i]#";
}
}
return returnVal;
</cfscript>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Using the FMS event gateway

The FMS event gateway provides interfaces between the Flash Media Server 2 and the Adobe ColdFusion server. As a
result, ColdFusion applications and Adobe Flash clients can share data.
Before you use the gateway, become familiar with ColdFusion event gateway principles and programming techniques
(see Using Event Gateways on page 1254). A basic knowledge of Flash Media Server is also helpful.

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About Flash Media Server

Flash Media Server 2 is the newest version of Flash Communication Server. Flash Media Server 2 offers traditional
streaming media capabilities and a flexible development environment for creating and delivering innovative,
interactive media applications. You can use Flash Media Server to create and deliver the following media experiences:

Video on Demand
Live web-event broadcasts
Mp3 streaming
Video blogging
Video messaging
Multimedia chat environments
To learn more about and to download the Flash Media Server, go to the Adobe website. at
www.adobe.com/go/learn_cfu_flashmediaserver_en.

How ColdFusion and Flash Media Server interact through the FMS gateway
The FMS event gateway lets you modify data through the ColdFusion application or the Flash client, and reflect the
change in the Flash Media Server shared object. The FMS event gateway listens to the shared object, and notifies
ColdFusion when other clients modify shared objects. The FMS event gateway also lets ColdFusion modify shared
objects.
ColdFusion provides the following tools for developing FMS applications:
FCSj.jar The JAR file that implements the Java API to communicate with Flash Media Server.
FMSGateway The class for the FMS event gateway type. You implement your FMS application by creating a
ColdFusion application that uses an instance of the FMSGateway class to communicate with one or more Flash Media
Server.

Modifying data in the Flash client

The FMS event gateway listens to Flash Media Server shared objects, and notifies ColdFusion when a Flash client
modifies a shared object. The following steps occur when a Flash client modifies a Flash Media Server shared object:
1 A user modifies data in the Flash client.
2 Flash Media Server updates the appropriate shared object.
3 Flash Media Server notifies the FMS event gateway.
4 The FMS event gateway calls the appropriate methods in CFCs in your ColdFusion application. These CFCs

perform all actions required, including notifying the FMS Gateway Helper to update the shared object.
5 The FMS Gateway Helper sends a message to the FMS event gateway to update the shared object.
6 The FMS event gateway updates the shared object.
7 Flash Media Server notifies all the Flash clients that it modified the shared object. As a result, the Flash clients reflect

the change.

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The following image shows the interaction between Flash Media Server, the FMS event gateway, and the ColdFusion
application:
1.
Flash client

Flash client
10.

ColdFusion Server

Flash Media Server

2.

Sales Data So
Sales Data List
Changed Sales Data

9.
3.

FMS event gateway

4.

8.

FMS_gateway.cfc
FMS Gateway Helper

7.

database

6.

5.
sales.cfc

Modifying data in a ColdFusion application

The FMS event gateway lets ColdFusion applications modify Flash Media Server shared objects. The following steps
occur when data that affects a shared object is modified in a ColdFusion application:
1 The user submits a form that contains data to modify using a ColdFusion page.
2 The ColdFusion page calls the appropriate CFC, which contains a method to update the database.
3 The method in the CFC updates the database and calls a method in the FMS Gateway Helper.
4 The FMS Gateway Helper calls the FMS event gateway to update the appropriate shared object.
5 Flash Media Server updates the shared object.
6 Flash Media Server notifies the Flash client that a shared object has changed.
7 The Flash client makes the changes in its content as appropriate.

Application development and deployment process

The following is a typical process for developing and deploying an application that uses the FMS event gateway:
1 Design your application.
2 Configure an FMS event gateway instance to use the Flash Media Server.
3 Write your ColdFusion CFCs, CFM pages, and any other application elements.
4 Create or identify a Flash client that manipulates a Flash Media Server shared object to test your ColdFusion

application.
5 Test your application using Flash Media Server and the Flash client.
6 Make the application publicly available.

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Configuring an FMS event gateway

You provide FMS event gateway-specific configuration information to the FMS event gateway in a configuration file.
You specify the configuration file location when you configure the FMS event gateway instance in the ColdFusion
Administrator. The configuration file contains the URL of the Flash Media Server application and the name of the
Flash Media Server shared object. The following example is a sample configuration file:
#
# FMS event gateway configuration
#
# This is the URL to the Flash Media Server application.
rtmpurl=rtmp://localhost/SalesDataApp
# This is the shared object you would like this gateway to connect and listen to.
sharedobject=SalesDataSO

FMS event gateway GatewayHelper class methods

The following table lists the FMS event gateway GatewayHelper class methods:
Method

Description

setProperty

Sets the property of the Flash Media Server shared object. The following parameters are valid:
name: The string that contains the name of the shared object.
value: The shared object.

getProperty

Gets the property of the Flash Media Server shared object. The following parameters are valid:
name: The string that contains the name of the shared object.

Data translation
ColdFusion and Flash Media Server use different data types; therefore, data translation is required to pass data from
one to the other. In addition to basic data types such as numeric, String, and Boolean, you can pass ColdFusion queries,
structures, and arrays to Flash Media Server. You pass a ColdFusion query object to Flash Media Server as an array of
java.util.HashMap. Each HashMap object in the array contains a key-value pair for column names and values for each
row in the query. When you pass a ColdFusion array to Flash Media Server, the FMS event gateway converts it to a
Java array of objects. When you pass a ColdFusion structure, no conversion is required.
The FMS event gateway does not support passing CFCs in shared objects.

Using the Data Services Messaging Event Gateway

Using the Data Services Messaging gateway type provided with Adobe ColdFusion, you can create applications that
send messages to and receive messages from LiveCycle Data Services ES. You configure the Data Services Messaging
gateway and write and test an application that uses the event gateway.
Before you use the Data Services Messaging gateway, become familiar with ColdFusion event gateway principles and
programming techniques (see Using Event Gateways on page 1254). Also be familiar with Adobe LiveCycle Data
Services ES.

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About Flex and ColdFusion

ColdFusion includes the Data Services Messaging event gateway, which uses the ColdFusion event Gateway Adapter
to send messages to and receive messages from the LiveCycle Data Services ES. This means that ColdFusion
applications and Flex applications can publish to and consume events from the same event queue.
Note: To use the Data Services Messaging event gateway to interact with a Flex application, the Flex application must be
running on LiveCycle Data Services ES.

How ColdFusion and Flex interact

You can send messages from a ColdFusion application to a Flex application, through the Data Services Messaging
event gateway. Conversely, you can send messages from a Flex application to a ColdFusion application.
Either the ColdFusion application or the Flex application can initiate sending a message.
1 The Flex application generates a message.
2 The Flex Message Service passes the message to the ColdFusion Event Gateway Adapter.
3 The ColdFusion Event Gateway Adapter sends the message to the Data Services Messaging event gateway, by using

Java Remote Method Invocation (Java RMI).

4 The Data Services Messaging event gateway and the ActionScript translator convert ActionScript 3.0 data types to

the appropriate ColdFusion values and add the message to the event gateway queue.y
5 The ColdFusion server calls the onIncomingMessage method of the Data Services Messaging event gateway listener CFC.
6 The ColdFusion application generates a message, which it sends to the ColdFusion server.
7 The ColdFusion server sends the message to the Data Services Messaging event gateway.
8 The Data Services Messaging event gateway and the ActionScript translator convert ColdFusion values to the

appropriate ActionScript 3.0 data types and then the gateway sends the message to the ColdFusion Event Gateway
Adapter.
9 The ColdFusion Event Gateway Adapter sends the message to the Flex Message Service.
10 The Flex Message Service passes the message to the Flex application.

Note: The RMI registry, which facilitates communication between the ColdFusion Event Gateway Adapter and the Data
Services Messaging event gateway uses port 1099, which is the default port for Java RMI. You cannot change this port
number. To ensure that the RMI registry provides registry service for both LiveCycle Data Services and ColdFusion, start
LiveCycle Data Services first, and then start ColdFusion. If you stop Flex, restart LiveCycle Data Services, and then restart
the gateway.

Application development and deployment process

The following is a typical process for developing and deploying a ColdFusion application that communicates with a
Flex application through the Data Services Messaging event gateway:
1 Design your application.
2 Configure a Data Services Messaging event gateway instance.
3 Write your ColdFusion CFCs, CFM pages, and any other application elements.
4 Test your application using Flex Enterprise Services 2.
5 Make the application publicly available.

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Configuring a Data Services Messaging event gateway

Although you can configure an instance of a Data Services Messaging event gateway by creating a configuration file
and specifying that file as the configuration file when you create an instance of the event gateway, you can also provide
the configuration information in the message sent from the Flex application. You provide configuration information
to the Data Services Messaging event gateway in a configuration file to do either of the following:

Have the Data Services Messaging event gateway send messages to Flex Enterprise Services 2 on a different
computer

Use the Data Services Messaging event gateway with a specific Flex destination, and ignore any destination
specified in the message
The Data Services Messaging event gateway configuration file is a simple Java properties file that contains the following
properties:
Property

Description

destination

A hard-coded destination. If you specify this value, any destination information in the message is ignored.

host

The host name or IP address of the Flex Enterprise Services 2 server.

The following example is a configuration file:

#
# Flex event gateway configuration
#
# This is the destination of the messages.
destination=Gateway1
# host name or IP address of the Flex Enterprise Server
host=127.0.0.1

If you create a configuration file, save it in the cf_root/gateway/config/ directory, with the extension .cfg.

Sending outgoing messages

Your ColdFusion application sends a message to a Flex application by doing the following actions:
1 The ColdFusion application sends an outgoing message, in a cfreturn tag in the listener method of the listener

CFC, or by calling the ColdFusion SendGatewayMessage function.

2 A method provided by the Data Services Messaging gateway gets called when you send an outgoing message.

In outgoing messages sent from CFML, the following structure members are translated to the Flex message:
Name

Contents

body

Body of the message. Required.

CorrelationID

Correlation identifier of the message.

Destination

Flex destination of the message. Required if it is not specified in the configuration file.

Headers

If the message contains any headers, the CFML structure that contains the header names as keys and values.

LowercaseKeys

If the value is set to yes, the structure keys are converted to lowercase during creation of ActionScript types.

TimeToLive

Number of milliseconds during which this message is valid.

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In addition, the Data Services Messaging event gateway automatically provides values for the following Flex message
fields:
Name

Contents

MessageID

A UUID that identifies the message.

Timestamp

Time the message is sent.

ClientID

ID of the Data Services Messaging event gateway instance.

Note: A single instance of the Data Services Messaging event gateway can send messages to any destination that is
registered with the ColdFusion Event Gateway Adapter. However, if the destination is configured in the Data Services
Messaging gateway configuration file, the destination in the message is ignored.

Sending outgoing message example

The following example from a CFM page creates a structure that contains the message. The destination is the
destination ID specified in the flex-services.xml file for the instance of the Data Services Messaging event gateway to
send the message to. The body is the body of the message. The sendGatewyMessage CFML function sends the message
to the instance of the gateway.
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

success = StructNew()>
success.msg = "E-mail was sent at " & Now()>
success.Destination = "gateway1">
ret = SendGatewayMessage("Flex2CF2", success)>

To ensure that properties maintain the correct case, define Flex-related information as follows:
myStruct['mySensitiveProp']['myOtherSensitiveProp']

The following is an example of using headers to send to a specific subtopic of the destination:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

var msg = structnew()>

msg.destiNation = 'ColdFusionGateway'>
msg.body = 'somebody'>
msg['headers']['DSSubtopic'] = 'somesubtopic'>
sendgatewaymessage('CF2FLEX2' , msg)>

Handling incoming messages

When a Flex application sends a message to a ColdFusion application, the Data Services Messaging event gateway
sends a CFEvent structure to the onIncomingMessage function of the configured CFC, with the following information
mapped to the data of the event:
Name

Contents

body

Body of the message.

ClientID

ID of the client that sent the message.

CorrelationID

Correlation identifier of the message.

Destination

Flex destination of the message.

Headers

If the message contains any headers, the CFML structure that contains the header names as keys and values.

Timestamp

Timestamp of the message.

The incoming message data structure also includes the values of messageID and timeToLive from the Flex message.

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Incoming message handling example

The following example places data that is contained in the body of the message from the Flex application into a
structure. It then uses the contents of the structure to generate an e-mail message.
<cfcomponent displayname="SendEmail" hint="Handles incoming message from Flex">
<cffunction name="onIncomingMessage" returntype="any">
<cfargument name="event" type="struct" required="true">
<!--- Create a structure to hold the message object sent from Flex--->
<cfset messagebody = event.data.body>
<!--- Populate the structure. --->
<cfset mailfrom="#messagebody.emailfrom#">
<cfset mailto="#messagebody.emailto#">
<cfset mailsubject="#messagebody.emailsubject#">
<cfset mailmessage ="#messagebody.emailmessage#">
<!--- Send e-mail with values from the structure. --->
<cfmail from="#mailfrom#"
to="#mailto#"
subject="#mailsubject#">
<cfoutput>#mailmessage#</cfoutput>
</cfmail>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

If the Flex application sends the message in the header instead of in the body, you create and populate the structure,
as the following example shows:
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

messageheader = StructNew()>
messageheader.sendto = event.data.headers.emailto>
messageheader.sentfrom = event.data.headers.emailfrom>
messageheader.subject = event.data.headers.emailsubject>
messageheader.mailmsg = event.data.headers.emailmessage>

<cfset
<cfset
<cfset
<cfset

mailfrom="#messageheader.sentfrom#">
mailto="#messageheader.sendto#">
mailsubject="#messageheader.subject#">
mailmessage ="#messageheader.mailmsg#">

New methods introduced in ColdFusion 9.0.1

The following new methods have been introduced in ColdFusion Messaging Gateway CFCs:

allowSend

allowSubscribe

Both the methods take subtopic as the parameter.

These methods help you place control over subscribing and sending data to a particular subtopic.
Note: To call these methods on their gateway CFC, specify the gateway id under the messaging destination in messagingconfig.xml (Web_INF/Flex). By default, the value is *.

Data translation
The following table lists the ColdFusion data types and the corresponding Flash or ActionScript data type:

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ColdFusion data type

Flash data type

String

String

Array

[] = Array

Struct

{} = untyped Object

Query

ArrayCollection

CFC

Class = typed Object (if a matching ActionScript class exists, otherwise the CFC becomes a
generic untyped Object (map) in ActionScript)

CFC Date

ActionScript Date

CFC String

ActionScript String

CFC Numeric

ActionScript Numeric

ColdFusion XML Object

ActionScript XML Object

Using the Data Management Event Gateway

Using the Data Management event gateway type provided with Adobe ColdFusion, you can have ColdFusion
applications notify Adobe Flex applications when data managed by a destination has changed. You configure the Data
Management event gateway and write an application that uses the event gateway.
Before using the Data Management event gateway, become familiar with ColdFusion event gateway principles and
programming techniques (see Using Event Gateways on page 1254). Also, be familiar with LiveCycle Data Services ES.

About ColdFusion and Flex

ColdFusion includes the Data Management event gateway, which uses the ColdFusion Data Service Adapter to send
messages to LiveCycle Data Services ES. This means that ColdFusion applications can notify a Flex application about
changes in the data that the destination manages.
Note: To use the Data Management event gateway to send messages to a Flex application, the Flex application must be
running on LiveCycle Data Services ES.

How ColdFusion and Flex interact

You can send messages from a ColdFusion application to a Flex application through the Data Management event
gateway. This gateway type only lets you send messages from a ColdFusion application to a Flex application.
The following image shows the process in which a message is sent from the ColdFusion application to the Flex
application:

ColdFusion
application

ColdFusion
server

LiveCycle
Data Services
event
gateway
ActionScript
translator

ColdFusion
Data
Service
Adapter

Message
Service

1 The ColdFusion application generates a message, which it sends to the ColdFusion server.

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2 The ColdFusion server sends the message to the Data Management event gateway.
3 The Data Management event gateway and the ActionScript translator convert ColdFusion values to the appropriate

ActionScript 3.0 data types, and then the gateway sends the message to the ColdFusion Data Service Adapter.
4 The ColdFusion Data Service Adapter sends the message to the LiveCycle Data Services Message Service.
5 The Message Service passes the message to the Flex application.

If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES on the ColdFusion server, communication between LiveCycle Data
Services ES and ColdFusion does not use RMI.
If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely, to ensure that the RMI registry provides registry service
for both LiveCycle Data Services ES and ColdFusion, start LiveCycle Data Services ES first, and then start
ColdFusion. If you stop LiveCycle Data Services ES, restart LiveCycle Data Services ES, and then restart the
gateway.
If you are running LiveCycle Data Services ES remotely, the RMI registry, which facilitates communication between
the ColdFusion Data Service Adapter and the Data Management event gateway uses port 1099. This port is the
default value for Java RMI. You can change the port number by adding -Dcoldfusion.rmiport=1234, replacing
1234 with the appropriate port number, to the Java JVM arguments on both the ColdFusion server and the Flex
server.

Application development and deployment process

The following is a typical process for developing and deploying a ColdFusion application that communicates with a
Flex application through the Data Management event gateway:
1 Design your application.
2 Configure a Data Management event gateway instance.
3 Write your ColdFusion CFCs, CFM pages, and any other application elements.
4 Test your application using LiveCycle Data Services ES.
5 Make the application publicly available.

Configuring a Data Management event gateway

Although you can configure an instance of a Data Management event gateway by creating a configuration file and
specifying that file as the configuration file when you create an instance of the event gateway, you can also provide the
configuration information in the message. You provide configuration information to the Data Management event
gateway in a configuration file to do either of the following:

Have the Data Management event gateway send messages to LiveCycle Data Services ES on a different computer.
Use the Data Management event gateway with a specific Flex destination, and ignore any destination specified in
the message.
The Data Management event gateway configuration file is a simple Java properties file that contains the following
properties:
Property

Description

destination

A hard-coded destination. If you specify this value, any destination information in the message is ignored.

host

The host name or IP address of the LiveCycle Data Services ES server. Omit the host name if you are running
LiveCycle Data Services ES as part of ColdFusion.

The following example is a configuration file:

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#
# Data Management event gateway configuration
#
# This is the destination where messages are sent.
destination=myDestination
# Host name or IP address of the LiveCycle Data Services ES Server
host=127.0.0.1

If you create a configuration file, save it in the cf_root/gateway/config/ directory, with the extension .cfg.
Note: A single instance of the Data Management event gateway can send messages to any destination that is registered
with the ColdFusion Data Service Adapter. However, if the destination is configured in the Data Management event
gateway configuration file, the destination in the message is ignored.

Sending messages
Your ColdFusion application sends a message to a Flex application by calling the ColdFusion SendGatewayMessage
function. In messages sent from CFML, the following structure members are translated to the Flex message:
Name

Contents

destination

Destination of the message. This entry is required if it is not specified in the configuration file.

action

Required. The notification action that is being performed: create, delete, deleteID, refreshfill, or
update.

item

Required when action="create" or action="delete". The record that was added or deleted.

identity

Required when action="deleteID". A structure that contains the identity properties (primary key) of the
record that was deleted.

fillparameters

Optional. An array that contains the fills parameters that specify which fill operations to refresh.

newversion

Required when action="update". The record that was updated.

previousversion

Optional. The previous record, before the update. This entry is used for conflict resolution.

changes

Optional when action="update". A comma-delimited list or array of property names that were updated in
the record. If you omit this entry, ColdFusion assumes that all properties changed. When you change a large
number of records, you specifying the property names can improve performance.
Required when action="batch". An array of structures that contain the changes. You can batch multiple
changes and send them in a single notification. The changes can be of different types, for example five updates,
one delete, and two creates. Each event structure must contain an action.

Example
The following example creates a structure for each event type. It then creates a structure that contains the message. The
message structure contains an array of event structures to send to Flex. The destination is the destination ID specified
in the flex-services.xml file for the instance of the Data Management event gateway to send the message to. The body
is the body of the message. The sendGatewyMessage CFML function sends the message to the instance of the gateway.

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<cfscript>
// Create event
createEvent = StructNew();
createEvent.action = "create";
createEvent.item = newContact;
// Create update notification
updateEvent = StructNew();
updateEvent.action="update";
updateEvent.previousversion = oldContact;
updateEvent.newversion = updatedContact;
// Create delete notification
identity = StructNew();
identity["contactId"] = newId;
deleteEvent = StructNew();
deleteEvent.action = "deleteID";
deleteEvent.identity = identity;
// Send a batch notification
all = StructNew();
all.destination="cfcontact";
all.action="batch";
all.changes = ArrayNew(1);
all.changes[1] = createEvent;
all.changes[2] = updateEvent;
all.changes[3] = deleteEvent;
r = sendGatewayMessage("LCDS", all);
</cfscript>

Data translation
The following table lists the ColdFusion data types and the corresponding Adobe Flash or ActionScript data type:
ColdFusion data type

Flash data type

String

String

Array

[] = Array

Struct

{} = untyped Object

Query

ArrayCollection

CFC

Class = typed Object (if a matching ActionScript class exists, otherwise the CFC becomes a
generic untyped Object (map) in ActionScript)

CFC Date

ActionScript Date

CFC String

ActionScript String

CFC Numeric

ActionScript Numeric

ColdFusion XML Object

ActionScript XML Object

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Creating Custom Event Gateways

Adobe ColdFusion lets you create event gateways. Building a gateway requires a knowledge of Java programming,
including Java event-handling and thread-handling concepts, and of the technology to which you are providing the
gateway, including the types of messages that you handle. This documentation also assumes that you have a thorough
knowledge of ColdFusion development concepts and practices, including ColdFusion components (CFCs).

Event gateway architecture

A ColdFusion event gateway listens for events and passes them to ColdFusion for handling by the application listener
CFC or CFCs. It must implement the coldfusion.eventgateway.Gateway interface, and use the ColdFusion
GatewayServices class. The following image expands on the basic event handling architecture diagram to show how a
ColdFusion event gateway works:
External event
generator /
receiver

event

Listener thread
addEvent
method

CFEvent
Message

CFEvent

Listener
CFC

event
outgoingMessage
method

.
.
.
.

CFEvent

.
.
.
External event
generator /
receiver

CFEvent

event
event

Event Gateway

.
.
.

ColdFusion
Event
Gateway
Services

Event Gateway

CFEvent

Listener
CFC

CFEvent

CFC

Message

Applicat
CFML
Page
Application

Receiving messages: The event gateway listener thread receives events from an external event source such as a socket
or SMSC server, and calls the GatewayServices addEvent method to send a CFEvent instance to ColdFusion.
Sending messages: The ColdFusion event gateway service calls the outgoingMessage method of the event gateway
and passes it a CFEvent instance with the destination and message information. The event gateway forwards the
message as appropriate to the external receiver.
The event gateway architecture is not limited to handling messages from external sources, such as SMS devices or IM
clients. It can also be used to handle events that are internal to the local system or even the ColdFusion application.
Also, a gateway does not have to implement two-way communications.
The sample directory watcher gateway provided with ColdFusion is an example of an internal, one way, gateway. It
has a single thread that periodically checks a local directory and sends a message to a CFC when the directory contents
change. This gateway does not support outgoing messages. (The code for this gateway is in the
gateway/src/examples/watcher directory.)
Another internal gateway, the asynchronous CFML gateway, is provided as part of the ColdFusion product. Unlike
most gateways, it does not have a listener thread. Its outgoingMessage method gets messages from CFML
SendGatewayMessage functions, and dispatches them to a CFC onIncomingMessage method for handling. This
gateway lets ColdFusion support request-free asynchronous processing. For more information on using this gateway,
see Using the CFML event gateway for asynchronous CFCs on page 1269.

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Event gateway elements

You use the following the elements to create and configure a gateway:

Gateway interface on page 1321

GatewayServices class on page 1322
CFEvent class on page 1322
GatewayHelper class on page 1323
Gateway configuration file on page 1324
Gateway development classes on page 1324
Note: The gateway interfaces and classes, except for the GenericGateway class, are fully documented in Gateway
development interfaces and classes in the CFML Reference. All interfaces and classes in this list, including the
GenericGateway class, are documented in less detail in the JavaDocs located in the ColdFusion gateways\docs directory.
The JavaDocs documentation lacks examples and does not have the detailed usage information that you find in the CFML
Reference.

Gateway interface
The ColdFusion event gateway must implement the coldfusion.eventservice.Gateway interface. The following table
lists the interface method signatures:
Note: For detailed information on implementing each method, see Building an event gateway on page 1325. For
reference pages for these methods, see Gateway interface in the CFML Reference.
Signature

Description

void setGatewayID(String id)

Sets the gateway ID that uniquely identifies the gateway instance. ColdFusion
calls this method before it starts the event gateway, even if the gateway class
constructor also sets the ID.

void setCFCListeners(String[] listeners)

Identifies the CFCs that listen for incoming messages from the event gateway.
The array contains one or more paths to the listener CFCs. ColdFusion calls this
method before it starts the event gateway, and if the configuration for a running
event gateway changes.

GatewayHelper getHelper()

Returns a coldfusion.eventgateway.GatewayHelper class instance, or null. The

GatewayHelper class provides event gateway-specific utility methods to CFML
applications. ColdFusion calls this method when a ColdFusion application calls
the GetGatewayHelper function.

String getGatewayID()

Returns the gateway ID.

int getStatus()

Gets the event gateway status. The interface defines the following status
constants: STARTING, RUNNING, STOPPING, STOPPED, FAILED.

void start()

Starts the event gateway. Starts at least one thread for processing incoming
messages. ColdFusion calls this method when it starts an event gateway.

void stop()

Stops the event gateway. Stops the threads and destroys any resources.
ColdFusion calls this method when it stops an event gateway.

void restart()

Restarts a running event gateway. ColdFusion calls this method when the
ColdFusion Administrator restarts a running event gateway.

String outgoingMessage (coldfusion.

eventgateway.CFEvent cfmessage)

Handles a message sent by ColdFusion and processes it as needed by the

gateway type to send a message. ColdFusion calls this method when the listener
method of a listener CFC returns a CFEvent or when a ColdFusion application
calls the SendGatewayMessage function. The CFML SendGatewayMessage
function gets the returned String as its return value.

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GatewayServices class
The Gateway class uses the coldfusion.eventgateway.GatewayServices class to interact with the ColdFusion event
gateway services. This class has the following methods:
Signature

Description

GatewayServices getGatewayServices

Static method that returns the GatewayServices object. Gateway code can call
this method at any time, if necessary.

boolean addEventmsg)

Sends a CFEvent instance to ColdFusion for dispatching to a listener CFC. The

event gateway uses this method to send all incoming messages to the
application for processing. Returns False if the event is not added to the queue.

int getQueueSize

Returns the current size of the ColdFusion event queue. This queue handles all
messages for all gateways.

int getMaxQueueSize

Returns the maximum size of the ColdFusion event queue, as set in the
ColdFusion Administrator.

Logger getLogger

Returns a ColdFusion Logger object that the event gateway can use to log
information in the eventgateway.log log file (the default) or the specified log file.

Logger getLoggerlogfile)

The logfile attribute must be a filename without a filename extension, such as

mylogifile. ColdFusion places the file in the ColdFusion logs directory and
appends .log to the specified filename.
For information on using the logger object, see Logging events and using log
files on page 1332.

CFEvent class
The Gateway class sends and receives CFEvent instances to communicate with the ColdFusion listener CFC or
application. The Gateway notifies ColdFusion of a message by sending a CFEvent instance in a
GatewayServices.addEvent method. Similarly, the Gateway receives a CFEvent instance when ColdFusion calls the
gateway outgoingMessage method.
The CFEvent class extends the java.util.Hashtable class and has the following methods to construct the instance and
set and get its fields. (In CFML, you treat CFEvent instances as structures.)
Methods

Description

CFEventgatewayID)

CFEvent constructor. The gatewayID parameter must be the value that is passed
in the gateway constructor or set using the Gateway setGatewayID method.

void setGatewayTypetype)

Identifies the type of event gateway, such as SMS. For the sake of consistency,
use this name in the Type Name field when you add an event gateway type on
the Gateway Types page in the ColdFusion Administrator.

String getGatewayType
void setDatadata)
Map getData

The event data; includes the message being passed to or from ColdFusion. The
content of the field depends on the event gateway type. The Map keys must be
strings.
Because ColdFusion is not case sensitive, it converts the Map passed in the
setData method to a case-insensitive Map. As a result, do not create entries in
the data with names that differ only in case.

void setOriginatorIDid)
String getOriginatorID
void setCFCPathpath)
String getCFCPath

Identifies the originator of an incoming message or the destination of an

outgoing message. The value depends on the protocol or event gateway type.
An absolute path to the application listener CFC that processes the event. By
default, ColdFusion uses the first path configured for the event gateway
instance on the Event Gateways page in the ColdFusion Administrator.

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Methods

Description

void setCFCMethodmethod)

The method in the listener CFC that ColdFusion calls to process this event. By
default, ColdFusion calls the onIncomingMessage method. For the sake of
consistency, Adobe recommends that any event gateway with a single listener
does not override this default. A gateway, such as the ColdFusion XMPP
gateway, that uses different listener methods for different message types, uses
this method to identify the destination method.

String getCFCMethod

void setCFCTimeoutseconds)
String getCFCTimeout

String getGatewayID

The time-out, in seconds, for the listener CFC to process the event request.
When ColdFusion calls the listener CFC to process the event, and the CFC does
not process the event in the specified time-out period, ColdFusion terminates
the request and logs an error in the application.log file. By default, ColdFusion
uses the Timeout Request value set on the Server Settings page in the
ColdFusion Administrator.
The event gateway instance that processes the event. Returns the gateway ID
that was set in the CFEvent constructor.

GatewayHelper class
ColdFusion includes a coldfusion.eventgateway.GatewayHelper Java marker interface. You implement this interface
to define a class that provides gateway-specific utility methods to the ColdFusion application or listener CFC. For
example, an instant messaging event gateway could use a helper class to provide buddy list management methods to
the application.
The Gateway class must implement a getHelper method that returns the helper class or null (if the gateway does not
need such a class).
ColdFusion applications call the GetGatewayHelper CFML function, which calls gateways the getHelper method to
get an instance of the helper class. The application can then call helper class methods using ColdFusion object dot
notation.
The following code defines the SocketHelper class, the gateway helper for the SocketGateway class. It has an empty
constructor and two public methods: one returns the socket IDs; the other closes a specified socket. These classes let
an application monitor and end session connections.

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public class SocketHelper implements GatewayHelper {

public SocketHelper() {
}
public coldfusion.runtime.Array getSocketIDs () {
coldfusion.runtime.Array a = new coldfusion.runtime.Array();
Enumeration e = socketRegistry.elements();
while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
a.add(((SocketServerThread)e.nextElement()).getName());
}
return a;
}
public boolean killSocket (String socketid) {
try
{
((SocketServerThread)socketRegistry.get(socketid)).socket.close();
((SocketServerThread)socketRegistry.get(socketid)).socket = null;
socketRegistry.remove(socketid);
return true;
}
catch (IOException e) {
return false;
}
}
}

Gateway configuration file

Gateways can use a configuration file to specify information that does not change frequently. For example, the
ColdFusion SMS event gateway configuration file contains values that include an IP address, port number, system ID,
password, and so on.
You can specify a configuration file path for each event gateway instance in the ColdFusion Administrator.
ColdFusion passes the file path in the gateway constructor when it instantiates the event gateway. The configuration
file format and content handling is up to you. It is the responsibility of the gateway class to parse the file contents and
use it meaningfully.
One good way to access and get configuration data is to use the java.util.Properties class. This class takes an ISO88591 formatted input stream with one property setting per line. Each property name must be separated from the value by
an equal sign (=) or a colon (:), as the following example shows:
ip-address=127.0.0.1
port=4445

The example SocketGateway event gateway uses this technique to get an optional port number from a configuration
file. For an example of reading a properties file and using its data, see the code in Class constructor on page 1325.

Gateway development classes

ColdFusion provides two classes that you can use as building blocks to develop your event gateway classes. Each
corresponds to a different development methodology:

The coldfusion.eventgateway.GenericGateway class is an abstract class from which you can derive your gateway
class.

The EmptyGateway class in the gateway\src\examples directory is a template gateway that you can complete to
create your gateway class.

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The GenericGateway class

ColdFusion includes a coldfusion.eventgateway.GenericGateway abstract class that implements many of the methods
of ColdFusion Gateway interface and provides some convenience methods for use in your gateway class.
You can derive your gateway class from this class, which handles the basic mechanics of implementing a gateway, such
as the getGatewayID and SetCFCListeners methods. Your derived class must implement at least the following
methods:

startGateway (not start)

stopGateway (not stop)

outgoingMessage

Your derived gateway class also must implement the following:

If you support a configuration file, a constructor that takes a configuration file, and configuration loading routines.
If you use a gatewayHelper class, the getHelper method.
If the event source status can change asynchronously from the gateway, the getStatus method.
The example JMS gateway is derived from the generic gateway class. The gateway class JavaDocs in the gateway\docs
directory provide documentation for this class. (The CFML Reference does not document this class.)
The EmptyGateway class
The gateway\src\examples\EmptyGateway.java file contains an event gateway template that you can use as a skeleton
for creating your own event gateway. (The gateway directory is in the cf_root directory in the server configuration and
the cf_root\WEB-INF-cfusion directory on J2EE configurations.) This file contains minimal versions of all methods in
the coldfusion.eventgateway.Gateway interface. It defines a skeleton listener thread and initializes commonly used
Gateway properties. The EmptyGateway source code includes comments that describe the additional information that
you must provide to complete an event gateway class.

Building an event gateway

To build a Gateway class, you can start with the EmptyGateway.java file as a template. (In the server configuration, this
file is located in the cf_root/gateway/src/examples/ directory; in the J2EE configuration, the file is in the cf_root/WEBINF/cfusion/gateway/src/examples/ directory.) This file defines a nonfunctional event gateway, but has the basic
skeleton code for all Gateway class methods.
Wherever possible, this document uses code based on the sample Socket event gateway to show how to implement
event gateway features. (In the server configuration, this file is
cf_root/gateway/src/examples/socket/SocketGateway.java; in the J2EE configuration, the file is cf_root/WEBINF/cfusion/gateway/src/examples/socket/SocketGateway.java.)

Class constructor
An event gateway can implement any of the following constructors:

MyGateway(String gatewayID, String configurationFile)

MyGateway(String gatewayID)

MyGateway()

When ColdFusion starts, it calls the constructor for each event gateway instance that you configure in ColdFusion.
(ColdFusion also calls the gateway Start method after the event gateway is instantiated.). ColdFusion first attempts
to use the two-parameter constructor.

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Because each event gateway instance must have a unique ID, ColdFusion provides redundant support for providing
the ID. If the event gateway implements only the default constructor, ColdFusion provides the ID by calling the
setGatewayID method of the event gateway.
If the event gateway does not implement the two-parameter constructor, it does not get configuration file information
from ColdFusion.
The constructor normally calls the static GatewayServices.getGatewayServices method to access ColdFusion event
gateway services. Although you need not make this call, it is a good coding practice.
A minimal constructor that takes only a gateway ID could look like the following:
public MyGateway(String gatewayID) {
this.gatewayID = gatewayID;
this.gatewayService = GatewayServices.getGatewayServices();
}

The gateway constructor must throw a coldfusion.server.ServiceRuntimeException exception if an error occurs that
otherwise cannot be handled. For example, throw this exception if the event gateway requires a configuration file and
cannot read the file contents.
If your gateway uses a configuration file, have the constructor load the file, even if the Start method also loads the file.
Load the file because the constructor does not run in an independent thread, and ColdFusion can display an error in
the ColdFusion Administrator of the file fails to load. If the Start method, which does run in a separate thread, fails
to load the file, ColdFusion logs the error, but it cannot provide immediate feedback in the administrator.
The sample Socket event gateway has a single constructor that takes two parameters. It tries to load a configuration
file. If you specify a configuration file in the ColdFusion Administrator, or the file path is invalid, it gets an IO
exception. It then uses the default port and logs a message indicating what it did. The following example shows the
Gateway constructor code and the loadProperties method it uses:
public SocketGateway(String id, String configpath)
{
gatewayID = id;
gatewayService = GatewayServices.getGatewayServices();
// log things to socket-gateway.log in the CF log directory
log = gatewayService.getLogger("socket-gateway");
propsFilePath=configpath;
try
{
FileInputStream propsFile = new FileInputStream(propsFilePath);
properties.load(propsFile);
propsFile.close();
this.loadProperties();
}
catch (IOException e)
{
// Use default value for port and log the status.
log.warn("SocketGateway(" + gatewayID + ") Unable to read configuration
file '" + propsFilePath + "': " + e.toString() + ".Using default port
" + port + ".", e);
}
}
private void loadProperties() {
String tmp = properties.getProperty("port");
port = Integer.parseInt(tmp);
}

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Providing Gateway class service and information routines

Several gateway methods perform event gateway configuration services and provide event gateway information. The
ColdFusion event gateway services call many of these methods to configure the event gateway by using information
stored by the ColdFusion Administrator, and to get access to resources and information that the event gateway services
and applications require. Some of these methods can also be useful in event gateway code. The following methods
provide these services and information:

setCFCListeners

setGatewayID

getHelper

getGatewayID

getStatus

ColdFusion calls the setCFCListeners method with the CFC or CFCs that are specified in the ColdFusion
Administrator when it starts a gateway. ColdFusion also calls the method in a running event gateway when the
configuration information changes, so the method must be written to handle such changes. The setCFCListeners
method must save the listener information so that the gateway code that dispatches incoming messages to gateway
services can use the listener CFCs in setCFCPath methods.
ColdFusion calls the setGatewayID method when it starts a gateway. The getGatewayID method must return the
value set by this method.
ColdFusion calls the getHelper method when an application calls the CFML GetGatewayHelper function.
The following code shows how the SocketGateway class defines these methods. To create a gateway, modify the
getHelper definition to return the correct class, or to return null if no gateway helper class exists. Most gateways can
leave the other method definitions unchanged.
public void setCFCListeners(String[] listeners) {
this.listeners = listeners;
}
public GatewayHelper getHelper() {
// SocketHelper class implements the GatewayHelper interface.
return new SocketHelper();
}
public void setGatewayID(String id) {
gatewayID = id;
}
public String getGatewayID() {
return gatewayID;
}
public int getStatus() {
return status;
}

Starting, stopping, and restarting the event gateway

Because an event gateway uses at least one listener thread, it must have start, stop, and restart methods to control
the threads. These methods must also maintain the status variable that the Gateway class getStatus method checks,
and change its value among STARTING, RUNNING, STOPPING, STOPPED, and FAILED, as appropriate.
The start method
The start method initializes the event gateway. It starts one or more listener threads that monitor the event source
and respond to any messages it receives from the source.

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The start method should return within a time-out period that you can configure for each event gateway type in the
ColdFusion Administrator. If it does not, the ColdFusion Administrator has a Kill on Startup Timeout option for each
gateway type. If you select the option, and a time-out occurs, the ColdFusion starter thread calls an interrupt on the
gateway thread to try to kill it, and then exits.
Note: If the start method is the listener (for example, in a single-threaded gateway), the method does not return until
the gateway stops. Do not set the Kill on Startup Timeout option in the ColdFusion Administrator for such gateways.
If the gateway uses a configuration file, load the configuration from the file. Doing so lets users change the
configuration file and restart the gateway without restarting ColdFusion. Also load the configuration file in the
constructor; for more information, see Class constructor on page 1325.
In the SocketGateway class, the start method starts an initial thread. (In a single-threaded Gateway, this thread would
be the only one.) When the thread starts, it calls a socketServer method, which uses the Java ServerSocket class to
implement a multi-threaded socket listener and message dispatcher. For more information on the listener, see
Responding to incoming messages on page 1329.
public void start()
{
status = STARTING;
listening=true;
// Start up event generator thread
Runnable r = new Runnable()
{
public void run()
{
socketServer();
}
};
Thread t = new Thread(r);
t.start();
status = RUNNING;
}

The stop method

The stop method performs the event gateway shutdown tasks, including shutting down the listener thread or threads
and releasing any resources. The following example shows the SocketGateway stop method:

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public void stop()

{
// Set the status variable to indicate that the server is stopping.
status = STOPPING;
// The listening variable is used as a switch to stop listener activity.
listening=false;
// Close the listener thread sockets.
Enumeration e = socketRegistry.elements();
while (e.hasMoreElements()) {
try
{
((SocketServerThread)e.nextElement()).socket.close();
}
catch (IOException e1)
{
// We don't care if a close failed.
//log.error(e1);
}
}
// Close and release the serverSocket instance that gets requests from the
// network.
if (serverSocket != null) {
try
{
serverSocket.close();
}
catch (IOException e1)
{
}
//Release the serverSocket.
serverSocket = null;
}
// Shutdown succeeded; set the status variable.
status = STOPPED;
}

The restart method

In most cases, you implement the restart method by calling the stop method and the start method consecutively,
but you could be able to optimize this process for some services. The following code shows the SocketGateway class
restart method:
public void restart() {
stop();
start();
}

Responding to incoming messages

One or more listener threads respond to incoming messages (events). The threads must include code to dispatch the
messages to ColdFusion event gateway services, as follows:
1 Create a CFEvent instance.
2 Create a Map instance that contains the message and any other event gateway-specific information, and pass it to

the CFEvent setData method.

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3 Call the CFEvent setOriginator method to specify the source of the message. (This call is required if the

ColdFusion application sends a response.)

4 Call the CFEvent setGateWayType method to specify the event gateway type.
5 Set any other CFEvent fields where the default behavior is not appropriate; for example, call the setCFCPath

method to replace the default listener CFC. (For information on default CFEvent fields, see CFEvent class on
page 1322.)
6 Call the gatewayService.addEvent method to dispatch the CFEvent instance to ColdFusion.
7 Handle cases where the event is not added to the event gateway service queue (the addEvent method returns False).

If your application sends any messages to multiple listener CFCs, the gateway must create and configure a CFEvent
instance and call the gatewayService.addEvent method to send the message to each separate listener CFC. The
setCFCListeners method of the gateway must make the CFC paths available to the gateway for configuring the
CFEvent instances.
If your ColdFusion server carries a heavy event gateway message load, the ColdFusion event gateway services event
queue could reach the maximum value set in the ColdFusion Administrator. When the queue reaches the maximum,
the gatewayService.addEvent method returns False and fails. Your code can do any of the following:

Return a message to the sender to indicate that their message was not received.
Wait until the queue is available by periodically comparing the values returned by the GatewayService
getQueueSize and getMaxQueueSize methods, and retry the addEvent method when the queue size is less than

the maximum.

Log the occurrence using the logger returned by the GatewayService getLogger method. (For more information,
see Logging events and using log files on page 1332.)
The SocketGateway class implements the listener using a java.net.ServerSocket class object and SocketServerThread
listener threads. (See the SocketGateway source for the SocketServerThread code.) When the listener thread gets a
message from the TCP/IP socket, it calls the following processInput method to dispatch the message to ColdFusion.
This method explicitly sets all required and optional CFEvent fields and sends the event to ColdFusion. If the
addEvent call fails, it logs the error.
Note: Much of the processInput method code supports multiple listener CFCs. A gateway that uses only a single listener
CFC, would require only the code in the latter part of this method.

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private void processInput(String theInput, String theKey)

{
// Convert listeners list to a local array
// Protect ourselves if the list changes while we are running
String[] listeners;
int size = cfcListeners.size();
if (size > 0)
{
// Capture the listeners list
synchronized (cfcListeners)
{
listeners = new String[size];
cfcListeners.toArray(listeners);
}
}
else
{
// Create a dummy list
listeners = new String[1];
listeners[0] = null;
}
// Broadcast to all the CFC listeners
// Send one message at a time with different CFC address on them
for (int i = 0; i < listeners.length; i++)
{
String path = listeners[i];
CFEvent event = new CFEvent(gatewayID);
Hashtable mydata = new Hashtable();
mydata.put("MESSAGE", theInput);
event.setData(mydata);
event.setGatewayType("SocketGateway");
event.setOriginatorID(theKey);
event.setCfcMethod(cfcEntryPoint);
event.setCfcTimeOut(10);
if (path != null)
event.setCfcPath(path);
boolean sent = gatewayService.addEvent(event);
if (!sent)
log.error("SocketGateway(" + gatewayID + ") Unable to place message on
event queue. Message not sent from " + gatewayID + ", thread " + theKey
+ ".Message was " + theInput);
}
}

Responding to a ColdFusion function or listener CFC

The ColdFusion event gateway services call the outgoingMessage method of the gateway to handle messages
generated when the listener method of an event gateway application listener CFC returns a message or any CFML code
calls a SendGatewayMessage function. This method must send the message to the appropriate external resource.
The outgoingMessage method parameter is a CFEvent instance, containing the information about the message to
send out. The CFEvent getData method returns a Map object that contains event gateway-specific information about
the message, including any message text. All CFEvent instances received by the outgoingMessage contain information
in the Data and GatewayID fields.

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CFEvent instances returned from listener CFC onIncomingMessage methods include the originator ID of the
incoming message and other information. However, a gateway that could handle messages from the ColdFusion
SendGatewayMessage function cannot rely on this information being available, so it is good practice to require that
all outgoing messages include the destination ID in the data Map.
The outgoingMessage method returns a String value. The CFML sendGatewayMessage function returns this value
to the ColdFusion application. Indicate the status of the message in the returned string. By convention, ColdFusion
event gateway outgoingMessage methods return OK if they do not encounter errors and do not have additional
information (such as a message ID) to return.
Because event messages are asynchronous, a positive return normally does not indicate that the message was successful
delivered, only that the outgoingMessage method successfully handled the message. In some cases, however, it is
possible to make the outgoingMessage method at least partially synchronous. The SMS gateway, for example,
provides two outgoingMessage modes:
Asynchronous mode The outgoingMessage method returns when the message is queued internally for delivery to the
short message service center (SMSC) of the messaging provider.
Synchronous mode The method does not return until the message is delivered to the SMSC, or an error occurs.

This way, an SMS application can get a message ID for later use, such as to compare with a message receipt.
Example outgoingMessage method
The following outgoingMessage method is like the version in the SocketGateway class. It does the following:
1 Gets the contents of a MESSAGE field of the Data Map returned by the CFEvent class getData method.
2 Gets the destination from an outDestID field in the data Map.
3 Uses the socket server thread of the destination to write the message.
public String outgoingMessage(coldfusion.eventgateway.CFEvent cfmsg) {
String retcode="ok";
// Get the table of data returned from the event handler
Map data = cfmsg.getData();
String message = (String) data.get("MESSAGE");
// Find the right socket to write to from the socketRegistry hash table
// and call the writeoutput method of the socket thread.
// (Get the destination ID from the data map.)
if (data.get("outDestID") != null)
((SocketServerThread)socketRegistry.get(data.get("outDestID"))).
writeOutput(message);
else {
System.out.println("cannot send outgoing message. OriginatorID is not
available.");
retcode="failed";
}
return retcode;
}

Logging events and using log files

The GatewayServices.getLogger method returns an instance of the coldfusion.eventgateway.Logger class that you
can use to log messages to a file in the ColdFusion logs directory. (You set this directory on the ColdFusion
Administrator Logging Settings page.) The method can take no parameter, or one parameter:

The default GatewayServices.getLogger method uses the eventgateway.log file.

Optionally, you can specify a log filename, without the .log extension or directory path.
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The following example tells ColdFusion to log messages from the gateway to the mygateway.log file in the ColdFusion
logs directory:
coldfusion.eventgateway.Logger log =getGatewayServices().getLogger("mygateway");

The Logger class has the following methods, all of which take a message string. The method you use determines
severity level that is set in the log message.

info

warn

error

fatal

You can also pass these methods an exception instance as a second parameter. When you pass an exception,
ColdFusion places the exception information in the exception.log file in the ColdFusion logs directory.
You can use these methods to log any messages that you find appropriate. If you use the default eventgateway.log file,
however, remember that all ColdFusion standard gateways us it, and other gateways could use it. As a result, limit the
messages that you normally log to this file to infrequent normal occurrences (such as gateway startup and shutdown)
or errors for which you want to retain data.
ColdFusion uses the following format for the message text, so have your application follow this pattern:
GatewayType (Gateway ID) Message

The SMS event gateway, for example, includes the following exception catching code, which logs a general exception
messages and the exception name in the eventgateway.log file, and also (automatically) logs the exception in the
exceptions.log file:
catch(Exception e)
{
logger.error("SMSGateway (" + gatewayID + ") Exception while processing
incoming event: " + e, e);
}

Note: When you are developing an event gateway application, you can use the ColdFusion Log viewer to inspect your log
files and the standard ColdFusion log files, including the eventgateway.log file and exception.log file. You can use the
viewer to filter the display, for example, by selecting different severity levels, or searching for keywords.

Deploying an event gateway

To deploy an event gateway, you deploy and event gateway type and configure one or more event gateway instances.

Deploy an event gateway type in ColdFusion

1 Compile your Gateway class and place it in a JAR file along with any other required classes.

Note: The ColdFusion class loader includes the gateway \lib directory on its classpath and includes any JAR files that
are in that directory on the class path.
2 Place the JAR file in the cf_root\WEB-INF\cfusion\gateway\lib directory on J2EE configurations or the

cf_root\gateway\lib directory on server configurations. This directory is on the ColdFusion classpath.

3 Ensure that ColdFusion event gateway services are enabled on the ColdFusion Administrator Data & Services >

Event Gateway > Settings page.

4 On the ColdFusion Administrator Data & Services > Event Gateways page, click the Manage Gateway Types button

to display the Gateway Types page.

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5 On the Add/Edit ColdFusion Event Gateway Types form, enter a type name (for example, SMS for the SMS event

gateway), a description, and the full Java class name (for example, coldfusion.eventgateway.sms.SMSGateway for
the SMS event gateway). If appropriate, change the Startup Timeout settings from the default values.
6 Click the Add Type button to deploy the event gateway type in ColdFusion.

The following procedure describes how to configure an event gateway instance that uses the gateway type.

Configure an event gateway instance

1 If you have finished deploying the event gateway type, click the Manage Gateway Instances button; otherwise, select

Event Gateways > Gateway Instances in the ColdFusion Administrator.

2 On the Add/Edit ColdFusion Event Gateways Instances form, do the following:

Enter the instance name in the Gateway ID field

Select the event gateway type that you added from the Gateway Type menu
Specify the paths to the listener CFC or CFCs that handle the messages.
If the event gateway requires a configuration file, enter the path to the file in Gateway Configuration File field.
If you do not want the gateway to start up automatically when ColdFusion starts, change the Startup Mode
selection to Manual or Disabled
3 Click the Add Gateway Instance button.
4 In the list of configured instances, click the start button (green triangle) on the entry for the gateway instance to

start the instance.

Using the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse

The Adobe ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse include wizards that help generate code for common tasks and an
extension that lets you connect to remote servers from Adobe Flash Builder and Eclipse.
To use the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse, you should be familiar with ColdFusion components, as well as
accessing and using data in ColdFusion applications. You should also be familiar with Eclipse or Adobe Flash Builder.

About the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse

To make some common coding tasks easier, the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse include the following:

Eclipse RDS Support plug-in, which lets you access files and data sources on a ColdFusion server.
ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard, which lets you create master and detail pages in an application to create, read,
update, and delete records in a database.

ColdFusion/Ajax Application wizard, which lets you create master and detail pages that use Ajax elements in an
application to create, read, update, and delete records in a database.

RDS CRUD wizard, which lets you dynamically create a ColdFusion component (CFC) based on a table that is
registered in the ColdFusion Administrator on a ColdFusion server

ActionScript to CFC wizard, which lets you create a CFC based on an ActionScript class file.
CFC to ActionScript wizard, which lets you create an ActionScript file based on a CFC Value Object
Services Browser, which lets you browse CFCs, manage a list of web services, and generate the CFML code to invoke
a web service.

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For information about installing the ColdFusion Extensions for Eclipse, see Installing ColdFusion guide.

Eclipse RDS Support

Remote Development Services (RDS) lets you access files and data sources registered in the ColdFusion Administrator
on a ColdFusion server. To use Eclipse RDS Support, you must enable RDS when you install ColdFusion. With Eclipse
RDS Support, you can use Flash Builder or CFEclipse as your IDE and access ColdFusion files remotely.
Eclipse RDS Support is supported on all ColdFusion server platforms.
Before you install Eclipse RDS Support, you must have the following installed:

Eclipse 3.1 or later, Flex Builder 2 or later, or Flash Builder

ColdFusion MX 7.0.1 or later

Configuring RDS
Before using RDS, you must configure ColdFusion servers.
Configure any ColdFusion servers that you want to connect to using RDS
1 In Flash Builder or Eclipse, select Window > Preferences > ColdFusion > RDS Configuration.
2 To configure the default localhost server, select localhost and specify the following:

Description
Host name (127.0.0.1)
Port number (8500 if you are using the built-in web server)
Context root, if necessary (For more information about the context root, see Installing ColdFusion guide.)
Password, which is the RDS password
3 To specify additional servers, click New, and specify the following:

Description, which can be any name you want

Host name (IP address or machine name)
Port number (8500 if you are using the built-in web server)
Context root, if necessary
For more information about the context root, see Installing ColdFusion guide.

Password, which is the RDS password

4 To remove a server definition, select the server and click Remove.
5 To test a connection, select the server and click Test Connection.

Note: If you are using ColdFusion MX 7 or earlier, the message The RDS server was successfully contacted, but your
security credentials were invalid, appears. The message indicates that the password was not validated, even if it is correct.
Click OK to close the message.
Once you have configured the RDS connection to your CF servers, you can view the files, folders and data sources on
RDS servers. Each RDS server appears as a node in the RDS Fileview and Dataview, with the name you specified when
you configured the RDS server.
View files and folders or data sources do the following
1 In Flash Builder, select Window > Other Views. In Eclipse, select Window > Show View > Other.

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2 Select RDS.
3 To access the file system on the RDS server, select RDS Fileview.
4 To access data sources on the RDS server, select RDS Dataview.

Using the RDS Fileview

The RDS Fileview lists all the folders and files on the RDS server. You use the navigation buttons as indicated in the
following table:
Button

Action
Refresh the active RDS server.

Create a file in the currently selected folder.

Delete the currently selected file.

Create a folder in the currently selected folder.

Delete the currently selected folder.

Note: RDS Eclipse Support does not support file operations such as copy and paste, drag and drop, and changing file
attributes. However, delete, save, save as, and rename are supported. Also, on ColdFusion servers after ColdFusion 5, the
date last modified field does not appear.
To rename a folder or file, right-click the folder or filename.

Using the RDS Dataview

The RDS Dataview lists all the data sources on the RDS server. You use the buttons as indicated in the following table:
Button

Name

Description

Refresh

Refresh the currently selected item.

Query Viewer

Opens the RDS Query Viewer.

You can build queries using either the RDS Query Viewer or the Visual Query Builder. The RDS Visual Query Builder
is like the ColdFusion Report Builder Query Builder and the HomeSite Query Builder.
Build and execute a query using the RDS Query Viewer
1 Click the RDS Query Viewer icon on the RDS Dataview tab.
The RDS Query Viewer opens in its own tab, which means that if you have other documents open, the RDS Query
Viewer has focus.
2 Do one of the following:

Enter the SQL, and double-click the field names and table names as appropriate.
Click the Visual Query Builder button.

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For more information about using the Visual Query Builder, see Using Visual Query Builder on page 1337.
3 To try the query, click Execute query.

The first 50 records of the result set appear.

Using Visual Query Builder

You use the Query Builder to define a SQL statement. The following image shows the Query Builder user interface:

Build a SQL statement using the Table pane and the Properties panel
1 Expand a data source.
2 Double-click the columns to be named in the SELECT statement.

As you select columns, the Query Builder creates the SELECT statement in the area at the lower edge of the pane.
3 If you select columns from more than one table, you must specify the column or columns used to join them by

dragging a column from one table to the related column in the second table.
4 (Optional) Specify sort order by doing the following:
a Locate the column in the Properties panel.
b Click in the Sort Type cell of the column you want to sort by.
c Specify Ascending or Descending.
d (Optional) If you specify multiple sort columns, you specify precedence using the Sort Order cell.
5 (Optional) Specify selection criteria by doing the following:
a Locate the column in the Properties panel.
b Click in the Condition cell.
c Select WHERE.
d Specify WHERE clause criteria in the Criteria cell.

Note: If you specify selection criteria, the Query Builder creates a WHERE clause. To use an INNER JOIN or other
advanced selection criteria instead, you must code the SQL manually.
6 (Optional) To specify an aggregate function, GROUP BY, or an expression:
a Locate the column in the Properties panel.
b Click in the Condition cell.
c Select Group By or the aggregate function (such as COUNT).

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7 (Optional) To specify SQL manually, type the SQL statement in the SQL pane.

Note: You code SQL manually to use an INNER JOIN instead of a WHERE clause, use an OUTER JOIN, or use a
database stored procedure.
8 (Optional) To specify the data type of a query parameter:
a Click the + button under Parameters.
b Enter the name of the parameter.
c Select the data type.
9 Review the SELECT statement that displays in the SQL pane, and use the Table and Properties panes to make

adjustments, if necessary.
10 (Optional) Click Test Query.
11 Click Save.

ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard

The ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard creates ColdFusion and Flex files for a create, read, update, delete (CRUD)
application. You specify the master, detail, and master/detail pages to include in the application, and the relationship
between the applications pages. The wizard lets you use Visual Query Builder to generate the SQL statements. For
more information about using Visual Query Builder, see Using Visual Query Builder on page 1337.

Designing your application

Before starting the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard, you should determine which pages to include in your
application, including the following:

Whether each page is a master, detail, or master/detail page

The fields to display in each page
The fields that connect one page to another
In the following example, you create an application for an art gallery. The first page lists all the artists that your gallery
represents. When a user selects an artist, a page that lists all the works by that artist appears. When the user then selects
a work of art, a page that contains details about that piece of art appears. In this example, your application contains the
following pages:

A master page that lists the artists

A master/detail page in which the master page lists the works of art by the artist selected on the List of Artists master
page, and a detail page that contains details about the artwork selected on the Artwork master page.
You may find it helpful to draw a diagram of the tables and fields that you want to include in your application,
including which ones to display in your application, as the following image shows:

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Start the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard

1 Configure your RDS servers. For more information, see Configuring RDS on page 1335.
2 In Eclipse or Flash Builder, select File > New > Other.
3 Under ColdFusion Wizards, select ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard, and then click Next.
4 After reading the introductory text, click Next.
5 To load the settings from an application you previously created using the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard,

select the configuration file, and then click Load ColdFusion/Flex Application Wizard Settings.
6 Click Next.
7 Select the RDS server on which you want the application to reside.
8 Specify the data source to use. The data source is configured in the ColdFusion Administrator.

Although you specify one default data source at this point, you can access data from other data sources in your
application.
9 Click Next.

Specifying form layout

The Form Layout dialog box lets you specify the pages to use in your application. You can create master, detail, or
master/detail pages. In your application, you can link master, detail, and master/detail pages as follows:
Page type

Can link to

master

master
master/detail
detail
master and detail
master and master/detail

master/detail

master
master/detail

Create a page
1 Click the plus sign (+).
2 In the Name text box, enter the name for the page.
3 Select the page type (master, detail, or master/detail).
4 Click Edit Master Page, Edit Detail page, or Edit Master Section, depending on the type of form you are creating.

The Visual Query Builder starts.

5 Use Visual Query Builder to specify the data source, tables, and fields to include in the form, and then click Save to

save the query. For more information about using Visual Query Builder, see Using Visual Query Builder on
page 1337.
6 Repeat steps 1 through 5 for each form in your application.
7 Use the right and left arrows to specify the relationship of the forms in your application. For example, detail forms

should appear indented, directly under the related master form in the Navigation Tree panel. You drag and drop
items to move them in the tree structure.
8 Click Next.

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The Project information page appears.

9 Specify the following:

The context root, if applicable

Whether to include a login page in the application
The location of the services-config.xml configuration file that the project should use
The web root URL
Whether to use an existing or new Flash Builder or Eclipse project
The project name and the location of the project if it is new
10 Click Finish.

The ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard creates the ColdFusion and Flex files that comprise your application. You
can test the application by clicking the Run Main button in Flash Builder or Eclipse, or by browsing to the main
application page, which is located at http://<server_name>:<port_number>/<project_name>/bin/main.html. You can
also manually modify the application files as appropriate for your needs.

Tips for creating applications with the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard

Although the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard greatly simplifies creating CRUD applications, keep in mind the
following information to ensure that you create the application that you designed.

To adjust UI elements, open the MXML file in Flash Builder or Eclipse design mode.
When you create a project that has the same name as a project you previously created, the wizard creates a backup
folder that contains the files from the project you previously created.

If you create a master page and a detail page for a table in which there is no primary key defined, the wizard selects
the first field in the database as the key value to represent the row.

In master pages, link a field to the Parameters box to add type validation to the query by using the cfqueryparam
tag. Doing this is optional.

You must select a primary key column in the master form; the wizard chooses the key by default. If you create a
master page and do not link it to the id property, you cannot add it to the site tree under another master page.

Deselect the Display column for fields that your application uses that you do not want to appear in your application.
Specify the sort order for the field by which to sort data in the page, and specify any other conditions as appropriate.
Change the labels for fields by clicking the field name in the Label column, and then entering a new field name.
In a detail page, create a combo box that is populated by dynamic data. To do this, change the value in the Input
Control column for the field to use to populate the combo box to be ComboBox, click the Input Lookup Query
(sub-select) column in that field, and then use the Visual Query Builder to specify the data to use.

When you create a detail page, display of the primary key is disabled automatically.
When you create a detail page, input controls are assigned by default. You can change them from the default values,
which appear as follows:

Boolean and bit values appear as a check box.

Memo and CLOB values appear as a text area.
Everything else appears as a text input control.

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ColdFusion/Ajax Application wizard

The ColdFusion/Ajax Application wizard creates a ColdFusion create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) application
that contains Ajax elements. For information about using the wizard, see ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard on
page 1338.
You start the wizard just as you start the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard, except that you select the
ColdFusion/Ajax Application wizard. Unlike the ColdFusion/Flex Application wizard, the ColdFusion/Ajax
Application wizard does not generate login screens.

ActionScript to CFC wizard

The ActionScript to CFC wizard lets you create a ColdFusion component (CFC) based on an ActionScript class file.

Use the ActionScript to CFC wizard

1 In Flash Builder or Eclipse, go to the Project Navigator.
2 Right-click an ActionScript class file.
3 Select ColdFusion Wizards > Create CFC.
4 Enter the location of the CFC file in the Save to Project Folder text box, or click Browse and select the location.
5 Enter the filename of the CFC in the CFC Filename text box.
6 To replace an existing file, select Overwrite file.
7 To create get and set methods in the CFC, in addition to property definitions, select Generate Get/Set Methods.
8 To specify the property scope, select public or private.
9 Click Finish.

CFC to ActionScript wizard

The CFC to ActionScript wizard lets you create an ActionScript file based on a ColdFusion component (CFC) Value
Object.

Use the CFC to ActionScript wizard

1 In Flash Builder or Eclipse, go to the Project Navigator.
2 Right-click a CFC Value Object file.
3 Select ColdFusion Wizards > Create AS Class.
4 Enter the location of the ActionScript file in the Save to Project Folder text box, or click Browse and select the

location.
5 Enter the class package in the AS Class Package text box.
6 Enter the filename of the ActionScript class file in the AS Class Name text box.
7 To replace an existing file, select Overwrite file.
8 Enter the path to the CFC in the Path to CFC text box.
9 To create get and set methods in the ActionScript Class file, select Generate Get/Set Methods.
10 Click Finish.

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RDS CRUD wizard

The Remote Development Services (RDS) CRUD Wizard lets you dynamically create a ColdFusion component (CFC)
based on a table that is registered in the ColdFusion Administrator on a ColdFusion server. To use the RDS CRUD
wizard, you must have the Eclipse RDS Support plug-in installed. (The Eclipse RDS Support plug-in is installed when
you install the ColdFusion wizards.)
The RDS CRUD Wizard lets you create the following types of CFCs:

ActiveRecord style CRUD CFC, which includes all of the properties, get and set methods, and SQL methods in one
CFC. The CFC includes the following methods:
init() or init(primary key value)
load(primary key value)
save()
delete()

Bean/DAO style CRUD CFCs, which creates two related CFCs:

A Bean CFC, also called a Value Object, which contains the property definitions and get and set methods.
The DAO CFC, which contains the following methods:
read(primary key value)
create(cfc instance)
update(cfc instance)
delete(cfc instance)

Data Service assembler CFC, which includes a Bean (also referred to as a Value Object), a DAO CFC, and an
assembler CFC. The assembler CFC is required to take advantage of the Flex Data Services feature

Use the RDS CRUD wizard

1 In Flash Builder or Eclipse, go to the RDS Dataview by doing the following:
a Select Window > Show View > Other.
b Select RDS.
c Select RDS Dataview.
2 Right click a table name.
3 Select ColdFusion Wizards > Create CFC.
4 Enter the project folder where you want to save the CFC in the CFC Folder text box.
5 Enter the CFC package in the CFC Package Name text box.
6 (Optional) Select the Primary Key column if a primary key is not defined in the database.
7 (Optional) To specify the primary key column in addition to the other values specified in the CFC, select the

Primary Key is Controlled by the User option. If the primary key is automatically generated by the database (the
identity field), do not select this option.
8 To replace existing files, select the Overwrite Files If They Already Exist option.
9 Select one of the following CFC Types:

Active Record CFC

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Bean CFC & DAO CFC

Flex Data Service Assembler CFCs
10 Enter the names of the CFCs in the appropriate text boxes.
11 To create an ActionScript Value Object:
a Select the Create an ActionScript Value Object in Addition to the CFCs option.
b Enter the location for the ActionScript Value Object in the AS Folder text box, or click Browse to browse to the

location.
c To create get and set methods in the ActionScript Class file, select Generate Get/Set Methods.
12 Click Finish.

Services Browser
The ColdFusion Services Browser lets you view all of the CFCs and web services on your computer.

Use the Services Browser

1 In Flash Builder or Eclipse, select Window > Show View > Other.
2 Select ColdFusion > Services Browser.

The Services Browser can do the following:

Browse components
Manage web services

Browsing components
The Service Browser lists the following components:

Components that the ColdFusion component browser lists

The ColdFusion component browser is located at cf_root/wwwroot/CFIDE/componentutils/componentdoc.cfm.

Components that are located in any directories specified in the ColdFusion Administrator Mappings page
Components that are located in any directories specified in the ColdFusion Administrator Custom Tag paths page
You can restrict the list of CFCs according to whether the functions in a CFC are remote, public, or private.
A sample element of the list appears as follows:

The first line of the listing contains the path. The second line includes the name of the CFC. The next two lines contain
the names of the functions in the CFC. The function name is followed by any argument, a colon, then the type of the
return value. The listing echo(echoString):STRING indicates that the echo function has an argument named
echoString, and that it returns a string. The myCFC CFC appears as follows:

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<cfcomponent>
<cffunction name="echo" output="No" returntype="string">
<cfargument name="echoString" required="Yes">
<cfreturn "echo: #arguments[1]#">
</cffunction>
<cffunction name="getArtists" returntype="query" hint="query the database and return the
results.">
<cfquery name="artists" datasource="cfcodeexplorer">
select *
from artists
</cfquery>
<cfreturn artists>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

Managing web services

The Services Browser lets you manage a list of web services by adding or deleting WSDL URLs from a list. In addition,
when you are editing a ColdFusion file, you can use the Services Browser to generate CFML code to invoke a web
service or to create a web service object. Similarly, when you are editing an ActionScript file, you can use the Services
Browser to generate ActionScript.
To view the list of web services, click the Show Web Services button in the top right corner of the Services Browser view.
Add a web service to the list
1 Right-click in the Services Browser view.
2 Select Add WSDL.
3 Enter a valid WSDL URL.
4 Click OK.

Delete a web service from the list

1 Right-click in the Services Browser view.
2 Select Delete WSDL.

Invoke a web service in ColdFusion

1 Place your mouse pointer where you want to insert the code.
2 View the list of web services.
3 Highlight a web service or a method in a web service and right-click.
4 Select Insert CFInvoke.

The code that the Service Browser generates appears in the ColdFusion file. The following is an example of the code
that the Service Browser generates:
<cfinvoke
webservice="http://arcweb.esri.com/services/v2/MapImage.wsdl"
method="convertMapCoordToPixelCoord"
returnVariable="convertMapCoordToPixelCoord" >
<cfinvokeargument name="mapCoord" type="" />
<cfinvokeargument name="viewExtent" type="" />
<cfinvokeargument name="mapImageSize" type="" />
</cfinvoke>

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Create a web service object in ColdFusion

1 Place your mouse pointer where you want to insert the code.
2 View the list of web services.
3 Highlight a web service or a method in a web service and right-click.
4 Select Insert CFInvoke.

The code that the Service Browser generates appears in the ColdFusion file. The following is an example of the code
that the Service Browser generates:
createObject("webservice",
"http://arcweb.esri.com/services/v2/MapImage.wsdl").convertMapCoordToPixelCoord(mapCoord,
viewExtent, mapImageSize);

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