CFML Basics for ColdFusion MX

Learn classic tag-oriented CFML without accidentally depending on syntax introduced after the MX generation.

Templates and Evaluation

A .cfm template can contain HTML, CFML tags, and expressions. Text outside CFML tags is normally returned as output. Expressions inside cfoutput are delimited with hash marks.

<cfset userName = "Travis">

<cfoutput>
    <p>Hello, #HTMLEditFormat(userName)#.</p>
</cfoutput>

Comments

<!--- This comment is processed by ColdFusion and not sent to the browser. --->
<!-- This HTML comment is sent to the browser. -->

Variables and Explicit Scopes

ColdFusion can search several scopes when a variable is unqualified. In legacy code that behavior can hide errors. Prefer explicit scope names.

<cfset variables.pageTitle = "Customer List">
<cfparam name="url.page" default="1">
<cfparam name="form.search" default="">

<cfoutput>
    Page: #Val(url.page)#
</cfoutput>

Strings, Numbers, Booleans, and Dates

<cfset customerName = "Acme Hosting">
<cfset openTickets = 3>
<cfset isActive = true>
<cfset createdAt = CreateDateTime(2005, 8, 15, 9, 30, 0)>

<cfoutput>
    #HTMLEditFormat(customerName)# has #openTickets# open tickets.<br>
    Created: #DateFormat(createdAt, "mm/dd/yyyy")#
</cfoutput>

Arrays in MX-Compatible Syntax

Implicit array literals were added after the MX generation. Build arrays with functions when targeting MX.

<cfset topics = ArrayNew(1)>
<cfset ArrayAppend(topics, "ColdFusion")>
<cfset ArrayAppend(topics, "PHP")>
<cfset ArrayAppend(topics, "Networking")>

<cfloop index="i" from="1" to="#ArrayLen(topics)#">
    <cfoutput>#HTMLEditFormat(topics[i])#<br></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

Structures

<cfset customer = StructNew()>
<cfset customer.id = 42>
<cfset customer.name = "Example Company">
<cfset customer.status = "active">

<cfoutput>#HTMLEditFormat(customer.name)#</cfoutput>

Lists

Comma-delimited lists are common in older CFML applications. They are strings, not arrays.

<cfset roles = "customer,billing,administrator">

<cfif ListFindNoCase(roles, "billing") GT 0>
    Billing access is enabled.
</cfif>

<cfloop index="roleName" list="#roles#">
    <cfoutput>#HTMLEditFormat(roleName)#<br></cfoutput>
</cfloop>

Conditionals and Comparison Operators

<cfset accountStatus = "active">

<cfif accountStatus EQ "active">
    Account is active.
<cfelseif accountStatus EQ "suspended">
    Account is suspended.
<cfelse>
    Account status is unknown.
</cfif>

Legacy CFML commonly uses word operators such as EQ, NEQ, GT, GTE, LT, LTE, AND, OR, and NOT.

Switch Statements

<cfswitch expression="#url.action#">
    <cfcase value="list">
        <cfinclude template="list.cfm">
    </cfcase>
    <cfcase value="edit">
        <cfinclude template="edit.cfm">
    </cfcase>
    <cfdefaultcase>
        <cfinclude template="home.cfm">
    </cfdefaultcase>
</cfswitch>

User-Defined Functions

<cffunction name="formatTicketStatus" returntype="string" output="false">
    <cfargument name="status" type="string" required="true">

    <cfswitch expression="#arguments.status#">
        <cfcase value="open"><cfreturn "Open"></cfcase>
        <cfcase value="closed"><cfreturn "Closed"></cfcase>
        <cfdefaultcase><cfreturn "Unknown"></cfdefaultcase>
    </cfswitch>
</cffunction>

CFScript in the MX Era

CFScript existed before MX, but its coverage was smaller than modern CFScript. Tag syntax remained common, especially for queries, files, mail, and application configuration.

<cfscript>
    greeting = "Hello";
    name = "Travis";
    WriteOutput(greeting & ", " & HTMLEditFormat(name));
</cfscript>

Output Encoding

MX-era code usually uses HTMLEditFormat() before inserting untrusted text into HTML. Encoding must match the output context; HTML encoding is not sufficient for JavaScript, CSS, SQL, or URLs.