User Guide

24 Chapter 1: Reserved Words and Variables
To ensure that modifications to shared data occur in the intended sequence, use the cflock tag.
For more information, see
cflock on page 221.
The predefined application and session variables are as follows:
Application.ApplicationName
Session.CFID
Session.CFToken
Session.URLToken
Custom tag variables
A ColdFusion custom tag returns the following variables:
ThisTag.ExecutionMode
ThisTag.HasEndTag
ThisTag.GeneratedContent
ThisTag.AssocAttribs[index]
A custom tag can set a Caller variable to provide information to the caller. The Caller variable is
set as follows:
<cfset Caller.variable_name = "value">
The calling page can access the variable with the cfoutput tag, as follows:
<cfoutput>#Caller.variable_name#</cfoutput>
Request variable
Request variables store data about the processing of one page request. Request variables store data
in a structure that can be passed to nested tags, such as custom tags, and processed once.
To provide information to nested tags, set a Request variable, as follows:
<CFSET Request.field_name1 = "value">
<CFSET Request.field_name2 = "value">
<CFSET Request.field_name3 = "value">
...
Each nested tag can access the variable with the cfoutput tag, as follows:
<CFOUTPUT>#Request.field_name1#</CFOUTPUT>
Form variable
ColdFusion supports the Form variable FieldNames. FieldNames returns the names of the fields
on a form. You use it on the action page associated with a form, as follows:
Form.FieldNames
ColdFusion tag-specific variables
Some ColdFusion tags return data as variables. For example, the cffile tag returns file size
information in the FileSize variable, referenced as CFFILE.FileSize.
The following tags return data that can be referenced in variables:
cfcatch
cfdirectory
cferror
cffile
cfftp