User Guide

Table Of Contents
1006 Chapter 41: Managing Files on the Server
Reviewing the code
The following table describes the code and its function:
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 Chapter 16, “Securing Applications,” on page 373
and Chapter 14, “Handling Errors,” on page 307.
Resolving conflicting filenames
When you save a file to the server, there is a risk that a file with the same name might already
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. Neither saves the file nor returns 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 1008.
Controlling the type of file uploaded
For some applications, you might want to restrict the type of file that is uploaded. For example,
you might not want to 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 files 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.
A files MIME type is determined by the browser. Common types, such as image/gif and text/
plain, are registered in the browser.
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.
nameConflict="overwrite"
If the file already 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
cffile scope
variables, see “Evaluating the results of a file upload”
on page 1008.