cffile action = "write"

Description

Writes a text file on the server, based on dynamic content. You can create static HTML files from the content, or log actions in a text file.

Syntax

<cffile 
  action = "write" 
  file = "full_path_name"
  output = "content"
  mode = "permission"
  addNewLine = "Yes" or "No"
  attributes = "file_attributes_list"
  charset = "charset_option" >

History

New in ColdFusion MX: on Windows platforms, the attributes attribute values temporary, archive, and system are deprecated. Do not use them in new applications. They might not work, and might cause an error, in later releases.

New in ColdFusion MX: this action attribute option supports the charset attribute.

Attributes

Attribute Req/Opt Default Description

action
Required

Type of file manipulation that the tag performs.

file
Required

Absolute pathname of file on web server.
On Windows, use backward slashes; on UNIX, use forward slashes.

output
Required

Content of the file to be created.

mode
Optional

Applies only to Solaris and HP-UX. Permissions. Octal values of Unix chmod command. Assigned to owner, group, and other, respectively. For example:

644: Assigns read/write permission to owner; read permission to group and other

777: Assigns read/write/execute permission to all

addNewLine
Optional
Yes

Yes: appends newline character to text written to file

No

attributes
Optional

One attribute (Windows) or a comma-delimited list of attributes (other platforms) to set on the file.
If omitted, the file's attributes are maintained.
Each value must be specified explicitly. For example, if you specify attributes = "readOnly", all other attributes are overwritten.

readOnly

hidden

normal

charset
Optional
UTF-8
The Java character set name used for the file contents.
The following values are typically used:

UTF-8

ISO-8859-1

UTF-16

US-ASCII

UTF-16BE

UTF-16LE

For a list of character sets, see:
http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset-lang.html

Attribute	Req/Opt	Default	Description
action	Required		Type of file manipulation that the tag performs.
file	Required		Absolute pathname of file on web server. On Windows, use backward slashes; on UNIX, use forward slashes.
output	Required		Content of the file to be created.
mode	Optional		Applies only to Solaris and HP-UX. Permissions. Octal values of Unix chmod command. Assigned to owner, group, and other, respectively. For example: 644: Assigns read/write permission to owner; read permission to group and other 777: Assigns read/write/execute permission to all
addNewLine	Optional	Yes	Yes: appends newline character to text written to file No
attributes	Optional		One attribute (Windows) or a comma-delimited list of attributes (other platforms) to set on the file. If omitted, the file's attributes are maintained. Each value must be specified explicitly. For example, if you specify `attributes = "readOnly"`, all other attributes are overwritten. readOnly hidden normal
charset	Optional	UTF-8	The Java character set name used for the file contents. The following values are typically used: UTF-8 ISO-8859-1 UTF-16 US-ASCII UTF-16BE UTF-16LE For a list of character sets, see: http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset-lang.html

Example

This example creates a file with information a user entered in an HTML insert form:

<cffile action = "write"

  file = "c:\files\updates\#Form.UpdateTitle#.txt" 
  output = "Created By: #Form.FullName# 
  Date: #Form.Date# 
  #Form.Content#">

If the user submitted a form with the following:

UpdateTitle = "FieldWork"

FullName = "World B. Frueh" 
Date = "10/30/01" 
Content = "We had a wonderful time in Cambridgeport."

ColdFusion would create a file named FieldWork.txt in the c:\files\updates\ directory and the file would contain the following text:

Created By: World B. Frueh

Date: 10/30/01 
We had a wonderful time in Cambridgeport.

This example shows the use of the mode attribute for UNIX. It creates the file /tmp/foo with permissions rw-r--r-- (owner = read/write, group = read, other = read):

<cffile action = "write"

  file = "/tmp/foo" 
mode = 644>

This example appends to the file and sets permissions to read/write (rw) for all:

<cffile action = "append"

  destination = "/home/tomj/testing.txt" 
mode = 666 
output = "Is this a test?">

This example uploads a file and gives it the permissions owner/group/other = read/write/execute):

cffile action = "upload"

  fileField = "fieldname" 
destination = "/tmp/program.exe" 
mode = 777>