Reads a text file on the server. The file is read into a dynamic, local variable that you can use in the page. For example:
<cffile action = "read" file = "full pathname
" variable = "variable name
" charset = "character set option
">
See the History section of the main cffile tag page.
Attribute |
Req/Opt |
Default |
Description |
---|---|---|---|
action |
Required |
|
Type of file manipulation that the tag performs. |
file |
Required |
|
Pathname of the file to read. If not an absolute path (starting with a drive letter and a colon, or a forward or backward slash), it is relative to the ColdFusion temporary directory, which is returned by the GetTempDirectory function. |
variable |
Required |
|
Name of variable to contain contents of text file. |
charset |
Optional |
Character encoding identified by the file's byte order mark, if any; otherwise, JVM default file character set. |
The character encoding in which the file contents is encoded. The following list includes commonly used values:
If the file starts with a byte order mark and you set this attribute to a conflicting character encoding, ColdFusion generates an error. For more information character encodings, see www.w3.org/International/O-charset.html. |
The following example creates a variable named Message for the contents of the file message.txt:
<cffile action = "read" file = "c:\web\message.txt" variable = "Message">
The variable Message can be used in the page. For example, you could display the contents of the message.txt file in the final web page as follows:
<cfoutput>#Message#</cfoutput>
ColdFusion supports functions for manipulating the contents of text files. You can also use the variable that is created by a cffile action = "read" operation in the ArrayToList and ListToArray functions.