CF Data Source Name

The data source name (DSN) that ColdFusion uses to connect to the data source.

Database

The database to which this data source connects.

Server

The name of the server that hosts the database that you want to use. If the database is local, enclose the word local in parentheses. If you are running SQL Server locally (or using MSDE), specify 127.0.0.1 for the

server name instead of the actual instance name.

Port

The number of the TCP/IP port that the server monitors for connections.

Username

The user name that ColdFusion passes to the JDBC driver to connect to the data source if a ColdFusion application does not supply a user name (for example, in a cfquery tag).

Password

The password that ColdFusion passes to the JDBC driver to connect to the data source if a ColdFusion application does not supply a password (for example, in a cfquery tag).

Description

(Optional) A description for this connection.

Connection String

A field that passes database-specific parameters, such as login credentials, to the data source.

Select Method

Determines whether server cursors are used for SQL queries.

• The Direct method provides more efficient retrieval of data when you retrieve record sets in a forward-only direction and you limit your SQL Server connection to a single open SQL statement at a time. This is typical for ColdFusion applications.
• The Cursor method lets you have multiple open SQL statements on a connection. This is not typical for ColdFusion applications, unless you use pooled statements.

Limit Connections

Specifies whether ColdFusion limits the number of database connections for the data source. If you enable this option, use the Restrict Connections To field to specify the maximum.

Restrict Connections To

Specifies the maximum number of database connections for the data source. To use this restriction, you must enable the Limit Connections option.

Maintain Connections

ColdFusion establishes a connection to a data source for every operation that requires one. Enable this option to improve performance by caching the data source connection.

String Format

Enable this option if your application uses Unicode data in DBMS-specific Unicode datatypes, such as National Character or nchar.

Max Pooled Statements

Enables reuse of prepared statements (that is, stored procedures and queries that use the cfqueryparam tag). Although you tune this setting based on your application, start by setting it to the sum of the following:

• Unique cfquery tags that use the cfqueryparam tag
• Unique cfstoredproc tags

Timeout (min)

The number of minutes that ColdFusion MX maintains an unused connection before destroying it.

Interval (min)

The time (in minutes) that the server waits between cycles to check for expired data source connections to close.

Disable Connections

If selected, suspends all client connections.

Login Timeout (sec)

The number of seconds before ColdFusion times out the data source connection login attempt.

CLOB

Select to return the entire contents of any CLOB/Text columns in the database for this data source. If not selected, ColdFusion retrieves the number of characters specified in the Long Text Buffer setting.

BLOB

Select to return the entire contents of any BLOB/ Image columns in the database for this data source. If not selected, ColdFusion retrieves the number of characters specified in the BLOB Buffer setting.

LongText Buffer

The default buffer size, used if Enable Long Text Retrieval (CLOB) is not selected. The default value is 64000 bytes.

BLOB Buffer

The default buffer size, used if the BLOB option is not selected. The default value is 64000 bytes.

Allowed SQL

The SQL operations that can interact with the current data source.

Validation query

Called when a connection from the pool is resued. This can slow query response time because an additional query is generated. You should specify this just before restarting the database to verify all connections, but remove the validation query after restarting the database to avoid any performance loss.