CFML Reference
ColdFusion Tags

cffile action = "read"

Description

Reads a text file on the server. The file is read into a dynamic, local parameter that you can use in the page. For example:

• Read a text file; insert the file's contents into a database
• Read a text file; use the find and replace function to modify the file's contents

Note:   This action reads the file into a variable in the local Variables scope. It is not intended for use with large files, such as logs, because this can bring down the server.

Syntax

<cffile 
  action = "read" 
  file = "full_path_name"
  variable = "var_name"
  charset = "charset_option" > 

See also

cfdirectory

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 Windows, use backward slashes; on UNIX, use forward slashes.
variable	Required		Name of variable to contain contents of text file.
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

Usage

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.

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