cffile action = "upload"

Description

Copies a file to a directory on the server.

Syntax

<cffile  
    action = "upload" 
    destination = "full pathname" 
    fileField = "form field" 
    accept = "MIME type|file type" 
    attributes = "file attribute or list" 
    mode = "permission" 
    nameConflict = "behavior" 
    result = "result name">
Note: You can specify this tag’s attributes in an attributeCollection attribute whose value is a structure. Specify the structure name in the attributeCollection attribute and use the tag’s attribute names as structure keys.

See also

cfdirectory

History

See the History section of the main cffile tag page.

Attributes

Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

action

Required

Type of file manipulation that the tag performs.

destination

Required

Pathname of directory in which to upload the file. 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.

If the destination you specify does not exist, ColdFusion creates a file with the specified destination name. For example, if you specify the destination, C:\XYZ, ColdFusion creates a file XYZ in the C: drive.

fileField

Required

Name of form field used to select the file.

Do not use number signs (#) to specify the field name.

accept

Optional

Limits the MIME types to accept. Comma-delimited list. For example, the following code permits JPEG and Microsoft Word file uploads:

accept="image/jpg, application/msword"

The browser uses the file extension to determine file type.

attributes

Optional

Applies to Windows. A comma-delimited list of attributes 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 (if you use this option with other attributes, it is overridden by them)

mode

Optional

Applies only to UNIX and Linux. Permissions. Octal values of 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.

nameConflict

Optional

Error

Action to take if filename is the same as that of a file in the directory.

  • Error: file is not saved. ColdFusion stops processing the page and returns an error.

  • Skip: file is not saved. This option permits custom behavior based on file properties.

  • Overwrite: replaces file.

  • MakeUnique: forms a unique filename for the upload; name is stored in the file object variable serverFile.

result

Optional

Lets you specify a name for the variable in which cffile returns the result (or status) parameters. If you do not specify a value for this attribute, cffile uses the prefix cffile. For more information, see Usage.

Usage

After a file upload is completed, you can get status information using file upload parameters. To refer to parameters, use either the cffile prefix or, if you specified an alternate name in the result attribute, the name you specified there. For example, if you did not specify a name in the result attribute, access the fileExisted parameter as #cffile.fileExisted#. If you set the result attribute to myResult, however, access fileExisted as #myResult.fileExisted#.

Status parameters can be used anywhere that other ColdFusion parameters can be used.

When you use a cfform tag or an HTML form tag to submit the form with the file to be uploaded, specify enctype="multipart/form-data" in the tag, as shown in the example for this tag. By default, ColdFusion MX 7 sends the form with the encoding type of application/x-www-form-urlencoded, which causes an error in the cffile tag.

The result attribute allows functions or CFCs that get called from multiple pages at the same time to avoid overwriting the results of one call with another.
Note: The file prefix is deprecated, in favor of the cffile prefix. Do not use the file prefix in new applications.
If your page is uploading a file that was selected on a form or was otherwise sent to your page via a multipart/form-data HTTP message, you can determine the approximate size of the file by checking the value of the CGI.content_length variable. This variable includes the file length plus the length of any other request content.

The following file upload status parameters are available after an upload:

Parameter

Description

attemptedServerFile

Initial name ColdFusion used when attempting to save a file

clientDirectory

Directory location of the file uploaded from the client’s system

clientFile

Name of the file uploaded from the client’s system

clientFileExt

Extension of the uploaded file on the client system (without a period)

clientFileName

Name of the uploaded file on the client system (without an extension)

contentSubType

MIME content subtype of the saved file

contentType

MIME content type of the saved file

dateLastAccessed

Date and time the uploaded file was last accessed

fileExisted

Whether the file existed with the same path (yes or no)

fileSize

Size of the uploaded file

fileWasAppended

Whether ColdFusion appended uploaded file to a file (yes or no)

fileWasOverwritten

Whether ColdFusion overwrote a file (yes or no)

fileWasRenamed

Whether uploaded file renamed to avoid a name conflict (yes or no)

fileWasSaved

Whether ColdFusion saves a file (yes or no)

oldFileSize

Size of a file that was overwritten in the file upload operation

serverDirectory

Directory of the file saved on the server

serverFile

Filename of the file saved on the server

serverFileExt

Extension of the uploaded file on the server (without a period)

serverFileName

Name of the uploaded file on the server (without an extension)

timeCreated

Time the uploaded file was created

timeLastModified

Date and time of the last modification to the uploaded file
Note: File status parameters are read-only. They are set to the results of the most recent cffile operation. If two cffile tags execute, the results of the second overwrite the first, unless you have specified a different result variable in the result attribute.

Example

The following example creates a unique filename, if there is a name conflict when the file is uploaded on Windows: 

<!--- Windows Example ---> 
<!--- Check to see if the Form variable exists. ---> 
<cfif isDefined("Form.FileContents") > 
    <!--- If TRUE, upload the file. ---> 
    <cffile action = "upload"  
        fileField = "FileContents"  
        destination = "c:\files\upload\"  
        accept = "text/html"  
        nameConflict = "MakeUnique"> 
<cfelse> 
    <!--- If FALSE, show the Form. ---> 
    <form method="post" action=<cfoutput>#cgi.script_name#</cfoutput>  
        name="uploadForm" enctype="multipart/form-data"> 
        <input name="FileContents" type="file"> 
        <br> 
        <input name="submit" type="submit" value="Upload File">  
    </form> 
</cfif>