cfdump

Description

Use the cfdump tag to get the elements, variables, and values of most kinds of ColdFusion objects. Useful for debugging. You can display the contents of simple and complex variables, objects, components, user-defined functions, and other elements. The cfdump now shows component properties defined by cfproperty when you dump a CFC. A new key called PROPERTIES has been added in the component dump, which is expanded, by default. The text format of cfdump also provides this information.

Category

Debugging tags, Variable manipulation tags

Syntax

<cfdump  
    var = "#variable#" 
    expand = "yes|no"  
    format = "text|html" 
    hide = "columns|keys" 
    keys = "number of keys to display for structures" 
    label = "text" 
    metainfo = yes|no" 
    output = "browser|console|file" 
    show = "columns|keys" 
    showUDFs = "yes|no" 
    top = "number of rows|number of levels" 
    abort = "true|false">
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

cfcookie, cfparam, cfsavecontent, cfschedule, cfset, cftimer, cfwddx

History

  • ColdFusion 8: Added the show, format, hide, keys, metainfo, output, and showUDFs attributes.

  • ColdFusion MX 7: Added the top attribute.

  • ColdFusion MX 6.1: Added the ability to dump COM objects; it displays the methods and Get and Put properties typeinfo information for the object.

Attributes

Attribute

Req/Opt

Default

Description

var

Required

Variable to display. Enclose a variable name in number signs.

These kinds of variables yield meaningful cfdump output:

  • array

  • CFC

  • COM object

  • file object

  • Java object

  • simple

  • query

  • structure

  • UDF

  • wddx

  • xml

expand

Optional

yes

  • yes: in Internet Explorer and Mozilla, expands views.

  • no: contracts expanded views.

format

Optional

text

Use with the output attribute to specify whether to save the results of a cfdump to a file in text or HTML format.

hide

Optional

all

For a query, this is a column name or a comma-delimited list of column names. For a structure, this is a key or a comma-delimited list of keys.

If you specify a structure element that doesn’t exist, ColdFusion ignores it and does not generate an error.

keys

Optional

9999

For a structure, the number of keys to display.

label

Optional

A string; header for the dump output. Ignored if the value of the var attribute is a simple types.

metainfo

Optional

no

For use with queries only. Includes information about the query in the cfdump results, including whether the query was cached, the execution time, and the SQL. Specify metainfo="no" to exclude this information from the query result.

output

Optional

browser

Where to send the results of cfdump. The following values are valid:

  • browser

  • console

  • filename

The filename must include the full pathname of the file. You can specify an absolute path, or a path that is relative to the ColdFusion temporary directory. You can use the GetTempDirectory() function to determine the ColdFusion temporary directory.

show

Optional

all

For a query, this is a column name or a comma-delimited list of column names. For a structure, this is a key or a comma-delimited list of keys.

showUDFs

Optional

yes

  • yes: includes UDFs, with the methods collapsed.

  • no: excludes UDFs.

top

Optional

9999

The number of rows to display. For a structure, this is the number of nested levels to display.

abort

Optional

false

If this attribute is set to "true", it stops processing the current page at the tag location.

Usage

The expand/contract display capability is useful when working with large structures, such as XML document objects, structures, and arrays.

To display a construct, use code such as the following, in which myDoc is a variable of type XmlDocument:

<cfif IsXmlDoc(mydoc) is "yes"> 
    <cfdump var="#mydoc#"> 
</cfif>

The tag output is color-coded according to data type.

If a table cell is empty, this tag displays “[empty string]”.

Example

<!--- This example shows how to use this tag to display the CGI scope as a structure: ---> 
 
<cfdump var="#cgi#"><!--- This displays information about file objects. ---> 
<cfscript>  
myfile = FileOpen("c:\temp\test1.txt", "read"); 
</cfscript> 
myfile refers to: 
<cfdump var="#myfile.filepath#">