CFFILE ACTION = "READ" |
Description 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: 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
History See the History section of the main cffile tag page.
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.
Note: | If you use this tag to read a file that is encoded using the Windows Cp1252 (windows-1252) encoding of the Latin-1 character set on a system whose default character encoding is Cp1252, and the files has characters encoded in the Hex 8x or 9x range, you must specify charset="windows-1252" attribute, even though this is the default encoding. Otherwise, some characters in the Hex8x and 9x ranges that do not map correctly and display incorrectly.

ACTION |
| Required
Type of file manipulation that the tag performs.

FILE |
| Required
Pathname of the file to read. If not an absolute path (starting a 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
Default value: "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: utf-8 iso-8859-1 windows-1252 us-ascii shift_jis iso-2022-jp euc-jp euc-kr big5 euc-cn utf-16 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.