Application variables

The This scope for the Application.cfc contains several built-in variables, which correspond to the attributes that you set in the cfapplication tag. You set the values of these variables in the CFC initialization code, before you define the CFC methods. You can access the variables in any method.

Note: Although Windows is case-insensitive, you must always start the Application.cfc filename with an uppercase A. Both application.cfc and Application.cfc are reserved words.
Note: If your application has an Application.cfc, and an Application.cfm or onRequestend.cfm page, ColdFusion ignores the CFM pages

The following table briefly describes the variables that you can set to control the application behavior. For more details, see the cfapplication tag.

Variable

Default

Description

name

no name

The application name. If you do not set this variable, or set it to the empty string, your CFC applies to the unnamed application scope, which is the ColdFusion J2EE servlet context. For more information on unnamed scopes see Integrating JSP and servlets in a ColdFusion application in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

applicationTimeout

Administrator value

Life span, as a real number of days, of the application, including all Application scope variables. Use the CFML CreateTimeSpan function to generate this variable’s value.

clientManagement

Administrator value

Whether the application supports Client scope variables.

clientStorage

Administrator value

Where Client variables are stored; can be cookie, registry, or the name of a data source.

customtagpaths

Administrator value

Contains ColdFusion custom tag paths.

To use this variable, set the custom tag path in the Administrator Extensions > Custom Tag Paths page.

The settings that you define here take precedence over the custom tag paths defined in the Administrator Server Settings > Mappings page for the current application.

googleMapKey

 

The Google Maps API key required to embed Google Maps in your web pages.

datasource

 

Name of the data source from which the query retrieves data.

loginStorage

cookie

Whether to store login information in the Cookie scope or the Session scope.

mappings

Administrator value

A structure that contains ColdFusion mappings. Each element in the structure consists of a key and a value. The logical path is the key and the absolute path is the value.

To use this variable, select the Enable Per App Settings option in the Administrator Server Settings > Settings page.

The mappings that you define here take precedence over the mappings defined in the Administrator Server Settings > Mappings page for the current application.

serverSideFormValidation

yes

Whether to enable validation on cfform fields when the form is submitted.

sessionManagement

no

Whether the application supports Session scope variables.

sessionTimeout

Administrator value

Life span, as a real number of days, of the user session, including all Session variables. Use the CFML CreateTimeSpan function to generate this variable’s value.

setClientCookies

True

Whether to send CFID and CFTOKEN cookies to the client browser.

setDomainCookies

False

Whether to set CFID and CFTOKEN cookies for a domain (not just a host).

scriptProtect

Administrator value

Whether to protect variables from

cross-site scripting attacks.

secureJSON

Administrator value

A Boolean value that specifies whether to add a security prefix in front of the value that a ColdFusion function returns in JSON-format in response to a remote call.

The default value is the value of the Prefix serialized JSON setting in the Administrator Server Settings > Settings page (which defaults to false). You can override this value in the cffunction tag.

For more information see Improving security in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

secureJSONPrefix

Administrator value

The security prefix to put in front of the value that a ColdFusion function returns in JSON-format in response to a remote call if the secureJSON setting is true.

The default value is the value of the Prefix serialized JSON setting in the Administrator Server Settings > Settings page (which defaults to //, the JavaScript comment character).

For more information see Improving security in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

welcomeFileList

 

A comma-delimited list of names of files. Tells ColdFusion not to call the onMissingTemplate method if the files are not found. Use this variable to prevent ColdFusion from invoking the onMissingTemplate handler if all of the following items are true:

  • Your web server (for example, web.xml file) has a welcome file list with CFML pages such as index.cfm that it tries to run if a URL specifies a path ending in a directory.

  • The web server sends a request for CFML pages the welcome list to ColdFusion without first determining if the page exists.

  • You want to support directory browsing in directories that do not have any of the files on the welcome file list.

You specify this variable only if the Application.cfc file also specifies an onMissingTemplate handler. It must have the same list of files as your web.xml welcome file list.

Note: You do not need to use the welcomeFileList variable with most "pure" web servers, such as Apache. The welcomeFileList variable has to be used with most integrated web and application servers, such as the integrated ColdFusion/JRun web server.

smtpServersettings

 

A struct that contains the following values: server, username, and password.If no value is specified, takes the value in the administrator.

timeout

 

The lifespan.

Timeout set using <cfsettng requesttimeout=""> overrides the timeout in the Application.cfc using this.timeout="".

debugipaddress

 

A list of ip addresses that need debugging.

enablerobustexception

 

Overrides the default administrator settings. It does not report compile-time exceptions.