Application variables

The scope for the Application.cfc file 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.

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

Assume that the form fields have same name. In this case, ColdFusion converts the form fields as an array instead of a list.To do this, in the Application.cfc, specify the following: this.sameformfieldsasarray = "true".The default value is false.

Enhancements made in ColdFusion (2021 release)

this.timeZone

There is a new flag, this.timeZone, which you can set it to any valid time zone. After setting the time zone, if you execute any date/time function, the time zone returned will be the same as set in Application.cfc. For example,

Application.cfc

component {

    this.timeZone="US/Pacific"

}

timezone.cfm

<cfscript>

    writeOutput("The time at the configured time zone is: " & now())

</cfscript>

MongoDb settings

AWS Cloud Features (SQS, SNS, S3, DynamoDB)

SAML

Manual Configuration

Using File location of IDP metadata

Using URL

Add SP using Application.cfc

Azure Blob credentials

Azure Blob configuration

Enhancements made in ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 9 and ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 15

Added the followinng flags:

• this.sessioncookie.samesite = "Strict | Lax | None"
  
• this.authcookie.samesite= "Strict | Lax | None"

Application.cfc

component {

                this.name = "MyApp";

                this.sessioncookie.samesite = "Strict";

                this.authcookie.samesite = "Lax";

                this.sessionmanagement = true;

}

Enhancements made in ColdFusion (2018 release) Update 3, ColdFusion (2016 release) Update 10, and ColdFusion 11 Update 18

blockedExtForFileUpload to specify a comma-separated list of file extensions for file that must be blocked for uploading.

For example,

The setting blockedExtForFileUpload only applies to the following tags and functions:

• cffile action="upload"
• cffile action="uploadall"
• FileUpload
• FileUploadAll

You can use "*" (star) to block all files or use "" (empty string) to allow all extensions.

If you are trying to upload a file using the  cffile tag and you want to override the blocked file extensions defined at the server level, specify the extensions. The list overrides the global settings.

For example, you have blocked the extensions,  " cfm , cfc , asp, aspx " in ColdFusion Administrator, but want to upload files of type aspx for your application, use the code below to override the global settings.

Enhancements made in ColdFusion (2018 release)

• enableNullSupport that specifies if you want to enable support for NULL variables.
• cache.engine to specify the type of cache engine to be used.

Enhancements made in ColdFusion (2016 release)

• serialization.structmetadata that defines the datatype for a struct key.
• There is a new application setting, searchImplicitScopes. When set to false, an un-scoped variable is not searched in implicit scopes.
• passArrayByReference setting, which when set to true, enables you to pass arrays by reference instead of value.

Enhancements made in ColdFusion 11

In ColdFusion 11, you can register application-specific datasources in Application.cfc. These datasources will be specific to that application and will not be available through the Administrator. If there is a name clash with a server-wide datasource, the one specific to the application will be given the priority. 

With a custom driver:

The following drivers are supported:

• MSSQLServer
• Oracle
• Sybase
• DB2
• Informix
• MySQL_DD
• PostgreSQL
• MSAccess
• Apache Derby Embedded

• Apache Derby Client

• MySQL5

• ODBCSocket

• Other (for custom driver)

Use this.datasources as shown in the examples below.

Enhancements made in ColdFusion 9.0.1

Application.cfc lets you specify data source authentication details for the data source. The data source settings can now be a string or a struct. When string, it is considered to be the data source name and authentication information is taken from the data source defined in the ColdFusion Administrator.
You can specify the authentication information using a struct value for data source. The following are the key names:

• name: data source name
• username: Username for the data source

• password: Password for the data source
  Example

  <this.datasource={name='cfartgallery', username="user", password="passwd"}>

  or

  <this.datasource="cfartgallery">

  Note: The same convention is used for ORM default data source where you can specify the data source authentication information in the ormsettings.

  The following application-specific attributes have been added for Amazon S3 integration:

• accessKeyId: ID for Amazon S3 account.
• awsSecretKey: Secret key for S3 account.

• defaultLocation:}}The default location of Amazon S3 bucket creation. A bucket on S3 storage can be in one of the following regions: {{US, EU, or US-WEST.The defaultLocation provided in the Application.cfc defines the default location for the bucket that you create. The default value is US.
  Example

  this.s3.accessKeyId = "key_ID"; this.s3.awsSecretKey = "secret_key"; this.s3.defaultLocation="location"; </cfscript>

Application-specific In-memory file system

You can use in-memory file system specific to applications. This enables application isolation for your virtual file system. That is, the file created in the in-memory file system by one application will not be accessible to another application.
The settings can be specified in the Application.cfc as follows: