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cfftp: Connection: file and directory operations

Last updated on May 30, 2024 | Also applies to ColdFusion

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Cloud services

Description

To perform file and directory operations with cfftp, use this form of the cfftp tag.

Syntax

<cfftp 
action = "action"
ASCIIExtensionList = "extensions" 
connection = "connection name" 
directory = "directory name" 
existing = "file or directory name" 
failIfExists = "yes|no" 
item = "directory or file" 
localFile = "filename" 
name = "query name" 
new = "file or directory name" 
passive = "yes|no" 
password = "password" 
proxyServer = "proxy server" 
remoteFile = "filename" 
result = "result name" 
server = "server"
systemtype = "windows | unix"
timeout = "time-out in seconds" 
transferMode = "ASCII FTP|Binary FTP|Auto FTP" 
username = "name">

cfscript equivalent of the syntax

<cfscript> 
    cfftp(action="action", ASCIIExtensionList = "extensions", connection = "connection name", directory = "directory name", existing = "file or directory name", failIfExists = "yes|no", item = "directory or file", localFile = "filename", name = "query name", new = "file or directory name", passive = "yes|no", password = "password", proxyServer = "proxy server", remoteFile = "filename", result = "result name", server = "server", systemtype = "windows | unix", timeout = "time-out in seconds", transferMode = "ASCII FTP|Binary FTP|Auto FTP", username = "name") 
</cfscript>

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.

Attributes

Attribute	Req/Opt	Default	Description
action	Required if connection is not cached		FTP operation to perform: changedir createDir listDir removeDir getFile putFile rename remove getCurrentDir getCurrentURL existsDir existsFile exists
ASCIIExtensionList	Optional	txt;htm;html; cfm;cfml;shtm; shtml;css;asp;asa	Delimited list of file extensions that force ASCII transfer mode, if transferMode = "auto".
connection	Required if action = "open" or "closed"		The name of the FTP connection.Used to cache a new FTP connection or to reuse an existing connection.
directory	Required if action = "changedir", "createDir", "listDir", or "existsDir"		Directory on which to perform an operation.
existing	Required if action = "rename"		Current name of the file or directory on the remote server.
failIfExists	Optional	yes	yes: If a local file with same name exists, the getFile action fails. no
item	Required if action = "exists" or "remove"		Object of these actions: file or directory.
localFile	Required if action = "getFile" or "putFile"		Name of the file on the local file system. For more information, see Usage.
name	Required if action = "listDir"		Query name of directory listing.
new	Required if action = "rename"		New name of file or directory on the remote server.
passive	Optional	no	yes: enables passive mode. no
password	Required if action = "open"		Password to log in the user.
proxyServer	Optional		String. Name of the proxy servers to use, if proxy access is specified.
remoteFile	Required if action = "getFile", "putFile", or "existsFile"		Name of the file on the FTP server file system.
result	Optional		Specifies a name for the structure in which cfftp stores the returnValue variable. If set, this value replaces cfftp as the prefix to use when accessing returnVariable. For more information, see Usage.
server	Required if FTP connection is not cached		FTP server to which to connect; for example, ftp.myserver.com.
systemType	Optional		Possible values for the attribute are: Windows: If specified, CFFTP treats the response as Windows-style directory listing. Unix: If specified, CFFTP treats the response as Unix-Style directory listing.
timeout	Optional	30 seconds	The length of time, in seconds, that ColdFusion waits for a response from the FTP server.Used with action = "open" for a cached connection.
transferMode	Optional	auto	ASCII FTP transfer mode Binary FTP transfer mode Auto FTP transfer mode
username	Required if connection is not cached		User name to pass in the FTP operation.

Usage

If you use connection caching to an active FTP connection, you do not have to respecify the username, password, or server connection attributes.Changing a cached connection, such as changing retryCount or timeout values, might require reestablishing the connection. If action = "listDir", the attributes column returns directory or normal. Other platform-specific values, such as hidden and system, are no longer supported.
If action = "listDir", a mode column is returned. The column contains an octal string representation of UNIX permissions; for example, "777."The cfftp.returnValue variable provides the return value for these actions:

getCurrentDir
getCurrentURL
existsDir
existsFile
exists
For more information, see the Developing ColdFusion Applications.
For more information, see the section Performing file operations with cfftp in Developing ColdFusion Applications.

localFile attribute

Use the following syntax to specify an in-memory file, which is not written to disk, as the local file. In-memory files speed processing of transient data.

ram:///filepath

The filepath can include directories, for example ram:///petStore/images/poodle.jpg. Create the directories in the path before you specify the file. For more information on using in-memory files, see Working with in-memory files in Optimizing ColdFusion applications in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

Action (cfftp.ReturnValue variable)

The results of an action determine the value of the returnValue variable, as the following table shows:

cfftp action	Value of cfftp.returnValue
getCurrentDir	String. Current directory.
getCurrentURL	String. Current URL.
existsDir	yes or no.
existsFile	yes or no.
exists	yes or no.

To access the returnValue variable, you must prefix it with either cfftp or the value specified by the result attribute, if it is set. The result attribute provides a way for cfftp calls from multiple pages, possibly at the same time, to avoid overwriting the results of one with another. If you set the result attribute to myResult, for example, you would access the returnVariable variable as myResult.returnVariable. Otherwise, you would access it as cfftp.returnVariable.

Example

The following example opens a connection and gets a file that lists file or directory name, path, URL, length, and modification date:

<p>Open a connection 
<cfftp connection = "myConnection" 
username = "myUserName" 
password = "myUserName@allaire.com" 
server = "ftp.allaire.com" 
action = "open" 
stopOnError = "Yes"> 

<p>Did it succeed? <cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput> 
<cfftp connection = "myConnection" 
action = "LISTDIR" 
stopOnError = "Yes" 
name = "ListDirs" 
directory = "/"> 

<p>FTP Directory Listing:<br> 
<cftable query = "ListDirs" HTMLTable = "Yes" colHeaders = "Yes"> 
<cfcol header = "<b>Name</b>" text = "#name#"> 
<cfcol header = "<b>Path</b>" text = "#path#"> 
<cfcol header = "<b>URL</b>" text = "#url#"> 
<cfcol header = "<b>Length</b>" text = "#length#"> 
<cfcol header = "<b>LastModified</b>" 
text = "#DateFormat(lastmodified)#"> 
<cfcol header = "<b>IsDirectory</b>" text = "#isdirectory#"> 
</cftable> 

<p>Move Image File to Remote Server:<br></p> 
<!--- The image will be put into the root directory of the FTP server unless 
otherwise noted, i.e., remoteFile = "somewhere_put.jpg" vs remoteFile = "/support/somewhere_put.jpg" 
---> 
<cfftp 
connection = "myConnection" 
action = "putFile" 
name = "uploadFile" 
transferMode = "binary" 
localFile = "C:\files\upload\somewhere.jpg" 
remoteFile = "somewhere_put.jpg"> 
<p>Did it succeed? <cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput> 

<p>Close the connection: 
<cfftp connection = "myConnection" 
action = "close" 
stopOnError = "Yes"> 
<p>Did it succeed? <cfoutput>#cfftp.succeeded#</cfoutput>

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