asked on

How do I display coldfusion and html that I am pulling out of a database query?

I am attempting to create a template of a html table that also has #coldfusion# #variables# inside the table and i have stored the code into a collumn in a sql table.

When i go to access the data on a .cfm page:
<cfquery....name="getcontent">
Select content from tablename
</cfquery
<cfset table = "#getcontent.content#">

<body>
<cfoutput>#table#</cfoutput>
</body>
</html>

This concept seems to work it displays the data fine accept for the coldfusion variables which are in cfoutputs in the table.

Here is whats in the database as table:

<table width="785" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
      <tr>
      <td><cfoutput><img src="#banner#.jpg" width="785" height="187"></cfoutput></td>
      </tr>
      <tr> ...........
</table>

I need to know how to call the variable #table# and use the contant as html and be able to output within the content as show above.

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

azadisaryev

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SRIKANTH MADISHETTI

First thing remove <cfset table = "#getcontent.content#">

remove # in cfset you don't need them

second thing don't put double quotes here

<table width="785"

just write this as <table width=785 border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center>
<tr>
<td><cfoutput><img src=#banner#.jpg width=785 height=187></cfoutput></td>
</tr>

</table>

Third thing

Where are you declaring banner

you are printing banner isn't it ? where are you setting the value for banner.

LeadCo

ASKER

AZADI - that works however I would like to be able to process the content without writing a new file to the directory every time the page loads, It is a high traffic page and I am afraid this could cause performance issues with never ending rewrites of the same page. Is there another way?

SS

azadisaryev

writing a file and cfincluding it is the most effective, efficient and elegant way to do it.

you can try using tokens instead of cf variables in the content stored in your db and then parsing strings and raplacing tokens with variables values and doing all sorts of other string manipulation, but you will only find that it's gonna be slower, involve heaps of code, and error-prone.

there's been a recent thread on the same subject on adobe cf forums - the Advanced Techniques one - have a look (sorry, the forums won;t load now, so can't get a link for you. but the thread subject is "Variable within variable?")

you can try something like <cfoutput>#evaluate(getcontent.content)#</cfoutput> but you'll likely find out that it does not work...

Azadi

gdemaria

I have a situation like this... I allow the user to create their own email messages for notifications. But there are certain values that they will want to populate automatically. For example, if writing a notice that an order has shipped, the user may want to include some values that vary each email such as the order number, the ship date and the person's name. So I give them a set of "variables" to use and swap in the values.

Dear @firstName@,

Your order number @orderNumber@ shipped on @shipDate@. Blah Blah...

I simply do a replaceNoCase() on the email body with the values of the variables that I pull from the database. I think it works really well. I give them a preview screen so they can see if the variables don't get replaced (perhaps because of a type-o).

azadisaryev

if all you have in your text are cf variables and NO cfml (cf tags or functions), then try this:

<cfoutput>#evaluate(de(getcontent.content))#</cfoutput>

Azadi

gdemaria

One of the advantages of not using confusion variables is that the user cannot accidenlty (or on purpose) enter any other variable that you don't want them to display that happens to be used on the page (datasource, credit card number, email, phone...)

Of course this assumes that you are having your user input the variables, like in the situation with the mailing I ddescribed above. If your application is different and the user does not touch the information, this may not be relevant.

LeadCo

ASKER

Thanks!

gdemaria

Leadco, I am curious how you are solving this. From your comment above, you are writing to a file every time the page loads, which means multiple users could be writing simultaneously. You have to have unique file names for each user or get locked file issues, and of course, you need to clean up all those files...

Unless the file is not user specific, in which case you could keep one file name and write it only periodically, say once every hour.