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Asked: 2026-06-05T15:24:00+00:00

I have a Coldfusion8 page, in which I’m declaring some variables upfront like so:

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I have a Coldfusion8 page, in which I’m declaring some variables upfront like so:

<cfif (structKeyExists(url,"extern"))>
    <cfset variables.someVar = "value">
<cfelse>
    <cfset variables.someVar = "">
</cfif>

Following this I have a number of templates, which I’m loading:

<cfinclude template="templates/tmp_pagetop.cfm">
<cfoutput><head></cfoutput>
<cfinclude template="templates/tmp_pageheader.cfm">
...

I’m having trouble accessing my variables.someVar inside my template.

Question:
Is this at all possible using the variables scope? I don’t want to use session or application scope, because the variables I’m dealing with should actually only exist in the respective page. But I thought it would be possible to declare once in the page and reference throughout the templates. If I can’t use variables, is there another way?

EDIT:
First up, thanks for all the feedback!

When I started using SO, I usually put up questions like below, but ended up cutting down to the bare minimum, as I usually didn’t get an answer on thourough questions… pity… I guess I may be leaving too much away 🙂

So, if anyone wants to take a look, I have a page called search.cfm. This page is a shell page into which I’m loading different layouts through AJAX and/or templates. Specific case was the search form loaded via AJAX.

So this is 3 parts:

1) search.cfm Here I’m checking Session.extern(al) for local instances of the page. If it’s a local instance I grab the users variabels A,B,C which I had hoped to access when loading in the search form template.

<cfif (structKeyExists(url,"extern"))>
    <!--- preload external user data  --->
    <cfstoredproc procedure="proc_select_extern" datasource="dtb">
        <cfprocparam type="in" value="#Session.extern#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" maxlength="13">
        <cfprocresult name="external_user">
    </cfstoredproc>

    <!--- set external variables --->
    <cfif external_user.recordcount eq 1>
        <cfoutput query="external_user">
            <cfscript>
            // CULPRIT string
            variables.user_modules = external_user.modules;
            </cfscript>
        </cfoutput>
    <cfelse>
    <!--- remove unknown URL params --->
        <cfset StructDelete(Session, "Extern")>
    </cfif> 
</cfif>

Then in my app.js I’m listening for the (Jquery-Mobile) pagebeforeshow event and load the respective form into the page via AJAX: 

$(document).on('pagebeforeshow', '#search' , function(e, data) {
    // load main search form
    if ( $(this).attr('val') != true ) {
        $(this).attr('val') == true;
        // here I'm calling the default search form
        ajaxUpdate( "../layouts/tmp_searcher.cfm", $('.searchFromWrapper'), "search", "default", "search" );
        }
....
var ajaxUpdate = 
    function update( from, target, param, account, bindings ) {
        $.mobile.loading( 'show' );
        $.ajax({
            async: true, type: 'GET', returnFormat: 'json', 
            data: { value: param, type:  account },
            url: from, timeout: 7500,
            success: function(data) {
                var makeUp = !$.support.touch ? data.replace("<select", "<select data-native-menu='false' ") : data;
                target.addClass('.fade.out')
                    .html( makeUp ) 
                        ...
                });

The tmp_searcher.cfm template being loaded contains all search form variants. On initial load I’m grabbing the basic or external(userID) based one.

It’s inside tmp_searcher.cfm, where I cannot access variables.XXX anymore… same as URL from my earlier question…. Oh well, writing it down it sort of makes sense, why it’s not working 😉

I spare you the details, first line in tmp_searcher.cfm is: 

<cfdump output="D:\ColdFusion8\logs\dump.txt" label="catch" var="#variables.user_module#">

Which dumps nothing and (@Leigh) throws an error:

Element USER_MODULE is undefined in VARIABLES

So, my question should have been:

Is there a way for Coldfusion variables to persist through AJAX calls, if the content is on the same page and I’m not wanting to use Session or Application Scope?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You can use the request scope. That will let you access any variables in the request, including the templates.

    But the way I use to do it was to use cfimport with a prefix like.. “ui”

    <cfimport taglib="templates" prefix="ui">
<ui:tmp_pagetop heyLookAVar="#myvar# >

    Then inside your template you have access to attributes.heyLookAVar

    You can get really fancy and detect if the template calling tag is ending or beginning… then you only need one 

    <ui:page>
   my page
</ui:page>
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