Programming ColdFusion

Chapter 3. Passing Data Between Templates

While web applications might seem to be all about individual web pages, it is the passing of data between pages that is key to making an application work. You need to be able to pass data between ColdFusion templates for any form of interactivity. For example, if the user fills out an online form requesting additional information about a product, your application needs a mechanism for passing the data entered in the form fields to another page that is capable of taking that data and acting on it. Likewise, if the user clicks on a hyperlink that initiates a parameter-driven query, the application needs a way to pass the parameters that make up the choice to the next template in the application for processing.

There are three methods for passing data between application templates in ColdFusion. You can pass data in the form of URL parameters, by posting it as form-field variables, or you can pass data via persistent variables. This section covers the first two methods of passing data between application templates. The use of persistent variables is covered at length in Chapter 7.

Passing Parameters via URL

One way to pass data from one template to the next is through hyperlinks containing special URL parameters. The HTTP specification allows you to append parameters to the end of a URL in the format:

            filename.cfm?param1=value1&param2=value2&param3=value3

The question mark immediately following the extension of the template in the URL ...