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cffileupload

Last update:
May 18, 2026
Note:
cffileupload's Flash component has been deprecated. For more information, see the list of Deprecated features.

Description

Displays a dialog for uploading multiple files from the user's system. The enhanced dialog includes the following features:
  • You can specify the maximum number of files and the maximum file size for the upload.
  • A progress bar to visually indicate the overall progress of the file upload task, and another progress bar to indicate the upload progress of each individual file.
  • A success or failure message appears for each file upload and the overall upload task.
  • At any point during the upload task, you can cancel the upload.

Category

File management tags, Forms tags

Syntax

<cffileupload>  
addbuttonlabel= "label"  
align = "center|left|right"  
bgcolor = "color"  
clearbuttonlabel = "label"  
deletebuttonlabel = "label"  
extensionfilter = "none|jpg,jpeg,png"  
height= "number of pixels"  
hideUploadButton = "true|false"  
maxfileselect = "number of files"  
maxuploadsize = "file size in mega bytes"  
name = "File uploader name"  
oncomplete = "JavaScript function name"  
onerror = "JavaScript function name"  
onUploadComplete = "JavaScript function name"  
progressbar = "true|false"  
stoponerror = "true|false"  
style = "style specification"  
title = "Title panel name"  
uploadbuttonlabel = "label"  
url = "URL"  
width = "number of pixels"  
wmode = "window|opaque|transparent"  
</cffileupload>

cfscript equivalent of the syntax

<cfscript> 
    cffileupload(addbuttonlabel= "label" , align = "center|left|right" , bgcolor = "color" , clearbuttonlabel = "label" , deletebuttonlabel = "label" , extensionfilter = "none|jpg,jpeg,png"  
height= "number of pixels" , hideUploadButton = "true|false" , maxfileselect = "number of files" , maxuploadsize = "file size in mega bytes" , name = "File uploader name" , oncomplete = "JavaScript function name" , onerror = "JavaScript function name" , onUploadComplete = "JavaScript function name" , progressbar = "true|false" , stoponerror = "true|false" , style = "style specification" , title = "Title panel name" , uploadbuttonlabel = "label" , url = "URL" , width = "number of pixels" , wmode = "window|opaque|transparent" ) 
</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.

See also

cffile action = "uploadAll"

History

ColdFusion 9: Added this tag.

Attributes

Attribute
Req/Opt
Default
Description
addbuttonlabel
Optional
Add Files
Label of the Add button.
align
Optional
left
Specifies the default alignment.

The following values are valid:
  • center
  • left
  • right
bgcolor
Optional
The background color for the file upload control. A hexadecimal value without "#" prefixed or a recognized color name, for example red.
clearbuttonlabel
Optional
Clear All
Label of the Clear button
deletebuttonlabel
Optional
Delete
Label of the Delete button
extensionfilter
Optional
none
Use this attribute to specify the type of file that you will allow to be uploaded. For example, to let only image files to be uploaded, you can specify file extensions such as .jpg, .jpeg, or .png.

If set to none, files are uploaded without any extension filter.
height
Optional
300
Height of the file upload control, in pixels.
hideUploadButton
Optional
false
A Boolean value that specifies if the Upload button should appear in the file upload dialog:
  • true
  • false
maxfileselect
Optional
The maximum number of files allowed for upload.
maxuploadsize
Optional
10MB
The maximum file size, in Megabytes, allowed for upload in an operation.ColdFusion throws an error if the value of the attribute maxuploadsize exceeds the throttle/ post data size settings specified in the ColdFusion Administrator.
name
Optional
Name of the file upload component.
onComplete
Optional
The JavaScript function to run when a file has finished uploading.By default, ColdFusion passes a JavaScript object as a parameter to this function with the following properties:
  • STATUS - numeric value that is based on the HTTP status code
  • MESSAGE - Passed or Failed
  • FILENAME - Name of the file selected for upload You can also pass the JavaScript object by creating a struct with parameters "status" and "message" and call serializeJSON() on the JavaScript object.
onError
Optional
The JavaScript function to run if the uploading of a file fails. The error can be a network error or server-side error. By default, ColdFusion passes a JavaScript object as a parameter to this function with the following properties:
  • STATUS - numeric value that is based on the HTTP status code
  • MESSAGE - Passed or Failed
  • FILENAME - Name of the file selected for upload You can also pass the JavaScript object by creating a struct with parameters "status" and "message" and call serializeJSON() on the JavaScript object.
onUploadCompleteOptional The JavaScript function to run after uploading all the files.
progressbar
Optional
true
Whether to display a progress bar while the files upload:
  • true
  • false
stoponerror
Optional
true
Specifies whether to ignore the exceptions for this operation.
  • true - Stops uploading and displays an appropriate error.
  • false - Continues uploading and displays an appropriate error.
style
Optional
A CSS style specification that defines layout styles.
title
Optional
Title for the upload dialog.
uploadbuttonlabel
Optional
Upload
Label of the Upload button.
url
Optional
The URL to the server where the files are uploaded.

The attribute is optional and it defaults to cgi.script_name.
width
Optional
420
Width of the file upload control, in pixels.
wmode
Optional
window
Specifies the absolute positioning and layering capabilities in your browser:
  • window: Plays the media player in its own rectangular window on a web page
  • opaque: Hides everything behind the media player on the web page
  • transparent: Lets the background of the web page show through the transparent portions of the media player

Usage

Use this tag to create a SWF file-based file upload control that lets a user upload multiple files to a server. To upload files to the server, define a server-side template. The template that you define reads the upload request and uploads the selected files to the server.

Enhancements made in ColdFusion 9.0.1

In ColdFusion 9.0.1, the fileupload control passes the session information implicitly to the target page if session management is turned on either in Application.cfc or Application.cfm.Assume that fileupload control is defined without a URL attribute. In this case, if the user chooses to upload data using the upload button, the control comes back to the same page. Users can check for form.fieldnames to perform the upload as shown in the following example:Upload.cfm
<cfif isdefined("form.FIELDNAMES")> 
<cffile action = "upload" destination = "#ExpandPath('.')#" nameconflict="makeunique"> 
</cfif> 
<cffileupload name="myuploader">
In this case, url defaults to CGI.script_name.
To maintain sessions between the fileupload control and the URL, users must turn on session management. You can do this by setting the this.sessionmanagement=true in Application.cfc. The setting ensures that CFID and CFtoken are passed as part of the URL if Enable J2EE Session Variables (ColdFusion Administrator > Server Settings > Memory Variables) is not selected. If it is selected, then JsessionID is passed as part of the URL.

Supported Styles

The following are the supported styles:
Style
Description
headercolors
Format: color; colors of the band at the top of the DateChooser control. Specify two values, separated by a comma. For a solid band, use the same color for both values. The default value is ##E6EEEE,##FFFFFF.
textcolor
Color of text. Can be a hexadecimal value or a named color. For a hexadecimal value, use the form"##xxxxxx", where x = 0-9 or A-F; use two number signs or none.
titletextalign
Aligns the title text. The recognized values are left, right, and center. The default value is right.
titletextcolor
Color of the title text.
bgcolor
The background color for the file upload control. A hexadecimal value without "#" prefixed or a recognized color name, for example red.
rollovercolor
Displays values on mouse-over.
selectcolor
Background color for a selected item. Can be a hexadecimal value or a named color.
For a hexadecimal value, use the form "##xxxxxx", where x = 0-9 or A-F; use two number signs or none. For a list of the supported named colors, see cfchart.

Example

<h3>Instructions</h3> 
<p>Create a folder Upload in your C: drive 
<br>Try uploading files using the file upload component and check if the files have been appropriately saved in the Upload folder.</p> 
<script> 
var foo = function(result) 
{ 
alert(ColdFusion.JSON.encode(result)); 
} 
</script> 
<cffileupload 
url="uploadFiles.cfm" 
progressbar="true" 
name="myupload" 
addButtonLabel = "Add File" 
clearButtonlabel = "Clear it" 
hideUploadButton = "true" 
width=600 
height=400 
title = "File Upload" 
maxuploadsize="30" 
extensionfilter="*.jpg, *.png, *.flv, *.txt" 
BGCOLOR="##FFFFFF" 
MAXFILESELECT=10 
UPLOADBUTTONLABEL="Upload now"/>

uploadfiles.cfm is given below:

<cffile action="upload" destination="#expandpath('./upload')#" nameconflict="makeunique"> <cfoutput>#serializeJSON({STATUS=200,MESSAGE='Passed'})#</cfoutput>
This example sends user-specified files to the server-side template - uploadfiles.cfm. The template file that you define can use the "upload" or "uploadall" action defined in the cffile tag.
Note: The filefield attribute of the upload action is optional.
Use the destination attribute in the cffile tag to define the location to save the files. For the uploadfiles.cfm code, see cffile action = "uploadAll".

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