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cfproperty

Last update:
May 18, 2026

Description

Defines properties and their annotations for a ColdFusion component (CFC). The properties are used to create complex data types for web services, while the annotations are used to define Object Relational Model (ORM) for a CFC. The attributes of this tag are exposed as component metadata and are subject to inheritance rules.

Category

Extensibility tags

Syntax

<cfproperty 
name="name" 
default="default value" 
displayname="descriptive name" 
hint="extended description" 
required="false|true" 
serializable="true|false" 
type="type">
Note:
For ORM-related attributes and their usage, see Map the properties in the Developing ColdFusion Applications.

See also

cfargument, cfcomponent, cffunction, cfinvoke, cfinvokeargument, cfobject, cfreturn; Documenting CFCs in Building and Using ColdFusion Components, Implicit Get and Set Functions in the Developing ColdFusion Applications

History

  • ColdFusion (2025 release): The default value of cfproperty can be CFML expressions. In this release , the default value of a cfproperty can be expressions. In earlier versions, only string values were allowed.
  • ColdFusion 9: Added attributes for defining Object Relational Model for the CFC.Added implicit getters and setters. Added validate and validateparams attributes.
  • ColdFusion MX: Added this tag.

Attributes

Attribute
Req/Opt
Default
Description
batchsize
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
cascade
catalog
cfc
collectiontype
column
constrained
datatype
default
Optional
This attribute allows a valid CFML expression. See the example below for more information.
If no property value is set when the component is used for a web service, specifies a default value. If this attribute is present, the required attribute must be set to no or not specified.
For ORM-specific usage of the default attribute, see ColdFusion ORM.
displayname
Optional
A value to be displayed when using introspection to show information about the CFC. The value appears in parentheses following the property name.
dynamicInsert
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
dynamicupdate
elementColumn
elementtype
entityname
fetchbatchsize
fieldType
fkcolumn
formula
generator
getter
Optional
Specifies whether to generate getter methods or not. Value are:
  • true
  • false
hint
Optional
Text to be displayed when using introspection to show information about the CFC. This attribute can be useful for describing the purpose of the parameter.
index
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
insert
inverse
inversejoincolumn
joincolumn
lazy
length
linkcatalog
linkschema
linktable
mappedby
missingrowIgnored
name
Required
A string; a property name. Must be a static value.
notnull
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
optimisticLock
optimisticLockgenerated
orderby
orderByreadonly
params
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
persistent
preceision
readonly
readonly
required
Optional
no
Whether the parameter is required:
  • yes
  • no
rowid
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
scale
setter
Specifies whether to generate setter methods or not. Possible values are:
  • true
  • false
schema
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
selectbeforeupdate
selectkey
sequence
serializable
Optional
true
Specifies whether this property can be serialized. If you set this value to false, the property cannot be serialized, so any changes made are not retained on session replication, and the property has its default value (if any) on the second server. Use this attribute to prevent serializaton of properties in CFCs that are serializable.
source
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
structkeycolumn
structkeycolumn
structkeydatatype
structkeyType
table
table
type
Optional
any
A string; identifies the property data type:
  • any
  • array
  • binary
  • boolean
  • date
  • guid: the argument must be a UUID or GUID of the form xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx where each x is a character representing a hexadecimal number (0-9A-F).
  • numeric
  • query
  • string
  • struct
  • uuid: The argument must be a ColdFusion UUID of the form xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx where each x is a character representing a hexadecimal number (0-9A-F).
  • variableName: a string formatted according to ColdFusion variable naming conventions.
  • a component name: if the type attribute value is not one of the preceding items, ColdFusion treats it as the name of a ColdFusion component. When the function executes, it generates an error if the argument that is passed in is not a CFC with the specified name.
unique
For information about these attributes, see ColdFusion ORM.
uniquekey
update
where
validate
Optional
For more information, see Validate and validateparams attributes in Functions.
validateparam
Optional

Usage

You must position cfproperty tags at the beginning of a component, above executable code and function definitions. If a component is not used as a web service, <cfproperty> only provides metadata information of the property. It does not define variables or set values that you can use in your component. However, it creates implicit setters and getters for the property in the CFC depending on whether getter/setter attributes are enabled. For details, see Implicit Get and Set Functions in Developing ColdFusion Applications.
For Object Relational Model (ORM), cfproperty is used to define relational mapping for the property of the CFC. For details, see ColdFusion ORM in Developing ColdFusion Applications.
For web services that you create in ColdFusion, the cfproperty tag defines complex variables used by the web service.

Example

The following code defines a component in the file address.cfc that contains properties that represent a street address:
<cfcomponent> 
<cfproperty name="Number" type="numeric"> 
<cfproperty name="Street" type="string"> 
<cfproperty name="City" type="string"> 
<cfproperty name="State" type="string"> 
<cfproperty name="Country" type="string"> 
</cfcomponent>
This component represents a complex data type that can be used in a component that is exported as a web service, such as the following:
<cfcomponent> 
<cffunction name="echoAddress" returnType="address" access="remote"> 
<cfargument name="input" type="address"> 
<cfreturn arguments.input> 
</cffunction> 
</cfcomponent>

Example 1

myprops.cfc
component accessors=true {
        property name="testProp" default="test";
        property name="propA" default="#[1,2,3]#";
        property name="proph" type="array" default="[1,2,3].avg()";
        property name="prope" type="array" default="#ArrayNew(1)#";   

        property name="propAA" type="any" default="#['key1':'val1']#"; 
        property name="propF" type="struct" default="#{"id": "0001",
            "type": "donut",
            "name": "Cake",
            "ppu": 0.55,}.append({ "id": "5001", "type": "None" })#" ;

        property name="propV" type="any" default="# tval? (tval ? 'trueValue' : 'falseVal') : 'falseValue'#";
        property name="propW" type="any" default="#UCase("This is a text: ") & ToString(123 + 456)#";

        property name="propX" default="#fval?: 'true'#";
        property name="propY" type="any" default="#originalStruct?.address?.street#";
        property name="propZ" type="any" default="#originalStruct ?? 'notnullvalue'#";

        property name="propAB" type="any" default=#IsStruct(originalStruct) === true#;
        property name="propS" type="any" default="#x LTE y#";

        property name="propK" type="string" default="#str contains substr#";
        property name="propT" type="any" default="#str does not contain substr#";


        x=25;
        y=5*5;
        originalStruct = {name = "Alice", address = {street = "123 Main St", city = "Wonderland"}, 
        mobile = 7777777777,};

        str ='Adobe'
        substr= 'Ad'
        tval=true
        fval=false

}
property.cfm
<cfscript>
    // Instantiate the component
    componentPath = "myProps";
    componentInstance = createObject("component", componentPath);
    
    // Get metadata for the component
    metadata = getComponentMetaData(componentPath);

    // Loop through all functions (methods) to find getters
    results = {};
    for (method in metadata.functions) {
        // Check if the method starts with "get" or "is" (for booleans)
        if (left(method.name, 3) == "get" || left(method.name, 2) == "is") {
            try {
                // Dynamically call the getter method
                propertyName = method.name; // getPropertyName or isPropertyName
                results[propertyName] = componentInstance[propertyName]();
            } catch (any e) {
                results[propertyName] = "Error retrieving value: " & e.message;
            }
        }
    }

    // Dump the result of all getter method calls
    writeDump(var=results, label="Getter Results");
</cfscript>

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