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cfreport

Last update:
May 18, 2026

Description

Used to do either of the following:
  • Execute a report created with the ColdFusion Report Builder, displaying it in PDF, Adobe FlashPaper, RTF, HTML, XML or Excel format. Optionally, you can save this report to a file.
  • Run a predefined Crystal Reports report. Applies only to Windows systems.

Category

Data output tags

Syntax

ColdFusion Report Builder syntax: 
<cfreport 
format = "PDF|FlashPaper|Excel|RTF|HTML|XML" 
template = "absolute pathname or pathname relative to the report file" 
encryption = "128-bit|40-bit|none" 
filename = "output filename" 
name = "ColdFusion variable" 
ownerpassword = "password" 
overwrite = "no|yes" 
permissions = "permission list" 
query = "query variable" 
resourceTimespan = #CreateTimeSpan (days, hours, minutes, seconds)# 
style = "CSS style definition or css file pathname" 
userpassword = "password"> 
<cfreportparam ...> 
</cfreport> 

Crystal Reports syntax: 
<cfreport 
report = "report path" 
dataSource = "data source name" 
formula = "formula" 
orderBy = "result order" 
password = "password" 
timeout = "number of seconds" 
type = "standard|netscape|microsoft" 
username = "username"> 
</cfreport>
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

cfcollection ,  cfdocument ,  cfdocumentitem ,  cfdocumentsection ,  cfexecute ,  cfindex ,  cfobject ,  cfreportparam , 
cfsearch ,  cfwddx ;  Creating Reports with Report Builder  in the Developing ColdFusion Applications; Report Builder online Help

History

ColdFusion 8: Added the style and resourceTimespan attributes. Added the HTML and XML values to the format attribute.ColdFusion MX 7.0.1: Added the RTF value to the format attribute, to let you generate reports in RTF format.ColdFusion MX 7: Added support for the ColdFusion Report Builder.ColdFusion MX: Changed data source connection behavior: Crystal Reports now establishes an independent connection to the data source. The connection is not subject to any ColdFusion data source-specific restrictions. For example, the Crystal Reports server can access a data source, regardless of whether it is disabled in the ColdFusion Administrator.

Attributes

AttributeApplies toReq/OptDefaultDescription
datasource
Crystal Reports
Optional
Name of registered or native data source.
encryption
Report Builder
Optional
none
(format="PDF" only) Type of encryption for the report output. Valid values are:
  • 128-bit
  • 40-bit
  • none
filename
Report Builder
Optional
Filename to contain the report. You cannot specify both the name and filename attributes. The filename extension must match the value of the format attribute. If you write report output to an HTML file, ColdFusion automatically creates a directory relative to the output file in the format filename_files. Also, it generates PNG files for any charts in the report and copies of any image files imported into the report and stores them in this directory.
format
Report Builder
Required
Format of the report output:
  • PDF
  • FlashPaper
  • Excel
  • RTF
  • XML
  • HTML When you write report output directly to the browser in HTML format, ColdFusion generates a temporary directory and files for the images in the report. The location of the temporary directory that contains the image files is:C:\ColdFusion9\tmpCache\CFFileServlet_cfreport_ report_unique_identifier_ To determine when the images are removed from the browser, use the resourceTimespan attribute.
formula
Crystal Reports
Optional
One or more named formulas. Terminate each formula with a semicolon. Use the format:
formula = "formulaname1 = 'formula1';formulaname2 = 'formula2';"
If you use a semicolon in a formula, escape it by typing it twice (\;;). For example:
formula = "Name1 = 'Val_1a;;Val_1b';Name2 = 'Val2';"
formula = "formulaname1 = 'formula1';formulaname2 = 'formula2';"
formula = "Name1 = 'Val_1a;;Val_1b';Name2 = 'Val2';"
name
Report Builder
Optional
Name of the ColdFusion variable that contains the report output. You cannot specify both name and filename. This attribute is not valid when format="HTML".
orderBy
Crystal Reports
Optional
Orders results according to your specifications.
overwrite
Report Builder
Optional
no
Specifies whether to overwrite files that have the same name as that specified in the filename attribute:
  • yes
  • no
owner Password
Report Builder
Optional
(format="PDF" only) Owner password for the report,
password
Crystal Reports
Optional
Password that corresponds to username required for database access. Overrides default settings for data source in the ColdFusion Administrator.
permissions
Report Builder
Optional
(format="PDF" only) Specifies one or more of the following permissions:
  • AllowPrinting
  • AllowModifyContents
  • AllowCopy
  • AllowModifyAnnotations
  • AllowFillIn
  • AllowScreenReaders
  • AllowAssembly
  • AllowDegradedPrinting Separate multiple permissions with commas.
query
Report Builder
Optional
Name of the query that contains input data for the report. This query overrides the query in the Report Builder report. The ColdFusion query must contain at least all of the columns included in the Report Builder query; however, the WHERE clause can differ. If you omit this parameter, Report Builder uses the data from the internal SQL statement or from  cfreportparam  items.
report
Crystal Reports
Required
Report pathname. Store Crystal Reports files in the same directories as ColdFusion page files.
resource Timespan
Report Builder
Optional
5 minutes
(format="HTML" only) Life span of the resource directory. When you export a Report Builder report in HTML format, ColdFusion writes any images or other resource files in the report to a temporary resource directory. Use this attribute to determine when the resource directory is deleted. For the value, use the CreateTimeSpan function and specify the time span in days, hours, minutes, and seconds, separated by commas; for example, to delete the resource directory after one hour, specify: #CreateTimeSpan(0,1,0,0)#}}If the value is set to 0, the resource directory persists until the next server restart.ColdFusion deletes the resource directory only when {{format="HTML" and neither the name nor filename attribute is specified. The default setting is 5 minutes: #CreateTimeSpan(0,0,5,0)#
style
Report Builder
Optional
Style in CSS format that overrides a style defined in the Report Builder report at run time. You can specify an absolute file path, a file path relative to the report, or a string in valid CSS format. For the styles to take effect, the style names must match Style Name attributes assigned to elements in the Report Builder report. You can generate a CSS file in Report Builder and export it or you can create a CSS file with a text editor. For a list of supported CSS styles, see the section Style properties.
template
Report Builder
Required
Specifies the pathname to the Report Builder (CFR) file, relative to the web root.
timeout
Crystal Reports
Optional
Specifies the maximum time, in seconds, in which a connection must be made to a Crystal Reports file.
type
Crystal Reports
Optional
standard
Type of report:
  • standard (not valid for Crystal Reports 8.0)
  • netscape
  • microsoft
userName
Crystal Reports
Optional
Username required for entry into a database from which the report is created. Overrides default settings for data source in ColdFusion Administrator.
user Password
Report Builder
Optional
(format="PDF" only) User password.

Usage

Use this tag to generate a report using a report definition created in either ColdFusion Report Builder or in Crystal Reports. (For more information on using the ColdFusion Report Builder, display the online help by opening the Report Builder and pressing F1.)
Note:
The Excel report output format type provides limited support for the formatting options available in ColdFusion Reporting. Images and charts are not supported and numeric data containing formatting (commas, percents, currency, and so on) appear as plain text in Excel. The Excel output format supports simple reports only and Adobe recommends that you give careful design and layout consideration to reports designed for Excel output.
This tag requires an end tag.

Using Cascading Style Sheets

You can override Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Report Builder reports at run time by using the style attribute of the cfreport tag in ColdFusion. You can create CSS files in one of two ways: by exporting styles with the Export Report Styles icon in Report Builder or by creating a CSS file in any text editor. For the CSS styles to take effect, however, you must use Report Builder to assign the style names to the elements in the report. (The exception is the default style: you can use the style attribute to define the default style in ColdFusion and apply it to the report even if the default style is not defined in Report Builder.)After you assign the style names in Report Builder, you can update the style definitions in the CSS file at any time and apply them at run time by using the cfreport and cfreportparam tags. If your report contains subreports, the default style applies to the master report and to all of the subreports. If the master report uses CSS styles other than the default style, the CSS styles do not apply to the subreports unless you specify them explicitly. The following code shows how to apply three different style sheets to the main report and two subreports at run time:
<cfreport template="myreport.cfr" style="mystyle.css" format="PDF"> 
<cfreportParam subreport="subreport1" style="subreport1-style.css"> 
<cfreportParam subreport="subreport2" style="subreport2-style.css"> 
</cfreport>
The following code shows how to apply a CSS style as a value of the style attribute:
<cfreport template="myreport.cfr" style='mystyle { defaultStyle: true; font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; color: ##00FF00; }' format="FlashPaper"> 
</cfreport>
The following code shows how to create a variable called myStyle and use it as a value of the style attribute:
<cfset mystyle='mystyle { defaultStyle: false; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; }'> 
<cfreport template="myreport.cfr" style="#mystyle#" format="HTML"> 
</cfreport>

Style attribute syntax

The style file or string must be valid CSS syntax. For more information, see  http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ . The style must contain one or more rule sets. Each rule set consists of a simple selector, which is the Report Builder style name, followed by a declaration block, which consists of a series of declarations separated by semicolons. A declaration is a property:value pair. If a selector contains invalid syntax, ColdFusion ignores the selector and its declaration block. Selectors and properties not supported by this feature are ignored. Styles are case-insensitive, except parts not under the control of CSS (such as font names). The following example shows the CSS definition for the default style:
DefaultStyle 
{ 
default-style: true; 
color: black; 
font-family: Arial, "Comic Sans MS"; 
font-size: 16; 
text-decoration: underline; 
}
The following example shows the CSS definition for a custom style called PurpleBoldItalicText:
PurpleBoldItalicText 
{ 
color: purple; 
font: italic bold 20px 30px Arial; 
}
Identifiers for styles must be CSS2-compliant. For example, CSS1 allows '_' in identifiers, but CSS2 does not. In CSS2, identifiers, including element names, classes, and IDs in selectors, can contain only the characters A-Z, a-z, and 0-9. Also, they can include ISO 10646 characters 161 and higher and the hyphen character (-); however, identifiers cannot start with a hyphen or a digit. They can contain escaped characters and any ISO 10646 character as a numeric code. For example, you can write the identifier "B&W?" as "B\&W?" or "B\26 W\3F".

Style properties

The following table shows the style properties exported by Report Builder:
Property nameReport Builder onlyValid valuesDescription
background-color
No
See the section Valid color values
Background color of the specified report element, if the element is not transparent. The default background color is white.
border
No
border-width border-style border-color
A shorthand property that specifies the border-width, border-style, and border-color properties for all of the borders in an element.
border-color
No
See the section Valid color values
Border color for text, images, and charts. You can customize each side of the border. The default color is white.
border-style
No
solid dashed none
A shorthand property that specifies the border-top-style, border-right-style, border-bottom-style, and border-left-style (the comma-separated values must be in this order). If one or more values are not specified, the value for the opposite side is used. If only one value is listed, that value applies to all sides. The none value overrides the border-width value. Any other values, including hidden, dotted, groove, ridge, inset, outset, and double, are displayed as solid.
border-top-colorborder-left-colorborder-bottom-colorborder-right-color
No
See the section Valid color values
Color of the element's top, left, bottom, and right border. For more details see that section Border and margin styles. If no border-color property is specified, the value of the color property is used instead.
border-top-styleborder-left-styleborder-bottom-styleborder-right-style
No
solid dashed
Line style of the element's top, left, bottom, and right border. For more details see the section Border and margin styles.Any value other than dashed displays as solid.
border-top-widthborder-left-widthborder-bottom-widthborder-right-width
No
thin medium thick 1px 2px 4px
Thickness of the top, left, bottom, and right border of an element. Negative values are not valid. For more details see the section Border and margin styles:
  • thin = 1/2 pt
  • medium = 2px
  • thick = 4px
border-width
No
thin medium thick 1px 2px 4px
A shorthand property that specifies the border-top-width, border-right-width, and border-bottom-width properties with a single property and value notation (the comma-separated values must be in this order). If one or more values are not specified, the value for the opposite side is used. If only one value is listed, it applies to all sides:
  • thin = 1/2 pt**
  • medium = 2px
  • thick = 4px
clip
No
auto stretch ratio
Specifies how images are resized:
  • auto: If the dimensions of the source image differ from the element in the report, this attribute crops the image to fit within the element boundaries. The image is not resized. Only the part of the image that fits in the boundaries is displayed.
  • stretch: If the dimensions of the source image differ from the element in the report, this attribute resizes the image so that it fits within the element boundaries. If the dimensions differ, the image is distorted.
  • ratio: If the dimensions of the source image differ from the element in the report, this attribute resizes the image to fit within the element boundaries but maintains the aspect ratio of the source so that the image is not distorted.
color
No
See the section Valid color values
Color of the text (in text elements) and the border (in graphic elements). The default color is black.
corner-radius
Yes
integer
Radius for arcs used to draw the corner of rectangles. The default is 0 (square corners). Values less than 0 are interpreted as 0.
default-style
Yes
true false
Default style for elements that do not or cannot have a style applied. A subreport inherits its parent's default-style if it does not have one of its own.
embed-pdf-font
Yes
true false
Specifies whether fonts are embedded in the PDF document. Embedded fonts insure that the fonts display properly even if the font is not installed on the system where the report is viewed.
empty-cells
No
show hide
Shows or hides a null value for text expressions:
  • show: If the text expression returns a null value, the string "null" is displayed.
  • hide: If the text expression returns a null value, the null value is replaced with an empty string. This is the default.
font
No
font-style font-weight font-size line-height font-family
Font characteristic specifications. Use this as a shorthand to specifying multiple property values; for example:font: italic 20px Arial;Default values for this property match those used for the individual properties. Default values for the individual properties are applied to the values omitted from the font property.
font-family
No
Comma-separated list of font names.
Group of fonts to apply to the element. The first font found in the list is applied to the element. The default is:font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sansserif;If a font name contains spaces, enclose the name in quotation marks, for example:font-family: Courier, "Courier New", Arial;
font-size
No
[length]
Font size measured in points or pixels. Negative values are not valid. The default value is 10 points. You can specify points or pixels. 1 pixel = 0.75. points. This property also is a component of the font property.Standard CSS supports other types of values not supported by Report Builder.
font-style
No
normal italic oblique
Font style. The italic and oblique values are similar. The default value is normal. Also, this property is a component of the font property.
font-weight
No
normal bold bolder lighter 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Font weight. Report Builder does not support varying degrees of boldness or lightness; therefore, normal and lighter appear as normal; all other values appear as bold. The default is normal. Also, this property is a component of the font property.
line-height
No
normal number length percentage
Amount of space between consecutive lines of text:
  • normal: Sets the line-height to single-spacing (default).
  • number: A multiplier that determines the line height as a factor of the element's font size. To determine the line height from this number, multiply the current element font-size by the number. Negative values are not valid.
  • length: Sets the line height to an explicit length. You can specify points (for example, "20") or pixels (for example, "20px"). 1 pixel = 0.75 points. Negative values are not valid. Standard CSS allows other units of length not supported by Report Builder.
  • percentage: Defines the line-height as a percentage. The percent symbol is required (for example, 150%). Negative values are invalid.
line-size
Yes
none thin 1px 2px 4px dashed
Type of the border around a graphic element or the type and the thickness of line elements. By default, lines and rectangles have a 1-pixel border; thin is 0.05 pixels.
margin
No
top-integer [right-integer] [bottom-integer] [left-integer]
Amount of blank space within the bounding box of an element. This is a shorthand property that specifies the margin-top, margin-right, margin-bottom, and margin-left properties with a single property and value notation (the values must be in this order separated by commas.) If one or more values are not specified, the value for the opposite side is used. If only one value is listed, it applies to all sides. For more details see the section Border and margin styles.CSS margins are transparent, which reveals the background of the parent element. Negative values are valid; this allows for text overlays.Examples:margin: 10,20,30,40; margin: 10; margin: 10,20,30;
margin-topmargin-leftmargin-bottommargin-right
No
integer
See margin.
parent-style
Yes
styleName
Name of the parent report style from which this style inherits some or all of its properties. The style name must be defined in either the report or before this style definition in the CSS file or text.
text-align
No
left center right justify
Alignment of text and images on the horizontal axis. The default value is left.
text-decoration
No
underline line-through underline line-through
Text characteristics not defined with the font-style and font-weight properties. The color of the text-decoration is determined by the color property for the element. Unknown values are ignored.
text-rotation
Yes
none left right
Rotation of text elements. Use it to change the text direction by rotating it 90 degrees to the right or left.
transparency-mode
Yes
opaque transparent
Transparency of elements. Graphic elements, such as rectangles and lines, are opaque by default, but images are transparent. Subreport elements, static text, and text fields are transparent by default.
vertical-align
No
top middle bottom
Alignment of text and images on the vertical axis. The default value is top.
xhtml-formatted-text
Yes
true false
Specifies whether the text element contains XHTML-compatible instructions:
  • true: The text element contains xhtml-compatible instructions, for example, <b>My Text Label</b>. In this example, the text within the tags displays in bold (My Text Label), and the tags (<b> </b>) are not displayed.
  • false: The text element does not contain xhtml-compatible instructions; therefore, all the text within the text element is displayed. This is the default.
Styles or values that are not supported by Report Builder are ignored in the report, in which case, if a default-style is defined, Report Builder applies the default style to the element.

Valid color values

You can specify a color as #RRGGBB. This represents a color that uses a triplet of hexadecimal values concatenated together. The values represent the red, green, and blue components for a given color. The range of each component value is 00-FF in hexadecimal. Also, you can use one of the 140 X11 color names (see  http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/color/x11makerFrameNS.htm ). The color name is case-insensitive. This set of names assigns names to specific RGB values. Also, a color name can also be specified as ##RGB, rgb(r,g,b), or rgb(r%,g%,b%). See CSS Color Units for syntax details (see  http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/css/syntax/units/color.htm ). UI Name is not supported. The following example shows the different ways you can represent the color lime:
color:lime 
color:#00FF00 
color:#0F0 
color:rgb(0,255,0) 
color:rgb(0%,50%,0%)
If you specify a color in hexadecimal format as part of the style attribute for the cfreport tag, use the format ##00FF00. For example:
<cfreport template="myreport.cfr" style='mystyle { defaultStyle: true; 
font-family:"Comic Sans MS"; color: ##00FF00; }' format="HTML"/>

Border and margin styles

Use the border-width, border-style, border-color, and margin properties when all four sides of the element have the same value. You can specify from one to four parameters for these properties:
Number of parametersExampleResult
1
border-width: thick
Parameter applied to all four sides of the element's border.
2
border-width: thick, thin
First parameter (thick) applied to the top and bottom sides; second parameter (thin) applied to the left and right sides.
3
border-width: thick, thin, medium
First parameter (thick) applied to the top; second parameter (thin) applied to the left and right sides; third parameter (medium) applied to the bottom.
4
border-width: thick, thin, medium, thick
First parameter (thick) applied to the top; second parameter (thin) applied to the right side; third parameter (medium) applied to the bottom; fourth parameter (thick) applied to the left side.
You can use the properties for each side of a border to override the style specified by the border-width, border-style, border-color, and margin properties.

Example

Example 1: This example shows the use of cfreport for the ColdFusion Report Builder.
<cfquery name="northwindemployees" datasource="localnorthwind"> 
SELECT EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName, Title, City, Region, Country 
FROM Employees 
ORDER BY Country, City 
</cfquery> 

<CFREPORT format="PDF" template="FifthReport.cfr" 
query="#northwindemployees#"/>
Example 2: This view-only example shows the use of cfreport for Crystal Reports.
<h3>cfreport Tag<h3> 
<p>cfreport lets reports from the Crystal Reports Professional report writer display through a ColdFusion interface. To run, the tag requires the name of the report. cfreport can also pass information to the report file displayed, to change the output conditions.</p> 
<p>This example would run a report called "monthlysales.rpt " and pass it an 
optional filter condition to show only the information for a subset 
of the report.</p> 

<cfreport report = '/reports/monthlysales.rpt'> 
{Departments.Department} = 'International' 
</cfreport> 

<p>Substitute your report files and filters for this code. cfreport can put Crystal Reports into web pages.</p>

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