Populates a search engine collection with metadata and creates indexes for searching it. You can use both Verity and Solr search engines. The engines can search physical files of various types or a database query. Indexing database columns that result from a query lets users search the query data much faster than they could if you used multiple SQL queries to return the same data.

Extensibility Tags

cfcollection cfexecute cfobject cfreport cfsearch cfwddx

ColdFusion 9: Added Solr search engine support. ColdFusion MX 7.0.1: Added the prefix attribute. ColdFusion MX 7: Added the category, categoryTree, custom3, and custom4 attributes for the update and refresh actions. Added the status attribute for the update, refresh, delete, and purge actions. Removed reference to external collections. Removed suggested cflock usage. ColdFusion MX: The action attribute value optimize is obsolete. It does not work, and might cause an error, in ColdFusion MX. Changed the external attribute behavior: it is not necessary to specify the external attribute. (ColdFusion automatically detects whether a collection is internal or external.) Changed Verity operations behavior: ColdFusion supports Verity operations on Acrobat PDF files. Changed thrown exceptions: this tag can throw the SEARCHENGINE exception. Changed acceptable collection naming: this tag accepts collection names that include spaces. Changed query result behavior: the cfindex tag can index the query results from a cfsearch tag.

<cfindex  
    action = "update|delete|purge|refresh" 
    collection = "collection name" 
    body = "body" 
    category = "category name" 
    categoryTree = "category tree" 
    custom1 = "custom value" 
    custom2 = "custom value" 
    custom3 = "custom value" 
    custom4 = "custom value" 
    extensions = "file extensions" 
    key = "ID" 
    language = "language" 
    prefix = "location of documents" 
    query = "query name" 
    recurse = "yes|no" 
    status = "status" 
    title = "title" 
    type = "type" 
    URLpath = "URL">

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.

The attributes settings that the cfindex tag requires depend on whether you set the query attribute. If you set the query attribute to a valid query name, it specifies that cfindex is to index the data in the query rather than indexing documents on a disk. If you do not set the query attribute, cfindex assumes that it is indexing a file (type = file), a set of files in a directory path (type = path), or text that you provide in the body attribute (type = custom).
If you set the query attribute to a valid query name, the cfindex tag creates indexes as specified by the following attributes and their values:
Type
Attribute values
File
The key attribute is the name of a column in the query that contains a full filename (including path).
Path
The key attribute is the name of a column in the query that contains a directory pathname.
 
The extensions and recurse attributes, if specified, elaborate on which files are included. If the action is delete, cfindex deletes keys for the collection.
Custom
The key attribute specifies a column name that contains anything you want; for example, the primary key value in the database. It must be unique because this is the primary key in the collection. If the action is delete, the key attribute is the name of a column in the query that contains the keys to delete.
 
The body attribute is required and is a comma-delimited list of the names of the columns that contain the text data to be indexed.

If you do not set the query attribute, the cfindex tag creates indexes as specified by the following attributes and their values:
Type
Attribute values
File
The key attribute is required and is a full pathname to a file.
Path
The key attribute is required and it is a directory pathname.
 
The extensions and recurse attributes, if specified, designate which types of files are included. If the action is delete, both the keys and the document files are deleted.
Custom
The key attribute is an identifier that specifies the key. If the action is delete, the key attribute is the document key to delete.
 
The body attribute is required and is the text to be indexed.

If type is not specified but query is set, ColdFusion sets the type to the default value of custom.
If neither type nor query is set, ColdFusion sets type to the default value of file.
If type equals custom, all attributes except for key and body can specify a literal value, not only a column name. This allows you to change a field to empty in the collection.

<!--- EXAMPLE #1 Index a file, type = "file". ----------------------------> 
<!--- Example dumps content of status variable (info). -------------------> 
<cfindex collection="CodeColl"  
    action="refresh"  
    type="file" 
    key="C:\ColdFusion\wwwroot\vw_files\cfindex.htm"  
    urlpath="http://localhost:8500/vw_files/" 
    language="English" 
    title="Cfindex Reference page" 
    status="info"> 
 
<!--- Search for Attributes. ---> 
<cfsearch 
    name = "mySearch" 
    collection = "CodeColl" 
    criteria = "Attributes" 
    contextpassages = "1" 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfoutput> 
    key=#mySearch.key#<br /> 
    title=#mySearch.title#<br /> 
    context=#mySearch.context#<br /> 
    url=#mySearch.url#<br /> 
</cfoutput> 
 
<cfdump var="#info#"> 
 
<!--- EXAMPLE #2 Index a path (type = "path"). ------------------------------> 
<cfindex collection="CodeColl"  
    action="refresh"  
    type="path" 
    key="C:\inetpub\wwwroot\vw_files\newspaper\sports"  
    urlpath="http://localhost/vw_files/newspaper/sports" 
    extensions = ".htm, .html" 
    recurse="no" 
    language="English" 
    categoryTree="vw_files/newspaper/sports" 
    category="Giants"> 
 
<!--- Search for any references to criteria. ---> 
<cfsearch 
    name = "mySearch" 
    collection = "CodeColl" 
    categoryTree="vw_files/newspaper/sports" 
    category="Giants" 
    criteria = "Williams"  
    contextpassages = "1" 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfoutput> 
    key=#mySearch.key#<br /> 
    title=#mySearch.title#<br /> 
    context=#mySearch.context#<br /> 
    url=#mySearch.url#<br /> 
</cfoutput> 
 
<!---EXAMPLE #3: Index a QUERY (type = "custom") using custom1. ------------> 
<!--- Retrieve data from the table. ---> 
<cfquery name="getCourses" datasource="cfdocexamples"> 
    SELECT * FROM COURSES 
</cfquery> 
 
<!--- Update the collection with the above query results. ---> 
<!--- key is Course_ID in the Courses table. ----> 
<!--- body specifies the columns to be indexed for searching. ---> 
<!--- custom1 specifies the value of the Course_Number column. ---> 
 
<cfindex  
    query="getCourses" 
    collection="CodeColl" 
    action="Update" 
    type="Custom" 
    key="Course_ID" 
    title="Courses" 
    body="Course_ID,Descript" 
    custom1="Course_Number" 
> 
<h2>Indexing Complete</h2> 
<!--- cno supplies value for searching custom1; could be form input instead. ---> 
<cfset cno = "540"> 
<cfsearch 
    name = "mySearch" 
    collection = "CodeColl" 
    criteria = "CF_CUSTOM1 <MATCHES> #cno#" 
    contextpassages = "1" 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<!--- Returns indexed values (Course_ID and Descript) for  
            Course_Number 540. ---> 
<cfoutput> 
    key=#mySearch.key#<br /> 
    title=#mySearch.title#<br /> 
    context=#mySearch.context#<br /> 
    url=#mySearch.url#<br /> 
</cfoutput> 
 
<!--- EXAMPLE #4 Index a FILE within a QUERY (type= "file"). ---------------> 
<!--- Retrieve row with a column that contains a filename (Contract_File). ---> 
<cfquery name="getEmps" datasource="cfdocexamples"> 
    SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE EMP_ID = 1 
</cfquery> 
 
<!--- Update the collection with the above query results. ---> 
<!--- key specifies the column that contains a complete filename. ---> 
<!--- file is indexed in same way as if no query involved. ---> 
<cfindex  
    query="getEmps" 
    collection="CodeColl" 
    action="Update" 
    type="file" 
    key="Contract_File"     
    title="Contract_File" 
    body="Emp_ID,FirstName,LastName,Contract_File"> 
 
<h2>Indexing Complete</h2> 
<cfsearch 
    name = "mySearch" 
    collection = "CodeColl" 
    criteria = "vacation" 
    contextpassages = "1" 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfoutput> 
    key=#mySearch.key#<br /> 
    title=#mySearch.title#<br /> 
    context=#mySearch.context#<br /> 
    url=#mySearch.url#<br /> 
</cfoutput> 
 
<!--- EXAMPLE # 5 Index a PATH within a QUERY. ----------------------------> 
<!--- Retrieve a row with a column that contains a path (Project_Docs). ---> 
<cfquery name="getEmps" datasource="cfdocexamples"> 
    SELECT * FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE Emp_ID = 15 
</cfquery> 
 
<!--- Update the collection with the above query results. ---> 
<!--- key specifies a column that contains a directory path. ---> 
<!--- path is indexed in same way as if no query involved. ---> 
<cfindex  
    query="getEmps" 
    collection="CodeColl" 
    action="update" 
    type="path" 
    key="Project_Docs" 
    title="Project_Docs" 
    body="Emp_ID,FirstName,LastName,Project_Docs"> 
 
<h2>Indexing Complete</h2> 
 
<cfsearch 
    name = "getEmps" 
    collection = "CodeColl" 
    criteria = "cfsetting" 
    contextpassages = "1" 
    maxrows = "100"> 
<cfoutput> 
    key=#getEmps.key#<br /> 
    title=#getEmps.title#<br /> 
    context=#getEmps.context#<br /> 
    url=#getEmps.url#<br /> 
</cfoutput> 
 
<!--- EXAMPLE #6 Deletes keys in the CodeColl collection for html files ---> 
<!--- in the specified directory (but not in subdirectories). -------------> 
 
<cfindex collection="CodeColl"  
    action="delete"  
    type="path" 
    key="C:\ColdFusion\wwwroot\vw_files\newspaper"  
    urlpath="http://localhost:8500/vw_files/newspaper" 
    extensions = ".htm, .html" 
    recurse="no"> 
 
<!--- EXAMPLE #7 Purges all keys in the CodeColl collection ---> 
<!--- with recursion. -------------------------------------------------------> 
 
<cfindex collection="CodeColl"  
    action="purge"  
    type="path" 
    key="C:\ColdFusion\wwwroot\vw_files\newspaper">