Debug Settings in ColdFusion Administrator  
 
 

ColdFusion can provide important debugging information for every application page requested by a browser. When enabled, debug output is shown in a block following normal page output. The debug output can help you track down programming problems.

You can select from the following debug output options:

  • Show variables
  • Show processing time
  • Show SQL and data source name
  • Show query information
 
 
  Note  
 

By default, when you enable any of these options, debug output becomes visible to all users. You can, however, restrict debug output to a selected IP address.

For information on the debugging and logging settings in the ColdFusion Administrator, see the Administering ColdFusion Server book.

In the Debugging page of the ColdFusion Administrator, click the boxes to enable these output options:

Debug Settings in ColdFusion Administrator
Setting
Description
Enable performance monitoring
Allows the standard NT Performance Monitor application to display information about the current ColdFusion Server. On platforms that do not support the NT Performance Monitor, a command line utility, CFSTAT, is provided to display the same information. (You must restart the ColdFusion Server for changes in this setting to take effect.)
Show variables
Displays the CGI environment variables, Form fields, URL parameters, and cookies passed with the client request.
Show processing time
Displays the time, in milliseconds, it took the ColdFusion Server to process the page request.
Show SQL and data source name
Allows you to view the SQL statement and data source name in use when an error occurs.
Show query information
Displays the number of records, processing time, and SQL statement for each query executed.

You can limit display of debugging output to selected users by creating a list of IP addresses. Type the addresses in the text box and use the Add and Remove buttons to manage the list.

If no entries are made, the information is displayed to all users. Click Apply to save the settings.

For more information on using the Administrator, see Administering ColdFusion Server.

 
 
  Generating debug information without setting options  
 
 

You can view the parameters and CGI environment variables for an individual application page without changing the global settings. Simply append the parameter "mode=debug" to the end of the URL.

www.myserver.com/cfdocs/test.cfm?mode=debug
 
 
  Generating debug information for an individual query  
 
 

You can view debug information for an individual query by putting the DEBUG attribute into the opening CFQUERY tag:

<CFQUERY NAME="TestQuery" DATASOURCE="MyDB" DEBUG>
    SELECT * FROM TestTable
</CFQUERY>

When this query runs, it places the debug information into the output page where the query is placed.

 
 
  Error messages  
 
 

If ColdFusion is unable to fulfill a request because of an error, it returns a diagnostic message to the user. The message includes a link that allows the user to e-mail a report of the error to the site administrator. You enable this feature in the Mail Logging page of the ColdFusion Administrator. Errors are written to a log file for later review.

 
 
  Database errors  
 

If a database error occurs, the following information is returned (if enabled in the Administrator Debugging page):

  • The ODBC error code and textual explanation of the error code.
  • The extended error message returned from the ODBC driver.
  • The name of the ODBC data source being used.
  • The SQL statement submitted to the database. Note that for Insert and Update actions, this statement includes parameter markers represented by a "?" in place of the data values sent to the database.
 
 
  Syntax errors  
 

If a syntax error occurs while processing a application page, the following information is returned:

  • The line of the application page file on which the syntax error occurred.
  • A printout of that line and the lines above and below it.
  • An indication of which tokens the CGI script was looking for when it encountered the syntax error.
 
 
  Other errors  
 

Other errors that may occur are system related. Examples of these errors include:

  • Out of memory
  • File or disk access errors (disk full or damaged, sharing violation, etc.)

These errors are also reported to the client and written to the log file, but it is often more difficult to provide detailed diagnostics for them. If you get a message that does not explicitly identify the cause of the error, check on key system parameters like available memory and disk space.

For information on using the Logging settings and Mail Logging settings of the ColdFusion Administrator, see the chapter Configuring ColdFusion Server in the Administering ColdFusion Server book.



 
 
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