Archive Variables help you define locations to and from which archive and restore. Any time you want to archive or restore to or from a location, you must provide a full path for that location. If you use a variable to represent a full path, you can refer to a path by the variable name. Archive Variables basically act as an alias, saving you time from having to type in lengthy paths to files you want to archive or restore.
Ways to use archive variables:
To transfer files from one system to another system, you can create an archive definition with a variable pointing to the files you want to archive on that system, then when you restore that archive on the other system, you can define the definition for the variable on that system (prior to the restore) to point to the location where you want the files restored.
If you have locations that you commonly archive, create a variable for that location and avoid having to supply the full path each time you want to archive that location.
Example: If you commonly archive and restore your temp directory, you could create a variable called "mytempfiles" that points to the temp directory on your system. The next time you wanted to include this location in an archive definition, you would only need to reference the variable name ({car.variable.mytempfiles}).
Rules about archive variables
Variables are used by ColdFusion only when executing an archive or restore procedure.
Variables are named and defined on the Variable Definition page.
After a variable is created and named, the syntax for referencing it must include the prefix car.variable and the entire prefix and variable name must be enclosed in {curly brackets}. For instance, if you wanted to include a variable name called "mytempfiles" in an archive definition, you would need to reference this variable name as: {car.variable.mytempfiles}
If you create an archive that includes one or more variable names and you wanted to restore that archive on another ColdFusion 5.0 system, you need to define the variable name(s) on the restore system prior to restoring the archive. If the variable names are not defined on the restore system, the restore operation will fail.
The system variables that ColdFusion 5.0 supplies should not be changed unless the location of the system variables were moved.
A list of all existing archive variables defined in ColdFusion appear in the Archive Variable section of the Archive Settings page. This list represents the user-defined archive variables as well as the ColdFusion supplied archive variables.
You can delete user-defined variables on the Variable Definition page.
Variables can be used in an archive
definition any time you want to specify "files to include"
or "files to exclude" in a definition.