Logging Errors

ColdFusion Server provides extensive capabilities for generating, managing, and viewing log files, as described in Advanced ColdFusion Administration.

ColdFusion automatically logs errors to the default logs in the following cases:

If you use the default error handlers
If a cferror handler of type Request handles the error

Otherwise you must use the cflog tag in your error handling code to generate log entries.

The cflog tag lets you specify the following information:

A custom file or standard ColdFusion log file in which to write the message.
Text to write to the log file.
Message severity (type): Information Warning, Fatal, or Error.
Whether to log any of the following: application name, thread ID, system date, or system time. By default, all get logged.

For example, you could use a cflog tag in an exception error page to log the error information to an application-specific log file.

<html>

<head>

  <title>Products - Error</title>

</head>

<body>



<h2>Sorry</h2>



<p>An error occurred when you requested this page.

The error has been logged and we will work to correct the problem.

We apologize for the inconvenience. </p>



<cflog file="myapp_errors"

    text="Exception error -- 

      Exception type: #error.type#

      Template: #error.template#,

      Remote Address: #error.remoteAddress#, 

      HTTP Rerference: #error.HTTPReferer#

      Diagnositcs: #error.diagnostics#"

    type="Error">



</body>

</html>

Reviewing the code

The following table describes the highlighted code and its function:

Code

Description

<cflog file="myapp_errors" text="Exception error Exception type: #error.type# Template: #Error.Template#, Remote Address: #Error.RemoteAddress#, Diagnositcs: #Error.Diagnostics#" type="Error">
When this page is processed, log an error message to the file myapp_errors.log file in the ColdFusion log directory containing the thread ID, date and time, application, and an error message that includes the exception type, the path of the page that caused the error, the remote address that called the page, and the error's diagnostic message.

Developing ColdFusion Applications
Preventing and Handling Errors