Sample Uses of cfmail

An application page with the cfmail tag dynamically generates e-mail messages based on the tag's settings. Some of the tasks you can accomplish with cfmail include the following:

Sending a mail message whose recipient and contents are determined by data the user enters in an HTML form
Using a query to send a mail message to a database-driven list of recipients
Using a query to send a customized mail message, such as a billing statement to alist of recipients that is dynamically populated from a database.
Sending a MIME file attachment along with a mail message

Sending form-based e-mail

In the following example, the contents of a customer inquiry form submittal are forwarded to the marketing department. Note that the same application page could also insert the customer inquiry into the database.

< cfmail

  from="#Form.EMailAddress#"

  to="marketing@MyCompany.com"

  subject="Customer Inquiry">



A customer inquiry was posted to our Web site:



Name: #Form.FirstName# #Form.LastName#

Subject: #Form.Subject#



#Form.InquiryText#



</cfmail>

Sending query-based e-mail

In the following example, a query (ProductRequests) is run to retrieve a list of the customers who have inquired about a product over the last seven days. This list is then sent, with an appropriate header and footer, to the marketing department:

< cfmail

  query="ProductRequests"

  from="webmaster@MyCompany.com"

  to="marketing@MyCompany.com"

  subject="Widget status report">



Here is a list of people who have inquired about

MyCompany Widgets over the last seven days:



<cfoutput>

#ProductRequests.FirstName# #ProductRequests.LastName# (#ProductRequests.Company#) - #ProductRequests.EMailAddress#&##013;

</cfoutput>



Regards,

The WebMaster

webmaster@MyCompany.com



</cfmail>

Note the use of the cfoutput tag to present a dynamic list embedded within a normal cfmail message. The text within the cfoutput is repeated for each row in the ProductRequests query, while the text above and below it serve as the header and footer, respectively, for the mail message. The &##013; in the cfoutput block forces a carriage return between output records.

Sending e-mail to multiple recipients

In the following example, a query (BetaTesters) retrieves a list of people who are beta testing ColdFusion. This query is then used to send a notification to each of these testers that a new version of the beta release is available:

<cfmail query="BetaTesters"

  from="beta@MyCompany.com"

  to="#TesterEMail#"

  subject="Widget Beta Four Available">



To all Widget beta testers:



Widget Beta Four is now available 

for downloading from the MyCompany site.

The URL for the download is:



http://beta.mycompany.com



Regards,

Widget Technical Support

beta@MyCompany.com



</cfmail>

Note that in this example, the contents of the cfmail tag body are not dynamic, that is, the tag does not use any # delimited dynamic parameters. What is dynamic is the list of e-mail addresses to which the message is sent. Note the use of the TesterEMail column from the BetaTesters query in the to attribute.

Developing ColdFusion Applications
Sending and Receiving E-mail