Application.cfm in root and subdirectory, help.

Question

I cannot figure this out. I understand that an application
will use the application.cfm file in it's current directory first
and not search further. However, my page in a subdirectory seems to
not see the application.cfm in it's own directory and instead uses
the root application.cfm. Can anyone explain? And I have tried
capitalizing the "A", etc. but I am not using Linux so I do not
think it matters anyway. (CF MX)

Answer 1

Hard to tell exactly, but in the subdirectory, is the ONLY
line the <cfset application.dsn_test = "DiningHall">?
If so, the subdirectory application.cfm would execute and the
parent would not, which would cause the undefined error since from
what I can tell, you haven't used the <cfapplication> tag in
the subdirectory.
What you can do is use a cfinclude in the subdirectory
application.cfm.
<cfinclude template="../application.cfm">
<cfset application.dsn_test = "DiningHall">
However.... That's a big no no if you're using this to
actually change application scope parameters, since someone
visiting the subdirectory would reset the DSN for someone that
might still be navigating around in the parent directory.
So what good is using the cfinclude method? Well, you can
lock subdirectories to roles this way.
<cfinclude template="../application.cfm">
<cfif getAuthUser() eq "" or not IsUserInRole("Admin")>
Access Denied!
<cfabort>
<cfif>
Consider changing the DSN setting to use the request.scope to
isolate the change to the user.
<cfset Request.appDSN = "DININGHALL">