cfdocument

Use the cfdocument tag to generate a file on the server either to save to a folder or to attach to an email

<cfdocument format="pdf" filename="#getTempDirectory()#mydoc.pdf">
    <h1>Hello ColdFusion</h1>
    <p>This is <strong>PDF</strong> example document.</p>
    <p>Generated at: <cfoutput>#TimeFormat(Now())# on #DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput></p>
</cfdocument>

Expected Result: A saved Hello ColdFusion PDF to a temporary directory

PDF is sent back to the browser instead of saving to a file. The cfheader tag is used to suggest a file name to the browser. The cfcontent tag is used to set the Content-Type response header (that could also be done using cfheader) which tells the browser that it is a PDF file.

<cfcontent type="application/pdf">
<cfheader name="Content-Disposition" value="attachment;filename=example.pdf">
<cfdocument format="pdf">
    <h1>Hello ColdFusion</h1>
    <p>This is <strong>PDF</strong> example document.</p>
    <p>Generated at: <cfoutput>#TimeFormat(Now())# on #DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput></p>
</cfdocument>

This is a script representation of the the same code above.

Note that the writeoutput is indeed necessary for any body content in a script-based cfdocument--even if no CFML variables or expressions exist in the string. (This is true also for other script-based tags that may have bodies, including cfdocumentitem and cfdocumentsection, as well as cfhtmltopdf, cfsavecontent, etc.)

<cfscript>
cfcontent( type="application/pdf" );
cfheader( name="Content-Disposition", value="attachment;filename=example.pdf" );
cfdocument (format="pdf"){
writeoutput("
    <h1>Hello ColdFusion</h1>
    <p>This is <strong>PDF</strong> example document.</p>
    <p>Generated at: <cfoutput>#TimeFormat(Now())# on #DateFormat(Now())#</cfoutput></p>
    ");
}
</cfscript>

must use evalatprint="true" in order to get current page numbering on the header/footer sections

<cfdocument format="pdf"> 
<cfdocumentitem type="header" evalatprint="true" > 
<cfif (cfdocument.currentpagenumber mod 2) is 0> 
<cfoutput>#cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfoutput> 
<cfelse> 
<cfoutput>#cfdocument.currentpagenumber#</cfoutput> 
</cfif> 
<cfoutput>cfdocument.currentpagenumber :#cfdocument.currentpagenumber#</cfoutput> 
<cfoutput>cfdocument.totalpagecount :#cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfoutput> 
<cfoutput>cfdocument.totalsectionpagecount :#cfdocument.totalsectionpagecount#</cfoutput> 
<cfoutput>cfdocument.currentsectionpagenumber :#cfdocument.currentsectionpagenumber#</cfoutput> 
</cfdocumentitem> 
<cfdocumentitem type="footer" evalatprint="true" > 
<cfif ! (cfdocument.currentpagenumber mod 2) is 0> 
<cfoutput>if#cfdocument.totalpagecount#</cfoutput> 
<cfelse> 
<cfoutput>else#cfdocument.currentpagenumber#</cfoutput>
</cfif> 
</cfdocumentitem> 
<cfdocumentsection >Example Text 
</cfdocumentsection> 
</cfdocument>

Expected Result: A PDF with Header & Footer elements