This is a method for reading in variables and constants from an XML file. In this example, we are reading them in to the application scope. This can be useful for sharing variables across applications or servers, and to keep things organized.

Take the following XML file with some application constants.

<myApplication>
	<dsn>my_dsn</dsn>
	<docRoot>j:\cfusionmx\wwwroot\my_app</docRoot>
</myApplication>

Take the following Application.cfm (set the XMLPath to be the location of your XML file):

<cfapplication name="myApp" applicationtimeout="20">

<cfif not(isDefined("application.vars.dsn")) or isDefined("url.flush")>
	<cfset XMLpath =U:\CFusionMX\wwwroot\tutorial\myXMLFile.xml">
	<cffile action="read" file="#XMLpath#" variable="x">
	
	<cfset x = xmlparse(x)>
	<cfset var_array="#x.myApplication.xmlchildren#"> 
	<cfloop from="1" to="#arraylen(var_array)#" index="i">
			<cfset var_name = var_array[i].xmlname>
			<cfset "application.vars.#var_name#" = #var_array[i].xmltext#> 
	</cfloop>
</cfif>

If application.vars.dsn is not defined or we pass in url.flush to a page in our application, the code will parse the XML file and assign application variables accordingly. The url.flush mechanism is a handy way to reflect changes in the XML file without waiting for the application to timeout or a server reboot.

If you <cfdump var="#application.vars#">, you will see the two application variables defined in the XML file.