Updated 08.07.2025 at the recommendation of a comment from Charlie Arehart
On March 12, 2024 ColdFusion (2021 release) Update 13 introduced a change with significant implications for developers, particularly for developers managing older code that could be “leveraging” a “feature” of ColdFusion whereby ColdFusion would forgivingly “search” through scopes in a specific order if a variable name is not prefixed with a scope identifier.
Rather than re-explain all the details here, Pete Freitag has a great write-up of the unscoped variable issue.
The release notes for the update also contain a section titled Significant changes in the release which details the issue and provides 2 options for “fixing” the issue.
Option 1: Correct application code to fetch values from the correct scope.
This option is obviously the ideal one, but how do you locate the offending code? If you are fortunate enough to use Fixinator there is an option to scan for the issue. See this post for how to use Fixinator.
If you don’t have Fixinator you can implement Option 2 and then use the new patch provided by Adobe to help find issues.
Option 2: Set searchimplicitscopes value back to TRUE.
This can be accomplished by doing the following (Only one of these needs to be performed):
- Add the newly introduced flag, -Dcoldfusion.searchimplicitscopes=true to the jvm arguments (This reverts the behavior at the jvm level (for all apps))
- Set searchimplicitscopes key to TRUE in Application.cfc or Application.cfm:
this.searchimplicitscopes = true(This explicitly reverts the behavior at the application level. The setting at the application level takes precedence over the JVM flag configured at the server level.)
Using the patch to find issues
Once you have Option 2 in place Adobe introduced a patch on April 1, 2024 to allow developers to view unscoped variables in a log file.
Link to the patch: https://helpx.adobe.com/coldfusion/kb/view-unscoped-variables-log-file.html
How to apply the patch
- Copy the patch to
cfusion/lib/updates. - Restart ColdFusion.
Once I had the patch in place I went to my application and just started using it. Within the first view pages the log file had entries.
How to view the log file
Navigate to the /cfusion/logs and locate the log file: unscoped.log. The unscoped variable is appended to the template name as :VARIABLENAME
"Severity","ThreadID","Date","Time","Application","Message"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-2","04/09/24","09:32:12","applicationName","/pathToApp/render.cfm:BTNSUBMIT"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-1","04/09/24","09:34:36","applicationName","/pathToApp/add.cfm:BTNSUBMIT"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-2","04/09/24","09:35:24","applicationName","/pathToApp/edit.cfm:DETAILID"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-2","04/09/24","09:35:24","applicationName","/pathToApp/edit.cfm:DETAILID"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-2","04/09/24","09:35:30","applicationName","/pathToApp/edit.cfm:BTNSUBMIT"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-2","04/09/24","09:35:49","applicationName","/pathToApp/received.cfm:BTNSUBMIT"
"Information","XNIO-1 task-3","04/09/24","09:41:06","applicationName","/pathToApp/note.cfm:BTNSUBMIT"
I’m going to implement this workflow and monitor the unscoped.log file daily to make corrections. Once some of the issues are identified in the unscoped.log file it becomes easier to use find/replace for common issues in the codebase.
For additional reading here is a good ColdFusion forum post: View unscoped variables in a log file
As Charlie states in his comment it is worth noting that the JVM arg will be removed at some point:
Also, the Adobe resources at the time said (and some still say) that the JVM arg would be removed in the next major release (it would no longer work). That would be CF2025, which came out in Feb. Adobe relented on that, and the JVM arg DOES still work.
Thanks for the post, Chris. I’ve come upon it only now months after your writing it (though I’ve signed up to be notified of your future posts).
On this matter of the patch (for logging use of variables which would fail due to the change in the March updates), it may help some readers here to draw out an important point about the impact of future cf updates.
As I’d noted in one of my replies in that thread you point to, if one applies any subsequent cf update that update will remove this “patch”. It’s not new behavior that updates do that, and but most patches are folded into a later update. Sadly, this one has not been.
More in my reply at https://community.adobe.com/t5/coldfusion-discussions/view-unscoped-variables-in-a-log-file/m-p/14981984#M199341
I’m sure many are still finding this helpful post a year+ later. As such if you’reopen to tweaking it, it would be helpful if you might clarify regarding your “option 2” that those two bullets don’t BOTH have to be done. One can do either OR both.
For instance, one might set the jvm to true (to affect all apps by default) and then make the app-level changes in some apps to set it false for them (or vice-versa).
The key point is that right now it reads as if someone would NEED to do both. If one JUST wants to revert the behavior at the jvm level (for all apps), only the jvm arg is needed.
Also, the Adobe resources at the time said (and some still say) that the JVM arg would be removed in the next major release (it would no longer work). That would be CF2025, which came out in Feb. Adobe relented on that, and the JVM arg DOES still work.
Hope all that’s helpful, if nothing else to readers who read these comments. 🙂
Thanks for the suggestion! I have updated the post for clarity regarding Option 2. I also noted the pending removal of the JVM argument.
Thanks for all that, but about the pending removal, your rewording still focuses on suggesting it WILL be removed. The more important point is to clarify it was NOT removed from 2025 as was originally implied by Adobe. 🙂
For now there’s no reason to think it will still be removed. We’ll know when the next new version comes out, and this could be updated then, perhaps. Your blog, of course. As always, just trying to help. 🙂