getting started with cfc's - how do i pass a variable in?

I recommend you start by reading the docs:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/buildingComponents_01.html

(read it THOROUGHLY).

Then read the related docs on all the various tags thoroughly too:

<cfcomponent>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_c_10.html

<cffunction>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_f_21.html#2852457

<cfargument>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_a-b_6.html#2855190

<cfreturn>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_r-s_09.html#2498057


<cfinvoke>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_i_10.html#4001127

<cfinvokeargument>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_i_11.html#3014048

<cfobject>
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_m-o_08.html#2820239

createObect()
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=functions_in-k_17.html#5183878


The info in the docs is pretty complete, and all you should need to get
your brain around it.

--
Adam

Inside your cfc, you can use the arguments scope, the this scope, the property scope, or the variables scope.

cfc's are not the only way to reuse code. You can also write custom tags, or included files. Also since some cfc's are nothing more than a bunch of udfs, you can put these udfs into an included file.

Can you also use cfparam as well in cfcs instead of arguments Dan?

Give your arguments simple names. No periods.

CFCs are designed to be available to more than one calling template. Therefore they are islands of code unto themselves. They have nothing to do with calling templates other than receiveing arguments and returning something.

thanks Dan, that's what i thought - but when i change the funcion to this

<cfcomponent displayname="coordinates cfc" hint="This is the CFC to get the x and y coordinates and locationname of a location from the locationid pass this as forcfc.locationid">
<!--- this function gets the x and y coordinates of a location from the locationid --->
<cffunction name="get_location_details" hint="gets the x and y coordinates and locationname of a location from the locationid pass this as forcfc.locationid" returntype="query">
<cfargument name="forcfc.locationid" />
<cfquery datasource="arj" name="rs_location" >
select locationname, xcoord, ycoord
from tbl_locations
where locationkey = #forcfc.locationid#
</cfquery>
<cfreturn rs_location>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

(by adding this line - <cfargument name="forcfc.locationid" /> )

i get this error:

Invalid argument name.
The name forcfc.locationid used for an argument has illegal characters in it.

so does that mean i can't scope my variables when i use cfc's - that sounds a bit odd.

would passing the vars as a structure as you suggest get around this problem somehow?

forgive me but could you elaborate on how to do that (i dont know to make a scructure) and ive studies the cf docs on this but that doesnt seem to help either

at this rate i think i'll give cfc's a miss and just make an include that does what i want - but that sounds counter intuative as everyone says how important it is to use cfc's

thanks for anything else you can give me

cheers

Nick

In your function you need cfargument tags.

Passing your argument to a function can be done a variety of ways. My preference is argumentcollection = somestructure.