how to call a CF File from another CF File

This is CERTAINLY not the most elegant solution, but it shows the intention, at least.

First, on the calling page, we have the following CFC invocation (it assumes a folder structure of root/com/excel.cfc):

<cfinvoke component="com.excel" method="makePDF" firstname="Douglas" lastname="Adams" />

The "component" attribute tells CF where to look for the cfc file and the "method" attribute tells CF which "method" to run once it finds the cfc.  Next, I simply pass in a couple arguments: firstname and lastname in this example.  Of course, these could just as easily be FORM or URL variables (or any other kind, for that matter.

Next, here's the CFC:

<cfcomponent>
    <cffunction name="makePDF" access="public" output="yes">
        <cfargument name="firstname" required="yes">
        <cfargument name="lastname" required="yes">
        <cfsavecontent variable="pdfdoc">
            #arguments.firstname# #arguments.lastname#
        </cfsavecontent>
        <cfheader name="content-disposition" value="attachment; filename=mypdf.pdf">
        <cfdocument format="pdf">
            <cfoutput>#pdfdoc#</cfoutput>
        </cfdocument>
    </cffunction>
</cfcomponent>

You'll notice at the top I have the arguments expected for this method specified--the same two that I passed from the calling page.  Next, I simply create the document content.

The most important part is the <cfheader>--by setting the "value" to what it is, it will force a download of the pdf, rather than trying to load it in the same page.  Finally, I just output the document content between <cfdocument> tags with a format of "pdf" which will take care of the pdf generation.

Again, not the most elegant solution, but I think it will work.  Hope it helps.