Can't edit/use variable in expression but I can output it - coldfusion

Question

I've got the following code in a method:
<cffunction name="serviceTicketValidate" access="public" output="yes" returntype="void" hint="Validate the service ticket">
<cfargument name="service_ticket" type="string" required="yes" hint="The ST to validate" />
<!--- Contact the CAS server to validate the ticket --->
<cfhttp url="#Variables.cas_server#serviceValidate" method="get">
<cfhttpparam name="ticket" value="#Arguments.service_ticket#" type="url" />
<cfhttpparam name="service" value="#Variables.service#" type="url" />
</cfhttp>
<!--- Received a valid XML response --->
<cfif IsXML(cfhttp.FileContent)>
<cfset XMLobj = XmlParse(cfhttp.fileContent)>
<!--- Check for the cas:user tag --->
<cfset CASuser = XmlSearch(XMLobj, "cas:serviceResponse/cas:authenticationSuccess/cas:user")>
<!--- Set the username to the value --->
<cftry>
<cfif variables.username NEQ ''>
<cfdump var="#Variables.username#" /><cfreturn/>
</cfif>
<cfif ArrayLen(CASuser)>
<cfset Variables['username'] = CASuser[1].XmlText />
</cfif>
<cfcatch>
<cfdump var="#cfcatch#" /><cfabort/>
</cfcatch>
</cftry>
<!--- Search for cas:attributes --->
<cfset CASattributes = XmlSearch(XMLobj, "cas:serviceResponse/cas:authenticationSuccess/cas:attributes")>
<!--- Go through all the attributes and add them to the attributes struct --->
<cfif ArrayLen(CASattributes)>
<cfloop array=#CASattributes[1].XmlChildren# index="attribute">
<cfset StructInsert(Variables.attributes,RemoveChars(attribute.XmlName,1,Find(":",attribute.XmlName)),attribute.XmlText)/>
</cfloop>
</cfif>
</cfif>
Note I added the cftry and cfcatch to see what is going on exactly. I've also added the if username != blank to debug as well. This method is called in another method like so:
<cfinvoke method="serviceTicketValidate">
<cfinvokeargument name="service_ticket" value="#service_ticket#" />
</cfinvoke>
<cfdump var="test2" /><cfabort/>
Again I've added the dump and abort for testing. The variable.username is defied and set to an empty string when the component is initiated and the component is initiated into a session variable.
So get this... when the whole process runs the first time I get output on my screen test2 as expected. Then, the next time the same thing is run, the session exists, thus the variable.username is set to something. In the first code block I can dump variables.username and see the username. However if I try to use variables.username in a conditional expression (like in that if statement) or if I remove the if statement and let the script try to change the value of variable.username, there are no errors, it just breaks out of the script completely. It ends that method, and the method that called it and I don't see test2 like I would think. It all just ends for some reason.
If you need further details I can provide more code but I tried to trim out as much as I thought was relevant. All methods are in the same component, all methods are public. Why can't I change the value of variables.username and why is there no error?
EDIT:
I think it may have something to do with the cflock but I'm debugging some stuff right now. I had a redirect inside the code block that is inside the lock. So I guess it never unlocks. But I even waited after the timeout and it still remained locked. I thought the lock was supposed to expire after the timeout.

Answer 1

I'm a little confused but it seems like you're trying to use a cfc's variables scope to set caller variables. The variables scope is not available to the caller the way it seems you are trying to use it.
index.cfm
<cfoutput>
<cfset objTest = createObject("component", "testscope").init()><br><Br>
<cfset objTest.checkValue()><br><br>
Calling page is checking the existence of testvar: #isDefined("variables.testvar")#
</cfoutput>
testscope.cfm
<cfcomponent displayname="testscope">
<cffunction name="init" access="public">
init() just set variables.testvar.
<cfset variables.testvar = "Okay, set">
<cfreturn This>
</cffunction>
<!--- Set some more variables --->
<cffunction name="checkValue" access="public">=
<cfoutput>Checkvalue is checking the value of testvar: #variables.testvar#</cfoutput>
</cffunction>
</cfcomponent>
The output is
init() just set variables.testvar.
Checkvalue is checking the value of testvar: Okay, set
Calling page is checking the existence of testvar: false