ColdFusion form - display error details from database table - coldfusion

Question

I have a database table with error id and error details for form validation errors.
In my ColdFusion form page, I have a list of error numbers 2,4,7 available. But I want to display errors like "Please enter name" etc.
I want to compare my list of errors with error id's in the database table and display the corresponding error in my form. Please let me know if there is any better way to do it. Thanks in advance!!
<form name = "empform" action="empform.cfm" method="post">
<cfoutput>
<table border="0">
<tr><td colspan="4" align="center" style="padding-bottom:20px;"><h2>Add Employee</h2></td></tr>
<cfif (structKeyExists(rc,"addemp"))>
<cfif rc.result.hasErrors()>
<tr>
<td colspan="4" style="border:2px solid red;">
Please review the following:
<ul>
<cfloop array="#rc.result.getFailureMessages()#" index="message">
<li>#message#</li>
</cfloop>
</ul>
</td>
</tr>
</cfif>
</cfif>
<cfset myArray = rc.result.getFailureMessages()>
<cfset myList = ArrayToList(myArray, ",")>
<cfquery name="qErrorMessages" datasource="#dsn#" >
Select * from ErrorMessages
</cfquery>
<tr>
<td><label><b>Emp Last Name</b></label></td>
<td><input name="lastname" type="text" value="" /></td>
<td><label><b>First Name</b></label></td>
<td><input name="FirstName" type="text" value="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><label><b> Emp Birth Date</b></label></td>
<td><input name="birthdate" type="text" value="" /></td>
<td><label><b>Salary</b></label></td>
<td><input name="salary" type="text" value="" /></td>
</tr>
<tr><td style="padding-top:10px;">
<input type="submit" name = "addemp" value ="AddEmp /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</cfoutput>
</form>
I can display errors as shown above
Now I want to show actual messages. I am stuck up here.
My issue is not solved. I am able to loop through the table of errors only. Probably I need to loop through my list of error ids and then I need another loop to look up for the table errorId's to match then display the error.
I got it fixed with the below code.
<cfloop index="ind" list=#mylist#>
<cfquery datasource= "#dsn#" name="emperrors">
Select errorid,errmessage from errorcodes where errorid = #ind#
</cfquery>
#emperrors.errmessage#<br>
</cfloop>

Answer 1

Your question is short on details, but I'd probably query the table with the error messages, convert it to a struct, then drop that struct into a persistent scope that I could then reference later.
Something like:
<cfset errorStruct={}>
<cfloop query="qFormErrorMsgs">
<cfset errorStruct[error_id]=error_msg>
</cfloop>
<cfset application.errorStruct=errorStruct>
Then, when you want to display the error:
<p>Please fix the following error: #application.errorStruct[variables.error_id]#</p>
But that's just one way you might do it. Without more information in your question all you're going to get is guess (if you're lucky).

Answer 2

Alright, your answer detailing code should have been appended to your question via an edit, and still that's really not enough code. How are you determining your errors?
It sounds like your errors are something like this:
Please review the following:
2
3
6.
When what you want is error messages.
An easy way to update this is to load all your messages into an array where the index corresponds to the error codes.
<cfset ErrDetails=ArrayNew()>
<cfset ErrDetails[1]="You didn't enter your first name.">
<cfset ErrDetails[2]="You didn't enter your last name.">
<cfset ErrDetails[3]="You didn't enter a properly formatted birth date.">
<cfset ErrDetails[4]="It appears, from your birthdate, that your age is below 18">
And then, in your cfloop, you can
<cfloop array="#rc.result.getFailureMessages()#" index="message">
<li>#ErrDetails[message]#</li>
</cfloop>
Lastly it sounds like your errorcodes/messages are coming from a database. I'm not really sure that's necessary, but if you really want to keep it that way, that's fine. You can initialize this into the application scope so that you can call it later without rerunning the query, or just put it somewhere in flat text. However, if you want the application scope answer, here's a method.
<cflock scope="application" timeout="5">
<cfif not isDefined("application.ErrDetails")>
<cfquery name="getec">
select ErrID,ErrMessage from ErrorCodes
</cfquery>
<cfset Application.ErrDetails = []>
<cfloop query="getec">
<cfset Application.ErrDetails[ErrID]=ErrMessage>
</cfloop>
</cfif>
<cfset request.ErrDetails = Application.ErrDetails>
</cflock>
Once this is initiated, the cfloop displaying errors as I showed above can use #request.errDetails[message]#
If it's just running in one page, I wouldn't worry about creating an application variable. I'd just hardcode it in, or do a query there with a cfloop similar to above writing to a variables scope variable, not an application variable so the cflock isn't needed.
Unless you also have web based admin creating these rules, I'd probably ditch the table altogether and drop it directly into code, a cfinclude, a udf, or a custom tag.

Answer 3

Since the asker has updated their question with an answer.
Your answer needlessly repeats the query for each iteration.
Try something like this..
<cfquery datasource="#dsn#" name="GetECs">
select ErrorID,ErrMessage from ErrorCodes
where ErrorID in (<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" list="yes" value="#mylist#">)
</cfquery>
<cfoutput query="GetECs">
#currentrow#. #ErrMessage#<br>
</cfoutput>
Notes:
One query is run.
For results, the where ErrorID in (<cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" list="yes" value="#mylist#">) is the same as saying where ErrorID in (#mylist#). However, the tag secures your queries against sql injection (the tactic of modifying variables to produce undesirable/malicious results in a query. Read up on cfqueryparam at http://help.adobe.com/livedocs/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_p-q_18.html