Processing ColdFusion variables which reside inside a database table - coldfusion

Question

One of my table is saving an HTML form which contains ColdFusion variables. In my code I am querying this table and need to display this form in the front end. But while displaying I am getting the ColdFusion variable names instead of the values of the variables.
HTML Form saved in the db table:
<form action="" name="ci_entry_form" id="ci_entry_form" method="post">
<table width="100%" height="100%" border="0">
<tr>
<td align="right"><b style="color:red">*</b> <label class="pop_up_letter_font">G/L # :</label></td>
<td> <input class="pop_up_textbox" type="text" name="gl_number_text" id="gl_number_text" maxlength="21" value="#ARGUMENTS.chkDetails.GL_ACCT_NBR#" required/>
<select class="pop_up_dd" name="gl_number_drop" id="gl_number_drop" onChange="enableDisableGL()">
<option value="">---Select---</option>
<option value="new">Enter a new G/L number</option>
<cfoutput query="glNumbers">
<option value="#glNumbers.GL_ACCT_NBR#">#glNumbers.GL_ACCT_NBR#</option>
</cfoutput>
</select>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
Method (cffunction) contains below code to query this html form from db table and return the html form.
<cfquery name="qry_getTemplate" datasource="#APPLICATION.dsn#">
select FORM_TXT from HTML_FORMS where REQ_ID = 172
</cfquery>
<cfsavecontent variable="form_content">
<cfoutput>#qry_getTemplate.FORM_TXT #</cfoutput>
</cfsavecontent>
But when I dump the cfcontent variable form_content I am getting the HTML Form without processing the coldfusion variables #ARGUMENTS.chkDetails.GL_ACCT_NBR#, #glNumbers.GL_ACCT_NBR#.
Am I missing something? Can any one help me out resolve this?

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure if you searched this site or via Google a bit you could have found the answer to this already posted somewhere, given it comes up all the time (about once every 3-4 months).
You can't output CFML and somehow hope that it will execute.
I've summarised the CFML request / compile / response process on my blog: "The ColdFusion request/response process".
Bottom line: CFML source code needs to be loaded from the file system at compile time not at runtime. So your code needs to be in the file system when you want it to execute, not in the DB or in a variable.
You can write the code to file and then include it, though. This is detailed in that blog article.