OnRequest required to access page variables scope in onError.

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I was playing around with onError the other day getting ready to upgrade some legacy code I just inherited. Because I was only concerned with onError I didn't bother to add onRequest during my testing. This is the first time I've never had onRequest in my application.cfc so I didn't realize there was such a dependence between onError and onRequest until then. Ben Nadel blogged about the same thing quite a while ago when he was missing the root cause structure after deleting the onRequest method.

I hadn't gotten to dumping the actual error contents yet, I was more concerned with the variables scope... which was void of the data I was expecting it to contain. I knew right away what the problem was and it makes total sense, but having never experienced it before, gave me one of those "no shit, Sherlock" moments.

The problem is that without <cfinclude template = "#arguments.targetPage#"> the page's variable scope is OUTSIDE of application.cfc so dumping #variables# only gives you the variables you set in your application.cfc. The cfinclude effectively brings the page processing into the cfc giving onError access to those variables.

If you're one of those people still using cferror, having direct access to the variable scope is worth the change by itself.

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