cfinvokeargument with special character not working in SELECT

Question

I have a cfinvoke:

<cfinvoke component="cfcs.people" method="getPerson">
   <cfinvokeargument name="name" value="José">
</cfinvoke>

And a function:

<cffunction name="getPerson" access="remote" returntype="any">
    <cfargument name="name" type="string">

    <cfquery name="qry" datasource="#datasource#">
        SELECT id
        FROM people
        WHERE name = <cfqueryparam value="#name#" cfsqltype="CF_SQL_NVARCHAR">
    </cfquery>

    <cfreturn qry>
</cffunction>

I have a row in the people table with a name of "José", however the cfinvoke does not return this row. Any name that does not contain a special character works, but any name with a special character returns no rows.

What is causing special characters to break the SELECT, and what can I do to fix it?

What version of ColdFusion? In older versions there is a setting to enable high-ascii values for datasources. — Miguel-F, Sep 27 '21 at 14:48
Have you narrowed down the issue to `cfinvokeargument` and not the query itself? — Miguel-F, Sep 27 '21 at 14:54
What is the value of `name` within the `getPerson` function before the query is run? — Miguel-F, Sep 27 '21 at 15:02
@Miguel-F Yes, I tried the query in MSSQL itself, placing `'José'` in the place of `` and the correct row is returned. — swinn, Sep 27 '21 at 15:02
Alright, have you tried calling the function without using `cfinvoke`? Like `getPerson("José")` or `people.cfc?method=getPerson&name=José` — Miguel-F, Sep 27 '21 at 15:14
Output the literal string `José` just before the ``. Does it display as `JosÃ©`? — SOS, Sep 27 '21 at 15:16
Yes they already confirmed that @SOS Have you seen this before? — Miguel-F, Sep 27 '21 at 15:17
@Miguel-F - No, I meant without any cf code or calling any functions code. Just output the literal string. I'm guessing it's caused by the page encoding and embedding a literal unicode string, rather than a problem with cfinvoke or the function itself. — SOS, Sep 27 '21 at 15:20
@Miguel-F Calling the function in a cfscript gives the same result. — swinn, Sep 27 '21 at 15:22
Ah, okay gotcha. Yes I was thinking the page encoding as well. Perhaps place the `` tag would help here. Not sure. — Miguel-F, Sep 27 '21 at 15:23
@SpyderScript - Now add ``. It should display as `José`, and also work in the function. — SOS, Sep 27 '21 at 15:24
Did you try calling it in cfscript? It would just be `person = createObject("cfcs.people").getPerson(José);` — Redtopia, Sep 27 '21 at 15:53
@Redtopia makes a good point about syntax. Might consider using the sleeker `new` operator, instead of the bulkier cfinvoke. I.e. `result = new cfcs.people().getPerson(...)` — SOS, Sep 27 '21 at 20:32

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '21 at 16:45

Try outputting only the literal string in a .cfm script

José

If the browser displays the mangled string below, then it is a file encoding problem, not an issue with cfinvoke or cffunction

JosÃ©

To resolve it, set the encoding to UTF-8 at the top of the script:

 <cfprocessingdirective pageencoding="utf-8">

You can also change it globally, for the entire jvm, using the jvm arg -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8.

It's worth noting cfprocessingdirective is frequently misunderstood. The only reason it's required here is because the literal string José is embedded in the cfm source. If that string will ultimately be replaced with say a form field, then you won't need the directive. The original code will work without issue.

<!--- works in modern versions of CF -->
<cfinvoke component="cfcs.people" method="getPerson">
   <cfinvokeargument name="name" value="#form.name#">
</cfinvoke>

See also <cfprocessingdirective> and how not to use it

cfinvokeargument with special character not working in SELECT

1 Answers1