When you have a long list to display, it often makes sense to break the list up into columns. If you display your list using tables, a simple CFIF tag is all it takes.

<CFQUERY name="getlist" datasource="mydb">
        SELECT listitem FROM list
</CFQUERY>
<CFSET numcols=3>
<table>
   <tr>
      <CFOUTPUT query="getlist">
      <td>#listitem#</td>
         <CFIF getlist.currentrow/numcols IS 
                  int(getlist.currentrow/numcols)>
            </tr><tr>
         </CFIF>
      </CFOUTPUT>
   </tr>
</table>

The code above creates a three-column table. You can set the numcols variable to any desired integer, or calculate it based on the number of items in the list.

This technique displays items in horizontal sequence. To list items vertically, use a slightly different technique:

<CFSET numrows=int(getlist.recordcount/numcols)>
<table>
   <tr><td>
      <CFOUTPUT query="getlist">
      #listitem#
            <CFIF getlist.currentrow/numrows IS 
                     int(getlist.currentrow/numrows)>
               </td><td>
            <CFELSE>
               <br>
            </CFIF>
      </CFOUTPUT>
   </td></tr>
</table>

This last method creates an extra table cell, which you can suppress if needed.

Joe Copley is president of Copley Internet Systems. He can be reached at joe@copleyinternet.com.

Sometimes you need to create a feedback/order form that you do not have time to create, or you want your users to be able to create forms and you don't have time to train them. In such cases, you can write a standard script that takes all the fields from your form and mails them. Users will only have to deal with the form itself.

Below is the sample file, named mailrequest.cfm, which takes all the fields from a form and mails them out. View the source code to see how to use this script. In the beginning, you should have something that looks like this:

<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="mailrequest.cfm">
<input type=hidden name="from" value="me@domain.com">
<input type=hidden name="to" value="recipient@domain.com">
<input type=hidden name="subject" value="Feedback-form">
<input type=hidden name="route" value="confirm.htm">
<input type=hidden name="fields"
     value="name,address,city,state,zip,phone,country">
<input type=hidden name="LOG_FILE" value="c:\logs\reglog.log">

<!--- common script to mail a form 
Written by Dmitriy Shlosberg (dshlos@home.com)
Copyright (c)1997-1998, RAMS-FIE, Inc.
--->

<cfset #text#="">
<cfloop index=index1 list="#FORM.required_fields#">
   <cfif #Evaluate("#index1#")# is "">
      <cflocation url="#FORM.error_location#?field=#index1#">
   </cfif>
</cfloop>
<cfloop index=index1 list="#FORM.fields#">
   <cfset #text#= #text# & "#index1#" & ": " & 
      #Evaluate("#index1#")# & chr(13) & chr(10)>
</cfloop>

<cfset #text#= #text# & chr(13) & chr(10) & "Host Name:" & 
   #CGI.REMOTE_HOST#>
<cfset #text#= #text# & chr(13) & chr(10) & "Host IP:" & 
   #CGI.REMOTE_ADDR#>
<cfset #text#= #text# & chr(13) & chr(10) & "Submission Date/Time:" & 
   #Now()#>

<cfset #text#= #text# & chr(13) & chr(10) & chr(13) & chr(10)>

<cfmail from="#FORM.from#"
   to="#FORM.to#"
   subject="#FORM.subject#">
#text#
</cfmail>

<!--- save this into a file --->

<!--- the filename should be specified in the LOG_FILE form field --->

<cfset #savevar#= "Sent to: " & #FORM.to# & chr(13) & chr(10) & 
   #text#>

<cfif #ParameterExists(FORM.LOG_FILE)# is "Yes">
   <cffile action="append"
      file="#FORM.LOG_FILE#"
      output="#savevar#">
</cfif>

<cflocation url="#FORM.route#">

Contact Dmitriy Shlosberg at (dshlos@home.com)