errorMessagesFor()

Signature

errorMessagesFor() — returns string

Available in: controller Category: Error Functions

Description

Builds and returns a list (ul tag with a default class of error-messages) containing all the error messages for all the properties of the object. Returns an empty string if no errors exist.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Default	Description
objectName	string	yes	—	The variable name of the object to display error messages for.
class	string	no	error-messages	CSS class to set on the ul element.
showDuplicates	boolean	no	true	Whether or not to show duplicate error messages.
encode	boolean	no	true	Encode URL parameters using EncodeForURL(). Please note that this does not make the string safe for placement in HTML attributes, for that you need to wrap the result in EncodeForHtmlAttribute() or use linkTo(), startFormTag() etc instead.
includeAssociations	boolean	no	true

Examples

Example 1 — Basic usage
<cfoutput>
#errorMessagesFor(objectName="author")#
</cfoutput>

Generates a <ul class="error-messages"> containing all errors for the author object.

Default behavior includes all associated object errors.

Example 2 — Custom CSS class
<cfoutput>
#errorMessagesFor(objectName="author", class="alert alert-danger")#
</cfoutput>

Uses a custom CSS class for styling (e.g., Bootstrap alerts).

Example 3 — Exclude duplicate errors
<cfoutput>
#errorMessagesFor(objectName="author", showDuplicates=false)#
</cfoutput>

Prevents duplicate messages from appearing multiple times in the list.

Example 4 — Include or exclude associated objects
<cfoutput>
<!--- Only show errors on this object, not on associated objects --->
#errorMessagesFor(objectName="author", includeAssociations=false)#
</cfoutput>

Useful if you want to display errors for the main object separately from associated objects (like a nested profile or address).

Example 5 — HTML encoding disabled
<cfoutput>
#errorMessagesFor(objectName="author", encode=false)#
</cfoutput>

Errors are output as-is, allowing embedded HTML in the messages (use with caution).