The following table lists the locations in which you can save component files and how they can be accessed from each location:
| URL | Form | Flash Remoting | Web services | ColdFusion page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current directory |
N/A |
Yes |
N/A |
N/A |
Yes |
| Web root |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| ColdFusion mappings |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
| Custom tag roots |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
Note: ColdFusion MX mappings and custom tag roots can exist within the web root. If so, they are accessible to remote requests, including URL, form, Flash Remoting, and web services invocation.
When you store components in the same directory, they are members of a component package. You can group related CFCs into packages. Your application can refer to any component in a directory specifically by using a qualified component name that starts with a subdirectory of one of the accessible directories and uses a period to delimit each directory in the path to the directory that contains the component. For example, the following example is a qualified name of a component named price:
catalog.product.price
In this example, the price.cfc file must be in the catalog\product subdirectory of a directory that ColdFusion searches for components, as listed in the preceding table. When you refer to a component using the qualified name, ColdFusion looks for the component in the order described in Specifying the CFC location.
Establishing a descriptive naming convention is a good practice, especially if you plan to install the components as part of a packaged application.