CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
Call this function, passing in a collection name, to see if that named Verity colleciton exists. The previous version of this UDF used the <cfcollection action="list" /> tag to determine if the collection exists. The problem is, this action takes a very long time to return a result if there are a lot of collection registered (appx 1 second for every 3 collections.)

Return Values:
Returns a boolean.

Example:

<cfif NOT collectionExists("catalog")>
    <cfcollection
        action="create"
        collection="catalog"
        path="#pathToVerityCollection#"
        language="english"
            />
</cfif>

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

<!---
 Call this function, passing in a collection name, to see if that named Verity colleciton exists.
 Version 1 by Pete Ruckelshaus, pruckelshaus@yahoo.com
 Raymond Camden modified version 2 a bit.
 
 @param collection      Name of collection (Required)
 @return Returns a boolean. 
 @author Dan G. Switzer, II (dswitzer@pengoworks.com) 
 @version 2, March 10, 2006 
--->
<cffunction name="collectionExists" returnType="boolean" output="false" hint="This returns a yes/no value that checks for the existence of a named collection.">
    <cfargument name="collection" type="string" required="yes">

    <!---// by default return true //--->
    <cfset var bExists = true />
    <cfset var searchItems = "">
    
    <!---// if you can't search the collection, then assume it doesn't exist //--->
    <cftry>
        <cfsearch
            name="searchItems"
            collection="#arguments.collection#"
            type="simple"
            criteria="#createUUID()#"
            />
        <cfcatch type="any">
            <!---// if the message contains the string "does not exist", then the collection can't be found //--->
            <cfif cfcatch.message contains "does not exist">
                <cfset bExists = false />
            <cfelse>
                <cfrethrow>
            </cfif>
        </cfcatch>
    </cftry>

    <!---// returns true if search was successful and false if an error occurred //--->
    <cfreturn bExists />

</cffunction>