Webmaster Forum / ColdFusion / Advanced Techniques / January 2006

Probable cause:
A tag, most likely cfmail, accessed an undefined value. When such a value is
passed down to system code, the error may escalate from a simple, one-off
Application type to a more serious, intermittent System exception.

Recommendations:

1. In CF Administrator, use settings that would ensure robust mail
performance. In particular, spooling is a good thing. For example,
 
Spool Interval (seconds): 5
(checked)  Spool mail messages for delivery
Error Log Severity: Warning
(checked)  Log all mail messages sent by ColdFusion
Default CFMail Charset: UTF-8 (8-Bit Unicode Transformation Format)

2. Enclose all your <cfmail> code within try-catch blocks, to trap exceptions
before they get any chance to escalate.

<cftry>
<cfmail>
<!--- Mail code --->
</cfmail>
<cfcatch type="any">
<!--- Code for error-handling and reporting --->
</cfcatch>
</cftry>

3. Use cfmail attributes that ensure robust performance. For example,

FailTo = "mailFail@myDomain.com"
charset = "UTF-8"
spoolEnable = "yes"
timeout = "60"  (in seconds) - adjust according to load on the cfmail tag;
overrides CF Admin value

4. For e-mail addresses use
http://livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/7/htmldocs/00000297.htm is more
robust than using just one.

My advice is that you start your own thread, describing your own problem,
including your system setup, version, etc. and then the difficulties you face,
the error messages, and so on. Fresh start and all that.