User Guide

Installing Custom Tags 187

Access to generated content

Custom tags can access and modify the generated content of any of its instances

using the

thisTag.GeneratedContent variable. In this context, the term generated

content means the results of processing the body of a given tag. This includes all text

and HTML code in the body, the results of evaluating ColdFusion variables,

expressions, and functions, and the results generated by descendant tags. Any

changes to the value of this variable results in changes to the generated content.

thisTag.GeneratedContent is always empty during the processing of a start tag. Any

output generated during start tag processing is not considered part of the tag’s

generated content.

As an example, consider a tag that comments out the HTML generated by its

descendants. Its implementation could look something like this:

<cfset thisTag.GeneratedContent =

’’>

</cfif>

Installing Custom Tags

Custom tags are just like other cfm files except that they must be installed in a

specific location to be accessible from the calling page. Because ColdFusion loads

the first instance it finds of the custom tag called by a page, you should avoid placing

copies of a custom tag in different locations.

Local tags

The ColdFusion engine first searches for a custom tag in the directory of the calling

page. This allows you to keep a custom tag file in the same directory as the page that

uses it.

Shared tags

To share a custom tag among applications in multiple directories, place it in the

Custom Tags folder under your ColdFusion installation directory, for example

C:\CFUSION\CustomTags. You can create subfolders to organize custom tags.

ColdFusion searches recursively for the Custom Tags directory, stepping down

through any existing subdirectories until the custom tag is found.