CFSaveContent And THISTAG.GeneratedContent Tip

Over the weekend, when I was working on my Dig Deep Fitness prototype, I thought of a neat little trick. I am sure that this has been done by many people, but it had never occurred to me. I was working with a ColdFusion custom tag in which I needed to replace the generated content of the tag. Normally, when I would do something of this nature, I would simply store the new content in a CFSaveContent tag buffer and then set that variable into the THISTAG.GeneratedContent variable:

<!---
	We only want to execute this after the tag has
	executed. That way, we will know all the child
	tags and content that has been generated.
--->
<cfif (THISTAG.ExecutionMode EQ "End")>

	<!--- Create the new tag content. --->
	<cfsavecontent variable="VARIABLES.NewContent">
		<cfoutput>

			<!---
				Put the new content in here that you want the
				ColdFusion custom custom to actually produce.
			--->

		</cfoutput>
	</cfsavecontent>


	<!--- Set the tag's new content. --->
	<cfset THISTAG.GeneratedContent = VARIABLES.NewContent />

</cfif>

But this weekend, as I was writing a tag like that, it hit me! Why not just store the CFSaveContent buffer directly into the GeneratedContent of the tag? Why bother even going through an intermediary variable:

<!---
	We only want to execute this after the tag has
	executed. That way, we will know all the child
	tags and content that has been generated.
--->
<cfif (THISTAG.ExecutionMode EQ "End")>

	<!--- Reset the tag content. --->
	<cfsavecontent variable="THISTAG.GeneratedContent">
		<cfoutput>

			<!---
				Put any content in here that you want the
				ColdFusion custom custom to actually
				produce. By storing the content diretly into
				the GeneratedContent, it will set the output
				that is displayed.
			--->

		</cfoutput>
	</cfsavecontent>

</cfif>

Notice that the CFSaveContent tag is now storing its buffer directly into the THISTAG.GeneratedContent variable, which will, thereby, replace the content of the ColdFusion tag.

So, like I said, this is a really minor tip, but I think it has a big logical and visual impact on the layout of the ColdFusion custom tag. Thought I would share this with anyone who hadn't realized this shortcut yet.

Want to use code from this post? Check out the license.

Short link: https://bennadel.com/1160

Reader Comments

Michael Sharman Feb 19, 2008 at 2:14 AM

17 Comments

Another good tip Ben, thanks

phpnuke Feb 26, 2008 at 9:17 PM

1 Comments

It will come in handy. Go Ben go. :)

Ralph Mar 17, 2011 at 2:12 PM

2 Comments

Apparently, you cannot change THISTAG.GeneratedContent when THISTAG.ExecutionMode EQ "start"

Ben Nadel Mar 17, 2011 at 2:26 PM

15,902 Comments

@Ralph,

Correct - there is no generated content at that point since the body of the tag has not yet executed.

Orville Chomer Apr 24, 2012 at 12:33 PM

4 Comments

How come when I try to use ThisTag.generatedContent it does not seem to want to work?

I have a tag called <sample1>..

Here is a test using it:

<cf_sample1>This is a Test</cf_sample1>

Here is the contents of the tag file:

<cfif (thistag.executionMode eq "end")>
<cfoutput><br>value=#thistag.generatedContent#</cfoutput>
</cfif>

I get value=
but no value at all!

Orville Chomer Apr 24, 2012 at 3:07 PM

4 Comments

@Orville,

Found my own problem!

In my Application.cfm file I am using:

<cfsetting enablecfoutputonly="Yes">

So, in order for my custom tag to work as I would expect, I have to call it like so:

<cf_sample1><cfoutput>This is a Test</cfoutput></cf_sample1>

Then it works just fine!

Oh my chickens, this post is old!

Hit me up on Twitter if you want to discuss it further.