Creating Tag Definitions

Interfaces such as Tag Insight and Tag Inspector require tag-specific information to operate properly. For instance, the Tag Inspector needs to know the attributes of the tag being entered, the type of each of those attributes, and, in special instances, the enumerated values of an attribute. Individual tag definition files store this information.

These tag definitions are stored in \Extensions\TagDefs\. For instance, all the information about the APPLET tag is stored in \Extensions\TagDefs\HTML\Applet.vtm. The definition files are organized in language directories to prevent possible name conflicts between various markup languages.

Note

Whenever you make changes to a VTM file or create a new one, save the file, then press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C to apply the changes.

The following features use tag definition files:

Tag Inspector
Tag Tips
Tag Insight
Tag Editor

Creating a tag definition file

You can customize existing tag definitions and create new tag definition files. Every tag editor file contains the following markup structure:

<TAG>



    <ATTRIBUTES>



    ... Defines tag attribute properties and behavior



    </ATTRIBUTES>



    <ATTRIBCATEGORIES>



    ... Defines logical grouping for tag attributes

    </ATTRIBCATEGORIES>



    <EDITORLAYOUT>



    ... Defines the layout of a tag editor



    </EDITORLAYOUT>



    <TAGLAYOUT>



    ... Defines the tag generation template

    </TAGLAYOUT>



    <TAGDESCRIPTION>



    ... HTML-based documentation for the tag



    </TAGDESCRIPTION>



</TAG>

You can create the definition file in three ways:

Write it manually.
Create it from an existing tag definition file.
Use the Tag Definitions Library dialog box to add a tag and edit the generated file.

Defining attributes

The ATTRIBUTES block defines attributes inside the main TAG block. The ATTRIBUTES block can only contain ATTRIB tags. The following example demonstrates the definition of four tag attributes: VALUE, TITLE, ALT, and ALIGN.

<ATTRIBUTES>

<ATTRIB NAME="VALUE">

<ATTRIB NAME="TITLE">

<ATTRIB NAME="ALT">

<ATTRIB NAME="ALIGN">

</ATTRIBUTES>

In most cases, features such as Tag Insight require more than just the names of the attributes. You can use the ATTRIB tag to define the following attributes:

Attribute value types (color, file path, and so on.)
Enumerated values (LEFT, RIGHT, TOP, BOTTOM for the ALIGN attribute)

Defining attribute value types

The value type for a specific attribute can be specified using the TYPE attribute in the ATTRIB tag.

<ATTRIBUTES>

<ATTRIB NAME="VALUE"    TYPE="text" />

<ATTRIB NAME="BGCOLOR"  TYPE="color"/>

<ATTRIB NAME="FONTFACE" TYPE="font" />

</ATTRIBUTES>

The following table describes the valid value types of the ATTRIB tag.


Value type	Description
TEXT	Free text content
ENUMERATED	A list of enumerated values
COLOR	A color value (name or hex)
FONT	Font name or font family
FILEPATH	A full file path
DIRECTORY	A directory path
FILENAME	File name only
RELATIVEPATH	A relative representation of the path
FLAG	An ON/OFF attribute containing no value
The following types are used in ColdFusion Studio and JRun Studio ONLY
QUERYNAME	A record set name
EXPRESSION	An language expression

Defining enumerated values

Enumerated values can be specified for attributes of TYPE="Enumerated." A subtag ATTRIBOPTION is used to specify such values:

<ATTRIB NAME="CHARSET" TYPE="ENUMERATED">

    <ATTRIBOPTION VALUE="iso-8859-1" CAPTION="Western" />

    <ATTRIBOPTION VALUE="iso-8859-2" CAPTION="Central European 
(ISO)" />

    <ATTRIBOPTION VALUE="iso-8859-8" CAPTION="Hebrew 
(ISO-Visual)" />

</ATTRIB>

The optional CAPTION attribute specifies the form in which the option appears in the drop-down lists, while the VALUE attribute specifies the underlying value used by the attribute.

The following table describes the ATTRIB tag.


ATTRIB Tag Attributes
NAME	Name of the attribute.
CONTROL	(Optional) Use to populate the attribute value to a specific tag editor control when editing existing tags.
TYPE	(Optional) Type of the value expected for the attribute: TEXT (default) -- free text content ENUMERATED -- a list of enumerated values COLOR -- a color value (name or hex) FONT -- font name or font family STYLE -- a style definition FILEPATH -- a full file path DIRECTORY -- a directory path FILENAME -- file name only RELATIVEPATH -- a relative representation of the path FLAG -- an ON\OFF attribute containing no value The following are available in ColdFusion Studio and JRun Studio ONLY: QUERYNAME - a record set name EXPRESSION - a language expression
CACHEFAMILY	(Optional) The name of the cache family associated with the attribute. Colors FontFaces FilePaths Styles Images URLs EventHandlers The following apply to ColdFusion Studio and JRun Studio attributes ONLY: QueryNames CFExpressions VerityCollections DataSources CFIncludes You can specify a custom cache family, such as CACHEFAMILY="NewCacheFamily" Currently, caching works only for the Tag Inspector.
DEFAULT	Obsolete

The following table describes the enumerated values of the ATTRIBOPTION tag.


ATTRIBOPTION Tag Attributes
VALUE	(Required) The value of the enumeration option.
CAPTION	(Optional) The visual representation of the option if different from VALUE.

Defining attribute categories

Use the ATTRIBCATEGORIES section to define attribute categories. The categories are used to organize the attributes when viewed in the Tag Inspector. The ATTRIBCATEGORIES block can only contain ATTRIBGROUP tags. The following example demonstrates the definition of four categories.

<ATTRIBCATEGORIES>

    <ATTRIBGROUP NAME="Appearance"

        ELEMENTS="BACKGROUND,BGPROPERTIES,LEFTMARGIN,TOPMARGIN"/>

    <ATTRIBGROUP NAME="Colors"

        ELEMENTS="BGCOLOR,VLINK,ALINK,LINK,TEXT"/>

    <ATTRIBGROUP NAME="Misc"

        ELEMENTS="GIZMO"/>

</ATTRIBCATEGORIES>

The following table describes the ATTRIBGROUP tag


ATTRIBGROUP Tag Attributes
NAME	The name of the category.
ELEMENTS	The list of attributes included in the category.

Customizing the Development Environment
Customizing the Development Environment