Is it a bad idea to invent my own tags?

[afroblanca]

Hello all,

Here's the situation - I'm writing a CMS, and I need a way to demarcate where content text begins and ends. I have a windows service which then reads the content text, and then processes it in various ways.

To demarcate the text, I invented a tag, <articleText> . I surround the content text with <articleText> and </articleText> . This works really well for me. Only thing I'm concerned about - is it a bad idea for me to invent tags in this fashion? What kinds of problems could this cause?

I'm using these tags in .ASPX files, if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ca8msm]

Are these tags rendered to the page?


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Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]

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[afroblanca]

The tags show up only when you "view source" on the page.

 

[ca8msm]

In that case it's a bad idea as your page will never validate.


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Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]

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[afroblanca]

I'm glad that I asked.

So, is there a safe way for me to demarcate the text in my document? I suppose that I could use XML for this somehow, but I wouldn't really know where to begin.

As I mentioned, this text is in a standard .ASPX file.

Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[ca8msm]

How about using HTML comments?


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Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]

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[afroblanca]

Interesting - someone else just suggested that I use HTML comments. This is a good idea. However, my only concern is that users will be able to see the comments if they view source.

In the end, I may just make some sort of lightweight control derived from LiteralControl. Since it's derived from LiteralControl, it should be really lightweight. It will also have the added bonus of being invisible to the user.

 

[ca8msm]

However, my only concern is that users will be able to see the comments if they view source.

No matter what method you use, if any text is sent to the browser the user will be able to see it.


____________________________________________________________
Mark,
[URL unfurl="true"]http://aspnetlibrary.com[/url]

Need help finding an answer? Try the Search Facility or read FAQ222-2244.