cfInclude without cfoutput tags

Question

Ok, I have template files which I know will require to be between <cfoutput> tags, however placing a <cfoutput> tag around a <cfinclude> won't work, and anything with a <cfmodule> won't work as that doesn't allow me to manipulate the variables scope.

So, any ideas - no matter how complex - which would allow me to include such a template file and have it act as if it's between <cfoutput> tags?

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Bit of context: It's for a 'framework' I am working on and requiring every template file to start and end with a <cfoutput> tag seems a real waste, especially because the less 'coldfusiony' the template files look, the better IMO.

Answer 1

I was going to suggest the render() option, with the caveat it's a bloody awful bit of functionality in OpenBDML (or whatever they want to call their version of CFML), and I think should be avoided. I can't see how it doesn't cause the CFML to be recompiled every request, which is a helluva overhead. I think you're better off modifying the mark-up when it gets saved/read to wrap/unwrap it in <cfoutput> tags, that way the resultant CFML will only be recompiled when the file actually changes. Which will be really a lot less often than it's read.

Prompted by your question, I did a bit of a write up on the CFML compile process, showing why having the <cfoutput> tags in a separate file doesn't work. Apologies it took so long to write & follow-up with here.

Answer 2

What we do in wheels is just wrap the cfinclude with a cfsavecontent tag

<cffunction name="renderInclude">
  <cfargument name="template" value="string" required="true">
  <cfset var myOutput = "">

  <cfsavecontent variable="myOutput"><cfoutput><cfinclude template="#arguments.template#"></cfoutput></cfsavecontent>


  <cfreturn trim(myOutput)>
</cffunction>

Answer 3

Found an OpenBD specific way to solve this problem. Apparently I wasn't the only one who encountered this problem and OpenBD contains a useful render() which takes care of evaluating cfml content. So I ended up with

<cfset cfml = fileRead(expandPath(...))>
...
<cfoutput>#render("<cfoutput>"&cfml&"</cfoutput>")#</cfoutput>

It's not a beautiful solution, as I destroy the per page compilation the engine would otherwise do, however as the cfml is relatively simple on these pages I assume this not to be too much of an issue. At least it should be less of a performance hit than actually writing the file to disk.