# Tags using a snippet as a block parameter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Radiant CMS\ **Created:** [July 18, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894 "2006-07-18T21:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/1 "2006-07-18T21:46:10Z")
I’m creating an image-tab navigation plugin. Right now, I’m just automatically scraping the top level of page titles and URLs. But it would be nicer to provide a syntax like \ (Aside: am I the only one that would prefer hyphens to underscores here? But Radius doesn’t allow hyphens in attribute names for some reason. Anyway.) Snippet nav-pages: \ \ \ \ \ \ \ This works, if I snag @parser from Behavior: if (tag.attr[‘page\_snippet’]) p @parser.parse(%Q|\|) … Is that the right way to do it? Am I headed for trouble? Jay L. ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/2 "2006-07-18T22:06:24Z")
In regards to hyphens versus underscores, I prefer hyphens too. ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/3 "2006-07-19T05:11:33Z")
Kyle H. wrote: > In regards to hyphens versus underscores, I prefer hyphens too. I think I prefer underscores. Radius is loosely based on Ruby so it uses underscores. If I wrote it in scheme I might prefer hyphens. 🙂 Actually, it’s probably better if we stick with underscores and stay consistent with what we are have already done. Though hyphens are admittedly more visually pleasing, underscores to have the effect of encouraging you to find precise words for attribute names. I don’t think it’s an accident that none of the normal HTML attributes are two words. Mmmm… does XML make allowances for two word attribute names? What character do they use? – John L. [http://wiseheartdesign.com](http://wiseheartdesign.com) ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/4 "2006-07-19T11:07:40Z")
Jay L. wrote: > … For some reason, I never want to use hyphens in > code, but I always do in declarative tag-based languages. A hyphen in code can easily be confused with a subtraction operation. Most programming languages therefore don’t allow hyphens in identifiers. Regards, Erik. – Erik van Oosten > **[Day to day stuff](http://day-to-day-stuff.blogspot.com/)** > > Experiences from a hard core JVM programmer. Likes to keep things simple. ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/5 "2006-07-19T13:01:31Z")
So, back to the original question: ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/6 "2006-07-19T15:59:22Z")
Jay L. wrote: > So, back to the original question: > > > This works, if I snag @parser from Behavior: > > > > if (tag.attr[‘page\_snippet’]) > > p @parser.parse(%Q|\|) > > … > > > > Is that the right way to do it? Am I headed for trouble? Use this instead: tag.render(‘snippet’, ‘name’ =\> tag.attr[‘page\_snippet’]) – John L. [http://wiseheartdesign.com](http://wiseheartdesign.com) ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/7 "2006-07-19T11:04:27Z")
John W. Long wrote: > it’s an accident that none of the normal HTML attributes are two words. > > Mmmm… does XML make allowances for two word attribute names? What > character do they use? Actually, XML allows both hyphens and underscores in both names and elements. The only XML I’ve really used, XSLT, uses hyphens. (A quick survey shows RSS, Atom and XAML using camelCase, and XUL using runtogetherwords, and XQuery using hyphens. ) CSS (which isn’t XML, of course, but which we’re often editing at the same time as Radius templates) uses hyphens as well, which is what triggered my thought. For some reason, I never want to use hyphens in code, but I always do in declarative tag-based languages. Jay ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/8 "2006-07-22T04:42:33Z")
Jay L. wrote: > Is there any way around that, to bump the “program counter”? I’m not quite sure what you mean. If you mean: “Is there a way to render child tags for their side effects rather than the content they produce?” Then the answer is yes. Whether or not the tag renders it’s contents is totally up to the tag. Have a look at the \ tag in page\_context.rb to see how it’s done. – John L. [http://wiseheartdesign.com](http://wiseheartdesign.com) ---
**Author:** ![jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/a88e57/32.png) [@jay-levitt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jay-levitt)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 12:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/tags-using-a-snippet-as-a-block-parameter/98894/9 "2006-07-22T00:35:05Z")
John W. Long wrote: > Use this instead: > > tag.render(‘snippet’, ‘name’ =\> tag.attr[‘page\_snippet’]) Thanks - that works great. I could swear I tried that first… ah well. So I’m thinking that, rather than have to create a separate snippet, what I’d really like to do is: \ \ I imagine I can figure out the contents of the container tag and parse them, but I can’t think of a way to then skip over those contents when rendering the actual page - they’ll get parsed by the real parser. Is there any way around that, to bump the “program counter”? Jay L.