How to: Call a Custom Directive

When you create a text template, you can call one or more of the five built-in directives: assembly, import, template, output, and include. For example, you call the output directive by using the following syntax.

<#@ output extension=".txt" #>

In addition to calling built-in directives, you can also call custom directive processors. For more information, see Architecture of the Text Template Transformation Process.

To call a custom directive processor from a text template, you must add an extra parameter for the name of the directive processor. The name of the directive processor matches the name of its key in the registry. For more information, see Setting the Registry Key for Custom Directive Processors.

To call a custom directive processor

• In your text template file, add a custom directive statement, and specify the name of the directive processor.

  The syntax is as follows.

  <#@ DirectiveName Processor="DirectiveProcessorName" ParameterName="ParameterValue" #>
  

  For example, use the following syntax to call the CoolDirective custom directive, which is located in a directive processor named CustomDirectiveProcessor and requires a parameter named FileName.

  <#@ CoolDirective Processor="CustomDirectiveProcessor" FileName="C:\UserFiles\data.xml" #>
  

  Note

  To debug text templates, you must set the debug parameter of the template directive. For more information, see Walkthrough: Debugging a Text Template.

Security

For more information, see Security of Text Templates.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Directive Processor

How to: Call a Generated Directive

Directive Processor Sample

Concepts

Setting the Registry Key for Custom Directive Processors

Change History