Creating Custom Template Tags

In addition to Thingamablog’s built in template tags, you can define your own "Custom Tags." The Custom Tags that you define represent chunks of text you need to use more than once throughout your weblog. When Thingamablog publishes a weblog it replaces all Custom Tags with the text each represents.

For example, suppose you would like to include a list of your favorite links on each page of your weblog. Furthermore, assume that your "favorite links" change from time to time. Typically, you’d enter the list’s HTML on each page and, worse yet, update each page when the list changes. However, with Thingamablog’s Custom Tags, you can define the list once, and simply include a single tag wherever you’d like the favorite links to appear.

Let’s add a favorite links tag to the weblog. Open the Weblog Properties dialog. Click the "Custom Tags " option in the options list to make the Custom Tags pane visible. Next, click the Add button to open the Custom Tag editor.

In the Name field enter "FavoriteLinks "

In the Value field enter the HTML…

<div class="sidetitle">Favorite Links</div>
<div class="side">
<a href=http://www.google.com>Google</a><br>
<a href=http://www.sf.net>Source Forge</a><br>
<a href=http://www.slashdot.org>Slashdot</a><br>
</div>


After entering the data, click the OK button to save the custom tag to the weblog. The custom tag <$FavoriteLinks$> should now appear in the Custom Tags list.

Finally, click the OK button on the Weblog Properties dialog to save the changes.

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