Question

In Visual Studio 2010, under Tools -> Options -> Text Editor -> HTML -> Formatting -> Tag Specific Options, there are options for configuring how the editor auto formats different HTML and ASP.NET tags. This includes things like if it should automatically put a newline before and after the tag, etc.

Is there a place to configure the formatting rules for <% %> <%= %> and <%: %> blocks in a similar fashion?

In particular, I would like to not force a newline before <%= and <%: blocks.

For example, I have already configured the options for the h1 tag to not add newlines around its contents and that works great with static content, but it doesn’t work when there is a <%: or <%= block in the h1 tag. I currently get this:

<h1>
    <%: Model.Name %></h1>

but I would like this:

<h1><%: Model.Name %></h1>

In a perfect world, I would also like to auto format the contents of <% %> blocks to make sure there is always a space between the <% and its contents.

For example, good:

<% if (something) { %>

bad:

<%if (something) {%>

So, are there any settings buried somewhere to control either of these formatting behaviors?

Answer 1

Thanks to @schellack for the knudging me in the right direction. Here are the settings I needed to get the behavior I wanted (all within the tag specific options dialog box):

• Default Settings -> Client tag supports contents
  • Line breaks: Before and after
  • (This makes h1, p, and similar tags behave the way I wanted. Others may want None as a choice. Personal preference I suppose.)
• Add a new tag under Client HTML Tags.
  • Tag Name: %
  • Closing tag: No closing tag
  • Line breaks: Before and after
  • (This catches actual code blocks and keeps them separated from HTML markup with line breaks before and after the code blocks.)
• Add another new tag under Client HTML Tags
  • Tag Name: %:
  • Closing tag: No closing tag
  • Line breaks: None
  • (This catches <%: %> blocks and keeps them inline with HTML markup without any line breaks.)
• Add another new tag under Client HTML Tags
  • Tag Name: %=
  • Closing tag: No closing tag
  • Line breaks: None
  • (Similar to the previous one. This catches <%= %> blocks and keeps them inline with HTML markup without any line breaks.)

The trick is that the editor seems to recognize <% %> blocks as a client tag named ‘%’ that has no closing tag. Same deal for <%: %> and <%= %>.

With these settings (combined with the rest of the defaults in Visual Studio) I get formatted markup that looks like the following (which is the compact form I was looking for):

    <h1><%: Model.Name %></h1>
    <ul>
        <% foreach (var item in Model.Items) { %>
        <li><%: item %></li>
        <% } %>
    </ul>

As yet, it doesn’t appear that the second part of my question is possible.