CFContent + CFOutput needs to be on same line?

[freedomflyer]

Hi everyone, recently I have been devloping a simple page for my webapp the spits out some XML data. I have it working perfectly, just like I want. However, the last line:

<cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes" /><cfoutput>#variables.xmldata#</cfoutput>

needs to have both the cfcontent and cfoutput tags on the same line or else the XML does not output.
Can anyone explain why this is happening?

[Dan_Bracuk]

cfcontent reads whitespace.

[freedomflyer]

But why should it matter? Cannot an XML file or output have whitespace in it?

[JR__Bob__Dobbs-qSBHQ2 · Accepted solution]

quote:

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Originally posted by: freedomflyer
But why should it matter? Cannot an XML file or output have whitespace in it?

---

An XML document can contain whitespace, but a well formed XML document should start with the XML declaration such as:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
This lets the parser know that the document is XML and optionally what encoding is used. Some parsers may be forgiving of whitespace or other content before the declaration others are not. I recommend you err on the side of conformance and begin your XML with the declaration.

[freedomflyer]

I understand that I need the declaration, that makes good sense. It lets the parser know what is going on and how to deal with it. However, I still do not understand why my code runs fine like this:

<cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes" /><cfoutput>#variables.xmldata#</cfoutput>

and it DOESN'T work like this (same code, but the cfoutput is a line down):

<cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes" />
<cfoutput>#variables.xmldata#</cfoutput>

Once again, thank you for your help and patience

[JR__Bob__Dobbs-qSBHQ2]

<cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes" /> <!--- there is a newline character here --->
<cfoutput>#variables.xmldata#</cfoutput> <!--- the XML declaration starts on this line, after whitespace created by the newline --->

Using <cfcontent type="text/xml" reset="yes" /><cfoutput>#variables.xmldata#</cfoutput> omits any whitespace before the XML is output.

[freedomflyer]

Oh, your previous post summed it up, I just didn't read it correctly. This makes sense - but almost "scares" me about something so extremely tiny as a newline, even if the XML is well formed and everything is packaged up nicely.
But, with great power comes GREAT responsibility, I guess 🙂
Thanks again guys!

[Newsgroup_User]

freedomflyer wrote:
> But, with great power comes GREAT responsibility, I guess 🙂
> Thanks again guys!
>

Yes, HTML is, by design, very forgiving of extra whitespace. When one
starts moving to XML, AJAX and other techniques, whitespace is not so
easily forgiven. Luckily ColdFusion has many ways to manage it, when it
is important. Besides what you have just used, there is
<cfsilent></cfsilent>, <cfsetting enabbleCFOutputOnly = true> and
whitespace management settings in the administrator to just name a couple.