/home/smartonegroup/www/system/vendor/smarty/smarty/docs/api/extending/block-tags.md
# Custom block tags
Block tags are tags of the form: `{func} .. {/func}`. In other
words, they enclose a template block and operate on the contents of this
block.
Block functions take precedence over normal tags of the same name, that is, you
cannot have both custom tag `{func}` and block tag `{func}..{/func}`.
- By default, your function implementation is called twice by Smarty:
once for the opening tag, and once for the closing tag. (See
`$repeat` below on how to change this.)
- Only the opening tag of the block has attributes. All attributes are contained in the `$params`
variable as an associative array. The opening tag attributes are
also accessible to your function when processing the closing tag.
- The value of the `$content` variable depends on whether your
function is called for the opening or closing tag. In case of the
opening tag, it will be NULL, and in case of the closing tag it will
be the contents of the template block. Note that the template block
will have already been processed by Smarty, so all you will receive
is the template output, not the template source.
- The parameter `$repeat` is passed by reference to the function
implementation and provides a possibility for it to control how many
times the block is displayed. By default `$repeat` is TRUE at the
first call of the block function (the opening tag) and FALSE on all
subsequent calls to the block function (the block's closing tag).
Each time the function implementation returns with `$repeat` being
TRUE, the contents between `{func}...{/func}` are evaluated and the
function implementation is called again with the new block contents
in the parameter `$content`.
Example:
```php
<?php
function smarty_block_translate($params, $content, \Smarty\Template $template, &$repeat) {
// only output on the closing tag
if (!$repeat){
if (isset($content)) {
$lang = $params['lang'];
// do some intelligent translation thing here with $content
return $translation;
}
}
}
$smarty->registerPlugin(Smarty\Smarty::PLUGIN_BLOCK, 'translate', 'smarty_block_translate');
```
This can now be used in your templates as follows:
```smarty
{translate lang='nl'}
Quia omnis nulla omnis iusto est id et.
{/translate}
```