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NAME Template::Declare - Perlish declarative templates SYNOPSIS Here's an example of basic HTML usage: package MyApp::Templates; use Template::Declare::Tags; # defaults to 'HTML' use base 'Template::Declare'; template simple => sub { html { head {} body { p { 'Hello, world wide web!' } } } }; package main; use Template::Declare; Template::Declare->init( dispatch_to => ['MyApp::Templates'] ); print Template::Declare->show( 'simple' ); And here's the output:
Hello, world wide web!
DESCRIPTION "Template::Declare" is a pure-Perl declarative HTML/XUL/RDF/XML templating system. Yes. Another one. There are many others like it, but this one is ours. A few key features and buzzwords: * All templates are 100% pure Perl code * Simple declarative syntax * No angle brackets * "Native" XML namespace and declaration support * Mixins * Inheritance * Delegation * Public and private templates GLOSSARY template class A subclass of Template::Declare in which one or more templates are defined using the "template" keyword, or that inherits templates from a super class. template Created with the "template" keyword, a template is a subroutine that uses "tags" to generate output. attribute An XML element attribute. For example, in "", "src" is an attribute of the "img" element. tag A subroutine that generates XML element-style output. Tag subroutines execute blocks that generate the output, and can call other tags to generate a properly hierarchical structure. tag set A collection of related tags defined in a subclass of Template::Declare::TagSet for a particular purpose, and which can be imported into a template class. For example, Template::Declare::TagSet::HTML defines tags for emitting HTML elements. wrapper A subroutine that wraps the output from a template. Useful for wrapping template output in common headers and footers, for example. dispatch class A template class that has been passed to "init()" via the "dispatch_to" parameter. When show is called, only templates defined in or mixed into the dispatch classes will be executed. path The name specified for a template when it is created by the "template" keyword, or when a template is mixed into a template class. mixin A template mixed into a template class via "mix". Mixed-in templates may be mixed in under prefix paths to distinguish them from the templates defined in the dispatch classes. alias A template aliased into a template class via "alias". Aliased templates may be added under prefix paths to distinguish them from the templates defined in the dispatch classes. package variable Variables defined when mixing templates into a template class. These variables are available only to the mixed-in templates; they are not even accessible from the template class in which the templates were defined. helper A subroutine used in templates to assist in the generation of output, or in template classes to assist in the mixing-in of templates. Output helpers include "outs()" for rending text output and "xml_decl()" for rendering XML declarations. Mixin helpers include "into" for specifying a template class to mix into, and "under" for specifying a path prefix under which to mix templates. USAGE Like other Perl templating systems, there are two parts to Template::Declare: the templates and the code that loads and executes the templates. Unlike other template systems, the templates are written in Perl classes. A simple HTML example is in the "SYNOPSIS". A slightly more advanced example In this example, we'll show off how to set attributes on HTML tags, how to call other templates, and how to declare a *private* template that can't be called directly. We'll also show passing arguments to templates. First, the template class: package MyApp::Templates; use base 'Template::Declare'; use Template::Declare::Tags; private template 'util/header' => sub { head { title { 'This is a webpage' }; meta { attr { generator => "This is not your father's frontpage" } } } }; private template 'util/footer' => sub { my $self = shift; my $time = shift || gmtime; div { attr { id => "footer"}; "Page last generated at $time." } }; template simple => sub { my $self = shift; my $user = shift || 'world wide web'; html { show('util/header'); body { img { src is 'hello.jpg' } p { attr { class => 'greeting'}; "Hello, $user!" }; }; show('util/footer', 'noon'); } }; A few notes on this example: * Since no parameter was passed to "use Template::Declare::Tags", the HTML tags are imported by default. * The "private" keyword indicates that a template is private. That means that it can only be executed by other templates within the template class in which it's declared. By default, "Template::Declare->show" will not dispatch to it. * The two private templates have longer paths than we've seen before: "util/header" and "util/footer". They must of course be called by their full path names. You can put any characters you like into template names, but the use of Unix filesystem-style paths is the most common (following on the example of HTML::Mason). * The first argument to a template is a class name. This can be useful for calling methods defined in the class. * The "show" sub executes another template. In this example, the "simple" template calls "show('util/header')" and "show('util/footer')" in order to execute those private templates in the appropriate places. * Additional arguments to "show" are passed on to the template being executed. here, "show('util/footer', 'noon')" is passing "noon" to the "util/footer" template, with the result that the "last generated at" string will display "noon" instead of the default "gmtime". * In the same way, note that the "simple" template expects an additional argument, a user name. * In addition to using "attr" to declare attributes for an element, you can use "is", as in img { src is 'hello.jpg' } Now for executing the template: package main; use Template::Declare; Template::Declare->init( dispatch_to => ['MyApp::Templates'] ); print Template::Declare->show( '/simple', 'TD user'); We've told Template::Declare to dispatch to templates defined in our template class. And note how an additional argument is passed to "show()"; that argument, "TD user", will be passed to the "simple" template, where it will be used in the $user variable. The output looks like this:Hello, TD user!
Note that the single quote in "father's" was quoted for you. We sanitize your output for you to help prevent cross-site scripting attacks. XUL Template::Declare isn't limited to just HTML. Let's do XUL! package MyApp::Templates; use base 'Template::Declare'; use Template::Declare::Tags 'XUL'; template main => sub { xml_decl { 'xml', version => '1.0' }; xml_decl { 'xml-stylesheet', href => "chrome://global/skin/", type => "text/css" }; groupbox { caption { attr { label => 'Colors' } } radiogroup { for my $id ( qw< orange violet yellow > ) { radio { attr { id => $id, label => ucfirst($id), $id eq 'violet' ? (selected => 'true') : () } } } # for } } }; The first thing to do in a template class is to subclass Template::Declare itself. This is required so that Template::Declare always knows that it's dealing with templates. The second thing is to "use Template::Declare::Tags" to import the set of tag subroutines you need to generate the output you want. In this case, we've imported tags to support the creation of XUL. Other tag sets include HTML (the default), and RDF. Templates are created using the "template" keyword: template main => sub { ... }; The first argument is the name of the template, also known as its *path*. In this case, the template's path is "main" (or "/main", both are allowed (to keep both PHP and HTML::Mason fans happy). The second argument is an anonymous subroutine that uses the tag subs (and any other necessary code) to generate the output for the template. The tag subs imported into your class take blocks as arguments, while a number of helper subs take other arguments. For example, the "xml_decl" helper takes as its first argument the name of the XML declaration to be output, and then a hash of the attributes of that declaration: xml_decl { 'xml', version => '1.0' }; Tag subs are used by simply passing a block to them that generates the output. Said block may of course execute other tag subs in order to represent the hierarchy required in your output. Here, the "radiogroup" tag calls the "radio" tag for each of three different colors: radiogroup { for my $id ( qw< orange violet yellow > ) { radio { attr { id => $id, label => ucfirst($id), $id eq 'violet' ? (selected => 'true') : () } } } # for } Note the "attr" sub. This helper function is used to add attributes to the element created by the tag in which they appear. In the previous example, the the "id", "label", and "selected" attributes are added to each "radio" output. Once you've written your templates, you'll want to execute them. You do so by telling Template::Declare what template classes to dispatch to and then asking it to show you the output from a template: package main; Template::Declare->init( dispatch_to => ['MyApp::Templates'] ); print Template::Declare->show( 'main' ); The path passed to "show" can be either "main" or , as you prefer. In either event, the output would look like this:Photo by Clark Kent
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Now, let's say that you have political stuff that you want to use a different image for in the sidebar. If that's the only difference, we can subclass "MyApp::UI::Stuff" and just override the "img_path()" method: package MyApp::UI::Stuff::Politics; use Template::Declare::Tags; use base 'MyApp::UI::Stuff'; sub img_path { '/politics/ui/css' } Now let's mix that into a politics template class: package MyApp::Render::Politics; use Template::Declare::Tags; use base 'Template::Declare'; alias MyApp::UI::Stuff::Politics under '/politics'; template page => sub { my ($self, $page) = @_; h1 { $page->title }; for my $thing ($page->get_things) { if ($thing->is('paragraph')) { p { $thing->content }; } elsif ($thing->is('sidebar')) { show( '/politics/sidebar' => $thing ); } } }; The only difference between this template class and "MyApp::Render" is that it aliases "MyApp::UI::Stuff::Politics" under "/politics", and then calls "show('/politics/sidebar')" in the "page" template. Running this template: Template::Declare->init( dispatch_to => ['MyApp::Render::Politics'] ); print Template::Declare->show( page => $page ); Yields output using the value of the subclass's "img_path()" method -- that is, the sidebar image is now /politics/ui/css/sidebar.png instead of /ui/css/sidebar.png:Page paragraph
Other Tricks The delegation behavior of "alias" actually makes it a decent choice for template authors to mix and match libraries of template classes as appropriate, without worrying about side effects. You can even alias templates in one template class into another template class if you're not the author of that class by using the "into" keyword: alias My::UI::Widgets into Your::UI::View under '/widgets'; Now the templates defined in "Your::UI::View" are available in "My::UI::Widgets" under "/widgets". The "mix" method supports this syntax as well, though it's not necessarily recommended, given that you would not be able to fulfill any contracts unless you re-opened the class into which you mixed the templates. But in any case, authors of framework view classes might find this functionality useful for automatically aliasing template classes into a single dispatch template class. Another trick is to alias or mix your templates with package variables specific to the composition. Do so via the "setting" keyword: package My::Templates; mix Some::Mixin under '/mymix', setting { name => 'Larry' }; The templates mixed from "Some::Mixin" into "My::Templates" have package variables set for them that are accessible *only* from their mixed-in paths. For example, if this template was defined in "Some::Mixin": template howdy => sub { my $self = shift; outs "Howdy, " . $self->package_variable('name') || 'Jesse'; }; Then "show('mymix/howdy')" called on "My::Templates" will output "Howdy, Larry", while the output from "show('howdy')" will output "Howdy, Jesse". In other words, package variables defined for the mixed-in templates are available only to the mixins and not to the original. The same functionality exists for "alias" as well. Indentation configuration by default, Template::Declare renders a readable XML adding end of lines and a one column indentation. This behavior could break a webpage design or add a significant amount of chars to your XML output. This could be changed by overwriting the default values. so $Template::Declare::Tags::TAG_INDENTATION = 0; $Template::Declare::Tags::EOL = ""; say Template::Declare->show('main'); will renderhi
METHODS init This *class method* initializes the "Template::Declare" system. dispatch_to An array reference of classes to search for templates. Template::Declare will search this list of classes in order to find a template path. roots Deprecated. Just like "dispatch_to", only the classes are searched in reverse order. Maintained for backward compatibility and for the pleasure of those who want to continue using Template::Declare the way that Jesse's "crack-addled brain" intended. postprocessor A coderef called to postprocess the HTML or XML output of your templates. This is to alleviate using Tags for simple text markup. around_template A coderef called instead of rendering each template. The coderef will receive three arguments: a coderef to invoke to render the template, the template's path, an arrayref of the arguments to the template, and the coderef of the template itself. You can use this for instrumentation. For example: Template::Declare->init(around_template => sub { my ($orig, $path, $args, $code) = @_; my $start = time; $orig->(); warn "Rendering $path took " . (time - $start) . " seconds."; }); strict Die in exceptional situations, such as when a template can't be found, rather than just warn. False by default for backward compatibility. The default may be changed in the future, so specifying the value explicitly is recommended. show TEMPLATE_NAME Template::Declare->show( 'howdy', name => 'Larry' ); my $output = Template::Declare->show('index'); Call "show" with a "template_name" and "Template::Declare" will render that template. Subsequent arguments will be passed to the template. Content generated by "show()" can be accessed via the "output()" method if the output method you've chosen returns content instead of outputting it directly. If called in scalar context, this method will also just return the content when available. Template Composition Sometimes you want to mix templates from one class into another class, or delegate template execution to a class of templates. "alias()" and "mix()" are your keys to doing so. mix mix Some::Clever::Mixin under '/mixin'; mix Some::Other::Mixin under '/otmix', setting { name => 'Larry' }; mix My::Mixin into My::View, under '/mymix'; Mixes templates from one template class into another class. When the mixed-in template is called, its invocant will be the class into which it was mixed. This type of composition is known as a "mixin" in object-oriented parlance. See Template Composition for extended examples and a comparison to "alias". The first parameter is the name of the template class to be mixed in. The "under" keyword tells "mix" where to put the templates. For example, a "foo" template in "Some::Clever::Mixin" will be mixed in as "mymixin/foo". The "setting" keyword specifies package variables available only to the mixed-in copies of templates. These are available to the templates as "$self->package_variable($varname)". The "into" keyword tells "mix" into what class to mix the templates. Without this keyword, "mix" will mix them into the calling class. For those who prefer a direct OO syntax for mixins, just call "mix()" as a method on the class to be mixed in. To replicate the above three examples without the use of the sugar: Some::Clever::Mixin->mix( '/mixin' ); Some::Other::Mixin->mix( '/otmix', { name => 'Larry' } ); My::Mixin->mix( 'My::View', '/mymix' ); alias alias Some::Clever:Templates under '/delegate'; alias Some::Other::Templates under '/send_to', { name => 'Larry' }; alias UI::Stuff into My::View, under '/mystuff'; Aliases templates from one template class into another class. When an alias called, its invocant will be the class from which it was aliased. This type of composition is known as "delegation" in object-oriented parlance. See Template Composition for extended examples and a comparison to "mix". The first parameter is the name of the template class to alias. The "under" keyword tells "alias" where to put the templates. For example, a "foo" template in "Some::Clever::Templates" will be aliased as "delegate/foo". The "setting" keyword specifies package variables available only to the aliases. These are available to the templates as "$self->package_variable($varname)". The "into" keyword tells "alias" into what class to alias the templates. Without this keyword, "alias" will alias them into the calling class. For those who prefer a direct OO syntax for mixins, just call "alias()" as a method on the class to be mixed in. To replicate the above three examples without the use of the sugar: Some::Clever:Templates->alias( '/delegate' ); Some::Other::Templates->alias( '/send_to', { name => 'Larry' } ); UI::Stuff->alias( 'My::View', '/mystuff' ); package_variable( VARIABLE ) $td->package_variable( $varname => $value ); $value = $td->package_variable( $varname ); Returns a value set for a mixed-in template's variable, if any were specified when the template was mixed-in. See "mix" for details. package_variables( VARIABLE ) $td->package_variables( $variables ); $variables = $td->package_variables; Get or set a hash reference of variables for a mixed-in template. See "mix" for details. Templates registration and lookup resolve_template TEMPLATE_PATH INCLUDE_PRIVATE_TEMPLATES my $code = Template::Declare->resolve_template($template); my $code = Template::Declare->has_template($template, 1); Turns a template path ("TEMPLATE_PATH") into a "CODEREF". If the boolean "INCLUDE_PRIVATE_TEMPLATES" is true, resolves private template in addition to public ones. "has_template()" is an alias for this method. First it looks through all the valid Template::Declare classes defined via "dispatch_to". For each class, it looks to see if it has a template called $template_name directly (or via a mixin). has_template TEMPLATE_PATH INCLUDE_PRIVATE_TEMPLATES An alias for "resolve_template". register_template( TEMPLATE_NAME, CODEREF ) MyApp::Templates->register_template( howdy => sub { ... } ); This method registers a template called "TEMPLATE_NAME" in the calling class. As you might guess, "CODEREF" defines the template's implementation. This method is mainly intended to be used internally, as you use the "template" keyword to create templates, right? register_private_template( TEMPLATE_NAME, CODEREF ) MyApp::Templates->register_private_template( howdy => sub { ... } ); This method registers a private template called "TEMPLATE_NAME" in the calling class. As you might guess, "CODEREF" defines the template's implementation. Private templates can't be called directly from user code but only from other templates. This method is mainly intended to be used internally, as you use the "private template" expression to create templates, right? buffer Gets or sets the String::BufferStack object; this is a class method. You can use it to manipulate the output from tags as they are output. It's used internally to make the tags nest correctly, and be output to the right place. We're not sure if there's ever a need for you to frob it by hand, but it does enable things like the following: template simple => sub { html { head {} body { Template::Declare->buffer->set_filter( sub {uc shift} ); p { 'Whee!' } p { 'Hello, world wide web!' } Template::Declare->buffer->clear_top if rand() < 0.5; } } }; ...which outputs, with equal regularity, either:WHEE!
HELLO, WORLD WIDE WEB!
...or: We'll leave it to you to judge whether or not that's actually useful. Helpers You don't need to call any of this directly. into $class = into $class; "into" is a helper method providing semantic sugar for the "mix" method. All it does is return the name of the class on which it was called. Old, deprecated or just better to avoid import_templates import_templates MyApp::Templates under '/something'; Like "mix()", but without support for the "into" or "setting" keywords. That is, it mixes templates into the calling template class and does not support package variables for those mixins. Deprecated in favor of "mix". Will be supported for a long time, but new code should use "mix()". new_buffer_frame $td->new_buffer_frame; # same as $td->buffer->push( private => 1 ); Creates a new buffer frame, using "push" in String::BufferStack with "private". Deprecated in favor of dealing with "buffer" directly. end_buffer_frame my $buf = $td->end_buffer_frame; # same as my $buf = $td->buffer->pop; Deletes and returns the topmost buffer, using "pop" in String::BufferStack. Deprecated in favor of dealing with "buffer" directly. path_for $template my $path = Template::Declare->path_for('index'); Returns the path for the template name to be used for show, adjusted with paths used in "mix". Note that this will only work for the last class into which you imported the template. This method is, therefore, deprecated. PITFALLS We're reusing the perl interpreter for our templating language, but Perl was not designed specifically for our purpose here. Here are some known pitfalls while you're scripting your templates with this module. * It's quite common to see tag sub calling statements without trailing semi-colons right after "}". For instance, template foo => sub { p { a { attr { src => '1.png' } } a { attr { src => '2.png' } } a { attr { src => '3.png' } } } }; is equivalent to template foo => sub { p { a { attr { src => '1.png' } }; a { attr { src => '2.png' } }; a { attr { src => '3.png' } }; }; }; But "xml_decl" is a notable exception. Please always put a trailing semicolon after "xml_decl { ... }", or you'll mess up the order of output. * Another place that requires trailing semicolon is the statements before a Perl looping statement, an if statement, or a "show" call. For example: p { "My links:" }; for (@links) { with ( src => $_ ), a {} } The ";" after " p { ... } " is required here, or Perl will complain about syntax errors. Another example is h1 { 'heading' }; # this trailing semicolon is mandatory show 'tag_tag' * The "is" syntax for declaring tag attributes also requires a trailing semicolon, unless it is the only statement in a block. For example, p { class is 'item'; id is 'item1'; outs "This is an item" } img { src is 'cat.gif' } * Literal strings that have tag siblings won't be captured. So the following template p { 'hello'; em { 'world' } } producesworld
instead of the desired outputhello world
You can use "outs" here to solve this problem: p { outs 'hello'; em { 'world' } } Note you can always get rid of "outs" if the string literal is the only element of the containing block: p { 'hello, world!' } * Look out! If the if block is the last block/statement and the condition part is evaluated to be 0: p { if ( 0 ) { } } produces0
instead of the more intuitive output: This is because "if ( 0 )" is the last expression, so 0 is returned as the value of the whole block, which is used as the content of
tag.
To get rid of this, just put an empty string at the end so it
returns empty string as the content instead of 0:
p { if ( 0 ) { } '' }
BUGS
Crawling all over, baby. Be very, very careful. This code is so cutting
edge, it can only be fashioned from carbon nanotubes. But we're already
using this thing in production :) Make sure you have read the "PITFALLS"
section above :)
Some specific bugs and design flaws that we'd love to see fixed.
Output isn't streamy.
If you run into bugs or misfeatures, please report them to
"bug-template-declare@rt.cpan.org".
SEE ALSO
Template::Declare::Tags
Template::Declare::TagSet
Template::Declare::TagSet::HTML
Template::Declare::TagSet::XUL
Jifty
AUTHOR
Jesse Vincent