NAME
Text::Forge - Templates with embedded Perl
VERSION
version 6.02
SYNOPSIS
use Text::Forge;
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
# template in external file
print $forge->run('path/to/template');
# template passed as reference
print $forge->run(\'
<% my $d = scalar localtime %>The date is <%= $d %>
');
# Outputs: The date is Fri Nov 26 11:32:22 2010DESCRIPTION
This module uses templates to generate documents dynamically. Templates are normal text files with a bit of special syntax that allows Perl code to be embedded.
The following tags are supported:
<% %> code block (no output)
<%= %> interpolate, result is HTML escaped
<%? %> interpolate, result is URI escaped
<%$ %> interpolate, no escaping (let's be careful)
<%# %> commentAll blocks are evaluated within the same lexical scope (so my variables declared in one block are visible in subsequent blocks).
Code blocks contain straight Perl code; it is executed, but nothing is output.
Interpolation blocks are evaluated and the result inserted into the template.
Templates are compiled into normal Perl methods. They can be passed arguments, as you might expect:
print $forge->run(
\'<% my %args = @_ %>Name is <%= $args{name} %>',
name => 'foo'
);The $self variable is available within all templates, and is a reference to the Text::Forge instance that is generating the document. This allows subclasses to provide customization and context to templates.
Anything printed to standard output (STDOUT) becomes part of the template.
Any errors in compiling or executing a template raises an exception. Errors should correctly reference the template line causing the problem.
If a block is followed solely by whitespace up to the next newline, that whitespace (including the newline) will be suppressed from the output. If you really want a newline, add another newline after the block. The idea is that the blocks themselves shouldn't affect the formatting.
METHODS
new
Constructor. Returns a Text::Forge instance.
my $forge = Text::Forge->new(%options);run
Generate a template. The first argument is the template, which may be either a file path or a reference to a scalar. Any additional arguments are passed to the template.
my $content = $forge->run('path/to/my/template', name => 'foo');If a path is supplied and is not absolute, it will be searched for within the list of "search_paths".
The generated output is returned.
cache
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->cache(1);Specifies whether templates should be cached. Defaults to true.
If caching is enabled, templates are compiled into subroutines once and then reused.
If you want to ensure templates always reflect the latest changes on disk (such as during development), set cache() to false.
If you want to maximize performance, set cache() to true.
charset
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->charset('iso-8859-1');Specifies the character encoding to use for templates. Defaults to Unicode (utf8).
search_paths
The list of directories to search for relative template paths.
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->search_paths('/app/templates', '.');
# will look for /app/templates/header and ./header
$forge->run('header');content
Returns the result of the last call to run().
TEMPLATE METHODS
The following methods are intended for use within templates. It's all the same object though, so knock yourself out.
include
Include one template within another.
For example, if you want to insert a "header" template within another template. Note that arguments can be passed to included templates and values can be returned (like normal function calls).
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->run(\'<% $self->include("header", title => 'Hi') %>Hello');capture
Capture the output of a template.
Used to capture (but not necessarily include) one template within another. For example:
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->run(\'
<% my $pagination = $self->capture(sub { %>
Page
<ul>
<% foreach (1..10) { %>
<li><%= $_ %></li>
<% } %>
</ul>
<% }) %>
<h1>Title</h1>
<%$ $pagination %>
Results...
<%$ $pagination %>
');In this case the "pagination" content has been captured into the variable $pagination, which is then inserted in multiple locations elsewhere in the document.
content_for
Capture the output into a named placeholder. Same as "capture" except the result in stored internally as $forge->{captures}{ $name }.
Note that multiple calls to content_for() with the same name are concatenated together (not overwritten); this allows, for example, multiple calls to something like content_for('head', ...), which are then aggregated and inserted elsewhere in the document.
When called with two arguments, this method stores the specified content in the named location:
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->run(\'
<h1>Title</h1>
<% $self->capture_for('nav', sub { %>
<ul>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
<% }) %>
');When called with one argument, it returns the previously stored content, if any:
my $nav = $self->content_for('nav');layout
Specifies a layout template to apply. Defaults to none.
If defined, the layout template is applied after the primary template has been generated. The layout template may then "wrap" the primary template with additional content.
For example, rather than have each template "include" a separate header and footer template explicitly, a layout() template can be used more simply:
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
$forge->layout(\'<html><body><%$ $_ %></body></html>');
print $forge->run(\'<h1>Hello, World!</h1>');
# results in:
# <html><body><h1>Hello, World!</h1></body></html>Within the layout, the primary template content is available as $_ (as well as through $self->content_for('main')).
escape_html, h
Returns HTML encoded versions of its arguments. This method is used internally to encode the result of <%= %> blocks, but can be used directly:
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
print $forge->run(\'<% print $self->escape_html("<strong>") %>');
# outputs: <strong>The h() method is just an alias for convenience.
If a blessed reference is passed that provides an as_html() method, the result of that method will be returned instead. This allows objects to be constructed that keep track of their own encoding state.
escape_uri, u
Returns URI escaped versions of its arguments. This method is used internally to encode the result of <%? %> blocks, but can be used directly:
my $forge = Text::Forge->new;
print $forge->run(\'<% print $self->escape_uri("name=foo") %>');
# outputs: name%3DfooThe u() method is just an alias for convenience.
If a blessed reference is passed that provides an as_uri() method, the result of that method will be returned instead. This allows objects to be constructed that keep track of their own encoding state.
AUTHOR
Maurice Aubrey <maurice.aubrey@gmail.com>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Maurice Aubrey.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.