NAME

HTML::Make - A flexible HTML generator

SYNOPSIS

# Make a table.
use HTML::Make;
my $table = HTML::Make->new ('table');
# Can add elements as text
$table->add_text ('<tr><th>Item<th>Cost');
my %items = (
    compressor => 12800,
    heater => 'free',
    camera => 1080,
);
for my $k (sort keys %items) {
    # Add an element using "push". The return value is the new element.
    my $tr = $table->push ('tr');
    # Can add element to $tr using "push"
    $tr->push ('td', text => $k);
    # Can also make a new element then "push" it.
    my $td = HTML::Make->new ('td', text => $items{$k},
                              attr => {style => 'padding:1em'});
    $tr->push ($td);
}
# Get the output
print $table->text ();

produces output

<table>
<tr><th>Item<th>Cost<tr>
<td>camera</td>
<td style="padding:1em">1080</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>compressor</td>
<td style="padding:1em">12800</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>heater</td>
<td style="padding:1em">free</td>
</tr>
</table>

As HTML this looks like this:

Item	Cost
camera	1080
compressor	12800
heater	free

(This example is included as synopsis.pl in the distribution.)

VERSION

This documents HTML::Make version 0.12 corresponding to git commit 2419de0d9bc9ccdec56ae906b625162e111dd639 released on Fri Jan 1 23:43:22 2021 +0900.

DESCRIPTION

HTML::Make is an HTML generator. It generates HTML fragments, such as HTML lists or tables, rather than complete HTML pages.

METHODS

add_attr

$obj->add_attr (class => 'buggles');

Add attributes to $obj. The following adds a class "beano" to the "li" element:

use HTML::Make;
my $obj = HTML::Make->new ('li');
$obj->add_attr (class => 'beano');
print $obj->text ();

produces output

<li class="beano"></li>

(This example is included as li-class-beano.pl in the distribution.)

This issues a warning of the form "Overwriting attribute 'class' for 'p'" if the object already contains an attribute of the specified type.

use HTML::Make;
my $p = HTML::Make->new ('p', attr => {class => 'big'});
$p->add_attr (class => 'small');

produces output

Overwriting attribute 'class' for 'p' tag at /usr/home/ben/projects/html-make/examples/p-double-class.pl line 6.

(This example is included as p-double-class.pl in the distribution.)

This also issues a warning if the attribute is not valid for the tag, according to "tag_attr_ok" in HTML::Valid::Tagset. This is restricted to what is valid in HTML5.

add_comment

$element->add_comment ('This should be fixed!');

Add an HTML comment to the element.

add_text

$element->add_text ('buggles');

Add text to $element. For example,

my $element = HTML::Make->new ('p');
$element->add_text ('peanuts');
print $element->text ();
# <p>peanuts</p>

The text may contain HTML elements:

my $element = HTML::Make->new ('p');
$element->add_text ('peanuts <i>eggs</i>');
print $element->text ();
# <p>peanuts <i>eggs</i></p>

The return value is the added text object.

multiply

my @elements = $obj->multiply ('li', \@contents);

Given an HTML tag type as the first argument, and an array reference as the second argument, this adds multiple child elements to $obj of type given by the first argument, with text contents given by \@contents.

use HTML::Make;
my $ol = HTML::Make->new ('ol');
$ol->multiply ('li', ['one', 'two', 'three']);
print $ol->text ();

produces output

<ol>
<li>one</li>
<li>two</li>
<li>three</li>
</ol>

As HTML this looks like this:

one
two
three

(This example is included as multiply.pl in the distribution.)

new

my $element = HTML::Make->new ('li');

Make a new HTML element of the specified type.

To add attributes to the element, use

my $element = HTML::Make->new ('li', attr => {class => 'biglist'});

To add text,

my $element = HTML::Make->new ('li', text => "White punks on dope");

Both attributes and text may be added:

my $element = HTML::Make->new ('li', attr => {id => 'ok'}, text => 'OK');

HTML::Make checks the element against a list of known HTML tags from "HTML::Valid::Tagset", and warns if the first argument is not on this list. To switch off this behaviour and allow arbitrary tags, use the nocheck option:

use HTML::Make;
my $freaky = HTML::Make->new ('freaky', nocheck => 1);
$freaky->push ('franky', nocheck => 1, text => 'Visible man');
print $freaky->text ();

produces output

<freaky><franky>Visible man</franky>
</freaky>

(This example is included as nocheck.pl in the distribution.)

opening_tag

my $tag = $obj->opening_tag ();

Returns the text value of the HTML tag opening, complete with attributes. There is no "closing_tag" method, the module just prints "</$tag>" within the "text" method.

push

my $child = $element->push ('tag');

Add child element of type <tag> to $element and return the result as a new HTML::Make object. For example,

use utf8;
use HTML::Make;
my $table = HTML::Make->new ('table');
my $row = $table->push ('tr');
my $cell = $row->push ('td', text => 'Cell');
print $table->text ();

produces output

<table>
<tr>
<td>Cell</td>
</tr>
</table>

(This example is included as table.pl in the distribution.)

push takes all of the same arguments as "new", for example:

use HTML::Make;
my $element = HTML::Make->new ('p', text => 'Here is a ');
$element->push ('a', attr => {href => 'http://www.example.org/'}, text => 'link to example');
print $element->text ();

produces output

<p>
Here is a <a href="http://www.example.org/">
link to example</a>
</p>

As HTML this looks like this:

Here is a link to example

(This example is included as link-example.pl in the distribution.)

Making a colourful list

An object created with HTML::Make may also be pushed:

use utf8;
use HTML::Make;
my @colours = (
    daidai => 0xEE7800,
    murasaki => 0x884898,
    kimidori => 0xB9C42F,
    kogecha => 0x6A4D32,
    uguisuiro => 0x838B0D,
);
my $ul = HTML::Make->new ('ul');
while (@colours) {
    my $colour = shift @colours;
    my $rgb = shift @colours;
    # Here we make a new element and then push it into $ul, rather
    # than using the return value of $ul->push ().
    my $li = HTML::Make->new (
        'li', text => $colour,
        attr => {
            style => sprintf ("background: #%06X", $rgb),
        });
    $ul->push ($li);
}
print $ul->text ();

produces output

<ul>
<li style="background: #EE7800">daidai</li>
<li style="background: #884898">murasaki</li>
<li style="background: #B9C42F">kimidori</li>
<li style="background: #6A4D32">kogecha</li>
<li style="background: #838B0D">uguisuiro</li>
</ul>

As HTML this looks like this:

daidai
murasaki
kimidori
kogecha
uguisuiro

(This example is included as push-new.pl in the distribution.)

JSON to HTML

This script converts arbitrary JSON to HTML:

use utf8;
use JSON::Parse 'parse_json';
use HTML::Make;
my $json =<<EOF;
{"words":[{"j_pron_only":"パイプ","word":"pipe"},{"word":"cutting","j_pron_only":"カティング"},{"word":"implement","j_pron_only":"インプリムント"}]}
EOF
my $p = parse_json ($json);
my $html = json_to_html ($p);
print $html->text ();
exit;

sub json_to_html
{
    my ($input) = @_;
    my $element;
    if (ref $input eq 'ARRAY') {
        $element = HTML::Make->new ('ol');
        for my $k (@$input) {
            my $li = $element->push ('li');
            $li->push (json_to_html ($k));
        }
    }
    elsif (ref $input eq 'HASH') {
        $element = HTML::Make->new ('table');
        for my $k (sort keys %$input) {
            my $tr = $element->push ('tr');
            $tr->push ('th', text => $k);
            my $td = $tr->push ('td');
            $td->push (json_to_html ($input->{$k}));
        }
    }
    else {
        $element = HTML::Make->new ('span', text => $input);
    }
    return $element;
}

produces output

<table>
<tr>
<th>words</th>
<td><ol>
<li><table>
<tr>
<th>j_pron_only</th>
<td><span>パイプ</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>word</th>
<td><span>pipe</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</li>
<li><table>
<tr>
<th>j_pron_only</th>
<td><span>カティング</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>word</th>
<td><span>cutting</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</li>
<li><table>
<tr>
<th>j_pron_only</th>
<td><span>インプリムント</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>word</th>
<td><span>implement</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

As HTML this looks like this:

words

j_pron_only ãã¤ã

word pipe
j_pron_only ã«ãã£ã³ã°

word cutting
j_pron_only ã¤ã³ããªã ã³ã

word implement

(This example is included as json-to-html.pl in the distribution.)

There are some ad-hoc guardrails

This warns if you add some types of elements to possibly inappropriate parent elements. For example if you add an <li> tag to a <tr> it reacts like this:

use HTML::Make;
my $tr = HTML::Make->new ('tr');
$tr->push ('li');

produces output

Pushing non-table element <li> to a table row at /usr/home/ben/projects/html-make/examples/push-li-to-tr.pl line 6.

(This example is included as push-li-to-tr.pl in the distribution.)

I've never received a single bug report for this module, and so these warnings are mostly added in an ad-hoc fashion as I've found myself making various mistakes. If you find yourself tripping over some kind of error repeatedly, then feel free to ask me to add that to this module.

text

$element->text ();

This returns the element and its child elements as text, so usually this is called at the final stage.

OUTPUT FORMAT

This section discusses the way that HTML is output by the module.

Whitespace

Indentation: The output HTML is not indented.
New lines: New lines are added after block-level elements, according to "%isBlock" in HTML::Valid::Tagset, and after <tr> elements.

BUGS

This module assumes you want to make HTML5.

There is no way to control the whitespace in the output HTML such as indentation.

DEPENDENCIES

This module depends on the following Perl modules.

Carp: Carp is used to report errors.
HTML::Valid::Tagset: HTML::Valid::Tagset is used to validate tags and tag/attribute pairs.

AUTHOR

Ben Bullock, <bkb@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT & LICENCE

You can use, copy, modify and redistribute this package and associated files under the Perl Artistic Licence or the GNU General Public Licence.

To install HTML::Make, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm HTML::Make

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install HTML::Make

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

	Global
`s`	Focus search bar
`?`	Bring up this help dialog

	GitHub
`g` `p`	Go to pull requests
`g` `i`	go to github issues (only if github is preferred repository)

	POD
`g` `a`	Go to author
`g` `c`	Go to changes
`g` `i`	Go to issues
`g` `d`	Go to dist
`g` `r`	Go to repository/SCM
`g` `s`	Go to source
`g` `b`	Go to file browse

	Search terms
module: (e.g. module:Plugin)
distribution: (e.g. distribution:Dancer auth)
author: (e.g. author:SONGMU Redis)
version: (e.g. version:1.00)

NAME

SYNOPSIS

VERSION

DESCRIPTION

METHODS

add_attr

add_comment

add_text

multiply

new

opening_tag

push

Making a colourful list

JSON to HTML

There are some ad-hoc guardrails

text

OUTPUT FORMAT

Whitespace

BUGS

DEPENDENCIES

SEE ALSO

CPAN modules

HTML validator

AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT & LICENCE

NAME

SYNOPSIS

VERSION

DESCRIPTION

METHODS

add_attr

add_comment

add_text

multiply

new

opening_tag

push

Making a colourful list

JSON to HTML

There are some ad-hoc guardrails

text

OUTPUT FORMAT

Whitespace

BUGS

DEPENDENCIES

SEE ALSO

CPAN modules

HTML validator

AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT & LICENCE

Module Install Instructions