/ 
HTML-LinkList-0.01
River stage one • 2 direct dependents • 2 total dependents
/ HTML::LinkList

NAME

HTML::LinkList - Create a 'smart' list of HTML links.

VERSION

This describes version 0.01 of HTML::LinkList.

SYNOPSIS

    use HTML::LinkList qw(link_list);

    # default formatting
    my $html_links = link_list(current_url=>$url,
			       urls=>\@links_in_order,
			       labels=>\%labels,
			       descriptions=>\%desc);

    # paragraph with ' :: ' separators
    my $html_links = link_list(current_url=>$url,
	urls=>\@links_in_order,
	labels=>\%labels,
	descriptions=>\%desc,
	pre_list=>'<p>',
	post_list=>'</p>',
	pre_item=>'',
	post_item=>''
	pre_active_item=>'<em>',
	post_active_item=>'</em>',
	item_sep=>" :: ");

DESCRIPTION

This module contains a number of functions for taking sets of URLs and labels and creating suitably formatted HTML. These links are "smart" because, if given the url of the current page, if any of the links in the list equal it, that item in the list will be formatted as a special label, not as a link; this is a Good Thing, since the user would be confused by clicking on a link back to the current page.

While the default format for the HTML is to make an unordered list, there are many options, enabling one to have a flatter layout with any separators you desire.

The "link_list" function uses a simple list of links -- good for a simple navbar.

The "link_tree" function takes a set of nested links and makes the HTML for them -- good for making a table of contents, or a more complicated navbar.

The "dir_tree" function takes a list of paths and makes a full tree of all the files and directories in those paths -- good for making a site map.

FUNCTIONS

To export a function, add it to the 'use' call.

use HTML::LinkList qw(link_list);

To export all functions do:

use HTML::LinkList ':all';
    $links = link_list(
	current_url=>$url,
	urls=>\@links_in_order,
	labels=>\%labels,
	descriptions=>\%desc,
	pre_list=>'<ul>',
	post_list=>'</ul>',
	pre_item=>'<li>',
	post_item=>'</li>'
	pre_active_item=>'<em>',
	post_active_item=>'</em>',
	item_sep=>"\n");

Generates a simple list of links, from list of urls (and optional labels) taking into account of the "current" URL.

This provides a large number of options to customize the appearance of the list. The default setup is for a simple UL list, but setting the options can enable you to make it something other than a list altogether, or add in CSS styles or classes to make it look just like you want.

Options:

current_url

The link to the current page. If one of the links equals this, then that is deemed to be the "active" link and is just displayed as a label rather than a link.

prefix_url

A prefix to prepend to all the links. (default: empty string)

labels

A hash whose keys are links and whose values are labels. These are the labels for the links; if no label is given, then the last part of the link is used for the label.

urls

The urls in the order you want them displayed. If this list is empty, then nothing will be generated.

descriptions

Optional hash of descriptions, to put next to the links. The keys of this hash are the urls.

pre_list

String to begin the list with.

post_list

String to end the list with.

pre_item

String to prepend to each item.

post_item

String to append to each item.

pre_active_item

An additional string to put in front of each "active" item, after pre_item. The "active" item is the link which matches 'current_url'.

post_active_item

An additional string to append to each active item, before post_item.

item_sep

String to put between items.

    $links = link_tree(
	current_url=>$url,
	link_tree=>\@list_of_lists,
	labels=>\%labels,
	descriptions=>\%desc,
	tree_head=>'<ul>',
	tree_foot=>'</ul>',
	subtree_head=>'<ul>',
	subtree_foot=>'</ul>',
	pre_item=>'<li>',
	post_item=>'</li>'
	pre_active_item=>'<em>',
	post_active_item=>'</em>',
	item_sep=>"\n",
	tree_sep=>"\n");

Generates nested lists of links from a list of lists of links. This is useful for things such as table-of-contents or site maps.

By default, this will return UL lists, but this is highly configurable.

Options:

current_url

The link to the current page. If one of the links equals this, then that is deemed to be the "active" link and is just displayed as a label rather than a link.

prefix_url

A prefix to prepend to all the links. (default: empty string)

labels

A hash whose keys are links and whose values are labels. These are the labels for the links; if no label is given, then the last part of the link is used for the label.

A list of lists of urls, in the order you want them displayed. If a url is not in this list, it will not be displayed.

descriptions

Optional hash of descriptions, to put next to the links. The keys of this hash are the urls.

tree_head

The string to prepend the top-level tree with. (default: <ul>)

tree_foot

The string to append to the top-level tree. (default: </ul>)

subtree_head

The string to prepend to lower-level trees. (default: <ul>)

subtree_foot

The string to append to lower-level trees. (default: </ul>)

pre_item

String to prepend to each item. (default: <li>)

post_item

String to append to each item. (default: </li>)

pre_active_item

An additional string to put in front of each "active" item, after pre_item. The "active" item is the link which matches 'current_url'. (default: <em>)

post_active_item

An additional string to append to each active item, before post_item. (default: </em>)

item_sep

The string to separate each item.

tree_sep

The string to separate each tree.

dir_tree

    $links = dir_tree(
	paths=>\@list_of_paths,
	labels=>\%labels,
	descriptions=>\%desc,
	hide=>$hide_regex,
	start_depth=>0,
	end_depth=>0,
	...
	);

Given a set of paths this will generate a tree of links in the style of link_tree. The lists will be nested just like the directories are, and sorted in alphabetical order.

If you don't want them sorted in alphabetical order, then you would do better to generate your own list of paths, and use link_tree.

The formatting options are as for "link_tree".

Options:

paths

A reference to a list of paths; for example, files relative to the top of the website. Note that they need to be URL relative paths (with the '/' character as directory separator) not MS-Windows-style filenames. This does not require that every possible path be given; all the intermediate paths will be figured out from the list.

labels

Hash containing replacement labels for one or more categories. If no label is given for '/' (the root path) then 'Home' will be used.

descriptions

Optional hash of descriptions, to put next to the links. The keys of this hash are the urls.

hide

If the path matches this string, don't include it in the tree.

start_depth

Start your tree at this depth.

end_depth

End your tree at this depth. If zero, then go all the way.

last_subtree_head

The string to prepend to the last lower-level tree. Only used if end_depth is not zero.

last_subtree_foot

The string to append to the last lower-level tree. Only used if end_depth is not zero.

Private Functions

These functions cannot be exported.

make_item

$item = make_item( this_label=>$label, this_link=>$link, current_url=>$url, descriptions=>\%desc, pre_list=>'<ul>', post_list=>'</ul>', pre_item=>'<li>', post_item=>'</li>' pre_active_item=>'<em>', post_active_item=>'</em>', item_sep=>"\n"); );

Format a link item.

See "link_list" for the formatting options.

this_label

The label of the required link. If there is no label, this uses the base-name of the last part of the link, capitalizing it and replacing underscores with spaces.

The URL of the required link.

current_url

The link to the current page. If one of the links equals this, then that is deemed to be the "active" link and is just displayed as a label rather than a link.

descriptions

Optional hash of descriptions, to put next to the links. The keys of this hash are the links (not the labels).

defer_post_item

Don't add the 'post_item' string if this is true. (needed for nested lists) (default: false)

traverse_lol

$links = traverse_lol(\@list_of_lists, labels=>\%labels, tree_depth=>$depth ... );

Traverse the list of lists (of urls) to produce a nested collection of links.

This consumes the list_of_lists!

extract_all_paths

my @all_paths = extract_all_paths(paths=>\@paths);

Extract all possible paths out of a list of paths. Thus, if one has

/foo/bar/baz.html

then that would make

/ /foo/ /foo/bar/ /foo/bar/baz.html

This returns a sorted list of all possible paths.

build_lol

    my @lol = build_lol(
	paths=>\@paths,
	current_url=>$url,
	match_current_url=>0,
    );

Build a list of lists of directory/file paths, given a simple list of paths.

paths

Reference to list of paths; this is consumed.

REQUIRES

Test::More

INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

perl Build.PL
./Build
./Build test
./Build install

Or, if you're on a platform (like DOS or Windows) that doesn't like the "./" notation, you can do this:

perl Build.PL
perl Build
perl Build test
perl Build install

In order to install somewhere other than the default, such as in a directory under your home directory, like "/home/fred/perl" go

perl Build.PL --install_base /home/fred/perl

as the first step instead.

This will install the files underneath /home/fred/perl.

You will then need to make sure that you alter the PERL5LIB variable to find the modules.

Therefore you will need to change the PERL5LIB variable to add /home/fred/perl/lib

PERL5LIB=/home/fred/perl/lib:${PERL5LIB}

SEE ALSO

perl(1).

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to the author.

AUTHOR

Kathryn Andersen (RUBYKAT)
perlkat AT katspace dot com
http://www.katspace.com

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (c) 2006 by Kathryn Andersen

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.