NAME Template::Flute - Modern designer-friendly HTML templating Engine VERSION Version 0.021 SYNOPSIS use Template::Flute; my ($cart, $flute, %values); $cart = [{...},{...}]; $values{cost} = ... $flute = new Template::Flute(specification_file => 'cart.xml', template_file => 'cart.html', iterators => {cart => $cart}, values => \%values, autodetect => { disable => [qw/Foo::Bar/], } ); print $flute->process(); DESCRIPTION Template::Flute enables you to completely separate web design and programming tasks for dynamic web applications. Templates are designed to be designer-friendly; there's no inline code or mini templating language for your designers to learn - instead, standard HTML and CSS classes are used, leading to HTML that can easily be understood and edited by WYSIWYG editors and hand-coding designers alike. An example is easier than a wordy description: Given the following template snippet:
Mr A Test
someone@example.com
and the following specification: Processing the above as follows: $flute = Template::Flute->new( template_file => 'template.html', specification_file => 'spec.xml', ); $flute->set_values({ customer_name => 'Bob McTest', email => 'bob@example.com', });; print $flute->process; The resulting output would be:
Bob McTest
bob@example.com
In other words, rather than including a templating language within your templates which your designers must master and which could interfere with previews in WYSIWYG tools, CSS selectors in the template are tied to your data structures or objects by a specification provided by the programmer. Workflow The easiest way to use Template::Flute is to pass all necessary parameters to the constructor and call the process method to generate the HTML. You can also break it down in separate steps: 1. Parse specification Parse specification based on your specification format (e.g with Template::Flute::Specification::XML or Template::Flute::Specification::Scoped.). $xml_spec = new Template::Flute::Specification::XML; $spec = $xml_spec->parse(q{ }); 2. Parse template Parse template with Template::Flute::HTML object. $template = new Template::Flute::HTML; $template->parse(q{ Cart Example
Name Quantity Price
Sample Book $1
Total
$10
}, $spec); 3. Produce HTML output $flute = new Template::Flute(template => $template, iterators => {cart => $cart}, values => {cost => '84.94'}); $flute->process(); CONSTRUCTOR new Create a Template::Flute object with the following parameters: specification_file Specification file name. specification_parser Select specification parser. This can be either the full class name like MyApp::Specification::Parser or the last part for classes residing in the Template::Flute::Specification namespace. specification Specification object or specification as string. template_file HTML template file. template Template::Flute::HTML object or template as string. filters Hash reference of filter functions. i18n Template::Flute::I18N object. translate_attributes An arrayref of attribute names to translate. If the name has a dot, it is interpreted as tagname + attribute, so placeholder" will unconditionally translate all the placeholders, while input.placeholder only the placeholder found on the input tag. Additional dotted values compose conditions for attributes. E.g. input.value.type.submit means all the value attributes with attribute type set to submit. Defaults to ['input.value.type.submit', 'placeholder'] iterators Hash references of iterators. values Hash reference of values to be used by the process method. auto_iterators Builds iterators automatically from values. autodetect A configuration option. It should be an hashref with a key disable and a value with an arrayref with a list of classes for objects which should be considered plain hashrefs instead. Example: my $flute = Template::Flute->new(.... autodetect => { disable => [qw/My::Object/] }, .... ); Doing so, if you pass a value holding a My::Object object, and you have a specification with something like this: The value will be $object-{method}>, not $object-$method>. The object is checked with isa. Classical example: Dancer::Session::Abstract. uri Base URI for your template. This adjusts the links in the HTML tags a, base, img, link and script. email_cids This is meant to be used on HTML emails. When this is set to an hash reference (which should be empty), the hash will be populated with the following values: cid1 => { filename => 'foo.png' }, cid2 => { filename => 'foo2.gif' }, and in the body the images src attribute will be replaced with cid:cid1. The cid names are arbitrary and assigned by the template. The code should look at the reference values which were modified. cids Optional hashref with options for the CID replacement behaviour. By default, if the source looks like an HTTP/HTTPS URI, the image source is not altered and no CID is assigned. If you pass a base_url value in this hashref, the URI matching it will be converted to cids and the rest of the path will be added to the email_cids hashref. Example: my $cids = {}; $flute = Template::Flute->new(template => $template, specification => $spec, email_cids => $cids, cids => { base_url => 'http://example.com/' }); Say the template contains images with source http://example.com/image.png, the email_cids hashref will contain a cid with filename "image.png". METHODS BUILD Force creation of template class as soon as object is instantiated. process [HASHREF] Processes HTML template, manipulates the HTML tree based on the specification, values and iterators. Returns HTML output. process_template Processes HTML template and returns Template::Flute::HTML object. filter ELEMENT VALUE Runs the filter used by ELEMENT on VALUE and returns the result. value NAME Returns the value for NAME. set_values HASHREF Sets hash reference of values to be used by the process method. Same as passing the hash reference as values argument to the constructor. template Returns HTML template object, see Template::Flute::HTML for details. specification Returns specification object, see Template::Flute::Specification for details. patterns Returns all patterns found in the specification. scopes SPECIFICATION The specification ties the elements in the HTML template to the data (variables, lists, forms) which is added to the template. The default format for the specification is XML implemented by the Template::Flute::Specification::XML module. You can use the Config::Scoped format implemented by Template::Flute::Specification::Scoped module or write your own specification parser class. COMMON ATTRIBUTES Common attributes for specification elements are: name Name of element. class Class of corresponding elements in the HTML template. If this attribute is omitted, the value of the name attribute is used to relate to the class in the HTML template. id Id of corresponding element in the HTML template. Overrides the class attribute for the specification element. target HTML attribute to fill the value instead of replacing the body of the HTML element. joiner String placed between the text and the appended value. The joiner isn't added if the value is empty. ELEMENTS Possible elements in the specification are: container The first container is only shown in the output if the value billing_address is set: The second container is shown if the value warnings or the value errors is set: list separator Separator elements for list are added after any list item in the output with the exception of the last one. Example specification, HTML template and output:
KEY
|
FOO
|
BAR
param Param elements are replaced with the corresponding value from the list iterator. The following operations are supported for param elements: append Appends the param value to the text found in the HTML template. prepend Prepends the param value to the text found in the HTML template. target The attribute to operate on. See below target for value for details. toggle When the args attribute is set to tree, it doesn't interpolate anything and just shows corresponding HTML element if param value is set. With target attribute, it simply toggles the target attribute. Otherwise, if value is true, shows the HTML element and set its content to the value. If value is false, removes the HTML element. So, if your element has children elements, you probably want to use the args="tree" attribute (see below for an example). Other attributes for param elements are: filter Applies filter to param value. increment Uses value from increment instead of a value from the iterator. value Value elements are replaced with a single value present in the values hash passed to the constructor of this class or later set with the set_values method. The following operations are supported for value elements: append Appends the value to the text found in the HTML template. prepend Prepends the value to the text found in the HTML template. hook Insert HTML residing in value as subtree of the corresponding HTML element. HTML will be parsed with XML::Twig. See "INSERT HTML" for an example. toggle Only shows corresponding HTML element if value is set. Other attributes for value elements are: target Specify the attribute to operate on instead of the tag content. It can be a named attribute (e.g., href), the wildcard character(*, meaning all the attributes found in the HTML template), or a comma separated list (e.g., alt,title). filter Applies filter to value. include Processes the template file named in this attribute. This implies the hook operation. See "INCLUDE FILES" for more information. form Form elements are tied through specification to HTML forms. Attributes for form elements in addition to class and id are: link The link attribute can only have the value name and allows to base the relationship between form specification elements and HTML form tags on the name HTML attribute instead of class, which is usually more convenient. input filter sort i18n skip This attribute (which can be provided to param or value specification elements) supports the following values: empty Do not replace the template string if the value or parameter is undefined, empty or just whitespace. E.g. pattern You can define patterns in your specification to interpolate the strings instead of replacing them. A pattern is defined by the attributes name and type and its content. type can be only string or regexp. The interpolation happens if the value and param elements of the specification have an attribute pattern set with the pattern's name. Given this HTML:

There are 123 items in your shopping cart.

  • 1 in category 123
And this specification: 123 In this example, in the cartline and category classes' text, only the template text "123" will be replaced by the value, not the whole element content, yielding such output:

There are 42 items in your shopping cart.

  • 1 in category tofu
  • 2 in category pizza
SIMPLE OPERATORS append Appends the value to the text inside a HTML element or to an attribute if target has been specified. This can be used in value and param specification elements. The example shows how to add a HTML class to elements in a list: HTML: XML: CONTAINERS Conditional processing like IF or ELSE is done with the help of containers. Display image only if present In this example we want to show an image only on a certain condition: HTML: XML: Source code: if ($organization eq 'Big One') { $values{banner} = 'banners/big_one.png'; } Display link in a list only if present In this example we want so show a link only if an URL is available: HTML: XML: Source code: @records = ({name => 'Link', url => 'http://localhost/'}, {name => 'No Link'}, {name => 'Another Link', url => 'http://localhost/'}, ); $flute = Template::Flute->new(specification => $spec_xml, template => $template, iterators => {links => \@records}); $output = $flute->process(); ITERATORS Template::Flute uses iterators to retrieve list elements and insert them into the document tree. This abstraction relieves us from worrying about where the data actually comes from. We basically just need an array of hash references and an iterator class with a next and a count method. For your convenience you can create an iterator from Template::Flute::Iterator class very easily. DROPDOWNS Iterators can be used for dropdowns (HTML Specification: Code: @colors = ({value => 'red', label => 'Red'}, {value => 'black', label => 'Black'}); $flute = Template::Flute->new(template => $html, specification => $spec, iterators => {colors => \@colors}, values => {color => 'black'}, ); HTML output: Default value for dropdowns You can specify the dropdown item which is selected by default with the iterator_default) attribute. Template: Specification: Code: @colors = ({value => 'red', label => 'Red'}, {value => 'black', label => 'Black'}); $flute = Template::Flute->new(template => $html, specification => $spec, iterators => {colors => \@colors}, ); HTML output: Custom iterators for dropdowns By default, the iterator for a dropdown is an arrayref of hashrefs with two hardcoded keys: value and (optionally) label. You can override this behaviour in the specification with iterator_value_key and iterator_name_key to use your own hashref's keys from the iterator, instead of value and label. Specification: Template: Code: @colors = ({code => 'red', name => 'Red'}, {code => 'black', name => 'Black'}, ); $flute = Template::Flute->new(template => $html, specification => $spec, iterators => {colors => \@colors}, values => { color => 'black' }, ); $out = $flute->process(); Output: Limit lists Sometimes you may wish to limit the number or iterations through you list. Specification: Template:
Code: $images = [ { image_url => '/images/bottle1.jpg' }, { image_url => '/images/bottle2.jpg' }, { image_url => '/images/bottle3.jpg' }, ]; $flute = Template::Flute->new( template => $html, specification => $spec, values => { images => $images }, ); $out = $flute->process; Output:
LISTS Lists can be accessed after parsing the specification and the HTML template through the HTML template object: $flute->template->lists(); $flute->template->list('cart'); Only lists present in the specification and the HTML template can be addressed in this way. See Template::Flute::List for details about lists. OBJECTS AND STRUCTURES You can pass objects and hashrefs as values. To access a key or an accessor, you have to use a dotted notation with field. An example for both hashrefs and objects follows. Specification: HTML: Welcome back! Another one Code: package My::Object; sub new { my $class = shift; bless {}, $class; } sub method { return "Hello from the method"; } package main; my $flute = Template::Flute->new( specification => $spec, template => $html, values => { myobject => My::Object->new, mystruct => { key => "Hello from hash" }, } ); process will return: Hello from the method Hello from hash Sometimes you need to treat an object like an hashref. How to do that is explained under the autodetect option for the constructor. FORMS Forms can be accessed after parsing the specification and the HTML template through the HTML template object: $flute->template->forms(); $flute->template->form('edit_content'); Only forms present in the specification and the HTML template can be addressed in this way. See Template::Flute::Form for details about forms. FILTERS Filters are used to change the display of value and param elements in the resulting HTML output: The following filters are included: upper Uppercase filter, see Template::Flute::Filter::Upper. strip Strips whitespace at the beginning at the end, see Template::Flute::Filter::Strip. eol Filter preserving line breaks, see Template::Flute::Filter::Eol. nobreak_single Filter replacing missing text with no-break space, see Template::Flute::Filter::NobreakSingle. currency Currency filter, see Template::Flute::Filter::Currency. Requires Number::Format module. date Date filter, see Template::Flute::Filter::Date. Requires DateTime and DateTime::Format::ISO8601 modules. country_name Country name filter, see Template::Flute::Filter::CountryName. Requires Locales module. language_name Language name filter, see Template::Flute::Filter::LanguageName. Requires Locales module. json_var JSON to Javascript variable filter, see Template::Flute::Filter::JsonVar. Requires JSON module. lower_dash Replaces spaces with dashes (-) and makes lowercase. see Template::Flute::Filter::LowerDash. Filter classes are loaded at runtime for efficiency and to keep the number of dependencies for Template::Flute as small as possible. See above for prerequisites needed by the included filter classes. Chained Filters Filters can also be chained: Example template:
This is a note.
With the following value: Update now! Avoid security hazards! The HTML output would look like:
UPDATE NOW!
AVOID SECURITY HAZARDS!
INSERT HTML AND INCLUDE FILES INSERT HTML HTML can be generated in the code or retrieved from a database and inserted into the template through the hook operation: The result replaces the inner HTML of the following div tag:
Sample content
INCLUDE FILES Files, especially components for web pages can be processed and included through value elements with the include attribute: The result replaces the inner HTML of the following div tag: INSTALLATION Template::Flute can be installed from the latest release on CPAN, or if you wish for the very latest version, you can also install from the sources on GitHub. FROM CPAN To install from CPAN, simply use the cpanm utility: $ cpanm Template::Flute FROM SOURCE To install from source, first clone the repository, install the required dependencies, and build: $ git clone https://github.com/racke/Template-Flute $ cd Template-Flute $ cpanm --installdeps . $ perl Makefile.PL $ make $ make test # optional, but still a good idea $ make install AUTHOR Stefan Hornburg (Racke), BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests at https://github.com/racke/Template-Flute/issues. SUPPORT You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc Template::Flute You can also look for information at: * AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation http://annocpan.org/dist/Template-Flute * CPAN Ratings http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Template-Flute * Search CPAN http://search.cpan.org/dist/Template-Flute/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Nitish Bezzala (GH #157). Thanks to Mohammad S Anwar (GH #156). Thanks to Paul Cochrane for his tremendous amount of pull requests issued during the GitHub challenge. Thanks to Peter Mottram (GH #81, #87). Thanks to William Carr (GH #86, #91). Thanks to David Precious (bigpresh) for writing a much clearer introduction for Template::Flute. Thanks to Grega Pompe for proper implementation of nested lists and a documentation fix. Thanks to Jeff Boes for spotting a typo in the documentation of the Template::Flute::Filter::JsonVar class. Thanks to Ton Verhagen for being a big supporter of my projects in all aspects. Thanks to Sam Batschelet (GH #14, #93). Thanks to Terrence Brannon for spotting a documentation mix-up. HISTORY Template::Flute was initially named Template::Zoom. I renamed the module because of a request from Matt S. Trout, author of the HTML::Zoom module. LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright 2010-2016 Stefan Hornburg (Racke) . This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.