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- # -*- perl -*-
- # Text::Template.pm
- #
- # Fill in `templates'
- #
- # Copyright 2013 M. J. Dominus.
- # You may copy and distribute this program under the
- # same terms as Perl iteself.
- # If in doubt, write to mjd-perl-template+@plover.com for a license.
- #
- # Version 1.46
- package Text::Template;
- require 5.004;
- use Exporter;
- @ISA = qw(Exporter);
- @EXPORT_OK = qw(fill_in_file fill_in_string TTerror);
- use vars '$ERROR';
- use strict;
- $Text::Template::VERSION = '1.46';
- my %GLOBAL_PREPEND = ('Text::Template' => '');
- sub Version {
- $Text::Template::VERSION;
- }
- sub _param {
- my $kk;
- my ($k, %h) = @_;
- for $kk ($k, "\u$k", "\U$k", "-$k", "-\u$k", "-\U$k") {
- return $h{$kk} if exists $h{$kk};
- }
- return;
- }
- sub always_prepend
- {
- my $pack = shift;
- my $old = $GLOBAL_PREPEND{$pack};
- $GLOBAL_PREPEND{$pack} = shift;
- $old;
- }
- {
- my %LEGAL_TYPE;
- BEGIN {
- %LEGAL_TYPE = map {$_=>1} qw(FILE FILEHANDLE STRING ARRAY);
- }
- sub new {
- my $pack = shift;
- my %a = @_;
- my $stype = uc(_param('type', %a) || "FILE");
- my $source = _param('source', %a);
- my $untaint = _param('untaint', %a);
- my $prepend = _param('prepend', %a);
- my $alt_delim = _param('delimiters', %a);
- my $broken = _param('broken', %a);
- unless (defined $source) {
- require Carp;
- Carp::croak("Usage: $ {pack}::new(TYPE => ..., SOURCE => ...)");
- }
- unless ($LEGAL_TYPE{$stype}) {
- require Carp;
- Carp::croak("Illegal value `$stype' for TYPE parameter");
- }
- my $self = {TYPE => $stype,
- PREPEND => $prepend,
- UNTAINT => $untaint,
- BROKEN => $broken,
- (defined $alt_delim ? (DELIM => $alt_delim) : ()),
- };
- # Under 5.005_03, if any of $stype, $prepend, $untaint, or $broken
- # are tainted, all the others become tainted too as a result of
- # sharing the expression with them. We install $source separately
- # to prevent it from acquiring a spurious taint.
- $self->{SOURCE} = $source;
- bless $self => $pack;
- return unless $self->_acquire_data;
-
- $self;
- }
- }
- # Convert template objects of various types to type STRING,
- # in which the template data is embedded in the object itself.
- sub _acquire_data {
- my ($self) = @_;
- my $type = $self->{TYPE};
- if ($type eq 'STRING') {
- # nothing necessary
- } elsif ($type eq 'FILE') {
- my $data = _load_text($self->{SOURCE});
- unless (defined $data) {
- # _load_text already set $ERROR
- return undef;
- }
- if ($self->{UNTAINT} && _is_clean($self->{SOURCE})) {
- _unconditionally_untaint($data);
- }
- $self->{TYPE} = 'STRING';
- $self->{FILENAME} = $self->{SOURCE};
- $self->{SOURCE} = $data;
- } elsif ($type eq 'ARRAY') {
- $self->{TYPE} = 'STRING';
- $self->{SOURCE} = join '', @{$self->{SOURCE}};
- } elsif ($type eq 'FILEHANDLE') {
- $self->{TYPE} = 'STRING';
- local $/;
- my $fh = $self->{SOURCE};
- my $data = <$fh>; # Extra assignment avoids bug in Solaris perl5.00[45].
- if ($self->{UNTAINT}) {
- _unconditionally_untaint($data);
- }
- $self->{SOURCE} = $data;
- } else {
- # This should have been caught long ago, so it represents a
- # drastic `can't-happen' sort of failure
- my $pack = ref $self;
- die "Can only acquire data for $pack objects of subtype STRING, but this is $type; aborting";
- }
- $self->{DATA_ACQUIRED} = 1;
- }
- sub source {
- my ($self) = @_;
- $self->_acquire_data unless $self->{DATA_ACQUIRED};
- return $self->{SOURCE};
- }
- sub set_source_data {
- my ($self, $newdata) = @_;
- $self->{SOURCE} = $newdata;
- $self->{DATA_ACQUIRED} = 1;
- $self->{TYPE} = 'STRING';
- 1;
- }
- sub compile {
- my $self = shift;
- return 1 if $self->{TYPE} eq 'PREPARSED';
- return undef unless $self->_acquire_data;
- unless ($self->{TYPE} eq 'STRING') {
- my $pack = ref $self;
- # This should have been caught long ago, so it represents a
- # drastic `can't-happen' sort of failure
- die "Can only compile $pack objects of subtype STRING, but this is $self->{TYPE}; aborting";
- }
- my @tokens;
- my $delim_pats = shift() || $self->{DELIM};
-
- my ($t_open, $t_close) = ('{', '}');
- my $DELIM; # Regex matches a delimiter if $delim_pats
- if (defined $delim_pats) {
- ($t_open, $t_close) = @$delim_pats;
- $DELIM = "(?:(?:\Q$t_open\E)|(?:\Q$t_close\E))";
- @tokens = split /($DELIM|\n)/, $self->{SOURCE};
- } else {
- @tokens = split /(\\\\(?=\\*[{}])|\\[{}]|[{}\n])/, $self->{SOURCE};
- }
- my $state = 'TEXT';
- my $depth = 0;
- my $lineno = 1;
- my @content;
- my $cur_item = '';
- my $prog_start;
- while (@tokens) {
- my $t = shift @tokens;
- next if $t eq '';
- if ($t eq $t_open) { # Brace or other opening delimiter
- if ($depth == 0) {
- push @content, [$state, $cur_item, $lineno] if $cur_item ne '';
- $cur_item = '';
- $state = 'PROG';
- $prog_start = $lineno;
- } else {
- $cur_item .= $t;
- }
- $depth++;
- } elsif ($t eq $t_close) { # Brace or other closing delimiter
- $depth--;
- if ($depth < 0) {
- $ERROR = "Unmatched close brace at line $lineno";
- return undef;
- } elsif ($depth == 0) {
- push @content, [$state, $cur_item, $prog_start] if $cur_item ne '';
- $state = 'TEXT';
- $cur_item = '';
- } else {
- $cur_item .= $t;
- }
- } elsif (!$delim_pats && $t eq '\\\\') { # precedes \\\..\\\{ or \\\..\\\}
- $cur_item .= '\\';
- } elsif (!$delim_pats && $t =~ /^\\([{}])$/) { # Escaped (literal) brace?
- $cur_item .= $1;
- } elsif ($t eq "\n") { # Newline
- $lineno++;
- $cur_item .= $t;
- } else { # Anything else
- $cur_item .= $t;
- }
- }
- if ($state eq 'PROG') {
- $ERROR = "End of data inside program text that began at line $prog_start";
- return undef;
- } elsif ($state eq 'TEXT') {
- push @content, [$state, $cur_item, $lineno] if $cur_item ne '';
- } else {
- die "Can't happen error #1";
- }
-
- $self->{TYPE} = 'PREPARSED';
- $self->{SOURCE} = \@content;
- 1;
- }
- sub prepend_text {
- my ($self) = @_;
- my $t = $self->{PREPEND};
- unless (defined $t) {
- $t = $GLOBAL_PREPEND{ref $self};
- unless (defined $t) {
- $t = $GLOBAL_PREPEND{'Text::Template'};
- }
- }
- $self->{PREPEND} = $_[1] if $#_ >= 1;
- return $t;
- }
- sub fill_in {
- my $fi_self = shift;
- my %fi_a = @_;
- unless ($fi_self->{TYPE} eq 'PREPARSED') {
- my $delims = _param('delimiters', %fi_a);
- my @delim_arg = (defined $delims ? ($delims) : ());
- $fi_self->compile(@delim_arg)
- or return undef;
- }
- my $fi_varhash = _param('hash', %fi_a);
- my $fi_package = _param('package', %fi_a) ;
- my $fi_broken =
- _param('broken', %fi_a) || $fi_self->{BROKEN} || \&_default_broken;
- my $fi_broken_arg = _param('broken_arg', %fi_a) || [];
- my $fi_safe = _param('safe', %fi_a);
- my $fi_ofh = _param('output', %fi_a);
- my $fi_eval_package;
- my $fi_scrub_package = 0;
- my $fi_filename = _param('filename') || $fi_self->{FILENAME} || 'template';
- my $fi_prepend = _param('prepend', %fi_a);
- unless (defined $fi_prepend) {
- $fi_prepend = $fi_self->prepend_text;
- }
- if (defined $fi_safe) {
- $fi_eval_package = 'main';
- } elsif (defined $fi_package) {
- $fi_eval_package = $fi_package;
- } elsif (defined $fi_varhash) {
- $fi_eval_package = _gensym();
- $fi_scrub_package = 1;
- } else {
- $fi_eval_package = caller;
- }
- my $fi_install_package;
- if (defined $fi_varhash) {
- if (defined $fi_package) {
- $fi_install_package = $fi_package;
- } elsif (defined $fi_safe) {
- $fi_install_package = $fi_safe->root;
- } else {
- $fi_install_package = $fi_eval_package; # The gensymmed one
- }
- _install_hash($fi_varhash => $fi_install_package);
- }
- if (defined $fi_package && defined $fi_safe) {
- no strict 'refs';
- # Big fat magic here: Fix it so that the user-specified package
- # is the default one available in the safe compartment.
- *{$fi_safe->root . '::'} = \%{$fi_package . '::'}; # LOD
- }
- my $fi_r = '';
- my $fi_item;
- foreach $fi_item (@{$fi_self->{SOURCE}}) {
- my ($fi_type, $fi_text, $fi_lineno) = @$fi_item;
- if ($fi_type eq 'TEXT') {
- $fi_self->append_text_to_output(
- text => $fi_text,
- handle => $fi_ofh,
- out => \$fi_r,
- type => $fi_type,
- );
- } elsif ($fi_type eq 'PROG') {
- no strict;
- my $fi_lcomment = "#line $fi_lineno $fi_filename";
- my $fi_progtext =
- "package $fi_eval_package; $fi_prepend;\n$fi_lcomment\n$fi_text;";
- my $fi_res;
- my $fi_eval_err = '';
- if ($fi_safe) {
- $fi_safe->reval(q{undef $OUT});
- $fi_res = $fi_safe->reval($fi_progtext);
- $fi_eval_err = $@;
- my $OUT = $fi_safe->reval('$OUT');
- $fi_res = $OUT if defined $OUT;
- } else {
- my $OUT;
- $fi_res = eval $fi_progtext;
- $fi_eval_err = $@;
- $fi_res = $OUT if defined $OUT;
- }
- # If the value of the filled-in text really was undef,
- # change it to an explicit empty string to avoid undefined
- # value warnings later.
- $fi_res = '' unless defined $fi_res;
- if ($fi_eval_err) {
- $fi_res = $fi_broken->(text => $fi_text,
- error => $fi_eval_err,
- lineno => $fi_lineno,
- arg => $fi_broken_arg,
- );
- if (defined $fi_res) {
- $fi_self->append_text_to_output(
- text => $fi_res,
- handle => $fi_ofh,
- out => \$fi_r,
- type => $fi_type,
- );
- } else {
- return $fi_res; # Undefined means abort processing
- }
- } else {
- $fi_self->append_text_to_output(
- text => $fi_res,
- handle => $fi_ofh,
- out => \$fi_r,
- type => $fi_type,
- );
- }
- } else {
- die "Can't happen error #2";
- }
- }
- _scrubpkg($fi_eval_package) if $fi_scrub_package;
- defined $fi_ofh ? 1 : $fi_r;
- }
- sub append_text_to_output {
- my ($self, %arg) = @_;
- if (defined $arg{handle}) {
- print { $arg{handle} } $arg{text};
- } else {
- ${ $arg{out} } .= $arg{text};
- }
- return;
- }
- sub fill_this_in {
- my $pack = shift;
- my $text = shift;
- my $templ = $pack->new(TYPE => 'STRING', SOURCE => $text, @_)
- or return undef;
- $templ->compile or return undef;
- my $result = $templ->fill_in(@_);
- $result;
- }
- sub fill_in_string {
- my $string = shift;
- my $package = _param('package', @_);
- push @_, 'package' => scalar(caller) unless defined $package;
- Text::Template->fill_this_in($string, @_);
- }
- sub fill_in_file {
- my $fn = shift;
- my $templ = Text::Template->new(TYPE => 'FILE', SOURCE => $fn, @_)
- or return undef;
- $templ->compile or return undef;
- my $text = $templ->fill_in(@_);
- $text;
- }
- sub _default_broken {
- my %a = @_;
- my $prog_text = $a{text};
- my $err = $a{error};
- my $lineno = $a{lineno};
- chomp $err;
- # $err =~ s/\s+at .*//s;
- "Program fragment delivered error ``$err''";
- }
- sub _load_text {
- my $fn = shift;
- local *F;
- unless (open F, $fn) {
- $ERROR = "Couldn't open file $fn: $!";
- return undef;
- }
- local $/;
- <F>;
- }
- sub _is_clean {
- my $z;
- eval { ($z = join('', @_)), eval '#' . substr($z,0,0); 1 } # LOD
- }
- sub _unconditionally_untaint {
- for (@_) {
- ($_) = /(.*)/s;
- }
- }
- {
- my $seqno = 0;
- sub _gensym {
- __PACKAGE__ . '::GEN' . $seqno++;
- }
- sub _scrubpkg {
- my $s = shift;
- $s =~ s/^Text::Template:://;
- no strict 'refs';
- my $hash = $Text::Template::{$s."::"};
- foreach my $key (keys %$hash) {
- undef $hash->{$key};
- }
- }
- }
-
- # Given a hashful of variables (or a list of such hashes)
- # install the variables into the specified package,
- # overwriting whatever variables were there before.
- sub _install_hash {
- my $hashlist = shift;
- my $dest = shift;
- if (UNIVERSAL::isa($hashlist, 'HASH')) {
- $hashlist = [$hashlist];
- }
- my $hash;
- foreach $hash (@$hashlist) {
- my $name;
- foreach $name (keys %$hash) {
- my $val = $hash->{$name};
- no strict 'refs';
- local *SYM = *{"$ {dest}::$name"};
- if (! defined $val) {
- delete ${"$ {dest}::"}{$name};
- } elsif (ref $val) {
- *SYM = $val;
- } else {
- *SYM = \$val;
- }
- }
- }
- }
- sub TTerror { $ERROR }
- 1;
- =head1 NAME
- Text::Template - Expand template text with embedded Perl
- =head1 VERSION
- This file documents C<Text::Template> version B<1.46>
- =head1 SYNOPSIS
- use Text::Template;
- $template = Text::Template->new(TYPE => 'FILE', SOURCE => 'filename.tmpl');
- $template = Text::Template->new(TYPE => 'ARRAY', SOURCE => [ ... ] );
- $template = Text::Template->new(TYPE => 'FILEHANDLE', SOURCE => $fh );
- $template = Text::Template->new(TYPE => 'STRING', SOURCE => '...' );
- $template = Text::Template->new(PREPEND => q{use strict;}, ...);
- # Use a different template file syntax:
- $template = Text::Template->new(DELIMITERS => [$open, $close], ...);
- $recipient = 'King';
- $text = $template->fill_in(); # Replaces `{$recipient}' with `King'
- print $text;
- $T::recipient = 'Josh';
- $text = $template->fill_in(PACKAGE => T);
- # Pass many variables explicitly
- $hash = { recipient => 'Abed-Nego',
- friends => [ 'me', 'you' ],
- enemies => { loathsome => 'Bill Gates',
- fearsome => 'Larry Ellison' },
- };
- $text = $template->fill_in(HASH => $hash, ...);
- # $recipient is Abed-Nego,
- # @friends is ( 'me', 'you' ),
- # %enemies is ( loathsome => ..., fearsome => ... )
- # Call &callback in case of programming errors in template
- $text = $template->fill_in(BROKEN => \&callback, BROKEN_ARG => $ref, ...);
- # Evaluate program fragments in Safe compartment with restricted permissions
- $text = $template->fill_in(SAFE => $compartment, ...);
- # Print result text instead of returning it
- $success = $template->fill_in(OUTPUT => \*FILEHANDLE, ...);
- # Parse template with different template file syntax:
- $text = $template->fill_in(DELIMITERS => [$open, $close], ...);
- # Note that this is *faster* than using the default delimiters
- # Prepend specified perl code to each fragment before evaluating:
- $text = $template->fill_in(PREPEND => q{use strict 'vars';}, ...);
- use Text::Template 'fill_in_string';
- $text = fill_in_string( <<EOM, PACKAGE => 'T', ...);
- Dear {$recipient},
- Pay me at once.
- Love,
- G.V.
- EOM
- use Text::Template 'fill_in_file';
- $text = fill_in_file($filename, ...);
- # All templates will always have `use strict vars' attached to all fragments
- Text::Template->always_prepend(q{use strict 'vars';});
- =head1 DESCRIPTION
- This is a library for generating form letters, building HTML pages, or
- filling in templates generally. A `template' is a piece of text that
- has little Perl programs embedded in it here and there. When you
- `fill in' a template, you evaluate the little programs and replace
- them with their values.
- You can store a template in a file outside your program. People can
- modify the template without modifying the program. You can separate
- the formatting details from the main code, and put the formatting
- parts of the program into the template. That prevents code bloat and
- encourages functional separation.
- =head2 Example
- Here's an example of a template, which we'll suppose is stored in the
- file C<formletter.tmpl>:
- Dear {$title} {$lastname},
- It has come to our attention that you are delinquent in your
- {$monthname[$last_paid_month]} payment. Please remit
- ${sprintf("%.2f", $amount)} immediately, or your patellae may
- be needlessly endangered.
- Love,
- Mark "Vizopteryx" Dominus
- The result of filling in this template is a string, which might look
- something like this:
- Dear Mr. Gates,
- It has come to our attention that you are delinquent in your
- February payment. Please remit
- $392.12 immediately, or your patellae may
- be needlessly endangered.
- Love,
- Mark "Vizopteryx" Dominus
- Here is a complete program that transforms the example
- template into the example result, and prints it out:
- use Text::Template;
- my $template = Text::Template->new(SOURCE => 'formletter.tmpl')
- or die "Couldn't construct template: $Text::Template::ERROR";
- my @monthname = qw(January February March April May June
- July August September October November December);
- my %vars = (title => 'Mr.',
- firstname => 'Bill',
- lastname => 'Gates',
- last_paid_month => 1, # February
- amount => 392.12,
- monthname => \@monthname,
- );
- my $result = $template->fill_in(HASH => \%vars);
- if (defined $result) { print $result }
- else { die "Couldn't fill in template: $Text::Template::ERROR" }
- =head2 Philosophy
- When people make a template module like this one, they almost always
- start by inventing a special syntax for substitutions. For example,
- they build it so that a string like C<%%VAR%%> is replaced with the
- value of C<$VAR>. Then they realize the need extra formatting, so
- they put in some special syntax for formatting. Then they need a
- loop, so they invent a loop syntax. Pretty soon they have a new
- little template language.
- This approach has two problems: First, their little language is
- crippled. If you need to do something the author hasn't thought of,
- you lose. Second: Who wants to learn another language? You already
- know Perl, so why not use it?
- C<Text::Template> templates are programmed in I<Perl>. You embed Perl
- code in your template, with C<{> at the beginning and C<}> at the end.
- If you want a variable interpolated, you write it the way you would in
- Perl. If you need to make a loop, you can use any of the Perl loop
- constructions. All the Perl built-in functions are available.
- =head1 Details
- =head2 Template Parsing
- The C<Text::Template> module scans the template source. An open brace
- C<{> begins a program fragment, which continues until the matching
- close brace C<}>. When the template is filled in, the program
- fragments are evaluated, and each one is replaced with the resulting
- value to yield the text that is returned.
- A backslash C<\> in front of a brace (or another backslash that is in
- front of a brace) escapes its special meaning. The result of filling
- out this template:
- \{ The sum of 1 and 2 is {1+2} \}
- is
- { The sum of 1 and 2 is 3 }
- If you have an unmatched brace, C<Text::Template> will return a
- failure code and a warning about where the problem is. Backslashes
- that do not precede a brace are passed through unchanged. If you have
- a template like this:
- { "String that ends in a newline.\n" }
- The backslash inside the string is passed through to Perl unchanged,
- so the C<\n> really does turn into a newline. See the note at the end
- for details about the way backslashes work. Backslash processing is
- I<not> done when you specify alternative delimiters with the
- C<DELIMITERS> option. (See L<"Alternative Delimiters">, below.)
- Each program fragment should be a sequence of Perl statements, which
- are evaluated the usual way. The result of the last statement
- executed will be evaluted in scalar context; the result of this
- statement is a string, which is interpolated into the template in
- place of the program fragment itself.
- The fragments are evaluated in order, and side effects from earlier
- fragments will persist into later fragments:
- {$x = @things; ''}The Lord High Chamberlain has gotten {$x}
- things for me this year.
- { $diff = $x - 17;
- $more = 'more'
- if ($diff == 0) {
- $diff = 'no';
- } elsif ($diff < 0) {
- $more = 'fewer';
- }
- '';
- }
- That is {$diff} {$more} than he gave me last year.
- The value of C<$x> set in the first line will persist into the next
- fragment that begins on the third line, and the values of C<$diff> and
- C<$more> set in the second fragment will persist and be interpolated
- into the last line. The output will look something like this:
- The Lord High Chamberlain has gotten 42
- things for me this year.
- That is 25 more than he gave me last year.
- That is all the syntax there is.
- =head2 The C<$OUT> variable
- There is one special trick you can play in a template. Here is the
- motivation for it: Suppose you are going to pass an array, C<@items>,
- into the template, and you want the template to generate a bulleted
- list with a header, like this:
- Here is a list of the things I have got for you since 1907:
- * Ivory
- * Apes
- * Peacocks
- * ...
- One way to do it is with a template like this:
- Here is a list of the things I have got for you since 1907:
- { my $blist = '';
- foreach $i (@items) {
- $blist .= qq{ * $i\n};
- }
- $blist;
- }
- Here we construct the list in a variable called C<$blist>, which we
- return at the end. This is a little cumbersome. There is a shortcut.
- Inside of templates, there is a special variable called C<$OUT>.
- Anything you append to this variable will appear in the output of the
- template. Also, if you use C<$OUT> in a program fragment, the normal
- behavior, of replacing the fragment with its return value, is
- disabled; instead the fragment is replaced with the value of C<$OUT>.
- This means that you can write the template above like this:
- Here is a list of the things I have got for you since 1907:
- { foreach $i (@items) {
- $OUT .= " * $i\n";
- }
- }
- C<$OUT> is reinitialized to the empty string at the start of each
- program fragment. It is private to C<Text::Template>, so
- you can't use a variable named C<$OUT> in your template without
- invoking the special behavior.
- =head2 General Remarks
- All C<Text::Template> functions return C<undef> on failure, and set the
- variable C<$Text::Template::ERROR> to contain an explanation of what
- went wrong. For example, if you try to create a template from a file
- that does not exist, C<$Text::Template::ERROR> will contain something like:
- Couldn't open file xyz.tmpl: No such file or directory
- =head2 C<new>
- $template = new Text::Template ( TYPE => ..., SOURCE => ... );
- This creates and returns a new template object. C<new> returns
- C<undef> and sets C<$Text::Template::ERROR> if it can't create the
- template object. C<SOURCE> says where the template source code will
- come from. C<TYPE> says what kind of object the source is.
- The most common type of source is a file:
- new Text::Template ( TYPE => 'FILE', SOURCE => $filename );
- This reads the template from the specified file. The filename is
- opened with the Perl C<open> command, so it can be a pipe or anything
- else that makes sense with C<open>.
- The C<TYPE> can also be C<STRING>, in which case the C<SOURCE> should
- be a string:
- new Text::Template ( TYPE => 'STRING',
- SOURCE => "This is the actual template!" );
- The C<TYPE> can be C<ARRAY>, in which case the source should be a
- reference to an array of strings. The concatenation of these strings
- is the template:
- new Text::Template ( TYPE => 'ARRAY',
- SOURCE => [ "This is ", "the actual",
- " template!",
- ]
- );
- The C<TYPE> can be FILEHANDLE, in which case the source should be an
- open filehandle (such as you got from the C<FileHandle> or C<IO::*>
- packages, or a glob, or a reference to a glob). In this case
- C<Text::Template> will read the text from the filehandle up to
- end-of-file, and that text is the template:
- # Read template source code from STDIN:
- new Text::Template ( TYPE => 'FILEHANDLE',
- SOURCE => \*STDIN );
- If you omit the C<TYPE> attribute, it's taken to be C<FILE>.
- C<SOURCE> is required. If you omit it, the program will abort.
- The words C<TYPE> and C<SOURCE> can be spelled any of the following ways:
- TYPE SOURCE
- Type Source
- type source
- -TYPE -SOURCE
- -Type -Source
- -type -source
- Pick a style you like and stick with it.
- =over 4
- =item C<DELIMITERS>
- You may also add a C<DELIMITERS> option. If this option is present,
- its value should be a reference to an array of two strings. The first
- string is the string that signals the beginning of each program
- fragment, and the second string is the string that signals the end of
- each program fragment. See L<"Alternative Delimiters">, below.
- =item C<UNTAINT>
- If your program is running in taint mode, you may have problems if
- your templates are stored in files. Data read from files is
- considered 'untrustworthy', and taint mode will not allow you to
- evaluate the Perl code in the file. (It is afraid that a malicious
- person might have tampered with the file.)
- In some environments, however, local files are trustworthy. You can
- tell C<Text::Template> that a certain file is trustworthy by supplying
- C<UNTAINT =E<gt> 1> in the call to C<new>. This will tell
- C<Text::Template> to disable taint checks on template code that has
- come from a file, as long as the filename itself is considered
- trustworthy. It will also disable taint checks on template code that
- comes from a filehandle. When used with C<TYPE =E<gt> 'string'> or C<TYPE
- =E<gt> 'array'>, it has no effect.
- See L<perlsec> for more complete information about tainting.
- Thanks to Steve Palincsar, Gerard Vreeswijk, and Dr. Christoph Baehr
- for help with this feature.
- =item C<PREPEND>
- This option is passed along to the C<fill_in> call unless it is
- overridden in the arguments to C<fill_in>. See L<C<PREPEND> feature
- and using C<strict> in templates> below.
- =item C<BROKEN>
- This option is passed along to the C<fill_in> call unless it is
- overridden in the arguments to C<fill_in>. See L<C<BROKEN>> below.
- =back
- =head2 C<compile>
- $template->compile()
- Loads all the template text from the template's source, parses and
- compiles it. If successful, returns true; otherwise returns false and
- sets C<$Text::Template::ERROR>. If the template is already compiled,
- it returns true and does nothing.
- You don't usually need to invoke this function, because C<fill_in>
- (see below) compiles the template if it isn't compiled already.
- If there is an argument to this function, it must be a reference to an
- array containing alternative delimiter strings. See C<"Alternative
- Delimiters">, below.
- =head2 C<fill_in>
- $template->fill_in(OPTIONS);
- Fills in a template. Returns the resulting text if successful.
- Otherwise, returns C<undef> and sets C<$Text::Template::ERROR>.
- The I<OPTIONS> are a hash, or a list of key-value pairs. You can
- write the key names in any of the six usual styles as above; this
- means that where this manual says C<PACKAGE> (for example) you can
- actually use any of
- PACKAGE Package package -PACKAGE -Package -package
- Pick a style you like and stick with it. The all-lowercase versions
- may yield spurious warnings about
- Ambiguous use of package => resolved to "package"
- so you might like to avoid them and use the capitalized versions.
- At present, there are eight legal options: C<PACKAGE>, C<BROKEN>,
- C<BROKEN_ARG>, C<SAFE>, C<HASH>, C<OUTPUT>, and C<DELIMITERS>.
- =over 4
- =item C<PACKAGE>
- C<PACKAGE> specifies the name of a package in which the program
- fragments should be evaluated. The default is to use the package from
- which C<fill_in> was called. For example, consider this template:
- The value of the variable x is {$x}.
- If you use C<$template-E<gt>fill_in(PACKAGE =E<gt> 'R')> , then the C<$x> in
- the template is actually replaced with the value of C<$R::x>. If you
- omit the C<PACKAGE> option, C<$x> will be replaced with the value of
- the C<$x> variable in the package that actually called C<fill_in>.
- You should almost always use C<PACKAGE>. If you don't, and your
- template makes changes to variables, those changes will be propagated
- back into the main program. Evaluating the template in a private
- package helps prevent this. The template can still modify variables
- in your program if it wants to, but it will have to do so explicitly.
- See the section at the end on `Security'.
- Here's an example of using C<PACKAGE>:
- Your Royal Highness,
- Enclosed please find a list of things I have gotten
- for you since 1907:
- { foreach $item (@items) {
- $item_no++;
- $OUT .= " $item_no. \u$item\n";
- }
- }
- Signed,
- Lord High Chamberlain
- We want to pass in an array which will be assigned to the array
- C<@items>. Here's how to do that:
- @items = ('ivory', 'apes', 'peacocks', );
- $template->fill_in();
- This is not very safe. The reason this isn't as safe is that if you
- had a variable named C<$item_no> in scope in your program at the point
- you called C<fill_in>, its value would be clobbered by the act of
- filling out the template. The problem is the same as if you had
- written a subroutine that used those variables in the same way that
- the template does. (C<$OUT> is special in templates and is always
- safe.)
- One solution to this is to make the C<$item_no> variable private to the
- template by declaring it with C<my>. If the template does this, you
- are safe.
- But if you use the C<PACKAGE> option, you will probably be safe even
- if the template does I<not> declare its variables with C<my>:
- @Q::items = ('ivory', 'apes', 'peacocks', );
- $template->fill_in(PACKAGE => 'Q');
- In this case the template will clobber the variable C<$Q::item_no>,
- which is not related to the one your program was using.
- Templates cannot affect variables in the main program that are
- declared with C<my>, unless you give the template references to those
- variables.
- =item C<HASH>
- You may not want to put the template variables into a package.
- Packages can be hard to manage: You can't copy them, for example.
- C<HASH> provides an alternative.
- The value for C<HASH> should be a reference to a hash that maps
- variable names to values. For example,
- $template->fill_in(HASH => { recipient => "The King",
- items => ['gold', 'frankincense', 'myrrh'],
- object => \$self,
- });
- will fill out the template and use C<"The King"> as the value of
- C<$recipient> and the list of items as the value of C<@items>. Note
- that we pass an array reference, but inside the template it appears as
- an array. In general, anything other than a simple string or number
- should be passed by reference.
- We also want to pass an object, which is in C<$self>; note that we
- pass a reference to the object, C<\$self> instead. Since we've passed
- a reference to a scalar, inside the template the object appears as
- C<$object>.
- The full details of how it works are a little involved, so you might
- want to skip to the next section.
- Suppose the key in the hash is I<key> and the value is I<value>.
- =over 4
- =item *
- If the I<value> is C<undef>, then any variables named C<$key>,
- C<@key>, C<%key>, etc., are undefined.
- =item *
- If the I<value> is a string or a number, then C<$key> is set to that
- value in the template.
- =item *
- For anything else, you must pass a reference.
- If the I<value> is a reference to an array, then C<@key> is set to
- that array. If the I<value> is a reference to a hash, then C<%key> is
- set to that hash. Similarly if I<value> is any other kind of
- reference. This means that
- var => "foo"
- and
- var => \"foo"
- have almost exactly the same effect. (The difference is that in the
- former case, the value is copied, and in the latter case it is
- aliased.)
- =item *
- In particular, if you want the template to get an object or any kind,
- you must pass a reference to it:
- $template->fill_in(HASH => { database_handle => \$dbh, ... });
- If you do this, the template will have a variable C<$database_handle>
- which is the database handle object. If you leave out the C<\>, the
- template will have a hash C<%database_handle>, which exposes the
- internal structure of the database handle object; you don't want that.
- =back
- Normally, the way this works is by allocating a private package,
- loading all the variables into the package, and then filling out the
- template as if you had specified that package. A new package is
- allocated each time. However, if you I<also> use the C<PACKAGE>
- option, C<Text::Template> loads the variables into the package you
- specified, and they stay there after the call returns. Subsequent
- calls to C<fill_in> that use the same package will pick up the values
- you loaded in.
- If the argument of C<HASH> is a reference to an array instead of a
- reference to a hash, then the array should contain a list of hashes
- whose contents are loaded into the template package one after the
- other. You can use this feature if you want to combine several sets
- of variables. For example, one set of variables might be the defaults
- for a fill-in form, and the second set might be the user inputs, which
- override the defaults when they are present:
- $template->fill_in(HASH => [\%defaults, \%user_input]);
- You can also use this to set two variables with the same name:
- $template->fill_in(HASH => [{ v => "The King" },
- { v => [1,2,3] },
- ]
- );
- This sets C<$v> to C<"The King"> and C<@v> to C<(1,2,3)>.
- =item C<BROKEN>
- If any of the program fragments fails to compile or aborts for any
- reason, and you have set the C<BROKEN> option to a function reference,
- C<Text::Template> will invoke the function. This function is called
- the I<C<BROKEN> function>. The C<BROKEN> function will tell
- C<Text::Template> what to do next.
- If the C<BROKEN> function returns C<undef>, C<Text::Template> will
- immediately abort processing the template and return the text that it
- has accumulated so far. If your function does this, it should set a
- flag that you can examine after C<fill_in> returns so that you can
- tell whether there was a premature return or not.
- If the C<BROKEN> function returns any other value, that value will be
- interpolated into the template as if that value had been the return
- value of the program fragment to begin with. For example, if the
- C<BROKEN> function returns an error string, the error string will be
- interpolated into the output of the template in place of the program
- fragment that cased the error.
- If you don't specify a C<BROKEN> function, C<Text::Template> supplies
- a default one that returns something like
- Program fragment delivered error ``Illegal division by 0 at
- template line 37''
- (Note that the format of this message has changed slightly since
- version 1.31.) The return value of the C<BROKEN> function is
- interpolated into the template at the place the error occurred, so
- that this template:
- (3+4)*5 = { 3+4)*5 }
- yields this result:
- (3+4)*5 = Program fragment delivered error ``syntax error at template line 1''
- If you specify a value for the C<BROKEN> attribute, it should be a
- reference to a function that C<fill_in> can call instead of the
- default function.
- C<fill_in> will pass a hash to the C<broken> function.
- The hash will have at least these three members:
- =over 4
- =item C<text>
- The source code of the program fragment that failed
- =item C<error>
- The text of the error message (C<$@>) generated by eval.
- The text has been modified to omit the trailing newline and to include
- the name of the template file (if there was one). The line number
- counts from the beginning of the template, not from the beginning of
- the failed program fragment.
- =item C<lineno>
- The line number of the template at which the program fragment began.
- =back
- There may also be an C<arg> member. See C<BROKEN_ARG>, below
- =item C<BROKEN_ARG>
- If you supply the C<BROKEN_ARG> option to C<fill_in>, the value of the
- option is passed to the C<BROKEN> function whenever it is called. The
- default C<BROKEN> function ignores the C<BROKEN_ARG>, but you can
- write a custom C<BROKEN> function that uses the C<BROKEN_ARG> to get
- more information about what went wrong.
- The C<BROKEN> function could also use the C<BROKEN_ARG> as a reference
- to store an error message or some other information that it wants to
- communicate back to the caller. For example:
- $error = '';
- sub my_broken {
- my %args = @_;
- my $err_ref = $args{arg};
- ...
- $$err_ref = "Some error message";
- return undef;
- }
- $template->fill_in(BROKEN => \&my_broken,
- BROKEN_ARG => \$error,
- );
- if ($error) {
- die "It didn't work: $error";
- }
- If one of the program fragments in the template fails, it will call
- the C<BROKEN> function, C<my_broken>, and pass it the C<BROKEN_ARG>,
- which is a reference to C<$error>. C<my_broken> can store an error
- message into C<$error> this way. Then the function that called
- C<fill_in> can see if C<my_broken> has left an error message for it
- to find, and proceed accordingly.
- =item C<SAFE>
- If you give C<fill_in> a C<SAFE> option, its value should be a safe
- compartment object from the C<Safe> package. All evaluation of
- program fragments will be performed in this compartment. See L<Safe>
- for full details about such compartments and how to restrict the
- operations that can be performed in them.
- If you use the C<PACKAGE> option with C<SAFE>, the package you specify
- will be placed into the safe compartment and evaluation will take
- place in that package as usual.
- If not, C<SAFE> operation is a little different from the default.
- Usually, if you don't specify a package, evaluation of program
- fragments occurs in the package from which the template was invoked.
- But in C<SAFE> mode the evaluation occurs inside the safe compartment
- and cannot affect the calling package. Normally, if you use C<HASH>
- without C<PACKAGE>, the hash variables are imported into a private,
- one-use-only package. But if you use C<HASH> and C<SAFE> together
- without C<PACKAGE>, the hash variables will just be loaded into the
- root namespace of the C<Safe> compartment.
- =item C<OUTPUT>
- If your template is going to generate a lot of text that you are just
- going to print out again anyway, you can save memory by having
- C<Text::Template> print out the text as it is generated instead of
- making it into a big string and returning the string. If you supply
- the C<OUTPUT> option to C<fill_in>, the value should be a filehandle.
- The generated text will be printed to this filehandle as it is
- constructed. For example:
- $template->fill_in(OUTPUT => \*STDOUT, ...);
- fills in the C<$template> as usual, but the results are immediately
- printed to STDOUT. This may result in the output appearing more
- quickly than it would have otherwise.
- If you use C<OUTPUT>, the return value from C<fill_in> is still true on
- success and false on failure, but the complete text is not returned to
- the caller.
- =item C<PREPEND>
- You can have some Perl code prepended automatically to the beginning
- of every program fragment. See L<C<PREPEND> feature and using
- C<strict> in templates> below.
- =item C<DELIMITERS>
- If this option is present, its value should be a reference to a list
- of two strings. The first string is the string that signals the
- beginning of each program fragment, and the second string is the
- string that signals the end of each program fragment. See
- L<"Alternative Delimiters">, below.
- If you specify C<DELIMITERS> in the call to C<fill_in>, they override
- any delimiters you set when you created the template object with
- C<new>.
- =back
- =head1 Convenience Functions
- =head2 C<fill_this_in>
- The basic way to fill in a template is to create a template object and
- then call C<fill_in> on it. This is useful if you want to fill in
- the same template more than once.
- In some programs, this can be cumbersome. C<fill_this_in> accepts a
- string, which contains the template, and a list of options, which are
- passed to C<fill_in> as above. It constructs the template object for
- you, fills it in as specified, and returns the results. It returns
- C<undef> and sets C<$Text::Template::ERROR> if it couldn't generate
- any results.
- An example:
- $Q::name = 'Donald';
- $Q::amount = 141.61;
- $Q::part = 'hyoid bone';
- $text = Text::Template->fill_this_in( <<'EOM', PACKAGE => Q);
- Dear {$name},
- You owe me \\${sprintf('%.2f', $amount)}.
- Pay or I will break your {$part}.
- Love,
- Grand Vizopteryx of Irkutsk.
- EOM
- Notice how we included the template in-line in the program by using a
- `here document' with the C<E<lt>E<lt>> notation.
- C<fill_this_in> is a deprecated feature. It is only here for
- backwards compatibility, and may be removed in some far-future version
- in C<Text::Template>. You should use C<fill_in_string> instead. It
- is described in the next section.
- =head2 C<fill_in_string>
- It is stupid that C<fill_this_in> is a class method. It should have
- been just an imported function, so that you could omit the
- C<Text::Template-E<gt>> in the example above. But I made the mistake
- four years ago and it is too late to change it.
- C<fill_in_string> is exactly like C<fill_this_in> except that it is
- not a method and you can omit the C<Text::Template-E<gt>> and just say
- print fill_in_string(<<'EOM', ...);
- Dear {$name},
- ...
- EOM
- To use C<fill_in_string>, you need to say
- use Text::Template 'fill_in_string';
- at the top of your program. You should probably use
- C<fill_in_string> instead of C<fill_this_in>.
- =head2 C<fill_in_file>
- If you import C<fill_in_file>, you can say
- $text = fill_in_file(filename, ...);
- The C<...> are passed to C<fill_in> as above. The filename is the
- name of the file that contains the template you want to fill in. It
- returns the result text. or C<undef>, as usual.
- If you are going to fill in the same file more than once in the same
- program you should use the longer C<new> / C<fill_in> sequence instead.
- It will be a lot faster because it only has to read and parse the file
- once.
- =head2 Including files into templates
- People always ask for this. ``Why don't you have an include
- function?'' they want to know. The short answer is this is Perl, and
- Perl already has an include function. If you want it, you can just put
- {qx{cat filename}}
- into your template. VoilE<agrave>.
- If you don't want to use C<cat>, you can write a little four-line
- function that opens a file and dumps out its contents, and call it
- from the template. I wrote one for you. In the template, you can say
- {Text::Template::_load_text(filename)}
- If that is too verbose, here is a trick. Suppose the template package
- that you are going to be mentioning in the C<fill_in> call is package
- C<Q>. Then in the main program, write
- *Q::include = \&Text::Template::_load_text;
- This imports the C<_load_text> function into package C<Q> with the
- name C<include>. From then on, any template that you fill in with
- package C<Q> can say
- {include(filename)}
- to insert the text from the named file at that point. If you are
- using the C<HASH> option instead, just put C<include =E<gt>
- \&Text::Template::_load_text> into the hash instead of importing it
- explicitly.
- Suppose you don't want to insert a plain text file, but rather you
- want to include one template within another? Just use C<fill_in_file>
- in the template itself:
- {Text::Template::fill_in_file(filename)}
- You can do the same importing trick if this is too much to type.
- =head1 Miscellaneous
- =head2 C<my> variables
- People are frequently surprised when this doesn't work:
- my $recipient = 'The King';
- my $text = fill_in_file('formletter.tmpl');
- The text C<The King> doesn't get into the form letter. Why not?
- Because C<$recipient> is a C<my> variable, and the whole point of
- C<my> variables is that they're private and inaccessible except in the
- scope in which they're declared. The template is not part of that
- scope, so the template can't see C<$recipient>.
- If that's not the behavior you want, don't use C<my>. C<my> means a
- private variable, and in this case you don't want the variable to be
- private. Put the variables into package variables in some other
- package, and use the C<PACKAGE> option to C<fill_in>:
- $Q::recipient = $recipient;
- my $text = fill_in_file('formletter.tmpl', PACKAGE => 'Q');
-
- or pass the names and values in a hash with the C<HASH> option:
- my $text = fill_in_file('formletter.tmpl', HASH => { recipient => $recipient });
- =head2 Security Matters
- All variables are evaluated in the package you specify with the
- C<PACKAGE> option of C<fill_in>. if you use this option, and if your
- templates don't do anything egregiously stupid, you won't have to
- worry that evaluation of the little programs will creep out into the
- rest of your program and wreck something.
- Nevertheless, there's really no way (except with C<Safe>) to protect
- against a template that says
- { $Important::Secret::Security::Enable = 0;
- # Disable security checks in this program
- }
- or
- { $/ = "ho ho ho"; # Sabotage future uses of <FH>.
- # $/ is always a global variable
- }
- or even
- { system("rm -rf /") }
- so B<don't> go filling in templates unless you're sure you know what's
- in them. If you're worried, or you can't trust the person who wrote
- the template, use the C<SAFE> option.
- A final warning: program fragments run a small risk of accidentally
- clobbering local variables in the C<fill_in> function itself. These
- variables all have names that begin with C<$fi_>, so if you stay away
- from those names you'll be safe. (Of course, if you're a real wizard
- you can tamper with them deliberately for exciting effects; this is
- actually how C<$OUT> works.) I can fix this, but it will make the
- package slower to do it, so I would prefer not to. If you are worried
- about this, send me mail and I will show you what to do about it.
- =head2 Alternative Delimiters
- Lorenzo Valdettaro pointed out that if you are using C<Text::Template>
- to generate TeX output, the choice of braces as the program fragment
- delimiters makes you suffer suffer suffer. Starting in version 1.20,
- you can change the choice of delimiters to something other than curly
- braces.
- In either the C<new()> call or the C<fill_in()> call, you can specify
- an alternative set of delimiters with the C<DELIMITERS> option. For
- example, if you would like code fragments to be delimited by C<[@-->
- and C<--@]> instead of C<{> and C<}>, use
- ... DELIMITERS => [ '[@--', '--@]' ], ...
- Note that these delimiters are I<literal strings>, not regexes. (I
- tried for regexes, but it complicates the lexical analysis too much.)
- Note also that C<DELIMITERS> disables the special meaning of the
- backslash, so if you want to include the delimiters in the literal
- text of your template file, you are out of luck---it is up to you to
- choose delimiters that do not conflict with what you are doing. The
- delimiter strings may still appear inside of program fragments as long
- as they nest properly. This means that if for some reason you
- absolutely must have a program fragment that mentions one of the
- delimiters, like this:
- [@--
- print "Oh no, a delimiter: --@]\n"
- --@]
- you may be able to make it work by doing this instead:
- [@--
- # Fake matching delimiter in a comment: [@--
- print "Oh no, a delimiter: --@]\n"
- --@]
- It may be safer to choose delimiters that begin with a newline
- character.
- Because the parsing of templates is simplified by the absence of
- backslash escapes, using alternative C<DELIMITERS> may speed up the
- parsing process by 20-25%. This shows that my original choice of C<{>
- and C<}> was very bad.
- =head2 C<PREPEND> feature and using C<strict> in templates
- Suppose you would like to use C<strict> in your templates to detect
- undeclared variables and the like. But each code fragment is a
- separate lexical scope, so you have to turn on C<strict> at the top of
- each and every code fragment:
- { use strict;
- use vars '$foo';
- $foo = 14;
- ...
- }
- ...
- { # we forgot to put `use strict' here
- my $result = $boo + 12; # $boo is misspelled and should be $foo
- # No error is raised on `$boo'
- }
- Because we didn't put C<use strict> at the top of the second fragment,
- it was only active in the first fragment, and we didn't get any
- C<strict> checking in the second fragment. Then we mispelled C<$foo>
- and the error wasn't caught.
- C<Text::Template> version 1.22 and higher has a new feature to make
- this easier. You can specify that any text at all be automatically
- added to the beginning of each program fragment.
- When you make a call to C<fill_in>, you can specify a
- PREPEND => 'some perl statements here'
- option; the statements will be prepended to each program fragment for
- that one call only. Suppose that the C<fill_in> call included a
- PREPEND => 'use strict;'
- option, and that the template looked like this:
- { use vars '$foo';
- $foo = 14;
- ...
- }
- ...
- { my $result = $boo + 12; # $boo is misspelled and should be $foo
- ...
- }
- The code in the second fragment would fail, because C<$boo> has not
- been declared. C<use strict> was implied, even though you did not
- write it explicitly, because the C<PREPEND> option added it for you
- automatically.
- There are two other ways to do this. At the time you create the
- template object with C<new>, you can also supply a C<PREPEND> option,
- in which case the statements will be prepended each time you fill in
- that template. If the C<fill_in> call has its own C<PREPEND> option,
- this overrides the one specified at the time you created the
- template. Finally, you can make the class method call
- Text::Template->always_prepend('perl statements');
- If you do this, then call calls to C<fill_in> for I<any> template will
- attach the perl statements to the beginning of each program fragment,
- except where overridden by C<PREPEND> options to C<new> or C<fill_in>.
- =head2 Prepending in Derived Classes
- This section is technical, and you should skip it on the first few
- readings.
- Normally there are three places that prepended text could come from.
- It could come from the C<PREPEND> option in the C<fill_in> call, from
- the C<PREPEND> option in the C<new> call that created the template
- object, or from the argument of the C<always_prepend> call.
- C<Text::Template> looks for these three things in order and takes the
- first one that it finds.
- In a subclass of C<Text::Template>, this last possibility is
- ambiguous. Suppose C<S> is a subclass of C<Text::Template>. Should
- Text::Template->always_prepend(...);
- affect objects in class C<Derived>? The answer is that you can have it
- either way.
- The C<always_prepend> value for C<Text::Template> is normally stored
- in a hash variable named C<%GLOBAL_PREPEND> under the key
- C<Text::Template>. When C<Text::Template> looks to see what text to
- prepend, it first looks in the template object itself, and if not, it
- looks in C<$GLOBAL_PREPEND{I<class>}> where I<class> is the class to
- which the template object belongs. If it doesn't find any value, it
- looks in C<$GLOBAL_PREPEND{'Text::Template'}>. This means that
- objects in class C<Derived> I<will> be affected by
- Text::Template->always_prepend(...);
- I<unless> there is also a call to
- Derived->always_prepend(...);
- So when you're designing your derived class, you can arrange to have
- your objects ignore C<Text::Template::always_prepend> calls by simply
- putting C<Derived-E<gt>always_prepend('')> at the top of your module.
- Of course, there is also a final escape hatch: Templates support a
- C<prepend_text> that is used to look up the appropriate text to be
- prepended at C<fill_in> time. Your derived class can override this
- method to get an arbitrary effect.
- =head2 JavaScript
- Jennifer D. St Clair asks:
- > Most of my pages contain JavaScript and Stylesheets.
- > How do I change the template identifier?
- Jennifer is worried about the braces in the JavaScript being taken as
- the delimiters of the Perl program fragments. Of course, disaster
- will ensue when perl tries to evaluate these as if they were Perl
- programs. The best choice is to find some unambiguous delimiter
- strings that you can use in your template instead of curly braces, and
- then use the C<DELIMITERS> option. However, if you can't do this for
- some reason, there are two easy workarounds:
- 1. You can put C<\> in front of C<{>, C<}>, or C<\> to remove its
- special meaning. So, for example, instead of
- if (br== "n3") {
- // etc.
- }
- you can put
- if (br== "n3") \{
- // etc.
- \}
- and it'll come out of the template engine the way you want.
- But here is another method that is probably better. To see how it
- works, first consider what happens if you put this into a template:
- { 'foo' }
- Since it's in braces, it gets evaluated, and obviously, this is going
- to turn into
- foo
- So now here's the trick: In Perl, C<q{...}> is the same as C<'...'>.
- So if we wrote
- {q{foo}}
- it would turn into
- foo
- So for your JavaScript, just write
- {q{if (br== "n3") {
- // etc.
- }}
- }
- and it'll come out as
- if (br== "n3") {
- // etc.
- }
- which is what you want.
- =head2 Shut Up!
- People sometimes try to put an initialization section at the top of
- their templates, like this:
- { ...
- $var = 17;
- }
- Then they complain because there is a C<17> at the top of the output
- that they didn't want to have there.
- Remember that a program fragment is replaced with its own return
- value, and that in Perl the return value of a code block is the value
- of the last expression that was evaluated, which in this case is 17.
- If it didn't do that, you wouldn't be able to write C<{$recipient}>
- and have the recipient filled in.
- To prevent the 17 from appearing in the output is very simple:
- { ...
- $var = 17;
- '';
- }
- Now the last expression evaluated yields the empty string, which is
- invisible. If you don't like the way this looks, use
- { ...
- $var = 17;
- ($SILENTLY);
- }
- instead. Presumably, C<$SILENTLY> has no value, so nothing will be
- interpolated. This is what is known as a `trick'.
- =head2 Compatibility
- Every effort has been made to make this module compatible with older
- versions. The only known exceptions follow:
- The output format of the default C<BROKEN> subroutine has changed
- twice, most recently between versions 1.31 and 1.40.
- Starting in version 1.10, the C<$OUT> variable is arrogated for a
- special meaning. If you had templates before version 1.10 that
- happened to use a variable named C<$OUT>, you will have to change them
- to use some other variable or all sorts of strangeness will result.
- Between versions 0.1b and 1.00 the behavior of the \ metacharacter
- changed. In 0.1b, \\ was special everywhere, and the template
- processor always replaced it with a single backslash before passing
- the code to Perl for evaluation. The rule now is more complicated but
- probably more convenient. See the section on backslash processing,
- below, for a full discussion.
- =head2 Backslash Processing
- In C<Text::Template> beta versions, the backslash was special whenever
- it appeared before a brace or another backslash. That meant that
- while C<{"\n"}> did indeed generate a newline, C<{"\\"}> did not
- generate a backslash, because the code passed to Perl for evaluation
- was C<"\"> which is a syntax error. If you wanted a backslash, you
- would have had to write C<{"\\\\"}>.
- In C<Text::Template> versions 1.00 through 1.10, there was a bug:
- Backslash was special everywhere. In these versions, C<{"\n"}>
- generated the letter C<n>.
- The bug has been corrected in version 1.11, but I did not go back to
- exactly the old rule, because I did not like the idea of having to
- write C<{"\\\\"}> to get one backslash. The rule is now more
- complicated to remember, but probably easier to use. The rule is now:
- Backslashes are always passed to Perl unchanged I<unless> they occur
- as part of a sequence like C<\\\\\\{> or C<\\\\\\}>. In these
- contexts, they are special; C<\\> is replaced with C<\>, and C<\{> and
- C<\}> signal a literal brace.
- Examples:
- \{ foo \}
- is I<not> evaluated, because the C<\> before the braces signals that
- they should be taken literally. The result in the output looks like this:
- { foo }
- This is a syntax error:
- { "foo}" }
- because C<Text::Template> thinks that the code ends at the first C<}>,
- and then gets upset when it sees the second one. To make this work
- correctly, use
- { "foo\}" }
- This passes C<"foo}"> to Perl for evaluation. Note there's no C<\> in
- the evaluated code. If you really want a C<\> in the evaluated code,
- use
- { "foo\\\}" }
- This passes C<"foo\}"> to Perl for evaluation.
- Starting with C<Text::Template> version 1.20, backslash processing is
- disabled if you use the C<DELIMITERS> option to specify alternative
- delimiter strings.
- =head2 A short note about C<$Text::Template::ERROR>
- In the past some people have fretted about `violating the package
- boundary' by examining a variable inside the C<Text::Template>
- package. Don't feel this way. C<$Text::Template::ERROR> is part of
- the published, official interface to this package. It is perfectly OK
- to inspect this variable. The interface is not going to change.
- If it really, really bothers you, you can import a function called
- C<TTerror> that returns the current value of the C<$ERROR> variable.
- So you can say:
- use Text::Template 'TTerror';
- my $template = new Text::Template (SOURCE => $filename);
- unless ($template) {
- my $err = TTerror;
- die "Couldn't make template: $err; aborting";
- }
- I don't see what benefit this has over just doing this:
- use Text::Template;
- my $template = new Text::Template (SOURCE => $filename)
- or die "Couldn't make template: $Text::Template::ERROR; aborting";
- But if it makes you happy to do it that way, go ahead.
- =head2 Sticky Widgets in Template Files
- The C<CGI> module provides functions for `sticky widgets', which are
- form input controls that retain their values from one page to the
- next. Sometimes people want to know how to include these widgets
- into their template output.
- It's totally straightforward. Just call the C<CGI> functions from
- inside the template:
- { $q->checkbox_group(NAME => 'toppings',
- LINEBREAK => true,
- COLUMNS => 3,
- VALUES => \@toppings,
- );
- }
- =head2 Automatic preprocessing of program fragments
- It may be useful to preprocess the program fragments before they are
- evaluated. See C<Text::Template::Preprocess> for more details.
- =head2 Automatic postprocessing of template hunks
- It may be useful to process hunks of output before they are appended to
- the result text. For this, subclass and replace the C<append_text_to_result>
- method. It is passed a list of pairs with these entries:
- handle - a filehandle to which to print the desired output
- out - a ref to a string to which to append, to use if handle is not given
- text - the text that will be appended
- type - where the text came from: TEXT for literal text, PROG for code
- =head2 Author
- Mark Jason Dominus, Plover Systems
- Please send questions and other remarks about this software to
- C<mjd-perl-template+@plover.com>
- You can join a very low-volume (E<lt>10 messages per year) mailing
- list for announcements about this package. Send an empty note to
- C<mjd-perl-template-request@plover.com> to join.
- For updates, visit C<http://www.plover.com/~mjd/perl/Template/>.
- =head2 Support?
- This software is version 1.46. It may have bugs. Suggestions and bug
- reports are always welcome. Send them to
- C<mjd-perl-template+@plover.com>. (That is my address, not the address
- of the mailing list. The mailing list address is a secret.)
- =head1 LICENSE
- Text::Template version 1.46
- Copyright 2013 Mark Jason Dominus
- This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
- modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
- published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
- License, or (at your option) any later version. You may also can
- redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Perl
- Artistic License.
- This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
- GNU General Public License for more details.
- You should have received copies of the GNU General Public License
- along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
- Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
- =head1 THANKS
- Many thanks to the following people for offering support,
- encouragement, advice, bug reports, and all the other good stuff.
- David H. Adler /
- Joel Appelbaum /
- Klaus Arnhold /
- AntE<oacute>nio AragE<atilde>o /
- Kevin Atteson /
- Chris.Brezil /
- Mike Brodhead /
- Tom Brown /
- Dr. Frank Bucolo /
- Tim Bunce /
- Juan E. Camacho /
- Itamar Almeida de Carvalho /
- Joseph Cheek /
- Gene Damon /
- San Deng /
- Bob Dougherty /
- Marek Grac /
- Dan Franklin /
- gary at dls.net /
- Todd A. Green /
- Donald L. Greer Jr. /
- Michelangelo Grigni /
- Zac Hansen /
- Tom Henry /
- Jarko Hietaniemi /
- Matt X. Hunter /
- Robert M. Ioffe /
- Daniel LaLiberte /
- Reuven M. Lerner /
- Trip Lilley /
- Yannis Livassof /
- Val Luck /
- Kevin Madsen /
- David Marshall /
- James Mastros /
- Joel Meulenberg /
- Jason Moore /
- Sergey Myasnikov /
- Chris Nandor /
- Bek Oberin /
- Steve Palincsar /
- Ron Pero /
- Hans Persson /
- Sean Roehnelt /
- Jonathan Roy /
- Shabbir J. Safdar /
- Jennifer D. St Clair /
- Uwe Schneider /
- Randal L. Schwartz /
- Michael G Schwern /
- Yonat Sharon /
- Brian C. Shensky /
- Niklas Skoglund /
- Tom Snee /
- Fred Steinberg /
- Hans Stoop /
- Michael J. Suzio /
- Dennis Taylor /
- James H. Thompson /
- Shad Todd /
- Lieven Tomme /
- Lorenzo Valdettaro /
- Larry Virden /
- Andy Wardley /
- Archie Warnock /
- Chris Wesley /
- Matt Womer /
- Andrew G Wood /
- Daini Xie /
- Michaely Yeung
- Special thanks to:
- =over 2
- =item Jonathan Roy
- for telling me how to do the C<Safe> support (I spent two years
- worrying about it, and then Jonathan pointed out that it was trivial.)
- =item Ranjit Bhatnagar
- for demanding less verbose fragments like they have in ASP, for
- helping me figure out the Right Thing, and, especially, for talking me
- out of adding any new syntax. These discussions resulted in the
- C<$OUT> feature.
- =back
- =head2 Bugs and Caveats
- C<my> variables in C<fill_in> are still susceptible to being clobbered
- by template evaluation. They all begin with C<fi_>, so avoid those
- names in your templates.
- The line number information will be wrong if the template's lines are
- not terminated by C<"\n">. You should let me know if this is a
- problem. If you do, I will fix it.
- The C<$OUT> variable has a special meaning in templates, so you cannot
- use it as if it were a regular variable.
- There are not quite enough tests in the test suite.
- =cut
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