NAME

Dancer::Template::TemplateToolkit - Template Toolkit wrapper for Dancer

VERSION

version 1.3513

DESCRIPTION

This class is an interface between Dancer's template engine abstraction layer and the Template module.

This template engine is recommended for production purposes, but depends on the Template module.

In order to use this engine, use the template setting:

    template: template_toolkit

This can be done in your config.yml file or directly in your app code with the set keyword.

Note that by default, Dancer configures the Template::Toolkit engine to use <% %> brackets instead of its default [% %] brackets. This can be changed within your config file - for example:

    template: template_toolkit
    engines:
        template_toolkit:
            start_tag: '[%'
            stop_tag: '%]'

You can also add any options you would normally add to the Template module's initialization. You could, for instance, enable saving the compiled templates:

    engines:
        template_toolkit:
            COMPILE_DIR: 'caches/templates'
            COMPILE_EXT: '.ttc'

Note though that unless you change them, Dancer sets both of the Template options "ANYCASE" and "ABSOLUTE" on, as well as pointing "INCLUDE_PATH" to your views directory and setting "ENCODING" to your charset setting.

SUBCLASSING

By default, Template is used, but you can configure Dancer to use a subclass of Template with the "subclass" option.

    engines:
        template_toolkit:
            subclass: My::Template

When used like this, Dancer skips the defaults mentioned above. Only those included in your config file are sent to the subclass.

WRAPPER, META variables, SETs

Dancer already provides a WRAPPER-like ability, which we call a "layout". The reason we do not use TT's WRAPPER (which also makes it incompatible with it) is because not all template systems support it. Actually, most don't.

However, you might want to use it, and be able to define META variables and regular Template::Toolkit variables.

These few steps will get you there:

Disable the layout in Dancer
You can do this by simply commenting (or removing) the "layout" configuration in the config.yml file.
Use Template Toolkit template engine
Change the configuration of the template to Template Toolkit:
```
    # in config.yml
    template: "template_toolkit"
    
```

Tell the Template Toolkit engine who's your wrapper

    # in config.yml
    # ...
    engines:
        template_toolkit:
            WRAPPER: layouts/main.tt

Done! Everything will work fine out of the box, including variables and META variables.

EMBEDDED TEMPLATES

You can embed your templates in your script file, to get a self-contained dancer application in one file (inspired by <http://advent.perldancer.org/2011/3>).

To enable this:

    # in app.pl
    # ...
    set engines => {
        template_toolkit => {
            embedded_templates => 1,
        },
    };
    set template => 'template_toolkit';

This feature requires Template::Provider::FromDATA. Put your templates in the __DATA__ section, and start every template with __${templatename}__.

USING TT'S WRAPPER STACK

This engine provides three additional methods to access the WRAPPER stack of TemplateToolkit.

set_wrapper

Synopsis:

    engine('template')->set_wrapper( inner => 'inner_layout.tt' );
    engine('template')->set_wrapper( outer => 'outer_layout.tt' );
    engine('template')->set_wrapper( 'only_layout.tt' );

The first two lines pushes/unshifts layout files to the wrapper array. The third line overwrites the wrapper array with a single element.

unset_wrapper

Synopsis:

    engine('template')->unset_wrapper('inner') # returns 'inner_layout.tt';
    engine('template')->unset_wrapper('outer') # returns 'outer_layout.tt';

These lines pops/shifts layout files from the wrapper array and returns the removed elements.

reset_wrapper

Synopsis:

    engine('template')->reset_wrapper;

This method restores the wrapper array after a set_wrapper call.

AUTHOR

Dancer Core Developers

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.