NAME

Template::Toolkit::Simple - A Simple Interface to Template Toolkit

SYNOPSIS

      use Template::Toolkit::Simple;
      print tt
          ->path(['./', 'template/'])
          ->data('values.yaml')
          ->post_chomp
          ->render('foo.tt');

or from the command line:

      tt-render --path=./:template/ --data=values.yaml --post-chomp foo.tt

DESCRIPTION

Template Toolkit is the best Perl template framework. The only problem with it is that using it for simple stuff is a little bit cumbersome. Also there is no good utility for using it from the command line.

This module is a simple wrapper around Template Toolkit. It exports a function called "tt" which returns a new Template::Toolkit::Simple object. The object supports method calls for setting all the Template Toolkit options.

This module also installs a program called "tt-render" which you can use from the command line to render templates with all the power of the Perl object. All of the object methods become command line arguments in the command line version.

COMMAND LINE USAGE

This command renders the named file and prints the output to STDOUT. If an error occurs, it is printed to STDERR.

    tt-render [template-options] file-name

TEMPLATE PATH

When using Template::Toolkit::Simple or "tt-render", the most common parameters you will use are the main template file name and the directory of supporting templates. As a convenience, you can specify these together.

This:

    tt->render('foo//bar/baz.tt');
    > tt-render foo//bar/baz.tt  # command line version

is the same as:

    tt->include_path('foo/')->render('bar/baz.tt');
    > tt-render --include_path=foo/ bar/baz.tt  # command line version

Just use a double slash to separate the path from the template. This is extra handy on the command line, because (at least in Bash) tab completion still works after you specify the '//'.

EXPORTED SUBROUTINES

tt

Simply returns a new Template::Toolkit::Simple object. This is Simple sugar for:

    Template::Toolkit::Simple->new();

It takes no parameters.

METHODS

This section describes the methods that are not option setting methods. Those methods are described below.

new()

Return a new Template::Toolkit::Simple object. Takes no parameters.

render($template, $data);

This is the method that actually renders the template. It is similar to the Template Toolkit "process" method, except that it actually returns the template result as a string. It returns undef if an error occurs.

The $data field is optional and can be set with the "data" method.

If you need more control, see the process command below:

process($template, $data, $output, %options);

This command is simply a proxy to the Template Toolkit "process" command. All the parameters you give it are passed to the real "process" command and the result is returned. See Template for more information.

output($filepath)

Specify a filepath to print the template result to.

error()

This method is a proxy to the Template Toolkit "error" method. It returns the error message if there was an error.

OPTION METHODS

All of the Template Toolkit options are available as methods to Template::Toolkit::Simple objects, and also as command line options to the "tt- render" command.

For example, the "POST_CHOMP" options is available in the following ways:

    tt->post_chomp      # turn POST_CHOMP on
    tt->post_chomp(1)   # turn POST_CHOMP on
    tt->post_chomp(0)   # turn POST_CHOMP off
    --post_chomp        # turn POST_CHOMP on
    --post-chomp        # same. use - instead of _
    --post_chomp=1      # turn POST_CHOMP on
    --post_chomp=0      # turn POST_CHOMP off

If the method functionality is not explained below, please refer to Template.

"config($file_name || $hash)": If you have a common set of Template Toolkit options stored in a file, you can use this method to read and parse the file, and set the appropriate options.
The currently supported file formats are YAML, JSON and XML. The format is determined by the file extension, so use the appropriate one. Note that XML::Simple is used to parse XML files and JSON::XS is used to parse JSON files.
"data($file_name || $hash)": Most templates use a hash object of data to access values while rendering. You can specify this data in a file or with a hash reference.
The currently supported file formats are YAML, JSON and XML. The format is determined by the file extension, so use the appropriate one. Note the XML::Simple is used to parse XML files.
include_path($template_directories): Default is undef
This method allows you to specify the directories that are searched to find templates. You can specify this as a string containing a single directory, an array ref of strings containing directory names, or as a string containing multiple directories separated by ':'.
path(): Default is undef
This is a shorter name for "include_path". It does the exact same thing.
start_tag(): Default is '[%'
end_tag(): Default is '%]'
tag_style(): Default is 'template'
pre_chomp(): Default is 0
post_chomp(): Default is 0
trim(): Default is 0
interpolate(): Default is 0
anycase(): Default is 0
delimiter(): Default is ':'
absolute(): Default is 0
relative(): Default is 0
strict(): Default is 0
default(): Default is undef
blocks(): Default is undef
auto_reset(): Default is 1
recursion(): Default is 0
eval_perl(): Default is 0
pre_process(): Default is undef
post_process(): Default is undef
process_template(): Default is undef
This is a proxy to the Template Toolkit PROCESS option. The "process" method is used to actually process a template.
error_template(): Default is undef
This is a proxy to the Template Toolkit ERROR option. The error() method returns the error message on a failure.
debug(): Default is 0
cache_size(): Default is undef
compile_ext(): Default is undef
compile_dir(): Default is undef
encoding(): Default is 'utf8'

AUTHOR

Ingy döt Net <ingy@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

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

See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>