Mini Shell

#============================================================= -*-perl-*-
#
# Template::Manual::Plugins
#
# AUTHOR
#   Andy Wardley  <abw@wardley.org>
#
# COPYRIGHT
#   Copyright (C) 1996-2007 Andy Wardley.  All Rights Reserved.
#
#   This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
#   modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
#
#========================================================================

=head1 NAME

Template::Manual::Plugins - Standard plugins

=head1 TEMPLATE TOOLKIT PLUGINS

The following plugin modules are distributed with the Template
Toolkit.  Some of the plugins interface to external modules (detailed
below) which should be downloaded from any CPAN site and installed
before using the plugin.

=head2 Assert

New in 2.20!  The L<Assert|Template::Plugin::Assert> plugin adds an 
C<assert> virtual method that you can use to catch undefined values.

For example, consider this dotop:

    [% user.name %]

If C<user.name> is an undefined value then TT will silently ignore the 
fact and print nothing.  If you C<USE> the C<assert> plugin then you
can add the C<assert> vmethod between the C<user> and C<name> elements,
like so:

    [% user.assert.name %]

Now, if C<user.name> is an undefined value, an exception will be thrown:

    assert error - undefined value for name

=head2 CGI

The L<CGI|Template::Plugin::CGI> plugin is a wrapper around Lincoln Stein's
CGI.pm module. The plugin is distributed with the Template Toolkit (see
L<Template::Plugin::CGI>) and the L<CGI> module itself is distributed with
recent versions Perl, or is available from CPAN.

    [% USE CGI %]
    [% CGI.param('param_name') %]
    [% CGI.start_form %]
    [% CGI.popup_menu( Name   => 'color', 
                       Values => [ 'Green', 'Brown' ] ) %]
    [% CGI.end_form %]

=head2 Datafile

Provides an interface to data stored in a plain text file in a simple
delimited format.  The first line in the file specifies field names
which should be delimiter by any non-word character sequence.
Subsequent lines define data using the same delimiter as in the first
line.  Blank lines and comments (lines starting '#') are ignored.  See
L<Template::Plugin::Datafile> for further details.

/tmp/mydata:

    # define names for each field
    id : email : name : tel
    # here's the data
    fred : fred@here.com : Fred Smith : 555-1234
    bill : bill@here.com : Bill White : 555-5678

example:

    [% USE userlist = datafile('/tmp/mydata') %]
    
    [% FOREACH user = userlist %]
       [% user.name %] ([% user.id %])
    [% END %]

=head2 Date

The L<Date|Template::Plugin::Date> plugin provides an easy way to generate
formatted time and date strings by delegating to the L<POSIX> C<strftime()>
routine. See L<Template::Plugin::Date> and L<POSIX> for further details.

    [% USE date %]
    [% date.format %]		# current time/date
    
    File last modified: [% date.format(template.modtime) %]

=head2 Directory

The L<Directory|Template::Plugin::Directory> plugin provides a simple
interface to a directory and the files within it. See
L<Template::Plugin::Directory> for further details.

    [% USE dir = Directory('/tmp') %]
    [% FOREACH file = dir.files %]
        # all the plain files in the directory
    [% END %]
    [% FOREACH file = dir.dirs %]
        # all the sub-directories
    [% END %]

=head2 DBI

The C<DBI> plugin is no longer distributed as part of the Template Toolkit
(as of version 2.15).  It is now available as a separate L<Template::DBI>
distribution from CPAN.

=head2 Dumper

The L<Dumper|Template::Plugin::Dumper> plugin provides an interface to the
Data::Dumper module. See L<Template::Plugin::Dumper> and L<Data::Dumper> for
further details.

    [% USE dumper(indent=0, pad="<br>") %]
    [% dumper.dump(myvar, yourvar) %]

=head2 File

The L<File|Template::Plugin::File> plugin provides a general abstraction for
files and can be used to fetch information about specific files within a
filesystem. See L<Template::Plugin::File> for further details.

    [% USE File('/tmp/foo.html') %]
    [% File.name %]     # foo.html
    [% File.dir %]      # /tmp
    [% File.mtime %]    # modification time

=head2 Filter

This module implements a base class plugin which can be subclassed
to easily create your own modules that define and install new filters.

    package MyOrg::Template::Plugin::MyFilter;
    
    use Template::Plugin::Filter;
    use base qw( Template::Plugin::Filter );
    
    sub filter {
        my ($self, $text) = @_;
        # ...mungify $text...
        return $text;
    }

Example of use:

    # now load it...
    [% USE MyFilter %]
    
    # ...and use the returned object as a filter
    [% FILTER $MyFilter %]
      ...
    [% END %]

See L<Template::Plugin::Filter> for further details.

=head2 Format

The L<Format|Template::Plugin::Format> plugin provides a simple way to format
text according to a C<printf()>-like format. See L<Template::Plugin::Format> for
further details.

    [% USE bold = format('<b>%s</b>') %]
    [% bold('Hello') %]

=head2 GD

The C<GD> plugins are no longer part of the core Template Toolkit distribution.
They are now available from CPAN in a separate L<Template::GD> distribution.

=head2 HTML

The L<HTML|Template::Plugin::HTML> plugin is very basic, implementing a few
useful methods for generating HTML. It is likely to be extended in the future
or integrated with a larger project to generate HTML elements in a generic way.

    [% USE HTML %]
    [% HTML.escape("if (a < b && c > d) ..." %]
    [% HTML.attributes(border => 1, cellpadding => 2) %]
    [% HTML.element(table => { border => 1, cellpadding => 2 }) %]

See L<Template::Plugin::HTML> for further details.

=head2 Iterator

The L<Iterator|Template::Plugin::Iterator> plugin provides a way to create a
L<Template::Iterator> object to iterate over a data set. An iterator is
created automatically by the C<FOREACH> directive and is aliased to the C<loop>
variable. This plugin allows an iterator to be explicitly created with a given
name, or the default plugin name, C<iterator>. See
L<Template::Plugin::Iterator> for further details.

    [% USE iterator(list, args) %]
    
    [% FOREACH item = iterator %]
       [% '<ul>' IF iterator.first %]
       <li>[% item %]
       [% '</ul>' IF iterator.last %]
    [% END %]

=head2 Pod

This plugin provides an interface to the L<Pod::POM|Pod::POM> module
which parses POD documents into an internal object model which can
then be traversed and presented through the Template Toolkit.

    [% USE Pod(podfile) %]
    
    [% FOREACH head1 = Pod.head1;
         FOREACH head2 = head1/head2;
           ...
         END;
       END
    %]

=head2 Scalar

The Template Toolkit calls user-defined subroutines and object methods
using Perl's array context by default.  

    # TT2 calls object methods in array context by default
    [% object.method %]

This plugin module provides a way for you to call subroutines and methods 
in scalar context.

    [% USE scalar %]
    
    # force it to use scalar context
    [% object.scalar.method %]
    
    # also works with subroutine references
    [% scalar.my_sub_ref %]

=head2 String

The L<String|Template::Plugin::String> plugin implements an object-oriented
interface for manipulating strings. See L<Template::Plugin::String> for
further details.

    [% USE String 'Hello' %]
    [% String.append(' World') %]
    
    [% msg = String.new('Another string') %]
    [% msg.replace('string', 'text') %]
    
    The string "[% msg %]" is [% msg.length %] characters long.

=head2 Table

The L<Table|Template::Plugin::Table> plugin allows you to format a list of
data items into a virtual table by specifying a fixed number of rows or
columns, with an optional overlap. See L<Template::Plugin::Table> for further
details.

    [% USE table(list, rows=10, overlap=1) %]
    
    [% FOREACH item = table.col(3) %]
       [% item %]
    [% END %]

=head2 URL

The L<URL|Template::Plugin::URL> plugin provides a simple way of constructing
URLs from a base part and a variable set of parameters. See
L<Template::Plugin::URL> for further details.

    [% USE mycgi = url('/cgi-bin/bar.pl', debug=1) %]
    
    [% mycgi %]
       # ==> /cgi/bin/bar.pl?debug=1
       
    [% mycgi(mode='submit') %]
       # ==> /cgi/bin/bar.pl?mode=submit&debug=1

=head2 Wrap

The L<Wrap|Template::Plugin::Wrap> plugin uses the L<Text::Wrap> module to
provide simple paragraph formatting. See L<Template::Plugin::Wrap> and
L<Text::Wrap> for further details.

    [% USE wrap %]
    [% wrap(mytext, 40, '* ', '  ') %]	# use wrap sub
    [% mytext FILTER wrap(40) -%]	# or wrap FILTER

The C<Text::Wrap> module is available from CPAN:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/

=head2 XML

The C<XML::DOM>, C<XML::RSS>, C<XML::Simple> and C<XML::XPath> plugins are no
longer distributed with the Template Toolkit as of version 2.15

They are now available in a separate L<Template::XML> distribution.

=cut

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