NAME

    Text::NeatTemplate - a fast, middleweight template engine.

SYNOPSIS

        use Text::NeatTemplate;
    
        my $tobj = Text::NeatTemplate->new();
    
        $result = $tobj->fill_in(data_hash=>\%data,
                                 show_names=>\%names,
                                 template=>$text);

DESCRIPTION

    This module provides a simple, middleweight but fast template engine,
    for when you need speed rather than complex features, yet need more
    features than simple variable substitution.

 Markup Format

    The markup format is as follows:

    {$varname}

      A variable; will display the value of the variable, or nothing if
      that value is empty.

    {$varname:format}

      A formatted variable; will apply the formatting directive(s) to the
      value before displaying it.

    {?varname stuff [$varname] more stuff}

      A conditional. If the value of 'varname' is not empty, this will
      display "stuff value-of-variable more stuff"; otherwise it displays
      nothing.

          {?var1 stuff [$var1] thing [$var2]}

      This would use both the values of var1 and var2 if var1 is not empty.

    {?varname stuff [$varname] more stuff!!other stuff}

      A conditional with "else". If the value of 'varname' is not empty,
      this will display "stuff value-of-variable more stuff"; otherwise it
      displays "other stuff".

      This version can likewise use multiple variables in its display
      parts.

          {?var1 stuff [$var1] thing [$var2]!![$var3]}

    {&funcname(arg1,...,argN)}

      Call a function with the given args; the return value of the function
      will be what is put in its place.

          {&MyPackage::myfunc(stuff,[$var1])}

      This would call the function myfunc in the package MyPackage, with
      the arguments "stuff", and the value of var1.

      Note, of course, that if you have a more complicated function and are
      processing much data, this will slow things down.

 Limitations

    To make the parsing simpler (and therefore faster) there are certain
    restrictions in what this module can do:

      * One cannot escape '{' '}' '[' or ']' characters. However, the
      substitution is clever enough so that you may be able to use them
      inside conditional constructs, provided the use does not resemble a
      variable.

      For example, to get a value surrounded by {}, the following will not
      work:

      {{$Var1}}

      However, this will:

      {?Var1 {[$Var1]}}

      * One cannot have nested variables.

      * Conditionals are limited to testing whether or not the variable has
      a value. If you want more elaborate tests, or tests on more than one
      value, you'll have to write a function to do it, and use the
      {&function()} construct.

      * Function arguments (as given with the {&funcname(arg1,arg2...)}
      format) cannot have commas in them, since commas are used to separate
      the arguments.

 Justification For Existence

    When I was writing SQLite::Work, I originally tried using
    Text::Template (my favourite template engine) and also tried
    Text::FillIn. Both of them had some lovely, powerful features.
    Unfortunately, they were also relatively slow. In testing them with a
    700-row table, using Text::Template took about 15 seconds to generate
    the report, and using Text::FillIn took 45 seconds! Rolling my own very
    simple template engine cut the time down to about 7 seconds.

    The reasons for this aren't that surprising. Because Text::Template is
    basically an embedded Perl engine, it has to run the interpreter on
    each substitution. And Text::FillIn has a lot to do, what with being
    very generic and very recursive.

    The trade-off for the speed-gain of Text::NeatTemplate is that it is
    quite simple. There is no nesting or recursion, there are no loops. But
    I do think I've managed to grab some of the nicer features of other
    template engines, such as limited conditionals, and formatting, and,
    the most powerful of all, calling external functions.

    This is a middleweight engine rather than a lightweight one, because I
    needed more than just simple variable substitution, such as one has
    with Template::Trivial. I consider the trade-off worth it, and others
    might also, so I made this a separate module.

FORMATTING

    As well as simple substitution, this module can apply formatting to
    values before they are displayed.

    For example:

    {$Money:dollars}

    will give the value of the Money variable formatted as a dollar value.

    Formatting directives are:

    alpha

      Convert to a string containing only alphanumeric characters (useful
      for anchors or filenames)

    alphadash

      Convert to a string containing alphanumeric characters, dashes and
      underscores; spaces are converted to underscores. (useful for anchors
      or filenames)

    alphahash

      Convert to a string containing only alphanumeric characters and then
      prefix with a hash (#) character (useful for anchors or tags)

    comma_front

      Put anything after the last comma at the front (as with an author
      name) For example, "Smith,Sarah Jane" becomes "Sarah Jane Smith".

    dollars

      Return as a dollar value (float of precision 2)

    email

      Convert to a HTML mailto link.

    float

      Convert to float.

    hmail

      Convert to a "humanized" version of the email, with the @ and '.'
      replaced with "at" and "dot". This is useful to prevent spambots
      harvesting email addresses.

    html

      Convert to simple HTML (simple formatting)

    int

      Convert to integer

    itemnum

      Assume that the value is multiple values separated by the "pipe"
      symbol (|) and select the item with an index of num (starting at
      zero)

    items_directive

      Assume that the value is multiple values separated by the "pipe"
      symbol (|) and split the values into an array, apply the directive
      directive to them, and join them together with a space.

    itemsjslash_directive

      Like items_directive, but the results are joined together with a
      slash between them.

    itemslashnum

      Assume that the value is multiple values separated by the "slash"
      symbol (/) and select the item with an index of num (starting at
      zero) Good for selecting out components of pathnames.

    lower

      Convert to lower case.

    month

      Convert the number value to an English month name.

    namedalpha

      Similar to 'alpha', but prepends the 'name' of the value. Assumes
      that the name is only alphanumeric.

    nth

      Convert the number value to a N-th value. Numbers ending with 1 have
      'st' appended, 2 have 'nd' appended, 3 have 'rd' appended, and
      everything else has 'th' appended.

    percent

      Show as if the value is a percentage.

    pipetocomma

      Assume that the value is multiple values separated by the "pipe"
      symbol (|) and replace those with a comma and space.

    pipetoslash

      Assume that the value is multiple values separated by the "pipe"
      symbol (|) and replace those with a forward slash (/).

    proper

      Convert to a Proper Noun.

    string

      Return the value with no change.

    title

      Put any trailing ",The" ",A" or ",An" at the front (as this is a
      title)

    truncatenum

      Truncate to num length.

    upper

      Convert to upper case.

    url

      Convert to a HTML href link.

    wikilink

      Format the value as the most common kind of wikilink, that is
      [[value]]

    wordsnum

      Give the first num words of the value.

CLASS METHODS

 new

    my $tobj = Text::NeatTemplate->new();

    Make a new template object.

METHODS

 fill_in

    Fill in the given values.

        $result = $tobj->fill_in(data_hash=>\%data,
                                 show_names=>\%names,
                                 template=>$text);

    The 'data_hash' is a hash containing names and values.

    The 'show_names' is a hash saying which of these "variable names" ought
    to be displayed, and which suppressed. This can be useful if you want
    to use a more generic template, and then dynamically suppress certain
    values at runtime.

    The 'template' is the text of the template.

 get_varnames

    Find variable names inside the given template.

        @varnames = $tobj->get_varnames(template=>$text);

 do_replace

    Replace the given value.

        $val = $tobj->do_replace(targ=>$targ,
                                 data_hash=>$data_hashref,
                                 show_names=>\%show_names);

    Where 'targ' is the target value, which is either a variable target, or
    a conditional target.

    The 'data_hash' is a hash containing names and values.

    The 'show_names' is a hash saying which of these "variable names" ought
    to be displayed, and which suppressed.

    This can do templating by using the exec ability of substitution, for
    example:

        $out =~ s/{([^}]+)}/$tobj->do_replace(data_hash=>$data_hash,targ=>$1)/eg;

 get_value

    $val = $tobj->get_value(val_id=>$val_id, data_hash=>$data_hashref,
    show_names=>\%show_names);

    Get and format the given value.

 convert_value

        my $val = $tobj->convert_value(value=>$val,
                                       format=>$format,
                                       name=>$name);

    Convert a value according to the given formatting directive.

    See "FORMATTING" for details of all the formatting directives.

 simple_html

    $val = $tobj->simple_html($val);

    Do a simple HTML conversion of the value. bold, italic, <br>

Callable Functions

 safe_backtick

    {&safe_backtick(myprog,arg1,arg2...argN)}

    Return the results of a program, without risking evil shell calls. This
    requires that the program and the arguments to that program be given
    separately.

 format_items

    {&format_items(fieldname,value,delim,outdelim,format,prefix,suffix)}

    Format a field made of multiple items.

REQUIRES

        Test::More

INSTALLATION

    To install this module, run the following commands:

        perl Build.PL
        ./Build
        ./Build test
        ./Build install

    Or, if you're on a platform (like DOS or Windows) that doesn't like the
    "./" notation, you can do this:

       perl Build.PL
       perl Build
       perl Build test
       perl Build install

    In order to install somewhere other than the default, such as in a
    directory under your home directory, like "/home/fred/perl" go

       perl Build.PL --install_base /home/fred/perl

    as the first step instead.

    This will install the files underneath /home/fred/perl.

    You will then need to make sure that you alter the PERL5LIB variable to
    find the module.

    Therefore you will need to change the PERL5LIB variable to add
    /home/fred/perl/lib

            PERL5LIB=/home/fred/perl/lib:${PERL5LIB}

SEE ALSO

    Text::Template Text::FillIn Text::QuickTemplate Template::Trivial
    Template::Toolkit HTML::Template

BUGS

    Please report any bugs or feature requests to the author.

AUTHOR

        Kathryn Andersen (RUBYKAT)
        perlkat AT katspace dot com
        http://www.katspace.org/tools

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

    Copyright (c) 2006 by Kathryn Andersen

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

