phpman > perldoc > Template::Manual::Plugins(3pm)

NAME
    Template::Manual::Plugins - Standard plugins

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.

  Assert
    New in 2.20! The Assert plugin adds an "assert" virtual method that you can use to catch
    undefined values.

    For example, consider this dotop:

        [% user.name %]

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

        [% user.assert.name %]

    Now, if "user.name" is an undefined value, an exception will be thrown:

        assert error - undefined value for name

  CGI
    The CGI plugin is a wrapper around Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm module. The plugin is distributed with
    the Template Toolkit (see Template::Plugin::CGI) and the 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 %]

  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 Template::Plugin::Datafile for further
    details.

    /tmp/mydata:

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

    example:

        [% USE userlist = datafile('/tmp/mydata') %]

        [% FOREACH user = userlist %]
           [% user.name %] ([% user.id %])
        [% END %]

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

        [% USE date %]
        [% date.format %]           # current time/date

        File last modified: [% date.format(template.modtime) %]

  Directory
    The Directory plugin provides a simple interface to a directory and the files within it. See
    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 %]

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

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

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

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

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

  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 Template::Plugin::Filter for further details.

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

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

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

  HTML
    The 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 Template::Plugin::HTML for further details.

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

        [% USE iterator(list, args) %]

        [% FOREACH item = iterator %]
           [% '<ul>' IF iterator.first %]
           <li>[% item %]
           [% '</ul>' IF iterator.last %]
        [% END %]

  Pod
    This plugin provides an interface to the 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
        %]

  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 %]

  String
    The String plugin implements an object-oriented interface for manipulating strings. See
    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.

  Table
    The 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 Template::Plugin::Table for
    further details.

        [% USE table(list, rows=10, overlap=1) %]

        [% FOREACH item = table.col(3) %]
           [% item %]
        [% END %]

  URL
    The URL plugin provides a simple way of constructing URLs from a base part and a variable set of
    parameters. See 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

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

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

    The "Text::Wrap" module is available from CPAN:

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

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

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