http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/html-template-users
If you just want to get email when new releases are available you can join the announcements mailing-list here:
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/html-template-announce
http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.perl.modules.html-template
NOTE: Offering to program said addition and provide it in the form of a patch to the most recent version of HTML::Template will definitely have a softening effect on potential opponents!
If you're feeling really adventurous, HTML::Template is publicly available on GitHub (https://github.com/mpeters/html-template). Please feel free to fork it and send me a pull request with any changes you have.
If you want your "<TMPL_VAR>"s to be global you can set the "global_vars" option when you call "new()". See above for documentation of the "global_vars" "new()" option.
use HTML::Template;
use File::Find;
print STDERR "Pre-loading HTML Templates...\n";
find(
sub {
return unless /\.tmpl$/;
HTML::Template->new(
filename => "$File::Find::dir/$_",
cache => 1,
);
},
'/path/to/templates',
'/another/path/to/templates/'
);
Note that you'll need to modify the "return unless" line to specify the extension you use for your template files - I use .tmpl, as you can see. You'll also need to specify the path to your template files.
One potential problem: the /path/to/templates/ must be EXACTLY the same path you use when you call "HTML::Template->new()". Otherwise the cache won't know they're the same file and will load a new copy - instead getting a speed increase, you'll double your memory usage. To find out if this is happening set "cache_debug =" 1> in your application code and look for ``CACHE MISS'' messages in the logs.
But, inevitably some people still want to do it. If that describes you then you should take a look at HTML::Template::Expr. Using HTML::Template::Expr it should be easy to write a "run_program()" function. Then you can do awful stuff like:
<tmpl_var expr="run_program('foo.pl')">
Just, please, don't tell me about it. I'm feeling guilty enough just for writing HTML::Template::Expr in the first place.
To some people this smacks of mixing HTML and code in a way that they hoped HTML::Template would help them avoid. To them I'd say that HTML is a violation of the principle of separating design from programming. There's no clear separation between the programmatic elements of the "<form>" tags and the layout of the "<form>" tags. You'll have to draw the line somewhere - clearly the designer can't be entirely in charge of form creation.
It's a balancing act and you have to weigh the pros and cons on each side. It is certainly possible to produce a "<select>" element entirely inside the template. What you end up with is a rat's nest of loops and conditionals. Alternately you can give up a certain amount of flexibility in return for vastly simplifying your templates. I generally choose the latter.
Another option is to investigate HTML::FillInForm which some have reported success using to solve this problem.