HTML::Menu::DateTime - Easily create popup menus for use with templates.

- NAME
- SYNOPSIS
- DESCRIPTION
- MOTIVATION
- INSTALLATION
- METHODS

- `new()`
- `start_year()`
- `end_year()`
- `less_years()`
- `plus_years()`
- `month_format()`
- `locale()`
- `second_increment()`
- `minute_increment()`
- `html()`
- `second_menu()`
- `minute_menu()`
- `hour_menu()`
- `day_menu()`
- `month_menu()`
- `year_menu()`

- EXAMPLES

- HTML::Template

- Templates
- Displaying date dropdown menus
- Multiple Menus in a Single Page

- Template Toolkit

- Templates
- Displaying date dropdown menus
- Multiple Menus in a Single Page

- Template::Magic

- Templates
- Displaying date dropdown menus
- Multiple Menus in a Single Page

- DEFAULT VALUES
- EXPORT
- TIPS
- REQUIREMENTS
- DEPRECATED
- TO DO
- SUPPORT / BUGS
- SEE ALSO
- AUTHOR
- CREDITS
- COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

# NAME

HTML::Menu::DateTime - Easily create popup menus for use with templates.

# SYNOPSIS

      use HTML::Menu::DateTime;

      my $menu = HTML::Menu::DateTime->new (
        date         => '2004-02-26',
        no_select    => 1,
        empty_first  => '');

      $menu->start_year (2000);
      $menu->end_year (2010);

      $menu->less_years (1);
      $menu->plus_years (5);

      $menu->month_format ('short');
      $menu->locale ('en_GB');
      $menu->second_increment (15);
      $menu->minute_increment (5);

      $menu->html ('menu');

      $menu->second_menu;
      $menu->minute_menu;
      $menu->hour_menu;
      $menu->day_menu;
      $menu->month_menu;
      $menu->year_menu;

# DESCRIPTION

Creates data structures suitable for populating HTML::Template, Template Toolkit or Template::Magic templates with dropdown date and time menus.

Allows any number of dropdown menus to be displayed on a single page, each independantly configurable.

Distribution includes ready-to-use template include files.

Can output valid HTML, allowing quick prototyping of pages, with the freedom to easily switch to using templates later.

# MOTIVATION

To keep the creation of HTML completely seperate from the program, to easily allow a non-programmer to add css styles, javascript, etc. to individual menus.

To make the creation of menus as simple as possible, with extra options if needed. HTML Menus can be created as easily as:

      my $template = HTML::Template->new (filename => $filename);

      my $menu = HTML::Menu::DateTime->new;

      $template->param (day   => $menu->day_menu,
                        month => $menu->month_menu,
                        year  => $menu->year_menu);

      print $template->output;

# INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

Alternatively, to install with Module::Build, you can use the following commands:

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

# METHODS

## `new()`

      my $menu1 = HTML::Menu::DateTime->new
                    (date             => $date,
                     start_year       => $start,
                     end_year         => $end,
                     no_select        => 1,
                     empty_first      => 1,
                     month_format     => 'short',
                     locale           => 'en_GB',
                     second_increment => 15,
                     minute_increment => 5,
                     html             => 'menu');

      my $menu2 = HTML::Menu::DateTime->new
                    (less_years => $less,
                     plus_years => $plus);

`new()` accepts the following arguments:

date
  Can be in any of the formats 'YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss', 'YYYYMMDDhhmmss', 'YYYYMMDDhhmm', 'YYYYMMDDhh', 'YYYYMMDD', 'YYYYMM', 'YYYY', 'YYYY-MM--DD', 'hh:mm:ss'.

  The date passed to new() is used to decide which item should be selected in all of the menu methods.

start_year
  Accepts the same values as the start_year() method.

end_year
  Accepts the same values as the end_year() method.

less_years
  Accepts the same values as the less_years() method.

plus_years
  Accepts the same values as the plus_years() method.

no_select
  If true, ensures no item in any menu will be selected. (Otherwise, the current date and time will be used).

empty_first
  If defined, will create an extra list item at the start of each menu. The form value will be the empty string (''), the value passed to empty_first() will be the visible label for the first item (the empty string is allowed).

month_format
  Accepts the same values as the month_format() method.

locale
  Accepts the same values as the locale() method.

second_increment
  Accepts the same values as the second_increment() method.

minute_increment
  Accepts the same values as the minute_increment() method.

html
  Accepts the same values as the html() method.

## `start_year()`

      $date->start_year (2004);

Sets the absolute year that the dropdown menu will start from.

## `end_year()`

      $date->end_year (2009);

Sets the absolute year that the dropdown menu will end on.

## `less_years()`

      $date->less_years (2);

Sets the year that the dropdown menu will start from, relative to the selected year.

May not be used if multiple values for selection are passed to year_menu().

## `plus_years()`

      $date->plus_years (7);

Sets the year that the dropdown menu will end on, relative to the selected year.

May not be used if multiple values for selection are passed to year_menu().

## `month_format()`

Each item in the month menu has a label. By default this is the long English month name, such as 'January', 'February', etc. The format of the label can be changed as shown in the list below.

      $date->month_format ('long');      # January, February, ...
      $date->month_format ('short');     # Jan, Feb, ...
      $date->month_format ('decimal');   # 01, 02, ...

The 'ornate' option, available only in developer release 0.90_01 has been dropped, as it isn't supported by the DateTime::Locale module (see locale()).

## `locale()`

If locale is used, the DateTime::Locale module must be installed.

Setting locale changes the names used for the 'long' and 'short' options of month_format().

      $date->locale ('de');
      $date->month_format ('long');
      # the labels in the month_menu would now have the values
      # Januar, Februar, ...

The value passed to locale is used as the argument to `DateTime::Locale->load()`, see the DateTime::Locale documentation for a full list of available locales.

## `second_increment()`

The second_menu() normally lists the seconds from '00' up to '59'. Setting second_increment() allows the menu to be shorter by skipping some numbers.

For example:

      $date->second_increment (5);
      # the menu contains: '00', '05', '10', '15' up to '55'

      $date->second_increment (15);
      # the menu contains: '00', '15', '30', '45'

second_increment() can be set to any number from 1 to 59, though it would normally make sense to only set it to a number that 60 can be divided by, such as 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30.

## `minute_increment()`

The minute_menu() normally lists the minutes from '00' up to '59'. Setting minute_increment() allows the menu to be shorter by skipping some numbers.

For example:

      $date->minute_increment (5);
      # the menu contains: '00', '05', '10', '15' up to '55'

      $date->minute_increment (15);
      # the menu contains: '00', '15', '30', '45'

minute_increment() can be set to any number from 1 to 59, though it would normally make sense to only set it to a number that 60 can be divided by, such as 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30.

## `html()`

      $date->html ('menu');
      $date->html ('options');
      $date->html (undef);

Causes the _menu methods to output HTML, rather than data for a template.

Valid values are `menu` and `options`, which will generate the HTML using HTML::Menu::Select's menu and options routines, respectively.

When set to `menu`, the HTML will contain a SELECT tag containing the appropriate OPTION tags. This allows the entire SELECT tag to be replaced within a template with a single, simple template tag.

When set to `options`, the HTML will contain the appropriate OPTION tags, without the surrounding SELECT tags. This allows the SELECT tags to remain in the template file, so that the page visuals can still be seen in WYSIWYG HTML editors.

      <SELECT name="">
        <TMPL_VAR name=select_menu>
      </SELECT>

Values for values, labels and default are automatically passed to the menu or options routines. If a hash-ref is passed to any of the _menu methods, it will also be passed to the menu or options routine, allowing any of HTML::Menu::Select's other options to be set, such as specifiying JavaScript or CSS attributes. See the HTML::Menu::Select documentation for more details.

html() can be given `undef` to switch off HTML generation.

Any value other than `'menu'`, `'options'` or `undef` is an error.

## `second_menu()`

      $date->second_menu;
      $date->second_menu (0);
      $date->second_menu ('+1');
      $date->second_menu ([0, 1]);

      $date->second_menu ({html => 'options'});
      $date->second_menu (0, {html => 'options'});

Accepts a value that will override the date (if any) in the new() method.

Argument can be a number (0-59), a value such as '+1' or '-1' (relative to either the date passed to new() or the current time) or an arrayref of number values.

Passing an arrayref of values will cause more than one item in the menu list to be selected. This will require the HTML in the template to be changed so that the SELECT menu has a size higher than 1 and the 'multiple' attribute.

      <SELECT name="second" size="2" multiple="multiple">

A hash-ref can be given, regardless of whether or not a date-effecting value is given. If menu() is set, this hash-ref will be passed onto the HTML::Menu::Select menu() or options routine.

If html() is not set, this method returns an array-reference suitable for passing directly to a template (See EXAMPLES for details.

## `minute_menu()`

Valid numeric arguments are 0-59.

See second_menu() for further details.

## `hour_menu()`

Valid numeric arguments are 0-23.

See second_menu() for further details.

## `day_menu()`

Valid numeric arguments are 1-31.

See second_menu() for further details.

## `month_menu()`

Valid numeric arguments are 01-12.

See second_menu() for further details.

## `year_menu()`

Valid numeric arguments are 0 or higher.

See second_menu() for further details.

# EXAMPLES

## HTML::Template

### Templates

The 'examples/html-template' folder in this distribution contains the files second.tmpl, minute.tmpl, hour.tmpl, day.tmpl, month.tmpl and year.tmpl. Simply copy these files into the folder containing the rest of your templates.

### Displaying date dropdown menus

Contents of template file ``date.tmpl'':

      <html>
      <body>
        <form method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/test.pl">
          <TMPL_INCLUDE day.tmpl>
          <TMPL_INCLUDE month.tmpl>
          <TMPL_INCLUDE year.tmpl>
          <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
      </body>
      </html>

Contents of program file:

      #!/usr/bin/perl
      use strict;
      use warnings;
      use CGI ':standard';
      use HTML::Menu::DateTime;
      use HTML::Template;

      my $template = HTML::Template->new (filename => 'date.tmpl');

      my $menu = HTML::Menu::DateTime->new;

      $template->param (day   => $menu->day_menu,
                        month => $menu->month_menu,
                        year  => $menu->year_menu);

      print header(),
      print $template->output;

### Multiple Menus in a Single Page

To create, for example, 2 'month' menus in a single page you could copy the month.tmpl file to end_month.tmpl and then change the line `<select name="month">` in end_month.tmpl to `<select name="end_month">`.

Then include both files in your main template:

      <html>
      <body>
        <form method="POST" action="/cgi-bin/test.pl">
          <TMPL_INCLUDE month.tmpl>
          <TMPL_INCLUDE end_month.tmpl>
          <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
      </body>
      </html>

When this form is submitted, it will send 2 different values, 'month' and 'end_month'.

## Template Toolkit

### Templates

The 'examples/template-toolkit' folder in this distribution contains the files second.html, minute.html, hour.html, day.html, month.html and year.html. Simply copy these files into the folder containing the rest of your templates.

### Displaying date dropdown menus

Contents of template file ``date.html'':

      <html>
      <body>
        <form method="POST" action="">
          [% INCLUDE day.html %]
          [% INCLUDE month.html %]
          [% INCLUDE year.html %]
          <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
      </body>
      </html>

Contents of program file:

      #!/usr/bin/perl
      use strict;
      use warnings;
      use CGI ':standard';
      use HTML::Menu::DateTime;
      use Template;

      my $template = Template->new;

      my $menu = HTML::Menu::DateTime->new;

      my $vars = {day   => $menu->day_menu,
                  month => $menu->month_menu,
                  year  => $menu->year_menu};

      $template->process ('date.html', $vars)
        or die $template->error;

### Multiple Menus in a Single Page

To create, for example, 2 'month' menus in a single page you could copy the month.tmpl file to end_month.tmpl and then change the line `<select name="month">` in end_month.tmpl to `<select name="end_month">`.

Then include both files in your main template:

      <html>
      <body>
        <form method="POST" action="">
          [% INCLUDE month.html %]
          [% INCLUDE end_month.html %]
          <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
      </body>
      </html>

When this form is submitted, it will send 2 different values, 'month' and 'end_month'.

## Template::Magic

### Templates

The 'examples/template-magic' folder in this distribution contains the files second.html, minute.html, hour.html, day.html, month.html and year.html. Simply copy these files into the folder containing the rest of your templates.

### Displaying date dropdown menus

Contents of template file ``date.html'':

      <html>
      <body>
        <form method="POST" action="">
          <!--{INCLUDE_TEMPLATE day.html}-->
          <!--{INCLUDE_TEMPLATE month.html}-->
          <!--{INCLUDE_TEMPLATE year.html}-->
          <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
      </body>
      </html>

Contents of program file (1st alternative):

      #!/usr/bin/perl
      use strict;
      use warnings;
      use CGI ':standard';
      use HTML::Menu::DateTime;
      use Template::Magic::HTML;

      my $template = Template::Magic::HTML;
      my $menu = DateTime->new;

      print header();
      $template->nprint( template => 'date.html',
                         lookups  => { day_menu   => $menu->day_menu,
                                       month_menu => $menu->month_menu,
                                       year_menu  => $menu->year_menu
                                     }
                       );

Contents of program file (2nd alternative):

      #!/usr/bin/perl
      use strict;
      use warnings;
      use CGI ':standard';
      use HTML::Menu::DateTime;
      use Template::Magic::HTML;

      my $template = Template::Magic::HTML;
      $HTML::Menu::DateTime::no_template_magic_zone = 1;

      print header();
      $template->nprint( template =>'date.html',
                         lookups  => HTML::Menu::DateTime->new
                       );

### Multiple Menus in a Single Page

To create, for example, 2 'month' menus in a single page you could copy the month.html file to end_month.html and then change the line `<select name="month">` in end_month.html to `<select name="end_month">`.

Then include both files in your main template:

      <html>
      <body>
        <form method="POST" action="">
          <!--{INCLUDE_TEMPLATE month.html}-->
          <!--{INCLUDE_TEMPLATE end_month.html}-->
          <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
        </form>
      </body>
      </html>

When this form is submitted, it will send 2 different values, 'month' and 'end_month'.

# DEFAULT VALUES

If a date is not passed to the new() or menu methods, then `localtime(time)` is called.

If neither 'start_year' or 'less_years' is set, the default used is `less_years(5)`.

If neither 'end_year' or 'plus_years' is set, the default used is `plus_years(5)`.

If 'locale' is not set, the `month_menu()` labels are English.

# EXPORT

None.

# TIPS

Years before 1000 AD passed to the new() method in the 'YYYYMMDDhhmmss' format should be passed as strings, as the leading zeros are necessary. (e.g. '09990101000000'). (Years before 1000 AD may be passed to the year_menu() method as literal numbers.)

Years before 1 AD are not allowed at all.

DO NOT set both 'start_year' and 'less_years' at the same time, it just doesn't make sense.

DO NOT set both with 'end_year' and 'plus_years' at the same time, it just doesn't make sense.

To start or end the range on the same year as selected, set less_years or plus_years to zero, DO NOT set start_year or end_year to zero.

When settting either 'start_year' or 'end_year', ensure that the selected year will fall within the range of years.

When passing relative values to methods, ensure they are sent as strings. `+1` numerically means `1` which is not the same as the string `'+1'`.

If a date is set in new() and either `less_years` or `plus_years`' set and then a value passed to the year_menu() method. The start / end year of the menu will be relative to the value passed to year_menu(), not the date set in new().

'Relative' parameter values sent to menu methods, which result in out-of-range selections are silently ignored and no item in the output menu will be selected.

# REQUIREMENTS

If 'html' is set in new(), or html() is set, then the HTML::Menu::Select module must be installed.

If 'locale' is set in new(), or locale() is set, then the DateTime::Locale module must be installed.

# DEPRECATED

As of version 1.00, if month_format(), second_increment() or minute_increment() is called with no arguments, the value is no longer reset to it's default. (The previous behaviour was not documented, other than in the test suite.)

As of version 1.00, if locale(), start_year(), end_year(), less_years() or plus_years() is called with no arguments, the value is no longer set to undef. (The previous behaviour was neither documented or tested for.)

The 'ornate' option to month_format(), available only in developer release 0.90_01 has been dropped, as it isn't supported by the DateTime::Locale module (see locale()).

# TO DO

May change year_menu() such that less_years / plus_years works with multiple selections - it would probably have to start / end the list in relation to the lowest / highest year.

# SUPPORT / BUGS

Please log bugs, feature requests and patch submissions at http://sourceforge.net/projects/html-menu.

Support mailing list: html-menu-users@lists.sourceforge.net

# SEE ALSO

HTML::Menu::Select, HTML::Template, Template Toolkit, Template::MagicTemplate::Magic, DateTime::Locale.

# AUTHOR

Carl Franks

# CREDITS

      Pedro Santelmo (suggesting DateTime::Locale for multi-lingual)
      Domizio Demichelis (template-magic examples and tutorial)
      Mark Stosberg (naming style feedback)

# COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2004-2005, Carl Franks. All rights reserved.

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

Licenses are in the files ``Artistic'' and ``Copying'' in this distribution.