C<CGI::TabPane> - Support panes with clickable tabs

- NAME
- Synopsis
- Description
- Installation
- Distributions
- Constructor and initialization
- Terminology
- The Structure of the Data
- Method: `get($name_of_thing_to_get)`
- Example code
- Required Modules
- Changes
- Related Modules
- Author
- Copyright

# NAME

`CGI::TabPane` - Support panes with clickable tabs

# Synopsis

            use CGI::TabPane;

            CGI::TabPane -> new(data => [...]) -> get('html');

# Description

`CGI::TabPane` is a pure Perl module.

It is a wrapper around the superb JavaScript package 'Tab Pane' by Erik Arvidsson.

Erik's article on Tab Pane is here: http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/tabpane/tabpane.html

I have simplified some of Erik's files, and renamed some, to make shipping and installing easier.

# Installation

The makefile will install /perl/site/lib/CGI/TabPane.pm.

You must manually install <Document Root>/css/tabpane/*.[css|png] and <Document Root>/js/tabpane/*.js.

If you choose to put the CSS elsewhere, you'll need to call new(final_css => '/new/path/final.css'). Similarly for style_css.

Note: If you put webfxlayout.css elsewhere, you'll have to edit webfxlayout.js.

If you choose to put the JavaScript elsewhere, you'll need to call new(tabpane_js => '/new/path/tabpane.css'). Similarly for webfxlayout_js.

These options can be used together, and can be passed into `set()` rather than `new()`.

# Distributions

This module is available both as a Unix-style distro (*.tgz) and an ActiveState-style distro (*.ppd). The latter is shipped in a *.zip file.

See http://savage.net.au/Perl-modules.html for details.

See http://savage.net.au/Perl-modules/html/installing-a-module.html for help on unpacking and installing each type of distro.

# Constructor and initialization

`new(...)` returns a `CGI::TabPane` object.

This is the class's contructor.

Usage: CGI::TabPane -> new().

This method takes a set of parameters. Only the data parameter is mandatory.

For each parameter you wish to use, call new as new(param_1 => value_1, ...).

data
  This value holds all the information required to build the panes and tabs per pane.

  See the sections below called 'Terminology' and 'The Structure of the Data' for details.

  The default value is '' (the empty string), which will die because you must pass in an array ref.

  This parameter is mandatory.

final_css
  This value is the name of a CSS file. The module ships with a suitable file called final.css.

  Warning: Do not edit final.css. Even tiny changes will have horrible effects on the output.

  The default value is '/css/tabpane/final.css'.

  This parameter is optional.

html
  Normally you would not do this, but if you want, you can pass in a value for the `html` parameter, and the HTML generated by this module will be appended to your initial value.

  The default value is ''.

  This parameter is optional.

infix_html
  This value is a string of HTML to be inserted between panes, to separate them vertically.

  A typical value might be: '<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>'.

  The default value is '' (the empty string).

  This parameter is optional.

prefix_html
  This value is a string of HTML to be inserted before the first pane.

  A typical value might be: '<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>'.

  The default value is '' (the empty string).

  This parameter is optional.

style_css
  This value is the name of a CSS file which determines the overall style of the output. The module ships with three suitable files:

luna.css
webfx.css
winclassic.css

The default value is '/css/tabpane/luna.css'.

This parameter is optional.

suffix_html
  This value is a string of HTML to be inserted after the last pane.

  A typical value might be: '<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>'.

  The default value is '' (the empty string).

  This parameter is optional.

tabpane_js
  This value is the name of a JavaScript file. The module ships with a suitable file called tabpane.js.

  Warning: Do not edit tabpane.js. Even tiny changes will have horrible effects on the output.

  The default value is '/js/tabpane/tabpane.js'.

  This parameter is optional.

webfxlayout_js
  This value is the name of a JavaScript file. The module ships with a suitable file called webfxlayout.js.

  Warning: Do not edit webfxlayout.js. Even tiny changes will have horrible effects on the output.

  The default value is '/js/tabpane/webfxlayout.js'.

  This parameter is optional.

# Terminology

The comments below this diagram define a few terms.

The example shipped with this module will make things much clearer. See the examples/ directory.

Alternately, go straight to Erik's demo at: http://webfx.eae.net/dhtml/tabpane/demo.html

            [Tab 1-1] [Tab 1-2] [TAB 1-3] [Tab 1-4]
            [===============================================]
            [ Text for tab 1-3                              ]
            [===============================================]

            [TAB 2-1] [Tab 2-2]
            [==============================]
            [ +Legend--------------------+ ]
            [ |Text for tab 2-1          | ]
            [ +--------------------------+ ]
            [==============================]

Pane
  We have 2 'panes', one on top of the other.

  Panes are tiled vertically.

  Use the `infix_html` parameter to `new()` or `set()` to change the vertical separation of the panes.

Tab
  The top pane has 4 'tabs' side-by-side. The bottom pane has 2 tabs.

  Tabs are tiled horizontally.

Current tab
  The current tab within a pane is the tab most-recently clicked.

  Tab 3 in the 1st pane and tab 1 in the 2nd pane are in upper case in the diagram to indicate they are the 'current tab' in each pane. The upper case above is just something I made up for the purposes of writing this document. Of course, text is not converted to upper case by this module.

              Note: Tabs can be clicked with a mouse, and they can be clicked by executing code.

Current text
  The text associated with the current tab is called the 'current text'.

Body
  When a tab is clicked it becomes the current tab, and its text becomes the current text, and this text is displayed in the 'body' of the pane, completely replacing any existing text being displayed in the body.

Legend
  It is possible to use the HTML tag 'legend' to cause a box to be drawn by the web client (browser) around the current text.

  Further, it is possible to get the web client to write a string of text on top of the upper left part of this box.

  Such a string is called the 'legend'. See above for an example. See the examples/ directory for a better example.

# The Structure of the Data

Our first problem is to define a data structure which allows us to neatly supply our own data to populate a set of panes and each set of tabs per pane.

Data for a set of panes
  The data structure defining the panes is an array ref. Each element of the array provides data for 1 pane.

  So, the above diagram will be something like:

              [<Data for 1st pane>, <Data for 2nd pane>].

Data for a set of tabs
  The data structure defining the tabs for 1 pane is an array ref. Each element of the array provides data for 1 tab.

  So, the above diagram will be something like:

              <Data for 1st pane>:

              [<Data for 1st tab of 1st pane>, <Data for 2nd tab of 1st pane>, ...].

              <Data for 2nd pane>:

              [<Data for 1st tab of 2nd pane>, <Data for 2nd tab of 2nd pane>].

Data for 1 tab without a legend
  In the absence of a legend, the data for 1 tab is a hash ref:

              <Data for any tab (without a legend) of any pane>:

              {'Text for tab' => 'Text for body of pane'}

  Recall from the discussion of 'body' above: 'Text for body of pane' means the text which is to be displayed when this particular tab if clicked.

  In the diagram, then, the data for the 3rd tab of the 1st pane is:

              {'Tab 1-3' => 'Text for tab 1-3'}

Data for 1 tab with a legend
  In the presence of a legend, the data for 1 tab is a hash ref within a hash ref:

              <Data for any tab (with a legend) of any pane>:

              {'Text for tab' => {'Text for legend' => 'Text for body of pane'} }

  In the diagram, then, the data for the 1st tab of the 2nd pane is:

              {'Tab 2-1' => {'Legend' => 'Text for tab 2-1'} }

Data for nested panes and tabs
  In the presence of nested panes, the data for 1 tab is an array ref within a hash ref:

              <Data for a nested pane>:

              {'Text for tab' => [<Data for 1st nested tab>, <Data for 2nd nested tab>, ...]}

  Warning: This module will only handle 2 levels in this hierarchy of nesting, since it uses hard-coded CSS tokens for the classes of the <div>s involved. By '2 levels' I mean 1 outer pane and 1 inner pane.

  Warning: To have one nested pane, with its own set of tabs, makes sense. To add more complexity than that surely means your design is too complex. By 'more complexity' I mean 2 panes displayed vertically within 1 pane. So don't do that.

Lastly, the entire data structure for the diagram could be:

            [      # All panes
                [  # 1st pane
                    {'Tab 1-1' => 'Text for tab 1-1'},
                    {'Tab 1-2' => 'Text for tab 1-2'},
                    {'Tab 1-3' => 'Text for tab 1-3'},
                    {'Tab 1-4' => 'Text for tab 1-4'},
                ],
                [  # 2nd pane
                    {'Tab 2-1' => {'Legend' => 'Text for tab 2-1'} },
                    {'Tab 2-2' => 'Text for tab 2-2'},
                ],
            ]

You are strongly urged to examine the demo examples/test-cgi-tabpane.cgi to get an understanding of how to construct the required data structure.

# Method: `get($name_of_thing_to_get)`

Returns a string.

The 'name of the thing to get' is any of the parameters which can be passed in to `new()`:

data
final_css
html
  This is the one which you absolutely must call.

infix_html
prefix_html
style_css
suffix_html
tabpane_js
webfxlayout_js

In each case, the current value of the parameter held within the `CGI::TabPane` object is returned.

See the demo examples/test-cgi-tabpane.cgi for an example.

# Example code

See the examples/ directory in the distro.

# Required Modules

Carp.

# Changes

See Changes.txt.

# Related Modules

CGI::Explorer, also one of my modules, is a pure Perl wrapper around another superb package from the House of EAE, this time 'XTree' by Emil A Eklund.

Emil and Erik share the web site http://webfx.eae.net/ - please drop in there and express your thanx.

# Author

`CGI::TabPane` was written by Ron Savage <ron@savage.net.au> in 2004.

Home page: http://savage.net.au/index.html

# Copyright

Australian copyright (c) 2004, Ron Savage. All rights reserved.

            All Programs of mine are 'OSI Certified Open Source Software';
            you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of
            The Artistic License, a copy of which is available at:
            http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html