
         HTML::Template - a Perl module to use HTML Templates


DESCRIPTION

This module attempts to make using HTML templates simple and natural.
It extends standard HTML with a few new tags - <TMPL_VAR> and
<TMPL_LOOP>.  The file written with HTML and these new tags is called
a template.  It is usually saved separate from your script - possibly
even created by someone else!  Using this module you fill in the
values for the variables and loops declared in the template.  This
allows you to seperate design - the HTML - from the data, which you
generate in the Perl script.

This module is licenced under the GPL.  See the LICENSE section
below for more details.

MOTIVATION

It is true that there are a number of packages out there to do HTML
templates.  On the one hand you have things like HTML::Embperl which
allows you freely mix Perl with HTML.  On the other hand lie
home-grown variable substitution solutions.  Hopefully the module can
find a place between the two.

One advantage of this module over a full HTML::Embperl-esque solution
is that it enforces an important divide - design and programming.  By
limiting the programmer to just using simple variables and loops in
the HTML, the template remains accessible to designers and other
non-perl people.  The use of HTML-esque syntax goes further to make
the format understandable to others.  In the future this similarity
could be used to extend existing HTML editors/analyzers to support
this syntax.

An advantage of this module over home-grown tag-replacement schemes is
the support for loops.  In my work I am often called on to produce
tables of data in html.  Producing them using simplistic HTML
templates results in CGIs containing lots of HTML since the HTML
itself could not represent loops.  The introduction of loop statements
in the HTML simplifies this situation considerably.  The designer can
layout a single row and the programmer can fill it in as many times as
necessary - all they must agree on is the parameter names.

For all that, I think the best thing about this module is that it does
just one thing and it does it quickly and carefully.  It doesn't try
to replace Perl and HTML, it just augments them to interact a little
better.  And it's pretty fast.


DOCUMENTATION

The documentation is in Template.pm in the form of POD format
perldocs.  Even the above text might be out of date, so be sure to
check the perldocs for the straight truth!


INSTALLATION

In case this is your first module, the usual methods are:

        perl Makefile.PL
        make
        make test
        make install


CONTACT INFO

This module was written by Sam Tregar (sam@tregar.com) for Vanguard
Media (http://www.vm.com).  I'll be out of email range (in
Tunisia!) from June 27th to July 20th of 1999.  During this period
bugs and suggestions can be sent to my boss here at Vanguard -
Jesse (jesse@vm.com).


LICENSE

HTML::Template : A system for using HTML Templates with Perl
Copyright (C) 1999 Sam Tregar (sam@tregar.com)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA

