package HTML::Template::Plugin::Dot;
use vars qw/$VERSION/;
$VERSION = '0.99';
use strict;
use Scalar::Util qw/blessed/;
=head1 NAME
HTML::Template::Plugin::Dot - Add Magic Dot notation to HTML::Template
=head1 SYNOPSIS
use HTML::Template::Pluggable;
use HTML::Template::Plugin::Dot;
my $t = HTML::Template::Pluggable->new(...);
Now you can use chained accessor calls and nested hashrefs as params, and access
them with a dot notation. You can even pass arguments to the methods.
For example, in your code:
$t->param( my_complex_struct => $struct );
And then in your template you can reference specific values in the structure:
my_complex_struct.key.obj.accessor('hash')
my_complex_struct.other_key
=head1 DESCRIPTION
By adding support for this dot notation to L, the programmers'
job of sending data to the template is easier, and designers have easier access
to more data to display in the template, without learning any more tag syntax.
=head2 EXAMPLES
=head2 Class::DBI integration
L accessors can be used in the template. If the accessor is never
called in the template, that data doesn't have to be loaded.
In the code:
$t->param ( my_row => $class_dbi_obj );
In the template:
my_row.last_name
This extends to related objects or inflated columns (commonly used for date
fields). Here's an example with a date column that's inflated into a DateTime
object:
my_row.my_date.mdy('/')
my_row.my_date.strftime('%D')
Of course, if date formatting strings look scary to the designer, you can keep
them in the application, or even a database layer to insure consistency in all
presentations.
Here's an example with related objects. Suppose you have a Customer object, that
has_a BillingAddress object attached to it. Then you could say something like
this:
...
=head2 More complex uses
The dot notation allows you to pass arguments to method calls (as in the
C example above). In fact, you can pass other objects in the
template as well, and this enables more complex usage.
Imagine we had a (fictional) Formatter object which could perform some basic
string formatting functions. This could be used in e.g. currencies, or dates.
In your code:
$t->param( Formatter => Formatter->new,
order => $order_obj );
In your template:
Amount:
(hint: see L)
This even extends to references to plain tmpl_vars in your template:
$t->param( Formatter => Formatter->new,
plain => 'Jane' );
is
backwards
=head2 TMPL_LOOPs
As of version 0.94, the dot notation is also supported on TMPL_LOOP tags (but
see the L section).
Given an object method (or a hash key) that returns an array or a reference
to an array, we will unwrap that array for use in the loop. Individual array
elements are mapped to a hash C<< { 'this' => $elt } >>, so that you can refer
to them in TMPL_VARs as "this.something".
An example might help. Let's use the canonical Class::DBI example for our data.
Suppose you have an $artist object, which has_many CDs. You can now pass just
the $artist object, and handle the loops in the template:
$t->param( artist => $artist );
The template:
has released these albums:
-
As you can see, each element from the artist.cds() array is called "this" by
default. You can supply your own name by appending ': name' like this:
...
That's not the end of it! You can even nest these loops, displaying the Tracks
for each CD like so:
- ( )
=head2 LIMITATIONS
=over 4
=item * Casing of parameter names
Casing of parameter names follows the option C of
HTML::Template. If you do not use that option, all parameter names are
converted to lower case. I suggest turning this option on to avoid confusion.
=item * Quotes and spaces
Because of the way HTML::Template parses parameter names (which follows the
rules of HTML attributes), you have to be careful when your expressions contain
spaces or quote characters. You can say
C<< >>, but not
C<< >>. You can use single or double quotes
around your entire expression, and then use the other one inside:
C<< >> This is the recommended
way to write your expressions.
(Note: within expressions, the characters in C<< [`'"] >> are recognised as
quote characters. So if you need to pass literal quotes to a method, you could
do it like this: C<< >>. )
=back
=head2 PERFORMANCE
No attempt to even measure performance has been made. For now the focus is on
usability and stability. If you carry out benchmarks, or have suggestions for
performance improvements, be sure to let us know!
=cut
use Carp;
use Data::Dumper;
use Regexp::Common qw/balanced delimited number/;
use Scalar::Util qw/reftype/;
use base 'Exporter';
sub import {
# my $caller = scalar(caller);
HTML::Template::Pluggable->add_trigger('middle_param', \&_dot_notation);
goto &Exporter::import;
}
sub _dot_notation {
my $self = shift;
my $options = $self->{options};
my $param_map = $self->{param_map};
# carp("dot_notation called for $_[0]");
# carp("param map: ", Dumper($param_map));
# @_ has already been setup for us by the time we're called.
for (my $x = 0; $x <= $#_; $x += 2) {
my $param = $options->{case_sensitive} ? $_[$x] : lc $_[$x];
my $value = $_[($x + 1)];
# necessary to cooperate with plugin system
next if ($self->{param_map_done}{$param} and not $self->{num_vars_left_in_loop});
my ($exists,@dot_matches) = _exists_in_tmpl($param_map, $param);
# We don't have to worry about "die on bad params", because that will be handled
# by HTML::Template's param().
next unless $exists;
my $value_type = ref($value);
if (@dot_matches) {
for (@dot_matches) {
# carp("calling _param_to_tmpl for $_, $param, $value");
my $value_for_tmpl = _param_to_tmpl($self,$_,$param,$value);
my $dot_value_type = ref($value_for_tmpl);
# carp("_param_to_tmpl returned '$value_for_tmpl' for '$_', '$param', '$value'");
unless (defined($dot_value_type) and length($dot_value_type) and ($dot_value_type eq 'ARRAY'
or (ref($value_for_tmpl) and (ref($value_for_tmpl) !~ /^(CODE)|(HASH)|(SCALAR)$/) and $value_for_tmpl->isa('ARRAY')))) {
(ref($param_map->{$_}) eq 'HTML::Template::VAR') or
croak("HTML::Template::param() : attempt to set parameter '$param' with a scalar - parameter is not a TMPL_VAR!");
${$param_map->{$_}} = $value_for_tmpl;
}
else {
(ref($param_map->{$_}) eq 'HTML::Template::LOOP') or
croak("HTML::Template::param() : attempt to set parameter '$param' with an array ref - parameter is not a TMPL_LOOP!");
$param_map->{$_}[HTML::Template::LOOP::PARAM_SET] = $value_for_tmpl;
}
# Necessary for plugin system compatibility
$self->{num_vars_left_in_loop} -= 1;
$self->{param_map_done}{$param} = $value; # store the object for future reference
}
}
# We still need to care about tmpl_loops that aren't dot matches so we can adjust their loops
elsif (defined($value_type) and length($value_type) and ($value_type eq 'ARRAY'
or ((ref($value) !~ /^(CODE)|(HASH)|(SCALAR)$/) and $value->isa('ARRAY')))) {
(ref($param_map->{$param}) eq 'HTML::Template::LOOP') or
croak("HTML::Template::param() : attempt to set parameter '$param' with an array ref - parameter is not a TMPL_LOOP!");
# TODO: Use constant names instead of "0"
$self->{num_vars_left_in_loop} += keys %{ $param_map->{$param}[HTML::Template::LOOP::TEMPLATE_HASH]{'0'}{'param_map'} } if exists $param_map->{$param}[HTML::Template::LOOP::TEMPLATE_HASH]{'0'};
}
else {
(ref($param_map->{$param}) eq 'HTML::Template::VAR') or
croak("HTML::Template::param() : attempt to set parameter '$param' with a scalar - parameter is not a TMPL_VAR!");
# intetionally /don't/ set the values for non-dot notation params,
# and don't mark them as done, just that they exist.
$self->{num_vars_left_in_loop} -= 1;
}
}
}
# Check to see if a param exists in the template, with support for dot notation
# returns an an array
# - bool for any matches
# - array of keys with dot notation that matched.
sub _exists_in_tmpl {
my ($param_map,$param) = @_;
return 1 if exists $param_map->{$param};
if (my @matching_dot_tokes = grep { /^$param\./ } keys %$param_map) { # (?:\s*[fF][oO][rR]\s+[_a-z]\w*\s+[Ii][nN]\s+)? after the ^ can be used for supporting "for cd in artist.cds" style loops
return (1, @matching_dot_tokes);
}
else {
return undef;
}
}
# =head2 _param_to_tmpl()
#
# my $result = _param_to_tmpl($pluggable,$tmpl_token_name,$param_name,$param_value);
#
# Returns the right thing to put in the template given a token name, a param name
# and a param value. Returns undef if this template token name and param name
# don't match.
#
# The template token name supports the dot notation, which means that method
# calls and nested hashes are expanded.
#
# However, first we check for a literal match, for backwards compatibility with
# HTML::Template.
#
# =cut
sub _param_to_tmpl {
my ($self,$toke_name,$param_name,$param_value) = @_;
# carp("_param_to_tmpl called for '$toke_name', '$param_name', '$param_value'");
# This clause may not be needed because the non-dot-notation
# cases are handled elsewhere.
if ($toke_name eq $param_name) {
# carp("toke equals param: $toke_name == $param_name");
return $param_value;
}
elsif (my ($one, $the_rest) = split /\./, $toke_name, 2) {
# my $loopmap_name = 'this'; # default for mapping array elements for loop vars
# $loopmap_name = $1 if $one =~ s/^\s*[fF][oO][rR]\s+([_a-z]\w*)\s+[Ii][nN]\s+//; the "for x in y" style
if ($one eq $param_name) {
my $loopmap_name = 'this'; # default for mapping array elements for loop vars
$loopmap_name = $1 if $the_rest =~ s/\s*:\s*([_a-z]\w*)\s*$//;
# NOTE: we do the can-can because UNIVSERAL::isa($something, 'UNIVERSAL')
# doesn't appear to work with CGI, returning true for the first call
# and false for all subsequent calls.
# This is exactly what TT does.
# Rhesa (Thu Aug 4 18:33:30 CEST 2005)
# Patch for mixing method calls and attribute access mixing,
# and optional parameter lists!
#
# First we're setting $ref to $param_value
#
# We're going to loop over $the_rest by finding anything that matches
# - a valid identifier $id ( [_a-z]\w* )
# - optionally followed by something resembling an argument list $data
# - optionally followed by a dot or $
# then we're checking if
# - $ref is an object
# - if we can call $id on it
# - in this case we further parse the argument list for strings
# or numbers or references to other h-t params
# - or if it's an attribute
# - or a hashref and we have no $data
# We'll use the result of that operation for $ref as long as there are dots
# followed by an identifier
my $ref = $param_value;
$self->{param_map_done}{$one} ||= $ref;
my $want_loop = ref($self->{param_map}{$toke_name}) eq 'HTML::Template::LOOP';
my(@results); # keeps return values from dot operations
THE_REST:
while( $the_rest =~ s/^
([_a-z]\w*) # an identifier
($RE{balanced})? # optional param list
(?:\.|$) # dot or end of string
//xi ) {
my ($id, $data) = ($1, $2);
if (ref($ref) and blessed($ref)) {
# carp("$ref is an object, and its ref=", ref($ref), Dumper($ref));
if($ref->can($id)) {
my @args = ();
# carp "Calling $id on ", ref($ref), " with $data";
if($data) {
$data =~ s/^\(// and $data =~ s/\)$//;
while( $data ) {
if ($data =~ s/
^\s*
(
$RE{delimited}{-delim=>q{'"`}} # a string
|
$RE{num}{real} # or a number
)
(?:,\s*)?
//xi
) {
my $m = $1;
$m =~ s/^["'`]//; $m =~ s/["'`]$//;
# carp "found string or numeric argument $m";
push @args, $m;
}
elsif( $data =~ s/
^\s*
( # ($1) a sub-expression of the form "object.method(args)"
([_a-z]\w*) # ($2) the object in question
(?:
\.
[_a-z]\w* # method name
$RE{balanced}? # optional argument list
)*
)
(?:,\s*)?
//xi
) {
my ($m, $o) = ($1, $2);
# carp("found subexpression '$m' with '$o'");
# carp Dumper($self->{param_map}), Dumper($self->{param_map_done});
if( exists($self->{param_map}->{$m}) ) {
my $prev = $self->param($m);
# carp("found '$prev' for '$m' in param_map");
push @args, $prev;
}
elsif( exists($self->{param_map_done}{$o}) ) {
my $prev = _param_to_tmpl($self, $m, $o, $self->{param_map_done}{$o});
# carp("found '$prev' for '$o' in param_map_done");
push @args, $prev;
}
else {
croak("Attempt to reference nonexisting parameter '$m' in argument list to '$id' in dot expression '$toke_name': $m is not a TMPL_VAR!");
}
}
else {
local $,= ', ';
# carp("Parsing is in some weird state. args so far are '@args'. data = '$data'. id='$id'");
last;
}
}
croak("Bare word '$data' not allowed in argument list to '$id' in dot expression '$toke_name'") if $data;
}
# carp("calling '$id' on '$ref' with '@args'");
eval {
if($the_rest or !$want_loop) {
$ref = $ref->$id(@args);
$one .= ".$id";
$self->{param_map_done}{$one} ||= $ref;
} else {
@results = $ref->$id(@args);
}
} or $the_rest='', last THE_REST;
}
elsif(reftype($ref) eq'HASH') {
croak("Can't access hash key '$id' with a parameter list! ($data)") if $data;
if($the_rest or !$want_loop) {
$ref = exists( $ref->{$id} ) ? $ref->{$id} : undef;
} else {
@results = exists( $ref->{$id} ) ? $ref->{$id} : undef;
}
}
else {
croak("Don't know what to do with reference '$ref', identifier '$id' and data '$data', giving up.");
}
}
elsif(ref($ref) eq 'HASH') {
# carp("accessing key $id on $ref");
if($the_rest or !$want_loop) {
$ref = exists( $ref->{$id} ) ? $ref->{$id} : undef;
} else {
@results = exists( $ref->{$id} ) ? $ref->{$id} : undef;
}
}
# carp("setting ref for id=$id, toke=$toke_name, param=$param_name, and param map wants a ", ref($self->{param_map}{$toke_name}), " What we got is ", ref($ref), ", results is ", scalar(@results));
}
unless($the_rest or !$want_loop) {
$ref = ($#results==0 and ref($results[0]) eq 'ARRAY') ? $results[0] : \@results;
}
croak("Trailing characters '$the_rest' in dot expression '$toke_name'") if $the_rest;
# carp("we got $ref. the rest = $the_rest");
if($want_loop) { # fixup the array to a conformant data structure
my @arr = (reftype($ref) eq 'ARRAY') ? @$ref : ($ref);
return [ map { {$loopmap_name => $_} } @arr ];
} else {
$ref = scalar(@$ref) if ref($ref) eq 'ARRAY';
return $ref;
}
}
# no match. give up.
else {
# carp("No match: one=$one, param_name=$param_name, the rest=$the_rest");
return undef;
}
}
# no dots and no literal match: give up
else {
# carp("No dots, no literal match: toke=$toke_name, name=$param_name, value=$param_value");
return undef;
}
}
=head1 CONTRIBUTING
Patches, questions and feedback are welcome. This project is managed using
the darcs source control system ( http://www.darcs.net/ ). A public darcs archive is here:
http://cgiapp.erlbaum.net/darcs_hive/ht-pluggable/
=head1 AUTHORS
Mark Stosberg, Emark@summersault.comE;
Rhesa Rozendaal, Erhesa@cpan.orgE
=head1 Copyright & License
Parts copyright 2006 Mark Stosberg
Parts copyright 2006 Rhesa Rozendaal
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as perl itself.
=cut
1;