man String::TT (3): use TT to interpolate lexical variables

SYNOPSIS

use String::TT qw/tt strip/;
sub foo {
my $self = shift;
return tt 'my name is [% self.name %]!';
}
sub bar {
my @args = @_;
return strip tt q{
Args: [% args_a.join(",") %]
}
}

DESCRIPTION

String::TT exports a "tt" function, which takes a TT (Template Toolkit) template as its argument. It uses the current lexical scope to resolve variable references. So if you say:

  my $foo = 42;
  my $bar = 24;
  tt '[% foo %] <-> [% bar %]';

the result will be "42 <-> 24".

TT provides a slightly less rich namespace for variables than perl, so we have to do some mapping. Arrays are always translated from @array to "array_a" and hashes are always translated from %hash to "hash_h". Scalars are special and retain their original name, but they also get a "scalar_s" alias. Here's an example:

  my $scalar = 'scalar';
  my @array  = qw/array goes here/;
  my %hash   = ( hashes => 'are fun' );
  tt '[% scalar %] [% scalar_s %] [% array_a %] [% hash_h %]';

There is one special case, and that's when you have a scalar that is named like an existing array or hash's alias:

  my $foo_a = 'foo_a';
  my @foo   = qw/foo array/;
  tt '[% foo_a %] [% foo_a_s %]'; # foo_a is the array, foo_a_s is the scalar

In this case, the "foo_a" accessor for the "foo_a" scalar will not be generated. You will have to access it via "foo_a_s". If you delete the array, though, then "foo_a" will refer to the scalar.

This is a very cornery case that you should never encounter unless you are weird. 99% of the time you will just use the variable name.

EXPORT

None by default, but "strip" and "tt" are available.

FUNCTIONS

tt $template

Treats $template as a Template Toolkit template, populated with variables from the current lexical scope.

strip $text

Removes a leading empty line and common leading spaces on each line. For example,

  strip q{
    This is a test.
     This is indented.
  };

Will yield the string "This is a test\n This is indented.\n".

This feature is designed to be used like:

  my $data = strip tt q{
      This is a [% template %].
      It is easy to read.
  };

Instead of the ugly heredoc equivalent:

  my $data = tt <<'EOTT';
This is a [% template %].
It looks like crap.
EOTT

HACKING

If you want to pass args to the TT engine, override the "_build_tt_engine" function:

  local *String::TT::_build_tt_engine = sub { return Template->new( ... ) }
  tt 'this uses my engine';

VERSION CONTROL

This module is hosted in the "jrock.us" git repository. You can view the history in your web browser at:

http://git.jrock.us/?p=String-TT.git;a=summary <http://git.jrock.us/?p=String-TT.git;a=summary>

and you can clone the repository by running:

  git clone git://git.jrock.us/String-TT

Patches welcome.

AUTHOR

Jonathan Rockway "[email protected]"