NAME

       CGI::FormBuilder::Template - Template adapters for FormBuilder

SYNOPSIS

           # Define a template engine

           package CGI::FormBuilder::Template::Whatever;
           use base 'Whatever::Template::Module';

           sub new {
               my $self  = shift;
               my $class = ref($self) || $self;
               my %opt   = @_;

               # override some options
               $opt{some_setting} = 0;
               $opt{another_var}  = 'Some Value';

               # instantiate the template engine
               $opt{engine} = Whatever::Template::Module->new(%opt);

               return bless \%opt, $class;
           }

           sub render {
               my $self = shift;
               my $form = shift;   # only arg is form object

               # grab any manually-set template params
               my %tmplvar = $form->tmpl_param;

               # example template manipulation
               my $html = $self->{engine}->do_template(%tmplvar);

               return $html;       # scalar HTML is returned
           }

DESCRIPTION

       This documentation describes the usage of FormBuilder templates, as well as how to write
       your own template adapter.

       The template engines serve as adapters between CPAN template modules and FormBuilder. A
       template engine is invoked by using the "template" option to the top-level "new()" method:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           template => 'filename.tmpl'
                      );

       This example points to a filename that contains an "HTML::Template" compatible template to
       use to layout the HTML. You can also specify the "template" option as a reference to a
       hash, allowing you to further customize the template processing options, or use other
       template engines.

       For example, you could turn on caching in "HTML::Template" with something like the
       following:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => \@fields,
                           template => {
                               filename => 'form.tmpl',
                               shared_cache => 1
                           }
                      );

       As mentioned, specifying a hashref allows you to use an alternate template processing
       system like the "Template Toolkit".  A minimal configuration would look like this:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => \@fields,
                           template => {
                               type => 'TT2',      # use Template Toolkit
                               template => 'form.tmpl',
                           },
                      );

       The "type" option specifies the name of the engine. Currently accepted types are:

           Builtin -  Included, default rendering if no template specified
           Div     -  Render form using <div> (no tables)
           HTML    -  HTML::Template
           Text    -  Text::Template
           TT2     -  Template Toolkit
           Fast    -  CGI::FastTemplate
           CGI_SSI -  CGI::SSI

       In addition to one of these types, you can also specify a complete package name, in which
       case that module will be autoloaded and its "new()" and "render()" routines used. For
       example:

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields => \@fields,
                           template => {
                               type => 'My::Template::Module',
                               template => 'form.tmpl',
                           },
                      );

       All other options besides "type" are passed to the constructor for that templating system
       verbatim, so you'll need to consult those docs to see what all the different options do.
       Skip down to "SEE ALSO".

SUBCLASSING TEMPLATE ADAPTERS

       In addition to the above included template engines, it is also possible to write your own
       rendering module. If you come up with something cool, please let the mailing list know!

       To do so, you need to write a module which has a sub called "render()". This sub will be
       called by FormBuilder when "$form->render" is called. This sub can do basically whatever
       it wants, the only thing it has to do is return a scalar string which is the HTML to print
       out.

       This is actually not hard. Here's a simple adapter which would manipulate an
       "HTML::Template" style template:

           # This file is My/HTML/Template.pm
           package My::HTML::Template;

           use CGI::FormBuilder::Template::HTML;
           use base 'CGI::FormBuilder::Template::HTML';

           sub render {
               my $self = shift;    # class object
               my $form = shift;    # $form as only argument

               # the template object (engine) lives here
               my $tmpl = $self->engine;

               # setup vars for our fields (objects)
               for ($form->field) {
                   $tmpl->param($_ => $_->value);
               }

               # render output
               my $html = $tmpl->output;

               # return scalar;
               return $html;
           }
           1;  # close module

       Then in FormBuilder:

           use CGI::FormBuilder;
           use My::HTML::Template;   # your module

           my $tmpl = My::HTML::Template->new;

           my $form = CGI::FormBuilder->new(
                           fields   => [qw(name email)],
                           header   => 1,
                           template => $tmpl   # pass template object
                      );

           # set our company from an extra CGI param
           my $co = $form->cgi_param('company');
           $tmpl->engine->param(company => $co);

           # and render like normal
           print $form->render;

       That's it! For more details, the best thing to do is look through the guts of one of the
       existing template engines and go from there.

SEE ALSO

       CGI::FormBuilder, CGI::FormBuilder::Template::HTML, CGI::FormBuilder::Template::Text,
       CGI::FormBuilder::Template::TT2, CGI::FormBuilder::Template::Fast,
       CGI::FormBuilder::Template::CGI_SSI

REVISION

       $Id: Template.pm 97 2007-02-06 17:10:39Z nwiger $

AUTHOR

       Copyright (c) Nate Wiger <http://nateware.com>. All Rights Reserved.

       This module is free software; you may copy this under the terms of the GNU General Public
       License, or the Artistic License, copies of which should have accompanied your Perl kit.