NAME

       Template::Manual::Plugins - Standard plugins

TEMPLATE TOOLKIT PLUGINS

       The following plugin modules are distributed with the Template Toolkit.  Some of the
       plugins interface to external modules (detailed below) which should be downloaded from any
       CPAN site and installed before using the plugin.

   Assert
       New in 2.20!  The Assert plugin adds an "assert" virtual method that you can use to catch
       undefined values.

       For example, consider this dotop:

           [% user.name %]

       If "user.name" is an undefined value then TT will silently ignore the fact and print
       nothing.  If you "USE" the "assert" plugin then you can add the "assert" vmethod between
       the "user" and "name" elements, like so:

           [% user.assert.name %]

       Now, if "user.name" is an undefined value, an exception will be thrown:

           assert error - undefined value for name

   CGI
       The CGI plugin is a wrapper around Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm module. The plugin is
       distributed with the Template Toolkit (see Template::Plugin::CGI) and the CGI module
       itself is distributed with recent versions Perl, or is available from CPAN.

           [% USE CGI %]
           [% CGI.param('param_name') %]
           [% CGI.start_form %]
           [% CGI.popup_menu( Name   => 'color',
                              Values => [ 'Green', 'Brown' ] ) %]
           [% CGI.end_form %]

   Datafile
       Provides an interface to data stored in a plain text file in a simple delimited format.
       The first line in the file specifies field names which should be delimiter by any non-word
       character sequence.  Subsequent lines define data using the same delimiter as in the first
       line.  Blank lines and comments (lines starting '#') are ignored.  See
       Template::Plugin::Datafile for further details.

       /tmp/mydata:

           # define names for each field
           id : email : name : tel
           # here's the data
           fred : fred@here.com : Fred Smith : 555-1234
           bill : bill@here.com : Bill White : 555-5678

       example:

           [% USE userlist = datafile('/tmp/mydata') %]

           [% FOREACH user = userlist %]
              [% user.name %] ([% user.id %])
           [% END %]

   Date
       The Date plugin provides an easy way to generate formatted time and date strings by
       delegating to the POSIX "strftime()" routine. See Template::Plugin::Date and POSIX for
       further details.

           [% USE date %]
           [% date.format %]           # current time/date

           File last modified: [% date.format(template.modtime) %]

   Directory
       The Directory plugin provides a simple interface to a directory and the files within it.
       See Template::Plugin::Directory for further details.

           [% USE dir = Directory('/tmp') %]
           [% FOREACH file = dir.files %]
               # all the plain files in the directory
           [% END %]
           [% FOREACH file = dir.dirs %]
               # all the sub-directories
           [% END %]

   DBI
       The "DBI" plugin is no longer distributed as part of the Template Toolkit (as of version
       2.15).  It is now available as a separate Template::DBI distribution from CPAN.

   Dumper
       The Dumper plugin provides an interface to the Data::Dumper module. See
       Template::Plugin::Dumper and Data::Dumper for futher details.

           [% USE dumper(indent=0, pad="<br>") %]
           [% dumper.dump(myvar, yourvar) %]

   File
       The File plugin provides a general abstraction for files and can be used to fetch
       information about specific files within a filesystem. See Template::Plugin::File for
       further details.

           [% USE File('/tmp/foo.html') %]
           [% File.name %]     # foo.html
           [% File.dir %]      # /tmp
           [% File.mtime %]    # modification time

   Filter
       This module implements a base class plugin which can be subclassed to easily create your
       own modules that define and install new filters.

           package MyOrg::Template::Plugin::MyFilter;

           use Template::Plugin::Filter;
           use base qw( Template::Plugin::Filter );

           sub filter {
               my ($self, $text) = @_;
               # ...mungify $text...
               return $text;
           }

       Example of use:

           # now load it...
           [% USE MyFilter %]

           # ...and use the returned object as a filter
           [% FILTER $MyFilter %]
             ...
           [% END %]

       See Template::Plugin::Filter for further details.

   Format
       The Format plugin provides a simple way to format text according to a "printf()"-like
       format. See Template::Plugin::Format for further details.

           [% USE bold = format('<b>%s</b>') %]
           [% bold('Hello') %]

   GD
       The "GD" plugins are no longer part of the core Template Toolkit distribution.  They are
       now available from CPAN in a separate Template::GD distribution.

   HTML
       The HTML plugin is very basic, implementing a few useful methods for generating HTML. It
       is likely to be extended in the future or integrated with a larger project to generate
       HTML elements in a generic way.

           [% USE HTML %]
           [% HTML.escape("if (a < b && c > d) ..." %]
           [% HTML.attributes(border => 1, cellpadding => 2) %]
           [% HTML.element(table => { border => 1, cellpadding => 2 }) %]

       See Template::Plugin::HTML for further details.

   Iterator
       The Iterator plugin provides a way to create a Template::Iterator object to iterate over a
       data set. An iterator is created automatically by the "FOREACH" directive and is aliased
       to the "loop" variable. This plugin allows an iterator to be explicitly created with a
       given name, or the default plugin name, "iterator". See Template::Plugin::Iterator for
       further details.

           [% USE iterator(list, args) %]

           [% FOREACH item = iterator %]
              [% '<ul>' IF iterator.first %]
              <li>[% item %]
              [% '</ul>' IF iterator.last %]
           [% END %]

   Pod
       This plugin provides an interface to the Pod::POM module which parses POD documents into
       an internal object model which can then be traversed and presented through the Template
       Toolkit.

           [% USE Pod(podfile) %]

           [% FOREACH head1 = Pod.head1;
                FOREACH head2 = head1/head2;
                  ...
                END;
              END
           %]

   Scalar
       The Template Toolkit calls user-defined subroutines and object methods using Perl's array
       context by default.

           # TT2 calls object methods in array context by default
           [% object.method %]

       This plugin module provides a way for you to call subroutines and methods in scalar
       context.

           [% USE scalar %]

           # force it to use scalar context
           [% object.scalar.method %]

           # also works with subroutine references
           [% scalar.my_sub_ref %]

   String
       The String plugin implements an object-oriented interface for manipulating strings. See
       Template::Plugin::String for further details.

           [% USE String 'Hello' %]
           [% String.append(' World') %]

           [% msg = String.new('Another string') %]
           [% msg.replace('string', 'text') %]

           The string "[% msg %]" is [% msg.length %] characters long.

   Table
       The Table plugin allows you to format a list of data items into a virtual table by
       specifying a fixed number of rows or columns, with an optional overlap. See
       Template::Plugin::Table for further details.

           [% USE table(list, rows=10, overlap=1) %]

           [% FOREACH item = table.col(3) %]
              [% item %]
           [% END %]

   URL
       The URL plugin provides a simple way of contructing URLs from a base part and a variable
       set of parameters. See Template::Plugin::URL for further details.

           [% USE mycgi = url('/cgi-bin/bar.pl', debug=1) %]

           [% mycgi %]
              # ==> /cgi/bin/bar.pl?debug=1

           [% mycgi(mode='submit') %]
              # ==> /cgi/bin/bar.pl?mode=submit&debug=1

   Wrap
       The Wrap plugin uses the Text::Wrap module to provide simple paragraph formatting. See
       Template::Plugin::Wrap and Text::Wrap for further details.

           [% USE wrap %]
           [% wrap(mytext, 40, '* ', '  ') %]  # use wrap sub
           [% mytext FILTER wrap(40) -%]       # or wrap FILTER

       The "Text::Wrap" module is available from CPAN:

           http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/

   XML
       The "XML::DOM", "XML::RSS", "XML::Simple" and "XML::XPath" plugins are no longer
       distributed with the Template Toolkit as of version 2.15

       They are now available in a separate Template::XML distribution.