http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=144315

I find HTML::Template great and in my personal mission to encourage people not to embed HTML in perl scripts, here is a few examples to get you started. I've tried to cover things I didn't get when I first started and could have saved me some work.

Lazy form handling with associate

HTML::Template has a cunning feature which I didn't notice in my first few passes through the documentation. You can give it your CGI object and it will fill in template values with them.

color1.tmpl:

<form action="color.pl" method="post"> <p>Your name: <input type="text" name="name" value="<TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME>"></p> <p>Your favorite color: <input type="text" name="color" value="<TMPL_VAR NAME=COLOR>"></p> <p><input type="submit"></p> </form>

color2.tmpl:

<p>Hello, <b><TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME></b>. A little birdy told me your favorite color is <b><TMPL_VAR NAME=COLOR></b>.

color.pl:

use CGI; use HTML::Template; my $cgi = CGI->new; my $template; print $cgi->header; if ($cgi->param('name') && $cgi->param('color')) { $template = 'color2'; } else { $template = 'color1'; } my $t = HTML::Template->new(filename => "$template.tmpl", associate => + $cgi); print $t->output;

Cheap Database Output

You want to output a table but are too lazy to code something? HTML::Template to the rescue! param() needs hashrefs and arrayrefs and the DBI functions selectall_hashref and fetchrow_hashref come in very handy.

Perl code:

use DBI; use CGI; use HTML::Template; my $cgi = CGI->new; my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:mysql:xxxx:localhost', 'xxxx', 'xxxx'); my $t = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'db.tmpl'); $t->param(ROWS => $dbh->selectall_hashref('select id, name, price from + products')); $dbh->disconnect; print $cgi->header; print $t->output;

Template code:

<table border="1"> <tr><th>ID</th><th>NAME</th><th>PRICE</th></tr> <TMPL_LOOP ROWS> <tr> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=ID></td> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME></td> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=PRICE></td> </tr> </TMPL_LOOP> </table>

Doing a little bit more...

Perl code:

[snip] my $rows = $dbh->selectall_hashref('select id, name, price from produc +ts'); $dbh->disconnect; my $sum = 0; my $i = 0; foreach (@$rows) { $_->{odd} = $i++ % 2; $sum += $_->{price}; } $t->param(ROWS => $rows, TOTAL => $sum);

Template:

<table border="1"> <tr><th>ID</th><th>NAME</th><th>PRICE</th></tr> <TMPL_LOOP ROWS> <tr bgcolor="#<TMPL_IF ODD>666666<TMPL_ELSE>EEEEEE</TMPL_IF>"> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=ID></td> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME></td> <td><TMPL_VAR NAME=PRICE></td> </tr> </TMPL_LOOP> </table> <p>The total is <TMPL_VAR NAME=TOTAL></p>

But I need to process my db output!

I often find I need to do a little work on what's in the database and handling it row by row is easier.

Note the array created so I can pass the same thing every time I create a template. I usually have cache on as I am running under mod_perl and this speeds things up a bit, I tend to turn off strict and die_on_bad_params as I'd rather things looked a bit funky than the script die (especially if it isn't me editing it).

Perl code:

use DBI; use CGI; use HTML::Template; my $cgi = CGI->new; my $dbh = DBI->connect('dbi:mysql:xxxx:localhost', 'xxxxx', 'xxxx'); my @tmpl_opts = (cache => 1, die_on_bad_params => 0, associate => $cgi +); my $sth = $dbh->prepare('select id, name, price, saleprice from produc +ts'); my ($id, $name, $price, $saleprice); my $i = 0; my $sum = 0; $sth->execute; $sth->bind_columns(\($id, $name, $price, $saleprice)); while ($sth->fetch) { my $real_price = $price < $saleprice ? $price : $saleprice; $name =~ s/\b(\w)(\w+)\b/\U$1\L$2/g; push @rows, { ID => lc($id), PRICE => $real_price, NAME => $name, +ODD => $i++ %2 }; $sum += $real_price; } $sth->finish; my $t = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'db2.tmpl', @tmpl_opts); $t->param(ROWS => \@rows, TOTAL => $sum); print $cgi->header; print $t->output; $dbh->disconnect;

Fin

Hope you liked it :)

gav^