I am attempting to build a website using the HTML::Template module to assist in abstracting the HTML out of the CGI scripts.

to build my menu I defined a template and use a template loop to iterate through the list parameters passed by $tmpl->param()

menu_bar.tmpl

<DIV CLASS='menu_bar'>
  <tmpl_if name=menu_options>
    <UL CLASS='main_menu'>
      <tmpl_loop name=menu_options>
        <LI CLASS='main_menu'>
           <A CLASS='main_menu' 
              HREF='<tmpl_var name=option_address>'
              >
              
              <tmpl_var name=option_name>
           </A>
        </LI>
      </tmpl_loop>
    </UL>
  </tmpl_if>
</div>
[download]

Then in the code I use the $tmpl->param() function and pass it my list of links.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI qw(:standard);
use HTML::Template;

my $cgi = new CGI;

my $tmpl = new HTML::Template(
  path     => [ '/path/to/' ],
  filename => menu_bar.tmpl,
);

$tmpl->param(
  [
    {
      option_name    => 'Home',
      optopn_address => '/index.cgi',
    },
    {
      option_name    => 'About',
      option_address => '/about.cgi',
    },
    {
      option_name    => 'Contact',
      option_address => '/contact.cgi',
    },
  ]
);

print $cgi->header();
print $tmpl->output();
[download]

I think this code could be made cleaner using a list. My first thought was to use a hash and a loop, but that won't work because it wont come out in the correct order.

I would like to get rid of all of the individual entries of:

  {
    option_name    => "$option",
    option_address => "$address",
  }
[download]

and replace them with one statement.
I believe this will make future maintainability easier.
can someone please point me in the right direction.
Thanks.

EDIT:

This was my hair-brained idea... Needless to say: syntax-error...

my @options = ("Home", "About", "Contact",);
my %options_menu = (
    Home    => '/index.cgi',
    About   => '/about.cgi',
    Contact => 'contact.cgi',
);

$tmpl->param(
    menu_options => [
        foreach(@options){
            {
                 option_name => "$_",
                option_link => "$menu_options{$_}",
            },
    }
    ],
);
[download]

Thoughts?