use DBI;
use Template;

# a little extra shown for cliarity - first get user type
$sql = "SELECT user_type FROM usersTable WHERE (username = $user_name);
$sth = $dbh->prepare($sql) or die("Could not prepare!" . $dbh->errstr);
$sth->execute() or die("Could not execute!" . $dbh->errstr);
$user_type = $sth->fetchrow_array();
$sth->finish;

# get the attributes of the item ids being requested, in this example, corresponding to all items with attribute x = y
$sql = "SELECT item_id, att_2, att_3....att_n FROM theTable WHERE (att_x = 'y');
$sth = $dbh->prepare($sql) or die("Could not prepare!" . $dbh->errstr);
$sth->execute() or die("Could not execute!" . $dbh->errstr);

# build a data structure to store them 
while ($item_id, $att_2, $att_3....$att_n) = $sth->fetchrow_array()) {
     $data{$item_id} = {
          att_2 => $att_2,
          att_3 => $att_3,
.....
          att_n => $att_n
     }
}
$sth->finish;

#user TT to output the results
$template_file = "my_template.htm";

# this passes the whole data hash to the template
$vars = {
     user_type => $user_type,
     data => \%data
}

$template->process($template_file, $vars) || die "Template process failed: ", $template->error(), "\n";