Template Toolkit: template paths, INCLUDE

7stud has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Monks,

Using Template Toolkit, I can only get a blank page to display after processing my template. Here is my simple template:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head><title>Test</title></head>
<body>

  <div>From template:</div>
  <div>[% message %]</div>

</body>
</html>
[download]

Here is the CGI program that tries to send that template to the browser:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Template;

my $tname = 'templates/form.html';

my $vars = {
   message  => "Hello World\n"
};

my $template = Template->new({
    INCLUDE_PATH => '/Users/7stud/perl_programs/cgi_projects/1proj')
});

$template->process($file, $vars)
    or die "*MY* template process failed: ", $template->error(), "\n";
[download]

That program is essentially copied from the docs.

Here is my directory structure:

1proj/
---cgi-bin/
 ------create_form.pl
-------simple_cgi.pl
---serverHTTP.py
---templates/
-------footer.html
-------form.html
-------header.html
 ------xform.html

2 directories, 8 files
[download]

Here is create_form.pl:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Template;

my $tname = 'templates/form.html';

my $vars = {
   message  => "Hello World\n"
};

my $template = Template->new({
    INCLUDE_PATH => '/Users/7stud/perl_programs/cgi_projects/1proj')
});

$template->process($file, $vars)
    or die "*MY* template process failed: ", $template->error(), "\n";
[download]

The url I'm using in my browser is:

http://localhost:8000/cgi-bin/create_form.pl
[download]

According the the Template Toolkit docs:

The process() method is called to process a template. The first parameter indicates the input template as one of: a filename relative to INCLUDE_PATH, if defined;.... docs

I am able to send a request to the program simple_cgi.pl, which does not use a template, and it works as expected. The url I use for that request is similar:

http://localhost:8000/cgi-bin/simple_cgi.pl
[download]

Here is simple_cgi.pl:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw{ fatalsToBrowser };

my $cgi = CGI->new;

print $cgi->header,
      $cgi->start_html,
      $cgi->div('hello'),
      $cgi->end_html;
[download]

What am I doing wrong?

Comment on Template Toolkit: template paths, INCLUDE_PATH, error Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Template Toolkit: template paths, INCLUDE_PATH, error by 7stud (Deacon) on Jan 06, 2015 at 11:25 UTC
All that typing for nothing :(. After adding: `use CGI; use CGI::Carp qw{ fatalsToBrowser };` [download] ...which I previously removed--thinking that might be a source of the error--I was notified of the error at the end of this line: `INCLUDE_PATH => '/Users/7stud/perl_programs/cgi_projects/1proj')<---` [download] After removing the stray parenthesis, then I was notified of this error: `my $tname = 'templates/form.html'; ... $template->process($file, $vars) #$tname <--> $file` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Template Toolkit: template paths, INCLUDE_PATH, error by 7stud (Deacon) on Jan 06, 2015 at 11:37 UTC
And now I can even get my INCLUDE blocks in my template to work: form.html: `[% INCLUDE templates/header.html title = "Results page" %] <div>From template:</div> <div>[% message %]</div> [% INCLUDE templates/footer.html%]` [download] I hope that helps somebody else. One tip: don't forget the braces around the INCLUDE_PATH: `my $template = Template->new({<----***HERE INCLUDE_PATH => '/Users/7stud/perl_programs/cgi_projects/1proj' }); ^ \| \| ***AND HERE` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]