Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a CGI page where I use repetitive HTML data such as this table: 
<table>
<tr>
<td>Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Second Info stuff</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More data</td>
</tr>
</table>

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Anyway to put all this into a variable or an include file? I know Cold Fusion has an include file for storing information and using it on web pages. Is there anything I can do like that in perl so I dont have to type in the above HTML 8 times on the same CGI page? Basically just put the HTML piece in a variable or include file to cut back writing the same HTML over and over again.

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Re: Repetitive HTML data
by naChoZ (Curate) on Sep 24, 2003 at 13:18 UTC
[reply]

      Just to help out Anony a little bit more ...

      All you need to do is save that table as a file ... say some_table.html. Then, in your 'main' HTML file you use the <tmpl_include> tag to 'pull in' your table: 
      <body>

stuff: <tmpl_include some_table.html>
mo stuff: <tmpl_include some_table.html>
etc. etc.

</body>

      [download]
      Read the docs for more, and be sure to check out HTML::Template Tutorial and 3Re: HTML::Template - complex sites for more info.

      jeffa

      L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)
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[d/l]
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Re: Repetitive HTML data
by reyjrar (Hermit) on Sep 24, 2003 at 13:00 UTC
    Sure thing: 
    my $table = <<EOT;
<table>
<tr>
<td>Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Second Info stuff</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More data</td>
</tr>
</table>
EOT

    [download]
    -brad..
[reply]
[d/l]
      Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but seems like you have multiple rows of stuff you want to display. How 'bout this: 
        my $table = "<table>";
  foreach my $row_of_stuff (@rows_of_stuff) {
     $table .= <<EOT;
<tr>
   <td>$row_of_stuff</td>
</tr>
EOT
  }
  $table .= "</table>";

      [download]
      Does this help?
[reply]
[d/l]
Re: Repetitive HTML data
by neilwatson (Priest) on Sep 24, 2003 at 15:43 UTC
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[d/l]
Re: Repetitive HTML data
by theAcolyte (Pilgrim) on Sep 26, 2003 at 04:38 UTC
    Not to rain on anyone's parade, but this is something you don't need perl for at all -- not unless you need different data on each line. If your looking to repeat an element over and over and its completely static you have two other good choices:
    • Use Server Side Includes. This requires they be turned on by your webhost. Many don't allow it for security reasons.
    • Use the EMBED tag. The only real problem is only mozilla supports it properly for embedding HTML docs
    • Use an IFRAME. This is prolly easiest solution
    • Use the funky method described below

    You can also do it with javascript... but then if the surfer has JS turned off... ouch?? So here's the JS way.

    1) Make a .js doc thats all one line like this:
    document.write("your HTML HERE");

    2) in your main HTML doc where you want that file to be included you put the following line:
    <script LANGUAGE="javascript" TYPE="text/javascript" SRC="include.js"></script>

    For even MORE fun ... change the SRC to include.pl and write a perl file that dumps out 1 line of javascript which reads:
    document.write("blahblahblah");

    and you have a dynamic include. :-)

    -Erik

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