I'm working on the final bits of a new web store application for my employer, and I've run into a bit of a pickle. We need to send the customer an email receipt for their order, and we'd like to send them a nicely formatted table of the items in their cart.

I can't use HTML, as there's a company policy decision stating that we don't put HTML in emails. (I agree - I read much email via PINE myself, and I hate HTML in my inbox). Therefore, format is the way to go. I think.

My question is, how do I make a format against a loop? I'm pulling the data from my database, and it's all working fine in HTML::Template. So I get:

$sqlString = "SELECT * FROM CartItems WHERE txtSessId = ?";
$sth = $dbh->prepare($sqlString);
$sth->execute($session)
$cartItemsRef = $sth->fetchall_arrayref({});

[download]

for a great return set for a TMPL_LOOP in my HTML templates. I can't format those well for a text-based table - I've tried. Given a format like this:

format RECEIPT = 
Item                    Quantity    Price
--------------------------------------------
@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<  @<<<<<      @####.##
$vars,$go,$here
.

[download]

How do I loop this on the $cartItemsRef? I don't understand the format system deeply enough to do this.

In reply to Format question... by khudgins

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
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