When you're using HTML::Template and want to put a table into a page, you have two options: You can embed loop logic in the template, or you can inject a table constructed elsewhere into the template. If you favor reuse, you're going to lean towards injection. But that doesn't mean you can't use templates for both parts. Here's a variation that does both, in a reusable way.

A simple embedded table looks like

  ... stuff ...
  <table>
  <TMPL_LOOP rows>
    <tr>
    <TMPL_LOOP columns>
      <td><TMPL_VAR ESCAPE=HTML value></td>
    </TMPL_LOOP>
    </tr>
  </TMPL_LOOP>
  </table>
  ... more stuff ...
[download]

and the code to expand it looks like

  my $template = HTML::Template->new(rows => ...);
  print $template->output;
[download]

You can isolate part of the above into a separate template, and pull it in to the main template via

  ... stuff ...
  <TMPL_INCLUDE NAME="table.tmpl">
  ... more stuff ...
[download]

This expands the included template in-line, with no visible difference to the calling program, though you do get the benefit of having a reusable table template. But you can do better, as we'll see below.

When injecting a table, the template looks like

  ... stuff ...
  <TMPL_VAR ESCAPE=0 table>
  ... more stuff ...
[download]

You're then on the hook for providing a chunk of HTML to supply as the template parameter table. You can construct the HTML from code, from a heredoc, by using CGI.pm tag support, or by some other means. Whichever way you go, you'll end up doing something like

   my $template = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'bigpage.tmpl');
   my $tableHTML = tableHTML(...);
   $template->param(table => $tableHTML);
   print $template->output;
[download]

A possibly non-obvious "other means" is to produce the table HTML by using a separate HTML::Template instance that uses its own template for the table part. This looks like

  sub tableHTML {
    my %table_data = @_;
    my $template = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'table.tmpl');
    $template->param(%table_data);
    return $template->output;
  }
[download]

You now have the basis for a reusable component that you can pull out any time you need to embed tables in a template. Variations include passing a query into the component, which then extracts data from some data source. This technique also extends nicely to other types of components.

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