Perl and a little style.

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

Can this be rewritten any better?
I somehow dont like the way i have it and i think it can be rewritten.
What if i had 50 rows?
Also i dont like the colspan and alignment but i dont know how to set css handle this.

if( param('Εμφάνιση Guestbook!') )
{
   $sth = $dbh->prepare( 'SELECT * FROM guestbook' );
   $sth->execute;

   while( $row = $sth->fetchrow_hashref )
   {
      print table( {class=>'user_form'},

          Tr(
             td( {-width=>'25%'},       {class=>'name'},       $row->{
+name}     ),
             td( {-width=>'50%'},       {class=>'email'},      $row->{
+email}    ),
             td( {-width=>'25%'},       {class=>'date'},       $row->{
+date}     )
          ),

          Tr(
             td(                        {class=>'host'},       "Ευχή τ
+ου Ιησού" ),
             td( {colspan=>2},          {class=>'tip'},        $row->{
+pray}     )
          ),

          Tr(
             td(                       {class=>'tip'},         "Προσωπ
+ική Ορθοδοξοπνευματική Εμπειρία" ),
             td( {colspan=>2},         {class=>'remark'},      $row->{
+remark}   )
          ),

          Tr(
             td( {colspan=>3},         {class=>'host'},        $row->{
+host}     )
          ),

      ), br() x 2;
   }

   unless ($sth->rows ) {
       print span( {class=>'tip'},  "Δεν υπάρχουν νέες εγγραφές, yet!"
+ );
   }
}
[download]

Comment on Perl and a little style. Download Code

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Re: Perl and a little style. by tlm (Prior) on May 02, 2005 at 13:02 UTC
Printing out HTML with Perl is inherently ugly; no getting around that. If it really bothers you (and I can see why it would), then use a templating system. the lowliest monk	[reply]
Re^2: Perl and a little style. by ghenry (Vicar) on May 02, 2005 at 13:06 UTC
Yes, I agree. Take a look at Template Toolkit HTH. Walking the road to enlightenment... I found a penguin and a camel on the way..... Fancy a yourname@perl.me.uk? Just ask!!!	[reply]
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Re: Perl and a little style. by wfsp (Abbot) on May 02, 2005 at 14:26 UTC
I'm a recent convert to HTML::Template and I think it may be of use here. For a loop it needs an array of hash refs. `$sth = $dbh->prepare( 'SELECT * FROM guestbook' ); $sth->execute; my @ht_data; while( $row = $sth->fetchrow_hashref ){ push @ht_data, $row; } my $template = HTML::Template->new(filename => 'table.tmpl'); $template->param(TABLE_LOOP => \@ht_data); print $template->output();` [download] In your template the loop would look something like this <table class="user_form"> <TMPL_LOOP NAME=TABLE_LOOP> <tr> <td width="25%" class="name" > <TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME > </td> <td width="50%" class="email"> <TMPL_VAR NAME=EMAIL> </td> <td width="25%" class="date" > <TMPL_VAR NAME=DATE > </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="host"> Ευχή του Ιησού </td> <td class="tip" colspan="2"> <TMPL_VAR NAME=PRAY> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="tip"> <TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME> </td> <td class="remark" colspan="2"> Προσωπική Ορθοδοξοπνευματική Εμπειρία </td> <td width="25%" class="date"> <TMPL_VAR NAME=DATE> </td> </tr> </TMPL_LOOP> </table> [download] Untested. I don't have access to SQL. Hope this helps.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
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