I wrote a reasonably complicated HTML:Template-based web application that works fine. Now, I want to insert some XMLHttpRequest functionality. I've got the skeleton code working, however, I can't for the life of me figure out how to merge it with HTML::Template. Here is the pseudo-flow of the application --

### in my code
my $foo = $cgi->param('foo');
# do a bunch of things with $foo, 
# get data out of SQLite,
# prepare html output,
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n", $template->output;

### in my template
<TMPL_LOOP FOO>
  <TMPL_VAR BAR><br>
</TMPL_LOOP>
[download]

But, now I've added the XMLHttpRequest code to the template so 'foo' is sent to the server in background, so to say. However, I can't output the entire $template anymore... I have to output only the resulting recordset, receive it back at the client's end, process it and output it using innerHTML to create the same pretty output that I was getting with TMPL_LOOP. The best I can figure is --

### in my code
my $foo = $cgi->param('foo');
# figure out if XMLHttpRequest
if ($foo) {
  # do a bunch of things with $foo, 
  # get data out of SQLite,
  # prepare XMLHttpRequest output
  print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n", $output;

# for all other normal cgi requests
} else {
  # grab cgi params,
  # do a bunch of things with them,
  # get data out of SQLite,
  # prepare html output,
  print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n", $template->output;
}

### in my template, 
# document.getElementById("output").innerHTML = output;
<div id="output"></div>
[download]

Well, isn't that terrible? I've just gone and messed up my neat H::T based View and Controller separation. Is there a cleaner, better, more satisfying method?