When you define a template object, you have a large number of settings you can use.

What I suggest is that you declare the variables that you want to pass to the component. Then declare a POST_PROCESS which will process this template at the end of each page.

my $template = Template->new({
    VARIABLES => {
	component => {
            name => 'script_name',
            time => time(),
        }
    },
    POST_PROCESS => 'component_info.tt'
});

Now you will not have to declare a WRAPPER after each web page. It will be done for you.

It's not the web pages, or whole templates I'm interested in, it's the components, ie. the bits included. For example:

thing.tt:

I am thing.
[download]

thang.tt:

I am thang.
[download]

fred.tt:

% INCLUDE thing.tt %

% INCLUDE thang.tt %
[download]

I ultimately want this from processing fred

<! -- begin fred.tt -->
<! -- begin thing.tt -->
I am thing.
<! -- end thing.tt -->
<! -- begin thang.tt -->
I am thang.
<! -- end thang.tt -->
<! -- end fred.tt -->
[download]

In this way, my designer can see which template components have been used to create a specific page

component is a special variable which is automatically set for each included component. The reason I said I had to pass it through is that it is set to the wrapper name if I don't pass it through from the component I want the information for.

--
Steve Marvell

I haven’t verified this, since I’m too lazy, but my perusal of the docs suggests that what you want is one of the DEBUG_FOO options combined with a suitable DEBUG_FORMAT, as documented in Template::Manual::Config.

Makeshifts last the longest.

DEBUG_DIRS provides the informaiton I need and more. Cheers.

--
Steve Marvell

I would indeed use WRAPPER here instead of rolling my own:

use Template;

my $tt = Template->new;
$tt->process(\*DATA, {
    comp => { name => 'foo', modtime => scalar(localtime) }
}) || die $tt->error();


__DATA__
[% WRAPPER wrap comp = comp %]
content goes here
[% END %]

[% BLOCK wrap %]
<!-- BEGIN  [% comp.name %] ([% comp.modtime %]) -->
[% content %]
<!-- END  [% comp.name %] -->
[% END %]
[download]

Not that this information solves your problem, but HTML::Mason has an autohandler, which not only acts as a WRAPPER, but also gives you finer control at the directory lever: all Mason components in a directory are handled by the autohandler -- and can be used to wrap all components automagically. I haven't found how to do this in TT yet, but i would be surprised if you can't. Hopefully another monk will know the answer, have you tried the TT mailing list?

Update: Herkum++ (that's what i get for getting pulled away from the problem and not refreshing to see if anyone had answered the question :P)

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)

Using WRAPPER may be a bit more wordy than your header/footer solution, but it also has the added advatange of escaping any content contained in the WRAPPER for you.

It's also more wordy, becuase is has to have the special variable passed through.

Again, you example is atthe template level, not the component. I'm looking for a sub-template oriented solution.

--
¤ Steve Marvell