Re: [htmltmpl] how to determine if tmpl_var exists in a loop?

[petersm <pe...@ve...>]

Puneet Kishor <pk...@ei...>
> 
> I am curious too... I've been using H-T for about a year and a half, 
> and I've never had to query the template. My assumption is that params 
> in the template are assigned by me, so I would automatically know what 
> vars exist in the template.
> 
> What is/are a typical circumstance(s) where I would not already know 
> what vars exist in a template and would want to use query to find out?
> 
> Thanks.

Querying the template allows you to be able to create another layer of
abstraction between the code and the template. We use it to create a custom
'TemplateLoader' that will look at a given template, and by the naming
convention that we use on the vars and loops it will actually create the SQL
statements, query the database and load the templates. The only thing we have
to remember is to use the nameing convention for the vars. This works for
about 95% of the occassions that we use H::T and then the other %5 we use it
more straight forward. 

The benefits of this are that if we want to add some more data to the template
(an extra column or field or something) we just add the correct TMPL_VAR to
the template and then the TemplateLoader does the rest. We don't have to
change the code.

If you're curiosity is piqued, then you can check out how we do this at
cheesepizza.venzia.com. The module in question is named
'CheesePizza::TemplateLoader'.

Michael Peters
Venzia