[htmltmpl] wish: <tmpl_dump>

[Mark S. <ma...@su...>]

It should be easier for a designer to get an answer to the question:
"What tokens do I have available?" 

I think there is a fairly reasonable way to make this easier. 

A <tmpl_dump> tag could be added which outputs all the possible
tmpl_loop tmpl_var names, along with their values, right in the
template.

When the designer is done with this reference, it can be removed. 

I think the hard part of this implementation is already done, in the
form of HTML::Template::Dumper which does basically just this. 

It can output human-friendly YAML, which could simply be wrapped
in a <pre> tag to complete the presentation.

All that's left to be done is to add the glue that supports calling this
from a new tag. 

This is another example of a nice feature that could be implemented with
a plugin system. 

I have contacted the author of HTML::Template::Set to see if he would
like to make a plugin version of that extension as well. 

A sample of using HTML::Template::Dumper is below. 

    Mark


# Sample HTMl::Template::Dumper script and output
#!/usr/bin/perl
use lib './lib';

use HTML::Template::Dumper;
my $t = HTML::Template::Dumper->new(
        scalarref => \'<tmpl_var outer><tmpl_loop deloop><tmpl_var inner></tmpl_loop>',
);
$t->set_output_format('YAML');
$t->param(
        outer => 'My Outer',
    deloop => [ { inner => 'First Inner', }, { inner => 'Second Inner'} ],
);
print $t->output();

# output
--- #YAML:1.0
deloop:
  - inner: First Inner
  - inner: Second Inner
outer: My Outer






-- 
http://mark.stosberg.com/