Re: [htmltmpl] loop through a hash structure without knowing the hash keys?

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  It might be difficult to do for multilevel nested data structure, but I  think having support for one of the most common data structure, array  of hash, is a good start, because array of hash mirrors the structure  of a resultset coming back from a DB query.

  Currently we can use tmpl_loop to loop through the array elements (or  thinking in terms of DB, the rows), so that's taken care of.  What's  missing is a way to get the hash keys, so maybe there can be a  contextual var that gives you the hash keys (from the DB perspective,  the columns or fields), as in __ColumnList__ or something that you can  loop through with.  Sorry I am just thinking out loud here, as I don't  know enough about HTML::Template internals enough to know that's  possible or makes sense.

  - boon

Mathew Robertson <mat...@ne...> wrote:              I agree too - what I was trying to say was that, I dont think it is  even technically possible to do it generically.

  Can you think of an example of how to do it generically?  If you can, I  could quite easily modify my H::T version to support this functionality.

  Mat

  Boon Chew wrote:      
  I agree with you that the coupling cannot be totally avoided, but being  able to deal with template var generically in the presentation layer is  very useful in avoiding having to create duplicate html code that are  doing exactly the same thing.  

  - boon

    Mathew Robertson <mat...@ne...>  wrote:                  The coupling of a template to the template-params is something that  cant really be avoided - at some point the template designer has to  have some understanding of what template-variables are being  generated.  Since you are the developer creating the code that  generates the template-variables, it is your responsibility to  "publish" the variable names and their meaning, it is not up to the  template designer to "figure out" what they are and what they represent.

  That said, there is a justified argument for wanting something like a  <TMPL_DUMP some_var> which writes a dumped-block into the target  page.

  Mathew

  PS. I maintain a version of H::T which supports sub-classing so that  you can create your own TMPL tags, see: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~mathew

  Boon Chew wrote:              I want a way to quickly display all the info  in a var - a Dumper output if you will.  But more than that, like in  some other server-side language, you can query the column lists (or  hash keys) and loop through those and use a piece of generic code when  all you intend to do is to display everything in the var.

  Imagine yourself wanting to output all the info in a reference to an  array of hashes (which essentially mimics a database table), the HTML  code can really be made the same if a construct is available to loop  through things.

  The tight coupling of knowledge between what's being sent from the perl  code and the HTML can be avoided, that's the whole point of the design  of the template module (vs Mason where you mingle Perl code with  display code) right?  It just seems ugly when I have to tell a designer  to go look at the perl file to see what he is getting in the var.  He  should be able to find that out from some sensible constructs.

  - boon

        Mathew Robertson <mat...@ne...>  wrote:                            It sounds like you need a tool which simply dumps the  template variable names (ie: using the $ht->params() function),  rather than some special mode to H::T

  Mathew

  Boon Chew wrote:                      Ya sorry, that's what I meant.

  Right now I am working on some site code, and the designer sometimes  have to come to me for stuff because he doesn't always know what hash  keys I am passing to him (say sometimes I might add a new one,  sometimes he mistype one, etc.).  The whole point of doing this  template separation is to decouple things, but if the designer can only  figure out what's being passed into the template by looking at the  module code, it kinda defeats the whole purpose.

  It would be such great convenience to be able to dump the whole thing  on the HTML with a call like this:

  <tmpl_var story_loop>

  or

  <tmpl_loop story_loop>
    <column_var>   <-- outputs all keys here
  </tmpl_loop>

            Carl Franks <fir...@gm...>  wrote:              > e.g.
  > 
  > 
  > 

  a TMPL_LOOP doesn't take a hash, it takes an array-ref of hash-refs
  that would be

  my @loop = (
  {name => 'a'},
  {name => 'b'},
  );

  $tmpl->param( students => \@loop );

  If you knew that already, give an example of what sort of data you
  want to put in, and what you want the HTML to look like.

  Cheers,
  Carl

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