Re: [htmltmpl] variable inside a variable

[Jonathan L. <dat...@gm...>]

Matthew wrote:
> Is it possible to have a variable inside a variable be parsed?
>
> I'd like to pull some text from DB containing a few tmpl_var's and
> assign that text to a tmpl_var in original file I instantiated the
> object with.
>
> Is this possible?

HTML is very specific as to what it allows: when you pass a variable
into the template, you have to bear in mind which tag the variable is
going to be used in.  A tmpl_var can only receive a string or a
number; I'm not even sure if it's permitted to take a boolean value,
although it might be.  A tmpl_if/tmpl_unless can only receive a
boolean value.  A tmpl_loop can only receive a list of hashes, and
tags nested within it access hash keys of the current iteration of the
loop instead of other variables passed into the template.  There's a
flag you can use that lets nested tags access global variables as
well, as long as none of the hash keys clobber that name.

But there's no way to pass a simple hash or list into the template;
the _only_ aggregate data that HTML::Template handles is the list of
hashes used by tmpl_loop.  Since tables are not a native data type for
perl, this makes it awkward for programmers to pass loop data into the
template; but then, HTML::Template seems to have a design philosophy
of keeping the template syntax as simple as possible at _all_ costs.
HTML::Template::Expr relaxes the straitjacket somewhat; but even that
much flexibility is viewed by the designer as a neccessary evil.

-- 
Jonathan "Dataweaver" Lang