Re: [htmltmpl] Numeric loops

[Mathew R. <mat...@ne...>]

>> If you just want to print 4 stars, then just do that.  * * * *
>>
>> If you are looking for some indentation background, you could try
>> something like the following on a div:
>>
>>     style="background:url('star.gif') right repeat-y;"
>>
>> If you are looking for something like <TMPL_FOR 1..4> then you
>> probably need to re-evaluate why you need it - maybe you need to re-
>> think your original problem.  That said, there have been previous
>> discussions on whether the TMPL_xxx syntax should support user-defined
>> extensions, and various people have their own hacks to allow such a
>> feature (which would then allow you to build your TMPL_FOR).
>>     
>
> Well my problem is that sometimes I want to iterate through a numeric
> range. If an article is ranked 4 stars then the designer can either
> iterate through each ranking and display a star or he/she can simply
> output "4 stars." (one customer likes the latter, another wants the
> former).
This is a pretty good example where we could consider H::T to be
lacking.   This type of UI choice is definitely something that is
unrelated to business logic, and very much related to UI design - so one
could argue that choice it should be implemented in the templates.  In
this case, I would argue for a case where H::T could be extended so that
a TMPL_FOR could be used.

[ In fact, had I have came across this same problem, since I use my
modified version of H::T, I could have implemented a TMPL_FOR or
something similar. ]

>  Likewise, I use Data::Page::Navigation for paginated data -
> it's a really nice module, and if it displays 10 indexes at the bottom
> of the page, say from 5 - 14, it would be nice if I could iterate
> through them rather than doing it in Perl. It's not a religious
> decision, it just gives the flexibility to the designers.
>   
I haven't used Data::Page et al. but have previously created my own code
to do similar.   AFAICT, are you suggesting using D::P / D::P::N to do
something like:

  my $dp = new D::P(...);
  $ht->param(pages_in_navigation => $dp->pages_in_navigation(...));

?

Then you would need to do some "prorgamming" in your template to get the
values into something printable - which may be not in the spirit of H::T.

When I created my pager, I emitted template variables into a global hash
which eventually got set into the H::T->param() using a template
variable "prefix" so that I could use multiple paginations in a single
H::T output.   Looking at D::P's API it would appear that some shim code
needs to do something similar (ie: something like a H::T::DP ) with an
API that looks a bit like:

$ht = new H::T(..)
$dp = new D::P(...);
...
H::T::DP->publish( $ht, $dp, prefix => "pager_");
...
$ht->output();

>> What is the problem you are trying to solve?  Someone here might have
>> solved it already...
>>     
>
> I hope this gives enough info. If I'm doing it wrong, I'm only too
> pleased to be told if there's a better way. Michael Peters suggested
> Javascript as one solution, although I'd prefer a solution in H::T if
> possible. I have looked through the docs, and couldn't see anything
> obvious, but was hoping that perhaps someone had solved this problem
> before me via some kind of logic that I hadn't thought of.
>   
One problem with a javascript solution is that it makes localisation
more complex - still do-able, but easier on the server side as your
javascript would have to be aware of whether "4 stars" and "stars 4" is
the correct ordering (ie: where "stars 4" would be the in some other
langauge where the number comes after the description).

[ There are already some Perl modules capable of this type of
localisation complexity - implementing it Javascript would be possible,
but I'm not sure if it would be worthwhile. ]

Mathew