If you make sure
die_on_bad_params => 1
is set in your HTML::Template constructor, then any
variable which
isn't set in the template, or is misspelt will cause
the page to die -
the designer can then tell what's wrong by simply
looking at the error
message.
Carl
On 02/12/05, Boon Chew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Well, I guess I should have explained the need of
this
with a more solid real world use case.
Recently I am involved in a project using Krang, a
CMS
system written in Perl that utilizes
HTML::Template.
Now here is the thing, we are fairly new to the
code
base, but in a few days of going through the code
and
poking around the code, we were able to implement
quite a few new features for the client.
But our understanding of the system is still
immature
and incomplete, and there are times the template
var
is being set somewhere in the inheritance chain,
and
we know a template can access a specific variable
(through incomplete doc and tmpl_if test), but
there
is no way to know how to access the variable
without
going through the code tracing out where and what
is
sent to the template. And what if the
documentation
misses talking about a var that is sent to the
template? No one you can find out unless you poke
around the code, but the process can be time
consuming
as not all the templates are being set in one file
(due to OO).
I find it surprising that people expect problems
can
be solved with documentation, or communication
with
the frontend folks. In the real world,
documentation
is never as complete as should, I mean, it's hard
enough to get some to comment their code! And in
the
real world, you don't always start a project with
code
that you have written as well. The need to be
able to
introspect and access what is sent to the template
without having the perl code is a useful and
justifiable feature of any server-side scripting
framework.
- boon
--- "Webmaster Techcode.NET"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: Boon Chew
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.
----- Original Message -----
I agree - something like Data::Dumper in
HTML::Template context would be great.
And you can also "you can query the column lists
(or
hash keys) and loop through those" in Perl just
like
in any other server-side language ...
foreach(@array){
print $_,"\n<br>";
}
----- Original Message -----
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 fro m some sensible
constructs.
----- Original Message -----
You missed the point ...
I mean - designer shouldn't need to take a look
at
Perl code to figure out what you are outputing
...
And "some sensible constructs" are documents
that
folow every project. Have you ever heared of
terms
like API or Interface? You and you designer need
to
agree on "Interface" - in your case the data he
can
use in the template ...
Anyway - the quick and simple solution that just
crossed my mind ;)
Make something a rule - for each template - you
could create a special variable. Say you can
name it
: "the_dump" or whatever.
And simply dump via Data::Dumper all variables
that
you (plan) populate the template with - or send
to
template.
Actualy - this could be made as part of
HTML-Template ...
Anyway - then your designer could just add
<tmpl_var
name="the_dump"> at the end of the template if
he is
not sure what data he can access.
Of course - next thing he will complain is why
in
the hell he can't do a preview in Dreamweaver
with
test data already populated ...
Cheers,
Alex.
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