Name

Catalyst::View::TD - Catalyst Template::Declare View Class

Synopsis

Use the helper to create your view:

    ./script/myapp_create.pl view HTML TD

Create a template by editing lib/MyApp/Templates/HTML.pm:

    template hello => sub {
        my ($self, $vars) = @_;
        html {
            head { title { "Hello, $vars->{user}" } };
            body { h1    { "Hello, $vars->{user}" } };
        };
    };

Render the view from MyApp::Controller::SomeController:

    sub message : Global {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
        $c->stash->{template} = 'hello';
        $c->stash->{user}     = 'Slim Shady';
        $c->forward( $c->view('HTML') );
    }

Description

This is the Catalyst view class for Template::Declare. Your application should define a view class that subclasses this module. The easiest way to achieve this is using the myapp_create.pl script (where myapp should be replaced with whatever your application is called). This script is created as part of the Catalyst setup.

    ./script/myapp_create.pl view HTML TD

This creates a MyApp::View::HTML module in the lib directory (again, replacing MyApp with the name of your application) that looks something like this:

    package MyApp::View::HTML;

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use parent 'Catalyst::View::TD';

    __PACKAGE__->config(
        # dispatch_to     => [qw(MyApp::Templates::HTML)],
        # auto_alias      => 1,
        # strict          => 1,
        # postprocessor   => sub { ... },
        # around_template => sub { ... },
    );

It also creates a MyApp::Templates::HTML template class that looks something like this:

    package MyApp::Templates::HTML;

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    # template hello => sub {
    #     my ($self, $vars) = @_;
    #     html {
    #         head { title { "Hello, $vars->{user}" } };
    #         body { h1    { "Hello, $vars->{user}" } };
    #     };
    # };

Now you can modify your action handlers in the main application and/or controllers to forward to your view class. You might choose to do this in the end() method, for example, to automatically forward all actions to the TD view class.

    # In MyApp::Controller::SomeController
    sub end : Private {
        my( $self, $c ) = @_;
        $c->forward( $c->view('HTML') );
    }

Configuration

There are a three different ways to configure your view class (see config for an explanation of the configuration options). The first way is to call the config() method in the view subclass. This happens when the module is first loaded.

    package MyApp::View::HTML;

    use strict;
    use parent 'Catalyst::View::TD';

    __PACKAGE__->config({
        dispatch_to     => [ 'MyApp::Templates::HTML' ],
        auto_alias      => 1,
        strict          => 1,
        postprocessor   => sub { ... },
        around_template => sub { ... },
    });

The second way is to define a new() method in your view subclass. This performs the configuration when the view object is created, shortly after being loaded. Remember to delegate to the base class new() method (via $self->next::method() in the example below) after performing any configuration.

    sub new {
        my $self = shift;
        $self->config({
            dispatch_to     => [ 'MyApp::Templates::HTML' ],
            auto_alias      => 1,
            strict          => 1,
            postprocessor   => sub { ... },
            around_template => sub { ... },
        });
        return $self->next::method(@_);
    }

The final, and perhaps most direct way, is to call the ubiquitous config() method in your main application configuration. The items in the class hash are added to those already defined by the above two methods. This happens in the base class new() method (which is one reason why you must remember to call it via MRO::Compat if you redefine the new() method in a subclass).

    package MyApp;

    use strict;
    use Catalyst;

    MyApp->config({
        name     => 'MyApp',
        'View::HTML' => {
            dispatch_to     => [ 'MyApp::Templates::HTML' ],
            auto_alias      => 1,
            strict          => 1,
            postprocessor   => sub { ... },
            around_template => sub { ... },
        },
    });

Note that any configuration defined by one of the earlier methods will be overwritten by items of the same name provided by the later methods.

Auto-Aliasing

In addition to the dispatch template class (as defined in the dispatch_to configuration, or defaulting to MyApp::Templates::ViewName), you can write templates in other classes and they will automatically be aliased into the dispatch class. The aliasing of templates is similar to how controller actions map to URLs.

For example, say that you have a dispatch template class for your MyApp::View::XHTML view named MyApp::Templates::XHTML:

    package TestApp::Templates::XHTML;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    template home => sub {
        html {
            head { title { 'Welcome home' } };
            body { h1    { 'Welcome home' } };
        };
    };

This will handle a call to render the /home (or just home):

        $c->stash->{template} = 'home';
        $c->forward( $c->view('XHTML') );

But let's say that you have a controller, MyApp::Controller::Users, that has an action named list. Ideally what you'd like to do is to have it dispatch to a view named /users/list. And sure enough, you can define one right in the dispatch class if you like:

    template 'users/list' => sub {
        my ($self, $args) = @_;
        ul {
            li { $_ } for @{ $args->{users} };
        };
    };

But it can get to be a nightmare to manage all of your templates in this one class. A better idea is to define them in multiple template classes just as you have actions in multiple controllers. The auto_alias feature of Catalyst::View::TD does just that. Rather than define a template named users/list in the dispatch class (MyApp::Templates::XHTML), create a new template class, MyApp::Templates::XHTML::Users:

    ./script/myapp_create.pl TDClass XHTML::Users

Then create a list template there:

    package TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Users;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    template list => sub {
        my ($self, $args) = @_;
        ul { li { $_ } for @{ $args->{users} } };
    };

Catalyst::View::TD will automatically import the templates found in all classes defined below the dispatch class. Thus this template will be imported as users/list. The nice thing about this is it allows you to create template classes with templates that correspond directly to controller classes and their actions.

You can also use this approach to create utility templates. For example, if you wanted to put the header and footer output into utility templates, you could put them into a utility class:

    package TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Util;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    template header => sub {
        my ($self, $args) = @_;
        head { title {  $args->{title} } };
    };

    template footer => sub {
        div {
            id is 'fineprint';
            p { 'Site contents licensed under a Creative Commons License.' }
        };
    };

And then you can simply use these templates from the dispatch class or any other aliased template class, including the dispatch class:

    package TestApp::Templates::XHTML;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    template home => sub {
        html {
            show '/util/header';
            body {
                h1 { 'Welcome home' };
                show '/util/footer';
            };
        };
    };

And the users class:

    package TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Users;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    template list => sub {
        my ($self, $args) = @_;
        html {
            show '/util/header';
            body {
                ul { li { $_ } for @{ $args->{users} } };
                show '/util/footer';
            };
        };
    };

If you'd rather control the importing of templates yourself, you can always set auto_alias to a false value. Then you'd just need to explicitly inherit from Template::Declare::Catayst and do the mixing yourself. The equivalent to the auto-aliasing in the above examples would be:

    package TestApp::Templates::XHTML;
    use parent 'Template::Declare::Catalyst';
    use Template::Declare::Tags;

    use TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Users;
    use TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Util;

    alias TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Users under '/users';
    alias TestApp::Templates::XHTML::Util under '/util';

This would be the way to go if you wanted finer control over Template::Declare's composition features.

Dynamic `dispatch_to`

Sometimes it is desirable to modify dispatch_to for your templates at runtime. Additional paths can be prepended or appended dispatch_to via the stash as follows:

    $c->stash->{prepend_template_classes} = [ 'MyApp::Other::Templates' ];
    $c->stash->{append_template_classes}  = [ 'MyApp::Fallback::Templates' ];

If you need to munge the list of dispatch classes in more complex ways, there is also a dispatch_to() accessor:

    my $view = $c->view('HTML')
    splice @{ $view->dispatch_to }, 1, 0, 'My::Templates'
        unless grep { $_ eq 'My::Templates' } $view->dispatch_to;

Note that if you use dispatch_to() to change template classes, they are permanently changed. You therefore must check for duplicate paths if you do this on a per-request basis, as in this example. Otherwise, the class will continue to be added on every request, which would be a rather ugly memory leak.

A safer approach is to use dispatch_to() to overwrite the array of template classes rather than adding to it. This eliminates both the need to perform duplicate checking and the chance of a memory leak:

    $c->view('HTML')->dispatch_to( ['My::Templates', 'Your::Templates'] );

This is safe to do on a per-request basis. But you're really better off using the stash approach. I suggest sticking to that when you can.

If you are calling render directly, then you can specify extra template classes under the prepend_template_classes and append_template_classes keys. See "Capturing Template Output" for an example.

Rendering Views

The Catalyst view() method renders the template specified in the template item in the stash.

    sub message : Global {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
        $c->stash->{template} = 'message';
        $c->forward( $c->view('HTML') );
    }

If a stash item isn't defined, then it instead uses the stringification of the action dispatched to (as defined by $c->action). In the above example, this would be message.

The items defined in the stash are passed to the the Template::Declare template as a hash reference. Thus, for this controller action:

    sub default : Private {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
        $c->stash->{template} = 'message';
        $c->stash->{message}  = 'Hello World!';
        $c->forward( $c->view('TD') );
    }

Your template can use access the message key like so:

    template message => sub {
        my ($self, $args) = @_;
        h1 { $args->{message} };
    };

Template classes are automatically subclasses of Template::Declare::Catalyst, which is itself a subclass of Template::Declare. Template::Declare::Catalyst provides a few extra accessors for use in your templates (though note that they will return undef if you call render() without a context object):

context: A reference to the context object, $c
c: An alias for context()

These can be accessed from the template like so:

    template message => sub {
        my ($self, $args) = @_;
        p { "The message is $args->{message}" };
        p { "The base is " . $self->context->req->base };
        p { "The name is " . $self->c->config->{name} };
    };

The output generated by the template is stored in $c->response->body.

Capturing Template Output

If you wish to use the output of a template for some purpose other than displaying in the response, e.g. for sending an email, use Catalyst::Plugin::Email and the render method:

    sub send_email : Local {
        my ($self, $c) = @_;

        $c->email(
            header => [
                To      => 'me@localhost',
                Subject => 'A TD Email',
            ],
            body => $c->view('TD')->render($c, 'email', {
                prepend_template_classes => [ 'My::EmailTemplates' ],
                email_tmpl_param1        => 'foo'
            }),
        );
        # Redirect or display a message
    }

Template Class Helper

In addition to the usual helper for creating TD views, you can also use the TDClass helper to create new template classes:

    ./script/myapp_create.pl TDClass HTML::Users

This will create a new Template::Declare template class, MyApp::Templates::HTML::Users in the lib directory. This is perhaps best used in conjunction with creating a new controller for which you expect to create views:

    ./script/myapp_create.pl controller Users
    ./script/myapp_create.pl TDClass HTML::Users

As explained in "Auto-Aliasing", if you already have the TD view MyApp::View::HTML, the templates in the MyApp::Templates::HTML::Users class will be aliased under the /users path. So if you defined a list action in the Users controller and a corresponding list view in the HTML::Users view, both would resolve to /users/list.

Methods

Constructor

`new`

    my $view = MyApp::View::HTML->new( $c, $args );

The constructor for the TD view. Sets up the template provider and reads the application config. The $args hash reference, if present, overrides the application config.

Class Methods

`config`

    __PACKAGE__->config(
        dispatch_to     => [qw(MyApp::Templates::HTML)],
        auto_alias      => 1,
        strict          => 1,
        postprocessor   => sub { ... },
        around_template => sub { ... },
    );

Sets up the configuration your view subclass. All the settings are the same as for Template::Declare's init() method except:

auto_alias: Additional option. Determines whether or not classes found under the dispatch template's namespace are automatically aliased as described in "Auto-Aliasing".
strict: Set to true by default so that exceptional conditions are appropriately fatal (it's false by default in Template::Declare).

Instance Methods

`process`

  $view->process($c);

Renders the template specified in $c->stash->{template} or $c->action (the private name of the matched action). Calls render() to perform actual rendering. Output is stored in $c->response->body.

`render`

  my $output = $view->render( $c, $template_name, $args );

Renders the given template and returns output. Dies on error.

If $args is a hash reference, it will be passed to the template. Otherwise, $c->stash will be passed if $c is defined.

Author

David E. Wheeler <david@justatheory.com>

Copyright

This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.