NAME
HTML::XHTML::Lite - Light-weight Perl module for XHTML CGI applications
SYNOPSIS
use HTML::XHTML::Lite;
start_page({
title=>'my_title',
description=>'my_description',
...
});
OR pass a reference to a hash:
start_page(\%my_page_data);
end_page();
my %vars=getvars();DESCRIPTION
This module provides a light-weight alternative to the Perl built-in, CGI.pm, for those who wish for an easy way to produce a well-formed XHTML <head></head>, with Dublin Core metadata. A function to create a footer is provided for completeness and it is even possible to provide body text to return a complete document. Provision is made for the inclusion of links to RSS (or other) feeds and FOAF data. The 'extras' property allows for the insertion of arbitrary elements into the document header.
In addition to the generation of XHTML, the function getvars() is included to populate a hash with data from the query string and POST data. This is an unsophisticated equivalent to CGI.pm's $q->para('xyz') functionality and does NOT work with forms where enc="multipart/form-data" - in other words, forms that upload files. You will need to use CGI.pm to handle these until such time as that functionality is added to this module.
The aim of this module is to help produce content that is both accessible and machine-parseable. One of the methods of start_page(), nodoctype=>1, is provided purely for the purpose of being able to leave out required components to check that any validation systems being used are actually working.
FUNCTIONS
start_page()
Example
use strict;
use HTML::XHTML::Lite;
start_page({
title=>'My Web Page',
description=>'About My Web Page',
creator=>'Matthew Smith',
identifier=>'http://www.mss.cx',
foaf=>'http://www.mss.cx/foaf.rdf',
foaftitle=>'FOAF data',
});Methods
string Return the XHTML created as a scalar variable; the
default behaviour is to print the XHTML to STDOUT or the
currently selected handle.
my $foo=start_page({string=>1, ....., });
isfile Target is a file, so we don't want to create any
headers. This example writes to a file, without any headers.
open (OUT,">foo.out");
select OUT;
start_page({isfile=>, ....., });
select STDOUT;
close OUT;
legacy In addition to the Dublin Core dc.description and
dc.subject, "legacy" metadata, description and keywords, are
inserted. The description is a straight copy of dc.description
and keywords is dc.subject, with the semicolons (;) replaced by
commas (,).
start_page({
legacy=>1,
description=>$description,
subject=>$subject,
.....,
});
nodoctype Produce a "broken" document with no Doctype declaration.
This should only be used for test purposes.
noxml Do not put the <?xml ... ?> processing instruction at
the start of the document.
nohead Combines nodoctype and noxml methods.Properties
title The title of the page; defaults to 'Untitled Document'
if not provided.
dctitle This property allows for dc.title to take a different
value to the page title; defaults to the page title if not provided.
identifier Value for dc.identifier
description Value for dc.description
subject Value for dc.subject
rights Value for dc.rights
creator Value for dc.creator
created Value for dc.date.created (ISO8601 format)
updated Value for dc.date.updated (ISO8601 format)
date Value for dc.date (ISO8601 format)
lang Default page language (defaults to 'en')
charset Page character set (defaults to 'utf=8')
content_type MIME type for the document - defaults to text/html
but other values, such as application/xml, may be
used.
expires Date and time for the expiry date in the HTTP header
(ISO8601 format). As this module was written for CGI
applications where data returned was seldom the same,
this defaults to the current time, thus immediate
expiry.
css CSS to be included in the document header; takes
prececence over csssrc styling instructions, if both
css and csssrc are used. For more complex situations
where more flexibility is required, it is best to
provide any CSS elements through the 'extras' property.
csssrc URI of an external CSS file
feed URI of an RSS (or other) feed
feedtype MIME type of feed - defaults to application/rss+xml
feedtitle Title for feed - defaults to "RSS Feed for [page title]"
foaf URI of a FOAF document; MIME type is provided as
application/rdf+xml
foaftitle Title for FOAF document - defaults to "FOAF"
extras Everything else! If this module doesn't provide the
property you want, just put it in here.
body Providing a value for 'body' will cause an entire
page to be created, the <head>, body (as provided)
and a call to end_page.end_page()
Close <body> and <html> elements. Takes a hash ref [like start_page()]
with arguments. Currently, only 'string' is supported; returns a scalar
if true (value is 1).EXAMPLES
end_page();
- prints "\n</body></html>\n"
end_page({string=>1});
- returns scalar "\n</body></html\n"DEPENDENCIES
This module requires the following modules to be installed:
HTTP::Date
Time::Local
These are used to create time/date strings for the HTTP headers.TO DO
* Inclusion of dc.accessibility, when more mature
* Links to EARL assertions about the document
* You tell me...APPLICATION EXAMPLE
#!/usr/bin/perl
# Programme to create XHTML template # through command line interaction.
use strict; use warnings; use HTML::XHTML::Lite;
my @tnow=localtime(time()); my $yearnow=1900+$tnow[5]; my $datenow="$yearnow-$tnow[4]-$tnow[3]";
print "C R E A T E X H T M L D O C U M E N T\n"; print "-----------------------------------------\n\n";
my $myname=ui('Your name','Fred Bloggs'); my $myname_=$myname; $myname_=~s/\s/_/g; $myname_=~s/\.//g; my $defrights="(C) Copyright $yearnow $myname"; my $filename=ui('File name',"${datenow}_${myname_}.html"); my $title=ui('dc:title','Untitled'); my $description=ui('dc:description','My Document'); my $subject=ui('dc:subject',''); my $creator=ui('dc:creator',$myname); my $created=ui('dc:date.created',$datenow); my $updated=ui('dc:date.updated',$datenow); my $rights=ui('dc:rights',$defrights); my $identifier=ui('dc:identifier',"file://$filename"); my $stylesheet=ui('Stylesheet source URI','default.css');
open (OUT,">$filename") or die "Can't write to $filename: $!"; select OUT; start_page({ isfile=>1, title=>$title, description=>$description, subject=>$subject, creator=>$creator, created=>$created, updated=>$updated, rights=>$rights, identifier=>$identifier, csssrc=>$stylesheet, body=>"<h1>$title</h1>", }); select STDOUT; close OUT;
sub ui { my ($prompt,$def)=@_; $prompt.=" [$def]" if defined $def; $prompt.=':'; print $prompt; $_=<STDIN>; chomp; if (defined $def) { return $_ ? $_ : $def; } else { return $_; } }
SEE ALSO
A web page for this module may be found here: http://www.mss.cx/xhtmllite/
The alternative: man CGI.pm Dublin Core Metadata: http://www.dublincore.org XHTML Specification: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/
AUTHOR
Matthew Smith, smiffy@cpan.org
Matthew welcomes feedback and suggestions regarding this module.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2005 by Matthew Smith
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.5 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.