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NAME

Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater::ReadMe - TextTemplater readme

VERSION

Version 0.002, released on 2015-07-18 18:38 UTC.

WHAT?

Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater is a Dist::Zilla role, a replacement for standard role TextTemplate. Both roles have the same great Text::Template engine under the hood, but this one provides better control over the engine and much better error reporting.

This is Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater readme. It covers general topics like getting source, building, installing, bug reporting and some others.

If you are using a TextTemplater-based plugin, read the manual. If you want to have text templating capabilities in your Dist::Zilla plugin, hack or extend Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater, read the module documentation.

WHY?

TextTemplate role from Dist::Zilla distribution v5.037 has the same great Text::Template engine under the hood, but lacks of control and has awful error reporting.

Error Reporting

Let us consider an example. Have a look at dist.ini:

    name     = Assa
    version  = 0.001
    [GatherDir]
    [PruneCruft]
    [GenerateFile/COPYING]
        filename = COPYING
        content  = This is {{$dist->name}}.
        content  =
        content  = {{$dst->license->notice}}
        is_template = 1
    [TemplateFiles]
        filename = lib/Assa.pm
        filename = lib/Assa/Manual.pod
    [MetaResources::Template]
        license = {{$dist->license->url}}
        …
    …

(Do you see a typo? Real dist.ini can be much longer.) Now let us build the distribution:

    $ dzil build
    [DZ] beginning to build Assa
    Can't call method "license" on an undefined value at template line 3.

Oops. Ok, it is clear what was happened, but where?? The only weak clue is word "template". However, there are many templates in the project: lib/Assa.pm, lib/Assa/Manual.pod, generated on-the-fly COPYING, and even resources in META.yml — all this stuff is generated from templates. Where is the problem? Have a happy bug hunting, dude.

If these plugins (namely, GenerateFile, TemplateFiles and MetaResources::Template) were written with TextTemplater role, result would be:

    $ dzil build
    [DZ] beginning to build Assa
    [COPYING] Can't call method "license" on an undefined value at template line 3.
    [COPYING] Problem code fragment begins at template line 3.
    [COPYING] Template text:
    [COPYING]     1: This is {{$dist->name}}.
    [COPYING]     2:
    [COPYING] >>> 3: {{$dst->license->notice}}
    Aborting...

See the difference.

Engine Control

TextTemplater allows the end-user to specify package and prepender engine options from dist.ini file, while TextTemplate allows to specify prepender only programmatically, and does not allow to specify package.

NAMING

perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater is official software name.

However, in Perl world prefix "perl-" is redundant and not used. For example, on meta::cpan this software is named as Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater. In the rest of the documentation shortened name Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater is used as synonym for full name perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater. We are in the Perl world, aren't we?

You may notice that name may be spelled with dashes (Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater) or with double colons (Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater). Strictly speaking, there is difference: the first one is software name, while the second is name of Perl package, but often these names are interchangeable especially if software consists of single package.

FORMS

You may face Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater in source or distribution forms.

If you are going to have text templating capabilities in your Dist::Zilla plugin, you will likely be interested in using Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater distribution. If you are going to develop (or hack) the Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater itself, you will likely need the source, not distribution.

Since Perl is an interpreting language, modules in the distribution look like sources. Actually, they are Perl source files. But they are not actual sources, because they are built (preprocessed or generated) by Dist-Zilla.

How to distinguish source and distribution:

  • Source may contain Mercurial files and directories .hgignore, .hgtags, .hg/, while distribution should not.

  • Source should contain files dist.ini, weaver.ini, while distribution may not.

  • Source should not contain xt/ directory, while distribution should.

  • Name of source directory does not include version (e. g. Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater), while name of distribution does (e. g. Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater-0.007).

SOURCE

Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater source is in Mercurial repository hosted on fedorapeople.org. To clone the entire repository:

    $ hg clone https://vandebugger.fedorapeople.org/hg/perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater/ \
        perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater

Source Files

Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater source files usually include a comment near the top of the file:

    This file is part of perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater.

Not all source files are included into distribution. Some source files are used at distribution build time only, and not required for installation.

DISTRIBUTION

Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater distributions are published on CPAN.

Generated Files

Distribution may contain files preprocessed or generated by Dist-Zilla and its plugins. Some generated files are made from Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater source, but some are generated from third-party templates. Files generated from third-party templates usually include a comment near the top of the file:

    This file was generated with NAME

(where NAME is a name of the plugin generated the file). Such files are not part of Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater source, and Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater copyright and license are not applicable to such files.

INSTALLING

With cpanm

cpanm tool is (probably) the easiest way to install distribution. It automates downloading, building, testing, installing, and uninstalling.

To install the latest version from CPAN:

    $ cpanm Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater

To install a specific version (e. g. 0.007) from CPAN:

    $ cpanm Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater@0.007

To install locally available distribution (e. g. previously downloaded from CPAN or built from sources):

    $ cpanm ./Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater-0.007.tar.gz

To uninstall the distribution:

    $ cpanm -U Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater

Manually

To install distribution tarball manually (let us assume you have version 0.007 of the distribution):

    $ tar xaf Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater-0.007.tar.gz
    $ cd Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater-0.007
    $ perl Build.PL
    $ ./Build build
    $ ./Build test
    $ ./Build install

See Also

How to install CPAN modules

HACKING

For hacking, you will need Mercurial, Perl interpreter and Dist-Zilla (with some plugins), and likely cpanm to install missed parts.

Clone the repository first:

    $ hg clone https://vandebugger.fedorapeople.org/hg/perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater/ \
        perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater
    $ cd perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater

To build a distribution from the source, run:

    $ dzil build

If required Dist-Zilla plugins are missed, dzil tool will warn you and show the command to install all the required plugins, e. g.:

    Required plugin Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Test::EOL isn't installed.

    Run 'dzil authordeps' to see a list of all required plugins.
    You can pipe the list to your CPAN client to install or update them:

        dzil authordeps --missing | cpanm

To run the tests:

    $ dzil test

To run all the tests, including release tests:

    $ dzil test --release

To install the distribution:

    $ dzil install

or

    $ cpanm ./Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater-VERSION.tar.gz

where VERSION is a version of built distribution.

To clean the directory:

    $ dzil clean

DOCUMENTATION

Online

The easiest way is browsing the documentation online at meta::cpan.

Locally Installed

If you have the distribution installed, use perldoc tool to browse locally installed documentation:

    $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater::ReadMe
    $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater::Manual
    $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater

Built from Source

Build Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater first (see "HACKING"), then:

    $ cd Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater-VERSION
    $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater::ReadMe
    $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater::Manual
    $ perldoc Dist::Zilla::Role::TextTemplater

where VERSION is a version of built distribution.

FEEDBACK

CPAN Request Tracker

The quickest way to report a bug in Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater is by sending email to bug-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater [at] rt.cpan.org.

CPAN request tracker can be used via web interface also:

Browse bugs

Browsing bugs does not require authentication.

Report bugs

You need to be a CPAN author, have a BitCard account, or OpenID in order to report bugs via the web interface.

(On 2015-04-27 I have logged in successfully with my LiveJournal OpenID, but my Google OpenID did not work for CPAN. I did not check other OpenID providers.)

Send Email to Author

As a last resort, send email to author: Van de Bugger <van.de.bugger@gmail.com>. Please start message subject with "perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater:".

GLOSSARY

CPAN

Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a large collection of Perl software and documentation. See cpan.org, What is CPAN?.

Distribution

Tarball, containing Perl modules and accompanying files (documentation, metainfo, tests). Usually distributions are uploaded to CPAN, and can be installed with dedicated tools (cpan, cpanm, and others).

Module

Perl library file, usually with .pm suffix. Usually contains one package. See perlmod.

Package

Perl language construct. See package and perlmod.

SEE ALSO

Dist::Zilla
Dist::Zilla::Role
Text::Template

AUTHOR

Van de Bugger <van.de.bugger@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright © 2015 Van de Bugger

This file is part of perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater.

perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with perl-Dist-Zilla-Role-TextTemplater. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.