use Template::Plugins;

    $plugin_provider = Template::Plugins->new(\%options);

    ($plugin, $error) = $plugin_provider->fetch($name, @args);

The Template::Plugins module defines a provider class which can be used to load and instantiate Template Toolkit plugin modules.

Constructor method which instantiates and returns a reference to a Template::Plugins object. A reference to a hash array of configuration items may be passed as a parameter. These are described below.

Note that the Template.pm front-end module creates a Template::Plugins provider, passing all configuration items. Thus, the examples shown below in the form:

    $plugprov = Template::Plugins->new({
	PLUGIN_BASE => 'MyTemplate::Plugin',
        LOAD_PERL   => 1,
	...
    });

can also be used via the Template module as:

    $ttengine = Template->new({
	PLUGIN_BASE => 'MyTemplate::Plugin',
        LOAD_PERL   => 1,
	...
    });

as well as the more explicit form of:

    $plugprov = Template::Plugins->new({
	PLUGIN_BASE => 'MyTemplate::Plugin',
        LOAD_PERL   => 1,
	...
    });

    $ttengine = Template->new({
	LOAD_PLUGINS => [ $plugprov ],
    });

Called to request that a plugin of a given name be provided. The relevant module is first loaded (if necessary) and the load() class method called to return the factory class name (usually the same package name) or a factory object (a prototype). The new() method is then called as a class or object method against the factory, passing all remaining parameters.

Returns a reference to a new plugin object or ($error, STATUS_ERROR) on error. May also return (undef, STATUS_DECLINED) to decline to serve the request. If TOLERANT is set then all errors will be returned as declines.

The following list details the configuration options that can be provided to the Template::Plugins new() constructor.

• PLUGINS
  

  The PLUGINS options can be used to provide a reference to a hash array that maps plugin names to Perl module names. A number of standard plugins are defined (e.g. 'table', 'cgi', 'dbi', etc.) which map to their corresponding Template::Plugin::* counterparts. These can be redefined by values in the PLUGINS hash.

      my $plugins = Template::Plugins->new({
  	PLUGINS => {
  	    cgi => 'MyOrg::Template::Plugin::CGI',
      	    foo => 'MyOrg::Template::Plugin::Foo',
  	    bar => 'MyOrg::Template::Plugin::Bar',
  	},
      });

  The USE directive is used to create plugin objects and does so by calling the plugin() method on the current Template::Context object. If the plugin name is defined in the PLUGINS hash then the corresponding Perl module is loaded via require(). The context then calls the load() class method which should return the class name (default and general case) or a prototype object against which the new() method can be called to instantiate individual plugin objects.

  If the plugin name is not defined in the PLUGINS hash then the PLUGIN_BASE and/or LOAD_PERL options come into effect.

• PLUGIN_BASE
  

  If a plugin is not defined in the PLUGINS hash then the PLUGIN_BASE is used to attempt to construct a correct Perl module name which can be successfully loaded.

  The PLUGIN_BASE can be specified as a single value or as a reference to an array of multiple values. The default PLUGIN_BASE value, 'Template::Plugin', is always added the the end of the PLUGIN_BASE list (a single value is first converted to a list). Each value should contain a Perl package name to which the requested plugin name is appended.

  example 1:

      my $plugins = Template::Plugins->new({
  	PLUGIN_BASE => 'MyOrg::Template::Plugin',
      });

      [% tt_start_tag %] USE Foo [% tt_end_tag %]    # => MyOrg::Template::Plugin::Foo
                         or        Template::Plugin::Foo 

  example 2:

      my $plugins = Template::Plugins->new({
  	PLUGIN_BASE => [   'MyOrg::Template::Plugin',
  			 'YourOrg::Template::Plugin'  ],
      });

      [% tt_start_tag %] USE Foo [% tt_end_tag %]    # =>   MyOrg::Template::Plugin::Foo
                         or YourOrg::Template::Plugin::Foo 
                         or          Template::Plugin::Foo 

• LOAD_PERL
  

  If a plugin cannot be loaded using the PLUGINS or PLUGIN_BASE approaches then the provider can make a final attempt to load the module without prepending any prefix to the module path. This allows regular Perl modules (i.e. those that don't reside in the Template::Plugin or some other such namespace) to be loaded and used as plugins.

  By default, the LOAD_PERL option is set to 0 and no attempt will be made to load any Perl modules that aren't named explicitly in the PLUGINS hash or reside in a package as named by one of the PLUGIN_BASE components.

  Plugins loaded using the PLUGINS or PLUGIN_BASE receive a reference to the current context object as the first argument to the new() constructor. Modules loaded using LOAD_PERL are assumed to not conform to the plugin interface. They must provide a new() class method for instantiating objects but it will not receive a reference to the context as the first argument. Plugin modules should provide a load() class method (or inherit the default one from the Template::Plugin base class) which is called the first time the plugin is loaded. Regular Perl modules need not. In all other respects, regular Perl objects and Template Toolkit plugins are identical.

  If a particular Perl module does not conform to the common, but not unilateral, new() constructor convention then a simple plugin wrapper can be written to interface to it.

• TOLERANT
  

  The TOLERANT flag is used by the various Template Toolkit provider modules (Template::Provider, Template::Plugins, Template::Filters) to control their behaviour when errors are encountered. By default, any errors are reported as such, with the request for the particular resource (template, plugin, filter) being denied and an exception raised. When the TOLERANT flag is set to any true values, errors will be silently ignored and the provider will instead return STATUS_DECLINED. This allows a subsequent provider to take responsibility for providing the resource, rather than failing the request outright. If all providers decline to service the request, either through tolerated failure or a genuine disinclination to comply, then a '<resource> not found' exception is raised.

The following plugin modules are distributed with the Template Toolkit. Some of the plugins interface to external modules (detailed below) which should be downloaded from any CPAN site and installed before using the plugin.

The Autoformat plugin is an interface to Damian Conway's Text::Autoformat Perl module which provides advanced text wrapping and formatting. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Autoformat') -%] and [% ttlink('Text::Autoformat') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE autoformat(left=10, right=20) [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] autoformat(mytext) [% tt_end_tag %]	    # call autoformat sub
    [% tt_start_tag %] mytext FILTER autoformat [% tt_end_tag %]  # or use autoformat filter

The Text::Autoformat module is available from CPAN:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/

The CGI plugin is a wrapper around Lincoln Stein's <lstein@genome.wi.mit.edu> CGI.pm module. The plugin is distributed with the Template Toolkit (see [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::CGI') -%]) and the CGI module itself is distributed with recent versions Perl, or is available from CPAN.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE CGI [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] CGI.param('param_name') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] CGI.start_form [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] CGI.popup_menu( Name   => 'color', 
                       Values => [ 'Green', 'Brown' ] ) [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] CGI.end_form [% tt_end_tag %]

Provides an interface to data stored in a plain text file in a simple delimited format. The first line in the file specifies field names which should be delimiter by any non-word character sequence. Subsequent lines define data using the same delimiter as int he first line. Blank lines and comments (lines starting '#') are ignored. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Datafile') -%] for further details.

/tmp/mydata:

    # define names for each field
    id : email : name : tel
    # here's the data
    fred : fred@here.com : Fred Smith : 555-1234
    bill : bill@here.com : Bill White : 555-5678

example:

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE userlist = datafile('/tmp/mydata') [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH user = userlist [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] user.name [% tt_end_tag %] ([% tt_start_tag %] user.id [% tt_end_tag %])
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

The Date plugin provides an easy way to generate formatted time and date strings by delegating to the POSIX strftime() routine. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Date') -%] and [% ttlink('POSIX') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE date [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] date.format [% tt_end_tag %]		# current time/date

    File last modified: [% tt_start_tag %] date.format(template.modtime) [% tt_end_tag %]

The Directory plugin provides a simple interface to a directory and the files within it. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Directory') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE dir = Directory('/tmp') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH file = dir.files [% tt_end_tag %]
        # all the plain files in the directory
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH file = dir.dirs [% tt_end_tag %]
        # all the sub-directories
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

The DBI plugin, developed by Simon Matthews <sam@knowledgepool.com>, brings the full power of Tim Bunce's <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk> database interface module (DBI) to your templates. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::DBI') -%] and [% ttlink('DBI') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE DBI('dbi:driver:database', 'user', 'pass') [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH user = DBI.query( 'SELECT * FROM users' ) [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] user.id [% tt_end_tag %] [% tt_start_tag %] user.name [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

The DBI and relevant DBD modules are available from CPAN:

  http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/DBI/

The Dumper plugin provides an interface to the Data::Dumper module. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Dumper') -%] and [% ttlink('Data::Dumper') -%] for futher details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE dumper(indent=0, pad="<br>") [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] dumper.dump(myvar, yourvar) [% tt_end_tag %]

The File plugin provides a general abstraction for files and can be used to fetch information about specific files within a filesystem. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::File') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE File('/tmp/foo.html') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] File.name [% tt_end_tag %]     # foo.html
    [% tt_start_tag %] File.dir [% tt_end_tag %]      # /tmp
    [% tt_start_tag %] File.mtime [% tt_end_tag %]    # modification time

This module implements a base class plugin which can be subclassed to easily create your own modules that define and install new filters.

    package MyOrg::Template::Plugin::MyFilter;

    use Template::Plugin::Filter;
    use base qw( Template::Plugin::Filter );

    sub filter {
	my ($self, $text) = @_;

	# ...mungify $text...

	return $text;
    }

    # now load it...
    [% tt_start_tag %] USE MyFilter [% tt_end_tag %]

    # ...and use the returned object as a filter
    [% tt_start_tag %] FILTER $MyFilter [% tt_end_tag %]
      ...
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Filter') -%] for further details.

The Format plugin provides a simple way to format text according to a printf()-like format. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Format') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE bold = format('<b>%s</b>') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] bold('Hello') [% tt_end_tag %]

These plugins provide access to the GD graphics library via Lincoln D. Stein's GD.pm interface. These plugins allow PNG, JPEG and other graphical formats to be generated.

    [% tt_start_tag %] FILTER null;
        USE im = GD.Image(100,100);
        # allocate some colors
        black = im.colorAllocate(0,   0, 0);
        red   = im.colorAllocate(255,0,  0);
        blue  = im.colorAllocate(0,  0,  255);
        # Draw a blue oval
        im.arc(50,50,95,75,0,360,blue);
        # And fill it with red
        im.fill(50,50,red);
        # Output image in PNG format
        im.png | stdout(1);
       END;
    -[% tt_end_tag %]

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Image') -%] for further details.

These plugins provide access to Martien Verbruggen's GD::Text, GD::Text::Align and GD::Text::Wrap modules. These plugins allow the layout, alignment and wrapping of text when drawing text in GD images.

    [% tt_start_tag %] FILTER null;
        USE gd  = GD.Image(200,400);
        USE gdc = GD.Constants;
        black = gd.colorAllocate(0,   0, 0);
        green = gd.colorAllocate(0, 255, 0);
        txt = "This is some long text. " | repeat(10);
        USE wrapbox = GD.Text.Wrap(gd,
         line_space  => 4,
         color       => green,
         text        => txt,
        );
        wrapbox.set_font(gdc.gdMediumBoldFont);
        wrapbox.set(align => 'center', width => 160);
        wrapbox.draw(20, 20);
        gd.png | stdout(1);
      END;
    -[% tt_end_tag %]

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Text') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Text::Align') -%] and [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Text::Wrap') -%] for further details.

These plugins provide access to Martien Verbruggen's GD::Graph module that allows graphs, plots and charts to be created. These plugins allow graphs, plots and charts to be generated in PNG, JPEG and other graphical formats.

    [% tt_start_tag %] FILTER null;
        data = [
            ["1st","2nd","3rd","4th","5th","6th"],
            [    4,    2,    3,    4,    3,  3.5]
        ];
        USE my_graph = GD.Graph.pie(250, 200);
        my_graph.set(
                title => 'A Pie Chart',
                label => 'Label',
                axislabelclr => 'black',
                pie_height => 36,
                transparent => 0,
        );
        my_graph.plot(data).png | stdout(1);
      END;
    -[% tt_end_tag %]

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::lines') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::bars') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::points') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::linespoints') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::area') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::mixed') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::pie') -%], and [% ttlink('GD::Graph') -%], for more details.

These plugins provide access to Jeremy Wadsack's GD::Graph3d module. This allows 3D bar charts and 3D lines plots to be generated.

    [% tt_start_tag %] FILTER null;
        data = [
            ["1st","2nd","3rd","4th","5th","6th","7th", "8th", "9th"],
            [    1,    2,    5,    6,    3,  1.5,    1,     3,     4],
        ];
        USE my_graph = GD.Graph.bars3d();
        my_graph.set(
            x_label         => 'X Label',
            y_label         => 'Y label',
            title           => 'A 3d Bar Chart',
            y_max_value     => 8,
            y_tick_number   => 8,
            y_label_skip    => 2,
            # shadows
            bar_spacing     => 8,
            shadow_depth    => 4,
            shadowclr       => 'dred',
            transparent     => 0,
        my_graph.plot(data).png | stdout(1);
      END;
    -[% tt_end_tag %]

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::lines3d') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::bars3d') -%], and [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::GD::Graph::pie3d') -%] for more details.

The HTML plugin is very new and very basic, implementing a few useful methods for generating HTML. It is likely to be extended in the future or integrated with a larger project to generate HTML elements in a generic way (as discussed recently on the mod_perl mailing list).

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE HTML [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] HTML.escape("if (a < b && c > d) ..." [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] HTML.attributes(border => 1, cellpadding => 2) [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] HTML.element(table => { border => 1, cellpadding => 2 }) [% tt_end_tag %]

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Iterator') -%] for further details.

The Iterator plugin provides a way to create a Template::Iterator object to iterate over a data set. An iterator is created automatically by the FOREACH directive and is aliased to the 'loop' variable. This plugin allows an iterator to be explicitly created with a given name, or the default plugin name, 'iterator'. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Iterator') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE iterator(list, args) [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH item = iterator [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] '<ul>' IF iterator.first [% tt_end_tag %]
       <li>[% tt_start_tag %] item [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] '</ul>' IF iterator.last [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

This plugin provides an interface to the [% ttlink('Pod::POD', 'Pod::POD') -%] module which parses POD documents into an internal object model which can then be traversed and presented through the Template Toolkit.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE Pod(podfile) [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH head1 = Pod.head1;
	 FOREACH head2 = head1/head2;
	   ...
         END;
       END
    [% tt_end_tag %]

The String plugin implements an object-oriented interface for manipulating strings. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::String') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE String 'Hello' [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] String.append(' World') [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] msg = String.new('Another string') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] msg.replace('string', 'text') [% tt_end_tag %]

    The string "[% tt_start_tag %] msg [% tt_end_tag %]" is [% tt_start_tag %] msg.length [% tt_end_tag %] characters long.

The Table plugin allows you to format a list of data items into a virtual table by specifying a fixed number of rows or columns, with an optional overlap. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Table') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE table(list, rows=10, overlap=1) [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH item = table.col(3) [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] item [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

The URL plugin provides a simple way of contructing URLs from a base part and a variable set of parameters. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::URL') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE mycgi = url('/cgi-bin/bar.pl', debug=1) [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] mycgi [% tt_end_tag %]
       # ==> /cgi/bin/bar.pl?debug=1

    [% tt_start_tag %] mycgi(mode='submit') [% tt_end_tag %]
       # ==> /cgi/bin/bar.pl?mode=submit&debug=1

The Wrap plugin uses the Text::Wrap module by David Muir Sharnoff <muir@idiom.com> (with help from Tim Pierce and many many others) to provide simple paragraph formatting. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::Wrap') -%] and [% ttlink('Text::Wrap') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE wrap [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] wrap(mytext, 40, '* ', '  ') [% tt_end_tag %]	# use wrap sub
    [% tt_start_tag %] mytext FILTER wrap(40) -[% tt_end_tag %]	# or wrap FILTER

The Text::Wrap module is available from CPAN:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Text/

The XML::DOM plugin gives access to the XML Document Object Module via Clark Cooper <cooper@sch.ge.com> and Enno Derksen's <enno@att.com> XML::DOM module. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::XML::DOM') -%] and [% ttlink('XML::DOM') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE dom = XML.DOM [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] doc = dom.parse(filename) [% tt_end_tag %]

    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH node = doc.getElementsByTagName('CODEBASE') [% tt_end_tag %]
       * [% tt_start_tag %] node.getAttribute('href') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

The plugin requires the XML::DOM module, available from CPAN:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/XML/

The XML::RSS plugin is a simple interface to Jonathan Eisenzopf's <eisen@pobox.com> XML::RSS module. A RSS (Rich Site Summary) file is typically used to store short news 'headlines' describing different links within a site. This plugin allows you to parse RSS files and format the contents accordingly using templates. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::XML::RSS') -%] and [% ttlink('XML::RSS') -%] for further details.

    [% tt_start_tag %] USE news = XML.RSS(filename) [% tt_end_tag %]
   
    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH item = news.items [% tt_end_tag %]
       <a href="[% tt_start_tag %] item.link [% tt_end_tag %]">[% tt_start_tag %] item.title [% tt_end_tag %]</a>
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

The XML::RSS module is available from CPAN:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/XML/

This plugin implements an interface to the [% ttlink('XML::Simple', 'XML::Simple') -%] module.

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::XML::Simple') -%] for further details.

This plugin defines a filter for performing simple stylesheet based transformations of XML text.

See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::XML::Style') -%] for further details.

The XML::XPath plugin provides an interface to Matt Sergeant's <matt@sergeant.org> XML::XPath module. See [% ttlink('Template::Plugin::XML::XPath') -%] and [% ttlink('XML::XPath') -%] for further details.

The plugin requires the XML::XPath module, available from CPAN:

    http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/XML/

• It might be worthwhile being able to distinguish between absolute module names and those which should be applied relative to PLUGIN_BASE directories. For example, use 'MyNamespace::MyModule' to denote absolute module names (e.g. LOAD_PERL), and 'MyNamespace.MyModule' to denote relative to PLUGIN_BASE.

Andy Wardley <abw@andywardley.com>

[% ttlink('http://www.andywardley.com/', 'http://www.andywardley.com/') -%]

2.57, distributed as part of the Template Toolkit version 2.08, released on 30 July 2002.

  Copyright (C) 1996-2002 Andy Wardley.  All Rights Reserved.
  Copyright (C) 1998-2002 Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

[% ttlink('Template', 'Template') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Plugin', 'Template::Plugin') -%], [% ttlink('Template::Context', 'Template::Context') -%]