1 package Catalyst::View::TT;
6 use base qw/Catalyst::View/;
11 use Scalar::Util qw/blessed weaken/;
13 our $VERSION = '0.42';
14 $VERSION = eval $VERSION;
16 __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors('template');
17 __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors('expose_methods');
18 __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors('include_path');
19 __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors('content_type');
21 *paths = \&include_path;
25 Catalyst::View::TT - Template View Class
29 # use the helper to create your View
31 myapp_create.pl view Web TT
33 # add custom configuration in View/Web.pm
36 # any TT configuration items go here
37 TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt',
42 PRE_PROCESS => 'config/main',
43 WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper',
44 render_die => 1, # Default for new apps, see render method docs
45 expose_methods => [qw/method_in_view_class/],
48 # add include path configuration in MyApp.pm
53 __PACKAGE__->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
54 __PACKAGE__->path_to( 'root', 'lib' ),
59 # render view from lib/MyApp.pm or lib/MyApp::Controller::SomeController.pm
61 sub message : Global {
62 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
63 $c->stash->{template} = 'message.tt2';
64 $c->stash->{message} = 'Hello World!';
65 $c->forward( $c->view('Web') );
68 # access variables from template
70 The message is: [% message %].
72 # example when CATALYST_VAR is set to 'Catalyst'
73 Context is [% Catalyst %]
74 The base is [% Catalyst.req.base %]
75 The name is [% Catalyst.config.name %]
77 # example when CATALYST_VAR isn't set
79 The base is [% base %]
80 The name is [% name %]
85 my ( $paths, $dlim ) = shift;
86 return () if ( !$paths );
87 return @{$paths} if ( ref $paths eq 'ARRAY' );
89 # tweak delim to ignore C:/
90 unless ( defined $dlim ) {
91 $dlim = ( $^O eq 'MSWin32' ) ? ':(?!\\/)' : ':';
93 return split( /$dlim/, $paths );
97 my ( $class, $c, $arguments ) = @_;
100 TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '',
105 if ( ! (ref $config->{INCLUDE_PATH} eq 'ARRAY') ) {
106 my $delim = $config->{DELIMITER};
108 = _coerce_paths( $config->{INCLUDE_PATH}, $delim );
109 if ( !@include_path ) {
110 my $root = $c->config->{root};
111 my $base = Path::Class::dir( $root, 'base' );
112 @include_path = ( "$root", "$base" );
114 $config->{INCLUDE_PATH} = \@include_path;
117 # if we're debugging and/or the TIMER option is set, then we install
118 # Template::Timer as a custom CONTEXT object, but only if we haven't
119 # already got a custom CONTEXT defined
121 if ( $config->{TIMER} ) {
122 if ( $config->{CONTEXT} ) {
124 'Cannot use Template::Timer - a TT CONTEXT is already defined'
128 $config->{CONTEXT} = Template::Timer->new(%$config);
132 if ( $c->debug && $config->{DUMP_CONFIG} ) {
133 $c->log->debug( "TT Config: ", dump($config) );
136 my $self = $class->next::method(
140 # Set base include paths. Local'd in render if needed
141 $self->include_path($config->{INCLUDE_PATH});
143 $self->expose_methods($config->{expose_methods});
144 $self->config($config);
146 # Creation of template outside of call to new so that we can pass [ $self ]
147 # as INCLUDE_PATH config item, which then gets ->paths() called to get list
148 # of include paths to search for templates.
150 # Use a weakened copy of self so we don't have loops preventing GC from working
152 Scalar::Util::weaken($copy);
153 $config->{INCLUDE_PATH} = [ sub { $copy->paths } ];
155 if ( $config->{PROVIDERS} ) {
157 if ( ref($config->{PROVIDERS}) eq 'ARRAY') {
158 foreach my $p (@{$config->{PROVIDERS}}) {
159 my $pname = $p->{name};
160 my $prov = 'Template::Provider';
161 if($pname eq '_file_')
163 $p->{args} = { %$config };
167 if($pname =~ s/^\+//) {
174 # We copy the args people want from the config
177 if ($p->{copy_config}) {
178 map { $p->{args}->{$_} = $config->{$_} }
179 grep { exists $config->{$_} }
180 @{ $p->{copy_config} };
184 eval "require $prov";
186 push @providers, "$prov"->new($p->{args});
190 $c->log->warn("Can't load $prov, ($@)");
194 delete $config->{PROVIDERS};
196 $config->{LOAD_TEMPLATES} = \@providers;
201 $config->{CLASS}->new($config) || do {
202 my $error = $config->{CLASS}->error();
203 $c->log->error($error);
213 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
215 my $template = $c->stash->{template}
216 || $c->action . $self->config->{TEMPLATE_EXTENSION};
218 unless (defined $template) {
219 $c->log->debug('No template specified for rendering') if $c->debug;
224 my $output = eval { $self->render($c, $template) };
226 return $self->_rendering_error($c, $template . ': ' . $err);
228 if (blessed($output) && $output->isa('Template::Exception')) {
229 $self->_rendering_error($c, $output);
232 unless ( $c->response->content_type ) {
233 my $default = $self->content_type || 'text/html; charset=UTF-8';
234 $c->response->content_type($default);
237 $c->response->body($output);
242 sub _rendering_error {
243 my ($self, $c, $err) = @_;
244 my $error = qq/Couldn't render template "$err"/;
245 $c->log->error($error);
251 my ($self, $c, $template, $args) = @_;
253 $c->log->debug(qq/Rendering template "$template"/) if $c && $c->debug;
257 (ref $args eq 'HASH' ? %$args : %{ $c->stash() }),
258 $self->template_vars($c)
261 local $self->{include_path} =
262 [ @{ $vars->{additional_template_paths} }, @{ $self->{include_path} } ]
263 if ref $vars->{additional_template_paths};
265 unless ( $self->template->process( $template, $vars, \$output ) ) {
266 if (exists $self->{render_die}) {
267 die $self->template->error if $self->{render_die};
268 return $self->template->error;
270 $c->log->debug('The Catalyst::View::TT render() method will start dying on error in a future release. Unless you are calling the render() method manually, you probably want the new behaviour, so set render_die => 1 in config for ' . blessed($self) . '. If you wish to continue to return the exception rather than throwing it, add render_die => 0 to your config.') if $c && $c->debug;
271 return $self->template->error;
277 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
280 my $cvar = $self->config->{CATALYST_VAR};
282 my %vars = defined $cvar
286 base => $c->req->base,
287 name => $c->config->{name}
290 if ($self->expose_methods) {
291 my $meta = $self->meta;
292 foreach my $method_name (@{$self->expose_methods}) {
293 my $method = $meta->find_method_by_name( $method_name );
295 Catalyst::Exception->throw( "$method_name not found in TT view" );
297 my $method_body = $method->body;
301 $self->$method_body($weak_ctx, @_);
303 $vars{$method_name} = $sub;
315 This is the Catalyst view class for the L<Template Toolkit|Template>.
316 Your application should defined a view class which is a subclass of
317 this module. Throughout this manual it will be assumed that your application
318 is named F<MyApp> and you are creating a TT view named F<Web>; these names
319 are placeholders and should always be replaced with whatever name you've
320 chosen for your application and your view. The easiest way to create a TT
321 view class is through the F<myapp_create.pl> script that is created along
322 with the application:
324 $ script/myapp_create.pl view Web TT
326 This creates a F<MyApp::View::Web.pm> module in the F<lib> directory (again,
327 replacing C<MyApp> with the name of your application) which looks
330 package FooBar::View::Web;
333 extends 'Catalyst::View::TT';
335 __PACKAGE__->config(DEBUG => 'all');
337 Now you can modify your action handlers in the main application and/or
338 controllers to forward to your view class. You might choose to do this
339 in the end() method, for example, to automatically forward all actions
340 to the TT view class.
342 # In MyApp or MyApp::Controller::SomeController
345 my( $self, $c ) = @_;
346 $c->forward( $c->view('Web') );
349 But if you are using the standard auto-generated end action, you don't even need
352 # in MyApp::Controller::Root
353 sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {} # no need to change this line
358 default_view => 'Web',
361 This will Just Work. And it has the advantages that:
367 If you want to use a different view for a given request, just set
368 << $c->stash->{current_view} >>. (See L<Catalyst>'s C<< $c->view >> method
373 << $c->res->redirect >> is handled by default. If you just forward to
374 C<View::Web> in your C<end> routine, you could break this by sending additional
379 See L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView> for more details.
383 There are a three different ways to configure your view class. The
384 first way is to call the C<config()> method in the view subclass. This
385 happens when the module is first loaded.
387 package MyApp::View::Web;
389 extends 'Catalyst::View::TT';
391 __PACKAGE__->config({
392 PRE_PROCESS => 'config/main',
393 WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper',
396 You may also override the configuration provided in the view class by adding
397 a 'View::Web' section to your application config.
399 This should generally be used to inject the include paths into the view to
400 avoid the view trying to load the application to resolve paths.
402 .. inside MyApp.pm ..
406 __PACKAGE__->path_to( 'root', 'templates', 'lib' ),
407 __PACKAGE__->path_to( 'root', 'templates', 'src' ),
412 You can also configure your view from within your config file if you're
413 using L<Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader>. This should be reserved for
414 deployment-specific concerns. For example:
416 # MyApp_local.conf (Config::General format)
419 WRAPPER "custom_wrapper"
420 INCLUDE_PATH __path_to('root/templates/custom_site')__
421 INCLUDE_PATH __path_to('root/templates')__
424 might be used as part of a simple way to deploy different instances of the
425 same application with different themes.
427 =head2 DYNAMIC INCLUDE_PATH
429 Sometimes it is desirable to modify INCLUDE_PATH for your templates at run time.
431 Additional paths can be added to the start of INCLUDE_PATH via the stash as
434 $c->stash->{additional_template_paths} =
435 [$c->config->{root} . '/test_include_path'];
437 If you need to add paths to the end of INCLUDE_PATH, there is also an
438 include_path() accessor available:
440 push( @{ $c->view('Web')->include_path }, qw/path/ );
442 Note that if you use include_path() to add extra paths to INCLUDE_PATH, you
443 MUST check for duplicate paths. Without such checking, the above code will add
444 "path" to INCLUDE_PATH at every request, causing a memory leak.
446 A safer approach is to use include_path() to overwrite the array of paths
447 rather than adding to it. This eliminates both the need to perform duplicate
448 checking and the chance of a memory leak:
450 @{ $c->view('Web')->include_path } = qw/path another_path/;
452 If you are calling C<render> directly then you can specify dynamic paths by
453 having a C<additional_template_paths> key with a value of additional directories
454 to search. See L<CAPTURING TEMPLATE OUTPUT> for an example showing this.
456 =head2 Unicode (pre Catalyst v5.90080)
458 B<NOTE> Starting with L<Catalyst> v5.90080 unicode and encoding has been
459 baked into core, and the default encoding is UTF-8. The following advice
460 is for older versions of L<Catalyst>.
462 Be sure to set C<< ENCODING => 'utf-8' >> and use
463 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding> if you want to use non-ascii
464 characters (encoded as utf-8) in your templates. This is only needed if
465 you actually have UTF8 literals in your templates and the BOM is not
466 properly set. Setting encoding here does not magically encode your
467 template output. If you are using this version of L<Catalyst> you need
468 to all the Unicode plugin, or upgrade (preferred)
470 =head2 Unicode (Catalyst v5.90080+)
472 This version of L<Catalyst> will automatically encode your body output
473 to UTF8. This means if your variables contain multibyte characters you don't
474 need top do anything else to get UTF8 output. B<However> if your templates
475 contain UTF8 literals (like, multibyte characters actually in the template
476 text), then you do need to either set the BOM mark on the template file or
477 instruct TT to decode the templates at load time via the ENCODING configuration
478 setting. Most of the time you can just do:
480 MyApp::View::HTML->config(
481 ENCODING => 'UTF-8');
483 and that will just take care of everything. This configuration setting will
484 force L<Template> to decode all files correctly, so that when you hit
485 the finalize_encoding step we can properly encode the body as UTF8. If you
486 fail to do this you will get double encoding issues in your output (but again,
487 only for the UTF8 literals in your actual template text.)
489 Again, this ENCODING configuration setting only instructs template toolkit
490 how (and if) to decode the contents of your template files when reading them from
491 disk. It has no other effect.
493 =head2 RENDERING VIEWS
495 The view plugin renders the template specified in the C<template>
498 sub message : Global {
499 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
500 $c->stash->{template} = 'message.tt2';
501 $c->forward( $c->view('Web') );
504 If a stash item isn't defined, then it instead uses the
505 stringification of the action dispatched to (as defined by $c->action)
506 in the above example, this would be C<message>, but because the default
507 is to append '.tt', it would load C<root/message.tt>.
509 The items defined in the stash are passed to the Template Toolkit for
510 use as template variables.
512 sub default : Private {
513 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
514 $c->stash->{template} = 'message.tt2';
515 $c->stash->{message} = 'Hello World!';
516 $c->forward( $c->view('Web') );
519 A number of other template variables are also added:
521 c A reference to the context object, $c
522 base The URL base, from $c->req->base()
523 name The application name, from $c->config->{ name }
525 These can be accessed from the template in the usual way:
529 The message is: [% message %]
530 The base is [% base %]
531 The name is [% name %]
534 The output generated by the template is stored in C<< $c->response->body >>.
536 =head2 CAPTURING TEMPLATE OUTPUT
538 If you wish to use the output of a template for some other purpose than
539 displaying in the response, e.g. for sending an email, this is possible using
540 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Email> and the L<render> method:
542 sub send_email : Local {
547 To => 'me@localhost',
548 Subject => 'A TT Email',
550 body => $c->view('Web')->render($c, 'email.tt', {
551 additional_template_paths => [ $c->config->{root} . '/email_templates'],
552 email_tmpl_param1 => 'foo'
556 # Redirect or display a message
559 =head2 TEMPLATE PROFILING
561 See L<C<TIMER>> property of the L<config> method.
567 The constructor for the TT view. Sets up the template provider,
568 and reads the application config.
572 Renders the template specified in C<< $c->stash->{template} >> or
573 C<< $c->action >> (the private name of the matched action). Calls L<render> to
574 perform actual rendering. Output is stored in C<< $c->response->body >>.
576 It is possible to forward to the process method of a TT view from inside
579 $c->forward('View::Web');
581 N.B. This is usually done automatically by L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView>.
583 =head2 render($c, $template, \%args)
585 Renders the given template and returns output. Throws a L<Template::Exception>
588 The template variables are set to C<%$args> if C<$args> is a hashref, or
589 C<< $c->stash >> otherwise. In either case the variables are augmented with
590 C<base> set to C<< $c->req->base >>, C<c> to C<$c>, and C<name> to
591 C<< $c->config->{name} >>. Alternately, the C<CATALYST_VAR> configuration item
592 can be defined to specify the name of a template variable through which the
593 context reference (C<$c>) can be accessed. In this case, the C<c>, C<base>, and
594 C<name> variables are omitted.
596 C<$template> can be anything that Template::process understands how to
597 process, including the name of a template file or a reference to a test string.
598 See L<Template::process|Template/process> for a full list of supported formats.
600 To use the render method outside of your Catalyst app, just pass a undef context.
601 This can be useful for tests, for instance.
603 It is possible to forward to the render method of a TT view from inside Catalyst
604 to render page fragments like this:
606 my $fragment = $c->forward("View::Web", "render", $template_name, $c->stash->{fragment_data});
608 =head3 Backwards compatibility note
610 The render method used to just return the Template::Exception object, rather
611 than just throwing it. This is now deprecated and instead the render method
612 will throw an exception for new applications.
614 This behaviour can be activated (and is activated in the default skeleton
615 configuration) by using C<< render_die => 1 >>. If you rely on the legacy
616 behaviour then a warning will be issued.
618 To silence this warning, set C<< render_die => 0 >>, but it is recommended
619 you adjust your code so that it works with C<< render_die => 1 >>.
621 In a future release, C<< render_die => 1 >> will become the default if
626 Returns a list of keys/values to be used as the catalyst variables in the
631 This method allows your view subclass to pass additional settings to
632 the TT configuration hash, or to set the options as below:
636 The list of paths TT will look for templates in.
638 =head2 expose_methods
640 The list of methods in your View class which should be made available to the templates.
644 expose_methods => [qw/uri_for_css/],
649 my ($self, $c, $filename) = @_;
651 # additional complexity like checking file exists here
653 return $c->uri_for('/static/css/' . $filename);
656 Then in the template:
658 [% uri_for_css('home.css') %]
662 This lets you override the default content type for the response. If you do
663 not set this and if you do not set the content type in your controllers, the
664 default is C<text/html; charset=utf-8>.
666 Use this if you are creating alternative view responses, such as text or JSON
667 and want a global setting.
669 Any content type set in your controllers before calling this view are respected
672 =head2 C<CATALYST_VAR>
674 Allows you to change the name of the Catalyst context object. If set, it will also
675 remove the base and name aliases, so you will have access them through <context>.
677 For example, if CATALYST_VAR has been set to "Catalyst", a template might
680 The base is [% Catalyst.req.base %]
681 The name is [% Catalyst.config.name %]
685 If you have configured Catalyst for debug output, and turned on the TIMER setting,
686 C<Catalyst::View::TT> will enable profiling of template processing
687 (using L<Template::Timer>). This will embed HTML comments in the
688 output from your templates, such as:
690 <!-- TIMER START: process mainmenu/mainmenu.ttml -->
691 <!-- TIMER START: include mainmenu/cssindex.tt -->
692 <!-- TIMER START: process mainmenu/cssindex.tt -->
693 <!-- TIMER END: process mainmenu/cssindex.tt (0.017279 seconds) -->
694 <!-- TIMER END: include mainmenu/cssindex.tt (0.017401 seconds) -->
698 <!-- TIMER END: process mainmenu/footer.tt (0.003016 seconds) -->
701 =head2 C<TEMPLATE_EXTENSION>
703 a suffix to add when looking for templates bases on the C<match> method in L<Catalyst::Request>.
707 package MyApp::Controller::Test;
708 sub test : Local { .. }
710 Would by default look for a template in <root>/test/test. If you set TEMPLATE_EXTENSION to '.tt', it will look for
715 Allows you to specify the template providers that TT will use.
719 root => MyApp->path_to('root'),
725 DBI_DSN => 'dbi:DB2:books',
736 The 'name' key should correspond to the class name of the provider you
737 want to use. The _file_ name is a special case that represents the default
738 TT file-based provider. By default the name is will be prefixed with
739 'Template::Provider::'. You can fully qualify the name by using a unary
742 name => '+MyApp::Provider::Foo'
744 You can also specify the 'copy_config' key as an arrayref, to copy those keys
745 from the general config, into the config for the provider:
747 DEFAULT_ENCODING => 'utf-8',
751 copy_config => [qw(DEFAULT_ENCODING INCLUDE_PATH)]
755 This can prove useful when you want to use the additional_template_paths hack
756 in your own provider, or if you need to use Template::Provider::Encoding
760 Allows you to specify a custom class to use as the template class instead of
763 package MyApp::View::Web;
765 extends 'Catalyst::View::TT';
767 use Template::AutoFilter;
769 __PACKAGE__->config({
770 CLASS => 'Template::AutoFilter',
773 This is useful if you want to use your own subclasses of L<Template>, so you
774 can, for example, prevent XSS by automatically filtering all output through
779 The L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TT> and
780 L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite> helper modules are provided to create
781 your view module. There are invoked by the F<myapp_create.pl> script:
783 $ script/myapp_create.pl view Web TT
785 $ script/myapp_create.pl view Web TTSite
787 The L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TT> module creates a basic TT view
788 module. The L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite> module goes a little
789 further. It also creates a default set of templates to get you
790 started. It also configures the view module to locate the templates
795 If you are using the L<CGI> module inside your templates, you will
796 experience that the Catalyst server appears to hang while rendering
797 the web page. This is due to the debug mode of L<CGI> (which is
798 waiting for input in the terminal window). Turning off the
799 debug mode using the "-no_debug" option solves the
802 [% USE CGI('-no_debug') %]
806 L<Catalyst>, L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TT>,
807 L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite>, L<Template::Manual>
811 Sebastian Riedel, C<sri@cpan.org>
813 Marcus Ramberg, C<mramberg@cpan.org>
815 Jesse Sheidlower, C<jester@panix.com>
817 Andy Wardley, C<abw@cpan.org>
819 Luke Saunders, C<luke.saunders@gmail.com>
823 This program is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it
824 under the same terms as Perl itself.