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NAMEHTML::Seamstress - HTML::Tree subclass for HTML templating via tree rewritingSYNOPSISText substitution via replace_content() API call.In our first example, we want to perform simple text substitution on the HTML template document. The HTML file html/hello_world.htm has klass attributes which serve as compiler (kompiler?) hints to Seamstress:<html> <head> <title>Hello World</title> </head> <body> <h1>Hello World</h1> <p>Hello, my name is <span id="name">dummy_name</span>. <p>Today's date is <span id="date">dummy_date</span>. </body> </html> Seamstress compiles HTML to "html::hello_world" shell> seamc html/hello_world.htm Seamstress v2.91 generating html::hello_world from html/hello_world.htm Now you simply use the "compiled" version of HTML with API calls to HTML::TreeBuilder, HTML::Element, and HTML::Element::LIbrary use html::hello_world; my $tree = html::hello_world->new; $tree->look_down(id => name)->replace_content('terrence brannon'); $tree->look_down(id => date)->replace_content('5/11/1969'); print $tree->as_HTML; If-then-else with the highlander API call(But also see "$tree->passover()" in HTML::Element::Library).<span id="age_dialog"> <span id="under10"> Hello, does your mother know you're using her AOL account? </span> <span id="under18"> Sorry, you're not old enough to enter (and too dumb to lie about your age) </span> <span id="welcome"> Welcome </span> </span> Compile and use the module: use html::age_dialog; my $tree = html::dialog->new; $tree->highlander (age_dialog => [ under10 => sub { $_[0] < 10} , under18 => sub { $_[0] < 18} , welcome => sub { 1 } ], $age ); print $tree->as_HTML; # will only output one of the 3 dialogues based on which closure # fires first The following libraries are always available for more complicated manipulations:
PHILOSOPHY and MOTIVATION of HTML::SeamstressWelcome to push-style dynamic HTML generation!When looking at HTML::Seamstress, we are looking at a uniquely positioned 4th-generation HTML generator. Seamstress offers two sets of advantages: those common to all 4th generation htmlgens and those common to a subclass of HTML::Tree. I think a Perlmonks node: <http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=669956> sums up the job of Seamstress quite well: Monks, I'm tired of writing meta code in templating languages. I'm really good at writing Perl, and good at writing HTML, but I'm lousy at the templating languages (and I'm not too fired up to learn more about them). Reap 4th generation dynamic HTML generation benefitsWhat advantages does this fourth way of HTML manipulation offer? Let's take a look:Guarantee yourself well-formed HTML Because lower-generation dynamic HTML generators treat HTML as a string, there is no insurance against poorly formed HTML. Take a look at these two Mason components, from <http://masonbook.com/book/chapter-5.mhtml#TOC-ANCHOR-5> :
There is nothing guaranteeing that open tags will match close tags or that close tags will even exist. To make the correspondence between open and close tags even more troublesome, they are in different files. And it is not easy for an HTML designer and/or design tool to manipulate things once they have been shredded apart like this. With the tree-based approach of Seamstress, the end tag will exist and it will match the open tag. Well-formedness is job 1 in tree-based HTML rewriting! HTML will be properly escaped Separate HTML development and its programmatic modification Software engineers refer to this as orthogonality. The contents of the document remain legal HTML/XML that can be be developed using standard interactive design tools. The flow of control of the code remains separate from the page. Technologies that mix content and data in a single file result in code that is often difficult to understand and has trouble taking full advantage of the object oriented programming paradigm. Work at meta-level instead of object-level The book "Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas R Hofstadter makes it clear what it means to operate at object-level as opposed to meta-level. When you buy into earlier-generation HTML generation systems you are working at object-level: you can only speak and act as the HTML with no ability to speak about the HTML. Compare a bird's eye view of a city with standing on a city block and you have the difference between the 4th generation of HTML development versus all prior generations. Reduced learning curve If you have a strong hold on object-oriented Perl and a solid understand of the tree-based nature of HTML, then all you need to do is read the manual pages showing how Seamstress and related modules offer tree manipulation routines and you are done. Extension just requires writing new Perl methods - a snap for any object oriented Perler. Static validation and formatting Mixing Perl and HTML (by any of the generation 1-3 approaches) makes it impossible to use standard validation and formatting tools for either Perl or HTML. Two full-strength programming languages: HTML and Perl Perl and HTML are solid technologies with years of effort behind making them robust and flexible enough to meet real-world technological demands. Object-oriented reuse and extension of HTML Class-based object-oriented programming makes use of inheritance and other techniques to achieve maximum code reuse. This typically happens by a certain base/superclass method containing common actions and a derived/subclass/mixin method containing extra actions. A genuine tree-based approach (such as HTML::Seamstress) to HTML generation is supportive of all methods of object-oriented reuse: because manipulator and manipulated are separate and manipulators are written in oo Perl, we can compose manipulators as we please. This is in contrast to inline simple object systems (as in Mason) and also in contrast to the if-then approach of tt-esque systems. Per-page stereotyped substitution [ FYI: you can run the two Seamstress approaches. They are in $DISTRO/samples/perpage ] In the HTML::Mason book by O'Reilly: <http://masonbook.com/book/chapter-1.mhtml#TOC-ANCHOR-4> we see a technique for doing simple text insertion which varies per page: <html> <head><title>Welcome to Wally World!</title></head> <body bgcolor="#CCFFCC"> <center><h1><% $m->base_comp->attr('head') %></h1></center> % $m->call_next; <center><a href="/">Home</a></center> </body></html> # homepage.html <%attr> head => "Wally World Home" </%attr> Here at Wally World you'll find all the finest accoutrements. # productpage.html <%attr> head => "Wally World Products" </%attr> <table> ... </table> So, how would we do this using Seamstress' pure Perl approach to HTML refinement? <html> <head><title>Welcome to Wally World!</title></head> <body bgcolor="#CCFFCC"> <center><h1 id=head>DUMMY_HEAD</h1></center> <span id=body>DUMMY_BODY</span> <center><a href="/">Home</a></center> </body></html> # homepage.pm package html::homepage; use base qw( HTML::Seamstress ) ; sub new { my ($class, $c) = @_; my $html_file = 'html/base.html'; my $tree = __PACKAGE__->new_from_file($html_file); $tree; } sub process { my ($tree, $c, $stash) = @_; $tree->content_handler(head => 'Wally World Home'); $tree->content_handler(body => 'Here at Wally World you'll find all the finest accoutrements.'); } # productpage.pm package html::productpage; use base qw( HTML::Seamstress ) ; sub new { my ($class, $c) = @_; my $html_file = 'html/base.html'; my $tree = __PACKAGE__->new_from_file($html_file); $tree; } sub process { my ($tree, $c, $stash) = @_; $tree->content_handler(head => 'Wally World Products); $tree->content_handler(body => html::productpage::body->new->guts) } We have solved our problem. However, we can create even more re-use because the both of these classes are very similar. They only vary in 2 things: the particular head and body they provide. You can abstract this with whatever methodmaker you like. I tend to prefer prototype-based oop over class-based, so with Class::Prototyped, here's how we might do it: package html::abstract::common; use base qw(HTML::Seamstress Class::Prototyped); sub head { 'ABSTRACT BASE METHOD' } sub body { 'ABSTRACT BASE METHOD' } __PACKAGE__->reflect->addSlots( html_file => 'html/base.html', ); sub new { my $self = shift; my $tree = $self->new_from_file($self->html_file); } sub process { my ($tree, $c, $stash) = @_; $tree->content_handler(head => $tree->head); $tree->content_handler(body => $tree->body); } 1; and then have both of the above classes instantiate and specialize this common class accordingly. [ Again: you can run the two Seamstress approaches. They are in $DISTRO/samples/perpage ] Parallel generation of a single page natural A tree of HTML usually contains subtrees with no inter-dependance. They therefore can be manipulated in parallel. If a page contains 5 areas each of which takes "N" time, then one could realize an N-fold speedup. Reap the benefits of using HTML::TreePragmatic HTML instead of strict X(HT)MLThe real world is unfortunately more about getting HTML to work with IE and maybe 1 or 2 other browsers. Strict XHTML may not be acceptable under time and corporate pressures to get things to work with quirky browsers. Rich API and User Contributions HTML::Tree has a nice large set of accessor/modifier functions. If that is not enough, then take a gander at Matthew Sisk's contributions: <http://search.cpan.org/~msisk/> as well as HTML::Element::Library. Seamstress contains no voodoo elements whatsoeverIf you know object-oriented Perl and know how to rewrite trees, then everything that Seamstress offers will make sense: it's just various boilerplates and scripts that allow your mainline code to be very succinct: think of it as Class::DBI for HTML::Tree.
Seamstress is here to help you use HTML::Tree, that's all.Unify HTML and the processing of the HTML via a Perl classLet's see why this is a good idea. In Mason, your Perl and HTML are right there together in the same file. Same with Template. Now, since Seamstress operates on the HTML without touching the HTML, the operations and the HTML are not in the same file. So we create a Perl module to glue the HTML file to the operations we plan to perform on it.This module (auto-created by spkg.pl and perhaps sbase.pl) has a constructor "new()", which grabs the HTML file and constructs an HTML::Element tree from it and returns it to you. It also contains a "process()" subroutine which processes the HTML in some way: text substitutions, unrolling list elements, building tables, and whatnot. Finally, it contains a "fixup()" subroutine. This subroutine is designed to support the meat-skeleton paradigm, discussed above. The "process()" subroutine generated the $meat. After <$meat> has been placed in $skeleton, there may be some page-specific processing to the whole HTML page that you want to: pop in some javascript, remove a copyright notice, whatever. That's what this routine is for. Now that I've said all that, please understand that you are perfectly free to call "new()" and do what you want with the HTML tree. You don't have to use "process()" and "fixup()". But they are there and are used by Catalyst::View::Seamstress to make meat-skeleton dynamic HTML development quick-and-easy (and non-greasy). A Perl class created by spkg.pl Here is our venerable little HTML file: metaperl@pool-71-109-151-76:/ernest/dev/catalyst-simpleapp/MyApp/root/html$ cat hello_world.html <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Hello World</title> </head> <body> <h1>Hello World</h1> <p>Hello, my name is <span id="name">dummy_name</span>. <p>Today's date is <span id="date">dummy_date</span>. </body> </html> Now let's abstract this as a Perl class: metaperl@pool-71-109-151-76:/ernest/dev/catalyst-simpleapp/MyApp/root/html$ spkg.pl --base_pkg=MyApp::View::Seamstress --base_pkg_root=`pwd`/../../lib hello_world.html comp_root........ /ernest/dev/catalyst-simpleapp/MyApp/root/ html_file_path... /ernest/dev/catalyst-simpleapp/MyApp/root/html/ html_file........ hello_world.html html_file sans... hello_world hello_world.html compiled to package html::hello_world metaperl@pool-71-109-151-76:/ernest/dev/catalyst-simpleapp/MyApp/root/html$ Now lets see what html::hello_world looks like. Everything other than "process()" was auto-generated: package html::hello_world; use strict; use warnings; use HTML::TreeBuilder; use base qw(MyApp::View::Seamstress); our $tree; sub new { my $file = __PACKAGE__->comp_root() . 'html/hello_world.html' ; -e $file or die "$file does not exist. Therefore cannot load"; $tree =HTML::TreeBuilder->new; $tree->parse_file($file); $tree->eof; bless $tree, __PACKAGE__; } sub process { my ($self, $c, $stash) = @_; $tree->look_down(id => $_)->replace_content($stash->{$_}) for qw(name date); } sub fixup { $tree } 1; The meat-skeleton paradigmThis section is written to help understanding of Catalyst::View::Seamstress for people who want to use Seamstress as the view for their Catalyst apps.HTML pages typically have meat and a skeleton. The meat varies from page to page while the skeleton is fairly (though not completely) static. For example, the skeleton of a webpage is usually a header, a footer, and a navbar. The meat is what shows up when you click on a link on the page somewhere. While the meat will change with each click, the skeleton is rather static. The perfect example of Mason accomodates the meat-skeleton paradigm via an "autohandler" and "$m->call_next()". Template accomodates it via its "WRAPPER" directive. And Seamstress? Well, here's what you _can_ do:
So, nothing about this is forced. This is just how I typically do things and that is why Catalyst::View::Seamstress has support for this. In all honesty, the meat-skeleton paradigm should be supported here and called from "Catalyst::View::Seamstress". But the problem is, I don't want to create an abstract API here unless I have used the meat-skeleton paradigm from one other framework besides Catalyst. Then I will have a good idea of how to refactor it so any framework can make good use of the paradigm. USAGEThe best example of usage is the Quickstart directory in this distribution. You can read HTML::Seamstress::Quickstart and actually run the code in that directory at the same time. After doing so, the following sections are additional instruction.Understand that HTML is a treeThe best representation of this fact is this slide right here:<http://xmlc.objectweb.org/doc/xmlcSlides/xmlcSlides.html#de> If you understand this (and maybe the rest of the slides), then you have a good grip on seeing HTML as a tree. HTML::Tree::AboutTrees does also teach this, but it takes a while before he gets to what matters to us. It's a fun read nonetheless. Now that we've got this concept under our belts let's try some full examples. Install and Setup SeamstressThe first thing to remember is that Seamstress is really just convenience functions for HTML::Tree. You can do entirely without Seamstress. It's just that my daily real-world obligations have lead to a set of library functions (HTML::Element::Library) and a convenient way to locate "templates" ("spkg.pl") that work well on top of HTML::Tree
Text substitution == node mutationIn our first example, we want to perform simple text substitution on the HTML template document:<html> <head> <title>Hello World</title> </head> <body> <h1>Hello World</h1> <p>Hello, my name is <span id="name">dummy_name</span>. <p>Today's date is <span id="date">dummy_date</span>. </body> </html> First save this somewhere on your document root. Then compile it with "spkg.pl". Now you simply use the "compiled" version of HTML with API calls to HTML::TreeBuilder, HTML::Element, and HTML::Element::Library. use html::hello_world; my $tree = html::hello_world->new; $tree->look_down(id => name)->replace_content('terrence brannon'); $tree->look_down(id => date)->replace_content('5/11/1969'); print $tree->as_HTML; "replace_content()" is a convenience function in HTML::Element::Library. If-then-else == node(s) deletion(But also see "$tree->passover()" in HTML::Element::Library).<span id="age_dialog"> <span id="under10"> Hello, does your mother know you're using her AOL account? </span> <span id="under18"> Sorry, you're not old enough to enter (and too dumb to lie about your age) </span> <span id="welcome"> Welcome </span> </span> Again, compile and use the module: use html::age_dialog; my $tree = html::dialog->new; $tree->highlander (age_dialog => [ under10 => sub { $_[0] < 10} , under18 => sub { $_[0] < 18} , welcome => sub { 1 } ], $age ); print $tree->as_HTML; # will only output one of the 3 dialogues based on which closure # fires first And once again, the function we used is the highlander method, also a part of HTML::Element::Library. The following libraries are always available for more complicated manipulations:
Looping == child/sibling proliferationTable unrolling, pulldown creation, "li" unrolling, and "dl" unrolling are all examples of a tree operation in which you take a child of a node and clone it and then alter it in some way (replace the content, alter some of its attributes), and then stick it under its parent.Functions for use with the common HTML elements --- "<table>", "<ol>", "<ul>", "<dl>", "<select>" are documented in HTML::Element::Library and are prefaced with the words "Tree Building Methods". What Seamstress offersBeyond the "compilation" support documented above, Seamstress offers nothing more than a simple structure-modifying method, expand_replace(). And to be honest, it probably shouldn't offer that. But once, when de-Mason-izing a site, it was easier to keep little itty-bitty components all over and so I wrote this method to facilitate the process.Let's say you have this HTML: <div id="sidebar"> <div class="sideBlock" id=mpi>mc::picBar::index</div> <div class="sideBlock" id=mnm>mc::navBox::makeLinks</div> <div class="sideBlock" id=mg>mc::gutenBox</div> </div> In this case, the content of each sideBlock is the name of a Perl Seamstress-style class. As you know, when the constructor for such a class is called an HTML::Element, $E, will be returned for it's parsed content. In this case, we want the content of the div element to go from the being the class name to being the HTML::Element that the class constructs. So to inline all 3 tags you would do the following; $tree->look_down(id => $_)->expand_replace for qw(mpi mnm mg); What Seamstress works withClass::CacheUseful in mod_perl environments and anywhere you want control over the timing of object creation. The family of HTML::Tree contributions
METHODS->new_from_file()This does the same thing as the TreeBuilder "new_from_file()" method, but it blesses the object into the invocant class. This makes the invocant class derive from Seamstress which means it has HTML::TreeBuilder, HTML::Element , and HTML::Element::Library at its disposal.->html()This method takes "__FILE__", and optionally a desired $extension (defaults to 'html' if not given) and changes the extension on "__FILE__" from ".pm" to $extension. This works well for common situations.A BRIEF HISTORY of Dynamic HTML Generation (Templating)HTML::Seamstress provides "fourth generation" dynamic HTML generation (templating).In the beginning we had... First generation dynamic HTML production - server side includesFirst generation dynamic HTML production used server-side includes:<p>Today's date is <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL" --> </p> Second generation dynamic HTML production - HTML in PerlThe next phase of HTML generation saw embedded HTML snippets in Perl code. For example:sub header { my $title = shift; print <<"EOHEADER"; <head> <title>$title</title> </head> EOHEADER } Third generation dynamic HTML production - Perl/minilanguage in HTMLThe 3rd generation solutions embed programming language constructs with HTML. The language constructs are either a real language (as is with HTML::Mason) or a pseudo/mini-language (as is with PeTaL, Template or HTML::Template). Let's see some Template code:<p>Hi there [% name %], are you enjoying your stay?</p> Talkin' bout them generations...Up to now, all approaches to this issue tamper with the HTML in some form or fashion:
Enter fourth generation dynamic HTML production - DOM styleThe fourth generation of HTML production is distinguished by no need for tampering with the HTML. There are a wealth of XML-based modules which provide this approach (XML::Twig, XML::LibXML, XML::TreeBuilder, XML::DOM). HTML::Seamstress is the one CPAN module based around HTML and HTML::Tree for this approach.The fourth generation is also the way that a language like Javascript rewrites HTML. By using Seamstress, you can always think about manipulating your HTML in the same way! SEE ALSOObject-oriented goodiesSeamstress is just glue for object-oriented tree processing in Perl (I can see my SEO rank climbing right now from that sentence!). Anyway, here is your LOOM - (List of object-oriented modules):
Related SoftwareI created a node at Perlmonks which catalogues push-style templating systems both in and outside of Perl:<http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=674225> Here are two common ones: <http://xmlc.enhydra.org> <http://www.plope.com/software/meld3>
Articles, Publications, DiscussionPush style templating systemshttp://perlmonks.org/?node_id=674225 Form Validation in CGI::Application with Seamstress <http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=742427> Easy table rendering in modern HTML::Seamstress <http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=768430> HTML Templating as Tree Rewriting: Part I: "If Statements" <http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=302606> HTATR II: HTML table generation via DWIM tree rewriting <http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=303188> Survey of Surveys on HTML Templating systems <http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=433729> A fierce head-to-head between PeTaL and Seamstress goes on for several days in this thread! The disadvantages of mini-languages The disadvantages of mini-languages is discussed here: <http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=428053> A striking example of the limitations of mini-languages is shown here: <http://perlmonks.org/?node_id=493477> But the most cogent argument for using full-strength languages as opposed to mixing them occurs in the Text::Template docs: When people make a template module like this one, they almost always start by inventing a special syntax for substitutions. For example, they build it so that a string like %%VAR%% is replaced with the value of $VAR. Then they realize the need extra formatting, so they put in some special syntax for formatting. Then they need a loop, so they invent a loop syntax. Pretty soon they have a new little template language. This approach has two problems: First, their little language is crippled. If you need to do something the author hasn't thought of, you lose. Second: Who wants to learn another language? You already know Perl, so why not use it? And for the Mason users whose retort is "we do use Perl!" the obvious reply is: "granted, but in an embedded fashion with ad hoc, inflexible object mechanisms, non-tree-based (hence syntactically suspect) HTML manipulation, and no ability to statically validate the Perl or HTML" Problems with JSP (JSP is similar to HTML::Mason) <http://www.servlets.com/soapbox/problems-jsp-reaction.html> <http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/w-friend.html?dwzone=web> <http://www.theserverside.com/resources/article.jsp?l=XMLCvsJSP> Los Angeles Perl Mongers Talk on HTML::Seamstress <http://www.metaperl.org> "Inside-out Templates in Perl" <http://www.webquills.net/web-development/perl/insideout-templates-in-perl.html> SUPPORT and DEVELOPMENTIRC<irc://irc.perl.org/#html-seamstress>Mailing List<http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/seamstress-discuss>Source repo<http://github.com/metaperl/html-seamstress/tree/master>AUTHORTerrence Brannon, "tbone@cpan.org"ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSI would like to thank
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSECopyright RANGE(1999,NOW()) by Terrence Brannon.This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
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