[%# # IMPORTANT NOTE # This documentation is generated automatically from source # templates. Any changes you make here may be lost. # # The 'docsrc' documentation source bundle is available for download # from http://www.template-toolkit.org/docs.html and contains all # the source templates, XML files, scripts, etc., from which the # documentation for the Template Toolkit is built. -%] [% META book = 'Modules' page = 'Plugin_Datafile' %] [% WRAPPER toc; PROCESS tocitem title ="SYNOPSIS" subs = []; PROCESS tocitem title ="DESCRIPTION" subs = []; PROCESS tocitem title ="BUGS" subs = []; PROCESS tocitem title ="AUTHOR" subs = []; PROCESS tocitem title ="VERSION" subs = []; PROCESS tocitem title ="COPYRIGHT" subs = []; PROCESS tocitem title ="SEE ALSO" subs = []; END %] [% WRAPPER section title="SYNOPSIS" -%]

        [% tt_start_tag %] USE mydata = datafile('/path/to/datafile') [% tt_end_tag %]
        [% tt_start_tag %] USE mydata = datafile('/path/to/datafile', delim = '|') [% tt_end_tag %]

        [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH record = mydata [% tt_end_tag %]
           [% tt_start_tag %] record.this [% tt_end_tag %]  [% tt_start_tag %] record.that [% tt_end_tag %]
        [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]

[%- END %] [% WRAPPER section title="DESCRIPTION" -%]

This plugin provides a simple facility to construct a list of hash references, each of which represents a data record of known structure, from a data file.

        [% tt_start_tag %] USE datafile(filename) [% tt_end_tag %]

A absolute filename must be specified (for this initial implementation at least - in a future version it might also use the INCLUDE_PATH). An optional 'delim' parameter may also be provided to specify an alternate delimiter character.

        [% tt_start_tag %] USE userlist = datafile('/path/to/file/users')     [% tt_end_tag %]
        [% tt_start_tag %] USE things   = datafile('items', delim = '|') [% tt_end_tag %]

The format of the file is intentionally simple. The first line defines the field names, delimited by colons with optional surrounding whitespace. Subsequent lines then defines records containing data items, also delimited by colons. e.g.

        id : name : email : tel
        abw : Andy Wardley : abw@cre.canon.co.uk : 555-1234
        neilb : Neil Bowers : neilb@cre.canon.co.uk : 555-9876

Each line is read, split into composite fields, and then used to initialise a hash array containing the field names as relevant keys. The plugin returns a blessed list reference containing the hash references in the order as defined in the file.

        [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH user = userlist [% 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 first line of the file must contain the field definitions. After the first line, blank lines will be ignored, along with comment line which start with a '#'.

[%- END %] [% WRAPPER section title="BUGS" -%]

Should handle file names relative to INCLUDE_PATH. Doesn't permit use of ':' in a field. Some escaping mechanism is required.

[%- END %] [% WRAPPER section title="AUTHOR" -%]

Andy Wardley <abw@andywardley.com>

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

[%- END %] [% WRAPPER section title="VERSION" -%]

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

[%- END %] [% WRAPPER section title="COPYRIGHT" -%]

      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.

[%- END %] [% WRAPPER section title="SEE ALSO" -%]

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

[%- END %]