Template::Plugin::Config::General - Template Toolkit plugin which implements wrapper around Config::General module.

  # Config file format
  ; app.cfg - common configuration for scripts and both
  ; static and dynamic template pages.
  base_url     = /~liol
  images_url   = $base_url/images
  <news>
    title      = Top News
    url        = $base_url/news
    images_url = $url/images
  </news>
  <admin>
    title      = Admin area
    url        = $base_url/admin
    images_url = $url/images
  </admin>
  include specific.cfg

  # Reading configuration from code
  use Config::General;
  $plConfig = new Config::General(
    -ConfigFile       => 'app.cfg',
    -ConfigPath       => [ '/web/etc' ]
    -InterPolateVars  => 1,
    -UseApacheInclude => 1,
  );
  my %cfg = $plConfig->getall;

  # Reading configuration from template
  [%-
    USE plConfig = Config::General(
      ConfigFile       = 'app.cfg',
      ConfigPath       = [ '/web/etc' ]
      InterPolateVars  = 1,
      UseApacheInclude = 1,
    );
    cfg = plConfig.getall;
  -%]
  [% cfg.news.title %]
  [% cfg.admin.images_url %]

This module implements interface wrapper around Config::General. The task of easy access to configuration items from both code and templates may appear in applications which uses configuration files which are saved apart from code and templates. This module would help to avoid data doubling. To access configuration from code we can use Config::General module which parses apache-like config files. This plugin makes the same thing for templates. So we can use the same file in both code, "dynamic" templates and "static" templates. There is no difference what application uses template - ttree (ttree) or other script. Plugin would provide proper configuration.

Config::General allows to make simple variable interpolation (with constructor option -InterPolateVars or in template context InterPolateVars). This can little simplify config file support.

  base_url     = /~liol
  ; images_url = '/~liol/images'
  images_url    = $base_url/images
  <news>
    ; news->url = '/~liol/news'
    url   = $base_url/news
    ; news->images_url = '/~liol/news/images'
    images_url = $url/images
  </news>

So changing only one item of configuration you can change all paths in file.

NOTE! Try this configuration sample for better understanding of Config::General interpolation.

  base     = /abc
  <section>
    ; section->base = /abc/def
    base   = $base/def
    ; section->base2 = /abc/def
    base2  = $base/def
    ; section->deep = /abc/deep NOT /abc/def/deep !
    deep   = $base/deep
    ; section->deep2 = /abc/def/deep
    deep2  = $base2/deep
  </section>

This is resulting dump:

  $VAR1 = {
    'base'    => '/abc',
    'section' => {
      'base'     => '/abc/def',
      'base2'    => '/abc/def'
      'deep'     => '/abc/deep',
      'deep2'    => '/abc/def/deep',
    }
  };

Config::General allows to include in config other configuration files.

  include external.cfg

Module searches files in set of directories defined in constructor option -ConfigPath or in template context ConfigPath. You can use this to change config in template context.

  # Constructor call in code
  $plConfig = new Config::General(
    -ConfigFile       => 'app.cfg',
    -ConfigPath       => [ '/web/etc', '/web/etc/code' ],
    -UseApacheInclude => 1,
  );

  # Constructor call in template
  [%-
    USE plConfig = Config::General(
      ConfigFile       = 'app.cfg',
      ConfigPath       = [ '/web/etc', '/web/etc/template' ],
      UseApacheInclude = 1
    );
    cfg = plConfig.getall;
  -%]

  # Config file
  include external.cfg

Assuming that different versions of external.cfg are stored in '/web/etc/code' and '/web/etc/template' subdirectories we load different versions for code and template. Of course, this can be used wider.

Template, Config::General

Igor Lobanov, <liol@cpan.org>

<http://www.template-toolkit.ru/>

Copyright (C) 2005 Igor Lobanov. All Rights Reserved.

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