Template::Library::Splash(3)

NAME
Template::Library::Splash - Template library for building stylish HTML user interfaces

DESCRIPTION
NOTE: This documentation is incomplete, incorrect and outdated. The Splash! library is still evolving and subject to change. See the examples for a much more recent and accurate demonstration of use.

  Introduction
The 'Splash' template library is distributed as part of the Template Toolkit. It can be found in the 'templates' sub-directory of the installation directory.

    /your/tt2/installation
    |
    +-- docs
    |      ...
    |
    +-- images
    |      ...
    |
    +-- examples
    |      ...
    |
    +-- templates
        |
        +-- html
        |      ...
        +-- pod
        |      ...
        +-- splash     <<<< YOU ARE HERE
               ...

To use the Splash library, you first need to tell the Template Toolkit where to find the template files.

    use Template;

    my $tt2 = Template->new({
        INCLUDE_PATH => '/usr/local/tt2/templates',
    });

For a portable way to determine the installation 'templates' directory, you can use the "Template::Config->instdir()" class method.

    use Template;

    my $tt2 = Template->new({
        INCLUDE_PATH => Template::Config->instdir('templates'),
    });

Note that you should set the INCLUDE_PATH to the 'templates' directory as shown here and don't be tempted to set the INCLUDE_PATH to 'templates/splash'. Many of the Splash! components use elements in the 'html' directory and contain directives of the form:

    [% INCLUDE html/something %].

  Configuration
The 'splash/config' template defines a 'splash' hash array which contains numerous configuration items for the Splash library. You must PROCESS this template to ensure that the hash definition is imported into your calling template. An INCLUDE is not sufficient as it localises variables and prevents the 'splash' hash array from existing outside the splash/config template.

    [% PROCESS splash/config %]

Alternately, you can define the splash/config template as a PRE_PROCESS item when you create the Template processor.

    use Template;

    my $tt2 = Template->new({
        INCLUDE_PATH => Template::Config->instdir('templates'),
        PRE_PROCESS  => 'splash/config',
    });

You can modify the default configuration by creating your own PRE_PROCESS config file which loads the 'splash/config' and then tweaks the settings to your own preferences.

    my $tt2 = Template->new({
        INCLUDE_PATH => [ '/home/abw/tt2/templates',
                          Template::Config->instdir('templates') ],
        PRE_PROCESS => 'config'
    });

/home/abw/tt2/templates/config:

    [% # load the 'splash' configuration
       PROCESS splash/config;

       # tweak values to personal preferences
       splash.images       = '/~abw/tt2/images/splash'
       splash.select.col   = 'leaf'
       splash.unselect.col = 'bud'
    %]

The splash/config file includes some instructional comments on things you might like to tweak.

  Colours
The Splash! library uses the colours defined in the html/rgb template. The 'rgb' hash defined therein is imported as the 'splash.rgb' hash.

    [% INCLUDE splash/box col='grey75' %]

See the examples for further enlightenment on using colour.

  Style
There are two very primitive "styles" implemented called "select" and "unselect". These are used to indicate which item on a menu is selected, for example. Each style defines characteristics like background colour, font face, size and colour, text alignment, and so on.

The styles are implemented as hashes within the 'splash' hash. Many of the components respond to a 'style' variable being set and you can pass a direct reference to splash.select or splash.unselect (or your own styles). e.g.

    [% INCLUDE splash/button
           content = "Unselected"
           style   = splash.unselect
    %]
    [% INCLUDE splash/button
           content ="Selected"
           style   = splash.select
    %]

Alternately, you can use the 'select' variable to indicate either of the inbuilt styles: splash.select or splash.unselect.

    [% INCLUDE splash/button
           content = "Unselected"
           select  = 0
    %]
    [% INCLUDE splash/button
           content = "Selected"
           select  = 1
    %]

COMPONENT TEMPLATES
This section describes some of the component templates in the Splash! library. This documentation is incomplete and may also be inaccurate in places. The examples in the 'examples' directory are likely to be a much better reference.

  splash/text
Simple template to format text according to a selected/unselected style, adding links, etc.

    [% INCLUDE splash/text
           content = 'Template Toolkit'
           link    = 'http://www.template-toolkit.org'
           select  = 0
           bold    = 1
    %]

Configuration items:

content
    Text content.

link
    URL which can be defined to make the text a link.

style
    Reference to a style hash.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
font (style.font.face)
bold (style.font.bold)
size (style.font.size)

  splash/table
A thin wrapper around html/table, allowing a colour to be specified by name.

    [% WRAPPER splash/table
           col   = 'aqua'
           pad   = 4
           width = '100%'
    %]
    <tr>
      <td>Foo</td>
      <td>Bar</td>
    </tr>
    [% END %]

Configuration items:

content
    Table content.

col Background colour.

border
    Border width (default: 0)

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

pad Cell padding.

space
    Cell padding.

  splash/row
Creates a row for an HTML table.

    [% WRAPPER splash/table %]

       [% WRAPPER splash/row col='marine' %]
       <td>Foo</td><td>Bar</td>
       [% END %]

       [% WRAPPER splash/row col='aqua' %]
       <td>Foo</td><td>Bar</td>
       [% END %]

    [% END %]

Configuration items:

content
    Row content.

col Background colour.

valign
    Vertical alignment

rowspan
    Number of rows to span.

  splash/cell
Creates a cell for an HTML table.

    [% WRAPPER splash/table + splash/row + splash/cell col='grey75' %]
        Hello World
    [% END %]

Configuration items:

content
    Cell content.

col Background colour.

align
    Horizontal alignment

colspan
    Number of columns to span.

  splash/box
A box created from a union of splash/table, splash/row and splash/cell. The following is equivalent to the previous example.

    [% WRAPPER splash/box col='grey75' %]
        Hello World
    [% END %]

Configuration items are as per the individual templates.

  splash/button
Creates a small button with rounded corners.

    [% INCLUDE splash/button
           content = 'Template Toolkit'
           select  = 1
           width   = '50%'
    %]

Configuration items:

content
    Button content.

style
    Reference to a style hash.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
textcol (style.col.text)
font (style.font.face)
size (style.font.size)
bold (style.font.bold)
width (style.button.width)
align (style.button.align)

  splash/bar
Creates a bar with rounded corners at either the top or bottom, and square corners on the other. Default has rounded at the top, set 'invert' to select bottom.

    [% INCLUDE splash/bar
           content = 'Hello World',
           select  = 1
    %]

Configuration items:

content
    Bar content.

style
    Reference to a style hash.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

invert
    Flag to invert bar to hang down instead of sitting upright.

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
textcol (style.col.text)
font (style.font.face)
size (style.font.size)
bold (style.font.bold)
width (style.button.width)
align (style.button.align)

  splash/hair
Generates a frame enclosing the content within crosshair corners.

    [% INCLUDE splash/hair
           content = 'Template Toolkit'
    %]

Configuration items:

content
    Hair content.

style
    Reference to a style hash.

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
bgcol (style.col.back)
align (style.button.align)

  splash/menu
Creates a menu as a series of splash/button elements.

    [% buttons = [
          { text => 'One', link => 'one.html' }
          { text => 'Two', link => 'two.html' }
       ]
    %]

    [% INCLUDE splash/menu
           select = 2           # Two
    %]

Configuration items:

buttons
    A reference to a list of hash arrays containing 'text' and 'link' items.

select (n or 0)
    Indicates which button should be selected. First item is 1. 0 indicates no button selected.

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

align
    Horizontal alignment

  splash/menubar
As above, but incorporated into a wider bar.

    [% WRAPPER splash/menubar %]
       Section Title
    [% END %]

Configuration items:

buttons
    A reference to a list of hash arrays containing 'text' and 'link' items.

select (n or 0)
    Indicates which button should be selected. First item is 1. 0 indicates no button selected.

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

align
    Horizontal alignment

  splash/panel
A table with a coloured edge.

    [% WRAPPER splash/panel edge='black' fill='grey75' border=2 %]
       <tr>
         <td>Hello World</td>
       </tr>
    [% END %]

Configuration items:

content
    Panel content.

style
    Reference to a style hash.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

align
    Horizontal alignment

border
    Border width (default: 0)

The following items default to the relevant style values:

edge (style.col.edge)
fill (style.col.fill)
pad (style.pad)

  splash/pane
A union of splash/row + splash/cell.

    [% WRAPPER splash/panel select=1 %]
       [% WRAPPER splash/pane col='grey75' %]
          Hello World
       [% END %]

       [% WRAPPER splash/pane col='grey50' %]
          Hello Again
       [% END %]
    [% END %]

  splash/tab
A simple button looking like a page tab.

    [% INCLUDE splash/tab
           content = 'Option 1'
           col = 'aqua'
    %]

Configuration items:

content
    Tab content.

style
    Reference to a style hash.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

align
    Horizontal alignment

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
textcol (style.col.text)
font (style.font.face)
size (style.font.size)
bold (style.font.bold)
tabalign (style.tab.align)

  splash/tabset
A set of splash/tab components, similar to a menu.

Configuration items:

tabs
    List of hash references containing text/link entries, as per menu buttons.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

invert
    Flag to invert tab to hang down instead of sitting upright.

  splash/tabbox
Add a splash/tab to the top of a splash/box.

Configuration items:

title
     title.

content
     content.

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

tabwidth
    Width of tabs.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

border
    Border width (default: 0)

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
fill (style.col.fill)
tabalign (style.tab.align)
tablocate (style.tab.locate)

  splash/tabsbox
Add a splash/tabset to the top of a splash/box.

Configuration items:

tabs
    List of hash references containing text/link entries, as per menu buttons.

select
    Flag to default the style to splash.select (select == true value) or splash.unselect (select == false value).

content
     content.

width
    Width in absolute pixels (e.g. '100') or as a percentage (e.g. '50%').

border
    Border width (default: 0)

invert
    Flag to invert to hang down instead of sitting upright.

The following items default to the relevant style values:

col (style.col.text)
fill (style.col.fill)
tabalign (style.tab.align)
tablocate (style.tab.locate)

  splash/tabspanel
As per splash/tabsbox, but attached to a splash/panel instead of a splash/box.

EXAMPLES
See the examples in the 'examples' sub-directory of the installation for comprehensive examples showing use of the Splash! library.

AUTHOR
Andy Wardley <abw@wardley.org>

<http://wardley.org/>

VERSION
2.68, distributed as part of the Template Toolkit version 2.19, released on 27 April 2007.

COPYRIGHT
  Copyright (C) 1996-2007 Andy Wardley.  All Rights Reserved.

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

SEE ALSO
Template::Library::HTML