RFC: HTML::MicroMason
The HTML::Mason module defines a useful syntax for embedded scripting:
plain text (or HTML) containing occasional chunks of Perl code whose
results are interpolated into the text when the script is "executed."
However, Mason requires that scripts be stored in the file system, and
sometimes I'd like to use this capability for lots of small text strings
which are stored in a database table or assembled dynamically, without
the hassle of saving them to disk first.
Thus, the HTML::MicroMason module was born: it supports the core aspects
of the HTML::Mason syntax ("<%perl>...</%perl>", "<%...%>", "%...\n",
"%ARGS" and "$_out->()" ), and omits the features that either require
file access (like autohandlers and "<& file &>" includes) or are less
widely used (like "<%method foo>" blocks).
I have just whipped this together in the last day or two, but it seems
like it might be of general interest, so I am soliciting comments, with
the intention of incorporating feedback and then posting a revised
version to CPAN.
You may well be thinking "yet another dynamic templating module?
Sheesh!" And you'd have a good point. Nonetheless, I think this module
occupies a useful niche: it provides a reasonable subset of HTML::Mason
syntax in a very light-weight fashion.
There certainly are a variety of templating toolkits on CPAN already,
but from what I can find, only a few of them support both interpolated
Perl expressions and Perl flow control: Text::Template, HTML::Mason, and
Apache::ASP. (Please let me know if I've missed others! Maybe
Template::Toolkit?)
In comparison to these, MicroMason aims to be relatively lightweight,
using one eval per parse, converting the template to an cacheable
unblessed subroutine ref, eschewing method calls, omitting Safe support,
and containing just 50-odd lines of code.
Suggestions for alternate names would be welcome -- although I am using
it in a web application, the code in this module doesn't specifically
address HTML, and it certainly could be used to template different
content types. (This is also the case for HTML::Mason.)
This module should work with any version of Perl 5; there are no
prerequisite modules beyond the standard distribution.
To install, retrieve the distribution from the below URL, unpack it,
and execute the standard "perl Makefile.PL", "make test", "make
install" sequence.
http://work.evolution.com/dist/HTML-MicroMason-1.0.0.tar.gz
Any feedback or suggestions you may have would be welcome.
-Simon
