Frankly, the first two or three projects I did with HTML::Template were not done the right way ;) There were a lot of places where I was generating HTML inside of my Perl scripts because in my head I could make more sense of it there. Another project came along later. . . was writing a fully-featured demo to try and land a big contract for my company, and I knew my meager design skills wouldn't cut it, so I needed a real web page designer. The one I liked wouldn't know Perl if it bit her in the ass ;) Sooooo, my poor practices had to stop. I gave her simple text files with the variables I needed in them. . .

. . .And I've never looked back since. It takes some work sometimes, but my content and program logic are entirely separate now. I can hand my designer blank template files, write my programs, and know they will work perfectly and look great when the templates come back.

How do I do it??? Liberal use of some of the more advanced features of H::T, lots of TMPL_IFs, TMPL_VARs, and TMPL_LOOPs, and the good ole' conditional operator ;) I'm not saying this is the best way, but it works well for me.

Here's a brief example of what I do. First, the template:

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3">
    <tr valign="top">
        <td>
            <b><a href="<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=SCRIPT -->?<!-- TMPL_IF NAM
+E=SESSION -->CGISESSID=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=SESSION -->&<!-- /TMPL_IF -
+->mode=results&sort=parcel&dir=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=PARCEL_DIR -->&chan
+ge=true">Parcel Number</a></b>
            <!-- TMPL_IF NAME=PARCEL_ASC -->
            <img src="/images/arrow_up.gif">
            <!-- /TMPL_IF -->
            <!-- TMPL_IF NAME=PARCEL_DESC -->
            <img src="/images/arrow_down.gif">
            <!-- /TMPL_IF -->
            &nbsp;
        </td>
        <td>
            <b><a href="<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=SCRIPT -->?<!-- TMPL_IF NAM
+E=SESSION -->CGISESSID=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=SESSION -->&<!-- /TMPL_IF -
+->mode=results&sort=name&dir=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=NAME_DIR -->&change=t
+rue">Name</a></b>
            <!-- TMPL_IF NAME=NAME_ASC -->
            <img src="/images/arrow_up.gif">
            <!-- /TMPL_IF -->
            <!-- TMPL_IF NAME=NAME_DESC -->
            <img src="/images/arrow_down.gif">
            <!-- /TMPL_IF -->
            &nbsp;
        </td>
        <td><b>Address</b></td>
    </tr>

    <!-- TMPL_LOOP NAME=RESULTS -->
    <tr valign="top">
        <td><font color="<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=COLOR -->"><a href="<!-- T
+MPL_VAR NAME=SCRIPT -->?mode=view&parcel=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=UPARCEL -
+->&year=<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=YEAR -->"><!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=PARCEL --></a
+></font></td>
        <td><font color="<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=COLOR -->"><!-- TMPL_VAR N
+AME=NAME --></font></td>
        <td><font color="<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME=COLOR -->"><!-- TMPL_VAR N
+AME=ADDRESS --></font></td>
    </tr>
    <!-- /TMPL_LOOP -->
</table>
[download]

And now the Perl:

$tmpl_results->param
(
    RESULTS     => \@results,
    SESSION     => $config{USE_SESSION_HACK} eq "Y" ? $self->param("se
+ssion")->id : "",
    SCRIPT      => $request->url,
    SORT        => $sort,
    PARCEL_DIR  => (($sort eq "parcel" and $dir eq "ASC" ) ? "DESC" : 
+"ASC"),
    PARCEL_ASC  => (($sort eq "parcel" and $dir eq "ASC" ) ? "Y" : "")
+,
    PARCEL_DESC => (($sort eq "parcel" and $dir eq "DESC") ? "Y" : "")
+,
    NAME_DIR    => (($sort eq "name"   and $dir eq "ASC")  ? "DESC" : 
+"ASC"),
    NAME_ASC    => (($sort eq "name"   and $dir eq "ASC"  )  ? "Y" : "
+"),
    NAME_DESC   => (($sort eq "name"   and $dir eq "DESC" )  ? "Y" : "
+"),
    DIR         => $dir,
    TIME        => sprintf("%$config{FORMAT_TIME}", $time),
    NUM_RESULTS => $rows,
    START       => $first,
    END         => $last,
    FIRST       => ($first == 1 ? "" : "first=1&last=$config{INCREMENT
+}"),
    PREV        => ($first == 1 ? "" : "first=" . ($first - $config{IN
+CREMENT}) . "&last=" . ($last - $config{INCREMENT})),
    NEXT        => ($last >= $rows ? "" : "first=" . ($first + $config
+{INCREMENT}) . "&last=" . ($last + $config{INCREMENT})),
    LAST        => ($last >= $rows ? "" : "first=" . ($rows - $config{
+INCREMENT}) . "&last=$rows"),
);
[download]

One thing that has drastically helped my development is HTML::Template. It promotes cleaner application structure, and plays nicely with H::T. Give it a check.

Feel free to contact me with questions about what I did.

Cheers!
MrCromeDome

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