NAME
Text::Xslate::Syntax::Kolon - The default template syntax
SYNOPSIS
use Text::Xslate;
my $tx = Text::Xslate->new(
syntax => 'Kolon', # optional
);
print $tx->render_string(
'Hello, <: $dialect :> world!',
{ dialect => 'Kolon' }
);
DESCRIPTION
Kolon is the default syntax, using <: ... :>
tags and : ...
line code. In this syntax all the features in Xslate are available.
SYNTAX
Variable access
Variable access:
<: $var :>
Field access:
<: $var.0 :>
<: $var.field :>
<: $var.accessor :>
<: $var["field"] :>
<: $var[0] :>
Variables may be HASH references, ARRAY references, or objects. Because $var.field
and $var["field"]
are the same semantics, $obj["accessor"]
syntax may be call object methods.
Literals
Special:
: nil # as undef, indicating "nothing"
: true # as the integer 1
: false # as the integer 0
String:
: "foo\n" # the same as perl
: 'foo\n' # the same as perl
Number:
: 42
: 3.14
: 0xFF # hex
: 0777 # octal
: 0b1010 # binary
Array:
: for [1, 2, 3] -> $i { ... }
Hash:
: foo({ foo => "bar" })
Note that { ... }
is always parsed as hash literals, so you don't need to use the <+> prefix as Perl sometimes requires:
: {}.kv(); # ok
: +{}.kv(); # also ok
Expressions
Conditional operator (?:
):
: $var.value == nil ? "nil" : $var.value
Relational operators (== != < <= > >=
):
: $var == 10 ? "10" : "not 10"
: $var != 10 ? "not 10" : "10"
Note that ==
and !=
are similar to Perl's eq
and ne
except that $var == nil
is true iff $var is uninitialized, while other relational operators are numerical.
Arithmetic operators (+ - * / % min max
):
: $var * 10_000
: ($var % 10) == 0
: 10 min 20 min 30 # 10
: 10 max 20 max 30 # 30
Bitwise operators (prefix:<+^> +& +| +^
)
: 0x1010 +| 0x3200 # bitwise or: 0x3210
: 0x1010 +& 0x3200 # bitwise and: 0x1000
: 0x1010 +^ 0x3200 # bitwise xor: 0x0210
: +^0x1010 # bitwise neg: 0xFFFFEFEF (on 32 bit system)
Logical operators (! && || // not and or
)
: $var >= 0 && $var <= 10 ? "ok" : "too smaller or too larger"
: $var // "foo" # as a default value
String operators (~
)
: "[" ~ $var ~ "]" # concatenation
The operator precedence is very like Perl's:
. () []
prefix:<!> prefix:<+> prefix:<-> prefix:<+^>
* / % x +&
+ - ~ +| +^
prefix:<defined>
< <= > >=
== !=
|
&&
|| // min max
?:
not
and
or
Constants (or binding)
You can define lexical constants with constant
, which requires a bare word, and my
, which requires a variable name.
: constant FOO = 42;
: my $foo = 42;
These two statements has the same semantics, so you cannot modify $foo
.
: my $foo = 42; $foo = 3.14; # compile error!
Loops
There are for
loops that are like Perl's foreach
.
: # iterate over an ARRAY reference
: for $data -> $item {
[<: $item.field :>]
: }
: # iterate over a HASH reference
: # You must specify how to iterate it (.keys(), .values() or .kv())
: for $data.keys() -> $key {
<: $key :>=<: $data[$key] :>
: }
And the for
statement can take an else
block:
: for $data -> $item {
[<: $item.field :>]
: }
: else {
Nothing in data
: }
The else
block is executed if $data is an empty array or nil.
You can get the iterator index in for
statements as $~ITERATOR_VAR
:
: for $data -> $item {
: if ($~item % 2) == 0 {
Even (0, 2, 4, ...)
: }
: else {
Odd (1, 3, 5, ...)
: }
: }
$~ITERATOR_VAR
is a pseudo object, so you can access its elements via the dot-name syntax.
: for $data -> $i {
: $~i # 0-origin iterator index (0, 1, 2, ...)
: $~i.index # the same as $~i
: $~i.count # the same as $~i + 1
: if ($~i.index % 2) == 0 {
even
: }
: else {
odd
: }
: $~i.cycle("even", "odd") # => "even" -> "odd" -> "even" -> "odd" ...
: }
Supported iterator elements are index :Int
, count :Int
, body : ArrayRef
, size : Int
, max_index :Int
, is_first :Bool
, is_last :Bool
, peek_next :Any
, peek_prev :Any
, cycle(...) :Any
.
while
loops are also supported in the same semantics as Perl's:
: # $obj might be an iteratable object
: while $dbh.fetch() -> $item {
[<: $item.field :>]
: }
while defined expr -> $item
is interpreted as while defined(my $item = expr)
for convenience.
: while defined $dbh.fetch() -> $item {
[<: $item # $item can be false-but-defined :>]
: }
Loop control statements, namely next
and last
, are also supported in both for
and while
loops.
: for $data -> $item {
: last if $item == 42
...
: }
Conditional statements
There are if-else
and given-when
conditional statements.
if-else
:
: if $var == nil {
$var is nil.
: }
: else if $var != "foo" { # elsif is okay
$var is not nil nor "foo".
: }
: else {
$var is "foo".
: }
: if( $var >= 1 && $var <= 10 ) {
$var is 1 .. 10
: }
Note that if
doesn't require parens, so the following code is okay:
: if ($var + 10) == 20 { } # OK
given-when
(also known as switch statement):
: given $var {
: when "foo" {
it is foo.
: }
: when ["bar", "baz" ] {
it is either bar or baz.
: }
: default {
it is not foo nor bar.
}
: }
You can specify the topic variable.
: given $var -> $it {
: when "foo" {
it is foo.
: }
: when $it == "bar" or $it == "baz" {
it is either bar or baz.
: }
: }
Functions and filters
You can register functions via function
or module
options for Text::Xslate->new()
.
Once you have registered functions, you can call them with the ()
operator. infix:<|>
is also supported as a syntactic sugar to ()
.
: f() # without args
: f(1, 2, 3) # with args
: 42 | f # the same as f(42)
Functions are just Perl's subroutines, so you can define dynamic functions (a.k.a. dynamic filters), which is a subroutine that returns another subroutine:
# code
sub mk_indent {
my($prefix) = @_;
return sub {
my($str) = @_;
$str =~ s/^/$prefix/xmsg;
return $str;
}
}
my $tx = Text::Xslate->new(
function => {
indent => \&mk_indent,
},
);
:# template
: $value | indent("> ") # Template-Toolkit like
: indent("> ")($value) # This is also valid
example/dynamic_functions.tx
has examples of dynamic functions being used with block, function and filter syntax, and with scalar, hash and array objects.
There are several builtin functions, which you cannot redefine:
: $var | mark_raw # marks it as a raw string
: $var | raw # synonym to mark_raw
: $var | unmark_raw # removes "raw" marker from it
: $var | html # does html-escape to it and marks it as raw
: $var | dump # dumps it with Data::Dumper
Note that you should not use mark_raw
in templates because it can make security hole easily just like as type casts in C. If you want to generate HTML components dynamically, e.g. by HTML form builders, application code should be responsible to make strings as marked raw
.
Methods
When $var is an object instance, you can call its methods with the dot operator.
<: $var.method() :>
<: $var.method(1, 2, 3) :>
<: $var.method( foo => [ 1, 2, 3 ] ) :>
There is an autoboxing mechanism that provides primitive types with builtin methods. See Text::Xslate::Manual::Builtin for details.
You can define more primitive methods with the function
option. See Text::Xslate.
Template inclusion
Template inclusion is a traditional way to extend templates.
: include "foo.tx";
: include "foo.tx" { var1 => value1, var2 => value2, ... };
: include "foo.tx" {$vars}; # use $vars as the params
if a var exist in the {$vars} and __ROOT__, the one in {$vars} will win.
also, be careful about the order of vars.
: include "foo.tx" { var1 => $id, id => $var, var2 => $id }
var1 and var2 will be replaced by $id, var2 will be replaced by $var, because the value of id is changed
As cascade
does, include
allows barewords:
: include foo # the same as 'foo.tx'
: include foo::bar # the same as 'foo/bar.tx'
Xslate templates may be recursively included, but the including depth is limited to 100.
Template cascading
Template cascading is another way to extend templates other than include
.
First, make base templates myapp/base.tx:
: block title -> { # with default
[My Template!]
: }
: block body -> { } # without default
Then extend from base templates with the cascade
keyword:
: cascade myapp::base
: cascade myapp::base { var1 => value1, var2 => value2, ...}
: cascade myapp::base with myapp::role1, myapp::role2
: cascade with myapp::role1, myapp::role2
In derived templates, you may extend templates (e.g. myapp/foo.tx) with block modifiers before
, around
(or override
) and after
.
: # cascade "myapp/base.tx" is also okay
: cascade myapp::base
: # use default title
: around body -> {
My template body!
: }
And, make yet another derived template myapp/bar.tx:
: cascade myapp::foo
: around title -> {
--------------
: super
--------------
: }
: before body -> {
Before body!
: }
: after body -> {
After body!
: }
Then render it as usual.
my $tx = Text::Xslate->new( file => 'myapp/bar.tx' );
$tx->render({});
The result is something like this:
--------------
[My Template!]
--------------
Before body!
My template body!
After body!
You can also cascade templates just like Moose's roles:
: cascade myapp::base with myapp::role1, myapp::role2
You can omit the base template.
Given a file myapp/hello.tx:
: around hello -> {
--------------
: super
--------------
: }
Then the main template:
: cascade with myapp::hello
: block hello -> {
Hello, world!
: }
Output:
--------------
Hello, world!
--------------
In fact, you can omit the base template, and components can include any macros.
Given a file common.tx
: macro hello -> $lang {
Hello, <: $lang :> world!
: }
: around title -> {
--------------
: super
--------------
: }
The main template:
: cascade with common
: block title -> {
Hello, world!
: }
: hello("Xslate")
Output:
--------------
Hello, world!
--------------
Hello, Xslate world!
There is a limitation that you cannot pass variables to the cascade
keyword, because template cascading is statically processed.
Macro blocks
Macros are supported, which are called in the same way as functions and return a raw
string. Macros return what their bodies render, so they cannot return references or objects, including other macros.
: macro add ->($x, $y) {
: $x + $y;
: }
: add(10, 20)
: macro signature -> {
This is foo version <: $VERSION :>
: }
: signature()
: macro factorial -> $x {
: $x == 0 ? 1 : $x * factorial($x-1)
: }
: factorial(1) # as a function
: 1 | factorial # as a filter
If you want to html-escape the return values of macros, you can use unmark_raw
to remove raw-ness
from the values.
: macro em -> $s {
<em><: $s :></em>
: }
: em("foo") # renders "<em>foo</em>"
: em("foo") | unmark_raw # renders "<em>foo<em>"
Because macros are first-class objects, you can bind them to symbols.
<: macro foo -> { "foo" }
macro bar -> { "bar" }
my $dispatcher = {
foo => foo,
bar => bar,
}; -:>
: $dispatcher{$key}()
Anonymous macros are also supported, although they can return only strings. They might be useful for callbacks to high-level functions or methods.
<: -> $x, $y { $x + $y }(1, 2) # => 3 :>
The block
keyword is used to make a group of template code, and you can apply filters to that block with infix:<|>
. Here is an example to embed HTML source code into templates.
Template:
: block source | unmark_raw -> {
<em>Hello, world!</em>
: }
Output:
<em>Hello, world!</em>
See also "Using FillInForm" in Text::Xslate::Manual::Cookbook for another example to use this block filter syntax.
Note that closures are not supported.
Chomping newlines
You can add -
to the immediate start or end of a directive tag to control the newline chomping options to keep the output clean. The starting -
removes leading newlines and the ending -
removes trailing ones.
Special keywords
There are special keywords:
- __FILE__
-
Indicates the current file name. Equivalent to
Text::Xslate->current_file
. - __LINE__
-
Indicates the current line number. Equivalent to
Text::Xslate->current_line
. - __ROOT__
-
Means the root of the parameters. Equivalent to
Text::Xslate->current_vars
.
Comments
Comments start from #
to a new line or semicolon.
:# this is a comment
<:
# this is also a comment
$foo # $foo is rendered
:>
<: $bar # this is ok :>
<: # this is comment; $baz # $baz is rendered :>