NAME

LaTeX::Easy::Templates - Easily format content into PDF/PS/DVI with LaTeX templates.

VERSION

Version 0.02

SYNOPSIS

This module provides functionality to format text content, living in a Perl data structure, into printer-ready documents (PDF/Postscript/DVI). It utilises the idea of Templates and employs the powerful LaTeX (via LaTeX::Driver) in order to format and render the final documents into printer feed.

Its use requires that LaTeX is already installed in your system. Don't be alarmed! LaTeX is simple to install in any OS. Download the installer from here: https://www.tug.org/texlive/ or, if you have Linux, add it via your package manager. Using LaTeX will not only empower you like Guttenberg's press did and does, but it will also satisfy even the highest aesthetic standards with its 20/20 perfect typography. LaTeX is one of the rare cases where Software can be termed as Hardware. Install it and use it. Now.

Here is a basic scenario borrowed from Dilbert's adventures. You have a number of emails with fields like sender, recipient, subject and content. This data can be represented in Perl as an array of hashes like:

[
  {
    sender => 'jack',
    recipient => 'the clown',
    subject => 'hello',
    content => 'blah blah',
  },
  {
    sender => 'dede',
    recipient => 'kinski',
    subject => 'Paris rooftops',
    content => 'blah2 blah2',
  },
  ...
]

You want to render this data to PDF.

A more interesting scenario:

You are scraping a, say, News website. You want each article rendered as PDF. Your scraper provides the following data for each News article, and you have lots of those:

[
  {
    author => 'jack',
    title => '123',
    date => '12/12/2012',
    content => [
       'paragraph1',
       'paragraph2',
       ...
    ],
    comments => [
      {
        'author' => 'sappho',
        'content' => 'yearning ...',
     },
     ... # more comments
  }
  ... # more News articles
]

Once you collect your data and save it into a Perl data structure as above (note: the stress is on structure) you need to create a templated LaTeX document which will be complete except that where the author, sender, recipient, content, etc. would be, you will place some tags like:

<: $author :>
<: $sender :>

etc.

The LaTeX::Easy::Templates module will then take your data and your LaTeX template and produce the final rendered documents.

In section "STARTING WITH LaTeX" you will see how to easily build a LaTeX template from open source, publicly available, superbly styled "themes".

use LaTeX::Easy::Templates;

# templated LaTeX document in-memory
# (with variables to be substituted)
my $latex_template =<<'EOLA';
% basic LaTeX document
\documentclass[a4,12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\title{ <: $data.title :> }
\author{ <: $data.author.name :> <: $data.author.surname :> }
\date{ <: $data.date :> }
\maketitle
<: $data.content :>
\end{document}
EOLA

# my template variable substitutions
my $template_data = {
  'title' => 'a test title',
  'author' => {
  	'name' => 'myname',
  	'surname' => 'surname',
  },
  'date' => '2024/12/12',
  'content' => 'blah blah',
};

my $latte = LaTeX::Easy::Templates->new({
  debug => {verbosity=>2, cleanup=>1},
  'processors' => {
    'mytemplate' => {
      'template' => {
        'content' => $latex_template_string,
      },
      'output' => {
        'filepath' => 'output.pdf'
      }
    }
  }
});
die unless $latte;

my $ret = $latter->format({
  'template-data' => $template_data,
  'outfile' => 'xyz.pdf',
  # this is the in-memory LaTeX template
  'processor' => 'mytemplate'
});
die unless $ret;

In this way you can nicely and easily typesed your data into a PDF.

METHODS

`new()`

The constructor.

The full list of arguments, provided as a hashref, is as follows:

processors : required parameter as a hash(ref) specifying one or more processors which are responsible for rendering the final typeset document from either a template or a LaTeX source file. The processor name is a key to the specified hash and should contain these items:
- template : a hash(ref) containing information about the input LaTeX template. This information must be specified if no LaTeX source file is specified (see latex section below). Basically you need to specify the location of the LaTeX template file or a string with the contents of this template (as an in-memory template).
  
  Note that basedir and filename are explictly specified (instead of filepath) then **ALL CONTENTS** of basedir will be copied recursively to the output dir assuming that there are other files there (for example images, LaTeX style files etc.) which are needed during processing the template or running latex. If you do not want this file copying then just specify filepath.
  
  If there are other files or directories you will need during processing the template or running latex then you can specify them as an array(ref) in auxfiles. These will be copied recursively to the output dir.
  - filepath : specify the full path to the template file, or,
  - filename and basedir : specify a filename (not a file path) and the directory it resides. Note that if you specify these two, then **ALL CONTENTS** of basedir will be copied recursively to the output dir assuming that there are other files there (for example images, LaTeX style files etc.) which are needed during processing the template or running latex.
  - content : specify a string with the template contents. If this template calls other templates (from disk) then you should specify basedir to point to the path which holds these extra files. In this case basedir can be an array(ref) with more than one paths or just a scalar with a single path.
  - auxfiles : specify a set of files or directories, as an array(ref), to be copied recursively to the output dir. These files may be needed for processing the template or for running latex (for example, style files, images, other template files, etc.). However, copying directories recursively can be pretty heavy. So, there is an upper limit on the total file size of each of the paths specified. This can be set during runtime with
```
$self->max_size_for_filecopy(1024*1024);
# or set it to negative for skipping all file size checks
$self->max_size_for_filecopy(-1);
```
- output : specifies the file path to the output typesed document:
  - filepath : specify the full path to the output file, or,
  - filename and basedir : specify a filename (not a file path) and the directory it should reside.
    
    Note that the path will be created if it does not exist.
- latex : a hash(ref) containing information about the LaTeX source which will either be created from a LaTeX template (see template above) and some data for the template variables (more on this later) or be provided (the LaTeX source file) by the caller without any template.
  - filepath : specify the full path to the LaTeX source file which will be created from the template if the template parameter was specified, or be used directly if no template was specified. In the former case, the file may or may not exist on disk and will be created. In the latter case, it must exist on disk.
  - filename and basedir : specify a filename (not a file path) and the directory it resides. Again, the LaTeX source file needs to exist if no template parameter was specified.
  - latex-driver-parameters : parameters in a hash(ref) to be passed on to the LaTeX driver (LaTeX::Driver) which does the actual rendering of the LaTeX source file into the typeset printer-ready document. Refer to the documentation of LaTeX::Driver's constructor for the description of each of the parameters.
    
    Note that only the following parameters will be passed on:
    - format : specify the output format (e.g. pdf, ps, etc.) of the rendered document and, optionally, the LaTeX "flavour" to be used, e.g. xelatex, pdflatex, latex, etc. The default value is pdf(pdflatex).
    - paths : specifies a mapping of program names to full pathname as a hash reference. These paths override the paths determined at installation time (of LaTeX::Driver).
    - maxruns : The maximum number of runs of the formatter program (defaults to 10 in LaTeX::Driver)
    - extraruns : The number of additional runs of the formatter program after the document has stabilized.
    - timeout : Specifies a timeout in seconds within which any commands spawned should finish. Even for very long documents LaTeX is extremely fast, so this can be well under a minute.
    - indexstyle : The name of a makeindex index style file that should be passed to makeindex.
    - indexoptions : Specifies additional options that should be passed to makeindex. Useful options are: -c to compress intermediate blanks in index keys, -l to specify letter ordering rather than word ordering, -r to disable implicit range formation. Refer to LaTeX's makeindex(1) for full details.
    - DEBUG : Enables debug statements if set to a non-zero value. The value will be the same as our verbosity level.
    - DEBUGPREFIX : Sets the debug prefix, which is prepended to debug output if debug statements. By default there is no prefix.
    Note that the descriptions of the parameters (above) to be passed on to LaTeX::Driver are taken more-or-less verbatim from its documentation page, refer to the original document in case there are changes.
- latex : specify default parameters for processors' latex data in case it is absent:
  - filename : default LaTeX source filename (not a filepath).
  - latex-driver-parameters : default parameters to be passed on to LaTeX::Driver's constructor. See above for what it includes.
- debug :
  - verbosity : script's verbosity. A value of zero mutes the script. A higher integer increases the verbosity.
  - cleanup : a non-zero value will clean up all temporary files and directories including those created by LaTeX::Driver. This is the default. For debugging purpose, set this to zero so that you can inspect all intermediate files created.
- tempdir : specify where the temporary files will be placed. This location will be created if it does not exist. Default is to use a temporary location as given by the OS.
- logfile : specify a file to redirect the logger's output to. Default is to log messages to the console (STDOUT, STDERR).
- logger_object : supply a Mojo::Log object to use as the logger. In fact any object implementing error(), warn() and info() like Mojo::Log does will be accepted.

The constructor returns undef on failure.

Here is example code for calling the constructor:

 use LaTeX::Easy::Template;
 my $latter = LaTeX::Easy::Template->new({
  'processors' => {
    'in-memory' => {
       'latex' => {
    	'filename' => undef # create tmp
       },
       'template' => {
            # the template is in-memory string
    	'content' => '...'
       },
       'output' => {
    	'filename' => 'out.pdf'
       }
    }
    'on-disk' => {
      'latex' => {
    	'filename' => undef, # create tmp
       },
       'template' => {
    	'filepath' => 't/templates/simple01/main.tex.tx'
       },
       'output' => {
    	'filename' => 'out2.pdf'
       }
    }
  }, # end processors
  # log to this file, path will be created if not exists
  'logfile' => 'xyz/abc.log',
  'latex' => {
    'latex-driver-parameters' => {
       # we want PDF output run with xelatex which
       # easily supports multi-language documents
       'format' => 'pdf(xelatex)',
       'paths' => {
          # the path to the xelatex needed only if not standard
          'xelatex' => '/non-standard-path/xyz/xelatex'
       }
    }
  },
  'verbosity' => 1,
  'cleanup' => 0,
});

The above creates a LaTeX::Easy::Templates object which has 2 "processors" one which uses a LaTeX template from disk and one in-memory. Default LaTeX::Driver parameters are specified as well and will be used for these processors which do not specify any.

`untemplate()`

It creates a LaTeX source file from a template. This is the first step in rendering the final typeset document. which is done by "format()".

Note that calling this method is not necessary if you intend to call "format()" next. The latter will call the former if needed.

The full list of arguments is as follows:

processor : specify the name of the "processor" to use. The "processor" must be a key to the processors parameter passed to the constructor.
template-data : specify the data for the template's variables as a hash or array ref, depending on the structure of the template in use. This data is passed on to the template using the key data. So if your template data is this:
```
{
  name => 'aa',
}
```
Then your template will access name's value via <: $data.name : >

See "TEMPLATE PROCESSING" for more on the syntax of the template files.
latex, template : optionally, overwrite "processor"'s latex, template fields by specifying any of these fields here in exactly the same format as that of the processors parameter passed to the constructor ("new()").

RETURN

On failure, "untemplate()" returns back undef.

On success, it returns back a hash(ref) with two entries:

latex : contains fileapth, filename and basedir of the produced LaTeX source file.
template : it contains fileapth, filename, basedir and content. The last one will be undefined if the template used if the template was a file read from disk. The first three will be undefined otherwise.

`format()`

It renders the final typeset document. It will call "untemplate()" if is required to produce the intermediate LaTeX source file. If that file was specified, then it will render the final document by calling LaTeX::Driver.

The full list of arguments, provided by a hashref, is as follows:

processor : specify the name of the "processor" to use. The "processor" must be a key to the processors parameter passed to the constructor.
template-data : specify the data for the template's variables as a hash or array ref, depending on the structure of the template in use. This data is only needed if the intermediate LaTeX source file needs to be produced.
latex, template, output : optionally, overwrite "processor"'s latex, template, output fields by specifying any of these fields here in exactly the same format as that of the processors parameter passed to the constructor ("new()").

RETURN

On failure, "format()" returns back undef.

On success, it returns back a hash(ref) with three entries:

latex : contains fileapth, filename and basedir of the produced LaTeX source file.
template : it contains fileapth, filename, basedir and content. The last one will be undefined if the template used if the template was a file read from disk. The first three will be undefined otherwise.
output : it contains fileapth, filename and basedir pointing to the output typeset document it created.

`max_size_for_filecopy($maxsize)`

It gets or sets (with optional parameter $maxsize) the maximum size for doing a recursive file copy. Recursive file copies are done for template extra files which may be needed for processing the template or running latex. They are specified if template->basedir is explicitly set (then the whole basedir will be copied) or when template->auxfiles are specified as an arrayref of files/dirs to copy individually. In order to reduce the risk of unintentionally copying vast files and directories there is a limit to the total (recursively calculated) size of files/directories to be copied. This can be set here. The default is 3MB. However if you set this limit to a negative integer no checks will be make and file copying will be done unreservedly.

`verbosity($verbosity)`

It gets or sets (with optional parameter $verbosity) the verbosity level.

`cleanup($c)`

It gets or sets (with optional parameter $c) the cleanup parameter which contols the cleaning up of temporary files and directories or not. Set it to 1 to clean up. This is currently the default. Set it to 0 to keep these files for inspection during debugging.

`templater($t)`

It gets or sets (with optional parameter $t) the templater object. This is the object which convertes the LaTeX template into LaTeX source. Currently only Text::Xslate is supported.

`templater_reset()`

Reset the templater object which means to forget all the templates it knows and had possibly loaded in memory. After a reset all "processors" will be forgotten as well.

`templater_parameters($m, $n)`

It gets or sets (with optional parameter $m and possiblt $n) the parameters to be passed to the templater's (Text::Xslate) constructor:

If no parameter is specified then it returns all the parameters as a hash(ref).
If the first parameter is a hash, then its copies all its entries possibly overwriting existing values.
If the first parameter is a scalar and the second is omitted then it returns the value for this parameter if it exists.
If the first parameter is a scalar and the second is a scalar then it sets the value for this parameter to the second parameter.

These are some common templater paramaters:

syntax : specify the template syntax to be either Kolon or TTerse. Default is Kolon.
suffix : specify the template files suffix. Default is .tx (do not forget the dot).
verbose : set the verbosity. Default is current verbosity.

See Text::Xslate#Text::Xslate-%3Enew(%options) for more.

`log($l)`

It gets or sets (with optional parameter $l) the logger object. Currently the logger is of type Mojo::Log.

`latex_driver_executable($program_name)`

This is an exported sub (and not a method)

It enquires LaTeX::Driver for what is the fullpath to the program named $program_name. The program can be latex, dvips, makeindex, pdflatex etc. If the program is not found it returns undef.

The parameter is optional, if it is omitted a hash(ref) with all known paths is returned.

Note that LaTeX::Driver's paths are detected during its installation. Paths can be set during running "format()" by passing it latex->latex-driver-parameters->paths (a hashref mapping program names to their paths).

`processors()`

It returns the hash(ref) of known "processors" as they were set up during construction.

`loaded_info()`

It returns the hash(ref) of extra information relating to the "processors".

STARTING WITH LaTeX

Currently, the best place to get started with LaTeX is at the site https://www.overleaf.com/ (which I am not affiliated in any way). There is no subscription involved or any registration required.

Click on Templates and search for anything you are interested to typeset your data with. For example, if you are scraping a news website you may be interested in the Committee Times template. First check its license and if you agree with that, click on View Source, copy the contents and paste them into your new LaTeX file, let's call that main.tex located in a new directory templates/committee-times.

Firstly, run latex on it to with latex main.tex to see if there are any required files you need to install. For example it requires package newspaper. These packages are located at the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) . Search the package, download it, locate and change to your LaTeX installation directory (for example /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist), change to tex. Decide which flavour of LaTeX this package is for, e.g. latex or xelatex, change to that directory and unzip the downloaded file there. This is the hard way. The easy way is via your package manager. For example on Fedora with dnf there is this package texlive-newspaper.noarch. Easy. Running latex will tell you if it requires more packages to be installed.

Now study that LaTeX source file and identify what template variables and control structures to use in order to turn it into a template. Rename the file to main.tex.tx and you are ready.

Naturally, there will be a lot of head banging and hair pulling before you manage to produce anything decent.

LaTeX TEMPLATES

Creating a LaTeX template is very easy. You need to start with a LaTeX document and identify those sections which can be replaced by the template variables. You can also identify repeated sections and replace them with loops. It is exactly the same procedure as with creating HTML templates or email messages templates.

TEMPLATE PROCESSING

The LaTeX templates will be processed with Text::Xslate and must follow its rules. It understands two template syntaxes:

it's own Text::Xslate::Syntax::Kolon
and a subset of Template Toolkit 2 Text::Xslate::Syntax::TTerse

The default syntax is Text::Xslate::Syntax::Kolon. This can be changed via the parameters to the constructor of LaTeX::Easy::Templates by specifying

'templater-parameters' => {
    'syntax' => 'Kolon' #or 'TTerse'
}

or setting it before running "untemplate()" with

$latte->templater_parameters('syntax' => 'Kolon');

The data for the template variables comes bundled into a hashref which comes bundled into a hashref of a single key data. Therefore all references must be preceded by key data.

So if your template data is this:

{
  name => 'aa',
}

Then your template will access name's value via <: $data.name : >.

Text::Xslate supports loops and conditional statements etc. etc. Read Text::Xslate::Syntax::Kolon and/or Text::Xslate::Syntax::TTerse.

AUTHOR

Andreas Hadjiprocopis, <bliako at cpan.org>

HUGS

!Almaz!

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-latex-easy-templates at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at https://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=LaTeX-Easy-Templates. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

perldoc LaTeX::Easy::Templates

You can also look for information at:

RT: CPAN's request tracker (report bugs here)

https://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=LaTeX-Easy-Templates
Review this module at PerlMonks

https://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=21144
Search CPAN

https://metacpan.org/release/LaTeX-Easy-Templates

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LaTeX - excellent typography, superb aesthetics.

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This is free software, licensed under:

The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)

To install LaTeX::Easy::Templates, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm LaTeX::Easy::Templates

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install LaTeX::Easy::Templates

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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NAME

VERSION

SYNOPSIS

METHODS

new()

untemplate()

RETURN

format()

RETURN

max_size_for_filecopy($maxsize)

verbosity($verbosity)

cleanup($c)

templater($t)

templater_reset()

templater_parameters($m, $n)

log($l)

latex_driver_executable($program_name)

processors()

loaded_info()

STARTING WITH LaTeX

LaTeX TEMPLATES

TEMPLATE PROCESSING

AUTHOR

HUGS

BUGS

SUPPORT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Module Install Instructions

`new()`

`untemplate()`

`format()`

`max_size_for_filecopy($maxsize)`

`verbosity($verbosity)`

`cleanup($c)`

`templater($t)`

`templater_reset()`

`templater_parameters($m, $n)`

`log($l)`

`latex_driver_executable($program_name)`

`processors()`

`loaded_info()`