HTML::...mpiled(3pm)

📦

version 1.003 · 2 versions

1.003 · debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking (latest)
1.003 · ubuntu jammy

, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 HTML::Template::Compiled(3pm) 💖

User Contributed Perl Documentation — okay bestie, it's giving Perl module realness.

✨ NAME ✨

HTML::Template::Compiled — Template System Compiles HTML::Template files to Perl code

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

Okay so here's the whole vibe. You can use it like this, and these options are highly recommended:

         use HTML::Template::Compiled;
         # recommended options:
         # case_sensitive => 1
         # search_path_on_include => 1
         # use_query => 0
         # default_escape => 'HTML' # <-- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

         # note that the following
         # use HTML::Template::Compiled speed => 1
         # is deprecated (can be problematic under persistent environments)

         # or for the biggest compatibility with HTML::Template
         # case_sensitive => 0
         # search_path_on_include => 0
         # use_query => 1
         # note that the following
         # use HTML::Template::Compiled compatible => 1;
         # is deprecated (can be problematic under persistent environments)

         # or use HTML::Template::Compiled::Classic

           my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
               filename            => 'test.tmpl',
               case_sensitive      => 1,
               default_escape      => 'HTML',
           );
           $htc->param(
               BAND => $name,
               ALBUMS => [
                   { TITLE => $t1, YEAR => $y1 },
                   { TITLE => $t2, YEAR => $y2 },
               ],
           );
           print $htc->output;

         test.tmpl:
         Band: <TMPL_VAR BAND>
         <TMPL_LOOP ALBUMS>
         Title: <TMPL_VAR TITLE> (<TMPL_VAR YEAR>)
         </TMPL_LOOP>

         Or use different tag styles:
         Band: <%= BAND %>
         <%loop ALBUMS %>
         Title: <%= TITLE %> (<%= YEAR %>)
         <%/loop %>
         Band: [%= BAND %]
         [%loop ALBUMS %]
         Title: [%= TITLE %] ([%= YEAR %])
         [%/loop %]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

HTML::Template::Compiled is literally a template system bestie, and it works with HTML::Template templates using almost the same API. It's giving more flexible template delimiters, extra tags and features, and because it compiles the template into Perl code, it can run significantly faster in persistent environments like FastCGI or mod_perl. No cap.

The goal? More features for flexibility, but the basic syntax stays easy. Periodt. 💅

Features at a glance:

Dot notation for objects, hashes and arrays
Use expressions without any disadvantages like those in HTML::Template::Expr
Write escaping plugins and plugins for new tags
Alternate delimiters, e.g. "[%if %]" and "<%if %>"
Avoid "global_vars" option by using the "SET_VAR" tag to create aliases.
Tags ELSIF, EACH, WHILE, COMMENT, WRAPPER, SWITCH/CASE, INCLUDE_VAR
Chomp newlines/whitespace

For a quick reference, peep HTML::Template::Compiled::Reference. And because the basic features work like HTML::Template, bestie, please get familiar with its docs first. 💖

HTML::Template::Compiled (aka HTC) does not implement every single feature of HTML::Template (see "COMPATIBILITY"), and it's got some extra features explained below in "ADDITIONAL FEATURES". It's giving main character energy but also boundaries. ✨

See "BENCHMARKS" for some performance examples. But real talk: it depends highly on the options used and the template size, so there's no general statement on its performance. Lowkey impossible to promise a number. 💀

You might wanna use HTML::Template::Compiled::Lazy for CGI environments because it doesn't parse the template before calling output. But heads up: HTC::Lazy isn't much tested, and the author doesn't use it themself, so there's a lack of experience. If you use it and have problems, please report. 🙈

HTC will use a lot of memory because it keeps all template objects in memory. If you're on mod_perl and have a lot of templates, you should preload them at server startup to be sure it's in shared memory. At the moment HTC is not fully tested for keeping all data in shared memory (e.g. when a copy-on-write occurs), but it seems like it's behaving well. For preloading you can use HTML::Template::Compiled->preload($cache_dir).

Generating code, writing it on disk, and later eval()-ing it can open security holes. For example, if you have more users on the same machine who can access the same files (usually an http server running as 'www' or 'nobody'). See "SECURITY" for details on what you can do to safe yourself.

⚠️ This is important, bestie. Don't sleep on it.

NOTE: If you don't need any of the additional features listed below and you don't need the speed (in many cases it's probably not worth trading speed for memory), then you might be better off just using HTML::Template. Like, for real.

NOTE2: If you have questions or bug reports, send them to the author and not to Sam Tregar. This module is developed by the author at the moment, independently from HTML::Template, although they try to get most of the tests from it passing for HTC. See "RESOURCES" for current information. 🫶

🎀 FEATURES FROM HTML::TEMPLATE 🎀

TMPL_VAR
TMPL_LOOP
TMPL_(IF|UNLESS|ELSE)
TMPL_INCLUDE
HTML_TEMPLATE_ROOT
ESCAPE=(HTML|URL|JS|0)
DEFAULT=...
"__first__", "__last__", "__inner__", "__outer__", "__odd__", "__counter__", "__even__"

case insensitive var names
- use option case_sensitive => 0 to use this feature (slow down)
filters
vars that are subrefs - not implemented, only in HTML::Template::Compiled::Classic
scalarref, arrayref, filehandle
"global_vars"
"query"
- Has a bug (doesn't return parameters in included files of included files). I'm working on that.

🌈 ADDITIONAL FEATURES 🌈

What can HTC do for you additionally to HTML::Template? So much, bestie.

tag TMPL_ELSIF — No need to have cascading "if-else-if-else"s
tag TMPL_EACH — Iterate over a hash. See "TMPL_EACH"
tag TMPL_WITH — see "TMPL_WITH"
tag TMPL_WHILE — see "TMPL_WHILE"
tag TMPL_SET_VAR — see "SET_VAR"
tag TMPL_USE_VARS — see "USE_VARS"
tags TMPL_COMMENT, TMPL_NOPARSE, TMPL_VERBATIM — see "TMPL_COMMENT", "TMPL_NOPARSE", "TMPL_VERBATIM"
tag TMPL_WRAPPER — see "WRAPPER"
"__index__" — Additional loop variable ("__counter__ -1")
"__break__" — Additional loop variable (see "TMPL_LOOP")
"__filename__", "__filenameshort__" (since 0.91_001) — Insert the template filename for debugging:

               <%= __filename__ %>
               <%= __filenameshort__ %>

will turn out as:

               templates/path/file.html
               path/file.html

See also option debug_file in "OPTIONS" for adding the filename globally.

tags TMPL_SWITCH, TMPL_CASE — see "TMPL_SWITCH"
"TMPL_PERL" — Include perl code in your template. See "RUNNING PERL WITH TMPL_PERL"
CHOMP — New in version 0.96_001, please report any bugs and send me suggestions.

You can set global chomp options in the constructor. These work like in Template-Toolkit:

               my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
                   pre_chomp  => 0, # 0, 1, 2, 3, default 0
                   post_chomp => 1, # 0, 1, 2, 3, default 0
               );

Meaning of the values: 0: Don't chomp 1: remove only spaces in the line before or after the tag 2: remove all whitespaces before or after the tag, and replace with one space 3: remove all whitespaces before or after the tag

In the template you can change that feature by using PRE_CHOMP and POST_CHOMP attributes:

               <%= foo PRE_CHOMP=3 POST_CHOMP=1 %>

The experimental tags +..._chomp have been removed.

Generating perl code — See "IMPLEMENTATION"
better variable access — dot-notation for accessing hash values. See "EXTENDED VARIABLE ACCESS"
rendering objects — dot-notation for accessing object methods. See "RENDERING OBJECTS"
output to filehandle — See "OPTIONS"
Dynamic includes — "INCLUDE_VAR", "INCLUDE_STRING". See "INCLUDE"
tag TMPL_IF_DEFINED — Check for definedness instead of truth:

             <TMPL_IF_DEFINED NAME="var">

ALIAS — Set an alias for a loop variable. You can use the alias then with $alias. The syntax without the "$" is also possible but not recommended any more.

For example, these two loops are functionally equivalent:

            <tmpl_loop foo>
              <tmpl_var _>
            </tmpl_loop foo>
            <tmpl_loop foo alias=current>
              <tmpl_var $current>
            </tmpl_loop foo>

This works with "TMPL_LOOP" and "TMPL_WHILE" at the moment.

You can also set aliases with the "SET_VAR" tag. See "SET_VAR"

To use template parameters with a "$" at the beginning (which is not officially supported, but some are obviously using it), you can set:

               local $HTML::Template::Compiled::Compiler::DISABLE_NEW_ALIAS = 1;

This is only a temporary workaround and will be removed some day!

Note that you are also able to access variables with dollar signs like this:

               <tmpl_var _.$foo >

since underscore means current position in the parameter stash, and aliases are only recognized at the beginning of a template var. But note that dollar signs are still not officially supported.

Chained escaping — See "ESCAPING"
tagstyles — For those who like it (i like it because it is shorter than TMPL_), you can use <% %> tags and the <%= tag instead of <%VAR (which will work, too):

            <%IF blah%>  <%= VARIABLE%>  <%/IF%>

Define your own tagstyles and/or deactivate predefined ones. See "OPTIONS" tagstyle.

pre_chomp, post_chomp — See "CHOMP"

💀 MISSING AND DIFFERENT FEATURES 💀

There are some features of H::T that are missing or behaving different. I'll try to list them here.

MISSING FEATURES

die_on_bad_params — I don't think I'll implement that.
force_untaint — Not planned at the moment
vanguard_compatibility_mode — Not planned.
shared_cache, double_cache — Not planned at the moment
blind_cache — Not sure if I should implement. In HTC you have the possibility to set the expire time of the templates (after that time in memory the template file is rechecked if it has changed), so setting a very high value for expire_time would have the same effect as blind_cache. See "CACHING" "expire_time"
double_file_cache — If I understand correctly, in HT, this enables memory and file cache at the same time. In HTC, this is not needed. If you use file_cache and cache, both are used.
file_cache_dir_mode — Not planned. The cache dir must exist, and subdirectories are not created at the moment.
cache_lazy_vars, cache_lazy_loops — Not planned at the moment (This would be for HTML::Template::Compiled::Classic, since it implements code refs).
utf8 — Might be added in the future, HTC already has "open_mode"
various debug options — Might be implemented in the future
associate — Not planned.
max_includes — Not planned
die_on_missing_include — Maybe 💭 (that's genuinely all the docs say, bestie, we don't make the rules)

🌈 DIFFERENT FEATURES 🌈

💅 case_sensitive

Default is 1 (on) — that's the factory setting, she's awake.

Deactivate by passing option case_sensitive 0.

Note (again): this will slow down templating a lot (50%). 😭

Explanation: this has nothing to do with "TMPL_IF" or "tmpl_if". It's about the variable names. With case_sensitive set to 1, the following tags are different:

<tmpl_var Foo> prints the value of hash key 'Foo'
<tmpl_var fOO> prints the value of hash key 'fOO'

With case_sensitive set to 0, all your parameters passed to param() are converted to lowercase, and the following tags are the same:

<tmpl_var Foo> prints the value of hash key 'foo'
<tmpl_var fOO> prints the value of hash key 'foo'

🦋 subref variables

As of version 0.69, subref variables are not supported any more with HTML::Template::Compiled. Use HTML::Template::Compiled::Classic (contained in this distribution) instead. It provides most features of HTC. ✨

🎀 search_path_on_include

Default: 0

In the HTML::Template documentation it says, if search_path_on_include is set to 1, the paths of the path option are searched, while the default behaviour is to look "only" in the current template directory.

It's not clear if it still searches in the current directory if set to 1. I found out that it is not, so you cannot have both. 💀

In HTML::Template::Compiled, search_path_on_include can have three values:

0: search current template directory
1: search paths specified
2: search paths and current template directory.

🌸 open_mode

In HTC you should leave out the "<" at the beginning.

If you want to have your templates read in utf-8, use

open_mode => ':encoding(utf-8)',

as an option. 🫶

⭐ use_query

default is 0 (off). Set it via the option "use_query"

💜 Arrayrefs

At the moment this snippet

<tmpl_if arrayref>true<tmpl_else>false</tmpl_if arrayref>

with this code:

$htc->param(arrayref => []);

will print true in HTC and false in HTML::Template. In HTML::Template an array is true if it has content, in HTC it's true if it (the reference) is defined. I'll try to find a way to change that behaviour, though that might be for the cost of speed. 🏃‍♀️

As of HTML::Template::Compiled 0.85 you can use this syntax:

<tmpl_if arrayref# >true<tmpl_else>false</tmpl_if >

In HTML::Template::Compiled::Classic 0.04 it works as in HTML::Template.

🔥 debug_cache

Additional to 0 or 1 it can take an array ref for debugging only specific cache operations.

Note: the following is deprecated: 👇

To be compatible in all of the above options all use:

use HTML::Template::Compiled compatible => 1;

If you don't care about these options you should use

use HTML::Template::Compiled speed => 1;

which is the default but depending on user wishes that might change.

🚫 DEPRECATED 🚫

class methods ExpireTime, EnableSub, CaseSensitive, SearchPathOnInclude, UseQuery
option formatter_path
tag USE_VARS, not needed anymore
option cache_dir (replaced by file_cache_dir)
options method_call, deref, default_path, dumper
import tags short, compatible, speed

✨ ESCAPING ✨

Like in HTML::Template, you have "ESCAPE=HTML", "ESCAPE=URL" and "ESCAPE_JS". "ESCAPE=HTML" will only escape "&<>. If you want to escape more, use "ESCAPE=HTML_ALL". Additionally you have "ESCAPE=DUMP", which by default will generate a Data::Dumper output. 🎁

You can also chain different escapings, like "ESCAPE=DUMP|HTML".

Additionally to ESCAPE=JS you have ESCAPE=IJSON which does not escape the single quote. 💅

🧚 INCLUDE 🧚

Additionally to

<TMPL_INCLUDE NAME="file.htc">

you can do an include of a template variable:

<TMPL_INCLUDE_VAR NAME="file_include_var">
$htc->param(file_include_var => "file.htc");

Using "INCLUDE VAR="..." is deprecated.

You can also include strings:

template:
inc: <%include_string foo %>

code:
$htc->param(
    foo => 'included=<%= bar%>',
    bar => 'real',
);

output:
inc: included=real

Note that included strings are not cached and cannot include files or strings themselves. 🙈

🌈 EXTENDED VARIABLE ACCESS 🌈

With HTC, you have more control over how you access your template parameters. An example:

my %hash = (
  SELF => '/path/to/script.pl',
  LANGUAGE => 'de',
  BAND => 'Bauhaus',
  ALBUMS => [
  {
    NAME => 'Mask',
    SONGS => [ { NAME => 'Hair of the Dog' }, ... ],
  },
  ],
  INFO => {
    BIOGRAPHY => '...',
    LINK => '...'
  },
  NAME => "Cool script",
);

Now in the TMPL_LOOP "ALBUMS" you would like to access the path to your script, stored in $hash{SELF}. in HTML::Template you have to set the option "global_vars", so you can access $hash{SELF} from everywhere. Unfortunately, now "NAME" is also global, which might not a problem in this simple example, but in a more complicated template this is impossible. With HTC, you wouldn't use "global_vars" here, but you can say:

<TMPL_VAR .SELF>

to access the root element, and you could even say .INFO.BIOGRAPHY or ALBUMS[0].SONGS[0].NAME (the latter has changed since version 0.79) 👑

🎀 RENDERING OBJECTS 🎀

This is still in development, so I might change the API here. 🚧

Additionally to feeding a simple hash to HTC, you can feed it objects. To do method calls you can also use . in the template.

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
);

$htc->param(
  VAR => "blah",
  OBJECT => bless({...}, "Your::Class"),
);

<TMPL_VAR NAME="OBJECT.fullname">
<TMPL_WITH OBJECT>
Name: <TMPL_VAR fullname>
</TMPL_WITH>

"fullname" will call the fullname method of your Your::Class object.

It's recommended to just use the default . value for methods and dereferencing.

I might stop supporting that you can set the values for method calls by setting an option. Ideally I would like to have that behaviour changed only by inheriting.

💻 RUNNING PERL WITH TMPL_PERL 💻

Yes, templating systems are for separating code and templates. But as it turned out to be implemented much easier than expressions i decided to implement it. But expressions are also available with the option "use_expressions".

Note: If you have templates that can be edited by untrustworthy persons then you don't want them to include perl code. 💀

So, how do you use the perl-tag? First, you have to set the option "use_perl" to 1 when creating a template object.

Important note: don't use "print" in the included code. Usually the template code is concatenated and returned to your perl script. To 'print' something out use

__OUT__ 2**3;

This will be turned into something like

$OUT .= 2**3;
# or
print $fh 2**3;

Important note 2: HTC does not parse Perl. if you use the classic tag-delimiters like this:

<tmpl_perl if (__CURRENT__->count > 42) { >

this will not work as it might seem. Use other delimiters instead:

<%perl if (__CURRENT__->count > 42) { %>

Example:

<tmpl_loop list>
<tmpl_perl unless (__INDEX__ % 3) { >
  </tr><tr>
<tmpl_perl } >
</tmpl_loop list>

# takes the current position of the parameter
# hash, key 'foo' and multiplies it with 3
<%perl __OUT__ __CURRENT__->{foo} * 3; %>

List of special keywords inside a perl-tag: 👇

__OUT__ — Is turned into "$OUT .=" or "print $fh"
__HTC__ — Is turned into the variable containing the current template object.
__CURRENT__ — Turned into the variable containing the current position in the parameter hash.
__ROOT__ — Turned into the variable containing the parameter hash.
__INDEX__ — Turned into the current index of a loop (starting with 0).

🧬 INHERITANCE 🧬

It's possible since version 0.69 to inherit from HTML::Template::Compiled. It's just not documented, and internal method names might change in the near future. I'll try to fix the API and document which methods you can inherit. 🫠

🦋 METHODS TO INHERIT 🦋

method_call — Default is sub method_call { '.' }
deref — Default is sub deref { '.' }
formatter_path — Deprecated, see HTML::Template::Compiled::Formatter please.
compile_early — Define if every included file should be checked and parsed at compile time of the including template or later when it is really used.

Default is sub compile_early { 1 }

parser_class — Default is sub parser_class { 'HTML::Template::Compiled::Parser' }

You can write your own parser class (which must inherit from HTML::Template::Compiled::Parser) and use this.

HTML::Template::Compiled::Lazy uses this.

🐛 DEBUGGING 🐛

For printing out the contents of all the parameters you can do:

<TMPL_LOOP ALBUMS>
Dump: <TMPL_VAR _ ESCAPE=DUMP|HTML>
</TMPL_LOOP>

The special name "_" gives you the current parameter and "ESCAPE=DUMP" will by default generate a Data::Dumper output of the current variable, in this case it will dump out the contents of every album in a loop. To correctly display that in html "|HTML" will escape html entities. ✨

🌸 TMPL_WITH 🌸

If you have a deep leveled hash you might not want to always write THE.FULL.PATH.TO.YOUR.VAR. Jump to your desired level once and then you need only one level. Compare:

<TMPL_WITH DEEP.PATH.TO.HASH>
<TMPL_VAR NAME>: <TMPL_VAR AGE>
</TMPL_WITH>

<TMPL_VAR DEEP.PATH.TO.HASH.NAME>: <TMPL_VAR DEEP.PATH.TO.HASH.AGE>

Inside TMPL_WITH you can't reference parent nodes unless you're using global_vars.

🔁 TMPL_LOOP 🔁

The special name "_" gives you the current parameter. In loops you can use it like this:

<tmpl_loop foo>
 Current item: <tmpl_var _ >
</tmpl_loop>

Also you can give the current item an alias. See "ALIAS".

The LOOP tag allows you to define a JOIN attribute:

<tmpl_loop favourite_colors join=", ">
<tmpl_var _ >
</tmpl_loop>

This will output something like "blue, pink, yellow". This is easier than doing:

<tmpl_loop favourite_colors>
<tmpl_unless __first__>, </tmpl_unless>
 <tmpl_var _ >
</tmpl_loop>

The "LOOP", "WHILE" and "EACH" tags allow you to define a BREAK attribute:

<tmpl_loop bingo break="3"> <tmpl_var _ ><if __break__>\n</if></tmpl_loop>

   $htc->param(bingo => [qw(X 0 _ _ X 0 _ _ X)]);

outputs

X 0 _
_ X 0
_ _ X

So specifying BREAK=3 sets __break__ to 1 every 3rd loop iteration. math girlie behaviour honestly 💅

✨ TMPL_LOOP (round two, bestie) ✨

TMPL_LOOP expects an array reference — yes, even when it's a method call. And if you wanna iterate with TMPL_LOOP over a list that came from a method call, just set the attribute context=list:

<tmpl_loop object.list_method context=list>
    <tmpl_var _ >
</tmpl_loop>

🌸 TMPL_WHILE 🌸

Okay this one is so useful for iterating — over database resultsets, for example. Check it:

<tmpl_while resultset.fetchrow>
    <tmpl_var _.0>
</tmpl_while>

and it will work exactly like:

while (my $row = $resultset->fetchrow) {
  print $row->[0];
}

So the special variable name _ gets set to the current item the iterator returned. main character variable energy tbh.

You can also use ALIAS here. yes queen, aliases everywhere.

🦋 TMPL_EACH 🦋

Iterating over a hash, bestie. And here's the tea: internally it is not implemented as an each, which means you can also sort the output. obsessed.

Sorted alphanumerically by default (since 0.93):

<tmpl_each letters >
    <tmpl_var __key__ >:<tmpl_var __value__>
</tmpl_each letters >

Sorted numerically:

<tmpl_each numbers sort=num >
    <tmpl_var __key__ >:<tmpl_var __value__>
</tmpl_each numbers >

Not sorted:

<tmpl_each numbers sort=0 >
    <tmpl_var __key__ >:<tmpl_var __value__>
</tmpl_each numbers >

Sorted alphanumerically:

<tmpl_each letters sort=alpha >
    <tmpl_var __key__ >:<tmpl_var __value__>
</tmpl_each letters >

You have to set the option loop_context_vars to true to use the special vars __key__ and __value__. No option, no key/value. Periodt.

And if you want to iterate over a hash instead of a hashref — because some methods are out here returning plain hashes instead of references, and TMPL_EACH expects a ref — then set context=list:

<tmpl_each object.hash_method context=list>
<tmpl_var __key__ >
</tmpl_each>

Since 1.000_001 you can also define by which variable you want to sort. So if you have a hash with hashes as values:

$htc->param(
    letters => {
        1 => { letter =>'b' },
        2 => { letter =>'a' },
        3 => { letter =>'c' },
    },
);

<%each letters sort=alpha sortby="letter" %>
<%set_var val value=__value__ %>
<%= __key__ %> = <%= $val.letter %>
<%/each%>

nested hash sorting?? she ate that fr fr 🔥

🎀 SET_VAR 🎀

Since 0.96_002. vintage icon

Sets a local variable to the value given in value or expr:

<tmpl_set foo expr=23>
<tmpl_set name=bar expr=23>
<tmpl_set boo value=var.boo>
<tmpl_set oof expr="21*2">
<tmpl_var $foo>
<tmpl_var $bar>
...

value=.. behaves like a variable name from the parameter stash. And the variable name you're setting must match /[0-9a-z_]+/i. regex said what it said.

You can refer to an alias via $alias or simply alias. But ngl, the latter syntax is not recommended any more, since it can conflict with parameters from the stash. we don't do that here bestie.

Oh and — if you want to use aliases in includes, you need to use the $alias syntax. Just how it is. 💅

💀 USE_VARS 💀

deprecated. Like, fully deprecated. It was added in 0.96_004 to make it possible to use aliases set with alias=... or SET_VAR in includes. But now you should rather use the <$alias> syntax.

The following explanation is just there for history and will be removed some time in the future. For now it still works. (so like... it's on life support but the vibes are fine)

Necessary if you want vars like SET_VAR and loop aliases from outside in includes. Before the first use in the include, add:

<tmpl_use_vars foo,bar,boo >

so that the compiler recognizes them as user defined vars and not parameters from the stash. This statement is valid until the end of the template, so you cannot "overwrite" parameters of the stash locally. can't do it. no cap.

🧚 WRAPPER 🧚

Since 0.97_005. Experimental. Please test. (she's new here, be nice to her)

Needs option loop_context_vars.

Works similar to WRAPPER in Template-Toolkit.

It's similar to TMPL_INCLUDE, just that the included wrapper is wrapped around the content. It can be used to avoid including head and foot separately. lazy girl hack, but make it valid engineering ✨

<tmpl_wrapper wrapper.html >
content: some var: <tmpl_var foo >
</tmpl_wrapper>

In wrapper.html the special loop context var __wrapper__ is used for the included content:

wrapper.html:
<some><layout>
<tmpl_var __wrapped__ >
</layout></some>

Important notes: read these, bestie, I'm begging 🫶

If you are using out_fh to print directly to a filehandle instead of returning to a string, this feature might not be useful, since it is appending the content inside of the wrapper to a string and prints it when it comes to the end of the wrapper tag. So if you are using out_fh to avoid generating long strings in memory, you should rather use TMPL_INCLUDE instead.
Also you need perl 5.8 or higher to use it in combination with out_fh.

🙈 TMPL_COMMENT 🙈

For debugging purposes you can temporarily comment out regions:

Wanted: <tmpl_var wanted>
  <tmpl_comment outer>
  this won't be printed
    <tmpl_comment inner>
      <tmpl_var unwanted>
    </tmpl_comment inner>
    <tmpl_var unwanted>
</tmpl_comment outer>

$htc->param(unwanted => "no thanks", wanted => "we want this");

The output is (whitespaces stripped):

Wanted: we want this

HTC will ignore anything between COMMENT directives. This is useful for debugging, and also for documentation inside the template which should not be outputted. documentation girlies rise up 📝

🌈 TMPL_NOPARSE 🌈

Anything between

<tmpl_noparse>...</tmpl_noparse>

will not be recognized as template directives. Same syntax as TMPL_COMMENT. It will output the content, though. so it's a comment that still shows up. icon behaviour honestly.

⭐ TMPL_VERBATIM ⭐

Anything between

<tmpl_verbatim>...</tmpl_verbatim>

will not be recognized as template directives. Same syntax as TMPL_NOPARSE, but it will be HTML-Escaped. This can be useful for debugging. escaped content, no sneaky rendering 👑

🔥 TMPL_SWITCH 🔥

The SWITCH directive has the same syntax as VAR, IF etc. The CASE directive takes a simple string or a comma separated list of strings. Yes, without quotes. And the manpage itself is like: "This will probably change! I just don't know yet how it should look like. Suggestions?" not the original author asking the readers for design advice, I'm crying 😭

With that directive you can do simple string comparisons.

<tmpl_switch language>(or <tmpl_switch name=language>)
  <tmpl_case de>echt cool
  <tmpl_case en>very cool
  <tmpl_case es>superculo
  <tmpl_case fr,se>don't speak french or swedish
  <tmpl_case default>sorry, no translation for cool in language <%=language%> available
  <tmpl_case>(same as default)
</tmpl_switch>

It's also possible to specify the default with a list of other strings:

<tmpl_case fr,default>

Note that the default case should always be the last statement before the closing switch. always. last. periodt.

✨ OPTIONS ✨

Okay so because you can cache the generated perl code in files, some of the options are fixed. What does that mean? It means, for example, if you set the option case_sensitive to 0 and the next time you call the same template with case_sensitive 1, then this will be ignored. the cache said no 💅 The options below will be marked as (fixed).

`path`

Path to template files. just your basic "where are the vibes stored" situation.

`search_path_on_include`

Search the list of paths specified with path when including a template. Default is 0.

See "DIFFERENT FEATURES" for the additional possible value 2. yes, 2. it's a thing.

`file_cache`

Set to 1 if you want to use file caching and specify the path with file_cache_dir.

`file_cache_dir`

Path to caching directory (you have to create it before). before, bestie. it won't create itself.

`cache_dir`

Replaced by file_cache_dir like in HTML::Template. Will be deprecated in future versions. old money, new rules.

`cache`

Is 1 by default. If set to 0, no memory caching is done. Only recommendable if you have a dynamic template content (with scalarref, arrayref for example).

`expire_time`

Recheck template files on disk after expire_time seconds. See "CACHING".

`filename`

Template to parse. the moment of truth.

`scalarref`

Reference to a scalar with your template content. It's possible to cache scalarrefs, too, if you have Digest::MD5 installed. Note that your cache directory might get filled with files from earlier versions. Clean the cache regularly.

Don't cache scalarrefs if you have dynamic strings. Your memory might get filled up fast! like actually fast. be careful 😭 Use the option

cache => 0

to disable memory caching.

`arrayref`

Reference to array containing lines of the template content (newlines have to be included). newlines. included. don't forget.

`filehandle`

Filehandle which contains the template content. Note that HTC will not cache templates created like this. no cache for you, filehandle girlie.

`loop_context_vars` (fixed)

Vars like __first__, __last__, __inner__, __odd__, __counter__, __index__, __outer__, __even__

The variable __index__ works just like __counter__, only that it starts at 0 instead of 1. zero-indexed girlies, this one's for you 🎀

`global_vars` (fixed)

If set to 1, every outer variable can be accessed from anywhere in the enclosing scope.

Default is 0.

Note that the manpage author does not recommend using global_vars. For referring to parameters up in the stash you can use aliases via alias=... or SET_VAR. See "ALIAS" and "SET_VAR".

If you still would like to be able to navigate up the parameter stash, you have the following option:

If set to 2, you don't have global vars, but have the possibility to go up the stack one level. Example:

<tmpl_var ...key>

This will get you up 2 levels (remember: one dot means root in HTC) and access the 'key' element. dots as stack navigation, she's giving filesystem energy 🌸

If set to 3 (3 == 1|2) you have both, global vars and explicitly going up the stack.

So setting global_vars to 2 can save you from global vars but still allows you to browse through the stack. best of both worlds, no notes.

`default_escape`

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
  default_escape => 'HTML', # or URL
);

Now everything will be escaped for HTML unless you explicitly specify ESCAPE=0 (no escaping) or ESCAPE=URL. safe by default, spicy on request 🔥

`strict` (since `0.97_001`)

Default: 1

If set to 0 unknown tags will be ignored and output verbatim:

<TMPL_FOOBAR anything ... <TMPL_VAR valid>

strict mode said "we're doing this properly or not at all".

`line_info` (fixed) (since `1.000_004`)

Default: 0

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    ...
    line_info => 1, # default 0
);

If any runtime errors occur, line information will output the template filename and line (instead of "eval" and the generated perl code line). actual useful error messages?? we love to see it ✨

`warnings` (fixed) (since `1.000_004`)

Default: 0

If set to 1, runtime warnings (like use of uninitialized value) will be output to stderr.

If set to 'fatal', any runtime warning will cause the script to die. not a drill. it will literally die. 💀

`no_includes` (since 0.92)

Default is 0. Set it to 1 and the tags INCLUDE, INCLUDE_VAR and INCLUDE_STRING will throw a template syntax error the moment the template gets created. Why would you want that? Because if you're opening templates you don't trust, this is your seatbelt — otherwise literally any file on the filesystem could be opened. any. file. bestie. 💀

`debug_file` (fixed) (since 0.91_001)

So you already have the context vars __filename__ and __filenameshort__, and this one lets you turn filename debugging on globally. 🌈

Set it to 'start' and the start of every template gets this slapped on:

<!-- start templates/path/filename.html -->

Set it to 'end' and you get this at the end instead:

<!-- end templates/path/filename.html -->

Set it to 'start,end' and bestie, you get both comments. ✨

And if you go 'start,short', 'end,short' or 'start,end,short', the path to the templates gets stripped off, like:

<!-- start path/filename.html -->
<!-- end path/filename.html -->

`optimize` (fixed) (since 1.001_001)

A hashref full of compiler hints. 🧠

Okay so here's the tea: every single access to the parameter stash has to check whether the current var is an object or a hash. That's what lets you use the same notation for hash accesses and method calls without ever caring what the data actually is. Iconic? Yes. Expensive? also yes. So you can feed the compiler hints:

HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    optimize => {
        initial_var  => 1, # defaults
        object_check => 0,
        root_hash    => 0,
    },

initial_var — Default: 1

This one might become a default in the code itself and get yeeted as an option entirely. If you have problems, report them and set it to 0. It's just a minor internal optimization for variable accesses like "[%= foo.bar.baz %]".

object_check — Default: 0

Picture this: you're in a loop and you make several accesses to the same var, and it keeps checking whether it's an object or not. Every. Single. Time.

[%loop threads %]
[%= id %]
[%= title %]
[%= ctime %]
...
[%/loop threads %]

Set this to true and the check happens once at the beginning of the loop, gets saved into a variable, and all the subsequent accesses just use that check variable. Same deal for TMPL_WITH and TMPL_WHILE. ✨

But ngl, if you only have one access in a loop, this might be unnecessary overhead. And theoretically a variable can change during calls. In the most cases this option should be fine though, and the author will probably set the default to 1 someday. 👑

root_hash

Fun fact: it's possible to pass an object to param() instead of a hash. Which means even every access to the root of the parameter stash has to check if it's an object or a hashref. 🙈 In the most cases the parameter stash is a hashref — so if you're sure you always have a parameter hash and you activate this option, the compiler can skip that check entirely. free speed, no cap.

`objects` (fixed) (since 0.91_001)

Set it to true and you can do method calls like

<%= object.method %>

Default is 'strict' (true). Let me break down the vibe check:

Set it to 'strict' and the method gets called if we have an object — otherwise it's treated as a hash lookup. If the method doesn't exist? it dies. 💀
Set it to 'nostrict' and the method only gets called if the object can do the method, otherwise it returns undef (this will need Scalar::Util).
Set it to 0 and no method calls are allowed, periodt.

`deref` (fixed)

Deprecated. Please inherit and overwrite the method 'deref' instead. See "INHERITANCE". 🫶

This one defines the string you want to use for dereferencing, and the default is "." at the moment:

<TMPL_VAR hash.key>

`method_call` (fixed)

Deprecated. Please inherit and overwrite the method 'method_call' instead. See "INHERITANCE". 🫶

Defines the string you want to use for method calls, default is . at the moment:

<TMPL_VAR object.method>

Don't use -> though, even if you could in earlier versions. Var names can contain: Numbers, letters, '.', '/', '+', '-' and '_', just like HTML::Template. Heads up though: if your var names contain dots, they will be treated as hash dereferences. If you want literal dots, use HTML::Template::Compiled::Classic instead.

`default_path` (fixed)

Deprecated, see HTML::Template::Compiled::Formatter please. 💅

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
  default_path
       # default is PATH_DEREF
    => HTML::Template::Compiled::Utils::PATH_FORMATTER,
);

This is needed if you have an unqualified tmpl_var that should be resolved as a call to your formatter, for example. Otherwise you have to call it fully qualified. If your formatter_path is '/', you'd say tmpl_var "_/method". With the option default_path you can make that the default, so you don't need the "_/" — you just go "tmpl_var method". And if you don't use formatters? Don't care about this option, bestie. 🎀

`line_numbers`

NOTE: This option does not exist any more; line numbers will always be reported.

For debugging: it prints the line number of the wrong tag — like, say, if you have a /TMPL_IF that doesn't have an opening tag. so helpful honestly ✨

`case_sensitive` (fixed)

Default is 1. Set it to 0 to use this feature like in HTML::Template. But heads up bestie — note that this can slow down your program a lot (50%). 😭 Like, half. Gone.

`dumper`

This option is deprecated as of version 0.76. You must now use a plugin instead, like HTML::Template::Compiled::Plugin::DHTML, for example.

my $t = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
  dumper = sub { my_cool_dumper($_[0]) },
);
---
<TMPL_VAR var ESCAPE=DUMP>

This will call "my_cool_dumper()" on var. 🎀

Alternatively you can use the DHTML plugin, which is using "Data::TreeDumper" and "Data::TreeDumper::Renderer::DHTML". You'll get a dumper-like output which you can collapse and expand, for example. See Data::TreeDumper and Data::TreeDumper::Renderer::DHTML for more information. Example:

my $t = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
  dumper = 'DHTML',
);

For an example see "examples/dhtml.html".

`out_fh` (fixed)

my $t = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
  out_fh => 1,
);
...
$t->output($fh); # or output(\*STDOUT) or even output()

This option is fixed, so if you create a template with "out_fh", every output of this template will print to a specified (or default "STDOUT") filehandle. set it and forget it ✨

`filter`

Filters template code before parsing. 🦋

my $t = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  ...
  filter => sub { myfilter( ${$_[0]} ) },
  # or
  filter => [ {
      sub => sub { myfilter( ${$_[0]} ) },
      format => 'scalar', # or array
    },
    ...
  ],
);

`tagstyle` (fixed)

Specifies which styles you want to use. This option takes an arrayref with strings of named tagstyles, or your own regexes. 🌸

At the moment there are the following named tagstyles builtin:

# classic (active by default)
<TMPL_IF foo><tmpl_var bar></TMPL_IF>

# comment (active by default)
<!-- TMPL_IF foo --><!-- TMPL_VAR bar --><!-- /TMPL_IF -->

# asp (active by default)
<%if foo%><%VAR bar%><%/if%>

# php (not active by default)
<?if foo?><?var bar?><?/if foo?>

# tt (not active by default)
[%if foo%][%var bar%][%/if foo%]

You deactivate a style by saying -stylename. You activate by saying +stylename. simple as that 💅

Define your own tagstyle by specifying regexes. For example you want to use {"{{if foo}}{{var bar}}{{/if foo}}"}, then your definition should be:

[
    qr({{), # start of opening tag
    qr(}}), # end of opening tag
    qr({{/), # start of closing tag
    qr(}}), # end of closing tag
]

NOTE: do not specify capturing parentheses in you regexes. If you need parentheses, use "(?:foo|bar)" instead of "(foo|bar)".

Say you want to deactivate asp-style, comment-style, activate php- and tt-style and your own "{{}}" style, then say:

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    ...
    tagstyle => [
        qw(-asp -comment +php +tt),
        [ qr({{), qr(}}), qr({{/), qr(}})]
    ],
);

`use_expressions` (since 0.91_003)

Set to 1 if you want to use expressions. The basic expressions work more or less like in HTML::Template::Expr — the parsing code was taken from it and used with some minor changes — thanks to Sam Tregar. 🙏

<%if expr="some.var > 3" %>It's grater than 3<%/if %>

But with expressions you can also use more complex navigation through the template stash: obsessed ✨

You can use object methods with parameters. While a normal method call can only be called without parameters, like

<%= object.name %>

with expressions you can give it parameters:

<%= expr="object.create_link('navi')" %>

Inside function and method calls, hash keys you also can use template vars (array indices and hash keys since 0.96_003).

<%= expr=".path.to.hash{var}" %>
<%= expr=".path.to.hash{.another.var[123]}{'literal key'}" %>

It is only minimally tested yet, so use with care and please report any bugs you find. 😭

A useful example: Output a number of items with their prices formatted. 💸

my $nf = Number::Format->new(...);
my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    filename => 'items.html',
    use_expressions => 1,
);
$htc->param(
    items => [
        { size =>  50 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024, price => 49.95 },
        { size => 250 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024, price => 110.99 },
    ],
    nf => $nf,
);

items.html:

<%loop .items %>
Size: <%= expr=".nf.format_bytes(size)" %>
Price: <%= expr=".nf.format_price(price)" %>
<%/loop %>

Output:

Size: 50G
Price: 49,95 EUR

Size: 250G
Price: 110,99 EUR

`formatter`

Deprecated, see HTML::Template::Compiled::Formatter please. 💅

With formatter you get to choose exactly how an object should be rendered, and honestly? chef's kiss 🎀 It's the move when you do not want all of the object's methods getting called — just a specific subset of them.

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
...
formatter => {
  'Your::Class' => {
    fullname => sub {
      $_[0]->first . ' ' . $_[0]->last
    },
    first => Your::Class->can('first'),
    last => Your::Class->can('last'),
    },
  },
);
# $obj is a Your::Class object
$htc->param(obj => $obj);
# Template:
# Fullname: <tmpl_var obj/fullname>

formatter_path (fixed)

Deprecated, bestie. Go look at HTML::Template::Compiled::Formatter instead please. 💜

debug

Set it to 1 and you will get the generated perl code dumped on standard error. Free real-time code reveal ✨

use_query

Set it to 1 if you're planning to use the query() method. Default is 0.

Explanation, since I know you're wondering: if you want to use query() to collect information on the template, HTC has to do extra work while compiling and it burns extra memory. So you get to choose — save HTC the work by leaving use_query at 0 (the default), or let HTC do the extra work by setting it to 1. If you'd like 1 to be the default, write me. If enough people write me, I'll think about it =)

use_perl

Set to 1 if you want to use the perl-tag. See "TMPL_PERL". Default is 0.

cache_debug

Default: 0

You can debug hits and misses for the file cache and the memory cache:

# debug all cache
my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    cache_debug => 1,
    ...
);
# only debug misses
my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    cache_debug => [qw/ file_miss mem_miss /],
    ...
);

Possible values when passing an array ref: file_miss file_hit mem_miss mem_hit

The output looks similar to HTML::Template cache_debug and gets output to STDERR via warn(). Spy on your cache, queen 👑

✨ METHODS ✨

clear_cache ([DIR])

Class method. It clears the memory cache — either of a specified cache directory:

HTML::Template::Compiled->clear_cache($cache_dir);

or all memory caches:

HTML::Template::Compiled->clear_cache();

clear_filecache

Class- or object-method. Removes all generated perl files from a given directory. Full reset energy 🧹

# clear a directory
HTML::Template::Compiled->clear_filecache('cache_directory');
# clear this template's cache directory (and not one template file only!)
$htc->clear_filecache();

Not me emphasizing that second one — it clears the whole cache directory, not just one template file. Read it twice. 😭

param

Works like in HTML::Template.

query

Works like in HTML::Template. But it is not activated by default. If you want to use it, specify the use_query option.

preload

Class method. It will preload all template files from a given cachedir into memory. You should do this, for example in a mod_perl environment, at server startup, so all the templates go into "shared memory" 🦋

HTML::Template::Compiled->preload($cache_dir);

If you don't do preloading in mod_perl, memory usage might go up if you have a lot of templates. Fair warning 💀

Note: the directory is not the template directory. It should be the directory which you give as the file_cache_dir option. Don't mix them up bestie 🙈

precompile

Class method. It will precompile a list of template files into the specified cache directory. See "PRECOMPILE".

clear_params

Empty all parameters. Poof, gone ✨

debug_code (since 0.91_003)

If you get an error from the generated template, you might want to debug the executed code. You can now call debug_code to get the compiled code and the line the error occurred. Note that the reported line might not be the exact line where the error occurred, so look around that line too. The template filename reported currently only reports the main template, not the name of an included template. I'll try to fix that.

local $HTML::Template::Compiled::DEBUG = 1;
my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    filename => 'some_file_with_runtime_error.html',
);
eval {
    print $htc->output;
};
if ($@) {
    # reports as text
    my $msg = $htc->debug_code;
    # reports as a html table
    my $msg_html = $htc->debug_code('html');
}

get_plugin

my $plugin = $htc->get_plugin('Name::of::plugin');

Returns the plugin object of that classname. If the plugin is only a string (the classname itself), it returns this string, so this method is only useful for plugin objects.

var2expression

Useful for plugins. It parses a template var (name="foo.bar.baz") and returns the perl expression for the compiler. Compiler whisperer 🫶

🌈 EXPORT 🌈

None.

💾 CACHING 💾

You create a template almost like in HTML::Template:

my $t = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
  path                => 'templates',
  loop_context_vars   => 1,
  filename            => 'test.html',
  # for testing without cache comment out
  file_cache          => 1,
  file_cache_dir      => "cache",
);

The next time you start your application and create a new template, HTC will read all the generated perl files, and a call to the constructor like the one above won't parse the template — it'll just use the loaded code. If your template file has changed, though, then it gets parsed again. Self-aware king behavior 👑

You can set the expire time of a template by passing the option

expire_time => $seconds

Note that

HTML::Template::Compiled->ExpireTime($seconds);
C<$HTML::Template::Compiled::NEW_CHECK>

are deprecated since they change a global variable which is then visible in the whole process — so in persistent environments other apps might be affected. Global variable jumpscare 💀

So an expire time of 600 seconds (default) will check after 10 minutes if the tmpl file was modified. Set it to a very high value and it will then ignore any changes, until you delete the generated code. For development you should set it to 0, for a pre-production server you can set it to 60 seconds, for example. It can make quite a difference.

🔌 PLUGINS 🔌

At the moment you can use and write plugins for the ESCAPE attribute. See HTML::Template::Compiled::Plugin::XMLEscape for an example of how to use it; and have a look at the source code if you want to know how to write a plugin yourself. DIY era 🎀

Using Plugins:

my $htc = HTML::Template::Compiled->new(
    ...
    plugin => ['HTML::Template::Compiled::Foo::Bar'],
    # oor shorter:
    plugin => ['::Foo::Bar'],
);

🦋 LAZY LOADING 🦋

Let's say you're in a CGI environment and have a lot of includes in your template, but only a few of them are actually used. HTML::Template::Compiled will (as HTML::Template does) parse all of your includes at once. Just like the use function does in perl. To get a behaviour like require, use HTML::Template::Compiled::Lazy. Load it only when you actually need it, slay ✨

📝 TODO 📝

associate, methods with simple parameters, expressions, pluggable, ... the list lives on 💜

⚙️ IMPLEMENTATION ⚙️

HTC generates a perl subroutine out of every template. Each included template is a subroutine for itself. You can look at the generated code by activating file caching and looking into the cache directory. When you call output(), the subroutine is called. The subroutine either creates a string and adds each template text or the results of the tags to the string, or it prints it directly to a filehandle. Because of the implementation you have to know at creation time of the module if you want to get a string back or if you want to print to a filehandle. Decide early, bestie 🫶

🔒 SECURITY 🔒

HTML::Template::Compiled uses basically the same file caching model as, for example, Template-Toolkit does: the compiled Perl code is written to disk and later reread via do or by reading the file and eval-ing the content.

If you are sharing a read/write environment with untrusted users (for example on a machine with a webserver, like many webhosters offer, and all scripts are running as the same httpd user), realize that there is a possibility of modifying the Perl code that is cached and then executed. The best solution is to not be in such an environment! Genuinely, do not be in that environment 💀

In this case it is the safest option to generate your compiled templates on a local machine and just put the compiled templates onto the server, with no write access for the http server. Set the expire_time option to a high value so that HTC never attempts to check the template timestamp to force a regenerating of the code. Iconic security posture, no cap 👑

If you are alone on the machine, but you are running under taint mode (see perlsec) then you have to explicitly set the $UNTAINT variable to 1. HTC will then untaint the code for you and treat it as if it were safe (it hopefully is =). manifesting safety 🙈

🚀 PRECOMPILE 🚀

I think there is no way to provide an easy function for precompiling, because every template can have different options. If you have all your templates with the same options, then you can use the precompile class method. It works like this:

HTML::Template::Compiled->precompile(
  # usual options like path, default_escape, global_vars, file_cache_dir, ...
  filenames => [ list of template-filenames ],
);

This will then pre-compile all templates into file_cache_dir. Now you would just put this directory onto the server, and it doesn't need any write-permissions, as it will be never changed (until you update it because templates have changed). Ship it and forget it 🦋⭐

📊 BENCHMARKS 📊

Okay bestie, so here's the tea on speed: the options case_sensitive, loop_context_vars and global_vars are the ones that lowkey have the biggest influence on speed. 🏎️

Setting case_sensitive to 1, loop_context_vars to 0 and global_vars to 0 saves time. periodt.

On the other hand, compared to HTML::Template, you have a large speed gain under mod_perl if you use case_sensitive = 1, loop_context_vars = 0, and... with CGI, HTC is slower. 🙈

See the examples/bench.pl contained in this distribution.

Here are some examples from the benchmark script. I'm showing only Template::AutoFilter, Template::HTML, HTML::Template and HTC. These four modules allow you to set automatic HTML escaping ('filter') for all variables. ✨

 loop_context_vars 1
 global_vars 0
 case_sensitive 1
 default_escape HTML (respectively Template::AutoFilter and Template::HTML)

 ht: HTML::Template 2.10
 htc: HTML::Template::Compiled 0.95
 ttaf: Template::AutoFilter 0.112350 with Template 2.22
 tth: Template::HTML 0.02 with Template 2.22

First test is with the test.(htc|tt) from the examples directory, about 900 bytes.

Test without file cache and without memory cache. 🐌

              all_ht:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.40 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.40 CPU) @ 250.00/s (n=100)
             all_htc:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.74 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.75 CPU) @ 57.14/s (n=100)
 all_ttaf_new_object:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.69 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.70 CPU) @ 58.82/s (n=100)
  all_tth_new_object:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.44 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.44 CPU) @ 69.44/s (n=100)

With file cache: 🗂️

              all_ht:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.03 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.04 CPU) @ 379.81/s (n=395)
             all_htc:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.07 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.07 CPU) @ 260.75/s (n=279)
 all_ttaf_new_object:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.07 usr +  0.04 sys =  1.11 CPU) @ 251.35/s (n=279)
  all_tth_new_object:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.01 usr +  0.04 sys =  1.05 CPU) @ 227.62/s (n=239)

With memory cache: 🧠

       all_ht:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.04 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.04 CPU) @ 461.54/s (n=480)
      all_htc:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.05 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.06 CPU) @ 3168.87/s (n=3359)
 process_ttaf:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.04 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.04 CPU) @ 679.81/s (n=707)
  process_tth:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.05 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.05 CPU) @ 609.52/s (n=640)

Now I'm using a template with about 18Kb by multiplying the example template 20 times. You can see that everything is running slower but some run more slower than others. 😭

Test without file cache and without memory cache. 🐢

              all_ht:  8 wallclock secs ( 7.57 usr +  0.04 sys =  7.61 CPU) @ 13.14/s (n=100)
             all_htc: 32 wallclock secs (32.08 usr +  0.06 sys = 32.14 CPU) @  3.11/s (n=100)
 all_ttaf_new_object: 36 wallclock secs (36.21 usr +  0.04 sys = 36.25 CPU) @  2.76/s (n=100)
  all_tth_new_object: 29 wallclock secs (28.92 usr +  0.05 sys = 28.97 CPU) @  3.45/s (n=100)

With file cache: 🗂️

              all_ht:  8 wallclock secs ( 7.22 usr +  0.00 sys =  7.22 CPU) @ 13.85/s (n=100)
             all_htc:  5 wallclock secs ( 5.32 usr +  0.00 sys =  5.32 CPU) @ 18.80/s (n=100)
 all_ttaf_new_object:  8 wallclock secs ( 7.59 usr +  0.15 sys =  7.74 CPU) @ 12.92/s (n=100)
  all_tth_new_object:  9 wallclock secs ( 8.74 usr +  0.19 sys =  8.93 CPU) @ 11.20/s (n=100)

With memory cache: 🧠

       all_ht:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.04 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.05 CPU) @ 15.24/s (n=16)
      all_htc:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.12 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.12 CPU) @ 272.32/s (n=305)
 process_ttaf:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.07 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.07 CPU) @ 39.25/s (n=42)
  process_tth:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.05 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.05 CPU) @ 34.29/s (n=36)

So the performance difference highly depends on the size of the template and on the various options. You can see that using the 900byte template HTC is slower with file cache than HTML::Template, but with the 18Kb template it's faster. ✨ slay.

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

See objects.html in examples (and examples/objects.pl) for an example how to feed objects to HTC. 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

Probably many bugs I don't know yet =) 🙈

Use the bugtracking system to report a bug: http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=HTML-Template-Compiled

🤔 Why another Template System? 🤔

You might ask why I implement yet another templating system. There are so many to choose from. Well, there are several reasons. 👑

I like the syntax of HTML::Template because it is very restricted. It's also easy to use (template syntax and API). However, there are some things I miss I try to implement here.

I think while HTML::Template is quite good, the implementation can be made more efficient (and still pure Perl). That's what I'm trying to achieve. 💪

I use it in my web applications, so I first write it for myself =) If I can efficiently use it, it was worth it. ✨

🔗 RESOURCES 🔗

See http://htcompiled.sf.net/ for svn access.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

HTML::Template
HTML::Template::JIT
Template - Toolkit
http://www.tinita.de/projects/perl/

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Tina Mueller

💖 CREDITS 💖

Sam Tregar big thanks for ideas and letting me use his HTML::Template test suite
Bjoern Kriews for original idea and contributions
Special Thanks to Sascha Kiefer - he finds all the bugs! 🐛
Ronnie Neumann, Martin Fabiani, Kai Sengpiel, Jan Willamowius, Justin Day, Steffen Winkler, Henrik Tougaard for ideas, beta-testing and patches
<http://www.perlmonks.org/> and http://www.perl-community.de/> for everyday learning
Corion, Limbic~Region, tye, runrig and others from perlmonks.org

📜 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 📜

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.3 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀✨ this lil doc drop is from perl v5.36.0 and it's dated 2022-11-19 — go forth and template responsibly, ily, mwah 💅💖🦋

📦 where this page comes from

debian bookworm: libhtml-template-compiled-perl 1.003-3 · Artistic-1.0-Perl OR GPL-1.0-or-later
debian trixie: libhtml-template-compiled-perl 1.003-3 · Artistic-1.0-Perl OR GPL-1.0-or-later
ubuntu noble: libhtml-template-compiled-perl 1.003-3 · Artistic-1.0-Perl OR GPL-1.0-or-later
ubuntu resolute: libhtml-template-compiled-perl 1.003-3 · Artistic-1.0-Perl OR GPL-1.0-or-later
ubuntu stonking: libhtml-template-compiled-perl 1.003-3 · Artistic-1.0-Perl OR GPL-1.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-14: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms

HTML::...mpiled(3pm)

💖 HTML::Template::Compiled(3pm) 💖

✨ NAME ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

🎀 FEATURES FROM HTML::TEMPLATE 🎀

🌈 ADDITIONAL FEATURES 🌈

💀 MISSING AND DIFFERENT FEATURES 💀

MISSING FEATURES

🌈 DIFFERENT FEATURES 🌈

💅 case_sensitive

🦋 subref variables

🎀 search_path_on_include

🌸 open_mode

⭐ use_query

💜 Arrayrefs

🔥 debug_cache

🚫 DEPRECATED 🚫

✨ ESCAPING ✨

🧚 INCLUDE 🧚

🌈 EXTENDED VARIABLE ACCESS 🌈

🎀 RENDERING OBJECTS 🎀

💻 RUNNING PERL WITH TMPL_PERL 💻

🧬 INHERITANCE 🧬

🦋 METHODS TO INHERIT 🦋

🐛 DEBUGGING 🐛

🌸 TMPL_WITH 🌸

🔁 TMPL_LOOP 🔁

✨ TMPL_LOOP (round two, bestie) ✨

🌸 TMPL_WHILE 🌸

🦋 TMPL_EACH 🦋

🎀 SET_VAR 🎀

💀 USE_VARS 💀

🧚 WRAPPER 🧚

🙈 TMPL_COMMENT 🙈

🌈 TMPL_NOPARSE 🌈

⭐ TMPL_VERBATIM ⭐

🔥 TMPL_SWITCH 🔥

✨ OPTIONS ✨

path

search_path_on_include

file_cache

file_cache_dir

cache_dir

cache

expire_time

filename

scalarref

arrayref

filehandle

loop_context_vars (fixed)

global_vars (fixed)

default_escape

strict (since 0.97_001)

line_info (fixed) (since 1.000_004)

warnings (fixed) (since 1.000_004)

no_includes (since 0.92)

debug_file (fixed) (since 0.91_001)

optimize (fixed) (since 1.001_001)

objects (fixed) (since 0.91_001)

deref (fixed)

method_call (fixed)

default_path (fixed)

line_numbers

case_sensitive (fixed)

dumper

out_fh (fixed)

filter

tagstyle (fixed)

use_expressions (since 0.91_003)

formatter

formatter_path (fixed)

debug

use_query

use_perl

cache_debug

✨ METHODS ✨

clear_cache ([DIR])

clear_filecache

param

`path`

`search_path_on_include`

`file_cache`

`file_cache_dir`

`cache_dir`

`cache`

`expire_time`

`filename`

`scalarref`

`arrayref`

`filehandle`

`loop_context_vars` (fixed)

`global_vars` (fixed)

`default_escape`

`strict` (since `0.97_001`)

`line_info` (fixed) (since `1.000_004`)

`warnings` (fixed) (since `1.000_004`)

`no_includes` (since 0.92)

`debug_file` (fixed) (since 0.91_001)

`optimize` (fixed) (since 1.001_001)

`objects` (fixed) (since 0.91_001)

`deref` (fixed)

`method_call` (fixed)

`default_path` (fixed)

`line_numbers`

`case_sensitive` (fixed)

`dumper`

`out_fh` (fixed)

`filter`

`tagstyle` (fixed)

`use_expressions` (since 0.91_003)

`formatter`