
README for the Perl Module CGI::FastTemplate - 1.09

	Copyright (c) 1998-1999 Jason Moore <jmoore@sober.com>.  All rights
	reserved.

	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
	modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	Artistic License for more details.


DESCRIPTION
-----------

CGI::FastTemplate manages templates and parses templates replacing
variable names with values.  It was designed for mid to large scale web
applications (CGI, mod_perl) where there are great benefits to separating
the logic of an application from the specific implementation details.

For example using FastTemplate it is possible to:

	- build multilingual applications

	- allow users to select high-bandwidth or text-only versions of
	  an application

	- let graphic designers work on templates independantly of
	  the programmers

	- share the responsibility of interface design

CGI::FastTemplate has the following attributes:

       Speed

       FastTemplate doesn't use eval, and parses with a single
       regular expression.  It just does simple variable
       interpolation (i.e. there is no logic that you can add to
       templates - you keep the logic in the code).  That's why
       it's has 'Fast' in it's name!

       Efficiency

       FastTemplate functions accept and return references
       whenever possible, which saves needless copying of
       arguments (hashes, scalars, etc).

       Flexibility

       The API is robust and flexible, and allows you to build
       very complex HTML documents or HTML interfaces.  It is
       100% perl and works on Unix or NT.  Also, it isn't
       restricted to building HTML documents -- it could be used
       to build any ascii based document (e.g. postscript, XML,
       email).


For more information see the pod documentation included in the file
'FastTemplate.pm'.


INSTALLATION
------------

To install, unzip and untar the archive. In the directory created type:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make install

Note: If this does not work, you can always just copy the file
'FastTemplate.pm' to the 'CGI' directory in your perl distribution.

If you want to test out the module without installing it, you can add
the following to your code:

	BEGIN
	{
		unshift(@INC, "/wherever/you/put/CGI-FastTemplate/");
	}

	use CGI::FastTemplate;


DOCUMENTATION
-------------

Documentation is included in the module in pod format.  Once
CGI::FastTemplate has been installed type:

	perldoc CGI::FastTemplate

or if is uninstalled:

	perldoc ./FastTemplate.pm

For more information on perldoc type 'perldoc perldoc'.


AUTHOR
------

Jason Moore <jmoore@sober.com>

Feel free to send along any comments, suggestions, or bug reports.


CHANGES
-------

Revision history for Perl extension CGI::FastTemplate.

1.09 Sun Jun 27 23:40:14 EDT 1999

    - object is now uses array ref, not a hash ref to store attributes
    Thanks to: Greg Bacon from his talk "Building Objects out of Arrays" at YAPC
    note: the API is the same -- this is a behind-the-scenes implementation change.

	- minor pod doco edits
	- added test scripts and 2 test templates

1.08 Sun Jan 24 23:14:03 EST 1999

	- minor pod doco edits
	- added GNU copyright
	- 'Changes' file no longer in distribution. See: 'README'

1.07  Sun Jan 24 23:14:03 EST 1999

	- edited main regexp to add support for new ${VAR} style variables.
	Thanks to: Eric L. Brine <q2ir@unb.ca>
	- minor pod doco edits


1.06  Mon Jan  4 13:47:13 EST 1999

	- extended clear_tpl() to allow for a selective clearing of loaded templates.
	Useful for persistant or long running code where you want to use a large
	template, but don't want to keep it in memory.

	clear_tpl()         - clears all loaded templates from cache
	clear_tpl(SCALAR)   - clears only template SCALAR
	clear_tpl(ARRAY)    - clears templates named in ARRAY


1.05  Fri Nov 27 15:27:54 EST 1998
	- extended clear_parse() (alias: clear()) to handle array as well as
	a scalar.   e.g. $tpl->clear("ROWS") or $tpl->clear("ROWS", "COLS", "HEAD"); 
	are valid.


1.04  Thu Oct 29 09:57:15 EST 1998
	- strict() now leaves unknown variables in the final doc instead of
	converting them to an empty string.  see: no_strict() to get the old 
	behavior back.


1.03  Thu Oct 15 10:42:14 EDT 1998
	- minor change to prevent spurious warnings under -w (e.g. {strict} 
	becomes {"strict"})


1.02  Tue Sep 22 08:57:29 EDT 1998

	- fixed bug that allowed first character after '$' to be a digit.
	Variables are now: $[A-Z][A-Z0-9_]+
	Thanks to: Benjamin Low <b.d.low@unsw.edu.au>
	
	- add strict() no_strict() which turns on/off complaints to STDERR
	when a variable is found but no value found for it.


1.01  Tue Sep 15 10:01:44 EDT 1998

	- added clear(SCALAR) which clears the scalar from the parsed
	hash. i.e. 
		$tpl->clear("FOO");	## equivalent to:
		$tpl->assign(FOO=>"");
	
	- made $v='' not undef in parse() to avoid spurious warnings
	Thanks to: Benjamin Low <b.d.low@unsw.edu.au>

	- added method define_nofile() (alias: define_raw) which allows
	you to define a template without having to create a separate file
	for your template.


1.00  Thu Aug 20 11:59:22 1998
	- original version; created by h2xs 1.18
	- first public release (rewrite)



