[Catalyst] App::TemplateServer

[Jonathan Rockway]

Hi all,

A while ago, ranguard++ on IRC said it might be nice to have an
application that could take HTML templates (TT, etc.) and render them
with a set of static data.  The idea is that you can give a small app
and templates to your non-Perl-developer web designer, and and s/he can
work on them offline without needing the full Cat app or a dev server
(or Perl skills, etc.)

Well, I wrote this application and it's on the CPAN as
App::TemplateServer.  You run it like:

   template-server --docroot /path/to/templates \
                   --docroot /more/templates    \
                   --data preconfigured_data.yml

Then you point your browser to http://localhost:4000/ and enjoy the
templates!

By default, TT is used, but you can install other "Providers" which let
you use other templating systems.  Mason and HTML::Template are on CPAN
right now (App::TemplateServer::Provider::*).  TD is there too, but it's
broken (agent_zh++ and I are working on that...)  Writing your own is a
small matter of implementing a single function, so there's no excuse to
not upload a driver for your favorite templating system right now :)

The other use I envision is experimenting with templating systems.  Say
you hear a talk about TD and want to try it out?  Now you can write the
template and see it instantly... no writing driver code, no making a
test Catalyst app, etc.  Enjoyable!

BTW, the module I use for generating mock objects from a YAML file
(Package::FromData) might be useful for testing.  Check it out.

Any feedback is welcome.

Regards,
Jonathan Rockway

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