NAME
Text::MicroMason::Docs::ToDo - Development Plans for the MicroMason
Distribution
TO DO
This document outlines various development plans and ideas for
Text::MicroMason.
The priority and schedule for these items are not well defined; if you
are interested in a specific feature please contact the author as
described in Text::MicroMason::Docs::ReadMe.
Distribution
* Consider reorganizing the Text::MicroMason::* modules into a number
of subdirectories. There are currently over two dozen of them, and
it's bound to get worse as time goes on. Perhaps separate them by
intent: Cache::*, Errors::*, Syntax::*, Features::*, etc.
* Finish and test the ParseInfo module to facilitate template
introspection.
* Rewrite the MOTIVATION section of the ReadMe pod to reflect the
shift from an HTML::Mason clone to a more general templating engine
that has at least partial compatibilty with quite a few other
modules.
Interfaces
* Test and improve the ApacheHandler interface.
Map user-friendly Apache config directives to mixin and
initialization options. Review HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler,
HTML::Mason::Params, and HTML::Mason::Admin.
Headers need to be constructed as per
http://modperlbook.org/html/ch06_11.html and not sent until our
first print statement; see PLP::Tie::Print.
* Review integration with Inline::Mason. Facilitate use of mixins so
this can also do inline ServerPages and other syntaxes.
Core Syntax
* Determine how to best stack lex_token() method so that multiple
syntax plugins can work together.
* Extract named blocks parsing from HTMLMason to form a separate
mixin.
* Extract variable interpolation syntax to allow it to be stacked with
other lexers.
Syntax Emulations
* Add TemplateToolkit module with support for the basic TT syntax. The
key syntax definition is in Parser.yp, which is used to build
Template::Grammar.
(<http://search.cpan.org/src/ABW/Template-Toolkit-2.14/parser/Parser
.yp>) The Template::Stash dot notation can be handled by Data::DRef.
* Extend HTMLTemplate module with a hash mapping options that could be
passed to HTML::Template's new() into the equivalent behavior, or
croak if they're unsupported.
* Consider extending Embperl module to support dynamic HTML tags.
* Consider extending ServerPages module to support dynamic XML tags.
Template Sources
* Improve TemplateDir and/or add related file-search mixin classes:
Perhaps optionally accept a search path listing multiple directories
to search for templates?
Perhaps add methods to search for all files matching a given regex
to facilitate tree searches and cache pre-fetching?
Perhaps optionally chdir() during the execution of each template?
* Add a DHandlers mixin that supports default files. On file requests,
if file not found, look for default file. (Attribute dhandler_name
controls name of file to look for.)
* Add an AutoHandlers mixin that supports wrapper files. On file
requests, also search hierarchy for autohandler files. (Attribute
autohandler_name controls name of file to look for.) Build a stack
of autohandlers and store it in a mason attribute. Support
->call_next() to work through the chain.
(I've also gotten a user request for "decorator files" which turns
out to be roughly equivalent to the AutoHandler system.)
* Add a TemplateDB mixin which shows how to retrieve templates from a
database table. Provides a read_db() method. Accept a DBI connection
as an attribute -- or a reference to a function which will return
rows from a sql statement.
Consider how to support caching for templates drawn from a
TemplateDB. Perhaps in addition to the source_file there can be some
kind of opaque cache key returned by the prepare method?
Caching
* Add a DataCache mixin that provides a pre-configured cache object
for use within template code. Requires cache() method and
configuration attributes. Cache namespace should be based on source
file name or arbitrary instance for text compilation.
* Add an InterpretCache mixin that allows caching of the parsed and
assembled Perl code for a template file, akin to Mason's var/obj/
directory. (This would also allow visual review when debugging the
converted code.)
* The InterpretCache and CompileCache benefit from using a cache
object that checks the keys as filenames to see if the source file
has been updated and forces cache expiration; find a way to extract
and reuse this capability from Text::MicroMason::Cache::File.
Blessing Templates
* Add a BlessSub mixin that blesses the compiled subroutine. This
would let us add support for template-specific behaviors and
attributes. Override eval_sub() to bless sub before returning.
Attribute bless_sub controls initializer arguments passed to
BlessedSub class. BlessedSub class is base class for blessed
template objects. Provides execute() method.
BlessedSub classes may need their own mixin factory... To avoid
having to define separate mixins for both packages, perhaps the
methods should be delegated from the coderef to the Mason instance?
(This becomes particularly attractive if each sub is automatically
getting its own cloned mason instance anyway.)
* Add an AttrBlock mixin, using BlessedSub. Override lexer methods to
parse <%attr> blocks. Stores attribute definitions in a %once block.
Provides attr() method.
* Add a MethodBlock mixin, using BlessedSub. Override lexer methods to
parse <%method> blocks. Stores method definitions in a %once block.
Hooks AUTOLOAD to catch method calls.
Internals
* Consider moving output_sub to a new OutputHandle mixin which accepts
a handle as an attribute, then prints output to it rather than
returning the results as a string.
* Clarify and document the clone-on-change behavior of prepare() and
its effects when making changes to a mason object after compiling a
template. Perhaps we should ensure that we clone every time, or at
least every time that it matters?
Testing
* Set up a benchmarking tool to compare subclasses with other
templating solutions. Take an example from ApacheBench but execute
templates directly rather than via Apache. Store the expected output
in a text file for comparison.
Other links to considerÊwhen benchmarking:
http://www.chamas.com/bench/
http://use.perl.org/~hctif/journal/25211
http://www.gtchat.de/templateengines/templateengines_en.html
* Set up a compliance test tool that compares the output of the
various MicroMason mixins with the other modules they emulate. This
should be able to use many of the same data files as the
benchmarking tool.
* Add more templates to samples directory and test them.
SEE ALSO
For distribution, installation, support, copyright and license
information, see Text::MicroMason::Docs::ReadMe.