[%#
  # IMPORTANT NOTE
  #   This documentation is generated automatically from source
  #   templates.  Any changes you make here may be lost.
  # 
  #   The 'docsrc' documentation source bundle is available for download
  #   from http://www.template-toolkit.org/docs.html and contains all
  #   the source templates, XML files, scripts, etc., from which the
  #   documentation for the Template Toolkit is built.
-%]
[% META book = 'Modules'
        page = 'Plugin_Datafile'
%]
[%  WRAPPER toc;
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="SYNOPSIS"
                subs  = [];
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="DESCRIPTION"
                subs  = [];
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="BUGS"
                subs  = [];
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="AUTHOR"
                subs  = [];
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="VERSION"
                subs  = [];
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="COPYRIGHT"
                subs  = [];
	PROCESS tocitem 
	        title ="SEE ALSO"
                subs  = [];
    END
%]
<!-- Pod to HTML conversion by the Template Toolkit version 2 -->
[% WRAPPER section
    title="SYNOPSIS"
-%]<pre>    [% tt_start_tag %] USE mydata = datafile('/path/to/datafile') [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] USE mydata = datafile('/path/to/datafile', delim = '|') [% tt_end_tag %]
   
    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH record = mydata [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] record.this [% tt_end_tag %]  [% tt_start_tag %] record.that [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]</pre>
[%- END %]
[% WRAPPER section
    title="DESCRIPTION"
-%]<p>
This plugin provides a simple facility to construct a list of hash 
references, each of which represents a data record of known structure,
from a data file.
</p>
<pre>    [% tt_start_tag %] USE datafile(filename) [% tt_end_tag %]</pre>
<p>
A absolute filename must be specified (for this initial implementation at 
least - in a future version it might also use the INCLUDE_PATH).  An 
optional 'delim' parameter may also be provided to specify an alternate
delimiter character.
</p>
<pre>    [% tt_start_tag %] USE userlist = datafile('/path/to/file/users')     [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] USE things   = datafile('items', delim = '|') [% tt_end_tag %]</pre>
<p>
The format of the file is intentionally simple.  The first line
defines the field names, delimited by colons with optional surrounding
whitespace.  Subsequent lines then defines records containing data
items, also delimited by colons.  e.g.
</p>
<pre>    id : name : email : tel
    abw : Andy Wardley : abw@cre.canon.co.uk : 555-1234
    neilb : Neil Bowers : neilb@cre.canon.co.uk : 555-9876</pre>
<p>
Each line is read, split into composite fields, and then used to 
initialise a hash array containing the field names as relevant keys.
The plugin returns a blessed list reference containing the hash 
references in the order as defined in the file.
</p>
<pre>    [% tt_start_tag %] FOREACH user = userlist [% tt_end_tag %]
       [% tt_start_tag %] user.id [% tt_end_tag %]: [% tt_start_tag %] user.name [% tt_end_tag %]
    [% tt_start_tag %] END [% tt_end_tag %]</pre>
<p>
The first line of the file <b>must</b> contain the field definitions.
After the first line, blank lines will be ignored, along with comment
line which start with a '#'.
</p>
[%- END %]
[% WRAPPER section
    title="BUGS"
-%]<p>
Should handle file names relative to INCLUDE_PATH.
Doesn't permit use of ':' in a field.  Some escaping mechanism is required.
</p>
[%- END %]
[% WRAPPER section
    title="AUTHOR"
-%]<p>
Andy Wardley &lt;abw@andywardley.com&gt;
</p>
<p>
[% ttlink('http://www.andywardley.com/', 'http://www.andywardley.com/') -%]
</p>
[%- END %]
[% WRAPPER section
    title="VERSION"
-%]<p>
2.54, distributed as part of the
Template Toolkit version 2.08, released on 30 July 2002.
</p>
[%- END %]
[% WRAPPER section
    title="COPYRIGHT"
-%]<pre>  Copyright (C) 1996-2002 Andy Wardley.  All Rights Reserved.
  Copyright (C) 1998-2002 Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd.</pre>
<p>
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
</p>
[%- END %]
[% WRAPPER section
    title="SEE ALSO"
-%]<p>
[% ttlink('Template::Plugin', 'Template::Plugin') -%]
</p>
[%- END %]