NAME
    Text::MicroMason - Simplified HTML::Mason Templating

DESCRIPTION
    Text::MicroMason interpolates blocks of Perl code embedded into text
    strings, using the simplest features of HTML::Mason.

    Here's an example of Mason-style templating, taken from the HTML::Mason
    manpage:

        % my $noun = 'World';
        Hello <% $noun %>!
        How are ya?

    Interpreting this template with Text::MicroMason produces the same
    output as it would in HTML::Mason:

        Hello World!
        How are ya?

    A complete discussion of the supported syntax and the way it is
    compiled is provided in the module's inline POD.

MOTIVATION
    The HTML::Mason module provides a useful syntax for dynamic template
    interpretation (sometimes called embedded scripting): plain text (or
    HTML) containing occasional chunks of Perl code whose results are
    interpolated into the text when the template is "executed."

    However, HTML::Mason also provides a full-featured web application
    framework with mod_perl integration, a caching engine, and numerous
    other functions, and there are times in which I'd like to use the
    templating capability without configuring a full Mason installation.

    Thus, the Text::MicroMason module was born: it supports the core aspects
    of the HTML::Mason syntax ("<%...%>" expressions, "%...\n" and
    "<%perl>...</%perl>" blocks, "<& file &>" includes, "%ARGS" and
    "$_out->()" ), and omits the features that are web specific (like
    autohandlers) or are less widely used (like "<%method>" blocks).

    You may well be thinking "yet another dynamic templating module?
    Sheesh!" And you'd have a good point. There certainly are a variety of
    templating toolkits on CPAN already; even restricting ourselves to those
    which use Perl syntax for both interpolated expressions and flow control
    (as opposed to "little languages") there's a fairly crowded field,
    including Template::Toolkit, Template::Perl, Text::Template, and
    Text::ScriptTemplate, as well as those that are part of full-blown web
    application frameworks like Apache::ASP, ePerl, HTML::Embperl, and
    HTML::Mason.

    Nonetheless, I think this module occupies a useful niche: it provides a
    reasonable subset of HTML::Mason syntax in a very light-weight fashion.
    In comparison to the other modules listed, MicroMason aims to be fairly
    lightweight, using one eval per parse, converting the template to an
    cacheable unblessed subroutine ref, eschewing method calls, and
    containing only 90 or so lines of Perl code.

COMPATIBILITY WITH HTML::MASON
    See the HTML::Mason manpage for a much more full-featured version of the
    capabilities provided by this module.

    If you've already got HTML::Mason installed, configured, and loaded into
    your process, you're probably better off using it rather than this
    package. HTML::Mason's "$interp->make_component()" method allows you to
    parse a text string without saving it to disk first.

  Unsupported Features

    The following sets of HTML::Mason features are not supported by
    Text::MicroMason:

    *   No %attr, %shared, %method, %def, %init, or %args blocks.

    *   No |h or |u options to escape the result of interpolated
        expressions.

    *   No $m Mason interpreter context.

    *   No $r request object

    *   No shared files like autohandler and dhandler.

    *   No mod_perl integration or configuration capability.

INSTALLATION
    This module should work with any version of Perl 5, without platform
    dependencies or additional modules beyond the core distribution.

    Retrieve the current distribution from CPAN, or from the author's site:

      http://search.cpan.org/author/EVO/Text-MicroMason/
      http://www.evoscript.com/Text-MicroMason/

    Download and unpack the distribution, and execute the standard "perl
    Makefile.PL", "make test", "make install" sequence.

VERSION
    This is version 1.06 of Text::MicroMason.

  Distribution Summary

    The CPAN DSLI entry reads:

      Name            DSLIP  Description
      --------------  -----  ---------------------------------------------
      Text::
      ::MicroMason    Rdpfp  Simplified HTML::Mason Templating

    This module should be categorized under group 11, Text Processing
    (although there's also an argument for placing it 15 Web/HTML, where
    HTML::Mason appears).

  Discussion and Support

    Bug reports or general feedback would be welcomed by the author at
    simonm@cavalletto.org.

    To report bugs via the CPAN web tracking system, go to
    "http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Text-MicroMason" or send mail
    to "Dist=Text-MicroMason#rt.cpan.org", replacing "#" with "@".

CREDITS AND COPYRIGHT
  Developed By

    Developed by Matthew Simon Cavalletto at Evolution Softworks. You may
    contact the author directly at "simonm@cavalletto.org". More free Perl
    software is available at "www.evoscript.org".

  The Shoulders of Giants

    Inspired by Jonathan Swartz's HTML::Mason.

  Feedback and Suggestions

    My sincere thanks to the following users who have provided feedback:

      Pascal Barbedor
      Mark Hampton
      Philip King
      Daniel J. Wright
      William Kern

  Copyright

    Copyright 2002, 2003 Matthew Simon Cavalletto.

    Portions copyright 2001 Evolution Online Systems, Inc.

  License

    You may use, modify, and distribute this software under the same terms
    as Perl.
