Distributing/Accessing Template::Toolkit Templates

[three18ti]

Hello

I would like to include some templates with a Module I am developing, but I'm not sure how I would include them such that when the module is installed the templates are accessible.

I use Dist::Zilla to mint the skeleton and build/test/release the module.

So if I put my templates in lib/Foo/Templates/*.tt, what parameter to I feed my Template->new to to tell it to search in the $default_locations/Foo/Templates/? Ideally, I would prefer not to have to specify all the locations, because there are a number of pitfalls with that solution (what if module is installed in non standard location, what if a windows user installs the module, etc.)

I think this is what tells it to search my local build directory:

my $tt = Template->new({
    INCLUDE_PATH => ['lib/Foo/Templates'],
}) || die "$Template::ERROR\n";

Thanks Monks!

[GrandFather]

If you install the templates in a directory relative to the directory containing your module then you can use %INC to get the path:

use warnings;
use strict;
use Foo;

(my $fooDir = $INC{'Foo.pm'}) =~ s/Foo\.pm$//;
my $tmplDir = "${fooDir}Templates";

[three18ti]

Hey, that's pretty clever. Are there any pitfals with this method? File::ShareDir seems like it might be the better option, unless for some reason you're limited in the modules you can use...

Thanks for the reply!

[GrandFather]

I'd go with File::Share. I was unaware of it. It looks a better fit for your distribution problem.

[Anonymous Monk]

File::ShareDir is the official standard :) see Dist::Zilla::Plugin::ShareDir

Also remember to consider version-ing or even theme-ing your template sets ...