Availability

You can download this plugin here: mtsimpletemplate-1_21.zip

Installation

To install, place the 'simpletemplate.pl' file in your Movable Type "plugins" directory. The 'simpletemplate.pm' file should be placed in a 'bradchoate' subdirectory underneath your Movable Type "extlib" directory. Your installation should look like this:

• (mt home)/plugins/simpletemplate.pl
• (mt home)/extlib/bradchoate/simpletemplate.pm

Refer to the Movable Type documentation for more information regarding plugins.

Description

This plugin provides an alternative format for your Movable Type templates.

Tags made available through this plugin:

• <MTSimpleTemplate> - The container tag that translates the "simple" template format into a regular Movable Type template.
• <MTEval> - Container tag that allows you to use embedded expressions for any Movable Type tag.
• <MTSetVarBlock> - Similar to the SetVar tag, but is a container tag where the value is placed within the tag.

<MTSimpleTemplate>

The SimpleTemplate tag should be placed around your entire template so it can process it for the "simple" template syntax it offers.

These attributes are allowed:

• pragma
  An optional parameter that allows you to define the character(s) used to indicate the Movable Type tag data. The default is '%'.
• comment
  An optional parameter that allows you to define the character(s) used to indicate comments within the template. The default is '#'.
• no_build
  If specified, the output from this tag will be the Movable Type template code it produces. Normally, the output is the compiled result of the template.

Usage

Here's a very simple Movable Type template:

<$MTEntryBody$>
<MTIfEntryExtended>Extended text: <$MTEntryMore$></MTIfEntryExtended>

Here is the same thing in "simple" format:

<MTSimpleTemplate>
% EntryBody
% EntryIfExtended:
Extended text: ${EntryMore}
% :EntryIfExtended
</MTSimpleTemplate>

Note that there are two forms you can use to produce MT tags:

1. Pragma format: a line starting with the '%' character (or you can customize this using the 'pragma' attribute of the SimpleTemplate tag) is seen as a Movable Type instruction. Exactly one MT tag may be produced per pragma. If the pragma line ends with ":" (or ``{'', ``('', ``['') it is considered an open MT tag. If the pragma starts with ":" (or "}", ")", "]") it is considered a closing tag.
2. Inline format: ${Variable attribute="value"}
   This is a simple way to express: <$MTVariable attribute="value"$>

Any Movable Type tags can be used with this -- you would just refer to them without the usual "MT" prefix.

Here's some more examples:

% Comments:
<div class="comments-body">
% CommentBody
<span class="comments-post">Posted by: ${CommentAuthorLink spam_protect="1"}
at ${CommentDate}</span>
</div>
% :Comments

This demonstrates line-continuation with Simple Templates. If the pragma ends with "\\" and the next line is a pragma line, then it gets concatenated together:

% EntryDate \
%   format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"

becomes:

<$MTEntryDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$>

Container tags should be written like this:

% EntryIfExtended:

Something something...

% :EntryIfExtended

or this:

% EntryIfExtended {

Something something...

% } EntryIfExtended

or this:

% EntryIfExtended {

Something something...

% }

Non-container tags (like <$MTEntryBody$>) can be written like this:

% EntryBody

or this:

${EntryBody}

Comments may be included (default comment character is '#') but the comment character must be at the start of the line (no spaces prior to it):

# This is a comment.

<MTEval>

Evaluates embedded expressions within any arbitrary MT tag.

Attributes:

• _tag
  If specified, the Eval tag functions as a proxy for the tag identified. If unspecified, the Eval tag expects a single Movable Type tag to be enclosed within the Eval tag.

For global filters, you can pass attribute names like this:

<MTEval _tag="GetVar" name="something" 001lower_case="1" 002upper_case="1" />

This will cause the filters to be applied in the order they are numbered.
You can even duplicate the global filter attribute name/value pairs,
combining the operations in any order you wish.

Usage:

<MTSetVar name="lastn" value="5">
<MTEval _tag="Entries" lastn="[MTGetVar name='lastn']">
  (Entry tags go here)
</MTEval>

Or:

<MTSetVar name="lastn" value="5">
<MTEval><MTEntries lastn="[MTGetVar name='lastn']">
  (Entry tags go here)
</MTEntries></MTEval>

You can also use it for simple MT tags (non-container tags):

<MTSetVar name="lastn" value="5">
<MTSetVar name="variable" value="lastn">
<MTEval _tag="GetVar" name="[MTGetVar name='variable']" />

<MTSetVarBlock>

Allows you to define a complex string (multi-line, with tags and even Movable Type tags) for a variable.

• name
  Name of variable to assign.

Usage:

<MTSetVarBlock name="my_info">
<p>This is a very long block of text that
I'm using to describe myself.</p>

<p>And so forth</p>
</MTSetVarBlock>

License

Released under the MIT license.

Changelog

• 1.21: Bugfix to wrapper <MTEval> support.
• 1.2: Added support for specifying multiple global filter attribute name/value pairs. They are also processed in the order specified.
  Made the = sign following the attribute names optional.
  Renamed the "no_compile" attribute to "no_build" (more accurate in
  terminology).
• 1.1: Added Eval and SetVarBlock tags. Implemented dynamic replacement of ${...} expressions within MT attributes.
  Defined default attribute names for many tags that only have a single attribute or have 1 required attribute that drives their function.
• 1.0: Initial release.

¹ Personally, I like it -- but the "simpler" aspect of this is my opinion of course, not necessarily yours.