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1 The Template Toolkit is a collection of Perl modules which implement a fast,
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2 flexible, powerful and extensible template processing system.
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3
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4 It is "input-agnostic" and can be used equally well for processing any kind
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5 of text documents: HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, Perl code, plain text,
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6 and so on.
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7 However, it is most often used for generating static and dynamic web content,
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8 so that's what we'll focus on here.
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9
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10 Although the Template Toolkit is written in Perl, you don't need to be a Perl
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11 programmer to use it. It was designed to allow non-programmers to easily
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12 create and maintain template-based web sites without having to mess around
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13 writing Perl code or going crazy with cut-n-paste.
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14
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15 However, the Template Toolkit is also designed to be extremely flexible and
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16 extensible. If you are a Perl programmer, or know someone who is, then you
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17 can easily hook the Template Toolkit into your existing code, data, databases
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18 and web applications.
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19 Furthermore, you can easily extend the Template Toolkit through the use of
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20 its plugin mechanism and other developer APIs.
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21
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22 Whatever context you use it in, the primary purpose of the Template Toolkit
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23 is to allow you to create a clear separation between the presentation elements
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24 of your web site and everything else.
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25
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26 If you're generating static web pages, then you can use it to separate the
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27 commonly repeated user interface elements on each page (headers, menus,
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28 footers, etc.) from the core content.
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29 If you're generating dynamic web pages for the front end of a web application,
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30 then you'll also be using it to keep the back-end Perl code entirely separate
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31 from the front-end HTML templates.
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32 Either way, a clear separation of concerns is what allow you to concentrate
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33 on one thing at a time without the other things getting in your way.
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34 And that's what the Template Toolkit is all about.
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