ikiwiki/doc/templates.mdwn

[[if test="enabled(template)"
then="This wiki has templates **enabled**."
else="This wiki has templates **disabled**."
]]

Templates are files that can be filled out and inserted into pages in the
wiki.

[[if test="enabled(template) and enabled(inline)" then="""

## Available templates

These templates are available for inclusion onto other pages in this
wiki:

[[inline pages="templates/* and !*/discussion" feeds=no archive=yes
sort=title template=titlepage]]
"""]]

## Using a template

Using a template works like this:

	\[[template id=note text="""Here is the text to insert into my note."""]]

This fills out the [[note]] template, filling in the `text` field with
the specified value, and inserts the result into the page.

A value can include any markup that would be allowed in the wiki page
outside the template. Triple-quoting the value even allows quotes to be
included in it. Combined with multi-line quoted values, this allows for
large chunks of marked up text to be embedded into a template:

        \[[template id=foo name="Sally" color="green" age=8 notes="""
        * \[[Charley]]'s sister.
        * "I want to be an astronaut when I grow up."
        * Really 8 and a half.
        """]]

## Creating a template

To create a template, simply add a template directive to a page, and page will
provide a link that can be used to create the template. The template is a
regular wiki page, located in the `templates/` directory.

The template uses the syntax used by the
[cpan HTML::Template](http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=dist&query=HTML::Template)
perl module, which allows for some fairly complex things to be done.
Consult its documentation for the full syntax, but all you really need to know
are a few things:

* To insert the value of a variable, use `<TMPL_VAR variable>`.
* To make a block of text conditional on a variable being set use
  `<TMPL_IF NAME="variable">text</TMPL_IF>`.
* To use one block of text if a variable is set and a second if it's not,
  use `<TMPL_IF NAME="variable">text<TMPL_ELSE>other text</TMPL_IF>`

Here's a sample template:

        <span class="infobox">
        Name: <TMPL_VAR name><br />
        Age: <TMPL_VAR age><br />
        <TMPL_IF NAME="color">
        Favorite color: <TMPL_VAR color><br />
        <TMPL_ELSE>
        No favorite color.<br />
        </TMPL_IF>
        <TMPL_IF NAME="notes">
        <hr />
        <TMPL_VAR notes>
        </TMPL_IF>
        </span>

The filled out template will be formatted the same as the rest of the page
that contains it, so you can include WikiLinks and all other forms of wiki
markup in the template. Note though that such WikiLinks will not show up as
backlinks to the page that uses the template.