NAME¶
Pod::Xhtml - Generate well-formed XHTML documents from POD format documentation
SYNOPSIS¶
This module inherits from Pod::Parser, hence you can use this familiar
interface:
use Pod::Xhtml;
my $parser = new Pod::Xhtml;
$parser->parse_from_file( $infile, $outfile );
# or use filehandles instead
$parser->parse_from_filehandle($in_fh, $out_fh);
# or get the XHTML as a scalar
my $parsertoo = new Pod::Xhtml( StringMode => 1 );
$parsertoo->parse_from_file( $infile, $outfile );
my $xhtml = $parsertoo->asString;
# or get a reference to the XHTML string
my $xhtmlref = $parsertoo->asStringRef;
# to parse some other pod file to another output file all you need to do is...
$parser->parse_from_file( $anotherinfile, $anotheroutfile );
There are options specific to Pod::Xhtml that you can pass in at construction
time, e.g.:
my $parser = new Pod::Xhtml(StringMode => 1, MakeIndex => 0);
See "OPTIONS". For more information also see Pod::Parser which this
module inherits from.
DESCRIPTION¶
- new Pod::Xhtml( [ OPTIONS ] )
- Create a new object. Optionally pass in some options in the
form 'new Pod::Xhtml( StringMode => 1);'
- $parser->parse_from_file( INPUTFILE, [OUTPUTFILE] )
- Read POD from the input file, output to the output file (or
STDOUT if no file is given). See Pod::Parser docs for more. Note that you
can parse multiple files with the same object. All your options will be
preserved, as will any text you added with the add*Text methods.
- $parser->parse_from_filehandle( [INPUTFILEHANDLE,
[OUTPUTFILEHANDLE]] )
- Read POD from the input filehandle, output to the output
filehandle (STDIN/STDOUT if no filehandle(s) given). See Pod::Parser docs
for more. Note that you can parse multiple files with the same object. All
your options will be preserved, as will any text you added with the
add*Text methods.
- $parser->asString
- Get the XHTML as a scalar. You'll probably want to use this
with the StringMode option.
- $parser->asStringRef
- As above, but you get a reference to the string, not the
string itself.
- $parser->addHeadText( $text )
- Inserts some text just before the closing head tag. For
example you can add a link to a stylesheet. May be called many times to
add lots of text. Note: you need to call this some time before any
output is done, e.g. straight after new(). Make sure that you only
insert valid XHTML fragments.
- $parser->addBodyOpenText( $text ) /
$parser->addBodyCloseText( $text )
- Inserts some text right at the beginning (or ending) of the
body element. For example you can add a navigation header and footer. May
be called many times to add lots of text. Note: you need to call this some
time before any output is done, e.g. straight after new().
Make sure that you only insert valid XHTML fragments.
OPTIONS¶
- StringMode
- Default: 0. If set to 1 this does no output at all, even if
filenames/handles are supplied. Use asString or asStringRef to access the
text if you set this option.
- MakeIndex
- Default: 1. If set to 1 then an index of sections is
created at the top of the body. If set to 2 then the index includes
non-bulleted list items
- MakeMeta
- Default: 1. If set to 1 then some meta tags are created,
recording things like input file, description, etc.
- FragmentOnly
- Default: 0. If 1, we only produce an XHTML fragment
(suitable for use as a server-side include etc). There is no HEAD element
nor any BODY or HTML tags. Any text added with the add*Text methods will
not be output.
- TopHeading
- Allows you to set the starting heading level when in
fragment mode. For example, if your document already has h1 tags and you
want the generated POD to nest inside the outline, you can specify
TopHeading => 2
and "=head1" will be tagged with h2 tags, "=head3" with
h3, and so on.
Note that XHTML doesn't allow for heading tags past h6, so h7 and up will be
translated to h6 as necessary.
- TopLinks
- At each section head this text is added to provide a link
back to the top. Set to 0 or '' to inhibit links, or define your own.
Default: <p><a href="#TOP" class="toplink">Top</a></p>
- LinkParser
- An object that parses links in the POD document. By
default, this is a regular Pod::Hyperlink object. Any user-supplied link
parser must conform the the Pod::Hyperlink API.
This module works with a Pod::Hyperlink::BounceURL link parser and generates
hyperlinks as 'a' elements with a class of 'pod_xhtml_bounce_url'. The
optional text giving the "node" is enclosed in a 'strong'
element with a class of 'pod_xhtml_bounce_url_text'
RATIONALE¶
There's Pod::PXML and Pod::XML, so why do we need Pod::Xhtml? You need an XSLT
to transform XML into XHTML and many people don't have the time or inclination
to do this. But they want to make sure that the pages they put on their web
site are well-formed, they want those pages to use stylesheets easily, and
possibly they want to squirt the XHTML through some kind of filter for more
processing.
By generating well-formed XHTML straight away we allow anyone to just use the
output files as-is. For those who want to use XML tools or transformations
they can use the XHTML as a source, because it's a well-formed XML document.
CAVEATS¶
This module outputs well-formed XHTML if the POD is well-formed. To check this
you can use something like:
use Pod::Checker;
my $syn = podchecker($defaultIn);
If $syn is 0 there are no syntax errors. If it's -1 then no POD was found. Any
positive number indicates that that number of errors were found. If the input
POD has errors then the output XHTML
should be well-formed but will
probably omit information, and in addition Pod::Xhtml will emit warnings. Note
that Pod::Parser seems to be sensitive to the current setting of $/ so ensure
it's the end-of-line character when the parsing is done.
AUTHOR¶
P Kent & Simon Flack <cpan _at_ bbc _dot_ co _dot_ uk>
COPYRIGHT¶
(c) BBC 2004, 2005. This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the GNU GPL.
See the file COPYING in this distribution, or
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt