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Intro to TAL
Chrissy Wainwright

What is TAL?
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* Zope Templating Language
* Allow for dynamic content in HTML
* Does not render in the site

TAL Syntax
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<div tal:content=”context/Title”></div>
<tal:title content=”context/Title” />
Use an HTML tag or <tal:whatever...

TAL Syntax
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<a tal:attributes=”href url;
class linkClass”>
* separate multiple declarations with a semicolon
* align variables/attributes on the left

TAL Syntax
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<div tal:condition=”python:phone and fax”>
Python expressions allow us to put Python code
directly in the template. This is not meant for
long, complex expressions.

TAL Syntax
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<a tal:attributes=
”href string:${item/url}/folder”>
With string expressions, we can add static text to
dynamic content or combine multiple variables

TAL Commands
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* define
* condition
* repeat
* content/replace
* attributes
* omit-tag

tal:define
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* defines variables
<div id=”portal-breadcrumbs”
tal:define=”breadcrumbs view/breadcrumbs”>

tal:condition
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* evaluates an expression
* display element if True
* omit element if False

tal:condition
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<tal:item define=”is_last repeat/crumb/end”>
<span tal:condition=”not: is_last”>
This
</span>
<span tal:condition=”is_last”>
That
</span>
</tal:item>

tal:repeat
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* repeats over a set of elements
* available variables:
* index / number
* even / odd
* start / end
* length

tal:repeat
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<span tal:repeat=”crumb breadcrumbs”>
<a tal:attributes=”href crumb/absolute_url”
tal:content=”crumb/Title”>crumb</a>
</span>

tal:content
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* determines what content will display inside a
tag
* any content inside the tag in the template will
not display in the site
<span tal:content=”title”>The Title</span>

tal:content
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use ‘structure’ for content with HTML code,
so the code is not rendered as text
<tal:body content=”structure context/getText” />

tal:replace
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* determines what content will display in place
of a tag
* the tag will not display in the site
<span tal:replace=”title”>The Title</span>

tal:replace
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* replacing an element with ‘nothing’ will not
render in the site
* good for commenting out parts of the code
<div tal:replace=”nothing”>
This is a comment
</div>

tal:attributes
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allows you to set a dynamic value to an attribute
(href, src, class, etc)
<a href=”#”
tal:content=”crumb/Title”
tal:attributes=”href crumb/absolute_url”></a>

tal:omit-tag
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* similar to condition, evaluates an expression
* if true, the wrapping tag is omitted, and only
the content is displayed
* if false, the tag displays
* omit-tag=”” will also omit the tag

tal:omit-tag
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<a href=”#”
tal:define=”url crumb/absolute_url”
tal:omit-tag=”not:url”
tal:attributes=”href url”>

Macros
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The Macro Expansion Template Attribute
Language (METAL) allows us to create macros
within our page templates, which saves us from
repeating code.
* define-macro / use-macro
* define-slot / fill-slot

Macros
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<div metal:define-macro=”footer”>
&copy; 2011 Company Name
</div>
<metal:foot
use-macro=”context/my_macros/macros/footer”>
</metal:foot>

Macro Slots
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<h1 metal:define-slot=”content-title”>
<span tal:replace=”context/Title”></span>
</h1>
<h1 metal:fill-slot=”content-title”>
Custom Title
</h1>

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eck out
Ch
p. com/d emos
six feetu