--- name: "HTML::GenToc" section: "3pm" platform: "linux" package: "libhtml-gentoc-perl" version: "3.20-3" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/HTML::GenToc" --- # HTML::GenToc(3pm) Generate a Table of Contents for HTML documents. ## NAME HTML::GenToc - Generate a Table of Contents for HTML documents. ## VERSION version 3.20 ## SYNOPSIS ``` use HTML::GenToc; # create a new object my $toc = new HTML::GenToc(); my $toc = new HTML::GenToc(title=>"Table of Contents", toc_entry=>{ H1=>1, H2=>2 }, toc_end=>{ H1=>'/H1', H2=>'/H2' } ); # generate a ToC from a file $toc->generate_toc(input=>$html_file, footer=>$footer_file, header=>$header_file ); ``` ## DESCRIPTION HTML::GenToc generates anchors and a table of contents for HTML documents. Depending on the arguments, it will insert the information it generates, or output to a string, a separate file or STDOUT. While it defaults to taking H1 and H2 elements as the significant elements to put into the table of contents, any tag can be defined as a significant element. Also, it doesn't matter if the input HTML code is complete, pure HTML, one can input pseudo-html or page-fragments, which makes it suitable for using on templates and HTML meta-languages such as WML. Also included in the distrubution is hypertoc, a script which uses the module so that one can process files on the command-line in a user-friendly manner. ## DETAILS The ToC generated is a multi-level level list containing links to the significant elements. HTML::GenToc inserts the links into the ToC to significant elements at a level specified by the user. **Example:** If H1s are specified as level 1, than they appear in the first level list of the ToC. If H2s are specified as a level 2, than they appear in a second level list in the ToC. Information on the significant elements and what level they should occur are passed in to the methods used by this object, or one can use the defaults. There are two phases to the ToC generation. The first phase is to put suitable anchors into the HTML documents, and the second phase is to generate the ToC from HTML documents which have anchors in them for the ToC to link to. For more information on controlling the contents of the created ToC, see "Formatting the ToC". HTML::GenToc also supports the ability to incorporate the ToC into the HTML document itself via the **inline** option. See "Inlining the ToC" for more information. In order for HTML::GenToc to support linking to significant elements, HTML::GenToc inserts anchors into the significant elements. One can use HTML::GenToc as a filter, outputing the result to another file, or one can overwrite the original file, with the original backed up with a suffix (default: "org") appended to the filename. One can also output the result to a string. ## METHODS Default arguments can be set when the object is created, and overridden by setting arguments when the generate\_toc method is called. Arguments are given as a hash of arguments. ### Method Ω- new ``` $toc = new HTML::GenToc(); $toc = new HTML::GenToc(toc_entry=>\%my_toc_entry, toc_end=>\%my_toc_end, bak=>'bak', ... ); ``` Creates a new HTML::GenToc object. These arguments will be used as defaults in invocations of other methods. See generate\_tod for possible arguments. ### generate\_toc ``` $toc->generate_toc(outfile=>"index2.html"); my $result_str = $toc->generate_toc(to_string=>1); ``` Generates a table of contents for the significant elements in the HTML documents, optionally generating anchors for them first. **Options** - bak bak =\> *string* If the input file/files is/are being overwritten (**overwrite** is on), copy the original file to "*filename*.*string*". If the value is empty, **no** backup file will be created. (default:org) - debug debug =\> 1 Enable verbose debugging output. Used for debugging this module; in other words, don't bother. (default:off) - entrysep entrysep =\> *string* Separator string for non-\ item entries (default: ", ") - filenames filenames =\> \\@filenames The filenames to use when creating table-of-contents links. This overrides the filenames given in the **input** option, and is expected to have exactly the same number of elements. This can also be used when passing in string-content to the **input** option, to give a (fake) filename to use for the links relating to that content. - footer footer =\> *file\_or\_string* Either the filename of the file containing footer text for ToC; or a string containing the footer text. - header header =\> *file\_or\_string* Either the filename of the file containing header text for ToC; or a string containing the header text. - ignore\_only\_one ignore\_only\_one =\> 1 If there would be only one item in the ToC, don't make a ToC. - ignore\_sole\_first ignore\_sole\_first =\> 1 If the first item in the ToC is of the highest level, AND it is the only one of that level, ignore it. This is useful in web-pages where there is only one H1 header but one doesn't know beforehand whether there will be only one. - inline inline =\> 1 Put ToC in document at a given point. See "Inlining the ToC" for more information. - input input =\> \\@filenames input =\> `$content` This is expected to be either a reference to an array of filenames, or a string containing content to process. The three main uses would be: - (a) you have more than one file to process, so pass in multiple filenames - (b) you have one file to process, so pass in its filename as the only array item - (c) you have HTML content to process, so pass in just the content as a string (default:undefined) - notoc\_match notoc\_match =\> *string* If there are certain individual tags you don't wish to include in the table of contents, even though they match the "significant elements", then if this pattern matches contents inside the tag (not the body), then that tag will not be included, either in generating anchors nor in generating the ToC. (default: `"class="notoc""`) - ol ol =\> 1 Use an ordered list for level 1 ToC entries. - ol\_num\_levels ol\_num\_levels =\> 2 The number of levels deep the OL listing will go if **ol** is true. If set to zero, will use an ordered list for all levels. (default:1) - overwrite overwrite =\> 1 Overwrite the input file with the output. (default:off) - outfile outfile =\> *file* File to write the output to. This is where the modified HTML output goes to. Note that it doesn't make sense to use this option if you are processing more than one file. If you give '-' as the filename, then output will go to STDOUT. (default: STDOUT) - quiet quiet =\> 1 Suppress informative messages. (default: off) - textonly textonly =\> 1 Use only text content in significant elements. - title title =\> *string* Title for ToC page (if not using **header** or **inline** or **toc\_only**) (default: "Table of Contents") - toc\_after toc\_after =\> \\%toc\_after\_data `%toc_after_data` = { *tag1* =\> *suffix1*,\ *tag2* =\> *suffix2*\ }; toc\_after =\> { H2=\>'\' } For defining layout of significant elements in the ToC. This expects a reference to a hash of tag=\>suffix pairs. The *tag* is the HTML tag which marks the start of the element. The *suffix* is what is required to be appended to the Table of Contents entry generated for that tag. (default: undefined) - toc\_before toc\_before =\> \\%toc\_before\_data `%toc_before_data` = { *tag1* =\> *prefix1*,\ *tag2* =\> *prefix2*\ }; toc\_before=\>{ H2=\>'\' } For defining the layout of significant elements in the ToC. The *tag* is the HTML tag which marks the start of the element. The *prefix* is what is required to be prepended to the Table of Contents entry generated for that tag. (default: undefined) - toc\_end toc\_end =\> \\%toc\_end\_data `%toc_end_data` = { *tag1* =\> *endtag1*,\ *tag2* =\> *endtag2*\ }; toc\_end =\> { H1 =\> '/H1', H2 =\> '/H2' } For defining significant elements. The *tag* is the HTML tag which marks the start of the element. The *endtag* the HTML tag which marks the end of the element. When matching in the input file, case is ignored (but make sure that all your *tag* options referring to the same tag are exactly the same!). - toc\_entry toc\_entry =\> \\%toc\_entry\_data `%toc_entry_data` = { *tag1* =\> *level1*,\ *tag2* =\> *level2*\ }; toc\_entry =\> { H1 =\> 1, H2 =\> 2 } For defining significant elements. The *tag* is the HTML tag which marks the start of the element. The *level* is what level the tag is considered to be. The value of *level* must be numeric, and non-zero. If the value is negative, consective entries represented by the significant\_element will be separated by the value set by **entrysep** option. - toclabel toclabel =\> *string* HTML text that labels the ToC. Always used. (default: "\Table of Contents\") - toc\_tag toc\_tag =\> *string* If a ToC is to be included inline, this is the pattern which is used to match the tag where the ToC should be put. This can be a start-tag, an end-tag or a comment, but the \< should be left out; that is, if you want the ToC to be placed after the BODY tag, then give "BODY". If you want a special comment tag to make where the ToC should go, then include the comment marks, for example: "!--toc--" (default:BODY) - toc\_tag\_replace toc\_tag\_replace =\> 1 In conjunction with **toc\_tag**, this is a flag to say whether the given tag should be replaced, or if the ToC should be put after the tag. This can be useful if your toc\_tag is a comment and you don't need it after you have the ToC in place. (default:false) - toc\_only toc\_only =\> 1 Output only the Table of Contents, that is, the Table of Contents plus the toclabel. If there is a **header** or a **footer**, these will also be output. If **toc\_only** is false then if there is no **header**, and **inline** is not true, then a suitable HTML page header will be output, and if there is no **footer** and **inline** is not true, then a HTML page footer will be output. (default:false) - to\_string to\_string =\> 1 Return the modified HTML output as a string. This *does* override other methods of output (unlike version 3.00). If *to\_string* is false, the method will return 1 rather than a string. - use\_id use\_id =\> 1 Use id="*name*" for anchors rather than \ anchors. However if an anchor already exists for a Significant Element, this won't make an id for that particular element. - useorg useorg =\> 1 Use pre-existing backup files as the input source; that is, files of the form *infile*.*bak* (see **input** and **bak**). ## INTERNAL METHODS These methods are documented for developer purposes and aren't intended to be used externally. ### make\_anchor\_name ``` $toc->make_anchor_name(content=>$content, anchors=>\%anchors); ``` Makes the anchor-name for one anchor. Bases the anchor on the content of the significant element. Ensures that anchors are unique. ### make\_anchors ``` my $new_html = $toc->make_anchors(input=>$html, notoc_match=>$notoc_match, use_id=>$use_id, toc_entry=>\%toc_entries, toc_end=>\%toc_ends, ); ``` Makes the anchors the given input string. Returns a string. ### make\_toc\_list ``` my @toc_list = $toc->make_toc_list(input=>$html, labels=>\%labels, notoc_match=>$notoc_match, toc_entry=>\%toc_entry, toc_end=>\%toc_end, filename=>$filename); ``` Makes a list of lists which represents the structure and content of (a portion of) the ToC from one file. Also updates a list of labels for the ToC entries. ### build\_lol Build a list of lists of paths, given a list of hashes with info about paths. ### output\_toc ``` $self->output_toc(toc=>$toc_str, input=>\@input, filenames=>\@filenames); ``` Put the output (whether to file, STDOUT or string). The "output" in this case could be the ToC, the modified (anchors added) HTML, or both. ### put\_toc\_inline ``` my $newhtml = $toc->put_toc_inline(toc_str=>$toc_str, filename=>$filename, in_string=>$in_string); ``` Puts the given toc\_str into the given input string; returns a string. ### cp ``` cp($src, $dst); ``` Copies file `$src` to `$dst`. Used for making backups of files. ## FILE FORMATS ### Formatting the ToC The **toc\_entry** and other related options give you control on how the ToC entries may look, but there are other options to affect the final appearance of the ToC file created. With the **header** option, the contents of the given file (or string) will be prepended before the generated ToC. This allows you to have introductory text, or any other text, before the ToC. - Note: If you use the **header** option, make sure the file specified contains the opening HTML tag, the HEAD element (containing the TITLE element), and the opening BODY tag. However, these tags/elements should not be in the header file if the **inline** option is used. See "Inlining the ToC" for information on what the header file should contain for inlining the ToC. With the **toclabel** option, the contents of the given string will be prepended before the generated ToC (but after any text taken from a **header** file). With the **footer** option, the contents of the file will be appended after the generated ToC. - Note: If you use the **footer**, make sure it includes the closing BODY and HTML tags (unless, of course, you are using the **inline** option). If the **header** option is not specified, the appropriate starting HTML markup will be added, unless the **toc\_only** option is specified. If the **footer** option is not specified, the appropriate closing HTML markup will be added, unless the **toc\_only** option is specified. If you do not want/need to deal with header, and footer, files, then you are allowed to specify the title, **title** option, of the ToC file; and it allows you to specify a heading, or label, to put before ToC entries' list, the **toclabel** option. Both options have default values. If you do not want HTML page tags to be supplied, and just want the ToC itself, then specify the **toc\_only** option. If there are no **header** or **footer** files, then this will simply output the contents of **toclabel** and the ToC itself. ### Inlining the ToC The ability to incorporate the ToC directly into an HTML document is supported via the **inline** option. Inlining will be done on the first file in the list of files processed, and will only be done if that file contains an opening tag matching the **toc\_tag** value. If **overwrite** is true, then the first file in the list will be overwritten, with the generated ToC inserted at the appropriate spot. Otherwise a modified version of the first file is output to either STDOUT or to the output file defined by the **outfile** option. The options **toc\_tag** and **toc\_tag\_replace** are used to determine where and how the ToC is inserted into the output. **Example 1** ``` $toc->generate_toc(inline=>1, toc_tag => 'BODY', toc_tag_replace => 0, ... ); ``` This will put the generated ToC after the BODY tag of the first file. If the **header** option is specified, then the contents of the specified file are inserted after the BODY tag. If the **toclabel** option is not empty, then the text specified by the **toclabel** option is inserted. Then the ToC is inserted, and finally, if the **footer** option is specified, it inserts the footer. Then the rest of the input file follows as it was before. **Example 2** ``` $toc->generate_toc(inline=>1, toc_tag => '!--toc--', toc_tag_replace => 1, ... ); ``` This will put the generated ToC after the first comment of the form \