[Koha] Template Toolkit Syntax for Slips & Notices

[Kyle Hall]

Hey All!

As you may know, Koha 16.11 supports the use of Template Toolkit markup in
Koha's slips and notices. This provides huge benefits over our current
bespoke syntax, such as
A) Consistency, we have odd tags like <<itemscontent>>
B) Flow control, for example, we can hide labels for fields that are empty
C) Flexible, for example, maybe you want to mask part of a patrons name on
a print slip, with TT it's easy!

Jonathan and I would really like to get moving on making Template Toolkit
the defacto way to deal with slips and notices in Koha. This is not a
trivial undertaking, and we'd like to get it done in time for the 17.05
release.

To do this we will:
A) Port all slips and notices to TT syntax
B) Enable TT syntax in the slips and notices editor
C) Document the new TT syntax of slips and notices

These tasks will be accomplished on bugs 15278, 15277, and 15276
respectively.

I would like to stress that the existing Slips and Notices syntax will
continue to work in 17.05, and you will *not* need to update your existing
templates during the 17.05 upgrade process.

We are looking for community input on this project before we proceed. Let
us know what you think!

Kyle

http://www.kylehall.info
ByWater Solutions ( http://bywatersolutions.com )
Meadville Public Library ( http://www.meadvillelibrary.org )
Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )