Changed data: field to allow data to be specified directly.

data:
   deadline:  11/20/2009
   tasks: from tasks.yaml order by date desc

In this example, deadline is given a value directly,
while tasks takes its value from tasks.yaml.

README.markdown

@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ what went into `index.html`. The file is a YAML list of YAML hashes
       template : index.st
       requires : event.st
       data     :
-        recentevents : events.yaml ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 2
+        recentevents : FROM events.yaml ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 2
 
 This says:  build the page `index.html` from the string template `index.st`
 (and subtemplate `event.st`) and data from `events.yaml`. Sort this data
@@ -220,8 +220,8 @@ although they may, and the query doesn't have to end with a semicolon,
 though it may):
 
     data:
-        events:  events.yaml order by date desc group by title then location
-        people:  people.csv order by birthday then lastname where
+        events:  from events.yaml order by date desc group by title then location
+        people:  from people.csv order by birthday then lastname where
                   birthstate = 'CA' limit 5
 
 First we have the name of the stringtemplate attribute to be populated
@@ -269,6 +269,14 @@ Note that the order of transformations is significant.  You can get
 different results if you use `LIMIT` before or after `ORDER BY`,
 for example.
 
+If you want to specify an attribute's value directly, rather than
+reading it from a file, just omit the "FROM":
+
+    date:
+      deadline: 11/20/2009
+
+Any YAML value can be given to an attribute in this way.
+
 ### Static files
 
 Any file or subdirectory in the `files` directory (or whatever is
@@ -404,7 +412,7 @@ If you like, you can use a CSV file instead of YAML for your data source.
 Just give it the extension `.csv`.  In `index.yaml`, you'd have:
 
     data:
-      events:  events.csv order by date desc
+      events: from events.csv order by date desc
 
 This can be handy if you're using existing data, because spreadsheets
 and databases can easily be dumped to CSV. In the case of a SQL
@@ -440,17 +448,7 @@ date in a list of dates: not what you want.
 
 The solution is to set up your text editor so that it doesn't
 add the newline at the end of the file.  Using [vim][], you can do this
-with the commands `set binary` and `set noeol`.  To make this the
-default for `.st` files, add this line to `augroup filetypedetect`
-in `~\.vim\filetype.vim`:
-
-    au! BufRead,BufNewFile *.st setfiletype stringtemplate
-
-Then add a file `stringtemplate.st` in `~/.vim/ftplugin` with
-the following contents:
-
-    set binary
-    set noeol
+with the commands `set binary` and `set noeol`.
 
 ### Layout templates
 

Yst/Build.hs

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import Yst.Types
 import Yst.Util
 import Yst.Render
 import qualified Data.Map as M
-import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe)
+import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe, mapMaybe)
 import Data.List
 import System.FilePath
 import System.Directory
@@ -44,7 +44,9 @@ dependencies site url =
                  case sourceFile page of
                        TemplateFile f -> stripStExt f <.> "st"
                        SourceFile f   -> f
-      dataFiles = map (\(_,(f,_)) -> dataDir site </> f) $ pageData page
+      fileFromSpec (DataFromFile f _) = Just f
+      fileFromSpec _ = Nothing
+      dataFiles = map (dataDir site </>) $ mapMaybe (\(_,s) -> fileFromSpec s) $ pageData page
   in  indexFile site : layout : srcdir : (requires ++ dataFiles)
 
 buildSite :: Site -> IO ()

Yst/Data.hs

@@ -26,15 +26,16 @@ import Yst.CSV
 import Control.Monad
 import Data.Char
 import Data.Maybe (fromMaybe)
-import Data.List (sortBy, nub)
+import Data.List (sortBy, nub, isPrefixOf)
 import Text.ParserCombinators.Parsec
 import System.FilePath (takeExtension)
 
-getData :: (FilePath, [DataOption]) -> IO Node
-getData (file, opts) = do
+getData :: DataSpec -> IO Node
+getData (DataFromFile file opts) = do
   raw <- catch (readDataFile file)
           (\e -> errorExit 15 ("Error reading data from " ++ file ++ ": " ++ show e) >> return undefined)
   return $ foldl applyDataOption raw opts
+getData (DataConstant n) = return n
 
 readDataFile :: FilePath -> IO Node
 readDataFile f =
@@ -97,14 +98,19 @@ reverseIfDescending Descending EQ = EQ
 reverseIfDescending Descending LT = GT
 reverseIfDescending Descending GT = LT
 
-parseDataField :: Node -> (FilePath, [DataOption])
-parseDataField (NString s) = case parse pDataField s s of
-  Right res   -> res
-  Left err    -> error $ show err
-parseDataField x = error $ "Expected string node, got " ++ show x
+parseDataField :: Node -> DataSpec
+parseDataField n@(NString s) = case parse pDataField s s of
+  Right (f,opts)  -> DataFromFile f opts
+  Left err        -> if "from" `isPrefixOf` (dropWhile isSpace $ map toLower s)
+                        then error $ "Error parsing data field: " ++ show err
+                        else DataConstant n 
+parseDataField n = DataConstant n
 
 pDataField :: GenParser Char st ([Char], [DataOption])
 pDataField = do
+  spaces
+  pString "from"
+  pSpace
   fname <- pIdentifier <?> "name of YAML or CSV file"
   opts <- many $ (pOptWhere <?> "where [CONDITION]")
               <|> (pOptLimit <?> "limit [NUMBER]")

Yst/Types.hs

@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ data Source = TemplateFile FilePath
             deriving (Show, Read, Eq)
 
 data Page = Page {
-    pageData      :: [(String, (FilePath, [DataOption]))]
+    pageData      :: [(String, DataSpec)]
   , layoutFile    :: Maybe FilePath
   , sourceFile    :: Source
   , requiresFiles :: [FilePath]
@@ -74,6 +74,10 @@ instance Ord Node where
   compare (NDate _) _               = GT
   compare _ _                       = GT
 
+data DataSpec = DataConstant Node
+              | DataFromFile FilePath [DataOption]
+              deriving (Show, Read, Eq)
+
 data DataOption = OrderBy [(String, SortDirection)]
                 | GroupBy [String]
                 | Where FilterCond

demo/index.yaml

@@ -3,21 +3,21 @@
   template : index.st
   requires : event.st
   data     :
-    recentevents : events.yaml ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 2
+    recentevents : FROM events.yaml ORDER BY date DESC LIMIT 2
 
 - url      : events.html
   title    : Events 
   template : events.st
   requires : [event.st, eventgroup.st, date.st]
   data     :
-    eventsbydate : events.yaml ORDER BY date DESC GROUP BY date
+    eventsbydate : FROM events.yaml ORDER BY date DESC GROUP BY date
 
 - url      : april_events.tex
   title    : April Events
   template : april_events.st
   requires : event.st
   data     :
-    april  : events.yaml WHERE date >= '2009-04-01' AND date < '2009-05-01' ORDER BY date
+    april  : FROM events.yaml WHERE date >= '2009-04-01' AND date < '2009-05-01' ORDER BY date
   layout   : layout.tex.st
   inmenu   : no