Extending HTML::Template Includes via HTTP HTML::Template lets you do includes with the <TMPL_INCLUDE "filename.tmpl"> syntax. But what if that file isn't on your local machine ? Just add custom filter for your templates and implement a new tag without touching the inner workings of HTML::Template. Just do my $tmpl = HTML::Template->new(filename => "filename.tmpl", filter => \&TemplateTools::http_include); and replace your <TMPL_INCLUDE "filename.tmpl"> with <TMPL_HTTP_INCLUDE "http://server/filename.tmpl">. The nice thing is that the new tag is completely independent of the Template module and should also work with replacement modules for HTML::Template such as HTML::Template::Compiled. Download: TemplateTools.pm. package TemplateTools; use strict; use LWP; sub http_include { my $text_ref = shift; $$text_ref =~ s/<TMPL_HTTP_INCLUDE\s+"([^"]*)"\s*>/get_http($1)/ige; } sub get_http { my $url = shift; if ($url !~ /^http/) { my $domain = $ENV{SERVER_NAME} || 'localhost'; $url = 'http://' . $domain . $url if ($url !~ /^http/); } my $browser = LWP::UserAgent->new( max_redirect => 0 ); $browser->agent('TMPL_HTTP_INCLUDE'); my $doc = $browser->request(HTTP::Request->new(GET => $url)); return '' if ($doc->is_error()); return $doc->content(); } 1;