Commit | Line | Data |
cb93c9d7 |
1 | =head1 NAME |
2 | |
3 | Catalyst::Manual::Cookbook - Cooking with Catalyst |
4 | |
5 | =head1 DESCRIPTION |
6 | |
7 | Yummy code like your mum used to bake! |
8 | |
9 | =head1 RECIPES |
10 | |
11 | =head1 Basics |
12 | |
c718cfb6 |
13 | These recipes cover some basic stuff that is worth knowing for |
46a5f2f5 |
14 | Catalyst developers. |
cb93c9d7 |
15 | |
16 | =head2 Delivering a Custom Error Page |
17 | |
18 | By default, Catalyst will display its own error page whenever it |
19 | encounters an error in your application. When running under C<-Debug> |
c718cfb6 |
20 | mode, the error page is a useful screen including the error message |
21 | and L<Data::Dump> output of the relevant parts of the C<$c> context |
22 | object. When not in C<-Debug>, users see a simple "Please come back |
23 | later" screen. |
cb93c9d7 |
24 | |
c718cfb6 |
25 | To use a custom error page, use a special C<end> method to |
26 | short-circuit the error processing. The following is an example; you |
27 | might want to adjust it further depending on the needs of your |
28 | application (for example, any calls to C<fillform> will probably need |
29 | to go into this C<end> method; see L<Catalyst::Plugin::FillInForm>). |
cb93c9d7 |
30 | |
31 | sub end : Private { |
32 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
33 | |
34 | if ( scalar @{ $c->error } ) { |
35 | $c->stash->{errors} = $c->error; |
36 | $c->stash->{template} = 'errors.tt'; |
37 | $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT'); |
38 | $c->error(0); |
39 | } |
40 | |
41 | return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/; |
42 | return 1 if $c->response->body; |
43 | |
44 | unless ( $c->response->content_type ) { |
45 | $c->response->content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8'); |
46 | } |
47 | |
48 | $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT'); |
49 | } |
50 | |
51 | You can manually set errors in your code to trigger this page by calling |
52 | |
53 | $c->error( 'You broke me!' ); |
54 | |
55 | =head2 Disable statistics |
56 | |
c718cfb6 |
57 | Just add this line to your application class if you don't want those |
58 | nifty statistics in your debug messages. |
cb93c9d7 |
59 | |
60 | sub Catalyst::Log::info { } |
61 | |
62 | =head2 Enable debug status in the environment |
63 | |
64 | Normally you enable the debugging info by adding the C<-Debug> flag to |
b411df01 |
65 | your C<use Catalyst> statement . However, you can also enable it using |
66 | environment variable, so you can (for example) get debug info without |
67 | modifying your application scripts. Just set C<CATALYST_DEBUG> or |
7c098817 |
68 | C<E<lt>MYAPPE<gt>_DEBUG> to a true value. |
cb93c9d7 |
69 | |
70 | =head2 Sessions |
71 | |
c718cfb6 |
72 | When you have your users identified, you will want to somehow remember |
73 | that fact, to save them from having to identify themselves for every |
74 | single page. One way to do this is to send the username and password |
75 | parameters in every single page, but that's ugly, and won't work for |
76 | static pages. |
cb93c9d7 |
77 | |
c718cfb6 |
78 | Sessions are a method of saving data related to some transaction, and |
79 | giving the whole collection a single ID. This ID is then given to the |
80 | user to return to us on every page they visit while logged in. The |
81 | usual way to do this is using a browser cookie. |
cb93c9d7 |
82 | |
83 | Catalyst uses two types of plugins to represent sessions: |
84 | |
85 | =head3 State |
86 | |
c718cfb6 |
87 | A State module is used to keep track of the state of the session |
88 | between the users browser, and your application. |
cb93c9d7 |
89 | |
c718cfb6 |
90 | A common example is the Cookie state module, which sends the browser a |
91 | cookie containing the session ID. It will use default value for the |
92 | cookie name and domain, so will "just work" when used. |
cb93c9d7 |
93 | |
94 | =head3 Store |
95 | |
c718cfb6 |
96 | A Store module is used to hold all the data relating to your session, |
97 | for example the users ID, or the items for their shopping cart. You |
98 | can store data in memory (FastMmap), in a file (File) or in a database |
99 | (DBI). |
cb93c9d7 |
100 | |
101 | =head3 Authentication magic |
102 | |
103 | If you have included the session modules in your application, the |
104 | Authentication modules will automagically use your session to save and |
105 | retrieve the user data for you. |
106 | |
107 | =head3 Using a session |
108 | |
109 | Once the session modules are loaded, the session is available as C<< |
c718cfb6 |
110 | $c->session >>, and can be writen to and read from as a simple hash |
111 | reference. |
cb93c9d7 |
112 | |
113 | =head3 EXAMPLE |
114 | |
b1a08fe1 |
115 | package MyApp; |
116 | use Moose; |
117 | use namespace::autoclean; |
118 | |
b411df01 |
119 | use Catalyst qw/ |
ca7528df |
120 | Session |
121 | Session::Store::FastMmap |
122 | Session::State::Cookie |
b411df01 |
123 | /; |
b1a08fe1 |
124 | extends 'Catalyst'; |
125 | __PACKAGE__->setup; |
cb93c9d7 |
126 | |
b1a08fe1 |
127 | package MyApp::Controller::Foo; |
128 | use Moose; |
129 | use namespace::autoclean; |
46a5f2f5 |
130 | BEGIN { extends 'Catalyst::Controller' }; |
cb93c9d7 |
131 | ## Write data into the session |
132 | |
133 | sub add_item : Local { |
134 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
135 | |
136 | my $item_id = $c->req->param("item"); |
137 | |
138 | push @{ $c->session->{items} }, $item_id; |
139 | |
140 | } |
141 | |
142 | ## A page later we retrieve the data from the session: |
143 | |
144 | sub get_items : Local { |
145 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
146 | |
147 | $c->stash->{items_to_display} = $c->session->{items}; |
148 | |
149 | } |
150 | |
151 | |
152 | =head3 More information |
153 | |
154 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session> |
155 | |
156 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-Cookie> |
157 | |
158 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-URI> |
159 | |
160 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-FastMmap> |
161 | |
162 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-File> |
163 | |
164 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-DBI> |
165 | |
166 | =head2 Configure your application |
167 | |
168 | You configure your application with the C<config> method in your |
169 | application class. This can be hard-coded, or brought in from a |
170 | separate configuration file. |
171 | |
c010ae0d |
172 | =head3 Using Config::General |
cb93c9d7 |
173 | |
c010ae0d |
174 | L<Config::General|Config::General> is a method for creating flexible |
175 | and readable configuration files. It's a great way to keep your |
176 | Catalyst application configuration in one easy-to-understand location. |
cb93c9d7 |
177 | |
c010ae0d |
178 | Now create C<myapp.conf> in your application home: |
cb93c9d7 |
179 | |
c010ae0d |
180 | name MyApp |
cb93c9d7 |
181 | |
182 | # session; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Session::FastMmap |
c010ae0d |
183 | <Session> |
184 | expires 3600 |
185 | rewrite 0 |
186 | storage /tmp/myapp.session |
187 | </Session> |
cb93c9d7 |
188 | |
189 | # emails; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Email |
190 | # this passes options as an array :( |
c010ae0d |
191 | Mail SMTP |
192 | Mail localhost |
cb93c9d7 |
193 | |
194 | This is equivalent to: |
195 | |
196 | # configure base package |
197 | __PACKAGE__->config( name => MyApp ); |
198 | # configure authentication |
199 | __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication} = { |
200 | user_class => 'MyApp::Model::MyDB::Customer', |
201 | ... |
202 | }; |
203 | # configure sessions |
204 | __PACKAGE__->config->{session} = { |
205 | expires => 3600, |
206 | ... |
207 | }; |
208 | # configure email sending |
209 | __PACKAGE__->config->{email} = [qw/SMTP localhost/]; |
210 | |
c010ae0d |
211 | See also L<Config::General|Config::General>. |
cb93c9d7 |
212 | |
213 | =head1 Skipping your VCS's directories |
214 | |
46a5f2f5 |
215 | Catalyst uses Module::Pluggable to load Models, Views, and Controllers. |
cb93c9d7 |
216 | Module::Pluggable will scan through all directories and load modules |
217 | it finds. Sometimes you might want to skip some of these directories, |
218 | for example when your version control system makes a subdirectory with |
219 | meta-information in every version-controlled directory. While |
220 | Catalyst skips subversion and CVS directories already, there are other |
221 | source control systems. Here is the configuration you need to add |
222 | their directories to the list to skip. |
223 | |
46a5f2f5 |
224 | You can make Catalyst skip these directories using the Catalyst config: |
cb93c9d7 |
225 | |
226 | # Configure the application |
227 | __PACKAGE__->config( |
228 | name => 'MyApp', |
229 | setup_components => { except => qr/SCCS/ }, |
230 | ); |
231 | |
232 | See the Module::Pluggable manual page for more information on B<except> |
233 | and other options. |
234 | |
235 | =head1 Users and Access Control |
236 | |
46a5f2f5 |
237 | Most multiuser, and some single-user web applications require that |
cb93c9d7 |
238 | users identify themselves, and the application is often required to |
239 | define those roles. The recipes below describe some ways of doing |
240 | this. |
241 | |
242 | =head2 Authentication (logging in) |
243 | |
244 | This is extensively covered in other documentation; see in particular |
245 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> and the Authentication chapter |
5641c0c1 |
246 | of the Tutorial at L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::06_Authorization>. |
cb93c9d7 |
247 | |
248 | =head2 Pass-through login (and other actions) |
249 | |
250 | An easy way of having assorted actions that occur during the processing |
251 | of a request that are orthogonal to its actual purpose - logins, silent |
252 | commands etc. Provide actions for these, but when they're required for |
253 | something else fill e.g. a form variable __login and have a sub begin |
254 | like so: |
255 | |
256 | sub begin : Private { |
257 | my ($self, $c) = @_; |
258 | foreach my $action (qw/login docommand foo bar whatever/) { |
259 | if ($c->req->params->{"__${action}"}) { |
260 | $c->forward($action); |
261 | } |
262 | } |
263 | } |
264 | |
cb93c9d7 |
265 | =head2 Authentication/Authorization |
266 | |
267 | This is done in several steps: |
268 | |
269 | =over 4 |
270 | |
271 | =item Verification |
272 | |
273 | Getting the user to identify themselves, by giving you some piece of |
c718cfb6 |
274 | information known only to you and the user. Then you can assume that |
275 | the user is who they say they are. This is called B<credential |
276 | verification>. |
cb93c9d7 |
277 | |
278 | =item Authorization |
279 | |
c718cfb6 |
280 | Making sure the user only accesses functions you want them to |
46a5f2f5 |
281 | access. This is done by checking the verified user's data against your |
c718cfb6 |
282 | internal list of groups, or allowed persons for the current page. |
cb93c9d7 |
283 | |
284 | =back |
285 | |
286 | =head3 Modules |
287 | |
c718cfb6 |
288 | The Catalyst Authentication system is made up of many interacting |
289 | modules, to give you the most flexibility possible. |
cb93c9d7 |
290 | |
291 | =head4 Credential verifiers |
292 | |
c718cfb6 |
293 | A Credential module tables the user input, and passes it to a Store, |
294 | or some other system, for verification. Typically, a user object is |
295 | created by either this module or the Store and made accessible by a |
296 | C<< $c->user >> call. |
cb93c9d7 |
297 | |
298 | Examples: |
299 | |
300 | Password - Simple username/password checking. |
301 | HTTPD - Checks using basic HTTP auth. |
302 | TypeKey - Check using the typekey system. |
303 | |
304 | =head3 Storage backends |
305 | |
c718cfb6 |
306 | A Storage backend contains the actual data representing the users. It |
307 | is queried by the credential verifiers. Updating the store is not done |
46a5f2f5 |
308 | within this system; you will need to do it yourself. |
cb93c9d7 |
309 | |
310 | Examples: |
311 | |
46a5f2f5 |
312 | DBIC - Storage using a database via DBIx::Class. |
cb93c9d7 |
313 | Minimal - Storage using a simple hash (for testing). |
314 | |
315 | =head3 User objects |
316 | |
c718cfb6 |
317 | A User object is created by either the storage backend or the |
46a5f2f5 |
318 | credential verifier, and is filled with the retrieved user information. |
cb93c9d7 |
319 | |
320 | Examples: |
321 | |
322 | Hash - A simple hash of keys and values. |
323 | |
324 | =head3 ACL authorization |
325 | |
c718cfb6 |
326 | ACL stands for Access Control List. The ACL plugin allows you to |
46a5f2f5 |
327 | regulate access on a path-by-path basis, by listing which users, or |
c718cfb6 |
328 | roles, have access to which paths. |
cb93c9d7 |
329 | |
330 | =head3 Roles authorization |
331 | |
c718cfb6 |
332 | Authorization by roles is for assigning users to groups, which can |
333 | then be assigned to ACLs, or just checked when needed. |
cb93c9d7 |
334 | |
335 | =head3 Logging in |
336 | |
337 | When you have chosen your modules, all you need to do is call the C<< |
b1a08fe1 |
338 | $c->authenticate >> method. If called with no parameters, it will try to find |
c718cfb6 |
339 | suitable parameters, such as B<username> and B<password>, or you can |
340 | pass it these values. |
cb93c9d7 |
341 | |
342 | =head3 Checking roles |
343 | |
46a5f2f5 |
344 | Role checking is done by using the C<< $c->check_user_roles >> method. |
345 | This will check using the currently logged-in user (via C<< $c->user |
c718cfb6 |
346 | >>). You pass it the name of a role to check, and it returns true if |
347 | the user is a member. |
cb93c9d7 |
348 | |
349 | =head3 EXAMPLE |
350 | |
bbddff00 |
351 | package MyApp; |
352 | use Moose; |
353 | use namespace::autoclean; |
354 | extends qw/Catalyst/; |
355 | use Catalyst qw/ |
356 | Authentication |
357 | Authorization::Roles |
358 | /; |
359 | |
360 | __PACKAGE__->config( |
361 | authentication => { |
362 | default_realm => 'test', |
363 | realms => { |
364 | test => { |
365 | credential => { |
366 | class => 'Password', |
367 | password_field => 'password', |
368 | password_type => 'self_check', |
369 | }, |
370 | store => { |
371 | class => 'Htpasswd', |
372 | file => 'htpasswd', |
373 | }, |
374 | }, |
375 | }, |
376 | }, |
377 | ); |
378 | |
379 | package MyApp::Controller::Root; |
380 | use Moose; |
381 | use namespace::autoclean; |
382 | |
383 | BEGIN { extends 'Catalyst::Controller' } |
384 | |
385 | __PACKAGE__->config(namespace => ''); |
386 | |
387 | sub login : Local { |
cb93c9d7 |
388 | my ($self, $c) = @_; |
389 | |
390 | if ( my $user = $c->req->param("user") |
391 | and my $password = $c->req->param("password") ) |
392 | { |
b1a08fe1 |
393 | if ( $c->authenticate( username => $user, password => $password ) ) { |
cb93c9d7 |
394 | $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->name ); |
395 | } else { |
396 | # login incorrect |
397 | } |
398 | } |
399 | else { |
400 | # invalid form input |
401 | } |
402 | } |
403 | |
404 | sub restricted : Local { |
405 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
406 | |
407 | $c->detach("unauthorized") |
408 | unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" ); |
409 | |
410 | # do something restricted here |
411 | } |
412 | |
413 | =head3 Using authentication in a testing environment |
414 | |
46a5f2f5 |
415 | Ideally, to write tests for authentication/authorization code one would |
416 | first set up a test database with known data, then use |
c718cfb6 |
417 | L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> to simulate a user logging |
46a5f2f5 |
418 | in. Unfortunately this can be rather awkward, which is why it's a good |
419 | thing that the authentication framework is so flexible. |
cb93c9d7 |
420 | |
c718cfb6 |
421 | Instead of using a test database, one can simply change the |
422 | authentication store to something a bit easier to deal with in a |
423 | testing environment. Additionally, this has the advantage of not |
424 | modifying one's database, which can be problematic if one forgets to |
425 | use the testing instead of production database. |
cb93c9d7 |
426 | |
46a5f2f5 |
427 | Alternatively, if you want to authenticate real users, but not have to |
428 | worry about their passwords, you can use |
429 | L<Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Testing> to force all users to |
430 | authenticate with a global password. |
cb93c9d7 |
431 | |
432 | =head3 More information |
433 | |
bbddff00 |
434 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> has a longer explanation. |
cb93c9d7 |
435 | |
436 | =head2 Authorization |
437 | |
438 | =head3 Introduction |
439 | |
c718cfb6 |
440 | Authorization is the step that comes after |
46a5f2f5 |
441 | authentication. Authentication establishes that the user agent is really |
442 | representing the user we think it's representing, and then authorization |
443 | determines what this user is allowed to do. |
cb93c9d7 |
444 | |
445 | =head3 Role Based Access Control |
446 | |
c718cfb6 |
447 | Under role based access control each user is allowed to perform any |
448 | number of roles. For example, at a zoo no one but specially trained |
bfa445ed |
449 | personnel can enter the moose cage (Mynd you, møøse bites kan be |
c718cfb6 |
450 | pretty nasti!). For example: |
cb93c9d7 |
451 | |
452 | package Zoo::Controller::MooseCage; |
453 | |
454 | sub feed_moose : Local { |
455 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
456 | |
457 | $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") ); |
458 | } |
459 | |
c718cfb6 |
460 | With this action, anyone can just come into the moose cage and feed |
461 | the moose, which is a very dangerous thing. We need to restrict this |
462 | action, so that only a qualified moose feeder can perform that action. |
cb93c9d7 |
463 | |
46a5f2f5 |
464 | The Authorization::Roles plugin lets us perform role based access |
c718cfb6 |
465 | control checks. Let's load it: |
cb93c9d7 |
466 | |
ca7528df |
467 | use parent qw/Catalyst/; |
b411df01 |
468 | use Catalyst qw/ |
b1a08fe1 |
469 | Authentication |
b411df01 |
470 | Authorization::Roles |
471 | /; |
cb93c9d7 |
472 | |
473 | And now our action should look like this: |
474 | |
475 | sub feed_moose : Local { |
476 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
477 | |
478 | if ( $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" ) ) { |
479 | $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") ); |
480 | } else { |
481 | $c->stash->{error} = "unauthorized"; |
482 | } |
483 | } |
484 | |
c718cfb6 |
485 | This checks C<< $c->user >>, and only if the user has B<all> the roles |
486 | in the list, a true value is returned. |
cb93c9d7 |
487 | |
c718cfb6 |
488 | C<check_roles> has a sister method, C<assert_roles>, which throws an |
489 | exception if any roles are missing. |
cb93c9d7 |
490 | |
491 | Some roles that might actually make sense in, say, a forum application: |
492 | |
493 | =over 4 |
494 | |
495 | =item * |
496 | |
497 | administrator |
498 | |
499 | =item * |
500 | |
501 | moderator |
502 | |
503 | =back |
504 | |
c718cfb6 |
505 | each with a distinct task (system administration versus content |
506 | administration). |
cb93c9d7 |
507 | |
508 | =head3 Access Control Lists |
509 | |
510 | Checking for roles all the time can be tedious and error prone. |
511 | |
46a5f2f5 |
512 | The Authorization::ACL plugin lets us declare where we'd like checks |
c718cfb6 |
513 | to be done automatically for us. |
cb93c9d7 |
514 | |
515 | For example, we may want to completely block out anyone who isn't a |
516 | C<moose_feeder> from the entire C<MooseCage> controller: |
517 | |
518 | Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_feeder/] ); |
519 | |
c718cfb6 |
520 | The role list behaves in the same way as C<check_roles>. However, the |
521 | ACL plugin isn't limited to just interacting with the Roles plugin. We |
522 | can use a code reference instead. For example, to allow either moose |
523 | trainers or moose feeders into the moose cage, we can create a more |
524 | complex check: |
cb93c9d7 |
525 | |
526 | Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", sub { |
527 | my $c = shift; |
528 | $c->check_roles( "moose_trainer" ) || $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" ); |
529 | }); |
530 | |
c718cfb6 |
531 | The more specific a role, the earlier it will be checked. Let's say |
532 | moose feeders are now restricted to only the C<feed_moose> action, |
533 | while moose trainers get access everywhere: |
cb93c9d7 |
534 | |
535 | Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_trainer/] ); |
536 | Zoo->allow_access_if( "/moose_cage/feed_moose", [qw/moose_feeder/]); |
537 | |
c718cfb6 |
538 | When the C<feed_moose> action is accessed the second check will be |
539 | made. If the user is a C<moose_feeder>, then access will be |
540 | immediately granted. Otherwise, the next rule in line will be tested - |
541 | the one checking for a C<moose_trainer>. If this rule is not |
542 | satisfied, access will be immediately denied. |
cb93c9d7 |
543 | |
c718cfb6 |
544 | Rules applied to the same path will be checked in the order they were |
545 | added. |
cb93c9d7 |
546 | |
c718cfb6 |
547 | Lastly, handling access denial events is done by creating an |
548 | C<access_denied> private action: |
cb93c9d7 |
549 | |
550 | sub access_denied : Private { |
551 | my ( $self, $c, $action ) = @_; |
cb93c9d7 |
552 | } |
553 | |
c718cfb6 |
554 | This action works much like auto, in that it is inherited across |
555 | namespaces (not like object oriented code). This means that the |
556 | C<access_denied> action which is B<nearest> to the action which was |
557 | blocked will be triggered. |
cb93c9d7 |
558 | |
c718cfb6 |
559 | If this action does not exist, an error will be thrown, which you can |
560 | clean up in your C<end> private action instead. |
cb93c9d7 |
561 | |
c718cfb6 |
562 | Also, it's important to note that if you restrict access to "/" then |
46a5f2f5 |
563 | C<end>, C<default>, etc. will also be restricted. |
cb93c9d7 |
564 | |
565 | MyApp->acl_allow_root_internals; |
566 | |
567 | will create rules that permit access to C<end>, C<begin>, and C<auto> in the |
568 | root of your app (but not in any other controller). |
569 | |
570 | =head1 Models |
571 | |
572 | Models are where application data belongs. Catalyst is exteremely |
573 | flexible with the kind of models that it can use. The recipes here |
574 | are just the start. |
575 | |
576 | =head2 Using existing DBIC (etc.) classes with Catalyst |
577 | |
c718cfb6 |
578 | Many people have existing Model classes that they would like to use |
579 | with Catalyst (or, conversely, they want to write Catalyst models that |
580 | can be used outside of Catalyst, e.g. in a cron job). It's trivial to |
581 | write a simple component in Catalyst that slurps in an outside Model: |
cb93c9d7 |
582 | |
583 | package MyApp::Model::DB; |
46a5f2f5 |
584 | |
cb93c9d7 |
585 | use base qw/Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema/; |
46a5f2f5 |
586 | |
cb93c9d7 |
587 | __PACKAGE__->config( |
588 | schema_class => 'Some::DBIC::Schema', |
589 | connect_info => ['dbi:SQLite:foo.db', '', '', {AutoCommit=>1}]; |
590 | ); |
46a5f2f5 |
591 | |
cb93c9d7 |
592 | 1; |
593 | |
594 | and that's it! Now C<Some::DBIC::Schema> is part of your |
595 | Cat app as C<MyApp::Model::DB>. |
596 | |
597 | =head2 DBIx::Class as a Catalyst Model |
598 | |
599 | See L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>. |
600 | |
8428e94d |
601 | =head2 Create accessors to preload static data once per server instance |
602 | |
603 | When you have data that you want to load just once from the model at |
46a5f2f5 |
604 | startup, instead of for each request, use mk_group_accessors to |
8428e94d |
605 | create accessors and tie them to resultsets in your package that |
46a5f2f5 |
606 | inherits from DBIx::Class::Schema: |
8428e94d |
607 | |
608 | package My::Schema; |
609 | use base qw/DBIx::Class::Schema/; |
610 | __PACKAGE__->register_class('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER', |
611 | 'My::Schema::RESULTSOURCE'); |
612 | __PACKAGE__->mk_group_accessors('simple' => |
613 | qw(ACCESSORNAME1 ACCESSORNAME2 ACCESSORNAMEn)); |
614 | |
615 | sub connection { |
616 | my ($self, @rest) = @_; |
617 | $self->next::method(@rest); |
b1a08fe1 |
618 | # $self is now a live My::Schema object, complete with DB connection |
8428e94d |
619 | |
620 | $self->ACCESSORNAME1([ $self->resultset('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER')->all ]); |
621 | $self->ACCESSORNAME2([ $self->resultset('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER')->search({ COLUMN => { '<' => '30' } })->all ]); |
622 | $self->ACCESSORNAMEn([ $self->resultset('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER')->find(1) ]); |
623 | } |
624 | |
625 | 1; |
626 | |
627 | and now in the controller, you can now access any of these without a |
628 | per-request fetch: |
629 | |
46a5f2f5 |
630 | $c->stash->{something} = $c->model('My::Schema')->schema->ACCESSORNAME; |
8428e94d |
631 | |
632 | |
cb93c9d7 |
633 | =head2 XMLRPC |
634 | |
46a5f2f5 |
635 | Unlike SOAP, XMLRPC is a very simple (and elegant) web-services |
cb93c9d7 |
636 | protocol, exchanging small XML messages like these: |
637 | |
638 | Request: |
639 | |
640 | POST /api HTTP/1.1 |
641 | TE: deflate,gzip;q=0.3 |
642 | Connection: TE, close |
643 | Accept: text/xml |
644 | Accept: multipart/* |
645 | Host: 127.0.0.1:3000 |
646 | User-Agent: SOAP::Lite/Perl/0.60 |
647 | Content-Length: 192 |
648 | Content-Type: text/xml |
649 | |
650 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
651 | <methodCall> |
652 | <methodName>add</methodName> |
653 | <params> |
654 | <param><value><int>1</int></value></param> |
655 | <param><value><int>2</int></value></param> |
656 | </params> |
657 | </methodCall> |
658 | |
659 | Response: |
660 | |
661 | Connection: close |
662 | Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:45:55 GMT |
663 | Content-Length: 133 |
664 | Content-Type: text/xml |
665 | Status: 200 |
666 | X-Catalyst: 5.70 |
667 | |
668 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> |
669 | <methodResponse> |
670 | <params> |
671 | <param><value><int>3</int></value></param> |
672 | </params> |
673 | </methodResponse> |
674 | |
675 | Now follow these few steps to implement the application: |
676 | |
677 | 1. Install Catalyst (5.61 or later), Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC (0.06 or |
678 | later) and SOAP::Lite (for XMLRPCsh.pl). |
679 | |
680 | 2. Create an application framework: |
681 | |
682 | % catalyst.pl MyApp |
683 | ... |
684 | % cd MyApp |
685 | |
686 | 3. Add the XMLRPC plugin to MyApp.pm |
687 | |
b411df01 |
688 | use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple XMLRPC/; |
cb93c9d7 |
689 | |
690 | 4. Add an API controller |
691 | |
692 | % ./script/myapp_create.pl controller API |
693 | |
694 | 5. Add a XMLRPC redispatch method and an add method with Remote |
695 | attribute to lib/MyApp/Controller/API.pm |
696 | |
85d49fb6 |
697 | sub default :Path { |
cb93c9d7 |
698 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
699 | $c->xmlrpc; |
700 | } |
701 | |
702 | sub add : Remote { |
703 | my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_; |
704 | return $a + $b; |
705 | } |
706 | |
707 | The default action is the entry point for each XMLRPC request. It will |
708 | redispatch every request to methods with Remote attribute in the same |
709 | class. |
710 | |
711 | The C<add> method is not a traditional action; it has no private or |
712 | public path. Only the XMLRPC dispatcher knows it exists. |
713 | |
714 | 6. That's it! You have built your first web service. Let's test it with |
715 | XMLRPCsh.pl (part of SOAP::Lite): |
716 | |
717 | % ./script/myapp_server.pl |
718 | ... |
719 | % XMLRPCsh.pl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api |
720 | Usage: method[(parameters)] |
721 | > add( 1, 2 ) |
722 | --- XMLRPC RESULT --- |
723 | '3' |
724 | |
725 | =head3 Tip |
726 | |
727 | Your return data type is usually auto-detected, but you can easily |
728 | enforce a specific one. |
729 | |
730 | sub add : Remote { |
731 | my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_; |
732 | return RPC::XML::int->new( $a + $b ); |
733 | } |
cb93c9d7 |
734 | |
735 | =head1 Views |
736 | |
737 | Views pertain to the display of your application. As with models, |
46a5f2f5 |
738 | Catalyst is uncommonly flexible. The recipes below are just a start. |
cb93c9d7 |
739 | |
740 | =head2 Catalyst::View::TT |
741 | |
742 | One of the first things you probably want to do when starting a new |
743 | Catalyst application is set up your View. Catalyst doesn't care how you |
744 | display your data; you can choose to generate HTML, PDF files, or plain |
745 | text if you wanted. |
746 | |
747 | Most Catalyst applications use a template system to generate their HTML, |
bfa445ed |
748 | and though there are several template systems available, |
1febc43a |
749 | L<Template Toolkit|Template> is probably the most popular. |
cb93c9d7 |
750 | |
751 | Once again, the Catalyst developers have done all the hard work, and |
752 | made things easy for the rest of us. Catalyst::View::TT provides the |
753 | interface to Template Toolkit, and provides Helpers which let us set it |
754 | up that much more easily. |
755 | |
756 | =head3 Creating your View |
757 | |
758 | Catalyst::View::TT provides two different helpers for us to use: TT and |
759 | TTSite. |
760 | |
761 | =head4 TT |
762 | |
763 | Create a basic Template Toolkit View using the provided helper script: |
764 | |
765 | script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT |
766 | |
767 | This will create lib/MyApp/View/MyView.pm, which is going to be pretty |
768 | empty to start. However, it sets everything up that you need to get |
769 | started. You can now define which template you want and forward to your |
770 | view. For instance: |
771 | |
772 | sub hello : Local { |
773 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
774 | |
775 | $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt'; |
776 | |
777 | $c->forward( $c->view('TT') ); |
778 | } |
779 | |
780 | In practice you wouldn't do the forwarding manually, but would |
781 | use L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView>. |
782 | |
783 | =head4 TTSite |
784 | |
785 | Although the TT helper does create a functional, working view, you may |
786 | find yourself having to create the same template files and changing the |
787 | same options every time you create a new application. The TTSite helper |
788 | saves us even more time by creating the basic templates and setting some |
789 | common options for us. |
790 | |
791 | Once again, you can use the helper script: |
792 | |
793 | script/myapp_create.pl view TT TTSite |
794 | |
795 | This time, the helper sets several options for us in the generated View. |
796 | |
797 | __PACKAGE__->config({ |
798 | CATALYST_VAR => 'Catalyst', |
799 | INCLUDE_PATH => [ |
800 | MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ), |
801 | MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'lib' ) |
802 | ], |
803 | PRE_PROCESS => 'config/main', |
804 | WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper', |
805 | ERROR => 'error.tt2', |
806 | TIMER => 0 |
807 | }); |
808 | |
809 | =over |
810 | |
b1a08fe1 |
811 | =item |
cb93c9d7 |
812 | |
813 | INCLUDE_PATH defines the directories that Template Toolkit should search |
814 | for the template files. |
815 | |
816 | =item |
817 | |
818 | PRE_PROCESS is used to process configuration options which are common to |
819 | every template file. |
820 | |
821 | =item |
822 | |
823 | WRAPPER is a file which is processed with each template, usually used to |
824 | easily provide a common header and footer for every page. |
825 | |
826 | =back |
827 | |
828 | In addition to setting these options, the TTSite helper also created the |
829 | template and config files for us! In the 'root' directory, you'll notice |
830 | two new directories: src and lib. |
831 | |
832 | Several configuration files in root/lib/config are called by PRE_PROCESS. |
833 | |
834 | The files in root/lib/site are the site-wide templates, called by |
835 | WRAPPER, and display the html framework, control the layout, and provide |
836 | the templates for the header and footer of your page. Using the template |
837 | organization provided makes it much easier to standardize pages and make |
838 | changes when they are (inevitably) needed. |
839 | |
840 | The template files that you will create for your application will go |
841 | into root/src, and you don't need to worry about putting the the <html> |
842 | or <head> sections; just put in the content. The WRAPPER will the rest |
843 | of the page around your template for you. |
844 | |
845 | |
846 | =head3 $c->stash |
847 | |
848 | Of course, having the template system include the header and footer for |
849 | you isn't all that we want our templates to do. We need to be able to |
850 | put data into our templates, and have it appear where and how we want |
851 | it, right? That's where the stash comes in. |
852 | |
853 | In our controllers, we can add data to the stash, and then access it |
854 | from the template. For instance: |
855 | |
856 | sub hello : Local { |
857 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
858 | |
859 | $c->stash->{name} = 'Adam'; |
860 | |
861 | $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt'; |
862 | |
863 | $c->forward( $c->view('TT') ); |
864 | } |
865 | |
866 | Then, in hello.tt: |
867 | |
868 | <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong> |
869 | |
870 | When you view this page, it will display "Hello, Adam!" |
871 | |
872 | All of the information in your stash is available, by its name/key, in |
873 | your templates. And your data don't have to be plain, old, boring |
874 | scalars. You can pass array references and hash references, too. |
875 | |
876 | In your controller: |
877 | |
878 | sub hello : Local { |
879 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
880 | |
881 | $c->stash->{names} = [ 'Adam', 'Dave', 'John' ]; |
882 | |
883 | $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt'; |
884 | |
885 | $c->forward( $c->view('TT') ); |
886 | } |
887 | |
888 | In hello.tt: |
889 | |
890 | [% FOREACH name IN names %] |
891 | <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong><br /> |
892 | [% END %] |
893 | |
894 | This allowed us to loop through each item in the arrayref, and display a |
895 | line for each name that we have. |
896 | |
897 | This is the most basic usage, but Template Toolkit is quite powerful, |
898 | and allows you to truly keep your presentation logic separate from the |
899 | rest of your application. |
900 | |
901 | =head3 $c->uri_for() |
902 | |
903 | One of my favorite things about Catalyst is the ability to move an |
904 | application around without having to worry that everything is going to |
905 | break. One of the areas that used to be a problem was with the http |
906 | links in your template files. For example, suppose you have an |
907 | application installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar. The links point |
908 | to "/Calendar", "/Calendar/2005", "/Calendar/2005/10", etc. If you move |
909 | the application to be at http://www.mydomain.com/Tools/Calendar, then |
910 | all of those links will suddenly break. |
911 | |
912 | That's where $c->uri_for() comes in. This function will merge its |
913 | parameters with either the base location for the app, or its current |
914 | namespace. Let's take a look at a couple of examples. |
915 | |
916 | In your template, you can use the following: |
917 | |
918 | <a href="[% c.uri_for('/login') %]">Login Here</a> |
919 | |
c718cfb6 |
920 | Although the parameter starts with a forward slash, this is relative |
921 | to the application root, not the webserver root. This is important to |
922 | remember. So, if your application is installed at |
923 | http://www.domain.com/Calendar, then the link would be |
924 | http://www.mydomain.com/Calendar/Login. If you move your application |
925 | to a different domain or path, then that link will still be correct. |
cb93c9d7 |
926 | |
927 | Likewise, |
928 | |
929 | <a href="[% c.uri_for('2005','10', '24') %]">October, 24 2005</a> |
930 | |
c718cfb6 |
931 | The first parameter does NOT have a forward slash, and so it will be |
932 | relative to the current namespace. If the application is installed at |
933 | http://www.domain.com/Calendar. and if the template is called from |
934 | MyApp::Controller::Display, then the link would become |
935 | http://www.domain.com/Calendar/Display/2005/10/24. |
936 | |
937 | If you want to link to a parent uri of your current namespace you can |
938 | prefix the arguments with multiple '../': |
939 | |
940 | <a href="[% c.uri_for('../../view', stashed_object.id) %]">User view</a> |
cb93c9d7 |
941 | |
c718cfb6 |
942 | Once again, this allows you to move your application around without |
943 | having to worry about broken links. But there's something else, as |
944 | well. Since the links are generated by uri_for, you can use the same |
945 | template file by several different controllers, and each controller |
946 | will get the links that its supposed to. Since we believe in Don't |
947 | Repeat Yourself, this is particularly helpful if you have common |
948 | elements in your site that you want to keep in one file. |
cb93c9d7 |
949 | |
950 | Further Reading: |
951 | |
952 | L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst> |
953 | |
954 | L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst%3A%3AView%3A%3ATT> |
955 | |
956 | L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template> |
957 | |
b1a08fe1 |
958 | =head2 Adding RSS feeds |
cb93c9d7 |
959 | |
960 | Adding RSS feeds to your Catalyst applications is simple. We'll see two |
961 | different aproaches here, but the basic premise is that you forward to |
962 | the normal view action first to get the objects, then handle the output |
963 | differently. |
964 | |
965 | =head3 Using TT templates |
966 | |
967 | This is the aproach used in Agave (L<http://dev.rawmode.org/>). |
968 | |
969 | sub rss : Local { |
970 | my ($self,$c) = @_; |
971 | $c->forward('view'); |
972 | $c->stash->{template}='rss.tt'; |
973 | } |
974 | |
b1a08fe1 |
975 | Then you need a template. Here's the one from Agave: |
cb93c9d7 |
976 | |
977 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
978 | <rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"> |
979 | <channel> |
980 | <title>[ [% blog.name || c.config.name || "Agave" %] ] RSS Feed</title> |
981 | <link>[% base %]</link> |
982 | <description>Recent posts</description> |
983 | <language>en-us</language> |
984 | <ttl>40</ttl> |
985 | [% WHILE (post = posts.next) %] |
986 | <item> |
987 | <title>[% post.title %]</title> |
b1a08fe1 |
988 | <description>[% post.formatted_teaser|html%]</description> |
cb93c9d7 |
989 | <pubDate>[% post.pub_date %]</pubDate> |
990 | <guid>[% post.full_uri %]</guid> |
991 | <link>[% post.full_uri %]</link> |
992 | <dc:creator>[% post.author.screenname %]</dc:creator> |
993 | </item> |
994 | [% END %] |
995 | </channel> |
b1a08fe1 |
996 | </rss> |
cb93c9d7 |
997 | |
998 | =head3 Using XML::Feed |
999 | |
a75d00fb |
1000 | A more robust solution is to use L<XML::Feed>, as was done in the Catalyst |
cb93c9d7 |
1001 | Advent Calendar. Assuming we have a C<view> action that populates |
1002 | 'entries' with some DBIx::Class iterator, the code would look something |
1003 | like this: |
1004 | |
1005 | sub rss : Local { |
1006 | my ($self,$c) = @_; |
1007 | $c->forward('view'); # get the entries |
1008 | |
1009 | my $feed = XML::Feed->new('RSS'); |
1010 | $feed->title( $c->config->{name} . ' RSS Feed' ); |
1011 | $feed->link( $c->req->base ); # link to the site. |
1012 | $feed->description('Catalyst advent calendar'); Some description |
1013 | |
1014 | # Process the entries |
1015 | while( my $entry = $c->stash->{entries}->next ) { |
1016 | my $feed_entry = XML::Feed::Entry->new('RSS'); |
1017 | $feed_entry->title($entry->title); |
1018 | $feed_entry->link( $c->uri_for($entry->link) ); |
1019 | $feed_entry->issued( DateTime->from_epoch(epoch => $entry->created) ); |
1020 | $feed->add_entry($feed_entry); |
1021 | } |
1022 | $c->res->body( $feed->as_xml ); |
1023 | } |
1024 | |
1025 | A little more code in the controller, but with this approach you're |
b1a08fe1 |
1026 | pretty sure to get something that validates. |
cb93c9d7 |
1027 | |
1028 | Note that for both of the above aproaches, you'll need to set the |
1029 | content type like this: |
1030 | |
1031 | $c->res->content_type('application/rss+xml'); |
1032 | |
1033 | =head3 Final words |
1034 | |
1035 | You could generalize the second variant easily by replacing 'RSS' with a |
1036 | variable, so you can generate Atom feeds with the same code. |
1037 | |
1038 | Now, go ahead and make RSS feeds for all your stuff. The world *needs* |
1039 | updates on your goldfish! |
1040 | |
1041 | =head2 Forcing the browser to download content |
1042 | |
1043 | Sometimes you need your application to send content for download. For |
1044 | example, you can generate a comma-separated values (CSV) file for your |
1045 | users to download and import into their spreadsheet program. |
1046 | |
1047 | Let's say you have an C<Orders> controller which generates a CSV file |
1048 | in the C<export> action (i.e., C<http://localhost:3000/orders/export>): |
1049 | |
1050 | sub export : Local Args(0) { |
1051 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
1052 | |
1053 | # In a real application, you'd generate this from the database |
1054 | my $csv = "1,5.99\n2,29.99\n3,3.99\n"; |
1055 | |
1056 | $c->res->content_type('text/comma-separated-values'); |
1057 | $c->res->body($csv); |
1058 | } |
1059 | |
1060 | Normally the browser uses the last part of the URI to generate a |
1061 | filename for data it cannot display. In this case your browser would |
1062 | likely ask you to save a file named C<export>. |
1063 | |
1064 | Luckily you can have the browser download the content with a specific |
1065 | filename by setting the C<Content-Disposition> header: |
1066 | |
1067 | my $filename = 'Important Orders.csv'; |
1068 | $c->res->header('Content-Disposition', qq[attachment; filename="$filename"]); |
1069 | |
1070 | Note the use of quotes around the filename; this ensures that any |
1071 | spaces in the filename are handled by the browser. |
1072 | |
1073 | Put this right before calling C<< $c->res->body >> and your browser |
1074 | will download a file named C<Important Orders.csv> instead of |
1075 | C<export>. |
1076 | |
1077 | You can also use this to have the browser download content which it |
1078 | normally displays, such as JPEG images or even HTML. Just be sure to |
1079 | set the appropriate content type and disposition. |
1080 | |
1081 | |
1082 | =head1 Controllers |
1083 | |
1084 | Controllers are the main point of communication between the web server |
1085 | and your application. Here we explore some aspects of how they work. |
1086 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1087 | =head2 Action Types |
1088 | |
1089 | =head3 Introduction |
1090 | |
c718cfb6 |
1091 | A Catalyst application is driven by one or more Controller |
1092 | modules. There are a number of ways that Catalyst can decide which of |
1093 | the methods in your controller modules it should call. Controller |
1094 | methods are also called actions, because they determine how your |
1095 | catalyst application should (re-)act to any given URL. When the |
1096 | application is started up, catalyst looks at all your actions, and |
1097 | decides which URLs they map to. |
cb93c9d7 |
1098 | |
1099 | =head3 Type attributes |
1100 | |
1101 | Each action is a normal method in your controller, except that it has an |
a7b39a0c |
1102 | L<attribute|attributes> |
cb93c9d7 |
1103 | attached. These can be one of several types. |
1104 | |
1105 | Assume our Controller module starts with the following package declaration: |
1106 | |
1107 | package MyApp::Controller::Buckets; |
1108 | |
1109 | and we are running our application on localhost, port 3000 (the test |
1110 | server default). |
1111 | |
1112 | =over 4 |
1113 | |
1114 | =item Path |
1115 | |
1116 | A Path attribute also takes an argument, this can be either a relative |
c718cfb6 |
1117 | or an absolute path. A relative path will be relative to the |
1118 | controller namespace, an absolute path will represent an exact |
1119 | matching URL. |
cb93c9d7 |
1120 | |
1121 | sub my_handles : Path('handles') { .. } |
1122 | |
1123 | becomes |
1124 | |
1125 | http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles |
1126 | |
1127 | and |
1128 | |
1129 | sub my_handles : Path('/handles') { .. } |
1130 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1131 | becomes |
cb93c9d7 |
1132 | |
1133 | http://localhost:3000/handles |
1134 | |
6daaedc0 |
1135 | See also: L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Path> |
1136 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1137 | =item Local |
1138 | |
c718cfb6 |
1139 | When using a Local attribute, no parameters are needed, instead, the |
1140 | name of the action is matched in the URL. The namespaces created by |
1141 | the name of the controller package is always part of the URL. |
cb93c9d7 |
1142 | |
1143 | sub my_handles : Local { .. } |
1144 | |
1145 | becomes |
1146 | |
1147 | http://localhost:3000/buckets/my_handles |
1148 | |
1149 | =item Global |
1150 | |
c718cfb6 |
1151 | A Global attribute is similar to a Local attribute, except that the |
1152 | namespace of the controller is ignored, and matching starts at root. |
cb93c9d7 |
1153 | |
1154 | sub my_handles : Global { .. } |
1155 | |
1156 | becomes |
1157 | |
1158 | http://localhost:3000/my_handles |
1159 | |
1160 | =item Regex |
1161 | |
c718cfb6 |
1162 | By now you should have figured that a Regex attribute is just what it |
1163 | sounds like. This one takes a regular expression, and matches starting |
1164 | from root. These differ from the rest as they can match multiple URLs. |
cb93c9d7 |
1165 | |
1166 | sub my_handles : Regex('^handles') { .. } |
1167 | |
1168 | matches |
1169 | |
1170 | http://localhost:3000/handles |
1171 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1172 | and |
cb93c9d7 |
1173 | |
1174 | http://localhost:3000/handles_and_other_parts |
1175 | |
1176 | etc. |
1177 | |
6daaedc0 |
1178 | See also: L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Regex> |
1179 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1180 | =item LocalRegex |
1181 | |
1182 | A LocalRegex is similar to a Regex, except it only matches below the current |
1183 | controller namespace. |
1184 | |
1185 | sub my_handles : LocalRegex(^handles') { .. } |
1186 | |
1187 | matches |
1188 | |
1189 | http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles |
1190 | |
1191 | and |
1192 | |
1193 | http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles_and_other_parts |
1194 | |
1195 | etc. |
1196 | |
6daaedc0 |
1197 | =item Chained |
1198 | |
1199 | See L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained> for a description of how the chained |
1200 | dispatch type works. |
1201 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1202 | =item Private |
1203 | |
c718cfb6 |
1204 | Last but not least, there is the Private attribute, which allows you |
1205 | to create your own internal actions, which can be forwarded to, but |
1206 | won't be matched as URLs. |
cb93c9d7 |
1207 | |
1208 | sub my_handles : Private { .. } |
1209 | |
1210 | becomes nothing at all.. |
1211 | |
c718cfb6 |
1212 | Catalyst also predefines some special Private actions, which you can |
1213 | override, these are: |
cb93c9d7 |
1214 | |
1215 | =over 4 |
1216 | |
1217 | =item default |
1218 | |
c718cfb6 |
1219 | The default action will be called, if no other matching action is |
1220 | found. If you don't have one of these in your namespace, or any sub |
1221 | part of your namespace, you'll get an error page instead. If you want |
1222 | to find out where it was the user was trying to go, you can look in |
1223 | the request object using C<< $c->req->path >>. |
cb93c9d7 |
1224 | |
85d49fb6 |
1225 | sub default :Path { .. } |
cb93c9d7 |
1226 | |
c718cfb6 |
1227 | works for all unknown URLs, in this controller namespace, or every one |
1228 | if put directly into MyApp.pm. |
cb93c9d7 |
1229 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1230 | =item index |
cb93c9d7 |
1231 | |
c718cfb6 |
1232 | The index action is called when someone tries to visit the exact |
1233 | namespace of your controller. If index, default and matching Path |
1234 | actions are defined, then index will be used instead of default and |
1235 | Path. |
cb93c9d7 |
1236 | |
85d49fb6 |
1237 | sub index :Path :Args(0) { .. } |
cb93c9d7 |
1238 | |
1239 | becomes |
1240 | |
1241 | http://localhost:3000/buckets |
1242 | |
1243 | =item begin |
1244 | |
c718cfb6 |
1245 | The begin action is called at the beginning of every request involving |
1246 | this namespace directly, before other matching actions are called. It |
1247 | can be used to set up variables/data for this particular part of your |
1248 | app. A single begin action is called, its always the one most relevant |
1249 | to the current namespace. |
cb93c9d7 |
1250 | |
1251 | sub begin : Private { .. } |
1252 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1253 | is called once when |
cb93c9d7 |
1254 | |
1255 | http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)? |
1256 | |
1257 | is visited. |
1258 | |
1259 | =item end |
1260 | |
c718cfb6 |
1261 | Like begin, this action is always called for the namespace it is in, |
1262 | after every other action has finished. It is commonly used to forward |
1263 | processing to the View component. A single end action is called, its |
1264 | always the one most relevant to the current namespace. |
cb93c9d7 |
1265 | |
1266 | |
1267 | sub end : Private { .. } |
1268 | |
1269 | is called once after any actions when |
1270 | |
1271 | http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)? |
1272 | |
1273 | is visited. |
1274 | |
1275 | =item auto |
1276 | |
c718cfb6 |
1277 | Lastly, the auto action is magic in that B<every> auto action in the |
1278 | chain of paths up to and including the ending namespace, will be |
1279 | called. (In contrast, only one of the begin/end/default actions will |
1280 | be called, the relevant one). |
cb93c9d7 |
1281 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1282 | package MyApp::Controller::Root; |
cb93c9d7 |
1283 | sub auto : Private { .. } |
1284 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1285 | and |
cb93c9d7 |
1286 | |
1287 | sub auto : Private { .. } |
1288 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1289 | will both be called when visiting |
cb93c9d7 |
1290 | |
1291 | http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)? |
1292 | |
1293 | =back |
1294 | |
1295 | =back |
1296 | |
1297 | =head3 A word of warning |
1298 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1299 | You can put root actions in your main MyApp.pm file, but this is deprecated, |
1300 | please put your actions into your Root controller. |
cb93c9d7 |
1301 | |
7cfce6e1 |
1302 | =head3 Flowchart |
cb93c9d7 |
1303 | |
7cfce6e1 |
1304 | A graphical flowchart of how the dispatcher works can be found on the wiki at |
1305 | L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/attachment/wiki/WikiStart/catalyst-flow.png>. |
cb93c9d7 |
1306 | |
7cfce6e1 |
1307 | =head2 DRY Controllers with Chained actions |
6daaedc0 |
1308 | |
1309 | Imagine that you would like the following paths in your application: |
1310 | |
1311 | =over |
1312 | |
1b4425c5 |
1313 | =item B<< /cd/<ID>/track/<ID> >> |
6daaedc0 |
1314 | |
1315 | Displays info on a particular track. |
b1a08fe1 |
1316 | |
6daaedc0 |
1317 | In the case of a multi-volume CD, this is the track sequence. |
1318 | |
1b4425c5 |
1319 | =item B<< /cd/<ID>/volume/<ID>/track/<ID> >> |
6daaedc0 |
1320 | |
1321 | Displays info on a track on a specific volume. |
1322 | |
1323 | =back |
1324 | |
1325 | Here is some example code, showing how to do this with chained controllers: |
1326 | |
1327 | package CD::Controller; |
1328 | use base qw/Catalyst::Controller/; |
b1a08fe1 |
1329 | |
6daaedc0 |
1330 | sub root : Chained('/') PathPart('/cd') CaptureArgs(1) { |
1331 | my ($self, $c, $cd_id) = @_; |
1332 | $c->stash->{cd_id} = $cd_id; |
1333 | $c->stash->{cd} = $self->model('CD')->find_by_id($cd_id); |
1334 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
1335 | |
6daaedc0 |
1336 | sub trackinfo : Chained('track') PathPart('') Args(0) RenderView { |
1337 | my ($self, $c) = @_; |
1338 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
1339 | |
6daaedc0 |
1340 | package CD::Controller::ByTrackSeq; |
1341 | use base qw/CD::Controller/; |
b1a08fe1 |
1342 | |
6daaedc0 |
1343 | sub track : Chained('root') PathPart('track') CaptureArgs(1) { |
1344 | my ($self, $c, $track_seq) = @_; |
1345 | $c->stash->{track} = $self->stash->{cd}->find_track_by_seq($track_seq); |
1346 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
1347 | |
6daaedc0 |
1348 | package CD::Controller::ByTrackVolNo; |
1349 | use base qw/CD::Controller/; |
b1a08fe1 |
1350 | |
6daaedc0 |
1351 | sub volume : Chained('root') PathPart('volume') CaptureArgs(1) { |
1352 | my ($self, $c, $volume) = @_; |
1353 | $c->stash->{volume} = $volume; |
1354 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
1355 | |
6daaedc0 |
1356 | sub track : Chained('volume') PathPart('track') CaptureArgs(1) { |
1357 | my ($self, $c, $track_no) = @_; |
1358 | $c->stash->{track} = $self->stash->{cd}->find_track_by_vol_and_track_no( |
1359 | $c->stash->{volume}, $track_no |
1360 | ); |
1361 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
1362 | |
1363 | Note that adding other actions (i.e. chain endpoints) which operate on a track |
6daaedc0 |
1364 | is simply a matter of adding a new sub to CD::Controller - no code is duplicated, |
1365 | even though there are two different methods of looking up a track. |
1366 | |
1367 | This technique can be expanded as needed to fulfil your requirements - for example, |
1368 | if you inherit the first action of a chain from a base class, then mixing in a |
1369 | different base class can be used to duplicate an entire URL hieratchy at a different |
1370 | point within your application. |
1371 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1372 | =head2 Component-based Subrequests |
1373 | |
1374 | See L<Catalyst::Plugin::SubRequest>. |
1375 | |
1376 | =head2 File uploads |
1377 | |
1378 | =head3 Single file upload with Catalyst |
1379 | |
1380 | To implement uploads in Catalyst, you need to have a HTML form similar to |
1381 | this: |
1382 | |
1383 | <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> |
1384 | <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes"> |
1385 | <input type="file" name="my_file"> |
1386 | <input type="submit" value="Send"> |
1387 | </form> |
1388 | |
1389 | It's very important not to forget C<enctype="multipart/form-data"> in |
1390 | the form. |
1391 | |
1392 | Catalyst Controller module 'upload' action: |
1393 | |
1394 | sub upload : Global { |
1395 | my ($self, $c) = @_; |
1396 | |
1397 | if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) { |
1398 | |
1399 | if ( my $upload = $c->request->upload('my_file') ) { |
1400 | |
1401 | my $filename = $upload->filename; |
1402 | my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename"; |
1403 | |
1404 | unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) { |
1405 | die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" ); |
1406 | } |
1407 | } |
1408 | } |
1409 | |
1410 | $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html'; |
1411 | } |
1412 | |
1413 | =head3 Multiple file upload with Catalyst |
1414 | |
1415 | Code for uploading multiple files from one form needs a few changes: |
1416 | |
1417 | The form should have this basic structure: |
1418 | |
1419 | <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> |
1420 | <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes"> |
1421 | <input type="file" name="file1" size="50"><br> |
1422 | <input type="file" name="file2" size="50"><br> |
1423 | <input type="file" name="file3" size="50"><br> |
1424 | <input type="submit" value="Send"> |
1425 | </form> |
1426 | |
1427 | And in the controller: |
1428 | |
1429 | sub upload : Local { |
1430 | my ($self, $c) = @_; |
1431 | |
1432 | if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) { |
1433 | |
1434 | for my $field ( $c->req->upload ) { |
1435 | |
1436 | my $upload = $c->req->upload($field); |
1437 | my $filename = $upload->filename; |
1438 | my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename"; |
1439 | |
1440 | unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) { |
1441 | die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" ); |
1442 | } |
1443 | } |
1444 | } |
1445 | |
1446 | $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html'; |
1447 | } |
1448 | |
1449 | C<for my $field ($c-E<gt>req->upload)> loops automatically over all file |
1450 | input fields and gets input names. After that is basic file saving code, |
1451 | just like in single file upload. |
1452 | |
1453 | Notice: C<die>ing might not be what you want to do, when an error |
1454 | occurs, but it works as an example. A better idea would be to store |
1455 | error C<$!> in $c->stash->{error} and show a custom error template |
1456 | displaying this message. |
1457 | |
1458 | For more information about uploads and usable methods look at |
1459 | L<Catalyst::Request::Upload> and L<Catalyst::Request>. |
1460 | |
1461 | =head2 Forwarding with arguments |
1462 | |
1463 | Sometimes you want to pass along arguments when forwarding to another |
1464 | action. As of version 5.30, arguments can be passed in the call to |
1465 | C<forward>; in earlier versions, you can manually set the arguments in |
1466 | the Catalyst Request object: |
1467 | |
1468 | # version 5.30 and later: |
1469 | $c->forward('/wherever', [qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]); |
1470 | |
1471 | # pre-5.30 |
1472 | $c->req->args([qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]); |
1473 | $c->forward('/wherever'); |
1474 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1475 | (See the L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> Flow_Control section for more |
cb93c9d7 |
1476 | information on passing arguments via C<forward>.) |
1477 | |
6daaedc0 |
1478 | =head2 Chained dispatch using base classes, and inner packages. |
1479 | |
1480 | package MyApp::Controller::Base; |
1481 | use base qw/Catalyst::Controller/; |
1482 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1483 | sub key1 : Chained('/') |
e2728084 |
1484 | |
1485 | =head2 Extending RenderView (formerly DefaultEnd) |
1486 | |
1487 | The recommended approach for an C<end> action is to use |
1488 | L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView> (taking the place of |
1489 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd>), which does what you usually need. |
1490 | However there are times when you need to add a bit to it, but don't want |
1491 | to write your own C<end> action. |
1492 | |
1493 | You can extend it like this: |
1494 | |
1495 | To add something to an C<end> action that is called before rendering |
1496 | (this is likely to be what you want), simply place it in the C<end> |
1497 | method: |
1498 | |
1499 | sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') { |
1500 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
1501 | # do stuff here; the RenderView action is called afterwards |
1502 | } |
1503 | |
1504 | To add things to an C<end> action that are called I<after> rendering, |
1505 | you can set it up like this: |
1506 | |
1507 | sub render : ActionClass('RenderView') { } |
1508 | |
1509 | sub end : Private { |
1510 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
1511 | $c->forward('render'); |
1512 | # do stuff here |
1513 | } |
1514 | |
1515 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1516 | |
1517 | =head1 Deployment |
1518 | |
1519 | The recipes below describe aspects of the deployment process, |
1520 | including web server engines and tips to improve application efficiency. |
1521 | |
1522 | =head2 mod_perl Deployment |
1523 | |
1524 | mod_perl is the best solution for many applications, but we'll list some pros |
1525 | and cons so you can decide for yourself. The other production deployment |
1526 | option is FastCGI, for which see below. |
1527 | |
1528 | =head3 Pros |
1529 | |
1530 | =head4 Speed |
1531 | |
1532 | mod_perl is very fast and your app will benefit from being loaded in memory |
1533 | within each Apache process. |
1534 | |
1535 | =head4 Shared memory for multiple apps |
1536 | |
1537 | If you need to run several Catalyst apps on the same server, mod_perl will |
1538 | share the memory for common modules. |
1539 | |
1540 | =head3 Cons |
1541 | |
1542 | =head4 Memory usage |
1543 | |
1544 | Since your application is fully loaded in memory, every Apache process will |
1545 | be rather large. This means a large Apache process will be tied up while |
1546 | serving static files, large files, or dealing with slow clients. For this |
1547 | reason, it is best to run a two-tiered web architecture with a lightweight |
1548 | frontend server passing dynamic requests to a large backend mod_perl |
1549 | server. |
1550 | |
1551 | =head4 Reloading |
1552 | |
1553 | Any changes made to the core code of your app require a full Apache restart. |
1554 | Catalyst does not support Apache::Reload or StatINC. This is another good |
1555 | reason to run a frontend web server where you can set up an |
1556 | C<ErrorDocument 502> page to report that your app is down for maintenance. |
1557 | |
1558 | =head4 Cannot run multiple versions of the same app |
1559 | |
1560 | It is not possible to run two different versions of the same application in |
1561 | the same Apache instance because the namespaces will collide. |
1562 | |
1563 | =head4 Setup |
1564 | |
1565 | Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about setting up mod_perl |
1566 | to run a Catalyst app. |
1567 | |
1568 | =head4 1. Install Catalyst::Engine::Apache |
1569 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1570 | You should install the latest versions of both Catalyst and |
cb93c9d7 |
1571 | Catalyst::Engine::Apache. The Apache engines were separated from the |
1572 | Catalyst core in version 5.50 to allow for updates to the engine without |
1573 | requiring a new Catalyst release. |
1574 | |
1575 | =head4 2. Install Apache with mod_perl |
1576 | |
1577 | Both Apache 1.3 and Apache 2 are supported, although Apache 2 is highly |
1578 | recommended. With Apache 2, make sure you are using the prefork MPM and not |
1579 | the worker MPM. The reason for this is that many Perl modules are not |
1580 | thread-safe and may have problems running within the threaded worker |
1581 | environment. Catalyst is thread-safe however, so if you know what you're |
1582 | doing, you may be able to run using worker. |
1583 | |
1584 | In Debian, the following commands should get you going. |
1585 | |
1586 | apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork |
1587 | apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2 |
1588 | |
1589 | =head4 3. Configure your application |
1590 | |
1591 | Every Catalyst application will automagically become a mod_perl handler |
1592 | when run within mod_perl. This makes the configuration extremely easy. |
1593 | Here is a basic Apache 2 configuration. |
1594 | |
1595 | PerlSwitches -I/var/www/MyApp/lib |
1596 | PerlModule MyApp |
b1a08fe1 |
1597 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1598 | <Location /> |
1599 | SetHandler modperl |
1600 | PerlResponseHandler MyApp |
1601 | </Location> |
1602 | |
1603 | The most important line here is C<PerlModule MyApp>. This causes mod_perl |
1604 | to preload your entire application into shared memory, including all of your |
1605 | controller, model, and view classes and configuration. If you have -Debug |
1606 | mode enabled, you will see the startup output scroll by when you first |
1607 | start Apache. |
1608 | |
1609 | For an example Apache 1.3 configuration, please see the documentation for |
1610 | L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>. |
1611 | |
1612 | =head3 Test It |
1613 | |
1614 | That's it, your app is now a full-fledged mod_perl application! Try it out |
1615 | by going to http://your.server.com/. |
1616 | |
1617 | =head3 Other Options |
1618 | |
1619 | =head4 Non-root location |
1620 | |
1621 | You may not always want to run your app at the root of your server or virtual |
1622 | host. In this case, it's a simple change to run at any non-root location |
1623 | of your choice. |
1624 | |
1625 | <Location /myapp> |
1626 | SetHandler modperl |
1627 | PerlResponseHandler MyApp |
1628 | </Location> |
b1a08fe1 |
1629 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1630 | When running this way, it is best to make use of the C<uri_for> method in |
1631 | Catalyst for constructing correct links. |
1632 | |
1633 | =head4 Static file handling |
1634 | |
1635 | Static files can be served directly by Apache for a performance boost. |
1636 | |
1637 | DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root |
1638 | <Location /static> |
1639 | SetHandler default-handler |
1640 | </Location> |
b1a08fe1 |
1641 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1642 | This will let all files within root/static be handled directly by Apache. In |
1643 | a two-tiered setup, the frontend server should handle static files. |
1644 | The configuration to do this on the frontend will vary. |
1645 | |
3cca8359 |
1646 | The same is accomplished in lighttpd with the following snippet: |
1647 | |
1648 | $HTTP["url"] !~ "^/(?:img/|static/|css/|favicon.ico$)" { |
1649 | fastcgi.server = ( |
1650 | "" => ( |
1651 | "MyApp" => ( |
1652 | "socket" => "/tmp/myapp.socket", |
1653 | "check-local" => "disable", |
1654 | ) |
1655 | ) |
1656 | ) |
1657 | } |
1658 | |
1659 | Which serves everything in the img, static, css directories |
1660 | statically, as well as the favicon file. |
1661 | |
c1c35b01 |
1662 | Note the path of the application needs to be stated explicitly in the |
1663 | web server configuration for both these recipes. |
3cca8359 |
1664 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1665 | =head2 Catalyst on shared hosting |
1666 | |
1667 | So, you want to put your Catalyst app out there for the whole world to |
1668 | see, but you don't want to break the bank. There is an answer - if you |
1669 | can get shared hosting with FastCGI and a shell, you can install your |
1670 | Catalyst app in a local directory on your shared host. First, run |
1671 | |
1672 | perl -MCPAN -e shell |
1673 | |
1674 | and go through the standard CPAN configuration process. Then exit out |
1675 | without installing anything. Next, open your .bashrc and add |
1676 | |
1677 | export PATH=$HOME/local/bin:$HOME/local/script:$PATH |
1678 | perlversion=`perl -v | grep 'built for' | awk '{print $4}' | sed -e 's/v//;'` |
1679 | export PERL5LIB=$HOME/local/share/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib:$PERL5LIB |
1680 | |
1681 | and log out, then back in again (or run C<". .bashrc"> if you |
1682 | prefer). Finally, edit C<.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm> and add |
1683 | |
1684 | 'make_install_arg' => qq[SITEPREFIX=$ENV{HOME}/local], |
1685 | 'makepl_arg' => qq[INSTALLDIRS=site install_base=$ENV{HOME}/local], |
1686 | |
1687 | Now you can install the modules you need using CPAN as normal; they |
1688 | will be installed into your local directory, and perl will pick them |
1689 | up. Finally, change directory into the root of your virtual host and |
1690 | symlink your application's script directory in: |
1691 | |
1692 | cd path/to/mydomain.com |
1693 | ln -s ~/lib/MyApp/script script |
1694 | |
1695 | And add the following lines to your .htaccess file (assuming the server |
1696 | is setup to handle .pl as fcgi - you may need to rename the script to |
1697 | myapp_fastcgi.fcgi and/or use a SetHandler directive): |
1698 | |
1699 | RewriteEngine On |
1700 | RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?script/myapp_fastcgi.pl |
1701 | RewriteRule ^(.*)$ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/$1 [PT,L] |
1702 | |
1703 | Now C<http://mydomain.com/> should now Just Work. Congratulations, now |
1704 | you can tell your friends about your new website (or in our case, tell |
1705 | the client it's time to pay the invoice :) ) |
1706 | |
1707 | =head2 FastCGI Deployment |
1708 | |
1709 | FastCGI is a high-performance extension to CGI. It is suitable |
1710 | for production environments. |
1711 | |
1712 | =head3 Pros |
1713 | |
1714 | =head4 Speed |
1715 | |
1716 | FastCGI performs equally as well as mod_perl. Don't let the 'CGI' fool you; |
1717 | your app runs as multiple persistent processes ready to receive connections |
1718 | from the web server. |
1719 | |
1720 | =head4 App Server |
1721 | |
1722 | When using external FastCGI servers, your application runs as a standalone |
1723 | application server. It may be restarted independently from the web server. |
1724 | This allows for a more robust environment and faster reload times when |
1725 | pushing new app changes. The frontend server can even be configured to |
1726 | display a friendly "down for maintenance" page while the application is |
1727 | restarting. |
1728 | |
1729 | =head4 Load-balancing |
1730 | |
1731 | You can launch your application on multiple backend servers and allow the |
1732 | frontend web server to load-balance between all of them. And of course, if |
1733 | one goes down, your app continues to run fine. |
1734 | |
1735 | =head4 Multiple versions of the same app |
1736 | |
1737 | Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different |
1738 | versions of the same app on a single server. |
1739 | |
1740 | =head4 Can run with threaded Apache |
1741 | |
1742 | Since your app is not running inside of Apache, the faster mpm_worker module |
1743 | can be used without worrying about the thread safety of your application. |
1744 | |
1745 | =head3 Cons |
1746 | |
278f816d |
1747 | You may have to disable mod_deflate. If you experience page hangs with |
1748 | mod_fastcgi then remove deflate.load and deflate.conf from mods-enabled/ |
1749 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1750 | =head4 More complex environment |
1751 | |
1752 | With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running |
1753 | than when using mod_perl. |
1754 | |
1755 | =head3 Setup |
1756 | |
1757 | =head4 1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi |
1758 | |
1759 | mod_fastcgi for Apache is a third party module, and can be found at |
1760 | L<http://www.fastcgi.com/>. It is also packaged in many distributions, |
1761 | for example, libapache2-mod-fastcgi in Debian. |
1762 | |
1763 | =head4 2. Configure your application |
1764 | |
1765 | # Serve static content directly |
1766 | DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root |
1767 | Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static |
1768 | |
1769 | FastCgiServer /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -processes 3 |
1770 | Alias /myapp/ /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/ |
b1a08fe1 |
1771 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1772 | # Or, run at the root |
1773 | Alias / /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/ |
b1a08fe1 |
1774 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1775 | The above commands will launch 3 app processes and make the app available at |
1776 | /myapp/ |
1777 | |
1778 | =head3 Standalone server mode |
1779 | |
1780 | While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external |
1781 | server gives you much more flexibility. |
1782 | |
1783 | First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket. |
1784 | |
1785 | script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d |
b1a08fe1 |
1786 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1787 | You can also listen on a TCP port if your web server is not on the same |
1788 | machine. |
1789 | |
1790 | script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l :8080 -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d |
b1a08fe1 |
1791 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1792 | You will probably want to write an init script to handle starting/stopping |
1793 | of the app using the pid file. |
1794 | |
1795 | Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server. |
1796 | |
1797 | # 502 is a Bad Gateway error, and will occur if the backend server is down |
1798 | # This allows us to display a friendly static page that says "down for |
1799 | # maintenance" |
1800 | Alias /_errors /var/www/MyApp/root/error-pages |
1801 | ErrorDocument 502 /_errors/502.html |
1802 | |
31bdf270 |
1803 | FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp.fcgi -socket /tmp/myapp.socket |
1804 | Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp.fcgi/ |
b1a08fe1 |
1805 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1806 | # Or, run at the root |
31bdf270 |
1807 | Alias / /tmp/myapp.fcgi/ |
b1a08fe1 |
1808 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1809 | =head3 More Info |
1810 | |
1811 | L<Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI>. |
1812 | |
1813 | =head2 Development server deployment |
1814 | |
1815 | The development server is a mini web server written in perl. If you |
1816 | expect a low number of hits or you don't need mod_perl/FastCGI speed, |
1817 | you could use the development server as the application server with a |
ad2a47ab |
1818 | lightweight proxy web server at the front. However, consider using |
816fc503 |
1819 | L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork> for this kind of deployment instead, since |
ad2a47ab |
1820 | it can better handle multiple concurrent requests without forking, or can |
1821 | prefork a set number of servers for improved performance. |
cb93c9d7 |
1822 | |
1823 | =head3 Pros |
1824 | |
1825 | As this is an application server setup, the pros are the same as |
1826 | FastCGI (with the exception of speed). |
1827 | It is also: |
1828 | |
1829 | =head4 Simple |
1830 | |
1831 | The development server is what you create your code on, so if it works |
1832 | here, it should work in production! |
1833 | |
1834 | =head3 Cons |
1835 | |
1836 | =head4 Speed |
1837 | |
1838 | Not as fast as mod_perl or FastCGI. Needs to fork for each request |
1839 | that comes in - make sure static files are served by the web server to |
1840 | save forking. |
1841 | |
1842 | =head3 Setup |
1843 | |
1844 | =head4 Start up the development server |
1845 | |
ad2a47ab |
1846 | script/myapp_server.pl -p 8080 -k -f -pidfile=/tmp/myapp.pid |
cb93c9d7 |
1847 | |
1848 | You will probably want to write an init script to handle stop/starting |
1849 | the app using the pid file. |
1850 | |
1851 | =head4 Configuring Apache |
1852 | |
1853 | Make sure mod_proxy is enabled and add: |
1854 | |
1855 | # Serve static content directly |
1856 | DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root |
1857 | Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static |
1858 | |
1859 | ProxyRequests Off |
1860 | <Proxy *> |
1861 | Order deny,allow |
1862 | Allow from all |
1863 | </Proxy> |
816fc503 |
1864 | |
1865 | # Need to specifically stop these paths from being passed to proxy |
1866 | ProxyPass /static ! |
1867 | ProxyPass /favicon.ico ! |
1868 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1869 | ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/ |
1870 | ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/ |
1871 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1872 | # This is optional if you'd like to show a custom error page |
816fc503 |
1873 | # if the proxy is not available |
1874 | ErrorDocument 502 /static/error_pages/http502.html |
1875 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1876 | You can wrap the above within a VirtualHost container if you want |
1877 | different apps served on the same host. |
1878 | |
1879 | =head2 Quick deployment: Building PAR Packages |
1880 | |
1881 | You have an application running on your development box, but then you |
1882 | have to quickly move it to another one for |
1883 | demonstration/deployment/testing... |
1884 | |
1885 | PAR packages can save you from a lot of trouble here. They are usual Zip |
1886 | files that contain a blib tree; you can even include all prereqs and a |
1887 | perl interpreter by setting a few flags! |
1888 | |
1889 | =head3 Follow these few points to try it out! |
1890 | |
1891 | 1. Install Catalyst and PAR 0.89 (or later) |
1892 | |
1893 | % perl -MCPAN -e 'install Catalyst' |
1894 | ... |
1895 | % perl -MCPAN -e 'install PAR' |
1896 | ... |
1897 | |
1898 | 2. Create a application |
1899 | |
1900 | % catalyst.pl MyApp |
1901 | ... |
1902 | % cd MyApp |
1903 | |
1904 | Recent versions of Catalyst (5.62 and up) include |
1905 | L<Module::Install::Catalyst>, which simplifies the process greatly. From the shell in your application directory: |
1906 | |
1907 | % perl Makefile.PL |
1908 | % make catalyst_par |
1909 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1910 | You can customise the PAR creation process by special "catalyst_par_*" commands |
1911 | available from L<Module::Install::Catalyst>. You can add these commands in your |
3f3d414b |
1912 | Makefile.PL just before the line containing "catalyst;" |
1913 | |
b1a08fe1 |
1914 | #Makefile.PL example with extra PAR options |
3f3d414b |
1915 | use inc::Module::Install; |
1916 | |
1917 | name 'MyApp'; |
1918 | all_from 'lib\MyApp.pm'; |
1919 | |
1920 | requires 'Catalyst::Runtime' => '5.80005'; |
1921 | <snip> |
1922 | ... |
1923 | <snip> |
1924 | |
1925 | catalyst_par_core(1); # bundle perl core modules in the resulting PAR |
1926 | catalyst_par_multiarch(1); # build a multi-architecture PAR file |
1927 | catalyst_par_classes(qw/ |
1928 | Some::Additional::Module |
1929 | Some::Other::Module |
1930 | /); # specify additional modules you want to be included into PAR |
1931 | catalyst; |
1932 | |
1933 | install_script glob('script/*.pl'); |
1934 | auto_install; |
1935 | WriteAll; |
1936 | |
cb93c9d7 |
1937 | Congratulations! Your package "myapp.par" is ready, the following |
1938 | steps are just optional. |
1939 | |
1940 | 3. Test your PAR package with "parl" (no typo) |
1941 | |
1942 | % parl myapp.par |
1943 | Usage: |
1944 | [parl] myapp[.par] [script] [arguments] |
1945 | |
1946 | Examples: |
1947 | parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl -r |
1948 | myapp myapp_cgi.pl |
1949 | |
1950 | Available scripts: |
1951 | myapp_cgi.pl |
1952 | myapp_create.pl |
1953 | myapp_fastcgi.pl |
1954 | myapp_server.pl |
1955 | myapp_test.pl |
1956 | |
1957 | % parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl |
1958 | You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000 |
1959 | |
1960 | Yes, this nifty little starter application gets automatically included. |
1961 | You can also use "catalyst_par_script('myapp_server.pl')" to set a |
1962 | default script to execute. |
1963 | |
1964 | 6. Want to create a binary that includes the Perl interpreter? |
1965 | |
1966 | % pp -o myapp myapp.par |
1967 | % ./myapp myapp_server.pl |
1968 | You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000 |
1969 | |
1970 | =head2 Serving static content |
1971 | |
1972 | Serving static content in Catalyst used to be somewhat tricky; the use |
1973 | of L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple> makes everything much easier. |
1974 | This plugin will automatically serve your static content during development, |
1975 | but allows you to easily switch to Apache (or other server) in a |
1976 | production environment. |
1977 | |
1978 | =head3 Introduction to Static::Simple |
1979 | |
1980 | Static::Simple is a plugin that will help to serve static content for your |
1981 | application. By default, it will serve most types of files, excluding some |
1982 | standard Template Toolkit extensions, out of your B<root> file directory. All |
1983 | files are served by path, so if B<images/me.jpg> is requested, then |
1984 | B<root/images/me.jpg> is found and served. |
1985 | |
1986 | =head3 Usage |
1987 | |
1988 | Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to include: |
1989 | |
b411df01 |
1990 | use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/; |
cb93c9d7 |
1991 | |
1992 | and already files will be served. |
1993 | |
1994 | =head3 Configuring |
1995 | |
1996 | Static content is best served from a single directory within your root |
1997 | directory. Having many different directories such as C<root/css> and |
1998 | C<root/images> requires more code to manage, because you must separately |
1999 | identify each static directory--if you decide to add a C<root/js> |
2000 | directory, you'll need to change your code to account for it. In |
2001 | contrast, keeping all static directories as subdirectories of a main |
2002 | C<root/static> directory makes things much easier to manage. Here's an |
2003 | example of a typical root directory structure: |
2004 | |
2005 | root/ |
2006 | root/content.tt |
2007 | root/controller/stuff.tt |
2008 | root/header.tt |
2009 | root/static/ |
2010 | root/static/css/main.css |
2011 | root/static/images/logo.jpg |
2012 | root/static/js/code.js |
2013 | |
2014 | |
2015 | All static content lives under C<root/static>, with everything else being |
2016 | Template Toolkit files. |
2017 | |
2018 | =over 4 |
2019 | |
2020 | =item Include Path |
2021 | |
2022 | You may of course want to change the default locations, and make |
2023 | Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as: |
2024 | |
2025 | MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [ |
2026 | MyApp->config->{root}, |
b1a08fe1 |
2027 | '/path/to/my/files' |
cb93c9d7 |
2028 | ]; |
2029 | |
2030 | When you override include_path, it will not automatically append the |
2031 | normal root path, so you need to add it yourself if you still want |
2032 | it. These will be searched in order given, and the first matching file |
2033 | served. |
2034 | |
2035 | =item Static directories |
2036 | |
2037 | If you want to force some directories to be only static, you can set |
2038 | them using paths relative to the root dir, or regular expressions: |
2039 | |
2040 | MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [ |
2041 | 'static', |
2042 | qr/^(images|css)/, |
2043 | ]; |
2044 | |
2045 | =item File extensions |
2046 | |
2047 | By default, the following extensions are not served (that is, they will |
2048 | be processed by Catalyst): B<tmpl, tt, tt2, html, xhtml>. This list can |
2049 | be replaced easily: |
2050 | |
2051 | MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [ |
b1a08fe1 |
2052 | qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/ |
cb93c9d7 |
2053 | ]; |
2054 | |
2055 | =item Ignoring directories |
2056 | |
2057 | Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path, |
2058 | directories relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored: |
2059 | |
2060 | MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ]; |
2061 | |
2062 | =back |
2063 | |
2064 | =head3 More information |
2065 | |
2066 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/> |
2067 | |
2068 | =head3 Serving manually with the Static plugin with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl) |
2069 | |
2070 | In some situations you might want to control things more directly, |
2071 | using L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static>. |
2072 | |
2073 | In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin: |
2074 | |
b411df01 |
2075 | use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/; |
cb93c9d7 |
2076 | |
2077 | You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward |
2078 | static content to the view, perhaps like this: |
2079 | |
2080 | sub end : Private { |
2081 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
2082 | |
b1a08fe1 |
2083 | $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' ) |
cb93c9d7 |
2084 | unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} ); |
2085 | } |
2086 | |
2087 | This code will only forward to the view if a template has been |
2088 | previously defined by a controller and if there is not already data in |
2089 | C<$c-E<gt>res-E<gt>body>. |
2090 | |
2091 | Next, create a controller to handle requests for the /static path. Use |
2092 | the Helper to save time. This command will create a stub controller as |
2093 | C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Static.pm>. |
2094 | |
2095 | $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static |
2096 | |
2097 | Edit the file and add the following methods: |
2098 | |
2099 | # serve all files under /static as static files |
2100 | sub default : Path('/static') { |
2101 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
2102 | |
2103 | # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content |
2104 | $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' ); |
2105 | |
2106 | $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static |
2107 | } |
2108 | |
2109 | # also handle requests for /favicon.ico |
2110 | sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') { |
2111 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
2112 | |
2113 | $c->serve_static; |
2114 | } |
2115 | |
2116 | You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of |
2117 | favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header: |
2118 | |
2119 | <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" /> |
2120 | |
2121 | =head3 Common problems with the Static plugin |
2122 | |
2123 | The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to |
2124 | automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously |
2125 | difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest |
2126 | path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install |
2127 | shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine. |
2128 | |
2129 | Make sure you are using the latest version (>= 0.16) for best |
2130 | results. If you are having errors serving CSS files, or if they get |
2131 | served as text/plain instead of text/css, you may have an outdated |
2132 | shared-mime-info version. You may also wish to simply use the following |
2133 | code in your Static controller: |
2134 | |
2135 | if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) { |
2136 | $c->serve_static( "text/css" ); |
2137 | } else { |
2138 | $c->serve_static; |
2139 | } |
2140 | |
2141 | =head3 Serving Static Files with Apache |
2142 | |
2143 | When using Apache, you can bypass Catalyst and any Static |
2144 | plugins/controllers controller by intercepting requests for the |
2145 | C<root/static> path at the server level. All that is required is to |
2146 | define a DocumentRoot and add a separate Location block for your static |
2147 | content. Here is a complete config for this application under mod_perl |
2148 | 1.x: |
2149 | |
2150 | <Perl> |
2151 | use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib); |
2152 | </Perl> |
2153 | PerlModule MyApp |
2154 | |
2155 | <VirtualHost *> |
2156 | ServerName myapp.example.com |
2157 | DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root |
2158 | <Location /> |
2159 | SetHandler perl-script |
2160 | PerlHandler MyApp |
2161 | </Location> |
2162 | <LocationMatch "/(static|favicon.ico)"> |
2163 | SetHandler default-handler |
2164 | </LocationMatch> |
2165 | </VirtualHost> |
2166 | |
2167 | And here's a simpler example that'll get you started: |
2168 | |
2169 | Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/" |
2170 | <Location "/static"> |
2171 | SetHandler none |
2172 | </Location> |
2173 | |
2174 | =head2 Caching |
2175 | |
2176 | Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to |
2177 | speed up your applications. |
2178 | |
2179 | =head3 Cache Plugins |
2180 | |
2181 | There are three wrapper plugins around common CPAN cache modules: |
2182 | Cache::FastMmap, Cache::FileCache, and Cache::Memcached. These can be |
2183 | used to cache the result of slow operations. |
2184 | |
ca7528df |
2185 | The Catalyst Advent Calendar uses the FileCache plugin to cache the |
cb93c9d7 |
2186 | rendered XHTML version of the source POD document. This is an ideal |
ca7528df |
2187 | application for a cache because the source document changes |
2188 | infrequently but may be viewed many times. |
cb93c9d7 |
2189 | |
b411df01 |
2190 | use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache/; |
b1a08fe1 |
2191 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2192 | ... |
b1a08fe1 |
2193 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2194 | use File::stat; |
2195 | sub render_pod : Local { |
2196 | my ( self, $c ) = @_; |
b1a08fe1 |
2197 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2198 | # the cache is keyed on the filename and the modification time |
2199 | # to check for updates to the file. |
2200 | my $file = $c->path_to( 'root', '2005', '11.pod' ); |
2201 | my $mtime = ( stat $file )->mtime; |
b1a08fe1 |
2202 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2203 | my $cached_pod = $c->cache->get("$file $mtime"); |
2204 | if ( !$cached_pod ) { |
2205 | $cached_pod = do_slow_pod_rendering(); |
2206 | # cache the result for 12 hours |
2207 | $c->cache->set( "$file $mtime", $cached_pod, '12h' ); |
2208 | } |
2209 | $c->stash->{pod} = $cached_pod; |
2210 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
2211 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2212 | We could actually cache the result forever, but using a value such as 12 hours |
2213 | allows old entries to be automatically expired when they are no longer needed. |
2214 | |
2215 | =head3 Page Caching |
2216 | |
2217 | Another method of caching is to cache the entire HTML page. While this is |
2218 | traditionally handled by a front-end proxy server like Squid, the Catalyst |
2219 | PageCache plugin makes it trivial to cache the entire output from |
2220 | frequently-used or slow actions. |
2221 | |
2222 | Many sites have a busy content-filled front page that might look something |
2223 | like this. It probably takes a while to process, and will do the exact same |
2224 | thing for every single user who views the page. |
2225 | |
2226 | sub front_page : Path('/') { |
2227 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
b1a08fe1 |
2228 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2229 | $c->forward( 'get_news_articles' ); |
2230 | $c->forward( 'build_lots_of_boxes' ); |
2231 | $c->forward( 'more_slow_stuff' ); |
b1a08fe1 |
2232 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2233 | $c->stash->{template} = 'index.tt'; |
2234 | } |
2235 | |
2236 | We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up. |
2237 | |
b411df01 |
2238 | use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/; |
b1a08fe1 |
2239 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2240 | sub front_page : Path ('/') { |
2241 | my ( $self, $c ) = @_; |
b1a08fe1 |
2242 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2243 | $c->cache_page( 300 ); |
b1a08fe1 |
2244 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2245 | # same processing as above |
2246 | } |
b1a08fe1 |
2247 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2248 | Now the entire output of the front page, from <html> to </html>, will be |
2249 | cached for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the next request will rebuild the |
2250 | page and it will be re-cached. |
2251 | |
2252 | Note that the page cache is keyed on the page URI plus all parameters, so |
2253 | requests for / and /?foo=bar will result in different cache items. Also, |
2254 | only GET requests will be cached by the plugin. |
2255 | |
2256 | You can even get that front-end Squid proxy to help out by enabling HTTP |
2257 | headers for the cached page. |
2258 | |
2259 | MyApp->config->{page_cache}->{set_http_headers} = 1; |
b1a08fe1 |
2260 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2261 | This would now set the following headers so proxies and browsers may cache |
2262 | the content themselves. |
2263 | |
2264 | Cache-Control: max-age=($expire_time - time) |
2265 | Expires: $expire_time |
2266 | Last-Modified: $cache_created_time |
b1a08fe1 |
2267 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2268 | =head3 Template Caching |
2269 | |
2270 | Template Toolkit provides support for caching compiled versions of your |
2271 | templates. To enable this in Catalyst, use the following configuration. |
2272 | TT will cache compiled templates keyed on the file mtime, so changes will |
2273 | still be automatically detected. |
2274 | |
2275 | package MyApp::View::TT; |
b1a08fe1 |
2276 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2277 | use strict; |
2278 | use warnings; |
2279 | use base 'Catalyst::View::TT'; |
b1a08fe1 |
2280 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2281 | __PACKAGE__->config( |
2282 | COMPILE_DIR => '/tmp/template_cache', |
2283 | ); |
b1a08fe1 |
2284 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2285 | 1; |
b1a08fe1 |
2286 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2287 | =head3 More Info |
2288 | |
2289 | See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other |
2290 | available configuration options. |
2291 | |
2292 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FastMmap> |
2293 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FileCache> |
2294 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::Memcached> |
2295 | L<Catalyst::Plugin::PageCache> |
2296 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Template-Toolkit/lib/Template/Manual/Config.pod#Caching_and_Compiling_Options> |
2297 | |
2298 | =head1 Testing |
2299 | |
2300 | Testing is an integral part of the web application development |
2301 | process. Tests make multi developer teams easier to coordinate, and |
2302 | they help ensure that there are no nasty surprises after upgrades or |
2303 | alterations. |
2304 | |
2305 | =head2 Testing |
2306 | |
b1a08fe1 |
2307 | Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during |
cb93c9d7 |
2308 | development and before deployment in a real environment. |
2309 | |
b1a08fe1 |
2310 | C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally |
cb93c9d7 |
2311 | (without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP. |
2312 | |
2313 | =head3 Tests |
2314 | |
2315 | Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory: |
2316 | |
2317 | mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ ls -l t/ |
2318 | total 24 |
2319 | -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 95 18 Dec 20:50 01app.t |
2320 | -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 190 18 Dec 20:50 02pod.t |
2321 | -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 213 18 Dec 20:50 03podcoverage.t |
2322 | |
2323 | =over 4 |
2324 | |
2325 | =item C<01app.t> |
2326 | |
2327 | Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful |
2328 | response. |
2329 | |
2330 | =item C<02pod.t> |
2331 | |
b1a08fe1 |
2332 | Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD> |
cb93c9d7 |
2333 | environment variable is true. |
2334 | |
2335 | =item C<03podcoverage.t> |
2336 | |
2337 | Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the |
2338 | C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true. |
2339 | |
2340 | =back |
2341 | |
2342 | =head3 Creating tests |
2343 | |
2344 | mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d %s", $., $_ )' |
2345 | 1 use Test::More tests => 2; |
2346 | 2 use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' ); |
2347 | 3 |
2348 | 4 ok( request('/')->is_success ); |
2349 | |
2350 | The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case |
2351 | two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The |
2352 | fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response. |
2353 | |
2354 | C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can |
2355 | take three different arguments: |
2356 | |
2357 | =over 4 |
2358 | |
2359 | =item A string which is a relative or absolute URI. |
2360 | |
2361 | request('/my/path'); |
2362 | request('http://www.host.com/my/path'); |
2363 | |
2364 | =item An instance of C<URI>. |
2365 | |
2366 | request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') ); |
2367 | |
2368 | =item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>. |
2369 | |
2370 | request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') ); |
2371 | |
2372 | =back |
2373 | |
b1a08fe1 |
2374 | C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the |
cb93c9d7 |
2375 | content (body) of the response. |
2376 | |
2377 | =head3 Running tests locally |
2378 | |
2379 | mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib/ t/ |
b1a08fe1 |
2380 | t/01app............ok |
2381 | t/02pod............ok |
2382 | t/03podcoverage....ok |
cb93c9d7 |
2383 | All tests successful. |
2384 | Files=3, Tests=4, 2 wallclock secs ( 1.60 cusr + 0.36 csys = 1.96 CPU) |
b1a08fe1 |
2385 | |
cb93c9d7 |
2386 | C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0> ensures that debugging is off; if it's enabled you |
2387 | will see debug logs between tests. |
2388 | |
2389 | C<TEST_POD=1> enables POD checking and coverage. |
2390 | |
2391 | C<prove> A command-line tool that makes it easy to run tests. You can |
2392 | find out more about it from the links below. |
2393 | |
2394 | =head3 Running tests remotely |
2395 | |
2396 | mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/ prove --lib lib/ t/01app.t |
b1a08fe1 |
2397 | t/01app....ok |
cb93c9d7 |
2398 | All tests successful. |
2399 | Files=1, Tests=2, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.40 cusr + 0.01 csys = 0.41 CPU) |
2400 | |
b1a08fe1 |
2401 | C<CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/> is the absolute deployment URI of |
2402 | your application. In C<CGI> or C<FastCGI> it should be the host and path |
cb93c9d7 |
2403 | to the script. |
2404 | |
2405 | =head3 C<Test::WWW::Mechanize> and Catalyst |
2406 | |
2407 | Be sure to check out C<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>. It makes it easy to |
2408 | test HTML, forms and links. A short example of usage: |
2409 | |
2410 | use Test::More tests => 6; |
2411 | use_ok( Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, 'MyApp' ); |
2412 | |
2413 | my $mech = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new; |
2414 | $mech->get_ok("http://localhost/", 'Got index page'); |
2415 | $mech->title_like( qr/^MyApp on Catalyst/, 'Got right index title' ); |
2416 | ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Wiki/i ), 'Found link to Wiki' ); |
2417 | ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Mailing-List/i ), 'Found link to Mailing-List' ); |
2418 | ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^IRC channel/i ), 'Found link to IRC channel' ); |
2419 | |
2420 | =head3 Further Reading |
2421 | |
2422 | =over 4 |
2423 | |
2424 | =item Catalyst::Test |
2425 | |
2426 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst/lib/Catalyst/Test.pm> |
2427 | |
2428 | =item Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst |
2429 | |
2430 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Catalyst/lib/Test/WWW/Mechanize/Catalyst.pm> |
2431 | |
2432 | =item Test::WWW::Mechanize |
2433 | |
2434 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize/Mechanize.pm> |
2435 | |
2436 | =item WWW::Mechanize |
2437 | |
2438 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm> |
2439 | |
2440 | =item LWP::UserAgent |
2441 | |
2442 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm> |
2443 | |
2444 | =item HTML::Form |
2445 | |
2446 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTML/Form.pm> |
2447 | |
2448 | =item HTTP::Message |
2449 | |
2450 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Message.pm> |
2451 | |
2452 | =item HTTP::Request |
2453 | |
2454 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request.pm> |
2455 | |
2456 | =item HTTP::Request::Common |
2457 | |
2458 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request/Common.pm> |
2459 | |
2460 | =item HTTP::Response |
2461 | |
2462 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Response.pm> |
2463 | |
2464 | =item HTTP::Status |
2465 | |
2466 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Status.pm> |
2467 | |
2468 | =item URI |
2469 | |
2470 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI.pm> |
2471 | |
2472 | =item Test::More |
2473 | |
2474 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm> |
2475 | |
2476 | =item Test::Pod |
2477 | |
2478 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod/Pod.pm> |
2479 | |
2480 | =item Test::Pod::Coverage |
2481 | |
2482 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod-Coverage/Coverage.pm> |
2483 | |
2484 | =item prove (Test::Harness) |
2485 | |
2486 | L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove> |
2487 | |
2488 | =back |
2489 | |
2490 | =head3 More Information |
2491 | |
2492 | L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles> |
2493 | L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::ACL> |
2494 | |
2495 | =head1 AUTHORS |
2496 | |
bbddff00 |
2497 | Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm |
cb93c9d7 |
2498 | |
2499 | =head1 COPYRIGHT |
2500 | |
bbddff00 |
2501 | This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under |
2502 | the same terms as Perl itself. |
cb93c9d7 |
2503 | |
bbddff00 |
2504 | =cut |