3 Catalyst::Delta - Overview of changes between versions of Catalyst
7 This is an overview of the user-visible changes to Catalyst between major
10 =head2 VERSION 5.90091
12 =head3 'case_sensitive' configuration
14 At one point in time we allowed you to set a 'case_sensitive' configuraion value so
15 that you could find actions by their private names using mixed case. We highly
16 discourage that. If you are using this 'feature' you should be on notice that we
17 plan to remove the code around it in the near future.
19 =head2 VERSION 5.90090+
21 =head3 Type constraints on Args and CaptureArgs.
23 You may now use a type constraint (using L<Moose>, L<MooseX::Types> or preferably
24 L<Type::Tiny> in your Args or CaptureArgs action attributes. This can be used
25 to restrict the value of the Arg. For example:
27 sub myaction :Local Args(Int) { ... }
29 Would match '.../myaction/5' but not '.../myaction/string'.
31 When an action (or action chain) has Args (or CaptureArgs) that declare type constraints
32 your arguments to $c->uri_for(...) must match those constraints.
34 See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
36 =head3 Move CatalystX::InjectComponent into core
38 L<Catalyst::Utils> has a new method 'inject_component' which works the same as the method of
39 the same name in L<CatalystX::InjectComponent>.
41 =head3 inject_components
43 New configuration key allows you to inject components directly into your application without
44 any subclasses. For example:
47 inject_components => {
48 'Controller::Err' => { from_component => 'Local::Controller::Errors' },
49 'Model::Zoo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo' },
50 'Model::Foo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo', roles => ['TestRole'] },
52 'Controller::Err' => { a => 100, b=>200, namespace=>'error' },
53 'Model::Zoo' => { a => 2 },
54 'Model::Foo' => { a => 100 },
57 Injected components are useful to reduce the ammount of nearly empty boilerplate classes
58 you might have, particularly when first starting an application.
60 =head3 Component setup changes.
62 Previously you could not depend on an application scoped component doing setup_components
63 since components were setup 'in order'. Now all components are first registered and then
64 setup, so you can now reliably use any component doing setup_components.
66 =head2 VERSION 5.90080+
68 The biggest change in this release is that UTF8 encoding is now enabled by
69 default. So you no longer need any plugins (such as L<Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding>)
70 which you can just no go ahead and remove. You also don't need to set
71 the encoding configuration (__PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>'UTF-8')) anymore
72 as well (although its presence hurts nothing).
74 If this change causes you trouble, you can disable it:
76 __PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>undef);
78 For further information, please see L<Catalyst::UTF8>
80 But please report bugs. You will find that a number of common Views have been
81 updated for this release (such as L<Catalyst::View::TT>). In all cases that the
82 author is aware of these updates were to fix test cases only. You shouldn't
83 need to update unless you are installing fresh and want tests to pass.
85 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Compress> was updated to be compatible with this release.
86 You will need to upgrade if you are using this plugin. L<Catalyst::Upgrading>
89 A small change is that the configuration setting C<using_frontend_proxy>
90 was not doing the right thing if you started your application with C<psgi_app>
91 and did not apply the default middleware. This setting is now honored in
92 all the ways an application may be started. This could cause trouble if you
93 are using the configuration value and also adding the proxy middleware
94 manually with a custom application startup. The solution is that you only
95 need the configuration value set, or the middleware manually added (not both).
97 =head2 VERSION 5.90060+
99 =head3 Catalyst::Log object autoflush on by default
101 Starting in 5.90065, the Catalyst::Log object has 'autoflush' which is on
102 by default. This causes all messages to be written to the log immediately
103 instead of at the end of startup and then at the end of each request. In
104 order to access the old behavior, you must now call:
106 $c->log->autoflush(0);
108 =head3 Deprecate Catalyst::Utils::ensure_class_loaded
110 Going forward we recommend you use L<Module::Runtime>. In fact we will
111 be converting all uses of L<Class::Load> to L<Module::Runtime>. We will
112 also convert L<Catalyst::Utils\ensure_class_loaded> to be based on
113 L<Module::Runtime> to allow some time for you to update code, however at
114 some future point this method will be removed so you should stop
117 =head3 Support passing Body filehandles directly to your Plack server.
119 We changed the way we return body content (from response) to whatever
120 Plack handler you are using (Starman, FastCGI, etc.) We no longer
121 always use the streaming interface for the cases when the body is a
122 simple scalar, object or filehandle like. In those cases we now just
123 pass the simple response on to the plack handler. This might lead to
124 some minor differences in how streaming is handled. For example, you
125 might notice that streaming starts properly supporting chunked encoding when
126 on a server that supports that, or that previously missing headers
127 (possible content-length) might appear suddenly correct. Also, if you
128 are using middleware like L<Plack::Middleware::XSendfile> and are using
129 a filehandle that sets a readable path, your server might now correctly
130 handle the file (rather than as before where Catalyst would stream it
131 very likely very slowly).
133 In other words, some things might be meaninglessly different and some
134 things that were broken codewise but worked because of Catalyst being
135 incorrect might suddenly be really broken. The behavior is now more
136 correct in that Catalyst plays better with features that Plack offers
137 but if you are making heavy use of the streaming interface there could
138 be some differences so you should test carefully (this is probably not
139 the vast majority of people). In particular if you are developing
140 using one server but deploying using a different one, differences in
141 what those server do with streaming should be noted.
143 Please see note below about changes to filehandle support and existing
144 Plack middleware to aid in backwards compatibility.
146 =head3 Distinguish between body null versus undef.
148 We also now more carefully distingush the different between a body set
149 to '' and a body that is undef. This might lead to situations where
150 again you'll get a content-length were you didn't get one before or
151 where a supporting server will start chunking output. If this is an
152 issue you can apply the middleware L<Plack::Middleware::BufferedStreaming>
153 or report specific problems to the dev team.
155 =head3 More Catalyst Middleware
157 We have started migrating code in Catalyst to equivilent Plack
158 Middleware when such exists and is correct to do so. For example we now use
159 L<Plack::Middleware::ContentLength> to determine content length of a response
160 when none is provided. This replaces similar code inlined with L<Catalyst>
161 The main advantages to doing this is 1) more similar Catalyst core that is
162 focused on the Catalyst special sauce, 2) Middleware is more broadly shared
163 so we benefit from better collaboration with developers outside Catalyst, 3)
164 In the future you'll be able to change or trim the middleware stack to get
165 additional performance when you don't need all the checks and constraints.
167 =head3 Deprecate Filehandle like objects that do read but not getline
169 We also deprecated setting the response body to an object that does 'read'
170 but not 'getline'. If you are using a custom IO-Handle like object for
171 response you should verify that 'getline' is supported in your interface.
172 Unless we here this case is a major issue for people, we will be removing support
173 in a near future release of Catalyst. When the code encounters this it
174 will issue a warning. You also may run into this issue with L<MogileFS::Client>
175 which does read but not getline. For now we will just warn when encountering
176 such an object and fallback to the previous behavior (where L<Catalyst::Engine>
177 itself unrolls the filehandle and performs blocking streams). However
178 this backwards compatibility will be removed in an upcoming release so you should either
179 rewrite your custom filehandle objects to support getline or start using the
180 middleware that adapts read for getline L<Plack::Middleware::AdaptFilehandleRead>.
182 =head3 Response->headers become read-only after finalizing
184 Once the response headers are finalized, trying to change them is not allowed
185 (in the past you could change them and this would lead to unexpected results).
187 =head3 Officially deprecate L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI>
189 L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI> is also officially no longer supported. We will
190 no long run test cases against this and can remove backwards compatibility code for it
191 as deemed necessary for the evolution of the platform. You should simply
192 discontinue use of this engine, as L<Catalyst> has been PSGI at the core for
195 =head3 Officially deprecate finding the PSGI $env anyplace other than Request
197 A few early releases of Cataplack had the PSGI $env in L<Catalyst::Engine>.
198 Code has been maintained here for backwards compatibility reasons. This is no
199 longer supported and will be removed in upcoming release, so you should update
200 your code and / or upgrade to a newer version of L<Catalyst>
202 =head3 Deprecate setting Response->body after using write/write_fh
204 Setting $c->res->body to a filehandle after using $c->res->write or
205 $c->res->write_fh is no longer considered allowed, since we can't send
206 the filehandle to the underlying Plack handler. For now we will continue
207 to support setting body to a simple value since this is possible, but at
208 some future release a choice to use streaming indicates that you will do
209 so for the rest of the request.
212 =head2 VERSION 5.90053
214 We are now clarifying the behavior of log, plugins and configuration during
215 the setup phase. Since Plugins might require a log during setup, setup_log
216 must run BEFORE setup_plugins. This has the unfortunate side effect that
217 anyone using the popular ConfigLoader plugin will not be able to supply
218 configuration to custom logs since the configuration is not yet finalized
219 when setup_log is run (when using ConfigLoader, which is a plugin and is
220 not loaded until later.)
222 As a workaround, you can supply custom log configuration directly into
229 my_custom_log_info => { %custom_args },
234 If you wish to configure the custom logger differently based on ENV, you can
243 Catalyst::Utils::merge_hashes(
244 +{ my_custom_log_info => { %base_custom_args } },
245 +{ do __PACKAGE__->path_to( $ENV{WHICH_CONF}."_conf.pl") },
251 Or create a standalone Configuration class that does the right thing.
253 Basically if you want to configure a logger via Catalyst global configuration
254 you can't use ConfigLoader because it will always be loaded too late to be of
255 any use. Patches and workaround options welcomed!
257 =head2 VERSION 5.9XXXX 'cataplack'
259 The Catalyst::Engine sub-classes have all been removed and deprecated,
260 to be replaced with Plack handlers.
262 Plack is an implementation of the L<PSGI> specification, which is
263 a standard interface between web servers and application frameworks.
265 This should be no different for developers, and you should not have to
266 migrate your applications unless you are using a custom engine already.
268 This change benefits Catalyst significantly by reducing the amount of
269 code inside the framework, and means that the framework gets upstream
270 bug fixes in L<Plack>, and automatically gains support for any web server
271 which a L<PSGI> compliant handler is written for.
273 It also allows you more flexibility with your application, and allows
274 the use of cross web framework 'middleware'.
276 Developers are recommended to read L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for notes about
277 upgrading, especially if you are using an unusual deployment method.
279 Documentation for how to take advantage of L<PSGI> can be found in
280 L<Catalyst::PSGI>, and information about deploying your application
281 has been moved to L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment>.
283 =head3 Updated modules:
285 A number of modules have been updated to pass their tests or not
286 produce deprecation warnings with the latest version of Catalyst.
287 It is recommended that you upgrade any of these that you are using
288 after installing this version of Catalyst.
290 These extensions are:
294 =item L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork>
296 This is now deprecated, see L<Catalyst::Upgrading>.
298 =item L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>
300 Has been updated to not produce deprecation warnings, upgrade recommended.
302 =item Catalyst::ActionRole::ACL
304 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
305 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
307 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::DBIC
309 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
310 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
312 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
314 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
315 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
319 =head1 PREVIOUS VERSIONS
321 =head2 VERSION 5.8XXXX 'catamoose'
325 Please see L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for a full description of how changes in the
326 framework may affect your application.
328 Below is a brief list of features which have been deprecated in this release:
332 =item ::[MVC]:: style naming scheme has been deprecated and will warn
334 =item NEXT is deprecated for all applications and components, use MRO::Compat
336 =item Dispatcher methods which are an implementation detail made private, public versions now warn.
338 =item MyApp->plugin method is deprecated, use L<Catalyst::Model::Adaptor> instead.
340 =item __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors() is supported for backwards compatibility only, use Moose attributes instead in new code.
342 =item Use of Catalyst::Base now warns
352 =item Fix forwarding to Catalyst::Action objects.
354 =item Add the dispatch_type method
360 The development server restarter has been improved to be compatible with
361 immutable Moose classes, and also to optionally use
362 L<B::Hooks::OP::Check::StashChange> to handle more complex application layouts
365 =head3 $c->uri_for_action method.
367 Give a private path to the Catalyst action you want to create a URI for.
371 Log levels have been made additive.
373 =head3 L<Catalyst::Test>
377 =item Change to use L<Sub::Exporter>.
379 =item Support mocking multiple virtual hosts
381 =item New methods like action_ok and action_redirect to write more compact tests
385 =head3 Catalyst::Response
391 New print method which prints @data to the output stream, separated by $,.
392 This lets you pass the response object to functions that want to write to an
397 Added code method as an alias for C<< $res->status >>
401 =head3 Consequences of the Moose back end
407 Components are fully compatible with Moose, and all Moose features, such as
408 method modifiers, attributes, roles, BUILD and BUILDARGS methods are fully
409 supported and may be used in components and applications.
413 Many reusable extensions which would previously have been plugins or base
414 classes are better implemented as Moose roles.
418 L<MooseX::MethodAttributes::Role::AttrContainer::Inheritable> is used to contain action
419 attributes. This means that attributes are represented in the MOP, and
420 decouples action creation from attributes.
424 There is a reasonable API in Catalyst::Controller for working with
425 and registering actions, allowing a controller sub-class to replace
426 subroutine attributes for action declarations with an alternate
431 Refactored capturing of $app from L<Catalyst::Controller> into
432 L<Catalyst::Component::ApplicationAttribute> for easier reuse in other
437 Your application class is forced to become immutable at the end of compilation.
447 Don't ignore SIGCHLD while handling requests with the development server, so that
448 system() and other ways of creating child processes work as expected.
452 Fixes for FastCGI when used with IIS 6.0
456 Fix a bug in uri_for which could cause it to generate paths with multiple
461 Fix a bug in Catalyst::Stats, stopping garbage being inserted into
462 the stats if a user calls begin => but no end