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 5.90102 - 5.90103
12 A significant change is that we now preserve the value of $c->state from action
13 to following action. This gives you a new way to pass a value between actions
14 in a chain, for example. However any 'auto' actions always have $c->state
15 forced to be set to 0, which is the way its been for a long time, this way an
16 auto action is required to return 1 to pass the match. It also exists to maintain
17 compatibility with anyone that exits an auto action with a detach (which is not a
18 documented way to escape matching, but exists in the wild since it worked as a
19 side effect of the code for a long time).
21 Additionally, upon $c->detach we also force set state to 0.
23 Version 5.90102 contains a version of this change but its considered buggy, so
24 that is a version to avoid.
26 =head2 VERSION 5.90100
28 Support for type constraints in Args and CaptureArgs has been improved. You may
29 now inherit from a base controller that declares type constraints and use roles
30 that declare type constraints. See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
32 You may now. also use a full type constraint namespace instead of importing type
33 constraints into your package namespace.
35 We changed the way the middleware stash works so that it no longer localizes
36 the PSGI env hashref. This was done to fix bugs where people set PSGI ENV hash
37 keys and found them to disappear in certain cases. It also means that now if
38 a sub applications sets stash variables, that stash will now bubble up to the
39 parent application. This may be a breaking change for you since previous
40 versions of this code did not allow that. A workaround is to explicitly delete
41 stash keys in your sub application before returning control to the parent
44 =head2 VERSION 5.90097
46 =head3 Defined how $c->uri_for adds a URI fragment.
48 We now have a specification for creating URIs with fragments (or HTML anchors).
49 Previously you could do this as a side effect of how we create URIs but this
50 side effect behavior was never documented or tested, and was broken when we
51 introduced default UTF-8 encoding. When creating URIs with fragments please
52 follow the new, supported specification:
54 $c->uri_for($action_or_path, \@captures_or_args, @args, \$query, \$fragment);
56 This will be a breaking change for some codebases, we recommend testing if
57 you are creating URLs with fragments.
59 B<NOTE> If you are using the alternative:
61 $c->uri_for('/foo/bar#baz')
63 construction, we do not attempt to encode this and it will make a URL with a
66 =head2 VERSION 5.90094
68 =head3 Multipart form POST with character set headers
70 When we did the UTF8 work, we punted on Form POSTs when the POST envelope was
71 multipart and each part had complex headers such as content-types, character
72 sets and so forth. In those cases instead of returning a possibly incorrect
73 value, we returned an object describing the part so that you could figure it
74 out manually. This turned out to be a bad workaround as people did not expect
75 to find that object. So we changed this to try much harder to get a correct
76 value. We still return an object if we fail but we try much harder now. If
77 you used to check for the object you might find that code is no longer needed
78 (although checking for it should not hurt or break anything either).
80 =head2 VERSION 5.90091
82 =head3 'case_sensitive' configuration
84 At one point in time we allowed you to set a 'case_sensitive' configuration value so
85 that you could find actions by their private names using mixed case. We highly
86 discourage that. If you are using this 'feature' you should be on notice that we
87 plan to remove the code around it in the near future.
89 =head2 VERSION 5.90090+
91 =head3 Type constraints on Args and CaptureArgs.
93 You may now use a type constraint (using L<Moose>, L<MooseX::Types> or preferably
94 L<Type::Tiny> in your Args or CaptureArgs action attributes. This can be used
95 to restrict the value of the Arg. For example:
97 sub myaction :Local Args(Int) { ... }
99 Would match '.../myaction/5' but not '.../myaction/string'.
101 When an action (or action chain) has Args (or CaptureArgs) that declare type constraints
102 your arguments to $c->uri_for(...) must match those constraints.
104 See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
106 =head3 Move CatalystX::InjectComponent into core
108 L<Catalyst::Utils> has a new method 'inject_component' which works the same as the method of
109 the same name in L<CatalystX::InjectComponent>.
111 =head3 inject_components
113 New configuration key allows you to inject components directly into your application without
114 any subclasses. For example:
117 inject_components => {
118 'Controller::Err' => { from_component => 'Local::Controller::Errors' },
119 'Model::Zoo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo' },
120 'Model::Foo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo', roles => ['TestRole'] },
122 'Controller::Err' => { a => 100, b=>200, namespace=>'error' },
123 'Model::Zoo' => { a => 2 },
124 'Model::Foo' => { a => 100 },
127 Injected components are useful to reduce the amount of nearly empty boilerplate classes
128 you might have, particularly when first starting an application.
130 =head3 Component setup changes.
132 Previously you could not depend on an application scoped component doing setup_components
133 since components were setup 'in order'. Now all components are first registered and then
134 setup, so you can now reliably use any component doing setup_components.
136 =head2 VERSION 5.90080+
138 The biggest change in this release is that UTF8 encoding is now enabled by
139 default. So you no longer need any plugins (such as L<Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding>)
140 which you can just no go ahead and remove. You also don't need to set
141 the encoding configuration (__PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>'UTF-8')) anymore
142 as well (although its presence hurts nothing).
144 If this change causes you trouble, you can disable it:
146 __PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>undef);
148 For further information, please see L<Catalyst::UTF8>
150 But please report bugs. You will find that a number of common Views have been
151 updated for this release (such as L<Catalyst::View::TT>). In all cases that the
152 author is aware of these updates were to fix test cases only. You shouldn't
153 need to update unless you are installing fresh and want tests to pass.
155 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Compress> was updated to be compatible with this release.
156 You will need to upgrade if you are using this plugin. L<Catalyst::Upgrading>
159 A small change is that the configuration setting C<using_frontend_proxy>
160 was not doing the right thing if you started your application with C<psgi_app>
161 and did not apply the default middleware. This setting is now honored in
162 all the ways an application may be started. This could cause trouble if you
163 are using the configuration value and also adding the proxy middleware
164 manually with a custom application startup. The solution is that you only
165 need the configuration value set, or the middleware manually added (not both).
167 =head2 VERSION 5.90060+
169 =head3 Catalyst::Log object autoflush on by default
171 Starting in 5.90065, the Catalyst::Log object has 'autoflush' which is on
172 by default. This causes all messages to be written to the log immediately
173 instead of at the end of startup and then at the end of each request. In
174 order to access the old behavior, you must now call:
176 $c->log->autoflush(0);
178 =head3 Deprecate Catalyst::Utils::ensure_class_loaded
180 Going forward we recommend you use L<Module::Runtime>. In fact we will
181 be converting all uses of L<Class::Load> to L<Module::Runtime>. We will
182 also convert L<Catalyst::Utils\ensure_class_loaded> to be based on
183 L<Module::Runtime> to allow some time for you to update code, however at
184 some future point this method will be removed so you should stop
187 =head3 Support passing Body filehandles directly to your Plack server.
189 We changed the way we return body content (from response) to whatever
190 Plack handler you are using (Starman, FastCGI, etc.) We no longer
191 always use the streaming interface for the cases when the body is a
192 simple scalar, object or filehandle like. In those cases we now just
193 pass the simple response on to the plack handler. This might lead to
194 some minor differences in how streaming is handled. For example, you
195 might notice that streaming starts properly supporting chunked encoding when
196 on a server that supports that, or that previously missing headers
197 (possible content-length) might appear suddenly correct. Also, if you
198 are using middleware like L<Plack::Middleware::XSendfile> and are using
199 a filehandle that sets a readable path, your server might now correctly
200 handle the file (rather than as before where Catalyst would stream it
201 very likely very slowly).
203 In other words, some things might be meaninglessly different and some
204 things that were broken codewise but worked because of Catalyst being
205 incorrect might suddenly be really broken. The behavior is now more
206 correct in that Catalyst plays better with features that Plack offers
207 but if you are making heavy use of the streaming interface there could
208 be some differences so you should test carefully (this is probably not
209 the vast majority of people). In particular if you are developing
210 using one server but deploying using a different one, differences in
211 what those server do with streaming should be noted.
213 Please see note below about changes to filehandle support and existing
214 Plack middleware to aid in backwards compatibility.
216 =head3 Distinguish between body null versus undef.
218 We also now more carefully distinguish the different between a body set
219 to '' and a body that is undef. This might lead to situations where
220 again you'll get a content-length were you didn't get one before or
221 where a supporting server will start chunking output. If this is an
222 issue you can apply the middleware L<Plack::Middleware::BufferedStreaming>
223 or report specific problems to the dev team.
225 =head3 More Catalyst Middleware
227 We have started migrating code in Catalyst to equivalent Plack
228 Middleware when such exists and is correct to do so. For example we now use
229 L<Plack::Middleware::ContentLength> to determine content length of a response
230 when none is provided. This replaces similar code inlined with L<Catalyst>
231 The main advantages to doing this is 1) more similar Catalyst core that is
232 focused on the Catalyst special sauce, 2) Middleware is more broadly shared
233 so we benefit from better collaboration with developers outside Catalyst, 3)
234 In the future you'll be able to change or trim the middleware stack to get
235 additional performance when you don't need all the checks and constraints.
237 =head3 Deprecate Filehandle like objects that do read but not getline
239 We also deprecated setting the response body to an object that does 'read'
240 but not 'getline'. If you are using a custom IO-Handle like object for
241 response you should verify that 'getline' is supported in your interface.
242 Unless we here this case is a major issue for people, we will be removing support
243 in a near future release of Catalyst. When the code encounters this it
244 will issue a warning. You also may run into this issue with L<MogileFS::Client>
245 which does read but not getline. For now we will just warn when encountering
246 such an object and fallback to the previous behavior (where L<Catalyst::Engine>
247 itself unrolls the filehandle and performs blocking streams). However
248 this backwards compatibility will be removed in an upcoming release so you should either
249 rewrite your custom filehandle objects to support getline or start using the
250 middleware that adapts read for getline L<Plack::Middleware::AdaptFilehandleRead>.
252 =head3 Response->headers become read-only after finalizing
254 Once the response headers are finalized, trying to change them is not allowed
255 (in the past you could change them and this would lead to unexpected results).
257 =head3 Officially deprecate L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI>
259 L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI> is also officially no longer supported. We will
260 no long run test cases against this and can remove backwards compatibility code for it
261 as deemed necessary for the evolution of the platform. You should simply
262 discontinue use of this engine, as L<Catalyst> has been PSGI at the core for
265 =head3 Officially deprecate finding the PSGI $env anyplace other than Request
267 A few early releases of Cataplack had the PSGI $env in L<Catalyst::Engine>.
268 Code has been maintained here for backwards compatibility reasons. This is no
269 longer supported and will be removed in upcoming release, so you should update
270 your code and / or upgrade to a newer version of L<Catalyst>
272 =head3 Deprecate setting Response->body after using write/write_fh
274 Setting $c->res->body to a filehandle after using $c->res->write or
275 $c->res->write_fh is no longer considered allowed, since we can't send
276 the filehandle to the underlying Plack handler. For now we will continue
277 to support setting body to a simple value since this is possible, but at
278 some future release a choice to use streaming indicates that you will do
279 so for the rest of the request.
282 =head2 VERSION 5.90053
284 We are now clarifying the behavior of log, plugins and configuration during
285 the setup phase. Since Plugins might require a log during setup, setup_log
286 must run BEFORE setup_plugins. This has the unfortunate side effect that
287 anyone using the popular ConfigLoader plugin will not be able to supply
288 configuration to custom logs since the configuration is not yet finalized
289 when setup_log is run (when using ConfigLoader, which is a plugin and is
290 not loaded until later.)
292 As a workaround, you can supply custom log configuration directly into
299 my_custom_log_info => { %custom_args },
304 If you wish to configure the custom logger differently based on ENV, you can
313 Catalyst::Utils::merge_hashes(
314 +{ my_custom_log_info => { %base_custom_args } },
315 +{ do __PACKAGE__->path_to( $ENV{WHICH_CONF}."_conf.pl") },
321 Or create a standalone Configuration class that does the right thing.
323 Basically if you want to configure a logger via Catalyst global configuration
324 you can't use ConfigLoader because it will always be loaded too late to be of
325 any use. Patches and workaround options welcomed!
327 =head2 VERSION 5.9XXXX 'cataplack'
329 The Catalyst::Engine sub-classes have all been removed and deprecated,
330 to be replaced with Plack handlers.
332 Plack is an implementation of the L<PSGI> specification, which is
333 a standard interface between web servers and application frameworks.
335 This should be no different for developers, and you should not have to
336 migrate your applications unless you are using a custom engine already.
338 This change benefits Catalyst significantly by reducing the amount of
339 code inside the framework, and means that the framework gets upstream
340 bug fixes in L<Plack>, and automatically gains support for any web server
341 which a L<PSGI> compliant handler is written for.
343 It also allows you more flexibility with your application, and allows
344 the use of cross web framework 'middleware'.
346 Developers are recommended to read L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for notes about
347 upgrading, especially if you are using an unusual deployment method.
349 Documentation for how to take advantage of L<PSGI> can be found in
350 L<Catalyst::PSGI>, and information about deploying your application
351 has been moved to L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment>.
353 =head3 Updated modules:
355 A number of modules have been updated to pass their tests or not
356 produce deprecation warnings with the latest version of Catalyst.
357 It is recommended that you upgrade any of these that you are using
358 after installing this version of Catalyst.
360 These extensions are:
364 =item L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork>
366 This is now deprecated, see L<Catalyst::Upgrading>.
368 =item L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>
370 Has been updated to not produce deprecation warnings, upgrade recommended.
372 =item Catalyst::ActionRole::ACL
374 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
375 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
377 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::DBIC
379 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
380 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
382 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
384 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
385 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
389 =head1 PREVIOUS VERSIONS
391 =head2 VERSION 5.8XXXX 'catamoose'
395 Please see L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for a full description of how changes in the
396 framework may affect your application.
398 Below is a brief list of features which have been deprecated in this release:
402 =item ::[MVC]:: style naming scheme has been deprecated and will warn
404 =item NEXT is deprecated for all applications and components, use MRO::Compat
406 =item Dispatcher methods which are an implementation detail made private, public versions now warn.
408 =item MyApp->plugin method is deprecated, use L<Catalyst::Model::Adaptor> instead.
410 =item __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors() is supported for backwards compatibility only, use Moose attributes instead in new code.
412 =item Use of Catalyst::Base now warns
422 =item Fix forwarding to Catalyst::Action objects.
424 =item Add the dispatch_type method
430 The development server restarter has been improved to be compatible with
431 immutable Moose classes, and also to optionally use
432 L<B::Hooks::OP::Check::StashChange> to handle more complex application layouts
435 =head3 $c->uri_for_action method.
437 Give a private path to the Catalyst action you want to create a URI for.
441 Log levels have been made additive.
443 =head3 L<Catalyst::Test>
447 =item Change to use L<Sub::Exporter>.
449 =item Support mocking multiple virtual hosts
451 =item New methods like action_ok and action_redirect to write more compact tests
455 =head3 Catalyst::Response
461 New print method which prints @data to the output stream, separated by $,.
462 This lets you pass the response object to functions that want to write to an
467 Added code method as an alias for C<< $res->status >>
471 =head3 Consequences of the Moose back end
477 Components are fully compatible with Moose, and all Moose features, such as
478 method modifiers, attributes, roles, BUILD and BUILDARGS methods are fully
479 supported and may be used in components and applications.
483 Many reusable extensions which would previously have been plugins or base
484 classes are better implemented as Moose roles.
488 L<MooseX::MethodAttributes::Role::AttrContainer::Inheritable> is used to contain action
489 attributes. This means that attributes are represented in the MOP, and
490 decouples action creation from attributes.
494 There is a reasonable API in Catalyst::Controller for working with
495 and registering actions, allowing a controller sub-class to replace
496 subroutine attributes for action declarations with an alternate
501 Refactored capturing of $app from L<Catalyst::Controller> into
502 L<Catalyst::Component::ApplicationAttribute> for easier reuse in other
507 Your application class is forced to become immutable at the end of compilation.
517 Don't ignore SIGCHLD while handling requests with the development server, so that
518 system() and other ways of creating child processes work as expected.
522 Fixes for FastCGI when used with IIS 6.0
526 Fix a bug in uri_for which could cause it to generate paths with multiple
531 Fix a bug in Catalyst::Stats, stopping garbage being inserted into
532 the stats if a user calls begin => but no end