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 5.90090+
12 =head2 Type constraints on Args and CaptureArgs.
14 You may now use a type constraint (using L<Moose>, L<MooseX::Types> or preferably
15 L<Type::Tiny> in your Args or CaptureArgs action attributes. This can be used
16 to restrict the value of the Arg. For example:
18 sub myaction :Local Args(Int) { ... }
20 Would match '.../myaction/5' but not '.../myaction/string'.
22 When an action (or action chain) has Args (or CaptureArgs) that declare type constraints
23 your arguments to $c->uri_for(...) must match those constraints.
25 See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
27 =head2 Move CatalystX::InjectComponent into core
29 L<Catalyst::Utils> has a new method 'inject_component' which works the same as the method of
30 the same name in L<CatalystX::InjectComponent>.
32 =head2 inject_components
34 New configuration key allows you to inject components directly into your application without
35 any subclasses. For example:
38 inject_components => {
39 'Controller::Err' => { from_component => 'Local::Controller::Errors' },
40 'Model::Zoo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo' },
41 'Model::Foo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo', roles => ['TestRole'] },
43 'Controller::Err' => { a => 100, b=>200, namespace=>'error' },
44 'Model::Zoo' => { a => 2 },
45 'Model::Foo' => { a => 100 },
48 Injected components are useful to reduce the ammount of nearly empty boilerplate classes
49 you might have, particularly when first starting an application.
51 =head2 Component setup changes.
53 Previously you could not depend on an application scoped component doing setup_components
54 since components were setup 'in order'. Now all components are first registered and then
55 setup, so you can now reliably use any component doing setup_components.
57 =head2 VERSION 5.90080+
59 The biggest change in this release is that UTF8 encoding is now enabled by
60 default. So you no longer need any plugins (such as L<Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding>)
61 which you can just no go ahead and remove. You also don't need to set
62 the encoding configuration (__PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>'UTF-8')) anymore
63 as well (although its presence hurts nothing).
65 If this change causes you trouble, you can disable it:
67 __PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>undef);
69 For further information, please see L<Catalyst::UTF8>
71 But please report bugs. You will find that a number of common Views have been
72 updated for this release (such as L<Catalyst::View::TT>). In all cases that the
73 author is aware of these updates were to fix test cases only. You shouldn't
74 need to update unless you are installing fresh and want tests to pass.
76 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Compress> was updated to be compatible with this release.
77 You will need to upgrade if you are using this plugin. L<Catalyst::Upgrading>
80 A small change is that the configuration setting C<using_frontend_proxy>
81 was not doing the right thing if you started your application with C<psgi_app>
82 and did not apply the default middleware. This setting is now honored in
83 all the ways an application may be started. This could cause trouble if you
84 are using the configuration value and also adding the proxy middleware
85 manually with a custom application startup. The solution is that you only
86 need the configuration value set, or the middleware manually added (not both).
88 =head2 VERSION 5.90060+
90 =head3 Catalyst::Log object autoflush on by default
92 Starting in 5.90065, the Catalyst::Log object has 'autoflush' which is on
93 by default. This causes all messages to be written to the log immediately
94 instead of at the end of startup and then at the end of each request. In
95 order to access the old behavior, you must now call:
97 $c->log->autoflush(0);
99 =head3 Deprecate Catalyst::Utils::ensure_class_loaded
101 Going forward we recommend you use L<Module::Runtime>. In fact we will
102 be converting all uses of L<Class::Load> to L<Module::Runtime>. We will
103 also convert L<Catalyst::Utils\ensure_class_loaded> to be based on
104 L<Module::Runtime> to allow some time for you to update code, however at
105 some future point this method will be removed so you should stop
108 =head3 Support passing Body filehandles directly to your Plack server.
110 We changed the way we return body content (from response) to whatever
111 Plack handler you are using (Starman, FastCGI, etc.) We no longer
112 always use the streaming interface for the cases when the body is a
113 simple scalar, object or filehandle like. In those cases we now just
114 pass the simple response on to the plack handler. This might lead to
115 some minor differences in how streaming is handled. For example, you
116 might notice that streaming starts properly supporting chunked encoding when
117 on a server that supports that, or that previously missing headers
118 (possible content-length) might appear suddenly correct. Also, if you
119 are using middleware like L<Plack::Middleware::XSendfile> and are using
120 a filehandle that sets a readable path, your server might now correctly
121 handle the file (rather than as before where Catalyst would stream it
122 very likely very slowly).
124 In other words, some things might be meaninglessly different and some
125 things that were broken codewise but worked because of Catalyst being
126 incorrect might suddenly be really broken. The behavior is now more
127 correct in that Catalyst plays better with features that Plack offers
128 but if you are making heavy use of the streaming interface there could
129 be some differences so you should test carefully (this is probably not
130 the vast majority of people). In particular if you are developing
131 using one server but deploying using a different one, differences in
132 what those server do with streaming should be noted.
134 Please see note below about changes to filehandle support and existing
135 Plack middleware to aid in backwards compatibility.
137 =head3 Distinguish between body null versus undef.
139 We also now more carefully distingush the different between a body set
140 to '' and a body that is undef. This might lead to situations where
141 again you'll get a content-length were you didn't get one before or
142 where a supporting server will start chunking output. If this is an
143 issue you can apply the middleware L<Plack::Middleware::BufferedStreaming>
144 or report specific problems to the dev team.
146 =head3 More Catalyst Middleware
148 We have started migrating code in Catalyst to equivilent Plack
149 Middleware when such exists and is correct to do so. For example we now use
150 L<Plack::Middleware::ContentLength> to determine content length of a response
151 when none is provided. This replaces similar code inlined with L<Catalyst>
152 The main advantages to doing this is 1) more similar Catalyst core that is
153 focused on the Catalyst special sauce, 2) Middleware is more broadly shared
154 so we benefit from better collaboration with developers outside Catalyst, 3)
155 In the future you'll be able to change or trim the middleware stack to get
156 additional performance when you don't need all the checks and constraints.
158 =head3 Deprecate Filehandle like objects that do read but not getline
160 We also deprecated setting the response body to an object that does 'read'
161 but not 'getline'. If you are using a custom IO-Handle like object for
162 response you should verify that 'getline' is supported in your interface.
163 Unless we here this case is a major issue for people, we will be removing support
164 in a near future release of Catalyst. When the code encounters this it
165 will issue a warning. You also may run into this issue with L<MogileFS::Client>
166 which does read but not getline. For now we will just warn when encountering
167 such an object and fallback to the previous behavior (where L<Catalyst::Engine>
168 itself unrolls the filehandle and performs blocking streams). However
169 this backwards compatibility will be removed in an upcoming release so you should either
170 rewrite your custom filehandle objects to support getline or start using the
171 middleware that adapts read for getline L<Plack::Middleware::AdaptFilehandleRead>.
173 =head3 Response->headers become read-only after finalizing
175 Once the response headers are finalized, trying to change them is not allowed
176 (in the past you could change them and this would lead to unexpected results).
178 =head3 Officially deprecate L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI>
180 L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI> is also officially no longer supported. We will
181 no long run test cases against this and can remove backwards compatibility code for it
182 as deemed necessary for the evolution of the platform. You should simply
183 discontinue use of this engine, as L<Catalyst> has been PSGI at the core for
186 =head3 Officially deprecate finding the PSGI $env anyplace other than Request
188 A few early releases of Cataplack had the PSGI $env in L<Catalyst::Engine>.
189 Code has been maintained here for backwards compatibility reasons. This is no
190 longer supported and will be removed in upcoming release, so you should update
191 your code and / or upgrade to a newer version of L<Catalyst>
193 =head3 Deprecate setting Response->body after using write/write_fh
195 Setting $c->res->body to a filehandle after using $c->res->write or
196 $c->res->write_fh is no longer considered allowed, since we can't send
197 the filehandle to the underlying Plack handler. For now we will continue
198 to support setting body to a simple value since this is possible, but at
199 some future release a choice to use streaming indicates that you will do
200 so for the rest of the request.
203 =head2 VERSION 5.90053
205 We are now clarifying the behavior of log, plugins and configuration during
206 the setup phase. Since Plugins might require a log during setup, setup_log
207 must run BEFORE setup_plugins. This has the unfortunate side effect that
208 anyone using the popular ConfigLoader plugin will not be able to supply
209 configuration to custom logs since the configuration is not yet finalized
210 when setup_log is run (when using ConfigLoader, which is a plugin and is
211 not loaded until later.)
213 As a workaround, you can supply custom log configuration directly into
220 my_custom_log_info => { %custom_args },
225 If you wish to configure the custom logger differently based on ENV, you can
234 Catalyst::Utils::merge_hashes(
235 +{ my_custom_log_info => { %base_custom_args } },
236 +{ do __PACKAGE__->path_to( $ENV{WHICH_CONF}."_conf.pl") },
242 Or create a standalone Configuration class that does the right thing.
244 Basically if you want to configure a logger via Catalyst global configuration
245 you can't use ConfigLoader because it will always be loaded too late to be of
246 any use. Patches and workaround options welcomed!
248 =head2 VERSION 5.9XXXX 'cataplack'
250 The Catalyst::Engine sub-classes have all been removed and deprecated,
251 to be replaced with Plack handlers.
253 Plack is an implementation of the L<PSGI> specification, which is
254 a standard interface between web servers and application frameworks.
256 This should be no different for developers, and you should not have to
257 migrate your applications unless you are using a custom engine already.
259 This change benefits Catalyst significantly by reducing the amount of
260 code inside the framework, and means that the framework gets upstream
261 bug fixes in L<Plack>, and automatically gains support for any web server
262 which a L<PSGI> compliant handler is written for.
264 It also allows you more flexibility with your application, and allows
265 the use of cross web framework 'middleware'.
267 Developers are recommended to read L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for notes about
268 upgrading, especially if you are using an unusual deployment method.
270 Documentation for how to take advantage of L<PSGI> can be found in
271 L<Catalyst::PSGI>, and information about deploying your application
272 has been moved to L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment>.
274 =head3 Updated modules:
276 A number of modules have been updated to pass their tests or not
277 produce deprecation warnings with the latest version of Catalyst.
278 It is recommended that you upgrade any of these that you are using
279 after installing this version of Catalyst.
281 These extensions are:
285 =item L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork>
287 This is now deprecated, see L<Catalyst::Upgrading>.
289 =item L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>
291 Has been updated to not produce deprecation warnings, upgrade recommended.
293 =item Catalyst::ActionRole::ACL
295 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
296 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
298 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::DBIC
300 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
301 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
303 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
305 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
306 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
310 =head1 PREVIOUS VERSIONS
312 =head2 VERSION 5.8XXXX 'catamoose'
316 Please see L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for a full description of how changes in the
317 framework may affect your application.
319 Below is a brief list of features which have been deprecated in this release:
323 =item ::[MVC]:: style naming scheme has been deprecated and will warn
325 =item NEXT is deprecated for all applications and components, use MRO::Compat
327 =item Dispatcher methods which are an implementation detail made private, public versions now warn.
329 =item MyApp->plugin method is deprecated, use L<Catalyst::Model::Adaptor> instead.
331 =item __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors() is supported for backwards compatibility only, use Moose attributes instead in new code.
333 =item Use of Catalyst::Base now warns
343 =item Fix forwarding to Catalyst::Action objects.
345 =item Add the dispatch_type method
351 The development server restarter has been improved to be compatible with
352 immutable Moose classes, and also to optionally use
353 L<B::Hooks::OP::Check::StashChange> to handle more complex application layouts
356 =head3 $c->uri_for_action method.
358 Give a private path to the Catalyst action you want to create a URI for.
362 Log levels have been made additive.
364 =head3 L<Catalyst::Test>
368 =item Change to use L<Sub::Exporter>.
370 =item Support mocking multiple virtual hosts
372 =item New methods like action_ok and action_redirect to write more compact tests
376 =head3 Catalyst::Response
382 New print method which prints @data to the output stream, separated by $,.
383 This lets you pass the response object to functions that want to write to an
388 Added code method as an alias for C<< $res->status >>
392 =head3 Consequences of the Moose back end
398 Components are fully compatible with Moose, and all Moose features, such as
399 method modifiers, attributes, roles, BUILD and BUILDARGS methods are fully
400 supported and may be used in components and applications.
404 Many reusable extensions which would previously have been plugins or base
405 classes are better implemented as Moose roles.
409 L<MooseX::MethodAttributes::Role::AttrContainer::Inheritable> is used to contain action
410 attributes. This means that attributes are represented in the MOP, and
411 decouples action creation from attributes.
415 There is a reasonable API in Catalyst::Controller for working with
416 and registering actions, allowing a controller sub-class to replace
417 subroutine attributes for action declarations with an alternate
422 Refactored capturing of $app from L<Catalyst::Controller> into
423 L<Catalyst::Component::ApplicationAttribute> for easier reuse in other
428 Your application class is forced to become immutable at the end of compilation.
438 Don't ignore SIGCHLD while handling requests with the development server, so that
439 system() and other ways of creating child processes work as expected.
443 Fixes for FastCGI when used with IIS 6.0
447 Fix a bug in uri_for which could cause it to generate paths with multiple
452 Fix a bug in Catalyst::Stats, stopping garbage being inserted into
453 the stats if a user calls begin => but no end