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 5.90100
12 Support for type constraints in Args and CaptureArgs has been improved. You may
13 now inherit from a base controller that declares type constraints and use roles
14 that declare type constraints. See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
16 You may now. also use a full type constraint namespace instead of importing type
17 constraints into your package namespace.
19 We changed the way the middleware stash works so that it no longer localizes
20 the PSGI env hashref. This was done to fix bugs where people set PSGI ENV hash
21 keys and found them to disappear in certain cases. It also means that now if
22 a sub applications sets stash variables, that stash will now bubble up to the
23 parent application. This may be a breaking change for you since previous
24 versions of this code did not allow that. A workaround is to explicitly delete
25 stash keys in your sub application before returning control to the parent
28 =head2 VERSION 5.90097
30 =head3 Defined how $c->uri_for adds a URI fragment.
32 We now have a specification for creating URIs with fragments (or HTML anchors).
33 Previously you could do this as a side effect of how we create URIs but this
34 side effect behavior was never documented or tested, and was broken when we
35 introduced default UTF-8 encoding. When creating URIs with fragments please
36 follow the new, supported specification:
38 $c->uri_for($action_or_path, \@captures_or_args, @args, \$query, \$fragment);
40 This will be a breaking change for some codebases, we recommend testing if
41 you are creating URLs with fragments.
43 B<NOTE> If you are using the alternative:
45 $c->uri_for('/foo/bar#baz')
47 construction, we do not attempt to encode this and it will make a URL with a
50 =head2 VERSION 5.90094
52 =head3 Multipart form POST with character set headers
54 When we did the UTF8 work, we punted on Form POSTs when the POST envelope was
55 multipart and each part had complex headers such as content-types, character
56 sets and so forth. In those cases instead of returning a possibly incorrect
57 value, we returned an object describing the part so that you could figure it
58 out manually. This turned out to be a bad workaround as people did not expect
59 to find that object. So we changed this to try much harder to get a correct
60 value. We still return an object if we fail but we try much harder now. If
61 you used to check for the object you might find that code is no longer needed
62 (although checking for it should not hurt or break anything either).
64 =head2 VERSION 5.90091
66 =head3 'case_sensitive' configuration
68 At one point in time we allowed you to set a 'case_sensitive' configuration value so
69 that you could find actions by their private names using mixed case. We highly
70 discourage that. If you are using this 'feature' you should be on notice that we
71 plan to remove the code around it in the near future.
73 =head2 VERSION 5.90090+
75 =head3 Type constraints on Args and CaptureArgs.
77 You may now use a type constraint (using L<Moose>, L<MooseX::Types> or preferably
78 L<Type::Tiny> in your Args or CaptureArgs action attributes. This can be used
79 to restrict the value of the Arg. For example:
81 sub myaction :Local Args(Int) { ... }
83 Would match '.../myaction/5' but not '.../myaction/string'.
85 When an action (or action chain) has Args (or CaptureArgs) that declare type constraints
86 your arguments to $c->uri_for(...) must match those constraints.
88 See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
90 =head3 Move CatalystX::InjectComponent into core
92 L<Catalyst::Utils> has a new method 'inject_component' which works the same as the method of
93 the same name in L<CatalystX::InjectComponent>.
95 =head3 inject_components
97 New configuration key allows you to inject components directly into your application without
98 any subclasses. For example:
101 inject_components => {
102 'Controller::Err' => { from_component => 'Local::Controller::Errors' },
103 'Model::Zoo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo' },
104 'Model::Foo' => { from_component => 'Local::Model::Foo', roles => ['TestRole'] },
106 'Controller::Err' => { a => 100, b=>200, namespace=>'error' },
107 'Model::Zoo' => { a => 2 },
108 'Model::Foo' => { a => 100 },
111 Injected components are useful to reduce the amount of nearly empty boilerplate classes
112 you might have, particularly when first starting an application.
114 =head3 Component setup changes.
116 Previously you could not depend on an application scoped component doing setup_components
117 since components were setup 'in order'. Now all components are first registered and then
118 setup, so you can now reliably use any component doing setup_components.
120 =head2 VERSION 5.90080+
122 The biggest change in this release is that UTF8 encoding is now enabled by
123 default. So you no longer need any plugins (such as L<Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding>)
124 which you can just no go ahead and remove. You also don't need to set
125 the encoding configuration (__PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>'UTF-8')) anymore
126 as well (although its presence hurts nothing).
128 If this change causes you trouble, you can disable it:
130 __PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>undef);
132 For further information, please see L<Catalyst::UTF8>
134 But please report bugs. You will find that a number of common Views have been
135 updated for this release (such as L<Catalyst::View::TT>). In all cases that the
136 author is aware of these updates were to fix test cases only. You shouldn't
137 need to update unless you are installing fresh and want tests to pass.
139 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Compress> was updated to be compatible with this release.
140 You will need to upgrade if you are using this plugin. L<Catalyst::Upgrading>
143 A small change is that the configuration setting C<using_frontend_proxy>
144 was not doing the right thing if you started your application with C<psgi_app>
145 and did not apply the default middleware. This setting is now honored in
146 all the ways an application may be started. This could cause trouble if you
147 are using the configuration value and also adding the proxy middleware
148 manually with a custom application startup. The solution is that you only
149 need the configuration value set, or the middleware manually added (not both).
151 =head2 VERSION 5.90060+
153 =head3 Catalyst::Log object autoflush on by default
155 Starting in 5.90065, the Catalyst::Log object has 'autoflush' which is on
156 by default. This causes all messages to be written to the log immediately
157 instead of at the end of startup and then at the end of each request. In
158 order to access the old behavior, you must now call:
160 $c->log->autoflush(0);
162 =head3 Deprecate Catalyst::Utils::ensure_class_loaded
164 Going forward we recommend you use L<Module::Runtime>. In fact we will
165 be converting all uses of L<Class::Load> to L<Module::Runtime>. We will
166 also convert L<Catalyst::Utils\ensure_class_loaded> to be based on
167 L<Module::Runtime> to allow some time for you to update code, however at
168 some future point this method will be removed so you should stop
171 =head3 Support passing Body filehandles directly to your Plack server.
173 We changed the way we return body content (from response) to whatever
174 Plack handler you are using (Starman, FastCGI, etc.) We no longer
175 always use the streaming interface for the cases when the body is a
176 simple scalar, object or filehandle like. In those cases we now just
177 pass the simple response on to the plack handler. This might lead to
178 some minor differences in how streaming is handled. For example, you
179 might notice that streaming starts properly supporting chunked encoding when
180 on a server that supports that, or that previously missing headers
181 (possible content-length) might appear suddenly correct. Also, if you
182 are using middleware like L<Plack::Middleware::XSendfile> and are using
183 a filehandle that sets a readable path, your server might now correctly
184 handle the file (rather than as before where Catalyst would stream it
185 very likely very slowly).
187 In other words, some things might be meaninglessly different and some
188 things that were broken codewise but worked because of Catalyst being
189 incorrect might suddenly be really broken. The behavior is now more
190 correct in that Catalyst plays better with features that Plack offers
191 but if you are making heavy use of the streaming interface there could
192 be some differences so you should test carefully (this is probably not
193 the vast majority of people). In particular if you are developing
194 using one server but deploying using a different one, differences in
195 what those server do with streaming should be noted.
197 Please see note below about changes to filehandle support and existing
198 Plack middleware to aid in backwards compatibility.
200 =head3 Distinguish between body null versus undef.
202 We also now more carefully distinguish the different between a body set
203 to '' and a body that is undef. This might lead to situations where
204 again you'll get a content-length were you didn't get one before or
205 where a supporting server will start chunking output. If this is an
206 issue you can apply the middleware L<Plack::Middleware::BufferedStreaming>
207 or report specific problems to the dev team.
209 =head3 More Catalyst Middleware
211 We have started migrating code in Catalyst to equivalent Plack
212 Middleware when such exists and is correct to do so. For example we now use
213 L<Plack::Middleware::ContentLength> to determine content length of a response
214 when none is provided. This replaces similar code inlined with L<Catalyst>
215 The main advantages to doing this is 1) more similar Catalyst core that is
216 focused on the Catalyst special sauce, 2) Middleware is more broadly shared
217 so we benefit from better collaboration with developers outside Catalyst, 3)
218 In the future you'll be able to change or trim the middleware stack to get
219 additional performance when you don't need all the checks and constraints.
221 =head3 Deprecate Filehandle like objects that do read but not getline
223 We also deprecated setting the response body to an object that does 'read'
224 but not 'getline'. If you are using a custom IO-Handle like object for
225 response you should verify that 'getline' is supported in your interface.
226 Unless we here this case is a major issue for people, we will be removing support
227 in a near future release of Catalyst. When the code encounters this it
228 will issue a warning. You also may run into this issue with L<MogileFS::Client>
229 which does read but not getline. For now we will just warn when encountering
230 such an object and fallback to the previous behavior (where L<Catalyst::Engine>
231 itself unrolls the filehandle and performs blocking streams). However
232 this backwards compatibility will be removed in an upcoming release so you should either
233 rewrite your custom filehandle objects to support getline or start using the
234 middleware that adapts read for getline L<Plack::Middleware::AdaptFilehandleRead>.
236 =head3 Response->headers become read-only after finalizing
238 Once the response headers are finalized, trying to change them is not allowed
239 (in the past you could change them and this would lead to unexpected results).
241 =head3 Officially deprecate L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI>
243 L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI> is also officially no longer supported. We will
244 no long run test cases against this and can remove backwards compatibility code for it
245 as deemed necessary for the evolution of the platform. You should simply
246 discontinue use of this engine, as L<Catalyst> has been PSGI at the core for
249 =head3 Officially deprecate finding the PSGI $env anyplace other than Request
251 A few early releases of Cataplack had the PSGI $env in L<Catalyst::Engine>.
252 Code has been maintained here for backwards compatibility reasons. This is no
253 longer supported and will be removed in upcoming release, so you should update
254 your code and / or upgrade to a newer version of L<Catalyst>
256 =head3 Deprecate setting Response->body after using write/write_fh
258 Setting $c->res->body to a filehandle after using $c->res->write or
259 $c->res->write_fh is no longer considered allowed, since we can't send
260 the filehandle to the underlying Plack handler. For now we will continue
261 to support setting body to a simple value since this is possible, but at
262 some future release a choice to use streaming indicates that you will do
263 so for the rest of the request.
266 =head2 VERSION 5.90053
268 We are now clarifying the behavior of log, plugins and configuration during
269 the setup phase. Since Plugins might require a log during setup, setup_log
270 must run BEFORE setup_plugins. This has the unfortunate side effect that
271 anyone using the popular ConfigLoader plugin will not be able to supply
272 configuration to custom logs since the configuration is not yet finalized
273 when setup_log is run (when using ConfigLoader, which is a plugin and is
274 not loaded until later.)
276 As a workaround, you can supply custom log configuration directly into
283 my_custom_log_info => { %custom_args },
288 If you wish to configure the custom logger differently based on ENV, you can
297 Catalyst::Utils::merge_hashes(
298 +{ my_custom_log_info => { %base_custom_args } },
299 +{ do __PACKAGE__->path_to( $ENV{WHICH_CONF}."_conf.pl") },
305 Or create a standalone Configuration class that does the right thing.
307 Basically if you want to configure a logger via Catalyst global configuration
308 you can't use ConfigLoader because it will always be loaded too late to be of
309 any use. Patches and workaround options welcomed!
311 =head2 VERSION 5.9XXXX 'cataplack'
313 The Catalyst::Engine sub-classes have all been removed and deprecated,
314 to be replaced with Plack handlers.
316 Plack is an implementation of the L<PSGI> specification, which is
317 a standard interface between web servers and application frameworks.
319 This should be no different for developers, and you should not have to
320 migrate your applications unless you are using a custom engine already.
322 This change benefits Catalyst significantly by reducing the amount of
323 code inside the framework, and means that the framework gets upstream
324 bug fixes in L<Plack>, and automatically gains support for any web server
325 which a L<PSGI> compliant handler is written for.
327 It also allows you more flexibility with your application, and allows
328 the use of cross web framework 'middleware'.
330 Developers are recommended to read L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for notes about
331 upgrading, especially if you are using an unusual deployment method.
333 Documentation for how to take advantage of L<PSGI> can be found in
334 L<Catalyst::PSGI>, and information about deploying your application
335 has been moved to L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment>.
337 =head3 Updated modules:
339 A number of modules have been updated to pass their tests or not
340 produce deprecation warnings with the latest version of Catalyst.
341 It is recommended that you upgrade any of these that you are using
342 after installing this version of Catalyst.
344 These extensions are:
348 =item L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork>
350 This is now deprecated, see L<Catalyst::Upgrading>.
352 =item L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>
354 Has been updated to not produce deprecation warnings, upgrade recommended.
356 =item Catalyst::ActionRole::ACL
358 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
359 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
361 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::DBIC
363 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
364 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
366 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
368 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
369 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
373 =head1 PREVIOUS VERSIONS
375 =head2 VERSION 5.8XXXX 'catamoose'
379 Please see L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for a full description of how changes in the
380 framework may affect your application.
382 Below is a brief list of features which have been deprecated in this release:
386 =item ::[MVC]:: style naming scheme has been deprecated and will warn
388 =item NEXT is deprecated for all applications and components, use MRO::Compat
390 =item Dispatcher methods which are an implementation detail made private, public versions now warn.
392 =item MyApp->plugin method is deprecated, use L<Catalyst::Model::Adaptor> instead.
394 =item __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors() is supported for backwards compatibility only, use Moose attributes instead in new code.
396 =item Use of Catalyst::Base now warns
406 =item Fix forwarding to Catalyst::Action objects.
408 =item Add the dispatch_type method
414 The development server restarter has been improved to be compatible with
415 immutable Moose classes, and also to optionally use
416 L<B::Hooks::OP::Check::StashChange> to handle more complex application layouts
419 =head3 $c->uri_for_action method.
421 Give a private path to the Catalyst action you want to create a URI for.
425 Log levels have been made additive.
427 =head3 L<Catalyst::Test>
431 =item Change to use L<Sub::Exporter>.
433 =item Support mocking multiple virtual hosts
435 =item New methods like action_ok and action_redirect to write more compact tests
439 =head3 Catalyst::Response
445 New print method which prints @data to the output stream, separated by $,.
446 This lets you pass the response object to functions that want to write to an
451 Added code method as an alias for C<< $res->status >>
455 =head3 Consequences of the Moose back end
461 Components are fully compatible with Moose, and all Moose features, such as
462 method modifiers, attributes, roles, BUILD and BUILDARGS methods are fully
463 supported and may be used in components and applications.
467 Many reusable extensions which would previously have been plugins or base
468 classes are better implemented as Moose roles.
472 L<MooseX::MethodAttributes::Role::AttrContainer::Inheritable> is used to contain action
473 attributes. This means that attributes are represented in the MOP, and
474 decouples action creation from attributes.
478 There is a reasonable API in Catalyst::Controller for working with
479 and registering actions, allowing a controller sub-class to replace
480 subroutine attributes for action declarations with an alternate
485 Refactored capturing of $app from L<Catalyst::Controller> into
486 L<Catalyst::Component::ApplicationAttribute> for easier reuse in other
491 Your application class is forced to become immutable at the end of compilation.
501 Don't ignore SIGCHLD while handling requests with the development server, so that
502 system() and other ways of creating child processes work as expected.
506 Fixes for FastCGI when used with IIS 6.0
510 Fix a bug in uri_for which could cause it to generate paths with multiple
515 Fix a bug in Catalyst::Stats, stopping garbage being inserted into
516 the stats if a user calls begin => but no end