1 package Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained;
4 extends 'Catalyst::DispatchType';
7 use Catalyst::ActionChain;
35 # please don't perltidy this. hairy code within.
39 Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained - Path Part DispatchType
43 Path part matching, allowing several actions to sequentially take care of processing a request:
45 # root action - captures one argument after it
46 sub foo_setup : Chained('/') PathPart('foo') CaptureArgs(1) {
47 my ( $self, $c, $foo_arg ) = @_;
51 # child action endpoint - takes one argument
52 sub bar : Chained('foo_setup') Args(1) {
53 my ( $self, $c, $bar_arg ) = @_;
59 Dispatch type managing default behaviour. For more information on
64 =item * L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> for how they affect application authors
66 =item * L<Catalyst::DispatchType> for implementation information.
72 =head2 $self->list($c)
74 Debug output for Path Part dispatch points
79 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
81 return unless $self->_endpoints;
83 my $avail_width = Catalyst::Utils::term_width() - 9;
84 my $col1_width = ($avail_width * .50) < 35 ? 35 : int($avail_width * .50);
85 my $col2_width = $avail_width - $col1_width;
86 my $paths = Text::SimpleTable->new(
87 [ $col1_width, 'Path Spec' ], [ $col2_width, 'Private' ],
90 my $has_unattached_actions;
91 my $unattached_actions = Text::SimpleTable->new(
92 [ $col1_width, 'Private' ], [ $col2_width, 'Missing parent' ],
95 ENDPOINT: foreach my $endpoint (
96 sort { $a->reverse cmp $b->reverse }
97 @{ $self->_endpoints }
99 my $args = $endpoint->attributes->{Args}->[0];
100 my @parts = (defined($args) ? (("*") x $args) : '...');
102 my $parent = "DUMMY";
103 my $curr = $endpoint;
105 if (my $cap = $curr->attributes->{CaptureArgs}) {
106 unshift(@parts, (("*") x $cap->[0]));
108 if (my $pp = $curr->attributes->{PathPart}) {
109 unshift(@parts, $pp->[0])
110 if (defined $pp->[0] && length $pp->[0]);
112 $parent = $curr->attributes->{Chained}->[0];
113 $curr = $self->_actions->{$parent};
114 unshift(@parents, $curr) if $curr;
116 if ($parent ne '/') {
117 $has_unattached_actions = 1;
118 $unattached_actions->row('/' . ($parents[0] || $endpoint)->reverse, $parent);
122 foreach my $p (@parents) {
124 if (my $cap = $p->attributes->{CaptureArgs}) {
125 $name .= ' ('.$cap->[0].')';
127 unless ($p eq $parents[0]) {
128 $name = "-> ${name}";
130 push(@rows, [ '', $name ]);
132 push(@rows, [ '', (@rows ? "=> " : '')."/${endpoint}" ]);
133 $rows[0][0] = join('/', '', @parts) || '/';
134 $paths->row(@$_) for @rows;
137 $c->log->debug( "Loaded Chained actions:\n" . $paths->draw . "\n" );
138 $c->log->debug( "Unattached Chained actions:\n", $unattached_actions->draw . "\n" )
139 if $has_unattached_actions;
142 =head2 $self->match( $c, $path )
144 Calls C<recurse_match> to see if a chain matches the C<$path>.
149 my ( $self, $c, $path ) = @_;
151 my $request = $c->request;
152 return 0 if @{$request->args};
154 my @parts = split('/', $path);
156 my ($chain, $captures, $parts) = $self->recurse_match($c, '/', \@parts);
158 if ($parts && @$parts) {
159 for my $arg (@$parts) {
160 $arg =~ s/%([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})/chr(hex($1))/eg;
161 push @{$request->args}, $arg;
165 return 0 unless $chain;
167 my $action = Catalyst::ActionChain->from_chain($chain);
169 $request->action("/${action}");
170 $request->match("/${action}");
171 $request->captures($captures);
173 $c->namespace( $action->namespace );
178 =head2 $self->recurse_match( $c, $parent, \@path_parts )
180 Recursive search for a matching chain.
185 my ( $self, $c, $parent, $path_parts ) = @_;
186 my $children = $self->_children_of->{$parent};
187 return () unless $children;
191 TRY: foreach my $try_part (sort { length($b) <=> length($a) }
193 # $b then $a to try longest part first
194 my @parts = @$path_parts;
195 if (length $try_part) { # test and strip PathPart
197 ($try_part eq join('/', # assemble equal number of parts
198 splice( # and strip them off @parts as well
199 @parts, 0, scalar(@{[split('/', $try_part)]})
200 ))); # @{[]} to avoid split to @_
203 my @try_actions = @{$children->{$try_part}};
204 TRY_ACTION: foreach my $action (@try_actions) {
205 if (my $capture_attr = $action->attributes->{CaptureArgs}) {
207 # Short-circuit if not enough remaining parts
208 next TRY_ACTION unless @parts >= $capture_attr->[0];
211 my @parts = @parts; # localise
213 # strip CaptureArgs into list
214 push(@captures, splice(@parts, 0, $capture_attr->[0]));
216 # try the remaining parts against children of this action
217 my ($actions, $captures, $action_parts, $found) = $self->recurse_match(
218 $c, '/'.$action->reverse, \@parts
220 # No best action currently
221 # OR The action has less parts
222 # OR The action has equal parts but less captured data (ergo more defined)
225 $#$action_parts < $#{$best_action->{parts}} ||
226 ($#$action_parts == $#{$best_action->{parts}} &&
227 $#$captures < $#{$best_action->{captures}} && ($found > $best_action->{found})
230 actions => [ $action, @$actions ],
231 captures=> [ @captures, @$captures ],
232 parts => $action_parts,
239 local $c->req->{arguments} = [ @{$c->req->args}, @parts ];
240 next TRY_ACTION unless $action->match($c);
242 my $args_attr = $action->attributes->{Args}->[0];
244 # No best action currently
245 # OR This one matches with fewer parts left than the current best action,
246 # And therefore is a better match
247 # OR No parts and this expects 0
248 # The current best action might also be Args(0),
249 # but we couldn't chose between then anyway so we'll take the last seen
252 @parts < @{$best_action->{parts}} ||
253 (!@parts && $args_attr eq 0)){
255 actions => [ $action ],
264 return @$best_action{qw/actions captures parts found/} if $best_action;
268 =head2 $self->register( $c, $action )
270 Calls register_path for every Path attribute for the given $action.
275 my ( $self, $c, $action ) = @_;
277 my @chained_attr = @{ $action->attributes->{Chained} || [] };
279 return 0 unless @chained_attr;
281 if (@chained_attr > 1) {
282 Catalyst::Exception->throw(
283 "Multiple Chained attributes not supported registering ${action}"
286 my $chained_to = $chained_attr[0];
288 Catalyst::Exception->throw(
289 "Actions cannot chain to themselves registering /${action}"
290 ) if ($chained_to eq '/' . $action);
292 my $children = ($self->_children_of->{ $chained_to } ||= {});
294 my @path_part = @{ $action->attributes->{PathPart} || [] };
296 my $part = $action->name;
298 if (@path_part == 1 && defined $path_part[0]) {
299 $part = $path_part[0];
300 } elsif (@path_part > 1) {
301 Catalyst::Exception->throw(
302 "Multiple PathPart attributes not supported registering " . $action->reverse()
306 if ($part =~ m(^/)) {
307 Catalyst::Exception->throw(
308 "Absolute parameters to PathPart not allowed registering " . $action->reverse()
312 $action->attributes->{PathPart} = [ $part ];
314 unshift(@{ $children->{$part} ||= [] }, $action);
316 $self->_actions->{'/'.$action->reverse} = $action;
318 if (exists $action->attributes->{Args}) {
319 my $args = $action->attributes->{Args}->[0];
320 if (defined($args) and not (
321 Scalar::Util::looks_like_number($args) and
324 require Data::Dumper;
325 local $Data::Dumper::Terse = 1;
326 local $Data::Dumper::Indent = 0;
327 $args = Data::Dumper::Dumper($args);
328 Catalyst::Exception->throw(
329 "Invalid Args($args) for action " . $action->reverse() .
330 " (use 'Args' or 'Args(<number>)'"
335 unless ($action->attributes->{CaptureArgs}) {
336 unshift(@{ $self->_endpoints }, $action);
342 =head2 $self->uri_for_action($action, $captures)
344 Get the URI part for the action, using C<$captures> to fill
350 my ( $self, $action, $captures ) = @_;
352 return undef unless ($action->attributes->{Chained}
353 && !$action->attributes->{CaptureArgs});
356 my @captures = @$captures;
357 my $parent = "DUMMY";
360 if (my $cap = $curr->attributes->{CaptureArgs}) {
361 return undef unless @captures >= $cap->[0]; # not enough captures
363 unshift(@parts, splice(@captures, -$cap->[0]));
366 if (my $pp = $curr->attributes->{PathPart}) {
367 unshift(@parts, $pp->[0])
368 if (defined($pp->[0]) && length($pp->[0]));
370 $parent = $curr->attributes->{Chained}->[0];
371 $curr = $self->_actions->{$parent};
374 return undef unless $parent eq '/'; # fail for dangling action
376 return undef if @captures; # fail for too many captures
378 return join('/', '', @parts);
382 =head2 $c->expand_action($action)
384 Return a list of actions that represents a chained action. See
385 L<Catalyst::Dispatcher> for more info. You probably want to
386 use the expand_action it provides rather than this directly.
391 my ($self, $action) = @_;
393 return unless $action->attributes && $action->attributes->{Chained};
400 my $parent = $curr->attributes->{Chained}->[0];
401 $curr = $self->_actions->{$parent};
404 return Catalyst::ActionChain->from_chain([reverse @chain]);
407 __PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;
413 The C<Chained> attribute allows you to chain public path parts together
414 by their private names. A chain part's path can be specified with
415 C<PathPart> and can be declared to expect an arbitrary number of
416 arguments. The endpoint of the chain specifies how many arguments it
417 gets through the C<Args> attribute. C<:Args(0)> would be none at all,
418 C<:Args> without an integer would be unlimited. The path parts that
419 aren't endpoints are using C<CaptureArgs> to specify how many parameters
420 they expect to receive. As an example setup:
422 package MyApp::Controller::Greeting;
423 use base qw/ Catalyst::Controller /;
425 # this is the beginning of our chain
426 sub hello : PathPart('hello') Chained('/') CaptureArgs(1) {
427 my ( $self, $c, $integer ) = @_;
428 $c->stash->{ message } = "Hello ";
429 $c->stash->{ arg_sum } = $integer;
432 # this is our endpoint, because it has no :CaptureArgs
433 sub world : PathPart('world') Chained('hello') Args(1) {
434 my ( $self, $c, $integer ) = @_;
435 $c->stash->{ message } .= "World!";
436 $c->stash->{ arg_sum } += $integer;
438 $c->response->body( join "<br/>\n" =>
439 $c->stash->{ message }, $c->stash->{ arg_sum } );
442 The debug output provides a separate table for chained actions, showing
443 the whole chain as it would match and the actions it contains. Here's an
444 example of the startup output with our actions above:
447 [debug] Loaded Path Part actions:
448 .-----------------------+------------------------------.
449 | Path Spec | Private |
450 +-----------------------+------------------------------+
451 | /hello/*/world/* | /greeting/hello (1) |
452 | | => /greeting/world |
453 '-----------------------+------------------------------'
456 As you can see, Catalyst only deals with chains as whole paths and
457 builds one for each endpoint, which are the actions with C<:Chained> but
458 without C<:CaptureArgs>.
460 Let's assume this application gets a request at the path
461 C</hello/23/world/12>. What happens then? First, Catalyst will dispatch
462 to the C<hello> action and pass the value C<23> as an argument to it
463 after the context. It does so because we have previously used
464 C<:CaptureArgs(1)> to declare that it has one path part after itself as
465 its argument. We told Catalyst that this is the beginning of the chain
466 by specifying C<:Chained('/')>. Also note that instead of saying
467 C<:PathPart('hello')> we could also just have said C<:PathPart>, as it
468 defaults to the name of the action.
470 After C<hello> has run, Catalyst goes on to dispatch to the C<world>
471 action. This is the last action to be called: Catalyst knows this is an
472 endpoint because we did not specify a C<:CaptureArgs>
473 attribute. Nevertheless we specify that this action expects an argument,
474 but at this point we're using C<:Args(1)> to do that. We could also have
475 said C<:Args> or left it out altogether, which would mean this action
476 would get all arguments that are there. This action's C<:Chained>
477 attribute says C<hello> and tells Catalyst that the C<hello> action in
478 the current controller is its parent.
480 With this we have built a chain consisting of two public path parts.
481 C<hello> captures one part of the path as its argument, and also
482 specifies the path root as its parent. So this part is
483 C</hello/$arg>. The next part is the endpoint C<world>, expecting one
484 argument. It sums up to the path part C<world/$arg>. This leads to a
485 complete chain of C</hello/$arg/world/$arg> which is matched against the
488 This example application would, if run and called by e.g.
489 C</hello/23/world/12>, set the stash value C<message> to "Hello" and the
490 value C<arg_sum> to "23". The C<world> action would then append "World!"
491 to C<message> and add C<12> to the stash's C<arg_sum> value. For the
492 sake of simplicity no view is shown. Instead we just put the values of
493 the stash into our body. So the output would look like:
498 And our test server would have given us this debugging output for the
502 [debug] "GET" request for "hello/23/world/12" from "127.0.0.1"
503 [debug] Path is "/greeting/world"
504 [debug] Arguments are "12"
505 [info] Request took 0.164113s (6.093/s)
506 .------------------------------------------+-----------.
508 +------------------------------------------+-----------+
509 | /greeting/hello | 0.000029s |
510 | /greeting/world | 0.000024s |
511 '------------------------------------------+-----------'
514 What would be common uses of this dispatch technique? It gives the
515 possibility to split up logic that contains steps that each depend on
516 each other. An example would be, for example, a wiki path like
517 C</wiki/FooBarPage/rev/23/view>. This chain can be easily built with
520 sub wiki : PathPart('wiki') Chained('/') CaptureArgs(1) {
521 my ( $self, $c, $page_name ) = @_;
522 # load the page named $page_name and put the object
526 sub rev : PathPart('rev') Chained('wiki') CaptureArgs(1) {
527 my ( $self, $c, $revision_id ) = @_;
528 # use the page object in the stash to get at its
529 # revision with number $revision_id
532 sub view : PathPart Chained('rev') Args(0) {
533 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
534 # display the revision in our stash. Another option
535 # would be to forward a compatible object to the action
536 # that displays the default wiki pages, unless we want
537 # a different interface here, for example restore
541 It would now be possible to add other endpoints, for example C<restore>
542 to restore this specific revision as the current state.
544 You don't have to put all the chained actions in one controller. The
545 specification of the parent through C<:Chained> also takes an absolute
546 action path as its argument. Just specify it with a leading C</>.
548 If you want, for example, to have actions for the public paths
549 C</foo/12/edit> and C</foo/12>, just specify two actions with
550 C<:PathPart('foo')> and C<:Chained('/')>. The handler for the former
551 path needs a C<:CaptureArgs(1)> attribute and a endpoint with
552 C<:PathPart('edit')> and C<:Chained('foo')>. For the latter path give
553 the action just a C<:Args(1)> to mark it as endpoint. This sums up to
554 this debugging output:
557 [debug] Loaded Path Part actions:
558 .-----------------------+------------------------------.
559 | Path Spec | Private |
560 +-----------------------+------------------------------+
561 | /foo/* | /controller/foo_view |
562 | /foo/*/edit | /controller/foo_load (1) |
563 | | => /controller/edit |
564 '-----------------------+------------------------------'
567 Here's a more detailed specification of the attributes belonging to
576 Sets the name of this part of the chain. If it is specified without
577 arguments, it takes the name of the action as default. So basically
578 C<sub foo :PathPart> and C<sub foo :PathPart('foo')> are identical.
579 This can also contain slashes to bind to a deeper level. An action
580 with C<sub bar :PathPart('foo/bar') :Chained('/')> would bind to
581 C</foo/bar/...>. If you don't specify C<:PathPart> it has the same
582 effect as using C<:PathPart>, it would default to the action name.
586 Sets PathPart to the path_prefix of the current controller.
590 Has to be specified for every child in the chain. Possible values are
591 absolute and relative private action paths or a single slash C</> to
592 tell Catalyst that this is the root of a chain. The attribute
593 C<:Chained> without arguments also defaults to the C</> behavior.
594 Relative action paths may use C<../> to refer to actions in parent
597 Because you can specify an absolute path to the parent action, it
598 doesn't matter to Catalyst where that parent is located. So, if your
599 design requests it, you can redispatch a chain through any controller or
602 Another interesting possibility gives C<:Chained('.')>, which chains
603 itself to an action with the path of the current controller's namespace.
606 # in MyApp::Controller::Foo
607 sub bar : Chained CaptureArgs(1) { ... }
609 # in MyApp::Controller::Foo::Bar
610 sub baz : Chained('.') Args(1) { ... }
612 This builds up a chain like C</bar/*/baz/*>. The specification of C<.>
613 as the argument to Chained here chains the C<baz> action to an action
614 with the path of the current controller namespace, namely
615 C</foo/bar>. That action chains directly to C</>, so the C</bar/*/baz/*>
616 chain comes out as the end product.
620 Chains an action to another action with the same name in the parent
621 controller. For Example:
623 # in MyApp::Controller::Foo
624 sub bar : Chained CaptureArgs(1) { ... }
626 # in MyApp::Controller::Foo::Moo
627 sub bar : ChainedParent Args(1) { ... }
629 This builds a chain like C</bar/*/bar/*>.
633 Must be specified for every part of the chain that is not an
634 endpoint. With this attribute Catalyst knows how many of the following
635 parts of the path (separated by C</>) this action wants to capture as
636 its arguments. If it doesn't expect any, just specify
637 C<:CaptureArgs(0)>. The captures get passed to the action's C<@_> right
638 after the context, but you can also find them as array references in
639 C<$c-E<gt>request-E<gt>captures-E<gt>[$level]>. The C<$level> is the
640 level of the action in the chain that captured the parts of the path.
642 An action that is part of a chain (that is, one that has a C<:Chained>
643 attribute) but has no C<:CaptureArgs> attribute is treated by Catalyst
648 By default, endpoints receive the rest of the arguments in the path. You
649 can tell Catalyst through C<:Args> explicitly how many arguments your
650 endpoint expects, just like you can with C<:CaptureArgs>. Note that this
651 also affects whether this chain is invoked on a request. A chain with an
652 endpoint specifying one argument will only match if exactly one argument
655 You can specify an exact number of arguments like C<:Args(3)>, including
656 C<0>. If you just say C<:Args> without any arguments, it is the same as
657 leaving it out altogether: The chain is matched regardless of the number
658 of path parts after the endpoint.
660 Just as with C<:CaptureArgs>, the arguments get passed to the action in
661 C<@_> after the context object. They can also be reached through
662 C<$c-E<gt>request-E<gt>arguments>.
666 =head2 Auto actions, dispatching and forwarding
668 Note that the list of C<auto> actions called depends on the private path
669 of the endpoint of the chain, not on the chained actions way. The
670 C<auto> actions will be run before the chain dispatching begins. In
671 every other aspect, C<auto> actions behave as documented.
673 The C<forward>ing to other actions does just what you would expect. But if
674 you C<detach> out of a chain, the rest of the chain will not get called
679 Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm
683 This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
684 the same terms as Perl itself.