3 Catalyst::Manual::Cookbook - Cooking with Catalyst
7 Yummy code like your mum used to bake!
13 These recipes cover some basic stuff that is worth knowing for
16 =head2 Delivering a Custom Error Page
18 By default, Catalyst will display its own error page whenever it
19 encounters an error in your application. When running under C<-Debug>
20 mode, the error page is a useful screen including the error message
21 and L<Data::Dump> output of the relevant parts of the C<$c> context
22 object. When not in C<-Debug>, users see a simple "Please come back
25 To use a custom error page, use a special C<end> method to
26 short-circuit the error processing. The following is an example; you
27 might want to adjust it further depending on the needs of your
28 application (for example, any calls to C<fillform> will probably need
29 to go into this C<end> method; see L<Catalyst::Plugin::FillInForm>).
32 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
34 if ( scalar @{ $c->error } ) {
35 $c->stash->{errors} = $c->error;
36 for my $error ( @{ $c->error } ) {
37 $c->log->error($error);
39 $c->stash->{template} = 'errors.tt';
40 $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
44 return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/;
45 return 1 if $c->response->body;
47 unless ( $c->response->content_type ) {
48 $c->response->content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8');
51 $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
54 You can manually set errors in your code to trigger this page by calling
56 $c->error( 'You broke me!' );
58 =head2 Disable statistics
60 Just add this line to your application class if you don't want those
61 nifty statistics in your debug messages.
63 sub Catalyst::Log::info { }
65 =head2 Enable debug status in the environment
67 Normally you enable the debugging info by adding the C<-Debug> flag to
68 your C<use Catalyst> statement . However, you can also enable it using
69 environment variable, so you can (for example) get debug info without
70 modifying your application scripts. Just set C<CATALYST_DEBUG> or
71 C<E<lt>MYAPPE<gt>_DEBUG> to a true value.
75 When you have your users identified, you will want to somehow remember
76 that fact, to save them from having to identify themselves for every
77 single page. One way to do this is to send the username and password
78 parameters in every single page, but that's ugly, and won't work for
81 Sessions are a method of saving data related to some transaction, and
82 giving the whole collection a single ID. This ID is then given to the
83 user to return to us on every page they visit while logged in. The
84 usual way to do this is using a browser cookie.
86 Catalyst uses two types of plugins to represent sessions:
90 A State module is used to keep track of the state of the session
91 between the users browser, and your application.
93 A common example is the Cookie state module, which sends the browser a
94 cookie containing the session ID. It will use default value for the
95 cookie name and domain, so will "just work" when used.
99 A Store module is used to hold all the data relating to your session,
100 for example the users ID, or the items for their shopping cart. You
101 can store data in memory (FastMmap), in a file (File) or in a database
104 =head3 Authentication magic
106 If you have included the session modules in your application, the
107 Authentication modules will automagically use your session to save and
108 retrieve the user data for you.
110 =head3 Using a session
112 Once the session modules are loaded, the session is available as C<<
113 $c->session >>, and can be writen to and read from as a simple hash
120 use namespace::autoclean;
124 Session::Store::FastMmap
125 Session::State::Cookie
130 package MyApp::Controller::Foo;
132 use namespace::autoclean;
133 BEGIN { extends 'Catalyst::Controller' };
134 ## Write data into the session
136 sub add_item : Local {
137 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
139 my $item_id = $c->req->params->{item};
141 push @{ $c->session->{items} }, $item_id;
145 ## A page later we retrieve the data from the session:
147 sub get_items : Local {
148 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
150 $c->stash->{items_to_display} = $c->session->{items};
155 =head3 More information
157 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session>
159 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-Cookie>
161 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-URI>
163 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-FastMmap>
165 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-File>
167 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-DBI>
169 =head2 Configure your application
171 You configure your application with the C<config> method in your
172 application class. This can be hard-coded, or brought in from a
173 separate configuration file.
175 =head3 Using Config::General
177 L<Config::General|Config::General> is a method for creating flexible
178 and readable configuration files. It's a great way to keep your
179 Catalyst application configuration in one easy-to-understand location.
181 Now create C<myapp.conf> in your application home:
185 # session; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Session::FastMmap
189 storage /tmp/myapp.session
192 # emails; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Email
193 # this passes options as an array :(
197 This is equivalent to:
199 # configure base package
200 __PACKAGE__->config( name => MyApp );
201 # configure authentication
203 'Plugin::Authentication' => {
204 user_class => 'MyApp::Model::MyDB::Customer',
215 # configure email sending
216 __PACKAGE__->config( email => [qw/SMTP localhost/] );
218 See also L<Config::General|Config::General>.
220 =head1 Skipping your VCS's directories
222 Catalyst uses Module::Pluggable to load Models, Views, and Controllers.
223 Module::Pluggable will scan through all directories and load modules
224 it finds. Sometimes you might want to skip some of these directories,
225 for example when your version control system makes a subdirectory with
226 meta-information in every version-controlled directory. While
227 Catalyst skips subversion and CVS directories already, there are other
228 source control systems. Here is the configuration you need to add
229 their directories to the list to skip.
231 You can make Catalyst skip these directories using the Catalyst config:
233 # Configure the application
236 setup_components => { except => qr/SCCS/ },
239 See the Module::Pluggable manual page for more information on B<except>
242 =head1 Users and Access Control
244 Most multiuser, and some single-user web applications require that
245 users identify themselves, and the application is often required to
246 define those roles. The recipes below describe some ways of doing
249 =head2 Authentication (logging in)
251 This is extensively covered in other documentation; see in particular
252 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> and the Authentication chapter
253 of the Tutorial at L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::06_Authorization>.
255 =head2 Pass-through login (and other actions)
257 An easy way of having assorted actions that occur during the processing
258 of a request that are orthogonal to its actual purpose - logins, silent
259 commands etc. Provide actions for these, but when they're required for
260 something else fill e.g. a form variable __login and have a sub begin
263 sub begin : Private {
265 foreach my $action (qw/login docommand foo bar whatever/) {
266 if ($c->req->params->{"__${action}"}) {
267 $c->forward($action);
272 =head2 Authentication/Authorization
274 This is done in several steps:
280 Getting the user to identify themselves, by giving you some piece of
281 information known only to you and the user. Then you can assume that
282 the user is who they say they are. This is called B<credential
287 Making sure the user only accesses functions you want them to
288 access. This is done by checking the verified user's data against your
289 internal list of groups, or allowed persons for the current page.
295 The Catalyst Authentication system is made up of many interacting
296 modules, to give you the most flexibility possible.
298 =head4 Credential verifiers
300 A Credential module tables the user input, and passes it to a Store,
301 or some other system, for verification. Typically, a user object is
302 created by either this module or the Store and made accessible by a
303 C<< $c->user >> call.
307 Password - Simple username/password checking.
308 HTTPD - Checks using basic HTTP auth.
309 TypeKey - Check using the typekey system.
311 =head3 Storage backends
313 A Storage backend contains the actual data representing the users. It
314 is queried by the credential verifiers. Updating the store is not done
315 within this system; you will need to do it yourself.
319 DBIC - Storage using a database via DBIx::Class.
320 Minimal - Storage using a simple hash (for testing).
324 A User object is created by either the storage backend or the
325 credential verifier, and is filled with the retrieved user information.
329 Hash - A simple hash of keys and values.
331 =head3 ACL authorization
333 ACL stands for Access Control List. The ACL plugin allows you to
334 regulate access on a path-by-path basis, by listing which users, or
335 roles, have access to which paths.
337 =head3 Roles authorization
339 Authorization by roles is for assigning users to groups, which can
340 then be assigned to ACLs, or just checked when needed.
344 When you have chosen your modules, all you need to do is call the C<<
345 $c->authenticate >> method. If called with no parameters, it will try to find
346 suitable parameters, such as B<username> and B<password>, or you can
347 pass it these values.
349 =head3 Checking roles
351 Role checking is done by using the C<< $c->check_user_roles >> method.
352 This will check using the currently logged-in user (via C<< $c->user
353 >>). You pass it the name of a role to check, and it returns true if
354 the user is a member.
360 use namespace::autoclean;
361 extends qw/Catalyst/;
369 default_realm => 'test',
374 password_field => 'password',
375 password_type => 'self_check',
386 package MyApp::Controller::Root;
388 use namespace::autoclean;
390 BEGIN { extends 'Catalyst::Controller' }
392 __PACKAGE__->config(namespace => '');
397 if ( my $user = $c->req->params->{user}
398 and my $password = $c->req->param->{password} )
400 if ( $c->authenticate( username => $user, password => $password ) ) {
401 $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->name );
411 sub restricted : Local {
412 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
414 $c->detach("unauthorized")
415 unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
417 # do something restricted here
420 =head3 Using authentication in a testing environment
422 Ideally, to write tests for authentication/authorization code one would
423 first set up a test database with known data, then use
424 L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> to simulate a user logging
425 in. Unfortunately this can be rather awkward, which is why it's a good
426 thing that the authentication framework is so flexible.
428 Instead of using a test database, one can simply change the
429 authentication store to something a bit easier to deal with in a
430 testing environment. Additionally, this has the advantage of not
431 modifying one's database, which can be problematic if one forgets to
432 use the testing instead of production database.
434 Alternatively, if you want to authenticate real users, but not have to
435 worry about their passwords, you can use
436 L<Catalyst::Authentication::Credential::Testing> to force all users to
437 authenticate with a global password.
439 =head3 More information
441 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> has a longer explanation.
447 Authorization is the step that comes after
448 authentication. Authentication establishes that the user agent is really
449 representing the user we think it's representing, and then authorization
450 determines what this user is allowed to do.
452 =head3 Role Based Access Control
454 Under role based access control each user is allowed to perform any
455 number of roles. For example, at a zoo no one but specially trained
456 personnel can enter the moose cage (Mynd you, møøse bites kan be
457 pretty nasti!). For example:
459 package Zoo::Controller::MooseCage;
461 sub feed_moose : Local {
462 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
464 $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->params->{food} );
467 With this action, anyone can just come into the moose cage and feed
468 the moose, which is a very dangerous thing. We need to restrict this
469 action, so that only a qualified moose feeder can perform that action.
471 The Authorization::Roles plugin lets us perform role based access
472 control checks. Let's load it:
474 use parent qw/Catalyst/;
480 And now our action should look like this:
482 sub feed_moose : Local {
483 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
485 if ( $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" ) ) {
486 $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->params->{food} );
488 $c->stash->{error} = "unauthorized";
492 This checks C<< $c->user >>, and only if the user has B<all> the roles
493 in the list, a true value is returned.
495 C<check_roles> has a sister method, C<assert_roles>, which throws an
496 exception if any roles are missing.
498 Some roles that might actually make sense in, say, a forum application:
512 each with a distinct task (system administration versus content
515 =head3 Access Control Lists
517 Checking for roles all the time can be tedious and error prone.
519 The Authorization::ACL plugin lets us declare where we'd like checks
520 to be done automatically for us.
522 For example, we may want to completely block out anyone who isn't a
523 C<moose_feeder> from the entire C<MooseCage> controller:
525 Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_feeder/] );
527 The role list behaves in the same way as C<check_roles>. However, the
528 ACL plugin isn't limited to just interacting with the Roles plugin. We
529 can use a code reference instead. For example, to allow either moose
530 trainers or moose feeders into the moose cage, we can create a more
533 Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", sub {
535 $c->check_roles( "moose_trainer" ) || $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" );
538 The more specific a role, the earlier it will be checked. Let's say
539 moose feeders are now restricted to only the C<feed_moose> action,
540 while moose trainers get access everywhere:
542 Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_trainer/] );
543 Zoo->allow_access_if( "/moose_cage/feed_moose", [qw/moose_feeder/]);
545 When the C<feed_moose> action is accessed the second check will be
546 made. If the user is a C<moose_feeder>, then access will be
547 immediately granted. Otherwise, the next rule in line will be tested -
548 the one checking for a C<moose_trainer>. If this rule is not
549 satisfied, access will be immediately denied.
551 Rules applied to the same path will be checked in the order they were
554 Lastly, handling access denial events is done by creating an
555 C<access_denied> private action:
557 sub access_denied : Private {
558 my ( $self, $c, $action ) = @_;
561 This action works much like auto, in that it is inherited across
562 namespaces (not like object oriented code). This means that the
563 C<access_denied> action which is B<nearest> to the action which was
564 blocked will be triggered.
566 If this action does not exist, an error will be thrown, which you can
567 clean up in your C<end> private action instead.
569 Also, it's important to note that if you restrict access to "/" then
570 C<end>, C<default>, etc. will also be restricted.
572 MyApp->acl_allow_root_internals;
574 will create rules that permit access to C<end>, C<begin>, and C<auto> in the
575 root of your app (but not in any other controller).
579 Models are where application data belongs. Catalyst is extremely
580 flexible with the kind of models that it can use. The recipes here
583 =head2 Using existing DBIC (etc.) classes with Catalyst
585 Many people have existing Model classes that they would like to use
586 with Catalyst (or, conversely, they want to write Catalyst models that
587 can be used outside of Catalyst, e.g. in a cron job). It's trivial to
588 write a simple component in Catalyst that slurps in an outside Model:
590 package MyApp::Model::DB;
592 use base qw/Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema/;
595 schema_class => 'Some::DBIC::Schema',
596 connect_info => ['dbi:SQLite:foo.db', '', '', {AutoCommit=>1}],
601 and that's it! Now C<Some::DBIC::Schema> is part of your
602 Cat app as C<MyApp::Model::DB>.
604 =head2 DBIx::Class as a Catalyst Model
606 See L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>.
608 =head2 Create accessors to preload static data once per server instance
610 When you have data that you want to load just once from the model at
611 startup, instead of for each request, use mk_group_accessors to
612 create accessors and tie them to resultsets in your package that
613 inherits from DBIx::Class::Schema:
616 use base qw/DBIx::Class::Schema/;
617 __PACKAGE__->register_class('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER',
618 'My::Schema::RESULTSOURCE');
619 __PACKAGE__->mk_group_accessors('simple' =>
620 qw(ACCESSORNAME1 ACCESSORNAME2 ACCESSORNAMEn));
623 my ($self, @rest) = @_;
624 $self->next::method(@rest);
625 # $self is now a live My::Schema object, complete with DB connection
627 $self->ACCESSORNAME1([ $self->resultset('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER')->all ]);
628 $self->ACCESSORNAME2([ $self->resultset('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER')->search({ COLUMN => { '<' => '30' } })->all ]);
629 $self->ACCESSORNAMEn([ $self->resultset('RESULTSOURCEMONIKER')->find(1) ]);
634 and now in the controller, you can now access any of these without a
637 $c->stash->{something} = $c->model('My::Schema')->schema->ACCESSORNAME;
642 Unlike SOAP, XMLRPC is a very simple (and elegant) web-services
643 protocol, exchanging small XML messages like these:
648 TE: deflate,gzip;q=0.3
649 Connection: TE, close
653 User-Agent: SOAP::Lite/Perl/0.60
655 Content-Type: text/xml
657 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
659 <methodName>add</methodName>
661 <param><value><int>1</int></value></param>
662 <param><value><int>2</int></value></param>
669 Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:45:55 GMT
671 Content-Type: text/xml
675 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
678 <param><value><int>3</int></value></param>
682 Now follow these few steps to implement the application:
684 1. Install Catalyst (5.61 or later), Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC (0.06 or
685 later) and SOAP::Lite (for XMLRPCsh.pl).
687 2. Create an application framework:
693 3. Add the XMLRPC plugin to MyApp.pm
695 use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple XMLRPC/;
697 4. Add an API controller
699 % ./script/myapp_create.pl controller API
701 5. Add a XMLRPC redispatch method and an add method with Remote
702 attribute to lib/MyApp/Controller/API.pm
705 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
710 my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
714 The default action is the entry point for each XMLRPC request. It will
715 redispatch every request to methods with Remote attribute in the same
718 The C<add> method is not a traditional action; it has no private or
719 public path. Only the XMLRPC dispatcher knows it exists.
721 6. That's it! You have built your first web service. Let's test it with
722 XMLRPCsh.pl (part of SOAP::Lite):
724 % ./script/myapp_server.pl
726 % XMLRPCsh.pl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api
727 Usage: method[(parameters)]
729 --- XMLRPC RESULT ---
734 Your return data type is usually auto-detected, but you can easily
735 enforce a specific one.
738 my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
739 return RPC::XML::int->new( $a + $b );
744 Views pertain to the display of your application. As with models,
745 Catalyst is uncommonly flexible. The recipes below are just a start.
747 =head2 Catalyst::View::TT
749 One of the first things you probably want to do when starting a new
750 Catalyst application is set up your View. Catalyst doesn't care how you
751 display your data; you can choose to generate HTML, PDF files, or plain
754 Most Catalyst applications use a template system to generate their HTML,
755 and though there are several template systems available,
756 L<Template Toolkit|Template> is probably the most popular.
758 Once again, the Catalyst developers have done all the hard work, and
759 made things easy for the rest of us. Catalyst::View::TT provides the
760 interface to Template Toolkit, and provides Helpers which let us set it
761 up that much more easily.
763 =head3 Creating your View
765 Catalyst::View::TT provides two different helpers for us to use: TT and
770 Create a basic Template Toolkit View using the provided helper script:
772 script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT
774 This will create lib/MyApp/View/MyView.pm, which is going to be pretty
775 empty to start. However, it sets everything up that you need to get
776 started. You can now define which template you want and forward to your
780 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
782 $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
784 $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
787 In practice you wouldn't do the forwarding manually, but would
788 use L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView>.
792 Although the TT helper does create a functional, working view, you may
793 find yourself having to create the same template files and changing the
794 same options every time you create a new application. The TTSite helper
795 saves us even more time by creating the basic templates and setting some
796 common options for us.
798 Once again, you can use the helper script:
800 script/myapp_create.pl view TT TTSite
802 This time, the helper sets several options for us in the generated View.
804 __PACKAGE__->config({
805 CATALYST_VAR => 'Catalyst',
807 MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
808 MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'lib' )
810 PRE_PROCESS => 'config/main',
811 WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper',
812 ERROR => 'error.tt2',
820 INCLUDE_PATH defines the directories that Template Toolkit should search
821 for the template files.
825 PRE_PROCESS is used to process configuration options which are common to
830 WRAPPER is a file which is processed with each template, usually used to
831 easily provide a common header and footer for every page.
835 In addition to setting these options, the TTSite helper also created the
836 template and config files for us! In the 'root' directory, you'll notice
837 two new directories: src and lib.
839 Several configuration files in root/lib/config are called by PRE_PROCESS.
841 The files in root/lib/site are the site-wide templates, called by
842 WRAPPER, and display the html framework, control the layout, and provide
843 the templates for the header and footer of your page. Using the template
844 organization provided makes it much easier to standardize pages and make
845 changes when they are (inevitably) needed.
847 The template files that you will create for your application will go
848 into root/src, and you don't need to worry about putting the the <html>
849 or <head> sections; just put in the content. The WRAPPER will the rest
850 of the page around your template for you.
855 Of course, having the template system include the header and footer for
856 you isn't all that we want our templates to do. We need to be able to
857 put data into our templates, and have it appear where and how we want
858 it, right? That's where the stash comes in.
860 In our controllers, we can add data to the stash, and then access it
861 from the template. For instance:
864 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
866 $c->stash->{name} = 'Adam';
868 $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
870 $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
875 <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong>
877 When you view this page, it will display "Hello, Adam!"
879 All of the information in your stash is available, by its name/key, in
880 your templates. And your data don't have to be plain, old, boring
881 scalars. You can pass array references and hash references, too.
886 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
888 $c->stash->{names} = [ 'Adam', 'Dave', 'John' ];
890 $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
892 $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
897 [% FOREACH name IN names %]
898 <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong><br />
901 This allowed us to loop through each item in the arrayref, and display a
902 line for each name that we have.
904 This is the most basic usage, but Template Toolkit is quite powerful,
905 and allows you to truly keep your presentation logic separate from the
906 rest of your application.
910 One of my favorite things about Catalyst is the ability to move an
911 application around without having to worry that everything is going to
912 break. One of the areas that used to be a problem was with the http
913 links in your template files. For example, suppose you have an
914 application installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar. The links point
915 to "/Calendar", "/Calendar/2005", "/Calendar/2005/10", etc. If you move
916 the application to be at http://www.mydomain.com/Tools/Calendar, then
917 all of those links will suddenly break.
919 That's where $c->uri_for() comes in. This function will merge its
920 parameters with either the base location for the app, or its current
921 namespace. Let's take a look at a couple of examples.
923 In your template, you can use the following:
925 <a href="[% c.uri_for('/login') %]">Login Here</a>
927 Although the parameter starts with a forward slash, this is relative
928 to the application root, not the webserver root. This is important to
929 remember. So, if your application is installed at
930 http://www.domain.com/Calendar, then the link would be
931 http://www.mydomain.com/Calendar/Login. If you move your application
932 to a different domain or path, then that link will still be correct.
936 <a href="[% c.uri_for('2005','10', '24') %]">October, 24 2005</a>
938 The first parameter does NOT have a forward slash, and so it will be
939 relative to the current namespace. If the application is installed at
940 http://www.domain.com/Calendar. and if the template is called from
941 MyApp::Controller::Display, then the link would become
942 http://www.domain.com/Calendar/Display/2005/10/24.
944 If you want to link to a parent uri of your current namespace you can
945 prefix the arguments with multiple '../':
947 <a href="[% c.uri_for('../../view', stashed_object.id) %]">User view</a>
949 Once again, this allows you to move your application around without
950 having to worry about broken links. But there's something else, as
951 well. Since the links are generated by uri_for, you can use the same
952 template file by several different controllers, and each controller
953 will get the links that its supposed to. Since we believe in Don't
954 Repeat Yourself, this is particularly helpful if you have common
955 elements in your site that you want to keep in one file.
959 L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst>
961 L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst%3A%3AView%3A%3ATT>
963 L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template>
965 =head2 Adding RSS feeds
967 Adding RSS feeds to your Catalyst applications is simple. We'll see two
968 different approaches here, but the basic premise is that you forward to
969 the normal view action first to get the objects, then handle the output
972 =head3 Using XML::Feed
974 Assuming we have a C<view> action that populates
975 'entries' with some DBIx::Class iterator, the code would look something
980 $c->forward('view'); # get the entries
982 my $feed = XML::Feed->new('RSS');
983 $feed->title( $c->config->{name} . ' RSS Feed' );
984 $feed->link( $c->req->base ); # link to the site.
985 $feed->description('Catalyst advent calendar'); Some description
987 # Process the entries
988 while( my $entry = $c->stash->{entries}->next ) {
989 my $feed_entry = XML::Feed::Entry->new('RSS');
990 $feed_entry->title($entry->title);
991 $feed_entry->link( $c->uri_for($entry->link) );
992 $feed_entry->issued( DateTime->from_epoch(epoch => $entry->created) );
993 $feed->add_entry($feed_entry);
995 $c->res->body( $feed->as_xml );
998 With this approach you're
999 pretty sure to get something that validates.
1001 Note that for both of the above approaches, you'll need to set the
1002 content type like this:
1004 $c->res->content_type('application/rss+xml');
1008 You could generalize the second variant easily by replacing 'RSS' with a
1009 variable, so you can generate Atom feeds with the same code.
1011 Now, go ahead and make RSS feeds for all your stuff. The world *needs*
1012 updates on your goldfish!
1014 =head2 Forcing the browser to download content
1016 Sometimes you need your application to send content for download. For
1017 example, you can generate a comma-separated values (CSV) file for your
1018 users to download and import into their spreadsheet program.
1020 Let's say you have an C<Orders> controller which generates a CSV file
1021 in the C<export> action (i.e., C<http://localhost:3000/orders/export>):
1023 sub export : Local Args(0) {
1024 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1026 # In a real application, you'd generate this from the database
1027 my $csv = "1,5.99\n2,29.99\n3,3.99\n";
1029 $c->res->content_type('text/comma-separated-values');
1030 $c->res->body($csv);
1033 Normally the browser uses the last part of the URI to generate a
1034 filename for data it cannot display. In this case your browser would
1035 likely ask you to save a file named C<export>.
1037 Luckily you can have the browser download the content with a specific
1038 filename by setting the C<Content-Disposition> header:
1040 my $filename = 'Important Orders.csv';
1041 $c->res->header('Content-Disposition', qq[attachment; filename="$filename"]);
1043 Note the use of quotes around the filename; this ensures that any
1044 spaces in the filename are handled by the browser.
1046 Put this right before calling C<< $c->res->body >> and your browser
1047 will download a file named C<Important Orders.csv> instead of
1050 You can also use this to have the browser download content which it
1051 normally displays, such as JPEG images or even HTML. Just be sure to
1052 set the appropriate content type and disposition.
1057 Controllers are the main point of communication between the web server
1058 and your application. Here we explore some aspects of how they work.
1064 A Catalyst application is driven by one or more Controller
1065 modules. There are a number of ways that Catalyst can decide which of
1066 the methods in your controller modules it should call. Controller
1067 methods are also called actions, because they determine how your
1068 catalyst application should (re-)act to any given URL. When the
1069 application is started up, catalyst looks at all your actions, and
1070 decides which URLs they map to.
1072 =head3 Type attributes
1074 Each action is a normal method in your controller, except that it has an
1075 L<attribute|attributes>
1076 attached. These can be one of several types.
1078 Assume our Controller module starts with the following package declaration:
1080 package MyApp::Controller::Buckets;
1082 and we are running our application on localhost, port 3000 (the test
1089 A Path attribute also takes an argument, this can be either a relative
1090 or an absolute path. A relative path will be relative to the
1091 controller namespace, an absolute path will represent an exact
1094 sub my_handles : Path('handles') { .. }
1098 http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
1102 sub my_handles : Path('/handles') { .. }
1106 http://localhost:3000/handles
1108 See also: L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Path>
1112 When using a Local attribute, no parameters are needed, instead, the
1113 name of the action is matched in the URL. The namespaces created by
1114 the name of the controller package is always part of the URL.
1116 sub my_handles : Local { .. }
1120 http://localhost:3000/buckets/my_handles
1124 A Global attribute is similar to a Local attribute, except that the
1125 namespace of the controller is ignored, and matching starts at root.
1127 sub my_handles : Global { .. }
1131 http://localhost:3000/my_handles
1135 By now you should have figured that a Regex attribute is just what it
1136 sounds like. This one takes a regular expression, and matches starting
1137 from root. These differ from the rest as they can match multiple URLs.
1139 sub my_handles : Regex('^handles') { .. }
1143 http://localhost:3000/handles
1147 http://localhost:3000/handles_and_other_parts
1151 See also: L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Regex>
1155 A LocalRegex is similar to a Regex, except it only matches below the current
1156 controller namespace.
1158 sub my_handles : LocalRegex(^handles') { .. }
1162 http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
1166 http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles_and_other_parts
1172 See L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained> for a description of how the chained
1173 dispatch type works.
1177 Last but not least, there is the Private attribute, which allows you
1178 to create your own internal actions, which can be forwarded to, but
1179 won't be matched as URLs.
1181 sub my_handles : Private { .. }
1183 becomes nothing at all..
1185 Catalyst also predefines some special Private actions, which you can
1186 override, these are:
1192 The default action will be called, if no other matching action is
1193 found. If you don't have one of these in your namespace, or any sub
1194 part of your namespace, you'll get an error page instead. If you want
1195 to find out where it was the user was trying to go, you can look in
1196 the request object using C<< $c->req->path >>.
1198 sub default :Path { .. }
1200 works for all unknown URLs, in this controller namespace, or every one
1201 if put directly into MyApp.pm.
1205 The index action is called when someone tries to visit the exact
1206 namespace of your controller. If index, default and matching Path
1207 actions are defined, then index will be used instead of default and
1210 sub index :Path :Args(0) { .. }
1214 http://localhost:3000/buckets
1218 The begin action is called at the beginning of every request involving
1219 this namespace directly, before other matching actions are called. It
1220 can be used to set up variables/data for this particular part of your
1221 app. A single begin action is called, its always the one most relevant
1222 to the current namespace.
1224 sub begin : Private { .. }
1228 http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
1234 Like begin, this action is always called for the namespace it is in,
1235 after every other action has finished. It is commonly used to forward
1236 processing to the View component. A single end action is called, its
1237 always the one most relevant to the current namespace.
1240 sub end : Private { .. }
1242 is called once after any actions when
1244 http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
1250 Lastly, the auto action is magic in that B<every> auto action in the
1251 chain of paths up to and including the ending namespace, will be
1252 called. (In contrast, only one of the begin/end/default actions will
1253 be called, the relevant one).
1255 package MyApp::Controller::Root;
1256 sub auto : Private { .. }
1260 sub auto : Private { .. }
1262 will both be called when visiting
1264 http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
1270 =head3 A word of warning
1272 You can put root actions in your main MyApp.pm file, but this is deprecated,
1273 please put your actions into your Root controller.
1277 A graphical flowchart of how the dispatcher works can be found on the wiki at
1278 L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/attachment/wiki/WikiStart/catalyst-flow.png>.
1280 =head2 DRY Controllers with Chained actions
1282 Imagine that you would like the following paths in your application:
1286 =item B<< /cd/<ID>/track/<ID> >>
1288 Displays info on a particular track.
1290 In the case of a multi-volume CD, this is the track sequence.
1292 =item B<< /cd/<ID>/volume/<ID>/track/<ID> >>
1294 Displays info on a track on a specific volume.
1298 Here is some example code, showing how to do this with chained controllers:
1300 package CD::Controller;
1301 use base qw/Catalyst::Controller/;
1303 sub root : Chained('/') PathPart('/cd') CaptureArgs(1) {
1304 my ($self, $c, $cd_id) = @_;
1305 $c->stash->{cd_id} = $cd_id;
1306 $c->stash->{cd} = $self->model('CD')->find_by_id($cd_id);
1309 sub trackinfo : Chained('track') PathPart('') Args(0) RenderView {
1310 my ($self, $c) = @_;
1313 package CD::Controller::ByTrackSeq;
1314 use base qw/CD::Controller/;
1316 sub track : Chained('root') PathPart('track') CaptureArgs(1) {
1317 my ($self, $c, $track_seq) = @_;
1318 $c->stash->{track} = $self->stash->{cd}->find_track_by_seq($track_seq);
1321 package CD::Controller::ByTrackVolNo;
1322 use base qw/CD::Controller/;
1324 sub volume : Chained('root') PathPart('volume') CaptureArgs(1) {
1325 my ($self, $c, $volume) = @_;
1326 $c->stash->{volume} = $volume;
1329 sub track : Chained('volume') PathPart('track') CaptureArgs(1) {
1330 my ($self, $c, $track_no) = @_;
1331 $c->stash->{track} = $self->stash->{cd}->find_track_by_vol_and_track_no(
1332 $c->stash->{volume}, $track_no
1336 Note that adding other actions (i.e. chain endpoints) which operate on a track
1337 is simply a matter of adding a new sub to CD::Controller - no code is duplicated,
1338 even though there are two different methods of looking up a track.
1340 This technique can be expanded as needed to fulfil your requirements - for example,
1341 if you inherit the first action of a chain from a base class, then mixing in a
1342 different base class can be used to duplicate an entire URL hierarchy at a different
1343 point within your application.
1345 =head2 Component-based Subrequests
1347 See L<Catalyst::Plugin::SubRequest>.
1351 =head3 Single file upload with Catalyst
1353 To implement uploads in Catalyst, you need to have a HTML form similar to
1356 <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
1357 <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
1358 <input type="file" name="my_file">
1359 <input type="submit" value="Send">
1362 It's very important not to forget C<enctype="multipart/form-data"> in
1365 Catalyst Controller module 'upload' action:
1367 sub upload : Global {
1368 my ($self, $c) = @_;
1370 if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
1372 if ( my $upload = $c->request->upload('my_file') ) {
1374 my $filename = $upload->filename;
1375 my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
1377 unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
1378 die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
1383 $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
1386 =head3 Multiple file upload with Catalyst
1388 Code for uploading multiple files from one form needs a few changes:
1390 The form should have this basic structure:
1392 <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
1393 <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
1394 <input type="file" name="file1" size="50"><br>
1395 <input type="file" name="file2" size="50"><br>
1396 <input type="file" name="file3" size="50"><br>
1397 <input type="submit" value="Send">
1400 And in the controller:
1402 sub upload : Local {
1403 my ($self, $c) = @_;
1405 if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
1407 for my $field ( $c->req->upload ) {
1409 my $upload = $c->req->upload($field);
1410 my $filename = $upload->filename;
1411 my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
1413 unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
1414 die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
1419 $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
1422 C<for my $field ($c-E<gt>req->upload)> loops automatically over all file
1423 input fields and gets input names. After that is basic file saving code,
1424 just like in single file upload.
1426 Notice: C<die>ing might not be what you want to do, when an error
1427 occurs, but it works as an example. A better idea would be to store
1428 error C<$!> in $c->stash->{error} and show a custom error template
1429 displaying this message.
1431 For more information about uploads and usable methods look at
1432 L<Catalyst::Request::Upload> and L<Catalyst::Request>.
1434 =head2 Forwarding with arguments
1436 Sometimes you want to pass along arguments when forwarding to another
1437 action. As of version 5.30, arguments can be passed in the call to
1438 C<forward>; in earlier versions, you can manually set the arguments in
1439 the Catalyst Request object:
1441 # version 5.30 and later:
1442 $c->forward('/wherever', [qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
1445 $c->req->args([qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
1446 $c->forward('/wherever');
1448 (See the L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> Flow_Control section for more
1449 information on passing arguments via C<forward>.)
1451 =head2 Chained dispatch using base classes, and inner packages.
1453 package MyApp::Controller::Base;
1454 use base qw/Catalyst::Controller/;
1456 sub key1 : Chained('/')
1458 =head2 Extending RenderView (formerly DefaultEnd)
1460 The recommended approach for an C<end> action is to use
1461 L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView> (taking the place of
1462 L<Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd>), which does what you usually need.
1463 However there are times when you need to add a bit to it, but don't want
1464 to write your own C<end> action.
1466 You can extend it like this:
1468 To add something to an C<end> action that is called before rendering
1469 (this is likely to be what you want), simply place it in the C<end>
1472 sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {
1473 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1474 # do stuff here; the RenderView action is called afterwards
1477 To add things to an C<end> action that are called I<after> rendering,
1478 you can set it up like this:
1480 sub render : ActionClass('RenderView') { }
1483 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1484 $c->forward('render');
1489 =head2 Serving static content
1491 Serving static content in Catalyst used to be somewhat tricky; the use
1492 of L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple> makes everything much easier.
1493 This plugin will automatically serve your static content during development,
1494 but allows you to easily switch to Apache (or other server) in a
1495 production environment.
1497 =head3 Introduction to Static::Simple
1499 Static::Simple is a plugin that will help to serve static content for your
1500 application. By default, it will serve most types of files, excluding some
1501 standard Template Toolkit extensions, out of your B<root> file directory. All
1502 files are served by path, so if B<images/me.jpg> is requested, then
1503 B<root/images/me.jpg> is found and served.
1507 Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to include:
1509 use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/;
1511 and already files will be served.
1515 Static content is best served from a single directory within your root
1516 directory. Having many different directories such as C<root/css> and
1517 C<root/images> requires more code to manage, because you must separately
1518 identify each static directory--if you decide to add a C<root/js>
1519 directory, you'll need to change your code to account for it. In
1520 contrast, keeping all static directories as subdirectories of a main
1521 C<root/static> directory makes things much easier to manage. Here's an
1522 example of a typical root directory structure:
1526 root/controller/stuff.tt
1529 root/static/css/main.css
1530 root/static/images/logo.jpg
1531 root/static/js/code.js
1534 All static content lives under C<root/static>, with everything else being
1535 Template Toolkit files.
1541 You may of course want to change the default locations, and make
1542 Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as:
1547 MyApp->path_to('/'),
1548 '/path/to/my/files',
1553 When you override include_path, it will not automatically append the
1554 normal root path, so you need to add it yourself if you still want
1555 it. These will be searched in order given, and the first matching file
1558 =item Static directories
1560 If you want to force some directories to be only static, you can set
1561 them using paths relative to the root dir, or regular expressions:
1572 =item File extensions
1574 By default, the following extensions are not served (that is, they will
1575 be processed by Catalyst): B<tmpl, tt, tt2, html, xhtml>. This list can
1580 ignore_extensions => [
1581 qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/
1586 =item Ignoring directories
1588 Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path,
1589 directories relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored:
1591 MyApp->config( static => {
1592 ignore_dirs => [ qw/tmpl css/ ],
1597 =head3 More information
1599 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/>
1601 =head3 Serving manually with the Static plugin with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl)
1603 In some situations you might want to control things more directly,
1604 using L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static>.
1606 In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin:
1608 use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/;
1610 You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward
1611 static content to the view, perhaps like this:
1614 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1616 $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' )
1617 unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} );
1620 This code will only forward to the view if a template has been
1621 previously defined by a controller and if there is not already data in
1622 C<$c-E<gt>res-E<gt>body>.
1624 Next, create a controller to handle requests for the /static path. Use
1625 the Helper to save time. This command will create a stub controller as
1626 C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Static.pm>.
1628 $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static
1630 Edit the file and add the following methods:
1632 # serve all files under /static as static files
1633 sub default : Path('/static') {
1634 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1636 # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content
1637 $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' );
1639 $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static
1642 # also handle requests for /favicon.ico
1643 sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') {
1644 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1649 You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of
1650 favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header:
1652 <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
1654 =head3 Common problems with the Static plugin
1656 The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to
1657 automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously
1658 difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest
1659 path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install
1660 shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine.
1662 Make sure you are using the latest version (>= 0.16) for best
1663 results. If you are having errors serving CSS files, or if they get
1664 served as text/plain instead of text/css, you may have an outdated
1665 shared-mime-info version. You may also wish to simply use the following
1666 code in your Static controller:
1668 if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) {
1669 $c->serve_static( "text/css" );
1674 =head3 Serving Static Files with Apache
1676 When using Apache, you can bypass Catalyst and any Static
1677 plugins/controllers controller by intercepting requests for the
1678 C<root/static> path at the server level. All that is required is to
1679 define a DocumentRoot and add a separate Location block for your static
1680 content. Here is a complete config for this application under mod_perl
1684 use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib);
1689 ServerName myapp.example.com
1690 DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
1692 SetHandler perl-script
1695 <LocationMatch "/(static|favicon.ico)">
1696 SetHandler default-handler
1700 And here's a simpler example that'll get you started:
1702 Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/"
1703 <Location "/static">
1709 Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to
1710 speed up your applications.
1712 =head3 Cache Plugins
1714 There are three wrapper plugins around common CPAN cache modules:
1715 Cache::FastMmap, Cache::FileCache, and Cache::Memcached. These can be
1716 used to cache the result of slow operations.
1718 The Catalyst Advent Calendar uses the FileCache plugin to cache the
1719 rendered XHTML version of the source POD document. This is an ideal
1720 application for a cache because the source document changes
1721 infrequently but may be viewed many times.
1723 use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache/;
1728 sub render_pod : Local {
1729 my ( self, $c ) = @_;
1731 # the cache is keyed on the filename and the modification time
1732 # to check for updates to the file.
1733 my $file = $c->path_to( 'root', '2005', '11.pod' );
1734 my $mtime = ( stat $file )->mtime;
1736 my $cached_pod = $c->cache->get("$file $mtime");
1737 if ( !$cached_pod ) {
1738 $cached_pod = do_slow_pod_rendering();
1739 # cache the result for 12 hours
1740 $c->cache->set( "$file $mtime", $cached_pod, '12h' );
1742 $c->stash->{pod} = $cached_pod;
1745 We could actually cache the result forever, but using a value such as 12 hours
1746 allows old entries to be automatically expired when they are no longer needed.
1750 Another method of caching is to cache the entire HTML page. While this is
1751 traditionally handled by a frontend proxy server like Squid, the Catalyst
1752 PageCache plugin makes it trivial to cache the entire output from
1753 frequently-used or slow actions.
1755 Many sites have a busy content-filled front page that might look something
1756 like this. It probably takes a while to process, and will do the exact same
1757 thing for every single user who views the page.
1759 sub front_page : Path('/') {
1760 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1762 $c->forward( 'get_news_articles' );
1763 $c->forward( 'build_lots_of_boxes' );
1764 $c->forward( 'more_slow_stuff' );
1766 $c->stash->{template} = 'index.tt';
1769 We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up.
1771 use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/;
1773 sub front_page : Path ('/') {
1774 my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
1776 $c->cache_page( 300 );
1778 # same processing as above
1781 Now the entire output of the front page, from <html> to </html>, will be
1782 cached for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the next request will rebuild the
1783 page and it will be re-cached.
1785 Note that the page cache is keyed on the page URI plus all parameters, so
1786 requests for / and /?foo=bar will result in different cache items. Also,
1787 only GET requests will be cached by the plugin.
1789 You can even get that frontend Squid proxy to help out by enabling HTTP
1790 headers for the cached page.
1794 set_http_headers => 1,
1798 This would now set the following headers so proxies and browsers may cache
1799 the content themselves.
1801 Cache-Control: max-age=($expire_time - time)
1802 Expires: $expire_time
1803 Last-Modified: $cache_created_time
1805 =head3 Template Caching
1807 Template Toolkit provides support for caching compiled versions of your
1808 templates. To enable this in Catalyst, use the following configuration.
1809 TT will cache compiled templates keyed on the file mtime, so changes will
1810 still be automatically detected.
1812 package MyApp::View::TT;
1816 use base 'Catalyst::View::TT';
1818 __PACKAGE__->config(
1819 COMPILE_DIR => '/tmp/template_cache',
1826 See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other
1827 available configuration options.
1829 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FastMmap>
1830 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FileCache>
1831 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::Memcached>
1832 L<Catalyst::Plugin::PageCache>
1833 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Template-Toolkit/lib/Template/Manual/Config.pod#Caching_and_Compiling_Options>
1837 Testing is an integral part of the web application development
1838 process. Tests make multi developer teams easier to coordinate, and
1839 they help ensure that there are no nasty surprises after upgrades or
1844 Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during
1845 development and before deployment in a real environment.
1847 C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally
1848 (without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP.
1852 Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory:
1854 mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ ls -l t/
1856 -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 95 18 Dec 20:50 01app.t
1857 -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 190 18 Dec 20:50 02pod.t
1858 -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 213 18 Dec 20:50 03podcoverage.t
1864 Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful
1869 Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD>
1870 environment variable is true.
1872 =item C<03podcoverage.t>
1874 Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the
1875 C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true.
1879 =head3 Creating tests
1881 mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d %s", $., $_ )'
1882 1 use Test::More tests => 2;
1883 2 BEGIN { use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' ) }
1885 4 ok( request('/')->is_success );
1887 The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case
1888 two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The
1889 fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response.
1891 C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can
1892 take three different arguments:
1896 =item A string which is a relative or absolute URI.
1898 request('/my/path');
1899 request('http://www.host.com/my/path');
1901 =item An instance of C<URI>.
1903 request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') );
1905 =item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>.
1907 request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') );
1911 C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the
1912 content (body) of the response.
1914 =head3 Running tests locally
1916 mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib/ t/
1917 t/01app............ok
1918 t/02pod............ok
1919 t/03podcoverage....ok
1920 All tests successful.
1921 Files=3, Tests=4, 2 wallclock secs ( 1.60 cusr + 0.36 csys = 1.96 CPU)
1923 C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0> ensures that debugging is off; if it's enabled you
1924 will see debug logs between tests.
1926 C<TEST_POD=1> enables POD checking and coverage.
1928 C<prove> A command-line tool that makes it easy to run tests. You can
1929 find out more about it from the links below.
1931 =head3 Running tests remotely
1933 mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/ prove --lib lib/ t/01app.t
1935 All tests successful.
1936 Files=1, Tests=2, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.40 cusr + 0.01 csys = 0.41 CPU)
1938 C<CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/> is the absolute deployment URI of
1939 your application. In C<CGI> or C<FastCGI> it should be the host and path
1942 =head3 C<Test::WWW::Mechanize> and Catalyst
1944 Be sure to check out C<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>. It makes it easy to
1945 test HTML, forms and links. A short example of usage:
1947 use Test::More tests => 6;
1948 BEGIN { use_ok( Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, 'MyApp' ) }
1950 my $mech = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
1951 $mech->get_ok("http://localhost/", 'Got index page');
1952 $mech->title_like( qr/^MyApp on Catalyst/, 'Got right index title' );
1953 ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Wiki/i ), 'Found link to Wiki' );
1954 ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Mailing-List/i ), 'Found link to Mailing-List' );
1955 ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^IRC channel/i ), 'Found link to IRC channel' );
1957 =head3 Further Reading
1961 =item Catalyst::Test
1965 =item Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst
1967 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Catalyst/lib/Test/WWW/Mechanize/Catalyst.pm>
1969 =item Test::WWW::Mechanize
1971 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize/Mechanize.pm>
1973 =item WWW::Mechanize
1975 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm>
1977 =item LWP::UserAgent
1979 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm>
1983 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTML/Form.pm>
1987 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Message.pm>
1991 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request.pm>
1993 =item HTTP::Request::Common
1995 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request/Common.pm>
1997 =item HTTP::Response
1999 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Response.pm>
2003 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Status.pm>
2007 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI.pm>
2011 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm>
2015 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod/Pod.pm>
2017 =item Test::Pod::Coverage
2019 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod-Coverage/Coverage.pm>
2021 =item prove (Test::Harness)
2023 L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove>
2027 =head3 More Information
2029 L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles>
2030 L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::ACL>
2034 Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm
2038 This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
2039 the same terms as Perl itself.