3 Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::CatalystBasics - Catalyst Tutorial - Part 2: Catalyst Application Development Basics
8 This is B<Part 2 of 9> for the Catalyst tutorial.
10 L<Tutorial Overview|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial>
16 L<Introduction|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro>
24 L<Basic CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>
28 L<Authentication|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authentication>
32 L<Authorization|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authorization>
36 L<Debugging|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Debugging>
40 L<Testing|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Testing>
44 L<Advanced CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::AdvancedCRUD>
48 L<Appendices|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendicies>
54 In this part of the tutorial, we will create a very basic Catalyst web
55 application. Though simple in many respects, this section will already
56 demonstrate a number of powerful capabilities such as:
60 =item * Helper Scripts
62 Catalyst helper scripts that can be used to rapidly bootstrap the
63 skeletal structure of an application.
67 Model/View/Controller (MVC) provides an architecture that facilitates a
68 clean "separation of control" between the different portions of your
69 application. Given that many other documents cover this subject in
70 detail, MVC will not be discussed in depth here (for an excellent
71 introduction to MVC and general Catalyst concepts, please see
72 L<Catalyst::Manual::About>. In short:
78 The model usually represents a data store. In most applications, the
79 model equates to the objects that are created from and saved to your SQL
84 The view takes model objects and renders them into something for the end
85 user to look at. Normally this involves a template-generation tool that
86 creates HTML for the user's web browser, but it could easily be code
87 that generates other forms such as PDF documents, e-mails, or Excel
92 As suggested by its name, the controller takes user requests and routes
93 them to the necessary model and view.
99 The use of Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) technology for database
100 access. Specifically, ORM provides an automated and standardized means
101 to persist and restore objects to/from a relational database.
105 B<TIP>: Note that all of the code for this part of the tutorial can be
106 pulled from the Catalyst Subversion repository in one step with the
109 svn checkout http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/Catalyst/trunk/examples/Tutorial@###
110 IMPORTANT: Does not work yet. Will be completed for final version.
113 =head1 CREATE A CATALYST PROJECT
115 Catalyst provides a number of helper scripts that can be used to quickly
116 flesh out the basic structure of your application. All Catalyst projects
117 begin with the C<catalyst.pl> helper.
119 In the case of this tutorial, use the Catalyst C<catalyst.pl> script to
120 initialize the framework for an application called C<MyApp>:
125 The C<catalyst.pl> helper script will display the names of the
126 directories and files it creates.
128 Though it's too early for any significant celebration, we already have a
129 functioning application. Run the following command to run this
130 application with the built-in development web server:
132 $ script/myapp_server.pl
134 Point your web browser to L<http://localhost:3000> (substituting a
135 different hostname or IP address as appropriate) and you should be
136 greeted by the Catalyst welcome screen. Press Ctrl-C to break out of
137 the development server.
139 =head1 CREATE A SQLITE DATABASE
141 In this step, we make a text file with the required SQL commands to
142 create a database table and load some sample data. Open C<myapp01.sql>
143 in your editor and enter:
146 -- Create a very simple database to hold book and author information
149 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
153 -- 'book_authors' is a many-to-many join table between books & authors
154 CREATE TABLE book_authors (
157 PRIMARY KEY (book_id, author_id)
159 CREATE TABLE authors (
160 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
165 --- Load some sample data
167 INSERT INTO books VALUES (1, 'CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide', 5);
168 INSERT INTO books VALUES (2, 'TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1', 5);
169 INSERT INTO books VALUES (3, 'Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1', 4);
170 INSERT INTO books VALUES (4, 'Perl Cookbook', 5);
171 INSERT INTO books VALUES (5, 'Designing with Web Standards', 5);
172 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (1, 'Greg', 'Bastien');
173 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (2, 'Sara', 'Nasseh');
174 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (3, 'Christian', 'Degu');
175 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (4, 'Richard', 'Stevens');
176 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (5, 'Douglas', 'Comer');
177 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (6, 'Tom', 'Christiansen');
178 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (7, ' Nathan', 'Torkington');
179 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (8, 'Jeffrey', 'Zeldman');
180 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 1);
181 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 2);
182 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 3);
183 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (2, 4);
184 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (3, 5);
185 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (4, 6);
186 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (4, 7);
187 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (5, 8);
189 B<TIP>: See Appendix 1 for tips on removing the leading spaces when
190 cutting and pasting example code from POD documents.
192 Then use the following command to build a C<myapp.db> SQLite database:
194 $ sqlite3 myapp.db < myapp01.sql
196 If you need to create the database more than once, you probably want to
197 issue the C<rm myapp.db> command to delete the database before you use
198 the C<sqlite3 myapp.db < myapp01.sql> command.
200 Once the C<myapp.db> database file has been created and initialized, you
201 can use the SQLite command line environment to do a quick dump of the
206 Enter ".help" for instructions
207 sqlite> select * from books;
208 1|CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide|5
209 2|TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1|5
210 3|Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1|4
212 5|Designing with Web Standards|5
218 $ sqlite3 myapp.db "select * from books"
219 1|CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide|5
220 2|TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1|5
221 3|Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1|4
223 5|Designing with Web Standards|5
225 As with most other SQL tools, if you are using the full "interactive"
226 environment you need to terminate your SQL commands with a ";" (it's not
227 required if you do a single SQL statement on the command line). Use
228 ".q" to exit from SQLite from the SQLite interactive mode and return to
229 your OS command prompt.
232 =head1 EDIT THE LIST OF CATALYST PLUGINS
234 One of the greatest benefits of Catalyst is that it has such a large
235 library of plugins available. Plugins are used to seamlessly integrate
236 existing Perl modules into the overall Catalyst framework. In general,
237 they do this by adding additional methods to the C<context> object
238 (generally written as C<$c>) that Catalyst passes to every component
239 throughout the framework.
241 By default, Catalyst enables three plugins/flags:
249 Enables the Catalyst debug output you saw when we started the
250 C<script/myapp_server.pl> development server earlier. You can remove
251 this plugin when you place your application into production.
253 As you may have noticed, C<-Debug> is not a plugin, but a I<flag>.
254 Although most of the items specified on the C<use Catalyst> line of your
255 application class will be plugins, Catalyst supports a limited number of
256 flag options (of these, C<-Debug> is the most common).
258 If you prefer, you can use the C<$c-E<gt>debug> method to enable debug
263 L<Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader|Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader>
265 C<ConfigLoader> provides an automatic way to load configurable
266 parameters for your application from a central YAML file (versus having
267 the values hard-coded inside your Perl modules). If you have not been
268 exposed to YAML before, it is a human-readable data serialization format
269 that can be used to read (and write) values to/from text files. We will
270 see how to use this feature of Catalyst during the authentication and
271 authorization sections (Part 4 and Part 5).
275 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple>
277 C<Static::Simple> provides an easy method of serving static content such
278 as images and CSS files under the development server.
282 To modify the list of plugins, edit C<lib/MyApp.pm> (this file is
283 generally referred to as your I<application class>) and delete the line
286 use Catalyst qw/-Debug ConfigLoader Static::Simple/;
300 This tells Catalyst to start using three new plugins:
306 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Dumper>
308 Allows you to easily use L<Data::Dumper> to dump variables
309 to the logs, for example:
311 $c->log->dumper($myvar);
313 When running your application under the development server, the logs
314 will be printed to your screen along with the other debug information
315 generated by the C<-Debug> flag.
319 L<Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace>
321 Adds a stack trace to the standard Catalyst "debug screen" (this is the
322 screen Catalyst sends to your browser when an error occurs).
324 Note: L<Dumper|Catalyst::Plugin::Dumper> output appears on the console
325 window where you issue the C<script/myapp_server.pl> command.
326 L<StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace> output appears in your
331 L<Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd|Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd>
333 Automatically provides a Catalyst "end action" that invokes your view at
334 the end of each request. Also allows you to add "dump_info=1" (precede
335 with "?" or "&" depending on where it is in the URL) to I<force> the
336 debug screen at the end of the Catalyst request processing cycle.
338 B<TIP>: Many Catalyst-related documents predate
339 L<DefaultEnd|Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd> and suggest that you add an
340 C<end> action to your application class (C<MyApp.pm>) or Root.pm
341 (C<MyApp/Controller/Root.pm>). In most of these cases, you can convert
342 to L<DefaultEnd|Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd> by deleting the C<end>
343 action and using the plugin instead. There are certainly cases when
344 you'd want to write your own custom C<end> action, but for most
345 circumstances, DefaultEnd will be exactly what you want.
349 Note that when specifying plugins on the C<use Catalyst> line, you can
350 omit C<Catalyst::Plugin::> from the name. Additionally, you can spread
351 the plugin names across multiple lines as shown here, or place them all
352 on one (or more) lines as with the default configuration.
354 =head1 DATABASE ACCESS WITH C<DBIx::Class>
356 Catalyst can be used with virtually any form of persistent datastore
357 available via Perl. For example, L<Catalyst::Model::DBI> can be used to
358 easily access databases through the traditional Perl L<DBI> interface.
359 However, most Catalyst applications use some form of ORM technology to
360 automatically create and save model objects as they are used. Although
361 Tony Bowden's L<Class::DBI> has been the traditional Perl ORM engine,
362 Matt Trout's L<DBIx::Class> (abbreviated as "DBIC") has rapidly emerged
363 as the Perl-based ORM technology of choice. Most new Catalyst
364 applications rely on DBIC, as will this tutorial.
366 Note: See L<Catalyst:: Model::CDBI > for more information on using
367 Catalyst with L<Class::DBI>.
369 =head2 Create a DBIC Schema File
371 DBIx::Class uses a schema file to load other classes that represent the
372 tables in your database (DBIC refers to these "table objects" as "result
373 sources"; see L<DBIx::Class::ResultSource>). In this case, we want to
374 load the model object for the C<books>, C<book_authors>, and C<authors>
375 tables created in the previous step.
377 Open C<lib/MyAppDB.pm> in your editor and insert:
383 MyAppDB - DBIC Schema Class
387 # Our schema needs to inherit from 'DBIx::Class::Schema'
388 use base qw/DBIx::Class::Schema/;
390 # Need to load the DB Model classes here.
391 # You can use this syntax if you want:
392 # __PACKAGE__->load_classes(qw/Book BookAuthor Author/);
393 # Also, if you simply want to load all of the classes in a directory
394 # of the same name as your schema class (as we do here) you can use:
395 # __PACKAGE__->load_classes(qw//);
396 # But the variation below is more flexible in that it can be used to
397 # load from multiple namespaces.
398 __PACKAGE__->load_classes({
399 MyAppDB => [qw/Book BookAuthor Author/]
404 B<Note:> C<__PACKAGE__> is just a shorthand way of referencing the name
405 of the package where it is used. Therefore, in C<MyAppDB.pm>,
406 C<__PACKAGE__> is equivalent to C<MyAppDB>
409 =head2 Create the DBIC "Result Source" Files
411 In this step, we create "table classes" (again, these are called a
412 "result source" classes in DBIC) that act as model objects for the
413 C<books>, C<book_authors>, and C<authors> tables in our database.
415 First, create a directory to hold the class:
419 Then open C<lib/MyAppDB/Book.pm> in your editor and enter:
421 package MyAppDB::Book;
423 use base qw/DBIx::Class/;
425 # Load required DBIC stuff
426 __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/PK::Auto Core/);
428 __PACKAGE__->table('books');
429 # Set columns in table
430 __PACKAGE__->add_columns(qw/id title rating/);
431 # Set the primary key for the table
432 __PACKAGE__->set_primary_key(qw/id/);
440 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
441 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
442 # 3) Column name in *foreign* table
443 __PACKAGE__->has_many(book_authors => 'MyAppDB::BookAuthor', 'book_id');
447 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
448 # 2) Name of has_many() relationship this many_to_many() is shortcut for
449 # 3) Name of belongs_to() relationship in model class of has_many() above
450 # You must already have the has_many() defined to use a many_to_many().
451 __PACKAGE__->many_to_many(authors => 'book_authors', 'author');
456 MyAppDB::Book - A model object representing a book.
460 This is an object that represents a row in the 'books' table of your application
461 database. It uses DBIx::Class (aka, DBIC) to do ORM.
463 For Catalyst, this is designed to be used through MyApp::Model::MyAppDB.
464 Offline utilities may wish to use this class directly.
470 This defines both a C<has_many> and a C<many_to_many> relationship. The
471 C<many_to_many> relationship is optional, but it makes it easier to map
472 a book to its collection of authors. Without it, we would have to
473 "walk" though the C<book_authors> table as in
474 C<$book-E<gt>book_authors-E<gt>first-E<gt>author-E<gt>last_name> (we
475 will see examples on how to use DBIC objects in your code soon, but note
476 that because C<$book-E<gt>book_authors> can return multiple authors, we
477 have to use C<first> to display a single author). C<many_to_many> allows
478 us to use the shorter C<$book-E<gt>authors-E<gt>first-E<gt>last_name>.
479 Note that you cannot define a C<many_to_many> relationship without also
480 having the C<has_many> relationship in place.
482 Next, open C<lib/MyAppDB/Author.pm> in your editor and enter:
484 package MyAppDB::Author;
486 use base qw/DBIx::Class/;
488 # Load required DBIC stuff
489 __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/PK::Auto Core/);
491 __PACKAGE__->table('authors');
492 # Set columns in table
493 __PACKAGE__->add_columns(qw/id first_name last_name/);
494 # Set the primary key for the table
495 __PACKAGE__->set_primary_key(qw/id/);
503 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
504 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
505 # 3) Column name in *foreign* table
506 __PACKAGE__->has_many(book_author => 'MyAppDB::BookAuthor', 'author_id');
510 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
511 # 2) Name of has_many() relationship this many_to_many() is shortcut for
512 # 3) Name of belongs_to() relationship in model class of has_many() above
513 # You must already have the has_many() defined to use a many_to_many().
514 __PACKAGE__->many_to_many(books => 'book_author', 'book');
519 MyAppDB::Author - A model object representing an author of a book (if a book has
520 multiple authors, each will be represented be separate Author object).
524 This is an object that represents a row in the 'authors' table of your application
525 database. It uses DBIx::Class (aka, DBIC) to do ORM.
527 For Catalyst, this is designed to be used through MyApp::Model::MyAppDB.
528 Offline utilities may wish to use this class directly.
534 Finally, open C<lib/MyAppDB/BookAuthor.pm> in your editor and enter:
536 package MyAppDB::BookAuthor;
538 use base qw/DBIx::Class/;
540 # Load required DBIC stuff
541 __PACKAGE__->load_components(qw/PK::Auto Core/);
543 __PACKAGE__->table('book_authors');
544 # Set columns in table
545 __PACKAGE__->add_columns(qw/book_id author_id/);
546 # Set the primary key for the table
547 __PACKAGE__->set_primary_key(qw/book_id author_id/);
555 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
556 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
557 # 3) Column name in *this* table
558 __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(book => 'MyAppDB::Book', 'book_id');
562 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
563 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
564 # 3) Column name in *this* table
565 __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(author => 'MyAppDB::Author', 'author_id');
570 MyAppDB::BookAuthor - A model object representing the JOIN between an author and
575 This is an object that represents a row in the 'book_authors' table of your
576 application database. It uses DBIx::Class (aka, DBIC) to do ORM.
578 You probably won't need to use this class directly -- it will be automatically
579 used by DBIC where joins are needed.
581 For Catalyst, this is designed to be used through MyApp::Model::MyAppDB.
582 Offline utilities may wish to use this class directly.
588 B<Note:> This sample application uses a plural form for the database
589 tables (e.g., C<books> and C<authors>) and a singular form for the model
590 objects (e.g., C<Book> and C<Author>); however, Catalyst places no
591 restrictions on the naming conventions you wish to use.
593 =head2 Use C<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema> To Load The Model Class
595 When L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema> is
596 in use, Catalyst essentially reads an existing copy of your database
597 model and creates a new set of objects under C<MyApp::Model> for use
600 B<Note:> With L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema> you essentially end up
601 with two sets of model classes (only one of which you write... the other
602 set is created automatically in memory when your Catalyst application
603 initializes). For this tutorial application, the important points to
604 remember are: you write the I<result source> files in C<MyAppDB>, but
605 I<within Catalyst> you use the I<automatically created model classes> in
608 Use the L<Catalyst::Helper::Model::DBIC::Schema > helper script to
609 create the model class that loads up the model we created in the
612 $ script/myapp_create.pl model MyAppDB DBIC::Schema MyAppDB dbi:SQLite:myapp.db '' '' '{ AutoCommit => 1 }'
614 Where the first C<MyAppDB> is the name of the class to be created by the
615 helper in C<lib/MyApp/Model> and the second C<MyAppDB> is the name of
616 existing schema file we created (in C<lib/MyAppDB.pm>). You can see
617 that the helper creates a model file under C<lib/MyApp/Model> (Catalyst
618 has a separate directory under C<lib/MyApp> for each of the three parts
619 of MVC: C<Model>, C<View>, and C<Controller> [although older Catalyst
620 applications often use the directories C<M>, C<V>, and C<C>]).
623 =head1 CREATE A CATALYST CONTROLLER
625 Controllers are where you write methods that interact with user
626 input--typically, controller methods respond to C<GET> and C<POST>
627 messages from the user's web browser.
629 Use the Catalyst C<create> script to add a controller for book-related
632 $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Books
634 Then edit C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> and add the following method
639 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
644 # Retrieve the usual perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
645 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
646 # that make up the application
649 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
650 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
651 $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('MyAppDB::Book')->all];
653 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
654 # in your action methods.
655 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
658 B<Note:> Programmers experienced with object-oriented Perl should
659 recognize C<$self> as a reference to the object where this method was
660 called. On the other hand, C<$c> will be new to many Perl programmers
661 who have not used Catalyst before (it's sometimes written as
662 C<$context>). The Context object is automatically passed to all
663 Catalyst components. It is used to pass information between components
664 and provide access to Catalyst and plugin functionality.
666 B<TIP>: You may see the C<$c-E<gt>model('MyAppDB::Book')> used above
667 written as C<$c-E<gt>model('MyAppDB')-E<gt>resultset('Book)>. The two
670 B<Note:> Catalyst actions are regular Perl methods, but they make use of
671 Nicholas Clark's C<attributes> module to provide additional information
672 to the Catalyst dispatcher logic.
674 =head1 CATALYST VIEWS
676 Views are where you render output, typically for display in the user's
677 web browser, but also possibly using other display our output-generation
678 systems. As with virtually every aspect of Catalyst, options abound
679 when it comes to the specific view technology you adopt inside your
680 application. However, most Catalyst applications use the Template
681 Toolkit, known as TT (for more information on TT, see
682 L<http://www.template-toolkit.org>). Other popular View technologies
683 include Mason (L<http://www.masonhq.com> and
684 L<http://www.masonbook.com>) and L<HTML::Template>
685 (L<http://html-template.sourceforge.net>).
687 =head2 Create a Catalyst View Using C<TTSITE>
689 When using TT for the Catalyst view, there are two main helper scripts:
695 L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TT>
699 L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite>
703 Both are similar, but C<TT> merely creates the C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>
704 file and leaves the creation of any hierarchical template organization
705 entirely up to you. (It also creates a C<t/view_TT.t> file for testing;
706 test cases will be discussed in Part 7). The C<TTSite> helper creates a
707 modular and hierarchical view layout with separate Template Toolkit (TT)
708 files for common header and footer information, configuration values, a
709 CSS stylesheet, and more.
711 Enter the following command to enable the C<TTSite> style of view
712 rendering for this tutorial:
714 $ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TTSite
716 This puts a number of files in the C<root/lib> and C<root/src>
717 directories that can be used to customize the look and feel of your
718 application. Also take a look at C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm> for config
719 values set by the C<TTSite> helper.
721 B<TIP>: Note that TTSite does one thing that could confuse people who
722 are used to the normal C<TT> Catalyst View: it redefines the Catalyst
723 context object in templates from its usual C<c> to C<Catalyst>. When
724 looking at other Catalyst examples, remember that they almost always use
725 C<c>. Note that Catalyst and TT I<do not complain> when you use the
726 wrong name to access the context object...TT simply outputs blanks for
727 that bogus logic. Finally, be aware that this change in name I<only>
728 applies to how the context object is accessed inside your TT templates;
729 your controllers will continue to use C<$c> (or whatever name you use
730 when fetching the reference from C<@_> inside your methods). (You can
731 change back to the "default" behavior be removing the C<CATALYST_VAR>
732 line from C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>, but you will also have to edit
733 C<root/lib/config/main> and C<root/lib/config/url>. If you do this, be
734 careful not to have a collision between your own C<c> variable and the
735 Catalyst C<c> variable.)
737 =head2 Globally Customize Every View
739 When using TTSite, files in the subdirectories of C<root/lib> can be
740 used to make changes that will appear in every view. For example, to
741 display optional status and error messages in every view, edit
742 C<root/lib/site/layout>, updating it to match the following (the two HTML
743 C<span> elements are new):
745 <div id="header">[% PROCESS site/header %]</div>
748 <span class="message">[% status_msg %]</span>
749 <span class="error">[% error_msg %]</span>
753 <div id="footer">[% PROCESS site/footer %]</div>
755 If we set either message in the Catalyst stash (e.g.,
756 C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{status_msg} = 'Request was successful!'>) it will
757 be displayed whenever any view used by that request is rendered. The
758 C<message> and C<error> CSS styles are automatically defined in
759 C<root/src/ttsite.css> and can be customized to suit your needs.
761 B<Note:> The Catalyst stash only lasts for a single HTTP request. If
762 you need to retain information across requests you can use
763 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Session> (we will use
764 Catalyst sessions in the Authentication part).
767 =head2 Create a TT Template Page
769 To add a new page of content to the TTSite view hierarchy, just create a
770 new C<.tt2> file in C<root/src>. Only include HTML markup that goes
771 inside the HTML <body> and </body> tags, TTSite will use the contents of
772 C<root/lib/site> to add the top and bottom.
774 First create a directory for book-related TT templates:
776 $ mkdir root/src/books
778 Then open C<root/src/books/list.tt2> in your editor and enter:
780 [% # This is a TT comment. The '-' at the end "chomps" the newline. You won't -%]
781 [% # see this "chomping" in your browser because HTML ignores blank lines, but -%]
782 [% # it WILL eliminate a blank line if you view the HTML source. It's purely -%]
783 [%- # optional, but both the beginning and the ending TT tags support chomping. -%]
785 [% # Provide a title to root/lib/site/header -%]
786 [% META title = 'Book List' -%]
789 <tr><th>Title</th><th>Rating</th><th>Author(s)</th></tr>
790 [% # Display each book in a table row %]
791 [% FOREACH book IN books -%]
793 <td>[% book.title %]</td>
794 <td>[% book.rating %]</td>
796 [% # Print author count in parens. 'book.authors' uses the 'many_to_many' -%]
797 [% # relationship to retrieve all of the authors of a book. 'size' is a -%]
798 [% # TT VMethod to get the number of elements in a list. -%]
799 ([% book.authors.size %])
800 [% # Use an alternate form of a FOREACH loop to display authors. -%]
801 [% # _ below is the TT string concatenation operator. -%]
802 [% author.last_name _' ' FOREACH author = book.authors %]
803 [% # Note: if many_to_many relationship not used in Authors.pm, you could -%]
804 [% # have used the following to 'walk' through the 'join table objects' -%]
805 [% # bk_author.author.last_name _' ' FOREACH bk_author = book.book_authors %]
811 As indicated by the inline comments above, the C<META title> line uses
812 TT's META feature to provide a title to C<root/lib/site/header>.
813 Meanwhile, the outer C<FOREACH> loop iterates through each C<book> model
814 object and prints the C<title> and C<rating> fields. An inner
815 C<FOREACH> loop prints the last name of each author in a single table
816 cell (a simple space is used between the names; in reality you would
817 probably want to modify the code to use a comma as a separator).
819 If you are new to TT, the C<[%> and C<%]> tags are used to delimit TT
820 code. TT supports a wide variety of directives for "calling" other
821 files, looping, conditional logic, etc. In general, TT simplifies the
822 usual range of Perl operators down to the single dot (C<.>) operator.
823 This applies to operations as diverse as method calls, hash lookups, and
824 list index values (see
825 L<http://www.template-toolkit.org/docs/default/Manual/Variables.html>
826 for details and examples). In addition to the usual C<Template> module
827 Pod documentation, you can access the TT manual at
828 L<http://www.template-toolkit.org/docs/default/>.
830 B<NOTE>: The C<TTSite> helper creates several TT files using an
831 extension of C<.tt2>. Most other Catalyst and TT examples use an
832 extension of C<.tt>. You can use either extension (or no extension at
833 all) with TTSite and TT, just be sure to use the appropriate extension
834 for both the file itself I<and> the C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{template} =
835 ...> line in your controller. This document will use C<.tt2> for
836 consistency with the files already created by the C<TTSite> helper.
839 =head1 RUN THE APPLICATION
841 First, let's enable an environment variable option that causes
842 DBIx::Class to dump the SQL statements it's using to access the database
843 (this option can provide extremely helpful troubleshooting information):
845 $ export DBIX_CLASS_STORAGE_DBI_DEBUG=1
847 B<NOTE>: You can also set this in your code using
848 C<$class-E<gt>storage-E<gt>debug(1);>. See
849 L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Troubleshooting> for details (including options
850 to log to file instead of displaying to the Catalyst development server
853 Then run the Catalyst "demo server" script:
855 $ script/myapp_server.pl
857 You should get something like this:
859 $ script/myapp_server.pl
860 [Tue May 16 12:51:33 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Debug messages enabled
861 [Tue May 16 12:51:33 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded plugins:
862 .------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
863 | Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader 0.07 |
864 | Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple 0.14 |
865 | Catalyst::Plugin::Dumper 0.000002 |
866 | Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace 0.04 |
867 | Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd 0.06 |
868 '------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
870 [Tue May 16 12:51:33 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded dispatcher "Catalyst::Dispatcher"
871 [Tue May 16 12:51:33 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded engine "Catalyst::Engine::HTTP"
872 [Tue May 16 12:51:33 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Found home "/home/me/MyApp"
873 [Tue May 16 12:51:37 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded components:
874 .-------------------------------------------------------------------+----------.
876 +-------------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
877 | MyApp::Controller::Books | instance |
878 | MyApp::Controller::Root | instance |
879 | MyApp::Model::MyAppDB | instance |
880 | MyApp::Model::MyAppDB::Author | class |
881 | MyApp::Model::MyAppDB::Book | class |
882 | MyApp::Model::MyAppDB::BookAuthor | class |
883 | MyApp::View::TT | instance |
884 '-------------------------------------------------------------------+----------'
886 [Tue May 16 12:51:37 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded Private actions:
887 .----------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------.
888 | Private | Class | Method |
889 +----------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------+
890 | /default | MyApp::Controller::Root | default |
891 | /end | MyApp | end |
892 | /books/list | MyApp::Controller::Books | list |
893 '----------------------+----------------------------------------+--------------'
895 [Tue May 16 12:51:37 2006] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded Path actions:
896 .--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------.
898 +--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
899 | /books/list | /books/list |
900 '--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------'
902 [Tue May 16 12:51:37 2006] [catalyst] [info] MyApp powered by Catalyst 5.6902
903 You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
905 Some things you should note in the output above:
911 Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema took our C<MyAppDB::Book> and made it
912 C<MyApp::Model::MyAppDB::Book> (and similar actions were performed on
913 C<MyAppDB::Author> and C<MyAppDB::BookAuthor>).
917 The "list" action in our Books controller showed up with a path of
922 Point your browser to L<http://localhost:3000> and you should still get
923 the Catalyst welcome page.
925 Next, to view the book list, change the URL in your browser to
926 L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>. You should get a list of the five
927 books loaded by the C<myapp01.sql> script above, with TTSite providing
928 the formatting for the very simple output we generated in our template.
929 The count and space-separated list of author last names appear on the
932 Also notice in the output of the C<script/myapp_server.pl> that DBIC
933 used the following SQL to retrieve the data:
935 SELECT me.id, me.title, me.rating FROM books me
937 Along with a list of the following commands to retrieve the authors for
938 each book (the lines have been "word wrapped" here to improve
941 SELECT author.id, author.first_name, author.last_name
943 JOIN authors author ON ( author.id = me.author_id )
944 WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): `1'
946 You should see 10 such lines of debug output, two for each of the five
947 author_id values (it pulls the data once for the count logic and another
948 time to actually display the list).
953 Kennedy Clark, C<hkclark@gmail.com>
955 Please report any errors, issues or suggestions to the author.
957 Copyright 2006, Kennedy Clark, under Creative Commons License
958 (L<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/>).