[catagits/Catalyst-Action-Serialize-Data-Serializer.git] / README

NAME
    Catalyst::Controller::REST - A RESTful controller

SYNOPSIS
        package Foo::Controller::Bar;

        use base 'Catalyst::Controller::REST';

        sub thing : Local : ActionClass('REST') { }

        # Answer GET requests to "thing"
        sub thing_GET {
           my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
     
           # Return a 200 OK, with the data in entity
           # serialized in the body 
           $self->status_ok(
                $c, 
                entity => {
                    some => 'data',
                    foo  => 'is real bar-y',
                },
           );
        }

        # Answer PUT requests to "thing"
        sub thing_PUT { 
          .. some action ..
        }

DESCRIPTION
    Catalyst::Controller::REST implements a mechanism for building RESTful
    services in Catalyst. It does this by extending the normal Catalyst
    dispatch mechanism to allow for different subroutines to be called based
    on the HTTP Method requested, while also transparently handling all the
    serialization/deserialization for you.

    This is probably best served by an example. In the above controller, we
    have declared a Local Catalyst action on "sub thing", and have used the
    ActionClass('REST').

    Below, we have declared "thing_GET" and "thing_PUT". Any GET requests to
    thing will be dispatched to "thing_GET", while any PUT requests will be
    dispatched to "thing_PUT".

    Any unimplemented HTTP methods will be met with a "405 Method Not
    Allowed" response, automatically containing the proper list of available
    methods. You can override this behavior through implementing a custom
    "thing_not_implemented" method.

    If you do not provide an OPTIONS handler, we will respond to any OPTIONS
    requests with a "200 OK", populating the Allowed header automatically.

    Any data included in "$c->stash->{'rest'}" will be serialized for you.
    The serialization format will be selected based on the content-type of
    the incoming request. It is probably easier to use the "STATUS HELPERS",
    which are described below.

    The HTTP POST, PUT, and OPTIONS methods will all automatically
    deserialize the contents of $c->request->body based on the requests
    content-type header. A list of understood serialization formats is
    below.

    If we do not have (or cannot run) a serializer for a given content-type,
    a 415 "Unsupported Media Type" error is generated.

    To make your Controller RESTful, simply have it

      use base 'Catalyst::Controller::REST'; 

SERIALIZATION
    Catalyst::Controller::REST will automatically serialize your responses,
    and deserialize any POST, PUT or OPTIONS requests. It evaluates which
    serializer to use by mapping a content-type to a Serialization module.
    We select the content-type based on:

    The Content-Type Header
      If the incoming HTTP Request had a Content-Type header set, we will
      use it.

    The content-type Query Parameter
      If this is a GET request, you can supply a content-type query
      parameter.

    Evaluating the Accept Header
      Finally, if the client provided an Accept header, we will evaluate it
      and use the best-ranked choice.

AVAILABLE SERIALIZERS
    A given serialization mechanism is only available if you have the
    underlying modules installed. For example, you can't use XML::Simple if
    it's not already installed.

    In addition, each serializer has it's quirks in terms of what sorts of
    data structures it will properly handle. Catalyst::Controller::REST
    makes no attempt to svae you from yourself in this regard. :)

    "text/x-yaml" => "YAML::Syck"
      Returns YAML generated by YAML::Syck.

    "text/html" => "YAML::HTML"
      This uses YAML::Syck and URI::Find to generate YAML with all URLs
      turned to hyperlinks. Only useable for Serialization.

    "text/x-json" => "JSON::Syck"
      Uses JSON::Syck to generate JSON output

    "text/x-data-dumper" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Data::Dumper output.

    "text/x-data-denter" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Data::Denter output.

    "text/x-data-taxi" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Data::Taxi output.

    "application/x-storable" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Storable output.

    "application/x-freezethaw" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate FreezeThaw output.

    "text/x-config-general" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Config::General output.

    "text/x-php-serialization" => "Data::Serializer"
      Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate PHP::Serialization
      output.

    "text/xml" => "XML::Simple"
      Uses XML::Simple to generate XML output. This is probably not suitable
      for any real heavy XML work. Due to XML::Simples requirement that the
      data you serialize be a HASHREF, we transform outgoing data to be in
      the form of:

        { data => $yourdata }

    By default, Catalyst::Controller::REST will return a "415 Unsupported
    Media Type" response if an attempt to use an unsupported content-type is
    made. You can ensure that something is always returned by setting the
    "default" config option:

       __PACKAGE__->config->{'serialize'}->{'default'} = 'text/x-yaml';

    Would make it always fall back to the serializer plugin defined for
    text/x-yaml.

    Implementing new Serialization formats is easy! Contributions are most
    welcome! See Catalyst::Action::Serialize and
    Catalyst::Action::Deserialize for more information.

CUSTOM SERIALIZERS
    If you would like to implement a custom serializer, you should create
    two new modules in the Catalyst::Action::Serialize and
    Catalyst::Action::Deserialize namespace. Then assign your new class to
    the content-type's you want, and you're done.

STATUS HELPERS
    Since so much of REST is in using HTTP, we provide these Status Helpers.
    Using them will ensure that you are responding with the proper codes,
    headers, and entities.

    These helpers try and conform to the HTTP 1.1 Specification. You can
    refer to it at: <http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt>. These
    routines are all implemented as regular subroutines, and as such require
    you pass the current context ($c) as the first argument.

    status_ok
        Returns a "200 OK" response. Takes an "entity" to serialize.

        Example:

          $self->status_ok(
            $c, 
            entity => {
                radiohead => "Is a good band!",
            }
          );

    status_created
        Returns a "201 CREATED" response. Takes an "entity" to serialize,
        and a "location" where the created object can be found.

        Example:

          $self->status_created(
            $c, 
            location => $c->req->uri->as_string,
            entity => {
                radiohead => "Is a good band!",
            }
          );

        In the above example, we use the requested URI as our location. This
        is probably what you want for most PUT requests.

    status_accepted
        Returns a "202 ACCEPTED" response. Takes an "entity" to serialize.

        Example:

          $self->status_accepted(
            $c, 
            entity => {
                status => "queued",
            }
          );

    status_bad_request
        Returns a "400 BAD REQUEST" response. Takes a "message" argument as
        a scalar, which will become the value of "error" in the serialized
        response.

        Example:

          $self->status_bad_request(
            $c, 
            message => "Cannot do what you have asked!",
          );

    status_not_found
        Returns a "404 NOT FOUND" response. Takes a "message" argument as a
        scalar, which will become the value of "error" in the serialized
        response.

        Example:

          $self->status_not_found(
            $c, 
            message => "Cannot find what you were looking for!",
          );

MANUAL RESPONSES
    If you want to construct your responses yourself, all you need to do is
    put the object you want serialized in $c->stash->{'rest'}.

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
    This Controller ties together Catalyst::Action::REST,
    Catalyst::Action::Serialize and Catalyst::Action::Deserialize. It should
    be suitable for most applications. You should be aware that it:

    Configures the Serialization Actions
        This class provides a default configuration for Serialization. It is
        currently:

          __PACKAGE__->config(
              serialize => {
                 'stash_key' => 'rest',
                 'map'       => {
                    'text/html'          => 'YAML::HTML',
                    'text/xml'           => 'XML::Simple',
                    'text/x-yaml'        => 'YAML',
                    'text/x-json'        => 'JSON',
                    'text/x-data-dumper' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Data::Dumper' ],
                    'text/x-data-denter' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Data::Denter' ],
                    'text/x-data-taxi'   => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Data::Taxi'   ],
                    'application/x-storable'    => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Storable'     
        ],
                    'application/x-freezethaw'  => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'FreezeThaw'   
        ],
                    'text/x-config-general' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Config::General' ]
        ,
                    'text/x-php-serialization' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'PHP::Serializat
        ion' ],
                  },
              }
          );

        You can read the full set of options for this configuration block in
        Catalyst::Action::Serialize.

    Sets a "begin" and "end" method for you
        The "begin" method uses Catalyst::Action::Deserialize. The "end"
        method uses Catalyst::Action::Serialize. If you want to override
        either behavior, simply implement your own "begin" and "end" actions
        and use NEXT:

          my Foo::Controller::Monkey;
          use base qw(Catalyst::Controller::REST);

          sub begin :Private {
            my ($self, $c) = @_;
            ... do things before Deserializing ...
            $self->NEXT::begin($c); 
            ... do things after Deserializing ...
          } 

          sub end :Private {
            my ($self, $c) = @_;
            ... do things before Serializing ...
            $self->NEXT::end($c); 
            ... do things after Serializing ...
          }

A MILD WARNING
        I have code in production using Catalyst::Controller::REST. That
        said, it is still under development, and it's possible that things
        may change between releases. I promise to not break things
        unneccesarily. :)

SEE ALSO
        Catalyst::Action::REST, Catalyst::Action::Serialize,
        Catalyst::Action::Deserialize

        For help with REST in general:

        The HTTP 1.1 Spec is required reading.
        http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt

        Wikipedia!
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer

        The REST Wiki: http://rest.blueoxen.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?FrontPage

AUTHOR
        Adam Jacob <adam@stalecoffee.org>, with lots of help from mst and
        jrockway

        Marchex, Inc. paid me while I developed this module.
        (http://www.marchex.com)

LICENSE
        You may distribute this code under the same terms as Perl itself.
Commit	Line	Data
01f9819a	1	NAME
	2	Catalyst::Controller::REST - A RESTful controller
	3
	4	SYNOPSIS
	5	package Foo::Controller::Bar;
	6
	7	use base 'Catalyst::Controller::REST';
	8
	9	sub thing : Local : ActionClass('REST') { }
	10
	11	# Answer GET requests to "thing"
	12	sub thing_GET {
	13	my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
	14
	15	# Return a 200 OK, with the data in entity
	16	# serialized in the body
	17	$self->status_ok(
	18	$c,
	19	entity => {
	20	some => 'data',
	21	foo => 'is real bar-y',
	22	},
	23	);
	24	}
	25
	26	# Answer PUT requests to "thing"
	27	sub thing_PUT {
	28	.. some action ..
	29	}
	30
	31	DESCRIPTION
	32	Catalyst::Controller::REST implements a mechanism for building RESTful
	33	services in Catalyst. It does this by extending the normal Catalyst
	34	dispatch mechanism to allow for different subroutines to be called based
	35	on the HTTP Method requested, while also transparently handling all the
	36	serialization/deserialization for you.
	37
	38	This is probably best served by an example. In the above controller, we
	39	have declared a Local Catalyst action on "sub thing", and have used the
	40	ActionClass('REST').
	41
	42	Below, we have declared "thing_GET" and "thing_PUT". Any GET requests to
	43	thing will be dispatched to "thing_GET", while any PUT requests will be
	44	dispatched to "thing_PUT".
	45
8f00a41b	46	Any unimplemented HTTP methods will be met with a "405 Method Not
01f9819a	47	Allowed" response, automatically containing the proper list of available
8f00a41b	48	methods. You can override this behavior through implementing a custom
	49	"thing_not_implemented" method.
	50
	51	If you do not provide an OPTIONS handler, we will respond to any OPTIONS
	52	requests with a "200 OK", populating the Allowed header automatically.
	53
	54	Any data included in "$c->stash->{'rest'}" will be serialized for you.
	55	The serialization format will be selected based on the content-type of
	56	the incoming request. It is probably easier to use the "STATUS HELPERS",
	57	which are described below.
01f9819a	58
	59	The HTTP POST, PUT, and OPTIONS methods will all automatically
	60	deserialize the contents of $c->request->body based on the requests
	61	content-type header. A list of understood serialization formats is
	62	below.
	63
8f00a41b	64	If we do not have (or cannot run) a serializer for a given content-type,
8f00a41b	65	a 415 "Unsupported Media Type" error is generated.
01f9819a	66
	67	To make your Controller RESTful, simply have it
	68
	69	use base 'Catalyst::Controller::REST';
	70
	71	SERIALIZATION
8f00a41b	72	Catalyst::Controller::REST will automatically serialize your responses,
	73	and deserialize any POST, PUT or OPTIONS requests. It evaluates which
	74	serializer to use by mapping a content-type to a Serialization module.
	75	We select the content-type based on:
	76
	77	The Content-Type Header
	78	If the incoming HTTP Request had a Content-Type header set, we will
	79	use it.
	80
	81	The content-type Query Parameter
	82	If this is a GET request, you can supply a content-type query
	83	parameter.
	84
	85	Evaluating the Accept Header
	86	Finally, if the client provided an Accept header, we will evaluate it
	87	and use the best-ranked choice.
	88
	89	AVAILABLE SERIALIZERS
	90	A given serialization mechanism is only available if you have the
	91	underlying modules installed. For example, you can't use XML::Simple if
	92	it's not already installed.
	93
	94	In addition, each serializer has it's quirks in terms of what sorts of
	95	data structures it will properly handle. Catalyst::Controller::REST
	96	makes no attempt to svae you from yourself in this regard. :)
	97
	98	"text/x-yaml" => "YAML::Syck"
	99	Returns YAML generated by YAML::Syck.
	100
	101	"text/html" => "YAML::HTML"
	102	This uses YAML::Syck and URI::Find to generate YAML with all URLs
	103	turned to hyperlinks. Only useable for Serialization.
	104
	105	"text/x-json" => "JSON::Syck"
	106	Uses JSON::Syck to generate JSON output
	107
	108	"text/x-data-dumper" => "Data::Serializer"
	109	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Data::Dumper output.
	110
	111	"text/x-data-denter" => "Data::Serializer"
	112	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Data::Denter output.
	113
	114	"text/x-data-taxi" => "Data::Serializer"
	115	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Data::Taxi output.
	116
	117	"application/x-storable" => "Data::Serializer"
	118	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Storable output.
	119
	120	"application/x-freezethaw" => "Data::Serializer"
	121	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate FreezeThaw output.
01f9819a	122
8f00a41b	123	"text/x-config-general" => "Data::Serializer"
8f00a41b	124	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate Config::General output.
01f9819a	125
8f00a41b	126	"text/x-php-serialization" => "Data::Serializer"
	127	Uses the Data::Serializer module to generate PHP::Serialization
	128	output.
	129
	130	"text/xml" => "XML::Simple"
	131	Uses XML::Simple to generate XML output. This is probably not suitable
	132	for any real heavy XML work. Due to XML::Simples requirement that the
	133	data you serialize be a HASHREF, we transform outgoing data to be in
	134	the form of:
	135
	136	{ data => $yourdata }
	137
	138	By default, Catalyst::Controller::REST will return a "415 Unsupported
	139	Media Type" response if an attempt to use an unsupported content-type is
	140	made. You can ensure that something is always returned by setting the
	141	"default" config option:
	142
367b3ff4	143	__PACKAGE__->config->{'serialize'}->{'default'} = 'text/x-yaml';
8f00a41b	144
367b3ff4	145	Would make it always fall back to the serializer plugin defined for
367b3ff4	146	text/x-yaml.
01f9819a	147
	148	Implementing new Serialization formats is easy! Contributions are most
	149	welcome! See Catalyst::Action::Serialize and
	150	Catalyst::Action::Deserialize for more information.
	151
8f00a41b	152	CUSTOM SERIALIZERS
	153	If you would like to implement a custom serializer, you should create
	154	two new modules in the Catalyst::Action::Serialize and
	155	Catalyst::Action::Deserialize namespace. Then assign your new class to
	156	the content-type's you want, and you're done.
	157
01f9819a	158	STATUS HELPERS
8f00a41b	159	Since so much of REST is in using HTTP, we provide these Status Helpers.
	160	Using them will ensure that you are responding with the proper codes,
	161	headers, and entities.
	162
01f9819a	163	These helpers try and conform to the HTTP 1.1 Specification. You can
8f00a41b	164	refer to it at: <http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt>. These
01f9819a	165	routines are all implemented as regular subroutines, and as such require
	166	you pass the current context ($c) as the first argument.
	167
	168	status_ok
	169	Returns a "200 OK" response. Takes an "entity" to serialize.
	170
	171	Example:
	172
	173	$self->status_ok(
	174	$c,
	175	entity => {
	176	radiohead => "Is a good band!",
	177	}
	178	);
	179
	180	status_created
	181	Returns a "201 CREATED" response. Takes an "entity" to serialize,
	182	and a "location" where the created object can be found.
	183
	184	Example:
	185
	186	$self->status_created(
	187	$c,
	188	location => $c->req->uri->as_string,
	189	entity => {
	190	radiohead => "Is a good band!",
	191	}
	192	);
	193
	194	In the above example, we use the requested URI as our location. This
	195	is probably what you want for most PUT requests.
	196
	197	status_accepted
	198	Returns a "202 ACCEPTED" response. Takes an "entity" to serialize.
	199
	200	Example:
	201
	202	$self->status_accepted(
	203	$c,
	204	entity => {
	205	status => "queued",
	206	}
	207	);
	208
	209	status_bad_request
	210	Returns a "400 BAD REQUEST" response. Takes a "message" argument as
	211	a scalar, which will become the value of "error" in the serialized
	212	response.
	213
	214	Example:
	215
	216	$self->status_bad_request(
	217	$c,
8f00a41b	218	message => "Cannot do what you have asked!",
01f9819a	219	);
	220
	221	status_not_found
	222	Returns a "404 NOT FOUND" response. Takes a "message" argument as a
	223	scalar, which will become the value of "error" in the serialized
	224	response.
	225
	226	Example:
	227
	228	$self->status_not_found(
	229	$c,
8f00a41b	230	message => "Cannot find what you were looking for!",
01f9819a	231	);
	232
	233	MANUAL RESPONSES
	234	If you want to construct your responses yourself, all you need to do is
	235	put the object you want serialized in $c->stash->{'rest'}.
	236
8f00a41b	237	IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS
	238	This Controller ties together Catalyst::Action::REST,
	239	Catalyst::Action::Serialize and Catalyst::Action::Deserialize. It should
	240	be suitable for most applications. You should be aware that it:
	241
	242	Configures the Serialization Actions
	243	This class provides a default configuration for Serialization. It is
	244	currently:
	245
	246	__PACKAGE__->config(
	247	serialize => {
	248	'stash_key' => 'rest',
	249	'map' => {
	250	'text/html' => 'YAML::HTML',
	251	'text/xml' => 'XML::Simple',
	252	'text/x-yaml' => 'YAML',
	253	'text/x-json' => 'JSON',
	254	'text/x-data-dumper' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Data::Dumper' ],
	255	'text/x-data-denter' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Data::Denter' ],
	256	'text/x-data-taxi' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Data::Taxi' ],
	257	'application/x-storable' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Storable'
	258	],
	259	'application/x-freezethaw' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'FreezeThaw'
	260	],
	261	'text/x-config-general' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'Config::General' ]
	262	,
	263	'text/x-php-serialization' => [ 'Data::Serializer', 'PHP::Serializat
	264	ion' ],
	265	},
	266	}
	267	);
	268
	269	You can read the full set of options for this configuration block in
	270	Catalyst::Action::Serialize.
	271
	272	Sets a "begin" and "end" method for you
	273	The "begin" method uses Catalyst::Action::Deserialize. The "end"
	274	method uses Catalyst::Action::Serialize. If you want to override
	275	either behavior, simply implement your own "begin" and "end" actions
	276	and use NEXT:
	277
	278	my Foo::Controller::Monkey;
	279	use base qw(Catalyst::Controller::REST);
	280
	281	sub begin :Private {
	282	my ($self, $c) = @_;
	283	... do things before Deserializing ...
	284	$self->NEXT::begin($c);
	285	... do things after Deserializing ...
	286	}
	287
	288	sub end :Private {
	289	my ($self, $c) = @_;
	290	... do things before Serializing ...
	291	$self->NEXT::end($c);
	292	... do things after Serializing ...
	293	}
	294
	295	A MILD WARNING
	296	I have code in production using Catalyst::Controller::REST. That
	297	said, it is still under development, and it's possible that things
	298	may change between releases. I promise to not break things
	299	unneccesarily. :)
	300
01f9819a	301	SEE ALSO
8f00a41b	302	Catalyst::Action::REST, Catalyst::Action::Serialize,
8f00a41b	303	Catalyst::Action::Deserialize
01f9819a	304
8f00a41b	305	For help with REST in general:
01f9819a	306
8f00a41b	307	The HTTP 1.1 Spec is required reading.
8f00a41b	308	http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt
01f9819a	309
8f00a41b	310	Wikipedia!
8f00a41b	311	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer
01f9819a	312
8f00a41b	313	The REST Wiki: http://rest.blueoxen.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?FrontPage
01f9819a	314
01f9819a	315	AUTHOR
8f00a41b	316	Adam Jacob <adam@stalecoffee.org>, with lots of help from mst and
8f00a41b	317	jrockway
01f9819a	318
8f00a41b	319	Marchex, Inc. paid me while I developed this module.
8f00a41b	320	(http://www.marchex.com)
01f9819a	321
01f9819a	322	LICENSE
8f00a41b	323	You may distribute this code under the same terms as Perl itself.
01f9819a	324