Pull deployment info out

[catagits/Catalyst-Manual.git] / lib / Catalyst / Manual / Deployment.pod

=head1 NAME

Catalyst::Manual::Deployment - Deploying Catalyst

=head1

=head1 mod_perl

L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::Apache::mod_perl>

=head1 FastCGI

=head2 Apache

L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment::Apache::FastCGI>


=head2 mod_perl Deployment

mod_perl is not the best solution for many applications, but we'll list some
pros and cons so you can decide for yourself. The other (recommended)
deployment option is FastCGI, for which see below.

=head3 Pros

=head4 Speed

mod_perl is fast and your app will be loaded in memory
within each Apache process.

=head4 Shared memory for multiple apps

If you need to run several Catalyst apps on the same server, mod_perl will
share the memory for common modules.

=head3 Cons

=head4 Memory usage

Since your application is fully loaded in memory, every Apache process will
be rather large.  This means a large Apache process will be tied up while
serving static files, large files, or dealing with slow clients.  For this
reason, it is best to run a two-tiered web architecture with a lightweight
frontend server passing dynamic requests to a large backend mod_perl
server.

=head4 Reloading

Any changes made to the core code of your app require a full Apache restart.
Catalyst does not support Apache::Reload or StatINC.  This is another good
reason to run a frontend web server where you can set up an
C<ErrorDocument 502> page to report that your app is down for maintenance.

=head4 Cannot run multiple versions of the same app

It is not possible to run two different versions of the same application in
the same Apache instance because the namespaces will collide.

=head4 Cannot run different versions of libraries.

If you have two different applications which run on the same machine,
which need two different versions of a library then the only way to do
this is to have per-vhost perl interpreters (with different library paths).
This is entirely possible, but nullifies all the memory sharing benefits that
you get from having multiple applications sharing the same interpreter.

=head4 Setup

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about setting up mod_perl
to run a Catalyst app.

=head4 1. Install Catalyst::Engine::Apache

You should install the latest versions of both Catalyst and
Catalyst::Engine::Apache.  The Apache engines were separated from the
Catalyst core in version 5.50 to allow for updates to the engine without
requiring a new Catalyst release.

=head4 2. Install Apache with mod_perl

Both Apache 1.3 and Apache 2 are supported, although Apache 2 is highly
recommended.  With Apache 2, make sure you are using the prefork MPM and not
the worker MPM.  The reason for this is that many Perl modules are not
thread-safe and may have problems running within the threaded worker
environment.  Catalyst is thread-safe however, so if you know what you're
doing, you may be able to run using worker.

In Debian, the following commands should get you going.

    apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork
    apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2

=head4 3. Configure your application

Every Catalyst application will automagically become a mod_perl handler
when run within mod_perl.  This makes the configuration extremely easy.
Here is a basic Apache 2 configuration.

    PerlSwitches -I/var/www/MyApp/lib
    PerlModule MyApp

    <Location />
        SetHandler          modperl
        PerlResponseHandler MyApp
    </Location>

The most important line here is C<PerlModule MyApp>.  This causes mod_perl
to preload your entire application into shared memory, including all of your
controller, model, and view classes and configuration.  If you have -Debug
mode enabled, you will see the startup output scroll by when you first
start Apache.

For an example Apache 1.3 configuration, please see the documentation for
L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>.

=head3 Test It

That's it, your app is now a full-fledged mod_perl application!  Try it out
by going to http://your.server.com/.

=head3 Other Options

=head4 Non-root location

You may not always want to run your app at the root of your server or virtual
host.  In this case, it's a simple change to run at any non-root location
of your choice.

    <Location /myapp>
        SetHandler          modperl
        PerlResponseHandler MyApp
    </Location>

When running this way, it is best to make use of the C<uri_for> method in
Catalyst for constructing correct links.

=head4 Static file handling

Static files can be served directly by Apache for a performance boost.

    DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
    <Location /static>
        SetHandler default-handler
    </Location>

This will let all files within root/static be handled directly by Apache.  In
a two-tiered setup, the frontend server should handle static files.
The configuration to do this on the frontend will vary.

The same is accomplished in lighttpd with the following snippet:

   $HTTP["url"] !~ "^/(?:img/|static/|css/|favicon.ico$)" {
         fastcgi.server = (
             "" => (
                 "MyApp" => (
                     "socket"       => "/tmp/myapp.socket",
                     "check-local"  => "disable",
                 )
             )
         )
    }

Which serves everything in the img, static, css directories
statically, as well as the favicon file.

Note the path of the application needs to be stated explicitly in the
web server configuration for both these recipes.

=head2 Catalyst on shared hosting

So, you want to put your Catalyst app out there for the whole world to
see, but you don't want to break the bank. There is an answer - if you
can get shared hosting with FastCGI and a shell, you can install your
Catalyst app in a local directory on your shared host. First, run

    perl -MCPAN -e shell

and go through the standard CPAN configuration process. Then exit out
without installing anything. Next, open your .bashrc and add

    export PATH=$HOME/local/bin:$HOME/local/script:$PATH
    perlversion=`perl -v | grep 'built for' | awk '{print $4}' | sed -e 's/v//;'`
    export PERL5LIB=$HOME/local/share/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib:$PERL5LIB

and log out, then back in again (or run C<". .bashrc"> if you
prefer). Finally, edit C<.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm> and add

    'make_install_arg' => qq[SITEPREFIX=$ENV{HOME}/local],
    'makepl_arg' => qq[INSTALLDIRS=site install_base=$ENV{HOME}/local],

Now you can install the modules you need using CPAN as normal; they
will be installed into your local directory, and perl will pick them
up. Finally, change directory into the root of your virtual host and
symlink your application's script directory in:

    cd path/to/mydomain.com
    ln -s ~/lib/MyApp/script script

And add the following lines to your .htaccess file (assuming the server
is setup to handle .pl as fcgi - you may need to rename the script to
myapp_fastcgi.fcgi and/or use a SetHandler directive):

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/$1 [PT,L]

Now C<http://mydomain.com/> should now Just Work. Congratulations, now
you can tell your friends about your new website (or in our case, tell
the client it's time to pay the invoice :) )

=head2 FastCGI Deployment

FastCGI is a high-performance extension to CGI. It is suitable
for production environments.

=head3 Pros

=head4 Speed

FastCGI performs equally as well as mod_perl.  Don't let the 'CGI' fool you;
your app runs as multiple persistent processes ready to receive connections
from the web server.

=head4 App Server

When using external FastCGI servers, your application runs as a standalone
application server.  It may be restarted independently from the web server.
This allows for a more robust environment and faster reload times when
pushing new app changes.  The frontend server can even be configured to
display a friendly "down for maintenance" page while the application is
restarting.

=head4 Load-balancing

You can launch your application on multiple backend servers and allow the
frontend web server to load-balance between all of them.  And of course, if
one goes down, your app continues to run fine.

=head4 Multiple versions of the same app

Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different
versions of the same app on a single server.

=head4 Can run with threaded Apache

Since your app is not running inside of Apache, the faster mpm_worker module
can be used without worrying about the thread safety of your application.

=head3 Cons

You may have to disable mod_deflate.  If you experience page hangs with
mod_fastcgi then remove deflate.load and deflate.conf from mods-enabled/

=head4 More complex environment

With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running
than when using mod_perl.

=head3 Setup

=head4 1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi

mod_fastcgi for Apache is a third party module, and can be found at
L<http://www.fastcgi.com/>.  It is also packaged in many distributions,
for example, libapache2-mod-fastcgi in Debian. You will also need to install
the L<FCGI> module from cpan.

Important Note! If you experience difficulty properly rendering pages,
try disabling Apache's mod_deflate (Deflate Module), e.g. 'a2dismod deflate'.

=head4 2. Configure your application

    # Serve static content directly
    DocumentRoot  /var/www/MyApp/root
    Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static

    FastCgiServer /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -processes 3
    Alias /myapp/ /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/

    # Or, run at the root
    Alias / /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/

The above commands will launch 3 app processes and make the app available at
/myapp/

=head3 Standalone server mode

While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external
server gives you much more flexibility.

First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket.

    script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d

You can also listen on a TCP port if your web server is not on the same
machine.

    script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l :8080 -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d

You will probably want to write an init script to handle starting/stopping
of the app using the pid file.

Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server.

    # 502 is a Bad Gateway error, and will occur if the backend server is down
    # This allows us to display a friendly static page that says "down for
    # maintenance"
    Alias /_errors /var/www/MyApp/root/error-pages
    ErrorDocument 502 /_errors/502.html

    FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp.fcgi -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
    Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp.fcgi/

    # Or, run at the root
    Alias / /tmp/myapp.fcgi/

=head3 More Info

L<Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI>.

=head2 Development server deployment

The development server is a mini web server written in perl.  If you
expect a low number of hits or you don't need mod_perl/FastCGI speed,
you could use the development server as the application server with a
lightweight proxy web server at the front.  However, consider using
L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork> for this kind of deployment instead, since
it can better handle multiple concurrent requests without forking, or can
prefork a set number of servers for improved performance.

=head3 Pros

As this is an application server setup, the pros are the same as
FastCGI (with the exception of speed).
It is also:

=head4 Simple

The development server is what you create your code on, so if it works
here, it should work in production!

=head3 Cons

=head4 Speed

Not as fast as mod_perl or FastCGI. Needs to fork for each request
that comes in - make sure static files are served by the web server to
save forking.

=head3 Setup

=head4 Start up the development server

   script/myapp_server.pl -p 8080 -k  -f -pidfile=/tmp/myapp.pid

You will probably want to write an init script to handle stop/starting
the app using the pid file.

=head4 Configuring Apache

Make sure mod_proxy is enabled and add:

    # Serve static content directly
    DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
    Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static

    ProxyRequests Off
    <Proxy *>
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
    </Proxy>

    # Need to specifically stop these paths from being passed to proxy
    ProxyPass /static !
    ProxyPass /favicon.ico !

    ProxyPass / http://localhost:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/

    # This is optional if you'd like to show a custom error page
    # if the proxy is not available
    ErrorDocument 502 /static/error_pages/http502.html

You can wrap the above within a VirtualHost container if you want
different apps served on the same host.

=head2 Quick deployment: Building PAR Packages

You have an application running on your development box, but then you
have to quickly move it to another one for
demonstration/deployment/testing...

PAR packages can save you from a lot of trouble here. They are usual Zip
files that contain a blib tree; you can even include all prereqs and a
perl interpreter by setting a few flags!

=head3 Follow these few points to try it out!

1. Install Catalyst and PAR 0.89 (or later)

    % perl -MCPAN -e 'install Catalyst'
    ...
    % perl -MCPAN -e 'install PAR'
    ...

2. Create a application

    % catalyst.pl MyApp
    ...
    % cd MyApp

Recent versions of Catalyst (5.62 and up) include
L<Module::Install::Catalyst>, which simplifies the process greatly.  From the shell in your application directory:

    % perl Makefile.PL
    % make catalyst_par

You can customise the PAR creation process by special "catalyst_par_*" commands
available from L<Module::Install::Catalyst>. You can add these commands in your
Makefile.PL just before the line containing "catalyst;"

    #Makefile.PL example with extra PAR options
    use inc::Module::Install;

    name 'MyApp';
    all_from 'lib\MyApp.pm';

    requires 'Catalyst::Runtime' => '5.80005';
    <snip>
    ...
    <snip>

    catalyst_par_core(1);      # bundle perl core modules in the resulting PAR
    catalyst_par_multiarch(1); # build a multi-architecture PAR file
    catalyst_par_classes(qw/
      Some::Additional::Module
      Some::Other::Module
    /);          # specify additional modules you want to be included into PAR
    catalyst;

    install_script glob('script/*.pl');
    auto_install;
    WriteAll;

Congratulations! Your package "myapp.par" is ready, the following
steps are just optional.

3. Test your PAR package with "parl" (no typo)

    % parl myapp.par
    Usage:
        [parl] myapp[.par] [script] [arguments]

      Examples:
        parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl -r
        myapp myapp_cgi.pl

      Available scripts:
        myapp_cgi.pl
        myapp_create.pl
        myapp_fastcgi.pl
        myapp_server.pl
        myapp_test.pl

    % parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl
    You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000

Yes, this nifty little starter application gets automatically included.
You can also use "catalyst_par_script('myapp_server.pl')" to set a
default script to execute.

6. Want to create a binary that includes the Perl interpreter?

    % pp -o myapp myapp.par
    % ./myapp myapp_server.pl
    You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000

=head2 Serving static content

Serving static content in Catalyst used to be somewhat tricky; the use
of L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple> makes everything much easier.
This plugin will automatically serve your static content during development,
but allows you to easily switch to Apache (or other server) in a
production environment.

=head3 Introduction to Static::Simple

Static::Simple is a plugin that will help to serve static content for your
application. By default, it will serve most types of files, excluding some
standard Template Toolkit extensions, out of your B<root> file directory. All
files are served by path, so if B<images/me.jpg> is requested, then
B<root/images/me.jpg> is found and served.

=head3 Usage

Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to include:

 use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/;

and already files will be served.

=head3 Configuring

Static content is best served from a single directory within your root
directory. Having many different directories such as C<root/css> and
C<root/images> requires more code to manage, because you must separately
identify each static directory--if you decide to add a C<root/js>
directory, you'll need to change your code to account for it. In
contrast, keeping all static directories as subdirectories of a main
C<root/static> directory makes things much easier to manage. Here's an
example of a typical root directory structure:

    root/
    root/content.tt
    root/controller/stuff.tt
    root/header.tt
    root/static/
    root/static/css/main.css
    root/static/images/logo.jpg
    root/static/js/code.js


All static content lives under C<root/static>, with everything else being
Template Toolkit files.

=over 4

=item Include Path

You may of course want to change the default locations, and make
Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as:

 MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [
  MyApp->config->{root},
  '/path/to/my/files'
 ];

When you override include_path, it will not automatically append the
normal root path, so you need to add it yourself if you still want
it. These will be searched in order given, and the first matching file
served.

=item Static directories

If you want to force some directories to be only static, you can set
them using paths relative to the root dir, or regular expressions:

 MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [
   'static',
   qr/^(images|css)/,
 ];

=item File extensions

By default, the following extensions are not served (that is, they will
be processed by Catalyst): B<tmpl, tt, tt2, html, xhtml>. This list can
be replaced easily:

 MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [
    qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/
 ];

=item Ignoring directories

Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path,
directories relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored:

 MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ];

=back

=head3 More information

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/>

=head3 Serving manually with the Static plugin with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl)

In some situations you might want to control things more directly,
using L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static>.

In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin:

    use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/;

You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward
static content to the view, perhaps like this:

    sub end : Private {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

        $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' )
          unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} );
    }

This code will only forward to the view if a template has been
previously defined by a controller and if there is not already data in
C<$c-E<gt>res-E<gt>body>.

Next, create a controller to handle requests for the /static path. Use
the Helper to save time. This command will create a stub controller as
C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Static.pm>.

    $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static

Edit the file and add the following methods:

    # serve all files under /static as static files
    sub default : Path('/static') {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

        # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content
        $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' );

        $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static
    }

    # also handle requests for /favicon.ico
    sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

        $c->serve_static;
    }

You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of
favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header:

    <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" />

=head3 Common problems with the Static plugin

The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to
automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously
difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest
path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install
shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine.

Make sure you are using the latest version (>= 0.16) for best
results. If you are having errors serving CSS files, or if they get
served as text/plain instead of text/css, you may have an outdated
shared-mime-info version. You may also wish to simply use the following
code in your Static controller:

    if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) {
        $c->serve_static( "text/css" );
    } else {
        $c->serve_static;
    }

=head3 Serving Static Files with Apache

When using Apache, you can bypass Catalyst and any Static
plugins/controllers controller by intercepting requests for the
C<root/static> path at the server level. All that is required is to
define a DocumentRoot and add a separate Location block for your static
content. Here is a complete config for this application under mod_perl
1.x:

    <Perl>
        use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib);
    </Perl>
    PerlModule MyApp

    <VirtualHost *>
        ServerName myapp.example.com
        DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
        <Location />
            SetHandler perl-script
            PerlHandler MyApp
        </Location>
        <LocationMatch "/(static|favicon.ico)">
            SetHandler default-handler
        </LocationMatch>
    </VirtualHost>

And here's a simpler example that'll get you started:

    Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/"
    <Location "/static">
        SetHandler none
    </Location>

=head2 Caching

Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to
speed up your applications.

=head3 Cache Plugins

There are three wrapper plugins around common CPAN cache modules:
Cache::FastMmap, Cache::FileCache, and Cache::Memcached.  These can be
used to cache the result of slow operations.

The Catalyst Advent Calendar uses the FileCache plugin to cache the
rendered XHTML version of the source POD document.  This is an ideal
application for a cache because the source document changes
infrequently but may be viewed many times.

    use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache/;

    ...

    use File::stat;
    sub render_pod : Local {
        my ( self, $c ) = @_;

        # the cache is keyed on the filename and the modification time
        # to check for updates to the file.
        my $file  = $c->path_to( 'root', '2005', '11.pod' );
        my $mtime = ( stat $file )->mtime;

        my $cached_pod = $c->cache->get("$file $mtime");
        if ( !$cached_pod ) {
            $cached_pod = do_slow_pod_rendering();
            # cache the result for 12 hours
            $c->cache->set( "$file $mtime", $cached_pod, '12h' );
        }
        $c->stash->{pod} = $cached_pod;
    }

We could actually cache the result forever, but using a value such as 12 hours
allows old entries to be automatically expired when they are no longer needed.

=head3 Page Caching

Another method of caching is to cache the entire HTML page.  While this is
traditionally handled by a front-end proxy server like Squid, the Catalyst
PageCache plugin makes it trivial to cache the entire output from
frequently-used or slow actions.

Many sites have a busy content-filled front page that might look something
like this.  It probably takes a while to process, and will do the exact same
thing for every single user who views the page.

    sub front_page : Path('/') {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

        $c->forward( 'get_news_articles' );
        $c->forward( 'build_lots_of_boxes' );
        $c->forward( 'more_slow_stuff' );

        $c->stash->{template} = 'index.tt';
    }

We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up.

    use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/;

    sub front_page : Path ('/') {
        my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

        $c->cache_page( 300 );

        # same processing as above
    }

Now the entire output of the front page, from <html> to </html>, will be
cached for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, the next request will rebuild the
page and it will be re-cached.

Note that the page cache is keyed on the page URI plus all parameters, so
requests for / and /?foo=bar will result in different cache items.  Also,
only GET requests will be cached by the plugin.

You can even get that front-end Squid proxy to help out by enabling HTTP
headers for the cached page.

    MyApp->config->{page_cache}->{set_http_headers} = 1;

This would now set the following headers so proxies and browsers may cache
the content themselves.

    Cache-Control: max-age=($expire_time - time)
    Expires: $expire_time
    Last-Modified: $cache_created_time

=head3 Template Caching

Template Toolkit provides support for caching compiled versions of your
templates.  To enable this in Catalyst, use the following configuration.
TT will cache compiled templates keyed on the file mtime, so changes will
still be automatically detected.

    package MyApp::View::TT;

    use strict;
    use warnings;
    use base 'Catalyst::View::TT';

    __PACKAGE__->config(
        COMPILE_DIR => '/tmp/template_cache',
    );

    1;

=head3 More Info

See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other
available configuration options.

L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FastMmap>
L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FileCache>
L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::Memcached>
L<Catalyst::Plugin::PageCache>
L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Template-Toolkit/lib/Template/Manual/Config.pod#Caching_and_Compiling_Options>

=head1 Testing

Testing is an integral part of the web application development
process.  Tests make multi developer teams easier to coordinate, and
they help ensure that there are no nasty surprises after upgrades or
alterations.

=head2 Testing

Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during
development and before deployment in a real environment.

C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally
(without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP.

=head3 Tests

Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory:

    mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ ls -l t/
    total 24
    -rw-r--r--  1 chansen  chansen   95 18 Dec 20:50 01app.t
    -rw-r--r--  1 chansen  chansen  190 18 Dec 20:50 02pod.t
    -rw-r--r--  1 chansen  chansen  213 18 Dec 20:50 03podcoverage.t

=over 4

=item C<01app.t>

Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful
response.

=item C<02pod.t>

Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD>
environment variable is true.

=item C<03podcoverage.t>

Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the
C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true.

=back

=head3 Creating tests

    mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d  %s", $., $_ )'
    1  use Test::More tests => 2;
    2  BEGIN { use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' ) }
    3
    4  ok( request('/')->is_success );

The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case
two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The
fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response.

C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can
take three different arguments:

=over 4

=item A string which is a relative or absolute URI.

    request('/my/path');
    request('http://www.host.com/my/path');

=item An instance of C<URI>.

    request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') );

=item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>.

    request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') );

=back

C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the
content (body) of the response.

=head3 Running tests locally

    mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib/ t/
    t/01app............ok
    t/02pod............ok
    t/03podcoverage....ok
    All tests successful.
    Files=3, Tests=4,  2 wallclock secs ( 1.60 cusr +  0.36 csys =  1.96 CPU)

C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0> ensures that debugging is off; if it's enabled you
will see debug logs between tests.

C<TEST_POD=1> enables POD checking and coverage.

C<prove> A command-line tool that makes it easy to run tests. You can
find out more about it from the links below.

=head3 Running tests remotely

    mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/ prove --lib lib/ t/01app.t
    t/01app....ok
    All tests successful.
    Files=1, Tests=2,  0 wallclock secs ( 0.40 cusr +  0.01 csys =  0.41 CPU)

C<CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/> is the absolute deployment URI of
your application. In C<CGI> or C<FastCGI> it should be the host and path
to the script.

=head3 C<Test::WWW::Mechanize> and Catalyst

Be sure to check out C<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>. It makes it easy to
test HTML, forms and links. A short example of usage:

    use Test::More tests => 6;
    BEGIN { use_ok( Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, 'MyApp' ) }

    my $mech = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
    $mech->get_ok("http://localhost/", 'Got index page');
    $mech->title_like( qr/^MyApp on Catalyst/, 'Got right index title' );
    ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Wiki/i ), 'Found link to Wiki' );
    ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Mailing-List/i ), 'Found link to Mailing-List' );
    ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^IRC channel/i ), 'Found link to IRC channel' );

=head3 Further Reading

=over 4

=item Catalyst::Test

L<Catalyst::Test>

=item Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Catalyst/lib/Test/WWW/Mechanize/Catalyst.pm>

=item Test::WWW::Mechanize

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize/Mechanize.pm>

=item WWW::Mechanize

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm>

=item LWP::UserAgent

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm>

=item HTML::Form

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTML/Form.pm>

=item HTTP::Message

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Message.pm>

=item HTTP::Request

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request.pm>

=item HTTP::Request::Common

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request/Common.pm>

=item HTTP::Response

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Response.pm>

=item HTTP::Status

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Status.pm>

=item URI

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI.pm>

=item Test::More

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm>

=item Test::Pod

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod/Pod.pm>

=item Test::Pod::Coverage

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod-Coverage/Coverage.pm>

=item prove (Test::Harness)

L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove>

=back

=head3 More Information

L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles>
L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::ACL>

=head1 AUTHORS

Catalyst Contributors, see Catalyst.pm

=head1 COPYRIGHT

This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut