pod fix, thanks Janus
[catagits/Catalyst-Manual.git] / lib / Catalyst / Manual / Tutorial / MoreCatalystBasics.pod
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3533daff 1=head1 NAME
2
3Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::MoreCatalystBasics - Catalyst Tutorial - Part 3: More Catalyst Application Development Basics
4
5
6=head1 OVERVIEW
7
8This is B<Part 3 of 10> for the Catalyst tutorial.
9
10L<Tutorial Overview|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial>
11
12=over 4
13
14=item 1
15
16L<Introduction|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro>
17
18=item 2
19
20L<Catalyst Basics|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::CatalystBasics>
21
22=item 3
23
24B<More Catalyst Basics>
25
26=item 4
27
28L<Basic CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>
29
30=item 5
31
32L<Authentication|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authentication>
33
34=item 6
35
36L<Authorization|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authorization>
37
38=item 7
39
40L<Debugging|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Debugging>
41
42=item 8
43
44L<Testing|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Testing>
45
46=item 9
47
48L<Advanced CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::AdvancedCRUD>
49
50=item 10
51
52L<Appendices|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendices>
53
54=back
55
56
57=head1 DESCRIPTION
58
1390ef0e 59This part of the tutorial builds on the work done in Part 2 to explore
60some features that are more typical of "real world" web applications.
61From this part of the tutorial onward, we will be building a simple
62book database application. Although the application will be too
63limited to be of use to anyone, it should provide a basic environment
64where we can explore a variety of features used in virtually all web
3533daff 65applications.
66
67You can checkout the source code for this example from the catalyst
68subversion repository as per the instructions in
1390ef0e 69L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Intro>.
3533daff 70
71
72=head1 CREATE A NEW APPLICATION
73
1390ef0e 74The remainder of the tutorial will build an application called C<MyApp>.
75First use the Catalyst C<catalyst.pl> script to initialize the framework
76for the C<MyApp> application (make sure you aren't still inside the
77directory of the C<Hello> application from the previous part of the
3533daff 78tutorial):
79
80 $ catalyst.pl MyApp
81 created "MyApp"
82 created "MyApp/script"
83 created "MyApp/lib"
84 created "MyApp/root"
85 ...
86 created "MyApp/script/myapp_create.pl"
87 $ cd MyApp
88
1390ef0e 89This creates a similar skeletal structure to what we saw in Part 2 of
90the tutorial, except with C<MyApp> and C<myapp> substituted for
3533daff 91C<Hello> and C<hello>.
92
93
94=head1 EDIT THE LIST OF CATALYST PLUGINS
95
96One of the greatest benefits of Catalyst is that it has such a large
1390ef0e 97library of plugins and base classes available. Plugins are used to
98seamlessly integrate existing Perl modules into the overall Catalyst
99framework. In general, they do this by adding additional methods to the
100C<context> object (generally written as C<$c>) that Catalyst passes to
101every component throughout the framework.
3533daff 102
103By default, Catalyst enables three plugins/flags:
104
105=over 4
106
1390ef0e 107=item *
3533daff 108
109C<-Debug> Flag
110
111Enables the Catalyst debug output you saw when we started the
112C<script/myapp_server.pl> development server earlier. You can remove
79a529cc 113this item when you place your application into production.
3533daff 114
1390ef0e 115As you may have noticed, C<-Debug> is not a plugin, but a I<flag>.
116Although most of the items specified on the C<__PACKAGE__-E<gt>setup>
117line of your application class will be plugins, Catalyst supports a
118limited number of flag options (of these, C<-Debug> is the most
119common). See the documentation for C<Catalyst.pm> to get details on
120other flags (currently C<-Engine>, C<-Home>, and C<-Log>).
3533daff 121
122If you prefer, you can use the C<$c-E<gt>debug> method to enable debug
123messages.
124
125B<TIP>: Depending on your needs, it can be helpful to permanently
126remove C<-Debug> from C<lib/MyApp.pm> and then use the C<-d> option
127to C<script/myapp_server.pl> to re-enable it just for the development
1390ef0e 128server. We will not be using that approach in the tutorial, but feel
3533daff 129free to make use of it in your own projects.
130
131=item *
132
133L<Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader|Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader>
134
135C<ConfigLoader> provides an automatic way to load configurable
c010ae0d 136parameters for your application from a central
137L<Config::General|Config::General> file (versus having the values
138hard-coded inside your Perl modules). Config::General uses syntax
139very similar to Apache configuration files. We will see how to use
140this feature of Catalyst during the authentication and authorization
141sections (Part 5 and Part 6).
3533daff 142
1390ef0e 143B<IMPORTANT NOTE:> If you are using a version of
144L<Catalyst::Devel|Catalyst::Devel> prior to version 1.06, you need to
145be aware that Catalyst changed from a default format of YAML to the
146more straightforward C<Config::General> format. This tutorial use the
147newer C<myapp.conf> configuration file for C<Config::General> instead
148of C<myapp.yml> for YAML. However, Catalyst has long supported both
149formats and Catalyst will automatically use either C<myapp.conf> or
150C<myapp.yml> (or any other format supported by
056394af 151L<Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader|Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader> and
1390ef0e 152L<Config::Any|Config::Any>). If you are using a versions of
153Catalyst::Devel prior to 1.06, you can convert to the newer format by
8a0214b4 154simply creating the C<myapp.conf> file manually and deleting
1390ef0e 155C<myapp.yml>. The default contents of C<myapp.conf> should only
156consist of one line: C<name MyApp>.
15e1d0b2 157
1390ef0e 158B<TIP>: This script can be useful for converting between configuration
15e1d0b2 159formats:
160
1390ef0e 161 perl -Ilib -e 'use MyApp; use Config::General;
15e1d0b2 162 Config::General->new->save_file("myapp.conf", MyApp->config);'
163
d0496197 164B<NOTE:> The default C<myapp.conf> should look like:
165
166 name MyApp
15e1d0b2 167
3533daff 168=item *
169
170L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple|Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple>
171
172C<Static::Simple> provides an easy method of serving static content such
173as images and CSS files under the development server.
174
175=back
176
94d8da41 177For our application, we want to add one new plugin into the mix. To
1390ef0e 178do this, edit C<lib/MyApp.pm> (this file is generally referred to as
179your I<application class>) and delete the line with:
3533daff 180
1390ef0e 181 __PACKAGE__->setup(qw/-Debug ConfigLoader Static::Simple/);
3533daff 182
1390ef0e 183Then replace it with:
b411df01 184
1390ef0e 185 __PACKAGE__->setup(qw/
186 -Debug
187 ConfigLoader
188 Static::Simple
189
190 StackTrace
191 /);
192
94d8da41 193B<Note:> Recent versions of C<Catalyst::Devel> have used a variety of
194techniques to load these plugins/flags. If you are following along in
195Ubuntu 8.10, you should have C<Catalyst::Devel> v1.07 and see the
196default code shown above. If you are using v1.08, you should see the
197following by default:
198
199 use Catalyst qw/-Debug
200 ConfigLoader
201 Static::Simple/;
202 ...
203 __PACKAGE__->setup();
204
205Don't let these variations confuse you -- they all accomplish the same
206result.
207
1390ef0e 208This tells Catalyst to start using one new plugin,
209L<Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace>, to add a
210stack trace to the standard Catalyst "debug screen" (the screen
211Catalyst sends to your browser when an error occurs). Be aware that
212L<StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace> output appears in your
213browser, not in the console window from which you're running your
214application, which is where logging output usually goes.
3533daff 215
1390ef0e 216B<Notes:>
3533daff 217
218=over 4
219
1390ef0e 220=item *
221
222C<__PACKAGE__> is just a shorthand way of referencing the name of the
223package where it is used. Therefore, in C<MyApp.pm>, C<__PACKAGE__>
224is equivalent to C<MyApp>.
3533daff 225
1390ef0e 226=item *
3533daff 227
1390ef0e 228You will want to disable L<StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace>
229before you put your application into production, but it can be helpful
230during development.
3533daff 231
1390ef0e 232=item *
3533daff 233
1390ef0e 234When specifying plugins on the C<__PACKAGE__-E<gt>setup> line, you can
235omit C<Catalyst::Plugin::> from the name. Additionally, you can
236spread the plugin names across multiple lines as shown here, or place
237them all on one (or more) lines as with the default configuration.
cca5cd98 238
3533daff 239=back
240
3533daff 241
242=head1 CREATE A CATALYST CONTROLLER
243
1390ef0e 244As discussed earlier, controllers are where you write methods that
245interact with user input. Typically, controller methods respond to
3533daff 246C<GET> and C<POST> messages from the user's web browser.
247
248Use the Catalyst C<create> script to add a controller for book-related
249actions:
250
251 $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Books
252 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Controller"
253 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t"
254 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm"
255 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t/controller_Books.t"
256
1390ef0e 257Then edit C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> (as discussed in Part 2 of
258the Tutorial, Catalyst has a separate directory under C<lib/MyApp> for
259each of the three parts of MVC: C<Model>, C<View>, and C<Controller>)
260and add the following method to the controller:
3533daff 261
262 =head2 list
263
264 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
265
266 =cut
1390ef0e 267
3533daff 268 sub list : Local {
269 # Retrieve the usual Perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
270 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
271 # that make up the application
272 my ($self, $c) = @_;
273
274 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
275 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
1390ef0e 276 # $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('DB::Books')->all];
277 # But, for now, use this code until we create the model later
278 $c->stash->{books} = '';
279
3533daff 280 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
281 # in your action methods (action methods respond to user input in
282 # your controllers).
283 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
284 }
285
1390ef0e 286B<TIP>: See Appendix 1 for tips on removing the leading spaces when
287cutting and pasting example code from POD-based documents.
3533daff 288
1390ef0e 289Programmers experienced with object-oriented Perl should recognize
290C<$self> as a reference to the object where this method was called.
291On the other hand, C<$c> will be new to many Perl programmers who have
292not used Catalyst before (it's sometimes written as C<$context>). The
293Context object is automatically passed to all Catalyst components. It
294is used to pass information between components and provide access to
295Catalyst and plugin functionality.
3533daff 296
245b41d1 297Catalyst actions are regular Perl methods, but they make use of
298attributes (the "C<: Local>" next to the "C<sub list>" in the code
0416017e 299above) to provide additional information to the Catalyst dispatcher
300logic (note that the space between the colon and the attribute name is
245b41d1 301optional... you will see attributes written both ways). Most Catalyst
302Controllers use one of five action types:
0416017e 303
304=over 4
305
306=item *
307
245b41d1 308B<:Private> -- Use C<:Private> for methods that you want to make into
309an action, but you do not want Catalyst to directly expose the action
310to your users. Catalyst will not map C<:Private> methods to a URI.
311Use them for various sorts of "special" methods (the C<begin>,
312C<auto>, etc. discussed below) or for methods you want to be able to
313C<forward> or C<detach> to. (If the method is a plain old "helper
314method" that you don't want to be an action at all, then just define
315the method without any attribute -- you can call it in your code, but
316the Catalyst dispatcher will ignore it.)
0416017e 317
245b41d1 318There are five types of "special" build-in C<:Private> actions:
319C<begin>, C<end>, C<default>, C<index>, and C<auto>.
0416017e 320
321=item *
322
323With C<begin>, C<end>, C<default>, C<index> private actions, only the
324most specific action of each type will be called. For example, if you
325define a C<begin> action in your controller it will I<override> a
326C<begin> action in your application/root controller -- I<only> the
327action in your controller will be called.
328
329=item *
330
331Unlike the other actions where only a single method is called for each
332request, I<every> auto action along the chain of namespaces will be
333called. Each C<auto> action will be called I<from the application/root
334controller down through the most specific class>.
335
336=back
337
338=item *
339
245b41d1 340B<:Path> -- C<:Path> actions let you map a method to an explicit URI
341path. For example, "C<:Path('list')>" in
0416017e 342C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> would match on the URL
245b41d1 343C<http://localhost:3000/books/list> but "C<:Path('/list')>" would match
344on C<http://localhost:3000/list>. You can use C<:Args()> to specify
345how many arguments an action should except. See
346L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro/Action_types> for more information and a few
0416017e 347examples.
348
349=item *
350
245b41d1 351B<:Local> -- C<:Local> is merely a shorthand for
352"C<:Path('_name_of_method_')>". For example, these are equivalent:
353"C<sub create_book :Local {...}>" and
354"C<sub create_book :Path('create_book') {...}>".
355
356=item *
357
358B<:Global> -- C<:Global> is merely a shorthand for
359"C<:Path('/_name_of_method_')>". For example, these are equivalent:
360"C<sub create_book :Global {...}>" and
361"C<sub create_book :Path('/create_book') {...}>".
362
363=item *
364
365B<:Chained> -- Newer Catalyst applications tend to use the Chained
0416017e 366dispatch form of action types because of its power and flexibility.
367It allows a series of controller methods to automatically be dispatched
368to service a single user request. See
369L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>
370and L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained|Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained>
371for more information on chained actions.
372
373=back
374
375You should refer to L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro/Action_types> for
376additional information and for coverage of some lesser-used action
245b41d1 377types not discussed here (C<Regex> and C<LocalRegex>).
3533daff 378
379
380=head1 CATALYST VIEWS
381
382As mentioned in Part 2 of the tutorial, views are where you render
1390ef0e 383output, typically for display in the user's web browser (but also
384possibly using other display output-generation systems). The code in
385C<lib/MyApp/View> selects the I<type> of view to use, with the actual
386rendering template found in the C<root> directory. As with virtually
387every aspect of Catalyst, options abound when it comes to the specific
388view technology you adopt inside your application. However, most
389Catalyst applications use the Template Toolkit, known as TT (for more
390information on TT, see L<http://www.template-toolkit.org>). Other
391somewhat popular view technologies include Mason
392(L<http://www.masonhq.com> and L<http://www.masonbook.com>) and
393L<HTML::Template> (L<http://html-template.sourceforge.net>).
394
395
396=head2 Create a Catalyst View
3533daff 397
398When using TT for the Catalyst view, there are two main helper scripts:
399
400=over 4
401
402=item *
403
404L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TT|Catalyst::Helper::View::TT>
405
406=item *
407
408L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite|Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite>
409
410=back
411
de966eb4 412Both helpers are similar. C<TT> creates the C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>
3533daff 413file and leaves the creation of any hierarchical template organization
414entirely up to you. (It also creates a C<t/view_TT.t> file for testing;
de966eb4 415test cases will be discussed in Part 8.) C<TTSite>, on the other hand,
416creates a modular and hierarchical view layout with
1390ef0e 417separate Template Toolkit (TT) files for common header and footer
418information, configuration values, a CSS stylesheet, and more.
419
de966eb4 420While C<TTSite> was useful to bootstrap a project, its use is now
421deprecated and to be considered historical. For most Catalyst
422applications it adds redundant functionality and structure; many in the
423Catalyst community recommend that it's easier to learn both Catalyst and
424Template Toolkit if you use the more basic C<TT> approach.
425Consequently, this tutorial will use "plain old TT."
1390ef0e 426
427Enter the following command to enable the C<TT> style of view
3533daff 428rendering for this tutorial:
429
1390ef0e 430 $ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT
3533daff 431 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/View"
432 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t"
1390ef0e 433 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm"
434 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t/view_TT.t"
3533daff 435
1390ef0e 436This simply creates a view called C<TT> (the second 'TT' argument) in
437a file called C<TT.pm> (the first 'TT' argument). It is now up to you
438to decide how you want to structure your view layout. For the
439tutorial, we will start with a very simple TT template to initially
440demonstrate the concepts, but quickly migrate to a more typical
441"wrapper page" type of configuration (where the "wrapper" controls the
442overall "look and feel" of your site from a single file or set of
443files).
3533daff 444
1390ef0e 445Edit C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm> and you should see that the default
446contents contains something similar to the following:
3533daff 447
1390ef0e 448 __PACKAGE__->config(TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt');
3533daff 449
1390ef0e 450And update it to match:
451
452 __PACKAGE__->config(
453 # Change default TT extension
454 TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt2',
455 # Set the location for TT files
456 INCLUDE_PATH => [
6abd3023 457 MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
1390ef0e 458 ],
459 );
3533daff 460
1390ef0e 461B<NOTE:> Make sure to add a comma after '.tt2' outside the single
462quote.
463
191dee29 464This changes the default extension for Template Toolkit from '.tt' to
1390ef0e 465'.tt2' and changes the base directory for your template files from
de966eb4 466C<root> to C<root/src>. These changes from the default are done mostly
467to facilitate the application we're developing in this tutorial; as with
468most things Perl, there's more than one way to do it...
1390ef0e 469
470
471=head2 Create a TT Template Page
3533daff 472
473First create a directory for book-related TT templates:
474
1390ef0e 475 $ mkdir -p root/src/books
3533daff 476
477Then create C<root/src/books/list.tt2> in your editor and enter:
478
479 [% # This is a TT comment. The '-' at the end "chomps" the newline. You won't -%]
480 [% # see this "chomping" in your browser because HTML ignores blank lines, but -%]
481 [% # it WILL eliminate a blank line if you view the HTML source. It's purely -%]
482 [%- # optional, but both the beginning and the ending TT tags support chomping. -%]
483
1390ef0e 484 [% # Provide a title -%]
3533daff 485 [% META title = 'Book List' -%]
486
487 <table>
488 <tr><th>Title</th><th>Rating</th><th>Author(s)</th></tr>
489 [% # Display each book in a table row %]
490 [% FOREACH book IN books -%]
491 <tr>
492 <td>[% book.title %]</td>
493 <td>[% book.rating %]</td>
494 </tr>
495 [% END -%]
496 </table>
497
498As indicated by the inline comments above, the C<META title> line uses
1390ef0e 499TT's META feature to provide a title to the "wrapper" that we will
500create later. Meanwhile, the C<FOREACH> loop iterates through each
501C<book> model object and prints the C<title> and C<rating> fields.
3533daff 502
503If you are new to TT, the C<[%> and C<%]> tags are used to delimit TT
504code. TT supports a wide variety of directives for "calling" other
505files, looping, conditional logic, etc. In general, TT simplifies the
506usual range of Perl operators down to the single dot (C<.>) operator.
507This applies to operations as diverse as method calls, hash lookups, and
508list index values (see
55beb65d 509L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template::Manual::Variables>
3533daff 510for details and examples). In addition to the usual C<Template> module
511Pod documentation, you can access the TT manual at
55beb65d 512L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template::Manual>.
3533daff 513
1390ef0e 514B<TIP:> While you can build all sorts of complex logic into your TT
515templates, you should in general keep the "code" part of your templates
516as simple as possible. If you need more complex logic, create helper
517methods in your model that abstract out a set of code into a single call
518from your TT template. (Note that the same is true of your controller
519logic as well -- complex sections of code in your controllers should
520often be pulled out and placed into your model objects.)
521
522
523=head2 Test Run The Application
524
525To test your work so far, first start the development server:
526
527 $ script/myapp_server.pl
528
529Then point your browser to L<http://localhost:3000> and you should
530still get the Catalyst welcome page. Next, change the URL in your
531browser to L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>. If you have
532everything working so far, you should see a web page that displays
533nothing other than our column headers for "Title", "Rating", and
534"Author(s)" -- we will not see any books until we get the database and
535model working below.
536
537If you run into problems getting your application to run correctly, it
538might be helpful to refer to some of the debugging techniques covered in
539the L<Debugging|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Debugging> part of the
540tutorial.
3533daff 541
542
543=head1 CREATE A SQLITE DATABASE
544
545In this step, we make a text file with the required SQL commands to
1390ef0e 546create a database table and load some sample data. We will use SQLite,
547a popular database that is lightweight and easy to use. Open
548C<myapp01.sql> in your editor and enter:
3533daff 549
550 --
551 -- Create a very simple database to hold book and author information
552 --
553 CREATE TABLE books (
554 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
555 title TEXT ,
556 rating INTEGER
557 );
558 -- 'book_authors' is a many-to-many join table between books & authors
559 CREATE TABLE book_authors (
560 book_id INTEGER,
561 author_id INTEGER,
562 PRIMARY KEY (book_id, author_id)
563 );
564 CREATE TABLE authors (
565 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
566 first_name TEXT,
567 last_name TEXT
568 );
569 ---
570 --- Load some sample data
571 ---
572 INSERT INTO books VALUES (1, 'CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide', 5);
573 INSERT INTO books VALUES (2, 'TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1', 5);
574 INSERT INTO books VALUES (3, 'Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1', 4);
575 INSERT INTO books VALUES (4, 'Perl Cookbook', 5);
576 INSERT INTO books VALUES (5, 'Designing with Web Standards', 5);
577 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (1, 'Greg', 'Bastien');
578 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (2, 'Sara', 'Nasseh');
579 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (3, 'Christian', 'Degu');
580 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (4, 'Richard', 'Stevens');
581 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (5, 'Douglas', 'Comer');
582 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (6, 'Tom', 'Christiansen');
583 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (7, 'Nathan', 'Torkington');
584 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (8, 'Jeffrey', 'Zeldman');
585 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 1);
586 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 2);
587 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 3);
588 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (2, 4);
589 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (3, 5);
590 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (4, 6);
591 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (4, 7);
592 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (5, 8);
593
3533daff 594Then use the following command to build a C<myapp.db> SQLite database:
595
596 $ sqlite3 myapp.db < myapp01.sql
597
598If you need to create the database more than once, you probably want to
599issue the C<rm myapp.db> command to delete the database before you use
1390ef0e 600the C<sqlite3 myapp.db E<lt> myapp01.sql> command.
3533daff 601
602Once the C<myapp.db> database file has been created and initialized, you
603can use the SQLite command line environment to do a quick dump of the
604database contents:
605
606 $ sqlite3 myapp.db
607 SQLite version 3.4.2
608 Enter ".help" for instructions
609 sqlite> select * from books;
610 1|CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide|5
611 2|TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1|5
612 3|Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1|4
613 4|Perl Cookbook|5
614 5|Designing with Web Standards|5
615 sqlite> .q
616 $
617
618Or:
619
620 $ sqlite3 myapp.db "select * from books"
621 1|CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide|5
622 2|TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1|5
623 3|Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1|4
624 4|Perl Cookbook|5
625 5|Designing with Web Standards|5
626
627As with most other SQL tools, if you are using the full "interactive"
628environment you need to terminate your SQL commands with a ";" (it's not
629required if you do a single SQL statement on the command line). Use
630".q" to exit from SQLite from the SQLite interactive mode and return to
631your OS command prompt.
632
a6d800ac 633For using other databases, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL, see
634L<Appendix 2|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendices>.
3533daff 635
636=head1 DATABASE ACCESS WITH C<DBIx::Class>
637
191dee29 638Catalyst can be used with virtually any form of persistent datastore
639available via Perl. For example,
640L<Catalyst::Model::DBI|Catalyst::Model::DBI> can be used to easily
641access databases through the traditional Perl C<DBI> interface. However,
642most Catalyst applications use some form of ORM technology to
643automatically create and save model objects as they are used. Although
644L<Class::DBI|Class::DBI> has been a popular choice in the past, Matt
645Trout's L<DBIx::Class|DBIx::Class> (abbreviated as "DBIC") has rapidly
646emerged as the Perl-based ORM technology of choice. Most new Catalyst
647applications rely on DBIC, as will this tutorial.
3533daff 648
3533daff 649
1390ef0e 650=head2 Create a Dynamic DBIC Model
651
652Use the C<create=dynamic> model helper option to build a model that
3533daff 653dynamically reads your database structure every time the application
654starts:
655
d0496197 656 $ script/myapp_create.pl model DB DBIC::Schema MyApp::Schema create=dynamic dbi:SQLite:myapp.db
1390ef0e 657 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model"
658 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t"
659 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp"
660 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Schema.pm"
661 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm"
662 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t/model_DB.t"
3533daff 663
664
d0496197 665C<DB> is the name of the model class to be created by the helper in
1390ef0e 666C<lib/MyApp/Model>. C<DBIC::Schema> is the type of the model to
667create. C<MyApp::Schema> is the name of the DBIC schema file written
668to C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm>. Because we specified C<create=dynamic> to
669the helper, it use
670L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> to
671dynamically load the schema information from the database every time
c93b5eaa 672the application starts. DBIC uses the schema to load other classes
673that represent the tables in your database (DBIC refers to these
674"table objects" as "result sources," see
675L<DBIx::Class::ResultSource|DBIx::Class::ResultSource>). And finally,
676C<dbi:SQLite:myapp.db> is the standard DBI connect string for use with
677SQLite.
3533daff 678
d0496197 679B<NOTE:> Although the C<create=dynamic> option to the DBIC helper
19c49089 680makes for a nifty demonstration, is only really suitable for very
681small applications. After this demonstration, you should almost always
682use the C<create=static> option that we switch to below.
dc9a0503 683
684
1390ef0e 685=head1 ENABLE THE MODEL IN THE CONTROLLER
686
191dee29 687Open C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> and un-comment the model code we
688left disabled earlier (un-comment the line containing
1390ef0e 689C<[$c-E<gt>model('DB::Books')-E<gt>all]> and delete the next 2 lines):
690
691 =head2 list
692
693 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
694
695 =cut
696
697 sub list : Local {
698 # Retrieve the usual Perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
699 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
700 # that make up the application
701 my ($self, $c) = @_;
702
703 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
704 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
705 $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('DB::Books')->all];
706
707 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
708 # in your action methods (action methods respond to user input in
709 # your controllers).
710 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
711 }
712
c93b5eaa 713B<TIP>: You may see the C<$c-E<gt>model('DB::Book')> un-commented
714above written as C<$c-E<gt>model('DB')-E<gt>resultset('Book')>. The
715two are equivalent. Either way, C<$c-E<gt>model> returns a
716L<DBIx::Class::ResultSet|DBIx::Class::ResultSet> which handles queries
717against the database and iterating over the set of results that are
718returned.
719
720We are using the C<-E<gt>all> to fetch all of the books. DBIC
721supports a wide variety of more advanced operations to easily do
722things like filtering and sorting the results. For example, the
518f3851 723following could be used to sort the results by descending title:
c93b5eaa 724
725 $c->model('DB::Books')->search({}, {order_by => 'title DESC'});
726
727Some other examples are provided in
728L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Cookbook/Complex WHERE clauses>, with
729additional information found at L<DBIx::Class::ResultSet/search>,
730L<DBIx::Class::Manual::FAQ/Searching>,
731L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Intro|DBIx::Class::Manual::Intro>
732and L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema|Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>.
1390ef0e 733
734
735=head2 Test Run The Application
3533daff 736
737First, let's enable an environment variable option that causes
738DBIx::Class to dump the SQL statements it's using to access the database
739(this option can provide extremely helpful troubleshooting information):
740
741 $ export DBIC_TRACE=1
742
743This assumes you are using BASH as your shell -- adjust accordingly if
744you are using a different shell (for example, under tcsh, use
745C<setenv DBIC_TRACE 1>).
746
d0496197 747B<NOTE:> You can also set this in your code using
3533daff 748C<$class-E<gt>storage-E<gt>debug(1);>. See
749L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Troubleshooting> for details (including options
750to log to file instead of displaying to the Catalyst development server
751log).
752
1390ef0e 753Then launch the Catalyst development server. The log output should
754display something like:
3533daff 755
756 $script/myapp_server.pl
757 [debug] Debug messages enabled
1390ef0e 758 [debug] Statistics enabled
3533daff 759 [debug] Loaded plugins:
760 .----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
1390ef0e 761 | Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader 0.20 |
762 | Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace 0.08 |
3533daff 763 | Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple 0.20 |
764 '----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
765
766 [debug] Loaded dispatcher "Catalyst::Dispatcher"
767 [debug] Loaded engine "Catalyst::Engine::HTTP"
768 [debug] Found home "/home/me/MyApp"
45d511e0 769 [debug] Loaded Config "/home/me/MyApp/myapp.conf"
3533daff 770 [debug] Loaded components:
771 .-----------------------------------------------------------------+----------.
772 | Class | Type |
773 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
774 | MyApp::Controller::Books | instance |
775 | MyApp::Controller::Root | instance |
d0496197 776 | MyApp::Model::DB | instance |
777 | MyApp::Model::DB::Authors | class |
778 | MyApp::Model::DB::BookAuthors | class |
779 | MyApp::Model::DB::Books | class |
3533daff 780 | MyApp::View::TT | instance |
781 '-----------------------------------------------------------------+----------'
782
783 [debug] Loaded Private actions:
784 .----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------.
785 | Private | Class | Method |
786 +----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------+
787 | /default | MyApp::Controller::Root | default |
788 | /end | MyApp::Controller::Root | end |
1390ef0e 789 | /index | MyApp::Controller::Root | index |
3533daff 790 | /books/index | MyApp::Controller::Books | index |
791 | /books/list | MyApp::Controller::Books | list |
792 '----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------'
793
794 [debug] Loaded Path actions:
795 .-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------.
796 | Path | Private |
797 +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
1390ef0e 798 | / | /default |
799 | / | /index |
800 | /books | /books/index |
3533daff 801 | /books/list | /books/list |
802 '-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------'
803
1390ef0e 804 [info] MyApp powered by Catalyst 5.7014
3533daff 805 You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
806
1390ef0e 807B<NOTE:> Be sure you run the C<script/myapp_server.pl> command from
808the 'base' directory of your application, not inside the C<script>
809directory itself or it will not be able to locate the C<myapp.db>
810database file. You can use a fully qualified or a relative path to
811locate the database file, but we did not specify that when we ran the
3533daff 812model helper earlier.
813
814Some things you should note in the output above:
815
816=over 4
817
1390ef0e 818=item *
3533daff 819
1390ef0e 820Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema dynamically created three model classes,
821one to represent each of the three tables in our database
d0496197 822(C<MyApp::Model::DB::Authors>, C<MyApp::Model::DB::BookAuthors>,
823and C<MyApp::Model::DB::Books>).
3533daff 824
1390ef0e 825=item *
3533daff 826
827The "list" action in our Books controller showed up with a path of
828C</books/list>.
829
830=back
831
832Point your browser to L<http://localhost:3000> and you should still get
833the Catalyst welcome page.
834
835Next, to view the book list, change the URL in your browser to
836L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>. You should get a list of the five
1390ef0e 837books loaded by the C<myapp01.sql> script above without any formatting.
838The rating for each book should appear on each row, but the "Author(s)"
191dee29 839column will still be blank (we will fill that in later).
3533daff 840
841Also notice in the output of the C<script/myapp_server.pl> that DBIC
842used the following SQL to retrieve the data:
843
844 SELECT me.id, me.title, me.rating FROM books me
845
846because we enabled DBIC_TRACE.
847
0c51850e 848You now have the beginnings of a simple but workable web application.
3533daff 849Continue on to future sections and we will develop the application
850more fully.
851
852
1390ef0e 853=head1 CREATE A WRAPPER FOR THE VIEW
854
855When using TT, you can (and should!) create a wrapper that will
856literally wrap content around each of your templates. This is
857certainly useful as you have one main source for changing things that
858will appear across your entire site/application instead of having to
859edit many individual files.
860
861
862=head2 Configure TT.pm For The Wrapper
863
864In order to create a wrapper, you must first edit your TT view and
865tell it where to find your wrapper file. Your TT view is located in
866C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>.
867
868Edit C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm> and change it to match the following:
869
870 __PACKAGE__->config(
871 # Change default TT extension
872 TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt2',
873 # Set the location for TT files
874 INCLUDE_PATH => [
c2dfb562 875 MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
1390ef0e 876 ],
877 # Set to 1 for detailed timer stats in your HTML as comments
878 TIMER => 0,
879 # This is your wrapper template located in the 'root/src'
880 WRAPPER => 'wrapper.tt2',
881 );
882
883
884=head2 Create the Wrapper Template File and Stylesheet
885
886Next you need to set up your wrapper template. Basically, you'll want
887to take the overall layout of your site and put it into this file.
888For the tutorial, open C<root/src/wrapper.tt2> and input the following:
889
890 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
891 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
892 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
893 <head>
894 <title>[% template.title or "My Catalyst App!" %]</title>
895 <link rel="stylesheet" href="[% c.uri_for('/static/css/main.css') %]" />
896 </head>
897
898 <body>
899 <div id="outer">
900 <div id="header">
901 [%# Your logo could go here -%]
902 <img src="[% c.uri_for('/static/images/btn_88x31_powered.png') %]" />
903 [%# Insert the page title -%]
904 <h1>[% template.title or site.title %]</h1>
905 </div>
906
907 <div id="bodyblock">
908 <div id="menu">
909 Navigation:
910 <ul>
911 <li><a href="[% c.uri_for('/books/list') %]">Home</a></li>
912 <li><a href="[% c.uri_for('/') %]" title="Catalyst Welcome Page">Welcome</a></li>
913 <li><a href="mailto:nobody@nowhere.com" title="Contact Us">Contact Us</a></li>
914 </ul>
915 </div><!-- end menu -->
916
917 <div id="content">
918 [%# Status and error messages %]
919 <span class="message">[% status_msg %]</span>
920 <span class="error">[% error_msg %]</span>
921 [%# This is where TT will stick all of your template's contents. -%]
922 [% content %]
923 </div><!-- end content -->
924 </div><!-- end bodyblock -->
925
926 <div id="footer">Copyright (c) your name goes here</div>
c2dfb562 927 </div><!-- end outer -->
1390ef0e 928
929 </body>
930 </html>
931
932Notice the status and error message sections in the code above:
933
934 <span class="status">[% status_msg %]</span>
935 <span class="error">[% error_msg %]</span>
936
937If we set either message in the Catalyst stash (e.g.,
938C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{status_msg} = 'Request was successful!'>) it
939will be displayed whenever any view used by that request is rendered.
940The C<message> and C<error> CSS styles can be customized to suit your
941needs in the C<root/static/css/main.css> file we create below.
942
943B<Notes:>
944
945=over 4
946
947=item *
948
949The Catalyst stash only lasts for a single HTTP request. If
950you need to retain information across requests you can use
951L<Catalyst::Plugin::Session|Catalyst::Plugin::Session> (we will use
952Catalyst sessions in the Authentication part of the tutorial).
953
954=item *
955
956Although it is beyond the scope of this tutorial, you may wish to use
957a JavaScript or AJAX tool such as jQuery (L<http://www.jquery.com>) or
958Dojo (L<http://www.dojotoolkit.org>).
959
960=back
961
962
963=head3 Create A Basic Stylesheet
964
965First create a central location for stylesheets under the static
966directory:
967
968 $ mkdir root/static/css
969
970Then open the file C<root/static/css/main.css> (the file referenced in
971the stylesheet href link of our wrapper above) and add the following
972content:
973
974 #header {
975 text-align: center;
976 }
977 #header h1 {
978 margin: 0;
979 }
980 #header img {
981 float: right;
982 }
983 #footer {
984 text-align: center;
985 font-style: italic;
986 padding-top: 20px;
987 }
988 #menu {
989 font-weight: bold;
990 background-color: #ddd;
991 }
992 #menu ul {
993 list-style: none;
994 float: left;
995 margin: 0;
996 padding: 0 0 50% 5px;
997 font-weight: normal;
998 background-color: #ddd;
999 width: 100px;
1000 }
1001 #content {
1002 margin-left: 120px;
1003 }
1004 .message {
1005 color: #390;
1006 }
1007 .error {
1008 color: #f00;
1009 }
1010
1011You may wish to check out a "CSS Framework" like Emastic
1012(L<http://code.google.com/p/emastic/>) as a way to quickly
1013provide lots of high-quality CSS functionality.
1014
1015
1016=head2 Test Run The Application
1017
1018Restart the development server and hit "Reload" in your web browser
1019and you should now see a formatted version of our basic book list.
1020Although our wrapper and stylesheet are obviously very simple, you
1021should see how it allows us to control the overall look of an entire
1022website from two central files. To add new pages to the site, just
1023provide a template that fills in the C<content> section of our wrapper
1024template -- the wrapper will provide the overall feel of the page.
1025
1026
3533daff 1027=head1 A STATIC DATABASE MODEL WITH C<DBIx::Class>
1028
1029=head2 Create Static DBIC Schema Files
1030
1390ef0e 1031Unlike the previous DBIC section where we had C<create=dynamic>
1032automatically discover the structure of the database every time the
1033application started, here we will use static schema files for more
1034control. This is typical of most "real world" applications.
3533daff 1035
1390ef0e 1036One option would be to manually create a separate schema file for each
1037table in the database, however, lets use the same
1038L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> used
1039earlier with C<create=dynamic> to build the static files for us.
9ad715b3 1040First, lets remove the schema file created earlier:
3533daff 1041
1390ef0e 1042 $ rm lib/MyApp/Schema.pm
3533daff 1043
1044Now regenerate the schema using the C<create=static> option:
1045
d0496197 1046 $ script/myapp_create.pl model DB DBIC::Schema MyApp::Schema create=static dbi:SQLite:myapp.db
1047 exists "/home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model"
1048 exists "/home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../t"
1049 Dumping manual schema for MyApp::Schema to directory /home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../lib ...
3533daff 1050 Schema dump completed.
d0496197 1051 exists "/home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm"
3533daff 1052
1390ef0e 1053We could have also deleted C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm>, but it would
3533daff 1054have regenerated the same file (note the C<exists> in the output above).
d0496197 1055If you take a look at C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm>, it simply contains
1056a reference to the actual schema file in C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm>
3533daff 1057along with the database connect string.
1058
1390ef0e 1059If you look in the C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm> file, you will find that it
1060is no longer using
1061L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> as its base
1062class (L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> is
1063only being used by the helper to load the schema once and then create
1064the static files for us) and C<Schema.pm> only contains a call to the
c2dfb562 1065C<load_classes> method. You will also find that C<lib/MyApp>
1390ef0e 1066contains a C<Schema> subdirectory, with one file inside this directory
1067for each of the tables in our simple database (C<Authors.pm>,
1068C<BookAuthors.pm>, and C<Books.pm>). These three files were created
1069based on the information found by
1070L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> as the
1071helper ran.
1072
1073The idea with all of the files created under C<lib/MyApp/Schema> by
1074the C<create=static> option is to only edit the files below the C<# DO
1075NOT MODIFY THIS OR ANYTHING ABOVE!> warning. If you place all of your
3533daff 1076changes below that point in the file, you can regenerate the
1390ef0e 1077automatically created information at the top of each file should your
1078database structure get updated.
3533daff 1079
1390ef0e 1080Also note the "flow" of the model information across the various files
1081and directories. Catalyst will initially load the model from
d0496197 1082C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm>. This file contains a reference to
1083C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm>, so that file is loaded next. Finally,
1390ef0e 1084the call to C<load_classes> in C<Schema.pm> will load each of the
d0496197 1085table-specific "results source" files from the C<lib/MyApp/Schema>
1390ef0e 1086subdirectory. These three table-specific DBIC schema files will then be
1087used to create three table-specific Catalyst models every time the
3533daff 1088application starts (you can see these three model files listed in
1089the debug output generated when you launch the application).
1090
1091
1092=head2 Updating the Generated DBIC Schema Files
1093
3533daff 1094Let's manually add some relationship information to the auto-generated
d0496197 1095schema files. First edit C<lib/MyApp/Schema/Books.pm> and
1390ef0e 1096add the following text below the C<# You can replace this text...>
3533daff 1097comment:
1098
1099 #
1100 # Set relationships:
1390ef0e 1101 #
3533daff 1102
1103 # has_many():
1104 # args:
1105 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1106 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1107 # 3) Column name in *foreign* table
d0496197 1108 __PACKAGE__->has_many(book_authors => 'MyApp::Schema::BookAuthors', 'book_id');
3533daff 1109
1110 # many_to_many():
1111 # args:
1112 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1390ef0e 1113 # 2) Name of has_many() relationship this many_to_many() is shortcut for
1114 # 3) Name of belongs_to() relationship in model class of has_many() above
3533daff 1115 # You must already have the has_many() defined to use a many_to_many().
1116 __PACKAGE__->many_to_many(authors => 'book_authors', 'author');
1117
1118
1119B<Note:> Be careful to put this code I<above> the C<1;> at the end of the
1120file. As with any Perl package, we need to end the last line with
1121a statement that evaluates to C<true>. This is customarily done with
1122C<1;> on a line by itself.
1123
1390ef0e 1124This code defines both a C<has_many> and a C<many_to_many> relationship.
1125The C<many_to_many> relationship is optional, but it makes it easier to
1126map a book to its collection of authors. Without it, we would have to
1127"walk" though the C<book_authors> table as in
1128C<$book-E<gt>book_authors-E<gt>first-E<gt>author-E<gt>last_name>
1129(we will see examples on how to use DBIC objects in your code soon,
1130but note that because C<$book-E<gt>book_authors> can return multiple
1131authors, we have to use C<first> to display a single author).
1132C<many_to_many> allows us to use the shorter
1133C<$book-E<gt>authors-E<gt>first-E<gt>last_name>.
1134Note that you cannot define a C<many_to_many> relationship without
1135also having the C<has_many> relationship in place.
3533daff 1136
d0496197 1137Then edit C<lib/MyApp/Schema/Authors.pm> and add relationship
3533daff 1138information as follows (again, be careful to put in above the C<1;> but
1139below the C<# DO NOT MODIFY THIS OR ANYTHING ABOVE!> comment):
1140
1141 #
1142 # Set relationships:
1143 #
1144
1145 # has_many():
1146 # args:
1147 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1148 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1149 # 3) Column name in *foreign* table
d0496197 1150 __PACKAGE__->has_many(book_author => 'MyApp::Schema::BookAuthors', 'author_id');
3533daff 1151
1152 # many_to_many():
1153 # args:
1154 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1155 # 2) Name of has_many() relationship this many_to_many() is shortcut for
1390ef0e 1156 # 3) Name of belongs_to() relationship in model class of has_many() above
3533daff 1157 # You must already have the has_many() defined to use a many_to_many().
1158 __PACKAGE__->many_to_many(books => 'book_author', 'book');
1159
1390ef0e 1160Finally, do the same for the "join table,"
d0496197 1161C<lib/MyApp/Schema/BookAuthors.pm>:
3533daff 1162
1163 #
1164 # Set relationships:
1165 #
1166
1167 # belongs_to():
1168 # args:
1169 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1170 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1171 # 3) Column name in *this* table
d0496197 1172 __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(book => 'MyApp::Schema::Books', 'book_id');
3533daff 1173
1174 # belongs_to():
1175 # args:
1176 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1177 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1178 # 3) Column name in *this* table
d0496197 1179 __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(author => 'MyApp::Schema::Authors', 'author_id');
3533daff 1180
1181
1390ef0e 1182=head2 Run The Application
3533daff 1183
1184Run the Catalyst "demo server" script with the C<DBIC_TRACE> option
1185(it might still be enabled from earlier in the tutorial, but here
1186is an alternate way to specify the option just in case):
1187
1188 $ DBIC_TRACE=1 script/myapp_server.pl
1189
1390ef0e 1190Make sure that the application loads correctly and that you see the
1191three dynamically created model class (one for each of the
3533daff 1192table-specific schema classes we created).
1193
c2dfb562 1194Then hit the URL L<http://localhost:3000/books/list> and be sure that
1195the book list is displayed via the relationships established above. You
1196can leave the development server running for the next step if you wish.
3533daff 1197
c2dfb562 1198B<Note:> You will not see the authors yet because the view does not yet
1199use the new relations. Read on to the next section where we update the
1200template to do that.
3533daff 1201
1202
1203=head1 UPDATING THE VIEW
1204
1205Let's add a new column to our book list page that takes advantage of
1206the relationship information we manually added to our schema files
1207in the previous section. Edit C<root/src/books/list.tt2> add add the
1208following code below the existing table cell that contains
1390ef0e 1209C<book.rating> (IOW, add a new table cell below the existing two
3533daff 1210C<td> cells):
1211
1212 <td>
1213 [% # First initialize a TT variable to hold a list. Then use a TT FOREACH -%]
1214 [% # loop in 'side effect notation' to load just the last names of the -%]
a0c5188a 1215 [% # authors into the list. Note that the 'push' TT vmethod does not print -%]
3533daff 1216 [% # a value, so nothing will be printed here. But, if you have something -%]
1217 [% # in TT that does return a method and you don't want it printed, you -%]
1218 [% # can: 1) assign it to a bogus value, or 2) use the CALL keyword to -%]
1219 [% # call it and discard the return value. -%]
1220 [% tt_authors = [ ];
1221 tt_authors.push(author.last_name) FOREACH author = book.authors %]
1222 [% # Now use a TT 'virtual method' to display the author count in parens -%]
1223 [% # Note the use of the TT filter "| html" to escape dangerous characters -%]
1224 ([% tt_authors.size | html %])
1225 [% # Use another TT vmethod to join & print the names & comma separators -%]
1226 [% tt_authors.join(', ') | html %]
1227 </td>
1228
1390ef0e 1229Then hit "Reload" in your browser (note that you don't need to reload
3533daff 1230the development server or use the C<-r> option when updating TT
1390ef0e 1231templates) and you should now see the number of authors each book has
1232along with a comma-separated list of the authors' last names. (If you
1233didn't leave the development server running from the previous step,
1234you will obviously need to start it before you can refresh your
1235browser window.)
1236
1237If you are still running the development server with C<DBIC_TRACE>
1238enabled, you should also now see five more C<SELECT> statements in the
1239debug output (one for each book as the authors are being retrieved by
3533daff 1240DBIC).
1241
c2dfb562 1242 SELECT me.id, me.title, me.rating FROM books me:
1243 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '1'
1244 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '2'
1245 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '3'
1246 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '4'
1247 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '5'
1248
1249Also note in C<root/src/books/list.tt2> that we are using "| html", a
1250type of TT filter, to escape characters such as E<lt> and E<gt> to &lt;
1251and &gt; and avoid various types of dangerous hacks against your
1252application. In a real application, you would probably want to put
1253"| html" at the end of every field where a user has control over the
1254information that can appear in that field (and can therefore inject
1255markup or code if you don't "neutralize" those fields). In addition to
1256"| html", Template Toolkit has a variety of other useful filters that
1257can found in the documentation for
1258L<Template::Filters|Template::Filters>.
3533daff 1259
1260
1390ef0e 1261=head1 RUNNING THE APPLICATION FROM THE COMMAND LINE
1262
1263In some situations, it can be useful to run your application and
1264display a page without using a browser. Catalyst lets you do this
1265using the C<scripts/myapp_test.pl> script. Just supply the URL you
1266wish to display and it will run that request through the normal
1267controller dispatch logic and use the appropriate view to render the
1268output (obviously, complex pages may dump a lot of text to your
1269terminal window). For example, if you type:
1270
1271 $ script/myapp_test.pl "/books/list"
1272
1273You should get the same text as if you visited
1274L<http://localhost:3000/books/list> with the normal development server
1275and asked your browser to view the page source.
3533daff 1276
1390ef0e 1277
1278=head1 OPTIONAL INFORMATION
1279
1280B<NOTE: The rest of this part of the tutorial is optional. You can
1281skip to Part 4, L<Basic CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>,
3533daff 1282if you wish.>
1283
1390ef0e 1284=head2 Using C<RenderView> for the Default View
1285
1286Once your controller logic has processed the request from a user, it
1287forwards processing to your view in order to generate the appropriate
3533daff 1288response output. Catalyst uses
1390ef0e 1289L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView|Catalyst::Action::RenderView> by
1290default to automatically performs this operation. If you look in
1291C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Root.pm>, you should see the empty
3533daff 1292definition for the C<sub end> method:
1293
1294 sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {}
1295
1390ef0e 1296The following bullet points provide a quick overview of the
3533daff 1297C<RenderView> process:
1298
1299=over 4
1300
1301=item *
1302
1303C<Root.pm> is designed to hold application-wide logic.
1304
1305=item *
1306
1390ef0e 1307At the end of a given user request, Catalyst will call the most specific
1308C<end> method that's appropriate. For example, if the controller for a
1309request has an C<end> method defined, it will be called. However, if
1310the controller does not define a controller-specific C<end> method, the
3533daff 1311"global" C<end> method in C<Root.pm> will be called.
1312
1313=item *
1314
1315Because the definition includes an C<ActionClass> attribute, the
1316L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView|Catalyst::Action::RenderView> logic
1317will be executed B<after> any code inside the definition of C<sub end>
1318is run. See L<Catalyst::Manual::Actions|Catalyst::Manual::Actions>
1319for more information on C<ActionClass>.
1320
1321=item *
1322
1390ef0e 1323Because C<sub end> is empty, this effectively just runs the default
1324logic in C<RenderView>. However, you can easily extend the
1325C<RenderView> logic by adding your own code inside the empty method body
1326(C<{}>) created by the Catalyst Helpers when we first ran the
1327C<catalyst.pl> to initialize our application. See
1328L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView|Catalyst::Action::RenderView> for more
3533daff 1329detailed information on how to extended C<RenderView> in C<sub end>.
1330
1331=back
1332
1333
1334=head2 Using The Default Template Name
1335
1390ef0e 1336By default, C<Catalyst::View::TT> will look for a template that uses the
1337same name as your controller action, allowing you to save the step of
1338manually specifying the template name in each action. For example, this
1339would allow us to remove the
1340C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{template} = 'books/list.tt2';> line of our
1341C<list> action in the Books controller. Open
3533daff 1342C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> in your editor and comment out this line
1343to match the following (only the C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{template}> line
1344has changed):
1345
1346 =head2 list
1347
1348 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
1349
1350 =cut
1351
1352 sub list : Local {
1353 # Retrieve the usual Perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
1354 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
1355 # that make up the application
1356 my ($self, $c) = @_;
1357
1358 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
1359 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
d0496197 1360 $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('DB::Books')->all];
3533daff 1361
1362 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
1363 # in your action methods (actions methods respond to user input in
1364 # your controllers).
1365 #$c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
1366 }
1367
3533daff 1368
1390ef0e 1369You should now be able to restart the development server as per the
3533daff 1370previous section and access the L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>
1371as before.
1372
1373B<NOTE:> Please note that if you use the default template technique,
1374you will B<not> be able to use either the C<$c-E<gt>forward> or
1390ef0e 1375the C<$c-E<gt>detach> mechanisms (these are discussed in Part 2 and
3533daff 1376Part 9 of the Tutorial).
1377
1378
1379=head2 Return To A Manually-Specified Template
1380
1381In order to be able to use C<$c-E<gt>forward> and C<$c-E<gt>detach>
1382later in the tutorial, you should remove the comment from the
1383statement in C<sub list> in C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm>:
1384
1385 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
1386
1390ef0e 1387Then delete the C<TEMPLATE_EXTENSION> line in
3533daff 1388C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>.
1389
1390ef0e 1390You should then be able to restart the development server and
3533daff 1391access L<http://localhost:3000/books/list> in the same manner as
1392with earlier sections.
1393
1394
1395=head1 AUTHOR
1396
1397Kennedy Clark, C<hkclark@gmail.com>
1398
1399Please report any errors, issues or suggestions to the author. The
1400most recent version of the Catalyst Tutorial can be found at
82ab4bbf 1401L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/Catalyst/Catalyst-Manual/5.70/trunk/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Tutorial/>.
3533daff 1402
45c7830f 1403Copyright 2006-2008, Kennedy Clark, under Creative Commons License
8482d557 1404(L<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/>).