Add a new section to BasicCRUD covering more advanced features of DBIC ("EXPLORING...
[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
1435672d 143B<IMPORTANT NOTE:> If you are using a version of
144L<Catalyst::Devel|Catalyst::Devel> prior to version 1.06, be aware
145that Catalyst changed the default format from YAML to the more
146straightforward C<Config::General> style. This tutorial uses the
147newer C<myapp.conf> file for C<Config::General>. However, Catalyst
148supports both formats and will automatically use either C<myapp.conf>
149or C<myapp.yml> (or any other format supported by
150L<Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader|Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader> and
151L<Config::Any|Config::Any>). If you are using a version of
152Catalyst::Devel prior to 1.06, you can convert to the newer format by
153simply creating the C<myapp.conf> file manually and deleting
154C<myapp.yml>. The default contents of the C<myapp.conf> you create
155should only consist of one line:
156
157 name MyApp
15e1d0b2 158
1390ef0e 159B<TIP>: This script can be useful for converting between configuration
15e1d0b2 160formats:
161
1390ef0e 162 perl -Ilib -e 'use MyApp; use Config::General;
15e1d0b2 163 Config::General->new->save_file("myapp.conf", MyApp->config);'
164
3533daff 165=item *
166
167L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple|Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple>
168
169C<Static::Simple> provides an easy method of serving static content such
170as images and CSS files under the development server.
171
172=back
173
94d8da41 174For our application, we want to add one new plugin into the mix. To
1390ef0e 175do this, edit C<lib/MyApp.pm> (this file is generally referred to as
176your I<application class>) and delete the line with:
3533daff 177
1390ef0e 178 __PACKAGE__->setup(qw/-Debug ConfigLoader Static::Simple/);
3533daff 179
1390ef0e 180Then replace it with:
b411df01 181
1390ef0e 182 __PACKAGE__->setup(qw/
183 -Debug
184 ConfigLoader
185 Static::Simple
186
187 StackTrace
188 /);
189
94d8da41 190B<Note:> Recent versions of C<Catalyst::Devel> have used a variety of
191techniques to load these plugins/flags. If you are following along in
192Ubuntu 8.10, you should have C<Catalyst::Devel> v1.07 and see the
193default code shown above. If you are using v1.08, you should see the
194following by default:
195
196 use Catalyst qw/-Debug
197 ConfigLoader
198 Static::Simple/;
199 ...
200 __PACKAGE__->setup();
201
202Don't let these variations confuse you -- they all accomplish the same
203result.
204
1390ef0e 205This tells Catalyst to start using one new plugin,
206L<Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace>, to add a
207stack trace to the standard Catalyst "debug screen" (the screen
208Catalyst sends to your browser when an error occurs). Be aware that
209L<StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace> output appears in your
210browser, not in the console window from which you're running your
211application, which is where logging output usually goes.
3533daff 212
1390ef0e 213B<Notes:>
3533daff 214
215=over 4
216
1390ef0e 217=item *
218
219C<__PACKAGE__> is just a shorthand way of referencing the name of the
220package where it is used. Therefore, in C<MyApp.pm>, C<__PACKAGE__>
221is equivalent to C<MyApp>.
3533daff 222
1390ef0e 223=item *
3533daff 224
1390ef0e 225You will want to disable L<StackTrace|Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace>
226before you put your application into production, but it can be helpful
227during development.
3533daff 228
1390ef0e 229=item *
3533daff 230
1390ef0e 231When specifying plugins on the C<__PACKAGE__-E<gt>setup> line, you can
232omit C<Catalyst::Plugin::> from the name. Additionally, you can
233spread the plugin names across multiple lines as shown here, or place
234them all on one (or more) lines as with the default configuration.
cca5cd98 235
3533daff 236=back
237
3533daff 238
239=head1 CREATE A CATALYST CONTROLLER
240
1390ef0e 241As discussed earlier, controllers are where you write methods that
242interact with user input. Typically, controller methods respond to
3533daff 243C<GET> and C<POST> messages from the user's web browser.
244
245Use the Catalyst C<create> script to add a controller for book-related
246actions:
247
248 $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Books
249 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Controller"
250 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t"
251 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm"
252 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t/controller_Books.t"
253
1390ef0e 254Then edit C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> (as discussed in Part 2 of
255the Tutorial, Catalyst has a separate directory under C<lib/MyApp> for
256each of the three parts of MVC: C<Model>, C<View>, and C<Controller>)
257and add the following method to the controller:
3533daff 258
259 =head2 list
260
261 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
262
263 =cut
1390ef0e 264
3533daff 265 sub list : Local {
266 # Retrieve the usual Perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
267 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
268 # that make up the application
269 my ($self, $c) = @_;
270
271 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
272 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
1390ef0e 273 # $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('DB::Books')->all];
274 # But, for now, use this code until we create the model later
275 $c->stash->{books} = '';
276
3533daff 277 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
278 # in your action methods (action methods respond to user input in
279 # your controllers).
280 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
281 }
282
1390ef0e 283B<TIP>: See Appendix 1 for tips on removing the leading spaces when
284cutting and pasting example code from POD-based documents.
3533daff 285
1390ef0e 286Programmers experienced with object-oriented Perl should recognize
287C<$self> as a reference to the object where this method was called.
288On the other hand, C<$c> will be new to many Perl programmers who have
289not used Catalyst before (it's sometimes written as C<$context>). The
290Context object is automatically passed to all Catalyst components. It
291is used to pass information between components and provide access to
292Catalyst and plugin functionality.
3533daff 293
245b41d1 294Catalyst actions are regular Perl methods, but they make use of
295attributes (the "C<: Local>" next to the "C<sub list>" in the code
0416017e 296above) to provide additional information to the Catalyst dispatcher
297logic (note that the space between the colon and the attribute name is
245b41d1 298optional... you will see attributes written both ways). Most Catalyst
299Controllers use one of five action types:
0416017e 300
301=over 4
302
303=item *
304
245b41d1 305B<:Private> -- Use C<:Private> for methods that you want to make into
306an action, but you do not want Catalyst to directly expose the action
307to your users. Catalyst will not map C<:Private> methods to a URI.
308Use them for various sorts of "special" methods (the C<begin>,
309C<auto>, etc. discussed below) or for methods you want to be able to
310C<forward> or C<detach> to. (If the method is a plain old "helper
311method" that you don't want to be an action at all, then just define
312the method without any attribute -- you can call it in your code, but
313the Catalyst dispatcher will ignore it.)
0416017e 314
245b41d1 315There are five types of "special" build-in C<:Private> actions:
316C<begin>, C<end>, C<default>, C<index>, and C<auto>.
0416017e 317
26c9cad5 318=over 4
319
0416017e 320=item *
321
322With C<begin>, C<end>, C<default>, C<index> private actions, only the
323most specific action of each type will be called. For example, if you
324define a C<begin> action in your controller it will I<override> a
325C<begin> action in your application/root controller -- I<only> the
326action in your controller will be called.
327
328=item *
329
330Unlike the other actions where only a single method is called for each
331request, I<every> auto action along the chain of namespaces will be
332called. Each C<auto> action will be called I<from the application/root
333controller down through the most specific class>.
334
335=back
336
337=item *
338
245b41d1 339B<:Path> -- C<:Path> actions let you map a method to an explicit URI
340path. For example, "C<:Path('list')>" in
0416017e 341C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> would match on the URL
245b41d1 342C<http://localhost:3000/books/list> but "C<:Path('/list')>" would match
343on C<http://localhost:3000/list>. You can use C<:Args()> to specify
344how many arguments an action should except. See
345L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro/Action_types> for more information and a few
0416017e 346examples.
347
348=item *
349
245b41d1 350B<:Local> -- C<:Local> is merely a shorthand for
351"C<:Path('_name_of_method_')>". For example, these are equivalent:
352"C<sub create_book :Local {...}>" and
353"C<sub create_book :Path('create_book') {...}>".
354
355=item *
356
357B<:Global> -- C<:Global> is merely a shorthand for
358"C<:Path('/_name_of_method_')>". For example, these are equivalent:
359"C<sub create_book :Global {...}>" and
360"C<sub create_book :Path('/create_book') {...}>".
361
362=item *
363
364B<:Chained> -- Newer Catalyst applications tend to use the Chained
0416017e 365dispatch form of action types because of its power and flexibility.
366It allows a series of controller methods to automatically be dispatched
367to service a single user request. See
368L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>
369and L<Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained|Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained>
370for more information on chained actions.
371
372=back
373
374You should refer to L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro/Action_types> for
375additional information and for coverage of some lesser-used action
245b41d1 376types not discussed here (C<Regex> and C<LocalRegex>).
3533daff 377
378
379=head1 CATALYST VIEWS
380
381As mentioned in Part 2 of the tutorial, views are where you render
1390ef0e 382output, typically for display in the user's web browser (but also
383possibly using other display output-generation systems). The code in
384C<lib/MyApp/View> selects the I<type> of view to use, with the actual
385rendering template found in the C<root> directory. As with virtually
386every aspect of Catalyst, options abound when it comes to the specific
387view technology you adopt inside your application. However, most
388Catalyst applications use the Template Toolkit, known as TT (for more
389information on TT, see L<http://www.template-toolkit.org>). Other
390somewhat popular view technologies include Mason
391(L<http://www.masonhq.com> and L<http://www.masonbook.com>) and
392L<HTML::Template> (L<http://html-template.sourceforge.net>).
393
394
395=head2 Create a Catalyst View
3533daff 396
397When using TT for the Catalyst view, there are two main helper scripts:
398
399=over 4
400
401=item *
402
403L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TT|Catalyst::Helper::View::TT>
404
405=item *
406
407L<Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite|Catalyst::Helper::View::TTSite>
408
409=back
410
de966eb4 411Both helpers are similar. C<TT> creates the C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>
3533daff 412file and leaves the creation of any hierarchical template organization
413entirely up to you. (It also creates a C<t/view_TT.t> file for testing;
de966eb4 414test cases will be discussed in Part 8.) C<TTSite>, on the other hand,
415creates a modular and hierarchical view layout with
1390ef0e 416separate Template Toolkit (TT) files for common header and footer
417information, configuration values, a CSS stylesheet, and more.
418
de966eb4 419While C<TTSite> was useful to bootstrap a project, its use is now
420deprecated and to be considered historical. For most Catalyst
421applications it adds redundant functionality and structure; many in the
422Catalyst community recommend that it's easier to learn both Catalyst and
423Template Toolkit if you use the more basic C<TT> approach.
424Consequently, this tutorial will use "plain old TT."
1390ef0e 425
426Enter the following command to enable the C<TT> style of view
3533daff 427rendering for this tutorial:
428
1390ef0e 429 $ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT
3533daff 430 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/View"
431 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t"
1390ef0e 432 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm"
433 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t/view_TT.t"
3533daff 434
1390ef0e 435This simply creates a view called C<TT> (the second 'TT' argument) in
436a file called C<TT.pm> (the first 'TT' argument). It is now up to you
437to decide how you want to structure your view layout. For the
438tutorial, we will start with a very simple TT template to initially
439demonstrate the concepts, but quickly migrate to a more typical
440"wrapper page" type of configuration (where the "wrapper" controls the
441overall "look and feel" of your site from a single file or set of
442files).
3533daff 443
1390ef0e 444Edit C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm> and you should see that the default
445contents contains something similar to the following:
3533daff 446
1390ef0e 447 __PACKAGE__->config(TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt');
3533daff 448
1390ef0e 449And update it to match:
450
451 __PACKAGE__->config(
452 # Change default TT extension
453 TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt2',
454 # Set the location for TT files
455 INCLUDE_PATH => [
6abd3023 456 MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
1390ef0e 457 ],
458 );
3533daff 459
1390ef0e 460B<NOTE:> Make sure to add a comma after '.tt2' outside the single
461quote.
462
191dee29 463This changes the default extension for Template Toolkit from '.tt' to
1390ef0e 464'.tt2' and changes the base directory for your template files from
de966eb4 465C<root> to C<root/src>. These changes from the default are done mostly
466to facilitate the application we're developing in this tutorial; as with
467most things Perl, there's more than one way to do it...
1390ef0e 468
469
470=head2 Create a TT Template Page
3533daff 471
472First create a directory for book-related TT templates:
473
1390ef0e 474 $ mkdir -p root/src/books
3533daff 475
476Then create C<root/src/books/list.tt2> in your editor and enter:
477
478 [% # This is a TT comment. The '-' at the end "chomps" the newline. You won't -%]
479 [% # see this "chomping" in your browser because HTML ignores blank lines, but -%]
480 [% # it WILL eliminate a blank line if you view the HTML source. It's purely -%]
481 [%- # optional, but both the beginning and the ending TT tags support chomping. -%]
482
1390ef0e 483 [% # Provide a title -%]
3533daff 484 [% META title = 'Book List' -%]
485
486 <table>
487 <tr><th>Title</th><th>Rating</th><th>Author(s)</th></tr>
488 [% # Display each book in a table row %]
489 [% FOREACH book IN books -%]
490 <tr>
491 <td>[% book.title %]</td>
492 <td>[% book.rating %]</td>
493 </tr>
494 [% END -%]
495 </table>
496
497As indicated by the inline comments above, the C<META title> line uses
1390ef0e 498TT's META feature to provide a title to the "wrapper" that we will
499create later. Meanwhile, the C<FOREACH> loop iterates through each
500C<book> model object and prints the C<title> and C<rating> fields.
3533daff 501
502If you are new to TT, the C<[%> and C<%]> tags are used to delimit TT
503code. TT supports a wide variety of directives for "calling" other
504files, looping, conditional logic, etc. In general, TT simplifies the
505usual range of Perl operators down to the single dot (C<.>) operator.
506This applies to operations as diverse as method calls, hash lookups, and
507list index values (see
55beb65d 508L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template::Manual::Variables>
3533daff 509for details and examples). In addition to the usual C<Template> module
510Pod documentation, you can access the TT manual at
55beb65d 511L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template::Manual>.
3533daff 512
1390ef0e 513B<TIP:> While you can build all sorts of complex logic into your TT
514templates, you should in general keep the "code" part of your templates
515as simple as possible. If you need more complex logic, create helper
516methods in your model that abstract out a set of code into a single call
517from your TT template. (Note that the same is true of your controller
518logic as well -- complex sections of code in your controllers should
519often be pulled out and placed into your model objects.)
520
521
522=head2 Test Run The Application
523
524To test your work so far, first start the development server:
525
526 $ script/myapp_server.pl
527
528Then point your browser to L<http://localhost:3000> and you should
529still get the Catalyst welcome page. Next, change the URL in your
530browser to L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>. If you have
531everything working so far, you should see a web page that displays
532nothing other than our column headers for "Title", "Rating", and
533"Author(s)" -- we will not see any books until we get the database and
534model working below.
535
536If you run into problems getting your application to run correctly, it
537might be helpful to refer to some of the debugging techniques covered in
538the L<Debugging|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Debugging> part of the
539tutorial.
3533daff 540
541
542=head1 CREATE A SQLITE DATABASE
543
544In this step, we make a text file with the required SQL commands to
1390ef0e 545create a database table and load some sample data. We will use SQLite,
546a popular database that is lightweight and easy to use. Open
547C<myapp01.sql> in your editor and enter:
3533daff 548
549 --
550 -- Create a very simple database to hold book and author information
551 --
552 CREATE TABLE books (
553 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
554 title TEXT ,
555 rating INTEGER
556 );
557 -- 'book_authors' is a many-to-many join table between books & authors
558 CREATE TABLE book_authors (
559 book_id INTEGER,
560 author_id INTEGER,
561 PRIMARY KEY (book_id, author_id)
562 );
563 CREATE TABLE authors (
564 id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
565 first_name TEXT,
566 last_name TEXT
567 );
568 ---
569 --- Load some sample data
570 ---
571 INSERT INTO books VALUES (1, 'CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide', 5);
572 INSERT INTO books VALUES (2, 'TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1', 5);
573 INSERT INTO books VALUES (3, 'Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1', 4);
574 INSERT INTO books VALUES (4, 'Perl Cookbook', 5);
575 INSERT INTO books VALUES (5, 'Designing with Web Standards', 5);
576 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (1, 'Greg', 'Bastien');
577 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (2, 'Sara', 'Nasseh');
578 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (3, 'Christian', 'Degu');
579 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (4, 'Richard', 'Stevens');
580 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (5, 'Douglas', 'Comer');
581 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (6, 'Tom', 'Christiansen');
582 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (7, 'Nathan', 'Torkington');
583 INSERT INTO authors VALUES (8, 'Jeffrey', 'Zeldman');
584 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 1);
585 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 2);
586 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (1, 3);
587 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (2, 4);
588 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (3, 5);
589 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (4, 6);
590 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (4, 7);
591 INSERT INTO book_authors VALUES (5, 8);
592
3533daff 593Then use the following command to build a C<myapp.db> SQLite database:
594
595 $ sqlite3 myapp.db < myapp01.sql
596
597If you need to create the database more than once, you probably want to
598issue the C<rm myapp.db> command to delete the database before you use
1390ef0e 599the C<sqlite3 myapp.db E<lt> myapp01.sql> command.
3533daff 600
601Once the C<myapp.db> database file has been created and initialized, you
602can use the SQLite command line environment to do a quick dump of the
603database contents:
604
605 $ sqlite3 myapp.db
606 SQLite version 3.4.2
607 Enter ".help" for instructions
608 sqlite> select * from books;
609 1|CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide|5
610 2|TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1|5
611 3|Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1|4
612 4|Perl Cookbook|5
613 5|Designing with Web Standards|5
614 sqlite> .q
615 $
616
617Or:
618
619 $ sqlite3 myapp.db "select * from books"
620 1|CCSP SNRS Exam Certification Guide|5
621 2|TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1|5
622 3|Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1|4
623 4|Perl Cookbook|5
624 5|Designing with Web Standards|5
625
626As with most other SQL tools, if you are using the full "interactive"
627environment you need to terminate your SQL commands with a ";" (it's not
628required if you do a single SQL statement on the command line). Use
629".q" to exit from SQLite from the SQLite interactive mode and return to
630your OS command prompt.
631
a6d800ac 632For using other databases, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL, see
633L<Appendix 2|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Appendices>.
3533daff 634
635=head1 DATABASE ACCESS WITH C<DBIx::Class>
636
191dee29 637Catalyst can be used with virtually any form of persistent datastore
638available via Perl. For example,
639L<Catalyst::Model::DBI|Catalyst::Model::DBI> can be used to easily
640access databases through the traditional Perl C<DBI> interface. However,
641most Catalyst applications use some form of ORM technology to
642automatically create and save model objects as they are used. Although
643L<Class::DBI|Class::DBI> has been a popular choice in the past, Matt
644Trout's L<DBIx::Class|DBIx::Class> (abbreviated as "DBIC") has rapidly
645emerged as the Perl-based ORM technology of choice. Most new Catalyst
646applications rely on DBIC, as will this tutorial.
3533daff 647
3533daff 648
1390ef0e 649=head2 Create a Dynamic DBIC Model
650
651Use the C<create=dynamic> model helper option to build a model that
3533daff 652dynamically reads your database structure every time the application
653starts:
654
d0496197 655 $ script/myapp_create.pl model DB DBIC::Schema MyApp::Schema create=dynamic dbi:SQLite:myapp.db
1390ef0e 656 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model"
657 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t"
658 exists "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp"
659 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Schema.pm"
660 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm"
661 created "/home/me/MyApp/script/../t/model_DB.t"
3533daff 662
663
1435672d 664The C<script/myapp_create.pl> command breaks down like this:
665
666=over 4
667
668=item *
669
d0496197 670C<DB> is the name of the model class to be created by the helper in
1435672d 671C<lib/MyApp/Model>.
672
673=item *
674
675C<DBIC::Schema> is the type of the model to create.
676
677=item *
678
679C<MyApp::Schema> is the name of the DBIC schema file written to
680C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm>.
681
682=item *
683
684Because we specified C<create=dynamic> to the helper, it use
1390ef0e 685L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> to
686dynamically load the schema information from the database every time
1435672d 687the application starts.
688
689=item *
690
691And finally, C<dbi:SQLite:myapp.db> is the standard DBI connect string
692for use with SQLite.
693
694=back
3533daff 695
d0496197 696B<NOTE:> Although the C<create=dynamic> option to the DBIC helper
19c49089 697makes for a nifty demonstration, is only really suitable for very
698small applications. After this demonstration, you should almost always
699use the C<create=static> option that we switch to below.
dc9a0503 700
701
1390ef0e 702=head1 ENABLE THE MODEL IN THE CONTROLLER
703
191dee29 704Open C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> and un-comment the model code we
705left disabled earlier (un-comment the line containing
1390ef0e 706C<[$c-E<gt>model('DB::Books')-E<gt>all]> and delete the next 2 lines):
707
708 =head2 list
709
710 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
711
712 =cut
713
714 sub list : Local {
715 # Retrieve the usual Perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
716 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
717 # that make up the application
718 my ($self, $c) = @_;
719
720 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
721 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
722 $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('DB::Books')->all];
723
724 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
725 # in your action methods (action methods respond to user input in
726 # your controllers).
727 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
728 }
729
1435672d 730B<TIP>: You may see the C<$c-E<gt>model('DB::Books')> un-commented
731above written as C<$c-E<gt>model('DB')-E<gt>resultset('Books')>. The
c93b5eaa 732two are equivalent. Either way, C<$c-E<gt>model> returns a
733L<DBIx::Class::ResultSet|DBIx::Class::ResultSet> which handles queries
734against the database and iterating over the set of results that are
735returned.
736
737We are using the C<-E<gt>all> to fetch all of the books. DBIC
738supports a wide variety of more advanced operations to easily do
739things like filtering and sorting the results. For example, the
518f3851 740following could be used to sort the results by descending title:
c93b5eaa 741
742 $c->model('DB::Books')->search({}, {order_by => 'title DESC'});
743
744Some other examples are provided in
745L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Cookbook/Complex WHERE clauses>, with
746additional information found at L<DBIx::Class::ResultSet/search>,
747L<DBIx::Class::Manual::FAQ/Searching>,
748L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Intro|DBIx::Class::Manual::Intro>
749and L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema|Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>.
1390ef0e 750
751
752=head2 Test Run The Application
3533daff 753
1435672d 754First, let's enable an environment variable that causes DBIx::Class to
755dump the SQL statements usedß to access the database. This is a
756helpful trick when you are trying to debug your database-oriented
757code:
3533daff 758
759 $ export DBIC_TRACE=1
760
761This assumes you are using BASH as your shell -- adjust accordingly if
762you are using a different shell (for example, under tcsh, use
763C<setenv DBIC_TRACE 1>).
764
d0496197 765B<NOTE:> You can also set this in your code using
3533daff 766C<$class-E<gt>storage-E<gt>debug(1);>. See
767L<DBIx::Class::Manual::Troubleshooting> for details (including options
768to log to file instead of displaying to the Catalyst development server
769log).
770
1390ef0e 771Then launch the Catalyst development server. The log output should
772display something like:
3533daff 773
774 $script/myapp_server.pl
775 [debug] Debug messages enabled
1390ef0e 776 [debug] Statistics enabled
3533daff 777 [debug] Loaded plugins:
778 .----------------------------------------------------------------------------.
1390ef0e 779 | Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader 0.20 |
780 | Catalyst::Plugin::StackTrace 0.08 |
3533daff 781 | Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple 0.20 |
782 '----------------------------------------------------------------------------'
783
784 [debug] Loaded dispatcher "Catalyst::Dispatcher"
785 [debug] Loaded engine "Catalyst::Engine::HTTP"
786 [debug] Found home "/home/me/MyApp"
45d511e0 787 [debug] Loaded Config "/home/me/MyApp/myapp.conf"
3533daff 788 [debug] Loaded components:
789 .-----------------------------------------------------------------+----------.
790 | Class | Type |
791 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+----------+
792 | MyApp::Controller::Books | instance |
793 | MyApp::Controller::Root | instance |
d0496197 794 | MyApp::Model::DB | instance |
795 | MyApp::Model::DB::Authors | class |
796 | MyApp::Model::DB::BookAuthors | class |
797 | MyApp::Model::DB::Books | class |
3533daff 798 | MyApp::View::TT | instance |
799 '-----------------------------------------------------------------+----------'
800
801 [debug] Loaded Private actions:
802 .----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------.
803 | Private | Class | Method |
804 +----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------+
805 | /default | MyApp::Controller::Root | default |
806 | /end | MyApp::Controller::Root | end |
1390ef0e 807 | /index | MyApp::Controller::Root | index |
3533daff 808 | /books/index | MyApp::Controller::Books | index |
809 | /books/list | MyApp::Controller::Books | list |
810 '----------------------+--------------------------------------+--------------'
811
812 [debug] Loaded Path actions:
813 .-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------.
814 | Path | Private |
815 +-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
1390ef0e 816 | / | /default |
817 | / | /index |
818 | /books | /books/index |
3533daff 819 | /books/list | /books/list |
820 '-------------------------------------+--------------------------------------'
821
1390ef0e 822 [info] MyApp powered by Catalyst 5.7014
3533daff 823 You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
824
1390ef0e 825B<NOTE:> Be sure you run the C<script/myapp_server.pl> command from
826the 'base' directory of your application, not inside the C<script>
827directory itself or it will not be able to locate the C<myapp.db>
828database file. You can use a fully qualified or a relative path to
829locate the database file, but we did not specify that when we ran the
3533daff 830model helper earlier.
831
832Some things you should note in the output above:
833
834=over 4
835
1390ef0e 836=item *
3533daff 837
1390ef0e 838Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema dynamically created three model classes,
839one to represent each of the three tables in our database
d0496197 840(C<MyApp::Model::DB::Authors>, C<MyApp::Model::DB::BookAuthors>,
841and C<MyApp::Model::DB::Books>).
3533daff 842
1390ef0e 843=item *
3533daff 844
845The "list" action in our Books controller showed up with a path of
846C</books/list>.
847
848=back
849
850Point your browser to L<http://localhost:3000> and you should still get
851the Catalyst welcome page.
852
853Next, to view the book list, change the URL in your browser to
854L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>. You should get a list of the five
1390ef0e 855books loaded by the C<myapp01.sql> script above without any formatting.
856The rating for each book should appear on each row, but the "Author(s)"
191dee29 857column will still be blank (we will fill that in later).
3533daff 858
859Also notice in the output of the C<script/myapp_server.pl> that DBIC
860used the following SQL to retrieve the data:
861
862 SELECT me.id, me.title, me.rating FROM books me
863
864because we enabled DBIC_TRACE.
865
0c51850e 866You now have the beginnings of a simple but workable web application.
3533daff 867Continue on to future sections and we will develop the application
868more fully.
869
870
1390ef0e 871=head1 CREATE A WRAPPER FOR THE VIEW
872
873When using TT, you can (and should!) create a wrapper that will
874literally wrap content around each of your templates. This is
875certainly useful as you have one main source for changing things that
876will appear across your entire site/application instead of having to
877edit many individual files.
878
879
880=head2 Configure TT.pm For The Wrapper
881
882In order to create a wrapper, you must first edit your TT view and
883tell it where to find your wrapper file. Your TT view is located in
884C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>.
885
886Edit C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm> and change it to match the following:
887
888 __PACKAGE__->config(
889 # Change default TT extension
890 TEMPLATE_EXTENSION => '.tt2',
891 # Set the location for TT files
892 INCLUDE_PATH => [
c2dfb562 893 MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
1390ef0e 894 ],
895 # Set to 1 for detailed timer stats in your HTML as comments
896 TIMER => 0,
897 # This is your wrapper template located in the 'root/src'
898 WRAPPER => 'wrapper.tt2',
899 );
900
901
902=head2 Create the Wrapper Template File and Stylesheet
903
904Next you need to set up your wrapper template. Basically, you'll want
905to take the overall layout of your site and put it into this file.
906For the tutorial, open C<root/src/wrapper.tt2> and input the following:
907
908 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
909 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
910 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
911 <head>
912 <title>[% template.title or "My Catalyst App!" %]</title>
913 <link rel="stylesheet" href="[% c.uri_for('/static/css/main.css') %]" />
914 </head>
915
916 <body>
917 <div id="outer">
918 <div id="header">
919 [%# Your logo could go here -%]
920 <img src="[% c.uri_for('/static/images/btn_88x31_powered.png') %]" />
921 [%# Insert the page title -%]
922 <h1>[% template.title or site.title %]</h1>
923 </div>
924
925 <div id="bodyblock">
926 <div id="menu">
927 Navigation:
928 <ul>
929 <li><a href="[% c.uri_for('/books/list') %]">Home</a></li>
930 <li><a href="[% c.uri_for('/') %]" title="Catalyst Welcome Page">Welcome</a></li>
931 <li><a href="mailto:nobody@nowhere.com" title="Contact Us">Contact Us</a></li>
932 </ul>
933 </div><!-- end menu -->
934
935 <div id="content">
936 [%# Status and error messages %]
937 <span class="message">[% status_msg %]</span>
938 <span class="error">[% error_msg %]</span>
939 [%# This is where TT will stick all of your template's contents. -%]
940 [% content %]
941 </div><!-- end content -->
942 </div><!-- end bodyblock -->
943
944 <div id="footer">Copyright (c) your name goes here</div>
c2dfb562 945 </div><!-- end outer -->
1390ef0e 946
947 </body>
948 </html>
949
950Notice the status and error message sections in the code above:
951
952 <span class="status">[% status_msg %]</span>
953 <span class="error">[% error_msg %]</span>
954
955If we set either message in the Catalyst stash (e.g.,
956C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{status_msg} = 'Request was successful!'>) it
957will be displayed whenever any view used by that request is rendered.
958The C<message> and C<error> CSS styles can be customized to suit your
959needs in the C<root/static/css/main.css> file we create below.
960
961B<Notes:>
962
963=over 4
964
965=item *
966
967The Catalyst stash only lasts for a single HTTP request. If
968you need to retain information across requests you can use
969L<Catalyst::Plugin::Session|Catalyst::Plugin::Session> (we will use
970Catalyst sessions in the Authentication part of the tutorial).
971
972=item *
973
974Although it is beyond the scope of this tutorial, you may wish to use
975a JavaScript or AJAX tool such as jQuery (L<http://www.jquery.com>) or
976Dojo (L<http://www.dojotoolkit.org>).
977
978=back
979
980
981=head3 Create A Basic Stylesheet
982
983First create a central location for stylesheets under the static
984directory:
985
986 $ mkdir root/static/css
987
988Then open the file C<root/static/css/main.css> (the file referenced in
989the stylesheet href link of our wrapper above) and add the following
990content:
991
992 #header {
993 text-align: center;
994 }
995 #header h1 {
996 margin: 0;
997 }
998 #header img {
999 float: right;
1000 }
1001 #footer {
1002 text-align: center;
1003 font-style: italic;
1004 padding-top: 20px;
1005 }
1006 #menu {
1007 font-weight: bold;
1008 background-color: #ddd;
1009 }
1010 #menu ul {
1011 list-style: none;
1012 float: left;
1013 margin: 0;
1014 padding: 0 0 50% 5px;
1015 font-weight: normal;
1016 background-color: #ddd;
1017 width: 100px;
1018 }
1019 #content {
1020 margin-left: 120px;
1021 }
1022 .message {
1023 color: #390;
1024 }
1025 .error {
1026 color: #f00;
1027 }
1028
1029You may wish to check out a "CSS Framework" like Emastic
1030(L<http://code.google.com/p/emastic/>) as a way to quickly
1031provide lots of high-quality CSS functionality.
1032
1033
1034=head2 Test Run The Application
1035
1036Restart the development server and hit "Reload" in your web browser
1037and you should now see a formatted version of our basic book list.
1038Although our wrapper and stylesheet are obviously very simple, you
1039should see how it allows us to control the overall look of an entire
1040website from two central files. To add new pages to the site, just
1041provide a template that fills in the C<content> section of our wrapper
1042template -- the wrapper will provide the overall feel of the page.
1043
1044
3533daff 1045=head1 A STATIC DATABASE MODEL WITH C<DBIx::Class>
1046
1047=head2 Create Static DBIC Schema Files
1048
1390ef0e 1049Unlike the previous DBIC section where we had C<create=dynamic>
1050automatically discover the structure of the database every time the
1051application started, here we will use static schema files for more
1052control. This is typical of most "real world" applications.
3533daff 1053
1390ef0e 1054One option would be to manually create a separate schema file for each
1055table in the database, however, lets use the same
1056L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> used
1057earlier with C<create=dynamic> to build the static files for us.
9ad715b3 1058First, lets remove the schema file created earlier:
3533daff 1059
1390ef0e 1060 $ rm lib/MyApp/Schema.pm
3533daff 1061
1062Now regenerate the schema using the C<create=static> option:
1063
d0496197 1064 $ script/myapp_create.pl model DB DBIC::Schema MyApp::Schema create=static dbi:SQLite:myapp.db
1065 exists "/home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model"
1066 exists "/home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../t"
1067 Dumping manual schema for MyApp::Schema to directory /home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../lib ...
3533daff 1068 Schema dump completed.
d0496197 1069 exists "/home/kclark/dev/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm"
3533daff 1070
1390ef0e 1071We could have also deleted C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm>, but it would
3533daff 1072have regenerated the same file (note the C<exists> in the output above).
d0496197 1073If you take a look at C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm>, it simply contains
1074a reference to the actual schema file in C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm>
3533daff 1075along with the database connect string.
1076
1390ef0e 1077If you look in the C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm> file, you will find that it
1078is no longer using
1079L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> as its base
1080class (L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> is
1081only being used by the helper to load the schema once and then create
1082the static files for us) and C<Schema.pm> only contains a call to the
c2dfb562 1083C<load_classes> method. You will also find that C<lib/MyApp>
1390ef0e 1084contains a C<Schema> subdirectory, with one file inside this directory
1085for each of the tables in our simple database (C<Authors.pm>,
1086C<BookAuthors.pm>, and C<Books.pm>). These three files were created
1087based on the information found by
1088L<DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader|DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader> as the
1089helper ran.
1090
1091The idea with all of the files created under C<lib/MyApp/Schema> by
1092the C<create=static> option is to only edit the files below the C<# DO
1093NOT MODIFY THIS OR ANYTHING ABOVE!> warning. If you place all of your
3533daff 1094changes below that point in the file, you can regenerate the
1390ef0e 1095automatically created information at the top of each file should your
1096database structure get updated.
3533daff 1097
feb4555a 1098Also note the "flow" of the model information across the various files
1099and directories. Catalyst will initially load the model from
1100C<lib/MyApp/Model/DB.pm>. This file contains a reference to
1101C<lib/MyApp/Schema.pm>, so that file is loaded next. Finally, the
1102call to C<load_classes> in C<Schema.pm> will load each of the "result
1103class" files from the C<lib/MyApp/Schema> subdirectory. The end
1104result is that Catalyst will dynamically create three table-specific
1105Catalyst models every time the application starts (you can see these
1106three model files listed in the debug output generated when you launch
1107the application).
1108
1109B<NOTE:> The version of
1110L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema|Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema> in
1111Ubuntu 8.10 uses the older DBIC C<load_classes> vs. the newer
1112C<load_namspaces> technique. For new applications, please try to use
1113C<load_namespaces> since it more easily supports a very useful DBIC
1cde0fd6 1114technique called "ResultSet Classes." We will migrate to
1115C<load_namespaces> in Part 4 (BasicCRUD) of this tutorial.
3533daff 1116
1117
1118=head2 Updating the Generated DBIC Schema Files
1119
3533daff 1120Let's manually add some relationship information to the auto-generated
d0496197 1121schema files. First edit C<lib/MyApp/Schema/Books.pm> and
1390ef0e 1122add the following text below the C<# You can replace this text...>
3533daff 1123comment:
1124
1125 #
1126 # Set relationships:
1390ef0e 1127 #
3533daff 1128
1129 # has_many():
1130 # args:
1131 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1132 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1435672d 1133 # 3) Column name in *foreign* table (aka, foreign key in peer table)
d0496197 1134 __PACKAGE__->has_many(book_authors => 'MyApp::Schema::BookAuthors', 'book_id');
3533daff 1135
1136 # many_to_many():
1137 # args:
1138 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1390ef0e 1139 # 2) Name of has_many() relationship this many_to_many() is shortcut for
1140 # 3) Name of belongs_to() relationship in model class of has_many() above
3533daff 1141 # You must already have the has_many() defined to use a many_to_many().
1142 __PACKAGE__->many_to_many(authors => 'book_authors', 'author');
1143
1144
1145B<Note:> Be careful to put this code I<above> the C<1;> at the end of the
1146file. As with any Perl package, we need to end the last line with
1147a statement that evaluates to C<true>. This is customarily done with
1148C<1;> on a line by itself.
1149
1390ef0e 1150This code defines both a C<has_many> and a C<many_to_many> relationship.
1151The C<many_to_many> relationship is optional, but it makes it easier to
1152map a book to its collection of authors. Without it, we would have to
1153"walk" though the C<book_authors> table as in
1154C<$book-E<gt>book_authors-E<gt>first-E<gt>author-E<gt>last_name>
1155(we will see examples on how to use DBIC objects in your code soon,
1156but note that because C<$book-E<gt>book_authors> can return multiple
1157authors, we have to use C<first> to display a single author).
1158C<many_to_many> allows us to use the shorter
1159C<$book-E<gt>authors-E<gt>first-E<gt>last_name>.
1160Note that you cannot define a C<many_to_many> relationship without
1161also having the C<has_many> relationship in place.
3533daff 1162
d0496197 1163Then edit C<lib/MyApp/Schema/Authors.pm> and add relationship
3533daff 1164information as follows (again, be careful to put in above the C<1;> but
1165below the C<# DO NOT MODIFY THIS OR ANYTHING ABOVE!> comment):
1166
1167 #
1168 # Set relationships:
1169 #
1170
1171 # has_many():
1172 # args:
1173 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1174 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1435672d 1175 # 3) Column name in *foreign* table (aka, foreign key in peer table)
d0496197 1176 __PACKAGE__->has_many(book_author => 'MyApp::Schema::BookAuthors', 'author_id');
3533daff 1177
1178 # many_to_many():
1179 # args:
1180 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1181 # 2) Name of has_many() relationship this many_to_many() is shortcut for
1390ef0e 1182 # 3) Name of belongs_to() relationship in model class of has_many() above
3533daff 1183 # You must already have the has_many() defined to use a many_to_many().
1184 __PACKAGE__->many_to_many(books => 'book_author', 'book');
1185
1390ef0e 1186Finally, do the same for the "join table,"
d0496197 1187C<lib/MyApp/Schema/BookAuthors.pm>:
3533daff 1188
1189 #
1190 # Set relationships:
1191 #
1192
1193 # belongs_to():
1194 # args:
1195 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1196 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1197 # 3) Column name in *this* table
d0496197 1198 __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(book => 'MyApp::Schema::Books', 'book_id');
3533daff 1199
1200 # belongs_to():
1201 # args:
1202 # 1) Name of relationship, DBIC will create accessor with this name
1203 # 2) Name of the model class referenced by this relationship
1204 # 3) Column name in *this* table
d0496197 1205 __PACKAGE__->belongs_to(author => 'MyApp::Schema::Authors', 'author_id');
3533daff 1206
1207
1390ef0e 1208=head2 Run The Application
3533daff 1209
1210Run the Catalyst "demo server" script with the C<DBIC_TRACE> option
1211(it might still be enabled from earlier in the tutorial, but here
1212is an alternate way to specify the option just in case):
1213
1214 $ DBIC_TRACE=1 script/myapp_server.pl
1215
1390ef0e 1216Make sure that the application loads correctly and that you see the
1217three dynamically created model class (one for each of the
3533daff 1218table-specific schema classes we created).
1219
c2dfb562 1220Then hit the URL L<http://localhost:3000/books/list> and be sure that
1221the book list is displayed via the relationships established above. You
1222can leave the development server running for the next step if you wish.
3533daff 1223
c2dfb562 1224B<Note:> You will not see the authors yet because the view does not yet
1225use the new relations. Read on to the next section where we update the
1226template to do that.
3533daff 1227
1228
1229=head1 UPDATING THE VIEW
1230
1231Let's add a new column to our book list page that takes advantage of
1232the relationship information we manually added to our schema files
1233in the previous section. Edit C<root/src/books/list.tt2> add add the
1234following code below the existing table cell that contains
1390ef0e 1235C<book.rating> (IOW, add a new table cell below the existing two
3533daff 1236C<td> cells):
1237
1238 <td>
1239 [% # First initialize a TT variable to hold a list. Then use a TT FOREACH -%]
1240 [% # loop in 'side effect notation' to load just the last names of the -%]
a0c5188a 1241 [% # authors into the list. Note that the 'push' TT vmethod does not print -%]
3533daff 1242 [% # a value, so nothing will be printed here. But, if you have something -%]
1243 [% # in TT that does return a method and you don't want it printed, you -%]
1244 [% # can: 1) assign it to a bogus value, or 2) use the CALL keyword to -%]
1245 [% # call it and discard the return value. -%]
1246 [% tt_authors = [ ];
1247 tt_authors.push(author.last_name) FOREACH author = book.authors %]
1248 [% # Now use a TT 'virtual method' to display the author count in parens -%]
1249 [% # Note the use of the TT filter "| html" to escape dangerous characters -%]
1250 ([% tt_authors.size | html %])
1251 [% # Use another TT vmethod to join & print the names & comma separators -%]
1252 [% tt_authors.join(', ') | html %]
1253 </td>
1254
1390ef0e 1255Then hit "Reload" in your browser (note that you don't need to reload
3533daff 1256the development server or use the C<-r> option when updating TT
1390ef0e 1257templates) and you should now see the number of authors each book has
1258along with a comma-separated list of the authors' last names. (If you
1259didn't leave the development server running from the previous step,
1260you will obviously need to start it before you can refresh your
1261browser window.)
1262
1263If you are still running the development server with C<DBIC_TRACE>
1264enabled, you should also now see five more C<SELECT> statements in the
1265debug output (one for each book as the authors are being retrieved by
3533daff 1266DBIC).
1267
c2dfb562 1268 SELECT me.id, me.title, me.rating FROM books me:
1269 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '1'
1270 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '2'
1271 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '3'
1272 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '4'
1273 SELECT me.book_id, me.author_id FROM book_authors me WHERE ( me.book_id = ? ): '5'
1274
1275Also note in C<root/src/books/list.tt2> that we are using "| html", a
1276type of TT filter, to escape characters such as E<lt> and E<gt> to &lt;
1277and &gt; and avoid various types of dangerous hacks against your
1278application. In a real application, you would probably want to put
1279"| html" at the end of every field where a user has control over the
1280information that can appear in that field (and can therefore inject
1281markup or code if you don't "neutralize" those fields). In addition to
1282"| html", Template Toolkit has a variety of other useful filters that
1283can found in the documentation for
1284L<Template::Filters|Template::Filters>.
3533daff 1285
1286
1390ef0e 1287=head1 RUNNING THE APPLICATION FROM THE COMMAND LINE
1288
1289In some situations, it can be useful to run your application and
1290display a page without using a browser. Catalyst lets you do this
1291using the C<scripts/myapp_test.pl> script. Just supply the URL you
1292wish to display and it will run that request through the normal
1293controller dispatch logic and use the appropriate view to render the
1294output (obviously, complex pages may dump a lot of text to your
1295terminal window). For example, if you type:
1296
1297 $ script/myapp_test.pl "/books/list"
1298
1299You should get the same text as if you visited
1300L<http://localhost:3000/books/list> with the normal development server
1301and asked your browser to view the page source.
3533daff 1302
1390ef0e 1303
1304=head1 OPTIONAL INFORMATION
1305
1306B<NOTE: The rest of this part of the tutorial is optional. You can
1307skip to Part 4, L<Basic CRUD|Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::BasicCRUD>,
3533daff 1308if you wish.>
1309
1390ef0e 1310=head2 Using C<RenderView> for the Default View
1311
1312Once your controller logic has processed the request from a user, it
1313forwards processing to your view in order to generate the appropriate
3533daff 1314response output. Catalyst uses
1390ef0e 1315L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView|Catalyst::Action::RenderView> by
1316default to automatically performs this operation. If you look in
1317C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Root.pm>, you should see the empty
3533daff 1318definition for the C<sub end> method:
1319
1320 sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {}
1321
1390ef0e 1322The following bullet points provide a quick overview of the
3533daff 1323C<RenderView> process:
1324
1325=over 4
1326
1327=item *
1328
1329C<Root.pm> is designed to hold application-wide logic.
1330
1331=item *
1332
1390ef0e 1333At the end of a given user request, Catalyst will call the most specific
1334C<end> method that's appropriate. For example, if the controller for a
1335request has an C<end> method defined, it will be called. However, if
1336the controller does not define a controller-specific C<end> method, the
3533daff 1337"global" C<end> method in C<Root.pm> will be called.
1338
1339=item *
1340
1341Because the definition includes an C<ActionClass> attribute, the
1342L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView|Catalyst::Action::RenderView> logic
1343will be executed B<after> any code inside the definition of C<sub end>
1344is run. See L<Catalyst::Manual::Actions|Catalyst::Manual::Actions>
1345for more information on C<ActionClass>.
1346
1347=item *
1348
1390ef0e 1349Because C<sub end> is empty, this effectively just runs the default
1350logic in C<RenderView>. However, you can easily extend the
1351C<RenderView> logic by adding your own code inside the empty method body
1352(C<{}>) created by the Catalyst Helpers when we first ran the
1353C<catalyst.pl> to initialize our application. See
1354L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView|Catalyst::Action::RenderView> for more
3533daff 1355detailed information on how to extended C<RenderView> in C<sub end>.
1356
1357=back
1358
1359
1360=head2 Using The Default Template Name
1361
1390ef0e 1362By default, C<Catalyst::View::TT> will look for a template that uses the
1363same name as your controller action, allowing you to save the step of
1364manually specifying the template name in each action. For example, this
1365would allow us to remove the
1366C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{template} = 'books/list.tt2';> line of our
1367C<list> action in the Books controller. Open
3533daff 1368C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm> in your editor and comment out this line
1369to match the following (only the C<$c-E<gt>stash-E<gt>{template}> line
1370has changed):
1371
1372 =head2 list
1373
1374 Fetch all book objects and pass to books/list.tt2 in stash to be displayed
1375
1376 =cut
1377
1378 sub list : Local {
1379 # Retrieve the usual Perl OO '$self' for this object. $c is the Catalyst
1380 # 'Context' that's used to 'glue together' the various components
1381 # that make up the application
1382 my ($self, $c) = @_;
1383
1384 # Retrieve all of the book records as book model objects and store in the
1385 # stash where they can be accessed by the TT template
d0496197 1386 $c->stash->{books} = [$c->model('DB::Books')->all];
3533daff 1387
1388 # Set the TT template to use. You will almost always want to do this
1389 # in your action methods (actions methods respond to user input in
1390 # your controllers).
1391 #$c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
1392 }
1393
3533daff 1394
1390ef0e 1395You should now be able to restart the development server as per the
3533daff 1396previous section and access the L<http://localhost:3000/books/list>
1397as before.
1398
1399B<NOTE:> Please note that if you use the default template technique,
1400you will B<not> be able to use either the C<$c-E<gt>forward> or
1390ef0e 1401the C<$c-E<gt>detach> mechanisms (these are discussed in Part 2 and
3533daff 1402Part 9 of the Tutorial).
1403
1404
1405=head2 Return To A Manually-Specified Template
1406
1407In order to be able to use C<$c-E<gt>forward> and C<$c-E<gt>detach>
1408later in the tutorial, you should remove the comment from the
1409statement in C<sub list> in C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Books.pm>:
1410
1411 $c->stash->{template} = 'books/list.tt2';
1412
1390ef0e 1413Then delete the C<TEMPLATE_EXTENSION> line in
3533daff 1414C<lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm>.
1415
1390ef0e 1416You should then be able to restart the development server and
3533daff 1417access L<http://localhost:3000/books/list> in the same manner as
1418with earlier sections.
1419
1420
1421=head1 AUTHOR
1422
1423Kennedy Clark, C<hkclark@gmail.com>
1424
1425Please report any errors, issues or suggestions to the author. The
1426most recent version of the Catalyst Tutorial can be found at
82ab4bbf 1427L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/repos/Catalyst/Catalyst-Manual/5.70/trunk/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Tutorial/>.
3533daff 1428
45c7830f 1429Copyright 2006-2008, Kennedy Clark, under Creative Commons License
8482d557 1430(L<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/>).