Merge branch 'master' into gsoc_breadboard

[catagits/Catalyst-Runtime.git] / TODO

# Known Bugs:

   - Bug ->go or ->visit causes actions which have Args or CaptureArgs called
     twice when called via ->go or ->visit.

     Test app: http://github.com/bobtfish/catalyst-app-bug-go_chain/tree/master

# Compatibility warnings to add:

  - $self->config should warn as config should only ever be called as a
    class method (TESTS).

# Proposed functionality / feature additions:

## Log setup needs to be less lame

So Catalyst::Plugin::Log::* can die
in a fire. Having $c->log_class would be a good start. kane volunteered
to do some of this.

Simple example: Catalyst::Plugin::Log::Colorful should just be a
subclass of Catalyst::Log, no ::Plugin:: needed.

See also: Catalyst::Plugin::Log::Dispatch and
http://github.com/willert/catalyst-plugin-log4perl-simple/tree

## throw away the restarter and allow using the restarters Plack provides

## be smarter about how we use PSGI - not every response needs to be delayed
    and streaming

#  The horrible hack for plugin setup - replacing it:

 * Have a look at the Devel::REPL BEFORE_PLUGIN stuff
   I wonder if what we need is that combined with plugins-as-roles

# App / ctx split:

  NOTE - these are notes that t0m thought up after doing back compat for
         catalyst_component_class, may be inaccurate, wrong or missing things
         bug mst (at least) to correct before trying more than the first 2
         steps. Please knock yourself out on the first two however :)

  - Eliminate actions in MyApp from the main test suite
  - Uncomment warning in C::C::register_action_methods, add tests it works
    by mocking out the logging..
  - Remove MyApp @ISA controller (ask metaclass if it has attributes, and if
                                  so you need back compat :/)
  - Make Catalyst::Context, move the per request stuff in there, handles from
    main app class to delegate
  - Make an instance of the app class which is a global variable
  - Make new instance of the context class, not the app class per-request
  - Remove the components as class data, move to instance data on the app
    class (you probably have to do this for _all_ the class data, good luck!)
  - Make it possible for users to spin up different instances of the app class
    (with different config etc each)
  - Profit! (Things like changing the complete app config per vhost, i.e.
    writing a config loader / app class role which dispatches per vhost to
    differently configured apps is piss easy)

## GSOC

### Final steps for GSOC

##### Things that work:

    - the default container loads all components, calls ACCEPT_CONTEXT() when appropriate, and COMPONENT() when appropriate, behaving like current Catalyst does

    - its possible to create a custom container, and override the components you want. Lifecycle, class, dependencies, all overridable.

    - config files are loaded without Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader

    - per request life cycle somewhat works

    - external modules are loaded just using a custom container, much like Catalyst::Model::Adaptor

##### Things that don't work:

    - expand_component_module

    - Some back compat
        - wrappers around setup_component, setup_components in Catalyst.pm
        - $instance->expand_modules
        - search_extra
        - Crazy tests for things such as:
           sub COMPONENT {
             ...
             *${appclass}::Model::TopLevel::GENERATED::ACCEPT_CONTEXT = sub { ... };
             ...
           }

##### Items for discussion and planning
# (in no particular order, just numbered to be more easily refered to)

  1) per request life cycle

  2) sugar syntax

  3) when / when not COMPONENT should be called

  4) problems when get_all_components() is called when there is no 'context' yet

  5) Back compat problems:
     - expand_component_module
     - $instance->expand_modules
     - search_extra
     - what to do when a user overrides the locate_components method?

  6) locate_components service vs setup_components method
     - can we be more lazy?
     - should setup_components be a service that things like the ->component lookup
       can depend on?

  7) $class->log->warn is being used to give warnings, but maybe there is a
     better way to do it

  8) the ConstructorInjection depends on the application_name, which probably
     makes app/ctx split harder. We need a way to get the application instance
     passed properly.

  9) there is a call in Catalyst::Controller to catalyst_component_name class
     accessor (which doesn't exist anymore).

 10) make ACCEPT_CONTEXT and COMPONENT optional in Catalyst::IOC::BlockInjection and Catalyst::IOC::ConstructorInjection
     - Create COMPONENTSingleton life cycle

 11) we build the service too early, causing the COMPONENT method to be
     called early, breaking components which build other components (e.g.
     Model::DBIC::Schema).

 12) root service has a very ambiguous name - maybe root_dir?

 13) should _get_component_type_name (in Catalyst::IOC::Container) exist?

 14) Test cases for extending the container in an application.
     - Using the sugar added in the previous item
     - Test when Model::Foo depends_on Model::Bar
     - Test for component Foo => ( lifecycle => 'Singleton', class => 'My::External::Class', dependencies => { config => depends_on("config") } )
     - Fix ^^ so that you can get your component's namespaced config nicely.

 15) Tests for using the container outside of Catalyst
     - Custom container which adds some (very simple) services which are initialized from
       the application config file (note plain services, not components)
     - Depend on (and test) these inside Catalyst
     - Test loading container outside Catalyst, and these services working
     - Test Catalyst / MyApp is not loaded

    16) _build_(request|response)_constructor_args need replicating in
        this branch.

### Next steps

  - Push the config built in the container back up onto the app

  - Find a better way to make path_to work. Current fix is in
    Catalyst::IOC::Container, subs build_home_service, build_root_service.

  - Improve validation on the 'component' methods in  Catalyst::IOC
    (check the type of the component, etc)

  - Thigs to test:
    - Imports getting the importing package in Catalyst::IOC
    - Back compat for Catalyst.pm moved methods (locate_components)
    - Custom container
      - writing some tests which verify that the models you think should be
        there are there, and that they received their dependencies as arguments
      - i.e. Model::Bar should get params { foo => $model_foo } when being
        constructed, etc
      - Need to test that if you have a standard component Frotz
        and a customized component Fnar, and Fnar depends on Frotz
      - And yeah, some tests that the customised components actually work via
        $c->model('Foo'), and that COMPONENT is called (or not called)
        as appropiate and that ACCEPT_CONTEXT is called (or not) as appropriate


#### Extending my app, notes

Basically try to implement something like this (starting out without the sugar!), and see how it breaks
and what needs to be done to fix it!

##### Eventual syntax

package MyApp::Container;
use Catalyst::IOC;

    container $self, as {
            container model => as {
                component Foo => (); # As per default!
                component Bar => (dependencies => ['/model/Foo']); # Magic!
                component Baz => ( lifecycle => 'InstancePerContext );
                component Quux => ( lifecycle => 'Singleton' ); # ACCEPT_CONTEXT not called
                # Catalyst::Model::Adaptor example
                component Fnar => ( lifecycle => 'Singleton', class => 'My::External::Class', dependencies => { config => depends_on('config')} );
                #                                                                                               ^^ FIXME - gets whole config, not Model::Foo
                #                                                                                                  There should be a 'nice' way to get the 'standard' config
            };
            # Note - implementation of BB may need to be changed to support making sure existing
            # services actually get overridden. not sure how the default container behaves when doing that
            # above code would build the constructor injection as it currently does,
            # defaulting to the class name in the right namespace as declared by the surrounding container
            # as well as adding using the catalyst-specific service class
    };

1;