3 Catalyst::Delta - Overview of changes between versions of Catalyst
7 This is an overview of the user-visible changes to Catalyst between major
10 =head2 VERSION 5.90090+
12 =head2 Type constraints on Args and CaptureArgs.
14 You may now use a type constraint (using L<Moose>, L<MooseX::Types> or preferably
15 L<Type::Tiny) in your Args or CaptureArgs action attributes. This can be used
16 to restrict the value of the Arg. For example:
18 sub myaction :Local Args(Int) { ... }
20 Would match '.../myaction/5' but not '.../myaction/string'.
22 When an action (or action chain) has Args (or CaptureArgs) that declare type constraints
23 your arguments to $c->uri_for(...) must match those constraints.
25 See L<Catalyst::RouteMatching> for more.
27 =head2 VERSION 5.90080+
29 The biggest change in this release is that UTF8 encoding is now enabled by
30 default. So you no longer need any plugins (such as L<Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding>)
31 which you can just no go ahead and remove. You also don't need to set
32 the encoding configuration (__PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>'UTF-8')) anymore
33 as well (although its presence hurts nothing).
35 If this change causes you trouble, you can disable it:
37 __PACKAGE__->config(encoding=>undef);
39 For further information, please see L<Catalyst::UTF8>
41 But please report bugs. You will find that a number of common Views have been
42 updated for this release (such as L<Catalyst::View::TT>). In all cases that the
43 author is aware of these updates were to fix test cases only. You shouldn't
44 need to update unless you are installing fresh and want tests to pass.
46 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Compress> was updated to be compatible with this release.
47 You will need to upgrade if you are using this plugin. L<Catalyst::Upgrading>
50 A small change is that the configuration setting C<using_frontend_proxy>
51 was not doing the right thing if you started your application with C<psgi_app>
52 and did not apply the default middleware. This setting is now honored in
53 all the ways an application may be started. This could cause trouble if you
54 are using the configuration value and also adding the proxy middleware
55 manually with a custom application startup. The solution is that you only
56 need the configuration value set, or the middleware manually added (not both).
58 =head2 VERSION 5.90060+
60 =head3 Catalyst::Log object autoflush on by default
62 Starting in 5.90065, the Catalyst::Log object has 'autoflush' which is on
63 by default. This causes all messages to be written to the log immediately
64 instead of at the end of startup and then at the end of each request. In
65 order to access the old behavior, you must now call:
67 $c->log->autoflush(0);
69 =head3 Deprecate Catalyst::Utils::ensure_class_loaded
71 Going forward we recommend you use L<Module::Runtime>. In fact we will
72 be converting all uses of L<Class::Load> to L<Module::Runtime>. We will
73 also convert L<Catalyst::Utils\ensure_class_loaded> to be based on
74 L<Module::Runtime> to allow some time for you to update code, however at
75 some future point this method will be removed so you should stop
78 =head3 Support passing Body filehandles directly to your Plack server.
80 We changed the way we return body content (from response) to whatever
81 Plack handler you are using (Starman, FastCGI, etc.) We no longer
82 always use the streaming interface for the cases when the body is a
83 simple scalar, object or filehandle like. In those cases we now just
84 pass the simple response on to the plack handler. This might lead to
85 some minor differences in how streaming is handled. For example, you
86 might notice that streaming starts properly supporting chunked encoding when
87 on a server that supports that, or that previously missing headers
88 (possible content-length) might appear suddenly correct. Also, if you
89 are using middleware like L<Plack::Middleware::XSendfile> and are using
90 a filehandle that sets a readable path, your server might now correctly
91 handle the file (rather than as before where Catalyst would stream it
92 very likely very slowly).
94 In other words, some things might be meaninglessly different and some
95 things that were broken codewise but worked because of Catalyst being
96 incorrect might suddenly be really broken. The behavior is now more
97 correct in that Catalyst plays better with features that Plack offers
98 but if you are making heavy use of the streaming interface there could
99 be some differences so you should test carefully (this is probably not
100 the vast majority of people). In particular if you are developing
101 using one server but deploying using a different one, differences in
102 what those server do with streaming should be noted.
104 Please see note below about changes to filehandle support and existing
105 Plack middleware to aid in backwards compatibility.
107 =head3 Distinguish between body null versus undef.
109 We also now more carefully distingush the different between a body set
110 to '' and a body that is undef. This might lead to situations where
111 again you'll get a content-length were you didn't get one before or
112 where a supporting server will start chunking output. If this is an
113 issue you can apply the middleware L<Plack::Middleware::BufferedStreaming>
114 or report specific problems to the dev team.
116 =head3 More Catalyst Middleware
118 We have started migrating code in Catalyst to equivilent Plack
119 Middleware when such exists and is correct to do so. For example we now use
120 L<Plack::Middleware::ContentLength> to determine content length of a response
121 when none is provided. This replaces similar code inlined with L<Catalyst>
122 The main advantages to doing this is 1) more similar Catalyst core that is
123 focused on the Catalyst special sauce, 2) Middleware is more broadly shared
124 so we benefit from better collaboration with developers outside Catalyst, 3)
125 In the future you'll be able to change or trim the middleware stack to get
126 additional performance when you don't need all the checks and constraints.
128 =head3 Deprecate Filehandle like objects that do read but not getline
130 We also deprecated setting the response body to an object that does 'read'
131 but not 'getline'. If you are using a custom IO-Handle like object for
132 response you should verify that 'getline' is supported in your interface.
133 Unless we here this case is a major issue for people, we will be removing support
134 in a near future release of Catalyst. When the code encounters this it
135 will issue a warning. You also may run into this issue with L<MogileFS::Client>
136 which does read but not getline. For now we will just warn when encountering
137 such an object and fallback to the previous behavior (where L<Catalyst::Engine>
138 itself unrolls the filehandle and performs blocking streams). However
139 this backwards compatibility will be removed in an upcoming release so you should either
140 rewrite your custom filehandle objects to support getline or start using the
141 middleware that adapts read for getline L<Plack::Middleware::AdaptFilehandleRead>.
143 =head3 Response->headers become read-only after finalizing
145 Once the response headers are finalized, trying to change them is not allowed
146 (in the past you could change them and this would lead to unexpected results).
148 =head3 Officially deprecate L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI>
150 L<Catalyst::Engine::PSGI> is also officially no longer supported. We will
151 no long run test cases against this and can remove backwards compatibility code for it
152 as deemed necessary for the evolution of the platform. You should simply
153 discontinue use of this engine, as L<Catalyst> has been PSGI at the core for
156 =head3 Officially deprecate finding the PSGI $env anyplace other than Request
158 A few early releases of Cataplack had the PSGI $env in L<Catalyst::Engine>.
159 Code has been maintained here for backwards compatibility reasons. This is no
160 longer supported and will be removed in upcoming release, so you should update
161 your code and / or upgrade to a newer version of L<Catalyst>
163 =head3 Deprecate setting Response->body after using write/write_fh
165 Setting $c->res->body to a filehandle after using $c->res->write or
166 $c->res->write_fh is no longer considered allowed, since we can't send
167 the filehandle to the underlying Plack handler. For now we will continue
168 to support setting body to a simple value since this is possible, but at
169 some future release a choice to use streaming indicates that you will do
170 so for the rest of the request.
173 =head2 VERSION 5.90053
175 We are now clarifying the behavior of log, plugins and configuration during
176 the setup phase. Since Plugins might require a log during setup, setup_log
177 must run BEFORE setup_plugins. This has the unfortunate side effect that
178 anyone using the popular ConfigLoader plugin will not be able to supply
179 configuration to custom logs since the configuration is not yet finalized
180 when setup_log is run (when using ConfigLoader, which is a plugin and is
181 not loaded until later.)
183 As a workaround, you can supply custom log configuration directly into
190 my_custom_log_info => { %custom_args },
195 If you wish to configure the custom logger differently based on ENV, you can
204 Catalyst::Utils::merge_hashes(
205 +{ my_custom_log_info => { %base_custom_args } },
206 +{ do __PACKAGE__->path_to( $ENV{WHICH_CONF}."_conf.pl") },
212 Or create a standalone Configuration class that does the right thing.
214 Basically if you want to configure a logger via Catalyst global configuration
215 you can't use ConfigLoader because it will always be loaded too late to be of
216 any use. Patches and workaround options welcomed!
218 =head2 VERSION 5.9XXXX 'cataplack'
220 The Catalyst::Engine sub-classes have all been removed and deprecated,
221 to be replaced with Plack handlers.
223 Plack is an implementation of the L<PSGI> specification, which is
224 a standard interface between web servers and application frameworks.
226 This should be no different for developers, and you should not have to
227 migrate your applications unless you are using a custom engine already.
229 This change benefits Catalyst significantly by reducing the amount of
230 code inside the framework, and means that the framework gets upstream
231 bug fixes in L<Plack>, and automatically gains support for any web server
232 which a L<PSGI> compliant handler is written for.
234 It also allows you more flexibility with your application, and allows
235 the use of cross web framework 'middleware'.
237 Developers are recommended to read L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for notes about
238 upgrading, especially if you are using an unusual deployment method.
240 Documentation for how to take advantage of L<PSGI> can be found in
241 L<Catalyst::PSGI>, and information about deploying your application
242 has been moved to L<Catalyst::Manual::Deployment>.
244 =head3 Updated modules:
246 A number of modules have been updated to pass their tests or not
247 produce deprecation warnings with the latest version of Catalyst.
248 It is recommended that you upgrade any of these that you are using
249 after installing this version of Catalyst.
251 These extensions are:
255 =item L<Catalyst::Engine::HTTP::Prefork>
257 This is now deprecated, see L<Catalyst::Upgrading>.
259 =item L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>
261 Has been updated to not produce deprecation warnings, upgrade recommended.
263 =item Catalyst::ActionRole::ACL
265 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
266 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
268 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::DBIC
270 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
271 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
273 =item Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
275 Has been updated to fix failing tests (although older versions still
276 function perfectly with this version of Catalyst).
280 =head1 PREVIOUS VERSIONS
282 =head2 VERSION 5.8XXXX 'catamoose'
286 Please see L<Catalyst::Upgrading> for a full description of how changes in the
287 framework may affect your application.
289 Below is a brief list of features which have been deprecated in this release:
293 =item ::[MVC]:: style naming scheme has been deprecated and will warn
295 =item NEXT is deprecated for all applications and components, use MRO::Compat
297 =item Dispatcher methods which are an implementation detail made private, public versions now warn.
299 =item MyApp->plugin method is deprecated, use L<Catalyst::Model::Adaptor> instead.
301 =item __PACKAGE__->mk_accessors() is supported for backwards compatibility only, use Moose attributes instead in new code.
303 =item Use of Catalyst::Base now warns
313 =item Fix forwarding to Catalyst::Action objects.
315 =item Add the dispatch_type method
321 The development server restarter has been improved to be compatible with
322 immutable Moose classes, and also to optionally use
323 L<B::Hooks::OP::Check::StashChange> to handle more complex application layouts
326 =head3 $c->uri_for_action method.
328 Give a private path to the Catalyst action you want to create a URI for.
332 Log levels have been made additive.
334 =head3 L<Catalyst::Test>
338 =item Change to use L<Sub::Exporter>.
340 =item Support mocking multiple virtual hosts
342 =item New methods like action_ok and action_redirect to write more compact tests
346 =head3 Catalyst::Response
352 New print method which prints @data to the output stream, separated by $,.
353 This lets you pass the response object to functions that want to write to an
358 Added code method as an alias for C<< $res->status >>
362 =head3 Consequences of the Moose back end
368 Components are fully compatible with Moose, and all Moose features, such as
369 method modifiers, attributes, roles, BUILD and BUILDARGS methods are fully
370 supported and may be used in components and applications.
374 Many reusable extensions which would previously have been plugins or base
375 classes are better implemented as Moose roles.
379 L<MooseX::MethodAttributes::Role::AttrContainer::Inheritable> is used to contain action
380 attributes. This means that attributes are represented in the MOP, and
381 decouples action creation from attributes.
385 There is a reasonable API in Catalyst::Controller for working with
386 and registering actions, allowing a controller sub-class to replace
387 subroutine attributes for action declarations with an alternate
392 Refactored capturing of $app from L<Catalyst::Controller> into
393 L<Catalyst::Component::ApplicationAttribute> for easier reuse in other
398 Your application class is forced to become immutable at the end of compilation.
408 Don't ignore SIGCHLD while handling requests with the development server, so that
409 system() and other ways of creating child processes work as expected.
413 Fixes for FastCGI when used with IIS 6.0
417 Fix a bug in uri_for which could cause it to generate paths with multiple
422 Fix a bug in Catalyst::Stats, stopping garbage being inserted into
423 the stats if a user calls begin => but no end