-
=head1 NAME
Catalyst::Manual::Cookbook - Cooking with Catalyst
=head1 RECIPES
-=head2 Force debug screen
-
-You can force Catalyst to display the debug screen at the end of the request by
-placing a C<die()> call in the C<end> action.
-
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- die "forced debug";
- }
-
-If you're tired of removing and adding this all the time, you can add a
-condition in the C<end> action. For example:
-
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- die "forced debug" if $c->req->params->{dump_info};
- }
+=head1 Basics
-Then just add to your query string C<"&dump_info=1">, or the like, to
-force debug output.
+These recipes cover some basic stuff that is worth knowing for catalyst developers.
+=head2 Delivering a Custom Error Page
-=head2 Disable statistics
+By default, Catalyst will display its own error page whenever it
+encounters an error in your application. When running under C<-Debug>
+mode, the error page is a useful screen including the error message and
+L<Data::Dump> output of the relevant parts of the C<$c> context object.
+When not in C<-Debug>, users see a simple "Please come back later" screen.
-Just add this line to your application class if you don't want those nifty
-statistics in your debug messages.
+To use a custom error page, use a special C<end> method to short-circuit
+the error processing. The following is an example; you might want to
+adjust it further depending on the needs of your application (for
+example, any calls to C<fillform> will probably need to go into this
+C<end> method; see L<Catalyst::Plugin::FillInForm>).
- sub Catalyst::Log::info { }
+ sub end : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-=head2 Scaffolding
+ if ( scalar @{ $c->error } ) {
+ $c->stash->{errors} = $c->error;
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'errors.tt';
+ $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
+ $c->error(0);
+ }
-Scaffolding is very simple with Catalyst.
+ return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/;
+ return 1 if $c->response->body;
-The recommended way is to use Catalyst::Helper::Controller::Scaffold.
+ unless ( $c->response->content_type ) {
+ $c->response->content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8');
+ }
-Just install this module, and to scaffold a Class::DBI Model class, do the following:
+ $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
+ }
-./script/myapp_create controller <name> Scaffold <CDBI::Class>Scaffolding
+You can manually set errors in your code to trigger this page by calling
+ $c->error( 'You broke me!' );
+=head2 Disable statistics
+Just add this line to your application class if you don't want those nifty
+statistics in your debug messages.
-=head2 File uploads
+ sub Catalyst::Log::info { }
-=head3 Single file upload with Catalyst
+=head2 Enable debug status in the environment
-To implement uploads in Catalyst, you need to have a HTML form similar to
-this:
+Normally you enable the debugging info by adding the C<-Debug> flag to
+your C<use Catalyst> statement. However, you can also enable it using
+environment variable, so you can (for example) get debug info without
+modifying your application scripts. Just set C<CATALYST_DEBUG> or
+C<E<lt>MYAPPE<gt>_DEBUG> to a true value.
- <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
- <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
- <input type="file" name="my_file">
- <input type="submit" value="Send">
- </form>
+=head2 Sessions
-It's very important not to forget C<enctype="multipart/form-data"> in
-the form.
+When you have your users identified, you will want to somehow remember that
+fact, to save them from having to identify themselves for every single
+page. One way to do this is to send the username and password parameters in
+every single page, but that's ugly, and won't work for static pages.
-Catalyst Controller module 'upload' action:
+Sessions are a method of saving data related to some transaction, and giving
+the whole collection a single ID. This ID is then given to the user to return
+to us on every page they visit while logged in. The usual way to do this is
+using a browser cookie.
- sub upload : Global {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
+Catalyst uses two types of plugins to represent sessions:
- if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
+=head3 State
- if ( my $upload = $c->request->upload('my_file') ) {
+A State module is used to keep track of the state of the session between the
+users browser, and your application.
- my $filename = $upload->filename;
- my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
+A common example is the Cookie state module, which sends the browser a cookie
+containing the session ID. It will use default value for the cookie name and
+domain, so will "just work" when used.
- unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
- die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
- }
- }
- }
+=head3 Store
- $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
- }
+A Store module is used to hold all the data relating to your session, for
+example the users ID, or the items for their shopping cart. You can store data
+in memory (FastMmap), in a file (File) or in a database (DBI).
-=head3 Multiple file upload with Catalyst
+=head3 Authentication magic
-Code for uploading multiple files from one form needs a few changes:
+If you have included the session modules in your application, the
+Authentication modules will automagically use your session to save and
+retrieve the user data for you.
-The form should have this basic structure:
+=head3 Using a session
- <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
- <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
- <input type="file" name="file1" size="50"><br>
- <input type="file" name="file2" size="50"><br>
- <input type="file" name="file3" size="50"><br>
- <input type="submit" value="Send">
- </form>
+Once the session modules are loaded, the session is available as C<<
+$c->session >>, and can be writen to and read from as a simple hash reference.
-And in the controller:
+=head3 EXAMPLE
- sub upload : Local {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
+ use Catalyst qw/
+ Session
+ Session::Store::FastMmap
+ Session::State::Cookie
+ /;
- if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
- for my $field ( $c->req->upload ) {
+ ## Write data into the session
- my $upload = $c->req->upload($field);
- my $filename = $upload->filename;
- my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
+ sub add_item : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
- die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
- }
- }
- }
+ my $item_id = $c->req->param("item");
- $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
- }
+ push @{ $c->session->{items} }, $item_id;
-C<for my $field ($c-E<gt>req->upload)> loops automatically over all file
-input fields and gets input names. After that is basic file saving code,
-just like in single file upload.
+ }
-Notice: C<die>ing might not be what you want to do, when an error
-occurs, but it works as an example. A better idea would be to store
-error C<$!> in $c->stash->{error} and show a custom error template
-displaying this message.
+ ## A page later we retrieve the data from the session:
-For more information about uploads and usable methods look at
-L<Catalyst::Request::Upload> and L<Catalyst::Request>.
+ sub get_items : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-=head2 Authentication with Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication
+ $c->stash->{items_to_display} = $c->session->{items};
-In this example, we'll use the
-L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store::DBIC> store and the
-L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Credential::Password> credentials.
+ }
-In the lib/MyApp.pm package, we'll need to change the C<use Catalyst;>
-line to include the following modules:
- use Catalyst qw/
- ConfigLoader
- Authentication
- Authentication::Store::DBIC
- Authentication::Credential::Password
- Session
- Session::Store::FastMmap
- Session::State::Cookie
- HTML::Widget
- Static::Simple
- /;
-
-The Session, Session::Store::* and Session::State::* modules listed above
-ensure that we stay logged-in across multiple page-views.
-
-In our MyApp.yml configuration file, we'll need to add:
-
- authentication:
- dbic:
- user_class: MyApp::Model::DBIC::User
- user_field: username
- password_field: password
- password_type: hashed
- password_hash_type: SHA-1
-
-'user_class' is a DBIx::Class package for your users table.
-'user_field' tells which field (column) is used for username lookup.
-'password_field' is the password field in your table.
-The above settings for 'password_type' and 'password_hash_type' ensure that
-the password won't be stored in the database in clear text.
-
-In SQLite, the users table might be something like:
-
- CREATE TABLE user (
- id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
- username VARCHAR(100),
- password VARCHAR(100)
- );
+=head3 More information
-Now we need to create a DBIC::SchemaLoader component for this database
-(changing "myapp.db" to wherever your SQLite database is).
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session>
- script/myapp_create.pl model DBIC DBIC::SchemaLoader 'dbi:SQLite:myapp.db'
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-Cookie>
-Now we can start creating our page controllers and templates.
-For our homepage, we create the file "root/index.tt" containing:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-URI>
- <html>
- <body>
- [% IF c.user %]
- <p>hello [% c.user.username %]</p>
- <p><a href="[% c.uri_for( '/logout' ) %]">logout</a></p>
- [% ELSE %]
- <p><a href="[% c.uri_for( '/login' ) %]">login</a></p>
- [% END %]
- </body>
- </html>
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-FastMmap>
-If the user is logged in, they will be shown their name, and a logout link.
-Otherwise, they will be shown a login link.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-File>
-To display the homepage, we can uncomment the C<default> and C<end>
-subroutines in lib/MyApp/Controller/Root.pm and populate them as so:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-DBI>
- sub default : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-
- $c->stash->{template} = 'index.tt';
- }
+=head2 Configure your application
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-
- $c->forward( $c->view('TT') )
- unless $c->response->body || $c->response->redirect;
- }
+You configure your application with the C<config> method in your
+application class. This can be hard-coded, or brought in from a
+separate configuration file.
-The login template is very simple, as L<HTML::Widget> will handle the
-HTML form creation for use. This is saved as "root/login.tt".
+=head3 Using YAML
- <html>
- <head>
- <link href="[% c.uri_for('/static/simple.css') %]" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
- </head>
- <body>
- [% result %]
- </body>
- </html>
+YAML is a method for creating flexible and readable configuration
+files. It's a great way to keep your Catalyst application configuration
+in one easy-to-understand location.
-For the HTML form to look correct, we also copy the C<simple.css> file
-from the L<HTML::Widget> distribution into our "root/static" folder.
-This file is automatically server by the L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple>
-module which we loaded in our lib/MyApp.pm package.
+In your application class (e.g. C<lib/MyApp.pm>):
-To handle login requests, we first create a controller, like so:
+ use YAML;
+ # application setup
+ __PACKAGE__->config( YAML::LoadFile(__PACKAGE__->config->{'home'} . '/myapp.yml') );
+ __PACKAGE__->setup;
- script/myapp_create.pl controller Login
+Now create C<myapp.yml> in your application home:
-In the lib/MyApp/Controller/Login.pm package, we can then uncomment the
-C<default> subroutine, and populate it, as below.
+ --- #YAML:1.0
+ # DO NOT USE TABS FOR INDENTATION OR label/value SEPARATION!!!
+ name: MyApp
-First the widget is created, it needs the 'action' set, and 'username' and
-'password' fields and a submit button added.
+ # session; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Session::FastMmap
+ session:
+ expires: '3600'
+ rewrite: '0'
+ storage: '/tmp/myapp.session'
-Then, if we've received a username and password in the request, we attempt
-to login. If successful, we redirect to the homepage; if not the login form
-will be displayed again.
+ # emails; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Email
+ # this passes options as an array :(
+ email:
+ - SMTP
+ - localhost
- sub default : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-
- $c->widget->method('POST')->action( $c->uri_for('/login') );
- $c->widget->element( 'Textfield', 'username' )->label( 'Username' );
- $c->widget->element( 'Password', 'password' )->label( 'Password' );
- $c->widget->element( 'Submit' )->value( 'Login' );
-
- my $result = $c->widget->process( $c->req );
-
- if ( my $user = $result->param('username')
- and my $pass = $result->param('password') )
- {
- if ( $c->login( $user, $pass ) ) {
- $c->response->redirect( $c->uri_for( "/" ) );
- return;
- }
- }
-
- $c->stash->{template} = 'login.tt';
- $c->stash->{result} = $result;
- }
+This is equivalent to:
-To handle logout's, we create a new controller:
+ # configure base package
+ __PACKAGE__->config( name => MyApp );
+ # configure authentication
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication} = {
+ user_class => 'MyApp::Model::MyDB::Customer',
+ ...
+ };
+ # configure sessions
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{session} = {
+ expires => 3600,
+ ...
+ };
+ # configure email sending
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{email} = [qw/SMTP localhost/];
- script/myapp_create.pl controller Logout
+See also L<YAML>.
-Then in the lib/MyApp/Controller/Logout.pm package, we change the
-C<default> subroutine, to logout and then redirect back to the
-homepage.
+=head1 Users and Access Control
- sub default : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-
- $c->logout;
-
- $c->response->redirect( $c->uri_for( "/" ) );
- }
+Most multiuser, and some single user web applications require that
+users identify themselves, and the application is often required to
+define those roles. The recipes below describe some ways of doing
+this.
-Remember that to test this, we would first need to add a user to the
-database, ensuring that the password field is saved as the SHA1 hash
-of our desired password.
+=head2 Authentication (logging in)
+This is extensively covered in other documentation; see in particular
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> and the Authentication chapter
+of the Tutorial at L<Catalyst::Manual::Tutorial::Authorization>.
=head2 Pass-through login (and other actions)
}
}
-=head2 How to use Catalyst without mod_perl
-Catalyst applications give optimum performance when run under mod_perl.
-However sometimes mod_perl is not an option, and running under CGI is
-just too slow. There's also an alternative to mod_perl that gives
-reasonable performance named FastCGI.
-
-=head3 Using FastCGI
+=head2 Role-based Authorization
-To quote from L<http://www.fastcgi.com/>: "FastCGI is a language
-independent, scalable, extension to CGI that provides high performance
-without the limitations of specific server APIs." Web server support
-is provided for Apache in the form of C<mod_fastcgi> and there is Perl
-support in the C<FCGI> module. To convert a CGI Catalyst application
-to FastCGI one needs to initialize an C<FCGI::Request> object and loop
-while the C<Accept> method returns zero. The following code shows how
-it is done - and it also works as a normal, single-shot CGI script.
+For more advanced access control, you may want to consider using role-based
+authorization. This means you can assign different roles to each user, e.g.
+"user", "admin", etc.
- #!/usr/bin/perl
- use strict;
- use FCGI;
- use MyApp;
+The C<login> and C<logout> methods and view template are exactly the same as
+in the previous example.
- my $request = FCGI::Request();
- while ($request->Accept() >= 0) {
- MyApp->run;
- }
+The L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles> plugin is required when
+implementing roles:
-Any initialization code should be included outside the request-accept
-loop.
+ use Catalyst qw/
+ Authentication
+ Authentication::Credential::Password
+ Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
+ Authorization::Roles
+ /;
-There is one little complication, which is that C<MyApp-E<gt>run> outputs a
-complete HTTP response including the status line (e.g.:
-"C<HTTP/1.1 200>").
-FastCGI just wants a set of headers, so the sample code captures the
-output and drops the first line if it is an HTTP status line (note:
-this may change).
+Roles are implemented automatically when using
+L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Htpasswd>:
-The Apache C<mod_fastcgi> module is provided by a number of Linux
-distro's and is straightforward to compile for most Unix-like systems.
-The module provides a FastCGI Process Manager, which manages FastCGI
-scripts. You configure your script as a FastCGI script with the
-following Apache configuration directives:
+ # no additional role configuration required
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
- <Location /fcgi-bin>
- AddHandler fastcgi-script fcgi
- </Location>
+Or can be set up manually when using L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIC>:
-or:
+ # Authorization using a many-to-many role relationship
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{authorization}{dbic} = {
+ 'role_class' => 'My::Model::DBIC::Role',
+ 'role_field' => 'name',
+ 'user_role_user_field' => 'user',
- <Location /fcgi-bin>
- SetHandler fastcgi-script
- Action fastcgi-script /path/to/fcgi-bin/fcgi-script
- </Location>
+ # DBIx::Class only (omit if using Class::DBI)
+ 'role_rel' => 'user_role',
-C<mod_fastcgi> provides a number of options for controlling the FastCGI
-scripts spawned; it also allows scripts to be run to handle the
-authentication, authorization, and access check phases.
+ # Class::DBI only, (omit if using DBIx::Class)
+ 'user_role_class' => 'My::Model::CDBI::UserRole'
+ 'user_role_role_field' => 'role',
+ };
-For more information see the FastCGI documentation, the C<FCGI> module
-and L<http://www.fastcgi.com/>.
+To restrict access to any action, you can use the C<check_user_roles> method:
-=head2 Serving static content
+ sub restricted : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-Serving static content in Catalyst can be somewhat tricky; this recipe
-shows one possible solution. Using this recipe will serve all static
-content through Catalyst when developing with the built-in HTTP::Daemon
-server, and will make it easy to use Apache to serve the content when
-your app goes into production.
+ $c->detach("unauthorized")
+ unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
-Static content is best served from a single directory within your root
-directory. Having many different directories such as C<root/css> and
-C<root/images> requires more code to manage, because you must separately
-identify each static directory--if you decide to add a C<root/js>
-directory, you'll need to change your code to account for it. In
-contrast, keeping all static directories as subdirectories of a main
-C<root/static> directory makes things much easier to manager. Here's an
-example of a typical root directory structure:
+ # do something restricted here
+ }
- root/
- root/content.tt
- root/controller/stuff.tt
- root/header.tt
- root/static/
- root/static/css/main.css
- root/static/images/logo.jpg
- root/static/js/code.js
+You can also use the C<assert_user_roles> method. This just gives an error if
+the current user does not have one of the required roles:
+ sub also_restricted : Global {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->assert_user_roles( qw/ user admin / );
+ }
+
+=head2 Authentication/Authorization
-All static content lives under C<root/static> with everything else being
-Template Toolkit files. Now you can identify the static content by
-matching C<static> from within Catalyst.
+This is done in several steps:
-=head3 Serving with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl)
+=over 4
-To serve these files under the standalone server, we first must load the
-Static plugin. Install L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static> if it's not already
-installed.
+=item Verification
-In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin:
+Getting the user to identify themselves, by giving you some piece of
+information known only to you and the user. Then you can assume that the user
+is who they say they are. This is called B<credential verification>.
- use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/;
+=item Authorization
-You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward
-static content to the view, perhaps like this:
+Making sure the user only accesses functions you want them to access. This is
+done by checking the verified users data against your internal list of groups,
+or allowed persons for the current page.
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=back
- $c->forward( 'MyApp::V::TT' )
- unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} );
- }
+=head3 Modules
-This code will only forward to the view if a template has been
-previously defined by a controller and if there is not already data in
-C<$c-E<gt>res-E<gt>body>.
+The Catalyst Authentication system is made up of many interacting modules, to
+give you the most flexibility possible.
-Next, create a controller to handle requests for the /static path. Use
-the Helper to save time. This command will create a stub controller as
-C<lib/MyApp/C/Static.pm>.
+=head4 Credential verifiers
- $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static
+A Credential module tables the user input, and passes it to a Store, or some
+other system, for verification. Typically, a user object is created by either
+this module or the Store and made accessible by a C<< $c->user >> call.
-Edit the file and add the following methods:
+Examples:
- # serve all files under /static as static files
- sub default : Path('/static') {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ Password - Simple username/password checking.
+ HTTPD - Checks using basic HTTP auth.
+ TypeKey - Check using the typekey system.
- # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content
- $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' );
+=head3 Storage backends
- $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static
- }
+A Storage backend contains the actual data representing the users. It is
+queried by the credential verifiers. Updating the store is not done within
+this system, you will need to do it yourself.
- # also handle requests for /favicon.ico
- sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') {
+Examples:
+
+ DBIC - Storage using a database.
+ Minimal - Storage using a simple hash (for testing).
+
+=head3 User objects
+
+A User object is created by either the storage backend or the credential
+verifier, and filled with the retrieved user information.
+
+Examples:
+
+ Hash - A simple hash of keys and values.
+
+=head3 ACL authorization
+
+ACL stands for Access Control List. The ACL plugin allows you to regulate
+access on a path by path basis, by listing which users, or roles, have access
+to which paths.
+
+=head3 Roles authorization
+
+Authorization by roles is for assigning users to groups, which can then be
+assigned to ACLs, or just checked when needed.
+
+=head3 Logging in
+
+When you have chosen your modules, all you need to do is call the C<<
+$c->login >> method. If called with no parameters, it will try to find
+suitable parameters, such as B<username> and B<password>, or you can pass it
+these values.
+
+=head3 Checking roles
+
+Role checking is done by using the C<< $c->check_user_roles >> method, this will
+check using the currently logged in user (via C<< $c->user >>). You pass it
+the name of a role to check, and it returns true if the user is a member.
+
+=head3 EXAMPLE
+
+ use Catalyst qw/Authentication
+ Authentication::Credential::Password
+ Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
+ Authorization::Roles/;
+
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
+
+ sub login : Local {
+ my ($self, $c) = @_;
+
+ if ( my $user = $c->req->param("user")
+ and my $password = $c->req->param("password") )
+ {
+ if ( $c->login( $user, $password ) ) {
+ $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->name );
+ } else {
+ # login incorrect
+ }
+ }
+ else {
+ # invalid form input
+ }
+ }
+
+ sub restricted : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+
+ $c->detach("unauthorized")
+ unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
+
+ # do something restricted here
+ }
+
+=head3 Using authentication in a testing environment
+
+Ideally, to write tests for authentication/authorization code one would first
+set up a test database with known data, then use
+L<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst> to simulate a user logging in. Unfortunately
+the former can be rather awkward, which is why it's a good thing that the
+authentication framework is so flexible.
+
+Instead of using a test database, one can simply change the authentication
+store to something a bit easier to deal with in a testing
+environment. Additionally, this has the advantage of not modifying one's
+database, which can be problematic if one forgets to use the testing instead of
+production database.
+
+e.g.,
+
+ use Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store::Minimal::Backend;
+
+ # Sets up the user `test_user' with password `test_pass'
+ MyApp->default_auth_store(
+ Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store::Minimal::Backend->new({
+ test_user => { password => 'test_pass' },
+ })
+ );
+
+Now, your test code can call C<$c->login('test_user', 'test_pass')> and
+successfully login, without messing with the database at all.
+
+=head3 More information
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> has a longer explanation.
+
+=head2 Authorization
+
+=head3 Introduction
+
+Authorization is the step that comes after authentication. Authentication
+establishes that the user agent is really representing the user we think it's
+representing, and then authorization determines what this user is allowed to
+do.
+
+=head3 Role Based Access Control
+
+Under role based access control each user is allowed to perform any number of
+roles. For example, at a zoo no one but specially trained personnel can enter
+the moose cage (Mynd you, møøse bites kan be pretty nasti!). For example:
+
+ package Zoo::Controller::MooseCage;
+
+ sub feed_moose : Local {
my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->serve_static;
+ $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") );
}
-You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of
-favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header:
+With this action, anyone can just come into the moose cage and feed the moose,
+which is a very dangerous thing. We need to restrict this action, so that only
+a qualified moose feeder can perform that action.
- <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
+The Authorization::Roles plugin let's us perform role based access control
+checks. Let's load it:
-=head3 Common problems
+ use Catalyst qw/
+ Authentication # yadda yadda
+ Authorization::Roles
+ /;
-The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to
-automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously
-difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest
-path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install
-shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine.
+And now our action should look like this:
-Make sure you are using the latest version (>= 0.16) for best
-results. If you are having errors serving CSS files, or if they get
-served as text/plain instead of text/css, you may have an outdated
-shared-mime-info version. You may also wish to simply use the following
-code in your Static controller:
+ sub feed_moose : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) {
- $c->serve_static( "text/css" );
- } else {
- $c->serve_static;
+ if ( $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" ) ) {
+ $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") );
+ } else {
+ $c->stash->{error} = "unauthorized";
+ }
}
-=head3 Serving with Apache
+This checks C<< $c->user >>, and only if the user has B<all> the roles in the
+list, a true value is returned.
-When using Apache, you can completely bypass Catalyst and the Static
-controller by intercepting requests for the C<root/static> path at the
-server level. All that is required is to define a DocumentRoot and add a
-separate Location block for your static content. Here is a complete
-config for this application under mod_perl 1.x:
+C<check_roles> has a sister method, C<assert_roles>, which throws an exception
+if any roles are missing.
- <Perl>
- use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib);
- </Perl>
- PerlModule MyApp
+Some roles that might actually make sense in, say, a forum application:
- <VirtualHost *>
- ServerName myapp.example.com
- DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
- <Location />
- SetHandler perl-script
- PerlHandler MyApp
- </Location>
- <LocationMatch "/(static|favicon.ico)">
- SetHandler default-handler
- </LocationMatch>
- </VirtualHost>
+=over 4
-And here's a simpler example that'll get you started:
+=item *
- Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/"
- <Location "/static">
- SetHandler none
- </Location>
+administrator
-=head2 Forwarding with arguments
+=item *
-Sometimes you want to pass along arguments when forwarding to another
-action. As of version 5.30, arguments can be passed in the call to
-C<forward>; in earlier versions, you can manually set the arguments in
-the Catalyst Request object:
+moderator
- # version 5.30 and later:
- $c->forward('/wherever', [qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
+=back
- # pre-5.30
- $c->req->args([qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
- $c->forward('/wherever');
+each with a distinct task (system administration versus content administration).
-(See the L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> Flow_Control section for more
-information on passing arguments via C<forward>.)
+=head3 Access Control Lists
-=head2 Configure your application
+Checking for roles all the time can be tedious and error prone.
-You configure your application with the C<config> method in your
-application class. This can be hard-coded, or brought in from a
-separate configuration file.
+The Authorization::ACL plugin let's us declare where we'd like checks to be
+done automatically for us.
-=head3 Using YAML
+For example, we may want to completely block out anyone who isn't a
+C<moose_feeder> from the entire C<MooseCage> controller:
-YAML is a method for creating flexible and readable configuration
-files. It's a great way to keep your Catalyst application configuration
-in one easy-to-understand location.
+ Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_feeder/] );
-In your application class (e.g. C<lib/MyApp.pm>):
+The role list behaves in the same way as C<check_roles>. However, the ACL
+plugin isn't limited to just interacting with the Roles plugin. We can use a
+code reference instead. For example, to allow either moose trainers or moose
+feeders into the moose cage, we can create a more complex check:
- use YAML;
- # application setup
- __PACKAGE__->config( YAML::LoadFile(__PACKAGE__->config->{'home'} . '/myapp.yml') );
- __PACKAGE__->setup;
+ Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", sub {
+ my $c = shift;
+ $c->check_roles( "moose_trainer" ) || $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" );
+ });
-Now create C<myapp.yml> in your application home:
+The more specific a role, the earlier it will be checked. Let's say moose
+feeders are now restricted to only the C<feed_moose> action, while moose
+trainers get access everywhere:
- --- #YAML:1.0
- # DO NOT USE TABS FOR INDENTATION OR label/value SEPARATION!!!
- name: MyApp
+ Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_trainer/] );
+ Zoo->allow_access_if( "/moose_cage/feed_moose", [qw/moose_feeder/]);
- # session; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Session::FastMmap
- session:
- expires: '3600'
- rewrite: '0'
- storage: '/tmp/myapp.session'
+When the C<feed_moose> action is accessed the second check will be made. If the
+user is a C<moose_feeder>, then access will be immediately granted. Otherwise,
+the next rule in line will be tested - the one checking for a C<moose_trainer>.
+If this rule is not satisfied, access will be immediately denied.
- # emails; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Email
- # this passes options as an array :(
- email:
- - SMTP
- - localhost
+Rules applied to the same path will be checked in the order they were added.
-This is equivalent to:
+Lastly, handling access denial events is done by creating an C<access_denied>
+private action:
- # configure base package
- __PACKAGE__->config( name => MyApp );
- # configure authentication
- __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication} = {
- user_class => 'MyApp::M::MyDB::Customer',
- ...
- };
- # configure sessions
- __PACKAGE__->config->{session} = {
- expires => 3600,
- ...
- };
- # configure email sending
- __PACKAGE__->config->{email} = [qw/SMTP localhost/];
+ sub access_denied : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c, $action ) = @_;
-See also L<YAML>.
+
+ }
+
+This action works much like auto, in that it is inherited across namespaces
+(not like object oriented code). This means that the C<access_denied> action
+which is B<nearest> to the action which was blocked will be triggered.
+
+If this action does not exist, an error will be thrown, which you can clean up
+in your C<end> private action instead.
+
+Also, it's important to note that if you restrict access to "/" then C<end>,
+C<default>, etc will also be restricted.
+
+ MyApp->acl_allow_root_internals;
+
+will create rules that permit access to C<end>, C<begin>, and C<auto> in the
+root of your app (but not in any other controller).
+
+=head1 Models
+
+Models are where application data belongs. Catalyst is exteremely
+flexible with the kind of models that it can use. The recipes here
+are just the start.
=head2 Using existing DBIC (etc.) classes with Catalyst
);
1;
-and that's it! Now C<Some::DBIC::Schema> is part of your
-Cat app as C<MyApp::Model::DB>.
+and that's it! Now C<Some::DBIC::Schema> is part of your
+Cat app as C<MyApp::Model::DB>.
+
+=head2 DBIx::Class as a Catalyst Model
+
+See L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>.
+
+=head2 XMLRPC
+
+Unlike SOAP, XMLRPC is a very simple (and imo elegant) web-services
+protocol, exchanging small XML messages like these:
+
+Request:
+
+ POST /api HTTP/1.1
+ TE: deflate,gzip;q=0.3
+ Connection: TE, close
+ Accept: text/xml
+ Accept: multipart/*
+ Host: 127.0.0.1:3000
+ User-Agent: SOAP::Lite/Perl/0.60
+ Content-Length: 192
+ Content-Type: text/xml
+
+ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+ <methodCall>
+ <methodName>add</methodName>
+ <params>
+ <param><value><int>1</int></value></param>
+ <param><value><int>2</int></value></param>
+ </params>
+ </methodCall>
+
+Response:
+
+ Connection: close
+ Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:45:55 GMT
+ Content-Length: 133
+ Content-Type: text/xml
+ Status: 200
+ X-Catalyst: 5.70
+
+ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
+ <methodResponse>
+ <params>
+ <param><value><int>3</int></value></param>
+ </params>
+ </methodResponse>
+
+Now follow these few steps to implement the application:
+
+1. Install Catalyst (5.61 or later), Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC (0.06 or
+later) and SOAP::Lite (for XMLRPCsh.pl).
+
+2. Create an application framework:
+
+ % catalyst.pl MyApp
+ ...
+ % cd MyApp
+
+3. Add the XMLRPC plugin to MyApp.pm
+
+ use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple XMLRPC/;
+
+4. Add an API controller
+
+ % ./script/myapp_create.pl controller API
+
+5. Add a XMLRPC redispatch method and an add method with Remote
+attribute to lib/MyApp/Controller/API.pm
+
+ sub default : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->xmlrpc;
+ }
+
+ sub add : Remote {
+ my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
+ return $a + $b;
+ }
+
+The default action is the entry point for each XMLRPC request. It will
+redispatch every request to methods with Remote attribute in the same
+class.
+
+The C<add> method is not a traditional action; it has no private or
+public path. Only the XMLRPC dispatcher knows it exists.
+
+6. That's it! You have built your first web service. Let's test it with
+XMLRPCsh.pl (part of SOAP::Lite):
+
+ % ./script/myapp_server.pl
+ ...
+ % XMLRPCsh.pl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api
+ Usage: method[(parameters)]
+ > add( 1, 2 )
+ --- XMLRPC RESULT ---
+ '3'
+
+=head3 Tip
+
+Your return data type is usually auto-detected, but you can easily
+enforce a specific one.
+
+ sub add : Remote {
+ my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
+ return RPC::XML::int->new( $a + $b );
+ }
+
+
+
+=head1 Views
+
+Views pertain to the display of your application. As with models,
+catalyst is uncommonly flexible. The recipes below are just a start.
+
+=head2 Catalyst::View::TT
-=head2 Delivering a Custom Error Page
+One of the first things you probably want to do when starting a new
+Catalyst application is set up your View. Catalyst doesn't care how you
+display your data; you can choose to generate HTML, PDF files, or plain
+text if you wanted.
-By default, Catalyst will display its own error page whenever it
-encounters an error in your application. When running under C<-Debug>
-mode, the error page is a useful screen including the error message and
-L<Data::Dump> output of the relevant parts of the C<$c> context object.
-When not in C<-Debug>, users see a simple "Please come back later" screen.
+Most Catalyst applications use a template system to generate their HTML,
+and though there are several template systems available, Template
+Toolkit is probably the most popular.
-To use a custom error page, use a special C<end> method to short-circuit
-the error processing. The following is an example; you might want to
-adjust it further depending on the needs of your application (for
-example, any calls to C<fillform> will probably need to go into this
-C<end> method; see L<Catalyst::Plugin::FillInForm>).
+Once again, the Catalyst developers have done all the hard work, and
+made things easy for the rest of us. Catalyst::View::TT provides the
+interface to Template Toolkit, and provides Helpers which let us set it
+up that much more easily.
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=head3 Creating your View
- if ( scalar @{ $c->error } ) {
- $c->stash->{errors} = $c->error;
- $c->stash->{template} = 'errors.tt';
- $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
- $c->error(0);
- }
+Catalyst::View::TT provides two different helpers for us to use: TT and
+TTSite.
- return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/;
- return 1 if $c->response->body;
+=head4 TT
- unless ( $c->response->content_type ) {
- $c->response->content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8');
- }
+Create a basic Template Toolkit View using the provided helper script:
- $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
- }
+ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT
-You can manually set errors in your code to trigger this page by calling
+This will create lib/MyApp/View/MyView.pm, which is going to be pretty
+empty to start. However, it sets everything up that you need to get
+started. You can now define which template you want and forward to your
+view. For instance:
- $c->error( 'You broke me!' );
+ sub hello : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-=head2 Require user logins
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
-It's often useful to restrict access to your application to a set of
-registered users, forcing everyone else to the login page until they're
-signed in.
+ $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
+ }
-To implement this in your application make sure you have a customer
-table with username and password fields and a corresponding Model class
-in your Catalyst application, then make the following changes:
+In practice you wouldn't do the forwarding manually, but would
+use L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView>.
-=head3 lib/MyApp.pm
+=head4 TTSite
- use Catalyst qw/
- Authentication
- Authentication::Store::DBIC
- Authentication::Credential::Password
- /;
+Although the TT helper does create a functional, working view, you may
+find yourself having to create the same template files and changing the
+same options every time you create a new application. The TTSite helper
+saves us even more time by creating the basic templates and setting some
+common options for us.
- __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}->{dbic} = {
- 'user_class' => 'My::Model::DBIC::User',
- 'user_field' => 'username',
- 'password_field' => 'password'
- 'password_type' => 'hashed',
- 'password_hash_type'=> 'SHA-1'
- };
+Once again, you can use the helper script:
- sub auto : Private {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
- my $login_path = 'user/login';
+ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TTSite
- # allow people to actually reach the login page!
- if ($c->request->path eq $login_path) {
- return 1;
- }
+This time, the helper sets several options for us in the generated View.
- # if a user doesn't exist, force login
- if ( !$c->user_exists ) {
- # force the login screen to be shown
- $c->response->redirect($c->request->base . $login_path);
- }
+ __PACKAGE__->config({
+ CATALYST_VAR => 'Catalyst',
+ INCLUDE_PATH => [
+ MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
+ MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'lib' )
+ ],
+ PRE_PROCESS => 'config/main',
+ WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper',
+ ERROR => 'error.tt2',
+ TIMER => 0
+ });
- # otherwise, we have a user - continue with the processing chain
- return 1;
- }
+=over
-=head3 lib/MyApp/C/User.pm
+=item
- sub login : Path('/user/login') {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
+INCLUDE_PATH defines the directories that Template Toolkit should search
+for the template files.
- # default template
- $c->stash->{'template'} = "user/login.tt";
- # default form message
- $c->stash->{'message'} = 'Please enter your username and password';
+=item
- if ( $c->request->param('username') ) {
- # try to log the user in
- # login() is provided by ::Authentication::Credential::Password
- if( $c->login(
- $c->request->param('username'),
- $c->request->param('password'),
- ) {
+PRE_PROCESS is used to process configuration options which are common to
+every template file.
- # if login() returns 1, user is now logged in
- $c->response->redirect('/some/page');
- }
+=item
- # otherwise we failed to login, try again!
- $c->stash->{'message'} =
- 'Unable to authenticate the login details supplied';
- }
- }
+WRAPPER is a file which is processed with each template, usually used to
+easily provide a common header and footer for every page.
- sub logout : Path('/user/logout') {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
- # log the user out
- $c->logout;
+=back
- # do the 'default' action
- $c->response->redirect($c->request->base);
- }
+In addition to setting these options, the TTSite helper also created the
+template and config files for us! In the 'root' directory, you'll notice
+two new directories: src and lib.
+Several configuration files in root/lib/config are called by PRE_PROCESS.
-=head3 root/base/user/login.tt
+The files in root/lib/site are the site-wide templates, called by
+WRAPPER, and display the html framework, control the layout, and provide
+the templates for the header and footer of your page. Using the template
+organization provided makes it much easier to standardize pages and make
+changes when they are (inevitably) needed.
- [% INCLUDE header.tt %]
- <form action="/user/login" method="POST" name="login_form">
- [% message %]<br />
- <label for="username">username:</label><br />
- <input type="text" id="username" name="username" /><br />
+The template files that you will create for your application will go
+into root/src, and you don't need to worry about putting the the <html>
+or <head> sections; just put in the content. The WRAPPER will the rest
+of the page around your template for you.
- <label for="password">password:</label><br />
- <input type="password" id="password" name="password" /><br />
- <input type="submit" value="log in" name="form_submit" />
- </form>
- [% INCLUDE footer.tt %]
+=head3 $c->stash
-=head2 Role-based Authorization
+Of course, having the template system include the header and footer for
+you isn't all that we want our templates to do. We need to be able to
+put data into our templates, and have it appear where and how we want
+it, right? That's where the stash comes in.
-For more advanced access control, you may want to consider using role-based
-authorization. This means you can assign different roles to each user, e.g.
-"user", "admin", etc.
+In our controllers, we can add data to the stash, and then access it
+from the template. For instance:
-The C<login> and C<logout> methods and view template are exactly the same as
-in the previous example.
+ sub hello : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-The L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles> plugin is required when
-implementing roles:
+ $c->stash->{name} = 'Adam';
- use Catalyst qw/
- Authentication
- Authentication::Credential::Password
- Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
- Authorization::Roles
- /;
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
-Roles are implemented automatically when using
-L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Htpasswd>:
+ $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
+ }
- # no additional role configuration required
- __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
+Then, in hello.tt:
-Or can be set up manually when using L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIC>:
+ <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong>
- # Authorization using a many-to-many role relationship
- __PACKAGE__->config->{authorization}{dbic} = {
- 'role_class' => 'My::Model::DBIC::Role',
- 'role_field' => 'name',
- 'user_role_user_field' => 'user',
+When you view this page, it will display "Hello, Adam!"
- # DBIx::Class only (omit if using Class::DBI)
- 'role_rel' => 'user_role',
+All of the information in your stash is available, by its name/key, in
+your templates. And your data don't have to be plain, old, boring
+scalars. You can pass array references and hash references, too.
- # Class::DBI only, (omit if using DBIx::Class)
- 'user_role_class' => 'My::Model::CDBI::UserRole'
- 'user_role_role_field' => 'role',
- };
+In your controller:
-To restrict access to any action, you can use the C<check_user_roles> method:
+ sub hello : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- sub restricted : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->stash->{names} = [ 'Adam', 'Dave', 'John' ];
- $c->detach("unauthorized")
- unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
- # do something restricted here
- }
+ $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
+ }
-You can also use the C<assert_user_roles> method. This just gives an error if
-the current user does not have one of the required roles:
+In hello.tt:
- sub also_restricted : Global {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->assert_user_roles( qw/ user admin / );
- }
-
-=head2 Building PAR Packages\r
-\r
-You know the problem, you got a application perfectly running on your\r
-development box, but then *shudder* you have to quickly move it to\r
-another one for demonstration/deployment/testing...\r
-\r
-PAR packages can save you from a lot of trouble here.\r
-They are usual Zip files that contain a blib tree, you can even\r
-include all prereqs and a perl interpreter by setting a few flags!\r
-\r
-=head3 Follow these few points to try it out!\r
-\r
-1. Install Catalyst 5.61 (or later) and PAR 0.89\r
-\r
- % perl -MCPAN -e 'install Catalyst'\r
- ...\r
- % perl -MCPAN -e 'install PAR'\r
- ...\r
-\r
-2. Create a application\r
-\r
- % catalyst.pl MyApp\r
- ...\r
- % cd MyApp\r
-\r
-3. Add these lines to Makefile.PL (below "catalyst_files();")\r
-\r
- catalyst_par_core(); # Include modules that are also included\r
- # in the standard Perl distribution,\r
- # this is optional but highly suggested\r
-\r
- catalyst_par(); # Generate a PAR as soon as the blib\r
- # directory is ready\r
-\r
-4. Prepare the Makefile, test your app, create a PAR (the two Makefile.PL calls are no typo)\r
-\r
- % perl Makefile.PL\r
- ...\r
- % make test\r
- ...\r
- % perl Makefile.PL\r
- ...\r
-\r
-Future versions of Catalyst (5.62 and newer) will use a similar but more elegant calling convention.\r
-\r
- % perl Makefile.PL\r
- ...\r
- % make catalyst_par\r
- ...\r
-\r
-Congratulations! Your package "myapp.par" is ready, the following\r
-steps are just optional.\r
-\r
-5. Test your PAR package with "parl" (no typo) :)\r
-\r
- % parl myapp.par\r
- Usage:\r
- [parl] myapp[.par] [script] [arguments]\r
-\r
- Examples:\r
- parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl -r\r
- myapp myapp_cgi.pl\r
-\r
- Available scripts:\r
- myapp_cgi.pl\r
- myapp_create.pl\r
- myapp_fastcgi.pl\r
- myapp_server.pl\r
- myapp_test.pl\r
-\r
- % parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl\r
- You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000\r
-\r
-Yes, this nifty little starter application gets automatically included.\r
-You can also use "catalyst_par_script('myapp_server.pl')" to set a\r
-default script to execute.\r
-\r
-6. Want to create a binary that includes the Perl interpreter? No\r
-problem!\r
-\r
- % pp -o myapp myapp.par\r
- % ./myapp myapp_server.pl\r
- You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000\r
-
-=head2 mod_perl Deployment\r
-\r
-In today's entry, I'll be talking about deploying an application in\r
-production using Apache and mod_perl.\r
-\r
-=head3 Pros & Cons\r
-\r
-mod_perl is the best solution for many applications, but I'll list some pros\r
-and cons so you can decide for yourself. The other production deployment\r
-option is FastCGI, which I'll talk about in a future calendar article.\r
-\r
-=head4 Pros\r
-\r
-=head4 Speed\r
-\r
-mod_perl is very fast and your app will benefit from being loaded in memory\r
-within each Apache process.\r
-\r
-=head4 Shared memory for multiple apps\r
-\r
-If you need to run several Catalyst apps on the same server, mod_perl will\r
-share the memory for common modules.\r
-\r
-=head4 Cons\r
-\r
-=head4 Memory usage\r
-\r
-Since your application is fully loaded in memory, every Apache process will\r
-be rather large. This means a large Apache process will be tied up while\r
-serving static files, large files, or dealing with slow clients. For this\r
-reason, it is best to run a two-tiered web architecture with a lightweight\r
-frontend server passing dynamic requests to a large backend mod_perl\r
-server.\r
-\r
-=head4 Reloading\r
-\r
-Any changes made to the core code of your app require a full Apache restart.\r
-Catalyst does not support Apache::Reload or StatINC. This is another good\r
-reason to run a frontend web server where you can set up an\r
-C<ErrorDocument 502> page to report that your app is down for maintenance.\r
-\r
-=head4 Cannot run multiple versions of the same app\r
-\r
-It is not possible to run two different versions of the same application in\r
-the same Apache instance because the namespaces will collide.\r
-\r
-=head4 Setup\r
-\r
-Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about setting up mod_perl\r
-to run a Catalyst app.\r
-\r
-=head4 1. Install Catalyst::Engine::Apache\r
-\r
-You should install the latest versions of both Catalyst and \r
-Catalyst::Engine::Apache. The Apache engines were separated from the\r
-Catalyst core in version 5.50 to allow for updates to the engine without\r
-requiring a new Catalyst release.\r
-\r
-=head4 2. Install Apache with mod_perl\r
-\r
-Both Apache 1.3 and Apache 2 are supported, although Apache 2 is highly\r
-recommended. With Apache 2, make sure you are using the prefork MPM and not\r
-the worker MPM. The reason for this is that many Perl modules are not\r
-thread-safe and may have problems running within the threaded worker\r
-environment. Catalyst is thread-safe however, so if you know what you're\r
-doing, you may be able to run using worker.\r
-\r
-In Debian, the following commands should get you going.\r
-\r
- apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork\r
- apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2\r
-\r
-=head4 3. Configure your application\r
-\r
-Every Catalyst application will automagically become a mod_perl handler\r
-when run within mod_perl. This makes the configuration extremely easy.\r
-Here is a basic Apache 2 configuration.\r
-\r
- PerlSwitches -I/var/www/MyApp/lib\r
- PerlModule MyApp\r
- \r
- <Location />\r
- SetHandler modperl\r
- PerlResponseHandler MyApp\r
- </Location>\r
-\r
-The most important line here is C<PerlModule MyApp>. This causes mod_perl\r
-to preload your entire application into shared memory, including all of your\r
-controller, model, and view classes and configuration. If you have -Debug\r
-mode enabled, you will see the startup output scroll by when you first\r
-start Apache.\r
-\r
-For an example Apache 1.3 configuration, please see the documentation for\r
-L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>.\r
-\r
-=head3 Test It\r
-\r
-That's it, your app is now a full-fledged mod_perl application! Try it out\r
-by going to http://your.server.com/.\r
-\r
-=head3 Other Options\r
-\r
-=head4 Non-root location\r
-\r
-You may not always want to run your app at the root of your server or virtual\r
-host. In this case, it's a simple change to run at any non-root location\r
-of your choice.\r
-\r
- <Location /myapp>\r
- SetHandler modperl\r
- PerlResponseHandler MyApp\r
- </Location>\r
- \r
-When running this way, it is best to make use of the C<uri_for> method in\r
-Catalyst for constructing correct links.\r
-\r
-=head4 Static file handling\r
-\r
-Static files can be served directly by Apache for a performance boost.\r
-\r
- DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root\r
- <Location /static>\r
- SetHandler default-handler\r
- </Location>\r
- \r
-This will let all files within root/static be handled directly by Apache. In\r
-a two-tiered setup, the frontend server should handle static files.\r
-The configuration to do this on the frontend will vary.
+ [% FOREACH name IN names %]
+ <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong><br />
+ [% END %]
-=head2 Don't Repeat Yourself\r
-\r
-DRY is a central principle in Catalyst, yet there is one piece of code\r
-that is identical in 90% of all Catalyst applications.\r
-\r
- sub end : Private {\r
- my ($self,$c) = @_;\r
- return 1 if $c->res->body;\r
- return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/;\r
- $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' );\r
- }\r
-\r
-Basically, we want to render a template unless we already have a response,\r
-or are redirecting. \r
-\r
-=head3 Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd to the rescue!\r
-\r
-So, rather than doing this again and again, I've made a plugin for you to use.\r
-sure, it's not much code, but at least it's one function less to worry about.\r
-\r
-Here's how to use it:\r
-\r
-1. Open up MyApp.pm.\r
-\r
-2. Add the DefaultEnd plugin like this:\r
-\r
- use Catalyst qw/-Debug DefaultEnd Static::Simple/;\r
- \r
-3. There is no step 3 :)\r
-\r
-As an added bonus, you can now set dump_info=1 as a url parameter to force \r
-the end action to die, and display the debug info. Note that this is only\r
-provided in Debug mode.\r
-\r
-By default, DefaultEnd will forward to the first view it can find. If you have\r
-more than one view, you might want to specifiy the active one, by setting \r
-$c->config->{view}.\r
-\r
-If you need to add more things to your end action, you can extend it like this.\r
-\r
- sub end : Private {\r
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;\r
-\r
- ... #code before view\r
-\r
- $c->NEXT::end( $c );\r
- \r
- ... #code after view\r
- }
-
-=head2 YAML, YAML, YAML!\r
-\r
-When you start a new Catalyst app you configure it directly\r
-with __PACKAGE__->config, thats ok for development but admins\r
-will hate you when they have to deploy this.\r
-\r
- __PACKAGE__->config( name => 'MyApp', 'View::TT' => { EVAL_PERL => 1 } );\r
-\r
-You didn't know you could configure your view from the application class, eh? :)\r
-Thats possible for every component that inherits from Catalyst::Component\r
-or it's subclasses (Catalyst::Base, Catalyst::Controller, Catalyst::View,\r
-Catalyst::Model).\r
-\r
- __PACKAGE__->config(\r
- name => 'MyApp',\r
- 'View::TT' => {\r
- EVAL_PERL => 1\r
- },\r
- 'Controller::Foo' => {\r
- fool => 'sri'\r
- }\r
- );\r
- \r
- \r
- package MyApp::Controller::Foo;\r
- use base 'Catalyst::Controller';\r
- \r
- __PACKAGE__->config( lalala => " can't sing!" );\r
- \r
- sub default : Private {\r
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;\r
- $c->res->body( $self->{fool} . $self->{lalala} );\r
- }\r
-\r
-But back to the topic, lets make our admins happy with this little idiom.\r
-\r
- use YAML ();\r
- \r
- __PACKAGE__->config( YAML::LoadFile( __PACKAGE__->path_to('myapp.yml') ) );\r
-\r
-The C<path_to()> method is a nice little helper that returns paths relative to the\r
-current application home.\r
-\r
-Thats it, now just create a file C<myapp.yml>.\r
-\r
- ---\r
- name: MyApp\r
- View::TT:\r
- EVAL_PERL: 1\r
- Controller::Foo:\r
- fool: sri\r
-
-=head2 Catalyst on shared hosting\r
-\r
-So, you want to put your Catalyst app out there for the whole world to\r
-see, but you don't want to break the bank. There is an answer - if you can\r
-get shared hosting with FastCGI and a shell, you can install your Catalyst\r
-app. First, run\r
-\r
- perl -MCPAN -e shell\r
-\r
-and go through the standard CPAN configuration process. Then exit out\r
-without installing anything. Next, open your .bashrc and add\r
-\r
- export PATH=$HOME/local/bin:$HOME/local/script:$PATH\r
- perlversion=`perl -v | grep 'built for' | awk '{print $4}' | sed -e 's/v//;'`\r
- export PERL5LIB=$HOME/local/share/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib:$PERL5LIB\r
-\r
-and log out, then back in again (or run ". .bashrc" if you prefer). Finally,\r
-edit .cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm and add\r
-\r
- 'make_install_arg' => qq[SITEPREFIX=$ENV{HOME}/local],\r
- 'makepl_arg' => qq[INSTALLDIRS=site install_base=$ENV{HOME}/local],\r
-\r
-Now you can install the modules you need with CPAN as normal, and perl will\r
-pick them up. Finally, change directory into the root of your virtual host\r
-and symlink your application's script directory in -\r
-\r
- cd path/to/mydomain.com\r
- ln -s ~/lib/MyApp/script script\r
-\r
-And add the following lines to your .htaccess file (assuming the server is\r
-setup to handle .pl as fcgi - you may need to rename the script to\r
-myapp_fastcgi.fcgi and/or use a SetHandler directive) -\r
-\r
- RewriteEngine On\r
- RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?script/myapp_fastcgi.pl\r
- RewriteRule ^(.*)$ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/$1 [PT,L]\r
-\r
-http://mydomain.com/ should now Just Work. Congratulations, now you can\r
-tell your friends about your new website (or in our case, tell the client\r
-it's time to pay the invoice :)
-
-=head2 Caching\r
-\r
-Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to speed\r
-up your applications.\r
-\r
-=head3 Cache Plugins\r
-\r
-There are three wrapper plugins around common CPAN cache modules:\r
-Cache::FastMmap, Cache::FileCache, and Cache::Memcached. These can be used\r
-to cache the result of slow operations. \r
-\r
-This very page you're viewing makes use of the FileCache plugin to cache the\r
-rendered XHTML version of the source POD document. This is an ideal\r
-application for a cache because the source document changes infrequently but\r
-may be viewed many times.\r
-\r
- use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache/;\r
- \r
- ...\r
- \r
- use File::stat;\r
- sub render_pod : Local {\r
- my ( self, $c ) = @_;\r
- \r
- # the cache is keyed on the filename and the modification time\r
- # to check for updates to the file.\r
- my $file = $c->path_to( 'root', '2005', '11.pod' );\r
- my $mtime = ( stat $file )->mtime;\r
- \r
- my $cached_pod = $c->cache->get("$file $mtime");\r
- if ( !$cached_pod ) {\r
- $cached_pod = do_slow_pod_rendering();\r
- # cache the result for 12 hours\r
- $c->cache->set( "$file $mtime", $cached_pod, '12h' );\r
- }\r
- $c->stash->{pod} = $cached_pod;\r
- }\r
- \r
-We could actually cache the result forever, but using a value such as 12 hours\r
-allows old entries to be automatically expired when they are no longer needed.\r
-\r
-=head3 Page Caching\r
-\r
-Another method of caching is to cache the entire HTML page. While this is\r
-traditionally handled by a front-end proxy server like Squid, the Catalyst\r
-PageCache plugin makes it trivial to cache the entire output from\r
-frequently-used or slow actions.\r
-\r
-Many sites have a busy content-filled front page that might look something\r
-like this. It probably takes a while to process, and will do the exact same\r
-thing for every single user who views the page.\r
-\r
- sub front_page : Path('/') {\r
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;\r
- \r
- $c->forward( 'get_news_articles' );\r
- $c->forward( 'build_lots_of_boxes' );\r
- $c->forward( 'more_slow_stuff' );\r
- \r
- $c->stash->{template} = 'index.tt';\r
- }\r
-\r
-We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up.\r
-\r
- use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/;\r
- \r
- sub front_page : Path ('/') {\r
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;\r
- \r
- $c->cache_page( 300 );\r
- \r
- # same processing as above\r
- }\r
- \r
-Now the entire output of the front page, from <html> to </html>, will be\r
-cached for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the next request will rebuild the\r
-page and it will be re-cached.\r
-\r
-Note that the page cache is keyed on the page URI plus all parameters, so\r
-requests for / and /?foo=bar will result in different cache items. Also,\r
-only GET requests will be cached by the plugin.\r
-\r
-You can even get that front-end Squid proxy to help out by enabling HTTP\r
-headers for the cached page.\r
-\r
- MyApp->config->{page_cache}->{set_http_headers} = 1;\r
- \r
-This would now set the following headers so proxies and browsers may cache\r
-the content themselves.\r
-\r
- Cache-Control: max-age=($expire_time - time)\r
- Expires: $expire_time\r
- Last-Modified: $cache_created_time\r
- \r
-=head3 Template Caching\r
-\r
-Template Toolkit provides support for caching compiled versions of your\r
-templates. To enable this in Catalyst, use the following configuration.\r
-TT will cache compiled templates keyed on the file mtime, so changes will\r
-still be automatically detected.\r
-\r
- package MyApp::View::TT;\r
- \r
- use strict;\r
- use warnings;\r
- use base 'Catalyst::View::TT';\r
- \r
- __PACKAGE__->config(\r
- COMPILE_DIR => '/tmp/template_cache',\r
- );\r
- \r
- 1;\r
- \r
-=head3 More Info\r
-\r
-See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other\r
-available configuration options.\r
-\r
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Cache-FastMmap/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Cache/FastMmap.pm>\r
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Cache-FileCache/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Cache/FileCache.pm>\r
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Cache-Memcached/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/Cache/Memcached.pm>\r
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-PageCache/lib/Catalyst/Plugin/PageCache.pm>\r
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Template-Toolkit/lib/Template/Manual/Config.pod#Caching_and_Compiling_Options>
+This allowed us to loop through each item in the arrayref, and display a
+line for each name that we have.
-=head2 L<Catalyst::Plugin::Subrequest>\r
-\r
-=head3 Component based sub-requests.\r
-\r
-This is actually one of the features we brought over from L<Maypole>. There it \r
-was called L<Maypole::Plugin::Component>. Basically, the idea is to set up \r
-new request/response objects, and do an internal request, then return the \r
-output. It's quite handy for various situations, Simon's example was a \r
-shopping portal. I'm frequently using it to render parts of my site that I'm \r
-also rendering with ajax, to avoid duplication of code.\r
-\r
-It's quite simple in use. You just call $c->subreq('</public/url>'); (or \r
-with TT, [% c.subreq('/public/url') %] .) This will localize enough \r
-of your request/response object so that it shouldn't affect your current\r
-request, set up a new path/uri, and call the Dispatcher to force a full\r
-request chain, including begin/end/auto/default and whatever else applies.\r
-if you don't like 'subreq', theres an alias as well: 'sub_request'.\r
-\r
-You can also set up the stash before the request, as well as pass parameters\r
-to the request like a normal form POST by passing optional hashrefs to the \r
-subreq method. for example:\r
-\r
- my $text=$c->subreq('/foo',{ bar=>$c->stash->{bar} }, {id=>23});\r
-\r
-This will dispatch to whatever handles '/foo', with bar in the stash, and\r
-$c->req->param('id') returning 23. After the request, $text will contain\r
-whatever's in $c->res->output.\r
-\r
-Note, by the way, that the uri path is relative to the application root, \r
-and not necessesarily the webserver root.
-
-=head2 DBIx::Class as Catalyst Model
-
-=head3 Our Database
-
-This text will show you how to start using DBIx::Class as your model within
-Catalyst. Let's assume, we have a relational set of tables:
-
- shell> sqlite3 myapp.db
- SQLite version 3.2.1
- Enter ".help" for instructions
- sqlite> CREATE TABLE person (
- ...> id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
- ...> name VARCHAR(100)
- ...> );
- sqlite> CREATE TABLE address (
- ...> id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
- ...> person INTEGER REFERENCES person
- ...> address TEXT,
- ...> );
- sqlite> .q
-
-which we want to access from our C<MyApp> Catalyst application.
-
-=head3 Setting up the models
-
-We will cover the more convenient way to start with, and let our models be
-set up automatically. If you want to define your models and their relations
-manually, have a look at C<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Plain>. We'll concentrate
-on C<Catalyst::Model::DBIC>.
-
-We let a helper do most of the work for us:
-
- shell> script/myapp_create.pl model DBIC DBIC \
- dbi:SQLite:/path/to/myapp.db
- exists "/path/MyApp/script/../lib/MyApp/Model"
- exists "/path/MyApp/script/../t"
- created "/path/MyApp/Model/DBIC.pm"
- created "/path/MyApp/Model/DBIC"
- created "/path/MyApp/Model/DBIC/Address.pm"
- created "/path/MyApp/Model/DBIC/Person.pm"
- created "/path/MyApp/Model/DBIC/SqliteSequence.pm"
- exists "/path/MyApp/script/../t"
- created "/path/MyApp/script/../t/model_DBIC-Address.t"
- exists "/path/MyApp/script/../t"
- created "/path/MyApp/script/../t/model_DBIC-Person.t"
- exists "/path/MyApp/script/../t"
- created "/path/MyApp/script/../t/model_DBIC-SqliteSequence.t"
-
-The base class C<DBIC.pm> that does the setting-up part of the job is set up
-as well as stub files of our modules to extend and the testing environment.
-
-=head3 Table and Relationship Autodetection
-
-If you start your Cat Application up, you can see the loaded tables and
-model components in your debug output:
-
- shell> script/myapp_server.pl
- ...
- [Tue Dec 13 01:20:59 2005] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded
- tables "address person sqlite_sequence"
- ...
- .------------------------------------+----------.
- | Class | Type |
- +------------------------------------+----------+
- | MyApp::Model::DBIC | instance |
- | MyApp::Model::DBIC::Address | class |
- | MyApp::Model::DBIC::Person | class |
- | MyApp::Model::DBIC::SqliteSequence | class |
- | MyApp::Model::DBIC::_db | class |
- '------------------------------------+----------'
- ...
-
-And your models are ready to use! If you change the database schema,
-your models will also change at startup. However, Catalyst will not touch
-your stub model files.
-
-=head3 Using the Models
-
-You can create new objects:
-
- my $person = $c->model( 'DBIC::Person' )->create({
- name => 'Jon Doe',
- });
-
-Or add related objects:
-
- my $adress = $person->add_to_addresses({
- address => 'We wish we knew.',
- });
-
-Search and retrieve from the database:
-
- my $person = $c->model( 'DBIC::Person' )->find(1);
- my $address_iterator = $c->model( 'DBIC::Address' )
- ->search( { address => { like => '%Tokyo%' } } );
+This is the most basic usage, but Template Toolkit is quite powerful,
+and allows you to truly keep your presentation logic separate from the
+rest of your application.
-=head3 More Information
+=head3 $c->uri_for()
-You can find the documentation of C<Catalyst::Model::DBIC> and its helper
-at
+One of my favorite things about Catalyst is the ability to move an
+application around without having to worry that everything is going to
+break. One of the areas that used to be a problem was with the http
+links in your template files. For example, suppose you have an
+application installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar. The links point
+to "/Calendar", "/Calendar/2005", "/Calendar/2005/10", etc. If you move
+the application to be at http://www.mydomain.com/Tools/Calendar, then
+all of those links will suddenly break.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Model-DBIC/>
+That's where $c->uri_for() comes in. This function will merge its
+parameters with either the base location for the app, or its current
+namespace. Let's take a look at a couple of examples.
-For information concerning DBIx::Class please visit the documentation and
-Intro on CPAN:
+In your template, you can use the following:
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBIx-Class/>
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/DBIx-Class/lib/DBIx/Class/Manual/Intro.pod>
+ <a href="[% c.uri_for('/login') %]">Login Here</a>
-or its own Wiki
+Although the parameter starts with a forward slash, this is relative to the application root, not the webserver root. This is important to remember. So, if your application is installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar, then the link would be http://www.mydomain.com/Calendar/Login. If you move your application to a different domain or path, then that link will still be correct.
-L<http://dbix-class.shadowcatsystems.co.uk/>
+Likewise,
-and of course, you can find support on irc.perl.org#catalyst and
-irc.perl.org#dbix-class.
+ <a href="[% c.uri_for('2005','10', '24') %]">October, 24 2005</a>
-=head2 Authentication/Authorization
+The first parameter does NOT have a forward slash, and so it will be relative to the current namespace. If the application is installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar. and if the template is called from MyApp::Controller::Display, then the link would become http://www.domain.com/Calendar/Display/2005/10/24.
-This is done in several steps:
+Once again, this allows you to move your application around without having to worry about broken links. But there's something else, as well. Since the links are generated by uri_for, you can use the same template file by several different controllers, and each controller will get the links that its supposed to. Since we believe in Don't Repeat Yourself, this is particularly helpful if you have common elements in your site that you want to keep in one file.
-=over 4
+Further Reading:
-=item Verification
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst>
-Getting the user to identify themselves, by giving you some piece of
-information known only to you and the user. Then you can assume that the user
-is who they say they are. This is called B<credential verification>.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst%3A%3AView%3A%3ATT>
-=item Authorization
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template>
-Making sure the user only accesses functions you want them to access. This is
-done by checking the verified users data against your internal list of groups,
-or allowed persons for the current page.
+=head2 Adding RSS feeds
-=back
+Adding RSS feeds to your Catalyst applications is simple. We'll see two
+different aproaches here, but the basic premise is that you forward to
+the normal view action first to get the objects, then handle the output
+differently.
-=head3 Modules
+=head3 Using TT templates
-The Catalyst Authentication system is made up of many interacting modules, to
-give you the most flexibility possible.
+This is the aproach used in Agave (L<http://dev.rawmode.org/>).
-=head4 Credential verifiers
+ sub rss : Local {
+ my ($self,$c) = @_;
+ $c->forward('view');
+ $c->stash->{template}='rss.tt';
+ }
-A Credential module tables the user input, and passes it to a Store, or some
-other system, for verification. Typically, a user object is created by either
-this module or the Store and made accessible by a C<< $c->user >> call.
+Then you need a template. Here's the one from Agave:
-Examples:
+ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+ <rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
+ <channel>
+ <title>[ [% blog.name || c.config.name || "Agave" %] ] RSS Feed</title>
+ <link>[% base %]</link>
+ <description>Recent posts</description>
+ <language>en-us</language>
+ <ttl>40</ttl>
+ [% WHILE (post = posts.next) %]
+ <item>
+ <title>[% post.title %]</title>
+ <description>[% post.formatted_teaser|html%]</description>
+ <pubDate>[% post.pub_date %]</pubDate>
+ <guid>[% post.full_uri %]</guid>
+ <link>[% post.full_uri %]</link>
+ <dc:creator>[% post.author.screenname %]</dc:creator>
+ </item>
+ [% END %]
+ </channel>
+ </rss>
- Password - Simple username/password checking.
- HTTPD - Checks using basic HTTP auth.
- TypeKey - Check using the typekey system.
+=head3 Using XML::Feed
-=head3 Storage backends
+A more robust solution is to use XML::Feed, as was done in the Catalyst
+Advent Calendar. Assuming we have a C<view> action that populates
+'entries' with some DBIx::Class iterator, the code would look something
+like this:
-A Storage backend contains the actual data representing the users. It is
-queried by the credential verifiers. Updating the store is not done within
-this system, you will need to do it yourself.
+ sub rss : Local {
+ my ($self,$c) = @_;
+ $c->forward('view'); # get the entries
-Examples:
+ my $feed = XML::Feed->new('RSS');
+ $feed->title( $c->config->{name} . ' RSS Feed' );
+ $feed->link( $c->req->base ); # link to the site.
+ $feed->description('Catalyst advent calendar'); Some description
- DBIC - Storage using a database.
- Minimal - Storage using a simple hash (for testing).
+ # Process the entries
+ while( my $entry = $c->stash->{entries}->next ) {
+ my $feed_entry = XML::Feed::Entry->new('RSS');
+ $feed_entry->title($entry->title);
+ $feed_entry->link( $c->uri_for($entry->link) );
+ $feed_entry->issued( DateTime->from_epoch(epoch => $entry->created) );
+ $feed->add_entry($feed_entry);
+ }
+ $c->res->body( $feed->as_xml );
+ }
-=head3 User objects
+A little more code in the controller, but with this approach you're
+pretty sure to get something that validates.
-A User object is created by either the storage backend or the credential
-verifier, and filled with the retrieved user information.
+Note that for both of the above aproaches, you'll need to set the
+content type like this:
-Examples:
+ $c->res->content_type('application/rss+xml');
- Hash - A simple hash of keys and values.
+=head3 Final words
-=head3 ACL authorization
+You could generalize the second variant easily by replacing 'RSS' with a
+variable, so you can generate Atom feeds with the same code.
-ACL stands for Access Control List. The ACL plugin allows you to regulate
-access on a path by path basis, by listing which users, or roles, have access
-to which paths.
+Now, go ahead and make RSS feeds for all your stuff. The world *needs*
+updates on your goldfish!
-=head3 Roles authorization
-Authorization by roles is for assigning users to groups, which can then be
-assigned to ACLs, or just checked when needed.
-=head3 Logging in
+=head1 Controllers
-When you have chosen your modules, all you need to do is call the C<<
-$c->login >> method. If called with no parameters, it will try to find
-suitable parameters, such as B<username> and B<password>, or you can pass it
-these values.
+Controllers are the main point of communication between the web server
+and your application. Here we explore some aspects of how they work.
-=head3 Checking roles
+=head2 Extending RenderView (formerly DefaultEnd)
-Role checking is done by using the C<< $c->check_user_roles >> method, this will
-check using the currently logged in user (via C<< $c->user >>). You pass it
-the name of a role to check, and it returns true if the user is a member.
+The recommended approach for an C<end> action is to use
+L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView> (taking the place of
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd>), which does what you usually need.
+However there are times when you need to add a bit to it, but don't want
+to write your own C<end> action.
-=head3 EXAMPLE
+You can extend it like this:
- use Catalyst qw/Authentication
- Authentication::Credential::Password
- Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
- Authorization::Roles/;
+To add something to an C<end> action that is called before rendering
+(this is likely to be what you want), simply place it in the C<end>
+method:
- __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
+ sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ # do stuff here; the RenderView action is called afterwards
+ }
- sub login : Local {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
+To add things to an C<end> action that are called I<after> rendering,
+you can set it up like this:
- if ( my $user = $c->req->param("user")
- and my $password = $c->req->param("password") )
- {
- if ( $c->login( $user, $password ) ) {
- $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->name );
- } else {
- # login incorrect
- }
- }
- else {
- # invalid form input
- }
- }
+ sub render : ActionClass('RenderView') { }
+
+ sub end : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->forward('render');
+ # do stuff here
+ }
+
+=head2 Action Types
+
+=head3 Introduction
+
+A Catalyst application is driven by one or more Controller modules. There are
+a number of ways that Catalyst can decide which of the methods in your
+controller modules it should call. Controller methods are also called actions,
+because they determine how your catalyst application should (re-)act to any
+given URL. When the application is started up, catalyst looks at all your
+actions, and decides which URLs they map to.
- sub restricted : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=head3 Type attributes
- $c->detach("unauthorized")
- unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
+Each action is a normal method in your controller, except that it has an
+L<attribute|http://search.cpan.org/~nwclark/perl-5.8.7/lib/attributes.pm>
+attached. These can be one of several types.
- # do something restricted here
- }
+Assume our Controller module starts with the following package declaration:
+ package MyApp::Controller::Buckets;
-=head3 More information
+and we are running our application on localhost, port 3000 (the test
+server default).
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> has a longer explanation.
+=over 4
-=head2 Sessions
+=item Path
-When you have your users identified, you will want to somehow remember that
-fact, to save them from having to identify themselves for every single
-page. One way to do this is to send the username and password parameters in
-every single page, but that's ugly, and won't work for static pages.
+A Path attribute also takes an argument, this can be either a relative
+or an absolute path. A relative path will be relative to the controller
+namespace, an absolute path will represent an exact matching URL.
-Sessions are a method of saving data related to some transaction, and giving
-the whole collection a single ID. This ID is then given to the user to return
-to us on every page they visit while logged in. The usual way to do this is
-using a browser cookie.
+ sub my_handles : Path('handles') { .. }
-Catalyst uses two types of plugins to represent sessions:
+becomes
-=head3 State
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
-A State module is used to keep track of the state of the session between the
-users browser, and your application.
+and
-A common example is the Cookie state module, which sends the browser a cookie
-containing the session ID. It will use default value for the cookie name and
-domain, so will "just work" when used.
+ sub my_handles : Path('/handles') { .. }
-=head3 Store
+becomes
-A Store module is used to hold all the data relating to your session, for
-example the users ID, or the items for their shopping cart. You can store data
-in memory (FastMmap), in a file (File) or in a database (DBI).
+ http://localhost:3000/handles
-=head3 Authentication magic
+=item Local
-If you have included the session modules in your application, the
-Authentication modules will automagically use your session to save and
-retrieve the user data for you.
+When using a Local attribute, no parameters are needed, instead, the name of
+the action is matched in the URL. The namespaces created by the name of the
+controller package is always part of the URL.
-=head3 Using a session
+ sub my_handles : Local { .. }
-Once the session modules are loaded, the session is available as C<<
-$c->session >>, and can be writen to and read from as a simple hash reference.
+becomes
-=head3 EXAMPLE
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/my_handles
- use Catalyst qw/
- Session
- Session::Store::FastMmap
- Session::State::Cookie
- /;
+=item Global
+A Global attribute is similar to a Local attribute, except that the namespace
+of the controller is ignored, and matching starts at root.
- ## Write data into the session
+ sub my_handles : Global { .. }
- sub add_item : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+becomes
- my $item_id = $c->req->param("item");
+ http://localhost:3000/my_handles
- push @{ $c->session->{items} }, $item_id;
+=item Regex
- }
+By now you should have figured that a Regex attribute is just what it sounds
+like. This one takes a regular expression, and matches starting from
+root. These differ from the rest as they can match multiple URLs.
- ## A page later we retrieve the data from the session:
+ sub my_handles : Regex('^handles') { .. }
- sub get_items : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+matches
- $c->stash->{items_to_display} = $c->session->{items};
+ http://localhost:3000/handles
- }
+and
+ http://localhost:3000/handles_and_other_parts
-=head3 More information
+etc.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session>
+=item LocalRegex
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-Cookie>
+A LocalRegex is similar to a Regex, except it only matches below the current
+controller namespace.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-URI>
+ sub my_handles : LocalRegex(^handles') { .. }
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-FastMmap>
+matches
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-File>
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-DBI>
+and
-=head2 Adding RSS feeds
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles_and_other_parts
-Adding RSS feeds to your stuff in Catalyst is really simple. I'll show two
-different aproaches here, but the basic premise is that you forward to the
-normal view action first to get the objects, then handle the output differently
+etc.
-=head3 Using TT templates
+=item Private
-This is the aproach we chose in Agave (L<http://dev.rawmode.org/>).
+Last but not least, there is the Private attribute, which allows you to create
+your own internal actions, which can be forwarded to, but won't be matched as
+URLs.
- sub rss : Local {
- my ($self,$c) = @_;
- $c->forward('view');
- $c->stash->{template}='rss.tt';
- }
+ sub my_handles : Private { .. }
-Then you need a template. Here's the one from Agave:
-L<http://svn.rawmode.org/repos/Agave/trunk/root/base/blog/rss.tt>
+becomes nothing at all..
-As you can see, it's pretty simple.
+Catalyst also predefines some special Private actions, which you can override,
+these are:
-=head3 Using XML::Feed
+=over 4
-However, a more robust solution is to use XML::Feed, as we've done in this
-Advent Calendar. Assuming we have a 'view' action that populates 'entries'
-with some DBIx::Class/Class::DBI iterator, the code would look something like
-this:
+=item default
- sub rss : Local {
- my ($self,$c) = @_;
- $c->forward('view'); # get the entries
+The default action will be called, if no other matching action is found. If
+you don't have one of these in your namespace, or any sub part of your
+namespace, you'll get an error page instead. If you want to find out where it
+was the user was trying to go, you can look in the request object using
+C<< $c->req->path >>.
- my $feed = XML::Feed->new('RSS');
- $feed->title( $c->config->{name} . ' RSS Feed' );
- $feed->link( $c->req->base ); # link to the site.
- $feed->description('Catalyst advent calendar'); Some description
+ sub default : Private { .. }
- # Process the entries
- while( my $entry=$c->stash->{entries}->next ) {
- my $feed_entry = XML::Feed::Entry->new('RSS');
- $feed_entry->title($entry->title);
- $feed_entry->link( $c->uri_for($entry->link) );
- $feed_entry->issued( DateTime->from_epoch(epoch => $entry->created) );
- $feed->add_entry($feed_entry);
- }
- $c->res->body( $feed->as_xml );
- }
+works for all unknown URLs, in this controller namespace, or every one if put
+directly into MyApp.pm.
+=item index
-A little more code in the controller, but with this approach you're pretty sure
-to get something that validates. One little note regarding that tho, for both
-of the above aproaches, you'll need to set the content type like this:
+The index action is called when someone tries to visit the exact namespace of
+your controller. If index, default and matching Path actions are defined, then
+index will be used instead of default and Path.
- $c->res->content_type('application/rss+xml');
+ sub index : Private { .. }
-=head2 Final words
-
-Note that you could generalize the second variant easily by replacing 'RSS'
-with a variable, so you can generate Atom feeds with the same code.
-
-Now, go ahead and make RSS feeds for all your stuff. The world *needs* updates
-on your goldfish!
-
-=head2 FastCGI Deployment\r
-\r
-As a companion to Day 7's mod_perl article, today's article is about\r
-production FastCGI deployment.\r
-\r
-=head3 Pros\r
-\r
-=head4 Speed\r
-\r
-FastCGI performs equally as well as mod_perl. Don't let the 'CGI' fool you;\r
-your app runs as multiple persistent processes ready to receive connections\r
-from the web server.\r
-\r
-=head4 App Server\r
-\r
-When using external FastCGI servers, your application runs as a standalone\r
-application server. It may be restarted independently from the web server.\r
-This allows for a more robust environment and faster reload times when\r
-pushing new app changes. The frontend server can even be configured to\r
-display a friendly "down for maintenance" page while the application is\r
-restarting.\r
-\r
-=head4 Load-balancing\r
-\r
-You can launch your application on multiple backend servers and allow the\r
-frontend web server to load-balance between all of them. And of course, if\r
-one goes down, your app continues to run fine.\r
-\r
-=head4 Multiple versions of the same app\r
-\r
-Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different\r
-versions of the same app on a single server.\r
-\r
-=head4 Can run with threaded Apache\r
-\r
-Since your app is not running inside of Apache, the faster mpm_worker module\r
-can be used without worrying about the thread safety of your application.\r
-\r
-=head3 Cons\r
-\r
-=head4 More complex environment\r
-\r
-With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running\r
-than when using mod_perl.\r
-\r
-=head3 Setup\r
-\r
-=head4 1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi\r
-\r
-mod_fastcgi for Apache is a third party module, and can be found at\r
-L<http://www.fastcgi.com/>. It is also packaged in many distributions, for\r
-example, libapache2-mod-fastcgi in Debian.\r
-\r
-=head4 2. Configure your application\r
-\r
- # Serve static content directly\r
- DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root\r
- Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static\r
-\r
- FastCgiServer /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -processes 3\r
- Alias /myapp/ /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/\r
- \r
- # Or, run at the root\r
- Alias / /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/\r
- \r
-The above commands will launch 3 app processes and make the app available at\r
-/myapp/\r
-\r
-=head3 Standalone server mode\r
-\r
-While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external\r
-server gives you much more flexibility.\r
-\r
-First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket.\r
-\r
- script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d\r
- \r
-You can also listen on a TCP port if your web server is not on the same\r
-machine.\r
-\r
- script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l :8080 -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d\r
- \r
-You will probably want to write an init script to handle starting/stopping\r
-of the app using the pid file.\r
-\r
-Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server.\r
-\r
- # 502 is a Bad Gateway error, and will occur if the backend server is down\r
- # This allows us to display a friendly static page that says "down for\r
- # maintenance"\r
- Alias /_errors /var/www/MyApp/root/error-pages\r
- ErrorDocument 502 /_errors/502.html\r
-\r
- FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp -socket /tmp/myapp.socket\r
- Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp/\r
- \r
- # Or, run at the root\r
- Alias / /tmp/myapp/\r
- \r
-=head3 More Info\r
-\r
-Lots more information is available in the new and expanded FastCGI docs that\r
-will be part of Catalyst 5.62. For now you may read them here:\r
-L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/file/trunk/Catalyst/lib/Catalyst/Engine/FastCGI.pm>
+becomes
-=head2 Catalyst::View::TT
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets
-One of the first things you probably want to do when starting a new Catalyst application is set up your View. Catalyst doesn't care how you display your data; you can choose to generate HTML, PDF files, or plain text if you wanted.
+=item begin
-Most Catalyst applications use a template system to generate their HTML, and though there are several template systems available, Template Toolkit is probably the most popular.
+The begin action is called at the beginning of every request involving this
+namespace directly, before other matching actions are called. It can be used
+to set up variables/data for this particular part of your app. A single begin
+action is called, its always the one most relevant to the current namespace.
-Once again, the Catalyst developers have done all the hard work, and made things easy for the rest of us. Catalyst::View::TT provides the interface to Template Toolkit, and provides Helpers which let us set it up that much more easily.
+ sub begin : Private { .. }
-=head3 Creating your View
+is called once when
-Catalyst::View::TT provides two different helpers for use to use: TT and TTSite.
+ http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
-=head4 TT
+is visited.
-Create a basic Template Toolkit View using the provided helper script:
+=item end
+
+Like begin, this action is always called for the namespace it is in, after
+every other action has finished. It is commonly used to forward processing to
+the View component. A single end action is called, its always the one most
+relevant to the current namespace.
- script/myapp_create.pl view MyView TT
-This will create lib/MyApp/View/MyView.pm, which is going to be pretty empty to start. However, it sets everything up that you need to get started. You can now define which template you want and forward to your view. For instance:
+ sub end : Private { .. }
- sub hello : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+is called once after any actions when
- $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
+ http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
- $c->forward( $c->view('MyView') );
- }
+is visited.
-In most cases, you will put the $c->forward into end(), and then you would only have to define which template you want to use. The S<DefaultEnd> plugin discussed on Day 8 is also commonly used.
+=item auto
-=head4 TTSite
+Lastly, the auto action is magic in that B<every> auto action in
+the chain of paths up to and including the ending namespace, will be
+called. (In contrast, only one of the begin/end/default actions will be
+called, the relevant one).
-Although the TT helper does create a functional, working view, you may find yourself having to create the same template files and changing the same options every time you create a new application. The TTSite helper saves us even more time by creating the basic templates and setting some common options for us.
+ package MyApp.pm;
+ sub auto : Private { .. }
-Once again, you can use the helper script:
+and
- script/myapp_create.pl view myView TTSite
+ sub auto : Private { .. }
-This time, the helper sets several options for us in the generated View.
+will both be called when visiting
- __PACKAGE__->config({
- CATALYST_VAR => 'Catalyst',
- INCLUDE_PATH => [
- MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'src' ),
- MyApp->path_to( 'root', 'lib' )
- ],
- PRE_PROCESS => 'config/main',
- WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper',
- ERROR => 'error.tt2',
- TIMER => 0
- });
+ http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
-=over
+=back
-=item
-INCLUDE_PATH defines the directories that Template Toolkit should search for the template files.
+=back
-=item
-PRE_PROCESS is used to process configuration options which are common to every template file.
+=head3 A word of warning
-=item
-WRAPPER is a file which is processed with each template, usually used to easily provide a common header and footer for every page.
+Due to possible namespace conflicts with Plugins, it is advised to only put the
+pre-defined Private actions in your main MyApp.pm file, all others should go
+in a Controller module.
-=back
+=head3 More Information
-In addition to setting these options, the TTSite helper also created the template and config files for us! In the 'root' directory, you'll notice two new directories: src and lib.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/author/SRI/Catalyst-5.61/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod>
-Several configuration files in root/lib/config are called by PRE_PROCESS.
+L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/wiki/FlowChart>
-The files in root/lib/site are the site-wide templates, called by WRAPPER, and display the html framework, control the layout, and provide the templates for the header and footer of your page. Using the template organization provided makes it much easier to standardize pages and make changes when they are (inevitably) needed.
+=head2 Component-based Subrequests
-The template files that you will create for your application will go into root/src, and you don't need to worry about putting the the <html> or <head> sections; just put in the content. The WRAPPER will the rest of the page around your template for you.
+See L<Catalyst::Plugin::SubRequest>.
-=head2 $c->stash
+=head2 File uploads
-Of course, having the template system include the header and footer for you isn't all that we want our templates to do. We need to be able to put data into our templates, and have it appear where and how we want it, right? That's where the stash comes in.
+=head3 Single file upload with Catalyst
-In our controllers, we can add data to the stash, and then access it from the template. For instance:
+To implement uploads in Catalyst, you need to have a HTML form similar to
+this:
- sub hello : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
+ <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
+ <input type="file" name="my_file">
+ <input type="submit" value="Send">
+ </form>
- $c->stash->{name} = 'Adam';
+It's very important not to forget C<enctype="multipart/form-data"> in
+the form.
- $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
+Catalyst Controller module 'upload' action:
- $c->forward( $c->view('MyView') );
- }
+ sub upload : Global {
+ my ($self, $c) = @_;
-Then, in hello.tt:
+ if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
- <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong>
+ if ( my $upload = $c->request->upload('my_file') ) {
-When you view this page, it will display "Hello, Adam!"
+ my $filename = $upload->filename;
+ my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
-All of the information in your stash is available, by its name/key, in your templates. And your data doesn't have to be plain, old, boring scalars. You can pass array references and hash references, too.
+ unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
+ die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
+ }
+ }
+ }
-In your controller:
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
+ }
- sub hello : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=head3 Multiple file upload with Catalyst
- $c->stash->{names} = [ 'Adam', 'Dave', 'John' ];
+Code for uploading multiple files from one form needs a few changes:
- $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
+The form should have this basic structure:
- $c->forward( $c->view('MyView') );
- }
+ <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
+ <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
+ <input type="file" name="file1" size="50"><br>
+ <input type="file" name="file2" size="50"><br>
+ <input type="file" name="file3" size="50"><br>
+ <input type="submit" value="Send">
+ </form>
-In hello.tt:
+And in the controller:
- [% FOREACH name IN names %]
- <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong><br />
- [% END %]
+ sub upload : Local {
+ my ($self, $c) = @_;
-This allowed us to loop through each item in the arrayref, and display a line for each name that we have.
+ if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
-This is the most basic usage, but Template Toolkit is quite powerful, and allows you to truly keep your presentation logic separate from the rest of your application.
+ for my $field ( $c->req->upload ) {
-=head3 $c->uri_for()
+ my $upload = $c->req->upload($field);
+ my $filename = $upload->filename;
+ my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
-One of my favorite things about Catalyst is the ability to move an application around without having to worry that everything is going to break. One of the areas that used to be a problem was with the http links in your template files. For example, suppose you have an application installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar. The links point to "/Calendar", "/Calendar/2005", "/Calendar/2005/10", etc. If you move the application to be at http://www.mydomain.com/Tools/Calendar, then all of those links will suddenly break.
+ unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
+ die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
+ }
+ }
+ }
-That's where $c->uri_for() comes in. This function will merge its parameters with either the base location for the app, or its current namespace. Let's take a look at a couple of examples.
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
+ }
-In your template, you can use the following:
+C<for my $field ($c-E<gt>req->upload)> loops automatically over all file
+input fields and gets input names. After that is basic file saving code,
+just like in single file upload.
- <a href="[% c.uri_for('/login') %]">Login Here</a>
+Notice: C<die>ing might not be what you want to do, when an error
+occurs, but it works as an example. A better idea would be to store
+error C<$!> in $c->stash->{error} and show a custom error template
+displaying this message.
-Although the parameter starts with a forward slash, this is relative to the application root, not the webserver root. This is important to remember. So, if your application is installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar, then the link would be http://www.mydomain.com/Calendar/Login. If you move your application to a different domain or path, then that link will still be correct.
+For more information about uploads and usable methods look at
+L<Catalyst::Request::Upload> and L<Catalyst::Request>.
-Likewise,
+=head2 Forwarding with arguments
- <a href="[% c.uri_for('2005','10', '24') %]">October, 24 2005</a>
+Sometimes you want to pass along arguments when forwarding to another
+action. As of version 5.30, arguments can be passed in the call to
+C<forward>; in earlier versions, you can manually set the arguments in
+the Catalyst Request object:
-The first parameter does NOT have a forward slash, and so it will be relative to the current namespace. If the application is installed at http://www.domain.com/Calendar. and if the template is called from MyApp::Controller::Display, then the link would become http://www.domain.com/Calendar/Display/2005/10/24.
+ # version 5.30 and later:
+ $c->forward('/wherever', [qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
-Once again, this allows you to move your application around without having to worry about broken links. But there's something else, as well. Since the links are generated by uri_for, you can use the same template file by several different controllers, and each controller will get the links that its supposed to. Since we believe in Don't Repeat Yourself, this is particularly helpful if you have common elements in your site that you want to keep in one file.
+ # pre-5.30
+ $c->req->args([qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
+ $c->forward('/wherever');
-Further Reading:
+(See the L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> Flow_Control section for more
+information on passing arguments via C<forward>.)
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst>
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst%3A%3AView%3A%3ATT>
+=head1 Deployment
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template>
+The recipes below describe aspects of the deployment process,
+including web server engines and tips to improve application efficiency.
-=head2 Testing
+=head2 mod_perl Deployment
-Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during
-development and before deployment in a real environment.
+mod_perl is the best solution for many applications, but we'll list some pros
+and cons so you can decide for yourself. The other production deployment
+option is FastCGI, for which see below.
-C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally
-(without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP.
+=head3 Pros
-=head3 Tests
+=head4 Speed
-Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory:
+mod_perl is very fast and your app will benefit from being loaded in memory
+within each Apache process.
- mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ ls -l t/
- total 24
- -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 95 18 Dec 20:50 01app.t
- -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 190 18 Dec 20:50 02pod.t
- -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 213 18 Dec 20:50 03podcoverage.t
+=head4 Shared memory for multiple apps
-=over 4
+If you need to run several Catalyst apps on the same server, mod_perl will
+share the memory for common modules.
-=item C<01app.t>
+=head3 Cons
-Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful
-response.
+=head4 Memory usage
-=item C<02pod.t>
+Since your application is fully loaded in memory, every Apache process will
+be rather large. This means a large Apache process will be tied up while
+serving static files, large files, or dealing with slow clients. For this
+reason, it is best to run a two-tiered web architecture with a lightweight
+frontend server passing dynamic requests to a large backend mod_perl
+server.
-Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD>
-environment variable is true.
+=head4 Reloading
-=item C<03podcoverage.t>
+Any changes made to the core code of your app require a full Apache restart.
+Catalyst does not support Apache::Reload or StatINC. This is another good
+reason to run a frontend web server where you can set up an
+C<ErrorDocument 502> page to report that your app is down for maintenance.
-Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the
-C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true.
+=head4 Cannot run multiple versions of the same app
-=back
+It is not possible to run two different versions of the same application in
+the same Apache instance because the namespaces will collide.
-=head3 Creating tests
+=head4 Setup
- mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d %s", $., $_ )'
- 1 use Test::More tests => 2;
- 2 use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' );
- 3
- 4 ok( request('/')->is_success );
+Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about setting up mod_perl
+to run a Catalyst app.
-The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case
-two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The
-fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response.
+=head4 1. Install Catalyst::Engine::Apache
-C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can
-take three different arguments:
+You should install the latest versions of both Catalyst and
+Catalyst::Engine::Apache. The Apache engines were separated from the
+Catalyst core in version 5.50 to allow for updates to the engine without
+requiring a new Catalyst release.
-=over 4
+=head4 2. Install Apache with mod_perl
-=item A string which is a relative or absolute URI.
+Both Apache 1.3 and Apache 2 are supported, although Apache 2 is highly
+recommended. With Apache 2, make sure you are using the prefork MPM and not
+the worker MPM. The reason for this is that many Perl modules are not
+thread-safe and may have problems running within the threaded worker
+environment. Catalyst is thread-safe however, so if you know what you're
+doing, you may be able to run using worker.
- request('/my/path');
- request('http://www.host.com/my/path');
+In Debian, the following commands should get you going.
-=item An instance of C<URI>.
+ apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork
+ apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2
- request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') );
+=head4 3. Configure your application
-=item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>.
+Every Catalyst application will automagically become a mod_perl handler
+when run within mod_perl. This makes the configuration extremely easy.
+Here is a basic Apache 2 configuration.
- request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') );
+ PerlSwitches -I/var/www/MyApp/lib
+ PerlModule MyApp
+
+ <Location />
+ SetHandler modperl
+ PerlResponseHandler MyApp
+ </Location>
-=back
+The most important line here is C<PerlModule MyApp>. This causes mod_perl
+to preload your entire application into shared memory, including all of your
+controller, model, and view classes and configuration. If you have -Debug
+mode enabled, you will see the startup output scroll by when you first
+start Apache.
-C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the
-content (body) of the response.
+For an example Apache 1.3 configuration, please see the documentation for
+L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>.
-=head3 Running tests locally
+=head3 Test It
- mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib/ t/
- t/01app............ok
- t/02pod............ok
- t/03podcoverage....ok
- All tests successful.
- Files=3, Tests=4, 2 wallclock secs ( 1.60 cusr + 0.36 csys = 1.96 CPU)
-
-C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0> ensures that debugging is off; if it's enabled you
-will see debug logs between tests.
+That's it, your app is now a full-fledged mod_perl application! Try it out
+by going to http://your.server.com/.
-C<TEST_POD=1> enables POD checking and coverage.
+=head3 Other Options
-C<prove> A command-line tool that makes it easy to run tests. You can
-find out more about it from the links below.
+=head4 Non-root location
-=head3 Running tests remotely
+You may not always want to run your app at the root of your server or virtual
+host. In this case, it's a simple change to run at any non-root location
+of your choice.
- mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/ prove --lib lib/ t/01app.t
- t/01app....ok
- All tests successful.
- Files=1, Tests=2, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.40 cusr + 0.01 csys = 0.41 CPU)
+ <Location /myapp>
+ SetHandler modperl
+ PerlResponseHandler MyApp
+ </Location>
+
+When running this way, it is best to make use of the C<uri_for> method in
+Catalyst for constructing correct links.
-C<CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/> is the absolute deployment URI of
-your application. In C<CGI> or C<FastCGI> it should be the host and path
-to the script.
+=head4 Static file handling
-=head3 C<Test::WWW::Mechanize> and Catalyst
+Static files can be served directly by Apache for a performance boost.
-Be sure to check out C<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>. It makes it easy to
-test HTML, forms and links. A short example of usage:
+ DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
+ <Location /static>
+ SetHandler default-handler
+ </Location>
+
+This will let all files within root/static be handled directly by Apache. In
+a two-tiered setup, the frontend server should handle static files.
+The configuration to do this on the frontend will vary.
- use Test::More tests => 6;
- use_ok( Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, 'MyApp' );
+=head2 Catalyst on shared hosting
- my $mech = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
- $mech->get_ok("http://localhost/", 'Got index page');
- $mech->title_like( qr/^MyApp on Catalyst/, 'Got right index title' );
- ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Wiki/i ), 'Found link to Wiki' );
- ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Mailing-List/i ), 'Found link to Mailing-List' );
- ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^IRC channel/i ), 'Found link to IRC channel' );
+So, you want to put your Catalyst app out there for the whole world to
+see, but you don't want to break the bank. There is an answer - if you
+can get shared hosting with FastCGI and a shell, you can install your
+Catalyst app in a local directory on your shared host. First, run
-=head3 Further Reading
+ perl -MCPAN -e shell
-=over 4
+and go through the standard CPAN configuration process. Then exit out
+without installing anything. Next, open your .bashrc and add
-=item Catalyst::Test
+ export PATH=$HOME/local/bin:$HOME/local/script:$PATH
+ perlversion=`perl -v | grep 'built for' | awk '{print $4}' | sed -e 's/v//;'`
+ export PERL5LIB=$HOME/local/share/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib/perl/$perlversion:$HOME/local/lib:$PERL5LIB
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst/lib/Catalyst/Test.pm>
+and log out, then back in again (or run C<". .bashrc"> if you
+prefer). Finally, edit C<.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm> and add
-=item Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst
+ 'make_install_arg' => qq[SITEPREFIX=$ENV{HOME}/local],
+ 'makepl_arg' => qq[INSTALLDIRS=site install_base=$ENV{HOME}/local],
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Catalyst/lib/Test/WWW/Mechanize/Catalyst.pm>
+Now you can install the modules you need using CPAN as normal; they
+will be installed into your local directory, and perl will pick them
+up. Finally, change directory into the root of your virtual host and
+symlink your application's script directory in:
-=item Test::WWW::Mechanize
+ cd path/to/mydomain.com
+ ln -s ~/lib/MyApp/script script
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize/Mechanize.pm>
+And add the following lines to your .htaccess file (assuming the server
+is setup to handle .pl as fcgi - you may need to rename the script to
+myapp_fastcgi.fcgi and/or use a SetHandler directive):
-=item WWW::Mechanize
+ RewriteEngine On
+ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
+ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/$1 [PT,L]
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm>
+Now C<http://mydomain.com/> should now Just Work. Congratulations, now
+you can tell your friends about your new website (or in our case, tell
+the client it's time to pay the invoice :) )
-=item LWP::UserAgent
+=head2 FastCGI Deployment
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm>
+FastCGI is a high-performance extension to CGI. It is suitable
+for production environments.
-=item HTML::Form
+=head3 Pros
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTML/Form.pm>
+=head4 Speed
-=item HTTP::Message
+FastCGI performs equally as well as mod_perl. Don't let the 'CGI' fool you;
+your app runs as multiple persistent processes ready to receive connections
+from the web server.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Message.pm>
+=head4 App Server
-=item HTTP::Request
+When using external FastCGI servers, your application runs as a standalone
+application server. It may be restarted independently from the web server.
+This allows for a more robust environment and faster reload times when
+pushing new app changes. The frontend server can even be configured to
+display a friendly "down for maintenance" page while the application is
+restarting.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request.pm>
+=head4 Load-balancing
-=item HTTP::Request::Common
+You can launch your application on multiple backend servers and allow the
+frontend web server to load-balance between all of them. And of course, if
+one goes down, your app continues to run fine.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request/Common.pm>
+=head4 Multiple versions of the same app
-=item HTTP::Response
+Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different
+versions of the same app on a single server.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Response.pm>
+=head4 Can run with threaded Apache
-=item HTTP::Status
+Since your app is not running inside of Apache, the faster mpm_worker module
+can be used without worrying about the thread safety of your application.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Status.pm>
+=head3 Cons
-=item URI
+=head4 More complex environment
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI.pm>
+With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running
+than when using mod_perl.
-=item Test::More
+=head3 Setup
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm>
+=head4 1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi
-=item Test::Pod
+mod_fastcgi for Apache is a third party module, and can be found at
+L<http://www.fastcgi.com/>. It is also packaged in many distributions,
+for example, libapache2-mod-fastcgi in Debian.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod/Pod.pm>
+=head4 2. Configure your application
-=item Test::Pod::Coverage
+ # Serve static content directly
+ DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
+ Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod-Coverage/Coverage.pm>
+ FastCgiServer /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -processes 3
+ Alias /myapp/ /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
+
+ # Or, run at the root
+ Alias / /var/www/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
+
+The above commands will launch 3 app processes and make the app available at
+/myapp/
-=item prove (Test::Harness)
+=head3 Standalone server mode
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove>
+While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external
+server gives you much more flexibility.
-=back
+First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket.
-=head2 XMLRPC
+ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l /tmp/myapp.socket -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d
+
+You can also listen on a TCP port if your web server is not on the same
+machine.
-Today we'll discover the wonderful world of web services.
-XMLRPC is unlike SOAP a very simple (and imo elegant) protocol,
-exchanging small XML messages like these.
+ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl -l :8080 -n 5 -p /tmp/myapp.pid -d
+
+You will probably want to write an init script to handle starting/stopping
+of the app using the pid file.
-Request:
+Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server.
- POST /api HTTP/1.1
- TE: deflate,gzip;q=0.3
- Connection: TE, close
- Accept: text/xml
- Accept: multipart/*
- Host: 127.0.0.1:3000
- User-Agent: SOAP::Lite/Perl/0.60
- Content-Length: 192
- Content-Type: text/xml
+ # 502 is a Bad Gateway error, and will occur if the backend server is down
+ # This allows us to display a friendly static page that says "down for
+ # maintenance"
+ Alias /_errors /var/www/MyApp/root/error-pages
+ ErrorDocument 502 /_errors/502.html
- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
- <methodCall>
- <methodName>add</methodName>
- <params>
- <param><value><int>1</int></value></param>
- <param><value><int>2</int></value></param>
- </params>
- </methodCall>
+ FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
+ Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp/
+
+ # Or, run at the root
+ Alias / /tmp/myapp/
+
+=head3 More Info
-Response:
+L<Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI>.
- Connection: close
- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:45:55 GMT
- Content-Length: 133
- Content-Type: text/xml
- Status: 200
- X-Catalyst: 5.62
+=head2 Quick deployment: Building PAR Packages
- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
- <methodResponse>
- <params>
- <param><value><int>3</int></value></param>
- </params>
- </methodResponse>
+You have an application running on your development box, but then you
+have to quickly move it to another one for
+demonstration/deployment/testing...
-Sweet little protocol, isn't it? :)
+PAR packages can save you from a lot of trouble here. They are usual Zip
+files that contain a blib tree; you can even include all prereqs and a
+perl interpreter by setting a few flags!
-Now follow these few steps to implement the application.
+=head3 Follow these few points to try it out!
-1. Install Catalyst (5.61 or later), Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC (0.06 or later) and SOAP::Lite (for XMLRPCsh.pl)
+1. Install Catalyst and PAR 0.89 (or later)
- % perl -MCPAN -e'install Catalyst'
+ % perl -MCPAN -e 'install Catalyst'
...
- % perl -MCPAN -e'install Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC'
+ % perl -MCPAN -e 'install PAR'
...
-2. Create a myapp
+2. Create a application
% catalyst.pl MyApp
...
% cd MyApp
-3. Add the XMLRPC plugin to MyApp.pm
-
- use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple XMLRPC/;
-
-4. Add a api controller
-
- % ./script/myapp_create.pl controller API
-
-5. Add a XMLRPC redispatch method and a add method with Remote attribute
-to lib/MyApp/Controller/API.pm
-
- sub default : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->xmlrpc;
- }
-
- sub add : Remote {
- my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
- return $a + $b;
- }
-
-The default action is the entry point for each XMLRPC request, it will
-redispatch every request to methods with Remote attribute in the same class.
-
-The add method is no traditional action, it has no private or public path.
-Only the XMLRPC dispatcher knows it exists.
+Recent versions of Catalyst (5.62 and up) include
+L<Module::Install::Catalyst>, which simplifies the process greatly. From the shell in your application directory:
-6. Thats it! You have built your first web service, lets test it with
-XMLRPCsh.pl (part of SOAP::Lite)
-
- % ./script/myapp_server.pl
- ...
- % XMLRPCsh.pl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api
- Usage: method[(parameters)]
- > add( 1, 2 )
- --- XMLRPC RESULT ---
- '3'
+ % perl Makefile.PL
+ % make catalyst_par
-=head3 Tip Of The Day
+Congratulations! Your package "myapp.par" is ready, the following
+steps are just optional.
-Your return data type is usually auto-detected, but you can easily
-enforce a specific one.
+3. Test your PAR package with "parl" (no typo)
- sub add : Remote {
- my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
- return RPC::XML::int->new( $a + $b );
- }
-
-=head2 Action Types
+ % parl myapp.par
+ Usage:
+ [parl] myapp[.par] [script] [arguments]
-=head3 Introduction
+ Examples:
+ parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl -r
+ myapp myapp_cgi.pl
-A Catalyst application is driven by one or more Controller modules. There are
-a number of ways that Catalyst can decide which of the methods in your
-controller modules it should call. Controller methods are also called actions,
-because they determine how your catalyst application should (re-)act to any
-given URL. When the application is started up, catalyst looks at all your
-actions, and decides which URLs they map to.
+ Available scripts:
+ myapp_cgi.pl
+ myapp_create.pl
+ myapp_fastcgi.pl
+ myapp_server.pl
+ myapp_test.pl
-=head3 Type attributes
+ % parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl
+ You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
-Each action is a normal method in your controller, except that it has an
-L<attribute|http://search.cpan.org/~nwclark/perl-5.8.7/lib/attributes.pm>
-attached. These can be one of several types.
+Yes, this nifty little starter application gets automatically included.
+You can also use "catalyst_par_script('myapp_server.pl')" to set a
+default script to execute.
-Assume our Controller module starts with the following package declaration:
+6. Want to create a binary that includes the Perl interpreter?
- package MyApp::Controller::Buckets;
+ % pp -o myapp myapp.par
+ % ./myapp myapp_server.pl
+ You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
-and we are running our application on localhost, port 3000 (the test server default).
+=head2 Serving static content
-=over 4
+Serving static content in Catalyst used to be somewhat tricky; the use
+of L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple> makes everything much easier.
+This plugin will automatically serve your static content during development,
+but allows you to easily switch to Apache (or other server) in a
+production environment.
-=item Path
+=head3 Introduction to Static::Simple
-A Path attribute also takes an argument, this can be either a relative or an
-absolute path. A relative path will be relative to the controller namespace,
-an absolute path will represent an exact matching URL.
+Static::Simple is a plugin that will help to serve static content for your
+application. By default, it will serve most types of files, excluding some
+standard Template Toolkit extensions, out of your B<root> file directory. All
+files are served by path, so if B<images/me.jpg> is requested, then
+B<root/images/me.jpg> is found and served.
- sub my_handles : Path('handles') { .. }
+=head3 Usage
-becomes
+Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to include:
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
+ use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/;
-and
+and already files will be served.
- sub my_handles : Path('/handles') { .. }
+=head3 Configuring
-becomes
+Static content is best served from a single directory within your root
+directory. Having many different directories such as C<root/css> and
+C<root/images> requires more code to manage, because you must separately
+identify each static directory--if you decide to add a C<root/js>
+directory, you'll need to change your code to account for it. In
+contrast, keeping all static directories as subdirectories of a main
+C<root/static> directory makes things much easier to manage. Here's an
+example of a typical root directory structure:
- http://localhost:3000/handles
+ root/
+ root/content.tt
+ root/controller/stuff.tt
+ root/header.tt
+ root/static/
+ root/static/css/main.css
+ root/static/images/logo.jpg
+ root/static/js/code.js
-=item Local
-When using a Local attribute, no parameters are needed, instead, the name of
-the action is matched in the URL. The namespaces created by the name of the
-controller package is always part of the URL.
+All static content lives under C<root/static>, with everything else being
+Template Toolkit files.
- sub my_handles : Local { .. }
+=over 4
-becomes
+=item Include Path
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/my_handles
+You may of course want to change the default locations, and make
+Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as:
-=item Global
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [
+ MyApp->config->{root},
+ '/path/to/my/files'
+ ];
-A Global attribute is similar to a Local attribute, except that the namespace
-of the controller is ignored, and matching starts at root.
+When you override include_path, it will not automatically append the
+normal root path, so you need to add it yourself if you still want
+it. These will be searched in order given, and the first matching file
+served.
- sub my_handles : Global { .. }
+=item Static directories
-becomes
+If you want to force some directories to be only static, you can set
+them using paths relative to the root dir, or regular expressions:
- http://localhost:3000/my_handles
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [
+ 'static',
+ qr/^(images|css)/,
+ ];
-=item Regex
+=item File extensions
-By now you should have figured that a Regex attribute is just what it sounds
-like. This one takes a regular expression, and matches starting from
-root. These differ from the rest as they can match multiple URLs.
+By default, the following extensions are not served (that is, they will
+be processed by Catalyst): B<tmpl, tt, tt2, html, xhtml>. This list can
+be replaced easily:
- sub my_handles : Regex('^handles') { .. }
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [
+ qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/
+ ];
-matches
+=item Ignoring directories
- http://localhost:3000/handles
+Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path,
+directories relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored:
-and
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ];
- http://localhost:3000/handles_and_other_parts
+=back
-etc.
+=head3 More information
-=item LocalRegex
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/>
-A LocalRegex is similar to a Regex, except it only matches below the current
-controller namespace.
+=head3 Serving manually with the Static plugin with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl)
- sub my_handles : LocalRegex(^handles') { .. }
+In some situations you might want to control things more directly,
+using L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static>.
-matches
+In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin:
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
+ use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/;
-and
+You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward
+static content to the view, perhaps like this:
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles_and_other_parts
+ sub end : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-etc.
+ $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' )
+ unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} );
+ }
-=item Private
+This code will only forward to the view if a template has been
+previously defined by a controller and if there is not already data in
+C<$c-E<gt>res-E<gt>body>.
-Last but not least, there is the Private attribute, which allows you to create
-your own internal actions, which can be forwarded to, but won't be matched as
-URLs.
+Next, create a controller to handle requests for the /static path. Use
+the Helper to save time. This command will create a stub controller as
+C<lib/MyApp/Controller/Static.pm>.
- sub my_handles : Private { .. }
+ $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static
-becomes nothing at all..
+Edit the file and add the following methods:
-Catalyst also predefines some special Private actions, which you can override,
-these are:
+ # serve all files under /static as static files
+ sub default : Path('/static') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-=over 4
+ # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content
+ $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' );
-=item default
+ $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static
+ }
-The default action will be called, if no other matching action is found. If
-you don't have one of these in your namespace, or any sub part of your
-namespace, you'll get an error page instead. If you want to find out where it
-was the user was trying to go, you can look in the request object using
-C<< $c->req->path >>.
+ # also handle requests for /favicon.ico
+ sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- sub default : Private { .. }
+ $c->serve_static;
+ }
-works for all unknown URLs, in this controller namespace, or every one if put
-directly into MyApp.pm.
+You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of
+favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header:
-=item index
+ <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
-The index action is called when someone tries to visit the exact namespace of
-your controller. If index, default and matching Path actions are defined, then
-index will be used instead of default and Path.
+=head3 Common problems with the Static plugin
- sub index : Private { .. }
+The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to
+automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously
+difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest
+path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install
+shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine.
-becomes
+Make sure you are using the latest version (>= 0.16) for best
+results. If you are having errors serving CSS files, or if they get
+served as text/plain instead of text/css, you may have an outdated
+shared-mime-info version. You may also wish to simply use the following
+code in your Static controller:
- http://localhost:3000/buckets
+ if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) {
+ $c->serve_static( "text/css" );
+ } else {
+ $c->serve_static;
+ }
-=item begin
+=head3 Serving Static Files with Apache
-The begin action is called at the beginning of every request involving this
-namespace directly, before other matching actions are called. It can be used
-to set up variables/data for this particular part of your app. A single begin
-action is called, its always the one most relevant to the current namespace.
+When using Apache, you can bypass Catalyst and any Static
+plugins/controllers controller by intercepting requests for the
+C<root/static> path at the server level. All that is required is to
+define a DocumentRoot and add a separate Location block for your static
+content. Here is a complete config for this application under mod_perl
+1.x:
- sub begin : Private { .. }
+ <Perl>
+ use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib);
+ </Perl>
+ PerlModule MyApp
-is called once when
+ <VirtualHost *>
+ ServerName myapp.example.com
+ DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
+ <Location />
+ SetHandler perl-script
+ PerlHandler MyApp
+ </Location>
+ <LocationMatch "/(static|favicon.ico)">
+ SetHandler default-handler
+ </LocationMatch>
+ </VirtualHost>
- http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
+And here's a simpler example that'll get you started:
-is visited.
+ Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/"
+ <Location "/static">
+ SetHandler none
+ </Location>
-=item end
+=head2 Caching
-Like begin, this action is always called for the namespace it is in, after
-every other action has finished. It is commonly used to forward processing to
-the View component. A single end action is called, its always the one most
-relevant to the current namespace.
+Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to
+speed up your applications.
+=head3 Cache Plugins
- sub end : Private { .. }
+There are three wrapper plugins around common CPAN cache modules:
+Cache::FastMmap, Cache::FileCache, and Cache::Memcached. These can be
+used to cache the result of slow operations.
-is called once after any actions when
+This very page you're viewing makes use of the FileCache plugin to cache the
+rendered XHTML version of the source POD document. This is an ideal
+application for a cache because the source document changes infrequently but
+may be viewed many times.
- http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
+ use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache/;
+
+ ...
+
+ use File::stat;
+ sub render_pod : Local {
+ my ( self, $c ) = @_;
+
+ # the cache is keyed on the filename and the modification time
+ # to check for updates to the file.
+ my $file = $c->path_to( 'root', '2005', '11.pod' );
+ my $mtime = ( stat $file )->mtime;
+
+ my $cached_pod = $c->cache->get("$file $mtime");
+ if ( !$cached_pod ) {
+ $cached_pod = do_slow_pod_rendering();
+ # cache the result for 12 hours
+ $c->cache->set( "$file $mtime", $cached_pod, '12h' );
+ }
+ $c->stash->{pod} = $cached_pod;
+ }
+
+We could actually cache the result forever, but using a value such as 12 hours
+allows old entries to be automatically expired when they are no longer needed.
-is visited.
+=head3 Page Caching
-=item auto
+Another method of caching is to cache the entire HTML page. While this is
+traditionally handled by a front-end proxy server like Squid, the Catalyst
+PageCache plugin makes it trivial to cache the entire output from
+frequently-used or slow actions.
-Lastly, the auto action is magic in that B<every> auto action in
-the chain of paths up to and including the ending namespace, will be
-called. (In contrast, only one of the begin/end/default actions will be
-called, the relevant one).
+Many sites have a busy content-filled front page that might look something
+like this. It probably takes a while to process, and will do the exact same
+thing for every single user who views the page.
- package MyApp.pm;
- sub auto : Private { .. }
+ sub front_page : Path('/') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+
+ $c->forward( 'get_news_articles' );
+ $c->forward( 'build_lots_of_boxes' );
+ $c->forward( 'more_slow_stuff' );
+
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'index.tt';
+ }
-and
+We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up.
- sub auto : Private { .. }
+ use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/;
+
+ sub front_page : Path ('/') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+
+ $c->cache_page( 300 );
+
+ # same processing as above
+ }
+
+Now the entire output of the front page, from <html> to </html>, will be
+cached for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the next request will rebuild the
+page and it will be re-cached.
+
+Note that the page cache is keyed on the page URI plus all parameters, so
+requests for / and /?foo=bar will result in different cache items. Also,
+only GET requests will be cached by the plugin.
+
+You can even get that front-end Squid proxy to help out by enabling HTTP
+headers for the cached page.
+
+ MyApp->config->{page_cache}->{set_http_headers} = 1;
+
+This would now set the following headers so proxies and browsers may cache
+the content themselves.
+
+ Cache-Control: max-age=($expire_time - time)
+ Expires: $expire_time
+ Last-Modified: $cache_created_time
+
+=head3 Template Caching
+
+Template Toolkit provides support for caching compiled versions of your
+templates. To enable this in Catalyst, use the following configuration.
+TT will cache compiled templates keyed on the file mtime, so changes will
+still be automatically detected.
+
+ package MyApp::View::TT;
+
+ use strict;
+ use warnings;
+ use base 'Catalyst::View::TT';
+
+ __PACKAGE__->config(
+ COMPILE_DIR => '/tmp/template_cache',
+ );
+
+ 1;
+
+=head3 More Info
-will both be called when visiting
+See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other
+available configuration options.
- http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FastMmap>
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::FileCache>
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Cache::Memcached>
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::PageCache>
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Template-Toolkit/lib/Template/Manual/Config.pod#Caching_and_Compiling_Options>
-=back
+=head1 Testing
-=back
+Testing is an integral part of the web application development
+process. Tests make multi developer teams easier to coordinate, and
+they help ensure that there are no nasty surprises after upgrades or
+alterations.
-=head3 A word of warning
+=head2 Testing
-Due to possible namespace conflicts with Plugins, it is advised to only put the
-pre-defined Private actions in your main MyApp.pm file, all others should go
-in a Controller module.
+Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during
+development and before deployment in a real environment.
-=head3 More Information
+C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally
+(without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/author/SRI/Catalyst-5.61/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod>
+=head3 Tests
-L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/wiki/FlowChart>
+Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory:
-=head2 Static::Simple
+ mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ ls -l t/
+ total 24
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 95 18 Dec 20:50 01app.t
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 190 18 Dec 20:50 02pod.t
+ -rw-r--r-- 1 chansen chansen 213 18 Dec 20:50 03podcoverage.t
-=head3 Introduction
+=over 4
-Static::Simple is a plugin that will help to serve static content for your
-application. By default, it will serve most types of files, excluding some
-standard Template Toolkit extensions, out of your B<root> file directory. All
-files are served by path, so if B<images/me.jpg> is requested, then
-B<root/images/me.jpg> is found and served.
+=item C<01app.t>
-=head3 Usage
+Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful
+response.
-Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to:
+=item C<02pod.t>
- use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/;
+Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD>
+environment variable is true.
-and already files will be served.
+=item C<03podcoverage.t>
-=head3 Configuring
+Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the
+C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true.
-=over 4
+=back
-=item Include Path
+=head3 Creating tests
-You may of course want to change the default locations, and make
-Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as:
+ mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d %s", $., $_ )'
+ 1 use Test::More tests => 2;
+ 2 use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' );
+ 3
+ 4 ok( request('/')->is_success );
- MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [
- MyApp->config->{root},
- '/path/to/my/files'
- ];
+The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case
+two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The
+fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response.
-When you override include_path, it will not automatically append the normal
-root path, so you need to add it yourself if you still want it. These will be
-searched in order given, and the first matching file served.
+C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can
+take three different arguments:
-=item Static directories
+=over 4
-If you want to force some directories to be only static, you can set them
-using paths relative to the root dir, or regular expressions:
+=item A string which is a relative or absolute URI.
- MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [
- 'static',
- qr/^(images|css)/,
- ];
+ request('/my/path');
+ request('http://www.host.com/my/path');
-=item File extensions
+=item An instance of C<URI>.
-By default, the following extensions are not served: B<tmpl, tt, tt2, html,
-xhtml>. This list can be replaced easily:
+ request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') );
- MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [
- qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/
- ];
+=item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>.
-=item Ignoring directories
+ request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') );
-Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path, directories
-relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored:
+=back
- MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ];
+C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the
+content (body) of the response.
-=back
+=head3 Running tests locally
-=head3 More information
+ mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_DEBUG=0 TEST_POD=1 prove --lib lib/ t/
+ t/01app............ok
+ t/02pod............ok
+ t/03podcoverage....ok
+ All tests successful.
+ Files=3, Tests=4, 2 wallclock secs ( 1.60 cusr + 0.36 csys = 1.96 CPU)
+
+C<CATALYST_DEBUG=0> ensures that debugging is off; if it's enabled you
+will see debug logs between tests.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/>
+C<TEST_POD=1> enables POD checking and coverage.
-=head2 Authorization
+C<prove> A command-line tool that makes it easy to run tests. You can
+find out more about it from the links below.
-=head3 Introduction
+=head3 Running tests remotely
-Authorization is the step that comes after authentication. Authentication
-establishes that the user agent is really representing the user we think it's
-representing, and then authorization determines what this user is allowed to
-do.
+ mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/ prove --lib lib/ t/01app.t
+ t/01app....ok
+ All tests successful.
+ Files=1, Tests=2, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.40 cusr + 0.01 csys = 0.41 CPU)
-=head3 Role Based Access Control
+C<CATALYST_SERVER=http://localhost:3000/> is the absolute deployment URI of
+your application. In C<CGI> or C<FastCGI> it should be the host and path
+to the script.
-Under role based access control each user is allowed to perform any number of
-roles. For example, at a zoo no one but specially trained personnel can enter
-the moose cage (Mynd you, møøse bites kan be pretty nasti!). For example:
+=head3 C<Test::WWW::Mechanize> and Catalyst
- package Zoo::Controller::MooseCage;
+Be sure to check out C<Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst>. It makes it easy to
+test HTML, forms and links. A short example of usage:
- sub feed_moose : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ use Test::More tests => 6;
+ use_ok( Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, 'MyApp' );
- $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") );
- }
+ my $mech = Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst->new;
+ $mech->get_ok("http://localhost/", 'Got index page');
+ $mech->title_like( qr/^MyApp on Catalyst/, 'Got right index title' );
+ ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Wiki/i ), 'Found link to Wiki' );
+ ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^Mailing-List/i ), 'Found link to Mailing-List' );
+ ok( $mech->find_link( text_regex => qr/^IRC channel/i ), 'Found link to IRC channel' );
-With this action, anyone can just come into the moose cage and feed the moose,
-which is a very dangerous thing. We need to restrict this action, so that only
-a qualified moose feeder can perform that action.
+=head3 Further Reading
-The Authorization::Roles plugin let's us perform role based access control
-checks. Let's load it:
+=over 4
- use Catalyst qw/
- Authentication # yadda yadda
- Authorization::Roles
- /;
+=item Catalyst::Test
-And now our action should look like this:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst/lib/Catalyst/Test.pm>
- sub feed_moose : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=item Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst
- if ( $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" ) ) {
- $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") );
- } else {
- $c->stash->{error} = "unauthorized";
- }
- }
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Catalyst/lib/Test/WWW/Mechanize/Catalyst.pm>
-This checks C<< $c->user >>, and only if the user has B<all> the roles in the
-list, a true value is returned.
+=item Test::WWW::Mechanize
-C<check_roles> has a sister method, C<assert_roles>, which throws an exception
-if any roles are missing.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize/Mechanize.pm>
-Some roles that might actually make sense in, say, a forum application:
+=item WWW::Mechanize
-=over 4
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm>
-=item *
+=item LWP::UserAgent
-administrator
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm>
-=item *
+=item HTML::Form
-moderator
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTML/Form.pm>
-=back
+=item HTTP::Message
-each with a distinct task (system administration versus content administration).
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Message.pm>
-=head3 Access Control Lists
+=item HTTP::Request
-Checking for roles all the time can be tedious and error prone.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request.pm>
-The Authorization::ACL plugin let's us declare where we'd like checks to be
-done automatically for us.
+=item HTTP::Request::Common
-For example, we may want to completely block out anyone who isn't a
-C<moose_feeder> from the entire C<MooseCage> controller:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request/Common.pm>
- Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_feeder/] );
+=item HTTP::Response
-The role list behaves in the same way as C<check_roles>. However, the ACL
-plugin isn't limited to just interacting with the Roles plugin. We can use a
-code reference instead. For example, to allow either moose trainers or moose
-feeders into the moose cage, we can create a more complex check:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Response.pm>
- Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", sub {
- my $c = shift;
- $c->check_roles( "moose_trainer" ) || $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" );
- });
+=item HTTP::Status
-The more specific a role, the earlier it will be checked. Let's say moose
-feeders are now restricted to only the C<feed_moose> action, while moose
-trainers get access everywhere:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Status.pm>
- Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_trainer/] );
- Zoo->allow_access_if( "/moose_cage/feed_moose", [qw/moose_feeder/]);
+=item URI
-When the C<feed_moose> action is accessed the second check will be made. If the
-user is a C<moose_feeder>, then access will be immediately granted. Otherwise,
-the next rule in line will be tested - the one checking for a C<moose_trainer>.
-If this rule is not satisfied, access will be immediately denied.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI.pm>
-Rules applied to the same path will be checked in the order they were added.
+=item Test::More
-Lastly, handling access denial events is done by creating an C<access_denied>
-private action:
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm>
- sub access_denied : Private {
- my ( $self, $c, $action ) = @_;
+=item Test::Pod
-
- }
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod/Pod.pm>
-This action works much like auto, in that it is inherited across namespaces
-(not like object oriented code). This means that the C<access_denied> action
-which is B<nearest> to the action which was blocked will be triggered.
+=item Test::Pod::Coverage
-If this action does not exist, an error will be thrown, which you can clean up
-in your C<end> private action instead.
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod-Coverage/Coverage.pm>
-Also, it's important to note that if you restrict access to "/" then C<end>,
-C<default>, etc will also be restricted.
+=item prove (Test::Harness)
- MyApp->acl_allow_root_internals;
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove>
-will create rules that permit access to C<end>, C<begin>, and C<auto> in the
-root of your app (but not in any other controller).
+=back
=head3 More Information
=head1 AUTHORS
-Sebastian Riedel, C<sri@oook.de>
-Danijel Milicevic, C<me@danijel.de>
-Viljo Marrandi, C<vilts@yahoo.com>
-Marcus Ramberg, C<mramberg@cpan.org>
-Jesse Sheidlower, C<jester@panix.com>
-Andy Grundman, C<andy@hybridized.org>
-Chisel Wright, C<pause@herlpacker.co.uk>
-Will Hawes, C<info@whawes.co.uk>
-Gavin Henry, C<ghenry@perl.me.uk>
+Sebastian Riedel C<sri@oook.de>
+
+Danijel Milicevic C<me@danijel.de>
+Viljo Marrandi C<vilts@yahoo.com>
+
+Marcus Ramberg C<mramberg@cpan.org>
+
+Jesse Sheidlower C<jester@panix.com>
+
+Andy Grundman C<andy@hybridized.org>
+
+Chisel Wright C<pause@herlpacker.co.uk>
+
+Will Hawes C<info@whawes.co.uk>
+
+Gavin Henry C<ghenry@perl.me.uk>
+
+Kieren Diment C<kd@totaldatasolution.com>
=head1 COPYRIGHT
-This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+This document is free, you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
+
projects / catagits/Catalyst-Runtime.git / blobdiff