-
=head1 NAME
Catalyst::Manual::Cookbook - Cooking with Catalyst
=head1 RECIPES
-=head2 Force debug screen
+=head1 Basics
-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.
+These recipes cover some basic stuff that is worth knowing for catalyst developers.
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- die "forced debug";
- }
+=head2 Delivering a Custom Error Page
+
+By default, Catalyst will display its own error page whenever it
+encounters an error in your application. When running under C<-Debug>
+mode, the error page is a useful screen including the error message and
+L<Data::Dump> output of the relevant parts of the C<$c> context object.
+When not in C<-Debug>, users see a simple "Please come back later" screen.
+
+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 end : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+
+ if ( scalar @{ $c->error } ) {
+ $c->stash->{errors} = $c->error;
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'errors.tt';
+ $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
+ $c->error(0);
+ }
+
+ return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/;
+ return 1 if $c->response->body;
-If you're tired of removing and adding this all the time, you can add a
-condition in the C<end> action. For example:
+ unless ( $c->response->content_type ) {
+ $c->response->content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8');
+ }
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- die "forced debug" if $c->req->params->{dump_info};
- }
+ $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
+ }
-Then just add to your query string C<&dump_info=1> (or if there's no
-query string for the request, add C<?dump_info=1> to the end of the URL)
-to force debug output. This feature is included in
-L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView> (formerly
-L<Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd>).
+You can manually set errors in your code to trigger this page by calling
+ $c->error( 'You broke me!' );
=head2 Disable statistics
modifying your application scripts. Just set C<CATALYST_DEBUG> or
C<E<lt>MYAPPE<gt>_DEBUG> to a true value.
-=head2 File uploads
+=head2 Sessions
-=head3 Single file upload with Catalyst
+When you have your users identified, you will want to somehow remember that
+fact, to save them from having to identify themselves for every single
+page. One way to do this is to send the username and password parameters in
+every single page, but that's ugly, and won't work for static pages.
-To implement uploads in Catalyst, you need to have a HTML form similar to
-this:
+Sessions are a method of saving data related to some transaction, and giving
+the whole collection a single ID. This ID is then given to the user to return
+to us on every page they visit while logged in. The usual way to do this is
+using a browser cookie.
- <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
- <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
- <input type="file" name="my_file">
- <input type="submit" value="Send">
- </form>
+Catalyst uses two types of plugins to represent sessions:
-It's very important not to forget C<enctype="multipart/form-data"> in
-the form.
+=head3 State
-Catalyst Controller module 'upload' action:
+A State module is used to keep track of the state of the session between the
+users browser, and your application.
- sub upload : Global {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
+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.
- if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
+=head3 Store
- if ( my $upload = $c->request->upload('my_file') ) {
+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).
- my $filename = $upload->filename;
- my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
+=head3 Authentication magic
- unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
- die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
- }
- }
- }
+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.
- $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
- }
+=head3 Using a session
-=head3 Multiple file upload with Catalyst
+Once the session modules are loaded, the session is available as C<<
+$c->session >>, and can be writen to and read from as a simple hash reference.
-Code for uploading multiple files from one form needs a few changes:
+=head3 EXAMPLE
-The form should have this basic structure:
+ use Catalyst qw/
+ Session
+ Session::Store::FastMmap
+ Session::State::Cookie
+ /;
- <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>
-And in the controller:
+ ## Write data into the session
- sub upload : Local {
- my ($self, $c) = @_;
+ sub add_item : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
+ my $item_id = $c->req->param("item");
- for my $field ( $c->req->upload ) {
+ push @{ $c->session->{items} }, $item_id;
- my $upload = $c->req->upload($field);
- my $filename = $upload->filename;
- my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
+ }
- unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
- die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
- }
- }
- }
+ ## A page later we retrieve the data from the session:
- $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
- }
+ sub get_items : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-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.
+ $c->stash->{items_to_display} = $c->session->{items};
-Notice: C<die>ing might not be what you want to do, when an error
-occurs, but it works as an example. A better idea would be to store
-error C<$!> in $c->stash->{error} and show a custom error template
-displaying this message.
+ }
-For more information about uploads and usable methods look at
-L<Catalyst::Request::Upload> and L<Catalyst::Request>.
+
+=head3 More information
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-Cookie>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-URI>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-FastMmap>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-File>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-DBI>
+
+=head2 Configure your application
+
+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.
+
+=head3 Using YAML
+
+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.
+
+In your application class (e.g. C<lib/MyApp.pm>):
+
+ use YAML;
+ # application setup
+ __PACKAGE__->config( YAML::LoadFile(__PACKAGE__->config->{'home'} . '/myapp.yml') );
+ __PACKAGE__->setup;
+
+Now create C<myapp.yml> in your application home:
+
+ --- #YAML:1.0
+ # DO NOT USE TABS FOR INDENTATION OR label/value SEPARATION!!!
+ name: MyApp
+
+ # session; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Session::FastMmap
+ session:
+ expires: '3600'
+ rewrite: '0'
+ storage: '/tmp/myapp.session'
+
+ # emails; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Email
+ # this passes options as an array :(
+ email:
+ - SMTP
+ - localhost
+
+This is equivalent to:
+
+ # 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/];
+
+See also L<YAML>.
+
+=head1 Users and Access Control
+
+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.
=head2 Authentication (logging in)
}
-=head2 Serving static content
+=head2 Role-based Authorization
-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.
+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.
-=head3 Introduction to Static::Simple
+The C<login> and C<logout> methods and view template are exactly the same as
+in the previous example.
-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.
+The L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles> plugin is required when
+implementing roles:
-=head3 Usage
+ use Catalyst qw/
+ Authentication
+ Authentication::Credential::Password
+ Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
+ Authorization::Roles
+ /;
-Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to include:
+Roles are implemented automatically when using
+L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Htpasswd>:
- use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/;
+ # no additional role configuration required
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
-and already files will be served.
+Or can be set up manually when using L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIC>:
-=head3 Configuring
+ # 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',
-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:
+ # DBIx::Class only (omit if using Class::DBI)
+ 'role_rel' => 'user_role',
- 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
+ # Class::DBI only, (omit if using DBIx::Class)
+ 'user_role_class' => 'My::Model::CDBI::UserRole'
+ 'user_role_role_field' => 'role',
+ };
+To restrict access to any action, you can use the C<check_user_roles> method:
-All static content lives under C<root/static>, with everything else being
-Template Toolkit files.
+ sub restricted : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-=over 4
+ $c->detach("unauthorized")
+ unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
-=item Include Path
+ # do something restricted here
+ }
-You may of course want to change the default locations, and make
-Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as:
+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:
- MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [
- MyApp->config->{root},
- '/path/to/my/files'
- ];
+ sub also_restricted : Global {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->assert_user_roles( qw/ user admin / );
+ }
+
+=head2 Authentication/Authorization
-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.
+This is done in several steps:
-=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 Verification
- MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [
- 'static',
- qr/^(images|css)/,
- ];
+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>.
-=item File extensions
+=item Authorization
-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:
+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.
- MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [
- qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/
- ];
+=back
-=item Ignoring directories
+=head3 Modules
-Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path,
-directories relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored:
+The Catalyst Authentication system is made up of many interacting modules, to
+give you the most flexibility possible.
- MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ];
+=head4 Credential verifiers
-=back
+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.
-=head3 More information
+Examples:
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/>
+ Password - Simple username/password checking.
+ HTTPD - Checks using basic HTTP auth.
+ TypeKey - Check using the typekey system.
-=head3 Serving manually with the Static plugin with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl)
+=head3 Storage backends
-In some situations you might want to control things more directly,
-using L<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.
-In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin:
+Examples:
- use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/;
+ DBIC - Storage using a database.
+ Minimal - Storage using a simple hash (for testing).
-You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward
-static content to the view, perhaps like this:
+=head3 User objects
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+A User object is created by either the storage backend or the credential
+verifier, and filled with the retrieved user information.
- $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' )
- unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} );
- }
+Examples:
-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>.
+ Hash - A simple hash of keys and values.
-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>.
+=head3 ACL authorization
- $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static
+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.
-Edit the file and add the following methods:
+=head3 Roles authorization
- # serve all files under /static as static files
- sub default : Path('/static') {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+Authorization by roles is for assigning users to groups, which can then be
+assigned to ACLs, or just checked when needed.
- # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content
- $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' );
+=head3 Logging in
- $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static
- }
+When you have chosen your modules, all you need to do is call the C<<
+$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.
- # also handle requests for /favicon.ico
- sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=head3 Checking roles
- $c->serve_static;
- }
+Role checking is done by using the C<< $c->check_user_roles >> method, this will
+check using the currently logged in user (via C<< $c->user >>). You pass it
+the name of a role to check, and it returns true if the user is a member.
-You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of
-favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header:
+=head3 EXAMPLE
- <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
+ use Catalyst qw/Authentication
+ Authentication::Credential::Password
+ Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
+ Authorization::Roles/;
-=head3 Common problems with the Static plugin
+ __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
-The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to
-automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously
-difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest
-path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install
-shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine.
+ sub login : Local {
+ my ($self, $c) = @_;
-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:
+ if ( my $user = $c->req->param("user")
+ and my $password = $c->req->param("password") )
+ {
+ if ( $c->login( $user, $password ) ) {
+ $c->res->body( "hello " . $c->user->name );
+ } else {
+ # login incorrect
+ }
+ }
+ else {
+ # invalid form input
+ }
+ }
- if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) {
- $c->serve_static( "text/css" );
- } else {
- $c->serve_static;
- }
+ sub restricted : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-=head3 Serving Static Files with Apache
+ $c->detach("unauthorized")
+ unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
-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:
+ # do something restricted here
+ }
- <Perl>
- use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib);
- </Perl>
- PerlModule MyApp
+=head3 Using authentication in a testing environment
- <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>
+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.
-And here's a simpler example that'll get you started:
+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.
- Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/"
- <Location "/static">
- SetHandler none
- </Location>
+e.g.,
-=head2 Forwarding with arguments
+ use Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store::Minimal::Backend;
-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:
+ # 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' },
+ })
+ );
- # version 5.30 and later:
- $c->forward('/wherever', [qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
+Now, your test code can call C<$c->login('test_user', 'test_pass')> and
+successfully login, without messing with the database at all.
- # pre-5.30
- $c->req->args([qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
- $c->forward('/wherever');
+=head3 More information
-(See the L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> Flow_Control section for more
-information on passing arguments via C<forward>.)
-
-=head2 Configure your application
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> has a longer explanation.
-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.
+=head2 Authorization
-=head3 Using YAML
+=head3 Introduction
-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.
+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.
-In your application class (e.g. C<lib/MyApp.pm>):
+=head3 Role Based Access Control
- use YAML;
- # application setup
- __PACKAGE__->config( YAML::LoadFile(__PACKAGE__->config->{'home'} . '/myapp.yml') );
- __PACKAGE__->setup;
+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:
-Now create C<myapp.yml> in your application home:
+ package Zoo::Controller::MooseCage;
- --- #YAML:1.0
- # DO NOT USE TABS FOR INDENTATION OR label/value SEPARATION!!!
- name: MyApp
+ sub feed_moose : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- # session; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Session::FastMmap
- session:
- expires: '3600'
- rewrite: '0'
- storage: '/tmp/myapp.session'
+ $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") );
+ }
- # emails; perldoc Catalyst::Plugin::Email
- # this passes options as an array :(
- email:
- - SMTP
- - localhost
+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.
-This is equivalent to:
+The Authorization::Roles plugin let's us perform role based access control
+checks. Let's load it:
- # 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/];
+ use Catalyst qw/
+ Authentication # yadda yadda
+ Authorization::Roles
+ /;
-See also L<YAML>.
+And now our action should look like this:
-=head2 Using existing DBIC (etc.) classes with Catalyst
+ sub feed_moose : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-Many people have existing Model classes that they would like to use with
-Catalyst (or, conversely, they want to write Catalyst models that can be
-used outside of Catalyst, e.g. in a cron job). It's trivial to write a
-simple component in Catalyst that slurps in an outside Model:
+ if ( $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" ) ) {
+ $c->model( "Moose" )->eat( $c->req->param("food") );
+ } else {
+ $c->stash->{error} = "unauthorized";
+ }
+ }
- package MyApp::Model::DB;
- use base qw/Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema/;
- __PACKAGE__->config(
- schema_class => 'Some::DBIC::Schema',
- connect_info => ['dbi:SQLite:foo.db', '', '', {AutoCommit=>1}];
- );
- 1;
+This checks C<< $c->user >>, and only if the user has B<all> the roles in the
+list, a true value is returned.
-and that's it! Now C<Some::DBIC::Schema> is part of your
-Cat app as C<MyApp::Model::DB>.
+C<check_roles> has a sister method, C<assert_roles>, which throws an exception
+if any roles are missing.
-=head2 Delivering a Custom Error Page
+Some roles that might actually make sense in, say, a forum application:
-By default, Catalyst will display its own error page whenever it
-encounters an error in your application. When running under C<-Debug>
-mode, the error page is a useful screen including the error message and
-L<Data::Dump> output of the relevant parts of the C<$c> context object.
-When not in C<-Debug>, users see a simple "Please come back later" screen.
+=over 4
-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>).
+=item *
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+administrator
- if ( scalar @{ $c->error } ) {
- $c->stash->{errors} = $c->error;
- $c->stash->{template} = 'errors.tt';
- $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
- $c->error(0);
- }
+=item *
- return 1 if $c->response->status =~ /^3\d\d$/;
- return 1 if $c->response->body;
+moderator
- unless ( $c->response->content_type ) {
- $c->response->content_type('text/html; charset=utf-8');
- }
+=back
- $c->forward('MyApp::View::TT');
- }
+each with a distinct task (system administration versus content administration).
-You can manually set errors in your code to trigger this page by calling
+=head3 Access Control Lists
- $c->error( 'You broke me!' );
+Checking for roles all the time can be tedious and error prone.
-=head2 Role-based Authorization
+The Authorization::ACL plugin let's us declare where we'd like checks to be
+done automatically for us.
-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.
+For example, we may want to completely block out anyone who isn't a
+C<moose_feeder> from the entire C<MooseCage> controller:
-The C<login> and C<logout> methods and view template are exactly the same as
-in the previous example.
+ Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_feeder/] );
-The L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles> plugin is required when
-implementing roles:
+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 Catalyst qw/
- Authentication
- Authentication::Credential::Password
- Authentication::Store::Htpasswd
- Authorization::Roles
- /;
+ Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", sub {
+ my $c = shift;
+ $c->check_roles( "moose_trainer" ) || $c->check_roles( "moose_feeder" );
+ });
-Roles are implemented automatically when using
-L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::Htpasswd>:
+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:
- # no additional role configuration required
- __PACKAGE__->config->{authentication}{htpasswd} = "passwdfile";
+ Zoo->deny_access_unless( "/moose_cage", [qw/moose_trainer/] );
+ Zoo->allow_access_if( "/moose_cage/feed_moose", [qw/moose_feeder/]);
-Or can be set up manually when using L<Catalyst::Authentication::Store::DBIC>:
+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.
- # 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',
+Rules applied to the same path will be checked in the order they were added.
- # DBIx::Class only (omit if using Class::DBI)
- 'role_rel' => 'user_role',
+Lastly, handling access denial events is done by creating an C<access_denied>
+private action:
- # Class::DBI only, (omit if using DBIx::Class)
- 'user_role_class' => 'My::Model::CDBI::UserRole'
- 'user_role_role_field' => 'role',
- };
+ sub access_denied : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c, $action ) = @_;
-To restrict access to any action, you can use the C<check_user_roles> method:
+
+ }
- sub restricted : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+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.
- $c->detach("unauthorized")
- unless $c->check_user_roles( "admin" );
+If this action does not exist, an error will be thrown, which you can clean up
+in your C<end> private action instead.
- # do something restricted here
- }
+Also, it's important to note that if you restrict access to "/" then C<end>,
+C<default>, etc will also be restricted.
-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:
+ MyApp->acl_allow_root_internals;
- sub also_restricted : Global {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->assert_user_roles( qw/ user admin / );
- }
-
-=head2 Quick deployment: Building PAR Packages
+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).
-You have an application running on your development box, but then you
-have to quickly move it to another one for
-demonstration/deployment/testing...
+=head1 Models
-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!
+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.
-=head3 Follow these few points to try it out!
+=head2 Using existing DBIC (etc.) classes with Catalyst
-1. Install Catalyst and PAR 0.89 (or later)
+Many people have existing Model classes that they would like to use with
+Catalyst (or, conversely, they want to write Catalyst models that can be
+used outside of Catalyst, e.g. in a cron job). It's trivial to write a
+simple component in Catalyst that slurps in an outside Model:
- % perl -MCPAN -e 'install Catalyst'
- ...
- % perl -MCPAN -e 'install PAR'
- ...
+ package MyApp::Model::DB;
+ use base qw/Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema/;
+ __PACKAGE__->config(
+ schema_class => 'Some::DBIC::Schema',
+ connect_info => ['dbi:SQLite:foo.db', '', '', {AutoCommit=>1}];
+ );
+ 1;
-2. Create a application
+and that's it! Now C<Some::DBIC::Schema> is part of your
+Cat app as C<MyApp::Model::DB>.
- % catalyst.pl MyApp
- ...
- % cd MyApp
+=head2 DBIx::Class as a Catalyst Model
-3. Add these lines to Makefile.PL (below "catalyst_files();")
+See L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>.
- catalyst_par_core(); # Include modules that are also included
- # in the standard Perl distribution,
- # this is optional but highly suggested
+=head2 XMLRPC
- catalyst_par(); # Generate a PAR as soon as the blib
- # directory is ready
+Unlike SOAP, XMLRPC is a very simple (and imo elegant) web-services
+protocol, exchanging small XML messages like these:
-4. Prepare the Makefile, test your app, create a PAR (the two
-Makefile.PL calls are no typo)
+Request:
- % perl Makefile.PL
- ...
- % make test
- ...
- % perl Makefile.PL
- ...
+ 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
-Recent versions of Catalyst include L<Module::Install::Catalyst>, which
-simplifies the process greatly.
+ <?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>
- % perl Makefile.PL
- ...
- % make catalyst_par
- ...
+Response:
-Congratulations! Your package "myapp.par" is ready, the following
-steps are just optional.
+ Connection: close
+ Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:45:55 GMT
+ Content-Length: 133
+ Content-Type: text/xml
+ Status: 200
+ X-Catalyst: 5.70
-5. Test your PAR package with "parl" (no typo)
+ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
+ <methodResponse>
+ <params>
+ <param><value><int>3</int></value></param>
+ </params>
+ </methodResponse>
- % parl myapp.par
- Usage:
- [parl] myapp[.par] [script] [arguments]
+Now follow these few steps to implement the application:
- Examples:
- parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl -r
- myapp myapp_cgi.pl
+1. Install Catalyst (5.61 or later), Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC (0.06 or
+later) and SOAP::Lite (for XMLRPCsh.pl).
- Available scripts:
- myapp_cgi.pl
- myapp_create.pl
- myapp_fastcgi.pl
- myapp_server.pl
- myapp_test.pl
+2. Create an application framework:
- % parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl
- You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
+ % catalyst.pl MyApp
+ ...
+ % cd MyApp
-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.
+3. Add the XMLRPC plugin to MyApp.pm
-6. Want to create a binary that includes the Perl interpreter?
+ use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple XMLRPC/;
- % pp -o myapp myapp.par
- % ./myapp myapp_server.pl
- You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
+4. Add an API controller
-=head2 mod_perl Deployment
+ % ./script/myapp_create.pl controller API
-In today's entry, I'll be talking about deploying an application in
-production using Apache and mod_perl.
+5. Add a XMLRPC redispatch method and an add method with Remote
+attribute to lib/MyApp/Controller/API.pm
-=head3 Pros & Cons
+ sub default : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->xmlrpc;
+ }
-mod_perl is the best solution for many applications, but I'll list some pros
-and cons so you can decide for yourself. The other production deployment
-option is FastCGI, which I'll talk about in a future calendar article.
+ sub add : Remote {
+ my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
+ return $a + $b;
+ }
-=head4 Pros
+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.
-=head4 Speed
+The C<add> method is not a traditional action; it has no private or
+public path. Only the XMLRPC dispatcher knows it exists.
-mod_perl is very fast and your app will benefit from being loaded in memory
-within each Apache process.
+6. That's it! You have built your first web service. Let's test it with
+XMLRPCsh.pl (part of SOAP::Lite):
-=head4 Shared memory for multiple apps
+ % ./script/myapp_server.pl
+ ...
+ % XMLRPCsh.pl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api
+ Usage: method[(parameters)]
+ > add( 1, 2 )
+ --- XMLRPC RESULT ---
+ '3'
-If you need to run several Catalyst apps on the same server, mod_perl will
-share the memory for common modules.
+=head3 Tip
-=head4 Cons
+Your return data type is usually auto-detected, but you can easily
+enforce a specific one.
-=head4 Memory usage
+ sub add : Remote {
+ my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
+ return RPC::XML::int->new( $a + $b );
+ }
+
-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.
-=head4 Reloading
+=head1 Views
-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.
+Views pertain to the display of your application. As with models,
+catalyst is uncommonly flexible. The recipes below are just a start.
-=head4 Cannot run multiple versions of the same app
+=head2 Catalyst::View::TT
-It is not possible to run two different versions of the same application in
-the same Apache instance because the namespaces will collide.
+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.
-=head4 Setup
+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.
-Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about setting up mod_perl
-to run a Catalyst app.
+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.
-=head4 1. Install Catalyst::Engine::Apache
+=head3 Creating your View
-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.
+Catalyst::View::TT provides two different helpers for us to use: TT and
+TTSite.
-=head4 2. Install Apache with mod_perl
+=head4 TT
-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.
+Create a basic Template Toolkit View using the provided helper script:
-In Debian, the following commands should get you going.
+ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT
- apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork
- apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2
+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:
-=head4 3. Configure your application
+ sub hello : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-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.
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
- PerlSwitches -I/var/www/MyApp/lib
- PerlModule MyApp
-
- <Location />
- SetHandler modperl
- PerlResponseHandler MyApp
- </Location>
+ $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
+ }
-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.
+In practice you wouldn't do the forwarding manually, but would
+use L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView>.
-For an example Apache 1.3 configuration, please see the documentation for
-L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>.
+=head4 TTSite
-=head3 Test It
+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.
-That's it, your app is now a full-fledged mod_perl application! Try it out
-by going to http://your.server.com/.
+Once again, you can use the helper script:
-=head3 Other Options
+ script/myapp_create.pl view TT TTSite
-=head4 Non-root location
+This time, the helper sets several options for us in the generated View.
-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.
+ __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
+ });
- <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.
+=over
-=head4 Static file handling
+=item
-Static files can be served directly by Apache for a performance boost.
+INCLUDE_PATH defines the directories that Template Toolkit should search
+for the template files.
- 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.
+=item
-=head2 Extending RenderView (formerly DefaultEnd)
+PRE_PROCESS is used to process configuration options which are common to
+every template file.
-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.
+=item
-You can extend it like this:
+WRAPPER is a file which is processed with each template, usually used to
+easily provide a common header and footer for every page.
-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:
-
- sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- # do stuff here; the RenderView action is called afterwards
- }
-
-To add things to an C<end> action that are called I<after> rendering,
-you can set it up like this:
-
- sub render : ActionClass('RenderView') { }
-
- sub end : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->forward('render');
- # do stuff here
- }
-
-=head2 Catalyst on shared hosting
-
-So, you want to put your Catalyst app out there for the whole world to
-see, but you don't want to break the bank. There is an answer - if you
-can get shared hosting with FastCGI and a shell, you can install your
-Catalyst app in a local directory on your shared host. First, run
-
- perl -MCPAN -e shell
-
-and go through the standard CPAN configuration process. Then exit out
-without installing anything. Next, open your .bashrc and add
-
- export PATH=$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:$PERL5LIB
-
-and log out, then back in again (or run C<". .bashrc"> if you
-prefer). Finally, edit C<.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm> and add
+=back
- 'make_install_arg' => qq[SITEPREFIX=$ENV{HOME}/local],
- 'makepl_arg' => qq[INSTALLDIRS=site install_base=$ENV{HOME}/local],
+In addition to setting these options, the TTSite helper also created the
+template and config files for us! In the 'root' directory, you'll notice
+two new directories: src and lib.
-Now you can install the modules you need using CPAN as normal; they
-will be installed into your local directory, and perl will pick them
-up. Finally, change directory into the root of your virtual host and
-symlink your application's script directory in:
+Several configuration files in root/lib/config are called by PRE_PROCESS.
- cd path/to/mydomain.com
- ln -s ~/lib/MyApp/script script
+The files in root/lib/site are the site-wide templates, called by
+WRAPPER, and display the html framework, control the layout, and provide
+the templates for the header and footer of your page. Using the template
+organization provided makes it much easier to standardize pages and make
+changes when they are (inevitably) needed.
-And add the following lines to your .htaccess file (assuming the server
-is setup to handle .pl as fcgi - you may need to rename the script to
-myapp_fastcgi.fcgi and/or use a SetHandler directive):
+The template files that you will create for your application will go
+into root/src, and you don't need to worry about putting the the <html>
+or <head> sections; just put in the content. The WRAPPER will the rest
+of the page around your template for you.
- RewriteEngine On
- RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
- RewriteRule ^(.*)$ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/$1 [PT,L]
-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 :) )
+=head3 $c->stash
-=head2 Caching
+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.
-Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to
-speed up your applications.
+In our controllers, we can add data to the stash, and then access it
+from the template. For instance:
-=head3 Cache Plugins
+ sub hello : Local {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-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.
+ $c->stash->{name} = 'Adam';
-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.
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
- 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;
+ $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
}
-
-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.
-=head3 Page Caching
+Then, in hello.tt:
-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.
+ <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong>
-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.
+When you view this page, it will display "Hello, Adam!"
- 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';
- }
+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.
-We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up.
+In your controller:
- use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/;
-
- sub front_page : Path ('/') {
+ sub hello : Local {
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
-See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other
-available configuration options.
-
-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>
-
-=head2 Component-based Subrequests
-
-See L<Catalyst::Plugin::SubRequest>.
-
-=head2 DBIx::Class as a Catalyst Model
-
-See L<Catalyst::Model::DBIC::Schema>.
-
-=head2 Authentication/Authorization
-
-This is done in several steps:
-
-=over 4
-
-=item Verification
-
-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>.
-
-=item Authorization
-
-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.
-
-=back
-
-=head3 Modules
-
-The Catalyst Authentication system is made up of many interacting modules, to
-give you the most flexibility possible.
-
-=head4 Credential verifiers
-
-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<< $c->user >> call.
-
-Examples:
-
- Password - Simple username/password checking.
- HTTPD - Checks using basic HTTP auth.
- TypeKey - Check using the typekey system.
-
-=head3 Storage backends
-
-A Storage backend contains the actual data representing the users. It is
-queried by the credential verifiers. Updating the store is not done within
-this system, you will need to do it yourself.
-
-Examples:
-
- DBIC - Storage using a database.
- Minimal - Storage using a simple hash (for testing).
-
-=head3 User objects
-
-A User object is created by either the storage backend or the credential
-verifier, and filled with the retrieved user information.
-
-Examples:
-
- Hash - A simple hash of keys and values.
-
-=head3 ACL authorization
-
-ACL stands for Access Control List. The ACL plugin allows you to regulate
-access on a path by path basis, by listing which users, or roles, have access
-to which paths.
-
-=head3 Roles authorization
-
-Authorization by roles is for assigning users to groups, which can then be
-assigned to ACLs, or just checked when needed.
-
-=head3 Logging in
-
-When you have chosen your modules, all you need to do is call the C<<
-$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 Sessions
-
-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.
-
-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.
-
-Catalyst uses two types of plugins to represent sessions:
-
-=head3 State
-
-A State module is used to keep track of the state of the session between the
-users browser, and your application.
-
-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.
-
-=head3 Store
-
-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 Authentication magic
-
-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.
-
-=head3 Using a session
-
-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.
-
-=head3 EXAMPLE
-
- use Catalyst qw/
- Session
- Session::Store::FastMmap
- Session::State::Cookie
- /;
+ $c->stash->{names} = [ 'Adam', 'Dave', 'John' ];
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
- ## Write data into the session
+ $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
+ }
- sub add_item : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+In hello.tt:
- my $item_id = $c->req->param("item");
+ [% FOREACH name IN names %]
+ <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong><br />
+ [% END %]
- push @{ $c->session->{items} }, $item_id;
+This allowed us to loop through each item in the arrayref, and display a
+line for each name that we have.
- }
+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.
- ## A page later we retrieve the data from the session:
+=head3 $c->uri_for()
- sub get_items : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+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.
- $c->stash->{items_to_display} = $c->session->{items};
+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.
- }
+In your template, you can use the following:
+ <a href="[% c.uri_for('/login') %]">Login Here</a>
-=head3 More information
+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://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session>
+Likewise,
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-Cookie>
+ <a href="[% c.uri_for('2005','10', '24') %]">October, 24 2005</a>
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-State-URI>
+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.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-FastMmap>
+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.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-File>
+Further Reading:
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Session-Store-DBI>
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst%3A%3AView%3A%3ATT>
+
+L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template>
=head2 Adding RSS feeds
Now, go ahead and make RSS feeds for all your stuff. The world *needs*
updates on your goldfish!
-=head2 FastCGI Deployment
-FastCGI is a high-performance extension to CGI. It is suitable
-for production environments.
-=head3 Pros
+=head1 Controllers
-=head4 Speed
+Controllers are the main point of communication between the web server
+and your application. Here we explore some aspects of how they work.
-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.
+=head2 Extending RenderView (formerly DefaultEnd)
-=head4 App Server
+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.
-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.
+You can extend it like this:
-=head4 Load-balancing
+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:
-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.
+ sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ # do stuff here; the RenderView action is called afterwards
+ }
-=head4 Multiple versions of the same app
+To add things to an C<end> action that are called I<after> rendering,
+you can set it up like this:
-Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different
-versions of the same app on a single server.
+ sub render : ActionClass('RenderView') { }
-=head4 Can run with threaded Apache
+ sub end : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+ $c->forward('render');
+ # do stuff here
+ }
+
+=head2 Action Types
-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.
+=head3 Introduction
-=head3 Cons
+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.
-=head4 More complex environment
+=head3 Type attributes
-With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running
-than when using mod_perl.
+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.
+
+Assume our Controller module starts with the following package declaration:
+
+ package MyApp::Controller::Buckets;
+
+and we are running our application on localhost, port 3000 (the test
+server default).
+
+=over 4
+
+=item Path
+
+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.
+
+ sub my_handles : Path('handles') { .. }
+
+becomes
+
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
+
+and
+
+ sub my_handles : Path('/handles') { .. }
+
+becomes
+
+ http://localhost:3000/handles
+
+=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.
+
+ sub my_handles : Local { .. }
+
+becomes
+
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/my_handles
+
+=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.
+
+ sub my_handles : Global { .. }
+
+becomes
+
+ http://localhost:3000/my_handles
+
+=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.
+
+ sub my_handles : Regex('^handles') { .. }
+
+matches
+
+ http://localhost:3000/handles
+
+and
+
+ http://localhost:3000/handles_and_other_parts
+
+etc.
+
+=item LocalRegex
+
+A LocalRegex is similar to a Regex, except it only matches below the current
+controller namespace.
+
+ sub my_handles : LocalRegex(^handles') { .. }
+
+matches
+
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
+
+and
+
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles_and_other_parts
+
+etc.
+
+=item Private
+
+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 my_handles : Private { .. }
+
+becomes nothing at all..
+
+Catalyst also predefines some special Private actions, which you can override,
+these are:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item default
+
+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 >>.
+
+ sub default : Private { .. }
+
+works for all unknown URLs, in this controller namespace, or every one if put
+directly into MyApp.pm.
+
+=item index
+
+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.
+
+ sub index : Private { .. }
+
+becomes
+
+ http://localhost:3000/buckets
+
+=item begin
+
+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.
+
+ sub begin : Private { .. }
+
+is called once when
-=head3 Setup
+ http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
-=head4 1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi
+is visited.
-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.
+=item end
-=head4 2. Configure your application
+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.
- # Serve static content directly
- DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
- Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static
- 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/
+ sub end : Private { .. }
-=head3 Standalone server mode
+is called once after any actions when
-While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external
-server gives you much more flexibility.
+ http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
-First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket.
+is visited.
- 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.
+=item auto
- 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.
+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).
-Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server.
+ package MyApp.pm;
+ sub auto : Private { .. }
- # 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
+and
- FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
- Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp/
-
- # Or, run at the root
- Alias / /tmp/myapp/
-
-=head3 More Info
+ sub auto : Private { .. }
-L<Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI>.
+will both be called when visiting
-=head2 Catalyst::View::TT
+ http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
-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.
+=back
-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.
+=back
-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.
+=head3 A word of warning
-=head3 Creating your View
+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::View::TT provides two different helpers for us to use: TT and
-TTSite.
+=head3 More Information
-=head4 TT
+L<http://search.cpan.org/author/SRI/Catalyst-5.61/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod>
-Create a basic Template Toolkit View using the provided helper script:
+L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/wiki/FlowChart>
- script/myapp_create.pl view TT TT
+=head2 Component-based Subrequests
-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:
+See L<Catalyst::Plugin::SubRequest>.
- sub hello : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=head2 File uploads
- $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
+=head3 Single file upload with Catalyst
- $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
- }
+To implement uploads in Catalyst, you need to have a HTML form similar to
+this:
-In practice you wouldn't do the forwarding manually, but would
-use L<Catalyst::Action::RenderView>.
+ <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
+ <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
+ <input type="file" name="my_file">
+ <input type="submit" value="Send">
+ </form>
-=head4 TTSite
+It's very important not to forget C<enctype="multipart/form-data"> in
+the form.
-Although the TT helper does create a functional, working view, you may
-find yourself having to create the same template files and changing the
-same options every time you create a new application. The TTSite helper
-saves us even more time by creating the basic templates and setting some
-common options for us.
+Catalyst Controller module 'upload' action:
-Once again, you can use the helper script:
+ sub upload : Global {
+ my ($self, $c) = @_;
- script/myapp_create.pl view TT TTSite
+ if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
-This time, the helper sets several options for us in the generated View.
+ if ( my $upload = $c->request->upload('my_file') ) {
- __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
- });
+ my $filename = $upload->filename;
+ my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
-=over
+ unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
+ die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
+ }
+ }
+ }
-=item
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
+ }
-INCLUDE_PATH defines the directories that Template Toolkit should search
-for the template files.
+=head3 Multiple file upload with Catalyst
-=item
+Code for uploading multiple files from one form needs a few changes:
-PRE_PROCESS is used to process configuration options which are common to
-every template file.
+The form should have this basic structure:
-=item
+ <form action="/upload" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
+ <input type="hidden" name="form_submit" value="yes">
+ <input type="file" name="file1" size="50"><br>
+ <input type="file" name="file2" size="50"><br>
+ <input type="file" name="file3" size="50"><br>
+ <input type="submit" value="Send">
+ </form>
-WRAPPER is a file which is processed with each template, usually used to
-easily provide a common header and footer for every page.
+And in the controller:
-=back
+ sub upload : Local {
+ my ($self, $c) = @_;
-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.
+ if ( $c->request->parameters->{form_submit} eq 'yes' ) {
-Several configuration files in root/lib/config are called by PRE_PROCESS.
+ for my $field ( $c->req->upload ) {
-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.
+ my $upload = $c->req->upload($field);
+ my $filename = $upload->filename;
+ my $target = "/tmp/upload/$filename";
-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.
+ unless ( $upload->link_to($target) || $upload->copy_to($target) ) {
+ die( "Failed to copy '$filename' to '$target': $!" );
+ }
+ }
+ }
-=head2 $c->stash
+ $c->stash->{template} = 'file_upload.html';
+ }
-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.
+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.
-In our controllers, we can add data to the stash, and then access it
-from the template. For instance:
+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.
- sub hello : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+For more information about uploads and usable methods look at
+L<Catalyst::Request::Upload> and L<Catalyst::Request>.
- $c->stash->{name} = 'Adam';
+=head2 Forwarding with arguments
- $c->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
+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:
- $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
- }
+ # version 5.30 and later:
+ $c->forward('/wherever', [qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
-Then, in hello.tt:
+ # pre-5.30
+ $c->req->args([qw/arg1 arg2 arg3/]);
+ $c->forward('/wherever');
- <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong>
+(See the L<Catalyst::Manual::Intro> Flow_Control section for more
+information on passing arguments via C<forward>.)
-When you view this page, it will display "Hello, Adam!"
-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.
+=head1 Deployment
-In your controller:
+The recipes below describe aspects of the deployment process,
+including web server engines and tips to improve application efficiency.
- sub hello : Local {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+=head2 mod_perl Deployment
- $c->stash->{names} = [ 'Adam', 'Dave', 'John' ];
+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->stash->{template} = 'hello.tt';
+=head3 Pros
- $c->forward( $c->view('TT') );
- }
+=head4 Speed
-In hello.tt:
+mod_perl is very fast and your app will benefit from being loaded in memory
+within each Apache process.
- [% FOREACH name IN names %]
- <strong>Hello, [% name %]!</strong><br />
- [% END %]
+=head4 Shared memory for multiple apps
-This allowed us to loop through each item in the arrayref, and display a
-line for each name that we have.
+If you need to run several Catalyst apps on the same server, mod_perl will
+share the memory for common modules.
-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 Cons
-=head3 $c->uri_for()
+=head4 Memory usage
-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.
+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.
-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.
+=head4 Reloading
-In your template, you can use the following:
+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.
- <a href="[% c.uri_for('/login') %]">Login Here</a>
+=head4 Cannot run multiple versions of the same app
-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.
+It is not possible to run two different versions of the same application in
+the same Apache instance because the namespaces will collide.
-Likewise,
+=head4 Setup
- <a href="[% c.uri_for('2005','10', '24') %]">October, 24 2005</a>
+Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about setting up mod_perl
+to run a Catalyst app.
-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.
+=head4 1. Install Catalyst::Engine::Apache
-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.
+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.
-Further Reading:
+=head4 2. Install Apache with mod_perl
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst>
+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.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Catalyst%3A%3AView%3A%3ATT>
+In Debian, the following commands should get you going.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Template>
+ apt-get install apache2-mpm-prefork
+ apt-get install libapache2-mod-perl2
-=head2 Testing
+=head4 3. Configure your application
-Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during
-development and before deployment in a real environment.
+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.
-C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally
-(without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP.
+ PerlSwitches -I/var/www/MyApp/lib
+ PerlModule MyApp
+
+ <Location />
+ SetHandler modperl
+ PerlResponseHandler MyApp
+ </Location>
-=head3 Tests
+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.
-Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory:
+For an example Apache 1.3 configuration, please see the documentation for
+L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>.
- 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 Test It
-=over 4
+That's it, your app is now a full-fledged mod_perl application! Try it out
+by going to http://your.server.com/.
-=item C<01app.t>
+=head3 Other Options
-Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful
-response.
+=head4 Non-root location
-=item C<02pod.t>
+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.
-Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD>
-environment variable is true.
+ <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.
-=item C<03podcoverage.t>
+=head4 Static file handling
-Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the
-C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true.
+Static files can be served directly by Apache for a performance boost.
-=back
+ 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.
-=head3 Creating tests
+=head2 Catalyst on shared hosting
- mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d %s", $., $_ )'
- 1 use Test::More tests => 2;
- 2 use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' );
- 3
- 4 ok( request('/')->is_success );
+So, you want to put your Catalyst app out there for the whole world to
+see, but you don't want to break the bank. There is an answer - if you
+can get shared hosting with FastCGI and a shell, you can install your
+Catalyst app in a local directory on your shared host. First, run
-The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case
-two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The
-fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response.
+ perl -MCPAN -e shell
-C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can
-take three different arguments:
+and go through the standard CPAN configuration process. Then exit out
+without installing anything. Next, open your .bashrc and add
-=over 4
+ export PATH=$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:$PERL5LIB
-=item A string which is a relative or absolute URI.
+and log out, then back in again (or run C<". .bashrc"> if you
+prefer). Finally, edit C<.cpan/CPAN/MyConfig.pm> and add
- request('/my/path');
- request('http://www.host.com/my/path');
+ 'make_install_arg' => qq[SITEPREFIX=$ENV{HOME}/local],
+ 'makepl_arg' => qq[INSTALLDIRS=site install_base=$ENV{HOME}/local],
-=item An instance of C<URI>.
+Now you can install the modules you need using CPAN as normal; they
+will be installed into your local directory, and perl will pick them
+up. Finally, change directory into the root of your virtual host and
+symlink your application's script directory in:
- request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') );
+ cd path/to/mydomain.com
+ ln -s ~/lib/MyApp/script script
-=item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>.
+And add the following lines to your .htaccess file (assuming the server
+is setup to handle .pl as fcgi - you may need to rename the script to
+myapp_fastcgi.fcgi and/or use a SetHandler directive):
- request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') );
+ RewriteEngine On
+ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/?script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
+ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/$1 [PT,L]
-=back
+Now C<http://mydomain.com/> should now Just Work. Congratulations, now
+you can tell your friends about your new website (or in our case, tell
+the client it's time to pay the invoice :) )
-C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the
-content (body) of the response.
+=head2 FastCGI Deployment
-=head3 Running tests locally
+FastCGI is a high-performance extension to CGI. It is suitable
+for production environments.
- mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ 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.
+=head3 Pros
-C<TEST_POD=1> enables POD checking and coverage.
+=head4 Speed
-C<prove> A command-line tool that makes it easy to run tests. You can
-find out more about it from the links below.
+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.
-=head3 Running tests remotely
+=head4 App Server
- 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)
+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.
-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 Load-balancing
-=head3 C<Test::WWW::Mechanize> and Catalyst
+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.
-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:
+=head4 Multiple versions of the same app
- use Test::More tests => 6;
- use_ok( Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst, 'MyApp' );
+Each FastCGI application is a separate process, so you can run different
+versions of the same app on a single server.
- 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' );
+=head4 Can run with threaded Apache
-=head3 Further Reading
+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.
-=over 4
+=head3 Cons
-=item Catalyst::Test
+=head4 More complex environment
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst/lib/Catalyst/Test.pm>
+With FastCGI, there are more things to monitor and more processes running
+than when using mod_perl.
-=item Test::WWW::Mechanize::Catalyst
+=head3 Setup
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize-Catalyst/lib/Test/WWW/Mechanize/Catalyst.pm>
+=head4 1. Install Apache with mod_fastcgi
+
+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.
-=item Test::WWW::Mechanize
+=head4 2. Configure your application
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-WWW-Mechanize/Mechanize.pm>
+ # Serve static content directly
+ DocumentRoot /var/www/MyApp/root
+ Alias /static /var/www/MyApp/root/static
-=item WWW::Mechanize
+ 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/
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Mechanize/lib/WWW/Mechanize.pm>
+=head3 Standalone server mode
-=item LWP::UserAgent
+While not as easy as the previous method, running your app as an external
+server gives you much more flexibility.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/LWP/UserAgent.pm>
+First, launch your app as a standalone server listening on a socket.
-=item HTML::Form
+ 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.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTML/Form.pm>
+ 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.
-=item HTTP::Message
+Now, we simply configure Apache to connect to the running server.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Message.pm>
+ # 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
-=item HTTP::Request
+ FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/myapp -socket /tmp/myapp.socket
+ Alias /myapp/ /tmp/myapp/
+
+ # Or, run at the root
+ Alias / /tmp/myapp/
+
+=head3 More Info
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request.pm>
+L<Catalyst::Engine::FastCGI>.
-=item HTTP::Request::Common
+=head2 Quick deployment: Building PAR Packages
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Request/Common.pm>
+You have an application running on your development box, but then you
+have to quickly move it to another one for
+demonstration/deployment/testing...
-=item HTTP::Response
+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!
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Response.pm>
+=head3 Follow these few points to try it out!
-=item HTTP::Status
+1. Install Catalyst and PAR 0.89 (or later)
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/libwww-perl/lib/HTTP/Status.pm>
+ % perl -MCPAN -e 'install Catalyst'
+ ...
+ % perl -MCPAN -e 'install PAR'
+ ...
-=item URI
+2. Create a application
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI.pm>
+ % catalyst.pl MyApp
+ ...
+ % cd MyApp
-=item Test::More
+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:
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Simple/lib/Test/More.pm>
+ % perl Makefile.PL
+ % make catalyst_par
-=item Test::Pod
+Congratulations! Your package "myapp.par" is ready, the following
+steps are just optional.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod/Pod.pm>
+3. Test your PAR package with "parl" (no typo)
-=item Test::Pod::Coverage
+ % parl myapp.par
+ Usage:
+ [parl] myapp[.par] [script] [arguments]
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Pod-Coverage/Coverage.pm>
+ Examples:
+ parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl -r
+ myapp myapp_cgi.pl
-=item prove (Test::Harness)
+ Available scripts:
+ myapp_cgi.pl
+ myapp_create.pl
+ myapp_fastcgi.pl
+ myapp_server.pl
+ myapp_test.pl
-L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Harness/bin/prove>
+ % parl myapp.par myapp_server.pl
+ You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
-=back
+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.
-=head2 XMLRPC
+6. Want to create a binary that includes the Perl interpreter?
-Unlike SOAP, XMLRPC is a very simple (and imo elegant) web-services
-protocol, exchanging small XML messages like these:
+ % pp -o myapp myapp.par
+ % ./myapp myapp_server.pl
+ You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
-Request:
+=head2 Serving static content
- 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
+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.
- <?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>
+=head3 Introduction to Static::Simple
-Response:
+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.
- Connection: close
- Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:45:55 GMT
- Content-Length: 133
- Content-Type: text/xml
- Status: 200
- X-Catalyst: 5.70
+=head3 Usage
- <?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
- <methodResponse>
- <params>
- <param><value><int>3</int></value></param>
- </params>
- </methodResponse>
+Using the plugin is as simple as setting your use line in MyApp.pm to include:
-Now follow these few steps to implement the application:
+ use Catalyst qw/Static::Simple/;
-1. Install Catalyst (5.61 or later), Catalyst::Plugin::XMLRPC (0.06 or
-later) and SOAP::Lite (for XMLRPCsh.pl).
+and already files will be served.
-2. Create an application framework:
+=head3 Configuring
- % catalyst.pl MyApp
- ...
- % cd MyApp
+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:
-3. Add the XMLRPC plugin to MyApp.pm
+ 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
- use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple XMLRPC/;
-4. Add an API controller
+All static content lives under C<root/static>, with everything else being
+Template Toolkit files.
- % ./script/myapp_create.pl controller API
+=over 4
-5. Add a XMLRPC redispatch method and an add method with Remote
-attribute to lib/MyApp/Controller/API.pm
+=item Include Path
- sub default : Private {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->xmlrpc;
- }
+You may of course want to change the default locations, and make
+Static::Simple look somewhere else, this is as easy as:
- sub add : Remote {
- my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
- return $a + $b;
- }
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [
+ MyApp->config->{root},
+ '/path/to/my/files'
+ ];
-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.
+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.
-The C<add> method is not a traditional action; it has no private or
-public path. Only the XMLRPC dispatcher knows it exists.
+=item Static directories
-6. That's it! You have built your first web service. Let's test it with
-XMLRPCsh.pl (part of SOAP::Lite):
+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:
- % ./script/myapp_server.pl
- ...
- % XMLRPCsh.pl http://127.0.0.1:3000/api
- Usage: method[(parameters)]
- > add( 1, 2 )
- --- XMLRPC RESULT ---
- '3'
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [
+ 'static',
+ qr/^(images|css)/,
+ ];
-=head3 Tip
+=item File extensions
-Your return data type is usually auto-detected, but you can easily
-enforce a specific one.
+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 add : Remote {
- my ( $self, $c, $a, $b ) = @_;
- return RPC::XML::int->new( $a + $b );
- }
-
-=head2 Action Types
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [
+ qw/tmpl tt tt2 html xhtml/
+ ];
-=head3 Introduction
+=item Ignoring directories
-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.
+Entire directories can be ignored. If used with include_path,
+directories relative to the include_path dirs will also be ignored:
-=head3 Type attributes
+ MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ];
-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.
+=back
-Assume our Controller module starts with the following package declaration:
+=head3 More information
- package MyApp::Controller::Buckets;
+L<http://search.cpan.org/dist/Catalyst-Plugin-Static-Simple/>
-and we are running our application on localhost, port 3000 (the test
-server default).
+=head3 Serving manually with the Static plugin with HTTP::Daemon (myapp_server.pl)
-=over 4
+In some situations you might want to control things more directly,
+using L<Catalyst::Plugin::Static>.
-=item Path
+In your main application class (MyApp.pm), load the plugin:
-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.
+ use Catalyst qw/-Debug FormValidator Static OtherPlugin/;
- sub my_handles : Path('handles') { .. }
+You will also need to make sure your end method does I<not> forward
+static content to the view, perhaps like this:
-becomes
+ sub end : Private {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles
+ $c->forward( 'MyApp::View::TT' )
+ unless ( $c->res->body || !$c->stash->{template} );
+ }
-and
+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>.
- sub my_handles : Path('/handles') { .. }
+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>.
-becomes
+ $ script/myapp_create.pl controller Static
- http://localhost:3000/handles
+Edit the file and add the following methods:
-=item Local
+ # serve all files under /static as static files
+ sub default : Path('/static') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
-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.
+ # Optional, allow the browser to cache the content
+ $c->res->headers->header( 'Cache-Control' => 'max-age=86400' );
- sub my_handles : Local { .. }
+ $c->serve_static; # from Catalyst::Plugin::Static
+ }
-becomes
+ # also handle requests for /favicon.ico
+ sub favicon : Path('/favicon.ico') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/my_handles
+ $c->serve_static;
+ }
-=item Global
+You can also define a different icon for the browser to use instead of
+favicon.ico by using this in your HTML header:
-A Global attribute is similar to a Local attribute, except that the namespace
-of the controller is ignored, and matching starts at root.
+ <link rel="icon" href="/static/myapp.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
- sub my_handles : Global { .. }
+=head3 Common problems with the Static plugin
-becomes
+The Static plugin makes use of the C<shared-mime-info> package to
+automatically determine MIME types. This package is notoriously
+difficult to install, especially on win32 and OS X. For OS X the easiest
+path might be to install Fink, then use C<apt-get install
+shared-mime-info>. Restart the server, and everything should be fine.
- http://localhost:3000/my_handles
+Make sure you are using the latest version (>= 0.16) for best
+results. If you are having errors serving CSS files, or if they get
+served as text/plain instead of text/css, you may have an outdated
+shared-mime-info version. You may also wish to simply use the following
+code in your Static controller:
-=item Regex
+ if ($c->req->path =~ /css$/i) {
+ $c->serve_static( "text/css" );
+ } else {
+ $c->serve_static;
+ }
-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.
+=head3 Serving Static Files with Apache
- sub my_handles : Regex('^handles') { .. }
+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:
-matches
+ <Perl>
+ use lib qw(/var/www/MyApp/lib);
+ </Perl>
+ PerlModule MyApp
- http://localhost:3000/handles
+ <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>
-and
+And here's a simpler example that'll get you started:
- http://localhost:3000/handles_and_other_parts
+ Alias /static/ "/my/static/files/"
+ <Location "/static">
+ SetHandler none
+ </Location>
-etc.
+=head2 Caching
-=item LocalRegex
+Catalyst makes it easy to employ several different types of caching to
+speed up your applications.
-A LocalRegex is similar to a Regex, except it only matches below the current
-controller namespace.
+=head3 Cache Plugins
- sub my_handles : LocalRegex(^handles') { .. }
+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.
-matches
+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/buckets/handles
+ 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.
-and
+=head3 Page Caching
- http://localhost:3000/buckets/handles_and_other_parts
+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.
-etc.
+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.
-=item 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';
+ }
-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.
+We can add the PageCache plugin to speed things up.
- sub my_handles : Private { .. }
+ use Catalyst qw/Cache::FileCache PageCache/;
+
+ sub front_page : Path ('/') {
+ my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
+
+ $c->cache_page( 300 );
+
+ # same processing as above
+ }
+
+Now the entire output of the front page, from <html> to </html>, will be
+cached for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the next request will rebuild the
+page and it will be re-cached.
-becomes nothing at all..
+Note that the page cache is keyed on the page URI plus all parameters, so
+requests for / and /?foo=bar will result in different cache items. Also,
+only GET requests will be cached by the plugin.
-Catalyst also predefines some special Private actions, which you can override,
-these are:
+You can even get that front-end Squid proxy to help out by enabling HTTP
+headers for the cached page.
-=over 4
+ MyApp->config->{page_cache}->{set_http_headers} = 1;
+
+This would now set the following headers so proxies and browsers may cache
+the content themselves.
-=item default
+ Cache-Control: max-age=($expire_time - time)
+ Expires: $expire_time
+ Last-Modified: $cache_created_time
+
+=head3 Template Caching
-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 >>.
+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.
- sub default : Private { .. }
+ package MyApp::View::TT;
+
+ use strict;
+ use warnings;
+ use base 'Catalyst::View::TT';
+
+ __PACKAGE__->config(
+ COMPILE_DIR => '/tmp/template_cache',
+ );
+
+ 1;
+
+=head3 More Info
+
+See the documentation for each cache plugin for more details and other
+available configuration options.
+
+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>
-works for all unknown URLs, in this controller namespace, or every one if put
-directly into MyApp.pm.
+=head1 Testing
-=item index
+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.
-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.
+=head2 Testing
- sub index : Private { .. }
+Catalyst provides a convenient way of testing your application during
+development and before deployment in a real environment.
-becomes
+C<Catalyst::Test> makes it possible to run the same tests both locally
+(without an external daemon) and against a remote server via HTTP.
- http://localhost:3000/buckets
+=head3 Tests
-=item begin
+Let's examine a skeleton application's C<t/> directory:
-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.
+ 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
- sub begin : Private { .. }
+=over 4
-is called once when
+=item C<01app.t>
- http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
+Verifies that the application loads, compiles, and returns a successful
+response.
-is visited.
+=item C<02pod.t>
-=item end
+Verifies that all POD is free from errors. Only executed if the C<TEST_POD>
+environment variable is true.
-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.
+=item C<03podcoverage.t>
+Verifies that all methods/functions have POD coverage. Only executed if the
+C<TEST_POD> environment variable is true.
- sub end : Private { .. }
+=back
-is called once after any actions when
+=head3 Creating tests
- http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
+ mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ cat t/01app.t | perl -ne 'printf( "%2d %s", $., $_ )'
+ 1 use Test::More tests => 2;
+ 2 use_ok( Catalyst::Test, 'MyApp' );
+ 3
+ 4 ok( request('/')->is_success );
-is visited.
+The first line declares how many tests we are going to run, in this case
+two. The second line tests and loads our application in test mode. The
+fourth line verifies that our application returns a successful response.
-=item auto
+C<Catalyst::Test> exports two functions, C<request> and C<get>. Each can
+take three different arguments:
-Lastly, the auto action is magic in that B<every> auto action in
-the chain of paths up to and including the ending namespace, will be
-called. (In contrast, only one of the begin/end/default actions will be
-called, the relevant one).
+=over 4
- package MyApp.pm;
- sub auto : Private { .. }
+=item A string which is a relative or absolute URI.
-and
+ request('/my/path');
+ request('http://www.host.com/my/path');
- sub auto : Private { .. }
+=item An instance of C<URI>.
-will both be called when visiting
+ request( URI->new('http://www.host.com/my/path') );
- http://localhost:3000/bucket/(anything)?
+=item An instance of C<HTTP::Request>.
-=back
+ request( HTTP::Request->new( GET => 'http://www.host.com/my/path') );
=back
-=head3 A word of warning
-
-Due to possible namespace conflicts with Plugins, it is advised to only put the
-pre-defined Private actions in your main MyApp.pm file, all others should go
-in a Controller module.
-
-=head3 More Information
+C<request> returns an instance of C<HTTP::Response> and C<get> returns the
+content (body) of the response.
-L<http://search.cpan.org/author/SRI/Catalyst-5.61/lib/Catalyst/Manual/Intro.pod>
+=head3 Running tests locally
-L<http://dev.catalyst.perl.org/wiki/FlowChart>
+ mundus:~/MyApp chansen$ 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.
+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