This document aims to get you up and running with Catalyst.
-NOTE: THIS DOCUMENT IS STILL VERY MUCH AT AN ALPHA STAGE.
-
-Please send comments, corrections and suggestions for improvements to
-A.Ford@ford-mason.co.uk
-
-
=head2 Installation
-The first step is to install Catalyst, and the simplest way to do this is to
-install the Catalyst bundle from CPAN:
+The first step is to install Catalyst, and the simplest way to do this
+is to install the Catalyst bundle from CPAN:
- $ perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::Catalyst'
+ $ perl -MCPAN -e 'install Task::Catalyst'
-This will retrieve Catalyst and a number of useful extensions and install them
-for you.
+This will retrieve Catalyst and a number of useful extensions and
+install them for you.
=head2 Setting up your application
-Catalyst includes a helper script, C<catalyst.pl>, that will set up a skeleton
-application for you:
-
- $ catalyst.pl My::App
- created "My-App"
- created "My-App/script"
- created "My-App/lib"
- created "My-App/root"
- created "My-App/t"
- created "My-App/t/m"
- created "My-App/t/v"
- created "My-App/t/c"
- created "My-App/lib/My/App"
- created "My-App/lib/My/App/M"
- created "My-App/lib/My/App/V"
- created "My-App/lib/My/App/C"
- created "My-App/lib/My/App.pm"
- created "My-App/Makefile.PL"
- created "My-App/README"
- created "My-App/Changes"
- created "My-App/t/01app.t"
- created "My-App/t/02podcoverage.t"
- created "My-App/script/server.pl"
- created "My-App/script/test.pl"
- created "My-App/script/create.pl"
-
-This creates the directory structure shown.
-
-
+Catalyst includes a helper script, C<catalyst.pl>, that will set up a
+skeleton application for you:
+
+ $ catalyst MyApp
+
+ created "MyApp"
+ created "MyApp/script"
+ created "MyApp/lib"
+ created "MyApp/root"
+ created "MyApp/root/static"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images"
+ created "MyApp/t"
+ created "MyApp/t/Model"
+ created "MyApp/t/View"
+ created "MyApp/t/Controller"
+ created "MyApp/lib/MyApp"
+ created "MyApp/lib/MyApp/Model"
+ created "MyApp/lib/MyApp/View"
+ created "MyApp/lib/MyApp/Controller"
+ created "MyApp/lib/MyApp.pm"
+ created "MyApp/Build.PL"
+ created "MyApp/Makefile.PL"
+ created "MyApp/README"
+ created "MyApp/Changes"
+ created "MyApp/t/01app.t"
+ created "MyApp/t/02pod.t"
+ created "MyApp/t/03podcoverage.t"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/catalyst_logo.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_120x50_built.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_120x50_built_shadow.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_120x50_powered.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_120x50_powered_shadow.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_88x31_built.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_88x31_built_shadow.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_88x31_powered.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/static/images/btn_88x31_powered_shadow.png"
+ created "MyApp/root/favicon.ico"
+ created "MyApp/script/myapp_cgi.pl"
+ created "MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl"
+ created "MyApp/script/myapp_server.pl"
+ created "MyApp/script/myapp_test.pl"
+ created "MyApp/script/myapp_create.pl"
+
+This creates the directory structure shown, populated with skeleton
+files.
=head2 Testing out the sample application
You can test out your new application by running the server script that
-catalyst provides:
-
- $ cd My-App
- $ script/server.pl
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:18 2005] [catalyst] [debug] Debug messages enabled
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:18 2005] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded engine "Catalyst::Engine::CGI"
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:18 2005] [catalyst] [debug] Initialized components ""
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:18 2005] [catalyst] [info] My::App powered by Catalyst 4.26
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:18 2005] [catalyst] [debug] "My::App" defined "!default" as "CODE(0x83fd570)"
+Catalyst provides:
+
+ $ cd MyApp
+ $ script/myapp_server.pl
+
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Debug messages enabled
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded plugins:
+ .------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
+ | Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple |
+ '------------------------------------------------------------------------------'
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded dispatcher "Catalyst::Dispatcher"
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded engine "Catalyst::Engine::HTTP"
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Found home "/home/users/me/MyApp"
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Loaded Private actions:
+ .--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------.
+ | Private | Class |
+ +--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+
+ | /default | MyApp |
+ '--------------------------------------+---------------------------------------'
+
+ [...] [catalyst] [info] MyApp powered by Catalyst 5.5
You can connect to your server at http://localhost:3000
-The server is now waiting for you to make requests of it. Try using telnet to
-manually make a simple GET request of the server (when telnet responds with
-"Escape character is '^]'.", type "GET / HTTP/1.0" and hit return twice):
+(Note that each line logged by Catalyst begins with a timestamp, which has
+been replaced here with "C<...>" so that the text fits onto the lines.)
+
+The server is now waiting for you to make requests of it. Try using
+telnet to manually make a simple GET request of the server (when
+telnet responds with "Escape character is '^]'.", type "GET / HTTP/1.0"
+and hit return twice):
$ telnet localhost 3000
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET / HTTP/1.0
-
- HTTP/1.0 200
- Server: Catalyst/4.26
+
+ HTTP/1.0 200 OK
+ Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2005 14:57:39 GMT
+ Content-Length: 5525
+ Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Status: 200
- Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:31:55 GMT
- X-catalyst: 4.26
- Content-length: 40
- Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
+ X-Catalyst: 5.5
- Congratulations, My::App is on Catalyst!
+ [...]
Connection closed by foreign host.
$
+You can see the full welcome message by visting
+http://localhost:3000/ with your browser.
+
More trace messages will appear in the original terminal window:
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [debug] ********************************
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [debug] * Request 1 (0.027/s) [9818]
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [debug] ********************************
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [debug] "GET" request for ""
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [debug] Using default action
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [info] Processing "!default" took 0.000033s
- [Sun Mar 20 12:31:55 2005] [catalyst] [info] Request took 0.051399s (19.456/s)
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] **********************************
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] * Request 1 (0.063/s) [2148]
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] **********************************
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] Arguments are ""
+ [...] [catalyst] [debug] "GET" request for "" from localhost
+ [...] [catalyst] [info] Request took 0.046883s (21.330/s)
+ .------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------.
+ | Action | Time |
+ +------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------+
+ | /default | 0.000000s |
+ '------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------'
The server will continue running until you interrupt it.
The application can also be tested from the command line using the generated
-helper script, C<script/test.pl>.
+helper script, C<script/myapp_test.pl>.
+
+=head2 Getting started
+
+So you picked Catalyst. Good choice. I assume you've installed it as
+well. For this tutorial you will also need the following modules:
+
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Session>
+
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Session::Store::File>
+
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Session::State::Cookie>
+
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication>
+
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authorization::Roles>
+
+L<DBD::SQLite>
+
+...
+
+To get started all you need to do is type:
+
+B<catalyst.pl tutorial>
+
+This should create a directory called F<tutorial> and fill it with the
+default (standard) Catalyst installation. Change to this directory
+because we will be running all further commands from inside the
+F<tutorial> directory.
+
+If you now run the built-in mini-server with
+B<script/tutorial_server.pl>, it will show some standard debug messages
+in the console screen (more about those in a minute), and then inform
+you that you can now connect to the test server on port 3000. Point your
+browser at localhost:3000 to see the built-in catalyst welcome screen.
+
+The other important thing catalyst.pl did was create your root
+controller. This file is a standard perl module like all the other
+controllers that you might add to your application. It lives in the
+F<lib/> directory, and will have the same name as you supplied to the
+command above, in our case it is F<tutorial.pm>. Alongside this file is
+a directory of the same name, which is the top level namespace for the
+entire application. Thus every other module we create will be
+"tutorial::something";
+
+The root controller is used to load plugins, to configure the
+application and its plugins, and for generic private actions. We will
+explain more about those later.
+
+=head2 Debugging
+
+The simplest way to debug your Catalyst application is to run it using
+the built-in mini-server as described in L<Getting started>.
+
+If you want to output any debugging information to the console, then
+call C<< $context->log->debug() >>, passing it a string to output. For
+data structures, use Data::Dumper and call C<<
+$context->log->debug(Dumper($structure)) >>
+
+=head2 Model/View/Controller
+
+The recommended method for code organization in a Catalyst application
+is known as the "Model View Controller" design pattern (also referred to
+"MVC"). The point of the MVC pattern is to divorce the dependencies of
+parts of the application from each other, and give them standard
+interfaces. Following this theory of organization should give your code
+all the benefits of modularity. The main benefits are interchangability
+of parts and reusable code.
+
+Thus you could replace your file data storage with a database or your
+oracle database with a mysql database and not have to change any of your
+controlling or view logic. Or you could later decide to output
+information from your application as RSS instead of HTML just by adding
+a new view module.
+=head3 Model
-=head2 Getting your application invoked
+Models deal with the storage of data. For a complex website, you may
+need multiple varied data sources, each will have it's own model class
+that provides an abstracted interface to it. In this tutorial we are
+going to be using a simple database.
-Catalyst applications are intended to be run from mod_perl, but can also be
-run as CGI scripts. Running under mod_perl gives better performance, but for
-development purposes you may want to run your application as a CGI script,
-especially as each changes to your application code take effect under CGI
-without having to restart the web server.
+=head3 View
-To run from mod_perl you need to add something like this to your Apache
-configuration file:
+Views are used to display information to the user. In a web framework,
+it is generally used to output HTML to the browser. As mentioned
+previously, views can also be used to output RSS or any other kind of
+data format. One easy way to do this with Catalyst is to use a
+templating system such as Template Toolkit. If outputting HTML is all
+you are going to do, then you will probably only need one view.
- <Location /myapp>
- SetHandler perl-script
- PerlHandler MyApp
- </Location>
+=head3 Controller
+
+A controller deals with reacting to user choices, and thus controls what
+the application does. Since this is a web framework, Catalyst
+controllers are frequently used to react directly to URLs requested by
+the user. This tutorial will describe the simplest way of using
+controllers, where each path or part of a path is assigned its own
+action (or subroutine). More complex controlling mechanisms will be
+mentioned briefly, and can be read about in detail in the manual.
+
+
+=head2 Controlling
+
+Now lets write our first bit of application code. First, we would like
+our application to greet our users. We'll assume for now that our users
+will be sent to the I<users/greet> URL. To create a controller that
+serves the I<users> namespace, we run the following command in our
+F<tutorial> directory:
+
+B<script/tutorial_create.pl controller Users>
+
+This will create a Users.pm in F<lib/tutorial/Controller>. Open this
+file in an editor and take a look. You will notice there is some
+commented out code which we will ignore for now. To make something
+happen when our URL is visited, we will write a "greet" action which
+looks like this:
+
+ sub greet : Local
+ {
+ my ($self, $context) = @_;
+
+ my $name = $context->req->params->{name};
+ $context->log->debug("Got name: $name\n");
+
+ if(!$name)
+ {
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Please fill in a name!';
+ }
+ else
+ {
+ $context->stash->{message} = "Hello $name!";
+ }
+ $context->stash->{template} = 'greet.tt';
+ }
+
+Whew! So, what does all this do? Lets take it one step at a time.
+The subroutine declaration gives the action a name. To the right of the
+name there is an attribute type that looks like this: " : Local". That
+defines which URIs will translate to this action. "Local", matches
+exactly one URI: /users/greet. The URI matched by "Local" is composed
+from the namespace minus the tutorial::controller portion, that is
+common to all controllers, and the action name itself. Because it is a
+URI, we use forward slashes instead of double colons. So, in summary,
+when a user requests http://localhost:3000/users/greet" the "greet"
+action defined above in the users controller will be executed.
+
+The second line retrieves the parameters Catalyst gives us when it calls
+our method. The first is the instance of our Users class, and the second
+is commonly called the context. The context is the magical object
+containing any information you need from catalyst, or want to send to
+it. You will see it used frequently in Catalyst applications, and a list
+of all its methods is available in the L<Catalyst> POD.
+
+On the third line we use the ->params method of the $context request
+object to retrieve one of the query parameters, just like in L<CGI>.
+
+On the fourth, we make a debug output of this object on the server console.
+(NB where does ->debug go if we're running under CGI or mod_perl?)
+(NB what is $self good for under CGI/mod_perl/anything?)
+
+Next, we check if the name field contains anything (or is "true"), if it
+isnt, we assign an error message to a "message" field in the stash. The
+stash is yet another method of the context object, it allows us to pass
+data on to other methods we call later, most usefully the View modules.
+
+If the username did contain a value, then we just set our message to
+greet the user by name.
+
+Finally, we set the special "template" variable in the stash to the name
+of the template we want our view to use to display this page.
+(NB doing the param name checking this way will also complain when we
+visit the form for the first time, check for presence of params at all?)
+
+=head2 Viewing
+
+Ok, so reacting and checking the users data is all fine, but how do we
+actually display the page/form in the first place, and our results? As
+previously mentioned, we'll use Template Toolkit for our viewing. To
+create out TT based view, just run the following command:
+
+B<script/tutorial_create.pl view TToolkit TT>
+
+Notice that this time we not only gave it the type of module we wanted
+to create (a view), and a name, but also a third argument, "TT". This is
+a Catalyst helper module, which will make a standard template toolkit
+module for you. And that's all you need to do there.
+
+To use the view, the easiest way is to set up a standard "end" action.
+This a private action which will not be matched to a path like our
+"greet" action, but instead will be called after all other processing is
+done. Only one end action will be called, if there is one in a
+controller, it will be prefered over one in the application module, and
+so on.
+
+Since we're writing a simple application, just add an end action like
+this to F<tutorial.pm>:
+
+ sub end : Private
+ {
+ my ($self, $context) = @_;
+ $context->forward('tutorial::View::TToolkit');
+ }
+
+The first line declares the end sub, and marks it as a Private action.
+(The second and last attribute type we'll be using). The second line
+collects our standard parameters as shown in the controller's greet action.
+
+The third line directs Catalyst to pass processing on to our TToolkit
+view. The forward method, when just passed a class name, calls process
+on that classs. The standard TT view's process method renders the
+template named in the templare variable in the stash, using all the
+other variables in the stash as values to fill it in.
+
+NB: This is such a common way to end you processing that there is a
+plugin which does it for you: L<Catalyst::Plugin::DefaultEnd>.
+
+Template Toolkit also has access to the entire context object via "c",
+for example, using [% c.config.name %] in our template will output
+"tutorial", our project name.
+
+All that remains is to create a simple template called "greet.tt",
+containing a form with a text field called "name", and place it in the
+F<root> directory. By default, templates are searched for here, but we
+can change that, which brings us to..
+
+(NB Can we ask catalyst which paths exist to provide a dynamic list of
+them? (eg greet, age etc .. regexed paths??)
+
+=head2 Configuring
+
+As previously mentioned, the configuration of modules, plugins and so on
+is done in the main application file. This is especially true for bits
+which need to be done before an instance of them is created, for example
+Template Toolkit.
+
+The TT View looks for its templates in the F<root> directory by default.
+Since this is also the directory that static files go in, we'd rather
+have a separate F<templates> directory. To do this, change the config
+call in F<tutorial.pm> like this:
+
+ __PACKAGE__->config( name => 'tutorial',
+ 'View::TToolkit' => {
+ 'INCLUDE_PATH' => __PACKAGE__->path_to('templates')
+ }
+ );
+
+And move the F<greet.tt> file from F<root> to the F<templates> directory
+(after creating it).
+
+Now we can run our application again by killing (ctrl-c) and restarting
+B<script/tutorial_server.pl>. Try connecting to
+I<localhost:3000/users/greet> with a browser and see what happens. What
+happens if you try to visit I<localhost:3000/users> ?
+
+=head2 Users and Authenticating
+
+One of the many reasons to write dynamic websites instead of just using static
+HTML, is to allow us to produce different content for different users, as well
+ as just restricting access to pages (which we could do with just Apaches
+htpasswd system).
+
+In this tutorial, we will just be using basic authentication, when writing
+a real application, you'll want to use a database or other secure store to
+contain your user data.
+
+To add authentication, all we need to do is add the
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication> module to our main application file. Then
+we need to pick a storage method (one of the
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store> modules), and a method of verifying
+the users credentials (one of the
+L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Credential> modules), so just edit
+F<tutorial.pm> to look like this:
+
+ use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple Authentication
+ Authentication::Store::Minimal
+ Authentication::Credential::Password/;
+
+To configure, add some users to the config call, for example:
+
+ authentication => { 'users' =>
+ { 'fred' =>
+ { 'password' => 'fred1234',
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+Generally, setting up configuration data for plugins is done based on the
+type of plugin. Check the documentation of the plugin for exact details. The
+details of this one are in L<Catalyst::Plugin::Authentication::Store::Minimal>.
+
+Since our user data is in the config, we can update it at runtime, and thus
+add users dynamically. (Of course, to keep them permanently we'll need to
+export our data to disk and read it back into the config on startup)
+
+To allow creation of new users we'll add a create action to our Users
+controller.
+
+ sub create : Local
+ {
+ my ($self, $context) = @_;
+ my ($username, $passwd1, $passwd2) = map { $context->req->param($_)}
+ ('username', 'password', 'passwordverify');
+
+ if($username && $passwd1 && $passwd2)
+ {
+ if($context->config->{authentication}{users}{$username})
+ {
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Sorry that user already exists';
+ $context->stash->{username} = $username;
+ }
+ elsif($passwd1 eq $passwd2)
+ {
+ $context->config->({%{$context->config},
+ ($username => { password => $passwd1}});
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'User created!';
+ }
+ else
+ {
+ $context->stash->{username} = $username;
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Passwords don't match!';
+ }
+ }
+ $context->stash->{template} = 'usercreate.tt';
+ }
+
+All this is doing is checking that all the appropriate fields are filled,
+the password fields contain the same data, and then adding the user to the
+config hash. All the checks produce a message which can be displayed to
+the user via the View.
+
+So our that users can login, we need a login page:
+
+ sub login : Local
+ {
+ my ($self, $context) = @_;
+ $context->stash->{template} = 'userlogin.tt';
+ if(!$context->login())
+ {
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Login failed.';
+ }
+ }
+
+Verrrry simple. Since Credential::Password's "login" call extracts the
+username/password data from the query itself (assuming we use a standard
+name for our form fields), we don't have to do anything but call it.
+
+To keep the user logged in, all we need to do is add the Session modules to
+our collection, and the Auth modules will automatically use them;
+
+ use Catalyst qw/-Debug Static::Simple Authentication
+ Authentication::Store::Minimal
+ Authentication::Credential::Password
+ Session Session::Store::File Session::State::Cookie/;
+
+Magic!
+
+=head2 Authorising
+
+Authentication is about verifying users, Authorisation is about allowing
+them to do things. Catalyst currently has two Authorisation modules,
+Roles and ACL. The Roles module allows you to define groups which you
+can assign your users to, and then allow access to areas of your website
+to the groups. The ACL module lets you do more fine grained
+access/restriction by allowing of denying access however you like. (It
+also supports Roles as done by the roles module.)
+
+Adding Roles via the Minimal store we are already using is quite simple,
+we just add a roles key to each user, defining the names of the roles
+they belong to.
+
+ authentication => { 'users' =>
+ { 'fred' =>
+ { 'password' => 'fred1234',
+ 'roles' => ['admin']
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+We need an interface for our admins to administer the roles, i.e. assign
+the users to groups. To restrict access to certain actions, we just need
+to call C<< $context->check_user_roles() >> in each action. So we can
+make a restricted I<localhost:3000/users/groups> page like this:
+
+ sub groups : Local
+ {
+ my ($self, $context) = @_;
+ if($context->check_user_roles('admin'))
+ {
+ # Now we can do things only an admin will see
+ if(my $params = $context->req->params)
+ {
+ my $users = $context->config->{authentication}{users};
+ foreach my $u (keys %$params)
+ {
+ $users->{$u}{roles} = $params->{$u} if($users->{$u});
+ }
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Updated user roles!';
+ }
+ else
+ {
+ $context->stash->{users} = $context->config->{authentication};
+ }
+ $context->stash->{template} = 'usersgroups.tt';
+ }
+ else
+ {
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Admins Only!';
+ $context->stash->{template} = 'error.tt';
+ }
+ }
+
+What we are doing here is checking whether the logged in user (used by
+default in the check_user_roles method), is a member of the admin group.
+If it is, then we display the usergroups template, and update the users
+hash as required. Otherwise, we just show the user an error page.
+
+And that's all there is to it.
+
+=head2 Data Storage (Modelling)
+
+Whether we want our users to be able to contribute to our website, or just
+create it from changeable data, we need to store the data somewhere. Generally
+this is done using a database, models can also be other data sources, for
+example another website, or RSS feeds.
+
+If you have or want a database, there are still choices to be made, there are
+several modules about for accessing databases via OO. The best known are
+probably L<Class::DBI> and L<DBIx::Class>. Catalyst supports making models
+using either of these.
+
+For a simple example, we will allow our users to store their favourite
+greeting in our database. Create a table called "greetings" in a database,
+that contains a "user" field and a "greeting" field. The simplest way to
+create a model of your database is to use these helper modules, for example
+with L<DBIx::Class>:
+
+B<script/tutorial_create.pl model UserData DBIC dbi:SQLite:/path/to/mydb.db>
+
+This will cause the DBIx::Class Loader to inspect your database, and create a
+module in the Model::UserData namespace for each table in your database.
+
+Now we need a form for our users to enter/edit their personal greetings in,
+we'll make a I<localhost:3000/users/editgreeting> page:
+
+ sub editgreeting : Local
+ {
+ my ($self, $context) = @_;
+ if($context->req->params->{greeting})
+ {
+ if(!$context->user_exists)
+ {
+ $context->stash->{message} = "You're not logged in!";
+ }
+ else
+ {
+ my $grtable = $context->model('UserData::Greetings');
+ my $record = $grtable->find_or_create(user => $context->user->id);
+ $record->greeting($context->req->params->{greeting};
+ $record->update;
+ $context->stash->{message} = 'Greeting updated';
+ }
+ }
+ $context->stash->{template} = 'usersgreeting.tt';
+ }
-To run as a CGI script you need a wrapper script like:
+Using C<< $context->user_exists >> from the Authentication plugin, this checks
+whether the user is logged in already. If they are, if they are, and they have
+entered a new greeting, we use DBIx::Class' C<find_or_create> to fetch or
+create a new record in the greetings table for the user. Once we have the
+record, we change the value of the greeting field, and call C<update> to store
+the new value in the database.
- #!/usr/bin/perl -w
+=head2 Engines (Apache and FastCGI)
- use strict;
- use lib '/path/to/MyApp/lib';
- use MyApp;
+Now that we have the basics together, we can try running our application on a
+"real" server instead of just using the test server that catalyst comes
+with. L<Catalyst::Engine> is the module used to implement various types of
+servers to run it on. The currect popular ones are Apache and FastCGI. To
+force the use of a particular engine we can use the -Engine flag to Catalyst:
- MyApp->run;
+ use Catalyst qw/-Engine=Apache/;
-Catalyst outputs a complete HTTP response, which is not what is expected of a
-CGI script. You need to configure the script as a so-called "Non-parsed
-Headers" script for it to function properly. To do this in Apache just name
-the script starting with C<nph->.
+or
+ use Catalyst qw/-Engine=FastCGI/;
+=head3 Apache
+Apache also needs configuring, we need to tell it to load your
+application. You can either use Catalyst for your entire website, or
+subsections. Use the Location directive to choose a path to run your
+application under:
-=head2 Extending the generated code
+ <Location />
+ SetHandler perl-script
+ PerlResponseHandler MyApp
+ </Location>
-The generated application code looks like this:
+You will need to install the perl modules of your application into one of
+perls library directories, as listed by B<perl -V>, so that Apache can find
+them. Alternatively you can use the C<PerlSwitches> directive to tell Apache
+where to look:
- package My::App;
+ PerlSwitches -I/path/to/MyApp/
- use strict;
- use Catalyst qw/-Debug/;
+These instructions are for using Apache2 and mod_perl 2.0. If you are using
+mod_perl 1.3 or 1.99, please refer to either L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache::MP13>
+or L<Catalyst::Engine::Apache2::MP19> for slightly different ways to do it.
- our $VERSION = '0.01';
+If you wish to ensure that Apache pre-loads your application, use the
+PerlModule directive. This means that there will be less of a delay when your
+application is accessed.
- My::App->config(
- name => 'My::App',
- root => '/home/andrew/My-App/root',
- );
+ PerlModule MyApp
- My::App->action(
- '!default' => sub {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->res->output('Congratulations, My::App is on Catalyst!');
- },
- );
+=head3 FastCGI
- 1;
+These instructions apply to the use of C<mod_fastcgi> under Apache (either 1 or 2 series).
+There are 3 ways to attach a program to a URL with C<mod_fastcgi>; we'll examine all of them, and explain how to avoid having the C<myapp_fastcgi.pl> substring in the user-visible URLs.
-You can start extending the application by adding new actions:
+In all of these examples, we assume that the C<DocumentRoot> is C</var>, that our app is called C<MyApp> and is kept in C</usr>, that you want the users to access the app either from the root of the server-uri-space, or from C</theapp>. We also assume that the general FastCGI settings (C<FastCgiIpcDir>, loading the module) are already correct (they don't depend on Catalyst or your application layout).
- My::App->action(
- 'test1' => sub {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->res->output('In a new test action #1');
- },
- 'test1' => sub {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->res->output('In a new test action #1');
- },
- '!default' => sub {
- my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
- $c->res->output('Congratulations, My::App is on Catalyst!');
- },
- );
+=head4 static application
+In this setup, you tell C<mod_fastcgi> that a particular I<file> is to be run as a FastCGI handler. Put this somewhere in Apache's configuration:
+ FastCgiServer /usr/apps/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
+ Alias / /usr/apps/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
+If you want your app under C</theapp>, change the C<Alias> line to:
+
+ Alias /theapp /usr/apps/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
+
+Note the detail of the trailing C</ >: this is a general rule af the C<Alias> directive, both sides must end with C</ >, or both must not; you can't have one with C</ > and the other without, or strange things happen.
+
+=head4 dynamic application
+
+In this setup, you tell C<mod_fastcgi> that certain files are to be treated as FastCGI handlers, in the same way you have to tell C<mod_cgi>. Put this in the configuration:
+
+ FastCgiConfig -autoUpdate
+
+ <Directory /usr/apps/MyApp/script>
+ Options +ExecCGI
+ <Files *_fastcgi.pl>
+ SetHandles fastcgi-script
+ </Files>
+ </Directory>
+
+ Alias / /usr/apps/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl/
+
+Again, if you want your app under C</theapp>, change the C<Alias> line to:
+
+ Alias /theapp /usr/apps/MyApp/script/myapp_fastcgi.pl
+
+=head4 external server
+
+In this setup, the application is started separately from Apache, and communicates via a socket with C<mod_fastcgi>. This can be useful if you need to have a particular environment for your application (maybe different between applications), or you want to run them on different machines, or under different users for security reasons.
+
+If you want to use a UNIX socket (on the filesystem), put this in Apache's configuration:
+
+ FastCgiExternalServer /tmp/somewhere -socket /tmp/myapp-socket
+ Alias / /tmp/somewhere/
+
+Note that C</tmp> should I<not> exist: it's just a name to connect the two parts.
+
+Again, if you want your app under C</theapp>, change the C<Alias> line to:
+
+ Alias /theapp /tmp/somewhere
+
+Then start your Catalyst application:
+
+ $ cd /usr/apps/MyApp
+ $ ./script/myapp_fastcgi -l /tmp/myapp-socket
+
+If you want to use a TCP socket, simply change the C</tmp> to a C<host:port> pair, both in Apache's configuration and on the command line of your application.
+
+=head2 Upgrading
+
+Upgrading your application to newer Catalyst versions is quite simple. After
+installing the new Catalyst package, just run:
+
+B<catalyst.pl -scripts>
+
+One level above your application directory. This will update the scripts
+directory only, and leave the rest of your app alone, If you wish to make use
+of other parts of Catalyst that have been updated, leave off the B<-scripts>
+argument, this will cause .new files to appear, for each module that has
+either been updated, or is different to the original because you have changed
+it. To find out what these changes are, type:
+
+B<diff MyApp/lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm MyApp/lib/MyApp/View/TT.pm.new>
+
+for each of the changed files. (This is a Unix command, Windows users will
+need to find some equivalent). Copy any changes you need into your original
+file, then remove the .new files. (This makes life less complicated when the
+next upgrade comes around.)
=head1 AUTHOR
+Jess Robinson, C<jrobinson@cpan.org>
Andrew Ford, C<A.Ford@ford-mason.co.uk>
+Marcus Ramberg, C<mramberg@cpan.org>
+
+Please send comments, corrections and suggestions for improvements to
+jrobinson@cpan.org
+
+=head1 TODO
+
+Add template examples.
+
+Many other things..
=head1 COPYRIGHT
-This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
-the same terms as Perl itself.
+This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the same terms as Perl itself.
projects / catagits/Catalyst-Runtime.git / blobdiff