man Web::Simple::Application (3): A base class for your Web-Simple application

DESCRIPTION

This is a base class for your Web::Simple application. You probably don't need to construct this class yourself, since Web::Simple does the 'heavy lifting' for you in that regards.

METHODS

This class exposes the following public methods.

default_config

Merges with the "config" initializer to provide configuration information for your application. For example:

  sub default_config {
    (
      title => 'Bloggery',
      posts_dir => $FindBin::Bin.'/posts',
    );
  }

Now, the "config" attribute of $self will be set to a HashRef containing keys 'title' and 'posts_dir'.

The keys from default_config are merged into any config supplied, so if you construct your application like:

  MyWebSimpleApp::Web->new(
    config => { title => 'Spoon', environment => 'dev' }
  )

then "config" will contain:

  {
    title => 'Spoon',
    posts_dir => '/path/to/myapp/posts',
    environment => 'dev'
  }

run_if_script

The run_if_script method is designed to be used at the end of the script or .pm file where your application class is defined - for example:

  ## my_web_simple_app.pl
  #!/usr/bin/env perl
  use Web::Simple 'HelloWorld';
  {
    package HelloWorld;
    sub dispatch_request {
      sub (GET) {
        [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ 'Hello world!' ] ]
      },
      sub () {
        [ 405, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ 'Method not allowed' ] ]
      }
    }
  }
  HelloWorld->run_if_script;

This returns a true value, so your file is now valid as a module - so

  require 'my_web_simple_app.pl';
  my $hw = HelloWorld->new;

will work fine (and you can rename it to lib/HelloWorld.pm later to make it a real use-able module).

However, it detects if it's being run as a script (via testing $0) and if so attempts to do the right thing.

If run under a CGI environment, your application will execute as a CGI.

If run under a FastCGI environment, your application will execute as a FastCGI process (this works both for dynamic shared-hosting-style FastCGI and for apache FastCgiServer style setups).

If run from the commandline with a URL path, it runs a GET request against that path -

  $ perl -Ilib examples/hello-world/hello-world.cgi /
  200 OK
  Content-Type: text/plain
  
  Hello world!

You can also provide a method name -

  $ perl -Ilib examples/hello-world/hello-world.cgi POST /
  405 Method Not Allowed
  Content-Type: text/plain
  
  Method not allowed

For a POST or PUT request, pairs on the command line will be treated as form variables. For any request, pairs on the command line ending in : are treated as headers, and 'Content:' will set the request body -

  $ ./myapp POST / Accept: text/html form_field_name form_field_value
  
  $ ./myapp POST / Content-Type: text/json Content: '{ "json": "here" }'

The body of the response is sent to STDOUT and the headers to STDERR, so

  $ ./myapp GET / >index.html

will generally do the right thing.

To send basic authentication credentials, use user:pass@ syntax -

  $ ./myapp GET bob:secret@/protected/path

Additionally, you can treat the file as though it were a standard PSGI application file (*.psgi). For example you can start up up with "plackup"

  plackup my_web_simple_app.pl

or "starman"

  starman my_web_simple_app.pl

to_psgi_app

This method is called by ``run_if_script'' to create the PSGI app coderef for use via Plack and plackup. If you want to globally add middleware, you can override this method:

  use Web::Simple 'HelloWorld';
  use Plack::Builder;
 
  {
    package HelloWorld;
  
    around 'to_psgi_app', sub {
      my ($orig, $self) = (shift, shift);
      my $app = $self->$orig(@_); 
      builder {
        enable ...; ## whatever middleware you want
        $app;
      };
    };
  }

This method can also be used to mount a Web::Simple application within a separate "*.psgi" file -

  use strictures 1;
  use Plack::Builder;
  use WSApp;
  use AnotherWSApp;
  builder {
    mount '/' => WSApp->to_psgi_app;
    mount '/another' => AnotherWSApp->to_psgi_app;
  };

This method can be called as a class method, in which case it implicitly calls ->new, or as an object method ... in which case it doesn't.

run

Used for running your application under stand-alone CGI and FCGI modes.

I should document this more extensively but run_if_script will call it when you need it, so don't worry about it too much.

run_test_request

  my $res = $app->run_test_request(GET => '/' => %headers);
  my $res = $app->run_test_request(POST => '/' => %headers_or_form);
  my $res = $app->run_test_request($http_request);

Accepts either an HTTP::Request object or ($method, $path) and runs that request against the application, returning an HTTP::Response object.

If the HTTP method is POST or PUT, then a series of pairs can be passed after this to create a form style message body. If you need to test an upload, then create an HTTP::Request object by hand or use the "POST" subroutine provided by HTTP::Request::Common.

If you prefix the URL with 'user:pass@' this will be converted into an Authorization header for HTTP basic auth:

  my $res = $app->run_test_request(
              GET => 'bob:secret@/protected/resource'
            );

If pairs are passed where the key ends in :, it is instead treated as a headers, so:

  my $res = $app->run_test_request(
              POST => '/',
             'Accept:' => 'text/html',
              some_form_key => 'value'
            );

will do what you expect. You can also pass a special key of Content: to set the request body:

  my $res = $app->run_test_request(
              POST => '/',
              'Content-Type:' => 'text/json',
              'Content:' => '{ "json": "here" }',
            );

AUTHORS

See Web::Simple for authors.