use Apache::Constants ":common";
use strict;
use warnings;
-our $VERSION = "1.0";
+our $VERSION = "0.1";
__PACKAGE__->mk_classdata($_) for qw( _config init_done view_object );
__PACKAGE__->mk_accessors ( qw( config ar params objects model_class
args action template ));
sub set_database {
my ($calling_class, $dsn) = @_;
$calling_class = ref $calling_class if ref $calling_class;
- $calling_class->config->{dsn} = $dsn;
- $calling_class->config->{loader} = Class::DBI::Loader->new(
+ my $config = $calling_class->config;
+ $config->{model} ||= "Apache::MVC::Model::CDBI";
+ $config->{model}->require;
+ $config->{dsn} = $dsn;
+ $config->{loader} = Class::DBI::Loader->new(
namespace => $calling_class,
dsn => $dsn
);
+ $config->{classes} = [ $config->{loader}->classes ];
+ for my $subclass (@{$config->{classes}}) {
+ no strict 'refs';
+ unshift @{$subclass."::ISA"}, $config->{model};
+ $config->{model}->adopt($subclass)
+ if $config->{model}->can("adopt");
+ }
}
sub init {
my $class = shift;
my $config = $class->config;
- $config->{model} ||= "Apache::MVC::Model::CDBI";
$config->{view} ||= "Apache::MVC::View::TT";
- $config->{model}->require;
$config->{view}->require;
- $config->{classes} = [ $class->config->{loader}->classes ];
$config->{display_tables} ||= [ $class->config->{loader}->tables ];
- for my $subclass (@{$config->{classes}}) {
- no strict 'refs';
- unshift @{$subclass."::ISA"}, $class->config->{model};
- $config->{model}->adopt($subclass)
- if $config->{model}->can("adopt");
- }
$class->view_object($class->config->{view}->new);
$class->init_done(1);
$r->model_class($r->class_of($r->{table}));
my $status = $r->is_applicable;
- return $status unless $status == OK;
- $status = $r->call_authenticate;
- return $status unless $status == OK;
- $r->additional_data();
+ if ($status == OK) {
+ $status = $r->call_authenticate;
+ return $status unless $status == OK;
+ $r->additional_data();
- $r->model_class->process($r);
- $r->view_object->process($r);
- return $r; # For debugging.
+ $r->model_class->process($r);
+ } else {
+ # Otherwise, it's just a plain template.
+ delete $r->{model_class};
+ $r->{path} =~ s{/}{}; # De-absolutify
+ $r->template($r->{path});
+ }
+ return $r->view_object->process($r);
}
sub get_request {
sub parse_location {
my $self = shift;
- my $uri = $self->{ar}->path_info();
- my @pi = split /\//, $uri;
+ $self->{path} = $self->{ar}->uri;
+ my $loc = $self->{ar}->location;
+ $self->{path} =~ s/^$loc//; # I shouldn't need to do this?
+ $self->{path} ||= "frontpage";
+ my @pi = split /\//, $self->{path};
shift @pi while @pi and !$pi[0];
$self->{table} = shift @pi;
$self->{action} = shift @pi;
return DECLINED() unless exists $config->{ok_tables}{$self->{table}};
# Does the action method exist?
- # XXX We should set the method class to the class for the table
my $cv = $self->model_class->can($self->{action});
warn "We don't have that action ($self->{action})" unless $cv;
return DECLINED() unless $cv;
sub authenticate { return OK }
1;
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+Apache::MVC - Web front end to a data source
+
+=head1 SYNOPSIS
+
+ package BeerDB;
+ use base 'Apache::MVC';
+ sub handler { Apache::MVC::handler("BeerDB", @_) }
+ BeerDB->set_database("dbi:mysql:beerdb");
+ BeerDB->config->{uri_base} = "http://your.site/";
+ BeerDB->config->{display_tables} = [qw[beer brewery pub style]];
+ # Now set up your database:
+ # has-a relationships
+ # untaint columns
+
+ 1;
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+A large number of web programming tasks follow the same sort of pattern:
+we have some data in a datasource, typically a relational database. We
+have a bunch of templates provided by web designers. We have a number of
+things we want to be able to do with the database - create, add, edit,
+delete records, view records, run searches, and so on. We have a web
+server which provides input from the user about what to do. Something in
+the middle takes the input, grabs the relevant rows from the database,
+performs the action, constructs a page, and spits it out.
+
+This module aims to be the most generic and extensible "something in the
+middle".
+
+An example would help explain this best. You need to add a product
+catalogue to a company's web site. Users need to list the products in
+various categories, view a page on each product with its photo and
+pricing information and so on, and there needs to be a back-end where
+sales staff can add new lines, change prices, and delete out of date
+records. So, you set up the database, provide some default templates
+for the designers to customize, and then write an Apache handler like
+this:
+
+ package ProductDatabase;
+ use base 'Apache::MVC';
+ __PACKAGE__->set_database("dbi:mysql:products");
+ BeerDB->config->{uri_base} = "http://your.site/catalogue/";
+ ProductDatabase::Product->has_a("category" => ProductDatabase::Category);
+ # ...
+
+ sub authenticate {
+ my ($self, $request) = @_;
+ return OK if $request->{ar}->get_remote_host() eq "sales.yourcorp.com";
+ return OK if $request->{action} =~ /^(view|list)$/;
+ return DECLINED;
+ }
+ 1;
+
+You then put the following in your Apache config:
+
+ <Location /catalogue>
+ SetHandler perl-script
+ PerlHandler ProductDatabase
+ </Location>
+
+And copy the templates found in F<templates/factory> into the
+F<catalogue/factory> directory off the web root. When the designers get
+back to you with custom templates, they are to go in
+F<catalogue/custom>. If you need to do override templates on a
+database-table-by-table basis, put the new template in
+F<catalogue/I<table>>.
+
+This will automatically give you C<add>, C<edit>, C<list>, C<view> and
+C<delete> commands; for instance, a product list, go to
+
+ http://your.site/catalogue/product/list
+
+For a full example, see the included "beer database" application.
+
+=head1 HOW IT WORKS
+
+There's some documentation for the workflow in L<Apache::MVC::Workflow>,
+but the basic idea is that a URL part like C<product/list> gets
+translated into a call to C<ProductDatabase::Product-E<gt>list>. This
+propagates the request with a set of objects from the database, and then
+calls the C<list> template; first, a C<product/list> template if it
+exists, then the C<custom/list> and finally C<factory/list>.
+
+If there's another action you want the system to do, you need to either
+subclass the model class, and configure your class slightly differently:
+
+ package ProductDatabase::Model;
+ use base 'Apache::MVC::Model::CDBI';
+
+ sub supersearch :Exported {
+ my ($self, $request) = @_;
+ # Do stuff, get a bunch of objects back
+ $r->objects(\@objects);
+ $r->template("template_name");
+ }
+
+ ProductDatabase->config->{model_class} = "ProductDatabase::Model";
+
+(The C<:Exported> attribute means that the method can be called via the
+URL C</I<table>/supersearch/...>.)
+
+Alternatively, you can put the method directly into the specific model
+class for the table:
+
+ sub ProductDatabase::Product::supersearch :Exported { ... }
+
+By default, the view class uses Template Toolkit as the template
+processor, and the model class uses C<Class::DBI>; it may help you to be
+familiar with these modules before going much further with this,
+although I expect there to be other subclasses for other templating
+systems and database abstraction layers as time goes on. The article at
+C<http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/07/15/nocode.html> is a great
+introduction to the process we're trying to automate.
+
+=head1 AUTHOR
+
+Simon Cozens, C<simon@cpan.org>
+
+=head1 LICENSE
+
+You may distribute this code under the same terms as Perl itself.