1Dancer2::Manual(3)    User Contributed Perl Documentation   Dancer2::Manual(3)
2
3
4

NAME

6       Dancer2::Manual - A gentle introduction to Dancer2
7

VERSION

9       version 0.400000
10

DESCRIPTION

12       Dancer2 is a free and open source web application framework written in
13       Perl.
14
15       It's a complete rewrite of Dancer, based on Moo and using a more robust
16       and extensible fully-OO design.
17
18       It's designed to be powerful and flexible, but also easy to use -
19       getting up and running with your web app is trivial, and an ecosystem
20       of adaptors for common template engines, session storage, logging
21       methods, serializers, and plugins to make common tasks easy means you
22       can do what you want to do, your way, easily.
23

INSTALL

25       Installation of Dancer2 is simple, using your favourite method to
26       install from CPAN, e.g.:
27
28           perl -MCPAN -e 'install Dancer2'
29
30       Thanks to the magic of cpanminus, if you do not have CPAN.pm
31       configured, or just want a quickfire way to get running, the following
32       should work, at least on Unix-like systems:
33
34           wget -O - http://cpanmin.us | sudo perl - Dancer2
35
36       (If you don't have root access, omit the 'sudo', and cpanminus will
37       install Dancer2 and prereqs into "~/perl5".)
38
39       Dancer2 is also available as a package from the package repository of
40       several distributions, for example on Debian/Ubuntu you should be able
41       to just:
42
43           apt-get install libdancer2-perl
44
45       Do be aware, though, that distribution-packaged versions sometimes lag
46       behind the most recent version on CPAN.
47

BOOTSTRAPPING A NEW APP

49       Create a web application using the dancer script:
50
51           $ dancer2 -a MyApp && cd MyApp
52           + MyApp
53           + MyApp/config.yml
54           + MyApp/Makefile.PL
55           + MyApp/MANIFEST.SKIP
56           + MyApp/.dancer
57           + MyApp/cpanfile
58           + MyApp/bin
59           + MyApp/bin/app.psgi
60           + MyApp/environments
61           + MyApp/environments/development.yml
62           + MyApp/environments/production.yml
63           + MyApp/lib
64           + MyApp/lib/MyApp.pm
65           + MyApp/public
66           + MyApp/public/favicon.ico
67           + MyApp/public/500.html
68           + MyApp/public/dispatch.cgi
69           + MyApp/public/404.html
70           + MyApp/public/dispatch.fcgi
71           + MyApp/public/css
72           + MyApp/public/css/error.css
73           + MyApp/public/css/style.css
74           + MyApp/public/images
75           + MyApp/public/images/perldancer.jpg
76           + MyApp/public/images/perldancer-bg.jpg
77           + MyApp/public/javascripts
78           + MyApp/public/javascripts/jquery.js
79           + MyApp/t
80           + MyApp/t/001_base.t
81           + MyApp/t/002_index_route.t
82           + MyApp/views
83           + MyApp/views/index.tt
84           + MyApp/views/layouts
85           + MyApp/views/layouts/main.tt
86
87       It creates a directory named after the name of the app, along with a
88       configuration file, a views directory (where your templates and layouts
89       will live), an environments directory (where environment-specific
90       settings live), a module containing the actual guts of your
91       application, and a script to start it. A default skeleton is used to
92       bootstrap the new application, but you can use the "-s" option to
93       provide another skeleton.  For example:
94
95           $ dancer2 -a MyApp -s ~/mydancerskel
96
97       For an example of a skeleton directory check the default one available
98       in the "share/" directory of your Dancer2 distribution.
99
100       (In what follows we will refer to the directory in which you have
101       created your Dancer2 application -- e.g., what "MyApp" was above -- as
102       the "appdir".)
103
104       Because Dancer2 is a PSGI web application framework, you can use the
105       "plackup" tool (provided by Plack) for launching the application:
106
107           plackup -p 5000 bin/app.psgi
108
109       View the web application at:
110
111           http://localhost:5000
112

USAGE

114       When Dancer2 is imported to a script, that script becomes a webapp, and
115       at this point, all the script has to do is declare a list of routes. A
116       route handler is composed by an HTTP method, a path pattern and a code
117       block. "strict", "warnings" and "utf8" pragmas are also imported with
118       Dancer2.
119
120       The code block given to the route handler has to return a string which
121       will be used as the content to render to the client.
122
123       Routes are defined for a given HTTP method. For each method supported,
124       a keyword is exported by the module.
125
126   HTTP Methods
127       Here are some of the standard HTTP methods which you can use to define
128       your route handlers.
129
130GET The GET method retrieves information, and is the most common
131
132           GET requests should be used for typical "fetch" requests -
133           retrieving information. They should not be used for requests which
134           change data on the server or have other effects.
135
136           When defining a route handler for the GET method, Dancer2
137           automatically defines a route handler for the HEAD method (in order
138           to honour HEAD requests for each of your GET route handlers).
139
140           To define a GET action, use the get keyword.
141
142POST The POST method is used to create a resource on the server.
143
144           To define a POST action, use the post keyword.
145
146PUT The PUT method is used to replace an existing resource.
147
148           To define a PUT action, use the put keyword.
149
150           a PUT request should replace the existing resource with that
151           specified - for instance - if you wanted to just update an email
152           address for a user, you'd have to specify all attributes of the
153           user again; to make a partial update, a PATCH request is used.
154
155PATCH The PATCH method updates some attributes of an existing
156           resource.
157
158           To define a PATCH action, use the patch keyword.
159
160DELETE The DELETE method requests that the origin server delete the
161           resource identified by the Request-URI.
162
163           To define a DELETE action, use the del keyword.
164
165       Handling multiple HTTP request methods
166
167       Routes can use "any" to match all, or a specified list of HTTP methods.
168
169       The following will match any HTTP request to the path "/myaction":
170
171           any '/myaction' => sub {
172               # code
173           }
174
175       The following will match GET or POST requests to "/myaction":
176
177           any ['get', 'post'] => '/myaction' => sub {
178               # code
179           };
180
181       For convenience, any route which matches GET requests will also match
182       HEAD requests.
183
184   Route Handlers
185       The route action is the code reference declared. It can access
186       parameters through the specific route_parameters, query_parameters, and
187       body_parameters keywords, which return a Hash::MultiValue object.  This
188       hashref is a merge of the route pattern matches and the request params.
189
190       You can find more details about how params are built and how to access
191       them in the Dancer2::Core::Request documentation.
192
193       Declaring Routes
194
195       To control what happens when a web request is received by your webapp,
196       you'll need to declare "routes". A route declaration indicates which
197       HTTP method(s) it is valid for, the path it matches (e.g. "/foo/bar"),
198       and a coderef to execute, which returns the response.
199
200           get '/hello/:name' => sub {
201               return "Hi there " . route_parameters->get('name');
202           };
203
204       The above route specifies that, for GET requests to "/hello/...", the
205       code block provided should be executed.
206
207       Retrieving request parameters
208
209       The query_parameters, route_parameters, and body_parameters keywords
210       provide a Hash::MultiValue result from the three different parameters.
211
212       Named matching
213
214       A route pattern can contain one or more tokens (a word prefixed with
215       ':').  Each token found in a route pattern is used as a named-pattern
216       match. Any match will be set in the route parameters.
217
218           get '/hello/:name' => sub {
219               return "Hey " . route_parameters->get('name') . ", welcome here!";
220           };
221
222       Tokens can be optional, for example:
223
224           get '/hello/:name?' => sub {
225               my $name = route_parameters->get('name') // 'Whoever you are';
226               return "Hello there, $name";
227           };
228
229       Named matching with type constraints
230
231       Type constraints can be added to tokens.
232
233           get '/user/:id[Int]' => sub {
234               # matches /user/34 but not /user/jamesdean
235               my $user_id = route_parameters->get('id');
236           };
237
238           get '/user/:username[Str]' => sub {
239               # matches /user/jamesdean but not /user/34 since that is caught
240               # by previous route
241               my $username = route_parameters->get('username');
242           };
243
244       You can even use type constraints to add a regexp check:
245
246           get '/book/:date[StrMatch[qr{\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d}]]' => sub {
247               # matches /book/2014-02-04
248               my $date = route_parameters->get('date');
249           };
250
251       The default type library is Dancer2::Core::Types but any type library
252       built using Type::Tiny's Type::Library can be used instead.  If you'd
253       like to use a different default type library you must declare it in the
254       configuration file, for example:
255
256           type_library: My::Type::Library
257
258       Alternatively you can specify the type library in which the type is
259       defined as part of the route definition:
260
261           get '/user/:username[My::Type::Library::Username]' => sub {
262               my $username = route_parameters->get('username');
263           };
264
265       This will load "My::Type::Library" and from it use the type "Username".
266       This allows types to be used that are not part of the type library
267       defined by config's "type_library".
268
269       More complex constructs are allowed such as:
270
271           get '/some/:thing[Int|MyDate]' => sub {
272               ...;
273           };
274
275       See "lookup($name)" in Type::Registry for more details.
276
277       Wildcard Matching
278
279       A route can contain a wildcard (represented by a "*"). Each wildcard
280       match will be placed in a list, which the "splat" keyword returns.
281
282           get '/download/*.*' => sub {
283               my ($file, $ext) = splat;
284               # do something with $file.$ext here
285           };
286
287       An extensive, greedier wildcard represented by "**" (A.K.A.
288       "megasplat") can be used to define a route. The additional path is
289       broken down and returned as an arrayref:
290
291           get '/entry/*/tags/**' => sub {
292               my ( $entry_id, $tags ) = splat;
293               my @tags = @{$tags};
294           };
295
296       The "splat" keyword in the above example for the route
297       /entry/1/tags/one/two would set $entry_id to 1 and $tags to "['one',
298       'two']".
299
300       Mixed named and wildcard matching
301
302       A route can combine named (token) matching and wildcard matching.  This
303       is useful when chaining actions:
304
305           get '/team/:team/**' => sub {
306               var team => route_parameters->get('team');
307               pass;
308           };
309
310           prefix '/team/:team';
311
312           get '/player/*' => sub {
313               my ($player) = splat;
314
315               # etc...
316           };
317
318           get '/score' => sub {
319               return score_for( vars->{'team'} );
320           };
321
322       Regular Expression Matching
323
324       A route can be defined with a Perl regular expression.
325
326       In order to tell Dancer2 to consider the route as a real regexp, the
327       route must be defined explicitly with "qr{}", like the following:
328
329           get qr{/hello/([\w]+)} => sub {
330               my ($name) = splat;
331               return "Hello $name";
332           };
333
334       A route regex may use named capture groups. The "captures" keyword will
335       return a reference to a copy of "%+".
336
337       Conditional Matching
338
339       Routes may include some matching conditions (on content_type, agent,
340       user_agent, content_length and path_info):
341
342           get '/foo', {agent => 'Songbird (\d\.\d)[\d\/]*?'} => sub {
343             'foo method for songbird'
344           }
345
346           get '/foo' => sub {
347             'all browsers except songbird'
348           }
349
350   Prefix
351       A prefix can be defined for each route handler, like this:
352
353           prefix '/home';
354
355       From here, any route handler is defined to /home/*
356
357           get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match '/home/page1'
358
359       You can unset the prefix value
360
361           prefix '/'; # or: prefix undef;
362           get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match /page1
363
364       Alternatively, to prevent you from ever forgetting to undef the prefix,
365       you can use lexical prefix like this:
366
367           prefix '/home' => sub {
368             get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match '/home/page1'
369           }; ## prefix reset to previous value on exit
370
371           get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match /page1
372
373   Delayed responses (Async/Streaming)
374       Dancer2 can provide delayed (otherwise known as asynchronous) responses
375       using the "delayed" keyword. These responses are streamed, although you
376       can set the content all at once, if you prefer.
377
378           get '/status' => sub {
379               delayed {
380                   response_header 'X-Foo' => 'Bar';
381
382                   # flush headers (in case of streaming)
383                   flush;
384
385                   # send content to the user
386                   content 'Hello, world!';
387
388                   # you can write more content
389                   # all streaming
390                   content 'Hello, again!';
391
392                   # when done, close the connection
393                   done;
394
395                   # do whatever you want else, asynchronously
396                   # the user socket closed by now
397                   ...
398               };
399           };
400
401       If you are streaming (calling "content" several times), you must call
402       "flush" first. If you're sending only once, you don't need to call
403       "flush".
404
405       Here is an example of using delayed responses with AnyEvent:
406
407           use Dancer2;
408           use AnyEvent;
409
410           my %timers;
411           my $count = 5;
412           get '/drums' => sub {
413               delayed {
414                   print "Stretching...\n";
415                   flush; # necessary, since we're streaming
416
417                   $timers{'Snare'} = AE::timer 1, 1, delayed {
418                       $timers{'HiHat'} ||= AE::timer 0, 0.5, delayed {
419                           content "Tss...\n";
420                       };
421
422                       content "Bap!\n";
423
424                       if ( $count-- == 0 ) {
425                           %timers = ();
426                           content "Tugu tugu tugu dum!\n";
427                           done;
428
429                           print "<enter sound of applause>\n\n";
430                           $timers{'Applause'} = AE::timer 3, 0, sub {
431                               # the DSL will not available here
432                               # because we didn't call the "delayed" keyword
433                               print "<applause dies out>\n";
434                           };
435                       }
436                   };
437               };
438           };
439
440       If an error happens during a write operation, a warning will be issued
441       to the logger.
442
443       You can handle the error yourself by providing an "on_error" handler:
444
445           get '/' => sub {
446               delayed {
447                   flush;
448                   content "works";
449
450                   # ... user disconnected here ...
451
452                   content "fails";
453
454                   # ... error triggered ...
455
456                   done; # doesn't even get run
457               } on_error => sub {
458                   # delayed{} not needed, DSL already available
459                   my ($error) = @_;
460                   # do something with $error
461               };
462           };
463
464       Here is an example that asynchronously streams the contents of a CSV
465       file:
466
467           use Dancer2;
468           use Text::CSV_XS  qw< csv >;
469           use Path::Tiny    qw< path >;
470           use JSON::MaybeXS qw< encode_json >;
471           # Create CSV parser
472           my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new({
473               binary    => 1,
474               auto_diag => 1,
475           });
476           get '/' => sub {
477               # delayed response:
478               delayed {
479                   # streaming content
480                   flush;
481                   # Read each row and stream it in JSON
482                   my $fh = path('filename.csv')->openr_utf8;
483                   while ( my $row = $csv->getline($fh) ) {
484                       content encode_json $row;
485                   }
486                   # close user connection
487                   done;
488               } on_error => sub {
489                   my ($error) = @_;
490                   warning 'Failed to stream to user: ' . request->remote_address;
491               };
492           };
493
494       NOTE: If you just want to send a file's contents asynchronously, use
495       "send_file($filename)" instead of "delayed", as it will automatically
496       take advantage of any asynchronous capability.
497
498   Action Skipping
499       An action can choose not to serve the current request and ask Dancer2
500       to process the request with the next matching route.
501
502       This is done with the pass keyword, like in the following example
503
504           get '/say/:word' => sub {
505               pass if route_parameters->get('word') =~ /^\d+$/;
506               "I say a word: " . route_parameters->get('word');
507           };
508
509           get '/say/:number' => sub {
510               "I say a number: " . route_parameters->get('number');
511           };
512

HOOKS

514       Hooks are code references (or anonymous subroutines) that are triggered
515       at specific moments during the resolution of a request.  They are set
516       up using the hook keyword.
517
518       Many of them are provided by Dancer2's core, but plugins and engines
519       can also define their own.
520
521       •   "before" hooks
522
523           "before" hooks are evaluated before each request within the context
524           of the request and receives as argument the app (a
525           Dancer2::Core::App object).
526
527           It's possible to define variables which will be accessible in the
528           action blocks with the var keyword.
529
530               hook before => sub {
531                   var note => 'Hi there';
532               };
533
534               get '/foo/*' => sub {
535                   my ($match) = splat; # 'oversee';
536                   vars->{note};        # 'Hi there'
537               };
538
539           For another example, this can be used along with session support to
540           easily give non-logged-in users a login page:
541
542               hook before => sub {
543                   if (!session('user') && request->path !~ m{^/login}) {
544                       # Pass the original path requested along to the handler:
545                       forward '/login', { requested_path => request->path };
546                   }
547               };
548
549           The request keyword returns the current Dancer2::Core::Request
550           object representing the incoming request.
551
552       •   "after" hooks
553
554           "after" hooks are evaluated after the response has been built by a
555           route handler, and can alter the response itself, just before it's
556           sent to the client.
557
558           This hook runs after a request has been processed, but before the
559           response is sent.
560
561           It receives a Dancer2::Core::Response object, which it can modify
562           if it needs to make changes to the response which is about to be
563           sent.
564
565           The hook can use other keywords in order to do whatever it wants.
566
567               hook after => sub {
568                   response->content(
569                       q{The "after" hook can alter the response's content here!}
570                   );
571               };
572
573   Templates
574       •   "before_template_render"
575
576           "before_template_render" hooks are called whenever a template is
577           going to be processed, they are passed the tokens hash which they
578           can alter.
579
580               hook before_template_render => sub {
581                   my $tokens = shift;
582                   $tokens->{foo} = 'bar';
583               };
584
585           The tokens hash will then be passed to the template with all the
586           modifications performed by the hook. This is a good way to setup
587           some global vars you like to have in all your templates, like the
588           name of the user logged in or a section name.
589
590       •   "after_template_render"
591
592           "after_template_render" hooks are called after the view has been
593           rendered.  They receive as their first argument the reference to
594           the content that has been produced. This can be used to post-
595           process the content rendered by the template engine.
596
597               hook after_template_render => sub {
598                   my $ref_content = shift;
599                   my $content     = ${$ref_content};
600
601                   # do something with $content
602                   ${$ref_content} = $content;
603               };
604
605       •   "before_layout_render"
606
607           "before_layout_render" hooks are called whenever the layout is
608           going to be applied to the current content. The arguments received
609           by the hook are the current tokens hashref and a reference to the
610           current content.
611
612               hook before_layout_render => sub {
613                   my ($tokens, $ref_content) = @_;
614                   $tokens->{new_stuff} = 42;
615                   $ref_content = \"new content";
616               };
617
618       •   "after_layout_render"
619
620           "after_layout_render" hooks are called once the complete content of
621           the view has been produced, after the layout has been applied to
622           the content.  The argument received by the hook is a reference to
623           the complete content string.
624
625               hook after_layout_render => sub {
626                   my $ref_content = shift;
627                   # do something with ${ $ref_content }, which reflects directly
628                   #   in the caller
629               };
630
631   Error Handling
632       Refer to Error Hooks for details about the following hooks:
633
634       •   "init_error"
635
636       •   "before_error"
637
638       •   "after_error"
639
640       •   "on_route_exception"
641
642   File Rendering
643       Refer to File Handler for details on the following hooks:
644
645       •   "before_file_render"
646
647       •   "after_file_render"
648
649   Serializers
650       •   "before_serializer" is called before serializing the content, and
651           receives the content to serialize as an argument.
652
653             hook before_serializer => sub {
654               my $content = shift;
655               ...
656             };
657
658       •   "after_serializer" is called after the payload has been serialized,
659           and receives the serialized content as an argument.
660
661             hook after_serializer => sub {
662               my $serialized_content = shift;
663               ...
664             };
665

HANDLERS

667   File Handler
668       Whenever a content is produced out of the parsing of a static file, the
669       Dancer2::Handler::File component is used. This component provides two
670       hooks, "before_file_render" and "after_file_render".
671
672       "before_file_render" hooks are called just before starting to parse the
673       file, the hook receives as its first argument the file path that is
674       going to be processed.
675
676           hook before_file_render => sub {
677               my $path = shift;
678           };
679
680       "after_file_render" hooks are called after the file has been parsed and
681       the response content produced. It receives the response object
682       (Dancer2::Core::Response) produced.
683
684           hook after_file_render => sub {
685              my $response = shift;
686           };
687
688   Auto page
689       Whenever a page that matches an existing template needs to be served,
690       the Dancer2::Handler::AutoPage component is used.
691
692   Writing your own
693       A route handler is a class that consumes the
694       Dancer2::Core::Role::Handler role. The class must implement a set of
695       methods: "methods", "regexp" and "code" which will be used to declare
696       the route.
697
698       Let's look at Dancer2::Handler::AutoPage for example.
699
700       First, the matching methods are "get" and "head":
701
702           sub methods { qw(head get) }
703
704       Then, the "regexp" or the path we want to match:
705
706           sub regexp { '/:page' }
707
708       Anything will be matched by this route, since we want to check if
709       there's a view named with the value of the "page" token. If not, the
710       route needs to "pass", letting the dispatching flow to proceed further.
711
712           sub code {
713               sub {
714                   my $app = shift;
715                   my $prefix = shift;
716
717                   my $template = $app->template_engine;
718                   if ( !defined $template ) {
719                       $app->response->has_passed(1);
720                       return;
721                   }
722
723                   my $page       = $app->request->path;
724                   my $layout_dir = $template->layout_dir;
725                   if ( $page =~ m{^/\Q$layout_dir\E/} ) {
726                       $app->response->has_passed(1);
727                       return;
728                   }
729
730                   # remove leading '/', ensuring paths relative to the view
731                   $page =~ s{^/}{};
732                   my $view_path = $template->view_pathname($page);
733
734                   if ( ! $template->pathname_exists( $view_path ) ) {
735                       $app->response->has_passed(1);
736                       return;
737                   }
738
739                   my $ct = $template->process( $page );
740                   return ( $app->request->method eq 'GET' ) ? $ct : '';
741               };
742           }
743
744       The "code" method passed the Dancer2::Core::App object which provides
745       access to anything needed to process the request.
746
747       A "register" is then implemented to add the route to the registry and
748       if the "auto_page setting" is off, it does nothing.
749
750           sub register {
751               my ($self, $app) = @_;
752
753               return unless $app->config->{auto_page};
754
755               $app->add_route(
756                   method => $_,
757                   regexp => $self->regexp,
758                   code   => $self->code,
759               ) for $self->methods;
760           }
761
762       The config parser looks for a "route_handlers" section and any handler
763       defined there is loaded. Thus, any random handler can be added to your
764       app.  For example, the default config file for any Dancer2 application
765       is as follows:
766
767           route_handlers:
768             File:
769               public_dir: /path/to/public
770             AutoPage: 1
771

ERRORS

773   Error Pages
774       When an HTTP error occurs (i.e. the action responds with a status code
775       other than 200), this is how Dancer2 determines what page to display.
776
777       •   Looks in the "views/" directory for a corresponding template file
778           matching the error code (e.g. "500.tt" or "404.tt"). If such a file
779           exists, it's used to report the error.
780
781       •   Next, looks in the "public/" directory for a corresponding HTML
782           file matching the error code (e.g. "500.html" or "404.html"). If
783           such a file exists, it's used to report the error. (Note, however,
784           that if show_errors is set to true, in the case of a 500 error the
785           static HTML page will not be shown, but will be replaced with a
786           default error page containing more informative diagnostics. For
787           more information see Dancer2::Config.)
788
789       •   As default, render a generic error page on the fly.
790
791   Execution Errors
792       When an error occurs during the route execution, Dancer2 will render an
793       error page with the HTTP status code 500.
794
795       It's possible either to display the content of the error message or to
796       hide it with a generic error page. This is a choice left to the end-
797       user and can be controlled with the show_errors setting (see above).
798
799   Error Hooks
800       When an error is caught by Dancer2's core, an exception object is built
801       (of the class Dancer2::Core::Error). This class provides a hook to let
802       the user alter the error workflow if needed.
803
804       "init_error" hooks are called whenever an error object is built, the
805       object is passed to the hook.
806
807           hook init_error => sub {
808               my $error = shift;
809               # do something with $error
810           };
811
812       This hook was named before_error_init in Dancer, both names currently
813       are synonyms for backward-compatibility.
814
815       "before_error" hooks are called whenever an error is going to be
816       thrown, it receives the error object as its sole argument.
817
818           hook before_error => sub {
819               my $error = shift;
820               # do something with $error
821           };
822
823       This hook was named before_error_render in Dancer, both names currently
824       are synonyms for backward-compatibility.
825
826       "after_error" hooks are called whenever an error object has been
827       thrown, it receives a Dancer2::Core::Response object as its sole
828       argument.
829
830           hook after_error => sub {
831               my $response = shift;
832           };
833
834       This hook was named after_error_render in Dancer, both names currently
835       are synonyms for backward-compatibility.
836
837       "on_route_exception" is called when an exception has been caught, at
838       the route level, just before rethrowing it higher. This hook receives a
839       Dancer2::Core::App and the error as arguments.
840
841         hook on_route_exception => sub {
842           my ($app, $error) = @_;
843         };
844

SESSIONS

846   Handling sessions
847       It's common to want to use sessions to give your web applications
848       state; for instance, allowing a user to log in, creating a session, and
849       checking that session on subsequent requests.
850
851       By default Dancer 2 has Simple sessions enabled.  It implements a very
852       simple in-memory session storage. This will be fast and useful for
853       testing, but such sessions will not persist between restarts of your
854       app.
855
856       If you'd like to use a different session engine you must declare it in
857       the configuration file.
858
859       For example to use YAML file base sessions you need to add the
860       following to your config.yml:
861
862           session: YAML
863
864       Or, to enable session support from within your code,
865
866           set session => 'YAML';
867
868       (However, controlling settings is best done from your config file.)
869
870       The Dancer2::Session::YAML backend implements a file-based YAML session
871       storage to help with debugging, but shouldn't be used on production
872       systems.
873
874       There are other session backends, such as Dancer2::Session::Memcached,
875       which are recommended for production use.
876
877       You can then use the session keyword to manipulate the session:
878
879       Storing data in the session
880
881       Storing data in the session is as easy as:
882
883           session varname => 'value';
884
885       Retrieving data from the session
886
887       Retrieving data from the session is as easy as:
888
889           session('varname')
890
891       Or, alternatively,
892
893           session->read("varname")
894
895       Controlling where sessions are stored
896
897       For disc-based session backends like Dancer2::Session::YAML, session
898       files are written to the session dir specified by the "session_dir"
899       setting, which defaults to "./sessions" if not specifically set.
900
901       If you need to control where session files are created, you can do so
902       quickly and easily within your config file, for example:
903
904           session: YAML
905           engines:
906             session:
907               YAML:
908                 session_dir: /tmp/dancer-sessions
909
910       If the directory you specify does not exist, Dancer2 will attempt to
911       create it for you.
912
913       Changing session ID
914
915       If you wish to change the session ID (for example on privilege level
916       change):
917
918           my $new_session_id = app->change_session_id
919
920       Destroying a session
921
922       When you're done with your session, you can destroy it:
923
924           app->destroy_session
925
926   Sessions and logging in
927       A common requirement is to check the user is logged in, and, if not,
928       require them to log in before continuing.
929
930       This can easily be handled using a before hook to check their session:
931
932           use Dancer2;
933           set session => "Simple";
934
935           hook before => sub {
936               if (!session('user') && request->path !~ m{^/login}) {
937                   forward '/login', { requested_path => request->path };
938               }
939           };
940
941           get '/' => sub { return "Home Page"; };
942
943           get '/secret' => sub { return "Top Secret Stuff here"; };
944
945           get '/login' => sub {
946               # Display a login page; the original URL they requested is available as
947               # query_parameters->get('requested_path'), so could be put in a hidden field in the form
948               template 'login', { path => query_parameters->get('requested_path') };
949           };
950
951           post '/login' => sub {
952               # Validate the username and password they supplied
953               if (body_parameters->get('user') eq 'bob' && body_parameters->get('pass') eq 'letmein') {
954                   session user => body_parameters->get('user');
955                   redirect body_parameters->get('path') || '/';
956               } else {
957                   redirect '/login?failed=1';
958               }
959           };
960
961           dance();
962
963       Here is what the corresponding "login.tt" file should look like. You
964       should place it in a directory called "views/":
965
966           <html>
967             <head>
968               <title>Session and logging in</title>
969             </head>
970             <body>
971               <form action='/login' method='POST'>
972                   User Name : <input type='text' name='user'/>
973                   Password: <input type='password' name='pass' />
974
975                   <!-- Put the original path requested into a hidden
976                              field so it's sent back in the POST and can be
977                              used to redirect to the right page after login -->
978                   <input type='hidden' name='path' value='<% path %>'/>
979
980                   <input type='submit' value='Login' />
981               </form>
982             </body>
983           </html>
984
985       Of course, you'll probably want to validate your users against a
986       database table, or maybe via IMAP/LDAP/SSH/POP3/local system accounts
987       via PAM etc.  Authen::Simple is probably a good starting point here!
988
989       A simple working example of handling authentication against a database
990       table yourself (using Dancer2::Plugin::Database which provides the
991       "database" keyword, and Crypt::SaltedHash to handle salted hashed
992       passwords (well, you wouldn't store your users passwords in the clear,
993       would you?)) follows:
994
995           post '/login' => sub {
996               my $user_value = body_parameters->get('user');
997               my $pass_value = body_parameters->get('pass');
998
999               my $user = database->quick_select('users',
1000                   { username => $user_value }
1001               );
1002               if (!$user) {
1003                   warning "Failed login for unrecognised user $user_value";
1004                   redirect '/login?failed=1';
1005               } else {
1006                   if (Crypt::SaltedHash->validate($user->{password}, $pass_value))
1007                   {
1008                       debug "Password correct";
1009                       # Logged in successfully
1010                       session user => $user;
1011                       redirect body_parameters->get('path') || '/';
1012                   } else {
1013                       debug("Login failed - password incorrect for " . $user_value);
1014                       redirect '/login?failed=1';
1015                   }
1016               }
1017           };
1018
1019       Retrieve complete hash stored in session
1020
1021       Get complete hash stored in session:
1022
1023           my $hash = session;
1024
1025   Writing a session engine
1026       In Dancer 2, a session backend consumes the role
1027       Dancer2::Core::Role::SessionFactory.
1028
1029       The following example using the Redis session demonstrates how session
1030       engines are written in Dancer 2.
1031
1032       First thing to do is to create the class for the session engine, we'll
1033       name it "Dancer2::Session::Redis":
1034
1035            package Dancer2::Session::Redis;
1036            use Moo;
1037            with 'Dancer2::Core::Role::SessionFactory';
1038
1039       we want our backend to have a handle over a Redis connection.  To do
1040       that, we'll create an attribute "redis"
1041
1042            use JSON;
1043            use Redis;
1044            use Dancer2::Core::Types; # brings helper for types
1045
1046            has redis => (
1047                is => 'rw',
1048                isa => InstanceOf['Redis'],
1049                lazy => 1,
1050                builder => '_build_redis',
1051            );
1052
1053       The lazy attribute says to Moo that this attribute will be built
1054       (initialized) only when called the first time. It means that the
1055       connection to Redis won't be opened until necessary.
1056
1057            sub _build_redis {
1058                my ($self) = @_;
1059                Redis->new(
1060                    server => $self->server,
1061                    password => $self->password,
1062                    encoding => undef,
1063                );
1064            }
1065
1066       Two more attributes, "server" and "password" need to be created.  We do
1067       this by defining them in the config file. Dancer2 passes anything
1068       defined in the config to the engine creation.
1069
1070            # config.yml
1071            ...
1072            engines:
1073              session:
1074                Redis:
1075                  server: foo.mydomain.com
1076                  password: S3Cr3t
1077
1078       The server and password entries are now passed to the constructor of
1079       the Redis session engine and can be accessed from there.
1080
1081            has server => (is => 'ro', required => 1);
1082            has password => (is => 'ro');
1083
1084       Next, we define the subroutine "_retrieve" which will return a session
1085       object for a session ID it has passed. Since in this case, sessions are
1086       going to be stored in Redis, the session ID will be the key, the
1087       session the value.  So retrieving is as easy as doing a get and
1088       decoding the JSON string returned:
1089
1090            sub _retrieve {
1091                my ($self, $session_id) = @_;
1092                my $json = $self->redis->get($session_id);
1093                my $hash = from_json( $json );
1094                return bless $hash, 'Dancer2::Core::Session';
1095            }
1096
1097       The "_flush" method is called by Dancer when the session needs to be
1098       stored in the backend. That is actually a write to Redis. The method
1099       receives a "Dancer2::Core::Session" object and is supposed to store it.
1100
1101            sub _flush {
1102                my ($self, $session) = @_;
1103                my $json = encode_json( { %{ $session } } );
1104                $self->redis->set($session->id, $json);
1105            }
1106
1107       For the "_destroy" method which is supposed to remove a session from
1108       the backend, deleting the key from Redis is enough.
1109
1110            sub _destroy {
1111                my ($self, $session_id) = @_;
1112                $self->redis->del($session_id);
1113            }
1114
1115       The "_sessions" method which is supposed to list all the session IDs
1116       currently stored in the backend is done by listing all the keys that
1117       Redis has.
1118
1119            sub _sessions {
1120                my ($self) = @_;
1121                my @keys = $self->redis->keys('*');
1122                return \@keys;
1123            }
1124
1125       The session engine is now ready.
1126
1127       The Session keyword
1128
1129       Dancer2 maintains two session layers.
1130
1131       The first layer, Dancer2::Core::Session provides a session object which
1132       represents the current session. You can read from it as many times as
1133       you want, and write to it as many times as you want.
1134
1135       The second layer is the session engine (Dancer2::Session::Simple is one
1136       example), which is used in order to implement the reading and writing
1137       from the actual storage. This is read only once, when a request comes
1138       in (using a cookie whose value is "dancer.session" by default).  At the
1139       end of a request, all the data you've written will be flushed to the
1140       engine itself, which will do the actual write to the storage (whether
1141       it's in a hash in memory, in Memcache, or in a database).
1142

TEMPLATES

1144       Returning plain content is all well and good for examples or trivial
1145       apps, but soon you'll want to use templates to maintain separation
1146       between your code and your content. Dancer2 makes this easy.
1147
1148       Your route handlers can use the template keyword to render templates.
1149
1150   Views
1151       In Dancer2, a file which holds a template is called a view.  Views are
1152       located in the "appdir/views" directory.
1153
1154       You can change this location by changing the setting 'views'. For
1155       instance if your templates are located in the 'templates' directory, do
1156       the following:
1157
1158           set views => path( app->location , 'templates' );
1159
1160       By default, the internal template engine Dancer2::Template::Simple is
1161       used, but you may want to upgrade to Template Toolkit
1162       <http://www.template-toolkit.org/>. If you do so, you have to enable
1163       this engine in your settings as explained in
1164       Dancer2::Template::TemplateToolkit and you'll also have to install the
1165       Template module.
1166
1167       In order to render a view, just call the template keyword at the end of
1168       the action by giving the view name and the HASHREF of tokens to
1169       interpolate in the view (note that for convenience, the request,
1170       session, params and vars are automatically accessible in the view,
1171       named "request", "session", "params", and "vars") - for example:
1172
1173           hook before => sub { var time => scalar(localtime) };
1174
1175           get '/hello/:name' => sub {
1176               my $name = route_parameters->get('name');
1177               template 'hello.tt', { name => $name };
1178           };
1179
1180       The template "hello.tt" could contain, for example:
1181
1182           <p>Hi there, [% name %]!</p>
1183           <p>You're using [% request.user_agent %]</p>
1184           [% IF session.username %]
1185               <p>You're logged in as [% session.username %]</p>
1186           [% END %]
1187           It's currently [% vars.time %]
1188
1189       For a full list of the tokens automatically added to your template
1190       (like "session", "request", and "vars", refer to
1191       Dancer2::Core::Role::Template).
1192
1193       By default, views use a .tt extension. This can be overridden by
1194       setting the "extension" attribute in the template engine configuration:
1195
1196           set engines => {
1197               template => {
1198                   template_toolkit => {
1199                       extension => 'foo',
1200                   },
1201               },
1202           };
1203
1204   Layouts
1205       A layout is a special view, located in the layouts directory (inside
1206       the views directory) which must have a token named "content". That
1207       token marks the place where to render the action view. This lets you
1208       define a global layout for your actions, and have each individual view
1209       contain only specific content. This is a good thing and helps avoid
1210       lots of needless duplication of HTML. :)
1211
1212       For example, the layout views/layouts/main.tt:
1213
1214           <html>
1215               <head>...</head>
1216               <body>
1217               <div id="header">
1218               ...
1219               </div>
1220
1221               <div id="content">
1222               [% content %]
1223               </div>
1224
1225               </body>
1226           </html>
1227
1228       You can tell your app which layout to use with "layout: name" in the
1229       config file, or within your code:
1230
1231           set layout => 'main';
1232
1233       You can control which layout to use (or whether to use a layout at all)
1234       for a specific request without altering the layout setting by passing
1235       an options hashref as the third param to the template keyword:
1236
1237           template 'index.tt', {}, { layout => undef };
1238
1239       If your application is not mounted under root ("/"), you can use a
1240       "before_template_render" hook instead of hardcoding the path into your
1241       application for your CSS, images and JavaScript:
1242
1243           hook before_template_render => sub {
1244               my $tokens = shift;
1245               $tokens->{uri_base} = request->base->path;
1246           };
1247
1248       Then in your layout, modify your CSS inclusion as follows:
1249
1250           <link rel="stylesheet" href="[% uri_base %]/css/style.css" />
1251
1252       From now on you can mount your application wherever you want, without
1253       any further modification of the CSS inclusion.
1254
1255   Encoding
1256       If you use Plack and have a Unicode problem with your Dancer2
1257       application, don't forget to check if you have set your template engine
1258       to use Unicode, and set the default charset to UTF-8. So, if you are
1259       using template toolkit, your config file will look like this:
1260
1261           charset: UTF-8
1262           engines:
1263             template:
1264               template_toolkit:
1265                 ENCODING: utf8
1266
1267   Default Template Variables
1268       Every template knows about the following variables, which are provided
1269       by Dancer2::Core::Role::Template. Some are similar to the keywords you
1270       can use in the Perl part of your Dancer2 application.
1271
1272perl_version
1273
1274           Current version of perl, effectively $^V
1275           <http://perldoc.perl.org/perlvar.html#%24%5eV>.
1276
1277dancer_version
1278
1279           Current version of Dancer2, effectively "Dancer2->VERSION".
1280
1281settings
1282
1283           A hash of the application configuration. This is like the config
1284           keyword.
1285
1286request
1287
1288           The current request object. This is like the request keyword.
1289
1290params
1291
1292           A hash reference of all the parameters.
1293
1294           Currently the equivalent of "$request->params", and like the params
1295           keyword.
1296
1297vars
1298
1299           The list of request variables, which is what you would get if you
1300           called the vars keyword.
1301
1302session
1303
1304           The current session data, if a session exists. This is like the
1305           session keyword.
1306

STATIC FILES

1308   Static Directory
1309       Static files are served from the ./public directory. You can specify a
1310       different location by setting the "public_dir" option:
1311
1312           set public_dir => path( app->location , 'static' );
1313
1314       When you modify default public_dir you have to set "static_handler"
1315       option.
1316
1317           set static_handler => true;
1318
1319       Note that the public directory name is not included in the URL. A file
1320       ./public/css/style.css is made available as
1321       <http://example.com/css/style.css>.
1322
1323   Static File from a Route Handler
1324       It's possible for a route handler to send a static file, as follows:
1325
1326           get '/download/*' => sub {
1327               my ($file) = splat;
1328
1329               send_file $file;
1330           };
1331
1332       Or even if you want your index page to be a plain old index.html file,
1333       just do:
1334
1335           get '/' => sub {
1336               send_file '/index.html'
1337           };
1338

FILE UPLOADS

1340       Files are uploaded in Dancer2 using the class
1341       Dancer2::Core::Request::Upload.  The objects are accessible within the
1342       route handlers using the "upload" keyword:
1343
1344           post '/upload' => sub {
1345               my $upload     = upload('file_input_name');    # upload object
1346               $upload->copy_to('Uploads/');
1347           };
1348

CONFIGURATION

1350   Configuration and environments
1351       Configuring a Dancer2 application can be done in many ways. The easiest
1352       one (and maybe the dirtiest) is to put all your settings statements at
1353       the top of your script, before calling the "dance()" method.
1354
1355       Other ways are possible: for example, you can define all your settings
1356       in the file "appdir/config.yml". For this, you must have installed the
1357       YAML module, and of course, write the config file in YAML.
1358
1359       That's better than the first option, but it's still not perfect as you
1360       can't switch easily from an environment to another without rewriting
1361       the config file.
1362
1363       A better solution is to have one config.yml file with default global
1364       settings, like the following:
1365
1366           # appdir/config.yml
1367           logger: 'file'
1368           layout: 'main'
1369
1370       And then write as many environment files as you like in
1371       "appdir/environments". That way, the appropriate environment config
1372       file will be loaded according to the running environment (if none is
1373       specified, it will be 'development').
1374
1375       You can change the running environment when starting your app using the
1376       "plackup" command's "--env" or "--E" switch:
1377
1378           plackup -E production bin/app.psgi
1379
1380       Altenatively, you can set the "DANCER_ENVIRONMENT"
1381       <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Config#DANCER_ENVIRONMENT>
1382       environment variable in the shell or in your web server's configuration
1383       file.
1384
1385       Typically, you'll want to set the following values in a development
1386       config file:
1387
1388           # appdir/environments/development.yml
1389           log: 'debug'
1390           startup_info: 1
1391           show_errors:  1
1392
1393       And in a production one:
1394
1395           # appdir/environments/production.yml
1396           log: 'warning'
1397           startup_info: 0
1398           show_errors:  0
1399
1400       Please note that you are not limited to writing configuration files in
1401       YAML.  Dancer2 supports any file format that is supported by
1402       Config::Any, such as JSON, XML, INI files, and Apache-style config
1403       files. See the Dancer2 configuration guide
1404       <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Config#MANIPULATING-SETTINGS-VIA-
1405       CONFIGURATION-FILES> for more information.
1406
1407   Accessing configuration information
1408       A Dancer2 application can use the "config" keyword to easily access the
1409       settings within its config file, for instance:
1410
1411           get '/appname' => sub {
1412               return "This is " . config->{appname};
1413           };
1414
1415       This makes keeping your application's settings all in one place simple
1416       and easy - you shouldn't need to worry about implementing all that
1417       yourself. :)
1418
1419   Settings
1420       It's possible to change almost every parameter of the application via
1421       the settings mechanism.
1422
1423       A setting is a key/value pair assigned by the keyword set:
1424
1425           set setting_name => 'setting_value';
1426
1427       More usefully, settings can be defined in a configuration file.
1428       Environment-specific settings can also be defined in environment-
1429       specific files (for instance, you do not want to show error stacktraces
1430       in production, and might want extra logging in development).
1431
1432   Serializers
1433       When writing a webservice, data serialization/deserialization is a
1434       common issue to deal with. Dancer2 can automatically handle that for
1435       you, via a serializer.
1436
1437       When setting up a serializer, a new behaviour is authorized for any
1438       route handler you define: any non-scalar response will be rendered as a
1439       serialized string, via the current serializer.
1440
1441       Here is an example of a route handler that will return a hashref:
1442
1443           use Dancer2;
1444           set serializer => 'JSON';
1445
1446           get '/user/:id/' => sub {
1447               { foo => 42,
1448                 number => 100234,
1449                 list => [qw(one two three)],
1450               }
1451           };
1452
1453       Dancer2 will render the response via the current serializer.
1454
1455       Hence, with the JSON serializer set, the route handler above would
1456       result in a content like the following:
1457
1458           {"number":100234,"foo":42,"list":["one","two","three"]}
1459
1460       If you send a value which is validated serialized data, but is not in
1461       the form a key and value pair (such as a serialized string or a JSON
1462       array), the data will not be available in "params" but will be
1463       available in "request->data".
1464
1465       The following serializers are available, be aware they dynamically
1466       depend on Perl modules you may not have on your system.
1467
1468JSON
1469
1470           Requires JSON.
1471
1472YAML
1473
1474           Requires YAML,
1475
1476XML
1477
1478           Requires XML::Simple.
1479
1480Mutable
1481
1482           Will try to find the appropriate serializer using the Content-Type
1483           and Accept-type header of the request.
1484
1485   Importing using Appname
1486       An app in Dancer2 uses the class name (defined by the "package"
1487       function) to define the App name. Thus separating the App to multiple
1488       files, actually means creating multiple applications. This means that
1489       any engine defined in an application, because the application is a
1490       complete separate scope, will not be available to a different
1491       application:
1492
1493            package MyApp::User {
1494                use Dancer2;
1495                set serializer => 'JSON';
1496                get '/view' => sub {...};
1497            }
1498
1499            package MyApp::User::Edit {
1500                use Dancer2;
1501                get '/edit' => sub {...};
1502            }
1503
1504       These are two different Dancer2 Apps. They have different scopes,
1505       contexts, and thus different engines. While "MyApp::User" has a
1506       serializer defined, "MyApp::User::Edit" will not have that
1507       configuration.
1508
1509       By using the import option "appname", we can ask Dancer2 to extend an
1510       App without creating a new one:
1511
1512            package MyApp::User {
1513                use Dancer2;
1514                set serializer => 'JSON';
1515                get '/view' => sub {...};
1516            }
1517
1518            package MyApp::User::Edit {
1519                use Dancer2 appname => 'MyApp::User'; # extending MyApp::User
1520                get '/edit' => sub {...};
1521            }
1522
1523       The import option "appname" allows you to seamlessly extend Dancer2
1524       Apps without creating unnecessary additional applications or repeat any
1525       definitions.  This allows you to spread your application routes across
1526       multiple files and allow ease of mind when developing it, and
1527       accommodate multiple developers working on the same codebase.
1528
1529            # app.pl
1530            use MyApp::User;
1531            use MyApp::User::Edit;
1532
1533            # single application composed of routes provided in multiple files
1534            MyApp::User->to_app;
1535
1536       This way only one class needs to be loaded while creating an app:
1537
1538            # app.pl:
1539            use MyApp::User;
1540            MyApp::User->to_app;
1541

LOGGING

1543   Configuring logging
1544       It's possible to log messages generated by the application and by
1545       Dancer2 itself.
1546
1547       To start logging, select the logging engine you wish to use with the
1548       "logger" setting; Dancer2 includes built-in log engines named "file"
1549       and "console", which log to a logfile and to the console respectively.
1550
1551       To enable logging to a file, add the following to your config file:
1552
1553           logger: 'file'
1554
1555       Then you can choose which kind of messages you want to actually log:
1556
1557           log: 'core'      # will log debug, info, warnings, errors,
1558                            #   and messages from Dancer2 itself
1559           log: 'debug'     # will log debug, info, warning and errors
1560           log: 'info'      # will log info, warning and errors
1561           log: 'warning'   # will log warning and errors
1562           log: 'error'     # will log only errors
1563
1564       If you're using the "file" logging engine, a directory "appdir/logs"
1565       will be created and will host one logfile per environment. The log
1566       message contains the time it was written, the PID of the current
1567       process, the message and the caller information (file and line).
1568
1569   Logging your own messages
1570       Just call debug <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#debug>, info
1571       <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#info>, warning
1572       <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#warning> or error
1573       <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#error> with your message:
1574
1575           debug "This is a debug message from my app.";
1576

TESTING

1578   Using Plack::Test
1579       Plack::Test receives a common web request (using standard HTTP::Request
1580       objects), fakes a web server in order to create a proper PSGI request,
1581       and sends it to the web application. When the web application returns a
1582       PSGI response (which Dancer applications do), it will then convert it
1583       to a common web response (as a standard HTTP::Response object).
1584
1585       This allows you to then create requests in your test, create the code
1586       reference for your web application, call them, and receive a response
1587       object, which can then be tested.
1588
1589       Basic Example
1590
1591       Assuming there is a web application:
1592
1593            # MyApp.pm
1594            package MyApp;
1595            use Dancer2;
1596            get '/' => sub {'OK'};
1597            1;
1598
1599       The following test base.t is created:
1600
1601            # base.t
1602            use strict;
1603            use warnings;
1604            use Test::More tests => 2;
1605            use Plack::Test;
1606            use HTTP::Request;
1607            use MyApp;
1608
1609       Creating a coderef for the application using the "to_app" keyword:
1610
1611            my $app = MyApp->to_app;
1612
1613       Creating a test object from Plack::Test for the application:
1614
1615            my $test = Plack::Test->create($app);
1616
1617       Creating the first request object and sending it to the test object to
1618       receive a response:
1619
1620            my $request  = HTTP::Request->new( GET => '/' );
1621            my $response = $test->request($request);
1622
1623       It can now be tested:
1624
1625            ok( $response->is_success, '[GET /] Successful request' );
1626            is( $response->content, 'OK', '[GET /] Correct content' );
1627
1628       Putting it together
1629
1630            # base.t
1631            use strict;
1632            use warnings;
1633            use Test::More;
1634            use Plack::Test;
1635            use HTTP::Request::Common;
1636            use MyApp;
1637
1638            my $test     = Plack::Test->create( MyApp->to_app );
1639            my $response = $test->request( GET '/' );
1640
1641            ok( $response->is_success, '[GET /] Successful request' );
1642            is( $response->content, 'OK', '[GET /] Correct content' );
1643
1644            done_testing();
1645
1646       Subtests
1647
1648       Tests can be separated using Test::More's "subtest" functionality, thus
1649       creating multiple self-contained tests that don't overwrite each other.
1650
1651       Assuming we have a different app that has two states we want to test:
1652
1653            # MyApp.pm
1654            package MyApp;
1655            use Dancer2;
1656            set serializer => 'JSON';
1657
1658            get '/:user' => sub {
1659                my $user = route_parameters->get('user');
1660
1661                $user and return { user => $user };
1662
1663                return {};
1664            };
1665
1666            1;
1667
1668       This is a contrived example of a route that checks for a user
1669       parameter. If it exists, it returns it in a hash with the key 'user'.
1670       If not, it returns an empty hash
1671
1672            # param.t
1673            use strict;
1674            use warnings;
1675            use Test::More;
1676            use Plack::Test;
1677            use HTTP::Request::Common;
1678            use MyApp;
1679
1680            my $test = Plack::Test->create( MyApp->to_app );
1681
1682            subtest 'A empty request' => sub {
1683                my $res = $test->request( GET '/' );
1684                ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
1685                is( $res->content '{}', 'Empty response back' );
1686            };
1687
1688            subtest 'Request with user' => sub {
1689                my $res = $test->request( GET '/?user=sawyer_x' );
1690                ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
1691                is( $res->content '{"user":"sawyer_x"}', 'Empty response back' );
1692            };
1693
1694            done_testing();
1695
1696       Cookies
1697
1698       To handle cookies, which are mostly used for maintaining sessions, the
1699       following modules can be used:
1700
1701       •   Test::WWW::Mechanize::PSGI
1702
1703       •   LWP::Protocol::PSGI
1704
1705       •   HTTP::Cookies
1706
1707       Taking the previous test, assuming it actually creates and uses cookies
1708       for sessions:
1709
1710            # ... all the use statements
1711            use HTTP::Cookies;
1712
1713            my $jar  = HTTP::Cookies->new;
1714            my $test = Plack::Test->create( MyApp->to_app );
1715
1716            subtest 'A empty request' => sub {
1717                my $res = $test->request( GET '/' );
1718                ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
1719                is( $res->content '{}', 'Empty response back' );
1720                $jar->extract_cookies($res);
1721                ok( $jar->as_string, 'We have cookies!' );
1722            };
1723
1724            subtest 'Request with user' => sub {
1725                my $req = GET '/?user=sawyer_x';
1726                $jar->add_cookie_header($req);
1727                my $res = $test->request($req);
1728                ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
1729                is( $res->content '{"user":"sawyer_x"}', 'Empty response back' );
1730                $jar->extract_cookies($res);
1731
1732                ok( ! $jar->as_string, 'All cookies deleted' );
1733            };
1734
1735            done_testing();
1736
1737       Here a cookie jar is created, all requests and responses, existing
1738       cookies, as well as cookies that were deleted by the response, are
1739       checked.
1740
1741       Accessing the configuration file
1742
1743       By importing Dancer2 in the command line scripts, there is full access
1744       to the configuration using the imported keywords:
1745
1746            use strict;
1747            use warnings;
1748            use Test::More;
1749            use Plack::Test;
1750            use HTTP::Request::Common;
1751            use MyApp;
1752            use Dancer2;
1753
1754            my $appname = config->{'appname'};
1755            diag "Testing $appname";
1756
1757            # ...
1758

PACKAGING

1760   Carton
1761       What it does
1762
1763       Carton sets up a local copy of your project prerequisites. You only
1764       need to define them in a file and ask Carton to download all of them
1765       and set them up.  When you want to deploy your app, you just carry the
1766       git clone and ask Carton to set up the environment again and you will
1767       then be able to run it.
1768
1769       The benefits are multifold:
1770
1771       •   Local Directory copy
1772
1773           By putting all the dependencies in a local directory, you can make
1774           sure they aren't updated by someone else by accident and their
1775           versions locked to the version you picked.
1776
1777       •   Sync versions
1778
1779           Deciding which versions of the dependent modules your project needs
1780           allows you to sync this with other developers as well. Now you're
1781           all using the same version and they don't change unless you want
1782           update the versions you want. When updated everyone again uses the
1783           same new version of everything.
1784
1785       •   Carry only the requirement, not bundled modules
1786
1787           Instead of bundling the modules, you only actually bundle the
1788           requirements.  Carton builds them for you when you need it.
1789
1790       Setting it up
1791
1792       First set up a new app:
1793
1794            $ dancer2 -a MyApp
1795            ...
1796
1797       Delete the files that are not needed:
1798
1799            $ rm -f Makefile.PL MANIFEST MANIFEST.SKIP
1800
1801       Create a git repo:
1802
1803            $ git init && git add . && git commit -m "initial commit"
1804
1805       Add a requirement using the cpanfile format:
1806
1807            $ cat > cpanfile
1808            requires 'Dancer2' => 0.155000;
1809            requires 'Template' => 0;
1810            recommends 'URL::Encode::XS' => 0;
1811            recommends 'CGI::Deurl::XS' => 0;
1812            recommends 'HTTP::Parser::XS' => 0;
1813
1814       Ask carton to set it up:
1815
1816            $ carton install
1817            Installing modules using [...]
1818            Successfully installed [...]
1819            ...
1820            Complete! Modules were install into [...]/local
1821
1822       Now we have two files: cpanfile and cpanfile.snapshot. We add both of
1823       them to our Git repository and we make sure we don't accidentally add
1824       the local/ directory Carton created which holds the modules it
1825       installed:
1826
1827            $ echo local/ >> .gitignore
1828            $ git add .gitignore cpanfile cpanfile.snapshot
1829            $ git commit -m "Start using carton"
1830
1831       When we want to update the versions on the production machine, we
1832       simply call:
1833
1834            $ carton install --deployment
1835
1836       By using --deployment we make sure we only install the modules we have
1837       in our cpanfile.snapshot file and do not fallback to querying the CPAN.
1838
1839   FatPacker
1840       App::FatPacker (using its command line interface, fatpack) packs
1841       dependencies into a single file, allowing you to carry a single file
1842       instead of a directory tree.
1843
1844       As long as your application is pure-Perl, you could create a single
1845       file with your application and all of Dancer2 in it.
1846
1847       The following example will demonstrate how this can be done:
1848
1849       Assuming we have an application in lib/MyApp.pm:
1850
1851            package MyApp;
1852            use Dancer2;
1853            get '/' => sub {'OK'};
1854            1;
1855
1856       And we have a handler in bin/app.pl:
1857
1858            use strict;
1859            use warnings;
1860            use FindBin;
1861            use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";
1862            use MyApp;
1863
1864            MyApp->to_app;
1865
1866       To fatpack it, we begin by tracing the script:
1867
1868            $ fatpack trace bin/app.pl
1869
1870       This creates a fatpacker.trace file. From this we create the packlists:
1871
1872            $ fatpack packlists-for `cat fatpacker.trace` > packlists
1873
1874       The packlists are stored in a file called packlists.
1875
1876       Now we create the tree using the following command:
1877
1878            $ fatpack tree `cat packlists`
1879
1880       The tree is created under the directory fatlib.
1881
1882       Now we create a file containing the dependency tree, and add our script
1883       to it, using the following command:
1884
1885            $ (fatpack file; cat bin/app.pl) > myapp.pl
1886
1887       This creates a file called myapp.pl with everything in it. Dancer2 uses
1888       MIME::Types which has a database of all MIME types and helps translate
1889       those.  The small database file containing all of these types is a
1890       binary and therefore cannot be fatpacked. Hence, it needs to be copied
1891       to the current directory so our script can find it:
1892
1893            $ cp fatlib/MIME/types.db .
1894

MIDDLEWARES

1896   Plack middlewares
1897       If you want to use Plack middlewares, you need to enable them using
1898       Plack::Builder as such:
1899
1900           # in app.psgi or any other handler
1901           use MyApp;
1902           use Plack::Builder;
1903
1904           builder {
1905               enable 'Deflater';
1906               enable 'Session', store => 'File';
1907               enable 'Debug', panels => [ qw<DBITrace Memory Timer> ];
1908               MyApp->to_app;
1909           };
1910
1911       The nice thing about this setup is that it will work seamlessly through
1912       Plack or through the internal web server.
1913
1914           # load dev web server (without middlewares)
1915           perl -Ilib app.psgi
1916
1917           # load plack web server (with middlewares)
1918           plackup -I lib app.psgi
1919
1920       You do not need to provide different files for either server.
1921
1922       Path-based middlewares
1923
1924       If you want to set up a middleware for a specific path, you can do that
1925       using Plack::Builder which uses Plack::App::URLMap:
1926
1927           # in your app.psgi or any other handler
1928           use MyApp;
1929           use Plack::Builder;
1930
1931           my $special_handler = sub { ... };
1932
1933           builder {
1934               mount '/special' => $special_handler;
1935               mount '/'        => MyApp->to_app;
1936           };
1937
1938       Removing default middlewares
1939
1940       By default, a Dancer2 app is automatically wrapped with the following
1941       middleware
1942
1943       •   Plack::Middleware::FixMissingBodyInRedirect
1944
1945       •   Plack::Middleware::Head
1946
1947       You can configure the setting "no_default_middleware" to a true value
1948       to stop your Dancer2 app being wrapped with these default middleware
1949       layers.
1950
1951           # in you Dancer2 app or config.yml
1952           package MyApp;
1953           use Dancer2
1954
1955           set no_default_middleware => true;
1956
1957       This is necessary if you need to add eTag or ContentMD5 headers to
1958       "HEAD" requests, and you are encouraged to manually add those default
1959       middleware back into your PSGI stack.
1960
1961       Running on Perl web servers with plackup
1962
1963       A number of Perl web servers supporting PSGI are available on CPAN:
1964
1965       •   Starman
1966
1967           "Starman" is a high performance web server, with support for
1968           preforking, signals, multiple interfaces, graceful restarts and
1969           dynamic worker pool configuration.
1970
1971       •   Twiggy
1972
1973           "Twiggy" is an "AnyEvent" web server, it's light and fast.
1974
1975       •   Corona
1976
1977           "Corona" is a "Coro" based web server.
1978
1979       To start your application, just run plackup (see Plack and specific
1980       servers above for all available options):
1981
1982          $ plackup bin/app.psgi
1983          $ plackup -E deployment -s Starman --workers=10 -p 5001 -a bin/app.psgi
1984
1985       As you can see, the scaffolded Perl script for your app can be used as
1986       a PSGI startup file.
1987
1988       Enabling content compression
1989
1990       Content compression (gzip, deflate) can be easily enabled via a Plack
1991       middleware (see "Plack::Middleware" in Plack):
1992       Plack::Middleware::Deflater.  It's a middleware to encode the response
1993       body in gzip or deflate, based on the "Accept-Encoding" HTTP request
1994       header.
1995
1996       Enable it as you would enable any Plack middleware. First you need to
1997       install Plack::Middleware::Deflater, then in the handler (usually
1998       app.psgi) edit it to use Plack::Builder, as described above:
1999
2000           use Dancer2;
2001           use MyApp;
2002           use Plack::Builder;
2003
2004           builder {
2005               enable 'Deflater';
2006               MyApp->to_app;
2007           };
2008
2009       To test if content compression works, trace the HTTP request and
2010       response before and after enabling this middleware. Among other things,
2011       you should notice that the response is gzip or deflate encoded, and
2012       contains a header "Content-Encoding" set to "gzip" or "deflate".
2013
2014       Running multiple apps with Plack::Builder
2015
2016       You can use Plack::Builder to mount multiple Dancer2 applications on a
2017       PSGI webserver like Starman.
2018
2019       Start by creating a simple app.psgi file:
2020
2021           use OurWiki;  # first app
2022           use OurForum; # second app
2023           use Plack::Builder;
2024
2025           builder {
2026               mount '/wiki'  => OurWiki->to_app;
2027               mount '/forum' => OurForum->to_app;
2028           };
2029
2030       and now use Starman
2031
2032           plackup -a app.psgi -s Starman
2033
2034       Currently this still demands the same appdir for both (default
2035       circumstance) but in a future version this will be easier to change
2036       while staying very simple to mount.
2037
2038       Running from Apache with Plack
2039
2040       You can run your app from Apache using PSGI (Plack), with a config like
2041       the following:
2042
2043           <VirtualHost myapp.example.com>
2044               ServerName www.myapp.example.com
2045               ServerAlias myapp.example.com
2046               DocumentRoot /websites/myapp.example.com
2047
2048               <Directory /home/myapp/myapp>
2049                   AllowOverride None
2050                   Order allow,deny
2051                   Allow from all
2052               </Directory>
2053
2054               <Location />
2055                   SetHandler perl-script
2056                   PerlResponseHandler Plack::Handler::Apache2
2057                   PerlSetVar psgi_app /websites/myapp.example.com/app.psgi
2058               </Location>
2059
2060               ErrorLog  /websites/myapp.example.com/logs/error_log
2061               CustomLog /websites/myapp.example.com/logs/access_log common
2062           </VirtualHost>
2063
2064       To set the environment you want to use for your application (production
2065       or development), you can set it this way:
2066
2067           <VirtualHost>
2068               ...
2069               SetEnv DANCER_ENVIRONMENT "production"
2070               ...
2071           </VirtualHost>
2072

PLUGINS

2074   Writing a plugin
2075       See "Writing the plugin" in Dancer2::Plugin for information on how to
2076       author a new plugin for Dancer2.
2077

EXPORTS

2079       By default, "use Dancer2" exports all the DSL keywords and sets up the
2080       webapp under the name of the current package. The following tags
2081       control exports and webapp namespace.
2082
2083!keyword
2084
2085           If you want to prevent Dancer2 from exporting specific keywords
2086           (perhaps you plan to implement them yourself in a different way, or
2087           they clash with another module you're loading), you can simply
2088           exclude them:
2089
2090               use Test::More;
2091               use Dancer2 qw(!pass);
2092
2093           The above would import all keywords as usual, with the exception of
2094           "pass".
2095
2096appname
2097
2098           A larger application may split its source between several packages
2099           to aid maintainability. Dancer2 will create a separate application
2100           for each package, each having separate hooks, config and/or
2101           engines. You can force Dancer2 to collect the route and hooks into
2102           a single application with the "appname" tag; e.g.
2103
2104               package MyApp;
2105               use Dancer2;
2106               get '/foo' => sub {...};
2107
2108               package MyApp::Private;
2109               use Dancer2 appname => MyApp;
2110               get '/bar' => sub {...};
2111
2112           The above would add the "bar" route to the MyApp application.
2113           Dancer2 will not create an application with the name
2114           "MyApp::Private".
2115
2116:nopragmas
2117
2118           By default Dancer2 will import three pragmas: strict, warnings, and
2119           utf8. If you require control over the imported pragmas, you can add
2120           :nopragmas to the importing flags, in which case Dancer2 will not
2121           import any pragmas:
2122
2123               use strict;
2124               use warnings;
2125               no warnings 'experimental::smartmatch'; # for example...
2126               use Dancer2 ':nopragmas'; # do not touch the existing pragmas
2127
2128           This way importing "Dancer2" does not change the existing pragmas
2129           setup you have.
2130
2131       When you "use Dancer2", you get an "import" method added into the
2132       current package. This will override previously declared import methods
2133       from other sources, such as Exporter. Dancer2 applications support the
2134       following tags on import:
2135
2136with
2137
2138           The "with" tag allows an app to pass one or more config entries to
2139           another app, when it "use"s it.
2140
2141               package MyApp;
2142               use Dancer2;
2143
2144               BEGIN { set session => 'YAML' };
2145               use Blog with => { session => engine('session') };
2146
2147           In this example, the session engine is passed to the "Blog" app.
2148           That way, anything done in the session will be shared between both
2149           apps.
2150
2151           Anything that is defined in the config entry can be passed that
2152           way. If we want to pass the whole config object, it can be done
2153           like so:
2154
2155               use SomeApp with => { %{config()} };
2156

DSL KEYWORDS

2158       Dancer2 provides you with a DSL (Domain-Specific Language) which makes
2159       implementing your web application trivial.
2160
2161       For example, take the following example:
2162
2163           use Dancer2;
2164
2165           get '/hello/:name' => sub {
2166               my $name = route_parameters->get('name');
2167           };
2168           dance;
2169
2170       "get" and "route_parameters" are keywords provided by Dancer2.
2171
2172       See "DSL Keywords manual" in Dancer2::Manual::Keywords for a complete
2173       list of keywords provided by Dancer2.
2174

AUTHOR

2176       Dancer Core Developers
2177
2179       This software is copyright (c) 2022 by Alexis Sukrieh.
2180
2181       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
2182       the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
2183
2184
2185
2186perl v5.36.0                      2022-07-22                Dancer2::Manual(3)
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