NAME

CatalystX::ASP - PerlScript/ASP on Catalyst

VERSION

version 1.15

SYNOPSIS

package MyApp;
use Moose;
use Catalyst;
extends 'Catalyst';

with 'CatalystX::ASP::Role';

1;

DESCRIPTION

CatalystX::ASP is a plugin for Catalyst to support ASP (PerlScript). This is largely based off of Joshua Chamas's Apache::ASP, as the application I've been working with was written for Apache::ASP. Thus, this was designed to be almost a drop-in replacement. However, there were many features that I chose not to implement.

This plugin basically creates a Catalyst View which can process ASP scripts. As an added bonus, a simple CatalystX::ASP::Role can be included to allow for automatical processing of files with .asp extension in the application root directory.

Just to be clear, the Parser is almost totally ripped off of Joshua Chamas's parser in Apache::ASP. Similarly with the Compiler and GlobalASA. However, the other components are reimplementations.

CONFIGURATION

You can configure CatalystX::ASP in Catalyst under the CatalystX::ASP section of the configuration

__PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
  Global        => 'lib',
  GlobalPackage => 'MyApp',
  IncludesDir   => 'templates',
  MailHost      => 'localhost',
  MailFrom      => 'myapp@localhost',
  XMLSubsMatch  => '(?:myapp):\w+',
  Debug         => 0,
}):

The following documentation is also plagiarized from Joshua Chamas.

• Global

  Global is the nerve center of an Apache::ASP application, in which the global.asa may reside defining the web application's event handlers.

  Includes, specified with <!--#include file=somefile.inc--> or $Response->Include() syntax, may also be in this directory, please see section on includes for more information.

• GlobalPackage

  Perl package namespace that all scripts, includes, & global.asa events are compiled into. By default, GlobalPackage is some obscure name that is uniquely generated from the file path of the Global directory, and global.asa file. The use of explicitly naming the GlobalPackage is to allow scripts access to globals and subs defined in a perl module that is included with commands like:

    __PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
      GlobalPackage => 'MyApp' });
  

• IncludesDir

  No default. If set, this directory will also be used to look for includes when compiling scripts. By default the directory the script is in, and the Global directory are checked for includes.

  This extension was added so that includes could be easily shared between ASP applications, whereas placing includes in the Global directory only allows sharing between scripts in an application.

    __PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
      IncludeDirs => '.' });
  

  Also, multiple includes directories may be set:

    __PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
      IncludeDirs => ['../shared', '/usr/local/asp/shared'] });
  

  Using IncludesDir in this way creates an includes search path that would look like ., Global, ../shared, /usr/local/asp/shared. The current directory of the executing script is checked first whenever an include is specified, then the Global directory in which the global.asa resides, and finally the IncludesDir setting.

• MailHost

  The mail host is the SMTP server that the below Mail* config directives will use when sending their emails. By default Net::SMTP uses SMTP mail hosts configured in Net::Config, which is set up at install time, but this setting can be used to override this config.

  The mail hosts specified in the Net::Config file will be used as backup SMTP servers to the MailHost specified here, should this primary server not be working.

    __PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
      MailHost => 'smtp.yourdomain.com.foobar' });
  

• MailFrom

  No default. Set this to specify the default mail address placed in the From: mail header for the $Server->Mail() API extension

    __PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
      MailFrom => 'youremail@yourdomain.com.foobar' });
  

• XMLSubsMatch

  Default is not defined. Set to some regexp pattern that will match all XML and HTML tags that you want to have perl subroutines handle. The is "XMLSubs" in Apache::ASP's custom tag technology ported to CatalystX::ASP, and can be used to create powerful extensions to your XML and HTML rendering.

  Please see XML/XSLT section for instructions on its use.

    __PACKAGE__->config('CatalystX::ASP' => {
      XMLSubsMatch => 'my:[\w\-]+' });
  

• Debug

  Currently only a placeholder. Only effect is to turn on stacktrace on __DIE__ signal.

OBJECTS

The beauty of the ASP Object Model is that it takes the burden of CGI and Session Management off the developer, and puts them in objects accessible from any ASP script and include. For the perl programmer, treat these objects as globals accessible from anywhere in your ASP application.

The CatalystX::ASP object model supports the following:

Object        Function
------        --------
$Session      - user session state
$Response     - output to browser
$Request      - input from browser
$Application  - application state
$Server       - general methods

These objects, and their methods are further defined in their respective pod.

• CatalystX::ASP::Session
• CatalystX::ASP::Response
• CatalystX::ASP::Request
• CatalystX::ASP::Application
• CatalystX::ASP::Server

If you would like to define your own global objects for use in your scripts and includes, you can initialize them in the global.asa Script_OnStart like:

use vars qw( $Form $App ); # declare globals
sub Script_OnStart {
  $App  = MyApp->new;     # init $App object
  $Form = $Request->Form; # alias form data
}

In this way you can create site wide application objects and simple aliases for common functions.

METHODS

These are methods available for the CatalystX::ASP object

• $self->search_includes_dir($include)

  Returns the full path to the include if found in IncludesDir

• $self->file_id($file)

  Returns a file id that can be used a subroutine name when compiled

• $self->execute($c, $code)

  Eval the given $code. Requies the Catalyst $context object to be passed in first. The $code can be a ref to CODE or a SCALAR, ie. a string of code to execute. Alternatively, $code can be the absolute name of a subroutine.

• $self->cleanup()

  Cleans up objects that are transient. Get ready for the next request

BUGS/CAVEATS

Obviously there are no bugs ;-) As of now, every known bug has been addressed. However, a caveat is that not everything from Apache::ASP is implemented here. Though the module touts itself to be a drop-in replacement, don't believe the author and try it out for yourself first. You've been warned :-)

AUTHOR

Steven Leung < sleung@cpan.org >

Joshua Chamas < asp-dev@chamas.com >

SEE ALSO

• Catalyst
• Apache::ASP

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2016 Steven Leung

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.

See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/ for more information.