NAME
KelpX::Sweet - Kelp with extra sweeteners
DESCRIPTION
Kelp is good. Kelp is great. But what if you could give it more syntactic sugar and separate your routes from the logic in a cleaner way? KelpX::Sweet attempts to do just that.
SIMPLE TUTORIAL
For the most part, your original app.psgi will remain the same as Kelps.
MyApp.pm
package MyApp;
use KelpX::Sweet;
maps ['Main'];Yep, that's the complete code for your base. You pass maps an array reference of the routes you want to include. It will look for them in MyApp::Route::. So the above example will load MyApp::Route::Main. Next, let's create that file
MyApp/Route/Main.pm
package MyApp::Route::Main;
use KelpX::Sweet::Route;
get '/' => 'Controller::Root::hello';
get '/nocontroller' => sub { 'Hello, world from no controller!' };Simply use KelpX::Sweet::Route, then create your route definitions here. You're welcome to put your logic inside code refs, but that makes the whole idea of this module pointless ;) It will load MyApp:: then whatever you pass to it. So the '/' above will call MyApp::Controller::Root::hello. Don't worry, any of your arguments will also be sent the method inside that controller, so you don't need to do anything else!
Finally, we can create the controller
MyApp/Controller/Root.pm
package MyApp::Controller::Root;
use KelpX::Sweet::Controller;
sub hello {
my ($self) = @_;
return "Hello, world!";
}You now have a fully functional Kelp app! Remember, because this module is just a wrapper, you can do pretty much anything Kelp can, like $self->param> for example.
SUGARY SYNTAX
By sugar, we mean human readable and easy to use. You no longer need a build method, then to call ->add on an object for your routes. It uses a similar syntax to Kelp::Less. You'll also find one called bridge.
get
This will trigger a standard GET request.
get '/mypage' => sub { 'It works' };post
Will trigger on POST requests only
post '/someform' => sub { 'Posted like a boss' };any
Will trigger on POST or GET requests
any '/omni' => sub { 'Hit me up on any request' };bridge
Bridges are cool, so please check out the Kelp documentation for more information on what they do and how they work.
bridge '/users/:id' => sub {
unless ($self->user->logged_in) {
return;
}
return 1;
};
get '/users/:id/view' => 'Controller::Users::view';MODELS
You can always use an attribute to create a database connection, or separate them using models in a slightly cleaner way. In your config you supply a hash reference with the models alias (what you will reference it as in code), the full path, and finally any arguments it might have (like the dbi line, username and password).
# config.pl
models => {
'LittleDB' => {
'model' => 'TestApp::Model::LittleDB',
'args' => ['dbi:SQLite:testapp.db'],
},
},Then, you create TestApp::Model::LittleDB
package TestApp::Model::LittleDB;
use KelpX::Sweet::Model;
use DBIx::Lite;
sub build {
my ($self, @args) = @_;
return DBIx::Lite->connect(@args);
}As you can see, the build function returns the DB object you want. You can obviously use DBIx::Class or whatever you want here.
That's all you need. Now you can pull that model instance out at any time in your controllers with model.
package TestApp::Controller::User;
use KelpX::Sweet::Controller;
sub users {
my ($self) = @_;
my @users = $self->model('LittleDB')->table('users')->all;
return join ', ', map { $_->name } @users;
}Models and DBIx::Class
If you enjoy the way Catalyst handles DBIx::Class models, you're going to love this (I hope so, at least). KelpX::Sweet will automagically create models based on the sources of your schema if it detects it's a DBIx::Class::Schema. Nothing really has to change, KelpX::Sweet will figure it out on its own.
package TestApp::Model::LittleDB;
use KelpX::Sweet::Model;
use LittleDB::Schema;
sub build {
my ($self, @args) = @_;
return LittleDB::Schema->connect(@args);
}Then just use it as you normally would in Catalyst (except we store it in $self, not $c).
package TestApp::Controller::User;
use KelpX::Sweet::Controller;
sub users {
my ($self) = @_;
my @users = $self->model('LittleDB::User')->all;
return join ', ', map { $_->name } @users;
}KelpX::Sweet will loop through all your schemas sources and create models based on your alias, and the sources name. So, Alias::SourceName.
When we start our app, even though we've only added LittleDB, you'll see we have the new ones based on our Schema. Neat!
.----------------------------------------------------------.
| Model | Alias |
+--------------------------------------+-------------------+
| TestApp::Model::LittleDB | LittleDB |
| LittleDB::Schema::ResultSet::User | LittleDB::User |
| LittleDB::Schema::ResultSet::Product | LittleDB::Product |
'--------------------------------------+-------------------'VIEWS
OK, so to try and not separate too much, I've chosen not to include views. Just use the standard Kelp modules (ie: Kelp::Module::Template::Toolkit). However, there is a convenience method mentioned below.
detach
This method will call template for you with the added benefit of automatically filling out the filename and including whatever is in the stash for you.
package MyApp::Controller::Awesome;
use KelpX::Sweet::Controller;
sub hello {
my ($self) = @_;
$self->stash->{name} = 'World';
$self->detach;
}Then, you just create hello.tt.
<h2>Hello, [% name %]</h2>While not really required, it does save a bit of typing and can come in quite useful.
REALLY COOL THINGS TO NOTE
Default imports
You should be aware that KelpX::Sweet will import warnings, strict and true for you. Because of this, there is no requirement to add a true value to the end of your file. I chose this because it just makes things look a little cleaner.
KelpX::Sweet starter
On installation of KelpX::Sweet, you'll receive a file called kelpx-sweet. Simply run this, passing it the name of your module and it will create a working test app with minimal boilerplate so you can get started straight away. Just run it as:
$ kelpx-sweet MyApp
$ kelpx-sweet Something::With::A::Larger::NamespaceAUTHOR
Brad Haywood <brad@perlpowered.com>
LICENSE
You may distribute this code under the same terms as Perl itself.