2001-05-04 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* Release 0.41.
* This release is the first one following successful registrations with
"The Perl 5 Module List". The updated entry would look like this:
CGI::
::Portable adpO Framework for server-agnostic web apps DUNCAND
* This is the first release of CGI::Portable, which has been renamed from
HTML::Application. There are several changes to the module itself.
This release also includes all of my CGI::WPM::* modules, which have not been
renamed, to serve as demonstrations of CGI::Portable in use. Their code has
been updated a bit. Similarly, this distribution has been renamed to
CGI-Portable from HTML-Application and duncand-prerelease.
* This distribution now has a "demos" folder containing 40 files and folders
which are ready-to-use example scripts and data files that exercise
CGI::Portable and all of the CGI::WPM::* modules. Many of these are exactly
the same as the *new* Synopsis POD for particular modules. Some have minor
adjustments or demonstrate the Synopsis examples that make use of the most
features of the particular modules. Many demos have extra files in them
that never appeared in Synopsis. It is my hope that these demos will
make it an order of magnitude easier for you to adopt my modules and put
them to work in a productive manner. The provided demos include: a multi-page
web site with usage tracking, guest books, mail and survey forms, static html
and plain text pages, segmented text file display, redirection, and a few
other strange modules that don't do anything useful but play with features.
* All of the CGI::WPM::* modules except CountFile had their POD updated,
most notably with their Synopsis section. The new Synopsis should each be
complete working programs now, although some of the other data files they
call on may not exist unless you make them.
* All modules in this distribution are at version 0.41 whether or not there
was any functionality change.
* Updated these methods of CGI::Portable to permit more descriptive error
messages: resolve_prefs_node_to_array(), resolve_prefs_node_to_hash().
Previously these methods always reported a nonexistant file or directory
(whatever is in $!) even if the file did exist but had a different problem.
The new versions will distinguish a successful runtime that returns something
other than a hash/array ref, and will distinguish an existing file that just
doesn't compile or has a runtime error.
* Updated methods add_virtual_filename_error(), add_physical_filename_error()
to support custom reason strings for file-related errors as an extra method
argument. Previously the "reason" was always the content of $!.
* Modified method call_component() so that it now makes error screens itself
upon error conditions that it discovers, including failure of the component
to compile or run, or previously unhandled errors, probably related to prefs.
As a result, the calling structure of this method is simplified; you simply
take_context_output() and/or send the output as you usually do, without
needing extra code to report error conditions. (You can still make a custom
error screen if you want.) The second argument to call_component() was also
removed, and the method will now always make an error screen and return if
there is an unresolved error message. Likewise to the simplified calling
code, the called component doesn't need code to make an error screen for
problems occuring prior to its invocation, and is thereby simplified.
* Added method search_and_replace_url_path_tokens() to CGI::Portable that
handles a special kind of search and replace that
search_and_replace_page_body() can't handle, since it deals with processing
and replacing text near the token being searched for rather than just the
token itself. This method makes it easier to embed dynamic self-referencing
urls inside static screen content files used by your app.
* Added seven new methods to CGI::Portable which handle a special set of
"global preferences", each of which gets its own accessor method, which can
be set once and used all over your program. They are:
default_application_title(), default_maintainer_name(),
default_maintainer_email_address(), default_maintainer_email_screen_url_path(),
default_smtp_host(), default_smtp_timeout(), maintainer_email_html().
The updated call_component() uses this information in its error screens, and
the various CGI::WPM::* modules use it in many places as well. During
release 0.4, this global info was passed using the miscellaneous objects
property, which was a rather user-unfriendly means in comparison; scripts
written to use release 0.4 will have to be updated accordingly.
* CGI::Portable received several updates to its pod besides the appropriate
method updates, most notably in the Name, Synopsis, Description,
Similar Modules, A Different Overview.
* Added a couple methods to CGI::WPM::SimpleUserIO which will considerably
reduce the size of your config shell if you use them: the method
give_user_input_to_cgi_portable() will take a CGI::Portable object and feed
it all the user input possible at once; the method
send_user_output_from_cgi_portable() will likewise take a CGI::Portable
object and send its output to the user all at once.
* CGI::WPM::Base has been reduced to half its size as all but these 3 methods
were removed: main(), main_dispatch(), _get_amendment_message(). The code
to check for pre-existing logged error conditions was also removed.
* Updated CGI::WPM::GuestBook in the following ways: 1. The private method
get_question_field_defs() had a lot of redundant code removed, reducing the
method to half its previous size; for one thing, it makes use of
CGI::Portable's resolve_prefs_node_to_array() method now instead of doing a
poorer job of it manually. 2. Added preference "sign_by_default" which
allows you to choose whether the signing or reading mode is the default
when one isn't specified. 3. Added self-referencing links in the signing
mode that takes one to the reading mode; the reverse had already existed; so
now the module has built-in links between all of its modes. 4. Added
preference "msg_list_show_email" which if true will display the email
addresses of book signers in the reading mode; the default of not showing
the emails is what always happened before, even though they were stored in
the message file. 5. Minor update to the screen showing a successful
message was just posted where the recipient's email is now shown.
6. Updated the functionality relating to the simplified Boulder data files
(used to be called SequentialFile by me) where nonexistant files are only
created if they are for storing messages; they are now not created when they
were supposed to hold field definitions, since this is an error.
* Updated CGI::WPM::MailForm in the same ways as #s 1, 5, 6 of GuestBook;
regarding #6, MailForm would only ever read from such files anyway.
* Updated CGI::WPM::Usage in the following ways: 1. Removed preference
'use_def_engines'; it no longer applies because there is no longer any list
of search engines built into the module. To attempt such a thing here is an
impossible task considering how many there are and people's varying opinions
on what should be grouped there. So now if you want search engine
differentiation in referrer listings then you can provide a complete list
yourself via the already existing 'search_engines' preference.
2. Removed preference 'site_urls' since it had existed to make a big deal of
something that is better automated and not worried about anyway. From now on,
a referring url is said to be self-referencing if its base portion matches
the return value of CGI::Portable's base_url() method. While a few self urls
will undoubtedly end up in the normal referrer list, the majority will be
caught, and the ones slipping through are easy to identify in the list.
3. As a result of these changes, CGI::WPM::Usage is now a tenth smaller.
2001-04-23 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* duncand-prerelease 0.4, the last version of any distribution, prior to
this one, to include the CGI::WPM::* modules, was released.
2001-04-23 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* Release 0.4.
* This is the second release of HTML::Application as a distinct module.
It follows more extensive usability testing which resulted in a few added
features and bug fixes. As a result of the new testing, this module is being
moved to beta status from alpha.
* Fixed SYNOPSIS POD in "Aardvark" module relating to the $inner context; some
methods are now called following make_new_context() instead of before.
* Fixed bug in private method _make_an_url(), which is used by
url_as_string() and recall_url(), where query parameters were not being
replicated when url_path_is_in_path_info() was true; now they are.
* Fixed design flaw in make_new_context() where it had been calling
initialize() to give default values to the new object before copying over the
non default ones; now initialize() is not called and all object properties
are either set or copied explicitely. The flaw being fixed relates to
unpleasantries when a subclass overrides the initialize() method.
* Added new method take_context_output() which is designed to complement
make_new_context(). This new method copies output values from the new
context back to the parent object.
* Added new utility method search_and_replace_page_body() which takes a hash
of tokens (or regexps) to search for in the html page body and text to
replace them with; this method implements search-and-replace functionality.
* This module has become 5K larger including documentation.
2001-04-20 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* Release 0.38.
* This release is the first one anticipating official registrations with
"The Perl 5 Module List". The updated entry would look like this:
HTML::
::Application adpO Framework for complex portable web apps DUNCAND
* This release contains the first appearance of my HTML::Application module.
Its code is derived from several related modules which had been constantly
renamed, split, and combined since their first CPAN release in 2000-07-23.
The most recent temporary names for these were "CGI::WPM::Globals",
"CGI::WPM::PageMaker" and "CGI::WPM::WebUserIO". They were previously
released as parts of the following distributions:
- "libdwg": v1.0 r2000-07-23, v1.11 r2000-08-23
- "CGI-FormGenerator": v0.9 r2000-09-04, v0.9201 r2000-12-26
- "CGI-WebsiteGenerator": v0.3 r2000-09-04, v0.36 r2001-04-10
- "duncand-prerelease": v0.37 r2001-04-12
* This module requires Perl version 5.004.
* It also requires File::VirtualPath 1.0, HTML::EasyTags 1.04,
Data::MultiValuedhash 1.07, and CGI::MultiValuedHash 1.07. I consider the
first three modules to be stable and well tested, as well as unlikely to
change. The fourth module is partially tested, but production use of the
other functionality finds it to be working properly.
* This release comes with the CPAN standard files "Makefile.PL", "test.pl",
and "MANIFEST", which were all created since the previous release.
* Note that "test.pl" is incomplete; it only tests that this module will
compile but not that the methods work; it is included so that people can use
the Makefile in the standard way during installation. This file will be
fleshed out when I have the chance.
2001-04-12 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* duncand-prerelease 0.37, the last version of any distribution to include
CGI::WPM::Globals, was released.
2000-07-23 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* libdwg 1.0, the first version of any distribution to include
CGI::WPM::Globals and other CGI::WPM::* modules, was released on CPAN.
2000-05-15 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* Completed primary development on these modules, but POD mostly nonexistant.
2000-03-07 Darren Duncan <perl@DarrenDuncan.net>
* Began development on the final versions of these modules.
* Module based on a template created by h2xs 1.18.
1999-07 thru 1999-12
* Worked on second prototype of code that ended up in these modules. The
effects of this development, as far as this distribution's own modules go,
were mostly confined to CGI::Portable.
* As a separate but parallel project, I also implemented a complete and
generic Threaded Discussion Board object using some of my low level modules *and*
CGI.pm. This board is possibly still in use today in a corporate Intranet site.
1999-02 thru 1999-05
* Created first prototypes of code that ended up in these modules and used
in a production environment for a year to generate my web sites. Many present-day
features were present at that time, including static pages, segmented text pages,
e-mail forms and guest books with unlimited questions (but were text only),
redirection, and usage tracking. The implementation was just a hell of a lot
uglier. These modules also used CGI.pm to do some things that have since become
implemented by my own more focused modules: HTML::FormTemplate, HTML::EasyTags,
Data::MultiValuedHash, CGI::MultiValuedHash, CGI::Portable, CGI::WPM::SimpleUserIO.