NAME

Ginger - Application framework built around Class::Core wrapper system

VERSION

0.02

SYNOPSIS

AppCore is an application server for Perl. It is designed to be modular, with many "default" modules relevant to a base functional system being provided. The "default" modules can be used to build a full application with minimal system code, focusing on application functionality instead of how to handle typical things such as logging, cookies, sessions, api, etc.

AppCore allows for an application to be created as a package of configuration and modules, similar to the way web containers or servlets are used in a Java environment with a Java application server such as JBoss or Tomcat.

AppCore differs significantly from the approach taken by other Perl applications servers such as Catalyst and Dancer, in that it attempts to seperate the configuration of your application from the application code itself.

DESCRIPTION

Basic Example

runcore.pl

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w
    use strict;
    use Ginger::Reference::Core;
    
    my $core = Ginger::Reference::Core->new();
    $core->run( config => "config.xml" );

config.xml

    <xml>
        <log>
            <console/>
        </log>
        
        <web_request>
            <mod>mongrel2</mod>
        </web_request>
        
        <mode name="default">
            <init>
                <call mod="web_request" func="run" />
                <call mod="web_request" func="wait_threads"/>
            </init>
        </mode>
    </xml>

Configuration

Configuration of an AppCore application is accomplished primarily by the creation and editing of a 'config.xml' file. Such an xml file contains the following:

• A list of the modules your application contains

• Configuration for each of your modules

• Configuration for Ginger::Reference::Core itself and the included modules

• A sequence of steps to be used when starting up an AppCore instance

Application Modules

Application modules are custom modules that interact with AppCore itself to define your custom application logic. An application module is a perl module using Class::Core, containing specific functions so that it can integrate with AppCore and other modules.

Concurrency / Multithreading

AppCore does not currently support multithreading of requests. Long running requests can and will prevent handling of other requests until the long running request is finished. This will be fixed in the next version.

Modules

Note that in version 0.03 ( this version ) the following components are included in the base install of Ginger::Reference::Core. Note also that none of the following links currently have any detailed documentation. The next version should address this.

• Ginger::Reference::Admin::Default

  An admin interface to see the state of a running AppCore, and various information about it's activity.

• Ginger::Reference::Log::Default

  A simple logging system that logs to the shell.

• Ginger::Reference::Web::CookieMan::Default

  A basic cookie handling module.

• Incoming Web Request Modules

  • Ginger::Reference::Web::Request::HTTP_Server_Simple

    A module that uses HTTP::Server::Simple in order to accept incoming requests directly. Note that this module will need HTTP::Server::Simple::CGI to be installed in order for it to work. Also, using this module will redirect regular print statements to go through to a web request; which may be unexpected.

  • Ginger::Reference::Web::Request::Mongrel2

    A module that connects to a Mongrel2 server in order to accept incoming requests. Using this module, which is enabled by default, will require the following CPAN modules to be installed:

    • ZMQ::LibZMQ3

    • URI::Simple

    • Text::TNetstrings

• Ginger::Reference::Web::Router::Default

  A basic routing module that allows modules to register routes against it so that different modules can handle different path requests into the system.

• Ginger::Reference::Web::SessionMan::Default

  A basic session management module that stores sessions in memory. Note session data stored through this module will be lost whenever the AppCore is restarted.

• Internally used modules

  • Ginger::Reference::Shared::Http_Server_Simple_Wrapper

LICENSE

  Copyright (C) 2013 David Helkowski
  
  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
  published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
  License, or (at your option) any later version.  You may also can
  redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Perl
  Artistic License.
  
  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
  GNU General Public License for more details.