NAME

Web::Reactor perl-based web application machinery.

SYNOPSIS

Startup CGI script example:

  #!/usr/bin/perl
  use strict;
  use lib '/opt/perl/reactor/lib'; # if Reactor is custom location installed
  use Web::Reactor;

  my %cfg = (
            'APP_NAME'     => 'demo',
            'APP_ROOT'     => '/opt/reactor/demo/',
            'LIB_DIRS'     => [ '/opt/reactor/demo/lib/'  ],
            'HTML_DIRS'    => [ '/opt/reactor/demo/html/' ],
            'SESS_VAR_DIR' => '/opt/reactor/demo/var/sess/',
            'DEBUG'        => 4,
            );

  eval { new Web::Reactor( %cfg )->run(); };
  if( $@ )
    {
    print STDERR "REACTOR CGI EXCEPTION: $@";
    print "content-type: text/html\n\nsystem is temporary unavailable";
    }

HTML page file example:

  <#html_header>

  <$app_name>

  <#menu>

  testing page html file

  action test: <&test>

  <#html_footer>

Action module example:

  package Reactor::Actions::demo::test;
  use strict;
  use Data::Dumper;
  use Web::Reactor::HTML::FormEngine;

  sub main
  {
    my $reo = shift; # Web::Reactor object. Provides all API and context.

    my $text; # result html text

    if( $reo->get_input_button() eq 'FORM_CANCEL' )
      {
      # if clicked form button is cancel,
      # return back to the calling/previous page/view with optional data
      return $reo->forward_back( ACTION_RETURN => 'IS_CANCEL' );
      }

    # add some html content
    $text .= "<p>Reactor::Actions::demo::test here!<p>";

    # create link and hide its data. only accessible from inside web app.
    my $grid_href = $reo->args_new( _PN => 'grid', TABLE => 'testtable', );
    $text .= "<a href=?_=$grid_href>go to grid</a><p>";

    # access page session. it will be auto-loaded on demand
    my $page_session_hr = $reo->get_page_session();
    my $fortune = $page_session_hr->{ 'FORTUNE' } ||= `/usr/games/fortune`;
    
    # access input (form) data. $i and $e are hashrefs
    my $i = $reo->get_user_input(); # get plain user input (hashref)
    my $e = $reo->get_safe_input(); # get safe data (never reach user browser)

    $text .= "<p><hr><p>$fortune<hr>";

    my $bc = $reo->args_here(); # session keeper, this is manual use

    $text .= "<form method=post>";
    $text .= "<input type=hidden name=_ value=$bc>";
    $text .= "input <input name=inp>";
    $text .= "<input type=submit name=button:form_ok>";
    $text .= "<input type=submit name=button:form_cancel>";
    $text .= "</form>";

    my $form = $reo->new_form();

    $text .= "<p><hr><p>";

    return $text;
  }

  1;

DESCRIPTION

Web::Reactor provides automation of most of the usual and frequent tasks when constructing a web application. Such tasks include:

  * User session handling (creation, cookies support, storage)
  * Page (web screen/view) session handling (similar to user sessions attributes)
  * Sessions (user/page/etc.) data storage and auto load/ssave
  * Inter-page relations and data transport (hides real data from the end-user)
  * HTML page creation and expansion (i.e. including preprocessing :))
  * Optional HTML forms creation and data handling

Web::Reactor is designed to allow extending or replacing some parts as:

  * Session storage (data store on filesystem, database, remote or vmem)
  * HTML creation/expansion/preprocessing
  * Page actions/modules execution (can be skipped if custom HTML prep used)

PROJECT STATUS

At the moment Web::Reactor is in beta. API is mostly frozen but it is fairly possible to be changed and/or extended. However drastic changes are not planned :)

If you are interested in the project or have some notes etc, contact me at:

  Vladi Belperchinov-Shabanski "Cade"
  <cade@bis.bg> 
  <cade@biscom.net> 
  <cade@cpan.org> 
  <cade@datamax.bg>

further contact info, mailing list and github repository is listed below.

FIXME: TODO:

  * config examples
  * pages example
  * actions example
  * API description (input data, safe data, sessions, forwarding, actions, html)
  * ...

DEMO APPLICATION

Documentation will be improved shortly, but meanwhile you can check 'demo' directory inside distribution tarball or inside the github repository. This is fully functional (however stupid :)) application. It shows how data is processed, calling pages/views, inspecting page (calling views) stack, html forms automation, forwarding.

MAILING LIST

  web-reactor@googlegroups.com

GITHUB REPOSITORY

  https://github.com/cade4/perl-web-reactor
  
  git clone git://github.com/cade4/perl-web-reactor.git

AUTHOR

  Vladi Belperchinov-Shabanski "Cade"

  <cade@biscom.net> <cade@datamax.bg> <cade@cpan.org>

  http://cade.datamax.bg