Template::Plugin::Apache::SessionManager - Session manager Template Toolkit plugin
[% USE my_sess = Apache.SessionManager %] # Getting single session value SID = [% my_sess.get('_session_id') %] # Getting multiple session values [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get('_session_id','_session_timestamp') %] * [% s %] [% END %] # same as [% keys = ['_session_id','_session_timestamp']; FOREACH s = my_sess.get(keys) %] * [% s %] [% END %] # Getting all session values [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get %] * [% s %] [% END %] # Setting session values: [% my_sess.set('foo' => 10, 'bar' => 20, ...) %] # Deleting session value(s) [% my_sess.delete('foo', 'bar') %] # same as [% keys = ['foo', 'bar']; my_sess.delete(keys) %] # Destroying session [% my_sess.destroy %]
This Template Toolkit plugin provides an interface to Apache::SessionManager module wich provides a session manager for a web application. This modules allows you to integrate a transparent session management into your template documents (it handles for you the cookie/URI session tracking management of a web application)
An Apache.SessionManager plugin object can be created as follows:
Apache.SessionManager
[% USE my_sess = Apache.SessionManager %]
or directly:
[% USE Apache.SessionManager %]
This restore a pre-existent session (or create new if this fails). You can then use the plugin methods.
Reads a session value(s) and returns an array containing the keys values:
Session id is [% my_sess.get('_session_id') %] [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get('foo', 'bar') %] * [% s %] [% END %]
Also it is possible to call get method:
get
[% keys = [ 'foo', 'bar' ]; FOREACH s = my_sess.get(keys) %] * [% s %] [% END %]
Called with no args, returns all keys values.
Set session values
[% my_sess.set('foo' => 10, 'bar' => 20, ...) %]
Called with no args, has no effects.
Delete session values
[% my_sess.delete('foo', 'bar', ...) %]
Also it is possible to call delete method:
delete
[% keys = [ 'foo', 'bar' ]; my_sess.delete(keys) %]
Destroy current session
[% my_sess.destroy %]
Apache::SessionManager is a HTTP session manager wrapper around Apache::Session (it provides a persistence mechanism for data associated with a session between a client and the server).
Apache::SessionManager allows you to integrate a transparent session management into your web application (it handles for you the cookie/URI session tracking management).
A session is a set of interactions (HTTP transactions). For example, a visitor may add items to be purchased to a shopping cart and the contents of the cart may be made visible by several different pages the visitor views during the purchase process.
This section illustrates how to use session manager TT2 plugin for use within Apache::Template mod_perl extension.
The Apache::Template module provides a simple interface to the Template Toolkit allowing Apache to serve directly TT2 files.
In httpd.conf (or any files included by the Include directive):
Include
<IfModule mod_perl.c> PerlModule Apache::Template TT2Trim On TT2PostChomp On TT2EvalPerl On TT2Params uri env params TT2IncludePath /usr/local/apache/htdocs/tt2/includes TT2PreProcess config header TT2PostProcess footer PerlModule Apache::SessionManager PerlTransHandler Apache::SessionManager <LocationMatch "\.tt2$"> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::Template PerlSetVar SessionManagerTracking On PerlSetVar SessionManagerExpire 600 PerlSetVar SessionManagerInactivity 60 PerlSetVar SessionManagerName TT2SESSIONID PerlSetVar SessionManagerDebug 5 PerlSetVar SessionManagerStore File PerlSetVar SessionManagerStoreArgs "Directory => /tmp/apache_session_data" </LocationMatch> </IfModule>
In the case you don't have access to httpd.conf, you can put similar directives directly into an .htaccess file:
<IfModule mod_perl.c> PerlModule Apache::Template <FilesMatch "\.tt2$"> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::Template PerlHeaderParserHandler Apache::SessionManager PerlSetVar SessionManagerTracking On PerlSetVar SessionManagerExpire 600 PerlSetVar SessionManagerInactivity 60 PerlSetVar SessionManagerName TT2SESSIONID PerlSetVar SessionManagerDebug 5 PerlSetVar SessionManagerStore File PerlSetVar SessionManagerStoreArgs "Directory => /tmp/apache_session_data" </FilesMatch> </IfModule>
The only difference is that you cannot use Location directive (I used FilesMatch) and you must install Apache::SessionManager in Header parsing phase of Apache request instead of URI translation phase.
Location
FilesMatch
Header parsing
URI translation
Now you can use Template:Plugin::Apache::SessionManager plugin by 'USE' it in TT2 template file. This is a session.tt2 TT2 template:
Template:Plugin::Apache::SessionManager
[% USE my_sess = Apache.SessionManager %] <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Session management with Apache::Template</TITLE> <BODY> The Session Dump [% USE dumper %] <PRE> [% dumper.dump(my_sess.session) %] </PRE> <H3>Getting session values</H3> Sigle session value<BR> ID is [% my_sess.get('_session_id') %]<P> Multiple session values<BR> [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get('_session_id','_session_timestamp') %] * [% s %]<BR> [% END %]<P> Multiple values by array ref<BR> [% keys = [ '_session_id', '_session_start' ]; FOREACH s = my_sess.get(keys) %] * [% s %]<BR> [% END %] All session values<BR> [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get %] * [% s %]<BR> [% END %] <H3>Setting session values:</H3> ID: [% my_sess.set('foo' => 10, 'bar' => 20, '_session_test' => 'test') %]<BR> </BODY> </HTML>
Save it under the root web directory and launch it with http://localhost/session.tt2
This is an example of deleting session keys and destroying session itself:
[% USE my_sess = Apache.SessionManager %] <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Session management with Apache::Template</TITLE> <BODY> <PRE> [% USE dumper %] [% dumper.dump(my_sess.session) %] </PRE> <H3>Delete session values:</H3> [% my_sess.delete('foo','bar','_session_id') %]<BR> Delete session values by array ref: [% keys = ['foo','bar','_session_id']; my_sess.delete(keys) %]<BR> <H3>Destroy session</H3> [% my_sess.destroy %]<BR> </BODY> </HTML>
In this cases it is necessary to install Apache::SessionManager in Header parsing phase and not into URI translation phase (in this phase, .htaccess hasn't yet been processed).
Using .htaccess, it is possible to use only cookies for the session tracking.
This section illustrates how to use session manager TT2 plugin for use in CGI scripts under Apache::Registry or Apache::PerlRun environment.
This example assumes that you can access to httpd.conf. If not, you must see the NOTES ON USING .htaccess INSTEAD OF httpd.conf on previous section about configuring it via .htaccess.
NOTES ON USING .htaccess INSTEAD OF httpd.conf
<IfModule mod_perl.c> Alias /perl/ /usr/local/apache/perl-scripts/ PerlModule Apache::SessionManager PerlTransHandler Apache::SessionManager <Location /perl> SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler Apache::Registry PerlSendHeader On PerlSetupEnv On Options ExecCGI PerlSetVar SessionManagerTracking On PerlSetVar SessionManagerExpire 600 PerlSetVar SessionManagerInactivity 60 PerlSetVar SessionManagerName TT2SESSIONID PerlSetVar SessionManagerDebug 5 PerlSetVar SessionManagerStore File PerlSetVar SessionManagerStoreArgs "Directory => /tmp/apache_session_data" </Location> </IfModule>
This is the simple CGI script session.cgi:
#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use Template; my $file = 'session.tt2'; my $vars = { title => "Session management in a CGI Apache::Registry environment\n" }; my $template = Template->new(); $template->process($file, $vars) || die "Template process failed: ", $template->error(), "\n";
and this is a session.tt2 TT2 template (it's the same than the Apache::Template version!)
[% USE my_sess = Apache.SessionManager %] <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>[% title %]</TITLE> <BODY> The session dump [% USE dumper %] <PRE> [% dumper.dump(my_sess.session) %] </PRE> <H3>Getting session values</H3> Sigle session value<BR> ID is [% my_sess.get('_session_id') %]<P> Multiple session values<BR> [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get('_session_id','_session_timestamp') %] * [% s %]<BR> [% END %]<P> Multiple values by array ref<BR> [% keys = [ '_session_id', '_session_start' ]; FOREACH s = my_sess.get(keys) %] * [% s %]<BR> [% END %] All session values<BR> [% FOREACH s = my_sess.get %] * [% s %]<BR> [% END %] <H3>Setting session values:</H3> ID: [% my_sess.set('foo' => 10, 'bar' => 20, '_session_test' => 'test') %]<BR> </BODY> </HTML>
Save both into the /usr/local/apache/perl-scripts directory and launch http://localhost/perl/session.cgi
Enrico Sorcinelli <enrico@sorcinelli.it>
This library has been tested by the author with Perl versions 5.005, 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 on different platforms: Linux 2.2 and 2.4, Solaris 2.6 and 2.7.
Send bug reports and comments to: enrico@sorcinelli.it. In each report please include the version module, the Perl version, the Apache, the mod_perl version and your SO. If the problem is browser dependent please include also browser name and version. Patches are welcome and I'll update the module if any problems will be found.
Version 0.02
Apache::SessionManager, Template, Apache::Template, Apache::Registry, Apache::PerlRun, Apache, perl
Copyright (C) 2001-2003 Enrico Sorcinelli. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
To install Template::Plugin::Apache::SessionManager, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Template::Plugin::Apache::SessionManager
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Template::Plugin::Apache::SessionManager
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.