NAME

HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler - Link Mason to Apache via mod_perl

SYNOPSIS

    my $ah = new HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler (..name/value params..);
    ...
    sub handler {
        my $r = shift;
        $ah->handle_request($r);
    }

DESCRIPTION

The ApacheHandler object links Mason to Apache, running components in response to HTTP requests. It is controlled primarily through parameters to the new() constructor.

handle_request() is not a user method, but rather is called from the HTML::Mason::handler() routine in handler.pl.

PARAMETERS TO THE new() CONTRUCTOR

debug_handler_proc

debug_handler_script

debug_mode

debug_perl_binary

The debug_* parameters control Mason's use of debug files. Component "debugging" in Admin procedures are fully described in the Mason Administrator's Guide.

error_mode

Specifies one of two ways to handle Perl errors, 'fatal' or 'html'. In fatal mode the handler simply dies with the error message. This may be caught with an eval around $ah->handle_request or left for Apache to handle (generally with a return status of 500). In HTML mode the handler sends a readable HTML version of the error message to the client. HTML mode is most useful in combination with batch output mode for debugging.

output_mode

Specifies one of two ways to send output to the client, 'batch' or 'stream'. Batch mode means that Mason computes the entire page in memory and then transmits it all at once. Stream mode means that Mason outputs data as soon as it is computed. (This is only Mason's point of view; it does not take buffering done by Perl or the O/S into account.) Both of these modes use $r->print and override the value of $interp->out_method. The default is 'batch'. If output_mode is specified as undef, then $interp->out_method is left untouched.

top_level_predicate

Reference to a subroutine that decides whether a component can answer top level requests. This allows for private-use components that live within the DocumentRoot but are inaccesible from URLs. By default, always returns 1.

The subroutine receives one parameter, the absolute path to the component. It then returns either a true (serve component) or false (reject component). In this example, the predicate rejects requests for components whose name starts with an "_" character:

    top_level_predicate => sub { basename($_[0]) !~ /^_/ }

NOTE: In this example I've used basename() from the File::Basename package. Since the top_level_predicate is defined in handler.pl, within HTML::Mason, any such symbols need to be imported into that package. In other words, I would need a use File::Basename somewhere below the package HTML::Mason line in handler.pl.

AUTHOR

Jonathan Swartz, swartz@transbay.net

SEE ALSO

HTML::Mason, HTML::Mason::Parser, HTML::Mason::Interp, HTML::Mason::Admin