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Minima-v0.4.1
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/ Minima

NAME

Minima - Efficient web framework built with modern core classes

SYNOPSIS

app.psgi

use Minima;
Minima::init;

For a "hello, world":

$ minima run    # or plackup app.psgi, as you prefer

And that's it, you've got a functional app. To set up routes, edit etc/routes.map:

GET     /           :Main   home
POST    /login      :Login  process_login
@       not_found   :Main   not_found

Controllers:

class Controller::Main :isa(Minima::Controller);

method home {
    $view->set_template('home');
    $self->render($view, { name => 'world' });
}

Templates:

%% if name
<h1>hello, [% name %]</h1>
%% end

DESCRIPTION

Minima is a framework for PSGI web applications built with Perl's new native object-oriented features (perlclass). It is designed to be simple and minimal, connecting only what is necessary without getting in the way. Consequently, it's lightweight and fast.

Although designed in a typical MVC fashion, no restrictions are imposed on design patterns. Controller classes have access to Plack request and response objects and can interact with them directly. Minima also provides a class for rendering HTML with ease with Template Toolkit, but you are free to use your own solution.

To understand the basic principles of how it works, see the following section in this document. For more about the running process, check Minima::App. You may also want to visit Minima::Manual::Customizing to learn how to customize everything according to your needs.

HOW IT WORKS

A typical web application using Minima operates as follows:

  1. Minima::Setup is loaded. It will read a configuration file (if any, see "Config File" in Minima::Setup) and provides a init subroutine that is passed to Plack as the entry point for receiving requests.

  2. A Minima::App is created and initialized with the supplied configuration.

  3. Minima::App passes a routes file (where all application routes are defined) to Minima::Router to be read and parsed.

  4. The request URL is matched to a route. Minima::App then calls the appropriate controller and method, setting them up and passing along the relevant information such as request and route data.

  5. The controller handles the necessary logic, calling models (if required) and using views (if desired) to produce content. Content is then assigned to the response and finalized.

GETTING STARTED

To begin a project, the Minima package provides a subroutine (described below) to help you get started with the process mentioned above.

You can also interact directly with Minima::Setup for full control over the setup process.

init

sub init ($config = undef)

A convenience subroutine that calls Minima::Setup::prepare to prepare the main app object and returns a reference to Minima::Setup::init.

The optional argument allows you to specify the location of the configuration file.

For a detailed explanation of behavior and options, refer to the documentation for Minima::Setup.

EXAMPLE

Minima's repository contains an example application under eg/. To run it (from the root of the repository), use:

$ cd eg
$ plackup minima.psgi   # configure plackup or your server as needed

MANAGING A PROJECT

Included with the distribution you'll find a helper program to manage projects. See minima for full details.

One of its main features is creating a project from scratch, using templates with the recommended structure.

$ minima new app

HISTORY

While speaking with Paul Evans about the implementation of class in Perl's core, he remarked, "You should write a blog post about it." This led to Problem #1: I don't have a blog. Solving that seemed easy enough, but then came Problem #2: there wasn't a web framework that used the class feature. Naturally, I decided to tackle Problem #2 first.

SEE ALSO

perlclass, Minima::App, Minima::Manual::Customizing, Minima::Manual::FAQ.

AUTHOR

Cesar Tessarin, <cesar@tessarin.com.br>.

Written in September 2024.