NAME

Apache::Sandwich - Layered document (sandwich) maker

SYNOPSIS

 SetHandler  perl-script
 PerlHandler Apache::Sandwich

DESCRIPTION

The Apache::Sandwich module allows you to add a per-directory custom "header" and/or "footer" content to a given uri. Only works with "GET" requests for static content HTML or text files. Output of combined parts is forced to text/html.

Here's a configuration example:

 #in httpd.conf or .htaccess

 <Location /foo>
  #any request for /foo and it's document tree
  #are run through our Apache::Sandwich::handler
  SetHandler  perl-script
  PerlHandler Apache::Sandwich

  #we send this file first
  PerlSetVar HEADER /my_header.html

  #requested uri (e.g. /foo/index.html) is sent in the middle

  #we send output of this mod_perl script last  
  PerlSetVar FOOTER /perl/footer.pl
 </Location>

With the above example, one must be careful not to put graphics within the same directory, otherwise they will be Sandwiched also.

Here's another example which only Sandwiches the files we want (using Apache 1.3 syntax):

 # filter *.brc files through Sandwich maker, but define
 # HEADER/FOOTER per section below
 
 <FilesMatch "\.brc$">
  SetHandler  perl-script
  PerlHandler Apache::Sandwich
 </FilesMatch>
 
 # now specify the header and footer for each major section
 #
 <Location /misc>
   PerlSetVar HEADER /misc/HEADER.shtml ADS.shtml
   PerlSetVar FOOTER /misc/FOOTER.html
 </Location>
 
 <Location /getting_started>
   PerlSetVar HEADER /getting_started/HEADER.shtml ADS.shtml
   PerlSetVar FOOTER /misc/FOOTER.html
 </Location>

Note that in this example, the file ADS.shtml is included from the same directory as the requested file.

The files referenced in the HEADER and FOOTER variables are fetched using the "GET" method and may produce dynamically generated text.

KNOWN BUGS

Headers printed by mod_perl scripts used as a HEADER, FOOTER or in-the-middle uri need to use CGI.pm version 2.37 or higher or headers will show up in the final document (browser window). Suggested work-around (if you don't want to upgrade CGI.pm):

 if($ENV{MOD_PERL} and Apache->request->is_main) {
    #send script headers
    print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
 } else {
    #we're part of a sub-request, don't send headers
 }

Setting $Apache::Sandwich::Debug to 1 will log debugging information into the Apache ErrorLog.

The sandwiched file must be a plain static HTML or text file. If someone knows how to call an alternate handler for the file, please contribute the patches!

AUTHOR

Doug MacEachern. Modifications and cleanup by Vivek Khera.