Preparing Development Environment

For a development environment use local::lib to leave the core Perl untouch by your experiments

Installing local::lib

user:~> su root 
cpan 
cpan> install local::lib
cpan> quit
root:~ # exit

add "eval $(perl -I$HOME/perl5/lib/perl5 -Mlocal::lib)" to bashrc

Configure cpan
user:~> cpan
cpan> o conf init urllist
cpan> o conf commit
cpan> quit

Install Catalyst

Install Catalyst::Devel for a development machine or Catalyst::Runtime for a production server

# PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 instructs cpan to accept defaults to prompts where possible
user:~> PERL_MM_USE_DEFAULT=1 cpan
cpan> install Catalyst::Devel
# takes about 20 minutes on a Turion 64 X2 TL-56 with 3GB RAM

First App

user:~> catalyst.pl MyApp::Lite
# creates following directory structure

• Changes - used to list history of changes for module
• Makefile.PL - lists module dependancies for application
• README - explains how to test application, what it does and other instructions
• lib - contains all the perl code for the application
• • MyApp
  • • Lite
    • • Controller
      • • Root.pm - for top-level dispatch actions
      • Model
      • View
    • Lite.pm - contains application-level configuration and global methodsi for use by the application - stuff that does not change per-deployment
• myapp_lite.conf - per-deployment configuration, eg database connectioninfo, regional settings, authentication keys. Default format is Config::General, but also supports XML, YAML, Apache, INI, Perl, JSON
• root - for template files
• • favicon.ico
  • static - static files such as images, css, javascript
  • • images
    • • btn_120x50_built.png
      • btn_120x50_built_shadow.png
      • btn_120x50_powered.png
      • btn_120x50_powered_shadow.png
      • btn_88x31_built.png
      • btn_88x31_built_shadow.png
      • btn_88x31_powered.png
      • btn_88x31_powered_shadow.png
      • catalyst_logo.png
• script - catalyst helper scripts to run/test server and create models controllers and views
• • myapp_lite_cgi.pl
  • myapp_lite_create.pl
  • myapp_lite_fastcgi.pl
  • myapp_lite_server.pl
  • myapp_lite_test.pl
• t - scripts for automated testing
• • 01app.t
  • 02pod.t
  • 03podcoverage.t

Makefile

Makefile.PL is a perl script that when run (perl Makefile.PL), generates a 'Makefile'. The 'Makefile' is then used by 'make' to build the system and install prerequisites for the application.The default Makefile.PL when you run 'catalyst.pl MyApp::Lite', looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env perl
# IMPORTANT: if you delete this file your app will not work as
# expected.  You have been warned.
use inc::Module::Install;

name 'MyApp-Lite';
all_from 'lib/MyApp/Lite.pm';

requires 'Catalyst::Runtime' => '5.80013';
requires 'Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader';
requires 'Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple';
requires 'Catalyst::Action::RenderView';
requires 'parent';
requires 'Config::General'; # This should reflect the config file format you've chosen
                 # See Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader for supported formats
catalyst;

install_script glob('script/*.pl');
auto_install;
WriteAll;

use inc::Module::Install

tells Perl which build system to use: the 'inc' allows the inclusion of local modules contained in the local directory 'inc'.

name 'MyApp-Lite'; all_from 'lib/MyApp/Lite.pm';

generates meta data for the application

requires ....

list of CPAN prerequisites. You should add your own prerequisites here according to the needs of your application: e.g. Catalyst::View::TT.

catalyst;

tells the build system to use Module::Install::Catalyst, which provides some utility functions

install_script glob('script/*.pl');

tells Module::Install that the scripts in the script directory will need to be installed into the user's PATH

auto_install

tells Module::Install to install all the CPAN prerequisites. All prerequisites should therefore be listed before this line

WriteAll;

instruction to build system to write all files required for the build process

Root Controller

The Root Controller handles requests to the root namespace for your application

package MyApp::Lite::Controller::Root;

use strict;
use warnings;
use parent 'Catalyst::Controller';

#
# Sets the actions in this controller to be registered with no prefix
# so they function identically to actions created in MyApp.pm
#
__PACKAGE__->config->{namespace} = '';

=head1 NAME

MyApp::Lite::Controller::Root - Root Controller for MyApp::Lite

=head1 DESCRIPTION

[enter your description here]

=head1 METHODS

=cut

=head2 index

=cut

sub index :Path :Args(0) {
    my ( $self, $c ) = @_;

    # Hello World
    $c->response->body( $c->welcome_message );
}

sub default :Path {
    my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
    $c->response->body( 'Page not found' );
    $c->response->status(404);
}

=head2 end

Attempt to render a view, if needed.

=cut

sub end : ActionClass('RenderView') {}

=head1 AUTHOR

David Ramlakhan

=head1 LICENSE

This library is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut

1;

sub index :Path :Args(0)

The name of this subroutine is arbitrary, but 'index' is a sensible choice. The ':Path' attribute means that this subroutine is called in response to a specified path. The ':Args(0)' attribute means that the path this subroutine responds to, is for the controllers path with no subsequent arguments. Because this is the Root controller for the application, this subroutine will run in response to requests for the application root

sub default :Path

This subroutine is called if no other subroutine matches a request path

sub end : ActionClass('RenderView')

This subroutine runs after all other code in the controller is run

Next Steps

Having run the catalyst.pl to create the skeleton for your application, you now have a working application that you can run using

MyApp-Lite> perl script/myapp_lite_server.pl 

You can connect to the application at the URL: http://localhost:3000

The application doesn't do much. To add features, you have to begin customising the application