NAME

CGI::Header - Handle CGI.pm-compatible HTTP header properties

SYNOPSIS

use CGI;
use CGI::Header;

my $query = CGI->new;

# CGI.pm-compatible HTTP header properties
my $header = CGI::Header->new(
    query => $query,
    header => {
        attachment => 'foo.gif',
        charset    => 'utf-7',
        cookies    => [ $cookie1, $cookie2 ], # CGI::Cookie objects
        expires    => '+3d',
        nph        => 1,
        p3p        => [qw/CAO DSP LAW CURa/],
        target     => 'ResultsWindow',
        type       => 'image/gif'
    },
);

# update $header
$header->set( 'Content-Length' => 3002 ); # overwrite
$header->delete('Content-Disposition'); # => 3002
$header->clear; # => $self

$header->finalize;

VERSION

This document refers to CGI::Header version 0.63.

DEPENDENCIES

This module is compatible with CGI.pm 3.51 or higher.

DESCRIPTION

This module is a utility class to manipulate a hash reference received by CGI.pm's header() method.

This module isn't the replacement of the header() method, but complements CGI.pm.

This module can be used in the following situation:

1. $header is a hash reference which represents CGI response headers

For example, CGI::Application implements header_add() method which can be used to add CGI.pm-compatible HTTP header properties. Instances of CGI.pm-based applications often hold those properties.

my $header = { type => 'text/plain' };

2. Manipulates $header using CGI::Header

Since property names are case-insensitive, application developers have to normalize them manually when they specify header properties. CGI::Header normalizes them automatically.

use CGI::Header;

my $h = CGI::Header->new( header => $header );
$h->set( 'Content-Length' => 3002 ); # add Content-Length header

$header;
# => {
#     'type' => 'text/plain',
#     'content-length' => '3002',
# }

3. Passes $header to CGI::header() to stringify the variable

use CGI;

print CGI::header( $header );
# Content-length: 3002
# Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
#

header() function just stringifies given header properties. This module can be used to generate PSGI-compatible response header array references. See CGI::Header::PSGI.

ATTRIBUTES

$header->query: Returns your current query object. This attribute defaults to the Singleton instance of CGI.pm ($CGI::Q), which is shared by functions exported by the module.
$hashref = $header->header: Returns the header hash reference associated with this CGI::Header object. This attribute defaults to a reference to an empty hash.

METHODS

$value = $header->get( $field )

( $v1, $v2, ... ) = $header->get( $f1, $f2, ... )

$value = $header->set( $field => $value )

( $v1, $v2, ... ) = $header->set( $f1 => $v1, $f2 => $v2, ... )

Get or set the value of the header field. The header field name ($field) is not case sensitive.

# field names are case-insensitive
$header->get('Content-Length');
$header->get('content-length');

The $value argument must be a plain string:

$header->set( 'Content-Length' => 3002 );
my $length = $header->get('Content-Length'); # => 3002

$bool = $header->exists( $field )

Returns a Boolean value telling whether the specified field exists.

if ( $header->exists('ETag') ) {
    ...
}

$value = $header->delete( $field )

@values = $header->delete( $f1, $f2, ... )

Deletes the specified fields form CGI response headers. In list context it returns the values of the deleted fields. In scalar context it returns the value for the last field specified.

my $value = $header->delete('Content-Disposition'); # => 'inline'

$self = $header->clear

This will remove all header properties.

$header->finalize

Sends the response headers to the browser.

Valid multi-line header input is accepted when each line is separated with a CRLF value (\r\n on most platforms) followed by at least one space. For example:

$header->set( Ingredients => "ham\r\n\seggs\r\n\sbacon" );

Invalid multi-line header input will trigger in an exception. When multi-line headers are received, this method will always output them back as a single line, according to the folding rules of RFC 2616: the newlines will be removed, while white space remains.

It's identical to:

print STDOUT $query->header( $header->header );

$header->clone

Returns a copy of this CGI::Header object. The query object is shared. The header hashref is copied shallowly. It's identical to:

# surface copy
my %header = %{ $original->header };

my $clone = CGI::Header->new(
    query  => $original->query, # shares query object
    header => \%header
);

HEADER PROPERTIES

The following methods were named after property names recognized by CGI.pm's header method. Most of these methods can both be used to read and to set the value of a property.

If you pass an argument to the method, the property value will be set, and also the current object itself will be returned; therefore you can chain methods as follows:

$header->type('text/html')->charset('utf-8');

If no argument is supplied, the property value will be returned. If the given property doesn't exist, undef will be returned.

$self = $header->attachment( $filename )

$filename = $header->attachment

Get or set the attachment property. Can be used to turn the page into an attachment. Represents suggested name for the saved file.

$header->attachment('genome.jpg');

In this case, the outgoing header will be formatted as:

Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="genome.jpg"

$self = $header->charset( $character_set )

$character_set = $header->charset

Get or set the charset property. Represents the character set sent to the browser.

$self = $header->cookies( $cookie )

$self = $header->cookies([ $cookie1, $cookie2, ... ])

$cookies = $header->cookies

Get or set the cookies property. The parameter can be a CGI::Cookie object or an arrayref which consists of CGI::Cookie objects.

$self = $header->expires( $format )

$format = $header->expires

Get or set the expires property. The Expires header gives the date and time after which the entity should be considered stale. You can specify an absolute or relative expiration interval. The following forms are all valid for this field:

$header->expires( '+30s' ); # 30 seconds from now
$header->expires( '+10m' ); # ten minutes from now
$header->expires( '+1h'  ); # one hour from now
$header->expires( 'now'  ); # immediately
$header->expires( '+3M'  ); # in three months
$header->expires( '+10y' ); # in ten years time

# at the indicated time & date
$header->expires( 'Thu, 25 Apr 1999 00:40:33 GMT' );

$self = $header->nph( $bool )

$bool = $header->nph

Get or set the nph property. If set to a true value, will issue the correct headers to work with a NPH (no-parse-header) script.

$header->nph(1);

$tags = $header->p3p

$self = $header->p3p( $tags )

Get or set the p3p property. The parameter can be an arrayref or a space-delimited string.

$header->p3p([qw/CAO DSP LAW CURa/]);
# or
$header->p3p('CAO DSP LAW CURa');

In this case, the outgoing header will be formatted as:

P3P: policyref="/w3c/p3p.xml", CP="CAO DSP LAW CURa"

$self = $header->status( $status )

$status = $header->status

Get or set the Status header.

$header->status('304 Not Modified');

$self = $header->target( $window_target )

$window_target = $header->target

Get or set the Window-Target header.

$header->target('ResultsWindow');

$self = $header->type( $media_type )

$media_type = $header->type

Get or set the type property. Represents the media type of the message content.

$header->type('text/html');

NORMALIZING PROPERTY NAMES

Normalized property names are:

1. lowercased

'Content-Length' -> 'content-length'

2. use dashes instead of underscores in property name

'content_length' -> 'content-length'

CGI.pm's header method also accepts aliases of property names. This module converts them as follows:

'content-type' -> 'type'
'cookie'       -> 'cookies'

If a property name is duplicated, throws an exception:

my $header = CGI::Header->new(
    header => {
        -Type        => 'text/plain',
        Content_Type => 'text/html',
    }
);
# die "Property 'type' already exists"

EXAMPLES

WRITING Blosxom PLUGINS

The following plugin just adds the Content-Length header to CGI response headers sent by blosxom.cgi:

package content_length;
use Blosxom::Header;

sub start {
    !$blosxom::static_entries;
}

sub last {
    my $h = Blosxom::Header->instance;
    $h->set( 'Content-Length' => length $blosxom::output );
}

Blosxom::Header is defined as follows:

package Blosxom::Header;
use parent 'CGI::Header';
use Carp qw/croak/;

our $INSTANCE;

sub new {
    my $class = shift;
    croak "Private method 'new' called for $class";
}

sub instance {
    my $class = shift;
    $INSTANCE ||= $class->SUPER::new( header => $blosxom::header );
}

sub has_instance {
    $INSTANCE;
}

Since Blosxom depends on the procedural interface of CGI.pm, you don't have to pass $query to new() in this case.

HANDLING HTTP COOKIES

It's up to you to decide how to manage HTTP cookies. The following method behaves like Mojo::Message::Response's cookies method:

use parent 'CGI::Header';
use CGI::Cookie;

sub cookies {
    my $self    = shift;
    my $cookies = $self->header->{cookies} ||= [];

    return $cookies unless @_;

    if ( ref $_[0] eq 'HASH' ) {
        push @$cookies, map { CGI::Cookie->new($_) } @_;
    }
    else {
        push @$cookies, CGI::Cookie->new( @_ );
    }

    $self;
}

You can use the cookies method as follows:

# get an arrayref which consists of CGI::Cookie objects
my $cookies = $header->cookies;

# push a CGI::Cookie object onto the "cookies" property
$header->cookies( ID => 123456 );
$header->cookies({ name => 'ID', value => 123456 });

WORKING WITH CGI::Simple

Since CGI::Simple is "a relatively lightweight drop in replacement for CGI.pm", this module is compatible with the module. If you're using the procedural interface of the module (CGI::Simple::Standard), you need to override the _build_query method as follows:

use parent 'CGI::Header';
use CGI::Simple::Standard;

sub _build_query {
    # NOTE: loader() is designed for debugging
    CGI::Simple::Standard->loader('_cgi_object');
}

LIMITATIONS

Since the following strings conflict with property names, you can't use them as field names ($field):

"Attachment"
"Charset"
"Cookie"
"Cookies"
"NPH"
"Target"
"Type"

Content-Type

If you don't want to send the Content-Type header, set the type property to an empty string, though it's far from intuitive manipulation:

$header->type(q{});

# doesn't work as you expect
$header->delete('Content-Type');
$header->type(undef);

Date

If one of the following conditions is met, the Date header will be set automatically, and also the header field will become read-only:

if ( $header->nph or $header->cookie or $header->expires ) {
    $header->set( 'Date' => 'Thu, 25 Apr 1999 00:40:33 GMT' ); # wrong
    $header->delete('Date'); # wrong
}

P3P

You can't assign to the P3P header directly:

# wrong
$header->set( 'P3P' => '/path/to/p3p.xml' );

CGI::header() restricts where the policy-reference file is located, and so you can't modify the location (/w3c/p3p.xml). You're allowed to set P3P tags using p3p().

Pragma

If the following condition is met, the Pragma header will be set automatically, and also the header field will become read-only:

if ( $header->query->cache ) {
    $header->set( 'Pragma' => 'no-cache' ); # wrong
    $header->delete('Pragma'); # wrong
}

Server

If the following condition is met, the Server header will be set automatically, and also the header field will become read-only:

if ( $header->nph ) {
    $header->set( 'Server' => 'Apache/1.3.27 (Unix)' ); # wrong
    $header->delete('Server'); # wrong
}

BUGS

There are no known bugs in this module. Please report problems to ANAZAWA (anazawa@cpan.org). Patches are welcome.

AUTHOR

Ryo Anazawa (anazawa@cpan.org)

LICENSE

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.

To install CGI::Header, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm CGI::Header

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install CGI::Header

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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