NAME

Catalyst::View::Template::Pure - Catalyst view adaptor for Template::Pure

SYNOPSIS

package  MyApp::View::Story;

use Moose;
use HTTP::Status qw(:constants);

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has [qw/title body timestamp/] => (is=>'ro', required=>1);

sub current { scalar localtime }

__PACKAGE__->config(
  timestamp => scalar(localtime),
  returns_status => [HTTP_OK],
  template => q[
    <!doctype html>
    <html lang="en">
      <head>
        <title>Title Goes Here</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <div id="main">Content goes here!</div>
        <div id="current">Current Localtime: </div>
        <div id="timestamp">Server Started on: </div>
      </body>
    </html>      
  ],
  directives => [
    'title' => 'title',
    '#main' => 'body',
    '#current+' => 'current',
    '#timestamp+' => 'timestamp',
  ],
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable

Create a controller that uses this view:

package MyApp::Controller::Story;

use Moose;
use MooseX::MethodAttributes;

extends 'Catalyst::Controller';

sub display_story :Local Args(0) {
  my ($self, $c) = @_;
  $c->view('Story',
    title => 'A Dark and Stormy Night...',
    body => 'It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly...',
  )->http_ok;
}

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable

When hitting a page that activates the 'display_story' action, returns:

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>A Dark and Stormy Night...</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="main">It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly...</div>
    <div id="current">Current Localtime: July 29, 2016 11:30:34</div>
    <div id="timestamp">Server Started on: July 29, 2016 11:30:00</div>
  </body>
</html>

(Obviously the 'localtime' information will vary ;)

DESCRIPTION

Catalyst::View::Template::Pure is an adaptor for Template::Pure for the Catalyst web development framework. Template::Pure is an HTML templating system that fully separates concerns between markup (the HTML), transformations on that markup (called 'directives') and data that the directives use on the template to return a document.

I highly recommend you review the documentation for Template::Pure if you wish to gain a deeper understanding of how this all works. The following information is specific to how we adapt Template::Pure to run under Catalyst; as a result it will assume you already know the basics of creating templates and directives using Template::Pure

NOTE: Like Template::Pure I consider this work to be early access and reserve the right to make changes needed to achieve stability and production quality. In general I feel pretty good about the interface but there's likely to be changes around speed optimization, error reporting and in particular web components are not fully baked. I recommend if you are using this to avoid deeply hooking into internals since that stuff is most likely to change. If you are using this for your work please let me know how its going. Don't find bugs surprising, but please report them!

CREATING AND USING VIEWS

In many template adaptors for Catalyst you create a single 'View' which is a sort of factory that processes a whole bunch of templates (typically files in a directory under $APPHOME/root). Variables are passed to the view view the Catalyst stash. Choosing the template to process is typically via some convention based on the action path and/or via a special stash key.

This system works fine to a point, but I've often found when a system gets complex (think dozens of controllers and possible hundreds of templates) it gets messy. Because the stash is not strongly typed you have no declared interface between the view and your controller. This can be great for rapid development but a long term maintainance nightmare. People often lose track of what is and isnt' in the stash for a given template (not to mention the fact that a small typo will 'break' the interface between the stash and the view template.

Catalyst::View::Template::Pure is a bit different. Instead of a single template factory view, you need to make a view subclass per resource (that is, for each HTML webpage you want to display). Additionally you will make a view for any of the reusable bits that often make up a complex website, such as includes and master page layouts. That sounds like a lot of views, and will seem wierd to you at first if you are used to the old style 'one view class to rule the all'. The requirement to make a new View subclass for each page or part of a page does add a bit of overhead to the development process. The upside is that you are creating strongly types views that can contain their own logic, defaults and anything else that can go into a Perl class. This way you can enforce an interface between your views and the controllers that use them. Over time the extra, original overhead should pay you back in less maintainance issues and in greater code clarity.

So here's the example! Lets create a simple view:

package  MyApp::View::Hello;

use Moose;
use HTTP::Status qw(:constants);

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has [qw/title name/] => (is=>'ro', required=>1);

sub timestamp { scalar localtime }

__PACKAGE__->config(
  template => q[
    <html>
      <head>
        <title>Title Goes Here</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <p>Hello <span id='name'>NAME</span>!<p>
        <p>This page was generated on: </p>
      </body>
    </html>      
  ],
  directives => [
    'title' => 'title',
    '#name' => 'name',
    '#timestamp+' => 'timestamp',
  ],
  returns_status => [HTTP_OK],
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

So this is a small view with just three bits of data that is used to create an end result webpage. Two fields need to be passed to the view (title and name) while the third one (timestamp) is generated locally by the view itself. The three entries under the 'directives' key are instructions to Template::Pure to run an action at a particular CSS match in the templates HTML DOM (see documentation for Template::Pure for more details).

NOTE In this and most following examples the template is a literal string inside the view under the template configuration key. This is handy for demo and for small views (such as includes) but your template authors may prefer to use a more standard text file, in which case you can specify a path to the template via configuration options template_src or auto_template_src; see "CONFIGURATION"

Lets use this in a controller:

package MyApp::Controller::Hello;

use Moose;
use MooseX::MethodAttributes;

extends 'Catalyst::Controller';

sub say_hello :Path('') Args(0) {
  my ($self, $c) = @_;
  $c->view('Hello',
    title => 'Hello to You!',
    name => 'John Napiorkowski',
  )->http_ok;
}

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

Again, if you are following a classic pattern in Catalyst you might be using the Catalyst::Action::RenderView on a global 'end' action (typically in your Root controller) to do the job of forwarding the request to a view. Then, the view would decide on a template based on a few factors, such as the calling action's private name. With Catalyst::View::Template::Pure instead we are calling the view directly, as well as directly sending the view's arguments call to the view, instead of via the stash (although as we will see later, you can still use the stash and even the Catalyst::Action::RenderView approach if that is really the best setup for your application).

NOTE An important distinction here to remember is that when you pass arguments to the view, those arguments are not passed directly as data to the underlying Template::Pure object. Rather these arguments are combined with any local or global configuration and used as arguments when calling ->new on the actual view component. So arguments passed, even via the stash, as not directly exposed to the template, but rather mediated via the actual view object. Only attributes and methods on the view object are exposed to the template.

In calling the view this way you setup a stronger association between your controller and the view. This can add a lot of clarity to your code when you have very large and complex websites. In addition the view returned is scoped 'Per Request', instead of 'Per Application' like most common Catalyst views in use. 'Per Request' in this case means that the first time you call for the view in a given request, we create a new instance of that view from the arguments passed. Subsequent calls to the same view will return the same instance created earlier. This can be very useful if you have complex chained actions and wish to add information to a view over the course of a number of actions in the chain. However when the response is finalized and returned to the client, the current request goes out of scope which triggers DESTROY on the view.

Another useful thing about the fact that the view is scoped 'Per Request' is that it contains a reference to the context. So in your custom view methods you can call $self->ctx and get the context to do stuff like build links or even access models. Just keep in mind you need to think carefully about what logic is proper to the view and which is proper to the controller. In general if there is logic that would be the same if the resource generated by the view was a different type (say JSON or XML) then its likely that logic belongs in the controller. However I encourage you to choose the approach that leads to clean and reusable code.

Lastly, Catalyst::View::Template::Pure allows you to specify the type of response status code can be associated with this view. This can be useful when you want to make it clear that a given view is an error response or for created resources. To enable this feature you simple set the 'returns_status' configuration key to an arrayref of the HTTP status codes allowed. This is simple a number (201 for created, for example) but for clarity in the given example I've used HTTP::Status to give the allowed codes a friendly name. You can choose to follow this example or not! As a futher timesaver, when you set allowed statuses, we will inject into your view some helper methods to set the desired status. As in the given example:

$c->view('Hello',
  title => 'Hello to You!',
  name => 'John Napiorkowski',
)->http_ok;

We are setting $c->res->status(200). For people that prefer the actual code numbers there is also ->http_200 injected if you are better with the number codes instead of the friendly names but I recommend you choose one or the other approach for your project!

Please keep in mind that calling ->http_ok (or any of the helper methods) does not immediately finalize your response. If you want to immediately finalize the response (say for example you are returning an error and want to stop processing the remaining actions) you will need to $c->detach like normal. To make this a little easier you can chain off the response helper like so:

$c->view('NotFound')
  ->http_404
  ->detach;

Sending a request that hits the 'say_hello' action would result in:

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hello to You!</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Hello <span id='name'>John Napiorkowski</span>!<p>
    <p>This page was generated on: Tue Aug  2 09:17:48 2016</p>
  </body>
</html>

(Of course the timestamp will vary based on when you run the code, this was the result I got only at the time of writing this document).

USING THE STASH

If you are used to using the Catalyst stash to pass information to your view or you have complex chaining and like to build up data over many actions into the stash, you may continue to do that. For example:

sub say_hello :Path('') Args(0) {
  my ($self, $c) = @_;
  $c->stash(
    title => 'Hello to You!',
    name => 'John Napiorkowski',
  );
  $c->view('Hello')->http_ok;
}

Would be the functional equal to the earlier example. However as noted those arguments are not passed directly to the template as data, but rather passed as initialization arguments to the ->new method when calling the view the first time in a request. So you may still use the stash, but because the view is mediating the stash data I believe we mitigate some of the stash's downsides (such as a lack of strong typing, missing defined interface and issues with typos, for example).

CHAINING TEMPLATE TRANFORMATIONS

There are several ways to decompose your repeated or options template transforms into reusable chunks, at the View level. Please see Template::Pure for more abour includes, wrappers and overlays. However there are often cases when the decision to use or apply changes to your template best occur at the controller level. For example you may wish to add some messaging to your template if a form has incorrect data. In those cases you may apply additional Views. Applied views will use as its starting template the results of the previous view. For example:

sub process_form :POST Path('') Args(0) {
  my ($self, $c) = @_;
  my $v = $c->view('Login');

  if($c->model('Form')->is_valid) {
    $v->http_ok;
  } else {
    $v->apply('IncorrectLogin')
      ->http_bad_request
      ->detach;
  }
}

You may chain as many applied views as you like, even using this technique to build up an entire page of results. Chaining transformations this way can help you to avoid some of the messy, complex logic that often creeps into our templates.

MAPPING TEMPLATE ARGS FROM AN OBJECT

Generally you send arguments to the View via the stash or via arguments on the view call itself. This might sometimes lead to highly verbose calls:

sub user :Path Args(1) {
  my ($self, $c, $id) = @_:
  my $user = $c->model('Schema::User')->find($id) ||
    $c->view('NoUser')->http_bad_request->detach;

  $c->view('UserProfile',
    name => $user->name,
    age => $user->age,
    location => $user->location,
    ...,
  );
}

Listing each argument has the advantage of clarity but the verbosity can be distracting and waste programmer time. So, in the case where a source object provides an interface which is identical to the interface required by the view, you may just pass the object and we will map required attributes for the view from method named on the object. For example:

sub user :Path Args(1) {
  my ($self, $c, $id) = @_:
  my $user = $c->model('Schema::User')->find($id) ||
    $c->view('NoUser')->http_bad_request
      ->detach;

  $c->view(UserProfile => $user)
    ->http_ok;
}

It is up to you to decide if this is creating too much structual binding between your view and its model. You may or may not find it a useful convention.

COMMON VIEW TASKS

The following are suggestions regarding some of the more common tasks we need to use a view for. Most of this is covered in Template::Pure in greater detail, but I wanted to show the minor 'twists' the Catalyst adaptor presents. Please keep in mind the following are not the only ways to solve this problems, but just what I think of as very straightfoward ways that are a good starting point for you as you climb the learning curve with Template::Pure

Includes, Wrappers and Master Pages

Generally when building a website you will break up common elements of the user interface into re-usable chunks. For example its common to have some standard elements for headers and footers, or to have a master page template that provides a common page structure. Template::Pure supports these via processing instructions which appear inside the actual template or via the including of actual template objects as values for you directive actions on in your data.

The documentation for Template::Pure covers these concepts and approaches in general. However Catalyst::View::Template::Pure provides a bit of assistance with helper methods that are unique to this module and require explanation. Here's an example of an include which creates a time stamp element in your page:

package  MyApp::View::Include;

use Moose;

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

sub now { scalar localtime }

__PACKAGE__->config(
  template => q{
    <div class="timestamp">The Time is now: </div>
  },
  directives => [
    '.timestamp' => 'now'
  ],
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

Since this include is not intended to be used 'stand alone' we didn't bother to set a 'returns_status' configuration.

So there's a few ways to use this in a template.

package  MyApp::View::Hello;

use Moose;
use HTTP::Status qw(:constants);

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has 'name' => (is=>'ro', required=>1);

__PACKAGE__->config(
  returns_status => [HTTP_OK],
  template => q{
    <html>
      <head>
        <title>Hello</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <p id='hello'>Hello There </p>
        <?pure-include src='Views.Include'?>
      </body>
    </html>
  },
  directives => [
    '#hello' => 'name',
  ],
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

In this example we set the src attribute for the include processing instruction to a path off 'Views' which is a special method on the view that returns access to all the other views that are loaded. So essentially any view could serve as a source.

The same approach would be used to set overlays and wrappers via processing instructions.

If using the Views helper seems too flimsy an interface, you may instead specify a view via an accessor, just like any other data.

package  MyApp::View::Hello;

use Moose;
use HTTP::Status qw(:constants);

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has 'name' => (is=>'ro', required=>1);

sub include {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->ctx->view('Include');
}

__PACKAGE__->config(
  returns_status => [HTTP_OK],
  template => q{
    <html>
      <head>
        <title>Hello</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <p id='hello'>Hello There </p>
        <?pure-include src='include' ?>
      </body>
    </html>
  },
  directives => [
    '#hello' => 'name',
  ],
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

Just remember if your include expects arguments (and most will) you should pass them in the view call.

In fact you could allow one to pass the view src include (or wrapper, or overlay) from the controller, if you need more dynamic control:

package  MyApp::View::Hello;

use Moose;
use HTTP::Status qw(:constants);

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has 'name' => (is=>'ro', required=>1);
has 'include' => (is=>'ro', required=>1);

__PACKAGE__->config(
  returns_status => [HTTP_OK],
  template => q{
    <html>
      <head>
        <title>Hello</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <p id='hello'>Hello There </p>
        <?pure-include src='include' ?>
      </body>
    </html>
  },
  directives => [
    '#hello' => 'name',
  ],
);

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

package MyApp::Controller::Hello;

use Moose;
use MooseX::Attributes;

extends 'Catalyst::Controller';

sub hello :Path('') {
  my ($self, $ctx) = @_;
  $ctx->view('Hello',
    name => 'John',
    include => $ctx->view('Include'));
}

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

Even more fancy approaches could include setting up the required bits via dependency injection (approaches for this in Catalyst are still somewhat experimental, see Catalyst::Plugin::MapComponentDependencies

METHODS

This class defines the following methods. Please note that response helpers will be generated as well (http_ok, http_200, etc.) based on the contents of your \returns_status configuration settings.

apply

Takes a view name and optionally arguments that are passed to ->new. Used to apply a view over the results of a previous one, allowing for chained views. For example:

$c->view('Base', %args)
  ->apply('Sidebar', items => \@menu_items)
  ->apply('Footer', copyright => 2016)
  ->http_ok;

When a view is used via 'apply', the result of the previous template becomes the 'template' argument, even if that view defined its own template via configuration. This is so that you can use the same view as standalone or as part of a chain of transformations.

Useful when you are building up a view over a number of actions in a chain or when you need to programmatically control how a view is created from the controller. You may also consider the use of includes and overlays inside your view, or custom directive actions for more complex view building.

wrap

Used to pass the response on a template to another template, via a 'content' argument. Similar to the 'wrapper' processing instruction. Example:

package MyApp::View::Users;

use Moose;

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has [qw/name age location/] => (is=>'ro', required=>1);

__PACKAGE__->config(
  returns_status => [200],
  template => q[
    <dl>
      <dt>Name</dt>
      <dd id='name'></dd>
      <dt>Age</dt>
      <dd id='age'></dd>
      <dt>Location</dt>
      <dd id='location'></dd>
    </dl>
  ],
  directives => [
    '#name' => 'name',
    '#age' => 'age',
    '#location' => 'location',
  ]
);

package MyApp::View::HeaderFooter;

use Moose;

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has 'title' => (is=>'ro', isa=>'String');
has 'content' => (is=>'ro');

__PACKAGE__->config(
  returns_status => [200],
  template => q[
    <html>
      <head>
        <title>TITLE GOES HERE</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        CONTENT GOES HERE
      </body>
    </html>
  ],
  directives => [
    title => 'title',
    body => 'content',
  ]
);

package MyApp::Controller::UserProfile;

use Moose;
use MooseX::MethodAttributes;

extends 'Catalyst::Controller';

sub show_profile :Path('profile') Args(0) {
  my ($self, $c) = @_;
  $c->view('UserProfile', $user)
    ->wrap('HeaderFooter', title=>'User Profile')
    ->http_ok;
}

Generates a response like (assuming $user is an object that provides name, age and location with the sample values):

<html>
  <head>
    <title>User Profile</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <dl>
      <dt>Name</dt>
      <dd id='name'>Mike Smith</dd>
      <dt>Age</dt>
      <dd id='age'>42</dd>
      <dt>Location</dt>
      <dd id='location'>UK</dd>
    </dl>
  </body>
</html>

response

Used to run the directives and actions on the template, setting information into the Catalyst::Response object such as body, status, headers, etc. Example

$c->view('Hello',
  title => 'Hello There',
  list => \@users )
  ->response(200, %headers);

This will populate the Catalyst::Response status and headers, and render the template into body. It will not finalized and send the response to the client. If you need to stop processing immediately (for example you are creating some sort of error response in a middle action in a chain) you need to $c->detach or use the detach convenience method:

$c->view('BadRequest',
  title => 'Hello There',
  list => \@users )
  ->response(400, %headers)
  ->detach;

Often you will instead set the "returns_status" configuration setting and use a response helper instead of using it directly.

$c->view('BadRequest',
  title => 'Hello There',
  list => \@users )
  ->http_bad_request
  ->detach;

$response helpers

In order to better purpose your views and to add some ease of use for your programmers, you may specify what HTTP status codes a view is allowed to return via the "returns_status" configuration option. When you do this we automatically generate response helper methods. For example if you set returns_status to [200,400] we will create methods http_ok, http_200, http_bad_request and http_400 into your view. This method will finalize your response as well as return an object that you can call detach upon should you wish to short circuit any remaining actions.

Lastly you may pass as arguments an array of HTTP headers:

$c->view("NewUser")
  ->http_created(location=>$url)
  ->detach;

ctx

Lets your view access the current context object. Useful in a custom view method when you need to access other models or context information. You should however take care to consider if you might not be better off accessing this via the controller and passing the information into the view.

sub include {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->ctx->view('Include');
}

COMPONENTS

WARNING Components are the most experimental aspect of Template::Pure!

Example Component View Class:

package  MyApp::View::Timestamp;

use Moose;
use DateTime;

extends 'Catalyst::View::Template::Pure';

has 'tz' => (is=>'ro', predicate=>'has_tz');

sub time {
  my ($self) = @_;
  my $now = DateTime->now();
  $now->set_time_zone($self->tz)
    if $self->has_tz;
  return $now;
}

__PACKAGE__->config(
  pure_class => 'Template::Pure::Component',
  auto_template_src => 1,
  directives => [
    '.timestamp' => 'time',
  ],
);
__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

And the associated template:

<pure-component>
  <style>
    .timestamp {
      background:blue;
    }
  </style>
  <script>
    function alertit() {
      alert(1);
    }
  </script>
  <span class='timestamp' onclick='alertit()'>time</span>
</pure-component>

Usage in a view:

<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <title>Title Goes Here</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="main">Content goes here!</div>
    <pure-timestamp tz='America/Chicago' />
  </body>
</html>

A component is very similar to an include or even a wrapper that you might insert with a processing instruction or via one of the other standard methods as decribed in Template::Pure. The main difference is that components can bundle a style and scripting component, and components are aware of themselves in a hierarchy (for example if a component wraps other components, those inner components have the outer one as a 'parent'.

Given the experimental nature of this feature, I'm going to leave it underdocumented and let you look at the source and tests for now. I'll add more when the shape of this feature is more apparent after usage.

RUNTIME HOOKS

This class defines the following method hooks you may optionally defined in your view subclass in order to control or otherwise influence how the view works.

$class->modify_init_args($app, $args)

Runs when COMPONENT is called during setup_components. This gets a reference to the merged arguments from all configuration. You should return this reference after modification.

$self->modify_context_args($ctx, $args)

Runs at ACCEPT_CONTEXT and can be used to modify the arguments (including those passed to the view) before they are used to create a response. Should return $args.

CONFIGURATION

This Catalyst Component supports the following configuation

template

This is a string which is an HTML Template.

template_src

Filesystem path where a template can be found

auto_template_src

Loads the template from a filesystem path based on the View name. For example if your view is "MyApp::View::Story", under $home/MyApp/View/Story.pm then you'd expect a template at $home/MyApp/View/story.html

This feature is evolving and may change as the software stablizes and we get feedback from users (I know the current default location here is differnt from the way a lot of common Catalyst Views work...)

returns_status

An ArrayRef of HTTP status codes used to provide response helpers.

directives

An ArrayRef of match => actions that is used by Template::Pure to apply tranformations onto a template from a given data reference.

filters

filters => {
  custom_filter => sub {
    my ($template, $data, @args) = @_;
    # Do something with the $data, possible using @args
    # to control what that does
    return $data;
  },
},

A hashref of information that is passed directly to Template::Pure to be used as data filters. See "Filters" in Template::Pure.

pure_class

The class used to create an instance of Template::Pure. Defaults to 'Template::Pure'. You can change this if you create a custom subclass of Template::Pure to use as your default template.

ALSO SEE

Catalyst, Template::Pure.

Template::Pure is based on a client side Javascript templating system, 'pure.js'. See https://beebole.com/pure/ for more information.

AUTHORS & COPYRIGHT

John Napiorkowski email:jjnapiork@cpan.org

LICENSE

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

To install Catalyst::View::Template::Pure, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm Catalyst::View::Template::Pure

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Catalyst::View::Template::Pure

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

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distribution: (e.g. distribution:Dancer auth)
author: (e.g. author:SONGMU Redis)
version: (e.g. version:1.00)