NAME

MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session - Add a session to the Mason Request object

SYNOPSIS

In your httpd.conf file:

PerlSetVar  MasonRequestClass         MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session
PerlSetVar  MasonSessionCookieDomain  .example.com
PerlSetVar  MasonSessionClass         Apache::Session::MySQL
PerlSetVar  MasonSessionDataSource    dbi:mysql:somedb

Or when creating an Apache2Handler object:

my $ah =
    MasonX::Apache2Handler->new
        ( request_class => 'MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session',
          session_cookie_domain => '.example.com',
          session_class         => 'Apache::2Session::MySQL',
          session_data_source   => 'dbi:mysql:somedb',
        );

In a component:

$m->session->{foo} = 1;
if ( $m->session->{bar}{baz} > 1 ) { ... }

DESCRIPTION

MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session is experimental ( beta ) and should only be used in a test environment.

MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session is a clone of MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession changed to work under a pure mod_perl2 environment. The external interface is unchanged, see MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession.

The actual changes I made can be found in the distribution in diff/WithApacheSession.diff ( made with 'diff -Naru' ... ).

A HOWTO for MasonX::Apache2Handler and friends may be found at Mason-with-mod_perl2.

The following documentation is from MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession,

This module integrates Apache::Session into Mason by adding methods to the Mason Request object available in all Mason components.

Any subrequests created by a request share the same session.

USAGE

To use this module you need to tell Mason to use this class for requests. This can be done in one of two ways. If you are configuring Mason via your httpd.conf file, simply add this:

PerlSetVar  MasonRequestClass  MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session

If you are using a handler.pl file, simply add this parameter to the parameters given to the ApacheHandler constructor:

request_class => 'MasonX::Request::WithApache2Session'

METHODS

This class adds two methods to the Request object.

  • session

    This method returns a hash tied to the Apache::Session class.

  • delete_session

    This method deletes the existing session from persistent storage. If you are using the built-in cookie mechanism, it also deletes the cookie in the browser.

CONFIGURATION

This module accepts quite a number of parameters, most of which are simply passed through to Apache::Session. For this reason, you are advised to familiarize yourself with the Apache::Session documentation before attempting to configure this module.

Generic Parameters

  • session_class / MasonSessionClass => class name

    The name of the Apache::Session subclass you would like to use.

    This module will load this class for you if necessary.

    This parameter is required.

  • session_always_write / MasonSessionAlwaysWrite => boolean

    If this is true, then this module will ensure that Apache::Session writes the session. If it is false, the default Apache::Session behavior is used instead.

    This defaults to true.

  • session_allow_invalid_id / MasonSessionAllowInvalidId => boolean

    If this is true, an attempt to create a session with a session id that does not exist in the session storage will be ignored, and a new session will be created instead. If it is false, a HTML::Mason::Exception::NonExistentSessionID exception will be thrown instead.

    This defaults to true.

  • session_use_cookie / MasonSessionUseCookie => boolean

    If true, then this module will use Apache::Cookie to set and read cookies that contain the session id.

    The cookie will be set again every time the client accesses a Mason component unless the session_cookie_resend parameter is false.

  • session_cookie_name / MasonSessionCookieName => name

    This is the name of the cookie that this module will set. This defaults to "MasonX-Request-WithApacheSession-cookie". Corresponds to the Apache::Cookie "-name" constructor parameter.

  • session_cookie_expires / MasonSessionCookieExpires => expiration

    How long before the cookie expires. This defaults to 1 day, "+1d". Corresponds to the "-expires" parameter.

  • session_cookie_domain / MasonSessionCookieDomain => domain

    This corresponds to the "-domain" parameter. If not given this will not be set as part of the cookie.

    If it is undefined, then no "-domain" parameter will be given.

  • session_cookie_path / MasonSessionCookiePath => path

    Corresponds to the "-path" parameter. It defaults to "/".

  • session_cookie_secure / MasonSessionCookieSecure => boolean

    Corresponds to the "-secure" parameter. It defaults to false.

  • session_cookie_resend / MasonSessionCookieResend => boolean

    By default, this parameter is true, and the cookie will be sent for every request. If it is false, then the cookie will only be sent when the session is created. This is important as resending the cookie has the effect of updating the expiration time.

  • session_args_param / MasonSessionArgsParam => name

    If set, then this module will first look for the session id in the query string or POST parameter with the specified name.

    If you are also using cookies, then the module checks in the request arguments first, and then it checks for a cookie.

    The session id is available from $m->session->{_session_id}.

These parameters are simply passed through to Apache::Session.

  • session_data_source / MasonSessionDataSource => DSN

    Corresponds to the DataSource parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

  • session_user_name / MasonSessionUserName => user name

    Corresponds to the UserName parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

  • session_password / MasonSessionPassword => password

    Corresponds to the Password parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

  • session_handle => DBI handle

    Corresponds to the Handle parameter given to the DBI-related session modules. This cannot be set via the httpd.conf file, because it needs to be an actual Perl variable, not the name of that variable.

  • session_lock_data_source / MasonSessionLockDataSource => DSN

    Corresponds to the LockDataSource parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

  • session_lock_user_name / MasonSessionLockUserName => user name

    Corresponds to the LockUserName parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

  • session_lock_password / MasonSessionLockPassword => password

    Corresponds to the LockPassword parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

  • session_lock_handle => DBI handle

    Corresponds to the LockHandle parameter given to the DBI-related session modules. As with the session_handle parameter, this cannot be set via the httpd.conf file.

  • session_commit / MasonSessionCommit => boolean

    Corresponds to the Commit parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

  • session_transaction / MasonSessionTransaction => boolean

    Corresponds to the Transaction parameter.

  • session_directory / MasonSessionDirectory => directory

    Corresponds to the Directory parameter given to Apache::Session::File.

  • session_lock_directory / MasonSessionLockDirectory => directory

    Corresponds to the LockDirectory parameter given to Apache::Session::File.

  • session_file_name / MasonSessionFileName => file name

    Corresponds to the FileName parameter given to Apache::Session::DB_File.

  • session_store / MasonSessionStore => class

    Corresponds to the Store parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

  • session_lock / MasonSessionLock => class

    Corresponds to the Lock parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

  • session_generate / MasonSessionGenerate => class

    Corresponds to the Generate parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

  • session_serialize / MasonSessionSerialize => class

    Corresponds to the Serialize parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

  • session_textsize / MasonSessionTextsize => size

    Corresponds to the textsize parameter given to Apache::Session::Sybase.

  • session_long_read_len / MasonSessionLongReadLen => size

    Corresponds to the LongReadLen parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

  • session_n_sems / MasonSessionNSems => number

    Corresponds to the NSems parameter given to Apache::Session::Lock::Semaphore.

  • session_semaphore_key / MasonSessionSemaphoreKey => key

    Corresponds to the SemaphoreKey parameter given to Apache::Session::Lock::Semaphore.

  • session_mod_usertrack_cookie_name / MasonSessionModUsertrackCookieName => name

    Corresponds to the ModUsertrackCookieName parameter given to Apache::Session::Generate::ModUsertrack.

  • session_save_path / MasonSessionSavePath => path

    Corresponds to the SavePath parameter given to Apache::Session::PHP.

HOW COOKIES ARE HANDLED

When run under the ApacheHandler module, this module attempts to first use Apache::Cookie for cookie-handling. Otherwise it uses CGI::Cookie as a fallback.

If it ends up using CGI::Cookie then it can only set cookies if it is running under either the ApacheHandler or the CGIHandler module. Otherwise, the MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession request object has no way to get to an object which can take the headers. In other words, if there's no $r, there's nothing with which to set headers.

SUPPORT

As can be seen by the number of parameters above, Apache::Session has way too many possibilities for me to test all of them. This means there are almost certainly bugs.

Bug reports and requests for help should be sent to the mason-users list. See http://www.masonhq.com/resources/mailing_lists.html for more details.

AUTHOR

Beau E. Cox <mason@beaucox.com> http://beaucox.com.

The real authors (I just made mod_perl2 changes) is Dave Rolsky, <autarch@urth.org>

Version 0.01 as of January, 2004.

SEE ALSO

My documents, including: HOWTO Run Mason with mod_perl2, MasonX::Apache2Handler, MasonX::Request::WithMulti2Session,

Original Mason documents, including: HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler, MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession, MasonX::Request::WithMultiSession.

Also see the Mason documentation at http://masonhq.com/docs/manual/.