NAME

CatalystX::Declare - EXPERIMENTAL Declarative Syntax for Catalyst Applications

SYNOPSIS

Application

use CatalystX::Declare;

application MyApp::Web with Static::Simple {

    $CLASS->config(name => 'My Declarative Web Application');
}

Controllers

use CatalystX::Declare;

controller MyApp::Web::Controller::Foo
      with MyApp::Web::ControllerRole::Bar {
    
    use MooseX::Types::Moose qw( Str );
    
    
    has welcome_message => (
        is          => 'rw',
        isa         => Str,
        required    => 1,
        lazy_build  => 1,
    );
    
    method _build_welcome_message { 'Welcome' }
    
    
    action base under '/' as '';
    
    under base {
        
        final action welcome {
            $ctx->response->body( $self->welcome_message );
        }
    }
}

Roles

use CatalystX::Declare;

component_role MyApp::Web::ControllerRole::Bar {

    use MyApp::Types qw( Username );


    around _build_welcome_message { $self->$orig . '!' }

    after welcome (Object $ctx) {

        $ctx->response->body(join "\n",
            $ctx->response->body,
            time(),
        );
    }


    final action special_welcome (Username $name) under base {

        $ctx->response->body('Hugs to ' . $name);
    }
}

DESCRIPTION

This module is EXPERIMENTAL

This module provides a declarative syntax for Catalyst applications. Its main focus is currently on common and repetitious parts of the application, such as the application class itself, controllers, and controller roles.

Not a Source Filter

The used syntax elements are not parsed via source filter mechanism, but through Devel::Declare, which is a much less fragile deal to handle and allows extensions to mix without problems. For example, all keywords added by this module are separete handlers.

Syntax Documentation

The documentation about syntax is in the respective parts of the distribution below the CatalystX::Declare::Keyword:: namespace. Here are the manual pages you will be interested in to familiarize yourself with this module's syntax extensions:

CatalystX::Declare::Keyword::Application
CatalystX::Declare::Keyword::Controller
CatalystX::Declare::Keyword::Action
CatalystX::Declare::Keyword::Role

Things like models, views, roles for request or response objects, can be built declaratively with MooseX::Declare, which is used to additionally provide keywords for class, role, method and the available method modifier declarations. This allows for constructs such as:

use CatalystX::Declare;

class Foo {

    method bar { 23 }
}

controller MyApp::Web::Controller::Baz {

    final action qux under '/' { 
        $ctx->response->body(Foo->new->bar) 
    }
}

SEE ALSO

For Usage Information

These links are intended for the common user of this module.

Catalyst::Runtime
Catalyst::Devel
Catalyst::Manual

Although you probably already know Catalyst, since you otherwise probably wouldn't be here, I include these links for completeness sake.

Moose

The powerful modern Perl object orientation implementation that is used as basis for Catalyst. MooseX::Declare, on which CatalystX::Declare is based, provides a declarative syntax for Moose.

MooseX::Declare

We inherit almost all functionality from MooseX::Declare to allow the declaration of traditional classes, roles, methods, modifiers, etc. Refer to this documentation first for syntax elements that aren't part of CatalystX::Declare.

MooseX::Method::Signatures

This isn't directly used, but MooseX::Declare utilises this to provide us with method and modifier declarations. For extended information on the usage of methods, especially signatures, refer to this module after looking for an answer in the MooseX::Declare documentation.

For Developer Information

This section contains links relevant to the implementation of this module.

Devel::Declare

You could call this is the basic machine room that runs the interaction with perl. It provides a way to hook into perl's source code parsing and change small parts on a per-statement basis.

MooseX::MethodAttributes

We use this module to easily communicate the action attributes to Catalyst. Currently, this is the easiest solution for now but may be subject to change in the future.

AUTHOR

Robert 'phaylon' Sedlacek, <rs@474.at>

With contributions from, and many thanks to:

Florian Ragwitz
John Napiorkowski

LICENSE

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