NAME
CGI::Application::Plugin::Stream - CGI::Application Plugin for streaming files
SYNOPSIS
use CGI::Application::Plugin::Stream 'stream';
sub runmode {
# ...
# Set up any headers you want to set explicitly
# using header_props() or header_add() as usual
#...
return $self->stream($file);
}DESCRIPTION
This plugin provides a way to stream a file back to the user.
This is useful if you are creating a PDF or Spreadsheet document dynamically to deliver to the user.
The file is read and printed in small chunks to keep memory consumption down.
The stream() method should be run as the last call in a a run mode, and affects the HTTP response headers. If you pass along a filehandle, we'll make sure to close it for you.
METHODS
stream()
$self->stream($fh);
$self->stream( '/path/to/file',2048);This method can take two parameters, the first the path to the file or a filehandle and the second, an optional number of bytes to determine the chunk size of the stream. It defaults to 1024.
It will either stream a file to the user or die if it fails, perhaps because it couldn't find the file you referenced.
We highly recommend you provide a file name if passing along a filehandle, as we won't be able to deduce the file name, and will use 'FILE' by default. Example:
$self->header_add( -attachment => 'my_file.txt' );With both a file handle or file name, we will try to determine the correct content type by using File::MMagic. A default of 'application/octet-stream' will be used if File::MMagic can't figure it out.
The size will be calculated and added to the headers as well.
Again, you can set these explicitly if you want as well:
$self->header_add(
-type => 'text/plain',
-Content_Length => 42, # bytes
);stream_file() ( deprecated )
This works the same as stream(), but returns false to indicate a problem.
This is included because this was the original API. It does not give you access to "$@" if there is a problem.
AUTHOR
Jason Purdy, <Jason@Purdy.INFO>, with inspiration from Tobias Henoeckl and tremendous support from the cgiapp mailing list.
Mark Stosberg also contributed to this module.
SEE ALSO
CGI::Application, http://www.cgi-app.org, "CREATING A STANDARD HTTP HEADER" in CGI.pm, http://www.mail-archive.com/cgiapp@lists.erlbaum.net/msg02660.html, File::Basename, "$|" in perlvar
LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2004-2005 Jason Purdy, <Jason@Purdy.INFO>
This library is free software. You can modify and or distribute it under the same terms as Perl itself.