HTML::Mason::CGIHandler - Use Mason in a CGI environment

In httpd.conf or .htaccess:

    <LocationMatch "\.html$">
        Action html-mason /cgi-bin/mason_handler.cgi
        AddHandler html-mason .html
    </LocationMatch>
    <LocationMatch "^/cgi-bin/">
        RemoveHandler .html
    </LocationMatch>
    <FilesMatch "(autohandler|dhandler)$">
        Order allow,deny
        Deny from all
    </FilesMatch>

A script at /cgi-bin/mason_handler.pl :

   #!/usr/bin/perl
   use HTML::Mason::CGIHandler;

   my $h = HTML::Mason::CGIHandler->new
    (
     data_dir  => '/home/jethro/code/mason_data',
     allow_globals => [qw(%session $u)],
    );

   $h->handle_request;

A .html component somewhere in the web server's document root:

   <%args>
    $mood => 'satisfied'
   </%args>
   % $r->err_header_out(Location => "http://blahblahblah.com/moodring/$mood.html");
   ...

This module lets you execute Mason components in a CGI environment. It lets you keep your top-level components in the web server's document root, using regular component syntax and without worrying about the particular details of invoking Mason on each request.

If you want to use Mason components from within a regular CGI script (or any other Perl program, for that matter), then you don't need this module. You can simply follow the directions in the Using Mason from a standalone script section of the administrator's manual.

This module also provides an CW$r request object for use inside components, similar to the Apache request object under CWHTML::Mason::ApacheHandler, but limited in functionality. Please note that we aim to replicate the CWmod_perl functionality as closely as possible - if you find differences, do not depend on them to stay different. We may fix them in a future release. Also, if you need some missing functionality in CW$r, let us know, we might be able to provide it.

Finally, this module alters the CWHTML::Mason::Request object CW$m to provide direct access to the CGI query, should such access be necessary.

* new()

Creates a new handler. Accepts any parameter that the Interpreter accepts. If no CWcomp_root parameter is passed to CWnew(), the component root will be CW$ENV{DOCUMENT_ROOT}.

* handle_request()

Handles the current request, reading input from CW$ENV{QUERY_STRING} or CWSTDIN and sending headers and component output to CWSTDOUT. This method doesn't accept any parameters. The initial component will be the one specified in CW$ENV{PATH_INFO}.

* handle_comp()

Like CWhandle_request(), but the first (only) parameter is a component path or component object. This is useful within a traditional CGI environment, in which you're essentially using Mason as a templating language but not an application server. CWhandle_component() will create a CGI query object, parse the query parameters, and send the HTTP header and component output to STDOUT. If you want to handle those parts yourself, see the Using Mason from a standalone script section of the administrator's manual.

* handle_cgi_object()

Also like CWhandle_request(), but this method takes only a CGI object as its parameter. This can be quite useful if you want to use this module with CGI::Fast. The component path will be the value of the CGI object's CWpath_info() method.

* request_args()

Given an CWHTML::Mason::FakeApache object, this method is expected to return a hash containing the arguments to be passed to the component. It is a separate method in order to make it easily overrideable in a subclass.

* interp()

Returns the Mason Interpreter associated with this handler. The Interpreter lasts for the entire lifetime of the handler.

* headers_in()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. In an array context, it will return a CW%hash of response headers. In a scalar context, it will return a reference to the case-insensitive hash blessed into the CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable class. The values initially populated in this hash are extracted from the CGI environment variables as best as possible. The pattern is to merely reverse the conversion from HTTP headers to CGI variables as documented here: <http://cgi-spec.golux.com/draft-coar-cgi-v11-03-clean.html#6.1>.

* header_in()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. When passed the name of a header, returns the value of the given incoming header. When passed a name and a value, sets the value of the header. Setting the header to CWundef will actually unset the header (instead of setting its value to CWundef), removing it from the table of headers returned from future calls to CWheaders_in() or CWheader_in().

* headers_out()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. In an array context, it will return a CW%hash of response headers. In a scalar context, it will return a reference to the case-insensitive hash blessed into the CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable class. Changes made to this hash will be made to the headers that will eventually be passed to the CWCGI module's CWheader() method.

* header_out()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. When passed the name of a header, returns the value of the given outgoing header. When passed a name and a value, sets the value of the header. Setting the header to CWundef will actually unset the header (instead of setting its value to CWundef), removing it from the table of headers that will be sent to the client. The headers are eventually passed to the CWCGI module's CWheader() method.

* err_headers_out()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. In an array context, it will return a CW%hash of error response headers. In a scalar context, it will return a reference to the case-insensitive hash blessed into the CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable class. Changes made to this hash will be made to the error headers that will eventually be passed to the CWCGI module's CWheader() method.

* err_header_out()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. When passed the name of a header, returns the value of the given outgoing error header. When passed a name and a value, sets the value of the error header. Setting the header to CWundef will actually unset the header (instead of setting its value to CWundef), removing it from the table of headers that will be sent to the client. The headers are eventually passed to the CWCGI module's CWheader() method. One header currently gets special treatment - if you set a CWLocation header, you'll cause the CWCGI module's CWredirect() method to be used instead of the CWheader() method. This means that in order to do a redirect, all you need to do is:

 $r->err_header_out(Location => 'http://redirect.to/here');

You may be happier using the CW$m->redirect method, though, because it hides most of the complexities of sending headers and getting the status code right.

* content_type()

When passed an argument, sets the content type of the current request to the value of the argument. Use this method instead of setting a CWContent-Type header directly with CWheader_out(). Like CWheader_out(), setting the content type to CWundef will remove any content type set previously. When called without arguments, returns the value set by a previous call to CWcontent_type(). The behavior when CWcontent_type() hasn't already been set is undefined - currently it returns CWundef. If no content type is set during the request, the default MIME type CWtext/html will be used.

* method()

Returns the request method used for the current request, e.g., GET, POST, etc.

* http_header()

This method returns the outgoing headers as a string, suitable for sending to the client.

* send_http_header()

Sends the outgoing headers to the client.

* notes()

This works much like the CWApache method of the same name. When passed a CW$key argument, it returns the value of the note for that key. When passed a CW$value argument, it stores that value under the key. Keys are case-insensitive, and both the key and the value must be strings. When called in a scalar context with no CW$key argument, it returns a hash reference blessed into the CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable class.

* pnotes()

Like CWnotes(), but takes any scalar as an value, and stores the values in a case-sensitive hash.

* subprocess_env()

Works like the CWApache method of the same name, but is simply populated with the current values of the environment. Still, it's useful, because values can be changed and then seen by later components, but the environment itself remains unchanged. Like the CWApache method, it will reset all of its values to the current environment again if it's called without a CW$key argument.

* params()

This method returns a hash containing the parameters sent by the client. Multiple parameters of the same name are represented by array references. If both POST and query string arguments were submitted, these will be merged together. The CW$m object provided in components has all the functionality of the regular CWHTML::Mason::Request object CW$m, and the following:

* cgi_object()

Returns the current CWCGI request object. This is handy for processing cookies or perhaps even doing HTML generation (but is that really what you want to do?). If you pass an argument to this method, you can set the request object to the argument passed. Use this with care, as it may affect components called after the current one (they may check the content length of the request, for example). Note that the ApacheHandler class (for using Mason under mod_perl) also provides a CWcgi_object() method that does the same thing as this one. This makes it easier to write components that function equally well under CGIHandler and ApacheHandler.

* cgi_request()

Returns the object that is used to emulate Apache's request object. In other words, this is the object that CW$r is set to when you use this class. This class emulates the behavior of the CWApache::Table class, and is used to store manage the tables of values for the following attributes of <$r>:

headers_in

headers_out

err_headers_out

notes

subprocess_env

CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable is designed to behave exactly like CWApache::Table, and differs in only one respect. When a given key has multiple values in an CWApache::Table object, one can fetch each of the values for that key using Perl's CWeach operator:

  while (my ($k, $v) = each %{$r->headers_out}) {
      push @cookies, $v if lc $k eq 'set-cookie';
  }

If anyone knows how Apache::Table does this, let us know! In the meantime, use CWget() or CWdo() to get at all of the values for a given key (CWget() is much more efficient, anyway).

Since the methods named for these attributes return an CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable object hash in a scalar reference, it seemed only fair to document its interface.

* new()

Returns a new CWHTML::Mason::FakeTable object. Any parameters passed to CWnew() will be added to the table as initial values.

* add()

Adds a new value to the table. If the value did not previously exist under the given key, it will be created. Otherwise, it will be added as a new value to the key.

* clear()

Clears the table of all values.

* do()

Pass a code reference to this method to have it iterate over all of the key/value pairs in the table. Keys will multiple values will trigger the execution of the code reference multiple times for each value. The code reference should expect two arguments: a key and a value. Iteration terminates when the code reference returns false, to be sure to have it return a true value if you wan it to iterate over every value in the table.

* get()

Gets the value stored for a given key in the table. If a key has multiple values, all will be returned when CWget() is called in an array context, and only the first value when it is called in a scalar context.

* merge()

Merges a new value with an existing value by concatenating the new value onto the existing. The result is a comma-separated list of all of the values merged for a given key.

* set()

Takes key and value arguments and sets the value for that key. Previous values for that key will be discarded. The value must be a string, or CWset() will turn it into one. A value of CWundef will have the same behavior as CWunset().

* unset()

Takes a single key argument and deletes that key from the table, so that none of its values will be in the table any longer.

HTML::Mason, HTML::Mason::Admin, HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler