HTTP Methods¶

Here are some of the standard HTTP methods which you can use to define your route handlers.

• GET The GET method retrieves information, and is the most common

  GET requests should be used for typical "fetch" requests - retrieving information. They should not be used for requests which change data on the server or have other effects.

  When defining a route handler for the GET method, Dancer2 automatically defines a route handler for the HEAD method (in order to honour HEAD requests for each of your GET route handlers).

  To define a GET action, use the get keyword.

• POST The POST method is used to create a resource on the server.

  To define a POST action, use the post keyword.

• PUT The PUT method is used to replace an existing resource.

  To define a PUT action, use the put keyword.

  a PUT request should replace the existing resource with that specified - for instance - if you wanted to just update an email address for a user, you'd have to specify all attributes of the user again; to make a partial update, a PATCH request is used.

• PATCH The PATCH method updates some attributes of an existing resource.

  To define a PATCH action, use the patch keyword.

• DELETE The DELETE method requests that the origin server delete the resource identified by the Request-URI.

  To define a DELETE action, use the del keyword.

Handling multiple HTTP request methods

Routes can use "any" to match all, or a specified list of HTTP methods.

The following will match any HTTP request to the path "/myaction":

    any '/myaction' => sub {
        # code
    }

The following will match GET or POST requests to "/myaction":

    any ['get', 'post'] => '/myaction' => sub {
        # code
    };

For convenience, any route which matches GET requests will also match HEAD requests.

Route Handlers¶

The route action is the code reference declared. It can access parameters through the specific route_parameters, query_parameters, and body_parameters keywords, which return a Hash::MultiValue object. This hashref is a merge of the route pattern matches and the request params.

You can find more details about how params are built and how to access them in the Dancer2::Core::Request documentation.

Declaring Routes

To control what happens when a web request is received by your webapp, you'll need to declare "routes". A route declaration indicates which HTTP method(s) it is valid for, the path it matches (e.g. "/foo/bar"), and a coderef to execute, which returns the response.

    get '/hello/:name' => sub {
        return "Hi there " . route_parameters->get('name');
    };

The above route specifies that, for GET requests to "/hello/...", the code block provided should be executed.

You can also provide routes with a name:

    get 'hi_to' => '/hello/:name' => sub {...};

See "uri_for_route" in Dancer2::Manual::Keywords on how this can be used.

Retrieving request parameters

The query_parameters, route_parameters, and body_parameters keywords provide a Hash::MultiValue result from the three different parameters.

Named matching

A route pattern can contain one or more tokens (a word prefixed with ':'). Each token found in a route pattern is used as a named-pattern match. Any match will be set in the route parameters.

    get '/hello/:name' => sub {
        return "Hey " . route_parameters->get('name') . ", welcome here!";
    };

Tokens can be optional, for example:

    get '/hello/:name?' => sub {
        my $name = route_parameters->get('name') // 'Whoever you are';
        return "Hello there, $name";
    };

Named matching with type constraints

Type constraints can be added to tokens.

    get '/user/:id[Int]' => sub {
        # matches /user/34 but not /user/jamesdean
        my $user_id = route_parameters->get('id');
    };
    get '/user/:username[Str]' => sub {
        # matches /user/jamesdean but not /user/34 since that is caught
        # by previous route
        my $username = route_parameters->get('username');
    };

You can even use type constraints to add a regexp check:

    get '/book/:date[StrMatch[qr{\d\d\d\d-\d\d-\d\d}]]' => sub {
        # matches /book/2014-02-04
        my $date = route_parameters->get('date');
    };

The default type library is Dancer2::Core::Types but any type library built using Type::Tiny's Type::Library can be used instead. If you'd like to use a different default type library you must declare it in the configuration file, for example:

    type_library: My::Type::Library

Alternatively you can specify the type library in which the type is defined as part of the route definition:

    get '/user/:username[My::Type::Library::Username]' => sub {
        my $username = route_parameters->get('username');
    };

This will load "My::Type::Library" and from it use the type "Username". This allows types to be used that are not part of the type library defined by config's "type_library".

More complex constructs are allowed such as:

    get '/some/:thing[Int|MyDate]' => sub {
        ...;
    };

See "lookup($name)" in Type::Registry for more details.

Wildcard Matching

A route can contain a wildcard (represented by a "*"). Each wildcard match will be placed in a list, which the "splat" keyword returns.

    get '/download/*.*' => sub {
        my ($file, $ext) = splat;
        # do something with $file.$ext here
    };

An extensive, greedier wildcard represented by "**" (A.K.A. "megasplat") can be used to define a route. The additional path is broken down and returned as an arrayref:

    get '/entry/*/tags/**' => sub {
        my ( $entry_id, $tags ) = splat;
        my @tags = @{$tags};
    };

The "splat" keyword in the above example for the route /entry/1/tags/one/two would set $entry_id to 1 and $tags to "['one', 'two']".

Mixed named and wildcard matching

A route can combine named (token) matching and wildcard matching. This is useful when chaining actions:

    get '/team/:team/**' => sub {
        var team => route_parameters->get('team');
        pass;
    };
    prefix '/team/:team';
    get '/player/*' => sub {
        my ($player) = splat;
        # etc...
    };
    get '/score' => sub {
        return score_for( vars->{'team'} );
    };

Regular Expression Matching

A route can be defined with a Perl regular expression.

In order to tell Dancer2 to consider the route as a real regexp, the route must be defined explicitly with "qr{}", like the following:

    get qr{/hello/([\w]+)} => sub {
        my ($name) = splat;
        return "Hello $name";
    };

A route regex may use named capture groups. The "captures" keyword will return a reference to a copy of "%+".

Conditional Matching

Routes may include some matching conditions (on content_type, agent, user_agent, content_length and path_info):

    get '/foo', {agent => 'Songbird (\d\.\d)[\d\/]*?'} => sub {
      'foo method for songbird'
    }
    get '/foo' => sub {
      'all browsers except songbird'
    }

Prefix¶

A prefix can be defined for each route handler, like this:

    prefix '/home';

From here, any route handler is defined to /home/*

    get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match '/home/page1'

You can unset the prefix value

    prefix '/'; # or: prefix undef;
    get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match /page1

Alternatively, to prevent you from ever forgetting to undef the prefix, you can use lexical prefix like this:

    prefix '/home' => sub {
      get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match '/home/page1'
    }; ## prefix reset to previous value on exit
    get '/page1' => sub {}; # will match /page1

Delayed responses (Async/Streaming)¶

Dancer2 can provide delayed (otherwise known as asynchronous) responses using the "delayed" keyword. These responses are streamed, although you can set the content all at once, if you prefer.

    get '/status' => sub {
        delayed {
            response_header 'X-Foo' => 'Bar';
            # flush headers (in case of streaming)
            flush;
            # send content to the user
            content 'Hello, world!';
            # you can write more content
            # all streaming
            content 'Hello, again!';
            # when done, close the connection
            done;
            # do whatever you want else, asynchronously
            # the user socket closed by now
            ...
        };
    };

If you are streaming (calling "content" several times), you must call "flush" first. If you're sending only once, you don't need to call "flush".

Here is an example of using delayed responses with AnyEvent:

    use Dancer2;
    use AnyEvent;
    my %timers;
    my $count = 5;
    get '/drums' => sub {
        delayed {
            print "Stretching...\n";
            flush; # necessary, since we're streaming
            $timers{'Snare'} = AE::timer 1, 1, delayed {
                $timers{'HiHat'} ||= AE::timer 0, 0.5, delayed {
                    content "Tss...\n";
                };
                content "Bap!\n";
                if ( $count-- == 0 ) {
                    %timers = ();
                    content "Tugu tugu tugu dum!\n";
                    done;
                    print "<enter sound of applause>\n\n";
                    $timers{'Applause'} = AE::timer 3, 0, sub {
                        # the DSL will not available here
                        # because we didn't call the "delayed" keyword
                        print "<applause dies out>\n";
                    };
                }
            };
        };
    };

If an error happens during a write operation, a warning will be issued to the logger.

You can handle the error yourself by providing an "on_error" handler:

    get '/' => sub {
        delayed {
            flush;
            content "works";
            # ... user disconnected here ...
            content "fails";
            # ... error triggered ...
            done; # doesn't even get run
        } on_error => sub {
            # delayed{} not needed, DSL already available
            my ($error) = @_;
            # do something with $error
        };
    };

Here is an example that asynchronously streams the contents of a CSV file:

    use Dancer2;
    use Text::CSV_XS  qw< csv >;
    use Path::Tiny    qw< path >;
    use JSON::MaybeXS qw< encode_json >;
    # Create CSV parser
    my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new({
        binary    => 1,
        auto_diag => 1,
    });
    get '/' => sub {
        # delayed response:
        delayed {
            # streaming content
            flush;
            # Read each row and stream it in JSON
            my $fh = path('filename.csv')->openr_utf8;
            while ( my $row = $csv->getline($fh) ) {
                content encode_json $row;
            }
            # close user connection
            done;
        } on_error => sub {
            my ($error) = @_;
            warning 'Failed to stream to user: ' . request->remote_address;
        };
    };

NOTE: If you just want to send a file's contents asynchronously, use send_file($filename) instead of "delayed", as it will automatically take advantage of any asynchronous capability.

Action Skipping¶

An action can choose not to serve the current request and ask Dancer2 to process the request with the next matching route.

This is done with the pass keyword, like in the following example

    get '/say/:word' => sub {
        pass if route_parameters->get('word') =~ /^\d+$/;
        "I say a word: " . route_parameters->get('word');
    };
    get '/say/:number' => sub {
        "I say a number: " . route_parameters->get('number');
    };

Templates¶

• "before_template_render"

  "before_template_render" hooks are called whenever a template is going to be processed, they are passed the tokens hash which they can alter.

      hook before_template_render => sub {
          my $tokens = shift;
          $tokens->{foo} = 'bar';
      };
      

  The tokens hash will then be passed to the template with all the modifications performed by the hook. This is a good way to setup some global vars you like to have in all your templates, like the name of the user logged in or a section name.

• "after_template_render"

  "after_template_render" hooks are called after the view has been rendered. They receive as their first argument the reference to the content that has been produced. This can be used to post-process the content rendered by the template engine.

      hook after_template_render => sub {
          my $ref_content = shift;
          my $content     = ${$ref_content};
          # do something with $content
          ${$ref_content} = $content;
      };
      

• "before_layout_render"

  "before_layout_render" hooks are called whenever the layout is going to be applied to the current content. The arguments received by the hook are the current tokens hashref and a reference to the current content.

      hook before_layout_render => sub {
          my ($tokens, $ref_content) = @_;
          $tokens->{new_stuff} = 42;
          $ref_content = \"new content";
      };
      

• "after_layout_render"

  "after_layout_render" hooks are called once the complete content of the view has been produced, after the layout has been applied to the content. The argument received by the hook is a reference to the complete content string.

      hook after_layout_render => sub {
          my $ref_content = shift;
          # do something with ${ $ref_content }, which reflects directly
          #   in the caller
      };
      

Error Handling¶

Refer to Error Hooks for details about the following hooks:

• "init_error"
• "before_error"
• "after_error"
• "on_route_exception"

File Rendering¶

Refer to File Handler for details on the following hooks:

• "before_file_render"
• "after_file_render"

Logging¶

Logging hooks do not allow you to alter log message content, but they do give you a place to perform extra actions. For example, if you want to send an email for error messages, but you don't want to use a heavier logger such as Log::Any or Log::Log4perl:

    hook 'engine.logger.after' => sub {
        my ( $logger, $level, $message ) = @_;
        if( $level eq 'error' ) {
            # Send an email with the message content
        }
    };

There are two hooks available for logging:

• engine.logger.before

  This hook is called before a log message is produced.

• engine.logger.after

  This hook is called after a log message is produced.

Serializers¶

• "before_serializer" is called before serializing the content, and receives the content to serialize as an argument.

    hook before_serializer => sub {
      my $content = shift;
      ...
    };
      

• "after_serializer" is called after the payload has been serialized, and receives the serialized content as an argument.

    hook after_serializer => sub {
      my $serialized_content = shift;
      ...
    };
      

File Handler¶

Whenever a content is produced out of the parsing of a static file, the Dancer2::Handler::File component is used. This component provides two hooks, "before_file_render" and "after_file_render".

"before_file_render" hooks are called just before starting to parse the file, the hook receives as its first argument the file path that is going to be processed.

    hook before_file_render => sub {
        my $path = shift;
    };

"after_file_render" hooks are called after the file has been parsed and the response content produced. It receives the response object (Dancer2::Core::Response) produced.

    hook after_file_render => sub {
       my $response = shift;
    };

Auto page¶

Whenever a page that matches an existing template needs to be served, the Dancer2::Handler::AutoPage component is used.

Writing your own¶

A route handler is a class that consumes the Dancer2::Core::Role::Handler role. The class must implement a set of methods: "methods", "regexp" and "code" which will be used to declare the route.

Let's look at Dancer2::Handler::AutoPage for example.

First, the matching methods are "get" and "head":

    sub methods { qw(head get) }

Then, the "regexp" or the path we want to match:

    sub regexp { '/:page' }

Anything will be matched by this route, since we want to check if there's a view named with the value of the "page" token. If not, the route needs to "pass", letting the dispatching flow to proceed further.

    sub code {
        sub {
            my $app = shift;
            my $prefix = shift;
            my $template = $app->template_engine;
            if ( !defined $template ) {
                $app->response->has_passed(1);
                return;
            }
            my $page       = $app->request->path;
            my $layout_dir = $template->layout_dir;
            if ( $page =~ m{^/\Q$layout_dir\E/} ) {
                $app->response->has_passed(1);
                return;
            }
            # remove leading '/', ensuring paths relative to the view
            $page =~ s{^/}{};
            my $view_path = $template->view_pathname($page);
            if ( ! $template->pathname_exists( $view_path ) ) {
                $app->response->has_passed(1);
                return;
            }
            my $ct = $template->process( $page );
            return ( $app->request->method eq 'GET' ) ? $ct : '';
        };
    }

The "code" method passed the Dancer2::Core::App object which provides access to anything needed to process the request.

A "register" is then implemented to add the route to the registry and if the "auto_page setting" is off, it does nothing.

    sub register {
        my ($self, $app) = @_;
        return unless $app->config->{auto_page};
        $app->add_route(
            method => $_,
            regexp => $self->regexp,
            code   => $self->code,
        ) for $self->methods;
    }

The config parser looks for a "route_handlers" section and any handler defined there is loaded. Thus, any random handler can be added to your app. For example, the default config file for any Dancer2 application is as follows:

    route_handlers:
      File:
        public_dir: /path/to/public
      AutoPage: 1

Error Pages¶

When an HTTP error occurs (i.e. the action responds with a status code other than 200), this is how Dancer2 determines what page to display.

• Looks in the "views/" directory for a corresponding template file matching the error code (e.g. "500.tt" or "404.tt"). If such a file exists, it's used to report the error.
• Next, looks in the "public/" directory for a corresponding HTML file matching the error code (e.g. "500.html" or "404.html"). If such a file exists, it's used to report the error. (Note, however, that if show_stacktrace is set to true, in the case of a 500 error the static HTML page will not be shown, but will be replaced with a default error page containing more informative diagnostics. For more information see Dancer2::Config.)

  (In older versions, show_errors was used instead of show_stacktrace. Both are supported, but show_errors is deprecated.)

• As default, render a generic error page on the fly.

Execution Errors¶

When an error occurs during the route execution, Dancer2 will render an error page with the HTTP status code 500.

It's possible either to display the content of the error message or to hide it with a generic error page. This is a choice left to the end-user and can be controlled with the show_stacktrace setting (see above).

Error Hooks¶

When an error is caught by Dancer2's core, an exception object is built (of the class Dancer2::Core::Error). This class provides a hook to let the user alter the error workflow if needed.

"init_error" hooks are called whenever an error object is built, the object is passed to the hook.

    hook init_error => sub {
        my $error = shift;
        # do something with $error
    };

This hook was named before_error_init in Dancer, both names currently are synonyms for backward-compatibility.

"before_error" hooks are called whenever an error is going to be thrown, it receives the error object as its sole argument.

    hook before_error => sub {
        my $error = shift;
        # do something with $error
    };

This hook was named before_error_render in Dancer, both names currently are synonyms for backward-compatibility.

"after_error" hooks are called whenever an error object has been thrown, it receives a Dancer2::Core::Response object as its sole argument.

    hook after_error => sub {
        my $response = shift;
    };

This hook was named after_error_render in Dancer, both names currently are synonyms for backward-compatibility.

"on_route_exception" is called when an exception has been caught, at the route level, just before rethrowing it higher. This hook receives a Dancer2::Core::App and the error as arguments.

  hook on_route_exception => sub {
    my ($app, $error) = @_;
  };

Handling sessions¶

It's common to want to use sessions to give your web applications state; for instance, allowing a user to log in, creating a session, and checking that session on subsequent requests.

By default Dancer 2 has Simple sessions enabled. It implements a very simple in-memory session storage. This will be fast and useful for testing, but such sessions will not persist between restarts of your app.

If you'd like to use a different session engine you must declare it in the configuration file.

For example to use YAML file base sessions you need to add the following to your config.yml:

    session: YAML

Or, to enable session support from within your code,

    set session => 'YAML';

(However, controlling settings is best done from your config file.)

The Dancer2::Session::YAML backend implements a file-based YAML session storage to help with debugging, but shouldn't be used on production systems.

There are other session backends, such as Dancer2::Session::Memcached, which are recommended for production use.

You can then use the session keyword to manipulate the session:

Storing data in the session

Storing data in the session is as easy as:

    session varname => 'value';

Retrieving data from the session

Retrieving data from the session is as easy as:

    session('varname')

Or, alternatively,

    session->read("varname")

Controlling where sessions are stored

For disc-based session backends like Dancer2::Session::YAML, session files are written to the session dir specified by the "session_dir" setting, which defaults to "./sessions" if not specifically set.

If you need to control where session files are created, you can do so quickly and easily within your config file, for example:

    session: YAML
    engines:
      session:
        YAML:
          session_dir: /tmp/dancer-sessions

If the directory you specify does not exist, Dancer2 will attempt to create it for you.

Changing session ID

If you wish to change the session ID (for example on privilege level change):

    my $new_session_id = app->change_session_id

Destroying a session

When you're done with your session, you can destroy it:

    app->destroy_session

Sessions and logging in¶

A common requirement is to check the user is logged in, and, if not, require them to log in before continuing.

This can easily be handled using a before hook to check their session:

    use Dancer2;
    set session => "Simple";
    hook before => sub {
        if (!session('user') && request->path !~ m{^/login}) {
            forward '/login', { requested_path => request->path };
        }
    };
    get '/' => sub { return "Home Page"; };
    get '/secret' => sub { return "Top Secret Stuff here"; };
    get '/login' => sub {
        # Display a login page; the original URL they requested is available as
        # query_parameters->get('requested_path'), so could be put in a hidden field in the form
        template 'login', { path => query_parameters->get('requested_path') };
    };
    post '/login' => sub {
        # Validate the username and password they supplied
        if (body_parameters->get('user') eq 'bob' && body_parameters->get('pass') eq 'letmein') {
            session user => body_parameters->get('user');
            redirect body_parameters->get('path') || '/';
        } else {
            redirect '/login?failed=1';
        }
    };
    dance();

Here is what the corresponding "login.tt" file should look like. You should place it in a directory called "views/":

    <html>
      <head>
        <title>Session and logging in</title>
      </head>
      <body>
        <form action='/login' method='POST'>
            User Name : <input type='text' name='user'/>
            Password: <input type='password' name='pass' />
            <!-- Put the original path requested into a hidden
                       field so it's sent back in the POST and can be
                       used to redirect to the right page after login -->
            <input type='hidden' name='path' value='<% path %>'/>
            <input type='submit' value='Login' />
        </form>
      </body>
    </html>

Of course, you'll probably want to validate your users against a database table, or maybe via IMAP/LDAP/SSH/POP3/local system accounts via PAM etc. Authen::Simple is probably a good starting point here!

A simple working example of handling authentication against a database table yourself (using Dancer2::Plugin::Database which provides the "database" keyword, and Crypt::SaltedHash to handle salted hashed passwords (well, you wouldn't store your users passwords in the clear, would you?)) follows:

    post '/login' => sub {
        my $user_value = body_parameters->get('user');
        my $pass_value = body_parameters->get('pass');
        my $user = database->quick_select('users',
            { username => $user_value }
        );
        if (!$user) {
            warning "Failed login for unrecognised user $user_value";
            redirect '/login?failed=1';
        } else {
            if (Crypt::SaltedHash->validate($user->{password}, $pass_value))
            {
                debug "Password correct";
                # Logged in successfully
                session user => $user;
                redirect body_parameters->get('path') || '/';
            } else {
                debug("Login failed - password incorrect for " . $user_value);
                redirect '/login?failed=1';
            }
        }
    };

Retrieve complete hash stored in session

Get complete hash stored in session:

    my $hash = session;

Writing a session engine¶

In Dancer 2, a session backend consumes the role Dancer2::Core::Role::SessionFactory.

The following example using the Redis session demonstrates how session engines are written in Dancer 2.

First thing to do is to create the class for the session engine, we'll name it "Dancer2::Session::Redis":

     package Dancer2::Session::Redis;
     use Moo;
     with 'Dancer2::Core::Role::SessionFactory';

we want our backend to have a handle over a Redis connection. To do that, we'll create an attribute "redis"

     use JSON;
     use Redis;
     use Dancer2::Core::Types; # brings helper for types
     has redis => (
         is => 'rw',
         isa => InstanceOf['Redis'],
         lazy => 1,
         builder => '_build_redis',
     );

The lazy attribute says to Moo that this attribute will be built (initialized) only when called the first time. It means that the connection to Redis won't be opened until necessary.

     sub _build_redis {
         my ($self) = @_;
         Redis->new(
             server => $self->server,
             password => $self->password,
             encoding => undef,
         );
     }

Two more attributes, "server" and "password" need to be created. We do this by defining them in the config file. Dancer2 passes anything defined in the config to the engine creation.

     # config.yml
     ...
     engines:
       session:
         Redis:
           server: foo.mydomain.com
           password: S3Cr3t

The server and password entries are now passed to the constructor of the Redis session engine and can be accessed from there.

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

Next, we define the subroutine "_retrieve" which will return a session object for a session ID it has passed. Since in this case, sessions are going to be stored in Redis, the session ID will be the key, the session the value. So retrieving is as easy as doing a get and decoding the JSON string returned:

     sub _retrieve {
         my ($self, $session_id) = @_;
         my $json = $self->redis->get($session_id);
         my $hash = from_json( $json );
         return bless $hash, 'Dancer2::Core::Session';
     }

The "_flush" method is called by Dancer when the session needs to be stored in the backend. That is actually a write to Redis. The method receives a "Dancer2::Core::Session" object and is supposed to store it.

     sub _flush {
         my ($self, $session) = @_;
         my $json = encode_json( { %{ $session } } );
         $self->redis->set($session->id, $json);
     }

For the "_destroy" method which is supposed to remove a session from the backend, deleting the key from Redis is enough.

     sub _destroy {
         my ($self, $session_id) = @_;
         $self->redis->del($session_id);
     }

The "_sessions" method which is supposed to list all the session IDs currently stored in the backend is done by listing all the keys that Redis has.

     sub _sessions {
         my ($self) = @_;
         my @keys = $self->redis->keys('*');
         return \@keys;
     }

The session engine is now ready.

The Session keyword

Dancer2 maintains two session layers.

The first layer, Dancer2::Core::Session provides a session object which represents the current session. You can read from it as many times as you want, and write to it as many times as you want.

The second layer is the session engine (Dancer2::Session::Simple is one example), which is used in order to implement the reading and writing from the actual storage. This is read only once, when a request comes in (using a cookie whose value is "dancer.session" by default). At the end of a request, all the data you've written will be flushed to the engine itself, which will do the actual write to the storage (whether it's in a hash in memory, in Memcache, or in a database).

Views¶

In Dancer2, a file which holds a template is called a view. Views are located in the "appdir/views" directory.

You can change this location by changing the setting 'views'. For instance if your templates are located in the 'templates' directory, do the following:

    set views => path( app->location , 'templates' );

By default, the internal template engine Dancer2::Template::Simple is used, but you may want to upgrade to Template Toolkit <http://www.template-toolkit.org/>. If you do so, you have to enable this engine in your settings as explained in Dancer2::Template::TemplateToolkit and you'll also have to install the Template module.

In order to render a view, just call the template keyword at the end of the action by giving the view name and the HASHREF of tokens to interpolate in the view (note that for convenience, the request, session, params and vars are automatically accessible in the view, named "request", "session", "params", and "vars") - for example:

    hook before => sub { var time => scalar(localtime) };
    get '/hello/:name' => sub {
        my $name = route_parameters->get('name');
        template 'hello.tt', { name => $name };
    };

The template "hello.tt" could contain, for example:

    <p>Hi there, [% name %]!</p>
    <p>You're using [% request.user_agent %]</p>
    [% IF session.username %]
        <p>You're logged in as [% session.username %]</p>
    [% END %]
    It's currently [% vars.time %]

For a full list of the tokens automatically added to your template (like "session", "request", and "vars", refer to Dancer2::Core::Role::Template).

By default, views use a .tt extension. This can be overridden by setting the "extension" attribute in the template engine configuration:

    set engines => {
        template => {
            template_toolkit => {
                extension => 'foo',
            },
        },
    };

Layouts¶

A layout is a special view, located in the layouts directory (inside the views directory) which must have a token named "content". That token marks the place where to render the action view. This lets you define a global layout for your actions, and have each individual view contain only specific content. This is a good thing and helps avoid lots of needless duplication of HTML. :)

For example, the layout views/layouts/main.tt:

    <html>
        <head>...</head>
        <body>
        <div id="header">
        ...
        </div>
        <div id="content">
        [% content %]
        </div>
        </body>
    </html>

You can tell your app which layout to use with "layout: name" in the config file, or within your code:

    set layout => 'main';

You can control which layout to use (or whether to use a layout at all) for a specific request without altering the layout setting by passing an options hashref as the third param to the template keyword:

    template 'index.tt', {}, { layout => undef };

If your application is not mounted under root ("/"), you can use a "before_template_render" hook instead of hardcoding the path into your application for your CSS, images and JavaScript:

    hook before_template_render => sub {
        my $tokens = shift;
        $tokens->{uri_base} = request->base->path;
    };

Then in your layout, modify your CSS inclusion as follows:

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="[% uri_base %]/css/style.css" />

From now on you can mount your application wherever you want, without any further modification of the CSS inclusion.

Encoding¶

If you use Plack and have a Unicode problem with your Dancer2 application, don't forget to check if you have set your template engine to use Unicode, and set the default charset to UTF-8. So, if you are using template toolkit, your config file will look like this:

    charset: UTF-8
    engines:
      template:
        template_toolkit:
          ENCODING: utf8

Default Template Variables¶

Every template knows about the following variables, which are provided by Dancer2::Core::Role::Template. Some are similar to the keywords you can use in the Perl part of your Dancer2 application.

• perl_version

  Current version of perl, effectively $^V <http://perldoc.perl.org/perlvar.html#%24%5eV>.

• dancer_version

  Current version of Dancer2, effectively "Dancer2->VERSION".

• settings

  A hash of the application configuration. This is like the config keyword.

• request

  The current request object. This is like the request keyword.

• params

  A hash reference of all the parameters.

  Currently the equivalent of "$request->params", and like the params keyword.

• vars

  The list of request variables, which is what you would get if you called the vars keyword.

• session

  The current session data, if a session exists. This is like the session keyword.

Static Directory¶

Static files are served from the ./public directory. You can specify a different location by setting the "public_dir" option:

    set public_dir => path( app->location , 'static' );

When you modify default public_dir you have to set "static_handler" option.

    set static_handler => true;

Note that the public directory name is not included in the URL. A file ./public/css/style.css is made available as <http://example.com/css/style.css>.

Static File from a Route Handler¶

It's possible for a route handler to send a static file, as follows:

    get '/download/*' => sub {
        my ($file) = splat;
        send_file $file;
    };

Or even if you want your index page to be a plain old index.html file, just do:

    get '/' => sub {
        send_file '/index.html'
    };

Configuration and environments¶

Configuring a Dancer2 application can be done in many ways. The easiest one (and maybe the dirtiest) is to put all your settings statements at the top of your script, before calling the dance() method.

Other ways are possible: for example, you can define all your settings in the file "appdir/config.yml". For this, you must have installed the YAML module, and of course, write the config file in YAML.

That's better than the first option, but it's still not perfect as you can't switch easily from an environment to another without rewriting the config file.

A better solution is to have one config.yml file with default global settings, like the following:

    # appdir/config.yml
    logger: 'file'
    layout: 'main'

And then write as many environment files as you like in "appdir/environments". That way, the appropriate environment config file will be loaded according to the running environment (if none is specified, it will be 'development').

You can change the running environment when starting your app using the "plackup" command's "--env" or "--E" switch:

    plackup -E production bin/app.psgi

Altenatively, you can set the "DANCER_ENVIRONMENT" <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Config#DANCER_ENVIRONMENT> environment variable in the shell or in your web server's configuration file.

Typically, you'll want to set the following values in a development config file:

    # appdir/environments/development.yml
    log: 'debug'
    startup_info: 1
    show_stacktrace:  1

And in a production one:

    # appdir/environments/production.yml
    log: 'warning'
    startup_info: 0
    show_stacktrace:  0

Please note that you are not limited to writing configuration files in YAML. Dancer2 supports any file format that is supported by Config::Any, such as JSON, XML, INI files, and Apache-style config files. See the Dancer2 configuration guide <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Config#MANIPULATING-SETTINGS-VIA-CONFIGURATION-FILES> for more information.

Accessing configuration information¶

A Dancer2 application can use the "config" keyword to easily access the settings within its config file, for instance:

    get '/appname' => sub {
        return "This is " . config->{appname};
    };

This makes keeping your application's settings all in one place simple and easy - you shouldn't need to worry about implementing all that yourself. :)

Settings¶

It's possible to change almost every parameter of the application via the settings mechanism.

A setting is a key/value pair assigned by the keyword set:

    set setting_name => 'setting_value';

More usefully, settings can be defined in a configuration file. Environment-specific settings can also be defined in environment-specific files (for instance, you do not want to show error stacktraces in production, and might want extra logging in development).

Serializers¶

When writing a webservice, data serialization/deserialization is a common issue to deal with. Dancer2 can automatically handle that for you, via a serializer.

When setting up a serializer, a new behaviour is authorized for any route handler you define: any non-scalar response will be rendered as a serialized string, via the current serializer.

Here is an example of a route handler that will return a hashref:

    use Dancer2;
    set serializer => 'JSON';
    get '/user/:id/' => sub {
        { foo => 42,
          number => 100234,
          list => [qw(one two three)],
        }
    };

Dancer2 will render the response via the current serializer.

Hence, with the JSON serializer set, the route handler above would result in a content like the following:

    {"number":100234,"foo":42,"list":["one","two","three"]}

If you send a value which is validated serialized data, but is not in the form a key and value pair (such as a serialized string or a JSON array), the data will not be available in "params" but will be available in "request->data".

The following serializers are available, be aware they dynamically depend on Perl modules you may not have on your system.

• JSON

  Requires JSON.

• YAML

  Requires YAML,

• XML

  Requires XML::Simple.

• Mutable

  Will try to find the appropriate serializer using the Content-Type and Accept-type header of the request.

Importing using Appname¶

An app in Dancer2 uses the class name (defined by the "package" function) to define the App name. Thus separating the App to multiple files, actually means creating multiple applications. This means that any engine defined in an application, because the application is a complete separate scope, will not be available to a different application:

     package MyApp::User {
         use Dancer2;
         set serializer => 'JSON';
         get '/view' => sub {...};
     }
     package MyApp::User::Edit {
         use Dancer2;
         get '/edit' => sub {...};
     }

These are two different Dancer2 Apps. They have different scopes, contexts, and thus different engines. While "MyApp::User" has a serializer defined, "MyApp::User::Edit" will not have that configuration.

By using the import option "appname", we can ask Dancer2 to extend an App without creating a new one:

     package MyApp::User {
         use Dancer2;
         set serializer => 'JSON';
         get '/view' => sub {...};
     }
     package MyApp::User::Edit {
         use Dancer2 appname => 'MyApp::User'; # extending MyApp::User
         get '/edit' => sub {...};
     }

The import option "appname" allows you to seamlessly extend Dancer2 Apps without creating unnecessary additional applications or repeat any definitions. This allows you to spread your application routes across multiple files and allow ease of mind when developing it, and accommodate multiple developers working on the same codebase.

     # app.pl
     use MyApp::User;
     use MyApp::User::Edit;
     # single application composed of routes provided in multiple files
     MyApp::User->to_app;

This way only one class needs to be loaded while creating an app:

     # app.pl:
     use MyApp::User;
     MyApp::User->to_app;

Configuring logging¶

It's possible to log messages generated by the application and by Dancer2 itself.

To start logging, select the logging engine you wish to use with the "logger" setting; Dancer2 includes built-in log engines named "file" and "console", which log to a logfile and to the console respectively.

To enable logging to a file, add the following to your config file:

    logger: 'file'

Then you can choose which kind of messages you want to actually log:

    log: 'core'      # will log debug, info, warnings, errors,
                     #   and messages from Dancer2 itself
    log: 'debug'     # will log debug, info, warning and errors
    log: 'info'      # will log info, warning and errors
    log: 'warning'   # will log warning and errors
    log: 'error'     # will log only errors

If you're using the "file" logging engine, a directory "appdir/logs" will be created and will host one logfile per environment. The log message contains the time it was written, the PID of the current process, the message and the caller information (file and line).

Logging your own messages¶

Just call debug <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#debug>, info <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#info>, warning <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#warning> or error <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Manual#error> with your message:

    debug "This is a debug message from my app.";

Using Plack::Test¶

Plack::Test receives a common web request (using standard HTTP::Request objects), fakes a web server in order to create a proper PSGI request, and sends it to the web application. When the web application returns a PSGI response (which Dancer applications do), it will then convert it to a common web response (as a standard HTTP::Response object).

This allows you to then create requests in your test, create the code reference for your web application, call them, and receive a response object, which can then be tested.

Basic Example

Assuming there is a web application:

     # MyApp.pm
     package MyApp;
     use Dancer2;
     get '/' => sub {'OK'};
     1;

The following test base.t is created:

     # base.t
     use strict;
     use warnings;
     use Test::More tests => 2;
     use Plack::Test;
     use HTTP::Request;
     use MyApp;

Creating a coderef for the application using the "to_app" keyword:

     my $app = MyApp->to_app;

Creating a test object from Plack::Test for the application:

     my $test = Plack::Test->create($app);

Creating the first request object and sending it to the test object to receive a response:

     my $request  = HTTP::Request->new( GET => '/' );
     my $response = $test->request($request);

It can now be tested:

     ok( $response->is_success, '[GET /] Successful request' );
     is( $response->content, 'OK', '[GET /] Correct content' );

Putting it together

     # base.t
     use strict;
     use warnings;
     use Test::More;
     use Plack::Test;
     use HTTP::Request::Common;
     use MyApp;
     my $test     = Plack::Test->create( MyApp->to_app );
     my $response = $test->request( GET '/' );
     ok( $response->is_success, '[GET /] Successful request' );
     is( $response->content, 'OK', '[GET /] Correct content' );
     done_testing();

Subtests

Tests can be separated using Test::More's "subtest" functionality, thus creating multiple self-contained tests that don't overwrite each other.

Assuming we have a different app that has two states we want to test:

     # MyApp.pm
     package MyApp;
     use Dancer2;
     set serializer => 'JSON';
     get '/:user' => sub {
         my $user = route_parameters->get('user');
         $user and return { user => $user };
         return {};
     };
     1;

This is a contrived example of a route that checks for a user parameter. If it exists, it returns it in a hash with the key 'user'. If not, it returns an empty hash

     # param.t
     use strict;
     use warnings;
     use Test::More;
     use Plack::Test;
     use HTTP::Request::Common;
     use MyApp;
     my $test = Plack::Test->create( MyApp->to_app );
     subtest 'A empty request' => sub {
         my $res = $test->request( GET '/' );
         ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
         is( $res->content '{}', 'Empty response back' );
     };
     subtest 'Request with user' => sub {
         my $res = $test->request( GET '/?user=sawyer_x' );
         ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
         is( $res->content '{"user":"sawyer_x"}', 'Empty response back' );
     };
     done_testing();

Cookies

To handle cookies, which are mostly used for maintaining sessions, the following modules can be used:

• Test::WWW::Mechanize::PSGI
• LWP::Protocol::PSGI
• HTTP::Cookies

Taking the previous test, assuming it actually creates and uses cookies for sessions:

     # ... all the use statements
     use HTTP::Cookies;
     my $jar  = HTTP::Cookies->new;
     my $test = Plack::Test->create( MyApp->to_app );
     subtest 'A empty request' => sub {
         my $res = $test->request( GET '/' );
         ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
         is( $res->content '{}', 'Empty response back' );
         $jar->extract_cookies($res);
         ok( $jar->as_string, 'We have cookies!' );
     };
     subtest 'Request with user' => sub {
         my $req = GET '/?user=sawyer_x';
         $jar->add_cookie_header($req);
         my $res = $test->request($req);
         ok( $res->is_success, 'Successful request' );
         is( $res->content '{"user":"sawyer_x"}', 'Empty response back' );
         $jar->extract_cookies($res);
         ok( ! $jar->as_string, 'All cookies deleted' );
     };
     done_testing();

Here a cookie jar is created, all requests and responses, existing cookies, as well as cookies that were deleted by the response, are checked.

Accessing the configuration file

By importing Dancer2 in the command line scripts, there is full access to the configuration using the imported keywords:

     use strict;
     use warnings;
     use Test::More;
     use Plack::Test;
     use HTTP::Request::Common;
     use MyApp;
     use Dancer2;
     my $appname = config->{'appname'};
     diag "Testing $appname";
     # ...

Carton¶

What it does

Carton sets up a local copy of your project prerequisites. You only need to define them in a file and ask Carton to download all of them and set them up. When you want to deploy your app, you just carry the git clone and ask Carton to set up the environment again and you will then be able to run it.

The benefits are multifold:

• Local Directory copy

  By putting all the dependencies in a local directory, you can make sure they aren't updated by someone else by accident and their versions locked to the version you picked.

• Sync versions

  Deciding which versions of the dependent modules your project needs allows you to sync this with other developers as well. Now you're all using the same version and they don't change unless you want update the versions you want. When updated everyone again uses the same new version of everything.

• Carry only the requirement, not bundled modules

  Instead of bundling the modules, you only actually bundle the requirements. Carton builds them for you when you need it.

Setting it up

First set up a new app:

     $ dancer2 gen -a MyApp
     ...

Delete the files that are not needed:

     $ rm -f Makefile.PL MANIFEST MANIFEST.SKIP

Create a git repo:

     $ git init && git add . && git commit -m "initial commit"

Add a requirement using the cpanfile format:

     $ cat > cpanfile
     requires 'Dancer2' => 0.155000;
     requires 'Template' => 0;
     recommends 'URL::Encode::XS' => 0;
     recommends 'CGI::Deurl::XS' => 0;
     recommends 'HTTP::Parser::XS' => 0;

Ask carton to set it up:

     $ carton install
     Installing modules using [...]
     Successfully installed [...]
     ...
     Complete! Modules were install into [...]/local

Now we have two files: cpanfile and cpanfile.snapshot. We add both of them to our Git repository and we make sure we don't accidentally add the local/ directory Carton created which holds the modules it installed:

     $ echo local/ >> .gitignore
     $ git add .gitignore cpanfile cpanfile.snapshot
     $ git commit -m "Start using carton"

When we want to update the versions on the production machine, we simply call:

     $ carton install --deployment

By using --deployment we make sure we only install the modules we have in our cpanfile.snapshot file and do not fallback to querying the CPAN.

FatPacker¶

App::FatPacker (using its command line interface, fatpack) packs dependencies into a single file, allowing you to carry a single file instead of a directory tree.

As long as your application is pure-Perl, you could create a single file with your application and all of Dancer2 in it.

The following example will demonstrate how this can be done:

Assuming we have an application in lib/MyApp.pm:

     package MyApp;
     use Dancer2;
     get '/' => sub {'OK'};
     1;

And we have a handler in bin/app.pl:

     use strict;
     use warnings;
     use FindBin;
     use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";
     use MyApp;
     MyApp->to_app;

To fatpack it, we begin by tracing the script:

     $ fatpack trace bin/app.pl

This creates a fatpacker.trace file. From this we create the packlists:

     $ fatpack packlists-for `cat fatpacker.trace` > packlists

The packlists are stored in a file called packlists.

Now we create the tree using the following command:

     $ fatpack tree `cat packlists`

The tree is created under the directory fatlib.

Now we create a file containing the dependency tree, and add our script to it, using the following command:

     $ (fatpack file; cat bin/app.pl) > myapp.pl

This creates a file called myapp.pl with everything in it. Dancer2 uses MIME::Types which has a database of all MIME types and helps translate those. The small database file containing all of these types is a binary and therefore cannot be fatpacked. Hence, it needs to be copied to the current directory so our script can find it:

     $ cp fatlib/MIME/types.db .

Plack middlewares¶

If you want to use Plack middlewares, you need to enable them using Plack::Builder as such:

    # in app.psgi or any other handler
    use MyApp;
    use Plack::Builder;
    builder {
        enable 'Deflater';
        enable 'Session', store => 'File';
        enable 'Debug', panels => [ qw<DBITrace Memory Timer> ];
        MyApp->to_app;
    };

The nice thing about this setup is that it will work seamlessly through Plack or through the internal web server.

    # load dev web server (without middlewares)
    perl -Ilib app.psgi
    # load plack web server (with middlewares)
    plackup -I lib app.psgi

You do not need to provide different files for either server.

Path-based middlewares

If you want to set up a middleware for a specific path, you can do that using Plack::Builder which uses Plack::App::URLMap:

    # in your app.psgi or any other handler
    use MyApp;
    use Plack::Builder;
    my $special_handler = sub { ... };
    builder {
        mount '/special' => $special_handler;
        mount '/'        => MyApp->to_app;
    };

Removing default middlewares

By default, a Dancer2 app is automatically wrapped with the following middleware

• Plack::Middleware::FixMissingBodyInRedirect
• Plack::Middleware::Head

You can configure the setting "no_default_middleware" to a true value to stop your Dancer2 app being wrapped with these default middleware layers.

    # in you Dancer2 app or config.yml
    package MyApp;
    use Dancer2
    set no_default_middleware => true;

This is necessary if you need to add eTag or ContentMD5 headers to "HEAD" requests, and you are encouraged to manually add those default middleware back into your PSGI stack.

Running on Perl web servers with plackup

A number of Perl web servers supporting PSGI are available on CPAN:

• Starman

  "Starman" is a high performance web server, with support for preforking, signals, multiple interfaces, graceful restarts and dynamic worker pool configuration.

• Twiggy

  "Twiggy" is an "AnyEvent" web server, it's light and fast.

• Corona

  "Corona" is a "Coro" based web server.

To start your application, just run plackup (see Plack and specific servers above for all available options):

   $ plackup bin/app.psgi
   $ plackup -E deployment -s Starman --workers=10 -p 5001 -a bin/app.psgi

As you can see, the scaffolded Perl script for your app can be used as a PSGI startup file.

Enabling content compression

Content compression (gzip, deflate) can be easily enabled via a Plack middleware (see "Plack::Middleware" in Plack): Plack::Middleware::Deflater. It's a middleware to encode the response body in gzip or deflate, based on the "Accept-Encoding" HTTP request header.

Enable it as you would enable any Plack middleware. First you need to install Plack::Middleware::Deflater, then in the handler (usually app.psgi) edit it to use Plack::Builder, as described above:

    use Dancer2;
    use MyApp;
    use Plack::Builder;
    builder {
        enable 'Deflater';
        MyApp->to_app;
    };

To test if content compression works, trace the HTTP request and response before and after enabling this middleware. Among other things, you should notice that the response is gzip or deflate encoded, and contains a header "Content-Encoding" set to "gzip" or "deflate".

Running multiple apps with Plack::Builder

You can use Plack::Builder to mount multiple Dancer2 applications on a PSGI webserver like Starman.

Start by creating a simple app.psgi file:

    use OurWiki;  # first app
    use OurForum; # second app
    use Plack::Builder;
    builder {
        mount '/wiki'  => OurWiki->to_app;
        mount '/forum' => OurForum->to_app;
    };

and now use Starman

    plackup -a app.psgi -s Starman

Currently this still demands the same appdir for both (default circumstance) but in a future version this will be easier to change while staying very simple to mount.

Running from Apache with Plack

You can run your app from Apache using PSGI (Plack), with a config like the following:

    <VirtualHost myapp.example.com>
        ServerName www.myapp.example.com
        ServerAlias myapp.example.com
        DocumentRoot /websites/myapp.example.com
        <Directory /home/myapp/myapp>
            AllowOverride None
            Order allow,deny
            Allow from all
        </Directory>
        <Location />
            SetHandler perl-script
            PerlResponseHandler Plack::Handler::Apache2
            PerlSetVar psgi_app /websites/myapp.example.com/app.psgi
        </Location>
        ErrorLog  /websites/myapp.example.com/logs/error_log
        CustomLog /websites/myapp.example.com/logs/access_log common
    </VirtualHost>

To set the environment you want to use for your application (production or development), you can set it this way:

    <VirtualHost>
        ...
        SetEnv DANCER_ENVIRONMENT "production"
        ...
    </VirtualHost>

Writing a plugin¶

See "Writing the plugin" in Dancer2::Plugin for information on how to author a new plugin for Dancer2.