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Modern Web Development with Perl

This document summarizes a presentation about building web applications in Perl using PSGI and Plack. It discusses: - The history of CGI and its problems with performance - How mod_perl and other environments addressed these issues but reduced portability - How PSGI separates web application processing from deployment, allowing applications to run on different servers and frameworks - A PSGI application is defined as a code reference that returns a response as an array reference - Plack provides helpers like Plack::Request and Plack::Response to simplify building PSGI applications - Template Toolkit can be used to separate HTML templates from application code - User input can be accessed from the environment hash or Plack::Request object

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London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Modern Perl Web Development Dave Cross Magnum Solutions Ltd dave@mag-sol.com
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Web Development • People have been developing web applications for over 20 years • Surely it is easy now • Lessons have been learned • Best practices have been worked out
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 History of Perl & Web • Common Gateway Interface 1993 • Defined the interaction between a web server and a program • Dynamic web pages
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 CGI • Request includes parameters • Program processes parameters and produces response • Response includes program's output
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Mid-Late 1990s • Every web site gained dynamic pages • Form to email • Guestbook • Hit counter • Etc... • Most of them were written in Perl
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 CGI Problems • CGI can be slow • Perl compiler starts up on every request • Can be very slow • Not useful for heavy traffic sites
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 mod_perl • Everyone used Apache • Apache allowed loadable modules • mod_perl loads a Perl compiler • Persistent Perl processes • No more start-up costs • Huge performance improvements
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Downsides • Can't just use your CGI programs – ModPerl::Registry • Program is now called as a subroutine • Global variable issues • Many programs needed rewrites • Different input and output methods
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Other Environments • FastCGI • Microsoft IIS • nginx • Etc... • Lack of portability • Hold that thought
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 CGI Programs • CGI programs do three things • Read user input • Process data • Produce output • Let's look at input and output in more detail
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Output • CGI programs produce two types of output • Headers – Content-type • Body – The actual data (HTML, etc)
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Simple CGI Output • #!/usr/bin/perl print “Content-type: text/plainnn”; print 'The time is: ', scalar localtime;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 HTML • #!/usr/bin/perl print “Content-type: text/htmlnn”; my $time = localtime; print <<END_HTML; <html><head><title>Time</title></head> <body><h1>Time</h1> <p>The time is: $time.</p></body></html> END_HTML
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Enter CGI.pm • CGI.pm standard part of Perl distribution • Handles CGI processing for you • Input and output • Output in the form of CGI & HTML helper functions – HTML helper functions now deprecated
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 HTML With CGI.pm • #!/usr/bin/perl use CGI ':standard'; print header; # default text/html my $time = localtime; print start_html(title => 'Time'), h1('Time'), p(“The time is: $time”); end_html;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Downsides • Mixing HTML and Perl code is nasty • What if you have a designer? • HTML experts don't always know Perl • Use a templating system instead
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Template Toolkit • <html> <head> <title>Time</title> </head> <body> <h1>Time</h1> <p>The time is: [% time %].</p> </body> </html>
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Template Toolkit • <html> <head> <title>Time</title> </head> <body> <h1>Time</h1> <p>The time is: [% time %].</p> </body> </html>
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Template Toolkit • Separate the HTML into a separate file • Use tags where the variable output goes • Easier to edit by your HTML team
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Template Toolkit & CGI • #!/usr/bin/perl use Template; use CGI 'header'; print header; my $tt = Template->new; my $time = localtime; $tt->process('time.tt', { time => $time } or die $tt->error;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 User Input • Users send input to CGI programs • Parameters encoded in the URL • http://example.com/cgi-bin/stuff? name=davorg&lang=Perl • Need to access these parameters • N.B. I'm deliberately ignoring POST requests for simplicity
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Old Style • @pairs = split /&/, $ENV{QUERY_STRING}; foreach $pair (@pairs) { ($k, $v) = split /=/, $pair; $k =~ tr/+/ /; $k =~ s/%([a-f0-9]{2})/pack 'C', hex($1)/ieg; $v =~ tr/+/ /; $v =~ s/%([a-f0-9]{2})/pack 'C', hex($1)/ieg; $form{$k} = $v; } # And then later... my $name = $form{name};
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 CGI.pm Style • use CGI ':standard'; my $name = param('name');
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 However • mod_perl has a different method for accessing parameters • Apache2::Request • Other environments have different methods • This is where PSGI comes in
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI & Plack
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI/Plack • “PSGI is an interface between Perl web applications and web servers, and Plack is a Perl module and toolkit that contains PSGI middleware, helpers and adapters to web servers.” – http://plackperl.org/
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI/Plack • PSGI is a specification (based on Python's WSGI) • Plack is a reference implementation and toolbox (based on Ruby's Rack)
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 The Problem • There are many ways to write web applications • There are many ways to write web applications in Perl • Each is subtly different • Hard to move an application between server architectures
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Server Architectures • CGI • FastCGI • mod_perl • etc...
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Frameworks • There are many Perl web application frameworks • Each creates applications in subtly different ways • Hard to port applications between them
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 The Goal • What if we had a specification that allowed us to easily move web applications between server architectures and frameworks • PSGI is that specification
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Separation • We know the advantages of separating processing from display • PSGI separates processing from deployment
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI Application • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI Application • A code reference • Passed a reference to an environment hash • Returns a reference to a three-element array – Status code – Headers – Body
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 A Code Reference • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 A Code Reference • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Environment Hash • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Environment Hash • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Running PSGI App • Put code in app.psgi • Drop in into a configured PSGI-aware web server • Browse to URL
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI-Aware Server • Plack contains a simple test server called plackup • $ plackup app.psgi HTTP::Server::PSGI: Accepting connections at http://localhost:5000/
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 More About $env • use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ Dumper $env ], ]; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 More About $env • $VAR1 = { 'psgi.streaming' => 1, 'psgi.multithread' => '', 'HTTP_UPGRADE_INSECURE_REQUESTS' => '1', 'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.1', 'psgi.errors' => *::STDERR, 'PATH_INFO' => '/', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE' => 'en-GB,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.6', 'psgi.multiprocess' => '', 'SERVER_NAME' => 0, 'psgi.version' => [ 1, 1 ], 'psgix.input.buffered' => 1, 'psgi.input' => *{'HTTP::Server::PSGI::$input'}, 'psgi.url_scheme' => 'http', 'REQUEST_URI' => '/', 'REMOTE_PORT' => 59948, 'HTTP_ACCEPT' => 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,*/*;q=0.8', 'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET', 'psgix.io' => bless( *Symbol::GEN1, 'IO::Socket::INET' ), 'psgi.run_once' => '', 'SCRIPT_NAME' => '', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING' => 'gzip, deflate, sdch', 'SERVER_PORT' => 5000, 'HTTP_HOST' => 'localhost:5000',
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Request • Plack::Request turns the environment into a request object
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Request • use Plack::Request; use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $req = Plack::Request->new(shift); return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ Dumper $req ], ]; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Request • $VAR1 = bless( { 'env' => { 'SCRIPT_NAME' => '', 'psgi.nonblocking' => '', 'psgi.errors' => *::STDERR, 'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.1', 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => 'Wget/1.16.3 (linux-gnu)', 'psgi.url_scheme' => 'http', 'REMOTE_PORT' => 57218, 'SERVER_PORT' => 5000, 'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET', 'REQUEST_URI' => '/', 'psgi.version' => [ 1, 1 ], 'psgix.io' => bless( *Symbol::GEN1, 'IO::Socket::INET' ),
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Request • 'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING' => 'identity', 'psgix.input.buffered' => 1, 'psgi.run_once' => '', 'psgi.streaming' => 1, 'HTTP_ACCEPT' => '*/*', 'HTTP_CONNECTION' => 'Keep-Alive', 'psgi.input' => *{'HTTP::Server::PSGI::$input'}, 'psgi.multiprocess' => '', 'psgi.multithread' => '', 'QUERY_STRING' => '', 'HTTP_HOST' => 'localhost:5000', 'psgix.harakiri' => 1, 'PATH_INFO' => '/', 'SERVER_NAME' => 0 } }, 'Plack::Request' );
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Response • Plack::Response builds a PSGI response object
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Response • use Plack::Request; use Plack::Response; use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $req = Plack::Request->new(shift); my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res->content_type('text/plain'); $res->body(Dumper $req); return $res->finalize; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Time Example • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res->content_type('text/plain'); $res->body(scalar localtime); return $res->finalize; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Time With HTML • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; my $now = localtime; my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res->content_type('text/html'); $res->body( "<html> <head><title>Time</title></head> <body><h1>Time</h1><p>The time is $now</p> </body> </html>" ); return $res→finalize; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Time With TT • use Template; my $app = sub { my $tt = Template->new; my $out; my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res→content_type('text/html'); $tt->process('time.tt', { time => scalar localtime }, $out) or die $tt->error; $res->body($out); return $res->finalize; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 User Input • Get user input from two places • Parse the query string from the $env hash • Ask the Plack::Request object
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Input • use Plack::Request; use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $req = Plack::Request->new(shift); my $content; if (keys %{$req->parameters}) { $content = response($req); } else { $content = form(); } return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/html' ], [ $content ], ]; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Displaying a Form • sub form { return <<END_OF_FORM; <html> ... stuff... <form> <input name=”name”> ... stuff ... </form> </html> END_OF_HTML }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Displaying the Response • sub response { my $req = shift; my $name = $req->parameters->{name}; return <<END_OF_HTML <html> ... stuff ... <p>Name: $name</p> ... stuff ... </html> END_OF_HTML }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Using Templates • Both form and response can be produced using TT • This is left as an exercise for the reader
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Building Applications • A PSGI program can be an entire application • The secret is in the 'path_info' input • $env->{PATH_INFO} • / • /person/1 • /person/1/delete
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Building Applications • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; my $req = Plack::Request->new($env); my $response = get_response_for( $req->path_info; ); return $response; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Building Applications • use Some::Web::App; my $webapp = Some::Web::App->new; my $app = sub { my $env = shift my $resp = $webapp->get_response_for( $req->path_info($env); ); return $response; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Building Applications • Use Some::Web::App; return Some::Web::App->to_app;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Frameworks • At this point you should probably look at a framework • Catalyst • Dancer2 • Mojolicious • etc...
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Dancer2 Example • Use dancer2 to create skeleton app • dancer2 gen -a MyWebApp • Creates many files • MyWebApp/bin/app.psgi
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Dancer2 app.psgi • #!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use FindBin; use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib"; use MyApp; MyApp->to_app;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Advertisement • This is a cut-down version of another course • Two days in February 2016 • Insert many hours of framework-specific examples here • See http://mgnm.at/trn2015
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack Middleware
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware • Middleware wraps around an application • Returns another PSGI application • Simple spec makes this easy • Plack::Middleware::* • Plack::Builder adds middleware configuration language
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware • package Plack::Middleware::Foo; use parent qw( Plack::Middleware ); sub call { my($self, $env) = @_; # Do something with $env # $self->app is the original app my $res = $self->app->($env); # Do something with $res return $res; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware Example • package Plack::Middleware::Runtime; use strict; use parent qw(Plack::Middleware); use Plack::Util; use Plack::Util::Accessor qw(header_name); use Time::HiRes; sub call { my($self, $env) = @_; my $start = [ Time::HiRes::gettimeofday ]; my $res = $self->app->($env); my $header = $self->header_name || 'X-Runtime'; $self->response_cb($res, sub { my $res = shift; my $req_time = sprintf '%.6f', Time::HiRes::tv_interval($start); Plack::Util::header_set($res->[1], $header, $req_time); }); }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware Example • use Plack::Builder; use Plack::Middleware::Runtime; my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ 'Hello world' ], ] }; builder { enable 'Runtime'; $app; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware Example • $ HEAD http://localhost:5000 200 OK Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Server: HTTP::Server::PSGI Content-Length: 11 Content-Type: text/plain Client-Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Client-Peer: 127.0.0.1:5000 Client-Response-Num: 1 X-Runtime: 0.000082
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware Example • $ HEAD http://localhost:5000 200 OK Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Server: HTTP::Server::PSGI Content-Length: 11 Content-Type: text/plain Client-Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Client-Peer: 127.0.0.1:5000 Client-Response-Num: 1 X-Runtime: 0.000082
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Middleware Examples • Many more examples included with Plack • Plack::Middleware::AccessLog • Plack::Middleware::ErrorDocument • Plack::Middleware::Auth::Basic • Plack::Middleware::Static • Etc...
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middlware::Static • Bypass app for static files • use Plack::Builder; builder { enable "Plack::Middleware::Static", path => qr{^/(images|js|css)/}, root => './htdocs/'; $app; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack Apps
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::App::* • Ready-made solutions for common situations • Plack::App::CGIBin – Cgi-bin replacement • Plack::App::Directory – Serve files with directory index • Plack::App::URLMap – Map apps to different paths
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::App::* • Many more bundled with Plack • Configured using Plack::Builder
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::App::CGIBin • use Plack::App::CGIBin; use Plack::Builder; my $app = Plack::App::CGIBin->new( root => '/var/www/cgi-bin' )->to_app; builder { mount '/cgi-bin' => $app; };
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::App::Directory • use Plack::App::Directory; my $app = Plack::App::Directory->new( root => '/home/dave/Dropbox/psgi' )->to_app;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Debugging PSGI Apps
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Debugging Web Apps • Debugging web apps is difficult • Hard to trace execution • Log messages
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debug • Adds a very useful debug panel to your application • #!/usr/bin/env perl use strict use warnings; use Plack::Builder; use Literature; # Dancer app my $app = Literature->to_app; builder { enable 'Debug'; $app; }
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Debugger • Plack::Debugger is a replacement for Plack::Middleware::Debug • Harder to configure • More flexible • Work in progress • Worth watching
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Testing PSGI Apps
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Testing Web Apps • Testing web apps is hard • For the same reasons as debugging • WWW::Mechanize • Selenium
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Test • The simple Plack specification makes it easy to write a testing layer • Plack::Test • Standard for all PSGI apps • Dancer2::Test (for example) is now deprecated
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Using Plack::Test • Three modes of use • Examples all require the following • use Plack::Test; use HTTP::Request::Common;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Positional Params • my $app = sub { return [ 200, [], [ "Hello "] ] }; my $client = sub { my $cb = shift; my $res = $cb->(GET "/"); is $res->content, "Hello"; }; test_psgi $app, $client;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Named Params • my $app = sub { return [ 200, [], [ "Hello "] ] }; my $client = sub { my $cb = shift; my $res = $cb->("GET /"); is $res->content, “Hello”; } test_psgi app => $app, client => $client;
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Object Oriented • my $app = sub { return [ 200, [], [ "Hello "] ] }; my $test = Plack::Test->create($app); my $res = $test->request(GET "/"); is $res->content, "Hello";
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Deploying PSGI Apps
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Deploying PSGI Apps • PSGI separates implementation from deployment • This is a major advantage • Concentrate on the right problems at the right time • Easily switch between deployment environments
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI Server Support • Many new web servers support PSGI • Starman, Starlet, Twiggy, Corona, HTTP::Server::Simple::PSGI • Perlbal::Plugin::PSGI
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI Server Support • nginx support • mod_psgi • Plack::Handler::Apache2
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Plack::Handler::Apache2 • <Location /psgi> SetHandler perl-script PerlResponseHandler Plack::Handler::Apache2 PerlSetVar psgi_app /path/to/app.psgi </Location>
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Deploy Under nginx • Use plackup to start the app • plackup -S Starman app.psgi – Starman is a high-performance preforking PSGI/Plack web server • Configure nginx to proxy requests to port 5000
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Advertisement • Deployment will be covered in far more detail on the extended course • We will have practical sessions trying out various deployment scenarios • We will turn our app into a real service • See http://mgnm.at/trn2015
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Summary
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 CGI Summary • CGI is dead – Or, at least, it should be • Don't use CGI for new development • If you must maintain CGI code see CGI::Alternatives • Switch to PSGI
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 PSGI/Plack Summary • PSGI is a specification • Plack is an implementation/toolbox • PSGI makes your life easier • Most of the frameworks and servers you use already support PSGI • No excuse not to use it
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 Further Information • perldoc PSGI • perldoc Plack • http://plackperl.org/ • http://blog.plackperl.org/ • http://github.com/miyagawa/Plack • #plack on irc.perl.org
London Perl Workshop 12th December 2015 That's all folks • Any questions?

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Modern Web Development with Perl

  • 1.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Modern Perl Web Development Dave Cross Magnum Solutions Ltd dave@mag-sol.com
  • 2.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Web Development • People have been developing web applications for over 20 years • Surely it is easy now • Lessons have been learned • Best practices have been worked out
  • 3.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 History of Perl & Web • Common Gateway Interface 1993 • Defined the interaction between a web server and a program • Dynamic web pages
  • 4.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 CGI • Request includes parameters • Program processes parameters and produces response • Response includes program's output
  • 5.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Mid-Late 1990s • Every web site gained dynamic pages • Form to email • Guestbook • Hit counter • Etc... • Most of them were written in Perl
  • 6.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 CGI Problems • CGI can be slow • Perl compiler starts up on every request • Can be very slow • Not useful for heavy traffic sites
  • 7.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 mod_perl • Everyone used Apache • Apache allowed loadable modules • mod_perl loads a Perl compiler • Persistent Perl processes • No more start-up costs • Huge performance improvements
  • 8.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Downsides • Can't just use your CGI programs – ModPerl::Registry • Program is now called as a subroutine • Global variable issues • Many programs needed rewrites • Different input and output methods
  • 9.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Other Environments • FastCGI • Microsoft IIS • nginx • Etc... • Lack of portability • Hold that thought
  • 10.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 CGI Programs • CGI programs do three things • Read user input • Process data • Produce output • Let's look at input and output in more detail
  • 11.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Output • CGI programs produce two types of output • Headers – Content-type • Body – The actual data (HTML, etc)
  • 12.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Simple CGI Output • #!/usr/bin/perl print “Content-type: text/plainnn”; print 'The time is: ', scalar localtime;
  • 13.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 HTML • #!/usr/bin/perl print “Content-type: text/htmlnn”; my $time = localtime; print <<END_HTML; <html><head><title>Time</title></head> <body><h1>Time</h1> <p>The time is: $time.</p></body></html> END_HTML
  • 14.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Enter CGI.pm • CGI.pm standard part of Perl distribution • Handles CGI processing for you • Input and output • Output in the form of CGI & HTML helper functions – HTML helper functions now deprecated
  • 15.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 HTML With CGI.pm • #!/usr/bin/perl use CGI ':standard'; print header; # default text/html my $time = localtime; print start_html(title => 'Time'), h1('Time'), p(“The time is: $time”); end_html;
  • 16.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Downsides • Mixing HTML and Perl code is nasty • What if you have a designer? • HTML experts don't always know Perl • Use a templating system instead
  • 17.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Template Toolkit • <html> <head> <title>Time</title> </head> <body> <h1>Time</h1> <p>The time is: [% time %].</p> </body> </html>
  • 18.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Template Toolkit • <html> <head> <title>Time</title> </head> <body> <h1>Time</h1> <p>The time is: [% time %].</p> </body> </html>
  • 19.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Template Toolkit • Separate the HTML into a separate file • Use tags where the variable output goes • Easier to edit by your HTML team
  • 20.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Template Toolkit & CGI • #!/usr/bin/perl use Template; use CGI 'header'; print header; my $tt = Template->new; my $time = localtime; $tt->process('time.tt', { time => $time } or die $tt->error;
  • 21.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 User Input • Users send input to CGI programs • Parameters encoded in the URL • http://example.com/cgi-bin/stuff? name=davorg&lang=Perl • Need to access these parameters • N.B. I'm deliberately ignoring POST requests for simplicity
  • 22.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Old Style • @pairs = split /&/, $ENV{QUERY_STRING}; foreach $pair (@pairs) { ($k, $v) = split /=/, $pair; $k =~ tr/+/ /; $k =~ s/%([a-f0-9]{2})/pack 'C', hex($1)/ieg; $v =~ tr/+/ /; $v =~ s/%([a-f0-9]{2})/pack 'C', hex($1)/ieg; $form{$k} = $v; } # And then later... my $name = $form{name};
  • 23.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 CGI.pm Style • use CGI ':standard'; my $name = param('name');
  • 24.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 However • mod_perl has a different method for accessing parameters • Apache2::Request • Other environments have different methods • This is where PSGI comes in
  • 25.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI & Plack
  • 26.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI/Plack • “PSGI is an interface between Perl web applications and web servers, and Plack is a Perl module and toolkit that contains PSGI middleware, helpers and adapters to web servers.” – http://plackperl.org/
  • 27.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI/Plack • PSGI is a specification (based on Python's WSGI) • Plack is a reference implementation and toolbox (based on Ruby's Rack)
  • 28.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 The Problem • There are many ways to write web applications • There are many ways to write web applications in Perl • Each is subtly different • Hard to move an application between server architectures
  • 29.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Server Architectures • CGI • FastCGI • mod_perl • etc...
  • 30.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Frameworks • There are many Perl web application frameworks • Each creates applications in subtly different ways • Hard to port applications between them
  • 31.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 The Goal • What if we had a specification that allowed us to easily move web applications between server architectures and frameworks • PSGI is that specification
  • 32.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Separation • We know the advantages of separating processing from display • PSGI separates processing from deployment
  • 33.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI Application • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 34.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI Application • A code reference • Passed a reference to an environment hash • Returns a reference to a three-element array – Status code – Headers – Body
  • 35.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 A Code Reference • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 36.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 A Code Reference • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 37.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Environment Hash • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 38.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Environment Hash • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 39.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 40.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 41.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 42.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 43.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Return Array Ref • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ ‘Content-Type’, ‘text/plain’ ], [ ‘Hello World’ ], ]; };
  • 44.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Running PSGI App • Put code in app.psgi • Drop in into a configured PSGI-aware web server • Browse to URL
  • 45.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI-Aware Server • Plack contains a simple test server called plackup • $ plackup app.psgi HTTP::Server::PSGI: Accepting connections at http://localhost:5000/
  • 46.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 More About $env • use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ Dumper $env ], ]; }
  • 47.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 More About $env • $VAR1 = { 'psgi.streaming' => 1, 'psgi.multithread' => '', 'HTTP_UPGRADE_INSECURE_REQUESTS' => '1', 'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.1', 'psgi.errors' => *::STDERR, 'PATH_INFO' => '/', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE' => 'en-GB,en-US;q=0.8,en;q=0.6', 'psgi.multiprocess' => '', 'SERVER_NAME' => 0, 'psgi.version' => [ 1, 1 ], 'psgix.input.buffered' => 1, 'psgi.input' => *{'HTTP::Server::PSGI::$input'}, 'psgi.url_scheme' => 'http', 'REQUEST_URI' => '/', 'REMOTE_PORT' => 59948, 'HTTP_ACCEPT' => 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,*/*;q=0.8', 'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET', 'psgix.io' => bless( *Symbol::GEN1, 'IO::Socket::INET' ), 'psgi.run_once' => '', 'SCRIPT_NAME' => '', 'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING' => 'gzip, deflate, sdch', 'SERVER_PORT' => 5000, 'HTTP_HOST' => 'localhost:5000',
  • 48.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Request • Plack::Request turns the environment into a request object
  • 49.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Request • use Plack::Request; use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $req = Plack::Request->new(shift); return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ Dumper $req ], ]; }
  • 50.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Request • $VAR1 = bless( { 'env' => { 'SCRIPT_NAME' => '', 'psgi.nonblocking' => '', 'psgi.errors' => *::STDERR, 'SERVER_PROTOCOL' => 'HTTP/1.1', 'HTTP_USER_AGENT' => 'Wget/1.16.3 (linux-gnu)', 'psgi.url_scheme' => 'http', 'REMOTE_PORT' => 57218, 'SERVER_PORT' => 5000, 'REQUEST_METHOD' => 'GET', 'REQUEST_URI' => '/', 'psgi.version' => [ 1, 1 ], 'psgix.io' => bless( *Symbol::GEN1, 'IO::Socket::INET' ),
  • 51.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Request • 'HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING' => 'identity', 'psgix.input.buffered' => 1, 'psgi.run_once' => '', 'psgi.streaming' => 1, 'HTTP_ACCEPT' => '*/*', 'HTTP_CONNECTION' => 'Keep-Alive', 'psgi.input' => *{'HTTP::Server::PSGI::$input'}, 'psgi.multiprocess' => '', 'psgi.multithread' => '', 'QUERY_STRING' => '', 'HTTP_HOST' => 'localhost:5000', 'psgix.harakiri' => 1, 'PATH_INFO' => '/', 'SERVER_NAME' => 0 } }, 'Plack::Request' );
  • 52.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Response • Plack::Response builds a PSGI response object
  • 53.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Response • use Plack::Request; use Plack::Response; use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $req = Plack::Request->new(shift); my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res->content_type('text/plain'); $res->body(Dumper $req); return $res->finalize; }
  • 54.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Time Example • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res->content_type('text/plain'); $res->body(scalar localtime); return $res->finalize; };
  • 55.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Time With HTML • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; my $now = localtime; my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res->content_type('text/html'); $res->body( "<html> <head><title>Time</title></head> <body><h1>Time</h1><p>The time is $now</p> </body> </html>" ); return $res→finalize; };
  • 56.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Time With TT • use Template; my $app = sub { my $tt = Template->new; my $out; my $res = Plack::Response->new(200); $res→content_type('text/html'); $tt->process('time.tt', { time => scalar localtime }, $out) or die $tt->error; $res->body($out); return $res->finalize; };
  • 57.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 User Input • Get user input from two places • Parse the query string from the $env hash • Ask the Plack::Request object
  • 58.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Input • use Plack::Request; use Data::Dumper; my $app = sub { my $req = Plack::Request->new(shift); my $content; if (keys %{$req->parameters}) { $content = response($req); } else { $content = form(); } return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/html' ], [ $content ], ]; };
  • 59.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Displaying a Form • sub form { return <<END_OF_FORM; <html> ... stuff... <form> <input name=”name”> ... stuff ... </form> </html> END_OF_HTML }
  • 60.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Displaying the Response • sub response { my $req = shift; my $name = $req->parameters->{name}; return <<END_OF_HTML <html> ... stuff ... <p>Name: $name</p> ... stuff ... </html> END_OF_HTML }
  • 61.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Using Templates • Both form and response can be produced using TT • This is left as an exercise for the reader
  • 62.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Building Applications • A PSGI program can be an entire application • The secret is in the 'path_info' input • $env->{PATH_INFO} • / • /person/1 • /person/1/delete
  • 63.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Building Applications • my $app = sub { my $env = shift; my $req = Plack::Request->new($env); my $response = get_response_for( $req->path_info; ); return $response; }
  • 64.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Building Applications • use Some::Web::App; my $webapp = Some::Web::App->new; my $app = sub { my $env = shift my $resp = $webapp->get_response_for( $req->path_info($env); ); return $response; }
  • 65.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Building Applications • Use Some::Web::App; return Some::Web::App->to_app;
  • 66.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Frameworks • At this point you should probably look at a framework • Catalyst • Dancer2 • Mojolicious • etc...
  • 67.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Dancer2 Example • Use dancer2 to create skeleton app • dancer2 gen -a MyWebApp • Creates many files • MyWebApp/bin/app.psgi
  • 68.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Dancer2 app.psgi • #!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use FindBin; use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib"; use MyApp; MyApp->to_app;
  • 69.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Advertisement • This is a cut-down version of another course • Two days in February 2016 • Insert many hours of framework-specific examples here • See http://mgnm.at/trn2015
  • 70.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack Middleware
  • 71.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware • Middleware wraps around an application • Returns another PSGI application • Simple spec makes this easy • Plack::Middleware::* • Plack::Builder adds middleware configuration language
  • 72.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware • package Plack::Middleware::Foo; use parent qw( Plack::Middleware ); sub call { my($self, $env) = @_; # Do something with $env # $self->app is the original app my $res = $self->app->($env); # Do something with $res return $res; }
  • 73.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware Example • package Plack::Middleware::Runtime; use strict; use parent qw(Plack::Middleware); use Plack::Util; use Plack::Util::Accessor qw(header_name); use Time::HiRes; sub call { my($self, $env) = @_; my $start = [ Time::HiRes::gettimeofday ]; my $res = $self->app->($env); my $header = $self->header_name || 'X-Runtime'; $self->response_cb($res, sub { my $res = shift; my $req_time = sprintf '%.6f', Time::HiRes::tv_interval($start); Plack::Util::header_set($res->[1], $header, $req_time); }); }
  • 74.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware Example • use Plack::Builder; use Plack::Middleware::Runtime; my $app = sub { my $env = shift; return [ 200, [ 'Content-type', 'text/plain' ], [ 'Hello world' ], ] }; builder { enable 'Runtime'; $app; }
  • 75.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware Example • $ HEAD http://localhost:5000 200 OK Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Server: HTTP::Server::PSGI Content-Length: 11 Content-Type: text/plain Client-Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Client-Peer: 127.0.0.1:5000 Client-Response-Num: 1 X-Runtime: 0.000082
  • 76.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware Example • $ HEAD http://localhost:5000 200 OK Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Server: HTTP::Server::PSGI Content-Length: 11 Content-Type: text/plain Client-Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2015 14:15:11 GMT Client-Peer: 127.0.0.1:5000 Client-Response-Num: 1 X-Runtime: 0.000082
  • 77.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Middleware Examples • Many more examples included with Plack • Plack::Middleware::AccessLog • Plack::Middleware::ErrorDocument • Plack::Middleware::Auth::Basic • Plack::Middleware::Static • Etc...
  • 78.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middlware::Static • Bypass app for static files • use Plack::Builder; builder { enable "Plack::Middleware::Static", path => qr{^/(images|js|css)/}, root => './htdocs/'; $app; };
  • 79.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack Apps
  • 80.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::App::* • Ready-made solutions for common situations • Plack::App::CGIBin – Cgi-bin replacement • Plack::App::Directory – Serve files with directory index • Plack::App::URLMap – Map apps to different paths
  • 81.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::App::* • Many more bundled with Plack • Configured using Plack::Builder
  • 82.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::App::CGIBin • use Plack::App::CGIBin; use Plack::Builder; my $app = Plack::App::CGIBin->new( root => '/var/www/cgi-bin' )->to_app; builder { mount '/cgi-bin' => $app; };
  • 83.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::App::Directory • use Plack::App::Directory; my $app = Plack::App::Directory->new( root => '/home/dave/Dropbox/psgi' )->to_app;
  • 84.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Debugging PSGI Apps
  • 85.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Debugging Web Apps • Debugging web apps is difficult • Hard to trace execution • Log messages
  • 86.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debug • Adds a very useful debug panel to your application • #!/usr/bin/env perl use strict use warnings; use Plack::Builder; use Literature; # Dancer app my $app = Literature->to_app; builder { enable 'Debug'; $app; }
  • 87.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
  • 88.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
  • 89.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
  • 90.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
  • 91.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
  • 92.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Middleware::Debu g
  • 93.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Debugger • Plack::Debugger is a replacement for Plack::Middleware::Debug • Harder to configure • More flexible • Work in progress • Worth watching
  • 94.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Testing PSGI Apps
  • 95.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Testing Web Apps • Testing web apps is hard • For the same reasons as debugging • WWW::Mechanize • Selenium
  • 96.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Test • The simple Plack specification makes it easy to write a testing layer • Plack::Test • Standard for all PSGI apps • Dancer2::Test (for example) is now deprecated
  • 97.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Using Plack::Test • Three modes of use • Examples all require the following • use Plack::Test; use HTTP::Request::Common;
  • 98.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Positional Params • my $app = sub { return [ 200, [], [ "Hello "] ] }; my $client = sub { my $cb = shift; my $res = $cb->(GET "/"); is $res->content, "Hello"; }; test_psgi $app, $client;
  • 99.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Named Params • my $app = sub { return [ 200, [], [ "Hello "] ] }; my $client = sub { my $cb = shift; my $res = $cb->("GET /"); is $res->content, “Hello”; } test_psgi app => $app, client => $client;
  • 100.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Object Oriented • my $app = sub { return [ 200, [], [ "Hello "] ] }; my $test = Plack::Test->create($app); my $res = $test->request(GET "/"); is $res->content, "Hello";
  • 101.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Deploying PSGI Apps
  • 102.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Deploying PSGI Apps • PSGI separates implementation from deployment • This is a major advantage • Concentrate on the right problems at the right time • Easily switch between deployment environments
  • 103.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI Server Support • Many new web servers support PSGI • Starman, Starlet, Twiggy, Corona, HTTP::Server::Simple::PSGI • Perlbal::Plugin::PSGI
  • 104.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI Server Support • nginx support • mod_psgi • Plack::Handler::Apache2
  • 105.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Plack::Handler::Apache2 • <Location /psgi> SetHandler perl-script PerlResponseHandler Plack::Handler::Apache2 PerlSetVar psgi_app /path/to/app.psgi </Location>
  • 106.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Deploy Under nginx • Use plackup to start the app • plackup -S Starman app.psgi – Starman is a high-performance preforking PSGI/Plack web server • Configure nginx to proxy requests to port 5000
  • 107.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Advertisement • Deployment will be covered in far more detail on the extended course • We will have practical sessions trying out various deployment scenarios • We will turn our app into a real service • See http://mgnm.at/trn2015
  • 108.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Summary
  • 109.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 CGI Summary • CGI is dead – Or, at least, it should be • Don't use CGI for new development • If you must maintain CGI code see CGI::Alternatives • Switch to PSGI
  • 110.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 PSGI/Plack Summary • PSGI is a specification • Plack is an implementation/toolbox • PSGI makes your life easier • Most of the frameworks and servers you use already support PSGI • No excuse not to use it
  • 111.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 Further Information • perldoc PSGI • perldoc Plack • http://plackperl.org/ • http://blog.plackperl.org/ • http://github.com/miyagawa/Plack • #plack on irc.perl.org
  • 112.
    London Perl Workshop 12thDecember 2015 That's all folks • Any questions?