B.14. Toolkits and Frameworks for Content-Generation and Other Phases
B.14.1. Apache::ASP—Active Server Pages for Apache with mod_perl
Apache::ASP provides an Active Server Pages
port to the Apache web server with Perl
scripting only and enables developing of dynamic
web applications with session management and embedded Perl code.
There are also many powerful extensions, including XML taglibs, XSLT
rendering, and new events not originally part of the ASP API.
Available from CPAN. See the module manpage for more information.
B.14.2. Apache::AxKit—XML Toolkit for mod_perl
AxKit is a suite of tools for the
Apache httpd server
running mod_perl. It provides developers with extremely flexible
options for delivering XML to all kinds of browsers, from hand-held
systems to Braille readers to ordinary browsers. All this can be
achieved using nothing but W3C standards, although the plug-in
architecture provides the hooks for developers to write their own
stylesheet systems, should they so desire. Two non-W3C stylesheet
systems are included as examples.
The toolkit provides intelligent caching, which ensures that if any
parameters in the display of the XML file change, the cache is
overwritten. The toolkit also provides hooks for DOM-based
stylesheets to cascade. This allows (for example) the initial
stylesheet to provide menu items and a table of contents, while the
final stylesheet formats the finished file to the desired look.
It's also possible to provide multiple language
support this way.
Embperl gives you the power to
embed Perl code in your HTML documents
and the ability to build your web site out of small, reusable objects
in an object-oriented style. You can also take advantage of all the
standard Perl modules (including DBI for database
access) and use their functionality to easily include their output in
your web pages.
Embperl has several features that are especially
useful for creating HTML, including dynamic tables, form-field
processing, URL escaping/unescaping, session handling, and more.
Embperl is a server-side tool, which means that
it's browser-independent. It can run in various
ways: under mod_perl, as a CGI script, or offline.
For database access, there is a module called
DBIx::Recordset that works well with
Embperl and simplifies creating web pages with
database content.
Available from CPAN. See the module manpage for more information.
B.14.4. Apache::EmbperlChain—Process Embedded Perl in HTML in the OutputChain
Uses Apache::OutputChain to filter
the output of content generators through
Apache::Embperl.
Available from CPAN. See the module manpage for more information.
B.14.5. Apache::ePerl—Embedded Perl 5 Language
ePerl interprets an ASCII file that
contains Perl program statements by
replacing any Perl code it finds with the result of evaluating that
code (which may be chunks of HTML, or could be nothing) and passing
through the plain ASCII text untouched. It can be used in various
ways: as a standalone Unix filter or as an integrated Perl module for
general file-generation tasks and as a powerful web-server scripting
language for dynamic HTML page programming.
Available from CPAN. See the module manpage for more information.
B.14.6. Apache::iNcom—E-Commerce Framework
Apache::iNcom is an e-commerce
framework. It is not a ready-to-run
merchant system. It integrates the different components needed for
e-commerce into a coherent whole.
The primary design goals of the framework are flexibility and
security. Most merchant systems will make assumptions about the
structure of your catalog data and your customer data, or about how
your order process works. Most also impose severe restrictions on how
the programmer will interface with your electronic catalog. These are
precisely the kinds of constraints that
Apache::iNcom is designed to avoid.
Apache::iNcom provides the following
infrastructure:
Session management
Cart management
Input validation
Order management
User management
Easy database access
Internationalization
Error handling
Most of the base functionality of Apache::iNcom is
realized by using standard well-known modules such as
DBI for generic SQL database access,
HTML::Embperl for dynamic page generation,
Apache::Session for session management, mod_perl
for Apache integration, and Locale::Maketext for
localization.
Here are its assumptions:
Data is held in a SQL database that supports transactions.
The user interface is presented using HTML.
Sessions are managed through cookies.
Available from CPAN. See the module manpage for more information.
B.14.7. Apache::Mason—Perl-Based Web Site Development and Delivery System
Apache::Mason allows web pages
and sites to be constructed from shared,
reusable building blocks called components.
Components contain a mixture of Perl and HTML and can call each other
and pass values back and forth like subroutines. Components increase
modularity and eliminate repetitive work: common design elements
(headers, footers, menus, logos) can be extracted into their own
components, so that they need be changed only once to affect the
whole site.
Other Mason features include powerful filtering
and templating facilities, an HTML/data-caching model, and a
web-based site-previewing utility.
Available from CPAN and http://www.masonhq.com/. See the module
manpage for more information.
Apache::PageKit is a web applications
framework that is based on mod_perl. This
framework is distinguished from others (such as
Embperl and Mason) by providing
a clear separation of programming, content, and presentation. It does
this by implementing a Model/View/Content/Controller (MVCC) design
paradigm:
Model is implemented by user-supplied Perl classes
View is a set of HTML templates
Content is a set of XML files
Controller is PageKit
This allows programmers, designers, and content editors to work
independently, using clean, well-defined interfaces.
Apache::PageKit provides the following features:
Component-based architecture
Language localization
Session management
Input validation
Sticky HTML forms
Authentication
Co-branding
Automatic dispatching of URIs
Easy error handling
Available from CPAN. See the module manpage for more information.
B.14.9. Template Toolkit—Template Processing System
The Template Toolkit is a collection of modules that implements a fast,
flexible, powerful, and extensible template processing system. It was
originally designed for generating dynamic web content, but it can be
used equally well for processing any other kind of text-based
documents (HTML, XML, POD, PostScript, LaTeX, etc.).
It can be used as a standalone Perl module or embedded within an
Apache/mod_perl server for generating highly configurable dynamic web
content. A number of Perl scripts are also provided that can greatly
simplify the process of creating and managing static web content and
other offline document systems.
The Apache::Template module provides a simple mod_perl
interface to the Template Toolkit.
