NAME

HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler - Mason/mod_perl interface

SYNOPSIS

    use HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler;

    my $ah = new HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler (..name/value params..);
    ...
    sub handler {
        my $r = shift;
        $ah->handle_request($r);
    }

DESCRIPTION

The ApacheHandler object links Mason to mod_perl, running components in response to HTTP requests. It is controlled primarily through parameters to the new() constructor.

PARAMETERS TO THE use() DECLARATION

The following are parameters to pass explicitly when using HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler. e.g.

    use HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler (args_method=>'mod_perl');

args_method

Method to use for unpacking GET and POST arguments. The valid options are 'CGI' and 'mod_perl'; these indicate that a CGI.pm or Apache::Request object (respectively) will be created for the purposes of argument handling. These objects are, unfortunately, not yet accessible from components.

'CGI' is the default and should work on most Perl systems. However, if you have the Apache::Request package (or are inclined to fetch it from CPAN), you might switch to 'mod_perl' for speed and memory efficiency.

When specifying args_method='CGI', the Mason request object ($m) will have a method called cgi_object available. This method returns the CGI object used in the ApacheHandler code.

When specifying args_method='mod_perl', the $r global is upgraded to an Apache::Request object. This object inherits all Apache methods and adds a few of its own, dealing with parameters and file uploads. See Apache::Request manual page for more information.

PARAMETERS TO THE new() CONTRUCTOR

apache_status_title

Title that you want this ApacheHandler to appear as under Apache::Status. Default is ``HTML::Mason status''. This is useful if you create more then one ApacheHandler object and want them all visible via Apache::Status.

auto_send_headers

True or undef; default true. Indicates whether Mason should automatically send HTTP headers before sending content back to the client. If you set to false, you should call $r->send_http_header manually.

See the sending_http_headers of the Component Developer's Guide for details about the automatic header feature.

debug_handler_proc, debug_handler_script, debug_mode, debug_perl_binary

The debug_* parameters control Mason's use of debug files. Component debugging procedures are fully described in the Mason Administrator's Guide.

decline_dirs

Indicates whether Mason should decline directory requests, leaving Apache to serve up a directory index or a FORBIDDEN error as appropriate. Default is 1. See Allowing directory requests for more information about handling directories with Mason.

error_mode

Specifies how to handle Perl errors. Options are 'html', 'fatal', 'raw_html', and 'raw_fatal'; the default is 'html'.

In html mode the handler sends a readable HTML version of the error message to the client. This mode is most useful on a development server.

In fatal mode the handler simply dies with a compact version of the error message. This may be caught with an eval around $ah->handle_request or left for Apache to handle. In the latter case the error will end up in the error logs. This mode is most useful on a production server.

The raw_html and raw_fatal modes emulate pre-1.02 error behavior. They are analagous to the modes above except that the errors are not processed for readability or compactness. The resulting messages are much longer, but may include information accidentally omitted by Mason's processing.

Regardless of this setting, no readability processing occurs if you have overriden the die_handler Interp parameter.

output_mode

This parameter has been replaced by the equivalent Interp parameter out_mode. For backward compatibility, setting $ah->output_mode will cause $interp->out_mode to be set appropriately.

top_level_predicate

Reference to a subroutine that decides whether a component can answer top level requests. This allows for private-use components that live within the DocumentRoot but are inaccesible from URLs. By default, always returns 1.

The subroutine receives one parameter, the absolute path to the component. It then returns either a true (serve component) or false (reject component). In this example, the predicate rejects requests for components whose name starts with an ``_'' character:

    top_level_predicate => sub { $_[0] !~ m{/_[^/]+$}

ACCESSOR METHODS

All of the above properties have standard accessor methods of the same name: no arguments retrieves the value, and one argument sets it. For example:

    my $ah = new HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler;
    my $errmode = $ah->error_mode;
    $ah->error_mode('html');

AUTHOR

Jonathan Swartz, swartz@pobox.com