NAME

POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent - The easy way to serve web content with POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP.

VERSION

version 1.16

SYNOPSIS

  # A simple web server
  use POE qw(Component::Server::SimpleHTTP Component::Server::SimpleContent);

  my $content = POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent->spawn( root_dir => '/blah/blah/path' );

  POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP->new(
        ALIAS => 'httpd',
        ADDRESS => '6.6.6.6',
        PORT => 8080,
        HANDLERS => [
                {
                  DIR => '.*',
                  EVENT => 'request',
                  SESSION => $content->session_id(),
                },
        ],
  );

  $poe_kernel->run();
  exit 0;

DESCRIPTION

POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent is a companion POE component to POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP ( though it can be used standalone ), that provides a virtualised filesystem for serving web content. It uses Filesys::Virtual::Plain to manage the virtual file system.

As demonstrated in the SYNOPSIS, POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent integrates with POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP. General usage involves setting up your own custom handlers *before* a catchall handler which will route HTTP requests to SimpleContent.

The component generates a minimal 404 error page as a response if the requested URL does not exist in the virtual filesystem. It will generate a minimal 403 forbidden page if 'auto_index' is set to 0 and a requested directory doesn't have an 'index_file'

Directory indexing is supported by default, though don't expect anything really fancy.

One may also specify handlers for particular extension types.

CONSTRUCTOR

spawn

Requires one mandatory argument,

 'root_dir', the file system path which will become the root of the virtual filesystem.

Optional arguments are:

 prefix_path  specify a path within the virtual filesystem that will be prefixed to
              the url path to find the real path for content;
 alias_path - specify a path that will be removed from the front of url path to find
              the real path for content within the virtual filesystem;
 alias      - the POE::Kernel alias to set for the component's session;
 options    - a hashref of POE::Session options to pass to the component's session;
 index_file - the filename that will be used if someone specifies a directory path,
              default is 'index.html';
 auto_index - whether directory indexing is performed, default is 1;
 blocking   - specify whether blocking file reads are to be used, default 0 non-blocking
              ( this option is ignored on Win32, which does not support non-blocking ).
 handlers   - a hashref of file extension handlers.

File extension handlers are a hashref keyed on file extension ( without the preceeding dot '.' ), of further hashrefs, with the keys 'SESSION' for the POE::Session to that will be handling this file extension and 'EVENT' for the event to trigger in that session.

  handlers => {
                pl  => { SESSION => 'foobar', EVENT => 'foo' },
                cgi => { SESSION => 3, EVENT => 'cgi_handler' },
  },

See OUTPUT EVENTS below for what gets sent to your event handlers.

Returns an object on success.

Example:

 my $content = POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent->spawn(
        root_dir   => '/blah/blah/path',
        options    => { trace => 1 },
        index_file => 'default.htm',
        auto_index  => 0,
 );

METHODS

session_id

Takes no arguments. Returns the POE::Session ID of the component's session.

  my ($session_id) = $content->session_id();

shutdown

Takes no arguments, shuts down the component's session.

  $content->shutdown();

request

Requires two arguments, a HTTP::Request object and HTTP::Response object. See OUTPUT for what is returned by this method.

  $content->request( $request_obj, $response_obj );

auto_index

No parameter specified returns whether 'auto_index' is enabled or not. If a true or false value is specified, enables or disables 'auto_index', respectively.

index_file

No parameter specified, returns the current setting of 'index_file'. If a parameter is specified, sets 'index_file' to that given value.

get_handlers

Returns an arrayref of the current handlers.

set_handlers

Accepts an arrayref of handler hashrefs ( see spawn() for details ).

INPUT

These are the events that the component will accept.

request

Requires two arguments, a HTTP::Request object and HTTP::Response object. See OUTPUT for what is returned by this method.

  $kernel->post( $content->session_id() => request => $request_obj => $response_obj );

shutdown

Takes no arguments, shuts down the component's session.

  $kernel->post( $content->session_id() => 'shutdown' );

OUTPUT

The component returns the following event to the sessions that issued a 'request', either via the object API or the session API. The event is 'DONE' to maintain compatibility with POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP.

DONE

ARG0 will be a HTTP::Response object.

File extension handler events will have a hashref as ARG0 with the following keys:

  'request', the HTTP::Request object;
  'response', the HTTP::Response object;
  'session', the POE::Session that sent the request to us;
  'script_name', the virtual path to the file that was requested;
  'script_filename', the full system path to the file that was requested;

After the target session has processed the request in whatever shape or form it must post the 'response' object back to the original session as given in 'session', using the 'DONE' event.

  $kernel->post( $session, 'DONE', $response );

EXPORTED FUNCTIONS

The following functions are exported:

generate_301

Takes two mandatory arguments, a path and a HTTP::Response object.

Returns the HTTP::Response object with the content applicable for a 301 HTTP response.

generate_403

Takes one mandatory argument, a HTTP::Response object.

Returns the HTTP::Response object with the content applicable for a 403 HTTP response.

generate_404

Takes one mandatory argument, a HTTP::Response object.

Returns the HTTP::Response object with the content applicable for a 404 HTTP response.

CAVEATS

This module is designed for serving small content, ie. HTML files and jpegs/png/gifs. There is a good chance that the component might block when attempting to serve larger content, such as MP3s, etc.

TODO

Use POE::Wheel::Run to provide full non-blocking content serving.

More comprehensive HTTP error handling, with the ability to specify custom 404 error pages.

More 'fancy' directory listing.

KUDOS

Scott McCoy for pestering me with patches, for non-blocking file reads. :)

Apocal for writing POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP.

Xantus for Filesys::Virtual::Plain

Those cheeky chaps at #PoE @ irc.perl.org for ever helpful suggestions.

SEE ALSO

HTTP::Request, HTTP::Request, POE::Component::Server::SimpleHTTP, POE.

AUTHOR

Chris Williams <chris@bingosnet.co.uk>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2017 by Chris Williams.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

cpanm POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install POE::Component::Server::SimpleContent