NAME

CGI::AppBuilder - CGI Application Builder

SYNOPSIS

use CGI::AppBuilder;

      my $cg = CGI::AppBuilder->new('ifn', 'my_init.cfg', 'opt', 'vhS:a:');
      my $ar = $cg->get_inputs; 

DESCRIPTION

There are already many application builders out there. Why you need another one? Well, if you are already familiar with CGI::Builder or CGI::Application, this one will provide some useful methods to you to read your configuration file and pre-process your templates. Please read on.

new (ifn => 'file.cfg', opt => 'hvS:') Input variables:

      $ifn  - input/initial file name. 
      $opt  - options for Getopt::Std

Variables used or routines called:

None

How to use:

       my $ca = new CGI::AppBuilder;      # or
       my $ca = CGI::AppBuilder->new;     # or
       my $ca = CGI::AppBuilder->new(ifn=>'file.cfg',opt=>'hvS:'); # or
       my $ca = CGI::AppBuilder->new('ifn', 'file.cfg','opt','hvS:'); 

Return: new empty or initialized CGI::AppBuilder object.

This method constructs a Perl object and capture any parameters if specified. It creates and defaults the following variables:

      $self->{ifn} = ""
      $self->{opt} = 'hvS:'; 

start_app ($prg,$arg,$nhh)
Input variables:

      $prg  - program name 
      $arg  - array ref for arguments - %ARGV
      $nhh  - no html header pre-printed 
              1 - no HTML header is set in any circumstance
              0 - HTML header will be set when it is possible

Variables used or routines called:

      build_html_header - build HTML header array
      Debug::EchoMessage
        echo_msg  - echo messages
        start_log - start and write message log
      CGI::Getopt
        get_inputs - read input file and/or CGI form inputs

How to use:

my ($q, $ar, $ar_log) = $self->start_app($0,\@ARGV);

Return: ($q,$ar,$ar_log) where

      $q - a CGI object
      $ar - hash ref containing parameters from input file and/or 
            CGI form inputs and the following elements:
        ifn - initial file name
        opt - command input options
        cfg - configuratoin array
        html_header - HTML header parameters (hash ref)
        msg - contain message hash
      $ar_log - hash ref containing log information

This method performs the following tasks:

1. initial a CGI object
2. read initial file if specified or search for a default file (the same as $prg with .ini extension) and save the file name to $ar->{ifn}.
3. define message level
4. start HTML header and body using I<page_title> and I<page_style> if they are defined.
5. parse CGI form inputs and combine them with parameters defined in initial file
6. read configuration file ($prg.cfg) if it exists and save the array to $ar->{cfg}
7. prepare log record if write log is enabled

It checks the parameters read from initial file for page_title, page_style, page_author, page_meta, top_nav, bottom_nav, and js_src.

end_app ($q, $ar, $ar_log, $nhh)
Input variables:

      $q    - CGI object 
      $ar   - array ref for parameters 
      $ar_log - hash ref for log record
      $nhh  - no html header pre-printed 
              1 - no HTML is printed in any circumstance
              0 - HTML header will be printed when it is possible

Variables used or routines called:

      Debug::EchoMessage
        echo_msg - echo messages
        end_log - start and write message log
        set_param - get a parameter from hash array

How to use:

       my ($q, $ar, $ar_log) = $self->start_app($0,\@ARGV);
       $self->end_app($q, $ar, $ar_log);

Return: none

This method performs the following tasks:

1. ends HTML document
2. writes log records to log files
3. close database connection if it finds DB handler in {dbh}

HISTORY

• Version 0.10 This version is to extract out the app methods from CGI::Getopt class. It was too much for CGI::Getopt to include the start_app, end_app, build_html_header, and disp_form methods.

          0.11 Rewrote start_app method so that content-type can be changed.
          0.12 Moved disp_form to CGI::AppBuilder::Form,
               moved build_html_header to CGI::AppBuilder::Header, and 
               imported all the methods in sub-classes into this class.

• Version 0.20

SEE ALSO (some of docs that I check often)

        Oracle::Loader, Oracle::Trigger, CGI::Getopt, File::Xcopy,
        CGI::AppBuilder, CGI::AppBuilder::Message, CGI::AppBuilder::Log,
        CGI::AppBuilder::Config, etc.

AUTHOR

Copyright (c) 2005 Hanming Tu. All rights reserved.

        This package is free software and is provided "as is" without
        express or implied warranty. It may be used, redistributed and/or
        modified under the terms of the Perl Artistic License (see
        http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html)