MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2 - Add a session to the Mason Request object

In your httpd.conf file:

  PerlSetVar  MasonRequestClass         MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2
  PerlSetVar  MasonSessionCookieDomain  .example.com
  PerlSetVar  MasonSessionClass         Apache::Session::MySQL
  PerlSetVar  MasonSessionDataSource    dbi:mysql:somedb

Or when creating an ApacheHandler2 object:

  my $ah =
      HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler2->new
          ( request_class => 'MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2',
            session_cookie_domain => '.example.com',
            session_class         => 'Apache::Session2::MySQL',
            session_data_source   => 'dbi:mysql:somedb',
          );

In a component:

  $m->session->{foo} = 1;
  if ( $m->session->{bar}{baz} > 1 ) { ... }

MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2 is highly experimental ( alpha ) and should only be used in a test environment.

MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2 is a clone of MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession changed to work under a pure mod_perl2 environment. The external interface is unchanged, see MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession.

The actual changes I made can be found in the distribution in diff/WithApacheSession.diff ( made with 'diff -Naru' ... ).

A HOWTO for HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler2 and friends may be found at Mason-with-mod_perl2.

The following documentation is from MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession,

This module integrates Apache::Session into Mason by adding methods to the Mason Request object available in all Mason components.

Any subrequests created by a request share the same session.

To use this module you need to tell Mason to use this class for requests. This can be done in one of two ways. If you are configuring Mason via your httpd.conf file, simply add this:

  PerlSetVar  MasonRequestClass  MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2

If you are using a handler.pl file, simply add this parameter to the parameters given to the ApacheHandler constructor:

  request_class => 'MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession2'

This class adds two methods to the Request object.

* session

This method returns a hash tied to the Apache::Session class.

* delete_session

This method deletes the existing session from persistent storage. If you are using the built-in cookie mechanism, it also deletes the cookie in the browser.

This module accepts quite a number of parameters, most of which are simply passed through to Apache::Session. For this reason, you are advised to familiarize yourself with the Apache::Session documentation before attempting to configure this module.

* session_class / MasonSessionClass => class name

The name of the Apache::Session subclass you would like to use.

This module will load this class for you if necessary.

This parameter is required.

* session_always_write / MasonSessionAlwaysWrite => boolean

If this is true, then this module will ensure that Apache::Session writes the session. If it is false, the default Apache::Session behavior is used instead.

This defaults to true.

* session_allow_invalid_id / MasonSessionAllowInvalidId => boolean

If this is true, an attempt to create a session with a session id that does not exist in the session storage will be ignored, and a new session will be created instead. If it is false, a HTML::Mason::Exception::NonExistentSessionID exception will be thrown instead.

This defaults to true.

* session_use_cookie / MasonSessionUseCookie => boolean

If true, then this module will use Apache::Cookie to set and read cookies that contain the session id.

The cookie will be set again every time the client accesses a Mason component unless the session_cookie_resend parameter is false.

* session_cookie_name / MasonSessionCookieName => name

This is the name of the cookie that this module will set. This defaults to "MasonX-Request-WithApacheSession-cookie". Corresponds to the Apache::Cookie "-name" constructor parameter.

* session_cookie_expires / MasonSessionCookieExpires => expiration

How long before the cookie expires. This defaults to 1 day, "+1d". Corresponds to the "-expires" parameter.

* session_cookie_domain / MasonSessionCookieDomain => domain

This corresponds to the "-domain" parameter. If not given this will not be set as part of the cookie.

* session_cookie_path / MasonSessionCookiePath => path

Corresponds to the "-path" parameter. It defaults to "/".

* session_cookie_secure / MasonSessionCookieSecure => boolean

Corresponds to the "-secure" parameter. It defaults to false.

* session_cookie_resend / MasonSessionCookieResend => boolean

By default, this parameter is true, and the cookie will be sent for every request. If it is false, then the cookie will only be sent when the session is created. This is important as resending the cookie has the effect of updating the expiration time.

* session_args_param / MasonSessionArgsParam => name

If set, then this module will first look for the session id in the query string or POST parameter with the specified name.

If you are also using cookies, then the module checks in the request arguments first, and then it checks for a cookie.

The session id is available from $m->session->{_session_id}.

These parameters are simply passed through to Apache::Session.

* session_data_source / MasonSessionDataSource => DSN

Corresponds to the DataSource parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

* session_user_name / MasonSessionUserName => user name

Corresponds to the UserName parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

* session_password / MasonSessionPassword => password

Corresponds to the Password parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

* session_handle => DBI handle

Corresponds to the Handle parameter given to the DBI-related session modules. This cannot be set via the httpd.conf file, because it needs to be an actual Perl variable, not the name of that variable.

* session_lock_data_source / MasonSessionLockDataSource => DSN

Corresponds to the LockDataSource parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

* session_lock_user_name / MasonSessionLockUserName => user name

Corresponds to the LockUserName parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

* session_lock_password / MasonSessionLockPassword => password

Corresponds to the LockPassword parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

* session_lock_handle => DBI handle

Corresponds to the LockHandle parameter given to the DBI-related session modules. As with the session_handle parameter, this cannot be set via the httpd.conf file.

* session_commit / MasonSessionCommit => boolean

Corresponds to the Commit parameter given to the DBI-related session modules.

* session_transaction / MasonSessionTransaction => boolean

Corresponds to the Transaction parameter.

* session_directory / MasonSessionDirectory => directory

Corresponds to the Directory parameter given to Apache::Session::File.

* session_lock_directory / MasonSessionLockDirectory => directory

Corresponds to the LockDirectory parameter given to Apache::Session::File.

* session_file_name / MasonSessionFileName => file name

Corresponds to the FileName parameter given to Apache::Session::DB_File.

* session_store / MasonSessionStore => class

Corresponds to the Store parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

* session_lock / MasonSessionLock => class

Corresponds to the Lock parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

* session_generate / MasonSessionGenerate => class

Corresponds to the Generate parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

* session_serialize / MasonSessionSerialize => class

Corresponds to the Serialize parameter given to Apache::Session::Flex.

* session_textsize / MasonSessionTextsize => size

Corresponds to the textsize parameter given to Apache::Session::Sybase.

* session_long_read_len / MasonSessionLongReadLen => size

Corresponds to the LongReadLen parameter given to Apache::Session::MySQL.

* session_n_sems / MasonSessionNSems => number

Corresponds to the NSems parameter given to Apache::Session::Lock::Semaphore.

* session_semaphore_key / MasonSessionSemaphoreKey => key

Corresponds to the SemaphoreKey parameter given to Apache::Session::Lock::Semaphore.

* session_mod_usertrack_cookie_name / MasonSessionModUsertrackCookieName => name

Corresponds to the ModUsertrackCookieName parameter given to Apache::Session::Generate::ModUsertrack.

* session_save_path / MasonSessionSavePath => path

Corresponds to the SavePath parameter given to Apache::Session::PHP.

When run under the ApacheHandler module, this module attempts to first use Apache::Cookie for cookie-handling. Otherwise it uses CGI::Cookie as a fallback.

If it ends up using CGI::Cookie then it can only set cookies if it is running under either the ApacheHandler or the CGIHandler module. Otherwise, the MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession request object has no way to get to an object which can take the headers. In other words, if there's no $r, there's nothing with which to set headers.

As can be seen by the number of parameters above, Apache::Session has way too many possibilities for me to test all of them. This means there are almost certainly bugs.

Bug reports and requests for help should be sent to the mason-users list. See http://www.masonhq.com/resources/mailing_lists.html for more details.

Beau E. Cox <mason@beaucox.com> http://beaucox.com.

The real authors (I just made mod_perl2 changes) is Dave Rolsky, <autarch@urth.org>

Version 0.01 as of January, 2004.

My documents, including: HOWTO Run Mason with mod_perl2 (Mason-with-mod_perl2), HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler2 (ApacheHandler2), MasonX::Request::WithMultiSession2 (WithMultiSession2),

Original Mason documents, including: HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler (ApacheHandler), MasonX::Request::WithApacheSession (WithApacheSession), MasonX::Request::WithMultiSession (WithMultiSession).

Also see the Mason documentation at http://masonhq.com/docs/manual/.