NAME
   Web::Reactor perl-based web application machinery.

SYNOPSIS
   Startup CGI script example:

     #!/usr/bin/perl
     use strict;
     use lib '/opt/perl/reactor/lib'; # if Reactor is custom location installed
     use Web::Reactor;

     my %cfg = (
               'APP_NAME'     => 'demo',
               'APP_ROOT'     => '/opt/reactor/demo/',
               'LIB_DIRS'     => [ '/opt/reactor/demo/lib/'  ],
               'HTML_DIRS'    => [ '/opt/reactor/demo/html/' ],
               'SESS_VAR_DIR' => '/opt/reactor/demo/var/sess/',
               'DEBUG'        => 4,
               );

     eval { new Web::Reactor( %cfg )->run(); };
     if( $@ )
       {
       print STDERR "REACTOR CGI EXCEPTION: $@";
       print "content-type: text/html\n\nsystem is temporary unavailable";
       }

   HTML page file example:

     <#html_header>

     <$app_name>

     <#menu>

     testing page html file

     action test: <&test>

     <#html_footer>

   Action module example:

     package Reactor::Actions::demo::test;
     use strict;
     use Data::Dumper;
     use Web::Reactor::HTML::FormEngine;

     sub main
     {
       my $reo = shift; # Web::Reactor object. Provides all API and context.

       my $text; # result html text

       if( $reo->get_input_button() eq 'FORM_CANCEL' )
         {
         # if clicked form button is cancel,
         # return back to the calling/previous page/view with optional data
         return $reo->forward_back( ACTION_RETURN => 'IS_CANCEL' );
         }

       # add some html content
       $text .= "<p>Reactor::Actions::demo::test here!<p>";

       # create link and hide its data. only accessible from inside web app.
       my $grid_href = $reo->args_new( _PN => 'grid', TABLE => 'testtable', );
       $text .= "<a href=?_=$grid_href>go to grid</a><p>";

       # access page session. it will be auto-loaded on demand
       my $page_session_hr = $reo->get_page_session();
       my $fortune = $page_session_hr->{ 'FORTUNE' } ||= `/usr/games/fortune`;

   # access input (form) data. $i and $e are hashrefs
       my $i = $reo->get_user_input(); # get plain user input (hashref)
       my $e = $reo->get_safe_input(); # get safe data (never reach user browser)

       $text .= "<p><hr><p>$fortune<hr>";

       my $bc = $reo->args_here(); # session keeper, this is manual use

       $text .= "<form method=post>";
       $text .= "<input type=hidden name=_ value=$bc>";
       $text .= "input <input name=inp>";
       $text .= "<input type=submit name=button:form_ok>";
       $text .= "<input type=submit name=button:form_cancel>";
       $text .= "</form>";

       my $form = $reo->new_form();

       $text .= "<p><hr><p>";

       return $text;
     }

     1;

DESCRIPTION
   Web::Reactor (WR) provides automation of most of the usual and frequent
   tasks when constructing a web application. Such tasks include:

     * User session handling (creation, cookies support, storage)
     * Page (web screen/view) session handling (similar to user sessions attributes)
     * Sessions (user/page/etc.) data storage and auto load/ssave
     * Inter-page relations and data transport (hides real data from the end-user)
     * HTML page creation and expansion (i.e. including preprocessing :))
     * Optional HTML forms creation and data handling

   Web::Reactor is designed to allow extending or replacing some parts as:

     * Session storage (data store on filesystem, database, remote or vmem)
     * HTML creation/expansion/preprocessing
     * Page actions/modules execution (can be skipped if custom HTML prep used)

HTTP PARAMETERS NAMES
   WR uses underscore and one or two letters for its system http/html
   parameters. Some of the system params are:

     _PN  -- html page name (points to file template, restricted to alphanumeric)
     _P   -- page session
     _R   -- referer (caller) page session

   More details about how those params are used can be found below.

USER SESSIONS
   WR creates unique session for each connected user. The session is kept
   by a cookie. Usually WR needs justthis cookie to handle all user/server
   interaction. Inside WR action code, user session is represented as a
   hash reference. It may hold arbitrary data. "System" or WR-specific data
   inside user session has colon as prefix:

     # $reo is Web::Reactor object (i.e. context) passed to the action/module code
     my $user_session = $reo->get_user_session();
     print STDERR $user_session->{ ':CTIME_STR' };
     # prints in http log the create time in human friendly form

   All data saved inside user session is automatically saved. When needed
   it can be explicitly with:

     $reo->save();
     # saves all modified context to disk or other storage

PAGE SESSIONS
   Each page presented to the user has own session. It is very similar to
   the user session (it is hash reference, may hold any data, can be saved
   with $reo->save()). It is expected that page sessions hold all context
   data needed for any page to display properly. To preserve page session
   it is needed that it is included in any link to this page instance or in
   any html form used.

   When called for the first time, each page request needs page name (_PN).
   Afterwards a unique page session is created and page name is saved
   inside. At this moment this page instance can be accessed (i.e. given
   control to) only with a page session id (_P):

     $page_sid = ...; # taken from somewhere
     # to pass control to the page instance:
     $reo->forward( _P => $page_sid );
     # the page instance will pull data from its page session and display in
     # its last known state

   Not always page session are needed. For example, when forward to the
   caller is needed, you just need to:

      $reo->forward_back();
      # this is equivalent to
      my $ref_page_sid = $reo->get_ref_page_session_id();
      $reo->forward( _P => $ref_page_sid );

   Each page instance knows the caller page session and can give control
   back to. However it may pass more data when returning back to the
   caller:

      $reo->forward_back( MORE_DATA => 'is here', OPTIONS_LIST => \@list );

   When new page instance has to be called (created):

      $reo->forward_new( _PN => 'some_page_name' );

PROJECT STATUS
   At the moment Web::Reactor is in beta. API is mostly frozen but it is
   fairly possible to be changed and/or extended. However drastic changes
   are not planned :)

   If you are interested in the project or have some notes etc, contact me
   at:

     Vladi Belperchinov-Shabanski "Cade"
     <[email protected]>
     <[email protected]>
     <[email protected]>
     <[email protected]>

   further contact info, mailing list and github repository is listed
   below.

FIXME: TODO:
     * config examples
     * pages example
     * actions example
     * API description (input data, safe data, sessions, forwarding, actions, html)
     * ...

DEMO APPLICATION
   Documentation will be improved shortly, but meanwhile you can check
   'demo' directory inside distribution tarball or inside the github
   repository. This is fully functional (however stupid :)) application. It
   shows how data is processed, calling pages/views, inspecting page
   (calling views) stack, html forms automation, forwarding.

MAILING LIST
     [email protected]

GITHUB REPOSITORY
     https://github.com/cade4/perl-web-reactor

 git clone git://github.com/cade4/perl-web-reactor.git

AUTHOR
     Vladi Belperchinov-Shabanski "Cade"

     <[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]>

     http://cade.datamax.bg

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