Plack::Middleware(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				    Plack::Middleware(3pm)

NAME

       Plack::Middleware - Base class for easy-to-use PSGI middleware

SYNOPSIS

	 package Plack::Middleware::Foo;
	 use parent qw( Plack::Middleware );

	 sub call {
	     my($self, $env) = @_;
	     # Do something with $env

	     # $self->app is the original app
	     my $res = $self->app->($env);

	     # Do something with $res
	     return $res;
	 }

	 # then in app.psgi
	 use Plack::Builder;

	 my $app = sub { ... } # as usual

	 builder {
	     enable "Plack::Middleware::Foo";
	     enable "Plack::Middleware::Bar", %options;
	     $app;
	 };

DESCRIPTION

       Plack::Middleware is a utility base class to write PSGI middleware. All you have to do is to inherit from Plack::Middleware and then
       implement the callback "call" method (or "to_app" method that would return the PSGI code reference) to do the actual work. You can use
       "$self->app" to call the original (wrapped) application.

       Your middleware object is created at a PSGI application compile time and is persistent during the web server life cycle (unless it is a
       non-persistent environment such as CGI), so you should never set or cache per-request data like $env in your middleware object. See also
       "OBJECT LIFECYCLE" in Plack::Component.

       See Plack::Builder how to actually enable middleware in your .psgi application file using the DSL. If you do not like our builder DSL, you
       can also use "wrap" method to wrap your application with a middleware:

	 use Plack::Middleware::Foo;

	 my $app = sub { ... };
	 $app = Plack::Middleware::Foo->wrap($app, %options);
	 $app = Plack::Middleware::Bar->wrap($app, %options);

RESPONSE CALLBACK

       The typical middleware is written like this:

	 package Plack::Middleware::Something;
	 use parent qw(Plack::Middleware);

	 sub call {
	     my($self, $env) = @_;
	     # pre-processing $env
	     my $res = $self->app->($env);
	     # post-processing $res
	     return $res;
	 }

       The tricky thing about post processing the response is that it could either be an immediate 3 element array ref, or a code reference that
       implements the delayed (streaming) interface.

       Dealing with these two types of response in each piece of middleware is pointless, so you're recommended to use the "response_cb" wrapper
       function in Plack::Util when implementing a post processing middleware.

	 my $res = $app->($env);
	 Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
	     my $res = shift;
	     # do something with $res;
	 });

       The callback function gets a PSGI response as a 3 element array reference, and you can update the reference to implement the post
       processing.

	 package Plack::Middleware::Always500;
	 use parent qw(Plack::Middleware);
	 use Plack::Util;

	 sub call {
	     my($self, $env) = @_;
	     my $res  = $self->app->($env);
	     Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
		 my $res = shift;
		 $res->[0] = 500;
		 return;
	     });
	 }

       In this example, the callback gets the $res and updates its first element (status code) to 500. Using "response_cb" makes sure that this
       works with the delayed response too.

       You're not required (and not recommended either) to return a new array reference - they will be simply ignored. You're suggested to
       explicitly return, unless you fiddle with the content filter callback (see below).

       Similarly, note that you have to keep the $res reference when you swap the entire response.

	 Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
	     my $res = shift;
	     $res = [ $new_status, $new_headers, $new_body ]; # THIS DOES NOT WORK
	     return;
	 });

       This does not work, since assigning a new anonymous array to $res doesn't update the original PSGI response value. You should instead do:

	 Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
	     my $res = shift;
	     @$res = ($new_status, $new_headers, $new_body); # THIS WORKS
	     return;
	 });

       The third element of PSGI response array ref is a body, and it could be either array ref or IO::Handle-ish object. The application could
       also make use of $writer object if "psgi.streaming" is in effect. Dealing with these variants is again really painful, and "response_cb"
       can take care of that too, by allowing you to return a content filter as a code reference.

	 # replace all "Foo" in content body with "Bar"
	 Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
	     my $res = shift;
	     return sub {
		 my $chunk = shift;
		 return unless defined $chunk;
		 $chunk =~ s/Foo/Bar/g;
		 return $chunk;
	     }
	 });

       The callback takes one argument $chunk and your callback is expected to return the updated chunk. If the given $chunk is undef, it means
       the stream has reached the end, so your callback should also return undef, or return the final chunk and return undef when called next
       time.

SEE ALSO

       Plack Plack::Builder Plack::Component

perl v5.14.2							    2011-06-22						    Plack::Middleware(3pm)