NAME Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple - Make serving static pages painless. SYNOPSIS use Catalyst; MyApp->setup( qw/Static::Simple/ ); # that's it; static content is automatically served by # Catalyst, though you can configure things or bypass # Catalyst entirely in a production environment DESCRIPTION The Static::Simple plugin is designed to make serving static content in your application during development quick and easy, without requiring a single line of code from you. This plugin detects static files by looking at the file extension in the URL (such as .css or .png or .js). The plugin uses the lightweight MIME::Types module to map file extensions to IANA-registered MIME types, and will serve your static files with the correct MIME type directly to the browser, without being processed through Catalyst. Note that actions mapped to paths using periods (.) will still operate properly. Though Static::Simple is designed to work out-of-the-box, you can tweak the operation by adding various configuration options. In a production environment, you will probably want to use your webserver to deliver static content; for an example see "USING WITH APACHE", below. DEFAULT BEHAVIOR By default, Static::Simple will deliver all files having extensions (that is, bits of text following a period (".")), *except* files having the extensions "tmpl", "tt", "tt2", "html", and "xhtml". These files, and all files without extensions, will be processed through Catalyst. If MIME::Types doesn't recognize an extension, it will be served as "text/plain". To restate: files having the extensions "tmpl", "tt", "tt2", "html", and "xhtml" *will not* be served statically by default, they will be processed by Catalyst. Thus if you want to use ".html" files from within a Catalyst app as static files, you need to change the configuration of Static::Simple. Note also that files having any other extension *will* be served statically, so if you're using any other extension for template files, you should also change the configuration. Logging of static files is turned off by default. ADVANCED CONFIGURATION Configuration is completely optional and is specified within "MyApp->config->{static}". If you use any of these options, this module will probably feel less "simple" to you! Enabling request logging Since Catalyst 5.50, logging of static requests is turned off by default; static requests tend to clutter the log output and rarely reveal anything useful. However, if you want to enable logging of static requests, you can do so by setting "MyApp->config->{static}->{no_logs}" to 0. Forcing directories into static mode Define a list of top-level directories beneath your 'root' directory that should always be served in static mode. Regular expressions may be specified using "qr//". MyApp->config->{static}->{dirs} = [ 'static', qr/^(images|css)/, ]; Including additional directories You may specify a list of directories in which to search for your static files. The directories will be searched in order and will return the first file found. Note that your root directory is not automatically added to the search path when you specify an "include_path". You should use "MyApp->config->{root}" to add it. MyApp->config->{static}->{include_path} = [ '/path/to/overlay', \&incpath_generator, MyApp->config->{root} ]; With the above setting, a request for the file "/images/logo.jpg" will search for the following files, returning the first one found: /path/to/overlay/images/logo.jpg /dynamic/path/images/logo.jpg /your/app/home/root/images/logo.jpg The include path can contain a subroutine reference to dynamically return a list of available directories. This method will receive the $c object as a parameter and should return a reference to a list of directories. Errors can be reported using "die()". This method will be called every time a file is requested that appears to be a static file (i.e. it has an extension). For example: sub incpath_generator { my $c = shift; if ( $c->session->{customer_dir} ) { return [ $c->session->{customer_dir} ]; } else { die "No customer dir defined."; } } Ignoring certain types of files There are some file types you may not wish to serve as static files. Most important in this category are your raw template files. By default, files with the extensions "tmpl", "tt", "tt2", "html", and "xhtml" will be ignored by Static::Simple in the interest of security. If you wish to define your own extensions to ignore, use the "ignore_extensions" option: MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_extensions} = [ qw/html asp php/ ]; Ignoring entire directories To prevent an entire directory from being served statically, you can use the "ignore_dirs" option. This option contains a list of relative directory paths to ignore. If using "include_path", the path will be checked against every included path. MyApp->config->{static}->{ignore_dirs} = [ qw/tmpl css/ ]; For example, if combined with the above "include_path" setting, this "ignore_dirs" value will ignore the following directories if they exist: /path/to/overlay/tmpl /path/to/overlay/css /dynamic/path/tmpl /dynamic/path/css /your/app/home/root/tmpl /your/app/home/root/css Custom MIME types To override or add to the default MIME types set by the MIME::Types module, you may enter your own extension to MIME type mapping. MyApp->config->{static}->{mime_types} = { jpg => 'image/jpg', png => 'image/png', }; Compatibility with other plugins Since version 0.12, Static::Simple plays nice with other plugins. It no longer short-circuits the "prepare_action" stage as it was causing too many compatibility issues with other plugins. Debugging information Enable additional debugging information printed in the Catalyst log. This is automatically enabled when running Catalyst in -Debug mode. MyApp->config->{static}->{debug} = 1; USING WITH APACHE While Static::Simple will work just fine serving files through Catalyst in mod_perl, for increased performance, you may wish to have Apache handle the serving of your static files. To do this, simply use a dedicated directory for your static files and configure an Apache Location block for that directory. This approach is recommended for production installations. SetHandler default-handler Using this approach Apache will bypass any handling of these directories through Catalyst. You can leave Static::Simple as part of your application, and it will continue to function on a development server, or using Catalyst's built-in server. PUBLIC METHODS serve_static_file $file_path Will serve the file located in $file_path statically. This is useful when you need to autogenerate them if they don't exist, or they are stored in a model. package MyApp::Controller::User; sub curr_user_thumb : PathPart("my_thumbnail.png") { my ( $self, $c ) = @_; my $file_path = $c->user->picture_thumbnail_path; $c->serve_static_file($file_path); } INTERNAL EXTENDED METHODS Static::Simple extends the following steps in the Catalyst process. prepare_action "prepare_action" is used to first check if the request path is a static file. If so, we skip all other "prepare_action" steps to improve performance. dispatch "dispatch" takes the file found during "prepare_action" and writes it to the output. finalize "finalize" serves up final header information and displays any log messages. setup "setup" initializes all default values. SEE ALSO Catalyst, Catalyst::Plugin::Static, AUTHOR Andy Grundman, CONTRIBUTORS Marcus Ramberg, Jesse Sheidlower, Guillermo Roditi, THANKS The authors of Catalyst::Plugin::Static: Sebastian Riedel Christian Hansen Marcus Ramberg For the include_path code from Template Toolkit: Andy Wardley COPYRIGHT This program is free software, you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.