CGI::Portal - Extensible Framework for Multiuser Applications

SYNOPSIS

    use CGI::Portal;

    CGI::Portal::activate({'database_type'       => "mysql",

                           'database_name'       => "some_name",
                           'database_host'       => "localhost",
                           'database_user'       => "some_user",
                           'database_passw'      => "some_password",

                           'user_table'          => "users",
                           'user_index_field'    => "id",
                           'user_user_field'     => "user",
                           'user_passw_field'    => "passw",
                           'user_additional'     => ["email","first_name","middle_initial","last_name","city","state","country"],
                           # at least:              ["email"],

                           'session_table'       => "sessions",
                           'session_index_field' => "id",
                           'session_sid_field'   => "sid",
                           'session_user_field'  => "user",
                           'session_start_field' => "session_start",
                           'session_additional'  => "",


                           # Modules in the CGI::Portal::Scripts namespace, the first is the default action

                           'actions'             => ["logon", "logoff", "register", "profile", "changepw", "emailpw"],

                           'session_length'      => 7200,
                           'admin_email'         => "some_user\@some_host.com",

                           'template_dir'        => "templates/", # include trailing slash
                           'header_html'         => "header.html",
                           'footer_html'         => "footer.html",
                           'logon_success_html'  => "logon.html"});

DESCRIPTION

CGI::Portal is a framework for the design of extensible,
plug-configure-and-play multiuser web applications based on preferred object
oriented coding standards. It provides authentication, session management, internal 
redirects and a modular architecture to build complex applications.

It requires a database including a user and a sessions table, a collection of HTML::Template
style templates and a properly configured starrtup script. At first you may want to install
the provided sample files.

All requests access through the startup script, and are handled by the module in
the CGI::Portal::Scripts namespace that corresponds to the desired action. Above shown
actions are included in CGI::Portal.

For example, portal.cgi?action=foo calls CGI::Portal::Scripts::foo::launch()

FUNCTIONS

activate

CGI::Portal::activate($conf) takes a reference to the configuration hash, collects
input parameters, creates a database object, and passes those on to your module
for creating an object instance. It then runs your modules "launch" method and
concludes by doing the printing for you. This function is called once from your
startup script.

INSTALLATION

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install

CGI::Portal::Scripts - Building Applications

SYNOPSIS

    package CGI::Portal::Scripts::some_name;

    use CGI::Portal::Scripts;
    use vars qw(@ISA);

    @ISA = qw(CGI::Portal::Scripts);

    1;

    sub launch {
      my $self = shift;
      .... 
    }

Internal Redirect

    package CGI::Portal::Scripts::some_name;

    use CGI::Portal::Scripts;
    use CGI::Portal::Scripts::other_name;
    use vars qw(@ISA);

    @ISA = qw(CGI::Portal::Scripts);

    1;

    sub launch {
      my $self = shift;
      .... 

      bless $self, "CGI::Portal::Scripts::other_name";
      $self->launch;
    }

DESCRIPTION

Applications based on CGI::Portal are build by creating modules that reside in the
CGI::Portal::Scripts namespace and extend CGI::Portal::Scripts. These modules
must provide a subroutine launch() that CGI::Portal calls as an object method to
run your modules code.

A subroutine new() is not necessary or helpful as you are extending CGI::Portal::Scripts.

In your modules, do not print() or exit(). Instead of "print"ing append to $self->{'out'}
or $self->{'cookies'} and instead of "exit"ing, "return" from launch().

Extending CGI::Portal::Scripts, gives you access to an object with the following attributes.

ATTRIBUTES

conf

$self->{'conf'} references a hash containing all values as set in the startup script.

in

$self->{'in'} references a hash containing all input parameters, stripped off any HTML tags.

user

$self->{'user'} is set by $self->authenticate_user() if logon succeeds.

rdb

$self->{'rdb'} is a CGI::Portal::RDB database object holding a database handle.

out

$self->{'out'} supposed to collect all output.

cookies

$self->{'cookies'} collects cookie headers you might want to set. It is also used for
Sessions, so you might want to append to it.

FUNCTIONS

authenticate_user

$self->authenticate_user() takes no arguments and does not return anything. It sets
$self->{'user'} and starts a session if user logon succeeds. If user logon fails
it writes the HTML for a logon form to $self->{'out'}. It also maintains the sessions
during subsequent calls.

    $self->authenticate_user();
    return unless $self->{'user'};
    ....

logoff

$self->logoff() takes no arguments and does not return anything. It removes the current
users session id from the database and unsets the session cookie.

RDB->exec

$self->{'rdb'}->exec($sql) is an object method for the database object. It takes a SQL
statement as argument and returns a DBI statement handle.

The database handle can be directly retrieved from $self->{'rdb'}{'dbh'}.

RDB->escape

$self->{'rdb'}->escape(@values) takes an array of SQL values. It uses DBI's quote() on those
values and returns them as a string seperated by commas.

AUTHOR

Alexander David <cpanalpo@yahoo.com>