NAME

Catalyst::View::XML::Feed - Catalyst view for RSS, Atom, or other XML feeds

SYNOPSIS

Create your view, e.g. lib/MyApp/View/Feed.pm

  package MyApp::View::Feed;
  use base qw( Catalyst::View::XML::Feed );
  1;

In a controller, set the "feed" stash variable and forward to your view:

  sub rss : Local {
      my ($self, $c) = @_;
      $c->stash->{feed} = $feed_obj_or_data;
      $c->forward('View::Feed');
  }

DESCRIPTION

Catalyst::View::XML::Feed is a hassle-free way to serve an RSS, Atom, or other XML feed from your Catalyst application.

Your controller should put feed data into "$c->stash->{feed}".

DATA FORMATS

The value in "$c->stash->{feed}" can be an object from any of the popular RSS or Atom classes, a plain Perl data structure, arbitrary custom objects, or an xml string.

Plain Perl data

  $c->stash->{feed} = {
      format      => 'RSS 1.0',
      id          => $c->req->base,
      title       => 'My Great Site',
      description => 'Kitten pictures for the masses',
      link        => $c->req->base,
      modified    => DateTime->now,

      entries => [
          {
              id       => $c->uri_for('rss', 'kitten_post')->as_string,
              link     => $c->uri_for('rss', 'kitten_post')->as_string,
              title    => 'First post!',
              modified => DateTime->now,
              content  => 'This is my first post!',
          },
          # ... more entries.
      ],
  };

Keys for feed: The "feed" hash can take any of the following keys. They are identical to those supported by XML::Feed. See XML::Feed for more details.
Note: Depending on the feed format you choose, different subsets of attributes might be required. As such, it is recommended that you run the generated XML through a validator such as <http://validator.w3.org/feed/> to ensure you included all necessary information.

format: Can be any of: "Atom", "RSS 0.91", "RSS 1.0", "RSS 2.0"
id
title
link
description
modified: This should be a DateTime object.
base
tagline
author
language
copyright
generator
self_link
entries: An array ref of entries.

Keys for entries: The "entries" array contains any number of hashrefs, each representing an entry in the feed. Each can contain any of the following keys. They are identical to those of XML::Feed::Entry. See XML::Feed::Entry for details.
Note: Depending on the feed format you choose, different subsets of attributes might be required. As such, it is recommended that you run the generated XML through a validator such as <http://validator.w3.org/feed/> to ensure you included all necessary information.

id
title
content
link
modified: This should be a DateTime object.
issued: This should be a DateTime object.
base
summary
category
tags
author

Arbitrary custom objects

If you have custom objects that you would like to turn into feed entries, this can be done similar to plain Perl data structures.

For example, if we have a "DB::BlogPost" DBIx::Class model, we can do the following:

  $c->stash->{feed} = {
      format      => 'Atom',
      id          => $c->req->base,
      title       => 'My Great Site',
      description => 'Kitten pictures for the masses',
      link        => $c->req->base,
      modified    => DateTime->now,

      entries => [ $c->model('DB::BlogPost')->all() ],
  };

The view will go through the keys for entries fields and, if possible, call a method of the same name on your entry object (e.g. "$your_entry->title(); $your_entry->modified();") to get that value for the XML.

Any missing fields are simply skipped.

If your class's method names do not match up to the "entries" keys, you can simply alias them by wrapping with another method. For example, if your "DB::BlogPost" has a "post_title" field which should be the title for the feed entry, you can add this to BlogPost.pm:

  sub title { $_[0]->post_title }

XML::Feed

An XML::Feed object.

  $c->stash->{feed} = $xml_feed_obj;

XML::RSS

An XML::RSS object.

  $c->stash->{feed} = $xml_rss_obj;

XML::Atom::SimpleFeed

An XML::Atom::SimpleFeed object.

  $c->stash->{feed} = $xml_atom_simplefeed_obj;

XML::Atom::Feed

An XML::Atom::Feed object.

  $c->stash->{feed} = $xml_atom_feed_obj;

XML::Atom::Syndication::Feed

An XML::Atom::Syndication::Feed object.

  $c->stash->{feed} = $xml_atom_syndication_feed_obj;

Plain text

If none of the formats mentioned above are suitable, you may also provide a string containing the XML data.

  $c->stash->{feed} = $xml_string;

SOURCE REPOSITORY

<http://github.com/mstratman/Catalyst-View-XML-Feed>

AUTHOR

Mark A. Stratman <stratman@gmail.com>

CONTRIBUTORS

Thomas Doran (t0m)

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

This sofware is free software, and is licensed under the same terms as perl itself.