Handlers

However, there can be only one ContentHandler and if any handler installs a ContentHandler that will override the old ContentHandler.

If no handler installs a ContentHandler it will find the closest one directory wise and use it.

There is also a special StreamHandler which is a coderef that gets invoked if you have turned on streaming by doing $response->streaming(1);

Handlers take the $request and $response objects as arguments.

RC_OK

Everything is ok, please continue processing.

RC_DENY

If it is a TransHandler, stop translation handling and carry on with a PreHandler, if it is a PostHandler do nothing, else return denied to the client.

RC_WAIT

This is a special handler that suspends the execution of the handlers. They will be suspended until $response->continue() is called, this is usefull if you want to do a long request and not blocck.

The following handlers are available.

TransHandler

TransHandlers are run before the URI has been resolved, giving them a chance to change the URI. They can therefore not be registred per directory.

    new(TransHandler => [ sub {return RC_OK} ]);
    

A TransHandler can stop the dispatching of TransHandlers and jump to the next handler type by specifing RC_DENY;

PreHandler

PreHandlers are stacked by directory and run after TransHandler but before the ContentHandler. They can change ContentHandler (but beware, other PreHandlers might also change it) and push on PostHandlers.

    new(PreHandler => { '/' => [sub {}], '/foo/' => [\&foo]});
    

ContentHandler

The handler that is supposed to give the content. When this handler returns it will send the response object to the client. It will automaticly add Content-Length and Date if these are not set. If the response is streaming it will make sure the correct headers are set. It will also expand any cookies which have been pushed onto the response object.

    new(ContentHandler => { '/' => sub {}, '/foo/' => \&foo});
    

ErrorHandler

This handler is called when there is a read or write error on the socket. This is most likely caused by the remote side closing the connection. $resquest->is_error and $response->is_error will return true. Note that "PostHanlder" will still called, but "TransHandler" and "PreHandler" won't be. It is a map to coderefs just like ContentHandler is.

PostHandler

These handlers are run after the socket has been flushed.

    new(PostHandler => { '/' => [sub {}], '/foo/' => [\&foo]});
    

StreamHandler

If you turn on streaming in any other handler, the request is placed in streaming mode. This handler is called, with the usual parameters, when streaming mode is first entered, and subsequently when each block of data is flushed to the client.

Streaming mode is turned on via the $response object:

    $response->streaming(1);
    

You deactivate streaming mode with the same object:

    $response->close;
    

Content is also sent to the client via the $response object:

    $response->send($somedata);
    

The output filter is set to POE::Filter::Stream, which passes the data through unchanged. If you are doing a multipart/mixed response, you will have to set up your own headers.

Example:

    sub new {
        .....
        POE::Component::Filter::HTTP->new(
                 ContentHandler => { '/someurl' => sub { $self->someurl(@_) },
                 StreamHandler  => sub { $self->stream(@_),
            );
    }

    sub someurl {
        my($self, $resquest, $response)=@_;
        $self->{todo} = [ .... ];
        $response->streaming(1);
        $response->code(RC_OK);         # you must set up your response header
        $response->content_type(...);

        return RC_OK;
    }

    sub stream {
        my($self, $resquest, $response)=@_;

        if( @{$self->{todo}} ) {
            $response->send(shift @{$self->{todo}});
        }
        else {
            $response->close;
        }
    }
    

Another example can be found in t/30_stream.t. The parts dealing with multipart/mixed are well documented and at the end of the file.

NOTE: Changes in streaming mode are only verified when StreamHandler exits. So you must either turn streaming off in your StreamHandler, or make sure that the StreamHandler will be called again. This last is done by sending data to the client. If for some reason you have no data to send, you can get the same result with "continue". Remember that this will also cause the StreamHandler to be called one more time.

    my $aliases=POE::Component::Filter::HTTP->new( ....);

    # and then, when the end of the stream in met
    $response->close;
    $response->continue;
    

NOTE: even when the stream ends, the client connection will be held open if Keepalive is active. To force the connection closed, set the Connection header to close:

    $resquest->header(Connection => 'close');
    

This might be a bug. Are there any cases where we'd want to keep the connection open after a stream?