Apache::Wyrd 0.94

Apache::Wyrd is a Perl module for HTML embeddable perl objects under mod_perl.

Apache::Wyrd is the core module in a collection of interoperating modules that allow the rapid object-oriented development of web sites in Apaches mod_perl environment (LAMP). This collection includes a very flexible, HTML-friendly method of defining dynamic items on a web page, and interfacing directly to perl objects with them. It comes with many pre-built objects to support a web site such as an authentication module, an reverse-lookup database, granular debugging, and smart forms/inputs and their interfaces to a DBI-compliant SQL application.

The collection is not meant to be a drop-in replacement for PHP, ColdFusion, or other server-side parsed content creation systems, but to provide a more flexible framework for organic custom perl development for an experienced perl programmer who favors an object-oriented approach. It has been designed to simplify the transition from static to dynamic web content by allowing the design of objects that can be operated by a non-perl programmer through the modification of the HTML page on which the content is to be delivered.

The Apache::Wyrd module itself is an abstract class used to create HTML-embeddable perl objects (Wyrds). The embedded objects are interpreted from HTML files by an instance of the abstract class Apache::Wyrd::Handler. Most Wyrds also require an instance of an Apache::Wyrd::DBL object to store connection information and to provide intermediary access to the Apache request and any DBI-style database interfaces.
Each Wyrd has a corresponding perl module which performs work and generates output at the Wyrds location on the HTML page, if any. Each of these objects is a derived class of Apache::Wyrd, and consequently draws on the existing methods of the abstract class as well as implements methods of its own. A few "hook" methods (_setup, _format_output, and _generate_output in particular) are defined in the abstract class for this purpose.

The modules in this distribution are not meant to be used directly. Instead, instances of the objects are created in another namespace (in all POD synopses called BASENAME, but it can be any string acceptable as a single namespace of a perl class) where the Handler object has been configured to use that namespace in interpreting HTML pages (see Apache::Wyrd::Handler).