Path::Dispatcher(3)

NAME
Path::Dispatcher - Flexible and extensible dispatch

VERSION
version 1.08

SYNOPSIS
    use Path::Dispatcher;
    my $dispatcher = Path::Dispatcher->new;

    $dispatcher->add_rule(
        Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Regex->new(
            regex => qr{^/(foo)/},
            block => sub { warn shift->pos(1); },
        )
    );

    $dispatcher->add_rule(
        Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Tokens->new(
            tokens    => ['ticket', 'delete', qr/^\d+$/],
            delimiter => '/',
            block     => sub { delete_ticket(shift->pos(3)) },
        )
    );

    my $dispatch = $dispatcher->dispatch("/foo/bar");
    die "404" unless $dispatch->has_matches;
    $dispatch->run;

DESCRIPTION
We really like Jifty::Dispatcher and wanted to use it for Prophet's command line.

The basic operation is that of dispatch. Dispatch takes a path and a list of rules, and it returns a list of matches. From there you can "run" the rules that matched. These phases are distinct so that, if you need to, you can inspect which rules were matched without ever running their codeblocks.

Tab completion support is also available (see in particular "How can I configure tab completion for shells?" in Path::Dispatcher::Cookbook) for the dispatchers you write.

Each rule may take a variety of different forms (which I think justifies the "flexible" adjective in the module's description). Some of the rule types are:

Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Regex
    Matches the path against a regular expression.

Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Enum
    Match one of a set of strings.

Path::Dispatcher::Rule::CodeRef
    Execute a coderef to determine whether the path matches the rule. So you can do anything you like. Though writing a domain-specific rule (see below) will enable better introspection and encoding intent.

Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Dispatch
    Use another Path::Dispatcher to match the path. This facilitates both extending dispatchers (a bit like subclassing) and delegating to plugins.

Since Path::Dispatcher is designed with good object-oriented programming practices, you can also write your own domain-specific rule classes (which earns it the "extensible" adjective). For example, in Prophet, we have a custom rule for matching, and tab completing, record IDs.

You may want to use Path::Dispatcher::Declarative which gives you some sugar inspired by Jifty::Dispatcher.

ATTRIBUTES

  rules
A list of Path::Dispatcher::Rule objects.

METHODS

  add_rule
Adds a Path::Dispatcher::Rule to the end of this dispatcher's rule set.

  dispatch path -> dispatch
Takes a string (the path) and returns a Path::Dispatcher::Dispatch object representing a list of matches (Path::Dispatcher::Match objects).

  run path, args
Dispatches on the path and then invokes the "run" method on the Path::Dispatcher::Dispatch object, for when you don't need to inspect the dispatch.

The args are passed down directly into each rule codeblock. No other args are given to the codeblock.

  complete path -> strings
Given a path, consult each rule for possible completions for the path. This is intended for tab completion. You can use it with Term::ReadLine like so:

    $term->Attribs->{completion_function} = sub {
        my ($last_word, $line, $start) = @_;
        my @matches = map { s/^.* //; $_ } $dispatcher->complete($line);
        return @matches;
    };

This API is experimental and subject to change. In particular I think I want to return an object that resembles Path::Dispatcher::Dispatch.

SEE ALSO

<http://sartak.org/talks/yapc-na-2010/path-dispatcher/>
<http://sartak.org/talks/yapc-asia-2010/evolution-of-path-dispatcher/>
<http://github.com/miyagawa/plack-dispatching-samples>
Jifty::Dispatcher
Catalyst::Dispatcher
Mojolicious::Dispatcher
Path::Router
Router::Simple
<http://github.com/bestpractical/path-dispatcher-debugger> - Not quite ready for release

SUPPORT
Bugs may be submitted through the RT bug tracker <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Path-Dispatcher> (or bug-Path-Dispatcher@rt.cpan.org <mailto:bug-Path-Dispatcher@rt.cpan.org>).

AUTHOR
Shawn M Moore, "<sartak at bestpractical.com>"

CONTRIBUTORS

•   sartak <sartak@e417ac7c-1bcc-0310-8ffa-8f5827389a85>

•   Shawn M Moore <sartak@bestpractical.com>

•   Shawn M Moore <sartak@gmail.com>

•   Karen Etheridge <ether@cpan.org>

•   robertkrimen <robertkrimen@gmail.com>

•   Aaron Trevena <aaron@aarontrevena.co.uk>

•   David Pottage <david@chrestomanci.org>

•   Shawn M Moore <code@sartak.org>

•   Shawn M Moore <shawn.moore@iinteractive.com>

•   Florian Ragwitz <rafl@debian.org>

•   Shawn M Moore <shawn@bestpractical.com>

•   clkao <clkao@e417ac7c-1bcc-0310-8ffa-8f5827389a85>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2020 by Shawn M Moore.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.