[Catalyst] Accessing action URIs outside of Catalyst app

[Matt S Trout]

On 8 Jan 2007, at 18:12, Brian Kirkbride wrote:

> Matt S Trout wrote:
>> On 8 Jan 2007, at 16:59, Brian Kirkbride wrote:
>>> Matt S Trout wrote:
>>>> On 3 Jan 2007, at 20:21, Brian Kirkbride wrote:
>>>>> Hello all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there a best practice way to maintain a map of URLs used in  
>>>>> a Catalyst application.  To clarify, I need to map actions to  
>>>>> URLs outside of Catalyst (CRON jobs, Emailers, etc) and won't  
>>>>> have access to $c->uri_for or the $c->dispatcher.
>>>> If you need to do this, your design is broken.
>>>
>>> Perhaps, but I ascribe that to it being in transition :)
>>>
>>>> Step back. Explain what you're trying to achieve.
>>>
>>> Automated emails sent out to users need to provide them with a  
>>> list of different webapp URLs.  These actions are asynchronous  
>>> from the webapp itself.  I have a number of scripts (a few are  
>>> legacy dinosaurs) that need webapp URLs as well.
>>>
>>> If I choose to change /cancel to /account/cancel later on, I'd  
>>> like to do it in one place.  I realize that without parsing the  
>>> controllers' actions I can't expect the outside code to get those  
>>> URLs.  I would also rather not "use MyApp.pm" in simple scripts  
>>> that only need my model logic and a URL, and in some cases I can't.
>> Explain "can't" in a form that doesn't make me feel you've just  
>> completely missed the point of "achieve" and told me what you're  
>> trying (failing) to implement :)
>
> I'd like to routinely send an email to a user telling them to pay  
> for something, including a link to a page in my webapp allowing  
> them to do so.

I just use Catalyst::Engine::JobQueue::POE (or in older apps a script  
that's the moral equivalent) and uri_for for that.

>
>>>
>>> My hope was to configure the URL mapping in a config file, which  
>>> could be accessed by my webapp and outside scripts.  Something  
>>> like this:
>>>
>>> sub cancel : Args(1) : Path($urlmap->{account_cancel}) {
>>>     # action
>>> }
>>>
>>> This, of course, does not work because attributes do not evaluate  
>>> their arguments.  Perhaps my solution is to subclass the  
>>> Dispatcher to allow for:
>>>
>>> sub cancel : Args(1) : FromURLMap('account_cancel') {
>>>     # action
>>> }
>>>
>>> That wouldn't be too hard.  Thoughts?
>> Yeah, Catalyst already has an implementation for this -
>> package MyApp::Controller::Foo;
>> ...
>> sub cancel :Action :Args(1) { ... }
>> then in myapp.conf
>> <Controller Foo>
>>   <Action cancel>
>>     Path /cancel
>>   </Action>
>> </Controller>
>> You can apply any attribute like that, although setting Args or  
>> similar from the config file might be considered unwise.
>
> Perfect, I had missed that this type of URL to action mapping was  
> possible with the :Action attribute.  I have no interest in placing  
> Args or other attributes in the config.  This should work fine for me.

:Action isn't -required-, you just need at least one  
attribute. :Action is the long-standing traditional no-op attribute  
(:Private isn't valid with any other attrs) so I tend to add it to  
all of them so if I delete the :Args for whatever reason or don't  
have one in the first place things don't go batshit on me :)

-- 
Matt S Trout, Technical Director, Shadowcat Systems Ltd.
Offering custom development, consultancy and support contracts for  
Catalyst,
DBIx::Class and BAST. Contact mst (at) shadowcatsystems.co.uk for  
details.
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