[Catalyst] Multiple deployments sharing code, data, and configuration

[Stuart Watt]

In our application, we have two parts - an indexing system that builds a =

set of databases, and a front end based on Catalyst. The issue we are =

facing is that each generated deployment runs almost exactly the same =

code, apart from needing different database references, and maybe a =

little additional Template-Toolkit stuff to provide custom logos, search =

configuration data, etc.

What we ended up doing was using a new environment variable, =

*_SITE_ROOT, which points to an individual site's deployment base; this =

is effectively combined with *_HOME in a search path for TT files and =

for configuration files. On a few rare occasions we also add a local =

deployment lib directory @INC. This means we can maintain all the =

deployments in parallel, even when they contain different data.

The only substantive change we needed was in our subclass of =

Catalyst::Plugin::ConfigLoader, which overrides find_files to try the =

SITE_ROOT directory first, then HOME, for each file previously =

identified - these are generally the config file with and without the =

local suffix. It's the only way we found of achieving a directory level =

separation between the local deployment and the shared code base.

My question: is there an easier/better way to do this? If not, I'd be =

keen to turn this into a patch, and rename stuff where I get better =

suggestions.

All the best
Stuart
-- =

Stuart Watt
ARM Product Developer
Information Balance
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