[Catalyst] Large static files behind Authorisation

[Ash Berlin]

On 4 Jan 2009, at 08:48, Trevor Phillips wrote:

> I'm working on a Catalyst application, and one of the requirements  
> is to deliver large-ish files to authorised users only. I'm a bit  
> wary about passing through large files in a framework I don't know  
> the intricacies of, since a mishandled large file can explode memory  
> usage of a daemon. However, the usual "let Apache/proxy handle it"  
> solution bypasses the required Authorisation phase.
>
> I'm currently trying to use Catalyst::Plugin::Static::Simple, which  
> has a documented function serve_static_file to serve a static file  
> from a Controller. However, I am getting an error as the TT View is  
> still trying to apply a default template.
>
> Is there an easy way to turn off the TT View, and have the file  
> properly treated as static content in an efficient manner by  
> Static::Simple?
>
> My usual solution to this problem would be to implement  
> Authentication as a mod_perl Access handler over static content, but  
> the host provider won't give access to random mod_perl libs - and  
> I'm quite happy with Catalyst's Auth infrastructure for everything  
> else...
>
> Thanks...
>

(Not terribly useful to you since I guess you are using Apache, but:)  
what I'd do here is make use of Lighttpd's X-SendFile response header: http://blog.lighttpd.net/articles/2006/07/02/x-sendfile

I'm sure nginx has something similar, but as far as I'm aware apache  
doesn't

-ash