Decoupling HTTP and interface

So I'm building a RESTful server in Perl to run under
Apache2 and
mod_perl 2.  And it occurs to me that my favorite method of
debugging,
perl -d, is not available in this setup, as all the Perl
code is being
executed by Apache and mod_perl, which are setting up their
own
environment that I can't duplicate easily.  So then it
occurs to me
that the better thing to do would be to work out the
behaviour outside
of Apache and mod_perl altogether.  I could then just make
up GET
strings on the command line or whatever.  For Apache's part,
I could
write my mod_perl handlers to call the subs from my text
interface.

So, before I go reinventing the wheel, has anyone done this
already?
Is there some code out there already that I can integrate
into this
project?

KP

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On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:08:04 -0500
"Kit Peters" <popefelixgmail.com> wrote:

> So I'm building a RESTful server in Perl to run under
Apache2 and
> mod_perl 2.  And it occurs to me that my favorite
method of debugging,
> perl -d, is not available in this setup, as all the
Perl code is being
> executed by Apache and mod_perl, which are setting up
their own
> environment that I can't duplicate easily.  So then it
occurs to me
> that the better thing to do would be to work out the
behaviour outside
> of Apache and mod_perl altogether.  I could then just
make up GET
> strings on the command line or whatever.  For Apache's
part, I could
> write my mod_perl handlers to call the subs from my
text interface.
> 
> So, before I go reinventing the wheel, has anyone done
this already?
> Is there some code out there already that I can
integrate into this
> project?

  You can use Apache:B from
CPAN to allow you to do debugging
  on a mod_perl process.  I happen to be the maintainer of
that
  module these days, so let me know if you have any
problems. ( FYI
  it doesn't work with Perl 5.10 yet, I haven't had a chance
to
  sort out the bugs ). 

  One bit of advice however, make sure you run httpd -X so
that
  every browser request goes to the same backend of you'll
drive
  yourself nuts. 

  But yes, in general you want to use a framework like
Catalyst,
  Jifty, Gantry, etc. which do a lot more for you than just
  make debugging a bit easier. 

 -------------------------------------------------------
   Frank Wiles, Revolution Systems, LLC. 
     Personal : frankwiles.org  http://www.wiles.org
     Work     : frankrevsys.com http://www.revsys.com 

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Kit Peters wrote:
> So I'm building a RESTful server in Perl to run under
Apache2 and
> mod_perl 2.  And it occurs to me that my favorite
method of debugging,
> perl -d, is not available in this setup, 

I'm the 3rd vote for Catalyst.

In Catalyst, you devel everything using the awesome
"dev server," which 
is built into Catalyst and can be run using the command-line
perl 
debugger (-d) anytime you want. Then when you're ready to
roll to 
production you run the same code, but under mod_perl/Apache
instead (or 
fastCGI/Apache or fastCGI/lightHTTPD, or other options).

This is how we do web stuff nowadays.  

j


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