NAME

       Catalyst::TraitFor::Request::REST::ForBrowsers - A request trait for REST and browsers

SYNOPSIS

           package MyApp;
           use Moose;
           use namespace::autoclean;

           use Catalyst;
           use CatalystX::RoleApplicator;

           extends 'Catalyst';

           __PACKAGE__->apply_request_class_roles(qw[
               Catalyst::TraitFor::Request::REST::ForBrowsers
           ]);

DESCRIPTION

       Writing REST-y apps is a good thing, but if you're also trying to support web browsers, you're probably
       going to need some hackish workarounds. This module provides those workarounds for you.

       Specifically, it lets you do two things. First, it lets you "tunnel" PUT and DELETE requests across a
       POST, since most browsers do not support PUT or DELETE actions (as of early 2009, at least).

       Second, it provides a heuristic to check if the client is a web browser, regardless of what content types
       it claims to accept. The reason for this is that while a browser might claim to accept the
       "application/xml" content type, it's really not going to do anything useful with it, and you're best off
       giving it HTML.

METHODS

       This class provides the following methods:

   $request->method
       This method works just like "Catalyst::Request->method()" except it allows for tunneling of PUT and
       DELETE requests via a POST.

       Specifically, you can provide a form element named "x-tunneled-method" which can override the request
       method for a POST. This only works for a POST, not a GET.

       You can also use a header named "x-http-method-override" instead (Google uses this header for its APIs).

   $request->looks_like_browser
       This attribute provides a heuristic to determine whether or not the request appears to come from a
       browser. You can use this however you want. I usually use it to determine whether or not to give the
       client a full HTML page or some sort of serialized data.

       This is a heuristic, and like any heuristic, it is probably wrong sometimes. Here is how it works:

       •   If the request includes a header "X-Request-With" set to either "HTTP.Request" or "XMLHttpRequest",
           this returns false. The assumption is that if you're doing XHR, you don't want the request treated as
           if it comes from a browser.

       •   If the client makes a GET request with a query string parameter "content-type", and that type is not
           an HTML type, it is not a browser.

       •   If the client provides an Accept header which includes "*/*" as an accepted content type, the client
           is a browser. Specifically, it is IE7, which submits an Accept header of "*/*". IE7's Accept header
           does not include any html types like "text/html".

       •   If the client provides an Accept header and accepts either "text/html" or "application/xhtml+xml" it
           is a browser.

       •   If it provides an Accept header of any sort that doesn't match one of the above criteria, it is not a
           browser.

       •   The default is that the client is a browser.

       This all works well for my apps, but read it carefully to make sure it meets your expectations before
       using it.

AUTHOR

       Dave Rolsky, "<autarch@urth.org>"

BUGS

       Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-catalyst-action-rest@rt.cpan.org", or through the web
       interface at <http://rt.cpan.org>. We will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of
       progress on your bug as I make changes.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

       Copyright 2008-2010 Dave Rolsky, All Rights Reserved.

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