Provided by: libdancer2-perl_0.166001+dfsg-1_all 
NAME
Dancer2::Manual::Migration - Migrating from Dancer to Dancer2
VERSION
version 0.166001
Migration from Dancer 1 to Dancer2
This document covers some changes that users will need to be aware of while upgrading from Dancer
(version 1) to Dancer2.
Launcher script
The default launcher script bin/app.pl in Dancer looked like this:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use Dancer;
use MyApp;
dance;
In Dancer2 it is available as bin/app.psgi and looks like this:
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use FindBin;
use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";
use MyApp;
MyApp->to_app;
So you need to remove the "use Dancer;" part, replace the "dance;" command by "MyApp->to_app;" (where
MyApp is the name of your application), and add the following lines:
use strict;
use warnings;
use FindBin;
use lib "$FindBin::Bin/../lib";
There is a Dancer Advent Calendar <http://advent.perldancer.org> article covering the "to_app" keyword
<http://advent.perldancer.org/2014/9> and its usage.
Configuration
You specify a different location to the directory used for serving static (public) content by setting the
"public_dir" option. In that case, you have to set "static_handler" option also.
Apps
1. In Dancer2, each module is a separate application with its own namespace and variables. You can set
the application name in each of your Dancer2 application modules. Different modules can be tied into the
same app by setting the application name to the same value.
For example, to set the appname directive explicitly:
"MyApp":
package MyApp;
use Dancer2;
use MyApp::Admin
hook before => sub {
var db => 'Users';
};
get '/' => sub {...};
1;
"MyApp::Admin":
package MyApp::Admin;
use Dancer2 appname => 'MyApp';
# use a lexical prefix so we don't override it globally
prefix '/admin' => sub {
get '/' => sub {...};
};
1;
Without the appname directive, "MyApp::Admin" would not have access to variable "db". In fact, when
accessing "/admin", the before hook would not be executed.
See Dancer2::Cookbook <https://metacpan.org/pod/Dancer2::Cookbook#Using-the-prefix-feature-to-split-your-
application> for details.
2. The following modules can be used to speed up an app in Dancer2:
• URL::Encode::XS
• CGI::Deurl::XS
• HTTP::Parser::XS
• Scope::Upper
They would need to be installed separately. This is because Dancer2 does not incorporate any C code, but
it can get C-code compiled as a module. Thus, these modules can be used for speed improvement provided:
• You have access to a C interpreter
• You don't need to fatpack your application
Request
The request object (Dancer2::Core::Request) is now deferring much of its code to Plack::Request to be
consistent with the known interface to PSGI requests.
Currently the following attributes pass directly to Plack::Request:
"address", "remote_host", "protocol", "port", "method", "user", "request_uri", "script_name",
"content_length", "content_type", "content_encoding", "referer", and "user_agent".
If previous attributes returned undef for no value beforehand, they will return whatever Plack::Request
defines now, which just might be an empty list.
For example:
my %data = (
referer => request->referer,
user_agent => request->user_agent,
);
should be replaced by:
my %data = (
referer => request->referer || '',
user_agent => request->user_agent || '',
);
Plugins: plugin_setting
"plugin_setting" returns the configuration of the plugin. It can only be called in "register" or
"on_plugin_import".
Routes
Dancer2 requires all routes defined via a string to begin with a leading slash "/".
For example:
get '0' => sub {
return "not gonna fly";
};
would return an error. The correct way to write this would be to use "get '/0'"
Route parameters
The "params" keyword which provides merged parameters used to allow body parameters to override route
parameters. Now route parameters take precedence over query parameters and body parameters.
Tests
Dancer2 recommends the use of Plack::Test.
For example:
use strict;
use warnings;
use Test::More tests => 2;
use Plack::Test;
use HTTP::Request::Common;
{
package App::Test; # or whatever you want to call it
get '/' => sub { template 'index' };
}
my $test = Plack::Test->create( App::Test->to_app );
my $res = $test->request( GET '/' );
ok( $res->is_success, '[GET /] Successful' );
like( $res->content, qr{<title>Test2</title>}, 'Correct title' );
Other modules that could be used for testing are:
• Test::TCP
• Test::WWW::Mechanize::PSGI
Logs
The "logger_format" in the Logger role (Dancer2::Core::Role::Logger) is now "log_format".
"read_logs" can no longer be used, as with Dancer2::Test. Instead, Dancer2::Logger::Capture could be used
for testing, to capture all logs to an object.
For example:
use strict;
use warnings;
use Test::More import => ['!pass'];
use Plack::Test;
use HTTP::Request::Common;
{
package App;
use Dancer2;
set log => 'debug';
set logger => 'capture';
get '/' => sub {
debug 'this is my debug message';
return 1;
};
}
my $app = Dancer2->psgi_app;
is( ref $app, 'CODE', 'Got app' );
test_psgi $app, sub {
my $cb = shift;
my $res = $cb->( GET '/' );
is $res->code, 200;
my $trap = App->dancer_app->logger_engine->trapper;
is_deeply $trap->read, [
{ level => 'debug', message => 'this is my debug message' }
];
};
Exports: Tags
The following tags are not needed in Dancer2:
use Dancer2 qw(:syntax);
use Dancer2 qw(:tests);
use Dancer2 qw(:script);
The "plackup" command should be used instead. It provides a development server and reads the
configuration options in your command line utilities.
Engines
• Engines receive a logging callback
Engines now receive a logging callback named "log_cb". Engines can use it to log anything in run-
time, without having to worry about what logging engine is used.
This is provided as a callback because the logger might be changed in run-time and we want engines to
be able to always reach the current one without having a reference back to the core application
object.
The logger engine doesn't have the attribute since it is the logger itself.
• Engines handle encoding consistently
All engines are now expected to handle encoding on their own. User code is expected to be in internal
Perl representation.
Therefore, all serializers, for example, should deserialize to the Perl representation. Templates, in
turn, encode to UTF-8 if requested by the user, or by default.
One side-effect of this is that "from_yaml" will call YAML's "Load" function with decoded input.
Serializers
You no longer need to implement the "loaded" method. It is simply unnecessary.
Sessions
Now the Simple session engine is turned on by default, unless you specify a different one.
Configuration
warnings
The "warnings" configuration option, along with the environment variable "DANCER_WARNINGS", have been
removed and have no effect whatsoever.
They were added when someone requested to be able to load Dancer without the warnings pragma, which it
adds, just like Moose, Moo, and other modules provide.
If you want this to happen now (which you probably shouldn't be doing), you can always control it
lexically:
use Dancer2;
no warnings;
You can also use Dancer2 within a narrower scope:
{ use Dancer2 }
use strict;
# warnings are not turned on
However, having warnings turned it is very recommended.
server_tokens
The configuration "server_tokens" has been introduced in the reverse (but more sensible, and Plack-
compatible) form as "no_server_tokens".
"DANCER_SERVER_TOKENS" changed to "DANCER_NO_SERVER_TOKENS".
engines
If you want to use Template::Toolkit instead of the built-in simple templating engine you used to enable
the following line in the config.yml file.
template: "template_toolkit"
That was enough to get started. The start_tag and end_tag it used were the same as in the simple template
<% and %> respectively.
If you wanted to further customize the Template::Toolkit you could also enable or add the following:
engines:
template_toolkit:
encoding: 'utf8'
start_tag: '[%'
end_tag: '%]'
In Dancer 2 you can also enable Template::Toolkit with the same configuration option:
template: "template_toolkit"
But the default start_tag and end_tag are now [% and %], so if you used the default in Dancer 1 now you
will have to explicitly change the start_tag and end_tag values. The configuration also got an extral
level of depth. Under the "engine" key there is a "template" key and the "template_toolkit" key comes
below that. As in this example:
engines:
template:
template_toolkit:
start_tag: '<%'
end_tag: '%>'
In a nutshell, if you used to have
template: "template_toolkit"
You need to replace it with
template: "template_toolkit"
engines:
template:
template_toolkit:
start_tag: '<%'
end_tag: '%>'
Session engine
The session engine is configured in the "engine" section.
• "session_name" changed to "cookie_name".
• "session_domain" changed to "cookie_domain".
• "session_expires" changed to "cookie_duration".
• "session_secure" changed to "is_secure".
• "session_is_http_only" changed to "is_http_only".
Dancer2 also adds two attributes for session:
• "cookie_path" The path of the cookie to create for storing the session key. Defaults to "/".
• "session_duration" Duration in seconds before sessions should expire, regardless of cookie
expiration. If set, then SessionFactories should use this to enforce a limit on session validity.
See Dancer2::Core::Role::SessionFactory for more detailed documentation for these options, or the
particular session engine for other supported options.
session: Simple
engines:
session:
Simple:
cookie_name: dance.set
cookie_duration: '24 hours'
is_secure: 1
is_http_only: 1
Keywords
load
This keyword is no longer required. Dancer2 loads the environment automatically and will not reload any
other environment when called with load. (It's a good thing.)
param_array
This keyword doesn't exist in Dancer2.
session
In Dancer a session was created and a cookie was sent just by rendering a page using the "template"
function. In Dancer2 one needs to actully set a value in a session object using the "session" function in
order to create the session and send the cookie.
The session keyword has multiple states:
• No arguments
Without any arguments, the session keyword returns a Dancer2::Core::Session object, which has methods
for read, write, and delete.
my $session = session;
$session->read($key);
$session->write( $key => $value );
$session->delete($key);
• Single argument (key)
If a single argument is provided, it is treated as the key, and it will retrieve the value for it.
my $value = session $key;
• Two arguments (key, value)
If two arguments are provided, they are treated as a key and a value, in which case the session will
assign the value to the key.
session $key => $value;
• Two arguments (key, undef)
If two arguments are provided, but the second is undef, the key will be deleted from the session.
session $key => undef;
In Dancer 1 it wasn't possible to delete a key, but in Dancer2 we can finally delete:
# these two are equivalent
session $key => undef;
my $session = session;
$session->delete($key);
AUTHOR
Dancer Core Developers
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2015 by Alexis Sukrieh.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5
programming language system itself.
perl v5.22.1 2016-02-13 Dancer2::Manual::Migration(3pm)