NAME
Dancer::Plugin::FlashNote - support notifications in your Dancer web
application
VERSION
version 1.0.3
SYNOPSIS
# In the configuration you choose a "flash style", e.g.
# notifications stored in an array and automatically
# removed from the session when used
plugins:
FlashNote:
queue: multiple
dequeue: when_used
# In the application you generate flash notifications
package MyWebService;
use Dancer;
use Dancer::Plugin::FlashNote;
get '/hello/:id/:who' => sub {
flash 'A first error message'
unless params->{id} =~ /\A\d+\z/mxs;
flash 'A second error message'
unless params->{who} =~ /\A(?: you | me )\z/mxs;
# ...
template 'index';
};
# Then, in the layout you consume them and they are flushed
<% IF flash %>
<ul class="error">
<% FOR notice = flash %>
<li><% notice | html %></li>
<% END %>
</ul>
<% END %>
DESCRIPTION
This plugin helps you display temporary messages, so called "flash
messages". It provides a "flash()" method to define the message. The
plugin then takes care of attaching the content to the session,
propagating it to the templating system, and then removing it from the
session. On the other hand, you still have to take care to find a
suitable place to put the messages.
Dancer::Plugin::FlashMessage
This plugin originages from Dancer::Plugin::FlashMessage by Damien
"dams" Krotkine. While I appreciated the idea and the implementation, I
felt that the way of use did not fit my needs and after some discussion
we decided to go for different modules: he would retain only the one
single behaviour that he thought was the best, and I would implement the
different variations. I learned a lot from the discussion, so beware:
the Dancer people can teach you a lot!
This configuration should give you a behaviour equivalent to
Dancer::Plugin::FlashMessage:
plugins:
FlashNote:
queue: key_single
arguments: single
dequeue: by_key
but if you need it you can probably stick to
Dancer::Plugin::FlashMessage. Also note that with the configuration
above the "flash()" function will not work in the same way as
Dancer::Plugin::FlashMessage when called with only one parameter: in
dams' module this kind of call deletes the value associated to the key,
in this module this just pushes an undef message.
Styles
Dancer::Plugin::FlashNote lets you decide the *style* of how you want to
handle your flash notifications. Different applications - in particular
when the difference is in their size - might need different styles,
e.g.:
* a small application that you want to use in a restricted group of
friends has little needs. In this case, all you probably need is
some way to generate a notification message in your application and
get it written somewhere in the page:
flash 'hey mate, you made an error! Check your inputs'
unless params_are_ok();
* a big application with internationalisation needs a more
sophisticated flash message approach. Generating feedback messages
directly in the controller is not a good idea, especially if you are
giving feedback about wrong values provided by the User and you want
to display these values within your message. In other terms, if you
put this in the controller:
my $value = params->{id};
flash "The id value '$value' is not allowed"
unless $value =~ /\A\d+\z/mxs;
you'll have a hard time to translate the message. The best approach
in this case is to set a message identifier that can possibly select
a template or a string, and provide the parameters:
# In the controller
my $value = params->{id};
flash value_not_allowed => id => $value;
# In the template, probably the layout
<%
FOR note = flash;
type = note.0;
INCLUDE "flash/$lang/$type.tt", note = note;
END;
%>
# flash/en/value_not_allowed.tt
The [% note.1 %] value '[% note.2 | html %]' is not allowed
# flash/it/value_not_allowed.tt
Il parametro [% note.1 %] non ammette il
valore '[% note.2 | html %]'
* an application might want to keep separate "channels" for different
kind of notifications (e.g. warnings, errors, simple info), while
still keeping a list of messages for each channel;
and so forth.
The different needs addressed by this module deal with three areas:
* how flash messages are queued for later usage from the template.
This can be decided through the "queue" configuration, and changes
the semantics of the "flash()" function and how its parameters are
used;
* how multiple parameters to any single call to the "flash()" function
are handled;
* how flash messages are flushed away. Messages are stored in a
session in order to "survive" redirections and be still there when a
template has the occasion to display them, but at that point you can
decide that the module can get rid of them (automatically, of
course).
By default, messages are kept as a plain list in the order they are
queued by the controller, i.e. in the same order of each call to the
"flash()" function. Multiple parameters are simply joined together using
$, (i.e. like "warn()", "die()" etc.) and all the messages are flushed
away after they get the occasion to be displayed.
INTERFACE
flash
# sets the flash message for the warning key
flash warning => 'some warning message';
This method inserts a flash message in the cache. What it puts inside
and in what manner depends on the queueing method, see below "Queueing
Styles". By default, it accepts one or more parameters and they are
queued inside an array as a scalar (in case of one parameter) or as an
array reference.
The method always returns the provided message.
flash_flush
Flush the flash messages.
# flushes the whole flash cache, returning it
my $flash = flash_flush();
# if queuing method is a "key_*", flushes selected keys
my @values = flash_flush(qw( warning error ));
You should not need to use this function if you set a proper dequeue
style and display the messages.
CONFIGURATION
Configurations are used only when the module is loaded, so take care to
place them in a configuration file or before "use"-ing the module.
Configuration Default Values
The module works also without configurations, the following sample
configuration includes all the default values:
plugins:
FlashNote:
token_name: flash
session_hash_key: _flash
queue: multiple
arguments: auto
dequeue: when_used
See the following section for an explanation of the keys.
Options
token_name
The name of the template token that will contain the hash of flash
messages. Default: "flash".
session_hash_key
You probably don't need that, but this setting allows you to change
the name of the session key used to store the hash of flash
messages. It may be useful in the unlikely case where you have key
name conflicts in your session. Default: "_flash".
queue
Sets the queueing style to one of the following allowed values:
- single
- multiple
- key_single
- key_multiple
See "Queueing Styles" below for the details. Default: "multiple".
arguments
Sets how multiple values in a call to "flash" should be handled. The
allowed values for this options are the following:
- single
- join
- auto
- array
See "Multiple Parameters" below for the details. Default: "auto".
dequeue
Sets the dequeueing style to one of the following allowed values:
- never
- always
- when_used
- by_key
See "Dequeueing Styles" below for the details. Default: "when_used".
Queueing Styles
There are various styles for setting flash messages, which are explained
in the following list. The assumption in the documentation is that the
"token_name" configuration is equal to the default "flash", otherwise
you have to substitute "flash" with what you actually set.
The queueing style can be set with the "queue" configuration, with the
following allowed values:
single
flash $message;
this is the simplest style, one single message can be hold at any
time. The following call:
flash 'hey you!';
# ... later on...
flash 'foo! bar!';
will replace any previously set message. In the template, you will
be able to get the latest set value with the "flash" token:
flash => 'foo! bar!'
multiple
flash $message;
flash $other_message;
multiple messages are queued in the same order as they are put. The
following call:
flash 'hey you!';
# ... later on...
flash 'foo! bar!';
will add $message to the queue, and what you get in the template is
a reference to an array containing all the messages:
flash => [
'hey you!',
'foo! bar!',
]
key_single
flash key1 => $message;
flash key2 => $other_message;
you can have messages of different *types* by providing a key, but
only one for each type. For example, you can set a *warning* and an
*error*:
flash warning => 'beware!';
# ... later on...
flash error => 'you made an error...';
# ... and then...
flash warning => 'ouch!';
Any further call to "flash" with an already used key substitutes the
previous message with the new one.
In this case, the "flash" token in the template returns an hash with
the keys you set and the last message introduced for each key:
flash => {
error => 'you made an error...',
warning => 'ouch!',
}
key_multiple
flash key1 => $message;
flash key2 => $other_message;
flash key1 => $yet_another_message; # note key1 again
you can have messages of different *types* by providing a key, and
all of them are saved. In the following example:
flash warning => 'beware!';
# ... later on...
flash error => 'you made an error...';
# ... and then...
flash warning => 'ouch!';
In this case, the "flash" token in the template returns an hash of
arrays, each containing the full queue for the particular key:
flash => {
error => [ 'you made an error...' ],
warning => [
'beware!',
'ouch!'
],
}
In your template:
<% IF flash %>
<ul class="messages">
<% FOR message = flash.pairs %>
<% FOR text = message.value %>
<li class="[% message.key | html %]"><% text | html %></li>
<% END %>
<% END %>
</ul>
<% END %>
Becomes:
<ul class="messages">
<li class="error">you made an error...</li>
<li class="warning">beware!</li>
<li class="warning">ouch!</li>
</ul>
The default queueing style is *multiple*.
Multiple Parameters
The queueing style is not the entire story, anyway. If you provide more
parameters after the $message, this and all the following parameters are
put in an anonymous array and this is set as the new $message. Assuming
the "simple" queueing style, the following call:
flash qw( whatever you want );
actually gives you this in the template token:
flash => [ 'whatever', 'you', 'want' ];
This is useful if you don't want to provide a *message*, but only
parameters to be used in the template to build up a message, which can
be handy if you plan to make translations of your templates. Consider
the case that you have a parameter in a form that does not pass the
validation, and you want to flash a message about it; the simplest case
is to use this:
flash "error in the email parameter: '$input' is not valid"
but this ties you to English. On the other hand, you could call:
flash email => $input;
and then, in the template, put something like this:
error in the <% flash.0 %> parameter: '<% flash.1 %>' is not valid
which lets you handle translations easily, e.g.:
errore nel parametro <% flash.0 %>: '<% flash.1 %>' non valido
If you choose to use this, you might find the "arguments" configuration
handy. Assuming the "multiple" queueing style and the following calls in
the code:
# in the code
flash 'whatever';
flash hey => 'you!';
you can set "arguments" in the following ways:
single
this always ignores parameters after the first one. In the template,
you get:
flash => [
'whatever',
'hey', # 'you!' was ignored
]
join
this merges the parameters using $, before enqueueing the message.
In the example, you get this in the template:
flash => [
'whatever',
'heyyou!', # join with $,
]
auto
this auto-selects the best option, i.e. it puts the single argument
as-is if there is only one, otherwise generates an anonymous array
with all of them. In the template you get:
flash => [
'whatever',
[ 'hey', 'you!' ],
]
array
this always set the array mode, i.e. you get an array also when
there is only one parameter. This is probably your best choice if
you plan to use multiple parameters, because you always get the same
structure in the template:
flash => [
[ 'whatever' ],
[ 'hey', 'you!' ],
]
The default handling style is *auto*.
Dequeueing Styles
When you put a message in the queue, it is kept in the User's session
until it is eventually dequeued. You can control how the message is
deleted from the session with the "dequeue" parameter, with the
following possibilities:
never
items are never deleted automatically, but they will be flushed in
the code by calling "flash_flush()";
always
items are always deleted from the session within the same call.
Technically speaking, using the session in this case is a bit
overkill, because the session is only used as a mean to pass data
from the code to the template;
when_used
items are all deleted when any of them is used in some way from the
template. The underlying semantics here is that if you get the
chance to show a flash message in the template, you can show them
all so they are removed from the session. If for some reason you
don't get this chance (e.g. because you are returning a redirection,
and the template rendering will happen in the next call) the
messages are kept in the session so that you can display them at the
next call that actually makes use of a template;
by_key
this style only applies if the queueing style is either "key_single"
or "key_multiple". It is an extension of the "when_used" case, but
only used keys are deleted and the unused ones are kept in the
session for usage at some later call.
The default dequeuing style is *when_used*.
DEPENDENCIES
Only Dancer and the bundled module Dancer::Plugin.
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
Curious about active bugs or want to report one? The bug tracking system
can be found at
<https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Dancer-Plugin-FlashNo
te>.
SEE ALSO
If you want to contribute, check this module out in GitHub at
<https://github.com/polettix/Dancer-Plugin-FlashNote>.
This module started from Dancer::Plugin::FlashMessage, which is an
excellent module if its flash message style suits to your needs. You
surely recognised that some small parts of this documentation come from
there.
And Dancer, of course!
AUTHOR
Flavio Poletti <polettix@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2011 by Flavio Poletti polettix@cpan.org.
This module is free software. You can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.