[pm-h] JSON web services server side starting hints

[B. Estrade]

On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 5:12 PM, Michael R. Davis <mrdvt92 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > > I need to set up JSON web services (server side) as a simple interface
> to an existing database infrastructure.  Can anyone recommend any building
> blocks, standards, etc.?
>
> > From: Mark Allen <mrallen1 at yahoo.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2013 12:13 AM
> > http://advent.perldancer.org/2010/8-Writing REST web services with
> Dancer
>
>
> So, I just wanted to follow up on my progress and research.  It was a bit
> frustrating!
>
> Even though REST is not a requirement, I looked into Dancer and it was
> okay but boy was it a lot of research to just get it to work under Apache
> CGI with Plack::Runner.  I also DO NOT like that it's function based.  To
> get there I had to write a session object which returns a lazy
> loading DBIx::Array database handle .  But, overall I did like the
> dispatching (except I kept forgetting the sub is an anonymous sub to
> the function "get" so the "get" function needs a semicolon at the end of
> the anonymous sub block).
>
> Next I'm going to look a the JSON RPC packages on CPAN.  I've attached my
> code here as it really is throwaway at this time.  I hope someone else can
> learn from it.
>


If you are going to run Dancer, I'd suggest nginx. Apache is fine, but if
you're passing the request off, it's better to have a lighter weight httpd
(that also supports SSL) in front of it. For the PSGI server, I'd look at
Starman (coupled potentially with Server::Starter for initialization). And
it's really not unlike CGI::Application, just PSGI compliant and built for
persistence.

If you are not bound to a persistent process, then CGI::Application +
CGI::Application::Dispatch is really nice. There are also tons of plugins,
including Sessions and Authentication.

I do like Dancer, but am not as familiar with it as CGI::Application.
Whatever you use, however, I would recommend committing to "REST" rather
than RPC.

At the end of the day, your API will be much cleaner and you'll end up
writing a lot less code on the backend to handle the requests.  I would
also consider a PSGI compliant framework since it really opens up your
hosting and testing options.

Brett


>
> ---
> My Dancer CGI app,,,
>
> $ cat dancer.cgi
> #!/usr/bin/env perl
> use Plack::Runner;
> Plack::Runner->run('/var/www/cgi-bin/dancer.pl');
>
>
> $ cat dancer.pl
> #/usr/bin/perl
> use strict;
> use warnings;
> use Dancer;
>
> set 'logger'       => 'console';
> set 'show_errors'  => 1;
> set 'warnings'     => 1;
>
> our $session; #cannot set session here at compile time
>
> sub session { #set session at run time
>   return $session||=STOP::Session->new(%{params()});
> }
>
> get '/' => sub {
>   content_type 'text/html';
>   return '<p>Hello World!<p>';
> };
>
> get '/env' => sub {
>   content_type 'text/plain';
>   return join "\n", map {sprintf "%s => %s", $_ => $ENV{$_}} sort keys
> %ENV;
> };
>
> get '/die' => sub {
>   die("Error: die\n");
> };
>
> prefix '/:database/:dag';
>
> #content_type 'application/json';
> content_type 'text/plain';
>
> get '/params' => sub {
>   content_type 'text/plain';
>   return join "\n", map {sprintf "%s => %s", $_ => param($_)} sort keys
> %{params()};
> };
>
> get '/device/:id' => sub {
>   return to_json {
>             device    => scalar({}),
>             id        => param("id"),
>             schematxt => &session->schematxt,
>             date      => &session->sdb->sqlscalar("SELECT SYSDATE FROM
> DUAL"),
>          };
> };
>
> get '/devices' => sub {
>   return to_json {
>            devices =>
> scalar(&session->sdb->sqlarrayhash(&devices_sql(&session->schematxt),
> &session->userid)),
>          };
> };
>
> dance;
>
>
>
> ---
>
> mrdvt92
> _______________________________________________
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> Houston at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/houston
> Website: http://houston.pm.org/
>
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