[Melbourne-pm] Perl web application framework recommendations

[Tim Hunt]

If you're looking at Template Toolkit, don't ignore HTML::Mason ( 
http://www.masonhq.com ) used by Monash Uni's portal, Amazon.com and 
other fine sites.

Features abound, and are explained on the web site.

For your data management you might look at Alzabo - "A data modeling 
tool and RDBMS-OO mapper" -  ( http://www.alzabo.org ), written by one 
of the core Mason maintainers.  I have not looked at this, but know that 
it uses Mason as its GUI, so there must be some synergy.

Hope this helps,
Tim.

David Dick wrote:
>>
>> OK. Working through that tells me that what I am really looking for is a
>> framework with the following features:
>>
>> * abstract "authentication" and session support.
>> * simple, and extensible, mapping of HTTP requests to Perl module calls.
>> * hooks into Template::Toolkit, or a similar template engine, for output.
>>
>> I would also like, but can reasonably easily supply externally:
>>
>> * simple, and extensible, database wrapper generation.
>> * simple workflow management (create/update/search/display/delete)
>>
>> I also have one hard requirement, which is to be able to get the
>> database abstraction layer to provide a *nice* interface to maintaining
>> an ordered set of objects - the sequence of text "steps" associated with
>> producing mixed drinks, specifically.
> 
> 
> Another possibility that comes to mind is rolling your framework out of 
> major structural pieces.  You mention an admiration for Class::DBI, a 
> perl.com article discusses mixing Class::DBI and Template Toolkit in a 
> favourable light at
> 
> http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2003/07/15/nocode.html
> 
> Likewise, CGI::Application is another possiblity that you could roll 
> together with Class::DBI.  You can find it discussed at the following url.
> 
> http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2001/06/05/cgi.html
> 
> I haven't tried either of these approaches myself, so I am unable to 
> offer any practical experience with them, but thought they might be 
> worth mentioning.

-- 

  Tim Hunt
  Senior Portal Developer, Flexible Learning and Teaching Program,
  Information Technology Services, Monash University,
  Victoria 3800, AUSTRALIA