It simplifies and standardizes the way a plugin can be built for CGI::Application, and it works completely outside of the CGI::Application codebase (ie no patches necesary). It avoids the annoyances of building a big inheritance tree for the plugins you want to use by copying a given set of methods into the callers namespace. No exporting or name space munging needs to be done by the plugin modules, as this is done automatically.
Thanks for contributing this. I'm not sure I "get it", though. It looks
like you have re-invented a way for some methods in a plugin module to
be exported, while others are not.
Without this framework, CGI::App::Session worked fine and was as easy to
use as I hoped a plug-in would be. What's the additional value that this
framework provides over the techniques used for that?
You are correct in seeing that CGI::Application::Session does not gain any new and magical functionality by using the plugin module. The users of the module won't notice any difference.
What this does provide though is a standardized mechanism for building plugins for CGI::Application. Currently it is up to the plugin author to decide how to deal with the implementation. Here are some of the methods that are currently being used:
- CGI::Application::Session uses a 'package CGI::Application;' directive in the code that writes several methods directly into the CGI::Application namespace (ugly)
- CGI::Application::TT (not yet released, but previewed) uses the old inheritance trick (only practical when using a small number of plugin modules)
- CGI::Application::ValidateRM uses Exporter to export it's methods (Works)
So there are three plugin modules that each accomplish the same task in a different way. The task is to get some methods added to the class that is using the plugin.
All the C::A::Plugin module does is try to provide a standard method of writing a plugin class for CGI::App, and it does it in a way that makes it very easy for the plugin writer (no need to worry about namespaces or using Exporter, it is all handled for you).
So the benefit is for the plugin writer, not the plugin user.
Cheers,
Cees
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