The second beta of Embperl 2.0 is now available from ftp://ftp.dev.ecos.de/pub/perl/embperl/HTML-Embperl-2.0b2.tar.gz The main news are the support for interactive debuggers and the possibility to use different syntaxes (Embperl, SSI, ASP, pure Perl, Text only etc.) along with various bugfixes. Embperl is a system for building dynamic websites with Perl. It gives you the power to embed Perl code in your HTML documents and the ability to build your Web site out of small reusable objects in an object-oriented style. You can also take advantage of all the usual Perl modules, (including DBI for database access) use their functionality and easily include their output in your web pages. Embperl has several features which are especially useful for creating HTML, including dynamic tables, form field processing, URL escaping/unescaping, session handling, and more. See http://perl.apache.org/embperl/ (english) or http://www.ecos.de/embperl/ (german) for more information. For all Embperl 1.x users here is a sumary of the difference of Embperl 2.0: Hints for using Embperl 2.x --------------------------- Embperl 2 has a totaly rewritten core. It contains nearly 7500 lines new (mostly C-) code. Also I have done a lot of testing, there may be still undiscovered bugs! Please report any weired behaviour to the embperl mailing list, but be sure to read this whole README to understand what can't work so far. The Embperl core now works in a totaly different way. It is divided into smaller steps: 1 reading the source 2 parseing 3 compiling 4 executing 5 outputing Further version will allow to replace every single step of this pipeline with custom modules. Also it will be possible to cascade multiple processors. This allows for example to have Embperl and SSI in one file and to parse the file only once, feeding it first to the SSI processor and afterwards to the Embperl processor. Also the parser will be exchangeable in future version to allow for example to use an XML parser and an XSLT stylesheet processor. These new execution scheme is also faster, because html tags and metacommands are parsed only once (Perl code was also (and is still) cached in 1.x) My first benchmarks show 50%-100% faster execution under mod_perl for pages longer then 20K (For short pages ( < 5K ouput) you won't see such a great difference) and without any external database access. Another new feature is that the syntax of the Embperl parser is defined within the module HTML::Embperl::Syntax and can be modified as nessecary. Embperl comes with a set syntax definitons which can be extened modified by the user. So far there are syntaxdefinitions for SSI, Text only, Perl only, ASP and a Mail taglib. You can tell Embperl which syntax to use either in the configuration via EMBPERL_SYNTAX, or with the syntax parameter of Execute or you change the syntax dynamicly inside the page via the [$syntax $] command. You also could specify more then one syntax at the same time e.g. [$syntax Embperl SSI $] to mix Embperl tags and SSI tags in the same page. If you like to create your own syntax read perldoc HTML::Embperl::Syntax and look at the files under Embperl/Syntax/ for examples how to do it. Also new is the possibility to cache (parts of) the output. See for the new configuration directives below Debugging --------- Starting with 2.0b2 Embperl files can debugged via the interavtive debugger. The debugger shows the Embperl page source along with the correct linenumbers. You can do anything you can do inside a normal Perl programm via the debugger, e.g. show variables, modify variables, single step, set breakpoints etc. You can use the Perl interacive command line debugger via perl -d embpexec.pl file.epl or if you prefer a graphical debugger, try ddd (http://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/) it's a great tool, also for debugging any other perl script: ddd --debugger 'perl -d embpexec.pl file.epl' NOTE: embpexec.pl could be found in the Embperl source directory If you want to debug your pages, while running under mod_perl, Apache::DB is the right thing. Apache::DB is available from CPAN. The following difference to Embperl 1.x apply: ------------------------------------------------------ - The following options can currently only set from the httpd.conf: optRawInput, optKeepSpaces - The following options are currently not supported: optDisableHtmlScan, optDisableTableScan, optDisableInputScan, optDisableMetaScan optDisableHtmlScan can be replaced by switching the syntax e.g. [$syntax EmbperlBlocks $] # same as [- $optDisableHtmlScan = 1 -] here goes your code, Embperl will not interpret any html tags here [$syntax Embperl $] # same as [- $optDisableHtmlScan = 0 -] - Nesting must be properly. I.e. you cannot put a <table> tag (for an dynamic table) inside an if and the </table> inside another if. (That still works for static tables) - optUndefToEmptyValue is always set and cannot be disabled. - [$ foreach $x (@x) $] requires now the brackets around the array (like Perl) - [+ +] blocks must now contain a valid Perl expression. Embperl 1.x allows you to put multiple statements into such a block. For performance reasons this is not possible anymore. Also the expression must _not_ terminated with a semikolon. To let old code work, just wrap it into a do e.g. [+ do { my $a = $b + 5 ; $a } +] The following things are not fully tested/working yet: ------------------------------------------------------ - [- exit -] - safe namespaces Embperl 1.x compatibility flag ------------------------------ If you don't have a separate computer to make the test setup, you can include PerlSetEnv EMBPERL_EP1COMPAT 1 at the top level of your httpd.conf, then Embperl will behave just the same like Embperl 1.3b7. In the directories where you make your tests, you include a PerlSetEnv EMBPERL_EP1COMPAT 0 to enable the new engine. but _DON'T_ use this one a production machine. While this compatibility mode is tested and shows no problems for me, it's not so hard tested as 1.3b7 itself! Addtional Config directives --------------------------- Caching parameter ----------------- execute parameter / httpd.conf environment variable / name inside page (must set inside [! !]) cache_key / EMBPERL_CACHE_KEY / $CACHE_KEY literal string that is appended to the cache key cache_key_options / EMBPERL_CACHE_KEY_OPTIONS / $CACHE_KEY_OPTIONS ckoptCarryOver = 1, use result from CacheKeyFunc of preivious step if any ckoptPathInfo = 2, include the PathInfo into CacheKey ckoptQueryInfo = 4, include the QueryInfo into CacheKey ckoptDontCachePost = 8, don't cache POST requests (not yet implemented) Default: all options set expired_func / EMBPERL_EXPIRES_FUNC / &EXPIRES function that should be called when build a cache key. The result is appended to the cache key. cache_key_func / EMBPERL_CACHE_KEY_FUNC / &CACHE_KEY function that is called everytime before data is taken from the cache. If this funtion returns true, the data from the cache isn't used anymore, but rebuild. Function could be either a coderef (when passed to Execute), a name of a subroutine or a string starting with "sub " in which case it is compiled as anoymous subroutine. expires_in / EMBPERL_EXPIRES_IN / $EXPIRES Time in seconds that the output schould be cached. (0 = never, -1 = forever) Syntax switching ---------------- syntax / EMBPERL_SYNTAX / [$ syntax $] Used to tell Embperl which syntax to use inside a page. Embperl comes with the following syntaxes: - EmbperlHTML # all the HTML tag that Embperl recognizes by default - EmbperlBlocks # all the [ ] blocks that Embperl supports - Embperl # (default; contains EmbperlHtml and EmbperlBlocks) - ASP # <% %> and <%= %>, see perldoc HTML::Embperl::Syntax::ASP - SSI # Server Side Includes, see perldoc HTML::Embperl::Syntax::SSI - Perl # File contains pure Perl (similar to Apache::Registry), but # can be used inside EmbperlObject - Text # File contains only Text, no actions is taken on the Text - Mail # Defines the <mail:send> tag, for sending mail. This is an # example for a taglib, which could be a base for writing # your own taglib to extent the number of available tags You can get a description for each syntax if you type perldoc HTML::Embperl::Syntax::xxx where xxx is the name of the syntax. You can also specify multiple syntaxes e.g. PerlSetEnv EMBPERL_SYNTAX "Embperl SSI" Execute ({inputfile => '*', syntax => 'Embperl ASP'}) ; The syntax metacommand allows to switch the syntax or to add or subtract syntaxes e.g. [$ syntax + Mail $] will add the Mail taglib so the <mail:send> tag is available after this line. [$ syntax - Mail $] now the <mail:send> tag is unknown again [$ syntax SSI $] now you can only use SSI commands inside your page. ------------------- Changes since 2.0b1: - Embperl files can now debugged via the interavtive debugger. The debugger shows the Embperl page source along with the correct linenumbers. This works in various ways: # perl interacive command line debugger perl -d embpexec.pl file.epl # ddd graphical debugger (http://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/) ddd --debugger 'perl -d embpexec.pl file.epl' or via Apache::DB under mod_perl - Embperl has now a defined API for creating/adding a new syntax. See perldoc HTML::Embperl::Syntax for details. - Which syntax (also multiple at the same time) a given page uses can be defined via EMBPERL_SYNTAX configuration directive. - Added Syntax definitions for SSI, Perl and plain Text - New [$ syntax $] metacommand can switch the syntax of the file on the fly. It's also usefull to load addtional taglibs. - print OUT works again - HTML comments are not touched anymore - Embperl doesn't log a warning if a undefined value is in %ENV and dbgEnv is on. - 2.0b2 now contains all contains all changes up to 1.3.2 . Enjoy Gerald ------------------------------------------------------------- Gerald Richter ecos electronic communication services gmbh Internetconnect * Webserver/-design/-datenbanken * Consulting Post: Tulpenstrasse 5 D-55276 Dienheim b. 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