Plack::Middleware(3)

NAME
Plack::Middleware - Base class for easy-to-use PSGI middleware

SYNOPSIS
  package Plack::Middleware::Foo;
  use parent qw( Plack::Middleware );

  sub call {
      my($self, $env) = @_;
      # Do something with $env

      # $self->app is the original app
      my $res = $self->app->($env);

      # Do something with $res
      return $res;
  }

  # then in app.psgi
  use Plack::Builder;

  my $app = sub { ... } # as usual

  builder {
      enable "Plack::Middleware::Foo";
      enable "Plack::Middleware::Bar", %options;
      $app;
  };

DESCRIPTION
Plack::Middleware is a utility base class to write PSGI middleware. All you have to do is to inherit from Plack::Middleware and then implement the callback "call" method (or the "to_app" method that would return the PSGI code reference) to do the actual work. You can use "$self->app" to call the original (wrapped) application.

Your middleware object is created at the PSGI application compile time and is persistent during the web server life cycle (unless it is a non-persistent environment such as CGI), so you should never set or cache per-request data like $env in your middleware object. See also "OBJECT LIFECYCLE" in Plack::Component.

See Plack::Builder how to actually enable middleware in your .psgi application file using the DSL. If you do not like our builder DSL, you can also use the "wrap" method to wrap your application with a middleware:

  use Plack::Middleware::Foo;

  my $app = sub { ... };
  $app = Plack::Middleware::Foo->wrap($app, %options);
  $app = Plack::Middleware::Bar->wrap($app, %options);

RESPONSE CALLBACK
The typical middleware is written like this:

  package Plack::Middleware::Something;
  use parent qw(Plack::Middleware);

  sub call {
      my($self, $env) = @_;
      # pre-processing $env
      my $res = $self->app->($env);
      # post-processing $res
      return $res;
  }

The tricky thing about post-processing the response is that it could either be an immediate 3 element array ref, or a code reference that implements the delayed (streaming) interface.

Dealing with these two types of response in each piece of middleware is pointless, so you're recommended to use the "response_cb" wrapper function in Plack::Util when implementing a post processing middleware.

  sub call {
      my($self, $env) = @_;
      # pre-processing $env
      my $res = $self->app->($env);

      return Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
          my $res = shift;
          # do something with $res;
      });
  }

The callback function gets a response as an array reference, and you can update the reference to implement the post-processing. In the normal case, this arrayref will have three elements (as described by the PSGI spec), but will have only two elements when using a $writer as described below.

  package Plack::Middleware::Always500;
  use parent qw(Plack::Middleware);
  use Plack::Util;

  sub call {
      my($self, $env) = @_;
      my $res  = $self->app->($env);
      return Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
          my $res = shift;
          $res->[0] = 500;
          return;
      });
  }

In this example, the callback gets the $res and updates its first element (status code) to 500. Using "response_cb" makes sure that this works with the delayed response too.

You're not required (and not recommended either) to return a new array reference - they will be simply ignored. You're suggested to explicitly return, unless you fiddle with the content filter callback (see below).

Similarly, note that you have to keep the $res reference when you swap the entire response.

  Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
      my $res = shift;
      $res = [ $new_status, $new_headers, $new_body ]; # THIS DOES NOT WORK
      return;
  });

This does not work, since assigning a new anonymous array to $res doesn't update the original PSGI response value. You should instead do:

  Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
      my $res = shift;
      @$res = ($new_status, $new_headers, $new_body); # THIS WORKS
      return;
  });

The third element of the response array ref is a body, and it could be either an arrayref or IO::Handle-ish object. The application could also make use of the $writer object if "psgi.streaming" is in effect, and in this case, the third element will not exist ("@$res == 2"). Dealing with these variants is again really painful, and "response_cb" can take care of that too, by allowing you to return a content filter as a code reference.

  # replace all "Foo" in content body with "Bar"
  Plack::Util::response_cb($res, sub {
      my $res = shift;
      return sub {
          my $chunk = shift;
          return unless defined $chunk;
          $chunk =~ s/Foo/Bar/g;
          return $chunk;
      }
  });

The callback takes one argument $chunk and your callback is expected to return the updated chunk. If the given $chunk is undef, it means the stream has reached the end, so your callback should also return undef, or return the final chunk and return undef when called next time.

SEE ALSO
Plack Plack::Builder Plack::Component