Mason/Manual/Filters.pod

__END__

=pod

=head1 NAME

Mason::Manual::Filters - Content filters in Mason

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Filters can be used to process portions of content in a component.

A set of filters comes built-in with Mason - see
L<Mason::Filters::Standard|Mason::Filters::Standard>. Others will be available
on CPAN, and it is easy to create your own.

=head1 INVOKING

=head2 Block invocation

Here's the standard way of invoking a filter:

   % $.Trim {{
     This string will be trimmed
   % }}  # end Trim

A double open brace (C<< {{ >>) at the end of a C<< %-line >> denotes a filter
call.  The filtered content begins just afterwards and ends at the C<< }} >>.
Both C<< {{ >> and C<< }} >> may be followed by a comment.

The expression C<< $.Trim >>, aka C<< $self->Trim >>, is a method call on the
component object which returns a filter. In general everything before the C<<
{{ >> is evaluated and is expected to return a filter or list of filters.

By convention, and to avoid name clashes with other component methods, filters
use CamelCase rather than traditional underscore names.

Filters can take arguments:

   % $.Repeat(3) {{
     There's no place like home.
   % }}

     ==>  There's no place like home.
          There's no place like home.
          There's no place like home.

Since the expression C<< $.Repeat(3) >> returns a filter, it can be curried:

   % my $repeat_three = $.Repeat(3);
   % $repeat_three {{
     There's no place like home.
   % }}

You can create one-off filters with anonymous subroutines. The subroutine
receives the content in both C<< $_[0] >> and C<< $_ >>, and should return the
filtered content.

   % sub { reverse($_[0]) } {{
     Hello
   % }}

     ==> olleH


   % sub { s/ //g; $_[0] } {{
     A bunch of words
   % }}

     ==> Abunchofwords

Filters can be nested, with separate lines:

   % $.Trim {{
   %   sub { uc($_[0]) } {{
     This string will be trimmed and uppercased
   %   }}
   % }}

or on a single line:

   % $.Trim, sub { uc($_[0]) } {{
     This will be trimmed and uppercased
   % }}

Multiple filters within the same tag are applied, intuitively, in reverse order
with the last one being innermost. e.g. in this block

   % my $i = 1;
   % $.Repeat(3), $.Cache($key, '1 hour') {{
     <% $i++ %>
   % }}

      => 1 1 1

the output of C<< <% $i++ %> >> is cached, and then repeated three times,
whereas in this block

   % my $i = 1;
   % $.Cache($key, '1 hour'), $.Repeat(3) {{
     <% $i++ %>
   % }}

      => 1 2 3

C<< <% $i++ %> >> is executed and output three times, and then the whole thing
cached.

=head2 Pipe invocation

Filters can also appear in a limited way inside a regular C<< <% %> >> tag:

    <% $content | NoBlankLines,Trim %>

The filter list appears after a << | >> character and must contain one or more
comma-separated names. The names are treated as methods on the current
component class. With this syntax you cannot use anonymous subroutines or
variables as filters, or pass arguments to filters. However in a pinch you can
define local filter methods to get around this, e.g.

    <%class>
    method Repeat3 { $.Repeat(3); }
    </%class>
    ...
    <% $message_body | Repeat3 %>

For consistency with other syntax, multiple names are applied in reverse order
with the rightmost applied first.

One common use of this form is to escape HTML strings in web content, using the
C<H> filter in L<Mason::Plugin::HTMLFilters|Mason::Plugin::HTMLFilters>:

    <% $message_body | H %>

=head2 Default filters

L<Mason::Plugin::DefaultFilter|Mason::Plugin::DefaultFilter> allows you to
define default filters that will automatically apply to all substitution tags.
It is analagous to L<HTML::Mason's
default_escape_flags|HTML::Mason::Compiler/default_escape_flags> setting.

=head2 Manual invocation

L<$m-E<gt>filter|Mason::Request/filter> can be used to manually apply filter(s)
to a string. It returns the filtered output. e.g.

    <%init>
    ...
    my $filtered_string = $m->filter($.Trim, $.NoBlankLines, $string);
    </%init>

=head1 CREATING A FILTER

=head2 Package and naming

By convention, filters are placed in roles so that they can be composed into
L<Mason::Component|Mason::Component> or a subclass thereof. Take a look at
L<Mason::Filters::Standard|Mason::Filters::Standard> for an example.

Also by convention, filters use CamelCase rather than traditional
underscore_separated naming.  Filter methods have to coexist with other methods
in the Mason::Component namespace, so have to be distinguishable somehow, and
we thought this was preferable to a "filter_" prefix or suffix. Of course, you
are free to choose your own convention, but you should expect this naming in
the standard filters at least.

Here's a filter package that implements two filters, C<Upper> and C<Lower>:

    package MyApp::Filters;
    use Mason::PluginRole;

    method Upper () {
        return sub { uc($_[0]) }
    }

    method Lower () {
        return sub { lc($_[0]) }
    }

    1;

To use these in a component:

    <%class>
    with 'MyApp::Filters';
    </%class>

    % $.Upper {{
    ...
    % }}

Or if you want them available to all components, put them in C<Base.mp> at the
top of your component hierarchy, or in your application's C<Mason::Component>
subclass.

=head2 Simple vs. dynamic filters

A I<simple filter> is a code ref which takes a string (via either $_[0] and $_)
and returns the output.  Your filter method should return this code ref. e.g.

    # Uses $_[0]
    method Upper () {
        return sub { uc($_[0]) };
    }

    # Uses $_
    method Rot13 () {
        return sub { tr/a-zA-Z/n-za-mN-ZA-M/; $_ };
    }

A I<dynamic filter> is an object of class C<Mason::DynamicFilter>. It contains
a code ref which takes a I<yield block> and returns the output. A yield block
is a zero-argument code ref that returns a content string. e.g.  this is
functionally identical to the above:

    method Rot13 () {
        return Mason::DynamicFilter->new(
            filter => sub {
                my $yield = $_[0];
                my $text = $yield->();
                $text =~ tr/a-zA-Z/n-za-mN-ZA-M/;
                return $text;
            }
        );
    }

The dynamic filter obviously doesn't buy you anything in this case, and for the
majority of filters they are unneeded.  The real power of dynamic filters is
that they can choose if and when to execute the yield block. For example, here
is an implementation (slightly expanded for explanatory purposes) of the  C<<
Cache >> filter in L<Mason::Plugin::Cache|Mason::Plugin::Cache>:

    method Cache ( $key, $set_options ) {
        return Mason::DynamicFilter->new(
            filter => sub {
                my $yield = $_[0];
                my $cache = $self->cache;
                my $output = $cache->get( $key );
                if (!$output) {
                    $output = $yield->();
                    $cache->set( $key, $output, $set_options );
                }
                return $output;
            }
        );
    }

Notice that we call C<< $cache->get >> first, and return the output immediately
if it is in the cache. Only on a cache miss do we actually execute the
(presumably expensive) yield block.

C<< Defer >> and C<< Repeat >> are two other examples of dynamic filters. See
L<Mason::Filters::Standard|Mason::Filters::Standard> for their implementations.

=head2 <%filter> block

You can use the C<< <%filter> >> block to define filters that output content.
It works just like a C<< <%method> >> block, except that you can call C<<
$yield->() >> to generate the original content. e.g.

    <%filter Item ($class)>
    <li class="<% $class %>"><% $yield->() %></li>
    </%filter>

    % $.Item('std') {{
      First
    % }}
    % $.Item('std') {{
      Second
    % }}

generates

    <li class="std">
      First
    </li>
    <li class="std">
      Second
    </li>

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Mason::Filters::Standard|Mason::Filters::Standard>, L<Mason|Mason>

=head1 AUTHOR

Jonathan Swartz <swartz@pobox.com>

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Jonathan Swartz.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

=cut