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HTML::Mason(3pm)      User Contributed Perl Documentation     HTML::Mason(3pm)

NAME
       HTML::Mason - High-performance, dynamic web site authoring system

VERSION
       version 1.59

SYNOPSIS
           PerlModule HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler

           <Location />
               SetHandler perl-script
               PerlHandler HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler
           </Location>

DESCRIPTION
       Mason is a tool for building, serving and managing large web sites. Its
       features make it an ideal backend for high load sites serving dynamic
       content, such as online newspapers or database driven e-commerce sites.

       Actually, Mason can be used to generate any sort of text, whether for a
       web site or not.  But it was originally built for web sites and since
       that's why most people are interested in it, that is the focus of this
       documentation.

       Mason's various pieces revolve around the notion of "components''. A
       component is a mix of HTML, Perl, and special Mason commands, one
       component per file. So-called "top-level" components represent entire
       web-pages, while smaller components typically return HTML snippets for
       embedding in top-level components. This object-like architecture
       greatly simplifies site maintenance: change a shared component, and you
       instantly changed all dependent pages that refer to it across a site
       (or across many virtual sites).

       Mason's component syntax lets designers separate a web page into
       programmatic and design elements. This means the esoteric Perl bits can
       be hidden near the bottom of a component, preloading simple variables
       for use above in the HTML. In our own experience, this frees content
       managers (i.e., non-programmers) to work on the layout without getting
       mired in programming details. Techies, however, still enjoy the full
       power of Perl.

       Mason works by intercepting innocent-looking requests (say,
       http://www.yoursite.com/index.html) and mapping them to requests for
       Mason components.  Mason then compiles the component, runs it, and
       feeds the output back to the client.

       Consider this simple Mason component:

           % my $noun = 'World';
           Hello <% $noun %>!
           How are ya?

       The output of this component is:

           Hello World!
           How are ya?

       In this component you see a mix of standard HTML and Mason elements.
       The bare '%' prefixing the first line tells Mason that this is a line
       of Perl code. One line below, the embedded <%...%> tag gets replaced
       with the return value of its contents, evaluated as a Perl expression.

       Beyond this trivial example, components can also embed serious chunks
       of Perl code (say, to pull records from a database). They can also call
       other components, cache results for later reuse, and perform all the
       tricks you expect from a regular Perl program.

MAINTENANCE HELP NEEDED
       I (Dave Rolsky) am no longer using HTML::Mason and I would love to find
       some co-maintainers to help. Specifically, I'd like people to review
       issues and PRs, create new PRs, and ultimately take on the task of
       uploading new releases to CPAN. If you're interested the best way to
       start is to fix one or more of the issues in the issue tracker
       <https://github.com/houseabsolute/HTML-
       Mason/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Aupdated-desc>.

WAIT - HAVE YOU SEEN MASON 2?
       Version 1 of Mason (this distribution) -- has been around since 1998,
       is in wide use, and is very stable. However it has not changed much in
       years and is no longer actively developed.

       Version 2 of Mason -- Mason -- was released in February of 2011. It
       offers a new syntax as well as a number of other features. See
       <https://metacpan.org/pod/distribution/Mason/lib/Mason/Manual/UpgradingFromMason1.pod>
       for details of the differences between the two.

INSTALLATION
       Mason has been tested under Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, HPUX, and Win32.
       As an all-Perl solution, it should work on any machine that has working
       versions of Perl 5.00503+, mod_perl, and the required CPAN modules.

       Mason has a standard MakeMaker-driven installation. See the README file
       for details.

CONFIGURING MASON
       This section assumes that you are able to install and configure a
       mod_perl server. Relevant documentation is available at
       http://www.apache.org (Apache) and http://perl.apache.org (mod_perl).
       The mod_perl mailing list, archive, and guide are also great resources.

       The simplest configuration of Mason requires a few lines in your
       httpd.conf:

           PerlModule HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler

           <Location />
               SetHandler perl-script
               PerlHandler HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler
           </Location>

       The PerlModule directive simply ensures that the Mason code is loaded
       in the parent process before forking, which can save some memory when
       running mod_perl.

       The <Location> section routes all requests to the Mason handler, which
       is a simple way to try out Mason. A more refined setup is discussed in
       the Controlling Access via Filename Extension section of the
       administrator's manual.

       Once you have added the configuration directives, restart the server.
       First, go to a standard URL on your site to make sure you haven't
       broken anything. If all goes well you should see the same page as
       before. If not, recheck your Apache config files and also tail your
       server's error log.

       If you are getting "404 Not Found" errors even when the files clearly
       exist, Mason may be having trouble with your document root. One
       situation that will unfortunately confuse Mason is if your document
       root goes through a symbolic link. Try expressing your document root in
       terms of the true filesystem path.

       Next, try adding the tag <% 2+2 %> at the top of some HTML file. If you
       reload this page and see a "4", Mason is working!

DOCUMENTATION ROADMAP
       Once Mason is on its feet, the next step is to write a component or
       two. The Mason Developer's Manual is a complete tutorial for writing,
       using, and debugging components. A reference companion to the
       Developer's Manual is the Request API documentation,
       HTML::Mason::Request.

       Whoever is responsible for setting up and tuning Mason should read the
       Administrator's Manual, though developers will also benefit from
       reading it as well. This document covers more advanced configuration
       scenarios and performance optimization. The reference companion to the
       Administrator's manual is the Parameters Reference, which describes all
       the parameters you can use to configure Mason.

       Most of this documentation assumes that you're running Mason on top of
       mod_perl, since that is the most common configuration.  If you would
       like to run Mason via a CGI script, refer to the
       HTML::Mason::CGIHandler documentation.  If you are using Mason from a
       standalone program, refer to the Using Mason from a Standalone Script
       section of the administrator's manual.

       There is also a book about Mason, Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason, by
       Dave Rolsky and Ken Williams, published by O'Reilly and Associates.
       The book's website is at http://www.masonbook.com/.  This book goes
       into detail on a number of topics, and includes a chapter of recipes as
       well as a sample Mason-based website.

GETTING HELP AND SOURCES
       Questions and feedback are welcome, and should be directed to the Mason
       mailing list. You must be subscribed to post.

           https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mason-users

       You can also visit us at "#mason" on <irc://irc.perl.org/#mason>.

       Bugs and feature requests will be tracked at RT:

           http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=HTML-Mason
           bug-html-mason AT rt.org

SUPPORT
       Bugs may be submitted at
       <https://github.com/houseabsolute/HTML-Mason/issues>.

       I am also usually active on IRC as 'autarch' on "irc://irc.perl.org".

SOURCE
       The source code repository for HTML-Mason can be found at
       <https://github.com/houseabsolute/HTML-Mason>.

AUTHORS
       o   Jonathan Swartz <swartz AT pobox.com>

       o   Dave Rolsky <autarch AT urth.org>

       o   Ken Williams <ken AT mathforum.org>

CONTRIBUTORS
       o   AEvar Arnfjordh Bjarmason <avarab AT gmail.com>

       o   Alex Balhatchet <kaoru AT slackwise.net>

       o   Alex Vandiver <alex AT chmrr.net>

       o   Florian Schlichting <fsfs AT debian.org>

       o   John Williams <jwilliams AT cpan.org>

       o   Kent Fredric <kentnl AT gentoo.org>

       o   Kevin Falcone <falcone AT bestpractical.com>

       o   Patrick Kane <modus-cpan AT pr.to>

       o   Ricardo Signes <rjbs AT cpan.org>

       o   Shlomi Fish <shlomif AT shlomifish.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
       This software is copyright (c) 1998 - 2020 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.

       The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
       with this distribution.

perl v5.30.2                      2020-05-22                  HTML::Mason(3pm)