NAME

WebApp::Documentation::QuickStart - Documentation for the Impatient

VERSION

  Time-stamp: <2006-04-20 10:33:55 mailto:attila@stalphonsos.com>
  $Id: QuickStart.pm,v 1.3 2006/04/20 17:01:46 attila Exp $

SYNOPSIS

  $ perldoc WebApp::Documentation::QuickStart

DESCRIPTION

Some documentation for the impatient. Read this if you want to take the shortest path between installation and screwing around with a functional web application.

OVERVIEW

You really should read the main documentation for WebApp, but if you just can't stand the excitement, and you've got WebApp installed, try this at the command line:

  $ webapp Create

This command will install a skeletal, but functional starting point for a webapp into a source directory (creating it if necessary), complete with Makefile and README file. Supposing that one uses the webapp Create command to install a skeletal webapp into ~/src/foop, and the correct paths for the local Apache installation had been specified, one would then do:

  $ cd ~/src/foop
  $ createdb foop
  $ make install

and the skeletal webapp should be fully operational. From this skeleton, you can grow whatever functionality you require, or just use it as a playground to experiment with the various example snippets in the rest of the WebApp documentation.

Create will prompt you for some information, mainly directories where things are to be stored. As with all webapp command-line invocations, you specify arguments in any of the following ways:

  -verbose
  -verbose=2
  --verbose
  verbose=2

etc. The parameters that the Create command wants are:

• app

The name of the webapp - a single word with no spaces in it.

• dir

The root dir to install under; should normally be overridden by cgi_dir and code_dir

• src_dir

The directory into which Create installs the template webapp source and HTML files

• cgi_dir

The directory where CGI programs should be installed

• code_dir

The directory where perl code and modules should be installed

• conf_dir

The directory where the webapp should search for its configuration file

So, one could also say, e.g.:

  $ webapp Create app=foop dir=~/ src_dir=~/src/foop \
      cgi_dir=~/www/foop code_dir=~/code/foop \
      conf_dir=~/conf

and avoid all prompting. If it makes you feel better, you can force the webapp command-line utility to confirm all of your arguments before doing anything:

  $ webapp Create -confirm=ask \
      -app=foop -dir=~/ -src_dir=~/src/foop \
      -cgi_dir=~/www/foop -code_dir=~/code/foop \
      -conf_dir=~/conf

There is built-in help, with the webapp Help command. Play around with it. Some of the commands include:

• Install

Install the base WebApp framework files into target CGI and code directories, in preparation for overlaying and adding your own code and data. The template Makefile for a webapp that e.g. the webapp Create command installs into your source dir knows how to do this already.

• Status

Show the status of a given webapp by looking at its corresponding database and dumping out information on users and active sessions. Also can be used to manually purge old sessions.

• NewUser

Add a user identity to a webapp's database.

• RmUser

Remove an existing user identity from a webapp's database.

• Demo

Install one of the demo applications that comes with WebApp, so you can play around with a larger example than the skeletal template that the Create command installs.

AUTHOR

  attila <mailto:attila@stalphonsos.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

(C) 2002-2005 by attila <mailto:attila@stalphonsos.com>. all rights reserved.

This code is released under a BSD license. Please see the LICENSE file that came with the source distribution, or visit