Maypole::Manual(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Maypole::Manual(3)NAMEMaypole::Manual - The Maypole Manual
DESCRIPTION
The Maypole documentation is arranged over several files; this is the
right one to start with, as it provides an overview of the entire set
of Maypole manuals, with a brief description of each. Some of these
manuals are not yet finished, but they should still be useful.
Maypole::Manual::About - Overview of the Project
This document is a general introduction to Maypole: what it is,
what it does and how it works.
Maypole is a framework for Web development. At the basic level, it
converts a URL like "http://www.mysite.com/product/display/12" into
a method call such as "perform the "display" method on item 12 in
the "product" table" and then shows the result: here, presumably, a
description of item 12 in your product database,
It is based on Model-View-Controller (MVC), a design paradigm in
which each major aspect of an application's operation is handled by
a different and totally separate system).
Basic installation instructions are given. A sample Web
application--the Beer database--is introduced, set up, and
discussed. Finally, the path a Maypole request takes as it moves
through the system is described.
Maypole::Manual::Model - Model Classes *
This document introduces the model class, which controls the
interaction between Maypole and your database. The use of
"actions"--method calls that operate on your database--is
discussed. Maypole's default model class is Class::DBI, which
basically creates a class for each table in your database and
provides a variety of convenient methods for manipulating each
table and its relations. It integrates very smoothly with Maypole's
default view class, the Template Toolkit.
Maypole::Manual::View - View Classes *
This document is an extensive discussion of Maypole's view class,
which takes the data produced by the model (see above) and sends it
through a templating system in order to produce output. It focusses
chiefly on the Template Toolkit, which is Maypole's default
templating system, but discusses other possibilities.
Maypole::Manual::StandardTemplates - Standard actions and templates *
This document discusses the standard actions and templates that
Maypole uses. The standard actions (method calls that operate on
your database) include "list", which generates a paged list of a
table suitable for browsing, and "search", which handles a search
query and generates search results.
The standard templates, which generate output for display on the
Web, also include "list", which displays the entries in a table,
and "search", which displays the result of a search.
You'll note that most actions are associated with templates.
This document also introduces the theory behind Maypole's actions
and templates, showing you how to write your own so that you can
have a highly customized application.
Maypole::Manual::Plugins - writing Maypole plugins
Useful information for plugin authors.
Maypole::Manual::Terminology - pinning down usage
As well as defining common terms used in Maypole discussions, this
document briefly discusses the MVC-ness of Maypole.
Maypole::Manual::Workflow - Description of the Request Workflow
This is a technical document that describes the progress of a
request through the entire Maypole system. It should be of interest
chiefly to those people hacking on Maypole itself, and not to most
of those who are using it.
Maypole::Manual::Beer - The Beer Database Revisited *
This document gives a close look at the Beer database that was
introduced in Maypole::Manual::About.
Maypole::Manual::Cookbook - The Maypole Cookbook
This extensive document is Maypole's main "How do I do X?" FAQ. It
provides a wide variety of cookbook-like techniques that are useful
both for themselves, and as examples of what sort of things can be
done with Maypole processes.
Maypole::Manual::Flox - Case Study: Flox social network *
This is an example of how to construct a large Web application in
Maypole: a "social network", similar to Friendster and Orkut. It
shows, specifically, the database structure and the variety of
customized techniques that make such a system work.
Maypole::Manual::BuySpy - Case Study: iBuySpy *
This is an example of the "ASP.NET" sample portal application
ported to Maypole. <http://www.ibuyspy.com> is a fictional
e-commerce site that is relatively sophisticated. It is much better
as a Maypole application.
* indicates incomplete chapters.
SEE ALSO
<http://maypole.perl.org>
AUTHOR
The Maypole Manual was written by Simon Cozens. A generous grant from
the Perl Foundation in the first quarter of 2004 funded some of the
chapters of this manual.
This overview was rewritten by Jesse Sheidlower, "jester#panix.com",
based on Simon Cozens' original Overview document.
In December 2004, Dave Howorth, "dave.howorth#acm.org" kindly donated
some of his spare time to improve the structure of the manual and bring
it up to date.
AUTHOR EMERITUS
Simon Cozens, "simon#cpan.org"
perl v5.14.1 2006-11-30 Maypole::Manual(3)