Re: [Pagekit-users] Adding code to PageCode.pm

[Bill K. <bi...@ka...>]

>What needs to happen to make my new code recognized?

In the default configuration, you need to restart Apache any time you 
change one of the .pm files.

I use Apache::Reload to make changes to .pm files automatically take effect 
on the next request.
Get Apache::Reload from CPAn and put this in httpd.conf:
   PerlModule Apache::Reload
   PerlInitHandler Apache::Reload
   PerlSetVar ReloadAll Off
   PerlSetVar ReloadModules "InnKit::*"

I think changes to Config.xml still require an Apache restart, even when 
using Apache::Reload.  I might be wrong.

I have noticed that "apachectl restart" doesn't reload .pm modules into 
mod_perl reliably, on some operating systems (Solaris, FreeBSD).  I have to 
do "apachectl stop ; sleep 5 ; apachectl start".  I made a shell alias for 
this sequence.

>There is no second site for testing. Is there a better way for my testing 
>code on a live system?

I maintain two instances of my application on one server.  I keep a 
separate copy of the whole directory tree.  The two trees are very similar, 
except:

1. Directories "/Model/MyPackage" vs. "/Model/MyPackageTest" (the two apps 
must have distinct package names).  I suppose you could rename the .pm 
files instead, but I like to have the filenames the same and the 
directories different, to help me run diffs between the two instances.

2. Config.xml names the packages differently in the model_base_class and 
model_dispatch_prefix attributes.

3. Config.xml needs a distinct instance id for each copy of the 
app.  <SERVER ID="production"> or <SERVER ID="staging">.

4. I also list my database DSN in the <USER> section of my Config.xml, and 
I have a separate MySQL database instance for each app instance.  My 
pkit_dbi_connect() routine reads the <USER> config section for the DSN value.

5. Apache's http.conf is set up to point different URL prefixes to each 
respective copy of the app, and assigns the PKIT_ROOT and PKIT_SERVER 
variables accordingly.

View files, Content files, etc. can all be the same between the two 
trees.  I actually have a couple of differences in my Content files, so 
there's an indicator to the user of the application which instance they're 
using.

>If there is an error will it affect only the pages involved?

No, if there's an error which causes one mod_perl app to fail, it prevents 
_any_ Apache request from working, including requests for static 
pages!  This sometimes works against me, since I keep my Perl pod files in 
HTML format on the same server.  :-)

>Some subroutines have duplicate code in both  /Model/InnKit/PageCode.pm 
>and /Model/InnKit//PageCode/admin.pm.
>Both are called in startup.pl. PageCode.pm is first. Wouldn't placing my 
>code in admin.pm be more appropriate and work as well?

I assume admin.pm "ISA" PageCode.pm in your application.  Note that 
admin.pm can call functions in PageCode.pm by calling 
$model->pageCodeRoutine().  That is, so long as PageCode::pageCodeRoutine 
takes $model as its first argument.
Or have I misunderstood your question?

Regards,
Bill Karwin