NAME Catalyst::Request::REST::ForBrowsers - A Catalyst::Request::REST subclass for dealing with browsers SYNOPSIS package MyApp; use Catalyst::Request::REST::ForBrowsers; MyApp->request_class( 'Catalyst::Request::REST::ForBrowsers' ); DESCRIPTION Writing RESTful apps is a good thing, but if you're also trying to support web browsers, you're probably going to need some hackish workarounds. This module provides those workarounds for you. Specifically, it lets you do two things. First, it lets you "tunnel" PUT and DELETE requests across a POST, since most browsers do not support PUT or DELETE actions (as of early 2009, at least). Second, it provides a heuristic to check if the client is a web browser, regardless of what content types it claims to accept. The reason for this is that while a browser might claim to accept the "application/xml" content type, it's really not going to do anything useful with it, and you're best off giving it HTML. METHODS This class provides the following methods: $request->method() This method works just like `Catalyst::Request->method()' except it allows for tunneling of PUT and DELETE requests via a POST. Specifically, you can provide a form element named "x-tunneled-method" which can override the request method for a POST. This *only* works for a POST, not a GET. You can also use a header named "x-http-method-override" instead (Google uses this header for its APIs). $request->looks_like_browser() This method provides a heuristic to say whether or not the request appears to come from a browser. You can use this however you want. I usually use it to determine whether or not to give the client a full HTML page or some sort of serialized data. This is a heuristic, and like any heuristic, it is probably wrong sometimes. Here is how it works: * If the request includes a header "X-Request-With" set to either "HTTP.Request" or "XMLHttpRequest", this returns false. The assumption is that if you're doing XHR, you don't want the request treated as if it comes from a browser. * If the client makes a GET request with a query string parameter "content-type", and that type is *not* an HTML type, it is *not* a browser. * If the client provides an Accept header which includes "*/*" as an accepted content type, the client is a browser. Specifically, it is IE7, which accepts "*/*" but not anything like "text/html". * If the client provides an Accept header and accepts either "text/html" or "application/xhtml+xml" it is a browser. * If it provides an Accept header of any sort, it is *not* a browser. * The default is that the client is a browser. This all works well for my apps, but read it carefully to make sure it meets your expectations before using it. AUTHOR Dave Rolsky, `' BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests to `bug-catalyst-request-rest-forbrowsers@rt.cpan.org', or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes. COPYRIGHT & LICENSE Copyright 2008-2009 Dave Rolsky, All Rights Reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.