From: anders@... (Anders Johannsen)
Date: 2001-09-18T22:22:30+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:21315] Suggestions for new CGI lib

From the comp.lang.ruby thread "Minor cgi.rb question" (2001-09-03), I
gathered that some people disagree with the way the current 'cgi.rb'
is designed.

Incidently, the lack of consistensy in 'cgi.rb' has been my primary
reason for _not_ using Ruby as a web scripting language. Based on my
experience in web scripting, I have developed a working model for
'next generation' CGI, which may or may not be what we are looking
for.

Since it is a model, actual functionality is yet to be implemented. I
would appreciate a discussion of pros and cons in my suggestion.
Comments and improvements are most welcome.

The goals of design are to:

* Introduce the well-known 'Request/Response' model
* Separate Cookie, Post, Get and Environment namespaces
* Add support for 'plug-in' output handlers, thus making for example
gz compression of output easy.
* Use an open model to make integration with fastcgi/cgisock and
future technologies seamless
* Separate actual CGI and HTML generation, as they are two very
different matters (my suggestion only cover CGI)
-- while still maintaining 'ease-of-use'

The design is basically comprised by the following base classes, all
accessed through the instanciated CGI class (as indicated in the
comments)

CGI # cgi
CGI::Request # cgi.request
CGI::Request::Cookie # cgi.request.cookie
CGI::Request::Post # cgi.request.post
CGI::Request::Get # cgi.request.get
CGI::Request::Env # cgi.request.env
CGI::Request::Header # cgi.request.header
CGI::Request::Var # cgi.request.var
CGI::Response # cgi.response
CGI::Response::Cookie # cgi.response.cookie
CGI::Response::Header # cgi.response.header
CGI::Namespace # cgi.namespace
CGI::Output # cgi.output
CGI::Session # cgi.session

A practical example of usage could be:

CGI.new do |cgi|
  req = cgi.request
  req.cookie['user_var'] # Get the named cookie 'user_var'
  req.header['X-Something'] # Get the named header 'X-Something'
  req.var['user_var'] # Get the named variable 'user_var'. Cookie,
Post, Get, Env and Headers are merged in a configurable order

  # Add text to the output buffer
  cgi << " TEST "

  # Set a custom cookie and header in the response
  cgi.response.cookie.set ("name", "content")
  cgi.response.header.set ("name", "content")

  # Set output options
  cgi.output.handler = call_back
  cgi.output.stream  = $stdout

  # Introduce new namespace with the indicated variables exported
(non-existant variables is   nil)
  cgi.namespace.var do
    unless non_existant_var.nil?
      # Do stuff
    end
  end   
    
end # At the end of the block, cgi.print is automatically called

Let me know you think.

Best regards,
Anders Johannsen
Denmark