[Dancer-users] one route, different actions based on context

[Puneet Kishor]

Naveed Massjouni wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 6:02 PM, Puneet Kishor<punk.kish at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>> Alastair Sherringham wrote:
>>> On 24 December 2010 19:48, Puneet Kishor<punk.kish at gmail.com>    wrote:
>>>>> $ curl http://application/foo/all
>>>>>
>>>>> a json stream of all the foo widgets is returned.
>>> There's an advent calendar up just now with some advice on this sort
>>> of thing e.g.
>>>
>>> Writing REST web services with Dancer
>>> http://advent.perldancer.org/2010/8
>>>
>>> Some curl usage - maybe use "application/json"? e.g.
>>>
>>> curl -H 'Accept-Type: application/json'<url>
>>
>> Thanks. A great article, helps clear the fog further.
>>
>> Nevertheless, my problem now is as I articulated in my last email. What I
>> want is to send back the template only if being request via a browser as a
>> regular, non-Ajax request  (how should I determine that?). Otherwise, if it
>> is being called via Ajax or from the command line via curl or lwp or
>> whatever, a json stream should be returned. So, given (pseudocode ahead) --
>>
>>   1 prepare_serializer_for_format;
>>   2
>>   3 get '/all.:format' =>  sub {
>>   4
>>   5      my $res = query->db->for->all;
>>   6
>>   7      # Requested a full web page from the browser, so
>>   8      # use the template; no need to use a serializer
>>   9      if (request->came_from_browser_non_ajax) {
>> 10              template 'all.tt', {res =>  $res, other =>  $options};
>> 11      }
>> 12
>> 13      # For ajax requests or requests from command line,
>> 14      # use the requested serializer and return a text
>> 15      # stream
>> 16      else {
>> 17              return to_json $res;
>> 18      }
>> 19
>> 20 };
>>
>> The idea is that a user can go to http://server/foo/all and see the entire
>> web page as rendered by the template 'all.tt', or the user can request a
>> specific serialized format via the command line and get a text stream back.
>> Would be nice to have a default serialization format defined, so, for
>> example, if no specific format is requested then JSON can be sent back,
>> else, XML or whatever can be sent back.
>
> I haven't tested this, but I think this is all you need:
>
> prepare_serializer_for_format;
> get '/all' { template 'all' };
> get '/all.:format' =>  sub { return { foo =>  'bar' } };
>
> In your javascript ajax call, you would explicitly request /all.json.
> Same with curl:
>      curl http://localhost:3000/all.json
>


Thanks Naveed. Yes, it is easy to do that if I declare different routes 
(after all '/all' is different from 'all.:format'). I am wondering if it 
is possible to do it with exactly the same route, thereby creating a 
consistent interface that is also intuitive.





-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.org
Carbon Model http://carbonmodel.org
Charter Member, Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org
Science Fellow http://creativecommons.org/about/people/fellows#puneetkishor
Nelson Institute, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Assertions are politics; backing up assertions with evidence is science
===========================================================================