Using Data::Manager with Template::Toolkit and Catalyst

So with that, I'm going to show you how Data::Manager allows you to use both of these modules to validate your data and create coherent messages in a manageable and scalable fashion. For level playing field reasons, I'm going to be demonstrating with a Catalyst application I recently used these methods in.

I have set up an API controller to handle the CRUD interface to this application. Data::Manager provided a perfect single source for data verification (beyond various form validation in front facing portions of the site) and message building for results. Basically, the controller looks like this:

package Denzel::Controller::Users;

use Moose;
use namespace::autoclean;
BEGIN { extends 'Catalyst::Controller' }
use URI;
use Try::Tiny;
use Form::Sensible::Reflector::DBIC;
use Carp;
use Data::Dumper;
use DateTime;

## CLUE stuff

sub clue_base : Chained('/') PathPart('user') CaptureArgs(1) {
    my ( $self, $c, $userid ) = @_;
    $c->stash( userid => $userid );
}

sub cl_base : Chained('/') PathPart('users') CaptureArgs(0) {
    my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
}

sub create_user : Chained('cl_base') PathPart('new') Args(0) {
    my ( $self, $c ) = @_;
    my $reflector = Form::Sensible::Reflector::DBIC->create_form(
        {
            handle => $c->model('Database')->schema,
            form   => { name => "user" }
        }
    );
    $reflector->field('role')->value('member');
    $reflector->field('created_on')->value( DateTime->now );
    my $output;

    $reflector->add_field(
        {
            name        => 'captcha',
            field_class => 'Text',
            value       => $c->captcha_string
        }
    );
    $reflector->add_field( { name => 'Join', field_class => 'Trigger' } );
    my $renderer = Form::Sensible->get_renderer('HTML');

    if ( $c->req->param('Join') ) {
        $c->forward(qw/ Controller::API create_user /);
        $c->log->debug("Messages inside Users: " . Dumper $c->stash->{'messages'});
        if ( @{ $c->error } ) {
            $c->stash( errors => @{ $c->error } );
            $c->detach;
        }
        $c->stash( message => "Added successfully!");
    }

    $output = $renderer->render($reflector)->complete( '/users/new', 'POST' );
    $c->stash( form => $output );
}

Boom. forward to the API controller if the form is valid, go on with ya bad self.

The final piece of this is the template. I use Template::Toolkit because it's awesome and less hateful than the rest of the templating systems. This took a bit of thought, so here's what I came up with:

<div id="messages">
                <h2>
                    [% message %]
                </h2>
                <h2>
                    [% error %]
                </h2>
                <ul>
                [% IF messages.has_messages %]
                <h2>Form Errors: </h2>
                <ul>
                [% SET i = messages.count - 1 %]
                [% WHILE i >= 0 %]
                <li>
                [% messages.get_message(i).subject %] 
                </li>
                <li>
                [%  messages.get_message(i).id.replace('_', ' ') %]
                [% i = i - 1 %]
                [% END %]
                [% END %]
                </ul>
            </div>

And just for good measure, the create user template:

[% IF errors %]
<div>[% errors %]</div>
[% END %]
[% IF success %]
<div>Thanks for joining! Check your email for your confirmation link.</div>
<div><a href="[% c.uri_for_action('/users/clue/view_privileged_profile', user.userid) %]">click here to edit your profile</a>
[% END %]

[% UNLESS c.req.param('join') %]
<h2>Join Denzelfuckingwashington.com</h2>
[% form %]
<div><img src="[% c.uri_for("/captcha")%]" /></div>
[% END %]

Bingo bango done. Rock solid. And yes, this is also a pitch for denzelfuckingwashington.com :-)