NAME McBain::WithWebSocket - Load a McBain API as a WebSocket server SYNOPSIS # write your API as you normally would, and create # a simple server script: #!/usr/bin/perl -w BEGIN { $ENV{MCBAIN_WITH} = 'WithWebSocket'; } use warnings; use strict; use MyAPI; MyAPI->start(80); # default port is 8080 # if your API is object oriented MyAPI->new(%attrs)->start(80); DESCRIPTION "McBain::WithWebSocket" turns your McBain API into a WebSocket server using Net::WebSocket::Server. The created server will be a JSON-in JSON-out service. When a client sends a message to the server, it is expected to be a JSON string, which will be converted into a hash-ref and serve as the payload for the API. The payload must have a "path" key, which holds the complete path of the route/method to invoke (for example, "GET:/math/sum"). The results from the API will be formatted into JSON as well and sent back to the client. Note that if an API method does not return a hash-ref, this runner module will automatically turn it into a hash-ref to ensure that conversion into JSON will be possible. The created hash-ref will have one key - holding the method's name, with whatever was returned from the method as its value. For example, if method "GET:/divide" in topic "/math" returns an integer (say 7), then the client will get the JSON "{ "GET:/math/divide": 7 }". To avoid this behavior, make sure your API's methods return hash-refs. EXAMPLE CLIENT I haven't succeeded in creating a Perl WebSocket client using any of the related modules on CPAN. Documentation in this area seems to be extremely lacking. On the other hand, I created a very simply client with NodeJS in about two minutes. If you need to test your "McBain" API running as a WebSocket server, and have a similar problem, take a look at the "client.js" file in the examples directory of this distribution. SUPPORTED HTTP METHODS This runner support all methods natively supported by McBain. That is: "GET", "PUT", "POST", "DELETE" and "OPTIONS". The "OPTIONS" method is special. It returns a hash-ref of methods supported by a specific route, including description and parameter definitions, if any. See "OPTIONS-REQUESTS" in McBain for more information. METHODS EXPORTED TO YOUR API start( [ $port ] ) Starts the WebSocket server, listening on the supplied port. If $port is not provided, 8080 is used by default. METHODS REQUIRED BY MCBAIN init( $target ) Creates and exports the start() method for your API's root package. generate_env( $req ) Receives the request JSON and creates "McBain"'s standard env hash-ref from it. generate_res( $env, $res ) Converts the result from an API method in JSON. Read the discussion under "DESCRIPTION" for more info. handle_exception( $err ) Formats exceptions into JSON. CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT No configuration files are required. To tell McBain to use this runner module, the "MCBAIN_WITH" environment variable must be set to "WithWebSocket". See the "SYNOPSIS" for an example. DEPENDENCIES "McBain::WithWebSocket" depends on the following CPAN modules: * Carp * JSON * Net::WebSocket::Server INCOMPATIBILITIES WITH OTHER MODULES None reported. BUGS AND LIMITATIONS Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-McBain-WithWebSocket@rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at . SUPPORT You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command. perldoc McBain::WithWebSocket You can also look for information at: * RT: CPAN's request tracker * AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation * CPAN Ratings * Search CPAN AUTHOR Ido Perlmuter LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT Copyright (c) 2014, Ido Perlmuter "ido@ido50.net". This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either version 5.8.1 or any later version. See perlartistic and perlgpl. 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