tiny_monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello, monks. Finally, I was able to generate a web page using PSGI /Plack. However, I have noticed that my CSS failed to work properly. The css file was on my browser, but it was empty. It seems to me that there is a disconnect between PSGI and the document root (/Library/WebServer/Documents) where I currently keep my static files. Below is a snippet of the code that I used, 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use diagnostics;
use template;


 

my $app = sub {
        my $html = get_html();                 
        return [
        200, 
        ['Content-Type' => 'text/html'],
        [$html],
    ];
};

sub get_html{
    
    # open template file
    open(my $reader,'< :encoding(UTF-8)',"/library/webserver/documents
+/html.html");
    my $input;
    do{$input .= $_} while(<$reader>);
    
    # Initialize HTML template
    my $template = Template->new(); 
    my $vars = {greeting => 'Howdy, Cowboy!',debt => '$1.50',sender =>
+ 'John Wayne'};    
    my $html;
    $template->process(\$input,$vars,\$html)
    || die "Template process failed: ", $template->error(), "\n";
    return $html;
}

[download]

The filename of the above code has a .psgi extension and I ran it using the plackup command. I named my HTML template html.html:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN' 'http:/
+/www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd'>
<html xml:lang='en'  xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' lang='en-US'
+>
<head>
<title>Loan Shark</title>
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='funky.css' media='' />

</head>
<body>

<p><span id='try'>[% GET greeting %]</span>,

It has come to our attention that your account is in 
arrears to the sum of [% GET debt %].

Please settle your account before the end of the year or you will face
+ severe embarrassment.

Yours truly,
[% sender %]</p>
</body>

</html>

[download]

I used Plack::App::File hoping that my css file would be served properly but it didn't work. 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use diagnostics;

use Plack::App::File;


my $app = Plack::App::File->new(root => "/Library/Webserver/Documents"
+)->to_app;

[download]

After running Plack::App::File, I again checked the browser. The css file contained only a copy of the generated HTML. I tried using Plack::App::Directory and, similarly, yielded the same unsuccessful result. I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could share an insight into this problem. Thank you.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: CSS and PSGI
by tangent (Parson) on Aug 19, 2015 at 14:08 UTC
    You will need to configure Plack to serve up static files - there is a good tutorial in the Plack Advent Calendar - see Day 17: Serving static files from your application. It has a few examples.

    If you reference your CSS file as "/static/funky.css" in your template, then this should work: 

    use Plack::Builder;

my $app = sub { ... };

builder {
    enable "Static", path => qr!^/static!, root => '/Library/WebServer
+/Documents';
    $app;
}

    [download]
    Update: minor edits
[reply]
[d/l]

      tangent, thank you for suggesting a solution. I am a bit, embarrassed for I am not familiar yet with the Perl lingo. I'm afraid that I may have to ask for a little clarification. Does the suggested code have to be run in a new .psgi file? or should I just add the code you suggested to the .psgi file I originally created? Also, what does the 3 dots in the my $app = sub { ...}; mean? Is that also part of the code that I should just write in verbatim? Thank you for being patient.

[reply]
        Certainly no need to be embarassed, how else do we learn but by asking questions? I could have been a bit clearer too! You just need to add the code to your existing file, the my $app = sub { ... }; is a placeholder for what you have already. The important thing is to put the 'builder' part at the very end, so: 
        use strict;
use warnings;
use diagnostics;
use Template;
use Plack::Builder;

my $app = sub {
    my $html = get_html();                 
    # etc
};

sub get_html {
    # etc
}

builder {
    enable "Static", path => qr!^/static!, root => '/Library/WebServer
+/Documents';
    $app;
}

        [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
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