modperl 1.x will be around for a long time. It makes a lot of sense to use that now and migrate to version 2 when the latter has stabilised :)

Yes, I am telling you to wait for the time being and instead go with mod_perl 1.x. If you take a gander at the API documentation and run through some of the modules, you might notice that some of them are less than complete. I'm not saying that I dislike MP2 at this point. I'm saying that in order to get a feel for the entire API you either have to read an assload of source code or pay 99 cents a minute talking to the Psychic Friends Network getting yes/no/vaguely detailed answers to API questions (pricey, but definitely very entertaining...I never knew that APR::Table had a spirit that wishes for me to release it. No lies. Ask antirice). I'm certainly excited about MP2. I like the control that Apache 2.0 seems to offer. Unfortunately, it just isn't there yet. I have a couple of document servers running on our intranet with Apache 2 using a mod_perl handler to check for authentication and whatnot in an attempt to get a feel for the new way of doing everything (ok, not everything but things like args parsing in list context(ok, multi value didn't work) doesn't work the same and send_cgi_header is gone). I've already started to develop libraries (mostly by stealing chunks from CGI.pm) that work outside of Apache::compat however it's mostly a side project. It'll have to wait until antirice and I finish with our HTML::Template extension modules.

You can use CGI as long as you use Apache::compat.

Are you sure about this? According to the porting docs you can use CGI.pm with mod_perl2 as long as you use version 2.93 or greater.

CGI.pm is capable of taking the apache request object so it can deal with any mod_perl specific issues (like cleaning up globals) that need to be done. The more people that try it, the quicker it will be release quality.

my $r = Apache->request;
my $query = CGI->new($r);
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Note that to get access to the Apache->request object you may need to activate 'PerlOptions +GlobalRequest' in your apache config.

Also, the Apache::Request module for mod_perl2 is coming along nicely. Although it is not quite ready for production, I don't think it will be much longer.

- Cees

The only issue of which I am aware that had me use Apache::compat deals with CGI.pm's header subroutine. Since it uses $r->send_cgi_header. According to the docs, send_cgi_header is not available under mod_perl2. Am I incorrect in my interpretation? If so, I am quite sorry. If not then I apologize for not mentioning it earlier.

It may have been a problem before, as in the early versions of mod_perl2 there were a lot of missing functions, but send_cgi_header is there now.

cees@tim:~$ perl -MApache2 -MModPerl::MethodLookup -e print_method sen
+d_cgi_header
To use method 'send_cgi_header' add:
        use Apache::Response ();
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So it is definately available now. However, I just checked through the CGI.pm source and can't find any place where it loads Apache::Response. So there is a possibility that is won't work without that. And a quick check shows that it doesn't get brought in by any other Apache2 modules that CGI.pm does load...

tim:~# MOD_PERL=1 perl -MApache2 -MCGI -e '$,=$/;print sort keys %INC;
+'
APR/Pool.pm
APR/XSLoader.pm
Apache/RequestRec.pm
Apache/RequestUtil.pm
Apache/XSLoader.pm
Apache2.pm
...
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The reasons Apache::compat fixes the problem is because it automatically loads Apache::Response which makes cgi_send_header available again.

So short of writing a bit of code that uses CGI.pm's header function under mod_perl2 and actually testing it, I guess you might be right... It might be best to ask this on the mod_perl list.

Update: I wrote a quick script using the sample script at the top of the CGI.pm docs and ran it under mod_perl 1.99_11 successfully. So I guess we can let this worry to rest :)

-Cees