Yes there is: Table-driven programming.

For example, have several different sub-components that each do all of the input processing and HTML generation for a single page, then build a big lookup table (hash) that stores each sub-component name, then have the appropriate sub-component called using some query string parameter you embed in each form. In this example, I use the "op" parameter to tell us what operation (page) we're going to execute, then go look it up in the table, and if it exists, we execute it:

my %sub_components = (
    default_page     => 'defaultpage.comp'
    full_text_search => 'fulltextsearch.comp',
    filename_search  => 'filenamesearch.comp',
    view_alignment   => 'viewalignment.comp',
    add_folder       => 'addfolder.comp'
    ...
);

if ($op) {
    if (exists $sub_components{$op}) {
        # execute the appropriate sub-component:
        eval { $m->comp($sub_components{$op}, %ARGS) };

        if ($@) {
            # handle die() from the sub-component...
        }
    }
    else {
        # handle a request with "op" set to an invalid operation...
    }
}

...

<%args>
$op => 'default_page'
</%args>

[download]

Notice, you have to pass the query string arguments you received by hand to the sub-component you excute using %ARGS. (You have to do this *even* if the sub-components are all defined in the same file as the top-evel component.) Another option is caller_args(), but that's kind of hack-ish.

In reply to Re: Handling different requests for a web app in one centralized place. by William G. Davis
in thread Handling different requests for a web app in one centralized place. by geekgrrl

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.