CGI::Application::Dispatch is awesome! This weekend, I built a REST interface to (parts of) our application, and it was a breeze.

Let's assume you have a CGI::Application module called My::App, and that your index.cgi looks like this: 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use My::App;

My::App->new->run;

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In this situation, you would need a new instance script for every new application module. CA::Dispatch takes that pain away by giving you the means to write a single dispatch script for all your appllications.

An example for your case might be: 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::Application::Dispatch;

    CGI::Application::Dispatch->dispatch(
        prefix  => 'My',
        default => 'App',
    );

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If you save that script as index.cgi, your URL could become http://www.mydomain.com/index.cgi/loadPage?data=10.

By using more of CA::Dispatch's power, you can take that even further: 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI::Application::Dispatch;

    CGI::Application::Dispatch->dispatch(
        prefix  => 'My',
        table     => [
            '/:rm/:data?' => { app => 'App' },
        ],
    );

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This dispatch script would be able to map the following URL: http:://www.mydomain.com/index.cgi/loadPage/10. The runmode is taken from the first part of the PATH_INFO (that's what the ":rm" indicates), and the page number is captured by the ":data?". You can access the page number in your runmode with $self->param('data').

The final step would be to get rid of the "index.cgi" part in your URL, but for that you do need to edit your web server config. I generally use mod_rewrite (as I do a lot of mappings), but a suitable <Location> section would suffice as well. The CGI::Application::Dispatch documentation has some examples for you.

In reply to Re: How do I create friendlier URLS? by rhesa
in thread How do I create friendlier URLS? by boboson

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