rhesa and jZed suggest that I should have spent more time working through the errors and learning this useful tool that was already costing me the good will of a client and a coding partner as I plowed through trying to make it work.

I did work through the perldoc. I did build test scripts. I did bring the errors and issues I encountered to perlmonks, to the CGI::App list and to the relevant irc channel at the time.

http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=537687
http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=546793
http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=550276
http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=550504
where jdtoronto warned me off CGI::App w/ CGI::FB

That a tool works for many does not make it ideal for all. In the end I felt it was more important to deliver the requirements than to learn a complex new module.

CGI::App on its own may be a fine tool, but my efforts to combine it with CGI::App::Plugin::Authentication and CGI::FormBuilder proved a mistake I'm happy to be past. Cees Hek and others were very helpful responding to my questions.

But in the end, with the clock ticking and a client growing impatient, it became more important to deliver a working product than to write the most elegant code possible.