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+---
+title: Less code more dance
+date: 2011-02-16
+layout: post
+category: log
+---
+
+Yes, I've migrated my blog framework again. After several migrations,
+there's finally a web framework that works for me. It's called Dancer,
+and as redundant as this might sound; [[http://perldancer.org/][Dancer]], is an effortless web
+framework.
+
+Last year, I started writing my own mini-blog engine with several
+modules from CPAN; however, the engine became complicated and robust.
+Processing different tasks with more than 5 modules, I was calling
+more objects than actually outputting any useful data. I've known
+about Dancer since its early development, but never expected to run in
+my VPS hosting, [[http://nearlyfreespeech.net][NearlyFreeSpeech]].
+
+*How does it work*\\
+Dancer works like [[http://www.sinatrarb.com/intro][Sinatra]] for Ruby. Just like Sinatra,
+Dancer works with routes. I like to call them, dance moves.
+
+*For every request, there's a dance move...*\\
+A route is an HTTP request with an URL pattern. For every request, there is an associated block of code
+that will handle a task in your web-app.
+
+Simple example:\\
+#+begin_src perl
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+use Dancer;
+
+get '/' => sub {
+    ...do something
+    ...display something
+    ...call something
+};
+
+dance;
+#+end_src
+
+Working example:\\
+#+begin_src perl
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+use Dancer;
+
+get '/feed/:format' => sub {
+    my $db = connect_db();
+    my $sth = $db->prepare($sql) or
+        die $db->errstr;
+    $sth->execute or die $sth->errstr;
+    my $feed = create_feed(
+        format  => params->{format},
+        entries => _get_entries(
+                $sth->fetchall_arrayref({}))
+                );
+    $sth->finish();
+    return $feed;
+};
+
+dance;
+#+end_src
+
+To sum it up, the first example shows the structure of a route. The
+second, shows a working example of my mini-blog engine feed request.
+To get the working example, there has to be a request to
+[[http://log.gnusosa.net/feed/rss][http://log.gnusosa.net/feed/rss]] or [[http://log.gnusosa.net/feed/atom][http://log.gnusosa.net/feed/atom]];
+which ever is the case, the route will display the desired feed
+format.
+
+It took me more time studying Dancer's features and specs, than the
+time it took for me to write the whole mini-blog app. In my case, my
+runtime errors were caused by external modules. Debugging was an easy
+task thanks to the logs generated by the Dancer core, and the error
+message from Dancer's development environment. By the time, I finished
+writing the main routes, there were several examples on how to deploy
+the web-app in a CGI environment.
+
+*An environment becomes a dance floor...*\\
+Dancer comes with a standalone development server, that can bring up
+your apps at http://127.0.0.0:3000/ . This is a handy feature that
+helps to develop without a testing server, that way your focus stays
+on building the web-app, instead, of focusing on transferring files.
+
+Easy as running:\\
+#+begin_src sh
+$ cd App
+$ perl bin/app.pl
+>> Dancer server 16222 listening on http://0.0.0.0:3000
+== Entering the development dance floor ...
+#+end_src
+
+Like most recent Web frameworks for Perl, Dancer supports [[http://plackperl.org/][Plack]]/[[http://plackperl.org/][PSGI]],
+and work together as a built-in script that deploys the web-app in any
+webserver.
+
+*In the dance floor...*\\
+Dancer is known to be fast, and minimalistic. PSGI compatible, Dancer
+can be deployed in any recent webserver, including, the dominant
+Apache. I've seen several instances of Dancer using Nginx, Lighttpd,
+and even Apache with mod_proxy. However, many people don't recommend
+robust web-apps in a CGI deployment, and mid-size apps in Fast-CGI.
+Many add to this discussion that Dancer is capable of handling robust,
+complicated, and resourceful web apps. I subscribe to that idea; with
+a good webserver in a fast enviroment like Fast-CGI or in a lean
+webserver like Nginx, Dancer can show its moves.
+
+To get a better idea of the cases in which Dancer can be opted for,
+there is the [[http://search.cpan.org/dist/Dancer/lib/Dancer/Cookbook.pod][Dancer::Cookbook]], and the [[http://advent.perldancer.org/2010][Dancer Advent Calendar]]. For big
+projects, there is always [[http://www.mojolicious.org/][Mojolicious]].
+
+This log was made with Dancer, and is deployed in a CGI enviroment on
+Apache in a VPS webserver.