HTML::Mason

Mason is a powerful Perl-based web site development and delivery engine. With Mason you can embed Perl code in your HTML and construct pages from shared, reusable components.

Installing HTML::Mason

• Using the CPAN shell

  Perform the installation as the same user that the web server was installed as.

  # $ZEUSHOME/zperl/bin/perl -MCPAN -e shell
  cpan> install HTML::Mason

  The CPAN shell will prompt to install all the necessary dependencies for you.

• Manually

  Download the HTML::Mason package and untar it. Run the following commands in the directory that is created.

  $ $ZEUSHOME/zperl/bin/perl Makefile.PL
   
  $ make
  $ make test

  Now, install HTML::Mason; run the following command as the same user that the web server was installed as:

  # make install

  The HTML::Mason documentation lists dependencies that must be installed prior to installing HTML::Mason.

Configuring HTML::Mason

Create a virtual server, or edit an existing virtual server. Enable Perl Extensions (API Support: Perl) and htaccess (Access: htaccess Support), and create a global .htaccess file containing the following:

 PerlModule Zeus::ModPerl::Server
 
PerlModule HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler
 
<FilesMatch "\.html$">
   SetHandler perl-script
   PerlHandler HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler
 
</FilesMatch>

HTML::Mason creates a private cache in the directory $ZEUSHOME/mason. If your web server is running as root, the Perl runner will not have the correct permissions to create this directory; create it manually, and set the permissions accordingly (eg, chown nobody).

Restart your virtual server, and verify that you can retrieve pages from the web site.

Testing HTML::Mason

Insert the following text into one of your .html pages:

2+2=<% 2+2 %>

HTML::Mason will parse and handle all text inside the <% and %> brackets; when you reload the page, you should see the following:

2+2=4

Troubleshooting

Error messages are logged to the file $ZEUSHOME/web/log/errors. Review this file if you encounter any problems.

Content Manager [Administrator] 14 December 2005