Perl Dancer2 infinite-loop on get when calling a method - perl

I made a photobooth with Dancer some years ago and it worked fine.
Now I try to move this to Dancer2. However, It's not working anymore, because I have some infinite-loop.
Let's say my app looks like this:
package App;
use Dancer2;
# Photobox is my pm file with all the magic
use Photobox;
my $photobox = photobox->new();
get '/photo' => sub {
my $photo;
# Trigger cam and download photo. It returns me the filename of the photo.
$photo = $photobox->takePicture();
# Template photo is to show the photo
template 'photo',
{
'photo_filename' => $photo,
'redirect_uri' => "someURI"
};
}
takePicture() looks like this:
sub takePicture {
my $Objekt = shift;
my $return;
my $capture;
$return = `gphoto2 --auto-detect`;
if ($return =~ m/usb:/) {
$capture = `gphoto2 --capture-image-and-download --filename=$photoPath$filename`;
if (!-e $photoPath.$filename) {
return "no-photo-error.png";
}
else {
return $filename;
}
} else {
die "Camera not found: $return";
}
}
When I now call /photo, it'll result in an infinite loop. The browser is "frefreshing" all the time and my cam is shooting one photo after the other. But it never redirects to /showphoto.
It was working with Dancer(1) when I run the application just by perl app.pl from the bin directory. How I use Dancer2 und run it by using plackup app.psgi
I tried to put it into a before hook, but it changed nothing.
Update:
I figured out a way to work around this issue.
First I refactored my code a bit. Basic idea was to split the take photo and show photo operations into two different routes. This makes it easier to see what happens.
get '/takesinglephoto' => sub {
my $photo;
$photo = takePicture();
$single_photo=$photo;
redirect '/showsinglephoto';
;
get '/showsinglephoto' => sub {
set 'layout' => 'fotobox-main';
template 'fotobox_fotostrip',
{
'foto_filename' => $single_photo,
'redirect_uri' => "fotostrip",
'timer' => $timer,
'number' => 'blank'
};
};
And I moved the takePicture method just into my Dancer main App.pm.
Now I recognized from the log output, that the browser does not load the '/takesinglephoto' page once, but refreshes it every some secons. I think the reason is, that takePicture() takes some seconds to run and to return the output. And Dancer does not wait until it ends. With every reload, it triggers the takePicture() again and that causes the infinite-loop.
I worked around this by implementing a simple check to run takePicture() just once.
# define avariable set to 1 / true
my $do_stuff_once = 1;
get '/takesinglephoto' => sub {
my $photo;
# check if variable is true
if ($do_stuff_once == 1) {
$photo = takePicture();
$single_photo=$photo;
# set variable to false
$do_stuff_once = 0;
}
redirect '/showsinglephoto';
};
get '/showsinglephoto' => sub {
# set variable back to true
$do_stuff_once = 1;
set 'layout' => 'fotobox-main';
template 'fotobox_fotostrip',
{
'foto_filename' => $single_photo,
'redirect_uri' => "fotostrip",
'timer' => $timer,
'number' => 'blank'
};
};
Now it still refreshes /takesinglephoto, but it does not trigger takePicture() again and again and finally, when the method returns the photo filename, it redirects to /showsinglephoto.
I would call this a workaround. Is there a better way to solve this?
BR
Arne

Related

Delayed response to slash command with Mojolicious in Perl

I am trying to create a slack application in Perl with mojolicious and I am having the following use case:
Slack sends a request to my API from a slash command and needs a response in a 3 seconds timeframe. However, Slack also gives me the opportunity to send up to 5 more responses in a 30 minute timeframe but still needs an initial response in 3 seconds (it just sends a "late_response_url" in the initial call back so that I could POST something to that url later on). In my case I would like to send an initial response to slack to inform the user that the operation is "running" and after a while send the actual outcome of my slow function to Slack.
Currently, I can do this by spawning a second process using fork() and using one process to respond imidiately as Slack dictates and the second to do the rest of the work and respond later on.
I am trying to do this with Mojolicious' subprocesses to avoid using fork(). However I can't find a way to get this to work....
a sample code of what I am already doing with fork is like this:
sub withpath
{
my $c = shift;
my $user = $c->param('user_name');
my $response_body = {
response_type => "ephemeral",
text => "Running for $user:",
attachments => [
{ text => 'analyze' },
],
};
my $pid = fork();
if($pid != 0){
$c->render( json => $response_body );
}else{
$output = do_time_consuming_things()
$response_body = {
response_type => "in-channel",
text => "Result for $user:",
attachments => [
{ text => $output },
],
};
my $ua = Mojo::UserAgent->new;
my $tx = $ua->post(
$response_url,
{ Accept => '*/*' },
json => $response_body,
);
if( my $res = $tx->success )
{
print "\n success \n";
}
else
{
my $err = $tx->error;
print "$err->{code} response: $err->{message}\n" if $err->{code};
print "Connection error: $err->{message}\n";
}
}
}
So the problem is that no matter how I tried I couldn't replicate the exact same code with Mojolicious' subproccesses. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance!
Actually I just found a solution to my problem!
So here is my solution:
my $c = shift; #receive request
my $user = $c->param('user_name'); #get parameters
my $response_url = $c->param('response_url');
my $text = $c->param('text');
my $response_body = { #create the imidiate response that Slack is waiting for
response_type => "ephemeral",
text => "Running for $user:",
attachments => [
{ text => 'analyze' },
],
};
my $subprocess = Mojo::IOLoop::Subprocess->new; #create the subprocesses
$subprocess->run(
sub {do_time_consuming_things($user,$response_url,$text)}, #this callback is the
#actuall subprocess that will run in background and contains the POST request
#from my "fork" code (with the output) that should send a late response to Slack
sub {# this is a dummy subprocess doing nothing as this is needed by Mojo.
my ($subprocess, $err, #results) = #_;
say $err if $err;
say "\n\nok\n\n";
}
);
#and here is the actual imidiate response outside of the subprocesses in order
#to avoid making the server wait for the subprocess to finish before responding!
$c->render( json => $response_body );
So I actually simply had to put my code of do_time_consuming_things in the first callback (in order for it to run as a subprocess) and use the second callback (that is actually linked to the parent process) as a dummy one and keep my "imidiate" response in the main body of the whole function instead of putting it inside one of the subprocesses. See code comments for more information!

mojolicious helper storing an elasticsearch connection

i'm experimenting with elasticsearch within mojolicious.
I'm reasonably new at both.
I wanted to create a helper to store the ES connection and I was hoping to pass the helper configuration relating to ES (for example the node info, trace_on file etc).
If I write the following very simple helper, it works;
has elasticsearch => sub {
return Search::Elasticsearch->new( nodes => '192.168.56.21:9200', trace_to => ['File','/tmp/elasticsearch.log'] );
};
and then in startup
$self->helper(es => sub { $self->app->elasticsearch() });
however if I try to extend that to take config - like the following -
it fails. I get an error "cannot find index on package" when the application calls $self->es->index
has elasticsearch => sub {
my $config = shift;
my $params->{nodes} = '192.168.56.21:' . $config->{port};
$params->{trace_to} = $config->{trace_to} if $config->{trace_to};
my $es = Search::Elasticsearch->new( $params );
return $es;
};
and in startup
$self->helper(es => sub { $self->app->elasticsearch($self->config->{es}) });
I assume I'm simply misunderstanding helpers or config or both - can someone enlighten me?
Just fyi, in a separate controller file I use the helper as follows;
$self->es->index(
index => $self->_create_index_name($index),
type => 'crawl_data',
id => $esid,
body => {
content => encode_json $data,
}
);
that works fine if I create the helper using the simple (1st) form above.
I hope this is sufficient info? please let me know if anything else is required?
First of all, has and helper are not the same. has is a lazily built instance attribute. The only argument to an attribute constructor is the instance. For an app, it would look like:
package MyApp;
has elasticsearch => sub {
my $app = shift;
Search::ElasticSearch->new($app->config->{es});
};
sub startup {
my $app = shift;
...
}
This instance is then persistent for the life of the application after first use. I'm not sure if S::ES has any reconnect-on-drop logic, so you might need to think about it a permanent object is really what you want.
In contrast a helper is just a method, available to the app, all controllers and all templates (in the latter case, as a function). The first argument to a helper is a controller instance, whether the current one or a new one, depending on context. Therefore you need to build your helper like:
has (elasticsearch => sub {
my ($c, $config) = #_;
$config ||= $c->app->config->{es};
Search::ElasticSearch->new($config);
});
This mechanism will build the instance on demand and can accept pass-in arguments, perhaps for optional configuration override as I have shown in that example.
I hope this answers your questions.

Can I use a AnyEvent->timer() in a AnyEvent::Fork ?

Let's say I work with a number N of account object.
I would like to create for N Account, several forks, and independently include an event AnyEvent-> timer ().
here is what my code looks like:
for my $num_account (1..2) {
my $fork_1 = AnyEvent::Fork
->new
->require ("TweetFactory")
->fork
->run ("TweetFactory::worker",sub {
my ($master_filehandle) =#_;
my $wait1 = AnyEvent->timer(after => 0, interval => 100 ,cb => sub {
my $account = UsersPool::get_account($num_account);
my $tf = new TweetFactory ({account => $account, topic => $topic});
%search_article = $tf->search_articles_from_topic_list($dbh,\$db_access,#rh_website);
$tf->save_url_to_process($dbh,\$db_access,%search_article);
#url_to_process = $tf->get_url_to_process(100,$dbh,\$db_access);
%articles_urls_titles = $tf->get_infos_url($mech,#url_to_process);
$tf->save_url_processed($dbh,\$db_access,%articles_urls_titles);
});
});
my $fork_2 = AnyEvent::Fork
->new
->require ("TargetUsers")
->fork
->run ("TargetUsers::worker",sub {
my ($master_filehandle) =#_;
my $wait2 = AnyEvent->timer(after => 0, interval => 80, cb => sub {
my $account = UsersPool::get_account($num_account);
TargetUsers::save_all_messages($account,$dbh,\$db_access);
});
});
my $fork_3 = AnyEvent::Fork
->new
->require ("TargetUsers")
->fork
->run ("TargetUsers::worker",sub {
my ($master_filehandle) =#_;
my $wait3 = AnyEvent->timer(after => 0 , interval => 80, cb => sub {
my $account = UsersPool::get_account($num_account);
TargetUsers::save_followers($dbh,\$db_access,$account);
});
});
AnyEvent::Loop::run;
}
But during the execution, the timers does not start.
I have, on the contrary, tried to launch an event AnyEvent-> timer in which I create my fork :
my $wait2 = AnyEvent->timer(after => 0, interval => 10, cb => sub {
my $fork_2 = AnyEvent::Fork
->new
->require ("TargetUsers")
->fork
->run ("TargetUsers::worker",sub {
my ($master_filehandle) =#_;
my $account = UsersPool::get_account($num_account);
TargetUsers::save_all_messages($account,$dbh,\$db_access);
});
});
At this moment, the event was well launched, but I had to wait for the execution of the last event to create the next fork.
Have you some idea please ? Thanks
First some observations: in your example, you do not need to call ->fork. You also don't show the code running in the forked process, you only show how you create timers in the parent process, and these should certainly work. Lastly, you don't seem to do anything with the forked process (you do nothing to the $master_filehandle).
More importantly, your example creates and instantly destroys the fork objects, they never survive the loop, and you actually call the loop function inside your for loop, so probably you don't loop more than once
Maybe there is some misunderstanding involved - the callback you pass to run is executed in the parent, the same process whjere you execute AnyEvent::Fork->new, The code that runs in the child would be the TargetUsers::worker function for example.
To make timers work in the newly created processes, you would need to run an event loop in them.
Maybe AnyEvent::Fork::RPC with the async backend would be more suited for your case: it runs an event loop for you, it has a simpler request/response usage and it can pass data to and from the newly created process.

Less verbose debug screen in Catalyst?

in my stage server I would like to activate the debug so the clients can find errors for themselves before the app goes to the production server.
BUT I only want the first part of the message, not the Request, or the Session Data.
For example: Couldn't render template "templates/home.tt2: file error - templates/inc/heater: not found".
The message is enough for me and for my client to see that the "header" call is misspelled.
The Request has a lot of irrelevant information for the client, but also has A LOT of internal developing information that should be hidden all the time!!
Regards
What you want is to override Catalyst's dump_these method. This returns a list of things to display on Catalyst's error debugging page.
The default implementation looks like:
sub dump_these {
my $c = shift;
[ Request => $c->req ],
[ Response => $c->res ],
[ Stash => $c->stash ],
[ Config => $c->config ];
}
but you can make it more restrictive, for example
sub dump_these {
my $c = shift;
return [ Apology => "We're sorry that you encountered a problem" ],
[ Response => substr($c->res->body, 0, 512) ];
}
You would define dump_these in your app's main module -- the one where you use Catalyst.
I had a similar problem that I solved by overriding the Catalyst method log_request_parameters.
Something like this (as #mob said, put it in your main module):
sub log_request_parameters {
my $c = shift;
my %all_params = #_;
my $copy = Clone::clone(\%all_params); # don't change the 'real' request params
# Then, do anything you want to only print what matters to you,
# for example, to hide some POST parameters:
my $body = $copy->{body} || {};
foreach my $key (keys %$body) {
$body->{$key} = '****' if $key =~ /password/;
}
return $c->SUPER::log_request_parameters( %$copy );
}
But you could also simply return at the beginning, if you don't want any GET/POST parameters displayed.
Well, I didn't think of the more obvious solution, in your case: you could simply set your log level to something higher than debug, which would prevent these debug logs from being displayed, but would keep the error logs:
# (or a similar condition to check you are not on the production server)
if ( !__PACKAGE__->config->{dev} ) {
__PACKAGE__->log->levels( 'warn', 'error', 'fatal' ) if ref __PACKAGE__->log;
}

How to remove login form from this CGI::Application example?

In this tutorial he creates a custom login form, just to show how it is done. Please search for
How do I remove the custom login and fall back to the default?
To code looks like this
sub cgiapp_init {
my $self = shift;
my %CFG = $self->cfg;
# ...
$self->authen->config(
DRIVER => [ 'Authen::Simple::LDAP',
host => '',
basedn => '',
],
STORE => 'Session',
LOGOUT_RUNMODE => 'logout',
LOGIN_RUNMODE => 'login',
POST_LOGIN_RUNMODE => 'okay',
RENDER_LOGIN => \&my_login_form,
);
$self->authen->protected_runmodes(
'mustlogin',
);
}
sub login : Runmode {
my $self = shift;
my $url = $self->query->url;
my $user = $self->authen->username;
if ($user) {
my $message = "User $user is already logged in!";
my $template = $self->load_tmpl('default.html');
$template->param(MESSAGE => $message);
$template->param(MYURL => $url);
return $template->output;
} else {
my $url = $self->query->self_url;
unless ($url =~ /^https/) {
$url =~ s/^http/https/;
return $self->redirect($url);
}
return $self->my_login_form;
}
}
Update
Here is mentions that CGI::Application have a default login that looks better than his.
Line 159 specifies a subroutine to use
to generate a login form. Note that
the Authentication plugin comes with a
default form that you can use. I'm
including this one just to demonstrate
how to go about creating one of your
own, in case you really want to. The
default one actually looks much better
than mine, so you might wish to
comment out line 159!
I'm the author of that tutorial. Sorry for the confusion!
What I should have said is "comment out lines 157, 158, and 159 of Login.pm".
To use the default form that's built in to the CGI::Application::Plugin::Authentication module, you don't need to specify LOGIN_RUNMODE, POST_LOGIN_RUNMODE, or RENDER_LOGIN.
Those are all provided just to help you customize your login page. I included a customized
version in the tutorial thinking that most people would need to know how to do so.
The default one actually looks much better than mine, so you might wish to comment out line 159!
Comment out line 159.