Richard Clamp > POE-Component-Server-HTTP-0.09 > POE::Component::Server::HTTP



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POE::Component::Server::HTTP - Foundation of a POE HTTP Daemon


 use POE::Component::Server::HTTP;
 use HTTP::Status;
     Port => 8000,
     ContentHandler => {
           '/' => \&handler1,
           '/dir/' => sub { ... },
           '/file' => sub { ... }
     Headers => { Server => 'My Server' },

  sub handler {
      my ($request, $response) = @_;
      return RC_OK;

  POE::Kernel->call($aliases->{httpd}, "shutdown");
  # next line isn't really needed
  POE::Kernel->call($aliases->{tcp}, "shutdown");


POE::Component::Server::HTTP (PoCo::HTTPD) is a framework for building custom HTTP servers based on POE. It is loosely modeled on the ideas of apache and the mod_perl/Apache module.

It is built alot on work done by Gisle Aas on HTTP::* modules and the URI module which are subclassed.

PoCo::HTTPD lets you register different handler, stacked by directory that will be run during the cause of the request.


Handlers are put on a stack in fifo order. The path /foo/bar/baz/honk.txt will first push the handlers of / then of /foo/ then of /foo/bar/, then of /foo/bar/baz/, and lastly /foo/bar/baz/honk.txt. Pay attention to directories! A request for /honk will not match /honk/ as you are used to with apache. If you want /honk to act like a directory, you should have a handler for /honk which redirects to /honk/.

However, there can be only one ContentHandler and if any handler installs a ContentHandler that will override the old ContentHandler.

If no handler installs a ContentHandler it will find the closest one directory wise and use it.

There is also a special StreamHandler which is a coderef that gets invoked if you have turned on streaming by doing $response->streaming(1);

Handlers take the $request and $response objects as arguments.


Everything is ok, please continue processing.


If it is a TransHandler, stop translation handling and carry on with a PreHandler, if it is a PostHandler do nothing, else return denied to the client.


This is a special handler that suspends the execution of the handlers. They will be suspended until $response->continue() is called, this is usefull if you want to do a long request and not blocck.

The following handlers are available.


TransHandlers are run before the URI has been resolved, giving them a chance to change the URI. They can therefore not be registred per directory.

    new(TransHandler => [ sub {return RC_OK} ]);

A TransHandler can stop the dispatching of TransHandlers and jump to the next handler type by specifing RC_DENY;


PreHandlers are stacked by directory and run after TransHandler but before the ContentHandler. They can change ContentHandler (but beware, other PreHandlers might also change it) and push on PostHandlers.

    new(PreHandler => { '/' => [sub {}], '/foo/' => [\&foo]});

The handler that is supposed to give the content. When this handler returns it will send the response object to the client. It will automaticly add Content-Length and Date if these are not set. If the response is streaming it will make sure the correct headers are set. It will also expand any cookies which have been pushed onto the response object.

    new(ContentHandler => { '/' => sub {}, '/foo/' => \&foo});

This handler is called when there is a read or write error on the socket. This is most likely caused by the remote side closing the connection. $resquest->is_error and $response->is_error will return true. Note that PostHanlder will still called, but TransHandler and PreHandler won't be. It is a map to coderefs just like ContentHandler is.


These handlers are run after the socket has been flushed.


If you turn on streaming in any other handler, the request is placed in streaming mode. This handler is called, with the usual parameters, when streaming mode is first entered, and subsequently when each block of data is flushed to the client.

Streaming mode is turned on via the $response object:


You deactivate streaming mode with the same object:


Content is also sent to the client via the $response object:


The output filter is set to POE::Filter::Stream, which passes the data through unchanged. If you are doing a multipart/mixed response, you will have to set up your own headers.


    sub new {
                 ContentHandler => { '/someurl' => sub { $self->someurl(@_) },
                 StreamHandler  => sub { $self->stream(@_),

    sub someurl {
        my($self, $resquest, $response)=@_;
        $self->{todo} = [ .... ];
        $response->code(RC_OK);         # you must set up your response header

        return RC_OK;

    sub stream {

        if( @{$self->{todo}} ) {
            $response->send(shift @{$self->{todo}});
        else {

Another example can be found in t/30_stream.t. The parts dealing with multipart/mixed are well documented and at the end of the file.

NOTE: Changes in streaming mode are only verified when StreamHandler exits. So you must either turn streaming off in your StreamHandler, or make sure that the StreamHandler will be called again. This last is done by sending data to the client. If for some reason you have no data to send, you can get the same result with continue. Remember that this will also cause the StreamHandler to be called one more time.

    my $aliases=POE::Component::Filter::HTTP->new( ....);

    # and then, when the end of the stream in met

NOTE: even when the stream ends, the client connection will be held open if Keepalive is active. To force the connection closed, set the Connection header to close:

    $resquest->header(Connection => 'close');

This might be a bug. Are there any cases where we'd want to keep the connection open after a stream?

Events ^

The shutdown event may be sent to the component indicating that it should shut down. The event may be sent using the return value of the new() method (which is a session id) by either post()ing or call()ing.

I've experienced some problems with the session not receiving the event when it gets post()ed so call() is advised.

See Also ^

Please also take a look at HTTP::Response, HTTP::Request, URI, POE and POE::Filter::HTTPD


Document Connection Response and Request objects.
Write more tests
Add a PoCo::Server::HTTP::Session that matches a http session against poe session using cookies or other state system
Add more options to streaming
Figure out why post()ed shutdown events don't get received.
Probably lots of other API changes


Arthur Bergman,

Additional hacking by Philip Gwyn,

Released under the same terms as POE.

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