Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason

Chapter 9. Mason and CGI

Although mod_perl is pretty cool, it’s not the only way to use Mason to build a web site. In fact, plenty of times it’s more advisable to use CGI than mod_perl, as we describe in this chapter. If you find yourself in such a situation, you’re in luck — Mason works just fine under CGI, and special care has gone into making sure the cooperation is smooth. The HTML::Mason::CGIHandler module provides the glue necessary to use Mason in most common CGI environments.

CGI-Appropriate Situations

Before we get into the details of how to set up Mason under CGI, let’s think about why you might want to use this setup. After all, isn’t mod_perl supposed to be better than CGI? Well, yes and no. As in most things, context is everything. The following factors may conspire to make you choose clunky old CGI over clunky new mod_perl in a particular situation:

Need instant gratification

Installing mod_perl can be somewhat difficult if you’ve never done it before (heck, even if you have done it before), and it can take a while to get used to the peculiarities of developing in a mod_perl environment. If you want to try Mason out but don’t want to spend time installing and configuring mod_perl (or you don’t want to wait for the person who’s going to come install it for you), you may be interested in using HTML::Mason::CGIHandler to start development, then switching over to mod_perl and HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler once you’ve gotten comfortable with mod_perl.

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