Mojolicious a full-featured framework, supporting what some would call Catalyst-level deployments, in addition to one-file simple applications.

Mojolicious::Lite is a thin layer on top of the full framework - literally a 68-line module that provides Sinatra-like syntax, including the ability to embed base64-encoded binary files.

Full apps are a good choice for teams, and for sanely separating concerns for large web apps.

I've uploaded a sample application to demonstrate the differences, and allow folks to see first hand how to translate from Full to Lite, and vice-versa.

The example application demonstrates DBIx::Class integration, how to test your web app with Test::Mojo, as well as how to use EP templates with and without tag helpers. For those unfamiliar with testing in general, there are even examples of DBIC schema tests.

Both apps are identical in functionality:
Full app
Lite app

They are runnable using the morbo development server, as well as hypnotoad, the "full featured UNIX optimized preforking non-blocking I/O HTTP 1.1 and WebSocket server built around the very well tested and reliable Mojo::Server::Daemon with IPv6, TLS, Bonjour, libev and hot deployment support that just works".

Shnikies that's a lot of buzzwords for a Perl framework!

And as always, Mojolicious downloads and installs in about a minute:

curl -L cpanmin.us | perl - Mojolicious

HARNESS_OPTIONS=j9 cpanm Mojolicious

\o/

Mojocast #5: Mojo::UserAgent

If this is your first exposure to mojocasts, you might want to start with the first episode.

Merry Christmas and Happy Unicorns!

Continuing to demonstrate Mojolicious::Lite, the Mojocasts are moving through Mojolicious basics, so newcomers can get up and running more quickly than ever (And dare I say it, have fun at the same time. *gasp*).

As the screencasts continue, you can bet your sweet ponycorn we'll be covering some of the more cutting-edge features, such as web-sockets and event-driven web apps.

For now, however, we have another installment to make sure those old and new can get started quickly with Perl web development, without a lot of fuss.

Mojocast #4: Stash, Flash, and Sessions

Keep in mind - the shortcuts link to specific times in the screencast, so you can share/bookmark specific topics.

Thank you to @kure_ji_neko and elb0w for agreeing to host the Mojocast video files. We can all feel that much more hip by using HTML5 video instead of flash.

How overwhelming?

That's right, your upvotes matter. Within 6 minutes of posting, it was secured on the front page. Within 20 minutes, it was #1.

Consider the reality here: the most watched site on the internet by hackers/developers had a Perl-related post in the top spot. It remained on the front page for 6 hours, which is pretty good for a screencast with no article attached. That's a solid group of folks with a lot of potential aha moments in Perl's favor.

Bottom line: If you care about the marketing of Perl and its exposure among the masses, consider upvoting the Mojocast, leave a comment, and spread the word!

Hooray Perl!

Speaking of which,

Mojocast #3: Authentication, Helpers, and Plugins

Hackernews post

Creating them has been quite the learning curve. My initial inspiration was Vimcasts, and although I don't have the hip accent, I figured I could put something interesting together for...something. It didn't take to long to settle on Perl and my preferred source of Perl unicorns, Mojolicious.

A Vimcast has a very cool, down-to-earth presentation; the music, the tone of voice, and the presentation as a whole tell the viewer, "Yeah, Vim is just that cool, and if you learn this, you'll be that cool as well". Presentation is vital: the Apple logo on most of my devices state as much.

Given Perl's less than stellar rep among the masses, I wanted something to counteract the stale feeling that Perl's critics likely feel - something that screamed "Fresh". Remember, we're talking about feeling here, not facts. I figured the composer of Vimcast's jingle would give me place to start, and luckily, the same composer had a royalty-free tune that broadcasted exactly the feeling I was looking for. Go ahead, listen to the mojocast intro music...close your eyes and picture a world with that theme music.

It's happy. It's fresh. It's a whole new adventure. Everything is going to be different now.

If that's not perfect for a Modern Perl presentation, I don't know what is. Tie that in with the Mojolicious theme of light and fluffy clouds, rainbows, and unicorns...hey, we've got something here.

The content was easy enough - show people how easy it is to get started. Quickly. From scratch, with no clutter. Show them exactly what they need to see, and nothing more. Walk them through the process, and throw in a couple "Huh, that's neat" moments.

I used Screenflow* to capture the screen. After toying with several resolutions, I changed a secondary display to 800x600 and recorded all the actions in sequence, leaving the audio for later. Screenflow allows you to fade opacity levels over time for images and video clips, which is how the intro shows the clouds and logo text in succession. I found that timing isn't important at this stage - you can always modify the speed of clips later on as necessary.

Technically, you could do the entire project from within Screenflow, but the interface is somewhat cumbersome when dealing with the entire timeline. My goal from the beginning was to use iMovie, so I decided to export it.

I'm going to save you a lot of trouble and give you a screenshot of the optimal settings you want to use when transferring a video for use in another program.

There. You have 4 more hours of your life to do something useful with.

iMovie is wonderful. Transitions, text overlays, and image importing are nearly everything you need for a decent screencast. With iMovie '11, you can add voiceovers and change the audio levels with sub-second precision, and see whether the voice levels between clips are equivalent at a glance.

I imported the full movie, and then copied each section of the imported movie into the main timeline according to topic. I learned over time that it's important to mark each section with chapter markers, since the visual representation in the timeline is at best an estimate, and it's easy to get half-empty terminal windows mixed up.

Initially, I used the built-in Macbook mic, and happened to choose a perfect spot at my desk that detected no background noise. I ended up having to re-record all the voiceovers, and learned that the magical spot at my desk was not so easily reproducible. The second episode made use of a Audio Technica AT2020 USB Cardioid condenser microphone, recorded at 50% input volume with -40dB Noise Reduction and voice enhancement enabled. Alias pointed out that professional voiceovers are recorded while standing, so I adjusted my workstation as such; I think you'll agree that Mojocast #2 is a marked improvement in audio quality.

After all the recording is done, it's time to make video edits. There's no shortcut here. It simply takes time.

1. Watch the whole video.
2. Make sure there's enough time between statements so that viewers can take in the visual and auditory information without feeling rushed.
3. Make sure the video matches exactly what the voiceover is talking about. If you're talking about reloading a page, show the action as the word is said.
4. Repeat until you can't stand it anymore

That's pretty much it.

I hope this is helpful to some folk. Thankful readers should buy me some cookies.

Go forth, and make some [your cool subject]casts.

*Update 2012-05-27
Quicktime now supports screen capture with more accurate color reproduction than Screenflow. It is recommended.

The first episode detailed how to install and get your first Mojolicious Lite app running, and the followup continues the process by explaining how to use multiple types of placeholders, http methods, and formats to give you more flexibility in your lite apps.

Mojocast #2: Placeholders, methods, and formats

Hooray!

What started out as an excuse to use iMovie has turned into something useful and galvanizing. Especially encouraging are the comments from folks currently learning Perl; presenting n00b information in an easily consumable and pleasant manner solidifies new users' decisions that Perl is an excellent choice.

The second mojocast is forthcoming, delayed only by the process of moving; sleeping on couches en route has a negative effect on finding quiet locations with decent acoustics, and girls always want attention when you're in their house. Go figure.

Never fear, though, the second mojocast is nearly complete.

Anyone who wants to contribute to its launch and the marketing of Perl through mojocasts, please contact me directly - via comments, email, or in the #mojo irc channel. The comments for the first episode indicate that even the Ruby folk are surprised and impressed with a taste of Modern Perl, so the more people that are onboard, the better; there's every reason to work together to make an impact on Perl's impression in the open source community as a whole.

Viva la revolución!

It details how to install and build your first Mojolicious web application. I'd like to create more, just let me know what Mojolicious-related topics you would like to hear about on http://mojocasts.com. The more feedback I get, the more I'll release.

Mojocast #1 Fun with clouds! from glen hinkle on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Besides the fact that "Erez Schatz" is a cool name by itself, I think he's on to something.

Since it's clear that the Perl6 moniker is going to remain, and most folks are too curmudgeonly to change the name of Perl5, this seems like a good compromise. It allows for a clear marketing difference for each release - one that obviously works elsewhere in the tech industry.

• Perl 5.8 Zombie (because it never dies, haunting us until the end of days)
• Perl 5.10 Onion
• Perl 5.12 Camel
• Perl 5.14 Llama
• Perl 5.16 Butterfly

(You know Sebastian's going to jump at the chance to design a nifty logo for each one)

Peter Shangov's idea is also worth pursuing - a Perl distribution with all the modern toolkits included. Given the recent logo activity, it should be called Raptor. It would be easy enough to start referring to "Raptor", just as "Rails" is a rallying cry for the Ruby folk. It could be downloadable from http://raptor.perl.org, of course - possibly even installable via perlbrew:

$ perlbrew install raptor

By default, Mojolicious will send debug messages to a log/[mode].log file; if the log directory does not exist, messages will default to the terminal console.

You can use any of the four logging groups for customized messages:

With Mojolicious::Plugin::ConsoleLogger, you can log these same messages directly to your browser console.

Declare the plugin:

And view all your log messages directly from your browser:

That's all well and good, but let's take it a step further. You can even see error messages when the template is missing:

Or when there's a template error:

Even when there's a Perl compilation error:

As always, Mojolicious installs in about a minute:
sudo -s 'curl -L cpanmin.us | perl - Mojolicious::Plugin::ConsoleLogger'

Disclaimer:
Implementation stolen from Plack::Middleware::ConsoleLogger

Here's a fairly verbose html sample for us to work with:

First, we initialize and parse the file:
use File::Slurp 'slurp';
use Mojo::DOM;
my $dom = Mojo::DOM->new->parse(scalar slurp 'some.html');

Getting all the articles' contents, of course, is easy:
$dom->find('li a');

But we can do better than that. Let's say we want only the article titles that have page anchors:
$dom->find('a[href^=#]');

Nah, let's get the article titles that link to external urls:
$dom->find('a[href^=http]');

How about only article titles that link to .net domains?
$dom->find('a[href*=.net/]');

We can also get the page anchors themselves:
$dom->find('div.article a[name]');

It could be that some articles have no text content; let's single those out:
$dom->find('div.article p:empty');

Or, if we want only the articles with text content:
$dom->find('div.article p:not(:empty)');

Let's get the articles that are only snippets (class name ends with 'snippet'):
$dom->find('div.article p[class$=snippet]');

There's an advertisement in the markup, let's look at the article immediately following it:
$dom->find('a.advertisement + div.article');

If you're looking to be particularly awesome, with Mojolicious 1.1, you can use all of these selectors from the command line.

Mojo::DOM currently implements all the selectors from jQuery that make contextual sense; if you run into a use case for something that's not implemented, pop into #mojo or the mailing list and make your case. Join the revolution!

As always, it's one-step easy to install:
sudo -s 'curl -L cpanmin.us | perl - Mojolicious'

Mojo::DOM docs