README: OpenPlugin
=======================

OpenPlugin is a Plugin manager for web applications.

There are many web application frameworks out there, and each seems to have
it's own method of handling sessions, user authentication, datasource
management, logging, etc.  OpenPlugin's goal is to make one unified system,
capable of handling those needs for all web application frameworks.  OpenPlugin
offers an interface, plugin, and drivers for each plugin -- you get to choose
what plugins you want loaded, and the exact driver for how that plugin will
function.

For example, OpenPlugin provides an API for logging.  But OpenPlugin doesn't
choose where it logs, thats up to you and your application.  You can have it
log to a file, STDERR, Syslog, or anything you want.  If the driver you want
doesn't exist, simply create one!

The following is a list of the current plugins with their drivers:

Plugin      Description                     Drivers
------      -----------                     -------
Application Subclasses CGI::Application     N/A
Auth        User Authentication             PAM, SMB
Cache       Cache data                      File
Config      Read/Write config files         conf(ro), ini, perl, XML(ro)
Cookie      Generate Cookies                Apache, CGI
Datasource  Manage datasource connections   DBI, LDAP
Exception   Exception Handling              N/A
HttpHeader  Manipulate HTTP Headers         Apache, CGI
Log         Logs messages                   Any offered by Log::Log4perl
Param       Retrieve GET & POST params      Apache, CGI
Request     View request related data       Apache, CGI
Session     Manage sessions                 Any offered by Apache::Session
Upload      Handle file uploads             Apache, CGI


COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2001-2002 Eric Andreychek.  All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHORS

Eric Andreychek <eric@openthought.net>

Thanks to Chris Winters for helping this project get started.  Although he's
quite busy these days, this project wouldn't be where it is today if it weren't
for his efforts early on.