How can I introduce a regex action to match the first element in a Catalyst URI?

Background:

I'm using a CRUD framework in Catalyst that auto-generates forms and lists for all tables in a given database. For example: /admin/list/person or /admin/add/person or /admin/edit/person/3 all dynamically generate pages or forms as appropriate for the table 'person'. (In other words, Admin.pm has actions edit, list, add, delete and so on that expect a table argument and possibly a row-identifying argument.)

Question:

In the particular application I'm building, the database will be used by multiple customers, so I want to introduce a URI scheme where the first element is the customer's identifier, followed by the administrative action/table etc:

• /cust1/admin/list/person
• /cust2/admin/add/person
• /cust2/admin/edit/person/3

This is for "branding" purposes, and also to ensure that bookmarks or URLs passed from one user to another do the expected thing.

But I'm having a lot of trouble getting this to work. I would prefer not to have to modify the subs in the existing framework, so I've been trying variations on the following:

sub customer : Regex('^(\w+)/(admin)$') {
    my ($self, $c, @args) = @_;
    #validation of captured arg snipped..
    my $path = join('/', 'admin', @args);
    $c->request->path($path);
    $c->dispatcher->prepare_action($c);
    $c->forward($c->action, $c->req->args);
}

But it just will not behave. I've used regex matching actions many times, but putting one in the very first 'barrel' of a URI seems 开发者_开发百科unusually traumatic. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Make the customer action :Chained and then chain the admin action to that one. For example:

sub customer :Chained('/') :PathPart('') :CaptureArgs(1) {
    # load current customer into the stash
}

sub admin :Chained('customer') :PathPart('admin') :Args(0) {
}

For more information see the Catalyst::DispatchType::Chained

I've marked Dimitar's answer as the correct one, because it put me on the right track to solving this problem. (I've never really had a need for - or grokked FTM - Chained actions until now.)

Here's what I've got in the various controllers, for anyone who's interested.

=== Root.pm ===

sub customer_home : Path: Args(1) { # eg /cust1
    my ($self, $c, $custarg) = @_;
    ...
}

sub ourclub :Chained('/') :PathPart('') :CaptureArgs(1) { # eg /cust1/<admin-function>
    my ($self, $c, $custarg) = @_;
    ...
}

=== Admin.pm ===

use base 'Framework::Controller';

# create chained action versions of the framework actions
sub admin       :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('admin')     { shift->SUPER::admin(@_) }
sub list        :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('list')      { shift->SUPER::list(@_) }
sub view        :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('view')      { shift->SUPER::view(@_) }
sub add         :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('add')       { shift->SUPER::add(@_) }
sub edit        :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('edit')      { shift->SUPER::edit(@_) }
sub delete      :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('delete')    { shift->SUPER::delete(@_) }
sub search      :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('search')    { shift->SUPER::search(@_) }
sub model       :Chained('/customer') :PathPart('model')     { shift->SUPER::model(@_) }

I had a red-hot go at dynamically generating all those subs via *{$action} = eval "sub ..." and related ideas, but eventually had to admit defeat on that.