"container"

  container $name, \&body;

This function constructs and returns an instance of Bread::Board::Container. The (optional) &body block may be used to add services or sub-containers within the newly constructed container. Usually, the block is not passed directly, but passed using the "as" function.

For example,

  container 'MyWebApp' => as {
      service my_dispatcher => (
          class => 'MyWebApp::Dispatcher',
      );
  };

If $name starts with '+', and the container is being declared inside another container, then this declaration will instead extend an existing container with the name $name (without the '+').

from an instance

  container $container_instance, \&body

In many cases, subclassing Bread::Board::Container is the easiest route to getting access to this framework. You can do this and still get all the benefits of the syntactic sugar for configuring that class by passing an instance of your container subclass to "container".

You could, for example, configure your container inside the "BUILD" method of your class:

  package MyWebApp;
  use Moose;

  extends 'Bread::Board::Container';

  sub BUILD {
      my $self = shift;

      container $self => as {
          service dbh => ( ... );
      };
  }

with parameters

  container $name, \@parameters, \&body

A third way of using the "container" function is to build a parameterized container. These are useful as a way of providing a placeholder for parts of the configuration that may be provided later. You may not use an instance object in place of the $name in this case.

For more detail on how you might use parameterized containers, see "Parameterized Containers" in Bread::Board::Manual::Concepts::Advanced.

"as"

  as { some_code() };

This is just a replacement for the "sub" keyword that is easier to read when defining containers.

"service"

  service $name, $literal;
  service $name, %service_description;

Within the "as" blocks for your containers, you may construct services using the "service" function. This can construct several different kinds of services based upon how it is called.

literal services

To build a literal service (a Bread::Board::Literal object), just specify a scalar value or reference you want to use as the literal value:

  # In case you need to adjust the gravitational constant of the Universe
  service gravitational_constant => 6.673E-11;

using injections

To build a service using one of the injection services, just fill in all the details required to use that sort of injection:

  service search_service => (
      class => 'MyApp::Search',
      block => sub {
          my $s = shift;
          MyApp::Search->new($s->param('url'), $s->param('type'));
      },
      dependencies => {
          url => 'search_url',
      },
      parameters => {
          type => { isa => 'Str', default => 'text' },
      },
  );

The type of injection performed depends on the parameters used. You may use the "service_class" parameter to pick a specific injector class. For instance, this is useful if you need to use Bread::Board::SetterInjection or have defined a custom injection service. If you specify a "block", block injection will be performed using Bread::Board::BlockInjection. If neither of these is present, constructor injection will be used with Bread::Board::ConstructorInjection (and you must provide the "class" option).

service dependencies

The "dependencies" parameter takes a hashref of dependency names mapped to Bread::Board::Dependency objects, but there are several coercions and sugar functions available to make specifying dependencies as easy as possible. The simplest case is when the names of the services you're depending on are the same as the names that the service you're defining will be accessing them with. In this case, you can just specify an arrayref of service names:

  service foo => (
      dependencies => [ 'bar', 'baz' ],
      # ...
  );

If you need to use a different name, you can specify the dependencies as a hashref instead:

  service foo => (
      dependencies => {
          dbh => 'foo_dbh',
      },
      # ...
  );

You can also specify parameters when depending on a parameterized service:

  service foo => (
      dependencies => [
          { bar => { bar_param => 1 } },
          'baz',
      ],
      # ...
  );

Finally, services themselves can also be specified as dependencies, in which case they will just be resolved directly:

  service foo => (
      dependencies => {
          dsn => Bread::Board::Literal->new(
              name  => 'dsn',
              value => 'dbi:mysql:mydb',
          ),
      },
      # ...
  );

As a special case, an arrayref of dependencies will be interpreted as a service which returns an arrayref containing the resolved values of those dependencies:

  service foo => (
      dependencies => {
          # items will resolve to [ $bar_service->get, $baz_service->get ]
          items => [
              'bar',
              Bread::Board::Literal->new(name => 'baz', value => 'BAZ'),
          ],
      },
      # ...
  );

inheriting and extending services

If the $name starts with a '+', the service definition will instead extend an existing service with the given $name (without the '+'). This works similarly to the "has '+foo'" syntax in Moose. It is most useful when defining a container class where the container is built up in "BUILD" methods, as each class in the inheritance hierarchy can modify services defined in superclasses. The "dependencies" and "parameters" options will be merged with the existing values, rather than overridden. Note that literal services can't be extended, because there's nothing to extend. You can still override them entirely by declaring the service name without a leading '+'.

"literal"

  literal($value);

Creates an anonymous Bread::Board::Literal object with the given value.

          service 'dbh' => (
              block => sub {
                  my $s = shift;
                  require DBI;
                  DBI->connect(
                      $s->param('dsn'),
                      $s->param('username'),
                      $s->param('password'),
                  ) || die "Could not connect";
              },
              dependencies => {
                dsn      => literal 'dbi:SQLite:somedb',
                username => literal 'foo',
                password => literal 'password',

              },
          );

"depends_on"

  depends_on($service_path);

The "depends_on" function creates a Bread::Board::Dependency object for the named $service_path and returns it.

"wire_names"

  wire_names(@service_names);

This function is just a shortcut for passing a hash reference of dependencies into the service. It is not typically needed, since Bread::Board can usually understand what you mean - these declarations are all equivalent:

  service foo => (
      class => 'Pity::TheFoo',
      dependencies => {
          foo => depends_on('foo'),
          bar => depends_on('bar'),
          baz => depends_on('baz'),
      },
  );

  service foo => (
      class => 'Pity::TheFoo',
      dependencies => wire_names(qw( foo bar baz )),
  );

  service foo => (
      class => 'Pity::TheFoo',
      dependencies => {
          foo => 'foo',
          bar => 'bar',
          baz => 'baz',
      },
  );

  service foo => (
      class => 'Pity::TheFoo',
      dependencies => [ qw(foo bar baz ) ],
  );

"typemap"

  typemap $type, $service;
  typemap $type, $service_path;

This creates a type mapping for the named type. Typically, it is paired with the "infer" call like so:

  typemap 'MyApp::Model::UserAccount' => infer;

For more details on what type mapping is and how it works, see Bread::Board::Manual::Concepts::Typemap.

"infer"

  infer;
  infer(%hints);

This is used with "typemap" to help create the typemap inference. It can be used with no arguments to do everything automatically. However, in some cases, you may want to pass a service instance as the argument or a hash of service arguments to change how the type map works. For example, if your type needs to be constructed using a setter injection, you can use an inference similar to this:

  typemap 'MyApp::Model::UserPassword' => infer(
      service_class => 'Bread::Board::SetterInjection',
  );

For more details on what type mapping is and how it works, see Bread::Board::Manual::Concepts::Typemap.

"include"

  include $file;

This is a shortcut for loading a Bread::Board configuration from another file.

  include "filename.pl";

The above is pretty much identical to running:

  do "filename.pl";

However, you might find it more readable to use "include".

"alias"

  alias $service_name, $service_path, %service_description;

This helper allows for the creation of service aliases, which allows you to define a service in one place and then reuse that service with a different name somewhere else. This is sort of like a symbolic link for services. Aliases will be resolved recursively, so an alias can alias an alias.

For example,

  service file_logger => (
      class => 'MyApp::Logger::File',
  );

  alias my_logger => 'file_logger';

"set_root_container"

  set_root_container $container;

You may use this to set a top-level root container for all container definitions.

For example,

  my $app = container MyApp => as { ... };

  Bread::Board::set_root_container($app);

  my $config = container Config => as { ... };

Here the $config container would be created as a sub-container of $app.