NAME

WWW::Myspace::MyBase - Base class for WWW::Myspace modules

VERSION

Version 0.3

SYNOPSIS

This is a base class that can be used for all WWW::Myspace modules. It provides basic, standardized options parsing in several formats. It validates data using Params::Validate.

To use this in your new module, you simply subclass this module, add the "default_options" method to define your data, and write your methods.

 package WWW::Myspace::MyModule;
 use WWW::Myspace::MyBase -Base;

 const default_options => { happiness => 1, # Required
                count => { default => 50 }, # Not required, defaults to 50
        };

 field 'happiness';
 field 'count';

 sub mymethod {
        if ( $self->happiness ) { print "I'm happy" }
 }


 People can then call your method with:
 $object = new WWW::Myspace::MyModule( happiness => 5 );
 
 or
 
 $object = new WWW::Myspace::MyModule( { happiness => 5 } );

See Params::Validate for more info on the format of, and available parsing stunts available in, default_options.

METHODS

default_options

This method returns a hashref of the available options and their default values. The format is such that it can be passed to Params::Validate (and, well it is :).

You MUST override this method to return your default options. Fortunately we use Spiffy, so you just have to do this:

 const default_options => {
                option => { default => value },
                option => { default => value },
 };

positional_parameters

If you need to use positional paramteres, define a "positional_parameters" method that returns a reference to a list of the parameter names in order, like this:

 const positional_parameters => [ "username", "password" ];

new

Initialize and return a new object. $myspace is a WWW::Myspace object.

 We accept the following formats:

 new - Just creates and returns the new object.
 new( $myspace ) - Where $myspace is a WWW::Myspace object.
 new( $myspace, $options_hashref ) - Myspace object followed by a hashref 
                   of option => value pairs
 new( $options_hashref )
 new( %options );
 new( @options ); - Each option passed is assigned in order to the keys
                                        of the "DEFAULT_OPTIONS" hash.
 new( 'config_file' => "/path/to/file", 'config_file_format' => 'YAML' );
        - File format can be "YAML" (see YAML.pm) or "CFG" (see Config::General).
        - Defaults to "YAML" if not specified.

If you specify options and a config file, the config file will be read, and any options you explicitly passed will override the options read from the config file.

Allows you to set additional options. This is called by the "new" method to parse, validate, and set options into the object. You can call it yourself if you want to, either to set the options, or to change them later.

 # Set up the object
 $object->new( myspace => $myspace );
 
 # Read in a config file later.
 $object->set_options( config_file => $user_config );

This also lets you override options you supply directly with, say, a user-supplied config file. Otherwise, the options passed to "new" would override the config file.

get_options

General accessor method for all options. Takes a list of options and returns their values.

If called with one option, returns just the value. If called with more than one option, returns a list of option => value pairs (not necessarily in the order of your original list). If called with no arguments, returns a list of all options and their values (as option => value pairs).

This is basically a "catch all" accessor method that allows you to be lazy ad not create accessors for your options.

parse_options

This method is called by set_options to determine the format of the options passed and return a hash of option=>value pairs. If needed, you can call it yourself using the same formats described in "new" above.

 $object->new;
 $object->parse_options( 'username' => $username,
        'config_file' => "/path/to/file" );

read_config_file

This method is called by parse_options. If a "config_file" argument is passed, this method is used to read options from it. Currently supports CFG and YAML formats.

myspace

Sets/retreives the myspace object with which we're logged in. You probably don't need to use this as you'll pass it to the new method instead.

save( filename )

Saves the object to the file specified by "filename". Saved every field specified in the default_options method except the myspace object.

load( filename )

Loads a message in YAML format (i.e. as saved by the save method) from the file specified by filename.

AUTHOR

Grant Grueninger, "<grantg at cpan.org>"

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-www-myspace at rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=WWW-Myspace>. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

NOTES

You currently have to both specify the options in default_options and create accessor methods for those you want accessor methods for (i.e. all of them). This should be made less redundant.

We probably want to include cache_dir and possibile cache_file methods here.

TO DO

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

    perldoc WWW::Myspace::MyBase

You can also look for information at:

AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/WWW-Myspace>
CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/WWW-Myspace>
RT: CPAN's request tracker
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=WWW-Myspace>
Search CPAN
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/WWW-Myspace>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

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