Class Methods

Just create a new object (blessed hashref) and pass along @params to the "init()" method, which subclasses can override to initialize themselves.

Returns: new object

Object Methods

Subclasses may implement to do initialization. The @params are whatever is passed into "new()". Nothing need be returned.

log()

Returns the logger for the instance, based on the instance class.

param( [ $name, $value ] )

Associate arbitrary parameters with this object.

If neither $name nor $value given, return a hashref of all parameters set in object:

 my $params = $object->param();
 while ( my ( $name, $value ) = each %{ $params } ) {
     print "$name = $params->{ $name }\n";
 }

If $name given and it is a hash reference, assign all the values of the reference to the object parameters. This is the way to assign multiple parameters at once. Note that these will overwrite any existing parameter values. Return a hashref of all parameters set in object.

 $object->param({ foo => 'bar',
                  baz => 'blarney' });

If $name given and it is not a hash reference, return the value associated with it, "undef" if $name was not previously set.

 my $value = $object->param( 'foo' );
 print "Value of 'foo' is '$value'\n";

If $name and $value given, associate $name with $value, overwriting any existing value, and return the new value.

 $object->param( foo => 'blurney' );

delete_param( [ $name ] )

Delete parameters from this object.

If $name given and it is an array reference, then delete all parameters from this object. All deleted parameters will be returned as a hash reference together with their values.

 my $deleted = $object->delete_param(['foo','baz']);
 foreach my $key (keys %{$deleted})
 {
   print $key."::=".$deleted->{$key}."\n";
 }

If $name given and it is not an array reference, delete the parameter and return the value of the parameter.

 my $value = $object->delete_param( 'foo' );
 print "Value of 'foo' was '$value'\n";

If $name is not defined or $name does not exists the undef is returned.

clear_params()

Clears out all parameters associated with this object.

normalize_array( \@array | $item )

If given "\@array" return it dereferenced; if given $item, return it in a list. If given neither return an empty list.