NAME

Class::Inheritance - get and set inheritance values for a class.

SYNOPSIS

use Class::Inheritance;
my $ci = new Class::Inheritance;
$ci->format('type'=>'simple');

  # Example class and method. Change to the class and method you want.
my $class = 'CGI';
my $method = 'param';

print $ci->source('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method); 
print $ci->tree('class'=>$class); 
print $ci->sources('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method); 
print $ci->tree_children('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method,);
print $ci->subclasses('class'=>$class);
print $ci->source_all('method'=>$method);
print $ci->trees_all('method'=>$method);
print $ci->tree_children('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method);

  ### Do not use these methods. 
$ci->function_in_isa('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method);
$ci->method_return_type(method'=>$method, list=>[]);

DESCRIPTION

Class::Inheritance tries to get all the information you would ever 
need regarding inheritance and multiple inheritance for classes. 
The main focus of the module is to ask "From which class did this
method come from?".

NOTE: You MUST have the classes loaded in order for them to be 
searched. In the future, there will be options for it to scan all 
modules loaded on your system -- but it does not do it yet. 

The current state of Class::Inheritance is alpha-quality material. 
The code is going to be ripped apart and redone, but the basic
methods should remain. It most likely will take heavy use of 
Class::Inspector in the future. 

Setting values for classes is not implemented yet. 

TERMS AND OPTIONS

  Options common to most methods. 

1. "return_type" can have the values "", "list", or "string". 
     Default "string".
2. "class" is the name of the class in question. Also, defaults
   to "package" if defined. 
3. "package" contains the class you are looking for. Most of the 
    time you do not need to specify this. Defaults to "class".  

  Options for the object. 

1. "debug" will turn off and on the debug levels. 
2. "format" has the options of "" or "simple". "simple" returns
   a string ready for printing. 

METHODS

source

Returns the name of the class which this method came from. Only 
searches loaded classes.

tree

This returns the inheritance tree for a class. Only searches
loaded classes.

Returns all the classes in the inheritance tree of a classes has
this method defined. This does not include classes which inherited
the method. Only searches loaded classes.

tree_children

Returns the classes which inherit a method from a class. Only 
searches loaded classes. 

subclasses

Returns all the loaded subclasses for a class. 

source_all

Returns all the sources for a method from the loaded classes. 
This will search all loaded classes. Any class that has this
method defined (not inherited) should be in this list. 

trees_all

Returns all the trees of classes which contain a method. Only 
searches loaded classes. 

AUTHOR

Mark Nielsen
articles@tcu-inc.com
http://tcu-inc.com/

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2004 Mark Nielsen. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.