/ 
Class-Ref-0.06
River stage zero No dependents
/ Class::Ref

NAME

Class::Ref - Automatic OO wrapping of container references

SYNOPSIS

$o = Class::Ref->new({ foo => { bar => 'Hello World!' } });
$o->foo->bar;    # returns "Hello World!"
$o->baz({ blah => 123 });
$o->baz->blah;    # returns 123

$o = Class::Ref->new({ foo => [{ bar => 'Hello Again!' }] });
$o->foo->[0]->bar;    # returns "Hello Again!"

DESCRIPTION

Class::Ref provides an OO wrapping layer around Hash and Array references. Part of the magic is that it does this deeply and across array/hash boundaries.

OPTIONS

Some of the behavior of the encapsulation can be modified by the following options:

$raw_access (Default: 0)
$o = Class::Ref->new({ foo => { bar => 1 } });
{
    $Class::Ref::raw_access = 1;
    $o->foo;    # returns { bar => 1 }
}

Should you ever need to work with the raw contents of the data structure, setting $raw_access with cause every member retrieval to just the referenced data rather than a wrapped form of it.

The observant reader will note that this does not provide access to the base data. In order to access that, you must dereference the object:

$$o;    # returns { foo => { bar => 1 } } unblessed

See GUTS for more information.

$allow_undef (Default: 0)
$o = Class::Ref->new({ foo => { bar => 1 } });
{
    local $Class::Ref::allow_undef = 1;
    $o->not_here;    # returns undef
}
$o->not_here;        # raises exception

By default, an exception will be raised if you try to read from a HASH key that is non-existent.

METHODS

There is only the constructor.

new
$o = Class::Ref->new({...});
$o = Class::Ref->new([...]);

Wrap the provided reference in OO getters and setters.

PHILOSOPHY

A lot of effort has been made to ensure that the only code that changes your wrapped data is your code. There is no blessing of any of the data wrapped by Class::Ref.

With that being said, the goal has been to reduce the syntax need to access values deep inside a HASH/ARRAY reference.

HASH Refs

Wrapping a HASH is a fairly straightforward process. All keys of the hash will be made available as a method call.

There is a bit more here however. If, for example, you accessed the actual hash, Class::Ref will still encapsulate the return value if that value is a HASH or an ARRAY:

$o = Class::Ref->new({ foo => { bar => 1 } });
$o->{foo}->bar;    # works

But all without modifying, blessing, or otherwise messing with the value. The data referenced with $o remains the same as when it originally wrapped.

ARRAY Refs

Wrapping ARRAYs is much less straightforward. Using an AUTOLOAD method doesn't help because perl symbols cannot begin with a number. Makes it a little difficult to do the following:

$o->0;    # compile error

So for the purpose of this module, wrapped ARRAYs exactly like an ARRAY reference:

$o->[0];    # ahh, much better

The tricky part comes in wanting to make sure that values returned from such a call would still be wrapped:

$o->[0]->foo;    # $o = [{ foo => 'bar' }]

See GUTS for more discussion on how this is done.

I am still debating if adding formal accessor methods would be helpful in this context.

GUTS

All objects created and returned by Class::Ref are blessed REF types. This is what protects the original reference from being blessed into an unwanted package. The ref type of the given value is what determines what package the REF is blessed into. HASHes go into Class::Ref::HASH and ARRAYs go into Class::Ref::ARRAY.

The use of the overload pragma to overload the dereference operators allows the REF object to still be accessed as HASH refs and ARRAY refs. When these REFs are coerced into their appropriate type, they are wrapped in a tie mechanism to retain control over the return of member values.

The only way to fully bypass all of this is to manually dereference the REF object:

$o = Class::Ref->new({ foo => 1 });
$$o->{foo};

CAVEATS

When dealing with a wrapped HASH, there is no way to access keys named isa and can. They are core methods perl uses to interact with OO values.

Accessing HASH members with invalid perl symbols is possible with a little work:

my $method = '0) key';
$o->$method;    # access $o->{'0) key'};

SEE ALSO

I've always wanted to have this kind of functionality for hashes that really needed a more formal interface. However, I found myself wanting more from the existing modules out there in the wild. So I borrowed some the great ideas out there and brewed my own implementation to have the level of flexibility that I desire. And if it helps others, that's awesome too.

  • Class::Hash

    Probably the de facto module for creating accessors to a hash. However, it only provides a single layer of encapsulation.

  • Class::ConfigHash

    Provides a deeper implementation but takes (avoids) steps to make the hash read-only.

  • Hash::AsObject

    Also provides a deep implementation. Goes further to provide access to methods like AUTOLOAD and DESTROY.

AUTHOR

William Cox <mydimension@gmail.com>

LICENSE

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

See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/