NAME

IRC::Indexer::Output - Turn trawler output into something useful

SYNOPSIS

use IRC::Indexer::Output::JSON;
# or: use IRC::Indexer::Output::YAML;
# or: use IRC::Indexer::Output::Dumper;

## Convert trawler output into JSON, for example:
my $output = IRC::Indexer::Output::JSON->new(
  Input => $trawler->dump,
);

## Get output as a scalar:
print $output->dump;

## Write output to file:
$output->write($path);

DESCRIPTION

The IRC::Indexer::Output subclasses can convert IRC::Indexer::Bot::Trawl hashes into portable data formats.

You wouldn't normally use this module directly unless you are writing an output subclass; instead, you would use a subclass for a particular format, such as IRC::Indexer::Output::JSON.

API

When writing an output subclass, you will need to override the methods dump() and write() to set a proper Output scalar:

our @ISA = qw/IRC::Indexer::Output/;

sub dump {
  my ($self) = @_;
  my $input = $self->{Input};
  ## Serialize the $input hashref any way you like:
  $self->{Output} = frobulate_my_input($input);
  $self->SUPER::dump();
}

sub write {
  my ($self, $path) = @_;
  my $input = $self->{Input};
  $self->{Output} = frobulate_my_input($input);
  $self->SUPER::write($path);
}

AUTHOR

Jon Portnoy <avenj@cobaltirc.org>