NAME

Pod::Tests - Extracts embedded tests and code examples from POD

SYNOPSIS

LOOK AT Test::Inline FIRST!

use Pod::Tests;
$p = Pod::Tests->new;

$p->parse_file($file);
$p->parse_fh($fh);
$p->parse(@code);

my @examples = $p->examples;
my @tests    = $p->tests;

foreach my $example (@examples) {
    print "The example:  '$example->{code}' was on line ".
          "$example->{line}\n";
}

my @test_code         = $p->build_tests(@tests);
my @example_test_code = $p->build_examples(@examples);

DESCRIPTION

LOOK AT Test::Inline FIRST!

This is a specialized POD viewer to extract embedded tests and code examples from POD. It doesn't do much more than that. pod2test does the useful work.

Parsing

After creating a Pod::Tests object, you parse the POD by calling one of the available parsing methods documented below. You can call parse as many times as you'd like, all examples and tests found will stack up inside the object.

Testing

Once extracted, the tests can be built into stand-alone testing code using the build_tests() and build_examples() methods. However, it is recommended that you first look at the pod2test program before embarking on this.

Methods

new

$parser = Pod::Tests->new;

Returns a new Pod::Tests object which lets you read tests and examples out of a POD document.

parse

$parser->parse(@code);

Finds the examples and tests in a bunch of lines of Perl @code. Once run they're available via examples() and testing().

parse_fh

parse_file

$parser->parse_file($filename);
$parser->parse_fh($fh);

Just like parse() except it works on a file or a filehandle, respectively.

examples

testing

@examples = $parser->examples;
@testing  = $parser->tests;

Returns the examples and tests found in the parsed POD documents. Each element of @examples and @testing is a hash representing an individual testing block and contains information about that block.

$test->{code}         actual testing code
$test->{line}         line from where the test was taken

NOTE In the future, these will become full-blown objects.

build_tests

my @code = $p->build_tests(@tests);

Returns a code fragment based on the given embedded @tests. This fragment is expected to print the usual "ok/not ok" (or something Test::Harness can read) or nothing at all.

Typical usage might be:

my @code = $p->build_tests($p->tests);

This fragment is suitable for placing into a larger test script.

NOTE Look at pod2test before embarking on your own test building.

build_examples

my @code = $p->build_examples(@examples);

Similar to build_tests(), it creates a code fragment which tests the basic validity of your example code. Essentially, it just makes sure it compiles.

If your example has an "example testing" block associated with it it will run the the example code and the example testing block.

EXAMPLES

Here's the simplest example, just finding the tests and examples in a single module.

my $p = Pod::Tests->new;
$p->parse_file("path/to/Some.pm");

And one to find all the tests and examples in a directory of files. This illustrates building a set of examples and tests through multiple calls to parse_file().

my $p = Pod::Tests->new;
opendir(PODS, "path/to/some/lib/") || die $!;
while( my $file = readdir PODS ) {
    $p->parse_file($file);
}
printf "Found %d examples and %d tests in path/to/some/lib\n",
       scalar $p->examples, scalar $p->tests;

Finally, an example of parsing your own POD using the DATA filehandle.

use Fcntl qw(:seek);
my $p = Pod::Tests->new;

# Seek to the beginning of the current code.
seek(DATA, 0, SEEK_SET) || die $!;
$p->parse_fh(\*DATA);

AUTHOR

Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>

SEE ALSO

Test::Inline

pod2test, Perl 6 RFC 183 http://dev.perl.org/rfc183.pod

Short set of slides on Pod::Tests http://www.pobox.com/~schwern/talks/Embedded_Testing/

Similar schemes can be found in SelfTest and Test::Unit.