NAME
Data::JavaScript::Anon - Create big, dumb and/or anonymous data structures in JavaScript
SYNOPSIS
# Dump an arbitrary structure to javascript
Data::JavaScript::Anon->anon_dump( [ 'a', 'b', { a => 1, b => 2 } ] );DESCRIPTION
Data::JavaScript::Anon provides the ability to dump large simple data structures to JavaScript. That is, things that don't need to be a class, or have special methods or whatever.
The method it uses is to write anonymous variables, in the same way you would in Perl. The following shows some examples.
# Perl anonymous array
[ 1, 'a', 'Foo Bar' ]
# JavaScript equivalent ( yes, it's exactly the same )
[ 1, 'a', 'Foo Bar' ]
# Perl anonymous hash
{ foo => 1, bar => 'bar' }
# JavaScript equivalent
{ foo: 1, bar: 'bar' }One advantage of doing it in this method is that you do not have to co-ordinate variable names between your HTML templates and Perl. You could use a simple Template Toolkit phrase like the following to get data into your HTML templates.
var javascript_data = [% data $];In this way, it doesn't matter WHAT the HTML template calls a particular variables, the data dumps just the same. This could help you keep the work of JavaScript and Perl programmers ( assuming you were using different people ) seperate, without creating cross-dependencies between their code, such as variable names.
The variables you dump can also be of arbitrary depth and complexity, with a few limitations.
- ARRAY and HASH only
-
Since arrays and hashs are all that is supported by JavaScript, they are the only things you can use in your structs. Any references or a different underlying type will be detected and an error returned.
Note that Data::JavaScript::Anon will use the UNDERLYING type of the data. This means that the blessed classes or objects will be ignored and their data based on the object's underlying implementation type.
This can be a positive thing, as you can put objects for which you expect a certain dump structure into the data to dump, and it will convert to unblessed, more stupid, JavaScript objects cleanly.
- No Circular References
-
Since circular references can't be defined in a single anonymous struct, they are not allowed. Try something like Data::JavaScript instead. Although not supported, they will be detected, and an error returned.
MAIN METHODS
All methods are called as methods directly, in the form Data::JavaScript::Anon->anon_dump( [ 'etc' ] ).
anon_dump STRUCT
The main method of the class, anon_dump takes a single arbitrary data struct, and converts it into an anonymous JavaScript struct.
If needed, the argument can even be a normal text string, although it wouldn't do a lot to it. :)
Returns a string containing the JavaScript struct on success, or undef if an error is found.
var_dump $name, STRUCT
As above, but the var_dump method allows you to specify a variable name, with the resulting JavaScript being var name = struct;. Note that the method WILL put the trailing semi-colon on the string.
script_wrap $javascript
The script_wrap method is a quick way of wrapping a normal JavaScript html tag around your JavaScript.
is_a_number $scalar
When generating the javascript, numbers will be printed directly and not quoted. The is_a_number method provides convenient access to the test that is used to see if something is a number. The test handles just about everything legal in JavaScript, with the one exception of the exotics, such as Infinite, -Infinit and NaN.
Returns true is a scalar is numberic, or false otherwise.
SECONDARY METHODS
The following are a little less general, but may be of some use.
var_scalar $name, \$scalar
Creates a named variable from a scalar reference.
var_array $name, \@array
Creates a named variable from an array reference.
var_hash $name, \%hash
Creates a named variable from a hash reference.
anon_scalar \$scalar
Creates an anonymous JavaScript value from a scalar reference.
anon_array \@array
Creates an anonymous JavaScript array from an array reference.
anon_hash \%hash
Creates an anonymous JavaScript object from a hash reference.
anon_hash_key $value
Applys the formatting for a key in a JavaScript object
SUPPORT
Bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at:
http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Data%3A%3AJavaScript%3A%3AAnon
For other comments or queries, contact the author.
AUTHOR
Adam Kennedy (Maintainer), http://ali.as/, cpan@ali.as
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2003 Adam Kennedy. 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.