NAME

Config::Abstract - Perl extension for abstracting configuration files

SYNOPSIS

use Config::Abstract;
my $ini = new Config::Abstract('test.pl');

DESCRIPTION

Config::Abstract is the base  class for a  number of  other classes
created to facilitate use and  handling of a  variety of  different
configuration file formats. It uses the Data::Dumper file format to
serialise it self and can be initialise from a file of that  format

EXAMPLES

We assume the content of the file 'test.pl' to be:

 $settings = {
   'book' => {
     'chapter1' => {
       'title' => 'The First Chapter, ever',
       'file' => 'book/chapter1.txt'
     },
     'title' => 'A book of chapters',
     'chapter2' => {
       'title' => 'The Next Chapter, after the First Chapter, ever',
       'file' => 'book/chapter2.txt'
     },
     'author' => 'Me, Myself and Irene'
   }
 };

use Config::Abstract;
my $settingsfile = 'test.pl';
my $abstract = new Config::Abstract($settingsfile);

my %book = $abstract->get_entry('book');
my %chap1 = $abstract->get_entry_setting('book','chapter1');
my $chap1title = $chapter1{'title'};

# Want to see the file?
# If you can live without comments and blank lines ;),
# try this:
print("My abstract file looks like this:\n$abstract\nCool, huh?\n");

# We can also create an ini file from it
# A bit crude, but it does the job
bless($abstract,'Config::Abstract::Ini');
print($abstract);

METHODS

get_all_settings

Returns a hash of all settings found in the processed file

get_entry ENTRYNAME

Returns a hash of the settings within the entry ENTRYNAME

get_entry_setting ENTRYNAME,SETTINGNAME [,DEFAULTVALUE]

Returns the value corresponding to ENTRYNAME,SETTINGSNAME. If the value isn't set it returns undef or, optionally, the DEFAULTVALUE

set_all_settings SETTINGSHASH

Fill settings with data from SETTINGSHASH

set_entry ENTRYNAME,ENTRYHASH

Fill the entry ENTRYNAME with data from ENTRYHASH

set_entry_setting ENTRYNAME,SETTINGNAME,VALUE

Set the setting ENTRYNAME,SETTINGSNAME to VALUE

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2003 Eddie Olsson.

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

AUTHOR

Eddie Olsson <ewt@avajadi.org>

SEE ALSO

perl.