NAME

Autoload::AUTOCAN - Easily set up autoloading

SYNOPSIS

package My::Class;
use Moo; # or object system of choice
use Autoload::AUTOCAN;

has count => (is => 'rw', default => 0);

sub increment { $_[0]->count($_[0]->count + 1) }

sub AUTOCAN {
  my ($self, $method) = @_;
  return sub { $_[0]->increment } if $method =~ m/inc/;
  return undef;
}

1;

# elsewhere
my $obj = My::Class->new;
$obj->inc;
say $obj->count; # 1
$obj->increment; # existing method, not autoloaded
say $obj->count; # 2
$obj->do_increment;
say $obj->count; # 3
$obj->explode; # method not found error

DESCRIPTION

Autoloading is a very powerful mechanism for dynamically handling function calls that are not defined. However, its implementation is very complicated. For the simple case where you wish to allow method calls to methods that don't yet exist, this module allows you to define an AUTOCAN method which will return either a code reference or undef.

Autoload::AUTOCAN installs an AUTOLOAD subroutine in the current package, which is invoked when an unknown method is called. The installed AUTOLOAD will call AUTOCAN with the invocant (class or object the method was called on) and the method name. If AUTOCAN returns a code reference, it will be called with the same arguments as passed to the unknown method (including the invocant). If AUTOCAN returns undef, an error will be thrown as expected when calling an undefined method.

Along with AUTOLOAD, the module installs a can method which returns code references as normal for defined methods (see UNIVERSAL), and delegates to AUTOCAN for unknown methods.

AUTOLOAD affects standard function calls in addition to method calls. By default, the AUTOLOAD provided by this module will die (as Perl normally does without a defined AUTOLOAD) if a nonexistent function is called without a class or object invocant. If you wish to autoload functions instead of methods, you can pass functions as an import argument, and the installed AUTOLOAD will autoload functions using AUTOCAN from the current package, rather than using the first argument as an invocant.

package My::Functions;
use Autoload::AUTOCAN 'functions';

sub AUTOCAN {
  my ($package, $function) = @_;
  return sub { $_[0]x5 } if $function =~ m/dup/;
  return undef;
}

# elsewhere
say My::Functions::duplicate('foo'); # foofoofoofoofoo
say My::Functions::foo('bar'); # undefined subroutine error

BUGS

Report any issues on the public bugtracker.

AUTHOR

Dan Book <dbook@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is Copyright (c) 2017 by Dan Book.

This is free software, licensed under:

The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)

SEE ALSO

AutoLoader, SelfLoader