NAME

WWW::CPAN - CPAN as a web service

SYNOPSIS

use WWW::CPAN;

$meta = WWW::CPAN->fetch_distmeta('Error');

$cpan = WWW::CPAN->new;
$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta('Error');
$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error' });
$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error-0.13', });
$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error', version => '0.13' }); # same as above
$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta({ dist => 'Error', author => 'GBARR', format => 'json' });

$result = $cpan->query('WWW-CPAN');
$result = $cpan->query({ query => 'WWW-CPAN', mode => 'dist' });

DESCRIPTION

Once upon a time, Schwern waved his hands and Graham implemented a mechanism to get the meta data from CPAN distributions at search.cpan.org.

http://use.perl.org/~schwern/journal/35203

http://www.mail-archive.com/module-build@perl.org/msg01157.html

This module opportunistically implemented a client for this capability. One day, hopefully this may be useful.

A further addition to WWW::CPAN API was the query method to fetch query data from search.cpan.org. This is done by issuing HTTP requests like

http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Romanize&mode=all&format=xml

METHODS

fetch_distmeta

$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta($text);
$meta = $cpan->fetch_distmeta(\%params);

Fetches the meta data (META.yml) of a CPAN distribution.

Supported parameters:

dist    - the distribution to look for
author  - the distribution author
version - the distribution version

query

$res = $cpan->query($text);
$res = $cpan->query(\%params);

Performs a query at CPAN and returns it as a (possibly partial) result set. The structure of the result is illustrated by the example below.

 # result of   WWW::CPAN->query({ query => 'CPAN', mode => 'dist', n => 2 })
 {
   dist    => [
                {
                  author  => { link => 'http://search.cpan.org/~andk/' },
                  description
                          => 'query, download and build perl modules from CPAN sites ',
                  link    => 'http://search.cpan.org/author/ANDK/CPAN-1.9205/',
                  name    => 'CPAN',
                  released
                          => '11th November 2007',
                  version => 1.9205
                },
                {
                  author  => { link => 'http://search.cpan.org/~dons/' },
                  description
                          => 'Download and install CPAN modules upon first use',
                  link    => 'http://search.cpan.org/author/DONS/CPAN-AutoINC-0.01/',
                  name    => 'CPAN-AutoINC',
                  released
                          => '22nd June 2004',
                  version => 0.01
                }
              ],
   matches => 108,
   start   => 1
};

The known parameters of the query are

query  - what to look for
mode   - all | module | dist | author
n      - page size (should be <= 100)
s      - start

The maximum page size (n) is 100. Larger values are reset into 100.

SEE ALSO

(there must be something else to be seen)

BUGS

Please report bugs via CPAN RT http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=WWW-CPAN or mailto://bugs-WWW-CPAN@rt.cpan.org.

AUTHORS

Adriano R. Ferreira, <ferreira@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 by Adriano R. Ferreira

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