NAME

MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf - Less Boilerplate when you need lots of Instances

SYNOPSIS

Here is the "canonical" form of this role's parameters:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Album::Photo',
	prefix => 'photo',
	constructor => 'new', 
	args => [],
	fixed_args => [],
	extra_class_handles => {},
};

Given this, your "MyApp::Album" will now have an attribute called 'photo', which is an instance of "MyApp::Album::Photo". Other methods and attributes are also created.

Not all parameters are required. The above could also be written as:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {target => '::Photo'};

Given the above parameters, this role calls a template and builds the following code into your class:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

has photo_class => (
	is => 'ro',
	isa => 'ClassName',
	required => 1,
	default => 'MyApp::Album::Photo',
	lazy => 1,
	handles => sub {
		return (
			create_photo => 'new',
		);
	},
);

has photo_args => (
	is => 'ro',
	isa => 'ArrayRef',
	lazy_build => 1,
);

sub _build_photo_args {
	return []; ## Populated from 'args' parameter
};

has photo_fixed_args => (
	is => 'ro',
	init_arg => undef,
	isa => 'ArrayRef',
	lazy_build => 1,
);

sub _build_args_fixed_args {
	return []; ## Populated from 'fixed_args' parameter
};

has photo => (
	is => 'ro', 
	isa => 'Object', 
	init_arg => undef, 
	lazy_build => 1,
);

sub _build_photo {
	my $self = shift @_;
	my $create = 'create_photo';
	$self->$create($self->merge_album_args);
}

sub merge_photo_args {
	my $self = shift @_;
	my $fixed_args = "photo_fixed_args";
	my $args = "photo_args";
	return (
		@{$self->$fixed_args},
		@{$self->$args},
	);
};

The above example removed a few extraneous bits, we were getting a little long for a SYNOPSIS.

This role can be called multiple times, either against other target classes, or even the same class (although using a different prefix. You can also modify the generated methods or attributes in the normal Moose way. See </COOKBOOK> for examples.

You can now instantiate your class with the following (assuming your MyApp::Photos class allows for a 'source_dir' attribute.)

my $album = MyApp::Album(photo_args=>[source_dir=>'~/photos']);

The overall goal here being to allow you to defer choice of class and arguments to when the class is actually used, thus achieving maximum flexibility. We can do with with a minimum of Boilerplate code, thus encouraging rather than punishing well separated and clean design.

Please review the test example and case in /t for more assistance.

DESCRIPTION

There can often be a tension between coding for flexibility and for future growth and writing code that is terse, to the point, and solves the smallest possible business problem that is brought to you. Writing the minimum code to solve a particular problem has merit, yet can eventually leave you with an application that has many hacky modifications and is hard to test in an isolated manner. Minimum code should not imply minimum forward planning or poorly tested code.

For me, doing the right thing means I need to both limit myself to the smallest possible solution for a given business case, yet make sure I am not writing CODE that is impossible to grow over time in a clean manner. Generally I attempt to do this by clearly separating the problem domains under a business case into distinct classes. I then tie all the functional bits together in the loosest manner possible. Moose makes this easy, with its powerful attribute features, type coercions and Roles to augment classical inheritance.

Loose coupling and deep configurability work well with inversion of control systems, like Bread::Board or the IOC built into the Catalyst MVC framework. It helps me to defer decisions to the proper authority and also makes it easier to test my logic, since pieces are easier to test independently.

Although this leaves me with the design I desire, I find there's a lot of repeated Boilerplate code and logic, particularly in my main application class which often will marshall several underlying classes, each of which is performing a particular job. For example:

package MyApp::WebPage;

use Moose;
use Path::Class qw(file);
use MyApp::Web::Text;

has text => (is=>'ro', required=>1, lazy_build=>1);

sub _build_text {
	file("~/text_for_webpage")->slurp;
}

NOTE: For clarity I removed some of the extra type constraint checking and type coercions I'd normally have here. Please see the test cases in /t for a working example.

This retrieves the text for a single webpage. But what happens when you want to reuse the same class to load webpage data from different directories?

package MyApp::WebPage;

use Moose;
use Path::Class qw(file);
use MyApp::Web::Text;

has root => (is=>'ro', required=>1);
has text => (is=>'ro', required=>1, lazy_build=>1);

sub _build_text {
	my ($self) = @_;
	file($self->root)->slurp;
}

(Again, I removed the normal type checking and sanity/security checks in order to keep things to the point).

Well, now I start to think that the job of slurping up text really belongs to another dedicated class, since WebPage is about methods on web media, and is not concerned at all with storage or storage mediums. Delegating the job of retrieval to a different class also has the big upsides of making it easier to test each class in turn and gives me more reuseable code. It also makes each class smaller in terms of code line weight, and that promotes understanding.

package MyApp::WebPage;

use Moose;
use MyApp::Storage
use MyApp::Web::Text;

has root => (is=>'ro', required=>1);
has storage => (is=>'ro', required=>1, lazy_build=>1);
has text => (is=>'ro', required=>1, lazy_build=>1);

sub _build_storage {
	MyApp::Storage->new(root=>$self->root);
}

sub _build_text {
	my ($self) = @_;
	$self->storage->get_text;
}

Then what happens when you start to realize Storage needs additional args, or you need to be able to read from a subversion repository or a database? Now you need more control over which Storage class is loaded, and more flexibility in what args are passed. You also find out that you are going to need subclasses of 'MyApp::Web::Text', since some text is going to be HTML and others in Wiki format. You may end up with something like:

package MyApp::WebPage;

use Moose;

has storage_class => (
	is => 'ro',
	isa => 'ClassName',
	required => 1,
	default => 'MyApp::Storage',
	handles => { create_storage => 'new' },
);

has storage_args => (
	is => 'ro',
	isa => 'ArrayRef',
	required => 1,
);

has storage => (is=>'ro', required=>1, lazy_build=>1);

sub _build_storage {
	my ($self) = @_;
	$self->create_storage(@{$self->storage_args});
}


has text_class => (
	is => 'ro',
	isa => 'ClassName',
	required => 1,
	default => 'MyApp::Text',
	handles => { create_text => 'new' },
);

has text_args => (
	is => 'ro',
	isa => 'ArrayRef',
	required => 1,
);

has text => (is=>'ro', required=>1, lazy_build=>1);

sub _build_text {
	my ($self) = @_;
	$self->create_text(@{$self->text_args});
}

Which would allow a very flexibile instantiation:

my $app = MyApp->new(
	storage_class=>'MyApp::Storage::WebStorage',
	storage_args=>[host_website=>'http://mystorage.com/']
	text_class=>'MyApp::WikiText,
	text_args=>[wiki_links=>1]
);

But is pretty verbose. And if you wanted to add enough useful hooks so that your subclassers can modify the whole process as needed, then you are going to end up with even more repeated code.

With MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf you could simple do instead:

package MyApp::WebPage;
use Moose;
with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {target=>'~Storage'};
with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {target=>'~Text'};

So basically you are free to concentrate on building your classes and let this role do the heavy lifting of providing a sane system to tie it all together and maintain flexibility to your subclassers.

PARAMETERS

This role defines the following parameters:

target

'target' is the only required parameter since it defines the target class that you wish to have aggregated into your class. This should be a real package name in the form of a string, although if you prepend a "::" to the value we will assume the target class is under the current classes namespace. For example:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => '::Page',
};

Would be the same as:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Album::Page',
};

Given a valid target, we will infer prefix and other required bits. If for some reason the default values result in a namespace conflict, you can resolve the conflict by specifying a value.

You can also prepend a "~" to your 'target' class, in which case we will assume the classes root namespace is the '~' or 'home' namespace. For example:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => '~Folder,
};

Would be the same as:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Folder',
};

In this case we assume that 'MyApp' is the root home namespace.

Please note that when you specify a 'target' you are setting a default type. You are free to change the target when you instantiate the object, however if you choose an object that is not of the same type as what you specified in target, this will result in a runtime error. For example:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Folder',
};

You could do (assuming 'MyApp::Folder::Music' is a subclass of MyApp::Folder)

my $album = MyApp::Album->new(folder_class=>'MyApp::Folder::Music');

However this would generate an error:

my $album = MyApp::Album->new(folder_class=>'MyApp::NotAFolderAtAll);

prefix

'prefix' is an optional parameter that defines the unique string prepended to each of the generated attributes and methods. By default we take the last part of the namespace passed in 'target' and process it through String::CamelCase to decamelize the path, however if this will result in namespace collision, you can set something unique manually.

Example:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Folder',
};

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Secured::Folder', prefix=> 'secured_folder'
};

constructor

This defaults to new. Change this string to point to the actual name of the constructor you wish, such as in the case where you've created your own custom constructors or you are using something like MooseX::Traits

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::ClassWithTraits', constructor => 'new_with_traits',
};

args

Although the goal of this role is to offer a lot of flexibility via configuration it also makes sense to set rational defaults, as to help people along for the most common cases. Setting 'args' will create a default set of arguments passed to the target class when we go to create it. If the person using the class chooses to set args, then those will override the defaults.

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Image', args => [source_dir=>'~/Pictures']
};

my $personal_album = MyApp::Album->new;
$personal_album->list_images; ## List images from '~/Pictures/'

my $shared_album = MyApp::Album->new(image_args=>[source_dir=>'/shared']);
$shared_album->list_images; ## List images from '/shared'

fixed_args

Similar to 'args', however this args are 'fixed' and will always be sent to the target class at creation time.

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Image', 
	args => [source_dir=>'~/Pictures'],
	fixed_args => [show_types=>[qw/jpg gif png/]],
};

In this case you could change the source_dir but not the 'show_types' at instantiation time. If your subclasses really need to do this, they would need to override some of the generated methods. See the next section for more information.

type

By default we create an attribute that holds an instance of the 'target'. However, in some cases you would prefer to get a fresh instance for each call to {$prefix}. For example, you may have a set of items that are loaded from a directory, where the directory can be updated. In which case you can set the type to 'factory' and instead of an attribute, we will generate a method.

Default value is 'attribute'.

CODE GENERATION

This role creates a number of attributes and methods in your class. All generated items are under the 'prefix' you set, so you should be able to avoid namespace collision. The following section reviews the generated attribute and methods, and has a brief discussion about how or when you may wish to modified them in subclasses, or to create particular effects.

GENERATED ATTRIBUTES

This role generates the following attributes into your class.

{$prefix}_class

This holds a ClassName, which is a normalized and loaded version of the string specified in the 'target' parameter by default. You can put a different class here, but if it's not the same class as specified in the 'target' you must ensure that is is a subclass, otherwise you will get a runtime error.

{$prefix}_args

This will contain whatever you specified in 'args' as a default. The person instantiating the class can override them, but you can use this to specify some sane defaults.

{$prefix}_fixed_args

Additional args passed to the target class at instantiation time, which cannot be overidden by the person instantiating the class. Your subclassers, however can, if they are willing to go to trouble (see section below under GENERATED METHODS for more.)

{$prefix}

Contains an instance of the target class (the class name found in {$prefix}_class.) You can easily add delegates here, for example:

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Image', args => [source_dir=>'~/Pictures']
};

'+image' => (handles => [qw/get_image delete_image/]);

Please note this is the default behavior (what you get if you set the parameter 'type' to 'attribute' or merely leave it default. Please see below for what gets generated when the 'type' is 'factory'.

GENERATED METHODS

This role generates the following methods into your class.

normalize_{$prefix}_target

This examines the string you passed in the target parameter and attempts to normalize it (deal with the :: and ~ shortcuts mentioned above). There's not likely to be user serviceable bit here, unless you are trying to add you own shortcut types.

_build_{$prefix}_class

If you don't set a {$prefix}_class we will use the parameter 'target' as the default.

_build_{$prefix}_args

Sets the default args for your class. Subclasses may wish to modify this if they want to set different defaults.

_build_{$prefix}_fixed_args

as above but for the fixed_args.

_build_{$prefix}

You may wish to modify this if you want more control over how your classes are instantiated.

merge_{$prefix}_args

This controls the process of merging args and fixed_args. This is a good spot to modify if you need more control over exactly how the args are presented. For example, you may wish to supply arguments whos values are from other attributes in th class.

package MyApp::Album;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Folder',
};

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target => 'MyApp::Image',
};

around 'merge_folder_args' => sub {
	my ($orig, $self) = @_;
	my @args = $self->$orig;
	return (
		image => $self->image,
		@args,
	);
};

In the above case the Folder needed an Image as part of its instantiation.

{$prefix}

Returns an instance of the {$prefix}_class using the whatever is in the arguments. Since this is a method you will get a new instance each time.

You will need to set the 'type' parameter to 'factory'.

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target=>'~Set',
	type=>'factory',
};

COOKBOOK

The following are example usage for this Role.

Combine with MooseX::Traits

MooseX::Traits allows you to apply roles to a class at instantiation time. It does this by adding an additional constructor called 'new_with_traits.'. I Find using this role adds an additional level of flexibility which gives the user of my class even more power. If you want to make sure the 'traits' argument is properly passed to your MooseX::Traits based classes, you need to specify the alternative constructor:

package MyApp::WebPage;
use Moose;

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target=>'~Storage',
};

with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {
	target=>'~Text', 
	constructor=>'new_with_traits',
};

Then you can use the 'traits' argument, it will get passed corrected:

my $app = MyApp->new(
	storage_class=>'MyApp::Storage::WebStorage',
	storage_args=>[host_website=>'http://mystorage.com/']
	text_class=>'MyApp::WikiText,
	text_args=>[traits=>[qw/BasicTheme WikiLinks AllowImages/]]
);

You have a bunch of target classes

If you have a bunch of classes to target and you like all the defaults, you can just loop:

package MyApp::WebPage;
use Moose;

foreach my $target(qw/::Storage ::Text ::Image ::Album/) {
	with 'MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf' => {target=>$target};
}

Which would save you even more boilerplate / repeated code.

TODO

Currently the instance slot holding the instance attribute (ie, the 'photo' in the above example) only has an 'Object' type constraint on it. We hack in a post instantiation check to make sure the create object isa of the default target type but it is a bit hacky. Would be nice if this code validate against a role as well.

Would be great if we could detect if the underlying target is using MooseX::Traits or one of the other standard MooseX roles that add an alternative constructor and use that as the default constructor over 'new'.

Since the Role doesn't know anything about the Class, we can't normalize any incoming {$prefix}_class class names in the same way we do with 'target'. We could do this with a second attribute that is used to defer checking until after the class is loaded, but this adds even more generated attributes so I'm not convinced its the best way.

AUTHOR

John Napiorkowski <jjnapiork@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

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

To install MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install MooseX::Role::BuildInstanceOf

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

PARAMETERS

target

prefix

constructor

args

fixed_args

type

CODE GENERATION

GENERATED ATTRIBUTES

{$prefix}_class

{$prefix}_args

{$prefix}_fixed_args

{$prefix}

GENERATED METHODS

normalize_{$prefix}_target

_build_{$prefix}_class

_build_{$prefix}_args

_build_{$prefix}_fixed_args

_build_{$prefix}

merge_{$prefix}_args

{$prefix}

COOKBOOK

Combine with MooseX::Traits

You have a bunch of target classes

TODO

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Module Install Instructions