/ 
Data-Report-0.01
River stage zero No dependents
/ Data::Report

NAME

Data::Report - Framework for flexible reporting

VERSION

0.01

SYNOPSIS

use Data::Report;

# Factory call to create a reporter.
my $rpt = Data::Report->create;

# User API calls.
$rpt->set_layout(...);   # define layout
$rpt->start;	     # start the reporter
$rpt->add(...);          # add a row of data
$rpt->add(...);          # add a row of data
$rpt->finish;            # finish the reporter

DESCRIPTION

Data::Report is a flexible, plugin-driven reporting framework.

This module is the factory that creates reporter objects.

For the documentation of the user API, see Data::Report::API.

For the documentation on writing your own plugins, see Data::Report::Base.

The Data::Report framework consists of three parts:

The plugins

Plugins implement a specific type of report. Standard plugins provided are Data::Report::Plugin::Text for textual reports, Data::Report::Plugin::Html for HTML reports, and Data::Report::Plugin::Csv for CSV (comma-separated) files.

Users can, and are encouraged, to develop their own plugins to handle different styles and types of reports.

The base class

The base class Data::Report::Base implements the functionality common to all reporters, plus a number of utility functions the plugins can use.

The factory

The actual Data::Report module is a factory that creates a reporter for a given report type by selecting the appropriate plugin and returning an instance thereof.

METHODS

create

Reporter objects are created using the class method create. This method takes a hash (or hashref) of arguments to initialise the reporter object.

The actual reporter object is implemented by one of the plugin modules, selected by the type argument. Standard plugins are provided for text, HTML and CSV report types. The default type is text.

When looking for a plugin to support report type foo, the create method will first try to load a module My::Package::Foo where My::Package is the invocant class. If this module cannot be loaded, it will fall back to Data::Report::Plugin::Foo. Note that, unless subclassed, the current class will be Data::Report.

All other initialisation arguments correspond to attribute setting methods provided by the plugins. For example, the hypothetical call

my $rpt = Data::Report->create(foo => 1, bar => "Hello!");

is identical to:

my $rpt = Data::Report->create;
$rpt->set_foo(1);
$rpt->set_bar("Hello!");

You can choose any combination at your convenience.

For a description of the possible methods, see Data::Report::API.

AUTHOR

Johan Vromans, <jvromans at squirrel.nl>

BUGS

Disclaimer: This module is derived from actual working code, that I turned into a generic CPAN module. During the process, some features may have become unstable, but that will be cured in time. Also, it is possible that revisions of the API will be necessary when new functionality is added.

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-data-report at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Data-Report. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

perldoc Data::Report
perldoc Data::Report::API     (user API)
perldoc Data::Report::Base    (plugin writer documentation)

You can also look for information at:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2006 Squirrel Consultancy, all rights reserved.

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