NAME

Data::Sofu - Perl extension for Sofu data

SYNOPSIS

require Data::Sofu;
my $sofu=new Sofu;
%hash=$sofu->read("file.sofu");
$comments=$sofu->comments;
$sofu->write("file.sofu",$hashref);
open FH,">file.sofu";
$sofu->write(\*FH,$hashref,$comments);
close FH;
$texta=$sofu->pack($arrayref);
$texth=$sofu->pack($hashref);
$arrayref=$sofu->unpack($texta);
$arrayhash=$sofu->unpack($texth);

DESCRIPTION

This Module provides the ability to read and write sofu files of the versions 0.1 and 0.2. Visit http://sofu.sf.net for a description about sofu.

It can also read not-so-wellformed sofu files and correct their errors.

Additionally it provides the ability to pack HASHes and ARRAYs to sofu strings and unpack those.

The comments in a sofu file can be preserved if

SYNTAX

This class does not export any functions, so you need to call them using object notation.

FUNCTIONS AND METHODS

new

Creates a new Data::Sofu object.

setIndent(INDENT)

Sets the indent to INDENT. Default indent is "\t".

setWarnings( 1/0 )

Enables/Disables sofu syntax warnings.

comments

Gets/sets the comments of the last file read

write(FILE,DATA,[COMMENTS])

Writes a sofu file with the name FILE. FILE can be: A reference to a filehandle or a filename

An existing file of this name will be overwritten.

DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

The top element of sofu files must be a hash, so any other datatype is converted to {Value=>DATA}.

@a=(1,2,3);
$sofu->write("Test.sofu",\@a);
%data=$sofu->read("Test.sofu");
@a=@{$data->{Value}}; # (1,2,3)

COMMENTS is s reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments()

read(FILE)

Reads the sofu file FILE and returns a hash with the data. FILE can be: A reference to a filehandle or a filename

pack(DATA)

Packs DATA to a sofu string. DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

unpack(SOFU STRING)

This function unpacks SOFU STRING and returns a scalar, which can be either a string or a reference to a hash or a reference to an array.

BUGS

Hashes with keys other than strings without whitespaces are not supported due to the restrictions of the sofu file format.

Crossreference will trigger a warning.

Comments written after an object will be rewritten at the top of an object:

foo = { # Comment1
	Bar = "Baz"
} # Comment2

will get to:

foo = { # Comment1
# Comment 2
	Bar = "Baz"
} 

SEE ALSO

perl(1),http://sofu.sf.net