NAME

Class::Fields::Accessor - Automated accessor generation

SYNOPSIS

package Foo;

use base qw(Class::Fields::Accessor);
use public qw(this that whatever);

sub new { return bless {} }

# Meanwhile, in a nearby piece of code!
my $foo = Foo->new;

my $whatever = $foo->whatever;	# gets $foo->{whatever}
$foo->this('likmi');				# sets $foo->{this} = 'likmi'

# Similar to @values = @{$foo}{qw(that whatever)}
@values = $foo->get(qw(that whatever));

# sets $foo->{that} = 'crazy thing'
$foo->set('that', 'crazy thing');

DESCRIPTION

This module automagically generates accessors for all public fields of a subclass.

Most of the time, writing accessors is an exercise in cutting and pasting. You usually wind up with a series of methods like this:

  # accessor for $obj->{foo}
  sub foo {
	  my($self) = shift;

	  if(@_ == 1) {
		  $self->{foo} = shift;
	  }
	  elsif(@_ > 1) {
		  $self->{foo} = [@_];
	  }

	  return $self->{foo};
  }
		  

  # accessor for $obj->{bar}
  sub bar {
	  my($self) = shift;

	  if(@_ == 1) {
		  $self->{bar} = shift;
	  }
	  elsif(@_ > 1) {
		  $self->{bar} = [@_];
	  }

	  return $self->{bar};
  }

  # etc...

One for each piece of data in your object. While some will be unique, doing value checks and special storage tricks, most will simply be exercises in repetition. Not only is it Bad Style to have a bunch of repetitious code, but its also simply not Lazy, which is the real tragedy.

If you make your module a subclass of Class::Fields::Accessor and declare all your public data members using either the public or fields modules, then you'll find yourself with a set of automatically generated autoloaders which can even be customized!

The basic set up is very simple:

package My::Class;
use base qw(Class::Fields::Accessor);
use public qw(foo bar car);

Done. My::Class now has simple foo(), bar() and car() accessors defined.

The rest is details.

AUTHOR

Michael G Schwern <schwern@pobox.com>

WHAT IS THIS?

This is Class::Fields::Accessor, a perl module. Please see the README that comes with this distribution.

HOW DO I INSTALL IT?

To install this module, cd to the directory that contains this README file and type the following:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

To install this module into a specific directory, do: perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/name/of/the/directory ...the rest is the same...

Please also read the perlmodinstall man page, if available.