NAME

Hub::Data::Meta - Interface for manipulating web-content meta-data

Part of the Hub Library

SYNOPSIS

use Hub;
my $meta = Hub::mkinst( 'Meta' );

$new_global_id = $meta->create_id();

$meta->define_id("user", "u%30d", 5);
$new_user_id = $meta->create_id("user");
die unless $new_user_id eq "u005";
$next_user_id = $meta->create_id("user");
die unless $new_user_id eq "u006";

$meta->define_order("users", "ascending", "name");
$meta->order_items("users", @users)

DESCRIPTION

Provides interfaces for manipulating internal data elements. These are defined as:

variable name           description

_id                     identifier which uniquely distinguishes this item
                        in its container.

_sort                   numerical value which signifies item order within
                        its container.

_created_by             user which has created this item

_last_modified_by       user which has last modified this item

_last_modified          last time this item was modified in seconds since
                        the epoch

METHODS

create_id

gets the next number for an id and returns the formmatted value. file storage is saved as 'meta.hf'.

example:

a) $meta->create_id();
b) $meta->create_id();
...



c) $meta->create_id('abc','%d',10);

returns:

a) 1
b) 2
...



c) 11 (presuming the id 'abc' wasn't defined, it is initialized)

define_id

define the format and initial value for an id

example:

$meta->define_id('global', '%04d', 0);
$meta->define_id('folsiz', "p%d", 100);
$meta->define_id('bolmsk', "item%08d", 2000);

will create ids of the form:

0164                where the value is 164 and starts at 0
p748                where the value is 748 and starts at 100
item00012148        where the value is 12148 and starts at 200

get_id

return the stored id data, or create it with default values

example:

$meta->get_id();
$meta->get_id('folsiz');

returns a hash reference to:

the global id data
the id data for 'folsiz'

init

Usage: initialize

initHash

initialize meta-data for the provided hash

new

order_items

order the anon hashes within an array according to some hash key

Usage: order_items( $array_ref, 'hash_key', 'sort_key' );

1) The 'sort_key' arguement (or literally '_sort' if no arg is provided) will be assigned in the anon hash with the 0 ... n index which indicates the correct sort order.

2) sorting will use a numeric comparison when the data of the key to sort on is purely digits.

smart_compare

use 'cmp' or '<=>' depending on the data. missing values are pushed to the end of the list

touch

refresh meta-data in the provided hashref.

example:

$meta->touch( { this => "is", a => "hashref" } );

will:

{
    _created_by         => guest,
    _last_modified_by   => guest,
    _created            => 1071712178,
    _last_modified      => 1071712178,
    this                => "is",
    a                   => "hashref",
}

INTERNAL

AUTHOR

Ryan Gies

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2006 Livesite Networks, LLC. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Ryan Gies. All rights reserved.

UPDATED

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