Object::AUTHORITY(3pm)

Usage

 {
   package MyClass;
   use Object::AUTHORITY;
   BEGIN {
     $MyClass::AUTHORITY = 'cpan:TOBYINK';
     $MyClass::VERSION   = '0.001';
   }
 }
 
 print MyClass->AUTHORITY . "\n";   # prints "cpan:TOBYINK\n";
 MyClass->AUTHORITY('cpan:FOO');    # assertion fails, croaks.

Overview

This module adds an "AUTHORITY" function to your package, which works along the same lines as the "VERSION" function.

The authority of a package can be defined like this:

 package MyApp;
 BEGIN { $MyApp::AUTHORITY = 'cpan:JOEBLOGGS'; }

The authority should be a URI identifying the person, team, organisation or trained chimp responsible for the release of the package. The pseudo-URI scheme "cpan:" is the most commonly used identifier.

"authority"

Called with no parameters returns the authority of the module.

"AUTHORITY($test)"

If passed a test, will croak if the test fails. The authority is tested against the test using something approximating Perl 5.10's smart match operator. (Briefly, you can pass a string for "eq" comparison, a regular expression, a code reference to use as a callback, or an array reference that will be grepped.)

Utility Function

"Object::AUTHORITY::reasonably_smart_match($a, $b)"

Object::AUTHORITY exposes its smart match implementation in case classes wish to reuse it for their own custom "AUTHORITY" methods. (There are various interesting use cases for custom "AUTHORITY" methods, just as there are for custom "can" and "isa" methods.)

The $a parameter is always assumed to be a simple scalar.

Copyright and licence

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

Disclaimer of warranties

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.