/ 
bioperl-1.5.2_004-RCb
/ Bio::WebAgent

NAME

Bio::WebAgent - A base class for Web (any protocol) access

SYNOPSIS

# This is a abstract superclass for bioperl modules accessing web
# resources - normally you do not instantiate it but one of its
# subclasess.

DESCRIPTION

This abstract superclass is a subclass of LWP::UserAgent which allows protocol independent access of remote locations over the Net.

It takes care of error handling, proxies and various net protocols. BioPerl classes accessing the net should inherit from it. For details, see LWP::UserAgent.

The interface is still evolving. For now, two public methods have been copied from Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI: delay() and delay_policy. These are used to prevent overwhelming the server by rapidly repeated . Ideally there should be a common abstract superclass with these. See delay.

SEE ALSO

LWP::UserAgent, Bio::DB::WebDBSeqI,

FEEDBACK

Mailing Lists

User feedback is an integral part of the evolution of this and other Bioperl modules. Send your comments and suggestions preferably to the Bioperl mailing list. Your participation is much appreciated.

bioperl-l@bioperl.org                  - General discussion
http://bioperl.org/wiki/Mailing_lists  - About the mailing lists

Reporting Bugs

Report bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track of the bugs and their resolution. Bug reports can be submitted via the web:

http://bugzilla.open-bio.org/

AUTHOR

Heikki Lehvaslaiho, heikki-at-bioperl-dot-org

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2003, Heikki Lehvaslaiho and EMBL-EBI. All Rights Reserved.

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

DISCLAIMER

This software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

APPENDIX

The rest of the documentation details each of the object methods. Internal methods are usually preceded with a _

url

Usage   : $agent->url
Returns : URL to reach out to Net
Args    : string

delay

Title   : delay
Usage   : $secs = $self->delay([$secs])
Function: get/set number of seconds to delay between fetches
Returns : number of seconds to delay
Args    : new value

NOTE: the default is to use the value specified by delay_policy(). This can be overridden by calling this method, or by passing the -delay argument to new().

delay_policy

Title   : delay_policy
Usage   : $secs = $self->delay_policy
Function: return number of seconds to delay between calls to remote db
Returns : number of seconds to delay
Args    : none

NOTE: The default delay policy is 3s. Override in subclasses to implement other delays. The timer has only second resolution, so the delay will actually be +/- 1s.

sleep

Title   : sleep
Usage   : $self->sleep
Function: sleep for a number of seconds indicated by the delay policy
Returns : none
Args    : none

NOTE: This method keeps track of the last time it was called and only imposes a sleep if it was called more recently than the delay_policy() allows.