/ 
MooseX-Unique-0.004
River stage zero No dependents
/ MooseX::Unique

NAME

MooseX::Unique - Make your Moose instances as unique as you are

VERSION

This document describes v0.004 of MooseX::Unique - released June 22, 2011 as part of MooseX-Unique.

SYNOPSIS

package MyApp;
use Moose;
use MooseX::Unique;

has identity => (
    is  => 'ro',
    isa => 'Str',
    required => 1,
    unique => 1,
);

has number =>  ( 
    is => 'rw',
    isa => 'Int'
);


package main;
use Modern::Perl;


my $objecta = MyApp->new_or_matching(identity => 'Mine');
my $objectb = MyApp->new_or_matching(identity => 'Mine');

$objecta->number(40);

# prints:  Num: 40
say "Num: ", $objectb->number;

DESCRIPTION

This module uses MooseX::InstanceTracking to keep track of your instances. If an attribute has a unique flag set, and a new attribute is requested with the same value, the original will be returned.

This is useful if

  • If you are creating several attributes from data, which may have duplicates that you would rather merge than replace.

  • If you want to create a new or modify and are too lazy to look up the data yourself.

  • You have a complicated network of data, with several cross references. For example, a song could have an album and an artist. That album could have the same artist, or a different artist. That artist can have multiple albums. That album, of course, has multiple songs. When importing song by song, this web would be lost without some sort of instance tracking. This module lets Moose do the work for you.

That having all been said, think twice before using this module. It can cause spooky action at a distance. Be sure to use it only on immutable objects. The synopsis should indicate how this can be troubling, confusing, and a great source of bizarre bugs if you are not paying attention.

In addition to the spooky action at a distance, please keep in mind that the instance tracking is performed using weak references. If you let an object fall out of scope, it is gone, so a new object with the same unique attribute will be new.

METHODS

new_or_matching(%params)

Provided by MooseX::Unique::Object.

This is a wrapper around your new method that looks up the attribute for you. Please note that this module does not process your BUILDARGS before looking for an instance. So, values must be passed as a hash or hash reference. Any attribute that is not flagged as unique will be ignored in the case of an existing instance.

FUNCTIONS

unique($attr)

Sugar method that can be used instead of attribute labeling. Set $attr to the name of an attribute and it will be unique.

This can be used in a role even if the attribute is not defined in the role.

required_matches($int)

Sugar method that sets the minimum number of matches required to make a match. The default is 1. Setting this to 0 means that a match requires that all attributes set to unique are matched. If you run this more than once, for example in a role, it will add to the existing unless the existing is 0. If you set it to 0, it will reset it to 0 regardless of current value.

BUGS

I'm sure there are a few in the shadows. Please submit test cases to the bug tracker web link above.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Jesse (doy) Luehrs for steering me clear of bad code design.

Thanks to Shawn (sartak) Moore for MooseX::InstanceTracking.

And thanks to the rest of the Moose team for Moose.

SEE ALSO

Please see those modules/websites for more information related to this module.

SUPPORT

Websites

The following websites have more information about this module, and may be of help to you. As always, in addition to those websites please use your favorite search engine to discover more resources.

Email

You can email the author of this module at EALLENIII at cpan.org asking for help with any problems you have.

Bugs / Feature Requests

Please report any bugs or feature requests by email to bug-moosex-unique at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=MooseX-Unique. You will be automatically notified of any progress on the request by the system.

Source Code

The code is open to the world, and available for you to hack on. Please feel free to browse it and play with it, or whatever. If you want to contribute patches, please send me a diff or prod me to pull from your repository :)

http://github.com/riemann42/MooseX-Unique

git clone git://github.com/riemann42/MooseX-Unique.git

AUTHOR

Edward Allen <ealleniii@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2011 by Edward J. Allen III.

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 WARRANTY

BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE AS PERMITTED BY THE ABOVE LICENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE SOFTWARE TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER SOFTWARE), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.