NAME

Common::CLI - Command line applications made easy.

SYNOPSIS

package My::Application;

use base 'Common::CLI';

# This sub will be used by init() if no argument is given to new()
sub arguments {
    return (
        profile => {
            'optional' => [ [ 'output-format=s', 'Output format' ], ],

            'defaults' => { 'output-format' => 'html', },
        }
    );
}

# This is your main subroutine, which will be called by run() after options
# parsing and validation
sub main {
    my ( $self, $options ) = @_;

    my $output_format = $options->{'output-format'};

    # ...

    # This will be used by run() to exit
    return $status;
}

package main;

# Instantiate and run your brand new application
exit My::Application->new()->run();

ABSTRACT

Common::CLI is a glue between Getopt::Long and Data::FormValidator, aimed to be a handy tool to construct command line interface programs.

The Data::FormValidator profile was slightly modified, to handle Getopt::Long parameters and help information.

After successful parsing, the result is validated against Data::FormValidator, which is responsible for validation constraints and applying default values.

Then, it surprisingly delegates control to main() subroutine, which will contain your business logic.

Common::CLI will handle by default the --help option, which will display usage information, based on the profile given, and exit. If there's some non-existant, missing or invalid option, it will inform you what went wrong, and also display the usage.

API

new(%profile)

If %profile is undef, will use package's defined arguments() otherwise will use %profile to build options used by Getopt::Long, profile used by Data::FormValidator and help information.

package My::Application;

# ...

My::Application->new(
    profile => {
        'optional' => [
            [ 'notify=s@', 'Notify given email after execution' ]
        ],
    }
);
        

init(%args)

This method is used to initialize the object. Really. Basically it generates Data::FormValidator compatible profile, Getopt::Long compatible options and help information. If you're planning to override this, don't forget to call SUPER::init(%args)!

profile($profile)

Setter and getter for Data::FormValidator compatible profile.

options($options)

Setter and getter for Getopt::Long compatible options.

help($help)

Setter and getter for generated help information.

input($input)

Setter and getter for user input data (usually Getopt::Long parsed options).

validate_options()

Validated parsed input from command line against informed profile using Data::FormValidator. Returns a list with the parsed options after validation and invalid and missing options if any:

my ( $options, $invalid, $missing ) = $self->validate_options();

run()

run() is responsible basically for obtain validated options using validate_options(), and display the help message if anything went wrong or if user required to do so. If any of this happened, it will execute main() and exit using its exit code.

main($options)

This routine must be overriden by all Common::CLI subclasses. It will be filled by the developer with any business logic he or she wants.

arguments()

This routine can be overriden Common::CLI subclasses, and must return a hash containing at least a profile key, with Common::CLI profile data. It will be used if the profile key is not provided in new():

package My::Application;

sub arguments {
    return (
        profile => {
            'optional' =>
              [ [ 'email', 'Your email address', ] ],
        },
    );
}

# ...

package main;

My::Application->new()->run();

By default, it returns an empty list.

merge_arguments()

This routine is used to merge your application defined arguments with SUPER defined arguments:

package My::App;

use base 'Common::CLI';

sub arguments {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->merge_arguments(
        { $self->SUPER::arguments },
        {
            profile => {
                required =>
                  [ [ 'import=s', 'Import this file' ], ]
            }
        }
    );
}

# ...

package My::Other::App;

use base 'My::App';

sub arguments {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->merge_arguments(
        { $self->SUPER::arguments },
        {
            profile =>
              { optional => [ [ 'format=s', 'Input format' ], ] }
        }
    );
}

Our profile will be:

{
    profile => {
        required => [ [ 'import=s', 'Import this file' ], ],
        optional => [ [ 'format=s', 'Input format' ], ],
    },
}

display_help()

Print the help usage to STDOUT. This won't print missing or invalid options information. An example:

Usage: sample.pl OPTIONS

  --help
        Show help
  --notify=s@
        Notify given email after execution           

__parse_profile()

Parse user given profile. Return a list with Data::FormValidator compatible profile hashref, a Getopt::Long compatible options arrayref and help information arrayref:

my ( $profile, $options, $help ) = __parse_profile($given_profile);

__parse_command_line_options( $options )

Returns a hashref with Getopt::Long parsed options, or undef if something went wrong:

my $input = __parse_command_line_options($options);

__display_missing( $missing )

Being $missing an arrayref of missing elements from obtained from validate_options(), print them to STDOUT.

__display_invalid( $invalid )

Being $invalid an arrayref of missing elements from obtained from validate_options(), print them to STDOUT.

__display_usage()

Display the usage header.

AUTHOR

Copyright (c) 2008, Igor Sutton Lopes "<IZUT@cpan.org>". All rights reserved.

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

SEE ALSO

Getopt::Long, Data::FormValidator