NAME

POE::Watcher - a base class for POE::Stage's event watchers

SYNOPSIS

This module is meant to be subclassed, not used directly.

DESCRIPTION

POE::Watcher is a base class for POE::Stage event watchers. It is purely virtual at this time. Common watcher code will eventually be hoisted into this class once patterns emerge in the subclasses.

POE::Watcher classes encapsulate POE::Kernel's event watchers. They allocate POE::Kernel watchers at creation time, and they release them during destruction. It is therefore important to keep references to POE::Watcher objects until they are no longer needed.

The best place to store POE::Watcher objects is probably the current stage's request closure. Should the request be canceled for some reason, its closure will be destroyed, and so will all the watchers stored within it. Use of this convention automates automatic cascaded cleanup when a request is canceled.

new HASHREF

Create a new POE::Watcher. Calls init() on the subclass to do the actual constructing.

DESIGN GOALS

Provide a simpler, extensible interface to POE::Kernel event watchers. Watcher classes may be extended through common OO techniques.

Remove the need to memorize positional values. Watchers and their events use named parameters.

Watcher destruction is triggered by Perl reference counting rather than an explicit count maintained in the library. Watchers' lifetimes are explicit and easily understood.

Watcher cleanup is automated. As long as watcher objects are stored in the current request, they will automatically be cleaned up when the request ends.

Watchers are restartable. A POE::Watcher object can outlive the POE::Kernel resource it hides. It can be restarted, using the same parameters to create another POE::Kernel resource.

BUGS

See http://thirdlobe.com/projects/poe-stage/report/1 for known issues. See http://thirdlobe.com/projects/poe-stage/newticket to report one.

POE::Stage is too young for production use. For example, its syntax is still changing. You probably know what you don't like, or what you need that isn't included, so consider fixing or adding that, or at least discussing it with the people on POE's mailing list or IRC channel. Your feedback and contributions will bring POE::Stage closer to usability. We appreciate it.

SEE ALSO

POE::Watcher subclasses may have additional features and methods. Please see their corresponding documentation.

AUTHORS

Rocco Caputo <rcaputo@cpan.org>.

LICENSE

POE::Watcher is Copyright 2005-2006 by Rocco Caputo. All rights are reserved. You may use, modify, and/or distribute this module under the same terms as Perl itself.