NAME

Class::MakeMethods::Template::InsideOut - External data

SYNOPSIS

  package MyObject;
  use Class::MakeMethods::Template::InsideOut (
    scalar          => [ 'foo', 'bar' ]
  );
  sub new { ... }
  
  package main;

  my $obj = MyObject->new( foo => "Foozle", bar => "Bozzle" );
  print $obj->foo();            # Prints Foozle
  $obj->bar("Bamboozle");       # Sets $obj's bar value

DESCRIPTION

Supports the Generic object constructor and accessors meta-method types, but accepts any object as the underlying implementation type, with member data stored in external indices.

Each method stores the values associated with various objects in an hash keyed by the object's stringified identity. Since that hash is accessible only from the generated closures, it is impossible for foreign code to manipulate those values except through the method interface.

A DESTROY method is installed to remove data for expired objects from the various hashes. (If the DESTROY method is not called, your program will not release this data and memory will be wasted.)

Common Parameters: The following parameters are defined for InsideOut meta-methods.

data: An auto-vivified reference to a hash to be used to store the values for each object.

Note that using InsideOut meta-methods causes the installation of a DESTROY method in the calling class, which deallocates data for each instance when it is discarded.

NOTE: This needs some more work to properly handle inheritance.

Standard Methods

The following methods from Generic are all supported:

  scalar
  string
  string_index *
  number 
  boolean
  bits 
  array
  hash
  tiedhash
  hash_of_arrays
  object
  instance
  array_of_objects
  code
  code_or_scalar

See Class::MakeMethods::Template::Generic for the interfaces and behaviors of these method types.

The items marked with a * above are specifically defined in this package, whereas the others are formed automatically by the interaction of this package's generic settings with the code templates provided by the Generic superclass.

boolean_index

  boolean_index => [ qw / foo bar baz / ]

Like InsideOut:boolean, boolean_index creates x, set_x, and clear_x methods. However, it also defines a class method find_x which returns a list of the objects which presently have the x-flag set to true.

Note that to free items from memory, you must clear these bits!