NAME

Object::KVC - Searchable Key Value Coding

SYNOPSIS

  use Object::KVC;
  
  my $object1 = Object::KVC::Hash->new();
  my $object2 = Object::KVC::Hash->new();
  
  $object1->set( "id", Object::KVC::String->new("id1234") );
  $object2->set( "id", Object::KVC::String->new("id1234") );

  print $object1->get( "id" )->as_string();

  $object1->equals( $object2 ) ? print "Yes, the objects are equal";

  my $object_1 = Object::KVC::Hash->new();
  $object_1->set( "id",        Object::KVC::String->new("id1234") );
  $object_1->set( "last_name", Object::KVC::String->new("Hofstadter") );
  my $object_n = Object::KVC::Hash->new();    

  $object_n->set( "id", Object::KVC::String->new("id9999") );

  my $container = Object::KVC::List->new();

  $container->add( $object_1 );
  $container->add( $object_n );

  my $search = Object::KVC::Hash->new();
  $search->set( "id", Object::KVC::String->new("id1234") );

  my $search_result = Object::KVC::List->new();

  $container->matches( $search, $search_result );

  foreach my $object ( $search_result->iter() ) {
      print $object->get("last_name")->as_string() if ( $object->has_defined("last_name") );
      print "\n";
  }

DESCRIPTION

Key Value Coding uses a hash key instead of an accessor method to access the values of an object. Key Value Coding is generic; it allows a variety of objects to be modeled without having to write a large number of classes.

The Object::KVC classes are built to allow simple SQL-like searches and manipulation of "schema-free" data.

The Object::KVC::Hash class values must be wrapped in an object supporting the "equals," "contains," and "intersects" methods in order to allow two Object::KVC::Hash objects to be compared.

The Object::KVC::Hash search methods are used by the Object::KVC::List container class to implement the search functionality.

The actual implementation of the value wrapper class search methods effectively customizes the actual search behaviour.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Object::KVC Copyright (C) 2012 Trystan Johnson

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.8 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.