NAME

WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors - Data class for author information

SYNOPSIS

    use WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors;

    $me = WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors->find('ray_randy_j');

DESCRIPTION

The WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors class extends the WebService::ISBNDB::API class to add attributes specific to the data isbndb.com provides on authors.

METHODS

The following methods are specific to this class, or overridden from the super-class.

Constructor

The constructor for this class may take a single scalar argument in lieu of a hash reference:

new($PERSON_ID|$ARGS)

This constructs a new object and returns a referent to it. If the parameter passed is a hash reference, it is handled as normal, per Class::Std mechanics. If the value is a scalar, it is assumed to be the author's ID within the system, and is looked up by that.

If the argument is the hash-reference form, then a new object is always constructed; to perform searches see the search() and find() methods. Thus, the following two lines are in fact different:

    $book = WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors->new({ id => "ray_randy_j" });

    $book = WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors->new('ray_randy_j');

The first creates a new object that has only the id attribute set. The second returns a new object that represents the given author, with all data present.

The class also defines:

copy($TARGET)

Copies the target object into the calling object. All attributes (including the ID) are copied. This method is marked "CUMULATIVE" (see Class::Std), and any sub-class of this class should provide their own copy() and also mark it "CUMULATIVE", to ensure that all attributes at all levels are copied.

See the copy() method in WebService::ISBNDB::API.

Accessors

The following attributes are used to maintain the content of an author object:

id

The unique ID within the isbndb.com system for this author.

name

The full name of the author.

first_name

The author's first name only.

last_name

The author's last name only.

dates

If the author is deceased, this will have the years of birth and death, separated by a hyphen, e.g., "1900-1988".

has_books

A boolean value indicating whether the author has books in the database.

categories

A list of category objects for the categories the author is listed in.

subjects

A list of subject objects for the subjects the author's books are listed under.

The instances of Subjects objects stored in this attribute differ from those instantiated from the service normally. The book_count attribute in these objects indicates the number of books belonging to this author that fall into this subject, not the total number of books in the database that do.

The following accessors are provided to manage these attributes:

get_id

Return the category ID.

set_id($ID)

Sets the category ID. This method is restricted to this class, and cannot be called outside of it. In general, you shouldn't need to set the ID after the object is created, since isbndb.com is a read-only source.

get_name

Return the author's name. This is the full name, as would appear in the author_text field of a WebService::ISBNDB::API::Books object.

set_name($NAME)

Set the name to the value in $NAME.

get_first_name

Returns the author's first name only.

set_first_name($NAME)

Set the authors's first name. Note that first_name and last_name combined may not always be the same value as name.

get_last_name

Get the author's last name only.

set_last_name($NAME)

Set the authors's last name. Note that first_name and last_name combined may not always be the same value as name.

get_dates

If the author is deceased, this returns the years of birth and death.

set_dates($DATES)

Set birth-death date range.

get_has_books

Get the boolean indicating whether this author has books in the service database.

set_has_books($BOOL)

Set the boolean flag that indicates whether this author has any books in the service's database.

get_categories

Return a list-reference of the categories this author is listed in. Each element of the list will be an instance of WebService::ISBNDB::API::Categories.

set_categories($CATEGORIES)

Set the categories to the list-reference given in $CATEGORIES. When the author object is first created from the XML data, this list is populated with the IDs of the categories. They are not converted to objects until requested (via get_categories()) by the user.

get_subjects

Return a list-reference of the subjects this author has books in. Each element of the list will be an instance of WebService::ISBNDB::API::Subjects. Note that these subject objects differ slightly from having instantiated the same subjects directly; their book_count attributes indicate the number of books specific to this author that fall under the subject, not the total number of books from the database as a whole.

set_subjects($SUBJECTS)

Set the list of subjects to the contents of the list-reference passed in $SUBJECTS. When the author object is first created from the XML data, this list is populated with the IDs of the subjects. They are not converted to objects until requested (via get_subjects()) by the user.

Utility Methods

Besides the constructor and the accessors, the following methods are provided for utility:

find($ARG|$ARGS)

This is a specialization of find() from the parent class. It allows the argument passed in to be a scalar in place of the usual hash reference. If the value is a scalar, it is searched for as if it were the ID. If the value is a hash reference, it is passed to the super-class method.

normalize_args($ARGS)

This method maps the user-visible arguments as defined for find() and search() into the actual arguments that must be passed to the service itself. In addition, some arguments are added to the request to make the service return extra data used for retrieving categories, location, etc. The method changes $ARGS in place, and also returns $ARGS as the value from the method.

See the next section for an explanation of the available keys for searches.

SEARCHING

Both find() and search() allow the user to look up data in the isbndb.com database. The allowable search fields are limited to a certain set, however. When either of find() or search() are called, the argument to the method should be a hash reference of key/value pairs to be passed as arguments for the search (the exception being that find() can accept a single string, which has special meaning as detailed earlier).

Searches in the text fields are done in a case-insensitive manner.

The available search keys are:

name

The value should be a text string. The search returns authors whose name matches the string.

id|person_id

The value should be a text string. The search returns the author whose ID in the system matches the value.

Note that the names above may not be the same as the corresponding parameters to the service. The names are chosen to match the related attributes as closely as possible, for ease of understanding.

EXAMPLES

Get the record for the author of this module:

    $me = WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors->find('ray_randy_j');

Find all authors with "Clinton" in their name:

    $clintons = WebService::ISBNDB::API::Authors->
                    search({ name => 'clinton' });

CAVEATS

The data returned by this class is only as accurate as the data retrieved from isbndb.com.

The list of results from calling search() is currently limited to 10 items. This limit will be removed in an upcoming release, when iterators are implemented.

SEE ALSO

WebService::ISBNDB::API, WebService::ISBNDB::API::Categories, WebService::ISBNDB::API::Subjects

AUTHOR

Randy J. Ray <rjray@blackperl.com>

LICENSE

This module and the code within are released under the terms of the Artistic License 2.0 (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/artistic-license-2.0.php). This code may be redistributed under either the Artistic License or the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/lgpl-license.php).

cpanm WebService::ISBNDB

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install WebService::ISBNDB