NAME

MooX::Role::JSON_LD - Easily provide JSON-LD mark-up for your objects.

SYNOPSIS

    # Your Moo (or Moose) Class
    package::My::Moo::Class

    use Moo;
    with 'MooX::Role::JSON_LD';

    # define your attributes
    has first_name => (
      is => 'ro',
      # Various other properties
    );
    has last_name  => (
      is => 'ro',
      # Various other properties
    );
    has birth_date => (
      is => 'ro',
      # Various other properties
    );

    # Add two required methods
    sub json_ld_type { 'Person' };

    sub json_ld_fields { [ qw[ first_name last_name birth_date ] ] };

    # Then, in a program somewhere...
    use My::Moo::Class;

    my $obj = My::Moo::Class->new({
      first_name => 'David',
      last_name  => 'Bowie',
      birth_date => '1947-01-08',
    });

    # print a text representation of the JSON-LD
    print $obj->json_ld;

    # print the raw data structure for the JSON-LD
    use Data::Dumper;
    print Dumper $obj->json_ld_data;

DESCRIPTION

This role allows you to easily add a method to your class that produces JSON-LD representing an instance of your class.

To do this, you need to do three things:

1. Add the role to your class
    with 'MooX::Role::JSON_LD';
2. Add a method telling the role which JSON-LD type to use in the output
    sub json_ld_type { 'Person' }
3. Add a method defining the fields you want to appear in the JSON-LD
    sub json_ld_fields { [ qw[ first_name last_name birth_date ] ] };

Using the role

MooX::Role::JSON_LD can be loaded into your class using the with keyword, just like any other role. The role has been written so that it works in both Moo and Moose classes.

Defining your type

JSON-LD can be used to model many different types of object. The current list can be found at https://schema.org/. Once you have chosen one of the types you want to use in your JSON-LD, simply add a method called json_ld_type which returns the name of your type as a string. This string will be used in the @type field of the JSON-LD.

Defining your fields

You also need to define the fields that are to be included in your JSON-LD. To do this, you need to add a method called json_ld_fields which returns an array reference containing details of the fields you want.

The simplest approach is for each element of the array to be the name of a method on your object. In our example above, we call the three methods, first_name, last_name and birth_date. The names of the methods are used as keys in the JSON-LD and the values returned will be the matching values. So in our example, we would get the following as part of our output:

    "birth_date" : "1947-01-08",
    "first_name" : "David",
    "last_name" : "Bowie",

Unfortunately, these aren't valid keys in the "Person" type, so we need to use a slightly more complicated version of the json_ld_fields method, one that enables us to rename fields.

    sub json_ld_fields {
        [
          qw[ first_name last_name],
          { birthDate => 'birth_date' },
        ]
    }

In this version, the last element of the array is a hash reference. The key in the hash will be used as the key in the JSON-LD and the value is the name of a method to call. If we make this change, our JSON will look like this:

    "birthDate" : "1947-01-08",
    "first_name" : "David",
    "last_name" : "Bowie",

The birthDate key is now a valid key in the JSON-LD representation of a person.

But our first_name and last_name keys are still wrong. We could take the same approach as we did with birthDate and translate them to givenName and familyName, but what if we want to combine them into the single name key. We can do that by using another version of json_ld_fields where the value of the definition hash is a subroutine reference. That subroutine is called, passing it the object, so it can build anything you want. We can use that to get the full name of our person.

    sub json_ld_fields {
        [
          { birthDate => 'birthDate'},
          { name => sub{ $_[0]-> first_name . ' ' . $_[0]->last_name} },
        ]
      }

That configuration will give us the following output:

    "birthDate" : "1974-01-08",
    "name" : "David Bowie",

Other contexts

By default, this role uses the URL http://schema.org, but you can change this. This role adds an attribute (called context) which can be used to change the context.

AUTHOR

Dave Cross <dave@perlhacks.com>

SEE ALSO

perl(1), Moo, Moose, https://json-ld.org/, https://schema.org/

MooX::JSON_LD is included in this distribution and provides an alternative interface to the same functionality.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2018, Magnum Solutions Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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