NAME

Module::Pluggable - automatically give your module the ability to have plugins

SYNOPSIS

Simple use Module::Pluggabl -

    package MyClass;
    use Module::Pluggable;
    
    

and then later ...

    use MyClass;
    my $mc = MyClass->new();
    # returns the names of all plugins installed under MyClass::Plugin::*
    my @plugins = $mc->plugins(); 

    

DESCRIPTION

Provides a simple but, hopefully, extensible way of having 'plugins' for your module. Obviously this isn't going to be the be all and end all of solutions but it works for me.

Essentially all it does is export a method into your namespace that looks through a search path for .pm files and turn those into class names.

Optionally it instantiates those classes for you.

ADVANCED USAGE

Alternatively, if you don't want to use 'plugins' as the method ...

    package MyClass;
    use Module::Pluggable (sub_name => 'foo');

and then later ...

    my @plugins = $mc->foo();

Or if you want to look in another namespace

    package MyClass;
    use Module::Pluggable (search_path => ['Acme::MyClass::Plugin', 'MyClass::Extend']);

or directory

    use Module::Pluggable (search_dirs => ['mylibs/Foo']);

Or if you want to instantiate each plugin rather than just return the name

    package MyClass;
    use Module::Pluggable (instantiate => 'new');

and then

    # whatever is passed to 'plugins' will be passed 
    # to 'new' for each plugin 
    my @plugins = $mc->plugins(@options); 

alternatively you can just require the module without instantiating it

    package MyClass;
    use Module::Pluggable (require => 1);

OPTIONS

You can pass a hash of options when importing this module.

The options can be ...

sub_name

The name of the subroutine to create in your namespace.

By default this is 'plugins'

search_path

An array ref of namespaces to look in.

search_dirs

An array ref of directorys to look in before @INC.

instantiate

Call this method on the class. In general this will probably be 'new' but it can be whatever you want. Whatever arguments are passed to 'plugins' will be passed to the method.

The default is 'undef' i.e just return the class name.

require

Just require the class, don't instantiate (overrides 'instantiate');

FUTURE PLANS

This does everything I need and I can't really think fo any other features I want to add. Finding multiple packages in one .pm file is probably too hard and AFAICS it should 'just work'[tm] with PAR.

However suggestions (and patches) are welcome.

AUTHOR

Simon Wistow <simon@thegestalt.org>

COPYING

Copyright, 2003 Simon Wistow

Distributed under the same terms as Perl itself.

BUGS

None known.

SEE ALSO

File::Spec, File::Find::Rule, File::Basename, Class::Factory::Util

cpanm Module::Pluggable

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Module::Pluggable