NAME

MooseX::Params::Validate - an extension of Params::Validate for using Moose's types

SYNOPSIS

  package Foo;
  use Moose;
  use MooseX::Params::Validate;

  sub foo {
      my ( $self, %params ) = validated_hash(
          \@_,
          bar => { isa => 'Str', default => 'Moose' },
      );
      return "Horray for $params{bar}!";
  }

  sub bar {
      my $self = shift;
      my ( $foo, $baz, $gorch ) = validated_list(
          \@_,
          foo   => { isa => 'Foo' },
          baz   => { isa => 'ArrayRef | HashRef', optional => 1 },
          gorch => { isa => 'ArrayRef[Int]', optional => 1 }
      );
      [ $foo, $baz, $gorch ];
  }

DESCRIPTION

This module fills a gap in Moose by adding method parameter validation to Moose. This is just one of many developing options, it should not be considered the "official" one by any means though.

You might also want to explore MooseX::Method::Signatures and MooseX::Declare

CAVEATS

It is not possible to introspect the method parameter specs, they are created as needed when the method is called and cached for subsequent calls.

EXPORTS

validated_hash( \@_, %parameter_spec )

This behaves similar to the standard Params::Validate validate function and returns the captured values in a HASH. The one exception being that if it spots an instance in the @_, then it will handle it appropriately (unlike Params::Validate which forces you to shift you $self first).

The %parameter_spec accepts the following options:

isa

The isa option can be either; class name, Moose type constraint name or an anon Moose type constraint.

does

The does option can be either; role name or an anon Moose type constraint.

default

This is the default value to be used if the value is not supplied.

optional

As with Params::Validate, all options are considered required unless otherwise specified. This option is passed directly to Params::Validate.

coerce

If this is true and the parameter has a type constraint which has coercions, then the coercion will be called for this parameter. If the type does have coercions, then this parameter is ignored.

This function is also available under its old name, validate.

validated_list( \@_, %parameter_spec )

The %parameter_spec accepts the same options as above, but returns the parameters as positional values instead of a HASH. This is best explained by example:

  sub foo {
      my ( $self, $foo, $bar ) = validated_list(
          \@_,
          foo => { isa => 'Foo' },
          bar => { isa => 'Bar' },
      );
      $foo->baz($bar);
  }

We capture the order in which you defined the parameters and then return them as a list in the same order. If a param is marked optional and not included, then it will be set to undef.

Like validated_hash, if it spots an object instance as the first parameter of @_, it will handle it appropriately, returning it as the first argument.

This function is also available under its old name, validatep.

pos_validated_list( \@_, $spec, $spec, ... )

This function validates a list of positional parameters. Each $spec should validate one of the parameters in the list:

  sub foo {
      my $self = shift;
      my ( $foo, $bar ) = pos_validated_list(
          \@_,
          { isa => 'Foo' },
          { isa => 'Bar' },
      );

      ...
  }

Unlike the other functions, this function cannot find $self in the argument list. Make sure to shift it off yourself before doing validation.

If a parameter is marked as optional and is not present, it will simply not be returned.

If you want to pass in any of the cache control parameters described below, simply pass them after the list of parameter validation specs:

  sub foo {
      my $self = shift;
      my ( $foo, $bar ) = pos_validated_list(
          \@_,
          { isa => 'Foo' },
          { isa => 'Bar' },
          MX_PARAMS_VALIDATE_NO_CACHE => 1,
      );

      ...
  }

EXPORTS

By default, this module exports the validated_hash, validated_list, and pos_validated_list.

If you would prefer to import the now deprecated functions validate and validatep instead, you can use the :deprecated tag to import them.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON CACHING

When validate or validatep are called the first time, the parameter spec is prepared and cached to avoid unnecessary regeneration. It uses the fully qualified name of the subroutine (package + subname) as the cache key. In 99.999% of the use cases for this module, that will be the right thing to do.

However, I have (ab)used this module occasionally to handle dynamic sets of parameters. In this special use case you can do a couple things to better control the caching behavior.

• Passing in the MX_PARAMS_VALIDATE_NO_CACHE flag in the parameter spec this will prevent the parameter spec from being cached.

    sub foo {
        my ( $self, %params ) = validated_hash(
            \@_,
            foo                         => { isa => 'Foo' },
            MX_PARAMS_VALIDATE_NO_CACHE => 1,
        );
  
    }

• Passing in MX_PARAMS_VALIDATE_CACHE_KEY with a value to be used as the cache key will bypass the normal cache key generation.

    sub foo {
        my ( $self, %params ) = validated_hash(
            \@_,
            foo                          => { isa => 'Foo' },
            MX_PARAMS_VALIDATE_CACHE_KEY => 'foo-42',
        );
  
    }

BUGS

All complex software has bugs lurking in it, and this module is no exception. If you find a bug please either email me, or add the bug to cpan-RT.

AUTHORS

Stevan Little <stevan.little@iinteractive.com>

Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2007-2009 by Infinity Interactive, Inc.

http://www.iinteractive.com

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