NAME

MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes - Track dirtied attributes

VERSION

version 1.000

SYNOPSIS

    package Foo;
    use Moose;
    use MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes;

    # tracking accessor is not automagically applied
    has foo => (is => 'rw');

    # one_is_dirty() is generated by default
    has one => (traits => [ TrackDirty ], is => 'rw');

    # dirtyness "accessor" is generated as two_isnt_clean()
    has two      => (
        traits   => [ TrackDirty ],
        is       => 'rw',
        is_dirty => 'two_isnt_clean',
    );

    # three_is_dirty() and original_value_of_three() are generated
    has three => (
        traits         => [ TrackDirty ],
        is             => 'rw',
        original_value => 'original_value_of_three',
    );

    # ...meanwhile, at the bat-cave

    package main;
    my $foo = Foo->new();

    $foo->one_is_dirty; # false

DESCRIPTION

MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes does the necessary metaclass fiddling to track if attributes are dirty; that is, if they're set to some value and then set again, to another value. (The setting can be done by the constructor, builder, default, accessor, etc.)

An attribute can be returned to a clean state by invoking its clearer.

WARNING!

Note that the API used here is incompatible with the previous version. Sorry about that :\

CAVEAT

Note that with few exceptions we can only track dirtiness at the very first level. That is, if you have an attribute that is a HashRef, we can tell that the _attribute_ is dirty iff the actual ref changes, but not if the HashRef's keys/values change. e.g. $self->hashref({ new => 'hash' }) would render the 'hashref' attribute dirty, but $self->hashref->{foo} = 'bar' would not.

In plainer language: we can only tell if an attribute's value is dirty if our accessors are used to modify its values.

ATTRIBUTE OPTIONS

To track a given attribute, the trait must be applied. This package exports a "TrackDirty" function that returns the full (ridiculously long) package nameof the trait.

Once applied, we have two additional options that can be passed to the attribute constructor (usually via 'has'):

is_dirty => method_name

is_dirty controls what the name of the "is this attribute's value dirty?" accessor is (returning true on dirty; false otherwise):

By default, the accessor is installed as "{attribute_name}_is_dirty";

If a legal method name is passed, the accessor is installed under that name;

Otherwise we blow up.

original_value => method_name

original_value controls what the name for the original value accessor is installed (returns the original value if dirty, undef otherwise):

By default, we do not install an original_value accessor;

If a legal method name is passed, the accessor is installed under that name;

Otherwise we blow up.

AUTHOR

Chris Weyl <cweyl@alumni.drew.edu>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is Copyright (c) 2011 by Chris Weyl.

This is free software, licensed under:

  The GNU Lesser General Public License, Version 2.1, February 1999