NAME

Config::Abstract - Perl extension for abstracting configuration files

SYNOPSIS

 use Config::Abstract;
 my $ini = new Config::Abstract('testdata.pl');

DESCRIPTION

Config::Abstract is the base class for a number of other classes created to facilitate use and handling of a variety of different configuration file formats. It uses the Data::Dumper file format to serialise it self and can be initialise from a file of that format

EXAMPLES

We assume the content of the file testdata.pl to be:

  $settings = {
    'book' => {
      'chapter1' => {
        'title' => 'The First Chapter, ever',
        'file' => 'book/chapter1.txt'
      },
      'title' => 'A book of chapters',
      'chapter2' => {
        'title' => 'The Next Chapter, after the First Chapter, ever',
        'file' => 'book/chapter2.txt'
      },
      'author' => 'Me, Myself and Irene'
    }
  };

 use Config::Abstract;
 my $settingsfile = 'testdata.pl';
 my $abstract = new Config::Abstract($settingsfile);

 my %book = $abstract->get_entry('book');
 my %chap1 = $abstract->get_entry_setting('book','chapter1');
 my $chap1title = $chapter1{'title'};

 # Want to see the file?
 # If you can live without comments and blank lines ;),
 # try this:
 print("My abstract file looks like this:\n$abstract\nCool, huh?\n");

 # We can also create an ini file from it
 # A bit crude, but it does the job
 bless($abstract,'Config::Abstract::Ini');
 print($abstract);

METHODS

get_all_settings: Returns a hash of all settings found in the processed file
get ENTRYPATH: Returns the setting at the given 'path' where the path divider is '//'.
get_entry ENTRYNAME: Returns a hash of the settings within the entry ENTRYNAME. OBSOLETE, use get instead
get_entry_setting ENTRYNAME,SETTINGNAME [,DEFAULTVALUE]: Returns the value corresponding to ENTRYNAME,SETTINGSNAME. If the value isn't set it returns undef or, optionally, the DEFAULTVALUE. OBSOLETE, use get instead
set_all_settings SETTINGSHASH: Fill settings with data from SETTINGSHASH
set ENTRYPATH VALUE: Setting the entry at the given 'path', where the path divider is '//', to VALUE.
set_entry ENTRYNAME,ENTRYHASH: Fill the entry ENTRYNAME with data from ENTRYHASH
set_entry_setting ENTRYNAME,SETTINGNAME,VALUE: Set the setting ENTRYNAME,SETTINGSNAME to VALUE
diff OBJECT: Returns an object of type Config::Abstract that is a representation of the values in this object that needs altering to make it identical to OBJECT
patch OBJECT: Sets the entries in this object to whatever they are in OBJECT, creating entries as necessary. $obj_a->patch( $obj_a->diff( $obj_b ) ); should make $obj_a identical to $obj_b except for entries in obj_a that don't exist in $obj_b.

COPYRIGHT

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

AUTHOR

Eddie Olsson <ewt@avajadi.org>