SYNOPSIS

# Assuming MyApp::Thingy was generated by Class::Meta.
my $class = MyApp::Thingy->my_class;
print "\nConstructors:\n";
for my $ctor ($class->constructors) {
print " o ", $ctor->name, $/;
my $thingy = $ctor->call($class->package);
}

DESCRIPTION

This class provides an interface to the "Class::Meta" objects that describe class constructors. It supports a simple description of the constructor, a label, and the constructor visibility (private, protected, trusted,or public).

Class::Meta::Constructor objects are created by Class::Meta; they are never instantiated directly in client code. To access the constructor objects for a Class::Meta-generated class, simply call its "my_class()" method to retrieve its Class::Meta::Class object, and then call the "constructors()" method on the Class::Meta::Class object.

INTERFACE

Constructors

new

A protected method for constructing a Class::Meta::Constructor object. Do not call this method directly; Call the "add_constructor()" method on a Class::Meta object, instead.

Instance Methods

name

  my $name = $ctor->name;

Returns the constructor name.

package

  my $package = $ctor->package;

Returns the package name of the class that constructor is associated with.

desc

  my $desc = $ctor->desc;

Returns the description of the constructor.

label

  my $desc = $ctor->label;

Returns label for the constructor.

view

  my $view = $ctor->view;

Returns the view of the constructor, reflecting its visibility. The possible values are defined by the following constants:

Class::Meta::PUBLIC

Class::Meta::PRIVATE

Class::Meta::TRUSTED

Class::Meta::PROTECTED

class

  my $class = $ctor->class;

Returns the Class::Meta::Class object that this constructor is associated with. Note that this object will always represent the class in which the constructor is defined, and not any of its subclasses.

call

  my $obj = $ctor->call($package, @params);

Executes the constructor. Pass in the name of the class for which it is being executed (since, thanks to subclassing, it may be different than the class with which the constructor is associated). All other parameters will be passed to the constructor. Note that it uses a "goto" to execute the constructor, so the call to "call()" itself will not appear in a call stack trace.

build

  $ctor->build($class);

This is a protected method, designed to be called only by the Class::Meta class or a subclass of Class::Meta. It takes a single argument, the Class::Meta::Class object for the class in which the constructor was defined, and generates constructor method for the Class::Meta::Constructor, either by installing the code reference passed in the "code" parameter or by creating the constructor from scratch.

Although you should never call this method directly, subclasses of Class::Meta::Constructor may need to override its behavior.

SUPPORT

This module is stored in an open GitHub repository <http://github.com/theory/class-meta/>. Feel free to fork and contribute!

Please file bug reports via GitHub Issues <http://github.com/theory/class-meta/issues/> or by sending mail to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>.

AUTHOR

David E. Wheeler <[email protected]>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2002-2011, David E. Wheeler. Some Rights Reserved.

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