User::Identity::Item(3p)

NAME
User::Identity::Item - general base class for User::Identity

INHERITANCE
 User::Identity::Item is extended by
   Mail::Identity
   User::Identity
   User::Identity::Archive
   User::Identity::Collection
   User::Identity::Location
   User::Identity::System

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION
The "User::Identity::Item" base class is extended into useful modules: it has no use by its own.

METHODS

  Constructors
User::Identity::Item->new([NAME], OPTIONS)

 Option     --Default
 description  undef
 name         <required>
 parent       undef

    . description => STRING

        Free format description on the collected item.

    . name => STRING

        A simple name for this item. Try to give a useful name in the context of the item time. Each time when you lookup items, you need to specify this name, so it should be unique and not to hard to handle in your program. For instance, when a person is addressed, you usually will give him/her this a nickname.

    . parent => OBJECT

        The encapsulating object: the object which collects this one.

  Attributes
$obj->description

    Free format description on this item. Please do not add any significance to the content of this field: if you are in need for an extra attribute, please contact the author of the module to implement it, or extend the object to suit your needs.

$obj->name([NEWNAME])

    The name of this item. Names are unique within a collection... a second object with the same name within any collection will destroy the already existing object with that name.

    Changing the name of an item is quite dangerous. You probably want to call User::Identity::Collection::renameRole() instead.

  Collections
$obj->add(COLLECTION, ROLE)

    The ROLE is added to the COLLECTION. The COLLECTION is the name of a collection, which will be created automatically with addCollection() if needed. The COLLECTION can also be specified as existing collection object.

    The ROLE is anything what is acceptable to User::Identity::Collection::addRole() of the collection at hand, and is returned. ROLE typically is a list of parameters for one role, or a reference to an array containing these values.

    example:

     my $ui   = User::Identity->new(...);
     my $home = $ui->add(location => [home => street => '27 Roadstreet', ...] );
     my $work = $ui->add(location => work, tel => '+31-2231-342-13', ... );

     my $travel = User::Identity::Location->new(travel => ...);
     $ui->add(location => $travel);

     my $system = User::Identity::Collection::System->new(...);
     $ui->add($system => 'localhost');

$obj->addCollection(OBJECT | ([TYPE], OPTIONS))

    Add a new collection of roles to an item. This can be achieved in two ways: either create an User::Identity::Collection OBJECT yourself and then pass that to this method, or supply all the OPTIONS needed to create such an object and it will be created for you. The object which is added is returned, and can be used for many methods directly.

    For OPTIONS, see the specific type of collection. Additional options are listed below.

     Option--Default
     type    <required>

    . type => STRING|CLASS

        The nickname of a collection class or the CLASS name itself of the object to be created. Required if an object has to be created. Predefined type nicknames are "email", "system", and "location".

    example:

     my $me   = User::Identity->new(...);
     my $locs = User::Identity::Collection::Locations->new();
     $me->addCollection($locs);

     my $email = $me->addCollection(type => 'email');
     my $email = $me->addCollection('email');

$obj->collection(NAME)

    In scalar context the collection object with the NAME is returned. In list context, all the roles within the collection are returned.

    example:

     my @roles = $me->collection('email');        # list of collected items
     my @roles = $me->collection('email')->roles; # same of collected items
     my $coll  = $me->collection('email');        # a User::Identity::Collection

$obj->find(COLLECTION, ROLE)

    Returns the object with the specified ROLE within the named collection. The collection can be specified as name or object.

    example:

     my $role  = $me->find(location => 'work');       # one location
     my $role  = $me->collection('location')->find('work'); # same

     my $email = $me->addCollection('email');
     $me->find($email => 'work');
     $email->find('work');   # same

$obj->parent([PARENT])

    Returns the parent of an Item (the enclosing item). This may return "undef" if the object is stand-alone.

$obj->removeCollection(OBJECT|NAME)

$obj->type

User::Identity::Item->type

    Returns a nice symbolic name for the type.

$obj->user

    Go from this object to its parent, to its parent, and so on, until a User::Identity is found or the top of the object tree has been reached.

    example:

     print $email->user->fullName;

DIAGNOSTICS
Error: $object is not a collection.

    The first argument is an object, but not of a class which extends User::Identity::Collection.

Error: Cannot load collection module for $type ($class).

    Either the specified $type does not exist, or that module named $class returns compilation errors. If the type as specified in the warning is not the name of a package, you specified a nickname which was not defined. Maybe you forgot the 'require' the package which defines the nickname.

Error: Creation of a collection via $class failed.

    The $class did compile, but it was not possible to create an object of that class using the options you specified.

Error: Don't know what type of collection you want to add.

    If you add a collection, it must either by a collection object or a list of options which can be used to create a collection object. In the latter case, the type of collection must be specified.

Error: Each item requires a name

    You have to specify a name for each item. These names need to be unique within one collection, but feel free to give the same name to an e-mail address and a location.

Warning: No collection $name

    The collection with $name does not exist and can not be created.

Warning: Unknown option $name for a $class

    One used option is not defined. Check the manual page of the class to see which options are accepted.

Warning: Unknown options @names for a $class

    More than one option is not defined.

SEE ALSO
This module is part of User-Identity distribution version 0.93, built on December 24, 2009. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/userid/

LICENSE
Copyrights 2003,2004,2007-2009 by Mark Overmeer <perl@overmeer.net>. For other contributors see Changes.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html