Provided by: libimporter-perl_0.024-1_all 
NAME
Importer - Alternative but compatible interface to modules that export symbols.
DESCRIPTION
This module acts as a layer between Exporter and modules which consume exports. It is
feature-compatible with Exporter, plus some much needed extras. You can use this to import
symbols from any exporter that follows Exporters specification. The exporter modules
themselves do not need to use or inherit from the Exporter module, they just need to set
@EXPORT and/or other variables.
SYNOPSIS
# Import defaults
use Importer 'Some::Module';
# Import a list
use Importer 'Another::Module' => qw/foo bar baz/;
# Import a specific version:
use Importer 'That::Module' => '1.00';
# Require a sepcific version of Importer
use Importer 0.001, 'Foo::Bar' => qw/a b c/;
foo()
bar()
baz()
# Remove all subroutines imported by Importer
no Importer;
# Import symbols into variables
my $croak = Importer->get_one(Carp => qw/croak/);
$croak->("This will croak");
my $CARP = Importer->get(Carp => qw/croak confess cluck/);
$CARP->{croak}->("This will croak");
$CARP->{cluck}->("This will cluck");
$CARP->{confess}->("This will confess");
WHY?
There was recently a discussion on p5p about adding features to Exporter. This
conversation raised some significant concerns, those are listed here, in addition to
others.
The burden is on export consumers to specify a version of Exporter
Adding a feature to Exporter means that any consumer module that relies on the new
features must depend on a specific version of Exporter. This seems somewhat backwards
since Exporter is used by the module you are importing from.
Exporter.pm is really old/crazy code
Not much more to say here. It is very old, it is very crazy, and if you break it you
break EVERYTHING.
Using a modules import() for exporting makes it hard to give it other purposes
It is not unusual for a module to want to export symbols and provide import behaviors.
It is also not unusual for a consumer to only want 1 or the other. Using this module
you can import symbols without also getting the "import()" side effects.
In addition, moving forward, modules can specify exports and have a custom "import()"
without conflating the two. A module can tell you to use Importer to get the symbols,
and to use the module directly for behaviors. A module could also use Importer within
its own "import()" method without the need to subclass Exporter, or bring in its
"import()" method.
There are other exporter modules on cpan
This module normally assumes an exporter uses Exporter, so it looks for the variables
and methods Exporter expects. However, other exporters on cpan can override this using
the "IMPORTER_MENU()" hook.
COMPATIBILITY
This module aims for 100% compatibility with every feature of Exporter, plus added
features such as import renaming.
If you find something that works differently, or not at all when compared to Exporter
please report it as a bug, unless it is noted as an intentional feature (like import
renaming).
IMPORT PARAMETERS
use Importer $IMPORTER_VERSION, $FROM_MODULE, $FROM_MODULE_VERSION, \&SET_SYMBOL, @SYMBOLS;
$IMPORTER_VERSION (optional)
If you provide a numeric argument as the first argument it will be treated as a
version number. Importer will do a version check to make sure it is at least at the
requested version.
$FROM_MODULE (required)
This is the only required argument. This is the name of the module to import symbols
from.
$FROM_MODULE_VERSION (optional)
Any numeric argument following the $FROM_MODULE will be treated as a version check
against $FROM_MODULE.
\&SET_SYMBOL (optional)
Normally Importer will put the exports into your namespace. This is usually done via a
more complex form of "*name = $ref". If you do NOT want this to happen then you can
provide a custom sub to handle the assignment.
This is an example that uses this feature to put all the exports into a lexical hash
instead of modifying the namespace (This is how the "get()" method is implemented).
my %CARP;
use Importer Carp => sub {
my ($name, $ref) = @_;
$CARP{$name} = $ref;
};
$CARP{cluck}->("This will cluck");
$CARP{croak}->("This will croak");
The first two arguments to the custom sub are the name (no sigil), and the reference.
The additional arguments are key/value pairs:
sub set_symbol {
my ($name, $ref, %info) = @_;
}
$info{from}
Package the symbol comes from.
$info{into}
Package to which the symbol should be added.
$info{sig}
The sigil that should be used.
$info{spec}
Extra details.
$info{symbol}
The original symbol name (with sigil) from the original package.
@SYMBOLS (optional)
Symbols you wish to import. If no symbols are specified then the defaults will be
used. You may also specify tags using the ':' prefix.
SUPPORTED FEATURES
TAGS
You can define/import subsets of symbols using predefined tags.
use Importer 'Some::Thing' => ':tag';
Importer will automatically populate the ":DEFAULT" tag for you. Importer will also give
you an ":ALL" tag with ALL exports so long as the exporter does not define a ":ALL" tag
already.
/PATTERN/ or qr/PATTERN/
You can import all symbols that match a pattern. The pattern can be supplied a string
starting and ending with '/', or you can provide a "qr/../" reference.
use Importer 'Some::Thing' => '/oo/';
use Importer 'Some::Thing' => qr/oo/;
EXCLUDING SYMBOLS
You can exclude symbols by prefixing them with '!'.
use Importer 'Some::Thing'
'!foo', # Exclude one specific symbol
'!/pattern/', # Exclude all matching symbols
'!' => qr/oo/, # Exclude all that match the following arg
'!:tag'; # Exclude all in tag
RENAMING SYMBOLS AT IMPORT
This is a new feature, Exporter does not support this on its own.
You can rename symbols at import time using a specification hash following the import
name:
use Importer 'Some::Thing' => (
foo => { -as => 'my_foo' },
);
You can also add a prefix and/or postfix:
use Importer 'Some::Thing' => (
foo => { -prefix => 'my_' },
);
Using this syntax to set prefix and/or postfix also works on tags and patterns that are
specified for import, in which case the prefix/postfix is applied to all symbols from the
tag/patterm.
CUSTOM EXPORT ASSIGNMENT
This lets you provide an alternative to the "*name = $ref" export assignment. See the
list of parameters to "import()"
UNIMPORTING
See "UNIMPORT PARAMETERS".
ANONYMOUS EXPORTS
See "%EXPORT_ANON".
GENERATED EXPORTS
See "%EXPORT_GEN".
UNIMPORT PARAMETERS
no Importer; # Remove all subs brought in with Importer
no Importer qw/foo bar/; # Remove only the specified subs
Only subs can be unimported.
You can only unimport subs imported using Importer.
SUPPORTED VARIABLES
@EXPORT
This is used exactly the way Exporter uses it.
List of symbols to export. Sigil is optional for subs. Symbols listed here are exported by
default. If possible you should put symbols in @EXPORT_OK instead.
our @EXPORT = qw/foo bar &baz $BAT/;
@EXPORT_OK
This is used exactly the way Exporter uses it.
List of symbols that can be imported. Sigil is optional for subs. Symbols listed here are
not exported by default. This is preferred over @EXPORT.
our @EXPORT_OK = qw/foo bar &baz $BAT/;
%EXPORT_TAGS
This module supports tags exactly the way Exporter does.
use Importer 'Some::Thing' => ':DEFAULT';
use Importer 'Other::Thing' => ':some_tag';
Tags can be specified this way:
our %EXPORT_TAGS = (
oos => [qw/foo boo zoo/],
ees => [qw/fee bee zee/],
);
@EXPORT_FAIL
This is used exactly the way Exporter uses it.
Use this to list subs that are not available on all platforms. If someone tries to import
one of these, Importer will hit your "$from->export_fail(@items)" callback to try to
resolve the issue. See Exporter for documentation of this feature.
our @EXPORT_FAIL = qw/maybe_bad/;
%EXPORT_ANON
This is new to this module, Exporter does not support it.
This allows you to export symbols that are not actually in your package symbol table. The
keys should be the symbol names, the values are the references for the symbols.
our %EXPORT_ANON = (
'&foo' => sub { 'foo' }
'$foo' => \$foo,
...
);
%EXPORT_GEN
This is new to this module, Exporter does not support it.
This allows you to export symbols that are generated on export. The key should be the name
of a symbol. The value should be a coderef that produces a reference that will be
exported.
When the generators are called they will receive 2 arguments, the package the symbol is
being exported into, and the symbol being imported (name may or may not include sigil for
subs).
our %EXPORT_GEN = (
'&foo' => sub {
my $from_package = shift;
my ($into_package, $symbol_name) = @_;
...
return sub { ... };
},
...
);
%EXPORT_MAGIC
This is new to this module. Exporter does not support it.
This allows you to define custom actions to run AFTER an export has been injected into the
consumers namespace. This is a good place to enable parser hooks like with Devel::Declare.
These will NOT be run if a consumer uses a custom assignment callback.
our %EXPORT_MAGIC = (
foo => sub {
my $from = shift; # Should be the package doing the exporting
my %args = @_;
my $into = $args{into}; # Package symbol was exported into
my $orig_name = $args{orig_name}; # Original name of the export (in the exporter)
my $new_name = $args{new_name}; # Name the symbol was imported as
my $ref = $args{ref}; # The reference to the symbol
...; # whatever you want, return is ignored.
},
);
CLASS METHODS
Importer->import($from)
Importer->import($from, $version)
Importer->import($from, @imports)
Importer->import($from, $from_version, @imports)
Importer->import($importer_version, $from, ...)
This is the magic behind "use Importer ...".
Importer->import_into($from, $into, @imports)
Importer->import_into($from, $level, @imports)
You can use this to import symbols from $from into $into. $into may either be a
package name, or a caller level to get the name from.
Importer->unimport()
Importer->unimport(@sub_name)
This is the magic behind "no Importer ...".
Importer->unimport_from($from, @sub_names)
Importer->unimport_from($level, @sub_names)
This lets you remove imported symbols from $from. $from my be a package name, or a
caller level.
my $exports = Importer->get($from, @imports)
This returns hashref of "{ $name => $ref }" for all the specified imports.
$from should be the package from which to get the exports.
my @export_refs = Importer->get_list($from, @imports)
This returns a list of references for each import specified. Only the export
references are returned, the names are not.
$from should be the package from which to get the exports.
$export_ref = Importer->get_one($from, $import)
This returns a single reference to a single export. If you provide multiple imports
then only the LAST one will be used.
$from should be the package from which to get the exports.
USING WITH OTHER EXPORTER IMPLEMENTATIONS
If you want your module to work with Importer, but you use something other than Exporter
to define your exports, you can make it work be defining the "IMPORTER_MENU" method in
your package. As well other exporters can be updated to support Importer by putting this
sub in your package. IMPORTER_MENU() must be defined in your package, not a base class!
sub IMPORTER_MENU {
my $class = shift;
my ($into, $caller) = @_;
return (
export => \@EXPORT, # Default exports
export_ok => \@EXPORT_OK, # Other allowed exports
export_tags => \%EXPORT_TAGS, # Define tags
export_fail => \@EXPORT_FAIL, # For subs that may not always be available
export_anon => \%EXPORT_ANON, # Anonymous symbols to export
export_magic => \%EXPORT_MAGIC, # Magic to apply after a symbol is exported
generate => \&GENERATE, # Sub to generate dynamic exports
# OR
export_gen => \%EXPORT_GEN, # Hash of builders, key is symbol
# name, value is sub that generates
# the symbol ref.
);
}
sub GENERATE {
my ($symbol) = @_;
...
return $ref;
}
All exports must be listed in either @EXPORT or @EXPORT_OK, or be keys in %EXPORT_GEN or
%EXPORT_ANON to be allowed. 'export_tags', 'export_fail', 'export_anon', 'export_gen', and
'generate' are optional. You cannot combine 'generate' and 'export_gen'.
Note: If your GENERATE sub needs the $class, $into, or $caller then your "IMPORTER_MENU()"
method will need to build an anonymous sub that closes over them:
sub IMPORTER_MENU {
my $class = shift;
my ($into, $caller) = @_;
return (
...
generate => sub { $class->GENERATE($into, $caller, @_) },
);
}
OO Interface
use Importer;
my $imp = Importer->new(from => 'Some::Exporter');
$imp->do_import('Destination::Package');
$imp->do_import('Another::Destination', @symbols);
Or, maybe more useful:
my $imp = Importer->new(from => 'Carp');
my $croak = $imp->get_one('croak');
$croak->("This will croak");
OBJECT CONSTRUCTION
$imp = Importer->new(from => 'Some::Exporter')
$imp = Importer->new(from => 'Some::Exporter', caller => [$package, $file, $line])
This is how you create a new Importer instance. "from => 'Some::Exporter'" is the only
required argument. You may also specify the "caller => [...]" arrayref, which will be
used only for error reporting. If you do not specify a caller then Importer will
attempt to find the caller dynamically every time it needs it (this is slow and
expensive, but necessary if you intend to re-use the object.)
OBJECT METHODS
$imp->do_import($into)
$imp->do_import($into, @symbols)
This will import from the objects "from" package into the $into package. You can
provide a list of @symbols, or you can leave it empty for the defaults.
$imp->do_unimport()
$imp->do_unimport(@symbols)
This will remove imported symbols from the objects "from" package. If you specify a
list of @symbols then only the specified symbols will be removed, otherwise all
symbols imported using Importer will be removed.
Note: Please be aware of the difference between "do_import()" and "do_unimport()". For
import 'from' us used as the origin, in unimport it is used as the target. This means
you cannot re-use an instance to import and then unimport.
($into, $versions, $exclude, $symbols, $set) = $imp->parse_args('Dest::Package')
($into, $versions, $exclude, $symbols, $set) = $imp->parse_args('Dest::Package', @symbols)
This parses arguments. The first argument must be the destination package. Other
arguments can be a mix of symbol names, tags, patterns, version numbers, and
exclusions.
$caller_ref = $imp->get_caller()
This will find the caller. This is mainly used for error reporting. IF the object was
constructed with a caller then that is what is returned, otherwise this will scan the
stack looking for the first call that does not originate from a package that ISA
Importer.
$imp->carp($warning)
Warn at the callers level.
$imp->croak($exception)
Die at the callers level.
$from_package = $imp->from()
Get the "from" package that was specified at construction.
$file = $imp->from_file()
Get the filename for the "from" package.
$imp->load_from()
This will load the "from" package if it has not been loaded already. This uses some
magic to ensure errors in the load process are reported to the "caller".
$menu_hr = $imp->menu($into)
Get the export menu built from, or provided by the "from" package. This is cached
after the first time it is called. Use "$imp->reload_menu()" to refresh it.
The menu structure looks like this:
$menu = {
# every valid export has a key in the lookup hashref, value is always
# 1, key always includes the sigil
lookup => {'&symbol_a' => 1, '$symbol_b' => 1, ...},
# most exports are listed here, symbol name with sigil is key, value is
# a reference to the symbol. If a symbol is missing it may be generated.
exports => {'&symbol_a' => \&symbol_a, '$symbol_b' => \$symbol_b, ...},
# Hashref of tags, tag name (without ':' prefix) is key, value is an
# arrayref of symbol names, subs may have a sigil, but are not required
# to.
tags => { DEFAULT => [...], foo => [...], ... },
# Magic to apply
magic => { foo => sub { ... }, ... },
# This is a hashref just like 'lookup'. Keys are symbols which may not
# always be available. If there are no symbols in this category then
# the value of the 'fail' key will be undef instead of a hashref.
fail => { '&iffy_symbol' => 1, '\&only_on_linux' => 1 },
# OR fail => undef,
# If present, this subroutine knows how to generate references for the
# symbols listed in 'lookup', but missing from 'exports'. References
# this returns are NEVER cached.
generate => sub { my $sym_name = shift; ...; return $symbol_ref },
};
$imp->reload_menu($into)
This will reload the export menu from the "from" package.
my $exports = $imp->get(@imports)
This returns hashref of "{ $name => $ref }" for all the specified imports.
my @export_refs = $imp->get_list(@imports)
This returns a list of references for each import specified. Only the export
references are returned, the names are not.
$export_ref = $imp->get_one($import)
This returns a single reference to a single export. If you provide multiple imports
then only the LAST one will be used.
FUNCTIONS
These can be imported:
use Importer 'Importer' => qw/import optimal_import/;
$bool = optimal_import($from, $into, \@caller, @imports)
This function will attempt to import @imports from the $from package into the $into
package. @caller needs to have a package name, filename, and line number. If this
function fails then no exporting will actually happen.
If the import is successful this will return true.
If the import is unsuccessful this will return false, and no modifications to the
symbol table will occur.
$class->import(@imports)
If you write class intended to be used with Importer, but also need to provide a
legacy "import()" method for direct consumers of your class, you can import this
"import()" method.
package My::Exporter;
# This will give you 'import()' much like 'use base "Exporter";'
use Importer 'Importer' => qw/import/;
...
SOURCE
The source code repository for Importer can be found at
<http://github.com/exodist/Importer>.
MAINTAINERS
Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>
AUTHORS
Chad Granum <exodist@cpan.org>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2015 Chad Granum <exodist7@gmail.com>.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
terms as Perl itself.
See <http://dev.perl.org/licenses/>