NAME

       Net::CLI::Interact::ActionSet - Conversation of Send and Match Actions

VERSION

       version 2.143070

DESCRIPTION

       This class is used internally by Net::CLI::Interact and it's unlikely that an end-user
       will need to make use of ActionSet objects directly. The interface is documented here as a
       matter of record.

       An ActionSet comprises a sequence (usefully, two or more) of Actions which describe a
       conversation with a connected network device. Actions will alternate between type "send"
       and "match", perhaps not in their original Phrasebook definition, but certainly by the
       time they are used.

       If the first Action is of type "send" then the ActionSet is a normal sequence of "send a
       command" then "match a response", perhaps repeated. If the first Action is of type "match"
       then the ActionSet represents a "continuation", which is the method of dealing with paged
       output.

INTERFACE

   default_continuation
       An ActionSet ("match" then "send") which will be available for use on all commands sent
       from this ActionSet. An alternative to explicitly describing the Continuation sequence
       within the Phrasebook.

   current_match
       A stash for the current Prompt (regular expression reference) which Net::CLI::Interact
       expects to see after each command. This is passed into the constructor and is used when
       padding Match Actions into the ActionSet (see "execute", below).

   clone
       Returns a new ActionSet which is a shallow clone of the existing one. All the reference
       based slots will share data, but you can add (for example) a "current_match" without
       affecting the original ActionSet. Used when preparing to execute an ActionSet which has
       been retrieved from the Phrasebook.

   apply_params
       Accepts a list of parameters which will be used when "sprintf" is called on each Send
       Action in the set. You must supply sufficient parameters as a list for all Send Actions in
       the set, and they will be popped off and stashed with the Action(s) according to how many
       are required.

   register_callback
       Allows the Transport to be registered such that when the ActionSet is executed, commands
       are sent to the registered callback subroutine. May be called more than once, and on
       execution each of the callbacks will be run, in turn and in order.

   execute
       The business end of this class, where the sequence of Actions is prepared for execution
       and then control passed to the Transport. This process is split into a number of phases:

       Pad "send" with "match"
           The Phrasebook allows missing out of the Match statements between Send statements,
           when they are expected to be the same as the "current_match".  This phase inserts
           Match statements to restore a complete ActionSet definition.

       Forward "continuation" to "match"
           In the Phrasebook a user defines a Continuation ("match", then "send") following a
           Send statement (because it deals with the response to the sent command). However they
           are actually used by the Match, as it's the Match which captures output.

           This phase copies Continuation ActionSets from Send statements to following Match
           statements in the ActionSet. It also performs a similar action using the
           "default_continuation" if one is set and there's no existing Continuation configured.

       Callback(s)
           Here the registered callbacks are executed (i.e. data is sent to the Transport).

       Marshall Responses
           Finally, responses which are stashed in the Match Actions are copied back to the Send
           actions, as more logically they are responses to commands sent. The ActionSet is now
           ready for access to retrieve the "last_response" from the device.

COMPOSITION

       See the following for further interface details:

       ·   Net::CLI::Interact::Role::Iterator

AUTHOR

       Oliver Gorwits <oliver@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is copyright (c) 2014 by Oliver Gorwits.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
       the Perl 5 programming language system itself.