NAME

       Badger::Factory::Class - class module for Badger::Factory sub-classes

SYNOPSIS

       This module can be used to create subclasses of Badger::Factory.

           package My::Widgets;

           use Badger::Factory::Class
               version => 0.01,
               item    => 'widget',
               path    => 'My::Widget Your::Widget',
               widgets => {
                   extra => 'Another::Widget::Module',
                   super => 'Golly::Gosh',
               },
               names   => {
                   html  => 'HTML',
                   color => 'Colour',
               };

           package main;

           # class method
           my $widget = My::Widgets->widget( foo => @args );

           # object method
           my $widgets = My::Widgets->new;
           my $widget  = $widgets->widget( foo => @args );

DESCRIPTION

       This module is a subclass of Badger::Class specialised for the purpose of creating
       Badger::Factory subclasses.  It is used by the Badger::Codecs module among others.

METHODS

       The following methods are provided in addition to those inherited from the Badger::Class
       base class.

   item($name)
       The singular name of the item that the factory manages.  This is used to set the $ITEM
       package variable for Badger::Factory to use.

   items($name)
       The plural name of the item that the factory manages.  This is used to set the $ITEMS
       package variable for Badger::Factory to use.

   path($name)
       A list of module names that form the search path when loading modules. This will set the
       relevant package variable depending on the value of $ITEMS (or the regular plural form of
       $ITEM if $ITEMS is undefined).  For example, is $ITEMS is set to "widgets" then this
       method will set $WIDGETS_PATH.

       You can specify the path as a reference to a list of module bases, e.g.

           use Badger::Factory::Class
               item => 'widget',
               path => ['My::Widget', 'Your::Widget'];

       Or as a single string containing multiple values separated by whitespace.

           use Badger::Factory::Class
               item => 'widget',
               path => 'My::Widget Your::Widget';

       If you specify it as a single string then you can also include optional and/or alternate
       parts in parentheses.  For example the above can be written more concisely as:

           use Badger::Factory::Class
               item => 'widget',
               path => '(My|Your)::Widget';

       If the parentheses don't contain a vertical bar then then enclosed fragment is treated as
       being optional.  So instead of writing something like:

           use Badger::Factory::Class
               item => 'widget',
               path => 'Badger::Widget BadgerX::Widget';

       You can write:

           use Badger::Factory::Class
               item => 'widget',
               path => 'Badger(X)::Widget';

       See the permute_fragments() function in Badger::Utils for further details on how fragments
       are expanded.

   names($names)
       A reference to a hash array of name mappings. This can be used to handle any unusual
       spellings or capitalisations. See Badger::Factory for further details.

   default($name)
       The default name to use when none is specified in a request for a module.

AUTHOR

       Andy Wardley <http://wardley.org/>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2006-2009 Andy Wardley.  All Rights Reserved.

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

SEE ALSO

       Badger::Factory, Badger::Codecs