NAME

       Class::ErrorHandler - Base class for error handling

SYNOPSIS

           package Foo;
           use base qw( Class::ErrorHandler );

           sub class_method {
               my $class = shift;
               ...
               return $class->error("Help!")
                   unless $continue;
           }

           sub object_method {
               my $obj = shift;
               ...
               return $obj->error("I am no more")
                   unless $continue;
           }

           package main;
           use Foo;

           Foo->class_method or die Foo->errstr;

           my $foo = Foo->new;
           $foo->object_method or die $foo->errstr;

DESCRIPTION

       Class::ErrorHandler provides an error-handling mechanism that's generic enough to be used
       as the base class for a variety of OO classes. Subclasses inherit its two error-handling
       methods, error and errstr, to communicate error messages back to the calling program.

       On failure (for whatever reason), a subclass should call error and return to the caller;
       error itself sets the error message internally, then returns "undef". This has the effect
       of the method that failed returning "undef" to the caller. The caller should check for
       errors by checking for a return value of "undef", and calling errstr to get the value of
       the error message on an error.

       As demonstrated in the SYNOPSIS, error and errstr work as both class methods and object
       methods.

USAGE

   Class->error($message)
   $object->error($message)
       Sets the error message for either the class Class or the object $object to the message
       $message. Returns "undef".

   Class->errstr
   $object->errstr
       Accesses the last error message set in the class Class or the object $object,
       respectively, and returns that error message.

LICENSE

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

AUTHOR & COPYRIGHT

       Except where otherwise noted, Class::ErrorHandler is Copyright 2004 Benjamin Trott,
       cpan@stupidfool.org. All rights reserved.