NAME

       Template::Base - Base class module implementing common functionality

SYNOPSIS

           package My::Module;
           use base qw( Template::Base );

           sub _init {
               my ($self, $config) = @_;
               $self->{ doodah } = $config->{ doodah }
                   || return $self->error("No 'doodah' specified");
               return $self;
           }

           package main;

           my $object = My::Module->new({ doodah => 'foobar' })
               || die My::Module->error();

DESCRIPTION

       Base class module which implements a constructor and error reporting functionality for
       various Template Toolkit modules.

PUBLIC METHODS

   new(\%config)
       Constructor method which accepts a reference to a hash array or a list of "name => value"
       parameters which are folded into a hash.  The _init() method is then called, passing the
       configuration hash and should return true/false to indicate success or failure.  A new
       object reference is returned, or undef on error.  Any error message raised can be examined
       via the error() class method or directly via the $ERROR package variable in the derived
       class.

           my $module = My::Module->new({ ... })
               || die My::Module->error(), "\n";

           my $module = My::Module->new({ ... })
               || die "constructor error: $My::Module::ERROR\n";

   error($msg, ...)
       May be called as an object method to get/set the internal "_ERROR" member or as a class
       method to get/set the $ERROR variable in the derived class's package.

           my $module = My::Module->new({ ... })
               || die My::Module->error(), "\n";

           $module->do_something()
               || die $module->error(), "\n";

       When called with parameters (multiple params are concatenated), this method will set the
       relevant variable and return undef.  This is most often used within object methods to
       report errors to the caller.

           package My::Module;

           sub foobar {
               my $self = shift;

               # some other code...

               return $self->error('some kind of error...')
                   if $some_condition;
           }

   debug($msg, ...)
       Generates a debugging message by concatenating all arguments passed into a string and
       printing it to "STDERR".  A prefix is added to indicate the module of the caller.

           package My::Module;

           sub foobar {
               my $self = shift;

               $self->debug('called foobar()');

               # some other code...
           }

       When the foobar() method is called, the following message is sent to "STDERR":

           [My::Module] called foobar()

       Objects can set an internal "DEBUG" value which the debug() method will examine.  If this
       value sets the relevant bits to indicate "DEBUG_CALLER" then the file and line number of
       the caller will be append to the message.

           use Template::Constants qw( :debug );

           my $module = My::Module->new({
               DEBUG => DEBUG_SERVICE | DEBUG_CONTEXT | DEBUG_CALLER,
           });

           $module->foobar();

       This generates an error message such as:

           [My::Module] called foobar() at My/Module.pm line 6

   module_version()
       Returns the version number for a module, as defined by the $VERSION package variable.

AUTHOR

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

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 1996-2007 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

       Template