NAME

       Metabase::Report - a base class for collections of Metabase facts

VERSION

       version 0.022

SYNOPSIS

         package MyReport;

         use Metabase::Report;
         our @ISA = qw/Metabase::Report/;
         __PACKAGE__->load_fact_classes;

         sub report_spec {
           return {
             'Fact::One' => 1,     # one of Fact::One
             'Fact::Two' => "0+",  # zero or more of Fact::Two
           }
         }

DESCRIPTION

       Metabase is a system for associating metadata with CPAN distributions.  The metabase can
       be used to store test reports, reviews, coverage analysis reports, reports on static
       analysis of coding style, or anything else for which datatypes are constructed.

       Metabase::Report is a base class for collections of Metabase::Fact objects that can be
       sent to or retrieved from a Metabase system.

       Metabase::Report is itself a subclass of Metabase::Fact and offers the same API, except as
       described below.

SUBCLASSING

       A subclass of Metabase::Report only requires one method, "report_spec".

ATTRIBUTES

       content

       The "content" attribute of a Report must be a reference to an array of Metabase::Fact
       subclass objects.

METHODS

       In addition to the standard "new" constructor, the following "open", "add" and "close"
       methods may be used to construct a report piecemeal, instead.

   open
         $report = Report::Subclass->open(
           id => 'AUTHORID/Foo-Bar-1.23.tar.gz',
         );

       Constructs a new, empty report. The 'id' attribute is required.  The 'refers_to' attribute
       is optional.  The 'content' attribute may be provided, but see "add" below. No other
       attributes may be provided to "new".

   add
         $report->add( 'Fact::Subclass' => $content );

       Using the 'id' attribute of the report, this method constructs a new Fact from a class and
       a content argument.  The resulting Fact is appended to the Report's content array.

   close
         $report->close;

       This method validates the report based on all Facts added so far.

   facts
       This method returns a list of all the facts in the report.  In scalar context, it returns
       the number of facts in the report.

CLASS METHODS

   fact_classes
   load_fact_classes
       Loads each class listed in the report spec.

ABSTRACT METHODS

       Methods marked as 'required' must be implemented by a report subclass.  (The version in
       Metabase::Report will die with an error if called.)

       In the documentation below, the terms 'must, 'must not', 'should', etc. have their usual
       RFC 2119 meanings.

       Methods MUST throw an exception if an error occurs.

   report_spec
       required

         $spec = Report::Subclass->report_spec;

       The "report_spec" method MUST return a hash reference that defines how many Facts of which
       types must be in the report for it to be considered valid.  Keys MUST be class names.
       Values MUST be non-negative integers that indicate the number of Facts of that type that
       must be present for a report to be valid, optionally followed by a '+' character to
       indicate that the report may contain more than the given number.

       For example:

         {
           Fact::One => 1,     # one of Fact::One
           Fact::Two => "0+",  # zero or more of Fact::Two
         }

BUGS

       Please report any bugs or feature using the CPAN Request Tracker.  Bugs can be submitted
       through the web interface at <http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Metabase-Fact>

       When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing
       test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

AUTHORS

       •   David Golden <dagolden@cpan.org>

       •   Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>

       •   H.Merijn Brand <hmbrand@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       This software is Copyright (c) 2013 by David Golden.

       This is free software, licensed under:

         The Apache License, Version 2.0, January 2004