NAME

       News::FormArticle - derivative of News::Article

SYNOPSIS

         use News::FormArticle;

       See below for functions available.

DESCRIPTION

       Like News::Article, but designed to be constructed from a file containing form text with
       substitutions.

       Currently, the source text is substituted as follows:

       Variables are denoted by $NAME or @NAME (where NAME is any simple identifier). (The
       sequences $$ and @@ denote literal $ and @ characters.) Variables of the form $NAME are
       expected to supply scalar values which are interpolated; variables of the form @NAME are
       expected to supply lists (or references to arrays) which are interpolated with separating
       newlines.

       Values of variables are found by consulting the list of sources supplied. Each source may
       be either a reference to a hash, or a reference to code.

       Source hashes may contain as values either the desired value (scalar or reference to
       array), or a typeglob, or a code reference which will be called to return the result.
       (Since typeglobs are allowed values, it is possible to supply a reference to a module
       symbol table as a valid source.)

       Code references supplied as sources are invoked with the variable name (including the
       leading $ or @) as the only parameter. In the degenerate case, all variables accessible in
       the source scope may be made available for interpolation by supplying the following as a
       source:

         sub { eval shift }

       If multiple sources are supplied, then each is consulted in turn until a defined value is
       found.

USAGE

         use News::FormArticle;

       Exports nothing.

Constructor

       new ( FILE [, SOURCE [...]] )
           Construct an article from the specified file, performing variable substitution with
           values supplied by the "SOURCE" parameters (see Description). FILE is any form of data
           recognised by News::Article\'s read() method.

AUTHOR

       Andrew Gierth <andrew@erlenstar.demon.co.uk>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 1997 Andrew Gierth <andrew@erlenstar.demon.co.uk>

       This code may be used and/or distributed under the same terms as Perl itself.