Template::Base - phpMan

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 AT 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