Redo this example using a glob reference, since the array ref version

[gitmo/Moose.git] / lib / Moose / Cookbook / Meta / Recipe7.pod

=pod

=begin testing-SETUP

{
    package My::Meta::Instance;
    use Moose;

    # This needs to be in a BEGIN block so to avoid a metaclass
    # incompatibility error from Moose. In normal usage,
    # My::Meta::Instance would be in a separate file from MyApp::User,
    # and this would be a non-issue.
    BEGIN { extends 'Moose::Meta::Instance' }
}

=end testing-SETUP

=head1 NAME

Moose::Cookbook::Meta::Recipe7 - Creating a glob reference meta-instance class

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  package My::Meta::Instance;

  use Scalar::Util qw( weaken );
  use Symbol qw( gensym );

  use Moose;
  extends 'Moose::Meta::Instance';

  sub create_instance {
      my $self = shift;
      my $sym = gensym();
      bless $sym, $self->_class_name;
  }

  sub clone_instance {
      my ( $self, $instance ) = @_;

      my $new_sym = gensym();
      %{*$new_sym} = %{*$instance};

      bless $new_sym, $self->_class_name;
  }

  sub get_slot_value {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name ) = @_;
      return *$instance->{$slot_name};
  }

  sub set_slot_value {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name, $value ) = @_;
      *$instance->{$slot_name} = $value;
  }

  sub deinitialize_slot {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name ) = @_;
      delete *$instance->{$slot_name};;
  }

  sub is_slot_initialized {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name, $value ) = @_;
      exists *$instance->{$slot_name};;
  }

  sub weaken_slot_value {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name ) = @_;
      weaken *$instance->{$slot_name};;
  }

  sub inline_create_instance {
      my ( $self, $class_variable ) = @_;
      return 'do { my $sym = Symbol::gensym(); bless $sym, ' . $class_variable . ' }';
  }

  sub inline_slot_access {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name ) = @_;
      return '*{' . $instance . '}->{' . $slot_name . '}';
  }

  package MyApp::User;

  use metaclass 'Moose::Meta::Class' =>
      ( instance_metaclass => 'My::Meta::Instance' );

  use Moose;

  has 'name' => (
      is  => 'rw',
      isa => 'Str',
  );

  has 'email' => (
      is  => 'rw',
      isa => 'Str',
  );

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This recipe shows how to build your own meta-instance. The meta
instance is the metaclass that creates object instances and helps
manages access to attribute slots.

In this example, we're creating a meta-instance that is based on a
glob reference rather than a hash reference. This example is largely
based on the Piotr Roszatycki's L<MooseX::GlobRef> module.

Our class is a subclass of L<Moose::Meta::Instance>, which creates
hash reference based objects. We need to override all the methods
which make assumptions about the object's data structure.

The first method we override is C<create_instance>:


  sub create_instance {
      my $self = shift;
      my $sym = gensym();
      bless $sym, $self->_class_name;
  }

This returns an glob reference which has been blessed into our
meta-instance's associated class.

We also override C<clone_instance> to create a new array reference:

  sub clone_instance {
      my ( $self, $instance ) = @_;

      my $new_sym = gensym();
      %{*$new_sym} = %{*$instance};

      bless $new_sym, $self->_class_name;
  }

After that, we have a series of methods which mediate access to the
object's slots (attributes are stored in "slots"). In the default
instance class, these expect the object to be a hash reference, but we
need to change this to expect a glob reference instead.

  sub get_slot_value {
      my ( $self, $instance, $slot_name ) = @_;
      *$instance->{$slot_name};;
  }

This level of indirection probably makes our instance class I<slower>
than the default. However, when attribute access is inlined, this
lookup will be cached:

  sub inline_create_instance {
      my ( $self, $class_variable ) = @_;
      return 'do { my $sym = Symbol::gensym(); bless $sym, ' . $class_variable . ' }';
  }

The code snippet that the C<inline_slot_access> method returns will
get C<eval>'d once per attribute.

Finally, we use this meta-instance in our C<MyApp::User> class:

  use metaclass 'Moose::Meta::Class' =>
      ( instance_metaclass => 'My::Meta::Instance' );

We actually don't recommend the use of L<metaclass> in most
cases. However, the other ways of using alternate metaclasses are more
complex, and would complicate our example code unnecessarily.

=head1 CONCLUSION

This recipe shows how to create your own meta-instance class. It's
unlikely that you'll need to do this yourself, but it's interesting to
take a peek at how Moose works under the hood.

=head1 SEE ALSO

There are a few meta-instance class extensions on CPAN:

=over 4

=item * L<MooseX::Singleton>

This module extends the instance class in order to ensure that the
object is a singleton. The instance it uses is still a blessed hash
reference.

=item * L<MooseX::GlobRef>

This module makes the instance a blessed glob reference. This lets you
use a handle as an object instance.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Dave Rolsky E<lt>autarch@urth.orgE<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2006-2009 by Infinity Interactive, Inc.

L<http://www.iinteractive.com>

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

=begin testing

{
    package MyApp::Employee;

    use Moose;
    extends 'MyApp::User';

    has 'employee_number' => ( is => 'rw' );
}

for my $x ( 0 .. 1 ) {
    MyApp::User->meta->make_immutable if $x;

    my $user = MyApp::User->new(
        name  => 'Faye',
        email => 'faye@example.com',
    );

    ok( eval { *{$user} }, 'user object is an glob ref with some values' );

    is( $user->name,  'Faye',             'check name' );
    is( $user->email, 'faye@example.com', 'check email' );

    $user->name('Ralph');
    is( $user->name, 'Ralph', 'check name after changing it' );

    $user->email('ralph@example.com');
    is( $user->email, 'ralph@example.com', 'check email after changing it' );
}

for my $x ( 0 .. 1 ) {
    MyApp::Employee->meta->make_immutable if $x;

    my $emp = MyApp::Employee->new(
        name            => 'Faye',
        email           => 'faye@example.com',
        employee_number => $x,
    );

    ok( eval { *{$emp} }, 'employee object is an glob ref with some values' );

    is( $emp->name,            'Faye',             'check name' );
    is( $emp->email,           'faye@example.com', 'check email' );
    is( $emp->employee_number, $x,                 'check employee_number' );

    $emp->name('Ralph');
    is( $emp->name, 'Ralph', 'check name after changing it' );

    $emp->email('ralph@example.com');
    is( $emp->email, 'ralph@example.com', 'check email after changing it' );

    $emp->employee_number(42);
    is( $emp->employee_number, 42, 'check employee_number after changing it' );
}

=end testing

=pod