Moose::Cookbook::Recipe3:

[gitmo/Moose.git] / lib / Moose / Cookbook / Recipe4.pod

=pod

=head1 NAME

Moose::Cookbook::Recipe4 - Subtypes, and modeling a simple B<Company> class hierarchy

=head1 SYNOPSIS
  
  package Address;
  use Moose;
  use Moose::Util::TypeConstraints;
  
  use Locale::US;
  use Regexp::Common 'zip';
  
  my $STATES = Locale::US->new;
  
  subtype USState 
      => as Str
      => where {
          (exists $STATES->{code2state}{uc($_)} || 
           exists $STATES->{state2code}{uc($_)})
      };
      
  subtype USZipCode 
      => as Value
      => where {
          /^$RE{zip}{US}{-extended => 'allow'}$/            
      };
  
  has 'street'   => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str');
  has 'city'     => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str');
  has 'state'    => (is => 'rw', isa => 'USState');
  has 'zip_code' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'USZipCode');   
  
  package Company;
  use Moose;
  use Moose::Util::TypeConstraints;
  
  has 'name'      => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', required => 1);
  has 'address'   => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Address'); 
  has 'employees' => (is => 'rw', isa => subtype ArrayRef => where { 
      (blessed($_) && $_->isa('Employee') || return) for @$_; 1 
  });    
  
  sub BUILD {
      my ($self, $params) = @_;
      if ($params->{employees}) {
          foreach my $employee (@{$params->{employees}}) {
              $employee->company($self);
          }
      }
  }
  
  after 'employees' => sub {
      my ($self, $employees) = @_;
      if (defined $employees) {
          foreach my $employee (@{$employees}) {
              $employee->company($self);
          }            
      }
  };  
  
  package Person;
  use Moose;
  
  has 'first_name'     => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', required => 1);
  has 'last_name'      => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', required => 1);       
  has 'middle_initial' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', 
                           predicate => 'has_middle_initial');  
  has 'address'        => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Address');
  
  sub full_name {
      my $self = shift;
      return $self->first_name . 
            ($self->has_middle_initial ? 
                ' ' . $self->middle_initial . '. ' 
                : 
                ' ') .
             $self->last_name;
  }
    
  package Employee;
  use Moose;  
  
  extends 'Person';
  
  has 'title'   => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', required => 1);
  has 'company' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Company', weak_ref => 1);  
  
  override 'full_name' => sub {
      my $self = shift;
      super() . ', ' . $self->title
  };
    
=head1 DESCRIPTION

In this recipe we introduce the C<subtype> keyword, and show 
how that can be useful for specifying specific type constraints 
without having to build an entire class to represent them. We 
will also show how this feature can be used to leverage the 
usefulness of CPAN modules. In addition to this, we will also 
introduce another attribute option.

Let's first get into the C<subtype> features. In the B<Address> 
class we have defined two subtypes. The first C<subtype> uses 
the L<Locale::US> module, which provides two hashes which can be 
used to do existence checks for state names and their two letter 
state codes. It is a very simple, and very useful module, and 
perfect to use in a C<subtype> constraint. 
  
  my $STATES = Locale::US->new;  
  subtype USState 
      => as Str
      => where {
          (exists $STATES->{code2state}{uc($_)} || 
           exists $STATES->{state2code}{uc($_)})
      };

Because we know that states will be passed to us as strings, we 
can make C<USState> a subtype of the built-in type constraint 
C<Str>. This will assure that anything which is a C<USState> will 
also pass as a C<Str>. Next, we create a constraint specializer 
using the C<where> keyword. The value being checked against in 
the C<where> clause can be found in the C<$_> variable (1). Our 
constraint specializer will then look to see if the string given 
is either a state name or a state code. If the string meets this 
criteria, then the constraint will pass, otherwise it will fail.
We can now use this as we would any built-in constraint, like so:

  has 'state' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'USState');

The C<state> accessor will now check all values against the 
C<USState> constraint, thereby only allowing valid state names or 
state codes to be stored in the C<state> slot. 

The next C<subtype>, does pretty much the same thing using the 
L<Regexp::Common> module, and constraining the C<zip_code> slot.

  subtype USZipCode 
      => as Value
      => where {
          /^$RE{zip}{US}{-extended => 'allow'}$/            
      };

Using subtypes can save a lot of un-needed abstraction by not 
requiring you to create many small classes for these relatively 
simple values. It also allows you to define these constraints 
and share them among many different classes (avoiding unneeded 
duplication) because type constraints are stored by string in a 
global registry and always accessible to C<has>.

With these two subtypes and some attributes, we have defined
as much as we need for a basic B<Address> class. Next we define 
a basic B<Company> class, which itself has an address. As we saw in 
earlier recipes, we can use the C<Address> type constraint that 
Moose automatically created for us.

  has 'address' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Address');

A company also needs a name, so we define that too.

  has 'name' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Str', required => 1);

Here we introduce another attribute option, the C<required> option. 
This option tells Moose that C<name> is a required parameter in 
the B<Company> constructor, and that the C<name> accessor cannot 
accept an undefined value for the slot. The result is that C<name> 
should always have a value. 

The next attribute option is not actually new, but a new variant 
of options we have already introduced.
  
  has 'employees' => (is => 'rw', isa => subtype ArrayRef => where { 
      (blessed($_) && $_->isa('Employee') || return) for @$_; 1 
  });

Here, instead of passing a string to the C<isa> option, we are passing 
an anonymous subtype of the C<ArrayRef> type constraint. This subtype 
basically checks that all the values in the ARRAY ref are instance of 
the B<Employee> class. 

Now this will assure that our employee's will all be of the correct 
type, however, the B<Employee> object (which we will see in a moment) 
also maintains a reference back to it's associated B<Company>. In order 
to maintain this relationship (and preserve the referential integrity 
of our objects), we need to do some processing of the employees over 
and above that of the type constraint check. This is accomplished in 
two places. First we need to be sure that any employees array passed 
to the constructor is properly initialized. For this we can use the 
C<BUILD> method (2).
  
  sub BUILD {
      my ($self, $params) = @_;
      if ($params->{employees}) {
          foreach my $employee (@{$params->{employees}}) {
              $employee->company($self);
          }
      }
  }

The C<BUILD> method will have run after the initial type constraint 
check, so we can do just a basic existence check on the C<employees>
param here, and assume that if it does exist, it is both an ARRAY ref 
and full of I<only> instances of B<Employee>.

The next place we need to address is the C<employees> read/write 
accessor (see the C<employees> attribute declaration above). This 
accessor will properly check the type constraint, but we need to add
some additional behavior. For this we use an C<after> method modifier
like so:

  after 'employees' => sub {
      my ($self, $employees) = @_;
      if (defined $employees) {
          foreach my $employee (@{$employees}) {
              $employee->company($self);
          }            
      }
  };

Again, as with the C<BUILD> method, we know that the type constraint 
check has already happened, so we can just check for defined-ness on the 
C<$employees> argument.

At this point, our B<Company> class is complete. Next comes our B<Person> 
class and its subclass the previously mentioned B<Employee> class. 

The B<Person> class should be obvious to you at this point. It has a few 
C<required> attributes, and the C<middle_initial> slot has an additional 
C<predicate> method (which we saw in the previous recipe with the 
B<BinaryTree> class). 

Next the B<Employee> class, this too should be pretty obvious at this 
point. It requires a C<title>, and maintains a weakened reference to a 
B<Company> instance. The only new item, which we have seen before in 
examples, but never in the recipe itself, is the C<override> method 
modifier. 

  override 'full_name' => sub {
      my $self = shift;
      super() . ', ' . $self->title
  };

This just tells Moose that I am intentionally overriding the superclass 
C<full_name> method here, and adding the value of the C<title> slot at 
the end of the employee's full name.

And that's about it.

Once again, as with all the other recipes, you can go about using 
these classes like any other Perl 5 class. A more detailed example of 
usage can be found in F<t/004_recipe.t>.

=head1 CONCLUSION

This recipe was intentionally longer and more complex to illustrate both 
how easily Moose classes can interact (using class type constraints, etc.)
and the shear density of information and behaviors which Moose can pack 
into a relatively small amount of typing. Ponder for a moment how much 
more code a non-Moose plain old Perl 5 version of this recipe would have 
been (including all the type constraint checks, weak references, etc).

And of course, this recipe also introduced the C<subtype> keyword, and 
its usefulness within the Moose toolkit. In the next recipe we will 
focus more on subtypes, and introduce the idea of type coercion as well.

=head1 FOOTNOTES

=over 4

=item (1)

The value being checked is also passed as the first argument to 
the C<where> block as well, so it can also be accessed as C<$_[0]> 
as well.

=item (2)

The C<BUILD> method is called by C<Moose::Object::BUILDALL>, which is 
called by C<Moose::Object::new>. C<BUILDALL> will climb the object 
inheritance graph and call the appropriate C<BUILD> methods in the 
correct order.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Stevan Little E<lt>stevan@iinteractive.comE<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2006, 2007 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.

=cut