Path::Dispatcher(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				     Path::Dispatcher(3pm)

NAME

       Path::Dispatcher - flexible and extensible dispatch

SYNOPSIS

	   use Path::Dispatcher;
	   my $dispatcher = Path::Dispatcher->new;

	   $dispatcher->add_rule(
	       Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Regex->new(
		   regex => qr{^/(foo)/},
		   block => sub { warn shift->pos(1); },
	       )
	   );

	   $dispatcher->add_rule(
	       Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Tokens->new(
		   tokens    => ['ticket', 'delete', qr/^d+$/],
		   delimiter => '/',
		   block     => sub { delete_ticket(shift->pos(3)) },
	       )
	   );

	   my $dispatch = $dispatcher->dispatch("/foo/bar");
	   die "404" unless $dispatch->has_matches;
	   $dispatch->run;

DESCRIPTION

       We really like Jifty::Dispatcher and wanted to use it for Prophet's command line.

       The basic operation is that of dispatch. Dispatch takes a path and a list of rules, and it returns a list of matches. From there you can
       "run" the rules that matched. These phases are distinct so that, if you need to, you can inspect which rules were matched without ever
       running their codeblocks.

       Tab completion support is also available (see in particular "How can I configure tab completion for shells?" in Path::Dispatcher::Cookbook)
       for the dispatchers you write.

       Each rule may take a variety of different forms (which I think justifies the "flexible" adjective in the module's description). Some of the
       rule types are:

       Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Regex
	   Matches the path against a regular expression.

       Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Enum
	   Match one of a set of strings.

       Path::Dispatcher::Rule::CodeRef
	   Execute a coderef to determine whether the path matches the rule. So you can do anything you like. Though writing a domain-specific
	   rule (see below) will enable better introspection and encoding intent.

       Path::Dispatcher::Rule::Dispatch
	   Use another Path::Dispatcher to match the path. This facilitates both extending dispatchers (a bit like subclassing) and delegating to
	   plugins.

       Since Path::Dispatcher is designed with good object-oriented programming practices, you can also write your own domain-specific rule
       classes (which earns it the "extensible" adjective). For example, in Prophet, we have a custom rule for matching, and tab completing,
       record IDs.

       You may want to use Path::Dispatcher::Declarative which gives you some sugar inspired by Jifty::Dispatcher.

ATTRIBUTES

   rules
       A list of Path::Dispatcher::Rule objects.

METHODS

   add_rule
       Adds a Path::Dispatcher::Rule to the end of this dispatcher's rule set.

   dispatch path -> dispatch
       Takes a string (the path) and returns a Path::Dispatcher::Dispatch object representing a list of matches (Path::Dispatcher::Match objects).

   run path, args
       Dispatches on the path and then invokes the "run" method on the Path::Dispatcher::Dispatch object, for when you don't need to inspect the
       dispatch.

       The args are passed down directly into each rule codeblock. No other args are given to the codeblock.

   complete path -> strings
       Given a path, consult each rule for possible completions for the path. This is intended for tab completion. You can use it with
       Term::ReadLine like so:

	   $term->Attribs->{completion_function} = sub {
	       my ($last_word, $line, $start) = @_;
	       my @matches = map { s/^.* //; $_ } $dispatcher->complete($line);
	       return @matches;
	   };

       This API is experimental and subject to change. In particular I think I want to return an object that resembles Path::Dispatcher::Dispatch.

AUTHOR

       Shawn M Moore, "<sartak at bestpractical.com>"

SEE ALSO

       http://sartak.org/talks/yapc-na-2010/path-dispatcher/ <http://sartak.org/talks/yapc-na-2010/path-dispatcher/>
       http://sartak.org/talks/yapc-asia-2010/evolution-of-path-dispatcher/ <http://sartak.org/talks/yapc-asia-2010/evolution-of-path-dispatcher/>
       http://github.com/miyagawa/plack-dispatching-samples <http://github.com/miyagawa/plack-dispatching-samples>
       Jifty::Dispatcher
       Catalyst::Dispatcher
       Mojolicious::Dispatcher
       Path::Router
       Router::Simple
       http://github.com/bestpractical/path-dispatcher-debugger <http://github.com/bestpractical/path-dispatcher-debugger> - Not quite ready for
       release

COPYRIGHT &; LICENSE
       Copyright 2008-2011 Best Practical Solutions.

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

perl v5.12.4							    2011-09-01						     Path::Dispatcher(3pm)