Devel::EnforceEncapsulation(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Devel::EnforceEncapsulation(3)
NAME
Devel::EnforceEncapsulation - Find access violations to blessed objects
SYNOPSIS
package BankAccount;
sub new {
my $pkg = shift;
return bless {}, $pkg;
}
sub balance {
my $self = shift;
return $self->{balance};
}
# ... etc. ...
package main;
Devel::EnforceEncapsulation->apply_to('BankAccount');
my $acct = BankAccount->new();
print $acct->balance(),"
"; # ok
print $acct->{balance},"
"; # dies
LICENSE
Copyright 2006 Clotho Advanced Media, Inc., <cpan@clotho.com>
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
DESCRIPTION
Encapsulation is the practice of creating subroutines to access the properties of a class instead of accessing those properties directly.
The advantage of good encapsulation is that the author is permitted to change the internal implementation of a class without breaking its
usage.
Object-oriented programming in Perl is most commonly implemented via blessed hashes. This practice makes it easy for users of a class to
violate encapsulation by simply accessing the hash values directly. Although less common, the same applies to classes implemented via
blessed arrays, scalars, filehandles, etc.
This module is a hack to block those direct accesses. If you try to access a hash value of an object from it's own class, or a superclass
or subclass, all goes well. If you try to access a hash value from any other package, an exception is thrown. The same applies to the
scalar value of a blessed scalar, entry in a blessed array, etc.
To be clear: this class is NOT intended for strict enforcement of encapsulation. If you want bullet-proof encapsulation, use inside-out
objects or the like. Instead, this module is intended to be a development or debugging aid in catching places where direct access is used
against classes implemented as blessed hashes.
To repeat: the encapsulation enforced here is a hack and is easily circumvented. Please use this module for good (finding bugs), not evil
(making life harder for downstream developers).
METHODS
$pkg->apply_to($other_pkg);
$pkg->apply_to($other_pkg, {policy => 'carp'});
Add strict encapsulation to an existing $other_pkg. The encapsulation changes only apply to instances created after the call.
The optional "policy" argument allows you to change the response to an illegal access. By default the policy is "croak", which invokes
"Carp::croak()". The alternative is "carp" which invokes "Carp::carp()" instead.
$pkg->remove_from($other_pkg);
Remove any encapsulation previously set by "apply_to()". This does not affect instances created before this call.
SEE ALSO
Class::Privacy
Class::Privacy is a very similar implementation that is, in general, stricter than this module. The key differences:
o D::E applies externally post-facto; C::P from inside the code.
o D::E allows access from sub/superclasses; C::P does not (deliberately!).
o D::E supports all dereferencers from overload.pm; C::P supports "%", "@", "$", and "&".
o D::E allows access from anything in the same package; C::P allows access only from matching package AND file.
Inside-out classes
Class::InsideOut, Object::InsideOut and Class::Std are all implementations of "inside-out" objects, which offer a stricter encapsulation
style at the expense of a less familiar coding style.
DIAGNOSTICS
"Illegal attempt to access %s internals from %s"
(Fatal) You tried to access a hash property directly instead of via an accessor method. The %s values are the object and caller
packages respectively.
QUALITY
We care about code quality. This distribution complies with the following quality metrics:
o Perl::Critic v0.20 passes
o Devel::Cover test coverage at 100%
o Pod::Coverage at 100%
o Test::Spelling passes
o Test::Portability::Files passes
o Test::Kwalitee passes
CAVEATS
The regression tests do not cover blessed code or glob references.
Any other issues: <http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Devel-EnforceEncapsulation>
AUTHOR
Clotho Advanced Media Inc., cpan@clotho.com
Maintainer: Chris Dolan
CREDITS
This idea, and the original source code, came from Adrian Howard via Curtis "Ovid" Poe on
<http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=576707|perlmonks.org>. Adrian has authorized me to release a variant of his code under the Perl
license.
Joshua ben Jore provided crucial improvements that simplified yet generalized the implementation. This module would not be half as useful
without his contributions. <http://use.perl.org/comments.pl?sid=33253&cid=50863>
Ricardo Signes contributed the "{policy =" 'carp'}> feature (with tests!). <http://rt.cpan.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=22024>
perl v5.16.3 2006-10-11 Devel::EnforceEncapsulation(3)