NAME MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes - Track dirtied attributes VERSION This document describes 2.000 of MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes - released February 28, 2012 as part of MooseX-TrackDirty-Attributes. SYNOPSIS package Foo; use Moose; use MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes; # tracking accessor is not automagically applied has foo => (is => 'rw'); # one_is_dirty() is generated by default has one => (traits => [ TrackDirty ], is => 'rw'); # dirtyness "accessor" is generated as two_isnt_clean() has two => ( traits => [ TrackDirty ], is => 'rw', is_dirty => 'two_isnt_clean', ); # three_is_dirty() and original_value_of_three() are generated has three => ( traits => [ TrackDirty ], is => 'rw', original_value => 'original_value_of_three', ); # ...meanwhile, at the bat-cave package main; my $foo = Foo->new(); $foo->one_is_dirty; # false DESCRIPTION MooseX::TrackDirty::Attributes does the necessary metaclass fiddling to track if attributes are dirty; that is, if they're set to some value and then set again, to another value. (The setting can be done by the constructor, builder, default, accessor, etc.) An attribute can be returned to a clean state by invoking its clearer. CAVEAT Note that with one (significant) exceptions we can only track dirtiness at the very first level. That is, if you have an attribute that is a HashRef, we can tell that the _attribute_ is dirty if and only if the actual ref changes, but not if the HashRef's keys/values change. e.g. $self->hashref({ new => 'hash' }) would render the 'hashref' attribute dirty, but $self->hashref->{foo} = 'bar' would not. In plainer language: we can only tell if an attribute's value is dirty if our accessors are used to modify its values. The exception to this is... IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIVE TRAITS We now track when a native trait accessor is used to change the contents of the attribute; this is considered to make the attribute value dirty. This is still new and experimental, so feedback is quite welcome :) ATTRIBUTE OPTIONS To track a given attribute, the trait must be applied. This package exports a "TrackDirty" function that returns the full (ridiculously long) package name of the trait. Once applied, we have two additional options that can be passed to the attribute constructor (usually via 'has'): is_dirty => method_name is_dirty controls what the name of the "is this attribute's value dirty?" accessor is (returning true on dirty; false otherwise): By default, the accessor is installed as "{attribute_name}_is_dirty"; If a legal method name is passed, the accessor is installed under that name; Otherwise we blow up. original_value => method_name original_value controls what the name for the original value accessor is installed (returns the original value if dirty, undef otherwise): By default, we do not install an original_value accessor; If a legal method name is passed, the accessor is installed under that name; Otherwise we blow up. SOURCE The development version is on github at and may be cloned from BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://github.com/RsrchBoy/moosex-trackdirty-attributes/issues When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature. AUTHOR Chris Weyl COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is Copyright (c) 2011 by Chris Weyl. This is free software, licensed under: The GNU Lesser General Public License, Version 2.1, February 1999