NAME
Evented::Object - a base class that allows you to attach event callbacks
to an object and then fire events on that object.
SYNOPSIS
Demonstrates basic Evented::Object subclasses, priorities of event
callbacks, and fire objects and their methods.
package Person;
use warnings;
use strict;
use 5.010;
use parent 'Evented::Object';
use Evented::Object;
# Creates a new person object. This is nothing special.
# Evented::Object does not require any specific constructor to be called.
sub new {
my ($class, %opts) = @_;
bless \%opts, $class;
}
# Fires birthday event and increments age.
sub have_birthday {
my $person = shift;
$person->fire(birthday => ++$person->{age});
}
In some other package...
package main;
# Create a person named Jake at age 19.
my $jake = Person->new(name => 'Jake', age => 19);
# Add an event callback that assumes Jake is under 21.
$jake->on(birthday => sub {
my ($fire, $new_age) = @_;
say 'not quite 21 yet...';
}, name => '21-soon');
# Add an event callback that checks if Jake is 21 and cancels the above callback if he is.
$jake->on(birthday => sub {
my ($fire, $new_age) = @_;
if ($new_age == 21) {
say 'time to get drunk!';
$fire->cancel('21-soon');
}
}, name => 'finally-21', priority => 1);
# Jake has two birthdays.
# Jake's 20th birthday.
$jake->have_birthday;
# Jake's 21st birthday.
$jake->have_birthday;
# Because 21-soon has a lower priority than finally-21,
# finally-21 will cancel 21-soon if Jake is 21.
# The result:
#
# not quite 21 yet...
# time to get drunk!
DESCRIPTION
I honestly doubt your objects have ever been this evented in your entire
life. This concept is so incredible that we're using a noun as a verb
without being arrested by the grammar police.
Evented::Object started as a basic class for registering event handlers
and firing events. After many improvements throughout several projects,
Evented::Object has become far more complex and quite featureful.
Evented::Object supplies an (obviously objective) interface to store and
manage callbacks for events, fire events upon objects, and more. It
provides several methods for convenience and simplicity.
Naming confusion
To clear some things up...
'Evented::Object' refers to the Evented::Object package, but 'evented
object' refers to an object which is a member of the Evented::Object
class or a class which inherits from the Evented::Object class. 'Fire
object' refers to an object representing an event fire.
* Evented::Object: this class that provides methods for managing
events.
* Evented object: `$eo' - refers to an object that uses
Evented::Object for event management.
* Fire object: `$fire' or `$event' - an object that represents an
event fire.
* Collection: `$col' or `$collection' - represents a group of
callbacks about to be fired.
* Listener object: another evented object that receives event
notifications.
Evented::Object and its core packages are prefixed with
`Evented::Object'. Packages which are specifically designed for use with
Evented::Object are prefixed with `Evented::'.
Purpose of Evented::Object
In short, Evented::Object allows you to attach event callbacks to an
object (also known as a blessed hash reference) and then fire events on
that object. To relate, event fires are much like method calls. However,
there can be many handlers, many return values, and many responses
rather than just one of each of these.
Event callbacks
These handlers, known as callbacks, are called in descending order by
priority. Numerically larger priorities are called first. This allows
you to place a certain callback in front of or behind another. They can
modify other callbacks, modify the evented object itself, and much more.
Objective approach
Whereas many event systems involve globally unique event names,
Evented::Object allows you to attach events to a specific object. The
event callbacks, information, and other data are stored secretly within
the object itself. This is quite comparable to the JavaScript event
systems often found in browsers.
Fire objects
Another important concept of Evented::Object is the fire object. It
provides methods for fetching information relating to the event being
fired, callback being called, and more. Additionally, it provides an
interface for modifying the evented object and modifying future event
callbacks. Fire objects belong to the Evented::Object::EventFire class.
Fire objects are specific to each firing. If you fire the same event
twice in a row, the event object passed to the callbacks the first time
will not be the same as the second time. Therefore, all modifications
made by the fire object's methods apply only to the callbacks remaining
in this particular fire. For example, `$fire->cancel($callback)' will
only cancel the supplied callback once. The next time the event is
fired, that cancelled callback will be called regardless.
See "Fire object methods" for more information.
Listener objects
Additional evented objects can be registered as "listeners."
Consider a scenario where you have a class whose objects represent a
farm. You have another class which represents a cow. You would like to
use the same callback for all of the moos that occur on the farm,
regardless of which cow initiated it.
Rather than attaching an event callback to every cow, you can instead
make the farm a listener of the cow. Then, you can attach a single
callback to your farm. If your cow's event for mooing is `moo', your
farm's event for mooing is `cow.moo'.
Potential looping references
The cow holds a weak reference to the farm, so you do not need to worry
about deleting it later. This, however, means that your listener object
must also be referred to in another location in order for this to work.
I doubt that will be a problem, though.
Priorities and listeners
Evented::Object is rather genius when it comes to callback priorities.
With object listeners, it is as though the callbacks belong to the
object being listened to. Referring to the above example, if you attach
a callback on the farm object with priority 1, it will be called before
your callback with priority 0 on the cow object.
Fire objects and listeners
When an event is fired on an object, the same fire object is used for
callbacks belonging to both the evented object and its listening
objects. Therefore, callback names must be unique not only to the
listener object but to the object being listened on as well.
You should also note the values of the fire object:
* $fire->event_name: the name of the event from the perspective of the
listener; i.e. `cow.moo' (NOT `moo')
* $fire->object: the object being listened to; i.e. `$cow' (NOT
`$farm')
This also means that stopping the event from a listener object will
cancel all remaining callbacks, including those belonging to the evented
object.
Registering callbacks to classes
Evented::Object 3.9 adds the ability to register event callbacks to a
subclass of Evented::Object. The methods `->register_callback()',
`->delete_event()', `->delete_callback', etc. can be called in the form
of `MyClass->method()'. Evented::Object will store these callbacks in a
special hash hidden in the package's symbol table.
Any object of this class will borrow these callbacks from the class.
They will be incorporated into the callback collection as though they
were registered directly on the object.
Note: Events cannot be fired on a class.
Prioritizing
When firing an event, any callbacks on the class will sorted by priority
just as if they were registered on the object. Whether registered on the
class or the object, a callback with a higher priority will be called
before one of a lower priority.
Subclassing
If an evented object is blessed to a subclass of a class with callbacks
registered to it, the object will NOT inherit the callbacks associated
with the parent class. Callbacks registered to classes ONLY apply to
objects directly blessed to the class.
Class monitors
Evented::Object 4.0 introduces a "class monitor" feature. This allows an
evented object to be registered as a "monitor" of a specific
class/package. Any event callbacks that are added from that class to any
evented object of any type will trigger an event on the monitor object -
in other words, the `caller` of `->register_callback()`, regardless of
the object.
An example scenario of when this might be useful is an evented object
for debugging all events being registered by a certain package. It would
log all of them, making it easier to find a problem.
Collections
Sometimes it is useful to prepare an event fire before actually calling
it. The group of callbacks that are about to be called are represented
by a collection object. Collections are returned by the 'prepare'
methods.
Collections are especially useful for firing events with special
options. This usually looks something like:
$eo->prepare(event_name => @args)->fire(some_fire_option => $value);
See "Collection methods" for more information.
COMPATIBILITY
Evented::Object versions 0.0 to 0.7 are entirely compatible - anything
that worked in version 0.0 or even compies of Evented::Object before it
was versioned also work in version 0.7; however, some recent changes
break the compatibility with these previous versions in many cases.
Asynchronous improvements 1.0+
Evented::Object 1.* series and above are incompatible with the former
versions. Evented::Object 1.8+ is designed to be more thread-friendly
and work well in asyncrhonous programs, whereas the previous versions
were not suitable for such uses.
The main comptability issue is the arguments passed to the callbacks. In
the earlier versions, the evented object was always the first argument
of all events, until Evented::Object 0.6 added the ability to pass a
parameter to `->attach_event()' that would tell Evented::Object to omit
the object from the callback's argument list.
Introduction of fire info 1.8+
The Evented::Object series 1.8+ passes a hash reference `$fire' instead
of the Evented::Object as the first argument. `$fire' contains
information that was formerly held within the object itself, such as
`event_info', `event_return', and `event_data'. These are now accessible
through this new hash reference as `$fire->{info}', `$fire->{return}',
`$fire->{data}', etc. The object is now accessible with
`$fire->{object}'. (this has since been changed; see below.)
Events are now stored in the `eventedObject.events' hash key instead of
`events', as `events' was a tad bit too broad and could conflict with
other libraries.
In addition to these changes, the `->attach_event()' method was
deprecated in version 1.8 in favor of the new `->register_callback()';
however, it will remain in Evented::Object until at least the late 2.*
series.
Alias changes 2.0+
Version 2.0 breaks things even more because `->on()' is now an alias for
`->register_callback()' rather than the former deprecated
`->attach_event()'.
Introduction of fire objects 2.2+
Version 2.2+ introduces a new class, Evented::Object::EventFire, which
provides several methods for fire objects. These methods such as
`$fire->return' and `$fire->object' replace the former hash keys
`$fire->{return}', `$fire->{object}', etc. The former hash interface is
no longer supported and will lead to error.
Removal of ->attach_event() 2.9+
Version 2.9 removes the long-deprecated `->attach_event()' method in
favor of the more flexible `->register_callback()'. This will break
compatibility with any package still making use of `->attach_event()'.
Rename to Evented::Object 3.54+
In order to correspond with other 'Evented' packages, EventedObject was
renamed to Evented::Object. All packages making use of EventedObject
will need to be modified to use Evented::Object instead. This change was
made pre-CPAN.
Removal of deprecated options 5.0+
Long-deprecated callback options may no longer behave as expected in
older versions. Specifically, Evented::Object used to try to guess
whether it should insert the event fire object and evented object to the
callback arguments. Now, it does not try to guess but instead only
listens to the explicit options.
Evented object methods
The Evented::Object package provides several convenient methods for
managing an event-driven object.
Evented::Object->new()
Creates a new Evented::Object. Typically, this method is overriden by a
child class of Evented::Object. It is unncessary to call `SUPER::new()',
as `Evented::Object->new()' returns nothing more than an empty hash
reference blessed to Evented::Object.
my $eo = Evented::Object->new();
$eo->register_callback($event_name => \&callback, %options)
Attaches an event callback the object. When the specified event is
fired, each of the callbacks registered using this method will be called
by descending priority order (numerically higher priority numbers are
called first.)
$eo->register_callback(myEvent => sub {
...
}, name => 'some.callback', priority => 200);
Parameters
* event_name: the name of the event.
* callback: a CODE reference to be called when the event is fired.
* options: *optional*, a hash (not hash reference) of any of the below
options.
%options - event handler options
All of these options are optional, but the use of a callback name is
highly recommended.
* name: the name of the callback being registered. must be unique to
this particular event.
* priority: a numerical priority of the callback.
* before: the name of a callback to precede.
* after: the name of a callback to succeed.
* data: any data that will be stored as `$fire->event_data' as the
callback is fired.
* with_eo: if true, the evented object will prepended to the argument
list.
* no_fire_obj: if true, the fire object will not be prepended to the
argument list.
Note: the order of objects will always be `$eo', `$fire', `@args',
regardless of omissions. By default, the argument list is `$fire',
`@args'.
Note: only one of `priority', `before', and `after' will be respected.
Although more complex prioritization is in the works, Evented::Object is
not currently capable of resolving priority conflicts with before and
after.
$eo->register_callbacks(@events)
Registers several events at once. The arguments should be a list of hash
references. These references take the same options as
`->register_callback()'. Returns a list of return values in the order
that the events were specified.
$eo->register_callbacks(
{ myEvent => \&my_event_1, name => 'cb.1', priority => 200 },
{ myEvent => \&my_event_2, name => 'cb.2', priority => 100 }
);
Parameters
* events: an array of hash references to pass to
`->register_callback()'.
$eo->delete_event($event_name)
Deletes all callbacks registered for the supplied event.
Returns a true value if any events were deleted, false otherwise.
$eo->delete_event('myEvent');
Parameters
* event_name: the name of the event.
$eo->delete_callback($event_name)
Deletes an event callback from the object with the given callback name.
Returns a true value if any events were deleted, false otherwise.
$eo->delete_callback(myEvent => 'my.callback');
Parameters
* event_name: the name of the event.
* callback_name: the name of the callback being removed.
$eo->fire_event($event_name => @arguments)
Fires the specified event, calling each callback that was registered
with `->register_callback()' in descending order of their priorities.
$eo->fire_event('some_event');
$eo->fire_event(some_event => $some_argument, $some_other_argument);
Parameters
* event_name: the name of the event being fired.
* arguments: *optional*, list of arguments to pass to event callbacks.
$eo->fire_once($event_name => @arguments)
Fires the specified event, calling each callback that was registered
with `->register_callback()' in descending order of their priorities.
Then, all callbacks for the event are deleted. This method is useful for
situations where an event will never be fired more than once.
$eo->fire_once('some_event');
$eo->fire_event(some_event => $some_argument, $some_other_argument);
# the second does nothing because the first deleted the callbacks
Parameters
* event_name: the name of the event being fired.
* arguments: *optional*, list of arguments to pass to event callbacks.
$eo->add_listener($other_eo, $prefix)
Makes the passed evented object a listener of this evented object. See
the "listener objects" section for more information on this feature.
$cow->add_listener($farm, 'cow');
Parameters
* other_eo: the evented object that will listen.
* prefix: a string that event names will be prefixed with on the
listener.
$eo->fire_events_together(@events)
Since Evented::Object 5.0, the `fire_events_together()' function can be
used as a method on evented objects. See the documentation for the
function in "Procedural functions".
$eo->delete_listener($other_eo)
Removes a listener of this evented object. See the "listener objects"
section for more information on this feature.
$cow->delete_listener($farm, 'cow');
Parameters
* other_eo: the evented object that will listen.
* prefix: a string that event names will be prefixed with on the
listener.
$eo->delete_all_events()
Deletes all events and all callbacks from the object. If you know that
an evented object will no longer be used in your program, by calling
this method you can be sure that no cyclical references from within
callbacks will cause the object to be leaked.
Preparation methods
Evented::Object 5.0 introduces a means by which callbacks can be
prepared before being fired. This is most useful for firing events with
special fire options.
$eo->prepare_event(event_name => @arguments)
Prepares a single event for firing. Returns a collection object
representing the callbacks for the event.
# an example using the fire option return_check.
$eo->prepare_event(some_event => @arguments)->fire('return_check');
$eo->prepare_together(@events)
The preparatory method equivalent to `->fire_events_together'.
$eo->prepare(...)
A smart method that uses the best guess between `->prepare_event' and
`->prepare_together'.
# uses ->prepare_event()
$eo->prepare(some_event => @arguments);
# uses ->prepare_together()
$eo->prepare(
[ some_event => @arguments ],
[ some_other => @other_arg ]
);
Procedural functions
The Evented::Object package provides some functions for use. These
functions typically are associated with more than one evented object or
none at all.
fire_events_together(@events)
Fires multiple events at the same time. This allows you to fire multiple
similar events on several evented objects at the same time. It
essentially pretends that the callbacks are all for the same event and
all on the same object.
It follows priorities throughout all of the events and all of the
objects, so it is ideal for firing similar or identical events on
multiple objects.
The same fire object is used throughout this entire routine. This means
that callback names must unique among all of these objects and events.
It also means that stopping an event from any callback will cancel all
remaining callbacks, regardless to which event or which object they
belong.
The function takes a list of array references in the form of: `[
$evented_object, event_name => @arguments ]'
Evented::Object::fire_events_together(
[ $server, user_joined_channel => $user, $channel ],
[ $channel, user_joined => $user ],
[ $user, joined_channel => $channel ]
);
Since Evented::Object 5.0, `->fire_events_together' can be used as a
method on any evented object.
$eo->fire_events_together(
[ some_event => @arguments ],
[ some_other => @other_arg ]
);
The above example would formerly be achieved as:
Evented::Object::fire_events_together(
[ $eo, some_event => @arguments ],
[ $eo, some_other => @other_arg ]
);
However, other evented objects may be specified even when this is used
as a method. Basically, anywhere that an object is missing will fall
back to the object on which the method was called.
$eo->fire_events_together(
[ $other_eo, some_event => @arguments ],
[ some_other => @other_arg ] # no object, falls back to $eo
);
Parameters
* events: an array of events in the form of `[$eo, event_name =>
@arguments]'.
safe_fire($eo, $event_name, @args)
Safely fires an event. In other words, if the `$eo` is not an evented
object or is not blessed at all, the call will be ignored. This
eliminates the need to use `blessed()' and `->isa()' on a value for
testing whether it is an evented object.
Evented::Object::safe_fire($eo, myEvent => 'my argument');
Parameters
* eo: the evented object.
* event_name: the name of the event.
* args: the arguments for the event fire.
add_class_monitor($pkg, $some_eo)
Registers an evented object as the class monitor for a specific package.
See the section above for more details on class monitors and their
purpose.
my $some_eo = Evented::Object->new;
my $other_eo = Evented::Object->new;
$some_eo->on('monitor:register_callback', sub {
my ($event, $eo, $event_name, $cb) = @_;
# $eo == $other_eo
# $event_name == "blah"
# $cb == callback hash from ->register_callback()
say "Registered $$cb{name} to $eo for $event_name";
});
Evented::Object::add_class_monitor('Some::Class', $some_eo);
package Some::Class;
$other_eo->on(blah => sub{}); # will trigger the callback above
* pkg: a package whose event activity you wish to monitor.
* some_eo: some arbitrary event object that will respond to that
activity.
delete_class_monitor($pkg, $some_eo)
Removes an evented object from its current position as a monitor for a
specific package. See the section above for more details on class
monitors and their purpose.
Evented::Object::delete_class_monitor('Some::Class', $some_eo)
* pkg: a package whose event activity you're monitoring.
* some_eo: some arbitrary event object that is responding to that
activity.
Collection methods
Collections are returned by the 'prepare' methods. They represent a
group of callbacks that are about to be fired.
$col->fire(@options)
Fires the pending callbacks with the specified options, if any. If the
callbacks have not yet been sorted, they are sorted before the event is
fired.
$eo->prepare(some_event => @arguments)->fire('safe');
Parameters
* options: *optional*, a mixture of boolean and key:value options for
the event fire.
@options
* caller: *requires value*, use an alternate `[caller 1]' value for
the event fire. This is typically only used internally.
* return_check: *boolean*, if true, the event will yield that it was
stopped if any of the callbacks return a false value. Note however
that if one callbacks returns false, the rest will still be called.
The fire object will only yield stopped status after all callbacks
have been called and any number of them returned false.
* safe: *boolean*, wrap all callback calls in `eval' for safety. if
any of them fail, the event will be stopped at that point with the
error.
* fail_continue: *boolean*, if `safe' above is enabled, this tells the
fire to continue even if one of the callbacks fails. This could be
dangerous if any of the callbacks expected a previous callback to be
done when it actually failed.
$col->sort_callbacks
Sorts the callbacks according to `priority', `before', and `after'
options.
Fire object methods
"Fire objects" are passed to all callbacks of an Evented::Object (unless
the silent parameter was specified.) Fire objects contain information
about the event itself, the callback, the caller of the event, event
data, and more.
$fire->object
Returns the evented object.
$fire->object->delete_event('myEvent');
$fire->caller
Returns the value of `caller(1)' from within the `->fire()' method. This
allows you to determine from where the event was fired.
my $name = $fire->event_name;
my @caller = $fire->caller;
say "Package $caller[0] line $caller[2] called event $name";
$fire->stop($reason)
Cancels all remaining callbacks. This stops the rest of the event
firing. After a callback calls $fire->stop, the name of that callback is
stored as `$fire->stopper'.
If the event has already been stopped, this method returns the reason
for which the fire was stopped or "unspecified" if no reason was given.
# ignore messages from trolls
if ($user eq 'noah') {
# user is a troll.
# stop further callbacks.
return $fire->stop;
}
* reason: *optional*, the reason for stopping the event fire.
$fire->stopper
Returns the callback which called `$fire->stop'.
if ($fire->stopper) {
say 'Fire was stopped by '.$fire->stopper;
}
$fire->called($callback)
If no argument is supplied, returns the number of callbacks called so
far, including the current one. If a callback argument is supplied,
returns whether that particular callback has been called.
say $fire->called, 'callbacks have been called so far.';
if ($fire->called('some.callback')) {
say 'some.callback has been called already.';
}
Parameters
* callback: *optional*, the callback being checked.
$fire->pending($callback)
If no argument is supplied, returns the number of callbacks pending to
be called, excluding the current one. If a callback argument is
supplied, returns whether that particular callback is pending for being
called.
say $fire->pending, ' callbacks are left.';
if ($fire->pending('some.callback')) {
say 'some.callback will be called soon (unless it gets canceled)';
}
Parameters
* callback: *optional*, the callback being checked.
$fire->cancel($callback)
Cancels the supplied callback once.
if ($user eq 'noah') {
# we don't love noah!
$fire->cancel('send.hearts');
}
Parameters
* callback: the callback to be cancelled.
$fire->return_of($callback)
Returns the return value of the supplied callback.
if ($fire->return_of('my.callback')) {
say 'my.callback returned a true value';
}
Parameters
* callback: the desired callback.
$fire->last
Returns the most recent previous callback called. This is also useful
for determining which callback was the last to be called.
say $fire->last, ' was called before this one.';
my $fire = $eo->fire_event('myEvent');
say $fire->last, ' was the last callback called.';
$fire->last_return
Returns the last callback's return value.
if ($fire->last_return) {
say 'the callback before this one returned a true value.';
}
else {
die 'the last callback returned a false value.';
}
$fire->event_name
Returns the name of the event.
say 'the event being fired is ', $fire->event_name;
$fire->callback_name
Returns the name of the current callback.
say 'the current callback being called is ', $fire->callback_name;
$fire->callback_priority
Returns the priority of the current callback.
say 'the priority of the current callback is ', $fire->callback_priority;
$fire->callback_data($key)
Returns the data supplied to the callback when it was registered, if
any. If the data is a hash reference, an optional key parameter can
specify a which value to fetch.
say 'my data is ', $fire->callback_data;
say 'my name is ', $fire->callback_data('name');
Parameters
* key: *optional*, a key to fetch a value if the data registered was a
hash.
$fire->data($key)
Returns the data supplied to the collection when it was fired, if any.
If the data is a hash reference, an optional key parameter can specify a
which value to fetch.
say 'fire data is ', $fire->data;
say 'fire time was ', $fire->data('time');
Parameters
* key: *optional*, a key to fetch a value if the data registered was a
hash.
Aliases
A number of aliases exist for convenience, but some of the names are
rather broad. For that reason, they are only recommended for use when
you are sure that other subclassing will not interfere.
$eo->on(...)
Alias for `$eo->register_callback()'.
$eo->del(...)
If one argument provided, alias for `$eo->delete_event'.
If two arguments provided, alias for `$eo->delete_callback'.
$eo->fire(...)
Alias for `$eo->fire_event()'.
$eo->register_event(...)
Alias for `$eo->register_callback()'.
$eo->register_events(...)
Alias for `$eo->register_callbacks()'.
$fire->eo
Alias for `$fire->object'.
AUTHOR
Mitchell Cooper <
[email protected]>
Copyright E<copy> 2011-2013. Released under BSD license.
* IRC: irc.notroll.net #k
* Email:
[email protected]
* CPAN: COOPER
* GitHub: cooper
Comments, complaints, and recommendations are accepted. IRC is my
preferred communication medium. Bugs may be reported on RT.