NAME

NAME
CPAN::WWW::Testers::Generator - Download and summarize CPAN Testers data

SYNOPSIS
% cpan_www_testers_generate
# ... wait patiently for about an hour
# ... then use testers.db, an SQLite database

DESCRIPTION
The distribution can download and summarize CPAN Testers data.
cpan-testers is a group which was initially setup by Graham Barr and
Chris Nandor. The objective of the group is to test as many of the
distributions on CPAN as possible, on as many platforms as possible. The
ultimate goal is to improve the portability of the distributions on
CPAN, and provide good feedback to the authors.

CPAN Testers is really a mailing list with a web interface,
testers.cpan.org. testers.cpan.org was painfully slow. I happened to be
doing metadata stuff for Module::CPANTS. This is the result.

This module downloads the cpan-testers newsgroup, and then generates an
SQLite database containing all the most important information. You can
then query this database, or use CPAN::WWW::Testers to present it over
the web.

A good example query for Acme-Colour would be:

SELECT version, status, count(*) FROM reports WHERE
distribution = "Acme-Colour" group by version, status;

It can over an hour to generate the database file. If you don't want to
generate the database yourself, I am releasing daily copies of it at
http://testers.astray.com/testers.db

INTERFACE
The Constructor
* new
Instatiates the object CPAN::WWW::Testers::Generator.

Methods
*
* directory
Accessor to set/get the directory where the news.db is to be
created.

* generate
Initiates the $obj->download and $obj->insert method calls.

* download
Downloads the latest article updates from the NNTP server for the
cpan-testers newgroup. Articles are then stored in the news.db
SQLite database.

* insert
Reads the local copy of the news.db, and creates the testers.db.

HISTORY
The CPAN testers was conceived back in May 1998 by Graham Barr and Chris
Nandor as a way to provide multi-platform testing for modules. Today
there are over 100,000 tester reports and more than 400 testers giving
valuable feedback for users and authors alike.

BECOME A TESTER
Whether you have a common platform or a very unusual one, you can help
by testing modules you install and submitting reports. There are plenty
of module authors who could use test reports and helpful feedback on
their modules and distributions. If you'd like to get involved, please
take a look at

Test::Reporter http://search.cpan.org/dist/Test-Reporter/,

CPANPLUS
http://search.cpan.org/dist/CPANPLUS/lib/CPANPLUS/TesterGuide.pod,

the cpan-testers mailing list
http://lists.cpan.org/showlist.cgi?name=cpan-testers

and start submitting your reports.

AUTHOR
Leon Brocard <[email protected]>

LICENSE
This code is distributed under the same license as Perl.