NAME
Err - Easily declare, throw and match exception objects
SYNOPSIS
use Err qw(declare_err throw_err is_err);
### create a bunch of exception classes ###
# this makes Err::Exception::Starship, subclass of Err::Exception
# (which itself is a subclass of Exception::Class::Basee)
declare_err ".Starship"
description => "The space ship is broken.";
# this makes Err::Exception::Starship::WarpDrive
# subclass of Err::Exception::Starship
declare_err ".Starship.WarpDrive"
description => "The warp drive is broken. We can't go FTL.";
### throw and catch errors ###
use Try::Tiny;
try {
throw_err ".Starship.WarpDrive", "Have ejected warp core!"
if $have_ejected_the_warp_core;
go_to_warp_speed();
} catch {
if (is_err ".Starship") {
call_scotty(); return
}
die $_;
}
DESCRIPTION
WARNING: This is an alpha release and the interface and functionailty
may change without notice in future releases. A non-alpha 1.0 release
will be released to the CPAN on or before August 1st, 2012.
The module allows you to easily declare, throw and match exceptions.
It's further syntatic sugar for Exception::Class. It doesn't provide a
try/catch syntax but instead is designed to work well with plain old
evals, Try::Tiny, TryCatch, etc.
Functions
These module exports functions on demand, or you can call them fully
qualified.
declare_err EXCEPTION_CODE, @optinal_args
Easy declarative syntax for defining exception class. EXCEPTION_CODE
must be a literal quoted string. See "Declaring Exceptions" below
for more details.
throw_err EXCEPTION_CODE, $message, @optional_args
Throws the exception with the attached message. EXCEPTION_CODE must
be a literal quoted string. See "Throwing Exceptions" below for more
details.
is_err EXCEPTION_CODE
ex_is_err EXCEPTION_CODE
Functions to examine $_ and $@ respectively for exception objects.
EXCEPTION_CODE must be a literal quoted string. See "Matching
Exceptions" below for more details.
Understanding Exception Codes
An exception code is a brief form of the exception classname. They're
provided as a way to visually distinguish exception classes from your
normal class hierarchy.
The rules to compute a class name from an exception code are blindingly
simple:
Replace any leading dot with "Err::Exception::"
Replace any other dot with "::"
For example, the code ".Starship" refers to the
"Err::Exception::Starship" class. The "Err::Exception::Aliens::Klingons"
class has the code "Aliens.Klingons". The "Something.Else" code (no
leading dot) refers to the "Something::Else".
As a special case the code "" refers to anything that is a subclass of
"Exception::Class::Base" itself, and "." refers to anything that is a
subclass of "Err::Exception".
If you don't like the exception code syntax you should note that under
the above rules any valid class name will function as a valid exception
code. (so for example the exception code "Foo::Bar" is the identical
class name "Foo::Bar".)
Declaring Exceptions
Exceptions are declared with the "declare_err" syntax.
In the simpliest form
isa => $exception_code
Explicitly set the superclass of the exception by passing in the
exception code of the parent class. This isn't often needed, since
by default "declare_err" will simply set the class to be the natural
parent of the class (the class that's derived from removing the last
::Whatever from the classname or, if the exception's classname is
singular, Err::Exception.)
description => $description
Set the description of this class to give a human readable
description of this error that is applicable to all exceptions
thrown of this class.
anything_else => $some_value
This becomes a new field in your exception object and provides a
*default value* that "throw_err" will populate the exception with
when exceptions are thrown.
So, writing:
declare_err ".Foo.Bar.Baz";
Is the same as writing
use Exception::Class {
"Err::Exception::Foo::Bar::Baz" => {
isa => "Err::Exception::Foo::Bar",
},
}
And
declare_err ".Foo.Bar.Buzz";
isa => ".Onomatopoeia",
description => "*Bzzz* that's wrong",
volume => 11;
Is almost the same as writing
use Exception::Class {
"Err::Exception::Foo::Bar::Buzz" => {
isa => "Err::Exception::Onomatopoeia",
fields => ["volume"]
},
}
And then remembering always to do
Err::Exception::Foo::Bar::Buzz->throw( volume => 11 );
When you throw it if you don't have an alternative volume to pass in.
Throwing Exceptions
Exceptions can be thrown with the "throw_err" keyword. This keyword
takes the code for the exception followed by an error message as it's
arguments, and essentially constructs a new instance of the exception
and then throws it. In other words:
throw_err ".Starship", "Self destruct sequence activated!";
Is the the same as:
Err::Exception::Starship->throw(
message => "Self destruct sequence activated "
);
You can also pass other name value pairs after the message, that will be
passed through to the
throw_err ".Foo.Bar.Buzz", "Time's up", volume => 4;
These will be passed to Exception::Class::Base's throw method, meaning
the above is the same as:
Err::Exception::Foo::Bar::Buzz->throw(
message => "Time's up",
volume => 4,
);
Match Exceptions
The "is_err" and "ex_is_err" can be used to check if $_ or $@ contain
exceptions.
With plain old eval:
eval {
throw ".Starship.Holodeck", "Morarity has become sentient!";
};
if (ex_is_err(".Starship.Holodeck")) {
get_picard_to_reason_with_him();
} elsif ($@) { die }
With Try::Tiny
try {
throw ".Starship.Holodeck", "Morarity has become sentient!";
} catch {
if (is_err(".Starship.Holodeck")) {
get_picard_to_reason_with_him();
return;
}
die $_;
};
With TryCatch
try {
throw ".Starship.Holodeck", "Morarity has become sentient!";
} catch ($e where { is_err(".StarShip.Holodeck") }) {
get_picard_to_reason_with_him();
}
Enforced Declaring of Exceptions Before Use
If you have the B::CallChecker module installed (and I highly recommend
you do) this module will check at compile time that the exceptions you
throw and match with "throw_err", "is_err" and "ex_is_err" have been
declared first. If you have not declared your exception class in at the
point in your code where it's used Perl will not compile your class.
For those of you that are interested, this is achieved by hooking the
CHECK routine for these functions (and, for that matter "declare_err"
too) and interspecing the OP tree to extract the first argument to them
so we can check if it's been declared first. But you don't need to know
that to use this module - it's all magic.
If you don't have B::CallChecker installed you lose this checking
functionality but your exception classes will otherwise remain fully
functional.
AUTHOR
Written by Mark Fowler <mark@twoshortplanks.com>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright OmniTI 2012. All Rights Rerserved.
Copyright Mark Fowler 2012. All Rights Rerserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
BUGS
None known. This module has a 100% test coverage (branch, statement and
pod.)
Bugs (or feature requests) should be reported via this distribution's
CPAN RT queue. This can be found at
<https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Err>
You can also address issues by forking this distribution on github and
sending pull requests. It can be found at
<http://github.com/2shortplanks/Err>
SEE ALSO
Exception::Class - syntax for declaring, throwing and matching
Err::Exception objects.
Try::Tiny - simple improved try/catch syntax with little dependancies
TryCatch - powerful dependancy heavy improved try/catch syntax