ronsavage/Config-Tiny-Ordered

Read/Write ordered .ini style files with as little code as possible

NAME
    Config::Tiny::Ordered - Read ordered .ini style files with as little
    code as possible

SYNOPSIS
        # In your configuration file
        rootproperty=blah

        [section]
        reg_exp_1=High Priority
        reg_exp_2=Low Priority
        three= four
        Foo =Bar
        empty=

        # In your program
        use Config::Tiny::Ordered;

        # Create a config
        my $Config = Config::Tiny::Ordered->new();

        # Open the config
        $Config = Config::Tiny::Ordered->read( 'file.conf' );

        # Reading properties
        my $rootproperty = $Config->{_}->{rootproperty};
        my $section = $Config->{section}; # An arrayref of hashrefs,
        my $re0 = $$section[0]{'key'};    # where the format is:
        my $re1 = $$section[0]{'value'};  # [{key => ..., value => ...},
        my $re2 = $$section[1]{'value'};  #  {key => ..., value => ...},
        my $Foo = $$section[3]{'value'};  #  ...].

DESCRIPTION
    "Config::Tiny::Ordered" is a perl class to read .ini style configuration
    files with as little code as possible, reducing load time and memory
    overhead. Most of the time it is accepted that Perl applications use a
    lot of memory and modules. The "Config::Tiny" family of modules is
    specifically intended to provide an ultralight alternative to the
    standard modules.

    This module is primarily for reading human written files, and anything
    we write shouldn't need to have documentation/comments. If you need
    something with more power move up to Config::Tiny, Config::Simple,
    Config::General or one of the many other "Config::*" modules. To
    rephrase, Config::Tiny::Ordered does not preserve your comments or
    whitespace.

    This module differs from "Config::Tiny" in that here the data within a
    section is stored in memory in the same order as it appears in the input
    file or string.

    "Config::Tiny::Ordered" does this by storing the keys and values in an
    arrayref rather than, as most config modules do, in a hashref.

    This arrayref consists of an ordered set of hashrefs, and these hashrefs
    use the keys 'key' and 'value'.

    So, in memory, the data in the synopsis, for the section called
    'section', looks like:

            [
            {key => 'reg_exp_1', value => 'High Priority'},
            {key => 'reg_exp_2', vlaue => 'Low Priority'},
            etc
            ]

    This means the config file can be used in situations such as with
    business rules which must be applied in a specific order.

CONFIGURATION FILE SYNTAX
    Files are the same format as for windows .ini files. For example:

            [section]
            var1=value1
            var2=value2

    If a property is outside of a section at the beginning of a file, it
    will be assigned to the "root section", available at "$Config->{_}".

    Lines starting with '#' or ';' are considered comments and ignored, as
    are blank lines.

METHODS
  new
    The constructor "new" creates and returns an empty
    "Config::Tiny::Ordered" object.

  read $filename
    The "read" constructor reads a config file, and returns a new
    "Config::Tiny::Ordered" object containing the properties in the file.

    Returns the object on success, or "undef" on error.

    When "read" fails, "Config::Tiny::Ordered" sets an error message
    internally you can recover via "<Config::Tiny::Ordered-"errstr>>.
    Although in some cases a failed "read" will also set the operating
    system error variable $!, not all errors do and you should not rely on
    using the $! variable.

  read_string $string;
    The "read_string" method takes as argument the contents of a config file
    as a string and returns the "Config::Tiny::Ordered" object for it.

  write $filename
    The "write" method generates the file content for the properties, and
    writes it to disk to the filename specified.

    Returns true on success or "undef" on error.

  write_string
    Generates the file content for the object and returns it as a string.

  errstr
    When an error occurs, you can retrieve the error message either from the
    $Config::Tiny::Ordered::errstr variable, or using the "errstr()" method.

SUPPORT
    Bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at

    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Config-Tiny-Ordered>

    For other issues, or commercial enhancement or support, contact the
    author.

AUTHORS
    Adam Kennedy <adamk@cpan.org>, Ron Savage <rsavage@cpan.org>

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
    This module is 99% the same as Config::Tiny by Adam Kennedy. Ron Savage
    made some tiny changes to suppport the preservation of key order.

    The test suite was likewise adapted.

SEE ALSO
    Config::Tiny, Config::Simple, Config::General, ali.as

Copyright
            Copyright 2002 - 2007 Adam Kennedy.

            Australian copyright (c) 2009,  Ron Savage. All rights reserved.

            All Programs of Ron's are 'OSI Certified Open Source Software';
            you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of
            the Artistic or the GPL licences, copies of which is available at:
            http://www.opensource.org/licenses/index.html