NAME

Class::Inheritance - get and set inheritance values for a class.

SYNOPSIS

      use Class::Inheritance;
      my $ci = new Class::Inheritance;
      $ci->format('type'=>'simple');

        # Example class and method. Change to the class and method you want.
      my $class = 'CGI';
      my $method = 'param';

      print $ci->source('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method); 
      print $ci->tree('class'=>$class); 
      print $ci->sources('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method); 
      print $ci->tree_children('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method,);
      print $ci->subclasses('class'=>$class);
      print $ci->source_all('method'=>$method);
      print $ci->trees_all('method'=>$method);
      print $ci->tree_children('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method);

        ### Do not use these methods. 
      $ci->function_in_isa('class'=>$class, 'method'=>$method);
      $ci->method_return_type(method'=>$method, list=>[]);

DESCRIPTION

      Class::Inheritance tries to get all the information you would ever 
      need regarding inheritance and multiple inheritance for classes. 
      The main focus of the module is to ask "From which class did this
      method come from?".

      NOTE: You MUST have the classes loaded in order for them to be 
      searched. In the future, there will be options for it to scan all 
      modules loaded on your system -- but it does not do it yet. 

      The current state of Class::Inheritance is alpha-quality material. 
      The code is going to be ripped apart and redone, but the basic
      methods should remain. It most likely will take heavy use of 
      Class::Inspector in the future. 

      Setting values for classes is not implemented yet. 

TERMS AND OPTIONS

Options common to most methods.

1. "return_type" can have the values "", "list", or "string". Default "string".
2. "class" is the name of the class in question. Also, defaults to "package" if defined.
3. "package" contains the class you are looking for. Most of the time you do not need to specify this. Defaults to "class".

Options for the object.

1. "debug" will turn off and on the debug levels.
2. "format" has the options of "" or "simple". "simple" returns a string ready for printing.

METHODS
source

       Returns the name of the class which this method came from. Only 
       searches loaded classes.

tree

      This returns the inheritance tree for a class. Only searches
      loaded classes.

      Returns all the classes in the inheritance tree of a classes has
      this method defined. This does not include classes which inherited
      the method. Only searches loaded classes.

tree_children

      Returns the classes which inherit a method from a class. Only 
      searches loaded classes. 

subclasses

Returns all the loaded subclasses for a class.

source_all

      Returns all the sources for a method from the loaded classes. 
      This will search all loaded classes. Any class that has this
      method defined (not inherited) should be in this list. 

trees_all

      Returns all the trees of classes which contain a method. Only 
      searches loaded classes. 

AUTHOR

            Mark Nielsen
            articles@tcu-inc.com
            http://tcu-inc.com/

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2004 Mark Nielsen. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.