WebService::Technorati::ApiQuery - a base class for web services client queries

This class has no constructor, as there's little use instantiating one. The fun is in the derived classes.

When adding a new API call client, this class provides a lot scaffolding such as query string building, HTTP protocol stuff, XML::XPath object creation, and other common behaviors.

This class is mostly utility functions that are inherited by ApiQuery derivations.

No bugs currently open

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    Ian Kallen
    ikallen _at_ technorati.com
    http://developers.technorati.com

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the following Creative Commons License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 as well as the indemnification provisions of the Apache 2.0 style license, the full text of which can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

perl(1).

 Usage     : apiHostUrl('http://developers.technorati.com')
 Purpose   : gets/sets the base URL
 Returns   : a URL string
 Argument  : a base URL, if setting the value; otherwise none
 Throws    : none
 Comments  : Instantiations of an ApiQuery subclass may want to change 
             which api host they connect to (i.e. for beta testing 
             interface changes that aren't yet deployed to the default 
             host, http://api.technorati.com).
See Also   : WebService::Technorati

 Usage     : fetch_url('http://developers.technorati.com')
 Purpose   : fetches the URL contents
 Returns   : a scalar of the content data
 Argument  : a URL
 Throws    : WebService::Technorati::NetworkException if the URL contents
             cannot be fetched
 Comments  : the underlying implementation uses LWP::UserAgent
See Also   : WebService::Technorati

 Usage     : build_query_string($hashref);
 Purpose   : transforms the keys/values into a query string
 Returns   : the query string
 Argument  : a hash reference
 Throws    : none
 Comments  : multi value keys are not yet accounted for
See Also   : WebService::Technorati

 Usage     : build_query_string($apiurl, $hashref);
 Purpose   : handles the low level execution cycle of an API call
 Returns   : void
 Argument  : a hash reference
 Throws    : none
 Comments  : calls build_query_string, fetch_url, instantiates XML::XPath 
             and calls readResults
See Also   : WebService::Technorati

 Usage     : readResults($xpath_data);
 Purpose   : this is an abstract method
 Returns   : void
 Argument  : an XML::XPath representation of an API response
 Throws    : WebService::Technorati::MethodNotImplementedException if not overriden
 Comments  : derived classes must implement this in order to use execute(...)
See Also   : WebService::Technorati