NAME

    Autoload::AUTOCAN - Easily set up autoloading

SYNOPSIS

      package My::Class;
      use Moo; # or object system of choice
      use Autoload::AUTOCAN;
      
      has count => (is => 'rw', default => 0);
      
      sub increment { $_[0]->count($_[0]->count + 1) }
      
      sub AUTOCAN {
        my ($self, $method) = @_;
        return sub { $_[0]->increment } if $method =~ m/inc/;
        return undef;
      }
      
      1;
      
      # elsewhere
      my $obj = My::Class->new;
      $obj->inc;
      say $obj->count; # 1
      $obj->increment; # existing method, not autoloaded
      say $obj->count; # 2
      $obj->do_increment;
      say $obj->count; # 3
      $obj->explode; # method not found error

DESCRIPTION

    Autoloading is a very powerful mechanism for dynamically handling
    function calls that are not defined. However, its implementation is
    very complicated. For the simple case where you wish to allow method
    calls to methods that don't yet exist, this module allows you to define
    an AUTOCAN method which will return either a code reference or undef.
    Autoloaded method calls will call AUTOCAN and then run the returned
    method, or throw the expected error if undef is returned, so you can
    generate code or delegate the method call as desired.

    AUTOLOAD affects standard function calls in addition to method calls.
    By default, the AUTOLOAD provided by this module will die (as Perl
    normally does without a defined AUTOLOAD) if a nonexistent function is
    called without a class or object invocant. If you wish to autoload
    functions instead of methods, you can pass functions as an import
    argument, and the installed AUTOLOAD will attempt to autoload functions
    using AUTOCAN from the current package.

      package My::Functions;
      use Autoload::AUTOCAN 'functions';
      
      sub AUTOCAN {
        my ($package, $function) = @_;
        return sub { $_[0]x5 } if $function =~ m/dup/;
        return undef;
      }
      
      # elsewhere
      say My::Functions::duplicate('foo'); # foofoofoofoofoo
      say My::Functions::foo('bar'); # undefined subroutine error

BUGS

    Report any issues on the public bugtracker.

AUTHOR

    Dan Book <dbook@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

    This software is Copyright (c) 2017 by Dan Book.

    This is free software, licensed under:

      The Artistic License 2.0 (GPL Compatible)

SEE ALSO

    AutoLoader, SelfLoader

