NAME

MyLibrary::Review

SYNOPSIS

        # use the module
        use MyLibrary::Review;
        
        # create a new review
        my $review = MyLibrary::Review->new;
        
        # give the review characteristics
        $review->review('This resource worked just fine more me.');
        $review->reviewer_name('Fred Kilgour');
        $review->reviewer_email('kilgour@oclc.org');
        $review->review_date('2002-10-31');
        $review->review_rating('3');
        
        # associate the review with a resource
        $review->resource_id(601);
        
        # save the review; create a new record or update it
        $review->commit;
        
        # get the id of the current review object
        $id = $review->review_id;
        
        # create a new review object based on an id
        my $review = MyLibrary::Review->new(id => $id);
        
        # display a review
        print '  Resource ID: ', $review->resource_id, "\n";
        print '       Review: ', $review->review, "\n";
        print '     Reviewer: ', $review->reviewer_name, "\n";
        print '        Email: ', $review->reviewer_email, "\n";
        print '       Rating: ', $review->review_rating, "\n";
        print '         Date: ', $review->review_date, "\n";
        

DESCRIPTION

The module provides a means of saving reviews of information resources to the underlying MyLibrary database.

METHODS

This section describes the methods available in the package.

new

Use this method to create a new review object. Called with no arguments, this method creates an empty object. Given an id, this method gets the review from the database associated accordingly.

        # create a new review object
        my $review = MyLibrary::Review->new;
  
        # create a review object based on a previously existing ID
        my $review = MyLibrary::Review->new(id => 3);

review_id

This method returns an integer representing the database key of the currently created review object.

        # get id of current review object
        my $id = $review->review_id;

You cannot set the review_id attribute.

review

This method gets and sets the text of the review for the current review object:

        # get the text of the current review object
        my $text = $review->review;
        
        # set the current review object's text
        $review->review('I would recommend this resoruce to anyone.');
        

reviewer_name

Use this method to get and set the name of a review's reviewer:

        # get the reviewer's name
        my $reviewer = $review->reviewer_name;
        
        # set the reviwer's name
        $librarian->reviewer_name('Paul Evan Peters');

reviewer_email

Usse this method to get and set the reviewer's email address of the review object:

        # get the email address
        my $email_address = $review->reviewer_email;
        
        # set the email address
        $review->reviewer_email('pep@greatbeyond.org');

date

Set or get the date attribute of the review object with this method:

        # get the date attribute
        my $review_date = $review->review_date;
        
        # set the date
        $review->review_date('2003-10-31');

The date is expected to be in the format of YYYY-MM-DD.

review_rating

Use this method to set a rating in the review.

        # set the rating
        $review->review_rating('3');
        
        # get rating
        my $review_rating = $review->review_rating;
        

Ratings can be strings up to 255 characters in length, but this attribute is intended to be an integer value for calculating purposes. The programer can use the attribute in another manner if they so choose.

resource_id

Use this method to get and set what resource is being reviewed:

        # set the resource
        $review->resource_id('601');
        
        # get resource id
        my $resource_id = $review->resource_id;
        

commit

Use this method to save the review object's attributes to the underlying database. If the object's data has never been saved before, then this method will create a new record in the database. If you used the new and passed it an id option, then this method will update the underlying database.

This method will return true upon success.

        # save the current review object to the underlying database
        $review->commit;

delete

This method simply deletes the current review object from the underlying database.

        # delete (drop) this review from the database
        $review->delete();
        
        

get_reviews

Use this method to get all the reviews from the underlying database. It method returns an array of objects enabling you to loop through each object in the array and subsequent characteristics of each object;

        # get all reviews
        my @reviews = MyLibrary::Review->get_reviews;
        
        # initialize counters
        my $total_rating  = 0;
        my $total_reviews = 0;
        
        # process each review
        foreach my $r (@reviews) {
        
                # look for a particular resource
                if ($r->resource_id == 601) {
                
                        # update counters
                        $total_rating = $total_rating + $r->review_rating;
                        $total_reviews = $total_reviews + 1;
                        
                }
        
        }

        # check for reviews
        if ($total_reviews) {
        
                # print the average rating
                print "The average rating for resource 601 is: " . ($total_rating / $total_reviews)
        
        }

AUTHOR

Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan@nd.edu>

HISTORY

October 31, 2003 - first public release; Halloween

cpanm MyLibrary

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install MyLibrary