README

Data-Consumer

Framework for repeatedly consuming a data resource in a robust way.

It is a common requirement to need to process a feed of some sort in
a robust manner. Such a feed might be records that are inserted into
a table, or files dropped in a delivery directory, or what have you.
Writing a script that handles all the edge cases, like getting "stuck"
on a failed item, and manages things like locking so that the script 
can be parallelized can be tricky and repetitive.

The aim of Data::Consumer is to provide a framework to allow writing
such consumer type scripts as easy as writing a callback that processes
each item. The framework handles the rest.

The basic idea is that one need only define a Data::Consumer subclass
which implements a few primitive methods which handle the required tasks,
and then the Data::Consumer methods use those to provide a DWIMily 
consistant interface. Currently Data::Consumer comes with two subclasses,
Data::Consumer::MySQL for handling records in a Mysql db (using the 
MySQL 'get_lock' function), and Data::Consumer::Dir for handling a drop
directory scenario (like for FTP or a mail directory).

INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make test
	make install

SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the
perldoc command.

    perldoc Data::Consumer

You can also look for information at:

    RT, CPAN's request tracker
        http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Data-Consumer

    AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation
        http://annocpan.org/dist/Data-Consumer

    CPAN Ratings
        http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Data-Consumer

    Search CPAN
        http://search.cpan.org/dist/Data-Consumer


COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2008, 2010, 2011 Yves Orton

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.