NAME
    HTML::TrackerLink - Autogenerates links to Bug/Tracker systems

SYNOPSIS
      # Create a linker for only #12345 for a single tracker system
      my $Linker = HTML::TrackerLink->new( 'http://host/path?id=%n' );
  
      # Create a linker for a single named ( 'Bug #12345' ) system
      $Linker = HTML::TrackerLink->new( 'bug', 'http://host/path?id=%n' );
  
      # Create a linker for multiple named systems
      $Linker = HTML::TrackerLink->new(
              'bug'     => 'http://host1/path?id=%n',
              'tracker' => 'http://host2/path?id=%n',
              );
  
      # For the multiple linker, make it default to an arbitrary system
      $Linker->default( 'http://host/path?id=%n' );
  
      # For the multiple linker, make it default to one of the keywords
      $Linker->default_keyword( 'bug' );
  
      # Process a string, and add links
      my $string = 'Fix for bug 1234, described in client request CT #1234';
      $string = $Linker->process( $string );

DESCRIPTION
    HTML::TrackerLink is a package for automatically generating links to one
    or more external systems from references found in ordinary text, such as
    CVS commit messages. It tries to do this as intelligently and as
    flexibly as possible.

  Tracker URL Format
    Most tracking systems ( bugs, client requests etc, henceforth known as a
    'Tracker' ) use a numeric ID number as a key for the tracker item. Web
    interfaces to these systems will generally contain a URL like the
    following.

      Mozilla Bugzilla 100,000th Bug Example URL
      http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=100000

    HTML::TrackerLink takes as arguments a generic form of this URL, created
    by replacing the number of the tracker item, with the symbol '%n'. For
    the previous example.

      HTML::TrackerLink URL for Mozilla Bugzilla
      http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=%n

    When HTML::TrackerLink find a valid reference while processing, it will
    replace the %n with the id it finds, and replace the reference in the
    source string with a resulting link.

    Any tracker URL arguments passed to HTML::TrackerLink will be checked to
    make sure that they actually contain the %n placeholder.

  Default Tracker and Keyworded Trackers
    HTML::TrackerLink does two types of searches in the source text, a
    'default' search, and 'keyword' searches.

    A default search will look only for a number with a preceding hash, like
    '#12345'. Note that the default search will NOT match with naked
    numbers, such as '12345'.

    A keyword search is a little more flexible. For a 'bug' keyword search,
    the following would all be valid, and matched against.

      bug 12345        # Simplest form
      Bug 12345        # Case insensitive
      BuG     12345    # Case insensitive and allows multiple spaces
      bug #12345       # Normal hashed number form
      Bug #12345       # Again, case insensitive

    The keyword search would NOT match with the following

      bug12345         # Must be seperated by whitespace
      bug#12345        # Even in this case
      bigbug 12345     # 'bug' must be a seperate word

    All of these searches are performed condurrently, meaning that given
    both a default search, and a 'bug' keyword search, the following would
    match the way you would expect it to.

      Client issue #435 ( Bug #1532 ) fixed

    The 'Bug #1532' would link to your bug tracking system, and the '#435'
    would link to your client feedback tracking system, which is the
    default.

  Keyword Format
    The keyword can be up to 32 characters long, containing only word
    characters, and cannot start with a number. Irrelevant of the case
    passed, the keywords are stored internally in lowercase. As such, you
    cannot have two seperate keyword searchs for 'bug', and 'BUG'.

METHODS
  new
    The "new" constructor takes a variety of arguments and returns a new
    HTML::TrackerLink processing object.

    Arguments to "new" are accepted in one of the following formats.

    new A empty HTML::LinkTracker object is created without any trackers set

    new $tracker_url
        If a single argument is passed, the argument is assume be the
        tracker URL for a the default search.

    new $keyword => $tracker_url
        If two arguments are passed, they are assumed to be a single keyword
        search. In the case where the HTML::TrackerLink object is created
        with only one keyword, the default search will ALSO be set to the
        same tracker, so that in systems with only one possible place to
        link to, people that forget the keyword will still get their
        references linked to.

        It also catches a cases where there is a message like "'This
        resolves Bug #12, #13, #14 and #15'".

    new $keyword1 => $tracker_url1, $keyword2 => $tracker_url2 [, ...]
        If more than two arguments are passed, they are assumed to be a set
        of keyword searches. In this case, the default search will NOT be
        set, as we cannot be sure *which* case the default should go to.

        To assign the default in this case, you should use the "default" or
        "default_keyword" methods.

    In all cases, the "new" method will returns a new HTML::TrackerLink
    object on success, or "undef" if an error has occured. ( Invalid
    keyword/URL formats etc ).

  keywords
    Returns a list containing all current defined keywords

  keyword $keyword [, $tracker_url ]
    If passed a single argument, returns the current URL for the keyword, or
    "undef" if the keyword does not exist.

    If passed two arguments, it will add a new keyword search, or replace an
    existing one, returning true on success, or "undef" if the keyword or
    tracker URL are invalid.

  default [ $tracker_url ]
    If passed, explicitly sets the tracker URL to be used for the default
    search.

    Returns the default search URL

    Returns "undef" if attempting to set an invalid tracker_url

  default_keyword $tracker_url
    Sets the default search to be the same as an already existing keyword
    search.

    Returns true on success.

    Returns "undef" if the keyword does not exist.

  process $string
    The "process" methods takes a string as argument, and applies the
    searches to it.

    Returns the processed string on success.

    Returns "undef" on error.

  errstr
    When an error occurs, the "errstr" method allows you to get access to
    the error message. "errstr" can be called as either a static or object
    method.

    i.e. The following are equivalent

      # Calling errstr as a static method
      my $Linker = HTML::TrackerLink->new( 'badurl' );
      die HTML::TrackerLink->errstr;

      # Calling errstr as an object method
      my $Linker = HTML::TrackerLink->new( 'badurl' );
      die $Linker->errstr;

TO DO
    Although the code for this module was extracted from a known working
    application, this package itself has only basic tests. Please report any
    bugs encountered.

SUPPORT
    Bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at

      http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=HTML%3A%3ATrackerLink

    For other issues, contact the author

AUTHORS
            Adam Kennedy ( maintainer )
            cpan@ali.as
            http://ali.as/

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2002-2004 Adam Kennedy. 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.